[center][u][b]Reiko, Princess Rainbow[/b][/u][/center]
[hider=After the coin toss][i]Alright![/i] She thought. [i]We’ve finally made it![/i] It had taken far longer than expected to get to the Green sector of the Faded City. She hadn’t accounted for the extra weight that Taro made up even though it wasn’t much, and had misjudged a lot of jumps on the way to their destination. Taro had fainted when she first missed a jump so that was fortunate for him because she had missed a whole lot more than the first one.

She was revelling in her achievement when she realized that something was wrong. Somehow she hadn’t noticed it before but there was a whole lot of noise coming from the direction of the Fanged Ranger’s guild hall. Still hoisting Taro, she reactivated her Rainbow Rush to climb a building and see what had happened. What she saw was shocking.

The entire guild hall was gone. Heck, the entire sector of the city was gone. There was some kind of humungous crater where it had been, which was now filled with dissolutions.

[b]”What the hell happened here?”[/b][/hider]

[center][u][b]Keith, Eclipsed Tower[/b][/u][/center]

[hider=Some time before the coin toss][i]Alright.[/i] Keith thought, perfecting his plan in his mind. His health had regenerated back to about ¾ of his maximum and most of his abilities had recharged. Trifold Eclipse still had 10 minutes left but he didn’t need to use that. [i]Time to go.[/i]

While he ran from the horde that chased after him, he had been formulating a plan. The plan was completely suicidal and ordinarily out of the question. However, he was going to die here and no amount of skill was really going to change that. With that in mind he formulated a tactic, a tactic with his survival as unnecessary. Now was the time to carry it out.

[i]Vigilance II.[/i] He activated his ability and dashed out of his cover. The dissolutions and the team of Outlaws noticed him immediately and started to give chase. The reason he was using Vigilance II was to bait the crowd. He ran just fast enough so that they could almost reach him, but not close enough to catch him. The outlaws began to fire their weapons, bullets again peppering the ground around him. He raised his shield to block the worst of it and kept going. Bullets narrowly missing him, he ran as he heard the Dragon's roar.

[i]Now comes the hard part.[/i] He thought grimly, as the Dragon rounded a corner. The Dragon was a serious problem, and also the key to his plan. The Dissolution was about as strong as a level 9, but his intelligence wasn’t even close to a normal player’s. The Dragon charged straight at Keith, jaws open, ready to snap. [i]Vigilance V.[/i]
Speed multiplying again, he jumped up over the Dragon’s mouth, the jaws snapping shut below him, and as the bulk of the dragon’s body quickly rushed by, he grabbed onto its tail and held on tight. The Dragon felt it, of course, though it didn’t do much damage it would still hurt the beast and that was what he wanted. His horde of pursuers also chased after him still, although he was on the tail of the Dragon.

The Dragon thrashed his tail, trying in vain to dislodge the enemy holding onto his tail. Keith wouldn’t give, and the Dragon continued to thrash in vain. The dragon, realizing its efforts were fruitless decided to instead try to dislodge the player by ramming his tail against a nearby building. The tail swung at high speed, but Keith managed to block most of the damage from the impact of hitting the building by blocking it with his shield, still managing to hold onto the Dragon’s tail.

Clearly frustrated, the Dragon tried a final ploy at destroying the puny parasite stuck on his tail. In an impossible feat of aerial manoeuvrability, it twisted its body so that its underside faced the sky, then flicked its tail upwards with all of its strength. The Dragon was pleased to find that the annoying creature flew upwards. The Dragon, seizing the opportunity, started to breathe a column of fire straight at the apparently helpless player… which is exactly what he wanted.

[i]Meteor Slam.[/i] Keith activated his ability aiming it slightly to the left of the Dragon’s head. He rushed quickly towards the Dragon’s neck, cancelling the ability mid-air and grasping the exposed neck. The rough scales provided a perfect hand-hold and he used the momentum of his fall to swing the other side of his body under the Dragon’s neck and using his other arm to hold on to the other side. He then swung his legs up and hooked them into some chinks in the Dragon’s scales. With his feet now stable, he begin to bend himself backwards, redirecting the Dragon’s head to point downwards, though the rest of its body was not.

The breath of fire meant to destroy the supposedly helpless player was now directed downwards, a relentless torrent of flame incinerating the horde of low-level dissolutions and the Outlaw team. The fire was however, also damaging Keith. Though he was not directly hit, the heat was enough to rapidly drain his health. He craned his neck downwards, and saw that all of his pursuers were destroyed. The Dragon still somehow managed to stay afloat, its beating wings actually taking it higher somehow. [i]Good.[/i] He thought. [i]And now, to finish this.[/i]

Bending backwards even more, he applied more and more pressure onto the unfortunate Dragon’s neck. The Dragon's neck was clearly never supposed to bend that way, and he could feel the bones inside it starting to splinter and fracture under the strain. His health was still decreasing rapidly, 30% left and fading fast. He was burning from the fire-breath but the Dragon's neck still had a few seconds to go. He didn't know if his health would hold out.

25%, 20%, 15%, 10%. His health kept going down, but he could feel the Dragon was almost down, just a little more!

5%, and...

The Dragon's neck snapped backwards with an almighty crack, 1% of his health remaining and the Dragon Dissolution was dead.

[i]Finally.[/i] Keith thought, as the Dragon in his hands dissolved into experience crystals, all rushing into the slayer of its host. This was the end of his battle today, there would be nothing after this. The guilds would have to resolve their wars without him. Even though he wasn't exactly an important person, he still wanted to do something big, become someone important. He realised it now, but that was the first time he'd ever wanted something other than to do well in this game. It was a new experience for him, one of many that had occurred today.

He closed his eyes, wearily contented as his avatar burned to death, still yet to reach the ground.[/hider]