Mokou's posture doesn’t change, not from the sight of the Juggernaut and not from the beast coming up from behind. In fact, she simply tilted her head, glancing to the others before she began to walk forward, a single hand leaving her pockets that quickly became engulfed in flames. She could focus on the message that had been played to them later… As soon as the rest weren’t at risk of getting killed. Swinging her flaming hand, a massive wave of feathers appeared in the air before launching themselves forward in Mokou’s signature torrent of flame.
By now, Heismay knew to expect a firestorm like this from Mokou, so rather than recklessly charge into the fray he circled around to the side, trying his best to shut out the sounds of clashing metal and gunfire from the pitched battle against Belial somewhere behind him. He’d only barely managed to catch his breath from the brawl with the Skullheads, so hopefully those dregs lurking around the sector’s edges kept their distance and didn’t make this any harder than it needed to be. Vile though it was, this Juggernaut seemed no more than a brute, roughly eight feet tall and perhaps half a ton in weight. No matter how strong the enemy, it couldn’t kill him if it couldn’t hit him.
Within seconds, the Juggernaut was hidden behind Mokou’s fiery feather-wall. Too big to make use of the scant openings within the barrage, it had no choice but to plow through, its heavy hammer raised to mitigate what it could. After a moment, the Naytiba whirled around, the sheer volume of displaced air blowing back some of the flame. For a brief moment, Heismay could see through the shimmering heatwave that even more flame poured from some kind of mechanism in the hammer’s head. Then the Juggernaut hurled the hammer, which flew through the air like a massive boomerang. Taken by surprise, Heismay only barely dodged away from the bludgeon in flight, which somehow circled around and back toward the Juggernaut. When the monster seized its weapon, it turned the momentum into a massive overhead smash aimed at as many Seekers as possible.
Geralt had gone around the side opposite Heismay, attempting to force the massive Naytiba to split its attention, and withdrew the Hateful Flesh from within his body, a light spray of blood heralding the weapon's arrival. Following up with Quen to shield himself, he was as taken aback by the Juggernaut's hammer flying around like a boomerang, and its curved trajectory brought it around to him as well. He dropped to the floor, the colossal weapon flying over him harmlessly, but this left him unable to capitalize on the overcommitted slam attack as he rose. The hammer crashed into the ground with a thunderous crash. As Geralt charged in to attack, Juggernaut lifted his hammer, turning to the Witcher. It positioned its hammer behind it, leaving itself wide open. Geralt stepped in, swinging his weapon in anticipation of the incoming attack, which the Naytiba launched like a missile. Cleaver met haft as Geralt's last-second movement threw off Juggernaut's aim, the clang of metal on metal filling the hall around them as Geralt was launched backwards, rolling to his feet in a move practiced after being tossed head over heels by many massive foes in his decades of hunting. “Faster than he looks on the swing.” Geralt grunted out.
While the Juggernaut was distracted, Heismay swooped in to jump onto its back. He made two immediate discoveries: that he couldn’t keep hold of the fast-moving brute unless he grabbed one of its golden masks with one hand, and that the giant Skullings’ tentacles reacted to his presence. He hacked at them as best he could, his efforts ineffective until he let go with his other hand, sliced off one tentacle near the root with a two-handed slash as he fell away. He dropped down at the feet of the Juggernaut, which was too close for the Naytiba to swing at him, so it went for a stomp instead. Heismay scooted backward as fast as he could, but the monster’s boot still caught the tip of his wing. “Agh!” With its target pinned down, the Juggernaut raised its hammer like a golfer, the built-in thruster igniting.
As soon as the Juggernaut’s hammer reached its peak, a loud explosion of flame erupted from the side as Mokou slammed foot first into the weapon. While she herself was small, the sheer force of her attack knocked the hammer to the side… Especially with the added explosion that burst forth from the phoenix’s foot. That sideswipe diverted the hammer smash, resulting in a severe whiff and overswing that left the Juggernaut wide open. Using that momentum, Mokou flipped back in the air, snapping her fingers to send a direct stream of fire towards the Naytiba’s head. Geralt followed suit, closing the last of the distance between them and landing a couple of swipes with his cleaver.
Similar to Heismay, Roxas had also elected not to immediately charge at the Juggernaut so as not to get tagged by any of Mokou’s feathers. So after a quick split second of thought he decided his opening moves and started making them. Rather than attacking Juggernaut for now, the Nobody instead used flow motion to maneuver himself around his fellow Seekers and casting Tailwind on them all, providing a small but still noticeable speed buff that would carry them through the rest of the battle.
”Wind!” came Roxas’ next spell as he then began to apply Aerogas to himself and the other Seekers to give them 18 seconds of all damage against them being reduced by half thanks to the shields of whirling wind that surrounded their individual bodies. Only then did Roxas disappear from sight only to reappear behind the Juggernaut to slash at its back with his StepSword, immediately trying to follow that with a flurry of Keyblade strikes across the Naytiba’s back.
Blazermate also stayed back, but this was more because this is what she mostly did in fights than anything. As Mokou opened up, Blazermate summoned her engineer striker to begin his sentry construction to offer some support damage and coverage. She’d then attach her healing beam to people and throw the occasional divine star at the Juggernaut, letting its residual healing wash over people as it came back in a wave. She’d keep her other abilities in reserve for now as her allies pummeled this thing. Once Heismay got into a bit of trouble, while Mokou tried to stop the creature’s hammer hitting Heismay, Blazermate used her Leap of Faith to not only pull Heismay back to her, but also stand him upright.
When Mokou destabilized her target, it had been forced to shift its footing to keep its balance, which allowed Heismay to slip free. He would have easily been able to zip to safety on his own thanks to the Tailwind buff from Roxas, but Blazermate’s Leap of Faith made it a non-issue. He slid to a stop on his feet, which was a weird experience, but the battle-hardened shadowguard composed himself quickly. “My thanks.”
At the same time, the Juggernaut was on the move. Mokou’s flame torrent left the cephalopod flesh of the fused Skullings on its head sizzling, like hibachi octopus fresh off the grill, but the phoenix had a lot more meat and masks to burn through before she’d bring this thing down. The Juggernaut responded to Roxas first: not at all staggered by his melee attacks, it released its hammer with one hand in order to whip around with a punishing backfist, hard enough to dislocate bone. Then it whirled its hammer around its head with one hand in a middle grip, grabbed it with the other midway through, and launched a stronger, longer-range spin strike to rebuff all foes in melee range.
”Refl-ACK!” Roxas had tried to chant his spell but was too slow on the draw and got swatted away by the hammer for his trouble. Luckily for him he had an Aeroga spell up already or that would have been a lot worse.
From afar, Heismay assumed his Assassin archetype and took aim. It seemed like not even Geralt could comfortably go toe-to-toe with this thing in close quarters, so the five of them would probably have to wear it down while passing its enmity around like a ball. He unleashed a Mudo that flew toward the Juggernaut and splashed against its side in a burst of dark magic, though even that direct impact didn’t seem to faze it much. As Heismay moved in, the Naytiba wound up and hurled its hammer again, which kicked up sparks where it grazed the floor as it circled around the arena, threatening the fliers.
Blazermate, seeing its new attack, decided to give people time to prepare for it and maybe help cause more damage herself. As it started to hurl its hammer, Blazermate hit it with Disruption, banishing it as the sparks started to come from its hammer and interrupting its attack for a short time. Once it reappeared, it appeared with 2 additional illusions of itself that started to pummel it with their own hammers.
Mokou herself simply glanced at the incoming hammer, nary a change in her expression as she flipped over the spinning weapon, waving a hand to form a few larger feathers that shot forth towards the Juggernaut.
Geralt leapt backwards as the Juggernaut began its circling sweep attack, then had to repeat the action when it followed with a second sweep, this one just a bit wider in range. He could swap Identities to keep up the damage, but that risked leaving Roxas and Heismay as the only close-range fighters. Mokou and Blazermate were more than enough to chip away at this thing while the three of them balanced its attention and jumped in for hit-and-run attacks.
Though taken aback by the circumstances it returned to after its momentary banishment, the Juggernaut reacted quickly. After taking a few hits from Heismay, Geralt, and its doppelgangers, backstepped its illusions’ hammer swings, then grabbed their heads and slammed them together. The magical copies fell apart, crumbling, but any semblance of time the Juggernaut might have bought itself melted away as Mokou’s pinions pelted its body.
Even those big feathers had less effect than the phoenix might have hoped, though, and the team soon realized the reason why. Once the Juggernaut raised its hand, the Wolf Sledge flew into it, and when the Naytiba roared, flames engulfed the giant hammer.
As the blazing firelight illuminated the dark sector, Heismay felt the heat on his furry face. “Hmph!” he snorted. “Don’t tell me fire is its element?” At least it wasn’t lightning, so Heismay himself wouldn’t take extra damage. Then again, he probably couldn’t afford to take a hit from it, period. “No matter. We fight on!”
The Juggernaut reignited the battle by slamming the Wolf Sledge against the ground repeatedly. Each mighty impact sent forth a fiery wave of explosions along the floor. The first went for Geralt, and the second for Heismay, who leaped away, using the surge of hot air to take wing and glide. Mokou and Blazermate had the good fortune of countering the ground blasts by default, but another blast wave did level the medabot’s turret.
Heismay glided over the chaos using his arm-wings, his sword sheathed. He felt rather useless in this fight so far, spending most of the time dodging while being unable to do significant damage. At least now he could attack from a direction the Juggernaut didn’t expect. He banked around toward the monster, then reached back to unsheath his longsaber as he dropped. In mid-air, he became the Assassin to add extra bite to his Lurking Nightblade. “Wither!” The shadowy slash fall across the back of the Juggernaut’s dominant arm, its middling damage perhaps less important than the thirty-second accuracy debuff it inflicted. If the Naytiba couldn’t hit them, the Seekers could whale on it with impunity.
[color=gold]”Ugh… someone get the license plate number on that hammer?”[/gold] Roxas muttered miserably to himself as he recovered from having the wind thoroughly knocked out of him. He had previously tried to cast his Reflectga spell but was clearly not quick enough. He shook it off. It felt like some of the damage had been healed away at least. Roxas probably had Blazermate and her heal beam to thank for that. But now the question was what to actually do. Attacking directly was obviously not the best choice. For now he supposed he would stick to running support until a better opportunity came along.
”Turbo!” Roxas called, releasing the Revavroom from her Poke Ball. She revved up eagerly as Roxas hopped onto her back and pointed at the Juggernaut,
”Help me support our friends. Get us closer and use Screech!” The Revavroom gassed her engines in acknowledgement before she took off with her Trainer riding on her back. Turbo got a bit closer to Juggernaut but was careful not to get too close per Roxas’ instructions. Then she really revved her engines until it produced an ear-splitting racket that could harshly lower the Defense of the Naytiba and hopefully make it more vulnerable to a heavier hitting Seeker. Roxas also decided to keep an eye on his allies and renew them with a fresh Aeroga spell if needed.
Geralt followed Roxas’s lead, releasing Tirn from his own ball. “Tirn! Metal Sound! Make it vulnerable.” The Shieldon let out a tiny roar before planting its feet and letting out a much harsher whining drone, aimed directly at the Juggernaut. While he did, Geralt called out to the others, “Get its attention, keep it off me!” As he raised the Hateful Flesh and began channeling Holy Lance. “Light of the Heavens, Pierce my foes!”
While the others called for reinforcements, Heismay kept the Juggernaut’s attention, dodging this way and that. His target’s accuracy debuff made evasion a little easier, but still the eugief’s heart pounded like crazy. Any hammer smash could be his last, after all, and he was low on MP. He continued to land what slices and slashes he could on the Juggernaut’s legs to make sure it tuned out the noise from the Pokemon, but he was looking for a way out until Geralt called out for assistance. When he heard that, his plan changed. “Understood!” He became the Assassin, saying, “O, power of kings!” As his enemy’s hammer descended, darted backward, then forward to use the burning weapon as a springboard. Bounding up, he grabbed hold of a golden mask and cast Plunder Magic to steal the Juggernaut’s essence and convert it to MP. It didn’t do any damage, but it did make the Juggernaut mad, mad enough to seize Heismay with his offhand and hurl him straight into the ground.
As soon as Heismay was thrown, a massive ball of fire flew straight into the Juggernaut’s head. While the fire itself did not do much, the sheer force was able to stagger them slightly… Which was just enough time for Mokou to launch herself in, slamming her open palm into the Naytiba’s head. A brief moment paces, but shortly after, a massive explosion emanates from Mokou’s hand, launching both her and the Juggernaut away… With the phoenix now missing an arm from the sheer force of her attack, albeit not seeming to give it much mind as she launched another stream of feathers to keep the beast on the backfoot.
For his part, it didn’t take Roxas long to see what Geralt was doing and to recognize the spell he was channeling.
”Keep circling and using Screech, Turbo!” Roxas instructed his Revavroom before dismounting the Pokemon by launching himself off of her body and toward where Geralt was standing. He still had a small portion of MP left that he had previously been saving in case someone needed an emergency heal. Now it was about to be used for another purpose.
Blazermate, having been doing her healing duties as people had been getting smacked around by that giant hammer as her defensive abilities were on cooldown saw Roxas and Geralt seemingly doing some sort of team move. Well, she did have a Kritz, and this group didn’t have a single super heavy hitting move, so maybe kritzing these guys would do some good damage. Although being a team move, Blazermate would need to swap between who was attacking at the time with her Kritz, so she wouldn’t have much kritz to use after the move was over. Considering all the light and such used from this move, the blue electric highlights really made things look anime though.
”Light!” When the sensation of Roxas’s power suffused his spell, Geralt smirked, remembering the last time they combined power like this: against Moebius D. While it wasn’t enough to slay their foe then, and likely wouldn’t be now, it would certainly hurt. Roxas once again teleported above their enemy hovering just over the lance that hovered above the Juggernaut like a Sword of Damocles, and as it descended he added his own beam from his Keyblade into the attack, further increasing its devastation.
Propelled in a streak of light from the keyblade, the radiant spear pierced through the burned and bewildered Juggernaut through the head, tunneled through its bloated body, and blasted back out into the floor. Taken to even greater heights by Blazermate’s Kritzkrieg, the Limit Break then blazed through the Juggernaut from the inside out. Rays of light rapidly blasted out of its stricken husk, perforating it like a pincushion, before the lance’s final detonation virtually vaporized it. Scorched chunks flew in all directions as the Juggernaut ceased to be.
Still on the floor a short distance away, Heismay had been forced to shield his eyes with his wing as the light flared wildly. Even with his gaze averted, the violent and climactic end to the fight left him speechless as he stared at the smoking crater where the Juggernaut had been. “Good lord…” he chuckled breathlessly, his shocked expression plainly visible to his new allies. Even Mokou, who’d blown up her own arm to set the Naytiba up for the finale, got her share of astonishment. “...Who are you people?”
Geralt looked at the smoldering remains of where Juggernaut had been, his own face betraying his surprise. “I wonder that myself, sometimes. This was just…a lucky assortment of us empowering one another.”
”We totally need to drop something like that on a consul or something.” Blazermate said, moving her healing beam over to heal others as the fight was over and her ubercharge spent from the attack.
Mokou’s response to the Juggernaut’s death was a simple, weary sigh, the white haired girl glancing down at her now missing limb,
”Well, I’m simply an immortal who has taken an interest in this whole duty you’ve all started. A bit more fun so far than fighting random beasts, I’ll admit” she states as Blazermate’s medibeam moves over to her, the healing properties of the beam along with Mokou’s own nature causing a new arm to, quite literally, burn into existence, her shirt seemingly reforming around it as per usual.
”Hehe, yeah. About that…” Roxas said, having landed back on the ground safely and recalling Turbo back to her Poke Ball.
”We kinda did use that on a consul. D, back in the Dead Zone. It wasn’t enough to take him down, though. But I guess to be fair we weren’t being buffed by Blazermate’s kritz at the time.”Geralt nodded, face curling a bit in frustration at the mention of D. “Whoreson’ll get what’s coming to him, though. And if we line it up, right, we might just be able to do something like that again to put him down for good.” He called Tirn back over, giving the Shieldon a pat on the head before returning him to his ball as well.
Taking a deep breath, Heismay slowly picked himself up. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he could really begin to feel just how sore and tired he was. “Oof…after today, I ought to be put down for good myself.” He looked back toward Sector 3, where the sounds of battle could still be heard. “Let us check on the others. Then get out of here.”
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