Open Seas
Drake found his counterattack successful, the arm of the Undead enemy becoming mangled and nigh unusable. Dropping his sword, he leapt backwards a few steps. His lower jaw fell open, and from within emerged a demonic scream, like nothing that could come from any human. Only a few seconds after, his body exploded into a black and grey mist, a green fog vaguely resembling a skull shooting out and towards Drake.
As for Red, he would find himself scoring a strike, both pins being hit. One was thrown overboard, and the other found himself being yeeted directly into Rebecca's sword.
The buccaneer saw a line of at least five riflemen lining up and preparing to riddle her with muskets. Acting quickly, she ran and slid in front of Red, the bullets simply bouncing harmlessly off the turtle's back. Rebecca offers a quick apology nod at the turtle, before Ed begins gunning down the line from above.
"Need a weapon?" She asked him, sheathing her sword and getting back to her feet.
With great power…you know the rest.Kroq-gar was no stranger to crossing deserts. When he campaigned against Khalida and the Drukhii of Naggarond, he had perfected desert warfare. There was ways that a Mesothermic beast like him could deal with the heat, and that was being most active when the sun was rising and falling. He angled his head to the side periodically, to actually maintain sweat flow to reserve hydration. And if one had to travel out in the open like now, it was best to stay close to the cliffs of the land to seek shelter. But this Rhea figure hadn't teleported him too far off from the capital. He made his way into Aurum, and the oasis it carries. While not entirely prone to trusting Warmbloods with missions, he had no choice. He'd immediately search for a traveler's or adventurer's guild hall, to seek supplies and a guide on the land. Walking through he had a formidable aura to him, despite the constant sun bearing down on him from earlier he showed no signs of fatigue. Additionally, it also was a 7 foot tall Saurus Oldblood Cyborg walking through. Again... find provisionings first...
AwawaJenkyovposting
The hammer, with not even an ounce of ceremony, struck Syana square in the chest and carried here through a few trees before she and it halted. She dropped concetration on her spell at the last possible moment to switch to bolstering her defenses with an arcane barrier, but it was only just enough to stop the hammer from completely flattening her torso and the arcano-/psionotechnological systems within.
Syana lay there, staring up a the frozen sky through her cracked helm, and sent out a signal.
<Blacksmith Actual in hot zone — emergency deployment authorized.>
A far-off glimmer of light was the only sign that her signal had been received by... whatever she had sent that out too. Aside from that, she was down and out for this turn.
"The Stick has sentimental value. It's like an enormous, hideous teddy bear we can kill things with." -rikalousA woman of many talents, that Apothea. At least, that's what her friends would say. She understood why- it would be hard to argue that she was not objectively talented, but it still didn't feel right to her to assign that value to herself. After all, she was just... some weirdo.
At least, to her, anyways.
Apothea is a woman, quite tall relative to a human, with short, choppy black hair and a face hidden behind a gray mask that is itself the visage of another face with eyes shut tight. She looks strong, somewhat muscular, but not to an obvious degree considering her clothing- it's all white and loosely fit, adequate for a desert, certainly, especially if you don't have the ability to fight off terrible heat. She still had space to fit two sheathes for two rather interesting swords- but those shouldn't be important, so why bother describing them.
Unfortunately, Apothea is not a being that can easily fight off heat. Prepared for desert travel? Absolutely, she's prepared for just about anything! This old desert was nothing new, after so long in the arena she practically knew it like the back of her hand!
But that did not change the fact that her species sort of preferred the cold, generally speaking, spending all of their time up at the top of mountains. Not that it was easy to tell she wasn't human- the only thing giving it away, really, would be her slightly pointy ears, which really could just be a good cosplay for all anyone else knew. The rest was all underneath the surface as far as visible information is concerned.
After waking up for the day, ready to see what this world had in store for her this time, Apothea did not expect to see an entity anything quite like Kroq-gar.
Rather than say anything, she remains struck by their considerable presence for long enough that they will almost certainly get in the first word.
No amount of experience makes you ready for everything the arena can throw at you.
Yatta!Estraole
Outside of the cabin, Luin sees two very familiar faces, both invoking some less than fond memories…One of which from only some weeks ago, just over a month.
The woman stood, unsure of whether or not these two were actually real or simply a byproduct of the consequences of doing nothing but dick around and drink herself into oblivion finally catching up to her.
She hesitated, but waved slowly with her arm, still in a cast as a result of the battle, at the two. A look of confusion was quite apparent on her face, and she asked in a quiet, low voice a very odd question.
"You two are real, right?"
With great power…you know the rest.Ash yelps when Tae lunges again, but the hug is almost more startling than being bitten again could have ever been.
She blushes with embarrassment as she is engulfed in Meilin's fluff.
"... Anyway, we were in the middle of discussing how to find Kirrey so that he can return you to your rightful home in Canada, yes? Shall I call him here?"
"They want to capture me for... reasons! Long story, I'll explain when he's down!"
Gorimondo's eyes pop out of their sockets like Donkey Kong when he takes a heavy hit as the clerk lands on his head. In anger, he sweeps another hand along the ground.
"... Yes," says Marth. "Miss Luin, has something happened to you? Are you ill? Have you lost someone dear?"
Edited by KiriK on Apr 21st 2022 at 11:07:05 AM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Onyxis, Jenkyov
Instinctively Flint walks over to the pilot. He points and nearly fires from his distance, but seeing Defense handle the situation makes him lower the gun and steer him to the other objective instead as to not obstruct.
"Never thought trigger happy was part of your resume"
"Shut it."
Flint's runs over to the supply drop soon after to defend or secure it. Still expecting more however he moves to the frontlines, the close-ranged shotty pointed ahead. His polish and paint on the armor effectively make him a beacon in a snowy place like Onyxis that the enemy can easily see.
Edited by BoniniBanana on Apr 22nd 2022 at 12:25:34 AM
realKroq-gar walked past the other denizens, not at all caring about the glares. Raptorial claws tapped against the floor, his hulking yet somehow lithe frame adorned in scars worth a million years of battle, and ornate tattoos that defined his devotion to an vast pantheon of Gods and Primordial Concepts. His golden spear hummed slightly in the air, and any onlooker who gazed at it for too long could hear Murmurs from a Time Forgotten, in a tongue too old to decipher. His Spine was decorated in Golden spike caps, each engraved with petroglyphic designs of skulls and bared arms in frightful grimaces. His front was brandished in sacred plates of gold and bronze, somehow connected to the warrior with just red cloth, seemingly unimpressive in its making. His Cybernetics was a telling Midas like Gauntlet, with sharp talons that were currently relaxed and to his side.
He approached the stockpile of goods, and without a word, took a electronic tablet from the provisions dealer. Despite what one would say was an antiquated individual, he knew how to navigate that darn modern tech. He clicked on the basics. Camel Milk, Goat Cheese, low sodium mutton jerky, dried fruits, obviously spring water... he paused at the prawn like tails of a local arthropod. It was no Itxi grub but he was hankering for that. Of course he'd have to carry all this on his own person.. Which was irritating and would slow him down. But all he would need was enough time to find this huntress... He would hire out a warmblood pack animal... But there was a certain grime he felt from such a concept. He handed the tablet back to the somewhat befuddled dealer, snapping out a single command:
"Before Dusk."
He would turn to those in the room, and would let out a insanely deep roar for a creature of his size. It was a rallying cry, and the way his conical fangs were bared almost made it seem like he was ready to attack. But there would be no bloodshed here, it wasn't demanded of him.
"I am tracking Huntress Reyna... And I am looking for a guide across this Sun Scorched Expanse. If there are no volunteers here, I will look elsewhere. I have little time to make deals."
AwawaRed pops back up to his feet, and no hard feelings are hardly feeled. He shakes his head before firing a god damn Hadoken at a contingent of undead gunners.
Le purple Hadoken. It's funny because his name is Red but his laser is not.
"Gwabugag!"
Tae, relatively content, lets go and stands a few feet away.
/\。。/\The Hunter was not anticipating the bear to be so swift, and they get crushed, left to indignantly be squashed in a victorian-era shaped hole, with their hat forming a shape.
.
They have to recover for the round.
...
Luffy turns off Gear Fourth and takes a breather, not having anticipated Zeeroe to get so freaky!
Wew!
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterEdwina stares at Wanda for a moment. She then does sit down, but not right next to Wanda, instead sitting down a small distance away from her. There's not enough trust here yet.
"It's not like we had a choice. We already screwed up once fairly recently, so we're already on thin ice. If we failed this, we don't think our teacher would be all that forgiving..."
She brings up her knees for her arms to rest on. She glances away.
"That was an understatement, by the way. We're probably dead meat now. ... do you honestly think the three of us have anything against Mara's kids? We don't. It was just them or us, but that's probably not gonna be much of a problem anymore once we return to the base empty-handed... Now the three of us will never get the answers we came here to find."
Edited by DevilPsyco on Apr 22nd 2022 at 7:34:28 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Laxin considered his options, time travel, or risk encountering Jotaro again. He fell silent for a few moments, quiet whispers releasing from his helmet. His focus spread, zoning out of the conversation.
"Samus's allies would make any direct assault on her pointless. One, in particular, is... concerning. Though to travel through dimensions and time is a capability I have only recently discovered. I am not acquainted enough to find such a place or one capable of it. Are you?"
He asked, turning away from Raven Beak and looking out the view glass of the bridge.
Zeeroe wakes up and jolts onto her feet, scrambling away from Oca, Luffy and Green. "AAAAH! M-MONSTERS!"
"... Wait, it's just you guys? What the...?"
From her confused expression, it seems pretty clear she wasn't just assuming the people there upon her waking up were monsters.
<No,> says Raven Beak bluntly. <On this I have nothing to offer.>
Edited by KiriK on Apr 22nd 2022 at 1:14:36 PM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Wanda raises an eyebrow at Edwina, having not expected that to be her response.
"Answers? Is that why you and and your sisters willingly joined Mara, even though you knew about all the horrific disasters she's responsible for and how cruel she can be to even her own allies?" she asks. "Unless... that isn't the only reason you agreed to serve her."
"Rise and shine, sleepy-redhead!"
He picks up the HD tripod camera and tries to hand it to her.
"So uh, some
stuff happened."
"Want another fruity drink?"
/\。。/\She looks momentarily confused.
"What? That's not why we work for her. That's why we came back in time. I don't know how much Mr. Future Cop told you back when we released Count Kevin, but my sisters and I, like him, came from four years in the future. ... well, almost three years in the future at this point in time."
She glances directly at Wanda now.
"In our time, Mara seemed to be kind of... off, not caring much about going on her hunts anymore but not exactly seeming demotivated either. Her children didn't come back with her, and in their stead she brought... something else... The three of us unanimously agreed that we had to find out what happened, and what that thing is, so we went back and we've been here ever since."
She lets her head rest on her legs.
"The reason why we obey her is simple... she spared our lives and took us in when we were still babies. She told us she had razed our town to the ground in one of her hunts, but that she spared us because she saw potential in us. So she took us back with her, raised us and started training us."
A slight, almost nostalgic smile shows on her face.
"Alwina, Cywina and I aren't even sisters by blood. We just decided together that we'd be each other's family one day after we saw Mara and her sister fighting. ... granted, they're not the best examples of a good sibling relationship, but the three of us figured that if we were sisters, we'd always have each other."
Edited by DevilPsyco on Apr 22nd 2022 at 10:34:33 AM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Apothea hears the words of the decorated cyborg, and finds herself impressed by his enthusiasm, though is yet still baffled by his appearance. As someone who has gone across this desert many times, she would be a perfect guide, and yet she does not find herself wishing to have anything to do with Kroq-gar.
However, she is not a fool. She has had to reexamine her preconceived notions before, to varying success each time. This was not different. First impressions were striking, but they would not cloud her thoughts. Someone would be their guide, and she decides it will be her.
"You search for the hunter Reyna? I know not of who you speak. But if it is a guide you are looking for, you will find few more suited to the task than I", Apothea says, approaching Kroq-gar with all expression hidden behind her mask.
Yatta!"Mara has a sister? She must be that other Divine Guardian of Morality I haven't gotten a chance to meet yet."
Wanda rests her head on the cavern wall as she listens to the rest of Edwina's story. She couldn't help but draw comparisons to what Loki had once told her about the two "daughters" Thanos had taken as children and raised to be his personal assassins after invading their respective home planets.
"Considering how she treated her own children, I'm surprised none of you ever found yourselves on the receiving end of her abuse. Knowing Mara, though, I wouldn't be surprised if she played favorites between you and them," she says. "So, you said Mara had replaced Bell, Seraphim, and Azathoth with what sounds like some kind of monster in your time. Can you tell me anything about this thing?"
Edited by IchigoMontoya on Apr 22nd 2022 at 12:35:22 PM
Kroq-Gar looked to Apothea curiously. A willing warmblood... Kroq-Gar has been lead across Ulthuan by similar.figures and had learned better then to expect most warmbloods did things out of a sake of making sure his kin crossed unknown terrain safely. But he wouldn't deny a possible ally. Now that the plan had been reinstated, he was more then eager to get out there.
"Good, you're in."
He spoke very casually as he stepped towards her, his fiery amber eyes boring into her very being as he let out the faintest of a snarl. He sniffed around her, an instinctive need to make sure the corruptive properties of Chaos or Death were too intense. Finding nothing that exactly aligned with his realm's arch-nemesis, he held out his organic hand to shake.
"Kroq-Gar. I believe you have your provisions already accounted?"
Edited by ArbiterOfTheBog on Apr 22nd 2022 at 2:22:20 AM
AwawaShe looks momentarily alarmed at revealing that information, not having been aware that Wanda didn't know that yet. But she calms down again rather quickly.
"I don't think it's really an issue for her enemies to know that she has a sister... it won't do them any good."
"We count among the soldiers like her undead army, not her children. So we're not given the same treatment. Mara's much harsher on her children because, as she always tells us, 'they will be held to the same standards I was held at when I was a child'. We asked her once why that's so important, but she didn't want to indulge us."
She then looks uncomfortable.
"All I really know is that it's kinda freaky. Sometimes it acts all childlike, other times it seems to just go feral out of nowhere. I don't know what it is or even what its name is, but I'm scared of it, that's for sure."
She starts to look a little unsure.
"... why are you so curious about the way we're treated and why we do things? It's not gonna give you an advantage. I don't get why you wanna talk about that sort of thing with me."
Edited by DevilPsyco on Apr 22nd 2022 at 10:34:47 AM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Pirates
Drake covers his nose and mouth with his jacket to avoid inhaling the green fog left by the undead.
He goes where Rebecca: Do you have some guns? Could be useful now!
Luin
... Let's say yes, I'm real. Is that your house? It looks beautiful!
Meilin
She's thinking her options: stay here and meet new friends, but leave her family and friends worried? Or return and feel her mother's wrath?
...Can he come with us?
Gorimondo coming soon
Three freaking ghosts!"Mara has ruined and snuffed out god knows how many lives for her own sick pleasure, Edwina. It's because of her and Greyface that my brother was forced to kill Lucas - a boy who had already suffered and lost damn near everything - after Greyface's scheming and her corruption drove him completely mad. She used that same corruption on my boyfriend, Alderoth, and for the longest time, I was scared that I might be forced to put him down," Wanda replies. "The only reason Roll's plan to convince Hub to leave the Assassins failed was because Mara was cruel and cowardly enough to revive his brother and use him as a hostage, just like she's using Jack Frost's resurrected friends as hostages to keep him doing the Assassins' dirty work. She's possibly as much of a monster as Set, and he was a god of evil."
She moves a little closer to Edwina and looks her in the eye.
"You and your sisters are nowhere near as heartless as your mentor. You actually love and care for each other, and you told me yourself that you didn't have anything against Mara's children," she says. "When the Assassins' attack on Pseudo's base was thwarted, it seemed like you were about to sympathize with me
before you left. That is why I was curious about both the way Mara treats you three and your reasons for serving her."
She blows out a quiet sigh.
"And before I forget, what did this feral and childlike monster look like?"
Edwina is silent as she listens to what Wanda says, though she averts her gaze. She allows Wanda to sit closer to her this time around, and she does turn her head to look back at her.
"... I see...", she mutters, glancing down now.
"Mara's the Guardian of Evil, so it kinda makes sense that she's... you know.", she says. "The three of us, we don't really question it. But... if it means anything, I did kinda feel bad for you back then, yeah."
She ponders for a bit.
"Well, it has red skin, and some kind of weird scar on its face, and-"
The ceiling rumbles a little, alarming Edwina. No debris falls down, but the sounds of rumbling continue.
"... either we're about to get smushed, or they're about to free us."
Edited by DevilPsyco on Apr 22nd 2022 at 11:35:50 AM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.

"Yet you still tried to fight me, even though you not only knew how badly you were outmatched, but that Mara wouldn't bat an eye if you died," Wanda replies, taking a seat upon the cavern floor and leaning back against the stone wall. "So, why the hell are you three so devoted to that monster? Mara abuses and mistreats her own children, to the point that they constantly live in fear of her wrath, even when they escape her clutches. She's done god knows how many horrible things to innocent people, and loved every last one of them."
She looks up at Edwina before gesturing for her to sit beside her.
Edited by IchigoMontoya on Apr 21st 2022 at 6:17:37 AM