The 42nd Gecko

The War of the Three

@KoL Honestly, I'm not sure what I'll do with my downtime. I'm already wrapping up the better part of three character development collabs.

The War of the Three

@KoL@TheWindel Go ahead and close the battle out, Atarah certainly can't deflect a meteor. Unless Maen or something shows up to save her.

The War of the Three

Titanica and Zyata

Several hours had passed since the incident at the Oblivion Dungeon and Titanica is still looming at large. Since escaping from the hellhole that seemed to be her prison, the vassal has traveled over ten miles just by walking alone and only taking very few light breaks in between. Where she is going, no one would really know. The scent she has smelled way before has virtually disappeared. Was her target destroyed by someone? Did it disappear into another dimension? She doesn't know. All she knows now is that she is alone and awake, walking aimlessly as she tries to figure out what to do next. There's no way she's going to get herself involved with the pathetic war that has been continuing since the dawn of time, especially since Iona and Helena had rudely jumped on her while trying to persuade her into joining a side. She chose neither...

Her answer? A fight... and one that she lost due to her repulsive nature.

That wretched anger of vengeance still flairs from within Titanica's reactor-like heart, yet already the vassal beginning to loose steam. At last, she's finally beginning to calm down, granted its only slight, but its progress none the less. She can always go back to sleep for another who knows how many centuries, yet her eyes refuse to be shut for more then a few seconds. She might as well take a stroll down the Nexus and see what's going on since she last woke up.

Her trek has lead her to a thick jungle environment, one thick with foliage and full of wildlife. The sounds of life echo around the vassal naturally as she continues walking alongside the edges of the forest. Of course, some of these noises were in fact distressed screeches, alerting the nearby residents of her arrival. After all, Titanica's aura was thick, a scent which would burn the nostrils of those sensitive towards it. No doubt would it attract attention from within, for the better... or worse...

---

"Hmmmmm..." Zyata smiled, her tail wagging back and forth through the air as she sighted down the barrel. ~Dunno what this fool is doing messing around near the edges of the Amazonian jungle, but she'll soon find herself a pretty prize back at the market or maybe even the Colosseum!~ Zyata prayed that this might be the big prize that elevated her status higher than practically a Maiden. Concealed in brush, she aimed for Titanica's legs, waiting with all the silent breathless patience of a born killer. One who couldn't quite convince her tail to stop wiggling.

BLAM PING SQWUAK!

Zyata's eyes went wide as her bullet bounced off Titanica without the slightest effect. A mere measily mortal bullet is virtually unable to harm the vassal, let alone her kind. Her tough skin not only allows the bullet to bounce off effortlessly, she didn't even seem to notice that it actually hit her.

And then a harpy fell out of the sky between them, slamming into the ground and immediately dying, while one torn off wing slowly wafted after it. The vassal stops dead in her tracks as she glowers her eyes down at the dead bird. She moves her eyes up to see a humanoid-kitty aiming her gun at Titanica herself. She looks down at the character while her eyes seemed to twitch angrily as she flares her white-sharp teeth with a sinister-sounding growl

"Uh... Um... Harpy? They taste just like chicken." Zyata smiled her best nervous smile as she pointed her gun upwards, to try and play it off that she had fired at the Harpy, and not the immensely strong beast that could probably kill her with a stare.

Titanica slowly takes several steps towards the humanoid until she can look almost directly down at Zyata. Her grimance glare eyes the cat carefully, yet before one may suspect in the creature utterly demolishing the poor hunter-now-turned-victim, the vassal speaks to her in a low voice.

"What do you want..." she growls in annoyance as her tail sweeps away excess foliage away, creating a tiny clearing within the thick brush.

"Well... Ah.. Um... Right this moment... To continue living. If that wouldn't be too much trouble." Zyata was all to used to acting cocky... but this particular situation was definitely out of her league, and she shouldered her rifle as she put her hands up as non-aggressively as she could manage. "I'm also trying to gather enough wealth or prestige or mechanically inclined captives to get some indoor plumbing and a hot tub. Harpy doesn't sound bad actually for lunch, I'm a mite peckish. It'd be nice if I was better respected, and I enjoy a good hunt... But ah, those are more, long term goals." Zyata rear leg shifted a little bit backwards, but she tried to restrain herself from fleeing. That'd just be asking Titanica to chase.

"Er is uh.. there anything you want? Maybe I could help you find something? You're clearly stronger than me, but I know this jungle like the back of my tail! It's not every Amazon that dares hunt alone when they're not strong enough to chuck mountains at people." Zyata refocused the conversation as best she could.

The vassal continues to remain silent after Zayata's first paragraph of words, only uttering a deep and guttural growling noise as she continues looking down at her. However, then the cat woman asked if there was anything she wanted at all. That's when Titanica remained silent for a while, with only the sound of a deep exhale through her nostrils. She seemed almost conflicted, as she pauses to think on why she was awake in the first place. Another snort raises from her nose as she slowly begins to turn away.

"I'm... looking for something." she responds bluntly as she slowly begins walking away, "None of your business, cat woman."

"But I just said I could help you find something! Mhhr." Zyata harrumphed, complaining that Titanica wasn't listening to her. Before realizing, oh, if Titanica didn't want to continue paying attention to her, then that meant she was free to go! Zyata started tiptoing away in the other direction, heading for the Harpy. Lunch was lunch after all.

But after Zyata cut off the leg that looked more delicious, she turned back to Titanica slowly fading form (she was an easy person to spot after all). ~That's the most interesting thing I've had to hunt.. Ever.. Am I really letting that slip by me? You hardly live up to your precious Tiger Totem if you let one little lizard scare you away.~ Snatching the leg up between her teeth, Zyata started stalking Titanica from within the treeline, leaping from branch to branch, timing her take off and landings to match Titanica's steps and mask the little noise the lithe tiger woman made. She didn't really know whether that would help, strong people usually had crazy sensory abilities, but it'd at least make Zyata feel like she was hunting and not tagging along.

Even if the Vassal realized that it was being followed, she didn't quite care at this point. Right now she's exhausted from the encounters at Oblivion Dungeon as the rage begins to shed off her skin. Titanica just needs to rest for a few moments before continuing on with her quest. Maybe a nice warm hot springs will help her regain her strength. She has seen a large volcano nearby so it should house a spring or two right...?

Indeed, after walking for just a little longer, she finally reaches the base of the volcano and spots a large natural hot springs with steam raising from the clear natural waters. This place is perfect for her to hunker down for a bit. With an exhausted groan, she approaches the springs as her tail simply drags tiredly behind her. Titanica takes the time to shed her reptilian-esque garments, revealing both a solidly chiseled and curvy figure, as if she can show any more of her skin already. She dips her foot into the water, sighing as the warm tingly sensation floods her entire body. She hasn't entered a hot springs in several cycles, as well as being much more used to the cold temperatures of the ocean. The Vassal submerges her entire body into the water for a few seconds before rising as she snorts out the hot water. She then turns her body to the center and lays her back calmly on the edge of the pool, with the tip of the tail waving stiffly out from the water.

Another guttural sigh purrs her lips as she closes her eyes and begins to rest up, seemingly unaware of Zayata's presence nearby.

"Calm"

Titanica would find it difficult to maintain being either unaware or seemingly unaware of Zyata's presence as a "BANZAI!" rang out and a naked Zyata cannonballed into the hot spring with a mighty splash. Well, mighty at least in comparison to her size, rather less so than if Titanica decided to make some waves.

"Haaa, you were just looking for a hot spring?" Zyata doggy paddled over to Titanica once she surfaced with a gasp, with all the small irony that contained. "I could have easily helped with that, though, admittedly, you found a pretty good one yourself. I give this one 4 out of 5. I consider myself a connoisseur of warm waters!" Zyata took a spot nearby Titanica on the edge on the edge, and gave a self-aggrandizing flourish towards herself as she said the word "connoisseur". It gave out of her mouth a little bungled, probably the word being a little bigger than her education accounted for and she was trying to sound fancy. Still, it seems Titanica's ease had lightened the mood up a little for Zyata to be a little more of her outgoing self and less of a cat in the headlights.

But just before Titanica can get situated into her environment, she suddenly sees Zayata jumping into the pool with her while yelling at the top of her lungs. As she cannonballs into the spring, the hot water flushed over the Vassal as she sat perfectly still. The warm water seemed to have refreshed her face a bit and thankfully none got into her eyes. All she simply does is sigh in utter disappointment. Can people just stop finding or following her for one damn second?

She seemed to completely ignore the cat's response as she began swimming in the water and rating this place a nice 4 out of 5. Yet Titanica suddenly realized something... this person is a cat basically. Does that mean...?

"Doesn't your kind utterly HATE water...?" the Vassal asks with a hint of sass.

Zayata looks up in annoyance.

"I am a Tiger, not a house cat!" she retorts right back as she kicks back on the rocks, "Tigers love water... I think."

The Vassal squints at the so-called "Tiger" in heavy suspicion as she eyes her carefully.

"Define... you THINK?" she asks in a disgusted fashion as her lips flared briefly before dying down.

The cat seemed to hesitate for a bit, looking down at the water with a shameful glance on her face. She appeared to be hiding something...

"Well?" coaxed the Vassal with an eyebrow of slight curiosity.

"Uhh..." hesitated Zayata briefly while fidgeting lightly and biting her thumb, "Don't tell anyone this.. But I've never actually met a tiger."

Another sigh exhales from Titanica's mouth as she simply rolls her eyes.

"Well what are you then?" the Vassal asks unmovingly as she continues sitting where she is with her tail slowly swaying in the winds.

"I.. Uh, well, I'm an Amazon.. And, well, I really liked the tigers in the comics and images I occasionally got.. So, er.. I tried this one ritual I found in a book supposed to "Tie one to one's Totem Animal" and thought about tigers a lot, and, bam.. Here I am. Still haven't met an actual tiger yet." Zyata explained her... not exactly the most auspicious origin story, not looking the most happy with her. It wasn't all that super dramatic or amazing. Or really, anything that interesting at all. It was the absence of interesting. But still, she resolved more cheerily! "But, er! I like being a sorta tiger. The power's neat, and the tail's great. Love the tail. I'll meet one someday, I'm sure of it."

"Sooo.. What about you?" Zyata looked curiously back at Titanica, after being shyly introspective for a moment. "I mean, you've got the whole lizard.. or dinosaur maybe? thing going on. Are you a Totem Animal user too or something?"

The War of the Three

@KoL Same battlefield. Aka, she doesn't get to fire if she's not in the battle, or if dead, or something like that.

Oh wait, thought you were talking about the revenge fire.

As for with her allies for the normal function.. Er, I dunno, same range as her sister's aoe buffs I suppose.

The War of the Three

Honestly, Reflect Thy Boon was an ability I suggested, because it doesn't give Angels the ability to counter Machina, it just gives Angels the ability to make Machina vulnerable to demons again. It reinstates the Machina -> Angels -> Demons -> Machina, rather than the current Angels -> Demons <- Machina -> Angels. But it doesn't help the angel at all in a direct fight with Machina.

But, I can see why you don't like it. There are better ways to try and correct how Machina currently trump Demons.

~~

"When Tsukuyomi draws back an arrow, a mirror arrow is created near each ally that stands (or as is more often the case flies) with her, allowing her to turn everyone in her company into an archer. When performing an arrow barrage like this, while including anyone who is not her sister, Tsukuyomi cannot enchant any of these arrows. If the only partners involved are her sisters, she can still enchant them. When one of her sisters perishes, Tsukuyomi is made aware of what killed them, and can fire arrows through her link with her sisters and the nature of death, from the tip of her bow to the space within a meter or so of her sister for one vengeance barrage. This bow is summoned by her heart whenever Tsukuyomi makes to draw back an arrow with it."

When Tsukuyomi fires an arrow, she can fire another arrow from each of her sisters. She can also choose to fire another arrow from each ally period, but loses the ability to enchant the arrows (so, presumably, she gets a storm of ordinary arrows that can mess up unarmored targets but plink pointlessly off armored ones.) If a sister dies, she can fire one barrage of arrows from near her sister's body towards the murderer. Tsukuyomi doesn't carry the bow around all the time, but it shows up whenever she wants it, keyblade style, as she's summoning the half of her heart she sealed away before reincarnating.

~~

@KoL@TheWindel

The War of the Three

Atarah

"Yeah! Go dragon! Hmm.. Better do something about that.." Atarah cheered on the dragon as it attacked, before seeing Saef begin to charge an attack. Looked light based. Atarah smiled.

Serah transformed into a lance, and rocks swirled around her, forming a bigger and bigger lance, and when Saef launched his attack, Atarah jumped to the Rose Dragon's snout and shoved Serah forward, activating her Soft Shadow Style as she did. The Soft Shadow Style that had been created precisely to defeat hard light.

The majority of Saef's meter wide laser deflected off Atarah's Magnetic Aura, hitting neither her nor the Rose Dragon. By choosing to hide layers upon layers within his spell, rather than simply making the whole thing one holy laser, Saef had unknowingly weakened his attack against Atarah, who had specific counters to both light and hard light. The hard light spikes would be destroyed with hardly any impact at all, Atarah's Soft Shadow Style specifically countering them, weakening their nature and shattering them apart as Atarah thrust her lance forward to meet the beam. Only the flares of holy light a moment later would have any effect, but Serah's giant ablative barrier of rock she had formed around herself absorbed those. And those holy light flashes were the weakest of the three parts of the spell, Saef having made them last and not 100% sure of their detonation with full fury.

All in all, only one third of Saef's attack would have any effect at all, and holy power vs rock, while it broke the rock away from Serah's control, and shattered the extra layer of the lance, Atarah had countered Saef's attack for a comparable pittance of effort. And even if the whole beam had been holy light, it still would have been an even trade of energy, as Holy countered Demons, but Atarah countered Light.

Unless Farris intervened, the Rose Dragon would suck in the blood free of interference. "You'll have to try a little harder than that, Pretty boy! You'll need to fight me face to face if you want to breach my defense!" Atarah taunted Saef, still standing on the snout of the Rose Dragon, blood swirling around her into its maw.

@KoL@Silvan Haven

Edit for those from the Future: Turns out the entire attack was holy, so Atarah loses Serah and an arm off of this, in return for blocking the attack.

The War of the Three

Atarah

"Haha, yeah, good job Serah. Take thaaa--oh shit!" Atarah was fist pumping Serah's good job at impaling the machina, but then suddenly backing off as he started to rise and attack. This guy seemed as durable as her! How was he.. Oh, good, now he's dead.

Well, might as well feed the dragon, right? This guy seemed pretty strong, so he had to have good blood. And that dragon was just a bundle of roses so it'd still feed on blood, right? "Dragon, second breakfast! Gotta get strong so you can kill all the Angels and Machina for.. Vampire Lady. I'm not sure I caught her name." She said as she grabbed the corpse and jumped up into the air, Serah bringing up rocks for her to stand upon. Not useful in battle, as someone could destroy the rock and hose her, but alright for just getting an extra thing to jump on.

Upon landing on the Rose Dragon, she squeezed with her magnetic enhanced arms to get all the blood out of that powered armor man, onto the Rose Dragon, before tossing him over the side. Even if that didn't work, maybe it'd still sprinkle onto the ground below? Then she hung on for the ride.

@KoL@Awesomoman64

The Enlightened War

Looks like it, but without anyone to compare or fight against, well, not all that much point.

The War of the Three

Atarah

If Wolf fell prey to the Dragon's attack slamming him against the ground, he would find his situation considerably worsened by the Lance he landed on. Atarah had been moving low to the ground using the mist for cover and following the Rose Dragon, and now contributed her own spice to the Rose Dragon's attack. Wolf's only warning would be the magic of Serah transforming from egg form to lance form and Atarah activating Soft Shadow Style to create a weakpoint just before impact, thanks to his magic detection. On her own, Atarah barely exuded any magic whatsover when her skin wasn't deflecting stuff, due to her nature as a harpy, a creature with almost no innate magic beyond flight. Which Atarah didn't possess.

The combined force of all the multifarious parts of the attacks would probably leave Wolf in terrible shape if he didn't dodge some of them. Albeit, not as bad as it could be as Atarah had Serah transform into a lance slightly away from herself, rather than thrusting up from below to maximize her power. She didn't want to be flattened by a falling Wolf, because even if she successfully impaled Wolf, there would still be a hulking suit of power armor travelling very quickly towards herself, and she didn't trust her magnetic deflection enough for that.

@KoL@Awesomoman64

The Enlightened War

@Old Amsterdam Fair enough.