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[img]https://i.postimg.cc/L5r26P82/Star-Fox-Final.png[/img]

[i]feat.[/i]

[h3]GM[/h3]
[@Lugubrious]

[color=5edaf6]Level:[/color] 6 (2 -> 5/60)
[color=5edaf6]Location:[/color] Sandswept Sky - Al Mamoon - Obelisk Temple
[color=5edaf6]Word Count:[/color] 1781 (+3 EXP)

[color=5edaf6]Power:[/color] Charge Shot
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Upon discovering the first telltale signs of conflict already underway after entering the monument atrium, the splinter group made ready to move in, but were slower to act. While others discussed possible routes, Fox spared no second of hesitation before leaping from the balcony in a three-step running start without a word. With two aerial traversal methods available to him--needing for only one--he would have no trouble clearing the jump (or redirecting his flight if/as necessary). Of course, not all of his team could say the same, hence their delay, but he knew he couldn’t afford to simply hang back with them to find them another way if he could better serve them by leading a head start on reinforcement. He just had to trust that they would catch up while he bought time up ahead.

It turned out they wouldn’t have far to go (but plenty to get through after an ambush), for the ongoing battle waged in the corridor just two stories down with no further rooms or halls in-between, as Fox could now plainly see. He darted forth, abruptly cutting into the middle of the action, and sliding to a stop on both feet, ducking low to the ground. His hands hovered at both sides, above his sidearm and shield each, ready to reflexively draw whichever one the situation most immediately demanded.

Having come upon a fight already well underway and thrown himself straight into the thick of it, Fox quickly learned exactly what that meant. He got only a quick glance at the temple’s third floor, broad and square in shape and bearing no features save flame-lit wall sconces and a forest-like array of archway-linked pillars throughout, before an unidentified assailant appeared before him. She moved with just about imperceptible speed, kicking up a gust of wind that tousled Fox’s fur as she paused in front of him. The stranger, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/NMIYIGa.png]blonde girl[/url] in a fanciful dress who wielded a giant zweihander longer than she was tall, stared at him for a brief moment with blue eyes of utter blankness. “Entity not recognized. Commencing termination.”

She darted forward, swinging her blade as if it weighed nothing. No slouch in the speed department, Fox flipped back out of the way of the rebel’s sword, but noticed too late something off about the trail it left behind. The arc of blue light, darker toward the sword’s base and lighter to the tip, expanded outward to form a crescent of hard light crests, sharp enough to draw blood and then some. Es did not pause to see the results of her attack, but leaped past Fox with another crescent slash over his shoulder, then a third at his right hip, boxing him in. The next second she loomed over him a downward slash summoning a spear-like crest to impale the overeager pilot from above.

Then a blue light appeared from nowhere and slammed into Es mid-plunge. Fox caught a glimpse of Azwel, wielding a blue crystalline shield. “Forget about me?” he cried as he extended his other hand. From a spark of light a terrific double-bladed battle-axe manifested, red as crystalized blood and lit from within, and with a form of magic telekinesis he brought the axe’s head down to cleave the girl’s in two. Instead she blocked it, forced by its weight back to the ground. With her sword she slapped it aside, only to be greeted by two levitated scimitars of red and blue. Controlled by Azwel, they attacked like hornets, stinging again and again until she flung them aside with a spin sweep and lunged Azwel’s way. Her blade flashed beneath the sorcerer’s conjured shield and cut into his leg, but the azure spear that shot out from beneath the shield and sent her flying away more than paid her back for it.

She got up and disappeared behind a fallen pillar, one of many already felled by the furious duel. “Splendid!” Azwel crowed as he limped up to stand beside Fox. “We’ll take the stage together!” He summoned his twin swords and entered a ready stance, the weapons crossed over his chest. “Flush her out now, I’ll be waiting in the wings!”

Having paid in cuts and piercings for an unsolicited* taste of what Azwel had been dealing with for the likely duration of their raid, (*[i]In fairness, Fox had intended to fight, so the instinctual assumption that he was a definitive threat on her part was circumstantially valid, even though he intended to help in a way while he was at it.[/i]), he had already begun making mental adjustments to his approach to be put into effect. Subverting her gimmick would likely be a simple matter of getting in through the gaps to stay inside of her weapon’s effective range, which was par for his usual method, so little at all would change for him if he was right. The main thing he would have to worry about was her greater mobility with which she could create and close distance as needed in little time, an advantage usually afforded to him that they had in common here.

To start, he closed on her cover with a Burst dash directly for it, intended to blow it apart, or force her out of it. Whether she took the hit or got away clean, he would chase her into the air to keep pressure on, wearing down her guard or health with airborne melee until one or both of them had to back off. Where he used kicks up-close, he answered in kind with light shots at a distance, more as a distraction or to bait out attacks than a means of offense. Long range, or arm’s reach, with no in-between: he aimed to manage that for spacing to control the pace of the fight… while considering that he wasn’t the only other one in it.

Fox’s explosive dash took a chunk out of the pillar he targeted, kicking up enough force and shrapnel to convince Es to move. Being a swordfighter, of course, the artificial human had always intended to go toe-to-toe with her opposition, and doing so meant quickly coming to terms with whatever tricks and traits Fox might offer. The two quickly ascended into the room’s limited air space, and while they exchanged blows Azwel hurried over. Fox and Es clashed at blistering speed, a flurry of limbs and gleaming arcs, with Fox a little speedier thanks to the more straightforward path of his punches and kicks versus his foe’s slashes. He landed a handful of strikes across her arms and torso, but any chance at building up enough momentum to overwhelm her was dashed by her crests. With every swing, landed or not, Es left behind more and more trails of ephemeral patterns that took just longer to fade than they did to make. The end result was an array of blades and spikes that served as defense just as much as offense, forcing Fox to constantly rethink his attack patterns lest he cut or skewer himself.

After a brief but furious moment the pair split, with Es using her blade to block Fox’s parting shots. He kicked off again the moment he landed in pursuit of her to find that she’d launched herself at him as well. She span like a vertical sawblade to unleash two wheeling slashes that Fox evaded, only to finish with a quick jab of her sword’s hilt right to Fox’s sternum. In retaliation she took a strike right to the head, only to follow through anyway into a horizontal cleave that clipped Fox as he jumped away. The results of that blow plus the ones he dealt earlier were ample proof that Es didn’t take damage like an ordinary teenage girl, either.

“Can you stand the test?!” As Fox repositioned himself Azwel moved in, and his scimitars bit into Es’ back. When she turned to face him she found a conjured axe sweep already on its way and leaped back out of its path onto the fallen pillar. Azwel’s axe appeared above her but fell far too slowly to stop her dashing his way. The sorcerer only just got his shield up in time to block a waterwheel swing, but the crescent trail prevented him using the spear he brought out along with it. In midair Es pivoted to unleash another horizontal, the crests of which formed a cross along with those of its predecessor. Azwel withstood them as best he could with his feet planted, but the great downward spike that followed him smashed him into the ground beneath his shield. He rolled away as Fox approached once more, conjured a floating shield that he crouched upon, and charged Es from the opposite side surrounded by suspended weaponry. “For the human race!”

As the two closed in Es jumped again, unleashing slash after slash to fill the air with crests and stop her enemies in their tracks. As he attacked Fox needed to not only maneuver his way past the crests, but also avoid getting accidentally impaled by Azwel’s charge. This served as yet another reminder that Fox was actually fighting not one, but two that would need to be pacified, and he wasn’t sure how much energy he would have left to manage it on his own if he made the mistake of allowing it to last.

Quicker to process their impending collision, it fell to Fox to avert it through quick evasive action. He sprang around the first vertical crest he passed, touching down by one hand to propel himself forward between two more horizontal and diagonal formations, essentially diving between them. He hit the ground once more in a foot-forward slide beneath Azwel’s surfing shield and between every jousting weapon he controlled. All the while, he opened the action on his blaster, chambered a Heart into it, and readied it once more with a sustained squeeze of the trigger to begin building energy at the lens for a more powerful shot.

Whether Es was ready to be freed or not--as a measure of damage taken--didn’t (and likely wouldn’t) show, so he was taking decisive action to wound and heal in one move on the assumption that it might work. His best indication was in his provisional ally’s condition, evidencing fatigue. He would have to wait, for Fox’s sights trained narrowly past him as soon as he stood. With a sufficient charge welled at his fingertips, he released the echo trigger to let fly an empowered, vibrant pink blast intended for Es, knowing that, success or fail, it wouldn’t end the fight either way.