[hider=NA Post Holder] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/HWhWXIx.png[/img][/center] [b]Unknown Place - 11/14/2022 ??:?? UTC+8[/b] [hr] A cacophonous howl droned through the air like a siren, omnipresent and all-encompassing enough that it felt like it was vibrating every molecule of her being. A torrent of surging, chaotic energies followed right along, tearing through the air with a shriek that seemed to rip reality asunder in streams of fire, ice, twisted space, lightning, water, "love" and more. There was very little finesse to the assault, just near-mindless brute force and overwhelming emotion. It was less a stream of coordinated attacks as it was a wave of [i]power vomit[/i], churning and roaring out in a barely coherent singular purpose... that being to drown a single target underneath it all. Golden eyes flashed wide, a mind vastly superior to any normal human's paired with a reaction speed to match, calculating trajectories and danger zones in a torrent of data, and the owner's body reacted with cat-like grace, springing into the latest of many twisting motions to thread the needle of chaos. A black and green shield briefly appeared, warding off what portion of the deluge she simply couldn't dodge outright, as she braced her feet on the back side of her Noble Arm and rode the wave of power upwards, leaping at the apex to soar high above a sea of madness. Crackling black ooze flowed over her skin, spilling over from underneath her own clothes and layering over the top of them, as pitch-black spears made of titanium alloy shot forth in all directions like javelins, lancing out around her like she was a giant sea urchin to rip into the screaming ocean below in search of physical purchase, of something approaching solid ground. They did not find it, as the churning sea rippled and shifted around the projectiles. There was a lurch and then an ear-piercing splintering noise, as several of the ungodly durable spears snapped like twigs or unraveled like silly string on contact with the chaos below. She was already falling, but the woman had already anticipated the possibility of failure and prepared accordingly. A parachute billowing out from the ooze coating her back, unfurling with a [i]whumph[/i] and delaying her descent, as she disconnected the spears from her ooze and instead regurgitated a long thin hardened plastic surface from the ooze on her stomach. Low weight. Maneuverable. And most importantly, it provided her power more surface area to work with. Her ooze spread down the surface of the hard plastic sheet, crackling and bubbling, as it bulged and expelled the nose of what seemed to be a large missile with handles mounted on the side. Grinning ferally, Lei Qingshe, Snake of the Zodiac, caught hold of one of those handles, wrenching the rocket free of her shadow fully, as she disconnected the parachute from her back and retracted the plastic plank back into her ooze. In the back of her mind, a wireless connection blinked to life, as she synched with the internal systems she had fixed into the rocket. Now in free-fall, the Snake slung her legs over the side of the rocket, feet sliding into a pair of metallic stirrups, the fins of her new mount flexing in readiness. A single mental command was all it took to ignite the thruster mounted on the back end of her creation in a screaming jet-engine whine, and with a roar, the greenette suddenly became a blur of motion, pealing through the air in an upwards arc that just barely missed plunging into the madness below. The screaming sea [i]howled[/i] its displeasure at her ingenuity, but leaning down to flatten herself against the side of her rocket, the Snake could only grin in response. [color=39b54a]"Alright, then..."[/color] she murmured, as ooze spread from her ears to protectively cover her eyes from the wind, the bubbling mass instead projecting a number of camera lenses for her to see through by proxy, [color=39b54a]"... it's about time I got somewhere with this."[/color] Gritting her teeth, she felt again an ugly, crawling sensation ripple across her skin, one that she'd grown all too familiar with since being trapped in this place. It was more than just normal unease she was certain; in fact, she was confident it was like her very soul and Noble Arm wanted to quail in this place... but the Snake was not one to cower. Not anymore. And that was why, despite having been in a running battle for the past day, she was still not even close to giving up on finding a solution to her current predicament. [color=39b54a][i]What exactly is this supposed to be: the Russian nesting doll of Hell?[/i][/color] ... Summons rocket. Ambushed by golden chains. "You could have been great..." taunt. How long had it been, Qingshe wondered... since she'd last been in truly dire straits? [/hider] [hider=Qingshe vs C.D.S.] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/UGfbHOV.jpeg[/img][/center] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/HWhWXIx.png[/img][/center] [hr] [b][i]Roughly three weeks ago...[/i][/b] [b]Diamond Island Convention and Exhibition Center, The City of Phnom Penh - 11/11/2022 06:29 UTC+8[/b] [hr] Callie's warning that there were infiltrators in the same building as the diplomatic summit may have been the first of its kind for what would soon be a day of madness... but by no means was she the only one following up on a lead of that nature. Sliding through the halls with an amicable smile on her lips, Qingshe nodded to a patrolling guard, as she schooled her expression into cordiality long enough to turn a corner, before frowning. Heels clacked sharply through tiled halls, as the Snake strode with purpose, eyes narrowed sharply in search. According to the tense formality of the situation, the greenette was actually wearing a far more socially acceptable outfit to the negotiations, a pale-blue button-up dress shirt paired with a black tie, long white coat, black skirt and black leggings. For once, she didn't stand out like a spotlight in the dark, and she had decided the best place for her in these negotiations was... Well, to be honest, it was just not making a nuisance of herself by existing in the same room as the man she'd inadvertently collaborated in changing the weather with... to say nothing of the inherent unnecessary tension keeping the turncoat Snake and loyalist Dragon in the same zip code would bring. Her actions in the operation to dismantle the Rooster's prison camp had been about the furthest thing from subtle, and Qingshe rather doubted her presence would do anything to set anyone involved at ease. So, she'd chosen the better part of valor and excused herself preemptively from the proceedings to focus on quietly patrolling the premises. Sure, there was something to be said for the risk of Huo Ren and one of Superbia's Avatars being left alone with her more vulnerable comrades and the national representatives... but Huo Ren would be a fool to start a fight in close quarters with Mr. Makri. And Mr. Henri's presence should hopefully ensure Superbia's Avatar was close to a non-factor if worst came to worst. This was all to say that Qingshe had set herself what she felt was a fairly reasonable self-imposed position in all this... and she had spotted something... concerning. [i][b]A flare of a navy-blue coat passing just out of sight. A flicker of movement, a scruffy man gone almost as soon as he could be noticed. Someone else might have mistaken those sightings for a hallucination... But the Snake's sight and memory were too fine to be fooled... Cao Bao was in the building.[/b][/i] Of course, Cao Bao's involvement wasn't unexpected. For all that he'd failed to show his face to the frontlines thus far, he was still Huo Ren's second, his bodyguard, backup and safety line. As long as Cao Bao was in the picture, it should be near impossible to eliminate the Dragon. No matter how grievously or lethally the Dragon was wounded, as long as Cao Bao activated his power even a moment before true death, Huo Ren would survive, transported back to Cao Bao's side in some safe haven or bolt-hole... But therein laid the matter of concern... Because Cao Bao was [b]here[/b]. [b]On the frontline.[/b] [b]Somewhere he'd never venture unless given orders from on high...[/b] And knowing what she did about how terrifying the "support" could truly be if he set his mind to it... Her jaw setting tensely, Qingshe kept her eyes peeled, even as a niggling feeling of unease grew more intense the longer her search went without results. Idly, she considered alerting the rest of the ASEAN team about the looming threat, but to be honest, they already seemed to have enough problems landing on their plate. And if Cao Bao were to engage them without her... To call it a slaughter would be an understatement. In other words, there was no point in worrying them over a possible threat until she could get actual confirmation that there was, in fact, a threat to be concerned over. Cao Bao was, at least nominally, a noncombatant. He was simply too obscenely valuable to risk on frontline operations, even considering China's rather excessive availability of Arms Masters and willingness to spend their lives like water. Amongst them, Cao Bao's value was easily A-Rank, and the only reason he wasn't ranked higher than B was a combination of politics and his own barely hidden commitment to doing the bare minimum to accomplish his duties and no more. However, it was that selfsame attitude that clued Qingshe into how truly dangerous he was, because Cao Bao was a man of brutal efficiency, devoid of arrogance or the need to monologue to his opponents like so many of his comrades. If you were his enemy, he would just kill you, and he would do it without warning or prevarication. He would play as dirty as he needed to, and he underestimated no-one as a threat, resorting to overwhelmingly efficient murder, assassination and immediate retreats at the slightest sign of a true disadvantage as his tools of choice. Cao Bao was a man with a -in his own words- "highly developed sense of self-preservation". And in this sort of situation, Qingshe knew that made him the single most dangerous entity in this entire zip co- A rustle of displaced air and the flare of body heat alerted her a moment before the sound of metal clashing rang out behind her. Whirling around, Qingshe's narrowed eyes flashed from blue to gold, pupils narrowing to reptilian slits at the sight of... ...nothing. Nothing except her floating shield, Ouroboros, fading back into invisibility from an unseen impact. She didn't wait a moment longer even pretending the situation wasn't hot as lava, as her oozing shadow boiled out from beneath her feet in a rippling layer across the floo- On instinct, the Snake's body twisted into a crouch, the whistle of displaced air signifying the passage of a scimitar through the place where her spine connected her neck to her torso. The rustle of a blue cloak met her ears just long enough to register its presence a moment before her assailant disappeared in another instantaneous flicker. [color=39b54a][b]"[i]Enough[/i],"[/b][/color] she hissed, as her shadow [i]erupted[/i]. From the ooze spreading out around her, a halo of needle-thin titanium blades speared up like a forest of death, punching into the nearby walls and shattering the closest windows with a crash. Plaster rained down from above, as the blades tore through everything around her in a sweeping motion, rent lighting fixtures crying out in a crackle with their dying breath. For a moment, the hallway was plunged into dead silence, save for the waning rain of glass and plaster, as the Snake glanced around her... and found no-one. Clicking her tongue, the greenette straightened up, not letting her guard down for a moment, as her ooze spread up the walls around her, coating the entire hallway in her immediate vicinity with bubbling, crackling black. "[i]Boy[/i]..." The drawling man's voice drew her narrowed, golden eyes to drift over her shoulder, sighting a figure now leaning against the wall next to one of the broken windows... [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6vG3G9q.png[/img][/center] "...I already knew you were one [i]scary[/i] motherfucker," he continued with a grimace, one hand rubbing at his stubbled jawline, as a cigarette twisted between his lips, "but [i]good grief[/i], even that brief exchange just about launched my balls into my throat." [color=39b54a]"Cao Bao..."[/color] Qingshe was proud of the way she managed not to openly seethe at the implications of this, her expression shifting into one of deceptive cordiality. [color=39b54a]"...might I inquire as to the meaning of this unprovoked assault on such an... auspicious occasion."[/color] Cao Bao sighed, his eyes half-lidded, as he met her gaze with a calm he probably didn't feel. His hands fell to slip into the pockets of his coat, as he rolled his jaw. "[i]Oi[/i], believe me, I'm not any happier about poking the goddamn Snake of the Zodiac with a stick... but I think we both knew this was coming sooner or later." There seemed to be a layered meaning in that statement that the Snake didn't fail to detect. Qingshe's eyes narrowed, her expression of cordiality falling, as she hissed, [color=39b54a]"China would [i]dare[/i]? If they sabotage these overtures of peace, the only thing waiting for them will be [i]destruction[/i]."[/color] Cao Bao shrugged, his own expression darkening with displeasure, as he sighed again. "Well, you know how it goes. Nothing personal, but... [i]orders are orders[/i]..." [color=39b54a]"Cao Bao, you-"[/color] The man disappeared in a flicker, as Qingshe's eyes widened a moment before something cracked across her head hard enough to rock it forward. A warm trickling sensation and the acrid smell of gunpower niggled at her consciousness in the understanding that her reinforced skull had just warded off being burst like a watermelon by a bullet a split moment before her shadow responded in kind, eviscerating the area in search of her attacker. Steel filled the air, as the forest of blades around her thickened, and a cacophony of raw noise announced the hailstorm of bullets that manifested to assault it in a tide of hot lead, the pinging cracks of ricochets sounding out. The Snake barely managed to catch a glimpse of Cao Bao's flickering form, as he teleported around the area her shadow occupied, bullets manifesting mid-flight in his wake to hurl themselves at her defenses in a ceaseless storm. A thunderclap announced a shell the size of Qingshe's torso -[i]a fucking battleship main gun round[/i]- splintering against her blades, before detonating in a firestorm that her Noble Arm flickered in front of her to guard against, as the explosion washed through her forest of blades, blew out even more windows from the shockwave and set the area ablaze Qingshe clicked her tongue, her lips curling, as her shadow began to belch up a cover of blinding smoke, obscuring what she did next. Diving into her shadow, she cast her gaze outside it, dozens of reptilian eyes blooming open across the surface of her ooze in a wave, all of them hunting for the slightest hint of movement. All the while, her ooze flashed outwards, growing across every surface around the area she had initially deployed it and creeping out the windows to crawl on the outside of the building. She finally found Cao Bao "hovering" just outside the building, propped up in the air and flickering in place under his power's constant "refreshes" of his position. A grimace was planted on his jaw, as his eyes narrowed at the cloud of smoke and ooze spreading out around it a moment before he disappeared again. Distantly, from somewhere above and out of sight, Qingshe's shadow caught the sound waves of Cao Bao speaking into the static of a radio of some sort. "You're up, Puppy." Inside her shadow, Qingshe's eyes could only widen a moment before a crackling flash of purple streaked from the top of a nearby roof. Through dozens of eyes, she saw the approach of an all-too familiar figure, a girl wreathed in a buzzing corona of electricity, as she reached for a katana sheathed at her waist- [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/5N6xAWp.jpeg[/img][/center] Qingshe's shadow belched fire and steel, a storm of blades and bullets spilling forth on an interception course- -only for the crackling figure to appear entirely out of the line of fire, now with feet planted firmly on the ground below. [color=39b54a][i]Cao Bao again![/i][/color] The crackling figure glowed brighter, her blade baring itself to the air in a snapping hiss, as she [i]blurred[/i] in a movement too fast for the Snake's network of eyes to physically track. Yet, Qingshe's shadow felt the building it lay upon shake, the eyes dotting her ooze watching as a purple streak left behind great cleaving gashes through the area just outside the shadow's radius, stalling and curtailing its further spread. [color=39b54a][i]That could be problematic.[/i][/color] It happened in a flash almost too quick for an observer to catch, the entire exchange occurring within a bare few seconds. Qingshe's shadow surged around the gaps in the building cut around it, flowing downwards around the crevices and bristling with blades, eyes and pillars, yet- A streak of purple bounded off the walls around the oozing shadow like a living thunderbolt, gleaming glowing blade striking out like quicksilver, frying eyes and cleaving material extensions before they could act as bridges for the shadow to reach other surfaces. Qingshe had been on the second floor at the time of the attack. Thus, as her shadow flowed downwards in a blur, it was soon coating the ceiling of what should have been the hallway below her. And it was there that the eyes blooming from it caught sight of a flash of blue- Cao Bao dodged the hailstorm of firepower that all but annihilated the first-floor hall's tiles in another flicker outside, returning just in time for a forest of blades to shear downwards like a wave of death, inches from turning him into a pincushion- A streak of crackling purple ripped through the wave of metal with an arcing slash, turning the storm of death into a hail of junk in a thunderclap, the shockwave of their passage sending the everything they cut flying in every direction but their actual target. The other attacker had arrived in defense of her collaborator. Cao Bao flickered again, his scimitar reaching for the small portion of the ceiling Qingshe's ooze had yet to fully spread to- A spray of crimson accompanied a thunderous crack of gunfire, as Cao Bao's body was filled with holes, torso rupturing and limbs disappearing in sprays of bloody mist in the face of a sudden outpouring of supersonic projectiles ripping his body to pieces in a hail of gunfire. [b][i]Yet-[/i][/b] The crackle of ozone and a blaze of purple intercepted the fire and steel aimed for Cao Bao's now disembodied head, deflecting the most critical part of the assault, as Cao Bao's collaborator physically transposed herself in front of the assault, wreathed in lightning. And despite being midair and having no apparent leverage, she suddenly jerked forward, diving straight upwards into the hail of steel, her own blade lancing forward through the tide. There was a crackling, warbling [i]whumph[/i], as every bit of metal that touched her body was violently repelled... briefly creating a critical opening. And then she was gone, and Cao Bao was in her place, completely intact and grinning broadly, as the tip of his blade made contact with the ceiling. "[i]Gotchya[/i]." There was a [i]lurch[/i], and suddenly, Qingshe found herself blind to the world outside, as her shadow collapsed entirely. Immediately, she realized what was wrong. [color=39b54a][i]He teleported the entire chunk of the building my shadow was layered over. They cut it off from the building and moved it, thus ripping the foundation right out from under my power.[/i][/color] In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Qingshe found herself reluctantly impressed. Her opponents had apparently identified one of her power's notable weaknesses. Under normal circumstances, it was near impossible to exploit, but they had actually managed it... which now left her in something of a pickle. After all, she couldn't just open her shadow anywhere. Under normal circumstance, she could only open and spread it using her body as an anchor point, but since she had been [i]inside[/i] her shadow when it was entirely dispelled... ...that meant the only place she could reopen it was the last place it had been opened. That being the chunk of building Cao Bao now had full control over the positioning of. Seeing no other options, Qingshe did so, only for the connection to immediately shatter again. Frowning, she tried again. Same result. [color=39b54a][i]Cao Bao must either be in transit or constantly repositioning the chunk to stop me from forming a shadow long enough to get anything through...[/i][/color] Gritting her teeth, Qingshe tried again. Same result. Swallowing her frustration, she realized she had no choice but to keep trying. With any luck, Cao Bao couldn’t keep doing this forever, or he had a particular destination in mind. Either way, she just needed a mere moment to break out of this... just a small opening. "Come out, Snake." Qingshe paused, a spark of trepidation oddly shooting through her. "And I don't mean your usual puppet, Lei Qingshe," Cao Bao drawled now, his tone filled with a quiet menace. "I mean your [i]real[/i] body, the one you haven't shown anyone in years." Qingshe felt something like a thrill of actual concern, slide down her spine. "Do it, or Dog and I will go back to the rest of your new pet projects and slaughter them to the last." Oh... oh dear. That was... That could be "problematic". "I'm on a schedule, so I'm gonna make this simple for you. If I don't see you out of that shadow in the next thirty seconds or if I think you tried to use a puppet, we'll go kill the rest of Task Force Obsidian anyway. But if you do?" Cao Bao sighed. "Well, suffice it to say, you know I'm a man of contract, and Dog's a loyal bitch that does as she's told. Get out here and fucking woman-up, and we'll check out of this fight and let Task Force Obsidian live another day. The [i]only[/i] reason we're on the frontlines right now? It's [i]you[/i]." Qingshe hesitated. "Clock's ticking, Snake," Cao Bao said. "And the countdown started twenty seconds ago." Gritting her teeth and swallowing a sigh, Qingshe let her ooze wash over, her formal attire being quickly exchanged for her usual salacious "battlesuit" of a dress, as a window opened up through her ooze to allow her to spring free. [hr] "There, was that so hard?" Cao Bao chuckled, as Qingshe rose from the crackling puddle of blackness spreading across the side of a chunk of building that was now laying in the middle of an abandoned parking lot. Flicking his power, he "teleported" the chunk a fraction of a millimeter to the left, a shift so infinitesimal that it was practically atomic, and Qingshe's shadow disappeared instantly. He saw her shadow begin to spread again and then repeated the shift to the right, undercutting her power yet again. The Snake shot him a sharp look, clearly assessing him for the threat he was, and Cao Bao barely withheld a thick swallow at her piercing reptilian stare. He felt static crawl across his skin, the air becoming subtly charged, as Dog beside him tightened her grip on her sheathed sword. The Snake's gaze tracked to Dog, a smile little smile spreading across her lips. [color=39b54a]"[i]Well now[/i], isn't [i]this[/i] quite the unexpected-"[/color] Dog touched down behind Qingshe with a thunderclap, her sword sliding back into its sheathe with a [i]clink[/i], and Qingshe's body flopped to the ground bonelessly, her head rolling away. Cao Bao heaved a shaky sigh of relief, running a hand through his hair, as he nearly bit off the tip of the cigarette dangling from his lips. "Fuckin' hell, that was-" He paused, seeing the way Dog had turned around to levy a glare at the Snake's corpse. "What? Yo, Dog, you want to set the body on fire too, because I can definitely give you a match." Looking back at the still body of the Snake, he felt a chill run up his spine, when the static sensation in the air only intensified. "Don't tell me-?!" Qingshe's headless body sprang up without a care in the world, her Noble Arm blazing into existence just in time to catch Dog's crackling blade and send her rebounding towards a building. "You [i]fucking [b]what[/b][/i]?!" Cao Bao screamed, before his eyes widened. "[i]Shit[/i]! The fuck you do!" He cried, teleporting so fast the wind rushed in his ears, as he appeared between Qingshe and the building, a hail of bullets erupting from his vicinity. The underside of Qingshe's dress, however, was already pointed towards the building and already boiling with her shadow, as it responded in kind, deadly projectiles smashing into Cao Bao's barrage. Whatever did get past only disappeared into her shadow, swallowed whole and lost to him forever. [i]Motherfucker,[/i] Cao Bao bit out internally, as he felt dozens of tags fade away in a flash, before flickering forward in a more straight-forward movement to try and smack Qingshe's body directly and tag her in this state. Of course, Ouroboros appeared in a flicker, blocking the slash in a flash of resummoning. Cao Bao, however, took the opportunity to slam a kick into the Noble Arm shield's side, smashing it into Qingshe and throwing her off course from landing on a new surface to make her new shadow center. The Snake's goal was obvious. If she could make contact with any other physical surface, she could open a shadow there and reset the area that was considered the last place her power had opened. If she dove into her shadow right now anywhere else, the only place she'd be able to exit would no longer be the chunk of building Dog had cut off the embassy for Cao Bao to teleport away. If she managed that, this entire trap would have been for nothing, and the Snake would escape. And that was [i]unacceptable[/i]. They had never had a better chance to corner her than now, not since her true capacity had been discovered. If they failed here, it was possible they might not get another chance. [i]Do or die time, bitch, and unfortunately, I'm on the clock today.[/i] Dog rushed in, trailing lightning, as she bounced off the buildings, smashing into Qingshe like a wrecking ball. The headless Snake again weathered the blow by resummoning her shield, but that left her open- [i]Gotchya, bitch-![/i] Cao Bao teleported behind her, blade jabbing for Qingshe's back, only to have his eyes widen at a distinct, metallic [i]clang[/i], a [i][b]second[/b] fucking copy of the shield fading into visibility[/i]. "Oh, you have [i]got[/i] to be [i]kidding[/i] me!" Midair, the Snake kicked at her own shields, bashing one into Dog, who slammed her blade down atop it and leveraged to leap over it midair with an otherwise uncharacteristic snarl of rage on her usually coldly composed face. Avoiding the bash of the second shield, Cao Bao flickered around, teleporting both himself and Dog, fishing for an opening, but every time either of them struck out- [i]Clang! Clang! Clang-clang! Clang-clang-clang-! CLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANG![/i] A lightning-fast dance of death in the sky ensued, with Qingshe's twins shields flickering about her in a whirlwind of movement, blocking every strike with such precision she seemed nearly precognitive. [i]How. The. Fuck. Is. She. Doing. This?![/i] [i]Headless even![/i] Cao Bao grit his teeth, before snapping his fingers, and this time, Qingshe blocked a hit from below... from a main gun [i]battleship round[/i]. The Snake was sent catapulting to the sky in a blur, flattened against her shield by an explosion and then whirling into a tumble. Cao Bao flickered in pursuit, waving out a hand to summon a number of midair metal rods. [i]"DOG!"[/i] The purple and black-clad girl nodded grimly, flicking out her hands, as the static buzz in the air intensified to a near scream, lashes of electrical energy tethering and bouncing between rods. A shrieking thundercrack of an obliterated sound barrier announced Dog turning herself into a living railgun shot. Qingshe had already ripped a large rod out of the shadow in her dress, one that seemed to be made of stone in the center and had metal rods sticking out of both ends. Dog cleaved through the first metal rod like it was made of hot butter, and yet, her momentum suddenly staggered, the arcs of lightning around her sputtering out and weakening significantly, leaving her to suddenly go flailing off. [i]Lightning rods,[/i] Cao Bao figured, as he flickered past, leaving midair stepstones in his wake, which were obliterated between moments by Dog using them as new footholds to change her direction midair in spite of the limited leverage. She flashed around Qingshe, flickering from behind to level a blow into one of the Snake's shields that made the arm supporting it crumple with a sound of shattering bone. The Snake didn't even take pause at the injury, as her shadow began to crawl out of the underside of her dress and up the top layer. Rocket engines began to protrude from the ooze, igniting with screams and hurling her away from Dog's kill-zone. However- Dog curled her fingers in a sharp grip, letting out a scream of exertion, as Qingshe's rockets crumpled and detonated in showers of fire. Dog wrenched her arms back wide, and the Snake's momentum was reversed with a jerk of what Cao Bao was pretty sure was magnetism. The Snake pivoted to offense immediately, as a spiral of heat-seeking rockets screamed out of her shadow into the air. Cao Bao flickered forward to tap them, but- [i]Fuck![/i] -screamed at a sudden shower of pressure and flame nearly vaporizing half his body before he could teleport away, chest heaving with the reconstitution of his matter. [i]Fucking proximity detonations?![/i] With a growl, Cao Bao dove back into the fray, a shower of more conventional projectiles filling the air with lead and explosions, setting off proximity explosions in a blinding fireworks display. Wrenching a hand out, Cao Bao summoned a number of missiles in a fan-like pattern, causing them to naturally spread out in a series of wide footholds. Footholds Dog used to once more close the distance with the Snake, a shriek of steel announcing the weapon lock between them, as they began to plummet towards the ground in a frenetic melee. Cao Bao dove down beside them, keeping a bit of distance, as he teleported quickly. He yelped at a shower of blades roaring from Qingshe's shadow-covered dress to fill the air, but Dog's war cry announced her sending the entire hailstorm of blades hurtling back towards her and Qingshe in another yank of magnetism. Qingshe countered with a strange pulse of energy from her dress that caused Dog's magnetic effect to falter, only to whirl around and smash the top of her shield into Dog's jaw, resummoning it into position so as to leave no warning to dodge. Dog spun around, grabbing the top of the shield as leverage and reaching out to wrench some of the falling metal projectiles around them back toward's Qingshe's back. This time, she exercised a bit of precision and subtly. Yet, the Snake's second shield blocked the attack handily. Dog lashed out with a punch, which was blocked by the forward-facing shield, before smirking, as she copied the Snake's technique. Dog's own sword flickered in her grip, shifting position between moments to cleave around the Snake's shield and chop off her remaining unbroken arm. Cao Bao's eyes flicked to the falling appendage, but the Snake's shadow burbled, an inky-black spear stabbing out to impale her own severed limb and drag it back into the darkness. Cao Bao shivered, as a peal of familiar laughter began to emanate through the air. Despite the Snake's headless state, she was laughing... projecting the sound of her voice from her shadow. [color=39b54a][b]"You've [i]grown[/i]! You've grown so [i]wonderfully[/i], my dear [i]Puppy[/i]~!"[/b][/color] Qingshe trilled. "[i]Shut up[/i]!" snapped Dog, her electric-pink gaze blazing with fury. "Just shut up and die, [i][b]Traitor[/b][/i]!" Her blade flashed out in a series of jabs, but Qingshe's shield blocked them with a noise like gunfire. [color=39b54a]"[i]Awww[/i]~! But we have so much to talk about, dearie~!"[/color] the Snake laughed. Cao Bao circled the pair, as they continued to duel all the way down, looking for an opening. All he needed was one good touch on the Snake's main body with his Noble Arm, Blueblood, and this fight was as good as over. Frankly, he was kicking himself for not going for it the second the Snake had been beheaded in the first place. [i]I got fucking cocky, dammit. That'll teach me, I suppose...[/i] A large mechanical limb sprouted from Qingshe's shadow, holding a flat metal panel on one end, and Qingshe's shadow shot up the limb to cover the flat of that panel in more of its crackling ooze. Cao Bao could only really watch in consternation, as that panel swept over to briefly dip onto the Snake's neckline, before retreating to show she had regrown a whole new head, hale and hearty. The Snake's smile was ferociously wild, a feral, gleeful thing, as a proper laugh now issued from her throat in a high-pitched songbird cry. Cao Bao personally felt that no noise that beautiful should be able to issue from a creature so terrible. The "panel limb" swept around the Snake's dress, rotating across the outside to do the same to each of her arms before retreating, leaving Qingshe now wholly restored from her prior injuries. The Snake reached down, her open hands catching the hilts of two gleaming blades that sprouted from her shadow, the edges humming with a strange emerald glow. [color=39b54a]"Come on, Dear~!"[/color] Qingshe laughed. [color=39b54a]"Don't stop now! Come at me! Show me just how much you've [b][i]evolved[/i][/b]!"[/color] "You really are a monster..." Cao Bao sighed with a grimace. Looking down, he saw that the ground was coming up fast. Before long, they'd be back in the same position they had near the beginning of things, before he'd taken them to the sky, and he imagined that if he tried his prior tactic again, Qingshe would be ready to counter it, now with her body in top shape once more. ... Notes: Cao Bao gets injured. Lucky damage to his Noble Arm sends his power on the fritz, forcing Dog to rescue him and taking him out of the fight. Qingshe injures him seriously during this. Seeing that simply killing her won't be so simple, Superbia reveals himself to take advantage of the situation. Superbia traps Qingshe in the scroll NA once given to Tian Fei. Superbia takes the severed head of Qingshe that was till left lying around to use in his later taunt to Task Force Obsidian. Qingshe's severed head sitting in a morgue, however, later acts as an anchor by which she can reopen her shadow back on earth to escape the Downward Descent's realm. [/hider]