Yankee

Hello, I'm Ayden.

Welcome to RPG! Feel free to ask questions if you have any.

World of Light: the Endless Now

Word Count: 906 (+2 exp)
Level: 7 - Total EXP: 201/70
Monday Evening-turned-Morning.
Location: Skyworld, above The Sandswept Sky

When he heard the signal, Pit moved swiftly. Without any reservation he threw himself from the train, getting clear of the locomotive as it fell over itself once off of the track. Before Pit even had the chance to look around for a hand in the air, he found that he didn't need to - Palutena took hold of his wings, the Power of Flight spreading a soft blue glow from their base to the tips of his feathers.

He didn't suppress the toothy smile that came over his face as he flew down towards what was left of the infernal train. Once there expected Lady Palutena to set him on the ground, but she didn't, leaving him airborne and with an inkling that the battle wasn't won just yet. And yup, there it was - the last stand of a cornered villain: flagging, desperate, but still a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately for Absalom, none of his foes were intimidated. If anything, the morale was as high as it had ever been, especially with the surprise appearance of a few familiar allies in Dante and Cerberus.

Eager to settle this and destroy the corruption plaguing Skyworld once and for all, Pit dismissed his bow in favor of the prismatic ball representative of his Breaking Palm. "Alright you big, ugly lug! Prepare to meet the light!"

There were a couple reasons that he'd swapped weapons, but the main was speed. As the battle began in earnest, everyone zeroed in on Absalom - with good reason. He was the most dangerous enemy on the battlefield, though not the only one. There were dozens or more corrupted monsters still alive, recovering, and clawing their way out of the wreckage. No one paid much attention to the little guys at times like this, and though Pit would have liked to get some early hits in on the Avatar of Chaos, he instead took it upon himself to clean up the area of dross... especially because Lady Palutena had yet to bring him any closer with the Power of Flight.

He thrust out his right arm, fingers splayed open wide, his left steadying it. The rainbow sigil stained onto his palm glowed bright, producing colorful ribbons of light that wound their way around his limb. He kicked things off with a "Bang!"

Light exploded out from his Palm, sending a mass of rays scattering out and raining down on the crater. It seemed to be all at once, but in actuality it was one streak of light at a time, fired instantly one after another. As they fell, they swerved in towards the rubble, homing in on every corrupted entity still moving. Though relatively weak individually, they were accurate and struck as quick as bullets. It didn't take more then a couple to finish off the weakened monsters that remained, so by the time Edward's squadron and Midna were finished with their opening gambit, the corruption in the area - save for its very champion - was completely decimated.

Now that none of the fighters were in danger from a nasty surprise while facing off against Absalom, it was time for Pit to get in on the real action too. Palutena was on the same wavelength, so she sent her angel soaring forward. Pit circled Absalom overhead, letting the Breaking Palm fade away so that he could re-summon the Palutena Bow. He pulled back the drawstring, holding his shots to charge until the light arrows conjured were large, powerful, and pulsing with violet electricity. When released they surged straight at its target, and thanks to the elemental powers currently at play they reacted violently on contact. Dante was going to town with his nunchucks, brutal and bold strikes that left a coating of frost on Absalom's rotten skin. The electro and cryo meeting released an icy blast and inflicted Superconduct, further extending the period of defense reduction that had been laid on the Avatar of Chaos previously. And when Edelgard's flames scorched Absalom, Pit's electro arrows struck soon after and caused a fiery explosion with Overloaded.

He rained light arrows upon Absalom up until he seized Edelgard in his grip, at which point the angel switched gears entirely.

"The only one we're striking down is you!" Pit retorted as he swooped in close. He closed the last bit of distance by quick-summoning his Uppderdash Arm, zooming right in for the hand holding Edelgard. With a strong uppercut from the hammer-like weapon, Absalom's already damaged crystalline fingers shattered. The corrupted nephilim howled in indignation while Pit brandished the bladed side of his bow, making sure to sever the tendrils that still held the Flame Emperor captive.

Unfortunately when she dropped, Pit couldn't make sure that she landed safely. The tentacles he'd dislodged tried swatting him from the air, though he was doing a valiant job of dodging them. Thoroughly annoyed with the captain of Palutena's Guard, Absalom decided he'd had enough and brought Absolution to bear, finally dealing with the angelic pest by batting him away with the broad side of the axe.

While Pit recovered from the painful tumble, Absalom reversed his swing - and flung the oozing masses of corruption he still had at the host of heroes. With the state Absalom was in, the pustules were even more unstable than usual. Some ruptured in mid-flight, spraying the immediate area around them while others landed around the crater ready to explode at any moment.

World of Light: the Endless Now

wordcount:
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(166/140)
Rika: Level 10 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(85/100)
Primrose Level: 11 - Total EXP: 165/110
Therion Level: 10 - Total EXP: 92/100
Location: The Avenger

warp locations

Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth
Accessible locations:
Peach’s castle
Limsa Lominscuttle Town
Lumbridge
Twilight Town
Kosm’s Beach

Word Count: 2385 (+3 exp)

The rest of the hour before the Avenger arrived was a big mix of hurry up and wait, as those at the rendezvous point sat around with the mild worry that the others would not show up on time for the deadline they were not aware of. Fortunately things in town were wrapped up, and the whole balloon debacle caused enough urgency that said worries were rather unfounded.

As such, it was up up and away for the seekers for another, much faster, balloon ride, up to the sky to then be grabbed by the Avenger, within who’s deployment bay the Seekers were deposited, be they conscious or unconscious. Be it thanks to youth or inhuman vigor, Rika and Jr were up and at em quick as can be, and they had only one thing in mind to do now they were back.

They scurried over to where Sandalphon was, and once she’d gotten through her into spiel, and Nadia had made her suggestion (to which Rika added ”It’s called unsinkable, so that might be tricky” without a hint of irony) they got their turn to ask the all important question:

”Have you heard anything about Papa yet? Or Peach or Kamek?”

The archangel lowered her head with a mournful look about her, then gingerly knelt down to place herself on Junior's level, the shaft of her gunstaff still supporting much of her weight. "I regret to inform you that we have been unable to locate Bowser, Kamek, or the new Consul P so far. High-altitude surface scans lack the necessary precision, and given the vastness of this continent, there is simply too much ground to cover. No insights from Mona's divination either, I'm afraid." She breathed in through her nose, then pursed her lips with a resigned exhalation. If the Seekers knew more about the Consuls' distribution across the World of Light, they could narrow the search down based on the patterns they'd observed, but they were still in the dark on entire regions. "The Lost Numbers' principal directive is the safekeeping of its people, so the scope of our deployment is limited, but our operatives remain vigilant. I believe that fate will reunite your family again soon."

Across the room there was actually a reunion taking place. Goldlewis and Primrose stood in the deployment bay waiting to greet the returning Seekers. Notably the dancer was a little more vocal in greeting her thief friends. Once people shook off the vertigo of the fulton extraction and began filtering out of the room, Primrose and Therion stuck around for a little catching up.

"Things went will, I trust?" Primrose started with. She stood with one hand on her hip, her eyes curious. She had always asked after Therion's less-than-legal activities since they'd known each other. At first Therion had been annoyed and confused by it, but eventually he figured that it was some weird way for her to express that she didn't have any issues with his profession. And now it was just habit.

It was also habit by now that he showed off, so he lifted the sack of pons up for her to get a better look at. "Do you think the Lost Numbers take donations?"

Therion wasn't the 'give to the poor' type of thief, but if they were going to keep clothing, feeding, and housing them during the campaign it was one way to pay them back. This ship had to stop sometimes to get food and supplies, didn't it? So maybe they could use the extra pons to buy stuff. At the very least it would free Therion of the hassle of exchanging it for leaves or zenny.

Their discussion was quiet and fast paced, shifting to the general areas they'd spent time in ("-quite the fetching city. You would like it-" "-small little island with some pretend gang-") to the new additions joining them ("-sharp eyed mercenary someone'll have to take care of-" "-a bug like those in the Under, and woman with dark arts-") to the attacks both locations had faced at the tail end of their stay ("-a trio of giant monsters-" "-sounds easier than a hundred half naked grapplers-").

It occurred to both of them that the near simultaneous attacks seemed suspicious, but there wasn't anything that could be done about it. By that time, they noted Sandalphon's departure after delivering the lack of news to Rika and Junior, and the disappointment on both of their faces.

"What about those two?"

Therion glanced over at the kids. He parsed Primrose's meaning - how were they holding up since Bowser's disappearance? The news had come as a shock to everyone when it was delivered. And though Therion wasn't great with kids... or people in general really, even he could tell that they had been struggling.

"About as well as you'd think," he said. They'd just lost their father and guardian after all.

"..."

It was hard seeing the Koopa kids' crestfallen faces when they'd asked after their missing loved ones. Primrose intimately knew the pain of losing a parent, so she knew it was even harder on them not to hear anything. If there was any silver lining it was that Bowser and Kamek were just gone for now, and not for good.

"We should check in on them," Primrose said, earning her a sideways look from her friend.

"We?" he asked. Someone probably should (in fact there should probably be some kind of counselor for most of the team), but besides fighting together through the Under and giving them some heist advice in Mafia Town, he didn't really have a ton of rapport with the kids. Primrose even less so, he figured, so he was surprised that she seemed to want to do it. Sure he felt for them, but being a couple of orphans didn't really qualify them to help someone else through (almost) the same thing, in his opinion. "I don't know."

Primrose tipped her head. She understood Therion's hesitation and wasn't going to press him. After another brief exchange of words, the dancer walked over to Rika and Bowser Jr.

"Good evening you two."

Rika blinked, having seemingly not really been paying attention to anything, and replied with an ”Oh. Hello?” and a little wave from down where she was sitting on the floor, using the one hand that her brother had gotten free from her gauntlets to do so. Said brother meanwhile just gave a half hearted grunt of a greeting, focusing more or less entirely on strapping the oversized mechanical hand to his sister's back, before moving on to help her get free from the other one as well.

Rika glanced back at him to see if that would be all he’d be offering, and then, after a moment, asked ”Do you… need something?” her in a curious tone, as if she was unsure why Primorse was talking to them at all.

They hadn’t exactly interacted very much otherwise after all.

"Not exactly. I just wanted to see how you both are faring," the dancer said. She was far from a therapist, but she'd done plenty of listening during her life. If she'd chosen to put on a front, no one would be able to tell she wasn't practiced at this... but spoke to them as herself, her voice a little stilted as she tried to pick the best words. "I know its hard with Bowser and Kamek being away from us right now, and I wasn't sure if you'd... had a chance to air things out."

”We’re fine” Jr insisted, only for Rika to ask ”We are?” seeming genuinely confused by this statement.

”We are. Papa will be fine, and back soon. He always is. It's always fine. Nothing and no one can take him down for good, so there’s nothing to worry about” Jr insisted, as if he could will this to be true purely by stating this was the case enough times ”Even Sandalphon said so and she sounds like she knows things and stuff”

”I mean you say that, but I still feel all... I dunno. Just… bad” Rika replied, seeming to not really be able to articulate her feelings at all.

Primrose agreed that the Koopa King and his advisor would return at some point, but she didn't voice it aloud. Instead she just listened, noting both Junior and Rika's reactions. The former was stubborn, frustrated, while the latter was more open with her newfound feelings. She struggled to give voice to them. Though Primrose still didn't quite understand Rika's circumstances, treating her more or less like a child along with her adoptive brother, she could still emphasize with her.

Unlike Sandalphon, Primrose didn't crouch to address them. She stood tall, crossing her arms over her chest. "That's normal," she said. "It is bad. It's alright to admit that."

She lowered her voice then, so that only the three of them would be able to hear her. "And it hurts, doesn't it? The truth is, while they're away from you it won't stop hurting." She then tried for a small smile. "But there are some ways to feel a little better in the meantime."

”It is?” Rika asked, in a strange mix of relief and dismay at this news, the oddness of it further compounded by her making a sound of frustration and disappointment before saying that ”this didn’t have a downside before”

Jr just grumbled non-commitly in response to all that as he finished up strapping Rika’s other gauntlet to her back, once again freeing her up to do things that weren't violence. She gave him a ”thanks” for this as she stood up and joined Primrose on her level (or at least closer to it than jr was) before asking ”So what can we do?”

"Different things work for different people, so you may have to try a few things, but..." Primrose let out a soft hum, calling up old memories long buried. Her father's words to her in the wake of her mother's passing, and the desperate advice her housekeepers had tried to give her before she left the manse following her father's death. "You'll have to let yourself feel those bad feelings in order to work through them. Don't run away from them, accept them. And let people help you."

Out of the two of them, Primrose felt that Junior would have the roughest time of that. Though she also felt like a bit of a hypocrite reciting these suggestions. She hadn't followed most of them. So she added in a few others; things she'd learned for herself or witnessed others doing.

"Give yourselves some goals. Not big ones, like what we're doing to stop Galeem. Small ones you can focus on..." she shifted one shoulder, coming up with some vague options that might appeal to either one of them. "Like learning something, or building something new."

Having a clear goal in mind definitely helped alleviate some of the suffocating pressure of loss, every little bit of progress a helpful distraction. Primrose herself was still working on her own goal, so close and yet farther away than ever now. She closed her eyes for a moment before giving one final piece of advice.

"And if it feels like your chest is full and tight, like everything's building up too much and you need to release the pressure... well, you could do it literally. Scream everything out."

”We’ve been doing that. We rebuilt Rika’s gauntlets and then have been learning how to fight together better to cover for Papa not being here to carry the team” Jr replied with an eye roll, but Rika did have a point when she said that ”I mean we were training and doing the fish stealing stuff. And before that we were doing all that tinkering in our room for a few days, but what are we gonna do now?”

Jr scratched behind a horn and then said ”Well I think I learned some stuff from that training, so i could give em another look” but again Rika had a counterpoint, which was ”Could we, ah, maybe not? For very long anyway. I didn’t really get to do much while you were working on all that tech stuff. Mafia town was better. Way way better”

”I… Oh…” Jr replied hesitantly, visibly worried for a moment before he snapped ”you should have said it was bad then!” and then looked like he regretted the sharpness of his tone immediately afterwards.

Fortunately Rika simply answered matter-of-factly with ”Well I mean I didn’t know it would be better because we hadn’t done it yet. But now we have and do stuff so…” and a shrug, before adding ”Oh, also we didn’t know about the screaming thing, maybe we can try that”

”Uh, I guess” her brother began, before immediately jumping in and adding ”but not here though” as Rika started to inhale deeply, resulting in her letting the breath out in a little ”Aw”

"Maybe try the training room," Primrose suggested for the screaming, amusement playing on her features. She moved to give Rika and Junior a wider berth in case they were to leave, placing her hands on her hips, as she was just about done with the impromptu wellness check. Honestly, it seemed like the two of them would be fine - so long as they stuck together.

”Huh. Yeah. Guess that’d work?” Jr replied to the suggestion, picking up his duffle bag, seeming ready to head out.

”Neat. Then let’s do that then” his sister replied, having a goal to strive for did indeed seem to have very much helped out the little lady, and soon enough they were on their way… Only for Rika to poke her head back in a moment later to say ”Oh, and thank you”

The dancer nodded at Rika and gave her a little wave with her fingers as the duo left. She waited another moment before exiting the room herself. She went in the direction of the living quarters, though she wasn't too surprised to find Therion waiting nearby. His ears stood upright on his head, clearly having listened in on the whole conversation. He didn't look caught out though, just glanced at Primrose and accompanied her down the hall.

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A new Sorceress in town

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ᴘᴋᴍɴ : Quest for Life and Death

Even with so many people milling about the spacious lobby, Auguste could tell when he had eyes on him. It was a sixth sense he'd developed as a kid, when pitying stares followed him around after the disappearance of his father. And it was pretty invaluable now in his professional life. So when that dull, prickling feeling started spreading from the base of his neck, Auguste slowly lowered his camera. His own eyes quickly found the flamboyantly dressed man approaching him, and he didn't know what to make of it at first. Had he been found out and this was an intern sent to tell him off or something? Maybe not, since the guy was smiling instead of fuming.

By the time the stranger spoke, Auguste was genuinely curious what he'd have to say.

"...huh, really?"

He wants his photo taken? There was no lack of photographers at the event, but it was just Auguste's luck that out of all of them, he was the one that would be singled out. Well, whatever. It couldn't hurt, and maybe it would help him blend in better. Plus it technically was a party. Auguste held the camera up to his eye, first snapping a quick photo of the stranger and his Flabébé before they even had a chance to pose.

"Are you a local celebrity or something?" he asked from behind the lens. The other man definitely looked the part... or looked like he was trying to look the part, anyway, from how he was dressed.

World of Light: the Endless Now

The First Nephilim

Word Count: 3356 (+4)

Midna, untargeted by Absalom’s projectiles, charged after him upon the back of her Beast Legion, drawing and charging her long tree spear and her gunlance as she approached. Then, once there, she stayed nimble, letting her invisible steed focus on dodging unpredictably while she focused on hitting their foe. She delivered swift lighting strikes calling jabs with her two handed spear, unintentionally fishing for debuff procs in the process due to the enchantments on her blade, while using her final hand not holding onto her mount to pepper the foe with gunlance shots. Her irritations meant that the moment after Absalom flung globules at the fliers, he turned toward her with a heavy stomp that sent a conical tentacle wave her way, then followed up with a big step forward and overhead punch, forcing her steed to back off to keep her safe.

That wasn’t going to help the others much, given they were all trying to not be cut down or corrupted. Edward had an especially bad time of this, the last dreadnought only managing to make an evasive action via backwards wing flap thanks to his new shield’s stat boosts, and even then he got clipped by the tip of the massive ax. He landed, stumbling from the gash on his leg, and had to use another flap of his new wings to stop himself from falling.

It had been long enough, however, that his single striker was off cooldown, and so the feather-staff appeared next to him a moment later, sealing his wound as well as either healing or overhealing Pit and Roxas in the process depending on their status. For Roxas this was kind of complicated. That big slash got him good, effectively having scored a critical hit on him. And even with the healing he got afterward, he was still winded and dazed from the experience.

Edelgard was forced to abandon her aerial mount as tentacles of Corruption appeared, dropping from it with haste, her landing unmistakable due to the thundering boom that heralded it. ”Midna! Call back your beast before the Corruption swallows it!” Her call to action was simple and to-the-point, Edelgard coming in on a right angle to Midna’s own angle of attack, Aymr replacing her much less impressive short axes. The False Hero’s Relic lashed out, and Edelgard even opted to utilize Flickering Flower against Absalom, though she doubted it would be able to keep such an oppressive foe down long.

”Wait no it doesn’t work like that-” Midna started to call back, but it was too late and Edelgard was already dropping, while the princess’s steed was stuck unable to do so to get into a portal. The flygon thrashed in the bindings, claws swiping at the bindings as Midna raced forwards, leapt off of her Beast Legion, and onto the rising snout of her wolfos that launched her up into the air. Her shadow hand reached up as she rose, grabbed the ceiling, and hauled her the rest of the way up so she could hack and slash at the corrupting tendrils till they broke and her heavily wounded steed finally dropped down into the portal to home.

She could only hope that the corrupting influence of her own home would be able to smother that of the corruption attempting to claim her beast as its own.

Absalom's slash came too suddenly for Pit to even think about trying to swapping to his shields for, and though he boldly raised his bow in an attempt to parry the massive axe the size and speed of it overwhelmed him. Rather than let the momentum of the weapon's swing launch him into the wall of the cathedral car, Pit gave up pushing against it and ducked head first, saving himself from getting his whole head taken off by letting the bracers on his arms take the brunt of the damage. The axe passed over him, and Pit was left with bruised and bleeding arms - which Edward's striker was quick to fix up. After a quick appreciative look sent the man's way, Pit turned his attention back to the champion of corruption.

"If you think a few globs of nastiness are enough to beat us, think again!" he said. With the tainted minions out of the picture, Pit was free to let a bunch of Wild Shots loose. Infusing his arrows with elemental light once more, Pit pulled the bowstring back hard and fired with a flourish. The arrow surged forward and immediately peeled apart, splitting into three separate streaks of light that whizzed towards Absalom. Very quickly the air was filled with projectiles once again, even more than before, and each light that split off struck with the same force as a whole arrow.

Sectonia wasn’t much one to be hit by such nasty globes of energy, but there wasn’t a whole lot she could do to dodge them with their amount, her size, and the confined fighting area. So instead she summoned her pipe shield, giving herself and every ally around her a shield that’d block magically inclined damage, including explosives which shielded her from this barrage of globules.

With a rumble of anger, Absalom turned to offer his response: another corruption stake, grown from his palm and ready to launch. At that moment, though, Pit’s fellow angel came to his aid. Unable to dodge such a broad salvo of plague bombs, Uriel had been forced to spend some of her energy on light darts to prematurely detonate the pustules sent her way. Such an approach created a momentary deluge of foul yellow-black ichor, but after giving it a wide berth, the Commander of the Hellguard zoomed in. She dealt a lunging overhead slash to Absalom’s right shoulder, then a quick horizontal cut aimed at her helmet. Grunting, he whirled around with a deadly close-range cleave, his grip high on Absolution’s shaft. Uriel lofted over it with a beat of her wings, then delivered a radiant cross slash that provoked an upward swing. Like an airborne ballerina she nimbly side-stepped it, then unleashed her swordplay, but the angel’s speed and focus had confined her inside a pattern.

She could not act in time to dodge one of Absalom’s tentacles as it lashed down and slapped her to the ground, allowing the Nephilim to punt her across the room. When he pounded the butt of his axe on the ground, tendrils burst up around Uriel to grab hold of her, even as her blade burned them, prompting Edward (who’d been backing off anyway) to rush over and hack at the tendrils with his own blade. With that pest out of the picture, Absalom then pivoted to shoot off his stake at Pit, and anchor anyone in the area to the ground.

Thanks to Uriel's quick action, Pit had more time to prepare for the attack they'd both seen coming. Once the stake left Absalom's hand and shot toward him, Pit quickly summoned his Guardian Orbitars. The shields manifested in front of Pit to protect him (and anyone behind him) from the impact - but the size of the projectile and the angle of trajectory made it too tough to bounce back. The stake struck the Orbitars and then crashed hard into the ground right nearby anyway, triggering a spread of tendrils once it broke apart. The corrupted protrusions snaked towards Pit, grasping at him just as quickly as he went about cutting them down.

Sectonia took the angel’s distraction to fire her own attacks at the creature, throwing rings of light that began to fill the area with large discuss rings that had slightly random flight patterns, but were aimed at and would also try to recorrect themselves to hit their main foe. The sheer amount of these rings, even if they missed, would cause damage to the corruption as well.

Edelgard took advantage of Absalom’s focus on Uriel to take her fair share of swings at the monster, using her shield to take the brunt of a strike from the butt of Absolution, teeth gritted.

“Hrrgh!” Angered by Edelgard’s impunity, the former Nephilim turned and extended his arm while she still had her guard up. Rather than bring down his crystalline knuckles in a punch, however, he grabbed the slab of metal in his claws. “Grrrrah!” He lifted her off her feet and hurled her across the room in Sectonia’s general direction. The fact that most of his opponents had yet to take a hit had the Avatar of Chaos aglow with aureolin rage. He brought the shaft of his axe down to send a handful of screwworm clusters rippling across the ground, each writhing mass homing in on a grounded opponent like Uriel and Edward. Then he leaped, reaching out with his tentacles to grab onto and swing from the ceiling’s stone arches. With his axe held in both hands, one above and below the horizontally-turned blade, he dropped into the group of Seekers with all his weight behind the massive guillotine.

With Edward’s help to free her and a heavy dose of corruption inbound, Uriel tore loose from her restraints, then grabbed hold of the man’s arm in order to lift him into the air beyond the screwworms’ reach, and not a moment too soon. The fearsome sight of Absalom on his way over convinced her to abandon offense and make a break for it. Pumping her luminous wings, the angel surged toward the other side of the arena to avoid his withering assault, and still the streaks of corruption from the impact of his axeblade nearly clipped her wings.

They did clip the much poorer flier that was Edward however, sending him crashing down in a barely controlled landing, his sword clattering away from him as he tumbled across the ground. After several rolls the bloodied and bruised Dreadnought came to a stop with a groan, before attempting to heave himself back onto his feet. Uriel helped him both rise and stabilize, her firm-but-not-rough grip a steady reassurance.

On the other side of the arena, Pit had gotten himself free of the tendrils threatening him just in time to respond to Absalom's heavy drop, axe first. He'd already learned that he couldn't contend with the weight Absalom was putting behind his weapon directly, so Pit leapt up high once more, getting up and away from the monstrous champion's attack while he could. The angel spread his wings wide, hanging in the air for a moment so that he could pull his bowstring back and fire another instant-Overload arrow at Absalom as he came down.

As Absalom crashed down, Midna followed him, performing her own ceiling descent. The princess summoned her wolfos, sized up, beneath her, and landed on its back to avoid breaking her legs on landing, and then had it rear charge Absalom. The towering beast pounced on the fallen nephilim, claws slashing at his tendrils back, before the princess leapt off of it. As the wolfos retreated to the twilight realm via portal she came down, smashing an overhead shadow fist down onto her foe while cursing his name. Then she blasted electrified sand at it to cover her retreat as she yanked her astral chain and pulled herself back to her Beast Legion. Her onslaught left the juggernaut doubled over, unable to follow up on his guillotine plunge. One of his four tentacles lay wriggling on the ground, severed by the Best Legion’s fury, but a new shoot had already begun to crop up from the lesion on his back.

Meanwhile Roxas finally managed to shake off being dazed and snapped out of it. When he did he saw a whole slew of things happening at once that he frankly didn’t have enough time to fully register. The most immediate threat was diving out of the way of an incoming mass charging at him on the ground and dispelling whatever it was with a couple good Keyblade strokes. After that? He finally noticed that the ground was less corrupt than it was a few moments ago. At least that meant he didn’t keep playing hopscotch across virtual cubes. And this was in time for him to dive out of the way of getting crushed by Absalom’s crashing attack before watching Midna and her wolfos go for an attack.

Roxas used his StepSword to get up close and bypass any attempt to swat him down before he unleashed a flurry of Keyblade strikes on Absalom. He summoned some virtual cubes at his feet and used them as a launching point to push himself aside in the hopes of dodging what he anticipated would be an angry axe swing and also got off some pot shots with his RockGun as he went tumbling back onto the ground. But now was when he realized that Edelgard had been thrown away a fair distance and got a cheeky little idea. Roxas summoned one of his newer Strikers - Kayano, with the intention of using her power to swap his position with that of Edelgard. What he didn’t realize was that doing this while he himself was so close to the enemy, it would instead shift all his allies to the frontlines while shifting him backward. But with the added bonus of buffing all of their attacks in the process.

This was, frankly, exactly where Edward did not want to be dragged too, to the point he’d have assumed it was enemy action where it was not for the added power coursing through his veins. Sadly he was not in a particularly great situation to exploit this, wounded and disarmed as he was, so instead he acted to aid in the other’s seizing of this opportunity by casting Designate Target upon Absalom.

A blood red aura surrounded the foe, briefly making sure that every strike would be as devastating as a flanking one, and aiding the accuracy of his allies for a bit longer than that. Add that to the way their relentless pressure had left Absalom covered in glowing golden cracks on his armor (not to mention on fire) he was more than satisfied with his contribution to the coming clash. He then went a step further and added one more, that one being getting out of the way of his allies by retreating towards the nearby entrance of the chamber as fast as his wounds would let him.

Luckily he had people to help cover his retreat. Suddenly being pushed up close to Absalom came as a surprise to Pit, especially since he'd been sticking to ranged attacks the entire time so far, but after a brief moment of confusion (and his nose rankling at the proximity to the source of corruption) he used the opportunity to get into melee. With the Palutena Bow separated into halves, Pit went right in with dual blades swinging. So far everyone else that had gotten up close hadn't suffered any major corruption, which emboldened the angelic captain to hold nothing back. He targeted Absalom's physical body, seeing as the tentacles and other masses of corruption on him seemed to grow right back, putting himself front and center so that anyone that wanted to back off hopefully could as he cut deep into the corrupted flesh.

Pit’s fellow angel was of similar mind. Though she didn’t expect and couldn’t explain the vacuum effect that pulled her forward, Uriel made the split-second decision to roll with it rather than fight it, and thanks to Shadow Walker plus Designate Target the angels’ efforts were rewarded. They both landed a flurry of slashes, criss-crossing Absalom’s skin with scars that welled up with ichorous putrescence. He soon rounded on them with a heavy swing, but the two were in the zone. Pit went high, zipping above the curve of Absolution and digging his blades in the champion of corruption's shoulder, carving cover the top and swinging himself around to Absalom's other side to avoid the axe before dealing with the nest of tendrils that found him on his back. Uriel flapped backward and threw a handful of holy darts, her mana reserves getting low, and after they blew up across her foe’s torso she charged in for a risky thrust into one of the eyes of Absalom’s chest. Her blade only pierced a foot or so deep, but it was enough to leave the Avatar of Chaos enraged. Uriel dodged backward again to escape his reprisal, only for his unexpected follow up -a slam that caused long tentacles to sprout up from the ground all around him- to clip her and knock her down.

“Augh…” The angel quickly retreated to assess the damage. No open wounds that could be infected, it looked like, so luck was still on her side. Uriel turned her attention to the battle itself, noting that despite a number of hits from everyone, Absalom still had plenty of fight in him. That tracked, as far as she could tell; his strength and corruptive potential demanded that everyone fight him cautiously. At the same time, though, caution wouldn’t win the day. Her allies only need to mess up once or twice apiece, and Absalom could probably endure until they did. Once the dominos began to fall, there would be no stopping them. The team needed another angle.

Uriel also noted the damage to the arena. By now the floor had been roughed up like a tilled field thanks to all the heavy impacts, magical explosions, and burrowing corruption. The ceiling was in a rough shape too, having strained to support Absalom’s weight. It was easy to forget in the heat of the moment, but this battle was still on a train, and its natural gyration as it moved put the damaged stonework under more stress. In some places it looked like a mycelium of corruption was all that held the dark cathedral together, and it was easy to imagine the locomotive shaking itself to pieces. Maybe, Uriel reasoned, the team could expedite that process.

“Keep fighting!” she called out, taking wing. “I have a plan. When next Palutena speaks, get off the train by any means possible!” So saying, she used the last of her mana to bombard a dilapidated window with darts, clearing the corruption long enough that the angel could slip through and into the sky.

”I’ll inform the troops!” Edward called to the others before he exited the arena. They were somewhat lacking in transport options at the moment after all, and so were going to need the feather’s wings to evacuate.

”Is she mad?” Midna asked, predicting her plan. Still, it wasn’t like they were going to have much choice in the matter, so she started sprinting around Absalom one way while her Beast Legion went the other, aiming to once again bind him so he’d have difficulty chasing after them.

In the same vein, Pit was working to cleave through Absalom's tentacle limbs to try and keep them small enough that they couldn't snag people out of the air as easily. Of course with the tentacles themselves snapping back and forth to lash at him and Absalom himself still moving to strike everyone down, he couldn't stay there as long as he liked. Eventually after cutting them down to size as much as he could, one of them slapped him back down to the ground. Ugh! The corruption felt so gross. He hopped back up onto his feet quickly, glancing at the opening Uriel had left through.

Do you have something up your sleeve, Lady Palutena?

You'll see. For now, follow Uriel's lead.

That was enough for him. He trusted Uriel, and even more so the Goddess of Light, so if their vague plan included getting out of the train at the signal then that's what he'd do. Hopefully whatever Lady Palutena did would wipe Absalom out for good.

"Just do what she says!" Pit called out for any that might be confused or incredulous, putting on his best authoritative captain voice. He took that moment to catch his breath, then raised his swords and dove back into the battle in earnest.

World of Light: the Endless Now

Word Count: 406 (+1 exp)
Level: 10 - Total EXP: 89/100
Monday Evening.
Location: Mafia Town, Deep Blue Seaside
𝙱𝙿 ●●●●●

It didn't take Therion very long to work his way back towards Bancho Sushi. The fighting had pulled him from the coast inland towards the center of Mafia Town, but he was quick and the streets were nearly clear. For good measure he struck down any lingering wrestlers that hadn't already taken each other out, ending up with a small handful of what he assumed were lesser spirits. Along with one emerald, which was a random and pleasant surprise that he didn't immediately connect to the scythes he wielded. He pocketed all of it.

His intuition that hadn't find most of the other Seekers back where they'd started the night paid off as he approached the building. When he appeared in front of them, he looked as though he'd gotten away with avoiding the fight all together.

He nodded back to Geralt, coming to stand just outside of the restaurant with his tail swishing behind him. He got the news from the witcher that the Avenger was coming to pick them up soon. It was about time, Therion thought.

Geralt, Rika, Junior... he assumed if the three of them were helping clean the place up that Ms. Fortune was in there somewhere too. One of his ears swiveled back to the city at large to listen out for the missing members. Blazermate and Juri would probably come back at some point, and if Captain Falcon didn't happen upon them naturally then Blazermate could probably fly around and find him before they left. Or the three in the balloon, as they soon abandoned rebuilding and went to get a bird's eye view. Which left Therion to kind of awkwardly loiter around the restaurant, though not so close that he could be easily roped into helping out. He waited on the island rather than the dock.

He didn't have any loose ends to tie up in town as far as he knew. Technically he'd paid... or bribed, or whatever, Nemma to collect more information, but even if he never returned to Mafia Town he didn't think it was a bad decision. It wasn't like he needed a ton of pons anyway. In fact he still had a surplus from sneaking in and stealing a haul from the local mafia that he'd have to find something to do with. Well, whatever. A task for another time. For now it was getting off this island before Consul 𝙸 came back.

Word Count: 677 (+1 exp)
Level: 11 - Total EXP: 162/110
Monday Evening.
Location: Meridi-at-Han ➜ The Avenger
𝙱𝙿 ●●●●●

With herself, Roland, Zenkichi, and Goldlewis already in one place, getting picked up by the Avenger was just a matter of getting to a good rendezvous point. And as they walked, Goldlewis dutifully took care of giving their two latest recruits some information about how the world Galeem had made actually worked. That the grim ringmaster and the eerie witch tagged along with them was... a good thing, all things considered. More firepower couldn't hurt, and they still had space on the flying ship. Primrose got the feeling that their magic was darker than most (especially the Witch, whose blatant necromancy would have been a forbidden art in the dancer's home world), but the two of them would be far from the first suspicious, sort of ominous people that had joined the Seekers over the last couple of weeks. Maybe some proper introductions could be made after they got aboard the Avenger. In the mean time Primrose brought up the rear of the group (keeping closer to them than to the zombies), content with listening to the refresher of the Seekers' mission and taking in the city one last time before they left it.

Although Primrose had liked Meridi-at-Han and their stay in it, Sandalphon appearing in a beam of light to collect the Seekers was a welcome sight. It meant they could proceed with making progress on their ultimate goal. She did have to suppress a sigh when she took one of the fultons though. If only there was a way to get up to the Avenger that was easier on the body.

Sandalphon's destruction of the zombies happened while Primrose was preparing to ascend, but the dancer didn't flinch at the sudden shots going off. I suspected as much, she thought. Not many would tolerate the undead walking among them, especially an angel. Primrose looked over at said angel afterward, and the angry witch threatening her. The Witch's response to what she considered her property's disposal was telling - this woman had an ego, or at the very least some sort of complex. Until the Witch backed down Primrose watched them both, her green eyes dark. Just another abrasive personality to be added to the group, she hoped, and not a problem. Though who could say how long it would be before the friction of those personalities rubbing against each other became a spark.

One unpleasant trip into the sky later and the Seekers that had been in Meridi-at-Han, both new and old, were aboard the Lost Numbers' mobile base of operations. Primrose picked herself up and dusted herself off, the small metal coins sewn into her dancing outfit jingling gently as she did. She didn't feel at all uncomfortable in the more exposed clothes, but it would be nice to slip back into her tailor made dress. After she did that she might return here, to the Deployment Bay. It was possible the other Seekers had run into trouble tonight as well and might need a hand before extracting, in which case the dancer would be right there. Otherwise, she'd be one of the first to greet the others as they returned.

Everyone else began to disperse then. Too used to people watching by now not to study them, Primrose noted who'd slunk off and who took their time as she made her own way out. She also watched Zenkichi leave with Sandalphon - she hadn't missed the angel's subtle expression when she'd seen him initially, and on the flip side Zenkichi wasn't subtle at all. They were cute, she thought, even if she was sure that any romance kindled in this world was doomed to fail in more ways than one. She shook her head slightly to dispel the latter thought and tucked the tidbit of information away in her brain. Maybe she'd let it slip on another day of relaxation with the gossip-inclined queen of Floralia, if it didn't become obvious to everyone on board before then. In the mean time Primrose headed towards the room she shared with Midna in the living quarters.