And thus, chaos.

Magpie’s shovel, empowered by the Brawler’s trademark passive, ripped through the air and shattered the oni’s arm. The metal, never meant to be used as a weapon, warped at the impact, but she carried through regardless, severing off one arm. The oni’s body vibrated in fear and anger as it grinded to a halt behind her. Salty waters churned underneath as it twisted around, swinging its remaining arm at her.

Magpie matched those movements too though. Her AGI may not surpass that of the oni’s, but she wasn’t so far behind that the monster’s movements left her in the dust. Eyes wide open, shovel swinging out for a second strike, she drove the warped edge of the shovel into its arm. They clashed in that instant, the shockwave sending sea water on both sides, but neither gave up an inch.

Then, the cracks began to show.

The wood of the shovel’s haft splintered at the same time the bones of the oni fractured, and with a meaty thunk, both shovel and arm broke, scattering to pieces upon the watery battlefield. Magpie’s improvised weapon may have been of uncommon quality, but it was never meant to be a weapon to begin with, and her passive only improved the damage it dealt, not the abuse it could withstand. Blubbering about her loss, the Brawler turned tail and ran, right as the worm-oni cartwheeled onto the stubby remains of its arms. Blood now frothed within Magpie’s territory, as it spun its legs around to create a helicopter kick of carnage that pursued Magpie with murderous intent.

Ames’s thrust ended up striking only air as well, the one-armed oni twisting out of the way of the flaming sword and releasing a quick jab. It was a maneveur that the warrior had predicted though, and he stepped in tune with the monster’s attack, evading the blow and swinging upwards to the intercept the oni’s arm as it snapped. The incandescent brand sizzled as it carved into flesh, but Ames only managed to graze the monster. It had raised its arm up instead, and the warrior’s sword met empty air instead.

[color=C94153]“Stupid zombie oni!”[/color]

Spinning on its heel to gain extra rotational force, the oni swung down with a chop, and Ames brought up his sword to defend. The warrior’s knees buckled under the weight of the impact, just barely catching the hand with the guard of the sword. The stench of cooking flesh permeated from where the oni’s hand was pressed against the burning sword, and it squirmed at the heat.

But whatever fear it held within its hive mind repressed, as it grasped onto the sword instead. A high-pitched whine sounded within the infested oni’s body, and it swung its arm off to the side, bringing Ames’s sword away with it.

An opening of a split second.

[i]BOOM![/i]

Ames went flying ten meters back, but only sustained [b]35 points of damage[/b] from the kick that had sent him there. Though his reflexes were slow, the system had not been, and stylish movement kicked in at the last moment to bring the buckler up to block it. He recovered with a mid-air somersault, and as he landed, Raime finally had a clear shot at the oni. With arrows ignited by phantasmal flame, the scout unleashed a salvo unto the oni. Three were blocked by its arm, but one met its mark in its stomach, causing the creature to writhe further. It tore the arrow out of its stomach, but damage had already been dealt: a black, steaming goop began to seep out from the hole.

The creature was not dead yet though, and with a growl, it reached out with the stump of its arm.

But for what purpose?

…

Klein ran, his heart beating against his chest, his muscles pushing harder than it ever had before. Had he ever even worked out this hard in real life? But for all of Cacophony Concord’s realism, it was still a virtual world, ruled by numbers and truths. No matter how hard he mentally pushed himself, there were hard limits still, limits that ruled him as the slowest individual by far within this encounter. The roar of the dead bull sounded behind him like a train. Perhaps in another timeline, a timeline where his Nuclei had yet to be awoken, this would be where a determination to live opened up a new possibility for him.

Ashwatthama offered vengeful immortality though, not escape from duress.

Amulak cast his own spells before he turned to run, arcane veins flooding out to craft near-invisible bombs at the landing sight of the oni. If his timing was perfect, the mines would arm themselves only after the oni landed, exploding upon the monster instead of the corpse. All he had to do now was run, and in another timeline, yes, the mage would’ve easily outpaced his ally.

They were fighting creatures that infested dead bodies though. Creatures that could manipulate detached limbs. And though Klein had helped Amulak remove the arm from his face, neither of them had done the thing zombie movies always told people to do.

Double tap.

Amulak’s left foot jerked back two steps into his run, and he fell flat on his face as a crushing pressure clamped down on his ankle. Given more time, it wouldn’t have been a problem at all, not with his superhuman strength giving him the ability to move effectively even with this fleshy manacle over his leg, but the mage didn’t have time to get up, and his allies were all too far away or distracted to assist.

The bull fell, and obliteration followed.

A wave of debris surged out from the epicenter of the impact. Magpie, at the very cusp of her own Territory, withstood the shockwave without being carried off, but the Brawler could see Klein’s form ragdolling away. Mid-air, the mountain man’s form was coated with that infernal shroud, but the flames waned successively as his body smashed through more trees. [b]His HP had dropped to 1, and [Ashwatthama]’s HP was only at 69[/b]. One more hit from any of the onis would kill him.

Amulak’s situation though, was much more dire. Even with his pain settings at such a low percentage, being struck by that bus-sized bull still felt like taking an baseball bat to his entire body. Every inch of his avatar ached, and as the dust settled, he could see that, through his relatively high END and his rare-quality armor, he had [i]still[/i] sustained [b]528 damage[/b].

Insanely enough, he may have been the only member in this party who could have taken such an attack face-first and survived. Now, however, he was trapped, legs crushed beneath the bus-sized corpse, and though the dust still shrouded him from sight, Amulak could still see the silhouette of the oni on top of the phantasmal bull, searching for him.

Three more seconds until the mines were armed.
[sub][@Shovel][@Searat][@Psyker Landshark][@OwO][@Yankee][/sub][hr]
Though Ari still knew nothing about how addresses worked in Nyu-Taro, asking the guards worked well enough to get directions that she could actually follow. Her activities in the market had left her low on money, but rich with new toys, and the fact that the ninja merchant she was looking for didn't seem to be around was...questionably fortuitous news. Maybe the procrastination just made the anxiety worse in the future, but hey, Cacophony Concord was a big game. It wasn't totally unlikely that she'd never see him again, and thus would never have to deal with his reprimands!

Maybe.

He was a ninja, after all. He may leverage his unique set of skills to track her down and force her to pay back her loan, plus interest.

Regardless, the address that Zhi-Toren handed Ari pointed her in the direction of the central-western portion of town, to a building that looked just like any of its neighbours. Three stories tall with white walls, tiled roofs, and a dark, timber framework, the 'CCC HHQ', as the wooden plaque proclaimed, didn't really seem to be anything special beyond its anachronistic name. If she focused her hearing, she could just make out the repetitive thumping of wood against paper, and there was a curiously acrid smell lingering in the air as well. Still, nothing was going to happen unless Ari did something though, and with no way but forwards, the catgirl Immortal would do...what?

Loiter around until Zhi-Toren popped out from somewhere?
[sub][@Greengoat][/sub]