Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

It's not arrogance if you're right?

Well, Rin's a badass, what can I say? And we don't know where to even look for. I mean, I'll keep an eye out, but good luck scouring this whole place up to find a blonde chick with a guitar! She says, putting her hands on her hips.

Oh dear you sound almost smart there.

Go fuck yourself.

Ah, now you're sounding like an ape in heat again. Good! I thought I'd lost you there.

Pietro rolls his eyes and lets out an exasperated sigh.

"You two need to sort out... whatever the hell is going on between you. Is this your weird idea of flirting with each other or something?" he says, gesturing to both Vivenette and Nanza before turning on his heel. "I'm gonna do what I was trying to do before your little fight interrupted me: take my mind off of Rin before I drive myself crazy!"

With that, he dashes off in the direction of Windhelm.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Nov 26th 2020 at 3:03:06 AM

Nanza shrugs, but Vivenette punch her in the face before she can comment on anything.

Ha!

Omega

"All I've got, coming right up!"

Megan slammed the Dragon Pod down the barrel of her gun - and when it started violently shuddering and leaking Dragon element, her only thought was a quick, Uh-oh, before a violent explosion of Dragon energy threw her back and careened towards Alatreon.

The Whiteshock fails to inflict a status. However, Megan's pseudo-Wyvern's Fire comes in clutch, delivering a dosage of Dragon strong enough to send Alatreon flailing onto its back!

"Ey!" Reyna uses another Clutch-hammer strike to keep Alatreon's head softened up, then starts smashing her hammer into it repeatedly with the Big Bang combo!

"Well, that was a gambit worth taking.", Varik thinks to himself when he sees the results of Megan's attack.

He quickly charges for Alatreon again as well, trying to jump onto it, run over its body and deliver a running slash to its head.

Vs. Alatreon

Megan cartwheeled backwards in an unusually accurate display of acrobatic prowess, before she landed on her feet.

"Whew... Looks like I'm getting the hang of things again! Time to bring out the big guns."

Without missing a beat, Megan holstered her other weapons and rapidly loaded up her revolver with Resonator rounds — ie, the ones designed to break reinforced defenses and punch through toughened armor. Purely physical, but they packed a hell of a crystal-tipped punch — exactly the kind of punch Megan suspected would be necessary to exploit the creature's weakened head.

"I DON'T NEED DRAGONBLOOD TO TAKE ON YOU!" she shouted as she dropped into an aiming slide. Time felt like it slowed down a bit as her training took over, and she fired off three rounds at those massive, spire-like horns.

Sporacles pops two Medkits to get back to his feet.

"Damn, what was the plate number of the ship that ran me over..."

He boosts back towards Alatreon, and when he gets closer puts all his strength into a great slash aimed at its horns, knives moving together.

Alatreon gets up after being bombarded. It starts to spew ice in a jet, spraying it around wildly. Anyone who gets hit will be inflicted with Iceblight, causing them to tire out much more quickly when doing stamina-consuming actions.

Oh yeah and it also does MASSIVE DAMAGE, but don't worry, up to two 'deaths' can be taken without the team actually dying/failing.

Reyna, however, seems excited, like this is the moment she's been waiting for. She gets iced, but not Iceblighted, and starts rolling around Alatreon as she scrambles to pull a Great Sushifish Scale from her inventory. As she chomps it, Wide-Range procs and heals those near her, also giving them temporary health regeneration (albeit rather slow and only healing up to half the damage taken from whatever last hit them).

Void/Miles held out its hand and summoned the Hero's Sword to their hand as they listened to Draedon's ranting, You know, I'm starting to think this guy loves the sound of his voice more than I do...

The fusion stepped forward, body covered in a shroud of Void energy before suddenly vanishing only to reappear up above Draedon and swing their sword down only to vanish once more and come at him from the side for another slash before doing the same to his other side. It seemed he was finally getting a handle on warping places and was mixing it in with sword strikes.

"So!" Cue a slash, "Since you're in..." Slash again, "A giving mood..." Once more, "How about sharing why Yharim is after the power of the Arena?!!" He finished his combo by jumping up unleashing a huge sword wave down on the robot.

Varik falls off of the beast when Alatreon gets back up, and while he can quickly get back on his feet, he's unable to move fast enough to dodge or cast a sturdy enough Barrier.

As such, he instead uses Magnet with one hand and raises his Sun Shield with the other, trying to absorb some of the damage to turn into mental energy and block other bits of it. These measures obviously won't be enough to block the whole attack though, so while Varik manages to partly protect himself, he still gets hit and badly damaged as well, flung back a fair amount and getting afflicted with Iceblight.

He does land near Reyna, allowing him to get affected by Wide-Range, but he still can't immediately get back up on his feet, needing a moment to get his bearings from the impact of that powerful attack.

He lands neatly a short distance away, able to avoid the ice attacks for now.

"Catch!"

Sporacles applies his throwing arm to tossing Varik a Medkit. If used it should instantly bring back 1/3 of his total HP.

Megan very nearly got punked, but she aimed her grapple-launcher — of course she brought the grappler along, what are you, nuts? — at a nearby wall and managed to get herself out of harm's way. She decided to unload her remaining bullets towards the Alatreon, and proceeded to get the grappling mechanism stuck for a bit.

"Oh, gods damn it, not again..."

Alatreon continues spewing ice. It takes to the air and starts spraying it up above and all around while flapping its wings. After a moment, huge icicles form and start raining down. Those that don't land on anyone embed themselves, creating an aura of Iceblight-inducing frost, while those that do land on someone instantly shatter upon impact.

Reyna fires her Clutch Claw at Alatreon again.

As Varik stands back up, he catches Sporacles' Medkit... with his face, as it ends up getting thrown against his head.

"Thanks.", he mutters with the kit still on him, which he quickly pulls off.

Before he can use it though, Alatreon rises up into the air to attack. When the icicles start to appear and fall, Varik grits his teeth, focusing intensely for a moment, after which he sends a powerful Whiteshock upwards to try to hit Alatreon with it, the psychic attack shattering the icicles headed for Varik upon impact.

As he awaits the results of his attack, Varik quickly uses the Medkit.

Sporacles is able to avoid all projectiles for now, but only by virtue of completely focusing on that. No attacks are launched this round from him.

Megan yoinked herself out of the wall and proceeded to attempt to not get fucked up — rendering her also unable to do anything on the offensive.

"Is this a phase change, Reyna?" Megan asked, shouting over the chaos as she stayed on the defensive.

Reyna ends up clinging to Alatreon's hindleg. Whiteshock once again fails to trigger a status, and the Elder Dragon slowly flies towards the group while spraying down a jet of oily water, sweeping left to right. Anyone hit by the water will be afflicted with Waterblight, causing their stamina to recover more slowly after depletion. This and Iceblight could be a nasty combination...

"No, it's still Dragon Active!" Reyna yells. She then jumps up to Alatreon's foreleg. "H-hey! Anyone got something to restore stamina? I'm cutting it a bit close here!"

Varik leaps out of the way of the oily water jet, landing as it sweeps away from him. He then looks at Reyna.

"No, but..."

He focuses his energy for a moment, then raises one arm, aimed at Reyna, and she should have a much easier time holding on, as Varik is using telekinesis.

"Whatever you're planning, do it qui-shit!", he says, noticing the oily water jet coming back his way as it sweeps. He tries to case a Barrier, but with part of his mental energy currently getting used to help Reyna, the jet just breaks through the Barrier and hits Varik. Though he prevents himself from falling, raising his Star Shield and pushing back against the jet. He also tries to keep the telekinesis active, which'll cost him a lot of stamina to keep up.

And now that he's affected with Waterblight, and isn't in a state to use Cleanse, he might be in some serious trouble soon.

Grymm nods.

   "Seems so...or at least it wasn't one of the really bad ones."   

Lucien nods as well.

"That is my suspicion, though I cannot confirm that theory unless this being is located."

The two then nod, getting up from their own chairs, and exchange handshakes with each of them, smiling.

"It was my pleasure. Do visit again, especially if you feel like you need another nudge in the proper direction, alright?"

   "It's been a good one. See you kids around. And don’t worry, you can keep that scarf! I have plenty to cover up with, and it’s not like I can feel the cold anyway."   

   "G o o d b y e ."   

Edited by SacredSpirit123 on Nov 27th 2020 at 9:06:02 AM

Megan holstered her weapons and dug around in her various pouches, pockets, and harnesses for rations. She grabbed... several.

"Varik, Reyna, Sporacles — heads up, rations here!"

She then proceeded to yeet a bundle of about two or three rations to each of them, if she could.

rations are an instant-use item that restores stamina and slightly increases its maximum for a time.

Sporacles catches the rations and stuffs them into his inventory, before looking at the spread attack coming for the group.

"Water!◊"

Waterblight? Pffft, whatever, who cares. Not Sporacles apparently, given that his course of action is to wait for the jet to sweep over his position before jumping into it with his Seaglide out and fucking zyooming towards Alatreon up its own water stream. This doesn't use much if any stamina, given that the Seaglide machine is giving most of the thrust.

Knives out and ready to slash on impact!

Reyna, now able to keep herself latched on with only her Claw thanks to Varik's telekinesis, looks over and silently mouths a 'what the fuck' as Sporacles slams and slashes into Alatreon.

Alatreon spits a spread-shot of icicles. These, too, will embed themselves in the ground if they don't hit anything. It looks like it's about to shoot more ice or water...

but then Reyna jumps up to its head, pumps her Slinger, and blasts all her Dragon Pods into its face at once, sending it hurtling down to the ground headfirst!

... Headfirst.

Alatreon

Parts Broken

"Hell yea-OOF" remarks Reyna as she drops from the air. Alatreon is now minus one horn, and also down on the ground again for more free damage. "It'll be forced to switch back to Fire Active instead of jumping to Ice Active. Good for me, I don't really know how to contend with Ice Active!"

Varik, too, catches his share of rations, eating a bit of it to restore a bit of stamina while pocketing the rest of it.

While he's still affected with Waterblight, he does still manage to evade an incoming icicle.

When Alatreon is down for the moment, Varik uses the opportunity to use Cleans on himself to rid himself of the status. Despite his stamina now recovering at its normal rate again, he does still look a little worn out.

"It's been a while since I've been in a real fight.", he thinks to himself, realizing that, despite being a little healthier with at least his choice of food, he's still not nearly up to 100% strength.

"Still, I have a Brain Food Lunch on me, so I can afford to go low on energy for a bit. So...

He holds out his hand, aiming at Alatreon, and casts Timestop, attempting to lock Alatreon in this position for a while. If it's successful, Alatreon will stay down for longer than usual, and thus his allies will be able to attack it much more.

Casting Timestop does cost Varik a good bit of mental stamina though, so if it works his allies shouldn't dawdle, otherwise they won't be able to take advantage of the situation.

"Will do.", Ninten happily says to Lucien. He then looks at Grymm.

"Really? Are you sure? ... well, in that case, thanks a bunch!"

"And likewise, if you ever need our help, don't be afraid to come find us, alright?", Ana says.

"And should you find a way to get what you want, come visit us and show us.", Lloyd says to Grymm, smiling. "Then we can celebrate it together."

Ninten gives Ugo a quick pat on his head, and after that they go back outside, waving at the three as they return to the Arena through the door.

-

Once they get there, Ninten immediately starts shivering.

"Ack! Is it me or did this place get even colder? Even with the scarf I'm freezing again."

"It's probably because we just left a pleasantly warm room.", Lloyd notes.

"Let's not spend too much time in this area then.", Ana says. "We'll look through the shack and then contact Botar."

"I don't really sense anyone in the shack, so it's probably empty.", Ninten says, to which Ana and Lloyd look surprised.

"Wait, you can sense for presences again?"

"Huh? ... well, kinda, I guess. A little.", Ninten says. "Enough to tell that the shack next to us is empty."

"That's great, Ninten! You're recovering your lost abilities!"

"Actually, as good as that would be, I don't know if that's what's happening. If what I've been thinking for a while now is correct, this may only be a temporary recovery."

"Temporary? How so?"

"I'll explain back in the base. Let's get going and contact Botar in the meanwhile."

"Alright, Mr. Cryptic.", Ninten smirks, after which the three of them start walking away. As they walk and Lloyd starts calling Botar, Ninten thinks back to what he felt and heard when he started drinking the tea.

"I already have the means to get into Magicant...", he thinks to himself. "But what are those means? I have to find a way to remember."

-

As the three leave, a clump of snow moves from nearby the shack. As it falls apart, Lucas' 'Niiue' doll◊ becomes visible, laying in a position where it can see the three kids.

Beat

It's then embedded in a slight glow and starts to drag itself forward, moving as lifelessly as a stuffed doll would, but having a clear path, trying to follow Ninten and co.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Nov 28th 2020 at 8:04:27 PM

Sporacles is able to swing around to Alatreon's back before it can tag him with ice shit at point-blank. He locks in with his knives and braces for impact as Alatreon falls.

"Wa-HOOO!"

His bracing position leaves him mostly unharmed by the fall, and he immediately gets to work slashing and hacking at Alatreon's neck. One-two-three-one-two-three...

Tropique

Pietro sits at a local beach bar on Tropique, sipping from a margarita with a small umbrella in the glass.

"Some help that Nanza girl turned out to be... I tell her that Rin's gone missing and could possibly be in danger, and all she can think about is fighting that stuck-up little snob who makes Vegeta look as humble as Rogers. Thanks a lot, you sword-obsessed klutz."

Sighing, he drains the remaining contents of his glass in one gulp, then starts refilling it.

"God, what the hell are you doing, Pietro? You're supposed to be taking your mind off of Rin, not worrying about her more! Keep this up, and you might as well kiss sleep goodbye!"

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Nov 28th 2020 at 11:20:13 AM