((Alright, I was quite busy the past two days, and today is not truly better. But, from tomorrow on I will be fully available again and get back to posting, I promise.))

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((Now, finally, allow me to gather the rest of my remaining braincells...))

The sandy beach's ground was littered by the dead, dying and wounded, the twitching exo-skeletons of the broken centipedes leaking vile fluids, the torn corpses of the pirates soaking the sand in immeasurable amounts of blood.

Gunshots, desperate cries and the hissing of the insects filled the air, as the pungent stench of sweat and blood furthered the tense atmosphere as the battle, thickest only twenty paces from the ship.

And middle of it all, the massive, black-plated, crimson-visored form of Helbrecht, axe drenched in the life-fluid of the insects as he swung his weapon as it was intended to in its most savage form: kill.

However, if one had not been distracted by the thick of battle, one would have easily noticed that the knight was wounded, there on his left shoulder where mandibles had torn out a chunk of flesh, there on his right thigh a deep-running gash, the knight's blood, running down his armored form, was seeping into the ground, mixing with the other fluids the dead brought.

But that was not all just yet.

Helbrecht had not spotted the figure directing the insects yet, too focused he was on the slaughter at hand, but the figure had spotted him. And for the first time, it left its veiled space, stepped out into the open of the jungle, allowing those who yet kept awareness of their surroundings beside the fight to behold its figure.

It was humanoid, lithe, barely six feet, clad from head to toe in yellow-black cloth, face almost entirely cowled, except for the eight, crimson-glowing facette-eyes staring intently at the massive knight, who just now again roared "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"

The figure, spindly fingers, six on each hand, gathered all remaining centipedes not yet fighting to her, two dozens, and began to direct them all at the knight, who was already locked in battle with three of the beasts.

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[Welcome back.]

Kairi, who had caught some of her breath and was feeling okay enough to step into battle for atleast an hour, pulled out her sword and chopped off the head of a centipede that had been crawling towards her. It lashed at her and scraped her arm, then it died.

Her hand instantly flew to her arm, and she cursed the mutated insect. Grabbing a leaf off a hanging tree branch, Kairi wound it around her cut, and just then, out of the corner of her eye, stood a tall, strangely dressed figure.

It was creepy, to say the least.

Fully turning, she took in the expression of this.. Thing. And, she noticed that it must have been directing those insects. So, therefore, they must kill that before anything else.

Knowing it would be idiotic to just charge at the person, Kairi then noticed it was directing the bugs at the captain.

She saw how hard it must have been for him, to fight all those centipedes. Also, in the midst of battle, she happened to notice his injuries. Well, proves he might be human after all...

Kairi ran into battle, and slashed, foreign blood splattering on her and the ground. She wiped some from her eyes and jumped back just in time as one of those creatures was charging at her. But, only to run into another one, who bit her wrist and she pulled it away, tearing a small amount of skin. Oh no.. What if it's poisionous!?!?
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Ash saw the figure emerge from the trees, the very same one he had spotted earlier. He knew it wasn't just a bystander.

Hissing with rage, he nearly ran into the sunlight, but a tiny burn reminded him he could not, and he immediately flinched back, anger in his eyes.

He would hold out his sword, attracting some over and swing, insect blood covering him. Curious, he tasted it, and immediately spit it out. "Ugh, that's disgusting!" Ash spoke aloud, wiping his tongue off.

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{I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to leave this RP. Sorry!}

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Katerina was reloading from her perch when the centipede started climbing up towards her, she recoiled slightly her red hair fluttering around her shoulders as she froze and slung the rifle over her back again.

As the centipede got closer she tried moving her weight to her hands, straining as the weight of her body and tail combined with gravity to pull her back towards the ground and the clicking mandibles of the centipede thing.

As it got within a foot of her she let go, and fell into it, knocking it down with her to the ground.

The two figures, one serpentine and the other insect struggled for a split second after they impacted the ground, the snake girl quickly lunging at the centipede.

Her tail wrapped itself around the insects body, her arms adding to this as she seemed to coil around the centipede resembling nothing more than a ball of scales and flailing insectile legs.

She squeezed, the creature struggled more and then began to let out a horrible shrieking noise as she squeezed harder, the sound of cracking carapace audible in the immediate area before suddenly it was interrupted by a horrible loud squishing sound.

Katerina uncoiled her tail and body from what used to be the centipede, her entire figure covered in the messy ichor from the creature, fragments of the carapace stuck to her skin by the sticky mess.

She drew her axes from her belt and raised her body up on her tail letting out a loud and imposing hissing sound as she sought another enemy to fight. 

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Maia watched the creature with horror written all over her face. It was moving. It looked so weird! Almost like a. Entipede itself. It was directing th horrid creatures toward the Captain!!! And he was wounded, but so was everyone. 

She charged into battle once more she landed neatly on a centipedes scaly smily back. It squished under her feet and she jumped up to kill it. As she moved on, her long hair which had LNG fallen out of its tidy braid caught hold of a stray brach

Time began to tick, she wrenched her hair free and quickly bound to her head so she had a bun. She kept int the trees where centipedes were not many and shapeshifted into a crow once more, she circled the figure below hissing slightly, her blue eyes gleaming. It would be foolish to attack but she needed a closer look. 

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Kairi...

The insect that tore into her arm just a moment ago did not abate, mandibles opened wide it jerked its headpiece forward, seeking to bite the girl's head off.

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Ash...

Besides that single centipede, which was lying twitching on the ground in front of the vampire, no other of the insects came at him, too focused they were by their leadfigure, who in turn was too focused on the massive knight still hacking away at the centipedes.

Only two of the centipedes were staying near the figure, the figure itself an easy target by earlier comparison, the figure itself still not fully exposed to the light, which would have allowed a creature wary of the sun to approach the leader without fear of immediate harm due to simple nature.

Or so one might have thought...

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Katerina...

Before the snake-woman a pirate was overwhelmed by two of the monsters, one of the beasts grabbing the man by his neck, while the other pulled his legs, tearing him apart screaming and chittering, before the creatures turned to answer the half-snake's challenge, mandibles clacking in expectant tearing of scaly flesh.

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Maia....

With her newly-assumed form, the shapeshifter was able to get a closer look, though not one in the traditional sense.

Her animal-form granted her enhanced awareness, such that allowed her to notice just how alien the figure was, its fingers, as it directed and demanded from the insects, bending at impossible angles, its movements overall that of a...

It moved with a grace befitting for the most devious of predators, each step, each muscle-movement using just enough energy up to work correctly, perfectly...

One might have thought that one was looking at the perfect artistic depiction of a hunter, rendered perfect three-dimensional form.

One might have thought it was beautiful to behold. One might have also been sickened, one might have also been utterly disturbed, but in the same regard, one might have only been mesmerized.

Maia was also capable of hearing something like a sound, not one with ears perse, but rather... her mind, as if the figure was calling out to her...

Kill the khornate- kill the khornate- kill the khornate- kill the khornate-

It was going on without end, a sound, foggy, far, as if a faint wind was carrying it to the shape-shifter.

Then, Maia might have understood: The centipedes were the subjects, but this figure was the queen.


And she was sending every one of her underlings not fighting at the massive knight, from all around easily three dozen in total now, slowly closing in on Helbrecht.

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Maia dipped forward, she circled the sky lazily, as an average crow would do. Her appearance betrayed her actions inside. Her senses were sharp and alert. She looked down at the figure and almost forgot to flap her, black, feathery wings. The figure was so Aiken like, her fingers forever pointing everywhere, directing the nasty bugs.

She was obviously disturbed by the sight but she had to act casual. She landed n a fence and swaked. She looked at the figure again. All of its many fingers were pointing at the Captain. Gosh. She circled the midst

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Kairi moved out of the way, but the centipede caught her hair in its mouth. It tugged at her, and made her fall to her knees. She cried out, and pulled away, while the creature had some long red strands in its mouth.

Narrowing her eyes, Kairi grabbed an axe from another sailor, who looked in shock at screamed at her, though she didn't hear it over the hissing sounds and screams of pain.

###### in her eyes, Kairi raised the axe and swung down, chopping the insects middle in half.

The disgusting thing writhed about, until it slowly curled up and died.

The axe was quite heavy, so Kairi dropped it and sighed in relief from the weight off her arms. Soon, she spotted the centipedes again, coming for the captain. She wouldn't let that happen. Pulling out her rope, Kairi managed to grab one centipede that was trying to get over to the captain, and use all her might to haul the thing over.

It struggled and thrashed about, as she kept on pulling it away. Hopefully, that will make it easier. Kairi thought, sweating.
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Ash, seeing as he might be able to stay in the shade, snuck over to where the figure was, ducking behind it. He looked up, saw the crow, and back down to the figure.

"DIE FREAK OF NATURE!" He hissed, swinging at it with his scythe.

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((I must ask: Are you, all of you, fine with the speed at which the RP is currently going? If you wish, I will do my best to be present and post more frequently, though we will all have to synchronize a bit.

At the time of this writing, it is around 11:00 PM here, which is when I get onto Kidzworld most often, what about you?

Besides that, this post here deals with Helbrecht, next one is about Ash's attack.))

As much as Kairi's help was honest, Helbrecht did not truly have time to appreciate it as the other 35 insects closed in on him.

He had just managed to drive his axe deep into the vile flesh of his latest opponent, that he noticed that around him an odd silence had evolved, despite several pirates a few paces from him still fighting for their lives, no other enemy charged at him, nothing.

Tearing his weapon out of his enemy, the knight rose to his full height, and for the first time stared a bit more ahead.

Just in time for almost three dozen centipedes to swarm at him at once.

Ever defiant, with a roar, the knight raised his axe and charged, alone, at the insects.

The first of the things propelled itself at him, only for the dark knight to cut it directly out of the air, catapulting it directly into two of its peers, while in the same swing driving his weapon into another beast, which twitched and died in mere seconds.

In return, another beast used the opening to slam its mandibles into his right leg, just under the already existing gash, intent on biting the limb cleanly off.

The knight, knowing that he would need his leg to efficienctly keep fighting, did not take the time to first tear his weapon out of the just-killed opponent, but simply swung the heavy weapon high-above his head, the corpse of the centipede still half-way attached to the axe-head, before crashing it down with brutal might, directly onto the opponent trying to tear his leg off, cracking the chitin open by utilizing its former brother as a makeshift cudgel.

This, however, merely invited more of the monsters to throw themselves at him.

Pausing not a second, he made a swung his weapon in a sweep in front of him, cutting another creature out of the air, while again another managed to drive its mandibles into his armored chest, twin-trickles of blood flowing where the beastly appendages tore through the armor.

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