@Ponn@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants@Izurich@SilverPaw
Tucked into a ball and arcing through the air, Orion was akin to the Sun itself, the light of the entire lobby dimming as they gathered around her wand, her arcane power manifesting into the purest form of destruction: a death ray made of solar energy. Prismatic power blasted out, vaporizing what vines were caught in the beam’s path, but before light could expose the innards of the rider’s skull, its steed acted. Twisting its six gangly limbs, the monster spun in the air, causing the beam to rip into the rider’s right shoulder instead, blasting off its bound arm and instantly cauterizing the wound. Not an instant kill. It was hard to even tell if it was a major one. What was one limb when one had a total of eight?
As the afterimage of her beam was blinked out of her vision, the Knight of Tomorrow found that her own shield was entangled by those vines that she had tried to block. Thorns meshed with each other, forming a link between individual vines, and with a snapping back of its head, Orion lurched forwards, downwards, towards the scything blade-limbs of the chimeric beast.
It wasn’t an attack, but a pull!
A shot sounded in that instant, echoing against her spine. Breacher’s melody struck moments before Orion could be turned into mincemeat, debris forming behind her and pushing her in a separate direction. Twinned pull spells accelerated vertical descent but reduced horizontal movement, sending the wand-bearing Esper past the monster she faced, and right onto the ledge of the portal. Her shield bounced against tiled ledge, absorbing most of the impact, yet was insufficient from stopping her from falling over the ledge into the portal. Moments before she could disappear completely, Orion had time to unfurl, reach out, and…
…Grasp Su’s hand.
Three-fourths of the way into the portal, and yet not wholly swallowed by it. There was a chance still, to pull her out. The Dragon Breacher’s muscles tautened, shield raised overhead to protect from any attack by the monster, while her other hand managed both a pistol and Orion, superhuman athleticism allowing her to keep the other woman from falling deeper, allowing her to pull the Knight of Tomorrow up higher and higher.
Then, they heard it. The whirring of a metal ball, the screeching of shrapnel, the humming of spell-slaying melodies reverberating through silvered spikes. Jacqueline’s melody, powerful as it was, was also slower by a single, decisive second. A half dozen what-ifs played out in that moment, a half dozen pathways. But the life of an esper was a one-way road, and melodies, once sung, could not be unheard.
The portal closed.
Orion’s hand slipped out of Su’s grasp, the newbie agent sucked into the other side of the portal.
Su’s hand pressed against a bare, concrete foundation, the original state of the mansion.
And above, hanging upside down on the ceiling, the rider opened its mouth once more and unleashed a cloud of toxic fumes upon those who remained below: Wukong, Valkyrie, Silhouette, Breacher.
“Thanks Jacky!” The armored nun called out, her voice chipper as a starling. “I’ll Paypal you the rest after this!”
A ringing clang resounded as steel met steel, Silhouette’s blade intercepting the nun’s as the shadowed assassin dove in to assist GEMINI’s sole sniper. Arcane sparks burst upon the encounter, but between a dagger held one-handed and a falchion held two-handed, the sheer difference in force caused Silhouette’s left arm to be blown off to the side, opening his entire body up to a second blow. If he was to survive, he would have to use Slash elsewhere or end up losing his head instead.
That, then, was the inherent weakness of a touch spell.
A mass of shadows thrust upwards instead of downwards, answering the beheading strike of a blade that gleamed with black light. Arcane restraints consumed the nun’s weapon in its entirety, yet that unholy light seared at it from within, dampening its effect while forcing Silhouette’s blade off-center once more. It was clear in two strikes who would hold the advantage, who would continue to maintain the advantage in this melee. In a one on one, he would doubtlessly be turned to minced meat over the course of multiple exchanges. But this wasn’t a one on one. Behind him, Valkyrie must be repositioning, must be aiming.
So why wasn’t she firing?
Silhouette noticed then, that this entire time, the nun’s eye was upon Valkyrie, gleaming that carmine sheen, and even though the steampunk sniper’s body shook with magically enhanced power, she couldn’t will her body to move back. A compulsion dominated her form, urging her to stand her ground or advance. She hadn’t moved an inch since Silhouette charged in, and subsequently, he himself had no room to retreat.
A foot planted itself upon his chest and forcefully kicked, sending both Silhouette and Valkyrie tumbling back. Together, they crashed into one of the gray statues, all three tumbling down as the statue broke to bits. A sticky, black fluid coated the two government esper’s bodies, a familiar acrid stench revealing exactly what it was.
Petroleum.
And Wukong, momentarily perplexed by how she could even go about fighting an invisible enemy, was summarily unable to respond when the unseen blade changed course and sliced one of the fire lamps in half. The object toppled. It’s contents spilled.
And the embers fell, glowing brighter as they neared the accelerant drenching the prone agents.
But whatever befell her allies were behind Jacqueline now. The Eternal Knight broke out from the toxic fog, sickly green trails slipping off her form as she hefted Havoc up. Upon the red carpet, between the different-colored statues, her sprint went unimpeded as she closed onto Arzendale. The vampire himself smiled wide at her, and only her advance, his left hand swinging out and snapping his fingers.
As Jacqueline crossed the spot of darkness in the center of the room, one head from each pillar dropped onto the floor. The bags fell off. The heads rolled. One an office lady in her early-twenties, freshly-graduated with unblemished skin. One a daycare volunteer in his teens, curly-haired and freckled. From the stumps of their necks, blood flowed smoothly, converging onto the tip of Arzendale’s wand to forming a shield of hot blood. Like that, two lives ended. Like that, Jacqueline advanced, her great axe curving through the air and smashing into the vampire mage’s barrier. A single blow sliced through the blood, but before the second could descend, the Eternal Knight felt her arms drop down, as if her Instrument had become immensely heavy.
This was no ‘as if’.
Her eyes flicked downwards, towards the sanguine mass that had coagulated upon the head of her axe, making it near-impossible for her to lift with the strength of a mere Esper. And Arzendale himself simply took a measured step back, his head tilting up to look down their nose onto Jacqueline, his wand extended still with a condensed ball of the remaining blood he had pilfered from those bound humans.
“Such impatience,” he chortled, leaning against the organ. It truly was a measured step. Too far for Jacqueline’s axe to reach, even on the off chance she could indeed lift her weapon back up for a swing. “The age of barbaric might and solitary heroics have long passed, child of man. Have you forgotten so swiftly, how it was that you survived the gauntlet within the gaol?”
The gem-studded tip of the Sovereign grew brighter, chaotic energies pulsating like a water cutter moments before unleashing its liquid blade, its raw power matching, perhaps even surpassing, Orion’s own beam.
Was there a melody Jacqueline could unleash to block the spell? Should she try to raise her weapon up anyways, irrespective of the damage she risked upon her joints, tendons, and muscles? Or was this time to forsake her Instrument and her transformation in order to save her life?
The seconds ticked. The seconds tocked.
.
..
…
Splat.
Orion struck some squishy, something wet. Her surroundings were pitch-black, the air smelling of rot and blood, feces and fear. It was comparable to her experience in the sewers, and yet there was something worse about it. The sewers, as much as they were in disarray, still had function, still had use. It transported garbage out of the city, into sewage treatment plants.
But this place? This dark place, suffocating and claustrophobic? What was the purpose of this place? Just to keep a monster before the time was right?
Chains clinked alongside the shuffling of rags. Coughs sounded alongside groans. Weak voices sounded, filled with desperation, filled with need.
“F-food?”
“It’s been so long…”
“God, not again, not again!”
“I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t”
“Justin, please, you’re there, aren’t you! I’ll do it! Just let me out!”
“Leave! Run! I, we, T H I R S T!”
Flashing one by one by one, sets of glowing red eyes filled the sinister surroundings. Orion knew where she was now, knew what she was encountering.
Vampiric thralls, their humanity, their dignity, robbed by their starvation.
And, as a GEMINI agent, the path was obvious.
Kill. Them. All.
@OwO@mantou@ERode@Majoras End
”Oh.” Was Tetrad’s response to Klava sealing away the pyromancers. She wasn’t sure if she agreed with her choice to force everyone into a bottle neck, but denying the enemy room to advance couldn’t be a bad thing. Luna looked at Apollo. ”I guess we’ll just stick to the back then?” It was quite the change from her last operation. Regina was more focused on making the team conform to her fighting style, and Marrie struck Tetrad as more of a follower. But Klava may have been a true tactician. She was acting as a leader, but it was more that she was adapting to her allies strengths. This was probably not the first time they worked together.
While Luna was running up behind Klava, melodies, barrels, and jackets were flying. A saturated jacket would burn regardless of how much you patted it, so Finn made the wise choice to strip it off and cast it aside. The temptation to say something like “too bad you’re not older” did come to Luna’s mind, but she figured that would be best to say that later. She could only screw around so much in the middle of an operation.
Barrel and spark collided, and an explosion of splinters resulted. Fable had successfully intercepted the barrel, and the spirits contained within fell to the floor. Protector used the opening to fire an ensnaring melody at the hunter/butler power couple. Her projectile split off and spread around one of Bob’s legs and the gunner’s arm.
”I do say, it’s a good thing- Gah!”
The older woman looked up just in time to see a bare chested faceless man hurl a ball of light at her. Even with her legs free, she was sitting down and noticed far too late that such a spell was coming at her. Her eyes widened, her brow flicked up, and her pupils shrank. But Bob’s arm came up just in time to absorb the blow. Light and sound filled the small corridor, but when the light faded, the back of bob’s hand had been dented in. But he wiggled his fingers, demonstrating the attack’s limited impact..
”YOU_RUFFIANS_HAVE_MADE_ME_FEEL_A_GENUINE_EMOTION.” The shaken “lady Jane” stood up and ran around to Bob’s back. It became evident how much larger Bob was than Protector. While he was only a few feet taller, he was quite broad, and each of his limbs were as thick as tree trunks. He dropped onto his hands, digging his fingers into the stone floor and preparing his legs for a sprint. While Jane was still struggling to free her arm from the web-like bindings, Bob’s hydraulics easily overpowered such meager arcane restraints, and snapped them with the extension of its leg. ”I_FEEL_PITY_FOR_YOU…HA_HA_HA_HA_HA_HA!” His eyes glowed a brilliant azure, and his body arced with arcane electricity.
Bob hadn’t even finished laughing before an explosion shoved several barrels into the isle right in front of Protector. A few flaming barrels bounced into the wall at Protector and Finn’s right flank before slamming into them. While the espers had been pushed into the wall, Protector’s spell had saved them from taking any damage. The barrels hadn’t been touching them long enough to catch them on fire.Though the path ahead was littered with burning debris, and Bob’s power only surged as time went on.
The red haired pyromancer lowered her hands and took a deep breath. White smoke wafted off of her hands as she regained her composure. ”Black, Brown, shoot anything that moves!” The three pyromancers positioned themselves so that they could look through the newly made hole in the wall of barrels and fire.
Billy balled his hands into fists. Even if he was critical to this mission, there might be something he could do without wearing himself down before the fight with Justin. He was prepared to break off a chunk of the foundation and send it down the hall, but then the barrels at their end started to shake, and false lids fell to the ground. Then more pyromancers scrambled out of the barrels. There were four in total, with two in each path. They were quite young in appearance, and couldn’t have been a day over sixteen. The two behind the group of espers fighting Jane and Bob (white and green hair) took turns hurling fire balls at Klava and Tetrad in the back line, while the two in the iceberg lane (purple and blue) bombarded Apollo and Billy. Billy snapped a chunk of stone wall off and hid behind it. He could throw the flat stone, but Apollo was right there.
”Geez!” Luna placed her hand on a keg and cast a weightless melody, which made it much easier to pull off the wall. It did this in a most unusual way, removing all oxygen around the vicinity. This caused Luna’s face to turn blue as she held her breath. Man she hated her magic sometimes. She didn’t wait, and threw the keg at one of the pyromancers. The barrel was struck and caught fire, but it was moving so fast it collided with the white haired pyromancer before bouncing away. The pyromancer stumbled backwards, but the barrel was floating along the ceiling now.. Luna opened fire with Pit Boss, but it was apparent the superior arcane defense of her mystic opponents was reducing the effectiveness of her weapon. They’d need to do something fast if they wanted to get the pressure off of them.
And still, more dangers rolled in. Something was happening in the path Klava had closed off. A ghost in a tuxedo rose out of the floor and hovered in the air. He looked human in all aspects but his face, which looked like a white blob of cream with lips and eyes attached to it. ”Hello beauties!” He said with a notable amount of lisp. ”I had a brunchen to prepare, but now that I’m all done, Handsome Gunter is here to serve you!” Gunter drew a book from his vest and cracked it open, causing a single white flame to fly out of it and hover around his hand. ”Oh you guys are just gunna love love love what I do next!”
And with all of this going on, there was still more. Among the burning barrels and fireballs was a lone violin player. Hair as white as snow, complexion as pale as marble, And a steady hand on her violin’s bow. At the back of the wine cellar, Finn could see just a glimpse of the girl he spoke with a week ago. Betty was here.
@The World
Marrie made the wise decision to not fight a powerful behemoth solo. While a bouncy projectile did allow her to blink much further than she normally would, it also meant she had to spend more time in front of the snake before she blinked to safety. Marrie had just enough time to run into one of the tunnels before Highway to Hell wedged its head inside of it. It hissed, sending droplets of acid down the tunnel. By this point Marrie’s melody had triggered, making her safe for the moment.
Or was she?
Now that she was closer to the noise, the sound was a bit more familiar to Marrie. It wasn’t just any two-stroke engine, it belonged to a chainsaw. And it was getting louder with every passing second, until she saw it.
”Ow! Owowowowowo!” a zombie cheerleader wandered out from behind a rock formation. She had a chainsaw run through her back, and seemed to be doing her best to hold her head on. The chainsaw itself didn’t seem to be causing her any harm, if the way she ignored it was any indication. ”I jumped off of that wagon just a little too early. Next time-” As soon as she noticed Marrie, her expression brightened up like the sun emerging from overcast clouds. ”Oh hey! A person!” She let go of her neck and and a circle or two around Marrie. ”Person person person person!” She stopped in front of Marrie, with the chainsaw in her chest hovering a few inches away from the esper. ”Are you here looking for that coin with everyone else? No matter! Wherever you’re trying to get, we gotta get access to the wagon system the goblins are building! Well, pretty sure they are just burrows, but you can ride wagons in them and build up a lot of speed! I’ll tell you more about it once we get inside! So we just need to punt the little green goofballs in order to get inside.”
The cave system had opened up into a giant cave, with two pillars and a pool of water between them. There was also a group of goblins huddled around a small campfire in the distance. Unlike the last group, these ones were armed with weapons and appeared to be standing guard. Behind them was a wooden door. It didn’t look especially durable, but it didn’t look like it was something a group of goblins could have made.
Regardless of how Marrie felt about helping the zombie, she could hear Highway to Hell coming closer. Perhaps the goblins were too good at avoiding it.
