Hunting the Gryphon

[Solemn Creed]

Sol wiped his hands against the sides of his jeans as if killing the fool Merc had somehow dirtied them and they needed to be cleaned. e walked back over to Azriel and Sol's expression showed approval at the apathy he saw on his face. He grinned, "I guess we can head out no-" he began but was interrupted by a male voice that began talking. It was filled with power and was congratulating them on killing the fool Merc. He spoke of a reward and then Sol's world vanished.

Sol felt as if he had been dropped into a cyclone. The world spun about him in a blur, briefly, then he felt as if he was thrust out of the storm and his surroundings stopped moving. He stumbled to the side, a shocked expression on his face. The oriental man was familiar in some way, but that thought flashed across his mind briefly as he attempted to resist the urge to puke.

He noted to himself that he was no longer in the city but was somewhere in the mountains. He heard a roar and a broad smile split across his face, Sol's signature grin. He looked up and saw the Gryphon in all its glory. At a length of 10ft, it was longer than Sol was tall in his true form but his wingspan dwarfed its own by a good 6ft or so.

Sol exhaled and a ripple went out across his skin as he began to revert to his natural form. A cry that sounded like a mixture between pleasure and pain burst from his throat as his bones began to crack, grow, and reshape into a much larger form. Leathery, lightly scaled batlike wings erupte from his back tearing through the skin and stretching out to their full length of 18ft. Elegant, yet powerful horns grew from his forehead and his scream intensified at the feel of the bones of his face reshaping and pushing outward at his forehead untill they formed his horns. His irises elongated to become more catlike in appearance and they became green in color. His skin burned and itched and his bones ached as they grew to increase his stature to its full height of 9ft tall. His fingernails shot off as long black talons grew from his fingers. Last but not least his skin turned rich, blood red color and his cry ended. Now in his true form, the air around Sol practically buzzed with power.

He turned to look down at Azriel who was in awe of the great ariel beast, and he smirked. Sol noted that Karva had not been brought along and he quickly noticed two males nearby, one a gorgon and the other seemingly human. An elemental maybe. "Sure, you can help if you want." Sol's voice boomed before he dropped into a crouch.

Large thigh muscles coiled and unleashed with enough power that it cracked the ground beneath his feet as he hurled him self into the air, stretching his wings out to their huge length. Sol sped through the air towards the beast which appeared almost shocked at his sudden transformation. He held out his hand as he flew and his sword and knives blended together into a great sword fitting for one of his size. Sol was grinning madly as he flew towards the beast, heading with all caution yet seeming recklessness.

[Azriel Gideon]

Azriel was in awe of this great beast they had come to kill. It was majestic and beautiful, in its own deadly way. He began to feel that such a beast was beyond his abilities but he shook such thoughts away as he took a deep breath and summoned up his courage. In a quick, practiced movement, Azriel opened the large instrument case he was carrying and he removed the two handed sword that was inside it. With one hand, he said a quick prayer to God and he unfurled his wings.

This is it, Azriel told himself, prove your self worthy to have survived so long when so many innocents died at our hand. He set his face with grim determination. Prepared to kill this creature or die trying.

Instead of following Sol into the air, Azriel teleported himself a few feet into the air above the gryphon. using his wings to steady himself, he slashed down with his sword, letting out a booming battle cry as he did so, and hoping to hit one of its wings and simplify the battle. Sadly, he hadn't taken into account the beast's tail.

[Kyrian Tidus]

Kyrian would take a few steps backwards as the demon suddenly shifted into his true form, an overwhelming power emanating from him. He stared in a state of half-awe as the demon flew into the air after the beast, shattering the very earth beneath him. After seeing this, he turned to look at the other male who was with the demon, but found nobody there. Looking back up to the demon and the gryphon, Kyrian noticed that the other male had sprouted wings and was now above the gryphon when he had just been beside him. Summing it up to be teleportation, as Kyrian was also capable of doing, he tried to devise a plan of how to help in the assault on the creature they had all come here for.

Still staring up at the fight in the sky, he noticed that the beast's tail was moving towards the light-haired male, probably to strike through him. Acting upon impulse, Kyrian drew his katana from its sheath upon his back and teleported himself behind the other male, slicing at the tail in an arching motion, hoping to slice it off or at least to deflect the incoming attack. As he did this, he smiled and said absently to the one whom the attack was meant for, "You should watch your back, pretty boy."

[Kaarme Medusa]

Stripping from his pants once he saw the males transform and go into battle he changed into his true form, shedding the legs for a tail as he pulled out a poison tipped needle. Slithering over the ground quickly he tried to get ahead of the gryphon. Getting a slight lead by cutting straight as the gryphon turned he watched the beast fly around he tried to predict where the beast would fly to next. Taking aim he lead the beast before throwing the needle with accuracy at the beast.

Not sure if the needle hit the beast or not he yelled out to the demon. "Demon! Throw me on the beast! I can take out a wing!" Slivering quickly along the ground he tried to keep up with them while staying in the clearing.

[Solemn Creed]

Sol watched the near hit from the beast's tail on Azriel. From where he was, Sol could clearly see the gem studded appendage and he knew it would have done great damage to the angel if the elemental hadn't intervened. Soon Sol had problems of his own to worry about. He crashed into the gryphon, swinging his greatsword side to side almost desperately to keep those large fore claws from eviscerating him.

The gryphon's beak snapped at Sol's throat, but he had expected this, and he threw one arm up to block. So, instead of ripping his throat out the gryphon's beak snapped down on his forearm. Sol grunted in pain and even winced slightly. There was enough force behind that beak to snap a human's arm in half, but Sol was no human. The thick bone of his forearm held and he forced it deeper into the gryphon's beak, opening it uncomfortably wide.

By now they were plummeting through the air and Sol used his other arm to safely shove back from the beast. Once disengaged, the gryphon let out a sort of squack and flapped its wings some to pull out of the dive. Hearing the gorgon's words, Sol spread his massive wings out to slow his decent and he landed softly in front of the gorgon. He glanced down at the torn flesh of his forearm, showing a bit of bone through the torn muscle and he grunted softly. Concentrating, Sol healed himself and watched as the flesh and muscle reknit together and the wound closed.

To the gorgon he said, "Prepare yourself and be careful, its faster than it looks." With that, Sol grabbed the gorgon by the forearms and spun around, gaining momentum, then he heaved with all his might, aiming a bit above where the gryphon was. The gorgon male went flying up towards it and Sol used his powers slightly to keep his course more or less straight. He hefted his greatsword and prepared to enter the fray once more.

[Azriel Gideon]

When Azriel saw the diamond studded tail lashing at him from the corner of his eye, he knew he didn't have enough time to block it with his sword. He braced himself to accept the hit, hoping it wouldn't do too much harm to his vitals. Suddenly, the human male from before, who was obviously an elemental because he could use powers, was before him and he blocked the tail strike with a katana before it could hit Azriel.

The amber eyed angel merely nodded in appreciation and grabbed the elemental to keep him from falling to his death. He began to slash down, one handed, with his greatsword but he stopped when Sol grappled with the creature, not wanting to risk hurting his ally. He looked at the elemental, "You should teleport back to the ground. I cant fight while holding you like this." After telling him that, Azriel let go, trusting the male would find his way down safely.

By then the demon and gryphon were no longer locked together and Azriel swooped down at the creature, greatsword ready for a twohanded swing that would take full advantage of the added momentum. Azriel first batted the tail aside and focused on dealing with the claws and beak, knocking the tail aside every so often. His amber colored eyes widened in surprise when he saw a gorgon flying at one of the gryphon's wings and nearly had his throat ripped out.

Quickly grasping the plan, Azriel let fly a rapid flurry of blows, keeping the gryphon's natural weapons busy while the male gorgon attempted to cripple its wing.

[Kyrian Tidus]

Kyrian fell to the ground but teleported himself in mid-air, safely appearing on the ground once again while watching the fight in the air. Not seeing anything that he could do at the moment, he watched the demon throw what appeared to be a gorgon, if his memory was right, into the air at the gryphon. Watching the creature fly at the beast and the winged male hacking at it, as well as the demon now getting ready to launch back into action, Kyrian realized that there was no way that he could keep up with such powerful creatures. "No, they're monsters" he thought to himself while watching the battle which could only be described as epic. The beast was attacking ferociously, yet the others would not yield and put up their own counter-offense.

Not being able to stand it any longer, Kyrian teleported himself unto the gryphon's back, determined to take out its tail. After slicing at it once, full force, he determined that at his strength level he would never be able to even harm the beast. As he stood there, halfway pitying himself, the gryphon launched its tail at blinding speed and struck Kyrian in the chest, missing his heart, but puncturing a lung. As the tail slid back out of the hole in his chest, he feel off of the beast's back and through the air. As he fell, his healing abilities worked quickly on healing the hole, working slightly faster than normal. Even if the hole in his chest was repaired in time, he would still die from hitting the ground and bursting his whole body upon impact. It looked like this was the end for him. As he fell through the sky, he closed his eyes and a soft laugh began to escape his lips.

[Kaarme Medusa]

Nodding to the demon he clenched his muscle as he grabbed his arm, being thrown into the air at the gryphon he could tell he was being corrected slightly to stay on target. Watching the elemental land on the back of the beast and get stabbed by the tail as Kaarme reached the beast, grabbing onto the beasts wing he reached out to grab Kyrian, just missing his hand by a few inches he wrapped his tail around the body of the beast and held on.

Pulling out the needles he stabbed the poison coated needles into the beasts joint for its wings as it reached its lowest point. Forcing the needles deeper into the flesh and in the joint he moved them back and forth to dig them deeper into the joint to hinder the wing useless. Hearing the beast scream in pain he let go of the beast and covered his ears quickly. Hearing the ringing from the screech he was glad to have a tail to hold onto the beast with.

Turning around to look for the others he got a glimpse of the shine from the diamonds as the tail pierced his left shoulder. His eyes going wide he let go of his head and yelled loudly in pain as he grabbed onto the tail, a mistake he quickly learned when the beast ripped its tail out of his shoulder and hands, cutting them badly as they fell to the ground quickly. Having forgotten about the beast was in the air with a useless wing from the pain.

[Azriel Gideon]

Not paying attention as the others around him fell, Azriel began to hack at the beasts wings with renewed vigor. When the gorgon jumped on the beasts back and disabled one of its wings, he darted in, ignoring its attacks, and he slashed at its wing. He saw out of the corner of his eye as both gorgon and the elemental from earlier fell but he paid them no mind, having his own troubles as the tail whipped against his hand that was holding his greatsword.

Stung, Azriel recoiled from the lailing beast whos wings could no longer support it. He had dropped his greatsword and held his injured hand close to his chest. It took him a moment to notice something was different. Azriel glanced down and his eyes widened. It was gone. He no longer had a right hand.

[Solemn Creed]

Sol roared again in challenge, as he shot into the air once more, wings beating the air furiously. He held his arm out before him and aimed the tip of his sword, carefully. Sol noticed the gorgon male, the elemental, and Azriel had managed to take out the wings. He grinned, the gryphon no longer had a way to dodge his attack. With all his power, he pushed the metal of the sword forward.

Moving fast, flying like a huge over sized projectile of some sort , the sword flew forward, a brief flashing blur in the eyes of the doomed beast, and its tip pierced the tender, crispy chicken breast of the gryphon, impaling the magnificent creature up to the hilt with six feets worth of gleaming, carbonated steel.

Sol swooped and landed to the ground, directly underneath the beast, and he prepared for a spectacular ending to the slaying of the beast that was already mortally wounded. He brought his hands together, arms outstretched, over his head and he concentrated. With all of his considerable power, Sol thrust his hands apart and shouted as he released the power he had built up within. In that same instant, using several of his different abilities, the gryphon exploded in a burst of flame.

Sol grinned, his eyes still closed, as the gryphon's blood rained down on him, the dangerous bone shards and such, blown far out. The head and tail, which he had been careful to preserve, landed in a purposefully controlled manner next to his foot. Luckily, by then, all of his allies were out of the range of any bio shrapnel. And just like that, the beast was dead.

[Kaarme Medusa]

As he let go of the gryphon from the pain he fell to the earth, he wasn't that far off the ground but knew it will hurt like hell. As he fell he looked up at the sky to see the demon skewer the beast. In a blink of his eyes he landed on the earth, the impact causing him to bounce and coil up in pain, holding his shoulder and closing his eyes as he heard the gryphon explode.

Keeping his eyes closed he clenched his jaw and slowly stood up, looking around as he slithering over slowly to the demon he flinched as he moved. Looking down at the gryphons tail and head. "Damn beast.. Didn't think it would of been that hard to kill it.. Im glad I stumbled upon you guys." Letting go of his shoulder he whipped the blood off on the grass before he ran his fingers through his hair to fix it. Even wounded he needed to look good. Getting light headed from the blood loss he closed his eyes and curled up on the ground. A small pool of blood forming under him

[Kyrian Tidus]

Kyrian used his teleportation in order to land himself safely on the ground, chuckling slightly as he dusted himself off. After hearing a magnificent roar, he saw the end of the great beast that he had been hunting. At seeing this end, the male felt both depressed and annoyed at the same time. Although the feelings were coming from two different people. One side of him felt sad that he was weak during the fight and completely unable to help, yet the other side felt frustrated that the others got in his way and did not allow him to kill the beast himself.

As Kyrian moved his hair out of his eyes, it was visible that one orb had an amethyst hue and the other was a crimson color. Yes, the horror inside was beginning to come out. This was the explanation to his healing rate and the fact that he still had enough energy to teleport right after recovering from a near death experience. However, if not handled soon, it could end up being disastrous. Kyrian took control of the right arm and, dropping the katana, reached into his pocket in order to pull out a golden pocket watch. The very sight of the instrument fill Kyrian with a sort of tranquility and he was able to regain full control from Janus.

After his little mini-battle, he walked over to join the demon who was the hero of the battle. "Thanks man. None of us stood a chance without you. In fact, you were practically the whole tea-" At this point, the male suddenly fainted and collapsed to the ground right as the gorgon reached the demon, no longer able to keep up with what he had just put himself through.

[Solemn Creed]

Sol looked down at the gorgon male who had slithered over to him. It was obvious that he was critically injured, the wound in his shoulder was potentially fatal. The elemental male also walked over to him, seeming rather battered. Then he collapsed into a heap at Sol's feet, unconcious. He sighed and shook his head slightly. They were such fragile little things, but he would heal them for they had been his comrades

Sol cocked his head to the side slightly, as he knelt in front of the wounded gorgon male. Life.. it was so fragile, and here he held one of these lives in his hands as he had many times before.. At this moment, he was judge, jury, and executioner. Sol was the final arbitrator of this man's life, whether to let him live, or let him die, it was his choice.

Sol placed the palm of his hand on the male's torso. He could feel, sense would be a more precise way of putting it, the male's life force. An emptiness within him hungered for what little the male had left, but rather than give in to this temptation, Sol reached into the emptiness and found his own vast life force a small portion of which he poured into the male, concentrating on healing his wounds. When Sol moved on to the elemental, the male gorgon was almost fully healed, all but the smallest scrapes and bruises, the male would be a little sore but perfectly fine. He repeated the process with the elemental until he too was healed.

Then Sol stood and looked over them both, admiring his handiwork. He stretched his arms over his head a bit, feeling only slightly tired after healing the two, and he looked around for Azriel but couldnt see him. Sol shrugged, oh well..

[Kaarme Medusa]

Kaarme laid there unconscious in the pool of his own blood that was soaking into his cloth around his chest. His tan cloth now blood red as he slowly started slipping away. His life force was draining quickly and there was nothing he could do about it. It was getting harder and harder to breath as his lung filled with blood along with being punctured. His body started to make him cough, slipping out of unconsciousness he saw the demon above him. Feeling the hand on his chest giving him life.Watching the demon take it off and move onto the elemental he quickly rolled over. Coughing violently to spit out all the blood still in his lungs.

Taking a deep breath every now and then before coughing up more blood he slowly began to get up. Pushing off with his arms he was upright for a second before he fell back onto his tail. Laying there he watched the sky. Closing his eyes he turned his head and opened them to look at the demon standing over them.

He needed to regain his strength if he even wanted to make it back to Athens. He could check off 2 things from his list, killing the gryphon and almost dying. Two things he didn't need to do any more. The adrenaline was quickly wearing off, he soon felt like he was hit by a car.

Clenching his jaws he worked his way up, feeling light headed he lost his vision for a few seconds, sighing and waited for his sight to come back before looking at the demon and speaking. "I owe you my life stranger. I go by Kaarme"

[Kyrian Tidus]

Kyrian woke up suddenly, still seeing the visions of his dream. He looked about with wide eyes, full of fright, ready to be attacked from anywhere and knowing that he wouldn't be able to defend himself. Suddenly, the visions cleared and he once again remembered where he truly was.

He wondered who he should thank for waking him. Looking to his left, he saw the gorgon male getting up, although laboriously. That was certainly not what had saved him from his dreams. However, he looked to his right and saw the powerful demon looming over him. That had to be what had helped him. Kyrian got to his feet, instantly wincing and holding the right side of his ribcage and muttering under his breath, "Dammit Janus. If you're going to try to steal my body, you can at least heal it fully." After fussing at himself, he smiled up at the demon appreciatively and thanked him for helping him out. "Thank you, Mr... Red Skin? Uhhh, your name aside, you were extremely brave and strong. And I thank you greatly for saving me from my slumber."

Kyrian, with his mind now clear, and complete control over his being, placed his right hand upon the gorgon's arm and closed his eyes, sensing the rest of his injuries. Upon discovering every problem withing the male's body, he would force his energy into the gorgon, infusing it with his in order to heal up the rest of his problems. Although Kyrian thought it very vain of him, the gorgon seemed to value his looks, and so Kyrian spent a little extra care in order to make sure that his face was the same as before the fight.

Letting go of the gorgon's arm and pressing his hands against his head, shaking it back and forth quickly, dispelling the dizziness that came with healing the gorgon. Well, now that he had helped to take out a quest creature, Kyrian was a step closer to being as great as his father, and possibly meeting him. Plus, it had been a fun trip.