by Qara-Xuan Zenith on Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:17 pm
If Leaf had eyes, it would have blinked; as it was, it felt momentarily confused. Only dragons and gods could disappear like that, in its experience, and this newcomer, whether friend or foe, was surely no dragon. Was it a god, then? Leaf trembled, knowing firsthand the amount of damage even a minor god could do when angered. No matter, though; After all, it thought, we not human mages. We be darkings. And the darkings, Leaf resolved, would win this day.
"Jelly, Trick, Lace, Peony," Leaf squeaked, calling to four of the more experienced darkings. What one darking knows, all darkings know. Acting on an unspoken command, each of the four darkings Leaf had named led a small group of zombie-mounted darkings, steering their undead companions to split off from the main group. In five teams, they would spread out through the city. There was nothing so well-hidden that a darking could not find it, no cranny so small that a darking could not access it.
Remembering little Secret's question from before, Leaf formed a head-shaped blob long enough to imagine it smiling. "Plotting. Plotting funfun."
Trick saw the figure appear, and the darkings with it spread out, surrounding the odd creature. Leaf, seeing Trick see this in its mind's eye, called mentally for Jelly's group-- the next closest-- to fan out behind Trick's darkings, but Leaf's and the other two segments would hold their places, occupying nearly all of this city. If their opponent chose to vanish again, they would be ready for it, whenever it appeared. For now, the ball was in Trick's court.
Trick kept its head-blob focused on the enemy, but it was seeing what all the darkings with it were seeing, as well, and darkings being curious creatures by nature, they were looking around, and seeing quite a bit. There were hundreds of bodies around, bodies much like those that they now rode, only prone, many of them missing a head, or a limb. There were also spears littering the ground amidst the bodies. Trick had the darkings in the enemy's direct line of sight hold their positions, waiting, but Jelly's group, behind them, it instructed differently.
As Trick watched the figure before them intently, the darkings with Jelly quietly encouraged their zombies to lift the weapons from the ground--ignoring the bodies as, for the moment at least, irrelevant-- and raise them, readying to strike at the foe when Trick or Leaf gave the silent command.
From its vantage in a different part of the city, Leaf watched through Trick's metaphorical eyes, judging the moment to be right, then... "Now," it squeaked, and Jelly and its companions, hearing Leaf in their minds, oozed down the bodies of their mounts to guide the zombies' hands in aiming through the gaps between the zombies of Trick's group to launch the spears at the figure in the centre of their circle.
Lead by example. Get lost in a swamp.
AS DICTATED TO INSTANTIATION 17-01-18-01.