Miraculously, Ashlyn did not appear to lose her head over the revelation that a dead woman had returned to life. This did not keep the newly-revived ninja from shivering violently, more from the shock than from the rain. Still not knowing what to make of the situation, Harper simply sat there limply while her ally mumbled under her breath, and when Ashlyn attempted to pick her up, Harper felt surprised. The next moment, however, she was on her feet, her footing shaky. Looking at her own pale, dead-looking hands, Harper could only feel tremendously disturbed. Yet, the firmness of Ashlyn's demand roused her from her trance—the pyromancer's voice was the lifeline to which she attached herself in this storm of fear and bewilderment.
”Oh...okay. He has to know how to fix this. He must. And everyone has to know what happened.” She nodded, repressing the turbulent feelings that threatened to overwhelm her behind the resolve to help her guild. Together, the two took off running.
They arrived back at the camp to find it deserted. Not a single soul remained. Even the three C-rank soldiers left behind for their own safety, and to guard the guild's belongings, had steeled themselves and run after their comrades to engage in battle. For them, everything was on the line, and they could not stand by in this critical time. On closer inspection, there was one remaining occupant in the camp: Thor, splayed out on the ground and unconscious. She couldn't provide them any help, but even still, Harper could feel something. The same dark magic that revived her sang out like a malignant maelstrom on the other end of town, and the way it called out to her terrified her more than she could say. That galvanizing warmth on the back of her neck, however, bid her speak.
”There's a...a storm of black magic on the other end of Belka. Everyone must be there fighting it. We have to go too.” When her eyes fell on Ashlyn, they were milky, glazed over, but still they contained a semblance of passion. Trusting her ally to follow her, even through the beating rain, Harper began to run again.
Graveyard
Ni Rensa, Eliza, Edith Riggs, Kilo, Joakim Fortinbras, Heisty Beardo, Kumbha Yatta, Bytan Brass, Mercury Marowit
Argus Leandros, Ike Riven, Riona Ymir, Damian Gerard, Gabriel, Sengoku Enma
@raijinslayer@zarkun@oblivion666@caits@hatakekuroFor all her speed, Ni found herself momentarily outmatched by the tenacity of Phoenix Wing's Blade. When Damian extended her a hand to help her up, she wasted no time accepting it and using his body to vault even higher onto the monster's frame. Not every soldier would be able to clamber up the monster like this, particularly with its aura of despair practically oozing from every repulsive pore, but Ni was determined to make the most of it. Nevertheless, her hair stood on end and her tail went rigid with fright. She did, fortunately, work up the will to voice a concern to the man responsible for her achievement of this height.
”It's just a pile of skinya and organs shaped like a giant, though. I don't think it has anya weak spots.” After she said this, a nauseating rumbling noise echoed through the Flesh Giant's body. Reacting instinctively, Ni cried out at swung her axe into the wall of gore upon which she clung. As it moved, the axe changed shape, becoming much broader. The instant after she buried her weapon in the abomination, Ni hopped madly to the side, just barely managing to keep from falling. The reason why became apparent immediately: thanks to some unknown power, the axe detonated like a grenade. A messy chunk of flesh flew from the monster and splattered on the ground below, still wriggling as though alive. Moving back over, Ni peered inside the hole and found only more disgusting, violated flesh within.
”It's a start...” Producing a stone chip from her pocket, Ni watched as it transformed into a new axe before continuing her ascent.
Meanwhile, the earth rumbled threateningly between the might of an oni's magic. His was a respectable idea: if magic would not affect the Flesh Giant in any significant fashion, he could nevertheless impact it by reaching out to the ground upon which it stood. Yet this plan, appropriately for its creator, exhibited a perilous amount of impulsiveness and lack of forethought. After all, the town of Belka stood at least partially on a precipice over a canyon far, far below. Only after this battle might Enma realize how completely he lucked out in his quake not sending portions of Belka tumbling to a messy end. At the moment, though, his tremor shifted the ground enough to cause the giant to pause.
In a spectacular fashion, Argus pole-vaulted his way onto the daunting aberration. Despite this marvelous display, the damage he did to it with daggers could only be described as paltry, and even though he succeeded in inserting a lacrima into the Flesh Giant's outer layer, its position did not even come close to being central.
Into the air Ike blasted himself, and around him negative energy swirled like a black hole, constructing from chaos the shape of an enormous mallet. For the first time, the Flesh Giant seemingly reacted to an attack. The very act took on the mantle of a sinister omen: could it be that this nightmarish abomination had not even noticed the soldiers swarming around it until now? Yet notice it did, and one of it colossal, misshapen arms moved toward the source of what it apparently perceived as a threat. The great hammer fell, but the hideous one's arm rose, and as the two met the sound of horrid, distorted screaming rent the air. A hundred voices or more composed that haunted, wretched cry, each set of vocal cords slave to the corpse amalgam of which they were part. All could see that the physical force of Ike's awesome hammer, delivered in a moment of something approaching vulnerability thanks to the efforts of Enma, halted it for a moment. Chunks of flesh sailed down from the impact point and flopped around on the ground.
The next second, a screaming orb of condensed fire bulled into the monster's leg. Rather than exploding instantly, it dug into its target's flesh, creating a crater. Then the Blitz detonated, the deafening noise stunning for a moment anyone too close, but when the whorl of flame died down no real damage had been done. Bytan's warning rang true, but still the sight inspired despair in all who saw it. Sadly, this was only the beginning.
Before the eyes of Frenzy Plant, the Flesh Giant began its own attack. Its roar shook the night, and from its body it jettisoned hundreds of piece of flesh, each twisted into a deadly projectile drenched in toxic fluids and wreathed in foul energy. The soldiers attempting to climb the aberration were in the most peril. Ni's keen ears alerted her to a change in the flesh right in front of her, and without a second's hesitation she threw herself free, moving her expanding axe in front of her body to block. Instantly two spears of noxious, defiled bone shot outward from where she'd been clinging, striking her axe with enough force to crack the stone and break the weapon apart. If the war sphinx had stalled for just a second, she would have been brutally and ruthlessly killed, then most likely resurrected as a ghoul to fight against her own allies.
"Myaaaaaaaaaaagh!" Ni fell back toward the ground, careening out of control, but her guildmates had their own problems. If any soldier failed to go on the defensive, the consequences would be dire.
Hundreds of meters away, the feet of an old man and a hefty young woman beat against the ground. Around them the remainder of Frenzy Plant's soldiers, acting as guards, were forced to slow down to accommodate them. All the same, they came.
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