Cottonmouth

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Nemo made sure to hastily catch Raiya's jacket and hoodie before they hit the ground after she tossed them. The last thing he wanted to see is any bare clothing hit the moist floor of the room they were in. He spawned a metal object from his inventory and planted it onto the ground. Afterwards the object started to fold out, transforming into a basic chair. Nemo sat down and crossed one leg over the other, giving him a good view of the fight.

With the opportunity present, as a master tailor Nemo could help himself from inspecting Raiya's jacket further. It gave him a better insight into it's design and her size. Zoey's message then ran through, interrupting him, but at that point he was satisfied with his inspection anyways. He neatly folded the Oyabun jacket and hoodie over the headrest of his chair and used his manadial to type out a reply. The no doubt paragon induced storm made it near impossible to communicate out of it back to Felix, but since they were still miles from the paragon itself it was still possible to communicate via dial on the ship.

"I've got a front row seat down here for a performance I'd hate to miss. Besides, it's three on one up there, I'd hardly be a sportsman if I came up there and bumped that number up to four. I already feel bad for him.

If he becomes too much to handle send me another message and I'll be there. But until then, have fun. As for Zuri, I'm sure Felix would be interested in that, but her shade is of little concern to me. You seem to be the shadow expert anyways."

After sending his message Nemo went back to viewing the fight.

---

Caspian found Raiya's speed and draw impressive, but he expected nothing less from someone holding a sword such as hers. Speed was often the nature of katana wielders. He used his cutlass to narrowly parry her attack with his right hand. He used his left to pull out a small flintlock from his side, one he obtained from another member of their crew. It had a blunderbuss style barrel, various ornate details and runic engravings, and was capable of firing without any type of ammunition inside, instead using the wielders mana and acting like a wand to channel the energy into attacks.

Caspian fired the weapon point blank, the barrel lit up blue and hissed as it briefly charged before spewing out an impressively sized wave of concussive blue energy.

---

Due to the trajectory of his shot, Nemo had to extend out his gloved right hand and use his magic to dispel the wave once it reached him.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

"I coin toss would do fine. I usually have them handy." Nemo replied, reaching into his leather jacket and picking out a large solid silver coin. It was the same type he used for various payments in the underworld, the silver variant was the most common overall. He held up one side of the coin, picturing a basic runic circle with a angel in the middle among some writing. "Heads." He stated, then flipped it to the other side, revealing a witch hunter anti-magic style circle with a demon in the middle. "Tails." The sides acted like a yin and yang to each other, effectively cancelling out any type of real magical effects they might have.

"Since it's my coin I think it's only fair I get to call, I'll go for tails." Nemo explained, rolling the coin across his knuckles before flipping it high up into the hair. He caught it with his left hand an flipped it on top of his leather glove. After lifting his left hand off he grew a rather disappointed reaction. "Heads." He revealed. "I hope this fight will be more satisfying for you than the last was." He added. Nemo was a bit disappointed, not just because he was going to have to sit this out, but because he had hoped to work more on their synergy during this outing. But he resided in the fact that there still was likely to be much more adept enemies to utilize than on.

Caspian grew even more annoyed than before after the coin toss. If clearing out the water wasn't tedious enough, having to be insulted on his capabilities of handling the fight was even worse. The outcome didn't bother him much, while Nemo had annoyed him, and insulted his intelligence, he found her condescending comment much more infuriating. "I'll be sure to try to keep you entertained." Caspian said between gritted teeth and he pulled his cutlass from it's scabbard once more, it now glowed a feint blue. He was ready to fight.

---

Everything seemed to slow down for Roy as he tried to contemplate what was happening. He was beginning to regret engaging all three of these enemies by himself. His dagger slash quickly became the least important thing to him once he noticed the large looming shadow coming towards him. Realizing that if he followed through he was likely screwed, he gave up and diverted his attention to the new threat before it was too late.

With most of the dust blown away, it made creating a spell more difficult, but possible now.

Roy sidestepped away from Travis and creating a glowing sigil from his palm to try to stop the attack. It expanded out to be much larger after being activated. But to Roy's dismay, instead of stopping, it ethereally passed right through. For a minute he resigned himself to his fate and counted his lucky charms, but instead it passed right through him as well.

Roy was about to click his heels together in joy until he heard a gunshot. With the shadow hand taking most of his attention and all of his remaining mana he gathered, he was mostly helpless against it. Roy though fast and tried to dodge by leaping away and spinning in the air acrobatically. The slug barely missed by ripping through the coat and shirt around his stomach, leaving a awfully painful sting in the line that it passed though. But in the end, Roy still felt lucky.

Roy rolled back to his feet away from the group, he seemed to be upset by the fresh hole in his coat. "Now that wasn't very nice." He commented. With no mana left, he didn't feel like going back on the offense yet until he was more comfortable with what this group was capable of.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

@ShiningSector Waiting on you before posting as Roy my guy.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Raiya was right about the mage, as soon as she began to cut down the axe wielder he let loose a powerful spell. It shot out a basketball sized energy attack that would explode on contact, likely intent recklessly on taking out all three of the people it was aimed at.

Nemo nodded and used his warp to transfer himself in front of Raiya with his right arm extended and his gloved hand open. A X made of black colored energy began to form out from the X rune on his glove, and rapidly expanded till it was a little bit larger than the mage's spell and floated in front of Nemo's hand.

The spell collided into Nemo's X mark, put instead of exploding into a blazing fury, it was absorbed directly into it while emitting an odd piercing noise. The X mark itself slowly began to fade from dull black, to a bright glowing white as it fed off the energy. Once it was finished, with a flick of his wrist Nemo propelled the mark back towards the mage at a high speed.

The spell morphed from an X to a oval shaped ball while in transit. As soon as it connected with the mage it exploded, cleaving him in twain as it eviscerated his midsection.

With the two goons out of the way, Nemo continued on to the doorway. The knocked twice on the metal door before opening it, revealing a large room with the shield generator at the other end. Standing in there way was a sole man.

The room was lowered below the entrance, with a small pathway leading to some steps down extending from the door. Above the room was large cast iron grate, letting rain and seawater slip through and pool on the floor, making a big puddle over the floor about five inches high. The shield generator was letting off a similar glow as the actual energy shield, indicating it was still active.

Nemo walked across the platform above the water to get a better look at their opponent. It was definitely the first mate, Caspian Crowhurst. He had long wavy black hair combed back, blue eyes, was about six feet and three inches tall, seemed to be in his mid twenties, and had light skin. The man was wearing a short black peacoat, black trousers and boots, and a white and blue horizontally striped shirt underneath. The only thing else to note was various jewelry and a long silver cutlass at his side.

"So you bested Sap and Sin huh? I knew this trip was going to be exciting, but not this exciting." Caspian said, energetically drawing his sword and pointing it towards Nemo and Raiya. "Let's dance." He remarked.

"No." Nemo replied plainly, before turning and beginning to walk away. The competitive engaged gaze in Caspian's eyes sank like a rock. "What do you mean, No?!" He spat back. "Why the hell not?"

Nemo stopped and turned back around, an irritated look on his face. He pointed to the floor. "Look at this, I'm not fighting in this sludge like some swamp troll. Not only is it going to stain, but it'll make my pants all soggy and get in my boots. I wont even be able to enjoy the battle if the whole time I'm thinking about how it's ruining my ensemble." Nemo explained.

"W-well I'm already standing in it-" Caspian began to reply before getting cut off.

"That's because you're an idiot." Nemo said. "And I don't fight idiots in muck."

Caspian let out an irritated sigh. "What if I got rid of the all water?" He asked. "Would you fight then your highness?"

"I suppose I might be able to overlook your idiocy then." Nemo commented.

Caspian reluctantly sheathed his cutlass and crouched down. He placed his hands into the water and recited a small incantation. After a couple of seconds the pool of water in the room parted down the middle and started to flow to each side of the wall. The water then slowly started to defy gravity and roll up the wall, starting out at a slow pace before gaining speed. After reaching the top it began to pour out the grate and onto the ships deck until there was none left in the room.

"There, happy?" Caspian asked, rising back up and gripping his cutlass once more.

"The lighting leaves something to be desired but I suppose it'll have to do." Nemo replied, stepping down from the platform onto the now dry floor.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

"Most of Seidon's crew isn't quite cut out for what we'll be bringing to the table. They're smugglers, not true fighters. Either way I found their harmonization to be rather interesting." Nemo replied looking towards the exit of the room and continuing on. "I'm sure that the opponents will become tougher soon enough. Not to mention what we really have to worry about is those two church members." Nemo said.

After taking a few turns he came upon a long wide hallway leading to one big door with two guards standing besides it. "Our shield generator should be right behind that door." Nemo commented.

The first guard brandished a fire axe and stormed down the hallway ready to swing while the other began to charge up a spell while his partner provided a diversion. As soon as the axe wielding sailor would reach Nemo or Raiya he'd take a swing as fast as possible.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

The long haired twin was able to consecutively block the Z pattered swipes, but when he charged up his sword to block her magical attack, he didn't anticipate the electrical effects. As soon as the arc hit his sword, all the voltage shot through his body at once. The twin was temporarily dazed and unable to move, leaving him wide open to her second attack.

The long haired brother closed his eyes and waited for his death to come, but it was one that wouldn't come quite this soon. He opened his eyes to find his wounded brother had jumped in front of him, blocking the energy ball from hitting.

He used the rest of his empowered sword to get the brunt of it, but sadly that didn't cut it. The rest of the energy charged into his body. Turning most of the front half facing the plasma to ash, and leaving the rest severely burnt. He then toppled over after his sacrifice, dead.

"How noble." Nemo muttered, a hint of irritation in his voice. He was clearly disappointed that he didn't get to finish the man off himself.

The brother got back up, recovered from the electric shock and clearly unhinged from witnessing the death of his twin. He raised his sword up and began to charge Raiya, letting out a battle cry as he did so. With his mind so set on vengeance he wasn't paying enough attention to Nemo, who suddenly brutally collided into him before he could reach Raiya with a hockey style body check. The man was knocked off his feet and sent tumbling to the floor.

The twin got back up, his sights now set on Nemo, who had his sword extended out with one hand in a fencing style position. When the livid man reached him to took a swing at Nemo, and was easily parried. Nemo then followed it up by adding another fluid motion with his sword to disarm the man, flinging his sword across the room. Before he could even comprehend how he was disarmed so quickly, Nemo's body abruptly slid forward magically, without moving his feet, and thrust the katana straight through the twin's chest.

The sole twin let out a pained raspy gasp, his breathing audibly compromised. Nemo then pulled the sword from his chest, and in a final fluid swing, decapitated the brother. The ease at which the blade went through the man's neck was remarkable. Now parted of his cranium, the man collapsed dead on the floor.

Nemo looked back to Raiya and shrugged his shoulders. "Well I guess that's that." He commented. He looked down to his sword, now covered with blood. But instead of wiping it off, the sword itself seemed to have other plans. All the crimson liquid began to suddenly absorb into the steel until there was none left. Once properly 'cleaned' Nemo spawned back the scabbard and re-sheathed the weapon, now holding it by his side.

"I'd say it's been too long since I've gotten to use a sword. Well, I suppose that's obvious considering the whole prison thing. But still this has been rather refreshing." Nemo said as he walked over to her.

---

"Call me whatcha want lad, my only real morals, my allegiances, are to my crew and money. I'm a rogue. Bein' a hunter was a nice gig for a while, but sometimes we all gotta move on to greener pastures." Roy explained. Travis' warning tipped Roy off that something was coming, and he took proper precautions to cover himself for what was coming.

As soon as Travis' spell was activated he picked up on the nature of the attack and activated his counter-spell by pushing both of his forward. A sudden wave in the air was caused, traveled inward on all sides towards Roy as he used his witch hunter "arts" to extract latent mana in the environment to use. Flames suddenly began to spew out from his hands towards the ice attach, melting the crystals back down to water before they could ever be a threat to him. Making it only successful in hitting him with a mist of water.

When the two spells both dispersed, Roy was also gone. Likely using the rest of the mana he gathered to teleport. A sudden clink of a grenade being pulled from his vest would alert the gang of Roy's presence not far behind Travis. He rushed at him with a dagger and bounced the grenade off the ground like a bouncy ball off towards Zuri. It was set to explode within five seconds.

Roy suddenly tossed a handful off white crystalline like powder towards Travis with his freehand before swiping at him with the knife. The powder was a traditional witch hunter recipe designed to disrupt spells from being formed with it's lingering presence in the air it occupied.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

The long haired brother didn't have any time to dodge the spell, but he did have time to conjure up a spell of his own. The side runes on the brother's sword quickly glowed green before the whole sword was encapsulated with a green aura. He then slashed directly at Raiya's spell, connecting with it and causing a explosion of magical energy as the two spells collided and canceled out. He didn't seem to suffer any substantial damage, but one would guess that being that close to the explosion wasn't all too pleasant.

The twin continued his approach on Raiya, albeit now at a much slower pace than before from the explosion, and continued on to attack her with an horizontal slash.

---

Nemo rushed towards his opponent and pressed the katana's blade into the steel floor, scraping the metal and causing sparks to fly up towards the brother. He pulled the sword up once he reached the short haired twin into an upwards slash. The brother was barely able to dodge back, only suffering a cut to his clothing.

The two then began to spar with their swords, exchanging a total of four swings at each other and emitting a metallic clang each time their blades crossed. The two then used their left hands to punch the other at the same time. The brother hit Nemo first hard in the chest, but the attack seemed to have nearly no effect on him, as if the pain didn't register. The brother would of got more of a reaction from punching a rock.

Nemo's own punch connected with the side of the short haired twin's face. Knocking him off balance and causing him to stumble back. Before the twin could recover Nemo added an a heavy two handed slash downwards to the brother's list of things to deal with. He used his Dha to block the attack, locking their swords together again.

Nemo still seemed to have more strength over their lock, trapping his opponent in the engagement. This time however Nemo didn't slide his sword off, instead his blade seemed to suddenly vibrate at an incredible rate. It emitted a ear-piercing screech as it buzzed against the brother's blade, letting off sparks and slowly cutting through the weapon's edge. A real testament to how hard and sharp Nemo's own katana was, or really, a testament to how impressive Muramasa blades were. "Impossible!" Both the twin's said out loud.

Nemo had a nasty grin on his face, which turned to a slow guttural laugh once his sword had cut about halfway through the twin's own sword. Unable to escape, the brother was helpless to watch his own weapon be destroyed within ten seconds. The moment it finally cut through and ceased buzzing caused the brother to try to escape by falling back before he himself was cleaved in half.

The brother rolled back and got to his feet, now holding a much smaller sword than before. His red bandanna suddenly fell from his neck, cut clean by Nemo's sword. He then knew he had dodged too late, Nemo's katana had cut deep into the twin's chest starting from the top of his shoulder and trailing down to his hip. Blood began to pour out and stain the twin's uniform, and the gash on his shoulder was so deep that it made using that arm out of the question now.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

The mage's shock-wave attack was dispersed by Travis' own lightning strike before it could touch the ground. Coupled with Zoey's shurikens action as a lightning rod once they were embedded into his torso, he was easily fried to a crisp. The man fell dead to the ground heavily, unable to bring his attack to fruition.

It seemed the coast was clear until a small chuckle broke the silence. "That was quite the light show there." Said a man now standing roughly twenty feet from the group. He had a snide tone is his voice, with a faint Irish accent. Adorned in a rugged, somewhat torn, navy sailors uniform with a brown leather jacket worn over it. He had a grenade belt worn like a sash underneath, and various knifes of different sizes sticking out of pockets all over his outfit. He had medium length orange-ish brown hair, a slight stubble with a more prominent thin mustache, blue eyes, and looked to be in his early thirties.

Judging by the description, the man was likely Reagan "Roy" O'Harris Decker, the witch hunter of the crew.

Roy pulled three knives from his jacket and started to juggle them around. "Let me show you some-a my party tricks now." He stated before hurling all three of them towards the group, one for each member. Someone with keen enough vision would notice that the tips of the knives had a slight purple glow to them. Before he threw them, Roy coated the daggers with a small spell that would cause them to puncture any magic barriers put in their way, or cancel any attempt to use a type of telekinesis to offset their trajectory.

---

The long haired brother used the side of his blade to block the bullets one by one, clearly their reflexes were impressive. The brother then used his speed to sidestep Raiya's jab before falling back. "You intend to fight us with such a small blade?" The brother's both said at the same time. Something that would make sense to Raiya, but likely confuse Nemo when he was already handling a sword.

The long haired brother dashed back to his comrade, locking hands with him to charge back up, before being flung back at blinding speed towards Raiya. He extended his blade out to try to pierce her. Should he miss, at the speed he was going he'd likely stab his blade into the metal wall.

Nemo stepped forward and used one hand to thrust the katana at the shorter haired twin as if he was using a rapier. The twin deflected his attack, but Nemo then followed it up with a more traditional two handed overhead slash. The twin blocked the attack, locking their blades together.

Judging by how the exchange was going, Nemo seemed to overpower the man with their blades locked. The twin struggled to keep himself from being pushed to the ground. Nemo abruptly slid his blade upwards and out of the lock, causing the twin to nearly lose his balance. He then ducked down and spun, slashing across towards the man's stomach.

The twin was nearly cut in half, but saved himself with his enhanced speed by dodging back, only suffering a moderate cut to his midsection.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

"I just hope that they'll allow us to fight separately." Nemo replied.

The two twins suddenly locked hands, the action seemed to temporarily merge their two manapools together into one, powering them up with excess energy in the process. Even if someone wasn't using manalysis to pay attention to their pools, the longer haired brother's suddenly flowing hair was enough of a visual cue to tip someone off on what was going on.

The twins suddenly let loose of their hands and began to rapidly zig zag across the room towards Raiya and Nemo with enhanced speed, making it hard to track their positions. The brothers both reached Nemo and Raiya at the same time, drawing their swords and slashing at them from the top down.

---

Nemo drew his sword and blocked the incoming attack in one fluid motion. His draw speed on the sword was just as good as his revolver's. He pushed forward to knock the short haired brother back, then issued his counter attack by spinning around and slashing at an angle from the top, whipping the sword around with one hand for extra speed. The brother blocked the attack with his blade, but it left him open for a sneak attack from Nemo's free hand. The brother took a heavy punch to the gut, causing him to retreat back to regain his composure.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

The two mages held up their shields during Travis' barrage of gunfire, while the untalent ducked back behind cover. The shield's held up, but eventually the weaker of the duo's shield started to crack. It eventually broke after taking a shot from one of Travis' more powerful weapons, leaving him defenseless from getting cut to ribbons from the firearms.

The shotgunner was just about to pop back up to try to put an end to Travis' assault, however Zoey's attack caught him by surprise. He was blown back into the cover he was hiding behind with an audible thud from the force of the shot before falling to the ground, dead.

While still holding up his energy shield, the final remaining attacker began to sling out rapid explosive energy blasts of his own to attempt to stop the barrage. Six in total, three at Travis, two at Zuri, and one at Zoey. He then charged up a teleport, re-appearing above the trio with his shield dropped and bringing down a charged shockwave attack towards Travis with his hands. It would activate as soon as it touched something solid, be it Travis himself or the metal deck.

---

"Who would I be if I wasn't? Is it not an entertainer's job to create a spectacle?" Nemo replied as he continued on to the next room.

"We're getting close." Nemo commented as he reached another hatch-style door. He spun it unlocked with a flick of his wrist and a simple spell and let gravity ease it open, revealing a much larger room with two men standing beside each other in the middle of it. Judging by their opposite appearances this was obvious the twin swordsmen Nemo spoke about earlier Sap and Sin Tao.

Both of them seemed to be of identical height of around 5'9", asian, tanned, and wearing similar dark blue rugged militaristic uniforms. The only thing that was different between them is one brother had much longer black hair than the other, with the shorter haired brother wearing a red scarf around his neck. Both of them were wielding Thai Dha swords with runes etched into the sides of the blades.

"You know I was kinda hoping it would be them." Nemo said, leaning towards Raiya and whispering. "Do you think they'll like, both talk at the same time? In harmony? That would be really cool." He added.

"You've both come this far to die, your fate was sealed the moment you set foot on this ship uninvited." Both the brothers said in unison, causing Nemo's eyes to light up. He turned to Raiya with an excited 'Did you hear that?' look on his face. Nemo then spawned his katana, figuring the two swordsmen were the most fitting excuse he was going to get.

"Have any preference on how we handle this?" He said, still whispering. "We could fight them together, or one for each of us, or one of us could just take both of them on." Nemo asked. "If you want to do it together I hope you have a plan, because I just realized all the ones I thought of were way too complicated."