[center][h3]Winterhold College - Stars Collide[/h3]
[color=salmon][b]Ace[/b] - [u]Level[/u]: [b]9[/b] - [u]Total EXP[/u]: 546/90[/color]
Level 7 Heismay (73/70) Ramattra
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2984 (+3)[/center]

The dimmed lights accompanied by the dark blanket of stars overhead certainly set a new mood within the Dice Room. The various battles with enemies summoned one after another had a fast paced, chaotic feel. Now there was a different sort of urgency thrumming through the space. Out of the pair of monsters summoned, it was very apparent which was the larger threat. 

A cold sweat had broken out on the back of the Ace Cadet's neck. Today had been stress upon stress upon stress. The uneasy, nauseating, prickling feeling that had clung to him since waking up in the college hadn't once disappeared completely, though here at the final stage it had come back to full force, a constant distraction. Even so he wasn't about to shirk his duties, and the hunter stepped up to help fight the Stargazer. 

The long range bowgun was reloaded and fired twice to start, one bullet meant for the being's body and the other the glass lens of one of its telescopes. Both hit home but resulted in minimal penetration, even against the lens, which apparently had a constitution less like glass and more like a dense eyeball. Unlike the Coven and its candles, which confronted him with an immense amount of vitality to chew through but took normal damage, the bowgun shots seemed less effective against the Stargazer than they should have been.

For a moment after the otherworldly thing appeared, Heismay bided his time and observed from afar as he caught his breath. This bizarre blend of organic and inorganic matter, more reminiscent of a Human than anything he’d fought so far, proved difficult to anticipate. It seemed to lack a true body, with a multitude of limbs and telescopes that protruded from a dark, cosmic mass. The shape of its tubular organs made him think of cannons, though he seriously hoped their function did not match their appearance. With so many bystanders around, any enemies that favored area-of-effect would cause serious collateral damage. Despite the fatigue accumulating from back to back fights, Heismay knew he needed to act fast.

“Steel yourself, good hunter!” he called to his rattled companion. “Escape is within our grasp!”

[color=salmon]"Right!"[/color]

Assuming that the Stargazer would be as resistant to dark magic as it was piercing damage, Heismay began the fight with another invocation of the Exemplar. “Abomination, vex them!” The misshapen monstrosity arose to unleash Prelude once more. An unseen force shunted the Stargazer toward Heismay and the Ace Cadet, opening blighted sores across its night-blue form. In response, the Stargazer stared with its many eyes, its gaze intense enough to ignite panic within its foes. Afraid for his life, Heismay beat a full retreat with his bullet jump, latching onto one of the chamber’s walls well out of the thing’s reach.

Ace faired a little better, as though the Stargazer's stare sent a chill down the Cadet's spine and froze him in place, it was only for a moment. He pulled on his experience facing down larger, vicious foes and forced himself through the feeling. And if this thing resisted the damage of the bowgun, then he'd just have to try something else. Ace withdrew his long sword, preparing to lash out with the blade instead.

Ramattra was quick to assess the situation from the back line, before delegating himself into intervention of Stargazers attacks. Able to avoid it’s terrifying gaze by the distance between the Omnic and his enemy, he remained calm, providing a shielding body to any allies who were close enough to gather behind him. “Try not to look into its eyes! It’s… making Heismay unlike himself!” Ramattra called out, able to notice the panic-inducing gaze it instinctively flashed. 

The clumps of hands and legs would grasp and cling at the floor clumsily, scootching the beast closer to the battle field. It stood still for a moment, fixing its gaze on the Omnic who had turned his back to it. One of the telescopes retracted for a moment, along with any adjacent ones, before extending impossibly long, striking Ramattra square in the back. A low gurgling voice could be heard under the mass of cloth and limbs. “Help me… fix you…”

Blazermate listened to Ramattra, noticing that this thing didn’t really have weak points and just sticking to healing. She cleansed Heismay’s panic to help him out, and she’d need to go about doing this whenever anyone else panicked. At least she didn’t need to look at the thing to heal people in most cases.

“Evading dangerous foes is standard fare for me,” Heismay objected as the sudden panic died down. As the Stargazer attacked Ramattra, the eugief sprang off the wall and unfurled his wings to glide over his target to look for an opening. An overextended limb, perhaps, or an unaccompanied telescope. However ominous this thing was, his scythe could still slash and sever, especially with an affliction like Blight applied to make his blade cut all the more cleanly.

With both Ace and Ramattra facing it in melee range now, the Stargazer reared up, then trampled forward to kick at them with many legs. If its appearance suggested the distant wonder of the cosmos, its fighting style seemed to be one of brute force. It was a welcome departure from the expectation, for some at least. With blade in hand the Cadet evaded the stomps and kicks to stay just shy of outside his own range until he spotted a better opening, stepping in and parrying one of the Stargazer's limbs with a wide angled slice. To his dismay, however, the slash did not seem much more effective than his gunshots had been, although it did manage to hit more body parts at once. 

Ramattra transformed into his Nemesis mode- blocking as much impact from each of the Stargazer’s legs as possible. With the monstrosity’s attention now shifted to the Cadet, he charged a punch with Alchemist Brew, delivering a devastating blow square in the Stargazer’s central mass. The Omnic felt satisfied with his attack, but easily foresaw the monster becoming more aggressive with him in such close proximity. 

Grappling whatever limbs and telescopes were most exposed, the Omnic attempted to hold the cosmic entity back from his allies, offering them a chance to strategize and counterattack. He was sure to take the bulk of whatever damage the Stargazer could inflict, however he remained cautious of any unusual abilities it had yet to bring about.

At that moment Heismay descended, dropping as the Assassin to try and plunge his curved greatsword into the Stargazer’s body. It sunk less through the uncanny cosmic mass than he would have liked, so he yanked the blade out, reverted, and unleashed a flurry of scythe slashes to try and get as many hits in as possible while Ramattra held back the monster’s fury. If he could lop off any legs or telescopes to hinder the Stargazer, all the better.

As Heismay attacked, and Ramattra grappled with it, the Stargazer’s lens widened. Stars began to shine within its myriad eyes, increasing in celestial brilliance by the second.

Ace had continued his attack with the longsword until Ramattra started grappling with the monster, giving the Cadet the chance to back off. It wasn't a great feeling to know his weapons were ill equipped to deal with the Stargazer. If its body was tough enough to resist slashing and piercing, that left impact damage - but his shield, the only real source of blunt damage he had, was basically ruined. Time for another plan, then.

With space to swap weapons again, this time the Cadet withdrew the great bow and quiver. If he could rely on his allies to deal damage, then he could focus on utility. Though it was going to be more trial and error, trying anything was better than doing nothing. Ace popped a vial of poison coating into position before drawing and shooting, the arrows themselves not any better at hurting the Stargazer but at least able to deliver toxins with every hit. And with a wider angle view Ace was able to better see what the creature was doing.

[color=salmon]"It's planning something...!"[/color] he warned. Regardless if it actually had the intelligence to make and execute a plan, the fact was that it was charging up for something. What the outcome was going to be was hard to tell. Without a reliable way to stagger the Stargazer, Ace instead swiftly swapped to the airborne stimulant of Haste Rain, which he shot up above to quicken Heismay and Ramattra in case they needed to beat a hasty retreat. 

Once it began, the invigorating rainfall boosted Heismay’s already-impressive speed to even greater heights, but the Eugief wasn’t blind to what the Stargazer was doing. He found it too inscrutable to be able to say whether or not the Stargazer was planning something, as Ace suggested, but it [i]did[/i] look like it was charging up. Since his scythe’s slash damage was more or less tickling the creature, Heismay had no delusions about finishing it off before its ‘plan’ came to fruition, so once the starlight reached peak effulgence he bullet jumped away. “Ramattra, get clear!”

A second later, the Stargazer unleashed Astral Vision. Streams of hydrogen and helium gas, superheated to the point of becoming plasma, blazed from its telescopes in a deadly laser light show. It proved almost impossible to evade, although seeing as the creature was preparing for an attack, Blazermate was ready herself and jumped into her team and used Holy Word Salvation to make them all immune to the damage of the oncoming attack and healing everyone for 30% of their hp. It didn’t make them immune from anything but the damage though, so any lingering statuses, such as its confusion would still affect them, but in Blazermate’s case her rain coat saved her from this effect most of the time. She still had her projectile shield if this thing tried that again, but that was it for defensive skills. For Offensive though… [color=0072bc]”Uber is ready. Anyone wanna see how their attacks work under Kritz?”[/color]

Spared a grievous injury by Blazermate’s timely intervention, Heismay breathed heavily as he shook his head. “Twould be a waste on me. My weapon is ineffective.” He did, however, assume his Assassin form to launch a Mudo at the Stargazer in hopes that it would compound with the poison whittling away at its vitality. Instead, the Confusion that he mistook for mere dazedness as a result of Astral Vision meant that he accidentally fired the dark magic at Ramattra, much to his own horror. “What!? I didn’t-!”

The Omnic had staggered back from Stragazer’s Astral vision, but could not evade Heismay’s misfire. “Augh!” Ramattra groaned, now looking back at his companion, whose embarrassed expression clued that he had missed his target. His anger quickly subsided, and his focus returned back to the battlefield.

In much the same boat as Heismay in regards to his weaponry, and having chosen to stick with the bow that had a slower rate of fire than either his bowguns or blades, Ace went to decline the medabot's offer as well, though not without a spot of gratitude. That laser light show would have engulfed all of them if it hadn't been for her after all. [color=salmon]"Thanks for the save Blazermate, but-!"[/color]

But soon the secondary effect of the transformed creature's attack was revealed. The lasers had been so dazzling as to instill dizziness and worse in those that saw it, and the feeling of Ace's head swimming did not fade even after the light did. On top of the discomfort of being enclosed in Blazermate's protective bubble itself, Ace meant to make even more distance between himself and the Stargazer - but at the same time that Heismay's bolt of magic went wide enough to endanger Ramattra, the hunter instead stepped towards the celestial monster, directly into its path. Alarm gripped Ace, and he felt his limbs betray him as he tried to make a last ditch evade attempt. It was like the signals between his brain and body had been scrambled, and as the Stargazer stormed forward seeking to trample the heroes beneath its many legs, it ran right over the Cadet.

Having glanced back at Heismay’s misfire, Ramattra’s attention was drawn away from the dazzling beam that surely affected the rest of his allies. Seeing the Cadet in a prime moment of need, the Omnic called Kashmir from its ball, and ordered him to “Use Avalanche to create cover! I’m going in again!”

As the Cadet was kicked and trampled with dozens of feet both large and small, the Omnic flung his Mimic Tear striker to the floor, bounding upwards as he transformed into his Nemesis form and crashed into Stargazer with the momentum of his bounce. As the two large masses clambered back to their feet, Ramattra looked back at Blazermate, who stood ready with her offer to use her Kritzkrieg. “I’m ready! Charge me!”

Well, someone took her offer and she was going to use it. Charging Ramattra, his appendages and eyes glowed with an electric blue as all of his attacks now did critical damage on top of what they did before. As Stargazer didn’t have any critical resistance, what had been it taking very little damage had changed to it taking massive damage from Ramattra’s amplified attacks.

With no natural resistance to the blunt force of Ramattra’s burly punches, each mighty blow from the Omnic’s fist being amplified were now leaving considerable wounding. The Stargazer continued to kick its blue legs into the Omnic’s body, but overall, each interaction ended with the cosmic entity taking the most damage. 

For a moment, the telescopes on the beast’s face shifted, indicating that it would boom out to Ramattra again. Recognizing this attempt again, the Omnic ducked out of threat’s way, watching as the telescope shot out into empty air, before the contraption retracted, and the Stargazer recentered itself on the battlefield, surely preparing another attack. “It’s weak. I can tell by the zeal of its attacks. Your weapons aren’t very effective? Then let me use my fists.”

As Ramattra took center stage, Heismay remained at the sidelines for a few moments waiting for his vision and head to clear. Given his damage output, involving himself in that crushing melee would do a lot more harm than good. His condition improved in time to hear the Omnic’s declaration loud and clear. Heismay glanced down at the scythe still clutched in his talon and grunted. “Hm.” He stowed the weapon and ran forward, quickly picking up speed. After a brief moment spent circling around, he zeroed in one of the telescope lenses as the Stargazer prepared to swing it, then bullet jumped in to deliver an upward kick. He wasn’t trained in hand-to-hand combat, but he was of able body and a mind to help. The bludgeoning blow got deflected upward, allowing Ramattra to continue to focus on offense for the few seconds until his crits ran out.

The Stargazer's struggle against the Omnic took up enough of its focus that the unfortunate Seeker that had been stuck beneath its rampage could crawl out from under it. Ace practically threw himself from the Stargazer's shadow  between a pair of its legs, landing with a tumble outside of its stomping radius. He'd definitely taken a beating, but he was still up - even as the confusion still clung to his brain, slow to dissipate. He would have jumped right back into helping Ramattra with combat if not for that. Instead he stayed in a kneeling position, catching his breath and making sure that when the daze finally did fade, he would be ready to fight again if the rest of the group still needed him.

It seemed like Blazermate's boost was doing a lot to help Ramattra deal as much damage as possible and he was really close to sealing the deal, but when the kritz faded the Stargazer still stood. It was good then that when Ace finally recovered enough that his senses and thinking were clear again, he'd already pulled one of his arrows out and prepared it for firing by scraping it along the ground a few times. When he was drawing it hard enough across the floor to create sparks that didn't disappear but instead bounced around the arrow's head it was ready.

After a breath he called, [color=salmon]"incoming!"[/color] to give his fellow Seekers a heads up, then swung the arrow in a wide, low semi-circle with its tip sharpened on the rough ground just before nocking it. He sucked in air and held his breath as he pulled to its maximum draw weight, the arms of the bow curling in at a harsh angle. The hunter held the string to gather power in the shot for several precious seconds, twisted it just slightly, then released it with his exhale. The Dragon Piercer whistled through the air as it surged forward, a deadly sparking drill meant to tear through the toughest of hides that couldn't be fired without an opening like the one Ramattra afforded to them. It struck the metal of one of the Stargazer's telescopes and then kept on going straight through.

Heismay watched with bated breath as Ace’s Dragon Piercer tested its mettle against the Stargazer. Would it be enough to fell the fiend? After a brief but tense moment, the spiral shot finally drilled through, tunneling cleanly through the Stargazer’s semi-corporeal, semi-celestial form. It let out a guttural, gurgling sort of sound, and a second later its struggle came to an end as the starlight left its many eyes and its many legs went slack. Its body dissolved near-instantly, as if swallowed by its own darkness, and only a spirit remained.