[center]
[h2]
[color=BFBFBF]Zenkichi Hasegawa[/color]
[color=d7d7d7][b]Roland[/b][/color][/h2]
And 
[color=0072bc]Robot[/color] [color=ec008c]Girls[/color]
[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581952321546879006/1120967522892648530/BlackSilenceIcon.webp[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/kxFo3GL.png[/img]

Level 4 Roland - (3/40) 
Level 12 Blazermate (Holding 3 level up) - (56/120)
Level 6 Susie - (15/60) - (Holding 3 level up)
Lvl 4 Zenkichi - (75/40) -> Lvl 4 (78/240)
[b]Location:[/b] Sector 9
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1638
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With the defeat of the Tyrant, Roland did what he came to do and crushed the spirit to see what he'd get. Last time he got a crossbow, this time however, he wanted to see what would happen. Susie, with Blazermate's help looted the crate meanwhile. 

[hider=For Roland]
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/IkqYCYQ.png]Robosaurus Hunter Bundle[/url][/b]
[i]A full suit of futuristic armor modeled after the apex predators of the ancient past. It provides solid defense and limited EVA operations, as well as better defense against electricity, heat, and dark/void attacks[/i]

Inside the freighter are a handful of Bacon Agaric samples, which are mushrooms that taste like bacon and provide 20% healing when eaten, various components like modular frames, automated wiring, circuit boards, and crystal oscillators, a radio control unit, and some packaged liquid biofuel. (For Susie)
[/hider]

Roland was expecting a weapon, but got armor instead? Were these always just random? Seeing as the two bots knew what was going on, he asked, and Blazermate gave him a resounding. [color=0072bc]"Yep! Be glad its not bolts or something. We've seen weird things come from crushing spirits sometimes."[/color] Roland shrugged, and decided he'd at least try this armor the next time he got the opportunity to change.

Having discovered another rift with a VIP inside, Roland, Susie and Blazermate were told where to meet up. They met up with everyone else at the portal as Goldweis and Geralt jumped in to handle what was in there. While waiting, Roland decided to pass some time asking Zenkichi. [color=d7d7d7]"So... what did you do while you explored the area?"[/color] 

As Zenkichi met up with the others while Goldlewis and Geralt headed into the portal, Roland struck up a conversation. [color=BFBFBF]"Checked out the lower areas. Found a kid. Sounds like he made it back alright, or I think Halo would've said something."[/color] Zenkichi's tone was a bit more matter-of-fact than the others were probably used to, and he sighed. [color=BFBFBF]"I hate this place already."[/color]

[color=d7d7d7]"yeah. I hear ya pal."[/color] Roland said giving a knowing sigh. [color=d7d7d7]" Me and the robot sisters over there fought some giant dinosaur robot for supplies. Pretty sure the pink one has them."[/color] Roland continued, being a bit more expressive than Zebkichi but sharing his disdain for the area. Susie only looked at the two chatting puzzled, but mostly just sat around doing a bit of bookkeeping on her PDA. Blazermate stood at attention, but more or less was waiting as well. 

[color=BFBFBF]"Nice. Hope you got something useful out of it. I've got a couple Spirits but...not sure what I'm gonna do with em. Actually...lemme crush this one."[/color] Pulling out the Lady Nya'gai Spirit, Zenkichi glared angrily at the monster before crushing its Spirit. The umbrella that it left behind was..not actually unexpected. He'd have to give it a closer look later, though.

It was then that Sandalphon called for the others to enter the portal, and they went in. They had to wait around a bit while the fliers activated some moving platforms that wouldn't have looked too out of place in a Mario game. Carefully traversing the platforms, Zenkichi found himself wildly uncomfortable here. Being [i]inside[/i] of one of these portals, in another dimension, was disturbing. It felt fundamentally wrong. 

Perhaps even more wrong than that was the strange portal of dark energy that appeared, letting out a group of armed combatants that looked very, very strange. Definitely not human, especially given the centaur-looking one they had with them. [color=BFBFBF]"They...definitely don't look friendly."[/color] Zenkichi muttered. 

[color=d7d7d7]"Do ANY of these monsters look friendly?"[/color] Roland said with a bit of sarcasm as he pulled out a sword and got ready for combat. 

[color=BFBFBF]"I mean, they're not here right now but some of the Machines look kind of friendly"[/color] He retorted sarcastically, Closing Statement appearing in his hands as he buffed Roland's attack with Tarukaja. [color=BFBFBF]"What do ya say we take the sword guys?"[/color] Zenkichi posited to Roland.

He didn't have to tell Roland twice. Getting a buff from Zenkichi, Roland went in to clash swords with one of the sword guys. His first slash caught the creature off guard, but the creature pushed him away by overpowering his second slash. As he did the smell of coffee whisked by him as he remembered a certain coffee nut librarian. He gained some Courage from this clash, with a gruff voice saying"There’s nothing that can stop us!" buffing his strength by an additional 10% as he had 3 allies backing him up.

Blazermate and Susie meanwhile went to work on the centaur and the two cannon soldiers. With Blazermate's ability to conjure a projectile shield and Susie able to give Blazermate a good solid wall to hide behind, it was surprisingly effective. At first Susie went for the centaur that charged her, pulling out her business suit and getting ready to box it as Blazermate healed her and summoned her engineer spirit to start making a sentry gun. The cannon guys backed up the charging centaur, aiming at Susie's business suit as they weren't aware of her weakness quite yet. Susie still reflexively blocked her pillot seat with a single fist, while using the other to punch the centaur down and away, which sort of gave that away later, but their target would quickly change as the engineer constructed his level 1 sentry which started to shoot at the centaur and put continuous damage on it. 

Zenkichi followed closely after Roland, his sword coming down in a heavy overhand swing on the other Voidranger. The space-themed villain deftly deflected the sword sideways, thrusting in with its other blade. Zenkichi tanked the hit, one hand coming off the Closing Statement and letting it crash into the ground as he drew his pistol, point-blank dumping its cylinder into the Voidranger's gut and recovering a bit of health.

The dual-wielding swordsman quickly stepped sideways when the revolver clicked empty, attacking with both blades while Zenkichi stowed his empty pistol. Once again tanking the hits thanks to Closing Statements bulk making it difficult to block with, Zenkichi retaliated with a series of heavy slashes, trading blows with the first hit, while the Voidranger dodged the second and third. 

[color=BFBFBF]"Valjean! Deathbound!"[/color] Zenkichi called as a follow-up, a wide swarm of hands appearing from the ground beneath them all, swiping twice at both Voidrangers. The first attack caught his enemy off-guard, leaving it open for both the second swipe of the summoned hands to strike it, as well as a running slash from Zenkichi. The attack had enough power behind it to bowl the Voidranger over in a tumbling roll backwards, which it dextrously recovered from by pushing off the ground with its hands and springing into place.

With Roland dealing with one of the Voidrangers and Zenkichi dealing with the other, one of the cannon guys broke off from its fight with Blazermate and Susie to shoot a shot at Roland. Using his hammer at that time to clash against and parry the sword of his current target, he had to reflexively counter the shot only to get knocked back by it. Susie capitalized on that by striking it with a giant fist while Roland rolled back to his feet and went to break through another sword combo using his lance. This gave him Gleaning as a higher timber voice said. "Good… Very good… I’ll be smarter the more I eat, right…?"   To assist Zenkichi, Roland gave him a bit of cover fire from his gun, shooting the creature he was fighting. 

Being near the ranged fighters now, the centaur and the other cannon soldier attempted to get Susie off of their third partner. Knowing to aim for the girl inside the giant robot, they focused their attacks there, but Blazermate activated her projectile shield to neutralize the cannon shot and slow down the centaur long enough for Susie to grab it, spin it around, and throw it away. Susie then went back to working on the unfortunate cannon guy before her. 

[color=BFBFBF]"Thanks!"[/color] Zenkichi called as a burst of gunfire hit the Voidranger, giving Zenkichi an opening to crash the Closing Statement into its torso, following up with a rising diagonal slash that was caught and deflected before Zenkichi took a slash to the chest. Grunting, he bashed the Voidranger in the face with the crossguard of his sword, stunning the enemy long enough for Valjean to land a One-Shot Kill, which performed just as advertised, reducing the enemy to ash.

[color=d7d7d7]"I see why you got this job."[/color] Roland said as he went to clash his giant sword against the other Voidranger, easily overpowering it's first slash and slightly parrying the second, but getting hit with it's final part of its sword combo. It then took a defensive posture as Roland struck at it with his daggers in 3 quick dashes. The Voidranger took to damage but that was all Roland needed to get to Emotion level 3. This time, he got the power of Home, in which a young girl's voice said. "Friends. Oh, friends. Will we get to go home?" Which caused the numbers 1 through 4 to appear over the enemies heads. As well as an EGO page, The Homing Instinct. Roland said. [color=d7d7d7]"Hit them in order to do lots of damage."[/color] As Roland did just that, firing his crossbow on the distracted centaur which caused the 1 to disappear over its head and causing it extra pain. Susie followed up by shooting a missile at the one with 2 over its head, the extra damage finally destroying the cannon soldier. 

Zenkichi charged the weakened Voidranger, his speed and dexterity boosted by Closing Statement against the wounded enemy, and crashed into it with a savage swing down its chest. The Voidranger skid back from the blow before leaping in to counter-attack. 

Roland, having gotten an EGO page, decided why not use it now? And with a flutter of will-o-wisps the area changed into a [url=https://i.imgur.com/VUDJrwi.png] grass hill with a road leading to an emerald castle[/url] with Roland now wearing a [url=http://static.wikia.nocookie.net/library-of-ruina/images/4/44/BossRolandF3P3EnemySprite.png/revision/latest?cb=20210102091419] suit and top hat[/url]. With a one armed bow and a snap of his fingers, a small prairie house was conjured, then fell on the Voidranger. The Centaur, rearing up to attack Susie with a rush from its hooves, was immune to the attack, but the Voidranger wasn't so lucky as it got hit by a literal house that disappeared a second after it landed filling every one of Roland's allies and himself with hope and 10% more power. Although hit by a house, the attack didn't seem to do as much damage as you'd think. 

Rushing in once the house was gone, Zenkichi stood over the stunned Voidranger, looking down on him and shaking his head. [color=BFBFBF]"Tough luck..."[/color] He muttered, stabbing his sword down into the enemy, who dissolved into ash immediately with the killing blow. 

[color=BFBFBF]"And make that two."[/color]

And with 2 left, one weakened, the fight goes on...