"... h-huh? He is?", Nesley asks, now noticing the gash in the Headless Horseman's armor. No blood, no body language indicating pain, nothing. Could it be haunted armor instead? He gulps, then takes on a more battle-ready stance. Seems that did the trick.
The Headless Horseman's horse does the same as Líf's, at least until the rider notices that Nesley's getting ready to fight, so without warning, the Headless Horseman suddenly charges past Líf (though with how close he gets to Líf him going past the latter may still destabilize his horse somewhat) and towards Loki and Nesley, creating another flaming pumpkin in his free hand as he laughs and swings his sword maniacally.
"I, eh-I still think we should let those two fight it out on their own!", Nesley yelps, turning to Loki and attempting to grab his wrist to indicate they should run, now!
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Vegeta raises his fists in anticipation, stopping the first puches, although at their current level of power, they're quick enough to create a small gap in Courne's favor, the younger man beginning to drive Vegeta back as he strikes more accurately and more fiercely. Vegeta doesn't panic, which seems unusual, but he does "tsk!" away at seeing Courne slowly pile the damage up.
However, he's not slow enough that he can't try to catch Courne's fist in the palm of his right hand, at which point he attempts to wheel him close for a headbutt.
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterFilia leans out of the way of her blade thrown back at her, the sword clipping off a few strands of the demoness's azure hair. Her eyes widen for a moment, lowering an arm to a limp position. A foggy substance flows off of her hand, just like the vapor liquid nitrogen creates. Once it touches the ground, a large ice pillar shoots up in front of the blade.
The blade embeds into the ice, sending spider-web-like cracks through the massive sheet. Filia rushes to her greatsword, wrapping a hand around the hilt and yanking it out of the pillar, prompting it to collapse into chunks right after.
"Humans have never understood. All too easily manipulated."
Pausing she rushes forward,
"Though your circumstances are no excuse for any evil action you take. Own it."
Filia maintains an upright stance as she runs, craning her head to the side as she slides to the side of Odio, swinging for a devastating cleave on one of his legs. Whether it is successful or not, a pile of snow attempts to coalesce around his other foot. If it succeeded, it would turn to ice and anchor him to the ground.
For whatever good that would do.
Courne's hand gets caught, and he gets headbutted this time. This only stuns him for a moment though, and he unleashes a Ki blast before Vegeta can try to do a follow-up attack, with the attack exploding in-between the two.
Yeah, this hurts him too, but it may be the quickest way to free himself from Vegeta's grip and potentially damage him at the same time. He considers it worth the risk.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay."Very well. But if it turns out Mara did summon that spirit and we missed an opportunity to strike a blow against the Assassins, I might just summon an illusion of Surtur when you least expect it," Loki replies.
He proceeds to quickly follow after Nesley, as he briefly glances back at Lif and the Headless Horseman.
Vegeta had not followed-up in anticipation of that: to see how Courne would react, since he knew a headbutt might not do much. Of course though, he underestimates Courne's proficiency and is blasted back, but he retaliates quickly, holding his hand up and shooting several shotgun-like blasts before closing in to prepare a punch.
However, halfway through, he stops and vanish, passing through Courne, and immediately appearing behind the young man to try to knee him in the back!
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterLíf's horse rears up in surprise at being charged head-on. When the Headless Horseman just keeps going past, he turns around to see where he's headed.
"You won't leave our battle unfinished." His horse rears up again, then charges right after the Headless Horseman.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.""I think I'll take the illusion monster over the very real ghost, thank you very much.", Nesley says as he too starts running.
The Headless Horseman... well, he laughs, as usual. But then he fucking throws his sword at Nesley, and it hits!
... his shirt, pinning him to a nearby tree. He actually needs a moment to realize that he wasn't actually physically struck because he is, understandably, frozen in shock for a moment after believing that he may have been impaled.
The Headless Horseman throws a flaming pumpkin at him and Loki, but Nesley, now looking severely pissed due to that close call, sends his yo-yo forwards, creating small PSI spikes on its surface to slash through the flaming pumpkin once it connects.
The explosion happens close to the Headless Horseman, forcing him to stop in place and allowing Líf to catch up. Now without his blade, the horseman creatures two flaming pumpkins and tries to shove them in Líf's face to make them explode head-on.
Meanwhile, Nesley tries to dislodge the blade from the tree, but it's stuck too deep and it's sticking through multiple layers of his shirt, preventing him from just tearing said shirt to free himself.
"U-uh, Loki?", he sheepishly asks, also sounding slightly panicked. Líf won't keep the horseman's attention forever, and when he catches up to Nesley...
Courne gets hit and stunned by the swift Ki blasts, forcing him to have to rely on his arms to block the incoming punch again...
Except the punch never lands and Vegeta reappears behind him, landing a brutal knee back into Courne's back.
But then... something happens that Vegeta may have never even considered as an option at all. Because not only is this not something about Courne that comes up often, but he may have never even mentioned this around Vegeta before.
At the same time that Courne gets hit by Vegeta's knee, Courne's tail suddenly unwraps from underneath his jacket armor and attempts to swiftly entangle Vegeta's leg to trap him in place.
If successful, it'll buy Courne enough time to recover from the knee bash, turn around a bit, and launch a very powerful Ki Beam straight at Vegeta. All while sporting the kind of cocky smirk that Vegeta would probably be proud of.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Vegeta is surprised and annoyed, not having quite expected that. Tsk! Well done! he says, salty, because he's still a Vegeta. However, he's a seasoned warrior, so the tail, while a surprising benefit, doesn't rattle him out enough to the point that he can't defend himself, raising his hands as a sphere of ki is formed in his palms.
It surprisingly struggles against Courne's blast though, perhaps because Vegeta still underestimated his pupil: the orb breaks through Vegeta's sphere and the Saiyan Prince realizes that he cannot leave so easily! As the energy engulfs him, Vegeta screams, but Courne will easily see that it's not a scream of pain, but one of frustration.
Also one for transformations
Vegeta's SSJ 2 fist reach through the blast and attempts to punch Courne in the mouth, then Vegeta attempts to jab him in the neck to disturb his breathing, at which point Vegeta attempts to keep battering him with punches and kicks to the face and torso, attempting to put Courne in a situation where he might just outright not have the focus to transform!
TATATATATATATATATTA!
If they hit the ground, it explodes, miles of lands ruptured and lifted into the sky by the sudden impact as red lines carve themselves into the ground: Vegeta and Courne will be standing in the middle of a large shattered portion of ground, with lava flowing around them.
You should strike more decisively next time you get such a surprise going for you! I could have punched you while you were smiling at me like you just borrowed some candy from a Earthling baby! Vegeta backs off, still clad in the aggressive aura of Super Saiyan 2. He smiles cockily.
But you're doing well.
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterLíf jumps onto his horse's back, then jumps off of it. The horse disappears into thin air, and its rider vaults over the pumpkins, plummeting towards the Headless Horseman with a falling slash as they explode behind him!
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Data Freddy
Tager: "Perhaps we should try strategies he cannot replicate."
Tager fires off another lightning ball, more as a test than anything.
Odio
Defense squints a little at Odio.
Defense: "Jeez, do you ever shut up?"
Defense punches the ground, spawning a wave of energy right below Odio!
"DIO is the ultimate being! The being of the future! Dare you not to rival me!"Data Freddy
"CASS!" Charlie jumps in shock and kneels down to check on her friend.
"Tager, don't! He's a counterattacker, not a replicator!"
Data Freddy pulls out a micstand and throws it, bursting through the lightning ball to try and hit Tager in the chest, after which Data Freddy runs up to retrieve it.
"You have to attack him from two directions at the same time! Coordinate!"
"I can get someone behind him, but they'll have to do the dirty work. I dread the wrath of a bear gone berserk."
"Someone else handle that." Fallen Sunny runs towards Data Freddy head-on.
If anyone takes Balan's offer, they'll be teleported behind Data Freddy.
Edited by KiriK on Nov 1st 2022 at 4:28:02 AM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Charlie may be surprised to notice that Cassidy seems... outright confused that Charlie is concerned about her. As if that's not something she took for granted before. And her confusion has to be pretty big if it can be noticed despite the fact that she doesn't have a face while in her Princess form. Her body language says it all.
"Um, I'm okay, I'm okay.", she rapidly says, almost as if feeling a little awkward about it. She doesn't outright dismiss Charlie's worry though, showing as such by not immediately charging in again. Instead, she looks at Charlie.
"I think I have an idea too, but it depends on what you can do.", she says to Charlie. "Can you transform into the Marionette? Or Nightmarionne? Or can you create strings or tentacles in any way? If you can... maybe you could bind Freddy in place so that he can't attack us back."
3/4 HP
"Not really. I've never even seen that ghost in my life. ... trust me, I'd probably never forget his crazy laugh."
The sword now begins to shudder in Loki's hand and will start continuously pulling until Loki is forced to release his grasp on it.
"... l-let's keep running.", Nesley says.
The Headless Horseman gets slashed by Líf and this time does visibly react, nearly falling off of his horse himself and being left with a large gash in his armor.
But then his sword flies back into his hand, and while Líf has just landed, the Headless Horseman tries to make Líf look just a bit more like him...
By attempting to behead him on the spot.
Courne is not prepared for SJJ2 at all, and as such Vegeta's vicious combo assault gets its full intended effect, allowing Vegeta to batter Courne a bit without him being able to defend against it. It's not until they've hit the ground and Vegeta stops his assault that Courne has a moment to collect his bearings.
"I guess-", he says before letting out a single cough. Getting struck in the neck is not a good time. Nevertheless, he's still a Saiyan warrior, so he recovers from that fast.
"I've still got a lot to learn."
While he doesn't audibly respond to Vegeta's praise, his confident expression shows that he appreciates it. Silent confirmation, wasting no time talking, instead going straight into transforming too. Now in SSJ2
◊, he matches Vegeta in power yet again.
"That obsessive fanboy. He's enjoying this too much and it's letting King Vegeta keep the upper hand by transforming earlier than him.", Viche mutters to himself, knowing Courne well enough by now that he can more easily read him.
Well, for the most part. There's still some things about Courne that confuse him, like...
No, this is not the time to dwell on that. Fighting is happening.
Courne charges for Vegeta, moving much faster now (as one would expect from a SSJ2. However, in a variant of the after-image technique, he seems to create the illusion that his after-images are on his left and right rather than behind him. Courne goes for an explosive punch...
But the twist is that the Courne in the middle is not the real Courne, but rather one of the after-images. Instead, the Courne on the left is the real one, and if Vegeta dodges that way, he'll fly face-first into the punch.
If Vegeta dodges the other way or tries to block Courne's attack, Courne will miss, but he'll also immediately follow it up with another explosive Ki blast to the side, aiming to have it detonate from up close.
Edited by DevilPsyco on Oct 31st 2022 at 1:57:01 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Whatever gelatinous substance has replaced all of Líf's flesh save for the head seems to be denser than real flesh. Though the Headless Horseman cuts through it, his blade is slowed too much to sever the spine, allowing Líf to stumble away.
And, given that he does not have a circulatory or respiratory system, a giant gash in his throat is nothing. He reaches a hand into the wound and flings his glowing blue Jell-O blood at the Horseman's h-... Wait.
Guess the Alfonse in him isn't totally gone. Oh well, that stuff is probably very unhealthy if it can seep into the Horseman's neck stump.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Vegeta smirks and get to work, although he looks less than impressed at the afterimages. That trick was old before I even came to Earth! he laughs, although he's learned enough about Courne to know that he wouldn't rely on such a dumb idea to work. He blocks as a result, putting his hands up and deflecting either strikes with his arms. As a result, Courne is blocked, but Vegeta is then blasted back by the explosion, being sent flying through trees.
Bah! Of course it wouldn't be the one in the middle!
Vegeta stops himself after being sent flying through many trees, and he yells, putting his arms to the side as explosive power build from within him, big wide bolts of yellow lightning explode everywhere around the battlefield before he puts his hands together in front of him, sending a Final Cannon Courne's way. It's basically.... a big blast.
However, it stops just short of hitting Courne, stopping itself in mid-air seconds before impact. At which point, Vegeta comes from the side and attempts to smack Courne into the ground with a powerful fist, shattering the ground utterly and carving it up into a nice crater!
Hmph! Vegeta points, creating golden rings that fly to Courne's limsb to try to pin him down!
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterNesley is indeed not too far behind.
Líf's plan... actually somewhat works. Some of the glowing blue blood does hit the Headless Horseman's neck armor and seeps in, which causes the smug bastard to finally stop laughing for a moment, shudder, and flee in between the trees, disappearing from sight.
As they're running, Nesley looks back for a moment. He sees only Líf and suddenly looks uncertain, not buying for a second that they somehow shook him off.
And true he is, because the moment he looks back in front of him, the Headless Horseman dashes out from the trees right in front of Loki and Nesley, swinging his blade at both their heads. Time almost seems to slow down for a moment as psychic energy is gathered in front of Loki and Nesley, the latter instinctively creating a PSI Shield to block the incoming attack.
Once the blade clashes with the shield, Nesley performs the 'shield dodge' skill he'd learnt a good while ago, dodging under his own PSI Shield, gathering more psychic energy in his hand, and then unleashing a point-blank PSI Rockin' at the Headless Horseman from in front of his own still-lingering PSI Shield.
This blast, of course, catches the Headless Horseman off guard (because who in their right mind would see that coming?) and gets blasted back against a tree. Nesley starts breathing in and out deeply as if exhausted, which one could mistake for the technique maybe taking a lot of stamina, but then Loki may just notice the trickle of blood coming from the boy's nose. A sign of PSI overuse.
And then he may remember that Nesley had been fighting against a horde of Vahki before Loki found him. Of course Nesley would've been using a lot of PSI! He must be exhausted too, immediately explaining why this otherwise somewhat violent kid would choose to run instead of fight. He was already in a bad position even before the Headless Horseman showed up.
No wonder Loki's had to save his hide a few times already too. His reflexes must not be on par either due to his exhaustion.
"W-we should keep running... t-that river I mentioned is nearby. He won't be able to launch surprise attacks if we're somewhere without trees.", he says to Loki.
Courne prepares to retaliate against the Final Cannon with a blast of his own. But he's seemingly not prepared for it just outright stopping in front of him. So of course he gets smacked into the ground before he realizes what happened instead.
To his credit though, he gets back up quickly and manages to backflip away from the restraining Ki rings just in time to prevent himself from getting trapped. He looks up at Vegeta in surprise. Seems like Vegeta finally pulled out a technique that Courne did not know about.
"Well, if it's fair game..."
He creates a pair of electric Ki spheres in his hands. Considering that he'd bragged about the Electro Bolt to Vegeta before, he'd surely know what's coming.
Or so he would assume, because all of a sudden Courne crushes the two spheres in his hands, resulting in two hands filled with very small Ki bits, which he then launches up, none of them actually aimed at Vegeta. They all fly past him.
It probably won't take Vegeta long to realize what Courne is doing, but it may already be too late by then. Once the Ki bits are in place, they suddenly connect to one another and form an electric Ki cage, attempting to trap Vegeta within. And his power in SSJ2 is not enough to break out of the attack.
Even if he gets out before he's trapped though, the attack still fully forms regardless of whether he's inside or not. Why? Well... to show it off of course.
"What do you think of my Electro Cage, King Vegeta?", Courne smirks.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Líf is clutching his neck. He still feels the pain of it.
"Accursed spirit..."
"You just sit back, weird skeleton jelly dude."
A teen in punk clothing, resembling a demented hybrid of Lucas and Jotaro,
◊ emerges from the shade. "I've spent long enough watching to get a read on that freak."
He teleports towards Nesley and Loki. Líf summons forth his ghostly steed and climbs back aboard, sheathing his sword. He is in no condition to continue battling, but he will see this through.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Realizing that Nesley was clearly in no position to fight the Headless Horseman, Loki points Nightbane at the Horseman and fires off a dark energy beam akin to the kind wielded by Dharkon himself. With his free arm, he moves to pick up Nesley before hurrying towards the river in question.
"Of all the times for your power to begin petering out..."
Cue the newcomer arriving on the scene, prompting him to raise an eyebrow.
Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween
I thought I changed my tvtropes password HOW DO YOU PEOPLE KEEP MESSING WITH MY POSTS
Halloween
Halloween.
With Loki's attack added to the mix, the Headless Horseman is stunned enough to allow Loki and Nesley time to run towards the river. Once near it, the new guy arrives.
Nesley really hopes this guy is on their side, because if he's an enemy too then they might be fucked.
The Headless Horseman now charges out of the forest and towards the small group. Nesley looks around franctically; the river is too large to cross, and if Loki has to carry Nesley then the horseman may catch up and hit them with those pumpkins of his.
However, there's a bridge over the river in the distance that Loki and/or the new arrival may notice.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.

"Wait... Nesley, whoever this being is, he's not really a zombie so much as he's a wicked spirit of sorts," Loki points out, hoping that might be enough to snap Nesley out of his funk.