-last edited on Mar 20, 2018 20:52:50 GMT by Emarcee
Post by Emarcee on Mar 20, 2018 20:51:05 GMT
Kratark landed in a crater...
A crater, of all things. Dust and rubble had actually been thrown into the air, what's more is that the spikes jutting from Kratark's shoulder plates were both snapped in twain. The blade burrower king was clearly a foe of great strength. Otherwise, how could it throw Kratark like that?
Kratark teleported onto his feet, and began trudging up the slope of the crater... with effort. When he rose to the top, the face of the larger blade burrower was in front of him. The beast then suddenly reared up, but Kratark was ready. He leaped into the air and delivered a kick to the beasts jaw, causing it to fall on its back. Suddenly, the other smaller blade burrowers leapt to attack the Makuta as well, and there was a shadow bolt for each of them. One had gotten close enough to tear Kratark's cape off, though, and-
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!! NOT THE CAPE!!" Screamed Kratark.
Waffles was blissfully taking a nap when his master had suddenly thrown a fit for no apparent reason. The beast calmly got to its feet and treaded out of its room, taking relaxed strides to the living room.
Kratark was sitting on a solid bench. Aside from this: there was nothing remotely recreational or comforting in the room. The first thing he saw was his pet Waffles. Curiously, the beast had its head tilted at its master, and almost an expression of confusion on its face... wait, no, that was confusion on its face.
"Great Spirit condemn it... FIGURES that the one interesting thing that happens in my life is just a dream. Curses..."
Kratark stepped outside, looking out on the horizon of Zakaz, wondering what he'd do today, when, suddenly, a group of blade burrowers popped out of the ground, and saw Kratark's fortress. The Makuta immediately reacted to this, his left arm was outstretched: a bright purple ball of energy formed in the palm, ready to be unleashed. His punching hand pulled back and ready to lung forward at a moment's notice, "ALRIGHT! BRING IT YOU FIENDS!" he shouted, but the blade burrowers quickly retreated underground, leaving behind a sign that read "Sorry!" in Matoran.
In other news: A Skakdi has been scared to death somewhere south.
The Skakdi lay in the grass, unmoving. There was a look of complete terror on its face, such that it was hard to tell whether it was actually dead or not: except it was. A somewhat larger Skakdi happened by the area. It was tall and menacing, and bore a peculiar staff. It had stopped and stared at the frozen being that was seemingly stuck to the ground, scowled, and moved on.
A group of Skakdi Kratark had hired to do a news show for him (in light of all the shenanigans taking place on Zakaz) was recently created, and they were tucked away in another room, recording in front of a camera in what was possibly the only section of Kratark's fortress that was actually well lit. The Makuta even invented a short-range television just to skip the hassle of having to be in the room itself (not to mention his physical presence would be more intimidating than need be).
One of the reporters began, saying, "Curiously, there seems to be an outbreak of... fireflyers? Gosh, apparently there are lots of Skakdi that have been... scared? To death? By these things? Uh, er, OH! As it just so happens, we actually have an entomologist with us of all people! Uh, um, where is he?"
A Skakdi suddenly burst forth and rushed to a nearby desk, a quite obvious thud could be heard as it landed on its seat. When the camera feed was switched to this Skakdi, it was raising its hand, and had to be told to lower it. "Well, um, you see, it's like this: these actually aren't fireflyers, they're a new species. And I have no idea of what's going on."
"THEN WHAT GOOD ARE YOU?! GET OUT!!"
There was a savage commotion in the news room behind Kratark, and the entomologist burst out, waving his arms around and running in a crazed manner. Suddenly, he vanished, only to reappear in a nearby camp making a fool out of himself.
"Ahem," continued the news anchor from before, "Apparently... this outbreak is mostly on Zakaz. We have... no further information to report (please don't kill us we're doing our best!)"
Kratark turned the TV off, walked over to the room with the Skakdi in it, saying, "Same time tomorrow." before tossing each crew-member a handful of widgets and sending them away.
-last edited on Mar 21, 2018 19:35:30 GMT by Emarcee
Post by Emarcee on Mar 21, 2018 19:35:23 GMT
Kratark was scowling. It was a genuine, hate-filled scowl. "Insects," He commented, "The ONLY things more evil in this world than I am. They exist solely to annoy, harass, and in some cases: to consume and kill indiscriminately. There is not one insect in all of the universe that is not single-mindedly bent on the vexation of all sapient life. They will not stop... not ever. Not until every last one of us has gone completely insane from their shenanigans!" His scowl worsened after he realized he was talking to himself. In a fit of frusteration, he stepped outside to survey the area, and see if he could spot any of the critters.
Almost immediately, he was greeted by a small insect buzzing about him. At this, the Makuta shapeshifted teeth onto his mouth just so he could grit them. Perhaps unwisely, the fireflyer landed on Kratark's hand. He knew what to do. The makuta raised his open palm some distance into the air, and... SLAMMED it down forcefully onto where the foul thing had dared to touch him! He had struck himself (and hopefully by extension, the fireflyer) so hard that he left a visible dent in his armor, in fact.
But then, to Kratark's great horror, the darned thing simply flew out from in between the Makuta's fingers. It flew around for a bit, and Kratark immediately set about trying to grasp the foul thing out of the sky with lightning fast movements, but each time it simply flew out of his fist. Finally, it came to rest on the side of Kratark's head...
At this every part of Kratark's armor that would otherwise be glowing purple turned an unbelievably dark shade of complete and utter black. Light itself began to twist around these parts of Kratark's armor, and an aura of unbelievable power and darkness erupted around the Makuta. His gaze was fixed upon the wretched insect, and he began to intensely speak latin at it. When this happened, the Makuta's entire body began to vibrate violently. This was a deathstare the likes of which had not been seen before. For even greater effect: a host of additional limbs made of shadows popped out from behind Kratark's cape, thrashing around violently, simply in protest of the fireflyer's existence.
The death stare is a powerful tool. First: Kratark affixes his gaze upon a desired victim. This grabs their attention, and forces them to look upon Kratark's face. In those moments, Kratark would be as a creepy-pasta monster to his victim, standing and staring as creepily as possible. Next, the kraata power of fear is used. Depending on just what Kratark wants to do to somebody, he can do as little as cause his foe to whimper, or outright cause near-instant catatonia or even a heart-attack (assuming the being has a heart to begin with). Then, to add real, tangible reasons for his foe to be afraid: Kratark will usually accompany his death stare with an actual mental attack to directly assault his opponent's mind even as they are being scared out of their wits. To increase these effects, he can even twist his victim's perception of reality itself with illusions, but he does not typically include this in his attack unless he particularly wants to strike an opponent's nerve.
What Kratark is doing right now, however, far exceeds anything that has thus been described. The level of hatred and rage being presented here would be enough to scare even a Lovecraftian monster, perhaps even cause said being to simply shriek in terror, if such a thing were even possible. Tren Krom himself, at least, would be begging Kratark to stop if such an assault were to be carried out on the gelatinous monster. This attack of unfathomable scale was being directed on a fireflyer, however, which, for the moment, seemed to be a being of much deeper evil. Indeed, the fireflyer seemed to be immune to Kratark's protests at its existence. A Toa, by comparison, would not have even suffered a heart attack: its very atoms would have shrieked in terror and violently broken apart just to escape Kratark's wrath.
Even in light of this, the fireflyer has not budged. And this is in sheer spite of Kratark's loud and masterful use of Latin, which by now has probably summoned the Zivon from out of the field of shadows. The Makuta's shouts only got louder and louder in protest, but his demands for the fireflyer to cease to exist fell on deaf ears. It was far too evil to do otherwise.
Make of that what you will, mortal, your thoughts on me are of no concern to he who defeats foes with one attack.
It was almost a day like any other, except with one key difference: there was chaos. Or rather, there was order, depending on from what point of view you look at it. The being had arrived suddenly, a Steltian brute that had escaped and decided to make a name for himself.
Many Brotherhood minions fled that day, saying things like, "It's a hero!" and "run!" assuming they were even capable of speech. In fact, only one Makuta was left to stare at the Toa. It was a cold, blank stare. "Why aren't you running?" Asked the Steltian, thinking he was a match for a Makuta by the looks of it. Kratark rolled his eyes, unimpressed, but the Steltian continued to talk, "I bet you're a Makuta who's not even with the Brotherhood, probably got tired of making all those Rahi, weren't you?!" Needless to say, these are very probing questions for a Steltian to ask a Makuta. "I ate many books about the Brotherhood, and somehow absorbed all the knowledge from them! I know everything about the Brotherhood! EVERYTHING!" He said, flaunting something one does not typically flaunt to a Makuta. "Why aren't you running?" He asked again. "You want to fall before me, is that it?" At last this earned a squint from Kratark, who unleashed his greatest power: the death-stare, upon the Steltian, it gaped in horror as it realized just what it was contending with. The Steltian had fought with Makuta before, even survived mental attacks, but this was different, this was power... overwhelming power... being held back so it wouldn't kill. Unnatural fear quite literally overtook the Steltian as using that kraata power was almost mandatory for the desired effect of the death-stare. The Steltian's mind was completely pierced, his body immobilized, his very being was now at the mercy of this Makuta. His vision had completely blacked out in mere seconds. The only thing he could see in front of his eyes was the unsettling image of Kratark staring at him with his deep, malicious, violet gaze. He could hear words in his head. Words that were not thought, but speech, directly implanted into the mind. Words that came seemingly from without and within. "You are a foolish brute." it said, "I do not fear you, for I can easily annihilate you. No, the question I ask myself today is: are you even worth the effort? I'm no villain, of the Brotherhood, this is true. But you do not know what it is like to know who created you. To know exactly what he thinks of you, what he expects from you, and how he expects you to act! I am the avatar of a god for all intents and purposes, a harbringer of a divine will and purpose. You are a lowly gladiator, fodder for the entertainment of your betters! Do with this paltry outpost what you will, but know that the ultimate life-form has marked you as a worthless fool!" With that, Kratark's hold on the Steltian was relinquished, and it sat in fear as the mighty Kratark disappeared in a wreath of shadows.
Continue! Continue! I wanna see more losers get death-stared!
For what it's worth -- another death stare happened, in case you weren't reading :3
A large, black cloud hovered in the air, with tendrils that reached out, looking for all nearby life, and devestating it. A host of animals have suffered a similar to the Skakdi that was in the field earlier, and anyone or anything that wasn't hiding behind shut doors was, for lack of a better description, already dead.
One Skakdi, however, dared to walk in the ruins of a deserted camp directly below the black cloud. It stared up into the sky, gritted its teeth, and raised its staff into the air, all just to proclaim one word: "Pain." The word left the Skakdi's teeth as softly as it possibly could, for a Skakdi. The word seemed to irradiate out through the air, as the black cloud suddenly warped, twisted, and dispersed, revealing a feminine figure within. The being in question was thinner than some Vortixx, and its demeanor and behavior suggested it was a less-than-wholesome entity. "Ugh, I knew there was an intelligence behind this insect swarm," began the Skakdi, "but I didn't know it would be something like you?"
"Hey handsome!" Shouted the female insect-leader hovering in the sky, "Would this be Zakaz by any chance?"
The Skakdi did not answer, in part because he did not see relevance in the question, but also because he felt giving an answer either way may intensify the being's will to assault the island, and that was not going to happen.
"Fine, have it your way!" She shrieked in an unbelievably annoying and shrill manner, "SCREAM YOUR DREAMS FOR ME SKAKDI!!!"
A long, straight, line of black suddenly extended out toward the Skakdi. However, much as he did before, he pointed his staff forward, and said, "Pain!" again. This time, the swarm had more will, and though it could not touch the Skakdi, they nonetheless continued to try and attack him en masse. In response to the increasing numbers of insects attacking him, the Skakdi simply increased the volume and frequency with which he said the word, "pain!" Repeating it over, and over again, like a mantra. Some of the fireflyers began to drop to the ground, others survived but were not able to get within 10 feet of the Skakdi. "PAAAAAAAAAIN!!!!" He screamed, and a host of the foul things dropped to the ground.
Kratark was a being of surprising speed and great power. However, for the life of him, he simply could not nail that one fireflyer. No matter how quickly or precisely he clapped his hands together, the darned thing would always just casually fly out from his fists like nothing happened! Surely the shockwaves alone would kill it? Truly, the cruelty of it all was surreal, and it made him scream again in anger.
The Skakdi and the female being were locked in deadly combat. "You send your swarms out, and send innocent bystanders into catatonia: why? What do you gain from this?!" asked the Skakdi. In reply, his opponent slashed at him with a large, beast-like claw, but the attack was blocked with a well time swing the Skakdi's staff. She almost slashed him with her other claw, but he blasted industrial heavy metal music at her, disturbing and confusing her long enough for the Skakdi to smack her over the head with its weapon. "The swarm will disperse if I finish you. Make peace with yourself, you're little more than a freak of nature."
"LIES! I AM THE BEAUTIFUL ASTRONA!" She yelled, revealing her identity, "I WAS HUMILIATED HERE ONCE BEFORE! BUT I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!!!" Speeding off, the Skakdi lost track of his opponent. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his side, he'd been hit. He whirled around to see his opponent, and quickly yelled "PAIN!!!!" to fend her off. She lept into the sky however, and began to seemingly flee.
"It seems she needs to feed on the fear of others after all." Commented the Skakdi, "I'll need to stop her before she can-"
The Skakdi felt the ground tremor ever so slightly. He could hear a voice in the distance, too. As its rapid, frantic footsteps approached, he could hear a voice on the horizon.
"....iiiiiiiiiiiiIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!! DIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! GAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!"
A livid Kratark was chasing after a fireflyer, spraying plasma into the air directly in front of him in an attempt to vaporize the wretched thing. It still didn't work however, thus his continued frusteration, finally, however, the fireflyer flew into the air, into the black cloud that was now forming once again in the sky.
"That swarm... THERE'S THAT MANY OF THEM?! ON MY ISLAND?!?!" Kratark was livid with this revelation, he could hardly believe what he was seeing. Very few things faze or surprise Kratark, but a giant swarm of insects does.
"That swarm is intelligent! If it senses anything, it attacks!"
"Typical. You should-"
Before Kratark could finish, abnormally annoying, feminine laughter erupted from the sky, and a mass of, for lack of a better term, fearflyers descended down on the Skakdi and Kratark. The Skakdi could hardly hold this attack back, so he said a word. A word different than pain. "Incinerate."
A massive fireball erupted into life around the Skakdi, quite literally incinerating everything in a large radius. "Hmph, it appears my foe was not nearly as intelligent as she let-on, she sent all of her minions out at once in one easy-to-destroy swarm. All I had to do was-"
"YOU!!!!!" Kratark interrupted. "LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO MY CAPE YOU RUNT!!!" Indeed, his cape was completely burned off. To which the Skakdi could only say, "Hey, look, I had to-"
Before the situation could escalate however, Astrona revealed herself, and in a new: altogether somehow more disturbing form than before. "BEHOLD!!! KRATARK! I, ASTRONA HAVE RETURNED TO DESTROY YOU! BEHOLD MY STRENGTH!!!"
To prove her point, Astrona threw the Skakdi that had been fighting her into the air, tossing him around and slashing him in various places.
Blast, he thought, I let my guard down... now I have no choice but to try and anticipate her next move, and deal a fatal blow even as she does one to me-
Before the Skakdi could go through with this line of thinking, however, Kratark leapt into the air, and punched Astrona squarely in the chest with his fist-blade, blowing her armor apart into a million pieces. "You are dead." Declared Kratark, before he summarily eradicated the rival Makuta's antidermis with a well deserved spray of plasma. Kratark then triumphantly landed on ground, dusting himself off as the injured Skakdi looked on in surprise and shock. Kratark looked on at the Skakdi, still angered at the burning of his cape. But then again... he thought, It's not every day a Skakdi slaughters an entire swarm of insects.
-last edited on Mar 24, 2018 21:45:14 GMT by Emarcee
Post by Emarcee on Mar 24, 2018 21:44:41 GMT
Kratark is a simple Makuta. If someone so much as damages his cape, they die. This Skakdi with the rather impressive staff was guilty of having done just that. Of course, it was an honest mistake, what with all the fearflyers and all, but still: such an act is still not advisable. As it stands, Kratark still cannot decide whether to end this Skakdi for burning his cape, or to spare him for his act of bravery in the face of those wretched insects.
Kratark held a narrowed gaze on the Skakdi, who could do little but wonder what he had just gotten himself into. "What is your name, Skakdi?" asked Kratark, who decided to at the very least show restraint until he got on answer. The answer that he got back came in the form of the word "Vazrudakann." Most Skakdi names do not break six letters. The ones that do usually turn out to become warlords or are only found in legend. Vazrudakann's name was exceptionally long, coming in at a staggering eleven letters. Whoever this Skakdi was: he was clearly an above average individual. Upon considering this, Kratark finally relented. "...Karz it. Come with me if you want to live."
The Skakdi heeded this advice, and followed Kratark. It was not a particularly long trek, but it was a walk nonetheless, and when one is injured: the last thing one wants to do is to be walking or standing for an extended period of time. However, Vazrudakann's will to live far outclassed most Skakdi. He had but to think of his goals in life, his wishes, his desires, the things he hated, and he would gain the strength to carry on. He did not break stride or complain, after all: he was dealing with a Makuta -- one who could defeat other Makuta in one punch (and a spray of plasma).
"You burned my cape off." Kratark explained. "You're buying me a new one. If you have anything of value on you apart from that staff, now would be the time to let me know.
Surprisingly, the Skakdi bore with him a quite large sum of Steltian currency, which he demonstrated post-haste.
"How did a Skakdi like you make that kind of money?" The Makuta asked, genuinely curious.
"The arenas of Stelt are a profitable place for those who are strong enough to survive its rigors."
Vazrudakann looked upon the terrible majesty that was Kratark's outpost. On the outside, it was the same shape as a gigantic citadel... only, much smaller. It was only a little bit bigger than the average house, except, of course, it was shaped like an awesome villain citadel. It was made from what seemed to be pitch black metal, and a dark violet haze was visibly coming out of its outline. Black flakes of dust flew off of it for some unknown reason, and yet, it did not seem to be deteriorating in of itself either. Suddenly, Vazrudakann's stride was halted by a stasis field put on his legs. "Wait here. Wander around or sit down if you must. But if you try to hide from me, or get more than a hundred bios away, you will die." The Makuta then entered through the doorway, and descended down into his home. Vazrudakann took this time to sit down and try to bandadge himself with some cloth. He had a feeling that bleeding would not be the best thing to do in the following hours.
Waffles was peacefully lying down in his room, like he usually does. In the midst of this, Kratark casually set about rummaging about in a nearby cabinet, and procured what seemed to be a large bug net with a button on it. He then walked over to Waffles, and placed the net such that it was positioned just above the beast's wings. After gently waking it up with some light petting, it saw the bug net, and almost instinctually, two horns burst up on its head. the two massive claws which usually stayed resting on its shoulders came off and were planted firmly on the ground as a sixth set of limbs. Suddenly, and in almost an unnatural way, the wind in the room picked up, and the cloth-like webbing of the Rahi's wings began to blow around. As this happened, a mess of dander-like scales suddenly flew straight up into the bug net at an unfathomably fast pace. Such that it was completely full in only three seconds. The Makuta then quickly turned it over, and the bug net suddenly sealed shut (that's what the button was for.
Seeing this, the beast's horns suddenly retracted, and it relaxed again.
"Good boy." Kratark said, completely out of habit.
Vazrudakann was quite shaken. He didn't know what Kratark was doing: but the wind in the area had suddenly kicked up, the sky darkened, and he heard a terrible screeching sound. It suddenly all halted though, and by the time the sky had turned back to normal, the Makuta had reappered in front of the Skakdi carrying a large sack over his shoulder. The Skakdi hazarded to ask what was in the sac, and instead decided to ask a more benign question, "Forgive me -- but what was that sound?"
"Waffles." Responded the Makuta.
"I beg your pardon?"
"My pet."
In a fit of flagrance, Vazrudakann imprudently asked,"You make your pet scream?"
"I needed him to shed some of his scales for me, and he gets excited whenever he does it. The roar is merely a result of his gusto."
Vazrudakann would have complimented Kratark on his relationship with his pet, but decided to stick with a simple "Okay." Instead, just to play it safe.
The two walked together, approaching a rather big, spacious-looking vehicle. As the Makuta approached, a rectangular section of the ship suddenly dropped down, revealing a ramp for those wishing to enter the vessel. The colors inside the ship were either black, or purple. Suddenly, however, the lights turned a more standard white, and the ship suddenly seemed altogether more inviting.
"Enjoy this while you can. It is the only modicum of comfort you will receive for the duration of this errand. Be grateful I give consideration to a timid mortal such as yourself that fears the dark."
The name of the ship in question was the Manas T10. Named for the large, menacing crab it is somewhat reminiscent of. The two beings stepped up the ramp, and Kratark vanished, leaving the sac behind in the entry bay. The ramp, as one would expect, retracted since it was no longer needed.
Vazrudakann looked searchingly for a place to sit down, but did not find one. Suddenly, he was jolted into the floor by some unseen force as the ship took off, planting the Skakdi face-first into the ground. The ship then burst forward at a surprising velocity, throwing the Skakdi against the rear of the ship.
Kratark, meanwhile, gave a wry smirk as he imagined just what was happening to the Skakdi.
-last edited on Apr 9, 2018 19:47:34 GMT by Emarcee
Post by Emarcee on Apr 9, 2018 19:41:28 GMT
The Manas T10 blazed a trail of darkness into the skies, Kratark had not yet found an excuse to fly it, and so: he took full advantadge of the opportunity. It tossed and tumbled, performing barrel aileron rolls like mad. Vazrudakann, meanwhile, was repeatedly being slammed into the walls, ceiling, and floor of the craft. Amidst the near-constant thudding coming from the cargo bay could be heard confused shouts of pain. Kratark laughed as he heard this: this was the most fun he had had with an infidel since... forever, really. Mortals, after all, are fragile beings. If Kratark wants to punish one without killing it, he has to actively avoid punching them, which is a quite intriguing exercise in of itself. Indeed: Kratark preferred dealing with mortals as opposed to other Makuta. They were harder to spare.
As the Manas approached it's destination, it suddenly burst off vertically into the sky, and the engines were purposefully cut off. it stalled in the air, and then began to dive directly into the ground below it. At what seemed to be the last second though, a pair of jets at the front of the ship blazed into life, halting its momentum, and allowing it to reorient itself into a landing position. Kratark then emerged from the cockpit, a wry smile affixed to his face as Vazrudakann lay in the corner, shivering with terror. "Oh, look at that, you're still alive." The Makuta upon saying this callously kicked the bag of Waffles' scales over to Vazrudakann, who, upon seeing it was completely full, could not help but have a distressed and confused look on his face. "What?" Kratark asked, "Did you really think I'd fly this ship like a maniac if I hadn't properly sealed the bag shut?"
It suddenly struck the Skakdi the fact that Kratark had purposefully been flying his ship wildly so as to hurt him. "Listen very well to what I am about to tell you, Skakdi:" began the Makuta, "you are going to haul this bag of scales down to Nynrah, you are going to tell them that you are an idiot and that you burned Kratark's cape, and then you are going to watch them make it. This way, you might understand what it means to burn my freaking cape off! NOW GET OFF OF MY SHIP!"
