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[h2]Vs. Empusa Queen[/h2]
Feat. [color=salmon]Ace Cadet[/color] and [color=0072bc]Blazermate[/color]
[sup][@Yankee][@Archmage MC][/sup]
Word count: 3164 (+4)
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There was no time for strategizing. While the pair of [url=https://i.imgur.com/puBN9eA.jpeg]green empusa[/url] took wing, hanging back and looking for openings, their aggressive [url=https://i.imgur.com/YEA7IAD.jpeg]queen[/url] was already on the offensive. She snapped her razor sharp forelimbs out at the pair of Seekers, but her strike found only the steel of Yato. The sword flashed as the Ace Cadet met each of the demon’s quick slashes and stabs with a rough parry, until the monster had enough and leapt backward. The empusa queen landed on all fours, and slowly, menacingly, began to circle around. 

It was then that the Cadet glanced back at Blazermate, giving the medabot a confident grin. Out of everyone that could have ended up with him in this arena, she was one of the best to be paired with. Although he figured she must have changed in the few weeks since he’d seen her last, Blazermate’s support style -all technological in nature last he knew- would make this a piece of cake if he focused on the offense. 

[color=salmon]"Ready for this?"[/color] the hunter inquired of her.

[color=0072bc]”Of course, I’ve got a fun trick that’ll help, get into position!”[/color] Blazermate said as she cast Disruption on the Empusa Queen, banishing it in a dark void for a couple seconds before it reappeared with two illusions of itself, those illusions clear to the duo and clearly hostile to the Queen and attacking her.  And as Ace went in to do his things, Blazermate stacked on another debuff on the Queen, Disseminate, making it take more damage from every source for a short while.

Under threat by three enemies, even if two were copies of herself, the aggressively territorial queen began to rampage. She slashed and stabbed with her scythe-like arms, viciously cutting down the inferior clones as though to prove they were no match for the real thing. And in a manner of speaking, it was true - they were not as powerful or tough as the true empusa queen, and it wouldn't be long before they fell to the demon's might even before their timer was up.

Which made the biggest thorn in the queen's side the red haired monster hunter. Although wary of the copies Blazermate had produced (and maybe feeling a tiny bit betrayed that it turned out she did have some forms of magic now), the Ace Cadet did not squander the openings they provided. Each stroke of his sword cut deep into the empusa queen, opening up wounds on her legs and abdomen. His defensive options were limited with his current equipment, but he generally tried to keep between the demon and Blazermate. In doing so he relied more on his physical strength than his evasive ability, continuing to parry the queen's slashing when she aimed at him. The queen's movements were not completely predictable however.

The empusa queen suddenly sprang straight up, flicking her legs out as she did and crashing back down on top of one of her copies, crushing it into nothingness. Then she dipped down, lowering her body and striking low at the hunter. It caught him by surprise, though both sides of his rigging extended and closed in towards his front to block the razor arms. That was how he found out the hard way that though they were steel, his rigging couldn't truly replace a good shield against a powerful foe - the demon dented the metal and flung Ace backwards, leaving her free to take care of the last illusory copy.

At that point, the queen's entourage made their moves. One flew in close, hovering over the empusa queen and spraying a green dust over her that began to heal up the demon's injuries. The second green empusa got closer as well, waiting to deliver its own healing and spitting globs of some poisonous substance at Ace and Blazermate to keep them away while the two insectoids worked on undoing the progress the Seekers had made.

The Cadet had recovered quickly, side-stepping one of the projectiles. His rigging was much slower to reorient itself, struggling to properly aim their mini cannons after taking damage. [color=salmon]"Those things are gonna be a pain in the buzz,"[/color] Ace said, eyeing the green empusa. [color=salmon]"Let's get rid of them first."[/color]

[color=0072bc]”Ok, use some big hard hitting moves, I’ve got Kritz all ready!”[/color] Blazermate said, noting that she had her medigun charged and ready. She also had a way to break the Empusa Queen’s defensive line so Ace could get in there and do some damage to the healer. What helped out a lot as well, is that since the Empusa Queen was focused on Ace,  Blazermate’s engineer could safely build his buildings and now a sentry gun was plinking away at her dealing low but constant damage from its large caliber rounds. 

[i]Big moves, huh?[/i] Ace could do that. So far the maiden fight of his new sword, so to speak, had impressed him. The blade was sturdy, strong, sharp, and well balanced on top of being a beauty. Giving it a real test with some flashier moves would be fun.

[color=salmon]"Here we go!"[/color] Ace sprinted forward, directly at the empusa queen. She reared up and slammed both of her scythes down at him, only just missing the hunter as he swung the sword and himself to one side with a fade slash. Then he climbed the demon, using the spikes on the back of her arms as stepping stones to propel himself upwards. At her shoulder the Cadet leapt off towards the green empusa that lingered by her, a mid-air round slash slicing through its delicate wings and sending it tumbling to the floor. The monster hunter followed it down (not that he had a choice in the matter), flipping the sword into a reverse grip. As he landed the blade stabbed into the grounded empusa, impaling it through the abdomen.

Once she got the signal and Ace began his rush down on one of the healers, Blazermate got ready to pop kritz the moment he attacked. Likewise, she saw the Empusa Queen turning to advance and gave her something to deal with, summoning Armstrong to bull rush her down and knock her into the far wall with an explosive dash ending with an explosion that put the healers off guard as well.

One deep cut drawn up from the green empusa's abdomen through its neck and mutated head was enough to slay it. The toxic substance inside of it spurted out before it died, making the Cadet grimace and turn his head away as it splashed up at him. These things were particularly nasty, especially with the distorted human-like faces they wore.

Following the explosion from Blazermate's striker, the second green empusa seemed almost frightened. It flew in an erratic circle before it darted over to where the queen had been pushed, and so the Cadet ran after it. He considered loading a flash bomb into his slinger, but settled for just leveling the clutch claw at the flying demon. He fired, the chain and claw extending out to catch the empusa by one of its legs. The hunter then skidded to a halt, yanking the chain backwards and staggering the empusa's flight.

He was a little too late to stop its healing payload from reaching its queen, especially as the much larger demon began charging back towards the Seekers as soon as Armstrong disappeared. The Cadet quickly took hold of the slinger's chain with both hands, giving it another hard yank and pulling the green empusa completely from the air. It hit the ground in front of the hunter and continued bouncing back along the ground behind him. He released the clutch claw’s grip on it, because at that point the queen was upon him once again. Ace took the slinger's chain in hand once more as the claw parts restructured themselves, swinging the newly formed metal anchor at the queen. The flail clocked the side of her face, pushing her slightly off course. Her scythes dug into the ground and then she heaved, bulling forward and splaying her forearms out in an attempt to grab the hunter.

One down, one to go. Although with one of her minions down, perhaps now they could overcome her healing. As Ace had been taking the queens attention, the engineer’s sentry had been upgraded to level 2 and was now really piling on the sustained damage. Blazermate herself really didn’t have too much in the way of things she could do besides healing or throwing out her new healing bolt that did some okish healing on the return. 


Something she could do however, was when the Empusa Queen was going for a big heavy attack on Ace, to yank him away from the attack with one of her newly gotten spirit abilities. [color=0072bc]”I think we can just overcome her healing with one of them gone. I’ll keep it in my projectile shield, you do big damage, she should go down?”[/color] Blazermate said, putting forth her plan and using her projectile shield to protect from the spit of the minion, while dealing some hefty damage to the Queen herself, a bit more than the sentry was doing.

At first it seemed like the hunter might not have heard her. Blazermate's Leap of Faith ability had pulled him from the danger of a grapple, but once he was back by her side it took the man more than a moment to recover. The feel of her agenllic pull had been chilling, and it took the raging scream of the empusa queen to seemingly make him come back to his senses.

[color=salmon]"Huh? Oh, yeah - let's go with that."[/color] With a click the slinger's chain retracted, snapping back into place on his arm. He placed a hand on the hilt of Yato, more than ready to test how it handled iaijutsu.

But it turned out that the Seekers wouldn't have to try and beat through the remaining green empusa's healing. It had taken flight again, returning to its monarch's side as she scuttled backward away from the painful projectile shield, but after it delivered its latest healing pollen the queen jerked forward and snatched it from the air. It struggled in her grip until the empusa queen opened her mouth and bit down on its body. Her blunt teeth crushed its flesh, pressing harder until demonic blood gushed out which she began to drink deeply.

The Ace Cadet's eyes widened. He appeared to recognize the behavior, or something similar to it, and without any hesitation he sprinted towards the monster. [color=salmon]"Let's go with that right now!"[/color] he said, urging Blazermate to follow after him and bring the demon back within range of her shield.

The empusa queen's body began to glow, a harsh red light seeping out from inside of her and showing through her exoskeleton. Then she threw away the body of her healer, which broke down into dust as soon as it hit the ground. A moment later the Cadet had reached her, flicking his sword out towards her throat with intent to end the battle as swiftly as possible. But the demon was faster now, and with a parry of her own she caught the jagged guard of his blade with one of her scythes and forced him away. The hunter took a step back, re-sheathing his sword and taking a ready stance as the demon reared up on her hind legs.

As the Empusa Queen crashed down on Ace, Blazermate tried her other new ability. Summoning a dome of pure holy light with the phrase [color=0072bc]”We Stand as one!”[/color], the Empusa Queen’s attack hit Ace directly, but nothing happened. In fact, Ace was healing from any damage he had taken and could move normally. While the dome didn’t last long, it was essentially an AoE ubercharge that Blazermate could throw out whenever…. Although it had a hefty cooldown. 

The protective wave came at the same time that Ace drew the long sword into an iai spirit slash, and where usually monster and hunter would have traded wounds the impervious dome gave the Cadet a significant advantage. The draw attack was already a powerful one, and without being hurt or interrupted Ace forced the demon to relent when he completed the wide slash. He followed up with a swift thrust into the queen's shoulder as she landed heavily on all fours again, then pulled the sword up in a reverse overhead slash that sliced a deep line through her neck and chin. Though the queen bled, it wasn't enough to end her reign. If anything it only made her angrier. She roared and lashed out with rapid strikes, her scythes cracking the ground where she missed and crashing hard against the Cadet's armor when she didn't. At this point though the hunter entrusted his well being completely to Blazermate, and he retaliated against the empusa queen in kind.

Throughout the drawn out exchange, the sealed sword performed even better than the Cadet had hoped it would. It bit painfully into the demon's body and refused to yield when struck, mitigating any reverberation from being passed on to its wielder. Ace had gotten used to the feel of it very quickly, and the general way the empusa queen moved and attacked, so he knew it would just be a matter of time before he took it down. He side stepped another of her stabs, barely avoiding a heavier strike as the sharpened arm sliced a cut across his cheek, and dove in for what would be the final round.

The hunter breathed out, shifting his grip on the sword. Thinking he'd given her an opening, the enraged queen raised one of her arms overhead and drove it down towards him. With a flash the golden blade had flicked up in a Critical Juncture, meeting the demon's scythe and then slipping under it, severing the insectoid limb at the joint.

The empusa queen screeched in pain and indignity. She wouldn't have backed down even if Galeem's thrall allowed for it - she lashed out with her remaining arm, giving the Cadet another leg up as he met it with his sword once more. He'd swung it overhead, strong enough to force the demon's arm down and use it as a staircase for the second time. He pulled the sword up hard in a cross slash, adding to the wound on the queen's neck from the opposite angle. This time she did stagger, though she didn't suffer for long.

After putting the demon down, the Cadet flicked the ichor from his blade and sheathed it once more. When he trotted back over to Blazermate with its spirit in hand, he could already feel her healing beam patching up the last of his wounds.

[color=salmon]"And that's three more bugs squashed,"[/color] he said, offering his hand for a fist bump, which Blazermate did. She also saw upon the defeat of the bugs that besides the Empusa queen spirit she could grab, she was also offered one of three cards. [i]Mint Condition, Anointment, Sunflower Crown[/i] She didn’t know what these meant, so she chose what sounded the best, or rather, cutest with the Sunflower Crown. At first it felt like nothing happened, but she did notice herself getting a bit more durable. Weird for a sunflower crown to do, but things were usually weird here.

Meanwhile, Ace had a decidedly different experience. And upon closer inspection, the cards had text on them denoting multiple different effects.

[hider=For Ace Cadet][b]Sweet Surrender[/b] - foes inflicted with Weak also take 15% more damage.
[b]Constellation Surge[/b] - at the start of a fight, movement speed is boosted by 30% until attacked.
[b]Garnet Staff[/b] - increases the damage of special arts by 20%, grants 1 second of invincibility, and erase projectiles in a radius when special arts are used.[/hider]
[i]What are these? Prizes?[/i] Was that something caused by the empusa queen's defeat or just an effect of fighting in the Qliphoth, he wondered. As he read over the cards, the Cadet's eyes kept wandering to the first of the three. Compared to the other two, its stated effect was a lot less enticing. But the pink shape stamped on the card was vaguely familiar to him, he just couldn't place it. He re-read it again, and after a few long moments it eventually clicked. This was just like back at the restaurant in Limsa weeks ago! [i]So this card is... a boon from that woman? Aphrodite, I think?[/i]

The 'cast' she'd given to him was a useful thing, not that he'd been able to bring himself to use it for a while now. It was some kind of divine magic, or something similar enough that the thought alone gave him chills. But since she had bestowed the boon in the first place, if he could talk to Aphrodite again maybe she could remove it for him?

He reached out to grab the card, but it burst into sparkles as soon as he touched it. A soft pink light extended out from where the card had been, encompassing the area and banishing the blackness completely. In place of the cards, a beautiful [url=https://i.imgur.com/hllKpZF.png]woman[/url] stood. Though nude, her long hair trailed down her front to tastefully cover her sensitive areas. Adorned with gold and flowers while sporting a spear and shield in each hand, she was even more gorgeous than the Ace Cadet remembered. He fought to keep his eyes on her face. Her gaze then flickered over to him, at which point she smiled sensuously.

"Well, you certainly made me wait, didn't you? I was beginning to think you stood me up~"

[color=salmon]"Ah-"[/color] The hunter's face began to color, a dusty pink to match the background of the vision. He coughed to clear his throat. [color=salmon]"Aphrodite, right? About your pow–"[/color]

The goddess tipped her head and raised her spear, interrupting him with a knowing twinkle in her eye. "My power, mm? I've just the thing to help keep you [i]warm and tingly[/i]."

The Cadet began to protest, but the vision began to fade away. There was a brief feeling of elation that gripped the man, which mixed very strangely with the apprehension he felt about the one bit of magic being stuck in him just getting stronger. Before she disappeared completely, Aphrodite winked at the Cadet and bade him, "keep following your heart."

And then he was plunged back into the real world.

[color=salmon]"Great. Just groovios..."[/color] he sighed, pressing his palm to his forehead. He had a jumble of conflicting emotions now, and his cheeks were still pink, and the exact opposite of what he'd wanted to happen, had happened. If he’d known talking with Aphrodite would be no use he would have picked one of the others! But there was nothing he could do about it now, and no use in complaining. 

He looked down at Blazermate, wondering if she'd gotten the same choices. It didn’t seem like she’d encountered anything strange, so maybe not. Before he could ask, the medabot noted that the path to the next vein up the tree was now clear, and she hurried towards it. The Cadet followed after her, stopping only to quickly scoop up the spirits of the green empusa (and somewhat comically the severed royal scythe) before the two Seekers hopped into the fresh xylem vessel.