Rumble of the Thunder King

Kameyama, through Optix, faithfully translated the entire interrogation, abridging the insults and promises of torture once the captured Mogu completed his promised ‘escape’. For his part, Kameyama left the actual talking mostly to Serilda, as she was actual literal royalty and thus educated in these matters more than a small town metal smith. It came to them then, to banish this Lei Shen that the Mogu mentioned repeatedly, as his very existence seemed to be a bane to them leaving on the island. Being honest, the chance to right a very real wrong would have been enough for Kameyama, but that it now became necessary for them to depart was merely icing on the cake.

Once they had gotten all relevant information out of the Mogu, Kameyama broached the topic of whether or not to let him go. Before he could even finish asking in Mogu, the creature responded with glee.


“Yes, Squish. Let me free. I will return to the Thunder King and he will be informed of your arrival. Give him time to summon his forces upon you. We will bring down an army that shakes the very heavens. The bears will know suffering the likes of which has only been seen in the worst of nightmares. And once they are whimpering for their lives, the Thunder King himself will put an end to you, the Squish mongrel and the Squish cu—“

Kameyama brought the newly acquired hammer down on the Mogu’s skull, cutting off his improper speech and also his life. After a moment he looked at the other two and said, “I hope no one minds that I did that. He’d just gotten vulgar.” It took two hands to lift and wield the weapon, but since his magic was down for the count, and he didn’t have a magical blade like the others, the stolen hammer seemed to suit him just fine.

As they were speaking with the elders of the group, Kameyama noticed that some of the Pandaren had retrieved the bodies of the Mogu. Smart, he thought, if any other patrols come around here, finding dead bodies would only lead to questions and likely further fighting. Once the upstart Pandaren offered his services, Kameyama flatly said, “No.” Before walking over to the Mogu and grabbing one of their daggers. With he height difference, it worked as a decent short sword for one the Pandaren’s size. He tossed it over and said, “Now, it’s fine. And we’ll have to find you a new shield on the way. There's honor in wanting to fight for your people and wanting to serve justice to those who deserve it. But there is no honor in stupidity, and no justice in suicide. We don't know how dangerous this will become. If you feel you are in over your head, you may leave. No one will think you a coward.”

WC:503/2500

As the four ventured towards the mines, there was a sudden thickening of the mist between him and his compatriots. Before he could ask any questions, the trail lead to a cave. Upon entering, he would find himself alone, but not alone for a mere moment. Within the cave, where nothing existed and time did not flow, his body transformed and gained a new sense of self, sense of understanding and skill. Unfortunately it came with innumerable new questions and mysteries about what had just infused itself with him, all of which would have to be answered when they weren’t on a quest to fight a Lightning Infused God Demon Beast. He couldn’t remain in there forever, of course, and with a single step too far, he was gone from this cave for good.

Looking behind him for the cave, he found that the deep mist had dissipated, leaving the normal dampness that permeated the island. In fact, leaving the cave found him just behind the others, as though he had merely missed a single step due to daydreaming. His outfit had somewhat changed, however, oddly clean in such a harrowing predicament. Otherwise it was the same, and it was at that moment that he realized that the thickening mist he’d fallen into had not been experienced by his allies. Quickening his step to match their pace, he fumbled with the new abilities behind his back, attempting to create a small pin from the liquid metal. From an outward appearance, it would seem like he was testing the limits of his own skills in the magic-dampened state of the island.

It wasn’t like anyone knew that he couldn’t do any of this until just a minute ago.

When they arrived at the mines, the two of them quickly relayed their plan of action. It was clear that they had done this more than once. Kameyama could not hide his amazement at the abilities of his newfound allies. Although due to his nature it played off more as Old Man Bemused By Kids These Days, he had to consider exactly what he could do in this situation.

As they spoke, he knew he had to think quickly about his own set of abilities, and what he figured he could add to their efforts. Considering the rush of lessons that had been crammed into his brain within the cave, he filed through everything that could theoretically be done with the abilities he had and found something very stupid, but also potentially helpful. He offered in a quiet voice, “In the silence and darkness, it’ll probably be tough for the slaves to get out of the cave, even with the help of your loyal friends. I think perhaps I can…” He pressed his hand against the side of the cave and, very slowly, a metal railing extended at about arm height. Well, arm height for a Pandaren. This time was considerably easier due to the metal existing within the mine already. He was merely bringing it out and shaping it. “Yeah, I’ll make a rail leading through the mines as we move through it. Then everyone just has to keep a hand on the rail. Should reduce the panic of the prisoners until they can be lead to safety. Also when the fighting happens, I can pull my fair share. I feel like that goes without saying.”

Chen looked at him for a moment and said, “Didn’t you used to have a hammer?”

“Oh,” Kameyama looked down at his free hand. He’d had the hammer when he entered the cave. It slowly, with great effort, began to extend from his sleeve. It stopped after a fashion, retreating back into his sleeve. It wasn’t the same hammer, unfortunately. But a replica would do just fine. “Yeah. I'm ready. Let's go.”

1150/2500

“Thank you,” Kameyama responded respectfully to Mythal. Given his predisposition towards silence, Kameyama figured that praise from the young man was a rare thing and made sure to acknowledge it.

This was absolutely disorienting. It was strange to discover what you missed when you could no longer hear anything.  Things that you thought you didn’t notice, like the scrapes of the feet of people around you, the soft breathing of others letting you get an inkling of their location. Your own heartbeat. He shut his eyes, downing himself completely and forcing himself to get a grip.

The other two were moving with the ferocity that they normally had, and he was once again proving the weak link in this terrifying trio. What could he do to regain the connection that he’d had before? As if to answer his query, with his next step he felt hard stone beneath him. No shoes or comforting leather beneath his feet, but the stone itself. He looked down. The ability of Mythal allowed him to see. To the others it would appear as though he was still wearing shoes, but the soles were gone beneath them, allowing him to feel his way through the silence. It helped. His clothing being created by and controlled completely by the metal inside his body wasn’t something that he was used to and it answering his mental needs definitely wasn’t something he expected, but at the moment he was thankful for something that grounded him.

He was briefly reminded of days as a child, running through the grasslands with not a care, dirtying his feet to the point of staining the wooden floors within his family’s cottage. Opening his eyes wide, he continued along with the others, feeling out his own ability as they were moving. The clouds of this island were still dampening their abilities, but something felt a bit off. Unlike his electric skills which had been numbed almost completely, these new metal harnessing abilities were only dampened slightly.

Perhaps it was due to being a part of this island? Some greater gift? He continued along, creating the railing as he followed the lead of the other two.

When time came to fight, of course, he was still a candle to the solar coronae that the other two presented. If he couldn’t fight strong, he would fight smart. As he slid through to the area that had been deemed the battlefield, he found little nicks and crannies in which to slide himself. He grabbed the hands of the Panda people and placed them on the rails, giving them the guidance towards the exit that they needed. Keeping them out of harm’s way would be top priority.

But that wasn’t the extent of his skill. Every movement was testing his new skills, and doing his best to keep up with the ever-amazing skills of his newfound allies. Where Mythal shoved the massive Mogu against walls, Kameyama used the metal within the mines to jut out giant metal hammers to knock them unconscious or worse depending on where they were caught. This was in response to the seeming displeasure when he’d smashed the other Mogu’s head in before. This way there was much less exposed brain.

When their power spiked just a bit too much, ugly and makeshift metal struts caught the buttresses to keep them in place. This, combined with occasional bursts of electricity on anything that didn’t look friendly, would easily prove that he could at least be the candle in the darkness.

1752/2500

Alright so real talk. Who would expect a boat to crash into a freaky magic island surrounded by strange fog and panda people? Not Tsubasa, that’s who. Unfortunately for literally everyone who may have needed his help, he had been feeding Ahab when the boat suddenly crashed, which threw the small creature into the freezing water. Potentially forsaking literally dozens of humans, Tsubasa had instinctively dove into the water to grab his flying squirrel who, incidentally, could not swim. There was less than an instant between the two of them falling and diving respectively, with the young man catching his friend and pulling him into a mommy fall as they headed for the water. He hit the water hard at roughly the same time as one of the pieces of flotsam, the latter breaking the surface tension for Tsubasa to smash into the water and just hurt a little bit instead of a lotta bit.

Though it was not his first move that had been act first, think never, he managed to secure the little creature, though the hazardous waves still threatened to take them to the briny depths. Attempting to connect to the limited water spells he knew, he found nothing, grappling with the fact that he had lost that connection. The water was harsher than he expected, for he was not as sturdy as others may have been. Struggling against the currants, he reached behind him and pulled what looked like a skateboard from his back. He had no idea if this thing would work underwater, but had no other choice, squirming and writhing against the water. He held the board with his hands and shoved his hand on the ignition, causing the repellent energy to work against the water, albeit not as easily as it would have if he had been on the ground.

Once it made surface, however, it picked up speed exponentially and began to race towards the island. It did so silently, therefore drawing no real attention to the boy and his squirrel. As they neared the island, he nearly passed by someone who had been missed by the others and seemed to be drowning. Such a thing was difficult to see and even more-so in fog this thick, but making a turn around to confirm, Tsubasa reached a hand out and grabbed the person. He now had one hand gripping a very fast hoverboard and another gripping a passenger, with the squirrel he had jumped into the water to save now clinging to his face. When the three of them made landfall, he let the passenger go, depositing them (relatively) unscathed onto the beach, while he, the creature and the hoverboard continued forward. It was only at the last moment that he saw a figure in front of them and powered the board down, gravity forcing them forward ass over skull until he smashed into a large, furry belly.

Looking up at the creature, Tsubasa’s eyes widened. A Pandaman. A Pandanian. He had no weapons on him but scooted back to give himself room to fight this awful new opponent. Instead, the giant furry beast reached down and offered him a hand up. “That was a sight to see, young speedster.” It pulled him up with such force that Tsubasa was lifted off the ground for a moment, before being deposited on his feet. The Pandapovian helped dust the sand off of him (without asking permission, rude) and introduced himself as Ping Penscrawl, a storyteller and scribe for his village. Looking behind him, Tsubasa saw that other Pandanese were helping the survivors to get up, get situated and retrieve whatever they could.

Among the survivors were two really cool looking people who seemed to step out of a movie. They were as soaking wet as anyone else, but they really seemed to rock the look. The female one was really, really hot, and… I mean the guy was too. Like in that ‘I don’t care’ type of way. Did that take work, he wondered, or was that just a thing some guys could do? Could he learn to do it eventually? He wondered if there were lessons somewhere.

Turning his attention mostly from them, he started to find his hoverboard. It had been thrown  As Tsubasa went to help the others, the squirrel in his hoodie was scooping water out of the hood like a miniature flood victim. At one point he plopped a tiny little fish out of there and started to shake his fur dry, “What the hiccup just happened??”

“Well,” Tsubasa responded casually, grabbing his hoverboard, checking it for damage, then returning it to its slot on his back. “I think we were on a boat to go get those scrolls, and then the boat crashed. Then, I think you fell overboard and I saved your life. So. Not gonna forget that anytime soon.” He started to help people up and make sure no one was too severely injured. He knew how to perform basic first aid and with the help of the Pandavians, there were no critical injuries.

Over the next few days, he kept busy, working with the Pandaranians to create meals for the groups and swapping cooking techniques with this new race of people. They shared stories with the stranded party and eventually let on that this fog was probably something super weird happening, which was stopping everyone from using magic. After a little while, he watched from afar as three of them, including the two hot ones, started talking about what to do moving forward. Just as he was going to try to offer an idea, the entire situation was stopped by the arrival of a bunch of stone dog faced men who decided to be a bunch of jerks.

The third figure, an older man who looked really cool but wasn’t hot like the other two, tried to talk to them. Unfortunately that ended with the three people beating the shit out of the stone dog men. It was then that they decided that they must go off and do some things in order to make the fog go away. They took a Pandanan with them, which left the group relatively unprotected. Therefore, rather than offer his own services as an awesome hero, Tsubasa elected to stay with the stranded.

However, in an entirely characteristic move, a day or so passed before he began to get antsy. They hadn’t come back and the fog hadn’t been lifted. There had been no discussion of how long it would take them to get to where they were going, solve the problem and return, and the insecurity of that was making him want to do something. This problem was unfortunately solved when, in the middle of the day, the Pandajin began murmuring and the women and children headed back into their houses.

The male Pandapopulous stood in a straight wall before the city and Tsubasa had to push and squirm through the black and white fur in order to get a look at what was happening. There seemed to be an argument between one of the elders and another one of the stone dogmen. Thankfully this dogman seemed to be alone, but he looked bigger than the others. A Captain maybe. Captain Dogman. Lieutenant Dogmansir, perhaps.One of his face-tusks had been sheered off by something, and it didn’t seem like it was capable of growing back. Was that true for other animals? Not to call this guy an animal but—

His mind wandering was cut short when the Captain Lieutenant Dogmansir produced an axe of massive proportions and raised it above his head at the elder Pandapoodle. Time to move, Tsubasa thought, squeezing himself through the crowd.

“Tsubasa what are you doing?” Ahab whispered.

“Somethin’ stupid I bet,” The young man responded. His hoverboard was already on the ground and he activated the thing, pushing himself forward with surprising speed. He focused his personal energy on a simple spell, a push of energy that, truthfully, wouldn’t even reach the Dogman, but it didn’t need to. The energy that it provided was enough for Tsubasa to catch the tail of, boosting his speed even further to get him between the two in time. He had been cooking at the time of the intrusion, and thus the sleeves of his hoodie had been pushed up. With a quick jerking motion of his forearm, he dropped the hoodie and threw his arm up in between the axe and the elder as he grabbed the black and white senior and pushed him out of the way of the strike.

The force of which had caused him to stumble off of the ride and barely catch the hoverboard before it zoomed off. Sparing a glance to ensure that the elder was fine, he looked up at Captain Lieutenant Dogman who was rounding on him now. The two of them locked eyes. Tsubasa knew that his power was severely dampened right now, but as long as he held eye contact with this guy, he could maybe—

In a surprisingly serious voice, Tsubasa asked, “What are you afraid of?” And although the warrior couldn’t understand the words, he stopped in his tracks as he seemed to be able to understand the sentiment. His eye twitched and he dropped his weapon, lost in his own fears for the briefest of moments. The magic wouldn’t last much longer than that, but that was all he needed. Getting to his feet, Tsubasa hoisted the weapon up just enough to slice through the gut of the stone man. He let out a muffled grunt and fell to the ground in a heap.

Such a big axe had weighed even more than it looked. It was only the adrenaline that had allowed him to pick it up in the first place. He dropped the weapon, which shattered under its own weight, and examined his own arm. Without the protection of his hoodie, that strike would have likely taken his arm clean off. Although there was a red stain of fresh blood underneath, he seemed to be more or less in tact. He put that first aid to use, grabbing gauze from his pack and applying it to his arm. The little creature that had been in his hood was now assisting in the application, using a cotton swab to clean the wound before it was wrapped.

“He said they knew that the others were coming,” The elder said. “You must try and warn them. They could be walking into a trap!!”

“I’m on it,” Tsubasa grabbed his hoverboard and under his breath he said, “Oh no, if only we knew someone who was incredibly fast and cool and could catch up with them.” He looked around and grabbed a chunk of the axe's remains, what appeared to now be a makeshift dagger. He took off in a sprint, throwing the board underneath him and sped off towards the others.

WC: 1829/2500

Making his way towards them grew a little more difficult as Tsubasa set off, since the trail was an indirect one, and his magical sensing abilities were severely dampened in the fog of this strange island. Since he couldn’t see, he was at least smart enough to keep his voice down. “I can’t sense a dang thing in this fog crap. Are you having any luck Ahab?”

“Yeah,” Ahab said, one hand on Tsubasa’s cheek as he pointed up a slight trail that would lead them west. The speed of the vehicle with Tsubasa’s own energy accompanying it, even in this dampened place, caused his little wings to puff out slightly, reminding one of a partially opened skydiver’s parachute. “There are four of them literally right there.”

Tsubasa looked up in that direction and saw, sure enough, four more of the giant stone men were heading up the path, looking battle ready and hardened. Each of them carried oversized weapons, average sized for them, except for the leader who had to be compensating for something with an axe that was quite literally taller than Tsubasa himself. It rested on his shoulder with all the seeming weightlessness of an end of school year backpack. “Ah dang.”

He looked around and assessed the situation, trying to find a proper way to slow down or halt these four. Each of them individually weighed at least three times what he did, and his powers were dampened in this field of fog. All he had was the dagger he’d created/stolen from the other stone dog man’s weapon, and his wits. He put together a plan in his mind— He put together half of a plan in— He had an idea, and went with it, lowering his body to alter his center of gravity, keeping his speed boosting further with just a few adjustments.

Since his power was limited here, he knew he’d have to focus harder to bring it to bear. He gathered up energy in his hands and, raced into the group, coming in from behind and making no real sounds they would be able to hear. As he reached the middle of the four, he slammed his hands down and sent out an electric current that seemed to hold them in place, allowing him to navigate through them and wind up in front of the most powerful one, the one carrying the oversized axe.

“Hey,”

The Dog Man Fighter roared in sudden rage and swung his weapon. The difference in speed now, combined with Tsubasa’s natural dexterity gave the young man the time he needed to reach out and press his hand against the axe. He definitely couldn’t stop it with his bare hand, that wasn’t even an option. What he did, however, was use the stone properties of the axe against itself, summoning out of the opposite side of the weapon. Not only did it completely reverse the momentum of the weapon, the fist punched the large warrior straight in the face.

Flipping around, Tsubasa widened his eyes in a glare against the four man dog people, the force of which threw him backwards, in the direction he wanted to be going, while the residual energies held the fighter dog men in place. They would keep coming, but it would take them a little bit to get it together. Still, an ambush of only four against these supposed invaders? It didn’t quite seem right to Tsubasa.

As he turned a corner up towards the mountain, he could faintly feel the energy of three other mages and a bunch of Pandaren. What he didn’t see in time was that this part of the mountain path also fed from another that came from another portion of the island. He nearly smashed into another man dog fighter, barely managing a swerve just in time. He locked eyes with him and saw the six other dog man men fighters behind him. Yeah. That sounded more like it.

He let out another force blast from his eyes, slowing their progress while increasing his own. He reached the caverns just as the others were exiting, seemingly having sensed him as well. “Ambush coming, Sorry. Hi. I’m Tsubasa.” Tsubasa said, “Ambush. There are at least eleven of them not even a minute away. They know you’re coming for the big… the… Electric Lord. It seems like they wanna make an example of the intruders. You. Us, now, since I’m here.”

WC: 741/2570
Total WC: 7611/7500