BZPRPG: Onu-Wahi

IC: XylakXylak noticed movement in the corner of his eye. "There's really no need, I may have to leave for a short while anyway."Xylak gave a small bow, and walked away from the group. "Enjoy your trail mix, Thedar!"As soon as he was out of the group's sight and hearing, he was approached by a Toa. "The power lies within the--""Shut up already and give me it." Xylak sighed. The Toa seemed slightly surprised."But... I can't. There were some... difficulties... in recovering it.""Then tell me what I need to know." The Toa whispered something to Xylak. "I see... You can leave now."The Toa walked away, glancing carefully behind him. Xylak left shortly afterwards, but didn't follow the Toa. Instead, he was heading to the Kumu Islets.He had some business to attend to.OOC: Xylak Ansanarasar to Kumu Islets.IC: Incommodo"Does anyone know what just happened?"

IC: [Arkrak]"No."

IC: Incommodo"Alright then, just thought I'd check." Incommodo grinned.

OOC: Alrighty then, time for Hound & Co to (finally) move foward. ONWARDS!IC: Hound & Co, Catacombs The group continued into the darkness, trying their best to ignore the soul-chilling, unnatural shrieks in the distance both before them and behind them, shrieks that one could only hoped belonged to Rahi. Suddenly, a voice, soft and pleasing, immenated from the black, fathomless void of shadows ahead. "Ah, your valiant spirit and courageous hearts have brought you this far," The voice said, it's source stepping into the light. "But I can not help but wonder just how much further they will make it. It isn't far, but what will happen when you arrive?" Onyx's servant asked, the hunched Onu-Matoran's frame contrasting with his voice.

IC: [Arkrak]"Well then, I suppose we'll have to continue looking for Reich."

IC(Tajeh): "Mata Nui." Tajeh started loudly, "I just realized something. You're a prick."

IC: Hound & Co, Catacombs"You must be the Ko-Matoran." The Onu-Matoran said, turning to stare at Tajeh. "Quite a brave one. How would you like to be the reason of the Ga-Matoran's death? I kind send you her heart in a box if you like. Just so you'll have a reminder. Or how about her head? That would be lovely to display."

IC(Tajeh): "Only if I get your master's as well." Tajeh replied coldly, a strange tone for even this Ko-Matoran.

IC: Hound & Co, Catacombs"Tajeh." Kirian said softly, still invisible so that no one could see where he was, only guess from his voice. "If your tounge gets Gahuari killed, I will hold you personally responsible." He said coldly, Tajeh's voice sounding absolutely cheery in comparison to Kirian's. Tirus's hand tightened around his hammer as he glared at where the voice came from, not exactly apprecative of Kirian's bloodlust.Onyx's servant laughed jovially, clapping his hands in delight. "My master enjoys your entertainment! Though from the lack of response, I assume you'd like the head, not the heart, Ko-Matoran?" He asked, his eyes sparkling in happiness as he enjoyed the conversation.

IC(Tajeh): Tajeh was going to respond but only gave a weak, "Ahh..." Tajeh's brain worked quickly, processing what Kirian had just said. If Gahuari died, Kirian wouldn't be merciful. Tirus mentioned that he wasn't Gahuari's father, so who was? When they first found out Gahuari was missing, Kirian was the one who was nervous at first..... "Kraz...."

IC: Hound & Co, Catacombs"Tell your master this," Hound said, speaking for the first time. The gigantic Deniuan made Onyx's servant cringe slightly and even scuttle backwards. "We are equal opponents, as he and I know. We shall meet in his shadowy throne room as a battle of honor, something even he keeps a twisted remain of hidden in his mind. Rules shall be set, and most likely broken, there. We do not exist to serve, we exist to save, even if we die doing so. A dehabilitating wound on either of the hostages and Onyx will face a threat greater than he believed possible." The Matoran bowed awkwardly, and retreated into the shadows.

IC(Tajeh): "Good, um, uh, job."

IC: Hound & Co, Catacombs"I haven't done anything yet." Hound said, continuing walking. "I've only issued a challenge, I'm not sure he'll accept it."

OOC: ONWARD!IC: Gravity"Thank Mata Nui that's over," I said more to myself then anyone else in the area. My tone really didn't match my overall posture and mood, my hand was curled into a fist, and I felt ready to go one-on-one against a Muaka. I had no positive feelings for any of Onyx's little friends, and it took quite a lot of self-control not to make an instant Onu-Matoran black hole.

IC: Incommodo"Speaking of him, Chronn, do you have any leads?" Incommodo asked, turning to his employer.

IC-Raxa:"Let's move," Raxa said, lighting the way again. "If it isn't far, we might as well get there as fast as possible." That said, he moved on into the darkness, not caring if the others followed him or not.

IC: GravityI made to catch up with Raxa as said Toa of Crystal moved further into the darkness. Oh how symbolic that sounded. Besides, I thought it would be better to stay close to our only source of light at the moment.

IC: Hound & Co, Catacombs As the group raced through the shadowed tunnel, their poistion never seemed to change. The Onu-Matoran was no where to be seen, meaning there was undoubtedly a secondary way to travel the catacombs. Finally, the tunnel ended, merging into a large, circular room. As everyone paused to catch their breath and observe their surroundings, they found the room had a stone floor, a single lightstone on the ceiling, and no visible way out of it. With impressive speed and astonishing ease, a forearm burst out of the dirt wall, brown and tan in coloring, bulky and muscular, ending with a fist, with a Tekagi-Shuko climbing claws visible beneath the fingers. Before anyone could react, a Skakid burst from the wall, his eyes glowing with malice and primal fury. On the opposite side of the room, another Skakdi, completely black, and skinny in contrast to the brown one's bulkiness, burst from the wall in the same manner, a Kusarigama held expertly in his hands. OOC: Alrighty, a quick battle to get people warmed up for the final one. I'll be controling the Skakdi, unless someone else wants to.

OOC: Asian Weapons, Asian Weapons everywhere!IC(Tajeh): Tajeh half-whimpered, half-groaned as he lifted his shield up. This had to be the worse career move Tajeh had, and well, he had a few. Just doing my job....looking in dark tunnels for missing people.......fighting creepy monsters.....and various characters that could eat me for breakfast.....all in a day's work!

OOC: Well, the Samuari and Ninja seemed to create the most useful weapons, so I like using them. IC: Hound & Co, CatacombsThe Onu-Skakdi lunged foward, swing his Kama in a wide strike at Tirus while twirling the weight, waiting for a moment to attack. Tirus blocked the scythe's blade with the handle of his hammer, leaving him open to the weighted end of the chain, which slammed into his stomach with considerable force, enough so to force a grunt from the hardy Fe-Toa. This attack also left the Skakdi open to nearby Tajeh.

OOC: Well, ancient melee weapons. And jus cuz.IC(Tajeh): Tajeh gave a, "Hi-ya!" as he swung his sword, blade side, towards the Skakdi that was currently attacking Tirus. It was a sluggish swing, but it should do the job.

OOC: :3IC: GravityI dropped into a relaxed fighting stance as soon as the Skakdi came into view: feet apart, knees bent slightly, and sword held up. My main goal now was to conserve energy, that meant no gravity-enhanced punches and stuff. Seeing as Tirus and Tajeh had one ugly busy, I took it upone myself to take care of the other one.With a smooth shuffle foward, I came within striking distance of the second Skakdi, only to bounce back before an attack could be made against me. I lept towards and to the right the Skakdi again, bringing my sword up in a low-to-high diangle slash.

IC: Hound & Co, CatacombsThe Skakdi smoothly moved foward as soon as Gravity lept back, leaning foward slightly on one knee after a few ground-eating steps. When Gravity lept, the Skakdi lashed out with his hand, grabbing the sword blade and keeping it in the middle of the swing, following by releasing a blast of impact vision aimed directly at Gravity. Even as the Skakdi's eyes glowed, a blast of ice sent him sprawling backwards, keeping him from maintaining the attack for more than a few moments. Kirian, already having another arrow notched, calmly surveyed Gravity and the recovering Skakdi.The other Skakdi let out a howl of pain as Tajeh's blade meet his skin, making a inch-deep cut before the Skakdi awkward leaped back, cursing. Swinging the chain once more, he sent it towards Tajeh's sword, hoping to ensnare it as he waited to strike at whoever approached him. Tirus, taking that role, shot foward, Swinging his hammer with all his might.

IC-Raxa:Raxa, instead of firing his crossbow, merely made a dart in his hand, made in a slightly odd way-in the back, with everything that the dart would normally have, four hooks came up, from four different directions-the dart itself had a very sharp, hard tip. Aiming near the Skakdi with the chain, he threw the dart.And it flew as true as he could have hoped. It hooked into the second-from-last length of chain, two of the hooks on the back going over and under that length, the other two hooking into the lengths to the right and left of the hooked length. The force that Raxa had used when throwing the dart, Pakari-enhanced, arrested the chains forward momentum, instead forcing it backwards, out of the Skakdi's grip, before the dart punched far into the cave wall behind, immobilizing the chain completely.After that, Raxa loaded up one of his normal bolts, turned, and fired at the thinner Skakdi, all in one smooth, fast motion.

IC: GravityI jumped even as the Skakdi released the impact vision, using his grip on my sword as a pivot point to leap over the blast. I didn't igive him a chance to recover from Kirian's elemental arrow, slashing him with my sword again as soon as I landed.

IC: Hound & Co, CatacombsA single tap on Raxa's shoulder alerted him that Hound had something to show. Nodding his head at the way they had came from, Hound brought his attention to two dark figures, seemingly Toa, running to attack. Hound's hands were around his spear, holding it in a position optimal for stabbing and piercing as he charged foward.The dart slammed the chain into the wall, forcing the Skakdi to focus, using his Earth powers granted by the presence of another Skakdi to cause the dart to be 'pushed' out of the dirt wall. Then the dart slammed into him, between his left shoulder and neck. Never pausing, he ripped the dart out, gritting his teeth as he did so, causing a small spurt of blood. As soon as he had done this, he twirled around to face Tirus, whose footsteps had revealed his coming. Sparks flew as the Skakdi's Kama met the area of the hammer's hilt directly against the head, putting them in a momentary deadlock. Gravity's sword was blasted back by another burst of impact vision, followed by another burst at Gravity's torso. As the Skakdi did this, he lifted his arms slowly, causing a pillar of stone to shoot from the ground, blocking Kirian's next arrow. The Toa of Ice turned invisible and circled around, looking for an opening. IC: Onyx's Throne Room, CatacombsOnyx sat quietly on his throne, leaning slightly foward, his fingers steepled before the mouth of his face-covering diamond mask. His servant was informing of him of his encounter with Hound and his group, how close they were, what the said, how the acted, their visible level of anxiety, ecetera. So far, nothing had been said by the Toa of Crystal, remaining terrifyingly silent.Raveian, Halion, and Luncora stood by the throne room's magnificent black stone doors, unsure of what to think of Onyx's silence. Sinina stood between Hajia and Gahuari, who were still bound to crystal chairs, Hajia had her mask ripped off, and Gahuari severely beaten to the edge of unconsiousness, her skin covered with purple bruises that, oddly enough, did not mask her childish, innocent beauty. Sinina twirled Hajia's mask on a finger, watching Onyx's three other main servants with silent scorn and mocking. "Hound hasn't changed." Onyx said abruptly, making the Onu-Matoran start in surprise. "He wants a fight, a honorable stand-off." Onyx paused, scratching a gauntleted finger against his arm rest. "Perhaps he shall get one."

IC: The blast of impact vision blew me back and spun me around. I hardly noticed as I advanced on the Skakdi again once I had regained my balance. Thank Mata Mui for the fact that this Skakdi wasn't too big on brains: the stone pillar might have bee an effective shield, but it worked both ways, preventing him from attacking me while I was stunned. A concentrated blast of gravity shattered the pillar, with a bit of help from a swing from my sword. I attacked once again, but this time just trying to keep the Skakdi off balance enough for Kirian to land a good hit

IC(Tajeh): "Ah, bloody-" Tajeh swore as he dove into the ground, moving out of the chaos. He spun and swung towards the Skakdi again, this time a little more stronger.

IC: Hound & Co, CatacombsThe stone pillar's shattering had alerted the Skakdi of Gravity's advance, and hand responded by causing several thin, extremely sharp stone spikes to surge out of the ground, which would fatally skew the Toa of Gravity unless he did something extreme, as soon as possible. Even as the Skakdi did this, an arrow, moving so fast it was as invisible as it's user, slammed into the side of the Skakdi's head, causing him to topple side ways, unconscious.The other Skakdi slid to the ground, disconnecting his Kama, allowing Tirus's hammer to swing over his head as he blocked Tajeh's blade with his own, twisting the scythe to try to rip the sword out of the matoran's grip. Simutaneously, he sent the weighted part of his chain flying at Tajeh's legs.

IC(Tajeh): Tajeh felt his sword be ripped out of his hands. He then felt his legs being swiped out from underneath him. With a grunt, Tajeh hit the stone floor hard.

IC: Gravity"Freakin'..." I trailed off as the spikes came shooting out of the ground. I most certainly could die at that very moment, impaled on a bunch of spikes deep underground. What a way to go. I felt strangely calm as the stone spikes came up, seemingly in slow motion. Suddenly, I felt my mask activate, and my form began to change. There I was, a giant long-legged spider like rahi standing ontop of the stone spikes. Thank Mata Nui for this mask.

IC-Raxa:Raxa nodded, jumping down and over with his knives held in hand, ready to stab and slash at the Toa, one of whom had come close to him.However, in the darkness, he would have a hard time seeing Raxa-Raxa, who had jumped up to the low ceiling before the Toa had reached him, and was now ready to drop down for the kill.

IC: [uyism]"We have arrived."

IC: Hound & Co, CatacombsThe being Raxa intended to kill, a Ba-Toa with an Anthron, grinned beastally, revealing teeth that had been carved to points, an a mangled tounge somewhat resembling a serpent's, somewhat resembling something you'd find on a Muaka's claws. His Kanohi had preventing him as being as oblivious as Raxa would have liked, and much to the Toa of Crystal's surprise, he would find him self 'falling' back the way he came, toward the cicurlar chamber, unless he managed to get firm footing and hand holds with his Kanohi.The other Toa, a Ta-Toa with a Miru, was less succesfully, finding himself being grabbed by Hound and slammed repeatedly into the wall before he could even think of an attack, shattering a few dozen assorted bones, cheif among them ribs and the ones in his limbs.Kirian, materializing momentarily, spoke. "Finish him." He said, as emotionless as normal, at Gravity before dissapearing to help Tirus. However, the Fe-Toa didn't need any help. As Tajeh slammed into the stone floor, so did the Skakdi, a look of surprise frozen on in his features. His spine had been snapped by Tirus's warhammer, and as the Fe-Toa helped Tajeh up, the matoran would have an unpleasantly close look at the shards of bone sticking through flesh, the tell-tale red blossom of blood seeping out of the wound.

IC: GravityI nodded to Kirian... However a giant spider could nod.... and climbed down from the spikes. I deactivated my Mahiki, and shapeshifted from the spider back into a Toa. I glanced at the unconcious Skakdi before me, and something in my stomach turned as I thought about killing him now...I could kill in battle, no problem... But this seemed different. I thought of Hajia, and then everything intelligent vanished from me. With a snap of my fingers, the Skakdi floated up, before dropping down from the increased gravity......Right onto his own spikes.I turned away, and looked over to where Raxa seemed to be falling down towards us. Not good. A bit more of my power and I altered the Toa of Crystal's gravity back to normal.

IC-Raxa:Raxa had managed to dig in his feet, bracing himself against the stone, when Gravity decided to help him. Smiling, he activated his Pakari, lunging forward with the same speed and precision as his crossbow, one of his knives stabbing for the Toa's abdomen, the other searching for his throat.

IC: Hound & Co, CatacombsKirian glanced at Gravity's handiwork before glancing at the Ba-Toa himself. "A rather surprsing amount of corpse remaining for the enemy of a man whose love is taken." He said cryptically, and then vanished, keeping true to his anti-social nature.Raxa's blades reached terrifyingly close, the Ba-Toa only managing to make himself 'fly' backwards miliseconds before he met an excruciating death. While that possible fate was avoided, he met his death exactly 2.35 seconds later, as a black fist burst through his back and out his chest in a disturbing burst of blood, the fist's strength and speed and the Toa's momentum combined fatally. Hound, with no sign of emotion or care, ripped the Toa's body off of his now-crimson fist. OOC: A certain Denuian is growing rather angry.

OOC: And a certain Toa of Gravity is getting more... "irritated" by the minute. IC: Gravity"Nice," I commented coldly. Karz, I was turning into Kirian. I suppressed a shutter from that thought. Lately, I found myself focusing on random, and sometimes irrelevent things. Least I start thinking of Hajia and cause this whole place collaps.Not my idea of a "rescue".

IC(Tajeh): "I'm not.....exactly...." and he threw up onto the floor. He hacked and coughed for a few seconds before recovering. He turned his head from the grisly corpse, and with a shaky hand, picked up his sword off the stone floor.

IC-Raxa:Raxa looked about the group of beings who were lying on the ground, the two skakdi, and the two Toa, and frowned. No sane man would send this many people to die for amusement-no insane man would, either. Onyx was an enigma. So confident that he would win, killing them all by himself, and yet he would send as many people off to fight them as possible before he had to, himself.Raxa shook his head, before kneeling over the bodies in turn, uttering a short prayer and and erecting small crystal tombs about them, little more than glass grown over their bodies.He stood up over the last, glaring down, before the crystal would collapse inwards upon the bodies, crushing them into an unrecognizable bloody mass, all the easier for the various Rahi in these caves to tear apart and eat."Keep moving," he growled. "We've come too far. We can't stop now."