Avatar of BrokenPromise

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Recent Statuses

11 days ago
Current What happens in the status bar stays in the status bar.
4 likes
2 mos ago
I think to sell someone on an interest check, it's really important to seem enthusiastic about your own idea. That means writing more than a single sentence to attract potential players.
14 likes
2 yrs ago
The virgin "My post was so bad it killed the RP!" VS the chad "My post was so good it concluded the RP."
16 likes

Bio


W I T H R I G H T E O U S H A N D S





Did you know that Dante's inferno is called a divine comedy because things work out for the protagonist? Back in the day, the only two genres were comedy and drama. The only difference was that in a comedy, the protagonist is better off at the end, and a drama is the opposite. So that's why a story about going through hell can still be considered a comedy, even if it's not funny.

Name:
Broken Promise, BP, Boss

Age:
Old enough to know better, too young to care. (that is to say 30's)

Preferred RPs:
I Prefer to make my own, but will occasionally join something if it looks interesting. I'll join just about anything so long as it isn’t overly edgy/sweet, though it's rare for me to do. I don't do 1x1s too often either.

Preferred Roles:
I tend to play adorable characters everyone wants to befriend or proper assholes everyone wants to stay away from. I try not to play moral paragons or prime evils.

RP Conquests:
I've completed quite a few RP's off site, but most of them are on private forums or have simply been lost to the ravages of server crashes. As for stuff here, I'm sure everyone who sees me post in the off topic sections has seen me find an excuse to talk about Danganronpa: Tower of Carnage. It's a project that took over 4 years to complete and I feel pride not only for myself but all the wonderful people who helped make it enjoyable during its run. Re: Zero: The High Council Is technically my first, but it was just something I kind of took over and ended up ending the story after just six months. It finished, but eh...

Last RP I finished was Symphony of Espers which turned out pretty good.

RP's in progress:
For some reason I can't seem to stay away from Ari's magical girl RP, even if I'm not sure why I'm still in it.

As for my own projects, I'm doing Symphony on High to continue the gigachad adventures of the espers in Pax Septimus.

RP Graveyard:
I've been pretty fortunate on this forum. I think I joined one when I first came on the site that didn't really do anything, and there are a few 1x1 things that didn't go anywhere. It's disappointing when an RP ends before it can be finished, but I've come to look at them as learning experiences.

And then there's that london magical girl RP, and that dark magical girl RP. I think I'm done joining magical girl RPs for a while.

Other interests:
Videos
I watch a lot of educational videos on youtube. Usually as research for something I’m writing or purely because a topic interests me. I like channels like Tier Zoo and Daryl Talks Games, and I’ll also watch things like Critical Drinker or Literature Devil to deepen my understanding of story telling. Though I also like memes and jokes, to which I’ll find myself watching stuff like Sseth, but usually find myself surfing through meme videos. I gotta work on that.

Games
I have a rather long history of playing virtually every platformer to come into existence during the indie boom, as well as quite a few other indie games. I’ve played Meatboy, Binding of Issac, Gunvolt, Cuphead, Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt, Classic Metroid, Warcraft 3, Final Fantasy 7,8, and 14, Left 4 Dead, Shantae, Celeste, Danganronpa, God Eater, the list goes on. What I’ve played is kind of all over the place. I don’t play many games these days, I tend to pick things that look interesting and go on a decent steam sale.

Painting Minis
I do this in moderation. Otherwise, it's a pretty expensive hobby to start...

Music
I listen to everything, save most country/rap songs. I have too many favorites to name.

Personality:
Not one to take life or the internet too seriously. Is only serious about writing well and having a good time.

People to Insult:
Dalton is a Dingus.

Most Recent Posts



“Silmeria, you heavy!"

— Su Fang


@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants@Izurich@SilverPaw@ERode@Ponn

The blood had solidified over her eyes. The only way Su could see was if something was bright enough to shine through the blood avalanche and her eyelids. But in the dimly lit room, there was no such source of light. Su was trapped in darkness, and she was suffocating in it. It was uncomfortable, scary even, but she was an Esper. She would endure.

They would be successful. It was a certainty. She had to go home and see Mika, and she couldn’t do that if she was dead. But more than her own determination, she knew Jacqueline would persevere. Samuel seemed like a resourceful sort, and Lilliah seemed adaptable to boot. Though in her tomb devoid of air or light, Su felt a certain amount of shame. Performing well was imprtant to Su, and she wasn't too pleased to be cut off from everyone alongside Silmeria.

But that made perfect sense, really.

Everyone had a bad day at work. Su would be kidding herself if she thought her performance today was stellar. There were better arrangements for her constructions, and her orders were based on poor judgments. The important part was that when Su left her crimson tomb, she would be a better than when she entered. She could normally forgive Silmeria for her overly aggressive approach to combat. But this wasn’t the first time she had come around to bail her out of trouble. Earlier in the week, she had been called to assist Silmeria. While Su would never begrudge someone who wanted her help, she was concerned that Silmeria's performance might not be from unfair circumstances, but hers reckless approach to operations. Perhaps it was some behavior that could be ironed out of her with training. Maybe Silmeria just needed a day at the Fang household.

But thinking of post operation affairs only took her mind of the present for so long. The claustrophobic space in the prison was starting to get to her. She wanted to move, she wanted to see, she wanted to escape this feeling of inadequacy.

“Gah!"

The blood thawed and ran down her body. She was soaked with the blood of innocent people. Not a single spec of her blue and black outfit wasn’t red. She coughed, she wiped her eyes with bloodstained hands, but it wasn’t enough. She finally clenched her hand into a fist and a gust of wind blew away what hadn’t soaked into her uniform. She was sore, but she would live.

Su didn’t need to look over the edge of the wall to see the sacrifices had died. It was an outcome that Su had come to expect from an ordeal like this. Trying to save the civilians would have gotten them all killed. It was a rough fight just trying to keep each other alive. That didn’t make it any easier, as she it could have been Mika under one of those burlap bags. Her eyes drifted to the severed head of the child before looking away towards…

“Samuel?"

This was the first time she had seen him out of the esper state. He was, well, a lot more attractive than she thought the haunting figure would be. It was not uncommon for espers to adapt personas to make their identities extra secure. But it seemed more like that part of him was just his true self shining through his esper form. Well, Su knew Sam was a gentleman, or at least he looked the part. If she ever needed to convince her parents that she had gotten married, having Samuel pose with her for a few pictures would be pretty good.

“This way!"

Su guided the two espers to the ground floor, where the other half of the agents were. There she saw Ashley tending to Lillah, and of course Jaquiline was nearby. It was at times like this she wished she had some way of assisting with the post-battle. But her mana reserves were low. Ashley's eyes were red, and Su was pretty sure it wasn't just from the smoke. The desire to hug her was there, but now wasn't the time for coddling.

“Ashley?" Su kept her distance, not wanting to spook the cadet while she was working on Lilliah. “You lived!?"

”Two out of three ain’t bad for your first G.E.M.I.N.I. only mission together.” Binky’s joyless voice carried through the smoke as she walked around the side of Su’s castle. ”The mansion is totally secured on the outside. If Justin has half a brain, he’ll try to escape while we’re closing in on him.” Binky’s eyes rested on Jacqueline for a moment. ”This isn’t a suicide mission, anyone who’s not fit to fight can remain in the back.” Her eyes passed over the headless civilians before coming to rest on Ashley and Lilliah. Her face lacked any trace of apathy. Maybe she didn’t care, or maybe the sight of death was so commonplace, Binky stopped reacting to it. ”But it’s all for nothing if we don’t take down Justin. We move out immediately.”




@Ponn@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants@Izurich@SilverPaw
It must be bravery that inspired her step.

It must be foolishness that forced her step.

It must be indignation that provoked her step.

It mattered not the reasons behind Valkyrie’s step, only that she had taken the step, moving closer to the edge, the Teslic Gauss sparking with all the power that she had left in her body. Lightning discharged sporadically upon her surroundings, snapping at debris and tilework. What more ought to be said? She performed as she always did, promising violence and vengeance in equal measure, leveling her gun at the monstrosity and pulling the trigger. A beam, no different than any other, streaked through the sanguine deluge, plunging in without resistance. It was a stake, carved of the wrath of the heavens. It was a blade, sharpened by a genocidal oath. It was a bullet, wreathed in all her thoughts and traumas, spurred on by her desire to kill them all.

It was, in the end, just a spell. A spell of the lowest tier, squeezed out by a sniper running on fumes.

Lightning scattered inches away from Arzendale’s skin, the electricity coursing through the air revealing a transparent barrier that glowed briefly before shattering. He smiled, even though there was no reason to believe now that either Valkyrie nor Breacher could see him. Simple-minded mongrels, these humans. Granted more power than they knew what to do with, and lacking the finesse of even a fledgling goblin, capable only of stubbornly attacking like the deficient savages that they were. Three magical circles, overlaid, meant three spells. The first, the deluge. The second, the barrier. And the third?

The deluge did not pause, and Breacher was forced to take to the forefront herself, drawing more and more debris from the very air to construct yet another set of barriers. Dust now made up her walls, dust and shattered stone as she pulled at Valkyrie, hugging the smaller esper from behind while bringing up the shield to protect both of them. Ever caring, ever protective, even when her call to fame had been to breaching rather than shielding. It took courage either way to brave the storm, to meet an avalanche head-on and hope to mitigate the damage enough that they could using the force alone to retreat instead. And as blood surged through the window she had left for Valkyrie’s long gun, Breacher prepared herself for impact, ready to roll with the tsunami’s force.

It struck her shield and coagulated.

The third circle, the third spell, had been one that caused blood to freeze.

Increased mass forced her shield down, anchoring Breacher to where she stood, and then the rest of the sanguine tide arrived, pummeling down the two of them with the virtue and vice of sheer weight itself, all while more and more blood built up overtop of them. Soon, they were wholly encased, the two having managed to get by with only heavy bruises due to their supernatural defenses against the chaotic powers of the monster they faced. But that meant little. A quick death may have even been preferred. For the two laid now in the center of a glacier of crystallized blood, atop the walls of debris that they had sheltered above before. And gradually, the air in their lungs was running out. One can only hope that another remained who could save them. But who still stood?

Wukong did.

In that instant, she had attained enlightenment, grasping the entirety of the transient world with her astral self. And in that same instant, she had discarded all that wisdom, plunging into the depths of her memories instead. The deaths of her siblings, their glassy eyes reflecting the ruination of her own face. The mad beast, delighting not in the sweetness of their flesh but in the density of their fear and despair, as it pulled them apart like a child would with butterflies. And somewhere, the ones that brought her into this miserable, broken, ugly world simply watched, took notes, and prepared. Prepared to make new children, prepared to make new stories. Stories of why their children had disappeared.

The wisdom she had garnered meant nothing as her back burned and Centrocious ripped off the restraints holding it back. She had neither the experience nor the strength to make claims of wisdom. But what she did have, in this moment, was what she always had.

Desperation to live. To survive. The primal instincts that saw her flee and leave her sister’s corpse behind, to be cremated and scattered in the wind. But there was no way to run now. So she had to fight.

The first blade-limb scythed down, slamming inches away from where her head had been, before dragging down to slice into her shoulder. She caught it there instead, hunching up her shoulder and bending her head in the same direction to clamp down on that blade. Hot blood soaked charred fabrics, but she kept her head.

The second blade-limb struck, meeting her staff instead. Bone thunked heavily against wood, forcing it down further and further until the staff was pinned against one side, leaving her still-bent neck exposed.

The head reared back, exposing rows and rows of disorderly teeth and dove in.

Sometimes, however, it was fortune, not skill, that ensured survival.

A bolt of arcane bolt burst against the side of Centrocious’s head, forcing it away just enough to miss, and in that moment, Wukong found her opportunity. An Esper’s Instrument was indestructible, and subsequently, no matter how sharp the blade, there was no way for the blade-limb that held down her Cherrywood Sage’s Staff to keep it in place either. A flick of the fingers shot the length of the staff upwards, and her free hand raised it up to aim at the monster above her. Whether head, neck, or chest, it mattered not. Centrocious was a monster made of bone, and there was much less that held it together.

The wind howled and the monster became dust.

Perhaps Wukong would be able to take another breath after all.

“Well done. Though rare, honestly.” A dark chuckle sounded above her before a boot slammed into her chest, driving her ribs into her lungs, pushing her into the searing coals that her adrenaline had helped her forget about just a moment before.

Arzendale smiled as Wukong writhed. The sniper and the shieldswoman were encased in sanguine ice. The shadow was naught but ash. The little light was snuffed out within the disposal room. The knight had been bled dry. And now, the monk will die as all monks did: by immolation. Perhaps his predilections had caused this to be more trouble that it was worth, but what of it? He had his fill of entertainment, and Justin had his lobby secured from invaders. It may take a day or two to clean up all this debris and redo the flooring, but what else were thralls good for but blood sacrifice and menial labor? Ah, certainly, one could have used them as soldiers instead, the way that human barbarians would, arming them and conscripting them to fill the espers up with bullet holes from all angles the moment they entered, but there…there simply wasn’t any beauty in that.

No, if one were to speak of beauty, it certainly must come only from suffering, the intensifying light in one’s eyes up until the moment its extinguished forever.

Ah yes, just like this.

A metal ball struck his back, then erupted into an arsenal of hastily-formed blades, ripping Arzendale in half. His upper body fell beside Wukong, his dimming eyes looking up to catch a glimpse of Orion, standing in the shadow of the foyer. Bloodied and beaten, but not defeated. And then, hidden beside the corpses that he had drained, Jacqueline remained conscious, vestiges of iron dust falling out of the air. An iron will, encased in an iron body.

A wet laugh sounded through his lips.

“T’was truly enjoyable, the writhing of the short-lived. May your paths continue to be covered in thorns, my pets, so that you are adequately prepared…” Above, the glacier of blood groaned, cracking as the power that held it in place began to wane. “…for my advent. Sleep lightly. Keep your daughters and sisters close. Adieu.”

Without a sound, the vampire dissolved into blood, extinguishing the flames that seared Wukong, thawing the ice that encased Valkyrie and Breacher. They were bloodied, yes, some closer to death than others, but with some healing magic, they would be able to continue on at least. So long as they did not die, they had no reason to stop.

Twenty-four human beings laid before them, lives never to be reclaimed.

There would never be a reason to stop.

.

..



The Ghostblade passed through flesh and bone as if it were air.

Silhouette, body charred and senses dulled, hadn’t stood a chance.

Like scoops of ice cream fallen from a cone, his hands tumbled down the tower, pulling his blades with it. Shadows receded from his monstrous form, revealing the red-eyed human underneath, unarmed and weak, with neither magic nor technique.

Nothing but a sneer formed on Lenore’s face as she hefted her sword up onto her shoulder, ready to behead the man behind the demon, but then, she paused.

Her crimson armor crumbled, pieces of her helmet falling off her head, dissolving into puddles of blood upon striking the ground. A low whistle sounded between her lips, the faintest sign of recognition in her carmine eye as she redid the eyepatch over her right eye again.

“Well,” she said, no trace of bloodlust in her tone anymore. “That’s just like the ol’ Doctor, isn’t it? Tell her that it’s not over yet, would ya, little Sammy?”

A flick of the wrist cleansed her falchion of impurities, and with another, she disappeared in a burst of blacklight, one half of his mask left in her wake.








@OwO@mantou@ERode@Majoras End

The robot ticked, the barrels floated, the zombie advanced, and Finn’s allies were trapped. Though more important to him was keeping Betty’s silhouette in sight. There was no point to any of this if she was going to die at the end of it all. G.E.M.I.N.I. and Maverick could fight their war. The politics didn’t interest him. They’d be done with this already if they could work together.

How like a child to make the world seem so simple.

After casting a single melody, the time keeper was gone. Bob hadn’t been able to count a single second before Finn disappeared from sight. Finn would be safe from Bob, but that was one less esper that could have helped those that remained. Four espers, two teenagers, and Billy remained squarely inside the death trap.

Klava conjured an ice ram while shouting out commands to the others. Apollo’s inability to blow the bonfire away and Protector leaving the scene behind Billy didn’t seem to bother him too much. Or perhaps he was just too into the siege ram that Klava had built for them. ”Hell yea! I’m all fired up for this!” He grabbed hold of the handle that Klava had provided for him. ”Hold onto your asses! I’m pushin’ on five!”

”SIX…”

Tetrad was less impressed, if only because this was the second time Klava gave an order that was opposite of her own, and all the Japanese jargon felt out of place at the moment. She watched a bit of anime when she was younger, but she’d never think about saying stuff like that on a mission to a bunch of mercenaries. But she could handwave it as them being close friends. Not many people could kill on command like that. Eviscerated remains flashed in her mind before she ran for the train.

It wasn’t all bad. After running into the back of the train and taking the handle, she was standing next to Apollo. He cast a melody that healed any small scrapes and cuts anyone had gotten, though Klava’s bones would take much longer to heal. She wasn’t going to be much help pushing, but they had Billy for that anyway.

”That felt pretty good!”

”Thanks, but I-”

”FIVE…”

The crazzy train slid forward. There was no acceleration time, Billy leaned forward and used his inhuman strength to get to top speed. Tetrad nearly had her feet pulled out from under her, but managed to get her feet back under her.

The upper half of the burning spirit golem turned into a fist and slammed into the windshield. Normally, thousands of pounds of burning spirits would spill into the cockpit of the ram. But as much weight as the attack had, it was still a low quality arcane construct. Apollo’s magic shield had spread to the train, shielding it from a blow that could have ended the operation. That didn’t stop the occupants’ heads from jerking forward, as it was still enough to stop their momentum. No one felt it quite as bad as Klava did, as her fractured rib cage seared with pain when she slammed into the handlebar. But they had to keep going.

”FOUR…”

At least the spike paired with the train’s wedge shaped face meant they wouldn’t have much trouble ramming through the burning spirits. The train parted the golem like the red sea. Alcohol and flames were pushed to either side of the ram, and was visible out the side windows. Fable’s jacket had been plastered on the window right in front of Apollo’s vision, but the ram continued to move forward.

There was a space under the train too. It wasn’t tall, but they would be marching over a carpet of flames shortly.

”THREE…”

Apollo’s shield protected everyone on their walk over the flames. It would take a few seconds to burn through such a barrier, but now they needed to contend with the rest of Gunther’s arsonal. He had a single soul tied up in operating the spirit golem, while the other four were free to possess barrels and fly into the ram. One of the barrels struck a window and cracked it, but it held true. But every hit slowed the train, if just a little bit. There was also only so much Klava’s contraption could take. This was not the strongest ram Klava could muster, and it was starting to crack under the repeated blows.

”TWO…”

Almost at the other side, and the entire wine cellar was behind them. That meant the remaining barrels were going to be flying into the back, where there was no wall to shield them. Billy’s size and position meant he would be taking most of the attacks, but he was ill-equipped to do so from arcane charged barrels. The first barrel was mostly eaten up by Apollo’s shield, but that meant that the burning spirits under his feet were starting to eat away at him. A mere inconvenience for an esper, but it caused excruciating pain to monsters. The leather on his shoes was starting to peel, and the busted barrel had spilled wine all the way down his back.

”Hells bells!”

With the ram so close to the exit, Luna reached for one of the stakes on her side of the train and dropped it. ”Hold onto your butts! We’re spinning this thing!”

In the moderate sized space at the end of the wine cellar, the spike caused the ram to spin. At the same time, Tetrad hurled a card at the ground that filled the area with gravity-reducing confetti. It also had a healing effect, but no one would be in the zone long enough to enjoy it. It was just a way to get the ram to spin easier. With the ram turned around, the open back of the ram was pointed towards the stairs leading up. A salvo of kegs came for the front of the ram, and they were starting to break through.

”ONE…”

After a ride no one would soon forget, they ran up the stairs while the train collapsed behind them. Bob remained in the empty cellar, counting down to corpses that could not hear him.

”…MUGEN.”

Deep inside Bob’s chest, a cacophony of shattering glass and chemical reactions was starting to take place. Steam bellowed out of his joints, electricity arced around his body, and the cellar was bathed in a light that cast no shadows.

The espers on the floor above would see plenty of shadows. A powerful explosion rocked everyone right off their feet. The white light that followed them up the stairs was intense, and bathed the room in monochrome hues. When it subsided, everyone was left with a ringing in their ears, and any wounds they took from the ordeal up to this point.

”Not bad, girls.” Billy laid flat on his back to extinguish the fire. With that addressed, he sat down beside the espers. ”You too Apollo. That shield was mighty fine if I do say so myself. ” With a sigh, he looked at everyone present. ”Let’s get patched up and move further in. Reinforcements should be joining us shortly, they’ll have a path cleared out for us.”

The path back down had caved in, filled with wood and stone. Nothing that Billy couldn’t move, but it would take too much time. If Justin didn’t know they had arrived, they did now. And even if they could afford to clear the path, every second they wasted here was another second Finn was left alone with Betty. They could only wonder how Protector fared.






An esper was more than capable of carrying two teenagers under their arms, but it was a bit trickier when you also had to manage a spear and a shield. To this end, Protector opted to just make them lighter. This both made them easier to carry and made it impossible for them to attempt to escape. Short of throwing a fireball at her, there wasn’t much they could do.

Gunther’s main goal was to keep espers out and cripple Billy, so he took little notice of Protector running outside. She would face little resistance as she distanced herself from the wine cellar. Bob’s countdown became impossible to make out, but the detonation was loud even from where Protector was standing. It reverberated through the Bastion. It was impossible to tell how extensive the damage was, as it would take a bit for the smoke to clear.

She had made it outside. The teenagers were safe, but Billy’s team would be short one Protector.

”We’re, we’re alive?” The boy groaned. He was still clutching his stomach.

The girl still had her hands folded over her stomach. Apollo had struck her in the stomach hard enough to also incapacitate the person behind her.

”That guy was pretty rough, huh?”

”They’re dead.” The girl’s voice cracked. ”White, and Green…”

The violet haired boy remained quiet, but it was clear the news had affected him. His hands and lower lip were trembling. ”Really?” She nodded, unable to say anything else. The boy inhaled sharply before running his hand over his face. ”Oh god…”






@The World

Marrie was a gentle girl, but sometimes, you just had to punt a goblin. It wasn’t like she was killing them, and it was all in the name of helping someone who was helping her. Also they bit her, you could only be so gentle with them.

”That’s the spirit, Senator! Show ‘em who’s boss!”

But Highway to Hell had already selected its next victim. It was not some dumb animal that reacted to the rampent flailings of its prey while it was trying to secure a kill. The several seconds it took to make a pile of goblins mattered little when Highway to Hell could devour Stacy’s head in a single bite.

”Later, Armstrong!”

The snake’s snout borrowed part way into the tunnel floor, taking in Stacy’s head along with half a mouthful of dirt. With its head bent so low, in the dim light of the campfire, she could make out some lacerations on the back of its head. They were small when compared to the size of the creature, but they were not clean wounds. The flesh hadn’t been cut, but torn, ripped up by some crude tool. This might have provoked the snake’s oddly aggressive behavior towards the severed head.

But Marrie couldn’t linger, she still had to save herself. Her healing melody fixed all of her wounds instantly, as she chased after Stacy’s body.

This leg of the catacombs led to an especially broad passageway. Marrie had to turn her clip light on to see anything down here. Sure enough, there were all sorts of goblins using wagons to enter different parts of the catacombs. The goblins carrying Stacy’s body dropped it on the floor before scattering. At the far end of the cave was another wooden door, but this one had been thrown open. Goblins were leaving it en masse, carrying everything they could. Garbage cans, crates filled with junk, anything they had stored in their burrows had to be taken before Highway to Hell got here. But the most interesting item Marrie didn’t need her clip light to see. A goblin carrying a blazing coin and some dishes was preparing to depart on a wagon.

Marrie could also feel Stacy pawing at her shoe. The chainsaw in her back was still running at a low idle.
twitter.com/thecartooncrave/status/14…

Live action, I know, but it falls under the same category. That said, who thought this would be a good idea? I'm honestly on the fence with the whole real life actors but cartoon fairies/magic. They already did the "show's main characters but live action and grown up" years ago with the movie, too.


It does break one's suspension of disbelief when you take a cartoon and make some of the characters real and others not. I'm not familiar with the show, but such a thing would bug me if it happened to something I was more familiar with.

I'm reminded of one of my favorite movies as a kid, which remains a good watch even today. Though it was a different deal since the main toons were original and treated the more familiar cartoons in a meta way by making them actors that resided in toon town. Even if you don't care for the movie, a lot of work went into making cartoons and humans work side by side. You had puppeteers, animatronics, and animators working without the assistance of computers. They even used props for some of the toons in scenes to inform the animators on how they should be shaded, which is probably why the effects still look sharp today.

I am of course referring to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."



“Why you make my job hard?"

— Su Fang


@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants@Izurich@SilverPaw@ERode@Ponn

Debri and smoke, blood and bones.

The next few seconds unfolded as fast as Su could think. She blew Centrocious off the side of the wall, raised her shield just in time to block an attack from Lenore, Before the nun was replaced by Silmeria. She barely had time to blink before Arzendale invoked his next spell. There was no time to think. Su was working entirely on instinct when she raised her shield and prepared to defend her ally from the hail of blood. This wasn't going to be like last time when she left Samuel to defend Silmeria. Su would position herself in front of the attack. It would hurt, but she was better equipped to deal with it than anyone else. During this entire debacle, nearly every member of her squad had been hurt in one way or another.

But Su knew that she wouldn’t be able to. While she had a modicum of self preservation due to Mika, Silmeria had nothing. Su didn't know Silmeria that well, but it was evident in all her actions. She took every opportunity to fire and never used her magic for anything other than offense. Even when she was going to burn alive, even now with an avalanche of blood upon them.

But even if she could place herself in front of Silmeria, she knew how important it was to end Arzendale before he did any more harm. If he survived, Wukong and Jacqueline’s slim chance of survival would be extinguished.

It seemed hopeless. Ashley was gone, Jaquiline was part of a blood spell, she couldn't even see Lilliah, and Silmeria would become a slave to an unfortunate fate. Maybe Su could do something about it.

While Silmeria raised her gun to fire, Su thumped her shield on top of her wall. The one advantage she had was that touch melodies were among the fastest to activate, and she was sure she could beat out the projectile or beam Silmeria was using for this attack.

The castle hadn’t steered Su wrong yet, might as well expand on her kingdom of debri. The wall shifted ans swirled as the wall grew a barrier. It sprouted in front of Silmeria, curling around her barrel so as to not disrupt her aim. Su was well aware that her melody would not stand up to the vampire’s assault for long. But maybe it could buy her an extra second.

The wall also sprouted a few other features. Directly behind Su and Silmeria was now a platform that joined with the ramp behind them. Wukong would also be shielded by a platform that extended out of the side of the wall. A staircase that went from the top and most the way down to the bottom. Due to the length of the wall, this was the best Su could manage. A means of descending the wall later, or for Wukong to scramble up to if she still had the strength.

Once Silmeria fired, Su would move behind her, hugging her stomach with one arm and holding up her shield with the other,all while backing away from the construction she had made. Even if it had held, some of that blood was going to get through the hole she left for Silmeria’s rifle. As the blood broke through Su’s barrier, she tried to let the avalanche of blood push her back. Rolling with a punch like a boxer might do. The further they got from the wall’s edge, the more Arzendale had to shoot through.

But Su kept a tight grip on her pistol. It was only a matter of time before that nun came for them, if she wasn't fighting Samuel again.


@Dark Cloud You have to understand I played it quite a while ago. I noticed in the ads they mention it was revamped, so they might have made everything look even better.

Tell you what? I'm going to re-install the game and I'll tell you what I think. @FamishedPants Had me download it while it was free way back in the day so they might even be interested in playing with me. We're on different servers on Lost Ark so we can't really play together without one of us starting over. So maybe *wink* he still has *wink* a desire to try it again *wink*.
@Dark Cloud I wouldn't say I gave the game a proper chance, but I played it for an hour or so and it seems pretty generic as far as action MMORPGS go. It may have a price tag, but it looked very much like a free to play game. Again, I can't really say because I haven't played it that long. But the character creator is pretty cool, and for 10$ it's almost worth having just to make face claims for RP characters.


@Ponn@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants@Izurich@SilverPaw

She imagined it, in the milliseconds before impact.

Tempered steel slicing through wood, then flesh, then bone. Her battlestaff broken in half by a singular strike, her vision flipping upside-down as her upper body fell off her lower body. Death arriving, her survival instincts incapable of doing anything to prevent it.

But an Esper’s Instrument was unbreakable, and the crimson staff was sturdier than any shield in the world. It bent against the force of Lenore’s blow, but the blade did not so much as touch Wukong’s flesh. Taking advantage of that same force, she loosened up her stance, utilizing the unholy nun’s own power to grant her some distance. Distance to reengage at a range that suited her staff. Distance to give her some time to recover. It sounded great in her mind.

Wukong, however, was fighting atop a very high wall, and had just allowed herself to be knocked off the edge. With hardly a yelp, she disappeared from the ledge.

“Centrocius, down!”

And with her opponent having flung herself off the edge, Lenore was free to speak as she wished, the Magic Sense that she had imbued herself with giving her just enough time to see what was about to transpire around her. A beam was always going to be devastatingly fast, but they had, once again, been fighting on a wall. A half-second was more than enough.

Front legs digging into the wall, Centrocius hurled itself over the ledge as well, Valkyrie’s beam only blasting the tip of its tail off. Lenore winked at the sniper, tapping a finger against her temple, before charging for Breacher, at the same time as Centrocius leaped up again, front legs forcing down her shield as its jaws rose above and opened wide to rip the shieldbearing Esper’s head right off. In that moment, Su had a choice to make. Defend herself, and ruin the combination she had envisioned with Jacqueline, or sacrifice herself, and enable the combination she had envisioned with Jacqueline. Bipartisan thrummed, magical energy reaching its apex, ready to burst out at any moment.

She couldn’t leave Mika alone. Not for the life of a single vampire.

The handgun cracked, pieces of her wall ripping out to follow the bullet’s trajectory. They slammed, unified, into the roof of the skeletal beast’s jaw, pushing it off the wall as well. More trails of debris followed its descent, restraints of tile and wood, stone and glass, binding down its upper portion. And with one enemy removed, Breacher’s shield clashed with Lenore’s sword, the two now locked in mortal combat.

And Wukong, having gathered her wits just in time to tuck into a roll as she dropped five meters into the ground, soon found herself mired in ash and smoke. Every inch of exposed skin burned at the gasoline-accelerated fires, her flesh melting and fusing with her battlestaff. Smoke seeped into her lungs and wrecked havoc from inside out. In her current state, even though she was so close to Arzendale, even though she was in striking range of him, she had to escape.

Not that the monstrosity that landed after her would allow that.

Bones rattling as it crashed into the ground, Centrocius lunged for Wukong clumsily, its head and front limbs bound but its back legs still functioning. Though neither of them were in perfect condition, the monstrous speed of the steed easily surpassed Wukong’s, and it fell atop of her, bony and debris-ridden mass pinning her down upon superheated shards of stone. She could feel it, white-hot agony lancing deep into her back, her chest constricted by the monster even as her lungs hacked and convulsed at the smoke. Arzendale’s immaculate posture, so close and yet so far. Her body, inching closer and closer to unconsciousness, then the inevitable death.

Her soul seeped out of her body and expanded to reach the entirety of the world.

Her Journey Had Not Yet Concluded.

But Arzendale cared not for the terrified screams of an Esper roasting away. Without his body restrained and with Breacher having called out her fallen ally to assist, he immediately leapt to the side, anticipating the melody that would inevitably fly towards him. It was simple enough to predict. A two-pronged attack, one from the front and one from behind. All you had to do was step off to the side, and both would miss. The magic of an Esper was so narrow, after all, nothing compared to the consuming might of a vampire’s bloodwork. And look at that! The melody that should have flew past him didn’t even appear! A smirk formed, a supremely smug expression carving apart the Sanguine Sovereign’s face as he tilted his head to the side. She died, hasn’t she? A mis-

A chunk of crude metal pulverized his side and ripped his left arm right off.

Jacqueline had not died. She hadn’t even just survived. Through agonizing pain, through the dread of death, through blood loss and darkening vision, she had held on, her focus as sharp as her axe. In any other circumstance, she may have missed. But just as her Powerful spells had delayed her effects just long enough to make things worse in the past, now, that extra one second had brought her the time to wait out her opponent’s reactions, their caution. It wasn’t a push spell by any means, but the mere action of a ‘leap’ meant that there was a predictable location, based off of velocity and parabolic curves, of where they would land. And though monsters were incomprehensible creatures capable of corrupting all physical matter, the laws of gravity applied to all equally. She had landed her beam, and the monster bled…but did not fall.

Incomprehensible monstrosities were equally constructed of incomprehensible matter. They were not so weak-fleshed as humans, keeling over from the loss of a paltry arm, a lung and some other organs. They could exist as skeletons, as phantasms, as animated objects. They were monstrous in vitality, and Arzendale snarled at the destruction of his suit, the only thing that wasn’t replaceable. “Miserable wench,” he spat, his grip on his wand tightening into a fist. “I had deigned to give you a moment for a soliloquy upon your deathbed, but I suppose I should’ve done this from the start. Blood of my blood, fuel my ire!”

No heads fell, but blood flowed all the same, darkening the hoods around their heads before leaking out in thick, irregular strands. Jacqueline too could feel that pronounced force pulling at the contents of her veins, her blood crawling out of her nose and ears, her mouth and eyes, accelerating her demise, coagulating into the triple-overlaid magic circle that formed Arzendale’s bloodcraft.

An attack not directed at her, but at her fellow agents, at Breacher, forced to remain on the wall by the swordsmanship of the Sister of Sacrilege.

“May God have mercy…”

The circles glowed, rotating with greater power.

“…for I shall not!”

Lenore smiled and disappeared.

Valkyrie did not move. Her enemies were all in front of her, and the only one that possessed any ranged attacks did not have line-of-sight of her, blocked off by the wall that Breacher had raised. Any other enemies were delayed by those more capable of holding their ground in melee combat, and she, the sniper, was safe to settle down in her spot, focusing on the distance, focusing on her scope. It mattered not, the charred stench of Silhouette’s body as he writhed right by her. It mattered not, Wukong’s sudden fall, nor Jacqueline’s eminent demise. Valkyrie settled into the safety of the ‘distance’, into the regularity of her ‘mission’, into the comfort of her ‘job’. No distractions were necessary, whether they be shadow or fire, smoke or blacklight.

A sniper ought never to get comfortable in their nest, for an Esper did not need to aim, did not even need to see, in order to Spawn a melody.

The nun transplaced with the sniper as Arzendale’s great craft completed, a channeled deluge of crimson rushing towards Breacher and Valkyrie with the force of an avalanche. If either of them met this head on, the results would likely not be pleasant, but at the same time, this was perhaps the best chance that they had to strike back.

If Breacher moved to impose herself in front of Valkyrie, she could shield the sniper long enough for her to escape into the slope behind.
If Valkyrie chose to brave the storm, she could fire one shot towards Arzendale through the deluge, and perhaps slay him right then and there.

But that would depend only on who acted first.

And even that would solve only one of many questions.

Who would stabilize Jacqueline?

Who would heal Wukong?

.

..



Light, warm and bright. Light, red and sticky. Light, bloodied and ruined. Light, light, light, light, light.

Her mind was light, but her body was heavy, torn muscles aching with effort, ears numb to the echoing anguish of those she had left behind. She had no choice. She had no options. She had a mission. She had an objective. She would avenge them. She would bury them. She would return them.

Myriad thoughts oozed out of her mind as she continued to climb. Hands planted to the sides. Feet braced against the steel. Inching like a spider. Crawling like a worm. No longer human, but esper, expected to make decisions mercilessly, unkindly, against terrors the human mind had feared as merely the stuff of delusion and nightmare. She climbed, for what could she do but climb? Compressed into this space with only one way out, her melodies muted in the sheer worthlessness of her notes, she could only struggle.

Struggle, until finally, she wormed her way out of the chute, collapsing upon wine-red carpets. A hallway. In the distance, the battle raged still, but she could not hear the voices of her allies. No Breacher with sharp commands. No Leroux with a battlecry. No Wukong with a snappy pun. No Silhouette with verbose observations. No Valkyrie with deadpan facts. Was it distance? Or was it demise? She stumbled, step by step, approaching the heat and the light, the flames and the fight, until finally…

Orion was on the second floor. The foyer. Off to the side, she saw the massive painting of Justin von Carnage, depicted in hateful elegance, his imperious countenance as immaculate and inhuman as expected. Beneath the open hands he posed in the picture, fountains of blood were installed, ever-flowing, flanked by torch-bearing suits of armor. The second floor was untouched by the carnage below, the only stains the ones left in Orion’s own wake. Did that monster rest soundly at night, knowing that just two stories below, indescribable human suffering occurred? Was that what allowed him to rest so well?

But the mission, the mission was what mattered.

She had only a small part to play. She would not be the one to rip out the vampire’s heart from his chest, to watch him suffer before extinguishing his miserable existence for all of eternity. She was still only a trainee of an agent, the potency of her magic the only thing that was good about her, and even then, she could only muster one melody. A single spell to critically affect the circumstances, from an Esper that none below were aware of.

Jacqueline laid, guts splayed.

Lilliah struggled, burning alive.

Su and Silmeria tensed, calculating and deciding.

Samuel could not be seen, could not be spotted.

This was where Fate converged.

This was where Fate diverged.

And in Ashley’s hands, laid the power to shape Tomorrow.








@OwO@mantou@ERode@Majoras End

Nothing is quite as raw as the untempered emotion of youth.

With his life on the line, as well as that of the other freelancers and Betty, he chose to remain, even with her greatsword coming for his head.

He ducked under the blade just in time for it to pass. The blade sliced through Jane’s back, opening her up and severing her spine in one swing. Her warm blood fell on Finn like rain.

”Such barbaric weapons...“ was all she got out before toppling forward.

But the boy’s focus wouldn’t let him react to it. Not her words or her crimson that stained his shirt. He sprinted forward with Klava at his side. But she was not here to help him rush down Betty. As he ran, she slid, and Klava did little more than issue the boy a warning before sliding past his target.

But with Betty’s swing concluding, and Finn closing the distance, what would happen next?

There were many online debates about swords. If one or two-handed weapons are better, and if an anime greatsword could be viable in a fight. Most of these were perpetuated by fantasy and RPG fans with little experience, but medieval reenactors and historians mostly agreed on these points. Two-handed swords were almost always superior to their one-handed counterparts. While heavier, the extra hand on the hilt gave you much more leverage over your sword, which allowed for faster and stronger attacks. Many medieval armies gradually shifted to using two-handed weapons as armor improved and the need to carry a shield was lessened. One-handed blades were employed by light infantry units in Europe, and saw a lot of use as self defense weapons. Larger swords were considered too dangerous to allow for civilians to use, and were generally restricted to the military. But that didn’t mean that one-handed blades were strictly inferior. When breaching a castle or clashing with an enemy army, sometimes shorter blades were employed. Bigger weapons were only more viable when you had the room for them. Finn understood this, and raced to close the distance. Betty didn’t have a standard great sword. It was among the longest, comparable to a Scottish claymore or German zweihander. Even if her hand position gave her some leverage, it wasn’t clear if she would be fast enough to counter.

Perhaps the outcome would be determined by the esper’s individual abilities and tactics rather than their weapon choice. Finn’s melody allowed him to pop up and thrust at Betty, but his targets were limited. He didn’t want to mortally wound her, which made a lot of areas off limits. The head, torso, and upper legs were all filled with essential organs that could be fatal if punctured. But the intent was to knock her down, so he started with a thrust to her shin.

But Betty’s swing had concluded, and she was ready to move.

Betty slid her leg back, almost showing Finn her profile as he thrust. One of her hands ran up the back of her sword as the side of the blade dropped in front of Finn’s attack. Her sword did not budge when it was struck by Finn’s rapier. His next attack, and the attack after that, and even the one after that, they would be stopped by Betty’s massive blade every time. Even when he went to get around her sword, she was able to move it just in time to deflect the incoming attack.

But Betty was not merely defending herself, she was preparing a counter attack. Black spores swirled around Betty as she prepared a melody of her own. By the time Finn had noticed it was happening, it activated. Betty hopped into the air and was shoved towards Finn. He had just enough time to bring up his blade before she smashed into him. His indestructible rapier kept her blade out of his innards, but the two of them were flying towards Bob.

Klava was oblivious to what was going on behind her, and between being slippery and moving at high speed, she couldn’t have stopped if she wanted to. She would be contending with Red shortly.

Red launched a fireball at the fast approaching esper, who leapt over her fireball with grace. While Klava flipped through the air, Red pulled a dagger from her waist band and prepared to fight. Many would question her choice to stand her ground, but Red was fighting on behalf of all her siblings. Though determination and fervor could not substitute skill and power. Red was little more than a young woman with a knife, while Klava was a mighty esper. On Klava’s second rotation, she managed to throw Red’s knife out of her hand, and then delivered a swift stroke to the woman’s neck. Red clutched her throat with her hand, but it did little to stem the flow of blood. She sank to the floor while Klava aimed her knife at her target. She had no need to prepare her melody because she prepped it on the way over. She planned this. She would not miss.

But then why was Gunther smiling?

Just as Klava called out her attack, just as azure frost left her fingers, the burning barrel that she had blocked earlier flew in front of her target. The keg detonated from the impact, quenching the burning fluid trapped inside. This revealed a stray spirit, which promptly flew into the barrel Klava was hiding behind.

Something that Klava had not been privy to was Gunther’s abilities. He entered the fight late, and his powers were never explicitly revealed to her. When she created her perfect approach to eliminating him, she hadn’t seen how his fearsome magic operated. While he had three spirits tied up fighting her companions, she had opted to change her strategy and allow Jane to die at the hands of Betty’s sword. While this did take Jane out of the picture, it gave Gunther plenty of time to prepare a defense for her eventual attack. He had seen her skate by, and simple logic dictated she had to come out the other side. That was especially true with Bob stomping his way in that direction. Perhaps he didn't know she would attack him, but that hardly mattered when Gunther was going to strike first.

No time to dodge, not even enough time to think, the barrel slammed into Klava and carried her through the air and into a stone wall. Much like last time, the giant keg wasn’t able to build up too much speed. All of her fractures were made worse, but that wasn’t all. The barrel started to spin in her lap. The wood texture was abrasive, and the spaces between the boards on the keg acted like a grinder, which tore into her with every pass. It cut through her clothes, it peeled at her flesh, a slick note wasn’t going to get her out of this one. Klava had failed to assassinate Gunther, and would need to return now.

But she wasn’t the only one gunning for him.

Apollo had positioned himself on top of the kegs and sneaked up on his opponents. Sure enough, Gunther was there, his attention wholly devoted to the previous assassin. It was going to take quite a shot to get a projectile seven meters and have it fall onto Gunther, but at least there was no reason for him to move out of the way. Room was limited, but he did his best to get the projectile to fly down the passageway and hit Gunther’s head. He watched as the ball of light soared outwards. It had cleared Klava’s iceberg when Gunther could feel the sun’s rays on his back. He turned his head just in time to see…

Impact.

A pyromancer’s arm had been sliced by a ray of light, causing his left forearm to fall to the floor. Brown clutched his stump and growled. Apollo had correctly assumed that nobody could see through the giant cracked iceberg. What he hadn’t taken into account was that the pyromancers on the other side would be paying special attention to it. Billy was a monster strong enough to contend with Justin himself, and his punches were strong enough to fracture icebergs. His southern accent might have been funny to the freelancers, but to the pyromancers, there was a demon on the other side of the ice, and he’d break through any second. As soon as Brown saw a strange light, he did everything in his power to protect Gunther. Even sacrificing his own arm.

”Oh sweetheart! Are you alright?“ Gunther’s eyes surveyed his surroundings.

”Just keep my siblings' souls close!“ Brown growled through his teeth. ”Shit!“

Meanwhile, Finn and Betty flew towards Bob. As soon as Finn’s back collided with the brute’s metal body, Betty’s knee slammed into his gut. His sword was still held in front of him, but he was delaying the inevitable at this point. It was hardly a deadlock. Betty not only had the heavier weapon, but seemed to have the greater amount of physical strength. Their faces were inches apart. Finn could see the madness in her eyes, he could feel her breath on his face.

”You just don’t know how to make good decisions, do you?“

Bob groaned. Not like a human groans, but like steel groans when it moves. Its vision was cast on Jane’s lifeless body. Bob hadn’t taken a single step after she was slain. Was it sad? Was it going to fight Betty over an accidental, if careless and unnecessary attack that could have been avoided? Maybe if Bob was human. But Bob was a machine. As complex as its comeback algorithm was, it had a simple program to run in the event of Jane’s death. And in situations like this, who would Jane blame for her imminent demise? What order would she give the creation that would most certainly outlast the aging alchemist?

”INITIATING_ANNIHILATION_PROTOCOL!“ Bob clapped its hands at its sides. ”PURGING_VICINITY_OF_ALL_VAGRANTS! TEN…NINE…EIGHT…SEVEN…“

In the next aisle over, Finn could hear Gunther command his allies. ”I got this ya cutie-patooties! Fall back to the break room and the rest of us will see about holding them here!“

Betty grit her teeth. ”See what I mean? Dumbass…“

Betty hopped backwards while pulling her sword against herself. This caused the edge of her blade to sink into Finn’s shoulder as she hopped backwards. Afterwards, she ran for the staircase at the end of the hall, passing the occasional glance over her shoulder. But it only took her a few seconds to vanish as fast as she had come. Red had come back from the dead to cover her escape. She brandished her dagger and shambled towards Finn. He could blink past her easily enough, but then he would be alone again, way too far ahead for his allies to assist him. He needed to decide how badly he wanted to keep Betty in his sights.

Gunther slinked into the wall while Black and Brown made a beeline for the exit. Even as the glacier crumbled behind them, they didn’t look back. It seemed like the enemy forces had retreated, but there was still so much going on.

As soon as Billy stumbled through what remained of the ice. He caught a glimpse of the “spirit golem” that had surfaced. Only now that it had moved through a lake of fire, its body was wreathed in magical flames. Billy looked to Apollo and pointed at the burning abomination while stepping away from it. It only grew bigger as it pulled more puddles of wine into itself.

”Got anythin’ for this?”

Though Apollo would notice that the area he was laying in had gotten a bit more tight, as Klava was now resting on his backside. Bloodied, battered, with the skin on her stomach and thighs stripped away. She had made use of his ass to move to safety.

And in all the chaos, Protector regained her composure and continued to fight. An esper was not protected from their own AoE note, and Protector was in the middle of hers once it triggered. Perhaps a display of self mutilation was supposed to ease her mind after her earlier actions. Regardless, espers are resilient to the effects of the arcane. Her body was spiked all over by her magic, but so were her opponents. Moreover, the swing of her spear was something that was directed straight at the animated corpses. Without heads, they were still able to move, but without legs, it was less effective to do so. Their spirits were no longer confined to just their bodies, however. With their old forms minced, their souls sought out the barrels that lined the walls. They split up to pick an isle, and then floated in space, gently tumbling in the air.

”Protector!” Tetrad chirped before approaching the knight. ”I’m going to break that barrel, but then we need to run past it, alright? Who knows where the next one’s going to come from.”

Once Tetrad was sure she had Protector’s attention, she tossed a card at the floating keg. It managed to wedge itself inside the barrel and shove it into the whole wall of them. It wasn’t the sort of destructive “boom” that most other melodies had, but it was enough to open the barrel up and dump the wine out. It wouldn’t be nearly as bad if the barrel came their way.

”Run for it!”

And so, the scene was set. Betty and two pyromancers rushed to the next floor while Gunther’s spiritual army contended with the freelancers.

Tetrad prepared to make a break for it and join up with Billy, who was confronting a burning blob of alcohol.

Behind them were two young pyromancers, still too out of it to move. Ahead of them were two espers. A fair ice maiden with marred beauty, and a faceless man that had to ration his magic between healing his allies and harassing the enemy.

And in the right aisle was a furious young boy with a choice to make. With every passing second, Red came closer. With every passing second, Bob got closer to detonating.

It remained to be seen if the wine cellar would claim more lives before Justin appeared. Blood and wine bled into each other, and the mansion’s owner enjoyed both.








@The World

Marrie would have difficulty backing up with three giant green toddlers stabbing at her, but it wasn’t like she needed much room to jump off one's shield anyway. She could step over their heads if they weren’t flailing their machetties, so hopping off a goblin’s shield wasn’t too hard. Only it wasn’t quite as glamorous as she had seen in her animes/adventure flicks. The goblin lacked the upper body strength to push against Marrie’s foot, so she just sort of half trampled him when she stomped the garbage can lid into his chest. But hey, she wasn’t going to get impaled!

The “archer” goblins cast aside their slingshots and pounced onto Marrie as she ran past them. one hugged each of her limbs, scratching and biting as hard as they could. more effective than stabbing with machete? Hard to say.

”Yes Senator! Anything to serve our country!”

Stacy picked up her leg to start marching towards Marrie’s position, but Highway to Hell opened its mouth and blasted her with a stream of acid. Her body was thrown through the air, where it smashed through the door Marrie was trying to kick down. If she had been just a few more inches to the left…

Regardless, the path ahead appeared to be really wet, and narrow when compared to the open cavern. Before long, the remaining goblins ran in after it, not wanting to suffer the wrath of the demonic snake at their heels. They picked up Stacy’s body and started to run deeper into the tunnel with it. It was at this point that Marrie noticed the body was missing something.

”Armstrong!” A bodiless head called out to Marrie. ”Ya gotta help me!”

It seemed that Stacy was still able to move her limbs, but was having difficulty orienting herself without her head. The massive serpent was upon them now, however, and it was poised to strike. Would Marrie attempt to recover Stacy’s head, or would she use the distraction to retreat further into the tunnel?


“I Should blocked last one?”

— Su Fang


@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants@Izurich@SilverPaw@ERode

The sound of the smash and flames igniting were welcoming, Arzendale’s voice was not.

With everything going on, Su had to really hone in her focus. She couldn’t concern herself with Samuel and Silmeria, she couldn’t grieve for the innocents lost. But she could hear something very large stomping its way towards her with at least five legs.

She Lowered her shield in front of herself and braced for impact.

Centrocius came through the wall fast. All Su could do to prevent herself from getting pushed back was to dig her shield into the floor. She attempted to reset herself after each blow, but each strike saw the monster getting a little bit more of an advantage. If she kept up like this, Centrocius would simply run her over. That was assuming it didn’t get smart and decide to try attacking around her shield. Meanwhile, Lilliah was fighting Lenore, which left no one to harass the vampire. Jacqueline was at the back, and gravely injured. Su had taken note of it when she was on top of the tower. It was one of the reasons why she ordered Lilliah and herself to charge.

But the real question was what to do next. She couldn't leave Lilliah to fend off both Centrocius and Lenora. Her instincts forbid it. Yet at the same time, letting Arzendale do his wicked bidding was going to make the fight a lot harder. Who knew what he had planned for the remaining ten hostages. Things would get significantly worse so long as he was alive.

Su’s gun charged with magic as she prepared her next melody. She pushed her gun hand towards the base of her shield and lifted it up. While she did this, Su crouched and stepped forward. With any luck, Silmeria’s shot would have connected and staggered Centrocius long enough to make the shot, if not kill it outright. Optimistic I know. Otherwise, Su would just have to aim her pistol between its flailing legs and tail and score a hit. Even with the smoke starting to fill up the room, it was a shot she was confident she could make. Though she’d be aiming for center mass. Su couldn’t afford to go for a headshot under these circumstances.

”Leroux!”

Once she was in position, she fired at Arzendale. If the melody connected, Arzendale wouldn’t see anything initially. Just Su’s pistol discharge its magical energy. Then the shattered tile and chandelier would surge together in front of his chest and blow outwards, shoving him closer to Jacqueline. And just as he stumbled to a stop, the debris would coil around his torso along with parts of his organ.

Beyond that, all she could hope was that Jacqueline could finish the job while she kept Centrocius off of Lilliah.




@Ponn@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants@Izurich@SilverPaw

One melody, one second.

Barreling down towards her like a runaway train, Centrocius’s speed did not seem to reflect its size at all, if not for the fact that there were plenty of great beasts in the world capable of moving at tremendous speed. Without flesh to weigh its skeletal form at all, the monstrosity descended upon Jacqueline before her melody could manifest, blades swinging outwards to rip her open by her seams. She had chosen to attack before evading, and Havoc’s haft was an ill-devised Instrument for defense. What pretensions she’d have of hiding a melody were stratagems more useful for creatures that had human-like intelligence to begin with, that had any concept of deception or guile. But Centrocius was just going to rush her down and finish her off.

A light pierced through the burning air and split open the rider’s skull.

Moments before the blades dug into her, the skeletal mount spasmed as Valkyrie’s arcane blast disintegrated its rider’s head. The long-haired man, decapitated, sagged beneath his bandages, shrivelling up like a mummified corpse, while the steeds limbs lost all synchroneity for that precious second, causing it to fly overhead of Jacqueline instead, the esper managing to dive beneath the gauntlet of its scraping rib cage while her beam threaded the needle and struck right between her two main targets. She would not see the results of her own actions though, as the torturous shriek of twisted brass and sundered wood resounded beside her, splinters of the organ shooting out as debris. Her landing was imperfect, her guts were now perforated by detritus, and her vision grew woozy from the blood she had lost. But the Esper had done her job admirably despite the circumstances, and her magic laid the foundation for the counterattack.

Spellwork flew frenzied through the claustrophobic arena. Prioritizing a charge over continuing this siege, Breacher helmed the GEMINI agents’ offense instead, sliding down a ramp of her own creation while Wukong joined her. They could not engage if they constantly hid under the cover of the shieldbearer’s walls, but thankfully, their shieldbearer could construct new walls anyhow, and up at the front, another barricade craft of fallen debris rose, just as tall as the towers themselves. Indeed, it was just as tall as the towers themselves, and subsequently sealed off any line of sight for Valkyrie and Silhouette to fire from. With the splat of a rotten tomato flung against a brick wall, Silhouette’s projectile spell was cut off by Breacher’s construction, the speed of his projected hand too slow to match the activation time of a touch spell. Another error of judgment, miscommunications cropping up at critical junctures. A beam would have made it. A spawn would not have cared for it.

But what’s done was done, and as bloodied projectiles of Arzendal flew overhead, it was up to only Silhouette to defend against it. Shadows coalesced around Stab and Slash, extending the blackness that composed the arcane blades, whilst four sanguine balls swirled through the air, tracking Valkyrie’s own movements. She would not escape them, not when there was no room to dodge atop these tower tops. A sniper wasn’t a close combat specialist, and an assassin wasn’t a stalwart defender. But both of them still had their jobs, and Valkyrie’s job was already complete. Silhouette engaged.

Fleet of foot, the shadow above the intensifying firelight danced, his steps balancing upon the railings as his black blades sliced surgically. One, two, three, four. With two blades and against projectiles designed to mindlessly home in on a single target, the phantom swordsman made quick work of it, cutting them down to size. They halted, halves suspended in mid-air upon their severance.

That suspension itself was suspect. Arzendale’s spells, by nature, appeared to always have a trick to them. And if they were targeting someone who had been doused by petroleum moments before, the trick itself would be obvious too. Not that Silhouette was in any position to stop it now.

Blood glowed bright, bubbling and bursting into flame. They coated the shadow’s body, reducing him to a true silhouette against the pyre that was his own body. Smoky, greasy flames blinded him, deafened him, suffocated him, agonized him, and involuntary responses to the heat of this chaotic flame caused him to stumble.

Once again, what options were there for Silhouette?

Aflame as he was, his job was to protect Valkyrie, but atop this small tower, it was very likely that his flaming body would cause her own gasoline-drenched clothing to be set aflame. Could he survive the long fall onto the hard ground? Could he survive the inferno at the base of the tower he was on? Could he complete his job to Fritz’s satisfaction?

And did Valkyrie, watching his skin blackened and crack, pus geysering out of raw wounds, even agree with the same pattern of logic that Silhouette followed?

Whatever choices were made could not be seen by the two who had advanced. There were no enemies left behind that either of them were aware of, after all. The invisible assailant that had charged at Wukong had left the monkey’s mind, while Breacher herself was occupied by more immediate threats. Her handgun, small as it was, had proven itself once and would do so again. The retort of the muzzle sounded bright and ferocious against the blazing hellscape that the entrance of the mansion had become. The arcane bullet broke the central chain that suspended the candle-lit chandelier, and with the rattling of chains, it fell.

Was it coincidence or teamwork that made everything click into place?

Jacqueline’s beam struck, a ripple of seismic force sending shards of checkerboard tiles everywhere. Arzendale hissing as the arcane force resonated deeply within his frame, knocking him to his feet, while Lenore withstood the force with the sheer might of her arcane defenses, her eye already upon the chandelier that was plummeting towards them. Drawing her falchion back, she swung upwards, slicing it in half with a single stroke. It parted ways for her, disparate parts smashing and scattering the many candles that composed it…and igniting the gasoline that had spilled out from the shattered statues around them. Quake, after all, was a spell of exceptional range, covering thrice the radius of an AOE melody. And ordinary flames, whilst a meager distraction for a monster, was torturous for an esper regardless of how high their physical defenses were. Toxic fumes clouded the mind, while high temperatures stiffened the skin.

But flames too, were deterrent for the espers atop the wall, and that moment of hesitation, of reluctance, gave Arzendale his time to act.

“Brilliant play,” he laughed, his smile mirthless as he exposed his fangs. “Though judging by your reactions, I suppose you too had not expected this? Lenore, if you will?”

No preamble now, no hesitation. As his unnatural physiology shielded his body from significant harm, he flicked out with his wand, and four heads from each pillar fell, a total of fourteen lives now paying the vampire’s blood price. Their sanguine essence rushed out, snake-like, and snagged upon the nun’s armored habit, quenching the flames before reforming into a full set of armor equipped with branch-like wings. She had transformed fully into a blood knight now and she raised her hand into the air before bringing it down to rip off her eyepatch.

A sickly, distorted magenta lit up her iris, and with a flex of her sanguine wings, she scaled the wall with a single bound, her singed hair lifting up with the thermals caused by the flames. “It’s a raid!” Lenore crowed, her Instrument swinging for Wukong, “Time to collect your next rider!”

And from the wreckage of the organ, Centrocius burst out too, a scarlet light now covering its skeletal frame. Without a rider, the monster had become even more savage, even more frenetic. Its head twitched once, twice, shaking with violent impulses, and then, ignoring the greviously-wounded Jacqueline beside it, it rushed out, presenting a magnitude of speed even greater than it originally did, five limbs and one tail digging into the wall as it scrambled to meet the shield and gun of Breacher.

Back-to-back, pincered by opponents on both sides, they had to decide.

Stay and fight, knowing that Arzendale remained free to cast his chaotic bloodwork?

Or abandon everything and charge, hoping to strike a fatal blow before Lenore and Centrocius did?

.

..



The closest to her were forced back as her body itself served as the focal point for her spell. The light of tomorrow shone out to those who could not be given a tomorrow, the radiance exposing their pitiful forms for just the breadth of a camera’s flash.

But Orion had closed her eyes. She had only felt their bodies give way, her limbs free from their desperate grasp. She knew not what happened to the boy that had pleaded her to save him, nor the many who had gnawed at her limbs. But they were all the closest to her, closest to the force that emanated from her.

She could guess what would happen to a frail human when exposed to that force.
She had to stop thinking.

Springing up to her feet, leaping up to the chute, Orion pressed with all her strength against the grimy walls, even as the effort caused the many small wounds on her limbs to open up further. Blood, hot and sticky, seeped out from the wounds. There was no doubt that her wounds were infected by something down there, considering the circumstances, but it mattered not. The present moment was dense, the present moment was precious.

Orion had to escape.

And the thralls had always desired escape too.

Feet trampled skull. Bodies broke bone. Five feet of damage had cleared up her surroundings, but the press of monstrous humanity went well beyond five feet. Those that had been knocked prone by her melody were trampled underneath those who were still healthy, still hungry, and upon a mountain of the dead, they rose, the very first of them clutching onto her right ankle, while others clambered up his distended body, chains growing more and more taut as they too aimed to drag her back down.

Above, she could see a warm red light. Just perhaps seven meters, and she’d be out.
Seven meters made impossible, by the weight that dragged at her.

There was a story, once, about a man in hell, climbing up to paradise on a spider’s thread.
Would Orion do the same as he?








@OwO@mantou@ERode@Majoras End

When Betty lifted his head into the air for another smash, she froze momentarily. Hearing who he was, even in her enraged state, was enough to make her hesitate.

”Ffffffable?“ She growled.

Regardless of how an esper regards their power set, all of them share peak physical prowess. This was perhaps the only thing that enabled Finn to retaliate in his position.That small hesitation allowed him to grab her arm and pull his body under himself. Finn kicked one of her legs out from under her, which dropped the pale woman onto one knee. Then just as he disengaged from her, he tapped Betty’s leg and rooted it in lightning.

”And what? Is now a better time to talk after what’s happened?“ Betty held her violin against the electric bindings. ”Is your name supposed to mean something to me?“ And then she pressed her violin against the shocking tendrils and drew her violin outward, like she was going to slice through them. But her violin didn’t have any sharp edges.

At least, not yet.

The pale woman’s body was consumed by fine black particles that wrapped around herself. In the next instant, Betty had been transformed into something else entirely.

Her hair had been pulled back into a long ponytail, which was a perfect contrast to the black jacket she now wore. Though Finn’s eyes were trained on the massive sword that the violin turned into. The blade alone was about as long as Betty was tall, and the handle was off center of the blade. It was instead affixed to the back of the sword’s edge. When it sliced through her restraints, the swoosh of the blade caused her jacket to fly open, while numerous straps fluttering in the wind. Under her jacket was a black Japanese school uniform, fitted with a neon pink tie. Was this Betty’s esper form?

”Lord Carnage is my master now.“ Betty placed her other hand on her sword’s hilt, pointing the blade forward. It had to weigh an incredible amount, yet Betty had no problem holding it at the ready. ”Draw steel or run like the coward you are!“

With a roar more befitting of a beast than a young woman, Betty stepped forward and swung her sword in an arc around herself. She split several kegs on either wall in the process. Would she cut into Fable?

Klava managed to slip past Bob’s grasp and between the robot’s legs. While this did cause the robot to hesitate, its torso spun completely around, and Bob “back tracked” after Klava. It called out a childish retort, but Klava’s focus was on other things. Bob wasn’t able to sprint, but it was building up speed as it marched after her. As Klava accelerated, so too did Bob. The pyromancers were still tracking Finn, and hadn’t the chance to look back down the hall. Klava would skate right past them before they could even think to fire. Bob wasn’t far behind, and had reached out with his right hand to knock the wine kegs off the top shelf. As he charged along, the kegs were shattered under his feet, and the pyromancers were quick to set the growing puddle ablaze. It was hardly an inferno, but it wasn’t anything you’d want to stand in, unless you were a giant arcane construct.

Fable may have gotten the thumping of his life, but the last pyromancer and the huntress did not partake in his beating. Jane’s weapon wasn’t an effective tool to assist Betty with finishing off the boy. Even the pyromancer didn’t dare throw a firebolt her way. If anything, they were a bit unsettled by the young woman’s presence. Bob’s stomping drew Jane’s attention back down the hall.

”I do say, what a lovely pelt you have.“

Jane was far from peak physical ability, but she looked pretty good for her age. She raised her rifle and hopped backwards just as she fired at Klava. Though because she had taken her eyes off of Finn, she hadn’t seen him backing up and ended up colliding with him just moments before Betty’s sword swung through the air. With Betty’s giant greatsword to the east, and Bob charging from the west, things were getting frantic.

Were things less hectic behind them?

With some quick footwork, Protector and Luna were able to dive out of the way of the incoming barrel. Luna ended up beside Billy, while Protector had rushed to Apollo’s side. The barrel would miss, and Protector would get there in time.

”Y-you save us! You-Hurk!“

With a single blow, Apollo was able to cause both pyromancers quite a bit of pain. It was unlikely they would be getting up any time soon.

Protector was able to take the barrel and toss it back. While playing with the barrel’s weight was a good way to get it going really fast, it still had to pass through Tetrad’s holding field. Regardless, the barrel was moving pretty fast when it passed through to the other side. Though something that Protector may not have considered was that Gunter’s ethereal nature meant he could pass through physical objects. Without any arcane effects working on the barrel, it knocked away his defensive barrels and passed right through him.

The ball of light however, would not.

Gunther screeched and extended his hand as the projectile collided with his hand. The beams of light tore through his gloved hand, splitting his arm in two up to his elbow. This was followed by several more that minced his forearm, some even cutting as far up as his shoulder. He whimpered before slinking into the wall, at which point a chuckle seemed to reverberate through the hall.

”You got me pretty good, lovelies.“ He chuckled, but the pain was evident in his voice. ”I was going to have fun with you bunch, but now I have to take you seriously...“

Billy cast aside his concrete barrier. ”Thinkin’ we daughteled here enough, folks.” The pale giant charged down the corridor and slammed into Klava’s ice wall, sending spiderline cracks through it. Unlike the ice ramp, this was a solid block of ice. Brittle as it may be, it was an arcane construct and not something that Billy could just smash through on one good shoulder tackle. ”Enemy reinforce- I say enemy reinforcements will be here any second. We gotta push back!”

The souls scattered once again. The first sunk into the floor, or at least, that was what it looked like. But all this barrel chucking had left the ground covered in spirits. Several kegs worth bleeding into each other. Once a soul floated inside, the giant puddle pulled itself together and took shape. For a moment, it looked like a giant man. But it didn’t stick around long before forcing itself through the wall of barrels into the other lane. From there, the “spirit elemental” sauntered towards the other conflict, where a fire had broken out.

What happened to the others was less evident, but would be less so when Protector felt something club her in the back. When she looked over her shoulder, she’d see the green haired teenager was standing upright, rock in one hand with his crushed head hanging off to the side like some shambling zombie. He grabbed Protector’s arm and pulled them off to the side. This would normally not be an issue for the much stronger esper, but the white haired girl had a club on her person, and she was beating Protector’s back with it.

”Let’s hope I roll high!” Luna aimed Pit boss at the white haired pyromancer and fired something at her face.

*Splat*

A sock slapped into her head and knocked her backwards, but it seemed like she had retained the arcane resistance she had in life, as she seemed to shrug off the attack easily before approaching Protector again. Beatings would continue until the espers did something.








@The World

The goblins did not seem too interested in parting with their wagons. They instead wanted Marrie to part with her head.

She got about half of her words out before the frenzied goblins attacked. She didn’t have much time to react before the machetes descended on her from all angles. Marrie was quite resilient to monster attacks, and that was on top of an esper’s natural resistance to chaos attacks. None of these wounds were life threatening. But being resistant to chaos damage did not change the fact that she was still essentially a human. Being hit by a machete hurt, and even if the blades didn’t cut to the bone, each blow cut deep enough into the skin to draw blood. Death by one thousand cuts was a thing, and given enough time, the goblins would reach that number. Five cuts, six cuts, seven cuts. The goblins hid behind their shields and took turns thrusting and swinging at the esper before them.

The slingshot goblins also started firing, though they were not aiming at Marrie directly. They sought to bring stalagmites down on her head by knocking them loose. The chaos-charged rocks had little difficulty doing the job, and spears of stone would soon rain down on the esper’s head.

”Wooooooooooo!!” Stacy cranked her fist as she called after Marrie ”You’ve got this, Senator Armstrong! Just tough it out long enough and I’m sure they’ll let us through!” She sighed. ”If I knew she was going to do that, I’d have offered to go in her place. ”

If Stacy thought to look over her head, she might have noticed that Highway to Hell had gotten into the cave and was slithering up behind her. It was difficult to tell where its black eyes were pointed, save for the fact it was slithering in their direction.

@Exit

Avatar is great, but only if we're talking about Last Airbender. Kora was mediocre, but after you got done with Airbender, Kora was downright insulting.



Sorry to hurt you though.

In regards to the Oscars, I'm pretty sure people will take it seriously again when/if it gets back in touch with reality and doesn't serve huge media conglomerates by being a popularity contest.
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