"Most troubling. I worry that intervening now would only cause more damage."
Ready a heat-based weapon to disrupt nanomachines. The things are remarkably resilient, but heat will fuck them the right up.
Temperature is generally a great way to mess with things.
Solj could easily funnel energy from his heatsinks into a canister shot-like projectile. It would create a spray of hot material, like a dragon's breath, but it would lack the power to incinerate past the surface.
Mixing it with some leftover thermite would help, but it would consume most of Solj's remaining stocks. (It would necessarily be a Heavy attack due to messing with the reactor)
"Why do these things have to happen whenever I get even minimally involved? First the giant spider, now this... That reminds me, anybody got medical equipment? I know how to do first aid, but I'd be more effective with the proper kit."
Now that Arthur is frozen, try to treat and inspect his wounds once more.
Arthur is a skinny man, and wearing no armor he became quite perforated during his adventure. Despite what Havelock had shown to be impressive toughness granted by a Locus inside the digestive tract, Arthur who supposedly suffers the same fault certainly hasn't benefited from half his gut being steel.
Without bleeding, however, it's much easier to work with his wounds (counts as first aid). Johan happens to know what it looks like when a man's arm gets sheared off by machinery, so working with a dying man's insides isn't that much of a step up for him.
[5 -> 3] Johan ties off most of the blood vessels he can find that were cut by the swords. He does what he can to patch up the holes in Mr. Arthur's guts by applying glue from his toolkit. And finally he wraps up Arthur's abdomen in one giant bandage, made from scraps of Arthur's own cloak plus electrical tape.
It would have helped to bring more medical supplies, in hindsight. Carrying a light amount of bandages and all is common sense for any camper, but it seems one could suffer some pretty serious injuries down here. And still live, at least.
"Did Raioyris become that mass? And what's happening with Eugenius?"
"He found another one of us," replies the wayward spirit.
"They are currently adjusting to each other. The extra mass is being used as extra brain matter, so harming it will only prolong their struggle."As Johan treats Arthur's wounds, the black matter surrounding Raioyris and strangling Eugenius seems to recede into the floor, having sprouting from many points, leaving behind imperfections in the floor where the bricks shuffle back into their original places.
“To your kind the earth does as it wills, you have no traction. The wolf kills and buries, the deer will eat and the man will plant and eat of his crop. The earth works against all of them but their spirits are not blunted, they will live to buy, toil and eat again.
When I stare into the night sky I see a different path: it is there that the ends of our ambition lie. To those that watch the heavens the earth has no bearing.
Come with me, take up your misery: the full breadth of your being. We’ll find our own path.”
"You seem to misunderstand. I am the earth, and not the earth. When I spoke of what happens to those spirits cast into the darkness of the earth, I spoke from experience. This earth lives beneath your feet, and beneath your feet there is only war, caused by our kind, our history.
Oh, but you are not aware, are you? Perhaps that will keep you waiting..."The creature senks back into her portal.
"I sense the other spirit is bringing her power to bear.
Until next time..."Raioyris wakes.
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Topic: Exmortal (IC Thread) (Read 49580 times)