[center][h3]Lilith’s Encroaching Shadow II[/h3]
Lvl 7 Sandalphon (54/70), Bowser Junior, Rika, Roland
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1414

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doklfq6zGL4[/youtube][/center]

Eager to pay the Seekers -and especially Sandalphon- back for the archangel’s shapeshifting stunt, Lilith kickstarted the action with a powerful -and familiar- hex. For the second time, a great many vortexes manifested along opposite sides of the Qliphoth hollow, facing one another as they gathered energy. As a nice change of pace from Carmelized Sweets, the demon’s challengers didn’t need to worry about any patterns or gimmicks, just survival. Given how fresh in everyone’s mind this attack was, Sandalphon hardly felt it necessary to demonstrate her new strategy by marking spots for the others to run to. They just needed to defy their instincts and approach one of the walls of dark magic, so as to not get blasted from both sides at once. 

Unfortunately, given the team’s vitals according to Sandalphon’s scans, this was still a big problem. With Lilith’s wings still intact, these lasers would be unavoidable, and once the smoke cleared her team would be in dire straits. Every few seconds that passed made the Creeping Corrosion in the Seekers’ bodies more lethal, and without any more emergency healing, the archangel needed to charge her skills through damage against Lilith. While the weakness she gained from Azure had seemed manageable at first, the nature of this fight could very well render it fatal. Left with no choice but to press on, however, Sandalphon steeled herself, her eyes squeezed shut. A second later the giant lasers let loose, and an unholy violet luster filled the arena.

Fortunately, while he’d been focused on driving, Jr hadn’t been casting much magic, and so once they were gathered up at the slightly less deadly section of lasers (the prince having painted a trail of ink for him and Rika to sail over there on) the boy started putting it to use

First came two casts of [color=SpringGreen]”Medica!”[/color] one before and one after the undodgeable attacks which at least made things a touch more manageable.

[color=Aqua]”You said something about breaking her wings to stop that?”[/color] Rika recalled after recovering from the microwaving, regarding a comment Sandalphon had made near the start of the battle.

[color=SpringGreen]”Then let’s break them already!”[/color] jr declared, before using [color=SpringGreen]”Presence of Mind!”[/color] to boost his casting speed, and using that speed to generate a storm of small metal shanks that he used to [color=SpringGreen]”Sick 'Em”[/color], sending groups of the blades homing in to shank the wings specifically. 

Rika joined in on the impalement, deploying her Red Baron Drones and sending the sword sized machines arching towards the foe in a pair of claw swipe like gestures, three blades for each wing.

These lasers that Lilith were firing had an unintended side effect when it came to Roland. With them more or less being canceled out or overpowering his clashes due to their special properties, Roland’s Magical Girls finally had its condition fulfilled and he became immune to all of Lilith’s status effect debuffs, had a massive increase in his own defense, and now whenever Lilith attacked him, a corrosive acidic shadow clinged to her making her take 10% more damage cutting through her defense even more. Still, if the Creeping Corrosion he’d purged claimed his healer and allies, he’d be pushing up daisies nonetheless.

Although this buff came with a downside as all the constant damage had been taking a toll on Roland’s fortitude and with the last laser giving him Magical girls did give him his ability, it also Staggered him. A really bad time to get staggered too as Lilith was still in her super form. The extra defense from Magical Girls would help offset the massive defense drop he got while staggered, but he was stunned for a bit while he recovered.

For the moment, at least, the Koopa Kids were doing their best to keep Lilith busy. Their combined power was nothing to sneeze at, and with the extra attention paid to the demon’s wings, more cracks were starting to show. Even Sandalphon managed to get a few shots in, once she set up a new blue tile to stand on. For now her Eye of Sol remained slung across her back, its extra stopping power useless when she needed a casting catalyst on hand at all times. Instead she plugged her enemy’s wings with one ether bolt after another, as in the zone as the archangel could get.

Sadly, the opportunity lasted only a few seconds, and Lilith clapped back with something new. [color=#fa0b0c]”You’ve earned this one…see ya, suckers!”[/color] She cast Sugary Surge and immediately disappeared, with seven copies of her winged staff appearing around the arena: one in the middle and six more surrounding it. A red arrow appeared from each, pointing in a random directly. Sandalphon paused, but only for a moment as she scanned the arrangement. Now, more than any point in the fight so far, knowledge was power. “There!” She used her powers to ping one staff with a holographic screen, then jogged toward it. “The one without an arrow pointing to it.” With a moment to spare she reached the staff she’d indicated, where the archangel knew that she would be safe. That said, there was another problem on the horizon: unaccustomed to this much shouting, she found herself beginning to grow hoarse. It wouldn’t be much longer before her pings would be her only means of communication.

Between them, Jr and Rika had the strength to grab and haul Roland to the spot as well. Jr had plenty of experience hauling peach around while running from plumbers, and with Rika’s very large helping hands doing the same with the larger man was no problem either. 

With their burden they reached safety with only a split second to spare. Each staff fired off an immense, conical blast of deadly dark magic in the direction of its arrow, blanketing the whole arena in stygian purple save for the spot where the Seekers now stood or slumped. By the time the demon reappeared, Sandalphon had produced yet another blue tile, so an ether bolt straight to the braincase beaned Lilith the second she popped back in. [color=#fa0b0c]”Tch!”[/color] she spat as she dusted herself off, displeased to see that her challengers had survived. [color=#fa0b0c]”Where’s the blood? Where’s the carnage!?”[/color]

[color=SpringGreen]”Coming right up”[/color] Jr taunted, as he formed and magically launched more blades from his metal tattooed arm, while Rika’s gauntlet hangers upended up and unleashed swarms of electrical fireflies that buzzed over to deliver static shocks to the demon. Both attacks were delivered without the kids having to lift a finger, which was good because said fingers where still holding on to Roland.

Roland shook himself out of his stagger, noticing he was being carried around by the two kids. [color=d7d7d7]”Thanks kids. Remind me to give you something later. ”[/color] Roland said, getting himself free and ready for more fighting. Annoyed himself, Roland decided to throw an EGO at Lilith, this one being In the Name of Love and Hate, Roland wearing a strange humanoid winged serpent outfit and holding a magic wand in his hand. Behind him appeared a giant heart shaped portal which fired a giant laser at Lilith as the arena temporarily changed into a pink mist filled cityscape. 

[color=#fa0b0c]“AAAGH!”[/color] Roland’s spectacular laser soon dissipated, but it left Lilith seared and smoking, her fangs bared in pained anger. [color=#fa0b0c]“Damn you! Lasers are MY thing!”[/color] With a sneer she conjured two more opposing laser arrays, but this time the vortexes seemed different. They were still violent swirls of elemental darkness, but instead of deep dark purple, they appeared to be a less vibrant red, and Sandalphon could tell why. “Her wings are broken,” the archangel calmly informed the others as she moved to one side. “These lasers can now be avoided.”

Caught unawares in her blind rage, Lilith could only whip around and stare at the shreds affixed to her staff. [color=#fa0b0c]”What!? FUCK!”[/color]

“Language!” As the lasers went off all around, Sandalphon cast her newly-recharged Angelic Praise. It not only restored the bulk of her allies’ health, but allowed her to power through the beam barrage. “Do not succumb to her corruption, children,” she called out to the Koopas Kids as she readied herself to open fire. “We must silence this devil for good.”