Archer

"Idiot! Those chains could never hold this," Archer snapped, the bow dissolving into the ether as he moved forwards after Saber. The other guy in a red coat had made things much worse; his attempt at trying to give most people a safer passage had failed and now there would be nothing for it but to try and fight there way through: the blonde would obviously shoot any other projectiles out of the air.

Unspoken was the guarantee that the dragon would be angry enough at the chains to attack them now even if it wasn't their target. Hopefully, the blonde man wasn't as stupid as he was naive.

The sword-bound bullet did indeed find its way into a sword, but it wasn't the weapon he'd planned to fight: it was part of a matched pair of curved blades, which had appeared in Archer's hands without any reasonable explanation for their existence. To even the trained eye, the swords were of superlative quality; not only were Kanshou and Bakuya Noble Phantasms, even degraded, but they were Archer's default weapons and thus, even hastily replicated, their structure and history intimately familiar.

Saber's attack was going to continue as originally planned.

The System Lord had his own sort of interpretation of these events from his experience on his own Plane. What he said was true enough; one Plane was almost never actually unique in the Multiverse. Each had many reflections, but the differences were too slight to make any difference to Planeswalkers. In his time spent researching the science of Planeswalking and the Multiverse, Sorin had come to a vague conclusion that the reflections were blended together in an interplanar being's perspective. Then again, little in the Multiverse could be adequately or even somewhat logically explained. This was much the reason Sorin quickly gave up trying to figure it out.

The mention of interplanar travel through technology interested Sorin somewhat. It was not unheard of (being the primary means by which the Phyrexian scourge spread), but was certainly not common, either. Even so, the technology only apparently permitted access into divergences of a single Plane, not true Planeswalking. The mention of these "Ancients" also interested Sorin to a degree. Beings older than Sorin were usually terribly interesting, and simultaneously were almost always threats.

Sorin could have sworn that the System Lord had mentioned these beings before, likely in some offhand comment. With a being such as this, it was likely that the System Lord styled himself after them, or wished to ruval their power. Sorin tried to kill two birds with one stone with his next verbal probe.

"These 'Ancients' you speak of, I imagine they are superbly powerful. No doubt there are many who envy such power. Though I suspect envy is typically all that is wrought by those inferior to them." His vaguely accented voice stayed at its usual, nonchalant tone, with the tinge of smug condescension that Sorin likely couldn't stomp out even if he wanted to.

Rule number 1: In caves, just run from every wild Pokémon you encounter unless they’re shiny unless you came to train. It’s just not worth of the trouble.

Even Whitney wasn’t about to attack the creature. But the motorbike guy did and that left others with no choice. Felt ordered Whitney to run, the man in red cape attacked, Saber attacked and told to run as well, a sound of gun echoed in the cave, Vash shouted something slaying and danger.

This is a battle.

Whitney’s feet wanted to run away and refused to back up at the same time. She thought that creature was either fire/ground, fire/rock or fire/dragon, so surf would likely be an effective move. But she still remembered what happened the last time she used it and the situation wasn’t too different. The attack would hit targets it wasn’t intended to hit. The battlefield was one big mess in her eyes.

Whitney managed to move and retreat a bit. There had to be something she could do, otherwise she would be the loser. But she was terrified as well. This was clearly not just a sport. There was no Pokémon center nearby aside from Felt so any damage could stay for a while. A stupid attack might have really bad consequences and Whitney was completely out of ideas.

I need to be able to deliver an attack which doesn’t harm others. But how, everything can miss and everything is moving so rapidly!
Unless…
Well, what else there is to do?

“Miltank”, trainer said. She had no information about the enemy to be sure if her plan was possible at all, but because she was too intimidated by possibility to hit others, she couldn’t thing anything else. And even if it was possible, it was always a gamble. “Use attract!”

Miltank moved towards the enemy like she was a princess, not a cow, and smiled like she was saying: “Are you free tonight? I’m in fire.” Pokémon hid her embarrassment like a professional. She had no clue if her move could even affect the target. The creature looked masculine, but could be genderless as well, or just be unaffected like Saber’s sword was against ice. It wasn’t a Pokémon, after all. Male Pokémon without right ability were usually unable to attack every other time on average. Whitney wasn’t even completely right about that move not being able to affect others. They might be distracted by that hilarious sight, which could seriously have deadly effects in such situation.

Ah, the Ancients. Now that was a query that Ba'al was able and willing to entertain, even if his answer may not be quite as interesting as Sorin was expecting. They had their own...unique philosophy, after all, and his presence here would indicate that they either didn't care about the Viewer messing with their reality, they were complicit in it, or they weren't powerful enough to stop it, which was alarming indeed. Well, there was no way to know, and he doubted he would get an answer from them, so he dismissed that to focus on the task at hand.

He smiled knowingly as he began. "The Ancients were the first iteration of intelligent life in our galaxy, though they came from another. They seeded life throughout the stars, nurtured and cultivated civilizations, and built great works such as City-Ships and a network of devices we call 'Stargates' that allow travel between planets in an instant. So yes, comparatively I would say that they were very powerful."

He sighed as he crested another rock on the trail they took. "However, are we are left with are relics, such as the Stargate Network. The Ancient civilization vanished several thousand years ago, interbreeding with the humans of Earth and becoming lost to time. The vast majority though attained Ascension, leaving behind their mortal bodies to become being of pure energy on another plane of existence. They're still there, but they value free will and independence, so they don't interference in the affairs of us mere mortals much." Even if it was a problem that they had left behind. But he wasn't about to mention that to Sorin.

The Cavern

The Black Gravios was a powerful wyvern, and though not a strict carnivore like the rest, was still rather high up on the food chain due to its territorial aggressiveness, bulk, and certain special abilities. Just about the only thing that could threaten it were elder dragons, Akantor (its only true predator), and elite Hunters in general. The first two were rather rare encounters, one this particular dragon was able to flee from. As for the Hunters, well... so far, it had killed every one of the troublesome hairless monkeys that tried to come after it. Annoying pests they were at the best of times, attempting to damage her with their insubstantial fangs and claws.

This meant that this particular monster was rather experienced in fending for itself, as was shown by the way it immediately performed a death roll to fling Ghost Rider high up in the air with its powerful momentum. As the flaming skeleton was falling down due to gravity, the beast performed a 360 spin that used its sledgehammer of a tail to smash the supernatural biker into the far side of the caverns- hard enough to crater it. Normally, it would have not been so aggressive and quick to anger. Unfortunately for everyone present, this was one of those times where it was at its most dangerous- during motherhood. It... nay... SHE, had just laid eggs and now noisy monkeys were gallivanting about and attacking everything with loud noises. Protective interests flared up along with body temperature, lighting up the dragon in a way like it had risen from hell itself.

The now sufficiently enraged Black Gravios then growled as it felt something BURNING it. Which had never happened before due to the Gravios line being able to casually swim about in magma veins and other such mighty feats. The soulfire sufficiently enraged the wyvern enough to make it turn its full attention on the invaders and began to inhale the room's temperature inside of it. If fire was hurting it, then there was enough of a threat to the clutch of eggs buried in the room.

An angry mother dragon then dragged in the stinging hellfire that was stubbornly clinging onto its carapace and warped it to suit her own needs. Black obsidian armor became even blacker and angry red magma veins flared to a hotter yellow color as the flames of the damn mingled with the pent up heat energies swirling about in her furnace like stomach. Then, an intensely concentrated heat beam was spat back out in a sweeping arc that melted anything it came in contact with like a hot knife through butter. It wildly waved its head about without rhyme or pattern, intent on microwaving all possible threats even as it began to vent out a strange red gas that began to roil out from the seams in its armor. The fact that it was a magical soul-searing heat beam due to the antics of a trigger happy skeleton was just icing on the cake along with several giant stalactites and accompanying giant pieces of hard debris sheared from the ceiling overhead that were now raining down upon those gathered in the caverns..

The Forest

The green thing snapped its bloodied snout out of the carcass for a moment before reacting wildly to the incoming attacks. The pink on pink blasts were strafed as the adroit Green Nargacuga flung itself backwards and then bounded upwards on its rear legs to shoot skyward in a feat of dexterity that few monsters of its size could really pull off. The spike however had been flung at an opportune moment and smashed through the membrane of its wings and torn a hole through it. Being that the spike was flung by a substantially above average human combatant and was made of the same super hard materials that was found on its body, the attack proved successful in damaging the beast. Also angering it if the glowing red eyes was any indication. The giant icicle meanwhile was parried with its whiplashing tail, flinging Evalhd into a ballistic arc into the lower treetops.

Shrieking a horrible sound that reached the upper spectrum of pitch to disorient everyone with a sonic attack, the thing then suddenly turned truly invisible and began to rebound off of trees like a deranged pinball. Climbing up by briefly clawing its way up stouter trunks, the panther dragon then flashed into a visible spectrum for a few moments near Nanoha and Nonon as it did impossible barrel rolls to claw at them with paws powerful enough to crater the earth. It also lashed out with its tail in passing, the powerful whiplike appendage covered in the same super tough spikes that Morito had earlier used. When it crashed down on the ground, it flashed out of the visible spectrum once again. The only hint of its passage were suddenly scuffed dirt and broken foliage as it prowled about, looking for another opportunity to strike.

Ranma for his part was frozen solid on her perch, with wide eyes and a chattering mouth. The great enemy that she was fighting turned out to be a dragon... with very obvious feline qualities. Sure cats didn't have wings or spiked tails and usually had fur, but the thing was sufficiently catlike to trigger the girl's ailurophobia. It was also honking huge, had stealth capabilities, and very aggressive. Faced with such a big cat, the girl was sufficiently distracted and immobile enough for the Nargacuga to bat to the ground from her previous position thirty feet up. Had she been anyone else, she would have died instantly through either the claw or the impact. Being a martial arts prodigy with superhuman abilities, she was simply winded and battered. Then her eyes grew to the size of 500 yen coins as she saw a giant cat pouncing at her from up high, intent on squashing her under its bulk. At this point in time, her psyche was incredibly close to snapping as the dreaded thing grew in her perspective...

The Mountain Trail

As Sorin and Ba'al idly trekked their way up the rocky trail, the two conversationalists would find that eventually they were high up enough to look down and see the tops of the surrounding forest as a green carpet. They would also feel a chill air and find that the trails were now becoming switchbacks and meandering about in unaverage lengths and widths that would make traversal harder at certain key points upwards. Also, a large shadow would fall over the two and block out the midmorning sun. If they looked up, they would find a rather azure lupine shape staring down at them with hungry eyes. It certainly looked imposing enough with its barrel chest, stout limbs, and muscular countenance that looked rather bare of any excess flab. At the moment, it wasn't doing anything but staring down at the two from the high ground, though what looked like diurnal and super bright lightning bugs were now flitting about its mane with more coming in every second from higher up.

Saber

As soon as the dragon started moving, Saber pulled Excalibur back and backpedaled. It was clear the place she had chosen to attack was not one of the monster's weak points. The skeletal rider was now bearing the brunt of its aggression, and it was also preparing to attack the others... the beam that the dragon fired was certainly all too similar to the flames that had surrounded the rider's chains. Certainly, the blast felt far hotter then it otherwise would have, though Saber could not be certain given she didn't know what the creature's abilities were. Briefly spotting it melt a path into the ground, Saber burst into a run. Her goal was a simple one, she needed to stop the dragon attacking long enough for everyone to get out of there. The beam hissed along behind her as she kept sprinting, until she hit the wall!

And then ran up.

Saber sprinted clear up the rock wall, before twisting. The sheath of air she had used to disguise Excalibur previously seethed back into existence, flaring up and swirling around the blade, rising. It was not simply a tool to keep her sword hidden. Angling her body towards the obsidian wyvern, Saber swung Excalibur down! The blade ripped through the air as Invisible Air tore towards its target. It was a force, more then anything. If it did any real damage, that would be more of a bonus then the intent. Saber wanted to hit the creature in a way that would open a path for the others. Their safety was paramount.

---

Jakuzure Nonon

Well, the ugly thing picked up on that pretty quickly. And it could get in the air! Stupid damn... lion dragon thing! Where the hell did it get off?! But it turned out Nonon didn't even have to try and blast it out of the air. A spike, from... somewhere had rocketed up and put a hole clear through its wing membranes. The other spike, a big chunk of ice by the look of things, didn't quite get through. Oh well, time to kill the stupid thing!

... And then... then it made this awful noise. It was this terrible piercing sound that, well, was anathema to everything Nonon stood for! Clapping her hands over her ears, the tiny pink-haired girl winced. "Jeez, it's ugly and it has terrible taste in music! Do we need any other reasons to kill it?!"

As if as an answer, it turned invisible and, well, Nonon could kind of track it by how it was bouncing off the trees, even if her ears were ringing as a result of that first attack. And then, as it lunged towards them, it turned visible again for just a moment as it attacked. This was long enough for Nonon to immediately shoot backwards and out of range of the whirling claws and tail. Stupid thing barely gave her time to get her bearings...!

... And now it was going for the redheaded girl that had been a guy.

"... Okay, that's it! You're gonna pay for dirtying the air with that awful noise!" Nonon snapped. The cannons on her shoulders ignited as she took aim at the falling creatures, and with a sound remarkably like Beethoven's Ode to Joy, a stream of hearts and musical notes erupted towards the creature. It couldn't dodge in mid-air!

Masters of artifice from a distant realm, later ascending to a higher existence? These Ancients sounded like dead ringers for Planeswalkers of old to Sorin. Though some of the details didn't add up, given their limited Planeswalking abilities and the apparently considerable number of them. One spark shared among several beings perhaps? Sorin had encountered stranger things in his travels.

They had climbed a fair distance at this point, and the path was getting steeper ss they climbed higher. They were at a fair height at this point, and Sorin eyed the nearby cliff with trepidation. He just had to keep his eyes on the path and not think about the sheer drop, the dizzying height and the long fall... He wasn't particularly good at that, it seemed.

In any case, Sorin apparently had more pressing matters to concern himself with. Large, blue, scaled ones. Whatever that thing was, Sorin found that it smelled of ozone and it was giving him a hungry look that he knew all too well. Not expecting to walk away from it without some manner of forcible deterrence, he placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, and prepared a spell with his free hand. Both black and white mana flowed into him, readying the vampire for whatever this great beast was about to do.

Archer

Exactly as predicted, the chains did absolutely nothing to restrain the enormous beast, and the blonde's intervention had insured that they had no advantages against it--plus costing Saber an opportunity to wound the monster before it started moving.

The tall man avoided the heat beams with a sort of effortless dexterity, keeping his eyes on the enemy and managing to work out where it was going to fry next in time to get out of the way. It wasn't the instinctive ability to dodge injury that Saber boasted, nor the even-further honed instincts of foes like the fake Assassin Medea summoned; it was a skill born entirely out of a lifetime of practice and fighting. Analysing even the wild movements of an alien dragon was simple compared to fighting against an enemy whose blows you couldn't even see.

However, even though he could dodge, Archer was highly doubtful that the schoolgirl and her pets would be able to avoid the danger. It came down to a choice--avoid the fire, or risk getting set ablaze in order to save the girl from injury. It wasn't a hard choice at all.

His plan was a simple one: the dragon's fire seemed to be empowered by absorbing the skeleton's fireballs. This meant that it couldn't be a merely organic process--and if it was magic, he actually had some recourse against it. Kanshou and Bakuya may have been amongst the weakest weapons in his arsenal, but they still had their abilities. The swords' primary power was one with no use in this situation: each blade would seek its twin. The other, however, was vastly more useful: when wielded together, the curved blades boasted a resistance to magic on par with Saber's own.

Standing himself between the dragon and the girl, Archer put the theory to the test: as the dragon's head swung this way, he positioned the blade in such a manner that it would defect the torrent towards the ceiling, handily dealing with falling stalactites in the process. If Saber saw, it should give her information to work with as well.

The blades held, and the fire was deflected.

---

Nanoha

Had she been more prepared for the agility with which the previously immobile lizard had moved, Nanoha wouldn't have started to charge her attack--one that, even as the beast leapt into the air, was already halfway through being called out: "Diviiiiiiiiiiine..."

It was not the sort of thing that was easily cancelled, and Nanoha herself wasn't a speedy fighter--that would have been Fate's role. No, her emphasis was more on sheer offensive capability, which didn't lend itself towards escaping entirely undamaged from sudden and unexpected attacks. Fortunately, her laser was almost ready and as the dragon thing leapt to claw it entered straight into the firing path.

"... Buster!"

The pink laser wouldn't kill it, but it might knock it out. Certainly, it would have a hard time maintaining its forward momentum in the face of a pink laser beam that would go straight from girl to ground, destroying any scenery unfortunate enough to be in the way.

Upon seeing the Ghost Rider attack the wyvern, Nobuo got excited as hell.

"ALRIGHT! Let's go!" He got out his figure and posed with it. "JUU MOUSOU!" He held Aoi-tan by the back of her pony tail like he was pointing a gun and pulled a trigger hidden underneath.

"Z-Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuune!" The figure transformed into a navy blue gun as armor formed for Nobuo. Those who were familiar with shows like Super Sentai or Power Rangers would find the armor familiar. However, latex replaced the black spandex that would have formed his suit. Red armor was outfitted primarily on his upper torso. On his chest was a series of white lines and on one side was his symbol for the Akibarangers. His helmet had the silver mouthpiece, complete with the formed lips, but the top of his helmet was modeled like hair was flowing in the air. A gold spike set in between his black visor. Nobuo posed.

"My favorite dragon was the Daijinryuu! You don't mess with that beast! Akiba... RED!" Nobuo posed.

"Run! Just run!,"

"Eh? We're running already!?" Nobuo said. Then the stalactites fell down and the wave of fire that the wyvern was spewing. "CRAP!" Nobuo said. Seeing Archer deflect the fire in front of Whitney, Nobuo ran before the wave could affect him. He leaped up in the air. "JET WINGER!" An illusion of a red-and-white hawk-like ranger appeared over Nobuo's back before it transformed into a winged jetpack. He flew off and got between Whitney and Archer, preferably behind Archer, and offered his hand to Whitney.

"Come on, we gotta get out of here!" Nobuo hovered in the air.

Well, so much for running away from the giant beast. Apparently everyone was hell-bent on attacking the creature, even though logic and common sense should dictate that their weapons were little more than toothpicks to it, considering the difference in scale between them and it. To make matters worse, the beast was utterly frenzied by now, meaning it would likely follow them even if they would try to run away. They had no choice anymore; they had to fight! The problem was, of course, how in the name of Lilith were they going to pull that one off? The creature was larger than Felt's house, for crying out loud, and was spraying fire in every direction seemingly at random. Not only did this make approaching the wyvern exceedingly difficult, it also meant that everyone in the cavern was under attack at the same time, both from the fire itself and from falling objects. While the man in red was thankfully protecting Whitney from the streams of fire, he logically could not protect her from falling debris at the same time, a task that was thus left for Felt to take care of. With an almost superhuman leap he jumped up and above the Gym Leader, slashing a piece of falling rock into pieces moments before it would've crashed into the victim below, he himself landing just next to the Trainer. It was roughly at this point that Nobuo appeared next to them, extending his hand to Whitney. "You should go with him," Felt said. "If you don't want to run, just stay close to us," he told her before focusing his attention back on the still obviously very angry dragon. By now it was obvious that the creature was fire-elemental, meaning it would very likely be weak against Ice. Which meant...

"I hope this works," the alchemist said against nobody in particular as he moved his Azoth over to his left hand, his right hand outstretched in an open fist in front of him. A surge of blue-azure particles started to flow across Felt's arm, clustering together in his hand in a cylinder-like shape with a wider cylinder on top. As the flow of energy continued, crystalline spikes started to form around the edges. Finally, the particles that were orbiting the forming item collapsed inward, creating an azure flash before revealing what looked very much like a crystal potato masher bomb. "Let's see if this dragon is as weak against ice as you say it is, Whitney," Felt said before throwing the weapon at the dragon. Sure, it wasn't all that powerful, but the Alchemist hoped that it would at least momentarily slowed the beast down. Regardless of what happened, the young swordsman shot a wave of energy that seemed to be made of the same type of whatever-it-was as the Ice Bomb at the dragon's head, making sure to not hit the man in red in the back.

Agnès Oblige

The roars stopped. Agnès found herself without trail again. With the silence, I return to the point where I am lost. Unless..., she thought and started to pray. As she prayed, the wind passed over her. She stopped praying and looked at a random direction. "The wind tells me that there is a person right into that direction. If that is true, I shall go and meet whoever it is and ask for assistance.", she talked to herself. Agnès used one of her Asterisks and transformed into a Valkyrie. With that, she started to jump high, so she could go there faster.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alice Margatroid

Alice woke up, in somewhere that it looked like a desert. She got up, cleaned her dress and looked around. I'm starting to feel that a certain youkai planned all of that to me... when I find you, Yukari, I'll spear you untill you can meet death!, she thought, angry. Alice wanted to stay at her home, researching about a way to make a living doll. All that she could see at that moment was a wasteland, more like a battlefield. Bones and sand, wind and rocks. That was all. "I guess I need to search around. Maybe I should start from the sky.", she said. Alice started to fly and see what she was able to find. She callem some of her dolls, so they could help her on the search.

Though the light was sparse at first, the provision of the Rider's flaming trail combined with some luminescence gave some visibility to the cavern. Sazh was tempted to engage small talk with Saber, but he kept looking back to that recent other man that had appeared only to stop himself. From what he had seen, Saber had some good relation to Archer, and Sazh's own social experience spoke of how sensitive such things could be. He didn't want to agitate it, as curious as he might've been to know more.

Then there was the big creature. A big, ugly, flaming creature that Sazh wanted nothing to do with. Unfortunately, the flaming skeleton had no regards to such desires and dove in with skulls blazing and chains whipping, screaming out taunts. What a fantastic plan; wake the dragon-thing up so it could roast everybody in the room.

Saber had quickly stepped forth to attempt to mend the wounded situation as best as possible, lending her skill to attempt to suppress the fiend and allow everyone else to pass in the meantime. "Hang on, now," Sazh spoke out, quickly unsheathing his pistols into each hand, "Long as I got these, I can help!" Several others meant to stay behind and fight as well, including Archer and that loud clumsy guy from earlier. Also, the lady's cow was trying to... seduce it? That was the only thing that could describe that action...

All the fighters present sprung into action as the beast retaliated hard. Onyx-color armor hardened further, outlined by glowing lines of molten power. The blaze of searing heat it released only seemed to have been enhanced by the rider's fire, which spoke volumes against Sazh and his primary Fire-elemental magic. He only barely managed to get out the way as the flame lash came close, only for it to be suppressed by a pair of swords Archer had conjured from seemingly nowhere. Now knowing that his own fire magic was useless, Sazh found himself momentarily stumped as to how exactly he was to bolster his way through this toughened foe. Electric shocks, perhaps? He had to try something, even from the back row.

"Here goes-!" The l'Cie breathed, seizing a surge of magic from his brand and gathering it withing his guns. Sazh unleashed several volleys of lightning-charged shots, intending to pelt at the face but content to strike anywhere, as long at the impact soaked through. Even if he wasn't doing much damage, if they could bring this beast to a stagger point, then they might be positioned to deal far more damage when and if he was more vulnerable.

The fire/dragon/rock/ground type, as Whitney called it, barely noticed Miltank’s attempt to seduce it. The rainer ordered her to hurry back. She was pretty sure that the enemy didn’t go berserk because her Pokémon annoyed it so much, though she couldn’t be 100 % sure. The fact that her attack didn’t do a thing was a bit humiliating, but for her defence, neither had anyone else’s.

Ghost rider was slammed at the wall of the cavern with a power that formed the rock. Whitney had seen a similar effect before, but they were usually aimed at strong Pokémon, not people. “Motorbike guy!” she screamed in panic, partly because she feared that the enemy would do the same for her, partly because she was actually worried about him. He might have been a bit scary because of his eyes, but he also looked like a ghost, and from Whitney’s point of view, ghost-types were rather harmless. Ghost-type attacks couldn’t hurt her Pokémon, but her Miltank had ability which allowed her to hit them. Many people had tried to defeat her gym with spirits, only to fail miserably.

The girl wasn’t worried enough to go for help though. She was too busy to worry about herself. Pieces of the ceiling were falling and a beam of fire was coming right at her direction. She had no clue where to dodge, her feet seemed to not even know how to dodge. Whitney managed to call Bibarel out, but it was clear that the beaver, even though she resisted fire, couldn’t stand that heat for long at all.

Bibarel will die if I keep her out! Whitney’s pride as a trainer shouted that she couldn’t force her Pokémon to die for her sake. This wasn’t a regular gym battle, where opponents tried to make each other’s Pokémon faint. She wanted to call Bibarel back, but her hand was frozen from fear. “No…!”

Red cape leaped in front of her and reflected the attack. At the next moment another person with some sort of a jetpack appeared next to her, offering his hand. Felt protected her from a piece of ceiling and told that she should go. “I hate this froaking place!” Whitney screamed before she took Nobuo’s hand and called Miltank back. As her last move she ordered Bibarel to run in front of others and to use surf, before she called her back as well. Other people were mainly at sides, so the wave wouldn’t likely hit them. A huge wave of water crashed through the cavern towards the enemy creature. Whitney knew that it was unlikely that it would make it faint, but maybe it would cool its temperament or something like that.

Other attacks were unleashed at the same moment, Felt’s odd weapon and the beam of ice-energy and Sazh’s lighting-bullets, which would likely make an interesting combination with surf. The girl was about to mention that the creature might be either dragon-, fire-, ground-, rock-type or a combination of two of them, which meant that it could even resist ice according to rules of her world, but she didn’t have time. Whitney managed to only glimpse the boy for a second before leaving. She suddenly realised that she had been only a nuisance for him all this time. It was hard to see in the darkness, but tears started to run down to her cheeks.

Nobuo flew out while Archer was still holding off the fire blast. With Whitney in his hands, he flew off to look for the exit to the cave, though it was pretty dark. The fire wave that the dragon was spewing helped brighten it a bit enough for him to see the mouth. Everyone else was holding the monster off, leaving him with ample amount of time to get out of the cave with Whitney in his arms.

As they got out of the cave, he set Whitney down and noticed her crying.

"H-hey..." Nobuo put his hand on her shoulder. "At least we made it out of there alive. Don't worry, the others will be able to defeat it." Nobuo said.

Unknowing of his companions thoughts, Ba'al found himself wearying a bit of this trek as they ascended, the air chilling around them, though that was of little concern to the Goa'uld. Such temperature differences were beneath his notice at best, at least when it was a temperature such as this. The changing of the path was more annoying, making their ascent all the more difficult with switchbacks and increasing inclines. It was like the terrain itself was deliberately trying to spite them. And without assistance from the skies, it made it that much harder to see potential foes.

Fortunately, or not, it seemed that this test would do that work for them. A shadow fell on the two of them from above, blocking out the mid morning sun. Ba'al looked up to see a large blue dragon looking at them in turn in a way that didn't exactly give him comfort. Well, that was either the dragon they were looking for, or something like whatever was in the forest. It certainly seemed strong, and also seemed to be gathering an entourage of bugs or something around it.

"Well, that doesn't look pleasant," he commented as he raised his zat into a ready position, though if this thing was based around electricity then it wouldn't work as well. Still he advanced though, planning to get up as far as he could before it attacked, without provoking it, or at least so they could reach some advantageous terrain, as he noticed Sorin gathering a ball of energy in his hand or something.

The next things that happened, happened very quickly. Not only was Ghost Rider knocked (somewhat literally) out of the fight just as it had begun, but additionally, the dragon had taken on an even more powerful form as suddenly Vash found himself being bombarded with concentrated heat waves and falling rock — projectiles coming down on him as relentlessly as a storm of bullets from a squad of bounty hunters. “Flame Skull!” he called out in concern, but he could barely make his way over to the being as he found he was using nearly all his concentration to nimbly dodge all the dangers that came at him.

As his body threw itself every-which-way to escape the barrage, though, he was able to glance at all the fight’s participants behind him — and what a mess he’d made for them. Sure, he still didn’t want the dragon to die, but… just blocking everyone’s attacks was only putting everyone else in grave danger. And that was something Vash couldn’t allow. Besides, the dragon was so well-armored that just about any attack these guys could launch would hardly have any chance of hurting it at all, much less killing it! If they wanted to so much as injure the creature, they’d need to attack from a completely different angle.

Dodging another falling stalactite, Vash came up with a new idea.

“Hey everyone!” he called out, only hoping his voice could be heard through all the chaos. “Attacking the creature directly won’t work! He’s too well-armored!” he told them, his smiley but nervous hey-let’s-not-kill-the-dragon face totally gone. He was serious this time, now actively participating in the fight and trying to keep everyone alive, even if he did have somewhat of his own secret agenda. Quickly grabbing a pair of shades from his jacket pocket and flicking them onto his face to block the glare of the flames, he continued, “If we aim at the cavern ceiling above, we could get it to collapse onto him! The rock will hold him down!” he yelled to everyone, pointing his gun at the ceiling. He wasn’t too confident that his bullets by themselves could do enough damage to make the ceiling collapse, but if all the other fighters whittled the rock away for him, he figured he could probably deliver the final blow needed to bring the ceiling down. “I’ll get Skeleton-Flames out of the way!” he announced, hoping the being was still ‘alive’ (if that was even the right term?) as he made his way over to the crater he’d been pounded into.

The Awakening of the Blue Haired Boy

Minato opened his eyes once more, wow, when was the last time he had done that? All he remembered was facing a terrible enemy and then becoming a seal to save humanity, but wait...he wasn't a seal anymore...he was human again. What could have happened? And more important, where was he? Where were his friends? The boy still wore his school uniform composed of black pants, a white shirt with a black jacket over it accented with a loose black bow tie, a neck-strap mp3 player, and clip-on earphones, a red armband on his right arm with "S.E.E.S" written on it, a holdster for something which looked like a gun on his leg and a sword in a scabbard hanging on his waist. Despite his weapons, Minato didn't look very tough at first, being only 5 feet 7 inches tall and having such a light build, with a childish face and a dark blue hair with a bang over one of his grey eyes, however he could fight pretty well.

The boy stood up, leaned slightly as observing the world around him, that was clearly not Port Island, the place where he had come from, however he didn't freak out, nor revealed any emotion, he simply put his hands inside his pockets and started walking. He walked and walked until he finally reached some place which seemed like a cave and from inside he heard noises, that could not be his world, but he knew the sound of a battle when he heard it, Minato then quickly rushed inside.

The first thing he saw was a flaming skull being slammed by a dragon, again he simply shrugged it off and focused on the said dragon, the boy watched and watched waiting to take some action, apparently the problem was the dragon, it was indeed very well armored, however once more Minato showed no facial expression, Minato then heard a male suggesting to break a rock on the dragon, well...there was something HE could do.-"Allow me to help on that matter."-Said the boy taking his entrance, he took the gun from the holdster and placed it against his head, now grinning.-"Persona!"-He yelled as he pulled the trigger, suddenlly glass shattering sounds could be heard and small particles of light could be seem, those particles joined all into one taking the form of a big armored humanoid being with an angry expression with red skin, greenish blue hair tied in a ponytail with a golden piece keeping his hair like that and wearing a red colored armor-"Koumokuten!"-The humanoid being moved and slammed his fist against the rock, that move's name was called Gigantic Fist, the top of the cave trembled with that attack and if everything went out fine, with that single strike the rock would fall on the dragon.

((gonna undo this guys... derp))

Morito moved quickly to pull the red-headed girl who'd been following him out of the way of the imminent explosions and battling. The martial artist girl seemed to be in some sort of...traumatized cat-trance and looked about close to snapping under the stress of it. The mercenary had seen berserker rages and breakdowns of all kinds before, so he decided to act as fast as possible to halt this one before the obviously durable girl got herself hurt for real regardless. He grabbed Ranma by the shirt and attempted to half-haul half-throw her out of the way while hurling himself aside along with her to try and avoid both the dragon's pouncing attack and yet another concussive explosion from the flying girls above them.

Figuring that the cat-fearing girl's freaked out state would persist after being removed from the immediate presence of the panther-dragon, he threw a few of the spikes he'd retrieved earlier to attempt to pin Ranma to a tree by her clothes as they both flew through the air, confident as he was in his skill at knife-throwing and hoping he wouldn't have to otherwise physically restrain her. He hit the ground and rolled, coming up as he did with another set of spikes in his hands and closing his eyes. His sight was obviously going to be of limited use against an enemy who could turn invisible, so he turned to his other senses to guide him..

Fortunately, Morito had long ago sharpened his hearing to the limits of human potential. Combined with years of study and discipline, he was able to form a highly accurate mental sonar map using just the noises of the environment and occasional clicks from his tongue, even achieving a sort of X-ray effect if he focused enough. With his 'ELS' skill, while the panther-dragon might be invisible to the eye as long as sound waves still bounced off of it, Morito could see it and fight it.

That is, if those blast-happy girls above him didn't utterly destroy the Nargacuga with Love and Friendship. The mere thought made the seasoned vet shiver.

The Cavern

As several beings of notable power smashed wind and rocks upon the great wyvern from above, even the great beast was squashed flat against the ground against the great gravity and weight of the forceful attacks. Being so big and heavy simply meant that there was quite a huge area to target, and with everyone chipping in it was sufficient enough to put the thing down for the moment. At least, until a great torrent of frothing water washed against the thing and eroded away at the beast. Being rather pinned down, the water simply attacked the Gravios like a most powerful firehose and made it flinch from the pain. The fact that electricity and ice were utilizing the liquid medium to empower themselves hurt it that much more.The attacks would have made the beast turtle up and let the aggravators escape its fury in normal circumstances... except that one small detail occurred that brought in the worst case scenario.

The great water that was crashing against the rock dragon had also unearthed what it was protecting: bumpy ovoids hidden under a pile of gravel. They were now bouncing about in the currents in front of the dragon... which promptly brought its fury back up to full throttle. Like a dam about to burst, the absolutely livid mother gathered up energy within her once again and then released it with a vengeful howl that actually shook the caverns with its intensity. This time not from her mouth but from the vents in her body. A great explosion occurred as released thermal energies was bottled up by the layers of objects surrounding it and sent the great debris trapping the mother wyvern flying out in all directions via a deadly shrapnel hail. Superheated moisture followed, causing the surroundings to become uncomfortably steamy and scalding hot in some places for a few seconds. Then the thing simply charged at the greatest gathering of the group at the moment, a mobile mountain that turned itself into an avalanche of pure destructive force determined to bury all those caught in its path. It was much faster than it appeared too, given how big and bulky the thing had seemed up to this point.

The Forest

Normally, Ranma Saotome would have objected with someone throwing extremely sharp and pointy objects at her. She would have either deflected it casually if thrown by those beneath her or dodged wildly about by those that could threaten her. At the moment though, she was rather traumatized by the fact a giant dragon- furry hellspawn hybrid was pouncing at her. As such, she was instantly stuck to the tree with the same near apoplectic expression she had on earlier, rigid and unyielding. "C...c...c...c..cat..."

Shrieking in impotent fury as its prey was snatched from it, the Nargacuga then turned about and was engulfed in a double layered blast of pink energy that sent it crashing into the ground and then some as the forces arrayed against it stamped down like the furious foot of an angry god. When the attack ended, nothing stirred- neither forest nor the Nargacuga as it laid still. For a moment, the thing seemed rather dead, but then parts of it began convulsing as a dark aura sprang to life around it. Its pelt dramatically blackened, its eyes were now orbs of violet fire, and miasma began to flow out of the wounds in its body before it staggered back up on its feet and growled in a rather stiff and unnatural manner. Whatever had occurred to the Nargacuga had just given it the metaphorical second wind, though a closer analysis showed that open wounds were now freely spilling blood and its eyes were now glazed over.

Then the thing shifted invisible once more though this time it slunk quietly about the place. Then at certain key points, a flurry of subsonic and poisonous spikes shot forth in a rain of giant needles to bombard the girls up above. Since it came without preamble and was rather quiet due to its extremely streamlined shape and invisible shooter, the magical girls might have a bit of trouble following its movements. Morito using his ELS skills would also notice that the thing was bounding towards him at great speeds. It then sprung around in a tight spiral and then unleashed an earth shattering double tail slam attack at the seemingly immortal mercenary. Meanwhile, as this was happening, Ranma was getting even more and more freaked out. An invisible cat sneaking about... able to attack her from anywhere... Mind buckling from the fear of a giant cat dragon ninjaing next to her, the girl's eyes rolled up into the back of her head before she slumped forward. Then, the softest sound began to emanate from her lips. "Nyeooooow..."

The Mountain Trails

Keeping the two within its sight, the great lupine Zinogre steadily charged itself up with the Lightning Bugs that were flitting about its barrelchested frame, leeching electricity from the literal energy insects that lived up to their names. Accumulating a great amount of voltage in its body as was evidenced by the fact that its furs were now puffed up in great jagged clumps, the electric beast then discharged its load upon the two travelers that had breeched its territory, testing them with multiple forks of electricity that licked towards their general direction. Even as it did so, more of the insects came streaming in and in earnest this time, palpable clouds of them drifting near their partner.