Mirajane - Sparda Estate
With a localized windstorm and rain of light to worry about, Mirajane had to break off the attack, focusing instead of deflecting, diverting, or swatting away the pink blasts that were heading near her, ducking this-a-way and that-a-way in the process.
Since she still had her monstrous and shadowy fists at-hand, she dug both of them into the ground beside her and heaved with as much strength as the dark magic appendages could muster. Layering rock over rock between her and the source of the laser, she worked on providing whatever shelter she could for whoever was nearby and needed to duck out from the incoming magical blast.
When the lasers were gone, she would simply grunt, and then hit her impromptu barricade with her fists, sending whatever remained of it flying at Urizen's knees.
I have a plan.
General Leo Christophe — Sparda Estate
Leo backed away from Urizen, sword firm in his grip. Realizing his sword was able to wound the big blue and loud demon, he was ready to make another strike, and plunge his blade right through Urizen's spine...
Until Urizen cast some sort of spell, that is. In a split-second, he ran for the nearest cover he could find, and hid behind the barrier of rocks Mirajane made.
Urizen was starting to live up to his arrogance... All Leo had to do was wait until Urizen was really occupied, and then, he'd really be in for a shock.
General Celes Chere — Tower
Celes quietly nodded after hearing Trevor's strategy. It wasn't every day that Celes Chere, general of the Gestalhian Army, was requested to keep the enemy alive, but it wasn't an objectionable request. Artemis was quick in doling out more magic, so Celes responded promptly:
"Blizzaga!"
With Celes' words, a tall and thick pillar of ice chunks rose from ground, providing some shelter for herself, Link, and anyone nearby. She quietly hoped everyone would know how to limit their own strength, if Lady was somewhere inside Artemis.
"@[=g3,8d]&fbb=-q]/hk%fg"
Delfi was still as she thought on those questions, eyeing the lady across from her as she ran through the possible answers. She could close up and not tell the truth, which was a tempting one. She didn't want pity, or for this woman to think she was opening up to her or needed help. But then, opening up that little bit could help to remove some of the suspicion that was currently in the air, and it wasn't exactly information that could be problematic if shared. In fact, judging by what she could read off Misaki at that moment, sharing it might even give her a bit of a leg up.
"My life back home?" The girl said plainly, putting forward a calm, unphased demeanour. Her voice calm, almost casual, as she did. "I was a prisoner, or perhaps more like property. I once lived in a small boarding house in the countryside with... some other children that were my friends. Until it was attacked and we were taken. That was 6 years ago. I no longer have any friends."
The young soldier eyed the glowing pink ring for a moment, noting that it was the perfect height to hit a person in the shin's. Akin to a landmine designed to take off a man's legs. He was already moving towards possible cover when the laser shot out and swept towards him, his eyes widening in shock slightly for just a moment before he made a leap for the nearest rubble or object that would get him above it.
Once he was clear of it, the beam only just missing him, he quickly spun and began to fire his rifles all at once. His powers unleashing a barrage of gunfire at whatever part of the demon he could safely aim at.
The sting of uselessness and uncertainty was swept away as Mono looked up in time to spot the glowing attacks falling towards him. Fear filled him at the sight, and he began to let out a cry as he brought his scarred arms up as if to shield himself from the blows. Only for it to be cut short when something heavy slammed into the androgyne from behind, knocking him out of range of the attacks and stunning him temporarily. He glanced back in confusion just in time to see the lady that had saved him be hit hard, and fear and horror flooded through the youth.
He kept being useless, and people kept getting hurt because of it. Self-loathing and other feelings welled up inside him, his gaze drifting across the battlefield until they fell on something. Something that soldified that burning need to actually help, more-so than ever. Getting to his feet, Mono ran directly into the fight with a cry. His mutilated fingers and strange prehensile cables flexing as he called on his power as he moved through the fighting towards his target. The cable hanging from the flying monster. Reaching out towards it in and attempt to grab hold, and flood every bit of his electricity he could through it.
Spotting what his friend was doing, Tatsu was quick to move towards him, ready and willing to take or deflect any attacks that came their way. Silently joining and supporting the other teen as they ran.
Anti-Gnosis Weapon
Sparda Estate
Shit! was all time Minako had time to think as her target disappeared and a large shadow appeared overhead. She instinctively swiveled and sprinted backwards, gripping her vel and evoker for dear life, only to be brought down with a cry of pain as the monster's fist impacted Vishnu's head and the deity cracked and vanished into shards of blue light — though at least she avoided getting herself directly hit or the big blue demon landing on her.
Gritting her teeth as her vision went momentarily white and star-filled, the SEES Leader nonetheless stabbed her spear into the earth below and used it to quickly pull herself up to a kneeling position facing the enemy. Though she was still in great pain, she allowed herself a somewhat agonized smirk as she placed her Evoker to her temple and shouted, "Helel!"
Suddenly, her form was obscured by the scantly clothed form of a Persona
◊ three times her size that Minako hadn't used since the day of her arrival in Battleworld, then obscured further by a blinding light that briefly suffused the heavens. From the light sprang forth a beam of pure, destructive energy that impacted the ground just in front of Urizen and erupted into a multicolored sphere of holy annihilation that expanded until it was about ten feet in width. This was Morning Star, The Fool's ultimate magical attack, supercharged to its maximum size and power by the buffs she had applied earlier in the encounter.
"AT LAST!" the not-very-angelic angel cackled, "WITNESS MY TRUE POWER AND TREMBLE, THOU TIRESOME FOOLS! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Meanwhile, Spider-Man had avoided the other unreasonably large laser by... simply jumping over it, because he was fully capable of jumping to a similarly unreasonable height. Making a classic three-point landing, he began running toward the now more distant huge azure not-Hulk (though the guy was very angry). The moment he got in range, his hands were up and shooting weblines at the monster's head, though he waited for the ponytailed young lady's attack to run its course before he acted, whereupon he planted his feet and pulled backward on the webs with all his might.
Tower Apex
"Correct," Aigis confirmed, "I possess a range of different bullet calibers, a rocket launcher, a grenade launcher, a railgun, and beam weapons. Why do you ask?"
GM of AGOG S4: Frontiers RP; Sub-GM of TABA, SOTR, & UUA RPs
Tower
"Do you believe our opponent is an ordinary human, with all the attendant physical weaknesses that that encompasses?" Homura not-that-subtly turned her head so that it was looking at TCFKAL.
Anti-Gnosis Weapon
Tower Apex
"I do not know," the gynoid replied with a shake of her head, "She resembles a human in some ways, but in other ways does not. I am simply concerned that it will be impossible to recover her without the use of a wish from The Cure if I utilize a lethal degree of firepower on her more human parts, and it is difficult to aim for her wings when she is moving around so much."
GM of AGOG S4: Frontiers RP; Sub-GM of TABA, SOTR, & UUA RPs
Tower
"We won't be able to do anything as long as she dictates the flow," Homura replied, bringing her head down as the latest wave from Artemis approached and passed. "We may not know whether that is the case, but if anyone does it'll be her. Can you force her to tell us by aiming for it so that she would be forced to react defensively?"
Not to mention it would give time for everyone to reposition better. Like herself closer to where the ocarina is.
Edited by megarockman on Jan 16th 2021 at 1:06:04 PM
Anti-Gnosis Weapon
Tower Apex
"...Understood," Aigis acknowledged the logic of the Magical Girl's statement, and although she still wasn't entirely comfortable with it, stepped out from behind the cover of her Persona, took aim at the creature's wings with both of her normal gun-hands, and opened fire.
GM of AGOG S4: Frontiers RP; Sub-GM of TABA, SOTR, & UUA RPs
Eternal Princess
Croix let out a small chuckle as Tsuchi took apart the wand and studied it. It was almost endearing. Something Croix herself would have done in her youth. Not that she could actually feel anything for that thing pretending to be a high school girl. Part of what tickled the professor was how blatant an attempt to discover trade secrets it was. Discretion this was not. Under normal circumstances, a lot of the strange behavior could be chalked up to differing cultures and youthful curiosity. But knowing what she knew about the girl, it was almost painfully obvious. Still, Croix had no need to worry. The secrets of magic was not something so easily revealed.
The other two students didn't seem to share their teacher's humor of the situation. Barsa's eyes widen as the new student ejected the battery. It was the first time she had seen someone make that mistake. She fidgeted as she looked on, wanting to help her new coven member, but not wanting to offend or overstep her bounds. She tried to mutter some advise to the new girl in a voice that struggled to make the distance of a single seat over.
"Ah...no...that's supposed to stay inside...if you just...its ok...you'll figure it out..."
As expected, Gaelle seemed to take almost personal offense at Tsuchi's ignorance on how to operate the wand. It was like trying to watch someone wear pants on their head. If she was having trouble with just this much, what was she even doing here? She understood this was a beginner class designed to get the new girl up to speed. But at this point it was obvious the girl had zero talent for magic what so ever. This was Luna Nova. A magical school of such prestige that only the best and most gifted need apply. This farce of humoring the girl by allowing her to even set foot in these halls is a testament of how low the standards of this once great school have fallen.
The studious girl kept her eyes to her own work, taking almost active action to ignore the Japanese girl. Though she did mumble something in German under her breath. It was hard to make out, even if Tsuchi did speak German. But given the general tone, it probably wasn't anything pleasant.
Hearing Tsuchi's modesty, the professor reassured her new student.
"Comparing and contrasting new ideas to concepts we are already familiar with is all part of the process. And you don't have to worry. You won't be walking in blind. The other teachers and I are all here to guide you."
As the lesson continued, the professor kept a close watch on the progress of her new student. That is until the door to the classroom slammed open with a start. Standing there was a short blue haired older woman with glasses. She looked worn out and stressed, with the sort of 1000 yard stare workers develop during crunch. Tsuchi may have remembered her from the meeting the day prior. She was one of the teachers, Samantha Badcock. Realization seemed to suddenly hit Badcock that her entry may have been more dramatic then she meant it to be. She quickly put on a smile as if to say "every thing is fine" then walked into the room all casual like and headed toward Tsuchi.
"How is the studies going? Are you getting along ok? Nothing too difficult?"
She was all smiles and friendly tones. It almost seemed like she was trying to do an impression of of Holbrooke the way she was laying it on so thick. But then perhaps the contractor was already familiar with the tells of a sycophant to spot one.
"Oh yes, when your uncle visits, please make sure he sees me. There are few changes I had to make to the tuition due to circumstances. But don't worry, its all very affordable."
She didn't seem to even notice the other two students. Badcock then walked over to the teacher of the lesson, keeping up the same tone.
"She is working quite hard isn't she? Perhaps its time for a break? In fact I insist! We can't be overworking our new student can we?"
Croix kept her same cool demeanor. It was pretty annoying having her lesson interrupted like this, but she was in a forgiving mood. In part because she had an inkling of the real reason Samantha was here, and it amused her to see the stuck up senior teacher come crawling to her for help. But that didn't mean she was going to make it easy.
"We got a good rhythm going and have a lot of ground to cover. I think we should keep going."
Smile met smile as a few seconds of silence past, each teacher keeping up the appearance of civility. In that time, Badcock was already starting to crack. Beads of sweat ran down the older woman's brow. She was not entirely sure how to proceed now.
"A-are you s-sure? I-I mean all work and no play..."
Croix considered leaving Badcock out to dry, but having the teacher owe her a favor was worth seeing what it was Badcock wanted of her. With the older teacher stumbling, Croix threw her a life preserver.
"Is everything alright on your end?"
The façade Badcock had been holding dropped instantly. The blue haired teacher looked to be at wits end. Badcock lowered her voice and got in close, intending a whisper. But even with hushed tones it was obvious she wanted to scream at the top of her lungs.
"Its terrible, just terrible! Summoning them back to school failed, because nothing can ever be easy when it comes to that Kagari girl and her friends! The others are trying everything. The headmistress, Finnelan, and Diana are all trying every divination and scrying spell known. Lukic is questioning the Jansson to see if she knows anything. Pisces is asking the local wild life. Nelson is flying around looking for them."
"And you?"
While it seemed like Badcock could have probably went on ranting and raving, the question caused her to flinch and freeze up. With a serious solemn face, the blue haired teacher tried to gather her courage and ask what she came to ask. Avoiding direct eye contact, she spoke out in an even toned voice.
"I-I have an idea..."
Samantha Badcock was the Magical Numerology teacher. She was basically a mathematician. While she wasn't an untalented witch per se, she was exceedingly mediocre. There wasn't anything she could offer that one of the others could simply do better. That suited her fine in most scenarios. She wasn't really the type to push her self. But this incident needed to be solved now! Just thinking about the scandals that are brewing every moment that Kagari girl is out there was giving her a heart attack! What if one of them gets hurt and their parents try to sue the school!? What if they damage some interdimensional property and the owner tries to sue the school!? What if others think Kagari is the type of students they foster and think the school isn't worth tuition!? She had to do something! But what!? There was one skill that she had that could help. She was the treasurer. She could simply hire help!
"...but..."
She was as much as a traditionalist as Finnelan. But sometimes you need to bend the rules to get the results you need. Like embellishing a tax form or rounding off on expenses. The usual magic networks were no good when the school was the only ones using it on Battleworld. But there were others. She made sure to lower her voice to the thinnest whisper, lest anyone actually hear what she was going to ask.
"...I need to connect to the internetwork.'"
Croix's lips twitched to a smile, it was all she could do to keep from laughing in the older woman's face. It was just too rich. An old bat like Badcock coming to her because she needed to connect to the internet. Croix considered the request a moment. It was worth it. Even if the always stingy Badcock didn't feel like repaying the favor out of the goodness of her heart, Croix would have some light blackmail on the woman. Without bothering to respond to the other teacher, Croix turned to the class.
"We will be taking a small recess. Review what we have been over and we will take a small test when we readjourn. Is there any questions?"
The Croix would stay around just long enough to make sure her new student was situated before all but being dragged off by Badcock. Despite putting back on the friendly façade again, it was obvious Badcock was eager to get going. Once in the hallway and out of sight, Croix would, with a little slight of hand, drop one of her pixel cubes onto the floor. It would remain dormant until Croix left, where it would then twitch to life. The little black cube would transform into a little black spider. It would then begin crawling after Tsuchi, shadowing her from the shadows and keeping all eight of its eyes on the girl.
When Tsuchi herself would try to exit the classroom, she may be surprised to find her self assaulted. Down the hall, in full sprint, came two school girls right in a collision course with her. One was a tall red head, the other a shorter girl with black hair. They would try to go around, but it was already too late. They were going too fast. Tsuchi would have a couple of seconds to react before they would crash into her.
"Get out of the way!"
How do you kill that which has no life?
More nuisances.
The bites these fleas were taking were starting to leave some lasting marks. Morrigan's Shadow Blade just grazed its mark, but luckily for the Succubus it failed in the best way it could: instead of blocking the strike against Vishnu, her wings brushed straight past Urizen's arm and into his face—leaving a gash in the demon king's right cheek that had him roaring in pain and fury. Some form of laser beam seared his shoulder left shoulder blade, like holding a hot iron to his flesh. The demon king's deterrence for those behind him was repaid with a shrapnel of earth shot at the back of his knees.
Then there was the coup de grâce: the holy creature he struck vanished and was replaced with another, one that wasted no time striking the demon king with the saintly light. Finally, a blow that Urizen couldn't just shake off. With a scream that held a kernel of fear within the pain, the demon king was swallowed by the Morning Star and its all-consuming light.
When the light faded, Urizen was found breathing heavily, a shaky hand supporting himself from a kneeling position. Though as the arrogant Persona was about to learn, his hand didn't tremble from terror.
"You know nothing about true power."
An new aura emanated from the demon king: a blue and crimson mist that radiated from his body like steam. Perhaps only V would know what this aura meant, not that that knowledge would bring him any comfort:
Urizen had just activated his Devil Trigger.
A swift jerk of his head was all it took to deal with the arachnid; Spider-Man's superhuman strength paled in comparison to Urizen's brawn. Whether the webbing snapped in the tension or the web-swinger was launched towards the demon king hardly mattered—Urizen didn't stay put for long, and a portal brought him well outside Spider-Man's range.
Off in the distance and with some much needed breathing room, Urizen got to his feet and began his counter attacks:
The arrogant angel was the obvious first target, but the demon king had to make it drop its guard. To that end, he turned his eyes on the clump of ants who had taken cover together behind some earth. Urizen opened a portal with a wave of his hand...only it wasn't a portal for him. Mirajane, Alfred, and Leo would have half a second to notice the ground beneath them had turned black before there wasn't any ground beneath them at all! The demon king had created a portal right underneath them—spitting them out a hundred feet above the ground, where a bed of massive crimson spikes were created to greet them.
Urizen teleported again for good measure, and took aim at the white-haired worm at the base of the tree. A spell spawned another one of those large circular lasers that swept the nearby area at a steady pace, sawing through the tree's trunk in the process. If they didn't act quick, the beam would endanger Nero, Mami, and V.
A third warp, a third target: the two witches acting like this battle was a damn playground. For them, the demon king summoned six purple greatswords as long as a man is tall, all aimed for the wielder of the Shiny Rod. With a swift gesture, the blades soared through the air, straight for where Akko was standing.
Finally, the group gathered by the angel: Morrigan, Minako, and Spider-Man. Noting that it had been effective in pinning the Succubus before, Urizen elected to rain more pink balls of energy down on his enemies: twenty bullets for each of them. With the obvious threats coming from above, perhaps the Hero, Demon, and Fool might overlook the blue glow emerging beneath their feet. A plume of hellfire was set to engulf the three just before the bullets reached their targets.
With his foes in disarray, it was time to take the angel down directly. As soon as his trap was sprung, the demon king would teleport right in front of Hellel, and deliver a haymaker engulfed in as much energy, malice, and rage as he could muster.
"THIS is true power!" he grinned.
However, it seemed that Urizen had miscounted: two of these miserable mortals were left unattended, in part thanks to the child's cowardly act of pulling both Sayaka and himself closer to the rubble and out of the demon king's sight.
"I don't want him to step on them." Maki elaborated, completely missing the fact that Sayaka was being less than serious with the "explosive Legos" comment. "I've been trying to think about this like how I'd take down a room, or a building. The ankles and that thin muscle above the heel act like load-bearing beams or walls; take them out and the structure can't support its own weight. It won't matter much if he can teleport if he can't even stand up."
The Contactor dared to peek out of cover to check where the demon king had warped, then gave Sayaka the distance and direction.
"...but I'm not like you and the others. This is the only power I have, and if I tried to fight him head-on I'd just get in the way. Saboteurs aren't good in an honest fight, but if I can take out even one of his feet then you and everybody else can finish the job."
If the game plan for facing Artemis was to snap her attention back and forth like a ball in an intense ping pong match, the heroes were certainly succeeding. The rain of little bullets were ignored as Artemis charged Sypha, but they were definitely felt. The sting of a whip striking her wings drew Artemis' attention straight to the boasting Belmont...only for two shots at the eyes in her wings to draw her attention away from Trevor and over to the Persona user. Except no, a chunk of stone was just hucked at her torso with enough force to lower her near the ground for a moment—something was definitely damaged from that one. All the while a white-haired androgynous child was rushing below her to flood her body with more electricity.
This plan wasn't working. Artemis had a dozen targets to deal with while they only had to deal with one. It was high time she divided their attention.
With a swift flap of her wings Artemis rushed for the sky above. With any luck, Mono failed to hold onto the cable tight enough to be carried into the air with her—she would not tolerate another electricity-user piggybacking on her, and the Thundercore human would be in great danger of getting a one-way trip to the base of Temen-ni-gru. Though whether she was bearing some unwelcomed extra weight or not, Artemis would spread her six wings to their limit, then—in a wince-worthy grotesque act—spread them further, as if snapping the bones to bend the wrong way. But the motion did more than come accompanied with a disturbing CRACK! of the wings—it also released the many pink lights embedded within them, allowing them to float midair completely independent of their master.
If a bombardment of thirty bullets was enough to make Reisen sweat, she might very we start shaking now. Artemis had just given herself dozens of little guns that could fire from anywhere.
Welcome to Bullet Hell!
The eyes went straight to work, starting with the person who was no doubt the most prepared for a scenario like this: Reisen. Greeted by nine little eyes that swiftly tried to surround her from all sides (z-axis included), the Moon Rabbit might need to set Sypha down and think fast if she wanted to escape this infuriating danmaku match.
Speaking of the witch, she was the target of no less than thirteen of these little monsters; if Artemis failed to silence her one way, she'd just have to try another.
The remaining fifty or so eyes rushed across the battlefield to strike at the heroes more or less indiscriminately; Hei stood as the sole exception, since the eyes apparently assumed he was dead and left him where he lay. Yet as the assault progressed, the heroes might draw a few conclusions about the limits to Artemis' arsenal:
The eyes were swift and agile, but without Artemis to channel fuel them their firepower was considerably weakened. Where an earlier bullet managed to melt through Ozen's armor when it came from Artemis herself, the most they could do now was make scorch marks on it. Indeed, any bullets that landed on bare skin during the attack would cause an intense pain at the impact point—possibly resulting in a second degree burn—but would be far from fatal. On top of that, with her weapons spread across the top of the tower, it seemed Artemis herself had nothing left to fire at the heroes.
...at least, that's what it seemed like at first. Soon after the attack began in earnest, Artemis began to rise even higher above the tower. The dark cloudy sky parted above her, and an unsettlingly bright sunbeam shined down on her and the combatants below. Her wings—now bent back the way they should—stretched above her before gently lowering pair by pair to fuel...something. A little pink orb emerged and grew as the wings added more and more power to it. If any if the combatants found a moment to look up to see what was going on, they could probably guess what was happening:
Artemis deployed her eyes as a distraction, and was winding up for a devastating attack.
Temen-ni-gru (Tatl): Taking A Line from Navi
"How long? Uuuuhhh..."
It wasn't that the fairy couldn't guess how long the Song of Healing would take to work—it's just that the sudden appearance of seventy-odd little Beamos eyes flooding the stage was a liiiiiiiiittle distracting.
"A minute? Maybe a minute and a half? It's not a long song, but it's slow. Magic in music's a little finicky, so trying to pick up the pace won't—"
One of the eyes grew a little too curious about the huddle by the column. It swooped over to Kyubey and Tatl, shifting its gaze (and subsequently its aim) from one to the other.
"Look out!"
Temen-ni-gru (Link): Here Comes Captain America Termina!
Just as the blood was returning to Link's face, the Demon Lady threw three waves of widespread and super scary attacks that threatened to drain his face of blood all over again! Luckily for the little hero, a certain general was standing by to protect him.
"Oooohh!" Link gawked at the protective pillar Celes summoned to shield him (and presumably others) from an onslaught of light arrows. That was amazing magical power! His own ice arrows needed a water source to make anything big, and even then the ice didn't rise up like a spike. But Sell S could make a big block of ice without any water at all. That was, like...Koume levels of ice magic!
For one much-needed moment of relief, Link felt grateful that he was on the same side as yet another powerful witch.
Following Mr. Belmont's cry about Sypha (not sure why, but then again Link couldn't exactly see her right now...), the little hero bore witness to something he'd rarely seen in his life, but that he was at the perfect age to fully appreciate:
Dramatic Shonen-esque hero boasting!
Link hung on every word. The call of "Demon," instead of the Lady's titlenote , a few words boosting the Belmont clan's fame and showing off that even Dracula might wet himself at the sound of the name, and even the backpedal to humility at the claim he was only human—and that's exactly why he was going to win! Each sentence was worth one—no, five gold rupees in the boy's mind.
Should Kyubey or Homura have established a covert telepathic network for the group to better coordinate a counterattack, they might have a few moments of regret as a starry-eyed kid barely containing his excitement flooded the comms with: < "Mr. Belmont is SO COOOOOOOOL!!!" >
If they neglected to create those comms...that was probably a good decision for now.
Once the Demon Lady unleashed her...eww, eyes, on the group, Link forced his attention back to the battle. After blocking one or two stray shots with his Mirror Shield, the little hero concluded that Darmani's power was the best option here. After all, the best offense is a good defense!
Sheathing the Razor Sword to free his left hand, Link retreated towards where Sell S was fighting, even giving the general a confident nod as way of stating he had her back. A fine sentiment, but not exactly the most effective move seeing as the woman was at least a foot taller than him. Though since the Vector general had fought beside the little hero back in The Crossroads, she no doubt saw what trick Link had up his sleeve. With a coffee-colored mask in hand, Link disappeared in a flash of light and was replaced by a tall and burly rock creature.
Now that he was in Goron form, he could start to really do some damage to these pesky bugs! After all, the best offense is a good defense—and do you know what the best defense is?
TWO DEFENSES!
With a little dramatic flourish of his own, Link retrieved the Knight's Shield he had stolen found deep within Dracula's Castle. The thing was normally too heavy for him to carry, but thanks to Darmani's Goron strength, it felt as light as the Deku Shield he'd used on his first adventure. With the large shield in hand, Link turned both eyes to a nearby target, aimed, and...threw the shield at it.
Perhaps the multiple head wounds he'd endured in the past few hours hadn't been completely reversed by magic. Perhaps Tatl's role as strategist and guide on the little hero's adventures in Termina and beyond held some genuine weight. Perhaps the kid was riding a massive hero-worshipping adrenaline high and wanted to show off that move Pyrrha Nikos had used the day before and which he'd practiced in Fairy Tail like, a hundred times. But whatever the case, Link had stepped beyond the threshold of sense, and it didn't take long for the enemy to take advantage of that.
"Gorrrrr!" Link half-groaned, half-whined as three eyes decided to harass the big and sluggish target. Up against a Goron's boulder-tough hide, the bullets didn't hurt so much as pinch, but (with rolling being a clear exception,) the rock-eating creatures were nowhere near swift enough to deal with these tiny nuisances. Taking some hesitant steps away from the general's six—while making triple-sure that he was drawing these annoying eyeballs along with him, and away from Sell S—the Goron made his way over to the Knight's Shield he'd tossed away like the world's worst discus thrower.
Guess he needed more practice...
Edited by TheodoreHastings on Jan 19th 2021 at 7:01:25 AM
Returners Campsite
"No offense taken," Jean said with a smirk. "Frankly, to have my renown and yet not be met with any resistance would just sour the mood, so it feels quite nice to have you running scared like that. Not to mention that I'd be rather disappointed if you didn't have any teeth."
"Ha, troublemakers, yes. In the way you are used to, no. While as much as I enjoy the hunt, I would shed not a tear at their disposal by other hands, but they are not quite the type who can be dealt with so easily. If this city of yours could do so, I doubt any of you would be seated here today, no?"
"Do you read your bibles, gentlemen? She fancies herself a leader with a soft touch and sharp tongue taking her people to new futures, and yet... much like Moses, she can squeeze her claws so tight around her prey and get blood from the stones themselves."
"We... ate before leaving, we have a bit of a specific diet. That, and you could use all the food you can get for now while you are on the move," Jean turned down the offer for dinner while simultaneously reaching a hand over and firmly patting the moogle on its head.
"Someone shot their air force?" Massachusetts looked away from the moogle and at Sadda. "So that's why you're out here? Hiding. What ills has their fleet done - and why are you being blamed for it?"
Imperial Palace
"You have been very good so far, I will make sure to tell your Emperor how well you showed up his great city. But now that we are here, and time is always limited, it is time for focusing, no?" Friedrich gave Kefka a sharp smile, and then turned her attention to the Emperor.
It would be hard to prove it, but you could swear Deutschland was smirking at the clown.
"City Seventeen...." FDG brought a hand up to her chin, stroking it for a moment as she thought, her other hand conducting her baton as it traced a path in the air above the map, from the shore to the city between the Koopa Kingdom and Outworld. "This is the route we approached upon, taking the waterways that cut through the wasteland and towards what seemed to be the center of civilization in the nearby area. I trust you would not disagree with that assessment."
She grinned, and her eyes looked over the map for a moment more, shifting towards the west and City 17's location.
"As for what information I can provide you with, that would depend on what sort of return trip I take. Were we to go back to the ocean and survey the shore, that would be quite limited in scope compared to if we could find a route to the sea that cuts through this city...."
She tapped her baton on City 17 on the map.
"But that is such a great distance, and such a great deal of area. It would take quite the force to be able to secure it."
Mitakihara Middle School - Roof
"Oh so this is your school? It looks... fun," Wendy tried to compliment the middle school. "I never went to a school like this before... I think it would be nice to see around it."
"Alright ladies, I guess you're giving us the grand tour, then," Cana grinned at the kids. "And since you're on school campus after hours, looks like it's up to me to provide you with some adult supervision."
She took a moment to adjust the bottle in her hand, shoving it into her pocket.
"Is school canceled because of the um..." Wendy pointed at the sky. "...the world changing?"
Zone-Rookie Village
"Who the heck is walking there dog NOW?" Lucy grumbled.
"Yeah!" Happy helpfully added.
With a grumble, the marched over towards Strelok, Shadow, and Interceptor and listened as they explained the sitch.
"So you resolved things, huh?" Lucy said. "Well guess what - you're going to have to do it AGAIN because everyone in this town is freaking out about the military running in here to kill every last one because someone pissed them all off. Guess that answers who did it."
"Aye, sir!" Happy said with a salute. And maintaining safe distance from Interceptor, making sure Lucy was between him and the dog.
"So if you really want to resolve things, you might want to start by getting your butts over there and getting ready to protect it, okay?"
Hell's Gate Tokyo - Tea Time
"I would do well not to assume you're a half-wit, for then what value would there be in me treating with a nation led by a group of such half-wits?" Tosa said, her lips betraying only the slightest hint of a smile.
"So many major changes, such small spans of time. It seems that if nothing else, the lands in this world do not waste their time when it comes to overthrowing their leadership or waging war with their neighbors, if I understand the situation correctly. Perhaps the name 'Battleworld' is apt, after all. Though agreements with such tenuous entities lead to uncertain outcomes. I can only offer my greatest wishes that such a fate does not happen to befall your own territory - or my own."
She took a moment to look out the window, scanning the horizon and looking from shore-to-shore, as it were.
"The sort of air power Azur Lane possess is the most valuable type of all." She turned her head around to look towards Nishijima. "A naval one. One not restricted to launching and landing at specified air bases that are no doubt being watching by a thousand eager eyes from across every one of your borders. Of all these neighbors you have mentioned, I would not be surprised to hear that the ones to your west possess considerable anti-aircraft capabilities."
She couldn't help but tilt her head for a moment.
"Though... an academy for girls is truly a curiosity, is it not? So many technologically gifted or powerful nations on your border... and a school. One can only imagine what secrets such a place in this world could be holding."
Common Room -> I Love New York!
"Capital. It is truly a pleasure to meet you, Miss Watson," Illustrious replied with a curtsy.
"Samsies!" Bremerton said with a thumbs-up.
"I certainly appreciate a reporter and cameraman of your calibers taking time from their schedule to show a couple of new faces around," Illustrious added with a smile as she and Bremerton headed over yonder.
"Holy cow, it's huge!" Bremerton exclaimed as she rapidly took pictures of the skyline with her phone, making sure to get Illustrious in on the shot so that she could.
"The musical backing is also quite lovely," Illustrious added with a small nod. "Though this entryway should be our priority for the time being, you will certainly have ample time to take your photos later on."
With a shrug and a smile, Bremerton pocketed her phone and followed along.
"Charmed." Illustrious said to Ivan with a nod as they passed by towards the tent.
"Heya!" Bremerton greeted him in her own way.
"Eh!? Heeeeey...." She pouted at the 'lady in there'. "This is how I always dress... guess you aren't beach people, huh? Even though we're so close to the ocean, and it's kinda nice out here you know.... But fiiine I do have my jacket for a reason....."
Bremerton sighed, and then reached down to zip up her jacket, determined to once again restore morality and decency to the glittering diamond of the East Coast.
"Terribly sorry about that, I assure you she's a sweet girl... if energetic. And sometimes uses words I don't quite understand... I still have no Earthly idea what 'fleek' is supposed to mean...." Illustrious gave her a smile. "Nevertheless, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Miss Gladys, my name is Illustrious."
"And I'm Bremerton, ma'am." Bremerton chimed in as she finished pulling her zipper up on her jacket. She... couldn't remember how long it had been since she had done that.
Vampire Hunter
Morrigan, Sparda Estate
Morrigan was smart enough to now know what sort of attack Urizen was trying to do, and took stock of the two closest to her... Minako and Spider-Man. Spider-Man seemed to be superhuman, but Minako seemed to be a normal teenager, albeit one who could summon demons. Thus Morrigan decided to grab Minako and fly her out of the way of Urizen's attacks to get herself and Minako out of range of them. She hoped that Spider-Man apparent superhuman abilities will allow him to dodge the attacks, and hoped Minako could still control her summon despite Morrigan's attacks.
Trevor & Sypha, Temen-ni-gru
Getting the second-most focus from Artemis' eyes meant that Sypha, once she freed herself from Reisen and dropped onto the ground, could do nothing but use her Blue Splash to try to destroy the eyes trying to kill her.
"Lady, you need to fight this!" Sypha attempted to yell out again as she tried to dodge the eyes' attacks.
Trevor meanwhile was a bit smarter than to be fooled by Artemis's summons. As he used his Vampire Killer to defend himself from the floating eyes, he looked across the battlefield for any of the eyes that looked out of place. Naturally, he spotted the pink orb closest to Artemis.
"The orb!" Trevor pointed at it as if declaring a target. "Aim for that orb if you can!"
Trevor didn't think his Vampire Killer could reach the orb at its current height, but certainly other allies' projectiles could.
Dracula, Castlevania, Castle Keep
Dracula stopped talking and silently nodded when he saw Koishi and Goht come in and saw how Majora was acting.
"Right, what was I thinking?" Dracula said apologetically to Majora. "Perhaps Koishi and your other friend would like a tour of the castle while we talk in private?"
Dracula wrote a note, tied it to his bat and let it fly out of the keep. Eventually, the bat returned followed by a poor defenseless priest.
◊
"Ah, I see we have guests," the priest said, politely bowing to Majora and the others.
"As the note said, I want you to give them a tour of the castle while Majora and I talk," Dracula explained his priest.
"Understood," The priest would attempt to lead Koishi and Goht out of the Castle Keep for a friendly tour of the castle.
Edited by GameGuruGG on Jan 24th 2021 at 9:01:39 AM
Wizard Needs Food Badly
Anti-Gnosis Weapon
Times Square
"You and me both, Miss Illustrious!" Gladys chuckled, letting the names roll off her tongue, and clearly in a better mood at seeing the redhead comply with her request, "Pleased to make your acquaintance as well. And you, Miss Bremerton. Nice names you got! Any surnames?"
Once they inevitably answered in the negative, she nodded, looking thoughtful, then shrugged and picked up the webcam perched on her laptop. "Well, alright then. Smile for the camera, Miss Illustrious! Three, two, one... good! And now you, Miss Bremerton. Three, two, one... excellent! Now just give me a minute here to make your IDs..."
A short while later, Gladys threaded the red, white, and blue lanyards through the tops of their shiny, laminated new ID cards and handed them over. "Make sure you keep these with you at all times. They'll be your official tickets through any street checkpoints and in and out of the city at the borders, including here. Alright? You take care now, my dears!"
"Thanks, Gladys!" MJ said, and ushered her charges out onto the sidewalk. The whole city was opened up before them, theirs to explore!
"So, ladies, there are a lot of places to see in our fair city!" the reporter pointed out as a murmur went through the people on the walkway, full of smiles and looks of curiosity, who stopped and raised their phones to take photos and videos of their own, "Where would you like to go first?"
Edited by darksidevoid on Jan 25th 2021 at 6:27:40 AM
GM of AGOG S4: Frontiers RP; Sub-GM of TABA, SOTR, & UUA RPs
PANDORA, Building 3: Dick Paranatural Phenomena Measuring
"Nuclear warfare, oh dear." Dr. Vectrof mumbled in surprise. The plausible threat of using such weapons in his universe was almost as old as he was, but it had gone so out of fashion over the decades that its only home nowadays were in works of fiction and the minds of paranoid bunker-dwelling hoarders whose might make therapists quite a pretty penny. Then again, its wasn't like world peace was more realistic without the threat of nuclear holocaust. The art of war had simply changed, and it changed so swiftly that weapons of mass destruction didn't need to be reserved for super powers anymore. Just hire a squad of Contractors.
"You say that the Zone is capable of expansion." the physicist stated as the group continued their journey to the Meteor Shard lab; just a little ways to go. "While the quarantine area within Hell's Gate tosses and turns like a hurricane, it neither grows nor shrinks in size. Do you have any theories as to why interacting with an anomaly would somehow strengthen the Zone as a whole?"
HGT, Hatsudai Government Building: Battleworld's Majority Population—Stupidly Powerful Children
"It pays to be swift and efficient on this planet," Nishijima smiled politely, "but I suppose I'm stating the obvious. Today's partner's can become tomorrow's vacancy; such is the ever-shifting nature of Battleworld. Which is why I make it a habit to approach diplomats in-person—we lack the time to entertain lengthy dances of etiquette and formality."
The Research Director lowered his chin slightly, giving Tosa a peculiar angle of seeing the ceiling lights completely reflect Nishijima's glasses, shielding his eyes from view. True, a naval-based air force had its advantages, but the question of deployment wasn't what Nishijima was interested in; after all, anti-aircraft weaponry can change direction, and if ally planes were spotted in enemy airspace, then some dangerous saber rattling was the best case scenario. What Nishijima wanted were stealth aircraft—jets that could fly under the radar so to speak, take photographs of the states below, and better inform him of what these dark kingdoms were up to. But seeing as how the delegate valued deployment flexibility over functionality, Nishijima had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't be getting what was at the top of his wish list. Not right now, at least.
Turning the discussion back to Luna Nova, the Research Director raised his chin and his dark eyes became visible once more. "No doubt the academy holds more than its fair share of secrets, though you will soon learn that the Cure has a peculiar habit of abducting powerful individuals still in secondary education. The planet seems to be flooded with magic or high-tech wielding adolescents, many of them completely lacking adult supervision. You can imagine what inevitably happens to such groups of children—impulsive young people sick of listening to authority, now armed with the strength to make their own rules, eventually cross a point of no return.
"In fact, our Tokyo has been delicately handling such a case for the past three days or so. The Special Extracurricular Execution Squad—or SEES for short—made some terribly bad first-impressions: allying with our city's most wanted terrorist immediately upon arrival, obtaining secret and highly-controversial information about our world and publishing it online, and harboring a murderer who slaughtered eleven police officers just outside our portal—you no doubt noticed our countermeasures to ensure such an attack never happens again. Indeed, I'd rank the SEES' leader—Minako Arisato—as one of the greater threats to Tokyo's security...and she's not even old enough to drive. Fortunately, it seems that she's willing to meet us halfway and a fragile arrangement has been made, but you see my point about how the children on Battleworld are not the sort you'd expect."
Nishijima took another sip of his tea, now fully lukewarm. Perhaps it was time to look at the "naval protection" offer more closely.
"Going back to your patrols—what sort of ships can you offer to guard Tokyo's shoreline? How large or small, how heavily-armed, and how many? You mention a naval aircraft, so I presume Azur Lane possesses carriers, but what of other classes of ships? Frigates? Battleships? Submarines? What can we show the people of Tokyo to demonstrate that PANDORA and Azur Lane can—and in the worst case scenarios, will—protect them?"
Castlevania, Castle Keep: Speaking of Stupidly Powerful Children...
If Majora could smile, it would be beaming. Mr. Count had a very good head on his shoulders, and it wasn't just because of all that flowy hair! With an encouraging wave to Koishi and Goht, along with the chipper promise to catch up to them once the little chat with the Count was done, the mask watched as a suspiciously-placed holy man took them out of the castle keep and began a tour of the giant building.
"Heh. Nice trick with the message, Mister. I gotta me get a pet like that!"
The Count could be forgiven for assuming Majora meant the bat.
"So." the mask began as it rose from the floor to levitate cross-legged at Dracula's eye-level. "You had the fun of meeting the biggest thorn in my backside for who knows how long. Your lackey learn anything else about him, apart from that he's so goody-goody it makes me want to grow a mouth and stomach just so I can puke?"
I have a plan.
Vector Imperial Palace - His Majesty Gestahl
Gestahl seemed to be pleased by the answers he received. With a simple wave of his hands, a few of his top brass filed neatly into the bowels of the massive Imperial capital building, to perform the backend of work on Gestahl's new campaign.
"On the contrary. According to my information, City 17 is due to experience a state of dare I say, anarchy. A single regiment is all that's required to set this part of the world back on path."
The Emperor tapped his finger onto the nations corresponding to Zi-Jin Cheng and the Outworld-controlled region of the Koopa Kingdom. "And it's pincered between two massive neighbors more than willing to capitalize on a lack of leadership. I will not stand by and watch two wasteful raider-states turn another country into their playground!"
The smirk Gestahl made to Große was hidden under his silvery mane, but the look in his matte eyes spoke loud and clear. "If you are capable of doing a favor, I think you should take advantage of your inherent mobility and spread the word wherever you go: To incur war upon City 17 is to incur war upon the Magitek Empire. I wish I express these words to my neighbors in person, but some of these nations have completely closed themselves off for several days, our neighbors in particular. It will buy us some time to mount a proper defense in City 17, and you'll have far more than Vector's appreciation as your reward."
Returners Campsite
"While we were still operating in the city, I had encountered a group of people from other countries—like you. The Gestalhian Empire had preparations to send their air force across the world to bombard whatever they saw, but now that they lost their factory, they won't be so aggressive."
Sadda took a whiff from his pipe, forcing Mog to scrunch his big red nose at the smell of more tear-inducingly strong tobacco being blown about the place. "We, the Returners, were not specifically identified as the culprits of this attack, so were are out here only as a preventative measure. No, it's Strelok who is really in trouble. He was with me while we attacked the Imperial aircraft base, but I only discovered later that Strelok met with Gestahl and the other leaders of Vector just before agreeing to fight against them! Now there is a one million Gil bounty for Strelok, and he's wanted alive."
A sprinkling of guilt came across Sadda's face. "I don't know much about Strelok, or which specific part of the world he's staying at, but if you ever find him, I hope you warn him. He's not hard to miss—He's always wearing a suit of armor with a... bubble-shaped helmet, and he's always got at least one rifle on his person."
Zone - Rookie Village - Shadow
Interceptor let out a single bark at Lucy to voice his disapproval at her getting to close, her yelling, her everything. Shadow, on the other hand, didn't budge, or blink an eye at the sudden, loud intrusion into his general vicinity. Instead, he glances at Strelok, giving him the friendliest nod that an unemotive, masked man with stiff posture can make.
"I did not come here to save a whole village. I was just helping Strelok return to his home."
Shadow paused.
He thought about the consequences of what might happen if he left right here and now.
Shadow sighed.
"But I get why you're worried," he said, his emotions just as veiled as his face. "If I can get the kind of weapons that are good enough to face off against the military—maybe, I'll consider fixing this issue for good."
Temen-ni-gru - General Celes Chere
Celes kept her eye close on link. It wasn't even a few minutes ago that he was on his back, looking like he was headed for the worst. All it took was a little healing to get him back up on his feet. The thought to run and hide probably didn't cross his mind, even now.
So then Link used that magic mask of his to transform into a big and mean looking golem, and he brought out a shield, and he looked as though he was going to fight an unstoppable demon with his unyielding strength and defense, and he had a creative plan that no military drill could come up with—
He threw his shield.
The only words Celes could think of saying at this exact moment were a single "Holy!"
If it was three eyes that had Link on the ropes, then Link didn't have to consider his mistake for much longer. Three large spheres of dazzling white light materialized from thin air just as Celes finished her words. They slowly drifted above the battlefield, orbiting around each other in perfect formation... Then they "saw" their target. It wasn't the situation Link was in that concerned these living weapons, but rather the source of everyone's problems—Artemis.
The three spheres began to fly upwards, towards Artemis, who had now cast herself under the sun's rays. They were aimed on Artemis like guided missiles, and if they touched anything, they'd explode in searing lights and heavenly terror.
Celes waved to Link while she was still behind the temporary safety of her ice pillar. Link had distracted her—She didn't realize that Holy just wasn't going to settle for a handful of eyes. "C'mon, kid! Don't leave yourself open!"
"@[=g3,8d]&fbb=-q]/hk%fg"
Sparda Estate
"Hmmph," Mirajane couldn't help but scoff. If the monster was hoping she would willingly fall to her death, it would be sorely mistaken. A fact that she reflected on as she wound up her dark arms, ready to spring into action... there were people besides her near the portal, it seemed.
With a sigh and a grunt, her giant shadow fists unclenched, turning them into giant shadow palms, which she outstretched to try helping catch Leo and Alfred in case they couldn't fly, and then ad some distance between them and the portal.
"Get to solid ground!" She hissed out. "Don' let him throw you around!"
Eternal Princess
Seeing the thing's skin sear under her attack earned a little fist pump from Constanze, followed by a muffled cheer from Akko as the boss monster was swallowed up in holy light. This fight was as good as done! Of course that was a mistake only a noob like Akko would make. A boss at a critical point like this had to at least go through two or three forms before he would go down. Right on cue, the creature suddenly switched it up, becoming much more aggressive in the process.
The earlier elation the Japanese girl felt disappeared when six swords suddenly appeared, all pointed at her and the passenger on her back. Faced with such danger, the girl did the only thing she could, turn around and leg it! A panic scream was muffled in her mouth as she made haste in full sprint. The first two swords were right on her heels, burrowing themselves right into the ground where her running feet had been but a moment before. The third sought to take her out just below the knees, causing the running girl to hop with legs pulled to her chest as the sword swept below her. As she landed, the girl stumbled, causing her to lean forward. A happy little accident as a sword meant for their heads passed above. She then spun out of the way of the fifth, before coming to a stop to regain her balance.
One could hardly chalk it up to skill with how sloppy her form was. Good instincts if one was being generous, though dumb luck was perhaps more accurate description. In either case, the witch had managed to dodge all the swords and come out unscathed. All five of them! Wait...five? Her eyes widen as she spotted the final sword still making its way right for her! With no momentum, she had no chance of getting out of the way in time. She flinched and prepared for pain, only for it to never come.
After taking a moment to realize she wasn't dead, Akko opened her eyes to find the sword stopped a short distance from her face. When the sword was no longer a danger, Constanze released the magical barrier protecting them. From over Akko's shoulder came a gloved thumbs up, both to signify a job well done as well as let the other girl know they were in the clear, for real this time.
Akko let down her friend from off her back as they took stock of their situation. Akko was out of breath from all the running around. Despite being able to load a new magical battery in her wand, Constanze gun was still in the process of cooling down. Back into its little robot form, Stanbot looked as worn out as Akko, even making the motion of wiping non-existent sweat from its metal brow. Most the others were on the defensive as the Boss monster made his move on the angel, seeking to take out their ace in the hole almost as soon as it arrived. It wasn't looking good, but when did that ever stop them. Taking a quick moment to change back into a tablet, Constanze showed a picture of what she was thinking to her friend. It was the same picture she showed another magical girl in the ruined city. The circumstances were different, but the idea was the same. It was time to fly.
A combustion motor roared to life before settling into a satisfying rumble. From god knows where, the engineer produced her custom built broom. After a few revs of the engine, Constanze pulled her goggles down into position and lifted her legs to take off. On her shoulder was a small mouse hitching a ride, the two girls switching positions in their piggy back combination form. At the front tip of the broom was the small robot posing like some figure head.
Urizen would hear the buzz of the approaching motor, quickly followed by a cacophony of gunfire. Constanze held out her M P5k with one out stretched hand as the small robot had armed itself with her pistol. The two were absolutely trigger happy as they rained down cover fire. With everyone on the defensive, it fell to them to counter attack. At least they didn't have to worry about friendly fire so much. 9mm rounds probably weren't the most suited for a foe like Urizen, but hopefully it was enough to provide a distraction. Like sand in the eyes, their goal was less to actually harm the creature, but provide an opening for the Angel to react, or perhaps even an unseen magical girl and contractor duo to do the deed.
For her part, the mouse on Constanze shoulder stuck out her tongue and pulled on her eye lid in a childish act of defiance to the big blue monster.
"If you keep targeting the pretty ones, we girls are going to get really mad!"
How do you kill that which has no life?
Meeting Room: A Doll by Any Other Name
God damn it!
Misaki was far too professional to say something like that, but her microexpressions got the message across easily enough. Discovering that the "safe" questions about life back home were far from comfortable subjects was upsetting enough to begin with; the fact they confirmed Misaki's suspicions just made the pit in her stomach sink a few extra inches. The "human battery" idea wasn't an imaginative hypothetical—Delfi was speaking from experience, and probably a wealth of experience at that.
...and yet Delfi was impressively calm about it all. Like it was some natural pecking order. Building walls with stoicism was one thing, but the Thundercore human had been more upset at her abduction—or rather liberation, if Delfi was telling the truth—than she'd been about her potential "uses" to the states of Battleworld or even her history back on her home world.
"I no longer have any friends."
People don't normally say things like this so calmly—not unless their the ones who burned the bridges. 6 years would be an awfully long time to keep someone separated from their friends and family, true, but Delfi wasn't a small child; she must've been 10, 11, or 12 when whoever imprisoned her arrived at her boarding house. Too old to not have any memory of life before becoming "property," as Delfi put it. And yet no signs of remorse.
Propaganda-fueled brainwashing, perhaps? Or something like M.E. tech?
Indeed, Delfi was exceptionally good at acting like a Doll...but maybe that was because she didn't have to do much "acting." She had the independence and agency that most human beings share, but she seemed...empty, somehow. Like whatever highs and lows of passion had been hollowed out, leaving a shell that could only waver between "pleasant conversation" and "restrained concern."
It was tragic, it was pitiful, it was enough to make Misaki's blood boil.
...and it still explained nothing.
"What were your friends like? Did you have a favorite game to play with them?"
The way Misaki pushed the subject would've come across as odd by pretty much anyone. Who cares about childhood friends you haven't seen in the better half of a decade? But the way she asked it—and the sharp microexpressions that accompanied the questions—suggested that the Section Chief was searching for some key detail to either make or break Delfi's story.
Luna Nova, Classroom: "Circumstances"
The silent abhorrence of Tsuchi's dissection went unnoticed, but only because she allowed herself to get too caught up in her own head. Once Barsa made her nervous peeping, the new student swiftly went to correct her curiosity...but not before double-checking that she placed the magic battery back just the way she'd taken it out. Electric batteries don't work if they're placed on the wrong charges—better not take chances with the magical sort.
The rest of the lesson went on remarkably uneventful, until a shell-shocked professor shambled into the classroom.
"I think I'm doing alright." The new student replied. "It's a bit of a steep learning curve, but I've got Barsa here, and Professor Croix's a great teacher!"
At first, Tsuchi matched friendly tone with friendly tone; both were fake, but at least Tsuchi was a much better liar. Something was definitely bothering the blue-haired witch, but the student found no reason to bring attention to it. Wasn't any of her business, and "being nosey" was probably the worst trait a spy's cover could have. So after giving the numerology professor a warm smile, Tsuchi turned her attention to Barsa as if to resume the exercise.
...only for Badcock to yank the new student's attention straight back to her with a single thought—a single word, even:
Circumstances.
"C-circumstances?" the new student blinked. The word could mean anything. Nothing, everything! How was she to know? Could be as simple as overcharging her room and board, or as dire as the entire staff knowing that she was a PANDORA spy! Badcock was bothered by something, after all—was she breaking under the pressure of speaking to Tsuchi knowing who (and what) she truly was?!
For a few moments after bringing up the bill, Tsuchi didn't dare to even breathe. She just stared at Badcock, searching for any sign of those goddamn circumstances. Then, finding no answers, the new student was forced to make the conscious effort to not—under any circumstances—turn her eyes to Croix.
With a push of willpower that seemed physically exhausting, the new student followed Badcock's reassurances with some of her own. "Well, I'm sure Uncle Eric can handle it."
Either that, or it'd be Tsuchi who was going to pay...
It seemed that Badcock must've noticed something off about the new student, since the witch swiftly turned to her fellow professor asking if Tsuchi was getting overworked. What, had some color left her face at the "circumstances?" Did she tear apart some of her cover just from nerves alone?! Perhaps the interruption was a blessing in disguise; out of courtesy to Badcock and the clearly private conversation she wanted with Croix, Tsuchi turned her back to the professors to get in a few more reps of the exercise.
The call for a recess either a great relief or a death blow, and it'd take more than a short break for Tsuchi to figure out which. Hell, at this point she half expected Croix to return with the entire faculty and that minotaur guard to detain her for good measure. Professor Lukic was probably dying to turn her into a toad, a worm, or (perhaps most appropriate) a rat! That's not counting what sort of "traditional" forms of corporeal punishment Luna Nova prides itself in keeping alive. Maybe they'd throw her into that impenetrable forest Diana was bragging about yesterday—let the monsters solve their problem!
With so many unnerving thoughts running through her head, it'd come as no surprise that Tsuchi exited the classroom without paying much attention to her surroundings...at least, not until it was far too late.
The new student let out a short but genuine cry of surprise before the noisy and comic collision.
Eternal Princess
"If you want to go on a diet, just come to the school's cafeteria. I'll prepare some special nutritious meals just for you."
Despite the kind offer, Reisen's smile was a little suspect. Admittedly the bunny girl was more looking for job security then to be helpful. She was already made homeless twice on Battleworld, and she had the nagging feeling that if there came budget cuts to Luna Nova, she was the first to go. That was just how her luck tended to go.
If carrying the full grown woman was not trying enough, Reisen then had to contend with keeping down her lunch with the scene that followed. Reisen had a disgusted look on her face as she watched the thing break it's own limbs to perform its next attack. Living with immortals, you see people survive all sorts of things they have no business living through. That didn't make it any easier or any less disgusting.
Looked like Lady was pulling out the heavy duty Spell cards now. She was really going to have to give her all if she wanted to survive this. That meant she had to lose the dead weight. Once she was close enough to the tower, she would give the witch a little boost by pressing her foot to the witch's bum and giving a shove. Just to make sure she made it.
Luckily Artemis had to divide her arsenal between the whole group, leaving Reisen only needing to contend with nine. Easier said then done. The eyes quickly surrounded her in a cage, both limiting her area to move while providing multiple angles she had to be cautious of. It reminded her of Master's Spell card: Spacesphere "Earth in a Pot". She floated in place, her focus darting from one eye to the next to see where the first attack was coming from.
"Go ahead and shoot! I'll just..."
The floating eyes seemed to take her suggestion. The nine blasted away at the bunny girl in the middle until her form seemed to be unable to take any more punishment and exploded, leaving behind a small cache of red and blue powerups. Any one hoping to collect would be disappointed however as the illusion disappeared. The real Reisen reappeared out side encircling eyes, her bunny eared pistol now looking more like a bunny eared blunderbuss. With the eyes in her sights, she let out a spread of nine danmaku, hoping to clear out her attackers in a single strike.
The Lunarian's face was oddly gloomy despite being in a much better position then the illusion. The smell of singed flesh told Reisen what the searing pain up her left arm had already let her know. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Getting hit when the enemy couldn't even see you! Rabbits weren't known for their durability. Even this much will prove problematic going forward. Plus her eyes were still throbbing, making even small illusion like this an effort. The previous fights didn't allow her to really test the limits placed on her by the Cure. Now she was learning them the hard way.
If Reisen's attack failed to take out the eyes, she would begin flying in an attempt stay ahead of her pursuers and keep them from surrounding her again. In either case, Trevor's call for action would bring the bunny girls attention upward and toward the orb. She couldn't help but look annoyed. Of course attacking them with 50+ eyes was not enough, she also had to be charging for some big bang attack! This Lady really was a giant pain in the butt!
"Just so you know, if you survive this Lady, you are being billed for so much health and stress compensation on top of a flat rate! Plus a new jacket for the one you ruined!"
With that, Reisen would point a finger gun at Artemis and let loose with bullet shaped danmaku in her own contribution to stop orb from killing them all.
How do you kill that which has no life?
Sparda Estate
Sayaka looked from Maki to Urizen, the latter now focused on dealing pain to the rest of their group and had his back turned to them. Now was as good a time as any. "Alright, I'll be right back," she said before making her run, using her magic-boosted speed to streak for each of his heels, shoving an arrow into the first before repeating the move at the second and then bolting to a safe-ish distance, a new sword summoned in hand just in case.
Tower
Well, the good news was neither Kyubey nor Homura had a mass telepathic LAN set up, so they didn’t have to hear starry-eyed Link go fanboy out of the blue. The bad news was that both of them now had to deal with direct immediate threats to them personally with all the new enemies floating around. From her cover spot near Aigis, Homura looked back over at where Kyubey and Tatl were, seeing one of those floaty shooty eyes heading towards the two small creatures...as well as the ocarina. Quick as a flash (with some help from her Time Shield), Homura made an arcing path towards the white alien space ferret thing, hauling out the Walther PPK from seemingly nowhere as she rushed for the instrument.
Kyubey looked up at Tatl’s callout to see the worst case of pinkeye he’d ever seen staring back at him. He hopped to the side just as the first shot from it whizzed past his original spot, seeing the eye turn to track him upon which he moved again to avoid the shot. Repeat as necessary until the chasing eye was shot out of the air by Homura, who would swoop in and secure the ocarina left by the base of the column but shoving it inside her Time Shield so that it wouldn’t get loose again.
Mitakihara Middle School - Roof
“She’s giving the tour.” Kyoko motioned to Madoka. “I don’t actually go here.”
"Uh...sort of," Madoka settled upon for an answer to Wendy's question. "We're in the middle of Golden Week, so school was supposed to be closed today anyway and all the way until the 8th. But then Walpurgisnacht came a few days ago and the city was damaged really badly, and then we got pulled into BattleWorld right afterwards. It was pretty bad here for a few days until Homura-chan made a wish to fix all the damage. I don’t know if we’ll have classes yet on Monday — it might depend on whether there’s enough teachers here that can come, I guess.”
“Would be better if there wasn’t, to be honest.” Kyoko held open the door to let Madoka back inside, letting the others go first so that she’d bring up the rear. “Especially if we have to keep running around outside to fight things. Not really sure I could handle everything all by myself while the rest of you sit at desks and try not to think about when the next attack would be.”
Though hardly someone he knew, Mono would hear the sound of rapidly approaching stomps as Ozen ran over to him. The others were protecting themselves well enough already. Even Link had his own gaggle of defenders...Tatsu wasn't going to be enough. She would protect him as she would any member of her expedition, blocking any incoming bolts solely by placing her hardened body in-between them.
Anti-Gnosis Weapon
Sparda Estate
"Thanks!" Minako cheered as Morrigan scooped her up off the ground, "I was just thinking— BLUH!" she paused and her head wretched to the side as Urizen's fist met Helel's face, who, being resistant to physical attacks, reeled back and roared in pain but didn't disappear, "—a pick-me-up would be nice!"
The Fool dismissed her Vel back into subspace and brought her Evoker to her temple. "Helel! Mind Charge!" Smirking at his opponent, the seraph shattered into light and reappeared flying alongside the succubus and his mistress.
"I'm going to hit him with the same spell as before!" she shouted to the Queen of Makai over the rushing of air past her ears, "We need to get in closer for a couple seconds!"
Meanwhile Spider-Man danced about the monstrosity's bullet attacks and dodged the pyre attack as soon as he noticed the illumination coming from under his feet, just barely avoiding it. Man, this is way harder without being able to rely on my spider-sense for more than my field of view! he groused internally as he felt the heat from the fire pass him by.
Seeing as the enemy was in roughly the same place as before, at least our hero didn't have to move too much closer before he loosed another couple weblines with a pair of thwip!s aimed at Urizen's lower legs, which the webhead would then use to attempt to pull the monster's legs out from under him.
Tower Apex
While Palladion served well enough to shield her from Artemis' bullet attacks, the talk with Homura had cleared Aigis' doubts, and as the monster charged up a very obvious super-attack, the mechanical maiden swapped out her right arm for her beam cannon once more. After a couple seconds of charging, it was primed and pointing at the winged creature's topmost right wing, where Aigis fired (BWOOOOOOOOOOM) at the joint and then swept the beam down across the other wings, aiming to sever both Artemis' flight and the power source adding to the charge attack at once.
GM of AGOG S4: Frontiers RP; Sub-GM of TABA, SOTR, & UUA RPs
Sparda Estate- Josuke Higashikata
Josuke was indeed pushed away by the shockwave before being caught by Crazy Diamond. His Stand then leaped back to avoid the blue flames. Upon seeing everybody assault the demon king with projectiles, he figured that charging in would be foolish.
It was after the thing tried to attack Minako that he acted. The Japanese teenager charged towards Urizen, with his pink Stand raising its fist. Once they were close, he would try to take advantage of his momentum to punch the demon in the back of the head with Crazy Diamond's arm.
Temen-ni-gru - Okuyasu and Yukako
When the bullets came flying, Okuyasu acted quickly. He ran across all the battlefield, trying to erase as many projectiles as he could with the Hand's power. This left him too busy to try attacking Artemis.
Yukako, meanwhile, simply leaped to avoid them. When she saw the bird demon preparing another attack, the teenage girl acted quickly. She threw herself at the deformed Lady, then tried to use her elongated hair to entangle the latter.
Edited by Alecoene on Feb 3rd 2021 at 11:11:10 AM
Urizen could only smirk as the angel shattered to pieces in a single blow—what else could be expected in the face of true power?
Of course, that quiet victory was short-lived. Not only did the irksome seraphim reappear beside the succubus and her passenger, but the other mortals were crawling back for more punishment. Were he in a better mood, perhaps the demon king might entertain dealing with them slowly, but that time had passed. He was more than sick of these pests.
The rapid tapping of mustard seeds swept across the nape of his neck, and in a moment of unwise aggravation Urizen turned to face his attacker...only to discover that Constanze and Stanbot's assault was just the prelude to the Stand User's strike. With his target changing position, Crazy Diamond would find itself delivering a powerful haymaker not to the back of Urizen's skull, but straight into the demon king's left cheek.
The punch struck true, Urizen's head turned with the blow, and a bloody smirk shot onto his face.
"Pathetic."
That was all the warning Josuke would get before another six plumes of hellfire ignited beneath his feet. In another moment, he'd be engulfed in blue flames, just as Urizen had tried to do before. But the demon king was ready for the getaway this time: should Josuke manage to leap over the pillars of flame, he'd be met with a swift punch to send him flying across the battlefield; should he dodge to the left, right, or retreat backwards, the demon king would be ready with a low sweeping kick to treat Josuke like a human footballnote .
With one nuisance out of the way, Urizen turned his focus to the odd sensation on the back of his leg. Another set of those peculiar ropes? If the web-slinger sought to bring down this Goliath, he'd have to do a lot more than pull at his calves and pin-prick his ankles a few times. Wasting no time to look behind him, Urizen burnt through the webbing with some well-placed pillars of hellfire, then resorted to his first countermeasure: crossing his arms and summoning a powerful force of hurricane winds.
Those not caught up in this blast or the first might notice something troubling about the difference: the first gust acted only as a deterrent, it just pushed back anyone within ten feet of the demon king to a more maneuverable distance. But now, with a full-blooded Devil Trigger behind his attack, the storm engulfed anyone within thirty feet of Urizen—Spider-Man, Josuke, Akko, Constanze, Morrigan, Minako, and (though she deemed the distance safe-ish) Sayaka—with enough force to hurt a lot more than a strong push away from the source.
Once again blessed with a moment's peace, Urizen swiftly glanced around the battlefield to choose his next target. He didn't need to look far, as the demon he'd tried to trap earlier was preoccupied getting the two humans beside her to safety. The elaborate trap had failed, sad to say; he hadn't realized the woman could sprout black wings at will, and was more than capable of bearing the weight of two men while afloat.
Perhaps it was time for a simpler approach.
The unused portal above the pit of spikes disappeared, only to be replaced with a smaller version that appeared just beside Urizen's head. Much like he'd done against the angel earlier, Urizen shelled his hand in flame and drove it through the portal with a furious yell. The result was a massive uppercut that threatened to land straight into an unsuspecting Mirajane—and possibly Alfred and Leo, should they not manage to escape to the portal's edge. Whether the strike landed or not, Urizen would withdraw his arm almost as soon as it emerged, so as not to tempt that sword-wielding human from getting any ideas.
By now, Urizen expected that the angel would have recovered enough to begin a counter attack—not that he was about to wait for another one of those so-called-heavenly beams to strike him once again. Another pair of portals opened, and the demon king quickly warped far from Helel's firing range. With another spell cast to raise two of the large sweeping lasers from before, Urizen was now ready to—
SNAP!
"Gyah!"
A sharp pain bore into the demon king's calves, as if the demon blade Sparda itself had driven its way through his legs. The spell stopped mid-cast, and the death-bringing circles evaporated. Panting softly through the anguish, Urizen flipped through its causes as quickly as he could. Did the webs hide something? What about the other strikes he'd bore? The knees, the legs, the ankles, the pests were quite fond of striking some non-vital areas...
"Try to get him on his back!"
He hadn't put any thought into the human's strategy at the time; what good were strategies that held no hope of success? But now...Urizen winced as he shifted his weight to pivot the back of his left calf into view: it wasn't his calf that was damaged—his Achilles tendon had been snapped apart! And judging by the pain in both of his legs, it took no genius to guess how his right leg had fared.
"To think a meager human would devise a way to defeat me." Urizen pondered. A flicker of surprise sprung to his eye, only for it to be immediately snuffed out by pure rage. "To think a meager human would dare to TRY!"
With plenty of space between himself and any squad of assailants, Urizen began casting a symphony of spells to keep any would-be attackers—and especially the angel and its redhaired master—as far away from him as possible:
With Akko and Constanze still presumably capable of flight (even if the winds had forced an emergency landing), a flurry of thirty pink bullets rained down towards them, capable of trailing a flying broom like tiny witch-seeking missiles. Since Sayaka, Josuke, and Spider-Man would find themselves landing on a patch of crimson earth (either separated or together), they would have a few seconds head-start before the thorn-like spikes beneath them and around them suddenly burst into a forest of pikes eager to stake them all. Whether the Uppercut from Hell had landed or not, Urizen would try to finish Mirajane, Alfred, and Leo off with another sweeping laser attack from the front...only for another sweeping laser to appear from behind a few moments later. Just in case Mirajane thought she could counter the same way twice. With no sign of the group by the lone tree, and since Maki lacked the speed or agility to dare show his face once the battle began, the other low-priority targets were left alone.
As for the Demon, the Angel, and the Fool, Urizen pulled out all the stops: ten greatswords summoned in front of the demon king and shot towards their targets like throwing darts, forty bullets to rain down on the trio with thirty of the pink projectiles aiming for Helel alone. Just when the group had flown halfway to their destination, the demon king played an ace in the hold: a transparent dark blue orb that would engulf the attackers and slow down the speed of their movement. Whether this technique was a simple debuff to counteract Minako's earlier spells, or an isolated distortion of time itself, it was tough to say. What wasn't tough to determine was that Urizen was already preparing a second wave of attacks to bring the trio down.
That...hurt.
Two words, one idea, and a few too many pain signals brought the Black Reaper back to consciousness. As the chaotic bullet hell flared and gradually subsided around him, Hei dragged himself off the tower's cold stone and back to his feet. Naturally drawn to the sudden presence of sunlight in the otherwise dark and cloudy sky, Hei was among the last warriors to realize just what Artemis was up to.
"What...the hell?"
Sypha's Blue Splash managed to catch eight of her thirteen little assailants, who dispersed on impact with a small but satisfying spark. Those that remained sought to double their efforts—until a certain vampire hunter managed to hit two of them by surprise while defending himself against his own trail of little targets. There were some benefits to using a whip as a weapon.
Celes' mid-battle critique caught the Goron's full attention. He was leaving himself open? Was it—ow—really that—ouch—obvi—quit it! He was about to attempt another futile slap at one of the eyes when the Vector general cast another powerful spell to try and bail Link out...only it seemed the magic wasn't interested in small fry, and went straight for the source. Even amid a pinching assault of tiny Beamos attacks, the not-so-little hero couldn't help but watch those three mighty orbs as they ascended to the sky and...
Uh oh.
Link snatched the Knights Shield and doubled back towards Celes, all the while frantically gesturing to her and making low but panicky cries to get her attention. Even without words, the way the rock creature shook his head, repeatedly crossed his forearms into an "X," and gritted his teeth into an upset grimace made the message clear:
No holy attacks! If the Demon Lady was part monster right now, a holy attack from such a powerful witch might kill her!
Link paused mid-panic to note that the three eyeballs that had been pestering him seemed to have disappeared, and a guy in a black coat and a mask was walking past him and over to Sell S. The man had a strange-looking shortsword in one hand, and his other arm swung limp beside him; funny, it looked slightly longer than the oth—why was he hunching his shoulder like that?
"Did we lose anyone else?" Hei asked Celes as he leaned into the ice pillar's cover.
Meanwhile, Reisen's deception worked like a charm, and seeing as how the Moon Rabbit was the greater danmaku player, she had no trouble dispatching the eyes targeting her. Unfortunately, her luck fell a little short when it came to striking Artemis directly; it was tough to tell if the Bunny Gun was too weak to harm her target, or whether Artemis was simply able to take the hit and not flinch, but the result remained the same. The devastating attack continued to charge.
Yukako's strategy to restrain her opponent ended about as well as it did last time...only this time it was much harder to do. Artemis was floating over fifty feet above the top of the tower, and with nothing more than the cable dangling from Artemis' tail to help Yukako latch onto her enemy, she needed to use every strand of Love Deluxe she could in order to reach just that wiring. Once she did, she had to be especially careful to avoid the glowing pink orb Artemis was feeding energy to with her six wings—it had no solid mass, but judging by the heat it radiated, she could safely assume it would burn her hair on contact...and she'd probably need as much of it as she could keep to survive a fall from this height. Finally, came the obstacle that did her in last time: once Artemis felt that stringy nuisance trying to wrap itself around her again, she opened up the top of her head, and—
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"
Coming at point blank range, the screech would be enough to temporarily stun and deafen almost anyone who wasn't prepared for itnote . Perhaps the Stand User had come prepared and used tufts of Love Deluxe into some makeshift earplugs, but at this height, and with no immediate backup—indeed, with her allies already firing at Artemis to try to stop whatever attack she was charging up—Yukako might need to reassess if now was the right time to pin the enemy down. Should she decide to retreat and wait for a better opportunity, at least her Stand would be more than capable of cushioning her fall.
Tatl flew in a panicked pattern, not knowing what to do or which way to fly. The eyeball wasn't after her just yet, but what if it hit the cat-thing? Then it'd go after her, and how the heck was she supposed to beat it?! She didn't know how to fight! That's what her partner was here for!
Thankfully, before the fairy could fall too far down that rabbit hole, she and Kyubey were saved by a Magical Girl ex Machina. One clean shot, and the menacing eyeball perished.
"Oh, thank the gods!" Tatl half sighed, half wheezed. "Now we can get back to the kid and—"
Once again, the developments on the battlefield interrupted the fairy: the three bright orbs of Celes' Holy spell struck Artemis with a powerful light, and while it seemed to harm the target, it didn't do so to any satisfying (or, thankfully, too effective) degree. It was Aigis' weapon that turned the battle on its head—with the burning anguish of slicing and cauterizing the stump of just one wing, Artemis learned her lesson and moved away.
...but it was too late. While it might not have been as destructive as it could have been, the little ball of energy dropped from Aremis' grasp and down to the center of the tower. At first, nothing happened. Then a warm pink glow emanated from the blast site, spreading outward until most of the tower's roof was engulfed in its light. But like the birth of a star, the force of the disturbance was slower than the speed of light; first the warriors would feel a strong pull towards ground zero, followed by an even more powerful push away from the blast site. Finally, the speed of sound caught up with the entire scene, and the BOOOM of a gut-punching teeth-rattling explosion delivered the final blow.
When all was said and done, the center of Temen-ni-gru seemed to be bordering on imploding. The fallen pillar Ozen had weaponized had been broken into head to torso-sized chunks and strewn across the tower—possibly flying into some warriors if they weren't careful. The ice pillar shielding Hei and Celes had shattered, though they now had a big rock monster shielding them from the debris (even if he was whimpering a bit at the cold). The foundation of the remaining pillars had shaken to their core, but remained standing, and a sound strategy for any quick-thinkers may have been to shield themselves from the blast by taking cover on the sides facing the outside of the tower. A risky gamble if the blast pushed them off, but it was safer than facing into the explosion and sustaining serious injuries.
But despite the grave danger it placed the warriors in, it seemed that the premature launch of this attack had been a double-edged sword. Without enough warning to hear the sound to retreat, the eyes had all perished in the blast. As she floated down exhausted from the effort, only Artemis—and her five remaining wings—remained.
Edited by TheodoreHastings on Feb 4th 2021 at 11:35:36 AM
Sparda Estate(?)
Mami’s eyes widened as much as they could when she saw Urizen wind up to throw a Nero fastball down at the knees of the tree. No time to find an escape out of the tree — her arm clutched the jar containing her soul as securely as it could before she sent a ribbon to tie itself around the tree and brace for impact.
Sayaka picked her head up at the sound of a boy’s voice, seeing Maki again holding out a pair of crossbow bolts for her to take. Right after that the rumbling of Urizen tumbling into the portal and to another spot farther from them drew her attention, his size and defiance holding her attention for a moment before looking back at Maki. “You have an idea on how to do more than making him step on explosive Legos?” she quipped, though she took the arrows from him regardless and turned to see where he had gone and start looking at how to get close again.
Tower
Kyubey didn’t flinch as the energy waves from Artemis passed over his head, the ocarina still wedged between his body and the side of the column. <It is still intact. How long will it take him to perform the song you mentioned earlier?>