BrokenPromise

Grimoiric Heart

Mmmmm, was more waiting to find out if attacks were happening all over the school or just the cafeteria. But if she's just yeeting pageless in the communal eating chamber I can work with that. I'll have a thing up later, probs.

Grimoiric Heart

Suppose I'll wait for @Lonewolf685 to make a Roma post before having Mika do anything. Unless there's a preference for having her act first?

Symphony of Espers

The Tom and Jerry skit continued to play out between Betty and Finn.

Releasing Betty and allowing his time magic to slow his fall did prevent him from being cleaved in half. He even had time to force a smile and boldly throw a taunt at his reasonably angry pursuer. But while Finn had been concerned with Betty’s initial attack and falling to his death, he hadn’t put much forethought into what Betty’s next move would be. With a roar of hatred, she descended.

Slow was a versatile note, but didn’t give Finn nearly the same level of air control that Betty had. She could fly, accelerate and decelerate with just a thought. It would not take long for Finn to fall to the ground, but Betty could still catch up. He was powerless to do more than block the incoming swing with his rapier, and was flung into the wall of the police station as a result. The slow melody did help him resist the damage, but Betty’s assault wasn’t over.

She approached Finn with her ax slung over her shoulder. With a howl, her body was covered in black debris. Finn had been falling too fast before, but now the giant flies buzzed overhead and would be touching down any second.

”Nowhere to run, coward!“

A wall to his back, flies at his sides, Betty’s at his front, and noise all around. Betty howled as she brandished her weapon for a decisive blow.

Binky’s melody contained a pierce note that allowed for multiple cuts, but after each cut the saw degraded before finally wedging itself in one of the bloody tentacles. Ashley had just enough time to put up a barrier before more attacks came in. A shield melody would protect her, but not for long. The protection a shield note provided was dependent not only on the power of the attacks, but also the number of them. A single shot from Pac’s gun was all it took to rupture her spell. She could dispatch some of the flies with her wand, block a few more with her shield, but it wouldn’t stop everything. A fly landed on her back and dumped acid onto her shoulders. It felt like she had caught fire, but at least the frog guts were being burned away.

Ashley’s call to action did get Pac to turn her attention to the other espers. But between the flies, tentacles, and blood, it was impossible for Pac to see Marrie, let alone shoot her. Marrie had no difficulty passing a flight melody onto Leroux before flying up to Pac. But Marrie’s flight path brought her into Pac’s line of sight. She managed to fire a single round, which burned a hole in Marrie’s torso. But this didn’t stop her from trying to wrap up Pac in a chain. Her efforts were likely helped by the fact that Pac-A-Fist was pretty banged up at this point. She had just fallen a pretty far distance, and while everything was working her mobility wasn’t quite what it was. As soon as Marrie got the chain looped under her shoulders, she was off again.

”Are the lot of you mad?”

There were no places with an overhang aside from the apartment complex that Marrie had just flown away from.

Pac wasn’t going to wait that long.

With a growl, she twisted her body and fell out of the chains, only to summon a giant pixel starship just as she was falling. Marrie would need to take evasive maneuvers if she wanted to avoid the ships gunfire or being attacked by the still-growing amalgamation of bloody tentacles.

With Justin’s cronies out of the way, would the other espers be able to defeat him?

Samuel voiced his opinion about the statue. It caused the vampire’s fingers to curl into fists. ”You’ve spoken enough.“

The wall of blood opened up a hole just big enough for Justin to see Samuel run away. He may have had his back to Justin, but it didn’t matter. Once he opened his eyes, Samuel’s legs locked up. He wasn’t running anywhere, not straight or at an angle. Behind him, the wall of spikes started to crease in the center and fold like a hinge. It was no longer a wall of spikes, but an iron maiden made of blood.

The mana sapping melody went off under Justin’s feet just as planned. Monsters were an oddity when it came to depleting their mana reserves. Their internal mana sustained them while their magic was often pulled out of the surrounding environment. Hitting them with a mana burning melody was more likely to make them hungry or tired. Mavericks often employed such spells to weaken a monster without killing it, but it wasn’t uncommon for GEMINI espers to burn up a monster's mana to weaken them. But it wouldn’t stop Justin.

Enter Jacqueline’s melody.

While the blood magic went to work on her knee, a stream of metal tore through the air and struck Justin’s back. Each sliver of steel ripped away a small bit of Justin’s outfit, then his flesh, and even his bones. The vampire gurgled as his own blood mixed with the rain.

Justin broke eye contact with Samuel, and he was able to resume running just as the blood maiden attempted to close in on his body. The only thing it managed to do was clamp down on his scarf, pinning him nearby. The wall was not done though. While it had narrowly missed its target, it was still folding, drawing Samuel inward as it turned inside out in a second attempt to smash Samuel between its spiked walls.

Once the last bit of shrapnel fell it became possible to assess what happened to Jsutin. Part of his torso had been blown off along with his left arm. Even his neck and lower jaw were missing. Though not everything had been blown away. All of his blood vessels and organs had been left intact. His heart was still beating, and his lungs expanded and collapsed like they should. Only there was no flesh around them.

Justin whipped around and looked at Jacqueline, causing her body to freeze up much like Samuel’s had. While she was still in flight, she was unable to actually fly anywhere. The blood rain started to gather behind her and pushed the agent closer and closer to Justin. The vampire raised his arm, which was presently nothing but several large blood vessels. But with each passing second, a claw of blood grew at the end of it. In a matter of seconds, it was large enough to crush Jacqueline’s torso.

And then everyone’s skin started to itch.

Then the lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land."
— Exodus 9:8–9

Then the boils started popping up.

Festering pockets of bile built up under everyone’s skin. Uncomfortable on their own, and sure to affect the speed in which one could cast melodies. That said nothing of the agony they would bring if punctured.

Arena Chat Thread

I'm presently in too much stuff right now to participate in a fight. But here's the character.

Jock Knight

Vasilis Achillos

"I hope your date's a medic. Otherwise, you won't get to see her tonight!"

Twenty | Male | 185 LBs | 5'10"
Fantasy | Neutral Good | Human

Description

A Knight who's all about rescuing damsels, running his mouth, and looking damn good while doing it.

Appearance

Vasilis has an athletic build, but average height. He has short blond hair that never obscures his blue eyes. Very rarely is his seen without a grin, or his tattered knight's tunic. Most of his equipment is well used, which tends to make Vasilis look more like a raider than a knight. But it's not that he doesn't take care of his equipment, he just spends a lot of time training.

Equipment

Halberd

Size: 78 inches, with 18 of that being the head of the weapon.
Weight: 7 pounds.
Specifics: Vasilis's halberd has a sturdy steel head and a wooden shaft. There are four langets that trail down the halberd to improve durability. The sphere at the other end of the halberd is designed to help balance the head of the weapon.

Long Sword

Size: 50 inches, with 35 of that being the blade of the weapon.
Weight: 4 pounds.
Specifics: Vasilis's Sword has a T-shaped hand guard, much like a swiss long sword. It had a double edge, which enables it to be used for slashing as well as thrusting. This is a side arm that is sheathed on Vasilis's right side.

Dagger(s)

Size: 18 inches, with 12 of that being the blade of the weapon.
Weight: Just shy of a pound.
Specifics: Vasilis's daggers have a T-shaped hand guard. They has a stiletto tip and a double edge, making them good for thrusts and slashes. These are side arms that Vasilis keeps out of sight, stashed in sheathes on Vasilis's belt. He can draw them out sideways with either hand.

Coin Purse

A leather pouch containing a hundred coins that weighs roughly a pound. The bag is strapped to his left hip, and can be easily opened with his left hand.

Armor

Vasilis's armor is primarily made up of fire resistant gamberson and leather. While this allows for decent mobility, it can get a bit hot when worn for long periods of time in the sun. It offers superior protection against heavy arrows, and is quite resistant to being slashed by bladed weapons. However, it does not offer sufficient protection against harder hitting weapons like two handed pole arms. Since his armor is made out of layers of linen and leather, it will break down after being repeatedly slashed and stabbed.

Vasilis also wears a skull cap to protect his noggin. While it doesn't cover his face, it does give him better visibility than a full helmet.

Powers

Explosion Enchant

Vasilis is able to enchant an object he is holding at will. Once an object is enchanted, he can cause a small, foot-wide explosion to occur an inch away from the object, so long as the center of the explosion isn't happening inside another solid object. The pressure inside the explosion is strong enough to gel arteries and turn small objects into deadly shrapnel. Explosions like this can be generated once every 2 seconds, Vasilis can only enchant one item at any given time. Objects that are enchanted remain enchanted until he chooses to enchant something else.

Propulsion

Vasilis can create harmless 1-inch wide explosions to erupt along the surface of his armor. By constantly creating a stream of explosions, he can create a variety of effects. This lets Vasilis perform feats like hovering off of surfaces, slow or increase his momentum, jump higher than normal, and even wall run. The general rule with Propulsion is that Vasilis can cut a movement's speed in half or double it, and he can quadruple his jump height. Vasilis can use one of these effects for a second at a time, with a second to cool down.

Feats

Weapon Mastery

Vasilis was trained as a knight and has used his halberd, sword, and dagger frequently during his adventures. He can be expected to possess extreme proficiency with any of his chosen weapons.

Element initiate

Vasilis was taught how to create explosions by a childhood friend. Due to his inability to sit down with a book, he does not know how to do much more than that. While he doesn't possess book smarts however, he does possess street smarts. What few spells Vasilis knows he is proficient with. Just don't ask him to teach you.

Fitness

Vasilis has honed his body through constant training. He can sprint at 20 miles per hour, and can jump 3 feet high with a running start.

Wit

Vasilis may not be much for books, but he loves to talk to people. When talking to others, he can pick up on lies and half-truths with ease. This comes more from learning experiences during his adventures than some inherant ability to spot a lie.

Masterchef

You will not out-cook this knight, period.

Personality

Vasilis is a jock. He will talk non-stop about his training, how he climbed a tree in ten seconds flat, and recall any event he finds particularly memorable. He is not a braggart however, and is just as eager to listen as he is to speak. This is doubly true if it's someone he respects. Vasilis will usually challenge people who's feats match his own.

While he enjoys working all of his muscles, the one between his ears is probably worked the least. You can't expect him to get very far with a book, as looking at words or listening to complex ideas often confuses him. The one type of book he can read is a cook book however. He's actually very good at preparing meals, and considers what he makes to be "pretty manly."

When fighting, he's usually very cocky, and displays a high level of confidence. Yet his ego can be shattered rather easily. All it takes is a girl to giggle at the wrong time or one fatal mistake to completely shut him down.

Bio

Vasilis Achillos was born into a noble family, and knew early on that he wanted to be a knight. In particular, he fell in love with the stories of their bravery and might, and tried to emulate them as best as he could. At such a young age, he did not fully understand the level of discipline required to be a knight. But as the years passed, he began to grasp the concept.

He became a knight, albeit not a very highly regarded one. Vasilis's reading comprehension was only really good for exciting stories and cook books, and cramming anything else into his head proved to be futile. But he was strong, and showed good mastery over both his weapon and body. He was also commended for having the heart of a true knight. He was late for one of his tests, but it was because he stopped to help an old woman collect supplies, as she wasn't strong enough to carry it all home herself. He even helped her cook when he heard her husband passed away. He was very late for that test.

So as a result, Vasilis is usually stuck with duties only marginally more interesting than what the town guards are offered. He's been tasked with protecting nobles and watching over convoys, even participating in a battle or two when his country needs it. But serving his king keeps him pretty far away from his dream of saving damsels or towns from monsters.

Extra

Vasilis does find himself in the company of one Irene Thenille Arcadia from time to time. She is a young noble woman that he is frequently tasked with protecting. It's not uncommon for wealthy, important nobles to grease a palm of two to get special escorts for their children. Irene is well meaning, but she can be a brat at times, and has Vasilis wrapped around her finger pretty tightly.

Grimoiric Heart

Stripes wasn't expecting anything interesting out of Moonlight Tsubasa. Her only weapon in this "debate" was a series of arguments that leaned heavily on fallacies and half truths. Furthermore, she had made it clear she wouldn't be reasoned with long before Stripes decided to join the conversation. But the goal wasn't to get her to change her mind. In true bad guy fashion, Moonlight Tsubasa had revealed her intentions and why she was this way. They call that a "slam dunk" for those in the business of solving mysteries.

"Yeesh..."

Moonlight Tsubasa may be a lunatic, but her own plan worked without a hitch. She anticipated Ozma would come after her, lured her and the students here, and locked them inside a barrier while the real one attacked the school. Even stripes had to admit that was impressive. Anyone who could reliably predict Ozma's antics was a force to be reckoned with. She was far better at strategy than orating, at least.

Ozma declared that Moonlight Tsubasa was elsewhere, which cause her to raise an eyebrow. "She did say something like that." Stripes was unsure why Ozma would state something so obvious, but figured she was just nervous over what happened. When your plan backfires so hard it ends up helping the enemy, when you're refrain from telling anyone what you're doing and still get figured out, you have to do something to maintain control. Perhaps stating the obvious did that for Ozma. The rest of what Ozma said was directed to those above her station; her teachers and assistants. It was clear that catching Moonlight Tsubasa was a priority.

"Oros the Wise is not here." One of the clones called back. "She is still at the academy and knows what's going on. Probably." It was easy to assume that just because a magical girl held a mythic grimoire they had boundless power. And while that was a safe assumption for the most part there were a few small limitations. While the clones were strong enough to punch through a barrier with their fists, Mika was the only one who ever held the katana that let her partake in the world's knowledge. That meant that while Mika knew exactly what was happening here, she could not relay anything to the others. The state of Marrywell academy was a mystery for the moment.

"That's just adorable, Orzo!" The other clone grinned. "Maybe you can get some teachers to go along with your schemes, but I dance to my own tune." Faculty member or not, Mika was an alter magical girl. She had her own way of doing things and wasn't about to be swayed by the likes of Ozma. "They likely have reinforcements somewhere. One of us will stay with Morning Star, and the other will scout for more pageless."

Stripes looked to Maria. She might have been a myth, but she was their teacher and figured she had their best interests at heart. But it seemed like she was fine having them turned over to the arguably cooler German lady. It seemed they would have to continue to kick more butt elsewhere.

"Very well." With a hop, Stripes landed in Lupin's arms. "Lets join the others."

One of Oros the Wise's clones had already sped off. This left the remaining one with Morning Star. "I'm sure you've got this my horny friend! I'll just keep an eye out for any potential ambushers and- OH GOD THE FIRE'S COMING!" She dove behind some rubble as the flames washed past her like a burning tide.

Grimoiric Heart

I wasn't feeling left out. we all have "secret clubhouse" discord servers. I just wouldn't think of calling them "the discord."

Grimoiric Heart

There was a helpful post in the discord I thought-

@The 42nd Gecko

There's a discord?

Symphony of Espers

Lightning fell like rain, the stench of ozone so thick as to suffocate, while chunks of buildings punctuated the steady downpour with sundering might. Here, and only here, the plague craft of the Holy Diver could not manifest, the sheer force of arcane invocation enough to vaporize all the vermin that the Behemoth called before they could even fully manifest. The bells of hell clamored in their dissonant glory, the Dawnraiser wielding its calamitous instruments again and again, as if to scar its very existence into the eyes of all that claimed the city as their home.

And within that madness, there existed but a single shadow that still held on, surviving the onslaught.

And then there was her lab assistant, supporting her from on top of the convoy.

”This one’s tough.“

Veronica had pressed ahead, which left Binky to defend the caravan until she could usurp Dawnraiser from their path ahead. Not hard for the nigh-immortal doctor Dinky, but only for the moment. With six different instruments to call her own, there was little the beast’s spells could do to her. The problem for Binky was never getting hit by an opponent's attacks. It was finding an opening to give a battle a decisive end. But in the current situation all she could do was buy Veronica enough time to get to the behemoth herself. The bright flashes of lightning cast long shadows. She would be upon Dawnraiser shortly.

”Fall back! Let’s see if it chases us.“

Thirty seconds was a generous estimate of Binky’s duration in the esper state. It usually ended sooner if she decided to use melodies, which she absolutely had to do to preserve the convoy. She had made herself a watch so that she could monitor how much time she had left in the esper state. It even appropriately accounted for time lost due to her spell slinging. A quick glimpse at the clock revealed she didn’t have much time left.

“Tick tock indeed, Binky.”

A voice sounded, unfamiliar but seeping with playful malice. A silhouette, a mere silhouette against flashes of lightning and gouts of flame, looked down upon her with two glowing eyes. Operator ‘Blackout’, well-known for being a ‘true’ swordsmaster even a decade ago, now a terrorist working side by side with what she once slew.

But her eyes would have no effect on the Raid Boss Esper, and her appearance was mistimed; Binky still had enough seconds left to take down a mid-tier esper.

That was, until the driver spun the wheel and slammed the car head-first into a stone wall.

She’ll survive, of course. An Esper with six Instruments had plenty of options to defend themselves with. But time, measured in seconds?

“Tick, tock.”

It was quite short, indeed.

---

Betty had done nothing this entire encounter but chase Finn. Her endless rage prevented her from giving up on her pursuit, and no amount of heckling would get Finn to change his mind it seemed. She had been burned, bitten, but wasn’t out. Her opponent might have fared better in that regard. While he was subjected to a few frog detonations himself, he took a moment to heal up some of the damage.

But he could only run for so long.

She was almost taken back by Finn’s sudden choice to charge. But she wasn’t going to stop. As angry as Betty might have been, her technique was on point. Finn likely knew this.

As they drew closer, Betty’s hand was in range of Finn’s rapier. She brushed it to the side before swinging her ax over her head. There was nowhere for Finn to hide, but he had already set his course before the charge even began. He was able to reach past her blade and stop her arm. But Finn wasn’t stopping. He continued to move forward. Betty and Finn may have been equals in speed, and Betty’s weapon was heavier than Finn’s, but that weight was helping him when he collided with the violinist. But Finn wasn’t aiming for a stumble, he aimed for a fall. There was little Betty could do to correct her balance. She only had one hand on her weapon. The other was on Finn’s shoulder. They would fall together.

But they didn’t.

The same black swarm that accompanied all of Betty’s melodies was swarming around her body, suspending her in the air. Whatever her element was, it was based on wind magic. She floated away from the edge of the building. The corner of her lip crooked up into a smirk as she released Finn. He might have fallen to his death if he didn’t have a free hand to grab onto her ankle with. She placed both of her hands on her sword and prepared to swing.

”This is it!“

Meanwhile, it rained blood. But Ashley was getting absolutely showered in it.

Binky’s buzzsaw orbited her, cutting through the bloody tendrils with every pass. It didn’t destroy the mass of blood but it did free Ashley for the moment. She was able to step away from the bloody tendrils and fire off her melody without a hitch. But it was getting more difficult to assist from her position. The bloody abomination only grew with each passing second, and was nearly the target of Ashley’s melody.

But her spell did get through.

That was all she could do for the moment. She fired at the mass of blood while moving to a better vantage point. If it was just the blood tendrils she would have been fine, but now the flies were attacking en masse.

Before Ashley’s melody could land, Marrie tried to free herself with a melody of her own. Normally a rain melody would be plenty obvious to monsters and esper alike, but not in a storm of blood, frogs, and flies. She was able to get around the usual limitations of the portal note by having the projectile bounce several times, creating a few portals.

If Marrie wanted chaos, she had invited it.

Blood and frogs no longer rained from the sky, they came out of the ground too. The lice from earlier were still on the prowl, and the emerging frogs detonated with a single bite. White entrails slapped against Marrie’s back with some of it falling on Justin. It burned, but Marrie, like Ashley, was resistant to the attack. The only issue was that Justin seemed to resist it as well.

”How droll.“

By luck or planning, a handful of frog guts were flung into Justin’s face. He flinched for an instant, and that paired with Justin’s weakening influence on her allowed Marrie to move. She grabbed her arm and kicked off the vampire before her arm was totally torn off. She could still hold her instrument, but she was unable to move her shoulder. But she was free, if only for the moment.

How did Samuel know what Gunther was thinking? I don’t even think I narrated his reaction to the projectile.

Samuel lied in wait. He could have attacked immediately but he had transpaced himself. Casting a melody immediately after the last one was not an option. Even with the blood obscuring the distant fighting, he could see this fight unfolding around him.

Finn and Betty’s duet in the air..

Ashley’s dance with the tendrils and flies.

Marrie’s waltz with Justin.

Jacqueline and Pac-A-Fist performance overhead..

The only person without a dance partner was Gunther. Samuel could tell what was going through his head. He was going to smash the cars together, Pac-A-Fist’s life be damned. He was a monster after all. He might have been following Justin’s orders.. Maybe he was just like Samuel in that he could follow his employer’s will without question, but the difference was that he was a monster choosing to serve a monster. Human suffering put him at ease. No, it sustained him.

Samuel’s melody was primed. He was ready to strike.

Gunther was starting to look around. Where had Samuel’s soul gone? He couldn’t sense it anywhere.

”Unless…”

Gunther whipped around and swung his hand in Samuel’s direction. His eyes expanded as the arcane knife cut into the ectoplasm that made up Gunther’s body. It was like cutting into a burlap sack filled with clay. The poltergeist opened his mouth. His last words were a high pitched shriek as his unlife came to an end. Just as Samuel’s knife reached the pit of Gunther’s neck, an explosion of arcane energy severed his head and arms from his torso. His body sunk to the ground like a playdough structure, but the sky was filled with stolen souls rushing off to join their ancestors in the afterlife.

Maybe Su was among them.

Pac-A-Fist’s sports car was on a collision course with Jacqueline before she blinked over to her. She went to knee Pac in the face, but she countered by firing a round directly into her knee. Despite the eccentric nature of Pac’s laser gun, it had to be physical because it bored a hole right through flesh and bone. Jacqueline wouldn’t be walking on that until it got healed, but she didn’t need to take another step to get a hold of Pac-A-Fist. She fell into the driver’s seat, where she was able to drive the butt of Havoc into her chest. From there, she could punch and elbow Pac with impunity. The steering wheel prevented her from kneeing Jacqueline, and the one hand she had left was secured on her gun. She managed to get hold of Pac’s wrists just as the vehicle was starting to fall out of the sky.

”Are you serious!?”

Without the ability to stand, Jacqueline wasn’t able to get Pac out of the car. They fell swiftly, and landed with quite the crash. Jacqueline’s body was thrown lengthwise across the seats while Pac was still sitting in them. Everyone outside would see the pile of cars spring around after the fall. nobody knew how far they fell, but it was sure to hurt. Jacqueline was the first to open her eyes. The only reason why she might have survived was because of the suspension on the vehicles. Rather than coming to a hard stop on the concrete, the vehicle’s suspension systems gave the vehicles just enough spring to cushion their falls. Jacqueline was going to be sore for a while, but she’d survive this. She’d survived worse.

The only indication she had that Pac was still alive was that a cluster of pixels coated her body in a sort of 8-bit medieval armor. Her intent was not clear, but it would be shortly.

This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats.
— Exodus 9:1–3

And in this day and age, he’d probably fry Egypt’s infrastructure with a few well placed lightning bolts.

And what was more attractive to a lightning bolt than a pile of cars on top of the police building?

There was no warning. A pillar of light coursed through the cars and shocked everyone inside and kicked off all the street lights. This gave Jacqueline muscle paralysis and did further damage to her already sore body. Pac had anticipated the Diver’s next move and prepared accordingly with a magical shield. Pac shoved Jacqueline off of herself and dove out of the car. She jumped onto one of the large exhaust vents and started firing at Ashley. In addition to this, the giant flies were homing in on her. Meanwhile, the ball of bloody tendrils were only getting bigger, and it now seemed interested in devouring Jacqueline. It latched onto the sports car and pulled it closer to the edge of the police station. Its flailing whip-like appendages ripped the door of the vehicle and mulched the frame as it was drawn into itself.

Marrie’s dance partner also seemed to have vanished. As soon as the bolt of lightning landed, Justin switched targets. With a scream, he dove across the street and slammed into Samuel. He managed to roll to his feet some distance away from the others, but Justin had rebuilt part of his blood barrier and placed it between himself and the shadowy esper.

”You’ll pay for what you’ve done, and you will pay dearly..“ The barrier of blood grew spikes. ”Do you have any idea how much that statue cost? It was carved by italian sculptures right in Rome!“

With a wave of his hand, the barrier flowed forward like a tide of blood, and it was growing.

But something else had joined everyone on the rooftop. It was hard to tell with the bolt of lightning, but a teal blur darted across the roof and hid under the wrecked cars Gunther had tried to crush Samuel with.

All this excitement, and the Diver had only cast half of its plagues. Would they have time to stop the diver before it unleashes the rest?

Grimoiric Heart

Mika listened intently to every word that came out of Tesni's mouth. It was amusing to see her taking this so seriously. It took some coaxing to get Jenny into it but Tesni really believed in Mika. Her smile briefly grew in reaction to to Tesni mentioning that withholding information would make it harder for her to do her job. While this was a common trope in movies it didn't hold up in real life. Withholding information from someone in her position could point her towards certain problem areas. Though in Mika's case, cooperation was preferable. She was just a student counselor after all.

Tesni wasn't wrong. She was good at fighting. Much like her troublemaking it was probably the case before she became a magical girl. There were no real problems here. A magical girl should do what the scale of justice in their heart tells them to do. "It sounds like you have it all figured out. If you know where you're lacking, why talk to me?" Mika folded her arms smiled. "I think you know what must be done. Your 'might is right' philosophy is alienating you from your friends. It's your greatest strength so you use it liberally. But just because a solution works doesn't mean it's the best one. Something that must be considered is-" She noticed that Tesni was distracted and looked out the window to see what she was looking at. "Oh! we have company!" She stood up. "This might work for us! I'll see about keeping the other students safe. Grab who you can and let's do a little problem solving with that staff of yours."

If this wasn't an emergency, Mika might have corrected Tesni as she was technically "Miss Fang." But there were more important matters to attend to. Kind of a shame as she really wanted to see the minister, but that would have to wait.

Since Mika was already transformed, it gave her a head start on arriving at the cafeteria. She threw the window in the waiting room open and dove through. Her body turned to that of a giant barn owl that soared towards the cafeteria. But she did not enter the space herself. Instead a portal opened up in front of an open window, which one of her duplicates flew through.

While some of the senior students were already fighting, many of the less experienced ones were running for their lives. It was hard to muster the words to even transform under these conditions. Mika's duplicate directed their efforts to protecting the weaker students so that the stronger ones could do their job. She had no sword, but she hit like a truck. One of the pageless were picked up and pitched through the air like a baseball. But when they connected with their allies, they blew around like pins struck by a bowling ball.

But they didn't attack the main target. This was a great opportunity for the students to demonstrate what they had learned after all.

The real Mika on the other hand had perched on the rooftop and was gazing into her blade. She needed to figure out what was going on. If attacks were happening elsewhere in the school she would need to tend to them. Because unlike Dynasty Queen, beating things up wasn't what she was best at. It was her wisdom that earned her the title of Oros the wise.

---

Meanwhile in the mall, the duplicates of Mika used all their might to break a hole in the barrier. Blow after blow landed on it with unrelenting might. If the teachers and students had been trapped inside, they would need to be freed before anything nefarious happened. It may have been dark inside the mall, but both duplicates had antenna with a bioluminescent end, not unlike one an angler fish used to lure in its prey. While not especially bright, it did give their feline eyes more than enough light to see by, theoretically. An invisible opponent might be able to sneak up on them, but they would have to be fairly quiet.

Grimoiric Heart

@McFazzer

Awww yisssssssss, I don't mind being wrong every once in a while!