Level: 11 - Total EXP: 351/110 ------ Level: 10 - Total EXP: 421/100 đ±đż âââââ ---------------------------- đ±đż âââââ Level: 11 - Total EXP: 109/110 Friday Afternoon Word Count: 1001 (+2 exp) Location: Yellow Wind Ridge, the Forbidden Kingdom
Naturally the Seekers wouldn't be lucky enough to have R land right in their laps, but at least where he had landed wasn't far from where the Koopa siblings had summoned them to wait in ambush. As everyone approached the impact point, none were so naive as to think the fall had done their job for them - and unsurprisingly, the Consul rose from the center of the crater a few moments later.
But rather than pause to listen to R's angry speech, Primrose twisted into the familiar steps of a dance. While waiting for the Consul's violent touch down she had prepared by empowering herself with Sealticge's Seduction; now she was ready to grant the entire party of Seekers a buff all at once. She chose to open with the Lion Dance, increasing the raw attack power of herself and her allies. With their plan being to simply overwhelm the man with strength as quickly as possible, it seemed a safe bet.
R had unleashed and explained his Moebius power as she finished, which made the dancer second guess her choice. She could see everyone's weapons -normally made of steel and precious metals- transform into crude stone and wood. Their clothes and armor too, even their physical bodies. Her own dress had split into two pieces of spotted auburn fur circling her chest and waist. Her spear had become a sharpened wooden pole (though it was still frosted over in a layer of ice), and her dagger...
She ghosted a hand over the scabbard, already feeling how it had changed. Anger flashed hot in her chest for a moment, but she quelled it immediately. Surely it wasn't a permanent change, and with R's death the area and everything in it would return to how it was. But right now, with this prehistoric reversion, she didn't know how effective her attack buff would be now that the Seekers' methods were limited. Let's just try something else then, she thought, keep us moving.
At the very least her dance had also invigorated the Seekers' stamina, not unlike the dancers of Grima's world, giving them energy for extra actions. While she back stepped away from the titan to begin another empowering dance, the allies around her moved in.
Therion had moved before the man finished spitting his words out too, but the Revert flashed over them all before he reached R. The thief's dagger still struck his target, but where he'd expected the high quality steel to at least sink in a little instead the jagged stone knife in his hand glanced off of the Consul's armor. The debuff Therion had delivered still took effect, Armor Corrosive lowering R's defense, but the attack itself had barely even left a scratch on the red plate R wore.
Therion backed off immediately, needing to see what had actually happened before he risked fighting up close.
"What the..." Yup, he was definitely holding a stone knife instead of his usual weapon. His sword wasn't even a sword anymore, just another short stone blade. All of his equipment had seemingly changed into something befitting the Stone Age, or even earlier. His leather armor had become crude, lacking the metal fasteners and hardened protective pieces, and his tail shrunk to be more like a bobcat's. At least he hadn't grown tusks like his fellow feline thief, but there wasn't time to be glad about that.
He narrowed his eyes as R transformed. If he couldn't use his normal weapons... with flex of his fingers Therion summoned a fireball to his hand - but a beat later he thought better of it, and instead the flame faded and turned to a lighter, brighter energy. Guess spirit swords don't get changed, he thought. Made sense, they weren't metal. With the Wraith Blade he could stay at range and still move in to tag with his debuffs while defending himself.
But for good measure he also summoned his striker, the Junicorn, which prepared to a fire a blood red lance at Moebius.
And as for the team captainâ
"Wah!"
On paper the power to turn things into dinosaurs sounded amazing, but Pit hadn't expected it to apply to him. The fur parts of his outfit just got bigger and longer, making him dressed in a full fluffy white tunic with a braided belt, and his divine weapon was now a much less impressive stick, but the comparatively heavy slabs of leathery skin at his back was much more concerning to him. The angel had gone from having his game face on to turning slightly ill-looking.
Calm down, Pit! Nothing's wrong with your wings, they just... look different!
And they feel different too! Gross and weird!
But they're still totally intact, so you're fine. The reassurance helped, but then the Goddess of Light went on to comment, It is strange though, didn't humans figure out that dinosaurs had feathers? Maybe you've got some lizard DNA hidden in your genetic code?
What?! No I don't!
The distraction stopped Pit from taking any early actions, but R changing into his Moebius form stopped the angel and Goddess' conversation from getting any further off the rails and brought Pit's attention right back to the battle. His new, leathery wings twitched. He forced them to closed tightly against himself as out of the way as possible so he didn't have to think about them as much.
"Alright, we skipped right to phase two!" Pit called out, hoping to embolden the rest of the Seekers. "Come on, we can do this! When we're through, he's the one that's gonna end up a fossil!"
Pit drew back on the simple bow, already forgetting that it was not the same as it normally was. Thankfully the bright gold rings still formed around his draw arm, and the ethereal bowstring still came into being at his motion. The Palutena Bow was still the same weapon at its core, even if it could only be used in its one form for now.
Pit let loose a barrage of light arrows that swept up towards Moebius, blue and gold streaks interchange weaved around each other to pepper the titan as they made a path to its core.
Friday Afternoon Word Count: 734 (+1 exp) Level: 9 - Total EXP: 630/90 Location: Moon Mountain, The Frozen Highlands
Until the huge being's mask cracked, it had been hard to tell how exactly the fight in the moon's interior had been going. Ace could see that the Seekers' attacks were effective enough to at least be whittling their adversary down, but the same was true for them, too. With all sorts of spikes, balls, eyes, and other sorts of projectiles being strewn around the Man in the Moon -with the Dark as its companion- were chipping away at the White Team down as well. That crack was the important signifier that the hunter had been looking for. Whether it was the halfway point or the last hurrah, it was progress.
It was also the trigger for the Man in the Moon and the Dark to increase the velocity of their attacks, which was undoing a lot of the pattern learning the Seekers had just gotten through doing.
Ace's cat had already had her hands full trying to stop the many projectiles in the air from hitting her master and those around him, but now it was way harder. The kitty was sprinting to and fro, leaping to swat eyeballs and more down out of the air but missing her mark a lot of the time - especially with things moving so much faster. She landed after her latest attempt, panting, and was scooped up out of the way before a bolt of energy struck her.
"Careful there!" Ace had tucked the feline under his arm as he dodge rolled away from another shot. Between swapping briefly to his dual blades (the melee weapon he'd chosen to have at the ready, the others packed so that it would take far too long to get one out) and back to the bow, the Cadet had taken more than a few stray shots. He was tough though, but since he was out of most of his own items he had to hope the team healing outpaced the damage they were taking. The two hunters ended up on the far edge of battle from the masked enemy, though still within range of everything else.
In the briefest of breathers afforded to them, while the projectiles were focused on different hero or destroyed in the air by one of the Seekers' own, Ace set the cat down and nodded in Sandalphon's direction.
"Don't run yourself ragged; focus on just one area, go purrtect the boss!"
"Meowyow!"
She darted off in the archangel's direction, taking up the position that Heismay had vacated earlier in doing their best to defend the Seekers' addled leader. Perhaps in thinking of ways to increase her defense, the cat added her basic shots (that was hacking up a hairball with unusual precision) to her plan, trying to shoot down any of the projectiles she couldn't catch and destroy herself.
While she did that, Ace rejoined the fray proper. He weaved around what he couldn't weather, firing upon the Man in the Moon. The Dark's eyes were too quick of targets for him at the moment, and the Cadet hoped once the masked man was finished the Dark Itself would fade out at the same time, so he left those to the Seekers that could deal with them. Rarely would his aim shift to the flying arms unless they happened to close to him, or started concentrating to much on Mokou - in which case a Triple Volley would strike at their palms, at least one of the three arrows fired sure to hit the bullseye.
While Ace focused his fire on the Man in the Moon, his other animal companion was taking up the duty of trying to keep the hands in check in his stead. When the arm deprived of its projectile-firing abilities instead floated in to try and attack the Seekers physically, the Humbee swooped through the maze of danger in the air to land on the limb and Sting it, sending a stunning venom into the arm that would slow it down and even stop it from moving every now and then. The arm began waving to flick the bug off, and it tumbled through the air for a moment before righting itself with the dual set of wings. Then the Humbee zipped up to look for another target, using its Precision Eye to chart another course through the chaos in order to Slam its head against the open eye of a different floating limb.
The kids had to admit, theyâd been wrong to doubt Pit, marveling as they did at his display of power as Rikaâs scout plane watched on while they hid in their cave. Once the Consul was down however, they charged out, with Amatearsu hot on their heels.
Despite the early win, their plan quickly hit a bump in the road.
Jr and Rika, charging in on their hovercraft, hit the devolution field spell at speed, which caused a great deal of trouble as the bumpercar looking craft warped beneath them into a canoe that went sliding across the sand uncontrollably towards R.
The siblings shifted too.
Jr had it better off. Appearance wise the dragon-turtleâs physiology was entirely unimpacted, while his minimalist outfit transformed into furs while the iron tattoo on his right arm turned to stone. His tech meanwhile had more issues. The pokeballs on his bandolier into acorn based balls that still served their purpose, but his brush became a wooden affair with hair for a brush that no longer produced goop, and, worst of all for their plan, his cassette player turned into a panflute while the headphones turned into a set of earmuffs.
The idea of starting out with a cassette beast fusion was, as a result, right out the window.
Rika was however far, far, far worse off.
Around her her scout planes, Red Baron orbital machines and Col. Droneman all transformed into a swarm of mauldrones that buzzed around her in confusion. Meanwhile her armor and helmet became a sabertooth tiger pelt, her rigging a simple belt, her helbard became made of actual bone, cassette player changed like Jrâs and, worst of all, her gauntlets became small Brachydios skulls strapped to her arms.
Why this last one was so bad became very clear after their out of control cameo hit a rock and spilled them to the floor close to R, because the ship girl struggled to push herself to her feet without the use of her gauntletâs antigrave technology, managing only to just barley to do so using her helbard for support.
Weeks on land had somewhat reduced her lack of land legs, but it was still nowhere near good enough for her to be able to fight without support.
Her brother took one look at his beached sister, another at the looming form of R that could so easily crush her underfoot if he chose to, and made the only sensible choice.
With a shout of âStrikers! Buy time!â he lunged for her, hauled her up over his shoulder, and started to make a run for it back across the dunes they'd slid over, heading for the rocky outcrops sounding the impromptu arena.
The ship girl didnât argue. Technically this could have been the moment where they faced a crisis that could let them interlink, but neither had the heroic lack of survival instincts to try and stand their ground here. She did however toss her helbard up at R as they fell back, getting something in on her own efforts.
Then she followed through with his yelled plan
Behind them, Jr and Rikaâs strikers all materialized, titans one and all, even if none could quite challenge the sheer size of R. Yet even as they formed and moved to strike, they too were devolved by the Consulâs power.
Rikaâs Vespikan Ichor Queen was impacted least of all, the giant insect womanâs iron blade devolving into an obsidian shard studded mace. Said blade would likely still do hefty damage as she slammed it down in an overhead cleave, and her venomous stinger was still just as deadly
Jrâs mechanical strikers were far more affected. The fist of Blodia slammed out of thin air, turning to stone even as it swung. It fully solidified into a statue about two thirds of the way into its swing, but that still left a hunk of stone slamming towards R. Kaw-Man meanwhile solidified in a similar manner during a downward chop, its chainsaw hand transforming into a large Sawfish skull.
As all these attacks closed in, Amaterasu rushed in too, pushing the world as the two slashes landed and drawing lines down the path of the strikes, intensifying the damage of the strikes with her Power slash brush technique.
She then did her best to harass Râs legs, her divine retribution disk weapon entirely unaffected by the change due to its form being that of a stone tablet, its strength drawn from pure divinity. Nimble on her paws as she was, she would dodge and weave as best she could while slamming the burning stone into R and trying to draw attention away from the fleeing children.
With the Man in the Moon and the Dark both forced to focus more on the Seekers fighting back, Mokou was able to continue focusing most of her efforts with the Sun. Slowly, the flames continued to change color, growing hotter and hotter as the Phoenix put more magic into her flames. For a brief moment as the flames grew to a blinding level, Mokou remembered a certain Miko. This would be a sort of âincidentâ they would try to fix, an eternal night brought upon the lack of the sun.
Well, now she was forced to be the incident solver.
Soon enough, Mokouâs body was no more. All that was left was a stream of fire that swirled around the Sun, the white flames slowly melding into its surface. And then, like a match, the Sun had the spark it needed. And the Man in the Moon, recognizing its failure, quickly slunk into the shadows, retreating from the coming dawn.
With a roar, the chamber filled with light as a new pillar tore out from the construct, illuminating the room with a bright glow moments before the pillar shot up and blasted a hole through the moon, shattering and causing the âcelestial bodyâ to begin falling apart. And beyond, the pillar of fire continued to reach up to the sky, blasting past the clouds. For a moment, nothing of note happened⊠And then a bright glow began to shine from beyond the clouds before the sky itself practically burned, wiping away both the gathered clouds and the eternal night of the Frozen Highlands.
And within the moon, despite the expected cost of one giving oneâs life to fuel a sun, scattered ashes began to coalesce to reconstruct Mokou once more. Although unlike normal, she was reforming facedown on the floor, the effort and pain of fueling the Sun leaving her unconscious.
Words: 817 (+2) Edward Portsmith: Level 10 (28 cells) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (40/100) Location Frozen highlands - The Midnight Walk - Moon Mountain
Exactly ten seconds after being frozen, Edwardâs cat Scrumpy thawed out and, coincidently, also regained his senses from his self-inflicted madness. He thus aborted the throw heâd been in the middle of, and, after a moment reassessing the situation, turned the hunting rifle heâd built on the Man in the Moonâs face with pin point accuracy.
Which was rather absurd, given he was operating the gun with cat paws. It was also very absurd how, when he hurled the then empty rifle at the same target, it looked like it dealt as much damage as the bullets had.
âIncredible, can you do that again?â Edward asked, only to be somewhat disappointed when the cat gave a negative meow and produced only a small bomb with his next craft. Still, it gave him an idea, even if it was a little fiddly to implement while dodging.
By the time the man in the moonâs face cracked, heâd managed to flick through armory menus well enough to drop the Steel Diver handheld torpedo launcher into his catâs paws, which the feline got to work using with relish, letting lose the seven shots the weapon held in a slow but steady bombardment before hurling it at the man for a final burst of damage.
It did somewhat raise the question if the cats could be expected to be able to reload weapons, but they certainly seemed able to use equipment which could be a real boon if they got the time to equip them properly before the next fight.
In this one, Edward had the issue of burning through his ammo reserves and his minion dying off, reducing his output during the battle. Personal firepower wise, he fully ran out of ammo for his Rune Pistol despite it chewing through his reserves slower than odinâs pinky would, forcing him to switch instead to just alternating his magelocks. In between shots, however, he had plenty of time to focus on keeping his troops alive. Or, rather, coordinating Loonaâs efforts to do so.
Her newly lured cryofreeze was a godsend in this regard, the ghostly wolf able to render his troops incurable when about to be hit, while also restoring them.
WHile this certainly helped the floating Cold-Flame Antonarchs, the main beneficiary of this was the Ironclad. It was, after all, unable to dodge much of anything, and so needed near constant healing, but when frozen it was a good platform to fight from as it could keep them above the spikes, and thus focused on dodging just the projectiles.
By the time the stone hands rose up, it had also had time to reload in between freezings, at which point it unleashed a barrage of three armor sundering explosives whose blasts ignored half the man in the moonâs defences.
Unfortunately, while doing these shots, it was vulnerable, and especially unfortunately, this was when one of the floating hands decided to take issue with it
With a cry of âAbandon ship!â Edward leapt from the back of the vessel as the fist came slamming down into it, Scrumpy and Loona just barely managing to follow his lead before being squashed flat. For the ironclad there was no escape, as the vessel crumpled beneath the mighty fist, Loona being unable to freeze it in time due to having to save her own skin.
She and Edward immediately leaped back into the fray however. The Lunarwulf formed a Amber Starlight Blade in her jaw which she used to cleave into the hand, while Edward drew his Arche's Guardian Blade and hacked at the stone form with its heavy blade. The SomnaDrix even charged in to help, slamming its freezing antlers into the stone.
They had to back off as it rose up again, but the action had refilled Edwardâs mana fuel cells as well as dealing damage, giving him a chance to spellcast.
He first cast Designated Target on the hand, and ordered Scrumpy to âUnleash everything!â prompting the cat to unload all of his unused mana into a hail of firecrackers. Drawn by the target painted on the hand by its marked debuffs, the explosives homed in just a little, focusing the explosions onto it rather than spreading them out.
Then he pivoted and pointed at the man in the moon himself, casting Designate Target once more while focusing fire with the remaining Cold-Flame Antonarchs, their spell-frost barrage striking the briefly vulnerable target even as they were cut down to the last in turn.
The Dreadnought joined in by charging the last two mana fuel cells into the Arche's Guardian Blade and then thrust it forwards, unleashing a powerful bolt of lighting that joined the other spellfire. Even as he did, a wave of spikes rolled towards him across the floor, approaching too quickly for him to pivot from the bolt to a jump. Just as they were about to hit, however, the Loona froze the man solid, before she, Scrumpy and the SomnaDrix pushed him back from the center of the action, leaving the others to finish the fight.
"Well, that's rather annoying," Yayama commented as her clothes changed shape. It would be one thing if it had stopped with her armor. Thick hides weren't really her style, but they worked just fine for protection, and this Consul was in for a rude surprise when he found out that a good half or more of her equipment's strength had little to do with the actual physical properties of the metal. Similarly, losing the edge on Shadowbringer was suboptimal, but most of the sword's power was in its sheer mass, and it was still sharp enough to use that. No, the real travesty was her hat. Instead of fine Ishgardian leather and the eyepatch she'd become accustomed to, the set had been replaced by a bloody boar head!
Seeing the others start to move, she elected to channel her irritation and anger helpfully; in this case, launching a prodigious leap directly at the Consul's face. "Yeeargh!" It wasn't her most powerful attack by any means, but it did get her close, and it was great for helping her get attention. "You did this crime against fashion, now you look at it!"
After dusting all the snow off his metal frame from the trance he was placed under, Ramattra oddly felt more mentally drained rather than physically. Though he did feel rather exhausted in that department as well⊠it wasnât difficult, thankfully, for Ramattra to regroup with his teammates, as they were only a short jogâs distance away amidst snowy fog - or rather scamper, in the case of the Omnicâs extra leg. All in all, Ramattra did not mind the experimentation he took in acquiring the Democrawlerâs spirit, however he found it increasingly annoying to have less agility on three spider-like legs. Perhaps it would be best at the end of this to remove his fusion, to opt for one that may have less significant drawbacks. It would certainly have made treading the mountain a lot easierâŠ
Stress circulated in every fiber of Ramattraâs being as he witnessed the rise of such an ominous foe. He had seen bizarre things on this adventure, but none have made him feel such dread internally. To him- all he could see was a large cartoonishly masked monstrosity with creepy hands to match, and admittedly, through most of the fight, panic from the overwhelming exposure to ailments from other worlds had caused his mind to blank- the tactician had fallen behind in the battle, and until now, was unable to regain his composure.
His nanite blasts from his staff were unsteady- and often missed their targets. Whenever he moved to attack in Nemesis mode, the large Man would pummel him into solid stone and snow with a large barrage of projectiles. And once he took a deep breath, turned his mind blank for a moment, clarity reached him.
Using firearms in this state was difficult, however, protecting allies while dealing chip damage was something the Omnic exceeded at. While the star of the battlefield, Mokou, rained down heavy flames on the Man in the Moon, Ramattra would take turns between defending her and Sandalphon while they worked on the objective. The Omnic didnât have much firepower to offer up, but in the time being, he saw to it that his teammates were not hurt on his watch. UntilâŠ
A small prickling prodded the spindly Omnicâs legs, causing him to look down from defense. âYou again?â Ramattra groaned silently, frustrated to see that the creature had placed itself on the battlefield. When some of the Seekers were about to be hit by the Manâs attacks, the spiny cat would wedge itself between them and take damage in an alliesâ place! Nodding, the Omnic accepted this as a small gesture of goodwill from the creature. Perhaps she would be beneficial to keep around.
Word Count: 670 Level 9 Ganondorf: 33/90 Level 11 Roxas: 82/110 Exp Gained: +1 NEW EXP Balance--- 34/90, 83/110
Moon Mountain
Things were going surprisingly well⊠at least at first. After his initial opening strikes, Roxas was quick to redirect himself back to the ground level to try and avoid retaliation that he guessed would come for him. It worked⊠mostly. A couple of eye projectiles managed to ping him as he had been focused on dodging the main body of the Man in the Moon. But he still had a second or two of Aeroga to help blunt that damage so while his landing may not have been perfect, it was at least successful.
The same wasnât true of Ganondorf. In addition to losing the remainder of his Moblins to the Man in the Moon, the warlord himself was nowhere near as agile as his Keyblade-wielding ally and thus he suffered a worse reprisal from the boss as a result. A sweeping arm from the Dark smacked him back several feet and then he had to brace himself to endure some followup damage from eye projectiles.
âLetâs see how you do against my stronger servant!â The Gerudo bellowed as he hastily summoned Phantom Ganon to serve as back up reinforcements. The Phantom was quick to literally fly into the fray to strike at the Man in the Moon with his N Corp Nail to inflict Bleed. That would give the shadowy monstrosity a gradual loss of health over time to compound with the damage the Seekers as a whole were rapidly inflicting on him. As for Ganondorf himself, he shifted focus a bit and targeted the Dark with his Fae Spear strikes. It proved a bit more confusing to properly figure out where to aim at first since the Dark was not a traditional target like the Man in the Moon, but a sweeping fire breath or two helped Ganondorf figure things out quickly enough.
And it was at this point, when things were going suspiciously well, that the mask cracked. It was a welcome sign of progress for Roxas and Ganondorf, but one that was immediately followed by their enemiesâ collective attacks growing faster and more intense. For them specifically this was most notable with the many eyes. Not only did they seem to become more numerous, but so did their projectiles. Roxas had to act quickly and cast another Aeroga on himself to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Once again, Ganondorf was less fortunate.
Just like the Moblins, Phantom Ganon was downed by the increased intensity of the attacks, but not before getting off one more N Corp Nail attack against the Dark, so that at least both adversaries would suffer from Bleed going forward. Ganondorf himself was forced to endure some hefty damage from a volley of eye projectiles before he managed a sweeping fire breath to get them off of him. His breathing was a bit more labored as he momentarily weighed his options. He was likely injured enough to transform if he wanted to, and that would certainly help put a swifter end to this enemy. But if he did that, then the form would no longer be available to him for the remainder of the day, and that could potentially rob the Seekers of having Ganon available during the inevitable fight against Baldr - the Guardian.
The warlord made his decision and pressed back onto the offensive without transforming. But he did swap to his Greatswords in order to build up Dark Explosions as a means of helping clear away the many eyes and their frustratingly numerous projectiles. Fortunately for both Ganondorf and Roxas, the fight didnât last too much longer. In fact, both were brought to pause the bright spectacle of Mokouâs final flame and the dawn that it appeared to bring about.
âDoes⊠does that mean we won?â Roxas asked, shakily. He had to use the remainder of his MP for a Curaga on himself and anyone else who wanted to benefit from it.
â...â Ganondorf merely grunted but didnât actually say anything. But internally he was hoping that the Nobodyâs guess was right.
As Band took this brief opportunity to catch his breath before round two began, Q picked himself up. The masked giant moved ponderously, almost unnaturally, with all the graceless raw power of Frankensteinâs monster. Once in a crouching position, he rose with a loud, rough grunt, the sound of which sparked the notion in Bandâs mind that his opponent might be mute. A speechless powerhouse, more monster or machine than manâŠeven though Band won the first round by a decent margin, the detective did not plan to underestimate the opposition. As the one-sided beatdown heâd received from Potemkin that morning had demonstrated, the pace of a fight could change at the drop of a hat. Big Band tipped his own at Q as a sign of respect, received no acknowledgement, and readied himself for battle once more.
ROUND TWO: FIGHT!
Once the Heavenly Principles bade him begin, Q advanced in his typical careful manner: an ominous and measured stride interspersed with frequent crouches to ensure his guard was ready for any mid or low pokes. Band moved a half-step back to maintain his distance while charging, then threw out a risky move: a light Take the A-Train. âHit meâŠ!â He scooted forward and, in the midst of Qâs well-rehearsed defensive pattern, scooped up the man of mystery for a couple jackhammer-like trombone slams. â...Two times!â Once Q got spat out, Big Band followed up with the only move he could: his go-to Blockbuster, Super-Sonic Jazz. âHorn crush!â Reinforced by a giant french horn, he blasted forward and rammed his opponent back, who went tumbling with a sort of strained growl. Bandâs quick thinking had earned him a healthy leg up, but it left him totally dry on Dramatic Tension, and it would take a lot more punishment before Q stayed down.
Band approached, and as Q regained his feet with an eerie stiffness, the detective leaped into the air. Q was more than ready to swipe him from the sky, but not for his fedora-wearing foe to defy the law of gravity with a midair double jump to bait out the anti-air. Qâs uppercut whiffed, and the next instant Band landed mere inches from him, hard enough to shake the whole stage. With no choice but to guess, Q went for a throw tech and successfully pushed away the halves of Bandâs bell as he attempted a combo-starting grab.
The detective, determined to keep his momentum, deployed two trombone slides for Glissando but got stuffed by Qâs High Speed Barrage. That flurry of three open-handed swipes just about slapped Band silly, but he did not take leave of his senses. Unwilling to relent, he pulled back just enough to try and counter-poke Q with Brass Knuckles, only for Q to deftly parry it and reply with his Super Art, Critical Combo Attack. âHm! Hm! Hm! Hm!â He dented Bandâs frame in a series of four full-force rush punches that sent the two-and-a-half-ton cyborg flying all the way across the stage as Q taunted. Band landed heavily, slid right across the pool tiles, and flopped over the edge of the arena into the water.
ROUND TWO: Q WINS!
It actually took several minutes (and the help of a couple bystanders, including a big British punk rocker and a deceptively strong mint-green girl) to haul Band onto the stage and expel enough water from his systems to function again. Iron Lungs werenât exactly meant to go underwater, after all. After giving Birdie and Annie his breathless thanks, and standing to face to his motionless opponent, Band was forced to see Q in an entirely new light. It was easy to forget about ring outs in the heat of the moment, and if Qâs equivalent of a Blockbuster basically guaranteed one, it was no wonder the seemingly one-dimensional brute had gotten this far in bracket. At the same time, though, his place in Losers meant that his strategy could be defeated. Band just needed to adapt.
âAlright, I got the message,â the gumshoe spat. He flung open his trench coat and deployed a whole symphony's worth of instruments, draining the last bit of pool water from their valves, bells, and tubes. âGimme half a chance, though, and Iâll have ya singinâ a different tune.â
ROUND THREE: FIGHT!
Q approached, and Band jumped. This time he lashed out with his Tenor Blast early, caught Q by surprise on the way up, then battered him with Jelly Roll. After the tambourine buzzsaw came the downward spike of Sweet Clarinetâs first hit as Band landed, a brief serenade from his musical triangle, the surround-sound sonic blast of Bass Drop, a kickstand-supported drop kick, and a heavy Take the A-Train to cap the combo off. âShake, shake! Swing it! âŠGet hot! Lay BACK!â Without any Dramatic Tension he couldnât finish with a Blockbuster, but it was a great start to the match regardless.
Of course, Q would be neither intimidated nor deterred. When Band pushed forward to pressure him, Q took to the skies and executed a somersault flop as he jumped backward. In the brief scramble that followed, the man of mystery seized his opponent and launched him several stories via Capture and Deadly Blow. An EX rush punch nailed Band as he plummeted down and sent him skidding, although not quite to the brink.
As he struggled for a split second to pick his bulky body up, the detective saw Q taunt again, decided that it must have some extra effect, and decided he was far enough away to do a little functional showboating of his own. Band whipped out his aerophones to play some Bagpipe Blues. For a moment Q wasnât sure what to make of the loud, shrill sound, and by the time he figured that his opponent must also be able to buff himself, it was slightly too late.
He bulled forward with a heavy Dashing Leg Attack that Band blocked low just in time. From there, anticipating a brutal punish for his very unsafe move, Q made an unprecedented risky play: he canceled his recovery with the only thing he could, his Super Art.
Fortunately for Big Band, heâd already learned his lesson about getting impatient. In fact, heâd been thinking that this would be the perfect point in the fight -after two and a half rounds of defensive play- for Q to bet the farm on a dangerous gamble. Just blocking the rush punches wasnât enough for Band, though. Instead, he watched carefully and parried each hit. Every wild haymaker slid right off the shimmering brass surface of his hi-hat cymbal. âNope. Nope. Nope. Nope!â
Finally, Band gave it everything he had. He unleashed a full combo from a Hot Socks starter, carrying his foe up into the air, back down, and up again. Every instrument in his arsenal came out to play, and when he finally opted to use his Sound Stun, the combo was only half over. His musical beatdown drew more impressed eyes and ears his way, until the sequence finally came to an end with his Blockbuster. âSuperâŠSonic!â Band blasted forward, but after a few hits flipped his french horn down to unleash a barrage of explosive Lokjaw strikes thanks to the buff from Bagpipe Blues. âItâs a good thing you know how to say âhmm!â he told Q amidst the flurry of wrecking ball blows. ââCause youâll be thinkinâ on this one!â
BOOM!
Bandâs fully-charged finisher hurled Q off the stage, heralding the end of the matchâs brief but furious final round.
ROUND THREE: BIG BAND WINS!
As the detective let out his breath, the caps on his sides popped open to let off some extra steam. There were only a few yokai and other spectators around to offer him applause, but he couldnât help but feel proud of what heâd accomplished, not just his first win in the Losersâ bracket but also one of his most impressive combos to date. Better yet, his tournament fights were all over for the day, leaving him the rest of the night to relax and prepare for tomorrow.
âGuess all that traininâ with Zenkichi paid off,â Band muttered as he turned to take his leave. If Q hadnât deigned to give him a hand when he fell in the drink, the brute couldnât expect one in return. His thoughts drifted to the interception team, now an hour or two away from Esaka and possibly already contending with Consul R. âWherever yâall are, good luck.â
Never one to respect a bad guyâs big monologue, Nadia had been ready to jump the little consul as soon as he showed signs of life, along with her pragmatic pal Therion. When his Moebius power struck her, however, it stopped the feral in her tracks. The sensation of transformation, of being rewritten to suit someone elseâs fancy, was more than bizarre and disturbing. It was downright terrifying. Suddenly, yet subtly, her clothes felt different, the weight and texture of her hair changed, and she could feel two rigid sabertooth tusks against the insides of her lips where none had been before.
The last time sheâd experienced such reality-warping power had been against another diminutive consul, P, in the Home of Tears. And to this day, she still didnât understand his ability. He just didâŠsomething, and something awful happened to someone. This was different. Better, in fact. Whatever R had done to her, she still felt full of vim and vigor, ready to rip the reptile a new one. The real tragedy was that, with a lisp, she would have to keep her puns and one-liners to a minimum. Then again, if she had both brain cells fully focused on the fight, R would probably get beaten even worse than he wouldâve been otherwise.
Never one to be looked down upon, R wasted no time adopting a much bigger, stronger form for the fight ahead, but the Seekers were no stranger to larger-than-life enemies. Those massive mitts of his could probably squash Nadia like a bug, but he would have to catch her first.
Once they regained their composure in the wake of Râs Revert, the Seekers spread out so that no massive kicks, punches, or stomps could hit more than one of them at once. His first mighty stomp landed a moment after the Junicornâs crimson lance pierced his armor, shaking the ground as sand went flying, but hitting nobody. Nadia circled away from the impact and around R at a breezy pace, considering her first move.
Thanks to Primroseâs combo dance, she felt chock-full of energy and ready for action. Her plan would probably be the same as always: dart in and out, deal damage, and avoid getting her foeâs attention. Thanks to the sandy area R crash-landed in, getting stepped on would mean getting buried rather than flattened. Nadia doubted sheâd have to worry about it either way, but others, like Rika, might not be so lucky. It was up to the others, including her adoptive brotherâs strikers, to keep Râs attention away from her while she sorted her gear out, and Pit started things off with a flurry of light arrows. Nadia doubted theyâd do much damage, but she knew theyâd hit their mark, so it was her time to join in.
Nadia streaked across the sand as a yellow lightning bolt, closing the distance in an instant, and unleashed the pressurized blood in her legs. She soared upward, leaving a splotch of blood-soaked sand behind her. For a brief moment she hung in the air behind the behemothâs shoulders, her claws wreathed in electricity. Then, just after Moebius R took a solid slug from Juniorâs petrified Blodia striker, she followed up her Charge with Battery. She struck with two critical slashes to the neck area, made all the more painful by Therionâs armor corrosive, and R gave an annoyed grunt. He reached one massive arm over as if to scratch his back, but Nadia was already falling, her hardened claws dragged down Râs spinal column like a housecat shredding a curtain. Before he could devote any more time to Nadia, though, R received Amaterasuâs painted power slashes and focused forward again.
After landing, the feral hurriedly dashed away from a titanic footfall, then joined Amaterasuâs efforts to wear down her foeâs legs. Hit and run was the name of the game, and Nadia made it a point to target Râs joints, even if they looked more like glowing power cables than muscle fibers in this form.
Nadia and Amaterasu would be free to do their thing for a few more seconds as Yayama hurled herself up at Râs head in an incredible jump. Her petrified Shadowbringer dealt a heavy slash right between the titanâs eyes and surprised him almost as much as it hurt him, as if R had just run headfirst into a gigantic door. âBWAH!â Losing all her momentum mere feet away from her target, far from any surface she could use to springboard away, did not bode well for Yayama, however. The moment R registered her incoming, like a little horsefly headed straight for him, his arm was on its way up. Now, a second or so after her slash, his hand struck his own face in a gargantuan facepalmâwith Yayama between the two armored surfaces.
The impact stunned the lalafell just long enough for her to fall into Râs waiting grasp. âLittle pest!â His fingers closed around her the next moment, and after raising his fist he hurled her into the sandy ground. R raised one leg to stomp her, but quickly turned his bared fangs on Nadia as the feral slashed into his other leg with Furserker Purrage. With a growl he tried to flatten Amaterasu, then lifted the leg Nadia sliced to stomp her with it. As he brought down one leg after the other, like a child throwing a tantrum in a sandbox, the wolf and cat made themselves scarce within the cloud of kicked-up grit. That left Primrose and Pit at mid-range, so with a grunt R dug in one foot to kick a weighty tide of sand their way.
The already-frenetic fight against the Man in the Moon got faster at the halfway point, but the Seekers kept up. As Blazermateâs Malice mounted, and Designate Target got applied, ranged specialists like Sectonia and Edwardâs cohort dealt even more damage, enough to make up for the dwindling number of minions. While the lunar beingâs spike waves were something only quick reflexes, hard lessons, and an occasional save from Ramattraâs cat could mitigate, the eye-palmed hands and their burst-fire projectiles could be dealt with. Once parted from their arms, those hands still presented a real threat, but now instead of shooting orbs that everyone would need to deal with, they could be kited around by a single volunteer.
Aceâs Humbee really helped in this regard, but Heismay also took to this task readily, staying one step ahead of a hovering hand as the hunterâs archery inspired him to pelt the Man in the Moon with the Gunnerâs Poison Shots. Those toxic injections, combined with all the burns he had already received, meant that the masked menace was taking some serious damage over time. The Seekers were gaining momentum, sustained by Blazermate and Sandalphonâs healing, and not even the loss of Edwardâs ironclad would slow them down.
Despite the fightâs shaky start, the Seekers could feel that this fight was theirs. The Man in the Moon had no more tricks up his sleeve, and The Dark Itself either could not or would not lend any more assistance, so it was only a matter of time until that cracked mask of his came crashing down in pieces. As it happened, however, this fight would not last long enough for the Seekers to make that happen. Mokou, kept safe and able to focus on her kindling thanks especially to the Antlersâ and Ramattraâs efforts, finally accomplished her mission. The cold, dead sun, filled to the limit by her immortal phoenix flames, hit its boiling point. It blazed with such brilliance that the Man in the Moon recoiled, withdrawing his hands in a desperate attempt to shield its eyes as his ghoulish grin fractured. He tried to retreat into the shadows, but none remained any longerâthe hollow moon was alight, the darkness and its baleful gaze banished. A moment later the sun rocketed upward, a skyward shooting star, to shatter the moon (and the Man with it) into giant, smoldering pieces.
The sheer grandiosity of the spectacle left both Heismay and Sandalphon equally stunned, powerless to do anything but watch as the shattered shell crumbled away and rained down across the mountainside, revealing the Frozen Highlandâs wintry expanse and eternal night. Yet the reignited sun continued to soar upward, and a moment after it pierced the clouds, a gaping wound tore open the regionâs celestial blanket. Dazzling sunlight poured through. It fell first on Moon Mountain, then spread across the land as the clouds burned away. Heismay flinched away from the light, shielding his sensitive ruby-red eyes behind his wing, Sandalphon turned her gaze from the sun itself to the Frozen Highlands, awestruck by the sight of the pure-white, diamond-sparkling winterland beneath the light of day. For a few moments she simply stood and saw that, despite the painful path sheâd taken, where sheâd been was beautiful.
Destination Reward: 25 EXP Face Your Failures Achievement: Ramattra, Ace Cadet, Edward, Mokou, Heismay, Sandalphon Achievement Reward: 5 EXPâŠand closure
After a few seconds, and a bit of blinking, Heismay was able to squint as he looked around at his Seekers. Their foes were gone, and everyone seemed to be in one piece, so it appeared that Roxas has the right of it. âI believe youâre correct,â the eugief replied rather flatly. âTwould seem that the dawn has finally broken, as well. I suppose weâve saved the day?â He looked a lot more relieved than he did joyful or triumphant. A win was a win, of course, but Heismay knew that his duty was far from over for today. He naturally turned toward Sandalphon as the archangel conjured another healing miracle to undo everyoneâs battle damage. âSo whatâs next?â
âNow we wait,â Sandalphon stated. âOur trek along the Midnight Walk was long and hard, and restoring the regionâs circadian rhythm is no mean feat, but it was always step one of our plan. This was a bid to get the landâs battle-hungry guardian to acknowledge our strength. Now that the gauntlet has been thrown down, we must hope he comes to accept our challenge.â
Carefully, she lowered herself into a sitting position in the snow, next to Mokouâs unconscious body to keep an eye on her. It was still bitterly cold up here, but the sunâs rays made a world of difference. Until the guardian arrived, or it became clear where the Seekers would need to go to face him, they would need to find a way to pass the time. Small talk wasnât exactly Sandalphonâs strong suit
â...I said it already that this was quite the grueling journey. It might behoove us to go over some of the toughest challenges it presented, combat or otherwise, to glean what we can from the experience. OrâŠif anyone experienced any particular blessings, those might be worth mentioning as well.â She paused for a moment. âThatâŠstation, at the top of the âspace elevatorâ. I had never seen space before that day. The infinite abyss, pricked by countless stars, the suns of other worlds. It was incredible, in a certain, cosmic sense. Although the immense monstrosity we witnessed up there was certainly not.â
