Cottonmouth

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

The blast Logan shot out hadn't hit Raiya or Nemo, but it did plant a small rune on the ground in it's wake.

Logan could feel control in the areas where he received cuts start to fade, becoming stiff. What has she done to me? When Raiya rushed him he had all he could do to turn and block the attack by swinging his bat in the way of her blade. Rapid metallic thuds alerted him to Nemo now approaching from behind. Logan slid his bat off from lock it was in with Raiya's sword and twisted himself around as fast as he could, his runic bat raised up now by his still functioning left arm.

But it was too late, his bat would never come to swing at Nemo this time. By the time Logan had turned around Nemo had already reached him and planted his gloved palm right into the middle of his torso, discharging a powerful kinetic spell into his body. A shock-wave of pain rattled through Logan's body as the spell rapidly spread. He howled out in agony, a spatter of blood being released from his mouth.

Once the spell finished Logan was blown backwards, past Raiya, and slid to a stop near the end of the shipping container. From the looks of it, he seemed to be down for the count. But the silence was eventually broken by a cough, a guttural hack, as Logan managed to bring himself back to his feet. His breath was ragged-the venom didn't help-and most would have surrendered by now. Anything Logan had planned was likely reckless. The runic bat held hanging in his left hands grip slowly began to fill with energy, lighting up all the engraved runes placed on it one by one. He clearly had on last ace up his sleeve.

Logan suddenly teleported away to the rune from earlier, disappearing from sight. From below he spun around and hurled the bat towards the pair with as much force as he could. The runic bat began to crackle with energy as it whirled towards Nemo and Raiya like a boomerang, becoming unstable by the amount of spells it was charged with.

---

Nemo quickly turned to look at the bat. "Uh oh." He muttered once his hungry manalysis got a read on the amount of energy it was filled with. Once it closed the distance in to about ten feet the bat suddenly exploded into a giant purple concussive bomb with enough of a blast radius to completely wipe most of the container Nemo and Raiya were standing on from the earth entirely.

Escaping the kill-range of the explosion by normal means would be impossible. Logan figured that Nemo and Raiya were now just a relic of magi criminal history. However just before the blast triggered Nemo wound up his warp to as far as it could take them in the given time. He turned and tackled Raiya before it activated, transporting them both barely out of the range of the massive purple-y death. They both ended up on the floor, with Nemo still holding onto Raiya. Once he realized they weren't dead, Nemo let go of her with a small sigh. "Are you alright?" He asked afterwards.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

While the flashback didn't effect Raiya much, it had taken a toll on Nemo. His unusual eyes were weak against bright lights, and it made assisting Raiya afterwards unworkable.

Logan's swing continued on after the miss, making another attack impossible and also leaving him vulnerable. However his emergency reflexes helped him enough to use his arm to block Raiya's leg before things got ugly. Logan then used a basic spell to shuffle himself away from Raiya; he figured that fighting a close quarters battle was an unwise idea.

By this point Nemo had recovered from the flash, and Logan had now shifted over to him. He swung his bat with the unused rune from before, hitting Nemo in his side and discharging the increased force into his body with a unpleasant noise. In response Nemo's posture merely curved to the side from the hit. He gave no audible reaction from the strike, as if he had been attacking a training dummy, which unsettled Logan a bit.

"What the fuck?" Logan muttered in confusion, trying to pull his bat away. But it was to no avail, as Nemo had grabbed onto the weapon with one hand, not letting it budge. Nemo then used his free hand to strike Logan back in the face; causing Logan to nearly fall over if he wasn't still holding onto the bat. Nemo followed it up by jerking the bat inwards to pull Logan towards him into a savage headbutt, knocking Logan down to the ground once Nemo released the bat.

Nemo prepared to attack him again, but before he could Logan threw his bat up above one of the shipping containers and teleported to it, placing him on top of the container. Logan used his sleeve to wipe off a small stream of blood coming from his nose and took a breather before making his next move.

Nemo regrouped with Raiya after being given the chance. "Do you have anything in mind for finishing this?" He asked calmly.

Logan threw up a larger ball of energy than normal this time and batted it towards the pair. This one would explode in an even larger blast radius.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Hearing another spell be announced forced Logan to focus. He brought his bat up in a defensive positional and called out his own incantation. "MAGUS SCUTUM! (Magician Shield)" Causing a blue rune on the side of the bat to light up before projecting out a large shield shaped semi-transparent wall of blue energy. Logan thought he had nullified her attack, but he hadn't accounted for the sheer amount of slashes that were going to be dealt. The barrier soon cracked, signalling that it wasn't going to be enough. But if he tried to run the shield would drop anyways.

Logan opted to try to hold out, which the nervous expression on his face hinted that he wished there was another option. The cracks in the barrier had grown, and within seconds it failed entirely. Logan knew it was only a matter of time, so he tried to time in dodge to be as soon as it failed. But unfortunately before it could make it out he suffered three more cuts. One to his shoulder, another to his forearm, and finally one to his lower right side.

Logan was able to keep to his feet despite the damage, powering on to use his counter attack. "I love a girl who can make me bleed ya know." He spat out with a sarcastic chuckle as he prepared his next spell as fast as possible. Logan tossed up two more energy balls and struck them with his bat. Sending them soaring towards Raiya.

Despite it looking like he was just trying to hit her with two attacks, the reality of his spell was much more complicated. One of the balls suddenly detonated mid-flight into a bright flashbang. But the other carried on, missing Raiya and as soon as it passed her, Logan used it as another teleportation relay to put him in back of her.

Logan's bat was already charged with a orange concussive rune to inflict more damage as he took a swing at her right side.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Even with his clairvoyance, it was hard for Boslan to react quick enough to Zoey's attack. He took the kick straight to the chest, causing him to let out a grunt. After noticing the throwing stars, Boslan got his bearings back and used telekinesis to alter their flight paths, quickly looping them around him and back at Zoey.

Right after he detected Zuri's spell and spun around to face it. He used the same heavy telekinesis to try to stop the blasts in their tracks in a field. However as soon as Boslan used his magic to grip the spells, they all detonated into loud explosions. For a guy who relies on his mind, a headache would really be a pain. "Ah!" Boslan yelped, cupping his ears and adverting his gaze off to the side.

---

The crescent shaped attack had been dodged, but it continued on until it hit a shipping container and exploded.

Raiya's exclamation had tipped Logan off that something was coming, but he noticed a little too late it was coming from the ground. One of the blades has sliced him in the forearm, while another cut his thigh before he leaped out of the spell. If he would of noticed any later he would of been a shish kabob. Logan seemed to put some extra mana into his jump to give him unnatural height. While in the air he fired off a small blast from the tip of his bat. It came close to hitting Raiya, but ended up missing and connecting with the pavement besides her.

Anyone paying attention would of noticed that the blast left a small runic imprint in the ground. While in the air Logan used this as a relay point to suddenly teleport down to. He appeared mid-swing at Raiya, at least three different colored runes could be seen lit up on his bat now. But before he could start to bring the bat back towards Raiya to complete the swing, Nemo had intervened again by jabbing into Logan's side with his knee. The pain caused him to let out a howl of pain and froze him up before he could finish his strike.

Nemo then gripped Logan by his jumpsuit, one hand by his shoulder, the other by his waist, and used his unnatural strength to throw him at a nearby shipping container roughly eight feet away. Logan let out a preemptive "Shit!" before colliding heavily with the unforgiving steel side of the container. The container rattled in response to the impact, one might guess if Nemo had thrown him any harder he would of left a dent. Logan, thoroughly reeling from the toss, slowly stumbled back up to his feet, not in any shape to start an attack yet.

One might note that Nemo had taken a odd approach to this fight as compared to what was expected of him. For a fighter known for his offense, Nemo hadn't used one offensive spell yet, nor did he even draw a weapon. He had been acting completely defensively so far.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Boslan's clairvoyant abilities were what led him to tracking the group in the first place, so using it to see Zoey's incoming attack was rather easy. Without turning to look behind him, a semi transparent blue magical arm extended out from Boslan's back like a phantom. While it didn't seem to physically effect Boslan's clothes in any way, it's palm was able to block Zoey's elbow before it could contact him. He followed it up by clapping his real hands together, which emitted out a concussive shock-wave that rapidly grew out around him to try to throw Zoey back.

Zoey's howl had tainted Boslan's realm spell to turn to night, something that Nemo likely appreciated, but there was nothing Boslan could do about it yet. "It's not every day I get a chance to fight a dog. I'm really hoping you don't shed." He spat out.

---

Logan raised an eyebrow in response to Raiya licking her blade, followed up by a slight scoff. "Ah, yeah, well my speci-" Just after he opened his mouth to respond Raiya had shot behind him. The action had caught him off guard, immediately wiping the confident look he had on his face. Logan spun around just in time to push Raiya's thrust off to the side with his bat. He regained some of his confidence, now pointing the end of the bat directly at Raiya after the parry. The top of the bat also had a inscribed rune which immediately began to charge up bright orange.

However just before the spell could come to fruition, Nemo had already came up on Logan. He firmly grabbed the bat with his gloved hand, which immediately cancelled and absorbed his spell charge. And then used his other hand to push the knob of the bat back into Logan's chest. The jab was enough to knock the wind out of him, and if that wasn't enough, Nemo made it even worse by kicking him in the chest with enough force to drive him to the ground.

Logan recovered quickly by athletically rolling back to his feet. The end of his bat lit up again, now glowing blue. Despite the distance between them he swung at Nemo. A blue crescent shaped energy attack leaked out from the top of the bat during the swing, the same one shot at Travis earlier. The flight path was tricky, as it arced around Nemo before it hit him, instead going for Raiya.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Nemo activated his manalysis as he walked over to Raiya. A stream of energy flowed out from the suited man up high into the air, then curved over into a giant dome that covered most of the harbor. Clearly this was the realm spell, creating a snap-shot copy of the real world. I suppose that's a smart idea, Nemo thought not only does it trap us inside, it also prevents us from damaging the merchandise in the inevitable fight. While our marks will be erased once the spell goes down, luckily it doesn't prevent us from tampering with the magical elements in the real world from here, so Travis can still work on the lock.

"I've got one." Nemo replied to Raiya, turning to the two opponents. "You're Harris' boy right?" Nemo asked, referencing Harris Hunley. A mage who used to run the harbor.

"Logan Hunley, what's it to ya, Nemo?" The working man replied curtly, picking up on Raiya's namedrop.

"Nothing really, I see the security here has improved." Nemo commented casually. "I take it your father passed and now you're running the show."

"Smart guy huh?" Logan said with a slight scoff. "Yeah, that's how it is. My old man was lenient on the security, too soft. But that's in the past now. Mr. Kaprico here is the best security system money can buy. That little trick you did with the comms was neat, but nothin' can hide from a clairvoyant mage."

"Oh? Does he know any other tricks too? Have you taught him to roll over?" Nemo sarcastically joked, slowly rolling his pointer finger in a circle.

A scowl appeared on Boslan's face from the jest, but he held his tongue "A comedian too? I really hate funny guys, don't you Boslan?" Logan asked. "Hate em." Kaprico affirmed with an unamused face. "But I suppose that trait suits ya well, with that white skin and those pink pants ya sure look like a clown to me."

"Would you like it if I came to your birthday party?" Nemo asked. "I can pull off the balloon animals that most can only dream of." He boasted. "Bet you've never seen a balloon hippopotamus before."

"...I think I've heard enough outta you." Logan seemed to finally reach his limit with Nemo's antics. He lifted the runic inscribed baseball bat from his shoulder and generated a concentrated ball of mana in his free hand.

Nemo turned to Raiya and the rest of the group, figuring diplomacy was over. "Zoey and Zuri, you two take care of the clairvoyant. Raiya and I will entertain the birthday boy over here. Just make sure to cover Travis." He ordered.

Logan tossed the baseball like ball of mana up into the air, giving it a bit of spin. After it reached the peak of it's height and began to fall he swung at it with his bat. It connected with one of the runes on his weapon, lighting the inscription up bright red. The act seemed to imprint on the ball as well, turning the blue energy ball purple. The hit sent it flying straight towards Nemo, but right as Nemo prepared to block the attack it suddenly veered off course towards Zoey and Zuri.

The energy ball was travelling quite fast towards their feet. And as soon as it would come into contact with anything physical or magical it was set to explode with high power.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Nemo heard Zoey and shrugged in response. "I sure hope not." He replied, looking up to the sky. He entertained himself by watching a small flock of birds fly by above the group. However Nemo's viewing pleasure was suddenly cut short when all of the birds suddenly froze in place, as if somebody pressed pause on a movie. His expression turned from slightly pleased to completely deadpan. Uh-oh he thought. It was a tell tale sign that a realm spell had just been activated.

Nemo quickly looked down from the spectacle, now on alert. It was just in time to see a large crescent shaped wave of orange energy travel straight towards Travis as he worked on the rune. Despite the high speed which it was travelling, it barely made a noise. Clearly whoever generated it had the intentions of a surprise attack.

With no time to warn Travis, a quick usage of his warp spell placed Nemo in the line of the attack before it could hit Travis. The lack of time also made Nemo's absorption ability not as effective, the runic X he generated from his glove wasn't able to grow big enough to swallow the whole spell, causing the excess to explode around the pair. Smoke and dust surrounded them, but they were unharmed by the attack. Nemo snapped his gloved fingers, using a small spell to quickly swish out the smoke from around them and clear their view.

Across from their container, atop another, were two people waiting. One of them lazily sat down with his legs handing off the side, with the other standing tall. The sitting fellow wore a blue working jumpsuit with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, white undershirt, khaki boots, and various jewelry, including multiple piercings. He had tanned skin and dirty blonde shoulder length hair tied into the ponytail. The ends of his hair were dyed bright orange. Resting on his shoulder was a wooden baseball bat with multiple runic circles burned into it link a brand. The standing man seemed to be much more formal, he had short silver colored hair with bright blue eyes, a thin mustache, light skin, and a dark navy blue suit, white dress shirt, silver tie, and black loafers. Both of the men seemed to be somewhere in their thirties.

The sitting man suddenly dropped down from the container, causing the other to teleport down afterwards. "Well well well, looks like we've got some hooligans in our harbor huh Boslan?" The man asked his partner. He spoke with a noticeable Boston accent.

"Looks like it." The suited man replied shortly with his hands resting behind his back.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

"Frankly I could go for another." Nemo replied "Anything to get me out of this sun is welcome, especially if it comes with free cool air conditioning as well." The pale man added, using his hand to shade himself from the sun. Nemo clearly did most of his work at night for a reason.

"I'd calculate we have about fifteen minutes before the workers sort out my diversion. So that should work out just fine." Nemo assured him, turning to wait for the rest of the team to teleport in.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Nemo put his hand over his head to block the sun and looked out to their destination. By his guess it was about a mile out if they went in a straight line. He then turned his head to the main office building of the docks, which was much further away. The view caused him to ponder for a moment, which then sprung an idea in Nemo's mind.

"I have no doubt there's a magical presence somewhere within this compound. If your bubble leaves a trace, then we'll be found. So option B is probably the best. The only problem is that once we get there we can't just slip inside. If there are any locks we'd probably be spotted while trying to crack them... But I have something a bit more practical in mind to fix that." Nemo said, lifting his arm up and activating his manadial. After navigating a menu for a couple seconds radio sounds began to play to the group. It was the dock workers radio feed.

Nemo's expression didn't seem to be interested in the various conversations. But once a monotonous voice played out and gave an order in between the various babbling, a small grin crossed his face. "Prepare containers 246C and STEV6 for inspection."

"A harbor as big as this uses a basic artificial intelligence system to keep things organized though the radio. As compared to our other options, I don't think anybody would be too suspicious if it just so happened to 'malfunction'?" Nemo suggested. As he spoke he began to input various commands into his watch's holographic interface. "Mariners aren't exactly the most tech-savvy bunch around. So infiltrating their system should be. quite. easy." Nemo finished by pressing one last command, causing the usually white display to suddenly turn green. "...you know that was actually a lot easier than I thought." Nemo muttered afterwards, mostly to himself.

After using his hand to massage his throat for a moment, Nemo adjusted his voice like before and spoke into the manadial like it was a microphone. "Emergency alert, all personnel please report to the main office immediately." His voice pretty much perfectly mimicked the tone and mannerisims of the AI. Directly afterwards Nemo pushed a small red holographic input on the dial's display; one marked with a foreboding looking skull and crossbones icon. The effect was obvious, all the radio noise went dead, crashing the communications before anybody in charge could sort out Nemo's faux command. The only thing which could be heard was multiple vulgar complaints from the workers getting cut short. "That should keep them busy." Nemo noted as he saw workers on the dock all begin to walk from the shipping container area to their next time-waster. Luckily this time it was far from the group.

Nemo turned back to Zoey and gave her the go ahead signal to start her part in the form of comically 'shooting' finger guns in her direction.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

"For now it's easy, we continue on without scaring our ride away." Nemo responded as he continued walking. A couple minutes later and after passing about five more warehouses. The maze like confinement of the metal buildings opened up to a view of the docks. The hundreds of shipping containers made it feel like they'd probably be looking for a needle in a haystack, but thankfully Nemo was able to save them from that. He pointed out a group of containers off in the distance, closer to the water where they'd be ready to be loaded. They were easier to pick out from the others due to the light blue color with a trident and cartoon tuna fish logo plastered on the side.

"There they are, now we just need to get inside without being seen." Nemo explained, putting his hands on his hips in thought. "You know... I'm starting to think it was a bad idea to wear the pink pants when I was gonna be sneaking around in broad daylight." He confessed. "Thankfully this is just a harbor, not a prison; no guard towers to be seen. All we have to worry about is the workers. Which unfortunately there are quite a surplus of." He added, turning around. "Zoey, if I'm not mistaken you use illusion magic. Do you have any spells that could help us along?" He asked, then turned to Travis. "Seidon's containers probably also have runic locks on them. You worked like a charm opening the catacombs up for us Travis, so I'm sure you could cover that?"