"So it all comes down to a good old-fashioned beam clash, huh? Then let's make sure we give Pseudo one helluva light show, sweetheart!" Nicole says, continuing to charge her Arcane Beam. "If we bust this room up or anything, just put it on my tab. I ain't exactly strapped for cash, y'know."
"In short, Pilly is far more effective at approaching and handling matters from an emotional standpoint than you, who prefers to operate on logic and reasoning. I suppose it does make sense when you put it that way," Loki replies, making a mental note to ask about the destroyed training room later.
He steeples his his fingers, briefly watching the match before shifting his gaze back to Pseudo.
"And, well, of course Thor and I care about Pilly. She's bloody delightful, and her cheeriness is admittedly rather endearing."
Thor hurls Stormbringer at the thrown shield, thus allowing Linda to successfully land following another Black Widow-esque display of acrobatics. Bringing Mjolnir to bare once more, he offers her a wry smirk.
"Agent Romanoff, the spy I told you about, is perhaps among the most talented acrobats I know. Yet even she could probably learn a lot from you," he says.
"Sounds good."
She then smirks.
"I'm done charging, and I hope you are too because here it comes!"
Pilly raises her arm to aim at Nicole, then fires the huge, red beam right at her.
—
"Indeed."
While Pseudo doesn't say anything about Loki's comment on Pilly, he does show yet another genuine smile after hearing it.
"You'll watch over her when she joins you all on the battlefield, right? Would she be in good hands with you, Thor and your other friends?", he then asks.
—
"Well, to be fair, while my agility is all mine, the mechanical parts do help with the power and range I can move in. Without them, if she's as talented as you say she is, we'd probably be on a similar level."
She shrugs.
"In other words, I know I'm awesome, but I'm not gonna take credit for the stuff that isn't me."
That cable then comes out of her arm again and she grabs a part of it, then starts swinging it around herself. It'll now be clear to Thor that the cable is actually some sort of energy whip.
She then, with a swift attack, tries to grapple onto Thor's leg and, if successful, tries to take advantage of Thor's likely surprise by pulling on the whip and making him fall over.
"That, however, is me.", she'll note with a grin if the full attack is done successfully.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Nicole grins, raising her arm as well.
"Funny you should mention that, Pilly!"
She unleashes her now-charged Arcane Beam, resulting in an intense Beam-O-War between it and Pilly's Annihilator Beam.
Loki answers Pseudo with a nod.
"Obviously. Though don't be surprised if anyone assumes her to be Thor's daughter."
Thor, having expected Linda to go for a more direct attack with her energy whip, is caught by surprise when it instead wraps around his leg. As a result, she manages to trip him up.
"Well played.... however, my brother isn't the only one full of tricks."
He moves to grab the whip with his free hand and, if successful, pull on it with enough force to bring her down towards him.
With Pilly having been told to not exert the full power of the Annihilator Beam, she's definitely struggling in the beam battle between her and Nicole.
"Gotta... keep... focus..."
Sparks start to run at the meeting point of the beams, confusing Pilly at first, but then she realizes that not letting the beam go all out is making it unstable. Not an immediate problem, but if the beam battle continues on for too long, it might become one.
In the power department, Nicole's Arcane Beam will slowly but surely start to win out.
—
"That would be a big step up from being Porky's.", Pseudo says, watching the screen and definitely noticing the beam issue as well. Still, he doesn't look worried.
—
The whip gets grabbed and Linda gets pulled, but as she's getting pulled towards Thor, plasma energy surges through the whip again, and as such Thor might get shocked again, perhaps even hard enough to whiff a potential follow-up attack.
Though if the force isn't strong enough, she'll be wide open... or so it seems.
Edited by DevilPsyco on Mar 6th 2021 at 10:14:15 AM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Despite focusing on the beam battle, Nicole notices that Pilly appears to be struggling on her end.
"Hey, kid! That beam of yours sure doesn't look fully charged from where I'm standing," she asks. "If you think you might need to end the match here, go ahead! Trust me, I won't be upset about it!"
"Why the Hel would anyone believe her to be Porky's child? That would require someone to actually find that disgusting little cretin attractive enough to even consider having children with him," Loki replies, shuddering.
Gritting his teeth, Thor manages to power through the plasma shocks just long enough to try seizing Linda by the mechanical arm. If his grab succeeds, he'll follow up by attempting to bring her to the ground beside him.
"Odin's beard... That was a rather shocking turn of events, if you'll forgive my wordplay," he quips afterwards, chuckling lightly.
"It is fully charged, but I have to be careful with it!", she says back as she tries to keep the beam as stable as possible.
A spark of energy flies out from the beam's end and hits the wall besides them, doing some visible damage to it. Pilly stares sheepishly.
"... okay, this is now a problem. Crud, unless we somehow manage to both stop using our beams at the exact same time, either one of us has to get overwhelmed or the beams will likely explode!"
—
"I meant more as in the 'created by him' sense, though that only applies to those who know about that. I, too, would rather not think thoughts of Porky and the... natural way of doing things.", he says, really not looking too eager with that subject.
—
Right before getting caught, Linda is about to go for a thruster-boosted spinning kick, though Thor's grab is just fast enough to stop her. Turns out that she hadn't been defenseless after all, but that doesn't mean her plan will automatically succeed.
"I'm not for puns myself, but you won't see me groaning at a good one.", she grins as she's being held up by her arm. She's then pulled back down.
"No attack? Are you being a gentleman, or is this the end of our little spar?", she asks when Thor doesn't attack afterwards, curious.
Edited by DevilPsyco on Mar 6th 2021 at 11:23:24 AM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay."Oof, guess Pseudo'll have to buff that out... Alright, when I say three, we cancel our beams at the same time! One, two, three!"
Nicole immediately stops using her Arcane Beam, reverting back to normal after doing so.
"Yes, let's change the subject before I begin feeling the uncontrollable urge to vomit," Loki says. "So... how has 42 been?"
"Well, that depends. Personally, I think we've reached an excellent stopping point for our successful test run," Thor replies, flashing a grin at Linda.
"Of course, I wouldn't be opposed to sparring with you for a little longer, if you'd rather we continue."
Edited by IchigoMontoya on Mar 6th 2021 at 2:30:06 AM
Pilly does so as well. Luckily, she times it correctly with when Nicole does it.
"Phew.", she says, relieved. "The only other option I had in mind was letting your beam win out by cancelling my attack, then quickly using my Ultra Defense. ... I do not know if I'd be able to do that fast enough for it to have worked though."
—
"I don't actually know. As far as I've been told, we haven't been in contact with her for a while. I hope she is alright.", Pseudo says.
—
She ponders, then walks over to her shield to pick it up.
"Maybe your intuition is right. I tend to get pretty intense if I spar for too long, as a lot of my colleagues will be able to fearfully tell you about.", she says, smirking.
"So let's call it quits here."
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay."Thank god we managed to cut things short, then," Nicole replies, walking over to her jacket and Olympus' Wrath. "The last thing I'd want is you getting seriously hurt like that."
She reattaches the Zeus-forged sword to her belt, ties her jacket around her waist, then walks towards Pilly.
"I know this spar probably didn't go exactly the way either of us planned, but you still fought like a friggin' champ, sweetheart," she says, smiling as she tousles her hair.
Loki raises an eyebrow.
"Really? I do hope you haven't forgotten what happened the last time you failed to keep a close eye on her," he says.
"I think I could handle you getting intense, but I'd rather your colleagues not have to intervene because of a bloody sparring match," Thor says, smirking back at Linda as he hauls himself to his feet.
He then walks over to her, his smirk widening into a full-on grin.
"Well fought, by the way! We've proven that your arm is more than ready for combat, and I definitely enjoyed our little training session," he says. "And if you don't mind me saying, Lady Linda, you're as formidable as you are charming."
Edited by IchigoMontoya on Mar 6th 2021 at 3:59:05 AM
"I guess that kinda demonstration would also only prove that I'm probably a liability or something.", Pilly mutters, a little down. Only for a bit though, cheering up again when her hair gets tousled.
"Thanks! I hope Pseudo and everyone else who may have been watching thinks so too!", she happily says, retracting her spider legs. She then looks a little worried.
"Hey, do you need any healing? If so, we should find Lucas or Nesley. They can heal you. Ninten could too, but I dunno if I wanna disturb him... he's kinda busy and Giegue is kinda scary."
—
Pseudo looks troubled.
"Yes... I'll ask Helryx to see if she's doing well."
He then sees that the spar has ended and looks satisfied with the result.
"They both agreed to break things off when they looked like they could go out of hand. As expected of a veteran warrior like Nicole, and I'm glad to see that Pilly has that sort of insight as well."
He looks back at Loki.
"What do you think about what you've seen?"
—
"Not a lot of them have the balls to do so anyway.", she laughs. She then looks proud about her bionic limbs.
"The guys back at the main base did a hell of a good job for these to be able to keep up with both my fighting style and your power. They even included one of my favorite non-gun weapons.", she says as she retracts the energy whip, referring to it specifically.
"Now I only need one safety glove to use one of these at full power. My metal hand won't suffer from any burns. ... just making it clear, I did not use mine at full power because otherwise you would have probably burnt your hands. Unless being a thunder god makes you immune to that."
She smirks back at Thor, playfully bumping his arm.
"But yeah, this was the most fun sparring session I've had in a long time. Thanks for that, it's definitely made my day. Now, how about we go back to the cafeteria and get a snack? I'm up for some food."
Edited by DevilPsyco on Mar 6th 2021 at 1:08:57 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Intrigue
The dark warrior Leesarix
◊ crouches behind some rubble, stalking a potential foe.
"I fail to see the value in this..."
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Intrigue
GGEAAAARGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Holy SHIT WHAT IS THAT THAT JUST APPEARED??!! It looks like someone put a man, a demonic hellbeast and an horse in a mixer and granted sentience to the result. It has a lot of... wrong parts to it, like various bodyparts sticking out of its body, what seems to be a gaping jaw next to its hideously deformed head and wet bloody fur over the body. A part of the normal head seems to be almost human, too, at least compared to the rest of it.
It also has a sword tied to its back, through fabric, even if it seems unaware of it.
By all intents, it's like a grotesque parody of a centaur. And the scream it promptly let loose, to. Like a mad beast set on fire. It might stun Leesarix, perhaps granting the beast enough time to try to ram into him. If it works, it'll lodge him deep into a nearby rock, which it proceed to split in half with an aggressive and swift, yet clumsy, swing of a gnarled right arm on its shoulder. The strike brea the rock in half and deliver some major gashes unto the ground, but the monster is taken by its own momentum and stumble around. It's bad for Leesarix though, because it means a ton of hooves stomping everything in sight, meaning that he could get crushed!
If uninterrupted, the monster get back into the closest thing to a proper stance it can muster, and try to stomp Leesarix.
Edited by Bolded1 on Mar 6th 2021 at 1:31:35 PM
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitter "You must become stronger, strong enough to open the Door to Darkness soon." ,
Killer Bat
◊ replies from within Leesarix's shadow.
"That is why-DODGE!" , he then says, having noticed the monster right before it starts attacking.
Edited by DevilPsyco on Mar 6th 2021 at 1:35:10 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay."So much for stealth..."
Leesarix vanishes like UI Goku, reappearing right up in the monster's face with his open hand pointed between its eyes.
"But I have no need for training."
His eyes turn red-orange as he channels the element of fire. Flames swirl together in the palm of his hand, becoming denser, louder and hotter, before he unleashes a point-blank explosion.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.""Don't worry, Pilly, it's nothing a little rest and relaxation can't fix," Nicole assures, cracking her neck. "I just hope I didn't rough you up too badly."
"A wise decision."
Loki watches as the match reaches its conclusion as well, then looks back at Pseudo.
"You found the results to your liking, yes? Then I'd say everything turned out just as Thor and I hoped they would."
Summoning Mjolnir and Stormbringer back to his grasp, Thor puts his weapons away.
"Oh, it was my genuine pleasure. If nothing else, I was hoping this spar would at least alleviate any boredom you might have been suffering from since our last meeting," he replies. "Now, let's enjoy ourselves a well-earned meal and find out if any of your colleagues might have been watching our match."
He moves to scoop Linda up in his arms, if she'll allow it, and offers her a smile
"I know you're probably not incredibly exhausted, but I'm in a rather good mood at the moment."
The attack fails, but because the monster immediately moves to try to headbutt Leesarix with a colossal amount of force, reacting nigh-instantly to the dawning flames. And even if he dodge, it's swift enough to duck out of the way.
GRAAAERRGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Its second mouth also try to blast Leesarix with... with... some gray liquid beam thing, though it's not accurate and he could sidestep it easily. However, if he doesn't, he'll find it very damaging! That, and the horse-beast start to immediately run around, spreading the beam unwittingly and perhaps making it harder for Leesarix to dodge. It does stop, after a little while.
Regardless of success though, the monster then goes for a swift leaping attack at Leesarix, seemingly attempting to crush him beneath its weight. And it actually carfully move its deformed right arm if he moves close to it, in a bid to have it grab and S-S-S-S-SLAM Leesarix. At which point, the monster screams some more while trying to repeatedly bash him against the ground. It shows no sign of stopping: He will need to free himself because it's set to keep bashing him even after he dies.
AAIIIIEEERRRGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Edited by Bolded1 on Mar 6th 2021 at 1:42:29 PM
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterPilly looks herself over, then smirks.
"Not a scratch!", she proudly says.
—
"Good. Then I have no need for worries once she fights alongside you.", Pseudo says, now moving towards the door. He does look genuinely content. Maybe this event has helped his recovery along a little more.
"This makes me all the more hopeful for the future.", he says as he opens the door.
—
"To say it helped is an understatement. Can you believe that I was so bored that I was actually excited by the prospect of getting to mine for resources again soon? How bored would you have to be to want to mine just to have something to do?", Linda says.
"But yeah, we'll let you know soon when we're ready to check out that place you wanted to show us."
She then gets scooped up and laughs a little.
"Well, I'd be a fool to say no to the deluxe treatment."
"I see you don't need my immediate help." , Killer Bat chuckles from within the shadows. "But do call on me if you do. It'd be a problem if you died."
His eyes narrow expectantly.
"But if you can defeat that creature without my help... then you may be ready."
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay."Perhaps it's time I demonstrate the full extent of my magic."
Leesarix channels Cardinum and his eyes turn magenta as he rockets himself away from the collision, hovers out of the beam's reach -
and gets caught by its leaping grab. He snarls, his eyes turn a deep blue, and he seemingly melts into water, slipping from its grasp.
This puddle then suddenly expands to cover the entire area around the accursed beast, forming tendrils of pressurized water as powerful as hydraulic cutters in a ring around it. The tendrils swing and slice at the monster, aiming to slice it to pieces.
And then Leesarix himself bursts out of the water in a dolphin leap, rising up into the sky as his eyes turn a silvery sort of blue, calling down a fuckhuge meteor on the monster.
Edited by KiriK on Mar 6th 2021 at 7:03:54 AM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."The beast roar as it get shred, but the cuts themselves, while numerous, seems shallow enough, hinting at some serious durability, or at least, an ability to ignore pain. After taking the attack, it decides to leap out of the way of the water, right as Leesarix call down the meteor, in a bid to headbutt into him.
If it works, however, the mad monster unhinge its jaw and try to wrap its teeth around Leesarix before slamming back into the ground. Holding firm, it then begins to run out of the impact zone of the meteor, though it keep its head low so as to seemingly grind Leesarix against the ground. If it doesn't catch him, it'll keep running, still smart enough to understand that death is coming from above, and it clears the area.
At least the immediate area. If it has managed to catch Leesarix, it spits him down on the ground and try to once again pound into him with a series of brutal stomps, somehow finding the intelligence to coordinate each stomp to be unflinchingly brutal each! If Leesarix is caught, there won't be any breathing room, because each stomp will come within less of a second than the other. And once more, the monster is fantastically uninterested in stopping until he's way past "dead".
If it hasn't caught him, it yells and thrash about, obviously upset.
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterLeesarix's eyes glow red. Channeling the element of speed itself, he flash steps and weaves around the monster's attacks, then zips past it...
before pulling a Wally West vs. Luthor and coming at it from the horizon with a brutally fast and powerful impact, aiming to topple it.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Nicole breathes a sigh of relief.
"Either you're really well-built or you copied whatever armor that dude with the ponytail uses," she says. "Either way, I'm glad I didn't hurt ya, sweetheart"
She drums her fingers against the pommel of Olympus' Wrath.
"So, I'm guessing this is the part where we wait for Pseudo to turn up?"
Getting up from his seat, Loki proceeds to follow alongside Pseudo.
"Not to get off-topic or anything, but did the Divine Guardians tell you anything about Navitus and their artifacts back when the staff was our greatest concern?"
"If mining was all you had to look forward to, then it sounds like my arrival couldn't have been more perfectly timed," Thor says, chuckling. "Maybe later, we could have ourselves another round of drinks. Even if we can't partake in another contest, at least I'll still be able to enjoy both your wonderful company and a tankard of freshly-brewed mead."
He begins walking to the cafeteria with Linda in his arms.
Edited by IchigoMontoya on Mar 6th 2021 at 5:32:17 AM
"Pseudo? I don't think he'll leave the lower areas of the base. He still doesn't feel his best.", Pilly says. "But I'm happy he watched our spar regardless of that."
She walks to the door.
"I should actually probably get back to chores. I promised Pseudo I'd do them after I had my spar."
—
"They told us the known legend and that there's three such artifacts. They didn't really specify what kind of items they were."
He walks out of the room and looks at Loki.
"Why do you ask? Did something happen?", he asks, curious and probably slightly wary.
—
"Now that sounds like a good time.", she says, enjoying herself. "Onwards, towards the cafeteria!"
Once they get there, they'll see Norm back there, who almost chokes on the drink he was drinking when he sees Linda getting carried into the room.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.

Yeah, this person was relatively harmless.
At least, hopefully. You never know how powerful a knife-wielding person can be...
Anyways.
"Well, I wish you good luck?"
...
Then she walked away.
Yatta!