The Hunting Grounds III - Second Most Dangerous Game

[Recaiden]

Bullets? They finally ditched the electro-lasters for something practical? Hunter is, one the one hand, disappointed. That was their calling card. That and the blind fanaticism. On the other hand, this should be more of a challenge. On the gripping hand, she's getting shot at, and if little shards of rock aren't getting through her armor, even if they just picked up these guns, sooner or later they'll get lucky. Gotta move. She takes her gun and vaults up over the rocks in front of her.

"Hey guys! Good to see you again!"
A yelled introduction and those loud gunpowder weapons make it much easier to find them than it could have been. She fires once blindly in that general direction as she slides behind another large stone.

On further consideration, they are ruining her hunt. How inconsiderate.

That fox yips and turns tail and runs. Gunfights are no place for it.

[Fenric]

Yes... they didn't bring their nearly useless electrolasers this time. Maybe somebody was helping?

The two somebodies in question promptly cloak themselves and head the other way around the cliff face to where a rockslide seemed to offer a way further up the slope. The cultists were only there to be a distraction and at this point leaving them to distract Hunter seems the better option.

The cultists yowl as Hunter's shot sends a spray of sharp, stinging rock shards up among them: no real damage was caused, but they stop shooting for a moment and flail about. Their threat level has clearly not improved significantly through their time in the Hunting Grounds.

[Recaiden]

Stopping and flailing? They still haven't learned to trust this place. Which one might say is part of knowing your environment in general. But even if they haven't improved, at least they've changed. Trying new things. That has to be a credit to them.

The barrel of her gun swings around the edge of the rock, followed by Hunter. It takes only a moment to line up her sights on a cultist and pull the trigger, sending a tiny little mass crashing through the air very very quickly.

[Fenric]

[Above]

The DART agents move as quickly and quietly as they can up the rockslide and away from the action, following the GPS coordinate that marks the purported dragon nest and leaving Hunter and the Cultists to their fight.

[Below]

The noise Sparks two of the into action: one stands his ground and returns fire at Hunter. The other sprints for cover.

The third is hit in the abdomen: the bullet passing through soft tissue without slowing particularly. He looks surprised but as often happens he has yet to register what happened for the shock of it. He raises his gun, but his movements are slower than they would normally have been.

[Recaiden]

[Below]

Bullets fly in. Some go past, some shave spikes and shards of rock off Hunter's own bit of cover. She's aiming at that guy who's standing his ground, but any second one is going to-
-hit her, just like that, shock her back, not go right through the body armor or anything, but does it ever hurt. She ducks back, relying on the bulk of the stone again, drops the gun, slips out of the power pack, and disappears-

-reappearing in among the three cultists, drawing that green-glass-edged sword.

[Above]

Well, DART agents aren't a gunfight. More of a dartfight at worst.
A few moments later sees that little black fox sniffing at their trail.

[Fenric]

[Below]

Well... two cultists: one ran for cover last round. But he's not ready to shoot yet so he doesn't count.

The one that was shot responds slowly, unable to twist and wincing in finally-noticed pain. He drops his rifle with a clatter and grabs his abdomen... this can't end well for him.

The one that was not shot, however, responds vastly more quickly: swiftly switching his grip on his rifle and lunging toward Hunter in a bid to smash her nose flat with the heavy thing.

[Recaiden]

Hunter is slow with her sword today and takes the hit on the nose nose-protecting mask.
Which still sends her toppling backwards. She does her best to turn the blow into a sort of flip and eventually come up on her feet after the tumble.

But nothing is ending fr anyone quite yet.

[Fenric]

[Above]

Continued sneaking by sneaky people in sneak-assisting cloaking fields (which does imply that PIE units are currently powered off). Cloaking is a visual effect, however, and so equally sneaky sniffy fox follower should have little enough trouble tracking their trail.

[Below]

Wounded guy decides that now is a good time to lie down. Not that he has much choice in the matter, to be honest...

Second guy swivels his rifle back around and shoots from the hip, with the usual drastic penalty to accuracy. The recoil very nearly makes him drop the gun, as a .300 magnum is not something to fire casually, so no second shot is coming immediately as he scrambles to regain control of his weapon.

Not from him: the third guy fires from behind the boulders, taking rather more careful aim.

[Recaiden]

[Above]

Sneak sneak sneak!

[Below]

Hunter charges 2nd Guy, bullet passing barely behind her as she moves, and swings the sword in a powerful downward chop, expecting to be rewarded with the sound of a screaming cultist and the tingle of stolen life-force running up the blade. (Not that the sword will give any to her to heal her bruises; it's a greedy thing).

[Fenric]

[Above]

Eventually, the agents come across a sheltered nook with an overhanging cliff face. At the base, an arrangement of boulders that looks quite deliberate and unnatural. The invisible pair stop and do ... something.

[Below]

Several things happen ...

Hunter finds that her blade meets the hardened steel of a gun barrel rather than nice squishy flesh... but the cultist couldn't get a good brace and this should be followed in remarkably short order by the blade sliding along and doing unfortunate things to the fellow's right arm. And life stealing is such cheese, but that probably won't end well for him.

On the ground, the wounded cultist manages to swivel his rifle around to point at Hunter's ankles and pulls the trigger. The recoil sends the gun skittering away and well out of his reach.

Behind the boulder... the third cultist is strangely silent.

[Recaiden]

[Below]

And weapons don't need enchantments to do well in fair, lactose-intolerant fights.
With all the damage done to his arm, Hunter finds it pretty unlikely that he'll be able to defend himself from a second swing. Just li-
Having one's leg shot out from under you does tend to ruin plans. Her leg buckles and sends her falling left and forward, sword swung wildly and blindly, other arm moving to soften the fall.

[Above], well, anything could be happening!

[Fenric]

[Above]

A small, round disk appears on one boulder... then another, and yet a third. The agents are planting somethings in a perimeter around the supposed nest...

[Below]

There's an odd whoosh noise.

And a loud, stony CRAK!

Hunter's sword is once again jarred by hitting something solid and unyielding. There's also a surprising lack of screaming from the ... stone statue of a cultist ... she just hacked at.

Ok, perhaps not so surprising.

The third cultist is frozen with terror and is clearly not looking at Hunter anymore. He's looking at the Greater Mountain Dragon perched on a ledge about halfway up the cliff instead.

For its part, the dragon is miffed at not having petrified Hunter who is clearly the greater threat.

[Recaiden]

[Above]

How curious. And appearing so fast!
The fox stalks up to the nearest of the little discs. What is it?

[Below]

Hunter takes a quick look around.
That's not good. Not at all. That whole role-reversal thing.

One down, one in hiding, and one without his gun.

This calls for diving- okay, this calls for limping for cover and getting the lone healing potion from her belt. It won't fix the hole in her boot and armor, but she feels like she'd prefer all limbs be in good working order for this. Cheesy, perhaps, but you never know when undoing an injury or saving a dying combatant will be necessary. Never leave home without one.

[Fenric]

[Above]

Only the very best in mines! These are dual fused, set to go off if something nearby is either big enough or has enough metal. Though the fox might not be able to tell all that by sniffing.

[Below]

There is a fairly hefty "Whump" which is accompanied by and followed by quite a bit of screaming, which gets more frantic before becoming a strangled gurgle and finally ceasing. All that remains are some unpleasant crunching and tearing noises.

[Recaiden]

[Above]

Explosive wiring and trigger mechanisms are a bit above the fox, yes. What's not above the creature is trying to pick up one of the mines in its teeth and run off with it.

[Below]

Eaten by a dragon, poor guy.
Hunter sheathes the glass-edged sword, and draws from her other hip the chitinous hilt of the dragon-slaying sword, its burning purple blade springing into existence. She steps out to face her quarry, that Greater Mountain Dragon.

[Fenric]

[Above]

The fox is well beneath the fuse's preset, and the mine is held down by a rather small square of double-sided sticky tape, so the fox is now in possession of an armed, proximity fused, acid-spray mine specially crafted to make it a really bad day for both stone-based dragons and people in ferromagnetic armor of any sort.

[Below]

Here is the huge dragon: A big, dark gray creature with long horns and a strong face. It has piercing green eyes and powerful wings, and a really impressive muscular frame. Its scales have the inconsistently reflective glint of granite, and its claws are dark as obsidian. It's easily seventy feet long, but it moves like lightning when it hears Hunter and breathes a narrow beam of deep purple petrifying energy right at her. The beam's spread is respectable and if she hadn't have been busy falling down last time, it surely would have struck her then. As it is now, it will take some acrobatics to dodge.

[Recaiden]

[Above]

It tugs at the tape, and then, now that it has the mine, what can the fox do but run off with its treasure? And tell its friends, of course.

[Below]


How amazing, to see it in person. Truly one of the greatest beasts to stalk these hunting grounds.
But one can't stand here in amazement if they want to live.
Hunter twists to present a smaller profile and raises her left hand to meet the beam, her glove scattering the petrifying energy away from her. In the second after, wonders if she ought to have done something acrobatic instead.

[Fenric]

[Above]

But with nobody left to watch, we don't get to know what those sneaky DART agents are doing next!

[Below]

You don't get to be (or stay) a dragon this size in the Hunting Grounds by sitting back and hoping your breath weapon does the trick, so the next attack was launched immediately. The dragon doesn't care whether it makes Hunter-gravel or Hunter-Pâté: a spinning swipe is already on it's way with a tail the thickness of an old-growth oak!

[Recaiden]

[Above]

Alas. We can only hope they don't get away with their schemes.

But wait! There's the fox, empty-mouthed, coming to get a new mine! Why does a fox want a whole hoard of mines?

[Below]

It's only pâté is it cooks her also!

Now Hunter, she can't reliably jump over a fallen old-growth oak. But cutting one down is another story. She stands her ground and swings the sword with both hands; if she cuts the tail off the dragon at just the right place and angle she thinks it ought to miss her. This relies on the impossible sharpness of the blade against its chosen foe; even a small portion of that swipe would otherwise send it (and her) flying.

[Fenric]

[Above]

Who knows? But the DART agents have four eggs now tucked happily into sacks, and are ... leaving?

[Below]

The dragon roars in pain as Hunter chops into his tail. Then he ROARS - a magically augmented sonic attack that can split stone and burst organs!

[Recaiden]

[Above]

Oh right, it was following them, wasn't it? The lead wanted that, even if they're waaay too big for the fox to eat. It drops the newest mine it had just picked up and follows after the DART agents.

[Below]

Boulders split open, the earth shakes, and Hunter topples over. Vision is blurred, ears are deaf but still ringing, breathing isn't quite working out right, and sharp pains indicate more internal damage she can't assess right now. Might have a few broken bones...but her left arm at least is totally okay.

How stable are these crags? If the roar wasn't focused on Hunter I can imagine a lot of rocks tumbling their way down the mountainside about now.

[Fenric]

[Above]

Even up here the noise is loud, and the agents look around in wide-eyed fear. They now scurry back toward the rockslide...

[Below]

Indeed, things are starting to move: but momentum takes time. The dragon looks around with a dark scowl then launches itself into the air leaving Hunter to the mercy of the tons of rock that are on the way, albeit slowly for now.

[Recaiden]

[Above]

They're coming this way? The fox gets down and does its best to hide.

[Below]

Hunter fumbles around weakly, not managing anything but lying there bleeding, hoping more of her senses come back. She calls for help - is anyone there? Is she actually saying anything aloud?

[Fenric]

[Above]

The agents indeed to go the head of the slide, only to found that the slide has slid: their convenient exit is cut off.

[Below]

I'm not gonna let it happen this way, whatever they may say. Drink this.

It's the third cultist! He's got a bright red healing potion and he holds it up to her lips.

Not everybody has forgotten the ways of the hunt, Leah: we may be on opposite sides more often than not, but that doesn't matter anymore: now it's us against the mountain.

The rumbling is getting ever louder, and gravel is already beginning to pelt down.

[Recaiden]

[Above]

Maybe the fox ought to get to a safer place. Can't help with the hunt if he's crushed by a falling rock. He jumps from this rock that that rock to the other one, trying to find a higher place.

[Below]

Did that sonic blast crack her helmet off? Must have, since she feels the air going by and tastes that potion, to which she lifts her uninjured hand to help drink it down. Curse that dragon.

That's much better.
Hunter gets to her feet, grabs up her sword hilt (the blade went out when it left her hand; it would make a terrible throwing weapon) and glances around with eyes that aren't under too much pressure to see.
"Thanks."
"My transporter's still recharging, but as long as we aren't crushed, we can get out eventually. What did that roar leave intact?"

[Fenric]

[Above]

A low rumble presages something rather a little more pressing to the agents: the arrival of the mother! They flee along what semblance of a path there is, looking for a way down.

[Below]

Come on: this way.

And he leads back to the cliff and around a short way, to where a gash in the cliff face has left a cave. The falling rocks are rapidly getting more substantial and just as they get to the entrance, one finds his head and knocks him out cold!

[Recaiden]

[Above]

This should be far enough.

Good luck to those human-things running from a dragon in the middle of a rockslide.

[Below]

Oh no! Hunter reaches out to catch the cultist and pull him behind her into the cave. One life-saving act deserving another, and all. Were the cultists here in this cave before, or did they just come up the mountain this way? Or is this cleft in the rock new with the sonic blast?
None of that really matters so long as it's sheltering their heads.

[Fenric]

[Above]

The agents retain the presence of mind to activate their cloaking devices, leaving the dragon to hunt them by scent and sound while rocks noisily bounce around and the trail is disrupted.

[Below]

Only the one cultist was hiding here (the one that ran off when Hunter first arrived): trying to avoid both Hunter and the dragon.

As mentioned, rocks fall with quite a lot of noise. They're far enough up the mountain that the overall volume of stone is not that substantial, though, and only minimal excavation is likely to be necessary once things settle back down.

[Recaiden]

[Above]

Leaving open impossible things happening to them...but I think they've gotten away from the fox.

[Below]

Rocks fall, everybody...survives!
Hunter draws her sword again so she can see by the light it sheds, examining the cave and then checking over the cultist to see how badly that rock has hit him.

[Fenric]

[Above]

Ignoring the not-at-all impossible impromptu flying lesson... even if you are above the bulk of the rockslide, becoming part of the rockslide is always a danger...

[Below]

The noise subsides and the entrance is only just over half covered.

The "cave" is really a large crack caused by part of the cliff falling sideways, likely due to freeze/thaw cycles. It is essentially triangular in cross-section, and only goes back a short way before it is impassibly rubble-filled.

The cultist is alive, but his hair is now matted in blood and he has a serious concussion at the very least.