The Sand Lives (QUEST)

[High's .Valentine.]

“Yes!” Crovo pumped his fist upon seeing his normally quite useless daggers lodge themselves in the purple core. Kass, sensing danger the man does not, started to drift away as the core glowed then exploded, spewing forth a large amount of energy. Around them, the stone started caving in. Similar to getting caught under a collapsing building, Kass was not faced with the job of flying both Crovo, Adelina and itself out of this mess. Turning, it began flying towards the light, trying to weave a path out of the falling debris.

[Second!Speedy Getaway 3: (Pick a weaving path through the falling rocks)]

[prythian]

As Kass flew through the rocks, he managed to avoid boulders large enough to have flattened the entire group without slowing, and rocks small enough to be pebbles. The leg that had been firing beams of energy was now going nuts, firing the beams at random angles, barely missing Kass and Crovo. At one point it hit a large boulder near them, and the boulder shattered, fist-sized rocks pelting the two of them. No bone breaking, but most certainly heavy bruising.

The legs finally broke on top and the shell began falling. Kass just barely made it out from under the lip of the shell before it fell past them at an angle. The shell hit the sand, stirring up a large amount of sand flying through the air as a plume of sand into the sky, the two remaining heads roaring in pain. A blinding flurry of sand soon filled the area.

[High's .Valentine.]

Struck by pebbles at random, Kass faltered slightly, but the faithful summon continued forward, and soon, the group cleared the shadow of the shell, which was quickly deteriorating into dust behind them. As soon as Kass flew to the edge, it ascended, as best as it could with a grown man attached to its leg and flew towards the tip of the shell, where they would be safe from the giant cloud of sand buffeted by the falling shell.

Approaching what was now the apex of the shell, Kass landed, dropping its summoner unceremoniously. Crovo rolled to a stop, taking a breath…for now.

[prythian]

The two heads instantly roared, swiveling to face the summoner. The one with the revealed core had what looked like a glass 'beard' that reached quite a ways down from the underside of its head, a remnant of Maedra's earlier attack. It roared again, and a purple ball of energy shot straight forwards. The ball was caught in the mouth of the other head, which shot it back even more powerful, and they began shooting it back and forth, making it larger and more powerful each time one of them caught it.

Crovo:
Flight: (Have Kass carry you off the shell again to avoid the upcoming attack)
Shatterglass: (Grab the glass hanging off of the creature and add your weight to the head)

[High's .Valentine.]

Crovo ducked, but the attack wasn't directed at him. Not yet at least. Although it wasn't as if ducking was going to save his hide if the attack was indeed aiming towards his direction. Kass shifted, spreading its wings in case something was to happen...

The red haired man watched as the attack went back and forth...back and forth...

Suddenly, he dash forward, towards the head with the glass 'beard'. Following behind him was Kass in liquid shadow form as soon as it reached the shadow cast by the head. It knew what its master had in mind. As soon as the other head caught the blast, Crovo tackled the glass and tugged. Kass erupted forth from the shell and attached itself to the end of the glass, pulling along with its master. If they tug hard enough, they would be able to pull down the head enough so that it seemed to be bowing to the other. Just in time for the attack to blast the revealed purple core.

At least, that's how it should work.

[prythian]

The sharp glass cut deeply into Crovo's hands, but the weight did manage to pull the head down slightly enough so that it missed the next 'catch'. The purple ball hit the core and shattered it. The resulting shockwave sent Crovo flying through the air, hitting the shell and sliding across it on his back. Kass was blasted in the opposite direction, straight into a sand dune, fortunately not being harmed too much.

The head disintegrated into sand, the neck following until stopping at the shell. The last head roared in dismay, and turned towards Crovo, burning eyes glaring. Its eyes flashed, and suddenly a scattershot of small purple energy balls began flying through the air, exploding on the shell.

Crovo:
Dodge Roll: (Try to roll without bothering to get up to avoid the energy blasts)
Dodge Stunt: (Get up and try to take a weaving path through the energy blasts)
Dodge Freeze: (Stay completely still)

[High's .Valentine.]

Hissing as he hit the shell, Crovo looked up in a daze, his hands bleeding profusely and stinging like no tomorrow, what with the bits of sand getting caught in the wound. That was going to be one nasty infection. Make that two nasty infection.

Kass was nowhere to be seen.

Before he could get up though, the other head roared its hatred at the skinny man and the next thing he knew, purple [he was going to have a great aversion to that color in the future] balls shot towards the man. Thankfully, some of them exploded before touching him, otherwise Crovo wouldn't have known that dodging was going to save his life.

Dodge rolling, Crovo tried to avoid the blasts.

[prythian]

A majority of the blasts missed, but a couple managed to blow up close enough to send him flying in the air again for a few seconds. The scattershot ended before Crovo sustained any major wounds, but he'd be feeling very sore right about now. The head roared again, swiveling around and holding its neck straight as it began inhaling a lot of sand straight from the desert. Ominously enough, though Crovo may not notice it, one of the spots where a neck used to attack to the shell stopped 'bleeding' sand.

Crovo:
Sheer Climb: (Climb up rocky neck)
Divebomb: (Send Kass to attack the top of the head)

[High's .Valentine.]

Tossed about like a juggle item. Well, whoever was 'juggling' Crovo wasn't too good at it. Landing none the too gracefully-flat on his face-Crovo moan, pushing himself up and pulled himself away from the other head. Pitifully, pitifully.

On cue, Kass came in from nowhere, flying up and over the remaining head and Crovo. As soon as it reached its peak, Kass let itself go into free fall. At terminal velocity, the bird burst into a ball of black fire, as if it had suddenly combusted: Raven's Meteor. It slammed right into the plate of the remaining head. Once. Bounced right back up then down again, this time with slightly less force, but powerful nonetheless. Twice. Up and down. Three times.

Then it flew back up and towards Crovo. Both seemed oblivious to the head that had stopped spewing sand...

[prythian]

The head stopped inhaling sand, shuddering under the assault. The plate broke loose, slipping over the edge of the head and falling to the sand below, revealing the purple core underneath. It turned around again and blasted both Kass and Crovo with sand, sending them across the shell in a flood of sand. It turned back and began inhaling sand again, attempting to continue what had been interrupted. It seemed more urgent now.

Crovo:
Drill Dig: (Dig yourself OR Kass out of the sand)
Second!Drill: (Dig the other out)
Second!Attack: (Freed person manages to get to the top of the head and attack)

[High's .Valentine.]

One minute, he was seeing sun and the next minute, he was buried under layers and layers of sand. He inhaled it on accident, choking. It was hard to dig himself out. Kass on the other hand, began to worm its way out of the sand. Soon, it scrabbled out of the dune of sand and all the while looking around in a panic for Crovo. The man was nowhere in sight. All the while, the other head seemed to be sucking in more sand.

Scrabbling around, Kass was stuck in a dilemma. Destroy the other head right now or find its summoner? It was never trained to abandon its master, but in this situation, Kass felt that if it did not destroy the other head, there was no way for both of them to survive.

Flying up again, Kass dove down on the purple core. One hit and it would be able to take out the head.

[prythian]

Kass's beak pierced the core, spiderwebbing it with cracks. Kass was blown back as the purple energy exploded outwards again, and the chain reaction of stone-to-sand again happened to the head, running down to the shell. Only this time, something happened when the chain reaction reached the shell.

A large shockwave erupted from the shell, sending the sand-- and Crovo-- flying upwards. The sand was caught by a secondary blast of wind, while Crovo landed hard on the shell. The cracks from the blast earlier were widened a lot, revealing a complex tunnel system inside of the inner workings of the shell. From one of the tunnels, a purple glow illuminated the walls.

[High's .Valentine.]

"UGH!" Landing on the shell with a kersmack, Crovo cough and wheeze the sand out of his lungs. Again, Kass had been blown away. Crovo on the other hand, felt like a rag doll. Good thing he didn't land on the pack that he had placed Adelina in. Adelina seemed to have the best luck out of the three.

He would have loved to lay there and just...rest his sore bones [he must have cracked something, being so skinny and all that]. But something forced him to his weary feet. Maybe it was because Kass was tugging at his shirt. The bird had returned, lost a few feathers, but intact and better off than its master nonetheless. It cawed and hopped towards the opening to the tunnel. Crovo pushed himself up and wobbled towards the entrance of the tunnel that glowed a toxic purple. The thought that it might potentially kill him had long been blasted from his tired mind.

He entered the tunnel, and behind him, a series of panicked shrieks could be heard as he turned around to find Kass throwing itself against an invisible wall. Telling the bird to calm down, Crovo entered the tunnel, pulling out his last dagger. There it was...a purple core.

[prythian]

A barrier of purple lightning surrounded the core. Unlike the previous barrier of lightning, it didn't appear to ever give out. All of the energy of the creature was now going to protect this core.

On the other side of the room with the core was three glass jars. One was filled to the top with red liquid. One was filled to the top with yellow liquid. And the last was filled to the top with blue liquid. Writing was inscribed above these jars. Choose wisely, coat your weapon in the liquid, and send it into the core, oh warrior.

Crovo:
Final Choice: (Choose one jar and coat your weapon in its liquid and throw dagger at core)

[High's .Valentine.]

Crovo stared.

No one ever mentioned he was color blind. Colors? What colors? Walking forward, Crovo pulled out his last dagger. The three jars all looked slightly similar. One's darker, one's lighter, and one's just right. Sighing, Crovo covered his eyes and dipped his dagger in one of the jar. Eenie, miney, mo.

He pulled out the now yellow dagger, turned, prayed, and threw it.