~ 1926: The Clothes Make the Man ~
Increasingly, Loki and the Verlassen had come to rely on their growing skill in unarmed physical combat to overwhelm their foes. Not content with merely relying on their natural snake form to deliver them the advantage, their use of Gel was their primary means by which to deliver such combat. As such they had developed the Human and Gorilla forms, allowing them versatility in their combat, even their techniques to manipulate their size further enhanced this variability, making their physical attacks that much more difficult to contend with. Yet as they grew more powerful, so too did their prey; and the prospect of being defeated was growing ever more likely – the forms that they had developed were simply unsuited to deal with many types of opponents that they came across. For Beings that boasted their versatility, such a thing could not be permitted – were their forms unsuited for the opponent, than they should develop new ones that granted them still more variability; eventually there would be no foe they could not defeat. But what sort of forms should they create? What were the areas in which they lacked?
Their Human form was the most versatile, the most skilful, yet lacked power. Conversely, their Gorilla form was powerful and fast, yet it's movement was more limited, making it less agile while reducing the ease with which it could perform different types of moves such as hand to hand combat – for those who relied so heavily on said skills, that was a severe blow. Their Snake form was the least versatile, yet provided a pure, uninhibited style of movement, one that drew on their 'natural' strengths of fast strikes and crushing tail power.
So where did they fall short? In the fight with the frog, they had quickly realised that the much larger opponent's attacks would easily harm them, the defensive strength of their forms were severely lacking should they encounter an opponent of such overwhelming power. Or perhaps they should instead have focused on creating an offensive form that would have been much more difficult to predict, numerous consecutive and even simultaneous attacks, then the frog would never have had the opportunity to have grown larger. Though if they did face such a foe, perhaps it would be best to avoid getting hit in the first place, for that they would need to develop a form that focused on their speed and perhaps provided them with additional protection should they get hit. Finally, if all else failed, against such a powerful opponent perhaps the only way to meet them would be with a crushing – indisputable power of their own.
~Genbu~
Yet for Loki, ever concious of his duty in keeping the other souls of Verlassen 'alive', developing the defensive form was by far the most pressing concern. Yet what shape should it take? It would need to be much thicker than his previous forms, perhaps rounded to help deflect incoming blows. A ball would be too difficult to move around in, yet the shape would be ideal...
'Where I grew up,' George the sneak thief interjected,
'was a river. When I had ta stay low for a while, I would eat fish and crayfish and the sort,' the thief paused, the man was proud of his insight and wanted to milk it for all it was worth.
'But the turtles there were damn hard to eat.'A turtle – their rounded shell would help deflect attacks, while the short powerful legs could bear the brunt of their increased weight. Nor had they any need to fear getting caught on their back, for should such a situation occur he could merely reshape the gel, putting their legs underneath them once more. Loki smiled at the concept, such a form would have a much easier time of surviving against foes like the enlarged frog, the fast and powerful tongue would have skewered the human or gorilla forms they could assume.
Determined to try to create a form that would survive vicious and powerful attacks; Loki began to concentrate his reiryoku within his body, willing the gel inside to issue forth from between his scales and the pores of his skin; and so it did.
Even as the Gel poured out, Loki began moulding the thick liquid into the shape he desired. Centred on their hood, the gel began to steadily accumulate as it was heaped into a dome, hardened as much as possible with extra reiatsu so that the substance would be near impregnable. Minutes passed as thousands of litres surrounded them, encasing not just their hood, but their head and tail to form a massive circular shell, nearly eighteen feet in diameter. With their full length as a snake from the top of their head to the tip of their tail being fifteen feet, the dome provided a one and a half foot thick barrier against attacks at the very least, around their head and the tip of their tail; the barrier widening up to nearly eight feet at the sides. It was a colossal construction, taking nearly ten minutes to make and weighing several tonne, but it would be difficult for any to harm Verlassen within.
From the sides, four two feet thick legs sprouted, slowly pushing down to the ground below. For a moment nothing happened, then the massive bulky form rose up slowly, the gel formed legs shaking under the strain of the attempt. Loki managed a few, ponderous steps before with a cracking sound the legs gave way – sending the immensely heavy form to the ground once again. Trying again he created eight legs, each nearly three feet in diameter, yet while they did not break under the weight they supported, the huge form could barely move,
'Even if we could move – at this size we would struggle to pass between many of the trees.' Loki sighed.
'It is unlikely we would ever get so long to create a new form either,' Gertrude replied in a matter of fact tone.
'It takes far too long and uses up too much Gel and Energy.' Loki nodded Verlassen's head in agreement, each of her points were true. The form was simply too impractical; they would have to compromise on the idea of safety.
Concentrating on the Gel, Loki pushed a large portion of the substance away from the rest, the remainder would have been about eight hundred litres of gel – that much would take twenty seconds to create should they need to do so. Any more than that would be too long to try to create a defensive form like the one he hoped to make for them.
Eight hundred litres - this was what they had to work with. Instantly he could see a problem – were they to wrap it about themselves in an even layer, it might be perhaps a foot thick, yet the Gorilla form they could assume already provided as much if not more around their hood, where their snake like body had it's major organs.
Annoyed, Loki sunk down to the ground to contemplate their quandary; as had become their custom in their natural snake form, they had adopted a similar set of postures – in this case when he lay on the ground he had coiled up. Doing so he realised that much of the area that would be within that one foot of protection actually overlapped, or was indeed part of the snake's own tail. If that was the case then they would be able to use the extra gel to provide a thicker covering.
Encouraged by the thought, Loki gathered the gel they had set aside, instead of applying it evenly over every surface of their body, he instead applied it around their outer shape in a thick, even layer. The result was similar to a wheel in shape, seven feet wide and two feet tall of hardened gel; with a little smoothing, the shape began to resemble more of a ball, partially buried in the ground with a snake coiled up inside. Smiling happily, Loki once more created four turtle like legs; each was nearly a foot in diameter, markedly less than in their previous attempts, yet the results were much more favourable. Not even shaking with the effort, the legs easily lifted the much lighter form from the ground, carrying it over towards a nearby tree, around which Loki turned before coming back. Idly he mused it was much like trying on a new pair of shoes; once again he turned back towards the tree and this time made a dash for it - running as fast as the stumpy little legs would take him. It was less than amusing.
Far slower than they were in either of their other forms, they could easily out-slither the turtle in their native snake body. The hardened, smoothly rounded shell would make them much more difficult to harm, yet at the same time dodging would be much more difficult. Despite that; the only way that they could actually harm any possible attackers were with the spikes that they had just recently learned how to use; so unless an attacker was foolish enough to climb around on their shell, they would be fair game.
Knowing that they needed an avenue for attack, Loki considered many different types of 'attachments' just as they had the 'arms' of a human or of a gorilla so too could they attach such limbs to this form. Yet surprisingly perhaps it was Jun who provided the idea,
'A snake for a tail,' he whispered, a slightly awed tone in his voice.
'The Black Warrior's shell with stood any attack while his snake like tail took a terrible toll on any foe.' The Shinto priest recalled the tales from his homeland of Japan; the ancient Black Warrior – the northern deity.
'Genbu,' Loki said, amused by the idea of impersonating yet another god,
'how very appropriate.' At the rear of the shell Loki gathered gel, shaping it into the form of a snake, attached to their rear. Affixed on the end was the head of a snake, which he moved as if it were their own hand.
Yet moving the head as if it were an arm proved difficult, it was not a limb that they were familiar with, and the flexible sinuous motions of the neck were troublesome. Frustrated by the relatively simple obstacle, Loki decided to do something that he had never before attempted.
Previously he had tried to implant shapes of gel with the seeds he could make, yet each time that Gel was outside of his own control. With a small tremor of trepidation Loki began, biting his tongue he allowed the blood to exit his mouth, mixing with the Gel to form a small reddish brown seed, which travelled through the Gel towards the tail. There it sprouted into tiny web like roots which he gave to the control of one of the Nameless, for they would be the most likely to obey his whims. For a moment the snake like tail stiffened, then began swaying in a distinctly threatening manner, from the Nameless, Loki felt the sensation of pleasure and readiness.
Sure he had managed to complete the form Loki had the Nameless attack a nearby tree with the snake's head. Whipping forwards, the snake did just that, tearing out a chunk of the stone like tree flesh. However it was in that moment that Loki realised the extent of their problem – though they could not create more gel in the same amount of time, the snake's neck had stretched so far that it had become thin – so thin it could have easy been severed. They needed a thicker, longer tail; yet they had no more gel with which to do so – and their recently learned techniques would be too draining to use all the time to compensate for such a basic failing.
No, instead – the only option available to Verlassen was that they must something other than Gel or reiatsu to increase the length and width of the tail. The only thing that came to mind was their own head, or the end of their own tail. Were they to use their head – it would expose them to danger and the main benefit of this form was that it protected their vitals.
Reluctantly, Loki allowed their tail to protrude from the rear of the shell as he uncoiled their length. The result was that the tail grew and grew, becoming nearly fifteen feet in length between the end of the shell and the tip of the gel snake head. Yet in return, the tail they had coiled within the shell was gone, the shape nearly empty, reducing their defences. Annoyed at having to compromise further, Loki began drawing the shell closer in around them – shrinking it from seven to merely five feet in diameter. Yet the result was impressive enough as Loki experimented in drawing both their head and their tail back into the shell, then expanding one or the other – the speed with which they could retract was incredible – it would make shoring up their defences much easier. Perhaps the greatest lesson he had learned was that of allowing another to control part of their costume – it would mean that Loki himself could concentrate his efforts on ensuring their survival, allowing other souls to take charge of things such as attacking.
~Yamata no Orochi~
To achieve such a great defence they had thrown away much of their ability to move and had restricted their attacking power significantly; against some foes, such a strategy would mean their eventual but inevitable defeat. The old adage stated that the best defence was a good offence, in many ways it was a sound piece of advice – for if you were always on the back foot, defending yourself yet never seeking to attack then your opponent has less chance of being defeated. In circumstances such as those it was best to attack, attack hard and fast without giving the opponent reprieve.
Yet what would be the best way to deliver such a constant barrage or attacks? Perhaps they might create a form with dozens of arms or tails, such a form would be capable of constantly attacking, yet it would take a long time to shape the gel to provide the limbs required, it would also be difficult to control. Though perhaps the seeds could take some of that burden, it would take several minutes to create such a form, making it a form that would only be usable in very rare circumstances.
No, instead he needed a relatively simple shape, yet something that would allow them to attack in many ways at the same time, while using no more gel than Genbu had needed. The simplest and thus fastest of shapes to make were those like a rod, yet to be able to attack it was necessary for them to be able to be manipulated, to have joints or be flexible. Indeed shapes such as their own 'natural' snake form required little in the way of joints, instead the entire length was made more flexible, merely contracted slightly to make the part move.
Idly, Loki shaped the gel into scores and scores of little snake like tentacles attached all over their form. Despite each being relatively small and simple, the complete shape took several minutes to form and when Loki tried to slither away, the tentacles got in the way. Attempting to walk on them instead proved awkward to the point of futility.
The most significant trouble was that attempting to create and then control so many of the shapes was difficult, even after using seeds to control them, it was still a chore. Though it was true that the attacks could originate from anywhere, as the tendrils snapped out, they pulled at Loki's balance - the form lacked grace and elegance, it was unwieldy.
After a moment's respite, Loki reshaped the tentacles, reducing their numbers until only twelve remained, this time they were much larger than before, each were nearly six feet long and a half foot wide, as they lashed out the lengths tore great rents in the stone trees, as if it had been his own tail that had slashed at it.
Idly he experimented with the tentacles, moving the wriggling limbs from one place to another across their form, they were like snakes themselves as they thrashed about, coiling and twisting their lengths. It was while he was attempting to position them for the greatest advantage, that Loki messed up, accidentally attempting to force two of the tentacle like appendages in different directions, the base of each slowly merged, then sprung apart as the two limbs passed through one another. Loki was intrigued – such a thing had not occurred to him before and would likely take an opponent by surprise.
The two limbs had resisted passing through one another however, so it had been a slow process – not one that was particularly effective for a battle; yet after some experimentation, Loki realised that if he made the gel less dense – or even made it hollow inside – then there was less resistance to the moment. Encouraged, Loki found that he was able to increase the size of the tentacles by making them hollow, finally the tentacles were nearly two thirds Verlassen's own size.
However controlling such limbs was a cumbersome process, with each as large as Verlassen itself, the task of Loki attempting to control it all became impractical, instead he drew on his experience with Genbu, implanting each with a gel seed. Into each of the seeds he placed a portion of their conciousness, a Nameless was to control each of the tentacles. Perhaps it was by instinct, or perhaps through some intention to mimic He Who Had Named Them; but as each of the Nameless took control of the twelve tentacles they reshaped the end, fashioning a head of Gel, shaped to resemble a snake.
'Yamata no Orochi,' Jun breathed, it seemed the man had heard of a legend that matched any form they might take.
Yet even as the Shinto priest spoke the name, the man's memories flooded into Loki, the eight headed-eight tailed Serpent of Japanese legend. Though they had formed twelve smaller 'snakes' in addition to the Verlassen themselves, the legend did indeed seem similar. So close was the resemblance that Loki could not help but indulge his own fancy. With a thought he recalled five of the twelve Nameless, dissolving the seed within each of those five snakes as he did so; the remaining gel flowed into the other seven snakes, while a portion covered Verlassen's own body in a one inch thick layer – it would not do to throw away
all of their defences after all.
Eight snakes stood in the clearing between the stone trees, each of the seven clear serpents were attached to the eighth light reddish brown. As Verlassen slithered, each faced a different way, attacking imaginary foes as they darted about. One of the more ambitious snakes separated itself completely from Verlassen moving to attack a blind spot that had formed between two of the others.
It was a glorious sensation, the snakes attacked again and again – though truthfully Loki could feel that they lacked something. As the shapes were empty within, they were rather insubstantial, the attacks were fast, yet they lacked power and any attacks they bore would deal significantly more damage.
To fill each of the snakes would require a lot of Gel and this would take some time; in the meanwhile the gel that they had produced was simply not providing the necessary power and durability that the snakes would require to be of use to Verlassen. Rather than needing more gel, they needed to try to use it more effectively – simply throwing more energy at the problem was not a solution.
Yet not all the Gel was necessary at any one time, it was only when they attacked or were instead attacked themselves – that the need to provide more capable offence and defence was evident. It was just like his time in the Prussian military; there were times when one had to defend a large front given relatively few troops – in such times it was necessary to have a 'flying company' or mobile force of reserves to throw into any breach. Diminishing the thickness of the snakes slightly, Verlassen gave each of the Nameless that were in control of the 'snakes' dominion over the extra gel, each was charged with using it to reinforce any area as needed – the snake's gel reserve.
One of the most interesting implications of this was that Loki noticed that the way that the Nameless deployed the Gel was different than he himself would have done. One in particular used a much softer layer of Gel, which began to harden as pressured, as this happened more and more resistance occurred and the force was more likely to be resisted for long enough that the area could be reinforced. It was like a reflex, as the Gel was pushed it became harder – an approach Loki was keen to try out for himself when he had the time.
~Nue~
Yamata no Orochi might prevent an opponent from attacking, Genbu might withstand most attacks – yet the simple fact was that there were times when being more mobile was key. Were Yamata no Orochi to be considered alike to a squad of archers and Genbu to a squad of heavily armoured pike, what they needed to supplement them was the mobility of cavalry. A form with speed and agility, yet that did not compromise their defences.
Once more Loki gathered the same eight hundred litres of Gel towards them; it would be from this that they would develop their new costume. But what form would best suit their need for a speedy, agile guise? It would need long legs, capable of great bursts of speed, yet they could not be too thin, else they might find their limbs torn off by a glancing attack. Long powerful legs.
They would need a relatively solid body, one that could withstand attacks without exposing their hood to danger; indeed to protect it, perhaps the entire tail could be covered in a thin layer as they had done for Yamata no Orochi. Such a body would be quite heavy though; to provide the necessary speed and agility they desired it would be difficult to move around upright on two legs, as they did with their Naga forms; no instead they would need to have four legs to bear the weight as they had done for Genbu.
'What the heck is this Naga thing?' George demanded in confusion.
'Naga are Indian spirits, even god like beings, part serpent part man.' Loki replied calmly,
'Given we are copying such grand mythological deities as Genbu and Yamata no Orochi, I felt apt.'So four long, powerful legs with a thick, sturdy body and a long, serpentine tail; what manner of creature was like that? For inspiration Loki asked Jun for his opinion once again; the Shinto priest had proved an extraordinary font for such information so far and Loki was keen to keep the ball rolling. For a few moments Jun was silent before he replied quietly,
'Legends tell of the Emperor Konoe and of the terrifying creature that plagued his dreams.' Other voices in the Verlassen stilled to listen to the words.
'Emerging from a black cloud, the beast bore the face of a baboon, the body of a tanuki, the legs of a tiger and the tail of a serpent. The dread one – Nue.'Loki blinked; it was as if the creature described had been created purely for their own purposes. They often wore the head of a Gorilla and their snake tail was inescapable, the powerful legs of a tiger would provide both the speed they needed and an unmatched agility while the body of a tanuki...
'Tanuki, those are the 'racoon dogs' in Japan are they not? The creatures are solid, perhaps even slightly plump, but quite small or so I thought.' Loki inquired.
'Indeed,' Jun replied in acknowledgement,
'however the Tanuki are well known for their shape-shifting; the crafty creatures altering their form to play tricks on humans.' That revelation was even more startling – like Verlassen, the Tanuki was one who changed it's form as desired. It appeared that they had found a kindred spirit.
Concentrating carefully, Loki gathered a thin layer of Gel nearly one inch thick around their form, as he had done with their previous Yamata no Orochi form; however he then went further. Around the hood he accumulated more and more Gel, widening and thickening the amassed protection that would become the 'torso' or body of their new form. As it widened, the snake like spine of the body was wrapped in layer after layer of gel, shielding the length of the immense scaled Adjuchas within. As hundreds of litres of Gel were deposited, Verlassen was suspended off the ground by the clear substance, it would have been a humorous spectacle to behold.
'If we concentrate solely on forming the body first, we will find it difficult to move.' Getrude, the ever wise farmer's wife reminded Loki gently; she was right, the form was supposed to be used in battle, as it was, attempting to shape the form in battle would merely get them killed.
'Perhaps the legs might be of benefit?' Loki nodded Verlassen's head in acknowledgement; Gertrude was always deferring to Loki, never seeking to make him look inferior before the others among Verlassen. Wise and respected, she was perhaps the most influential soul among their number save for Loki himself. Allowing the Gel around their hood to dissolve, Loki began creating the form anew, making sure that they did not use more than the eight hundred litres that they had decided upon.
After creating the thin layer around their entire tail, Loki then focused on forming the legs themselves. The first two legs formed from the top of the cobra hood, positioned just like the arms of the Gorilla and similar in scale, they were however a simpler shape with articulation, so they formed more quickly, ending in retractable claws attached to each of the toes upon the dinner plate sized paws. The rear pair of legs were formed in the same place as was the case for the Gorilla, though instead of forming a separate pelvis these were instead attached to hips that ran along the tail 'spine' itself.
'We will have to fix the shoulders and hips as we are building the body.' Loki conceded, as it was their joints were too fragile and did not deliver the full speed and agility that the form promised.
With the layer of protection around their entire body created and the legs themselves formed, they had used almost one quarter of the Gel allotted. The next step would be shaping the head itself, that would allow the brain to be protected by a layer of gel while giving it the desired appearance. Loki breathed normally as the gel began to encase his head, most beings would have been discomforted by the sensation as the gel solidified around them, blocking the flow of air completely; however Loki had long since gotten used to the feeling – besides, as they needed air they could draw it from the Gel itself. As the gel encapsulated their head it began to contort, the desired monkey shape giving way to the similar and more commonly used Gorilla features. Loki considered redoing the mask, yet it achieved the desired result and he was more comfortable with this appearance in any case.
With the head of a Gorilla, the legs of a tiger and the tail of a snake, they were nearly there – all they lacked was the body of a tanuki; yet to create the shape they had a full five hundred and fifty litres of gel remaining, they would have left overs or so it seemed. Indeed as Loki fashioned the body around their hood it quickly became apparent that not only would they have left overs, they actually had too much gel by quite a measure.
With the legs positioned in the same location as had been done for the Gorilla like Naga, the tanuki body was four feet long yet appeared shorter and rounder than they had envisaged. Nor did it provide the sense of balance they had hoped for; instead the tail seemed to drag at them, throwing their weight out with every step that they took. Looking to use up extra gel, Loki had thickened the layer over their entire length, giving it a three inch thick covering for protection. With the long length of tail, the weight tugged at them constantly - it was a horribly awkward feeling, they felt in danger of falling over at any time.
In irritation, Loki widened the positions of the legs, ignoring the previously positioned hips he stretched them out to nearly half again its previous length, now from the top of the head to the hips measured nearly six feet. The body became slightly sleeker, so that it resembled that of a more nimble predator – rather than a children's toy as it's humorously rounded appearance might have earlier suggested.
Yet this caused the legs to be out of proportion, too short for such a beastly visage, it drew their belly down towards the ground, making the form look akin to a Dachshund. Perhaps such limbs might be appropriate for the short legged breed of dog which had been developed for hunting and tracking small prey; but for Verlassen's Nue such legs simply would not do. Lengthening and broadening the tiger like legs was vital; not just for ascetics of course, but for the ease with which they would be able to move, particularly if they needed to move sideways such short legs would only hinder them.
Redirecting a flow of gel from the tail, Loki reduced the thickness of the layer from three inches to two, using the gel he obtained to increase the size of the legs. From nearly three feet long, just longer than the human form's arms; Nue's legs began to engorge, swelling to four feet at the shoulder and the hip. Each was as thick around as the Gorilla's arm's nearly six inches in diameter with paws of a little more than twice that.
Experimentally, Loki trotted forwards with the form, as they moved, he noticed the tail was ever so slightly constricted by the tanuki's body, that made the tail more difficult to move impeding and attack they performed with it, yet at the same time this gave them more balance and agility than before. As he increased their pace, the difference became even more evident, if anything the faster they ran the less the tail seemed to trouble them. Suddenly Loki changed their heading, the thick legs easily compensating for the inertia of the gel construction as they pushed Verlassen's body sideways.
Somewhere deep within Loki could hear the contented purr of Samantha, the most battle orientated spirit of Verlassen. It was just as they had hoped it would be; or at least that was what they thought – until Loki whipped their form about. As he did so their shoulder intentionally brushed against one of the immense trees, their was a loud tearing sound as a wide, three inch deep gash was torn out of the tree's brittle flesh.
Yet at the same time, the shoulder joint of their form suffered serious damage; much of the gel at the shoulder was softer than normal to allow them the ease of movement they desired, the gel where they had collided with the tree had been torn off. At each place where they wanted to move the gel Verlassen needed to make the gel softer so that the flexibility was there for movement, however as a result they had given themselves an unexpected weakness. They could not increase the hardness of the Gel there any more than they had without impeding the functionality of the joint, yet they needed some way of protecting the softer gel of the joint from being damaged. If only they could make the joint as hard as the rest of the Gel, there would be little problem.
As he considered the problem, Loki gazed at the tree they had clipped, following the trunk upwards with their eyes, finally their gaze settled on the stone canopy above.
'Those leaves prevent the soft sand above from filtering through,' He mused,
'Perhaps we could do similar.'So saying, Loki gathered a portion of gel around each of Nue's joints, as he did so he hardened the exterior layer without affecting the flexibility of the inside. That done, Loki tried a few ginger steps, as he did so, the joints creaked uncomfortably, distantly Loki recognised the sensation of damage rather than pain. The gel covering had pressed against the far side of the joint as they walked and when the joints straightened the covering had been pushed at from both sides, finally snapping under the strain.
So long as the covering was large enough to cover the entire joint, when the joints were constricted the Gel would snap under the strain. Perhaps then the answer was to make it so that the covering would not quite touch each side of the joint? Concentrating on the joint plates, Loki forced them to recede slightly.
This time as he tried a few steps Loki felt no discomfort from the plates, they were no longer bearing the force of both sides of the joint pushing at them. However at the same time, now the plates only covered part of the joint. When the elbow was constricted for example, part of the exterior joint, the foreleg end was exposed; yet when the elbow was straightened the inside of the joint was revealed.
No matter how they puzzled at the shape of the plate, Loki and the other souls in Verlassen simply could not find a single fixed shape that would allow them to cover both sides of the joint at the same time. Altering the shape of the plate each time that they moved the joint would be possible, yet infeasible as it would be slow and arduous. Instead what they needed was a different approach, the easiest and most logical seemed almost cheating; instead of using one plate they would use three. One for each side of the outside of the joint and another for the inside.
Focusing on one joint at a time, Loki reshaped the current plate, pulling it backwards to reveal nearly one third of the outside of each joint, as he did so he made the very edge of the plate thinner so that it would fit more easily with the second plate, allowing the two to slide over one another. The second plate formed upon each joint slowly, of like size as the first it was slightly larger and rounder, to allow it to fit over the top of the first plate as required, however this plate did not cover the entire joint either; instead the two plates worked as a pair – covering the entirety of the outside of each joint.
The interior side of the joint was a different proposition, instead of expanding, the difficulty that the inside posed was that it retracted; to protect such a surface would be difficult with the hard fixed plates they had used on the exterior. For this they needed a different approach; Loki turned to the method he had seen the Nameless use when they were constructing Yamata no Orochi, the way of making soft gel increasingly hard on reflex as pressure was applied.
As they needed to test the effectiveness, Loki sat down on their rear haunches then brandished one fore-paw, revealing the five sharp but broad claws; after a moment's contemplation of the opposing foreleg’s elbow joint. Drawing their clear gel claws across the interior surface of the joint yielded surprising results. For a moment the Gel hardened, making movement of the joint itself more awkward, yet after an instant Loki realised that he could manage it if he tried – that would be something he would need to grow used to, it wasn't that the gel had become more difficult to move, just that the joint felt less comfortable or familiar.
Trying the same test on the outside of the joint Loki was impressed; the exterior of the joint was just as tough as the rest of his body – and the gap between the plates was extremely narrow. For a moment Loki considered leaving it as it was then grimaced slightly as he allowed a trickle of Gel in between the two plates, it would act as lubricant and help keep out anything that might work it's way between the plates. During his time in the Prussian military, one of his pet hates had been when water had managed to work it's way into his armour and things like sand were just as vexing.
Finally however, Loki was convinced; Nue stood ready for what may come.
~Niddhog~
With Genbu they had aimed for an indomitable defence, with Yamata no Orochi an unrelenting attack, with Nue a untouchable mobility. Indeed perhaps they
had achieved all they had desired, but something still seemed missing. What Loki desired for Verlassen was a form of unquestionable power, one that would subdue opponents without fail; to drive away attackers without needing to raise a single claw. He desired a form which would radiate such undisputed danger, that none would willingly choose to oppose them – or if they did, would provide Loki with the means to ruthlessly crush any such threat.
Previously they had formed their costumes on a budget, what Loki thought was a reasonable amount of gel that could be created in short order; however for such an immense form he would need more gel,
much more gel. It would be a form that could not be considered a suitable shape to attempt to create in battle, it would take too long and use up too much energy to create the necessary gel. Instead, it would be something that they could create when there was no immediate threat, a form that would deter predators such as other Hollow or attackers such as Shinigami.
As such the question of how long it took to create the gel or shape the form was immaterial, what mattered was the degree with which it assisted in preventing attacks from happening in the first place – and SHOULD the attack materialise anyway, the form would need to provide a level of power that would make any attacker rue their decision, for the short remainder of their lives.
But what terrifying manner of creature should it be? They had delved heavily into mythology in their previous costumes and it was a trend that Loki found pleasing. During his lifetime in Prussia, he had been an ardent believer in the Christian God, however in death his beliefs had been sorely tested and he had abandoned his old ways, instead taking to 'blasphemy' and 'heresy' as a fish to water.
It was such thoughts that drew him towards the days of his youth, to the tales of adventure and heroism, of tragedy and triumph, of knights and of dragons. One story he remembered all too vividly had given him nightmares as a child, the tale of the World Tree and more specifically the vile beast that had dwelt beneath it. The dragon Nidhogg had been trapped beneath the tree's roots, there to dwell until the end-times lest it bring about Ragnarök. If there were any creature that could inspire fear greater than that of the Dragon, Loki could not picture it.
In Loki's native land, Prussia they had long considered the dragon to be wingless with two legs; yet since his death, he had seen much and within Verlassen he had a wealth of experience to draw upon – many other 'dragon's overlapped with his own. The eastern dragon was a being of power and mystery, a noble creature of great wisdom; the western dragon was a cunning brute, a terror that inflicted untold suffering on all and sundry. The two legs became none, then increased to four – massive bat like wings blossoming from it's back to bear it's vast form into the air above to rain death on those below. Subconsciously Loki moved from the Germanian version of a Lindwurm dragon to the Draig of the Welsh tradition, for no other reason than the incontestable power it radiated.
Concentrating on their reiryoku, Loki began to instil it into their scales, willing the Gel to begin to form. Time passed as the Gel continued to pour forth, what had started as hundreds of litres became literally thousands; dwarfing any of the previous volumes that Loki had worked with before. As the gel seeped from their scales around their hood and tail, Loki began working with it at a furious rate, at first the shape was simple, for they merely needed to gather it into a solid mass which encased their entire body. As the gel continued to amass however, the moulding began as Loki worked it into the shape they had envisaged.
They began with the body, for it was the easiest to shape, an immense lump of gel it would be similar in overall shape to that of Nue, with four legs and a tail; yet the scale was so much larger, instead of containing their own tail it would be made completely of Gel. In Nue the shape was nearly five hundred litres, yet by the time they had finished shaping the much larger form of the Welsh version of Nidhogg (instead of two legs it would have four as well as a pair of demonic looking bat wings), it would have used nearly six times as much or three thousand litres. It had taken well over a minute to simply create the Gel; though shaping it had happened easily enough for the body given the simple form of the body itself – what would be more challenging would be the shoulders and wings, the legs and head.
The second part that was to form were the legs themselves; at ten feet tall and one and a half feet wide, they more than twice as large as those of Nue, each clawed foot bore four long toes and a thumb like big toe, each ending in a curved claw the size of a small dagger. The legs far eclipsed the size of any of their previous forms; still, the powerful limbs looked nearly spindly next to the armoured bulk of the ten foot long five foot wide body, as the mass of gel seemed to bulge in imitation of muscle.
That done, Loki began forming the next most easily accomplished parts, the head and tail. Each was a relatively simple shape, both the tail and neck merely consisted of a long flexible tube like appendage, the ten foot long tail tapered off to a point while to the five foot long neck was attached the head.
Loki spent a long time fussing with the head of the dragon, what they wanted to do after all was to inspire fear in their would be opponents. To a lizard like face he affixed narrow eyes that were a study of intensity, narrow set features that then swept back into two horns that ran from the middle of the forehead backwards, curving around the side of the head like a Buffalo's and then straightening slightly to a gentle downwards curve like a Oryx, running almost parallel with the neck for a foot as they tapered to a point.
He fashioned cruel, dangerous looking teeth, though, after recalling the difficulties they had faced in creating the spikes he compromised; they should not be made too sharp or too thin. Instead he shaped a mouth of teeth that were each no more than two inches long, and while they had sharp edges, this happened through a wide, almost 'filed' shape. When the lips of the dragon were closed they would conceal the teeth, but when it was pulled back would reveal the intimidating maw within.
With the head, the body, four legs and a tail complete, they were an impressive sight to behold. Before attempting to work on the wings themselves, Loki decided that it would be best to see how they fared without.
Attempting a few steps he instantly felt the difference, the forwards and backwards speed of Nidhogg was similar to that of Nue, yet attempting to turn was slow and awkward in comparison. What was more troubling however, was that within the Menos forest their large size was difficult to move about in. Though the Gillian passed about in the forest, the near mindless hollows did so quite slowly, drifting about without need for speed; for the purpose of speed, moving within the forest or any other cramped space would be difficult. Still, it seemed that they could expect little better given the immense weight and size of the form.
In such cramped conditions they would never be able to test out the wings they hoped to create, no, what they needed was to move once again to the sands above. There were a variety of ways he could do so – he could use Garganta to move to the Human Realm and then back to Huecco Mundo, he could scale one of the trees and dig his way to the surface above, he could even journey to the caves which connected the forest and the sandy plains. Yet what better way to test his wings than to attempt to simply fly there?
After considering the situation, Loki began heading back to the hole he had formed in his fight with the frog; as he arrived he saw that the sand above had stopped falling downwards, however there was still a large hole in the canopy – one that would doubtless mend in time. Standing atop the heaped sand on the forest floor, Loki began his efforts; atop his back and above his foreleg shoulders, Loki began to create new Gel, they had already created nearly four thousand litres in all, yet still he wanted more.
The shape around the centre of the dragon's spine began to form bumps which then rapidly began to swell, a single curved point like a spike broke from the top of each shoulder's side, the point pushing upwards as if tearing free of the submerged egg shaped mound below. After about six inches the point widened dramatically as instead of a spike it became something more like a triangular wedge which continued to push upwards as the round mounds on the dragon's back elongated along the spine, causing the wedge shaped protrusions to grow longer without growing wider. The wedges had grown nearly eight feet long before the tip attached to the back of the mound broke free and the wedge shape opened up, becoming wider and wider, the back of the mound continued to expel gel, a thinner membrane than before as the wedge continued to grow, taking on a distinctly 'sail' shape.
At nearly fourteen feet each Loki finally allowed the growth to stop; between the two their wingspan was nearly thirty feet, longer than the body itself by three times, that would surely be sufficient. With a single sturdy outside frame, each wings' elbow ended in a six inch curved spike, while two inch claws were beginning to form on each of the raised 'ribs' that ran outwards from the 'elbow' and 'upper arm' to the edge. The bat-like wings had been transformed to those of a creature from a nightmare, the perfect compliment to the malicious looking head.
Though it was the first time Loki had formed wings, others among the Verlassen had had Hollow bodies that included such appendages, of among the one hundred and eight souls at least twelve had had wings of some sort and three of those had been wings similar to those they now wore. Indeed increasingly as Loki began to form the different shapes they used in the costumes, he could remember having used such a limb before, either as one of the Verlassen or one of their meals. The memories of a frog's legs, a fish's gills, an octopus' suction cup covered tentacles and many more – they began to float up towards him, those that were not included amongst his memories came upon him as if by instinct. Loki was for a moment lost amid the sensations that swept over him, before finally he managed to push it aside – there was a job still to do.
Unfurling their wings, Loki crouched slightly, thrusting with their legs at the same time as he swept the newly created wings downwards, for a moment he veered sharply towards the right before falling heavily to the ground, causing a small shower of sand to fall from above.
Picking themselves up, Loki shook off the offending sand before giving their form a stern examination. The reason for their abysmal failure became apparent rather quickly, though it took Loki by surprise. Their wings had been formed identically, in all but one respect, the left wing was about three inches further away from their spine than the right; the result was that the left wing had managed to have a greater range of movement, generating more force than the right and sending them to the right.
Carefully adjusting their back, Loki tried once more; this time the lift they obtained was much more than before and just as importantly it was even on both sides. With a second beat of their wings Loki gained a dozen more feet, each subsequent one drawing them ever upwards, to the hole above.
Finally Loki managed to clear the canopy to the perpetually night skies of Huecco Mundo above the white sands. After cavorting for a few moments in the air, Loki noticed that something else was amiss, as they sped through the air they needed to correct their heading so many times. From his recollections of flight, it was because when they turned they were off balance, despite being nearly ten feet in length, the tail seemed too short to provide them with the direction they required. After a few moments more gel began to accumulate in the limb as Loki sought to compensate. Loki tried again to turn, darting about in the air as he slowly increased the length until he was satisfied, finally it had grown to fifteen feet, half again it's previous length and had brought their total length to thirty feet from the tip of their snout to the end of their tail.
Nearly two hours of flight later and Loki was beginning to tire, after numerous fine tunings Loki could say with some degree of confidence that their form once aerial would be a match for almost any would be assailant. Tipping back Nidhogg's head Verlassen roared in glee, the sound, as it tore through the darkness would inspire terror in any that could see their silhouette in the dark skies far above.
