open The Era of Eon Epoch of Futures' Past

[Praetorian 4896]

With each step Ashton drifts further into a fog of scattered iridescent light. The chill of the moist night air leaves his damp skin riddled with bumps as he fights the urge to shiver. Although lost in every conceivable way, he feels an odd sort of contentment about the situation. In fact, if asked, he might even say that he could die happily here.

Swirls of faintly glowing mist, imbued with defused greens, blues, and reds, dance around his limbs as he negotiates the streets and sidewalk. Although, at a glance, it might appear that he is moving with purpose, it isn’t truth. Rather, the redhead’s path is aimless, his destination unknown, and his true purpose is lost to all, to include himself.

And although this city is very much alive, even at the peak of night, and the streets and walkways are so laden with people and vehicles that there is scarcely an inch to spare, Ashton has never felt more at peace. The organized chaos is calm, the city and its people are a well oiled and efficient machine, and although he doesn’t belong to their system, his presence doesn’t disrupt it.

Midway through an intersection, Ashton disappears from the crowd. A second later he’s at the top of a two-floor diner just beneath a holographic neon sign. Vermillion irides gleam against the aphotic sky, like two molten orbs superimposed against an oil bath, as he watches the rhythmic flashes an airship’s lights lazily pass overhead.  

 

Just looking to throw some firsts. Doesn't matter who, or how many. Ideally I'd prefer a quick turnaround on responses tho!

[Generic Perfection 137]

Her left hand firmly grasps the building’s spire as she leans over the edge of the tower to gaze upon the world below. Some 1,800 feet up, everything below looks miniaturized. Yet, from her perch, she can still make out her target.

Reaching behind her with her right hand, gloved digits run along the metal causing it to bend and tear. Moments later not one but two bronze spears hover at her side. Bracing her left boot against what remains of the spire, she pushes off.

Free falling through the air, crimson tendrils of hair wildly whip about, lashing out at any and everything. There is a distinct flutter of her clothing as the wind rips through it. Of course, she can’t actually hear any of the sharp cracks due to the rush of air across her face and ears dulling out everything with its own ferocious roar.

With both arms seemingly pinned behind her -- thanks to the air pressure -- Trilith nonetheless is able to bring her right arm forward. And with this motion, the two spears that follow in her wake launch forward toward Ashton.

Although she isn’t aware of the sound, the two spears make a distinct whistle, one loud enough to be heard over the bustle below, announcing their trajectory toward the man.

[Praetorian 4896]

With his gaze already turned skyward, Ashton sees the incoming rockets long before he hears them. Well, more specifically, he caught a glimpse of something breaking free of the skyscraper and then falling toward him. It actually took him a moment longer than he would have liked to realize that it was a person. Longer yet before he realized their trajectory is the diner. It is while this person turned meteor holds his full attention and curiosity that he witnesses two smaller objects break away from them and begin their own descent toward his location.

“Hmm, nope. Don’t want.” The comment is made as he takes two steps backward before discarding any semblance of caution and blindly leaping backward. An unusually long hang time affords him enough distance to glide over the edge of the building, before his horizontal momentum runs out and he plummets toward the alleyway below.

Before he can land, streaks of blue and red light swirl from his extended arm as the first half of a gated pair activates. His hand vanishes into a newly formed abyss encapsulated by a warped reflection of the world around it. As he falls from the opening, his arm withdrawing in the process, and lands in a puddle, the full length of a magi-tech blade is revealed. The pale whitish silver and dark reds of the sword glimmer beneath the sparse light of the damp side street.

Bracing his back against the wall, with sword pointing toward the ledge of the diner, Ashton waits for Trilith to peek over the threshold.

[Generic Perfection 137]

The two spears strike the rooftop --where Ashton had been moments before-- with Trilith landing seconds afterward. With knees tucked into her chest, she hits one end of the rooftop and starts to roll toward the other end . The flat top deforms on impact, bulging inward as the force of her descent dissipates throughout the entirety of the structure, sending ripples through the earthen construction materials. Fluidly transitioning from a roll to a stand, she darts toward the other edge while passing between the two embedded spears. The spears, in response, rip from the roof and follow in pursuit of her.

Before she reaches the edge she jumps into the air, clears the ledge, and then throws her body into a dive. As soon as she acquires Ashton again the two spears shoot from behind her to intercept him. In the same moment she brandishes her own blade and brings its tip to align with the man’s throat.

[Praetorian 4896]

As Trilith bounds over the rooftop to divebomb him, Ashton bounces from the ground to the wall of the adjacent building. A series of kicks in rapid succession sees him pushing off and up, from one wall to the next, as he fights gravity to ascend toward her. Each strike of his foot propels him higher and faster than the last; and the combination of exponential speed increases and rapid direction changes allows him to effortlessly bypass the plummeting spears… even if they were to try to change direction to home in on him.

With the distance between the two quickly dwindling, Ashton uppercuts his sword through the air. The blade, perpendicular to him, ascends toward Trilith’s left shoulder so that it may hit her with the edge along the midblade. “No means no, damnit!” The quip is made with the expectation that she’ll use her own sword to parry his, affording him a moment of reprieve.

[Generic Perfection 137]

Expectations are meant to be subverted. Whatever expectation Ashton had, that she would humor his sword strike with a defensive maneuver, were about to be shattered. Rather than trying to intercept his attack, Trilith leverages the largest advantage that she has in the moment – her reach. Thrusting her arm -- and by extension her sword – forward, brings the tip of her sword piercing through the air, past his perpendicular blade, past his arm, and straight into his neck.

The sword would effortless rend his flesh and spinal cord, their colliding bodies would end his ascent, and gravity would bring them both crashing to the ground. Trilith naturally has every intention of riding his freshly dead corpse to the ground.

[Praetorian 4896]

Speaking of subverting expectations… Ashton’s body momentarily loses opacity as it becomes translucent and he enters into his phase state. This moment, one without any air resistance or friction to speak of, causes him to near instantly accelerate up and to the side. Although still traveling his initial flightpath, albeit faster, Ashton avoids the thrust with a large margin of error.

His new position, off to the side of and slightly above Trilith, affords him a new advantage. As the phase ends, and he regains his opacity, Ashton rotates his body so that he is looking down at both Trilith and the ground. This same rotation sees his left hand joining his right on the hilt of the sword, as he baseball swings the mid blade into her back. Transferring his rotational momentum into her sends Trilith careening downward.

Breaking his left hand from the hilt, shimmering glyphs form at his fingertips. In the same motion he thrusts his arm after her, while bringing his fingers together to a point. The newly joined runes flash as the centralized aperture aligns with Trilith’s back. From this focal point a beam of searing white light erupts, causing the dimly lit side street to become momentarily bathed in a corona of light. Although the lance has a duration of only a few seconds, it is more than enough time for it to chase the woman down and pierce through her back before she hits the ground.

[Generic Perfection 137]

As Ashton moved to the side and up, Trilith rotated with him, keeping him in sight. While she can't swing her own sword around fast enough to block his blow, she is able to position her free arm in front of her, so that the bulk of the downward swing is absorbed by her forearm. The impact launches her to the ground, nonetheless. However, she is now able to witness the charging and firing of the preternatural beam. Bringing the Wyld Bane sword, so that its Suujali carapace laced edge bisects the beam, she rends the beam into and diffuses it to either side of her. An instance later, and she hits the ground. Or rather, the ground absorbs her.

As her back comes in contact with the ground, the ground caves in, swallowing her whole. The leading edge directly behind her dips into a slope allowing her to roll backwards, up it. In one full rotation she clears the opening, in a second she rolls to her feet and stands up. As soon as she ceases moving the ground bounds back into place, snaps up, and explodes upward as a shotgun blast of dirt and pebbles, peppering the buildings -- and presumably Ashton-- with golf ball sized slabs of concrete and stone. A steady cloud of pulverized rock billows out filling the alleyway with a dark brown haze that wafts up well past the height of either building.

Edited June 12, 2019 by Generic Perfection