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The Fate who calls herself Mountain tried to convince some of her neighbors to allow the occasional mountain in their lands, for stability purposes.
"I meant no insult!" Dodge ball of lava. "I don't intend to interfere, you said no!" Dodge house-sized spear of ice. "I'm leaving peacefully, okay, so stop tearing up the tile!"
"You'll respawn at home. No permanent damage. You interrupted an important meeting, you need to learn a lesson about territory, mountain bitch." Dodge- no, fail to dodge a thrown tree, and then another ice ball. The next sphere of magma is what destroyed that form.
She wakes up, stripped of all her tools and enchantments and even clothes, and groans in pain.
Steel in Wormverse
sturdycoldsteel
There are apparently a handful of people who seem to be capable of dishing out the hurt: one human male in a green bodysuit with metal armor who's throwing lances made of energy at it, one in a blue-and-white bodysuit who can shoot lasers with various effects, and one female who can seriously pack a punch. The one in the bodysuit teleports himself and the other two whenever the monster gets too far out of range, and they don't seem to be needing much protecting.
sturdycoldsteel
She should go back to trying to hold it still long enough for the three big hitters to get a blow in, then.
She can't do much more big, expensive manipulation like strengthening the island's rock underlayers or making plateaus to evacuate to, but growing hills around the monster's legs is nowhere near the same scale.
She can't do much more big, expensive manipulation like strengthening the island's rock underlayers or making plateaus to evacuate to, but growing hills around the monster's legs is nowhere near the same scale.
She can do that! And it will trip if she times that well, with quite a lot of momentum behind it. The big hitters don't even stop to thank her and just continue, well, hitting!
sturdycoldsteel
An excellent division of labor.
She's not afraid of getting smashed, whatever sent her here instead of to her own temple besides. But seriously, what the hell is that thing? If this was her home the entire continent would have crumbled into the abyss by now.
She keeps doing her best to immobilize it, getting angrier and angrier at the pointlessness of its rampage by the minute.
She's not afraid of getting smashed, whatever sent her here instead of to her own temple besides. But seriously, what the hell is that thing? If this was her home the entire continent would have crumbled into the abyss by now.
She keeps doing her best to immobilize it, getting angrier and angrier at the pointlessness of its rampage by the minute.
Lots of people agree! There are more people arriving and hitting as well, some using strange contraptions and bombs and other such things. The creature runs south again, and this time the human with the green suit teleports her with the other two since she was so useful at stopping it.
And there's... someone there? Hard to make out from a distance, but they look... taller than a regular human, if still shorter than the beast. And the silhouette doesn't look... quite... human...
And there's... someone there? Hard to make out from a distance, but they look... taller than a regular human, if still shorter than the beast. And the silhouette doesn't look... quite... human...
sturdycoldsteel
She really wishes she still had all her enchantments active. Burning Blade especially. But one makes do with what one has.
Is that person one of the fair folk? It looks a bit like an Ignivore, what with all the fire. Eh, no time to think about it. Monster's head, meet that diamond spike again. But it manages to grab and crush and throw her after that blow. Ow.
Is that person one of the fair folk? It looks a bit like an Ignivore, what with all the fire. Eh, no time to think about it. Monster's head, meet that diamond spike again. But it manages to grab and crush and throw her after that blow. Ow.
The water's too restless, and tidal waves have become more frequent—too frequent. The human in the green suit and armor has stopped using the lances made of energy and is throwing huge balls of light that do shallower but wider damage, burning the creature's skin. Others with a variety of powers continue pummeling and burning and sitting in a cacophony of light and sound as they are teleported or move closer and join the fray, but there are less people than when the fight started. And none of them dealing nearly as much damage as the three.
One tidal wave hits the building the fiery stranger was on, and they disappear for a moment before emerging again and charging for the monster.
One tidal wave hits the building the fiery stranger was on, and they disappear for a moment before emerging again and charging for the monster.
sturdycoldsteel
That is not an Ignivore. It still has a defined form, as opposed to being a shapeless being of all-consuming blue fire. At any rate she stops trying to fight the monster directly. She'd just get in the way, at this point.
But this... Giant not-tile... Is more and more damaged by the minute. The monster is shaking it to pieces. Well, she knows stones. Earthquakes, go away you are not welcome here.
But this... Giant not-tile... Is more and more damaged by the minute. The monster is shaking it to pieces. Well, she knows stones. Earthquakes, go away you are not welcome here.
There's only so much she can do, here, since the earthquakes aren't really due to seismic activity, it's just too much water being moved.
The human with the lasers and the human that throws giant balls of light stop doing that when the... other thing... starts hitting the monsters. Okay, now there are two monsters and nicknames may start becoming necessary.
The big one throws the little one away, though, and the two humans start shooting it again. Oop, new tidal wave!
The human with the lasers and the human that throws giant balls of light stop doing that when the... other thing... starts hitting the monsters. Okay, now there are two monsters and nicknames may start becoming necessary.
The big one throws the little one away, though, and the two humans start shooting it again. Oop, new tidal wave!
sturdycoldsteel
She's not really aware of anything but the slowly, slowly failing structure of this place's ground. She pours everything she can manage into keeping it stable, barely noticing that she's making a miniature mountain in the process, with ridges radiating off for miles in all directions. She can't afford to try to keep what's left of this city in one piece if she wants to try and save the rest of the island.
The fight nonetheless continues to happen, though its details don't affect the sea at all. Apparently the bigger monster can multitask pretty well.
sturdycoldsteel
That will have to do.
At some point she falls unconscious, mostly embedded in her shiny new mountain.
At some point she falls unconscious, mostly embedded in her shiny new mountain.
The fight goes on for a while.
Eventually the smaller monster hurts the bigger one enough that it flees, but not before half that island has been reclaimed by the sea. When it leaves, the weather starts evolving according to more sensible physical rules.
Eventually the smaller monster hurts the bigger one enough that it flees, but not before half that island has been reclaimed by the sea. When it leaves, the weather starts evolving according to more sensible physical rules.
sturdycoldsteel
She digs herself out of the mountain. She drinks some water pooled on the mountainside, then flies down to investigate the devastation.
There is... quite a lot of it. The southern island (island, pff, it's far huger than any Tile she's ever seen), with the exception of the plateaus she raised, is pretty thoroughly destroyed, and the southern half of it sunken.
...someone is following her from a distance as she explores.
...someone is following her from a distance as she explores.
sturdycoldsteel
Now is a more appropriate time to figure out the language problem.
She approaches and addresses that person in the four human languages, two Fair Folk tongues, and the one merfolk schoolsong she knows.
When it's clear she still doesn't have a common language, here, she tries to mime eating. She's hungry.
She approaches and addresses that person in the four human languages, two Fair Folk tongues, and the one merfolk schoolsong she knows.
When it's clear she still doesn't have a common language, here, she tries to mime eating. She's hungry.
The person—Mountain may recognize her as the one who had been hitting the monster with her fists—looks progressively confused and worried when she doesn't recognise any of the languages the Fate's speaking. She nods when Mountain mimes eating, and touches her ear and says something, holding a hand up in a 'wait' gesture.
Then, a fairly high-tech... flying... thing... comes from the distance and hovers high above them. The woman asks something, hovering and pointing at the thing. Maybe she wants Mountain to come with her?
Then, a fairly high-tech... flying... thing... comes from the distance and hovers high above them. The woman asks something, hovering and pointing at the thing. Maybe she wants Mountain to come with her?
sturdycoldsteel
She shrugs and follows into the flying thing. There's not much point in talking when they can't understand each other, and she's not quite sure where to begin learning an entire new language without the benefit of translations.
They enter the flying thing, and the flying thing... flies. Really fast.
There are comfortable seats inside, and apparently the lady informed someone Mountain wanted food, because there is food waiting. She points at herself and says, "Alexandria." She gestures expansively at the food on a table there and says, "Food."
There are comfortable seats inside, and apparently the lady informed someone Mountain wanted food, because there is food waiting. She points at herself and says, "Alexandria." She gestures expansively at the food on a table there and says, "Food."
sturdycoldsteel
Communication crystals in their ears are not weird to her.
"Food." Nod, nod. Pointing to herself, "Mountain." It sounds more like "Celtana" in English, of course. Then the helmet breaks cleanly from the rest of her rock armor and she starts eating with impromptu utensils made from stone, if the kind of food this is calls for them.
"Food." Nod, nod. Pointing to herself, "Mountain." It sounds more like "Celtana" in English, of course. Then the helmet breaks cleanly from the rest of her rock armor and she starts eating with impromptu utensils made from stone, if the kind of food this is calls for them.
There are non-stoney utensils available with the food, but if she wants to use hers Alexandria won't object. She does find it fairly odd that Mountain doesn't seem to care about her secret identity, and doesn't take her own mask off, but doesn't comment on it otherwise.
sturdycoldsteel
While eating she makes a crude stone statue of Leviathan. "Monster." She moves it to the other side of the room. "Ran away?" Then she smashes it. "Or dead?"
Then a statue of the other one, the fire-monster. "And the other monster?"
Then a statue of the other one, the fire-monster. "And the other monster?"
Alexandria does a so-so gesture to the first question, and nods at the second statue. She points at Mountain and herself and says, "Human." Then she points at the fire-monster and repeats, "Human." Finally, she points at the place where the remains of the rock statue and shrugs, shaking her head. Unknown if human?