Anza

Mahou Shoujo no Hex Night: A Magical Girl Battle RP

Hikari was blown back and crash-landed, but quickly recovered, rising to her feet with her weapon at the ready—

"Game over."

—and then something blew past her with an almighty CRACK, a blinding flash of electricity briefly crossing her vision. Behind her, a section of wall was almost blasted apart as white-hot lightning scorched its surface.

Meanwhile, several meters in front of her, Honami Tokiko lowered her Tesla Cannon, shaking her head.

"If I'd been aiming for you, that could have been bad, don't you think?" The concrete was still smouldering where the blast had struck, fragments of debris scattered about the point of impact. Even if it hadn't been intended to actually hit Hikari, that power was real.

"Your barrier was strong enough, and you even recovered well after it broke." The mad scientist's eyes narrowed. "But that's not enough. All you did when Eve kept coming at you was hunker down, and that gave me plenty of time to prepare a follow-up attack for the moment your barrier broke. Knowing the limits of your own defenses isn't just about 'knowing how many hits you can block,' but also 'knowing that you can't win just by playing defense.' If you let yourself be predictable, you'll get driven into a trap. And then..." She gestured at where her Tesla Cannon had struck the wall, illustrating her point.

"So let's try offense! Time to test out that hammer!" Tokiko grinned, her voice suddenly turning cheerful. She pointed at her own archetype. "Eve-chan here is really tough, so you can hit her as hard as you want."

"EHHHH?!" The monstergirl's eyes went wide, her expression suddenly fearful. "Wah!"

"What? No! Don't be such a wimp!"

"Waaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Okay, fine." Tokiko looked back towards Hikari. "Uh, maybe hold back a little bit when you hit her..."

@VitaVitaAR

Suddenly, My Favorite MMORPG has Become Real?! — A Log Horizon-inspired RP

Deneb was again showing her skill as a damage-dealer, dropping beasts left and right and quickly closing in on the boss. There was just one problem.

What about me?

With the ninja going on the offensive, there was no one left to protect Viri. And in spite of all their efforts so far, there were still wolves closing in on the healer, albeit more cautiously than before.

Ahh... This isn't good... As a back-line support she could fight effectively, but her character wasn't built for surviving on her own! Already Viri's strategic mindset was beginning to crack, the first signs of fear visible in her widening eyes. She could surround herself in barriers, but what then? They could only take so many impacts, and eventually the beasts would just break through. And so far as she could remember, she had no offensive options besides her basic attack...

...but the wolves don't know that, do they?

Canines were fairly smart, and often capable of learning, as demonstrated by how the wolves were now advancing more slowly to avoid injuring themselves on her barriers. But she doubted they'd be intelligent enough to read stats and attributes, even if they had the ability. And in a game world, a target that looks weak isn't necessarily so.

She quavered. She trembled. And then she gripped her staff and charged straight at the nearest wolf.

"YAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The beast paused, hesitating, then actually took a step back as Viri made a wild swing at its snout. Another beast tried to close in from her flank, only to be stopped short as a green barrier flashed into existence in front of it.

Play aggressive. Make them think you're more dangerous than you really are. With a weapon meant for casting magic she had little chance of actually beating anything to death, but she could still use it to keep them cautious and out of formation, while blocking off their movements if they tried to flank or surround her. She turned, finding a third target and dashing towards it with a battle cry that she hoped was more intimidating than adorable.

A minute, maybe two. She could hold them off for that long, before her stamina and mana started to run out.

Hopefully the ninja wouldn't take too long...

@PKMNB0Y

Fate/esoterica

Kazamyr Silvestrov

"Nothing beyond what I'd told you about." Kazamyr still had a few familiars perched about the city, even now, but he was leaving the majority inactive until nightfall. Keeping track of them all at once was taxing both on his mind and his Magic Circuits. "It would seem that the remainder of our enemies are either patient or cowardly, and alas, I wouldn't bank on the latter."

The bus came to a slow and creaking halt, and Kazamyr stepped off, striding down the sidewalk towards the destination now in sight. "As for Caster... she looked like a witch. Almost too much like a witch, even." Could ancient spellcasters truly have worn hats that ostentatious? Then again, it wouldn't be unexpected for the collective perceptions of society to influence the nature of a Heroic Spirit in such a manner. "Call it a hunch, but I'd bet money she has something to do with Salem and its sordid history." He paused, frowning slightly. "Wait, would you know what that is?" Servants were supplied with a certain level of information to help them make sense of whatever era they were summoned in, but Kazamyr wasn't sure how much that would apply to historical events. "There was a witch hunt in this country around three hundred years ago. Supposedly many innocents were tried and executed, but it's rumored that some real mages were involved..."

The Redrock Public Library was a modest two-story brick building, with a wide entrance that loomed over the street before it. As Kazamyr swept through the doors, the noise of the outside world faded behind him, replaced by a dull and heavy quiet, the faint rustling of paper and occasional clicking of old computer keys.

Following the plastic-coated signs taped to the top of the bookshelves, the Russian magus made his way to the history section, briefly pulling out his phone to check some of the notes he'd made earlier. "Salem will be worth looking up. Then Norse myths, and old Japanese war stories. Maybe some histories of the town itself."

Then he stopped in his tracks, and smiled. "Ah, but I'm being selfish! There are probably things you're curious about as well, yes?" He ran his fingers along a row of books, searching idly through their titles for a few moments before pulling one off the shelf and flipping open its first page:

Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected...

Kazamyr's eyes briefly glanced up at thin air, with a hint of mischief. "Interested? I think you might like this one."

@King Cosmos

Nomadic Fist: Radiant Soul (A Fighting Game RPG!)

Zun - Zamindawar International Airport

Horizon Frontiers... Anna had heard that name before, and the reveal that Ivory was working for them was enough to make her raise an eyebrow. When someone brought up the words 'fighting tournament,' one didn't tend to associate them with science and technology, but with the sheer variety of what Nomads could put on display it made sense that people would want to study them.

Her eyes briefly met those of the researcher. Is she 'studying' me, then? Should I strike a pose? Something like that would be a bit over-the-top for her, though, so instead she simply smiled.

"Well, maybe it's a good thing it was cancelled. I mean, think about it: for them to call it off so suddenly there's gotta be something pretty huge going on behind the scenes." She gestured around at the various Nomads, some of whom were already causing minor commotions. "And I doubt everyone who showed up is just going to quietly slink on home."

Her expression wasn't kindly, nor full of false optimism. Rather, it was a smile of anticipation, of tightly controlled excitement. "Sure, we don't get to witness the yearly blowout, but whatever comes next could get interesting. Having all these Nomads gathered in one country is like stacking a few thousand sticks of dynamite in a great big pile. And the WMAF just dropped a lit match right on top of that." She made a fist with one metal hand, then splayed her fingers, accompanying the motion with a whispered 'boom!'

"Kinda makes a girl want to stick around and watch the fireworks, right?"

@wxps350

Suddenly, My Favorite MMORPG has Become Real?! — A Log Horizon-inspired RP

"Unless something goes miserably wrong, we're not going to be fighting them head-on. Am I clear?"

"I... I think so?!" Viri honestly wasn't sure she'd caught all that, but then there wasn't going to be time to review, was there? Why did all this have to start happening so fast? I'm not good with quick decisions like this! When she'd arrived in this alternate world, she'd been able to suppress her panic and focus on moving forward based on logic and consideration. Now, though, there was no time to think. Her heart was racing a mile a minute, her teeth chattering from fear and impact both, and all her tramped-down panic was coming rushing back. This is all a dream, right? This has to be a bad dream! As Deneb pulled her roughly up one final hill, she squeezed her eyes shut, her fingers clutching the ninja's arm with desperate strength. WakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupWAKEUP—

And then they hit the ground, and she didn't wake up.

Five seconds.

With Deneb now taking on a combat stance, Viri scrambled behind her, cowering in the ninja's shadow. Her eyes were wide and rimmed with tears, her fluffy ears folding back against the side of her head as the first of the beasts crested the mound before them.

Four.

She wasn't waking up. There was no easy way out, no way to blink and reappear safe in bed as the morning sun leaked through the windows. There was only her, and a magical stick, and the lithe figure of a young woman standing fearlessly in front of her, knife bared against the coming onslaught.

A young woman counting on Viri to back her up.

Three.

Fear crumbled and drained from her mind like sand falling through splayed fingers, replaced by icy calm. Multiple attackers, mounting a frontal assault from above. Commanded by 'field boss,' likely more dangerous than the others. Traps laid in front, goal is to maximize our advantage to prepare for a fighting retreat. She'd cast a spell just before, so she knew how this went. Knew what her character could do, how Viridian Daeva was meant to operate in situations like this.

Two.

Her staff began to glow, and she raised it high. Self buff: Multi-cast. Her eyes, now sharp as daggers, stared out across her battlefield and marked out her target locations.

One.

She brought her staff down, slamming its lower end into the grassy earth hard enough to punch straight through the topsoil.

Zero!

Barriers burst into existence in front of the wolves, panes of what looked like green-tinted glass suddenly blocking their path. Positioned so that they interlocked, forming two walls that extended diagonally forwards, with a small gap between them leading to Deneb. Not a barricade, but a funnel.

The first wolves, already slipping over the ninja's traps, tumbled down the hill and struck the barriers, sliding against them as they were funneled into a single chokepoint. There, furry bodies crashed together, tangling in each other's legs and writhing in pain and confusion, some even scratching and biting at each other as they struggled to break free. The next wave coming over the hill were unable to slow down in time to do keep themselves from running into that same funnel, unable to keep themselves from slipping up on Deneb's oil and then sliding down into that same trap, more bodies added to the chaos.

The next wave, though, had already smelled the blood and fear in the air, and were already slowing when they crested the hilltop. They hesitated, seeing the funnel up ahead and the fate of those who had charged so blindly into its jaws. Animals or not, they weren't stupid. Already they were spreading out, moving to try and surround their targets rather than run straight at them.

Their prey, however, was already deploying countermeasures.

Ripping her staff out of the ground, Viri dismissed the walls of barriers forming the funnel— they'd have disappeared on their own after a few seconds, but making them vanish early refunded a little bit of mana, and she needed every drop she could get right now. Stepping backwards and keeping well behind Deneb, the cleric began spamming her barrier spell, green panes appearing sporadically in front of the moving wolves.

Not vertical panes, this time, but horizontal ones.

Orientation had always been an option, though in Emerald Odyssey she'd only every used horizontal barriers to protect a group from aerial attacks raining down from above. In this case, there was no need for air cover, so she placed them in front of the flanking beasts, edge-on. Running into a wall would have been painful enough, but running into was was effectively a stationary floating guillotine was a lot worse. Even if the barriers didn't have sharp enough edges to actually to much damage to the wolves, there were still howls and the unexpected impacts yielded bloody snouts, the mobs crashing straight into thin obstacles that were almost invisible at their eye-level.

There were only so many she could cast, and they weren't doing much other than slowing some of the wolves down. That was the point, though. As beasts saw their pack-members intercepted in painful fashion, they slowed their own movements, wary of running into one of the cleric's shields. What had been a relentless assault that threatened to surround them was now looking more like a creeping threat, still imminent but no longer immediate.

When a white-furred monstrosity finally came into view, Viri tossed a spirit its way, and then paused, catching her breath. Conjure Spirit... Speed DOWN. That ought to make it a little easier to kite. Her mana was already down to less than half, though, and for all her aggressive tactics, she didn't seem to have crippled or killed any of the enemies.

But then, healers like her had never been meant to inflict much damage. They had others to do that job for them.

Show me your claws, Deneb.

@PKMNB0Y

Nomadic Fist: Radiant Soul (A Fighting Game RPG!)

Zun - Zamindawar International Airport

Given her present company, Anna would have expected the first response to her provocations to come from some jacked-up dude with anger issues and more Ki than he knew what to do with. Instead, though, her answer came from a demure-looking girl in black and red. She seemed more like the kind of person one would encounter in a fancy teahouse than a far-flung airport filled with eager warriors. But Nomads came in all shapes and sizes, didn't they?

"That's society for you," Anna answered with a sigh, "always about money, in the end. People think Nomads are something special, something honorable, but when you get up close, they're the same as anyone else... just a lot more destructive." She watched the crowd as she mused, picking out a few faces she recognized. Some of the people here were famous, at least enough to get their pictures taken for online articles and rankings. The real bigwigs would probably be traveling privately, but there were still some nice photo opportunities hanging around, selfies just waiting to be taken...

Instead, though, she suddenly turned, meeting the eyes of the other girl. "But then, you can't always judge by appearances. After all, you don't look like much of a fighter." She raised an eyebrow. "But you must be, because otherwise you wouldn't be standing so close to the girl who just mouthed off at a crowd of Nomads." Her head tilted to one side, her posture relaxed. Not suspicious, it seemed, but curious. "So tell me— are you one of the rich ones, or the strong ones?"

@wxps350

Fate/esoterica

Kazamyr Silvestrov

In answer to Rider, Kazamyr simply shrugged. "Of course. I'd never have chosen this plan if I didn't think I could pull it off." A sharp, one-note laugh escaped onto the morning breeze. "Come now, Rider, does a strategist of your caliber really need to ask something so obvious? Or could it be that your goal was to judge me based on how I answered? Shame on you!"

Even if his words were somewhat harsh, the Master's tone hinted that he was anything but upset. Indeed, his good cheer only seemed to be heightening as he entered the café and ordered eggs and hash browns, which were served on a white plate a few moments later. Greasy and messy, as American foods tended to be, but filling nonetheless. He ate them slowly, deliberately, carefully checking on the few familiars he'd kept active after sunrise to see if they'd found anything interesting. No such luck. The other pairings were still playing cautious, and conflicts between mages usually took place after dark in general. For the daytime, at least, he and Rider were probably safe.

Once he was done with his breakfast, Kazamyr quickly tidied himself up and left the building, hopping on a bus and riding the few short stops towards Redrock's public library. His posture and his movements were somehow both relaxed and controlled at once, mimicking the mannerisms of the locals and masking his accent whenever he needed to speak out loud. If the other Masters were being careful, then so could he, by blending in with practiced ease.

"Nothing yet. I suppose it's nice to have time to prepare." He idly scratched his shoulder. "How long, do you think, until one of the other pairings starts to make aggressive moves? Or maybe they already have, and I've just missed it somehow..."

@King Cosmos

Mahou Shoujo no Hex Night: A Magical Girl Battle RP

"Ooooh..."

The Archetype blinked once as the shield came up, then stopped, staring at the bright symbols with eyes full of innocent wonder. Her fist was still pressed up against the barrier, but it couldn't move even an inch closer to Hikari, who stood completely unharmed even in the wake of that sudden attack.

The echoes of a ringing bell were joined by the loud clapping of Tokiko's hands. "Ohohohoho! That wasn't bad, Hikari-san!" She raised her index finger, pointing upwards. "With this, you pass Lesson One: how to block a hit!"

Obviously, she'd expected Hikari to be capable of pulling off such a basic spell. But there was more than that. The newbie magical girl hadn't shown any hesitation or surprise, and had deployed her newly discovered defense almost intuitively. Which means it's time to turn things up a notch. Tokiko's grin widened, and another finger flicked up to join the first. "Now it's time for Lesson Two: knowing the limits of your own defenses! Get her, my loyal Eve-chan!"

"Grrr!" The monstergirl grit her teeth, then threw another punch, slamming her other fist straight into the barrier. "Ora!"

The second strike didn't break through either, but it was swiftly followed by a third, and then a fourth, coming faster and faster now, a chorus of ringing bells accompanying Eve's enthusiastic shouts. "Ora ora oraaaaa!" That shield might have been able to protect Hikari so far, but how long would it hold up against such punishment?

@VitaVitaAR

Nomadic Fist: Radiant Soul (A Fighting Game RPG!)

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

When the announcement was made, some of the Nomads present growled. Some pouted. Some walked away. And one, a pale girl in a blue jacket standing near the back of the gathered crowd, started laughing out loud. "Scram, she says!"

As if Nomads were ever the type to just pack up and go home.

Of course the cancellation was shocking. Disappointing, at first. However, as she turned the situation over in her mind, Anna Hathorn couldn't help but smile. She hadn't had much chance of competing, being knew to the scene, and had come partly to watch and partly to meet some of the other Nomads who would inevitably gather for the momentous event... But even if the tournament wasn't on, the Nomads were still here, right? And there was no way the WMAF would call off the event for no reason. The Federation probably stood to lose obscene amounts of money over this, not to mention the damage their reputation would take from this whole fiasco.

Tournament or no, something interesting was going on. And while Anna didn't have much of an idea what could have caused such a sudden such a sudden paradigm shift, she sure as hell knew she wanted to stick around and see what happened.

"I mean," she wondered aloud, "cancelling it, just like that? So much for a true test of skill and fighting spirit." She paused, yawning. "I guess this whole 'World Warriors' thing isn't such a big deal after all..."

Supposedly, Anna was just talking to herself. But the words were audible to those around her, and that volume was calculated. A verbal poke, meant to further rile up those angered by the sudden announcement.

Her sharp green eyes swept over the gathered warriors, curious to see if anyone would take the bait.

Mahou Shoujo no Hex Night: A Magical Girl Battle RP

Just as Tokiko had expected, Hikari wasn't backing down. After a quick message to their respective parental units, they turned aside from their homeward course and strode quietly into the night.

Some parts of the city got noisy and bright once the sun set, but this wasn't one of them. Here a deep silence descended with the dark, and window lights shone few and far between, dim rectangular stars in a gaping black sky. It was the kind of atmosphere that brought to mind things lurking just out of sight— criminals, or feral animals, or perhaps something worse. Even in the heart of civilization, there were wild places, forests and jungles where only the bold dared tread after sunset.

Tokiko moved forward without any hesitation, as only a magical girl could. What had she to fear for them things that might be creeping in the night? She was a star, a light of judgement. She didn't fear the dark, the dark feared her.

And besides, she knew this route well. Soon enough a blocky shadow loomed before the two girls, a grey and ugly building tucked away where few would look for it. At first its walls appeared featureless, but as they drew closer a small side-door could be seen amidst the gloom, and Tokiko strode towards it, pushing it open without a second thought.

At first, the inside was even darker than the outside had been. Then Tokiko flicked a switch, and dim lights flickered on high above, revealing a huge open space, its paved floor entirely barren. During the height of the summer months this place would be packed with busy workers and massive crates, but right now it stood quiet and empty, just waiting to be put to use.

"Ta-daaaa!" Tokiko exclaimed, spreading her arms out wide. "Tokiko-sensei's secret training grounds! Pretty cool, right?" She ambled forwards a ways, her footsteps echoing through the massive space. "There was a nasty shade hiding out in here a few months back, so I busted my way in to take it out. And then once I was done, I thought, 'wouldn't a place like this be useful?' Nobody else was bothering with it, and I'd already trespassed, so..." She shrugged. "I just left the door unlocked. Sometimes life really is easy!"

With a quick burst of crackling green, she transformed, the lights flickering for a moment as she did so. The huge metal coffin materialized beside her, and she rapped on its front with one knuckle, eliciting a low groan from inside. A moment later, the monstergirl from earlier pried her way out, yawning into one huge hand and blinking blearily at the lights. "Waaaah?"

"You ready?" Tokiko faced Hikari with a grin, waiting a moment for her to transform. "Okay! You remember what I said about how barriers work, right?"

While the magical girl talked, the living Archetype stepped forwards, rubbing her eyes...

"I took the time to explain everything clearly to you. Which, I have to say, was very kind of me." Tokiko's face suddenly turned serious. "So you'd better have been paying attention."

... and then a massive fist filled up Hikari's field of vision, as the monstergirl swung at her head-on!

@VitaVitaAR