[hr][hr][center][h1][color=000000][u]B[/u][/color] [u]L[/u] [u]A[/u] [u]C[/u] [u]K[/u]   [color=000000][u]F[/u][/color] [u]L[/u] [u]A[/u] [u]G[/u][/h1][/center][hr][hr]
[center][img]https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/bbaa048a-5807-4dc1-b2d3-766796da9c8f/d89gvib-2f018893-694a-44c1-bc40-d2a7eb80fa24.jpg/v1/fill/w_1024,h_577,q_75,strp/docks_evil_fight_by_klauspillon_d89gvib-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9NTc3IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvYmJhYTA0OGEtNTgwNy00ZGMxLWIyZDMtNzY2Nzk2ZGE5YzhmXC9kODlndmliLTJmMDE4ODkzLTY5NGEtNDRjMS1iYzQwLWQyYTdlYjgwZmEyNC5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTAyNCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.e6QtH3zPNl6ajVOhARsf31BxYN_1vmlyg1k48tJMRGc[/img]
[sub][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ4czITpeVQ]♪[/url][/sub][/center][hr][hr]

[hider=View a full, unedited transcript of the live battle even from discord here][center][h1][u]Battle by the Docks[/u][/h1][/center][b][u]Scene One:[/u][/b]There was no time wasted. Scarce had the two pieces of Wvysen's body hit the ground than two copies of each enemy appeared. One of them had already grabbed Onarr in a kinetic grasp before he even knew what was happening and the pint-sized mage found himself hurled to sea far out beyond the docks. That mage shot off like a bullet after him, determined to press her advantage.

The atomic mage wasn't finished with his mouth beam, either. He immediately turned it in Ingrid's direction, seeking to do the same to her that he had to poor Wvysen. His power was on an entirely different level and his allies quickly spread out away from him as a colossal burning energy field that caused the air to blur, crackle, and hum enveloped him. The heat rolling off of it was otherworldly, and the cobblestones began to crack and blacken beneath him.

That was when Desmond started to feel a pressure building in his head. His heart began to beat unnaturally fast. Ismette, too, found herself and Trypano under attack. The sky hummed with electric charge and a massive lightning bolt flashed down from above at them, and then a second and a third! 

Nerio called immediately for his swords. He was unprepared for this, but the came flying out of The Doge's Breeches within moments, some shattering windows in the process. He would add it to his tab if he survived this. These, he focused on a small woman near the back of the enemy group: both versions of her. Yet... despite the energy signatures attached to both, his swords passed right through. He shook his head in disbelief and then found himself half-hurled to the side and half-leaping as a massive chemical explosion rocked the building next to him. When he looked up, the mage he'd been targeting was gone: completely gone, energy signature and all. These guys were good: very good. It was a blessing, perhaps, that they weren't targeting Desmond's unnamed companion. Nerio thought she may have been one of the girls from La Fleur. He wondered why. 

[b][u]Ingrid:[/u][/b]Ingrid was shocked to see Wvysen's body in 2 on the floor, even more that the Atomic mage was turning towards her. She was about to grab Onarr and dip behind cover when but Onarr had already been taken away by another mage. Ingrid drew from the heat from the surroundings, then converting it to a blinding flash of light in front of the atomic mage as she dipped to hide herself and start preparing Protection of Oraff-Zept. She has only used it in a controlled environment but now was the time to test her practical skills. 

[b][u]Desmond:[/u][/b] Desmond noticed everything kicking off, VVvysen's body getting cut in half by an atomic mage, new assailants and teammates arriving, and attacks already being pressed. Desmond began to shift the Princess, but he felt his body acting strange. Intense pressure in the head, heart palpitations, it made his teeth grit and jaw lock up. As he realized there was probably an Internal Chemist, and they are trying to kill Desmond without much fuss. He unlocked his jaw and breathed, as he polarizes himself, knowing they will need to control his internal chemistry for long enough to continue this, so a nice shock should give him the moment he needs to breath. 

[b][u]Trypano:[/u][/b] Not only had several mages grouped together to halt them but they were already aware of each one of their presences. This wasn't good.

Responding to the immediate threat as lightning struck near them, something rather poorly aimed for someone who had the drop on them, Trypano dove into the tropical forest flanking both sides of the path before the lightning could correct it's course. Already she could hear her cover under assault as the tree was struck by the third shot. With one of their own already dead this was a concerning event to be certain.

Looking at where the roots joined the tree to the ground she began drawing away the earth, using the energy ripped from the solid matter to insert air between to better allow herself to slip further into the earth at a quicker pace. Only once she was fully submerged did she begin filling in earth behind her, helping to push her along as she traveled towards the scene of the battle, moving diagonally both forward and downward to afford her more protection from the more tangible attacks.

She was able to briefly see her attackers before they had set upon her. There were a number of them, five to be precise. What she needed to know however was what each one of her foes were capable of. Since they scattered to avoid the general area of attack by their atomic caster it made it easier to identify them apart from her own crew using her binding senses alone. The fact they all wore similar cloaks aided in that matter.

It was obvious to her that Desmond was experiencing a threat from either a binder or an internal chemist, that much her senses could pick up. Now it was simply a matter of finding the origin. The sooner she could pick out their binder the easier it would be for her to remove them and thus run un-countered in her efforts.

[b][u]Scene Two:[/u][/b] With preternatural speed, the Atomic mage drew from Ingrid's flash, dampening its impact. He still blinked and stopped firing, but he seemed otherwise unhindered. His reflexes were truly something else. But he was relentless! With a roar, he flew at her like a cannonball, leaving a blazing trail behind him from what could only be Infernal Majesty. The good news was that Ingrid's protection spell held and the radiation didn't melt her. The bad was that she had less than a second to look up before his fist met with her face. 

Trypano dove through the ground. Much of it was limestone, and so much denser than loose dirt, making the going tough, but a least rather porous. Focusing on both burrowing with speed and trying to sense the other mages she found taxing and imperfect. There was no sign of Binding or blood magic being used... And then there was! She shot towards it but, after less than a second, a wide swath of ground in front of her disappeared and, suddenly, she was out in the open with significant momentum. A trio of wicked steel spines thrust up towards her face from in front and below!

With satisfaction, Desmond watched two of the mages reel from his attack. They were identical, which really meant that they were one. They staggered backwards for a moment and then he could feel the start of a massive arcane and  chemical draw from the surrounding environment. "You think your parlour tricks will work on me!?" she howled.

It took Nerio a moment to recover. His ears were ringing and his vision blurred. It seemed that everyone was engaged with an enemy. That left him free, and you did not just leave Nerio Luchessi free and avoid any consequences! He called his swords back to him and whipped them into a spinning frenzy. At the Chemical mage lining up a shot on Desmond, he sent two and, as he expected, they were dodged quite easily. Still, it interrupted the mage's draw, buying his ally some time, and... well, this little attack was called Boomerang Blade for a reason.

[b][u]Ingrid:[/u][/b] Ingrid finished her protection spell and readied herself to face the enemy blasting towards her. Her family were nobles but they work their mines across Constantia. She has was taught more than enough to defend herself from this overly simple attack. Ingrid started to absorb some energy of his punch to then use it to slip to the outer side of his punch, grabbing his wrist as he started to go by. Ingrid quickly shifts her back to him, moving her other arm under his throwing arm. In a powerful show of self defense and magic, Ingrid attempts to flip him head first onto the cobblestone. Sending him rocketing down with the use of her own kinetic magic mixed with his. 

[b][u]Scene Two-and-a-Half:[/u][/b] Amelia knew that there was an illusionist here: a good one. She swore there had been six mages initially. Now, there were only ten: two for each of five. She shook her head. They seemed to be leaving her alone. Right! One was with the dwarf, tangling out over the water. She could see the flashes of distant lightning. Then... why wasn't one of the enemies attacking? She seemed a ghost to the princess. She seemed -

Ingrid's quick counter was able to succeed. She drew the kinetic force from her enemy's attack and slammed him into the ground. He hit with bone-crushing force, but instead of crying out or going limp, he was laughing, maniacally. He was masked and she couldn't see his face, of course, but his jackal-like howls were clearly audible. He had her by the wrist. She could tell that he'd drawn most of the energy from her slam and used a precisely equal amount to counter it. "Gotcha now!" he sneered, and grappled her in a Kastang hold. "Time to turn up the heat!" He began to glow and the world began to hurt! 

Amelia's attention was drawn from her pursuit by a massive crash. She dived out of the way, augmenting her motion with a kinetic burst, just as the pair hurtled past her.  Then, the atomic mage had the Eskandish girl in a bearhug. The heat became intense and, as she reached out with her binding abilities, Amelia could literally feel her ally start to cook. Drawing from the ruined walls and floor, she pumped fresh matter into Ingrid's cells, preventing the damage. Closer, she stepped, and she noticed the atomic mage glance at her. The heat started to die down. That was it! They wanted to take her in unharmed. 

Of course, Ingrid was not exactly making things easy for her opponent. She was a big girl with a big RAS. Amelia rushed in closer and Atomic mage burst free, rocketing out the roof of the building. "Now, you idiots!" he shouted. "NOW!"

[b][u]Trypano:[/u][/b] Perhaps it was due to some, maybe literal, tunnel vision as she worked her way forward and down into the field as she searched for the binder. Upon tracing their signature she worked forth but it seems they've been following her progress and had put a trap in her path.

There was little time to respond as metal spines seemed to jut out for her. Luckily she was still drawing from material directly in front of her so she used that to draw away the ends of the spines, attempting to smooth the edges before they could pierce/cut her. Instinctively she brought her arm up to block the (hopefully) blunted metal bits that her enemy loosed upon her.

Luckily her casting oft didn't depend on her needing both her hands, just the one with the scalpel, especially when it came to operating on others. Ceasing to draw on the materials ahead of her she quickly encased herself in a stone pocket in order to reduce the jostling the water ahead would create before reaching out to retaliate against this enemy binder.

With her scalpel aimed for the target she used her naturally potent & refined drawing skills to pick out the target's brain. She focused on their corpus callosum, drawing in a thin fine line along the surfaces in order to try and split their left and right hemispheres from one another. She had more up her sleeve but this drawing was what was contributing to the creation of her own protective cover for the time being.

Trypano might be a mage but she was also a surgeon. It was time for her to operate.

[b][u]Desmond:[/u][/b] Desmond saw the two mages recoil and a smirk came on his face knowing who he was going for now, there were two, meaning that one was an illusion. As she drew in energy she screamed to the Heavens and then to Desmond. And honestly Desmond laughed as he said in a cool voice, [color=gold]"Honestly baby, yeah"[/color]. In truth Desmond was nervous, he was to go toe to toe with a mage who was clearly leagues above himself. But that same drawing and RAS that made her leagues above Desmond, also threw away her advantage, so drew his gun quickly and took aim. 

He knew he had a lead shot in his gun, but he needed to get rid of it and still make an impact, yet the moment he pulled the trigger he saw 2 blades come flying in and forced the chemist to dodge. Making a perfect opening as Desmond smiled and fired his bullet. As once the bullet left his gun, he began to take control of it and make sure it was able to fly at the Mage he felt was the one that real one. The blades came at them and they had to purposefully dodge, meaning they were in motion, they'd need to exert an even greater amount of energy to just get away from his bullet now, if at all.

[b][u]Scene Three:[/u][/b] Trypano was just completing her shell, just pulling out her scalpel and reaching out to slice a brain in two, when a small section of the shell disintegrated and water began flooding in: cold dead water that had been underground for far too long.

In that moment, as she could feel the neural pathways of her opponent's mind start to sever, the relief of victory and safety was not hers to bask in. From high above the exposed top of the aquifer, she felt an enormous surge of energy and, with alarm, realized what it was. In less than a second, she would be cooked, and so she stared to take evasive action. The damage that she'd done to the other mage was profound if not fatal: a brain bleed that would kill him within minutes if not healed. Yet, he would heal it if given the chance.

Then, the world stopped making sense. The energy of a lightning bolt arced towards her, but it was so slow that she could sense its blinding path. Breaking free of her shell and leaping free of the water and its conductivity, she landed on solid ground. Everyone but for Ismette was moving in slow motion. The lanky yasoi girl was straining: eyes bugged out and veins popping. "Do the thing!" she hissed from behind clenched teeth, and it was clear that Trypano would have only a second or two to act. Temporal Magic! 

[b][u]Ingrid:[/u][/b] Ingrid couldn't expect the Atomic man to also be a Kastang practitioner. She took a deep breath as he went and got her into a hold, She tried to struggle for freedom but she wasn't strong enough and before she knew it, he was cooking her. She held her breath knowing that if she let that go their would be no chance for escape. The burning suddenly stopped when a new girl appeared. Ingrid didn't know who she was exactly at the time but she seemed to get the atomic mage to back up.

The mysterious women also healed her wounds she sustained from the brawl with him. It didn't take long for Ingrid to piece together from the Atomic mage's actions that she was the princess. Whatever the case, the mage was above them and she needed to do something. 

Ingrid grabbed the princess's arm and yelled at her to come on. She tossed 2 of her prepared explosives at support beams and one towards him to further cover there escape. She lit them with some of the remnant heat energy she had within her. Normally Ingrid would speed up the reaction to massively increase the destructive power but she knew that would be enough to collapse the building. Plus it would allow her to start building her energy for the show stopper she had planned.

[b][u]Scene Three-and-a-Half:[/u][/b] Desmond's bullet did not take the most direct, obvious path, but it headed for the Chemical mage just as sure as a massive fireball erupted from her hands headed for Desmond. His bullet would get there first but he would not have time to dodge out of the way if he spent all of his concentration on it. 

As he had too many times in his brief life, the mercenary threw himself to the side. The fireball billowed past him, turning a shop where he had been a second ago into flaming wreckage. Sharp, hot bits of things stung at him as he scrabbled back to his feet. He had no idea if his bullet had actually struck too, but he saw the Chemical mage collapse. Moments later, a bloody sword came scything past and wound up in the hand of a roguishly handsome pirate who was - surprisingly - not himself. "Saw what happened," said Nerio, plucking a toasty apple from a fallen barrel. "Your shot hit 'er, but she had an illusion up that offset where she was standing by about a foot: too small to notice in the heat of battle. Anyways..." He paused to take a bite. "You winged her and that was enough to break her concentration. She was about to dodge my boomerang blades." He took another bite. "Hm, this is good," he enthused. "Want one? Anyways, I figure we can share the kill."

[b][u]Trypano:[/u][/b] She had been set up by the two of them for a counter attack when Ismette had, surprisingly, moved her far faster than what was conventionally possible from her shell out into the world. She would have guessed advanced kinetics if she wasn't already familiar with the signature of temporal magic at work. A fascinating reveal.

Her discovery would have to wait however as it seemed time for her to press the advantage. With one hand she focused on the binder, resuming her drawing as she surgically attempted to sever their corpus callosum and thus split their brain in two. With the other she sought out the magnetic mage that was targeting her. Grasping out for his hair she looked for where there was hair cells to latch onto, looking not with her eyes but with her binding. She would not allow the illusionist to baffle her by fooling such basic senses with false light images.

Seizing onto their hair she attempted to grow out strands of the magnetic mage's own hair as near to the roots as she could manage and proceeded to try and extend them into every orifice available on their head. Strands would grow in shaped contortions for their eyelids, ears, nostrils and mouth to try and enter their body and fill it with hair.

[b][u]Scene Four:[/u][/b] All at once, the illusions disappeared, and Trypano found her target laid plainly bare. The brain was severed and the binder collapsed, dead or as good as such. Time sped back up to normal just as she was beginning her attack on the Magnetic enemy. With him caught off-guard by the time-warped suddenness of her attack, she gained a momentary advantage before he was able to simply bind his own hair away and send a paid of hastily-bound blades scything in her direction.

Meanwhile, Ingrid was up against a whole other level of threat. The masked atomic mage was a truly terrifying spectacle. He howled with evil glee. "WAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!! NOW THIS IS [s]PODRACING[/s] THE REAL DEAL!!!" He took a deep breath and a second mouth beam erupted forth, blinding orange, slicing through the explosive headed his way. It erupted in a great, bubbling ball of flame and then the entire thing disappeared back into the monster's mouth as if drawn in by a black hole. He turned his face, grinning, towards Ingrid's other explosives, as she and Amelia were still evacuating the area. The princess took off into the air with a grace that could only come from being skyborn.

That's when Ingrid felt it: The missing mage. It materialized out of nowhere: a blade straight through the back. Only a warning prickle of energy immediately behind her and Amelia's shouted, "Behind you!" saved her from what would've been a near-instantly fatal wound. As it was, the blade took her through the back of her ribcage, and pierced a lung. The pain was unreal! Unfathomable! The greyborn disappeared just as quickly as she or he had appeared and now Ingrid had her own survival to worry about.

Then, the Atomic mage made his move, hammering into the similarly airborne Amelia and filling her mind with a chemical burst that rendered her limp before she could do anything to counter him. Accelerating to an absurd speed, he took off with his prize, already almost out of range, leaving his remaining teammates behind.

[b][u]Desmond:[/u][/b] Once Desmond made it to his feet, he saw a roguish man make his way near Desmond as he plucked an apple and explain what happened. Desmond stood up and dusted himself off as he calmly loaded another bullet into his gun. As Desmond packed his gun with gun powder his next bullet a simple lead ball that had an almost indistinguishable line of lead seeming to connect 2 hemispheres, Death's Promise which holds a small steel ball within a small cage held within the lead bullet, it should have some promising results against these mages. Once Nerio made his way near Desmond with the apple Desmond extended his hand and tossed Nerio a smile and said, [color=gold]"Sure, I'm fine with sharing"[/color]. Desmond began to look towards the princess, lngrid, and the Atomic Mage. As he sighs and begins to say, [color=gold]"Hey come on, we got a missing mage to find"[/color]. As he saw a blinding light occur, an explosion then followed as Desmond realized, the Atomic mage is till kicking. Desmond ran as fast as he could as he realized where the last Mage was, right behind lngrid.

As Desmond saw the Mage dip in and out of view, Desmond immediately remembered something, it was the same thing that kid did in Paradigm's study. Able to be able to slip through things, what if they took it a step further and became nothing and slipped through everything, Desmond knew he couldn't hit them. Yet he saw the Atomic mage flying, and he knew what he had to do, he pulled his gun up and fired his shot. Boosting it forward as with the Gift he took hold of the steel ball within. Knowing this man had to have some level of kinetic power, he will try to stop the bullet. At that moment was this bullet was designed for, Desmond will make the steel ball rip itself out of the lead walls and swerve to hit the Atomic mage right in the head.

[b][u]Trypano:[/u][/b] One was down but it seemed the magnetic specialist was also in part a binder. Troublesome indeed.

With her off hand she reached out, aiming to draw apart the hastily constructed blades the magneticist launched at her. He should of stuck to magnetism if he really wanted to attack her.

With the hand clutching her scalpel she pointed over to Ingrid. She had briefly felt a presence pop into being, strangely similar to Zara who had revealed that feature to her, and it revealed the hidden sixth member's attack on their own atomic mage. With concentrated focus she weaved a cell graft together, mending the hole punctured both on the skin and lung, restoring any severed veins as well. She also used the energy the magneticist provided her to administer a special chemical concoction of poppy-seed extract designed to numb pain in the applied regions.

[b][u]Ingrid:[/u][/b] The sudden appearance of the greyborn had nearly killed Ingrid. She would have died instantly if it wasn't for the Princess intercepting the assassin. Now she had collapsed to the ground after being stabbed in the lung. She had barely seen the princess be knocked out.

Ingrid grunted realizing she was too close to the building to see their escape from her angle. But whatever, she was winded to begin with from the encounter and now missing a lung she could feel herself quickly getting light headed. She looked for Trypano only to see some dumbass harassing her. Even while fighting, Trypano still managed to heal Ingrid. Ingrid took a deep breath and smiled. It was only proper to return the favor and get rid of the mage bothering Trypano.

Ingrid moved away from the soon to be rubble of a store house and quickly drew form the inferno encasing the small store near by. The fire within the store nearly stopped to mere embers as she absorbed the energy. She simply looked at the preoccupied mage and ignited an intense inferno at his feet to incinerate him.

The rest of the energy she used to encircle herself with flame to keep that pesky assassin off of her.

[b][u]Scene Five:[/u][/b] It sook Ismette some time to recover from her temporal tampering and, while she was doing so, Trypano was forced to pull double duty fending off the Magneticist's attacks and healing the grievously wounded Ingrid. It taxed her focus, if not her capacity, to the very limit. 

But then Ismette was recovered, and the ground beneath the increasingly panicked mage began to turn into corrosive sludge. He threw himself aside, breaking off his second attack on Trypano, his shoes dissolved and the bottoms of his feet an angry burnt red. That handed her the initiative, but she did not need to use it.

Fully healed in less than twenty seconds, Ingrid rose from the flames, drawing their power into herself like nothing so much as a phoenix. A blazing aura surrounded her and the sheer raw power of it was enough to make those with lesser capacities who stood nearby queasy. Still recovering, the magnetic mage hissed and cursed and yanked sharpened pieces from the nearby wreckage in a kinetic or magnetic grasp. It didn't matter. All that made it through the Eskandishwoman's guardian flames were cinders. She called down a pillar of fire that rose from the ground beneath him and there was nothing that her enemy could do by turn to ash. So hot were the flames that there was nothing left that one might recognize as having been part of a human being.

Meanwhile, that left Desmond to rescue Princess Amelia, who had stepped into the line of fire on repeated occasions. Her bravery had caught up with her and she was currently rocketing away, unconscious in the arms of the atomic mage. Yet, things did not quite go according to plan. Instead of the kinetic counter that the bullet was designed for, it was met with a magnetic repulsion that skewed it off course and, at such extreme range, Desmond lost control of it. 

It was right about then that something rose from the vicinity of La Fleur Rouge at such velocity as to be almost invisible. It hammered into the atomic mage with sickening force. The princess, for her part, began to fall, from at least two hundred meters up.

From halfway across the city, people could hear the comet that was Benedetto streaking across the sky. It intercepted the Atomic mage and those who were able to follow visually might've seen two figures crash clean through the great stone bell tower of the church Sant'Agata della Marchese. With a distressed clang, the five-hundred-year-old structure's bells rang out and it collapsed in a shower of dust and rubble, flattening a nearby flophouse. 

"TRY TO STEAL mY pRiNCeSs, WiLL yOu!!!!?" roared a deranged voice. "Think you're strong, you fucking impostor? You're NOTHING! Time to make you scream!" 

Every punch was an explosion that shook the ground. By the time that people arrived on the scene, the only thing that they'd see would be Benedetto, covered in blood, and a desiccated corpse with its head and chest crushed to a pulp.

The enemy party had been annihilated, but for one member. Her name was Maria Carralucio, and she had perhaps another three to five years before she left this world for the other that all greyborn eventually went to. Seeing her husband and her peers die had put her in a mood to make her exit now and just leave the dream, but she wouldn't go with without taking one of these fuckers with her. 

The Eskandishwoman was a monster. The... red-haired freak was even more so. The pirate and the yasoi girl were of no consequence, but the magusjaeger: now [i]there [/i]was a target. With a dim sense of reality, she crept up beside him, unsheathed her blade, and drew it back. When she returned to the world it was striking towards his throat. 

[b][u]Desmond:[/u][/b] As Desmond lost control of his bullet he clicked his tongue and was about ready to chase. Yet he saw a missle appear and sweep the atomic mage away. Leaving a falling princess, as Desmond saw Trypano start creating something to catch the Princess. As he took a breath of relief, his eyes sharpened as he was looking around and made himself look like he's wondering where the mage would appear. As he begins to hastily reload his gun as if trying to make sure he is ready for her.

As the moment Desmond felt his his spine almost itch from his body telling him something is wrong, he knew what he would do if he had such assassination powers.

He dropped his body back, letting his knees buckle as he lands on his empty hand away from the mage. As he sweeps his leg to hook hers, in an attempt to sweep her legs from under her and drop her on her ass. As he would get the moment he needs to put a bullet in her head.

[b][u]Trypano:[/u][/b] It was stressful, that was certain. Dividing her focus between breaking apart an enemy's attacks and performing a careful, albeit rushed, mending job had her multitasking like crazy. She was accustomed to this however, having been in stressful operations before where one errant move could mean the death of her patient. With measured breaths and controlled posture she lasted until Ingrid could eliminate this distraction for her.

It was a welcome gesture. Trypano quickly nodded in her direction before looking back out to the atomic mage. She was sure he wasn't sitting idle while they did all this. It seemed he had seen the writing on the wall and was trying to flee when, unexpectedly, he was hit by... Something. It only occured to her that it was Benedito when she heard the screaming from afar.

More of an immediate issue however was the princess. She was falling from a great height now and would surely die if no intervention took place. Stepping forward until she was able to get a clear view of the site where the princess would land she conjured forth a great spongy cushion of extreme resilience and equally extreme softness. One of the more unexpected boons to have learned from her short time at the blood magic classes.

Upon feeling the signature pop in of the greyborn's physical form upon her binding senses her eyes snapped over to Desmond. It seemed he too had noticed it as well. Almost too late but with just enough time to react luckily. The greyborn must of thought themself untouchable to be so forward in attacking them alone. She would prove her false as she reached out, gesturing to the greyborn with her scalpel. Focusing she attempt to draw upon the greyborn's optic nerves. If she could successfully sever them then this would effectively blind the mage. Their only choices would be to either remain solid and attempt to counter the severing with their own magic or go de-solid and risk re-appearing inside physical matter since she'd be unable to see where she was going. She wasn't sure if they were able to cast while intangible but this would be a solid way to find out.

If the enemy mage didn't die first. 

[b][u]Scene Six:[/u][/b] The moment that Maria saw him dip, she knew she'd failed. So she would leave the dream without her revenge. It was just a dream, after all: something ever fainter and more distant. These idiots didn't understand: none of them did. Instead, as the magusjaeger - eager young killer that he was - started to turn, gun in hand, she tried something else. Seizing upon the Blood mage who had gone after dear Alberto with such ferocity, she pulled from the woman's little tool with all of her might. She felt a pinch from behind her eyes and the world went dark, but she didn't need these eyes anyway. The wretched thing dissolved. Soon, she would be walking through fields of green, where her loved ones laughed and sung and there was no need to hire her skills out to end other lives, where the air smelled of tangerine and lemon peel, where she could hear 

The last thing was a gunshot.  The arcanist went limp, a hole blown through her skull, and then her body, it.... just disappeared - faded away. That was the last of them, and Desmond tucked his pistol back into its holster. The last one hadn't even put up much of a fight. They were safe and free and, as he turned, the princess landed on a massive cushion. The group found her bruised and battered but otherwise uninjured. As for her abductor, the same could not be said. 

Benedetto sauntered up beside them, his clothes spattered with blood. He grinned with far too many teeth. "That was a good one," he remarked, a snicker lurking just below the surface of his voice. "Guy was a fairy, though." He glanced in the direction he had come from and spat on the ground. There was a bit of blood in it, putting the lie to his bravado at least partially. "Anyways," he continued, sniffing and sticking his hands into his pockets. "Sorry I was late. Having some fun with a hooker. Looked like you eight..." He took in Wvysen. "Or nine," he amended with a snort, "had things under control. Now, don't we have an artifact or something to find?"

[b][u]Onarr:[/u][/b] In hindsight, wearing a metal helmet may not have been the best course of action when it came to physical protection. 

The last thing Onarr remembered before he was sent flying across the ocean was a blur of red hair followed by a physical collision that made his stomach lurch. His vision faded in and out as he felt his back skid along the water. His body continued to skip along the tides at high speeds until he clenched his gut tightly. What little electrical activity was available in the area shored up along his skin, buoying him on the water’s surface. 

“By the Light of Shune,” Onarr swore internally. He shook his head, still dizzy from the kinetic mage’s attack, before the back of his head tingled. He swerved to the left in an uncontrolled spin just for the space he was occupying to explode in a geyser of water. The kinetic mage had arrived and began racing towards him like a bullet, palms open. A sharp stab of pain erupted in Onarr’s elbow as he realised it was dislocated from the mage’s attack.  Onarr’s mind strayed to the edge as he ducked, swerved and narrowly escape death from the embrace of the kinetic mage. Whilst they weren’t as terrifying as blood or chemical mages, Onarr remembered stories from his father of mercenary kinetic mages which played a role in Hawzumi’s conquest of Belzagg. Having his skull popped open like a grape was an experience he wasn’t use to.

However, he knew he couldn’t keep this up forever. The kinetic mage was learning with every dodge he made and getting closer inch by inch to his helmet. He had to end this fast. He looked down at the vast body of water beneath him churning. A sly idea began to form his head. He began concentrating magnetic magic in his feet as he made contact with the water, bubbles forming underneath. He continued to dodge, gas erupting from his feet as he poured every ounce of charge he had into the water around them. 

“Ever wonder what my first thesis was?” Onarr panted as the kinetic mage paused in confusion. 

He pointed downwards at the hissing bubbles under the kinetic mage’s feet and her eyes widened.

“This.” With crackling electricity in his palm, Onarr shoved it deep into the water and a large cacophonous explosion ruined his entire world.[/hider]

[center][h1][u]The Battle by the Docks[/u][/h1][/center] The horror from Wvysen's grisly death hadn't come close to fading when the Atomic mage next launched himself at Ingrid and engaged her in a brutal, close-quarters, atomic brawl. Meanwhile, Nerio and Desmond found themselves momentarily on the back foot as Trypano and Ismette hurried to catch up with the others. They were too late to do much for Onarr, who was grabbed by the enemy kinetic mage and hurled out over the sea, colliding with its surface in a mighty splash. Meanwhile, Amelia - the putative Segonese Princess - noticed that nobody seemed to be targeting her with deadly strikes. She correctly surmised that the mysterious enemies were trying to capture her alive and intervened in the nick of time to save Ingrid from being melted by the sadistic Atomic Mage's Infernal Majesty.

Meanwhile, each of the others found themselves heavily engaged in combat. Recovering, Onarr found himself in a one on one duel and on the run: dodging, weaving, and making use of his small size to be an elusive target. Desmond, facing off against a Chemical Mage, used his years of experience as a mercenary, his intuition, and not a bit of luck to coordinate with Nerio and take the dangerous enemy down. Trypano, hard pressed by both the enemy Binder and a persistent Magnetic Mage, found herself cornered and facing her end at the hands of the latter just as she was about to deal a fatal blow of her own. Intervening with the fabled Temporal Magic of the yasoi as the last moment, Ismette was able to buy her partner time to escape, finish off the binder, and take the offensive against the Magnetic Mage with a grisly and creative attack.

Things were to take a turn for the worst, however, as the enemy Arcane illusionist, who'd remained hidden up to that point, chose that very moment to appear behind Ingrid as she prepared to launch a big counterattack on the Atomic Mage. Only Amelia's warning and quick reflexes saved the Eskandishwoman from a fatal wound, but she crumpled to the ground, stabbed and bleeding out. The enemy leader took advantage of the princess' distraction to grab her and knock her unconscious with a chemical spell before rocketing off to make his escape.

Left alone to die, the Magnetic attacker threw everything that he had at Trypano, who tried doing double duty both healing the badly wounded Ingrid as well as fighting him off. Meanwhile, drawing inspiration from the histories, Onarr hit upon a new tactic in his solo duel with the Kineticist, and he wasn't the only one. Desmond leapt into action against the fleeing Atomic Mage, attempting to knock him out of the sky with a trick bullet. 

The group met with mixed success. As Ismette jumped back into the fight following her exhausting Temporal attack, she was able to turn the ground beneath the Magnetic attacker into corrosive sludge, forcing him to throw himself to the side. Trypano, free to heal Ingrid, got her up to peak health through the power of Binding Magic, and the Eskandishwoman proved the validity of that tactic by calling down the massive pillar of fire that she had originally been saving for the Atomic Mage onto the Magneticist instead. He ceased to exist. The same could not be said for the Atomic Mage, who was able to sense the unusual shape of and energy signature of Desmond's bullet and counter it. Meanwhile, Onarr, who'd been carefully gathering his energy and distracting his attacker with banter, prepared to unleash his final gambit.

It all came together in a final flurry, as Benedetto, who'd been missing up to this point for reasons unknown (apparently having a bit too much fun in a brothel), rocketed up out of nowhere and savagely attacked the team's escaping enemy. Having given no thought to the unconscious Amelia's safety, he delivered a brutal and ultimately fatal beating. Thankfully, with some quick thinking, Trypano was able to use Gift of the Frog to save he falling girl's life. She almost had to do the same for Desmond as the final enemy, the Arcanist, mounted a final, vengeful sneak attack against him. He was prepared for it, however, and using his experience with martial arts, was able to take her down and put a bullet through her head. Onarr's finale was more of a mixed bag as he used a powerful magnetic technique to cause a littoral explosion beneath his overconfident adversary. While it met with grisly success, he was severely impacted himself and there is every danger that he may not be able to make it back to the team without assistance.

Now returned and victorious, the sadistic Benedetto flaunts his win over the most powerful enemy and mocks Wvysen's death, flippantly inquiring as to what the group should do next. Indeed, there are many things calling to their attention but, as they have seen before, splitting up can be dangerous. Onarr is still missing following his battle and his whereabouts only roughly known. Penny, too, is missing, and her situation is yet another mystery hanging over the group's head. Finally, Princess Amelia has fallen onto a great, soft cushion and whether she is yet conscious and whether her former captors will make another play for her remains to be seen. Hers is the knowledge of the crew that has been harassing trade and perhaps the artifact that the team is there to recover. What should they do next and how should they do it?