[center][h2]Diabolical Incantation II[/h2]
Lvl 3 [color=ef6069]Grimm[/color] (31/30) Zenkichi, [color=D34C25]Primrose[/color], Lvl 9 [color=gold]Roxas[/color]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2383 (+3)[/center]

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKbF-tmwD7k[/youtube][/center]
Once its spine-chilling shriek concluded, the giant, deformed hatchling thundered forward toward the grouped-up Seekers, its head lowered like a bull’s as it charged. As the Grimmchild flew clear, Grimm himself threw open his cape, and firebats fluttered forth to meet the horror’s brutish charge. Not even direct hits to its engorged cranium slowed it down, though, and with clawed footfalls heavy enough to crush bones the demonic bird crashed into the middle of the group. Roxas had only enough time to renew Tailwind on himself before Malphas suddenly crashed into them and began her tantrum-like attack. Even with the speed boost from Tailwind, the Nobody still had a hard time avoiding all the attack impacts and one of them did manage to briefly knock him down.

Grimm teleported mid-barrage, appearing just out of range to fire off the final firebat, but the Troupe Master harbored no delusions about being safe here. Heedless of the heroes’ projectiles, the monster hopped up and down in two enormous stomps, like a colossal child throwing a temper tantrum, with the full weight of its body behind each slam. Even though it didn’t land on Grimm, its tremors almost floored him, and with only a split second to spare he noticed that the bird had reoriented itself with each stomp–toward him. It burst toward him, closed the distance so fast that it clipped Grimm and knocked him down. As it hopped up again he scuttled sideways without rising, at least four legs on full display. Unfortunately, while he managed to avoid the killer stomps, he’d dodged back toward one of his allies, and after two stomps the hatchling charged that way. The Troupe Master took a hefty blow from one of its legs in passing and burst into bugbats that buzzed to safety.

As Grimm was evading and escaping Malphas, Zenkichi was making preparations. [color=BFBFBF]”Primrose, now! Spread this one out!”[/color] he called as Valjean appeared behind him. [color=BFBFBF]”Rakukaja!”[/color] With Sealticge’s Seduction to spread the defense buff to the whole party, Zenkichi hoped that meant they’d all get a healing burst from Restoration Protocol as well. 

[color=D34C25]"I'd be happy to perform for you anytime, but perhaps with a little more warning in the future,"[/color] Primrose called as she swiftly moved into her dance steps. It wasn't as easy or quick as casting a spell, after all. As she was performing the final movements the bird's rampage continued until it had reached her too. [i]The show must go on,[/i] she thought with a grimace as she stayed put and completed her dance. It took effect on Zenkichi, and thus his Rakukaja took effect on everyone else, just before the demon slammed into Primrose. It sent the dancer to the ground where she tumbled away with a burst of lashing thorny vines, while at the same time the bird rounded on her dance partner.


As Malphas reached the Phantom Thief, Zenkichi hefted Ragnell and braced for impact, grunting as she landed from her first leap, and being knocked back from the second. Still, between Rakukaja and the healing he’d gotten, he was hardly on the verge of defeat. [color=BFBFBF]”Sorry!”[/color] He sheepishly replied to Primrose, still needing to get used to some timings with his new allies.

Roxas was quickly back on his feet and - without much time to deliberate - cast Tailwind again on Primrose and Zenkichi. Unfortunately, Grimm proved too difficult to target for the time being due to his initial teleport. And then he also dodged back toward Roxas himself before he could finish casting, effectively interrupting him. This resulted in the Keybearer getting knocked away by another of Malphas’ attacks. And once again, the Troupe Master had moved away in a manner that kept Roxas from renewing his Tailwind buff.

[color=gold]”My Turn!”[/color] Roxas said, vanishing on the spot and reappearing in order to slash at Malphas from behind with his StepSword. Like usual he followed that with a sort flurry of Keyblade strikes.

Not far off, Primrose picked herself up and pushed a few loose strands of hair out of her face. The demon's lower body was causing too much havoc it seemed, but as for how to stop it... only a few ideas came to mind. Once back on her feet the dancer took in a deep breath and burned up two of her BP. As the glowing aura surrounded her, Primrose conjured a boulder which grew larger and larger thanks to her Boosts. If she could pin it down or cripple it, then maybe the Seekers could start a real counterattack.

[color=D34C25]"Give me an opening,"[/color] she said, though whether it was a request of her allies or a demand of Malphas, it was hard to say. The demon itself had stopped its targeted charges in favor of violently flailing around, its merciless beak and talons ready to do even more damage.

[color=BFBFBF]”Well, gun attacks worked before, so let’s give this a shot.”[/color] Zenkichi called out, drawing his dual revolvers and unloading both cylinders at the demon, before resummoning Ragnell and launching a series of energy blasts.

Observant and calculating even in the midst of this chaos, Malphas was wise to the dancer’s plans, but whether or not she could get her lower half to cooperate was another story. “Her! Attack her, you fool!” she screeched, but the hatchling would not listen. Instead it went after Zenkichi, driven into a savage fury by his barrage of projectiles. It rushed him down and lashed out with a stone-shattering beak slam, and while that could be dodged without too much trouble, the same couldn’t be said of the sweeping wing strikes that followed. In the midst of its assault on Zenkichi, Grimm warped in, having coalesced from a swarm of bugbats back into his regular self. After a split second spent hanging in the air, he dove down in a corkscrew kick into the side of the demon bird’s head, then kicked away as it went to stomp him. Though simpler to deal with in theory without Malphas’ magic to back it up, this freak of nature was strong and unpredictable, so the sooner this came to an end, the better. As Grimm slid to a stop just out of harm’s way, he could only hope that his and Zenkichi’s efforts had given Primrose her opening.

The massive boulder flew when the opportunity presented itself, the dancer herself willing it to smash down onto the demonic bird with a wave of her arms. It hurtled over the heads of her allies and came down as a single rock slide, solid and heavy.

Zenkichi dodged out of the way of the beak slam, but as Grimm reappeared he would see Zenkichi being smacked about by the demon body’s wings, grunting but standing his ground in the wake of the assault. As the Troupe Master hopped back from his own attack, Zenkichi did the same, just in time for Primrose to launch her boulder.

And then there was Roxas, who Malphas had seemingly forgotten about since his initial opening strikes. That suited him fine, since it finally gave him a chance to cast a new Tailwind buff on Grimm. Then as usual, he used the instant movement from his StepSword to position himself above the hatchling in order to attack Malphas directly from behind. [color=gold]”Did you forget something?”[/color] The Nobody taunted while letting loose a second flurry of Keyblade strikes. This time he decided to punish the demon for ignoring him by extending the combo into a Cross Slash that would serve as the finisher. And then he followed that by summoning Poltergeist and letting the bedsheet ghost apply her buffs to him, including Stealth. If he could stay on the move and keep harassing the demon woman, she wouldn’t be as effective at observing his allies’ attacks and ordering her hatchling monster around.

Of course, the demon bird had been completely out of control for a while now, and things weren’t getting any better for Malphas. Courtesy of the dancer’s magic, chunks of solid stone rained down from above. The demon’s torsos unleashed their magic to surround themselves with dark spikes, shielded like some manner of nightmarish hedgehog against rock and Nobody alike, but her lower half wasn’t so lucky. It took the full force of the rock slide, bursting the ulcerated growths on its head and cracking its bones. After letting out a horrible shriek, the hatchling hit the ground with a slam, but on impact a dark pool spread out beneath it, into which the malformed carcass began to sink. A second later and Malphas was gone, vanished without a trace.

Primrose's boost wore off, but she didn't relax. She would be a fool to consider the demoness finished with just that.

Zenkichi watched as the demon's body sank into the ground, and Malphas with it, though the latter gave him much less relief than the former. 

Roxas reappeared as the buff from Poltergeist wore off. [color=gold]”Now where’d she go?”[/color]

Then, in the heavy silence that followed, the whole hollow began to darken. Grimm peered around through the gathering gloom until he identified a solitary, inexplicable light cone in the arena’s center. The next moment, the three voices of Malphas echoed through the hollow in a shrill cry. “Resurrect! Rise with my power!”

Then Malphas’ torsos emerged beneath the spotlight, ringed by crystal spikes as the three bodies loomed over their magic cauldron. Dark magic emanated from their crucible at an alarming rate, radiating throughout the whole room. Waves of spikes washed outward from the middle, and dark orbs rose up from the bubbling brew once or twice a second. Around them the oil shale floor began to melt and roil like a stormy sea, and unseen daemon voices swelled in nightmarish chorus, building in intensity alongside the sorcerer’s magic. Whatever was coming, it couldn’t be good. 

[color=BFBFBF]”Yeah, of course it wouldn’t be that easy!”[/color] Zenkichi cried, rushing forward. A huge charge-up move like that spelled bad news for everybody involved. With Rakukaja still active, Zenkichi could use Heat Riser to buff himself, but with the Guardian coming up soon, he wasn’t sure putting that much energy investment into this fight was the best strategy. Besides, he had something that’d do some pretty serious damage even without the buff at the ready. [color=BFBFBF]”Valjean, no hold barred! Agneyastra!!!”[/color] As he cried out the attack name, Valjean struck, a trio of powerful meteors hurtling directly at the stationary Malphas. His focus on offense meant that even as his meteors slammed down, though, Zenkichi received a geyser of spikes the next moment.

As before, Primrose chose to stay back. In her place she sent her striker Bianca to advance with the others. The noble succubus charged in with her heavy sword raised in ochs stance, aiming a powerful thrust at the demoness. The tip of her blade drove forward into Malphas, and she pulled the weapon back to prepare to impale the triplet once more.

Her summoner rose slightly into the air to avoid the fresh wave of spikes. She had been casting so much and so quickly since entering the Qliphoth that even her naturally high mana recovery was struggling to keep up. But she couldn't exactly afford to take a break, especially not now with the massive amount of energy Malphas was gathering, spelling nothing good for the Seekers. Primrose thrust her hand out as she gathered her own mana, silvery light forming around the demon in the form of another round of Luna that would explode from beneath her.

Roxas had paused, albeit only for a moment. With so much in the way of projectiles and blasts from his teammates, it had become increasingly difficult for him to keep the pressure on Malphas without the risk of taking friendly fire. But at the same time he had to do [i]something[/i]. The Nobody vanished once more, again using his StepSword to get in an instant slash at the demon’s back. While his normal instinct was to follow that up with some Keyblade strikes, he could see the spells coming from his teammates and so instead he backed off to avoid getting caught by them. But not before generating another cluster of virtual blocks on top of Malphas and the hatchlings so they could get in some constant touch damage before the spells from Zenkichi and Primrose inevitably came crashing in.

While the others -including the Grimmchild- unleashed projectiles or warped in, Grimm rushed forward over the open ground. He leaped over wave after wave of spikes and scuttled to avoid the demon’s dark lances, and right after Luna exploded beneath Malphas in silvery radiance, Grimm made his move. The Troupe Master charged up the oily swell to deliver a trio of claw slashes that ended with an uppercut that carried into the air. He teleported in a blast of scarlet flame that rained down large fireballs, and after reappearing a short distance away he sank his coattails into the disturbed ground to pierce Malphas with sharp spikes of his own.

By then, though, the demon had risen almost two stories, and the mound of pitch-black bone slurry beneath her was huge. Her challengers had hurt her in strong bursts, but they’d either fallen afoul of her defenses or held back to not harm one another, so their overall damage per second had not been high enough. With a wordless cry Malphas cast her spell, and the mound beneath her exploded in an omnidirectional blast of dark magic that revealed the reborn hatchling before her, wings spread as it crowed in victory. Grimm and his allies were thrown to the ground, agonized by internal damage, but not without hope. Their efforts had ensured that Malphas’ ritual had been incomplete, and her lower half was only partially restored. Grimm rose to his feet and accepted the wounded Grimmchild under his wing, his eyes on Malphas as black droplets rained down. This would be the final stretch.

“A futile attempt!” Malphas jeered at them. While two of her torsos remained forward, the highest one had twisted around to pre-empt any more backstabs from Roxas. That one began to cast dark orbs, while others sent forth more spikes and a portal for the bird to kick Primrose through, respectively. “Now die!”