To boldly go where no blue hedgehog would
Corrin is finding himself at the shores of Tropique, having decided to just spontaneously swim there after the little stint with Ken at the store. Being almost punched by a vampire girl and teaming up with a fire ninja had all been... unexpected events for what was supposed to be a simple trip to get himself food and groceries. And, in the absence of Beruka, who had gone hunting, he'd decided that he needed some other way to deal with his annoyance.
So he decided to just take a dip in the water outside.
Swimming was Corrin's own way of relaxing. As far as hobbies went, his was relatively harmless and recent to him: having spent most of his life in a prison castle far away from any open lake or sea before being forced to partake in a war before ending up in the Arena to fight against Julius's forces, he'd never had the opportunity to full-on swim somewhere vast. At least, until he figured out that Fort Dawnguard was really close to a lake, and that the war wasn't as pressing as the one against Hoshido.
So he liked to sometimes go and swim, and forget about everything that was on solid ground. He'd dive in, in full armor, and he'd just get lost in the clear water, letting his graceful yet casual movements carry him whenever he wanted, even when that meant drifting off from Hub Centralis into Tropique, which wasn't that close to the city on sea. But then again, distances didn't matter to him. Whenever he was at sea, he'd feel like he could just go about anywhere in five seconds top.
Hell, he literally just could do so with his powers!
But he also meant it in a less figurative way. When he was in the water, his already-strong body felt relaxed yet at the strongest it's ever been. His muscles could take him anywhere across the sea with no sign of tiring, as he'd clearly demonstrated, but he also felt aware of everything happening around him. From the errant blink of a predator far, far away, lying in waiting, to the peaceful strides of the fish that said predator was about to pounce on. And when he felt like not listening to the gory scene, he'd simply stop and listen to the sound of the waves over his head, smiling at the melody only he could hear.
Now, Beruka could be worried. He'd left a letter but it made sense that she could be afraid of him getting hurt somewhere she couldn't reach in time. So he promised himself to return to Hub Centralis after about 25 minutes of this. Which was about 20 minutes longer than the time he originally gave himself to unwind and relax before coming home.
... 5 minutes longer wouldn't hurt, Beruka was the kind of woman to be thorough about anything she did. And, well, he was also worried about her when she was out, wasn't it? Yet he was fine with her leaving. If Beruka ended up being curious as to where he would go, well, she'd hear it from him upon returning. But until then, she'd have to sit there and wait.
It's not like she'd get mixed into a fight with Julius or anything anyway.
Corrin decide to put his remaining five minutes to good use in the meantime. Propelling himself by simply "kicking" the water, the young man take off like a rocket towards the surface and break out from the water like a missile, breaking out into laughter as he start to jump like a dolphin across the sea, slowly shifting his body into his draconic form along the way, up until he's completely transformed by the sixth jump!
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterIkaros
The demon fox pouts a bit at the fact that her rocket didn't hit, and she was even a bit dumbfounded that Sarah had seen it coming, the fact that she had tracked her own movements through her dimensional portals was amazing!
If there were more people like this in the Arena, she would stay for a long time!
Although there was no time to think about that for the moment. Seeing as Sarah had thus far avoided taking a whole lot of damage, she would have to have her head in the game!
Another one of her portals would open, and she would fall through it, avoiding the person that was thrown in her direction
She would be undetectable at this stage, because she isnt even in the Arena at the moment, she is someone across the timelines, hunting for something.
After was was in reality a couple seconds, but for her it was a lot longer, she would reemerge from a different portal, this time on the ground, with a Pokeball in her hand?!
"Go! Charizard!
After saying this, she would throw the Pokeball, and out would come her Charizard!
"Flamethrower!" She would shout, pointing at Sarah
The dragon would nod, flying into the air towards Sarah, flames billowing at its mouth, when it gets close enough, it would unleash a torrent of flame, heading directly for Sarah
"Just a humble peasant looking for work~"Tropique
Nuue had been relaxing on the beach, buried almost entirely in the sand except for her head. Relaxing after getting her arm fixed. Somehow.
She had nothing better to do than watch the waves anyw- is that a dragon?
"...what the heck?"
She noticed Corrin a bit ago but thought nothing of it... until she saw him in dragonform.
"-you've gotta be kidding me or something."
She pulls herself out of the sand awkwardly- before making sure she hadn't lost her necklace keeping her Dragonstone on and running into the water. She takes a deep breath and dives under, moving her body like a wave to gain momentum... Before bolting upwards and transforming mid-rise and breaking the surface of the sea with an overly loud SPLOOSH. She actually looks proper now- her wing and front left leg no longer withered. It's also a lot more clear that she's a Fell Dragon now that the withering is gone- that black wasn't just from damage. Huh.
Nuue flies upwards before curling into a giant ball and barreling into the water, sending a big wave out from her dragon-sized cannonball.
aeiou: the secondSarah watch as other fighters take to the sky with her. Besides the android she dragged out of the ground and into the sky, she can see that Albaz is following her but Artemis is apparently still recovering, with Icarus and Glimmer providing support. One via missiles, the other via healing. As for Ikaros, she'd vanished again. And Sarah's senses couldn't track her: wherever she'd pop up next, she could only react to.
Not the ideal scenario for Sarah, actually. Because she was banking on more people following her. But at least, she briefly focus on Cittufeni, who dodges her kick rather smoothly!
Oohhh, nice dodge!
She prepares to intercept his energy orbs, but then Artemis does her thing, teleporting in next to her. Sarah's razor-sharp reflexex can't anticipate teleportation, despite her own familiarity with the power, but she's able to raise her arm in time to block the kick. It's a meaty one, and Sarah's arm throbs once again on impact. And she strains to stop her own fist not to be shoved back into her face, as she attempts to complete her spin to hit Artemis in the back...
... Only for another one to teleport in. Once again, Sarah's reflexes are sharp but she has to abandon her attack to dodge, head swiveling from left to right as she barely manages to keep up with the storm of attacks. And while she could put up a counter-attack, she already find herself having to fend off a returning Ikaros's Charizard, Cittufeni's orbs, Ris's blitz, Icarus's missile, all while having to deal with their direct buff.
Two newcomers in the same attack? Haha! Keep them coming! Maybe there'll be three new guys next!
Electromagnetic shields strain against the blue orbs, bullets and flames as Sarah keeps her focus both on them and Ris's shield. She lash out with bolts of lightning, aiming to impact the missiles and cause them to detonate in mid-air, close enough to her enemies to hurt. And, for just a second, it looks like she can handle all of that power... Except that, against that much teammwork, even she can only last for so long.
Hell, if it hadn't been for that dust cloud, perhaps she would have been overwhelmed from the start.
As the electromagnetic shields are broken through by the projectiles, Sarah makes an hasty dodge, further complicated by Ris's interference and her wariness of Artemis... right into Albaz's waiting claws. And as a sort of reward for his courage by fate, he scores the first direct hit upon her, sending Sarah flying as she gasps in surprise and slight pain. Her tough skin endures the claws, but he leaves sizable red marks behind nonetheless as the impact send her flying away from the group.
Hahah! Not bad at all! I guess my plan worked a little too well! Sarah stops in mid-air and simply point in front of her, creating a bright orb of light. It attempts to flash the group before bursting forth as one huge beam of light, attempting to engulf the group, and serving as a nice answer to Artemis and Ris's own speed escalation. But before it can even fire again, Sarah flies to the side and create another bright orb, again with a beam, and so forth.
They'll be able to see her going from one orb to another, flying at high speed while doing so. Each of these beams are, expectedly, fast and dangerous, with enough Ao E that they could tag the gathered group. But of course, they could stop it if they intercept Sarah, right?
Except that, if they do, their attacks will pass through her. Because that Sarah is an hologram. She isn't needed to carry out the attacks at all: it's all the doing of the real Sarah, who is trying to distract the group with fancy lightshows and illusions to pull off her little idea.
Now that she'd separated the group, with most of them going to the sky with two others being grounded "support", Sarah teleports straight behind Icarus's tank, using the second orb of light to hide her movement while doing so. With a toothy grin on her face, Sarah slams her fist towards the back of the war machine's head. Icarus had wisely defended the forward side, so Sarah decided to go for the easier option, striking out with a powerful jab. The option was to obviously fuck up Icarus, but Sarah also meant to propel the tank forward with her monstrous strength, meaning to rip the large vehicle free from the ground and send it forward like a car toy being flung about by an angry baby.
While it's in mid-air, Sarah then kick off the air, does a fancy lateral twirl and run at Glimmer like a goddamn blur, with only the red of her hair and her wide smile being visible as she approach the support with an unpredictable zigzag blitz, shattering the ground in front of her. Attack buffs were one thing. But healing? Sarah decides to prioritize her while she can.
And she also heard her complaint, which she sees as odd. Why can't she just blitz around redhead to redhead? Something seemed a bit fishy.
I do a lot of jogging! Sarah then simply charge forward at Glimmer, breaking off from her zigzagging to simply run at her, fist raised as she attempts to simply hammer her into the ground with a downward smash from her fist. As usual with Sarah, the force of her punch deforms the ground, creating a big wide hole with the earth around it pushed up into big rocky spikes.
Ah! And then she once again break off at insane speed to go after Icarus, attempting to charge for the tank's left side. Very shortly before impact, however, she suddenly ''jump' over it instead, and attempts to stomp it with both feet at once into the ground, the mere downward flick of her legs causing a shockwave to break of.
As for the "frontline", now tasked with quickly assisting the backline, the onslaught of beams continue. Sarah doesn't intend to give them time to breathe: after all, it was a serious fight!
This means that at the moment, the Fighters up in the sky will need to come back to assist the Fighters on the ground that Sarah is attacking!
...
Corrin notices Nuue pretty quickly and wonder if he's hallucinating. It's not that he didn't want to see her again, but he... well, he found it good timing! Not that he cares too much. He's just happy to see that she seems well, judging from her draconic form lacking all injuries from earlier.
However, Corrin does find his focus a little bit disrupted by her sudden landing. Yelping in surprise, his draconic form stands strong against the waves created by Nuue nonetheless. It's not that different from before, and Nuue wouldn't know by virtue of never seeing it in its original form, but it's grown bigger, with glowing purple veins running over its head and neck, but also on its limbs or larger wings, sparing the body - for now, at least.
On his wings, they swirl together in a manner that invokes an eye.
And they briefly light up in Nuue's presence, for just a moment, before Corrin drop out of his form and decide to get himself swept away from the sea and into the beach. He briefly lays there, as if unconscious, before simply getting up and spitting out seawater, looking unfazed by it.
Aw, there's sand on my cape and armor now. He notes to himself, sadly reaching out for the hanging piece of cloth with his monstrous hand. He delicately hold it between two of his long, long claws before dropping it - he'll just purify it all with a water spell, he'd guess.
Anyway, Nuue was currently existing in front of him!
Oh hi! You seem better.
Edited by Bolded1 on Oct 18th 2023 at 7:04:11 PM
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterSarah Fight
Unluckily for Sarah, Artemis uses an ability to assist her normal sight. So she can tell pretty quickly that the hologram is just that- a hologram. She teleports away from the beam spam, and...
"Hah! Let's do this!"
Artemis snaps her fingers, a few things happening at once- the gravity around Sarah suddenly increases by roughly 100 times. Will this stop Sarah? She doubts it. Will it slow her down though? She hopes.
Secondly, she summons a whole array of shadow weapons to fly right at Sarah, leaving no time between the flurry of blows.
Finally, Ris appears to suddenly burst out of the ground from right below Sarah- his rapier extended in an upward thrust.
"This may be a duel, but as my Archangel wills it, I will give it my all!"
Tropique
Nuue pops back up from the water before detransforming and wading out of the ocean. She's wearing a swimsuit along with an ornate amulet holding her dragonstone- which quickly clicks closed to hide it.
"A lot better! Though I uh... soaked you a bit. sorry."
She has a sheepish smile on her face before looking back up at Corrin- she's smol again. Her antennae twitch a bit. She walks over to her bag and starts drying herself with a towel.
"-anyhow! I really am feeling a lot better, if slightly disoriented, heheh... This world is so weird... I guess it's uh... better than my world, though. Yeah."
She looks forlorn for a moment before trying to cheer herself up again.
"...did I ever properly introduce myself? If not, I'm Nuue! If my uh... giant dragon form didn't give it away, I'm not human. I'm actually a Fell Dragon! ...oftentimes admitting that gets me attacked though. Despite not being a bad person, people see 'darkness' and y'know..."
She chuckles to herself and goes silent, waiting for a reaction from Corrin.
aeiou: the secondIkaros
"Return!" Ikaros would shout, holding her Pokeball towards Charizard as a red beam connected the two entities, then the Charizard disappeared.
All the flashes and lights were getting to be a bit too much for her to process, she would find herself landing on the ground, a bit dazed and looking a bit confused as she looked around for a moment, trying to regain her bearings.
Then her eyes looked to the sky just as it is revealed that the Sarah in the sky is a hologram!
After a quick moment of scanning the battlefield, she finds the real Sarah in the fight on the ground, and after another quick moment, she stepped through a portal.
Suddenly, all around Sarah, a handful of portals would open, and Ikaros would come out of one, but not go for a strike, just sail past her into a different portal, at lightning speeds.
She would repeat this process countless times, trying to fake out Sarah before WHAM
Ikaros would attempt to hit Sarah with a solid kick to her jaw, if it connected, it would send her spinning a bit while Ikaros would hit her similarly again and again.
If the first strike didn't connect, then Ikaros would retreat into her portal, disappearing from the fight yet again for a short time.
"Just a humble peasant looking for work~"Sarah fight
In an attempt to dodge the orbs of light, the tank briefly launches upwards and outwards, until it's out of range. Just before Sarah's first attack, its sensors pick her up... but not quickly enough for the hind legs to move into a guard position. The attack connects, and sends the tank flying, chunks of earth still sticking to the tips of its seven remaining legs - one got broken off.
Note to self: add more thorns to the next design.
Before the crab can get too far away from the group, it fires a hookshot to the ground to pull itself down, then thrusts back to where it got kicked from, making sure to keep a safe distance from the beam spam.
Also note to self-
Icarus' thought process gets interrupted by Sarah's second assault. This time, he anticipates the move, and raises one of the sharp, bladed legs to prematurely strike back with a downwards slash.
Internally, he makes note of the broken off crab leg that's lying nearby. That might still come in handy.
Edited by StepexNo2 on Oct 18th 2023 at 8:11:32 PM
If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.When Sarah
Glimmer. Can't survive an attack like that. She doesn't have any manner of avoiding or blocking it, and is barely even able to react in time.
The look on her face, when Sarah bears down upon her, is that of fear- she is scared shitless, for her life, and for everything it means to her.
"-I-"
Thankfully, the others have her back, providing enough of a distraction to give Glimmer the time to sort of awkwardly half-dodge half-block Sarah's single punch, giving her the capacity to barely make it out in time.
"What the hell?! You could have just killed me, asshole!"
oh
she's
Not actually, that strong.
This may be awkward for Sarah, who was working under the assumption that Glimmer could very well be a Tilra-level threat. Instead, she's just mildly traumatized a 19-year-old.
And also pissed her off a little- which is why Glimmer scrambles to her feet and prepares to keep fighting- but unfortunately for her, Sarah books it out of range before Glimmer can hope of actually hitting her with an attack.
This time, she doesn't feel like complaining about that, though.
"Uh..."
Glimmer angrily twirls her instrument, and again places its head against the ground, playing a short song. The last note of this song releases a pulse of ether that increases everyone's critical hit rate- increasing the chance that they score a happenstance blow through Sarah's defenses. Of course, Sarah receives no such bonus.
Tropique
Nia
is also there.
No, really, she shows up, having been on the same sort of happenstance trip as Corrin up until a few moments ago. As a water blade, she has affinity for the ocean, though in a very different way to Corrin himself.
He is the waves: the crashing against the rocks and the fury of the storm. She is the rot: the life and death and the endless competition of its circle; Which is an over-dramatic way of saying that she cannot swim as fast as the lad, even accounting for her own control over the water.
So it takes her a bit to do her showing-up, but she does, popping out of the water where the waves reach the shore.
Corrin probably already knew that she was there, roughly enough.
The swimsuit she's wearing is not very modest and very fancy.
While Corrin and Nuue discuss, she doesn't interrupt. It's not like she knows what a Fell Dragon is anyways. Also, there's water in her big ol' ears.
Edited by Whoma on Oct 18th 2023 at 11:59:27 AM
Yatta!Corrin isn't really prudish nor is he the kind of guy who'd think his fiancée would be mad at him just for encountering other women. But he is from an era where swimsuits aren't a thing, so his first immediate reaction to seeing Nia and Nuue is to put his hands in front of his eyes, thinking both had gone insane. This causes him to initially spend Nuue's introduction speech not looking at her.
Instead, he spends the whole part just kind of waiting for them to spontaneously form or find clothes, blushing a little behind the impenetrable fortress on his face.
Then he realizes that, if they don't seem to mind, then it's probably not a big deal in this world, is it? Corrin opens his eyes and look straight at Nuue's own as soon as she comment about being a fell dragon. Because at this point, the whole thing about pudor didn't seem so important to him, did it? He hadn't met any Fell Dragon at "home" but he'd gotten to tango with one with the Shepherds, and it had been a pretty nasty experience.
But at the same time, Nuue's immediate introduction had her be generally helpful and pacifistic. And she didn't try to attack him even when he looked to be distracted. And, truth to be told, sad as it was, he didn't care about her being a Fell Dragon or not that much when, as far as he knew, humans were capable of being just as evil as one. Garon had been one example but he was ready to bring up a lot of names to prove his point.
Well, I'm an... Azure Dragon myself. Nice to meet you! He says, making it clear that he isn't gonna let her species affect his mindset or view of her. But then he realizes it's better to make a point. You being a "Fell" dragon doesn't matter too much to me. You really helped with things back at that shop. So don't worry, you won't have any troubles with me. Manakete... have to stick together, right? He says, although his confident, kind tone turns vaguely hesitant at the last sentence.
Corrin stay at a distance. He'd tasted BETRAYAL once and since then, he'd been a bit hesitant about letting people get too close. He could put that aside for an higher cause for sure but... it was difficult to will it when there wasn't a great priority or danger ahead. At times, he could still feel the agony of serrated weapons, specifically designed to kill him, biting into his flesh, whenever he moved just a bit too quickly or slowly.
He wasn't going to tell Nuue to go away but he was also happy keeping a good distance. Enough that he could react if they chose to attack him.
It was a slim possibility. A very slim possibility.
But then again, all the other times were slim possibilities.
Oh, and Nia was there. She wasn't a Manakete but that was no reason to leave her out.
It's good to see you again! And, hm, hi! I'm Corrin! How are you? Careful with the water and long ears, it can be... annoying. He points to his own ears. Not as long or fluffy, but noticeably sharp.
Edited by Bolded1 on Oct 18th 2023 at 10:07:30 AM
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterTropique
Nuue nods, noting the slight hesitation in Corrin's voice but deciding not to question it. Instead, she just flops back down on her beach chair.
"Kinda..? Most people kinda stayed away from me in my world. It'd be nice to have company for a change!"
She smiles a bit. There's no malice behind it- she's just... happy. She stretches her arms above her head for a moment before speaking again, this time turning to look at Nia.
"-also, hi! I haven't seen you before."
Nuue is still smiling, though one could notice the uneasy look she tries so hard to hide. Though she doesn't know Corrin's story, he isn't alone on the betrayal front. Nuue looks down at her now not-withered arm for a moment and then looks back up at the two from her position of laying on her beach chair.
"Hmm... fish..."
She's drooling a bit. So she dives back into the water... and comes up moments later in dragonform with one really big fish. She drops the fish and detransforms. Then, she somehow manages to set up a quick fire- wait nope that's just her breathing fire in Manakete form. Whatever works to cook fish, I guess. Thankfully she's seasoning the thing.
aeiou: the secondZinogre
Zystak glared at the approaching insects, understanding almost immediately that glowing swarms of bugs were rarely a good sign and decided that not getting hit was worth more than staying on the monster’s back. He sheathed his knife and, in the same motion, drew the bladed gun from his back and fired off an explosive shot into the Zinogre’s back as he leapt from it. The alien landed just in time to watch Kratos use a damned tree as his weapon of choice. That must’ve been the marked warrior Kado had told him about.
The Kroot’s next course of action was simple: from the bandolier across his chest he drew the first of three grenades: This one, a sticking device, would produce a powerful shockwave of kinetic energy on detonation, though without any sort of fire or fragments. Zystak made a risky maneuver, zigzagging towards the Stained beast before dropping to the ground and sliding under it, activating the grenade and throwing it up onto the Zinogre’s underside before running as far from the monster as could be allowed without potential interception from the monster.
With great power…you know the rest.Sacred Pinnacle
Hmm yes, those horns aren't just for attracting mates you know. The Stained Zinogre tries to headbutt intercept Hunter!Artemis and either gore her on its horns or bash her aside before reeling from Zystak's explosives and The Hunter's shots. It'd have been hit by the curse beam if it weren't for Kratos bashing it down with A FUCKING TREE.
It rolls on the ground before standing back up, howling and drawing normal Thunderbugs to it. The fighters will be able to see them getting mutated as they touch down on the black ooze staining the Zinogre's body, turning into more Stained Thunderbugs. It charges itself up before roaring again, sending a swarm of stained bugs out. The bugs fly out in a wave while emitting black lightning, aiming to catch anyone not quick enough to leave their areas of effect.
It then follows up by going after Kratos again, pouncing on him to try and crush him and if it misses, it will try and bite him instead.
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."Sacred Pinnacle
Hunter!Artemis is skewered right through the chest and flung to the side. She lets out a yell of pain as she's tossed limply to the side. Curse notices this...
"-oh, shit!"
She rushes to Hunter!Artemis's side, simply burning away any thunderbugs that get close by way of using her Cursed Energy like an aura. She stops by H!Artemis's side before pressing her hands to the wound.
"Get up. Not dying on me, are you?"
She draws from her copied powers, using Idle Transfiguration to seal the would-be-fatal wound. This is draining though, so she can't do it often.
"...ow."
H!Artemis jumps to her feet and lets out a grumble before pulling out a stun grenade and throwing it at the Stained Zinogre. Hard. When it hits anything, it lets out one heck of a screeching noise.
Curse simply pulls her hand back and then shoves it downwards- sending out a massive wave of Cursed Energy that seems to shake the earth beneath the Zinogre's feet...
...which soon after shatters, trying to get the beast stuck in the ground!
Edited by RainbyPlays on Oct 18th 2023 at 5:45:25 AM
aeiou: the secondTropique
Nia tilts her head, getting the rest of that pesky water out of her ears.
"S'abit of a story, is what I'm hearing. Doesn't matter to me what either of you are. Jury's out on who, and that's what I'm findin' out. Ah, and, nice to meet you both, I'm Nia."
Whatever accent the two of them probably expected she'd have, Welsh was probably not it. And her accent is strong. Not to the point she's difficult to understand, but.
You know. There may be a moment of dissonance there.
"S'kind of hard to avoid the water. Right bit of a nuisance when it gets in my ears, but, I'll manage."
Yatta!Albaz - Sarah Fight
Unfortunately, Albaz takes the brunt of those beams, causing his titanium armor to be shredded apart within seconds. By pure luck, Albaz has shed his armor to become his Albion the Branded Dragon form. Basically, he's become shrouded in pure crimson flame and has traded some defense in exchange for a bit of power and speed.
In an attempt at protecting his companions, Albaz summons forth a flurry of flames at Sarah. Jeez, he really needs to bring his A-Game, but he's struggling at that so far.
Sarah
Almost instantly, Cittufeni seems to notice that something’s off. This Sarah is…lifeless. She lacks a pulse, she lacks a brain, she lacks a thermal signature…No, this isn’t the opponent he had been battling just moments ago.
Indeed, the real Sarah could be found attacking the foes below. Ha! It was a clever tactic—Cittufeni took it and logged the information for later. In the meantime, he simply watched as the woman wreaked havoc beneath him while continuing to dodge the heavily telegraphed beams (which failed to blind him, on account of his eyes not quite registering light in the same way biological eyes did). He chose not to help those below, because he wanted to see exactly how they fought. There was a veritable treasure trove of combat data to be gleaned from this fight, after all.
——
The Kain Train
The creature’s eyes narrowed as Filia’s body grew encased in solid ice. He was smart enough to draw his finger away, and it seemed for a moment as though he would’ve avoided the attack in its entirety, when the ice at last spread to his hand as well.
A fraction of his finger had remained upon Filia. He had nearly made it, but was too. Slow.
Bubbles escaped in a snarl from his pink maw and he moved to break his arm loose, but not before a series of lightning bolts streaked across the water and, most importantly, him. Now, his snarl escalated into a muffled shout as he slammed his captive arm free with a swift strike from his other hand, before placing both in front of his chest and pushing outwards. A swirling, purple vortex appeared before him; a black sphere into which the surrounding water and electricity was sucked. It remained fixed in place as Kain cut swiftly through the water, disappearing back into the murk. The orb, too, fizzled away—though not after lowering the water level considerably.
Whether or not Filia would choose to ascend after this was up to her—though Kain did not assail her in the water after his disappearance. Should she have decided to come to the surface, she’d find her attacker sitting casually upon a lakeside rock, fingers folded with elbows resting on his legs as he leaned forwards.
"Well," He chuckled. "You’re certainly not a disappointment."
——
Onyxis
Doom was drawn to the faint pitter-patter of feet against the snow, as well as the once-disintegrated creature’s shouts as it dashed back to their location. The man muttered something under his breath as he watched it cross the Onyxis snowfields, though refused to move or clear a path for it.
With great power…you know the rest.Huh? Sarah feels briefly tempted to dismiss Glimmer, or ask her what the hell she think she was doing here, but her sense of compassion overrides her battle lust quickly. Being a latecomer, Glimmer hadn't been quite informed of the general lax rules for holding back on display. Just as she didn't seem to be that strong, let alone as strong as Tilra.
Sarah realizes she messed up. And feels a brief pang of guilt. Worryingly, she's able to keep thinking about it while pondering on the current swarm threatening her this time. Icarus retaliating. Glimmer retalitating with a buff. Artemis had quickly deployed counter-measures, too quick to have been fooled, with shadow weapons and enhanced gravity. Cittufeni... hanging out in the sky, watching the fight? Ikaros opening up portals. Ris gone from his position. Albaz attacking her with flames...
She's my daughter's age and I was about to hit her like she was fucking Byleth. Argh!
Clever as it seemed, her plan had failed. Icarus had walked away from it with only some damage and Glimmer hadn't been KO'd. But Sarah wasn't one to let guilt, rage or remorse cloud her judgement. And, as Sarah wound up caught in a bunch of attacks again, she decided to formulate an easy way out using her foes's own abilities. And Artemis's enhanced gravity would become the main tool by which to do so, as she saw the earth below her start to shift and rise, her eyes peering at the silvery tip of a blade.
Ikaros around her annoys Sarah. She knows what she want to do but she doesn't know when and that worries her. In her list of "top priority", the Multiversal traveler had certainly made herself pretty high priority.
But still, she'd be just a bit too late.
I don't think a coupon would cut it. Fuck.
Sarah was a muscular woman, her body brimming with muscles capable of shattering planets, condensed by super-science into weight comparable to a woman that worked out well. While Sarah looked thin (yet was deceptively muscular beneath her clothes), she weighed about 86 kilograms. Multiplied by 100, Sarah was now weighting about 8 tons and a half. While Ikaros could perhaps be disrupted since the gravity was raised around Sarah, Sarah herself was quite fine with being that heavy.
I should probably explain myself later. Man, I feel bad for her. She probably thought it was just a training exercice.
Icarus strike and get a critical hit in. Sarah blocks, but his blade dig into the palms of her hands, leaving out a gash comparable to Albaz's direct hit. But most importanly for Sarah, he flings her down with the sheer strength of his strike. And she helps him by kicking down at the ground, flinging herself downwards with sheer strength, enhanced by the momentum given to her by the enhanced gravity and Icarus's strike.
Shelving that for later. ITS WHACK A MAULIN' TIME!
The result is that Ris won't get to emerge before Sarah attempts to come down on him like a meteorite, attempting to stomp his face hard as she once again is sent underground. Like with the Android earlier, it was a ploy on Sarah's part to quickly get Ris away from his allies, and isolate him from them, for at least a few seconds.
With Ris's teleportation seeming superior to hers in spammability, the enemy team having at least one healer in the form of Glimmer and Artemis being a very versatile enemy, Sarah decides to immediately knock out Ris by stomping his face in multiple times with great speed and strength, the violence of her assault causing the ground to shake at the feet of the enemy team. Gunshots-like sounds accompany her every hit as her legs become impossible blurs, igniting the air as she attempts to
That's exactly what I want, duh! Sarah says to Ris, with a final sideway kick. Even if she couldn't knock him out, she planned to at least make it hard for him to recover so easily!
...
Corrin is baffled by Nia's accent but is able to conceal it behind a raised eyebrow. He thought she'd sound a bit more like... Azura, really. But at the same time, he finds the accent to be full of personality. Hi, Nia! Y-yeah, it is kind of hard to avoid it... when you're swimming in it, a bit. He means to just be conversing, but quickly realizes how sardonic he sounds and move to excuse himself.
At which point Nuue leaves to fetch a fish, something that kind of baffle Corrin. But as she leaves, he can't help but whisper kinda wish people would've left me alone after hearing her out. And he immediately does feel bad for thinking it, even saying it: Corrin thrived on the affection and loyalty of others, didn't he? What would he have done on his own against Grima, Garon (twice) or Takumi?
But still, he feels like he could've done with getting less attention from crazy or evil people. Being The Chosen One was all fine and dandy until you realize the kind of interesting lives that these people go through, just by virtue of some vague prophecy or anything else.
Fate sure could be a very cruel mistress.
Corrin is mostly silent and left to think for himself, not appearing to mind Nia as he simply scratch the very tip of his chin with his incredibly sharp claw. Briefly, he closes his eyes and smile, appearing to enjoy the feeling of scratching himself with an incredibly sharp blade. But then, as Nuue emerges, Corrin yelps and only barely stop his own talon from stabbing his chin.
Whoah! Having jerked his hand forward in reflexion, as if to push something away, the prince stares at the fat fish that Nuue caught and briefly pout, pitying the unfortunate creature ripped away from its underwater home by Nuue. But he can't blame her: he had eaten well before departing, while she hadn't, apparently.
Maybe he'd need to go to the Walmart again.
I'm not hungry. You can share it between yourselves, if Nia wants. He says, attempting, perhaps unhelpfully, to remind the hungry Nuue of a third party who could probably be hungry themselves.
And, well, not to be stereotypical but she kind of looked like she'd like fish more than anything else, right?
Edited by Bolded1 on Oct 18th 2023 at 2:38:24 PM
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterSarah when the
Sarah's compassion is Glimmer's own opportunity. It's kind of mean, that that's the way things are turning out, but that's the way the cookie has crumbled. No getting around it.
Glimmer plays another tune, running a bow over the strings of her Wildfire Kithara to play a familiar melody, summoning a group of fireballs. Then, she thrusts the bow in Sarah's direction, commanding the fireballs to fly her way. Each is strong by Glimmer's standards, but even all of them together shouldn't pose Sarah much more than an annoyance unless she gets a lucky shot.
Although, critical hit rate is still up for Glimmer and her allies, so that's definitely a possibility.
Also, they're homing fireballs. They'll keep going until they hit something.
It's not all that much of an assault, but Glimmer here is not exactly up to the task of posing Sarah a considerable threat.
She still looks pissed off. Coupons... may not be a sufficient apology, yeah.
Tropique
"Hah," Nia laughs at Corrin's comment about the water, "Yeah, you can't exactly dodge the water. And, I don't know if you've noticed, but it'd be a little hard to cover my ears."
Nia's experience with fate had never been particularly troublesome. Although, stories from the other side of things could attest to her world's history being wrought with examples of fate being a rather cruel mistress- or god, in this case.
Either way, Nia's opinion is that Fate can suck it. Predestination is a scam and she'll punch whoever wants to enforce it, upon her, or upon anyone else.
Anyways.
Nia's opinion on fish is... pretty much exactly as Corrin thinks. Call her out for being predictable or whatever, but this cat likes her fish.
That being said, she has no idea what kind of fish it is that Nuue's caught. Maybe once upon a time, she would have accepted a meal like this, but her palate has grown more delicate over time.
...Although honestly she'd probably still eat it if she were hungry.
"I'll pass on the fish. Seems a bit unsanitary, and besides, I've already eaten."
Yatta!Various posters and billboards have been set up all over hub centralis, Advertising jobs at a "Bancho Sushi"
BANCHO SUSHI IS NOW HIRING! WORK AS A DIVER, SUSHI CHEF, OR A WAITER AT OUR FINE SUSHI RESTRAUNT, SERVE FRESH CAUGHT FISH FROM THE ARENAS OCEANS! DIVERS PRIORITIZED, PAY UP FOR NEGOTIATION. DIVING EQUIPMENT, TRAINING, AND HARPOON GUNS SUPPLIED TO DIVERS AS PART OF THE JOB! SEE THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA, MEET FINE PEOPLE, PREPARE FINE MEALS, AND GET FREE MEALS AT OUR FINE ESTABLISHMENT ALONGSIDE OUR PAY. SIGN UP TODAY! (Divers are a priority, please, we can't just only rely on dave. Man needs a break) SIGN UP AT BANCHO SUSHI, LOCATED AT THE WESTERN DOCK OF HUB CENTRALIS!
Western Hub Centralis Docks, Bancho Sushi.
The head chef and owner of the restraunt, Bancho, pours some soy sauce into a dish, to act as a side for the sushi he and two people alongside him are having
"So, Cobra. Do you really think anyone's coming? We're not exactly as well known around here as we are back home. I am quite the cook, but, you're the one who knows more about money and advertising between the three of us."
The grey haired man with a scar over one of his eyes, wearing shades, laughs a bit. "Come on, We've got connections for that, and those connections came with us, at least for getting employees. We've got hiring ads all over the city, and the internet. Plus, we can provide some underwater firearms if a harpoons not enough. As for training, Dave's got that handled, right, dave?"
A Rather fat man looks over to cobra, mouthful of sushi, and says "uhm yeham ih guhess"
He finishes the sushi and repeats. "Yeah, I guess."

Edited by ReynTheLord on Oct 18th 2023 at 8:25:04 AM
Albaz - Sarah Fight
For now, Albaz keeps his distance in his Albion form as he waits for an opportunity to attack. He's still unnerved at how fast Sarah could move around. At this rate, Albaz begins to realize that he's a tiny fish in a big pond metaphorically.
" Dear Kazuki Takahashi! How am I supposed to keep up with this? "
Mahke Etstop - Bancho Sushi
Wandering around for a bit, Mahke isn't in her Camila cosplay for reason. Instead, she's in some feminine butler getup today. She seems interested in the job application for Bancho Sushi. Sitting around doing nothing gets boring after a while.
"Excuse me," asks Mahke to the restaurant owners. "Can I apply for the job?"
Sarah Fight
Ouch. That one's gotta hurt. Even though Ris is basically a demigod, ow.
Ris gets stomped in the face a good few times before Artemis uses Dimensional Grab and pulls him out. He's dazed before Artemis's aura sweeps over him- and while she's at it, her allies. As such, her aura abilities take effect! A set of buffs, and a debuff against Sarah.
[Light’s Embrace]- Grants a resistance to most debuffs, but doesn’t outright prevent them.
[Angel’s Blessing]- Improves the magical and physical ability of allies to a certain limit. This will do nothing to stronger allies, but will make weaker allies stronger.
[Smite]- Deals dimensional damage to others over time. Basically a slow disintegration effect, easily countered by regeneration or high enough fortitude.
Smite she regained when she recovered that 40% of her soul, and it's a handy little thing.
Ris's bashed-in face starts to heal up, before Artemis draws upon World Barrier's Power Copying and uses Curaja on Ris. His face is healed up and his daze goes away.
"Don't attack her from below, Ris. That's a thing she's done twice now."
"U-understood, my Archangel."
Ris seems a bit amazed at Sarah's sheer power- though it does not dull his high praise towards his 'Archangel' in the slightest. He teleports his sword back to him- it isn't broken, somehow -and teleports back as he raises his sword to the sky, making Instant Runes appear above him.
"Oh, glorious light, grant this humble acolyte your strength... Show this one against me the power of our Archangel! Limit Breaker, Shining Holy Sword!"
His rapier is overtaken by a golden light, forming a cross-like blade. He rushes forward, breaking the sound barrier as he stabs at Sarah. Seems he's slightly annoyed he got his face smushed in earlier.
Meanwhile, Artemis casts a variety of supports on her allies, including some sort of repair spell on Icarus's tank. Mostly high-level regenerative spells or defensive boosts. She doesn't attack or move though, but she has cast many spells on herself- should Sarah attack her she'll find Artemis has a magical Counter spell up.
Tropique
Nuue shrugs.
"More for me then!"
Then the tiny 4'-ish Manakete starts to utterly devour this fish. Dear god. She would have probably reacted to Corrin jumping but feeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh.
Hub Centralis Docks
A girl on the shorter and slimmer side, maybe 5' 4", takes notice of the diving job advertisements. She has on some blue jeans and a loose tank top, but weirdly enough she has a respirator over her mouth, despite not being in any sort of polluted area. She's also wearing some glasses and her hair is a gentle blue, giving her much of the looks of a seafaring girl. Her height and build makes her look younger than she actually is. She wanders off back into the docks for a moment...
...before a Barsuk rises from the nearby sea and parks itself at the dock closest to the restaurant. This girl walks in, a bag over her shoulder. An odd clicking sound comes from her throat before she tilts her head, looks down, realizes her TTS device is off, and switches it on. It's wired to her voicebox and takes the electrical signals from it to speak for her.
"-sorry about that. I have a condition that renders me able to speak without some sort of assistance. I am Kaisui. I presume you are the owner, from your face on those ads?"
She glances over at Bancho with her sea-blue eyes, mentally analyzing him as she does. Her TTS sounds surprisingly human- it's based off the voice she had before losing it, actually.
Edited by RainbyPlays on Oct 18th 2023 at 11:02:22 AM
aeiou: the secondWestern Hub Centralis Docks, Bancho Sushi
With a ding of a bell, a lightly-tanned blonde woman strides in. Despite her relatively simple outfit of a wool jacket over a t-shirt and jeans, her walk had the flair of a fashion model.
"You're hiring divers, right?" She tucks away the small bell she'd rung just as she entered. You know, in case there wasn't already a bell in the restaurant to announce her presence.
"I'm Taye, and I'm proficient in diving and combat. I've swum through ocean reefs, fought a giant crab, and made a crabmeat feast for 5 after."
She fails to mention that the giant crab was fought on land. Then again, back then she only had a friend with a knife taped to a stick. Small details!
"By the way, would you mind if I brought my own sidearm when diving?" She gestures to the handgun kept in a holster on her hip. "It won't replace a harpoon, but in some situations it works better. I've used it underwater, if you're wondering."
Edited by Hotpizza on Oct 21st 2023 at 12:21:06 AM
Sarah fight
All that Artemis's spell achieves on Icarus' tank is detach the socket of the one lost leg... almost as if losing legs was part of its design?
Hey, that's not a fair performance test!, Icarus silently complains about the buffs, noticing the tank's unusually high performance. Whatever. Where were we? Umm... right. Better missile control. And ask Sarah later if she wants more or less thorns.
The tank scuttles over to Glimmer and positions itself behind her, making sure to stay out of the way of the fireballs.
"Hey, do you need some extra cover?"
If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.Ikaros
The demon fox looked around for a moment, tapping her chin thoughtfully, she needed something that would do some serious damage, but of course, not lethal. She would open up a portal behind her, time to find something!
"Ill be right back!" she would say right before stepping through, the portal closing behind her as her signature disappeared completely from combat.
Ikaros will return next turn
The Hunter
It is unfortunate, however, the Hunter had been hit by the bugs. Electricity coursing through their body as they yelled out in pain.
They were not out however, they stood up, pulled out a red syringe and stabbed themselves in the chest with it, pushing the mystery fluid into them.
They looked reinvigorated, still hurt, but with the energy to keep going despite it.
They would go prone again, the scope of their long gun glinting in the sun as they took aim, hushed ethereal whispers could be heard across the battlefield as they drew a symbol
in the dirt around them with their finger.
This symbol would light up blue for a short moment, before the blue light would move into the chamber of the gun in their hand.
With that, they were ready to fire, taking aim at one of the creature's horns.
A deep breath, then a steady sight, then a swift pull of the trigger.
A bullet that had been enchanted with more power arched across the battle field, aiming to hopefully cleave one of the Stained Zinogre horns off!
Regardless if this attack worked or not, the Hunter would stand up, back up a couple steps, and dig around in their bag for a new weapon.
"Just a humble peasant looking for work~"

Archangel Solopost - Arena Orbit
The Archangel looked around for a moment, having appeared high above the Arena. She smiles beneath her half-mask. Rather than her smaller self's casual clothes, she wears a flowing white robe adorned with gold, and has eight white wings coming from her back.
"This will do."
She raises her hands and starts rapidly assembling something she made earlier- an ornate space station, styled after a cathedral. Fittingly enough...
The Archangel's Cathedral
..that's exactly what she calls it. Spires of white marble-like material rise from each of the four faces of the Cathedral, adorned with gold decorations along the sides and top. A circular ring connects these four spires, large enough to house multiple things like hangars, living quarters, and other residential and commercial facilities. Each of the four spires contains a teleportation relay to the main spire.
The main spire itself is made to house the Archangel and her forces. For now though, it is only the Archangel and her advisor, Ris.
"Truly, this will be a monument to your presence here, my Archangel."
She nods. Her eyes are not visible, but her mouth is... she's smiling.
"Indeed. I trust everything is in order?"
"Yes, my Archangel. The pylons are stable and charged. There is no notable disruption from the Arena's influence... yet."
The Archangel nods and teleports up to the top of the main spire. Where a throne- her throne -is there in the center of the room. She sits down.
Holographic screens flicker to life all around her, showing all sorts of aspects about the Cathedral- both mana and electricity supply, structural and shielding integrity, all sorts of things- it almost forms a 'dome' of screens around her.
Artemis. The Archangel. It's going to take her quite a bit of work to gather people without simply fabricating her own. Thankfully, her real self is down fighting Sarah at that very moment. Though she doubts Sarah is the sort to involve herself in the Arena's problems... ...buuuut she could be proven wrong.
She smiles at her creator's idea. She knows it was taken from Mahito's mimicry of Meteorika- a sort of 'two can play at this game' thing. But she doesn't mind. She's made to, ultimately, rally people under Artemis's ideal, while allowing the real Artemis to continue her life. Given her realization of the Church of Gor, she's going to need more people than she has now.
For now, the Cathedral starts to fill with people on the outer ring- loyal followers of the Archangel that Artemis had brought into being. It'd give her some credibility at least. This entire thing is a backup plan- she doesn't intend to storm the Church. That would be stupid. She does, however, intend to piss off Mahito. If such a thing is even possible.
"Duty calls. I must assist our true Archangel now."
Ris teleports out upon Artemis calling him to a fight, leaving the Archangel alone to her thoughts.
Edited by RainbyPlays on Oct 18th 2023 at 10:08:51 AM
aeiou: the second