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Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

It was so swift. So agile.

It was no wonder that Ranbu no Izayoi was such a famous, infamous name. Her shouted warning, the dance that unfolded before Robin's eyes---

If this wasn't a battle, Robin would have wanted to simply observe the technique. The analyze every step that the ronin made. Simply to appreciate it, as one who also wielded a blade despite the distance between their two schools of swordplay.

And then the giant figure's blade fell.

Despite all she had done, it hadn't been enough. The Revenant's blade had nearly killed Ranbu no Izayoi in a single blow, and now she lay upon the sands, bleeding.

Robin didn't really hear what was being said. Her feet were already moving.

Her pounding heart quickened, as she witnessed Sagramore intercept such a heavy blow in a manner she didn't fully understand. How and why didn't really matter, now, only that she now had an opening she could take advantage of.

Everything else could be considered another time.

It was a moment in which a hero acted.

Sparkling light flowed over the edge of her blade as she moved.

Her target lay ahead of her. A terrifying monster who hadn't been brought down even by such a skillful dance.

But she wouldn't stop.

Robin wouldn't allow herself to stop.

A blade isn't just a plaything. It's a tool for killing, no matter what your intentions are.

The old man's words in her ears.

She knew that plenty well.

And against an opponent with heavy armor, or thick skin, you need to target their weak points.

Her fellow Edrenian's block had opened a perfect path for her. A single place where she could strike as the behemoth's blade was locked in place.

Against armor, you want to go for the joints. You can cripple or kill if you strike in the right spots, no matter how well-defended they are.

Beneath the arm.

She didn't know if this monstrous figure functioned like a normal creature. But beneath the arm there were important veins and muscles, things that were crucial to the body's functions.

If Robin could pierce this monster there---!

Sparks flew, sand tossed into the air beneath her feet, as Robin thrust her sword firmly upwards beneath the revenant's sword arm---!

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Robin had been wishing that ice magic really did work how she'd thought for quite some time before now. She'd tried her best to prepare herself for the heat of the desert, but there was nothing that really could have made her ready for an experience like this.

And yet, not of that really mattered right now.

She'd fought monsters before, certainly. But the enormous armored warrior was something different. A human-monster, something that fought not like a beast, but as a soldier of the enemy.

A hero couldn't be frightened of something like this.

A hero overcame their fears even if everything looked lost.

A hero---

A hero---!

Her fellow Edrenian's words managed to cut into her mind.

That's right. This monster fought much like Izayoi did. Even if she'd lost that sparring match, that didn't mean that she hadn't been able to at least force an opening.

That's right---!

Her fingertips wrapped around the hilt of her blade, metal singing as she drew it smoothly from its sheath. The heat was momentarily entirely forgotten as she placed one foot forward.

She'd move fast. Faster then she had before. Fast as she could possibly manage, and force an opening any way she could!

"Got it! I won't let you down!"

Leaning forward, her needle-sharp blade glinting as she pointed it towards her foe, Robin inhaled deeply.

Her heart pounded. Her whole body felt tense.

But she was a hero, after all. She wouldn't let that get the better of her!

Sand burst in the air as she erupted forward and left a glittering trail of light behind her, hurtling towards the massive warrior's flank and twisting her body, a flurry of sharp thrusts aiming for any point that looked like it might require defense.

Robin's goal wasn't to hit, not necessarily. Instead, it was to threaten, to be concerning enough swiftly enough that the massive warrior would have to pay attention to her at least a little.

As long as she could pull his attention her way, then she'd have accomplished her objective!

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Youmu inhaled deeply, flicking the black ichor from her blade as it began to dissipate and fade from existence. Whatever these creatures were, they weren't simply slime given form and some sort of murderous intelligence. She could feel them as spiritual presences, and the very air itself felt rotten when she was close to them.

There was no denying it, even if she wasn't as adept at understanding such things as the miko. They were some sort of evil spirit, or something similar, their oozing appearance a symptom of what they were rather then their core nature. The simple fact they vanished after death rather then leaving a body made that plenty clear.

The doll girl and the big... tree... man seemed to think they were curses, and while Youmu wasn't exactly familiar with the specifics of such a thing she couldn't exactly disagree. They felt corrupted and rotten at their very core, after all.

The petite half-phantom took a deep breath.

"Kochiya-san is a miko, so she might be able to do something about them," she commented, "I can cut them, but it'd probably be better to identify the source. If we can do that, then cutting the source should put an end to them, right?"

It made enough sense to her, at least.

Noting that the green-haired miko had proceeded into one of the buildings, Youmu sheathed her blades and followed her inside. If anyone were still here, maybe they'd be able to help.

There was a girl. A single, lone girl in the entire village. Had everyone else been killed? It was a terrible thing to think about, one that made the half-phantom's body tense and her teeth clench.

But still, if nothing else, one person was still here, right?

...

Something seemed a little strange, though. Something about this girl seemed insubstantial, somehow. Youmu couldn't really put her finger on it, but at once she seemed strangely familiar and yet entirely unfamiliar.

The way her body was curled, it was clear how she must have felt.

And yet, at Kochiya-san's words, she stirred.

"... It's all rot," she murmured, "It rotted the air and it rotted the trees and it rotted... it rotted everyone."

Her voice was barely a whisper. Her appearance was doll-like, fragile, as if a strong breeze could carry her away. Her limbs with thin, her entire body slender, clad in nothing but a white patterned dress.

When she raised her head, her soft features were utterly devoid of expression. Her eyes, a strange shade of gold and purple that resembled the sky at sunset, were completely lifeless.

"... You're not rotten," she murmured, again, "But everyone it touched rotted just like it...."

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

The shadows dragged even longer across the schoolyard.

By this point, a part of Hiromi wondered just how long they'd be waiting.

But then---

The air seemed to ripple. Something perceptible only to those who had been touched directly by the supernatural world, an invisible thing that was impossible to comprehend for the average person.

The ripple spread wider until it seemed to occupy the entire space between the two teams of students and the school, distorting the building housed within it.

Cracks ran out from the center of the initial ripple. Jagged fissures in an entirely non-physical surface that nevertheless had served as a barrier with one very specific purpose.

Soundlessly, it shattered.

Makimura-sensei had lowered the barrier.

It was time.

Failure wasn't a possibility. A powerful Grudge let loose in a place like this would be nothing less then catastrophic.

Hiromi stepped forward, hands tightening as she approached the school. With their dual approach, even if she didn't believe everyone here was of the same competency level, there should be no way for the Grudge to easily escape to a more populated area. That meant that it was a matter of destroying it before it might be able to harm anyone who was still inside.

They had to. Even if she had to do it by herself, she would.

There was no question in her mind.

There was no failure in her mind.

"Let's go," she said, glancing back at the other members of her team, "We can't waste any more time. We'll-"

She paused.

What was that? Certainly she felt the negative energy that emanated from the initial grudge, but there was something else? Another source of negative energy.

"---Tch, Hiroe-san?!"

There wasn't just a single grudge---!

The droopy-eyed, messy-haired, disheveled figure that was Hiroe-san appeared to materialize just ahead of them from thin air. Her clothing was oversized, her expression looked constantly bored, and her hair was as wild and unkempt as it was long.

As irritating as it was, her contract ability was inevitably useful for entering buildings like this.

"We need to get in now!"

When she spoke, Hiroe's tone showed absolutely zero understanding of the gravity of the situation.

"I can't rush it... my ability needs a little more care..." she half-murmured.

Hiromi was already sprinting past the disheveled girl, hand reaching into her bag.

But the lesser sources of negative energy weren't simply remaining in the school.

They were coming out.

It was as if black ooze was flowing out of the walls, dripping down, coalescing into distorted forms. Vaguely, one could describe them as canine, but they lacked any sort of fur. On closer inspection, it was more like a human body had been forced into the shape of a large dog's. But furless, with dark green skin, elongated head ending in a human-like mouth filled with human-like teeth. In place of their eyes were two smaller mouths.

Fully formed grudges? Lesser then the negativity inside the school, but they still should have detected them. What was the support team doing?!

Eyes narrowed, Hiromi reached into her bag, her fingers wrapping around her sword's hilt.

As it was drawn, the blade glittered in the late evening light.

She met the first of the Grudges and caught it in the mouth as it leaped, dragging her katana through its shadowy flesh and spilling dakr ooze from its body.

Hiromi tossed her bag aside, her left hand joining her right on the sword's hilt as the grudge fell in two halves beyond her.

They had to get inside as fast as possible---!

---

Thud.

It would be a strange feeling, one that reverberated through a person's entire being.

Thud.

Perhaps a difficult one to explain, too. What could possibly be making that kind of noise now? When there were so few people left in the school, when the festival was almost at its end?

Thud.

Yet it was a familiar noise, too. One that any person would recognize, even if they couldn't place it immediately.

Thud.

Indeed, perhaps Tenjou Seika would be first to guess, out of the scant few students still on school grounds?

Thud.

One needed only to place their hand to their chest to figure it out.

Thud.

It was a heartbeat. An enormous heartbeat, reverberating through the school walls, down the halls, through every single classroom.

But what could make such a sound?

@PKMNB0Y@vietmyke@Teyao@Rune_Alchemist@King Cosmos@Raineh Daze

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

@shylarah: Hey sorry I'm late.

Non-Japanese is okay but they'd need a reason to be recruited specifically to one of the Japanese schools. So they're probably living there at the very least.

As for contracts I'd prefer that they're at least based in existing mythology/folklore, but also a bit wary of future sight concepts.

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Witch's Household

---

"... Did I say no?" Ilsa glared after the departing medusa, speaking perhaps deliberately too long after the woman walked away to be heard. With a sigh, she turned towards the goblin.

"As you might have guessed," began Relki, "Dear little Ilsa has a bit of trouble being direct and honest~"

"Quiet."

Ilsa's flat tone made her annoyance with the raven familiar rather clear.

"I'm not sure what you mean by a 'plane crash', but you're not entirely wrong about alchemy," she began, "I'm not sure how you know that of all things."

Pausing for a moment, she took a deep breath.

"Alchemy is the practice of analyzing the components of something and using them to make something else," Ilsa explained, gesturing in an idle fashion as she spoke, "So you could take something apart and force it to become gold, certainly, but it's far more useful when applied to creating tonics and potions. It's also used in the creation of automatons, but I couldn't tell you anything more about that. As for fam-"

Relki rather abruptly cut the petite witch off, practically jumping in front of her.

"As for familiars---"

"H-hey!"

Leaving Ilsa fuming, Relki continued.

"Familiars are magical assistants, more or less~ They're most commonly created by contracting a nameless spirit that's lost its memories and identity and imbuing a common animal with it, alongside a few different ritual components~ I used to be an ordinary raven, as you might have guessed," she declared cheerfully, "Rather then overwriting the animal's consciousness, the spirit merges with the animal and creates a familiar contracted with the creator. I'm rather thankful, because while my feathers are quite luxurious---"

She struck a pose, one hand behind her head as she thrust her hips to the side with a wink.

"---I can only have looks like these in this form~"

Irritably, flustered, Ilsa pushed past Relki. The familiar was left giggling, as the witch cleared her throat.

"... She's more or less correct, though she left out the fact that a mage's mana is crucial to forming the connection between familiar and creator."

Meanwhile, outside, the fairies that had been flitting over the cabin had started to watch the medusa as she practiced with her newfound ability. After a few moments, one in particular, a gossamer-winged miniscule girl with blue hair and a matching dress, flitted down closer.

"... Woooow, Ilsa's going to be mad~" she declared cheerfully, as if that was a completely ordinary thing to say, "She doesn't like it when people mess up the garden, no, not at all."

She observed the hole in the tree for a few moments.

"... If one of my big sisters saw this, she might take all your limbs off and hide them! Then you'd have to find them, and I bet that's really hard~"

Despite talking about potential dismemberment, it didn't appear as if they fairy quite grasped the gravity of the topic she'd chosen. Perhaps that was to be expected.

It seemed as if all the commotion had disturbed a few other garden residents. A gaggle of small, short, stubby creatures with stumpy hands and thick bodies, a stubby mushroom cap in place of their heads, emerged from beneath a large flower bush and warily eyed the damage.

@Rune_Alchemist@Pyromania99

---

Smithy

Tch---!

I should have expected this. The undead in the smithy were probably stuck inside, so it didn't matter that the bell is still ringing. And naturally, they're going to go for the nearest living targets instead of the distant bell.

On top of that, all the weapons look rusty and worn down.

Damn it, was this a mistake? We didn't need to get into this fight!

I grit my teeth and take a step back.

How do I fight? How can I fight? These thin arms don't have any strength in them. This small body is fragile. If I was still the person I was in my original world, I could at least throw a decent punch. With how decrepit these undead's bodies, that might be enough. At least to knock one down.

But I can't do that now.

I have a staff, but I have no idea how to use it. My skill didn't help either. I have magic, but no idea what to do with it.

How do I cast a spell?

My hands tense. My fingers tighten on my staff.

...

They're spreading out. Of course, even if they're mindless, their bodies remember how to fight. That much is obvious just based on how they wield their weapons.

"D... d-don't let them flank you!"

It's all I can manage.

@PKMNB0Y@RolePlayerRoxas@Aku the Samurai@SilverPaw

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

It was only amatter of time before they had a new task to undertake, and today seemed to be the day.

Robin wasn't really under any obligation to do anything herself.

But at the same time, the alternative would be not to help at all, and she couldn't accept that in the slightest.

Still, the desert...? She'd never been to anywhere like the desert before. It sounded hot. It sounded---

Well, she'd already been asked not to wear her usual outfit while they were in Osprey, but the desert wasn't exactly suited to stylish clothing to begin with!

"The desert, huh...?" she commented, one finger to her cheek, "That sounds... hot..."

She trailed off for a moment, then took a deep breath. What was she saying? This was meant to aid the people of Osprey and strike back at the invaders who had taken control of the country. One more step to freeing them from unjust tyrants who would kill innocent people like it was nothing.

This was clearly the work of someone who desired to be a hero. Yet another way to help those in need.

"---However, I can't pursue heroism without braving such deadly conditions!" declared Robin with a flourish, sweeping one arm to the side as she did, "Especially with Lady Miina offering her services."

Indeed, the offer using ice magic to cool the desert heat sounded like it would improve conditions dramatically. On top of that, couldn't it be used to create more drinking water as it melted?

"In fact, that would give us a consistent supply of cool drinking water, would it not?"

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

The flash of magic, and Sir Renar's shouted warning, made her feet move.

The air rushed around her, the world blurred, and the brilliant light hurtled past her.

She could feel it. The air itself seemed to ripple, to burn, as the ball of light tore its way down the hill. It wasn't the same kind of impact as the bolt she had deflected, though. She couldn't be sure how much stronger it was, but she could nearly feel it even now.

Fanilly took a firm step back.

There was room to rush up the hill, now, as fast as she could. To break away and achieve their objective.

However---

Sir Rolan was facing the demon alone. While death wasn't permanent here, they had to treat it like it was.

And so, she couldn't abandon one of her knights. How could she? What kind of Knight-Captain would she be? In order to stand up to that title, she had to do everything she could---!

"With me, Sir Renar, we have to stay alive and keep the demon in place!"

Glancing only briefly back up the hill to check for the approach of another spell, the petite knight broke into a sprint, hands gripping the hilt of her blade as she threw herself across the side of the hill as swiftly as she could possibly manage. All she had to do was drag the demon's attention away again, just to give Sir Rolan an opening that he could use to get some distance.

Besides, that gave Sir Fionn and the others more time, didn't it? The longer the demon's attention was kept on them, and the more of them survived, the more likely they could hold her there!

Aim for a joint. Even if it misses, if it gets close enough she'll have to respond.

This was Fanilly's thought process. Even a demon that could heal any injury in seconds would still be at least briefly crippled and forced to retreat, so obviously she would act to avoid that situation.

So even if she couldn't possibly achieve hitting her initial target, it was fine.

Her eyes locked on the gaps in the demon's armor, Fanilly thrust her sword---!

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

Hate. Agony. Pain. Fear. Desperation.

The darkness writhed, nourished by these emotions swirling together.

A student desperately wishes to pass her next test. Another fears being bullied. A teacher wishes he knew how to help one falling behind, and laments his failure.

These emotions stirred together, swirling into is gaping maw.

It was going to feed well.

It was almost time.

---

The sun fell.

That slow, steady decline across the sky, heralding the approach of evening. And further beyond, the arrival of night. It stretched the shadows of the trees, buildings, and people on the street longer, as if each ray of light hooked its fingers into them and wouldn’t stop pulling.

It wasn’t a particularly abnormal day.

There wasn’t anything that could be picked out as unusual.

The students of the local High School probably didn’t think anything of it, either. Some lingered behind for clubs or other activities, some of them had already gotten home.

A few lingered behind longer, even now. Maybe their club activities ran late, or maybe they had some other reason.

They’d be an obstacle, one way or another. But one they couldn’t simply remove.

The black-haired girl inhaled deeply. They’d been preparing for this for a while, now. Suppressing it at the school could only work for so long, they had to act directly and destroy it.

Makimura-sensei’s efforts had to be respected, but they couldn’t keep going on forever.

How did one develop this quickly somewhere like this? She supposed the average school did have a lot of clashing emotions.

Hiromi folded her arms with a huff.

Still, it didn’t explain how one that was this much of a potential threat was developing so swiftly. It’d be a disaster if it formed fully during the day, and even now there were still students in the vicinity.

They’d have to act to swiftly contain it in one area and destroy it with as few potential witnesses as possible.

Indeed, that was their assignment. It was why so many students had been sent out in the first place.

The plan was simple. Her team would approach from the south. The other team would approach from the North. Both would enter the school using Hiroe-san’s contract ability to remain unseen, corner the Grudge, and destroy it out of sight before anyone else could get involved and it could grow too large and too dangerous.

Hiromi had no doubt that’d succeed.

If nothing else, she was there, wasn’t she? So that meant there was no chance of failure.

If nothing else, the Kobayakawa family didn’t accept failure.

Thus her path forward was to succeed.

As soon as Hiroe-san gave the signal, they’d be ready to enter. Makimura-sensei would lift the suppression field when they were in range, and they would encircle and destroy it.

All they had to do right now was wait.

The sun sank lower. The shadows stretched longer.

Maybe by the time Hiroe-san was ready, the school’s students would be cleared out entirely? It was all she could hope for right now, but anything more would be too unsubtle.

Was she getting impatient?

Perhaps.

@Raineh Daze@Rune_Alchemist@vietmyke@King Cosmos@PKMNB0Y@Teyao

A Cry In Darkness: A Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni-inspired RP Interest Check

You make it sound like a profession. But hey, one spot filled!