Fandom Soul Eater: F.A.T.E

[Shotgunpenguin]

Wes Kraven
New York -Bergin Basin/I-678
September 26th
Mentions: Sir Les Paul RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen ​

---

Wes was still trying to come to his bearings after the sudden cacophony the four of them were subjected to as Samuel, or Sam as he preferred, and Feng conversed. Whether it was due to their mercenary background or something else, Feng and Aki seemed to recover a lot quicker from the ordeal. But for Wes, the sound of a soul in such despair and fear, as if their very existence was agony was still fresh in his mind.

Between his up close and personal experience with how a bloodsucker fed on a living being, and this, he was sure that he’d be paying a visit to Doctor Arc after this. Hell, maybe even a call to his parents if he was still feeling shook up after his session. But that was for later, after he would be able to climb into his own bed in his own apartment, and after they dealt with the issue at hand.

Both Feng and Aki seemed to be looking for his input on the situation, whether or not to accompany Sam and Korne as they investigated the noise. If he said no, and cast his vote behind going back to the shelter or trying to regroup with Nadia, they probably wouldn’t hold it against him. From what little he had shown, Sam was probably strong enough to handle whatever the source of the disturbing sound was.

And yet, he found himself tossing the idea back and forth in his head, far more than he would have thought he would. Letting Sam handle it would mean less work for them, and they couldn’t continue with their assignment and relieve Kenny until Sam returned. Which meant a possibly decent chunk of downtime where they would be able to kick back and wait for his return in the relative comfort of the shelter. But if he did, and Sam and Korne handled it themselves, he’d lose out on the chance to fight alongside the death scythe.

It wasn’t the man that brought forth a twinge of wanting to put in the effort for a fight, but rather what he could do. During the last scuffle with the strange beasts, all Wes could do was sit on Feng’s back and send out a few blasts of sound to keep the dogs at bay while she carved through them with the death scythe. He doubted that if the same scene were to happen, and he weren’t there, that there’d be any difference in how it played out.

It seemed like Aki shared his annoyance at not being much use during the last encounter, although her words did cause him to pause. After a few seconds, he awkwardly reached out and patted her on her shoulder. “Hey. Just because you were useless now doesn’t mean you’ll be useless later.”

Despite how his words may have sounded, he didn’t mean to suggest that Aki was useless at any point at all. He was just horrible at consoling others. Besides, if they were talking about being useful, Wes wasn’t any help at all during their encounter with the scavs. While he panicked at being shot at, and the sight of a sucking chest wound on the bloodsucker the group had just met, her and Feng immediately jumped into action. There was no telling if whatever they were going to encounter could also consume wavelength the the beasts,

“We should go with him.” He said with a soft sigh, scratching at the back of his head. He wasn’t going to say that the only thing pushing him to accompany Sam was the prospect of getting another chance to fight alongside Korne’s oscillating wavelength, so instead he offered a different explanation to his partners. “If he goes running off, we’d just be waiting for him to get back to the shelter. If we go with him, at least we can find out who’s soul that was.”

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Feng Long
New York City - Between Bergen Basin and I-678
September 26th​

Aki was more disturbed by all this than Feng herself had been, that much was obvious to her at least, and neither of her weapons seemed happy with the situation, their lack of usefulness. It had to be hard on them. It was hard on her as well. This team had been thrown together and had barely anytime to figure how to utilize one another. She had a melee and a ranged weapon, fighting as if a to be a cop with a riot shield just wasn't working for her, or for them. And yet a 5th, or rather a 4th wheel was being forced into the equation.

She wanted to try doing right by the pair at least, but it wouldn't hurt to speak up a little on the being useless bit. "Well, if it's of any help this broach keeps me from fighting how I have all my life. Not being able to use my berserker aspects limits my physical enhancements a lot, and there has been no attempt to even incorporate it. So yeah, all three of us are a bit useless, we'll still make do."

She wasn't sure how to comfort Wes however, she and Aki were still a bit bothered by it. Aki's nerves and self-confidence were a bit low, Feng was sure to a degree this was likely a trap, but both of them had to deal with such most of their lives. Sure, it wasn't like Feng ever fought, whatever in the hell those abominations were, but even she had considerable restraints placed upon her... But Wes, well, he had an innocence to him, that both she and Aki had lost long ago. She did not know how to comfort him in this regard. Something to consider later... But for now;

"Heh, I'll try and make use of you two, I hope we won't run into those mutts again, but who knows... Very well Sam, or maybe I should call you Uncle Sam for fun... We'll go with you, though I'm still curious about those questions I asked before."

Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Aki/Dani) Sir Les Paul (NPC's) Shotgunpenguin (Wes)

 

[Pumpkid]

Dante Holiday

Location: Village of the Mountain Gnomes-Liberec Region, Czech Republic

Interactions: Sara Merciless Medic / Mentions: Sir Les Paul The Regal Rper RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen Haze-

​

The battle proved to be challenging for Dante. He might not be the miester, but it has been a long time since he’s fought alongside someone’s hands. He had to juggle coordination on movements, and at the same time keep on the same wavelength or else fail the mission. Being a liability isn’t an option at the moment. He can already hear Kisei lecturing him about it. They were now on the battlefield. All Dante can think about is how much of a drag it is to deal with a handful of obstacles in one day. If he can just get through this, the rest of his rehabilitation will be easy. He now pitied the rookies of F.A.T.E. What was once a cakewalk is now a struggle. Dante definitely deserves to be suffering for his past mistakes if he wants to get back to being a useful agent.

At least they weren’t alone. Elly and Kisei dealt with The Baroness. The person who somehow intimidates Sara. She seemed easy to deal with, but the Jiangshi was far more dangerous. He could feel a bloodlust coming off of him not to mention Sara wavered on some of her attacks. What was the problem? She seemed confident moments ago. They both are in an agreement. What could cause her to feel that way if not for him? It felt like she was holding back too.

Before he could even comment, he noticed Elly and Kisei’s marvelous power display. Their connection manifested as they fought with everything they had against the shielded Baroness. Such a sight had Dante awe and inspire him. Who knew the demon lady and her prick of a partner could boost his motivation? Maybe it’s the adrenaline talking whether that’s fear, stress, or otherwise, it gave him the chance to vocalize his thoughts. At the same time, he perked up to Sara’s shift in tone when asked for his help. She showed she was focused.

”Sure, but I need you to do something for me. Dnate closed his eyes and concentrated giving her some of his wavelength. He wasn’t sure if she could handle a whole lot, but best to be careful and if worst comes, he could be reckless if it meant saving a life.
”I need you to stop hesitating. What was our training for if not for this moment? Wield me like you mean it. Give this guy hell, whatever it takes. We agreed to help people, to save that little girl, didn’t we?

Now it was him lecturing Sara. It might not be a good idea, but right now is a life-and-death situation where they both cannot afford to mess up. If Dante wants to commit to the project he too needs to get it together or be the one to ground the werewolf. ”I’m not a beggar, but this time I’m asking you to do your best. I’ll be fine. Trust me, just this once.” He wanted to say more to tell her she was not alone. This is their fight, nothing else matters except for survival. If the others are capable of standing their ground, even less weight off of their shoulders.

 

[Sir Les Paul]

North of JFK Airport, New York City, New York
GM Post​

en route to Eastern front​

Unnoticed until the first drop of blood was shed. Though, by then, it was too late.

That homicidal rage inside of Dani was something to be starved, not fed. Yet, the lethality against the gunman of the church only served to do exactly that: feed into her rage. Her soul was now a factory, turning nearly any and all excitement into pure, unrelenting anger.

Not only did it made the sound of her soul harsher and louder, it bled that much more into Nadia. Their souls were connected, their resonance active.

Sparks of Madness began to flicker inside that burning pyre that was the soul of the pink firecracker. Something that could not so easily be ignored. By herself, by Nadia, by Adrian, by anyone on the battlefield.

Dead, slain either by burning venom or a wicked blade edge, and amidst the corpses was now a duo of women emitting a Madness Wavelength.

The Madness of Anger. Of rage. That black, endless, all-consuming pit.

Whether or not Nadia could fend it off was irrelevant to the fact Dani was now emanating the Wavelength. The line here was blurry. They were humans, after all. Murder was often considered the type of act that was unforgivable; that forever-tainted a soul. In this case, there was the question: was it really murder? Was this truly self-defense? If so, was it that for both of them? Was Nadia acting in purely-intentioned self-defense while Dani was giving into her primal desires? Could this one act mean something different for both of them? It seemed to give how different their reactions were.

This wasn't the time to think about the nuances or ask questions. Especially when the moment that wavelength of anger exuded from Dani, it hit none other than Adrian at full force. What began to fill him was his own anger and rage. That would prove to be its whole own issue.

Meanwhile, the Paladins were dancing with the Renard and the remaining members of Fox Hunt. When the battle might have seemed to finally begin shifting in the favor of the Bloodsuckers with the emergence of Renard and his Resonance easily overpowering the halberd-wielding woman, there was yet another shift. Those dread reinforcements. Unfortunately familiar faces.

A blue streak of hair shot through the battlefield as the trident-wielding Paladin blitzed at breakneck speed to defend his sword-wielding companion. Their platoon was outfit with the same type of gun-wielding knights and priests even further back, but unlike the first set, many of these individuals remained in armored vehicles that continued to drive up or stationed behind large mobile walls and riot shields. Not that they would do much to stop any Agent from tearing through them, but they did indicate the new defensive nature of the religious paramilitary group. More continued to trickle in.

Nadia might have gotten through a handful and if she was particularly ferocious without halting at the first sign of Madness from Dani, could have easily cut down two-dozen in what might have felt like the blink of an eye. Whether it was rampage or the realization of internal threats from her partner, she would have been stopped in her tracks all the same.

Her new opponent would be perhaps the most powerful Paladin current present: Simon the Zealot. The darker-skinned Paladin that Adrian had met previously was one of particular renown. He possessed a Volatile Soul with control thereof only surpassed by Chimera himself. A man that had found inner peace and personal serenity through intense prayer and meditation. The Paladin that perhaps most embodied that virtue of Temperance. He kept in line those that with true zeal, like his partner. And, though he did so love to resolve a situation peacefully, the girls in front of him had just murdered his men and were afoul with Madness.

It seemed he would likely have to live up to his namesake.

His entrance was grand enough to be attention-grabbing. The loud crunch of metal crumpling under his toned body as he flung a small car through the air only to kick it downward and land atop it, though not so flashy as to take the stereotypical superhero stance. Instead, he was still. As was his soul. Volatile though it was, the way it danced was controlled and to a pattern. He was no Hoshi. Zosar couldn't temper his soul to match their style, either; that was the curse of their soul. However, he certainly put up a convincing act. A Volatile Soul empowered by the prayers of his people was nothing to scoff at. With the resonance he was part of, he far surpassed that of Kenny and was more comparable to a true three-star duo resonating. He made Brennan, the Paladin from earlier, appear amateur by comparison.

"Now-ah... ladies, I dohn' par-tik-cu-lar-ly lahke th' idea a' layin' out women, but you jus' killed plenty 'a good, God-fearin' men," he said, assertively, sporting some type of thick Southern draw, taking his time on most vowels while introducing some extra ones Merriam-Webster probably didn't expect to be in the word. Somehow, it flowed, yet was utterly ridiculous in the moment.

"How 'bout you drawhp that weapon an' jus' let us take care 'a them guys, yeah?" he suggested, at least making the attempt to diffuse the situation.

---

Car Rentals JFK Airport​

Sam wasn't an animated type, but if there was a moment where he might have voiced some frustration, it would have likely been then. He intentionally ignored some questions because he found the answers more problematic than worth sharing. Given Feng decided to apply more pressure, he reluctantly caved. Besides, she should probably know exactly what he was getting into.

First, though, before they headed out: he reminded her to just call him Sam. He didn't appreciate the plays on his name.

He also didn't waste time. If she wanted an explanation and some small talk, it would be while they were en route. Granted, the explanation he offered was ultimately quite simple: Sam found fighting with a Demon Weapon too easy. He explained, and Korne confirmed, that when they Resonated, the sheer intensity of their spiritual pressure was enough to make weak agents sick. Sam had dueled each of the top five and won against three of them with Korne, but none of them alone. He preferred the challenge. Thus, he only used Korne when the situation was dire. There was a tinge of irony in Aki feeling useless when Korne most often was. Or, perhaps worse, when Sam effectively refused to use a Demon Weapon. Or, actually, a Death Scythe.

There was a complex bundle of facts surrounding that admittance. The squandering of resources, the inherently defiance, dangerous, and arguably arrogant nature; how if Sam was in the program behaving like that, he likely wouldn't be cleared. No different than some stubborn idiots thinking they can do it alone, like Dante or even previously Kisei.

The unfortunate truth of Samuel Smith was that he was a situation of Might Makes Right. Apparently, if you could go toe to toe with the Shinigami and fight amongst the upper brass, you were allowed to bend the rules a little.

Sam did at least shift the topic away from his own issues and back onto Feng. He told her, in no minced words, that the Berserker soul and the power it granted was a mere crutch. It was his belief that, with sufficient practice and effort, those with her soul could attain the same or similar affects with none of the risk. Her Wavelength, at least to him, was little more than shortcut to undeserved power. He would have called the entire Berserker Corps a group of undisciplined liabilities had he decided to pick a fight here and now, but it was neither the time or place. His true opinions would have to be kept to himself - at least for the moment.

And, if Feng had a response to make, it would equally have to be put off for later. What the group stumbled onto within the Car Rental location would ultimately bring all conversation to an end.

It was a veritable army. What had to have been hundreds of reanimated human corpses, their souls screaming in agony, wailing in their fate of being bound to decrepit, human flesh. Though, not all of them were human, it seemed. Some were Witches. And, plenty of Witches were apparently present. It was next to impossible to hide due to Sam, but the parking lot in front of them had an deniable foe itself. At least a dozen Witches and an army of the undead all holed up in the actual rental building. Recon proved to be pointless as the two Meisters, again likely due to Sam, had already been made.

While the bulk of the zombies were slow, there were some exceptions. The first was, in fact, the first to attack. A gruesome creature that seemed right out of a b-rate horror movie, it was a large, human form with two heads, six arms, and two legs, but that crawled on its back akin to a spider. It leapt through the cars at an impressive pace, setting off multiple car alarms, as it did, before coming into contact with Sam. It avoided his sword by trying to latch onto him with its multiple limbs only to be knocked back by what looked like sparks of electricity jolting off of Sam. Unclear of what he had done to parry the creature or the nature of that technique, Feng would soon have her own target to be concerned about.

A more massive creature, one again put together of sewn together corpses, long and writhing with a hundred hands and a dozen screaming heads all put together like a patchwork attempt at creating an even more grotesque version of the human centipede. Despite its quasi-human form, it did in fact crawl like an insect, the juxtaposition being inhuman and uncomfortable. It's attempt at an attack, however, was not at all like the other. Instead, as if conjured by magic, and likely so given the Witches in the vicinity, dozens of iridescent throwing hatchets filled its hands and were flung at Feng at blinding speed, not quite as fast as a bullet but easily outpacing any bolt or arrow known to mortal bowman. The hundred arms of this creature proved to be no hyperbole as soon came in waves of dozens of these magical, ghostly axes that numbered in what must have been hundreds in mere seconds.

RedArmyShogun Shotgunpenguin EmperorsChosen

 

[RedArmyShogun]

The Missing of the Giant Mountains
Investigative Mission
Date: 09/27/67
Location: The Derelict Mansion - Liberec Region - Czech Republic
​

With the ongoing hostilities and the actions of meister and weapon trio, things were chaotic to say the least. Firstly, there was the melee battle against the Chimeric beast, while impressive and more than dangerous by its own right, it simply was unable to handle this level of force, speed and violence that resulted from the brief resonance of Wren and Zosar simply cleaved through the beast with very little resistance. It did try to fight back and even left a nasty rent in the flooring behind them as elemental magic lashed out at where they were and were now traveling. But the barely coordinated beast's multiple heads was akin to a featherweight fighting a heavyweight in a match of boxing.

Defeated, slashed, torn into with the super reeving chainsaw, there was little to be said. Or that needing saying as the Meister and weapon chewed through this beast with much less difficulty than from the aquatic lizard.

For their part, Sara and Dante had opened up to one another to a degree greater than they could have just mere hours ago, but it still was not resonance and still not enough to halt the Jiangshi, at least not in full. Having once been a man, Brother Lee as he called himself was among the first weapons, having sought out Immortality by becoming what he now was. Ancient Chinese sorcery is said to have been the source of it, but it was of little importance. It was more an indicator of age, experience, skill. Though this form of he was hampered in many regards, he had learned to fight with it and with the bloodlust he emitted, it was clear that he had killed many, enough so to be what only one other here was...

Taking note of what Kisei had done, was doing, he grunted. The bastard had an anti-undead wavelength. And he was a Death Scythe as well. This all had gotten to be very disadvantageous to himself. It was a shame that witch and her guards were so useless... That had been taken out at the very start, two on six were bad odds for anyone. The beasts had not held up well either. Though in fairness they were auxiliaries... Good for dealing with troublesome locals or even mauling apart a one-star team... And the Baroness Calinescu... Well, she would likely be dead very soon... Well, more dead. And he himself wasn't so sure he could escape it...

But he would still try, and the first step for that was to remove the weakest link as the tingle of fear ran up his back but was quickly smashed backdown with the euphoria of having an all-stakes game, life or death, danger was here and in its own way, danger was fun. Or at least it was in the mind of Brother Lee as the Werewolf runt tried an interesting fake out upon him. In fact, to an extent it worked, thanks to the distraction of that damn Scythe.

As the attack went in for his upper mass, the Jiangshi laughed; "Ohohohehe!" And simply fell, letting his claws disconnect from the ceiling and allowing the chains and blades that were now replacements for flesh to clang off the blows Sara attempted, before lurking back to his previous thoughts.

"Got you." Kisei was not the only death scythe here, as his glowing red eye seemed to blaze, no, it didn't seem to, it in fact did as the halberd became more a source of concern, the Jiangshi briefly collapsed in upon himself using partial transformations with astounding control, his corrupted soul beaming ever more brightly. It was a soul that very here would know, a Murderous wavelength, though lacking the kiss of Madness that was found within Dani's. Brother Lee simply was determined to see them all die and found joy in the very act of making that happen as his claws become a multicolor chrome, jagged and lethal, it honestly looked like what some would call "Mall Ninja" design that would be as dangerous to a meister as it was to the enemy. A problem the Jiangshi did not share. Curiously the chains became a taught steel cable that glistened with a platinum sheen, coiling in place of arms as the snakelike tendrils quickly made to wrap up Sara for a killing blow, even as he fell. "Hoheheho!"

And beyond him, things were happening much as he thought, but that could not be dwelt upon.

For her own part, between the sudden surge in power, the fear that overwhelmed her, and her hypnosis domination being broken in mere seconds made the Baroness break, she wanted to live, she wanted to run. To be killed by these animals was all too much, just like her darling cats, they lived so shortly and did not know the finer things in life, did not know from whom they came, from who had rightful domain. How many places had she been chased from; how many times has some hunter needed to be killed for breaking up her little brief stints of being nobility over some know nothing village... But here, there was no running, those brief seconds were enough to cause her mind to break, the fear overwhelming her, a cornered rat now had only one option to live through the night.

​

While Brother Lee was composed, the Baroness Calinescu was anything but. Fear and terror washed over her, but like a cornered rat she had no escape and no choice but to fight, even as her physical prowess was reduced, she was only concerned with fighting her way out, to at least hold on. "NNNNOOOOO! GET AWAY! GETAWAY-AWAY!" As the scythe reached partially around the shield, she made use of the initial blood spilled and the totems she had made to create waves upon waves of thin tendrils of blood, fashioned into spikes as she became a beacon of vampiric magic, expending everything in a bid to survive, she was the weakest of the High Vampires from the European continent in terms of physical skills, she could not do what a number of them could.

If anything, she was far more skilled at the "magic" and illusionary arts of her people than in any sort of physical power. Seemingly remembering this she attempted jumping backwards while making use of her eyes and lingering effects of her totems and spirit to start making illusionary copies of herself, to play a symphony of sounds and to seemingly warp the regions around her, or rather the perception of them.

Interactions/Mentions: EmperorsChosen (Elly) Sir Les Paul (Kisei) Merciless Medic (Sara) Pumpkid (Dante) The Regal Rper (Zosar) Haze- (Wren)[/scroll]

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Feng Long - Aki Kiyoko - Wes Carpenter
New York City - Car Rentals JFK Airport
September 26th​

Feng mostly walked along listening to the man’s words, finding him to be a boring conversationalist he was a lone wolf and never part of a team, even abandoning his weapon as it made him too strong, furthermore he had the nerve to bring up her own berserker wavelength to turn the conversation back on her. Given his opinion on how it was unearned power, she was half tempted to throw back into his face how easy that was for someone with a great soul to say, his “earned” power had made him conceited, even should she become as powerful as she, she would not give up her weapon. She was not a battle nut, and was more than happy to take an easy win. Chinese martial arts was about form and efficiency, stability and flow.

Still, what they were to come upon gave her some pause. Unholy abominations, witches in black masses, hundreds of undead. ”I knew it!... Err not this.. But it being nothing good.” She would not have long to appreciate the scene as an unholy abomination of a human centipede, supported by witches, started to hurl axes at herself..

Unlike Feng, Wes didn’t have any sort of inkling of what they would be encountering once they discovered the source of the garbled soul. Still, he could hazard a guess as to whether he should be ready for more of those hounds were, so he chose to strap himself onto Feng’s back in his weapon form beforehand. He was glad that he did, as what they found at the rental lot was something that looked like it was shot out of a b-tier horror movie, a massive jumble of human parts twisted into a horrifying form. While it was terrifying in its own way, its appearance wasn’t what was causing him concern.

No, it was the dozens, if not hundreds of souls all screaming out, desperately begging for their suffering to end in a warped chorus. Their pained moans blended together in a horrid fashion, as if their collective souls were being amalgamated into one soul-crushing noise. ‘Shit. Who could do something like this?’ He asked within their shared soul space, his string tightening slightly around Feng’s shoulders as she moved.

Aki had given pause when she felt Wes’s hand on her shoulder and his condolences. She didn’t bounce back to her usual self, but she didn’t seem to be in as much of a pout as she holstered herself against Feng. At least, she didn’t seem to be until Sam started running his mouth. <’...Why do we need this guy again?’> She asked in somewhat of a deadpan within their shared soul space. In another circumstance, Aki probably would have flooded him with questions as well. In this circumstance, he was a prick insulting his sister.

Aki was none too amused at their new friends, which was saying something as normally she would have been all over a Death Scythe, prodding them and asking questions. However, when they reached the site. ’...I… I don’t know…’ Aki replied to Wes internally. ’I’ve seen cult stuff, but…not on this scale…’ Aki had seen a decent amount of grotesque things in her young life, but a patchwork flesh army in the middle of a metropolis was not one of them.

As she took in more of what was happening, it was fairly unnerving, but the immediate here and now was of far greater concern. ’Knew this was a trap… Still, want to help em, as to what did it, likely those damn witches.’ Taking off into a run and self enhancing, she issued orders while on the move, taking Aki in hand and readying to fire at the incoming projectiles; ’Wes, onto my left Arm, Aki you’ll be in my left hand as well. Korne, you’ll be in my right hand, I’m not a fan of Smith’s battle thirst, I rather things over quick and clean.' Even as she could accelerate, the thrown hatches came in. It would be a very close miss.

’Wes, if you have suggestions on how to use you short of being a shield, I’m all ears, Aki, I want us to use some pretty powerful shots to carve out bodies… If we can, I would rather kill the witches behind them. Otherwise, they’ll keep forming new terrors… Korne, I’ll keep you in my right and try closing in, if your Meister is about to get more than an even fight, I’m throwing you at him. I don’t care about his pride.’

Wes nodded inside of his weapon form, the string quickly shifting and uncoiling around Feng’s shoulders. It wrapped itself around her upper arm, letting the gong swing briefly before shooting against her left forearm and pressing tightly against it. At her question of what he could offer beyond blocking the incoming hatchets, he paused. Beyond enhancing her abilities through regulation, his only options were to fall back on his sound wavelength. He doubted that the hatchets being thrown at them were flimsy enough to be blown back by a soundwave, which meant for now Feng would have to get him in close.

If you can press me against them, I can build up a decent shot of sound.’ While Aki would be able to deal with the witches behind them, the abominations were still a very real threat for now. He had no idea whether they had the same ability to consume wavelength like the hounds, but they’d have to find that out the hard way. ‘It’s like that thing in those kung-fu movies. Uh……’ He trailed off, his memory of the exact term they used in the movie failing him. In his defense, the dialogue was cheesy as it could be, so he ended up remembering the fight scenes more than anything else. ‘It’s that thing, where they punch something and it damages the insides only.’

’Finally!’ Aki cheered, excited at the prospect of being able to actually assist. Though she wondered if these things were perhaps resistant like those dogs were. Regardless, Aki shifted into Feng’s left hand, already working to chamber a round when Wes made his suggestion. ’Eh?’ She hummed thinking on his explanation, followed by a drawn out ’Ohhh.’

’One thing at a time, and got it, I’ll try getting up close.’Taking aim with Aki as Wes in his new position took on what axes she couldn’t avoid, firing a powered blast at the abomination’s actual mid-section torso she then turned her attention to Korne. ‘I hope you don’t mind being swung with no sense of artistry.’

This thing was all sorts of fucked up, more so any witch that would willingly do such, but if one were to be broken by that, then they had no future here. Didn't mean she wouldn't need a stiff drink after this, but it did make her wish she had a flamethrower. Hopefully this enemy didn't make her partners as useless as it had with those beasts from before.

Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Dani) Sir Les Paul (NPC's) Shotgunpenguin (Wes)

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Nadia Semyonov - Daniella Ethalyn
New York City - North of JFK International - NYC
September 26th​

~~~

As the battle progressed, Nadia could notice that the souls of most of them, if not all of them were innocent souls as the DWMA would say, yet their guns very much weren't innocent and very easily could have killed them. Regardless of what others thought, this matter was not so clear cut as anger washed over her and the gun line was trimmed away.

Nadia knew there was a time to stop and it would be soon, Dani was not doing this as she should, it was out of rage more than out of love for Adrian, yet another reason she considered it unsound to have them together, though the DWMA felt otherwise.

Suddenly a being much more powerful than her and the blue asshole showed up out of nowhere to join the fight, demanding she disarm herself, as Nadia shot him a cold and hard gaze. “You Debil! Your men did not try to speak! You shot one of my men, butchering my allies! And those damn witches attacked us first and ruined a sanctioned DWMA plan to deal with that monster, while yours try to snatch the pieces!”

Nadia was in no mood to talk, but as she looked at the field she sighed, trying to regain her composure. ”A minute…” She said before looking into their shared soul space she was not sure if this would work, but she had a plan if it did not, a heavy handed one, but a plan nonetheless. ’Dani, listen to me, it all will be fine now… I need you to snap out of it, your wavelength is reaching out to others, like Adrian.’

’Piece of shit, of course they want peace when they start to fuckin’ lose. Innocent, my ass…! Dani growled in response to the Paladin’s words. He was full of it, just like the blue-haired prick. However, her ire then briefly turned to Nadia.

‘Hah? The fuck you mean it’ll all be fine now, Nadia? You think they’re just gonna stop? We already tried shouting out that we were DWMA and they didn’t fuckin’ listen,’ Dani argued.

The Paladins as she had seen them had demonstrated that they were unfriendly at best. The other one wanted to wreck their reputation more than it already was, but that was just because the treaty didn’t disallow it. He would’ve rather they all be dead, him and the rest of his fucking church.

However the last remark gave her pause. ’...What?’ She breathed out, her tone containing little patience, but noticeably less incendiary.

’We’ve little choice in it Dani, unless we mean to kill them all. Our purposes in this become too different we’ll have rejection and be unable to fight at all for awhile. This one at least speaks to us, so its worth a shot to see if he can end it. We also need to calm down Adrian and tend his wounds.’

Silence. The fire of her wrath still smoldering, but there was a lining of fear or grief to it now. She was still livid, however some of that was now directed to herself. She just wanted to protect him and the rest. She didn’t want to hurt him. She also wanted to be angry, but not if that fed into him as well. ’...Stupid… stupid… you dumb fucking bitch,’ She growled out, though it wasn’t directed at Nadia.

Many more moments passed, though to the outside world, milliseconds had hardly gone by. However, the flame simmered down, however Dani didn’t cease the resonance. She very much was making sure Nadia was ready for a fight. She didn’t trust those people, but for now, she would narrow her focus to Nadia as a way of mitigating her anger. ’...Do what you gotta do.’

Impressed that Dani had come back from the brink with that talk, Nadia waits to make sure the Madness wavelength was suppressed before she would talk to the Paladin again, but shares a brief dialogue with Dani. ’It will be fine, at least I’ve no need to force apart this and hit you, or take away some of that heat… Let me see his intentions before we break it off.’

”I am with the DWMA and will not disarm myself till I know who is friend and who is foe. It would be all too easy to shoot me in the back after all. However…” Nadia lowers the weapon, keeping it pointed at the ground and in a disadvantageous position. ”So what will you do now?”

Dani stewed at that. This too was a coping mechanism she had learned. Her wavelength and madness spiraled her into a tunnel vision on everything that aggrieved her. So, instead of simply trying to rein that in, she tunnel-visioned herself, concentrating on narrowing her focus on something else and keeping it there. In this case, it was regulating Nadia and maintaining the resonance. Dani was far from ‘fine’, however she was under control.

Taking note of this within their soul space, Nadia sighed internally, while the madness aspect seemed to be under control, a battle here and now may undo it all. It was in their best interests to not have a fight till Dani calmed down, provided those crazy witches and the bloodsucker leader didn’t kill them all. ”Though I also need the bloodsuckers alive. Unfortunately, I do not command them. So, I can promise nothing on that front. If they will follow my lead.” There was also the issue of Adrian, though he should be calming down now that Dani was, though Nadia had to admit she didn’t much like being the focus of such intense feelings, even if its intentions were in the right place.

Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Dani) Sir Les Paul (Adrian/NPC's) The Regal Rper (NPC's)

 

[Meredith]

Chanterelle Dubois

A Moment to Reconvene

The early morning’s work felt purposeful—at least to Chanterelle. Her task was not difficult: rot was, of course, the element most closely under her control. The fungal creatures had been quite resistant to her when magical and alive, but dead were little more than a timesink. The carnage didn’t bother her in the same way it plagued the rest of their party, but then, she was not exposed to much of it directly. Her face stayed turned to the water as she worked. Perhaps it was fear based on the events of the day before. Perhaps a feeling of wrongness had soured the salty air.

In either case, the witch’s jaw set as she caught sight of the kaiju on the horizon. She should have been surprised, but it only validated her growing fears. The amount of firepower that had been poured into KN9 was truly unfathomable. It had become clear to Chanterelle—through her time in the triage tents as much as her observation of the wreckage—that the kaiju was something much more than a simple opponent. It was a force of nature: truly, a disaster in and of itself.

The base of the pier. Right.

For the first time that morning, Chanterelle turned away from the water, taking off at a sprint towards the gate. She was likely further inland than the rest of the group—they’d been out on the pier, and many of the corpses she was tending to had been carried halfways up the beach at high tide—but she knew that her fellows were faster. The hairs on the back of her neck bristled with her back turned on the creature.

Maria, Raph, and Ark were already peppering Gauss with questions about the other teams by the time she arrived at the blue gate. As she came to a stop, Chanterelle turned half-away from the group in the direction she had came, her eyes tracking the kaiju as it continued to move towards the beach. If the apefish were too much for them—as plentiful and powerful as they were—what could they do against a kaiju?

What could anyone?

She thought of the three-star agents laid up in the infirmary. Desperate pain unraveled all sense of status and propriety. The difference between a one-star and three-star agent was vast, but the might of the kaiju made that difference look negligible.

By that logic, their odds weren’t much worse than anyone else’s. Certainly not worth mentioning.

“How many active agents are still in the area?”

The Garden Witch​

Species Witch​

Rank: Fate Agent​

​

Location: The Steel Pier, Atlantic City, NJ.​

Mission: Kaiju Cleanup​

Status: Wary, but Determined​

​

Merciless Medic The Regal Rper
Peckinou RedArmyShogun Sir Les Paul

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Adrian Hackney​

"The Maiden"​

Species Human
Partner None
Rank Fate Agent

Location Battlefield of Four Fronts
Mission Colossal Combat
Status Enraged, half-mad

​

Tags: RedArmyShogun The Regal Rper EmperorsChosen

​

All the words, all the long-drawn out speeches, all the time wasted...

...it was too much for the already madness-touched boy.

Just Dani had been worn down by the stresses of the day, so had Adrian. He had been shot, he had been overpowered, forced into his weapon form, forced to see his girlfriend hurt, and how subjected to the pulsations of Madness. Rage poured through him and it was not something he could resist. Madness sparked within him, not his own, not like last time. That, perhaps, might have been a blessing, but that was not how Madness worked. Dani possessed that the Madness of Anger, and that is what was pushed onto Adrian. A boy too wounded and too tired to keep up a defense with his Calm Mind training.

As the anger mixed with his own personal feelings, reality became clear to him. Perhaps he didn't want to defend against this feeling. Perhaps, he wanted to embrace it. Perhaps, the angered that surged through him was righteous.

For, he was not only angry with these Paladins. He was angry with Nadia. True though it was that he leapt first out the plane, apparently it was Nadia that ran her mouth against the first Paladin. That is what hurt her and Dani. Whatever excuses she made, he couldn't forgive it. He too was encountered by a Paladin: Simon. The very one in front of them that elected not to immediately attack despite how Nadia had already cut down some of his men. In his now blind rage, Adrian could not comprehend a world where the harm that came to Dani was anything but the fault of Nadia. Right or wrong, it didn't matter. Madness was consuming him and it was all but natural to find a reason to be angry.

The Paladins only made things messy and complicated.

The Bloodsuckers never warned them that being in there vicinity put a target on their back.

Fuck the Witches at this point. They didn't make sense and started this whole mess. Let them die a miserable death, Adrian didn't care.

Fuck Nadia and her massive ego. All this time and her dense ass hadn't learn that whatever the fuck she did in Russia wasn't working here.

Adrian was a vortex of rage. A growing maelstrom inside of him that wasn't exactly obvious until it erupted in a way that could not be ignored.

The blue-haired boy was equipped with a collar and additional bands that were intended to be reinforced, methods to prevent what occurred at the Fool's Festival. Methods that would fall short. With Madness pushing his abilities once again, Adrian had developed a means to avoid the injections from those needles. He would simply block them with pinpoint accuracy so that they could not penetrate his skin. Ironic, in a way, that this skill was derived from the heightened focus taught to him through Calm Mind training. Without Reiko and her efforts, he wouldn't possess the finesse to pull that off.

All that was left were a few minor shocks and of course the synthetic Healing Wavelength. Fortunately, Adrian could endure. The collars had no hopes of quelling active Madness and the shocks they delivered were pathetic compared to the strikes he took from Zari.

The short of it was simple: the maddened version of Adrian was back. The crown of thorns in the form of spikes alongside several that turned his back, elbows, and knees into veritable pin cushions. In this state, his partial transformations were far beyond what he could do without. All the remained on him was a manic grin. He was losing himself more and more to the Madness, that growing rage.

Simon might have discussed things with Nadia had this outbreak not occurred. Dani was at least under control, fostering the embers of Madness within her, keeping it controlled just at the brink. Adrian was becoming a lighthouse. This was something that could not be accepted. The Priests and Knights did have a resistance to Madness, but as with a Calm Seal, long-tern exposure would wear it down. There was only one course of action. The same course that Brennan took against Nadia not that long ago.

His wavelength flared, offering no time to respond to the lengthy dialogue Nadia had provided. Instead, what he demonstrated was a blitzing speed that all-but confirmed to her that he was the faster of the two, meaning only a strike from the Scorpion Tail - Sasori - would land on him reliably. Which, in turn, would likely mean her only choice would be to kill him, if she could.

Maddened and self-resonating, Adrian was fast, but also no match for Simon. If Nadia and Dani remembered, he had a technique last he was mad wherein he could shoot spikes from the ground from stomping his foot. That was the same technique he tried here, aimed at Simon. He couldn't even get his foot on the ground before Simon had him by the collar.

"Be purged," came from Simon, his accent dropped the moment he used this formal, holy language.

The rejection was actually nowhere near as severe as it was for Nadia and Dani. Not because of Simon, but because of Adrian. His self-resonance was simply far weaker than their true Resonance, so this rejection was subsequently significantly weaker. As it would turn out, that didn't matter for the plan Adrian had. He knew he would take a hit of some kind and hoped for a chance to counter-attack. He was even more lucky that Simon used a technique himself that would do it for him.

Oh, and it did hurt. The lightning through his arms, the disruption to his spiritual network, a similar type of damage to his conduits as Dani. The difference was that Madness surged through him, providing some amount of resistance. More importantly, this purge was nothing but glorified Forced Rejection. A double-edged sword.

He grinned, smirked even, malice on his darkened face.

"No, you," he responded, a dark sarcasm coming from him.

For all the pain Adrian felt, Simon was about to feel it a hundred fold. All it took was the pain wavelength. For, Simon, too, had to feel the sparks of rejection, even if minor. That was all the damage it took for Adrian to slip in with his cheeky ability. The agony that shot through Simon was enough to break his concentration and cause backlash on a dozens of priests and knights channeling to him. The cycle was broken. Simon lost his power the moment it was, leaving him little more than what powerful Meister would be alone.

In short, not a lot to an Autonomous Weapon.

Adrian didn't stop there, either. Simon dropped him and Adrian clung to his arm, transforming his fingertips into needles to stab his arm and continue the torture, only to grab Simon by the throat right after and begin digging those fingertips into the muscle of his upper shoulder.

"Where is your God now?" Adrian asked, but Simon could not answer. He tried, gasping and wheezing as the adrenaline coursed through him. His heart beat a million miles per hour, his chest thumped, his lungs shuddered. This was the natural bodily reaction to this impossible stimulus.

Adrian was not satisfied with no answer. Instead, he dug his fingertips into Simon's shoulder, mimicking the motion of a thoughtful embrace, but in fact only digging deeper and deeper to inflict injury. Simon shouted, screamed even, but eventually, those screams died out. Even a Paladin could not withstand such inhuman torture. The human body was not designed for such.

A dark glare finally shot over to Nadia once Adrian was done. He held the same type of malice towards her, and worse, he approached.

"You're a fucking idiot and a shitty leader," he told her, flatly.

But, that was it, he walked on past her. For all his anger, for all his malice, he didn't want to kill; murder was against his nature even if it wasn't theirs. In that way, he felt he was their better. Instead, he intended to go from knight to knight, priest to priest, inflicting enough pain on them to knock them out one by one. He doubted he could fight the actual Paladins one on one without cheap tricks like the one he used on Simon. Not to mention, they also used weapons. If they out sped him and he couldn't touch them, his wavelength was worthless. Simon was the only one to reliably come into physical contact. The way Adrian saw it, even in his blind fury, the only people he could actually hurt were the stupid ass gunman providing support.

That, or Nadia if she decided to get lippy. He didn't really care anymore. Not now, at least. The madness still radiated off of him, too, leaving that a whole new issue. With Simon unconscious, however, it was really just trading one problem for another.

 

[The Regal Rper]

Paladins | JFK Airport, NY

The fruit of Chain Resonance was the power it multiplied. A single Meister-Weapon set, tripled their power as Simon had been at his height. The problem was when that chain was shaken and its links were jostled, it had an effect on all holding on to provide their support. No matter how strong those people were, spiritually, mentally, or physically.

Simon’s fall was felt as the power he once held split and divided among the remaining three Paladins. There was a surge in the link as he lost consciousness, darkness creeping into his vision and taking him into the state of unresponsiveness. His collapse from agony was a phantom feeling that did not disappear with him as his presence did in the network of resonance among his peers. It was like the howling of the departed or the distant cry of a voice in the night of city streets, and for the knights, priests, paladins that voice wailed a suffocating warbling cry of suffering of which one could hardly understand.

Like Forced Rejection, Chain Resonance was a double edged sword. It provided power but if one was shaken, it affected the others inevitably.

Like the shadow of a wave coming down, gunners that had witnessed the exchange with Adrian instinctively tightened their grips on their weapons. Feet rooted in place. Maybe it was the madness within him, not that these Knights had the ability to truly sense it even if somehow, by some strange biological means they felt it or maybe it was just something instinctually, primitive, that kept them from moving. They stood in horrified, astounded awe at the young boy- the little blue haired monster that in near mockery of their faith, treaded the ground in their direction.

A crown of thorns representing His great sacrifice, and the crown of thorns before them showed no signs of compassion. Just pure malice.

Several rose their weapons up, conflicted, shaken- at Adrian, the first to recover-- and they froze. Something instinctive making them question if what they were about to do was the smart thing at all.

A boy, a child really, had just taken out their strongest holy warrior without any clear visible injury to slow him down. What could they do?

Sonnetta felt that rush in power, stronger far more than she had been earlier. Where Renard had quite literally been toying with her this whole time and still seemed to have the advantage even in the surge of strength she felt coursing through her with Simon’s fall, she felt a knot in her stomach, a hiss between her teeth as she was put on the defensive. As infuriating as it was, for the flicker of a microsecond she could spare to see- her battle kept her locked. There was nothing she could do, Brennan was still dealing with his own targets-- Yeong, unlike his more experienced and stronger Paladins, did not have it in him to restrain the sensation that passed through the link of all supporting them.

He thought: what could he do? And the answer was simple: do his best and give his all.

The surge of that power which went to him, was all put into speed.

Adrian had to be taken care that much was very clear. It was the simple thought in his head. His eyes, the pupils dilated. There was fear, and there was madness- Yeong treaded that line in between. Witnessing Simon defeated so simply in the span of seconds was not just downright shameful or disturbing at the way he had screamed when the boy had touched him, but it was almost horrific that there was a Demon Weapon that could cause the Zealot to fall in the span of less than five minutes so quickly and so easily.

While Simon was not dead, he knew from the phantom sensation that came with that surge that Adrian could not be allowed to inflict the same pain on the gunners. He had to be taken care of swiftly.

So when he blitzed it was with maddening speed that he picked up a discarded weapon from one of the knights that had been injured, a spear. And hurled it before he blitzed forward at Adrian.

Yeong blurred, his movement fervent, his heart racing, his eyes wide, not a sound coming from his lips-- in fact one could say his wide eyed stare and the grim thin lipped blank almost pale expression on his face as he launched himself at a surprisingly incredibly speed- cracking ground underfoot as he neared by the second, crossing several feet with every tick of the clock past his fellows that had frozen in a moment of weakness or mental fragility- was a testament to what he planned to do should he reach Adrian.

The spear likely didn't even make its mark but that was fine because it was just a distraction.

Having seen what he did to Simon, he was incredibly aware that Adrian had the potential to use those spikes from almost any direction of his body just witnessing his actions. He also knew that he could not allow any of those things to touch him, nor Adrian to reach in range. So his katanas, both of them came out. Their movements were as fast as he was just less than a second from making his move on Adrian, approaching in a different direction from where he had thrown the spear.

All he had to do was reach and the real fight would be on.

He was so fixated on Adrian, that he completely forgot about Nadia and Dani or had written them off entirely.

Mentions: RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen


Interactions: Sir Les Paul Adrian

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Steel Pier, Atlantic City Beach, New Jersey
GM Post​

​

If there was one saving grace, it was that the beast was relatively slow. Relative being the operative word. Compared to the speed blitzes of foes they had fought recently, the rate KN9 approached the shore was sluggish at best. Daunting given the size difference, but sluggish nonetheless.

The size was one thing that never came through well in physical descriptions. At around three hundred feet tall, it was larger than any living creature had the right to be. Ironically, however, it was dwarfed in comparison to the nearby Ocean Casino Resort, a building that stood twice the height of the behemoth and had withstood the first attack. At less than a mile away, the agents could factually see the building from their current location or upon a high enough vantage point in the city. There might have been some relief in knowing that as large as KN9 was, structures of man still made it seem mortal by comparison.

The whole thing made the fact Godzilla stood nearly one hundred foot taller than it that much more impressive, though. Doubtful anyone at present would know the exact numbers, but KN9 was actually a smaller, more mobile kaiju by comparison to its brethren.

While it grew in size as it neared, it also became clear that it was worse for wear. The four tentacles that once allowed it to reach out large distances from its back were entirely gone. Much of its thicker carapace was cracked, though it did appear new material was filling in where the worst of it had broken off. Its body had dents and dings galore from the fight and scorch marks ran through in various parts of its lower body. While reports of its death were clearly premature, the report of another team fighting it was fairly well-confirmed at the moment.

The group had asked a lot of good questions, most of which Gauss plainly did not have answers for. The rung up the ladder he happened to be afforded him no additional knowledge of their situation. He had thought KN9 was just as dead as the rest. Retreated into the Atlantic Ocean and blown to bits by a bomb that probably would cause fuss in the United Nations later. Clearly, that was not the case.

Gauss was also saved from demonstrating his ignorance to his team. A message hit all of their radios:

"Emergency broadcast: KN9 spotted on the eastern shoreline near the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, the site of its last attack. All agents within the County, relocate to GPS coordinates 39.35, -74.41. Mission objectives is to either dissuade the creature from breaching the coast or attract it to the location. The area is evacuated of all non-military personnel and armed back-up is present. This message will be repeated per five minutes for redundancy and an agent notification will be sent to all nearby agents. Momento mori, agents of the DWMA."

Those directives overrode those given by Gauss and the location wasn't far off their current one. It appeared that HQ was trying to lead KN9 North of Steel Pier on the beach.

---

Gauss and his team were some of the first to arrive, alongside the few others that were assisting with the clean-up of the Steel Pier. He didn't know any of them. Many were younger than the group, in fact, just barely one stars. Most, like them, possessed a useful ability to help in a situation like this. There were few other mages, either. As stood, most other agents were pinging as quite a good distance away. Many of the more powerful ones got themselves hurt the day before trying to save others; those others were mostly still hurt in the infirmary. Fact was, most agents - or at least most of the premier agents available - were still in New York. In many ways, this made the current group of Fate Agents the current A-listers on site.

A blessing and a curse.

KN9 was but a few minutes from breaching the shoreline, successfully attracted with the fire from attack helicopters. It still seemed to withstand warheads for the most part, but it was not beyond being provoked.

The battle began before it even reached the shore, however. The military was quick to try and rain Hell down upon it from the coast, but KN9 was not alone. With it returned the army of fungal mermonkeys that swarmed the shore. However, unlike the day before, they did not start out healthy and convincing. These were necrotic and rotted, barely limping ashore. Easily mowed down with machine gun fire from the backline. Unfortunately, however, the two dozen or so agents on the shore made it currently impossible to setup that same firewall.

Though, perhaps they might not have to. The overwhelming army of tens if not hundreds of thousands did not seem present in these waves. It was smaller, more concentrated, and more frenzied. In fact, it was outright weaker. Chanterelle would likely be the first to pick up on it. An odd sensation, like those primal creatures such as wolves that inherently gauged the strength of their adversary off intuition, she could tell that spore colony had been vastly weakened. She hadn't tested it yet, but the potential to overpower today what was completely untouchable yesterday was a possibility.

It was less apparent to the others outright, but soon might become more obvious.

In either case, the time to act and make decisions was on the horizon. Patterns still emerged. After the first wave of weak mermonkeys were the stronger, fungal-clad gorilla-like ones that created a barrier of seawater, blocking the impact of the bullets for the moment. Not that the military had no left over artillery, just that they weren't present and ready to fire here. This was, for all intents and purposes, a surprise attack.

"We're not doing the same song and dance again," Gauss said, frustrated at the events unfolding in front of him. It was a repeat of yesterday, it felt, but worse. And, they were pretty damn useless then, too.

"Ark, create walls of stone on the left and right of the creatures. Don't fuck with the sand, don't try to fight them, just alter their terrain," Gauss instructed, though his irritation coming through. Arkayis and Noah could pick up on it in various ways, from the strength of his grip to the fluctuations in his soul. A Meister leading Witches was asinine, but so was fighting hordes of undead bullshit or a giant kaiju.

"Maria, offer suggestions because I don't know what the fuck to do with you and Chanterelle; and, Chanterelle, I have no idea how many agents are around," Gauss said, "but, Raph, I do have a plan for you. Your chains can suppress their magic, right? If so, tell me what it would take to have to suppress those magic-casting bastards over there."

RedArmyShogun Meredith Merciless Medic Peckinou The Regal Rper

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Nadia Semyonov - Daniella Ethalyn
New York City - North of JFK International - NYC
September 26th​

’That Son of a Bitch!’ She thought in the immediate response. He had lost his shit, this was the madness Adrian from before, with his morals and his erratic violent persona. She didn’t even recall what they had to do to calm him down last time. It seemed to be so long ago. She didn’t care to humor him at this point.

At least not fully.

Could she have just knocked out the gunners? Maybe, it would be what he would have done. The problem was there was nothing preventing them from awakening in less than 5 minutes to gun them down again. And now of all things, a damn paladin was coming for him after he brought one down. Wasn’t that the blue haired asshole from before?

Dani didn’t even properly register Adrian’s attack, having zoned herself in on maintenance of Nadia’s wavelength and stabilization of resonance. However, his words seemed to pull her out of her self-inflicted tunnel vision. ‘...Adi…?’

Her anxiety spiked. This was the same feeling as before, during the Fool’s Festival. It wasn’t about whether he was lethal or nonlethal, though a more stable Dani would’ve been appreciative that he had more restraint than here, even compromised like this. The problem was the same reason she couldn’t just give in and go slaughtering indefinitely. Anger rose in her, frustration, though it was again at herself. She was the fucking weakling and a terrible influence. He hadn’t given in until she did, after all. Her madness pushed his. Or at least, those were the thoughts in her head.

‘...We–No…’ Dani growled, as if trying to think of a plan of attack but second-guessing herself. She clicked her tongue, the fires of her soul flaring up again. If she spread her focus elsewhere and let her mind wander to the situation at hand, it just fueled everything. ‘...Fuck… Death fucking damn it!’

Her slight tantrum seemed to grow cold shortly after. ‘...Nadia…’ She murmured, evidently aggravated, though it wasn’t directed at her meister. ‘I… I’m not much fuckin’ use. I can’t–I can’t fucking think with all this shit… So I’m just going to focus on you,‘ She said with another pause. Short of the brief moment of surprise and indecision where their link wavered, Dani was keeping it together. ‘...Just… keep him safe. I’ll give you whatever you fucking need–just keep him safe.’ Dani’s voice sounded simultaneously dangerous and foreboding, yet also slightly defeated. She meant both in terms of the Paladins and his own madness. While normally Dani would have taken a more vested role, she also knew in her current state she could just make things worse. So, she opted to focus on what she could; giving Nadia the power to operate as she needed to.

From their internal soul space, Nadia sighed, listening to Dani as she seemed to calm down more, no, she was still torn. It was not a perfect situation and once before when Adrian had done this, Nadia had allowed him to do so, let Dani comfort and plead with him, for Dani she had done much more than she would have before. But between the aggression influencing her mind and the third time he had insulted herself, Nadia had a cold hard gaze as she reflected on the two figures that represented her, or the influence others had of her. Nadia had wished to be more like Konev as she once said, but the Icy hand and firmness of Zhukov was needed here. Reflecting on the two, what amounted to jewels embedded in her hands, she pondered then, what could have been done with them. She was not perfect, and this situation was far beyond what she was sent here for and was well above her powers to be deciding.

Not enough time had been granted to learn anything, but she did have an idea of what to do as one of the more angry paladin’s rushed Adrian.

First was to de-escalate this, provided she wasn’t stabbed in the back for it, was one hell of a risk, and she had no idea if it would actually get them to talk or not, or to gun them down. It was a risk, but she had made her point. Adrian however was going to go past that, which was ironic given she had cut them down, he was just going to overwhelm them all with pain and hope they stayed ko’d. Which, you never left an enemy to limp, unless you couldn’t deal with them more permanently.

Still, for now, ’Everything to speed, then upon my own wavelength. I’m about to limit our ability to fight, if this doesn’ help us, well we were fucked from the start with how this op has been.’ Nadia would have Dani pour her aspects into the first portion of the act. Primarily powering up and speeding off, she got ahead of the paladin, swiped Dani’s sword form, it’s Amplified form at that, aiming for the thrown halberd to knock it out of the way while getting in between the Paladin and Adrian before readying her left arm to slap the AW in the small of his back, hard, maliciously.

”Regardless of your thoughts I still am the Commander. You will get in line and chill out as they say.” And with that the whole force of her chilling hand and Soul Force Icy. Hopefully the two would calm him down, either way she braced, touching him wouldn’t be pleasant. She was going to try the direct way in preventing this from getting worse, it was a gamble, but so far that's what this whole mission has been and she had yet to see her true objective. Throwing out her left arm, palm open at Adrian, she was close, likely too close to miss. She hoped taking some of his natural heat away would make him more passive while soul force Icy would disrupt his ability to continue fighting.


Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Dani) Sir Les Paul (Adrian/NPC's) The Regal Rper (NPC's)

 

[RedArmyShogun]

The Missing of the Giant Mountains
Investigative Mission
Date: 09/27/67
Location: The Derelict Mansion - Liberec Region - Czech Republic​

Elly’s eyes were briefly torn away from the Baroness, distracted by the deranged cackling of the Jiangshi. However, she was more concerned with his wavelength. Loud. Violent. It pulsed with rage and glee at the prospect of killing them, not all that different from Dani’s, however without the madness to make his soul dance and flutter in the same way hers did. No, his was volatile, yet controlled. This was what she could only surmise to be what a Murderous Soul looked like when it was tempered.

However, just as quick, her eyes turned back to the Baroness who was flailing with tendrils and copies, begging for her life. Elly likely looked the part of the Mad Hatter from how the corners of her mouth stretched in response.

“Ohh, dear~” Elly cooed tauntingly. “Still believe you can run away? What grand and intoxicating innocence,” She said, adding specific emphasis on the latter words. They were what the Bloodsucker had said of them in Romania when they sought her defeat then.

Elly remained in hot pursuit, whipping the thrown sickle to cut at the newly created tendrils as it was recalled, slashing and slicing at any that struck at her while continuing to close in distance to the Baroness. The meister didn’t hesitate when the clones appeared, either, as she whipped one of the copies with one sickle. Meanwhile, with the other, she dove in close to shiv another copy, disemboweling it were it a real person, before continuing her pursuit. “Don’t fuss too much, love. You’ve cheated death far too many times to complain!”

’Stop playing with your food,’ Kisei barked, displeased with the banter between Elly and the Baroness.

She was so close. Just within reach. And, her physical abilities paled in comparison to that of Elly while resonating. All she had now were petty, pathetic tricks. Tricks that Kisei didn’t intend on allowing to delay her second death any longer.

The Baroness was skilled in her deception, but Elly was just the perfect counter for her. Kisei could both her soul and the magic used to replicate it, at least in appearance, though spell. Not only that, he knew the limitations of clones and after images all too well. One could make them, but it was a whole different level of skill to translocate between them. Only the elite Hoshi skills allowed something remotely similar, and in the same vein, only powerful magic would allow such image-hopping. With her skill and his knowledge, the duo was perhaps an unfairly-equipped executioner.


There was only one soul signature amongst the lot of clones that the true Baroness could be. The rest were mere distractions.

Kisei hyper-fixated his attention on what should be the real Baroness, a feeling that Elly would be able to pick up on given it was in fact her perception. ’Cut her down. She needs to die so we can help Sara,” Kisei urged, his own murderous impulses ringing through clearly to his partner.

Glaring at the other while still in a state of fear and denial, the Baroness screamed and tried her best to flee back up the steps, the Baroness tripped, fell and was on her backside as she hurriedly tried to backpedal. For someone so long lived, from the days when man still wore plate armor and would ride horses across the lands, she was absolutely terrified of death, even though, as Elly had said and it seemed Kisei thought, she had killed many and cheated death for far too long. But still, the Baroness was a coward at heart, that ironically was the only reason she had stayed and now, in all likelihood would die.

And what may be her last act was to plead, to remind, to cajole; “I-if you kill me those that I enthralled will not be long to live! Will you be able to save them in time?!” It was nothing that the turncoat Witch had not already told them. More importantly they knew where, even if support or reinforcements in such short order was unlikely.

’It’s just a bit of psychological warfare, love~’ Elly chimed back, not sharing Kisei’s displeasure or seemingly at all irked by this. It would be a lie if Elly claimed to not feel exhilarated. However, it still held purpose, as with all of her actions. The Bloodsucker was terrified, and the more terrified she became the more she would slip up and the faster they could finish her off.

And pay off it did. The Baroness stumbled and panicked and was on her last legs. Elly and Kisei were just too fast with their flurries and Elly was her perfect counter. The two sickles found their way to her neck, hugged against it from opposing sides like a pair of scissors.

“We’ll manage. Apologies dear, but there’s still one to kill after you an’ my dear partner is starting to get hangry.” Of course, she had to get in one last quip before Elly slid the blades into each other and through the flesh between them, effectively snapping the makeshift scissors closed.

‘Final stretch, love. Let’s see how a murderous monster soul tastes.’

The Baroness had wanted to protest, had wanted to scream, but nothing happened, there was simply no wind, her vision bounced, scattered, spun and turned blurry, when she finally realized upon stopping, that she was looking at her own body. It was not a commonly known fact, but people who were beheaded survived for up to thirty seconds and were fully aware, but unable to do anything but blink. The Baroness simply accepted her death, unable to do anything else as her vile soul leaked out and hovered in proximity to her body, only visible to the DWMA personnel in all likelihood. Curiously and perhaps unnoticed by Elly and Kisei for the time being, was that a dagger would fall out of the right gauntlet of her armor, the blade tucked just beneath the hand, had they taken her offer, she would likely have deployed the hidden weapon to kill Elly.

However, it would not be taken just yet, for there still was one target left in the immediate area. A principal threat to the DWMA had been removed and depending on one's outlook, many other souls now had Justice given for the crimes of the High Vampire. What would be retained from the soul, what flashes and visions, could wait for the time being.

Interactions/Mentions: EmperorsChosen (Elly) Sir Les Paul (Kisei) Merciless Medic (Sara) Pumpkid (Dante) The Regal Rper (Zosar) Haze- (Wren)[/scroll]

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Adrian Hackney​

"The Maiden"​

Species Human
Partner None
Rank Fate Agent

Location Battlefield of Four Fronts
Mission Colossal Combat
Status Enraged, half-mad

​

Tags: RedArmyShogun The Regal Rper EmperorsChosen

Adrian had few, if any, options. Even with the disrupted Resonance between Nadia and Dani due to the Madness, it was still a powerful thing. Much more powerful than what he could muster, especially given his own self-resonance had been hampered by the attack from Simon.

By the time he picked up on it, they were too close for any form of martial art or non-lethal partial transformation. Not that they thought didn't occur to him: race the clock and see if Nadia would impale herself on his spikes. Fortunately, he was yet that far gone.

Instead, begrudgingly, he did all he could do so short notice. He transformed into the Iron Maiden, the stationary, arguably-fictional torture device of Kings and castles. The open palm Nadia initially intended to strike him with ultimately only clattered on unironically cold steel. While muted, the force rang out, almost bell-like with a rapid decay. Adrian was hit fairly hard, enough to sting even in his full Weapon Form, but not enough to either calm him or knock him out. If anything, all Nadia did was poke the bear and put him in a cage of his own design. He hated to admit it, but he had no recourse against her now while resonating. She was simply too far out of his league. If not for red light of transformation that acted as the universal defense of most Demon Weapons, he would have been entirely without options.

What he had now was vision. Another Paladin was incoming. Nadia or the Paladin alone might have been able to do something to him in this form to eventually force him to transform; while invulnerable to physical damage, Demon Weapons were not invulnerable spiritual attacks. He could feel the frigid Wavelength of Nadia coursing through his form as it was, and certainly didn't feel good. Fortunately, neither of them were alone.

"Good luck with the Paladin alone, you dumb bitch," Adrian spat, the voice echoing from his inner maiden chamber. He couldn't do much but be vile to her at this point.

He was angry and half-Mad, but he had been half-Mad before and retained himself. He could wait a little while for his opportunity to vent his rage. It did pose a problem, however, in that he was radiating a Madness Wavelength as he sat there in his iron form.

 

[The Regal Rper]

Ark | Atlanta | Rings: 0/1

Perhaps it was the presence of the younger One Stars, that had Ark acting more swiftly on the instructions.

He had been thinking about how to approach Gauss' demands, but with instruction and a moment of thought he followed the command seamlessly. Walls of Stone rose from the ground, shifting the path of the foot soldiers of mermonkeys. The walls only acted as a guide to keep them in place but it was the gorilla's in particular that were the problem.

At Gauss' probing of the others, Ark merely only waited to hear feedback that would be useful for him to act on. If Raphael could suppress the sea-gorrillas then that would make eliminating the threats far easier considering how troublesome he recalled the fungal gorilla's had been.

Mentions: Merciless Medic

Interactions: RedArmyShogun
Peckinou Sir Les Paul Meredith

 

[The Regal Rper]

Paladins | JFK Airport, NY

With the burst in power Sonetta struck out with a swiping angled slashes using the spear point of her halberd as she and Renard engaged in combat. Using the range of her weapon to her advantage she didn't stop there but followed with a slashing move. Nothing grand or sweeping, but a fast gesture considering the boost in power that had joined her compared to moments ago. All of this while ensuring she did not allow the Bloodsucker to draw in too close or get any blood drawn from her in the process.

Yeong was however not paused in his approach towards the AW. If anything, Nadia’s action and Adrian’s transformation was seen as a opportunity.

He hadn't expected to see the female Meister attack her teammate. In this case, he saw it as a mutual understanding, Adrian was a problem that needed to be dealt with. The question as to what game she was playing could come later.

What he said instead was his own mantra, one that made the strength of his soul pulse with more power.

I can do all this through him who strengthens me. Whatever I am, wherever I am, I can do all through One who makes me who I am.​

Yeong’s grip on his blades did not slacken, nor had the wavelength coursing through every fiber of his body to act either slow. When he closed the gap, it was also in a manner that kept Nadia and Dani closely in mind for any signs of retaliation- a single strike from his blade, coursing spiritual energy through it, could be transferred if he hit Adrian with one or both blades- all he had to do was land that hit- and perhaps that would upset the half-mad little monster and stop him in his tracks. One blade moved, the other in his hand was ready as a guard against Nadia and Dani.

Mentions: RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen Sir Les Paul


Interactions: Fox Hunt

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Maria Mayer - Atlantic City - New Jersey​

Of course, it would not be so simple. The undead abominations were returning, though in smaller numbers than before. She was now curious just what manner of creature KN9 was. Why did these things seemingly listen to it? More importantly, why was it back? What did it want and what made them think they could deal with it with what was on hand? Command and its demands were, frankly, absurd. So what if they all lured it to one spot? Given there was no plan to mention after that, she half expected to learn it was an area for heavy bombardment. The loss of a few one stars and the Trouble Squad would be of little consequence if they could bag that monster.

But what of Nadia, Adrian, Aki and Dani? Were they alright? What happened there? She wasn't up high enough in the ranks to know this, to ask it, to be told it. The only reason she even knew of it is as both teams were not deployed that far apart in time or distance. But that was something to think of later, for now, there was this monster hoard to deal with.

Thinking back to the current situation she ponders how best to make use of her and gives a shrug. "I think it's best I just operate in support, unless there is a direct call and use for me, I act from above and on the ground to support whoever needs it at a given time, though I think it may be best to just let those things closer to land. That ultimately did more damage to them than we did. I could also maybe try luring the Kaiju away or to where they want, but honestly, I find that to be terrifying and I don't trust the people on the radio." She said without missing a beat or being fazed at being afraid.

Interactions: Merciless Medic (Raph-Noah) Meredith (Chanterelle) Sir Les Paul (Gauss) Peckinou (Arkayis) The Regal Rper (Ark)

 

[Merciless Medic]

Noah Wiley​

Date: September 27, 2067
Location: Steel Pier, Atlantic City, New Jersey
Interactions: Gauss, Arkayis, Chanterelle, Maria, Ark, Raphael
Mentions: N/A
Sir Les Paul Peckinou Meredith RedArmyShogun The Regal Rper

As everyone asked their questions about the surprise reintroduction of the oversized lizard to the beach it terrorized, Noah and Raph fell silent as they got new orders.

Lure? That thing???

Well, Noah was suddenly glad he was a Demon Weapon.

When they were at the coordinates, Noah watched in awe at the KN9’s lumbering figure as it was lured over to their area by helicopters. With it closer now, Noah can see the damage on its hide. It was probably almost dead, it was just on its last legs. But, he was sure this thing would make its one final hurrah before finally dying, and - to Noah - it seemed they were building up to it.

Then, the apefish attacked. But they seemed less of a threat. Less “alive” in the traditional sense. They still posed a problem, but these were definitely weaker than the ones they fought previously. They lacked the passion in their movements as they sluggishly ambled onto the shore, only to be mowed down. Noah was sure that those apefish were just a diversion - sending out fodder to waste ammo.

Walls of water emerged as the next and bigger apefish appeared, and Noah couldn’t help but sigh. At least Ark was controlling their advance.

Maria’s role as support for right now was much appreciated, but he could tell something was weighing on her mind.

Noah can feel Gauss’s frustration, being a leader of people he wasn’t so sure how their skills worked or understanding magic was going to make things more difficult than it needed to be. He spoke to Gauss through their connection, hoping to ease him. ‘This kaiju thing seems to be on its last legs, ‘n’ the apefish don’t seem like much of a threat compared to yesterday. We should make sure th’ ammo isn’t wasted on that fodder ‘n’ - if we do attack the kaiju - we must go for its weakened hide ‘n’ make a weakness on its head if there isn’t one already. Hopefully, the apefish ’re connected ‘n’ would stop if KN9 dies...’

He wasn’t too certain either, but a direction was what they needed right now.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Raphael Valerias​

Date: September 27, 2067
Location: Steel Pier, Atlantic City, New Jersey
Interactions: Chanterelle, Maria, Ark, Gauss, Arkayis, Noah
Mentions: N/A
Meredith RedArmyShogun The Regal Rper Sir Les Paul Peckinou

New orders came, and they made their way to the destination. This KN9 really was a slow, lumbering beast, but its intelligence - and something of a hive mind as Raph was starting to suspect - was not to be underestimated. It did look damaged at least, which was good. He noticed that there were trunks of protrusions on its back. Whatever it had, it didn’t have it anymore.

Sea monkeys - slow and weak - came up slowly and took the ammo, creating a pile on the beachside, but the gorillas who came after became a problem. As Ark went to stop their advancements, Raph looked between Maria, Chanterelle, then their frustrated leader. He gave an easy smile, swinging the Demon Tool chains around his finger. He may look like he’s taking this nonchalantly, but his gaze had his determination. “Don’t you fret, my dear leader. Chant can try to take control of the fungi of those creatures. I don’t know how strong they are though, that’s something for Chant to determine. As for my chains, all I have to do is wrap them with my chains. However, if they are in water, they will corrode my chains too fast. I will need Ark to bottleneck the apefish and keep them on land. If I can suppress their magic, I’m sure Chant can find it easier to control them.”

Hopefully, this insight was helpful.

“I can also make Magic Circles to help my allies’ magic have greater effects. Chant, if you got a moment, let’s create a new Magic Circle to help increase the effectiveness of your fungi. Shouldn’t take long now that we know how to make them on the fly, but we will still need those things distracted.” That was playing with fire, as they may not have enough time, but all Raphael can do is hope that those things aren’t going through their defenses.

“Let me know what you prefer or if you have other ideas, leader.” He smiled, hoping that his ideas were helpful. He stopped swinging his Demon Tool around his finger, grabbing it as he waited for orders, strangely stiff.

 

[RedArmyShogun]

The Missing of the Giant Mountains
Investigative Mission
Date: 09/27/67
Location: The Derelict Mansion - Liberec Region - Czech Republic
​

OOC - Collab with all of the people almost.

-----

Their resonance died after the false Cerberus was dead. Wren was flicked with a flourish of her blade immediately and Zosar glanced to the line of scorched ground where the beast had made a valiant attempt to use the close range to take him with it.
“C’mon, man…not even gonna stay with us for the whole song and dance?” Just as she’d promised Zosar, just a handful of seconds of release. The engine whistled to a stop, smeared blood still sizzling along the blade like the blotches of a camo pattern. Wren side-eyed the bloody, steaming mess. Whatever remained of the chimera. It was brutally overkill, truth be told. But, as she’d also promised Zosar, they were done with the chimeras as fast as possible.

‘Told you it’d only take a sec.’ The thought slipped into their link. Surprisingly, there didn’t seem to be any of her usual smugness laced behind it. No, it was full of gratitude towards Zosar for trusting in his partner.

Now they had a chance to back up Sara with the extra time they’d bought.

“Oh, and I had a v—wonderful vals prepared for our esteemed guests…! TRAGEDY!!!” Beelzebub groaned, moaned, whimpered. Frail little goopy, ink-black arms flung wide as he strut along with bobbly step. Going nowhere in particular, as if he were trying to embrace the whole room all at once. Like a distressed princess looking to faint.

“Yer’ a real drama queen ain’t ya…?” The jester’s cries drew further out the more she focused on leaving the room, putting her seal back up. Until she was donning nothing regal, and the rush cleared from her mind. Emptied. The gramophone died down.

She needed to focus.

Zosar’s free arm rolled on the side where his gear and armor had been damaged from the final dying attempt of the damned monster. He could feel no pain but he did feel the discomfort of heat where the attack had brushed him. The left side of his armor and partly the clothing, were damaged but underneath that he felt no pain and it seemed the layer of protective gear below all that was still intact. Still though, he felt needles of heat.

His tongue clicked.

Getting better gear would be a necessity. The thought that came next though wasn't one that filtered: Was he really that rusty from not being on the field in two years while he'd gone through that survey?

Oh Wren was excellent, and the compliment in this thought made it through to his partner. But he felt like he was lacking, not as up to par as he wanted from the time he had spent in Japan training. Like even compared to his past partnerships before Wren, he wasn't moving as fast as he should. He had expected better results showing but then again there hadn't been much time to do much trial and error since he and his special gem had met. This was adequate but he needed to be better than ‘adequate’ or ‘good’, especially as he observed the others in their exchanges with the enemy, and could see it already in the near future where they would be in two weeks, three, or a month from now. These thoughts weren't distracting her partner but they slipped in as he watched, timing himself.

Sara moved in with acrobatic aptitude on the Jiangshi Demon Weapon with Dante’s support while Kisei and Elly had clearly gotten the Baroness on the run.

Wren would have felt something from Zosar, displeasure or maybe a lull in his excitement based on the leaking of his thoughts on his own performance that made it to her. Though that self-scrutiny disappeared when the Jiangshi countered Sara and Dante’s attack.

‘Show time’ made it through before Jiangshi's laughter was accompanied by the sudden powerful shift in the air and that spiritual awakening was what gave him a momentary pause.
‘Right.’ She replied, staring at the Jiangshi with pupils blown wide for a moment. A momentary slip, the pressure in the air died down to a faint trickle in her nape as it reached her soul. Wren’s eyes narrowed, unshaken, her pupils shrunk back into slits. A tongue raked over her upper lip, nose flaring at the scent, the metallic taste in the air ‘Let’s fuck this guy up.’

Something hollow growled in her stomach, the chainsaw grumbled in Zosar’s hand like it were hungry too.

It was a howl, not one but several, air whistled with the snarl of rage. Chandeliers danced on chains, hair was shoved back by wind.

Tapping into the Murderous Wavelength was like standing not far from the rushing waterfall. It poured into the atmosphere of all nearby with its presence. For Sara it was more intense than it was the others, perhaps not crippling but certainly intense and pungent to her Olfactory Soul Perception. The bloodlust that he exuded before wasn’t tempered, it reached out like a massive hand. It lacked the rotten scent of Madness, that caressing tickle to draw out the worst parts of one’s psyche such as Wren’s Gluttony, but it kicked, and it kicked hard. It thrashed and that thrashing brought about a change in the pressure in the air that was pushed and a current that stunk of sweat, the metallic hint of blood, and oppressive feeling of fury became known as the undead combatant's soul swelled with rising power.

Jiangshi had his work cut out for him, he realized. The Baroness was practically useless with her pathetic whimpering cry. The beasts had been so easily dispatched they had hardly done much but be distractions, hardly good ones considering their opponent wasn't injured to buy him more time. That fucking girl’s Death Scythe had stripped him of what he had traded his very mortality for and had only just upped the stakes, and now this half and half abomination thought it could go toe to toe with him just because he had been only slightly impeded?

He laughed almost maniacally. The amused anger fed the power of his soul.

It was do or die. He intended to deliver.

Life and death was not just a thrill, it was a rush, an intoxicating sensation that fed Jiangshi as he attacked Sara with, instead of exhaustion like he should have been feeling- a fervent rush. The claws came at a surprisingly faster speed than before. Where he should have been perhaps slightly slower, his speed here while not insane enough to guarantee death or an inability to evade narrowly had his vampiric endurance been a factor, was still faster than one might expect from someone that could now remember the sensations of the aches and pains of time. It was a testament to what the Murderous Wavelength could do, where he did not care, did not bother to retrace his steps, did not want to stop, he just wanted them dead. Each and every one opponent here had to die, and that began with the mutt and her axe friend before he turned to the bitch and that annoying Death Scythe. The old reminders of his body, the tingling sensations that may have been present here or there where he was not transformed- felt both exhilarating and infuriating. If they did anything they fed into that hatred, that anger, that excitement in battle- fed into his soul, giving him power and speed that counteracted some of what Kisei had done. And turned it all on Sara in the brief window available to strike.

‘S-stop hesitating…?’ Sara hadn’t even realized she was hesitating until Dante called her out on it. She was given the amplified form of her wavelength plus Dante’s and she pushed it into her legs. The last thing she wanted to do was disappoint her weapon. Her attack was reflected, and that weird guy transformed partially.

What she wasn’t expecting - and that she should have at least accounted for - was the Murderous Wavelength. She growled, ears pinning back, as she felt a wave of spiritual sound hit her. She watched as she was about to land as these new jagged and colorful claws came for her, the chains looking more durable and less like anyone could get caught on it. She surmised that attacks would bounce right off.

That was also just as bad as getting caught on those chains.

With the momentum that had her somersaulting backwards from the failed attack, she curled up into a ball to make her somersault faster to reorient herself. With Dante’s halberd head above her, she swung down. The reach he had was nice, because she was able to hit one of the arms and pole vault away and down the corridor.

She saw Zosar and Wren there, and she felt relief. Good, she won’t be caught dead.

She spun once she landed, holding Dante behind her, trying to tune out as much of the sound as she could from that cacophonous wavelength before she went in for another attack.

“You look all cute n’ tiny when yer’ transformed, carrot-top. Suits you well, actually…” Came Wren’s voice, like an earworm lingering in the comms. Once again putting an (arguably awful) attempt at being Zosar’s voice mid-combat to save him time and breath. “Let’s tag-team this asshole. Fall back behind us if yer’ losing strength.”

Her voice turned stern, losing the quips. She began to pour and amplify wavelength throughout Zosar’s body, amp his output. They weren’t damn near going all out like a moment ago, it’d be a waste here. She figured they were practically buying time until Elly and Kisei showed up to behead the Jiangshi.

Hearing a sickening THUD behind him and the clashing of metal meeting metal, Brother Lee did not bother to turn around. He didn’t need to. The weak bitch was dead. Soon it would be six on one, not something he could achieve a victory in. Which left him with two options, one being to just turn into his full weapon form and out last them, two was to have a gallant death and to take out as many of them as he could before the reaper could intervene.

While becoming a Jiangshi had given him immortality, it had robbed him of much else, if not for the influence of the Master and some monks, he would be little more than an insane rotting corpse. Now was the time to pay that debt back. And he would do it by killing the two lessers.

“Ohho, you think I’ll just fight with you both linked up?” As the murderous presence pushed against them, his soul blazed with corruption and strength that would mark him as a serious threat, not but a couple steps from being a Kishin by some estimates as he rushed in, taking wide hopping steps as he became a literal whirlwind of destruction, raining blows down the hall, aiming for each respective meister, as coiled claw lashed out, being retracted at lightning fast speeds, to keep them on the back foot, on the defensive.

There was also one more thing that would be of concern to everyone in that hall, in that building, the Taoist seal on Jiangshi's head was glowing red, burning away bit by bit as he gave himself over to this one final flame of power…. And what would be left, bit by bit, would be an insane corpse… He was attempting to awaken some spark of madness, to give himself to it with the goal of killing at least one of them as he did his spinning advance.

Sara deflected the first clawed attack that was aimed at her, her stance defensive as she gave barely a backfoot to the ensuing onslaught of the clawed arms, making sure to keep light on her feet to dodge any low swipes. When Zosar deflected the first incoming claw he did it with a simple deflection that hardly did anything to slow his approach, but the next as the Jiangshi gave further into rage and bloodlust was strong enough to stop his own advance, as well as make Sara’s tail curl between her legs.

The baroness death had just changed the game.

The air could be felt with a vibrant shift to it as the AW’s soul suddenly flared with what could only be described as a new burst of energy. Bloodlust that lingered in the air like perfume or cologne now mingled with the atmosphere like a humid day after a hard rainstorm. Zosar blitzed, with Wren’s support he was fast, should have been fast enough to close the gap- but Madness along with the Murderous Soul pumping through the Jiangshi’s body, like a sugar rush after several energy drinks, made the ex-merc go on the defense near immediately when the experienced AW used those claws to increase the range of his reach and forced the Meister to block a sweeping claw which blurred by far faster than it had any reason to given what Kisei’s ability should have been doing to the vampire.

Desperation had a way of raising the stakes, and it showed. Unlike the Baroness, Brother Lee made it clear he would not go quietly, and his desperation now that the Baroness was gone had brought change to the battle. Madness did not spark from his soul, it burned and grew rapidly with Lee’s desire to give himself over to his madness. It mixed with the power of the Murderous Wavelength pouring through his body to turn every bit of stimulus from the fight into fuel for that excitement. The madness he released burned hotter the more he gave into rage and excitement and as it did, it touched the senses of each person in the room as the undead AW took advantage of this development to lash out.

The madness wavelength he exuded was weak -for now- but when one gave into their madness, it eagerly took the call. The pulse that came with the immediate birth of this minor flame touched with a chilling, unnerving ghostly presence. In a way, this threw half the group backwards in time.

For Elly, she went back to that field with Ao. Someone trapped in a position she couldn't escape from. Where her life and the lives of her team had been in jeopardy, for a clear powerful moment she felt that here.

For Sara it was anxiety and frustration as claws parried her and Dante’s next move like they did the others. She was thrown back to L.A. and reminded of how little she had been able to do as the rituals started getting to her and Eva, and was thrown into the brief disturbing reminder of how powerful she had felt when she had embraced the raw primal nature of her emotions and taken to her werewolf form.

Wren felt her mouth go dry, her throat parched. Tingles along her spine that had her in her own space on alert. Beelzebub felt her unsteady shift as the pulse of madness stirred the air, and Wren felt a cold chill race down her spine as Zosar once again dodged an attack that came close to shredding his armor and leaving a deep wound on his body.

The attacks had gotten faster with this pulse, and for Elly, Wren, and Sara, the foreboding presence Brother Lee’s madness had created was merely a warning of the next thing to come should this fight go on any longer. It had stirred their emotions- the next pulse would be each and everyone's madness if the flames grew any more.

Elly for her part had been grinning as she prepared to enter the fight, still reeling from the high of the absorption and victory over the Baroness, however, that spark that came altered it. It was like an icy slap that stole her smirk. A bullet of fear shot through her body briefly, as it had back then. However, this was not the forest and the Jiangshi was not Ao. It did, however, take away all the enjoyment Elly was having.

Her face twisted into something more akin to Dani’s neutral face. ’...Alright, everything into speed. If we don’t pop his bloody head off, we’ll make sure he can’t focus on anything else,’ She spoke to Kisei with a huff. She kicked off, circling the Jiangshi to his back and beginning to swipe rather savagely. Of course, she expected the Jiangshi parry, dodge, or slash back. If she got a killing blow, great, but she didn’t believe the Autonomous Weapon would be so easily blitzed. She just wanted to overwhelm him and keep him from reacting to the other two pairs.

Narrowing his gaze, or so it seemed as the flaming red glow from them dimmed in response to Elly’s attack, the natural process of engaging the immediate threat would come to mind in the feral instincts that more and more made up the thinking process of Brother Lee. For now the whimpering werewolf and the other meister with the chainsaw wielding meister were distant threats as the double sided advanced shifted to account for Elly and her attempted ambush strike from the rear as both chains diverted and stopped for the time being, lashing out at the Meister and her multiple strikes as his soul burned bright. A barrage of blows that circled around to the rear and back to the front were unleashed, each arm operating in the openings left by the previous.

With sudden and unpredictable surprise, the twirling and limited motion strikes picked up in speed and intensity, becoming akin to the depiction of an atom, arms flung about as the claws prompted the creation of an offensive shield, advancing towards Elly as he did so, his legs shifting into and out of existence with each pass. Being he was essentially a poorly taken care of Zombie and a Hopping Chinese Vampire at that, means his movements on this front were slow going. Provided they wished to risk harm and with enough skill, timing or teamwork it was still possible to stop him, provided his second pulse did not go off and drive half their numbers to madness as well, the ominous and ridiculous laughter seemingly was aware of this fact. ”Ehehehohoheh!” Given the buildup in his soul, it was likely the last chance they would have, before the broaches put out half their number. Or they went Berserk and attacked on their own.

The madness was a surprise, because of course they needed more madness in their missions. Sara was able to block off the rest of the attacks aimed for her before the Jiangshi turned around to attack Elly, but she was starting to lose her focus. The brooches helped in cutting out the extent of the madness affecting her, but she felt like she wasn’t doing enough.

It was never enough, nothing was ever enough.

The growl that came from her was more like that of a beast than some dog. The werewolf half of her soul shifted as she wanted to do more. But, with Dante in her hands, she couldn’t abandon him. Thoughts to when she had hurt her allies and nearly killed Noah that day came as well as the destruction caused by that gang in LA. She decided she didn’t want to become like them. She managed to temper her beastly side. However, within their souls and between them, Dante can feel their connection trembling. It didn’t weaken, as she wasn’t letting the werewolf-half take over what was human since it would cause a disturbance in said connection, but she still struggled to keep her head in the game. All that hesitation was gone in favor of wanting to blitz this damn thing and go for the legs - if this thing even had proper legs to begin with.

Dante grits his teeth and winces over the obnoxious noise resonating throughout the field. He tries to muffle the sounds with his palms, but with the comms on it was redundant. He had half a mind to scream at whoever was causing the sounds. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard, straight up torture to him, but it wasn't as bad as it was for his meister. He can sense her fear, those stirring emotions trying to overwhelm Sara. Again, it felt like she was bearing the weight on her shoulders, and she was doing her best to give it her all. Dante realized whatever was going on might be affected because of the wavelength. She was fine moments ago. It was strange to see her switch up. It could also be due to stress too.

Dante felt the need to do something. He agreed to be the one to ground her and it seems now is that time. Dante clicks his tongue. It was like babysitting a child. If only he knew that is exactly how the others felt about him. He took a deep breath and raised his head through their soul space. ’Sara! Snap Out of it! Now is not the time to get in your head. You need to focus on what's in front of you.’ He scolded. ’It’s going to be okay. We can get through this. Take deep breaths. Count to three if you have to. As many times as you need.’ It may not be a good time to talk about relaxing, but honestly it seemed like Sara was losing it.

“Keep it together Sara, channel that frustration, whatever your partner’s saying, take it in as your anchor.” The words directly entered the comm in her ear from Zosar’s voice. It was, quite frankly, the best he could do to help cement her. He didn't even need to look to feel the shallow bloodlust starting to peek from her as Dante’s concern did get picked up in his senses as he ran by. Though he couldn't hear what Dante said, he hoped at least the carrot top would be able to handle Sara’s stirring.

She wasn't the only one he was concerned about. Wren’s shift had been noticeable. The shake in her wavelength was clear to him when that pulse rang. With Elly taking up the assault though and Lee shifting his attention, Zosar took the chance to move in. There was no time to take a few seconds to just wait. It might be too late by then if he did.

‘Focus on the task at hand, Wren, you've got this. I'm going to need a bit more power so we can finish this jackass off, just focus on me and we'll get through this ’, and as he ended that line, Zosar threw an extra dosage of wavelength through the link, slightly larger than what Wren had been managing with before he blitzed forward to take the opportunity that Elly was providing. The gap between what Wren could do with that dosage and the power it potentially brought was less than two seconds, but still plenty enough time for anything to happen in between.

All at once, she felt heat gathering across her neck and her wrists— her collar and the two bracelets beeped alive. A slow, foreboding countdown in her ears.

Wren’s heart sputtered, drummed, and she felt it pounding so hard against her ribcage that she could feel the reverberations pulsing at her throat. The murderous wavelength hadn’t shaken her, hadn’t quite kicked her fight or flight like it’d done with the others— no, it was the Jiangshi’s madness, like a whirling foul stench around him, that undid her. The candlesticks surrounding her wobbled, an earthquake shook the quiet of her soul room, and the calming fires snuffed out. The little devil in her ear laughing, intermittently, voice crackling beyond the veil of her calm seal, like he’d blown out the candles himself.

What used to be her own, quiet void, turned cold. Asphyxiating. The darkness wrapped around her neck, Beelzebub kept cackling, and it was Midori and that hole in his chest all over again. The forest, those golems, and her. All pathetic and useless in Zosar’s hand.

She stumbled up to her feet in her soul room, the echoing laughter around her growing more manic, wheezing for breath, clutching at her core, feeling like there was a black hole sucking in her stomach. ‘Focus’ Zosar’s words rang in her ears. This is what Kisei had trained her for back at the Hoshi state. She wasn’t the same as her past self in Belgium, she’d been given a way to fight it.

‘Focus’

‘You—ngh!— worry too much, Z…’ She tried playing it lightly, her voice hoarse and raspy. Like a woman that’d been wandering a barren desert for days. Her throat felt like it had scales lining its walls, her stomach a gaping void— still, she kept herself together. Swallowing down the knot in her throat and shouting, psyching herself up ‘I’m fine! Go get ‘im.’

It’d be a pain to look like a rookie DW in-front of Dante of all people. She wouldn’t be able to live it down.

There was the trademark lag from input and output of amplified wavelength in their resonance from their soul, but she managed to amplify and send back whatever Zosar had thrown at her without much of a hitch— only took a grunt and slapping herself back awake when she felt her focus began to slip, even a little.

‘I’m really startin’ to notice a pattern with this team, y’know?’ She chuckled, trying not to let her strain show through their link. ‘It’s always chimeras n’ witches n’— whatever the hell this is.’

‘We really could use a vacation.’

A soft sigh escaped her before she decided to sit back down, cross-legged. Shutting her eyes and keeping her focus strong. ‘Hm, wouldn’t that be nice…’

‘It sure would be’, he echoed the sentiment, even as the kick in power hit and he brought Wren’s blade to bare. Perhaps after all this was over he'd figure something out for her. Three weeks and in the first few missions they'd both had some rattling surprises. It was a personal assurance to himself, even as he closed the distance to try and lay a cleaving slash on the undead AW.

Elly was quick to be put on the backpedal, swapping from offense to deflecting and dodging attacks from the Jiangshi and throwing counters using Kisei’s ability to make the chains connecting the sickles intangible. The bastard was focusing on her now and just laughing. Even worse, she could see Sara’s soul hitching and sputtering unstably. Worry treaded through Elly’s person, and it wasn’t just a result of the madness spike. However, it seemed like Sara stifled her own demons, as had Wren and Zosar was already moving in to attack. ’...Any bloody hour now… She mentally grumbled.

It was as if time slowed down all around Sara, her manic aggression becoming even worse as she struggled to stifle the madness peeking within her. Dante’s words echoed in her mind, and so did Zosar’s as he passed by. She grinned, giggling. ‘Ohh, my dear weapon… I’m not scared… Not anymore.’ Her collar around her neck beeped, a warning that she was getting close. She did keep herself human, but the bloodlust had felt so enticing to ignore.

She dashed forward, her naturally buffed speed causing her to pick up dust as she jumped towards the wall and slid across its surface to get to the Jianghsi’s side. At this angle, she would be able to avoid Zosar’s cleaving slash or any of Elly’s attacks. She pushed herself off the wall, using Dante like a spear as his halberd form had a point sharp enough to puncture. She aimed for the Jianghsi’s main body, using the wavelength Dante had given her before to empower her leap so she would reach the Jiangshi faster. She hadn’t lost her mind. Not yet.

As the trio engaged the Undead assassin, the flurry of actions would produce immediate results as it locked the trio in a brutal melee, with the initial deflections and guarding actions of Elly would force Brother Lee down a narrow attack pattern, that in turn was impacted upon by Zosar and Wren, however in the battle of weapon vs weapon, the chainsaw would gather the steel cable that made up the connections to his claws and would get stuck, an unstoppable force meets an unstoppable wall, and mutual cancelation results, forcing the cutting blade into reverse to release the cable that was jarring it’s teeth. With a spit and a sputter the weapon is wrenched free, bashing in a second time, the helmet of Brother Lee was split in two with his head remaining intact. Unsurprisingly possessing Chinese features, the skin was young, yet old, like a moldy cake that retained its base form, a maw of unnaturally sharp teeth and fiery red eyes stared at them each in turn, akin to something from a horror movie as he snarled and hissed. But between this and the efforts of Elly, an opening was left in the atom pattern he had created.

That was when Sara arrived with hatred overpowering her fear, and mayhap other feelings would arrive with the improvised halberd spear, running it though the insane Jiangshi’s ribcage, retching forward and twisting the blade, Sara would push in hard, letting out a guttural growl as the heart was finally pierced and they blades halted just briefly.

During this instance and with her current combat focus Elly would in kind make use of her death Scythe and take the head off at the neck in a single swipe. Brother Lee would collapse in upon himself, his body decayed and decrypted seemed to have lost its preserving trait, turning into a mixture of dust, bone and organic remains, with his head seemingly burning from the inside out. The evil Death Scythe’s soul would linger above the remains of his body, as if to be a glaring orb of corruption that wished them all dead even now…

Now, the battle was over, and next would come the aftermath, splitting the spoils, and deciding the next course of action. Time was ticking on the kidnapped people and whatever agents remained.


Interactions/Mentions: EmperorsChosen (Elly) Sir Les Paul (Kisei) Merciless Medic (Sara) Pumpkid (Dante) The Regal Rper (Zosar) Haze- (Wren)[/scroll]

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Kisei☆Hoshi​

Deadsoul​

Species Death Golem
Partner Eloise Keegan
Rank Two-Star

Location The derelict Mansion, Liberec Region, Czech Republic
Mission The Missing of the Giant Mountains
Status Focused

​

Tags: RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen The Regal Rper Haze- Merciless Medic Pumpkid

Kisei was ever-present. Ever-focused.

Elly had proven herself capable with the Baroness, though the Hoshi still found the banter distasteful - if only due to the risk it might have presented. Still, she took how the Baroness despite all of the Bloodsucker's dirty tricks and inhuman abilities. The undead autonomous weapon, subsequently, was of even lesser threat. It was not reason to relax, but at the least reason to let Elly shine without his input dampening her glow.

With the Murderous Soul and eventual Madness that filled the air, it also brought forth the question of if Kisei should reach out with an attempt at Chain Resonance to apply what little of his Calm Seal he could. Quite honestly, that was a level of skill beyond what he could normally perform, but had either Wren or Sara given in, something might have been better than nothing. Had he the skill of a true elite, like Reiko, he could have done this without question. Fortunately, he didn't have to put himself to the test. Both of his teammates pulled through - all for the better. Half a year ago, they might have given into that pull.

The fact they didn't was a true indication of progress.

Speaking of progress, it seemed they had eliminated all of their foes.

'Allow yourselves a brief moment to pat yourselves on the back; we all did well,' Kisei chimed in, his voice through the earpieces carrying a genuine sentiment of praise. A livelihood or spark that was so rarely present.

'While Elly decides who consumes what Soul, we also need to consider our next course of action. The mission objective was to find a missing agent and uncover any information we can out here. We still haven't found the agent and we still need to interrogate that Little Witch. Check every box we can, then contact HQ for an update. The fact the Baroness was here at all changes things drastically," Kisei continued, rattling off things that still needed to be done and perhaps playing the role of Captain Obvious. However, there was another purpose to his announcements.

He was intimately aware of the adrenaline coursing through Elly. The excitement, the elation; feelings he didn't quite expect from her, but were present nonetheless. Perhaps it was the fault of his own ability for draining the lifeforce of the undead. Nevertheless, grounding Elly from her high was an important objective all its own. There was still plenty to do and a clear head would make it that much easier.

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Nadia Semyonov - Daniella Ethalyn
New York City - North of JFK International - NYC
September 26th​

Damn them all. Every. Last. One. Unknown to Adrian, Nadia had much the same thought process. The bloodsuckers were just using them, but were her best option to get in close, with support. Feng, Aki and Wes had yet to make contact with them, or at least not with the local DWMA commander, or else he decided to ignore her, the Witches that she wanted to focus on, who did not seem right, had made a deathdamned mess out of it all, and now the Church was swinging its own mess into the situation and turning what was becoming into a good situation into an even worse one.

And so, though innocent in soul, these men had tried to gun down her allies and shot Adrian and made no attempt to even take in the “target the bloodsuckers” of orders that Nadia did not know of as magazines were unloaded.

Then the blue bastard arrived and her own attempt to do whatever she could to spiritually and elementally to calm Adrian down didn’t work.

It was all stupid and insane, her orders were to come here, take Dani, poison the monster.

Her way of doing things was to leave as many other factors out as possible and here was she given another, as one of those Paladins to walk off to finish what was put in motion. Which irked her, a “talk with Jesus” as those men would say, would need to play out between her, Dani and Adrian. The two times these two got together these pairings had ran the risk of madness being out of control for the hope they could soothe each other. Something has to change as the as the knight went into the strike.

The reflection of pain shot through her being by extension of Nadia and Dani growled. She tried to keep focused on one thing, her job as a weapon, in order to stem off any madness and rage, but pain in a vacuum was aggravating in its own right.
‘Fucking…’ She grumbled, trying to refocus herself as the spike of pain drew it away.
‘Adi–Fuck, another one now…?’ Dani’s rage spiked.
‘I’ll–No… no… What are we doing?’ Dani asked for what they should do next.

’You are in no position to talk him down, so I tried cooling him off and knocking him out. Beats death. I cannot defeat all of these Paladins, in fact I’m tempted, if he were not here to run off and do what we were sent for.’

Which lead to the next bit, fortunately time inside the soul space was slowed. ’One of them is attempting to do something, and he’s also readying to deal with us.’

’...Well, are we not gonna stop him!?’ Dani questioned with a hint of irritation as if the answer was obvious.

’Of course I plan to jump in.’ With that Nadia snarls and rushed forward, swinging the weapon and locking blades, or blade to one blade of the paladin’s, glaring at him she yells; ”He is not one of yours to stop! Adrian get a hold of yourself! Dani is barely holding on!"

Dani felt Nadia’s intentions and went back to focusing on amplifying her and keeping the resonance stable. Wavelength pushed into her legs as she moved forward and into her arms as she slammed the blade against the paladins, though by now the sword had begun to display its trademark red glint, albeit a stable shine for now rather than a rampaging current surrounding it.


Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Dani) Sir Les Paul (Adrian/NPC's) The Regal Rper (NPC's)

 

[Sir Les Paul]

North of JFK Airport, New York City, New York
GM Post​

en route to Eastern front​

In a brief exchange, Yeong learned that the female swordsman that was Nadia was not someone he could take so lightly as to defend against single-handed. Not that her power was overwhelming, but that his assumption that they shared a target in Adrian allowed for too great an opening. With his attention split, Nadia and Dani were able to throw him off tempo in his lunge at Adrian. The attack would not connect. Even if it had, what occurred next would literally reshape the battlefield.

The witches that were underground previously had been taking their sweet time in casting their next spell. For good reason; it required no small amount of effort or mana to pull off. Nested underground for their own protection was, in some ways, a wise choice, but it limited their influence in the battle. That was about to change.

The earth itself shook and from it shot up massive walls of solid, magically-reinforced stone. This stone carved up the streets and separated the battlefield into new zones that were separated by what must have been forty-foot tall walls. This was far greater control than any one Witch could accomplish; Ark, the Sorcerer that excelled in battlefield control, would have never dreamed to cause so much change so quickly. Three Witches working together, though, was an entirely different story. There alike spellcasting was synergistic, far more so than even the flying Witches that Mister Prey and Renard had eliminated.

Suddenly and without time for reprise, what was once a battle royal turned into a series of sectioned-out fights. A wall jotted up and send Adrian rolling in his Iron Maiden form, its force so great that his normally absurd, unmoving form was skirt across the ground like a toy car, making its way back to the trucks full of equipment. While many were damaged, plenty were relatively fine. It seemed some of the less combat-oriented members of Fox Hunt had been checking on them. Sybil, Rosé, a man in a black suit not unlike the others, the weakened Mister Prey, Erin. Nadia and Dani were now completely cornered off in an area with Yeong and some of their men.

Only a few knights and priests were hurt in the casting of the spell, but some were in fact sent flying - ejected from the ground and turned into airborne missiles fated to be corpses once they returned to the ground.

Still, it would prove to be a battle of Swordsman. The paladin Yeong, realizing he was now locked in with Nadia and Dani, and the latter duo realizing the exact same thing. Not only that, Yeong knew well enough what Madness felt like. He and the priests had some level of resistance to it, but sense it still he could. Dani was touched by it. Adrian was touched by it. He informed his partner, Brennan, of the situation with a quick message over the mic, but would then turn his attention to Nadia and Dani. Thus far, he had quite the unpleasant fight in this skirmish. Disarmed by Red Fang, deflected by this girl, now being exposed to this vile Madness. The audacity.

Brennan found himself in an isolated area with the three Witches using a metallic shield and the remaining, hurt members of Fox Hunt. He might have considered trying to finish them off, but the message from Yeong made him prioritize the source of Madness. If the priests began to cave in to its pressure, it would vastly weaken the remaining Paladins. That said, it was not an easy means to escape one of these incredibly tall prisons of stone. Surrounded by all four sides with smooth, stone walls, the best he could do was pull out his auxiliary knives to begin trying to climb the wall knowing he certainly could jump it or run up quite that far. Showing yet again the favoritism from the Witches, protrusions of stone shot out from the wall to aid his ascent. He gladly took them.

This left those same members of Fox Hunt to fight the remaining Witches in the metallic ball, much to their chagrin. Assistance from Brennan would have been appreciated, but it didn't serve their overall goal.

GM Note The fight between Fox Hunt and the remaining Witches will not be referenced while it cannot be witnessed.​

---

Car Rentals JFK Airport​

The encounter Feng, Aki, and Wes found themselves did not prove itself to be overwhelming in its difficulty. In terms of speed and strength, Feng and her motley crew were more than sufficient. It was overwhelming in another way. It became a blast of sensations. Nearly every sense they had, actually. The rancid stench of rotting flesh was so strong in the air that Feng could almost taste it with each inhale. The wailing agony of the necrotic abomination they fought would have been nearly painful to the ears normally, but such was made just that slight amount worse due to the inherent sensitivity from Wes. Aside from the grotesque nature of what they saw, there was no attack on their sight, but there was a different problem. Sam was able to fling the six-armed creature of off himself with the utilization of Soul Menace, but fighting in this close of proximity to him was illuminating - literally. Each time his wavelength flared, it was blinding.

There may have been more to his sentiment of being too powerful. Imagining that brilliant flash being multiplied tenfold sounded more like whispers of a proton bomb. His use of Soul Menace was notably blinding, much more so than the consecutive slashes he made at the jarring creature that followed. Those were at least bearable.

'When Sam swings, he only does so once—no likes a one-pump chump, dearie,' Korne replied with perhaps a touch more excitement than he ought to have given the situation. Not completely distasteful, though, as the site of the centipede abomination did bring forth some level of disgust out of him. Still, it was quite obvious that the Death Scythe-level weapon was getting a fair amount of enjoyment in the act of just being used at all.

He even took delight in seeing the midsection of the centipede be blown apart. Aki and her blast seemed much more effective against these abominations than the odd canine creatures from before, which factually didn't seem to appear on the radar for anyone.

Not that there was much time to take in the sights. Just as soon as Sam had dispatched his eight-legged friend, three more leapt at him in that same blinding speed, making those same jarring motions, and even seemingly breaking bones as they moved with no regards to their body. Sam wasn't exactly on the backfoot, if anything, he was gracefully slashing through them and dancing between their strikes - all with minimal movement. Unlike the flashier Meisters in the top tier, Sam was conserving all he could. It might have even been a moment of frustration to see the man who talked so much shit back it up. Unfortunately, time was an effervescent resource and while Sam could cut down these creatures now that he was prepared for them, what seemed like an green-brown slime had emerged to pull them back together.

Feng blasting the centipede creature in half did not prove to stop it at all. If anything, all she did was create two shorter corpse centipedes to attack her, still throwing those ghostly axes.

Only for a complete surprise as a large dot filled the air and tried to come down on her with what looked like a large moving van. The sun blotted out the exact form of the dot, making it mostly a black silhouette, but it was pretty damn hard to miss a whole van coming down on your location.

More foreboding was the rapid drop in temperature. New York wasn't especially warm, but to each agent present, it would have felt like the area was dropping ten degrees a second. In little time at all, ambient moisture began to crystalize and breath took form in front of the faces of each Meister. It was hard to track every little thing going on, but it was a safe assumption that more Witches were making moves. This wasn't just a one-off necromancer.

RedArmyShogun Shotgunpenguin EmperorsChosen

 

[EmperorsChosen]

Eloise Keegan - Zelezny Brod, Czech Republic
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

As the jiangshi's head popped off in similar fashion to the Baroness's and his form crumbled to dust, Elly let out a soft huff. What an absolute irritant to the very end. At the very least his madness pulse died with him and she could begin to shake off the heebie jeebies that came with it. She was still riding the high from the absorbed souls, but in a way it was slightly ruined. She could only imagine this was how Ulysses felt when she called him about Fae nonsense while he was enjoying himself.

"Yes, yes, yes... Right," Elly replied, not dismissively but rather thoughtfully as she collected her thoughts based off Kisei's words. "Dante, you can have the Baroness's soul. Wren, take the jiangshi's. If either soul provides any indication as to where the enthralled may have been taken, please share it."

Elly rested each backs of the sickles on her shoulders, though her grip was relatively lax for Kisei to transform if he felt like stretching his legs. Her eyes scanned the building, searching for any other signatures both on their level and any above or potentially below. Then they scanned outwards, past the bounds of the manor and into the woods as much as she could. All turned up with no results.

"Well, they aren't here at the least, or within range of my Soul Perception... Oh, little witch~ We're finished~" Elly chimed out into the hall, urging her to come out. Even if refocused, her tone was particularly sing-song and carried an almost musical cadence. "You wouldn't happen to know of anything else regarding where the enthralled were kept? Albeit, they shouldn't be enthralled anymore... The ones that went along willingly may be a problem still..." She murmured additional musings following her question which was iterated in about the same volume as the initial beckoning.

RedArmyShogun The Regal Rper Sir Les Paul Haze- Pumpkid Merciless Medic

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Feng Long - Aki Kiyoko - Wes Carpenter
New York City - Car Rentals JFK Airport
September 26th​

As the series of events unfolded around them, Feng became more annoyed than impressed. The broken bodies, sickly smells and even the shrieks of the dying and the damn, asides from the volume did not bother the former enforcer. Afterall it was rather normal for her to regain her composure around bodies she had personally broken.

The flashes were more than annoying and the cocky nature of the Meister and the partner did not sit well with her. Sure he was strong. And would remain such, ‘...until he meets something he doesn’t take out in a single hit.’ As events unfolded she purposefully switched to Mandarin Chinese to communicate within the soul space with Aki.

<’You know, I’m starting to think going mercenary isn’t a bad idea.’>
Then switching over to speak with Wes, he and she were likely being hardest hit by the sound boosting, and to Aki as well, as things unfolded around them.

’So, any ideas? They don’t let me just rip shitheads apart right now.’

’It’s not the most fubar I’ve seen…’ Aki mused in response to what Feng said. Then again, Aki’s most fubar was the entire unit dying to Bloodsuckers. Regardless, humming as to a plan of action, Sam didn’t seem to be having any issues, though he was also by the admittance of Korne he was also playing around more or less. ’...Well if they’re held together by magic and not semi-autonomous, if the necromancer dies they should start to become unstable… I think…’

As their situation rapidly developed, Feng spoke in a foreign language inside of their shared soul space, the exact meaning of her words being entirely lost to the purple haired weapon. Whatever it was, it was obvious that she didn’t want neither him nor their new addition to understand whatever it was that was said. He felt a slight twinge of irritation at being excluded from the conversation, but that feeling was quickly buried underneath the new sensation that was creeping its way through his weapon form.

The slightest inklings of frost began to work its way along the outer rim of his gong form, although he was spared from the rapid cold unlike Feng or Sam, it was still very much cause for concern. If the temperature kept dropping, his sound wavelength would start to drop off due to the air molecules slowing down. While his short ranged capabilities would falter, theoretically his sound wavelength should be able to travel further than normal as well. However, without any prior training or practice, relying on that was a bad idea.

‘I don’t think fighting with these things is going to get us anywhere.’ He agreed with Aki’s observation, although for a different reason than her own. When Aki’s shot split the abomination in two, it had only resulted in the cacophony of wailing being split into two separate instances. From the looks of it, unless they completely destroyed this thing, it’d just keep splitting into smaller and smaller pieces. And while that may work if this was the only creature before them, the trio that burst forward towards Samuel was a clear sign that these witches had plenty more where that came from.

‘It’d be great if Sam could just burst through and take them out…’ He mused, the unspoken question of why he hadn’t hopefully being conveyed to the meisters weapon.

’Damn, it is chilly, those witches need to be stopped.’ Course, that was easier said than done as of all things a Van came falling from the sky, with a quick sprint and a roll, the human centipede bastards were now two. The only way to be rid of them would indeed be killing the witches.

’Aki, Wes, ideas based on what we saw up till now to get around the abomination before that coven of witches freezes us all or worse? Feel free to include yourself, Korne.’

‘The bodies don’t look too sturdy.’ He mused to the trio as Feng avoided being splattered into the pavement by one of those moving trucks in the lot, the twisted impact barely audible among the ceaseless wailing of the abominations. If Aki’s shots were enough to split the thing in two, it might have meant that these things weren’t meant for direct combat. Adding onto that, they still kept throwing those axes instead of rushing in, even after being split into two separate bodies. ‘If we just slam into them hard enough, we’d probably punch clean through them like a battering ram.’

‘We could even use one of the trucks.’ While they probably couldn’t throw it like whatever sort of creature had before, simply sending it skidding across the lot with enough force to at least pin down the beasts shouldn’t be too difficult. ‘I can enhance Feng and see if we can’t at least push into them, put them on the back foot.’

‘...He’s having a little too much fun…’ Aki mused in accordance with Wes before she thought on his plan. ‘Well… Blasting through them is an option… I don’t think we’ll put them on the backfoot though. Even those not-dogs when Feng started tearing them apart didn’t retreat. It was more like they were called… Oh! Can ya’ help regulate my wavelength too?? That way I can give more without blowing off a leg or something! It’d help us blitz the witch.’

”SAM! We need to push past these things and get the witches! Do you want your sword?! We don’t know what else is in there!” she called out, wishing someone would just give his partners shades, that would solve at least some of the issues with working with him. Turning her attention back to her partners, Feng gave a nod within the soul space, finding both ideas to be worth attempting. First she allowed Wes to adjust Aki's wavelength as best as he could while she regulated the multiple enhancers herself and started probing for an opening, while also making use of Wes, Krone who she had not known till today stayed in a reserve situation as Feng kicked the fallen van at the ax throwers. Waiting on word from Samuel, Feng would make a rush for the Car Rental Center proper in order to hopefully get in close to the witches before they could cause more problems.

There was little point in doing more than blasting the corpse abominations in front of her with Aki, so long as the Necromancer remained alive. There was also the issue of the cold and likely soon to form, ice. Sam may been enjoying himself, but even a top 10 would go down to magics allowed to run wild in the witch masses. For now she would probe the lines and hopefully Smith would wake up and take his weapon. Feng did not have time for games.

Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Dani) Sir Les Paul (NPC's) Shotgunpenguin (Wes)