Koro-Na Outskirts
To those on the beach below, they’d be able to behold the silhouette of Luin above them rise from the rock upon which she sat. She’d step forwards and leap from the top of the steep hill, coming down onto the sand where the golden evening sun would give her black hair and dark skin a golden glow.
She looked over the people gathered before her.
Sebastien, her newest friend and the one who had helped her through this adventure with the Poachers thus far. She smiled at him, glad that the man who had been there when it started would now help her see it end.
Another such fellow was Seliph, who she had fought alongside that day Lutemis and Landslide were stolen. She had, of course, seen the man around even before then, on the grounds of Fort Dawnguard. She couldn’t help but wonder what had become of the towering man who was so often by his side—she had learned since that they shared a common enemy.
But he wasn’t the only member of the Neo-Shepherds who had heeded her call—appearing as well was Marth. He had been at her side when she first battled the Annihilation Nergigante and lost tailwind, and had been there once again when she lost another tame but this one at her own hands. Though it was often tragedy that drew him to his aid, she had come to trust the man and was glad that for once, they met at the precipice of triumph rather than misery.
Stop, Luin commander her thoughts. There was nothing to be triumphant about—they hadn’t yet won. But with this group, maybe there’s a chance.
There as well was Reyna, one of the very few other Hunters she knew in this strange land who was familiar with her own homeworld—another version of it, at least.
And finally was a new face to her: Megumi. The man in navy blue with a golden pin in his collar, she had heard word of his love for animals and figured that a nature enjoyer such as him would take great pleasure in the vanquishing of Poachers.
Then, there was another who arrived that Luin hadn’t expected in the slightest.
Joe Baker?
He was there when the woman had tamed Steam, but Luin truly hadn’t anticipated his arrival. Being entirely honest with herself, she had only sent him an invitation because she had become worried that the others wouldn’t come and wanted to pad out her options. But now that he was here…
Well, he was a more-than-capable fighter; Mr. Baker had proved that much at least. Having him on the roster was certainly a help, even if she hadn’t expected him to actually show up.
From a final crack in reality, behind the others and nearer to where the waves crashed against the white shores, Sheol
◊ emerged. The Riftstalker purred as he walked towards Luin and passed behind her, before coming yo a rest on his haunches. The woman smiled and scratched the massive feline’s chin a moment before looking over the group. It still felt like someone was missing…
The sand at the center of the beach shook and vibrated. A woman exploded from it, tanned and blonde of hair. She flipped in the air as she landed with a stoic expression, towering over Luin at seven feet and crossing her arms. The Pillar Woman Biji had arrived.
"Good," Smiled the Hunter. "Very good. Now that everyone’s here…
I’ve explained the situation already in the letters I sent to each of you, but I’ll explain it again, in case your memory needs refreshing: The Poachers have come back after nearly sixty years of inactivity. Some new leader has mobilized them, gathered them back together and made them deadlier than ever, operating all the while from an abandoned quarry on this very island. I’ve done some recon, and I’ve decided that the best course of action, if we’re going to destroy them and not get ourselves killed just trying to enter their camp…" Luin took a deep breath, before motioning for Sheol to do something. And something did the Riftstalker do, cutting a gash into the fabric of the cosmos from which fell a chest. Upon contct with the ground the container broke open, ragged clothes and chains pouring out from within. "A few of us’ll disguise ourselves as captives. We’ll hop on the back of a caravan that ships fresh blood in every week. While we’re being checked in, another group’ll set up on the hills overlooking the camp—there’s a Lizardman who’ll be joining us waiting to lead you there. He’s set up siege equipment already and gathered a few like-minded Lizardmen who are sick of the Poachers raiding their people, hidden in the trees.
"They’ll take the slaves to the fighting pits, where there’s set to be a battle royale today. Once that first group has gotten weapons and are out in the coliseum, the second group’ll begin the attack. They’ll send forces out to deal with them while group one’ll attack from within—eventually weakening them enough that the second group can push in. And then…" Luin looked away and hesitated. Was this what she truly wanted? Cold-blooded vengeance, without a shred of mercy? Yes. "And then we’ll kill them all."
With the plan explained, the woman rested a boot on the side of the opened box and slid it forwards, towards those who had answered the call.
"Now, if there’s no questions—who’ll be in which group?"
With great power…you know the rest.NSC
"How many can I take? I believe around four or five Gs," said Tarvek.
"Experience says I can take anywhere up to nine," said Othar.
Tarvek gave other a strange look and then shook his head. "I'm not even going to ask."
JustForFun.How To Be An Anti Hero"Well... When the time comes maybe you could give them a taste of their own medicine too." A sincere attempt from William at giving her kudos since Okuu did technically cook it.
After that, there's just moments of silent, peaceful, and uninterrupted munching and eating with the sounds of nature drowning out any loud gobbling from the two. Some time passes and he musters up some confidence to ask.
"Hey, Yatagarasu, why do you want to inhabit a body like theirs? The uh... Raven part's there and all but I'm a touch curious..."
Edited by BoniniBanana on Sep 16th 2023 at 11:34:01 PM
realNSC
"Five G's? Alright then."
A drone moves the Explorer to the sightseeing vessel, while a group of other drones puts the fighter jet back together. Once they're done, the Constructor adds the last missing pieces to the sightseeing ship, boards the cargo ship, and takes off. The jet follows, but changes its flight path a couple hundred meters into the flight.
"Everything's ready", Icarus' voice announces from the ship's intercom. "Where do you want to go?"
If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.Calamitas sighs as Clueless and Eridani start to argue. Again.
"Of course you have no comment! You've used a Nova on it before anyhow!"
"-yeah? Well last I remembered you're the one who allows me to use those!"
At this, Calamitas sighs and stands up.
"Quiet down. Both of you. That's no way to act around a guest."
At this, everyone looks at Boci. Clueless has a sheepish grin on her face, and Eridani just... stares. Calamitas sighs again.
"They're always like this. Don't mind it."
aeiou: the secondOnyxis
Tilra looks at Sarah's hand. Tilra is standing straight, towering above her, and yet despite this they are both on equal footing here.
She takes her hand, and shakes it. Awkwardly, considering that Tilra's hand is something like twice the size. She has to bend down just a little for the angle to be right.
...Sure... .Don't think this means I owe you anything.
Tilra's eye twitches a little. There's the anger she had forgotten she was feeling.
She resists the urge to just throw Sarah into the ground immediately, and backs off, summoning her glaive and taking a low stance with the weapon held in both hands, passing behind and beneath her right shoulder, the length of the weapon resting just shy of her hip.
It looks like Tilra is left-handed. Huh. Neat.
There is no aura to her power. She is not someone who fights in exchanges of pure brute force, but she is well aware of the arena's properties, now that she's been here for a while.
Considering that, Tilra is not particularly afraid of hurting Sarah. Although, she is a little afraid of being hurt herself.
As frustrating as it is, Sarah has already proved herself strong. It's just a matter of how Tilra can match up to that.
Edited by Whoma on Sep 16th 2023 at 12:45:19 PM
Yatta!William
"Hey!" Okuu pouts at the implication her body potentially sucks.
"Ahem, well for one. I'm actually a crow not a raven. Yatagarasu clarifies. "And I didn't have many options available at the time. I was already dying at the time and Okuu was the only remotely compatible vessel nearby."
"As for why I remain... Well I don't feel any need to leave. Dim she may be in the metaphorical sense, I do enjoy Okuu's company." he adds.
"Aw, you're fun too old bird!" Okuu grins, patting the eyeball on her chest, which makes a sound like hard crystal being tapped.
"I'd prefer if you didn't poke my eye, please." Yatagarasu says.
Luin
"I feel they might be suspicious if they recognized me in the prisoners." Sebastien hums, thinking aloud. "Not to mention I don't think Mona would listen to anyone else..."
Mona for her part is already taking a nap.
Edited by shroobot3000 on Sep 17th 2023 at 6:32:25 PM
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."NSC
"Depends," said Othar. "Where was it that you came to here from?"
JustForFun.How To Be An Anti HeroCULLING GAMES!
Huh, that so? Apologies, then. He answers A.
Ryu is finding himself under attack but that, he can deal with pretty easily. He even appreciates it as a way to see who's gonna survive him and who isn't. Because Ryu basically raises his hand to block Doll's attack, Granité Blast still charging-up, and then stomp down on the floor, causing Ryu to fall again, out of reach of the others attacks launched at him. His hand has some bruises on it, which he notes and seem annoyed by.
Then, he points upwards. And with nary a pithy one-liner, launch a Granité Blast.
The powerful beam soars upwards but harshly change directions in mid-air, attempting to hit Chibi at first before curving over to hit Nick or A, before accelerating down the hall to violently burst out the building and impact a distant one further in HC. Of course, this won't affect anyone though.
However, Ryu doesn't get to pull off his idea of hitting the floor. Chibi toss him up into the air, with Ryu looking slightly surprised as he's sent flying off the floors and back into the roof, floating over it by a decent margin, with a confused, then outraged expression on his face.
... Teleporters, bah!
...
Koro-na outskirts
Megumi make his decision rather quickly. It'd be better for him to be up-close to his enemies, since he can use both his hand-to-hand skills and Shikigami, and he has the means to launch a surprise attack well.
I volunteer to be on that chariot. One of my familiars will be able to swarm the camp to cause further panic and confusion to help us with the initial attack. That way, it'll be even more effective. Don't worry. They won't be hurt.
I fight by summoning them but I'm proficient in a fight up-close too, so don't worry about me being at the heart of the action. He says, anticipating the stereotypes about people who summon familiars. Then, that said, he just goes quiet, seeing no further use in talking yet.
...
Sarah shakes Tilra's hands and prepare for the fight. Once she's sure that Tilra is ready, she take some steps back with a stance, raising her arms like a boxer but keeping her feet locked in place. She knows that Tilra must be very powerful or at least esoteric-lite, so she decides to pull a little ploy in place.
Bending light to give herself the appearance of standing still, Sarah actually decides to crouch down slightly, even masking the stirring of the dirt at her feet. Then, after about three seconds of careful preparation, she zooms forward at intense speed, attempting to hit Tilra in the stomach with a straigh-forward jab. As per usual, all the force is focused, but Sarah's motion is swift, and her speed is such that Tilra will have a ridiculously little amount of time to react if she didn't see through the illusion.
Sarah goes so fast that the mud will still be floating in mid-air as she quickly attempts to uppercut Tilra afterwards before taking two steps back ridiculously fast and going for a push with her right shoulder and back, to try to get her to cleanly ragdoll across the landscape. Should that happen, Tilra will be flung across the snow-landscape of Onyxis, with no amount of stone hills or snow to stop her mad course, at least until she breaks free of course;
Though Sarah focus her powers hard, it still affects the world, causing it to shake as noises like thundercracking accompany her swinging her fists or hitting Tilra's body. Mounds of snow fall apart nearby as the sky groans, clouds being blown away to clear the sky above their heads.
And if Tilra was sent flying, Sarah chase across her, wreathed in a bolt of lightning which she appears to be surfing on. Said bolt then accelerates towards Tilra to slam her into the ground as Sarah backflip off it, preparing another attack.
Edited by Bolded1 on Sep 16th 2023 at 11:36:04 AM
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterNSC, just outside the hangar
"Er, deep space. More specifically, this solar system's equivalent of the Kuiper belt, if that means anything to you, and I have an asteroid mining operation set up there. So... going up there is gonna be a bit difficult and risky for your sake."
The hatch closes behind Othar and Tarvek. Icarus' voice is still not coming from any particular body.
"I could instead give you a tour of the Arena, if that's your thing."
If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.Culling Game
Doll focuses all her energy in her arms at the last moment- blocking the blast, or at least redirecting it. She then rockets upwards. Irritated that her last attack still did next to nothing, her eyes glow bright as her mind redirects all the energy she can to it. Time slows down. She can't react faster, no... but she can time her energy. She runs her hand forward, and time slows down as much as she can make it... The moment of impact, if she does hit, is marked by a shift in her energy- a Black Flash. Her eyes glint red as she does, the full force of her energy coming to the pinnacle of her blow.
Her brain catches up to itself after, and she's momentarily dazed from the shift of acceleration wearing off.
"I... huh..?"
Doll stares at their fist in amazement for a moment, slowly coming back to their senses as their mind adjusts to something else, as well.
Daze - 0/1
Meanwhile, Chibi quickly shakes the squash in its head out and grins smugly.
"Oh? Mad at me again?"
It sticks its tongue out before following up Doll's attack by teleporting and swinging with their spoon again.
aeiou: the secondCulling Games
A is not taken aback by Ryu's blast, having foreseen it in advance in addition to just not being the sort of person to be taken aback by things. Indeed, because of this foresight, A knows that paying attention to said blast is not at all necessary. It won't hit A, because Doll has it taken care of already- and even if the blast curves back, A will have already been on the move.
A hops up the many floors of the building, going after Ryu. A is light enough on two feet that A is nearly able to keep pace with Ryu as he rises, leaping up in an attempt to strike Ryu at the apex of his rise.
"Skyfoil!"
The Monado activates, and A slashes towards Ryu's middle in the midst of a flashy backflip. The activated Monado regains the power to interfere with Ryu's own abilities- although after making this attack, whether it succeeds or fails, the Monado will deactivate as A falls back down to the tower's roof.
Onxyis
Tilra sees right through Sarah's illusion the instant it starts, uncanny eyes peering right through to what is real through the facade of what is not.
She is embarrassingly alike to Sarah in one particular way, though- Tilra is not willing to start with all of her strength, reserving it for later. Little more than the esoteric result of an alien biology that affords her the chance to take a few hits here and there... which, thinking about it, may be the case for Sarah as well.
Anyways, Tilra is dexterous, and more to the point, fast. She shifts the position of her glaive swiftly enough to stop Sarah's first blow dead in its tracks, though her initial plan of simply spearing Sarah the instant she jumps forward is foiled by just how fast Sarah really is.
The height difference is awkward here, an uppercut from Sarah barely reaches Tilra's chin, so the danger of that uppercut is more to Tilra's chest than it is to her head. Still, she takes that threat seriously enough, her core crystal is front and center, as not-at-all flimsy as it may be. She can live without that thing, but it is seriously unpleasant.
With Sarah so dang close, Tilra places up a barrier of interlinking squares, supporting it with both hands. This is what Sarah hits with her uppercut, sending Tilra far and away into the sky without even so much as a tingle in her fingers, her leverage so superior and her barrier so strong.
Glaring down at Sarah, crystal-clear to her eyes despite the suddenly vast distance, a huge wave of omnidirectional emerald-green energy expands from Tilra like a bubble, filling the air with distortions that quickly fade away. This is not an attack, but an expansion of Tilra's" influence," not really a physical thing to be stopped so much as a representation of what's to come.
So far unimpressed, Tilra holds her glaive ready.
Yatta!Oh wow, tough barrier.
Sarah rides on her lightning bolt after Tilra, unsurprised at the size of her barrier. She doesn't really know if her illusions failed or if Tilra is just super-fast but decides that either way, she should assume that she won't be able to use them so easily.
Backing off from the phenomenon, since she could think it an attack, Sarah grabs her own lighting bolt and toss it at her, with the bolt parting into four smaller bots, each controlled by Sarah to try to attack her front, back, feet and head. And put some pressure on that barrier.
But Sarah knows that mere lightning can't pressure a barrier that can stay intact after a punch from her. It's mostly showboating. Or maybe trying to see if her barrier can block X blows just fine before fading or is just that durable. Or maybe trying to see if sufficient light can somehow hamper Tilra.
Or maybe just tossing lightning because hey.
Either way, Sarah briefly back off, coating her arms in the necrosword and expanding them to the side as she floats back and prepare to go back in.
Edited by Bolded1 on Sep 16th 2023 at 1:35:49 PM
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterClown Games
Kaon gets stabbed by the chains, but rather than being knocked away, he ignores the damage and grabs them to yank the stunned Mark towards him. He'd then try and near pointblank range blast Mark with an electric blast.
Regardless of success, he'd probably be left open to whatever Scor P. Ion is planning next.
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."Tilra VS Sarah
Tilra's barrier expands, further overlapping squares creating subdivisions of barrier that expand from the initial, increasing the reach and the power to harmlessly block Sarah's lightning bolts.
Her gaze relaxes.
If Sarah will not take this as seriously as she wants, then, Tilra supposes, she will have to force the matter to the front.
And she has just the thing.
.Shine On You Crazy Diamond.
From Tilra, there is a darkness, much alike to the wave that propagated from her earlier. Except, this is different, in the sense that it is an... absence.
A dark and tenebreous lack, bare and yet, painfully thin.
As though she had pulled from the Void itself.
Darker, yet darker, the shadows cutting ever deeper.
It grows into a shroud over Onyxis.
Near to inescapable in its extent.
Tilra is at its heart.
Wreathed in the shadow.
A dark figure.
Watching Sarah.
Inexorably.
Her eyes are red pinpricks against the dark, and they are not alone. Each eye of many thousands is a tiny sparkling star, a hazard of the mind. Looking into any of them causes a sense of such profound and gut-wrenching nostalgia that no mortal mind could withstand it, forcing one to stare into those eyes until the spell was broken. Even looking at them at all, or just being in their presence, causes a lesser form of this effect, a beckoning to stare that would take a considerable willpower to resist.
Are they illusions?
Or are they all Tilra's eyes?
...At the same time, a series of sparkling white crystals appear across the void that Tilra has drawn in, each emitting a gentle light.
Something in the core of each crystal shifts, swirling and building, until-
An eruption of pure white light, absurd in its radiance, absolutely consuming the darkness and shattering the spell apart. The light sears and annihilates to the touch, emerging from every direction. A full direct hit from this light should hurt about as badly as losing a major beam struggle- which is to say, a fucklot.
There is a way out, though. If Sarah can resist the urge to look growing stronger as she approaches the edge, she could emerge from the darkness unscathed just by fuckin booking it. The boundary is tough and very much physical, but that's just it- it's a real physical boundary that Sarah could, in fact, just punch through, if she were able to resist the cognitohazard and realize just what was going on. The darkness only looks endless.
From the outside, it is as though little has happened. Onyxis has its sky bathed in darkness, and then, all is as it was.
Unbeknownst to Sarah, who should be mentally fine regardless of what happened on account of the mind-hazard's tendency to self-destruct in memory post-exposure, this was not one of Tilra's regular attacks. You could call it one of her strongest, if not her strongest depending on how you look at it.
But, that's just the thing.
Tilra isn't tired from using it.
She's just on cooldown, and that barrier of hers is still up.
...
Of course, all this is moot if Sarah manages to not get caught in the darkness in the first place.
Which, fair enough, that is possible, if stupendously difficult and not necessarily possible for Sarah specifically.
Yatta!? Thanks for the name, I guess I'll keep trying to- oh you were using your technique
Sarah is aware that Tilra probably can use and abuse some space-time fuckery. Or just plain fuckery to get to her, but the darkness and light do take her somewhat by surprise. And she finds herself falling victim to the cognitohazard, acknowledging its threat but finding herself unable and unwilling to turn her head and ignore its temptations.
Shit.
Struggling to keep the Necrosword up and running, Sarah indulges herself in the nostalgia of the past. But she finds herself not-so-metaphorically running to the past and ignoring a gloomy future. Yet how can she break out when the thrill of the past is so daunting? As the blast goes off, a lesser person than Tilra might be forgiven for thinking that Sarah got murked, but she'd probably see what happens a very, very, very short period of time before it happens.
Sarah robs herself of her own sight using her powers over photons and electromagnetism, bending light and deliberately "lowering" her vision such that even it may glimpse nothing. She might find turning her neck away or closing her eyes difficult, and the process take just a bit more time than she'd like, but she briefly go blind for long enough to close her eyes and blast off out of the darkness. Throwing her fist back, Sarah blasts her way out of the darkness and fly over it as the blast goes off shortly behind her, opening her eyes and "resuming" sight.
Hahaha! Sarah could be mistakenly seen as gloating but she's... gloating, admittedly, and also a bit proud of her rapid decision. The air booms with her speed, and on-lookers on the ground would see the faintest hit of a zip before being knocked down by the shockwave of Sarah's acceleration. Reaching Tilra's barrier, Sarah's arms literally become a blur as she attempts to put immense pressure on one portion of the barrier to break through it quicker, aiming to target Tilra before she can find another attack to hit her with.
It's a pure unleashing of raw power and speed, as if compensating for Tilra's esoterism.
If Sarah does not at least see a crack or sign that it's bearing fruits within two seconds -which is very long given their speed, and the numbers of punches she threw unfathomable- she jump back and spin, sticking her left leg out and teleporting mid-swing behind Tilra, as close as can be, to try to hit her in the neck and smash her into the ground. Very deep into the ground.
She isn't holding back on this one -without going Limit Breaker at least-. Her every punch is delivered precisely to do damage.
Edited by Bolded1 on Sep 17th 2023 at 2:40:41 PM
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterOku
He nods understandingly, taking a moment to think about it.
"Well, I used to have something inhabiting me. Even a similar chestpiece when we're together, but lately he's been off doing his own thing, no clue if it's safer we stay separate or not—"
William swallows a chunk of meat in between before continuing.
"It's sweet at the end though, you'll always have some company through her and she has your abilities to deal with stuff that's in the way."
realNSC
"A tour of the arena sounds incredible," said Othar with a smile. "Doesn't it, Sturmvoraus?" He nudged Tarvek's shoulder.
Tarvek was briefly surprised before turning back to Othar. "What? Oh, yeah. Yes. Sure. That does sound good."
Othar smiled at the response. "Wonderful!"
JustForFun.How To Be An Anti Hero"Maybe trying to find fun's why I haven't gone fully crazy yet..."
In spite of the awkward bumps, William's in good spirits that he's in The Zone of socializing where he immediately follows up.
"And from the looks of things, that won't be the case even after 'century' stops being a word!" He lightly chuckles to Okuu.
Edited by BoniniBanana on Sep 18th 2023 at 2:41:04 AM
realTilra VS Sarah
Tilra doesn't look angry to see her attack turn out futile- and she could definitely see that it was, considering that those eyes were all hers- but she hasn't lost anything for failing it.
She keeps her barrier up, and it endures Sarah's concentrated flurry of blows without even so much as a crack. This is not a magical barrier with a limited integrity that reduces as it is struck- it is a very physical, very real object, and like punching a wall of steel Sarah cannot simply break it by hitting it enough times.
This is not a foe like those she's used to facing. It is not enough, just breaking through.
Tilra raises an eyebrow at Sarah's baffling determination, holding her barrier firm with one hand while the other keeps her glaive held at the ready. When Sarah finally realizes her efforts aren't working out, Tilra can feel exactly where she's gone to, and is already on the move, thrusting her glaive up such that there is no way for Sarah to complete her strike without impaling herself first.
It's her choice to make, though- if Sarah lets the glaive run her through, she can complete her kick and get a solid shot in on Tilra's neck, at which point Tilra will be torn from her spot in the air, righting herself before she breaks the ground, having taken an amount of damage that should be unclear to Sarah, though clear to Tilra herself as "fairly insignificant, but not to be ignored."
Yatta!Sarah goes through with being stabbed, eyes widening very slightly at that. It's a bit extreme, and she thinks that maybe Tilra think she'll back off, but she's tough. And, as she hits Tilra, she smiles, satisfied at the competition. Of course, she doesn't know if the glaive won't fuck her up somehow though, so Sarah doesn't quite go into the offensive yet.
Instead, she attempts to use her healing factor to fix her wounds. Being a fast healer, Sarah could heal a hole in her stomach in less than a second if it weren't for the Arena's conditions. And while she can still do that in the Arena itself, it requires some extra attention, such that she doesn't try to exploit her "lead" and instead close the wound.
If she succeeds, Sarah smiles briefly at Tilra. You're going to need to knock me out cold if you want to win. She could also bring up "or worse" but she doesn't want to make Tilra feel like she's suddenly in a fight for her life.
The healing brings Sarah down to Tilra's level energy-wise. Not cause for concern but hardly wise to dismiss. And she goes on to expand a bit more energy, albeit it's a much smaller dip, in quickly shooting out what seems to be a multiple beams of light from the tips of her fingertips, attempting to impact Tilra. She fires one to check if her barrier is moved first, though.
Sarah start moving closer, creating more and more bright and intense beams of light as she apparently attempts to pin down Tilra and radiate the battlefield in light. And with the hand that isn't shooting lasers, she attempts to create a brighter sphere of light, causing shadows to stretch over the battlefield as she gets closer to it.
...
Boci gulps at being the center of attention but find the courage to-hahaha, she accidentally stand up after her skeleton rebels and take control of her movements, angered at her weak-willed nature.
GWAARGHH! It's me, Boci!
She spreads her arms to the side. Please don't rob me! She shouts defiantly, as if telling her something inspiring.
Edited by Bolded1 on Sep 17th 2023 at 3:32:01 PM
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterTilra VS Sarah
.I know.
Ominous, but OK. Is she getting too into this, or just being herself?
!One of These Days!
That's a weird thing to say out the blue, but she's definitely established a pattern by now.
Tilra thrusts her spare arm out as it morphs into a terrifying maw attached to a growing base of flesh, stretching up in defiance of gravity. Tilra's barrier is still visibly up, but she's very literally set it aside for this. The maw hungrily devours all the light Sarah sends its way, aside from the ball Sarah keeps to herself. When it stretches up high enough to reach Sarah's level, it tries to bite down on her as she falls to Tilra's level.
It should be trivially easy for Sarah to blast right through it. The flesh is tough, but not Sarah tough- the point was just to eat her light beams, and now that this monstrous expansion of Tilra's form has done its job, she is betting on Sarah destroying it so she does not have to deal with the tiny liability.
If Sarah doesn't, the flesh will simply pop off, revealing Tilra's unchanged arm beneath it as it rapidly disintegrates. Both choices will form a short-lived sort of smokescreen made from disappearing flesh, which would be gross if this stuff weren't weirdly dry.
Within this sort-of-smokescreen, the air distorts around Tilra as she thinks deep about what she wants, and then, as though she had simply imagined it into being, a powerful emerald-green concussive beam fires in Sarah's direction, powered by her own eaten light. This beam has no discernible origin, but does emerge from pretty close to just behind Sarah, giving it a good chance of taking her by surprise.
It lacks a surprising amount of the "oomph" that it by all rights should have, though. Like, at some point in all this process, something went wrong and resulted in it being diminished. If Sarah gets hit by the concussive beam, it'll probably hurt... but, not nearly as bad as it aught to have.
Yatta!I like the names of those techniques. Sarah muses. The maw-snake eating through her light is expected in being unexpected. Read that Sarah attempts to tear through it with a downward kick, meaning to slice it in half while quickly carving her way to Tilra, ball of light in hand. She lands very close to Tilra, but not past her barrier, whom she suspect she can rearrange before Sarah can throw a punch.
So Sarah is pretty much at a stalemate. She can't attack and Tilra is definitely planning something anyway. Which Sarah might be hit by due to her proximity. Said proximity is necessary for the second part of her ploy anyway.
The closest a light source is to an object, the more its shadow will stretch. Sarah attempts to make Tilra's shadow extra large before trying to use the Necrosword as a cheap way to bypass her barrier, attempting to create multiple shadowy arms to pummel Tilra's back while she's busy. The more shadow, the more "material", hence the need to make it stretchy first.
She pretty much means to turn Tilra's shadow into a backdoor to attack with.
The shadow arms are stretchy and thin, with fragility to match, but are fast and strong, almost as much as Sarah's limbs. And as for Sarah herself, she doesn't fully commit because of Tilra's set-up and incoming attack, which she quickly fly away from to avoid. But proximity seems to feed both light and dark, because the Necrosword will weaken, with lesser and weaker arms.
Sarah attempts to fix this by coming closer to Tilra, still attempting to make her shadow grow to keep her attack up.
Edited by Bolded1 on Sep 17th 2023 at 4:23:11 PM
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitter

NSC
Icarus thinks. "Not right now, but..."
He walks over to the cargo ship and checks its contents.
"...that should do, no problem."
The Explorer, Icarus' current body, slots itself into a rack on the inside of the cargo ship. The Constructor walks over and releases a swarm of drones, which start drawing from the cargo ship and setting down assembly machines outside of the hangar.
Several minutes later...
There's a new spaceship parked next to the cargo ship, looking surprisingly similar to the one from the Scarlet Devil Mansion. While Icarus is making the last additions - a pair of parachutes, oxygen masks and a fire extinguisher, among other things - the hatch opens. From the inside, acrylic floors and ceilings allow you to see the outside.
"Almost ready! Just need to craft a couple of things. Er, by the way, how many G's can you take?"
If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.