Author: Gumo no Aijin, Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2018 5:36 AM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

The wasp matron was having none of this any more. With quick strikes she was pummeling Lady Aigumo, or at least trying to. While the humpback spider's large body didn't exactly make for good dodging, having eight arms that were all longer than the wasp's made it really difficult for her to not be shoved back in many directions as she tried to punch. But with raw force and ferocity, Lady Aigumo knew that every hit that the wasp managed to land could be a turn for the worst.

If the wasp would continue this berserk barrage of rage though, perhaps she could pull through. Using every trick in her arsenal turned into touch spells to wear out the wasp, from pain spikes to corpse skin and from paralyse to drain essence, perhaps she could eventually best this foe through attrition. And in between the arrow that was still sticking out from the wasps shoulder, the acid rain that was dripping into her body through this wound, her stamina slowly being drained from her and her overly aggressive assault, this attrition shouldn't take too long to take effect.

Acid water splashes up as a fist strikes not centimeters away from lady Aigumo's head, a strike that she had barely managed to dodge. While the strike didn't seem too impressive when it was followed by a dry 'plump' sound as the wasp pulled her arm wrist-deep from the mud, Lady Aigumo knew that the strike could've shattered her exo-skull. Damn it, that was close.

Thing were happening elsewhere too. Lady Aigumo had no idea what had happened to the other elite wasps, but they seemed to be gone and/or dead. And there was something on fire nearby, though she couldn't tell who was casting and who was burning. Her best guess was that both spellcasters were on fire. Her instinctive guess was that the crazy dragoness had set herself on fire and moved in for a bear hug. Something along the lines of 'Haha, you can't punch me when I'm on fire!'. She knew Xyaban for less than an hour, but she already expected the madwoman to pull a stunt like that.

A loud roar sounds from above, and a much lesser roar follows it. The first one sounded like something very big, and the latter sounded like it was in a lot of pain. The mantis, presumably. Perhaps the Dragoness had distracted her opponent with an illusionary sound, and then dealt a vital blow? Lady Aigumo hadn't sought that kind of cunni-

The sudden rumble through the ground and a large shadow landing made it clear that it was most certainly not an illusion. The column of fire suddenly appearing in the distance to block the ant's path made it clear that this was no weak monster either. And the way that the wasp matron's eyes dilated in surprise suggested that it was far from a regular creature too. No, the sheer amount of ground shaking already made that much clear. Heck, it sounded like a freaking dragon.

Unlike her overconfident and/or easily distracted opponent, Lady Aigumo did not look to see what just happened and instead conjured one of her yokai arrows in her hand. Aiming more carefully than she had the luxury of doing before, she rams it through one of the matron's weak spots. The wasp screams in pain and Lady Aigumo quickly throws her off of her. Good, the spider eggs that she had coated the arrow with would now burrow into the wasp's body and ensure that she would die very slow and painfully. But mostly that she was assured to die, given enough time. Time to get out of here, and make sure that the wasp couldn't kill her before she croaked. The wasp tries to grabs her arms and body, but Lady Aigumo quickly turning into her humanoid form solves that problem. The wasps's slippery acid-stained fingers slip right off her slippery and muddy naked body as Lady Aigumo wrestles herself away and gives the wasp a backwards kick in the face for good measure.

Hearing that her enemy was already hot on her tail and that the ants wouldn't be stopped by the inferno of fire for too long, Lady Aigumo sprints at the dragon while clutching her most important belongings to her bare bossom. "Go! Just go, we don't have much time!" Lady Aigumo quickly strings some web threads over her belongings to stick them to herself like a makeshift sack, and then puts some silk on her hands. Thank the spider queen that the silk counted as part of her body and was thus not corroding away because of the acid. She jumps onto the dragon, a freaking dragon, because apparently that mad dragoness could've summoned a dragon all along but didn't right away, and quickly sticks to his leg with her silk'd hands and feet.

"Fly! Fly! Just go! I'll climb up while we get the hells out of here!"

Ants were already pouring out of the forest into the clearing and the wasp matron was already upon them when the dragon takes off. Lady Aigumo looks down upon the bodyridden post-apocalyptic wasteland caused by the acid rain and the battle as she is quickly taken away from that dreadful place. Once she can tell for sure that the wasp wasn't chasing them and that there were no other flying pursuers, she begins to carefully climb up the dragon's leg to the, apparently also naked, Xyaban.

"*Pant* *Pant* That wasn't fun at all. I can honestly say that I hope to never be in a situation like that ever again. Anyway, feel free to drop me off somewhere safe once you're sure that they're no longer following us. And stop staring, my eyes are up here." Lady Aigumo says, trying to cover her breasts with her long black hair. In the strong winds caused by the dragon's flight though, that was proving very difficult to do.

Author: Xyaban, Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2018 1:31 PM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

The two casters jousted with magic for a bit, throwing spells at each other only to have the other counter it somehow. Xyaban was looking very pleased by all of this, a large crazed smile on her face the whole time, while the mantis was starting to look more and more panicked as time went on and Xyaban continued to advance. The dragoness was rather unaware of what else was going on around with Estelle and any wasps that were still around. But what no one else knew was that Xyaban had telepathically called in her backup, crazy, yes, but not stupid. Mostly.

As the acid rain started tapered off, the magic holding the spell together burning out, Xyaban decided it was time to stop toying around with the mantis and finish the fight before the ants could get here. With a grin Xyaban teleported from view and the mantis spun around expecting Xy to appear behind her, but Xy appeared instead to the mantis' left and in a very close position. Xyaban reached out and grabbed the mantis' wrist and pulled the mantis closer as she threw a hard right into the mantis' jaw sending the caster reeling with the pain. Xy giggled. ”Too much magical practice, nothing up close I take it.” In answer the mantis moved swiftly and spines snapped up along her arms while each of her four arms snapped out with blade of their own. ”Oh, much better.” Xyaban smiled.

The mantis attacked using magic to augment her speed and Xyaban did the same to herself, as her own wrist blade snapped out from her right wrist. Xy's blades blocked two of the mantis' blade and she was forced to jump back before the bottom two arms of the mantis were able to attack with their own blades. The mantis pressed forward, using her upper arms to attack with blades and her bottom two to throw more fire at Xyaban.

In reply Xyaban used her blades to block with while allowing herself to take the brunt of the fire. Her robes started to burn and her skin turned red but she only giggled through the pain as this happened. ”Mm, nice and warm.” The dragoness moaned with a smile. The one problem with fighting Xyaban is that, since she didn't feel pain in the same way most did, it wasn't something that slowed her down really. As her robes burned Xyaban pushed forward instead of away this time, since the mantis didn't have her lower arms up from casting the spell.

The fire on Xy's robes made the mantis want to back away from the heat, but Xy pressed forward each time. The mantis finally got her lower arms up and stabbing at Xyaban who dodged backwards. As the same time she drew her wrist blade back into herself and twisted out of her burning robes. These she threw at the mantis and when the mantis brought up her arms and magical shield to block it, Xy's portal opened in front of the mantis and opened behind her, taking the robes with. The mantis cried out when the burning material struck her from behind suddenly, having only created a frontal shield to stop it.

Her defences down to get the burning robes off of her Xyaban moved in again, her wrist blade back out. She got right up to the mantis in time for the mantis to have gotten the burning robes off of her and Xy's blades sank into the mantis' flesh causing another scream of pain. But Xy's attack wasn't fatal, just disabling two of the four arms. Those other two arms came up but with how close Xy was the mantis had to use the spines on the back of her arms to stab down a now naked Xyaban.

Those spines sunk into Xy's skin but failed to penetrate some of her thicker scaled areas. But instead of crying out in pain Xyaban shivered in pleasure. ”Oh, that feels good, you're getting me aroused.” She commented with a giggle.

Just as she did a roar echoed from high above, a loud one at that.

All of this set the mantis on edge even more and Xyaban took that moment to inhale and then exhale a blob of acidic spit into the mantis' face. The insect reeled back as her eyes were burned and then Xyaban thrust out a hand and a grease like substance came forth and splattered the ground around the mantis. She slipped and fell on it, trying to claw the spit away from her face getting more of slick grease on her body. The naked dragoness smiled and tossed a small fireball into the grease and it went up instantly in hot flames. The mantis screamed in pain as the fire engulfed her, burning with the grease and then her flesh. A horrible way to go.

As the fight finished and Xyaban watched the burning insect another roar, now closer, echoed and she smiled and looked to the sky. From above the trees and crashing sound could be heard as a huge forty foot grey scaled dragon dropped the ground with a deafening roar. The huge beast looked around and, at Xy's unheard telepathic instruction, breathed fire into the forest around them, careful of Estelle the whole time.

Xyaban ran over to him and looked to Estelle if she was alright. ”Climb on, he'll get us to safety. This is my mate, Hacesh.” She smiled and placed a hand on his snout as he finished breathing fire to look at her, nudging her and make a huffing nose. Xy giggled and bopped him playfully. ”Yes, I'm naked, and no, not now, later.” She replied as she scrambled to climb on Hacesh's back, waiting for Estelle if the spider woman wanted to get a ride out of the area and to some place a little safer. The ants weren't that far away, Hacesh had had to take a route around them to avoid getting targeted from below.

The way the big dragon moved though showed that he wasn't all there either, and it was another twisted little tale to add to Xy's history of she and Hacesh had got to where they were. But, for now, the huge dragon was there to get her and, if she wanted, Estelle, to safety.

[OOC: Up to you, but with event over figured we may as well start to finish up. We could do a post war follow up if you want :)]

Author: Gumo no Aijin, Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2018 5:47 AM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

The spiders and arache-esk creatures were all long gone, with the exception of the dead and dying. Even the small spiders had retreated to shelter and cover to weather the acid rain, abandoning their previous mission and the suicidal tone it had. Lady Aigumo sees no more allies of hers around, except for the unpredictable and increasingly more problematic ally that she had found in the mad dragoness. The elite wasps were no longer in full strength either, most chasing after the spiders and one flying off in the direction of the ant batallion. The messenger was the only one flying, considering the vulnerable thinness of their wings and the amount of acid that they caught per square foot when these wings buzzed around for flying. While he would probably never fly again by the end of it, the wasp might make it to the ants before crashing, though. Troublesome. Very troublesome.

Only three elite wasps were left to aid their matron, and most would focus on defending Xyaban and defending the mantis. Well, two were left. Portals and brute force would result in such math. But if those two would manage to keep their mage safe from a close-combat assaillant, it would still be very problematic. As complicated as spellcasters were, the strategy to take them out before they could cast too much spells was dreadfully simple. As was the counter-tactic to keep them safe. And with both wasps focussing on Xyaban and moving in from the flanks to stop her, they did stand a chance to pull it off long enough. Neither wasp seemed to care much for Lady Aigumo, as their matron was much better armoured and Lady Aigumo was far from a heavy hitter. Really, she'd have some mayor troubles against one of the elite wasps in a direct fight, let alone their boss lady.

Not that she would've had better odds against the mantis, far from it. As impulsive and mad as the dragoness appeared, it was a simple yet undeniably effective strategy. Send the heavy hitter with the magical resistance and a surprisingly vast amount of magical abilities against the spellcaster. Even the simplest brute could just charge and tackle a spellcaster to the ground if they had the resistance or constitution to survive reaching the mage, and once pinned it was a matter of raw strength. Guess who won that battle nine out of eight times?

Lady Aigumo focusses her attention solely on the matron wasp, hoping that no other insectoids would join the fray or attack her. If they would, she was done for regardless of whether she saw them coming or not. The matron was focussing her attention on Lady Aigumo as well, clearly still angry about the scent trick and not inclined to let her escape. She drew four short swords and twirled them around her hands to show off her skill. Then she sneered and dropped two of them upon seeing how the acid rain corroded them and turned the sharp weapons into pudgy cudgels quickly. The upper two swords seemed to be unaffected, probably magically enhanced. She didn't seem too affected by the rain herself, while her body hair melted off her carapace seemed resistant enough. But, Lady Aigumo knew that the acid protection spell granted her an advantage over the matron. Any wound through the carapace could prove fatal, and the matron's flight was restricted or perhaps completely off-limits. Unless she was willing to sacrifice her wings to the rain, of course.

As her pretty kimono melts and slowly begins to show more and more of Lady Aigumo's bare skin, apparently the protection spell didn't transfer to her clothes, she begins to transform into her spider form. It was more sturdy and maneuvrable, and her humanoid form's social skills would prove worthless in this fight. As the melting kimono loses too much of its structure and falls off, Lady Aigumo is fully exposed in her elven form for a few seconds before she warps and twists back into her true form. Her lyrebow still in hand, fortunately it was made out of crystals on which acid had no effect, and her form now more battle-worthy, Lady Aigumo prepares for battle.

But how? This creature would tear her apart in a direct confrontation, and she had no idea how to prevent such a quick, agile and powerful opponent from turning this situation into anything but that. The advantage of the acid could give her the upper hand somehow, but Lady Aigumo had no idea how to make that happen. And even if she were to enhance the strength of her lyrebow's arrows with her own magic and her special yokai quiver, they would still be barely stronger than the average arrow. Not strong enough to harm this wasp with anything but a close-range critical hit.

Damn it. Lady Aigumo would have to do something she hated; take a risk. The scent was already risky, but it didn't have a big penalty had it failed. Not with Xyaban there to intercept a counter-attack and the insectoids not yet attacking. But this plan would leave her wide open for an attack if it wouldn't work, and the magic was just as experimental and unfamiliar to her as the scent had been.

But as she had no better idea…

Lady Aigumo draws from the death around her, drawing the remnants of her former soldiers and prays that they are as loyal in death as they said they were in life. There was no pretending and obligation for soul fragments after all, things like lying and biding their time were foreign thoughts to raw souls. But if enough of them were truly loyal to her in heart, then perhaps there were enough fragments around to form one ragdoll soul to create a wraith spider with. ([raise death]+[invoke darkness elemental])

The matron wasp began to move, feeling that Lady Aigumo had began to cast her spells and not waiting for them to be finished before she'd go on the offensive herself. With a big smile filled with rage and the envisioned glee she'd feel when tearing Lady Aigumo apart, the wasp charges. Then she topples, screaming in rage when a spider husk oozing with dark ichor grabs her by the ankle and tries to crawl onto her. Acid splashes around as the matron falls into one of the already quite sizeable puddles that were forming, and the wraith spider crawls its way onto her to keep her occupied. In its undead state, the spider wasn't bothered by the corrosion and didn't even seem to notice it.

Lady Aigumo quickly turns to Xyaban and her enemies, and fires a volley of arrows at the wasps. Her arrows stood a much better chance piercing through their corroding carapaces, and the mantis was probably too occupied with other defensive measurements to have any kind of magic missile protection. Flanking these unaware and occupied enemies had a much more likely success rate, was much more her style, and every second that she subtracted from Xyaban's fight was one that she wouldn't have to stall the matron. Because even with her wraith and the acid, the final blow would have to be so powerful that the dragoness was probably the only one who could deal it. 

At least one of her arrows stuck true because she heard one of the wasps scream loudly, but Lady Aigumo didn't have the luxury to watch what she had done. Her attention was already on the matron again, who had rolled to be pinning down the wraith spider instead and was now fervently slashing into it with her swords. Being undead, the wraith was still clinging on to her and attacking right back, but it was only a matter of time before the damage would become too great for it to continue existing. Lady Aigumo curses and prepares a more powerful magical arrow. She'd only get one shot for this. The matron gave her a good target this way, at least. And if this arrow would pierce through, then the paralysing agent would take care of the rest.

"Well, here goes nothing…"

Author: Xyaban, Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 3:29 PM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

Estelle didn't seem happy to have to protect the dragoness, then again she wasn't happy with Xyaban calling down the acid rain when she had either. But already the rain was starting to do its job and distract and hurt the insects, including the spiders, a bit of collateral damage to Xyaban's spell work, but it was, in her mind, a necessary risk to have taken. Xy shielded Estelle as best she could from the rain, using the last of her magic to form the spell, but that left Xy with no protection and feeling exhausted from it all.

Xyaban smiled sideways to Estelle. ”Do what you have to.” She replied while she watched Estelle draw out some kind of instrument. Xyaban couldn't hear anything as Estelle started to play, but she smell something in the air that made her nose wrinkle at it, but Xy had no idea what it might be otherwise. She watched with interesting while heaving for breath to get her strength back, as the insects started to react to the 'song' that was being played.

As this was happening Xyaban reached into her robe and drew a ring out, in fact she had forgotten about it until now, but smiled as she remembered. It was an anima ring, a ring that held a soul of some fool that Xyaban had killed a while ago, trapping the soul in the ring's gem. She slipped the ring onto her finger and drew the magic from the ring, destroying the soul within as a result, this would not get to the Soul Stream.

That was a good boost to Xy's magic reserves, she wasn't topped back up but that had certainly helped. By the time Xyaban was finished this she was in time to see the effects of what Estelle's song had done to the insects, interesting. Smiling Xyaban got back up to her feet again and stepped up beside Estelle as she spoke of the Mantis before them and her magic. ”I can take her.” Xyaban giggled and walked forward, her insanity blocking any notion of fear at the moment, no, she just wanted to kill this Mantis, and every insect that she saw.

”Come, little bug, I'll squish you under my foot.” She taunted and it seemed that made up the mantis' mind and she turned to face Xyaban's head on. From her cloak Xyaban pulled a sword's hilt and with a flick a blade of light appeared from it, glowing a sickly poisonous green like Xyaban's eyes. Xy drew up some of the magic from the soul she had taken power from and used it create shadow fiends around the mantis. That caught the mantis off guard and as she fought them off Xyaban continued to get closer until a drone wasp dropped in front of her and tried to stab her with its spear.

The dragoness opened a portal in front of her and the spear went through it, the exit portal was at the wasp's back, so it stabbed itself. But not enough to kill it, as it dropped the weapon and screeched in surprise Xyaban swung her blade and slashed it across the chest twice and took off part of its one arm. With it reeling the dragoness smiled as she reached up and grabbed it by its face and growled as she focused her more evil magic into it.

After a moment she started to pull her hand back and with it a line of black magic was linking insect and reptile as Xyaban drew the wasp's energy. This power she added to her magic as well topping herself up, wincing as the rain started to come down harder and touch her skin. The wasp screeched one last time before Xy ran it through with her sword and allowed it to drop to the ground, the acid rain starting to eat it already.

By the time she was finished the mantis caster was finished getting rid of the fiends Xy had created before and turned back to face the dragoness. But the acid rain continued to come down harder forcing the mantis to create a shield, and Xyaban did somewhat the same, but instead of her whole body she protected her head and face, but that was it. The rain drops still touched her skin and Xy shivered with the pain, seemingly enjoying it. ”What are you!? The mantis asked as she threw a ball of fire at Xyaban.

The dragones giggled and threw her own fire ball at the incoming one. ”Insane.” She giggled and charged up some more magic and threw a lightning bolt at the mantis, who brought up a wall of earth to block it, damn she was fast! Xyaban smiled, she loved a good magic fight! She would enjoy this and worry about Estelle later on, but for now hoped that the spider woman wasn't having too hard a time of it with the rest of the insects and the acid rain.

Author: Gumo no Aijin, Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2018 10:09 AM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

The spiders and arachnea-creatures run into all directions in an everyone for themselves tactic that resulted in some devastating brutalities when the elite wasps swipe and attack those trying to get past them. But compared to the casualties that they would suffer if they were to stand and fight, the amount of spiderlings dying was paltry and a good tactical sacrifice for the rest to survive. Really, it were only the cowards and dumb ones that began to run away before Lady Aigumo gave the order that were slaughtered with a high probability. Anyone with enough of a brain to wait for their very expendable small spiders to swarm the wasps and cover them in a wriggling black cocoon could easily slip past the blinded and wildly moving wasps.

With a small inkling of pride, Lady Aigumo sees how some spiders don't immediately go for the flight option and choose to attack the wasps. The wasps, blinded by spiders on their eyes and spiders everywhere else too, did make a defeatable target after all. Some spiders, ettercaps and fomorians tackled the wriggling black cocoons to the ground and began to viciously attack them. Many small spiders were crushed when they were caught in between the wasps backs and the ground, and many more were killed as they unintentionally provided protection against their spider brother's attacks. Especially with the fomorians it didn't matter much though, their clubs would strike the wasps just as hard even when there were a few squishier spiders splattered between the weapon and the wasp's face.

Most spiders fled, though. As they should, because these elites would mercilessly tear them apart. These elites were so much more powerful that their sacrifices would amount to virtually nothing. Maybe buy her a second at most.

Lady Aigumo's attention was much more focussed on her new and less predictable ally however. Xyaban had tensed up, with the exception of just one of her eyes twitching. She seemed to be conjuring up a storm of raw rage and madness inside of her, just seconds away from unleashing it in an uncontrollable frenzy that was little more than a savage beast wreaking havoc against anything that moved and-
"Cover me."
Or not. Okay, maybe she just looked a lot more like a madwoman about to go completely beserk than she really was. And if she wasn't going to lose herself completely, then she-

Xyaban raises her hands up into the air and roars, causing the sky to reply in kind by darkening.

"Wait a minute! What are you- Are you going to cast the acid rain spell here? Not from a safe distance, but right onto our camp? Onto US!? Are you insane!?!"

"…"
"Don't answer that."

Lady Aigumo turned to run away herself, get away from this soon to be acidic wasteland as fast as she could. If she was lucky, she wouldn't be caught in the brunt of the attack and wouldn't be maimed to fomorian-levels of deformity by the acid rain. A few drops were already falling from the sky and causing little plumes of smoke to well up where they landed. She would have to hurry, real fast.

She feels the hand of the crazy madwoman on her back, and Lady Aigumo quickly looks behind her to see if the dragoness was planning to stop her from fleeing. It seemed like she might not even have the power, Xyaban looked exhausted and perhaps even nearing a fainting spell. Lady Aigumo feels some kind of magic flow from Xyaban's touch and run over her like a warm silken robe. A drop of acid falls onto her shoulder without immediately corroding into her flesh, suggesting that this was some sort of protection from acid spell.

Xyaban herself was also being struck by her rain, and Lady Aigumo could tell that the acid hurt her. Not too much, it was definately not as deadly as it was to her poor spiderlings and the remaining arachnean forces that quickly began to retreat or retreat faster when they felt the painful touch of these first few drops. The wasp elites were also looking up at the sky with the worry clear from their body language. They instinctively knew just like all the others here what acidic madness was to come, but their hive mind prevented them from fleeing until they were given the permission to do so.

The dragoness seemed vulnerable and weak for a moment. In need of someone to prevent the wasps from completely tearing her apart.

"Damn it, fine. But don't expect me to be a frontliner, I'm definately not built for it. You better not be physically exhausted too, else you've completely lost your value. I'll just abandon you if that's the case." Lady Aigumo says while she takes out her Lyrebow. While it could serve as a quick bow if she needed to fight physically, her intentions were of a more magically manipulating way."I hope this works on these elites too."

Lady Aigumo begins to play a tune, a tune of fear and fright. A tune that urged for retreat. No sound was being produced by the lyre though, as the sound was being converted by very complicated and experimental magic into scent instead. Scent similar to the pheromones that the insects used to give their hive mind commands. They were imitations, and the insects could tell, but they were imitations that could help the insects override the absolute mental control of their standing commands. And with these wasp elites knowing that they were going to have a real bad time if they'd stay here waiting for the acid rain to hit them, even a cheap knock-off order to retreat might be enough for them to break their elite warrior's command to stay put.

"What are you doing? Oh no, you don't! Your kind cannot possibly hope to override MY perfect control over my own men!" The wasp leader shouts angrily, and she quickly begins to rub her legs together to release her command pheromones in overwhelmingly powerful quantities. Some wasps were persuaded quickly to flee away and were already retreating when their matron began to give the counter-command, and others tense up to complete paralysis as their matron's unnuanced command to STAY! overwhelmed their senses to unnatural degrees. The command was enforced in their mind to extremely unnegotiable ways, to the point where one retreating wasp stopped moving all his muscles mid-flight and crashed down. They didn't even try to break their fall or remain upright as they struck the ground, as the command didn't allow for any movement at all. The matron, seeing the effects of her actions and immediately growing even more enraged, seems conflicted on whether to attack Lady Aigumo herself or fix this situation quickly.

"There, that might buy us a few seconds against the troops. But I can't do much about her." Lady Aigumo says, nodding at the Locust Virtuose. "So I hope you're ready to fight, because I can't stop her spells for even a second."

Author: Xyaban, Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 7:16 PM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

[OOC: Nice images, btw :D]

She listens as Estelle expands on Xyaban's plan to bring down acid rain, but as she did a large bang went off that made Xyaban flinch and spin around as she shielded her eyes for a moment. They had been found! And surrounded! This one proved a caster as most mantises were with a shield of fire up around her to protect herself. Another insect, a wasp, stepped into view also talking and Xyaban growled while Rupert got to her side again also growling. No, this wasn't the plan, but damned if Xyaban wasn't going to make a proper fight of it!

While Estelle turned pale Xyaban only looked angry and her left eye was twitching, the insanity that plagued her was nearly on full display now. She heard Estelle speak but Xyaban was already drawing a large amount of magic into her for her spell. This wasn't some simple spell like a fire ball or the barrier that the mantis was using, no, this was weather control at its finest and Xyaban needed a large amount of magic for it. ”Cover me.” Was all she growled.

She brought her hands up into the air and let out a small roar as the sky darkened above them and the first few drop started to come down. It sizzled and popped on the trees above them but as it started to come down harder it ate through the leaves and soon was hitting the insects and everything else in the area. Xyaban, now that she had released the massive spell, seemed to sag for a moment on her feet, that had been exhausting to say the least.

She moved closer to Estelle, hoping that she could trust the spider woman to guard her for a moment. Using the last of her current magic she opened a small magical gate and spoke something into it, after that she went to cast a small protection spell on Estelle to protect her from the acid rain. Xyaban flinched when some of it hit her, she wasn't immune from it either, but the pain was comforting for her and the dragoness knew her body would heal quickly enough.

But for the moment Xyaban was tapped of magic until her body could draw in more naturally from the surrounding area.

Author: Gumo no Aijin, Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2018 4:13 PM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

Lady Aigumo smiles from the outside, her mask an ever-unbreakable pokerface. She knew the expression that Xyaban had. Lust, the rough and selfish one. She saw it in the eyes of so many men who thought their loins were some sort of highly exclusive pleasure-granting miracle, rather than just a filthy sweaty sausage. Men who easily and willingly assumed her to be a thirsty woman who had given enough hints and permission for them to do whatever they wanted. Filthy. Not at all the kind of men, or in this case woman-thing, that she liked. But the easiest kind of men to lure into a false sense of security and poison with her paralytic kiss.

This woman though, her poison immunity might prove a problem. Too risky, too troublesome. She wouldn't risk it, not even maybe. Xyaban kept talking and boasting about herself, clearly not suffering from arachneafobia. Her mutt on the other hand, maybe? Well, they weren't going to attack her, so a lack of fear didn't matter. As Xyaban continued to talk about her child and such, she seemed to be losing patience. She didn't seem too impressed or interested in her new allies abilities either. "I say, let's kill them all."

"Yes, that would be the overall plan. Though the question of how remains, of course. I appreciate the enthusiasm, though." Lady Aigumo says. "Any idea on how we'll do this?"

Xyaban willingly expositioned her powers, showing her needles and talking about poisons. It didn't impress Lady Aigumo much, they had plenty of poisonous stingers which were proving to be barely effective against this enemy. If it weren't, they could've fought a lot more aggressively. The acid rain on the other hand, that one sounded a lot more dangerous. The thought already made Lady Aigumo's skin crawl, knowing how much it would warp and deteriorate her carapace. And if it affected hers, it should affect the insects too.

"Now that sounds like a wonderful plan! If you could rain acid down upon the ants, then it will corrode their armours and create weak spots. Once the acid stops being too dangerous, my small spiders can swarm them en masse and bite them through those soft spots. Maybe even eat and crawl their way into their bodies. We've got plenty of those spiders, and they're very expendable unlike the bigger ones. The fire seems interesting too, especially if we could force them into more concentrated webbed traps by creating some fire lines around them."

"Yes, that does seem like a very good plan. I'll say, you prepare your acid to rain upon the approaching ants, and we'll retreat from them with all haste once you've cast it. Once they're no longer acidic, my spider swarms will charge in and finish them off. But we shouldn't defend this place, using these fighters in direct combat is such a waste of their potential. We should-"

A large bang goes off, like someone shot up fireworks loud and bright enough to be noticeable even in bright daylight. An alert spell. The one who cast it, no longer bothering to hide with her location given away, steps into the light of the clearing and smiles wickedly. "Oh, did I do it wrong? I thought we were all listing our powers and tricks, but here I go showing them off properly. My bad."

The mantis virtuose shrugs casually. "Although I'd say that it's a much better way to tell people what you can do than just boasting about it, wouldn't you agree? In fact, let me show a few more tricks that I picked up over the years." A red shield begins to shimmer around her, which Lady Aigumo recognised as a fire shield that would burn attackers. One that would unfortunately fry any small spiders trying to attack her before they could as much as get close enough. Troublesome.

"And no running. We would hate the thought that our dear prodegy would show of her abilities without an attentive audience." An elite warrior wasp says, hovering above the clearing in full view despite going unnoticed just seconds before. The 'regular' elite wasps weren't flying. They were entering the clearing from the shadows, some taking flight and immediately filling the air with buzzing where their leader seemed to float without making a sound while others prepared for battle without aerial combat. "Now do try to put up a good fight, it took us a lot of time and headaches to find you annoying spiders with your cowardly hiding tactics. I'd hate for us to slaughter you all without a challenge."

Lady Aigumo turns pale, not even calm enough to make some quip about the enemy deciding their strategy for them. Instead, her mouth deforms into a spider's and she quickly clicks her commands to the others. Fight, flee, whichever one is available to you! The small spiders stay and fight to the death, swarm them! "And you, Xyaban. Fight or call down that acid rain upon the ants! We'll try to cover you with the latter, but it will be everyone for themselves with the former!"

Author: Xyaban, Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2018 11:07 AM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

”I don't mind getting my hands dirty, but I am prefer to use magic as well in a fight. But the idea of getting my blade through one of them and watching the life flow from his eyes.” Xyaban couldn't stop a small giggle from escaping her, if only the spider knew the true unhinged nature of being she was currently with. If not for the war going on around them Xyaban would have been more apt to try and turn the tables on Estelle and try and seduce and use her, maybe for a little fun in the sheets to, most likely that idea in fact. But after that fun, well, it would depend on Estelle's reaction and actions in bed, if she was good Xy would probably leave her alive, maybe on the promise of another night. If not, well, Xy could get her joys from other means that wouldn't end well for Estelle that was for sure.

Xyaban smiled at Estelle's compliment of her child, oh, again, if the spider woman only knew. ”Thank you, he is very adorable, and he'll be handsome when he gets older, just like his father.” Xy was starting to believe the lies she was feeding to the captive Hacesh. She was making him believe that Kirin, a doll that Xyaban had created in a haze, was his son, as Xyaban believed that it was her real child. Xy, when she had started, of course knew that Hacesh wasn't the Kirin's father, she didn't who it was, but now she was believing her own lies, because she wanted to, because it made her feel better. Gave her that sense of family that, subconsciously, she had always wanted in her life.

They came to the spider camp and Xy watched as the small spiders gave her and Rupert a wide berth as they walked. Spiders didn't bother Xyaban, poisons and toxins had a harder time working on her and pain, well, pain was pleasure for her. Estelle started to explain her situation and show Xyaban the fomorians, which to Xy's eyes were very very ugly. She continued to listen as Estelle continued on, Xyaban idly walking around taking a good look at everything clearly unafraid of what was around her, Rupert close to her the whole time.

The dragoness thought for a moment after Estelle was finished speaking, knowing that the ants would find this place soon enough. Walking slowly closer to the pretty female Xyaban looked up and smiled, her razor sharp fangs on full show as the quills on the back of her head, the longest a foot long, came up from under her hair. ”I say, let's kill them all.” She giggled.

”I have a lot of magic that I can use. I have tried my own natural poison,” She raised her left hand and from under her wrist slipped out a short seven inch long needle like blade with a hole at the end. ”but they have a resistance to it that rivals my own. My blade can gut the more human like ones, but that's about it.” She retracted her needle blade and raised her right hand and from the top of her wrist snapped out a three foot blade and bone and scales, and was razor sharp. She pulled it back in and grinned. ”I can manipulate the shadows to create illusions and call up fiends for a time to help distract the ants, and I can create explosions. What I haven't tried yet is calling up acid rain, it might dissolve your webbing, it's rain after all, I can create the area it falls in but that's all I can do. Fire as you know, I can create, it seems rather effective against them.”

She thought for a few moments and looked around. ”Everything we do now depends on if you want to defend from this location, or, perhaps we can leave a… surprise for them here, and then we move on to another location to defend from. This is your camp, so the choice is yours, Estelle.” They didn't have a lot of time, so whatever she decided on they had to do quickly.

Author: Gumo no Aijin, Posted: Tue Oct 9, 2018 3:37 AM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

Lady Aigumo smiles kindly as the two follow her, and puts a bit of a flirtatious curl in the corner of her smile. That last comment could hint at interest, and Lady Aigumo always preferred a puppet or ally [which were synonyms of each other in the spider language] that she could charm and control.

"Yes, so far I have avoided their kind."

"A wise thing to do, they are quite numerous. So troublesome, lest you yourself have the numbers to counter theirs. Such irksome creatures, those ants." Lady Aigumo says, "And I agree about those damn mantises. It's not just their magic but also their magical protections that prove most troublesome. Very hard to separate from their group and entrance into a more quiet state of mind. I fear the beetles a lot less, though. The woods greatly hinder their movement and maneuvrability. It might not be very spider-like, but one can always just dig pitfalls and then web those over. For as unstoppable as the beetles are in any direction, their own mass greatly disadvantages them if they're trying to climb up and break through the webs with no momentum. We've just caught the one tank thus far, but I can assure you he's slowly starving as we speak. Without a hole though…"

Lady Aigumo places her wrist against her temple and pretends to faint and be in great distress for a moment. She then resumes her neutral polite stance and keeps walking.

As they walk further into the forest, Lady Aigumo smiles but wonders about the other thing that Xyaban said. Centuries of practice? One doesn't live that long without some skill and survival instincts that go beyond the barbarians ability to weather damage. This being might be more savvy and cunning than she looks, or even more powerful than she seems. Troublesome, perhaps. Especially considering that Lady Aigumo herself, as a sentient being at least, was barely over a year old.

"What is your name, stranger?" Xyaban asks.

"Have I not introduced myself properly yet? I apologise, it must've slipped my mind in the thick of battle. My name is…" Lady Aigumo muses, wondering what name she'd prefer to go by now. They were in the forest, her features were in the elven direction considering the kingdom and she didn't have to feign being defenceless. What name showed those features? "Estelle. Some call me Lady Estelle, but you need not concern yourself with such formalities. We are amongst friends here, are we not?"

"How brave you are! I can understand, considering your formidable strength. I myself couldn't possibly face these insects head-on when I'm not in an absolute position of advantage, I simply couldn't win. They're so powerful, after all. I too focus on killing as many as I can, but try to do so without losing as many as we take. Rather, I see the demise of these insects as a way to gain more power to use against them. Have our numbers grow to combat theirs."

Lady Aigumo gestures at a webbed up wasp drone with a single rat-sized spider crawling over it as a guard. She walks over to it and stabs into its wounds, causing newly born spiders to spawn from it like a black wave. The spiders run around panicking, but then retreat into their egg sack to continue devouring the wasp from the inside out to grow bigger. Around this time tomorrow, they'd be big enough to join her clutch and the battle efforts.

"But you're a mother? How nice for you, I'm sure your child is just the cutest and most lovely child in the world!" Lady Aigumo says. She remembers her 'child', the clutch of eggs she wrapped in a bundle and pretend was dead or suffocating. And then moan and plead like the mother who couldn't accept her child's demise. Once anyone would take a closer look, she'd throw the eggs into their face and attack while they were busy with the blinding goop of egg residu blinding them and the many small spiders crawling over their everything. The old 'get help!' trick invented by those two handsome Asgardian princes, slightly revised. "I'd love to see it sometimes. While I don't think a play date with my babies would be wise, I can always appreciate a good opportunity to dote over cute babies."

As they speak, Lady Aigumo guides them into the spider camp. With a few clicks in Arachne, the small spiders that black out the ground everywhere else give Xyaban and her dog a good comfortable berth. Outsiders usually didn't appreciate spiders crawling onto them, or knew that the spiders would dodge their feet in the nick of time when the bigger races walked anywhere. A few other, bigger, races look their way with interest, disinterest or hunger. Lady Aigumo clicks to immediately dissuade the last one.

"I cannot state enough how much we would appreciate it if you were to help us. You're absolutely right, we should face these foes directly. We simply don't have the force and power, though. If you, your dog and this other friend of yours could help our fomorians with that, it would be mighty appreciated. But no need to summon him now, lest his summoning takes time. The element of surprise is worth a lot, no?"

Lady Aigumo gestures at the fomorians, the deformed giants with anywhere between five and seven limbs in varying bulging deformed states. As deformed as these creatures mutilated, mutated and reformed by the Umbral depths were, their strength was undeniable. Incredibly strong and durable but simple and savage, dwarfing even ogres in all regards. They were the spiders' only real brute force of strength, and with the lack of drow and driders they didn't have much middleground soldiers to fall back on.

"These are our only real fighters. They're slow though, and not too familiar with formations. The small spiders around us can only really swarm up on a creature and web them up, and the larger spiders aren't meant for close combat for too long. Well-defended by our carapace as we are, these insects are bigger and simply out-defend our poison and attacks." Lady Aigumo says, gesturing to the spiders next. She then gestures to the canopy above them, where a few branches seem to glisten like steel. Upon further examination, there were spiders hidden above them with blade-like appendages at the ends of their legs. "Sword spiders, the only spiders that can really pierce through the insectoid carapace. They are a last line of surprise, to pounce upon the insects from above. And there are a few wraith spiders that do well against the non-magical insectoids, though none in this camp."

"But, as you can tell, too little direct fighters. The ettercaps are creatures of ambush, as are most other spider races. There are some chitins, but they are camped up elsewhere closer to their native caves. So no, unfortunately very few true fighters. We could really use your help in defeating these insects that are too numerous. As in, those ants that are moving in on our position, lest we need to quickly start retreating again." 'Estelle' says. "So, what do you say?"

Author: Xyaban, Posted: Mon Oct 8, 2018 2:43 PM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

The spider woman spoke, having taken a different form now than before, her tone friendly, and her looks, well, Xyaban wasn't going to complain. She liked females as much as males most days, and while she found humans boring, this one was clearly no human with an affinity for shifting to a spider, no, this one was a spider first, or some kind of anyway. She had a smile on her face as Xyaban spoke, introducing herself and Rupert in turn.

Xyaban listened to the woman's words, noting how the whole time she never introduced herself by any name. No, it was all smiles, apologies and niceties, which immediately tripped every warning sense that Xyaban had. No one was that nice, not in times of war anyway and she had seen her share at over three-hundred. She could believe that his woman was fighting against the insect, yes, but that was all Xyaban was thinking she could trust at the moment. Trust didn't come easy from one as psychotic as Xyaban was.

Xyaban returned a smile when the female hid her face behind her sleeve for a moment. ”This invasion does seem to be bringing enemies together, at least for now anyway. At the same time, I have seen some new alliances form from this, I tend to like that idea better, at least on a more personal level.” Xyaban grinned, wondering the same thing for this woman's sexuality that she did for Xyaban.

The female then asks for Xy to follow, saying she would show and Rupert the way through the forest and avoid the traps, unless this itself was a trap. Still, she was trying to kill the invading insects so Xy would give her the benefit of the doubt, for now. She mentioned more coming, Ants though and Xyaban nodded. ”Yes, so far I have avoided their kind.” She took off to follow the spider woman through the forest, giving an unspoken command to Rupert to watch her back. The hell hound familiar acknowledged the command hung back just behind Xyaban as they ran.

”I have encountered a couple of Mantises as well, their magic is strong and even with my centuries of practice I'll admit without shame that they are strong. As for the Beetles I have seen, their strength… your webbing may not be enough to hold, my dear, if you have not yet encountered them at this time.” She hadn't seen evidence of Beetles around here yet, but they would be soon enough, the heavy units of this invading army indeed.

”What is your name, stranger?” Xyaban asked finally, too curious not to ask. ”And, to your idea of not getting spotted, I can agree to that. However, I feel the need to kill as many as I can, I have a child, and do not want him to grow up with these insects ruling the lands, should they even let us live. That said, should we feel the need, I can summon another… friend, to help us, but I don't want to call him unless I have to.” Xyaban informed as they ran, Xy following the woman through the forest and past all of her past…projects that were hanging around. ”You have been busy I see.” Xy smiled.

Author: Gumo no Aijin, Posted: Wed Oct 3, 2018 4:47 PM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

Lady Aigumo winces when the sky blackens and the thunder pained her ears, and she quickly retreats from the clearing. The speared wasp was dying, at least she presumed that those wounds would be fatal, and the other one was out of her hands. Either the creature had it covered, or it would escape. She had nothing to say about either outcome.

Her pack spider was already waiting in the shadows, holding up her kimono. Lady Aigumo feels her carapace jerk and her features twist and deform in the by now familiar sensation of becoming humanoid, and she begins to put on the kimono while she transformed. By the time that her mandibles were retracting into her cheeks, she was tying her obijime to tighten her otaiko. Her hair was still a mess and needed to be tamed before she'd appear before anyone, but otherwise she was now presentable. Her pack spider already held out her hair pins to her.

While putting her hair in a bun, she looks over at the clearing and the creature that was still fighting there. Her human form eyes were a lot better at telling the humanoid races apart, ironically she saw a lot less about one's personality and species when gazing upon them with eight eyes. The creature was scaled, partly scaled with parts of smooth skin that was, and she had some strange quills growing all over her body. Not a regular human, nor a lizardfolk. Maybe some kind of cursed human?

Well, she was a woman, whatever she was. Now that Lady Aigumo had taken her more social form, she saw the breasts on the rampaging brute. Well-shaped, though smaller than hers. No competition. Too bad though. If she were a man, the long hair, slender muscular body and firm butt would've made for a wonderful male. Her face, very contradicting to the pure rage of her expression and the unlady-like behaviour, was cute and almost innocent in its features. Deceptive. And those vibrant green eyes…

For a moment Lady Aigumo wondered whether the cursed one might be lesbian, her seduction would have effect if she was, but then she dismisses the idea. Mutts tended to grow protective and oh so annoying when she charmed their owners. They must sense the unnatural element to their master's behaviour. Problematic, always so problematic. And this one would probably do more than just bark.

With her hair tidied up and her spider babies once again crawling underneath her kimono and out of sight, Lady Aigumo walks back into the clearing. She looks down at her poor stomped phase spider, and bends down over it. A few other spiders crawl out of her sleeve as she touches the dead one and they begin to eat it. Normally Lady Aigumo would leave it at that, but a phase spider's death always saddened her more than her other babies. Less than one in a hundred of them were born with the innate ability to jump between the planes, so they were even more precious. She'd grief more over this one dead one than the dozens of spiders that were mutilated by the wasp's electricity and would soon be devoured by her clutch to make place for new, healthy specimens.

She gets up again and turns to the cursed one. The woman was a savage, just as she thought. No one but the absolutely insane and brutal would try to choke something with a carapace, and no one else would've lived to tell the tale. But this woman apparently possessed rediculous strength, because she just crushed the natural armour and killed the wasp even faster by pushing the shards into its neck. Maybe even unintentional, depending on whether she was even aware of this feat. Impressive. Impressive, and perhaps troublesome. It all came down to how hostile this savage was.

If she wasn't, well, they could certainly use someone with such raw force at their disposal. The fomorians were their only strong creatures, the only ones meant for direct combat. And the ants march certainly showed that they were severely lacking in that regard. Which reminded her, the ants. She should hurry.

The woman got up once the wasp stopped squirming and looked down at it. With three of its limbs ripped off, a large burn mark where the lightning had struck it, the broken face and their whole head hanging to the side in an unnatural way after being 'strangled', the wasp looked more than dead. It looked positively mangled.

The woman turns to look at her. Lady Aigumo's face turns into a smiling mask, always the kind and polite lady.

"I take it you're a local and not an invader?" The woman asked, clearly still pumped on adrenaline and rage but surprisingly not… hmm…. not killing whatever she saw. Yes, let's go with that for now. "I'm Xyaban, this is Rupert, thanks for the help there, and, um, sorry I burned some of you webbing, I didn't know who it belonged to."

"Oh, don't worry your cute little head over it, my new friend." Lady Aigumo says with a big sincere-looking smile. "Those webs are a lot more expendable than your well-being, and replaced a lot faster too. I know we haven't known one another for long, but I simply cannot bear the thought that my traps would've caught a friendly force such as you and only aided our mutual enemies. How dreadful, I would've never forgiven myself."

Lady Aigumo hides her mouth behind her sleeve as she says this, to hide the more genuine vicious smile while pretending to merely show humility and shame.

''And burning the webs is not too much of a terrible idea, they do burn rather nasty after all. Not enough to burn through these damned bugs' carapaces, but enough to injure or even disable them if the silk were in the softer parts between their joints while it burns." She continues. Trust me, I've experimented that theory plenty. Though I cannot tell how much it disabled them, I never let them loose afterwards after all.

"Now, my dearest new friend and her… uhm… lovely, dog. Might I ask you to come with me real quick? These weren't the only insectoids in the area, and the others are much more numerous. And stronger too, those ants. If we hide quickly, they might not spot us. Come, I'll show you the way through our traps, so you won't get stuck again. Let the insects struggle and squirm like that, no?"

Lady Aigumo waves to the darkness of the forest, as if to invite Xyaban in.

Author: Xyaban, Posted: Wed Oct 3, 2018 2:55 PM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

Xyaban was in panic mode as the wasp closed in with his spears but just as he was about to strike Xyaban felt herself jolt upwards out of the way. Her stomach lurched, didn't help she was almost upside down, and things happened quickly after that.

Some spider thing jumped on the dagger wielding wasp, making him scream and then the spider scream, or screech in pain from the dagger digging into. A much larger spider dropped from the trees onto the back of the spear holder who had been able to kill Xyaban. But that didn't last too long as the wasp crackled with its own lightning magic and forced the big spider off of him, but he was still trapped for the moment by some silk.

Xyaban then felt something move across her skin and looked to see smaller spiders coming towards her. Shit shit shit! Xy thought they might try and eat her but instead the avoided her fire and started to work on cutting her free! Xyaban stopped her fire and looked to Rupert who was trying to snap at the spiders. ”Rupert, stop, they're setting us free!” She commanded and the hound stopped but he didn't look happy about it.. not that he ever looked happy anyway.

It took some doing but Xyaban finally dropped to the ground, free of the webbing thanks to the tiny spiders, well, tiny compared to the big mama one anyway. Rupert dropped free as well, in time to hear the big spider female yell and Xy looked up to see the wasp getting up into the air. With a roar of anger Xyaban brought up her magic and lashed out with lightning again, thunder rumbling as the bolt snapped out and caught the wasp in the air.

It had a spasm but having an affinity for lightning it didn't kill it, just made it drop towards the ground. ”Rupert, fetch!” Xyaban commanded and her hell hound familiar howled and took off, half climbing a tree and then pouncing from there to leap down onto the wasp who half in the air again, The two collided and went down in a heap and Rupert took that surprise to bite down and then tear off one of the wasp's arms.

Xyaban was running forward already and got there in time to grab another of wasp's arms and twist breaking it while Rupert tore off another arm. The wasp crackled with lighting but Xyaban kicked him in the side of the head stunning him long enough to snuff the spell. Xyaban called Rupert off, she wanted the kill and her poison green eyes showed how pissed she was.

With a howl of anger the dragoness grabbed the wasp by the back of the head with her left hand and hauled him up, showing a strength that didn't do her small size justice. Xy turned and slammed the wasp's face into a tree, three times as hard as she could, crunching of bone could be heard as she broke its nose and jaw. Its last arm came up and a long stinger snapped out from his wrist but Xy's right arm came up quickly and her own bone and scale blade snapped out and cut the wasp's arm off.

Throwing the wasp to the ground Xyaban dropped down and straddled it and leaned forward and used both hands to wrap around its throat. She squeezed and tightly, as much strength as she could, his legs starting to thrash but he was also losing a lot of blood from his severed arms. It didn't take long, and not as long Xyaban would have liked she wanted it suffer more, before the wasp was dead in her hands.

Breathing heavily the dragoness stood staring down at the wasp before looking up to find the spider woman and eyed her. ”I take it you're a local and not an invader?” She questioned as Rupert came back to her side and she petted his head. ”I'm Xyaban, this is Rupert, thanks for the help there, and, um, sorry I burned some of you webbing, I didn't know who it belonged to.” She explained but was on edge still, just in case this spider proved deceptive.

Author: Gumo no Aijin, Posted: Wed Oct 3, 2018 12:47 PM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

"Tsk…"

Lady Aigumo looks at the column of smoke in the distance with disgust and annoyance. Were those savage elves setting their own precious forest on fire now too? How troublesome, her spiders couldn't weave barely detectable traps in open areas. And the silvery white spider silk stood out amongst charred black trees like a sore thumb. Burned forest didn't aid their enviromental advantage at all.

Perhaps it were not the elves but the insects who were burning the forest? She had her doubts that those bugs cared for it, and they might have taken to burning clearings for their camps or even their pathways now that they were starting to become aware of her ambushes. More troublesome.

Lady Aigumo keeps crawling, quickly and silently. She wasn't bothering to keep up appearances or to navigate the forests in her kimono, instead she had transformed back into her native form of a large hump-back spider. She was crawling over the forest floor quickly, though one couldn't even tell that she was in a forest if it weren't for the trees and the canopy above her. The ground was black with swarms of spiders, all migrating away just like her.

Damn those ants, she thought. She could handle the wasps with their solidary ways that lend themselves so well for traps, but the ants. Those damned ants! The group that approached them before numbered nearly fifty of the damn things, and Lady Aigumo had called for retreat the moment that she learned of this. Her wisps and some volunteer ettercaps might lure the ants away from the dead and dying wasps that carrying her new generation of spider minions, but those damned ants wouldn't lose track of her troops as easily.

The column was troublesome. That it was directly ahead of them was even more troublesome. But it could be an opportunity. If it was another insect camp, they'd be crushed between two forces and wiped out. But if it were elves, it would be a good way to lose these ants chasing her. Burden some other race with fighting those nuisances.

Clicking appeared. An ettercap was listening to a message from up ahead, its claw touching the silken thread as the morse code-like message was passed on. [A bit like the principle of two cups on a string.] Lady Aigumo ran past the creature, who lets go of the silk a few seconds later and begins to run after her. His plump body clearly wasn't meant for the gymnastics and his long spider arms waved around like he was a madman, but he caught up with her and began to click the message.

Some creature that was neither an elf nor insect, and a fiend dog? How odd. They had apparently began to throw around fire once they got caught in one of her traps, trying to fend off the wasps. How troublesome.

Lady Aigumo sports the idea to leave the creature to die for a moment, but then decides against it. It was humanoid, apparently, and not some driven mad elf. If it were a male, she could spin him around her finger. If it was a she, she could send the creature to go die stalling the ants. Either was fine. She clicks a command and the spiders change their course. She'd handle this alone, considering they were facing something that was using fire balls and perhaps other area of effect spells. Not something that large swarms of small creatures fared well against.

As she crawls closer, she can hear the buzzing of those wasps and the creature roaring. Oh, it wasn't big but it sounded ferocious. Those brutes were usually easy to seduce and turned into mindless thralls. The wasps on the other hand, they too sounded strong. Not like the regular drones, that was for certain. The elites weren't as easily caught in her traps, considering those 'more intelligent' insects didn't rush into an area themselves. They sent their minions in their stead.

Well, at least they hadn't in this case. Lady Aigumo had been trapping the drones in the area one at a time, and the creature might've killed the elite's personal henchmen before retreating. Who knows? Whatever the case, there were only… two. Damn, she was hoping for just one, or one and a drone. Couldn't be helped.

Lady Aigumo traces the silk threads around the area and familiarises herself with the set-up here. Not too bad, though the fire that was raging did melt a bunch of the threads at one area. Troublesome, but fortunately not vital in this case. In her spider form, she nimbly crawls up the trees and closer to her enemies.

One of the wasps walks towards the creature and prepares its spears, readying two of them to thrust through the head and central mass of their prey. Lady Aigumo pulls a silk thread with her long spider arms as this happens, causing the creature to be pulled upwards with a jolt and dodging the killing blows. In the moment of surprise, lady Aigumo speaks the Arache word for blink and one of her babies immediately heeds her command.

The dagger-wielding wasp shouts in surprise as the phase spider appears on its face and bites down into its eye. Her baby screams as it immediately rises one of its daggers up and severs one of her legs, but the wasp also screams as this reflex resulted in them plunging the dagger into their own face. They might've forgotten that they were holding it in the heat of the moment.

With the distraction of the jumping creature followed by his comrad being attacked behind him, Lady Aigumo jumps out of the trees and pounces the spear-wielding wasp. The long-range spears wouldn't be of much use in a close-combat battle, even if she would give it the chance to struggle. But with her jumping onto his back followed by her spiders quickly crawling out to web his mandibles, claws and joints, he was already done for. One against one with the element of surprise, even these elites were no match for-

Lady Aigumo screams in anger as the wasp suddenly crackles with lightning. Almost like an eel's natural defense, it sparkles and harms all those who touched it. Her spiders scream and quickly jump off, some with smoldering feet or stingers. Her poor babies…

Angered even further, she grabs one of the spears and starts stabbing into the wasp. He shrieked, panicking as he found the silk to be too conductive to be burned away and thus still keeping him contained. Though barely. The few strings that were keeping him to the ground were already stretching.

Loose!

Several of her babies immediately obey as she shouts the command, and begin to crawl up the creature to cut it loose. One of her jumping spiders jumps onto the creature's handsome face and crawls up quickly to start cutting loose the bindings around his arms. His? Her? Lady Aigumo couldn't quite tell with the brief glance that she could spare. It didn't matter, she had to focus on the threat right now. There was no telling how much time they had before the other wasp would join the fray, less than two seconds perhaps, and Lady Aigumo never fared well in a fair fight. And this damned wasp. just. wouldn't. die!

The wasp keeps trashing about and crackling with lightning as she keeps stabbing into it. It was a good thing that their spears were made out of chitin and wood, neither of which conducted his defense to harm her.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the wasp with one eye swolled and bleeding. He threw her dear phase spider baby onto the ground and stomped it to finish it off, and then his carapace too crackled with electricity to throw off the other spiders that were swarming him. He spreads his wings and prepares to fly off. Troublesome, he'd bring a lot more of his kind and would know that she was here.

But what could she do? She had very little in terms of instantaneous combat-spells, and they would all be considered child's play to this creature.

"Attack! Just attack, and bind its wings! Don't let it get away!" She clicks in Arachne. Her spiders immediately swarm at the wasp, but it was unlikely that they'd manage to do anything. It was already gaining too much altitude.

Author: Xyaban, Posted: Wed Oct 3, 2018 9:43 AM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

Xyaban kept running, she was being chased but she was small and able to dodge around the trees easily enough and the fact that she kept teleporting random directions and distances meant that she was able to throw her pursuers off that much more. But they were flying while she was running so they had a huge advantage over her. She could buzzing wings and for the first time in a long long time Xyaban was scared.

A crank of a tree branch made the dragoness look back to see a shadow in the trees above her. Growling she charged up some magic and threw her arm back and a bolt of lightning shot out followed by the report of thunder. The area was lit up for an instant, enough time for Xyaban to see better what was chasing her, and for her to see it spasm in the air and drop the ground with smoke smouldering off of it.

But she didn't take any more time than she needed and kept running, there was still more buzzing in the air behind her. This invasion, Xy had first had thought it would be just a fun time to go out and kill things and not get in trouble from the goody goodies out there for it, because she was killing invaders. But that had changed, the insect things were strong and some of them she had managed to inject with her venom had resisted it! Sure it had make them woozy and sick for a time but they hadn't died from it, they had recovered instead.

A gesture of her hand and Xyaban's familiar appeared beside her keeping pace with her running. The beast was as tall as she was at its shoulders, five feet tall and ten long(not including six foot tail), it was a evil looking hell hound. Black and dark blue hide with glowing white dead eyes, its paws ended in long razor sharp claws and a long whip like tail snapped around behind it. And his name was Rupert! Or at least that's what called the otherwise hateful hound, at least it listened to her, mostly.

As the two kept running, Xyaban deciding on where to turn and make a stand, or find a place to take the few moments it would take to open a gate and get back home. Hacesh was there, and she could use him now, but she wasn't sure if he was ready to come out of the cave and fight just yet. Bringing in her mate would be a last resort, for now she was content with the bigger dragon staying back guarding their cave and their child.

It wasn't too long until Xyaban ran into something that was hung between the trees she hadn't seen until last minute. She flailed, thinking it was vines, but that only made it worse and it was sticky, even Rupert was caught up in them. Xyaban roared, one that made her sound larger than her small frame would make one assume, and then realized what it was; spider silk! Did that mean the invaders had spiders on their side as well?!

Panicking for a moment the dragoness brought up her magic and kicked off a fire ball around, trying to burn her and Rupert's way out of the sticky trap. She needed to get out of this before the owner of he web showed up! But the buzzing behind her stopped as she turned to see two tall standing elite wasps land a few hundred feet away, one had four spears the other had four daggers, both, she knew already, had lightning magic like she did. One of them was the one she had struck before, shit those things were tough! They started stalking towards her as Xyaban struggled some more increasing her fire to burn the webbing away but it was damp and wasn't burning as fast as she wanted it to.

Author: Gumo no Aijin, Posted: Tue Oct 2, 2018 9:47 AM, Post Subject: [EVENT][P]Poison and Venom don't mix

"Little bug, little bug. You really think that the likes of you poses a threat to me? Know your place." Lady Aigumo says with a big warm smile, but with complete and utter disgust for the wasp behind her mask. The very idea of insects attacking and killing spiders was blasphemous.

The drone tried to swipe at her, but it was completely futile. Being wrapped up in spider webs, the creature was unable to fly or move around. The silk was wrapped around its limbs in such a way that it could move around but not actually cut itself loose. These critters were incredibly strong, but not even they could tear apart the spider webs when these were stuck between their joints and wrapped around the tips of their claws. The latter prevented movement wholly while the former prevented the great strength from pulling the bindings loose. Similarly the wasp's arms were wrapped in a way that prevented them from using their strength to pull loose, instead of just relying on the strength of the silk as spiders usually did.

Lady Aigumo takes out one of her spider babies and places it on the struggling wasp. The rat-sized spider quickly crawls over it and finds a weakness in the carapace. Its stinger needs a few bashes before it pierces through, but then bites into the flesh underneath. After planting its eggs, the spider quickly returns to underneath Lady Aigumo's gown.

"Good. A few days and you'll be supplying us with more soldiers to use against your kind. Be glad, it will be the most useful and worthy thing that you'll accomplish with your worthless life." Lady Aigumo says with her empty smile.

She turns away and looks at the other wasps they caught. About a dozen or so over the last two days? With the right bait and traps, these drones were easy to catch with little risk. They didn't particularly concern themselves with the spiders smaller than cats, even though they should. And fortunately, the spiders had the right bait too.

"Oh, silly you. What are you doing there, you're not a bug."

The elf mumbles something through the wrappings around his mouth, something that was probably neither flattering nor eloquent. Already being driven mad, these elves were surprisingly resistant to the effects of being hung upside down for prolonged times.

"Hmmmm… Maybe you want me to eat you. I can't quite hear you, is that what you're saying? You do taste a lot better than these insects, you elves are a real delicacy." Lady Aigumo says to the elf, who's only getting angrier instead of more scared. "No, I shouldn't. We're fighting the same enemy, and we've got plenty of sustenance right now. I'll let you be dragged back to your camp, like the rest."

Lady Aigumo's mouth morphs into a spider's one and she clicks in the spider language. A formorian nearby protests, saying that they shouldn't work with these elves, and Lady Aigumo snaps at him to not argue with her on this every single time. If the entire pantheon of the gods were fighting these insects and infighting was not allowed, then even they should keep their eternal war with the fey on hold for a while. Let their war with the insects take priority, there were no drow amongst them anyhow.

The formorian bitterly accepts the command and cuts the elf loose. Dragging the still cocooned elf behind them unceremoniously and without any regard to how the elf would be thoroughly tenderised by the time they'd arrive back at the elven camp, the formorian walks away. The elf struggles to scream at Lady Aigumo as this happens, screaming curses and calling her a drow as the least of them.

Lady Aigumo just rolls her eyes. These elves, driven completely mad after the stunt that Dalanesca and Xunatar pulled, were savages who attacked anyone who wasn't an elf. Especially drow and other spider-related creatures like her. The tribes were still fighting here in the north-east of the island, but they were dropping like flies in comparison to the well-organised army to the south. Well, their extinction would probably be for the best. And they'd kept somewhat of a good control over the woodland regions, fighting tooth and nail against the invading bugs from the west.

"Don't worry. They're suffering a lot more casualties than you, spiderling. Be patient and don't attack your allies." Lady Aigumo says to another fomorian, another remnant of a long-since passed drow invasion that remained as a survivor-predator of the woods. "Once this war is over, you can take the opportunity to erase them and conquer this region for the spider queen."

A crash suddenly breaks the silence as something bashes through the canopy and dive-bombs their cursing captive elf. Presumably attracted to the sound, a wasp drone had attacked. The foolish insect was already struggling to break free from the binds that had caught it the moment it breached through the forest roof, but the many spiders crawling over it would wrap it in tight long before it would cut loose those first few webs. Many bites of paralysing poison bit the wasp wherever the stingers could pierce through, some spiders even crawling into the creature's mouth to bite in there, and the wasp quickly stops thrashing.

More movement from further into the forest in a response to the noise. Spider webs are pulled by their scouts up ahead, quickly informing her what was approaching. Lady Aigumo sneers, ants. There was a reason that most spiders didn't concern themselves with those insects, they were annoying. And at this size, the disproportionally powerful ants were strong enough to break out of most bindings where other insects could still be contained. And they were never alone, which wasn't in the spider's favour.

Lady Aigumo quickly takes out her bottle of Shiranui and her Biwa lute. The bottled wisps quickly fly out, guided by her song. The song itself played a tune of mind rot to dull the ants' awareness of their surroundings, and she'd increase the strength to a curse of Sloth if need be. She'd make them less cautious and lure the ants into a known path to a still unsprung trap. Her spiders would take it from there. She hoped.

As long as nothing went wrong and no sudden factor or chaos would randomly appear, things should be fine…