On a Road less... Huh? [Open/Ninelives]

[NiNeLiVeS]

Perdition launched herself out of the cart. "Come on Payn-Payn! We're going to go hunting! We have to earn our keep you know!"

Payn blinked at her. It was a bit eerie: he didn't have eyelids and yet somehow managed to pull it off.

"You... are too noisy."

"What! How dare you say that to a lady!" She smacked him in the face. The blow didn't faze him at all. They continued bickering for a while until Diana had disappeared into the woods. When their benefactor had gotten some distance away she began yanking swords and arrows and the rest out of him, hurriedly getting the offending projectiles out of the zombie-demon-spellcaster.

"Alright, so maybe I can't do stealth," Perdy admitted. She snapped her fingers, making an illusion of a bunny rabbit interpose around the two of them. "But I can do this! Let's go!"

[/size]

[00Penguin]

As she made her way to a clearing, in the center of it was a doe and it's fawn. They were most likely about to settle down for the evening when the sound of arrows came from the opposite side of the forest as they made their kills. Diana was shocked at what had just happened but she didn't move from her spot as three... five men came out to the clearing to the corpses of the doe and fawn. All five of them chatted among themselves about the kill, and everything else that had happen that day, Diana was so frustrated and her concentration was directed at this group that she didn't notice a shadow that closed in grabbed her.

((And now we're going to have some fun, with introduction of bandits... Get ready ^-^))

[NiNeLiVeS]

"Payn-Payn?"

Payn pondered as to whether or not talking while pretending to be a rabbit would defeat the entire point of pretending to be rabbits. Eh, probably. But he didn't really care.

"Yeah?"

"This isn't working," Perdy admitted.

Payn wasn't sure if she had been born on the right planet since he'd only been here for a year and was fairly certain that hunting took more than all of five minutes.

And animals had noses. Good noses, even.

But a demon couldn't exactly stress patience. Wasn't done.

"Huh."

They continued sitting there trying to look innocent.

Two minutes later, Perdy finally got bored of it and decided to go looking for her new bestest best friend Diana.

Payn followed gamely after her.

[/size]

[00Penguin]

For a moment, Diana had lost concisousness but just as quickly she recovered to find that she was both gagged and tied up and most likely in the bandits' camp. She was tied to a stake with the right side facing the fire where the bandits cooking the meat from their kill. Diana knew she was going to be in trouble so she tried wiggling her way out of the ropes first...

Hey! Look who decided to wake up.

Diana stopped moving and slowly turned her head to right as she saw one of the bandits come over with a knife in hand. Diana's heart was pounding as the bandit raised his blade and cut the ropes that were holding her to the stake. Diana was stilled tied up but it didn't matter that much as the bandit pulled her up by her hair and lead her towards the fire. The bandit rudely tossed her to one of the other bandits as Diana fell into his lap. After that all the bandits each took turns of looking her over, maybe getting a touch and then pass her on to the next one. All of them, threw in their suggestions on what to do with this little prizes as selling her as servant, as sex slave, or keeping her were the biggest things that were pasted around.

During all this the only thing that Diana could think of was that someone could save her, she didn't care who, as long as someone saved her. But she knew that wasn't going to happen as she started smelling hormone rise among the bandits. Finally one of the bandits tossed her away from the group and fire as Diana fell face first into the ground. She rolled herself over as she saw all six darken figure get up and slowly make their way to her looking at her lustfully.

((I'm pretty sure this may be pushing it a bit, but this worth the effort to make it intense.))

[NiNeLiVeS]

"I don't see her anywhere." Perdy reported.

Payn tried not to sigh. She hadn't seen her anywhere for the past ten minutes. Just as she'd told him again and again and again and-

Hmm. What was this?

"Blood here," Payn said as he toed the still-warm blood thoughtfully. He leaned down to taste it.

"Ewww! Payn!"

"Not human," Payn reported, pretty certain of himself. "But-"

"Yeah, if she wasn't at the camp..." Perdy's eyes opened wide. "Hey! Look at this!"

It was square bit of cloth. Payn looked at in confusion.

"She was wearing this color!" Perdy said authoritatively. "Someone probably stole her kill - and then they stole her! Come on Payn, we gotta go rescue her! She's our religion's first convert!"

Payn wondered briefly how anyone would see two bunny rabbits talking to each other like this but then dismissed the thought as immaterial.

"Let's follow the trail then."

__________________


When Perdy heard the voices her limbs went cold. She recognized that tone of voice. She could hear Diana too. She started to hyperventilate ever so slightly before remembering where she was and who she was. Her lips turned to a feral snarl.

"Payn?"

"Yes?" The demon rumbled.

"Kill them. All of them."


_________________


"Oh, except for Diana! We can't have her dying on us after all."


__________________



Payn gathered the magic. Then he made a tree explode with a burst of foul, powerful dark energy. He did the same to another one. They teetered and then fell towards the clearing.

He ghosted towards the bandits, each footstep heavy with unvoiced violence.

Perdition added her own cheery tune to the impending slaughter.

"Run and run and run away! Today's the day I think you'll stay! Don't be naughty, don't be bad! If you are, you'll be quite sad! Death comes hunting but doesn't collect; that's the job for Mr...."

"...pssst. Payn. What rhymes with collect?"

Payn made earthen spikes run from the ground to impale any bandit not quick enough to flee from them in time.

"Wreck?"

"That doesn't rhyme! Oh well. Ahem. That's the job for Mr. Wreck!" She made an arcane gesture with her hands.

"Say hello to MR. WRECK."

A bubble of dark force engulfed the bandit camp.

______________

Payn Used:
2*Dark Burst Lv3 = make trees explodey
Stone Spike Lv3 @ Bandits

Perdition Used:
Dark Burst Lv3 @ Bandits

[00Penguin]

When the trees just suddenly exploded with no apparent reason and two creatures came in attacking them with a scary but badly done poem, which didn't matter at the moment as 4 of the bandits tried to run away only to realize their path was blocked by the trees that had fallen. The other two, mostly like the leaders of the pack started shouting orders as one of them grabbed Diana and slung her over his shoulder.

The Stone Spikes hit their mark as they impaled into both the arm and leg of the Bandit leader carrying Diana as he dropped her screaming in pain. The four bandits that were trying to run away had ended up clumping together insuring that when the Dark Burst came down all of them were damaged as they as well screamed in pain from the darkness. The only one that wasn't hurt was the Bandit leader with the knife, as the Bandit charged going to impale his knife into the beast.

Bandit Leader (Carrier)
[hp=16/24]

Bandit Leader (Knife)
[hp=32/32]

Bandit Grunt
[hp=8/16]
Bandit Grunt
[hp=8/16]
Bandit Grunt
[hp=8/16]
Bandit Grunt
[hp=8/16]

[NiNeLiVeS]

"Take care of the rest, will you, Payn-Payn? Diana is getting carried away and that's a biiiig no-no."

Payn, who was currently being stabbed, grunted an affirmative. He grabbed the wrist that was trying to pump him full of holes and shoved the dagger in more deeply, locking the two characters together.

He looked the bandit leader in the eye. His tone was greedy.

"Is that you I smelled? The one with the sweets?"

An orb of dark energy crashed into the bandits that had been felled by the first bolt of dark energy. Another one fell amongst them, moments later, in case any survivors were to surface. Blood welled from the wound the dagger was making and dripped out in slow drops.



_________________



"Hi Diana. Sorry about... all this. It won't hurt at all in a moment."

"But you. For you?" A dark, merciless chuckle. In her hand there was a ball of light. "This will hurt a lot."




__________________

Payn
[hp=72/90] (wounds sustained from an earlier battle + new damage)
Dark Burst Lv3*2 @ the bandits

Perdition
[hp=40/40]
Light Burst Lv3*2 @ the carrier bandit

[/size]

[00Penguin]

The Bandit Leader was now terrified as his dagger went futher into the creature's chest locking them both together. So he looked trying to see if his minions would help him only to see that all of them were destroyed to a dark lump unidentable to anybody as the two dark attacks made there marks. Now the leader was really desperate as he tried to free himself. Tugging this way and that way until he somehow dislocated his entire arm which did free him as started to run away holding his disconnect arm to his side.

As for the other leader, he was too distracted by the amount of pain he was going through to even notice that he had dropped his hostage and was finished by Perdition.

Bandit Leader (Knife)
[hp=30/32]
Fled from Battle

Bandit Leader (Carrier)
Bandit
Bandit
Bandit
Bandit

[NiNeLiVeS]

"Don't you like sweets?" Payn asked.

The bandit gibbered something and then wrenched his arm out of its socket. Payn blinked several times as the man stumbled to his feet and then fled. What the-

His eyes narrowed. Fleeing from battle? FLEEING from a fight to the DEATH? Why, that didn't sit right with him, no not at all. Fire crackled at his fingertips even as earthen spikes roared from the ground to attack the bandit.

He could always teleport and let the chase go on for a little longer... it had been so very long since he had gone all out. Perdy liked trying to convert everyone they met which meant very little hunting.

And he was descended from demons of war. The smell of carrion and freshly spilled blood was nearly intoxicating.

But ah, this was a mere coward. The chase wouldn't be worth it.

The elements roared and Payn laughed, dark and low.


____________


"Hey... ummm... Diana, are you okay?" Perdy asked, feeling lost. The bandit that had been holding her had been burned from the inside out by the power of the Light but the girl hadn't... reacted to it.

"They... umm... you're safe now?" She asked tentatively, holding out a hand.

_______________

Payn
[hp=72/90]

Earth Spike Lv3 @ Fleeing Bandit
Ice Lv3 @ Fleeing Bandit
Fire Lv3 @ Fleeing Bandit
Lightning Lv3 @ Fleeing Bandit

Perdition
[hp=40/40]

[00Penguin]

The fleeing bandit couldn't even get a sound out as he disappeared from this world leaving only his dust in the wind.

There wasn't much Diana could do... or say for that matter as she was still gagged and out of it. But as she slowly regained awareness it all hit her like a boulder as she remember what had happened to her and then flashbacking to that moment. She became panic as she started shaking furisously, her insides panic as well and finally her stomach couldn't take it any more as she just released all of her contents down on the ground and in her face, due to her mouth still being gagged. A good two minutes and she passed out again in a cold sweat, with everything ruined by the ground, the carnage, or her own mess.

The surrounding area was a mess, besides Diana area, the place looked like a battlefield, rather a field of massacure. It could be said that if anyone was to find this, they would be wise to take it as warning and sign to not anger whatever did this.

((Congrats... the battle is won... one-sidedly... but hey that's what they get. And now to return camp and well... clean up for the trip tomorrow.))

[NiNeLiVeS]

"Oh dear," Perdy muttered, borrowed wings askew as she contemplated the mess that Diana had made. Nonetheless, she strode forward with a certainty that made her seem much older than her appearance. "If you choke on your vomit and die," she told the girl conversationally as she started to undo the bindings and gag, "I am totally bringing you back to life and then mocking you for it."

She tried to say it cheerfully but her hands trembled.

Payn, meanwhile, contemplated the remains of the bandit camp. What little hadn't been destroyed in the initial attack was probably worthless now. Still, their hunt had been interrupted and if there were victuals to be found...

[00Penguin]

Somehow within all the carnage, Diana's equipment survived and the food that the bandit's were cooking wasn't soiled. But other than that nothing else was salvagable.

While Perdy was able to remove the gag, the fact that there was still a mess wasn't making it any better.

Diana regained herself, and started coughing heavily to clear whatever was in her throat. This went on for a good two minutes until she finally stopped. She couldn't see much, but she knew that she wasn't lying down in something foul. She started crawling herself away mumbling the need for water, washing, the smell.

[NiNeLiVeS]

Payn poked at the food before lifting a bloody haunch out of the animal and tearing a strip out of it.

He grabbed the rest of the meat and hoisted it over a shoulder.

Perdition was already helping the other girl. Payn sighed as he rifled through corpses but knew without a doubt that whatever sweets or shinies were on their corpses had probably been blown to dust. A sad side-effect of being so powerful.

He dropped a handful of coins on the ground. Passage fee into the Underworld.

"Say hello to Lord Hades for me," he told the corpses, grinning. "And thanks for the meal."


_________


"Hey! I saw a stream... umm... not too far away. Umm... Diana, are you okay? You want to stab one of the bad guys? I think Payn-Payn left one kind of intact and it's totally within your rights to do so, I mean they were a bunch of complete losers, y'know? So, come on, cheer up-"

Babble babble babble.

[00Penguin]

Diana did remember a stream and mumbled that she going to the stream to wash herself. She still staggered as she moved into the direction of the stream until she finally came upon it. She dropped herself to her knees as she started washing her face of the gunk that was on her face. Her mind started back to her as she remembered everything that had happened before. The doe and her fawn, the bandits, the lust, the... No... Diana had to stop thinking about it right now, she needed to clean her clothes for now. She looked around as she took her tunic off and looked at the mix of filth and dirt. She dipped it into the stream and started scrubbing to remove as much of the stuff as she could as she also tried to forget everything else that happened.

The best way to remove the pain is to forget it all. Forget the pain, forget the feelings, become empty of everything.

Master...

[NiNeLiVeS]

Diana walked off without answering any of her queries.

Perdy wasn't sure what to do. It wasn't like the girl had been hurt - just scared really badly and come on, Perdy was sure she'd seen a trooper when she'd laid eyes on the girl. On her own at that age? That took guts. Especially with creatures like Payn-Payn roaming about unchecked.

"Get it together girl," Perdy muttered to the retreating Diana, "you can pull through, I know you-"

She didn't notice Payn approach.

"Weak," the demon opined, shaking his head, dead animal held aloft on his back. "You mortals are all so delicate."

Perdy shot him a hateful look. "Why you-! This is a girl thing so back off."

Rushing up to Diana Perdy tried to plead with her. "Hey, is there... I mean... do you want to talk about it?"