[h1][center][color=lightblue]Donnie[/color][/center][/h1]
[center]Word Count: [b]2,362[/b][/center]
[center][color=lightblue]EXP: (39/50) + 3 = [b]42/50[/b][/color][/center]
[center]Written in collaboration with [@Lugubrious].[/center]

Donnie, on instinct, ran for cover immediately. His world was advanced enough to have rifles. Derived from muskets and blunderbusses, sure, but rifles nonetheless. Some adventurers were cut from the cloth of common hunters, using tamed beasts and traps to fight their enemies. And Azeroth had some [i]gnarly[/i] wildlife to tame and sic on your foe, from grizzly bears to dire wolves to giant spiders and even dinosaurs. But the hunters themselves usually fancied bows, crossbows, or guns. Those that went without a pet were the deadliest of all at long range, expert marksmen who could effortlessly turn the head of a demonic warrior the size of a house into something resembling tomato dip before the thing could even get close, or often even react.

Hiding behind a nearby rocky outcropping, he began to formulate a plan.

There were six snipers, from his position. A big guy in armor with a greatbow, likely the toughest to take down. A slim thirtysomething with a wide-brimmed hat, glasses, and a deadly-looking and futuristic (by an Azerothian’s standards) rifle, though obviously non-magical. A twentysomething girl wearing very little clothing, armed with an even-[i]deadlier[/i] looking rifle. An old man with yet another newfangled rifle, likely the most fragile. A young blond-haired man in a blue tunic and what looked like a Titan-made bow. He’d have to make sure he didn’t get hit by that thing, it looked nasty. Then there was an absolutely [i]fabulous[/i] crossbowoman in a lavish fur coat. He had no idea what to expect from that one, but she was obviously a skilled sniper just like the rest of them. Fortunately, crossbows took longer to reload than those rifles, which were obviously of a similar design to Michael’s .50-caliber beast.

He waited for a while, observing the proceedings and biding his time until he could strike. He wasn’t very fast without his mount, and even with his mounts he’d be an obvious target. HIs best bet was Vivi, who thankfully hadn’t spawned this time, likely having the same thought process Donnie did. He wished he could talk to Vivi right now, but that would waste the little time the Black Mage had before he despawned.

As he observed the snipers, their weapons, the fact that revival was possible, and the chaotic attempts to get to the tower and end them (noting the Courier’s insane ploy with approval as it took out Quiet), he noticed something. That giant with the greatbow. He seemed to have an...unusually-good perception for being so far away from the enemy, especially with all the background noise of people breaking the tower walls and such.

To test this, he picked up a rock and threw it at another large outcropping nearby. True to his prediction, Gough turned towards it instantly. Unfortunately, that got him scanning the area and readying to strike him down once he picked up Donnie’s breathing.

The monk only had a few seconds at best to do this, he had to act now!

Willing Vivi back into existence, he whispered “Cast Stop on the giant, quick!” Having been carefully observing the situation, same as Donnie, Vivi reacted instantly, his staff glowing as he cast the spell. Vivi had only used up some MP from the previous battle, since he could only appear for a few moments at a time. This gave him fewer opportunities to waste it like with the zombie apocalypse scenario only a day earlier, meaning that he could [i]absolutely[/i] make Gough stop in his tracks.

The spell spanned the great distance between boulder and battlements, and a black aura appeared in a cylindrical field around the giant sniper. Around him the air distorted, as though filtered through a heatwave, and Gough stood frozen in time. With his senses stopped as well, he could take no action whatsoever for a few seconds, giving Donnie the opportunity he sought.

“Now, cast Thunder on the old man and bail!” he whispered. “I’ll get us out of here!”

“Right!” Vivi whispered back, casting Thunder on The End and vanishing an instant later. Before the thunderbolt from the sky even hit the old sniper, Donnie was already moving, getting on the Disc and using the route Fox took, hidden by boulders and trees, flying low to the ground to make it to the tower. Of course, the puffy cloud trailing behind him was a problem, but he took the Disc into overdrive, hoping his raw speed would make him almost impossible to track when mixed with the dense cover of rocks and plant life. He’d make the tower in thirty seconds, tops.

In a flash a bolt of lightning dropped from nowhere, striking the End where he lay. The magical assault surprised both Imani and the Sniper, eliciting a yell of surprise from both, but it shocked the End in a far more literal sense. He didn’t scream, or cry out, or even moan. He just sprawled there on his stomach, his rifle clutched in his hands. A faint whisper issued from him, lost in the breeze. “I can return to the forest at last...” Then the ancient man lay still, dead as a doornail.

For a moment the other sharpshooters just looked at him, another of their number eliminated in the blink of an eye, but they quickly noticed that after the End’s heart stopped beating, something else started beeping. Unfortunately the two, rattled by their comrade’s death, realized what it meant just a little too late.

“Uh oh.”

“Bloody hell!”

[i]BOOM![/i] A fiery explosion rocked the top of the tower, sending both Imani and the Sniper flying into the open air. It dealt a powerful blow to Gough, halted as he was by Stop, and a second later when the effect expired the giant barely managed to avoid falling. The others were not so lucky. Imani fell about halfway before she righted herself and kicked off the tower, sending herself in the direction of the field by the waterfall. She hit the ground hard, but somehow appeared totally unaffected by the impact, and the next instant a smokescreen appeared to serve as shelter. The Sniper, meanwhile, plummeted while howling at the top of his voice until he hit the surface of the moat, allowing him to survive the fall, too.

Back atop the tower, Gough fought to steady himself. It’d be only a moment before he regained firm footing, but someone quick on the draw could find an opportunity there. Link, meanwhile, avoided the detonation entirely, having descended into the tower’s interior moments ago.

Donnie was only about ten seconds out from the tower when he saw the top of the tower go up in a fireball, feeling the shockwave hit him in the chest. His ears were even ringing. Thankfully, he’d been around enough battlefield explosions to keep his footing on the Disc, but he could also hear the Sniper screaming bloody murder as he fell from the tower’s battlements.

[i]Four Celestials! Did that old man have a bomb tied to his heartbeat or something?![/i] Donnie thought as he continued to move behind cover.

By the gods, he hated doing this. That poor old man didn’t need to die like that. Neither did the girl, who had her whole life ahead of her. The man in the hat didn’t need to be fighting them, and neither did the huntress, the giant, or the warrior.

He was going to [i]end[/i] Galeem for making him fight innocent people. Even the Old Gods didn’t pull stuff like this on a mass scale like Galeem did.

But now that the situation had changed, what was his next move?

Well, as he was thinking this, he had already arrived at the tower, so naturally he chose to go [i]up.[/i] There were enough people on the ground floor, and Gough was vulnerable.

Like a speeding bullet, Donnie, atop his flying Disc, landed a chi-enhanced axe kick to the back of Gough’s helmet, hopefully sending him into the drink or worse. This, of course, made him land flat on his ass given that the Disc was traveling [i]upwards,[/i] but he commanded the Disc to deposit him on the roof and then desummoned and put it away in a practiced maneuver.

If Gough had recovered from that. The monk was ready to fight the giant personally. This would be a duel to remember.

The giant heard Donnie coming. He pre-emptively twisted so that while Donnie’s kick pushed him off the edge of the tower, his giant hand clamped down on its edge a moment later, and with incredible strength Gough hauled himself back up. After dropping the greatbow, he pulled out an arrow to use in his main hand. While little more than a long knife for him, it was a deadly lance to a normal man. With the other hand he removed a stone from his pouch, about the size of a potato, and without a word Gough flicked it Donnie’s way. It flew at him faster than a slingshot stone, and much heavier.

Realizing what the giant was about to do, Donnie rolled out of the way, though the stone grazed him in the middle of his somersault. That [i]hurt![/i] It even left a scrape down the side of his chestplate. Thankfully, it hadn’t been a direct hit. That would have been nasty.

But now it was the monk’s turn. Sprinting in an arc towards Gough’s right side, he attempted a chi-enhanced palm strike directly to Gough’s massive leg, followed by a Blackout Kick to his oversized knee, before making to disengage, anticipating a melee attack from the giant.

Gough didn’t seem to move, standing conspicuously still, with his direction of his head fixated on something over the monk’s shoulder. As if on cue, a deep, guttural voice sounded out from behind Donnie in alarming proximity. [b]”HELLO!”[/b]

Donnie flinched, running to the side and springing into a fighting stance to assess the threat, eying Gough in case he decided to do anything.

There was nobody behind him, just the broken shards of the stone Gough threw lying next to the battlements where it shattered.

But Gough started moving the moment Donnie changed his direction. He went low, extending his leg in a wide sweeping kick that took up an appropriately gigantic amount of real estate. As he went down, he scooped up his bow and nocked the arrow he’d never intended to use as a melee weapon. In one fluid motion he took aim, the bow held horizontally, and then Gough fired down into the tower itself. The great arrow blasted through the masonry, decimating Donnie’s entire side of the tower several stories down as it flew on its diagonal path.

Donnie’s moment of confusion cost him dearly as Gough’s sweep kick knocked him off of his feet. He rolled with the punches, even the blunt impact of the sweep rippled through his body. It didn’t break any bones, but he’d feel it in the morning for sure. He sprung to his feet in time to witness Gough nocking his arrow. Donnie, realizing where the arrow was pointed, dove towards Gough’s left side, avoiding the arrow, but only barely. He rolled, and stood, but he was only a few feet from the edge of the tower.

He grinned, realizing he was fighting an enemy who could actually formulate a strategy and not just some big oaf with a bow. This just got a hundred times more interesting. But he wouldn’t be fooled by that strategy again.

He sprinted evasively, noting the firing axis of Gough’s bow and making sure he wasn’t in an arrow’s flight path whenever Gough decided to fire again, or dodge when Gough decided to strike in melee. He was [i]going[/i] to reach him, that much was certain.

And when he finally did reach him, he’d make sure the giant felt the chi-enhanced strikes headed his way. And if the giant tried anything? Disengage (or jump if it was a sweep) and Chi Burst from short range.

The Hawkeye looked listlessly forward, his unseeing eyes nowhere in Donnie’s vicinity. Only when the sound of footsteps reach him did he take action. Knowing the rough layout of the tower’s top following the destruction of a chunk of it, Gough knew his foe didn’t have much lateral room to work with. He lowered his grip on the bow and held it like a staff with both hands, then swept it horizontally to try and whack Donnie off the tower again. 

Donnie, meanwhile, simply grabbed onto the bow, vaulted himself over the giant’s arms, and landed a chi-enhanced drop kick to the giant’s face before kicking off of Gough’s helmet, hurling himself into the air, and rolling onto the ground.

All of this roof-smashing gave him an idea, but how was he going to put it into motion?

Wait, motion! That was it! At Donnie’s mental command, Vivi popped into existence a few feet behind him, and seemed to know what was ideal for the situation, casting Stop on the giant once again before vanishing.

That sound...the sound that came before Gough was frozen in time a minute ago. The clear note of a spirit manifesting, temporarily taking form in order to act, reached the giant and clicked in his head. He nocked another arrow with great haste, aiming not at Donnie, but at Vivi, and let go of the string. The Stop struck him the next moment, but the magic struggled to hold him. Donnie opened up his Luggage to retrieve the ingredients for a powerful Gunpowder Charge, but the Stop ended well before it did the first time. All of a sudden the black arrow screamed forth once again. It slammed into Vivi, but instead of creating a trophy, the impact created a bizarre reaction. Vivi de-manifested into a burst of multicolored light that turned gold just like the gold light that made trophies, which hung there for a split second. The light then arced through the air, tracing the spiritbond, and the next moment slammed into Donnie. Before he knew what happened, he fell from the tower as a trophy, leaving devastation and a even more wounded Gough behind.