I suppose someone might try operating all the weaponry the new trench possesses…
Round 62.5 - Year 5, Month 4
In the New Trench two groups would meet, with their goals being mutual destruction as it seems - The Outsiders have sought to destroy the entity to target them back at their home forums ever since they gained the ability to feel hatred, and The Devourer, alongside their loyal domain, knowing what these Aliens are most likely after, tried to destroy the exiles ever since they arrived in this forum. Now, with not even the rest of The Covenant involved, a clean battle with no external influence as it seems it about to take place. With the relatively small size of New Trench when compared to a regular thread, the forces united under worshiping The Devourer would soon amass to protect their master and god.
(3/6) - Outsiders
(1/6) - Devourer’s Forces
The cultsmen and warriors Devourer has under it’s rule may be fast, but they still have to travel a considerable distance to protect their lord, and with the gang of nine only being spotted just now, they did not even mobilize properly yet, leaving their worshiped exposed to attacks currently.
Meanwhile The Outsiders, not entirely sure how powerful may their past oppressor truly be, decided to play relatively safe for now. Stumpspawn would again create an energy-shield protecting the group just like how it did back during the forumwide struggle again a divine intruder, and from within this forcefield Stargun would emerge and swiftly take position to shoot The Devourer from a safe distance. The bullet would proceed to scrape the to-this-point undisputed master of this PM near it’s head at which the armed outsider was arming, causing the rather fragile Devourer to lose about a fifth of it’s total healthbase.
(5/6) - Devourer’s Forces
(3/6) - Outsiders
The bang of Stargun’s shot has finally mobilized more or less all creatures present in New Trench to move in to protect their god. Whilst the shooter started retreating towards the main group of the band, Devoruer would take the opposite way, seemingly trying to escape the now-dangerous PM. Spells and arrows fill the air, of which these which do hit the energetic barrier of Stumpspawn’s do not pass any further. Stargun may have found itself within the protected zone relatively soon after the assault of the worshipers had started, but still many hits it did sustain, causing it’s healthbase to drop to a half of it’s full capacity. Seemingly some sort of countermeasure is being planned within the shield, to defeat the assaulting forces and reach Devourer before it makes it’s way into some grotto where it would be safe.
(3/6) - Outsiders
(1/6) - Devourer’s Forces
Right when some of the forces loyal to Devourer started to face ammo shortage or an inability to cast any more spells, the energy shield created two holes from which three outsiders emerged this time around - from a hole higher up, the fiery Serphant would fly out, whereas from the hole created at the ground level, Sonar and Sanitizer would walk and crawl out. As the army was preparing to hit these new targets, individually much weaker than Stargun, Sonar released a stun wave which temporarily knocked out the weak cat beasts, mad beasts and devourling crabs all around, whilst also seemingly interfering with energy transfers and spells that were already up in the air. Then, Sanitizer and Serphant would strike both at the same time - from the former’s cones atop it’s many limbs, a sticky soap of sorts would start being shot, expanding in size extremely after leaving the body of this strange outsider. The soap’s true qualities would soon be found out by the creatures which were hit by it’s bubbles, as the afflicted areas of their bodies would start to quite literally melt off of them, while the few arrows which were shot at Sanitizer would find themselves dissolved before they could reach their target. At the same time as this was happening, Serphant would start glowing white from heat, with the temperature soon catching up to all the hostiles nearby, causing severe burns and usually also a painful death. These two “angels of death” would start to massacre the devourlings that stood in between them and Devourer, as many of them still were recovering from the stun attack of Sonar’s. The gap is closing between The Hunting Outsiders and the Hunted Devourer…
(4/6) - Devourer’s Forces
(5/6) - Outsiders
As the effects of the stun wave faded, energy transfers could be resumed once more. With this, Devourer would seek to stop the approach of the two “cleansers” no matter if this also caused some harm to it’s own forces. Soon enough, when Sanitizer and Serphant were targetting a batallion of Thralls, upon them getting covered in the soap and scorched by the intense heat a considerable explosion occured where once they resided in a creature trench, leaving the two whom have killed them damaged nearly to half their healthbase. With that, the “melters” of many cultists would from now on be more careful with what they kill and at what distance…
At the same time, it appears that the formation of Outsiders within the protective shield has dispersed as the shield now too is gone. All members of the band seem to be fighting now, and it does not seem too great for Devourer currently - the charging melee Thrall forces have been more or less swept away after they tried surviving the soap and heat of the cleansing two, the slashing and piercing barrages of Shieldsword and Spadebug, or even the spear-missiles of Sharpwing’s that sometimes impaled many Thralls on them. The ranged units of the army under Devourer’s command however, being a definitive majority in terms of numbers even when compared to the seemingly countless charge Thralls, would pose a significantly larger threat to the band, though they would sustain losses not much smaller than what the melee M. Demens did. The Cat-Beasts, arguably the most powerful out of the trio of the Devourer Domains, alongside the Thralls assigned to ranged roles, would particularly find themselves targeted by the many bees Stumpspawn spat out, now being somewhat away from the main scene of the battle. The Devourling Crabs would meanwhile soon enough find themselves hunted by two outsiders in particular - The flying Sharpwing that could target them from high above, and Speeder, an outsider that has so far not shown off much of what it can do. While Sharpwing was mostly busy aiming the kinetic spears to take out as many crabs as possible, speeder would walk on the walls of the post where most of these Devourlings resided. The incredible speed of this spider-like entity would make it difficult for the mostly ranged foes to hit it, but worse yet, for some strange reason all the crabs with which Speeder made contact with would turn on their mates as soon as the arachnid-like stopped touching them. Despite the pure massacre that was this assault of the band of nine, it did not result in them being unhurt - Sharpwing would be hit by a few spells and arrows despite it’s high manauverability sourcing from four wings, losing 4 HP, Spadebug and Shieldsword would each receive 3 HP of damage from the few spears and swords that made it through their armor in the brief moment their wielder was close and not dead yet, Sonar waiting a bit behind the main heat points would be hit by a few stray arrows, costing it 2 HP, Speeder would meanwhile find itself hit by a spell or two, causing a loss of 3 HP to this rather fragile Outsider. Stumpspawn has been rather secure from most attacks, but a suddenly a strong spell of Devourer’s would hit this rather heavy Outsider, causing bark to be torn off from one side of it’s body and a petal or two to fall from it’s flower, in total resulting in 4 HP of damage. Stargun meanwhile is nowhere to be seen currently, it’s as if this Outsider just vanished…
(3/6) - Outsiders
(1/6) - Devourer’s Forces
While the Outsider did sustain considerable amounts of damage, even more was sustained by both the amount of and morale of the Devourer’s armies. With the hopes of many becoming depleted, first the more cowardly and then most would flee the scene of the battle, desperately hiding in any crevices or pits they could find where they could wait out the storm. The few remaining opponents to the Outsiders would soon be picked out one by one quickly. Once all were either left dead or crippled beyond hope, the seven of the band, missing Stumpspawn behind and Stargun, would begin marching at Devourer, which has used up a significant amount of it’s energy, lifeforce in practice, on casting strong spells of which only one hit their intended targets. Being surrounded by the best of the three species under it’s oversight, and closing in on a link that would lead the leader of New Trench to a safe ground, it would seem like despite having a major loss inflicted on him the Devourer would be guaranteed a survival. However, just as the grouping of Devourer’s found itself a dozen or so posts away from the link, the least expected happened - from the link Stargun appeared, and would immediately shoot at Devourer! Having been shot by this star-shaped Outsider before, the ant-like forum god would manage to just barely dodge the bullet, but many Cat-Beasts behind their lord would not be so lucky…
(3/6) - Devourer’s Forces
(3/6) - Outsiders
Knowing the link is the only way out of there, and having seven other outsider approaching it’s location rapidly, Devourer would seek to push into the post at which the link is located at. Stargun however would not be happy to let that happen, and so after jumping much closer to Devourer’s group, it would shoot once more at the despised enemy of the band. Once again, more of a grazing shot was achieved than a direct hit, costing Devourer a further fifth of it’s total healthbase, which when combined with the previous injury and the expenditure of energy to summon strong spells added up to Devourer now being at roughly half of it’s total health poll. With a further part of the best beasts eliminated, their lord would launch an another strong spell, this time directly at Stargun. The outsider would jump away quickly enough to avoid the main hit of the explosion, but the shockwave still caused some damage to the gunned Alien, costing it further 2 HP.
(1/6) - Outsiders
(6/6) - Devourer’s Forces
After landing following the evasive jump, Stargun would seek to link up with the other eight outsiders instead of attacking Devourer further, because as it appears the Outsider to attack the Party of Devourer’s from surprise had to reload before shooting further. This would leave the path to the escape link open for the Devourer, which opportunity it would use immediately. With the last attempts of the band’s at slaying their eternal foe being a few spears shot by Sharpwing, none would land at any foe, through the Devourer would be left with only around a half of it’s original group of elites remaining. Once Devourer entered whatever lies beyond the link, the pursuit of the Outsiders stopped, for being ambushed by the Devourer on the other side of the link is certainly not something the Outsiders want even in face of their hatred of Devourer. Through no one really won or lost in this battle, the band views this as a failure.
For some reason, both the Outsiders and the Devourer’s group could feel after the atmosphere has cooled down as if they were being observed by something beyond, only for this feeling to disappear…
Eventually, after finishing off the remaining soldiers at this place, the band of nine would surprisingly swiftly Navigate their way from New Trench to the wilderness and then from there to TOR’s PM. It is a mystery what will they do to improve their performance…
@doomlightning @CatSquared @fralegend015 you may submit your mutations/actions for Round 63 now.