Posting format:
After both fighters have posted, the initial poster will be allowed to make the first strike in their second post. The first player to post their introduction gets the position of Player1, the second poster is Player2.

Format of the fight:
Both players will fight to the rules of TZDL2017.

Rules:

• You may not leave the chamber.
• Field Restriction applies to the whole chamber
• You can attempt to collapse parts the ceiling, but the pillars will not guarantee the whole thing coming down. With the removal of the pillars, the whole ceiling might not come down entirely but large pieces may.
• Both characters know they are here to fight.
• No one is allowed to post in the thread outside of both participants and a judge
• You can not attack in your initial post
• Layout of the map is shown here: click me I'm cute
• You are disallowed to edit your post without permission from Mobius and/or acknowledgement from your opponent. Once your opponent has posted, the previous post YOU make shall remain untouched unless authorized. I will immediately disqualify you if you edit post after your opponent post (with some exceptions)

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Egyptian pyramids are archaeologist’s prized discoveries, an open gateway into an arcane world where pharaohs die with their treasures. Emperors ceaselessly tire their existences for immortality on the back of countless slaves, erecting monolithic tombs excavating profound burial chambers were Inpu escorts fallen kings through a valley of deceased men. Scholars across the world marvel at its structural design. The monumental edifice bound 2 wandering spirits inside, locked inside eroding desert stone stacked like stairs to an ascension to where ancient Gods welcomed dead rulers. A towering square pyramid (square base, for those not familiar with pyramid designs) jetting from sand with a fading bronze tint on resilient limestone, crackling with age beneath a golden radiance of Ra eclipsing a blue-sky. Each rock mounted on one another in a symmetrical square where weight distributed from the zenith decreases, but the Pyramidion decayed to an octagonal formation being chipped to a mangle malformation it dutifully represented.

The pyramid’s battered surface belies a deeper significance having a colossally greater volume than Khufu stone flag resting in Giza’s plateau. Its location obscured by electronic interference that subvert satellite surveillance, and depicts normal mountain ranges where this behemoth of ancient ingenuity slept. This anomaly went undetected by several nations as electromagnetic disturbances were accounted for by sandstorms and terrestrial heat, but few explorers unearthed truths far exceeding humanity’s expectations.. and seldom shared them. The pyramid is wedged in a very deep chasm where a single side is against bedrock for thousands of years, keeping itself camouflaged from marauders and gravediggers alike as a disguised mountain slope. Many that are aware understood the unwitting coincidence of nature, but a minority of the cabal believed it was engineered this way.

Now the interior of this mammoth construct is where a cacophony between two kindred spirits would convene. When one enters from a lavish entrance crusted in gold they would meet a walking path with sandstones carefully fixed on either side of said trail, 3 inch stones placed and 8 feet spaced apart. The floor adjacent contained beautiful stone carvings of mysterious Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and even Cretan inscriptions throughout the floor. The sanctum, with all its diverse pictographs chiseled on the floor, is not without a robust amount of dimension. The room appeared 200' wide by 400' long, its ceiling height far beyond human reach at staggering 500' where square columns can be seen further down. When one continues to traverse this walkway they would notice a slant floor 97' from their entry. It appears at a certain distance, the floor elevation for the entire chamber shifts 6 feet above normal with a 45 degree slope. One could assume as they continue to walk, they will meet another hill-esque floor raise until the last 97' feet is met where an intimidating 25' statue of Osiris standong on top a conquered 30' Inpu.

The ebony canine deity lying beneath a sole sandal of gold resting its position with scepter n hand skewed onto the fallen’s back. He lay motionless on his belly like a serpent, arms spaced as one would expect from a vanquished foe. Osiris was made of silver that seem to age to a proper teal, his helm bronze and define chest bare with scars engraved unto his muscular visage. The silver underworld king knelt before any person that approached, handing out a throne made of the exotic yellow metal. A skeleton seated comfortably in garbs too old to date and jewelry far too expensive to yield. Whomever burial chamber belong to may have left the hint: he falls to the underworld -- killing death.

Throughout the exquisite tapestry of ancient ceramics lining the merigold walls were pillars of vintage Egyptian hieroglyphics etched in navy blue. These posts towered far above human height as they merged with the ceiling, although it appears one scaffolding remained somehow untouched but apparently much more modern than these chambers allowed. These daises were accessible by degenerated pieces of lumber scattered adjacent each pillar, and the area of each column is 20x20' thick of unadulterated stone. Traces of marble faintly gleamed behind stained sand that has accumulated for millenniums, dousing the floor in grain older than most civilizations through small ventilations near the ceiling, but most were congested by debris from broken stone, other statues on upper levels, or harden sand.

Light was provided by several unfathomable sources found throughout and one particular instance was the very ground itself. It produced a significant amount of an apricot luminescence without compromising one’s ability to see, but how this was accomplished remained unseen. Torches grafted on walls and revealing a brown luster from a shimmering red core it radiated, leaving most of the ambiance in a vague blonde luster where light couldn’t reach the upper echelon of the chamber. Then onto Osiris with his snarling complexion brought about a supernatural glow of red from every eye of his scowl, the entire area surrounding him concealed in a faint aura of cherry and honey luminosity that one could identify his defined and timeless features from the doorway. Despite how well lit this exaggerating room was, darkness lurked about the far end pillars, corners, and the entirety of the ceiling was poorly lit. Skeletal remains of what appears to be a deceased dinosaur, wyvern, or a dragon hardly venting its and buffed in a dandelion saturation from years of ambient sand. One of the eastern pillars laid across the 2nd and 3rd floor elevation not far from the slope divide. 2 large portions seemingly fell in a peculiar angel with debris scattered about and neglected. The very columns fissuring the floor beneath in hairlines as its structure only chipped from its descent.

Each fighter appeared on either side of a pharaoh’s mausoleum roughly 110' apart, and they will duel with the intent of burying another king here in the sands of time. They will die here in obscurity. ~Mobius TZDL2017 Quarterfinals

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Notify me of any numerical mistakes, geometry mistakes, or spelling mistakes immediately.

Oh some trivia: The 3 inch blocks make a boarder path that leads to the throne where Inpu and Osiris are. The walkway is smooth and contains no hieroglyphics.

Also: The ceiling does not slope up or down like the floor does as it elevates, so the ceiling maintains the same height (just means the floor is slightly closer to the ceiling. Not by much though)

And: Inpu is 30 feet long laying on the ground, about 3 to 5 feet thick depending on body proportions (shoulder to shoulder is 8 or more give or take.). Same goes for Osiris minus the helm which is longer.

"Hells Bells. Again with the sand! I swear...It's like he just LOVES to put sand in my shoes. or my pants. Or my-"

Complaints filled the hot arid landscape of the Great Sand Sea. Humidity and heat coupled together to create one of the most nasty feeling climates on the planet, causing many to take caution when traversing the dunes. However, one individual did not seem aware of the warnings of danger most towns skirting the edge of the Sea offered. No, this one seemed much different. White long-coat obscured even nicer dress clothes in the form of a white vest adorned over a silk like black dress button up. The collar of which was folded perfectly over a white tie - fashioned in a half-Windsor. White pants - now brownish due to the trek through the desert - met dusty black dress shoes; The feet adornment having been ruined due to the lengthy amount of walking the young man had been forced to endure. Atop his head, doing it's best to block out the blistering sun, a white fedora covering up auburn strands. A large metallic contraption strapped to the right arm; massive frame indicating naught of its purpose. For all intents and purposes, the young man looked more suited for a meeting with the board as opposed to traversing the dangerous landscape.

"When I get back, I swear I'm gonna just walk right up to him and say Jhiet-"

The young man's tirade ceased as - before him - a large Obelisk suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere. As if etched into the mountain-side, It's structure gave no mystery as to what it was; The squared base pyramid filled his vision, its gargantuan form a welcome source of shade from the blistering heat. With haste, the young man rushed to the safety of obstruction. The closer he approached the more detail he began to make out and - after a short observation at the base of the structure - Mazono found an entrance to the inner sanctum of this Pyramid - within the layered mass of the chasm in which the pyramid seemed located. Torches lit the hallway down a very specific path; Eyes shifting left and right to ensure he wasn't being made a fool of within the confines of a potential mirage. The air, stale and cool, made the hours under the sun almost worth it. Ahead, a large room awaited.

Sandstone had been placed perfectly in a single walkway surrounded on either side by sand. Markings along the stones telling some kind of story about something or another. The young man was obviously not skilled in Hieroglyphics. The large room was adorned with many blue pillars, a few of which had toppled over the years. Treasured urns and ceramics lined the walls ceremoniously - meticulous care placed in their final positions. A large pile of bones, denoting an ancient creature of massive size was left in a heap unceremoniously before a more modern scaffolding.

Step by step Mazono made his way into the somewhat familiar room. His left hand reaching beneath his long-coat to grip at something at his side before retracting and revealing a large, long-barreled semi-automatic handgun. The weapon was brought up to bare as he scanned the room with a mastered caution. The large anubian statue the largest highlight of the room, was studied for a long moment before Mazono felt confident no one else was in the structure with him. Admiring the workmanship of the ancient silver inlaid with golden shoes. The depiction of death being toppled by Osiris. Purely, the greatest representation of what this construct was to represent shortly.

Now, standing atop the plateau of an incline, the young man in white turned to regard the doorway as if expecting something to happen next. A flash of glowing energy cascaded over his iris, his neural synaptic relays a buzz with accelerated bio-electric impulse as the neuron burst activated. A hum of energy filled the room as the smell of burnt ozone filled the air around him. Relaxing within the center of his ever-present defensive field, Mitsu prepared himself for anything that would come his way, as he always did. His eyes shifted down to the large object adorning his right arm; his mind regarding its purpose. Its massive silvery tint giving the appearance of a make-shift buckler or some kind of strange futuristic forearm guard. Its true nature, something far more destructive.

I suppose this does make a perfect locale for a field test

His mind contemplating the thought of why his Boss would send him all the way to this ancient tomb without anything more than an "I'm telling you to". Regardless, it wasn't for him to really question - after all, he almost always had fun in situations such as this - but it still caused a curiosity to occur. His focus returning to the moment at hand, the young man stared hard at the entryway once more. Beneath the flaps of his long-coat, three large canisters (not unlike Tear Gas canisters) began to bulge open. The metal casing tearing aside as black and gold granules fell to the floor. The shadows at his feet seemed to writhe and move, as the black sand came to life at the introduction of his ambient charge. The dark mass grew larger and larger by the second filling the one yard radius with it's substance.

A ping of ambient bio-electricity spread through the area; a self-defense mechanism alerting him to the stirrings of bio-electrical current being disrupted or introduced to the ninety-foot area. The one known as the 'Lightning Emperor' awaited the arrival of his coming opponent - the truth behind his arrival hidden within the dubious instructions of "Arrive and fight to the death". Clearly his companion had something up his sleeve, but as he had yet to ever steer him wrong before.

Well if you gotta do it! Then I guess you gotta do it!

With one step of her journey behind her, one frozen corpse left to lie amidst an unknown farmer's abandoned fields, Lyra walked her way to the warm wastes, wearing a short and loose dress as rough as the sands, as bright as the sun.

She only had to take one look at the new landscape to know that her choice of attire had been correct. Gold was the color of this place. The gold of the bright sun beating down with all its fierce and oppressive pride, the gold of the parched earth drinking up the endless rays and burning her bare feet as she walked upon it, the gold of lost glories buried beneath sand and stone, now marked only by the towering stone ruins that still protruded here and there, great petrified beasts rearing their carved heads and sheer slopes forming vast wide arrows that pricked the sky itself. What she might have given, to see these empires in all their splendor!

All she found, however, were sand and rubble and solitude.

These, too, had a beauty of sorts. The skeletons of kingdoms, merging once more with the barren lands from which they had sprouted. The earthen bones cast long shadows beneath the sun, which turned about as the day slowly crawled by, tracing the same paths they had for thousands of years and would for thousands of years more before wind and time wore the last ruins down to nothing. Occasionally, Lyra would glimpse a snake basking in the light of day, or see the wide wings of some great predatory bird silhouetted up above. If one took the time to observe, these regions were never so dead or empty as they first appeared.

Nevertheless, she felt a sense of relief when she finally neared her destination and buried herself within the Shroud's cold embrace. The crushing heat had left her skin slick with sweat, and by this point she'd have rather faced the thread of dragonfire than spend another hour exposed beneath that harshest of skies.

She approached the mountainous edifice with a cloud of darkness surrounding her in full, seven feet high and seven feet deep and ten feet wide. Not the slightest ray of sunlight made it past the Shroud's surface, and heat soon died within it, leaving Lyra free to take the last steps of her journey with a certain refreshed tranquility. She stood slightly to the left of center within her eldritch aura, spear held in the crook of her right arm while her left hand rested on the hilt of a short dagger at her hip.

If she'd estimated the time as well as she'd hoped, she wouldn't be far behind the other one. The being who would, within the hour, become either her victim or her murderer. Another half-remembered body, or the last face she ever saw.

The man waiting within the pyramid would see the light from the entrance quite suddenly black out, as a smoky cloud the color of emptiness surged forwards into the tomb, rapidly ascending one slope before coming to a sudden halt some ninety feet away from him, rippling and churning like a living thing. The fallen chunks of a mighty pillar between them would obscure his view somewhat, yet the Shroud was large enough that at least some part of it would be visible.

Lyra had come running in, but the Shroud drank up the sound of her every footstep in an instant, absorbing just as easily the faint noise of her breathing, slowing now as she halted in her tracks. Her eyes did not see the man in white, but the light reflecting of his bright clothing struck the Shroud from several angles, letting her glimpse her new enemy. Handsome, lean, dressed as if he were attending a formal function rather than a duel. Armed, of course, and surrounded by buzzing power, but she couldn't help but smile a little at his dandy appearance, so at odds with the nature of their meeting.

A shame, perhaps, that he might never lay eyes on her.

Even if her mind allowed itself to drift just a little, her body already moved, doing what it would need to do to escape this place alive. Her right hand dipped into the pouch at her side, even as her left drew her dagger and slit open her right forearm lengthwise, careful not to cut to the bone. The man in white would likely strike first, but she'd have her reply ready once he did.

As for Mazono, he'd be left to make what he would of the ghostly black mass before him. An electrical current was there, but ever so faint- Lyra's nervous system lay dead and silent within her, not one signal traveling down its branching lengths outside of the rapid activity in her skull. She moved, and thought, but a physiologist would have hesitated to call her 'alive'. The electric man would have relatively little to extrapolate from, when it came to the question of what threat lurked within the lightless borders of the Shroud.

Two unknowns, with but one fate to share between them. This would be a fierce moment indeed.

There was a flicker of movement from the hallway he had entered from. The gleaming radiance of the sphere outside was flickering for the moment before suddenly the external source of light was blotted out by something. The hard stare at the doorway continued as nothing happened for the moment. The silence of the tomb was deafening in his own ears, the level of discomfort that was attributed to such deprivation was shaken off swiftly as his focus remained sharp. Seconds passed when suddenly movement caught his attention.

It wasn’t necessarily movement however; the large mass of pitch surged forward almost violently as if reaching out to engulf his form. Mitsu, however, was not a skittish man. Such random occurrences were common place in his line of work – expect the unexpected he’d say. Before the mass ceased its approach a short distance away. His enhanced vision shifted around the mass trying to discern it’s makeup to no avail. A grin crossed his lip as he continued to study what was occurring before him.

Its wisp like nature caused it to swell and shrink, an interesting visual if one had time to appreciate such things, and while the fallen pillar before him did obscure some of its form, it’s telltale presence was still recognized by its random flaring. Another ping of his bio-electricity expanded outward and – as it searched the mass – It found nothing, a curious situation. There was no real telling what the cause of said lack of bio-electricity, but regardless it could be an effect that was thanks to the strange black mass before him. Though, that never stopped Mazono before and it wasn’t going to now. The grin etched upon his features widened further in a very unnerving way.

Well, there’s only one thing to do!

A hum filled the air around him as energy gathered internally. A flash of blinding light lit the darkened room for a split second as 500,000 watts* of electricity flew forward at blinding speed, originating from the smiling face of Mitsu. The electrically charged line of energy flew forward with the intention to collide with the mass of black, attempting to punch through at hit the dark mist and reveal whatever was behind its obscuring form; if anything at all. Its surging power normally more than a match for most strange occurrences would bring its searing heat and charge to bear upon the strange haze.

The sound of twisted leather would be audible in the room as the now dirtied white suit pants bulged out in a fashion similar to a body builder flexing. The golden sparks of electricity flowing beneath the surface of his twin orbs continued to enhance his view of what was before him. Additionally, the large mass of sand at his feet continued to propagate more and more as seconds passed. Ratifier still held at firing position in his left hand, Mazono watched with patience at the reaction the fog would have at his attack, hoping it would dispel or burn away the anomaly with the intense heat generated from his lightning bolt.

A surge of energy poured out of him as the barely visible defensive field constantly erected around his form was expanded outward an additional twenty feet – offering a larger field of protection than normal and causing the air before him to undulate due to the intense heat generated by its electrical properties. Time would tell if his decision to strike was a wise one. For now, Mazono merely watched and prepared himself for what was to come.

ooc: *500,000w/100v equates to 5,000 Amps.

This man certainly didn't waste any time in getting to the point. Almost as soon as Lyra arrived, the air before her opponent lit up with a brilliant flash, a searing bolt streaking across the space between them in a fraction of an instant to strike straight into the smoky depths of the Shroud.

Within, Lyra stood her ground. She recognized lightning, and did not fear it.

If the man in white had hoped to somehow blast apart the cloud with his electricity, he'd be sorely disappointed, for the Shroud reacted in precisely the opposite manner. Where it had been uniformly distributed in a roughly even cloud, the two feet up front now shrank a little, gently compressing as the tiny particles swarmed towards the impact of the electrical strike. Curling up, coming together, trying to wrap the bright tip of the thunderbolt in an embrace as black as midnight.

The energy output of a lightning bolt could be roughly sorted into four distinct parts. Two of these, the blinding flash and the resounding boom of thunder, would be absorbed the instant they passed into the Shroud, each wavelength gathered and stored by thousands of dark particles. Where other surfaces might have been briefly illuminated by the sudden radiance, this cloud remained completely black, not reflecting so much as a single photon.

The third threat came from heat. Heat enough to melt or even vaporize all it touched, to cause a rapid expansion of air and blow away anything not simply destroyed by the overwhelming increase in temperature. The Shroud couldn't simply devour this energy as it had the light and sound. It could, however, oppose.

When Lyra surrounded herself with the Shroud on her final approach to the pyramid, the relief she'd felt hadn't been entirely due to it blocking out the sun's light. The space within the quiet cloud was cold. Had she been fully alive, Lyra would have found herself shivering just from standing inside it. The Shroud resisted movement, so long as it wasn't initiated by Lyra, and on a basic level temperature was merely the random movement of infinitesimal particles, kinetic energy on a smaller scale. The faster something moved, the more the Shroud resisted it, and thus the hotter something burned, the more the Shroud cooled it. All that searing power unleashed by the thunderbolt would be stifled as soon as it entered the cloud, resisted and suppressed, crushed down to nothing more than a gentle warmth.

The electricity, the frenzied movement of charge responsible for that crackling bolt's energy, would meet a similar fate. The swifter the electrons, the more they'd be slowed. From an electrical perspective, the Shroud's constant opposition could be assigned a simple name.

Resistance.

For all its lethality, current was a cowardly thing. It flowed through the paths of least resistance, those it could pass through most easily, and against the Shroud it would break like a stream crashing into a wall, the powerful river of charge scattering and dispersing before a space that hindered its movement so greatly. If the man in white could corral and push the charges at range, he might be able to force some into the black cloud, but within they'd only achieve the merest fraction of their original speed, hardly enough to do any harm.

As quickly as the lightning bolt had come, it was gone. All the crackling power of a storm, reduced to little more than a whimper.

If that weren't intimidating enough, what came next might give Lyra's opponent a sense of what he was truly up against. Where the front side of the Shroud had shrunk inwards a little to swallow the thunderbolt, it would expand immediately afterwards, appearing to swell to four times its previous size, as if all the power of the attack had only made it larger and stronger than before.

In reality, its volume remained exactly the same. Lyra had simply shifted some of her Shroud forwards to form a thin wall facing her opponent, fourteen feet high and twenty feet wide, slightly curved at the edges to conceal its deceptive nature. The original shape of the Shroud remained intact behind it, half a foot shorter than before after shunting some of its mass forwards to form the facade.

She'd used a similar tactic against her previous enemy, though for slightly different reasons. As before, the thin wall remained dense enough to absorb all the light passing through it, visually indistinguishable from a full cloud unless one were to move far enough around to glimpse past its edge.

Lyra herself stepped swiftly to the right, the bulk of her cloud moving with her. She held the thin layer at the front in place, however, masking the small maneuver. Tiny ice crystals hovered around her, frozen by her power but not yet needed for her assault.

Her first counterattack had already been released.

She hadn't cut deep enough into her arm to trigger a transformation, but her dagger had made a large wound nevertheless, one that dripped cool fluid as she twisted the weapon to widen it. The dry air in this tomb lacked much water for her to use, but her body still held blood aplenty. A the thin layer at the front of her Shroud swept outwards, she'd freeze some into a sharp crimson spike and let it rest for an instant in the palm of her hand before it shot away, directed by her mind rather than any movement of her arm.

Though not quite so fast as the lightning strike, it still made for a quick and lethal projectile, little more than a red streak to a common human eye. The man in white, likely more skilled than most, might have been able to see it coming, but Lyra wouldn't give him the chance. Rather than shoot it straight at him, she brought it out of the Shroud right where he couldn't directly observe it- chunks of debris from a fallen pillar remained between them, and now she used one as cover for her projectile's advance, concealing its approach over more than half the distance between them.

By the time Lyra's little scarlet spear even entered the man in white's field of view, it would already be practically touching the outer layer of his defenses. She could tell he'd been doing something to the area around himself, but he'd have virtually no time to respond to the frozen missile before it entered that zone. If his protections, whatever they might be, required any kind of conscious input to function, he'd be hard-pressed to provide it before the icy point had penetrated deep into the fields of his power.

If not, well, she'd still be able to glean something from what happened, and adjust as necessary. Some battles took longer than others, but Lyra had yet to find a nut she couldn't crack.

Well…That happened.

Viewing the world through the enhanced perception of time gifted to him by the increase in neurosynaptic electrical impulses flowing through his body at an exponential rate, Mazono watched with interest as the stream of electricity was snuffed out by the mass. The rolling pitch managed to stop the heavy flow of electrons rapidly, yet when the bolt had struck there was no illumination. Curious. The mass began to roil and bend its form before him, imitating life in all aspects as if trying to intimidate.

Mitsu’s own mass of black continued to propagate as the seconds passed, nearly reaching its mass limit. Curious thoughts ran through his sped up mind, even as impending danger threatened an apparent blind spot. Yet his concern seemed lacking as the frozen bloodcicle as it were sped it's path towards Mitsu with threatening speed. Yet, the moment it entered within thirty-feet of his person; The makeshift weapon was assailed by bolt after bolt of intense electricity struck at the projectile as an automated response to any objects that penetrated his defensive field. Intense arc-flashes of unyielding heat and power would errupt at the pinnacle of each strike - potentially melting the icy impaler. The ambient ping of bio-electricity accurately discerning the object due to its heavily ionized form (From entering the field).

Yet, that wasn't the only function of his ever-present barrier. The black mass before him that had been propagating since his entrance erected in-front of the intended strike-zone forming a solid metal wall rated in density to that beyond the plating of several AR550 defensive Steel plates overlayed on top of one another. Even if the projectile could survive the intense explosions of electrical discharge assailing it, the subconscious defense of the Iron Sand supplemented his Thunder Dome brilliantly and would easily stop anything short of his own Railguns. The iron sand wall would - upon impact with the projectile or (incase the object was indeed dispatched by the field) the start of physical movement - return to its original sand like state.

Rotating his hips to shift his stance to target where the object had come from squeezing the trigger of the outstretched Ratifier, the man in white released - in quick unison - two VERTBRINIUM rounds towards the large mass of shadow - the shots arcing as he turned to face the entry point of where the unseen attack had originated from upon impact with his field. The trick-fire capability of his handgun caused the uniquely potent rounds to surge forward at incredible speeds, influenced by Mazono's own electrical current flowing from his hand into the weapon's rails. Each round would impact at a position slightly askew of one another, adding to the release of force.

The specialized rounds would impact against the mass, rotating and burrowing as swiftly as they could. These physical rounds would slam into the apparition with 5.0 Mega-joules of force, equally distributed bye the round's unique design. Mazono watched in his unique perception of time as the rounds - moving almost faster than he could track - traveled towards their intended target, interested to see how the mass held up to his two-shots. Not many things could withstand the full-force of his Ratifier's, and fewer still had been capable of dealing with the two-shot setup unique to his weapon.

Black dust began to rise absently within the interior of the defensive shell encapsulating Vertex's Lightning Emperor. The iron sand particulates continued to rise as if suspended by the heavy ionization filling the air; The defensive field causing the coppery burning smell to fill the chamber - as if a storm was brewing. Red sparks danced along the granules as the heat within the room began to intensify. Beneath the well placed fedora were two serpent like spheres sparking with electricity, a reddish hue slowly replacing the gold as a hum filled the air (think a power station or electric lines).

Since it likes to eat Lightning, let's see how it deals with the big guy.

A surge of electricity flowed through the large metallic apparatus strapped to his right arm. It's large bulky frame ran up the length of the arm up to the elbow, a strange device that almost gave the appearance of an old-time buckler. A whirring of mechanisms as the unique object began to power-up. The tension coil enhanced legs took up a firm bracing position - spring loaded and ready at a moment's notice. The only thing that was left to do...was watch and learn.

ooc: Edit made to the word "errupted" changed to "Erected".

The moment Lyra's bloody spike flew into the faintly distorted region near the man in white, a series of thunderous flashes erupted around it, almost blotting out the red blur with their furious light. A spectacular show of power, glorious in its excess. The Shroud drank it up, while within the quiet dark Lyra focused on the flying red shard, waiting for the key moment she'd been planning for since she'd first entered the tomb.

The electrical barrage slammed into the makeshift arrow with relentless ferocity, each strike melting and shattering frozen blood where it hit. No ordinary shard of ice would have survived even the earliest strikes, and this one only made it so far as it did thanks to Lyra physically holding it together with her psychic power, freezing its outer surface almost as fast as her enemy's defenses could melt it. Even so, by the time it reached the black wall that rose to block its path, only a ragged and battered remnant remained of the original projectile, hardly enough to even dent the obstruction. Rather than let it smash itself against the metal barrier, Lyra simply stopped sustaining it. Just a few inches away from that last obstacle, the spike could shatter, breaking apart into a shower of bloody, half-molten fragments.

At last, in its very last moment, that which lay within the frozen construct was revealed.

As one might expect from a warrior cloaked in darkness, Lyra favored deception and tactics over raw force. Back in the wheat fields she'd fought like a plague, striking and then infecting, making a seemingly simple attack that soon revealed itself to be a lethal trap. Here, her goal remained the same. In a dry and dusty tomb, however, she didn't have so much water available to turn into ice, and though with every passing second more and more tiny ice crystals joined the swarm forming around her within the Shroud, she hadn't yet gathered enough for what she wanted. So, faced with a drier environment, she'd adapted. First by using her own blood to form the infection vector, and then by using something else entirely as the infection.

She'd frozen the blood-spike in the palm of her right hand, letting it rest there just a moment before setting it on its course. Why?

Location, of course. Her right hand, at the very beginning of the fight, had dipped into the pouch at her side, where she kept her bombs. So that when the blood dripping down that very same arm froze into a weapon, it froze around a small egg-shaped stone primed for detonation. Thus, when the red spike shot into her enemy's defenses, it carried within it a nasty surprise, ready to be unleashed once it had moved in close to its target.

The frozen blood shattered and melted away harmlessly- and from where it had been, a thick green gas exploded outwards, devouring everything it touched.

Electrical bolts could melt or vaporize solid projectiles, but neither would hinder an attack in the form of a vapor. If the man in white's defensive field reacted to this new threat, the same bolts that had ruined that red arrow would only aid the insatiable green cloud, the heat from each strike exciting its particles and speeding up its devastating spread. As things stood, it had already detonated dangerously close to the man in white, and he'd be hard-pressed to escape the initial reach of the explosion.

This wasn't some mere poison, either. The man, his clothing, his weapons: the moment any of them so much as brushed against the edges of the emerald vapor it would tear away at them like a pack of piranhas, its ravenous appetite barely hindered by physical hardness or durability. Not that any solid obstruction would slow it much- a metal barrier worked well against a spike, but a cloud could just spread around it in an instant. Not to mention, if the strange black sand was a solid then it, too, would be rapidly devoured.

The man in white moved fast, fast enough to get his shots off just before Lyra's trap broke loose. He'd have a hard time seeing what happened, though, for the verdant cloud would soon be obscuring his view of the midnight one.

Unlike the lightning, Lyra could see the shots coming, to some extent. The widened front of her Shroud gave her a huge field of view, and she had good enough reflexes to catch her enemy's movements as he turned and fired. Instinctively, she commanded her Shroud to respond. The path her initial attack had taken meant that he hadn't aimed his counter at her directly, so she parted the shadowy folds in the gun's path, opening a wide hole that the first shot zipped through without so much as touching her cloud.

She hadn't, however, expected the second shot, and the sheer speed of these bullets caught her somewhat off-guard, eliciting a brief grimace as she realized what he'd done. Though she'd foiled one shell, the other would strike the front surface of the Shroud, and be immediately enveloped by the black mist.

That last was intentional on Lyra's part. She'd aimed to keep his weapons from hitting the Shroud entirely and leave him guessing, but failing that, she'd quickly move to obfuscate and misdirect. If she'd simply let the shot land, the front portion of it would have been slowed first, leaving it momentarily hanging halfway into the darkness and giving her opponent a clear view of what had happened while its back side gradually slid into the black wall. Rather than let this occur, Lyra had the Shroud around the impact surge forwards the instant she felt the bullet make contact, swallowing it in a smothering void.

The front of the cloud dropped and buckled above the site of impact, as if collapsing from the force of the hit. In reality, this was just the thin layer at the front of the Shroud gathering to help oppose the source of motion, but she took care to exaggerate,using her own control of the smoky substance to supplement its natural motion. Where the Shroud had appeared as a massive, unbroken wall, a section about a foot in width had now shrank and twisted in on itself, appearing to be somehow wounded by the bullet.

Of course, the shot hadn't struck anywhere near her, and was slowed to the point of effective harmlessness as soon as it entered the reach of those eldritch particles. Why give that impression, however? Better to tell a story through each action, lead the attacker astray. Behold, O crackling man: I am the Shroud, and your little stings can hurt me.

Let him chew on that, if he could still see, while she focused on killing him.

Now that her trap had been sprung, Lyra had little need to conceal her weapons. Holding her dagger close to her chest, she used the dregs of blood still running out of her arm to form two small rings, each one surrounding a bomb primed for detonation and carrying them away to her left. One would then zip out through the front of the Shroud, heading roughly towards the man in white, while the other would shoot upwards, lifting its lethal cargo to the higher reaches of the chamber. Three bombs remained untouched in her pouch, not yet needed for this assault.

These small maneuvers she made entirely by feel, while the Shroud fed her sensory information based on the light coming into contact with its outer edges. If her enemy fell to her first ambush, she'd have no choice but to watch as the gas tore him down to a ragged pile of flesh and bone, and then to nothing at all.

If he survived, she'd have no choice but to respond, and try to snatch his life away yet again.

Ruling

• Mitsu's physical charge is at a constant 1.21 GigaWatts of power. An attempt to scale down the amps increases the voltage and the amount of wattage determines his electrical generation is incredibly powerful.
• The electrical "charge" of Mitsu correlates to his generation both internally and externally.
• We have determined it is likely the Thunder Dome (his Auto Defense) is at the same Charge as his generation (more or less)
• The arch-flashes caused by his electricity making contact with the blood ice can default beyond 5000c up to 19,400c.
• We can hazard a guess beyond the melting point of ice that it will sublimate.
• The blood, from our analysis, has no intricate properties.
• The icicle was primed during the time Lyra's character had her hand in her pouch. There's only a 2 second opportunity to launch the projectile and reach her target.
• We will assume that the "spike" of blood eye, containing the egg, was primed and then rested on Lyra's head at least within fractions of a second in character time to properly allow it to reach optimal velocity.
• The icicle will need to travel a minimum of 50fps to clear 100' in 2 seconds. That's 15.2 m/s. We can safely determine it must have at least traveled in greater of a rate considering the time between actions. The description of its velocity comes next.
• We can determine that the icicle will not move at bullet speed described by Pollen since the attack is discernible by the human eye and shows a visible red streak; hence, it must be traveling 300fps or lower.
• Due to the icicle's velocity it will only have less than a second (0.6 seconds or lower) to traverse through 30' since it'd penetrate Mitsu's Thunder Dome.
• The Thunderdome attacks any foreign objects from the surface of the barrier's limit to all directions inside.
• The kinetic impact from 1.21gw of electricity causing arch flashes could disrupt the attacks' trajectory and influence its overall vector
• We can assume the icicle's volume (dimensions) is enough to encapsulate the egg-bomb, but we cannot determine its overall dimension. This is important in calculating whether Lyra will have enough mass of the object to adequately repair her attack vs Mitsu's high electrical output.
• The ice surrounding the egg was targeted for damage.
• Pollen did no retroaction her egg since it was referenced prior to her initial attack and thus it was inferred to be used when the icicle rested on her hand.
• The nature of Pollen's shroud allows it to disrupt and impede the electrical discharge of Mitsu especially because its strength is proportionate to the speed of objects interacting with it.

Verdict Pollen's spike attack proceeds though reaching total destruction, but the egg remains untouched. The nature of Pollen's icicle attack constitutes as a piercer attack since the material surrounding the egg was targeted for damage by Mitsu's autodefense. This allows her attack to pass through the electrical field of Mitsu, but her ability to reinforce the ice is in question; nonetheless, her overall strategy is successful. The fight resumes with Decoy posting from here on. Feel free to reply when ready. Sorry for the delay.

Watching as the mass of pitch before him swell open, Mazono examined how the strange manifestation reacted to his Railguns through his enhanced perception of the world around him. The slow methodical movements of the strange creature attempted the deception of pain in its writhing motion. Mitsu didn’t buy it, in his experience when a creature is wounded – it either lashes out violently or it runs away; since it didn’t do either, he wasn’t so convinced his attack had done any damage whatsoever. The most important noteworthy thing of this creature was the first shot – the expected shot – was met with an opening; the creature didn’t want to get hit! More and more the mystery unraveled before him.

His vision and thoughts were interrupted however as a flowing cloud of green erupted where an icicle had been struck mere seconds prior by his thunder dome’s autonomous attack. The green gas was growing exponentially before his eyes, threatening to overtake not only his sight but his form too. Iron sand granules that had begun floating through the air before him had begun to clump together and would meet this cloud in their absentminded rise from the ground – only to find destruction as the jade vapor seemed to break down his Iron Sand at an exponential rate! An eyebrow quirked upward as this strange cloud seemed far more devious than he’d anticipated from a mere shadow.

There wasn’t much additional time to continue his observations however, as the amount of kinetic build up that he’d been storing in his legs since the start of this strange interaction finally could take no more. The well of kinetic force broke at the moment the cloud appeared - as a swift release of the force exiting his left heel caused the young man in white to slide his lithe frame in a half-hover motion towards his right, sliding about 10 feet away from his original position. The scaffolding enticing him with added protection as a means to gain cover. The dark mass of black surrounding him seemed to shift as well with his movement, remaining within the 10 Yard radius of his defensive field at all times.

Iron sand continued to rise around him, the clumps of dirt becoming larger and larger – far more discernible – as the red sparks of energy continued to roll around the gathered material. The tint of his nearly translucent field also seemed to shift as his suit – from a distance – would appear a soft orange when regarding his white suit. The room itself growing warmer and warmer as the wave of his defensive field shifted to something more intense. Additionally, the autonomous striking of foreign materials persisted – though now the flashes of light radiated a brilliant vermilion. Each strike acting less like lightning and more like a directed burst of intense heat microwaving the contaminate within the radius of the arc-flash styled explosions.

The situation had shifted very quickly! The large mass of black before him had somehow employed a rather clever tactic; launching something from his blind spot, the creature had hoped to catch him off-guard, unaware of his potent defense. Yet, an attack within an attack was unique – a clear defining point before him. This thing was trying to kill him, and not in a way akin to a predator; at least none he’d ever encountered in his travels. Its actions were deliberate; fueled by intent of some kind. A curse maybe? Made manifest by his presence in this once sacred tomb of kings? Surely it gave him pause as to why Jhieten would want him to fight something like this.

Questions for later he thought as his right leg braced into the slide and ceased the motion. The sound of leather twisting once again filling his ears as the redistributed force was stored in the limb for later release. Instantly - enhanced by a quick burst of his stage one thunder god release – Mazono’s arm rose up. The large silver object adorning the forearm and wrist of the man in white was brought to bear as round barrel at the end – hidden beneath a series of encasement's that stabilized the weapons sheer recoil – aimed once more at the black mass. So far, his conventional approach wasn’t quite up to snuff and maybe that was why this place had been chosen for the testing of this experimental piece of equipment. An inaudible hum of energy pulsed beneath the surface of the long white jacket; Mazono’s arm having constantly been transferring a large charge of electrical current to power the might weapon.

No more hesitation, the Zeus Cannon released its enhanced – much heavier – VERTBRINIUM round. The recoil and force, of the weapon would’ve caused any normal individual to fly backwards into the very rear of the pyramid; yet his right arm remained extended, only bending a little at the elbow as once again that strange sound occurred. Left leg also bracing, it too mirrored its sister appendage (the sound once more occurring). The 20mm styled round ripped towards the mass from a new angle. It would seem as if the young man still hadn’t discerned the shadow’s function and was willing to waste yet another attack on futility. Yet this time, there was a difference. The projectile, travelling 35% faster than his previous attack was bolstered by an additional measure of defense in the form of its own self-generated variation of the same defensive field currently protecting Mitsu.

Extending outward four feet in a spherical fashion, the projectile’s protective semi-translucent shell – emulating the blueish white hue of his normal field – would make contact with the mass first, acting as a first line of defense to ensure the weapon’s penetration and effectiveness in the field. The same autonomous shocking aspect – though at a much lower scale – of the field surrounding the man in white occurred within the same four-foot range of the round’s shell when in contact with foreign objects. A pure blend of his technology and unique genetic

With a shell impact equal to that of a Mk. 45 naval gun, force would distribute through the object when introduced to a solid of any kind. Excited to see the type of reaction this mist would have to his improved shot, the operative of Vertex allowed his smile to spread wider; sparks flowing steadily beneath his iris still. This was indeed an exciting moment! Regardless of what he’d learn from this bizarre monstrosity, he’d at least witness the power of his new toy! Like a kid at Christmas, Mazono was filled with glee.

ooc: *Note; force released was equal to 90,000 PSI.

The man in white moved with incredible swiftness to escape his gruesome fate, a natural response for one threatened by such a voracious attack. Unfortunately for him, Lyra's follow-up came faster still.

Anyone with working eyes and a basic understanding of physics could deduce that her Shroud absorbed light. All black objects did, in some manner, so why should this one be any different? The answer to that lay in what happened with all that energy it gathered. The strange cloud didn't just devour light, it stored it with great efficiency, and had been doing so since Lyra had entered the tomb. The location wasn't particularly bright, but the man in white had quickly made up for that with his blinding flash of lightning and similarly incandescent defenses. The Shroud drank up every photon that reached it, along with much of the sound from the lightning bolt and gunshots, and gathered it all, waiting for the moment Lyra decided to unleash it.

She did so now, hitting Mazono right at the end of his sudden movement.

No strike was guaranteed to land against an opponent of unknown capabilities, but Lyra felt confident that if her current enemy were capable of moving at the speed of light, he'd have finished her off already. A tightly concentrated beam speared out from her Shroud, sweeping across her opponent's eyes, there and gone in an instant. To an outside observer, it would appear as a blazing line in the air, made visible by the small portion of photons deflected from their intended course by Rayleigh scattering. To its target, it would appear as simple, overwhelming brilliance.

Lyra assumed that the man in white had eyesight good enough to avoid being blinded by his own attacks and defenses, and perhaps even packing every flash of the fight so far into a single instant wouldn't have been enough to rid him of vision for long. The Shroud's laser, however, was far, far more dangerous than that. When Lyra had spread out her cloud's front face, she had done so for more than mere obfuscation: the widened shape had hugely increased the effective surface area with which the Shroud could absorb light. Its front surface alone was hundreds of thousands of times larger than the area of a fully expanded human pupil, and all of it could suck up photons with incredible efficiency.

Thus, what actually hit the man's eyes at that moment would be orders of magnitude brighter than anything he'd experience in normal combat, a sudden injection of energy powerful enough to leave him with severe retinal burns. Even discounting those, the sheer intensity of the light would almost certainly activate every single photoreceptor cell in his eyes at once, leaving him blind for several seconds and plagued by constant afterimages for a good while after that.

The shattering burst of sound that followed would be somewhat more dispersed, but still enough to wreak similar havoc as it exploded into his ears, hitting the source of his hearing and balance alike. An unnaturally concentrated cacophony, the noise aimed and channeled towards his head rather than widely spread as any other sound would have been.

He might still be able to make his shot if he chose to attempt it, though he'd likely find it far more difficult to properly aim. Nevertheless, the expanded face of the Shroud wasn't a difficult target, and if he managed to keep enough composure to fire immediately, he stood a decent chance of hitting it with his new projectile.

Should he do so, the dark cloud would seemingly split in two as the round slammed into it- part of the black fog darting away to the right to form a tall, tower-like shape, while the other part remained hanging in midair, curling around into a shape that looked roughly like an eight-foot wide hemisphere.

What actually transpired in the instant the cannon shot hit the Shroud was even more complex than it appeared. Rather than the shot itself, the first thing to impact against the black cloud would be the protective field surrounding it, which behaved similarly to a solid barrier against objects unable to penetrate it. The Shroud, bearing little kinetic energy or piercing power of its own, could not do so, but it could resist the movement of energy just as easily as it did with matter. Thus, it immediately began to slow down the field, drawing more of itself towards the area of impact to resist the foreign incursion.

Lyra, however, wasn't having that. Based on the pattern of her opponent's attacks so far, he seemed to be aiming at the Shroud rather than her, and the impact of this strange new weapon wouldn't be close enough to threaten her personally. The sheer size and speed of the projectile's field, however, meant that the Shroud would pull significant quantities of its mass aside to oppose the foreign movement. A waste of her defense, and one she could not allow. Thus, the moment the field hit, she began to pull the bulk of the Shroud away, moving rightwards and bringing most of the cloud with her. She couldn't simply order the Shroud to stop self-concentrating around a source of movement, but she could drag most of it aside, keeping it from concentrating too much of itself together to oppose an attack that didn't threaten her. By the end, she'd be left with the main clump of her Shroud and about a third of the thin facade she'd erected at its front, with the rest of the front layer having been gathered to oppose the man's attack.

As for the attack itself, it consisted of more than just the field. The cannon shell would soon slam into the Shroud as well, and, quite unexpectedly, punch through.

It would emerge somewhat slower. The Shroud wasn't simply going to let it pass, after all. However, even while being decelerated, it was still quick enough to make it through such a thin layer of Shroud before it could be brought to a near-halt. Normally the alien cloud would have self-concentrated to prevent this, and indeed it tried to do so. In this case, though, its ongoing opposition of the protective field and Lyra's withdrawal of its main source of reinforcement left this part of the Shroud unable to gather enough to fully slow the projectile before it passed through. Most of the blueish field would remain behind, slowly passing through the thin black cloud, though some fragments of it would likely be pulled through the weakened edges of the Shroud fragment. As for the shell itself, it would likely end up slamming into the southern wall of the chamber a moment later, hitting somewhere near the entrance.

No doubt Lyra's opponent would have been watching these strange goings-on with interest, but in this case she doubted he'd have much left to watch with. Hard to study something that actively resisted studying.

Of course, she wasn't going to give the man any time to recover or adapt after her initial moves. The bombs she'd released just a moment ago hadn't detonated just yet, one now hitting the ramp between the two opponents and the other flying high over the man in white's head, but she could be very efficient with her gas when she needed to.

Left on its own, the bursts of heat from her enemy's defensive field would have eventually dispersed the cloud her first bomb had released. Lyra, however, put an end to this with a single thought. Her mind called out, to the old and dusty air trapped in this forgotten chamber for countless years, reminding it of what it was and what it could be, giving it the strength it needed to burst from stillness into renewed life, a hurricane-force gust bursting to life and funneling the gas towards the man in white, pushing the cloud to envelop him once more. At only ten feet away, he'd have less than a tenth of a second to do anything before the corrosive gas slammed into him and surrounded him entirely, quickly eating him away to nothing.

So much happened in the singular moment of defensive movement’s initial pause. The weapon adorning his arm – the Zeus Cannon – had its cherry popped metaphorically as the weapon’s first live-fire exercise had begun. The appendage which it had been equipped had shot up like a lightning bolt with a synchronicity to the movement that could only be described as fluid – like the arm had already been there. At the same exact moment, the mass of black began to shift; an illumination came into existence, its intensity that began to move over his vision by starting from one periphery into the other in a sweeping motion that would begin and end near simultaneous in its speed. Additionally, an intense wave of sound would focus itself on his position in what would be an effective and debilitating retaliatory action. *Mazono's left eye - the first to meet the blinding illumination - swiftly shut in response to the brilliant intensity that threatened to remove his visual prowess all together if not for two unique variables.

The first, his eyes. Though the light was swift, the enhanced flow of neurons and unique nature of Mitsu’s visual capabilities had already been active for the majority of the fight as the young man – intent on examining his weapon’s attack – had been pouring all his visual prowess into a single hyper-focused moment. This heightened control of his optical verification allowed him to deviate certain focuses and functions of his eyes; this was made manifest in his unique resilience to his own attack’s bright nature and in how he was able to visualize the world around him at a much slower pace. *As such, the eyes would’ve resisted the initial blinding effects of the powerful beam of energies sweep, yet even still the initial action had caught him somewhat off-guard and due to this his left eye's full functionality had been reduced due to the blinding after-effect causing a blur to his vision and spots to fly before his left eyes sight. Luckily however, this wasn’t the only boon…

The other variable was simple. Mitsu had never intended on standing in that one spot to examine his attack. There was no need to remain stationary as the shot fired was easily observable to him on the move thanks to his former aforementioned ability. Once more the stored kinetic energy released, this time from the heel of both feet accelerating him towards the scaffolding at double his previous speed; a trail of lightning following in his wake as the movement was made faster by the imbuement of his Thunder God Speed. His swift burst of enhanced movement carried him out of the path of the lasers most harmful effects simply by re-positioning him out of the way – *allowing him to continue his examination of the shot as intended through his unaffected right eye. The focused attack of vicious sound waves having caused a slight nauseating feeling to well in his stomach. However, this effect seemed to fade almost as swiftly as it had begun the moment his movement removed him from the focus point.

His enhanced vision, hindered by the loss of his left eye redirected all non-essential processes to intensify focus on his right eye. His electrolocation supplementing this temporary impediment of sight which allowed him to continue – due to the hyperfocus of his ability – observing the path of the enhanced VERTBRINIUM round soaring towards the target. Watching as the mass of darkness began to react to the shot, what he saw was far more insightful – and telling – than he’d have hoped. The defensive field surrounding the round impacted against the darkness as he had expected; the shadow massing against the projection to slow its fast-moving electrons much as it had his lightning bolt in the start of this fight. However, it seemed to fight with itself momentarily as two distinct masses of the darkness split off from one another creating two unique forms. This action alone was the most revealing occurrence in the fight thus far and one he took heavy note of as he watched the shroud fight with itself on gathering its mass on the object…and not.

The impact of the round – even somewhat slowed – caused a loud boom to fill the room as large stones and debris from the impact exploded outward in random directions; a large gaping hole having caused the single entrance to now seem larger than it had when the two figures entered the room. Ancient stones flew off dangerously behind the wall of black – unseen by the man in white due to the nature of the strange shadow. The protective field of his unique round had done its job and assisted the projectile in its passage, nearly unabated. The mass of darkness had done its best – but now the man in white had a game plan.

As the high-speed movement ended, Mazono had traversed the additional ten-foot distance separating him from the sweet embrace of the Scaffolding’s cover ended, a brilliant flash of light emanating from the top of his spherical defense struck down atop of his head engulfing him in a momentary blinding light, lines of electricity spreading out like spider webs from his feet outward. The event dissipated as swiftly as it had happened revealing the form of Mitsu brightly glowing gold. The radiance of his form made it hard to visually see facial contours; the fedora atop his head hiding glowing gold strands. Even his long white coat seemed to vibrate with a brilliant intensity of light.

Though he was unaware of it prior his decision to keep moving had saved him once more from being engulfed in the green gas that had been used to attack him prior. Though unlike before the defensive field projected around him at all times seemed to be unresponsive to the mist; its energy being redistributed elsewhere as the floating iron granules all simultaneously began to glow and clump together into large glowing red soccer ball sized spheres, about fifty in number. Each sphere projecting its own variation of the red field that had engulfed Mazono only moments prior, protecting and enhancing the iron sand’s density as well as causing them to remain stationary in mid-air, maintained by his magnetic control. The hum of gathering energy filling the room as Mazono’s glowing form stood next to the pillar, seeming ready to jump behind the pillar for cover if needed as he prepared for his powerful attack, inspired by the mass of darkness itself.

ooc: * denotes the edit

This time, there was no immediate retaliation. A sign, perhaps, that Lyra's blinding attack had been at least partly successful, though her opponent did seem to be gathering power. Likely for an area attack, something that wouldn't require precise aim to be effective.

Whatever the case, the delay bought her a little more time to run quickly rightwards, positioning herself behind one of the massive pillars to the eastern side of the chamber. Her physical body would be completely concealed behind it, such that her line of sight to her enemy would have been broken had she been relying on ordinary vision. The Shroud, however, reached around the sides of the ancient stone edifice, its outer layers protruding around her makeshift cover and spreading out horizontally to give her a better view. Its current shape was something like a mushroom, two long dark 'wings' extending out from either side of the pillar while the bulk of the cloud remained concealed behind.

The adjustment was practically automatic on her part. She'd been moving steadily to the right for some time, and moving her Shroud to account for cover was as easy as turning her head to keep eyes on an enemy. Reflexive, almost. She had been bound to it for so long that movements such as this felt like muscle memory, familiar and comfortable even in the heat of battle.

At the same time, the fragment of Shroud that she'd left behind was growing into a kind of ring-shape. The center of the field left by the strange projectile had passed through, and the rest would gradually follow. She'd leave this where it was. It gave her another viewpoint, one she might well need if this next moment didn't go as planned.

That said, her main focus at that moment was on making sure that they did. Once again, the pieces were lined up for a deadly strike, not based on infection this time so much as stealth and distraction, the favorite tools of many an assassin and hunter.

The man in white had conveniently bought himself another tiny fraction of a second with his rapid movement, but that alone wouldn't save him. His bursts of speed outpaced the advance of the gas she'd released in her opening move, but he'd also stopped after the first dash, ever so briefly, and that gave her reason to believe he'd do so again.

Lyra's wind, by contrast, did not halt for an instant. If anything, the gust only grew stronger and faster as it went, still pushing the devouring gas towards her enemy, its course changing just slightly to keep it moving straight towards him. The man wouldn't get so much as an instant's respite from this particular cloud.

That wasn't the one she intended to eat him with, however.

She had two more bombs out on the field, their movements controlled by small cradles of frozen blood. One had stopped at the upward slope near the center of the chamber, and she let it drop to the ground there, seemingly abandoned. The other had flown over her enemy's head just a moment ago. It would be this latter weapon that threatened him first. She'd snuck it by with height and speed, positioning it above and behind him where it was least likely to be seen. Its moment was nigh- but she had yet another card to play.

Whatever the man in white had intended by moving beneath the scaffolding, he'd made a dangerous mistake. The structure wasn't dense or sturdy the way the pillars were: rather, it was a relatively small amount of material stretched out over a relatively large amount of space. Even in natural conditions, a scaffolding could be blown over by a strong wind, and Lyra was capable of unleashing more powerful, more directed gusts than any such edifice was designed to withstand.

So she did.

Even as one stream of air carried the deadly cloud towards her enemy, another would slam into the scaffolding up above him, pushing it hard enough to make the entire structure bend and then fold, collapsing in on itself and coming to pieces in the process. A mess of metal beams, breaking apart even as it fell, threatening to crush the man cowering below.

Of course, she didn't expect him to be squashed so easily. The point was to engineer a situation as chaotic as possible, full of dangerous moving objects- all to conceal the rapid approach of the true threat.

The attack was the same as her first: a gas bomb embedded in a spike of ice. As she'd planned, the one that had flown past above him would strike, the ring of blood that had carried it reshaped and bolstered with frozen water vapor to form a sharp, aerodynamic point. Even as it transformed, the weapon shot downwards, homing in on the man from behind, seeking to intercept him if he tried to move away again, to catch him right when his attention would be divided between the threat of the cloud and the collapsing scaffolding. His mind was fast, to be sure, but that was why she'd moved to cripple his senses, to make noticing the hidden threat all the more difficult. If his defenses behaved the way they did before then she wouldn't be able to get the bomb all the way to him, but she only needed to be fairly close- the inevitable detonation and release of the deadly payload would cover a wide enough area to account for some minor error.

Whatever happened, both bombs would detonate in the end of that moment, one of them far from either combatant and the other as close to the man in white as Lyra could bring it through force of timing and preparation. Ugly, in a way, their sickly green hue desecrating the quiet beauty of the tomb, but then murder was rarely a pretty thing.

The man in white seemed…unperturbed at the chaos surrounding him. In fact, it was impossible to see any features through the brilliance of the golden hue. First, the toxic cloud that had been fast behind having been moving since the initial start of Mazono’s movement would engulf the area in its gaseous form. The figure, remained stationary even as the jade miasma began deteriorating the white fedora and the glowing white coat engulfing its figure. Then came the burst of wind – its ferocity matched only in its precision, which caused the scaffolding to collapse around the form; The fedora flew from its perch revealing pure golden hair which – for the most part – seemed to be just energy itself matched to the hue of the light radiating off the figure in white, its cloth dissipating swiftly. Even as the chaos unfolded, it seemed that he was to make no move in an effort to avoid what was happening. Puzzling as that may be.

Without warning, a powerful field of energy expanded outward causing the scaffolding to be met with an incredible wave of force, possibly knocking the bars away from the white cloaked form in the initial burst of kinetic impact. As the field expanded outward 15 feet in a spherical design, it radiated such a brilliant heatwave causing a sustained globe of searing incalescence which maintained itself at a constant 2200c, causing the away at the toxic clouds now engulfing the area. The figure of Mitsu that had been stationary for so long had seemingly vanished – becoming the source and energy for the explosion of electrical energy. Mazono’s form was nowhere to be seen in its center or otherwise.

As this occurred, the lines of electricity that had spread like webs across the granite floor had persisted; etching black scorch marks where the power passed. As the explosion of energy occurred, five figures of golden light seemed to leap out of each individual trail of electricity – each looking nearly identical to the one that had just exploded near the scaffolding now twenty feet away. As they leapt from the spider webs sparking and writing on the ground, they began to run in strange fashion back towards the center of the pyramid, where the man in white had started - either ignoring the newly formed cloud of emerald smoke or unaware of it due to a pre-programmed movement plan. Their individual radiance's giving the appearance of Mitsu’s form but with none of the clothing or definition. As the figures would approach their destination, they’d stand at intervals behind the fifty-black spheres.

As this occurred, from one of the lines of power the physical form of Mazono returned to his normal state, having traversed the 20-foot distance within the current of his own creation. This short range teleportation technique had been dubbed “Thunder God Teleport; Stage 2” by his peers in Vertex, a fitting description to his ability to transform his state of matter to that of electricity itself – allowing him to “ride the current” and reposition himself. Now, having moved more northbound from his final location, Mitsu continued the momentum the second he re-manifested. Once more the sound of leather twisting filled his ears as the auburn-haired man – no longer adorning his fedora or long white coat as he had left them behind in the initial flash of light to further confound the enemy and sell his Gold Clone’s deception - sped towards the northern slope his open eye examining the pillar at its peak. Voltage flew from his brow like sweat as he further augmented his speed of his mad-powered dash with an internalized burst of “Thunder God Teleport; Stage 1”; easily allowing him the ability to traverse the distance (when coupled with his tension coil) in about one second.

Undulating air once again presented itself around his form stretching 30 yards in a dome like design. The defensive aura that constantly generated around Mitsu had once again been reactivated, having been disabled during the use of his ‘teleport’. Iron sand granules that hadn’t been compacted into the many spheres were dragged into the magnetic attraction of his barrier, supporting the young man once again. His eye was damaged, but his brain wasn’t. He’d seen all he had to, and now was nearly the time to strike. Before he’d reach his end-point, the energy enhancement to his speed would end and – with a shift of his bolstered (tension coil) right foot, the man would slide and turn to a stop; once more viewing the battlefield, albeit with only one enhanced eye, from the distance; furthering his visual scope.

The Ratifier in his left hand began to hum as the Zeus Cannon on his right wrist joined in unison. Both would be brought to bear on the dark cloud, noticing the gaping hole in its mass yet also noticing the strange formation on the easternmost pillar. He noticed the area in the center where he had been prior now slowly being covered in another miasma. Processing the information at an abnormal and inhuman rate, Mitsu finalized his plan. The visual disability caused by the initial burst of light had indeed been a hindrance, which is why he had planned on distancing himself a bit to compensate. The soccer ball shaped spheres remained in their hovering position awaiting the command to launch, the hum of energy radiating from them as their individual defensive fields intensified – expanding out from each projectile about four feet in a spherical design similar to the mass it encapsulated.

Times Up. Let’s dance.

As soon as the first cloud made contact with the enemy, Lyra could tell that something had gone awry. The gas ate swiftly through his clothing, as expected, but the man's glowing form seemed unchanged. Another trick? Moving around at the speeds he did no doubt required some resilience, but even so, no conventional matter should have been able to withstand those lethal fumes- which meant he'd pulled out something new, a defense she hadn't seen before.

If the gas didn't work, there was no use in focusing on her intended assault. The spike she'd been driving at him from behind continued on its path, no longer requiring any steering. The ice surrounding the second bomb dissolved as it entered the first cloud, and its payload swiftly detonated, briefly adding to the the miasma. Briefly, because an instant later, the falling scaffolding was blasted apart by the glowing man's own detonation, which unleashed enough heat to scatter both clouds and disperse them into the surrounding air, leaving them diluted to the point of harmlessness.

Within her Shroud, Lyra frowned. Was that it? Had he blown himself up in a final act of defiance? No, because apparently there were now five of him. She didn't bother trying to attack these duplicates, however- she still couldn't quite tell what he'd done, so striking now would simply be a waste of resources. Better to wait until his move played out, or until he directly threatened her.

Instead, she busied herself with minor logistical adjustments. A forceful downdraft above the center of the chamber, pressing the gas released by the detonation there against the ground, keeping it hidden behind the slope. A quick dip of a hand into the pouch at her side, retrieving and priming one of three remaining bombs. Fragments of gathered ice moved together around her, fusing into larger structures. Meanwhile, the last of the strange field passed through the Shroud fragment she'd shorn off after the cannon attack, leaving the black mass free to form a simple sphere. That, she left hanging where it was, unmoving.

When her opponent revealed himself, she smiled, realizing what he had done. This one was well worth hunting.

None of the five golden figures were him, and- as made evident by the missing clothing -neither had the original been. She'd attacked a scarecrow, a dressed-up golden decoy. What she'd thought to be some kind of energy buildup had been him slipping away and leaving it in his place. Hard to tell exactly how, but those lines of power were evidence enough to let her make an educated guess.

As he began to charge his weapons, she split the Shroud three ways.

Its division was neither even nor clearly visible, for the parts of it that protruded out from behind the pillar remained more or less as they were. Even from behind, the cloud demonstrated no outward change. Internally, however, Lyra's mind began to carve and reshape, radically altering its previously simple configuration.

Technically, there were now four distinct pieces of Shroud, including the one that had split off earlier. Keeping it this way took some effort. The thing seemed to like her, in its own strange manner, and she felt almost uncomfortable forcing pieces of it to move independently. Nevertheless, she couldn't keep relying on its natural defenses alone to protect herself.

This took some attention, and thus she didn't immediately begin another assault. She had the means, but she needed a little patience. Needed to make sure, this time.

With the Shroud apparently stilled and no further machinations emerging from it, the chamber seemed at peace once more.

Alas, it wasn't to last.

Smile for me…

A flash of brilliance filled the room as two of the five golden figures exploded, not unlike the previous decoy had mere seconds ago. A potent shockwave surged outward as the Electromagnetic Pulse gave momentum to the motionless spheres before the figures. The wave of energy causing an effect similar to the man in white’s arm-cannon, as the pulse of magnetism met the highly magnetized spheres, urging them forward at an exponential rate. Much like before, the sphere of energy grew and an intense incandescence would radiate heat once more, washing over the miasma of jade behind them in a similar attempt to purge the gas.

While not as fast as the Zeus Cannon or Ratifier’s rounds – mostly due to the fact that those weapons were designed specifically for their functions – The fifty spheres that had been clumping together since the very beginning still rushed forward at speeds exceeding the potent handguns, but not exceeding or matching the speed of his wrist cannon. Additionally, while they had been held in place by the massive exertion of magnetic force Mazono held at his disposal, there was no directional aim other than ‘forward’. Indiscriminately the spheres would slam into the granite pillars at the bottom of the slope, causing the solid structure to shatter into large stone pieces that would fall towards the ground below – near and on the area where the broken pillar had been lying. The draconic remains were unceremoniously battered and broken, bone dust filling the air.

The room was full of chaos, illuminated by the still persisting spheres now formed from the three golden decoy’s initial explosion. The fifty spheres surged forward and while some missed their mark entirely, the majority for the most part would soar as intended. Twenty of the spheres would slam the area of the south-eastern pillar, causing the massive structure to crack and fall over – following the momentum of the impact – backwards towards the southern wall, large threatening chunks of stone debris falling in all directions around it. While the structure was indeed an impediment, a majority of the spheres would plow through the granite edifice with little resistance after the first initial impact and its eventual fall. Much like before, the black mass would find itself first in contact with the unique defensive field extending four feet spherically.

Unlike before however, when he had fired the Zeus round, Mazono’s new attack was multiplied by the number of objects that would pepper shroud, the pillar and the area surrounding it. On the opposite side, where the mass had been damaged by the powerful VERTBRINIUM round prior, fifteen of the spheres – the rest of which peppered the direct center and would roar towards the southern wall and entrance – would attack the gathered mass of shadow-stuff with the lightning emperors fury. The result of such a barrage was two-fold, as the attack fulfilled its initial design to see exactly how much punishment this creature could take.

Occurring at the same time as the initial explosion of the two golden clones, Mazono had released another burst of kinetic energy from his legs to push him up the northern slope and in front of the pillar in reverse, so to not take his eyes off what was to happen. Arms still outstretched and prepared release a salvo of ammo at a moment’s notice, Mitsu watched with his enhanced right eye and waited. This fight had been a mixture of frustration and intensity as the strange creature had mitigated most of his attacks to near uselessness. His only hope of damage was the reaction the cloud had made when his Zeus round had passed through it moments ago.

As electrons continued to race within his body, his mind still perceiving everything around him at a slower pace, Mitsu curiously began to smile. The iron sand particulates that had been drawn to him by his field began to gather towards his standing form. The field of defense – having decreased back to the ten foot radius when the two decoys exploded – no longer cast him in a vermillion hue, once again returning to the clear undulation of its normal state. The hum of energy from his weaponry continued to intensify as more energy was focused on the two projectile launchers. It was here, at this moment, that Mazono had finally understood the words imparted by Serenity to him years ago;

A fight isn’t always as black and white as it seems. Sometimes, you have to look beyond what you see and understand what’s truly going on.

Mitsu understood what she had meant finally, and for a brief second he was humbled. His enhanced sight taking in the scene before him, Mazono watched and waited to see the outcome. His plan hadn’t been rushed with no thought. Having examined from multiple strikes the way the shadow moved and interacted with his attacks, how it favored the majority of its mass to one side of the room versus the other. Every movement, every attack; All that he had done was for a single purpose. To come to the conclusion that was staring him in the face the entire time. Now all that was to be done…was to watch and learn one more thing. The smile widened as his final thought echoed in his mind.

Show me how you dance

The attack came, and it disappointed her.

Lyra had been caught up in the thrill of the fight, her mind whirring like a deadly machine as she coordinated, reshaped, analyzed. The shape of the Shroud. The structure of the icy creation she was finally putting together. The direction of a gentle gust of wind, harmless in and of itself, but in conjunction with her other preparations a move that would begin the swift march towards the death of her enemy. Like a conductor orchestrating a grand piece, she laid out the plan for what would almost certainly be her final set of assaults, and made it as beautiful as could be.

He too had been making preparations. His army of iron balls and glowing men all lined up, the sight of them via her Shroud making Lyra's nerves sing with cautious tension. What power would he attack her with now? Would her additional defensive measures prove sufficient? It wasn't a pleasant sensation, but nothing in the world felt quite like the threat of imminent demise.

Given the speed of the man's attacks, she could spare no time to observe once they'd begun. Two golden figures flared, and she reacted without a second thought.

On the level of her body, she jumped. On the level of her power, she unleashed. The air around her exploded into motion, both within and a short distance around the Shroud, forming a column of air that shot upwards and backwards at speeds exceeding the fiercest hurricanes on record. Lyra leaped, and the stream carried her up, blowing her into the air as if she were as light as a feather. The wind seemed to affect the Shroud, too. Like a bird flapping off the ground, the cloud's extremities folded inwards, forming a more compact shape for flight and evasion.

This was the most visible component of her movement, and likely the one her opponent would notice from across the chamber. The wind, however, was more a helping hand than the true driving force. The rising column of air approached a third of the speed of sound, truly impressive for a wind, but even that might not have been enough to evade the barrage of cannonballs, which moved far more quickly and would likely decimate the massive stone columns.

Lyra, however, had another trick up her sleeve. Her body went cold, what little remained of the desert's heat suddenly vanishing as bodily fluids in nonessential areas froze and yanked her up and back. Her power over ice, now used to effectively turn herself into a projectile. The Shroud moved fast enough to keep up of its own accord while maintaining its current internal shape, and together they would swiftly move to escape the haphazard spread of projectiles.

While the brunt of the attack appeared to miss her entirely, the impact of the projectiles striking the stone pillars sent debris flying all over the chamber, and it proved impossible to evade it all. The Shroud's outer surface area was smaller now than it had been, but it would still be peppered with several stone chunks of various sizes. Inconvenient, as the Shroud's immediate reaction to these impacts twisted the shape of its outer layer and forced Lyra to slow down somewhat, but the scattered pieces of rock posed little real threat to her, each one being slowed to relatively harmless speeds as they entered the dark cloud.

Not much to it, really. At least she'd finally had to start moving around, but now, on seeing the true nature of the attack, she found herself wondering if that had even been necessary. Brute force might seem impressive on some level, but it wouldn't be nearly enough to touch her- she hadn't even had to rely on the defensive measures she'd so carefully crafted and prepared for.

Ah, well. It would be nice to survive this, at least.

Other than the dark cloud now darting about up above, not much else would be visible in the aftermath of the attack. Some rubble, presumably some spheres and glowing clones. Of the Shroud fragment that had been originally split off no sign would be visible, indicating that it had either somehow been destroyed by the attack or was hidden somewhere out of sight.

As for the bulk of the cloud, and Lyra within, they slowed down just slightly before releasing the other passenger they'd brought along with them.

It looked something like a flower.

A cold, icy blue, the pointed tip of its long stem was pointed directly at the man in white, flying towards him at deadly velocities. Larger than the blood spikes, about an arm's length in all. At its rear end, the hollow stem split into five more spikes that pointed outwards like petals. It had taken Lyra some time to gather enough ice from the dry air of this desert tomb to complete her creation, and it even took her some extra attention to make it look as pretty as it was. Important, to keep up appearances.

Rather than travel all the way to its target, the structure slowed down as it reached the northernmost section of the chamber. The air around it seemed to glitter and gleam, an effect that rapidly began to spread outwards from the blue flower. There wasn't enough ice around to create a whirling blizzard as she had with her previous opponent, but still Lyra seized every scrap of vapor she could target in the area, creating thousands upon thousands of frozen fragments, each one no larger than a speck of dust.

Ruling

• Slight discrepancy of the original speed of the fifty balls created by Mitsu as narrated by Decoy. They were typed being slower than both his Ratifier's and his Zesus cannon, but then was written to be in between.
• Decoy written 2 clones exploding to initiate the effect of his fifty spheres, but written 3 in the following paragraph. We assume the original clone exploding was part of the activation and hence it was written as 3. For now we will go by 2 clones exploding including the original leaving 3 cones remaining on the field.
• The "estimation" of the fifty spheres were an average between Mitsu' Ratifier Guns and Zesus Cannon. Their estimated speed is 2309.95 fps or 1574.96 mph.
• The distance between the sphere's position and Lyra was determined by the last location they rested at before forming as an attack.
• Mitsu had his spheres remain stationary at the mid-point of his manuever to the scaffolding before executing his Thunder God Teleport Level 2. This placed the spheres not only 10' away from the Player 1 starting position, but closer South since the scaffolding is diagonally of Mitsu' position. Had he went only right he would be behind the pillar instead.
• The distance between the spheres and Lyra is 62.29 meaning 62' and close to 3/5th or 3" 3/4 (technically 74 not 75 percent of 3 inches). This plays a role in the next point.
• The time it'd take the spheres to reach Lyra's pillar will be 0.026965951643975 seconds or 0.02 of a second. We did not feel it was necessary to determine the collateral damage except for the most crucial part. This is important for later
• We have determined a rough estimation of a large quantity of the sphere's groupings to do a variety of effects; however, we have also determined only 15 of the spheres launched were aimed at a significant target: The split shroud from the Zeus Cannon attack located by Player2 before Lyra relocated.
• The spheres were described to indiscriminately destroy a variety of landscape and their numerical grouping is as followed:
  - 20 of the spheres were launched at the South-eastern pillar described by Decoy in his post.
  - 15 directed at Pollen's first duplicate Shroud.
  - 15 doing collateral damage throughout the stage including hitting both pillars at the center from the slope (one end of the scaffolding and where Lyra is located), the southern wall at the exit, the dragon bones, and random locations.
• 70 percent of the projectiles launched by Mitsu (the spheres) will hit no distinctive target. Out of 70 percent of the whole - 71.45 percent hit the south-east pillar at the far end of the stage where Lyra is not located. The remaining 30 percent target the shroud left over at the player 2 location.
• 20 spheres, which is 40% of the whole attack, were aimed at the south-east pillar. This is deduced by the following:

Twenty of the spheres would slam the area of the south-eastern pillar, causing the massive structure to crack and fall over – following the momentum of the impact – backwards towards the southern wall, large threatening chunks of stone debris falling in all directions around it. ~ Decoy post - third paragraph

• The Southern wall is more than 140' from Lyra's position. For the debris to fall back in that direction would imply the southern-east pillar would be the furthest South pillar to the south wall by the entrance/exit of the stage. Diagram here
• The remaining 15 of consequence target the shroud. Pollen did not write or narrate the fate of the piece of Shroud left over.
• Pollen described having evaded any debris hitting her character having moved in time to the response of her opponent; however, we deduce no such time was appropriate due to how Pollen chained the activation of her evasion to Decoy.
• Decoy's gold clones exploded to ignite his barrage attack moving at the defined speed addressed earlier. Lyra's FRT and speed does not compensate (not having any defining speed in the profile sheet) not only for the amount of time necessary (0.02 of a second) to react and evade, but due to the sequential order of her own evasion chained from Decoy's activation.
  - Lyra began her evasion upon the clone explosion hence is retaliating/responding to their Decoy's attack activation.
  - The wind generated by her character came first before she leapt.
  - Lyra will leap AFTER the guest was generated for lift.
  - Pollen described the speed "approaching" a third of the speed of sound. That's approximately 375.10 fps or 255.75mph.
• Above will indicate not an immediate thrust but of acceleration of a maximum output of speed.
• The chaining of her evasion will also describe not a simultaneous chain of events but rather a sequential one which will mistime her evasion from the debris.
• The fluids in her body will not make a significant difference in her velocity as the winds generated from her is "greater" than the 'fiercest hurricane' which is hurricane which is Typhoon Tip that had winds only up to 160mph versus Decoy's spheres moving at 1574.96 mph before achieving a third of the speed of sound.
• Pollen did not mention the fate of her original shroud piece left behind from the Zeus Cannon altercation.

Verdict
A majority of Mitsu's spheres only damaged the stage with the 30 remaining hitting the shroud left over by Lyra upon her ascension. Since the shroud cannot be treated as an NPC it will be treated as a field permanent and up to the discretion of Decoy on what happened to it. The reason? Pollen was ambiguous in describing exactly what had occurred to it when the spheres touched the area it inhabited. Thus, it'd be mutually fair that if it disappeared then it was presumably destroyed and we'll allow Decoy to address this in his following turn.

The debris from the pillar explosion caused by Mitsu's attack will threaten Lyra likewise, but the south-wall destruction from the 20 sphere barrage is inconsequential. Lyra's auto-defense of her shroud will take the brunt of that debris in her EOD since your character will not have the time required to adequately dodge as proposed in your latest post.. Decoy, Mitsu's attack from his spheres will not hit anything meaningful except the shroud piece left over. The debris you generated to fall on Lyra was vaguely described hitting the area around and near the fallen pillar debris already on the field. The large collateral damaged you created was from the 20 spheres hitting the far south end of the stage by your own description.

This fight resumes.

The maelstrom of chaos played out mostly as anticipated. Spheres of intense destructive force had surged forward at the command of two exploding golden figures. The scene orchestrated as carefully as the one who had set it all up had hoped. The instigator of the chamber’s sudden maelstrom of dust and stone watched with vested interest through enhanced perceptions. The soft glow of electrons emanating from his single iris.

The trajectory of his attack hadn’t angled as he’d hoped, the larger spread of spheres having surged too far forward a large majority missing their intended target almost entirely as they sped towards the south-eastern most pillar closest to the entrance to the pyramid’s interior chamber. Debris flew in all directions as the impacts caused a cacophony of sound to fill the room. The second set of spheres, reaching their target simultaneous to the other assortment, had a much more interesting effect that. The spherical shape of the strange shadow-stuff that had split earlier from its main mass was peppered by the barrage of soccer-ball shaped spheres.

The barrage caused the mini-fields of crimson energy to come into contact with the spheroid before the physical portion of the attack did. As before, the dark mass spread out to encapsulate and squash out the potential of the field it first came in contact with. However, unlike before, the energy field’s unique frequency, the cause of the red glow surrounding the spheres, began to shear the dark stuff and eradicate it unlike the first Zeus Cannon round with its basic field. The magnitude of spheres focused in that area brought with it a similar amount of red energy that would rip and tear at the orb like a hot knife through butter. It didn’t take long for the strangely separated shape to be ripped and burned until nothing remained; effectively being destroyed completely by the unique field generated by Mazono’s volcanic waveband.

That moment however, was not seen as a flutter of movement caught the auburn-haired individual, forcing him to focus his attention on the now rising darkness. Its ascent was barely visible at first - illuminated only by the golden images of Mazono and the persistent light generated by the spheres of electrical energy that had released their fury not even a second prior, though hidden for the moment by the obstruction – yet as the angled aerial maneuver continued, the form of the compacted darkness became far more visible as its position cleared the defensive cover of the Pillar the miasma had remained behind prior. Through his enhanced perception, the Shroud may as well have been moving in slow motion. Through his eye, he witnessed all he had to.

As debris flew through the air, several assorted pieces of varying size seemed to pepper the surface of the strange apparition with granite stones. Much like it had with his earlier attacks, the cloud of pitch seemed to writhe and move around the objects coming into contact with it, its forward momentum slowing. It was at this moment Mazono would strike hard and without abandon. After all, what was the point in preparing his weapons for their attack if he wasn’t intent on using them? His actions occurred before him, so swiftly – he barely noticed they seemed to occur at the same time the shroud slowdown in response to the falling threats.

The twin fire-arms, both having been in position and ready to fire since his earlier maneuver, filled the air with a loud CRACK as their potent caliber types flew from their chambers at speeds unreal. The ZC round would of course take the lead as it was the faster of the two rounds, it’s enlarged VERTBRINIUM mass emitting a glowing reddish hue, the same as the spheres used in the previous assault. The projectile soared towards the large black mass’ center (more discernable from the compact design of the cloud). Much like the earlier use of this weapon, the energy field coating the round would of course come into contact with the black mass before the physical round would – but unlike earlier, the bluish white hue was replaced with the crimson opalescence. The second weapon, the Ratifier, fired two bullets from its unique barrel. While not unlike the earlier attack with said weapon, this time the rounds had also been coated in the same unique defensive field as the ZC Round. The red glow more intense around the smaller projectiles as they followed behind their larger predecessor. This shot was aimed slightly ahead of the ZC shot, causing the Ratifier’s first and second rounds to impact slightly to the side of the ZC round's initial impact and one more right next to it for a maximum spread of damage.

Occurring at the same time, as if triggered by the release of the ballistics, one of the three remaining golden copies seemed to change as the visage’s appearance distorted into a golden bolt of lightning. The stream of brilliant radiance surged forward at the whim of its creator, accelerating and maneuvering into position to impact against the darkness hesitating in its escape. The timing of the simultaneous attacks would cause two unique obstacles for the defensive mass, threatening to overwhelm its writhing form. Before the first portion of the energy field encapsulating the ZC round would potentially come in contact with the darkness, the stream of energy would reach its destination first. As the once former golden decoy would come within inches of making contact, an explosion of searing heat, accompanied by an ever-growing blinding sphere of golden electrical discharge, would expand upon the shadow's obfuscous form; it would continue to grow by the second, attempting to power its way through the haze and cause intense damage.

Mazono, of course, was unaware of the passengers within this darkened miasma nor of its original intended desire to launch a counter-offensive – the act of which was now threatened by this assault. So far, the moving pitch had done a fantastic job at keeping pressure on him, as well as fending off his mighty attacks. Yet none of it seemed to bother the former man in white. While unaware of his barrage’ effectiveness on the separated piece of shroud, Mitsu wasn’t taking anything to chance again as the iron sand that had been gathering at the tip of his feet continued to amass more and more – propagating at an exponential rate. It wouldn’t take long until the sand used for his barrage would be replaced by new iron sand particulates. The sound of twisting leather once more filled his ears as too did a barely audible hum (Audible only to him) as he readied his defensive tactics once more in preparation to the shadow’s attacks that may be to come.

A flutter of movement from his sealed eye, as the lid lifted; once more exposing the retina to the stale air of the chamber. At first, the view from seemed partially blurred out of the targeted socket, but as the electric surge of the neuron burst began to show once more through the iris, the temporary damage caused by the shadow’s unique use of light seemed mostly restored. As his newly restored sight once again remained focused on the task at hand, Mazono couldn’t help but feel the familiar thrill. That moment when death’s hand threatens to overtake you, and that moment you deny it’s cold embrace…it was irresistible. The curious nature of the world never ceased to amaze him, and it was in this moment – this singular moment in time and space – that nothing in this moment felt as alive as he did right now. His body tense like an animal, ready to dart and move in this direction or that in response to a need. The thrill….it was intoxicating.

Barely an instant after the inaccurate barrage, the man in white was at it again. This time he fired off both of his guns, and sent one of his golden fakes into the fray, aiming all at once towards the Shroud in the hopes of doing some damage. Not nearly so impressive as his previous attack, but together they still packed a lot of force.

This time, however, Lyra didn't even bother moving.

The glowing fake struck first, in the form of a bright stream that exploded at the very last moment. In terms of energetic composition it was not unlike the lightning bolt from early in the fight: heat, light, and electricity, just in greater quantities this time. Alas, it would suffer a similar fate to its predecessor. The wider spread of its impact diminished any chances of penetration, and as before the cloud promptly ate it up and shut it down without much trouble. On its own, it stood little chance of pushing through.

On the other hand, the Shroud was still dealing with the flood of energy from the explosion when the cannon attack struck home, and responded to the latter a little less effectively than it might have. This particular method did have some success before, and the field this time would be stronger, more capable of pushing back and damaging the Shroud. Unfortunately for the attacker, whether or not he had realized it, his previous attack with this weapon had been made against the thin, distracting layer Lyra had erected early on, and had accomplished a seeming breakthrough largely because it had only needed to penetrate a fraction of an inch of Shroud. The current projectile would be faced with a great deal more opposition. Both field and round would be swiftly slowed to insignificance, their energies snuffed out by the black miasma's flagrant defiance of conventional physics.

All the same, the Shroud did seem to be having some trouble dealing with this much energy at once. It self-concentrated, bulging near the site of impact while the rest of it shrank and thinned, leaving the way clear for the slower, smaller attacks. These had been well-placed, taking advantage of the Shroud's defensive nature by aiming slightly to one side of the larger hit. While the cannon shot drew the cloud in like a hungry whirlpool, the following rounds struck its weaker fringes. They carried less energy than the larger projectile, and the first would far little better than its larger cousin- but its sibling, the final bullet, striking where and when the Shroud was weak, had better luck. Its field dispersed the Shroud in front of it just enough for the physical round to push through at reduced speed, and for just a fraction of a second, barely long enough for Mitsu to catch, it tore a small hole in that dread veil of darkness to reveal what lay within.

More darkness.

Fair play to the man, he had managed to understand his opponent's defense well enough to put together attacks that could actually have threatened Lyra if she'd dropped her guard. She, however, had anticipated this. The otherworldly fog's tendency to self-concentrate around threats could be turned into a weakness, but Lyra knew this better than anyone. So she'd split her Shroud.

Discounting the little sphere that had been wiped out just a moment ago, she'd made three parts. One was fairly small and served an unrelated purpose, the other two were roughly equal portions of the remaining Shroud: one wrapped around Lyra herself, and one wrapped around the other like a shell, with a thin layer of air in between. This might not have seemed like much of a difference, but as had just been demonstrated, it could yet be used to great effect.

The Shroud self-concentrated to deal with threats, which left it thinner in places and vulnerable to follow-up attacks. What it didn't do was move to stop things that weren't touching it. While the outer cloud had been deformed and left vulnerable by the initial impacts, the inner cloud surrounding Lyra herself remained untouched, placid and calm. Together, the Shroud might have fallen, but divided it stood firm. Only three projectiles made it through to the second layer, and once there, two were soon slowed to the point of insignificance. The third, the pistol shot that had penetrated with some of its surrounding field intact, would penetrate far enough to score a hit- but unfortunately by that point it was only traveling at a few hundred miles per hour, well below the muzzle velocities of even primitive firearms. Lyra's swift reaction times and her ability to sense anything within her Shroud made it easy enough for her to physically avoid it before it could land. Thus, when it did land, the bullet acted less as a penetrating projectile and more as a blunt one. Even before it hit, Lyra was hardening the frozen fluids within her midsection in response, so that when the blow landed she was able to keep herself in position and hold her body intact. Rather than being crushed or smashed, her flesh *cracked* a little, the ice within her blood vessels breaking in places from the force of the impact. Had she been a living human, she'd have suffered some heavy tissue damage and hemorrhaging, but with most of her blood frozen the latter would hardly be an issue, and she could use her power over said frozen fluids to physically hold herself together, further minimizing the harm done. It surprised her that something had been able to reach this far through her defense, but it'd take more than this to seriously hurt her.

The gap snapped closed as soon as it had opened, and the outer layer of the two-part Shroud swirled into motion, returning to its former shape while pieces of debris dropped out of it in succession, falling to the ground far below. The ice flower, which had been wisely kept away from the part of the Shroud that would be taking impacts, sped out as planned, and Lyra and her cloud continued to ascend in an unpredictably curving path. The interruption, powerful and complex as it had been, had not delayed her plans. Even if Mitsu immediately attacked upon observing what had happened, the Shroud would have largely recovered by the time his next round hit, and the flower would be well en route.

Something else flew out behind the blue flower, though unlike the icy construct it did not travel far. A gas bomb, the one Lyra had primed a short while before. It detonated some distance in front of the Shroud- and then began to spread, carefully directed by the wind. Rather than expanding in all directions, it flattened and swept outwards like a curtain, forming an opaque green veil that hung in the air some distance in front of the Shroud. Rather than using her gas as a weapon, Lyra was using it as cover: with her power over wind she could spread it wide while making sure it never came in contact with her Shroud, and while she kept it between herself and Mitsu he would be unable to track the Shroud's precise location by sight. A girl hid within a cloud, and now a cloud hid behind another, much wider cloud.

Of course, Lyra herself couldn't see through this second miasma either. She didn't need to, however. The key lay in the flower: its stem was hollow, and rather than another bomb it held a far more versatile payload.

The third portion of her Shroud.

This last, smallest part would be effectively invisible in its current state. The dark particles held within and embedded throughout the ice could store and emit light as well as absorb it, and rather than simply sucking up every photon that came near, the Shroud within the ice flower was emitting light in wide bursts at roughly the same rate as it absorbed it, thereby rendering itself almost transparent. It likely wouldn't have been enough to fool Lyra's sharp-eyed opponent were it in the open, but hidden as it was within ice, any minor distortions of light would be impossible to distinguish from those caused by reflection and refraction within the ice's own structure. Lyra, meanwhile, could easily track what light was hitting the Shroud, and had crafted the aforementioned ice herself- she knew exactly how to get a clear view from inside it. The flower acted not only as a weapon, but also as a mobile eye.

As it approached, and glittering particles began to spread around it, the flower changed. The lovely petals split, becoming thinner, sharper, and more numerous. A circle of needles, a vicious variation on the dandelion.

The main body of the flower had slowed down as it drew close, but the threat would come suddenly, and deadly swift. Without warning, the very tip of the pointed stem- opposite the flower shape with all its petals -broke off from the main structure and shot towards Mazono.
As with the initial blood spike, it would likely run into his defensive field. In this case, however, said field only stretched ten feet, and the shard had been crafted from raw ice, which Lyra could toughen much more effectively than frozen blood. It stood to reason that this one would not shatter before reaching its target.

Of course, as the man in white probably knew by now, his opponent always had a card or two up her sleeve. A spike through the head might seem a threat, but for all he knew it could be the least of his worries.

Ruling

• Shroud is capable of a maximum reach of 2000 cubic feet stated in Pollen's profile sheet in the shroud section¹. The shroud itself is amorphous so rendering its dimensions can only be reasonable done if we assume it's a sphere visually (we aren't saying it is. We're just determining its overall volume to something visually even).
• The shroud's maximum potential is realized below 500' cubic feet.
• The act of layered defense of the Shroud is substantiated since it is mentioned in her 6th post - 6th and 7th paragraph² and her 7th post 6th paragraph³
• The shroud is separated in 3 individual pieces each fulfilling a role. Two halves reserved as part of a stacked defense and the final segment serving no direct purpose.
• The chronology of Mitsu' attack sequences remains consistent between both players; however, their resolution changes on the ruling due to a discrepancy we uncovered.
• The debris from the ruling impacted Lyra's auto-defense remains consistent.
• The Zeus Cannon, having an established auto-defense field of their own, will make contact with the outer-layer of Lyra's shroud; however, the nature of Mitsu' Zeus Cannon will act as a piercer similar to before.
• The Zeus Cannon is described and functioned to penetrate energy fields due to its similar behavior of the character's Thunder Dome.
• Ratifier rounds have the auto-defense properties of the Zeus Cannon⁴ 6th Paragraph
• Shroud's effect of deceleration happens upon contact and is specific about entry of contact stated in the profile sheet.⁵
  "The third ability is that the Shroud will resist any and all movement within itself not initiated by Lyra or her abilities"
  "slowing down other matter and energy passing through areas where the particles are gathered."
• The Shroud's contraction will enhance its density for its intended function. This cannot be ignored; however, we cannot ignore that objects making contact with Shroud and can occupy it enough to dampen it. This is by admission of Pollen's latest post to explain the Ratifier rounds ability to explicitly target its most weakest state to meet the demand of the threats proceeding it.
• The behavior of Shroud by admission of Pollen's post suggest the debris twisted its form and impeded the progression of Lyra's vertical ascension.⁶ 6th paragraph.
• There's a discrepancy in how Shroud behaves to enemy attacks. The latest post suggest the explosion was snuffed outright, but then it behaves where incoming attacks are greeted by shroud.
• The Zeus Cannon barrier is of the same electrical type as the explosion proceeding it. There will be no reason for the Shroud not to react with the Clone discharge as it does with the ZC proceeding it.
• The electrical explosion by one of Mitsu's gold clones will greet Shroud first to busy its natural defensive mechanisms. This is coupled with the somewhat limited debris it met during the ruling.
• The nature of the gold clone explosion is describe to be an explosion that threatens to encompass the form of the Shroud. It would reach inches from the surface of its target before igniting.
• The explosion will come milliseconds ahead of the Zeus cannon round and roughly before the 4 foot radius of the sphere protecting it.
• Gold Clone eruption isn't a typical explosion, but is written to discharging area of electricity with an accompanying explosion of heat first. It will be described to eclipse the Shroud and push onto it or overpower it.
  
  "As the once former golden decoy would come within inches of making contact, an explosion of searing heat, accompanied by an ever-growing blinding sphere of golden electrical discharge, would expand upon the shadow's obfuscous form; it would continue to grow by the second, attempting to power its way through the haze and cause intense damage." ~ Decoy, 7th paragraph⁷
• We can adhere to Shroud's density in an area to effect quick objects interacting within its area, but the Zeus Cannon's own round projecting a 4' radial spheroid should be the first targeted by its effect. This is set in precedence from the initial ruling about Pollen's icicle attack penetrating Decoy's auto-defense long enough to allow the gas bomb to pass through.
• The remaining projectile from the Zeus cannon will meet the sequential layer of defense between Lyra and Mitsu. The bullet here will meet its ending since the concentrated mass of Lyra's autodefense is consistent with her profile sheet.
• Discrepancy with how the shroud handles the upcoming ratifier rounds proceeding Mitsu' Zeus Cannon, Electric explosion, and the debris. Shroud's intensity is not in question but rather its ability to effectively nullify the immense bombardment of differing activity is only in question from the opening the explosion and Zeus Cannon has and the Ratifiers.
• We have ruled prior that defenses will not shut out all means of attacks (Dias Blade vs Xavier Ruling 2)⁸.
• By admission of Pollen in her post 4th paragraph⁹ the ratifier rounds will penetrate the weaker hulls of her autodefense.
• The speed in which the Ratifier rounds moved are only 660fps slower than the Zeus Cannon.
• All shots fired from Mitsu will be concurrent of a single telegraphy or "CRACK" that indicated only one noise was emitted.

Verdict: There's only two working layers of a defense that shields Lyra from damage with the 3rd remaining shroud piece doing nothing at the moment. We are beholden to the characteristics of Shroud's own defenses and behavior mentioned in the profile sheet and this bout. It indicates that at 500 cubic feet or less (4.9231' radius) shroud's maximum potential of slowing down fast and expedient objects is realized, and segmenting it in two pairs does not diminish its effectiveness despite the split in mass. The shrouds are together as a whole acting on a principle of mass intensity where density of its form optimizes its ability to dampen incoming projectiles; however, we cannot ignore Mitsu' Zeus cannon's barrier that has a 4' radial coverage which is 8' diameter (Giving it an area of 268.1 cubic feet. Feel free to correct me). This is also passed onto the Ratifier projectiles also emitting the same properties of the former.

The Zeus Cannon's barrier will make initial contact with the outer layer of Lyra's shroud that is already concentrated on an expanding explosion from Mitsu's own gold clone. For the entirety of his attack to be considered nullified will mean neither objects penetrate at any capacity especially for one designated to penetrate (similar to the first ruling of this fight ¹⁰). The Zeus Cannon's purpose is to penetrate non-substantial forces specifically energy type and has done so in this fight before ¹¹. The expanding energy ignited from the Gold Clone's detonation will also make contact with the barrier, but it was written to be completely negated because of its "spread" which is a discrepancy on how it handled incoming projectiles before and after¹²¹³. The first electrical attack Mitsu unleashed¹⁴ in this match was anticipated by the shroud like many others after it describing how Shroud gathered to wane the attack¹⁵. One could argue that Shroud being thinned from expansion forced it to encapsulate but Shroud had formed around the Debris in Pollen's EOD post involuntarily and the upcoming Zeus Cannon which is also surrounded by electricity in this recent post (though its output and intentions different). Lyra's Shroud is compacted compared to posts throughout this fight which indicate that some voluntary action takes place if Lyra does not control or designate its behavior which she must voluntarily do ¹⁶. Mitsu' Ratifiers are retro-fitted with the same Auto-defense setup to do more of the same as the Zeus Cannon. We're deducing that the Shroud's involuntary behavior plays a key factor in Lyra's automated defenses.

The explosion of the clone is described to expand to eclipse Shroud with heat dispersing first using a time modifier being "ever-growing" to denote that its growth is perpetual, and that Shroud is described to slow down objects within its field and not before. Thus, it is possible for the Shroud to be busied not only by the Debris but by the incoming discharge of electricity that is blooming roughly after as it has done before to Mitsu attacks prior. The Shroud will naturally slow and wither this attack to ineffectiveness as its speed deceleration is proportionate to the velocity of an incoming object. Pollen has described Lyra fighting with Shroud's behavior before and splitting it partly for a long-game strategy ¹⁷, but all the same that this electrical release will queue the outer layer along the Debris. Another contention would describe how Lyra has manipulate field to intentionally create openings in Shroud to avoid unsavory scenarios with her Shroud, but this reinforces that Shroud's involuntary behavior to actively anticipate intrusive objects. Lyra can control the Shroud which is not a point of contention but rather how the Shroud behaved to the upcoming electricity discharge prior to. The nature of Mitsu's own expanding electrical release from the Gold Clone would meet the same active resistance Shroud exhibited to most of Decoy's propositions earlier, and this time will meet the same unless Lyra wills it otherwise; however, no exertion was prompted from the character despite debris from the EOD initiating and stimulating Shroud's auto response mechanisms. It's reasonable to deduce that the Shroud is now occupied with 2 established factors: The debris from the Gold Clone explosion.

The Zeus Cannon will be the bullet in question regarding how the Shroud interacts with its "Thunder Dome" defense. The Shroud slows down objects that come into contact with it until it reaches a crawl, its particles will first target the electric field. Technically, slowing down objects coming to Lyra's field doesn't necessarily stop it. Shroud describes how objects interact within the mass in which Shroud particles "gather" are slowed by alternating physics around it, but these objects must exist within the field for this effect to take place. Shroud's effect to decelerate objects is initiated once they penetrate and slows down these foreign incursions proportionate to their speed. Shroud's maximum reach in space for which it can occupy leaves it at 1/4th its potential and actively requires its particles to form to withstand outside movement; however, at a more compressed shape or formation approximately 500 cubic feet and lower it may not require active scrambling of Shroud to intercept matter. For Shroud to unintentionally mitigate Mitsu's Clone based attack requires no active response from Shroud, but Pollen described the following:

"The glowing fake struck first, in the form of a bright stream that exploded at the very last moment. In terms of energetic composition it was not unlike the lightning bolt from early in the fight: heat, light, and electricity, just in greater quantities this time. Alas, it would suffer a similar fate to its predecessor. The wider spread of its impact diminished any chances of penetration, and as before the cloud promptly ate it up and shut it down without much trouble." ~ Drifting Pollen, Paragraph 2 ¹⁸

There's admittance to a "spread" from occurring, but no spread would transpire based on the distance such an event transpired.

"As the once former golden decoy would come within inches of making contact, an explosion of searing heat, accompanied by an ever-growing blinding sphere of golden electrical discharge, would expand upon the shadow's obfuscous form; it would continue to grow by the second, attempting to power its way through the haze and cause intense damage." Decoy, Paragraph Number ¹⁹

The release is inches to the target. The blast from this attack will be much more concentrated than assumed as the shroud will not allow a portion of it to grow without resistance. This implies two scenarios:

• The discharge's shape, or a portion of it, will quarrel with shroud at its most concentrated. Since "spread" indicates the luxury of weakness to Shroud then concentration means further resistance is required forcing Shroud to scramble until dissipation happens.
• Mitsu's clone energy release is allowed growth enough for dissipation to occur with relative ease. This implies it has made a considerable space of occupancy within the same area Shroud inhabits. This will cover a wider area of Shroud.

The former will force Shroud's automated responses in admission of Pollen's post because a spread will not incur the ease of shutting it down "without much trouble" since it'd be exactly the composition of Mitsu' first attack. This first attack had no spread requiring Shroud, that was thinned, to captured it by amassing the aforementioned bolt. The latter cannot be true because Lyra has no control over Shroud's ability to slow down objects only how it forms. This is stated in her profile sheet:

"As a result, when spread too thinly it will self-concentrate around sources of movement where necessary, to better resist them. Although Lyra, her weapons, and the matter/energy she controls with her powers are immune to this effect, she can't control the effect itself." Drifting Pollen, Profile Sheet - Shroud Paragraph 4 ²⁰

It can be determined that the Gold Clone is either: too concentrated currently for the ease of Shroud to not amass to it or Shroud allowed the spread coverage to shut it down contradicting Shroud giving credence to Mitsu' Gold Clone detonation. The latter will imply it was strong enough to breach but then, because of its formation, can be shut down. From what occurred: the detonation is as is and cannot properly form to Mitsu' desire despite it's ever growing potential because of Shroud's effect; however, the ease in which Shroud shut down such an attack requires said auto-defense to gather around this occurrence much the same of the Debris.

The next attack in chronology is immediately Mitsu' Zeus Cannon. It's established that rounds from this Arm-Mounted cannon fires munition of considerable weight that generates an auto-defensive field similarly to the operator's "Thunder Dome". This bullet, traveling at 1750mph, carries a field designed to pierce energy fields. We cannot certainly declare Shroud an energy field but strikes characteristics of energy from having particles that circumvent it own generation of desired physics; however, the composition of said bullet's electrical field is electricity which, like any form of matter interacting with shroud, is said to slow down where it "gathers". This indicates, like the piercing ruler before, that said electrical field around these Vertbranium rounds will be targeted first by Shroud and will penetrate. Lyra's own auto-defense is already qeued by the debris ruling stated in the EOD and now the upcoming electrical emission; however, Pollen wrote an interesting facet of contention to this idea:

" While the cannon shot drew the cloud in like a hungry whirlpool, the following rounds struck its weaker fringes"

The Debris, Clone Explosion, and now the Zeus Cannon has tied Shroud especially the latter. Lyra's field will have to rearranged Shroud in anticipation to these threats which is stated to occur; albeit, Zeus Cannon's bullet is still imbued for this specific scenario. It is true that an ideal gathering of Shroud particles can beat out Zeus Cannon (maybe) we have to take into account its actual composition currently. Pollen wrote Shroud having two separate layers of Shroud that are both halves of a singular whole, but shroud has been divided 4 times this match. The original split was destroyed via ruling, the other not relevant, and the last two make-up the outer and inner layers of said fortification with void space in between. We cannot say for certain at what quantities these shape hold Shroud particulates, but being divided portions implies a reduction of total mass between 3 separate "wholes" for the ideal concentration Shroud will have at maximum mass with a compact volume. The limitation here is based on the direct stipulation of Shroud's maximum reach versus generation in which Lyra does not generate Shroud particles. It is described as a mass or floating dark cloud surrounding the operator with set limitations of functions such as the maximum space it occupies, reduction of potential proportionate to coverage, self concentration under circumstances, and absolute potential when compacted. This implies Shroud has a set number of mass to achieve desired effects especially reach as it is described as a gaseous form and thus with subtraction of power comes an increase of size -- also means less of the total mass could also indicate a reduction of power. Lyra cannot populate the field of anymore Shroud as self generation is not in the profile sheet. This will justify Shroud's weaken state relatively speaking. For ease of reference:

-Shroud's maximum strength is at 500 cubic feet or lower
-Shroud is reduced a quarter of strength at 2000 cubic feet
-1/4 of Shroud at maximum coverage is 500.
-1/4 = 500. 1/2 = 1000. 3/4 = 1500. 1 = 2000
-Shroud doesn't generate or not perpetuating nor does it multiply particles. Meaning it uses the total sum of itself for its operations
-Earlier this game Shroud's first piece was a 8' hemisphere turned into a sphere. 8' hemisphere assumed diameter of 4' radius but it's a hemisphere so that could only imply just 3.1781' radius - 134.51' cubic feet. That's merely 6.7025 percent. 2000-134.51 is 1865.49
-Both Outer and Inner layers are roughly equal to the remaining shroud. That's 1865.49/2 = 932.74 a piece. We cannot say this is correct because there's a third piece used for another task. This number should be lower to some other quantity.
-Shroud may require only densely gathered pieces of shroud for its effect. Meaning the Shroud's coverage may not be important provided enough of what is needed for 500 cubic feet or less is in a specific area at a time.

Mitsu's Zeus Cannon will meet with Pollen's described whirlpool effect; though, coupled with the gold clone explosion, debris, and a reduced Shroud means Mitsu' attack can hit her inner defense in which it'd be defeated there. The Auto-defense accompanying Mitsu' Cannon doesn't have a generating property akin to Mitsu's bio-electric field which gives credence to Shroud, but Shroud is beset by opposing forces prior including limitations it has. The Zeus Cannon attack is not the only proposition Decoy describe having his automated defensive field. Since prior rulings justify that piercing attacks require two materials (substituted material and core material) then his ballistic attack has a case of entering further passed the outer layer.

The following Ratifiers cannot absolutely for certain be damped by Shroud. The opening Zeus Cannon allowed, precipitated by the gold clone explosion and debris, will have allowed the Zeus cannon's bullet to queue her inner layer (having the outer layer tied with 3 separate instances). It is true that a concentrated gathering of shroud maximizes their ability to slow objects. It is also true they must, in some form, gather to the object. The following ratifiers were no more apart from the impact of the Zeus Cannon's area than they are apart which can free up some allotted space for clearance. Had all three shroud segments layered the defense instead of two then the Ratifier rounds will only make contact with the final protective aegis (piercing effects). It is reasonable to negotiate the actual lethality of these projectiles to conclude at least 1 of them will hit Lyra. Justification: The scattered airborne debris from the ruling, the explosion from the Gold Clone Lightning Attack should busy the shroud enough for the Zeus Cannon's barrier to further tie its operations prior. This will allow the simultaneous bullets, with the Zeus Cannon bullet, to amass Shroud to 3 locations. There's another determining factor playing into the Ratifier rounds.

Decoy wrote that both Ratifier rounds will be suffused with the same bio-electric field the Zeus Cannon projectile possesses. The Shroud, dealing with 3 opposing forces, and admission of Pollen:

"While the cannon shot drew the cloud in like a hungry whirlpool, the following rounds struck its weaker fringes. They carried less energy than the larger projectile, and the first would far little better than its larger cousin- but its sibling, the final bullet, striking where and when the Shroud was weak, had better luck." ~ Drifting Pollen, 4th Paragraph

Shroud would be occupied not just by the Zeus Cannon, but debris and discharge. What we're deliberating on is that if the following projectiles entered weaker fringes and carried a load of the same auto-defense field the Zeus Cannon has then their penetration power is less effected by Shroud's outer field. This means all 3 of Mitsu's ballistic attacks passed the outer layer with varying levels of efficiencies; however, we estimate the statement "carried less energy" was from a ballistic standpoint as Decoy mentioned no output of these electric field other than their intensity due to their red aura detonating a potentially much stronger field radiation (Zeus Cannon included). The Zeus cannon is the faster and heavier round between the 3 and thus escapes the outer layer into the void space between both fractions of Shroud. Pollen described a space between both levels of defenses so there isn't a constant force of resistance hitting projectiles that may enter. Shroud doesn't necessarily impede movement on the immediate point of contact:

"The third ability is that the Shroud will resist any and all movement within itself not initiated by Lyra or her abilities"
Indicates that an object must first be within

"Its minuscule particles are made of a strange material from a far-flung universe devoid of life, and they bend physics around them slightly, slowing down other matter and energy passing through areas where the particles are gathered."

Meaning an object must enter before its effect is triggered.

"This effect works more powerfully against faster movements: walking through the Shroud is merely uncomfortable, running through it is like pushing against a wall of molasses, and bullets or anything similarly fast will face opposition strong enough to slow them to a crawl."

All of these are found in the Shroud section of the profile sheet in the third paragraph²¹

Describes the time in which objects regress their acceleration. Again, they are reduced to a fraction of the speed within if they go from their initial velocity to a slower rate. This describes that Shroud does not instantaneously slow an object but reduces their speed though varying upon the actual object's velocity (since that's proportionate). Bullets can range from less than 586.667 fps to above 1700 fps. We do not know how long it takes to reach a "crawl" rate within Shroud, but we can deduce that a rate does exist. We can then interpret that there exist a transitional state between speeds before Shroud is satisfied with whatever object entering it. These bullets must be within Shroud to some degree before succumbing to its effects and that includes their barriers. These Ratifier projectiles with their auras will enter 'weaken' fringes of her already engaged defensive field, and being weaker may significantly impact their projected auto-defenses as well. The Zeus Cannon dealt with a concentrated portion of Shroud by Pollen's own post meaning it will have no barrier upon entering if we're to assume it does based on the evidence above, but this may not hold true for the Ratifiers having already entered through areas Shroud was more susceptible. The shroud's division doesn't help as it will have less mass from the outer layer to deal with this many things happening at once. The inner layer, roughly equivalent of the out-layer, must burden these loads of a potential 3 prong attack. The Zeus Cannon will end here though having a significant density to its physical composition and speed may or may not force Shroud's inner layer to response, but the following Ratifier's with perhaps a portion of their auto defenses if any in such succession can total the difference. These 3 factors, including their potential auto defenses, turn this into 5 hazards.

The first Ratifier bullet meeting the inner layer with a reduced auto-defense and a halved shroud will translate into a full stop but we must combine this with whatever pressure the Zeus Cannon projectile offered. Right after is the last projectile with the same energy coating the other 2 had but at reduced power. Shroud's inner layer will be busied potentially by the potential first but definitely 2nd bullet for it possessed the substituted material to make up even a marginal piercer. Shroud's ability to intercept intrusions came with an aforementioned penalty that allowed one of them to enter. There's reason to believe that will happen with the 3rd and final attack from Mitsu' ballistic arsenal. It will be almost the direct result that happened upon the outer layer: 2 or 2 and some fraction qeueing Shroud's inner layer for a 3rd entity to enter less opposed; however, there will be insufficient bio-electric energy at this point to maximize that entry to a desired effect from either Ratifier rounds. This means out of the 3 rounds to strike Lyra's inner defensive field only 1 will do so at reduced power and based on the amount of objects doing so will be at a factor of 3. The Ratifier projectiles travel at 1300mph which is 1906.6 fps. We're going to divide it by 3 making it 433.3mph or 635.5 fps. The Vertbranium Round is 3 times denser than Tungsten traveling at that velocity will hit Lyra further round of the Zeus Cannon whom trajectory aimed at center mass (middle of the torso). To surmise the justification:

• Divided Shroud in 4 unequal pieces
• Two halves of her defense equals a greater portion of the shroud. This reduces the total mass and volume of the dark cloud though and hence reduces its ability.
• Shroud forms to gather against intrusive debris.
• Mitsu fires specifically after the debris with a lightning bolt attack of his Gold Clone upon firing his gun
• 4 attacks rush to Lyra but Gold Clone makes it first
• Explodes before it with constant discharge of energy to tie it up along with the debris
• Zeus Cannon further ties it up with its barrier. Makes it through because of auto-defense.
• Ratifier round 1 and 2 come after with their own barriers
• Both penetrate with reduced auto-defenses specifically round 2 because by admission is when Shroud couldn't adequately snuff it
• Zeus Cannon hits inner defense. It's mitigated successfully
• Ratifier 1 round with a reduced auto-defense if any is also successfully mitigated. Zeus and Ratifier potentially Queue up Inner Defense
• Round 2 comes with a significant defensive field to make a better entry into the inner layer. Inner layer dampens it to a reduced speed of 433mph.
• Round 2 hits Lyra chest or mid section to the right of her body. Takes damage based on the kinetic force of a bullet traveling at 433mph with an object 3 times the density of tungsten.

Pollen you are issued an EOD. Please make the appropriate changes to your post. Your attack is not successfully interrupted so it will not require changing since this may not kill your character unless we're updated with evidence to the contrary. Please highlight in any color of your choosing the changes you are adding in and keeping the original text in your post but struck out (thank you Xavier and Dias for setting this standard). Decoy must post after you announce the completion of your EOD when he's ready. The fight resumes.