aмeℓιa

_{HP: 1920/1920 - MP: 1920/1920 - SP: 1920/1920}
^{_________________} _{[spreadsheet for most recent changes]} ^{_________________}
Damn this yam guy was grating. Ames rolled her eyes at him and ended up stepping out of the booth to let the others in the party discuss everything with him. She wasn't that invested anyway, but she'd have her say once the rest of them sorted stuff out. She stood around next to Magpie watched the skeletons dance until the matter was finished and wooden boards with quests on them were in hand. Out of the options, Ames cast her vote for disrupting the supply line - which ended up the majority. Now with everything settled, they headed out of the city.

First thing was establishing the Sweet Maid. Not too close, but not too far. As the party moved Ames raised her hand to summon Britomart, and once the little knight was corporeal the red head tasked her charge with setting up their base camp. It was a little while before they spotted an area that was to Ames' liking, but once Britomart planted her flag in the ground the inn popped up behind it.

"Perfect." Ames popped inside to flip the window sign to Open for Business! then went to regroup with the others. "Alright, she's in your hands Bri. Let me know if something happens alright?"

Now in her maid's clothes, Britomart bowed deeply and waved the crew off. "Of course, sir."

The party went on. Into the designated area they enacted a slapdash plan. Ames herself elected to go with Leif, because motorcycles were cool. Also because her skillset was not very equipped to ambush or tracking. On the back of the ride he patted Leif's shoulder. "I'll be fine!" she assured.

If she hadn't already seen someone morph their face into a snout, Ames would have been more weirded out by it now. Actually, should she put Leif and that other guy in contact? She'd gotten his information at the time. Ames was thinking about this while Leif locked in the scents. Once the engine revved she came around, bracing her hands on the back of the seat.

She'd ridden on a motorcycle before, in real life, so she could probably handle it.

This nuclei was much faster than anything she'd experience before, and after nearly flying off at the kick of the bike accelerating Ames swapped to wrapping her arms in a vice grip around Leif's midsection. Normally she would have tried to hold back the wail of panic, but it was impossible to hear over the engine anyway. After a few seconds she calmed enough to cut her scream short, but she didn't let up her hold.

Just had to focus on the plan, and not on what would happen if they suddenly crashed at such a high speed.

Past the Pearl Bloom River, which fed into the Greater Lotus Lake where an ecosystem of hardened kappa warriors were found, laid one of the many mountain ranges that jutted out across the lands of Horogi: the Zan-Chi Spine. A long, spindly ridgeline that stretched for hundreds of kilometers from west to east, the mountain range was frustratingly vertical but surprisingly low, with the lowest points only 700 or so meters above the ground. Hard granite surfaces and crumbling gravel slopes made it difficult traversal for caravans, but the sheer lack of any vegetation meant that one only had to worry about phantasmal monstrosities here. With the right talismans in stock and an appetite for altitude, the Zan-Chi Spine was still preferrable to cross compared to making a detour around the range instead, and for Immortals? With their superhuman prowess and litany of techniques?

It was even fun…though the definition of fun depending, once more, on one’s appetite for altitude.

Arion was a beast of a machine, an all-terrain monstrosity that defied all interactions with the physical world. So long as the incline wasn’t completely vertical, so long as there was something for its monstrous tires to bite into, the black beast could climb it, and could do so at its maximum speed of almost 300 kilometers per hour. As Weishaupt wormed itself into Leif’s spine and a more intimate connection was formed between the shaman and the necromancer, black flames spewed out from Arion and sent both rider and passenger up at such speeds that Amulak could only enjoy the RTS view for two seconds before the connection was cut out. While Leif left them in the dust and Ames enjoyed the sensation of having all his organs pressed against his back, the remaining party members resolved themselves to climbing the old-fashioned way.

…

It took all of ten seconds of nauseating ascent before Arion shot up over the ridgeline as if the mountain itself was just a ramp. No vegetation and no physical monsters meant that even the phantasms that surged towards Leif and Ames were simply run through, the two Immortals cresting the top of the mountain almost before either of them knew what was going on. Then, they were airborne, a whole one thousand meters up in the air. Horogi stretched out before them, the black smoke of archaic train systems, the flashing light of some adventurer’s magic, the distant black masses of the Tato-Ie army. It was beautiful, it was terrible, but most importantly…they were falling. Arion’s wheels turned, its muzzles jetting out flames, but without ground to bite, it was just a hunk of metal carried by its own momentum, helpless to do anything when the very planet pulled against it.

The first impact slammed the front wheel against the slope, shooting a nightmarish blow right into the groins of both riders. Arion and passengers both somersaulted, before the second impact drove them sideways down a gravel slope, hundreds of small rocks churning up onto them. A lone tree, withered and ancient, the only one of its kind on the merciless mountain, was snapped in half when they struck it, and the Nuclei and Immortals were airborne once more, this time with the splintered remains of a once-noble tree stuck in their flesh and armor. With a final definitive thump, Arion landed upright at the base of the mountain, its saddle sending a spine-tingling shock up Leif and Ames’s tailbones. The two of them were a mess, undoubtedly, bludgeoned and bloodied by their downhill adventures, but Arion itself was, as expected of a Nuclei, unharmed.

And without heed for any emotional distress on the part of either of its riders, the black beast roared and sped off again.
Some time later, the rest of the party would descend the Zan-Chi Spine without incident.

…

It took a while for Leif to clear the smell of blood out of his nose, but once he did, he began his search. Taking a circular route through the verdant plains past the Zan-Chi Spine, the Wolfpack Shaman periodically shifted his face into that of a wolf’s. Silk trails of deepening crimson appeared before his eyes, drawing him down paths unseen by others. Less than a minute had elapsed since he surmounted the mountain, and even though both himself and Ames had taken no small amount of damage on the decline, the two of them were healing up swimmingly. In a couple more minutes, they would be at full HP again, with the only signs of their injuries marked by superficial scratches.

But that, in and of itself, presented a problem, when the trail that Lief followed ended up bringing him not towards a party of injured players, but rather to a wounded monster. The natural regenerative capabilities of Immortals meant that any injury, no matter how grievous, would generally be recovered within the span of less than an hour. And considering the open plains that Leif was now riding through, the sheer noise that his mechanical steed generated, there was no way that he could stealthily approach anyone.

His nose proved to be suboptimal for the task at hand, while his Nuclei provided incredible speed but no stealth. There had to be additional strategies put into place then, if they were to spot roving bands of supplier-adventurers through this spindly mountain range and the adjacent plains.

---

With the roar of an engine and the howl of a mad man, Leif quickly rode for the wounded beast without a second thought, running it down with a decapitating strike. As the beast shattered into pixels, Leif would start to slow Arion down with a squeeze of the brakes, slowly skidding into a halt. As soon as they were at a full stop, Leif exhaled in disappointment, slamming his fist into the bike's display.

"Don't think we'll find any low-health players around, almost forgot how fast you healed out of combat. We could maybe crash someone else's fight, ourselves, but it'll more than likely end up with our target bailing before we get there."

Taking a moment to see how much EXP and loot (if any) that monster had, Leif would start to chomp on more of those lotus roots, fueling his bike with more MP as he did.

"Would be best if we regrouped with the others, maybe stuck to the mountains. Didn't realize how slow all of you were." Leif growled, before revving his engine back up once it was all topped off. "Might as well find something on the way to make this worthwhile, tho." The Shaman grinned, looking down at his net with devious intent.

Without warning, the Shaman would press on the gas once more, howling again as his mouth shifted into a snout once more. Using the logic gained from his prior observation, he would instead begin to follow the nearest thread whose health would be healthy in about the same rate it took himself and Ames to heal up. Seeing that his tactic would make their approach rather obvious, Leif knew he had to make a decisive blow on their target from the start.

As he would get within sight of this thread's weaver, Leif's fists would begin to clench tightly as the ritual beads around his arms began to tighten. At the same time, the hair on Leif's arms would begin to grow at an accelerated rate, thick silver fur bustling over the increased musculature underneath. When he was close enough, Leif would cast his net out to whoever his unfortunate target would be, looking to pull and drag whoever it is he would catch back to his allies!

Of course, should this fail, Leif would instead use this opportunity to charge in with his nearly doubled strength, looking to start a fight on his own! Of course, he wasn't truly alone, for he had the strength of the pack backing him up...

... Oh, and Ames was there too. Dude, stop holding on too tight, no idea how homo this is.

aмeℓιa

_{HP: 1920/1920 - MP: 1920/1920 - SP: 1920/1920}
^{_________________} _{[spreadsheet for most recent changes]} ^{_________________}
"Did you just run over a fucking dog?" Ames asked once Leif stopped the bike, incredulous and dizzy from the ride. She shook her head, and then shook her limbs out to get some feeling back into them. The first question was rhetorical, the next was sarcastic. "Well what did you expect? You've got a motorcycle and we've got feet. Raime's the only one going hard on Agility too."

During their short break Ames took the time to look out over the scenery. Maybe it would have been better to do some shopping before heading right out into the wild for their mission. Some binoculars might help. As it was she didn't see anyone and anything that looked like it could be their target.

"Yeah, let's go back to the others. I wonder if there's some other way to track them though. Like maybe the couriers have some kind of identifier on them. A badge or a wood mission plate like we have, then you could use your nose on that."

Of course they'd have to find one first before seeing if that was the case or not. Ames cut a suspicious look at Leif when he mentioned finding something worthwhile. She tightened her grip on the mount, just in time as not a moment later they were blazing off again. If there was a next time she was giving the passenger seat to someone else.

A plan that was foiled was simply a plan that had to be readjusted, and with his priorities rearranged, Leif shot off upon Arion’s back once more. The Shaman was on the grind, after all, even for a mission like this. No need for pause, no need for rest; his END pumped up his SP in real time so long as he didn’t overdo the sniffing, and even at full health, the scent trail that he decided to track was obvious enough that he could do so with no problem. They were three scents mixed together, a party of individuals in the direction of the mountain range that Ames and Leif had just descended from moments ago. It didn’t, of course, mean that Leif was tracking the wrong target or anything like that; the scent trails he followed weren’t indicative of any actual trail, after all, just the straightest route towards whatever quarry he sought.

And, at nearly three hundred kilometers per hour, hardly any time passed at all before he could spot his quarry. A party of three in a distance, their own gazes all turning towards the sound of Arion’s engine. At a distance of 100 meters, they could all feel time begin to dilate, the regeneration of their HP pausing as the battle neared.

One second elapsed.

Holy sigils lit up over the polished surfaces of Leif’s ritual beads, feeding divine power into his body, while his bestial ancestry roused itself, flesh multiplying into bearish masses of muscle. The Tidewalker’s Net, propelled by the speed of the machine and the might of the man, flung outwards, bodily blocked by a samurai in purple armor. A dozen hooks and barbs bit into the lacquered wood plates, before the rope that connected them drew taut.

Another second elapsed.

A curse erupted from the samurai’s lips as she dropped her stance low, driving her katana deep into the ground. Arcane characters burst out of her body before vibrant auras began to surge out of her armor. Her feet drove deep tracts into the earth as she held her ground, not steadfast against Arion’s thousand-horse engine, but enough so that the Nuclei’s speed had been cut down by more than half. And that meant…

A distance of 50 meters gained on her companions. For two mages, that distance was nothing at all. One drew a battleaxe with cello strings stretching its entire length, while another one placed his hands together, performing swift hand signs to invoke some yet-uncast effect.

A fight, at this point, seemed inevitable.

---

Leif growled at annoyance at his particularly stubborn catch, quickly realising that trying to lug her around would only be a waste of time. More than that, he saw that two of her allies were already closing in. One was some sort of musician with a... stringed axe as their instrument. Classic. The other seemed to be a more traditional mage, probably the larger threat of the two. No matter the case, it seemed that at this briefest moment, they were outnumbered. Leif clicked his tongue in annoyance to this,

"Keep the lady busy, Ames. Gonna get us some help!"

At an instant, Leif's arms shifted back to their normal human shapes. Alongside that, Leif would release the Samurai from his net. As soon as the weight of both the enemy party's tank as well as their own spellblade both lifted themselves, Leif would accelerate once more, howling wildly into the air, as if calling out into the unknown. A series of howls from the wind would call back to the Shaman as thirteen ghostly wolves appeared seemingly from nowhere. Leif clapped his hands, ensuring that they possessed the speed of the winds themselves.

[Spirit Wolf x13, 100 AGI]

"Oi, Mags! Fight's starting without you! Come kick their asses before we do!" Leif barked at the beefcake of a brawler, both figuratively and literally, directing his ethereal pack to his slower ally. They would run like the wind, running at speeds ten times that of a normal man. Alongside them came the invigorating energies of Leif's barked commands, carried along the air. Hopefully, Mags shlild be able to get to the fight sooner, her strength being put to good use as early on as possible.

"Raime, two backliners! One's got a hefty axe with with strings on it, other's throwing up gangsigns! I'll try and get you a clear shot!"

Leif would turn to the casters with a hungry look in his eye. With his bonuses to speed afforded by his kilt alongside Arion's already monstrous engine, the Shaman would start to charge towards the one in the back prepping up some incantations. He had just one more round of enhanced strength from his ritual beads. Hopefully he would be able to make the most of it.

"Alright, Amulak! Blow some shit up on me, or whatever the fuck you do!"

---

Raime would finally reach the general area where Leif and Ames rode off to after significant effort of climbing up the side of the mountain. Made even more inconvenient that he only had one arm to use. But upon reaching the area the telltale sign of his sense of time dilating meant that they'd finally found their quarry. A party of 3 or so it seemed at the moment. Nobody could be too sure that they weren't acting as a diversion for their other party mate/s to make off with the actual supplies. Regardless this was the more immediate threat and seeing the aura-wreathed samurai lady single-handedly hinder Leif's nuclei was intimidating but pumped the virtual adrenaline through his avatar's body. It'll be his first time fighting against a genuine player. This'll be exciting.

Casters were a keystone component to any group and were, more likely than not, the most dangerous ones. There was no contest to which of the three Raime would attack. And it would seem that Leif was more than ready to help him do his task. Using his speed boost given by [First In, First Out Lvl.2] when engaging enemies, the scout moves to a more optimal position to better increase his chance of hitting his targets and, perhaps, scoring a crit by hitting a vital organ. "Got it, but careful around the magic tank! She looks like trouble!" The one armed scout said as he manipulated his weapon with practiced certainty. Expending [50 SP] to shift his sword into its gun form and shooting both the axe bard and the Naruto wannabe. Aiming to disrupt their concentration and let the poison coated bullets do their work.

---

---

aмeℓιa

_{HP: 1920/1920 - MP: 1920/1920 - SP: 1555/1920}
^{_________________} _{[spreadsheet for most recent changes]} ^{_________________}
"Yeah, I'm on it."

The pace of this mission was so fast that there wasn't even time to object if Ames had wanted to. Hopefully these people weren't on the Mora-Sho side, or innocent bystanders. Actually she thought she remembered something about fence sitters being in danger out here, so she tried not to feel too bad about it if that was the case. If something happens I'll just play the 'new player' card!

"Hup!" Ames released her grip on Leif and brought her feet up onto the seat of the bike. Now that the speed was cut way down she could actually maneuver, and she pushed herself into a leap from off the back of Arion. She sailed toward the samurai, drawing the hooked sword as she did.

Ames might still be a novice, but she was learning! Little by little. She could see that the samurai was using some kind of skill, one that looks magical in nature. Who knew what else she was capable of, so Ames' plan was to use up more of the opponent's MP and try and get a leg up on her as soon as possible.

[Power Attack] charged as Ames' sword slowly vanished in her hand, replaced with a ghostly imitation of it. [Art of the Pacifying Blade] targeted the samurai's MP reserves as the red haired warrior came down on the samurai. Ames just focused on the girl in front of her, not worrying about the other two they'd found her with. She kept up the offensive too, following up the Pacifying Blade by resummoning the sword to the corporeal world and slashing.

Amulak al Acturus (Stanislaw)
HP: 2370/2370 MP: 4650/5650 SP: 460/460
Character Sheet

There was a bit of a hiccup with Leif leaving Weishaupt's effective range, but a few moments of frenzied scurrying fixed that, and Amulak reestablished connection as quickly as possible. Just in time, it seemed. Party of three. Samurai tank, some sort of melee bard hybrid, and a more traditional caster. Of course Leif had the poor luck or timing to ensnare the only member of that party that wanted to be straight into the fray. Oh, well.

"I tell you already, I make spooky shit." Amulak sighed over the telepathic link Weishaupt established between himself and Leif. "Summoning backup, try to keep them separated!"

He cast Reanimate Corpse II paired with both Aspirations of Undeath and Dominance of Desecration, erecting two earth golems at the cost of almost a fifth of his mana pool. The first undead golem rose right next to the samurai, its stats optimized for melee combat and already swinging to try to do as much damage to her as possible. The second undead golem creaked up close to the spellcasters. Likely unbeknowst to them, this one was just bait. Its entire AP pool was poured into HP, with the aim being to have them panic and blow cooldowns or strong spells on it.

"And I'll kick your ass too you son o-" Mags yelled back to Leif before the sudden increase in speed caused her brain to quickly reboot.

With the wind on her step thanks to Leif, Mags charged at their back line. Despite her reputation as a slow ass, she was, by virtue of a big stat number, marginally the fastest runner out of all of them. Leif just didn't have to run, so that made that comparison moot. However, the speed boost given to her was greatly appreciated.

Fighting tanks wasn't really Mags' style. She'd much rather blow up some squishy with her mighty fists.

The first strike set up tempo for fights. With the intent of striking the hand-jutsu mage with [Vein-Sealing Acupuncture] to suppress whatever resource they may be using. If she was going in, Mags was going in. Brutality was the name of her game. The samurai would probably have to deal with Amulak's flesh golem and Ames, at least for a moment. Raime blasting the backline would also help her get in.

However, this plan wasn't exactly without faults. She'd effectively be dealing with two people at once. Well, that was a problem for future Mags. Current Mags had a protein shake on the hip and half the mind to Smartman a Sanguine Downpour if things got a little sticky.

And thus, the battle began in earnest!

Foul incantations reverberated through Leif’s body as Weishaupt mimicked the casting motions of its master, the spinal parasite that had sank itself into the shaman’s back unleashing bolts of deathly lightning as he shot for the enemy backline. From the depths of the earth, the millions of insects and vermin that had passed away, decayed away, roused themselves from their slumber, melding together as mounds of earth found humanoid shape. Each of them targeted a different enemy, lumbering forwards with malicious intent.

Ames was the first to draw their blade, however. Humming with unified spiritual energies, the swordsman’s hooked sword turned into a phantasmal vapour and arced through the air, confounding both the samurai’s katana and armor. She widened her eyes, the complexion of her skin paling as her own mana was drained by the singular strike, before narrowing them in determination. Drawing in a deep breath, she let out a war-like shout, the thunderous sound shaking both the Earthrot Golem and Ames to the core, stunning the two before either could continue the offense. And, without hesitation, she angled her katana for the exposed animist’s throat and drove the tip forward.

But neither Raime, nor Mags, nor Leif were in any position to assist. Already, they were at the backline, Raime’s hand cannon erupting with bursts of steam. Rather than singular bullets, the Chihananshi Mk II was naturally a weapon meant for close to mid range combat, and a shotgun blast resounded with each pull of the trigger. The robed kannushi grimaced, his chain of hand signals broken as he brought his arms up to shield his face from the pellets that shredded his body, but the bard jumped back instead. From the sky, a fully-armored crusader landed, bearing dual greatswords and sporting spearheads poking out from every inch of its armor. The shotgun blast did little to give it pause, and with his Type-Guard Nuclei established, the bard began to strum his axe-guitar, multi-colored melodies surging out to further empower his steelbound guardian. One punch sent the HP-sponge of a golem flying back, the specialized stats of a singular undead incapable of withstanding the power of a monstrous Nuclei, while the other hand thrust out. There was a click, a whirr, a holy hymn, before a hailstorm of spearheads shot out, tracking the paths of Leif and Raime.

At the same time, however, Magpie was able to close the distance, the kannushi given no time to react before she unleashed a flurry of acupuncture strikes, each blow sending a scarlet energy racing through his meridian lines. He stumbled back, whatever divine powers he had planned on unleashing sealed, and looked around to see his allies all preoccupied. Suddenly, the deck of talismans he had didn’t look all that reliable compared to the trained and toned murdering machine that was Magpie’s entire body.

“Ah fuck this shit I’m out.”

The earth cracked beneath him, and instantly, the kannushi flew seventy-five meters into the sky, atop a massive, flying boulder from which sacred ropes and talismans were affixed. Immobile and yet daunting, the [Silence] effect placed upon him still meant that it had to be a Type-Castle Nuclei, brimming with some dangerous passive effect…which showed itself soon enough, as a malicious light expanded outwards from the killing stone, and Leif, Raime, Magpie, and Ames’s bodies all began to slowly bubble, weeping welts forming upon their skin.

Amulak, of course, was totally alright. After all, in a party where he was the sole backline, and where his Nuclei offered him plenty of ability to hide out somewhere like a sniper in a ghillie suit, there was essentially no way that anyone would notice him out there, vibing while his gamer buddies caused chaos.

With her skin now bubbling and blistering, time was now of the essence. Mags had to take action to deal with it. With a mech being summoned and her brief moments of alone time soon to be interrupted, she knew that she was one of the few people that could handle this current situation.

Taking a deep squat, each muscle of her leg seemed to flex and contract with a glorious power. This wasn't any ordinary stance. No, this was the power of [Huscle Muscle]. Her agility increased. Would it help her reach such fantastical heights? She didn't know. It was worth a shot.

With a titanic bound, she flew into the sky. The earth under her cracked once more and gave way, this time under the immense pressure of Mags' strength and agility. The roughneck yakuza princess had proven that perhaps man was meant to fly. At least, for a very brief moment. But that wasn't the point of her master plan. Perhaps every moment of being a brawler has led to this. No, that would be too little. Every second of her time in this game was meant to reach this moment of glory. Burning up as much gas in her tank as she could both in digital stats and mental energy, she went for it. This would be the [Guillotine Drop] to end them all.

As Mags approached the kannushi on the stone, she went for his neck. Her glorious arc in the sky was, in her mind, exactly enough to take him back down all the way.

Only one question remained.

Who was going to be Icarus and fly too close to the sun?

---

Leif gritted his teeth at the change of temperature, clicking his tongue at how much mana he had wasted. That ice shield would be really nifty right now. Well, no use mulling over spilled MP. There were more pressing matters to deal with, anyway, like those spears flying for him! Leif quickly changed the trajectory of Arion, spinning his spear rapidly to deflect the brunt of the blows. Still, he took a small chunk of damage from that exchange, spearheads piercing and cutting through his skin as he growled in anger.

"Raime, deal with the bard! Looks like Mags is dealing with that asshole up top!" Leif commanded, whistling for his wolves to rally onto him. While they're currently defanged with their current setup, their damage bonus will be a boon in the long run. They'll also serve as a pretty good distraction as he directs them to circle around the summoned robot.

"Hope you can summon something a bit spookier, Amulak! Or blow up what you currently have!" Leif growled as he rode for Ames. Leaping off of Arion, the Shaman quickly cast his net out to his stunned ally, expecting no resistance as he pulled her just out of the Samurai's stab. He would release the grapple just as quickly as he made it, landing onto the ground in a roll before finding his footing in a cocked position, one of his arms to the ground as he held his spear behind him as if preparing for a leap.

"We're a man down, aren't we... Arion! Go and grab Klein and bring him into the fight!" Leif shouted at his bike as it rode off before he eyed the Samurai warily, waiting for her next attack.

---

His two attacks had managed to cancel out whatever the two were initially planning on doing but now they brought out their own respective nuclei. Raime winced underneath his mask as he could feel his flesh blister and boil, but there was something else that was seething within him. His heart was aflame with the green flames of envy when he saw the Axe-bard's mech like automated armor. So damn badass. He'll feel bad about it later on when they were done, now he needed to avoid a hailstorm of spearheads ready to pincushion him. Utilizing [Quickstep], the one armed scout leapt out of the spearheads. And in a fraction of a second the scout seemed to blur from virtual reality only to re-appear 80 meters away from the spears and closer to the bard. Just as he leveled the barrel of the shotgun straight out of a steampunker's wet dream, spectral wolves appeared at his side. A surge of extra power rushed through his body when he heard the Wolf Shaman's command. "Bard is good as dead!" Raime says as he used his superior Agility and Dexterity to his advantage when engaging his target. All the while shooting the bard another time to shred more armor, softening his target for to melee. It was high time that he put the combos he'd familiarized himself with into practice against another player.

---

---

Amulak al Acturus (Stanislaw)
HP: 2370/2370 MP: 3946/5650 SP: 460/460
Character Sheet

Ah, son of a bitch. There went 500 MP yeeted a good distance away from the fucking mech, and the other 500 MP was currently stunned. Well, no use crying over spilled milk. They'd forced the kannushi to pop their Nuclei, but Mags seemed to be on top of that situation. And with Raime on the bard, the samurai was the issue at hand. Plus, considering Leif's relative proximity to everyone in the fight, the samurai was pretty much the only one of the three Amulak could target with some of his more nasty shit.

"Was going to do that anyway. Oh, by the way. Do best Emperor Palpatine impression. Will be funny." Amulak responded telepathically to Leif, snapping his fingers as he detonated the carrion golem the samurai had stunned, but hadn't moved away from. Immediately following the Necrotic Explosion, Amulak snapped off thirteen words like his life depended on it and channeled the magic through Weishaupt, assailing the samurai with black, cursed lightning. Another 800 MP down the shitter. Hopefully, it'd put this one down, or at least force her to pop some kind of big cooldown. Meanwhile, the meatbag golem continued to steadily plod back toward the fight.

The flex of her own calf muscles sounded like a jet engine’s roar, and with the cracking of the earth beneath her, Magpie leapt up into the sky, her hair and her clothes streaming back as she became a true human projectile. She was an arrow, no, a javelin, no, a goddamn missile of destructive brawn, and watching her ascent, the kannushi could only slap his flying boulder, bading it to rise. Could she make it though? Her hand reached out, five fingers splayed, digits tensed with unbridled might…only to strike the scalding surface of the sun instead.

Her skin melted, her flesh bubbled

The kannushi breathed out a sigh, placed his hands together f-

And Magpie tore the Sun out of the sky.

Two Immortals and a Nuclei crashed downwards, leaving a crater in the aftermath. The kannushi fumbled in desperation, aerial advantage lost and a leg broken by the unexpected fall. Before Magpie could close in on him, a hexagonal barrier formed around her, each surface shining like a mirror.

“Microwave her, Tamamo!”

The downed sunstone gleamed brighter, and its rays focused solely upon the brawler, 600 points of fire damage scorched off her bare flesh.

Raime’s speed, augmented by Quickstep, sent him through the barrage of spearheads unharmed, his steam-powered hand cannon whipping out and sending another blast piercing into the bard with devastating effect. The twinned bonuses of Destructive Acceleration and The Alpha bolstered the damage by an extra 40%, but whatever extra he was expecting out of Leif’s Wild Hunt was missing: the wolves had targeted the spiked crusader, preventing a blast that may have proved lethal. The battle-axe bard stumbled back, however, still feeling the effects of the scout’s attack, but his own hands didn’t stop either, strumming another cord. A pink-hued wave shot out, too wide for Raime to evade, and he suddenly felt that his legs were no longer his own. They hopped in place instead, the scout jigging to the notes of the bard’s music, and without the ability to evade, Raime found himself being grasped by the crusader. His upper torso was crushed by his enemy’s titanic grasp, his lungs flattened from the force. 132 physical damage chunked at his HP, but the worse was yet to come.

As Raime struggled, the crusader drew its great cleaver back, ready to behead him in a single blow.

But Leif was in no position to help. The grass rippled from the shockwaves of Mags’s fiery descent, and yet neither combatant let their eyes off of each other. Steel rasped against scabbard as the samurai sheathed her sword, adopting a low stance. The world narrowed down, seconds split into milliseconds, every iota of focus put upon the density of a single moment.

Then, the Earthrot golem exploded, a poisonous blast of force sending her tumbling. Rolling onto her feet even as necrotic maladies blacked the veins on her face, the samurai spotted sparks of cursed lightning pulsating from Leif’s pecs moments before the Calamitous Revelation was unleashed. She leapt into the air at that moment, bringing her sheathed sword up to block. Black energies splintered against the lacquered wood, some dispersed but more snaking into her arms, locking the muscles in place. A grimace formed, but the warrior was undaunted. Seven meters up in the air, her armor clad by the lightning that circulated through it, she lowered her arms and bared her teeth, tearing her sword out with her mouth.

There was no rasping of steel this time.

Empowered by the dark lightning it had consumed, the blade unleashed an earth-cleaving slash at sonic speed, fully intent on disemboweling the wolfpack shaman that possessed knowledge of the profane arts.

---

To be honest, the situation was quite fucked. Raime was seconds away from losing a head, Mags was getting cooked, and Ames was still recovering from that stunning blow. Amulak was doing fine, but honestly fuck that guy, his spell seemed to have buffed his opponent. To Leif, it seemed that it all boiled down to what he could do. Of course, he was limited to just what those things are seeing as he's just about to eat that samurai's enhanced blade. Was this her Nuclei? If that were the case, magical attacks would be meaningless against her. He needed raw, physical strength to overcome his opponent. Luckily, there were multiple ways to achieve that.

But first, Leif had to help his friends.

"Arion! Roadkill, ten o'clock!" Leif roared aloud, referring to the crippled kannushi and hoping it would do just enough damage to finish him off, if not disrupt his spell so that Mags could do the job instead. As for the bard, Leif's spear arm ignited in a blaze, a flame both dazzlingly bright and sinisterly dark. It scorched Leif's arm as a demonic call of a bird of prey emanated from the shaman's monstrous weapon, taking its tithe: blood for blood. Soon afterward, it would launch from Leif's hand as if it had a life of its own, burning away a significant portion of Leif's life-force as it flew for the bard.

Of course, Leif did not forget about the opponent standing right in front of him. He sunk lower as his entire shape began to change. His silver hair grew longer, his fangs elongated, and his eyes would shift into a bloodthirsty crimson. One-by-one, his equipment would meld into his body, overtaken by his metallic fur. Only the lupine markings on his body would remain, glowing with the same sinister scarlet that was emitted from Leif's eyes. Soon, Leif took the shape not of a man, but of a monstrous direwolf covered in eldritch markings. Such a sudden shift in form would surely shift the samurai's trajectory of her attack, cutting through a large tuft of fur as the cursed lightning surged through Leif's bestial form.

Upon beholding such a transformation, the ghostly wolves howled as if on queue before converging to the leader of their pack. Muscles tensed, Leif quickly took flight, the sudden surge of magical energy from his transformation allowing him to move with a beastlike agility. He would leap upwards, first performing a sick backflip by uppercutting the samurai's blade with his back paw before lunging his fangs right for her neck. He aimed to eviscerate his opponent's neck with a [Crushing Bite], empowered by the strength of his [Wolfkin Blessing] alongside the support of his pack. If his bite didn't finish her off, the demonic spear making its return directly behind the samurai hopefully would.

---

He should have known that the bard had some form of countermeasure against fast enemies...but he was not expecting to be forced to dance a merry little jig. The realization was not the only thing that hit the one armed scout. Just as he was about to execute the gravely injured bard with another shotgun blast, a shadow loomed over him. With a single swipe of the gigantic hand of the bard's nuclei, Raime's advantage was swiftly taken away from him. His ribs cracked and strained underneath the herculean might of the summoned mechanical automaton as each breath only tightened the giant's grip upon him. His desperate attempt to break its grip with the butt of his hand canon was to no avail. To make matters worse, the giant nuclei prepared to lop his head off in a moment's notice. Raime had little choice left in the matter. It was either he kills the bard now or he gets killed himself. Not even a heartbeat passed as he made the split-second decision.

He had to make sure that his next attack against the axe bard would be a killing one. It was time for him to unleash the Jewel of the Valiant, Claiomh Solais!

He lets the Chihananshi Mk II dangle off its air hose as he extends his arm at the axe bard below. The blackened armor shifted into it's cannon form and Raime poured 565 HP, MP, and SP into the shot. "God Searing Light!" And upon uttering his nuclei's active skill, a beam of burning light instantly projects from the cannon. He was not 100% sure of what would happen...but he hoped that when he killed the axe-bard, the giant automaton would die with its master.

---

---

With nothing more than a fragment of HP and SP left and her body looking extremely charred and cooked through, Mags felt something deep and primal about the world.

Magic fucking sucked. There was nothing worse than being cockblocked in what you could and couldn't do. Thus, being trapped in the shame cube made it a bit rough to do anything. Still though, Mags had something that the Kannushi didn't: a slight numerical advantage. If one of her numerous allies could free her, she could certainly do something.

With one of the few things she could do, she summoned her field and lamented its ability. Sure, it was a cool novelty. In a world of magic, constructs, death beams, and bikes, it was a little lacklustre to not be affected by physical crowd control. Still, it was her field. If there was even a 1% chance of it doing something, she'd pop it up at this point.

With the warm seawater under her, she charged at the kannushi. Even if the barrier stopped her, her raw physical strength was certainly something to behold. She refused to die to some wacky snare plus death-beam-for-over-half-HP combo. She'd run over to the Kannushi and do what she was meant to do: pummel this motherfucker directly into the ground.

Especially because her god damn puddle cost SP and the Kannushi's solar sun cost nothing since he could cast that shit while unable to consume resources.

God she was jealous of that shit.

aмeℓιa

_{HP: 1887/1920 - MP: 1720/1920 - SP: 1471/1920}
^{_________________} _{[spreadsheet for most recent changes]} ^{_________________}
Ames was stunned. Literally, stunned, and unable to even brace herself for the blade that was about to pierce her throat. Honestly the red haired swordsman didn't expect any help from her allies, not even considering the fact that most of them were out of range they still didn't really have many strategies focused on teamwork. So the net suddenly yanking her out of the danger zone was a surprise. She stumbled backward briefly and came to her senses after the stun, her equipment blazing hotly as it absorbed some kind of flame effect. No time to even say 'thanks.'

C'mon Amelia, time to get back in the game! She thought to herself. Some shit was going on passed the samurai with the other members of both parties, but it wasn't like she could do much about it... oh wait, she had a healing ability. She hadn't gotten a chance to use it yet, but maybe now was the time. The rest of her teammates had picked up the slack while she was stunned, so might as well leave the "DPS" (she knew what that mean now!) to them. Just had to throw in some support while she was at it.

Leif had the lowest current HP out of everyone, but he was presently a wolf and locked into aerial combat. So next would be Magpie, and hopefully the brawler could last a bit longer until Ames got there. Ames moved to disengage the current opponent, sending Leif and the samurai off with two parting gifts.

"Honō!" The first was the fiery blossom that formed from the sleeve of her haori and burst in front of the samurai's face. The second, an apparition of Ames herself as she activated [Art of the Duo Self]. "Alag hona!"

The two Ames split up, the phantom soaring up to help Leif finish the samurai off, and the original sprinting across the battlefield towards Mags. With luck they wouldn't even need the healing, but best to prepare for it just in case.