When Peony joined, she didn’t expect such a heavy escort from her new… employers? Comrades? In hindsight, she really should have, given the power an average Arm Wielder possessed, she was as much a liability as an asset and that was being generous considering they were almost infiltrated by enemy Masters. That didn’t stop the image of several heavily armed soldiers escorting a fairly small woman from being any less comical. At least the guards were amicable enough, the journey would have been incredibly awkward otherwise. The picture they painted of Obsidian was strange and maybe a little concerning. She didn’t know what to expect from the task force but it seemed far more chaotic than a military organization should be. Although, remembering some of the stories her dad told her, perhaps chaos was just something that happened in every military. She wouldn’t be dissuaded by them at any rate, her decision to fight wasn’t something she made lightly and she wouldn’t be deterred by gossip. The countryside itself was picturesque enough, far more vast than Saipan at any rate. She could imagine visiting as a tourist under better circumstances. Unfortunately, she couldn’t quite ignore the ruins even if a more clinical part of her mind noted the relatively small amount of them. Looking at the town hall, she imagined the negotiations occurring inside of it were probably some of the most politically significant that ever occurred in the building. With the amount of security, the military certainly treated it as such. [quote=@Letter Bee] She was also told she was late; there was already a meeting in the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubao#/media/File:New_Lubao_Town_Hall_37.jpg]New Lubao Town Hall[/url] (the image cannot be reposted outside of Wikipedia), where one of TFO's allies was making some sort of heartfelt appeal for support. Either way, she would be guided to the heavily-guarded entrance of the building, then her escort's leader would say, gruffly, "Don't be late again, got it? Arms Master or not, that does not give you the privilege to be late in a war..." [/quote] Even so, she didn’t appreciate the curtness of the sergeant. It was uncalled for even if it was accurate, she gave herself enough grief over the issue. Peony wouldn’t get any more time to ruminate on the issue when the sky suddenly went dark. A part of her left arm buzzed with an anxious energy. While it still looked normal, it felt as if it was submerged in a viscous fluid at all times. This particular reaction was new in a way that was decidedly unwelcome. The supernatural change left her and her guards on high alert but she refrained from calling upon her Arm just yet. A fiery flicker in the corner of her eye caught her attention and a second later that flicker impacted far too close for comfort, nearly throwing her off balance. Deciding she had shown enough restraint, she called upon Plunging Tesseract. Her left arm from elbow to fingertip turned steely grey though still moved as flesh should. The blade itself was ornate and massive, longer than Peony was tall though she didn’t struggle to move it in the slightest. The Master focused for a few seconds, entering Liminal state and the nature of the weapon shifted. The once steely grey rippled and became a brilliant white-yellow with pink and sky blue creeping along the ends. Its once solid form was now fluidlike, changing shape constantly if slowly. Ripples formed over the surface of the weapon and drops broke away from the blade, hovered in the air for a few seconds, before falling to the ground. The weapon seemed deeper than the surroundings, like it sunk into reality and its body was the hole. By the time Peony was ready the dust was beginning to clear, revealing a lone girl. She was shorter than Peony, surprisingly, yet the novice Master felt a bone deep dread looking at her. [quote=@Letter Bee] "Eheheheheh..." said the girl as she stood up from the center of the cloud of dust and the crater she had formed, then held out her shield, "I am your enemy, Feng Lin, Pig of the Zodiac, Devourer of Noble Arms! I have been sent to avenge the Chinese Pacific Fleet with your lives!" And to grandstand, the holographic sky above them briefly returned into daylight, then an [i]Eclipse[/i]. Then Feng shouted, "Now get your civilians out of here so you can face me at full strength! I can defeat all of you, all at once - You have ten minutes before I use my powers to raze this town to the ground!" A second later, a giant meteor sponteanously dropped down to just a few inches above the New City Hall... then parked itself there, suspended in midair. Feng then demanded again, "Now go evacuate all civilians so I can destroy you all singlehandedly!" [/quote] The meteor certainly helped. Having a blade merely the size of your body never felt so inadequate. God, what a terrible way to start the new year. She felt compelled to say something. The girl was here to kill her but she was also giving them time to evacuate civilians so surely she was at least a little bit reasonable. Tagalog wasn’t her first language but she had a feeling the interloper would understand her second. She cleared her throat. “…Um… There’s a lot of civilians around. To evacuate, I mean. W-We’ll need at least twenty.” She said in fluent Chinese. She winced at her own milquetoast statement. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this after all. Given the situation, it was a bit late to back out.