"An angel? I wouldn't go that far," the young woman responded offhandedly towards her companion before readying her own weapon of choice—a sniper rifle that seemed just as futuristic as the rest of her Chi-Mechframe. As the other soldiers began firing into the oncoming waves of Warped, Elise steadily raised her firearm up to eye level and began to scan the battlefield. A few holographic visuals popped up in front of her face as she took a deep breath, and the Pilot soon focused her attention on a cluster of larger Warped approaching the nearest barricades.

There was a brief pause as the tip of the barrel glowed, but the flash of light that shot forth seemed more akin to a laser beam than a bullet. One look at the young woman's target would only confirm that such a thought was much closer to reality than not; though it's head had remained largely intact, the hole burned clean through it meant that it truly was no more than a standing corpse now. Even then, the Warped could only remain standing for so much onlyer without any sort of brain to continue functioning, and after a few seconds what remained of the creature toppled to the ground.

Despite the firepower that she held in her hands, though, there was one issue with Elise's ability to contribute to the fight at large—namely, the speed at which she could push through the oncoming horde. All she could do in the end was make sure that every shot mattered, and prioritizing where to aim to begin with—especially in an open battlefield like this—was far from easy.

Hopefully the other Pilots would call if they needed backup.

@SaltSight

---

Despite the efficiency by which the Warped were being dispatched, the horde showed no signs of thinning. Given what they were, such an outcome should have been expected to some extent. This was more a marathon than a sprint, and expecting things to be so simple would have been more naivete than wishful thinking.

Even so, the corpses of Warped strewn about the ground made clear that the capabilities of Frame Pilots were well beyond those of ordinary soldiers, and that their presence here on the battlefield meant hundreds more soldiers could live to see another day.

But if all of the Warped that roamed these wastes were as strong (or as weak) as those here now, would humanity not have taken back what was once theirs sooner?

A ear-splitting screech erupted from the skies near Jennifer, and turning towards the source in the skies above would reveal the cause—a massive avian-esque Warped, sailing through the skies above. The 'head' of the monster had since parted, opening and twisting into a gaping maw from which an ominous red-black light could barely be made out.

Then, the ground was ablaze. The light as it had been quickly turned into a laser that swept across the ground, carving through asphalt and rock alike as it left the ground scarred. It mattered not that the Warped's "kin" tread where it struck. So long as there was "something" that tried to fight back, it only made sense to keep attempting to fire away until the threat was gone.

@Raineh Daze

At the same time, something far swifter had drawn close to Rozaliya. It would be subtle at first—a blur in the distance here, the feeling of 'being watched' there—but as more of the nearby Warped were executed, those signs would begin to increase in frequency.

At some point, it was very clear that the Pilot was being hunted down by something. Once the Warped that had been tracking her realized that it's presence was known, though, the tactics it employed would swiftly change to match. Rather than lurk in the shadows, the quadrupedal, weasel-like Warped—whose size was comparable to that of a small truck—began to close the distance with alarming agility that seemed unlikely for something of it's size. Bounding about from wall to rooftop to wall, the beast eventually chose to close the distance and attempt to pounce upon the prey that was within it's sight. From it's forearms, a pair of blade-like appendages seemed to snap out and into place and aimed right for the Pilot's neck.

@King Cosmos

An oni's face shattered, skull coming apart, pale, shimmering ooze erupting into the air as it collapsed. In almost the same motion, Hoshiko spun and used her momentum, catching a club-arm from one of the larger oni in both hands.

The concrete cracked and split beneath her. She could feel the impact, the shock spreading up her arms to her shoulders.

But she'd stopped the oni's attack.

Gritting her teeth, she squeezed tightly, the rockets spurting to life on her gauntlets. She poured power into her arms, clenching her jaw as the oni raised its other arm. She was going to do this, and clear as many of the warped around her out as possible by doing so!

Her arms tingled, but in moments she had lifted the creature entirely off the ground by its club. With a shout, the pilot spun, twisting her body and swinging the oni as she did, boosters on her limbs roaring as she turned. The oni's bulky, heavy body slammed into the others, its exoskeleton-like skin splitting as smaller oni broke apart in the wake of its impact.

An entire space cleared around her in a moment, broken Warped falling to the ground.

Targeting the next nearest of the large oni, Hoshiko released the oozing wreck of the first warped and sent it slamming into her target, bowling it over and pinning it under its fellow's corpse.

No sooner then the body left her hands, then Hoshiko's boosters blazed to life once more with an explosive roar ripping across the battlefield. The pilot was sent hurtling forwards, outstretched fist shattering one, two, three of the smaller oni. At this pace, they weren't going to stop her, and she wasn't going to stop either! As long as it meant more people were saved, she'd fight as hard as she could!

Another of the large oni was dead ahead. She felt each of the smaller ones breaking apart on her fist as she approached. She'd take it down in one blow, and-

A column of black-red light vaporized it and tore right towards her.

"Ah-!"

She felt the heat searing past her. She could see it tearing a burning scar in the concrete, the oni struck by the beam boiling in their skin and evaporating in an instant.

Hoshiko had only barely managed to dodge.

Something that strong was a grade far beyond the oni they were fighting.

Hoshiko took a deep breath. Her heart was pounding.

That didn't mean they weren't going to take it down. With Whittemore-san in the sky, they were sure to do it!

They wouldn't let it hurt anybody else!

"Whittemore-san!" she called, "Let's take it out together!"

@PKMNB0Y@King Cosmos@Raineh Daze

---

Things seemed to be going well on the other side of the battlefield, for the moment. While the oni were resilient and relentless foes to most opponents, not even their sturdy, glossy skin could stand up to the Frame Pilots' onslaught.

But now it wasn't just the oni.

From a long-damaged, crumbled building, something else was stirring.

It emerged on long, spindly legs, ten ending in sharp points, its skin shiny and pitch black. Each of these limbs were attached to a dish-shaped base, from the center of which emerged a single slender neck. On the end of this neck was a perfectly circular head, covered in bright blue, jewel-like eyes.

Though it was called a Jorogumo-pattern Warped, it only had the barest suggestion of a spider in its anatomy. It was more than three times the height of a grown man, and moments after its emergence it was followed by four more of its kin.

The blue eyes flashed, and with a sound almost like the fire of a machine gun a hail of blue bolts of energy was suddenly directed towards the frame pilots. Little care was paid towards the oni, who had holes burned through their bodies by the bolts of light, falling to the ground and smoking as they were cut down.

@SaltSight@PKMNB0Y

It paid to pay attention to your instincts when dealing with the Warped. If you thought you saw something out of the corner or your eye or that you heard something? You did. Either go see what it was, or regroup somewhere defensible. If you thought you were being watched? You were. Find out by what and where from. If you have a bad feeling? Well, she always had a bad feeling so maybe that wasn’t the best example.

The point was, as soon as Rose had even an inkling that something bigger than an Oni was stalking the battlefield, she abandoned the fight against the chaff and put all of her focus on anticipating where the attack would come from.

She didn’t have to wait long. The Warped that burst out of the rubble before Rose had eve begun to look for it, the weasel-like creature moving swiftly across walls and along rooftops to close the distance to her in a way that made it difficult for her to track or prepare to defend. Soon it was close enough to pounce and it wasted no time in doing just that, leaping from a rooftop and lunging at her with arm blades not too dissimilar from her own.

Rose grimaced, but from a distance it could have been mistaken for a smirk as the pilot dashed forward so that the Warped would pass over her head rather than crash straight into her. Now that it was fully committed to its dive there was nothing it could do about her sudden change of location other than try to swipe at her as it passed above. She barely managed to bat one claw aside with her own and ducked under another, before taking a slash of her own at the inside of its hind leg and leaving a long but shallow cut there.

It landed past her, forepaws touching the ground first and swinging its whole body around so that when the back legs touched down it was already facing her ready for another charge. Rose had already turned around too, staring the creature down with her body leaning forward and arms poised for another attack, looking just as ready to lunge as the Warped was; there would be no retreating from this battle anyway, no backing down. It was too fast and too deadly to try running away from and too large to try defending against. She needed to kill it, before it killed her; simple as.

It would have been way too easy to focus entirely on what was going on below her and miss whatever was going on above. So ''trivial'' to fall into the human trap of not looking up, then get taken by surprise. Especially when you were used to being the one attacking from above and looking down on groundbound opposition. But despite everything about her, Jennifer's reflexes and awareness were still plenty good, and when even the flicker of something from above came into her peripheral version, she moved.

It was a good thing too, coming up well out of the laser's path. How dare this Warped be doing that! She was the aerial specialist here, and she didn't have any sort of cool strafing ability like that! Plus, if she did, Jennifer would try way harder to actually track whatever she was fighting and not just blow up anything and everything that got in the way!

Though it would be really neat to be able to clear a big line of Warped like that without having to descend, maybe that was something she could hope for...

But fine, if it was an aerial battle it wanted, it was an aerial battle it would get! It was huge, and powerful, but she had speed, and if it thought it could win a dogfight against her, then the birdmonster had another thing coming--

Oh, punchy wanted to take it out with her? Good, good! "I'll try to pin it down, you take it out!"

After all, there had to be agility on her side, and if it was constantly twisting to try and get her with that laser or its talons, it would be forced to give up its own dodging to try and get a lock! If not diving to find a way to get an angle. Because of course the flying Frame Pilot's instinct was to climb even higher than the bird monster and dive for its back. If she just had to keep attacking from above and literally push it blast by blast down... that was good too.

Rune continued to dismantle the Oni-pattern methodically. Their orders were simple: reduce casualties by holding the line and focus on large patten Warped. It was the second that he was most concerned with. This area was only beginning to be reclaimed. Though the oni were great in numbers, if they were all that held the prefecture, then the frame pilots wouldn't be here.

Between blunt batterings delivered to the weak Warped, Rune's eyes scanned through the ruins of the buildings as he pressed forward. Nothing but more oni lurking in the shadows, stirred enough by his presence to lash out. With an almost comical bonk motion, he pulverized another into the ground with the blunt edge of his shield. Unfortunately, the moment's distraction was enough for the onslaught of bolts hailing down the street to catch him flat-footed.

Splashes of Saffire light erupted across Wargs armor as the first few bolts landed. His HUD flickering red with alarms indicating the direction of assault, he whipped around, slamming his shield down to brace behind its cover. A glance down showed nominal damage. Gritting his teeth as the sound of the bolts pounding against his shield thundered, blue bolts whizzing around him in a storm. Something had to be done; he wasn't there to be target practice.

"Elise, I'll push their position to keep their fire on me. Do you have a line on them?"

He quickly peeked around the shield to see what they were dealing with. "Oh..." he murmured. He wasn't scared of spiders, but seeing ones the size of a tank was not thrilling. Sheepishly clearing his throat, realizing he was still on the mic.

"I can't see much from down here; let me know what I can do for you. I'll see if I can't get close." With an affirmative nod behind the shield as if she could even see it, Rune took a deep breath.

Tearing up his shield, he began weaving up the street. He couldn't believe The disregard the Warped had for each other. In some ways, it was frustrating that even with their organization and cooperation, humans couldn't hold off beasts that brazenly mowed down their won in pursuit of a single target. These spiders Had mowed down half as many Warped as he had mashed shice he'd landed. It made no sense.

It was only by the slimmest of margins that Elise could pivot away from the projectiles aimed towards her body. Thankfully, the source of the hostile attack had seen fit to aim towards her rather than the soldiers who had kept their weapons trained straight ahead. It was a small solace, but that meant that her attention would have to be focused towards the most direct threat to her safety before resuming any efforts in supporting the JSDF personnel fighting for their lives below.

With that said, though, it quickly became apparent from Rune's message to her that the Frame Pilots were their priority. It was a battle of the specialists against the specialists, then—not something that the young woman had any particular qualms about, but troublesome all the same.

"One moment, please," she remarked, quickly checking to see if anything had clipped her or not, "Need to stabilize before I try anything."

Swiftly reorienting herself towards where the projectiles had originated from, Elise brought her rifle back up to eye-level and took aim. The presence of five of the creatures was not particularly pleasing to the eye, but at the very least their heads seemed obvious enough as targets to fire at. Once one of them was dead center of her scope, Elise pulled the trigger and fired.

Unfortunately, though, the normal bullet seemed to not pierce through the target as it had the larger oni-esque Warped earlier. There was damage, certainly, but nothing anywhere close to lethal quite yet.

"...Damn. Sorry in advance, but you'll probably need to keep them occupied for a while. I need to use high-power rounds for these things, and those heads are small enough targets as-is without having to keep aim," Elise followed, the barrel of her gun beginning to glow as she prepared to finish off the one she had already damaged.

@SaltSight

---

Though it had missed it's initial target, the airborne Warped seemed to have no reason to stop in it's attack upon the Pilots below. There was no way to ascertain it's thoughts (assuming it was even capable of such things)—only that it began to turn around to fire another blast towards the ground below.

What it did not seem to expect, though, was one of the Pilots below disappearing while it was turning. Their position would be revealed soon enough, though, as a direct from above swiftly sent the Warped off balance and spiraling—if only for a moment—towards the ground. Now aware of the threat from above, the birdlike monster seemed to accelerate for a moment, diving towards the ground briefly before shooting back up towards the sky. Again, it's head seemed to reopen, and the unearthly thrum of another laser preparing to be fired towards the new greatest threat here.

There was only one enemy that could meet it in the sky, it seemed, and once that was resolved it could continue scorching the ground below without pause.

@Raineh Daze@VitaVitaAR

---

Despite it's initial surprise attack failing, the Warped seemed to be rather unbothered by the whole affair—or, well, as unbothered as a monster that had no apparent emotions could be. Even seeing that it's prey had managed to land an attack back on it seemed to leave it unfazed as it began to stalk around it's target in silence, slowly circling it as their eyes remained locked onto one another.

So long as the Pilot's focus was wholly dedicated towards the Warped in front of it, though, the shadow of another in the shadows could easily be missed.

Eventually, though, the monster pounced to the side before catapulting off the broken wall of a nearby house to strike once more. This time, though, the howling of a gale piercing through the air behind Rozaliya made clear that this was not a creature that simply hunted alone.

@King Cosmos

The Warped dove at her again, jumping to land flat against the wall of a ruined building before launching itself towards her in an attack that was highly telegraphed. Rose was planning to intercept, legs tensing as she prepared to meet it halfway and gore it with her own claws before it could do the same as her.

Then she heard the second howl and instead leapt up, over the weasel-like Warpeds lunge and hopefully avoiding any surprise attacks from the other.

The second attack never came, at least not before she touched down again, meaning she had lost a golden opportunity to end this fight early. As soon as her feet hit the ground she was moving, leaping towards the roof of the house the weasel had just used as a spring board and looking around to try and spot where the second one was hiding, but didn’t manage to find it in the two seconds she had to look before the first lunged for her again.

Rose threw herself to the side, rolling across the roof of the building as an oversized claw shredded the place she had just been standing. Finding her feet she began to look again, using whatever scant time she had before she had to move again to find where the hidden threat would come from. Still she saw nothing, but didn’t for a second think that she may have misheard or that the second Warped had left to go hunt someone else; it was always best to assume the worst. Sure enough, a skittering sound beneath her gave her just enough warning to dive out of the way as the second weasel smashed its way through the timbers and tiles under her feet.

Jaws snapped shut on empty air, the pilot already clear of the danger for the time being, but Rose was still close enough to lash out with her own claws. The vibrant red blades dug deep into the flesh of the Warped’s snout, tearing through its cheek and ripping out a whole section of fangs as it cut straight through the roof of its mouth and out. It howled, though whether it was in pain or fury or just because it was what something was supposed to do when it was hurt she didn’t know; Rose had never figured out if the Warped could even feel anything to begin with. Whatever the case, Rose was forced to retreat again as it began to thrash about, widening the hole it had made and causing the sections of roof around it to collapse.

Out of the corner of her eye Rose spotted just in time the first weasel closing in on her, the Warped choosing that exact moment to re-enter the fight now that she was distracted with her footing crumbing out from under her. It dove again, a short hop compared to the previous attempts, and tried to take her head from her shoulders. The pilot simply ducked, she didn’t have the room for anything fancier, and swung her own claws overarm to try and catch anything as it passed overhead.

She felt her claws catch on something, briefly, before their immaculate sharpness won out and they sliced through whatever it was easily. Another howl sounded out behind her and beneath it she heard a solid thud as something heavy landed next to her. Rose ran away again, jumping clear of the rapidly deteriorating building and back down to street level, but not before she caught glimpse of the bloody, severed paw of the weasel; blade and all.

Well, it was something.

Attacking when she couldn’t guarantee a kill had been sloppy, but at least she had restricted her opponent’s offensive options somewhat and hopefully made it less mobile at the same time. Still, the Warped was hardly any less dangerous just because it was wounded.

Great! Working together, they're take this thing down for sure!

But she did have to clear a little bit of room. The oni-pattern warped were already advancing on her again.

But she didn't need that much room.

A sharp kick cracked the nearest oni's outer covering, and the booster on Hoshiko's arm roared to life as she wound up and sent it forward, pulverizing the front of the next nearest warped's skull before skidding backwards and looking up. If Whittemore-san could keep it pinned down---!

The concrete beneath her feet cracked as Hoshiko squared up her stance. Her heart was pounding. She didn't have the mindset to make a lot of calculations about trajectory and arc of ascent and all that. It just wasn't in her nature.

But she was pretty sure that she could pull this off.

She just had to aim right.

Hoshiko took a deep breath, as the heat in her boosters began to grow. In moments, there was a roar behind her as they flared to life, scorching the concrete beneath her and sending small debris tumbling away. An ordinary boost wouldn't cut it, she was going to have to reach the flying warped as fast as possible.

The roar grew louder. She couldn't fly, not really.

But this would be close enough.

The heat erupted beneath her, the world blurred, and she could feel the wind whipping against her face. The concrete beneath her fractured, and the oni-pattern warped that had been trying to reach her were blown away as she hurtled into the sky.

Hoshiko was using herself as a missile to reach the bird-jet warped and hit it as hard as she could.

@Raineh Daze@PKMNB0Y

Watching for its response rather than continuing her aerial dance was a smart move, had she just blindly continued trying to avoid it... well, she would have been lasered for sure. Who knew how that would have turned out, beside painfully. But hovering, watching, gave her enough warning to note when it was actually taking aim for her and avoid the Warped's beam.

As well as when to take emergency correction to account for the impact from below sending its aim haywire. Punchy must have come through!

Which meant that it was her turn to attack again, hit this bit piece by piece while it was disoriented--no doubt, now, going to try and focus on the much more damaging threat from below, which would give Jennifer the opportunity to dive in. Not aiming fruitlessly, this time, she was going to try and pummel uh... well, it probably had a neck area, right? So just hit that again and again before she had to pull out before getting a faceful of vaporisation. Maybe that would drop it? If the impact from the rocket punch was enough. Or maybe they'd need another round.

Or something.

As it began to soar away from the two enemies in it's sights, the avian Warped soon found itself having to contend with one more issue. As it turned out, the target it had assumed was grounded had some way to meet with it in the air. That alone would have been enough cause for it to have to recalculate the method by which it went about it's assault, but the speed at which she was approaching meant that there was little proper recourse to be had.

Though it had ascended three quarters of the way back up into the sky from where it had been brought low initially, having an unexpected variable close the distance between it and the ground—much less landing a proper hit to it—meant that there was little else the Warped could do but try and mitigate the damage. If the enemy was moving in a straight line, then all it could do was try and turn so that the blow would maybe clip it's wings at best.

All the while, of course, it attempted to swerve about to try and return fire with a laser blast of it's own. The beam that had been charging was not yet at full power, granted, but given the rapid approach of the other more aerially-inclined enemy, the only goal it had now was to deal as much damage as it could before what looked to be an inevitable death.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze

---

In spite of the losses they had incurred, the weasel-form Warped seemed to be less agitated than expected—apparent inherent responses to pain aside, at least. Their injuries were by no means insignificant; losing a chunk of face was one thing, but an entire arm was another. The one unfortunate enough to have lost the latter quickly let out an odd cry—something between a screech and a howl—before attempting to retreat. The other seemed to move in turn, acting to bar the path so that it's companion, injured as it was, could move away from the battlefield.

Given the general logic by which the Warped seemed to operate on, though, that would have been rather strange. Any attempts at pursuit, though, would be met with fierce resistance from the sole Warped in front of Rozaliya. Now that it had been given a chance to be made aware of what her abilities were, the monster seemed to be attempting to leverage the distance between it and her. If it could not properly meet her in a head-on clash, then it only made sense to slash and stab at a range beyond hers before retreating to safety. If she chose to break away in pursuit of it's partner, though, it would be a simple enough matter to cleave at an exposed back to force attention back on itself (if not something notably more lethal).

@King Cosmos

Something was wrong.

You would think, given the situation, that Rose would have been relieved to see one of the Warped begin to slink away from the fight; limping away on three legs while the more intact one blocked her path. She wasn’t though, because Warped were not in the habit of retreating no matter how badly injured they were; the things, wherever they came from, didn’t often show a sense of self-preservation, so for one to do so now, for one to act differently than she was used to seeing?

It was worrying.

She couldn’t let it get away. Honestly, she had no idea what would happen if it did, but it wanted to get away which meant Rose wanted it not to get away; in situations where she didn’t know what was going on, simply denying the Warped their objective was good enough. Usually that objective was killing her, which she was happy to prevent, but the idea was still sound.

Before she could stop the more wounded of the two from leaving however, Rose needed to deal with the one that was standing in her way. Any move she made to get past it was blocked as it moved it body to intercept, the thing far faster and more agile even with its size; she wouldn’t be able to kill its partner before without it stopping her. Any time she took her eyes off of it to look at the other one it began to edge forward, threatening an attack if she focused her attention anywhere but at it. Her only apparent choice was to tackle it head on, kill it quickly, and then go after the other; that would have been difficult and risky enough as it was, but she had the distinct feeling that as soon as she committed to fighting the weasel in front of her fully, the wounded one would break out into a sprint and be gone before she could disengage or win. So, she needed to kill the Warped blocking her path quick enough that the wounded one didn’t have time to open up an insurmountable head start, without being reckless or giving the Warped an opportunity to kill her.

Great. No problem.

Gritting her teeth, Rose burst into action. She leapt forward suddenly; not towards the Warped, but towards what was left of the building they had just been fighting on, jumping up to the edge of the half-collapsed roof and leaning her body far enough forward that her next leap, which would take her past the Warped blocking her path and after the wounded one, was highly telegraphed. She leapt forward again, pushing off of the raised ledge at the edge of the roof as she shot herself forward at the same moment that the Warped timed its own leap to intercept her in mid-air; their two leaps sending them both on paths that would end with Rose skewered on a pair of lethal sickle-like blades that she would be unable to avoid.

Except when the Warped’s path intercepted her own, Rose wasn’t there. She was still at the edge of the roof, her forward trajectory being harshly halted by the fact that the red blades on her tail had been secured anchored into the side of the building. The masonry cracked and the blades tore a foot and a half long path through the concrete and it felt like her tailbone was being ripped right out of her back, but Rose had successfully feinted the Warped into leaping to catch someone who wasn’t there.

Pulling her tail out of the wall, Rose rushed forward for real this time; jumping forward with her arm blades extended as she lunged for the weasel-like Warped while it was still in mid-air and wondering why its prey wasn’t impaled. The blades of one of her arms plunged into the side of its chest, sinking all the way up to her fingertips as it pierced through ribs and lungs and heart; assuming it had any of those things, she’d never done an autopsy of them. The blades of her other arm found its neck, cutting through arteries and windpipe and spine.

It fell limp and Rose pulled her arms free before its weight could drag her down.