A Game of Gods: A Multiversal Challenge

Narumi carried Phi and followed the others.

As the Champions debated what to do next, something large, hideous and navy-hued erupted from the sands and stomped onto the path ahead of them; a great deal larger than the burrowing humps to either side, this beast resembled a monstrous amalgamation of a praying mantis and some manner of demon. The chitinous horror stood some ten feet tall on two powerful digitigrade talons, and a long, sinnous tail which ended in some manner of grasping appendage trailed off behind it; it had four arms, the lower pair of which were shorter and ended in two grasping claws, and the upper limbs featured a pair of wickedly-curved, scythelike talons nearly four feet in length. Barbed mandibles framed a distended jaw full of ghastly molars and teeth, and the creature's soulless eyes glowed venomous green with a cruel intellect.

Giving the Champions and their allies no time at all to react, it braced its feet on the ground and loosed a high-pitched, feral scream so powerful that Lambda actually cried out in pain and dropped to his knees; if anyone were to investigate—and they could not, for the scream had had much the same effect on them all—they would see that rivulets of silver blood were actually running from his ears. Worse, there was a secondary effect to this awful cry—one which would become apparent quite shortly...

"SHI...NNOK!" yelled Sub-Zero. "And I thought Sindel's screams were bad..." The ninja froze his ears so that he could repair his hearing. When he looked up, he mouthed a severe curse. "Oh, come on! I thought we were done with the abomination fighting! I'm getting Ending Fatigue here..."

edited 3rd Jul '11 2:02:11 PM by TestYourMight

Kimimaro had again instinctively activated the small protective bone-plates inside his ears, protecting his hearing. Samehada had sprung into action, twisting and turning, wrapping itself over its master's head, covering his ears.

UHH!

-Isaac drops to the ground, hands over ears.-

Concentrate... Got... To...

-A stalactite falls towards the monstrosity.-

Rey yelped, clapping his hands over his ears, stumbling slightly, glancing back at the beast, eyes widening. "Oh this just keeps getting better and better!" He held out the sword, starting to channel shadowstuff into it.

"My ears!"

Spriggan shouted, covering his ears. The other two did the same. The Stig didn't hear much thanks to his helmet. He had his visor closed to drown out the sound.

Mason went down.

Narumi tried not to give in to the noise.

Sub-Zero remembered he was holding ice grenades. They were even more powerful because he had overformed them- normally, they would destory a man's head and torso, but these would destroy the whole person. He tossed them at the abomination.

Hope fell to his knees, and then collapsed, the sound drilling into his brain.

Unfortunately, as the scream died away and the Champions began to respond to this sudden assault, they found that, despite their best efforts, nothing happened; no stalactite fell from above to strike the creature, no shadowstuff gathered along the blade of Rey's sword, and Sub-Zero, Kimimaro and Kisame would find no ice, altered bone or even a morphing, twisting living sword to protect their ears from this sonic attack, leaving them to take full damage—and the ice grenades melted into slush before they could leave the Lin Kuei's hands. Lambda too found that he could not conjure any sort of power to unleash upon the creature, and stiffled a curse as he realized just what had happened.

"i hUNgER!!!" the monstrosity roared, its voice a fusion of two separate tones so that its words were at once bone-shudderingly deep and painfully high in pitch. It began to advance towards the Champions, and if they payed attention they would notice that a large number of barbs and bony spurs were sprouting along its armoured thorax...

edited 3rd Jul '11 2:03:32 PM by SullenFrog

"Uh... This isn't good!"

Spriggan began to grab one of the few remaining incendiary grenades from his tac vest.

As soon as the sound had stopped, Kimimaro's healing factor (one can't pull bones from one's body without a method to repair any soft tissues damaged in the process) repaired his eardrums, while Samehada briefly, partially merged with Kisame, donating a tiny portion of its life-force to repair Kisame's eardrums. As the being lunged, the two shinobi dashed away to either side, both of them simultaneously throwing an explosive tag at what they hoped was its head.

"Ah HELL!" Rey seemed to mentally shrug, taking the sword in both hands, standing his ground, ready to fight as soon as the monster or anything of it's came into reach.

No Psynergy? Here goes, then...

-Isaac draws the Gaia Blade and prepares to attack.-

Mason fired 10 rounds at this thing.
Why did I forget the M203?

"Oh come on!" said Sub-Zero. "It's bad enough fighting three bosses in a row, but now we're fighting one who cheats?" A rage flew through Sub-Zero. "I. Am. Going. To. Drive. This. Thing. Mad." He turned his ears to ice, hoping it would repair his hearing, and began shouting like Raiden did whenever he was doing the Torpedo move.

"I'M MUMBLING!" the ninja yelled in a high-pitched voice. "I NEED TO GET IN A CAR!" He kept on yelling these things at the monster.

The Doctor collapses on the ground. That's worse than my sonic screwdriver ever could be.

Unfortunately, the scream's ability-nullifying power was still in effect even though the monster had fallen silent several seconds earlier; as such, Sub-Zero's ears remained unfrozen and Kimimaro and Kisame would find that the explosive tags they threw at the monstrosity, deprived of the chakra they needed to activate their incendiary properties, were just scraps of paper. They slapped against the abomination's thick carapace and bounced off, drifing harmlessly to the ground. The bullets, by contrast, had a bit more of an effect; Mason's fire riddled the creature's carapace with small bulletholes which quickly began to ooze with a viscous green ichor, although if the creature actually registered pain from these minor injuries, it gave no indication that this was the case.

"sUFFeR!" it bellowed, rounding on the squaliform Missing Nin and swinging one of its scything talons at him in a swift and extremely powerful overhand slash; as it did so, the barbs and darts covering its thorax armour suddenly exploded into motion, launched from its chest by some manner of muscular contraction and shooting towards Kisame in a deadly hail of bony flechettes; even if he dodged the claw or the barbs, he would not be able to evade both at once.

Lambda rose to his feet, curling his hands into fists and bringing them up in a ready stance. He was not about to engage the arthropod horror in melee combat just yet, however; he knew that the beast was dangerously powerful, and that those massive mandibles and jaws were not merely for show. If he dove in alone, before the dampening effect wore off and his powers returned, then he would be slaughtered in short order.

edited 3rd Jul '11 2:53:59 PM by SullenFrog

"Quit cheating, you son of a wraith, and let me freeze my ears!" said Sub-Zero. He then returned to making high-pitched yells about how he was mumbling and needed to get in a car.

Kimimaro ducked and backpedalled, Flash-Stepping out of the thing's range. Kisame dodged the overhead strike and used Samehada to block the projectiles, the ultra-dense spike-scales of the living weapon deflecting them with a metallic clang even through the bandages. He took out and threw a Smoke Bomb at the creature's face.

Sullen, are Kimimaro's bone manipulation and Samehada's energy absorption affected?

edited 3rd Jul '11 2:45:34 PM by DKN117

Mason saw his shots weren't registered by this thing, but still hurt it, so he threw a Frag.
"Frag out!"

edited 3rd Jul '11 2:56:50 PM by GeekCodeRed

Rey rushed forward, gripping the sword, swinging it around towards the beast. "I don't need superpowers to fight, you ugly son of a bitch!"