Church of Gor

Artemis

Unfortunately for Loki, Artemis doesn't need to move to dodge. She teleports right behind him, with a small smirk on her face.

And despite the weaknesses on Loki now being very small, Artemis knows exactly how to deal with that. Excalibur Morgan's blade bursts into black flames. Artemis then returns to striking Loki, keeping note of where the weaknesses were and striking as close as she can get to them, letting the flames do the brunt of the work. As she dances that dance of a deadly blade, her smirk widens into a grin, her eyes glinting with some sort of repressed emotion. It's an odd state of shutting out as much emotion as she can to focus, yet still taking some enjoyment in her actions. Meanwhile, her aura is shifting, deviating from regular magic as she starts to use more and more divine mana to adjust herself to it. She'd need it if she wanted to do more than hit Loki with a flaming piece of sharp metal.

Nice try. It'll take more than that to catch me off guard.

She knows full well that Loki can hear her. She also doesn't care.

She senses the bombardment of energy coming her way from Azura, so she simply morphs her arm into a shield and makes the flesh there good at conducting energy, which then disperses from it.

Croque

Croque retracts her Aegis, her exosuit now fully formed. A notice pops up for her.

NOTICE: Connection lost to main Neural Cloud (18/03/0002 08:01). Onboard Neural Cloud loaded. Backup deployed.
WARNING: Connection to MIRAGE Network unstable. Transmission of objects may fail, or undergo CM Stabilization Failure.
Chance of failure: 12%.

...and rising. The longer they fight, the less things Croque has access to from outside. As her suit's helmet closes over her face, she sighs and activates a few things.

Originium Arts Database active- 235 types stored. Field output at 100%.
CM-Originium Reactor stable (Remaining runtime: 240:39:43:21)
AEGIS-II Defensive System online.
Combat runtimes executing...
'Don't break it too badly this time, 'k?'

Croque deploys one of her armaments- along with some supporting structure along her arm. Why?

She's deployed a GAU-8, that's why. The entire autocannon takes up most of her arm, but the ammunition drum is oddly absent. She takes aim at Veilman.

Eat lead, you sonofa-

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Note that those rounds are not made of lead. They're made of a tungsten alloy, giving them an incredibly high melting point. Or else someone with magic could just melt them, and wouldn't that suck?

Even if he does move, she's locked on now. With a radar system, she's able to fire ahead of constant movements- much like actual AA guns do.

The Gas Station

-I just lost connection. That can't be good.

Croque's main mind was overseeing the evacuation operation fully now, a new 'main' shell being fabricated and sent to Centralis, catching a ride with Icarus.

I guess we wait to see if 'we' come back out of there. Un-brainwashed, that is.

Edited by RainbyPlays on Mar 20th 2024 at 7:12:02 AM

Sand, sand digging in on him. Many magnitudes of tons of earth folded inwardly upon him, attempting to shatter his frame in their cold embrace and drag him where none would ever again find him. But, ultimately…earth was no match for steel. With the gravity magic gone he was free to move as he pleased, and Cittufeni was determined to see in the light of day once more, however false it might’ve been. He channeled Creation Power into his hands and unleashed a storm of fists upon the sand trying its damndest to bury him, flying upwards as he did. His path was carved in the darkness, but before long he reached its end and exploded from the earth.

Cittufeni shot out from the tunnel hovering a good four or five feet off the ground with a gaze that flittered all across the battlefield, processing and theorizing on information that might’ve taken an organic minutes to understand in less than the time it took one to blink. Any fool could see that Loki was the backbone of this battle so far: he alone was aiding his allies, allowing them to avoid attacks and strengthening them through magic means. The Android had no means of knowing it was Azura who had attempted to drag him into his grave—he’d not yet figured out the science behind a program to track magic like he could most other things—and so decided to focus on Loki. Without him, the rest of the team could be dealt with much easier, making him their top priority. The problem was, he was tricky to hit, as evidenced by what little of this battle he’d seen…

"One known as Artemis." He called out, just as tiny circlets spread in a pattern across his shoulders came alive with a blue light, "Watch out."

From his “flesh” erupted many dozens of glowing missiles the size of pencils, yet packing a deadly payload. These devices were capable of two “modes”: a carpet-bomb “mode”, capable of simply removing an entire direction, and a more focused mode designed to murder anything and everything in a specific area. These missiles had been launched in the matter of the two modes, intended to reduce Loki and every last particulate of sand in a twenty feet diameter around him to mere atoms…if they were lucky. With gray trails of smoke following after them, the deadly storm of missiles descended upon Loki like a blizzard—but surely this wouldn’t be a problem for the trickster. After all, he’d exhibited his ability to shift and warp reality to his own design…which is why Cittufeni didn’t intend on ever giving him the chance.

"Back of the head." He stated coolly as they fired. If Sarah managed to land the hit where Cittufeni had ordered it, it could, just maybe, stun Loki enough that the missiles would strike as they were fired, and not as butterflies or whatever else the god cooked up.

Church Beach

Did you think you can just redirect danmaku so easily. Flandre scoffs at her redirected spears as they... abruptly stop mid-air partway to her, turn around and fly back at Azura.

Speaking of danmaku, with the gravity increase and time slow gone she flies up with high speed to avoid the beam. Before then dodging between the energy spheres with the kind of expertise only someone from Gensokyo would have, occasionally using Laevateinn to slice through more troublesome ones.

With that attack past her, she looks at Sarah and frowns. She flaps her wings once, three crystals falling off which then grow into her clones. Clone One and Two fly closer to Sarah before pointing their open palms at her. They then both fire big beams of destructive energy at Sarah, trusting her to be able to easily face tank them but the butterflies to get vaporized.

Clone Three though flies towards Mahito with a grin on her face, manifesting two energy spears and tossing one at him to see if he dodges, then tossing the second at him with better aim.

Flandre herself decides to add to Veilmann's suffering by spreading her wings and firing a machine gun like barrage of crystal shaped projectiles.

Church

mahito (tuna fish) spotted

   !INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE!   

Tilra fucking. Annihilates every single attack (one attack) heading her way just by moving really fast, cloaking her body in a skintight purple energy that covers her every feature save for her eyes.

The entire beach in the direction she moves is completely obliterated in a fraction of an instant as she tries to punch Mahito in the goddamn face, a successful strike leading into endlessly more if she can help it. An attempt to subvert this will reveal Tilra potentially simply punching through whatever highly-specific superpower makes the attempt, or at least disrupting it with that punch.

she just like boros fr fr

Cheach

The butterflies detonate, and almost as planned, Emma absorbs the entire blast. Her flashlight morphs into a massive cannon as she takes aim at Loki. All that energy condensing into a single point in the center of the barrel.

"Did you honestly think we wouldn't keep an eye after one of you made contact with the Star Generator?!"

Even now, that small interaction William had with Azura goes far. After those events, the Empyrreich very quickly profiled Azura to be potential target for execution, they don't have much of a description for her but it was their first indirect interaction with the Church of Gor. Since then, they tried to watch the church from time to time, although this is their very first confrontation.

"If your God was almighty, he would've—!"

Right as she would've pulled the trigger and blasted Loki, something is preventing her from firing! Her smug grin quickly turns into anger, she's noticing her body move in ways that she doesn't like. Whilst aiming, she randomly tackles over Artemis with her gigantic gun swinging along the way.

"I didn't mean to do that!"

"I take it back, YES I DID YOU STUPID DEMIGOD!"

"I didn't call you a demigod!"

Loki's energy is hijacking her own functions! She's trying to regain control but because she's still trying to aim the energy-empowered weapon, she's yet to expel the trickster God's energy!

"I'D LOVE TO MAKE METEOREROTIKA, THE SELF-EMBODIMENT OF PERFECTION THAT IS HER MAGICAL LIPS TOUCHING—"

"Woah woah woah I did not say that!"

"YES I DID!"

"GRRAAAAAGHHH!!"

She exerts more from her energy reserve than she would really like right now in order to regain just enough control of herself to pull the trigger on the cannon. It unleashes multiple homing energy missiles for Loki in spite of her cannon pointing at her allies. She's matching the output of the earlier butterflies since her energy output is more focused in on the homing effect.

On the bright side Loki's absorbed energy is gone but... Trace amounts are still present.

Hub Centralis

Lucas was off somewhere else while he sent Emma on a quick patrol anyway, what could go wrong? Anyway, he also conducts his own patrol, not for any mission, but because his intrigue of the Arena got the better of him.

The white-haired man grunts as Evelyn's power manages to catch him, suddenly brought down to a much slower pace. Roughly comparable to a normal human run, even. It's clear by his expression that he does not like being functionally crippled in that way, and he wasn't in the gravity area, so he doesn't even benefit from that going away.. Though, all things considered, one might have a few questions on how he's processing things if he's that attuned to what happened to him.

In the midst of trying to think of a way to deal with that, he also notices the sand grains being polymorphed into butterflies and takes note of the implications.

<Unfortunate. That eliminates one of my best ranged options if I don't go for a weapon swap. But I don't even know if I can access the arsenal while I'm here...>

Then the butterflies begin swarming. While it is an inconvenience to have those in the way, the white-haired man can pretty effortlessly clear them away one swing at a time, the dense depleted-uranium head of his sledgehammer effortlessly dispersing each butterfly it hits.

After that, the meteors. The white-haired man briefly glances at those near him, unsure who can properly address the incoming attack and not sensing anyone doing anything about them, then he turns to check the sky again. There's no time for him to pull a different weapon, so he does the next best thing. Summoning up his strength, he suddenly engulfs himself in flames, an explosion under his feet launching him into the air. Other explosive blasts help propel him in different directions, each one deliberately positioned to launch him at individual meteors, wildly smashing them out of the way with his hammer. While there's zero chance he's getting all of them dealt with, he can make a dent in the number, at least.

Until he makes a miscalculation and promptly receives a meteor to the chest, sent hurtling back down to the sand and landing with enough force to scatter recently-forged glass around the point of impact. While it clearly injured him a little, he seems... actually quite happy about that. Getting back to his feet with a quick rolling leap, he stretches his shoulders backwards and adjusts his grip on the sledgehammer. His eyes dart to Evelyn who locked him down with gravity for a while, then to Loki who was responsible for the butterflies, then to Veilman and Azura who did the meteor team combo.

"Good! Good. I'll keep escalating a bit at a time. Adversaries of mine, show me how long you can keep up with me!"

Awfully confident for someone who got dunked like a basketball just now, huh. The flames engulfing his body recede briefly, then his body shudders as they roar back to life, a brilliant blazing aura manifested like armor over his form. Then, he picks out a target.

Loki is already being handled by quite a few people. Veilman can absorb fire, and the white-haired man is not an idiot. Evelyn decided to bugger off underwater. Mahito isn't even available to target. That leaves the white-haired man with one option.

With a sudden burst of speed outperforming even his considerable running pace from earlier, he rushes towards Azura, flaming aura violently spitting out gusts of heat at anything that gets in his way. Once he's closed the gap, he predictably does what a man with a big heavy sledgehammer would do and tries to crush her to a pulp with it, swinging with the not-so-metaphorical force of a siege engine and the speed of a blender. If she's not good at melee combat or left to fend for herself, this could end badly for her.

Church

Someone's coordinating this, Icarus informs the others over the radio channel. It's not the guy I just tried to grapple, keep an eye out for someone who sits back and doesn't focus on dishing out attacks. Probably the redheaded guy on the water, I'm going for him.

Seeing Sarah stuck in a butterfly storm briefly gave him the idea of trying to fit the grappling hook through and grab her, but it would likely get caught up in Flandre's lasers. And he doesn't want to lose the hook, at least not yet.

Assuming that Loki was doing mission control was a peculiar hunch - they would only find out if he got incapacitated, and the rest of the team lost coordination in the process. Coordination is what Sarah's squad lacked, to some degree.

The robot retracts its grappling hook rapidly unburrows itself and launches itself over to a plateau of stones near the ocean shore, where it does its best to clamp down on the rocks and secure itself. It fires an area-covering burst of freshly polymerized plastic in Loki's general direction, and after some aiming with the railcannon, delivers a tungsten rod at supersonic speed at the dragon whale.

The plastic I'm spraying is highly flammable, sticky and toxic, I repeat, the plastic is highly flammable, sticky, and toxic. Anyone got a lighter?

The "beach"

After the gravity effects faded out, Bely kneels on the sand: the Astronaut dress is heavier in normal gravity.

And so, she changes into the Princess dress. She throws a bottle of perfume against a nearby rock, breaking it and releasing a scent that lowers the defenses of the enemies that smell it.

Of course. Loki watch as Artemis teleport around his attack. And then find himself the target of attacks from her, Ovarr and, seemingly, soon to be Emma. He also expect Sarah to charge him once she's inevitably freed. Not to mention other factors like Croque or Flandre. Good choice, he could say, but he was quite happy to report that he'd tricked them all.

For while he was a target, Evelyn likewise was another. And one right next to him. And yet, they'd taken their shots on him, the god who could afford to tank them. How cute! He'd truly riled them up. Dashing around, Loki avoided Artemis's sword deftly, only having one actual -he dodges the axe, scrap that, two- opponents to keep track of in close-combat. She's physically superior, but he's more skilled at dealing with physically superior foes, and he twist and contort his body around her blade.

He's able to buy himself some time as a result, getting away from his original spot before he's struck in the torso by her. Loki hiss as his weakspot explode, smoke pouring out of the bleeding wound. But then, that smoke try and pour into Artemis's ears, eyes, nostrils and mouth, attempting to infiltrate her body.

And even if she were to teleport away, the smoke would accompany her: there, it'd try and poison her by infesting her being with Loki's magic, trying to essentially poison her and weaken her at the same time. You talk too much. Loki sees Ovar's axe going his way and stomp on the water, barely sparing it a single glance. With effortless use of Frost Giant magic, Loki is able to transform the surrounding water into magical ice mid-leashing out, said spikes being sharp enough to impale Artemis if they hit, and stopping the axe from attacking Loki from that angle.

With Emma being likely to be away from Artemis, that could add further trouble to her if she's shot at.

As for Sarah, the Clones do blast her and the butterflies... and it was the right tactic to do. Standing up with a thankful nod, Sarah listens to Cittufeni, whose voice reminds her that she can't just go in with a charge against Loki. And she need to make the hit count since he's apparently so durable. So she decide to outright teleport to him, clad in the light of Limit Breaker, while already swinging her two necro-coated fingers pointed at the weakness on his neck.

With her sight and precision, she's seen the glowing red marks, and with her overall savviness, it's easy enough for her to conclude that they're a weak spot. Loki screams in indignant rage as he falls to his knees, grieviously hurt by the attack. While that wasn't his intention perhaps, Cittufeni had made the right call asking her to handle Loki when there was a larger threat like the Whale Dragon.

Left weakened, Loki would be able to get back up from the attack anyhow, but the wound Artemis has inflicted on him flare up at the worst time and he's a bit too slow. Hello, Icarus war crimes. Hello, Cittufeni's missiles. Hello, Emma's "fuck you" barrage. As Loki look up, the light slowly covering his face, he groan something out of Nordic right before getting barraged by an artillery barrage to outdo both World Wars at once. Though ineffective at a first glance against his new invulnerability, there's so many projectiles, and Loki is thrashed around by them so bad, that one of them hit his other weakspot and he goes down screaming underwater.

Deep underwater.

Perhaps insultingly, Sarah emerges from the barrage (which she was right next to) pretty fine, with her hair frazzled and some marks on her skin and clothes. Since she probably was in Limit Breaker (which she has now deactivated) and is already very strong, something Cittufeni saw for himself, perhaps they won't be bothered. She also was splashed by Icarus's war crime liquid but, perhaps for good reason, isn't too concerned.

There's a black thread coming from her fingers. Which Loki discovers far underwater is a garrote around his neck. When tagging him earlier, Sarah has elected to "plant" it on him so as to keep track of him right afterwards. With its godkilling properties and toughness, it's a pretty good way to keep him tracked down. And indeed, Loki looks briefly panicked underwater as he feels her starting to pull him up.

He'd taken too much damage to too many insects - his pride as a god was being tested, and he felt himself slipping out of the mindset that had helped him lead the team along so far.

You BUGS! Loki spout underwater. And from all around him, thousands upon thousands of clones emerge from the sea, looking somewhat fish-faced as they emerge from their depths. They keep the damage that Loki has accumulated so far, the god looking like shit with his invulnerability gone, revealing Emma and Cittufeni's combined barrage have left him with a face full of ashes, bruises, burns and wounds.

But what's more important is that Loki replicated the plastic he's still covered on. And with his Seithr, he's able to keep it explosive even when underwater.

As the Lokis fling themselves out of the water like divine fishes, their first target -to be whimsical- is Artemis and her flaming sword. The goal being to get a chain-reaction going, catching each other in their own blasts upon being exposed to heat and blanketing the area in explosions. Lokis emerge targeting Cittufeni, Emma, Icarus, Artemis, Sarah and Bely. With the later clones smelling her shattered perfume on accident, and sharing the defense debuff with the actual Loki still underwater, safely isolated from his clones.

If all goes to plan and Artemis forget to turn her sword off, the Lokis implode in powerful spherical green blasts, blanketing that part of the beach in explosions, hoping to catch and hurt their enemies.

If Artemis does remember to not use anything fiery, well..

... One Loki's fiery-red hair become literal fire, and the explosion happen anyway.

Loki laughs underwater as he hear and feel the blasts going off, even with his injuries preventing him from sending more clones in. And as Sarah is caught by the blast, she struggles to keep her line going, gritting her teeth and closing her eyes. Being bombarded by Seithr wasn't pleasant to her, but she had to keep going. It was she who had led the team into this fight, and it was her responsability to help them not die because of her own crusade.

Pinned down by the explosives, which appear to be going on nigh-endlessly, Sarah use her powers over light to illuminate Loki's position deep underwater.

He's there! He's THERE! She shouts.

Down below, not so close to Loki yet right next to him, the remnants of Evelyn' float underwater, the young woman appearing to be chewing up on the water. With the power of Gluttony, she can become anything she happen to bite, with her bite gaining space-rending powers to cleanly break anything down in front of her. A useful ability, perhaps the most useful of the Sins. But the drawback was that she couldn't take a clean bite out of, say, Loki. She had to take full on bite to fully become like what she ate.

At least it wasn't hard being fucking water, right?

As she chewed on the liquid around her, pieces of Evelyn's body vanished, becoming pure water as her essence merged with the endless sea around her. But not too endless, so as not to lose her conscioussness. It was a hard job, having to manage her watery conscioussness while half her body was still solid.

   hahahahah...    Evelyn laughs as another flame sprout on her forehead. Gluttony. Envy. Sloth. Lust. She only needed to land Greed and Wrath and then PRIDE would get going and... Well, there was a reason behind her laughter.

Azura sees herself being targeted by Ovarr and the white-haired man, along with Flandre's spikes. She doesn't falter, instead reaching out into her massive shoulder pauldron, glowering with eternal purple flames, to extract a curved sword made out of pure energy. A skillful fighter at close-combat, she clad herself in a green aura as she moves to parry the white-haired man's attack, the tip of her sword stopping his enormous hammer from hitting her.

But seemingly not Ovarr or the spikes from landing.

Good thing they don't do damage, both attacks hitting her but not moving her or doing her damage. It's because Azura has locked herself in time with Time Magic (hence the green aura), making herself immutable so long as she keep it up. A costly move mana-wise, and one she wouldn't have had to use if not for the quality of her attackers.

It's a peculiar feeling - being frozen in time. Her green aura explodes outward to try to cover the white-haired man, Ovarr and the spikes. If it hit, big portions of their bodies, but not all of it, will be left frozen in time for a brief while, at the cost of dissipating much of Azura's protection.

TIME MAGIC + SHAPE MAGIC : WEAPONRY

This means that only her right hand is covered in the magic, as she use it to try to smack the spikes out of the air, destroying them as if they weren't frozen by using time magic to counteract her own time magic. Then, Azura spins around, sprouting "energy arms" from her massive pauldron as she lift her two arms together over her head. With her right hand back to normal, she try slamming her fleshy arms, and four of the energy limbs, into the white-haired man and Ovarr's exposed faces, meaning to send them blasting away with extreme force.

Then, the beach lift up, the sand within being used for the next step of Azura's plan. By only thinking it, Azura directs the mass of sand her way, meaning to kick up an actual sandstorm over the battlefield, though most of it is concentrated around her. She could have made it bigger and included more effects but the need to deal with Flandre, Ovarr and WHM has caused her to settle for a common sandstorm.

As for Veilman, the others are wise to target him on top of that but Azura drawing extra aggro help him. In response to being shot at by projectiles, he once again discard the quip and create a black orb within the palm of his hand, calling forth the power of Chaos his people thrive on to create a miniature fictional rules black hole. Water start being drawn to the black hole in his hand as he toss it towards the bullets and projectiles, causing it, on top of Azura's sand, to start drifting towards the black orb.

However, Veilman's skill at magic keep a hard outer shell on the black hole, allowing the drawn projectiles within to stack around it and create two orbiting rings of pure pain. One that Veilman intends to exploit by having the fighters be drawn into the attraction force of the black hole. He also aim for the Copies of Flandre, since they're attacking his boss and interfering with the others.

The goal is to have Ovarr, WHM, Flandre(s), Croque and maybe the other fighters be drawn into the black hole. A painful experience on its own with what it's accumulated, but Veilman also intends to destroy his creation by way of an explosion.

Sand and water fly out everywhere, further spreading the chaos around the battlefield.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAH! FEAR THE POWER O-oh, oh shit! Your sandstorm, sorry Azura! Veilman says, smacking his biker helmet on the sides.

We need to help Loki. Azura says, pointing to Loki. For he is highlited to them, too, and in particular danger, even if he's away from the Black Hole's absorption radius.

He draws his hand forward, intending to draw the god to him to save him from his predicament.

And as for Mahito...;    BLUEGH    He's having the worst day of his life being punched by Tilra over and over and over and over again; What keeps him going is that his soul isn't being hit, he's good at shielding it. But as his face twist and contort in pain and surprise, Mahito realizes that her speed and ferocity will stop him from doing anything he'd want.

And as someone with the ability to end the fight for his team just by using a Domain, well, that was a bummer. Nevermind that, reduced damage is still damage. She could kill him with sheer aggressivity. He had to do something or he could genuinely get fucked up!

   Hihihihih! I've got a itch on my hand, care to fix it?!    Mahito says, forming an hand on his mouth. His confidence is mere bravado. Tilra's power and speed are really a surprise to him. And if it wasn't for his soul... well... the leader would have been the first to die.

Luckily for him, the very haxxy Tilra has decided to target him in a way that isn't particularly complex to predict.

Splitting himself in half at the last moment, Mahito's upper body split into two halves right before Tilra is able to land a punch on him. One side of his head a grin, the other a scornful grimace imitating Tilra's usual poker-face. But the first of Tilra's worries are the sharp teeth that Mahito is able to make appear over his halves, twisting his body into a gigantic jaw that try clamping down on Tilra's arm.

The intent isn't to hurt her necessarily but to pin her down; Or trap her in place. Eagerly, almost like a child, Mahito make a point of looking intact as his head become whole again. Then, he attempts to reach for her neck and face with both his regular hands, in a bid to grab her. And just to make things better for him, he opens up his mouth inhumanly wide, letting a third hand slip through it to try to directly grab a hold of Tilra's nose.

   Gotcher nose!   

Mahito attempts to use Memor(l)ies to peer into Tilra's very essence, his skill at soul manipulation allowing him to try and bypass any defenses she has. Having seen and tasted her power first hand, he doesn't want to give her an occasion to break free. And thus, he try quickly rewriting her memory. In a way that won't be too in-depth, lucky for him.

He try to rewrite her memories so as to make her think she got hit by a mind-control spell from Loki. A slight nibble from one of his butterflies. Nothing much, but still something that put Tilra under their control for at least 1 turn. Reaching deeper and further into her memories to directly mess with them would be too long, so he basically goes in for the ultimate gaslight. Brainwashing her into thinking she has been brainwashed.

And thus, very hostile to the rest of her team.

He also try peering into her memories as a whole, something easier for him. Just because he feel like being a dick to her.

   Daddy isn't going to pay for child support anytime soon - and your mother wouldn't have let you come here if she cared about you. Must suck, huh?    Mahito gleefully whispers if he feel like he was successful. He untwist his body to let Tilra go free, basically sliding back until her arm's out of his body.

As the fight goes on below, THOR and Saitama have another of their own high above. While the former is flying about, the latter simply stand on empty air, running after THOR like he was on solid ground. Multiple sonic booms accompany his every step, though he actually run far faster than that, the fight so fast that scant few of the people below would be able to keep up with them.

MY FRIEND! YOUR CAPE MADE ME THOUGHT YOU HAD BEEN BLESSED WITH THE GIFT OF FLIGHT! THOR yells in amusement, slamming his hammer forward into Saitama's fist yet again. He actually put in decent effort, bringing his whole body forward and slamming his hammer as hard as he can. Saitama retaliate with a Serious Punch, throwing his body back and slamming his fist forward, but he's the one who ends up being overpowered this time around, his eyes widening in slight surprise before THOR yells and complete his swing, sending Saitama flying with a pained, if subdued, grunt.

The bald man is sent flying across an enormous distance, leaving the fight entirely as he and THOR become twinkles in the sky all too briefly. For an overeager THOR immediately goes after Saitama, preparing another swing of his holy hammer. He brings it down on Saitama's torso this time, but find it caught again, Saitama having receptioned himself in mid-air to grab the hammer mid-swing with his other arm. It almost bend anyway, the effort clearly great on Saitama's part, but he's able to stop the hammer from hitting him, though their clash produce yet another great shockwave, shattering the void all around them and changing it back to a blue sky.

   I can't fly.    Saitama immediately smack THOR in the ribs, the big man's eyes going white as blood spurt out of his ears and from between his teeth. Sent flying, Thor find himself on the other end of his previous situation, flung back almost helplessly while Saitama run after him.    It's just a pain keeping up with guys that can fly - like you. So I just learned to run in the air!    Saitama grins, rearing back with another punch. THOR could dodge it but he decide not to, instead, sending immense bolts of searing god-lightning after Saitama. Mere strands of those particular bolts are large enough to almost block the sky, looking more like enormous pillars of light than actual bolts of it.

It's even those mere strands that are ironically more visible to the fighters elsewhere, the enormous main "body" too large to be seen.

Saitama is hit dead-on with the first one and dragged back almost screaming, burns and light scratches appearing over some of his body as he contends with the bolt. Pained, but not pained enough, Saitama raise his fist and slam it down upon the bolt, shattering it to a million pieces.    What's wrong? You scared after that punch?    He asks, not tauntingly, instead sounding concerned for THOR.

THOR doesn't echo his concern, blood still pouring wide from his mouth and nose as he clutch the mark on his stomach. IT WOULD BE A GREAT INSULT TO NOT FIGHT YOU WITH ALL I HAVE WOULD IT NOT?! Saitama nods, and jump in mid-air as THOR unleash more bolts. Saitama deftly dodge one and start surfing down its length, punching away random strands in his way as he weave up and down to dodge more bolts.

When THOR cut to the middle man by having the bolt simply vanish, replaced with about 20 more positioned like a pit of spikes below Saitama, Saitama simply frowns.    I was having fun...    he says, right before THOR bombard him with ascendants bolts of lightning, slamming into Saitama to pierce his body up and hurl him into the sky. And Saitama does look pained as the lightning tips pierce -and instantly cauterize- small holes all over his torso, likewise shredding that portion of his suit in the middle to reveal his, like, 12-packs bro.

   MY SUIT    Saitama cries out in concern, the sound alone dissipating the bolts entirely and briefly freezing up THOR with the force of it. THOR's eyes widen in surprise and slight fear as Saitama start running his way, jumping multiple times on the air to give himself some aerodynamism. Keeping up fine initially, THOR is surprised once more when Saitama escape from his godly sight, the bald man appearing in front of him like he'd always been there.

Thinking and acting just as fast, THOR swings his hammer horizontally, decimating the portion of the beach in front of him as far as his eyes can see. Yet Saitama use the simplest of manoeuver and duck beneath the powerful blows, both his arms reared back as far as he can.

   Serious Punch Series : Two-In-One.   

WHAT A SHITTY NAME! Saitama slams his fist into THOR's belly once more. And though his belt hold, THOR's massive body itself is slammed forward, looking almost like it's about to detatch itself from the rest of his massive body and go flying. It doesn't, but that's because the rest of the body goes along for the ride, with THOR being slammed way, way, WAY back towards the fight. It's only by a stroke of luck (admittedly on Saitama's part) that it miss the Dragon Whale, with THOR only skidding to a stop close to where Loki had been.

Thor?! You okay?! Sarah asks. THOR being driven back and bleeding pretty badly was a shocking sight when she knew how serious he was, but the God of Thunder brushed her off.

YES BUT YOU WON'T BE IF YOU STAND IN OUR WAY! He replies, Saitama growing visible on the horizon as he start approaching the battlefield. He make seafall, running along the sea and lifting a colossal ton of water along the way as he start making his way to THOR. He outright ignore everyone else on the battlefield, wanting to finish off the God first.

A useless prospect, THOR can just fashion a new body... But with Gor around, who's to say that it won't be cancelled, with THOR left unable to help?

I'm going to cook something up to fend Saitama off! Sarah rise in the air, closing her eyes and focusing hard on what she's about to do. THOR glares at her but can't stop her, being too busy preparing to intercept the S-man himself.

Edited by Bolded1 on Mar 22nd 2024 at 12:09:20 PM

Mech, Dawnguard, Avar-Laren, Church, Swords

TRIGGER WARNING: MARVEL-TIER ONE-LINER AHEAD

READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

I am so sorry you guys had to read that.

To remain out here, in the open, was paramount to suicide—Kado stole away quick, dashing to the left and throwing himself through an already-cracked window. He tumbled to the street outside in a roll, picking himself up as he slid to a stop, holding his lightsaber to his side. He’d need to wait a few moments before he was able to use the Force again, but in the meantime…his gaze wandered to the mech’s legs. Plans sprouted in his mind. An immobile enemy was a useless enemy, right?

Don’t notice me.. He prayed, strafed around a city block before making a running jump at one of the spider-like mech’s legs, hoping to grapple on and begin climbing without obstacle.

——

The door open to reveal a room illuminated with warm candlelight. Rows of weapons, both familiar and foreign, lined the walls, the flames dancing off their reflective steel. Armor stands, both empty and occupied, stood sentry on either side of Perceval and in the center, back turned to him, a man of nine feet in stature sat upon a sturdy wood chair. Even in the safety of his own room he wore heavy plates of gold, embellishments of lions and bulls carved across its surface. A thick crimson plume flowed down from the back of the open helm, and on either side, two horns curled forwards. Sparks leapt from the flawlessly-polished blade in his hands as he slid a whetstone down its edge. The man hummed a low tune, seemingly lost in his own world...or perhaps not, for he lifted the blade and slid it effortlessly into the wooden floorboards once he had finished sharpening it. The man turned slowly towards Perceval, stark lavender eyes staring amidst tanned bronze skin. His humming died down.

   "You’re a new face."   

——

They saw no threat in the mist, no new foe that wrought itself upon them…but there was cause for concern.

"The hell?" Luin took note of a bloodied stain amidst the grey grass growing from the volcanic soil. She crept closer to it and kneeled down. There were severed fingers hidden in the dirt. "Looks fresh…I don’t like it." The woman stood. The crumbled building they stood in led swiftly to the outside and they were upon a street, greygrass reaching up beneath their feet in the road between ruins where they found themselves. There was an incline a short distance before them, the road leading upwards onto the dead volcano upon which even more ruins were located. Luin peered all about them, and spied out a blackened dome that dominated a piece of the skyline not too far away.

"We should check that out, could have what we need…or maybe we’d be better off heading further up the road, see if there’s any entrance to one of the mines. Bet there’d be some delving suits there. Either way, your choice."

——

One of the bonuses of being little more than heartless steel and algorithm is that, to Cittufeni, he has no concept of an ego. When he sees Sarah emerge unscathed, he only makes another note of her durability and reflects upon what he can do to make his own arsenal stronger. Already he’d began glancing around the beach, searching for his next target (he had just settled on Azura) when the sea exploded with clones of himself numbering in the thousands, all painted with a substance certain to explode at any second now. Aye, that was his fault—he should’ve confirmed the trickster-god’s death before moving his attention elsewhere. Cittufeni noted his failure and watched the approaching chain reaction without fear, for a machine could not do so, but an acknowledgment that he was, perhaps, utterly fucked. All of this stemming from his mistake of leaving Loki to vanish into the sea, rather than follow up on his own attack immediately after.

A mistake he did not intend to make again.

The chain reaction was fast—Cittufeni would need to be faster. Channeling his Creation Energy into a wire, only about as large as a fibrous string, and firing it from the tip of his finger, the Android intending to penetrate various Loki clones through their necks (what he believed to be their softest parts), specifically choosing his targets from those who’d explode last in the reaction. The string’s origin slid from his hand to his back just in time for a total of six new arms to emerge from his “flesh”—one pair from his shoulder blades and the other two sprouting from his ribs—and, with eight arms in all, he reached for and took a iron-grip on eight different Loki clones.

Then he dove into the sea.

Boosters launched Creation Energy from the soles of his feet to increase his already-impressive speed, practically splitting the water behind him as he shot violently towards the depths and left dozens of Lokis on a string in his wake. It’s around this point you can probably start to tell what his plan is—with the Lokis evenly spaced on the wire, the explosion of one caught in the main chain reaction itself will cause the explosion of the next in line at just the right distance to provide him with the exact amount of time he’d need, a complicated equation he’d worked out at the speed it took to blink. The final loki in the chain would explode, and the eight in his grasp would do as their copies did…just in time for him to come face-to-face with the real, Loki, his location thankfully pointed out by Sarah.

He’d be caught in the explosion—perhaps catch the most of it, even—but it’d be worth it if this maneuver gave him a new face to later study and categorize under the emotion “FEAR”.

——

"AHAHAHAHA WUT DA ZOG WUZ DAT!!! WEAKIE LIL’ ‘UMIE!" Okksbad taunted, falling for William’s ploy, hook line and sinker. "STAND STILL AN’ DIE EEZY." The greenskin lifted his shield to the side at William and his storm of glass blades, though some get past the stalwart defense and leave cuts that bleed a blackish-green on the monstrous orc’s equally monstrous arm. He’d next ram the shield forwards, hoping to stun him with it before following up with a sideways cleave at the twink’s torso so as to keep the attack legal.

…

Guts hefted the mighty sword before him, feeling the unyieldingly powerful impact of Apothea’s sword-beams and the sister’s dual attack smash into the Dragonslayer. A shout of exertion escaped him as he tumbled backwards, slamming onto his back but using the momentum to continue the backwards roll and end up on his feet. He buried his boots in the dirt and reared the sword back, continuing the howl as he thrust it forwards with the intent of cutting one or even both of the sisters in half.

…

Nero Angelo burst from his home and instantly chose the nearest battle, dashing in with a haphazard slash aimed at Mahke and Corrin as he ran past the two, though if the strike landed against Mahke it would do significantly less damage to Corrin on account of being slowed by…you know…her flesh.

…

Paralyzed by fear, Liana was nearly too scared to walk out the door. She reached for the knob and pulled her hand away. The woman was perfectly content to allow her fear to embrace her and keep her in the dark room…but in the darkness and the still silence, memories stirred.

Liana remembered being a girl, before the time of her two younger siblings. She remembered being afraid to step out of the door, afraid of what the outside might’ve brought…why, she could not remember. Some prior trauma—a spider-bite, or a bee’s sting, perhaps. A nasty tumble down the hill. Either way, she would not, could not bring herself to emerge from her home, she refused…Liana heard the what her mother had said to her then, faint and soft as though heard only in a dream.

"There is nothing to fear, little Li-li, but your fear itself. Fear is death—when you fear life, you stop living it. When you’re older, then you have my permission to fear if you want, but for now…there’s still so much of the world you should see before you start fearing it. Come, Li-li, come outside…the wind is nice."

So Liana did, pushing on the door and charging out into the sunlight with fear eradicated and a new dedication to her task. There was much to fear in life…but there was too much of the world to see for her to stop just yet. Picking her first target as the mosh-pit of dual-wielders, the woman raised both blades and leapt in like a storm of swords.

Edited by ISZATSO on Mar 22nd 2024 at 3:22:00 PM

Church of Gor

Ovarr's axe is blocked by the wall of ice, upon which it flies back towards Ovarr.

As Sarah warps away towards Loki to punch him right in his smug prick face (so to say), the Dragon Whale starts searching for her. It spots her fast, but before it can do anything Icarus' tungsten rod slams it in the face. It doesn't really do much damage despite the speed and impact, but it does daze the creature, buying Sarah some time.

Ovarr lets out a disappointed sound upon Azura not taking damage (not immediately knowing why), but then he gets taken by surprise by her aura exploding, catching him in its blast. The attack doesn't do much damage... but Ovarr is shocked when he realizes nearly his entire body is frozen in place. His wings can still move, but since most of his body is time-locked, they don't really do anything.

Azura's limbs (normal + energy) then try to slam down on Ovarr, and while he can't prevent her from slamming him down, he can prevent most of the damage from this attack by moving the only other part of his body left unaffected: his tail. He quickly raises it and coils it up above his head, using it to shield the attack. The spikes on his tail may even end up impaling Azura's real arms if she ends up hitting them.

Regardless, Ovarr's forced back closer to the ground. When he notices the time-frozen parts of his body are still in the exact same position, he seems to figure it out.

   "This isn't regular paralysis magic, my body would have felt something from the force if it was. No, it's literally stuck in place. Time magic? I should be able to cancel that out on at least myself if I can get a hold of my book..."   

The sandstorm kicks up, but Ovarr isn't bothered by it one bit. His home world is plagued by storms of various kinds on a regular basis. He lives in this kind of weather.

But then the miniature black holes come in and Ovarr, not knowing how powerful they may or may not be, decides not to risk it. He moves his tail to dislodge his book from his belt, which opens and 'activates' it automatically.

   "Dispel magic... which page was that again!? ... ah, there!"   

The book lets out a magical wind around Ovarr that dispels all magical 'status' effects active on him, both good or bad. In this case that nullifies the time stop effect on him. He quickly grabs his book and starts flying away from the now worryingly close black hole.

However, he's not quite ready to play fully defensively. He keeps his eyes on Azura and Veilman as he catches his battleaxe again. The latter seems to be doing something to the water... ah, Loki's in there?

Grinning deviously, Ovarr swings his axe and sends what can only be described as a ray of lightning towards Veilman and the water currently housing both Loki and Evelyn. If Sarah's in the water when/if the lightning hits, she should be more than fine considering it's the element she wields as well.

The Dragon Whale, now snapped out of its daze, sees Sarah again and this time flies towards her with the intent to full-on devour her whole. It almost gets hit by THOR mid-charge, avoiding it purely out of sheer luck. Ovarr takes notice of what's going on in the middle of his own attack on Veilman and Loki (and Evelyn, though without his own knowing).

   "What the hell is... shit, did they brainwash it? SARAH!"   , he calls out to warn her of what's coming her way. But she's already going up, and while her hearing would allow her to hear Ovarr, she may not have the chance to really deal with the Dragon Whale while trying to concentrate.

As such, Ovarr looks at THOR, who is closest to her. He's never seen this version of Thor before, but he recognizes the hammer.

   "You! The strong-looking one with Mjölnir! Keep the Dragon Whale from getting to Sarah! Kill it if you have to!"   

Edited by DevilPsyco on Mar 21st 2024 at 12:01:55 PM

Church

Tilra's essence is like a box of chocolates. Actually, it's nothing like that. It's nothing like anything you or I can possibly conceptualize.

He's gonna have to fight her harder than that on this.

Tilra's essence attacks Mahito's intrusion, violently, less so like the startlingly-neutral look on her face and more akin to a cornered dog in its temperament, protecting the more vulnerable and "human" (supercomputer) part of her.

Not giving him the time to make the (inevitable) recovery, Tilra shouts    !One Slip!   , and uh, slips out of Mahito's grasp with ridiculously enhanced slipperyness. Before saying it, not after.

Unfortunately, he's probably got a peek at her most immediate memories (that asshole), so she discards her current plan and dreams up a new one posthaste.

Not announcing her attack this time, she uses Waiting for the Worms, and looks at Mahito, her eyes flashing red. Any eye contact will rot his body like days dead in the soil.

A smattering of resistances to Mahito's (arguably) most dangerous form of attack aside, Tilra has yet to understand how to meaningfully hurt Macrossreticule, not familiar with him really all that much at all. She's getting to understanding it, but, not there yet.

Working off of what she's got, she begins to prepare Return of the Son of Nothing.

1/8 turns.

Church of Gor

Artemis

Artemis's face is... gone? It's morphed into a blank face, though she'd also put a white-and-red kitsune mask on to hide that fact.

Excalibur Morgan's flames go out just in time...

...though it doesn't matter in the end.

Artemis goes flying for a moment, completely missing her left arm- she had turned it into a shield, which absorbed the brunt of the blast, but... It's still her arm. Thankfully, Excalibur Morgan was returned to her storage.

"Alright, I'm sick of this."

Artemis lifts up her remaining hand and grits her teeth.

Godseeker-Boosted Magic: World Barrier EX

The crystal in Artemis' chest shines brightly as an Astral Sphere forms around her. Using the innate power of her own dimension as much as she could, she unleashes a torrent of mana upwards, forming it into a fireball comparable to the sun in how hot it is.

"WHERE'S YOUR 10 BILLION LIONS NOW, HUH?!"

Artemis hurls the miniature sun down towards the ocean, which would start to boil the water. I think she noticed Evelyn's little trick.

With how big that attack was, Artemis doesn't exactly have time to properly regenerate her arm yet.

Croque

-ohfuck

Croque immediately retracts her gun and starts burning away from the black hole at full thrust. She's slowly getting out of the pull... But then she gets an idea.

She cuts her boosters, and forms a giant drill on one of her hands. Then, she boosts towards the black hole-

Before using the gravitational pull of it to pull off a gravity assist maneuver, sending her screeching towards Veilman faster than her boosters could ever propel her. The drill starts to spin up as she does.

"Spiral Lance, on! Reactor output to max! Giga... Drill...! BREEEEEAAAAAAAAAKER!!!"

Croque manages to hit roughly 50% of the speed of light from her little maneuver. and she's still flying directly at Veilman.

Woo, physics.

Pica-Verse

Previous

Altina takes in the sights of this pencil-and-paper world, until this world's Belén addresses the group, snapping her to attention.

"'Finally arrived'? Did you know we were coming?" she inquires.

Makai

Previous

Getting over his worries with a little help from the anchovies, Peppino picks up the pace, swimming through the course with the grace of...well, not much grace, to be frank, but he rescues the Toppins without missing one and having to turn back for it.

Xion

"I haven't heard of a Persona before. I can cast spells with or without my Keyblade."

Xion holds out the Replica Kingdom Key, the Keyblade in question. "But it does help quite a lot."

Metro

Agent 8 gets the hint and shields her face with her arms. When the flashbang hits and blinds the hostile Octolings, she follows it up by throwing a canister of ink that sticks to the floor with a plunger-like suction cup, then explodes, splatting Octolings B through F, leaving four remaining.

The survivors promptly start throwing their own non-sticky Splat Bombs all over the place. Agent 8 scrambles for safety as they light up, about to burst, but there's nowhere to run. This could be it...

Fort Dawnguard

"That I am," Perceval replies. "For my first task under Luin's command, I have been sent to find someone."

Edited by KiriK on Mar 21st 2024 at 7:09:57 AM

Church Beach

Flandre raises an eyebrow at the black hole attack. She's no stranger to them, as Sarah and Thor might recall her using one against Thor way back in the Exotic Battlegrounds event.

The sandstorm is mildly irritating but her Umbrella spell blocks it from actually touching her while her other senses compensate for the sight decrease. Besides, for what she's about to do it won't last long. She holds open her hand as her clones do their best to resist the gravity. Right as Croque does her slingshot maneuver, the "eye" reaches Flandre's grasp. She waits an extra few seconds for Croque to be outside the range and.

The black hole just... stops. It sits there for a second then pops like a balloon, somehow and before Veilman could detonate it himself. Scarlet energy flows out of it and into Flandre's hand, quickly being absorbed by her.

She's fought a time manipulator before, many times in fact with that loathsome maid her smaller sister for some reason insisted on sparing. So she has a few strategies for that, not to mention an extra sense for when Time Magic is at play due to being exposed to it so often.

"I'd suggest you back off." she says to Ovarr, before grinning maniacally at Azura as she prepares one of her trump cards.

Forbidden Scarlet Curiosity (Hifuu Flandre) - Touhou Lost Word Music

   Last Word: Information Paradox   

Flandre spreads her arms wide as scarlet energy flows out. A few cracks appear floating mid-air, before bursting open with explosions of energy; though that's merely a side effect of what she's really going for. She forces the energy to collapse on itself, using her ability, as space starts reeling from her actions.

Quickly an actual black hole of her own forms near Azura, much larger and aggressive in its gravitational pull. Flandre herself even has to drop down and anchor herself on the ground though she has it form to the side as to at least try and not crush a teammate. Time and space are connected and Flandre aims to ruin Azura's time magic in this excessively overkill manner by thoroughly fucking space up at least temporarily as the black hole then collapses in on itself; before finally bursting in a spectacular explosion.

Hey if nothing else it will hurt a hell lot. Regardless, while Flandre is out of range of the attack, using a Last Word is rather taxing on herself so she simply slumps over and leans on Laevateinn to remain standing.

Clone Three leaves Tilra to handle Mahito, growing bored of this. Clones One and Two then join her in all three firing a barrage of clocklike projectiles at the demon whale thing to help Sarah, said projectile sprouting sharp edges made of energy to help slice it into sushi.

Lu and Sebby

"Don't see the harm in checking that out while we're here." Sebastien said, cautiously approaching the black dome. He was on edge as well, expecting that whatever severed those fingers was still nearby.

Edited by shroobot3000 on Mar 21st 2024 at 3:35:15 PM

Hub Centralis, Xion Aftermath

Makoto listens to what Xion has to say. It's easy to tell this place isn't tatsumi port island, especially after all the things he's seen on his walk here.

"A Keyblade... I've heard that word before from a friend..."

Guess it's his time to explain.

"A persona is... How do I put it. A manifestation of one's will and strength of heart, of themself."

Makoto finally puts everything back into his bag, giving a sigh of relief.

"And with a persona, people can use magic. That's the short explaination."

"Strength of heart... You know, that does sound an awful lot like a Keyblade."

Xion giggles a little. "Maybe it's just a different form of the same concept."

Hub Centralis, Xionpost

Makoto nods...

>Maybe that's the case.

There's more to it than that.

I don't Know

"Maybe that's the case. Honestly, it would be great to talk about this over ramen. Bills on me, of course."

He gives Xion a confident smile, before a ringing noise comes from his pocket. "Hold up a second."

Makoto takes a blue flipphone out of his pocket, and puts it up to his ear. "Yes? Oh, Junpei! Great to hear you. Oh... Oh shit we WERE going to do that today, weren't we. Sorry, I got in a bit of a holdup. I'll explain while I get back. See you there, buddy."

He puts away his phone before telling Xion "I forgot, I was going to check out Junpei's new game today. He even got two copies for us to play together. Sorry."

Finally, Makoto asks "Before I go, though, mind telling me your name?"

Xion nods. "I better get back to my friends, too."

She starts to rise into the air, waving goodbye. "It's Xion. Ecks-eye-oh-en. See you around."

Edited by KiriK on Mar 21st 2024 at 8:37:12 AM

Pucci, Dojo

He’d almost gotten used to it, by now. The glassiness of his eyes, the inability to see anything more than blurs and faint shapes. He’d almost gotten used to it, but Father Enrico Pucci doubted he ever fully would.

How many months ago was it now? It had to have been…seven, right? Seven months since August of last year, that darkest night when the Skaven had rallied and exploded from the earth, mounted their attack on Hyrule and spared nobody. He’d been lucky to survive…he almost hadn’t, were it not for the grace of Gor blessing him as he lay on death’s door, buried under a sea of corpses both vermin and human. Seven months…and still, he could not call forth Whitesnake. Seven months, and still he could not see as he had before their vile toxins had ravaged him and his immune system. Seven months had left him a shell of who he was before that day.

He hadn’t spent much time in Nohr since then. What could he do? There were pastors at the church he’d helped to build there who could preach in his absence, and little he could do for the rebuilding effort itself…Pucci had failed them. He’d failed them all. Seven months.

Today he sat outside a coffee shop, a filled cup before him only getting colder in the thawing March air, staring ahead at nothing. Fuzzy shapes passed the road before him, he could hear the sound of cars and pedestrians vividly but could not make out their brands or faces. He lived half-asleep, seeing the world the way you remember a dream after waking but before forgetting it.

Something needed to change.

——

previous

Cardell watched Beruka’s approach with hawklike eyes, watching her every move, scanning for the slightest of imperfections…in her footing, perhaps, or the way she threw her punches…

The teacher ducked and weaved her initial punches, and a smile came to him. Beruka was clearly well-versed in her melee—she was evidently careful with each attack, making sure to hide her blindspots while always moving to keep him on the back foot so he never got a chance to attack. Finally, he slipped up; maybe it was on purpose but disguised as an accident, or maybe it truly was a mistake and he was just quick to think up his next “lesson”, but Beruka eventually managed to disrupt Cardell’s pacing with a quick kick at his legs. He staggered backwards and moved to threw his arms into an X-form over his head. Beruka’s Jab felt like had collided with his arms, but in reality…her strike had stopped a few inches short.

SIMPLE SKILL: GUARD

"Heads up."

SIMPLE SKILL: GUARD — EXECUTION

With explosive power, he separated his arms and drove both forwards at Beruka. It was a visually ineffective punch, but that was because he wasn’t trying to hit her with his strength: he was trying to hit the woman with her own, the blocked blow unleashed back at her in a swift counter.

"All Skills," Cardell would begin, whether or not the attack hit, "Whether Simple or Advanced or Innate—all Skills have a Latent Power, a…well, an “ultimate” execution of its method, if you will. All Latent Powers are extensions of the original Skill, like how Guard’s is a counter that hits the foe with their own attack. My own Innate Skill is Thornbush, and it grants me control over plants in the nearby area…a powerful ability on the wilderness, but hardly useful in an urban area, right? However, its Latent Power is Run Through The Jungle—you’ll excuse me for the name, I hope—which produces an entire miniature eco-system of plants in the surrounding area for me to freely use. I’d show it off now, but…ah, I’m rather fond of this building, you see. I’d hate to see such a hefty investment ruined so quick, you know?”

Edited by ISZATSO on Mar 21st 2024 at 12:00:48 PM

Hub centralis, xionpost

Makoto gives a nod.

"Makoto Yuki. If you want to talk, I'll likely be over at the dorm right by the Iwatodai train station."

"It was nice to meet you, Xion-san."

He begins to hurry off to a nearby train station, turning on his Mp3 player as he goes...

And from the rooftops, a mysterious figure in a black hooded uniform looks on, before vanishing.

Edited by ReynTheLord on Mar 21st 2024 at 6:43:00 AM

Intrigue

"N-ngh..! Fuck, can't there be a clearing..?! At this rate, I'm gonna burn to ashes..!"

Phoenix is stumbling through a forest, leaving small pits of lava and fire in her wake. Her right eye is blazing a blinding orange, and there's an unbearable heat radiating off of her. Her hands are shaking as she staggers forward, finally reaching a clearing. With a deep breath...

...she unleashes a giant pillar of flame into the sky, screaming in anger as she does so. It helps. She goes on for a few minutes, screaming until her throat is raw and her body is shaking. When she can finally stop, she collapses to the ground, breathing heavily, her body drenched in sweat but much cooler now.

"Ugh... Where am I, even..? This doesn't look like anywhere I've been..."

Church's a beach

Bely notices the fish clones emerging from the water...

Water...

She has an idea.

She runs as quickly as she can in her princess dress, dodging some projectiles and deflecting other ones with her fan, until she reaches the ocean.

BOW POWER, LET'S BE MERMAIDS!

She turns into her almost iconic Mermaid forme, and dives into the water. She hears Sarah, and swims towards Loki...

But then, she notices something weird in the water...

It's Evelyn, who is attempting to turn herself into water.

Bely thinks between attacking the already weakened Loki, or the looming menace of Evelyn. She chooses to shoot a barrage of magic scales at her.

Pica-Verse

Drawing!Belén waves her hand, prompting the group to follow her in a walk around the city.

I'll explain. This place is an universe born from children's love, dreams and hopes, channeled into this concept of "Pica-Pica". As such, we could consider this place as the Center of the Pica-Verse.

Hunter: This is a ridiculous name if you ask me.

Silence. When a child hears the music or knows the works of one of our selves, and get inspiration from it, one of us is born.

Drawing!Nacho: We know all that happens with our selves from other universes. And we already know about that Goyo Richard and his plans to conquer the Pica-Verse. But, we also knew that, late or early, some kind of hero would come to the rescue, and would end here. And, you certainly look like those heroes.

Thankfully, the love from the children of every universe is so big, that Goyo is uncapable to touch this place.

Drawing!Emi: But... If Goyo keeps on conquering universes, children would end forgetting us, or worse: hating us! And so, this place would become rotten, and being an easy target for him.

And if Goyo conquers this place... It's Game Over for all of us.

The drawing trio sighs.

But right now, this is a safe haven for the group. You can rest here, get some things, train a while, even get some helpers!

Hatch interrupts:

"Now I remember... I haven't told you about the risks of jumping between dimensions with a group so big, right? If we keep on jumping like this, we could end ripping the whole space-time web... And this would not be nice."

“Quiet, back there!” The shout came with another clouting to the back of the girl’s head, followed by harsh laughter. The prison wagon rattled along on rusted wheels, following a straight and lonely road through the endless deserts of Lourent. “Prisoners do not speak. Prisoners sit, yes, maybe, and prisoners think, but prisoners do not speak! Understand?" The slaver’s statements were followed by silence and sorrow from the cage in the back of the wagon. A boy sniffled in his mother’s arms. The slaver laughed. “Good! They get it now. Only took two tries.”

Two tries.

They had killed two innocent people—a sobbing toddler and her young brother who had only asked for water for the girl. As punishment for their “insubordinance”, they were thrown off the wagon by their slavers and left to die in the middle of the desert. And they called them…tries.

It made his fists clench in rage.

“Don’t look so down!” The leader of the trio spoke, in that thick and heavy accent of his. “In five days’ time, you will all be put to greater use than you ever could have hoped for in your shitty little village. I hear Settra’s army is coming along quite nicely…he will work you into the grave while you are alive, and then your bones will join his soldiers. And best of all…we get paid handsomely for it!”

You’ll pay, he thought, but not in the way you think.

"Sit back," the slaver continued, "relax, and enjoy the ride. It’s a long way to Nehekhara." He whipped the reins again, and the furred beasts at the wagon’s head continued to trek the infinite sands. "Spend this time wisely. When Settra brings your body from the tomb, your soul does not follow. For many of you, this may be the last week of your life!” The boy, sniffling in his mother’s arms, broke out into a sob when the words reached him.

The nomad was quick to silence him.

He did nothing but lift a lone, solemn finger to his lips…yet it worked as a charm. The boy quieted instantly. There was something about the man that was different from everyone else…his eyes and face were hidden beneath his raised white hood of tattered cloth; only his tanned nose and thin lips were visible. Every person in here had been from the same village, save him…he was nothing more than a traveler the slavers had been lucky (or unlucky) enough to happen upon during their journey. While the other captives in the cage had spent the journey struggling or failing to hold back tears, comforting their loved ones, or both, he had done neither. He showed no emotion. He did naught but sit silently. Even the slavers seemed frightened of him.

Good.

He thought for a moment that his gesture, swiftly executed, and the boy’s immediate silence might’ve been enough to spare them from the wrath of the slavers. He was wrong. The wagon tumbled to a stop, and wordlessly, the slavers both hopped off and stomped towards the back. One drew his curved blade, gleaming in the blinding sunlight, while the other’s key-filled hand shot towards the lock on the cage and forced it open. None moved to resist him, for the power of fear over their spirits was absolute. Everybody hung their heads low as he marched down the thin and crowded aisle, grabbing the boy and tearing him from his sobbing mother’s hands. The head slaver dragged the child down the cage’s length and threw him to the ground outside. Screaming hysterically, the mother lunged from her seat, as though to crawl after, but a gentle hand held her back. She felt an odd calmness wash over her, the nomad standing from his own seat and guiding her back to her own. She seemed half in a tranced as she sat.

“What are you doing?” The sword-wielding slaver demanded as he watched the nomad calmly exit the cage after the head slaver, moving at a steady and measured pace. “Sit back down, slave!”

”Leave the boy alone.” The nomad gave his first and final warning, but the slaver, fool he was, failed to heed it.

“Slave, go back to your cage, now!” The fear in the coward’s eyes was cathartic. The nomad glanced at him, then at the head slaver, then at the misty-eyed boy on the ground with a dagger at his throat. The man sighed, and nodded, and lifted his hands, ceding defeat.

Then, the second slaver disappeared into the sand.

One moment he was there, the next, he was…gone. Plunged into the ground itself like it was made of water, with nary but a ripple across the solid ground. It was as though the earth itself had swallowed him. Needless to say, the head slaver, now alone, did not react rationally.

“Wh…what the…wh-what the fuck!" He gasped, lifting the knife from the boy’s neck and staggering backwards, away. “F-fuck this, I’m out!” The slaver turned and ran, but did not get very far before a massive single-horned wyvern exploded from the ground beneath his feet. The Monoblos achieved impressive air time, but it paled in comparison to the slaver’s. For a moment, he might’ve thought the gods had blessed him with the ability to fly away from this horror.

His dreams came crashing down when he did. The slaver bounced once against the sand, a gratifying crack produced by the breaking of his body upon the earth. He was still alive when the sands beneath the slaver carried his body to the nomad’s feet, a small moan of pain escaping from his lips though his ever limb was twisted and tangled in unnatural directions.

When the nomad finally showed emotion, it was a cheeky smile.

”Good job, Dhataon.” He smiled, reaching out a hand to scratch the Monoblos’ chin. Next, he bent in front of the boy, and asked, in a low and reassuring tone: "You okay?" The boy nodded slowly and the nomad smiled, standing at his full six-or-so feet of height again. He roughed the brown hair on the boy’s head and looked into the wagon. "Do what you please with him, just be quick about it. I’m getting out of here, but I won’t leave any of you behind. Hop on when you’re done, and I’ll find the nearest village to drop you all off at…and, I’ve got a sister to find."

The now-freed captives were confused, to say the least, if not glad and also a bit frightened at the nomad and his beast. There wasn’t enough room on the Monoblos for all of them, let alone the lack of a saddle, so the question remained…Hop on what?

They got their answers when a truly gargantuan, four hundred foot long leviathan of the sands rose from the desert, some fifty feet away. Without another word shared, the nomad saluted to them and turned away, strutting towards the colossal Jhen Mohran.

Then, their eyes fell upon the immobile slaver. A nervous chuckle escaped his lips.

Edited by ISZATSO on Mar 21st 2024 at 1:46:30 PM

KiriK

Save

• Come ON!

[Enemy Turn]

(Within the context of "Pyra"'s UI, in this grid system a Splat Bomb has a blast range on all 1-adjacent squares)

What to do...

Return to sender! Or at least throw them further down the train to make them explode somewhere else.

The A button appears again, this time also with a circlepad icon.

"Pyra" kick the one nearest to them away from Agent 8, and starts to pick up the other three before returning to their starting position, stacking them on one hand and passing the bottom one to the other to throw down the train.

The first one is slung down the train successfully and in time.

The Splat Bomb at the top is starting to wobble and falls off the stack. "Pyra" uses their empty hand to clutch a catch and while they didn't hit it far enough for the Splat Bomb to cruise down the train, it landed far enough to not hit either of them.

The final one just explodes in "Pyra"'s hands, coating them in ink (and shielding Agent 8). They wipe off the ink, preparing for the Player Turn.