<Cerin> From his perch atop the lampshade away from the fight, Cerin blazes once more with solar fire, images of gods and demons he has killed appearing from the shadows surrounding him. He draws back him bow, a single, bright burning mote strung across it. This he lets fly, the world slowing to a crawl as the flare streaks accross it, multiplying as it goes ... then slamming into the bull gods side in a flurry.

Ahlat wields his mighty spear and shield in an elaborate dance, deflecting away many of the bolts while stepping aside from others. Six bolts slip past his defenses, filling the room with the smell of burnt cow flesh and Ahlat's pained snarl.

<FitToZeeTied?> "Beware, Cerin my darling, I like my steak rare." Zahara grins

Clearly enraged by his injuries, Ahlat turns with increasing fierceness to the Solars nearest to him. His movements blurred and accelerated by brilliant Essence, Ahlat strikes out wildly with his spear, tossing it freely between his hands to let him more easily reach all his targets.

  • Fit To Zee Tied? follows her jibe by further infuriating the God, casually deflecting even the strongest of his blows with the silver tines that have so frustrated him already.
  • Birds smiles and dodges very, very fast.
  • Fit To Zee Tied? meanwhile directs her floating swords to defend Marku, since he looks terrible when chopped to pieces. She knows this well, as she has often envisioned doing so herself. Still, his help will be needed in the coming war.

Ahlat and Markuran find themselves engaged in a rapid-fire exchange of blows, each quickly countering the other's, leaving neither harmed.

Cerin notices something, out of the corner of his eye.

  • Cerin glances at it as he watches the dance of blows around Ahlat
  • Fit To Zee Tied? follows Marku's retaliation with an onslaught of her own: She twists about and kicks hard, using a spoon to launch a flurry of silverware and plates in Ahlat's direction, featuring a fine collection of steak knives, silver forks, and an exquisitely detailed plate that may have dated back to the First Age. While the collection of sharp objects is flying towards his face, she lashes out with a high-heeled snap-kick stra

<Cerin> a high-heeled snap-kick stra

<FitToZeeTied?> she lashes out with a high-heeled snap-kick straight in the cajones.

<FitToZeeTied?> Amongst the candles in the chandelier, the Bell adds a second punch to the family jewels of all the well-hung beasts

As Ahlat and the aurochs writhe under the assault of Zahara's bell, everyone else gets a good look at what Cerin noticed moments before -- huge, purple slits appear in the air, as if sliced by finely honed knives. After a moment, the ward surrounding the room shatters with an audible melodic crash, and the air seems to lighten. (...)

As purple-clad Exalts begin to appear from the holes in the air, Ahlat takes advantage of the opportunity -- with a mighty roar, he leaps forward (bleeding profusely on the way), moving out through the door he originally entered from.

<FitToZeeTied?> "Not THEM again! Come back here you stupid cow!"

  • Birds sneers at the purple Exalts. "You are NOT stealing this kill, vermin."
  • Markuran snarls at Ahlat, lunging forward with a bellow! "You craven bovine! You have blood between my Circle and you now, there is no retreat! By the blood of ours you have spilt you have bound yourself to remain and fight like the man whos form you so poorly immitate! You SHALL NOT LEAVE!" So saying, the bloodied barbarian heaves a massive First Age Bench into the air...

<Markuran> ...as the air whistles through the thousand holes in the decorative scrollwork of the bench it works itself into a mighty scream that ends in a crashing creshendo as Marku hurls the bench into the archway Ahlat was running for, smashing the keystone to tiny bits. Deprived of balance and unity, the archway shatters and collapses.

Ahlat throws his head forward violently and manages to roll through the archway just as it breaks. One huge rock strikes his back as he moves, hunched over, through the archway, cutting another sizeable gash into the cow-god's back and sending another violent spurt of blood into the room just before the collapsing archway closes the passage off behind him.

  • Markuran stares at the former hole in the wall, seething in rage.

<Markuran> "Cerin! Zahara! Birds! Get ready to go through the wall!"

  • Markuran waves urgently!!!

<BirdsOfTrinity> "You make a hole and I'll follow you through it..."

  • Birds sighs when she realizes that she has been volunteered to go first. "PEONY BLOSSOM ATTACK!" She strikes the foes nearest her, knocking the pommel of her glorious solar weapon against the pile of debris with each recovery. Once the way has been cleared, she alights in pursuit...
  • Markuran waits for Cerin and Zahara to follow Birds through, needing to close the door behind them and thus trap the knifebound here, in the empty dining hall!

The rubble, fairly loosely packed, crumbles under Birds' tangential assault.

The purple Exalts, not quite prepared for the swiftness of Birds' assault, let through several of her strikes, and she draws blood.

One of the thick-robed ninjas drops down in front of Birds-of-Trinity and strikes at her repeatedly, in order to fully engage her attention. The others waste no time beginning their action -- drawing long, thin swords from upon their backs, they begin to cut -- with no resistance whatsoever -- through the walls of the chamber. The water that those walls were built to keep out begins to shoot into the room through the

begins to shoot into the room through the rapidly expanding holes.

  • Cerin looks around at the sword ninja then starts to run, landing on the table in a full sprint, his form blurring as he moves. As he runs past the purple clad ninja he turns, sprays of golden arrows ripping through their bodies. He reaches Zahara, scopes her bound form into his arms, then he carries on out of the chamber, following the trail of blood. He throws her into the air, stringing another 5 motes which plunge into Ahlat from behind, leaving him free to catch Zee

behind, lea

<Cerin> leaving him free to catch Zee

One of the purple-clad Exalts doubles over from a shot from Cerin's bow.

  • Fit To Zee Tied? is launched into the air as Cerin shoots his bow, but instead of falling back into his arms, she stretches out her arms, and the moonsilver scarves billow out like satin wings, causing her to glide forward deceptively quickly as the arrows streak past her like blurs of golden flame. She circles slightly to land exactly between the Bull God's shoulder blades, where her former wings whip out like silvery tentacles to wra

Cerin's arrows plunge into Ahlat's back and shoulder, near the spot where he was wounded by the cave-in. Black smoke and blood flow freely from the wound, and his arm drops to his side; he seems to have trouble holding aloft his massive shield. With his other hand, he wields his spear and smashes through one of the great windows looking out into the sea.

As a huge wall of water rushes into the hallway, Ahlat steps into it (with surprising ease). His shoulder, still burning hot from Cerin's arrows, releases a huge cloud of smoke as he slips into the water.

  • Fit To Zee Tied? takes a deep breath as she glide/dives into the water after Ahlat, the Bonds seeking his fleeing flesh.

Ahlat stares through the dark, cold water at Zahara as her swords strike at his exposed flesh and her bonds entangle his limbs. With burning hatred in his eyes, he makes a cowardly departure through the etheric realm back to his home.

  • Markuran gets an utterly insane idea from one of Birds' stories...she was telling it like this..and then she opened her mouth...trying to recall exactly what Birds had done, Marku runs, then splashes and then finally swims at the Knifebound and does his best to immitate the story that Birds so expertly, even preternaturally, narrated her mime of. The Boy Who Drank The Ocean To Get The Fish That Got Away.

Marku drops to the floor and begins to drink, somehow holding off the tide of water long enough for the others to briefly form a plan -- until the water coming in from the opposite side arrives, anyway

Two of the ninjas lie dead or unconscious after the final peal of Zahara's bell; the others follow Ahlat's lead and carve holes in the air through which to depart.

  • Fit To Zee Tied? drops to the ground and begins chanting, the water seeming to shiver and churn around her feet as Markuran drinks as quickly as he can. The symbols of the now-familiar Torrential Cascade form around her, yet Cerin can see that they have been modified in some way, twisted lightly to..that's odd..
  • Markuran gulps as much as he can as fast as he can, ignoring even the occasional bit of seaweed and...was that a small octopus?
  • Birds wonders, if she hits those boulders hard enough, can she close up the holes at all? She turns the solar weapon in her hands and winds it up like a bat...

Though Marku capably restrains the influx of water in the dining hall, the water level begins to rise as the water from the hole Ahlat made continues to rush in. There's just a few short moments to go before the water reaches the ceiling....

  • Fit To Zee Tied? calls out the final syllables with the harshness of command in her voice, her aura itself seems to hold back the water, then it splits, gushing forth in a vee shaped wave away from her. Looking up, one can see sunlight break through its watery prison and sear through the space where the water once was as it rushes outwards, the very cascade of the water pushing the tides away from them. Her Weapons sheathe themselves

<BirdsOfTrinity> sheath themselves

<FitToZeeTied?> Her Weapons sheathe themselves and hover in front of each of her friends. Sweat beads on her forehead as she maintains the spell for those precious few seconds longer..

  • Cerin leaps onto the sword.
  • Birds grabs Markuran in one hand and a sword in another.
  • Markuran gulps down his last mouthful and throws himself, somewhat unsteadily, onto the wave that Zahara has summoned in just the nick of time. Another few octopi and he might have been sick.
  • Fit To Zee Tied? dashes upwards, the weapons with their cargo outpacing her, thinking she really ought to learn to breathe water someday.

Zahara runs upwards in a rather less than graceful fashion, managing to reach a safe height just a split second before the spell fails and the water crashes in again, once more burying Sunken Luthe at the very bottom of the ocean.

<Markuran> "Urgh...."

  • Fit To Zee Tied? pants
  • Birds releases Markuran from her deathgrip and observes, "He retreated first. Sunlanders one, Ahlat ZERO."

<Markuran> "That...that....he..." the eloquent and masterful orator stutters in speechless rage, shaking a huge fist.

<FitToZeeTied?> "now, where does Ahlat live again? I think we ought to pay him a visit before he regains his strength."

<Cerin> "He lives right on our doorstep. With an army of many thousand Exalted."

<FitToZeeTied?> "Yes, but where is the door to his bedroom?"

<Cerin> "W Ithin? his main temple."

<FitToZeeTied?> "Ahh, I believe the Wasps can Portal here and back."

  • Fit To Zee Tied? calls mentally to Tanty to instruct the Wasps to do so.
  • Markuran looks somewhat embarassed.

<Markuran> "I need to..um. Why don't you guys swim over there for a while?"

  • Fit To Zee Tied? snerks, and stays up in the air.
  • Birds politely averts her eyes. Basically.
  • Markuran turns his back to the others and adjusts his armor. Once he gets started making sunwater, Marku sighs in relief and relaxes somewhat, having strained very hard to keep from doing this earlier.
  • Birds wonders if she can get a peek at Marku's wang when he's done...uhm...eliminating.
  • Markuran continues making the sunwater for some time and is in no particular hurry to re-adjust his armor, in case he has to continue. So undoubtably, the highly observant Birds is indeed able to get a sight of Marku.
  • Birds smiles a little and whispers something to Zee.
  • Fit To Zee Tied? giggles and whispers back
  • Birds nearly falls off her wasp giggling.
  • Markuran peers up at the two women.,
  • Cerin ignores what they're saying, despite the fact they're whispering farrr to loudly for him not to hear it.
  • Fit To Zee Tied? turns her shoulder to hide her actions and demonstrates with the free end of one of the Bonds.
  • Birds pretends to be scandalized.

Tags: (:tags Ahlat, God-Exalts, Kasima, Sunken Luthe :)

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