The End

A city nested in the high trees of the swamp home to many native Orders of Vaeroth. Phioto is a wet. swamp land of the Astral Wilderness particularly home to a group of Goldenback Primate Elvs.
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Orca
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The End

Post by Orca »

Orca rested on the branch of dying old tree. Motionlessly he waited for days without food or water, as to avoid disturbing the sensitive balance of the swamp. He was hunting Phioto's native gnat, Feer. He'd learned first hand what their paralyzing hairs were capable of. Crippling the muscle with rigor mortis and drowning the mind in screeching hallucinations, the Feer were perfect for Orca's arsenal but capturing them alive was difficult.

His father had captured the creatures once before, but he'd rather not be the bait this time around. The Feer were virtually invisible to the naked eye, the only way to see them naturally was to wait until they started swarming.

The Gnats were parasitoids and laid their eggs inside other insects. Orca picked up the Feers mating patterns over the course of his hunt for them and had tracked them down to this area. The aphid in the trees were about to hatch and the Feer were waiting to mate.

Orca's eyes could see the tiny specs of light the Feer reflected, he was gifted in that respect;but, seeing the Feer alone wouldn't allow him to capture his prey, safely. The Feer numbers were endless in the large swamps of Phioto and there communication was spectacular, capable of rallying neighboring gnats to swarm if even one of them were in danger. When Feer swarm in large number the rapid flapping of their wings ignite the water in the air generating a mist of paralyzing toxin. The swarm is named after the last words of their victims, The End.

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Orca
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Re: The End

Post by Orca »

-The bright orange shells cracked giving first light to the newly hatched aphids. The season was rich and the trees were covered in their parents hard work, for miles of forest the larve populated the branches of Phioto swamp. Eagerly they squeezed thier heads out of their shells and chewed at the air, acquainting themselves with their new senses and limbs.

Orca could hear the high pitched clicks the aphid used to communicate, but wasn’t sure what they were saying. It takes time for him to get familiar with the wavelength each species uses to form language. He took a whisper of a breath, keeping his presence completely unknown to the aphids or The End that surronded them both.

The berries in the trees were the Aphids favorite food, allowing them to live in the tree’s for the duration of there larve stage. Tasting the rich sugar of the berries in the air, the aphid began wiggling from the thick husk of their shell. Thousands of aphid crawled from their shells in search of food, their feet scurrying across the branches teased Orca’s ears giving him insight to the exact number of hatched aphid now walking across a sea of Feer.

Feer covered every tree rich in aphid larve and waited for their pray to take their first steps, paralyzing them on contact. The rapid flapping of Feer swarms creates a pale Icy-blue mist. It wouldn’t take long before the entire area was covered in a thick icy blue fog. Orca ,still holding his breath, remained patient on the dying tree branch. He could hear the haunting clicks and howls of the Feers hallucinations, stirred from being submerged in the mist;but he remained free of paralysis- unlike the aphid.

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Orca
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Re: The End

Post by Orca »

Orca knew the howls of feer’s hallucination all to well, the tormenting voices the gnats used to haunt their victims had little effect on him.

From within the fog covered swamp Orca’s pitch black eyes watched carefully as the Feer impregnated the newly hatched aphid.

He motioned a series of rapid hand signs, widely known to the Kura clan. His face begin to wrinkle as his eyes narrowed to a slit,his mouthed widened baring his sharp teeth as a feral and wrathful look took hold of his skin; but his presence was mute.

The high pitched buzzing of the swarms flapping wings slowly fell on deaf ears. Without their constant movement, the mist subsided, dissipating into Vescrutias atmosphere.

‘Nirvana....’

He said. Falling from the dying willow tree and landing on his feet. He dug his toes into the ground and scanned the area to double check that the entire swarm of Feer were unconscious.

‘This went better than I’d expected...’

He thought to himself. Reflecting on the wounds he’d suffered with his earlier test. He’d previously suffered from a lack of range with the deadly vibration of nirvana, creating a frequency strong enough to subdue the gnats,mental cognitive awareness, before they alerted their nest was difficult. The nesscary precision to target each gnat simultaneously drained his naten, leaving faint and short of breath. Regardless of his fading strength, he made his way over to the trees filled with unconscious gnats, taking a moments breather against the thick tree trunk.

In between his staggered breathing he detected a familiar distress signal, his eyes widened as he continued to survey the swamp. With his right hand pressed against the tree he found the source of the distress call. An aphid larve, left unharmed by the swarm, was signaling distress and had alerted the nest of Feer.

Despite his calculations, the worst was upon him. Within minutes a swarm of gnats large enough to blanket the entire phioto swamp was headed towards him.

‘The...end..’

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Orca
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Re: The End

Post by Orca »

With haste, he leapt into the trees filled with aphid. Placing his hand on the bark, he connected with the naten inside the tree. The bark coiled around his prize, tightly, yet carefully, sealing the impregnated aphid spawn. He opened a dark slit leading back to his home, a cozy nest made inside the thickest tree in the Phioto Swamp and tossed his prize inside, closing the portal afterwards.

With the same haste as before he leaped from the tree, landing on all fours. He glanced over his shoulder, to see the swarming Gnats were nearly upon him.

He knew the pale-blue mist would follow orca until he died, never losing his scent or their thirst for revenge. They were relentless hunters with exceptional communicative abilities, capable of delivering volumes of information in short burst. The approaching swarm knew precisely who the enemy was.

‘...’

He pushed off the soft, mashland soil with ease, gaining a burst of well needed speed. He Weaved through the trees, touching one or two of them for every few feet of tree-land that he passed.

When he’d put enough distance between them, he came to an sliding halt, flying through the air, twisting to meet the approaching swarm. His back crashed into a thick, hulking tree. Quickly he synced his naten with the tree he rested against before bringing his hands together to form a family Mudra

The branches on the trees within a 20 yard radius grew irregularly long and raced towards other trees unaffected by Orca’s naten. Within seconds orca had the might of the wilderness at his disposal. Through control of his naten, the branches raced off to intercept the swarm.

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Orca
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Re: The End

Post by Orca »

The arms of the trees stretched to their life’s limits, extending through the forest- racing towards the swarm.

The swarm of Feer, steadfast in their pursuits, took the shortest route to Orca, through the branch-tendrils. The mist hallucinogenic properties couldn’t affect the trees, but the degenerative properties of their saliva made short work of his strategy.

Like a storm of cartoonish swirls, the mist shredded the bark, leaving nothing but splinters in their wake.

Orca, only moments away from the swarm, observed how quickly they dispatched his counter measures and rushed toward a nearby bog.

He could see the thick tree roots submerged under the fresh rain water from the night before.

“That’ll do.’’

The water was deep, up to his waist and the thick roots of the old Phiotan trees were twice as thick as the water was deep.

He motioned several rapid mudra before placing his hands on the roots. They coiled around him,latching onto his body, layering him in the swamp. Not just the roots either. The wet, mushy soil and the vines, both fallen and connected to the massive Elder tree, came to his aid.

He began to fight. Thrashing his now massive vine covered arms, sending waves of crescent blades of water. They sliced through the forest, shredding some of the Feer upon impact, but not enough.

Others began to swarm him, surrounding the massive, towering, swamp armor he’d fashioned. The bugs were cautious and didn’t engage immediately , the moisture ruins their wings and dissolves their dangerous saliva;but, their buzzing produces the noxious, hallucinogenic gas and Orca was surrounded.

‘COME AND GET ME!’

He shouted, giving his everything into one final act. The vine covered armor became engulfed in a black, wispy aura. In berserker like rage, it swung and thrashed about, swatting what it could in a desperate attempt to crush the swarm.

Yet meanwhile, becoming ever submerged in the gases. Holding his breath and battling the swarm wouldn’t be possible forever.

The swarm stuck to the body like glue, covering every inch of the mossy green foliage . He fell. Either exhausted from the fight, or subdued by the gas- he collapsed.

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Orca
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Re: The End

Post by Orca »

The Feer gnawed through the vines until they made their way into the center were Orca was hiding, but when they got there they found only his shirt.

He animated the vines with his Myou Myaku Naten, giving life to the swamp and fuel to his distraction. When the timing was opportune, he left the hulking armor via dark-slit.

From within the mist, Orca’s silent, and devastating technique nirvana rippled through the area and pushed away the lingering mist.

Yet, the exposure to the mist had taken it, causing him to collapse over under the pressure of strong hallucinations. He struggled to regain composure, but at least he wasn’t under attack anymore.

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Orca
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Re: The End

Post by Orca »

It took his body hours to fully recover from the side effects of the gas, more times than he would have liked he felt like he was still fighting and losing to tbe swarm. If he hadnt already dealt with such a pain before, even the thought of it would have pushed his heart into cardiac arrest. He slowly liftes his body, his muscle still sore from the chemicles in the Gas released by the Feer.

Yet, regardless of his discomfort. He was safe and with enough feer larve and food for his friends. He rose to his feet and glismped over at the mountains of Chaos, a place he never visits.

"An...eclipse...no, that looks like runic magic?"

He started to fiil a dark chill run down his spine, before he heard a pained screaming howling from the mountains. Though it sounded human, it was clearly evil in nature and certainly another application of magic. However, it didnt rely on naten?

"..The animals."

He brought his hands to the wet marshland of the phioto swamp. He could sense the growing disharmony within the forest of resosnace, it were as if the animals had all begun all out war. While still touching the wet floor, he opened small slits for his Game, transporting them safely to his Burroughs.

"Whomever is on that mountain...needs my help."

He said softly before falling backwards into a darkslit.

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