Maneuvering on the Beach

JP with Lorem, Bandorchu, Lucian and Omni:

The scream of the Alossi soldier didn’t affect Voah in the same way or degree as the others, but the sudden chaos erupting around her still served as a distraction.

Hearing the shouts of Gonyaul from her rear reinforced her perspective on the situation. She was able to locate him in her periphery without having to look.

“Gonyaul! Stay close!” Voah shouted in Vauxian in hopes that he would help nullify the abilities of this magikal warrior. Never had she faced such a capable opponent with so many abilities.

Even with her martial prowess, Voah stood no chance alone against such a foe. The power and speed behind her strikes were fierce. She would have to block with two hands to take the edge off of the force.

Projectiles were being deflected by the tumult of wind around the silver soldier which Voah couldn’t tell if it was the natural wind or a if this woman was manipulating the air around her, but she was leaning toward the latter.

Just as the soldier threw her blue baton in her direction and turned toward Alexis, Voah dodged and rushed forward to slash at her with the Holy Sword, unaware that the baton was in the direct flight path to Gonyaul.

Gonyaul made a rookie mistake when it came to close combat with armed opponents. He had taken his eyes off of the Alossi woman and focused on Voah when she had called to him. One should never take their eyes off the enemy. His lack of focus would cost him. If he had seen the blue rod projectile being thrown he would have easily dodged it with his reflexes and speed; however, he didn’t see it coming until he saw Voah charging forward and past it. It was too late and he knew it.

Gonyaul brought his staff up to try and block. He felt a wave of celebration when he noticed that he had successfully made contact with the staff to shield himself. That celebration instantly died as he felt the force through the wood and into his hands. His eyes had just enough time to widen in shock.

The blue rod broke his staff in two like a twig and kept moving unhindered along its intended trajectory. While it’s velocity had been slowed, it was only a tiny bit. It slammed into Gonyaul’s chest. Fortunately he had artificial padding sewn beneath his clothes to make it look like he had breasts to help cushion the impact.

The Vaux went flying off his feet like a rag doll pulled by some invisible rope behind him. A loud involuntary grunt was heard as the air in his body was forced out of his lungs. He covered a good ten feet of distance before falling back to the sand and then sliding through the cushioning ground another five feet, leaving the blue rod behind.

He lay face down unmoving at first and then suddenly animated as he struggled to suck in air and roll onto his side, curling into a fetal position from the pain that was just bestowed upon him. He was coughing and spitting up the sand that had gotten into his open mouth. His eyes were watering from the shock and blurring his vision, which at the moment was only seeing a small crab running for the safety of a hole in the sand to get out of the rain.

So Alexis got her attention, exactly what she wanted. Now to try and keep it, for however short that might be.

She could tell the woman tried to keep her in the line of fire of Tarmen’s bow, which might or might not mean that she wasn’t quite impervious to arrows.

Hey, one could always hope, right? As for manoeuvring one’s adversary around, two could play that game, and Alexis was decent at it, as well.

So as she adapted a defensive stance to resist the Allosi’s lightning quick onslaught just a little longer, she likewise moved to turn the woman’s back on the rushing Voah.

Cursing as his bow was essentially useless now as well, Tarmen had a moment of doubt. He could continue firing for the sake of hopefully, but unlikely, finding a weak spot or risk getting into melee with someone that was more a force of nature than human.

Seeing Voah charging back in, he instead chose to run to Ekero, registering Gonyaul’s sounds of life compared to the unnerving stillness of the tinkerer.