[center][h2]Geralt, [color=BFBFBF]Zenkichi[/color], and [color=crimson]Edelgard[/color][/h2]
The Final Hollow- Vs Gravemind
Lvl 14 Geralt (88/140) +6 +8 Collab XP -> Lvl 14 (106/140) 120% OL Charged (Lvl 1)
Lvl 8 Zenkichi (77/80) -> (1/90)
Lvl 4 Edelgard (32/40) -> Level 4 (36/40)
Word count: 1,049 words (2x2 exp)[/center]

[hider=New Ability for Zenkichi]

[b]Aether[/b] (Vanguard)- The user throws their weapon into the air, leaping to catch it before slamming down onto an enemy, following up with a backflipping slash to retreat from counter attack. The first hit restores the user's vitality equal to half the damage dealt, while the second blow ignores half of the target's defense.[/hider]

Geralt could not even spare the energy to cast First Aid on anybody as they watched D’s supine form, laid low by Pit and Captain Falcon’s combo attack. As long as the Consul didn’t dissipate into light like Y had, he knew the vampire still lived. His suspicions were proven moments later as D rose once more, flying into the air. So, he truly had been toying with them? So confident in his success, and for once, Geralt wondered if this was where he would die. If this was to be it, then he would not go easily. He transformed into Ardor Blossom, hurling fireballs at the Consul, but there was not even the slightest shred of hope to deal damage- bats took many of the blows, and those they didn’t D simply dodged, while Geralt and the other Seekers were forced to dodge much more from the Consul. Where before he fought a battle, now D was carrying out an extermination. His spells scattered about the battlefield, blasts of energy and swarms of bats edging into the other fights, which until now had been rather self-contained.

Goldlewis’s sacrifice stopped Zenkichi dead in his tracks, even as the Gravemind’s body retreated to the hideous meteoroid above them. The Secretary of Absolute Defense himself…gone. Taken. No. Not taken. Sacrificed. Zenkichi closed his eyes and sighed, almost all the fight leaving his body. He took a deep breath, a single tear running down his cheek, as a voice within spoke to him. [color=BFBFBF][i]Is this the end of your rebellion, then? Will you give in to despair?[/i][/color] Invisibly, within his own mindscape, chains constricted Zenkichi and Valjean, dragging them down. [color=BFBFBF][i]Was your will truly so conquerable, oh detective? This is hardly the first defeat you have faced.[/i][/color] Outside his mindscape, Zenkichi dropped to his knees, prompting a scornful look from Edelgard.

[color=crimson]”Get up, damn it! You can fall to pieces later, after this fight! And did the girl mean so little to you?! Ugh, fine. Wallow in self-pity for all I care.”[/color] Standing between Zenkichi and the two pieces of Gravemind, she slammed the flat of Aynr’s blade into her shield, relying on the symbol of her Imperial authority to try to draw their attention. She then hurled Aymr through the air with Returning Axe, following up with her last bouncing Fire spell, catching her axe and rushing in to clash with the Floodfested remnants as her spell launched off into the air, missing the rising chunk of Gravemind as it escaped the battlefield. [color=crimson]”Somebody attack that last piece!”[/color] Thankfully, Blazermate was already on it.

[color=BFBFBF][i]So, then, you choose surrender? To lay low down your sword and allow despair to take you?[/i][/color] The voice asked, disappointment heavy in its voice. [color=BFBFBF][i]Is this what a man of justice does? Lays down and gives up when the battle grows difficult?[/i][/color] Zenkichi grabbed his head with both hands, groaning in anguish. [color=BFBFBF][i]Remember your vow, Phantom Thief. You know what you have to do.[/i][/color] Rising, Zenkichi stumbled, regaining his balance quickly as Valjean manifested behind him, largely transparent. [color=BFBFBF]”Condemn the evil, and [i]hunt them down!”[/i][/color] He cried, hurling Ragnell into the air. He leapt forward, catching the holy blade before slamming down onto one of the Gravemind fragments, kicking off the ground in a backflip and slicing a deep furrow into it in retreat. 

As Geralt dodged another pillar of light from D, he groaned in frustration. “We can’t do anything to this guy. But if we split off, he’s free to kill the others.” He grumbled quietly. His arrows and crossbow bolts were, like his fireballs as Ardor Blossom, simply blocked or dodged. There was nothing he could do to attack D, not enough time to cast a spell, and the Consul was too high up and too agile to attack through other means. Even if he could get a Grapeshot that high, it’d barely do anything, and Dimeritium would buy them a few seconds at most. He didn’t dare transform into the much more sluggish LCCB Assistant Manager, even if the weak pistol shots might be able to deal some light damage to the Consul. No, Geralt was well and truly out of ideas. All he could do was survive. Quen shimmered around him to shield him from blows, but it was taking all his focus and effort to avoid the onslaught of magic and summons that D was producing. “If anybody’s got any bright ideas, now’s the time!”

Edelgard slammed Aymr onto one of the Gravemind fragments, chopping into it with a series of slashes that left the abomination aflame. She slammed it with her shield, stepping around to give Zenkichi an opening, and he took it. Blocking an attack from the fragment he was fighting, he kicked off it, summoning Sosha to leap up and impale the thing from above, giving him time to relieve Edelgard and swap foes with her. He lashed out with Ragnell’s blasts of energy and she charged the one he’d been fighting, bowling it over with sheer momentum before jumping onto it and repeating Sosha’s maneuver from much closer, slamming Aymr’s blade into the thing over and over, leaving scorch marks and a deep axe wound which desperately tried to use biomass to close itself. 

Zenkichi carved another line into the fragment he was attacking, the Hitch triggered by Hera’s boon further wounding the fragment Edelgard was now fighting. That boon was pretty useful now that he had more than one thing to fight at once. Feeling relatively tough thanks to all the healing he’d been getting and the re-established buff from Sandalphon’s Covenant, he activated Fury again, bathing himself in Almighty energy and cutting through the animated chunk of Guardian even more brutally. A crimson blade fell on the fragment Edelgard was carving to pieces, further destabilizing it and finally rendering it too unstable to maintain its form, and her next blow tore off a huge chunk of biomass. [color=crimson]”Finally!”[/color] Edelgard cried triumphantly, stomping off a chunk of flesh with her boot and chopping off yet another with a blow from Aymr, leaving behind an eviscerated, burning pile of rotting flesh as she joined Zenkichi. Between his enhanced attacks with Fury and Edelgard’s help, they made short work of the other one, destroying it as well.