Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

Cragspire

Some of the townsfolk muttered nervously at the sight of the various monsters in Luin's merry band. The few Guild Knights present though seemed to have heard of her before and only gave her a passing glance.

"Good to see you." Sebastien greeted her with a smile. For his part he only brought Brutus the Brute Tigrex along. Sebastien then noticed the Elder Dragon present and his eyes widened. "That one's... new. Must be some story on how you met."

"But a story for later." She responded, though recalled to herself the highlights of it; the scenic vista, the cave of corpses, the woman who’d helped her, the king she met. She felt her face grow warm when she thought of him.

Luin shook her head. "For now, seems we’ve got more pressing matters to attend to." As Rocky kicked in her grasp she looked off, trying to scout out a member of the Guild who looked like they’d be able to guide the duo to the pit. "You think they knew we were coming?"

Cragspire

"Fair enough. Time is of the essence after all." Sebastien said, before nodding. "Seems so. They said they were pretty surprised to get a message that 'someone was crazy enough to go down there'."

He led her over to one of the Guild Knights, wearing the usual characteristic and conveniently face concealing armor.

"So you're Luin, huh? I'm Sir Charles." the Knight asked, looking her up and down. "You know they make you sound taller when they talk about you."

Sebastien politely ignored the bad joke.

"Nevertheless, I've been told to allow you to descend into the pit. Though I'd advice making your last checks or preparations now while we're in town."

"Sorry to disappoint," retorted she. Though, he had a good point with checking to ensure all was ready. Be rather unfortunate to get caught lacking in what might’ve been the most dangerous situation she’s ever willingly put herself in.

Luin looked back at Deluge, a lightweight and waterproof saddle fashioned onto the juvenile Elder Dragon with a sack containing her stuff hanging from it, just next to the NIMBUS delving suit. She’d double-checked the burlap sack almost dozens of times over by now and never found so much as a slight discrepancy, though the small possibility of something utterly vital to their mission had fallen out somehow was ever nagging in the back of her mind. "Come to think of it, you guys have a shop in town? A storehouse, anything?" She knew most Guild-sponsored locations tended to have dispensaries for field items, though this place seemed hardly Guild-sponsored—just a backwater town in the middle of nowhere. Luin doubted it’d seen any Hunters in a very long while.

"There's some shops but if you want hunting supplies, you can requisition them from our outpost." Sir Charles explained, gesturing to a visibly more recently built building. It was pretty rough looking but they could see some Felynes milling about, carrying supplies. "Normally we'd charge you but I'll be frank, I doubt anyone else will be willing to go down there. So I'd prefer you're well equipped."

"I already checked everything I need so lemme know when you're ready." Sebastien said to Luin.

Luin nodded. "Thank you, Sir Charles," then, turning to Sebastien: "I’ll be right out. Just wanna grab a few more things."

Some minutes later, she again emerged from the outpost with a fresh supply of additional drugs (of the totally legal variety), powders (also legal), and various berries and nuts to improve one’s physical performance. "Alright, I’m set. You all ready?"

Sebastien nodded and Sir Charles led the way, Sebastien retrieving Brutus and his own fancy delving armor along the way. It was about 20 minutes of trekking before they reached the pit.

Even from here they could feel there was something wrong about the place. As if the Elder Dragon's mere presence was corrupting the land. Off to the side of it was a makeshift heavy lift, no doubt their means of descent for the non fliers.

"I probably don't need to see it but be cautious." Sir Charles advised. "The townsfolk have mentioned strange things crawling in and out of the pit at night, though it seems our presence has deterred them from continuing to do so."

"Right." Sebastien nodded, then turning to Luin. "Ready?"

"As I’ll ever be," Luin sighed. She turned suddenly to Sir Charles and held out her hands towards him, or rather, the baby Brachydios between them. He was held aloft by the “armpits” with tail dangling, snarling and growling and biting the air. "Do you mind watching over him until we get back? Don’t worry, it’ll be fine; he’s already been fed. He does bite—and punch—but he’s not big enough yet for it to hurt! Uh, much."

Refusing to wait for an answer and dumping the responsibility of the child onto the Guild Knight like that bitch vanessaa tried to do to me FUCK YOU VANESSA Luin made towards Deluge and hopped on the Elder, guiding him forwards towards the heavy lift. Here’s hoping it holds…

Rime followed, and on her back, Landslide clicked in anticipation.

Sir Charles muttered something incoherent as he awkwardly took the baby brach. Sebastien opted to let Luin go first, as to avoid overloading the lift. Once she reached the bottom and disembarked, it would quickly begin rising again to bring him down as well.

Quickly is relative though, this pit is deep. Deep enough that once they reach the bottom, the light doesn't travel very far as the pit leads to a more horizontal tunnel. The claw marks and signs of a large tail being dragged make the culprit obvious.

Nothing jumps out at them yet but it feels eerie as Sebastien soon arrives.

Surrounded by darkness, Luin suddenly counted herself glad that she had her own means of producing light. She drew Lannéadrom from its sheath and held it aloft overhead, glimmering and reflecting nonexistent light as it had done in Hangman’s Cove.

As she waited for Sebastien to descend—already she heard the creaking of the lift as it returned bearing a heavy load—she opted to give the claw marks a closer look, wondering if there was anything to be seen of them that might’ve aided their pursuit of knowledge in this dark place, untouched by the grace of the sun.

Well whatever made them was obviously big. Big enough it could probably have Deluge for lunch. The dragging marks also indicate that it's heavy as hell. The occasional discarded black stained scale make the identity obvious.

Some of them noticeably look fresher.

"Seems it's been visiting here." Sebastien commented.

"Seems so," Luin agreed as she took one of the scales. Undoubtably the beast would sense her doing such, but she doubted it didn’t know they were down here already…and if it didn’t, it would certainly find out at some point. Better now than later, while they were still near an escape if they needed it. She observed the scale before wrapping it tightly in a thick white cloth and tucking it away.

If Oltura -ZERO- sensed them, it didn't show it by immediately tunneling to them. The cave remained eerily quiet.

Sebastien brought out a lantern before leading the way deeper...

As they trekked through the tunnels, Sebastien kept an eye on the seismograph he was provided. It was inert for now so no giant monsties after them yet.

...

Sure is a long walk, though Sebastien doesn't start any idle chatter just in case.

Nohr

The ideals of the Church of Gor fit Nohr rather well, be it the old one or the one that Xander was set to rule. In a world that could be harsh, it was good to strive for greatness and to remember to work hard to achieve one's goals. And with the years of bitterness having corrupted the old Nohr's beliefs, replacing its genuine wish for improvement with a constant quest for selfish power gain, it was good to have the Church stand tall to remind Nohrians of its ideals.

Of course, some questioned having the church of a foreign deity within the walls of Windmire, a city founded by the very dragon gods that had accompanied the settlers. And others wanted to forget all about the multiversal madness of last year, with the Church of Gor being a permanent reminder, along with the crater, of what had happened. Xander could understand both points, but nonetheless, he found it good to keep for the same reasons.

Across the vast cosmic tapestry, there resided evil and twisted beings. But kind and empathetic figures matched their numbers and powers. And in the end, they had prevailed.

Not to mention that while some of their "saviors" had been evil indeed... In the end, it was Garon who had inflicted the most damage to the city. And it was Garon who had allowed the situation to fester to this point.

Xander think of this as he approach the Church, his arrival unfortunately heralded by trumpets aplenty, crowd gathering to watch their new king approach the Church. It wasn't the first time that Xander was doing so, but amongst the adoring eyes, he could see some suspicion. Wariness of a new king being convinced to give up his cult of the Dusk Dragons to embrace a strange deity from another universe, his actions and words dictated by Pucci.

The king would have to address that in a speech - once he'd figured how to address the hundreds of other issues first.

For now, he was content walking to the church, announcing his presence and allowing those inside to prepare themselves, letting the Nohrians within the Church (either workers or worshippers) anticipate the arrival of the King. While he still had his cape, he wore noble but distinctly unarmored clothing, so puffy as to make him larger than he actually was, with a red scarf wrapped around his neck, a red buttoned shirt with gold emblems, and some jewels and gems from older Kings and Queens.

DNC, Recon, Nohr, Swords,

Mia buried her head into Kana’s scales as the dragon-shifted woman launched, never daring to look anywhere else for fear of sudden terror stricken into her heart when she saw how high they had gone; terror that could make your palms sweaty; terror that could make you slip.

But Ladwin saw it all.

He kept Emilia as close and secure as he could as he looked out over the city of Al-Aggad. There was an ember glow beneath the newborn night, black smoke rising oppressively from the ruins that blended with the starless cough and provoked the old knight to coughing. Old buildings, staples of their cities that he had walked by thousands of times on patrol in his younger years, lay now as nothing but rubble and dust. Ladwin was glad neither of the princesses could see their home, destroyed in a night. Like ants, black and evil shapes flooded the city streets below. He heard their drums of war beating ceaselessly over the fading din of combat, rhythmic and terrifying, doom, doom, doom…

As the sphere of water surrounded Kana, the drumbeats quieted to a muffle. Ladwin drew a long sigh; the air inside the bubble of water was, ironically, much more breathable than the smoky and ash-choked air outside.

But there soon arose another sound, not from below, but above. Though quieted by the water, it was unmistakable: a scream of some sort? Or a shrieking roar?

Ladwin cast his eyes upwards. A dark shape, invisible amidst the rest of the night, crossed path the moon. The heavy beating of wings, and another shriek. Then, from the dark, the flash of hawklike talons. They clawed and swung at Kana, attempting to find purchase in her flesh. Were this successful and she did not make efforts to evade, the airborne threat would begin biting at her neck with crooked and predatorial fangs fixed to a helmed snout at the end of a long and pale neck.

Against the glowing white of the moon, the aerial assault could be distantly seen below, far away and above though it may be, until a wayward column of smoke drifted over it. Frilda lowered her gaze from the sky. She fixed her face upon the approaching Aggo and lifted her blade.

…

The lakeside was burned, ruined.

There was a road that might’ve been left well-avoided, on account of the corpses stacked high beside it and the wandering patrols of orcs, grunting and groaning and complaining of their lack of any real combat, wielding blades and torches and other weaponry. There was a false sunrise behind the city walls, glowing amber and crackling.

The nearest forest had been hacked to bits. Sad and lonely stumps sat in clearings that hadn’t been there a day earlier; the forest had evidently been taken by just as much surprise as the city itself had. But in spite of the lack of trees left standing, wood was in no short supply, for amidst the ashes remained hastily piled logs left to rot.

As well as this were all manner of blazing bonfires spread out all over, putrid with a smell perhaps unrecognizable at first, until one came nearer and saw what was within the fire: charred limbs, blackened bodies curled up so that they died in the same position they had been born in. The smell suddenly made more sense. If there was any bright side to be had from this, then, it was that among so many fires, one more would surely go unnoticed.

——

"It’s too quiet down here," Luin sighed. "I don’t like it."

Rime followed silently behind, though any noise he might’ve produced was certainly drowned out by Deluge. It wasn’t that the Elder Dragon’s footfalls were particularly loud, per say, but when made in an environment so devoid of other sound…

Luin shook her head. "Crawling headlong and blind into hell itself. Yeah, we’re real smart, aren’t we?" She wished Lutemis were here. No situation was ever scary with the Rathian by her side. There was only one other person she’d ever felt that way with. She chuckled suddenly. "You know…have I ever told you about my brother?"

——

He heard the song of trumpets outside, seeping through the wood walls and the cracks in the doors. Pucci fixed himself suddenly. He rose from the pew, regained his composure, and walked swiftly down the aisle on light feet to the entrance. The door slid open with an almost silent creak as he emerged from within, smiling at the brightly and resplendently dressed figure he knew could only be one man.

   "It’s good to see you, King Xander."    He stood against the door, holding it open and making a path through for the man.    "Please, come in."   

Pucci spoke softly, so as not to disrupt the prayers of those within…at least, not any more than the blaring trumpets outside already had. He’d lead Xander behind the pews and to the right, making for a quiet room in which they could speak, away from outside ears save any protection the King might’ve brought with him, of course. There was no need for the cane he’d gotten from Lucas to find his way; he could see the layout of the church flawlessly in his minds eye, even now as it all melted together to brown. His black robes rustled, the six-pointed cross of Gor inlaid with gold coloring over his chest: it stretched from shoulder to shoulder, side to side; reached for his collar and flowed down his torso. It covered every part of his being and essence, in the same way his religion did.

   "I’m glad you could make the time to see me, and on short notice, too. I pray I didn’t pull you away from anything important?"   

——

Nelo Angelo emerged from his home to a patch of empty dirt road, with not a foe to be seen but the clatter of blades in the town square ahead of him. Rather than rush in, though, he dug his blade into the dirt and knelt, simply waiting for an opponent to come to him.

…

Okksbad did not have nearly that amount of patience.

"FIGHT ME!!!" He rushed from the home, smashing his blade against his shield. "SOMEBODY FIGHT ME!!!!! GIMME YA BEST YA GITS!"

…

Liana emerged to witness a clusterfuck between Vergil, both Shezes, and Mr. Sam. Deciding to play it cowardly like she always did, she rushed past Sam and at the Shezes from the side, thrusting both of her swords at each of their necks in a surprise attack!

One that, uh, left her very blind to Jetstream behind her.

…

Guts staggered away. His eyes widened and his teeth gnashed together with alarm as he saw Apothea’s secondary sword shooting for his throat. With his Dragonslayer lifted overhead in his right hand as a result of the clash, he certainly wouldn’t be able to bring it down in time to deflect the attack, nor could he dodge backwards any further without falling on his ass, which left him with only one option: utilizing his prosthetic left hand to punch the dagger, hopefully even managing to knock it from her grasp, but likely damaging the prosthetic even further, to the point where it came dangerously near to being unusable.

Then, if he’d managed such a thing, he’d bend his right arm and turn his backwards momentum into forwards momentum with a step forwards.

Gravity, the immense weight of the greatsword, his fixed footing, and an output of his own raw power all mixed together to forge the force with which the colossal slab of iron came down towards Apothea, a savage roar exploding from his mouth as it did. He intended to smash it diagonally in what was almost a sweep, intended for it to pass through her left shoulder and across her chest, intended to cut her in two. He’d not yet seen her true strength, though, so he had no clue whether those factors, even all combined as they were, could overpower an attempted guard; all he had was the hope that the shock of the sword being punched from her hand would keep her still long enough that his attack would land bloody and true.

Edited by ISZATSO on Apr 24th 2024 at 9:53:49 AM

DNC

Hange zips aboard the Kana express just in time.

She is about to shout out in glee and ask a bazillion questions about Kana's biology, when a dark spot catches her eye from the shadows below. But she can't make heads or tails of it, the darkness of night and Hange's missing eye doubling up to make aiming a good shot under these shaky conditions basically impossible.

Just gotta hope someone else takes care of it!

DNC

Taye hangs tight onto Kana. She would've appreciated the dragon's serenity a lot more if it weren't for the current situation. Such as how an entire city was laid to ruin overnight, or...

"I'm okay, but Kaisui's jet off to god-knows-where, and I'm really worried Duck!"

She slips to Kana's side, dodging the talons and clinging onto the dragon scales. At the same time, she pulls along anyone else who may otherwise get badly hurt by whatever ungodly flying creature just decided to attack them. Maybe one of the princesses. Also, even if Taye did fall off, she would be caught by Kana's sphere of water. Affinity to water helps.

Hopefully, Medicine going turret mode is enough to, at least, get it off Kana's back for a bit.

Edited by Hotpizza on Apr 25th 2024 at 10:37:46 PM

DNC - Lakeside

Kaisui turns her nose up at the smell of burning flesh. These creatures... they held no remorse for anything. Only burning and rampaging until nothing good remained. She wished she could do more, but...

For now, she gathers some logs, and some other wood bits, like twigs and dry leaves. Before long, she's back at the lakeside, starting a fire. The heat warms her body, laying bare the exhaustion of her body.

But she doesn't dare fall asleep. Not with threats so close by.

Without my powers, and in a state like this... Does my old name hold any meaning? Kaisui was given to me by things under Jove's control...

She stares up at the stars, and thinks for a moment.

I've fallen so far down this rabbit hole that I'm not even sure who I am. To be fair, this isn't wonderland... but who's gonna stop me from calling myself Alice?

Mithilheim

Kiose's leg rights itself with a crack, and he quickly scrambles to his feet. He gives a nod of gratitude to Yuta before turning to glare at Ikosa, who smirks wider and wider as he listens to this team squabble amongst themselves. He turns to stare at Icarus.

"You're an idiot, machine... Too optimistic for your own good. So are the rest of you- you all think you have the upper hand here..."

Both the scan and Commando Eyes would pick up a slew of information- notably, that Ikosa seems outright immune to nearly anything they could throw at him, due to his adaptation- They won't have enough time to spot the one that's missing. Yet.

"-Host!"

Ikosa doesn't need to move an inch before a Host◊ bursts from the ground in the center of the group with a clattering of bones and an inhuman screech. It tries to reach for Kiose, but he dodges back, being rather agile for someone who had a broken leg moments before. The screeching also draws forth three Primitive Viscera◊, which rush Icarus, Katakuri, and The ABCs.

The rest (Including Kiose, Elizabeth & Harvey, the First Encounter group, and Yuta,) are under attack from the Host, which seems to be spitting poisonous blobs of gunk at anyone nearby- the gunk is poisonous, and temporarily reduces one's defense.

Ikosa just grins.

"Pathetic... I'll just let these wipe you out."

He then vanishes from view, burrowing underground and off somewhere towards the forest.

Hub Centralis

The Mutant Child found himself trying to manipulate the blood veil, unsuccessfully.

He notices the priest talking to him.

Interfere with what? With the killing of innocent animals? If you are doing a ritual, you are so cliché.

The Child stomps on the floor, releasing a shockwave directed against the priest

DNC

The two explorers hold themselves with their dear life on Kana's scales. Thankfully, they weren't clawed by the other dragon!

Parasites

The three letters and Roco weren't expecting such a creature appearing from beneath the ground.

Roco, Ice beam!

The snail fires a cold beam from his mouth at the horrible being.

Edited by BombonBombin on Apr 24th 2024 at 12:16:48 PM

   Hehe...    Sukuna himself bears a bruise on his head, blood trailing down from it between and unto his eyes, for a few red threads. He doesn't mind it. In fact, he think it's more annoying that he had been helped with avoiding the initial piercing attack, which we all know would have been deadlier. And harder to fix even with Reverse Cursed Technique.

His fault for being careless though - even if he intended to kill his unwitting "savior" all the same. Having a debt to anyone was unthinkable to Sukuna.

For now, he pushed those thoughts aside to see Pallias's return from the ruins, looking badly bruised, but much healthier than most Sorcerers after taking such a full-force punch from Sukuna. A lesser Sorcerer would blame it on his weaker body, but Sukuna knew that he could have still blown a massive hole through just about anyone else in his world. So he had to acknowledge him all the same.

Plus, Dismantle had hit metal. That was not a pleasing result for Sukuna, though he didn't care much since the main hit had landed.

You're pretty tough. Sukuna then point, right as Futsunushi itself goes flying at Pallias, grabbing two of its blades and holding them overhead before it comes crashing down at Pallias with a Brave Charge. A move that was as straightforward as it looked: a huge crashing slash attack, powerful enough to cut a big vertical hole straight through the ruins of the bank and the ground in front of it, creating a tiny chasm that bore through the ground into the nearest structure ahead of the ruins.

Sending Futnushi ahead to fight Pallias was risky, but Sukuna was curious to see how he'd fare against moves from a distance.

Jumping to the side, Sukuna says something lost in the general chaos.

   Fuga.    Sukuna points his hand forward, with his other hand further back and at his head's level, as if aiming with a bow. Except he aims with the very arrow he means to fire, flames bursting from the palms of his hands and taking the form of a blazing arrow. One he immediately lets loose at Pallias (should the big man be visible) or at Pallias's location, depending on how he deals with Futsunushi.

The resulting blast is big, making the collateral of Sukuna punching Pallias look almost quaint. A tower of fire roar to life in the ruins of the bank, surpassing nearby buildings in height, enveloping all in a searing explosion that Futnushi is quick to back away from. Even metal that's not engulfed in the blast and just happen to be near will catch on fire or melt in place. And the heat around the battlefield will quickly become hard to bear, if still possible to fight on through just fine.

Blazing embers and ashes alike rain near the pillar of fire after it dissipates, and flames are left in its wake, melting what it finds.

Sukuna himself is unaffected by it, smiling as he waits to see how Pallias fight back against this.

Edited by Bolded1 on Apr 25th 2024 at 10:08:41 AM

DNC - The Chase

Medicine was starting to wonder how else this day could get stranger, then cursed herself when the weird bird showed up. Fortunately unlike Hange she's not limited to just two arms. Two mechanical arms popped out of her backpack as she somewhat awkwardly turned around so that they were hanging onto Kana (wondering if she's supposed to apologize later in case their grip was a bit too strong) and left Medicine herself facing the mystery attacker. She used this opportunity to turn herself into a turret essentially and started blasting the bird dragon thing attacking them with a barrage of magic bullets.

Parasite Generator

Elizabeth reacted quickly to the poisonous blobs, pointing her palm at them and grabbing them midair with her psychic Magic powers and hurling them back at The Host. She also looked at Harvey, whose eyes then glowed purple like hers as he sped around the Host's side to land a few slash attacks in a hit and run.

Cragspire Pit

"I remember reading that an Elder Dragons' mere presence scares off other wildlife. Might explain that." Sebastien replied, then shook his head. "Don't think you have."

Alwyen seemed near to say something else and wrap up the meeting, when another man’s voice, high and sharp, cut through the tent.

"Hey, you old fuck!" Gormuld waddled into view from outside, the dwarf’s plated armor still bloody. A Skaven intestine dangled from his shoulder. He seemed not to notice. "Ya got a visitor. Name of Krie…Kye…somethinglin. She wanted to talk about…ah, some bullshit or other."

The name took Alwyen by surprise. The old wizard lifted his hands suddenly from the table and looked to his stout companion. "Bring her in." He turned back to Murasa, Melia, and Fiona with a grateful nod. "Deeply, I am grateful, as are the people of this fine city. But there are other matters I must attend to as well; privately."

He hoped the message was received, and that the group would depart from his tent, out into the refugee camp with the cool autumn breeze at their backs. Flame-colored leaves fell tumbling from trees of fading life, sleeping away the storm they knew was coming.

FIN

Minira

William pulls out his glasstic swords while backing up. The way they're designed, the guard is a very small diamond-shaped protrusion extending from the edges with an appropriately shaped hole to hollow out that one area, a really bad spot for its structural integrity but a deliberate one as he can slash through his blades when they shatter for tactical purposes.

But upon clashing with the electrically-charged swipes, his blades crack on impact yet the excess electricity absorbs itself into the swords and seemingly repairs themselves. He shifts to the right, quickly imbues the pair of swords with cursed energy, and tries to stab then swipe at any exposed area that Dreadfuse has.

Although, he's not giving much attention to the Barinade even if the two of them are presumably trying to guide him closer to it.

Mechilogue

By pure coincidence, the mechanics surrounding Croque and Vincent's blades work remarkably similarly to the high-frequency blade. In conjunction with the Bullet Time, their attacks can slice through the mech with little effort. Slices and pieces are suspended in mid air until they are interacted with, each slash Vincent leaves a line that contributes to the destruction of the Metal Gear. With the sheer quantity some areas receive, parts of it are being erased completely. Disconnecting, separating, and tearing through its limbs (including the hind ones).

Croque's approach was simpler, but left equally devastating results, it's like someone put a an eraser brush to its maximum size and clicked once on the canvas. Deleting a terrific hole around the body

Wilhelm decides to butt into Kado's destruction by punching and kicking away the molten chunks to give the jedi some fresh air. Strangely on contact, the molten bits instantly return to a dull not-glowing state while his fists/feet briefly glow. Oddly, the voice can hear him and everyone else attempting to speak, even in this slowed down time frame.

"Stop you? You're lucky you're just a mage. My war will be with your folk eventually, but you're not under my purview right now."

She is aware of the other two's presence, and they fit more neatly with her goals.

"But YOU, you will get a nice visit from me. Soon."

The flow of time continues as usual.

Metal Gear EXCELSUS is destroyed in a plume of flames upon the rest of the combatants landing.

Centralis - Post-Mech

SLAM

Croque impacts the ground, breaking the concrete below her as the deceptively-heavy powered armor lands, once again emitting vaporized coolant while air-cooling its red-hot heatsinks. She clears the dust from around her by sweeping her blade to the side (like an anime protagonist) which appears to be intentional.

"If you do try to visit me, I suggest you knock politely. I don't take kindly to people barging in."

She grins as her helmet retracts. She ends her recording for later playback and examination- every battle revealed things she could improve on, after all.

More cooling power, a faster to-target time on my munitions, and redundant sources of power for my suit's core systems like motors. That's just off the bat.

Looking over at the Vincent mech (with Monika inside) and Kado, she gives a cheeky grin and a thumbs up before redeploying her helmet and boosting off into the upper atmosphere, more thrusters firing to let her hit escape velocity and return to space. She activates her warp drive and speeds back off to The Gas Station.

The Gas Station, Croque's Workshop

Which, fittingly enough, is where she returns to. She stores her core body and suit inside a bay, getting to work on initial upgrades. She'd already sent out a lower-power body for something else, though of course this didn't do much to take away from her focus- her brain was a giant station-sized bank of computers, after all.

She began work on a mid-sized mech made for rapid deployment and skirmishing- unlike her high backlog of mecha inspired by various shows and related media, alongside her oversized Titanslayer, this one was... reasonably sized.

Dubbed 'Bladelancer' after its main weaponry, it was designed to be as light as possible while still taking hits and dealing them out. The initial design features a high-output CM-Originium reactor, ever moreso than usual- the wings on its back aren't just for flight, but also for dispersing heat -a light alloy armoring to keep weight down, a sleek, aerodynamic design, and most importantly, a huge-ass blade/spear/railgun combo that's about as long as the mech is tall.

There's also the usual thruster systems, tuned to provide even more thrust at the cost of energy efficiency.

Was it irritating to use more energy than she normally would?

Yes.

Was it worth it?

Also yes.

She slowly drifts back into her work mentality, time and space fading away as she designs, (virtually) tests, and assembles more designs for various transport, combat, and recon craft. Of course, the greater whole of her mind is multitasking quite well- it's not like she tunes out anything else, though that shell is focusing.

Jovian Moon, RI Base

Nilhis is currently quite busy. Between getting a group ready to send down to the Arena to do some research on a developing threat, to making sure everything else he normally does is taken care of. He doesn't have just who he used to have, either- many of the Dolls from Croque's world were now a part of RI. It was rather useful.

"Right... I'm headed out. Kal'tsit, you're in charge until I get back. M16, W, Amiya, Talulah. You're headed with me."

He runs towards the hangar, where the others have already arrived.

"Drive us into an asteroid again and I'll blow us all up, Doctor."

W grins, not entirely meaning it but not denying it either. M16 just sighs.

"Do you really trust him that little? He's only fallen asleep at the helm once or twice..."

"-that's the problem, you know."

Talulah chimes in, before everyone climbs into the shuttle and launches. Amiya pipes up.

"I think Doctor Nilhis is doing a great job! He learned how to pilot these things really quickly, so don't get mad at him for it..."

Confluence of Fates

Terapagos gets launched towards Rayne, but gets parried and is instead sent flying to the side, hitting the ground and spinning around like a Beyblade for a bit before slowing down. It gets back on its feet, though it's incredibly dizzy from the ordeal and just stumbles around a bit.

Yeah, it's gonna be useless for this turn.

Anna's Shop

Having set everything up in the shop's new location (as they would change every couple of weeks as long as Loptous is out there somewhere), Morgan's◊ sitting against the wall outside, taking a break. Anna◊ and Jake◊ are inside, though they do keep an eye on Morgan through the window just in case.

As for Jeritza◊, he's busy in the back of the store somewhere.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Apr 25th 2024 at 11:20:30 AM