So question: in Yuiwa (And other places), do monsters just prowl the streets? Like, do you have to take a pitchfork with you during your enthusiastic walk in the woods?
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The Perfect Paradox
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They'd be dragged down wailing trying to jump with a heavy ass weapon like a halberd or a glaive.
Polearms are like axes on Pinochio's nose after he enthusiastically insisted he never got into the cookie jar
Is it okay for me to ask questions here? I just discovered this, and I have _some_ experience with FFXIV. I like the premise, and already have some ideas. I just need to know more about the world.
Where can I find the "OP", and the Discord server? I might be interested
After the appearance of Tien Fei's volcano, Kaitlyn kind of just... mentally clocked out.
How... How could she possibly do anything about that? How could she contribute?
The short answer? She couldn't. She had done all she could... and now it was time for the real heroes to take the reins. Kaitlyn was a fool for ever hoping she could actually make a change. That one frightened young girl meant anything in the grand scheme of things.
It would have been so nice to just succumb to her despair, there in that tower, out of sight and out of mind, but there were still people she could help. The regular, mortal people-
Like the ones staining the sands, where they'd been consumed by Tien Fei
- Regular people she could... evacuate. Yes. They need to evacuate all of them, or as many as they can. Whatever happens here today, nothing on this beach will be safe by the end.
So, asking to be returned to her squad, she got to work, putting her mind and body to the task.
It was over before she knew it, at once sooner than she expected, and later than she had hoped. She'd saved... Some people. Not enough.
Not enough.
But... There was no but. No excuse. She could have worked harder. Should have worked harder.
She felt dizzy, and light headed, kneeling on the ground. Her squad surrounded her- or those that cared enough to give her time, at least. She assured them she was fine, but was she really?
I'm fine enough. There's still one last person I have to save.
Someone she had already saved, albeit indirectly. Somebody she needed to get back to.
And so, struggling back to her feet, she excused herself- with permission- and made her way back to the Auditorium. She didn't care about obsidian or diamonds in that moment. They could wait.
Please be okay...
How... How could she possibly do anything about that? How could she contribute?
The short answer? She couldn't. She had done all she could... and now it was time for the real heroes to take the reins. Kaitlyn was a fool for ever hoping she could actually make a change. That one frightened young girl meant anything in the grand scheme of things.
It would have been so nice to just succumb to her despair, there in that tower, out of sight and out of mind, but there were still people she could help. The regular, mortal people-
Like the ones staining the sands, where they'd been consumed by Tien Fei
- Regular people she could... evacuate. Yes. They need to evacuate all of them, or as many as they can. Whatever happens here today, nothing on this beach will be safe by the end.
So, asking to be returned to her squad, she got to work, putting her mind and body to the task.
It was over before she knew it, at once sooner than she expected, and later than she had hoped. She'd saved... Some people. Not enough.
Not enough.
But... There was no but. No excuse. She could have worked harder. Should have worked harder.
She felt dizzy, and light headed, kneeling on the ground. Her squad surrounded her- or those that cared enough to give her time, at least. She assured them she was fine, but was she really?
I'm fine enough. There's still one last person I have to save.
Someone she had already saved, albeit indirectly. Somebody she needed to get back to.
And so, struggling back to her feet, she excused herself- with permission- and made her way back to the Auditorium. She didn't care about obsidian or diamonds in that moment. They could wait.
Please be okay...
Kaitlyn had already been scared (and not just for her life) when the ground had tried to eat them, and she was practically suffocating herself with baited breathe as they escaped onto a helicopter.
That would have been bad enough without a fucking [I]kaiju[\i] hadn't shown up. Despite the gravity of the situation, she still found her mind drifting to scenes from Godzilla and Pacific Rim. She thought about the overpowered weapons used in those movies, but...
Ari... She'd never even bothered to learn her name. Miss Lei's response had assuaged her fears earlier, but now-
Whipping out her binoculars, she zeroes in on the fallen Arms Master.
No...
She can't make out any fine details from this distance, but she's pretty sure that's a smoking-
"No. Please no."
The image of a baleful sun sprung to life in her mind, like the Eye of Sauron glaring down at her.
She felt her hands shake, her vision unfocusing.
How does she help? What can she do? She's too far away- and for what? What assistance could she bring? What can she do?
Useless.
No. No no no she has to be able to do something. There are always options.
You really thought you could help them?
She has to! That's what she came here for! What other use does she have for her worthless life?
Worthless is right, private Price. What were you going to do? Save the day? Be the hero?
Kaitlyn shut out the voice, clenching her eyes shut.
She trembled now, tears threatening to escape.
Get up...
She forgot about Miss Lei, standing uncomfortably close.
She forgot about the monster, looming on the horizon. She was absolutely certain they would all die if she didn't get back up and erect that shield.
Get up!
Kaitlyn was beginning to feel light headed. A small trickle of blood oozed from her nose.
She slumped into the body beside her, pale.
"K-keep me..." She gasped, eyes shooting open wide
Deceptively strong arms caught Kaitlyn's collapsing form, as Qingshe blinked down at her in something approaching bafflement. Brow pinching, the serpentine woman's gaze turned back towards the west, then panned across the cornered defense and the clamor of the battle with Huo Ren, before looking back down.
Lowering Kaitlyn gently into the churning layer of ebony ooze now occupying the floor of the pod, Qingshe dipped her body in, a thrumming static sensation rippling through the Private's body. Turning her gently back and forth, Qingshe rolled one half of her body below the bubbling surface and then the other, never fully submerging her, before leaving her lying face-up. Golden eyes bled into a cool blue, as she hummed with a tone of clinical interest.
Kneeling in the ooze beside Kaitlyn, Qingshe chuckled quietly, a cooling sensation beginning to trickle through her patient. "Now now, dear, don't go dying on me before I've satisfied my curiosity. That's just rude." She smiled wanly. "Besides... didn't I say I was about to put on a show? It really would be a shame if you missed it." Her almond-shaped pupils narrowed. "But first..."
Ari, a scorched hole punched through her chest, was swallowed into the ooze as if the ground had simply disappeared beneath her. "Oh?" Qingshe briefly giggled in an oddly curious tone. "There we go. Tsk tsk, Huo Ren, if you want to keep her out of my grasp, you should have aimed for the head~." Smirking impishly, as Huo Ren disappeared from sight in a fiery cacophony of explosions, she turned her gaze back to the west.
.
A rumble could practically be felt in the bones of all who onlooked, the western lands turning runny and flowing into a primordial soup of terrakinetic might. But even as the grand flow intensified, many of the distant mountains and hills were not flowing towards the battle at hand. Qingshe's gaze sharpened at the sight of scores of strange, large earthen tubes beginning to protrude from the distant mountainside, glistening in the sunlight an ominous charred black. There was a thick haze that was gradually beginning to darken the air of the west, billowing up from the mountains into the sky. That same haze also belched black fumes in the wake of the rolling monstrous mass of earth that was currently flattening the entirety of Malimuec and Dulig.
Qingshe's brows furrowed at something only she seemed able to see, before her expression turned aghast. "She wouldn't..." The words were not spoken with much confidence. Moments later, a black and green display began to form from the ooze on the pod's wall. Upon the display flickered into sight a vision of the battlefield, a 3d model of the warzone, all of it alit in in various shades of white, yellow, orange and red. The zone around where the battle with Huo Ren was ongoing was mostly blanketed in yellow, drawing into the deeper orange near the epicenter and then a small core of pulsating angry crimson.
The rolling earth and the mountains on the other hand... The approaching mass seemed mostly yellow, but as the earth churned, flashes of thrumming crimson flickered about beneath the surface. Meanwhile, the ashy smoke billowing into the air seemed to be mostly orange and then yellow, as it drifted. And the mountains... No, the massive singular mountain that the majority of the mass was being drawn into, that mass was thrumming so violently red that it seemed barely able to contain itself, as the craggy spire loomed higher and higher, beginning to cast a sneering shadow over the city of Lingayen.
Kaitlyn squirms, a look of distinct discomfort coming across her face as she's submerged, but she doesn't resist.
She seems... Distracted... By something for a moment, looking around, before just gulping.
Should I even keep praying at this rate?
She does so anyway.
"M-miss Lei, do you know what that thing is?"
She shifts, seeing what her range of freedom is.
Qingshe started a bit, before her eyes flicked back to Kaitlyn. A dry smile overtook her expression. "I presume you mean the monument that Tian Fei is presently constructing upon her backline?"
Kaitlyn found the ooze to be far less "oozey" than expected. Texture aside, it gave to her movements as much as any water might have. She could seemingly rise or remain at her leisure, as if sitting up from a pool of shallow water.
"It looks like a kaiju. I don't suppose you can whip up a Jaeger to fight it?" She offered a similarly dry smile.
"Oh. That," Qingshe quipped, before rolling her eyes. "Yes, well, plainly speaking, it's nothing more than a meatshield, a golem, a puppet, whatever you want to call it." She waved her emerald false claws dismissively. "It's truly no different from any of the rest of the earth surrounding it, except perhaps in the capacity that Tian Fei may be focusing more of her valuable resources and attention upon it. Regardless..." She frowned. "Fighting that thing is as useful as fighting air. Dealing damage to it is only delaying your inevitable destruction, not wearing down Tian Fei. After all, there's always more earth to replace what mass it loses."
Humming, Qingshe cradled her chin in thought, humming a lilting tune, as she studied the display before her. "But I have a more particular concern presently. Tell me, Private, if you would, what is the pattern here upon this display. If you had to take a guess, what would you say I am currently specifically detecting with it?"
"Heat," she said automatically, having already studied the display in brief. A good soldier takes stock of the current situation, and absorbs as much information as possible.
Lifting an arm from the ooze- with only mild disgust- she points towards the display.
"Yellow through red are ranges of heat, from coolest to hottest. The moving mass itself doesn't seem all that too dissimilar from the earth surrounding it, but..." She squinted. "There's something in it. Something hot... Is it a bomb?"
"Heat, yes. Exactly correct," Qingshe grinned and nodded. "I was already running this system as a measure to keep track of Huo Ren's actions, just in case he decided to try and cook us all by raising the temperature in a more subtle manner." She added dryly, before smiling grimly. "However... it seems it would end up being far more crucial for the crouching tiger behind the Dragon."
Reptilian eyes narrowed at the display, bleeding golden again. "Originally, I had turned it Tian Fei's way in order to try and locate the hostages she has been holding, find their body heat beneath the sand. And perhaps, if I got lucky, locate Tian Fei as well. However, there's no locating them in that mess now. The temperature is simply too high. In fact, it makes me wonder exactly how Tian Fei is keeping herself protected from her own foolishness..."
Shaking her head, emerald hair swayed, as she inhaled sharply and exhaled deeply. "Regardless, the real threat is not her golem or the wave of earth. No. Your intuition is on the right track, Private Price, but fundamentally diverged. Tian Fei cannot create bombs, not in the traditional sense, not without a source of gunpowder or the like to shape." Her smile was all teeth, but and her demeanor one exuding mixed trepidation, anticipation and frustration. "That is no bomb."
There was a reverberating sound, a deep tonal crack that rumbled down from the mountains and across the skies. Ugly black billows of smoke spewing towards the clouds, the thick, conical, craggy spire of blackened earth seemed to groan and grumble, fissures sprouting across its upper reaches... from which an all too familiar fiery substance began to ooze.
"That... is a volcano."
That would have been bad enough without a fucking [I]kaiju[\i] hadn't shown up. Despite the gravity of the situation, she still found her mind drifting to scenes from Godzilla and Pacific Rim. She thought about the overpowered weapons used in those movies, but...
Noel was at least close enough to see her fall. He spoke into his radio: “Our defensive barrier has been broken,” Noel was trying to keep himself calm, firm, not entirely emotionless, but projecting only a leader’s emotions; he needed to look fearless, and he looked to Nemo, “We need to get it back up; that means that Nemo and I have to go to where Ari is and heal her before she dies.”
Ari... She'd never even bothered to learn her name. Miss Lei's response had assuaged her fears earlier, but now-
Whipping out her binoculars, she zeroes in on the fallen Arms Master.
No...
She can't make out any fine details from this distance, but she's pretty sure that's a smoking-
"No. Please no."
The image of a baleful sun sprung to life in her mind, like the Eye of Sauron glaring down at her.
She felt her hands shake, her vision unfocusing.
How does she help? What can she do? She's too far away- and for what? What assistance could she bring? What can she do?
Useless.
No. No no no she has to be able to do something. There are always options.
You really thought you could help them?
She has to! That's what she came here for! What other use does she have for her worthless life?
Worthless is right, private Price. What were you going to do? Save the day? Be the hero?
Kaitlyn shut out the voice, clenching her eyes shut.
She trembled now, tears threatening to escape.
Get up...
She forgot about Miss Lei, standing uncomfortably close.
She forgot about the monster, looming on the horizon. She was absolutely certain they would all die if she didn't get back up and erect that shield.
Get up!
Kaitlyn was beginning to feel light headed. A small trickle of blood oozed from her nose.
She slumped into the body beside her, pale.
"K-keep me..." She gasped, eyes shooting open wide
Deceptively strong arms caught Kaitlyn's collapsing form, as Qingshe blinked down at her in something approaching bafflement. Brow pinching, the serpentine woman's gaze turned back towards the west, then panned across the cornered defense and the clamor of the battle with Huo Ren, before looking back down.
Lowering Kaitlyn gently into the churning layer of ebony ooze now occupying the floor of the pod, Qingshe dipped her body in, a thrumming static sensation rippling through the Private's body. Turning her gently back and forth, Qingshe rolled one half of her body below the bubbling surface and then the other, never fully submerging her, before leaving her lying face-up. Golden eyes bled into a cool blue, as she hummed with a tone of clinical interest.
Kneeling in the ooze beside Kaitlyn, Qingshe chuckled quietly, a cooling sensation beginning to trickle through her patient. "Now now, dear, don't go dying on me before I've satisfied my curiosity. That's just rude." She smiled wanly. "Besides... didn't I say I was about to put on a show? It really would be a shame if you missed it." Her almond-shaped pupils narrowed. "But first..."
Ari, a scorched hole punched through her chest, was swallowed into the ooze as if the ground had simply disappeared beneath her. "Oh?" Qingshe briefly giggled in an oddly curious tone. "There we go. Tsk tsk, Huo Ren, if you want to keep her out of my grasp, you should have aimed for the head~." Smirking impishly, as Huo Ren disappeared from sight in a fiery cacophony of explosions, she turned her gaze back to the west.
.
A rumble could practically be felt in the bones of all who onlooked, the western lands turning runny and flowing into a primordial soup of terrakinetic might. But even as the grand flow intensified, many of the distant mountains and hills were not flowing towards the battle at hand. Qingshe's gaze sharpened at the sight of scores of strange, large earthen tubes beginning to protrude from the distant mountainside, glistening in the sunlight an ominous charred black. There was a thick haze that was gradually beginning to darken the air of the west, billowing up from the mountains into the sky. That same haze also belched black fumes in the wake of the rolling monstrous mass of earth that was currently flattening the entirety of Malimuec and Dulig.
Qingshe's brows furrowed at something only she seemed able to see, before her expression turned aghast. "She wouldn't..." The words were not spoken with much confidence. Moments later, a black and green display began to form from the ooze on the pod's wall. Upon the display flickered into sight a vision of the battlefield, a 3d model of the warzone, all of it alit in in various shades of white, yellow, orange and red. The zone around where the battle with Huo Ren was ongoing was mostly blanketed in yellow, drawing into the deeper orange near the epicenter and then a small core of pulsating angry crimson.
The rolling earth and the mountains on the other hand... The approaching mass seemed mostly yellow, but as the earth churned, flashes of thrumming crimson flickered about beneath the surface. Meanwhile, the ashy smoke billowing into the air seemed to be mostly orange and then yellow, as it drifted. And the mountains... No, the massive singular mountain that the majority of the mass was being drawn into, that mass was thrumming so violently red that it seemed barely able to contain itself, as the craggy spire loomed higher and higher, beginning to cast a sneering shadow over the city of Lingayen.
Kaitlyn squirms, a look of distinct discomfort coming across her face as she's submerged, but she doesn't resist.
She seems... Distracted... By something for a moment, looking around, before just gulping.
Should I even keep praying at this rate?
She does so anyway.
"M-miss Lei, do you know what that thing is?"
She shifts, seeing what her range of freedom is.
Qingshe started a bit, before her eyes flicked back to Kaitlyn. A dry smile overtook her expression. "I presume you mean the monument that Tian Fei is presently constructing upon her backline?"
Kaitlyn found the ooze to be far less "oozey" than expected. Texture aside, it gave to her movements as much as any water might have. She could seemingly rise or remain at her leisure, as if sitting up from a pool of shallow water.
"It looks like a kaiju. I don't suppose you can whip up a Jaeger to fight it?" She offered a similarly dry smile.
"Oh. That," Qingshe quipped, before rolling her eyes. "Yes, well, plainly speaking, it's nothing more than a meatshield, a golem, a puppet, whatever you want to call it." She waved her emerald false claws dismissively. "It's truly no different from any of the rest of the earth surrounding it, except perhaps in the capacity that Tian Fei may be focusing more of her valuable resources and attention upon it. Regardless..." She frowned. "Fighting that thing is as useful as fighting air. Dealing damage to it is only delaying your inevitable destruction, not wearing down Tian Fei. After all, there's always more earth to replace what mass it loses."
Humming, Qingshe cradled her chin in thought, humming a lilting tune, as she studied the display before her. "But I have a more particular concern presently. Tell me, Private, if you would, what is the pattern here upon this display. If you had to take a guess, what would you say I am currently specifically detecting with it?"
"Heat," she said automatically, having already studied the display in brief. A good soldier takes stock of the current situation, and absorbs as much information as possible.
Lifting an arm from the ooze- with only mild disgust- she points towards the display.
"Yellow through red are ranges of heat, from coolest to hottest. The moving mass itself doesn't seem all that too dissimilar from the earth surrounding it, but..." She squinted. "There's something in it. Something hot... Is it a bomb?"
"Heat, yes. Exactly correct," Qingshe grinned and nodded. "I was already running this system as a measure to keep track of Huo Ren's actions, just in case he decided to try and cook us all by raising the temperature in a more subtle manner." She added dryly, before smiling grimly. "However... it seems it would end up being far more crucial for the crouching tiger behind the Dragon."
Reptilian eyes narrowed at the display, bleeding golden again. "Originally, I had turned it Tian Fei's way in order to try and locate the hostages she has been holding, find their body heat beneath the sand. And perhaps, if I got lucky, locate Tian Fei as well. However, there's no locating them in that mess now. The temperature is simply too high. In fact, it makes me wonder exactly how Tian Fei is keeping herself protected from her own foolishness..."
Shaking her head, emerald hair swayed, as she inhaled sharply and exhaled deeply. "Regardless, the real threat is not her golem or the wave of earth. No. Your intuition is on the right track, Private Price, but fundamentally diverged. Tian Fei cannot create bombs, not in the traditional sense, not without a source of gunpowder or the like to shape." Her smile was all teeth, but and her demeanor one exuding mixed trepidation, anticipation and frustration. "That is no bomb."
There was a reverberating sound, a deep tonal crack that rumbled down from the mountains and across the skies. Ugly black billows of smoke spewing towards the clouds, the thick, conical, craggy spire of blackened earth seemed to groan and grumble, fissures sprouting across its upper reaches... from which an all too familiar fiery substance began to ooze.
"That... is a volcano."
Oh God
Kaitlyn's heart leapt into her throat at the thunderous roar of Quinshe's weapon.
How could something so destructive exist... How could she, in good conscience, point this thing at another human being? This wasn't just defense, this was mur-
No, he's dangerous. I'm just incapacitating him.
She breathed heavily in the aftermath, a little dizzy as she blinked the dark spots in her vision away. The aftermath of her actions... Was enough to make her sick.
Then the shield fell.
She went pale as the thought... The very idea that the person erecting that barrier might have been gone...
"This is private Kaitlyn Price, addressing the Arms Master who was maintaining the barrier. Please report your status."
She tried to keep the tremors out of her voice, looking up at the sky. She half expected the second sun to spontaneously snap back into existence and smite them all.
"Hmm, excccellent ssshot for a firssst try~!" sibilantly praised the serpent head with a squinted eye-smile of its gleaming emerald orb. There was no response from the Arms Master Kaitlyn called for, but the serpent hummed again. "Ah~, ssshe mossst likely hasss yet to attain a communication deviccce. Ssshe and her partner arrived quite without warning, you sssee. They have not been granted asss much accesss to equipment and logisssticsss asss might be prudent." The serpent's neck briefly flared like a cobra before settling down into ripples of ebony scales. "Ssshe yet livesss. The ssshatering of her ssshield sssems to have knocked the wind out of her, however..."
Kaitlyn wasn't sure whether to be relieved or concerned. A mix of both, really. She wasn't dead... But it sounded like her situation wasn't exactly ideal, either.
She didn't have long to think about that before something else caught her attention.
She'd been passively monitoring radio chat- as any good soldier would, she assumed- when she picked up on a distressing tone. It wasn't hard to guess at the source...
What the...
Kaitlyn went pale at the sight of the churning mass of earth. She didn't need to hear the screams to imagine them.
"Please tell me there's something you can do for them," she said, watching- until the nausea made it impossible, and she forced her attention away from the visceral scene. "Can't you seep into the sand and teleport them out?"
The serpent turned and frowned at the shifting sands, remaining quiet for a while, only the crackle of static and boom of gunfire left to fill the silence. "It isss... not quite ssso sssimple..." The ebony-scaled creature's face scrunched up in thought, before it let out what sound like a breathy, hissing sigh of resignation. "Sssometimesss... there are people you sssimply can't sssave...." It froze, a heretofore unseen expression of deadness overtaking its demeanor for a long moment... And when the moment passed, the cobra's hood flared, as a hard look entered its glowing eyes.
It glanced to the battle with Huo Ren, its mouth working in movements akin to a snake swallowing. It glanced back at the sands. "Tian Fei... isss not a foe I covert the opportunity to challenge, but given that isss the cassse... Isss it really more resssonable to exxxpect othersss to faccce her where I would not? Hmm~? But what ussse isss teaching othersss not to rely on you... if you don't ssstep up when it'sss truly necccesssary~?" It chuffed, a slow smile of predatory anticipation beginning to grow upon its scaled lips, fangs lightly bared. "Very well! Yesss~!" it seemed to muse solely to itself. Hungry slitted eyes flicked to meet Kaitlyn's own. "Prepare yourself, Private, for a rare treat~." All of a sudden, the hissing undertones were gone, and only the clear, lilting voice of Qingshe remained, her voice filled with unfettered excitement ringing through the pod, the buzz of static growing in the air.
From her elevated position in the pod, it was far more easily visible to Kaitlyn, as the shadow that had thus-far only lounged around the vicinity of the remaining central front defenders began to explosively expand across the western beach and seep into the city. A hundred feet, two hundred, five hundred, a thousand. In less than a minute, the lands were swallowed by the bubbling tar-like, crackling ooze, as it made for the river, the lone barrier between it and the writhing, tidal sands. Across the vast mass, inky, bubbling bulges and arcs of emerald electricity began to protrude and crackle. As if sensing the ooze's approach, the sands seemed to become all the more agitated, lurching back and forth in a frenzy of barely-contained bloodlust.
"Somehow, Miss Price~" Qingshe's lilting voice was suddenly all too near to Kaitlyn's right ear, the woman herself now partially sliding from the ooze covering the inner wall of the pod. "I don't get the sense that you've ever experienced what happens when two upper-echelon A-Ranks clash without restraint, hmmm~" Her golden eyes bled into a burnt orange with the widening of her smile. She giggled, her piercing slitted gaze flicking back towards the sight in the distance, as if beckoning Kaitlyn's attention to the imminent clash of earth and shadow.
The serpentine woman smiled predatorially, as she sidled up to Kaitlyn's side in the cramped quarters.
It would be a clash of the titans, something most could never hope to witness in their lifetime.
...Assuming they even survived to tell the tale.
And through her pleads for solutions...
Kaitlyn may have gotten one...
"Would you like to~?"
Kaitlyn didn't really have a response to that, other than a flustered flush at the close proximity.
No, she did not, in fact, want to witness the apocalyptic event that was two A-ranks duking it out like Mortal Kombat, but she got the feeling she was about to bear witness to that all the same.
Kaitlyn's heart leapt into her throat at the thunderous roar of Quinshe's weapon.
How could something so destructive exist... How could she, in good conscience, point this thing at another human being? This wasn't just defense, this was mur-
No, he's dangerous. I'm just incapacitating him.
She breathed heavily in the aftermath, a little dizzy as she blinked the dark spots in her vision away. The aftermath of her actions... Was enough to make her sick.
Then the shield fell.
She went pale as the thought... The very idea that the person erecting that barrier might have been gone...
"This is private Kaitlyn Price, addressing the Arms Master who was maintaining the barrier. Please report your status."
She tried to keep the tremors out of her voice, looking up at the sky. She half expected the second sun to spontaneously snap back into existence and smite them all.
"Hmm, excccellent ssshot for a firssst try~!" sibilantly praised the serpent head with a squinted eye-smile of its gleaming emerald orb. There was no response from the Arms Master Kaitlyn called for, but the serpent hummed again. "Ah~, ssshe mossst likely hasss yet to attain a communication deviccce. Ssshe and her partner arrived quite without warning, you sssee. They have not been granted asss much accesss to equipment and logisssticsss asss might be prudent." The serpent's neck briefly flared like a cobra before settling down into ripples of ebony scales. "Ssshe yet livesss. The ssshatering of her ssshield sssems to have knocked the wind out of her, however..."
Kaitlyn wasn't sure whether to be relieved or concerned. A mix of both, really. She wasn't dead... But it sounded like her situation wasn't exactly ideal, either.
She didn't have long to think about that before something else caught her attention.
She'd been passively monitoring radio chat- as any good soldier would, she assumed- when she picked up on a distressing tone. It wasn't hard to guess at the source...
What the...
Kaitlyn went pale at the sight of the churning mass of earth. She didn't need to hear the screams to imagine them.
"Please tell me there's something you can do for them," she said, watching- until the nausea made it impossible, and she forced her attention away from the visceral scene. "Can't you seep into the sand and teleport them out?"
The serpent turned and frowned at the shifting sands, remaining quiet for a while, only the crackle of static and boom of gunfire left to fill the silence. "It isss... not quite ssso sssimple..." The ebony-scaled creature's face scrunched up in thought, before it let out what sound like a breathy, hissing sigh of resignation. "Sssometimesss... there are people you sssimply can't sssave...." It froze, a heretofore unseen expression of deadness overtaking its demeanor for a long moment... And when the moment passed, the cobra's hood flared, as a hard look entered its glowing eyes.
It glanced to the battle with Huo Ren, its mouth working in movements akin to a snake swallowing. It glanced back at the sands. "Tian Fei... isss not a foe I covert the opportunity to challenge, but given that isss the cassse... Isss it really more resssonable to exxxpect othersss to faccce her where I would not? Hmm~? But what ussse isss teaching othersss not to rely on you... if you don't ssstep up when it'sss truly necccesssary~?" It chuffed, a slow smile of predatory anticipation beginning to grow upon its scaled lips, fangs lightly bared. "Very well! Yesss~!" it seemed to muse solely to itself. Hungry slitted eyes flicked to meet Kaitlyn's own. "Prepare yourself, Private, for a rare treat~." All of a sudden, the hissing undertones were gone, and only the clear, lilting voice of Qingshe remained, her voice filled with unfettered excitement ringing through the pod, the buzz of static growing in the air.
From her elevated position in the pod, it was far more easily visible to Kaitlyn, as the shadow that had thus-far only lounged around the vicinity of the remaining central front defenders began to explosively expand across the western beach and seep into the city. A hundred feet, two hundred, five hundred, a thousand. In less than a minute, the lands were swallowed by the bubbling tar-like, crackling ooze, as it made for the river, the lone barrier between it and the writhing, tidal sands. Across the vast mass, inky, bubbling bulges and arcs of emerald electricity began to protrude and crackle. As if sensing the ooze's approach, the sands seemed to become all the more agitated, lurching back and forth in a frenzy of barely-contained bloodlust.
"Somehow, Miss Price~" Qingshe's lilting voice was suddenly all too near to Kaitlyn's right ear, the woman herself now partially sliding from the ooze covering the inner wall of the pod. "I don't get the sense that you've ever experienced what happens when two upper-echelon A-Ranks clash without restraint, hmmm~" Her golden eyes bled into a burnt orange with the widening of her smile. She giggled, her piercing slitted gaze flicking back towards the sight in the distance, as if beckoning Kaitlyn's attention to the imminent clash of earth and shadow.
The serpentine woman smiled predatorially, as she sidled up to Kaitlyn's side in the cramped quarters.
It would be a clash of the titans, something most could never hope to witness in their lifetime.
...Assuming they even survived to tell the tale.
And through her pleads for solutions...
Kaitlyn may have gotten one...
"Would you like to~?"
Kaitlyn didn't really have a response to that, other than a flustered flush at the close proximity.
No, she did not, in fact, want to witness the apocalyptic event that was two A-ranks duking it out like Mortal Kombat, but she got the feeling she was about to bear witness to that all the same.
While Kaitlyn waited for a response, she closely scrutinized the skirmish between the princess and the A-rank.
What is he-
Suddenly, the 'room' went dark. When she regained sight, she was met with an alarming sight.
Screw the Corporal, she needs help now.
"Miss Lei, I need a weapon that can hit him. Now."
Even as she spoke, the shadow was peeling away from the glass it had abruptly covered, which now seemed to feature a dark yet still transparent film, like looking through sunglasses. The golden eyes of the cobra swaying within the pod narrowed, flashing to a glowing green. A thrum could be felt throughout the pod, a buzz across skin from the mere proximity to the shadow, static electricity seeming to crackle and fizzle.
"Let usss hope you are a good ssshot~" Qingshe's voice murmured sibilantly from seemingly all around.
The shadow bubbled, dripped and thrummed, as it oozed into the internals of the pod through the open grates of the cage-like back door. As it began to pool around Kaitlyn's feet in a rather decidedly claustrophobic manner, a bulge began to rise before her in the shape of a familiar and simultaneously alien object. First a stock, then a trigger, then a barrel. Hoisted up by a strangely flexible tripod, an ebony black rifle of some shape formed, accented by a thrumming yellow-green glow that seemed to struggle to be contained. The static in the air seemed to intensify with the object's mere presence, its strange blocky barrel perhaps eliciting familiarity and confusion all at once. In terms of a theoretically handheld firearm, it was huge, just short of two meters in length, and its presence was hardly making the internals of the pod any less cramped.
A tube-like, alien magazine, more akin to the feed for a minigun trailed down from the back of the gun into the shadow like a twisted mechanical umbilical cord, crackling lines of emerald light illuminating its surface. With a hiss and bubble, the approximately meter and a half long barrel of the rifle was lurched forward through a fresh gap in the protective glass, a nook made solely to allow its firepower free. Perhaps as a side benefit, the extension of the main barrel outside the pod also once more made the internals moderately less cramped.
With an ominously radioactive crackling, the sight flared to life in the darkness in technopunk green with an orange, digitally-suspended crosshair, an electronically-powered view down the barrel magnified the distance with stunning quality, above and beyond what any standard soldier could most likely hope to ever see in their equipment.
"He knowsss he isss outnumbered. For even the Dragon's arroganccce only goesss ssso far~" the rattle of a viper rippled through the air. "Thisss is why he hasss blinded our forcccesss~! In the open, even he mussst respect the ssstrength of sssteel..." The wicked smile crept onto the cobra's face, as it wound around the barrel of the massive rifle, as if caressing a lover. "Well, if he isss ssso very cautious of gunsss..." Its eyes gleamed, as it glanced back at Kaitlyn. "Let usss give him one to fear mossst particularly~!"
To say Kaitlyn was unsettled by the appearance of the weapon- if it could even be called that- would be an understatement. The thing was downright indimidating, and being in such close proximity to something that looked like it was about five seconds away from giving her more cancer than Deadpool wasn't a very comforting thought either.
Despite this, she only took a second or two to grimace and regret life decisions before very carefully handling the machine and acquainting herself with the scope.
Her target was clear, the weapon was primed. Zeroing in on the arm wielding the weapon, she made sure her aim was true, then-
The shadow bulged within the pod, splattering, as two flickers whipped out from either side to take secure hold of the rifle with rather heavy-duty clamps. Despite how firm the act was, it managed to be inhumanly precise, barely jostling Kaitlyn's aim -if at all.
The soldier pulled the trigger, and the air within the pod almost seemed to still, before the rifle roared to life with a thrumming vibration that all but rippled through the girl's bones. The "umbilical cord" of the gun shivered, as the static electricity intensified, buzzing along skin and making unsecured hairs stand up on end. The light that seemed to spill from within the ebony rifle intensified, before a whump of displaced air and ringing bang blasted back into the pod's internals and roared out into open air through the grated back door. The recoil was... significant, to say the least, but the clamps that had been preemptively applied prevented the gun from rocketing back into Kaitlyn's all too comparatively vulnerable body.
With a thunderous gong, one might have sworn a molten bolt of lightning was hurled Huo Ren's way, as the Noble Arm-powered railgun cried for blood in the form of a magnetically repelled bolt of pure tungsten
What is he-
Suddenly, the 'room' went dark. When she regained sight, she was met with an alarming sight.
Screw the Corporal, she needs help now.
"Miss Lei, I need a weapon that can hit him. Now."
Even as she spoke, the shadow was peeling away from the glass it had abruptly covered, which now seemed to feature a dark yet still transparent film, like looking through sunglasses. The golden eyes of the cobra swaying within the pod narrowed, flashing to a glowing green. A thrum could be felt throughout the pod, a buzz across skin from the mere proximity to the shadow, static electricity seeming to crackle and fizzle.
"Let usss hope you are a good ssshot~" Qingshe's voice murmured sibilantly from seemingly all around.
The shadow bubbled, dripped and thrummed, as it oozed into the internals of the pod through the open grates of the cage-like back door. As it began to pool around Kaitlyn's feet in a rather decidedly claustrophobic manner, a bulge began to rise before her in the shape of a familiar and simultaneously alien object. First a stock, then a trigger, then a barrel. Hoisted up by a strangely flexible tripod, an ebony black rifle of some shape formed, accented by a thrumming yellow-green glow that seemed to struggle to be contained. The static in the air seemed to intensify with the object's mere presence, its strange blocky barrel perhaps eliciting familiarity and confusion all at once. In terms of a theoretically handheld firearm, it was huge, just short of two meters in length, and its presence was hardly making the internals of the pod any less cramped.
A tube-like, alien magazine, more akin to the feed for a minigun trailed down from the back of the gun into the shadow like a twisted mechanical umbilical cord, crackling lines of emerald light illuminating its surface. With a hiss and bubble, the approximately meter and a half long barrel of the rifle was lurched forward through a fresh gap in the protective glass, a nook made solely to allow its firepower free. Perhaps as a side benefit, the extension of the main barrel outside the pod also once more made the internals moderately less cramped.
With an ominously radioactive crackling, the sight flared to life in the darkness in technopunk green with an orange, digitally-suspended crosshair, an electronically-powered view down the barrel magnified the distance with stunning quality, above and beyond what any standard soldier could most likely hope to ever see in their equipment.
"He knowsss he isss outnumbered. For even the Dragon's arroganccce only goesss ssso far~" the rattle of a viper rippled through the air. "Thisss is why he hasss blinded our forcccesss~! In the open, even he mussst respect the ssstrength of sssteel..." The wicked smile crept onto the cobra's face, as it wound around the barrel of the massive rifle, as if caressing a lover. "Well, if he isss ssso very cautious of gunsss..." Its eyes gleamed, as it glanced back at Kaitlyn. "Let usss give him one to fear mossst particularly~!"
To say Kaitlyn was unsettled by the appearance of the weapon- if it could even be called that- would be an understatement. The thing was downright indimidating, and being in such close proximity to something that looked like it was about five seconds away from giving her more cancer than Deadpool wasn't a very comforting thought either.
Despite this, she only took a second or two to grimace and regret life decisions before very carefully handling the machine and acquainting herself with the scope.
Her target was clear, the weapon was primed. Zeroing in on the arm wielding the weapon, she made sure her aim was true, then-
The shadow bulged within the pod, splattering, as two flickers whipped out from either side to take secure hold of the rifle with rather heavy-duty clamps. Despite how firm the act was, it managed to be inhumanly precise, barely jostling Kaitlyn's aim -if at all.
The soldier pulled the trigger, and the air within the pod almost seemed to still, before the rifle roared to life with a thrumming vibration that all but rippled through the girl's bones. The "umbilical cord" of the gun shivered, as the static electricity intensified, buzzing along skin and making unsecured hairs stand up on end. The light that seemed to spill from within the ebony rifle intensified, before a whump of displaced air and ringing bang blasted back into the pod's internals and roared out into open air through the grated back door. The recoil was... significant, to say the least, but the clamps that had been preemptively applied prevented the gun from rocketing back into Kaitlyn's all too comparatively vulnerable body.
With a thunderous gong, one might have sworn a molten bolt of lightning was hurled Huo Ren's way, as the Noble Arm-powered railgun cried for blood in the form of a magnetically repelled bolt of pure tungsten
@Aisede/@Lewascan2
The moment that artificial sun disappeared, it felt like they had averted the end of the world. The day was saved, they won!
Only... That's not the case. All they did was neutralize an Arms Master- Hou Ren's - weapon, and she suspected that it could become a very real problem again if he wasn't dealt with quickly. Would he fall for the same trick twice?
Doubtful.
Using her binoculars, she quickly spotted the man responsible for so much stress.
He's... Just a man.
For some reason, she'd been expecting this Sauron-looking manifestation of fire and malice, but no, like all other Arms Masters, he was just a man with a spear. Kaitlyn was having trouble reconciling him with her own image, but ultimately decided it didn't matter what he looked like. He tried to kill her allies, he tried to kill her team, and he tried to kill Hannie.
Thinking on this, and failing to hear anyone respond to Noel in regards to coordinates, she relayed the coordinates herself over radar, keeping a watchful eye on events.
Noticing the earth start to break open like an egg- can't they get a break?- she was about to raise the alarm... But it would appear Sophist had them covered. Guess he isn't only good for getting in trouble.
"Miss Lei, can you do anything about shifting landscape?"
She suspected, since she seemed to 'coat the ground' that she may be able to do something... Hopefully. Maybe they can use that against them?
Within the pod, a snake head and neck peeled off of the wall in a small bubbling splatter, and golden eyes almost seemed to narrow contemplatively down at the ground and the mountains to the west. There was a quiet hissing rattle, before the head shook itself lightly. "Thisssss sssensssation is... Familiar. If thisss isss who I ssssussspecct, then our powerssss tend to... counter each-other in a way. Regardlessss," it chuffed, "My sssspeed outsstripsss her, but if ssshe hasss learned from the passst, then ssshe may be able to forcce me to lossse ground. And while I could perhapsss win with attrition... attrition is not time this city -nay, country- has. If thisss isss truly... Tian Fei, then ssshe isss an even greater threat than Huo Ren..."
There was a dark little sound that might have been a giggle. "Ssshe will collapssse thisss entire city into the wavesss out of ssspite if need be to achieve absssolute victory. A true lunatic. Due to the nature of my shadow, her control of the very earth itssself isss not something I can ssso easily counter, and even if the area above my ssshadow isss sssafe... in a manner of ssspeaking, ssshe can undermine the bassse."
To say Kaitlyn was unsettled by the idea of an NA that can level literal mountains was an understatement.
"What's the range of her Noble Arm? Maybe we can neutralize her before the threat escalates?"
The snake chuckled grimly. "They've never measured a limit... not one that could be sssafely tesssted anyway. Ssshe is less of a sssoldier... or even a weapon... and more of a natural disssassster, a monssster in the ssshape of a human that even the Chinessse must take care to keep pointed at anything but themssselvesss." Golden eyes glimmered with a difficult emotion to define. "Not only doesss ssshe attain awarenessss of all massss ssshe controls, ssshe hasss truly commendable precsssisssion in manipulating it on masssive ssscale. And throughout it all, not even her ssstamina ssseemsss to flag from works of absolute annihilation."
The hood of a cobra briefly flared from the snake's neck, before settling down with a low hiss and unnatural narrowing of slitted eyes. "The only graccce -if one were to call it that- isss that ssshe takesss time to work up to her maxxximum output. Thisss... isss merely the build-up stage... the gleeful intimidation point of her assssault... and it ssshall not lassst forever."
The snake's eyes glared at Huo Ren. "Yesss, he isss mossst cccertaily merely the dissstraction, a threat that cannot be ignored, while the true killing blow isss prepared."
So they're facing off against an enemy even the Chinese don't want to toy with, capable of feats of terrible destruction, and nobody knows what her range is.
Kaitlyn frowned.
"Would she have waited to launch her attack? Or was she simply biding her time?" Her frown deepened as she thought, diverting her attention away from Hou Ren and looking for anything that may be... Out of place.
"Does she require physical contact to utilize her powers?" If she does, then that would mean she's somewhere, here, on the beach. If not...
The serpent chuckled. "Asss sssomething of a sssadist, patienccce isss not sssomething ssshe isss prone to outssside necccessssity, but unfortunately for usss, right now appearsss to be one sssuch time. Indeed, ssshe is biding her time for her power to ssspread."
The snake's mouth twisted into the unnatural expression of a smirk at the question. "Physical contact? Yesss. Unfortunately..." The amusement tempered itself. "Asss far asss I am aware, 'physssical contact' for her isss defined only asss 'happensss to be on the sssame landmasss'. Ssshould ssshe be of the inclination, ssshe might never be found but for the exissstence of particularly fine ssscrying abilitiesss. Ssshe could very well be finding a good vantage point to conduct her devassstation... or ssshe could jussst asss well remain buried within an earthen hiding hole and indessscriminately dessstroy, sssecure in the knowledge that no alliesss remain to be harmed, sssave for thossse that could sssurvive it."
"That isss to sssay, even for me, finding her isss easssier sssaid than done..."
That was... Alarming news.
Shit
Pulling out her radio, she relayed, in summary, what the snake lady had just told her; Hou Ren was a distraction, and Tian was going to annihilate the entire city if somebody didn't dig her up.
Hopefully one of her allies has the skills neccesary to find her...
"Corporal, should we go assist the princess in keeping Hou Ren occupied? Even if he is a distraction, he is a legitimate and immidiate threat. We should give the Arms Masters as much time as they require to put him down."
Put him down? Is that really how I think of this? If human life?
She shivered as she realized what this war was doing her...
No, they're the enemy. And besides, we don't have to kill them. We can take them hostage...
Kaitlyn wasn't very confident in that possibility.
The moment that artificial sun disappeared, it felt like they had averted the end of the world. The day was saved, they won!
Only... That's not the case. All they did was neutralize an Arms Master- Hou Ren's - weapon, and she suspected that it could become a very real problem again if he wasn't dealt with quickly. Would he fall for the same trick twice?
Doubtful.
Using her binoculars, she quickly spotted the man responsible for so much stress.
He's... Just a man.
For some reason, she'd been expecting this Sauron-looking manifestation of fire and malice, but no, like all other Arms Masters, he was just a man with a spear. Kaitlyn was having trouble reconciling him with her own image, but ultimately decided it didn't matter what he looked like. He tried to kill her allies, he tried to kill her team, and he tried to kill Hannie.
Thinking on this, and failing to hear anyone respond to Noel in regards to coordinates, she relayed the coordinates herself over radar, keeping a watchful eye on events.
Noticing the earth start to break open like an egg- can't they get a break?- she was about to raise the alarm... But it would appear Sophist had them covered. Guess he isn't only good for getting in trouble.
"Miss Lei, can you do anything about shifting landscape?"
She suspected, since she seemed to 'coat the ground' that she may be able to do something... Hopefully. Maybe they can use that against them?
Within the pod, a snake head and neck peeled off of the wall in a small bubbling splatter, and golden eyes almost seemed to narrow contemplatively down at the ground and the mountains to the west. There was a quiet hissing rattle, before the head shook itself lightly. "Thisssss sssensssation is... Familiar. If thisss isss who I ssssussspecct, then our powerssss tend to... counter each-other in a way. Regardlessss," it chuffed, "My sssspeed outsstripsss her, but if ssshe hasss learned from the passst, then ssshe may be able to forcce me to lossse ground. And while I could perhapsss win with attrition... attrition is not time this city -nay, country- has. If thisss isss truly... Tian Fei, then ssshe isss an even greater threat than Huo Ren..."
There was a dark little sound that might have been a giggle. "Ssshe will collapssse thisss entire city into the wavesss out of ssspite if need be to achieve absssolute victory. A true lunatic. Due to the nature of my shadow, her control of the very earth itssself isss not something I can ssso easily counter, and even if the area above my ssshadow isss sssafe... in a manner of ssspeaking, ssshe can undermine the bassse."
To say Kaitlyn was unsettled by the idea of an NA that can level literal mountains was an understatement.
"What's the range of her Noble Arm? Maybe we can neutralize her before the threat escalates?"
The snake chuckled grimly. "They've never measured a limit... not one that could be sssafely tesssted anyway. Ssshe is less of a sssoldier... or even a weapon... and more of a natural disssassster, a monssster in the ssshape of a human that even the Chinessse must take care to keep pointed at anything but themssselvesss." Golden eyes glimmered with a difficult emotion to define. "Not only doesss ssshe attain awarenessss of all massss ssshe controls, ssshe hasss truly commendable precsssisssion in manipulating it on masssive ssscale. And throughout it all, not even her ssstamina ssseemsss to flag from works of absolute annihilation."
The hood of a cobra briefly flared from the snake's neck, before settling down with a low hiss and unnatural narrowing of slitted eyes. "The only graccce -if one were to call it that- isss that ssshe takesss time to work up to her maxxximum output. Thisss... isss merely the build-up stage... the gleeful intimidation point of her assssault... and it ssshall not lassst forever."
The snake's eyes glared at Huo Ren. "Yesss, he isss mossst cccertaily merely the dissstraction, a threat that cannot be ignored, while the true killing blow isss prepared."
So they're facing off against an enemy even the Chinese don't want to toy with, capable of feats of terrible destruction, and nobody knows what her range is.
Kaitlyn frowned.
"Would she have waited to launch her attack? Or was she simply biding her time?" Her frown deepened as she thought, diverting her attention away from Hou Ren and looking for anything that may be... Out of place.
"Does she require physical contact to utilize her powers?" If she does, then that would mean she's somewhere, here, on the beach. If not...
The serpent chuckled. "Asss sssomething of a sssadist, patienccce isss not sssomething ssshe isss prone to outssside necccessssity, but unfortunately for usss, right now appearsss to be one sssuch time. Indeed, ssshe is biding her time for her power to ssspread."
The snake's mouth twisted into the unnatural expression of a smirk at the question. "Physical contact? Yesss. Unfortunately..." The amusement tempered itself. "Asss far asss I am aware, 'physssical contact' for her isss defined only asss 'happensss to be on the sssame landmasss'. Ssshould ssshe be of the inclination, ssshe might never be found but for the exissstence of particularly fine ssscrying abilitiesss. Ssshe could very well be finding a good vantage point to conduct her devassstation... or ssshe could jussst asss well remain buried within an earthen hiding hole and indessscriminately dessstroy, sssecure in the knowledge that no alliesss remain to be harmed, sssave for thossse that could sssurvive it."
"That isss to sssay, even for me, finding her isss easssier sssaid than done..."
That was... Alarming news.
Shit
Pulling out her radio, she relayed, in summary, what the snake lady had just told her; Hou Ren was a distraction, and Tian was going to annihilate the entire city if somebody didn't dig her up.
Hopefully one of her allies has the skills neccesary to find her...
"Corporal, should we go assist the princess in keeping Hou Ren occupied? Even if he is a distraction, he is a legitimate and immidiate threat. We should give the Arms Masters as much time as they require to put him down."
Put him down? Is that really how I think of this? If human life?
She shivered as she realized what this war was doing her...
No, they're the enemy. And besides, we don't have to kill them. We can take them hostage...
Kaitlyn wasn't very confident in that possibility.
Kaitlyn watched little Cavalet march off with a twist in her stomach.
Don't think. You have a job to do, think about that. Keeping everybody safe...
Looking down at the viscous fluid under her feet, a thought came to her.
"Sir, I'm going to try and gain some elevation and survey the battlefield. Maybe try and spot the A-rank manifesting that sun... W-with your permission?"
She thumbed the needle in her hair, desperately wishing she had the time to dig out some candy to suck on. Anything would be better than thinking about the literal star hanging over their heads. The star presently trying to kill them all. The star that is only being held back by a wall of ice that was rapidly losing integrity.
As Kaitlyn spoke those words, however, there was a low, sibilant noise, a whisper, as though her words had been received -though not intended- by some...thing all too eager to answer them. The ooze underfoot, before, tendrils began to form. No... Not tendrils. Ebony serpents...
Vipers.
Wriggling and then smoothing out into almost liquid movements, the vipers rose up as if like king cobras prepared to strike, their bodies swaying and dipping down back into the ooze as if it were a body of water and not unnervingly solid land. Emerald eyes glowed like technopunk highlights, bodies so black that even the light from above seemed to be drunk into their forms. Over her right shoulder, one pit viper-esce appendage(?) hissed up beside Kaitlyn's ear until in was a simple head turn to view it's slitted, almost considering gaze fully.
"Asssssk, and you ssssshhhalll rrecccciiievee~!" came a voice that had been present but a minute ago. Though it seemed to be distorted, and a moment's observation would determine why. For it was not just that "head" that had spoken, but all of the heads. Dozens of heads, even hundreds of serpent heads, as the crackling ebony ooze that had lain mostly dormant across the inner field of the light barrier came alive in a certain twisted sense. For every soldier, for every Arms Master and normal alike, there were now rising a chorus of sibilant whispers, offering aid, as though outstretching a devil's hand with a cunning smile.
True to their offer -and indeed proving her plan had an answer, a platform began to rise before Kaitlyn. It was a half-domed apparatus, with a thick, clear viewing window formed of AM-III glass, sufficient to repel -or at least waylay- bullets. The undomed portion of it faced only towards the city, indicating the protective aspects had been focused forward. The platform rose, and the back -covered by a cage-like guard door- opened, stairs extending, as more ooze climbed up the sides guardingly.
As if Kaitlyn was already put off by the presence of the black ooze, Miss Lei had to pull something like this.
Oh God.
Nervously kneeling to keep her balance, she glanced over the sides and-
- And immediately began performing some not-very-effective breathing exercises.
Kaitlyn had never been a fan of heights. She didn't have acrophobia, but she'd also never been this high up without guardrails and a solid, well-understood foundation.
Still... She had a job to do. She needed to protect her squad, and Hannie, and everyone else still alive on this battlefield.
So, unsteadily reaching for her binoculars, she took advantage of the... Shield... And began scouting the field for the source of the second sun.
Please don't break please don't break please don't break.
As Kaitlyn stepped within, the cage-like "doors" of the half-domed "pod" closed behind her, and the structure began to smoothly rise upward, like riding an elevator. Along the outside, a protective layer of ooze crawled and writhed over both the pod itself and the pillar it rose upon, the crackling ebony prepared to swallow into their depths any projectile or other perceived threat that would be launched towards them and their ward. Wherever Kaitlyn turned the gaze of her binoculars, the ooze would smoothly slide away so as to not hinder her gaze through the viewing glass, moving to protect her blind-spots in turn.
Don't think. You have a job to do, think about that. Keeping everybody safe...
Looking down at the viscous fluid under her feet, a thought came to her.
"Sir, I'm going to try and gain some elevation and survey the battlefield. Maybe try and spot the A-rank manifesting that sun... W-with your permission?"
She thumbed the needle in her hair, desperately wishing she had the time to dig out some candy to suck on. Anything would be better than thinking about the literal star hanging over their heads. The star presently trying to kill them all. The star that is only being held back by a wall of ice that was rapidly losing integrity.
As Kaitlyn spoke those words, however, there was a low, sibilant noise, a whisper, as though her words had been received -though not intended- by some...thing all too eager to answer them. The ooze underfoot, before, tendrils began to form. No... Not tendrils. Ebony serpents...
Vipers.
Wriggling and then smoothing out into almost liquid movements, the vipers rose up as if like king cobras prepared to strike, their bodies swaying and dipping down back into the ooze as if it were a body of water and not unnervingly solid land. Emerald eyes glowed like technopunk highlights, bodies so black that even the light from above seemed to be drunk into their forms. Over her right shoulder, one pit viper-esce appendage(?) hissed up beside Kaitlyn's ear until in was a simple head turn to view it's slitted, almost considering gaze fully.
"Asssssk, and you ssssshhhalll rrecccciiievee~!" came a voice that had been present but a minute ago. Though it seemed to be distorted, and a moment's observation would determine why. For it was not just that "head" that had spoken, but all of the heads. Dozens of heads, even hundreds of serpent heads, as the crackling ebony ooze that had lain mostly dormant across the inner field of the light barrier came alive in a certain twisted sense. For every soldier, for every Arms Master and normal alike, there were now rising a chorus of sibilant whispers, offering aid, as though outstretching a devil's hand with a cunning smile.
True to their offer -and indeed proving her plan had an answer, a platform began to rise before Kaitlyn. It was a half-domed apparatus, with a thick, clear viewing window formed of AM-III glass, sufficient to repel -or at least waylay- bullets. The undomed portion of it faced only towards the city, indicating the protective aspects had been focused forward. The platform rose, and the back -covered by a cage-like guard door- opened, stairs extending, as more ooze climbed up the sides guardingly.
As if Kaitlyn was already put off by the presence of the black ooze, Miss Lei had to pull something like this.
Oh God.
Nervously kneeling to keep her balance, she glanced over the sides and-
- And immediately began performing some not-very-effective breathing exercises.
Kaitlyn had never been a fan of heights. She didn't have acrophobia, but she'd also never been this high up without guardrails and a solid, well-understood foundation.
Still... She had a job to do. She needed to protect her squad, and Hannie, and everyone else still alive on this battlefield.
So, unsteadily reaching for her binoculars, she took advantage of the... Shield... And began scouting the field for the source of the second sun.
Please don't break please don't break please don't break.
As Kaitlyn stepped within, the cage-like "doors" of the half-domed "pod" closed behind her, and the structure began to smoothly rise upward, like riding an elevator. Along the outside, a protective layer of ooze crawled and writhed over both the pod itself and the pillar it rose upon, the crackling ebony prepared to swallow into their depths any projectile or other perceived threat that would be launched towards them and their ward. Wherever Kaitlyn turned the gaze of her binoculars, the ooze would smoothly slide away so as to not hinder her gaze through the viewing glass, moving to protect her blind-spots in turn.
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