Yankee

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Winterhold College - the Feast Begins

Ace - Level: 9 - Total EXP: 543/90
Level 7 Heismay (70/70)
Word Count: 3096 (+4 exp)

With the awestrikingly awful Godhead Fred in Sectonia and Blazermate’s capable hands, Heismay and the Ace Cadet stood ready to assist Sandalphon with whatever opponents the Cryptic Overseer conjured up next. The archangel still had plenty of cats scattered around the Dice Room’s edges that could be convinced to fight for their lives if need be, and bystanders like Byleth and Thops would not stand idly by if new threats emerged. Sandalphon much preferred to call upon members of her team, however, though such skilled weaponmasters were valuable assets to have. There was no telling how long they would be able to wait around before the college’s skeletal mastermind grew irate enough to dump more foes on them, so rather than risk incurring the Overseer’s anger, Sandalphon decided to take the initiative and roll the dice again herself. “No time to rest,” she advised Ace and Heismay as the cubes clattered across the floor. “Prepare for battle.”

Five, two, two, zero, zero, and three. “Room twelve, comin’ right up!” the Overseer crowed. “The Dinin’ Hall. That spiky blond kid and his uncle were too yella to try my feast event, and they sure didn’t round up all them ingredients Mergwin wanted, neither. But I don’t mind bringin’ a little feast to you!”

Another tear opened in the fabric of reality, and through it trundled a huge, bloated figure clad in once-fine clothes, with a many of greasy yellowish hair surrounding a once-fine face. “The king commands it!” he bellowed, his fleshy jowls quivering as he stretched his heavy arms wide. Behind him came four masked fae warriors, two spear-wielding soldiers and two archers. Glowing, gossamer wings like iridescent ribbons in the wind stretched out as they took to the air. “Let the feast begin!”

Ace had expected another monstrosity, and in a sense the Feastmaster was one. Big, revolting, and at least partly mutated - his eyes and most of his nose grown over with excess wrinkled and mottled skin. It would be hard to mistake him for one of the innocent victims of the college's transformative curses. For the Cadet, the man's appearance brought to mind so strongly the ravenous, repulsive guests aboard The Maw that it momentarily took the hunter aback. Though even then, made into near helpless children, he, Nadia, and the rest of the Seekers hadn't balked from facing them to get through the horrible ship. Once the White Team got through this equally terrible maze, Ace would find it a little funny that things seemed to have come for circle for him.

"We'll handle these, boss!" Ace called back to Sandalphon so she could ready herself to roll again. He still had his sword and shield equipped, so as the fae warriors got their bearings and prepared to attack the Cadet glanced at Heismay and said, "cover me?"

He knew that the eugief was not limited only to that scythe, but wasn't sure how long either of his archetypes lasted. If they had to swap covering duties then they'd swap, but for now as the spear wielders dove towards them Ace moved forward and a few steps over to draw both fae over to stab their weapons at him. The spear heads crashed against the Master Bang's shield. Ace pulled it back in towards his body to let the warriors' momentum bring them just a little closer before they corrected themselves, then spun to push the spears to one side and swing the blade in his other hand at the closer of the fae.

Put off balance by the deflection and more eager to recompose themselves than attack, the fae flitted backward like gnats to avoid Ace’s retaliatory strike. Their aerial dashes were fairly short and telegraphed, though, which provided Heismay the perfect chance to act on his initial plan. “Gunner!” After sidestepping an archer’s arrow, he launched a bolt of his own as his long-range archetype. The Sleep Shot caught one of the fae soldiers in the shoulder and dropped him in a fit of overwhelming magic-induced drowsiness, giving Ace the opportunity to either strike a critical blow on him or focus on the other soldier.

The other archer, waiting for the hunter to open himself up with an arcane arrow nocked, pivoted to fire at Heismay. It would have struck the Gunner’s head if Heismay did not revert to normal, then launch himself at the archer like a living bullet with Vauban’s agility. As he hurtled past the surprised archer, his scythe hooked around the fae’s neck, and though it didn’t carve through his armor it did allow Heismay to drag his target to the ground. In a matter of moments, half of the fae were vulnerable.

A second later, sadly, the Feastmaster charged in. “Don’t mind if I do!” Each step shook the ground as he bulled straight through the melee, scattered fae and Seekers alike, then came to a stop with an ungainly roll and slammed both fists into the floor where Ace had been the second prior. “Eat…this!” THUD! “Haha!”

The shockwave from the slam sent both Ace and the archer tumbling, freeing the latter from the scythe’s grip. With surprising speed, however, the fae recovered and darted upward on ethereal wings. He loosed an arrow that pierced Heismay’s leg and elicited a pained grunt. With his ability to dodge weakened, the eugief barely avoided a follow-up killshot aimed at his head.

The monster hunter's recovery came a beat later. He considered the situation seriously now that they had a better sense of what these enemies could do. Light and agile faeries, heavy and likely durable man, all varied in how they moved and attacked... Ace didn't want to use any of his items that could negatively interfere with the other battle in the Dice Room, let alone put his battle partner Heismay at a disadvantage by mistake again. His options were kind of limited, and with how quick these fae were there wasn't a lot of time to safely swap to his own bow or one of the bowguns. So what should he do? Probably something foolhardy to give Heismay the chance to regroup so they could start taking these fliers down before focusing on the feast master.

At least there was a way to increase his range right now. Ace raised his arm and fired the clutch claw at the airborne archer. It dodged by darting to the side, but that was sort of expected. With a flick the pieces of the claw interlocked to form the crude anchor shape, and with another the new weapon and its chain was swung about. It was long enough to reach all of the fae unless they flew ever higher, and even if they dodged the anchor they would still be at risk of being tangled in the chain. "And there's moored where that came from!"

In his bid to draw the fae's attentions while swatting them, Ace hadn't forgotten about the feast master. He kept an eye on the man's movement, ready to pull the chain and slam the anchor down on him instead.

Ace’s anchor swipe hit multiple fae, and even managed to snag the bow of one archer, which tugged the fae through the air as he refused to relinquish his grip. With the soldiers still rattled by the Feastmaster’s intrusion, the attack left them scattered, though the big man himself wasn’t as easily cowed. He stomped toward the hunter in order to deliver a series of three massive hook punches, each overswing clumsy but nigh-unstoppable. “Have! A! Taste!”

Meanwhile, Heismay cartwheeled in order to evade the other archer’s shots without putting too much weight on his leg. This situation, outnumbered five to two with a variety of dangerous opponents, was a tricky one, but the eugief kept his head. This time, he didn’t forget the ace up his sleeve that could tip the scales in his favor. “Foul one!” he cried, calling forth his new striker. An obsidian pool, not unlike Oblivion’s Ingress itself, welled up beneath him, followed by the hulking, ghoulish Exemplar. Heismay rose atop its grotesque form, perched on its stooped neck just above its iron mask with its headless torso among the protruding ribs behind him. It reared up, flinging Heismay into the air, and cast Prelude to both blight the archer and pull him toward it. As it hurtled forward, Heismay met it halfway, and this time his scythe’s blade sheared through the archer’s neck.

Heismay landed the next moment, light on his feet enough that his wounded leg didn’t agonize him. One down, three to go. Better still, the unexpected arrival of the Exemplar distracted both fae soldiers and the remaining archer, if not the Feastmaster. “You three are next!” Heismay called ominously with a flourish of his bloody scythe, hoping to taunt the underlings in order to let his ally focus on the head honcho.

When the feast master had rumbled towards Ace, the anchor came down onto the massive man's head just as planned. It pulled the last archer with it, slamming the two enemies together, but that was not enough to stop the brute's advance. His first punch connected cleanly with a heavy crack that shoved the Cadet off balance enough for the second blow to land too, but the hunter was sturdy. He brought the shield up in time to stop the third punch, though even the feast master's bare fist striking solid metal didn't seem to phase him.

"Not really my cup of tea!" Ace told the man as he yanked his slinger arm back before retracting the chain, which would send the fae archer's bow flying away if not the archer itself if it still stubbornly refused to let go. Now that they'd traded and it was Heismay doing the distracting, Ace was going to give the feast master everything he had.

He went right into a not easily repelled sword dance, slicing up, down, and around the bloated man's body, alternating cuts with stabs to pile damage on. The halo of nekron even glowed briefly, its bone wyvern visage slithered out and straight through the feast master for the chance to apply the three fold effect of weakening the man's attack and defense while powering up its wearer.

“Urk!” The Feastmaster stumbled, beset by the flurry of nimble slashes as he tried to swat Ace away. When the ghostly wyvern surged into him, he slid backward toward the fae contending with Heismay, his arms crossed in front of his face. “Hrrgh…” Even without eyes, the Feastmaster seemed to glare. “You’ve bitten off more than you can chew, boy!” He reached up, plucked one of the fae soldiers from the air like a bunch of grapes from the vine, and decapitated the thrashing wraith with a single messy bite. Heismay gaped in shock for a split second, then leaped away as the other soldier thrust at him.

Ignoring the others, the Feastmaster licked his lips. “Mm-mm! Does a body good!” He hurled the still-wriggling headless corpse at Ace, then held his victim’s broken spear like a dagger to pick his teeth with as he sauntered forward, his wounds quickly closing. “Now for the main course!” He threw himself into the air and descended upon Ace with a massive belly flop.

That at least was easier to see coming than the psuedo-cannibalism, which had surprised Ace long enough for the fae's body to collide with him. He caught it awkwardly after impact instead of falling over, and was quick to toss it one way and then roll another out from under the feast master. He was still caught by the shock wave generated from the huge weight, tumbling over once before getting to his feet. The feast master really was like the people aboard the Maw, but with the ability to actually fight for his meals he was even worse.

"Heismay, can you take those things down before this guy goes back for seconds?" Ace called to the eugief. It was either that or the hunter would have to defeat the feast master while preventing him from chowing down on anyone else, other enemies included. He got started again with a shield bash to the glutton's face while he moved to get up, followed by another round of blade work, circling back to position the feast master on the far side of the rest of the action.

Heismay deflected an arrow with a well-timed scythe parry and replied. “...Working on it!”

“No no, don’t do that!” the Feastmaster objected to the hunter’s plan. “A man’s got to eat! …Gah!” The shield bash made him see stars for a second or two, and he held a hand to his face as he tried to dull Ace’s onslaught with his other arm. After a moment, and a few more painful wounds, the Feastmaster lurched forward to attack. Rather than punch Ace’s shield, however, he grabbed hold and yanked it (and the attached hunter) toward him to rip a big chunk out of one side with his teeth. “Bah!” He spat the hunk of metal out. “Too much iron content!” His other hand crudely jammed the spearhead into Ace’s armored midsection, then clamped down on his head, and with a loud grunt the Feastmaster flung the monster hunter into the nearby wall he’d been backing toward.

As Ace slumped down the wall, he got a brief glimpse of Heismay cutting down the other fae soldier as the Assassin before turning to hurl a Mudo at the other archer, who’d just retrieved his bow. When the Feastmaster sensed Ace still alive and kicking, he nodded in approval. “You’ve got guts!” His stomach gurgled as his throat began to swell. “Here’s something from mine!” After another second, a glob of indescribable, half-digested matter hurtled the hunter’s way.

Ace shook the daze off just in time, though when he raised his shield to block he didn't take into account the damage that had just been done to it, the bite too fresh and fight too hectic. Part of the vomited projectile splashed through the missing part and struck the Cadet's shoulder, and he suppressed a gag while pushing to his feet. The sword and shield was far less effective when one half of it was compromised, but with one flier left and a little bit of distance between him and the feast master he could swap equipment more easily now. And the weapon he chose was the bolt action rifle.

He trusted Heismay to handle the archer, but that didn't mean he couldn't make it a little easier for the eugief. He slapped something into his slinger as insurance, then took his first shot at the flying fae. He aimed to drop it out of the sky, either from the bullet shredding through its shimmery wings or the fae itself ducking low enough to avoid the shot that it was within Heismay's immediate range. If the feast master took that opportunity to close in on the hunter then all the better, as he swung the barrel of the Breechshot the man's way next, unloading shots that started at center mass and steadily moved up as Ace's aim stabilized.

By now, Ace was far enough away from Heismay’s one-on-one that his shots flew wide, not quite hitting the archer but deterring his teammate from approaching. The diversion also gave the Feastmaster a chance to close the distance before he could take too much punishment from the Breechshot. Before the hunter’s gunfire reached his target’s head, the Feastmaster pushed forward with a belly bash meant to slam Ace against the wall behind him again. “Bon appetit!” In the background, Heismay became the Gunner to engage the final fae in a shootout. At the very least, the Feastmaster probably wouldn’t be eating him - which was what they’d needed to ensure to prevent any other healing.

Expecting the feast master to try and get close, Ace dove out of the way of the charge. He covered his dive with another shot, though even the rifle's ammo couldn't punch completely through the blubbery body. The feast master extracted himself from the hole in the wall he'd created and turned toward Ace, where he did the next thing that the hunter expected him to: open his mouth to spew another one liner. They were pretty good, Ace had to admit, but even the pun lover wasn't in the mood to listen to much more of them.

Ace thrust the slinger forward and it flung its small payload of a single sonic bomb into the feast master's gaping maw. "How's that for mouth feel?" the Cadet said as it detonated a moment later. The tiny bits of shrapnel were nothing compared to the high pitched frequency, muted to everyone else in the Dice Room but perhaps even more intense for the glutton than if it had gone off next to his ear. Ace was counting on it to stun the giant long enough for him to unload as many shots as possible, and he got started as soon as it activated. What the Breechshot's lacked in rate of fire it made up for in power, and the hunter shot everything at the feast master's doughy head this time.

With the Feastmaster doubled over as he clutched his ears, howling in pain, every shot found its mark. Each blast from the Breechshot punched a hole in the brute’s threadbare outfit and sallow skin. As murky, unhealthy-looking fluid drained from Feastmaster’s body, so too did his strength, until finally he fell to his knees with a guttural groan. “Aaaaaagh…” Having clamped both hands to his face early on, he now lowered them wearily to see them stained with blood. “Oh. That’s not good.” With his last bit of hope he turned to see Heismay fell the archer he’d poisoned with a stroke from his scythe, prompting the Feastmaster to hang his head in defeat. “So…uncivilized…”

He would have perished from his wounds over the next few minutes, but the Seekers couldn't afford to wait long when every roll of the dice brought in new threats and thus potential meals. One final burst from the gun's barrel put an end to the mutated gourmet, and with all the fae handily dealt with Ace quickly regrouped with Heismay, letting out a breath of relief and offering the smaller man a "nice work."

They were banged up, but they were alive - and ready to take on their next duty in order to see everyone out of the college.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Power Stone Games: Extra Stage

Friday Morning
Location: Esaka's Mid-Tier, Forbidden Kingdom
Word Count: 1336 (+3 exp)

Therion, Rika, & Juri
^{@Yankee@DracoLunaris@Zoey Boey}

With break time over and no Seekers but Juri dropping out just yet, the remaining four filtered out from under the tents and back into the park to pick their next battlegrounds. The brief respite from the morning's persistent cold drizzle made it all the more miserable to walk back out into, at least for Therion, so when the clerk of the park's gift shop waved at potential fighters to head on inside for something special he did just that. Of course he wasn’t the only one drawn in, swiftly followed by Rika.

The shopkeeper gestured to a large poster on the wall that listed various items, from different kinds of hand held food to weaponry like guns, swords, and flamethrowers. There were even various magic wands listed alongside all manner of strange equipment - with a small fee printed beside every single one.

“Get a headstart on your next match by buying an item to start off with. Maybe even two, because you never know how far that first one is going to get you!”

Though grateful for getting out of the rain again, Therion couldn’t help but scoff at the sales pitch. A production like this did need to make money somehow, and donations probably weren’t cutting it, he figured.

“Better be quick with your shopping though,” the red head continued as she moved behind the counter. “The next round is starting in just two minutes!”

Mel snapped her fingers and one of the shop’s walls creaked before sliding up into the ceiling to reveal a much larger back room. Normally this might be where one could expect the shop’s extra stock to be stored, but rather than rows of shelving it was a more open space with crates and chests scattered around. On one side were steel pipes connected to a boiler that ran up the nearest wall and criss crossed overhead, sturdy looking enough that they could feasibly be hung or swung from. That however was second to the live tree that was inexplicably growing up through the center of the floor, its roots splintering the wood around its base and its branches expertly trimmed to only spread so high and so far. In one corner there was a camera that would broadcast the place to a screen outside so spectators could get their fill of whatever chaotic events happened indoors.

“Welcome to~ a special extra stage!”

Juri, sitting back on a building nearby, watched the events ongoing displayed on said TV. Like always, she was invisible, though she had enough and wanted to go back inside. As she stood up, her mechanical eye spotted something interesting in the crowd. Several powerful fighters. Not just Low Tier scrubs following the excitement like sheep. In particular, Juri recognized Bryan Fury. What a nut job. Juri could accept that, coincidentally, some powerful fighters might pay a pity visit to the Power Stone Games. Him in particular made her think that the Seekers had gotten the attention they were really after. Pivoting from her goal of annoying everyone around her and entertaining herself, while the others kept going, Juri would play spy and keep an eye on the High Tier fighters in the crowd. She might have been on to something since he slipped into the shop stage not long after she started observing him. And he wasn't the only one.

Down below, Rika was gawking indecisively over all the gear (or, really, mainly the food) on display ”ooo, gimmy, uh, um,” and functionally holding up the line, such as there was one, in the process. The man who Juri had spotted, Bryan Fury, cared not about said line one bit, striding right up to the counter, slamming a boatload of zenny onto it, and then pointing dramatically at a minigun that was taking up an entire shelf by itself back there.

The shopkeeper Mel hesitated only for long enough to estimate the amount of money he'd thrown down before sweeping it into the old fashioned register and turning to heft his chosen weapon off of the rack. "Great choice!"

"Wait a minute." Therion stepped up to the counter, not so much pressed about the guy cutting Rika in line versus the fact that the two of them might about to be stuck in the building with the soon to be machine gun wielder. And the gun in question did not seem like the goofy items from the first round. "That thing doesn't look like a toy. I thought this whole game was supposed to be for fun - so what does this shoot?"

"Eh? It fires cold, hard lead of course!" Mel replied. She set the mini gun down with a heavy thunk and wiped her brow; Fury scooped it up for himself much more easily. It seemed even in the casual entertainment of Esaka, its citizens remained nonchalant about mortal danger. "There are still plenty of other random items to go around once the game gets started though.”

”I’m… thinking maybe we will go fight somewhere else?” Rika suggested, and indeed turned to go do so, only to find an inscrutable humming man baring her way. Even when she tried to step around him, he moved to block her path once more, while at the same time tossing Bryan a satchel of coins and nodding towards the weapons on offer.

”Excuse me? Could you. Move?” Rika requested with increasing frustration during several failed attempts at stepping around the scarred man.

By that point Therion had already pieced together what was going on. Quiet and casual though it was, he knew an ambush when he saw one. The only question he had was if the park and Power Stone staff were in on it.

"Rika," he said, tone low and full of warning as he placed a hand on her shoulder to draw her back away from the man. "Seems like they want to compete against us for real - and they aren't gonna take 'no' for an answer."

The sight of Byran purchasing and then tossing the other man (one Sergei Dragunov) a stylised but still very conventionally deadly Desert Eagle rather confirmed this.

Rika declared all this to be "Rude" with a huff, more annoyed to be back to regular violence than actually threatened, seemingly, before turning, pointing and purchasing "That thing" from Mel, resulting in her facing down the two muscular men while holding a Panzer Lance in one gauntlet while she re-donned her helmet using the other.

"Good choices," Mel said, happily nodding her head before glancing at the last of the four people gathered. "Last chance for any shopping!"

Therion had only given the shop's stock a brief once over not with the eyes of a customer but those of a thief, which naturally picked out whatever was most valuable looking or least likely to be missed. Now, with limited time to gear up himself, his gaze flicked over every piece offensive and defensive to come up with some kind of counter. In the end he wasn't going to rely on an unfamiliar weapon, though he did pass the clerk a small amount to get a strange seed in return.

Now though Mel had kept her friendly professionalism up she was not oblivious to the growing tension in her shop, so once the tell tale sound of Biff's mega phone starting up drifted in from the open doorway she hit the register to collapse it into a special hideaway inside the counter. She gave the group a short, quick wave and made a beeline for the exit. "Um, good luck and have fun!"

The shop door hitched a moment, and a spectre slipped inside. Juri moved behind the counter and dropped her invisibility to prevent anyone from hearing the noise her cloaking device made in close quarters.

The shop door slammed shut only a second later, and a few more lights over the extra stage arena flickered on as the announcement sounded throughout the park.

"Three, two, one... action!"

Symphony of Madness: Beach Trip

Roland

Roland Huang
Max MP: 50 | Current MP: 50
Casting: --

Gear:
Googles (active: Illusion Begone), Pistol (4/4 shots), Medical Supplies (4/4 uses), Cash

Leveraging: --

Out of everything that could have been hidden in that box, some weird guy was not Jack's first guess. Nor her second. It might have been her third if she thought that far ahead. She blinked at the cape and helmet wearing figure in surprise, at least until it started letting out some spores or particles or whatever it was doing. She could tell from both Rika and Bionca's wildly different reactions that it wasn't just harmless dust.

"The fuck? There's a little alien monster abducting a poor defenseless girl!"

Which wasn't true, even without the ability to inflict harm as an esper Rika was not defenseless. No clue if she was poor though. Still, Jack shouted it for the benefit of the other espers on the beach, who if they weren't aware of what was going on already then they would be soon as Alice came up and then swapped places with the invader and his attempted kidnapee. And where had the suspicious guy come from? That's right, the box of beach balls that Dan had provided!

"Damn shark was planning something nasty after all!"

Daggernose was gonna get what was coming to him one way or another, but the purple monster and the literal alien-like craft coming down seemed like more pressing matters. Jack ignored Alice's order to secure the area around the table - the woman wasn't her damn boss, plus there were already plenty of other espers around to do it. She left the area (and the purple monster) to those others, bolting towards the ocean. Briefly she passed Ashley, the first of those to act, and said, "you got her?"

But as she didn't linger to help if the answer turned out to be no, it was less a genuine question and more a hopeful vouch, confirming she could leave the girl's safety in Ashley's hands. Of course, Rika was doing her best to help herself too. Between the two of them, and everyone else still gathered up, things would probably be alright on the beach. Which was good, because Jack wasn't keen on changing her game plan.

"I'm gonna make sure that ship isn't gonna be taking off after daring to touch down in my city!" she shouted, which was alert number two for the unaware that not only was there a little bug-looking spore-spewing purple alien dude, there was also the space ship he probably came on in the first place. Alice had a head start on her, but Jack didn't waste a spell to catch up. It would not be long until her legs got her there just fine, though she did almost trip when she pulled her instrument and had a momentary brain lapse when remembered the spell still on the city upon seeing its beautiful form reduced to a toy. Ah, but the no harm rule only counted for living things. Even this plastic weapon could deal some damage to a ship, inside or out, and Jack was very much looking forward to it.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

_{Friday Morning}
Word Count: 492 (+1 exp)
Level: 11 - Total EXP: 338/110
Location: Esaka, the Forbidden Kingdom
𝙱𝙿 ●●●●●

She wasn't exactly sure what she expected to see. One of those wraiths scoop up the spirits, perhaps, or a current of water sweep them away into a hidden tunnel, unlikely as it was given the undisturbed ashes at the bottom of the pool. When nothing like that happened, and in fact nothing at all happened besides the little motes of light fading away under their gaze, Primrose sighed lightly. At the very least they ruled out anything unusual on the spirit-level, she figured. The fade away was quicker than she'd seen before, but whether that was because of the entire process moving faster in Esaka or because no one had handled them she didn't know, and likely wouldn't learn without more in-depth experimentation which she was not wont to do.

Band brought up the next logical step in their investigation, and Primrose nodded - though it went unseen from the detective's perspective above her umbrella.

She turned to regard Roland when he unexpectedly showed up, giving him a once over in an attempt to glean why he was in the area while he questioned of them the same. It was a little hard to read Roland, but if Primrose had to guess he was probably shopping around for the power of fallen fighters himself. It had been his first suggestion, after all.

"It depends on who's involved," she said in response to the comment about her not being into blood sport. She wasn't, truthfully, but she could think of some people she'd like to watch struggle futilely in fights like these.

While Big Band explained his thought process and intent to find the city's Flame Clock, Primrose cast her gaze up to the higher tiers. She felt that she would have seen some clue to its whereabouts by now, but only if it was out in the open like Edinburgh's clock. Once Roland pulled himself out of the water after checking the Pools Tier's floor, she gave her thoughts.

"You're right," she said first, glancing at the detective. "So that should be our new priority. If we don't find it before your next matches, I'll keep looking. Although... I feel it must be concealed in some way, or perhaps just housed in one of the buildings up there."

Up there being the Top Tier, which would be the most likely place. The dancer placed a hand on her hip, letting the umbrella tilt slightly back. "...have either of you met our co-conspirators? Those U-N people." She taped her fingers on the umbrella's handle lightly. "I wouldn't exactly let them in our plan, but they might have an idea of where to start looking."

The High Tier where their hospital HQ stood was between them and the Top Tier anyway, if they wanted to stop on the way up. Perhaps the two men, or at least the actual detective might be able to glean more information from the organization than the dancer had.

New entrance

Welcome @Yunie! I guess the only tip I can think of at the moment is to pay attention to which subforum you're in when posting a new thread, as new users can mix up the live roleplay and the interest check/looking for RP sections. Otherwise have fun and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Hi there! New here! ✨💖

Welcome to RPG! And what exactly is your style and vibe?

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

_{Friday Morning}
Word Count: 2666 (+3 exp)
Level: 8 - Total EXP: 360/80
Location: Esaka's Pools Tier, the Forbidden Kingdom

In the few moments between the end of the first round and the beginning of the second, the golden gusts of the Heavenly Principles swirled around Nyotengu to rouse her for the rest of the fight that was to come. She was laid on her back, but when the sparkles fell over her she blinked her eyes open before smoothly pushing more of her hair from her face. She did not look happy.

The young face of her opponent entered her vision, followed shortly by a hand which he offered in order to help her to her feet. He was grinning, and he spoke aloud the thought he'd just had. "That was a close one! You're a super tough lady!"

For a moment Nyotengu just stared at him, somewhere between feeling incredulous and indignant. She pursed her lips and blew air into his face, her yokai nature making it a stronger stream than expected. He let out a little ack! and drew back, but Nyotengu captured his hand before he pulled it away and used it hoist herself up.

"You haven't seen anything yet," she promised, fixing her hair do and withdrawing her leaf fan once more.

"Heh!" Pit hopped back a few times, taking his place back on one side of the arena. "Gimmie the best you got! I'm still gonna win this thing!"

ROUND TWO: FIGHT!

Nyotengu wasn't the only one that was reinvigorated. As soon as the metaphorical starting bell was rung, every participant shot forward at once to try and gain an early advantage. Four kombatants clashed in the center of the arena amid a round of cheering from the onlookers.

"I said I wanted a turn!" Kanna shouted her complaint as she made another dive bomb toward Pit, only to be intercepted by his own kameo partner. "Ugh! You?!"

"Me," Ashrah smirked, the flat of her blade blocking the oni's fist with a heavy clang. Pit vaulted over the both of them, aiming his own diving kick at the slower Nyotengu. She didn't hesitate to use her fan this time, an upward swing of it sending the angel high up away from her. With the two kameos out of their allotted time on the field for now there was no one around to take advantage of the yokai princess' cool down this time, and she put on a nasty grin as she spread her dark wings and pushed herself into the air with one mighty beat of them. The aerial battle was starting early this round.

Unless Nyotengu was inclined to keep her gusts of wind up in order to unknowingly keep Pit aloft, the angel's time airborne was limited. There was no way he was going to get lucky again, so he just had to ground the tengu before she grounded him! Pit fired off a handful of light arrows while Nyotengu flew up to meet him. She evaded them all, twisting gracefully through the air and flowing into a spin kick that struck Pit's block. A moment later and the arrows she thought she'd avoided curved around to slam into her from various angles. Though she grimaced for a moment, it wasn't enough to take her down - and in the next moment she pulled her fist back and retaliated with a hard straight punch that tested Pit's guard. Rather than power through to break it, Nyotengu instead went for a mid-air grapple, squeezing her arms around Pit's middle and forcing the both of them into a forward spin. Using the momentum she threw Pit downward. She didn't expect him to recover as quickly as he did, letting out a hum as his own wings spread wide and flapped hard to stop him half way to the ground.

"It's not gonna be that eas-" Pit was cut off when Nyotengu dove right for him. With a beat of his wings he dodged out of the way only for the yokai princess to snatch him by the ankle. "-yyyyyy?!"

She swung him around bodily, laughing, once more showing off the strength hidden in her feminine frame. When she threw him this time it was upward, and with a lot more force. Pit hit the rocky ceiling hard on his side, but was already twisting into a better position before Nyotengu was on him again. A quick summon of his Orbitars stopped her next kick cold. Pit pushed off of the ceiling and aimed a double kick at Nyotengu in retaliation; concealed by the shields until the last moment he landed his attack in her gut, and this time they fell together. With bow back in hand Pit unleashed a flurry of slashes that Nyotengu did her best to block, though like the first round her inferior speed meant the longer it went on the worse the position she'd be in.

But they hit the ground a moment later, Nyotengu on her feet holding off Pit above her. She didn't notice the curl of his feathers this time, blind sided by the bolt of dark magic from Ashrah that flew in from the sidelines. Pit used the brief opening to land a more powerful slash, but then he disengaged. He moved like he was going to shoot another arrow, make use of the dark debuff with his light element, though that turned out to be the wrong decision.

"Oh? Dropping your combo opportunity on purpose, against me?" The tengu sounded half-offended as she raised an arm and beckoned Kanna with a one finger. The oni let out a boisterous laugh and launched herself at Pit, and though he swiveled to just barely avoid her stomp he ended up loosing his prepared arrow into the red head instead. She huffed, taking his attention just long enough for Nyotengu to get back into the action.

"How brazen of you. Let me show you how it's done~ come, let's keep dancing, little tenshi!"

A straight kick to his ribs broke his poise, and with just her pivot leg she jumped, somersaulting forward and slamming her geta down on the angel's head with an expertly executed axe kick. She landed one legged on her opposite foot, the delicate chime of the bell taunting in its juxtaposition with Nyotengu's brutally effective fighting style - which she followed with a whirlwind kick accompanied by a literal whirlwind. There was a swirl of red in the miniature cyclone as Pit was tossed around, though he finally broke free before Nyotengu could continue her attack by catching the wind with his wings and flying up and out - though he tumbled back down out of the air right after, a poof of dust coming up where he landed on one knee.

Pit breathed in and out deeply, forcing himself not to wince. He wasn't used to pulling off real combos himself, but knew that being on the receiving end of them hurt. A lot. Case in point. He raised his arm to wipe blood from his brow, and across from him Nyotengu smiled at the sight.

"That's it~" she cooed. "Red looks good on you. Now..."

The yokai flung out one arm, long sleeve swaying, and she turned her head to look upon the gathered tengu. They grew even more restless under her gaze. "My subordinates are clamoring for more! We can't keep them waiting, hm?"

The angel was on his feet now, blade in each hand and a steely look in his eyes.

"I guess not," he said. "Alright, watch this! Ashrah!"

Pit flew towards Nyotengu from the front while Ashrah sped in from behind, both a beat too slow as their target seemed to have anticipated the move. "Impudent!" she cackled, spinning with her fan held out to conjure a circular wind that pushed the both of them away from her.

At least that was it seemed like. Nyotengu's summoned gust was just about at her mid-level, and with a good few inches of height on Pit it was possible for the angel to dip beneath it, especially after having seen it a few times now. Nyotengu's eyes widened as she realized the ploy: a fake-out tag team attack. Her confident smirk twitched when she caught the satisfied twinkle of a plan gone right in Pit's eyes as he rolled under the wind blast and sped toward her after popping back up. Even if she commanded Kanna to her side the oni would not get there in time, leaving the princess to suffer a double slash, one blade after the other falling across her front. A more powerful reverse cut with the two halves of the bow snapped back together followed after, throwing the tengu backward. Refusing to give Pit a knock down to exploit, Nyotengu skidded to a halt but kept her footing, then snapped back to her fighting stance with a wide, heavy stomp that would put a sumo wrestler to shame. "Hmph!"

The two of them fell into an odd rhythm of clashes, broken up by Nyotengu's artful spacing to avoid getting overwhelmed by her opponent's sword flurries, and Pit's quick shields or swift feet that kept him from getting trapped in a grapple. The clock steadily ticked down, and it looked like things were heading to a close round again, maybe even one of them winning by timer technicality this time. Pit wasn't opposed to winning that way, but he wasn't sure how the Heavenly Principles judged which of the fighters was healthier. He was hurting, but he knew Nyotengu was too. He felt that he could still go for a while yet, though maybe the officials wouldn't see it that way. Realistically Pit's early lead meant he could lose now and still win the match... but there was no way his pride was going to let him just concede! So, time to crank things up a notch!

Pit pressed the raven haired yokai, a surge of stamina fueling quicker, more aggressive slashes with his blades. When Nyotengu managed to catch up and raise her arms to block, Pit suddenly leapt at her with a stretch kick that got under her guard. He knocked her arms aside, exposing the surprised expression on Nyotengu's face. An opening!

"This is it!" Pit shouted. One clean hit here and he could bring this to an end. Excitement beat in his chest as he quick-summoned his Upperdash Arm. The run up to its devastating uppercut lasted only a moment, maybe even less than that, but it was enough time for Nyotengu's face to change. She smiled instead, eyes squinting slightly and glimmering with some sort of gratification. Read like a book, he could practically her hear voice tease.

"Come, Kanna!"

The rumble of approaching lightning was upon Pit seconds before the oni herself was, but only gave him time enough for more racing thoughts on how to get out of his trap to fill his head as his attack whiffed and the arm still encased with his weapon hung heavy in the air. Could he forcibly de-summon the Arm? Maybe instead force his whole body to relax and let the momentum fling him forward? Call Ashrah in time–

There was a sharp crackle of electricity releasing, but he felt only the barest brush of it on his back. Instead, something tacky, warm, and wet splashed on him, and the thunder died down, replaced by shrill cries from the audience side, a nearby thump, and a ragged gasp. In his peripheral vision he caught sight of white and gold wielding red drenched silver, and Nyotengu -from where she had side stepped the Upperdash Arm's charge- look upon the kameo retreating with a distant coldness before flicking her eyes back to the angel.

What just...?

Focus, Pit!

He'd only realized that the Arm had disappeared and he'd been frozen in confusion when Palutena's voice snapped him back to attention, just in time to curl up and grit his teeth as Nyotengu drove her knee into his stomach. Her elbow slammed down between his shoulders next. She was winding up to deliver another blow when Pit twisted, working his blades drill-like into the yokai with a spiral slice that didn't do a thing to buff or debuff the two of them like it would outside of tourney matches, but did hurt Nyotengu enough to allow him to slip out of her range.

The boyish confidence and the pure fun he'd felt fighting even with the pain inflicted began melting away now that he had a view of the other side of the arena. Kanna was not where she normally waited on the fringe of the hot springs stage - part of her body was laying on the ground, most of it already disintegrated into ashes. There was a large, grisly stab wound at the base of her neck that went all the way through. Beneath her, a small puddle of crimson. It was far from the first time that the angel had seen someone die, even this close up, but even so if it weren't for the heat of the steam making his face flushed, Pit was sure he would have paled at the sight.

"What's the matter?"

When she spoke Pit looked at Nyotengu to find that she didn't seem distraught that her friend? Partner? That her kameo had just died. In fact, she didn't look like she cared at all, which was a strangely sobering thought. She was in her normal stance, leg pushed forward and arm raised to curl overhead, deceptively casual. "Don't tell me you're finished already? How unsatisfying..."

With the patch of darkness still floating around her from earlier in the round, the princess of tengu suddenly looked very intimidating. Swallowing the lump in his throat Pit resumed his own fighting stance, though he kept the bow whole. This is Mortal Kombat. It happens. It was an accident! he thought to himself a few times.

"Not yet," he said, forcing his voice to come out as close to normal as he could make it. He breathed out and focused. One clean hit, for real this time.

Fan struck sword as Pit dashed forward, almost desperate to end the round now. His bow glowed with subtle gold energy, and with his right side slash caught he spun the opposite way and swung with an upward cross - also deflected. Whether they fell into another clash or Nyotengu summoned her wind, it would be smart to call Ashrah for a pincer attack. He hesitated to do so until the yokai recognized that Pit's performance had begun to suffer and she breathed in forcefully before going to pepper him with punches and palms. This time, she would surely overwhelm him. He knew it too. So he curled his feathers at the tips, and his reliable kameo partner was at his side two heartbeats later; one for her Lightshift, the other a Soul Slice.

Ashrah followed Pit's lead in finally putting that dark debuff to use. Her kriss glowed similarly to Pit's bow, and she got Nyotengu in the middle of her own attack with a deep diagonal slash that ran from the princess' left shoulder to her right hip. Nyotengu cried out and dropped her fan, bringing that hand up to clutch at the wound. The extra damage took effect and blood gushed out along the whole length of the cut. It was too deep. Pit reached out and took hold of Ashrah's sleeve, opening his mouth as though to tell her to stop this, but it was far too late, the deed was already done.

"Ha...haha... This cannot... be..." Nyotengu breathed. There was a stirring of warm wind throughout the stage, though whether it was a last ditch effort of offense or a final comfort, they'd never know. She looked genuinely astonished that things had ended up this way just before the top half of her body, separated by the slice, slid off of her trunk and landed on the stone behind her with a sick, wet, plop.

ROUND TWO: PIT WINS
BRUTALITY

Greetings and salutations!

Hello and welcome, @M3rcu1al!

I know what you mean about groups, I'm sort of the same way but I've found that the average pace for group RPs on this forum is quite manageable. Also, the 1x1 section is normally pretty well populated (might even be the busiest on the site?) so I don't think you'll have too much trouble finding a partner or two. Browse the interest checks there! And if you have any questions feel free to ask, most people here are willing to help out!

What Are You Listening To?

Hello!

Welcome @Jinxxed! Don't be too nervous, everyone's gotta start somewhere!

If you have any questions about the site feel free to ask, most people would be happy to help you.