05-15-2017, 11:33 AM
Kelly dove into a forward-roll across the shifting stones of the ancient road, and the flailing, gnarled tree-root swept harmlessly over his head, trailing damp soil and the smell of living rot. With his haunt painting a clear picture of the additional incoming dangers, he transitioned seamlessly into a crouch, then leapt, springing immediately into the air, tucking his legs to avoid the second wildly questing wooden tendril as it swept through the space formerly occupied by his head.
The traveler landed in a shallow stance, just in time for the first wave of spiders to close in, swarming through the undergrowth with frightening speed. He broke left, momentarily increasing his neural clock-speed in order to stay ahead of the chittering arachnid mass, using his enhanced senses to pick his footing as more tree-roots, some of them truly massive, tore themselves from the ground and joined the attack. Tangled ivy and the knobby roots of less violent flora crowded his feet, threatened to trip him as he ran.
It's big, but its slow - too slow to use its mass effectively. I could probably take a couple of hits, but how am I going to stop it? It's a tree. I could blow it apart if I powered up, but this probably isn't the worst thing that's going to happen to me today. I'd rather save the vector-sketch for when I need it.
The air was full of flying soil, the moaning roar of timber under strain, and angry wooden tentacles. As the momentary cerebral boost wore off, Kelly dodged another mighty glacial swing, feeling the putrid wind as it swept past his face, sidestepped a follow-up blow descending from above, and ducked behind a much less aggressive oak tree, which shuddered from the impact of yet another of its corrupted cousin's warlike roots.
There's a smarter way to do this anyway. It's uprooting itself to attack me, and a tree that size has to weigh at least seventy tons. If I can get it angry enough, get it to compromise its anchorage, it'll be more or less just balanced on top of that temple - and the way its breaking the stonework by pretending to have a mouth isn't doing it any favors. Then its just a matter of shifting it... dropping another tree or two on top of it should do for that, and I can leave the rest to gravity.
... of course, that means I'm going to have to let it swing at me for a few minutes.
The spiders were closing in again. The traveler could feel them with his higher perceptions, barely make out the clicking of their mandibles beneath the swoop and rumble of the more obvious threat. He darted from his momentary shelter with his staff held in one hand, the other outstretched, firing force-bolts into the swarm. The impacts churned the earth, sending ichor, fuzzy black bodies and chitinous hairy legs fountaining into the air. Kelly was pleased to see the swarm disperse after only a few hits - just in time for the corrupted temple to vomit forth another raft of spiders.
He frowned, taking note, but there were other things demanding his attention. A root as big around as his arm descended from above, lashing like the tentacle of some mighty filth-encrusted kraken. The ground roiled as another mighty limb tore itself from the soggy earth, trailing thorny protuberances.
Kelly dove between them, their lesser tendrils clawing at his clothing and cutting his face, but he avoided the brunt of the attack, and the two limbs collided with a resounding crack. The corrupted tree-creature's temple-mouth gnashed, adding the rumble of grinding stone to the ongoing cacophony. The traveler turned, charging a force-bolt in the palm of his hand, and fired at the thing's trunk, splintering bark and splitting wood - only for the damage to repair itself as he watched.
Well. That complicates things.
The trunk shifted, shaking with something too primitive to be called anger. The psychic's haunt shouted a warning - and vines dropped from the canopy, algae-stained bark streaked with black, twisting like snakes. The two damaged tree-roots flailed limply - but those too were beginning to knit themselves back together, and even more were tearing themselves from their anchorage in the soft black soil, uprooting the undergrowth. They were converging on him, sweeping towards him.
Also, he was surrounded by spiders.
One thing at a time.
First, the vines. Kelly couldn't allow himself to be immobilized - speed was his main advantage in this fight. He reached out with his psychokinesis, levitating a swarm of stony debris from the shattered path, and sent the shards sailing into the descending mass of grasping vegetation, shredding it. He ducked and weaved, deflecting with his staff, feeling the shock of impact running up his arms, numbing his shoulders when a root made solid contact.
The spiders were crawling up his legs.
Kelly could feel the bites, a running tally of tiny bites and stings, individually negligible, but they would add up quickly. He concentrated on the soil, sending a wave of black earth sweeping across his shins, burying the swarm.
After that, things got frantic. Kelly wove back and forth before the eastern face of the tree-topped-temple, evading manically as his feet threatened to sink into the wet soil. The undergrowth provided less of a hindrance, having been largely destroyed by the fury of the corrupted titan's lashing roots, but there was so much to keep track and the loose ground was so uneven, that it was hardly an advantage. The rumble and groan of moving wood was omnipresent; The scent of soil and mold and chlorophyll: overpowering. Roots of all sizes thrust and flailed at him from every side, tearing his clothing. Questing vines descended from above, and ever more spiders emerged from the depths of temple maw.
It was exhausting, and the psychic was beginning to flag. His arms were getting sluggish from the shock of repeated defensive impact, he'd already taken several glancing blows, and he was discovering, to his dismay, that parts of his neuromuscular physiology were still sluggish: some of the traveler's more artful dodges were taking a considerable toll on his stamina.
Fortunately, it didn't look like he'd have to keep it up much longer. According to his higher perceptions, very nearly the entire root-system on this side of the temple was currently trying to kill him.
Here we go.
Taking advantage of a momentary lull, Kelly dropped his staff, flexed his knees until he was very nearly crouching, and jumped as high as he could, sailing almost thirty feet towards the canopy, kicking off the trunk of the same tree he'd hidden behind earlier in order to reach a high branch. It was an ability he'd begun to suspect had returned over the course of the fight, the nimbleness of his footwork and the ease with which he leapt over flailing tree-roots speaking of vastly increased capacities, and he was glad to see that his hunch was correct.
There was no time for self-congratulation though. As the traveler grabbed hold and hung on with one hand, fingernails digging into the algae-slick surface, he could sense the canopy shifting, vines beginning to slither in his direction. He could see spiders swarming up the trunk.
That was okay. He only need about ten seconds.
Kelly selected two likely looking trees, near the edge of the combat zone. Their trunks were only slightly thicker than his waist, maybe twenty meters tall, Hardwood - they likely weighed in the neighborhood of ten tons each. With the momentum of a fall behind them, and the still-underground root system on the opposite side of the temple acting as a fulcrum, he figured they'd be more than enough to unseat his mutated tormentor from its ancient perch. It was highly unlikely that it would have the strength to right itself, and the shock might even kill it.
At five-second intervals and precisely calculated angles, two highly-concentrated psychic force-bolts flew from his hand. Wood shattered, blown apart by the sheer impact of carefully focused power. The two mighty titans of the forest creaked, no longer able to support their own weight, and began to fall. The creaking became a groan, eclipsing that of their unnaturally mobile cousins flexing fibers, and they tilted, plunging toward the tree atop the temple, their trunks tearing through the canopy, hissing and crashing as they gained speed, two arboreal freight-trains rushing towards the psychic's chosen target.
Timber.
The traveler landed in a shallow stance, just in time for the first wave of spiders to close in, swarming through the undergrowth with frightening speed. He broke left, momentarily increasing his neural clock-speed in order to stay ahead of the chittering arachnid mass, using his enhanced senses to pick his footing as more tree-roots, some of them truly massive, tore themselves from the ground and joined the attack. Tangled ivy and the knobby roots of less violent flora crowded his feet, threatened to trip him as he ran.
It's big, but its slow - too slow to use its mass effectively. I could probably take a couple of hits, but how am I going to stop it? It's a tree. I could blow it apart if I powered up, but this probably isn't the worst thing that's going to happen to me today. I'd rather save the vector-sketch for when I need it.
The air was full of flying soil, the moaning roar of timber under strain, and angry wooden tentacles. As the momentary cerebral boost wore off, Kelly dodged another mighty glacial swing, feeling the putrid wind as it swept past his face, sidestepped a follow-up blow descending from above, and ducked behind a much less aggressive oak tree, which shuddered from the impact of yet another of its corrupted cousin's warlike roots.
There's a smarter way to do this anyway. It's uprooting itself to attack me, and a tree that size has to weigh at least seventy tons. If I can get it angry enough, get it to compromise its anchorage, it'll be more or less just balanced on top of that temple - and the way its breaking the stonework by pretending to have a mouth isn't doing it any favors. Then its just a matter of shifting it... dropping another tree or two on top of it should do for that, and I can leave the rest to gravity.
... of course, that means I'm going to have to let it swing at me for a few minutes.
The spiders were closing in again. The traveler could feel them with his higher perceptions, barely make out the clicking of their mandibles beneath the swoop and rumble of the more obvious threat. He darted from his momentary shelter with his staff held in one hand, the other outstretched, firing force-bolts into the swarm. The impacts churned the earth, sending ichor, fuzzy black bodies and chitinous hairy legs fountaining into the air. Kelly was pleased to see the swarm disperse after only a few hits - just in time for the corrupted temple to vomit forth another raft of spiders.
He frowned, taking note, but there were other things demanding his attention. A root as big around as his arm descended from above, lashing like the tentacle of some mighty filth-encrusted kraken. The ground roiled as another mighty limb tore itself from the soggy earth, trailing thorny protuberances.
Kelly dove between them, their lesser tendrils clawing at his clothing and cutting his face, but he avoided the brunt of the attack, and the two limbs collided with a resounding crack. The corrupted tree-creature's temple-mouth gnashed, adding the rumble of grinding stone to the ongoing cacophony. The traveler turned, charging a force-bolt in the palm of his hand, and fired at the thing's trunk, splintering bark and splitting wood - only for the damage to repair itself as he watched.
Well. That complicates things.
The trunk shifted, shaking with something too primitive to be called anger. The psychic's haunt shouted a warning - and vines dropped from the canopy, algae-stained bark streaked with black, twisting like snakes. The two damaged tree-roots flailed limply - but those too were beginning to knit themselves back together, and even more were tearing themselves from their anchorage in the soft black soil, uprooting the undergrowth. They were converging on him, sweeping towards him.
Also, he was surrounded by spiders.
One thing at a time.
First, the vines. Kelly couldn't allow himself to be immobilized - speed was his main advantage in this fight. He reached out with his psychokinesis, levitating a swarm of stony debris from the shattered path, and sent the shards sailing into the descending mass of grasping vegetation, shredding it. He ducked and weaved, deflecting with his staff, feeling the shock of impact running up his arms, numbing his shoulders when a root made solid contact.
The spiders were crawling up his legs.
Kelly could feel the bites, a running tally of tiny bites and stings, individually negligible, but they would add up quickly. He concentrated on the soil, sending a wave of black earth sweeping across his shins, burying the swarm.
After that, things got frantic. Kelly wove back and forth before the eastern face of the tree-topped-temple, evading manically as his feet threatened to sink into the wet soil. The undergrowth provided less of a hindrance, having been largely destroyed by the fury of the corrupted titan's lashing roots, but there was so much to keep track and the loose ground was so uneven, that it was hardly an advantage. The rumble and groan of moving wood was omnipresent; The scent of soil and mold and chlorophyll: overpowering. Roots of all sizes thrust and flailed at him from every side, tearing his clothing. Questing vines descended from above, and ever more spiders emerged from the depths of temple maw.
It was exhausting, and the psychic was beginning to flag. His arms were getting sluggish from the shock of repeated defensive impact, he'd already taken several glancing blows, and he was discovering, to his dismay, that parts of his neuromuscular physiology were still sluggish: some of the traveler's more artful dodges were taking a considerable toll on his stamina.
Fortunately, it didn't look like he'd have to keep it up much longer. According to his higher perceptions, very nearly the entire root-system on this side of the temple was currently trying to kill him.
Here we go.
Taking advantage of a momentary lull, Kelly dropped his staff, flexed his knees until he was very nearly crouching, and jumped as high as he could, sailing almost thirty feet towards the canopy, kicking off the trunk of the same tree he'd hidden behind earlier in order to reach a high branch. It was an ability he'd begun to suspect had returned over the course of the fight, the nimbleness of his footwork and the ease with which he leapt over flailing tree-roots speaking of vastly increased capacities, and he was glad to see that his hunch was correct.
There was no time for self-congratulation though. As the traveler grabbed hold and hung on with one hand, fingernails digging into the algae-slick surface, he could sense the canopy shifting, vines beginning to slither in his direction. He could see spiders swarming up the trunk.
That was okay. He only need about ten seconds.
Kelly selected two likely looking trees, near the edge of the combat zone. Their trunks were only slightly thicker than his waist, maybe twenty meters tall, Hardwood - they likely weighed in the neighborhood of ten tons each. With the momentum of a fall behind them, and the still-underground root system on the opposite side of the temple acting as a fulcrum, he figured they'd be more than enough to unseat his mutated tormentor from its ancient perch. It was highly unlikely that it would have the strength to right itself, and the shock might even kill it.
At five-second intervals and precisely calculated angles, two highly-concentrated psychic force-bolts flew from his hand. Wood shattered, blown apart by the sheer impact of carefully focused power. The two mighty titans of the forest creaked, no longer able to support their own weight, and began to fall. The creaking became a groan, eclipsing that of their unnaturally mobile cousins flexing fibers, and they tilted, plunging toward the tree atop the temple, their trunks tearing through the canopy, hissing and crashing as they gained speed, two arboreal freight-trains rushing towards the psychic's chosen target.
Timber.
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