[center] [img]https://i.imgur.com/kNmO8zV.png[/img] [b][color=DarkOrange]wordcount:[/color][/b] 1,512 (+3) [b][color=DarkOrange]Amaterasu: level 8[/color][/b] EXP: [color=DarkOrange]///////[/color]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (7/80) [b][color=DarkOrange]Location:[/color][/b] Dead Zone Hinterlands [/center] Everything was going just fine till the hat ended up on her head. She could handle the silly name (she’d had to put up with people giving her silly names before, it wasn’t like she could tell these people hers after all) and the offer to sniff him that she did not take because she could smell his badly washed stink just fine thanks, but the hat! The stinky trashy hat! That was just a new low. And yet. And yet. Technically, arguably, it was an offering. Certainly she could feel the strings of praise that were now bound to it, ready to be strung together with others to empower her such that she could do more good in the world. It also gave her an impression of how upset he’d be should she refuse the hat or ‘accidentally’ destroy or lose it. So this was it, this was the lot of the great Amatarasu. This was how low she had fallen. Or rather, this was the lot of ‘Dog Mullens’ trusty detective dog. Oh the indignity of it all. Still. It had worked, she was in, and so it was off to wherever it was these two were heading she now went alongside them. As it turned out they weren't going far, and soon enough ended up at the mansion she’d seen in the distance while traveling around the village, but never thought to instigate before. Whoever owned such a grand and defensible place was likely doing just fine, and so it had been low on her priority list. This assessment had, however, been wrong, as when Not Kim found and ‘opened’ the entrance it turned out that the locals were in dire straits. Namely they were dead. Yet even more dire, they were still walking. This did not particularly take Amaterasu back, she was mainly just upset that even the death of the death zone had not put to bed the undead scourge in the area. What partially took her back was how previously huffing and puffing Not Kim had first revealed himself to have the power to smash down gates like that, and then also the ability to go to absolute town on the zombies with musical gusto. What [i]really[/i] took her back was Icebreaker following the big man up with an unexpected flurry of martial prowess of his own, one that left her jaw hanging open in shock. She was so shocked that she barely registered the knight approaching from behind, though fortunately he seemed to be of no threat, stepping past them to engage the zombies. He seemed competent enough, and so what little of Amatzur was paying attention put him squarely into the future problems/considerations department, and kept focusing on the nonsense occurring before her. Unfortunately she also didn’t take in the zombie shambling towards her until Icebreaker turned and asked if she was ok, and in so doing would have spotted the closing in undead, his eyes going to it drawing her attention to it. This wasn’t enough to actually get her to move, but it was enough to handle said very minor problem. From the perspective of Harry, the zombie took another step towards Dog Mullens, only for its ankle to disintegrate as its foot came down. This caused it to trip, falling face first into the floor next to Dog Mullens, and at which point its head popped off, killing it before it could lay a claw on the dog detective. Having paused the world in-order to draw the slices through the zombie’s body that had manifested in ways that looked a bit like it had just come apart from its own decrepit nature, the stunned divine recovered enough to recall she could do that, and promptly did so a third time. Rather than start drawing however, she left the world trapped as a canvas, and instead took the time to think, process, and actually come to terms with her misjudgment of Icebreaker. Or, rather, to adjust the mental box she’d put him in. The man clearly lacked much in the way of self restraint, and was quite possibly full of foolishness, but then, were mortal heroes not all fools full of self confidence in some sense? Throwing themselves at things far greater than themselves, and coming out on top through sheer force of will? A regular human could probably do what the Icebreaker was doing, if they had zero common sense, self preservation, or self control, and threw everything into what they were doing in a way humans rarely did so as to not hurt themselves in the process. He was, she thought, like a man she had known called Susano in a way. He was a drunk and egotistical man claiming to be the ancestor of a great hero, who despite his flaws had begun to live up to the legacy he had claimed. Tragically however, the man had been annihilated in the destruction of the dead zone before he could truly come into his own. It was enough of a sobering thought to fully bring Amatarasu to her senses, a task that had taken an eternity and yet, at the same time, not even a heartbeat had passed since she had begun to behold the papered world. Fully back in the moment, she allowed said moment to continue, and put down her brush. Time resumed, and she gave a bark to confirm she was indeed ok, and took an aggressive pose, preparing to do battle alongside this unlikely hero who now had a lot to live up to in her new estimations of him. Icebreaker then immediately let her down by ripping his pants as part of a failed nut punch. She mentally sighed, paused time again, and drew over the rip in his clothing to stitch it back up again. Only then did she get stuck in, dashing forwards into the fray. Unfortunately, she’d used up all three of her inkwells on the 2 slices and 1 pants repair, and so had no access to her divine instrument as she took on some of the rapidly dwindling horde of zombies. She kept it simple, leaping up unnaturally high as pouncing towards and delivering a double kick to its chest with her two front paws to knock a zombie to the ground. She landed with her back to another zombie, which she delivered another kick to with her hind paws, almost like a horse bucking, sending it crashing to the ground. It wasn’t exactly how a wolf fought, but the goddess was well aware that slashing to inflict bleeding wounds or biting out throats wasn’t exactly going to help here. Also she really didn’t want to get any of these thing’s meat in her mouth, a fact she had learned the hard way back in the Dead Zone. So instead of going to savage the dropped zombies like wolf might, she pounced up like an arctic fox intending to dive into the snow, and then her fore paws, one set atop the other, came slamming down onto the skull of the second zombie with all her weight behind it crushing the skull into the mosaic plaza. It cracked, but did not quite break, prompting her to leap up out of its attempts to claw at her, before slamming down again, shattering the skull she’d already been cracking with her second attempt. At this point, the first zombie had gotten to its feet, and came shambling at her, but also by this point, nine seconds had passed since she sliced up the other zombie. Her divine instruments returned as an inkpot refilled, just in time for her to throw her reflector in the way of its attempts to swipe at her, blocking the blow with the divine disk, something that looked mostly like it fumbled the attack to the mundane observer. The follow up was a bit harder to dismiss as something mundane however, as the zombie was launched skywards alongside a leaping Amaterasu, who then proceeded to snag it with her claw and then Fox spirit slam it back down into the ground in a spiraling piledriver which smashed the zombie into smithereens. This left her covered in rather a lot of gore, which she proceeded to shake off of her like a wet dog, an act that worked far better than it had any right too, and left her white coat spotless once more. Unsurprisingly, the hat made for a human head had not stayed on during this sudden burst of violence, and now lay fallen on the floor, splattered with blood and gore. In a moment of self indulgence, the goddess paused time once more, and drew a looping line towards the fountain, causing the hat to be swept up in a gust of wind and promptly dunked into the water. She could hardly wear it now that it was drenched. What a shame. Icebreaker would just have to keep a hold of her gift for now till he could at the very least have it properly washed.