Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

"Nice. And don't worry, Greed, I wasn't planning on slowing down just so you might have a chance to keep up," BE!Pietro replies once they've reached the plains. "I know how much you enjoy a good challenge, even if it's only a friendly spar."

He removes his shirt, revealing his lean, muscular physique in addition to the scars on his back and torso.

"But enough talking about this fight. Let's go!"

Cracking his neck, he dashes towards Greed in a zigzag pattern in the hopes of disorienting him, then aims a high-speed kick at his chest.

Thor and Loki almost simultaneously raise an eyebrow at Varik.

"Is... something troubling you, lad?"

"Hmm?"

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Feb 27th 2021 at 9:13:43 AM

Zagreus

He falls to the ground in pain, covering his ears as his eardrums are surly shattered by the scream, down and out for now, his gauntlets disappearing from his hands as he sinks into a red pool that seemingly came out of nowhere, the river emanating a very dark aura as he sank into it.

Sage-Piloted Rimuru (2 Rounds Remaining)

The slime expanded as the force of the scream hit it, the shockwave from it shaking the slime to its very core. Chunks of its body being seperated from it and sent flying off to who knows where.

Thanks to Ultraspeed Regeneration however, the missing body mass wasn't missing for long, quickly replaced as Great Sage took to the human form again, brandishing Zantetsuken as if it had wielded it before.

Calculating... Calculation finished, executing.

With a swift motion, Great Sage sprouted bat wings, flying towards the Demon King with Zantetsuken thrusted forward, attempting to skewer the Muzan.

If this flying stab hit, the machine-controlled slime would then try to rip the sword upwards, effectively cutting Muzan in half from the waist up

Muzan deflects the attacks with more walls of blood and meat...

until Nagato fucking antimatter bombs him and he gets engulfed in an explosion.

Still not enough to put him down, and he fully regenerates right as the sun shines down upon him.

To no effect.

Avalon

He spreads his arms and basks in the light, having seemingly lost all interest in his foes.

"Well... we lose, I guess." Joseph shrugs half-heartedly. "The only way to beat him would be to completely annihilate him, or to somehow freeze his entire body or seal him away. It doesn't seem any of us have that ability."

Doomguy looks at those assembled. He nods to Yuki, as if inexplicably knowing something about her abilities.

"I didn't mean using my bow - though weapon fusion is actually a thing from my world." Phosphora whips up a graphic showing how the Phosphora Bow and Optical Blade can be combined into the Cutter Palm.

Terlette pores them over.

"Hmmm... which ones specifically have you solved, if any?" she inquires.

Edited by KiriK on Feb 27th 2021 at 6:27:12 AM

Oh, he was throwing him right at her. That was concerning. Should she get out of the way? Before she can make the decision, Luffy hits her. It doesn't hurt, er, at least, she doesn't think it hurts... but she is sent flying uncontrollably alongside her impromptu ally. She criticizes her indecisiveness. Such a thing should not be an issue. Of course, the next action she should take would then logically be fixing this issue. She freezes herself in midair, stopping nearly instantly, turning herself incorporeal for just a moment so as to allow Luffy to pass through her. With this corrected, she takes the next step.

"Radiance Flare!"

A bubble of expanding dull green light emits from her body, exponentially expanding to fill the area, its radius becoming so grand it vanishes into the distance.

Good, so that still works.

Rapidly transporting herself to various locations around Vegeta, Angel delivers a flurry of nearly instant slashes of her sword, bending the space between them to make it all the more difficult to dodge.

   "I appreciate the confidence you have in me. I won't disappoint. I'm used to fighting against fast, agile opponents by now."   , Greed grins.

When BE!Pietro zigzags towards him, Greed actually doesn't seem to have too much trouble following him. He blocks BE!Pietro's kick to his chest with his hardened arms, which he then immediately swings to the sides to try to launch BE!Pietro back (with a great chance to disorient him instead due to the lack of balance he'll have for a moment), after which he'll leap towards BE!Pietro and attempt to bash him back, coating his shoulder in his Ultimate Shield as well.

Versus Homunculus

Varik glances to the side, though finds the courage to keep talking.

"... I... Thor, last time we met I was... well, I was..."

He looks back at them.

"Who am I kidding, trying to find softer words to describe it. I was a drunk, pathetic piece of shit and I completely lost my cool and self control in front of you. I was pretty much at my lowest point when you happened to run into me and I was probably close to drinking myself to death. And I want to apologize for you having had to see me like that. I can't pretend like everything is magically okay for me now, but things are better now thanks to the person who helped me. And I'm not the person I was back then, also thanks to her."

He shows an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry for back then, Thor. For being like that and for breaking down in front of you like that. I don't blame you for leaving, I must've come off as a lost cause."

Edited by DevilPsyco on Feb 27th 2021 at 1:46:54 PM

Luffy is sent sailing, though not over the horizon. Regardless, Angel is briefly alone with Vegeta. At first, her strikes work decently enough. They do not cut deep, but they appear to be keeping Vegeta on his toes well enough!

Then, without a warning, he wait for her to just appear and let loose with a large blue energy blast all around him, triggering a wide explosion by the look of it! It's about twenty-meter-wide all around him, and Luffy notices him as he run back in!

Wingy!

...

The Hunter jams a blood vial into their leg and appear relatively indifferent to what's happening, quietly walking back towards the scene.

They appear to be not simply unimpressed. Rather, they're so overly focused that whatever surprise they had was shrugged off very quickly. Instead of despairing, they begin to check their pocket...

An interesting predicament! The space between them is lesser, so the distance the attack has to travel is low. Of course, this is an anticipated result, so she simply has to...

Ah, there she goes overthinking again. It only takes a tiny fraction of a moment for her to warp herself away from the radius of the explosion, but in that time, she is hit by a large amount of the brunt of it. It leaves her bruised and burnt in various places.

The wounds close rapidly. She knows more than well that such injuries build up quickly, so shutting them quickly is paramount. Fortunately, accelerating the regeneration rate of the cells in her body is a trivial task. She learnt from the best, after all.

Standing tall, she briefly inspected the warrior. They were in a ground state, obviously. Concealing greater power? She had no way of knowing. However much it was... she didn't want to find out.

"Are you alright to proceed?" She asked the Prince, strangely polite for the situation.

She gives Joseph a look that says something similar to 'you don't know what I can do'. The look she gives Doomguy is of a more quizzical mutual recognition. She nods back.

Nagato closes her eyes and tries to probe the discrete properties of Muzan's being in her mind's eye, especially searching for extant or former weaknesses.

Regeneration? Heh, it looks like I'll need to blast you to bits! Says Vegeta, taking a stance. Then, a shadow falls over him: It's Luffy, who made a prodigious leap to reach him.

GOMU GOMU NO- He bite into his thumb, and Vegeta raise an eyebrow. Then both eyebrows when Luffy's right arm drastically grow larger and glows black, thanks to Haki. ELEPHANT GUN! Concludes the Pirate, slamming his gigantic arm into Vegeta in a manner that utterly wreck the ground all around them.

"A wonderous attack, but I doubt it is sufficient."

As the ground cracks beneath her feet, she allows herself to rise into the air. The terrain is just obnoxious at this point, anyways.

Should she continue the combo to its third stage? No, that would risk turning Luffy into metaphorical swiss cheese, a generally unpleasant thought to behold. She decides to simply wait and see the result of the attack.

Luffy smirks. Shishi-

Then, he stops, and instead makes a grim face. It's understandable, though, what's with Vegeta as a Super Saiyan lifting his massive fist off with an arrogant smirk. However, Luffy was realizing this before Vegeta rose up.

This time though, the prince hold Luffy up into the air and points at Angel, his finger producing a wide, powerful blast to try to knock her down!

Greed's blow connects, knocking BE!Pietro back quite a bit. Disoriented, he's left vulnerable to his followup attack and launched into a nearby tree. Grunting in pain, he takes a moment to haul himself to his feet.

"Argh... thank god I didn't challenge Wrath or Sloth."

Once he's recovered, he dashes by Greed several times, throwing a momentum-fueled punch with each pass before capping off his assault with an uppercut.

Thor remains silent all throughout Varik's admission. When the boy finishes with an apology, he offers him a reassuring smile.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Varik. I couldn't possibly begin to understand everything you've been through, but I don't blame you for your behavior that day," he says. "If anything, I should apologize for leaving when you clearly needed somebody to hear you out. Perhaps you might have stopped drinking and began recovering far sooner if I had just stayed to listen..."

He reaches out to tousle his hair.

"Nonetheless, I forgive you, my friend."

Loki, meanwhile, has the decency not to interrupt what's obviously an emotional moment for his brother.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Feb 27th 2021 at 4:44:28 AM

Thundercloud Temple

   "Ah. What did you have in mind, then? You've got me curious now, Phos."   

He turned to her as he took the staff, twirling it around a bit in one of his hands.

"So far, I have this," she said, pointing to the passage about a 'flesh-blessing. "This one correlates to a number of parts that Reyna and I have recovered from particularly powerful wyverns. I think the skyborne coals line is about the Skyforge, but I'm not completely sure. The fragments, secrets, vision, 'steel and death'... not too sure. Machine's Breath... I have an idea but I think I won't be able to test it until the rest of the weapon is complete."

She gestured back towards the Arcaneum, and added, "I actually have the parts in question — or at least what I suspect to be the right parts — with me still."

As suspected, the warrior reveals a multiplicative increase to their power... and blond hair? Not what she would choose, but she does not choose her opponent's style. Accelerating her body to immense speed, she rapidly avoids the attack coming her way. It's not awfully close to hitting, but enough so that it doesn't leave her feeling safe

Such a vast increase in power, she doubts this is the end of it, too. In order to win, she needs to stop them from gaining power at all!

"Lacerna Noctis!" she shouts, the wings on her back expanding to the size of skyscrapers before rapidly closing in on the Prince in front of her, intent on surrounding him. If Corvin were still alive, she would thank him for the art.

Of course, this attack was not awfully strong. No, its true purpose was utility. Copied from an old friend of hers, the attack suppresses the power of anyone it hits, returning it to and keeping it at a basic state. It would probably also hit Luffy, though it would not effect him, as he is not in any state of ascension.

   "The day anyone gets Sloth to agree to a spar will be the day the world ends."   , Greed jokes right before BE!Pietro attacks.

His initial 'run-by-punches' hit their marks, but then Greed just fully covers himself in his Ultimate Shield to mitigate all impact from them. The uppercut does make him stagger back, but it doesn't do as much damage as BE!Pietro was likely intending.

BE!Pietro will now probably also feel a good bit of pain in his hand due to hitting Greed head-on like that.

   "And if it were Wrath... well, you'd probably be on the ground at at his mercy already by now."   

Greed lunges forward again, but, expecting BE!Pietro to dodge, doesn't plan on attacking. Instead, the moment he lands, he predicts BE!Pietro will dodge to avoid the punch he might predict will come his way. If this happens as Greed expects, he'll leap again, in the same direction BE!Pietro dodges towards, and will try to bodyslam him.

If this works it'll be pretty effective considering how much heavier than normal Greed is in this state.

If it fails though, and Greed ends up doing something wrong in his 'combo', this may open the way for a counterattack.

To say Varik is surprised when he hears what Thor says would be an understatement. And when his hair gets tousled, he glances down again, though not out of shame, rather due to him not being used to that kind of thing anymore and being a little awkward about it.

Eventually he looks back up at Thor though, showing an actual, genuine smile, which Thor and Loki wouldn't have seen him do before.

"Thank you.", he says. As he smiles, his hair briefly moves out of his eyes, and while his eyes still look weary and tired, they're not nearly as broken and soulless-looking as they were during that moment he and Thor had been talking about. Back then, he basically looked like he stopped experiencing the 'life' part of living, like he'd been moving through life without any passion or emotion.

Now, at least, there's some spirit in them. And together with that smile, for just this moment, despite his different hair, which is reddish brown with black streaks (were those streaks always there), different eye color and different clothes (and overall being more buff than Ness and Nesley, this still being clearly visible in his casual clothes), the expression he shows is clearly recognizable as Ness. Anyone who knows Ness personally would be able to see this smiling expression and know that it's him.

Vegeta witness the attack, but choose not to take it, wary of Angel in particular. He tosses Luffy overhead, and then dash at her, avoiding the wings as he attempts to land a powerful punch to her guts!

Eeyarhg! With a mighty kick, Vegeta attempts to send Angel soaring into the sky as well! Then, if that happens, he blast away, triggering a series of fireworks in the sky.

Edited by Bolded1 on Feb 27th 2021 at 2:05:14 PM

Darn, she was hoping he wouldn't avoid it. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. It was time to change things up.

As he ran in for his attack, she turned herself incorporeal. Of course, this wouldn't exactly turn out well if he figured that out, so when his attack seemed to connect, she feigned being hit, launching herself backwards at speeds she deemed appropriate. The barrage of fireworks, though... that might be a bit more of an issue.

Dodging attack after attack, just as she believed it was over, one hit her straight on. The attack was devastating, hitting her right on the gleaming jewel on her chest. It was left undamaged, only the area around it was hurt... but that did not leave her feeling awfully confident. An attack of similar nature imbued with greater destructive potential... The wounds inflicted rapidly sealed themselves.

She thought about egging him on, putting him into some sort of trap, maybe. But then again... maybe that wouldn't be smart. She would have to gauge this.

So, she waited for the next attack.

BE!Pietro shakes his now-aching hand after his high-speed assault.

"Damn... Yeah, that's exactly why I decided not to challenge him. I wanted a sparring match, not a one-sided asskicking."

As Greed leaps towards him, he actually dashes forward to meet his charge head-on before activating his Chaos Form◊, albeit minus the usual shirt and coat, then attempting to bash him with a Chaos Magic replica of Captain America's shield.

"You're welcome," Thor replies, pleased to see that Varik really was in a much better state than when they last met. "And if you don't mind me asking, who was this friend that took it upon herself to rehabilitate you?"

"Perhaps she might be someone we're familiar with," Loki muses.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Feb 27th 2021 at 5:33:51 AM

Vegeta immediately leap to try to punch her in the face. It's a simple tactic, but hey, it's pretty effective from his perspective. If it works, he'll kick and bash her around the air, ending up with a downward kick to spike her back down to the ground.

Up above, Luffy transforms, or at least, a shit-ton of smoke appears around his precise location.

Uh oh. That was... pretty much the best thought she could get out before being thoroughly thrashed around by Vegeta before getting kicked into the ground at high speeds. Being embedded in rock upside down is generally unpleasant, after all.

Also, that hurt.

She definitely needed a plan of some sort. At this rate, she'd have to stop playing fair, an act that rarely acts to do anything but piss people off. No, she needed a different strategy... wait, why were they fighting again?

She pried herself out of the rock, standing up and pointing her sword at the Saiyan prince aloft above her.

"Genesis... Saber!"

Gently twirling her sword counterclockwise, she launches a thick barrage of similar weapons formed from thin air, each moving at high speeds towards the warrior.

Greed is defenseless (in name only) mind-leap and as such gets hit and bashed back, falling on the ground due to his weight.

   "And here I thought you were gonna focus on avoiding me before attacking back. Guess I deserve that one for assuming."   

He gets back up, then charges for BE!Pietro and tries to start wildly slashing at his Chaos Shield.

"Her name is Reyna. We met during a fight against a dragon and ever since then she's been hanging out with me from time to time. Sometimes just to go eat something, sometimes to fight more dragons. As well as Megan later. Reyna introduced me to her and she's looked out for me on the battlefield since then. I owe them a lot, and when it comes to Reyna, I don't know if I can ever fully repay her.", Varik says. "She pretty much helped me put my life back on the rails again, or at least as much as it can be put back on, and I'm not sure she even knows how much that means to me."

Aleifr vs Sarah

Aleifr actually looks legitimately ticked off when Sarah brushes off his question.    "In that case, I'll jump straight to it."    He opens and unrolls the scroll to reveal a painting of a building - almost like a stave church - and wraps his wings over himself in defense while closing his eyes, not specifically intending to block the blood shot, yet both deflecting it and achieving what she wanted to do anyway.

The Metatron contained in his Yang jewel begins to glow brightly as for once, Aleifr has to take time to stay still and cast, being boxed in by Sarah's barriers but not minding it either. He then starts getting walloped and yeeted by her, relying only on his innately enhanced durability so as not to get immediately reduced to a smear as he's driven below the 'ice', breaking through a couple dozen meters before natural salt water surrounds him again.

As Sarah follows him underwater, having broken and forced his wings open, she continues pummeling and he starts coughing up a small cloud of blood, but he's still focused on casting. Lightning crackles and falls upon them within the water...

And before the light dissipates, a retaliatory blast of electricity flies in her direction, just narrowly missing her.

A moment earlier, Lambert, who up until this point has just been watching the fight, clutches the Yin-shaped jewel on his person. All of a sudden, a whole formation of black Metatron springs out of his body, and he grabs Martin and teleports them both to his husband's side before Thor can react. The larger orc appears first, having redirected a good portion of Sarah's lightning with his own control. He bears some noticeable scorch marks though, as the Sister's sheer power overwhelms his resistance, absorption and redirection.

As Sarah comes in for another round, a wall of crystals reinforced with a kinetic barrier deflects the start of her assault. "Sorry, but we didn't come here just to audition." Lambert's Metatron formation resonates with Aleifr's, and from his armor a second cluster quickly grows, joining to form an intertwined mass of black and white, before they channel its power.

   "Divided Plane Shift!"    Cracks within spacetime itself spread through the region, catching all five people in its path, before 'shattering' to transport them out of the empty planet.

Blackreach

"AaaaaaaaAAAA!" Lambert yells as he reappears near the ceiling of the massive cavern and starts falling. Before he can get his bearings and break his descent, a bubble of force does it for him, courtesy of Reuben, with Rie standing near him as well.

???

Thor wakes up near the top of a grassy hill, a clear night sky with bright stars and auroras above. Below in the distance is a village, surrounded by a snowy mountain range - just like in one of the visions Aleifr imparted earlier.

Nearer, at the apex of the hill, stands a lone wooden building. He can sense Sarah and Aleifr inside, though his divine sense is heavily garbled by the walls. At the entrance, Martin stands on guard, keeping an eye on the god.

??? - Antechamber

Sarah wakes up in a rectangular room next to one shut door, the other opposite and in front of her. There are a few benches along the wooden walls. Aside from the pillars, it's simply adorned with a few paintings of landscapes - a forest, a lake, and so on. One is faded out - that of a volcano with a dark sky above. Another one appears half-finished - a cliff facing the sea, with part of the landscape turned white.

If Sarah tries the door next to her, she'll find it's practically welded shut. No amount of force can open it. The rest of the room's architecture is similar, whether she tries physical attacks or lightning - extremely resistant to damage if not outright invulnerable. While blinking inside the room is unimpeded, if she tries to teleport out of there, rows of runes appear to react violently and dispel her attempts. Katre's secondary power comes to mind as a comparison - 'reinforcing reality'.

There is but one path forward.

Edited by AqueousBunnies on Feb 27th 2021 at 8:48:14 AM

   "Heh... You ought to know by now that I'm full of surprises!"   

BE!Pietro raises his Chaos Shield to defend himself from Greed's slashes, though he's driven back by the onslaught. Realizing he needed some breathing room, he attempts to punch Greed away with a Chaos Power Fist.

"You mean, the hunter who's either incredibly fearless or out of her bloody mind helped you overcome your issues? Heh, she truly is a fascinating woman, that one," Loki replies. "I can't say Thor and I are especially familiar with this Megan you speak of, though."

"As you might have guessed, Varik, Reyna's no stranger to either of us. Although I certainly wasn't expecting her, of all people, to be the savior you needed," Thor says. "Nonetheless, I'm grateful that she found you when she did. The next time you see her, could you do me a favor and give her my thanks?"

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Feb 27th 2021 at 6:02:21 AM

Greed gets punched back, though not all that far. Still, the raw power of the attack stuns Greed, so BE!Pietro still, at least, gets a moment.

But only a moment.

Greed rushes him again, but this time, instead of slashing, he attempts to grab the Chaos Shield and quickly use BE!Pietro's probably surprise to his advantage by snatching the Chaos Shield out of his hands while he's too surprised to hold onto it properly.

If successful, he'll now try to bash the Chaos Shield into BE!Pietro instead.

"Huh, I'm surprised you know Reyna considering how big this place is.", Varik says.

"Then again, I've been sitting on my drunk ass for way too long before I jumped back into action, for all I know pretty much everyone has had a chance to meet everyone here. Anyhow, I hope you get to meet Megan at some point too. She's incredibly nice."

Not expecting it, BE!Pietro loses the Chaos Shield to Greed in the ensuing struggle, and is summarily bashed away. Wiping his mouth, he dashes towards the Homunculus before taking a mighty swing at him with a Chaos Warhammer.

   "Hope you're not getting bored or anything!"   

"Well, imagine our surprise when we learned that she knew a group of people Thor and I happen to be friends with," Loki says. "For someone who spends the majority of her time on the hunt, she appears to have quite a few connections."

"Just like with you, she's apparently aided them on numerous occasions," Thor says. "And if we do encounter Megan, I'll tell her that you said hello."

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Feb 27th 2021 at 6:42:17 AM