[@Phonic][@Ariamis]

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… Honestly, Valkyrie’s reactions were pretty cute. Deni would have to consider teasing her more in the future. After all, she still had one of her [i]tools[/i], she could feel it. Probably because the power that provided it wasn’t based on Asengav’s power. She could do a lot of things with that. But not now. Now, they bolted!

[color=9b83de]‘Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee~!’[/color] Deni called out happily. Travelling with Mariette’s portals probably was faster, but it sure wasn’t as thrilling as this~! [sub](assuming she has sensations at all while travelling lightning-style)[/sub]

Finally, they arrived to Crystal Curtain. So there was a great wall blocking their way… another one of those things you never had to worry about as a servant of Mariette. Huh, and it was guarded. Better be on our best behavior. They wanted them to tell their names, huh. And business! Passing through, does that work? Deni considered it, and…

… Oh, right, to make ‘Ronin’ pass the lie-test, I better start referring to myself as Ronin in my mind, don’t I? … Deni thought. Ronin thought, for now! But not changing the banner!

Now, lesse…

[hider=Not happening][color=9b83de]‘Hiiiiiiiii, I’m Ronin! I’m was actually lost, ended up in the Overcity completely without intending to, but Valkyrie here saved me! Isn’t she awesome~? So, like, I’m sort of new to the whole actual “city” part of the Overcity, do you guys have, like, super-tough criteria for letting people enter? Because that’d be a big problem! I just want to get back to Penrose! Honest!’[/color][/hider]

… Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah, Ronin grinned. Better leave this to Valkyrie~

Oh, but.

[color=9b83de]‘Hello, I’m Ronin! Pleased to meet you~!’[/color] Ronin grinned as she happily waved to the Magical Girl guards. [color=9b83de]‘What she said~!’[/color] Concerning what their business was, Ronin added without properly thinking about it.

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The police-car was hit by the combined firepower of Eli and all the shadow minions and, to Eli’s great relief, it was enough to bring it down, at least momentarily. Then… fire truck with a water hose. She’d assume it was more powerful than the regular.

[color=57a345]‘Surround it! Destroy the hose!’[/color] Eli called to the shadows that immediately leapt off the building Eli was on to surround the firetruck and start aiming to bring down the hose and truck with their super-stretchy arms with claws and strikes, something that felt like a tougher challenge that the police car… Eli, herself, quickly dodged aside to try to avoid the water hose, while also forming her rifle into a very pointy umbrella…!

[color=57a345]‘Reinforce!’[/color] Eli called, perhaps unnecessarily, as she poured her Reinforcement magic into her slime-umbrella to attempt to resist the fire truck’s water hose while the shadows did damage to the entity from the sides. The umbrella was pointy so that water hitting it would be directed sideways rather than the umbrella trying to block it directly. This was all totally a working strategy.

Eli’s Third Eye confirmed the nature of the magic of the monsters. It was tied to Billy. They were like extensions of his being, so he could probably absorb them or make them from his flesh or the flesh of others. How many had he killed to make cars? Still, it was something to tell the others…

… Eh?

Eli looked over to be distracted by the sight of Billy having caught her mistress…

A couple seconds earlier.

Now, obviously, Mariette had prepared for the possibility of Billy heading for her. She’d been constantly keeping track of his location. But, it seems she may have failed to take in account just how [i]fast[/i] he’d be.

The first movement upon realizing that Billy was heading for Mariette was to immediately attempt to drop herself through the portal she was standing on. That was her standard evacuative maneuver, after all. She also started opening a portal between them towards directly into the ground, that he’d hopefully hit and be promptly stopped, because he couldn’t break through the whole planet. However, one can assume he hit the edge of the portal which was far more frail than the contents of the portal itself and the portal crackled and vanished, but if Mariette didn’t have time to fall through the portal then she hardly had time to open that portal to any agreeable size anyway.

So she was grabbed. Billy shattered the portal Mariette was trying to fall through part-way through (I assume), so her existence defaulted to the side which the most of her was on, which unfortunately was the side where she’d been grabbed. The hand with the hand-mirror had been instinctively raised to protect her and got caught under the arm, while the one squeezing Bunny had been instinctively pulled away from Billy, meaning when she was grabbed it lost the grip on the bunny from the sheer force of impact. Once again, through sheer traumatic instinct, a small portal opened and Bunny dropped through right in front of Amaryllis, hopefully to catch.
[sub][sub]Eli was too far away, and Mariette was in a state of distress. Amaryllis was the only other individual here she remotely trusted. You have been entrusted with the highest of honours, don’t fail her.[/sub][/sub]

There was a moment of disorientation as Billy took Mariette on a journey and slammed into the ground, informing her of his intentions of what to do with her to her face while pressing her chest harder than her non-existent vitality could handle. Her expression twisted in pain.

Yeah, no. There was no way Mariette could risk being a hostage. It didn’t matter if she was disoriented if the target was the [i]arm that was holding her[/i].

Mariette turned the hand-mirror caught under Billy’s arm a little and [i]shot[/i]. A blast of white magical power promptly shot out of her and through the mirror, with as much power as she could muster with her full magical power though with very little time to spare. The purpose of the shot was to disintegrate the arm holding her with sheer firepower. Mariette took some of her own vitality with Blood Magic, since it was faster than using the Mana Font at this point. Didn’t matter if she was exhausted after if the option was being dead. What resulted, assuming Billy hadn’t reacted first and crushed her ribcage, was a sudden and immediate burst of shining magic firepower enhanced by her weapon originating from the Light-specialization smashing straight into Billy’s arm.

That is, she used the power she gained when she [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4884902]used the Platinum Coin[/url]. Because screw trying to hide your new abilities when you’re about to get killed. [sub][sub][sub]Was hidden only because PlatinumSkink was Co-GM at the time and thought it’d be a fun surprise when fighting player characters in the future.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

[i]Regardless[/i] of how successful her blast was, Mariette would then immediately unleash all her dark tentacles. Their purpose was to separate her and Billy. They’d slam, they’d rip, they’d push, they’d pull, a burst of them trying to free her after the light-blast. If she was still caught, she’d continue shooting Light-blasts until she was freed or dead. Should she ever be successful in separating the herself and Billy, she’d open a portal into a neighboring building for herself to recover and, [i]much more importantly[/i], see if she could open a portal to look and make sure Bunny was safe.

[@BrokenPromise][@Crusader Lord][@FamishedPants][@ERode]