[hider=Kanbaru and Nephy II]

Distracted by the scene of Thomas and Akiko gave enough time for the whale to make her mark. She was thrown up into the side of a cavern wall, slamming into rock and letting out a grunt of pain. She'd quickly fall to the floor and draw her sword in a defensive stance, getting her space away.

[color=92278f]"Hesitation!? You don't know what you interfere with! I've saved us all, and you're too stupid to see."[/color]

The wolf would hiss. In a blink of shadow her sword has transformed into a long spear that closed the gap between them in a moment. WIth it's metal prong it'd aim for Kanbaru's chest and have her seized up like a spit roast.

[color=92278f]"All I need is time, and mauling you is just for my own personal pleasure!"[/color]

The thrust of Nephy's spear merited a growl of irritation, one preceeding the slaming of Kanbaru's sword down into the ground betwixt them. The tip of the spear would meet the flat of the blade imposed as though a tombstone foretelling the wolf's fate, and the moment it's momentum bled off into the ringing of clashing steel Kanbaru struck again. Her sword faded into motes of light, opening the way for her to grasp the shaft of the spear and pull it forward, reeling in Nephy as her fist reared back for a punishing overhead smash into the unforgiving stone. 

[color=cyan]"You could have been under the night's sky if you just shot the Princess before she calmed Katie down. You. Would. Have. Been. FREE!" [/color]

Kanbaru's strength was mighty, better than Nephy. The wolf is yanked forward like a fish on the line into the incoming punch. Nephy's advantage is just how multipurpose her weapon is. In an instant it's transformed into it's katana form and is slashing violently across the whale's chest before she can give her long winded smash. Nephy is as quick as the wind, dancing around Kanbaru with constant swipes and slashes that are careful and precise as they are damaging.

When she draws back to recover her stamina, she licks the whale blood off her lips.

[color=92278f]"Do you think that would've been enough? Do you have any idea of the powers contained here already? Katie jumped ahead, and would've wasted herself against that barrier. It'll take all of us together, and even then the most of us that we can bare. It's better if we cut the dead weight."[/color]

She'd draw Nekuromata, and point it towards Kanbaru.

[color=92278f]"Is this the best you have? There has to be more under all that whale blubber of yours. Where's your true power? I want to seize it!"[/color]

The shapeshifting spear proved pesky, Kanbaru dashing backwards to create space between herself and the keen edges of Nephy's reprisal with an arm curled around her bleeding chest. It was an instinctual response to a blow that would have disemboweled a lesser being, but the JSTR's rationale asserted itself and she focused on the injury itself. Just as she was empowering her muscles with her control of her bodily fluid, she forced the wound closed with the very blood that sought to escape. Removing her hand revealed a bright crimson track through the slash in her garments as her sword returned to her hand.

[color=cyan]"I promised you your freedom, and because you could not trust me even a little you've made a liar of me. Twice you've just spat in my face, all because you can't even grasp the power inside Katie or her place in the natural order of things."[/color] Her hand disappeared under her cloak and an instant later the shattering of glass heralded the assimilation of a Serei card. Henry the Demon of Avarice could do nothing to change her appearance when so tightly wound with her parasite in union, but her Portals and Treasury fell to her command. 

Together Kanbaru and Nephy were surrounded in a dome of shimmering openings in the air and the whale wasted no time and leaping forward as the portals directly behind Nephy spat a thunder wreathed hammer directly behind her head. But Kanbaru held no illusion the undead could not dodge such an attack, already anticipating it to flow past her so she could snatch it by the handle and smash it in a cross chop alongside her own heavy sword.

[color=92278f]"You inserted yourself as the hero of this world. No one else did that." [/color]Nephy snarled, prepared to attack again before Kanbaru revealed a trick up her sleeve. The serei summoning the demon of avarice and encasing the area around them in a series of portals and openings. This stalled Nephy, and as Kanbaru predicted she'd seen the first swing coming but not the second.

A yelp sounds off from her as she's slashed across the wrist. She'd sooner lose a hand than lose that blade, taking the blow directly and staggering backwards as black blood trailed down her right hand. 

[color=92278f]"I'll show you what power I have been containing. I'll bring out the beast inside you, even if I have to tear that ugly parasite from your heart itself."[/color]

As she spoke, her voice began to become more bestial. Her ears lengthening in size and her wild white mane growing out down her back and beginning to touch the floor. The beast within her was coming out of its flesh vessel, claws growing longer and irises filling out the whites of her eyes. In a few seconds she's on all fours and stabbing Nekuromata inside of herself as she often did. The black blade combining with her as she exploded into a violent transformation into a great and terrible white wolf.

With a loud feral howl, the beast charged forward with tooth and claw instead of slashing swords. She'd aim right for Kanbaru's head and charge forward with the strength only a blood frenzy animal could carry, intent on chomping her head off.

In an ugly guttural voice that could barely be understood, Nephy spoke. 

[color=92278f][b]"Bear witness to me!"[/b][/color]

Courtesy kept both parasite and host rooted to the ground, not lifting a finger to stop a textbook transformation being carried out before them. With one of them formerly being a Magical Girl, it was taboo to interrupt those sorts of dramatics, and the JSTR simply enjoyed the novelty of Nephy further debasing herself for the sake of her struggles. 

[color=cyan]"Silly puppy. I am the hero this world needs, and I'm still going to save your hides, but not before I beat it raw." [/color]Though the spike in physical power was impressive, and Kanbaru held little doubt Nephy could have pulled her body apart in spite of her blood control working to keep her intact, it seemed the undead pooch had forgotten were exactly she was standing. There wasn't even a gesture to herald the slab of solid metal shooting down to impose itself between them. A great structure like the gates of an unassailable fortress fell before her, followed by a second and third to hem the wolf inside a triangle. 

Kanbaru appeared atop the walls and stared down as the stone cracked and parted, ice water surging up in a geyser of arctic chill to pull the strength from bone and meat alike as she waited with sword raised to keep a lid on her dog trap. [color=cyan]"I'll thaw you out on the surface and maybe you'll see the beast when I work you through your trust issues."[/color]

The wolf would not allow herself to become caged. Her speed and power would help her here to jump in between the gaps between that metal to keep her sights onto her prey. With great speed possible only by the four legs of a wolf, she'd dodge those incoming slabs. Of course in this mad dash, she couldn't very well stop herself as Kanbaru's ice and sword came to great her. That chilly wind ruffling even the great white wolf fur that the black marked wolf stayed her muscles. She'd slam her legs down and claw into the earth to steady herself, letting out a great and terrible roar.

[color=92278f]
"Coward!" [/color]She'd snarl, black ichor leaking from her canine teeth.

She'd rear her chest up, a dark and beating mark on her chest from which her soul rested. Tearing into herself she'd fling out black ichor that would land on top of Kanbaru, slowing her movement and gluing one of her legs to whatever remained of the ground. Another terrible roar that forced the winds to still, and a quick whip of her tail to send the whale flying.

[color=92278f]"Tricks will not stop me! Nothing will! Pray to your gods or parasite! I will kill you here and now!"[/color]

Kanbaru judged that Nephy's speed was beyond her expectations but her intellect hadn't risen to match, the wolf throwing herself into the obvious trap and being smashed down for her troubles. The same single minded stubbornness that had her fighting like a beast was keeping her from being winded for long, the whale soon grunting as the ichor of a literally blacked soul sought to hold her down.

And she let it. Bracing herself in place she turned the fractured ground to smooth ice beneath her and rooted herself there as the tail came around. And then...it passed right through her. The parasite Nephy so loathed pulled the whale out of phase with the reality around her, then snapped her back so she could drive the tip of her sword through the wolf's calf. With a twist and a heave she'd then raise it high, dragging her foe in an upwards arc before driving her into an icy hell with a roar of exertion that saw Kanbaru red in the face to match the depths of her Jester touched eyes.

Kanbaru escaped just as claws that would've rendered her to shreds make their move. She is in and out of time, diving off and then raising Nephy upwards. There the wolf began to realize the full extent of Kanbaru's power. It is intimidating as much as it was amazing to see.

But Nekuromata has a life of its own. The wolf would drive down with gnarled claws to slash and cut with magic paws to crush into that vortex, attempting to cut through the whale's body and attack the parasite directly. Even as she began to freeze the beating heart of her long dead family kept her warm and impassioned, and a hard bite came to Kanbaru's neck that would clamp down and crush it. The two are sent upward together, Nephy snarling and clawing all the way as she refuses to go quietly. 

Just as Nephy had a living weapon, so too did Kanbaru have several. Hands emerged from her body, holding back the jaws that sought to clamp upon her neck. The JSTR smiled broadly, shark teeth bared scant inches from the snapping beast as she held the maw wide open. A torrent of water plunged inside and bloated Nephy's beastly form with ice, the creeping cold expanding within and without as the ice crystalized blood and shredded her insides. 

A keyblade fell into the Whale's free hand and she swung hard, taking the lashing hind legs at the knees and smashing them aside with no small amount of force to render the flailing a moot point. Both whale and parasite glowered at the increasingly frozen wolf as the Golden Portals winked out of existence. 

[color=cyan]"We are the hero, and you are the one we are dragging to a happy ending."[/color]


The great white wolf collapsed in the walls of ice coming crashing upon her, filling out her throat and the fur coat outside with shards of poking and painful ice. The wolf would fall onto her side and gasp for air as those teeth chomped and tore the frozen crystals apart. Overwhelmed by Kanbaru's power, the wolf form began to crumble away into ash, disintergrating up into the air. Nephy could maintain it no longer, her human self revealed to be on one knee as the beast around her faded. She'd clutch her katana tightly, shuddering under the freezing cold. Her wolf form fading had cleaned herself of the worst of the ice, but it still hung in the air.

[color=92278f]"What a bunch of freaks I've run into..."[/color] She'd remark to herself, unable to continue fighitng.  

[/hider]