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 Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2025 9:35 am
Quote: Biting Chill ( 18 ) : The cold is strangely harsh, and even the still wind is vicious enough to sting. But the cold isn't the worst part of tonight--it's what comes with it. Out of a swirl of blowing snow, a massive, wispy wolf takes shape, enormous and snarling, with fur spiked like jagged icicles. Its eyes glow with a cold, wild intelligence, and before you can even react, it lunges as though you’ve trespassed deep into its territory. Every strike it makes feels like the bite of winter itself. Wherever its claws slash, wherever its jaws snap, frost cakes over. Even if you're lucky enough not to take massive damage, the cold seeps bone deep. When you manage to land a hit, the creature bleeds a strange, clear blood--icy water that freezes instantly into slush on the ground. The more damage it takes, the more its form flickers, shredded like wind-torn snow. The wolf fights with the relentless instinct of a dire beast, but it is not invulnerable. It will never run. It will fight until its body is broken and flickering, then--finally--a sudden gust will rip through the air and carry its dissolving body away. Howls echo on the wind. The rest of its pack probably isn't too far behind. Note: This strange wolf is not a youma but can be used as a battle requirement for a character. It can only be used as a battle if there are two powered characters involved; you cannot write a solo and count this as a battle, and your character must be powered to meet battle requirements. You can use the prompt for as many characters as you like and it will count as a battle requirement, however if you repeat the prompt with the same character, only the first time will be usable as a battle.
Shuddering in the cold, Ilmare wondered at the wisdom in wandering Destiny City alone. At night. In the winter. During a time that weird s**t traditionally went down.
She had to be crazy. But she’d felt an Order aura not too far away and had wanted to see if it was anyone she knew. Because she badly needed some fresh perspectives before she went out of her mind. Hell, even if it wasn’t anyone she knew, she’d still welcome an encounter. A fight would warm her up if it came down to that. And if the aura didn’t belong to a crazy, then she could at least maybe make a connection… She was closer now. Close enough to see a flash of glowing blue through the snow and ice. Feeling her lips stretch in a grin, Ilmare hurried forward, calling out, “Ekstrom? Is that you?”
Before she could get closer, she heard a soft snarling and turned to see a huge wolf manifest out of the swirling snow. As she stared at it, it occurred to her that the dark eyes staring back at her were cold and intelligent.
“Oh, s**t…”
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2025 11:57 pm
Ekstrom, for all her worries, had taken to building herself a happy little snowman owing to the nice bit of snow that had fallen throughout the day. It blanketed Destiny City in another layer of white, as though it didn't have enough of the stuff already. Not that she was complaining, of course. There was a small part of her that thought she probably should have been doing something more productive while out on patrol, but with everything she currently had going on...
One less-productive-than-usual patrol wasn't gonna hurt anybody.
So on she worked, even as she sensed a Chaos aura coming closer. Depending on who it was and what mood they were in, she was already preparing to pause in her construction. Of course, when she heard a familiar voice say her name, she immediately stopped working and turned to see if it was who she thought it was.
"Ilmare!" she cried, getting to her feet as fast as the snow would let her, and turning to make her way over to her.
The snarling made her pause, though, and leaning to look past the senshi she watched the wolf take form. She furrowed her brows, worry crossing her features. She still hadn't gotten any answers about why her magic was doing what it was so she was still avoiding using it whenever she could, which meant she'd have to get up close and personal to the thing.
"I'm gonna rush it," she said, hopefully just loud enough for her to hear. "Think you can take it down with your magic?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2025 6:24 am
Oh ******** this was so bad, Ilmare thought. She knew the wolf wasn't a youma. And she knew what happened when they bit or scratched. And it had two targets now, which was the only thing that was keeping either of them safe since it forced the wolf to assess and choose a target.
"It's not a regular wolf," she cried, not wanting Ekstrom to turn herself into the better target. "My magic does utter s**t-all!"
But she had an idea. Something she'd been thinking about since the first encounter. Reaching into subspace, she fumbled until she withdrew a mini blow torch that Ekstrom had given her. Snapping it on, she whispered a tiny prayer of thanks that she'd kept the thing maintained. It probably wouldn't do much, but she hoped that the wolf might be a little slower to attack if it saw fire.
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2025 6:35 pm
Well that wasn't great, but they'd gotten out of worse things before. The last time, if she recalled correctly, was a bunch of very freaky, very hostile trees. Surely they'd be able to take on a lone wolf. Granted it looked a lot more formidable, and a lot more...angry. Still! Two versus one meant they were at the advantage.
"Alright," she said, taking slow, careful steps to try and lessen the distance she would have to cover. The wolf growled and lowered its head, settling its gaze on Ilmare and apparently sizing it up. "On three, I'm gonna try and jump onto it from up high. Then you can try and melt its face off. Sound okay?"
"One," she took another step. "Two," she froze as the growl got louder. "Three!"
Ekstrom leapt up and forward, her shield held steady in front of her as she attempted to divebomb the creature.
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Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2025 9:29 am
Were all Order people this crazy, Ilmare wondered weakly. Melt the wolf’s face off? Was such a thing eleven possible? But before she could protest, Ekstrom was off and running, shield held out. Rolling her eyes in fond exasperation, Ilmare felt herself buoyed by the knight’s confidence and followed behind. From what she could see, the wolf had not been expecting them to charge it and had a moment of visible confusion before the snarl returned.
And then, Ekstrom jumped and Ilmare darted ahead, blowtorch held out like a talisman. The tiny flame’s heat definitely did not spark joy in the beast, but it still tried snapping at her. Jumping out of the way, she made an impulsive decision and knelt to scoop up a rock before lobbing the thing at the wolf’s ugly face. She heard an odd little ting noise and saw a tooth drop to the ground, followed by a trickle of what looked like thick, icy water.
“Ekstrom,” she called, “Try to beat it with your shield!”
She wanted the tooth that she’d knocked out. And running in, she managed to grab it, all while brandishing the blowtorch in the wolf’s face. It was long enough and sharp enough. And it gave her an added weapon. Maybe they could do this after all.
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Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2025 12:37 am
Gravity was already pulling her back down toward the earth even as Ilmare suggested she try bashing it with her shield. "Got it!" she called back, then readied her shield and made a slashing motion at the wolf as soon as it was within range. She both felt and heard her shield cutting into the beast—both sounds suggested she was cutting through something solid rather than fleshy—and before the wolf could hit her with a retaliatory swipe of its claw she had landed and jumped back and out of its reach.
The wolf snarled as it turned its attention back to Ilmare, who dashed back in with her blowtorch. With its focus elsewhere, Ekstrom followed her lead and dashed in as well, brandishing her shield and making slashing motions first before holding her shield out in front of her and lunging forward to slam against it.
"It bleeds Icee?" she asked out loud while barely dodging the wolf's claw, brow quirked at the stuff coming out of the wolf. She was starting to feel numb all over the more contact she made with it, the cold sinking in deep even through her uniform. Even through her shield...
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Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2026 9:44 am
”Hmmm, I’d say more clear Slushpuppie than Icee,” Ilmare called back. Icees were sacrosanct. Slushpuppies were just trash. She had to shake her head in admiration as Ekstrom went at the wolf with her shield. The knight had come a long damn way from the frying pan days! Ah, but she was letting herself become distracted from doing her part to put this monstrosity down. Holding up her lovely tooth dagger in a defensive posture, she used the blowtorch wielding hand as a sort of shield against possible biting. Approaching the head, carefully, she cranked up the little fire and aimed for the eyes of the beast, all while slashing out at its face.
“I can’t believe it still has fight in it after you going ham with that shield,” she muttered. The damn thing was hurt, but not enough to make it back off. They needed a definitive strike somewhere that would make the wolf actually pause. Like… the eye or throat. Maybe the belly? If they could get to the belly… Ugh, this was going to end up being gross, wasn’t it.
“Can we tip the damn thing?” she called urgently. “Knock it on its a** for a few seconds? I’m a little hesitant to use my magic given the things it can do and we really don’t want this guy trippin’ out, y’know?”
It was the nicest way she could think of to point out that she was fairly useless for the more physical stuff needed. Like knocking a giant wolf down.
itspao_ I’m so sorry! Gaia never sent me a quote to let you know you’d tagged this way back @@)
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Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2026 5:51 pm
Ekstrom had jumped back and out of reach of more swipes of its claws. It really was a persistent thing, she thought as she tried to master the growing sense of anxiety inside of her. Gradually, the more cold seeped into her body, she felt her strength slowly seeping out, replacing it with a biting cold and numbness like she'd never known before. The sooner they could end this, the better off they'd be—though that didn't really require any real thinking, given how badly it seemed to want to kill them. She looked thoughtful as she considered Ilmare's words.
"Yeah, maybe let's not make it do that," she said, shooting the other a little smile after jumping aside to dodge another oncoming blow. "But tipping it over..." It sounded amusing phrased in that way, but she set her amusement aside and gave a quick, short nod.
"I can try!" she said, quickly weaving her way in after ducking out of the way of the wolf's claw. "You gonna go for the guts then?" It was almost conversational, her tone, though she looked perfectly focused on what she was trying to do. Bringing her shield in close, the knight propelled herself forward and, when she thought she was close enough, dropped to her knees just before slamming the flat of shield hard against the wolf's side in the hopes of tipping it over.
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Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2026 11:54 am
Once more, Ilmare found herself thoroughly impressed by how badass Ekstrom had gotten. Or maybe it was more accurate to say even more badass. Girl just went and actually knocked over a goddamned monster wolf, the corrupt senshi thought faintly. And while it was down, she’d better do her own ******** part if they wanted to end this before someone got hurt. Darting over, she tossed the dagger-like tooth to Ekstrom and yelled, “Stab it quick! I can keep it distracted!”
She felt guilty screaming about killing a wolf. She really did. But in this case, it wasn’t… it wasn’t a real wolf. It bled what looked like ice water and its teeth and claws caused a weird kind of frostbite. It was, she thought, more dangerous than a run of the mill wolf. If they couldn’t put this bad boy down, there was every chance that it would hurt or kill them and then go on to do the same to someone who couldn’t fight back. She couldn’t let that happen.
Throwing herself at the wolf, she locked both arms around its neck and squeezed. If she clung like a burr to its back, it would have a hard time reaching her with those teeth. Plus, it would be harder for it to get up if it had her weight on its back pulling towards the ground. Pressing her face into the shaggy, icy fur, she screamed again, this time in pure fury as she did her best to keep the beast down and its underbelly exposed.
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Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2026 1:12 am
Amazed as she was that she actually somehow managed to tip the wolf over, Ilmare rushing in and pinning the damned thing down with a solid choke hold was, in her eyes, even more of an awesome feat. She wasted no time in stowing her shield and, holding the dagger tight in one hand, she waited for the most opportune moment to strike. The beast wasn't exactly staying still, and she didn't want to accidentally run the blade into the corrupted senshi...
So she watched and waited, ready to strike. When the opportunity came, though, it happened in barely an instant. It was a wide opening, and she didn't hesitate. The dagger flashed, she felt a freezing cold slurry wash over her hands as she ran the blade up along the center of the wolf's gut. It thrashed a few more times as more of its "blood" spilled out of it, and before long its body, too, followed suit and melted away.
The dagger in her hand had gone as well.
"It's always an adventure running into you," she said after a beat. She dusted the...whatever it was...off of her hands first, and then, grinning, offered Ilmare a hand.
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Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2026 7:03 am
For a few breaths, Ilmare was convinced that they were both going to die. The way the damned beast thrashed and fought, she could feel the bruises forming every time it tried to get to it's feet and she forced it back down. And then it felt its body go stiff for a moment before it began thrashing again, this time in a sort of involuntary frenzy. Then, it was went still and melted away, leaving her laying, rather dazed, in the middle of a puddle of melted ice.
Or that was what she was telling herself it was to avoid feeling sick.
Staring up at Ekstrom, she returend the grin and accepted the helping hand. "I could do with far less adventure," she replied. "Why can't we ever have these run ins when things are nice and calm? One of us has to be cursed. It's the only explanation." This last was said in a joking tone, though sometimes the corrupt wondered. Still, they were both alive and the wolf was gone. As far as she was concerned, all was well for the moment. Then, she really looked at Ekstrom and noticed the claw marks that were still frosted over. Frowning, she reached up to put her hands on the knight's shoulders.
"I know if I ask you're going to be ridiculously brave and say you're fine," she said. "But I can see where the damned thing got you and please trust me when I say it's going to feel like hell for a few days. You need to go home and get yourself as warm as you can everywhere else to make up for the other parts. And I think I need to do the same. I don't remember it biting or scratching me, but I feel cold down in my bones. I think I'm due a hellfire temperature bath."
Grinning a little, she gave the knight's shoulders a tiny push to emphasize her words. Ekstrom got the worst of it and Ilmare wanted to know that she would be home and safe before the worst of the cold took over.
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