Lions Do Not Sleep :: 03
Shake It Off
Soulfire Saga
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. The warrioress made her way through the snow, breaking through the frozen snowdrifts; armored feet punctured through the ice-like surface down into the fluffier stuff beneath, sinking up to her knees. The tigress’ face broke into a grimace as she bent forward into the bracing Coerthas wind, ears flat against her hair as she squinted through the snow flurries. Her snow-white mane and her tail rippled away from her body like pennants at an Ishgardian tournament, but she would not be deterred. Digging in with the balls of her feet, she slow-motion lunged through the drifts.
Nobody told me that Coerthas could be this wretched. She thought to herself rebelliously as she continued to slog her way through the freezing environment. Gripping her magitek axe – a gift from her friend, Dorran Kaide – she gave brief thought to simply hacking her way through the thick snow. At the tertiary thought, the Allagan runes inscribed into the metal flared to life and blue-white flame erupted along the axe’s edges.
Arching a brow, Xochitl lowered the head of the axe into the snow. As expected it hissed and spat as ice returned to liquid then turned to boiling beneath the heat of the axe’s magitek flame – but the flames themselves didn’t sputter or go out from the touch of the snow. It just continued to burn blue-white hot and melt the snow around it. The xbr’aal blinked at that. The flames won’t go out unless you command them to. Dorran had told her, but she hadn’t expected this level of control over them. Her silver eyes went to the flames as they continued to boil away the snow ahead of her. Hotter.
The white parts of the flame completely disappeared as the blue flames took over. The snow practically evaporated beneath the touch of the superheated metal and still the haft and the axehead were cool to the touch. The warrioress loft her brows, Dorran’s work really was impressive! Taking the axe in both hands, she swung it around herself in a wide arc and with a fog of snow instantly turned to steam, hissing the whole way as the snow melted several ilms down the xbr’aal’s shins as she swathed a circle of clearance around herself. A smirk curved across her feline features.
As the steam cleared off, however, Xochitl found herself face-to-beak with an archaeornis as it bellowed its rage at having its nap disturbed by the intruder. Wasting not a single breath, the fighter dove to one-side, rolling through the snow to come up on her feet a few fulms away. The archaeornis dove at the spot where she’d been, taking up a beakful of snow as it chomped and crushed the melted mush.
Lowering the axe in her left hand to her customary grip that everyone found so unorthodox, she took hold of it at the haft only a fulm beneath the base of the axehead. The Training Master had taught her thus, because people always expected a two-handed grip with great-axe wielders. Not only was it a show of strength that Xochitl could hold the weapon one-handed, but use it effectively. Not that it mattered to a Dravanian. The archeaeornis shifted, turning her way as it mantled its wings, letting out an ear-piercing shriek.
The xbr’aal grimaced at the sound, but she’d heard worse from vidraal in her time. As the thing mantled its wings, tilting its head skyward to make its raucous noise the tigress lunged forward. With her one-handed grip on her axe, she braced the haft against her forearm so that the weapon moved with the power from her bicep to her shoulder as she ripped the blade of the axe straight up the beast’s throat in an upward slash that split its scaly hide, but not deep enough to fell the beast. Certainly enough to get its attention.
Swinging its right wing at the xbr’aal, Xochitl felt the claw at its wingtip clang against the metal of her pauldron. Remind me to thank Dorran for the new armor… she said to herself as she skid through the snow a few ilms at the impact. Bracing one knee in the snow to slow her motion to a stop, she dug her foot in to once more lunge with the superheated axe swinging it in a deadly arc at the creature’s wing joint. There was the sizzle of hot metal meeting flesh as the scales all but shattered beneath the volcanic heat of the magitek empowered flame. In the next moment, the creature’s entire wing fell to the ground, twitching but not bleeding because the axe was so hot it cauterized the wound in its passing.
Yet, that left the xbr’aal open to attack and the archaeornis took full advantage of that with instinctual fury. The creature’s wickedly sharp beak slammed into the tigress’ side, punching right through the light armor, fur, and muscle beneath – Xochitl grimaced in anticipation of the blow landing. Should’ve brought a shield…
As the thought crossed her mind a brilliant shield made of hexagonal segments flared to life around her, the archaeornis’ beak slamming into it with the blow that would have done the xbr’aal serious harm. She only had a moment to marvel at the effect, though, before the archaeornis reared its head back for another blow.
“Not today…” Xochitl said, using her grip on her axe to “punch” the Dravanian’s jaw with all her might. With the power of the heated magitek axe at her beck and call, the blow struck home and sliced through scale, flesh, and bone with all the ease of a hot knife through butter. The bird-like avian’s head fell to the snow, its body following soon after. Not a drop of blood was spilled, eerily enough. The axe was as clean as it was effective.
Standing over the dead body of her foe, Xochitl took the axe in both hands, looking down to admire the craftsmanship. The Allagan runes across the metal all glowed with the same blue-white light, each one slowly flickering out as the battle high left the tigress until the flames themselves extinguished at a final thought from her.
A smile once again adorned the tigress’ features. “Ka’ak pixan…” She murmured in Turali. The name she’d given the weapon at last: Soulfire.