[center][h3]Tora & Poppi[/h3] Level 7 Tora (78/60) and Level 6 Poppi (17/60) [b]Location:[/b] the End [b]Word Count:[/b] 686[/center] The great dragon rampaged forward like a midnight tidal wave, and the heroes hurried (or in some cases, were hurried) out of its way. Not everyone prepared had themselves for such a titanic beast, however, especially one that bore down on them so quickly. As the party scattered, the Courier and his entourage, Jak and Dakster, Cuphead, Donovan, Hat Kid, Banjo and Kazooie, and Fox didn't quite get out of the way in time. None got so unlucky as to fall beneath one of the Ender Dragon's feet and get trampled into the store, or snapped up by its ebon maw, but even a glancing blow from its enormous limbs or chest was a heavy impact that sent them sprawling. None got even close to flying off the island's edge, but rolling across end stone wasn't exactly pleasant. Such a monster need not even make a real attack to dish serious pain; just the act of moving in its enemies' vicinity presented a threat. The others, however, did not let the Ender Dragon move on and take to the skies again unscathed. While getting out of its way Geralt peppered its face and head with blaster shots, his weapon's inaccuracy not an issue against a large target on approach. Junior and his Pokemon worked together to unleash a pair of twin Laughing Ghosts that rushed after the beast to detonate against its hide—unfortunately, they moved a lot slower than the dragon did. Link's arrow struck the beast's back and left a visible scar between its scales, and the first wave of Sectonia's light rings cut in just after. Cadet managed to snag his Clutch Claw on the Ender Dragon's foreleg as it went past, which abruptly yanked him after it, and then the monster was gone. It took to the air, left the island, and began to circle around. The Laughing Ghosts swerved to track it, but detonated against one of the island's obsidian towers. Even in this lighting, anyone who happened to look at the impact sites could tell that they left not so much as a scar on the smooth, glossy black stone. Tora, meanwhile, jumped up and down in frustration. “Crap!” Poppi side-eyed him. “Masterpon forget that missile arts only usable after hit with basic attacks?” The Nopon signaled for her to lift him up as he watched the dragon come around. “Honestly,” he said as his partner boosted upward, holding him. “Given circumstances, little moment of panic more than understandable, meh.” Poppi set him down on top of one of the obsidian towers, where he stood at the approximate height of the leviathan's cruising altitude. A moment later the Ender Dragon flew toward the island again. Purple welled from its mouth, and as it soared over the island it released blast after blast of ender acid. The stuff splashed against the end stone with loud, dangerous hissing. Timing the jump, Tora waited until the Ender Dragon got close before slamming the Mech Arms against the obsidian beneath him. The blast sent him flying into the dragon's path, and using his weapon's hands he grabbed hold of its upper tail and hung on for dear life. Poppi flew after it, getting as close as she could. As the Ender Dragon passed the tower, a beam of purple energy shot out of the crystal atop the spire to lock onto the beast. While it looked like an attack, that didn't exactly make sense given its placement here along with the dragon, and it also didn't look like it did any damage. In fact, to Poppi and the Cadet, it appeared to be the opposite. They were close enough to see the wounds from Sectonia's rings, Link's arrow, and Geralt's shots close up, and to see the beam peter out the moment the wounds did. In the heat of the moment, however, Poppi was concentrated on her masterpon. After completing its acidic bombing run, the dragon turned toward the island again. With Poppi on board as well, Tora could start pummeling the dragon's hide, although the assault didn't so much as slow the beast down. [center][h3]Lumbridge[/h3] [b]Location:[/b] Land of Adventure [@Zoey Boey][/center] While waiting for an opponent to make their move meant one could fight reactively, figuring out their foe's strengths, weaknesses, and moveset, it also meant surrendering the battlefield and playing by that foe's rules. Sakura would not be doing that. Instead she leaped on the offensive, and to begin her match with Ryu she unleashed a full-force spirit ball that flew quickly across the distance that divided them. A less experienced fighter might have jumped over the linear hadoken to deliver a jumping attack, but all that awaited such a maneuver would be a quick shoryuken to the face. Being no amateur, Ryu contented himself with blocking the blazing projectile and seeing where things went from there. He did not, however, anticipate Sakura going all-out aggressive. The girl sprinted after her hadoken to press the attack. Ryu had just enough time to throw a jab, but if Sakura was this familiar with his fighting style, she probably knew he could and would instead go for block pressure. As such, he held firm on the defensive. He chose wrong. Sakura met him not with a blow but with a grapple. In a remarkable gymnastic maneuver she flipped over his guard to pull him off his feet and send him into the air. Ryu knew how to fall, and he hit the ground with enough grace to get back to his feet immediately, but his face bore a scuff from where it hit the dirt along with a look that could only be termed 'mildly impressed.' Still, he didn't wait around. He advanced toward his opponent, stopped at the perfect range, and began to apply pressure. He alternated between high and low strikes, varying his targets and techniques, never committing to a sequence heavy enough that Sakura could sneak in a counterattack. It seemed as though he fished for an opening to start a combo, but he did not expect Sakura to mess up her blocks; his intentions lay elsewhere. Finally, after a tense few seconds, he unleashed a Collarbone Breaker, a tricky blow that needed to be blocked high. Sakura had to recognize and adapt to in the span of less than a second to avoid getting opening up. [center][h3]Dead Zone[/h3] [@EvilEdd1984][/center] While the Slayer certainly didn't seem happy about having Pandemonica along for the ride, he seemed to understand that he was already tolerating a heavily-armed quarter-demon and a human commanding three full demons, so a harmless-looking, tired secretary who happened to be a demon wasn't that big of a deal. That left the group able to focus on the threats ahead. Straightaway the Slayer busied himself with mopping up all the small fry and medium fry, exterminating zombie and demon alike regardless of how on-fire they might be. Nero decided to go after the biggest fish, that being the vaguely doglike monstrosity of twisted metal. It reminded him of a heavy-metal spinoff of the Cerberus demons, which he knew Dante faced multiple times in the course of his adventures, but this thing acted more like a Behemoth. It heedlessly tore through any monsters in its way, devouring them with its three heads. As he approached, Nero wondered what happened to what the beast ate, since it featured slavering mouths at both ends. Of course, he didn't play to find out. “Hey, poochie!” he called, getting the beast's attention. “Let's play!” The Greed replied by blasting fire from both of its forward maws. Nero jumped over the wave of flame and launched downward with a Payline. Snarling, the monster raked at him with its crimson claws, but Nero's technique brushed the attack off as he drove the Red Queen between its necks and into its body. He landed on its back and ran across, dragging his embedded blade. As he jumped off, pulling the Red Queen free, the Greed's rear head snapped at his leg. Its teeth tore free a strip of his right pants leg and bloodied the skin beneath, but the devil hunter didn't seem too bothered. He landed with a roll, unleashed a couple shots from the Blue Rose, and promptly dodged back out of the reach of the rear head's ice breath. Having clawed the life out of a prowler, Nadia then jumped in to attack the Greed, but her nails didn't even scratch its steely armor. “No good!” she called, jumping away. V moved in with Shadow and Griffon to help take the Greed down. Meanwhile, one of the bedside brutes swooped toward Pandemonica, leering at her. In a salacious voice it called, “Hey, babe! You look like you could use a pick-me-up!” The demoness blinked. “Oh, you have some? Black with two sugars, if you don't mind.” Smirking, the incubus lunged. “I'm thinkin' red with cream!” There was a snapping noise, and the demon dropped dead, its neck twisted neatly backward. Pandemonica stood over the corpse, adjusting her glove with a resigned expression. “You must have me mistaken for Modeus. I'm in Customer Service. I trust you're satisfied.” Nearby, Nadia landed on top of another incubus, driving it face-first into the ground. Her eyes were wide. “Whoa, you're one cool cat!” she said. Lying on the ground beside her, her target sputtered. “Guh! This ain't what I had in mind when I said I wanted pu-!” With a slash of her detached tail Nadia sent the demon's head rolling, and when his body dissolved into ash she stomped on the spirit. Some sort of horn manifested, which she left where it lay. The victors glanced over just in time to see the Slayer put down the surprisingly tough hag monster, and not long after, Shadow crushed the Greed's last remaining head with its flytrap form. Nero lingered over the Greed spirit for a moment. “I'm not a weapons master like Dante, but...maybe something like that'll give me something useful.” He destroyed it, and to his surprise the spirit reconstituted into a [url=https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/apps/570/icons/econ/items/lion/hells_bat_arm/hells_bat_arm_large.de6cc44ccc4e0eeb6df3cf43d11e00b9fa8d11e8.png]prosthetic arm[/url]. “Hey, that's not half bad.” Nadia looked down at the [url=https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/H4c34355156f94883bd7079368e41b13bz/Adult-Kid-Anime-Game-Undertale-Chara-Frisk-Cosplay-Costume-Unisex-Sweatshirts-High-collar-Long-Sleeve-Coat.jpg_640x640.jpg]itemized result[/url] of the hag. “Aw, sweet...a knife.” Shrugging she stuck it in one of her pouches to followed the devil hunter and his associated across the remainder of the lot and to one of the many entrances to the mall. She glanced up, watching the edge of the building get closer and closer to eclipsing the root that rose from it. “So, this is it, huh? If this gets tough, you guys better not fur-get to keep me safe.” Since the sliding door wasn't working, Nero kicked through the glass. He turned to see Pandemonica holding back. “Stay out here if you like, but there's probably a cafe or something in here,” he told her. “I see.” The demon promptly followed the rest, and with the party at his back Nero forged inside. Immediately he saw the chains everywhere, stretched haphazardly across open space. Almost every wall bore iron bars over its recesses, and in them were crammed humanoid shapes beyond counting. They moaned as they struggled in vain, packed like sardines and pleading for succor. From his time in hell the Slayer harbored familiarity with such surroundings, but the others needed a moment. “Jesus...” Nero muttered before glancing back to check on his crew. V looked grim, Nadia looked like she was about to throw up, and even Pandemonica seemed pretty displeased. While this place matched neither what Nero knew of the place from Dante nor Pandemonica's workplace, it certainly fit the bill for hell. The sheer number of chains served to inhibit their progress, so Nero drew the Red Queen and started cutting away. “C'mon,” he told the others. “Let's put down whatever screwball lives here and get the hell out.” After a while of working through chain-infested halls and stores, littered with pools of lava, they came to an area where the ground had given way. The entire back half of the mall seemed to have sunk down into a fiery pit, but enough chains stretched across it to make a way over. As nimble as she was quick, Nadia could run along the chains to get over the gap, but the others needed to be a little more careful. Nero slung himself under, climbing hand-over-hand, and V called upon both demons to help him. Pandemonica managed somehow, balancing slowly but surely across. The real problem seemed to be the Qliphoth root; the team had underestimated its size. It was farther away than it looked, and not in the mall itself at all. On the other side of the lava pit, sitting on the edge of the cliff, stood the remains of a great courthouse. It was from there that the Qliphoth root rose.