Prodigal Son

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

The wooden door, the runic circle, the four shots in the chest of the captain, The loud sound of something sinister calling from below, it all felt surreal. Raiya didn't know how to respond to Nemo's sudden concern for her well being, she wasn't sure how to process any of it, but she knew that time was a factor. Nemo was the leader on this particular mission, and Raiya knew that the team didn't have the luxury of regret. So, Raiya dropped her knife back into her inventory, adjusted her body, and wound up the most powerful physical punch she could muster, aimed straight at the square of Nemo's back.

"WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR SECOND GUESSING OURSELVES RIGHT NOW!" Raiya reprimanded, "WE CAN SECOND GUESS OURSELVES LATER OVER A ROUND OF UMESHU! SO TELL US WHAT TO DO!" Raiya commanded. Raiya was now more than ever not prepared to die. Raiya had survived her mistakes once during this mission. She was not about to throw away another shot at completing her life's mission. Exacting justice on her parent's murderer was what she cared about most and she was not about to have two close encounters with death in one evening.

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

Raiya continued to follow Nemo until they were met by a few normal sailors who were about to find out that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. "I got these guys." Raiya said confidently.

Raiya clenched her left fist and charged mana into it. A glowing pinkish ball began to gather around her fist until she opened her hand, the energy coalesced into a somewhat solid orb that she could physically interact with, the size of a baseball. Raiya aimed and tossed her pink spell grenade at the wall. The spell hit the wall at an angle that bounced it into the doorway one of the crew members was hiding in. It rolled to a stop at his feet. The sailor only had a moment to look at the glowing pink ball before Raiya released the bounded field that surrounded the spell releasing a torrent of high voltage electricity which fried the hiding sailor as well as set off the rounds in his pistol which blew apart in his leaving a burnt corpse with a mangled hand.

Raiya then rushed the other sailor who was frantically weaving another spell to toss at them. Raiya rushed him so fast that the sailor was only able to release a partially finished version of his spell which was supposed to be a grand fireball that probably would have incinerated the entire hallway and everything in it. Instead what he released was a small ball of flames about the size of Raiya's body directly at Raiya. After the flames dissipated Raiya was nowhere within the sailor's line of sights. But as the sailor began to scan his surroundings he knew he made a mistake Raiya had used the bright ball of flame to hide as she jumped directly over the sailor's head. Raiya quickly stabbed the sailor in the side of the throat with her culinary knife. He crumpled to the ground as he let out a couple of death groans.

Raiya knelt down and used the sleeve of the now dead sailor to wipe the blood off of her knife. She looked up at Nemo from her knelt position as she wiped her knife down, "What?", Raiya asked innocently, "These knives are expensive and dried blood is annoying to clean."

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

Raiya figured the attack wouldn't be enough to kill their foe, but she didn't expect to dismember him. When the plasma sword passed through his arm, she felt a tinge of satisfaction at seeing the severed arm fall away. Immediately after her slash finished its arc, the blade faded, its width shrinking until it was a beam no bigger than a laser, and then dissipating altogether. As Raiya fell back to the ground, she was confused to see Zoey fall in two pieces and then burst into some sort of mana like flame and disappear. Raiya had never witnessed anything like it, and figured it was just another one of Zoey's illusions.

When the Captain hit the deck, he surrounded his body with water allowing the water to grow to an enormous size, which was a tad bit intimidating. After a moment the water sloshed back down to the deck in a normal pool leaving no trace of him or his magically controlled waters. That was when Nemo suggested their enemy had made a run for it. Raiya followed closely behind Nemo has he gave chase to the captain. The scent of the air was indeed thick with blood, even if the captain had attempted to mask his trail, Raiya's nose could pick him out from a hundred meters away. Fortunately enough the captain was kind enough to leave a visual blood trail to follow, but Raiya kept her senses keen just in case the captain was attempting to set up a trap of some kind. She summoned one of her sashimi knives and gripped the handle so the blade pointed down and out, preparing herself for any ambush style attack.

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

As soon as the captain was in the air, Raiya wasted no time preparing her next attack. She pulled her odachi from the steel of the ship's deck that it was integrated with, and dropped her sword back into her inventory. She then began to cast her plasma sword spell as she was running forward. "Watashi wa hone kara niku o wakeru kaminari..." She leaped forth with an enhanced jump, and winded back her empty hilt in her right hand, She charged her mana into the hilt as she ascended. As soon as she was level with the captain, she swung her hilt and shouted, "...o shōkan suru!" She poured more mana into the hilt than was necessary, storing it almost past the maximum capacity that the sacred material her hilt was made of could handle. She released it as she swiped her hilt horizontally forth, releasing a bright pink plasma blade that extended well past the length she held it at before.

Translation Notes

The English translation for the romanji of Raiya's incantation roughly translates to, "I summon the lightning that separates flesh from bone."

The blade was now about fifteen feet long as it swept toward the captain, the blade created a high pitched electrical whine as it ripped through the air. No amount of water or basic physical material could stop the blade, and anyone foolish enough to attempt to use a magic barrier better be confident in their mana manipulation. Her blade was thin enough, sharp enough, and hot enough to make it past most basic magic barriers, and only highly dense barriers could stop her blade. Enchanted items and sacred metals also held their own against her technique if enough mana was forged into the materials. The blade felt weightless to Raiya, but she knew that if any physical material were to be unlucky enough to be in the path of her swing, that her mana would drop significantly. Her experience in that last fight taught her that much. Which is why she forced her aura to stop at her hand after she released the spell in the swing. The mana that she used to create the blade initially was enough to make it through the captain before dissipating.

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

Nemo's quick implementation and smooth movements surprised Raiya. Everything went according to plan so quickly that Raiya almost forgot about her own role within her plan. Immediately after the kick to the captain's face, he focused his water on Nemo, it was in the following moment Raiya struck. She used her enhancement spell to get within the distance for her Yamata no Orochi. Because the surface of the deck was made of steel, Raiya could integrate her sword with it to create her spell. Raiya quickly charged mana into her katana and then stabbed her sword into the deck, "YAMATA NO OROCHI!" she yelled her Japanese incantation. Instead of actually cutting into the steel of the deck, the spell that was charged within her blade melded the metal with the deck, giving her spell control over the steel within a certain area of effect from where the sword was stabbed. The area of effect depended on the amount of mana she charged her blade with, but for her purposes, she only needed about twenty feet.

Raiya willed the spell to complete itself underneath where the captain was standing. Within a second of her blade integrating with the deck eight blades as tall as the captain sprung forth from the deck. They all converged towards the captain's torso, the tragectory of each blade was close enough to scrape against its neighbor when the converged. When all was said and done, a ring of eight long blades would have stood converged in a veritable bouquet of very sharp very long blades. The quickness of the spell left almost no time for dodging to the side. And Raiya had one more spell loaded if the captain did indeed decide to dodge laterally. Raiya was determined to force this battle into the air.

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

The loud illusory sound of fireworks exploded overhead. Raiya knew it was illusory because the sound was the same inside the shipping container as it was outside. The chatter over the manadial commlink was pertaining to a combined effort to bring down the new foe using everyone's specialties but, importantly to Raiya, electricity. Raiya opened up her line and began to speak as she thought it through. "I don't know for sure but I have to assume he is keeping a small dry spot where he is standing by manipulating the water in a sort of eye of the storm kind of thing. If that's true, all he has to to do us continuously block my attacks with his water to disperse the charge before it hits him. I am going to need an opening, and I am at my best at close range. So if someone could get him to target them with his attacks, draw his fire to them while I flank him, that will open him up to any number of attacks I can serve up." Raiya suggested as she sat hunched down in her container.

If I can get within striking distance, it is over for him. But... I have a feeling he might have an active defense field surrounding him. And if that is the case, I will have to strike from beneath him... She thought through the possible scenario and decided to use the same technique she used on Logan, her Yamata no Orochi, to strike the knew enemy from below while he is distracted. If he were to leap into the air before being struck, she would use a burst of mana to activate her plasma katana and extend its length to reach her foe without entering into his area of influence.

Raiya stood up from her crouched position and summoned the two instruments she would need to pull off her technique, her odachi, and her bladeless katana hilt. She opened up her commlink again, and said"Alright, I think I have a specific attack in mind. I am pretty sure that it will not defeat him though. This enemy seems particularly powerful. So, I am going to need some serious followup after I go all out. As I said last time, I need someone to draw his fire at which point, I am going to attack him from below. He will most likely avoid this by jumping in the air, where I will intercept him with a medium ranged attack. If he avoids that attack he will be completely open for anyone else to attack, so I will need everyone else to follow up immediately after because I will be leaving myself open as well." Raiya explained, "So who will draw his fire?" Raiya asked.

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

Raiya figured her attack probably wouldn't connect, but the attack was more of a tactical gesture than it was a practical one. She was attempting to illicit a response from the new enemy who appeared before them to gain some insight into what kind of power the enemy had. When her knives were stopped short of their destination by a wall of water, Raiya immediately knew they were in for a tough time. A mage whose aura indicated he was mostly if not solely specialized in watermancy, on a boat in the middle of an ocean meant that the homefield advantage was vastly tilted in the favor of the enemy. It was a bit like facing a dragon in the middle of an active volcano.

Raiya turned to Nemo to see what sort of response Nemo had for this new situation they found themselves in, "Nemo, what are we going to d-," Her question was cut off abruptly as a surge of magically controlled water blasted forth towards them at an unnaturally dangerous rate. Raiya bailed out of the tower jumping off the tall platform down towards the deck, she used a small glyph spell to cast a jet of wind down where she was going to land, to break her fall. Even her enhanced snakelike durability would not have kept her safe from that fall alone. The gust of magically generated wind allowed her to land a tad bit gracefully. Once her feet touched the deck she began to move towards cover, finding it in an open container. She suppressed her aura's mana waves to keep herself invisible as she entered the container and crouched down behind some boxes inside.

Just how in the hell are we supposed to combat a foe who has such a massive advantage on us!? Raiya puzzled as she sat in hiding.

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

Raiya only had the two magazines, the empty one she switched out, and the one she currently held in her pistol which contained 4 more of her special plasma lance rounds. Considering her luck was not going very good on this mission, and she had succeeded once with her statistically improbable technique, she was not willing to risk a second shot. So, Raiya dropped her pistol back into her mana inventory, it dissapeared with a pink crackle of her mana. She knew of people who were able to interact with their objects within their inventories and thus load a magazine in their inventory (Felix was one of these such people), but that required a deep level of a visualization technique that Raiya just did not possess.

So, when the captain of the ship appeared in a torrent of magically controlled water, she switched out her pistols for a few throwing knives. She charged each throwing knife with a bit of electricity before throwing them with impressive speed at the newly manifested opponent. The captain was fairly far off from where the group currently stood, but Raiya was good enough with her accuracy, as well as having the advantage of gravity on her side that her knives would surely hit their mark. Streaking forth through the stormy air with a crackle of bright pinkish mana electricity.

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

After the plasma spear ripped through the air and subsequently through everything that was in its path, Raiya let out a small puff of exasperation. She looked at the path of carnage in aw, which picked her mood up a little bit from the failures she had suffered throughout this mission as a whole. "If I had been half of a second too early or too late in pulling the trigger, the cartridge would have blown the gun to pieces and probably have taken my hand with it... It's a prototype to say the least, and it isn't exactly something I can use reliably in combat." Raiya explained, "I'm just surprised it worked at all. I had only ever tested it in precise mechanical conditions. This is the first time i have ever used that technique on the field. And probably the last time until I can work out an effective method of containing the magical energy in the cartridge." Raiya continued, "Silver was the only metal so far that i have had relative success without the cartridge blowing up right away. But without access to mithril, or sacred silver I probably wont be making any leaps forward with this technique." " Raiya finished.

"Well? Now do we head for the bridge and confront the captain?" Raiya asked as she bent down to pick up the spent cartridge from the plasma spear she just fired. Those cartridges were difficult for Raiya to make in large quantities so any that survived the actual firing process were invaluable.

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

Raiya followed Nemo up the stairs. The small lookout was bare bones, nothing but a metal platform surrounded by guard rails. Raiya could smell the blood before they actually reached the level of the lookout. She readied her pistol, ejecting her magazine she had spent all the cartridges from previously, and swapping it out for a special magazine in her inventory. Once they reached the lookout, it was abundently clear that Nemo had hit his mark. The glass and the blood obviously told most of the story there was to tell. However, a key part of the story was missing, the body. Raiya put up her guard as soon as she processed her surroundings.

As the wall disintegrated and Nemo pulled the two of them backwards, Raiya readied her technique, which was a prototype ritual still yet to be fleshed out. She charged her mana into the gun which conducted through the metal slide and into the round that was in the chamber.

Ichi,

The ritual needed three seconds to complete. Her mana reacted with the special silver cartridge, building and interacting with the contents of the cartridge.

Ni,

The gunpowder mixture began to change on a chemical level. The gunpowder inside the cartridge was a special mixture of black powder and snake-oil that Raiya had packed herself. The powder was beginning to change into pure magical energy.

San!

Raiya aimed her gun at the sniper in the outpost and pulled the trigger, the firing pin struck the chambered round's primer. This primer was special, in that the back of the primer itself was an incomplete rune. The small firing pin only needed to strike the center of the round to complete the small rune igniting the gunpowder mixture which had now been changed into magical energy. The round itself was a small sharp tungsten cone. As the bullet left the barrel, the magical energy that followed the bullet mixed into the air directly in front of the suppressor and behind the bullet, creating a large pink magical runic circle. The runic circle was the completion of a contract of sorts that was written into the back of the tungsten cone bullet. Specifically it granted the tungsten cone bullet specific transmutations. The tungsten bullet transformed from mere tungsten into a devastating spear of plasma about 6 inches in circumference. It would surely rip apart any organic matter it were to come into contact with, and create a large explosion it were to hit any dense inorganic matter.