Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by Savo
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Savo Time to go to Hell

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Hm... hm... hm. The tapping against his mandible came to an end as he held his pencil an inch away from his bony jaw. The sound of a phantom tongue clicking as he tilted his head, studying and eyeing the much younger lady was the only reaction he handed to her amidst all the rain. There was an almost wistful stare as the red orbs seemingly threatened to flicker out of existence as he jotted down the way she reacted as well as some other things in regards to her words.

Flipping a few pages back, the life returned to the seemingly lifeless skeleton's eyes as they rolled over a familiar name. "Damn shame what happened to Noboru; wonder if anything was bothering him today," he sighed, writing down a few things slowly, muttering to himself and the only one who was giving him the time of day as the two red orbs continued to focus on the cowgirl with the motorbike.

Of course, as soon as he heard the woman say those dreaded words, he spun the pencil between his hands and pocketed the notebook in his ribcage. Afterwords, he proceeded to press his alabaster finger against his forehead to the point where if he lacked any ki, his finger would of snapped like a twig long ago.

He interfered and he knew it. His jaw dropped almost with the expectancy of him saying something, yet nothing escaped. Damn it! Just... ugh. Even with the murmurs in-between the crowds and them, there was an absolute territory of silence here that just grew even louder. Finally, after being immobile, his eyes fixated solely on the woman finally broke towards the gray sky as a short huff escaped his nonexistent lips.

"I won't lie," some semblance of wordings, lethargic and almost mute departed from his teeth as he began scraping his chin with the same prominent finger he could of broke in the process.

"I'm no meteorologist, but I am rather certain that dark clouds do not materialize in the span of a few seconds after there hasn't been a singular one in sight for the past hour, aside from the wisps," he suddenly spoke out, his eyes being drawn away from the horizon and back to the constantly rushing MAVERICK. He couldn't exactly frown, but he angled his jaw awkwardly to the point where it would probably dislocate in a human to articulate one at least.

His other index finger tapped on an imaginary prominence in midair, swirling from time to time. "And it's throwing myriads of these MAVERICK personnel through a loop..." His shoulders were slack, composed against the rainy backdrop as more and more water began to filter into his skull. However, after some time, a roaring announcement was made, dragging the crowd into a murmur. His head perked up for the moment at the announcement of Kuromaki.

"I would try to enjoy this next fight if plausible, Miss," he muttered as he began to slowly reach into his ribcage... before pulling his hand away, opting to keep himself loose as evidenced by the opened hands and slacked arms. The skeletal head of his slowly twisted and turned, pulling off a 360 as he surveyed the area, attempting to discern any proper anomalies every few minutes.





Wait.

As he overlooked the short... guy... or was it a girl? Katsuo was primed to throw out some flirty dialogue over his own techniques, but his anime senses were tingling as he raised an eyebrow up. While he did his best to keep the same bravado he had before approaching this albino person, something was nagging at him in the back of his mind - where would he go with this?

Yeah, he was gonna have to play it by the ear instead.

Adjusting his original plan, instead choosing to retort thumb up with an award winning smile he thought would melt the hearts of many. "Well, yeah, but that's sorta th' point wouldn't ya say," Katsuo asserted, followed by a hearty chuckle as he rigidly crossed both of his arms over. Tightening up his arms, he let one of his index fingers jaggedly wiggle around in a circular fashion closing one eye as he attempted to tighten his jaw.

"Things like this bring people together to show off their amazing fighting styles; some need work like the last guy," scoffing with a large grin plastered on his face, uttering something about being a century too early to fight him under his breath.

"But then y'get some professionals like me with unconventional styles and, uh," he stammered for a moment, quickly twisting his head, eyes rushing amongst the nomads for a few seconds. Eventually he spotted someone who looked flashy enough - perfect.

His wiggling finger eventually came to a halt as he pointed at the robotic looking dude who seemed decked out with a dull shade of bronze with glowing cyan lights encircling parts of their arm. "So, whadda' 'bout you kiddo, what's y-"

Before he even got to finish, Katsuo quickly turned his attention the the announcer, speaking about some goddess of battle coming onto the stage next, going against what sounded like another chickadee. Questions flew into his mind as he tried to remain assertive and unimpressionable, looking up at the stands with a sense of boredom. These were the really important ones, like how hot were they?

"... er, answer that after this fight, gonna study my opponents," he freed both his arms from the coils they were in, shrugging with a small smile before pivoting to face the arena. Gazing over at the kid, there was a tinge of regret for outright ignoring the kid.

"I'm Ketsuki, Katsuo, nice to make your acquaintance," he said, briefly looking over at the very pale boy before returning his attention, constantly tearing his head around to spot the two combatants.

@redbaron1234@KaiserElectric@wxps350@lavulman@Darkmoon Angel@Lmpkio@Pirouette@dragonmancer@A Lowly Wretch@stoneString@Dead Cruiser

As the stadium was blown to bits by the unexpected arrival, the assailants continued to file into the remains of stadium at a brisk and coordinated pace, moving in groups with seldom a few units straying from them to pick off easy contenders such as civilians and a couple of unprepared nomads. The smooth and orderly landscape had been devolved into a raucous, caustically evolving landscape.

Dust and debris became a common staple of the area around them all, threatening to tear apart anything in any way possible. Rubble was reduced to either being cover or and unconventional weapon, albeit a desperate one for regular folk who were quickly brutalized when a team of the assailants filing in began to wrangle some of the panicked masses off, nomad or not before doing their best to quickly slaughter them.

The odor fared no better as the powder continued filtering and blinding those about, giving the new area a sort of grungy smell. Through the soot and dust, there were telltale signs of fire here and there as a mixture of smoke and debris clouded the air. As a result, the flames were barely noticeable, with the only easily distinct thing being the glowing eyes that filtered through the artificial fog.

The eyes were a fierce shade of blue, strong enough to put a water jet cutter at maximal power to absolute shame, yet lacked any tangibility. Smoke of a dull, similar color would usually escape their mouths when killed, adding onto the carnage of the clouded arena. This could be mistook for some sort of organized light show followed with some bland pyrotechnics if not for the lack of screaming, or what those glowing eyes were "attached" to.

The stone monsters looked more like they would of functioned more as a centerpiece for someone who could afford grandeur pieces of art, with each of these monsters being chiseled with absolute detail. There was no lack of false seams on the stone pants of these creatures, and the hair some of them could be easily mistook for real hair as the design of them continued down all the way to a singular follicle. However, they all held something in common.

These invaders always had a horn or a few on their hardened heads. A few lacked any sort of blood, but most of the sharpened outgrowths were painted red with one or two sloughing off what looked to be a limb. However, the most peculiar portion of this all was that their faces were sculpted with a demonic, yet human feel to them. The muscles some of them sported felt like they would be rippling if flesh and toned bellies would of been smooth to the touch. Along with that, they carried what looked to be traditional Japanese weapons, or facsimiles of them.

What could arguably be confused for a larger lamp on a stand was changed into a makeshift katana, albeit a durable one; streetlamps had been turned into bo's. Much to their credit, most of the assailants were wielding clubs with spikes along the blunt ends of it all, made up of a combination of mismatched, hardened materials. The crunching sound was one of the more prominent noises that penetrated the air.

Whether it was destroying parts of the former build or an unfortunate souls bones, the terror wasn't dying down. Harsh, primal roars of the civilians were intermixed with the grating sounds of the crumbling arena, making it sound like a metal stake was being driven into their chest and jammed up into their trachea. And despite the panic, MAVERICK personnel was managing a bit better, albeit with a few sustained losses and injuries, putting a few out of commission.

For the most part, many of them kept their cool in this situation, meeting with their squad as quickly as possible, attempting with little success to try and move the crowds to them. The drones some had proved to be rather durable and invaluable, leading the invaders away with an assault of gunfire or compromising a few minutes of the monsters time when being grabbed long enough to allow their squishy, human conterparts to get some shots in before being chucked to the side, causing a few chunks of the machine to fly off.

...

...

However, even with the destruction of the stone beings, more seemed to take the place of their fallen brethren as an endless horde continued encroaching on the arena, constantly pressuring most of those within.

At this point, not being attacked, even briefly would be considered a luxury.
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Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by Darkmoon Angel
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Darkmoon Angel Lunar Guardian of Time

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Karliah Ries


It seemed like the fight was going to be decided with this last punch, but both Karliah and Makoto shifted to the side and missed eachother, as something else entirely was happening that caught both of their attentions, heck, the whole stadium's attention.

A giant, stone monster had arisen from the ground in terrifying fashion as it let a deafening roar. Lightning lit up the arena as crowds of people from the audience let out terrified screams of fear and agony. Karliah looked towards the stands as dozens of similar stone figures poured into the stadium and started to destroy everything in their path. A few nomads were in the fray too, doing their best to defend against these stony demons, and Karliah wasn't going to be left in the dust. Forgetting the fight with Makoto entirely over this new threat, Karliah rushed over to the stands to try and protect the civilians.

She jumped into the stands, landing onto a stone creature that she immediately crushed into the floor. She rushed towards the stony creatures, eyes still glowing with ki as she slammed her fist into one of the creatures heads, shattering it. The creature's body hadn't hit the floor before Karliah had done the same to a few more of the menacing stone monsters, one of them managed to slice the side of her stomach before she could destroy it. She didn't bother looking at the injury as more and more of the stone creatures seemed to be pouring into the arena as time went by.

Where were they all coming from!? That thought raced in her head as she smashed a hole into through one of the stony creatures chest. At this rate, they will have overrun everyone with sheer numbers. And it seemed the pain finally got through to Karliah, the glow of her eyes vanished, revealing her dulled out pupils. Her hands shook and twitched, bloody and broken from having smashed through several of the stone monsters. Her legs buckled and she fell to her knees, pain rushed through her body as blood dripped from her mouth. She couldn't continue, the screams of civilians and the roars of the stone monsters taunted her, letting her know of her failure. Was this the end?
Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by KremeSupreme
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KremeSupreme im here

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The stone monsters had attacked with little warning. Even with the presence of MAVERICK soldiers and powerful warriors, little prevented them from assaulting the innocent onlookers, and even less made them differentiate between those who posed a threat and those who didn't.

A particularily large one only had to walk through the stands at a particularily congested part, swatting asside dozens of bystanders with a single swing of it's massive arms. Three MAVERICK soldiers had positioned themselves in front of it, forming a V formation, firing their weapons at it. Yet their bullets bounced off of it's body like rubber bands, rattling against the ground beneath them. With one thew, two of the troops were sent flying to the side. The remaining soldier continued his futile gunfire, until the series of small explosions turned into rapid clicking. The soldier could only look on with fear as the stone giant marched ever closer, raising it's arms for one last swing...

Then, suddenly, he felt something shove him to the side. No, not the stone giant, like he expected. He was shoved by something running from behind him. Some guy in Crusader armor?

The Crusader ran straight to the golem, lunging forward with nothing but his fist aimed at it's chest. As the fist connected, for a vague moment the soldier saw the giant bathed in hundreds of yellow cracks across it's body, before it suddenly erupted into thousands of pieces. His savior said nothing more, running forward into the fray.

Emmanuel stood still as he saw another Stone creature, albeit this one was smaller, yet still towered over the crusader. As the creature raised a makeshift piece of debris as a weapon, Emmanuel's fist lunged forward, dragging him behind it. The Crusader tore a hole straight through the brute's body, crumbling it in the same manor as it's larger counterpart. More stone monsters took notice to Emmanuel's display, and charged towards him. With blows of his fists, Emmanuel destroyed each of them. This battle... It reminded him too much...

But there was no time to be overcome. Emmanuel had only slayed less than a dozen, and there were still many more.
Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by A Lowly Wretch
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A Lowly Wretch The Listless Loiterer

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Al

The scene was absolute chaos.

Coming up from the stairs Al bore witness to a scene of sheer destruction. Lucky for him the staircase that led up to the spectator seats were still intact as it seemed the structural integrity of the arena was quickly falling apart as a result of the rising statues. At least, that's what little he saw through the haze of dust and blue smoke. So many of these things had been felled that it filled the air with a piercing blue smoke. It was like if someone set off a bunch of ground up cobalt dust bombs everywhere. Contrary to that thought the blue smoke was the only stuff in the air that didn't have a gritty texture to it. Concrete dust and smoke born of fire mingled with the air no less than the blue smoke did.

Despite all the air pollution Al could still definitely see areas he was definitely needed. He figured he was likely needed all over the place right now but these were the only parts he could see right now. Amongst all the loose statue men were a band of them that were setting upon people stuck at a congested exit. It seemed it wasn't the statues that barred their path here but each other's bodies. The people in the front could only clear out so quickly, leaving the people behind them scrambling to get over as the viscious stone men hacked at the back of the crowd like farmers threshing wheat.

Al leapt into the fray, jumping straight among the thirty odd band of armed rocks with features. Though groups like these had taken down some nomads already they were still registering the fact something was running at them. Using the time they were still using to figure out what the heck was going on Al turned to the statue man on his left and let loose a right round thai kick to the guy's stone leg. His shin smashed right through it's leg, basically kicking the leg right off it as it suddenly fell over on it's side. With quick thinking he picked up his downed foe and turned to the rest of the stone attackers now fixated on him. Despite the flailing of his current ammunition he quickly hefted the big guy up with surprising ease. Now over his head at his arms full reach he swung forward, lobbing the statue both downward and forward into the main meat of the pack now digging in their heels to rush him.

_
The one legged stone man smashed into the front of the bunch that were just starting their charge. Many of the frontmost ones were toppled over, laying in a stony mound of each other. The ones behind them were forced to climb over their quite literally fallen brethren. Just in the chaos in their fervor to rush Al the statues trampled over their own, heads ground into the broken up floor as limbs are forced to bend ways they weren't designed to, cracking the limbs off as a result. They were virtually destroying each other in their almost bestial rush.

To his right the closest statue man was nigh upon him, club upraised to smash him down or at least try. Try was all it could do as Al blocked the blow with his forearm, guarding against it's attack before retaliating with a straight punch right to it's sternum. Smashing his fist halfway into it's torso he swung the body now hanging off his clenched hand back over to his left again. The body shielded him against another's makeshift staff attack, the strike leaving large cracks down his temporary shield's back. Stepping forward to lengthen his stance Al put his hips and body behind a major punch with the hand still encased in a statue monster's body. With his fancy fist decoration forcing the defender's guard up he was able to connect with the next statue's midsection. His fist smashed clean through the statue he was hoisting about and right into the next one. The blow left a long crack throughout the statue's midsection, the line meeting up with the imprint of Al's fist.

Refusing to acknowledge the damage that had been dealt the statue arced it's faux staff back like a baseball player up to bat when quickly used this opportunity to deliver a sweeping kick to it's torso. The crack revealed itself in full as with almost no effort he tapped it's body with his leg only for the upper torso to fall right off like a vase knocked off it's stand.

_
With the sides taken care of he could face the foes to his front head on. Having dealt with roughly ten of the statues from this band by this point it was time to step up his game and finish the rest off if only to give the people just that extra little bit more time to escape.

Throwing the attackers in for a loop he leapt clear over their head, driving forward with a leaping knee strike which knocked the backmost statue man's head clear off in a shower of chunks and pebbles. Landing right after taking down yet another stone foe he quickly turned and ran up upon the heap of broken up rock which used to be the statues they trampled. Upon the high ground he let loose a storm of kicks and punches to any and all attackers who came in range of him. Quite unafraid of their comparitively feeble attacks he took more of an offense oriented stance, speed and power prevailing over self preservation. Heads were shattered, arms torn asunder, legs felled like timber beneath the axe.

Al started to find that simply breaking a leg or two of theirs left a statue as little more than an obstacle for other more able bodied stone warriors. As they were coming so readily they did not care if any one of them was in the way or not. All the statues were either trampling their leg impaired buddies or tripping over them in their single minded drive to kill. Apparently those who were simply legged were more of an obstacle to the statue militia than the ruined remains of the arena itself was.

_
Once he was through with the small mob of statues, their remains scattered as they fell apart once their animating force left them, he had earned a moment to breath and assess the situation. Thankfully the newly formed statues were taking a moment to craft themselves makeshift weaponry meaning reinforcements to the main body of aggressive stone men would take slightly longer than instant which was long enough for Al.

He took a breath while what little of the stamina aka ki he spent returned to him. Looking out he could see there were at least five other groups of these battle hungry bastards currently formed, not including many more individual statue men doing their own thing seperately. While he'd rather tackle them group by group it didn't seem like the people they were setting upon would last past the time it would take him to fell just one group of these monsters. While the Maverick forces and some nomads were faring better than the normal folks they were largely consumed with holding their own. Without a relief of pressure from the attacking statues everyone else would be prey to the slaughter without them.

As he hated to admit it he was just one guy. Even with crazy super powers it wasn't just an excuse to say that even he wasn't going to be able to save everyone, well, everyone that was still alive that is. It burned him from within to know that he was too late to do much more than simply save the few survivors in this panicked mess of carnage and bloodshed.

But it wasn't too late for Maverick to do something about it.

_
Taking initiative Al leapt from the pile of broken chunks of statue, his body feeling oddly light as he soared through the air. He stuck an almost perfectly silent landing, the sound of his breathing louder than the sound his feet made touching down upon the ground. Hardly even noticing him Al kicked yet another leg off of the nearest statue man.

"Hey assholes! Fight me!" He loudly proclaimed, shouting over the noise of panicked screams just to be heard. Picking up the statue he knocked over he lobbed it's feisty one legged body into the girth of the group before leaping away. He did this with all the largest groups in the fray. Kicking out legs, throwing them, yelling at them, he did everything in his power just to piss off every last statue man. For the most part it seemed to work as now a massive swarm of the eight foot tall buggers were converging on him.

Standing atop a small mountain of disintegrated statue bodies Al watched a veritable sea of enemies climbing up the sides like ants over leftover lava cake. The only thing he had going for him now were his crazy super powers and the fact that once again he held the high ground. As a couple of them neared the peak of the mountain he went ahead and kicked their heads off, their crumbling bodies collapsing against the statue men behind them. Those who tumbled were crushed underfoot like all the rest as they continued to climb for him unrelentingly.

Punching and kicking Al fought off the massive horde of statue men he had gathered. He shrugged off numerous stray blows which largely grazed off his limbs anytime they were extended in an attack. The rest of the arena was sparce now with only trace amounts of statue men not engaged with Al. He had bought Maverick and the nomads some time to help those in need before the next full wave of statue men finished making weapons to join the fray.

It wasn't going to be long. He hoped they'd at least make the most of it.
Hidden 7 yrs ago 7 yrs ago Post by KaiserElectric
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KaiserElectric Spaghetti Enthusiast

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"Do you hear that, my child?"

The loyal servant squinted, temporarily blinded by the light as she and her Master emerged from the entrance to the ancient shrine, back out into the biting cold winds. The arena was some distance away, but smoke plumes were already rising from the sides, and the cacophonous roar was audible even at this distance and through the driving rain.

"It's...beautiful, my lord," the servant stammered.

"They cry out in victory," the Master said triumphantly as he held his fist aloft, the magical gauntlet on his hand shimmering in what little light remains. "They repay the children of Jimmu for every life taken from them, one for every brother and father taken...one for every daughter..." The servant clutched her robe tightly around herself as stone oni charged from the entrance behind her, barreling towards the arena to participate in the sacking.

"It is a shame their voices do not return with them," the servant said offhand.

"Hm?" The Master turned sharply to her, his gaze fixing on the cowering servant intently. "What is it you are saying, my child?"

"Well, sadly my lord, they are unable to speak on your behalf," the servant continued cautiously. "The crimes of the children of Jimmu are ancient. Many will not remember why they face this retribution." The Master pondered this, flexing the fingers on the magical gauntlet contemplatively.

"It cannot be helped," the Master said. "But the blood will be repaid nonetheless."

"But Master," the servant said reverently, tugging her face scarf tighter around her. "To the children it will just be slaughter, like the slaughter they once brought to these Oni. Without knowing what is amiss, surely they will appear no better then the humans that-"

The servant stopped with a strangled yelp as the Master suddenly lurched forward, clenching his fist around her small neck and lifting her into the air.

"You. DARE. To. Call. Us. HUMAN!?!?" The master, spitting every word at her with a ferocity that burned white-hot even in the cold mountain air.

"I...master...please..." The servant choked for breath as she began to pass out, only to be shocked awake as the master tossed her aside like a rag doll, leaving her a sputtering wreck in the snow.

"If you were not owed a debt from me for my return," the master warned her. "I would have torn you in two for that remark."

"F-forgive me, my lord," the servant said, weeping with both utter terror and relief. "I...only wish to see justice served..."

The Master sighed, looking at his whimpering servant groveling at his feet, pondering her words more thoroughly then before. "Hmm...perhaps the children do need to know what this punishment is for. If only so that justice be served at long last."

"None have suffered more then you have, my lord," the servant said meekly. "But if you ask of me, I will eagerly be your herald."

"That will be... unneeded, my child," the master said, loosening his overcoat in preparation as he looked up at the dark clouds circling faster and faster. "I must see to the enchantment...but for the sake of justice, I will not hide behind others like a coward."

Then over the driving rain and the distant roars, a new sound echoed up to the mountains, a sound like a rushing wind. The servant and her master looked to the distant valley, where a large figure sped towards the arena riding a trail of ice.

The Master scowled as he watched the figure moving towards the arena brawl. "Who is this that dares to interfere?"









The situation was grim. Her handler from Sanctum would have looked white as a ghost if he wasn't already one when he told her the news that the Mount Fuji shrine had been unsealed. Everyone knew that the unsealing of that shrine meant the end of Nihon, and the death of millions of people from a threat that could tear the world apart.

Still, Klara couldn't help but feel a rush of excitement. It was her first mission after all, and a rather important one too, even if her only real qualification for the assignment was being one of the only Mythics here that could respond to the threat. She was ready though, and she was going to knock this one out of the park, ironically by knocking her way into one.

"Coming through!" Klara shouted as she Subzero Slide-d up behind a charging band of Oni, knocking aside the few that didn't jump out of the way and catching one on her shoulder and throwing it behind her, where it hit the ground head first with a stony sounding 'crunch!'. The Oni ahead of her turned around at the sound of a conflict, surprised to see an enemy nearly as big as they were, and charged forward, their weapons raised.

"But we are headed in the same direction! No need to be upset!" Klara pointed out, throwing down a Treacherous Floe to slip up a few charging into the front, sliding out of the way as they collapsed like a bunch of dominoes. Klara didn't have time to react before a club swung in her direction, catching the edge of her hood with one of the spikes. "Mind the hood!" she said irritably, shooting a ball of ice in her attacker's direction, which smashed across its face and forced it back. She quickly realized she was getting surrounded however, and summoned a large column of ice in the center of the circle closing around her, high enough to be out of reach of the Oni. Sliding up the side of it nearly vertically, she landed on the top daintily and took a look around. The arena had already been breached, it seemed, and the Oni that were already inside were dwindling, soon to be replaced by the legion trying to clamber up the sides of the ice spire to get her. She couldn't tell how badly the defenders were hurting, but it made the most sense to make her way inside and inform them of what was to come. Klara suddenly staggered on her perch as the ice spire shook violently. Looking down, she saw the Oni beginning to slam their clubs into the ice to shatter it.

"I know of your suffering, my friends," Klara said to the lot of them, despite the fact that they did not appear to listen. Crossing her arms, she built up frost along her arms, which thickened into gauntlets that extended into sharpened blades of ice. "Allow me to bring your souls peace." Leaping down as the spire collapsed from the repeated blows, she summoned another Subzero Slide beneath her feet and began tearing through the stone Oni to reach the arena. Swinging with both blades to cut an oni in half around the middle, she knocked the upper half of the now lifeless statue into the crowd ahead of her, deflecting an oni's club that shattered one of the blades and retaliated with a cleaving uppercut that knocked the head of her attacker clean off. Klara followed up by rapidly firing three ice blasts ahead to clear the crowd and launching the last ice blade into the chest of an Oni ahead of her, jumping off into the air and kicking it deeper into the chest to make it shatter. By this point she was close enough to hear the screaming over the rainfall, and as she traded gauntlet blows with Onis and their clubs, cleaving off more then a few heads in the process, she also spotted an entrance. One of the tunnels the Oni had used to emerge into the arena had caved in, exposing it to the surface, looking like a much easier route then fighting her way through more of them.

"What is that human expression...when in Rome, do as Rome does?" Shrugging off her incorrect musing, she summoned another ice spire behind her without looking, shoving it into the crowd of pursuing Oni to hold them off as she dove into the tunnel. The good news is that it was a short trip and she made it in good time. The bad news was, she came in shortly after someone else had. The Oni made its displeasure known by swinging around at the interloper, leaving Klara barely enough time to duck behind her right gauntlet as the club smashed against it, shattering the ice and the weapon in turn. The ice giantess prepared for a killing blow, but out of the corner of her eye she spotted a lanky looking human in a white t-shirt and gray jeans standing on a pile of stone oni bodies, seemingly unaware of the two Oni charging up the hill behind him.

"Ahh! Hey you, come with me a moment!" The stunned Oni managed a look of surprise before Klara grabbed a hold of him around the neck, freezing her hands around him to get a grip, and hoisting the stone creature over her shoulder, her muscles burning from the sudden effort of lifting the heavy stone. Dashing towards the man on her Subzero Slide, Klara took aim and hurled the Oni bodily, missing the man by inches and crashing into the Oni coming up behind him with a loud crunch. Using the momentum from the effort of throwing the Oni, she swung around and used the remaining gauntlet to deliver a mighty haymaker to the other Oni, shattering it and the gauntlet to pieces. Rolling the shoulder she used to lift the Oni, she completed her location and came to a stop right in front of Al Denton.

"I hope I am not too late to assist!" Klara remarked cheerfully in accented Japanese, turning to look in the direction of the oncoming horde. "Prepare yourself friend, this fight has only just begun!"
Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by Kamen Evie
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Kamen Evie Masked Witch

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Tokyo, Japan.



Inanna’s head tilted to the side when the man stopped in the middle of his explanation to go find someone else. Did he have some sort of business he forgot he needed to attend to? How strange!

How rude, the voice corrected. If he were dealing with me he would have lost a couple of his fingers for such insolence. That felt pretty extreme to Inanna, though. He refocused his attention to the upcoming fight, occasionally recoiling and clinging closer to his staff whenever the fight got a bit too brutal for him. With this, it was quite a surprise when the arena pretty much exploded with oni.

He immediately shot up to a rigid posture before remembering his training, becoming more slouched and lithe as he circled around the oni closest to him with an agile, catlike tread, using his eyes and ears to let the situation make itself known to him rather than try to impose himself on the battlefield. One swung at him and he quickly spun around behind it, using the momentum to deliver a strike behind its knee that quickly crippled it.

“I ummm,” Inanna stammered apologetically. “I’ll be right back!” he opened up a portal under himself and dropped into an area that he had noticed to be relatively calm earlier. He surveyed the area, frowning at the carnage.

Inferior stone constructs... the voice mused inside of him. What could they possibly be after? Inanna shook his head. There were people who looked like they couldn’t fight their way out, and he could help them, and that was really all that mattered to him at the moment.

What followed was perhaps a rather surreal experience. For every civilian that was cornered, injured, or otherwise unable to make it to the exits, Inanna would portal over to them and quickly send them to a safe area outside of the arena by way of another portal before anyone could object. He did this over and over again, until he couldn’t see anyone else to rescue, and returned to the original oni he crippled previously.

“Excuse me,” Inanna implored. “Could you maybe tell me why you’re here?” he repeated the question, once in Japanese and again in his native Persian and the many other languages he learned in Iran, until he eventually ran out.




Tokyo, Japan.



Jill shrugged when the skeleton pointed out how strange the sudden weather was.

“It is pretty crazy,” she agreed. “But it’s not like we can just go up there and punch the clouds or somethin’.” Probably would’ve been fun if she could. She swung her gaze back to the floor. The announcement for another fight stirred it back upwards, and Skeletor suggested she try to enjoy the match. And try she did. Her eyebrows raised at the occasional sudden turnabout or quick blast of ki, but she wasn’t really into it. She just felt pretty burned out, in general, and it was tough to get going again after that.

She was startled to action again by the rumbling noises, tremors, and eventual full-on invasion in the arena. Her hand shot straight for her keys, almost reflexively, but Pit Stop beeped a shrill warning, and she leaned to the left as a stone club sailed through the air next to her, smacking the keys right out of her hand.

“Oi,” Jill grumbled as she turned to face the stone oni. “Care to try that again?” Surprisingly, it did just that, swinging at her in the exact fashion it did moments earlier. She was more than ready this time, though, shifting away from the blow and stopping to shake out her injured hand. The two stared at each other for a moment before Jill unleashed a sudden roundhouse kick straight into the statue’s waist, sending cracks across its body. She smirked as she felt her boot make contact.

“Ya ain’t even listening, are ya?” Jill asked. It just swung at her again. She focused ki into her left forearm and took a tenser stance, and the blow just glanced off her guard. She shrugged. Guess she had some much-needed stress relief to play around with. She leaned back, waited for the stone oni to ready another strike…

And shot forwards, striking her head straight into the monster’s gut. It promptly crumbled to pieces around her. Pit Stop beeped once more. Her head felt a bit funny.

“Yeah,” Jill said. “Probably shoulda worn a helmet… speaking of which-” she leaned over and picked her keys up off the ground. She struck a pose as she held the keys out in front of her.

“HENSHIN!”

In a flash of light, she became Beautiful Blaze, sporting the iconic blues, helmet, and scarf. She slipped one of the keys off the ring and stuck it into the device on her belt with a flamboyant spin, causing the belt to light up in light blues. She threw the rest of the keys back to Pit Stop as she surveyed the rest of the stadium, the ring of keys landing on an extended metal claw. Yeah, she couldn’t burn any more time playing around with these losers.

“Take the bike and scan all the wounded,” she told the drone. “Wire the data over to any emergency response that might need it. If one of those rockheads gives you or them any trouble, just run ‘em over.” The robot made a few beeps of affirmation before hooking into the blue bike. It shot one of the handlebars into Jill’s hand and zoomed off, weaving around seats, debris, stone oni, and various people with astounding agility, coating the occasional individual in a bright blue light. Something occurred to her before she stopped watching the carnage, though.

“So just who’s trying to fool us, here,” Jill asked the skeleton, figuring he was smart enough to be thinking about this, too. “These things aren’t actually oni, are they? And it doesn’t sound like their style to send out a bunch of rocks and stay out of sight…” She took the dismembered handlebar and swung it in place, producing a glowing blue whip. Well, at least she was starting to feel in gear again...




Otaru, Japan.



Rosie sighed. Everything just felt so beautiful right now…

He still wondered just how exactly they did it. Even when he worked downstairs, the spas lacked a certain je ne sais quois that they had here in these onsen. And downstairs they had hellfire to work with.

It was a fleeting thought. Something that rose out of him and floated away like all the tension he’d been accumulating over the past several weeks. He didn't even know he had this much stress, how did he go so long without this?

He sighed again, leaning his head backwards. He wasn’t sure how long it was before he sat back up again. Maybe he dozed off again? He wasn’t entirely sure. It was certainly long enough that he should be on his way again. He slowly stood and rose out of the water, a hand reflexively extended back in search of a lover’s that he hadn’t seen in decades. He winced as he pulled his hand back, and used it to fix his hair. Why were old memories getting to him like this? Was this the same spring he took him to? It couldn’t be… He huffed as he grabbed a couple towels.

After some time, he was properly dried, dressed, and groomed once more. All those trite earthly concerns started coming back to him. Mainly that he wouldn’t be able to get any actual work done with all these soldiers and robots running about. It would pass, of course, as all mortal conflicts did, but it was still something he would simply have to bear in the meantime. And who knew how long that would take. He supposed he could get involved and get it finished himself, sooner, if he really had to. A matter of swallowing his pride and tolerating whatever boorish mercenaries that happened to share his goals. Either way, it was time to go.

Heels clacked against the floor as Rosie walked into the lobby. He stopped, however, when he saw someone else. Fur, white suit, gold jewelry, cane… talk about flashy! He didn’t look all that happy, though, in an amusing bit of contrast. And also slightly wet? It probably started raining since he got here. The latter two details were both somewhat enticing.

“Well you look absolutely ecstatic,” Rosie said, a coy smile undercutting his sarcasm. “Were you hoping to melt some of that stress away?” He leaned in just ever so slightly closer, the dim aura of negativity drawing him closer. Directly feeding off of him probably wasn’t going to happen, but for now he was fine with absorbing what fraction of that darkness he was exuding at the moment.
Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by BayRat
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BayRat Oh No

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The stone-still nomad watched in silent alarm as the once proud arena became sullied at the assault of countless monsters of stone. Disgraceful, as he was enjoying the fight between the two warriors that hadn't even reached a proper conclusion due to the outbreak. These creatures dare interfere with this tournament, an offense to any proud warrior, and Fafnir certainly felt an unrestrained rage build within. After all, such vile and chaotic creatures did not deserve his mercy.

Whatever the reason as to why these things are running rampant, he knew that this wasn't a mere battle, in fact this reminded him more as a war. In order to achieve victory co-operation should be in order. He'd have to make his way to some other proud nomads later, for now he'd play his role to help weaken the numbers of these creatures to which he hoped would have some beneficial effect to that cause.

He considered releasing his seal, but then considered the potential danger he could risk harming innocents and would be allies, not to mention that the form could only be sustained briefly, so such a display of power would have to be reserved for a last resort.

There was with no doubt absolute chaos. These creatures seemed to be spawning from everywhere within and around the facility, and in addition to the helpless fleeing of those who couldn't fight, even with the security and fellow nomads here the disruptive chaos was certainly a hindrance. He had seen battles before where such chaotic and overwhelming chaos allowed the enemy to eat through the ranks of men. With the perspective of war-like strategy, If they were to survive, order needed to be restored. If he could set up a rally point, a signal and call for the concentrated attention of the numerous warriors here, then certainly that could allow room for better strategy and defensive measures.

Careful not to exhaust his ki, Fafnir released his inner power with his Wrath of the Dragon, the same ability he had shown off in his last match. Fire swelled and engulfed around him pushing back and smoldering some of the nearby oni that were about to charge into him on the bleachers. The flames rose and took the apparition of an oriental dragon. He forced the fire-made dragon to bore into more of the ranks of the stone monsters before spiraling into the air. The crackling flames released the effect of a loud roar, and the spiraling apparition of the flame dragon exploded into the air. Fafnir spread his wings, and rose immediately towards the residue of brilliant flame and light the move had made in the sky, once his ability ended to allow him to move.

"Those of you can that fight and aren't occupied with ensuring the safety of innocents, rally by me!"
His voice boomed as loud as he could allow it, and after sending the message, Fafnir dove downward back into the arena's center. Seeing two nomads at the center of the field showed a good spot for him to make his rally. He dove down to assist the two warriors once he finished his message, his spear drove downward and impaled an oni from above, which then released into a small electric field that blasted around him.

"Pardon the interruption, but this seems the best place to plant a choke point. Wouldn't you agree?"
He turned towards a segment of the crowd of oni to release a powerful knockback of air and fire from his wings and breathe, which crumbled and pushed away the front line of that segment.


@KaiserElectric@A Lowly Wretch
Hidden 7 yrs ago 7 yrs ago Post by KremeSupreme
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KremeSupreme im here

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Rod was content to just sit there until either the rain stopped or SYM-04 showed his ugly mug on the radar. He didn't even notice some... Some... Some weird... guy? Some weird "guy" was talking to him. Atleast, Rod thought he was a guy. Their voice betrayed their otherwise feminine appearance.

"Well, you look absolutely ecstatic," they said, "were you hoping to melt away some stress".

What the hell was this guy doing asking if someone in a Hot Spring was there to get in the Hot Spring? Rod also noticed just how closely the strange guy was leaning towards him. Creep...

"No, I'm waiting for someone and then the goddamn sky started falling" Rod scoffed, "Now why don't you back off and I won't--"

BING. BING. BING.

The radar in Rod's belt started going crazy. SYM-04 was on the attack again! Rod stood up, gently shoved the drag queen out of his face, and stormed out of the building, following the radar's blinking red dot, which was the last location SYM-04 activated his Ki. Not too far from here. And what better time for it to have been raining? Rod stood on the sidewalk, which was dripping wet with the constant rainfall. The water around his shoes started flickering, beginning with just little sparks and flashes of light, though soon entire trails of electricity started dancing a short distance outward. Once the electricity was flowing strong, Rod slid quickly down the sidewalk, letting the electricity coming from his body pull himself along the wet concrete.

Yet unbeknownst to Rod, who had been quick to get out of there, he had left his cane that was crucial to his fighting style laid across his seat in the lobby at the hot springs.







Yet another Oni was shattered by Emmanuel's powerful fists. Yet he was beginning to overusing his power, and there were still far too many Oni to fight.

"Those of you can that fight and aren't occupied with ensuring the safety of innocents, rally by me!" a powerful voice cried.

In the center of the stadium, where he heard the voice boom, he saw three figures. One of which was a giant knight in armor, who was decimating waves of oni with fire and wind. Next was another knight, with armor that was much more polished and slender, with a scarf around their neck and a glass visor guarding their eyes. The third figure was--

A walking skeleton, animated by unholy energies! Was this monster contributing to the attack?

Emmanuel charged towards the center. Once he was within range, he channeled his divine energy into his fist, and then lunged forward toward the skeleton.

"Face me you fiend!" Emmanuel bellowed.
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Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by A Lowly Wretch
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A Lowly Wretch The Listless Loiterer

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Al

For a stretch of time it seemed rather endless. Left, right, back and forward, they came at him from all directions, all thrashing at him with bent poles and such. Their attacks were so minor he hardly needed to consciously defend against any of them. Their damage did not bypass the strength of his divine protection and barely took away enough to wear his force down faster than he could recover it. As it was he could keep up this sort of fight for hours. If it wasn't for his unmitigated anger at the harm they've caused he'd of been lackadaisically dispatching them by this point.

As the group immediately on him started to thin out he turned to see something strange slip-n-sliding up at him. Raising his arms to block the statue the tall humanoid clad in blue tossed her victim into another guy on him before taking the last statue guy out with a large ice gauntlet. It was at that point that the tall blue looking lady in the hood babbled something in Japanese at him excitedly.

"... What?" He asked confusedly, a single eyebrow of bewilderedness raised on his uncertain expression.

"Those of you can that fight and aren't occupied with ensuring the safety of innocents, rally by me!" Some distant dude in armor yelled.

"What?" He yelled back, not having heard his whole spiel the first time around due to some distractions, chiefest of which was the tall ice wielder in front of him.

"Pardon the interruption, but this seems the best place to plant a choke point. Wouldn't you agree?"

Al looked to the winged armor man who just went ahead and speared yet another statue. He then looked around at what few surroundings he could still see through the haze of smoke and blue mist.

"Uh, we're in the middle of an arena. What part of this resembles a choke point?" He asked what he presumed was a good question seeing as how there was little way to physically bar the intruders from, say, going around them and attacking the others.

"I don't know jack about choke points so whatever, I guess." He relented, deciding it wasn't worth his time to argue other what dumb stuff the others were yakking on about. He instead turned his focus forward where distantly he could see the next wave of living statues now armed with their makeshift cudgels marching towards them. Eyes steeled upon his foes he readied himself for the battle ahead.
Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by Savo
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Savo Time to go to Hell

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Otsana K. Corral (@redbaron1234), and Brown Kasshouku (@Crosswire)


Rapping his fingers on the wheel, Jonas kept his eyes focused on the road, smiling lightly at the confirmation. They would be there in fifteen minutes, as per the instructions on the GPS, excellent. He briefly turned Otsy's way, flashing her that faint smile and giving the wolfish merc a visible thumbs up before pressing his hand back to the wheel.

Of course, that wasn't the only thing to smile about. If he had similar ears to Otsana, they would be perking up at the honeyed words she said. "Heavy competition huh," he murmured to himself, peering over at the skimpy clothed woman. He analyzed her briefly, how her face was arced, tracing where her eyes were drawn to.

For the briefest second, he was able to catch a glimpse of what she meant as they sped along the road. As the figures passed on by him, the doctor returned his head to the designated position. Pursing his lips, he tilted his head to the side, squinting at the mix of decrepit torn structures and intact buildings. A small sigh escaped his lips as he nonchalantly began clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth, tracing each of the establishments as if they were the solution to all of his problems.

He only briefly nodded, peering into the rear-view mirror, he was able to get a better idea of what their appearance was, even as they slowly began to decrease to the size of his thumb. Both looked to be heavily armored individuals with interesting tech on them; Jonas's eyes struggled a bit over who to primarily focus on.

The only part of his flesh he could see on one was his face and even then that told a short story; thick hair lined his face and he looked more like a grizzled soldier as the doctor squinted briefly, barely taking note of the mans scar. Hmm... he could always ask if Otsy recognized that armor as it did look rather futuristic to say the least.

Musing on that, there was the other who was similar to her male counterpart - the only part of her flesh he could distinguish was her head, olive or chocolate in tone and long dark hair which contrasted with the armor heavily. White steel plating that wasn't as intricate in details as the other, save for something glowing on the side of the shoulder, as well as some sort of jet-pack attached to it.

Both of them looked like peas in a pod... so what was their story...

Taking a turn, his line of sight was severed with the duo, at least for now as he continued driving down, following the wolfgirls lead and veering off to the side upon seeing the crumple corpse of a robot in the middle of the road. Only thing he did was grouse in disbelief, shaking his head as he momentarily looked upwards; could they at least clear the streets or something?

"And we'll be walkin' out with a nice paycheck for our work," he said with a silvery tone, loud enough for Otsy to hear as he shiftily looked around with a normal grin at Brown, with a subtle hint of impishness. "Earned from a grueling challenge I bet," whispering to no one in particular as that devious smile dissipated, eyeing the little... lady.

Hopefully she heard that at least.

It wasn't long before they came across a small MAVERICK checkpoint, with was left to Otsana, thankfully with relative ease. Noticing her motion back to them, the doctor gave a small wave and an invisible grin before placing his hands back on the wheel.

Slowly, but surely, Jonas continued to follow behind the wolfgirl as the rain began to slowly beat down, becoming more and more apparent with the sounds of Otsy murmuring something about the tarp. Of course, they would have to find a parking spot... and looking over the lot caused him to do a double take, raising an eyebrow with his mouth agape for a split second before composing himself.

It wasn't that difficult to drive and grab the closest one... it was more or less that this place was moderately filled up with differing vehicles; even some MAVERICK personnel vehicles had taken the spots closest to where the hot-springs would be.

Grinding to a halt, Jonas popped open his side of the jeep, yanking some tarp out from the back, causing the trash left to spread over his seat. Sighing, he just shook his head before performing some minor stretching, grunting and groaning before peering back with a slight frown, glaring over at Brown. "Make sure ya pick up the trash y'left behind, 'kay," he jutted his chin out, grimacing over the discarded wraps and such that littered the back of their jeep before slamming the door.

Waltzing over, the doctor handed one portion of the tarp over to Otsy. In one fell swoop, both of them threw the tarp over, obscuring the bike from any sort of damage from the rain. Cracking his neck, Jonas reached into his satchel, delicately shuffling the items within around before producing two umbrella's.

"Hey Otsy, I have an extra umbrella; y'want it," he inquired, reaching out to offer the woman a second umbrella he had packed.

Jonas Langer (@Savo), Otsana K. Corral (@redbaron1234), Shippai "Brown" Kasshouku (@Crosswire), Calvin Redug, Rod Lightning (@wxps350), Rosier "Rosie" LeVai, and Seshat (@lavulman)

The pitter patter of the rain was one of the only consistent sounds in the vicinity as each drop slowly began to beat down faster, more in number, more in impact. The sounds of vehicles pulling into a lot, followed by the ignition being turned off were arrhythmic as well as the sounds of footsteps following it. Few nomads lingered in the parking lot, sometimes trying to chat with their friends and others asking MAVERICK soldiers to direct them to the hot-springs.

Despite this all, the clearest thing about these nomads here is that they kept a relatively safe distance away from other groups, staying within their own bubble, discuss differing subjects or the mission at hand. In truth, this was no more different than high-school cliques that never socialized with anyone outside their groups, save for those rare occasions where they stepped out of their little bubble.

As most nomads parked or moved across the street, it became more apparent as to how much of the streets were commissioned by MAVERICK. Soldiers stood at organized checkpoints, often waving in vehicles coming in as well as giving the nomads an easy way to cross the streets with no problems at all. The checkpoints held thick amounts of machinery in the form of large vans which were manually connected to each other, via ebony metal cylinders overhead. A few large spotlights were attached to these cylinders, being inactive for the most part.

Other than that, they had poles set up around every corner they occupied, each of them being a bit far away from each other. These speakers often had three or four MAVERICK personal huddled near it, observing an inspecting the area, as well as telling anyone who got close that it's just for making announcements and that they should just move along.

Moving on from the streets covered with traversing nomads and MAVERICKs, through an alleyway and down another emerged a large, sleek building with silver walls and reflective rain-dulled windows. It stood out like a sore thumb amongst the more "rural" buildings across from it; to make it even more obvious and out of place were the amounts of black tents and black vehicles piling up near each other.

Groups of soldiers filed in and out, whether it was out of the large vehicles that cluttered most of the parking lot or the actual building containing the hot-springs. Multiple thin black chairs and tables were organized in a neat line, allowing people enough space to move through as well as scoot out of a chair with no problem. Most of the people in there were nomads, some looking bored out of their mind, or playing around with their own abilities. Most MAVERICK soldiers just stood listlessly near points of interest, or sat at one of the tables as well, cleaning their guns, chatting about minute things, or playing a card game.

Though, once you removed all the smooth, durable, easily compact and foldable black chairs and tables, you were just left with a wide open lobby with a fancy floral design on its floor with simple looking wood tales with a brown outline and tan inside being out of the way, as well as chairs that matched the simple, yet ornate floor. Large glass panes that displayed the outside world were either clear as day, cracked, or were replaced with a simple, MAVERICK labeled wall that looked out of place as much as the other characters here.

Along with that, there sat a middle-aged Japanese receptionist behind the layered, marble counter with a curved edge that peaked over the rest of the structure. If anything, he looked bored out of his mind, rapping his fingers against the counter whilst staring listlessly at the door with glazed over eyes. Usually when someone came over to him to chat, they would ask to change the channel the TV in the middle of the room was on, or some other asinine question.

Eventually, something broke the sounds of the rain clicking and clapping against the sidewalk as the wind began to furiously brush over the landscape. Buzzing, followed by static noise emanated from the speakers before crackling out, become silent once again. For a few seconds there was no voice... at least until a minute passed on by when someone clearing their throat came onto the mike. Their voice had a feminine edge to it that was crisp, harsh, and ready to do business...

"Attention all Nomads assisting us in tracking down and putting a stop to these robots: report to the Asarigawa Hot Springs immediately! In ten minutes, we will debrief you all on your role in this situation, as well as the procedures and hierarchical standings you will need to be aware of when conducting business with our agents! If you do not know the way to the Hot Springs, one of our fellow soldiers will point you towards where you need to go."

With that announcement, there was a light buzz before it clicked out, leaving the pitter patter of the rain as the only consistent source of sound once again.



Jill Breicen (@lavulman), and Emmanuel (@wxps350)


The skeleton stood still, vigilantly keeping an eye on the area. While he did stop to take in the two challengers, one of them was a relative unknown to him whilst the latter's legacy was something he was familiar with. He nodded his head down, orbs standing still in place as he studied said goddess. Slowly, a hand rose to scratch his teeth in a sort of reflective gesture. While there was the troubling rain afoot, there was still the fight to try and take note of...

While the other hand of his slowly gravitated toward his notebook, he ultimately jerked his arm away, painfully feeling that there was bigger issue at hand. The way they both carried themselves gave him some pause, resulting in him circulating his skull around to survey the area.

As he looked over each nook and cranny, a singular thought punctured his head - inexperience. While it was blatantly obvious that the child, known as Karliah, had informal training based on her stature, Makoto appeared no differently than the standard martial artist. This is when the orbs began to slowly decrease in length but increase in width until they became nothing more than a thin, red, glimmering lines. While there was the way she held herself, he also noticed it through the so called "windows of her soul-" the eyes.

They appeared no different to him than the boy with a foreboding blade - cocksure, seemingly full of tenacious, overbearing confidence. That part was only made more explicit the moment he saw her smile - t'was a inhuman one, but nevertheless arrogant smile. Of course, that was followed up by what looked to be a punch with all her power put into it - curious was the necromancer as he scratched at his preserved teeth as he effortlessly sensed the areas ki.

He sensed that raw power behind the punch, yet something more beyond the barrier of her ki. T'was an interesting find - made him ponder on if that was the reason Makoto's family resonated across the world. Even so, the next set of actions helped him realize how green these two were based on how the strike was deflected, as well as the inelegant punch that Karliah sent towards the other girls gut. If he still had lips, he would be forming an o with his mouth right now; the best he could do was let his jaw slightly drop as his orbs rolled around in his cranium.

Confirmation bias was traveling through every nook and bone in his body as he attempted to purge such thoughts as he observed the fight go on. Desperate explosions of ki lit up the area as the skeleton began circling his head once more, observing the vicinity as the rain began to pick up more and more. Along with that, he began to test the area, see if there were any fluctuations in ki...

... and by god were there. It was difficult to pin down due to everyone's energy, as well as the suddden explosions in the ring. However, he felt it - small traces of ki, coming from... somewhere, possibly outside of the ring. Despite it all, his jaw nearly detached once he began inferring where all this energy was foiling down into.

His eyes blinked out of existence for a millisecond before reappearing, much like the nearly undetectable ki... and why did it seem so familiar?

That thought was interrupted by a sudden explosion from the ring, tearing it to shreds. Returning his jaw to the original position, he saw the energy violently burst around him, tearing at every crag, precipice, lights, anything it could curl its claws about, molding and shaping new life... or was it bringing them from beyond?

Regardless, Aldous was already dettaching his head as soon as he saw the ground crack and crumble around him, watching as an oni began to instantly tear the pavement around them to shreds. The reaction as a simple one as he sent his own head flying over the oni as his body flew into one of the holes, following after the flying skull.

Even with the repositioning, there was another oni that he sawing eyeing him, winding up a strike to as a baseball player would do to a baseball with its large, spiky club that looked meshed together from the concrete, arena, and metal stands; a crude amalgamation of a cultural weapon.

Its too bad it wouldn't be that simple.

Emerging from the ground, Aldous's headless body instantly flew up from the ground, striking the stone oni's jaw with a ki-powered uppercut, causing the creature to stumble and double-back. Quickly as it came, Aldous's head descended back to the earth, only to be met with a bony hand clutching at his skull; he watched as the oni began recovering. Cracks formed on its face as stone pieces of its cheeks, nose, and even one eye and a part of its jaw came tumbling down, yet it looked unperturbed as the skeleton quickly reattached its head.

As soon as that was done, the necromancer brought up his fists, his jaw tightly compact and unmoving as the red orbs which floated straight in place. That's when he waited, studying what he could of the opponents hardened composure before he saw that club rise up, as well as his opponents fist cocked back. Utilizing this knowledge, he kept an eye on the right arm pointing the club to the skies above.

Once it came rushing down, he knew what he had to do next. Ducking to the left, Aldous watched as the club bashed the floor in front of him, spurting up dust and other debris in the process, but he put more focus on fancy footwork, moving into to make jabs and straights at the opponents exposed side. Once he saw the oni realize its plans failing, it abandoned the weapon, albeit temporarily from what he predicted, to try and slap the skeleton away with its backhand.

However Aldous charged up a glob of green, ethereal goo which sputtered and bubbled with a ghostly imitation of his head inside. Once the face was in clear view, he thrust his arms out, shooting the spectral sphere directly at its face. From the way it growled and clawed at its face, it was a success with more pieces flying off.

Dealing the final blow, Aldous back began to twist and turn in abnormal and inhuman way, hunching, cracking, ready to burst. Suddenly, in eruption of ki, his neck suddenly shot up like a bullet, smashing through what remained of the stone onis face before it tumbled backwards, falling to the ground, lifeless. Following that, the sounds of snapping happened, his body flying up to reconnect with his head as he landed on its remains.

Jumping off, the skeleton scanned around, trying to discern if the only person he interacted with was still in the vicinity, crushed, or elsewhere duking it out with these creatures. Of course, she spotted him faster than he expected, whipping his head behind him as he began charging up a spectral flare and throwing it into the crowd.

"I don't exactly understand what objective someone wishes to get out of an annual event, but to answer your question," he paused, splitting up his energy between holding out an arm with skeletal pieces slowly forming together, from the head, to the intercostals, to the tarsals and all, as well as staring off into the distance for a few seconds, scanning the area.

"... they are, yet they aren't oni," he finally said, finishing the formation of his skeleton before pointing out, commanding it to assist in the battle at hand. "These statues each have different ki signatures of varying levels, yet they all share a similarity of-"

Before he could even finish, he barely made out bellowing within the crowds and the sight of a metal man, clad in armor, as well as a tabard that was a mark of... the God's Hand. Aldous could only barely register the moment before ducking out of the way of the zealots fist, only to find that part of it had managed to damage a bit of his cheek due to its energy; he could practically feel the ki radiating off of it!

Despite this all, he ended up stumbling back as the place he somehow managed to strike began to form a crack, as well as cause bits of bone to tumble out; to make matters worse, an oni behind him attempted take advantage of the situation, swinging their katana to the side in an attempt to bisect him. Deftly, Aldous began to swiftly turn into a swarm of bones as he flew backwards, encapsulating a part of the oni temporarily as it became disoriented with the amounts of limbs, spines, patella's, books, a crown, and so on striking and smacking her.

Eventually, he appeared behind him, reforming into how he was before while charging an attack and blasting a hole through the onis weakened back with a spectral flare.

"A zealot out of all things?! Just wh- no," he spat as if uttering a hex, glancing over to the side at the woman in her stylish garb. While small pieces of his face missing was an obvious, his glowing red orbs were slit diagonally, similar to the way an ordinary human would furrow their brows.

"I'll explain the rest in full later Miss, right now we need a plan," he spoke with a guttural, yet light tone of voice as his head slowly twisted back to eye the armored maniac. His orbs slowly began to thin out, little by little before flying back to look in the direction of the now costumed woman.

"... which I could create in the span of a minute or two if I just had the oni's to deal with, not the oni's and a wretched zealot."



Fafnir Sigurd (@dragonmancer), Klara Grimolfdottir (@KaiserElectric), and Al Denton (@A Lowly Wretch)


The announcement, the cheering of the crowds... they were nothing more than white noise to Verga as she felt the drops of rain tap lightly against her own hardened cheeks, not even eroding it to a minuscule degree. Her breathing was still as the rain continued to pickup, blinking whenever a drop ever so slightly neared her eyes, blocking it with deftness as she frowned lightly. She stayed as motionless as a statue, ignoring the fight of desperation erupting in the arena.

At least, that's what she did until the sounds of cracking and different gasps of surprise turned into shouts of terror. The floor around her began to feel weak, shifting and crumbling as she deftly turned to stare right at the ground, only to find a large stone hand grasping at the pieces of the arenas flooring, now falling to pieces.

She could only launch herself back, pushing past and knocking over other nomads who were in her way, only to peer back to find a hand rising from the earth, ready to bash the side of her face out. Swiftly, she hopped back, only to be smashed across the top of her head with a bit of concrete as she turned in the debris direction.

Verga could only curse in spite of her inability to notice, let alone dodge in time, bearing her fangs with her hands being as rigid and clawed, aiming straight down at the ground. "I've gotten slow," were the only thoughts that echoed through her head as the world began to crumble around her.

Its too bad that she wasn't the one to follow. The world around her clawed hands began to fold inwards, swirling and gravitating toward that invisible center that tore the area around her, bring in detritus, rain, and one unlucky nomad swirling around the whirlpool of gravity. The stadium around her was reduced to nothing but ruin; she couldn't stay in the singularity - she had to move, and find the source of this affair.

Maneuvering to the ground, she continuously compressed and uncompressed the singularity, hovering and falling, ducking and weaving, at once becoming a rock plummeting and at another becoming a feather gliding amidst the storm, Verga eventually found herself back on solid footing. This was like her time out in the tundra, save that there were more carnivores running about this time around.

The first thought would of been to fight off the stone beasts, only to then cuss and grind her teeth, realizing that this situation wasn't one she could easily mow down like that bear. She saw the ki of these beasts and they encompassed this place, swirling, clawing, rebirthed from the very precipices and crags of this Earth.

Survival was at the top of her priorities as a stone oni attempted to bash her head in, only to have a new gaping hole in its chest, with Verga ducking beneath the creature with the same resting bitch face she always had. Pushing the corpse aside, she flew through the crowd, weaving, ducking, destroying, and fighting any oni she came across. It didn't look like there was any easy way to open up a path out as the moment she finished chopping off an oni's arm, another three replaced it.

Of course, as she was busy putting the heads of two onis out, a shout erupted across the stadium, enough to get her attention amongst the dust, rubble, screaming, and destruction. Her sharp eyes only flitted to what she presumed was an armored silhouette in the sky before it glided out of sight. She clicked her tongue with admonishment, ignoring the plight at first, only to ponder on if she could use this as a chance to escape or possibly seek the one responsible for this.

She sighed and decided to follow after him, not bothering to waste a technique as she wasted another oni, sometimes just flat out ignoring them and dodging their attacks, not bothering to even give them the time of day. As she did so, she reflected on who might be responsible for such a situation.

An Oni Chieftain was the first thing on her mind, but that was quickly forgone due to the simple fact that there were no oni's left in this world. Next was a Necromancer, which again didn't make much sense since they involved the undead... and the fact that she saw one blasting one to pieces just a second ago also dissolved that theory.

Eventually, after sprinting, thinking, and fighting, she found herself amongst the ranks of other nomads who were called to arms. Some she noticed right off the bat was the armored man who bellowed out to rally to him, a bland young man, and a large woman draped in blue, including a hood that obscured her entire face.

The moment she heard choke point was the moment she was ready to turn heel and go back to her own fighting to get out of here. A choke point in the midst of an arena... really? That stupid plan wasn't going to get them anywhere, let alone was going to find them the perpetrator of this whole mess. While the bland boy actually had a modicum of sense to him, Verga wasn't going to stick around to hear any more of his ramblings, especially since he decided to go along with this whole plan.

Right now, she had her own plans. Instead of waiting to try and hold a point that wouldn't last, Verga wordlessly dashed away from the other nomads, quickly dashing into the fray once more and holding her hands up against each other, and swiftly sliding one away as she blocked a club coming down on her in place, only to slide to the side and let the oni stumble for a second, recollecting itself. By the time it had another shot, Verga was gone in the wind, swiftly making her way until the clusters of stone oni's became too thick for her to penetrate or weave through.

Squinting her eyes, she held her arm out, hand shaped like a claw as the world began to pull into itself, dragging any oni or nomad into a myriad of colors as they swirled in place, stuck trying to navigate through the powers they found themselves motionless to as Verga stood at the epicenter of it all. It was a difficult task, just to stand there as oni and nomads meshed with the debris and rebars swirled around. It wasn't in her nature to wait...

... but if it got her one step closer to asphyxiating the one responsible for this mess, then she would impatiently wait for the chance.




Karliah Reis (@Darkmoon Angel), Makoto Kurokami (@Dead Cruiser), Bec Bonnaci (@stonestring), and Camilla Del Bosque (@KaiserElectric)


As attentive as he was, he had an idea over who to cheer for already - The Goddess of Battle (and beauty)! He had heard of Kurokami and her family... or rather, her grandfather. Clenching his fists in anticipation, he muscled someone over, giving them a mixture of a nasty glare and a cocksure smile which seemingly did the trick. As the other person rolled their eyes and moved over, he began recalling some of the older movies made about him and his feats.

To Katsuo, this dude was one of the original nomads, the dude that set the trends that popularized nomads... and if this was his granddaughter? Ohhhooo boy, he would love to learn more about her... in a totally wholesome way, yeah.

The rigid bow was enough to try and get him to lean just a bit over the arena, squinting to get a good glimpse of her gi. Of course, the girl in the hoodie bowed back down and put up a stance that made her look akin to an... orthodox stance? Peering past her fists, he noticed that she was pretty hot too.

While he saw glimmers of blonde hair, he noticed her harsh yet luscious green eyes and other feminine features that made his heart bounce. Katsuo kept his eyes locked on her as he continued peeking through her fists.

Eventually, the battle commenced, a duel that... was probably skewed towards the lovely Kuromaki. Rushing in was a rookie mistake, something he would never do as he pulled back, chuckling to himself as Karliah rushed forward. Despite this, he did keep a close eye on her body movements and how each action affected another portion...

Before wincing a bit and looking away the moment Kuromaki struck Karliah's leg, baring his teeth and grinding them in discomfort before pressing one hand against his own knee. Brutal... wouldn't want a cutie like her to get banged up that much... ugh, why was this world so cruel? Eventually, he was able to bring himself back to the battle as soon as the wails of pain died down.

As the match went on, Katsuo seemed to get more and more into the battle between both ladies, judging by the way his eyes were glued to the stadium and both opponents. If one went about comparing him to a wide eyed child in a candy store, there would be no discernible difference between the two... after all, both of them were eating up the candy with a large smile on their faces.

Eventually though, there came the all out attacks! All or nothing! This was the stuff that defined the movies! The final blow where both the nomad and the villain struck each other with dead silence following! Katsuo was practically beaming at this point... before obscuring his own eyes, closing them as stone and dust flew from the arena itself...

... followed by more rumbling going on around him as more fissures formed on the ground. What the hell?! Was this the outcome of their final attack?! All the color from Katsuo's face slowly began to drain. It wasn't long before he was staring in horror at the earth below him, yelping as he fell back, bumping into another nomad, who seemed to be faring worse than him. Crumpling on top of him, Katsuo rubbed his hair, brushing away any dust from his eyes as he grit his teeth, confused at the screaming that permeated the arena.

When he opened them, it was... difficult to make out the world around him as his heart began pounding. Of course, a shiver went down his spine and eventually, he was as pale as a ghost when he caught a glimpse of the... stone demon overlooking him with piercing, cold blue glare. In combination with the other nomad pushing him off, as well as the forcibly scrambling off.

Now on his hands and knees, Katsuo witness something that made his mouth go dry and every bone in his body tremble - the sound of that nomad yelping in primal terror as a terrible cracking sound echoed from the poor saps abdomen. Pleading whispers were the only thing he could hear as the swordsman began to fearfully back away as blood leaked from their body, only to witness an explosion of blood coating the ground around him, with bits of blood and flesh splattering on his face as the demon.. no, no, oni, they looked like oni...

It didn't matter what they were... all that mattered to it what it was about to do as it delivered the coup de grace to that other nomads head.

Scrambling up, he only had so little amount of time to draw his sword, trembling a bit as the oni turned to face him. He felt that glare weigh down on him as it slowly began to face the boy, stoically grasping its club. Come on Katsuo, what would Guts do?! He would brave this shit and kick everyones ass!

Baring his teeth and furrowing his brows, he put on a bravado, returning his own glare towards the creature as it began to raise its weapon up. Within those few seconds, Katsuo took in a deep breath as he closed his eyes, letting his energy gather in the blade. As the swordsman did so, his weapon began to glow a deathly shade of crimson; with it powering up, Katsuo pressed his palm against the fuller of his blade as the beast swung at him.

... and with fierce determination, Katsuo swung the sword at it, shoving the spiked weapon off to the side, causing the oni to stumble a bit. This gave him that chance to strike as he lunged forward, swiping his sword like a baseball bat at the thing, leaving a nice chunk of it missing as it stumbled back a bit, attempting to regain his composure.

This fearsome hero would of gone in to beat it down!... if not for the panic around him as other battles transpired, with people bumping into him, causing the swordsman to be imbalanced... not to mention the ringing in his ears as a result of the gunfire... he could only ponder over how those two ladies were doing as he rolled to the side, grunting in pain a another oni smashed the spot where he was last standing on, only to crash into another oni...

Eyes widened as he peeked over his shoulder for a split second, only to pivot around with a horrified expression on his face as he brought his sword up to block once again. As much as Katsuo wanted to try and protect himself, the fact that he bumbled up a bit gave the stone oni enough time to smash its makeshift club into his sword with staggering force. The swordsman couldn't help but hiss and grunt in pain as the fuller slapped back right into him, causing him to fly back a foot before careening backwards, crashing into another nomad.

As if that wasn't enough, the nomad he slammed into was met with a bone cracking strike to the side, causing the boy to be on the receiving end as well. The pain surged through his abdomen as he let out a reverberating cry as he crashed to the side as his howls were lost to the myriads of others scrounging to survive.

Katsuo was barely holding onto his blade as he grit his teeth, trembling as he pressed his palm against the fuller, pushing himself up. He could only shallowly breathe in and out as the hurricane of events unfolded around him as he watched stony feet smash down by him, hustling as if to keep up the efficiency of their brutality. "... I... was almost trampled over."

He was wide eyed only for a brief second before closing them as a reaction to the dust kicked up into his eyes. Grunting to himself, he slowly opened one pupil up to find that he was staring up into the sounds, listening to the grunts and battle cries be replaced with a mixture of gurgling anguish and shattering stone crumbling to the ground beside him.

Other than flinching as soon as an unanimated face of the stony creatures fell in front of him, Katsuo stared straight up to barely make out that the cute girl from earlier was duking it out with another stone oni. What he didn't expect was for the lady to put a god damn hole through its chest before crumpling to her knees. Blinking to avoid getting dust into his eyes, Katsuo knew this was his time to shine!

Pressing his hands onto the fuller, the nomad slowly began to rise, his arms wobbling a bit like jello as he sucked in a bit of air, only to cough a bit when he breathed in some dust. Eventually, great-sword in hand, he stumbled to his feet, staggering about as he began to regain what little composure he had. Looking up, he tightly grasped his blade with two of his hands before utilizing his nomad abilities to hop into the stands, albeit nearly tumbling over.

Once he was there, he slowly began lurching over to the lovely lady of a fighter, eyes shifting anxiously from one angle to the next as the chaos continued to shroud the arena with dust and demise. While he was hoping no one would take notice of someone not being completely down and out, he saw some piercing eyes peering through the fog of war.

It shifted and shambled, coming into nearly full view of the boy and girl, with a club raised high above its head, ready to deliver the coup de grace to Karliah. This situation, while not so hot, could help portray some of his prowess as he rushed forth, holding up the fuller to block the attack in front of the girl. The clash of metal resisting concrete was music to his ears as he held back the assault of the stone oni quite easily, not even breaking a sweat despite his shaking limbs.

Turning his head away, he gave a cocksure grin to the woman which was followed by a wink and a comment, "Need some assis- AUGH!" Of course, before he could get his one liner out he felt another weapon clang against his blade, this time an oni with a naginata! There was a bit of pressure there with him starting to falter, but this was nothing, right?

... it was only made worse when another weapon crashed against his blade as he began staring down three onis, their glowing blue eyes filled with killing intent. He could handle one, possibly two, but three? Three was pushing it - literally too! Katsuo couldn't help but try to dig his heels into the stands, being forced downwards, the more and more pressure they applied to him.

He winced as he frantically looked around, closing one eye to avoid getting any dust into it, as well as brandishing a canine. His arms were now wobbling more than ever, almost ready to give out any second... fuck... he didn't want to shout for help! This was supposed to be his big chance, his huge moment to shine!

He couldn't just suck it up and ask for help, right?

"GHHHUGGGHUUH," he tried to push back, only to be met back with an equally tremendous force. No matter how much he tried fighting against the tide, he was unable to turn it to his favor. Clenching his teeth, he hissed and growled, still giving no quarter, still attempting to win this fight through sheer strength.

...

... but in the end, he couldn't.

"HEY, COULD SOMEONE HELP US OUT HERE," he shouted out desperately into the crowds, against his better judgement and pride.

... ugh, he couldn't help but shake his head as a result of his actions, feeling like a small part of him cracked from under the pressure. This wasn't what a nomad was, desperately whining to someone else to bail them out! Sweat was pouring from his temple as his breathing continued to become more rapid as time went on, his arms slowly trembling more and more.

While he was semi-pissed at his actions, it wasn't like he had another choice - after all, the moment his defenses were completely chipped away, he and this girl were going to die.
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by KaiserElectric
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KaiserElectric Spaghetti Enthusiast

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"Oh, you speak English then?" Klara remarked with some surprise, casually tossing an Ice Blast over her shoulder to take out a loudly charging Oni. "Apologies, I expected most here to be speaking the local tongue, you know."

Not even pausing to introduce herself (she could always say hello later, the ice giantess reasoned), Klara darted around with the help of her Subzero Slide, taking out what Oni's she could and giving the other struggling nomads assistance with their own battles. Hearing some of the nomads talking of rallying and choke-points, Klara decided she needed to step in to control the situation and do some rallying herself; an activity she would be eager to perform if she had ever done something like it before, which of course she had not.

"Okay okay, listen to me, everyone!" Klara called out to anyone within earshot, sliding to a halt on an icy platform. "I am...uh...Klara! Klara Grimmolfdottir! And I am here to help!" This did not seem to garner much of a reaction though; whether it was because the nomads didn't care or if they were too busy fighting off the Oni statues, she didn't know. Still, she pressed on.

"These are no mere Oni statues!" she informed the group. "These are statues possessed by the souls and disembodied ki of dead Oni warriors. We are not sure who or what is responsible, but we do know that these souls can keep possessing new stone bodies and coming back indefinitely until the culprit behind this resurrection is put down!" This got the Nomad's attention as Klara developed ice blades on her arms to fight off some Oni who also took notice, decapitating their stony bodies and leaving them to crumble to the ground before shooting them at another pair of approaching orcs.

"Help is on the way, but we need to hold firm and defend!" Klara encouraged them. "As long as we are still fighting, the Oni will come for us and not the civilians! We stand our ground, and maybe whoever is behind this will show their face!"




"A Hokuō ice giantess?" the Master scoffed.

"It must be, my lord," the servant said gregariously. "What other creature but our kin in mythic blood could produce magic like that?" The Master scowled viciously at her use of the word kin, prompting the servant to recoil once again out of fear of being struck.

"Kin, and yet she stands with these murderers," the Master continued. "It seems, then, she will share in their fate." The servant, now out of sight of her Master's gaze, smiled slightly.

"My lord, it is not merely that she is an ice giantess," she said eagerly. "But if she is so far from home...then she must be with the Sanctum."

"What?" the Master barked, turning sharply to look her dead in the eyes. "Are you sure of this?!?"

"The ice giants of the North are solitary creatures," the servant mused. "I see no reason why an independent ice giantess would go so far out of her way to look for a fight. Unless she was acting on orders."

"Yes...I see," the Master said, cool fury in every monosyllabic tone of his voice.

"They did not help you when the children of Jimmu first slaughtered your kin, did they, my lord?" the servant said encouragingly, no longer shying away from her overlord's presence.

"No...they did not." The Master's fist clenched tightly around the gauntlet it wore.

"And now one of their number returns to save the children from your retribution," the servant continued. "It seems the Sanctum must be taught a lesson as well, my lord..."

"Yes...you are right! They most both be punished!" the Master declared, towering anger warring with triumph in his every word.

"Their fates are yours to decide my lord!" the servant cried out. "Go...show the children and their protectors the face of their doom! Inflict on them a thousand years of retribution for what they have done!"

And the Master was gone, flying towards the Arena at high speed, ready to slaughter those who had once wronged him. His servant, a venomous smile crossing her face, quietly traipsed after him, her footsteps becoming less and less distinct in the driving rain until she and the sound of her footsteps vanished into the mist...
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by A Lowly Wretch
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A Lowly Wretch The Listless Loiterer

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Al

"Apologies, I expected most here to be speaking the local tongue, you know."

"I just got here." He retorted with annoyance as he caught a statue man's weapon and crushed it's head with a back-elbow strike. Taking the weapon out of it's hand he used it to stop a crude blade before kicking a statue square in it's stone chest, sending it tumbling back into a heap of it's friends.

"Okay okay, listen to me, everyone! I am...uh...Klara! Klara Grimmolfdottir! And I am here to help!"

He really didn't care about what she was going on about.

"These are no mere Oni statues! These are statues possessed by the souls and disembodied ki of dead Oni warriors. We are not sure who or what is responsible, but we do know that these souls can keep possessing new stone bodies and coming back indefinitely until the culprit behind this resurrection is put down!"

Al halted briefly, considering her words with a brow furrowed in thought.

Oni... Is that the Japanese word for statue dude? He wondered, briefly stirred from thought by a light bo-staff strike to the head. He spun around and crushed the Oni's leg with a sweeping cut kick. As for the rest of what she said it was pretty much nothing that wasn't readily obvious already.

"Help is on the way, but we need to hold firm and defend! As long as we are still fighting, the Oni will come for us and not the civilians! We stand our ground, and maybe whoever is behind this will show their face!"

"Fight more, got it." He replied tersely. His head turned as he heard some kid yelling in Japanese real close by. Well crap, he couldn't just leave these guys to rot now. After all, the center was rather light with activity by comparison to the rest of the arena. It was about time he got back into the thick of things.

_
With a great leap with his powerful legs he jumped high and smashed down into an oni with a diving kick, crushing it's shoulder and sending it careening into the other one beside it. With the last oni standing unable to disengage with the kid with the big red sword he grabbed it by it's right arm and swung it over his head, letting go at the end of his arc and sending it flying into the two oni pileup he started. With a crash of stone upon stone the middle oni was smashed between the two. Bringing his foot up he stomped down, finishing the last two off by driving his foot through them.

He looked over at the battle-weary young guy and the girl he stood over. The guy was a pretty standard looking japanese fellow clad in the typical nomad chic. The girl was a pretty cute white girl dressed up in fairly basic street clothes, a sensible choice of apparel. She certainly stood out in the crowd of weirdos in various combat costumes.

"Hey!" He gave a short shout to get the guy's attention although it was likely he had it already. He pointed to the prone girl and then up to the cluster of Maverik soldiers shooting at onis. He sure hoped that brief motion indicated Take her up to those guys so she's safe because there was no way he was going to be able to convey something like that in Japanese.

With that he stepped in, catching an oni's club before it could reach the Japanese guy's face. Grabbing the oni by it's arm he turned and with a mild grunt he flung the statue right at the base of the small mountain of oni bodies piled up in the center of the arena. He was going to see to it these two made it safely while grabbing anyone who was still alive along the way so he could bring them back to the Maverik line of defense. it was the least he could do in a situation like this.
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by KremeSupreme
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(Cuz I need to finally get this plotline started)


Two street cleaners worked on the busy streets of the city; Well, one worked, the other leaned lazily on his litter collector, talking to the other one.

"It's all a scam, dude. We have to stand out here? Cleaning up trash? In the goddamn rain?" He asked, shrugging.

"Yeah, we do. That's called a job. Now why don't you do your job, and actually help me out? Get going over there." The hardworking cleaner pointed his stick behind his lazy counterpart, To which his partner shook his head as he trudged over to slavery. The two workers worked in silence, indifferent to the other, or the bustle of soldiers that came past them. Once they were alone, the lazy worker's stick hit the ground with a present thud. The other, annoyed, turned back to yell at him.

"Dude, Cmon! We have--"

The cleaner was shocked when he saw that his partner was nowhere to be found, the only trace of his presence being his cleaning equipment and his trash bag, which spilled onto the ground.

"Are you kidding me? Now's not the time for a fucking brea--"

Another thud. Not from a stick, but the lifeless body of the cleaner dropping from the building above. His skin was an unhealthy gray, and his body had almost no fat. He was a meat coated skeleton, with the only signs of life being his pitiful quivering and moaning, as he looked with sunken eyes towards his friend.

The cleaner stepped back in horror, bumping into something heavy behind him. Recoiling forward, he turned around quickly, and towering over him was an almost seven foot tall suit of armor, with a scorpion's tail gently waving behind it. It took a step forward, to which the cleaner panicked and raised his stick, pointing it's sharp end right at the armored man's face.

"S-Stay back! I-I'm warning you!" He shook slightly as he tried to maintain his hold on his composure. The man in armor casually grabbed the tip, yanked the man close, and then effortlessly bent the stick, curving it so the sharp end pointed directly at his face. Then he threw it to the side, ripping it out of the cleaner's grip with hardly any resistance. He then gripped his clawed hand on the top of the man's head, lifted him off the ground, and forcibly drained his life force from his body, watching as he went within seconds from a hollering, plump, bright-skinned middle aged man to a mumbling, discolored bag of bones, which he promptly dropped to the street below.

"This is unit 5, we have an eye on the target."

SYM-04 turned around, seeing a man pointing a rifle straight at SYM-04 with one hand, and using the other to grip a walky-talky, detailing their current position to the best of his ability, before the symbiote lunged forth and plunged his claws square into his chest before he could fire a bullet, rapidly draining his Ki before dropping his husk to the ground. With three victims, SYM-04 was ready.

He knew they were coming.







"Awww little doggy. What's his name?" Calvin cooed, squatting over.

"Sir..." The pet store employee began, his voice being showcase of his instantly shattered will. "That's a female. Also, it's a turtle. Third, this is an aquarium. I think I'm just going to have to ask you to leave."

Calvin walked out of the aquarium. Was that Japanese for pet shop? He didn't know; No dog, no way to track down the fighting stadium. He decided to use his last resort:

Google Maps.

He stood in the middle of the sidewalk outside of the store, trying to find the stadium, completely oblivious to the firestorm of news that circled around on just on the display TV of the video store next door, much less any bit aware that he was just one block away from SYM-04's feast.
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by Kamen Evie
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Tokyo, Japan.



Inanna got no response. How strange! He tapped the oni with his staff, sending it crashing down before he considered what to do next. Even with all the nomads here, the oni just kept popping up!

It is quite the conundrum, I must admit. Inanna dodged another stray swing of a club as the two thought, before their queries were conveniently answered. It turned out that the oni statues were all possessed, and they just needed to distract them until their leader showed up? Well, at least it was a plan!

That woman is an idiot, and you need to pay attention! The golem promptly took a club to the face, flying back a few feet and rolling a few more along the ground. He rose to his feet and checked for any smudging around his head as he let his body loosen up again. He heard another presence behind him, and leaned right as a stone fist sailed past. He quickly turned around and swiped the bottom of his staff at the oni’s leg, sending the statue off its feet while it was off balance from its own attack. It fell… through the floor, actually! And on top of the oni who hit him before, right when it was raising its club again.

“Um, sorry!” Inanna said suddenly as he closed the portal. He guessed he'd be saying that a lot, today.




Otaru, Japan


“Thank you very much for your help,” Seshat said. “Farewell.”

Getting through all the Maverick soldiers was easier than one would expect for her. She had quickly learned that any mentions of Sanctum would stop any spineless soldiers and even officers dead in their tracks. The golem had little love for the organization itself; not in the least because it reminded her of what she had first fought to stop millenia ago, but she admittedly derived a sort of bizarre pleasure from taking advantage of the red tape that seemed to weigh down and bind everything and everyone in the current era.

The hot springs lobby was simultaneously much more alive and dead than she was expecting. Various Nomads and personnel either moving to and fro on trite errands or lazing about like sloths. She ground her boot against the floor as she tried to think of a more productive way to pass the time.




Tokyo, Japan.


The Justice Rider nodded as she listened to the skeleton start to explain what the hell they were fighting, but he was quickly interrupted.

“You gonna be back anytime soon?” Jill said softly after her skeletal companion dodged a blow from some yelling dude in decked out in full crusader garb. Her only response was a series of slightly garbled beeps emerging from the small speaker inside of her helmet, and she sighed softly.

Jill nodded as she slid herself between the two fighters. This was turning out to be a real mess. And this knight guy looked like he could throw a pretty mean punch, too. It didn’t sound ideal to confront him with both Pit Stop and the bike off on errands, but she wasn’t the kind of person who liked waiting on a safety net anyhow.

“Hey,” Jill said, with a surprisingly casual tone to her voice backed by a noticeable firmness. “I know everything’s crazy right now, and this guy looks evil as hell, but he has nothing to do with this. So don’t go after him.” She still felt kind of weird about the whole thing, on the inside. Sure, her mom always made sure she wasn’t quick to judge weird magic users, but still, defending a talking skeleton from some guy dressed up like a knight? At least all the chaos was good for getting her warmed up.



Otaru, Japan.



Rosie huffed. Well, that was rude. Though he supposed he was rude, too. Oh well. That beeping was rather curious, though. Was it coming from his belt? He shrugged. The man was gone, now. Time to get on with whatever he was doing before. He turned to leave before he noticed that he left his little cane behind. He picked it up and held it about for a bit before he let it hang at his side again. He should probably just leave it here and forget about it.

"Attention all Nomads assisting us in tracking down and putting a stop to these robots: report to the Asarigawa Hot Springs immediately! In ten minutes, we will-”

Rosie groaned and promptly stuck his head out the door.

“You forgot your cane!” Rosie shouted in the direction he thought he saw that man turn. “Don’t you dare make me go out there!” He waited. Only the sound of the rainfall. And he just got his hair dry, too. Ah well. Just another part of life on Earth. At least this whole rainy city aesthetic was rather pleasing. Maybe he should focus on urban landscapes for-

Right, the demon remembered. The task at hand. He’d felt the man’s emotions before, so tracking him wouldn’t be too difficult. He grabbed the cane in one hand and held his beret down with the other as he sped out the door in pursuit. He considered using his wings to make things a bit easier, but he couldn’t count on people being very understanding, especially when it came to other Nomads.
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by Crosswire
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Crosswire

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Hokkaido- Asarigawa Hot Springs

Returning to her home country after the grueling, body breaking battle in Rio had turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant one. Made only more pleasant by the fact that, for one rare instance in her life, she had actual money of her own. Great quantities of currency with relatively little human blood on them. The majority deposited in an account Jonas had insisted she set up, instead of carrying around the money with her. Leaving her with a simple plastic card and a thick handful of bills she insisted on keeping.

As soon as they set foot on the soil of Japan, Brown had limped her way to the nearest convenience store to spend her hard earned money for the first time. Buying enough packaged melon bread to fill the entire back seating area of Jonas's jeep, to the point the seats themselves could not be seen.

Sinking into the pile of delicious bread, Brown simply sat back, relaxed, and ate as they road along. Loaf after succulent loaf of melon bread disappeared past her lips as the soft air of her homeland swept past her face. Though her body still ached and popped from the sheer strain she had put it through, Brown was almost entirely at peace.

It felt too much like a dream, traveling without walking alongside people that she had come to consider her friends. Part of Brown became frightened, unwilling to close her eyes even for even the briefest of moments for fear of waking up.

When the jeep finally came to a stop Brown remained firmly seated, willfully ignoring Jonas’s insistence she clean up the sea of wrappers that had collected in the wake of her melon bread genocide. Pressing the last survivors of her treat massacre down her gullet Brown dusted off her hands and climbed out of the jeep, trailing stray melon bread wrappers behind her as she moved.

The announcement reached her ears quickly and she turned to Jonas and Otsuna.

“Why did we come all the way out here to the hot springs and we going to some stupid debriefing? I like hot springs, but robots don’t use hot springs, and I thought we came here to kill more robots.” Brown asked as she approached the two, annoyance and impatience creeping into every word she directed at them.

“MAVERICK is just going to get in the way, along with all the other Nomads. If they know where the robots are let’s just find out and leave so we can kill the robots before anyone else can!”

Brown slammed her knuckles into one another, immediately wincing as last remaining remnants of her injuries crept up on her.


Tokyo- Stadium


It had been some time since she left the forest.

Part of Matsu still couldn't believe how much Japan had changed since she was a child. In her youth she had spend decades trekking across the mountains and hills of Japan, so much that at one point she was sure she swore she could never become lost.

Yet walking the rain laden streets of Tokyo the kitsune women found that notion challenged. As she struggled to connect where she had been so many years prior to where she stood.

Open fields of the deepest emerald green grass and villages of thatched roofed homes had been replaced with a twisting maze of asphalt, steel, and neon lights. A transformation so extreme that it was as wondrous as it was frightening.

Many Yokai were torn on the matter, utterly despising how Japan had changed and continued to change. Matsu found herself torn on the matter. The modern cities she was familiar with had their own cold beauty to them, with buildings that towered into the heavens in a chillingly casual fashion all the while complex systems snaked beneath the stone where they walked.

Compared to what Tokyo had been like before, it was a stunning sight.

Yet, Matsu missed the quiet tranquility and carefully garnered beauty that had seemed so much more prevalent before. It pained her to see less and less of the land she was familiar with, and more and more ugly foreign buildings

"If Japan is a garden, it certainly feels like I'm being forced to watch my favorite flowers ripped from the bed to make room for ugly vegetables..." Matsu sighed, captured in the brief melancholy of her thoughts before shaking her head. Rain was thrown from her golden hair and golden furred ears atop her head.

Normally a fox-eared women walking the streets of Tokyo would attract the eyes of every passerby. However to those around her she looked like a normal women, albeit with blond hair and drabber robes.

"That is one thing that hasn't changed." Matsu said comfortingly to herself. "Even if my ancestors and blood bemoan the changes going on, humans have ultimately stayed the same. They're as easy to trick and upset as ever. Well--most of them are anyway."

Matsu's thoughts began to drift. A smile crossed her face as the warm memory of a brown haired girl coiling around the trunk, and her deep insistence that the tree was the fox women in disguise, flooded back to her.

Before she could properly lose herself in the memory however something reached her ears.

Matsu stopped cold in the middle of the sidewalk, her ears flicking up as she was bombarded by noise. Even as rain fell hard around her and the flow of traffic and sidewalk travelers drifted past, the sound of of thousands of heavy feet thundering across the ground was rendered clear in her senses.

Among the movement there was the distant shattering of stone, the rending of steel, and-

The death cries of countless people.

In an instant Matsu kicked off the ground and threw herself onto the side of the nearest building. With a swish of her twin tails the wind beneath her blew upwards, boosting her momentum and carrying her up the entire length of the building until she reached the rooftop. Standing on the edge, high above the streets with rain and wind pelting her face, Matsu looked out across Tokyo with golden eyes.

In the distance she could see smoke, dust, and pulsating lines of things funneling into the stadium like living rivers of murderous stone.

Throwing herself forward Matsu began to jump, bouncing from rooftop to rooftop, clearing the expanses between the increasingly taller buildings until she was perched on a office building just across from the stadium.

As soon as she saw the thundering, moving things moving below the Kitsune felt her heart stop for a moment.

"Those horns-! Are they Oni? No, they can't be. They're all supposed to be-"

Matsu stopped, her ears tilting upwards once again as a new, subtler noise reached her. Up above, moving through the rain and the wind, something approached the stadium...

"I can't waste anymore time." Matsu cursed under her breath and swished her tails, kicking off the edge of the roof and riding the wind to the top of the stadium. Where she looked down and tried to make out what was going on in the interior...
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by KaiserElectric
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KaiserElectric Spaghetti Enthusiast

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Camila had lost the scope of the fight as she took shelter underneath a bleacher while she assembled the mobile connection, but she could tell things weren't going well. The sound of pitched combat was as strong as ever, and judging by the guns around the edges going silent, the stony bastards had gotten to the Maverick troops on the wall.

"Any chance that this swarm of rock biters is fizzling out, Captain?" Camila shouted through the radio, struggling to plug in one of the connectors to the devices on her arms. "Going to have a rough time here if Command decides to break out the attack bombers. Time on the Quicksilver uplink?"

"Ready for feedback on our end, and I have bad news and worse news for those first two comments," Brennan said over the radio coolly. "The bad news is as far as we can tell these things are still coming. We're in a secure position but I don't like our odds if the Oni realize we're here."

"Of fucking course. What's the worse news?"

"We couldn't call in bombers if we wanted to, our communications are completely dead," Brennan revealed. "We've tried to contact everyone from Command to the damned PLA and nothing has gone through. Everything local still works like Quicksilver and our regional communicators but otherwise we're cut off from the outside world."

"Mierda...you think the weather is the issue?" Camila asked, attaching the last connector into place and crawling out from under the stands.

"Entirely possible, bad weather usually doesn't act on our systems like this, but statues usually don't invade stadiums either."

"Let's hope those are the only surprises we see then. I'm about to activate the Quicksilver link, stand by."

Camila, fortunately, found that the Oni's had abandoned the bleachers in favor of attacking the mass of champions and civilians trapped near the center of the combat arena, leaving her free to ascend to the higher area. Dashing up the closest staircases, she switched on the power source for the up-link and-

"Children of Jimmu...your twilight has come."

Camila stopped short and turned back towards the stadium. The fight had come to a sudden stop as the powerful voice boomed across the stadium like a thunderclap. The stone creatures all stood back in reverence as a cloaked figure emerged from one of the entrances, floating overhead before landing on a broken stand overlooking the assembled Nomads, civilians, and others fighting the stone horde.

"Quicksilver, NOW," Camila whispered urgently, jamming the power switch on the mobile system. "This is going to get messy."

"I am returned from the World of Darkness, seeking retribution for my people who were cast out of this world long ago. It was in the shadow of this mountain that your ancestors brought the oni to their extinction millennia ago, and it is in the shadow of this mountain that the extinction of mankind will begin."

The figure addressing the crowd raised his arms, revealing a glowing white gauntlet on one of his hands before ripping off his cloak and leaping from the stands, landing with a tremendous boom that shook the whole stadium and sent up an obscuring cloud dust around him. This mist cleared as an oni rose to his full height before the nomads, venerable but powerful, with a mane of white hair and lethally sharp teeth and claws. Unlike the others though, this one was clearly flesh and blood, the red of his skin standing out sharply against the rain-soaked arena as he approached the more forward members of the mass of Nomads with murder in his eyes.

"I am Daichi, the Revenant Oni King!" Daichi declared, holding his war club aloft as the oni horde around him gave a triumphant warcry. "By my hand, the blood of the Oni shall be repayed in the blood of man! Now...which of you will be the first to die?"
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by A Lowly Wretch
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A Lowly Wretch The Listless Loiterer

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Al

Smash! Crash! Crunch!

The sounds of his legs and fists crushing stone and steel alike was a constant throughout the ongoing struggle that was this battle. With a brisk sweat running down his brow he suddenly heard a loud inhuman voice call out from one of the entrances.

A large reddish grey demon looking guy with a big club was floating in towards the center of the arena. He had said something in Japanese which, of course, Al couldn't understand a lick of. From everything he had seen this guy clearly had to be the ringleader or something to this whole mess of statue men.

Just as the floating guy was about to fly into a long speech in Japanese about something Al turned, yanking his fist from the middle of a statue man's chest and pointing directly at the large guy.

"Hey!" He shouted at the horned fiend before he could even get through a sentence of what he was trying to say.

"Shaddap!"

Wasting no time Al leapt from the stands, his feat cracking the concrete beneath them and sending a cloud of dust & pebbles up from his launch. In a fairly straight arc Al soared at the demon looking thing with his elbow straight out in front of him. He was going to try and clock the horny bastard with a diving elbow drop with the idea of catching the fat dork off-guard since he was gabbing away.

It was far from a fool-proof plan.
Hidden 6 yrs ago Post by Savo
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Savo Time to go to Hell

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Otsana K. Corral (@redbaron1234), and Brown Kasshouku (@Crosswire)


As Jonas held out the extra umbrella to Otsy, he watched as she instead pulled out a poncho and deftly through it over her just as he would swiftly don his own coat with... multiple, clinging and clashing knives... and less flair too.

He slowly raised an eyebrow as he began to slowly retract both arm and offer as she did a small, quirky, almost cheeky smile. "Thanks for the offer Doc, but umbrellas are a lot less tactical, 'f ya know what I mean." He replied back with a short shrug and a nod, with a small thought crossing his mind that maybe he could adapt his own coat to be like that.

... why had he never thought of that idea before.

However, the thought came as fleetingly as the wind upon Brown piping up and reminding him that he was also on babysitting duty. Right. As he turned back to face the girl, both lips parted and contorted in tandem with the teeth, becoming no different than a snarling wolf. Pivoting back and slowly marching, he quickly snatched up any of the wrappers she discarded...

Couldn't of Otsy picked up anyone that wasn't short of childish and irresponsible?

"If you couldn't tell, the robots aren't here for the hot-springs," he shot back, voice cool as the rain, if such droplets had any modicum of human formality. He groaned a bit to himself muttering in irritation over how she was constantly littering; a few of the cases blew away, but the doctor preferred that he didn't get a fine for this girls actions.

Shaking his head, he eventually leaned back up, wrappers and an unfurled umbrella in one hand. He wanted to try and teach this girl some manners, but there wasn't any time for that as a copy sloughed off from Jonas, heralding the same annoyed mien as the original, holding a copy of the trash he had and the two umbrellas.

The Doctor nimbly transferred all the waste to the mimic with furrowed brows; it seemed to understand what to do as it dumped the contents, copied or otherwise, into the ki copied bag and marched ahead into the crowds of gathering nomads and MAVERICK personnel alike. Anyways...

"The reason we came out here was because of the job MAVERICK posted, which required us to assist them with the robot threat," he groaned lightly as he felt part of his arm tugging the umbrella against a cold blast of wind, splattering droplets across his face. His grip remained iron as his own own breath and words, as he took a couple of steps forward towards where they were being directed.

"While that does mean they know where it is, we also came here for a paycheck," Jonas pressed his other free hand against the side of his temple, running scenarios constantly in his head over how he could convince this womanchild not to run off the moment she was pointed in the robots direction.

"... think of it like this," the Doctor spoke up, lightening his tone of voice as he raised a finger up, pointing skyward at the rapidly darkening sky. There was a facade of a genuine smile, with the undertones of it being more sardonic than anything as his head lurched slightly around.

"The three of us need money; if we don't have any, that means we can't go anywhere, and by definition," he suddenly paused, emphasizing the end of his sentence as that finger he was wiggling upwards early suddenly coiled towards the girl, pointing at her with a sort of serpentine flair. Peering over his shoulder, he made sure to wait until the girl acknowledged him to ensure she was listening before continuing.

"...you can't go anywhere and fight interesting things." Hopefully that would get to her, but all things considered, there were other things he was doing in his mind, rummaging about certain information with trying to satiate Brown as an aside, duly noting that she was still recovering, even though the estimated date had come to pass.

Turning back to face forward, he began marching forward at a steady pace, following the designated roads as he proceeded to multitask between certain actions with his... comrades, i.e. doing his best to make some benign small talk with Otsana, trying to satiate Brown with more answers in a seemingly futile attempt to keep her roped down instead of childishly running off and getting killed, and discerning the nomads around them as the group continued to wade through the midst of the growing storm.

At this point, keeping the umbrella out was more of a nuisance than letting the rain splash across him. Deftly, he began closing up the umbrella and popped it straight into his satchel. If anything, it caused Jonas to walk with a spring in his step, desperately determined to escape the wrath of the rain as they arrived in the creeping shadow of the building, overlooking the myriads of scattered tents, large vehicles, and other technology.

In his haste, he saw a rather... disgruntled figure trek outwards and past the trio in some rather flashy clothes; made him think of the stereotypical rich kid, hell even his ki wasn't too much to write home about... and yet, Jonas kept the same discerning eye on him as the other nomads the trio moved passed. He couldn't even be surprised when a figure who appeared in a comparatively snazzy outfit shouting to the man about his cane.

Of course, the moment he stuck his head out was the moment this new figure took the center stage as they got closer to the entrance. There as a slight frown as Jonas scrutinized the feminine man, all the way down to his ki. Raising a hand to his lips, he began tapping away with both his index and thumb, stopping the moment they arrived directly at the building.

Of course, when this happened, the man in the beret was already off, leaving the door to slowly close, if not for Jonas clasping and catching it rather deftly at the departure of that face in the crowd. Looking back at the duo, he backed away from the entrance, gesturing the duo to head into the relatively cramped lobby.




Jonas Langer (@Savo), Otsana K. Corral (@redbaron1234), Shippai "Brown" Kasshouku (@Crosswire), Calvin Redug, Rod Lightning (@wxps350), Rosier "Rosie" LeVai, and Seshat (@lavulman)

As time went on, most nomads shifted around as the mild chattering that was once there before was replaced with an anxious silence. Whether it was out of a fear for MAVERICK, boredom due to how this felt like the longest ten minutes, or just some other nuanced emotion. The only foreboding sounds that filled the atmosphere was the sounds of raindrops tapping against the side of the building, and the sound of a tv changing every few minutes between multitudes of channels.

Most of the soldiers were a part of the impending atmosphere as well. Most of them began ending their activities half-way through, save for a few that began checking up on their weapons and drones. A few rose from their seats and migrated to one of the many walls that littered the spacious lobby, standing attentive and ready.

There were nomads that also lingered outside as well, whether it be due to the obtrusive amount of others that occupied the space within or some other reason, benign, anxious, or otherwise. There were a couple of tents being posted up near the entrance, sheltering both soldier and wanderer from the rain. At first, it felt... calm; no warning of any impending downfall.

That didn't last; the oppressive rainfall soon followed. The harsh rain attacked the tops, attempting to tear through the durable and stable material by force. Some smarter drops whisked through the side as a result of a gust of wind, assaulting the few that took shelter from the baleful drops.

Despite this all, he was exactly on the mark as an armored individual marched down out of one of the hallways. The MAVERICK soldiers snapped to full attention as the man in what could be considered a paradox of a mildly damaged, yet sleek combat suit stood directly in front of the receptionists desk, causing the person behind it to make themselves scarce for the time being.

From the loud speakers outside to the head of the suit, the sound of a man clearing their throat could be heard, garnering most of the rabbles attention. Once he was certain that he had the attention of all the individuals in the lobby (and hopefully outside as well).

"Good afternoon Nomads," he spoke crisply with an air of professionalism. "I am Captain Rodnell Armstrong and I would like to briefly thank you all for coming here to assist in our endeavor." With that brief introduction, he then placed his hands behind his back, peering and scanning the crowd through the eyeless helm before continuing. "I'm sure most of you know about the robot issue in Rio a few weeks back; some of you might of even participated in trying to repel them before the arena was leveled. We suspect there is a repeat issue here as well, with the robots settling here and planning some attacks on this city, as seen by the metal corpses some of you passed on by."

"While there has been speculations over their objective, we believe that they are being controlled somewhere around this area."
Raising one hand up from behind his back, he made a V shape with his hand, holding it out for everyone to see.

"We have two objectives - find the source of the control and either destroy it if necessary or report to us about the location if you can safely secure it. While we highly prefer the latter, if you can bring back any sort of proof over who this could be linked to, that will do as well. The second job is patrolling the city; as boring as it sounds with your... capabilities, we still have daily incursions that try to strike at areas where we have the least amount of soldiers there, so you will be able to test your mettle against these robots."

"Outside, we have groups of soldiers, separated between tents; you will travel in not only your group or another Nomad group, but with three MAVERICK soldiers who will monitor your progress, update you on any changes, provide support in any fights against these robots, et cetera. If you have further questions, speak to one of my two Lieutenants, Ms. Boutet or Mr. Tibayan."

"Now, moving onto your payment... it will be rewarded either in full or by a salary depending on how quickly you handle this menace; probably both. That is one of the other reasons why MAVERICK soldiers will be accompanying you. Other than that, listen what they say and we should both benefi-"


Suddenly, the mans voice cut out as both of his arms came to position, pivoting his head to look behind him. Whatever he received in the feed, he was left in silence for a minute or two before him clearing his throat before continuing. "Apologies for that, but we have received an update on a situation down in Tokyo; we will update you all on further instructions in thirty minutes or so through my two Lieutenants. Questions and concerns can be directed towards them as well. Other than that, good day."

With that final statement, he rushed back to whence he came, going at a complete jog as he disappeared down some hallways until the rhythmic tapping of his footsteps were the only thing left of him. With that, the scene mostly returned to normal with reactions ranging from confused to groans of boredom and so on. Some people went to flipping on each channel on the only tv, bouncing between the news to a show to the Tokyo Martial Arts Tournament.

Regardless, something was up; that much was obvious.




Jill Breicen (@lavulman), and Emmanuel (@wxps350)


A small, guttural sigh escaped his bony mandibles; the Justice Rider wasn't blinded by any sort of unruly, zealous righteousness, unlike this belligerent, religious dog... and she instead decided to attempt talking him down; a respectable course of action in the necromancers eyes. While she was busy handling the rabid crusader, Aldous was busy detecting the energy flowing throughout the arena.

It was a mixture between being a relatively simple, yet complex case of detecting energy about the arena. Per usual, the ki that permeated the air made it difficult to detect the origins of the constantly resurrecting oni statues, but it made it even more obvious to sift out those of a dissimilar power.

It took a few seconds for the skeleton to detect the two masses of nomads; a group of nomads rallied by the armored fellow from earlier and a much more organized group of people. Before he could get a full read, he was interrupted by a stone oni who was attempting to take advantage of his "vulnerable" state.

The red orbs, however, didn't budge an inch as he stared in the direction of the ki, fist soaring straight at his crown, attempting to crush his head in one blow. However, he knew better as one of his minions spawned by a Spectral Flare rushed back to assist the skeleton, taking on the full brunt of the assault.

While it did somewhat drag the arm down a bit, Aldous casually reacted by swiftly tossing his skull into the midst of the air, causing his body to instantly dive into the earth. Of course, this also caused the being to crush the place he was last standing on, only to have a part of her face fly off as the body of Aldous shot straight up from the ground, fist first.

During the counter attack, he finally got a full read on who the other people grouping up were - the MAVERICK soldiers. What more, he found them safeguarding some injured civilians and nomads alike in a phalanx, with a few medical professionals that seemed obviously exhausted. Valiant as it was, he saw every little thing in their ki and the damage they were sustaining; same went for the other group.

The main issue was... how would they rally both groups together? That was the main issue as the red orbs became no different than thin lines as he felt each phalanges grasp at his mandible and carefully landed to ensure that no parts of his skull would fly off after the prior attack from the crusader.

Upon reattaching his head, he recalled the Justice Rider had a bike of her own - a method of transportation; soon the bone cogs began to creak and turn between his parietal's. He had a part one of a plan down, but the main issue was that even if they tried combining their strength, the onis would retaliate by pouring most of their strength into keeping them back... while it would thin out in a few areas, Aldous was certain most of the forces would be wiped out trying to get a few through if he went with that plan...

... they needed an outside force; Aldous suddenly rotated his skull all the way around to face in the direction of the MAVERICK personnel. If they still had forces out there, then maybe, just maybe...

"Justice Rider," he announced, fervently in such haste, head once again snapping to look in her direction. "Plan concocted; we need to combine the two groups of nomads," he spoke as deftly as he dodged and shot a spectral bolt at an invading oni, whirling to the side as he ducked under another.

"Alo-"

Before he could continue, the explanation and oni assault was interrupted by a rather striking figure. His attention was drawn for the duration of the whole entrance of the hulking individual, caked in a natural color of red. This... this couldn't be; they were all extinct!

Aldous was gawking at the imposing man, standing over and intimidating the crowds, making a characteristic scene that washed over in waves as much as the storm. Of course, that mixture of awe and desire to possibly learn more about a forgotten race was interrupted upon witnessing what he wielded - a white gauntlet.

If anything was going to get his attention, that would. Suddenly, those orbs began to glow even brighter, widening as if there was something stirring in the soul. While it was obvious that this person was the cause for the stone oni incursion, the fact that this oni, this last remaining oni, as the skeleton assumed, was in possession of a Virtue.

"... I'll explain, walk and talk, forget the maniac" Aldous hissed between his teeth as the crowds abated. The skeleton spoke in such haste as he frantically rushed a bit toward the general direction of the MAVERICK hold out, gesturing for Jill to follow. While his voice, still ethereal and guttural per usual, there was more emotion to it than before. He was more impulsive than ever, toes and tarsals rhythmically moving as if itching to leave the woman behind any second.

With every action Aldous took and made, it was all held together by one tangible feeling - fear.




Fafnir Sigurd (@dragonmancer), and Klara Grimolfdottir (@KaiserElectric)


The area Verga occupied was nothing more than a maelstrom for the next couple of seconds, drawing all manner of debris, fighters, and other unfortunate things closer and closer to the eye of the storm. A few of the warring nomads and oni found their attacks veering off-course, either violently striking another ally or foe with an empowered attack.

The results of the collateral damage were palpable, as some stone creatures and nomads alike dropped like flies in this pursuit, with chunks of stone and flesh being rend off. Yet, she stood there, still keeping the same stone cold indifference as she stared with a crushing gaze amongst the raw maelstrom.

Eventually, that patience paid off as gravity began to return to manageable levels. She noticed a bit of a fold along the pebbles obstructing the way out. Before giving them the chance to recover from the dervish of an attack, coldly put a hole through two at once, shoving the now broken beings back into one another.

It became like a domino as a few crumpled back with an arm or two breaking off in the process. While it didn't completely thin out the horde, it was more than enough to get their attention as them clambered over some of their fallen comrades, attempting to deal with the disruption within their ranks.

However, in contrast to how she acted, ignoring the oni menace, she instead alternated between a short retreat and a short skirmish. This caused a bit of a fold, causing the density of oni to form in a specific area, yet this caused a small pocket of an escape to slowly form as she drew the stone beings closer and closer, only to engage, destroy a few or cause a knockdown and fall back.

The rinse and repeat was grating and getting on her nerves; there was no challenge in tricking these imbeciles into bringing them closer and closer to the verges of even bigger fools who wanted to hold out. Eventually, she was able to bring the incoming wave of oni's towards them... and unlike last time, she mercilessly fell behind those the armored moron rallied.

With a brief sigh, she swiftly weaved and swayed between the masses of nomads, vanishing into the crowd of them, leaving the two opposing forces to fight each other. Instead of chasing for that woman, the legion of onis that blocked the way out descended on the last place she was - the rallied nomads that Fafnir called to his aid.


With that bit of time spent, she slowly watched the engagement, alternating between elbowing a part of an opponents rocky face off to chipping off a foot of one, causing the thickheaded oni to struggle with maintaining a shred of mobility. Verga continued evaluating the clash with both groups, guessing that it would be as short-lived as the intelligence of a few nomads.

Eventually, the perfect, opportune moment exhibited itself before her, with a large enough clump forming between both groups... a small bit of crackling energy was forming at her fingertips as she eyed the area above the fighters. What was even more impeccable is that as she prepped the attack, all of the stone figures stood still... as well as the others they were battling against.

Instead of tossing the unstable ball of crackling energy above them all, Verga instead snuffed it out, clasping the hand that once radiated the power into a fist. The reason for this was simple - the nomad found herself briefly watching as a large, brutish, red being step into the arena, making his announcement, playing up such a ridiculous bravado...

... a puckered frown formed on her lips as she squinted at the creature as it further revealed to the arena that he was the one responsible for this. Quite frankly, the only thought Verga had imprinted on her mind was that this was daft decision; to expose himself to an arena filled with nomads and even MAVERICKS?

That insolent pride would be his own undoing as the woman didn't bother staying put during this... "ceremonial" procedure. Instead, she headed directly for the stands, bobbing and ducking through the onis... pah, even they had stopped as well, not even acknowledging her presence; wouldn't surprise her if a few even attempted to leave... most nomads were fickle after all.

Of course, whilst heading for her vantage point, Verga noticed out of the corner of her of her eye that the bland boy from earlier attempting to intercept and attack him in the middle of his speech... foolish from the looks of it all, but a thought crossed her mind as she continued her dash towards the stands.

The gears were turning in her head; it wouldn't take long until others assaulted him... she would strike then... after all, their rash behavior would prevent them from taking this bout of glory...





Karliah Reis (@Darkmoon Angel), Al Denton (@A Lowly Wretch)


Katsuo could feel the pressure straining on him, his limbs slowly starting to give out as one of his arms angled back, causing an awkward bit of imbalance in how the boy held this gigantic blade. He could feel the beads of sweat forming on his temples his legs began to wobble even further.

He couldn't tell if there was any other intent outside of murderous, or a glint of emotion outside of instinctual rage. All he found himself looking at was the three Morai, as he closed his eyes and began picking a god and praying to it... and thankfully that was short lived.

The massive weight that found itself wrestling against the boy was... somewhat mitigated, albeit by how lopsided it felt due to most of the pressure either lifting or going to where his other arm was being held. It gave him a mild bit of strength to crutch his other arm up to pathetically repel it all, and enough courage to slowly open one of his eyes, only to witness three stone onis careening and becoming a stone pile.

With the pressure dispersed and in his moderately weakened state, he stumbled a bit forward, causing the blade to crash into one of the onis head. It wasn't a clean cut, more like a jagged smash as part of the uneven head splintered off into bits and pieces of stone.

Katsuo sucked in a deep breath of air, before hacking and coughing out the dust he had managed to inhale as well. The ensuing chaos only caused him to groggily move his head up to the closest thing shouting at him. Amongst the swirling cacophony of destruction and death, he only saw the guy gesture swiftly and briefly before watching another makeshift club flying at his face.

The only break he had was the fact that this average, mildly bruised up guy manage to catch the fiend and... tossed him all the way over to the center of the arena... that was a good distance away... when could he... nevermind.

The boy wobbled as he did his best to stand up erect, swinging his sword around his head once and sheathing it on his back. Damnit... just... maybe... ugh. Katsuo proceeded to weakly whip his head away, as a sort of response to the boy, hair ruffling and shuffling about as he attempted to display some sort of aloof defiance...

... even though he was still gonna save the girl, or try to... fuck, how was he... ok, breathe in and out through your nose. Stifling a sneeze, he felt like he was going to keel over as he began kneeling, exhausted as one of his arms slipped themselves under the girl. The swordsman's other limb soon followed after, rolling the girl into sort of a bridal carry.

She was still... pretty, despite how brutalized she appeared... damn, what was something cool he could say right now? Mmm... Hmm... "Sorry 'bout that, tougher than they look," he winked, attempting to force out a chuckle, only to get a peculiar mix between it and a painful groan.

From the looks of it, MAVERICK seemed to attract attention from both oni's and wounded nomads alike; some joined with the phalanx of sorts, others utilized as a way to lick their wounds... but from the looks of it, the whole deal appeared to be a half-and-half chance of survival based on how many were being cut down or rounded up.

If the girl had any sense of feeling, she could probably hear the palpable heart of the boy, beating steadfast as the mayhem about the remnants of the doomed coliseum. Along with that, whether or not his arms were shaking out of weakness or fear, therein lacked a difference as Katsuo took a step forward, audibly gulping at the scene as he weakly rushed forward, doing his best not to tumble over.

Hopping over the stands and back into the arena ground, his legs shook and swayed as he attempted to find some form of balance. Trudging forward, he could barely go at a sprint, let alone, full out jog as he stumbled towards what could count as safety, ducking and twisting between each fight; it was difficult and he almost managed to get roped into one of those "murder" circles if not by another nomad that intercepted two of the five oni's.

While he did eventually make it, as if on cue to a curtain call of a performance, a small portion opened, up allowing him and the girl to be swallowed up into the group. Of course, the needs of the nomads were barely being tended to by a few support units from MAVERICK, as well as other nomads and nurses trying their best... but the input was far greater than the output; they wouldn't be able to continuously sustain this many people as all of them were beginning to lose steam, and tire out or succumb to hopelessness.

"... you're gonn' be fine; I'll make sure of it," Katsuo looked down, trying to sustain some modicum of strength, but the beaten, bruised, and mildly bloodied display didn't do much, save make him appear just as sapped just as the rest of those occupying the space.

Of course, in a grandiose display, there came a reverberating, ear-blasting shout echoed across the arena. He was more than certain it would be enough to shake the foundations of the place, if there were any left. The strange thing was, despite the overarching threat, there was a brief moment of tranquility as most of the fighting came to a close, save for a few pragmatic nomads who utilize this fleeting "peace" as a way to break the ranks and attempt to flee the arena.

If anything, Katsuo was not one of those as he stood, shook and bewildered by the sudden imposing figure, standing above the rest of the dust, the grime, the blood-soaked dirt. This man... this... thing was more flesh than the oni's about, and left a nameless fear in the boys heart that could verge on a heart attack.

As much as he wanted to try and be a hero, he... couldn't. There was not a lot of resilience left he could muster up... "... fuck," he hissed to himself, slowly setting the girl down on the ground, slowly hobbling back up as he grasped the grip of his blade.

Some of that bravado remained, but there was a lack of conviction in his body... and a gnawing lack of one steadily building up at the back of his mind.
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Fafnir didn't talk as much afterward his rally speech, instead shouting war cries as he cleared through waves of stone oni. So involved in the moment that he even forgot that he was standing beside other nomads, the thrill of battling such masses of enemies brought with it a powerful sense of nostalgia, it had taken him back to his 'glory days' as a knight fighting beside humans.

That trip of nostalgia was ended with the arrival of a large and real oni. With all attention on the one responsible for the attack, Fafnir couldn't help but feel a tad bit of sympathy. A fellow monster, like his own kind, that had been driven to near extinction by mortal hands; it was a plight he could understand. Perhaps it was the small inkling of a fiendish monster within him that pitied the oni rather then his 'mortal' identity.

Pity wasn't enough to change his allegiance of course; but that anger that had brewed from his tournament, his next path of honor, being interrupted had ceased. Instead now finding honor in the 'villain' the same as he saw any true warrior. One that desired vengeance.

Of course in the middle of his speech a less honorable nomad had already attacked the vengeful warrior. He felt some distaste in that action, but it couldn't be helped in these circumstances he supposed. This warrior desired the extinction of mankind after all.

"Daichi!" Fafnir shouted after Al made his attack, Smashing the bottom of his shield onto the earth to garner attention. "On behalf of mankind, you won't be killing any mortal until I fall!" With his lance readied at his side, he began to charge up ki within it's blade. He would have much preferred a one on one battle, but if the previous attack was evident he doubted the honor his nearby allies had. Besides, the weight of humanity rested on their shoulders anyway.

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