Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

... Hm, gather around me. Gojo begins to get up-

Yuji start to ramp up the energy-

Lucina focus her powers

And...

The energy entirely around Gojo detonates a few meters away from him, pushed away by a repelling field. A repelling field that, curiously, does not block people from approaching him, yet blocks every projectile without fails. Only around Gojo though, and he either can't or won't extend it to cover the whole fort or other people. But folks around Gojo are safe.

However, Yuji is not: he runs in to try to grab and lift the piece of debris blocking the Death Knight, stepping over his unconscious body to do so. If he can't get there in time, he then attempts to help out Morgan by shielding the youth with his body from the stones and blasts and if he can't do that, then he attempts to save Selena or whoever need it.

Something slinks around the battlefield, past the ruined walls.

Regardless, Gojo simply stands still, waiting for the rampage to end. There's no smoke around him, nor rocks, nor magic: he's a true spot of solace in the onslaught. That means the healing will complete, should Anna stay around. But regardless, he's perfectly fine, and so will the people crowding around him. Once done, he simply begins to stretch, comically unbothered by the events around him to a degree that loops back to being almost unsettling.

I don't really give a damn about your fantasy war or whatever, he pipes, smiling slightly despite the odds. I think I'm even going to go for a stroll. But I'm grumpy because some smoke flew in my eyes, headband on. I might just fold any of you in half if they happen to stand in the way of my stroll.

He then raises his hand, preemptively stopping anyone from talking. Also, I don't really care if you summon Grima on me or anything. I take my strolls seriously. Interrupt it and I will snap you in half. Like a twig. And with more ease than that, actually, he huffs, though he remains smiling. You might have thousands of dark cultists, but so long as there's a single one of me, you're all still critically outnumbered.

With that.

Gojo puts his hands in his pockets and begin to walk towards Julius, showing absolutely no hint of fear: he does take the first step with a lot of gravitae to it, but then begins to walk nonchalantly, slowly accelerating, though he still goes at "strolling" speed.

Yuji groans and extract himself out of some rocks, with Gojo sighing in relief at that. ubui my head no good think it hit air

The Shepherds scatter about, how many survived the assault? idk

Edited by Bolded1 on Sep 23rd 2022 at 9:05:56 PM

Nicole is about to hit Julius with a retort, only for the latter to suddenly launch his devastating Fenrir attack. Needless to say, whatever comeback she had planned dies before she can even let it loose.

"Ah, shit!"

She puts Olympus' Wrath away, moves to grab the downed Anna and Jake, and hurriedly carries them over to Gojo's position once she realizes what exactly he was doing. That said, a blast from Fenrir strikes her in the back, eliciting a pained snarl from the Arcane half-dragon as she crashes to the ground beside everyone else who'd made it to Gojo's force field.

"So much for the ancient evil dragon god being the Grimleal's top dog..."

Unshaken, Simmons, Keys, Young, V, Luin, Arad

Lourent, Dunes

"What the fuck..?"

"You see that too?"

"Who the hell is it?"

The three men stared off into the distance of the dunes, from the side of the Morellatops they had been traveling with. "Let's check it out. Can't let anyone know we're out here." One of the soldiers said, grabbing a sword from the saddle of the creature. The rest followed suit, and they ordered the being to halt as they approached the lone white figure standing off in the distance.

What they didn't realize was that this stranger was not a civilian or a merchant who had lost his way. He was not some mouse, wandering haplessly through the desert in search of water or shelter. He was the snake that lay in wait for the mouse to investigate the movement amidst the sand. He was the fangs that lashes out at the mouse, ripping into flesh, and he was the venom that surged through it's body, bringing the rodent's long journey to a painful conclusion.

Unforgiven drew his blade.

——

Brotherhood Base, Onyxis

"Huh. I guess that explains.." Rather than finish with words, Keys gestured to the vehicle in response to the tank sized lady bug statement. It'd be a hell of a thing to see, for sure, and the words reminded her of home. "I get what you mean, though. Back home there were these big hermit crabs that would like, live in old, abandoned trucks and shipping containers. I never saw 'em up close, but I watched some guys fight one from a watchtower once, when I was a kid. Raiders didn't stand a chance." She followed Bookstore into the tent, where Paladin Simmons was already sitting on a bulky chair capable of holding the weight of his power armor at a large, square table with an unoccupied seat opposite of him and a map of the surrounding area on it.

"Thank you, Scribe Keys. Your presence is no longer needed." He barely looked at her, dismissing the Scribe with a wave.

"Uh…Right. Well, good luck you two," Her smile faltered as she suddenly felt out of place, clearing her throat and awkwardly waving as she backed away from the tent, turning and deciding to try and find Young.

The man himself was nodding at Adam, unable to feel as though there had been some sort of miscommunication.

"Gabriel, actually. Gabriel Young. But my first name wasn't important…To these people I'm Initiate Young, and so Initiate Young is who I am. The name Gabriel holds no importance to me anymore." He corrected Adam, before answering his first question. "And no. This, is a Brotherhood of Steel base." He looked around behind him at the collection of tents. "…Well, "base"." He sighed. "As it is right now, it's more of a campground for a couple dozen soldiers. A couple dozen poorly trained ones, at that."

——

Lourent, Shores

Fed up with the creature shouting in some unknown language at her, Luin responded back to the gibberish with a retort of her own.

"Sorry fatass, I don't speak stupidese!" She hollered, as Lutemis shot another fireball to keep it's attention on them.

…Hey, I never said it was a good retort.

——

Hub Centralis

V gave the thumbs up and sped away with the door closing by itself, arriving to the building on his own.

——

Our Bleeding Realm

The Gunslinger rubbed his hands together, lowering the brim of his hat over his eyes.

"Shoulda bought a jacket.." He grumbled to himself, having had pocketed the food away in case he'd need it.

With his revolvers on his hips and his repeater on his back, he walked wherever the rest of the group walked, keeping his eyes on the new companion in the sky. "So, what fun new adventures can we expect from this?" He spoke loudly to overcome the wind, addressing Ruan with a hint of sarcasm and annoyance at the brittle cold in his voice. These clothes, though he knew not where they came from, were clearly not intended for his temperature or this weather.

——

Bradun, Sandy Plains

Luin awoke to the sound of family calling for her. Slowly her room revealed itself as her eyes slid open, and she turned her head to look out the open window at her view of the desert oasis the village had been built on (pic quality sucks i know, just bear with me). Through the window on the wall came streaming in a million bright ambassadors of morning, the golden rays of godliness shining throughout her room and lighting well the ornaments and knick knacks she had collected over her almost twenty years of existence.

Most days she had to force herself out of bed, but not today. Something felt different. Like she had been refreshed, had been born anew.

Casting aside the new feeling, she got to her feet and threw on a couple clothes, picking up one of her loose swords and placing it back in the Sword Bin ™️ before heading through the door and down the stairs.

"Comin'!" She hollered back with fear in her heart for the wellbeing of her supper. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs and walked in the kitchen, she took a seat, looking out over her family. Her mother-Standing tall, the second highest person in the family by a long shot. She wore the red and yellow alloy armor that a Captain of the Bradun Guard was to wear, and Luin could tell her shift was to start soon. Her father, while not nearly as tall, had accumulated a more muscular form from days on end farming crops in the fields. The crops he farmed with the dozen or so other farmers were what kept the village on the map, as Hunters passing by would spend any amount of Zenny for Bradun's revered medicinal herbs. Her smart-to-the-point-of-being-an-annoying-shit younger brother in his early to mid teens, Dan, sat across from her older brother by about six years, Comet.

She felt an odd sense of relief upon seeing him. But why was that? Luin couldn't place the reason for it. It had been almost nine years since the incident that had left the tallest member of the family in critical condition, and he had made a full recovery since then, back to being the village's first line of defense against rampaging Monsters.

"Mornin' everyone," She practically fell into her seat. "Shift soon?" She asked her mother.

——

Onyxis, Small Town

Arad walked throughout the small town of Exti, which Grandnova had made plans for that apparently not even he was allowed to know about.

Arad…Tried not to let that get into his head too much as he carried small wooden logs from the timber farm to a shop as he had been hired by the shopkeep to do, walking past each wooden cabin as gentle snowfall blanketed the town in white. It was night, and thus empty at this time, with almost no other life on the road but him.

Edited by ISZATSO on Sep 23rd 2022 at 1:04:13 AM

Onyxis, Small Town

As he went about doing his chores and getting on that grind, there was a sudden crashing heard in the middle of the street. Nothing was there if course, though it was in fact so loud that some of the residents vrgsn to wake up. The icey landscape was seemingly undisturbed, until the faintest black line could be seen. It was at first like a hairline fracture, travelling up at least 18 feet high, get hovering only a slid foot off the ground.

Then within an instance, the line widened and the sound of shattering grew far more intense, now more akin to the ice atop a surface of a frozen lake had finally cracked and the force of the suspension was travelling across the solid surface. As I'd there was no frame in between it's transformation, the line fornes into glowing shattered pieces of glass floating and rotating in in themselves. Any small device in the area seemed to be experiencing some sort of ambient magnetism, and either died on the spot or was pulled toward the location in an awkward, centimeter by the centimeter crawl. It radiated pale white-gold light, slightly translucent as one could see along the edges past it into... Another forest. It hummed like a low powered microwave and when the wind travelled through, the glass like pieces rotated against one another as if they were a crudely made wind chime.

"Oh fuck."

FE!Defense spreads her stance, drops to her knees and places her hands on the ground, protecting herself with a personal force field as her armor locks in place.

Mordecai and Reyna run for cover with Gojo, the latter doing a panic dive while Zer0's fate is unknown...

"They're not the Grimleal," says Reyna. "They're the cult of Loptyr. Grima is their pawn."

As for Ike... he has disappeared. Not even a body in sight.

The Ice Queen turns to her counterpart, her face difficult to read.

   "You have no chance of ever destroying me. You do not have the kind of power it takes to snuff out the aurora's lights. But by the same token, I cannot ever truly end you. To do so would require the eradication of your world's concept of cold. Such a feat is beyond even me. Are you really prepared to fight me forever? Simply to prove your point?"   

Strongest Cirno thumbs her nose with her usual cocky smirk.

"Yes I am. Are you?"

   "I see. Perhaps I had misjudged you. I took you for a pale shadow of myself, a child who would fold before my limitless power, and a one (dirty) trick pony... ok, I still think that last part, but you've definitely proven you can put your ice cream where your mouth is. Wait, I don't think that's how the proverb goes. Anyway. You get the point."   

She waves her hand to summon her floating throne back.

   "I suppose we can call it a draw for now. Perhaps we can do this dance again sometime. You know, somehow, I get the impression that I might find you stronger next time we meet. Call it an intuition. You seem like that type. Please do not disappoint me."   

She slouches on her throne again and waves to Strongest Cirno as the whole thing begins to take off.

   "I guess I should say thanks or something. I haven't had a rush like this in years."   

Edited by Arachnos on Sep 23rd 2022 at 6:21:39 AM

"Same to you." Strongest Cirno nods. "I thought your high-and-mighty act was just that, but you really gave me a thrashing. Maybe if you try hard enough, you can pull off minus K too... Although... I wouldn't be mad if we just hung out the next time we meet."

She takes off on her own, flying off in another direction. "Until then!"

Veyolkos

There's a going-on near Veyolkos: a young woman with a motorcycle helmet and a red-and-black jacket is sitting down near what appears to be a white suitcase, doing nothing besides observing it: like a clown is about to leap out of it if she takes her eyes off it for an instant!

Spooky!

...

Hm... Adam observes his surroundings, with a gleam in his eyes and a smile. Could it be... that someone NEED HIS HELP?! A downtrodden community, battered and broken, alas find relief in a nameless hero. A... he introduced himself earlier, right? A nameful hero appears and save the day. Hm, that was good. He'd just need to find out who's good and who's bad.

Reaching out, Adam attempts to verify Young's karma meter of a sort by seeing an aura around him, a gift he trained for years ago. Grey at first, the aura is something he thinks is inherent to every living being, rather than something he creates. And through seeing good, he can see the aura and let it judge a person by its color. Black for bad, white for good, with no context and a strict adherence to Adam's own moral code, meaning that it's impossible for the aura not to be any color but that.

If the color is white, Adam smiles and pat Young in the shoulder. I will help you kill whoever threatens you. Take me to your lord or lady, so that I might gain further informations on the fiend.

If the color is black, Adam simply pulls out his sword and attempts to stab Young in the throat, right here, right there, before pulling it out with a giddy smile on his face; I saw through your evil lies in time, demon! He says, with joyous glee, before sitting him there to watch him die in agony, smiling.

...

REX

REX's essence is struck too much for his metal shell to bear: as the area vanishes, and as the dragon in the background goes boom, his shell explodes, as a swirling fountain of screaming souls come out. Some pool around what appears to be their main tormentor, a elderly man with long grey hair, but most fly out, their pained, shrinking forms taking on a much more harmonious appearance.

Thank you!

It might have been all a fabrication, yet as the next area fades, and as the souls fade out, something feels...

Nice.

...

Bradun

What an educated guess, Luin! Dan scoffs, serving himself some food. Tell me more about how you deduced it! Luin's mother does that slightly head tilt and glance that all mothers do, prompting Dan to look away and eat in silence.

You're right actually, I was hoping we could eat together before that, she sits down, handing out some of the food to Luin; Her favorite meal, exactly what she wanted all along: her mother's warmest meal, in plenty quantity, all for her to enjoy: seem like Dan and Comet are having their own plates. And I might get you all to come with me a few hours down the line -I think we saw Annie again-.

Annie? He's back? Comet laughs when his mother answers him with a wise nod. Hahahahaha! That's funny! It's almost a monthly tradition, he stab some food in and shovel it into his mouth. Beating up Annie. Seriously, how is he always attacking the village like that?

There's five Bullfangos roaming about its territory, it got pushed out again, I have to guess! The Mother theorizes, then laughs. It'll be eager to get back to them once we're done with it! It's like it never learns!

Would be smart if it did, so it won't. Comet smiles.

The Father remains quiet, but he smiles slightly. Should we take Luin? She's got much bigger priorities than some dumb Nergigante, like the Bullfangos. What do you say, daughter? he turns to her. The whole village and passing hunters could stand to see your techniques in action.

Edited by Bolded1 on Sep 23rd 2022 at 2:48:41 PM

Veyolkos's Perching and Thinking Branch

He watches the woman for a bit, angling himself as if ready to pounce. But he looks to his meal and pauses, seeing if she'd want a treat. But after closer examination he ruled she wasn't the interesting sort to partake in his kind of diet, and so he quickly ate at the heart, and pulled out the lungs and liver before happily shoving them down his throat. The ferocity of his feeding habits tore the poor witch apart and her hips and left leg visibly popped, and a few more bits of dark, congealed meat fell down. He spoke down to her from his branch, sounding mildly irritated.

"Do you make... No attempts at all to at least mash with the surroundings. You want people to see you, don't you?"

Edited by ArbiterOfTheBog on Sep 23rd 2022 at 6:18:07 AM

Brotherhood of steel camp

Bookstore gives a nod to keys, but focuses on business, taking a seat. He simply asks the paladin across from him, "What's the current situation?"

Simple as.

HUB CENTRALIS

V2 swaps back to their shotgun, firing off a strange core from it. They then swiftly swap back to their railcannon, which is glowing red. They fire a shot at the core, and, fortunately with katie out of the blast radius...

A Massive explosion takes out the remaining civillians which aren't near katie and haven't fled to safety.

V1 drops to the ground, as a performance screen UI boots up in V1's vision, unseen to katie.. S rank on style, S rank on kills, S rank on time.

A large golden bordered P flares up.

V1 looks back over to katie, rebooting the text to speech system, and saying "Despite my performance calculations of my own performance, It seems that I should be challenging myself to "Keep up" with you. Quite impressive."

Simmons, Young, Keys, Arad, Luin

Brotherhood Base

Simmons gestures to three large marked locations on the map. One has a gray flag model on it, and the other two have red flags on it. The gray flag is clearly meant to be the Brotherhood outpost where they stand, and the other two were evidently locations controlled by the enemy. First, he gestures to the enemy location closest to the outpost.

"About ten or nine months ago, this place got a new resident. He…made some poor choices that seemed good to us at the time and to him…All the time. But anyways, he decided to lead a bunch of my men, which he had no right to, into an attack on another outpost of a robotics company. Grandnova. The attack went well initially, and…I guess Jenkyov, that's the guy I was talking about, had some beef with Grandnova wherever he had come from. Anyways, since the attack, which I tried to tell him was a bad idea! We've caught a bunch of their snipers scopin' the place out, and we've seen their warships hovering over the outpost. We think they're about to retaliate, and we really, really need to strike first before they do." Simmons explained, keeping it vague incase they were listening in, even now.

meanwhile

Young raises an eyebrow as Adam reached out, before flinching as he looks around the entire surroundings before his eyes settled on Adam, and the man looked at him with a weird look. He had a white aura, but something about his verification seemed to trigger a reaction of Young's that not even the Initiate could seem to understand. "Son of a…" He groaned, shutting his eyes closes before opening them. Once he did, the look on his face had returned to normal. He blinked a few times, either unaware or drawing no attention to Adam's "scan".

He got over this momentary lapse in reason very quickly, back to normal by the time Adam finished his sentence. "Alright, sure!" He turned around, seeing Scribe Keys storming towards them with a pissed off look on her face. "Oh! Adam, this is my friend, Scribe Keys. Keys, Adam."

"Wonderful. Hey Young, I gotta talk to you abou-"

"Hold on a second. Any idea where Simmons is? Adam wants to help with…" Young halted, worried about who may be listening in to their conversation. "Our lumber problem."

"Lumber problem? What the fuck are you talking abou-"

"You know. The warehouse issue. Do you know where the Paladin is?"

Scribe Keys sighed, an agitated tone in her voice as she talked about Simmons. [["Fuckin' Simmons..He's at the war room. Oh, but don't bother him! Because he and his guns for hire are better than the rest of us, apparently!"]]

——

Onyxis

Arad did the Irish character signature and arched an eyebrow at the sidewalk crack in reality. The rumblejack on his belt began inching towards it, but he held it in place while setting down the wood, before approaching the thing that should not be approached.

It was a dumb idea, yes, but Arad was confident he could defend himself should things go awry. And plus, if the CEO wanted this spot for something, Arad should let him know about the odd cracks in reality that may occasionally occur. When he got close enough, he reached a hand out at and into it.

——

Bradun

Luin rolled her eyes at her younger brother, before listening to what the matriarch of the household had to say.

"Again? Why can't he find some other village to bother?" She sighed, digging into the prepared meal of Apceros meat and depricked Bauble Cacti, listening into the conversation as she did so without speaking. She stopped eating the food for a second to take a sip of the glass cup half full of water. Halfway through, she paused, looking at her parents upon hearing their suggestion. She set the water down, a bit flabbergasted.

"A-Are you sure? I mean, Tailwind and I have upped the training recently, and it's not exactly like Annie's strong, but…" She trailed off, though the more she thought about it, the more enticing the idea was to her. This was it-Her time to shine, her opportunity to prove to everyone she was more than just the Guard Captain's daughter and Comet's sister.

oh no a woman with a strong personality Hello! Adam humbly bows. My name is Adam, and I do intend to help you deal with whatever is threatening you! Your friend is a good man, so you are good people, and thus those seeking to harm you are evil! he taps his forehead. I intend to seize no rewards, consider this a way to help you out and do good.

Then he hears about the lumber problem and look at the forest, squinting his eyes and leaning forward slightly. The trees seem fine... Nonetheless!

He stands back up, putting his hand on his chest. Introduce me to your supreme lord, so that I might convince him to hire me! I am funny, witty, and I have quite the impressive killcount!

Wrestling

Natalio rises his hammer, and without knowing it, uses an ability from his blade, namely, the ability to draw aggro towards him... Affecting Painty as well, tackling Natalio down the ring.

Fort Dawnguard

What's happening?

We are surrounded! Not again!!

Protect Belén!

I'll help too!

Carolina casts a healing shield around the Pica-Pica group, while Emi and Nacho try to cover Belén with giant pop-it mats... Altough those couldn't do much against the Fenrir storm...

Pyra waves away Madeline's offer- but politely.

"Oh, no, I'd rather go my own way. Thank you for the offer, though!"

t456 tilts his head. All these metaphors are going over their head, at least until she looks up the answers on Wikipedia.

Then, all of the confusion turns into rather a bit of a... discomforting feeling. It's literally all intuition, but t456 begins to feel rather a bit less like Eve is all she's talking herself up to be.

Perhaps because of that exact action: Talking herself up, like some kind of weird savior figure.

He doesn't have a concrete answer to that question. They're all emotional intelligence here, with little practical experience.

"...Um... that kind of sounds like... you enjoy hurting people, just a little- but I'm sure that's just a miscommunication!"

His hair and eyes turn cinnamon

"YOU'RE REALLY DETERMINED! I ADMIRE THAT IN A PERSON! I JUST THINK ALL THIS DESTROYING EVIL STUFF SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING I'D RATHER NOT BE A PART OF!"

She begins to walk away from Eve, footsteps slightly uneven, like he's just got off re-learning how to walk.

It's hair and eyes turn teal

"Sins aren't transferrable, after all. So, I agree with you on that; you cannot simply make up for something bad by doing something good. It's rather a bit more complicated than that. That is, as far as I've been able to learn."

With that little ditty done, the strange entity that is t456 begins to walk away.

Not intent on speaking to Eve again. Unless, of course, she decides she isn't willing to let them leave- at least not without a few more words.

Apothea accepts the... superfood, surprisingly readily. Maybe her culture is more accepting of eating bugs than others might be?

It isn't her being overly-agreeable for once, at least. She actually does have a pretty good reason to find pretty much no type of food all that particularly disgusting- she just keeps it under wraps.

Apothea cannot actually eat solid food.

It's a rather simple problem, one she requires no special equipment to overcome, but something she is just a little ashamed of. Nobody wants to stand around and watch her drink the meal they carefully prepared for her. She isn't a child, it's horribly embarrassing.

Well, at least she thinks it is.

So, usually, she keeps this fact hidden, crushing and blending her food together with magic when out of sight and carefully sipping it down with her mask lifted pretty much as high as she's ever willing to take it.

Aside from when it and her need cleaning, anyways. But it isn't as if anyone is going to see her then.

And she'd really rather her face stay the mask, rather than what is beneath it.

...

Well, for now, she hangs on to the wrapped-up bug meat and follows Kroq-gar, demonstrating, for this particular leg of the trip, the actual extent of skill available to her.

She lives on a mountainside, after all, all her life is is climbing sometimes. She might not be as gigantic as Kroq-gar, but for a person from a human-sized species she is pretty dang huge- and that isn't mentioning her magic, which bolsters her stamina and strength beyond its normal limits.

Enough to keep up fairly easily, and she could very well go even faster if she wanted to.

Eve watch them in complete silence, until a burst of magical energy happens, the likes that could probably get them to turn around to see her standing there casually.

... What does badass means though?

Then, she hovers off the ground to approach, slowly. Also, I can guess that it's off-putting, I really do! It's a bit shocking for some people to see how I tend to be... notable about my dislike for villains. Eve begin to look away, a bit in regret. But I've tasted it for myself, trusting in their inexistent goodness, until it cost me everything I had.

I know what I say looks bad, but trust me, the villains I met... They looked normal too. And I don't want anyone to experience what I had to go through! So that's why I'm so harsh on evil, because no one else will have to that way. No one else will need to break their morals and no one else will see their dearest memories forever soiled by... things. And I'm ready to shoulder all that, but I don't want you to think I'm some villain, alright? I'm... a good person.

Edited by Bolded1 on Sep 23rd 2022 at 5:27:40 PM

Tropique, SOLOPOST

part 1

"Who the hell are you!" One man with a spear shouted aloud at Unforgiven to get his attention, while the leader of the three brandished his sword, shaking his head.

"Doesn't matter who he is! Kill him!" With that, the three soldiers attacked: The spearman reared his spear back to jab at the Rōnin, the swordsman charged him, and the man with the bow hung back and fired an arrow.

Time slows.

Unforgiven utilizes his new ability, obtained from the Kleavor battle.

The Rōnin stepped out of the way of the arrow crawling towards him through the air. He passed the charging swordsman almost frozen in time while swiping his blade through the man's elbow, before arriving at the spearman. With a horizontal cut there was a thin red line on the man's neck, and Unforgiven grabbed the spear, yanked it from his hand, reared it back, and threw it at the archer, though it too was slowed greatly the moment it left his hand.

Unforgiven sheathed his sword.

The flow of time resumes.

   THE SWORDSMAN'S FOREARM ARM FLIES FROM HIS ELBOW, THE SWORD WITH IT. HE FALLS TO HIS KNEES, SCREAMING AS BLOOD GUSHES FROM THE OPEN WOUND.   

   THE SPEARMAN'S HEAD SHOOTS FROM HIS NECK AND SPINS THROUGH THE SKIN BEFORE LANDING FIVE FEET AWAY FROM THE CORPSE. THE SPEAR IS RIPPED FROM HIS GRASP, TAKING THREE FINGERS WITH IT AND BEING FLUNG AT THE BOWMAN.   

   THE ARCHER WATCHES AS HIS ARROW BURIES ITSELF INTO THE SAND BEHIND UNFORGIVEN. THE ARCHER WATCHES AS A SPEAR RIPS THROUGH HIS CHEST, SHATTERING HIS RIBCAGE AND LUNGS. HIS HEART IS IN HIS THROAT AS HE TRIES TO GARGLE HIS LAST WORDS, BUT FAILS.   

Unforgiven approaches the screaming, armless man on his knees. The leader's whimpers go silent as Unforgiven places his index and his ring finger on the man's forehead. With a blast of concentrated air, there is a perfect hole in his head, some two inches in diameter and allowing the dunes behind him to be perfectly visible.

The Rōnin lowers his fingers and takes the Kings' Bane from it's sheath, holding it against the steel sword on the ground as the blade melts away and fuses with his own sword, reinforcing it somewhat.

The Unforgiven places the weapon back on his hip, turning as he approached the Morellatops. It was enticing to kill it and destroy extra supplies for the Imperio Sol, but…The man paused. He ran his fingers along the scales on it's neck. Rather than reach for his blade and swiftly decapitate it like was the plan, he took the giant creature's lead ropes and guided it in the direction of the Rōnin's enemies.

After all, you couldn’t topple an empire without a couple friends.

Edited by ISZATSO on Sep 23rd 2022 at 8:52:41 AM

Estraole

Alright, see you around!

Madeline jumps up, dashes into the ground at an angle and sends herself flying down the hill, then right above the next hill. Within less than five seconds, she's already out of sight.

Hub Centralis

Icarus doesn't know how to quickly and safely check for broken bones besides using an x-ray (which arguably isn't quite safe), so the only thing he finds out is that all the ruffians are still breathing, their pulse and blood pressure is fine and stable, and there are no lethal wounds. He's about to remove the top of one of them to check for trauma, when he finally notices Kiryu approaching.

Hey, think you can help me out with some first aid?

Simultaneously, he queues up a craft for several sheets of heat insulating foil.

"Sure thing."

Kiryu is left with more questions than answers. But complies either way and helps the miscreants he literally just beat, right back up. The least beat of the boys immediately notices the man's face and backs away in sheer terror to get on his knees.

"Eeaahh we're sorry! We won't go near you ever again! PROMISE!!"

It's only then did he realize that these were the same people he fought moments ago as they move in to give him 200¥ in compensation. Kiryu turns to respond to Icarus, seeing how he's of more concern.

"It's not safe here, you might get attacked."

Enter: Gradius, old man extraordinaire and former (but with italics on it) badass. The old man is approaching the fallen men, has been approaching them, but took a while getting there on his cane. Once there, he observes the terrified thugs give away their money and laugh.

Hahahaha! There's still actual men in this time?! Hahaha-oough ough! He laughs himself so hard as to make his false teeth pop out, and has to take time to pop them back out.

You did good out there, huh, Xiang Chi! Reminded me of my youth.

...

The motorcycle person hardly reacts to Veyolkos, glancing up of a sort but not being that worried or disgusted about him.

Gor is watching over me. There is no need to hide when such blessing is upon me, scavenger.

Their voice is distorded, but leaning slightly male, and they appear to be confident in their message, sitting still with no signs of nervousness even when confronted with a disgusting sight such as this. I would not anticipate one such as you, who feed on the weak or corpses, to understand this.

Edited by Bolded1 on Sep 24th 2022 at 2:23:58 PM

Icarus looks at Kiryu, then the fallen men, then Gradius. Then back at Kiryu.

I'll be fine, I've got six centimeter thick steel shielding on my CPU. I'm more concerned... what happened here?

Seeing as some of the men are starting to regain consciousness, he adds:

You guys need anything? Are you alright?

Two more engineers and a supply crate land nearby, and immediately a swarm of drones ejects itself to carry medical equipment from the crate. The engineers approach, and the swarm follows.

Pieface: Sup? 
Icarus: Dunno yet, but something's up alright. Listen in ig

Again his confusion is surmounted with Icarus' response — having no idea what he's talking about, but Kiryu can't be too judgemental, maybe it's just his age catching up to him and the world around moving a bit too fast.

"These men attacked me and I fought back in self-defense. And it's Kazuma Kiryu, not Xiang Chi, old man. You should stay cautious too."

The ruffians are still scared, this sentient Gundam talking to them in their POV. Another one butts in to comment.

"Nothing to do with him! It's like we're dying out here!"

They point to Kiryu as something clicks for him, prompting to ask Icarus. "Hold on... Are you a robot?"

Veyolkos's Perching Branch

He heard her words, and was still for a bit, before subtly grinning down at her and feeling his scales rattle, as he hopped down the tree, scattering the wolves as he looked down at them, seeming amused by their judgment.

"Mankind domesticated The Cunning Wolf, and made it into the dog, where even the greatest hound struggles against it's origin breed.

They took The Hardy Sheep, and made it into livestock so dull and drab, such as yourself, it requires a shepherd. Less it stray off course."

He jumped from one tree to the other, sniffing at their helmet, and trying to pick it off his head with his bill, though would pause upon any sort of volant reaction. He jumped from the trunk of this tree to the ground, stalking about the newcomer with an inquisitive expression, his eyes focused solely on them.

"I scavenge yes, because often times intelligent minds grow bored and devise complex reasons to kill. It is wasteful, and often times Those intelligent minds scare off the clean up crew because of this misconception they are drab, sterile-minded automatons.

If you wish to goat me into a combative stance or even one regarding your faith, with talks of strength and pious command, at least talk to me like a peer as I have, as opposed to demote me as a scavenger as if it were a "below beasts". And especially demoting someone like me, who can actually parley with you."

Edited by ArbiterOfTheBog on Sep 24th 2022 at 10:30:38 AM

The figure doesn't move, but an aura will repel Veyolkos. It's a bit low-powered admittedly, but with a clear message not to approach. That is rather uncouth of you to do, people with helmets have them on for a reason, he groans. Please don't do that again.

The figure get up and glances at him, he's tall, standing at well over seven feet.

I am unbound by flesh, mine is a body that is guided by ethereal whims, he says. I do not understand someone made of it, let alone who consumes it.

...

Gradius shrugs. Kiryu Kazuma? Alright, you earned that I remember it at least.

He looks distaseful at the thugs speaking out, and is wary about the bots pouring in. Stay far away from me, younglings.

Edited by Bolded1 on Sep 24th 2022 at 8:37:05 PM