[center][h3]Debridement - Artorias & Teemo[/h3]
Ganondorf’s [@Double], Jesse’s [@Zoey Boey], Ms Fortune
[b]Word Count:[/b] 3270 (+4)[/center]

Of all the Seekers, Ganondorf was the one who was probably the least shaken by the Consul’s trick. Instead showing any looks of concern or guilt, he instead fixed his sneer on the Consul himself. [color=797979]”Hmph!”[/color] he snorted with contempt, [color=797979]”If this is supposed to be your sad attempt at guilt-tripping me, then I’m afraid you’re sorely mistaken.”[/color]

The warlord brandished his newly acquired trident and shifted his focus between Artorias and Teemo, [color=797979]”Any who stand in my way will fall!”[/color] After that he lunged for Artorias. His polearm gave him a longer reach than Artorias had with his sword even with the latter’s increased height. And unlike with his own swords, Ganondorf’s attacks were now fast and seemed to carry with them an aura of thunder and lightning. He gave a quick thrust and a sweeping swing follow up that were both deceptively quick. But then he followed that up by hurling his Trident which proceeded to spin through the air around in a circling pattern, while the weapon itself became temporarily electrified for added effect.

Ganondorf’s furious strikes hit home, but the infected knight flinched only slightly. The condition that dulled his senses slowed his reactions, but made him uncaring -if not impervious- to pain. Only one thought seemed to consume Artorias: slaughter. Once provoked, he launched himself forward in an ungainly front flip. His greatsword struck the floor with a tremendous clang, scattered infected slime that left a stain on the floor. After only a brief pause, he unleashed two more somersault slams in sequence, each covering enough ground to chase Ganondorf down if he tried to flee.

Nadia, not knowing how the virulent contagion spread, was sufficiently alarmed by and averse to it that she couldn’t bring herself to dive headfirst into battle with the gusto of her brutish companion. As such she produced her bait launcher and began to circle around, waiting for a little space that the strange weapon’s summoned tiger could fill. Her foes did not share her reticence, however, and as Ganondorf contended with Artorias in a high-impact clash of the titans, the other infected husk started causing problems. Since Teemo lacked many of his basic abilities, he could do only one thing: spit darts from his little blowpipe at a rate of one every two-thirds of a second. Instead of their typical poison, the former Yordle’s darts glowed with the luminous taint of the infection, proving highly caustic against armor and flesh alike. They might seem like little more than gnat stings at first, but Nadia could already see that if the Seekers allowed Teemo to aggress unhindered, the damage would quickly rack up.

“I’ll handle the little squirt,” she announced, a touch of urgency in her voice. Having not met Teemo in the course of her travels, the feral saw nothing more than a threat to be put down. Seeing a lull in the brawl with Artorias, she took aim with her bait launcher. “In the meantime…let us prey!” With a [i]foom[/i] a juicy red steak flew through the air to smack wetly against the infected knight’s armor. If that impact was harmless, though, the burly tiger that poofed into being was anything but. In a lethal fury its huge claws raked across tarnished metal, living wood, and infected flesh, keeping Artorias busy for a moment that Ganondorf could use as he saw fit.

With that, Nadia stowed her launcher, got down on all fours, and sprinted toward Teemo with a burst of speed. The husk seemed to notice her and lolled his head her way, the aim of his blowgun shifting. He opened fire with remarkable speed and accuracy, but while Nadia found she couldn’t really dodge them, she realized that they weren’t impactful enough to stagger her either. A moment later and the cat burglar was in melee range. At that point, Teemo couldn’t do much other than walk backward between shots, mindlessly trying to burst Nadia down before her dancing blades took their toll.

Jesse owed Artorias something. She was surprised to see him. The least she could do, she thought, was dust him, and avenge his death. While Ganondorf engaged in close combat, she moved around the side, levitating to give herself a little bit more range on his sword. She lined up a Pierce shot and fired it into Artorias’ side while he was battling Ganondorf and the cat. And speaking of the warlord, Ganondorf used this moment to summon his moblins. This squad in particular wielded long spears of wood and bone. They formed up behind their master, who then proceeded to lead them in an infantry charge against Artorias. The moblins themselves weren’t nearly as strong as the man commanding them, but with his direct leadership in this fashion their attack could be much more coordinated than it would be if they were on their own.

Of course, against a scarcely-human monstrosity glutted on the primordial infection and the Grievous Miracle, such small fry might as well be lambs to the slaughter. Though harried by Jesse, Artorias managed to jam his mutated wooden arm into the earth, and through the earth snaked Ten Piedad’s cruel thorny briars. By pure coincidence, both Jesse and Ganondorf had taken a break during that fight, so they didn’t know what to expect–but Nadia did, and her fight with Teemo was one-dimensional enough that she could keep an eye on the main event. “Watch out, below you!” Nadia called, a split second before the brambles shot up from the ground to slice and pierce through her allies. The moblins got the worst of it, but even that barely compared to what came next. Artorias launched toward Ganondorf with a double spinning slash meant to cleave through him and any minions that remained.

It was incredibly fortunate that Ganondorf had only just last night absorbed the soul of an agile fighter like Oberon. Bullet Jump enabled the warlord to launch himself straight up in time to dodge the incoming spinning slashes. While in midair he jumped a second time, allowing him to flip himself over the knight’s head so that he could land in a position behind him. The moblins, however, were not so fortunate. The few that remained were easily felled by Artorias’ attack.

Jesse didn’t need to be told twice. She zipped through the air as a blur using Evade, the spikes caught empty air. “Thanks!” She called out. 

The infected knight brought forth brambles over such an area that even Nadia needed to dodge away, giving Teemo a chance to hide behind the thorny growths. When she got back up she didn’t immediately spot him, and though the lifeless trees soon receded, she met with a bewildering surprise: her opponent had disappeared. Baffled, she looked around for any sign of where he’d gone. Had he burrowed into a hollow that one of the briars left behind? Her answer came in the form of a barrage of darts as Teemo uncloaked, his attack speed heightened by the element of surprise. “Aw, still got some tricks, huh? Good for you.” Nadia muttered through gritted teeth, trying to block the darts. “Well, two can play at that game. And three’s company.” 

Loosening her seams, she ejected a lot of blood, creating a copycat on either side of her. They raced around to either side, confounding Teemo with a target-rich environment, and reached him a moment later. One spun up her arm like a drill and jammed it into the infected boil that had replaced at third of his head, stunning him as she sunk her copied limb up to the elbow. Her counterpart seized Teemo’s blowgun and snapped it across her knee. Then the first copycat exploded, staggering the husk long enough for Nadia to close the distance. After absorbing the other copycat, chained together a crouching light kick into One-Two Pun-isher, then clasped her hands and disjointed her arms for a lashing upward wallop to launch Teemo into the air. Leaping up after him, she struck him with X-scrape Claws, then canceled an airdash into another one followed by an axe kick. A light Fiber Upper relaunched him for a low-altitude Shock and Paw, another X-Scrape Claws, and another axe kick before she landed and kept the combo going. Ears Pierced led into her Cat Scratch rekka, which she ended with a Fluffy Soft tiger slash that triggered New Moon.

That burst of damage turned out to be overkill; even with the infection making him less squishy, Teemo was deader than dead. “Whew. I really went ham…ster.” Though that turned out to be a problem. His body began to swell up, hissing as it shone with the infection from within. “Uh oh.” As the husk tried to lurch toward her, she quickly drew a boxcutter and slashed at his legs, then hightailed it out of there. A second later the husk exploded, scattering lambent globules far and wide. 

The floating Jesse had touched briefly on the ground and jumped up again as the brambles roiled in the ground beneath her. 

Ganondorf had to admit that brambles were unexpected. Having already used up his midair jump he had no choice but to finish landing just as the brambles stretched out around the knight. The warlord swirled his trident around in a circle in front him. This at least kept the brunt of the brambles from hitting him. However, a few on the sides did manage to graze him. Ganondorf responded with a sharp inhale that was followed by a gout of purple flames exhaling out of his mouth.

That wasn’t meant to be a particularly powerful attack. Instead it was intended to mask what Ganondorf tried next. Jesse used the flames to rip a stone from the earth and fling it at Artorias’ chest to crack into his armor and cover Ganondorf’s approach. Ganondorf suddenly rushed forward and attacked with a lightning quick spear-thrust. He followed that with an upward swing that normally launched most enemies upward. The 12 foot knight, however, was a bit too heavy to be launched. But the upward swing also served to launch Ganondorf himself upward. And once airborne he threw his trident straight back down at the knight’s torso. Then he focused his magic and called down a powerful lightning bolt to strike the embedded weapon like a makeshift lightning rod that in addition to dealing heavy lightning damage also produced a shockwave of thunder that could hit or push back any smaller targets gathered around the skewered Artorias.

Softened up by purple flame and Jesse’s boulder, the infected knight took a handful of trident strikes followed by a thorough electrocution. Ganondorf’s magic might not conduct through his wooden arm, but between his metal armor and his bloated pustules, the rest of him spasmed and smoked as the lightning coursed through him. Artorias hopped backward, taking the trident with him, and released an inhuman howl. Then he slid forward, practically riding a tide of corruption, in order to brutalize Ganondorf with an upward greatsword slash.

The trident didn’t stay with Artorias for long. Almost immediately after the previous lightning attack subsided, Ganondorf reached out a hand and used his magic to call the weapon back to him in a dark cloud. And when Artorias came charging at him, Bullet Jump proved once again to be quite the godsend for Ganondorf. He certainly understood why Oberon was such an annoying opponent in the previous battle now. With that ability, Ganondorf dashed forward and jumped to the side just before the upward slash could catch him.

With Teemo taken care of, Nadia rejoined the fight against Artorias. Her opponent, while annoying, had been a pushover, and one look at the infected knight reminded her that she needed to change gears. For one, his armor might shatter her blades, so she couldn’t just start whaling on him even if his oblivious rage gave her the opportunity. As the knight’s huge slash concluded, the feral moved in with both boxcutters drawn. Since it worked for Ganondorf, she unleashed a little lightning of her own. She blitzed straight through Artorias with Charge, then whirled around with Battery, a simple but effective strategy that had already become a favorite. Her blades’ crits struck her target’s wooden arm, tearing chunks from the timber, but it wasn’t enough to make Artorias flinch. His arm disjointed to wallop her away with a gnarled backhand, reacting with her electric nature to inflict the accuracy-reducing debuff Grounded. “Aw, not this crap again,” Nadia moaned, picking herself up. “I got enough of this tree-tmeant last night!”

As if in reply, the knight planted his arm into the ground, sending forth another wave of briars.

Jesse jumped and Levitated over the briars. She thought about using Healing Waters, but the fight was much too hectic with too much hazardous space, it might just force her teammates out of position so it wasn’t worth it for now. It could come after. While Artorias still had his arm in the ground, Jesse reached for the wall and pulled out two large stones, and flung them at him one after the other. “It’ll all be over soon, Artorias,” She called out somberly.

With Bullet Jump, Ganondorf could double jump out of the briars’ range. Before he landed from that he instead aimed his trident downward and proceeded to drop like a meteor onto Artorias with an electrified downward thrust.

In quick succession Jesse’s boulders pounded the knight’s center mass, crumpling his chestplate and puncturing whatever remained of his internal organs. The impacts left him doubled over for a brief moment, but that was enough for Ganondorf to land on him, burying his weapon in the enormous, throbbing pustule on the knight’s shoulder. It ruptured like a rotten grape, sending out a fresh wave of infected slime to join the rivulets leaking from his armor onto the floor. Such a landing would have flattened practically anyone against the ground, but somehow Artorias remained upright, bent but not yet broken. He thrashed around drunkenly, threatening to send Ganondorf sprawling onto the floor, and after a moment turned toward Jesse to throw the both of them at her with another giant somersault.

Jesse watched it come in. Couldn’t dodge too early, lest he course correct. She used Evade and zipped out of the way, backing up mid-air. She landed on the ground, and switched to her gun since she was out of energy. She used Grip and began to shoot Artorias down. 

Not even bothering to try and attack with her accuracy crippled, Nadia stayed just out of melee range to watch and wait. Ganondorf made for quite the sight hurtling himself around like that, but she couldn’t deny just how effective his bullet jumping was. Had Artorias even hit him yet? Then again, the diseased monstrosity before her was a far cry from the knight she fought alongside yesterday. The sight of the bloated husk flailing around, shrieking incoherently and awash with the infection, etched a deep frown into her face. F was right about one thing; it was past time the Seekers put this abomination out of his misery.

A moment later, Nadia felt a weight lift from her as Grounded expired. “Back in business,” she muttered, taking off at a run. Circling Artorias, she darted in and out of range to slice at the breaks in his armor again and again.

“This fucking sucks.” Jesse complained. “God damn it. Can’t wait for that little shit to finally have to face us.” She sprinted and circled the opposite side of Nadia, but from a distance, and shot at Artorias’ head and shoulders with Grip to avoid hitting Nadia. 

Artorias wouldn’t have to try bucking Ganondorf off him for much longer after this. Namely he pushed himself off willingly and hit the ground with a… less than graceful landing. His trident had been pulled out as well but left Ganondorf’s grasp midair and punctured the ground right next to him. Well, needless to say it would have been quite a predicament to be skewered by one’s own weapon. The Warlord pushed himself to his feet and then reached over to grab the shaft of the trident, [color=797979]”I’m growing tired of this!”[/color]

He launched straight forward, using Bullet Jump to give him some extra momentum as he attempted to slide into Artorias’ legs with a fiery Warlock Kick. If it went well, the attack would knock over the twelve-foot knight and provide an opening for Jesse and Nadia to capitalize on.

Seeing the big man on his way, Nadia made her move. “If there’s one thing I have…it’s purr-sever-ance!” With that she put all the strength she could muster into an x-slash into the infected knight’s Achilles tendon. Infected or not, no leg could stay standing if that muscle was cut. Nadia didn’t exactly like doing this; it was a vicious tactic, best reserved for the most desperate measures and unsavory characters. Still, it worked wonders. The knight’s leg buckled beneath his weight, and for a moment it took everything he had just to stay upright. Infection gushed to the crippled limb to reinforce it, but the next second Ganondorf delivered his kick with bone-cracking force. Something snapped, and with a protesting gurgle the infected knight went down face-first.

“Now we’re talking!” With her opponent laid out, it was time to go all-in. Nadia could feel that she’d built up just over three bars of dramatic tension, so once she leapt into the air she pumped all three into a souped-up Purrge of Vengeance, an orb of raging water twenty feet in diameter. “Say good KNIGHT!” She hurled it down to detonate against Artorias in a massive explosion of Hydro energy.that also applied Wet. In the wake of the watery blast Nadia dropped down onto the knight for a spine-tingling stomp much stronger than it looked thanks to the Mantreads and 2700 Pound of Justice, then sprang away.

With one more Bullet Jump, Ganondorf double-jumped into the air where he could throw his trident straight down and into the knight’s back the moment Nadia cleared the way. Then before he fell back down, Ganondorf outstretched his arms and used his magic to summon another lightning bolt to strike the weapon. With Artorias afflicted with the Wet status, a strike from a lightning bolt was going to deal more intense damage than usual. After the bolt dissipated, Ganondorf hit the ground with a slam due to his weight and size, but he was able to call the trident back to his hand regardless. That final meteoric strike proved to be the metaphorical straw that broke the camel’s back. The overwhelming overdose of electricity flooded through the infected knight’s twisted, ruined body, popping every blister and boil at once. A rancid foetor filled the air as the husk thrashed spasmodically, seeming almost to deflate; the infection smelled sickly enough to begin with, and charring it did it no favors. After another moment, the once-proud knight crumpled to the ground, no more than a hollowed-out shell.

[color=797979]”Hmph…”[/color] Ganondorf muttered alongside his heavy breaths, [color=797979]”Seems he’s finished. Such a waste.”[/color]

“Yeah,” Jesse said sadly, before her eyes hardened again and she sprinted after the Consul F.

The armor of Artorias was damaged beyond repair, and only his greatsword could conceivably be saved. That, however, could wait until later. Right now, the Seekers had more business to attend to.

[color=797979]”Say your prayers, Consul!”[/color] Ganondorf declared with a threatening gesture toward F, [color=797979]”Because YOU’RE next!”[/color]