FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As predicted, the portal drops her off in midair. A fatal mistake for other beings but not for her. No, she casually glides to one of the overlooking balconies. Tracing a moist finger just above the dust as her eyes scour the room. 'Now then... were they smart enough to-'

"ACHOO!" The sneeze reverberates around the room, echoing out into the distant halls. It catches Minerva so off-guard that she jumps, almost stumbling over the railing, floundering for stability before suddenly remembering that she can, levitate. 'I... ugh. Who else dares to traverse these halls?'

--

Tik Tik sniffles, wiping her nose with the edge of her cape. After all that time, that sneeze finally came out. Instead of providing relief, it only opens the floodgates of her agitation. She pulls out her journal and notes, "see if these people discovered allergy medication." Punctuating that final note, she stuffs her paper away and steps up the large, looming statue before her. It's undoubtedly an abstract shape, yet it towers high. She scratches her nose, trying to catch an itch she cannot get to. While mulling over the problem, she gets both hands up, growling as she stomps in frustration, clawing at her scales.

Minerva glides noiselessly along the balcony, eyes glinting in the dark. The lack of light means only something used to vision in the darkness can hope to locate her, so she doesn't bother attempting to hide. She is far from worried about what seems to be a lizardkin scuttling about below. 'How did you get in here, I wonder... are the doors gaping open, or are there cracks in the seems? ...No matter. I doubt you'll give me much trouble.' Focusing on this intruder below, she overlooks the leftover scraps that had fallen from the scaffolding above. Nonchalantly, she glides her foot into a steel bar, kicking it into the stone with a dull clunk. This brings her to a sharp stop. 'Shit.'

Tik Tik stops her scratching, her eyes wide and predatory, her head turning around. Was that clang of metal on the stone just air pressure and wind creaking the old structure? Or is she not entirely alone?

She shrugs and approaches the altar, raising her hand and producing a magical spell upon her fingertips. It should be easy enough to crack the lock of his magical totem with her applied magecraft, just as opening the lock with her trap-making skills is simple. She allows the mana to flow through her as she recalls her study and the practical movements, sounds and focuses of all arcane spellcasting. With a dramatic thrust, she winds up for a pitch, and at the moment of the throw, she says the last of the magic words.

"Abra Ka-acCHOO!"

A fastball lock spell turns into a corkscrewing missle that whips around the tower and shoots upward towards scaffolding that the kobold hadn't noticed before. While it whirls and whizzes, she falls on her butt and stares up, watching in horror as the light manifests something lurking in the far-off darkness where her kobold eyes cannot see.

Eyes wide, Minerva holds herself steady. She watches the stray bold arc over her shoulder before detonating against the stone. For the briefest of moments, she is certain they had made eye contact. The excess light from the magic illuminates her figure. She doesn't breathe, doesn't move. She lets nature's shadow drape heavy on her shoulders, obscuring her sight. Her time would come.

Tik Tik frowns, sniffling. She wipes her nose with her cloak and stares up at the darkness. "Just a trick of the light," the explorer says as she approaches the locked altar. The wizard takes a deep breath and commands the essence of the magic to flow through her body to her fingertips, intoning the great words of power, and then... and then...

'Now!' Minerva extends her arm, and the magic drips free again, dribbling into an invisible bowl to form a swirling orb of energy before firing off sharply.

"Chu!"

This sneeze has more petite but is still sharp enough to make Tik Tik bend over from the force just as a blast of magical energy flows over her head.

This time, the wizard pauses, her eyes wide, her mouth agape. She spins around, producing magical slinging spells that she fires into the darkness. They slam into the scaffolding, each flash briefly illuminating the monstrous figure.

Minerva can only sigh, one hand flexing in irritation. 'Damn, sneezing. Damn it in its entirety.' She fires several more missiles below, but Tik Tik dodges them and rushes along the path. Each of Minerva's blasts struggles to catch the mousy lizard, who manages to throw a few shots of her own, enough to provide herself cover as she scurries behind a pillar.

The kobold takes a few quick breaths, reaching under her cloak and working through some of her tools upon her belt, gathering the ingredients for a bit of a surprise.

Minerva, noticing her target is hiding from view, can only smirk. 'How foolish. Thinking they can hide. I do love surprising them.' As one would unzip another's coat, Minerva casually opens a portal before her, stepping through and vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Tik Tik pops out form the cover, but the balcony above is empty. The mysterious assailant disappears without a trace. She huffs and tucks back behind her hiding spot, only to be greeted by the sight of a magical portal closing in the air. The towering blue entity, having fully stepped out and looking down, tentacled mouth wriggling unnervingly. Her hands glow with magic, and her form has an unmistakable look of pride. A warbled sound pulses like some demented laugh as she believes she's cornered the kobold at last.

Tik Tik yips in surprise before suddenly throwing her held spell straight at the eldritch mage. A brilliant flash of cobalt coils sends her stumbling back, face tentacles squirming as she screams in a sound almost human behind an unearthly warbling. The offset tone echoes throughout the entirety of her mind.