Kal stays at a distance this time, hurling a chakram from outside the hydra's deadly reach, then striding away while he grabs another.
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Kal winces and tries not to wriggle too much during the Stranger's ministrations. "Aye, I'm used to sailing as the wind takes me, but perhaps this time we need to chart our course more carefully."
Kal falls beneath the hydra's rage, and the cavern itself begins building him a cairn...
Kal staggers, hurls away his chakram and bounds back into the fray, slicing through necks like stalks of wheat! "Someone'd better burn those!"
Kal staggers to his feet, deflecting a loose rock as he rises. Rather than chase the hydra with an empty hand, he hucks a chakram straight for one of the beast's necks!
Kal collapses beneath the barrage of boulders and bites!
Kal chops down with his trophy blade, gasping out gratitude for Oinos's quick work!
"What."
Kal hurls his spear against the waves, but the wind that still seeks to claim him drives them on again, again, again!
Kal meets the storm as if it were a charging cataphract, catching a bolt upon his shield, and splitting another along the length of his leaf-bladed spear!
Kal seizes the tiller, hauling and coaxing the ship to turn with each breath and gust hidden away in the midst of the storm's fury, letting that wind propel them forward just enough to start momentum, but then just letting the sails and mast rest enough to keep them from shattering further.
"That's okay, sphinxes are weak to being strangled if it all goes wrong, right?"
The mythic power within Kal continues to swell - literally! At first, overnight he's grown an inch, but by the end of the week it's a foot! The beard he'd shaved off back before the voyage has grown in thick and lush, and with every day he seems to find a new oxcart to pull or anvil to toss to prove his spreading might. But the days grow stranger. In the hours before dawn, phantom ships can be seen chasing each other, and livestock are likewise misbehaving - a sheep becomes a goat; an ox finds itself in the attic of a home and has to be hauled down by Kal before it goes lowing on its way.
Just hit my favorite feat for Kal - Hurling Charge - Two actions lets him throw a javelin, stride over to someone, draw a replacement, and that makes his target off-guard against his next swing! He also picks up Swipe, Powerful Leap, and Godspeed
"Honorable?" Kal questions, holding up the fresh blister on his forearm. "If you say so."
Kal's shield buckles beneath the phoenix's fury, but that just urges him on to match it, striking home with a stunning warcry!
Kal ducks behind his shield, only a bit singed despite the wooden appearance of his flesh. He thrusts past the phoenix, twisting the spear so that its head cuts into the bird when he resets it behind his shield.
Kal meanwhile focuses on the phoenix, casting his first spear into the fiery bird, and drawing another from behind his shield.
Kal's eyes begin to weary, but the fun of the puzzle has capture his attention nonetheless.
Kal uses a light hand to reassemble the torn pages.
"Hey now, we're all friends here, yes? Surely we can figure out a solution that doesn't involve a roof tile to the temple?"
Kal swats at the onrushing statue with the lizard-killer at the bottom of his spear to gain space, then drives his weapon home!
Kal hurls a spear down the hallways, quickly snatching up a replacement from behind his shield.
Kal looks affronted at Stranger's calumny, but does not get into his piratical bona fides at the moment. "Not to worry, I am certain that the Drasikons will be the very soul of reasonableness before long."
Kal puts his new muscles to work, kneading the clay, and forcing it, bending it to the shape of his will.
"This is mischief that the madness of the streets does not explain..." Kal leads the way, spear and shield at the ready.
Quiet as a forgotten breeze, Kal gently eases an empty waterskin onto a set of the snake's fangs.
"So what happened, the changes, it was... fate?"
"Shove over, Stranger, I need to get a boot in."
Kal lets his geniality and his honestly questioning face deflect suspicion as he makes his inquiries.
Kal swats aside the strike, thrusting up and over the lip of his shield as he keeps it between him and the ferrous fliers.
"Oh gods, shield me from my hubris and don't kill me with butterflies just 'cause it'd be funny!" howls Kal as he hurls a spear into the closest butterfly with oaken might.
"Let's just make sure butterflies aren't what do us in."
Kal can't help but quail and stammer in the face of the flames to come. I thought we were done with these!
Making sure not to transform into anything overly flammable, Kal beats blankets and smothers flames until they're all gone.
Kal grabs a bird under each armpit and stuffs them in the net, hissing in discomfort at the heat.
"Wait, wait, wait. Can you tell me your grandmother's story again?"
"Let's just see if we can find an answer before something else burns down."
"F*!# my house"
"Is this really the time for- Oh. Yeah, that makes sense"
Kal swirls in among the other spearmen, hoping that they'll take him for one of them as he plunges his dory straight through them!
The force of the darts jars Kal's arm, but it's his shield who's peppered with them, not he. The dragon's teeth are numerous, but they come against Kal with spear and shield, and now, more than ever, he is their master.
"This chaos isn't your own will!" Kal cries. "Please put down the bag and call them off!"
"A burning library or a smashed restaurant is bad, but if we let strange warriors rampage through the city, that's a problem that will spread even faster than those flames."
Despite the new power coursing through his frame, Kal spends the the first night of the journey sick as a dog, sicker even than he'd been when he first fled to the sea. The next days though, see him jubilant. He greets every dawn with a beaming smile and boundless energy. Shirtlessly scaling the rigging and shinnying down ropes at the slightest excuse to be helpful, the simple exertion of his body seems to fill him with a true peace. He shaves his facial hair - possibly after fouling it the night of his strange illness, though he never admits to it, but begins growing it back into the same style right away. *** When Yasmenei spies the fires, he finds himself almost mouthing along with her that "People might need help." It's an impulse he's always had to some degree, only he knew quite a bit about why he needed the help too, and often that drew his priority. But not today. Spear and shield at the ready, Kallistratos dons his armor and waits at the bow, ready to leap into whatever trouble awaits.
Kal drops to his knees, head in his hands. "Something feels... strange..." Visibly green-gilled, his gaze is dragged up to meet his companions. "Is everyone okay?" his instincts ask.
As Sophreista thrusts towards Kal, he leaps backwards just before the point of impact, the wind-claimed corsair flying through the air with the force of her 'strike.'
Kal leaps up, spear gleaming in the sun's rays as he mimics a vicious deathstroke!
Kal hurls himself towards the hippogriff, trying to tackle it to the ground, shield first.
Kal staggers beneath the weight of the blow, snatching up his last spear and hurling it after the wounded hippogriff.
Kal reels, straining to keep his rage targeted. He hurls one spear at Arfi's chosen foe, but dares not draw a replacement yet, hunkering down beneath his shield instead.
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