[h3]Divine Mission pt2[/h3] Ft. Sakura and Amateratsu Words: 2710 (+3) “There, that’s them! Those cabbage munching monsters wandered out of the jungle just a few days ago, and we haven't been able to do anything about it!” So said one [url=https://i.imgur.com/iX6pcIu.png]Mayor Theador[/url] as he showed them the problem that the pair of the seekers were here to take a look at. He did so while only poking his head around the corner of the house closest to the infested field, wanting to not go a step closer to the pest problem. Neither did the various [url=https://i.imgur.com/HXLzZ8U.png]farmers[/url], which ment that not only where the crops being devoured, but even what wasn’t wasn’t going to be harvested any time soon either. As for the cause of the problem, it seems, from a distance, to be a large number of [url=https://i.imgur.com/lL0fhdc.gif]giant tortoises[/url] that were slowly plodding around the farm’s fields, munching away on the produce at a slow but steady rate. [color=f49ac2]”Tortoises?”[/color] Sakura said, scratching her head. She had pictured something more monster-like. [color=f49ac2]”They [i]are[/i] pretty big.”[/color] Amateratsu, for her part, took one look at this, one look back at the townsfolk, and then rolled her eyes before brazenly walking into the fields and approaching the nearest of the tortoises. Sakura set her fists against her hips and waited, assuming Amaterasu had some kind of plan. The cabbage munching reptile turned its head, slowly, to look at the divine wolf as she stopped and stood authoritatively before it, simply assuming that the beast like all others would be able to see her for what she truly was, before barking at it to try and get it to scram. Her ears drooped when, rather than do so it retracted into its [url=https://i.imgur.com/jr95nEO.png]shell[/url] instead, only for her ears to spike back up in alarm when said shell began to rapidly spin, and then came flying straight at her. The divine wolf was smashed backwards, having been taken entirely off guard in her arrogance, and though a stack of godhood took the blow, she could feel how absurdly powerful it had been. Unslowed by the impact the tortoise flew past where she’d landed, then slowed suddenly in mid air as it came out of its shell and dropped to the ground, landing neatly on its feet as it did so. [color=f49ac2]”Amaterasu-sama?!”[/color] Sakura exclaimed, alarmed at the raw power the shelled behemoth possessed. She began to run over. Ameteratsu rolled on the ground and flipped onto her paws once more, whirling to face the beast that had knocked her down, only for her to stop suddenly, fur bristling with fear, Behind her, the others saw what she had heard: shell after shell thumping into the ground as the other tortoises reacted to her still standing by coming to their fellows aid. In only a few heartbeats, the air was filled with armored wrecking balls. [color=f49ac2][i]”Ieeeh![/i] Amaterasu-sama!!!”[/color] Sakura screamed. [color=f49ac2]”Tortoises! Tortoises!”[/color] Sakura used Tag Out, gaining a burst of speed and giving the divine wolf a speed boost and some health recovery, as long as she evaded instead of attacking. Sakura switched places with the divine wolf and warded off an encroaching turtle with a knockback kick that sent it spiralling off course, where it landed neatly in the cabbage field. Another turtle hurtled itself towards her, and the street fighter blocked it, though her arms flung off to the side as her guard ki broke. Alarmed, she was smashed into by the next tortoise and landed ass over tea kettle. [color=f49ac2][i]”Bwah!”[/i][/color] Upside down, she flipped and scrambled back to her feet. [color=f49ac2]”Hey, what’s going on?! What do we do?!”[/color] Sakura said. “Get rid of them please!” the hiding mayor called out from behind a building. [color=f49ac2]”I got that much!”[/color] She shouted back. Amaterasu got it as well, and provided her opinion on what they should do by hurling herself back into the fray. Unseen to all, her sun disk rose up and blocked an incoming tortoise that had been coming in as Sakura righted herself, repaying the favor of her Tag Out. That tortoise was launched upwards by the parry, and the wolf jumped after it, grabbed it by the throat, and then slammed it back down into the ground with force. Then she paused time, and drew a slash across the incoming volley of tortoises, knocking them out of the air, giving her time to charge a mighty sword blow which she cleaved into the one she’d throat slammed, wounding it greatly. Sakura widened her stance, trying to get this chaos under control with the space and time Amaterasu bought her. She ran forward to one of the tortoises that had gotten knocked out of the air and slid towards it, swiping it across the face with a spin kick. Then she delivered an acrobatic chinbuster kick to pop it up vertically. Then, she just went to slam into it and rush it down onto its back, impaling its own spikes into the soft earth to wedge it there permanently. Or at least so she thought, as another shelled beast hurtled itself towards her. She put the flipped turtle between her and it, and the resulting collision sent her tumbling and the trapped turtle flipped onto its back. After catching herself, she punched the dirt, her attempt foiled. [color=f49ac2]”There’s just too many of them!””[/color] She complained. Another turtle zoomed towards the young street fighter. Sakura jumped right over it, and the one after that. Eventually, she got the timing down, and used Mental Connection to zip onto a turtle right as it went underneath her. An invisible psychic string connected to the limited thoughts of the beast, letting her anchor herself to it. She grabbed its ridged shell as stability, and was now belly-to-back prone on the shell, her feet flinging out behind her as it spun. [color=f49ac2]”Step one, done! Step two…working on it!”[/color] Sakura exclaimed. So was Amaterasu, but keeping out of the way of the turtle volleys was taking most of her focus, making actually attacking them a nightmare. She paused time again to try and get a moment to think, and try and figure a way out of this. She scanned around for a line she could draw through a set of tortoises, found only a meager grouping due to how chaotic things were and then, in a moment of inspiration, drew a second line. Rather than slashing the beasts, there was a single second where the field was smothered in a thin mist. In that misty moment, from the perspective of Sakura and the Tortoises, Amaterasu moved unnaturally quickly and a dozen turtles were struck out of the air. From her perspective, meanwhile, the world around her slowed for four seconds, giving her ample time to flick her devout beads out over and over, each blow of the long chain lashing out at a different tortoise. [hider=Amaterasu level up] Power: Veil of Mist: Amaterasu draws two horizontal lines which cause a veil of mist to briefly sweep across the area. From her perspective, this effect lasts 4 seconds. For everyone else’s, it lasts 1, during which the divine wolf moves 4 times as fast.[/hider] They hit the ground all at once, peeking out of their shells in confusion, and then a half of those dozen suddenly had a massive cherry bomb sitting in their midst, while Amaterasu barked to try and bring Sakura’s attention to the explosive’s slow burning wick. [color=f49ac2]”Amazing!”[/color] Sakura exclaimed. When she was alerted to the big bomb, her eyes widened. [color=f49ac2]”Oops!”[/color] She rolled backwards towards the back of the shell and pushed herself off it with a leap, sending the monster towards the bomb and propelling herself away from it with one action. Before the turtle could get away, Sakura fired off an EX-Hadoken, launching a blazing electric fireball towards the bomb to set off the explosion now that she was far away. [color=f49ac2]”Eat this!”[/color] Tortoise were blasted into the sky (as was a fair amount of dirt and veg) before slamming down here, there and everywhere, and in at least a few cases turning to ash as they perished from the combo move. There were still plenty left, of course, but it was the start of the turning of the tide. Amaterasu rushed to capitalize on the carnage, rushing towards a fallen tortoise, leaping up, and then bringing her oversized sword down on top of its cracked shell, crashing through it and finding flesh beneath. Then she launched a barrage of beads into another, before having to go back on the defensive as the survivors took to the air again, and the shell-storm ramped back up in intensity, though not quite reaching its initial intensity. [color=f49ac2]”Do you think we could have tortoise soup after this?”[/color] Sakura asked over the sound of mayhem. As the tortoises approached, Sakura decided to try something different. She jumped over them like normal, feeling more comfortable than she did out in the chaos than she did when it all started. She channeled her ki energy into a Focus, grounding herself. As the tortoises whipped back towards her, she lashed out with Mental Connection, connected to the nearest turtle, and pulled it off course, slamming it into another tortoise and into the ground. Hand out stretched, she did this twice more, using the turtles own power against them as she slammed them into each other and the dirt itself. [color=f49ac2]”Got anything else to hit ‘em with?”[/color] Sakura asked Amaterasu. These monsters had demonstrated enough brutishness and lack of any instinctual self-preservation that Sakura had thought of them as just that- monsters! The wolf didn’t have anything to hit them with hard, but she did come up with one more trick, which was to whip up a gust of wind that knocked the current volley of tortoises off course such that they sailed past the fighters rather than into them. Mainly however what she did was try and use the reach of her divine beads to tag tortoises to knock them out of the air, close in, and then deliver a sun disk smash to their scally faces for their trouble. It was slow, methodical, but between them they wore the herd of cabbage munching pests down, each death making things just a little easier. Which was good because the fight was a chaotic mess that worked up one hell of a sweat and a fair share of mental strain on top. [color=f49ac2]”I’m glad the koopas aren’t here for this.”[/color] Sakura said. She looked into the eyes of a giant tortoise and found nothing but the flat, low-resolution desire to munch on cabbage and bowl into anything that moves. It was almost creepy! It wound up to smash into her again, only to hit nothing but air. Sakura scattered them against each other and sent them packing with kiblasts. [color=f49ac2]”Phew…that was intense. What the heck was their problem?!”[/color] Sakura asked. She looked around at the semi-ruined cabbage field. [color=f49ac2]”Uhh…hmm…”[/color] She tapped on her chin, worried. Right on que, the Mayor finished slowly peeking his head around the corner (his top hat having been in view a full 5 seconds before his face was) and asking “is it over?” before wincing at the sight of the cabbage field with the worried street fighter and panting wolf sitting in it, cloths and fur streaked with dirt and ash. Still, as he glanced around a bit more, and saw not a tortoise in sight, that wince shifted to a little O of amazement and then a smile as he stepped out and, with a clap of his hands, declared them to be “Spectacular!” The farmers took this as que to also peek out around the corner. Though [url=https://i.imgur.com/ggMT7u2.png]one[/url] looked absolutely miffed that his cabbage patch had been ruined, the rest burst into a cheer, and then rushed forwards to congratulate the duo. This prompted a dismayed cry of “My cabbages!” from the plot owner as any survivors ran the risk of being trampled. A bead of sweat, and not one from physical exertion ran down Sakura’s face. She smiled. Big crowds again. At least they weren’t angry this time. [color=f49ac2]”Oh, haha, it was no problem.”[/color] She said as she shook one hand, then another, and another. [color=f49ac2]”No problem, no problem…no comment, no comment!”[/color] It was all starting to get to be a bit much. Maybe Sakura could find an excuse to book it?! The mayor managed to wade into this gaggle of merry folk while shouting “now now, there’ll be plenty of time for that later! For now, please, we need to salvage as much of the crop that these two- I mean those nasty pests ruined! We have a feast to prepare after all!” and promptly shooing the farmers away. Once they had some air to breathe, the mayor took off his hat, held it to his chest, and gave a short bow while giving thanks of his own “truly, we are in your debt.” Amatatsu tried to look as impassive as possible, as if it had been nothing, but her tail was wagging behind her in happiness of the recognition of her good deed, and the Praise it had earned her. Sakura relaxed. To the mayor, she set her hands at her side and bowed her head. [color=f49ac2]”You’re really welcome!”[/color] She said. [color=f49ac2]”In terms of reward…it’s food, right? Do you think you could spare enough to put into some kind of package? I’d like to send it to my friends who need it. Don’t worry, I can take care of transport.”[/color] She said. “Oh?” the mayor replied, before a moment of thought agreeing wholeheartedly “of course of course. We’d be delighted to help.” There was only one caveat, which was simply that it’d be “Once we’ve got a harvest of course. It’ll take a little while to work out what’s salvageable and all that. Could hardly send you away with half chewed veggies of course!” Sakura smiled and nodded. [color=f49ac2]”Thank you!”[/color] He gave a little belly laugh at his own joke, before beginning to “in the meantime could I offer you some tea?” before looking them over again and suggesting instead “Oh. Or maybe you’d like to use our local hot springs? Does wonders after a hard day on the field, or so I’ve heard anyway. Certainly helps out these old bones” [color=f49ac2]”Oh, uh…”[/color] Sakura looked at Amaterasu. [color=f49ac2]”What do you think? Do you like hot springs?”[/color] The divine wolf barked enthusiastically at the notion, forgetting in her enthusiasm that she disliked the one for yes two for no method of communicating she was stuck with. She looked back at the mayor and shrugged happily. [color=f49ac2]”I guess that’d be nice!”[/color] “Marvelouse!” the mayor said with another clap of his hands, before giving them directions to the hotspring. Given that it was a fairly small village, these weren't all that complicated. “Oh and do say hello to Ukee for me!” he added as they began to head off. [color=f49ac2]”Okay!”[/color] She waved as they left. [color=f49ac2]”Who is that?”[/color] She asked loudly, but at this point was kind of far away. [color=f49ac2]”Do you know who Ukee is?”[/color] She looked at Amaterasu, who barked twice for no (with the suitable amount of disapproval for the communication method this time). The divine wolf supposed they’d find out soon enough. [color=f49ac2]”...It’s one bark for yes, two for no, right?”[/color] Sakura asked. [color=f49ac2]”Couldn’t you just nod or shake your head?”[/color] Amaterasu looked over and up at her as they walked, and then did her best to shake her head in response to the second part, and looked very uncomfortable as she did so. Plus the snout waving back and forward was much less of a concise motion than it was on a short nosed human. That was all before you got to Amateratsu’s thoughts on the matter which were not going to fit into four word sentences scribbled on napkins. [color=f49ac2]”No, no, like this!”[/color] She wiggles her head back and forth like a dog shaking out water. Or at least, the best human approximation of it. [color=f49ac2]”Ah, nevermind. I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what you’re thinking, anyway.”[/color] She said, setting her hands behind her head and strolling off with her wolf teammate.