This was getting annoying. Her first mission as a benefactor of the Demonic forces and she had seen no action at all. Not only that, but her mistress Victoire had also been vanquished in battle as well. There was nothing for her to do now. Sure, she had seen a few bobbing cabbages in the water and had to wrangle in her beast from eating the floating vegetables, but that was about the whole highlight of her day. Now she lay on her back and stared at the sky above her blankly, letting the water soothe her mind to float aimlessly.
Hibiki saw Bastion from afar. It wasn't hard to find her, despite Bastion's transformation. She rode with a large monster of some sort, no doubt to make traveling these treacherous waters easier. Hibiki took advantage of the red mist in the water to hide herself as she took aim at the beast she rode. Even if the Machina lose this battle, if they could just bring back Bastion, then this battle won't be a total lost. Hibiki fired twice; one shot to the beast's heart and another right into the head. Once it was dead Hibiki moved her position to get a better view of Bastion from her current sector, planning out a way to subdue her.
The creature beneath Bastion gave out a howl of rage and pain, startling Bastion at once. She leapt to her feet and glared down at the red waters below, knowing it had to be an enemy. Lucky for her that the demonic monster she was riding atop of had a thick exterior; that meant Hibiki's bullets, although burying themselves into the creature's flesh and skin, would not reach the vital organs quite so easily. Bastion raised demonic blade out in defense, mismatched eyes narrowing as she scanned the water for movement...there. At once she launched her demonic arm into the water, massive claw reaching straight for Hibiki.
Hibiki was surprised that Bastion was able to see her from so far, but considering she was precious to High Queen Eos, it would only make sense that she had some hidden power within her. Not to mention that whatever the demons did to Bastion, they must have done something to weaponize her. Hibiki moved quickly, avoiding Bastion's claw while releasing a bomb to paralyze her arm. Hibiki dove into a formation of rocks in hopes to use it as cover and sneak up on Bastion while she was recovering. There was still the matter of her beast as well, as two shots didn't kill it.
"Don't waste my time," Bastion growled. At once her paralyzed claw split off from her arm and became a strong, oozing substance that would spread and permeate the waters. It would head towards Hibiki slowly but surely, searching her out and seeking to suffocate her under the waves. Meanwhile, Bastion's beast snarled as it too searched for the swimming maid, eager to rip her apart with its jaws. To futher draw her out, it smacked its tail to and for against the water. Bastion would watch as well, a total of three threats against Hibiki as her demonic arm slowly grew back.
Hibiki stayed hidden for now, but she knew it was only a matter of time before she was found. She could tell that the monster was a demon, so if she got close enough she could use one of her holy hand grenades to kill it, or at least cripple it. But Bastion was what Hibiki was most worried about. She knew that if Hibiki killed Bastion, she'd only return to the demon's hands. However, just how much of Bastion was a demon now, Hibiki didn't know. If fact she had no idea if Bastion was a demon in the first place or if this was just corruption. This really limited Hibiki's options. Even less when she noticed something swimming towards her. She couldn't make out the details, but whatever it was it was likely hostile. Hibiki moved from her position to get closer to Bastion. Outnumbered and possibly outgunned Hibiki needed to eliminate these threats quickly. So she grabbed another one of her bombs, sticking it to the barrel of her rifle. Even as she was swimming away from Bastion, her mount, and the thing in the water, Hibiki had no problems lining up a shot. She fired the bomb using a super charged plasma bolt to quickly propel it forward, and when it was right underneath the beast, it exploded in holy energy. Hibiki intentionally aimed it in such a way that the beast would shield Bastion from the blast, while also taking the full brunt of the damage. Hibiki never stopped moving and actually started to swim out of the sector.
"Ghnn...!" was all Bastion could manage out as she realized Hibiki's ploy too little, too late. The water all around them exploded in a massive pillar of red wetness, the demon reacting just as Hibiki had anticipated. Because for how smart it was, it was still just a denizen of Hell, its instincts driving it to protect its controller first and foremost. Even the separated demonic claw had been pulverized by the explosion, but Bastion was nowhere to be found. That is, until she made her presence known with a strong grip upon Hibiki's left ankle, regrown demonic claw urging to pierce through flesh and bleed Hibiki out. Bastion glared with hatred as she was pulled along by the maid's swimming, raising her blade up to take Hibiki's leg with her. In addition to this, more of that same ooze was spilling from Bastion's demonic claw, the tar-like substance slowly creeping up Hibiki's leg to no doubt incapacitate her more.
"How!?" Hibiki was certain that she was going to be able to out swim Bastion and her tricks. Instead it seemed like Hibiki's explosion propelled Bastion straight towards HIbiki instead.
"I didn't want to do this, but now I have no choice!" Bastion was too close for Hibiki to shoot with her rifle, so instead she took out her pistol and aimed it at Bastion. While it looked like she was aiming for a headshot, Hibiki actually was going to shoot Bastion's arm, and then her legs. She needed to incapacitate her, and if Bastion was tough enough to surviving losing one arm, then she could afford to lose the others. One last thing that Hibiki also did however was take another bomb from her pouch, this one a special one; it was a bomb that could seal demons inside, but with two specific conditions: first it needs to fully form, which took a few seconds, and it had to make contact with the demon. Hibiki might not have a few seconds to live however, which is why she needed to shoot Bastion's arm. It was a race to see who could finish each other off faster now.
The only reply Hibiki would get from her opponent was a grunt of pain and a snarl of rage. Even with the bullets hitting her dead on, spilling her blood into the murky waters, her grip did not lessen. The ooze from her claw continued to seep upwards, clenching tightly as if to crush Hibiki in her armor. It hurt like hell, but Bastion continued her assault with jerky swings of her blade; now that her arms were filled with bullets, precision was going to be difficult to manage. But she wasn't looking for clean cuts; whatever sought to end Hibiki's life, she would take it as is. But suddenly the game changed with the reveal of Hibiki's bomb. Bastion narrowed her expression, knowing at least some of the anti-demonic weapons utilized thanks to Victoire's teachings. She would not let Hibiki live, yet capture was also not an option...so then, it was time to reveal why everyone wanted her in the first place.
At once her mismatched eyes began to shift in coloration and it was evident that something was wrong. Soon the orbs became a golden hue and at once it felt as if the pressure all around them had spiked significantly. But her sights were not on the armored mermaid but rather on the bomb held in her hand. All she had to do was concentrate....and at once, the bomb would implode on itself. Whether or not it would succeed in taking Hibiki out was left to be seen, but Bastion was confident in her durability to survive such an attack. After all, what better usage to experiment with her own, natural Golden Eyes of Destruction?
"Aaaah!" As she screamed in pain, Hibiki's mind processed everything as fast as it could. First, her bullets weren't doing nearly as much damage as she had wanted. That isn't too unexpected from a demon, many of the Machina weapons were useless against them. Hibiki could feel her leg getting compressed even more and more as she tried to get away, and by now she was certain that her foot was broken at least. But what made Hibiki really worried was when Bastion's eyes changed. Hibiki had heard tales of warriors from all factions having been blessed by whatever power that watches over the Nexus. Silver eyes that created armor and protected the use from harm. Golden eyes that made weapons and creates destruction for all. And Bastion had golden eyes.
Hibiki could not hesitate, and the race was not over yet. As soon as Hibiki felt the crushing sensation in her leg shift to her knee, HIbiki dropped her gun and took out her knife. But instead of trying to stab Bastion, Hibiki stabbed herself right above the knee. Activating the blasma cutters, in one swift motion Hibiki had cut off her leg, and freed herself from Bastion's grasp. But instead of using this chance to swim away Hibiki took her bomb and pressed it right into Bastion's chest. She didn't know what would happen first; for the bomb to be destroyed or for Bastion to be captured. If the bomb had gone off, there would be no explosion. Instead, Bastion would be engulfed in a red light, before dematerializing into data as it was absorbed into the bomb. Because it was not actually a bomb, but a pokeball.
But it was too little, too late. Bastion's eyes were already aimed at the bomb in Hibiki's hands, sealing its fate in a matter of moments. The maid was too slow, even if she did buy herself time with cutting her leg off, something that did catch Bastion off guard but ultimately did not deter her from her end goal. As such, her eyes flashed once before the bomb between the two of them exploded. Regardless of its features and functions, the Golden Eyes were meant to bring about destruction. And destruction it brought, the force from its rupturing core blowing both girls back in the water and leaving behind a heavy mist of bubbles and blood from Hibiki's severed leg.
Bad news, the bomb didn't work. Good news, Bastion was so focused on getting rid of her bomb that Hibiki at least was able to get close enough to use her arms to push against Bastion, making a bit of distance between the two. And with that distance, Hibiki activated her Stalker Cloak. Evidently capturing Bastion wasn't going to be easy. It seemed like the demons could see through all forms of stealth, and Hibiki had doubts that even her Stalker Cloak could hide her for long. But she was relying on it as Hibiki continued towards Gamma. With any luck most of her traps were still there, or at the very least there were some angel forces who could weaken Bastion. Morphing her legs into a singular, mermaid like fin, Hibiki also knew she was working off borrowed time. The plasma cauterized her wound so she won't bleed out, but if Hibiki didn't return to the contender soon she wasn't sure what was going to happen to her. And Hibiki couldn't die before Shizuka could kill the Leviathan.
"C'mon, let's play!" Hibiki thought to herself. And play Bastion would, the demon rocketing forward to where she could somewhat sense Hibiki's presence. The maid had turned insivible through some kind of technology so the demonic warrior had to rely on instinct to locate the mermaid. As such, she had only a rough estimate to where Hibiki was; but that didn't matter in the end. Eyes gleaming gold ever still, she began to detonate the water in front of her, smirking in victory as plumes of space began to ruprture, water colliding in on itself and bubbles foaming. It didn't matter if she could see Hibiki or not because as long as the maid was in fact in front of her, she could detonate the area all she liked, keeping pace with the invisible enemy.
Of course as soon as she turned invisible, Hibiki did everything in her power to get away from her. She stayed no where in front of Bastion and instead swam towards the edge of Gamma, back towards that rock formation that she was at before to snipe Victoire. Here Parum set up a few traps hidden among the rocks. She knew that if she revealed herself there, Bastion would just use her Golden Eyes to destroy the entire rock formation. But if she hid some bombs in the cracks, then even if they did get destroyed then they could still blow up in Bastion's face. Hibiki made holy bombs specifically, the ones that weaken a demon when they get caught in the blast. Bastion was already wounded, and all Hibiki needed to do now was weaken her further to capture her. There was also the ruins around the altar that Hibiki could try and lead Bastion towards, but she knew she didn't have enough time on her stalker cloak to get there, lay traps, and come back. She did spread a few more bombs hidden in the sand and a few more that Hibiki could drop at a moment's notice.
The last thing that Hibiki did was set up her last Bastion turret. It was a twisted irony that Hibiki's own turrent is named the same as the girl she was fighting. But she didn't spend too much time dwelling on it. Manually controlling the turret through her HUD, she had the turret fire towards Bastion to get her attention. Hibiki was floating just a few yards away and her stalker cloak was about to run out. Once she got Bastion's attention, Hibiki would run away again and lead Bastion through her traps. Even so, it would be cutting it close as Bastion was right on her despite the distance between them. The possibility of Hibiki's traps being destroyed through Bastion's eyes were very real given the demonic soldier was firing every which way and wherever her sight landed on was a prime target. Yet when she saw Hibiki finally reveal herself, she ceased in her rampage to rocket forward and strike with blade in hand. The bullets of the turret would be deflected by Bastion's weapon but given her damaged state, she could not block all of them. Thus she growled as bullets grazed her form, zipping about in rage right after Hibiki, unaware of the traps laid in set for her.
HIbiki continued to fire at Bastion until Bastion ran across the first set of traps; the holy water. It would burn Bastion's demonic essence and weaken her, perhaps not much, but certainly enough for the next part of the trap to work. As the water around Bastion turned into a milky white due to the holy water, bright flashes of holy light would fry her vision. These were the same bombs Hibiki had set up at the altar, and because Bastion was a demon, she would find those abilities crippled to the point of uselessness. Perhaps not for long, but Hibiki only needed some time. The next bombs that went off was a simple net bomb. Made of a para-aramid synthetic fiber, it would be strong enough to hold even Grafdakka. It was specially designed to be most resistant against cutting and slashing. But Hibiki worried it won't be enough, so she moved in. She hoped that Bastion had been sufficiently blinded by Hibiki's bomb, and used her Bastion Turret to cover any possible sound Hibiki would make as she swam towards Bastion to capture her once more. Hibiki had two ready to use, and in her other hand she had another holy water bomb in case Bastion was still fighting. Once Shizuka was close enough to throw the bomb, but far away enough not to get struck by Bastion's blade, she tossed the bomb to capture Bastion.
"Grrnn!" growled Bastion, a mix of pain and rage echoing in her voice. She couldn't even use her Golden Eyes due to her vision sinking in a seat of white, both from the holy water and the holy grenades. An assault on her senses taking place, all Bastion could do was flail around in place to hack and slash whatever was nearby. But soon even that would be restricted thanks to the net keeping her arms pinned to her side and the rest of her limbs in place. Blinded and unable to move, the best she could do was snarl in hate, whipping her head to and fro in the efforts to spot Hibiki. Such actions were meaningless, Bastion unaware how close Hibiki was to her until it was too late. With a gasp, she found the capturing bomb make contact with her flesh. At once she knew that the battle had come to a close. She had lost.
Hibiki sighed in relief as she managed to capture Bastion. However her vision was starting to get blurry. She had worked up quite a lot of energy trying to capture Bastion, and she was still down a leg. Her mermaid tail at least prevented her from bleeding out, but she was exhausted. But alas, Hibiki couldn't rest yet. Putting the captured Bastion inside her bomb pouch, Hibiki tried to swim as fast as she could back to the Contender. She could see the giant meteor in the sky when she surfaced, which no doubt was meant for the leviathan. Not wanting to get caught in that mess, Hibiki would have to try and swim through Gamma, Eta, and then into Theta, where hopefully the Machina forces have already captured. She sent out a one-way distress signal to the Contender to alert them of her approach.
"Contender, this is Hibiki Meido. I have reclaimed the Queen's treasure. I'm currently in the Gamma sector and on my way to Theta. Please send assistance if you can, I'm severely wounded. Over." @Flamelord@TheWindel
