[hr] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/zLmcB5Q.png[/img][/center] [color=fff200]”Ngh!”[/color] Lily winced as she was struck by the drones, and quickly touched her arm, feeling the wound left by a laser; she was quickly reminded of how even the smallest threat shouldn’t be dismissed. In response, she shot out another volley mid-cartwheel, blasting the drones out of the sky. [color=fff200]”There! It’s lights out for you-”[/color] She didn’t get a chance to continue her quip, as she heard somebody behind her. She turned to shoot at the dark girl, only to find herself suddenly lifted up into the air. [color=fff200]”WAAH!”[/color] The stinging drones had distracted Lily for long enough to not notice that Tenebra had teleported behind her, and as a result the green-haired girl was thrown about, flailed about and slammed into the ground in quick succession. Lily transformed her weapon into a rod, and attempted shooting at the girl with a lightning bolt, but she was unable to aim properly due to being thrown about like a ragdoll. She knew she couldn’t use her time magic to escape either, as Gravity magic had a dilating effect. More slams to the ground followed, causing Lily to hit her jaw hard, bleeding from her lip. [color=fff200][i]Crap! I need to escape…![/i][/color] [color=fff79a][i]Lily…[/i][/color] She heard Ixion, her Patron, speaking to her telepathically. [color=fff79a][i]”Escape. You can fight another time.”[/i][/color] Lily was reminded of her Get Out of Jail ability; she could escape from any situation to a safe place. But she grit her teeth, grunting as another slam now fractured her kneecap. [color=fff200][i]No! I won’t leave Alex behind! Isn’t there anything I can do?[/i][/color] In her mind’s eye, she saw Ixion; the proud form of thunderclouds in the form of a unicorn lowered his head. [color=fff79a][i]Remember...You are the potential...Balance the negative...With positive...[/i][/color] Lily was thrown in an upwards direction. After just a couple of slams, she had incurred grievous injuries, showing her weak Vitality. She had to end this by the next slam. She lifted a hand up, and yellow, electrical energy sparked from it. [color=fff200]”I am the potential…”[/color] She groaned. Once again, she felt herself crashing down, the ground coming closer and closer… She opened her eyes; they glowed yellow as she thrust her glowing hand out towards the incoming ground. The moment her palm reached the ground, she stopped, shaking mid-air as she was pulled by the gravitational storm, yet she wouldn’t budge. She had created a field charged with negative potential electromagnetic energy on the ground below; emanating positive charge herself, she created a magnetizing fundamental force that equalled the gravity pull. She turned her eyes to Tenebra with a cocky smile, using her other arm to aim her staff at her. [color=fff200]”...I am the balancer! V-JOLT!”[/color] She unleashed a Barrage of lightning bolts, catching Tenebra by surprise; she was zapped with paralyzing force, causing her to be outright knocked out, her hair standing up straight, limbs twitching in place and her body wracked with grievous harm; she was out of the fight. As the duplicates closed in, Lily reversed the charge on the ground, launching her up in the air. As she twirled like a figure skater, she transformed her weapon into a bow and proceeded to blast the clones away with perfect precision, while also planting slowed arrows into the air; she was now angry. [color=fff200]”You may be friends, but it is a friendship founded in cruelty and evil! I won’t forgive such toxicity!”[/color] [hr] Goblina bit her lip, but nodded in acknowledgement of Penny’s request, allowing her to deal with the shy monstergirl, who in turn seemed to blush at the robot girl’s encouraging words. “Y-Yeah. I’ll do my best then. Oh, my name is Sibrex. Thank you for building this shelter, Penny!” She then waved goodbye, and ran over to the chamber where the wounded had been taken to. “You know, Sibrex wasn’t like that when I met her for the first time,” Goblina happened to state. “She was a cruel kid who liked to play ‘clay’ with people. But, as she spent time here at the shelter, she began to gradually get better.” She blinked. “Sorry, got a bit sidetracked. What’s the situation?” Goblina listened to Penny’s explanation, her expressions ranging from concern to shock. “Geez...This is bad. Cindy wouldn’t do something like that unless she thought she could end the whole conflict.” She nodded in agreement at her suggestion. “Most likely, I’ve seen firsthand how they ruin lives, they would have the balls to pull something like this off.” The short monster girl turned, about to run, when Penny told her to stay. “But Cindy is...Fffff-udge. I’ll stay and keep the place running. But you better get in there and save her, Penny! We need her.” [hr] “Tch.” Sharron turned away, holding her shoulders. “If I wasn’t wounded like this...Forget it. You monsters wouldn’t understand the pain I’ve gone through. Seeing my family rent apart and worn like...accessories...” Her voice quieted down. “Tell me...Have you ever killed someone?” [hr] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/NngpAdx.png[/img][/center] Helga smiled back to Su as they walked, though it momentarily turned into an awkward one. “Well, yeah. I was pretty worried back there, to be honest. I wondered what you were talking about with the other asian-styled girl, though. Oh well, it’s probably nothing I should worry about, hah.” She brought a hand behind her head and giggled a bit, noting the pause Su made; she decided not to inquire further. “You betcha! Let’s go on a real tourist vacation there for like a week.” Vivi raised an eyebrow as Su addressed her and FanFan. They looked at each other, and nodded. Fanfan spoke: The purification can be done in two different ways, and result in two results. The first is a ritual that takes some time, but results in removing all corruption from you; no dark weapons or Powers, but also no Mental Mutations either. You’ll be back to being a regular magical girl.” Vivi continued. “The second method is by use of a White Coin. Not only does it do what the ritual does, but in addition it also changes the source of your magic from your former Patron to Beacon, freeing you from them and allowing you to start anew. This has the benefit of-” The two were interrupted when Askefye made a hissy fit and left. Even so, Vivi didn’t show much sympathy. “Hah! Good riddance.” However, she then twitched her eye as she heard a new voice coming from under the bridge. “Damn, the troll woke up. We’re not in much of a fighting condition; we’re performing a tactical retreat.” FanFan nodded, and the two began to run away. However, Vivi glanced back at Su one last time, as if pondering what else to say, before she turned back and disappeared into the Overcity’s wilderness. Hrlga turned to Su. "You know where the portal is, right Su? We gotta go before the troll spots us!" [hr] As Hyun Long disappeared up from the rave through the open hole in the ceiling with Amaryllis in her clutches, Trixy sowed seeds of support across the bloodied floor, granting her companions passage up into the sky in pursuit of the monster queen. While Rachel refused the offer with a disgusted scoff, Leena was not as picky after seeing Shane launched from a log. “Thanks,” she stated neutrally, and also hopped on a seed that grew into a log, her swords crossed before her like a pharaoh as she flew. Up above, lit against the moon, Hyun Long’s dragon-headed tentacles coiled tighter around Amaryllis as they blasted down towards the pursuers with small breaths of fire; while dampened by the rain, they were still potent enough to inflict first-degree burns on Shane and Leena. The Knight of Rose, as she was brought right up to her waiting fangs, saw that the wound Sil had inflicted on her main body was closing at a slow rate; based on this, she deduced that given the opportunity to feed, Hyun Long could regenerate back to full health. As the fangs closed in, however, the monster queen glanced up in surprise and screeched; Sophia came to a daring rescue, performing a suicidal dive to save her friend. Hyun shot out a tentacle to intercept Sophia; it easily broke her barrier, biting into her side with a rending crunch, but wasn’t enough to stop her from detonating the gunpowder spell right in the monster's face. As a result, her tentacles loosened enough for Amaryllis to make her escape, swinging with a chain in a Spiderman-esque fashion with Sophia held in the other arm. Hyun Long roared, and shot her tentacles down, only to be intercepted by Alicia and Shane. The former’s next shot widened the hole on the warehouse’s roof with her beams and reached first, hitting the mass of tentacles Hyun had moved under her, destroying most of them. Shane’s steel javelin then successfully passed through and pierced Hyun Long’s foot. The resulting shot of lightning used the embedded rod to channel electricity through her main body, once again shocking her entire being. Sil and Serenity added to her pain further, both using small bladed weapons; whether it's a single slice that severed the other foot, or dozens of knives that stuck to her body like a pincushion. Hyun was now severely wounded, her tentacles no longer smooth and coordinated in their movements, but rather erratic and confused. The monster queen herself groaned loudly in pain, her body shaking from the electric shock. “FOOD! FHOOOD!” At that moment, as the rain abated, she sniffed something, and looked up with bloodshot eyes towards the Flying Dutchman. Then, she began severing the chains around, but curiously enough she didn’t sever the anchor chain binding her to the ship; instead, she began rapidly climbing up it, using her tentacles like the arms of a gorilla to hoist herself up. When Hyun Long reached the keel, she wrapped her tentacles around the underbelly, letting a couple stretch up to the deck to snap at the crew; like a ship under attack by a kraken, so was the ghostly ship under attack by a being similar to the sea monster. Hyun Long then blasted fire on the keel with her hands in an attempt to breach it; it seems she had caught scent of the bodies collected in the ship’s storage, and was now going for a last-ditch attempt to eat more corpses. Rachel had already reached outside the building, using barriers as jumping platforms, when she was met with Amaryllis dropping Sophia’s wounded body into her arms while demanding her to heal the dark magical girl. “Heal her? This wretched buccaneer?” Using one hand, the Inquisitor grabbed Sophia by the neck and let her dangle letting her see how far she would fall down. The Inquisitor considered dropping her right then and there. On any other day, it would have been a simple job of purging the filth. Her hands clasped tighter around Sophia, causing her to groan... However… She owed the girl, as sinful as she was, for rescuing the remaining bodies of her comrades. She also did assist in the fight against the monster queen using a ghost ship. Finally, she came to a decision. “Purgatory.” Rachel intoned, as she punched her fist right through Sophia’s stomach. But instead of blood and guts, what came out was a shower of white light that enveloped her insides. When the Inquisitor pulled her fist back, there was a white hole that quickly closed up, restoring Sophia to full health. Even the excruciating pain of the violent act had soothed into nothingness as fast as it was inflicted. She then dropped Sophia, letting her slide down a diagonal barrier safely down to the floor. “You have one chance to save her,” she stated, and pulled out a White Coin; holding it between her thumb and index finger, she scoffed. Then, she threw the White Coin at Amaryllis. “To save the monster before I cast her into the fires of Hell.” With that said, the Inquisitor turned her back to the girls, and began climbing up towards the ghost ship. [hr] Hudie rushed towards Ishtar with her bladed fan as the time-frozen girl’s lower body disappeared into the shrubbery. But just before she was pulled completely in, Raven had appeared, grabbing her hand. Hudie was half-way to throwing her fan at her when she instead dashed forward, reaching out to touch Raven’s back the moment the teleportation was activated; as a result, not only did Raven teleport Ishtar, but also Hudie. Upon arrival, Hudie brought the fan’s sharp edge threateningly to Raven’s throat. “Speak. What do you want with her?” She asked coldly, showing no hesitation to slit her throat given the slightest provocation. Elora managed to stop her cyberbox from spinning once she landed behind the Dog Pillar Druid, only to notice the Pillar Druid launching its deadly beam. Using rapid typing on a hologram interface, she summoned a drone from the inside of her cyberbox; and sent it flying into the mouth of the monster, spinning rapidly in an effort to disrupt the firing of the attack. she had deduced that the attack was designed to attack souls, and was thus ineffective against soulless machines. At the same time, she activated the laser guns she brought out previously, blasting at the dragon while floating up, ready to perform basic evasive maneuvers in case of counter attack. Tsuki herself created a wall of sturdy magical force, covering the area right in front of her in a round shape. “Get behind me!” She commanded, and braced for impact. Nightwing gnashed her teeth as her Bladebat was blown away; while she could easily recall it, it did mean that she would have to get close and personal to better deal with Grisbar. Upon seeing the rain of spiders headed her way, she created an enervating field; while only potent enough to weaken magical girls, it was potent enough to outright kill spiders, draining them of their vitality. Then, Nightwing got an idea. Using the dark night to its full advantage, she slipped with shadow stepping , and then thrust a held Bladebat into the monster’s back. “Eat some of this, bub!” She then channelled a weakening curse on Grisbar, robbing the life out of any creations it wanted to summon or manifest.