[center][h3]Tora & Poppi[/h3]
Level 7 Tora (94/60) and Level 6 Poppi (33/60)
[b]Location:[/b] the End
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1157[/center]

With her varied attack patterns the ruthless Ender Dragon assaulted the island, forcing the heroes on the defensive. A smattering of ranged attacks barely registered with her as she bombarded the heroes with massive globules of caustic purple acid, leaving behind puddles that quickly drained into the porous end stone below. Her acid barrage plus the constant threat of endermen made for a direly hazardous battlefield, and those unable to keep abreast of the danger suffered the consequences. Nobody took a direct -and more than likely, lethal- hit from an acid bomb, but there were enough close calls to inflict searing, painful burns on almost every fighter present. When she suddenly transitioned into a flip, the Courier and his faithful Drumstick -unlucky enough to be in the way- got sent sailing into the fuzzy, infinite sky. All the while, the Ender Dragon's excellent air mobility allowed her to avoid the slow rings of Sectonia, no matter how large they were. Only two struck her: one as she performed the flip, and the other as she cruised down to unleash the acid fountain.

The wave of ender acid washed across the island from its center point, swiftly covering the vast majority of the tiered, flat land. Though not as deadly as the dragon's pulverizing jaws or flesh-ripping talons, it provided a danger that could not be ignored. Everyone still on the ground was forced to use either their mobility or ingenuity to escape the cruel tide. Peach wasted no time jumping into the air with her parasol once more. While she could wait out the acid bath by floating, she couldn't unload her scatterboom into the dragon at the same time. The sight made Euden wish he packed an umbrella, but the young prince made do. He sprinted at full tilt for the Ace Cadet, hoping to catch a ride, but Linkle made it there first. Changing courses and narrowly staying ahead of the raging acid wave that bit at his heels, he made for Junior's clown car. At the last moment he leaped onto the contraption and scrambled on top. While Euden got one leg singed as the acid splashed against the obsidian, he grit his teeth and reasoned that it could have been a lot worse. He then watched, powerless, as a triggered enderman decked Jak and Daxter from their hoverboard as they tried to outspeed the wave. If the duo couldn't pull off an emergency escape, it'd surely be a one-way trip to Lumbridge on the Palico Express. 

Tora and Poppi, meanwhile, watched the chaos from atop one of the obsidian towers. Though they went up there to bide their time while seeking an avenue of attack, they happened to be in a good spot to evade the flood, and a number of other heroes made their way up top as well. Geralt appeared, and Tora remembered not to look at him only about one second too late. “Sorry, meh!” He watched Cuphead and Link arrive courtesy of the giant bee queen, safe and sound. 

With everyone as safe as they were going to get, it was time to turn the tables on the dragon. Patient and cautious as ever, which was to say 'not at all', Bowser escaped the flood by leaping for the dragon herself. His giant mitts clamped down on her ebon hide, prompting a wet shriek as she ejected the last of her purple fizz and attempted to stage her escape. The Koopa King pulled her toward the soaked ground, and while his feet burned viciously, he held firm. The Ender Dragon pumped her wings but could not break free. A moment later, Blazermate's diagnostic formed the foundation of the heroes' counterattack. Blaster fire, both in sky blue from Geralt's and ruby red from Fox's at close range, pummeled her head. Both dealt damage, but the space animal's concentrated barrage left a cauterized crater amid the scales before her thrashing shook him off, creating a weak point few could miss. Link, loosing arrow after arrow, certainly didn't; when he sent a shaft zipped into the Fox-hole, the leviathan's roar shook the island. 

Even Hat Kid leaped courageously forth, and while Tora wasn't planning to let the others do all the work for him, the sight of the kid flinging herself into battle lit a fire under the Nopon's bum. “Let's go, let's go!” He ran for the edge of the tower and jumped, trusting in Poppi fully, and like clockwork his partner boosted into him to carry him forward. The wind of the dragon's flapping wing buffeted them back, but Poppi adjusted her course. She strafed through the air until she was flying directly behind the dragon, then carried Tora forward toward the spot where the wings met the back. Tora, either disoriented or just excited, starting swinging well before he was close enough, and when he finally got in punching range he drove the Mech Arms home with gusto. “Meh-meh-meh-meh-meh-meh-meh!” he cried, bashing the pitch-black scales over and over again. While the two looked stupid for not targeting the dragon's head, they knew that the others' much higher damage output would serve them better, so instead of jockeying for position Tora planned to build up as much power as he could.

The dragon continued to struggle, but as long as Bowser heroically withstood the agonizing acid frying his feet, and Donnie kept hammering her with Boom Biters, she could do nothing to a Nopon beating her in a blind spot. Tora Tora took a direct hit in the back from one of Donnie's projectiles, and reeled for a moment as he tried to get his bearings before continuing the barrage. After a good few seconds of all-out walloping, the opening came to an abrupt end. Up above, the leviathan took Hat Kid's explosive vial and even more explosive fist in the chin, then got absolutely creamed by Linkle's giant bomb. The explosion nearly dropped Tora, but he managed to hold on even as the wounded Ender Dragon wrenched free of Bowser's grip. A look down confirmed that the acid had cleared up, too. Now was Tora's chance. “Okay Poppi!” he yelled, pulling out of the Mech Arms. “Level two!” He pushed off of the dragon and allowed himself to be flung away by her windblast. 

Trusting her masterpon to take care of himself, Poppi received the Mech Arms and jetted around the Ender Dragon Dragon to face her as she lifted upward. “Poppiiiii.....” After a moment of buildup she overclocked her thrusters to boost into the dragon's battered and dizzied head at high speed. “Crushing blow!” She blew apart a handful of the leviathan's blast-loosened fangs with a spinning punch before an explosive uppercut slammed the jaw shut. With a furious snarl she thrashed around, and her claw took off Poppi's lower right leg as she staged her getaway. “Ah!” Poppi cried out, down one booster and careering off course.

Tora, having bounced off the damp end stone unhurt, ran after her as fast as his teeny legs could take him. “Poppiiiii! Tora comiiiiiing!” With thoughts of his companion's safety override everything else, he didn't stop to think that Poppi had indeed successfully landed a level two Blade Combo.

The dragon, meanwhile, twisted sideways. Though afflicted with heavy wounds, and reduced to around half her overall vitality, she would be putting up no less of a fight. She span with intense centripetal force, lashing her tail and its accompanying wind wall at all those standing on top of the towers. Her tail tore through the iron bars atop two of the towers, and while she didn't hit the shorter towers, the airblast almost certainly would. Faced with the dragon's wheeling strike, Blazermate and Donnie in particular were in considerable peril of getting smashed.

[center][h3]Lumbridge[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Land of Adventure
[@Zoey Boey][/center]

Ryu watched, muscles tensed and spirit focused, as Sakura rallied herself. Both knew that it should end here, but neither thought that it would. The girl picked herself up and charged, the change in her mood as evident in her moves as it was on her face. With his opponent in this state the world warrior did not feel confident in being able to read her, since the relentlessness of those under Galeem's influence could not be equated to rage. His prior dealings told him as much, and his body featured a few stubborn scars and bruises to prove it. Instead his foe would both enjoy a second wind and maintain her full mental faculties, with just one critical difference: now, morals no longer factored into her fighting style.

So Ryu prepared himself for anything, but without protective equipment he couldn't defend himself against the handful of soil Sakura flung his way. She slapped him with the dust, stinging and blinding him, but even with eyes screwed shut the martial artist was far from helpless. With the proper fight over with, his win condition changed as well. He needed land only one technique. To do that while blind, however, he needed Sakura to be close, and he needed to withstand her onslaught while making it appear as though she had the upper hand, and without actually falling beneath it.

Steeling himself, Ryu let the wave wash over him. As dirty blow after dirty blow hit him, the pain making stars blossom in his closed eyes, he concentrated on the palm of his hand. Agony lanced through him, threatening to make him crumble, but a lifetime of pain and punishment allowed the formidable man to keep his focus. With a cry, he thrust his palm toward Sakura, his fingers opening to reveal the gregarious pink luster of a Friend Heart. Luckily for him, it didn't matter if she blocked it or not. The moment it made contact, the heart [i]blooped[/i] right into her, and purged the lingering will of the Lord of Light.

Though Ryu couldn't see it, he could sense the change. Relief flooded through him, albeit suffused by pain, and he fell to he knees as he tried to mitigate it.

[center][h3]King Minos, Judge of the Dead[/h3]
[@EvilEdd1984][/center]

Though nightmarish fiends in their own right, and capable of slaughtering uncountable civilians, the necromorphs fared poorly against elite fighters out in the open. The Doom Slayer dispatched a pair with brutal efficiency, putting down the wretched undead faster even than Nero or Nadia did. Their demise left King Minos alone once more, scarred and bleeding from dozens of bullet and slash wounds. His arsenal of tentacles, so useful for delving underground and spearing unwitting enemies from below, had been reduced to a gruesome seafood dish scattered around the courthouse floor. Grinding his teeth, Minos slammed both arms into the ground again and again. “Gaaaagh! Your treachery will not go unpunished!” 

The impacts shook the building, and chunks of ceiling began to fall. While Nadia scrambled around and V shrank back toward the walls to avoid the worst of it, Nero took a single step out of the way of some falling rubble before sitting on it, totally nonchalant. “So, what do you think, Mr. Judge? Don't be stingy now, you can cough up a perfect ten, right?”

“Your crimes are unpardonable!” the king announced. “You'll go screaming into the pit!”

Nero smirked. “You sure? You just keep doing the same attacks, and it's really not working out for you.”

Minos' hand came down to smash him, but Nero rolled backward across the rubble and out of the way. The judge's fingers closed around the block of masonry, and he picked it up to throw Nero's way. With surprising speed the chunk crashed across the ground and clipped Nero as he tried to dodge, bloodying his shoulder. A leering grin spread across Minos' ghastly face, and he grabbed another slab to hurl at the Slayer, then again at Nadia.

While the heroes were otherwise engaged, Minos hurried to call forth more minions. This time he dug deeper, and from burning pits in the ground he summoned two necromorphs and a grotesque, gray-skinned [url=https://386415-1230459-raikfcquaxqncofqfm.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/1592490523_158_All-the-infected-in-The-Last-of-Us-Part-2.jpg]abomination[/url] formed of multiple corpses joined together by vile fungal growth.

V watched as the monsters appeared and Minos sank back, hoping to catch his breath while his minions occupied the heroes. [i]Well, why not let him.[/i] He tapped his cane on the ground for attention. “You, with the armor! Keep them busy, but don't slay them all immediately. The rest of you, come here.”

After a moment Nadia dashed up and slid to a stop, and Nero swung in using his wire. “Nyaow what do you want?” the feral asked, incredulous. She made no bones about her disbelief that her team needed to hold a meeting right now. When Pandemonica arrived a couple seconds after, she barely even got a glance.

“We've been doing well enough individually,” V explained, his voice low and urgent. “But we can end this in a flash if we really work together. His breath aside his arms are the his only remaining offense and defense. If we can snare them, I can use Nightmare to throw Nero at him. Make an entry, work his torso, and Domination will take it. Our friend can mop up whatever's left.”

“I can hold his arms,” Nadia assured the others, her hands on her hips. “We'll just need to get him pissed.”

At that point Pandemonica spoke up. “I can see the cafe now that the building's breaking apart. Mind if I step out and get some coffee? ”

Nero looked back at the action, considering both the plan and how much the demonic customer service representative had contributed so far. “Might as well. Let's go.” The trio moved in and fanned out. Provided the Doom Slayer dealt with the undead, the battle would resume immediately. Once Fortune saw her chance to grab the judge's attention, the scheme could be put into motion. First, however Minos needed to be even angrier.