Vs. Gravemind

Augus watched the meat... congeal, essentially. A plan was forming in his hedonism-addled mind, and the first step...

was to run very quickly to a nearby mountain peak — but make no mistake, he was not running away from this fight. No no no.
Quite the opposite in fact. He launched himself up into the air by extended Wailing Dark within its sheath, and aiming at the ground. As he flew up into the air, he aimed himself at said nearby mountain, and slashed the entire peaked of it off. Landing just behind it as he sheathed he blade, he proceeded to heft the chunk of rock, before slowly, steadily beginning to spin.

Faster, faster — a tornado of rock and snow and stone kicked up around him as the mountaintop displaced the air as it spun. Finally, when he could gain no more speed, he unleashed the spinning bludgeon like a meteor towards the Gravemind!

"HERE, CATCH!"

Kroak was unamused by this entity. It was a child, or someone who had not yet experienced the true passage of life. This was but a game, not too far off from the Ruinous Powers. And yet unfortunately Kroak knew he could not address the War of the Realms and this for long. Soon he'd have to detach from the Naoalli, and deal with the hordes elsewhere. He would part from Player's Two headset, slowly drifting out of the Arena.

"You know you will fail. It is best to choose whose side you are on... Child. Not all power is found in domination. Fair well."

And with that Kroak would leave the Naoalli, and the Arena, to deal with a threat that would very soon, try messing with those here. In the grim darkness of his creator's ruins, there was only war.

The Naoalli felt a vast amount of power it had be stripped from it, and in reaction pulled back the Runic Monolith, and would turn all of Astil into its own protective isolation zone. The sigils and would fork over the entire region as a protective dome, only faintly visible to the local denizens, but from space could be seen as a great shield of emrgz had bubbled the region. The energies would course through the land in Kroak's passing, part of the rites he would employ onto this realm. The Jungles of Astil here taller, more labyrinthian, and the branches connected to one another like great roadways. The Ancient Forest would be a great model to replicate Lustria, it's fauna already similar. Poisonous poultices and carnivorous rain growth would reign king along cliff faces and ruined walls, rivers would flow into certain death traps, crevices would open up and within their chasms were sharp teeth like spikes, yet they were only mere inches wide... Waiting for their moment.

The Tobi-Kadachi was still in the chamber, the Naoalli looking to it inquisitively, before deciding something. It would need energy... It would need specimens... It would need Kroq-Gar's help and Amaterasu... Most likely, to aid in. A cause it should have started way sooner. It would pull from what little records it had, and would try to reach the status of an Teut. But it would require resources. And allies. It would begin to analyze the Tobi-Kadachi's dna, before contacting Kroq-Gar, offering the fanged wyvern a more complex, capybara based protein supplement, which the Fanged Wyvern reluctantly approached. The slabs of pseudoribs we're sniffed at, and ultimately eaten with renewed vigor. Rodent flesh... Still deemed esquisite to this specimen... Good to know.

Kroq-Gar would recieve another set of instructions from his Gauntlet, The Saurus Oldblood only being able to hunt and pursue roaming and isolated bands of the Nekghouls and the like... Unable to find an adequate battle that could tip the scales in the old ones' favor. But upon seeing the carnage unfolding from whence he left, his mind wandered over to joining them... But he'd need direction, so he immediately responded to the Naoalli's call.

"Kroq-Gar reporting in..."

'Unfortunately, I don't have sufficient reserves to stay in operation and aid in the front lines of the fight. I'll send this best possible path for you to rendezvous with the others. Retrieve... "Nakai"... At a later date. Gain the local's trust, it will be needed."

Kroq-Gar snapped his jaws in response, looking up at the battle above them all. Potential allies, yet potential foes. But in the presence of destruction he would need to be more willing to associate himself with those who did not see eye to eye with his kin. His Spear would whistle in excitement, as he ran off to find the largest gathering of hostiles.

"At once, great Shard of The Whole."

The Naoalli would cut contact with Kroq-Gar to try and prod around to find the Sun Goddess of Nippon. She would be greatly useful in acquiring... Assets.

Kroq-Gar was ready to continue his hunt, and silently stalked sound the perimeter, looking for the perfect moment to seize and attack on the collosal hell spawn.

Edited by ArbiterOfTheBog on Mar 25th 2022 at 1:11:31 AM

A mid-sized worm does not see the bike coming towards it, and for that has that bike blast open a portion of its mid-section. It flails in pain, it and a few other worms redirecting their attention to Cecil.

The worm that was hurt raises itself up and opens its mouth before launching a fireball from within. It's quite the simple attack, but it does pack more of a punch then one would probably be content to ignore.

Meanwhile, the golden knight smashes a worm's head into bloody bits with their sword, though the remainder of their attacks prove relatively fruitless as the remainder of the worms are protected by shields that spontaneously form around them- except for around one worm, who is cloaked in a golden aura that appears to be supplying those shields.

The plague doctor-dressed fellow holds onto their hat and turns around to see the worms that were following them distracted.

They don't say an

THIS SCENARIO CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO PLAY OUT YOU MUST STOP THIS SCENE BEFORE IT STARTS, PLEAS

ything, but regard the situation with casual interest.

But I am.

Shield Worm X1

Fire Worm X2 (One Injured)

Speed Worm X2

Rock Worm X4 (One Injured)

Light Worm X1

Monster Worm X1

Regular Worm X10

Ember - In Town

Lina shakes her head at Noodle. "I've got it from here, thanks." With that, she darts off.

—

Ember - Merrall's Residence

Harkinian will come face-to-face with a raggedy, disheveled-looking man.

"Outsider! Beyonder!" he hisses. "Why have you come here? Is it to drag me into the wretched darkness you came from?"

Oh boy, it's the town loonie.

—

Ember - Greenhouses

Previous

"Sure thing," says Clary with a grin. "This here is Greenhouse 1. 2 through 5 have mostly the same things inside, beans, peas, leaves, roots. Pretty basic stuff. Greenhouse 1 used to be the same until you guys came along with more kinds of crops. Fruit, berries, legumes, grains. Greenhouse 6 was made for all the new stuff, but it wasn't big enough, so we renovated chunks of 1 to accommodate."

Tide of Flesh - Yamato

"Quite the party topside," remarks Dr. McNinja, sipping from a mug of... something... as he looks up at Hadraniel and the Pokémon from atop the deck. He warps the latter back to the ground, near the Volcanic Hive, so they can rejoin the fight.

Inside-wise...
"The Luminoth and the Ing respectively," answers AoU!Samus, folding her arms. "Retort: Who was the Chozo warrior who sought to use Metroids as a weapon long before Space Pirates entered the picture?"

—

Tide of Flesh - Player 2

well the show ain't over yet so stay tuned

—

Tide of Flesh - Gravemind

The Gravemind does not dignify the insults and boasts thrown at it with a response. Instead, its tentacles lash out, grab a Scarab, and tear it to pieces on the spot.

The Gravemind is damaged, but unmoved by the assault upon it until Augus chucks a mountaintop at it, blowing its head backwards.

It creates more tentacles, sweeping them across the battlefield to strike those on the ground, before exhaling a plume of Flood spores into the air above. If inhaled, the spores will instantly create tumorous growths on the inside of the victims' bodies, crippling them and filling their minds with whispering voices. Even Cell is not immune to this, though he may have an easier time forcing his body to keep moving.

Those aboard the Yamato are safe from the spores, as is Augus on account of having mechanical insides.

Wriggle's flies try to consume the Gravemind only to be consumed, their biomass added to its surface to repair the damage dealt. Wriggle can feel something akin to fear and panic emanating from her "children" in the last moments before they are assimilated.

Amaterasu is still on the field, a chain of frost-blue prayer beads draped around her sides. With sharp snaps of her jaws, the beads fly off the string and into the Gravemind before returning, a rapid-fire projectile assault that slowly builds up a layer of ice on the targeted area.

Hub Centralis

"I have a cellphone, just hold on." Monika ducks into an alleyway.

"Hello, Addison? Yes. I just ran into Natsuki from after the... incident. Can you come pick us up? ... Okay. Thanks."

She hangs up and returns. "They should be here any -"

Bawoop.

"- second."

"Yo."

Reprium

「うんめい。」

The Wyrdeer projects its psychic powers, and instantly Rhea's gaze grows wary. "Something is off here," she says in perfect English. "What is this...?"

Edited by KiriK on Mar 25th 2022 at 2:56:23 PM

Thor breath in the flood, but he answers by briefly discarding the illusion of being a regular being, discarding his current fleshy body to become lightning raw and then pop back in, with his previous injuries gone. HAHA YOU THROW BIG THINGS MY GODLY FRIEND! he compliments Augus.

Thor points upwards and begins to spin his thick finger, making hell of a storm gather ahead. Eleven sees this above, herself keeping out of the spore by way of a leap.

She draws that cracked sword again and attempts to use a spatial rift to enhance its range before slicing multiples times over at the Gravemind's tentacles to try to cut them off. If it succeeds, she then attempts to grab one to smack it with its own severed limb.

Luffy does need to breath but he's lucky to have long range! Like Eleven though, he activates Gear 2 and hit the air to go out of range, dartly dodging tentacles. He then throws his hands back, supersize them after coating them in Haki, and YEET them forward together to try to smash the Gravemind in the face.

Gomu Gomu No Grizzly Magnum! he thinks the attack name.

Margit hangs back and points, quietly yeeting hordes and hordes of floating magical spears at the enemy.

...

The Tarnished is familiar with these concepts, but guess that the worms would try to stop it from rolling all the way to the shield caster.

They jump back and whistle, summoning an horse out of thin air. It appears out of the literal ether in a shower of blue sparkles, looking unusual thanks to the two horns on its head, and the Tarnished ride it immediately, intending to try to have an easier time dodging the wurms with it.

Upon being near the shield worm beast, the horse jumps once, then twice as a little blue circle spreads from below it. It then vanishes as the Tarnished jump in the air and swing their massive sword down.

Edited by Bolded1 on Mar 25th 2022 at 9:15:19 AM

Yeah, this is not what Wriggle needed after everything else that has already happened today. Her eyes overflow with noxious green light. "Ok. Let it be known that I didn't want to give Green And Mean here the satisfaction of relying on his powers... but I am now officially pissed."

She flaps her wings and sends a column of chaos energy at the Gravemind, roughly resembling a tornado made out of ethereal green bristle worms. Its properties are similar to those of the chaos attack that instakilled Jacob back during her confrontation with the Self-Insert Gang in that it will inflict random negative effects on impact, although it's less potent due to the swarm avatar having a much lesser concentration of Enthropod's power than Wriggle's true body. Still, divine energy is divine energy. If the striking tentacles manage to withstand this, she will take a clean hit from them.

Edited by Arachnos on Mar 25th 2022 at 4:18:57 AM

Natsuki was confused while Monika was on the phone

"Ok-Eek!"

Natsuki jumped in panic, her while body Jittered and glitched when she did

   "How the hell...did she?"   

She was at a loss for words

Ember, Town

King Harkinian looks rather surprised by the man's appearance and reaction to him. However, he wouldn't be an effective ruler if this was enough to rattle him. He is an outsider after all, the man is not wrong about that.

"Not at all, good man. I was requested to inform you that Mrs. Sample finished repairing your clothes.", he politely says. He then looks curious.

"If I may ask, what darkness do you speak of?"

It's not clear whether or not Harkinian is actually curious or if he's just willing to entertain the man in the hopes of potentially calming him down.

Ember, Greenhouse

Bismark finishes up his work, and remembering what was said earlier, he too starts heading towards the town. He's still a bit too nervous to just audibly mention this, so he says goodbye to Clary with a quickly raised hand before he scurries off.

Player 1

Oh boy. Let's see if this goes wrong or not.

Tide of Flesh - Gravemind

The four Pokemon are once again taken aback when they get warped, especially since it wasn't Mew's doing. But hey, it makes things easier, so they roll with it.

Upon seeing spores headed their way, Enamorus creates a sphere of faerie-like energy around herself and the other three. It blocks the spores, but it does prevent them from returning fire as well. Their attacks would hit the sphere and weaken it.

Perfect Cell does inhale the spores during his approach. He pauses when he suddenly feels immense and restricting pain, his body forced down to the ground. He sees the growths as they form on his arms, starts hearing voices in his head, and narrows his eyes.

   "Cheap, but clever. However..."   

He powers up once more, his aura now emitting the screams of various damned souls of his own. They easily overpower the whispers of the spores, though they do nothing about the growths.

   "Those whispers are nothing but background noise to me!"   

Perfect Cell suddenly splits into four of himself. This doesn't reduce the amount of growths, but it does cut the pain and restrictive movement in four. As such, the four Cells have no issues going for more attacks.

1 Cell readies a Destructo Disc, throwing it in an attempt to cut through the Gravemind.

2 Cells fly towards the Gravemind, firing basic Ki blasts.

And 1 Cell flash-steps towards the Gravemind, attempting to see if it can be blinded with a Solar Flare.

Regardless of how any of this goes, the black fog now strikes, attempting to surround the Gravemind. This won't mean anything for everyone else: the fog won't stop any of their attacks, nor will it stop any of the Gravemind's attacks. As the fog is but an extension of a still-hidden Omagi, who is attempting to read the Gravemind's mind in an attempt to uncover its fear.

Tide of Flesh

Ground

Ecoloco, the Insect Ladies and the Bee Empress' armies got swept by the tentacles, not expecting that type of attack. The Mutant Child grabbed a couple of tentacles, and tries to rip them. He breathes some spores, and his mind becomes number, and his skin grows some warts. But the spores are considered pollution, and because of that, his powers grow a bit stronger, while struggling with the tentacles.

When the Gravemind expelled its spores, the butterflies breathed them, but they started to spin quickly around the Gravemind, forming a hurricane that, hopefully, will take away the spores. Meanwhile, Clarilú and Pipo cover their faces with their clothes, and Loli takes them away from the Gravemind, to avoid to breathe the spores.

...

Roco and the ABC's get out from the scarab they were riding. The giant snail shots a Fire Blast at the Gravemind: a fireball which explodes on contact in the shape of the kanji character for "big".

The Alliance guys are still at the scarab.

Yamato

Enzo, the Super Couple and Pampín are on the spaceship, watching the battle while thinking what to do with the Gravemind.

Pamp: I have an idea! With our combined powers, we could do a powerful attack! All of you, get around me.

Enzo, Super Love and Pampín are holding their hands, circling Super Pamp, who is playing his guitar for a summon.

The others are still within the ship.

Ember Greenhouses

Bely scratches kindly Pepo's head while hearing Clary talk. She's confused trying to remember the numbers and crops of the greenhouses, but she's proud and glad her son was doing something nice for once, and he ended in good hands.

I want to ask you something: We want to work with you at the greenhouses, if it's possible, of course.

But mom...

She puts her finger over her mouth.

Town

Awww, man...

Edited by BombonBombin on Mar 25th 2022 at 5:19:10 AM

Aboard the Yamato

Samus lowers her arm canon, saying, quite simply, "Raven Beak, Leader of the Mawkin, and a complete warmonger."

She takes off her helmet, saying "The universe is better off now that he's dead and gone."

Versus The Gravemind, Mar.

Mar manages to survive the incoming attack on the scarab, crawling out of the wreckage.

The tendrils kill and mangle most of his troops, as he looks out forwards, the remaining troops firing off their weapons.

Then the spores fall.

Mar, seeing what is happening, gives out an order over the radio, knowing what this likely means, having seen the infections in the previous battle. Some soldiers begin to collapse in pain, being unable to fight, as mar watches on, he makes a swift assumption as he says...

"Every unit without air filtering, if you want a quick way out of what's coming. pull the pins on your grenades, prime any explosive you have. And run forwards. I'm sorry It'll have to end like this. Kid, Make sure the bastard there pays in blood for this..." Mar, right before the spores make it to him, simply says, into the radio. "Father, ancestors, I'll be seeing you all soon. And may my other siblings find the falchion here, and carry on my fight."

"But I'll make sure to take this bastard down with me before I die!"

He begins to rush forwards, running as fast as he can, breating in a lungful of spores... He screams out in agony, as he yells over the radio, "IN THE NAME OF NAGA, YOU WILL NOT TAKE US!"

His soldiers without protective gear which are about to be unable to keep fighting pull the grenades they have, rushing forwards, yelling, knowing that they'll spare themselves from a much more painful fate, as the sound of explosions floods the area. "IN THE NAME OF NAGA, YOU WILL NOT TAKE US!"

Those with protective gear, be it due to filtering from inside vehicles, or proper hazmat or air filtering, alongside those who wish to fight on despite the agony, yell out "IN THE NAME OF NAGA, YOU WILL NOT TAKE US!" They proceed to charge, firing all they have.

Homura seems to be unaffected by the spores, despite the growths in her body. She rushes forwards, the gears on her shield whirring, pulling out a rpg, and-

a swarm of various rockets, fuel rods from the covenant, anti tank projectiles, and other such heavy weaponry sails from where homura is standing at the gravemind, with a field of various used launchers piled up around her feet....

Coomer breathes in some spores, but is... relatively fine. The spores might even be having more trouble than coomer is, giving his low polygon biology. He pulls out a large machine gun from nowhere and begins to fire at the gravemind.

The various librarians seem to kneel over in pain, most of them dropping to the ground, unable to fight, save for angela. Gebura falls to a single knee, looking up to the gravemind, before she simply says "Everyone, I'm sorry for this. Angela, Get inside..."

She smiles, as a shell like armor forms around her body... as something activates.

Gebura simply says... "A mountain of corpses, to face another mountain of corpses..."

The Rest of the librarians, save for Angela, Drop dead on the spot, dissipating into a swarm of papers, as Gebura stands up, her hair coming out of the back of her shell-like armor like roaring flames... Mountain of corpses has activated.

Screams echo out from inside the library as well as the remaining librarians inside die as well, all falling victim to gebura's gambit.

Gebura stands with Renewed power, Taking a step which Cracks the ground beneath her armored feet, as she yells "Beginning Gravemind Suppression!"

She rushes forwards at incredible speeds, trying to cleave off a chunk of the gravemind's mass with a massive slash.

The Mysterious Pilot rookie flies into range of the gravemind, unaffected by the spores due to her jet's closed systems, before she fires off the oddly named weapon on her aircraft.

It's as if a ligntning storm decided that it particularly hated the gravemind to the point of firing sideways, with massive bolts of energy coming out of the canon, aimed directly at the gravemind.

Edited by ReynTheLord on Mar 25th 2022 at 3:15:46 AM

Xoeur is le safe lol, she fires more sparky sparks. As is ZJ, wherever he scurried off to.

Kyoko is shblubbledubbled into the ground and spored. Fortunately, meguca power allows her to continue moving, and she like, yeets her spear at the Gravemind. This doesn't stop the tumors, though. Karstodes on the other hand easily avoids the initial assault, but is stopped in his tracks when the spores reach and enter his olfactory system.

"Ghk!"

Yeah, he was never the most stable in the first place. Those mind-voices can't help.

Haruhi's paladinous nature allows her to take the spores for this one round, and she plunges her sword into the earth in order to fire a Fire Wave at the Gravemind.

The recently healed Kazuma instantly goes down after firing one Create Water II blast, tumor-riddled. Eh, not the first time he's died, even in his canon backstory.

what

This guy is stoned out of his fucking gourd.

He shifts as if about to grab a Poké Ball, but something makes him stop. An indecipherable emotion flickers across his face before his course of action is subverted.

"Battle, [something even more indistinct]!"

Stepping on to the field, as though it had been hiding in the boy's shadow this whole time, is something that resembles a Hypno.

   "..."   

Edited by Rbade on Mar 25th 2022 at 4:23:38 AM

Blackreach Nergi

Reiss was thrown into the crevice, a good portion of the powder shook off and he's freed yet again. This time making sure not to make the same mistake as last time. Still trying to gain distance at a normal jog's pace, the remaining powder detonated which took him by surprise.

Damaging him only slightly, charring his clothes off which was enough to deal FASHION damage. Which is probably worse to him. Now with the powder out of the way, Annie toppled. The psychological baggage comes later, for now he's hellbent on kicking someone's ass.

He mutters some utter nonsense right after, before his rapier and outer body began glowing an aetherial blue and coating itself with magic.

   "My intent's been heard, time to make you eat some dogshit"   

...Due to not ending the chant properly, a small ass dog turd falls on the Annihilation Nergigante's mouth.

   "...Enchant.    Crap that's not what I meant-"

He makes a mad dash where he's currently standing, that spell also making him much more aerodynamic which let him move faster without less consequence. Instantly reaching the Nergi as he goes to the flesh wound he previously struck and enters a flurry of strikes all coated in magic. Intending to actually break through the hide at the very least.

Worms

Cecil sees the attack as a giant nail comprised of packed carb flies to the fireball and tanks it. Only crisping the tip, making it much sharper while Cecil runs up and slams it with the warhammer. A giant rocketing nail is being sent back to the worm that shot it.

"NOT EVEN MAGMA CAN SCARE ME"

Even if the attack misses he'd start running towards the fire worm. Taking the time to fight any normal worm who chooses to block his way with consecutive smashes with the warhammer.

The massive flesh beast was a construct of millions of separate consciousnesses and bodies. Getting a surprise attack on it would be difficult. He evaded the spore clouds by proximity. The collosal whips of rots would leave devastation upon whatever crossed them. But this was a similar story... Of a somewhat similar beast.

Xochitataliav... The Poxweaver. A Great Unclean One most favored by the Parasite God of Entropy himself. Whilst other Great Unclean Ones work to spread the plagues already extant, Xochitataliav is fascinated by the breeding of new and virulent life, and aimed to one day breed a contagion that could infect the gods themselves. In Kroq-Gar's one battle with him, he knew the dangerous of inhaling the air around him, of trying to gage his enemy's wounds by smell. Saurus of his age were mostly immune to the ambient plague that surrounded such bloated corpses... But here it was new territory. As it was preoccupied with other attackers The Last Defender of Xhotl would search for a weak point in the creature's dorsal "face". While with a Greater Demon of Nurgle disarming the warp spawn in a literal sense was effective, such rules did not apply to this beast.

So he took up a high vantage point, looking down at the battle as he powered up his gauntlet, using his spear to aim the shot. He had to be quick, as soon as he fired he'd have to be on the move. He'd prepare a large enough shot it would shine like a rising star ok the horizon, the solar energy's swirling in his palm. He had found he needed more use of this artefacts then prior, and had to be careful especially in this fight. A flare on the horizon was the only indication of the collosal ball of plasma and radiance hurdling towards the gravemind, as Kroq-Gar would immediately duck out of sight, ready to partake in this most dangerous hunt.

Yamato

Hadraniel shifted down into his Drakonian guise, and materialized a mug of some variety of hot tea into his taloned hands.

   "I'm... genuinely surprised by how resilient this infection is proving. Normally I would only need one primal majick in order to handle a threat of such magnitude, but... I suppose it is partially on me for allowing it to fester for so long. I might actually need to call in some help from one of my fellow Elders... hmmm..."   

He took a long, contemplative sip as he thought about his next actions...

Vs. Gravemind

Augus crossed his arms and scoffed, brushing off some of the spores that attempted to land upon him regardless of his nature.

"You'll have to do better than that!"

The fiery golden aura of his Mantra affinity of Greed roared to life around him, before he sprang up into the sky once again, intending to come down on the Gravemind with the People's Elbow!

As the Scarab is destroyed, Garuda tumbles down onto the ground.

She looks up at the Gravemind and realizes she has no way to fight it with her talons. As such, she simply fires at it with the Nagantaka, a crossbow that inflicts a bleeding status. She cares not for the spores as, not only does she lack a respiratory system, but already contains Infected flesh, so another space zombie virus would do little to affect her.

Skull Squadron do the same with their weapons. However, they see the spores and, due to actually having lungs that can be affected, fish out orinasal gas masks and pulls them over their heads. One member, unfortunately, is unable to do this in time, and falls to the ground screaming and rolling.

“Shit! Mac’s down!” One yells, and the gold-plated one who is presumably the leader hesitates, but makes the order to continue firing.

Meanwhile, the Steel Crusader falls to the ground, needing to rest momentarily. He has never been this far from the Void, his source of power, before.

Yamato

"Good. Then you're me, and I'm you."

AoU!Samus goes to a console and presses a button, and a teleporter appears. "On the other side is a room full of Ability Capsules. I observed you, and it doesn't look like you're fully armed, so take your pick."

—

Gravemind

A sound like the ground has come to life emanates, but there is no shaking. Instead, a tremendous horde of X Parasites emerge from what's left of the tainted ground in the valley and zoom over to the Gravemind, integrating with its body. They share with it the DNA and biomatter of innumerable armored creatures, allowing it to grow defensive plating on its main body, which endures the direct physical attacks as its tentacles are severed or blown up or what have you.

It gets knocked around back and forth, but remains firmly rooted in the ground and visible physical damage is minimal... save for two things, powered by energy beyond that of mortals. Wriggle's chaos pillar tears away a chunk of its armor and Kroq-Gar's sun spear pierces a hole straight through like it's not even there.

It has no eyes even before growing the armor, so Cell's Solar Flare has no effect.

As Augus descends towards it, it cranes its main head upwards and lets him fall into its gaping, disgusting mouth. From there, he is dropped directly into what lies underneath it - an active fucking volcano. Have a nice lava bath!

Its mind is ancient, almost incomprehensibly so. And when Omagi tries to get a read, it responds in kind.

The Gravemind's spores are swept away by the butterflies, but it still manages to expand the reach of its flesh. The magma beneath it is pulled upwards through an armored 'throat', and it spits a lava ball at Garuda and the Steel Crusader, intent on either melting them or crushing them beneath tons of molten rock. It launches another one at Roco, then up at the Yamato, though the battleship blows the attack out of the sky with its turrets.

Mar is greeted by an unlikely savior. The Fall Reincarnation suddenly appears in front of him in the middle of his suicide charge, disarms him, phases his hand through his chest, and sends dark dragonfire blowing through it, making some erupt from Mar's mouth and nose along with a spray of blood. However, he will survive this, the infection cleared from his body. All at once, any infested soldiers who haven't had the time to prime grenades suffer the same effect.

   "Pathetic. You can do better than that, Exalt. Your bloodline and their chosen warriors have grown soft, to choose swift death over fighting to the gruesome end."   

The Fall Dragons, equal in size to the Gravemind, descend upon it, breathing their purple Expiration flames infused with the lost souls of their very own victims. The blasts slowly condense until they're less plumes of fire and more beams of energy. The two remaining Scarabs join in with their Focus Cannons, unleashing a four-directional death laser assault to keep it pressured and make an opening!

   "Those charging attacks, whatever you're doing, make it quick!"   

Hub

"Um, it's 'they', actually..."

"Yeah. Hey, you're Natsuki, right?" Addison sizes her up. "Looks like you got... let's call it 'deleted'. Chunks of what makes you you are missing, but I have backups that I can fix you with."

Reprivague

Hypno is not an extant species of Hisui, so Rhea has no idea what she's looking at. "A demon? Unmei, quick!"

The Wyrdeer rears up and brays as a psychic aura flares to life.

Battle! Trainer - Pokémon Legends Arceus

Edited by KiriK on Mar 26th 2022 at 7:23:16 AM

Cell doesn't look too pleased. This disgusting thing has the gall to block all of the attacks he just threw out? Even with his power divided into four, that's just an insult.

   "You cretin...!"   

The four Cells now all fly around the Gravemind, positioning themselves so that, when they charge and fire their Gallick Guns, the combined beams fly at the Gravemind in an X-formation as they attempt to utterly destroy the armor it made for itself.

Omagi jumps when they hear a voice in their mind. Then they are shown visions, told information, a powerful presence forced upon their mind.

In response, their quite literal third eye opens on their forehead, allowing Omagi to properly channel their mental strength, as to ensure that they don't mentally break in response. In turn, upon Omagi doing this, the Gravemind may sense something ancient as well. Something fragmented. Something that feels far bigger than the mere soul of this eldritch child that stands in its presence. ... But it's too small to make any sense of. It's nothing worrying, nothing important to them. It can be ignored without risk.

Even with this mental protection, Omagi is still straining hard, and the Gravemind's mental hold over Omagi isn't something they can shake off. As such, they are shown the people they've been helping out from the sidelines... and sees their fear.

It's like a switch flips in Omagi's mind, and the Gravemind may notice. In an instant, Omagi seems to go from regarding these people as usual threats, now temporary allies against a larger threat to easy prey, no longer threatening in the slightest. It's an almost animalistic kind of viewpoint.

Omagi grins darkly. The offer to switch sides, murder these people and feed off of their fears... it's much too great to resist. The Gravemind is still an enormous threat in their mind... but what it offers makes it a more valuable temporary ally to Omagi than everyone else here.

"If I get all of their fear, it may just be enough..."

The dark fog fades away around the Gravemind, and a new fog cloud suddenly bursts out from between various rocks, going for as many of the heroes as possible. This fog will not physically harm or restrain them, but if people get caught in the fog, they will start seeing and experiencing their worst fears.

Omagi seems so sure of their chances that they even come out of hiding, revealing themselves◊ and clearly showing that they are the Gravemind's ally right now.

Cell, completely distracted at this moment, gets engulfed in the fog before he realizes it's there.

Manaphy sees it coming and protects itself in a powerful bubble. Heatran quickly digs underground to avoid the fog.

Enamorus and Mew, however, get engulfed by it.

Pseudo's Base

"What the... what's that fog? Who is that kid?", Pilly asks, surprised and confused. "And why does it look like he's helping the monster instead of everyone else?"

Pseudo doesn't respond to her. He looks confused, thoughtful. His eyes flash a few times as he tries to look through his database, as the child looks somewhat familiar. The child reminds him of Lucas and Claus, but there's clearly no full match.

Then he remembers something he heard about a few years ago. Something that some of his allies had troubles with for a while. Could that be a...

"... Mirage?"

Weber glances at Pseudo, eyes widening.

   "Mirage?"   , he mutters, remembering a pair of Mirages who he once denied Contracts to, when they came begging to him to save their lives with the Contracts' dark energy. Weber softly growls as he puts his thumb on his chin. Is the Aspect Shadow somehow related to this development? Didn't the Mirages all vanish? How is one still here?

Edited by DevilPsyco on Mar 26th 2022 at 2:08:09 PM

Aboard the Yamato

Samus nods, saying "We'll talk later. Right now, We both know there's better things to do than talk." She rushes off towards the room with the power capsules, as zero and Madoka watch on, confused.

Versus gravemind. Mar

Mar is hit by this, but he... stops. He looks to the fall reincarnation, freezing up, before saying, over radio, "Those who still can fight, Fall back. There's nothing we can do here. Vincent, carry things on for me, will you?"

The soldiers, surprised by this sudden turn of events,while some panic or get confused, other soldiers begin to fall back out of the reach of the gravemind's tendrils, Vincent leading the group.

Mar... Panics. He begins hyperventilate, his blood pumping, and...

He clenches at his chest, as he falls to his knees, suffering a heart attack on the spot, due to the combination of the fall dragon's powers, and his own stress reaching levels which would cause such a heart attack...

Mar's vision begins to fade, as he starts to loose consciousness.

Gebura

Gebura, in a Frenzy, Keeps trying to slash at the gravemind, Not heeding any risk of friendly fire, or the solidity of the enemy's armor.

Coomer

Doctor Coomer, looking up and down the gravemind, keeps shooting, his AI not fully processing the situation yet.

Homura

Homura, upon realizing that simple rockets won't work, pulls something out of her shield, A... An entire bomber jet. Homura, using a radio from behind her shield, yells out "I advise you all get back. This is going to be a big one"

The Jet starts up, flies over the gravemind as high as it can, preparing to drop its payload.

"Rookie"

Rookie, preparing evasive maneuvers,flies away from the gravemind to charge up the Thoron Canon...

Edited by ReynTheLord on Mar 26th 2022 at 6:32:45 AM

Thor decides to leap into the clouds themselves, jumping far above the battlefield and remaining out of the mist thus far. Through his godly senses, he does sees the origin of it, and frowns, not looking happy at Omagi. I WILL SLAP SOME SENSE INTO THIS LITTLE COWARDLY BOY! BUT FIRST!

He raises his hammer and a worrisome whirlwinds whirls as he chooses to do the simple thing: rather than unleash all of the storm and risk hiting legit allies, Thor gathers all of it into his hammer. Clouds legitimately the size of whole city blocks, bristling with enough electricity to make a central jealous, swirls all around Thor, gathering over his hammer especially. There's thunder and power at first, but it fades, all gathered in his hammer.

There's a clear sky overhead. Not a speck of cloud. It's all been drained. Indeed, it is applied over the Arena, as the clouds toil all over it to gather to Thor, the master of the weather. Once its done, the storm amass over Mjolnir, forming like a black and very angry coat of wool over it. Thor himself seems to wield the weapon with precautions unseen before, deciding to go straight for the jab.

He flies down, leaving a glowing blue trail in his wake as he attempts to hammer in the Gravemind with a first stroke. BANG dramatically says the SFX. AAAAAARRRGGHHHHHHH! announces Thor, willingly entering the mist to try to dispel it with his sheer power. He sees his fears coming alive before him, but it only motivates him to hit harder.

The first blow channels the full divine wrath of a storm created by a god. Immense tracing arcs of lightning scout the sky. Great billowing black cloaks spill forth from the hammer, launched upwards like a volcano spitting out smoke, but about ten times more potent. The shockwave of the attack blows away a helpless Luffy, caught in Omagi's mist and left to relive his crew's forced separation, and may do the same to others. But Thor is restraining the effect around himself and the Gravemind the most.

His arms shudders and cracking, as blood and lightning emerges, Thor attempts to make the whole Gravemind vibrate in his sheer godlike power, trying to form potent blue cracks over the mountain it uses as a body as well as the ground itself. And they amplify with each (attempted) strike, causing whole chunks of ground to begin to split and rise up with each strike. Like a gradually amplifying earthquake with each blow.

I WILL HAVE YOU PLEADING IN A THOUSAND VOICES YOU MISERABLE SACK OF COW SHIT! YOU WILL MOURN THE DAY A PERVERSE DEITY SAW FIT TO GRANT YOU LIFE. LIFE I SHALL TAKE AWAY, FOR MY NAME IS THOR!

Eleven smiles at the various rampages she's seeing, but looks baffled at the mist. That said, she doesn't want to be left out of the action: having accumulated enough life out of the tentacles, she shoves the sword in a pocket dimension and activates Limit Breaker, standing back with her two fists drawn.

I'm going to hit a millionth punch in two seconds! Go! She flies to the Gravemind and attempts to punch the holy snozz out of it through sheer speed, her fists making her look multi-armed... and more than swift enough to fulfill her bargain!

But she gets too close to the mist, thinking she could get shrug it off by just... being herself, but she doesn't. What she pictures is odd though: herself as a granny, quietly living in an old cottage, surrounded by boring grandchildren, with a content smile on her face.

She'd given up her life as a warrior and heir of an empire. And she enjoys it.

This scares Eleven so much that she stops punching, freezing in mid-air instead.

Margit hangs back still, tossing spears one after the other. He notices the mist, as well as Omagi, and quickly deduces it ain't good.

Fine.

Producing a long golden sword, Margit abandons the Gravemind to dash at Omagi and attempts to impale it in the back to pin it to the ground. Should he succeed, he then raises his cane and smash downwards with it once... twice... thrice!

... Perhaps thee would like a further lesson in pain, hm.

He smashes a fourth time. Stands there, unsatisfied, a fifth time.

Edited by Bolded1 on Mar 26th 2022 at 2:33:46 PM

We return to Onyxis

"Hey, Beanie Lady! Get down here!" Jenkyov shouted out to the car, the door opening up and the Scribe exiting, looking very unamused. Anna talks and Jenkyov is confused at first by her knowledge of his name, but soon forgets about that when the concept of money pervades his mind. "Uh…Talk to her about that. This is a Brotherhood mission." Jenkyov blatantly lied (something he’s very good at) and pointed towards Paladin Jenna.

Speaking of, Knight Simmons beamed upon hearing Jenna’s compliment. However, him and the two Initiates, Young propping up Carter with his arm around his neck, huddle about after being motioned to, eager for new orders.

Syana would not find much other than the ruined Robots and their guns, which could be sold for some monetary value but were not of much use due to there being far better choices in weapons out there.

"What is it?" Beanie Lady asked upon her arrival to Jenkyov’s general proximity, after sliding precariously down the ruined hill.

"Listen, that drop’ll arrive any se-"

Cutting Jenkyov off midsentence, the ground rumbled as a hut-sized pyramid slammed down onto the snow from above.

Of course, that wasn’t the only thing to show up, as in addition, came a thirty foot hammer-wielding mech.

It took one look at it’s enemies, before immediately moving in to swing the hammer at the building and destroying a wall, hoping to bring down Flint, with it.

"Oh, sorry"

Natsuki said before looking quizzically at the newcomer

"   "I'm not...deleted?    'Im right here?

As the Gravemind starts vomiting lava everywhere, Wriggle, intent on finishing this battle as soon as possible, manifests a long, curved blade of green energy from her hand, roughly resembling a weta ovipositor. Flitting around the Gravemind like an annoying mosquito to prevent it from nailing her with a magma blast, she tries to plunge the blade into its forehead, or the region that most resembles one. A successful hit should once again soundly bypass the Gravemind's armor, inflicting a divine corruption that will cause the affected area (hopefully the brain) to decay rapidly before bursting open, releasing a shower of colorful butterflies like they were confetti.

Kazuma is having a fucking seizure between the tumors and the fog, which uh, GETS him. His greatest fear idfuckinknow but he's probably not doing great. Honestly, same with Karstodes. The latter is probably alive though given what Custodians are gengineered to live through. Kazuma is just some normal. In fact, he's probably dead.

Haruhi's resistance manages to last JUST long enough that she's still clear when the spores are actually driven off. A victory for the forces of god and anime!

"HIYAAAAGH!"

Pulsing with pure teal light, she raises her sword high above her head "LUMINOUS CLEAVE!" and a massive pillar of energy explodes from the tip of the blade, effectively making it a. A giant energy sword, which she proceeds to try and drop on the Gravemind.

Kyoko fuckin. She has run out of spears. This is so sad.

Xoeur's attention is piqued by the whoever that kid is seemingly sabotaging everyone. "Hmph!" In fact, I would say she's right annoyed that some GUY is just DOING SHIT to screw them all up.

Blasting off the Yamato, she leaps in a parabolic arc aaaaaaaall

-

the way to the battlefield, slamming into the ground next to Omagi and leaving a crater around the impact site!

"..."

She crosses her arms, taps her foot, and waits for Margit to finish his fit of brutality; then trying to grab Omagi around the waist and just THROWING them across the Arena, far away.

There's a slight delay. Trainer snaps his fingers.

"Air Slash!"

Hypno rolls its eyes, but goes along with it. This was the configuration most likely to hold for this puppet, after all.

Its neck twists and its body leans back is if winding up, before Hypno throws itself forwards into a sharp lean.

   "SCKREEEEEEE!"   

Close enough!

"a"

Shark gurl doin a drink of some salman milk.

Confused and lost in the hood.

Edited by Rbade on Mar 27th 2022 at 3:04:13 AM

Sandalphon's Lair — ???

A hazy, crackling projection of Hadraniel's Astral form appeared, not far from his intended recipient — a large, green dragon, decorated with sashes of woven leaves and blooming vines, armor of living bark and root, and a crown hanging from one horn made of living, vibrant flowers. This was his colleague, Sandalphon, Elder of the Throne of Tiferet.

"Uh... yo, chief?"

   "S—ndalph—n, I'm in a b—t of a bind. —an you spare a moment to help m— out?"   

"Oh geeze, your link is really bad. I'll be over as quick as I can, chief!"

—

Tide of Flesh

Despite the impossibility of it, a cocoon of uninfected leaves and roots formed within the Flood-corrupted ground — about half the size of Iraaxos. It glowed from within, the light pulsating like a beating heart as it forced the infection back step by step. A gradual process, but ceaseless. The cocoon unfurled, revealing the source of the light.

Sandalphon — and a small army of spirit-beasts.

"... Gross. Very very gross. Yeugh...," he mumbled to himself, preparing a powerful blend of nearly-forgotten nature-magics.

—

The risk Augus took was calculated, but man, was he bad at math.

He fell through the lava, which quickly flowed back around him, imprisoning him under many many cubic meters with no room to move. Because Arena, he promptly died on the spot, though the lava still did not burn or melt his mighty form.

Tide of Flesh

Ground

After putting aside the tentacles he ripped, the Mutant Child tries to rip some of the armor plates. But he breathes the fog... Suddenly, he saw himself amidst of his city utterly destroyed by the same flood he was fighting.

Between the fog, the spores, and his growing strenght because of the pollute fog, the Mutant Child's fury is growing, and he's losing control of himself with each second passing.

...

Loli and their riders were engulfed by the fog too. Their visions are... Unfathomable, by saying something. Without the butterflies to help, it was all on Loli, so the dragonfly tries to dispel the fog with their wings.

...

Roco tanks the lava plume with their shell, but the attack left it in pain, and with its shell weakened. Also, it breathed some fog.

But the snail retailed the attack, spitting a lava plume of its own, having learned the attack after it hit.

Yamato

Having finished their summoning rite, two gods appeared in the sky over the Yamato: Iemanjá, African goddess of the seas, and Inti, Incan god of the sun. The former forms a giant bubble of water in the sky, and Inti fires a solar beam through it, amplifying the solar power like a magnifying glass, and then launching the bubble at it, trying to hit the Gravemind for massive damage!

The couple of deities vanishes afterwards.

...

Meanwhile, Super Love flies to the ground to help the group there...

Onyxis

Lulú and the Giant Bunny fire their blasters at the pyramid thing, while Caulimón tries to bomb the other robot!