Zoey Boey

World of Light

Sakura Level 10: 61/100
Karin Level 7: 37/70
Location: Arabahaki
Word Count: 1762
Points Gained: 6
New EXP Balance--- Sakura Level 10: 67/100
Karin Level 7: 43/70

—

Just as the damage had started to really add up, Sakura and Karin felt their bodies bolstered by Sandalphon’s magic, and Karen had taken a hit. The battle began again in earnest. It was a proper one on four, but Sakura felt like they were finally getting the edge on their opponent.

Sakura and Karin were both blasted to the floor by Artificial Gravity, but at least Karen got hit as well, though it didn’t seem to slow him down at all. Sakura was focused intently on her battle with Karen Travers.

Karin, however, saw out of the corner of her eye, that Roxas and Midna were both dead, with Geralt looking to follow after. Sandalphon, as well, had suffered lethal injury. This was an unmitigated disaster. Even if the Seekers succeeded at this point, the losses incurred here would never be recovered from. She saw Sakura, watched her face, saw the intensity in her eyes and movements as she rounded on Karen with a heavy kick. He blocked it, but the blow seemed to knock the last of his Pyrokinesis out of him, and she backpedaled away from his counterattack. Karin had been sure they were going to win. But now, no matter what happened, there would be no such thing as a victory.

A part of Karin wanted to cut her losses and run. Let Nox have his twisted fantasy. Come what may, at least this battle would be undone. But Sakura wouldn’t run. And Karin could never convince the remaining Seekers to retreat, she knew that much. In this moment she briefly met eyes with Giovanna, who looked like she was going to plunge headlong into this battle. A battle that, at this point, Karin could tell they were going to lose. Every time they lost a Seeker, their ability to deal damage and sustain themselves lessened, and their opponents had not grown weaker in the interim. In retrospect, Karin calculated they probably lost the battle the moment Goldlewis died.

For her part, Giovanna hesitated for just a split second on the outskirts of the battle, looking around with her brows furrowed. “Hey, where’d Goldlewis fuck off to? Old fart…” But nobody could really hear her over all the noise, and the question was rhetorical, anyway.

It didn’t matter. A Kanzuki did not retreat. There was peace in accepting the inevitable, and Karin redoubled her efforts, preparing to unleash some of her stored power upon her opponent. If nothing else, she could bring about the humbling of Karen Travers.

Sakura dashed in, feinted right, and then slammed her elbow towards Karen’s side, ducked and kicked out at his ankle, and just as fast followed up with an EX-fireball point blank, slamming her palms against him. Normally this would give her an advantage, and if he blocked it, she reached out to grab his hand and shoulder, looking to hook her leg behind his ankle and topple him to the ground. ”Seyah!”

“Hmph!” Karen grunted as he hit the floor. Even if most of his abilities were on cooldown, allowing his opponents to dictate the pace of the fight was unacceptable. He activated SAS, switching on two powers at once.

Should that unbalance him or not, Karin would swoop in from behind and try to slam her elbow directly into his spine, whether she was assisted by him falling over or not. After that she would shoot upward with an EX-Ressen Ha, looking to launch Karen into the air as she spun, arms vertical, like a sawblade, before slamming him back down to earth. ”Ressen Ha!”

Her combo dealt a chunk of damage, though thanks to the healing from Mephisto, Karen had plenty more where that came from. Naturally, the instant he landed, both street fighters closed in to apply pressure, accompanied by their allies as they rushed in to capitalize. Rather than face a four-way mixup, he chose not to wakeup at all, instead vanishing in a blink. If his attackers looked around to see where he’d warped, however, they wouldn’t see anything; only someone with uncanny powers of perception would have already internalized the visual difference between Teleportation and invisibility, both of which featured blue effects. “Enough of this,” Karen deadpanned, his disembodied voice coming from somewhere among the Seekers. They couldn’t see him, but they could hear electricity building up, and they could smell the ozone in the air. Too soon, Karen reappeared in the instant that he delivered a fully-charged electrokinetic blowout, the explosion blasting back everyone in a surprising radius. Thanks to Invisibility, it was a critical hit.

As the sparks flew, Karen pulled the cord at his collar. His hid flipped up, hiding his face in a darkness that then blazed with a set of orange jaws, and all across his outfit imaginary cables began to glow. Alight with the power of Brain Drive, he lifted his hands once more. “This is what real power looks like,” he declared, ready to finish this.

Karin lay on her side, supporting herself with her hands, electricity zapping and crackling around her. She couldn’t breathe, and she gasped shallowly, looking up at a foe that had only gotten more powerful.

Sakura rose first, undeterred. It was time for Round Two. Unlike Karin, Sakura wasn’t thinking about defeat. Only the fight.

He wasn’t the only one with Brain Drive. And while the hit she had taken was big, it was more than enough to give her access to V-Trigger. She activated the Brain Drive, still wearing her uniform after all this time. Then she pumped her fists, and blue flame ignited from her fists and feet. Sakura Senpu increased her melee damage and combo potential, and Brain Drive increased her mental acuity and strength just like it did Karen Travers.

”Shut up.” She said, and then sprinted forward. Karin grit her teeth and rose to her feet as well. Sakura dashed forward at high speed, and then stopped just as suddenly before she got into range. An eruption of cubes went off in front of her, narrowly evaded. She span to the left and then lashed out with a quick light kick. If it hit, she would confirm it into a bright blazing spin kick, and if it was blocked, she would back up and shift, trying to get behind him. That was her game. Overwhelm him with speed, power, and skill. Karin advanced, keeping her guard up to close in.

With several foes on their feet, Karen couldn’t afford to fight just one of them. He teleported backward from Sakura’s initial assault, refusing to play her little game, and activated both Levitation and Blastokinesis. He rose into the air under the protection of a psychic shield, then created a carpet of dark cubes beneath and around him. Switching to Marksmanship, he fired off a fusillade of psychic bolts, then deactivated it in favor of Duplication. Shielded, the four Karens began to charge. “This is checkmate!” they shouted, and the next second, they shot forward like bullets.

It wasn’t a question of which was real and which were illusions. Their fists were all tangible, their punches strong enough to crack solid rock. Only the Karen who went after Karin, however, remained after his assault concluded. “You’re checked out,” he told her, seizing her arm in a grab as she went to block. He pulled it against his forearm to break it. Karin screamed, eye wide. Then he grabbed her and teleported with her beneath the arena, where nothing but empty space between them and the depths of the Mako reactor. “Take a hike.” The Septentrion released her, and the street fighter began to fall. Karin didn’t know that teleportation could work like that. She gasped, her stomach lurching. Her grapple hook arm was broken. Her arms and legs trailing behind her, the Kanzuki looked up as the battlefield, her friend on it, got farther and farther away. It was a quiet fall.

When he reappeared on the battlefield, Karen Travers was alone.

”...” Sakura’s knees wobbled. She staggered, like Karen had hit her harder than he ever could physically. Her V-Trigger ended prematurely, her fighting spirit snuffed out. In the brief interlude of silence, she had stared, wide-eyed, at the deaths of the other Seekers. Somewhere inside, rage bubbled, but it was underneath an ocean of shock and grief. Instead of a defiant yell, all that came out was a pathetic sob as Sakura staggered forward to meet Karen in combat one last time. What else could she do?

Her skill was still there but it was clear her heart wasn’t in it. She swung and dodged a strike and took a mighty frozen fist to the chest. ”Guh!” She rose and threw another punch, only for it to hit nothing but psychic shielding. Another, another, a kick, and she was on her back. She yelled, pushed herself onto her knees, and fired a shaky Shinku Hadoken towards Karen. The sudden burst of power exploded violently, kicking up dust. If he hadn’t been prepared for it, he probably would have gone flying right off the edge to where Karin was now. Instead, Sakura’s arms dropped, her shoulders sagging as the energy cleared away and Karen stood with her arms crossed defensively in front of him, Sclerokinesis engaged after the breaking of his Blastokinesis shield just to show how little hope there was

By this point, almost half the roster of Seekers had been eliminated, but there were still enough to pose a possible threat if Karen hesitated. He took no pleasure in this act, but executed it with military efficiency. Teleporting away from Sakura’s allies, he appeared in front of her and kicked her over. ”Oof.” Sakura landed on her back. She brought her arms up in front of her. But her mental state had been broken, and her mind was unprotected. The Septentrion reached out through SAS to force a connection. Visions of prong-tipped cables appeared from the ether and stabbed into Sakura’s body. ‘I’m dead,’ Sakura thought to herself bleakly. There wasn’t any time to think about anything else.

A moment later, three huge ones lunged into the back of her head, and in one brutal assault he uploaded an obscene amount of junk data into her head. Her back arched, eyes wide and unseeing. The Brain Crush knocked her out instantly. She lay flat on her back with a little thud, eyes closing. As she hit the ground, Karen turned, his Brain Drive nearly out. This was a turning point. Victory was within his reach.

World of Light

Level 8: 012/80
Word Count: shor
Location: Egg
Points Gained: 2
NEW EXP balance--- Level 8: 14/80

---

Consul F got away. There was nothing he could do to them. He had failed his objective, at the end of the day. The more progress they made, the less leverage over them he had.

Moving into the Black Egg, somehow, Jesse was quiet. At the very center was not quite the thing they were supposed to kill, but rather, the thing they were supposed to use the Dreamcatcher on. It reminded her of the little guy they had met before going down into the Under. A big, giant, scary knight. Jesse whistled appreciatively.

It seemed the consensus was not to kill it. “If you say so. Just be careful. No reason to die when you could retreat.” She said.

The battle began and Jesse stayed at the back, firing her shots to begin wearing down the monster. When it jumped into the air and began raining down globules, she jumped up into the air with Levitation. Then she created a Shield of stones, blocking. She was about five feet off the ground.

“I’ve got cover!” She said to anyone who wanted to stay close to the knight while avoiding its attacks. When the globule rain was over she flung her Shield up in a shotgun blast of debris into the creature before it could hit the ground.

World of Light

Sakura Level 10: 58/100
Karin Level 7: 34/70
Location: Arabahaki
Word Count: 949
Points Gained: 3
New EXP Balance--- Sakura Level 10: 61/100
Karin Level 7: 37/70

—

Sakura shook her head, forcing the feeling back into her muscles after getting shocked. While Karin had had to stay on the outskirts of the melee battle. The boss performed a swiping attack that forced Karin to tackle Sakura out of the way.

During a very short amount of time, things had gone from bad to worse. Karin had just barely made it out of there against Karen. But Sandalphon was in trouble, and Roxas and Blazermate were both down. Karen had just somehow helped defeat their invincible medic almost instantly. With Sandalphon and Blazermate in trouble, things were looking grim for their healing prospects. But in the frenzied battle it was hard to even notice where to go or who to fight.

They were bombarded by bullets and the ground shook beneath their feet, forcing Sakura and Karin into defensive crouches next to each other, their guards up. Though Sakura desperately wanted to help Roxas and Sandalphon, Karen Travers was a huge threat who had just done a big hit against Zenkichi, and if he was left to his own devices all could be lost. This was immensely frustrating. ”Grrr!” They’d have to somehow deal with Sam later. If Sandalphon called for help in her giant form then they would have to respond, but until then they had to focus down their opponent Karen.

After the ground stopped shaking Karin and Sakura rushed back in against their psychic opponent from behind. Sakura used Mental Connection to pull herself towards Zenkichi and get a speed boost to latch herself onto Karen’s back. She aimed to wrap her arm around his neck and head and start choking him, wrenching backwards. At the same time Karin slid in and struck Karen’s knee, trying to force him into a kneel and prevent him from so easily bucking Sakura off with Karin ready to start striking his body.

“Hhhck-” Grabbing onto his captor’s arms struggled against Sakura’s headlock. For a brief moment the sensation of being strangled commanded his instincts, giving Karin a chance to bring him to his knees, but the battle-hardened soldier started using his brain again long before Sakura could cut off its blood flow. With Cryokinesis still engaged, a huge amount of cold began to pour into the street fighter’s body, causing a flood of pain and numbness. When Karin attacked, she found herself confronted with Blastokinesis, forcing her to pummel her way through a bubble shield of psychic energy. The Septentrion gritted his teeth and tried to concentrate. He engaged Marksmanship and began to fire psychic lasers, not from his hands but from his forehead. Reminiscent of Pit’s arrows, the rays slowed down and arced around in midair. They rained down on Sakura, and though their targeting left a lot to be desired, the punishment in conjunction with Cryokinesis would be enough to dislodge her grip.

Sakura tried to cash out early, smacking him on the back of the head with her elbow before back flipping off. A few rays smacked into her and she stumbled backwards. ”Uff!”

Air flooded into Karen’s lungs, and though he swayed drunkenly for a split second, he recovered with almost unfair speed. All the powers he’d just used were spent, but others were just now coming off cooldown. He used Teleportation to blink a short distance away, then reached into his bag of tricks for something else. He stomped the ground to send out a wave of obsidian-black energy cubes wreathed in crimson power. With sweeping hand motions he sent forth clusters and pillers of cubes in different forms, some dropped from above and others erupted from the floor.

”It’s just party tricks with you, isn’t it?!” Karin shouted. She hopped zipped left and right and hopped forward. One cube fell from above that Sakura blew up with a hadoken. Mid-air, Karin blocked one more construct and her momentum stopped. Sakura reached out with Mental Connection and yanked herself forward, flying through the obstacle course with a spinning kick to slam into Karen. ”Shunpukyaku!”

Fist wreathed in flame, the Septentrion lashed out with a heavy punch, and the two to clashed in a burst of fire and ki. The blows traded, but while Karen only staggered, Sakura went spinning into the air. Her opponent was able to dash forward and unleash a blazing backflip kick to strike her down.

In her world, there was no one on the planet that wouldn’t get knocked down by that kick if they traded like that, but in the World of Light the rules were different. Sakura’s arms and legs trailed behind her before she slammed belly first into the floor. ”Oof!” She wheezed. Karin grit her teeth and dashed forward, ever quick in close range. She lashed out with her leg to catch him on the recover and then zipped forward to thrust her palm up into his chin. ”Tenko!” After taking her ache-inducing attacks, Karen disengaged with a backward teleport in time to escape a follow-up, putting him at a distance where he could unleash more cubes.

Karin snapped out her kicks into empty air, seeming him teleport away. She was angry, but as he unleashed more cubes she didn’t let her temper get the better of her. Instead she backflipped, dodging one, and then crouching in front of Sakura as she pushed herself to her hands and knees. Karin parried and struck the constructs as they came at her, getting pushed back but protecting her friend. They needed to stick together if they were going to survive.

Sakura recuperated, spitting some saliva onto the floor that had forced its way up since that flaming body blow hit her. ”Thanks.”

”Don’t thank me yet!”

World of Light

Sakura Level 10: 46/100
Karin Level 7: 22/70
Location: Arabahaki
Word Count: 1529
Points Gained: 6!
New EXP Balance--- Sakura Level 10: 58/100 +6 (Still need to level her up, but idk)
Karin Level 7: 34/70 +6

—

Sakura got up from behind Goldlewis as the Consul died, while Karin regarded him with steely orange eyes. Hayato had delivered the final blow of his encounter, avenging Akira in the process. She had no words for the failure of the Consul, an extension of the loathsome Galeem that had thrown the universe into chaos. Whatever motivations he thought he had were of no concern to her. Karin wasn’t bloodthirsty, but she reserved her compassion and even her pity for those who deserved it.

Sakura gave Hayato a grateful and sad little wave as he left. Then she exhaled and turned her attention to the matter at hand. The Guardian. This was it! What they had been working towards. This would be her second fight. If- when they won, it would be her second guardian. She was definitely a long way from getting a lift from a nice dragon lady to catch up with the Seekers on their way to Alcamoth. Lumbridge felt like a lifetime ago.

Sakura smiled warmly at Giovanna, and gave her a thumbs up. Nothing wrong with sitting out a battle, after all. Sakura just really, really felt like fighting. It’s why she hadn’t stopped, so far. The Seekers pushed ahead.

The machine, the Guardian, no doubt, was a malevolent thing. ”What the heck is that ugly thing? Galeem sure knows how to pick them.” She said.

Karin narrowed her eyes at the interlopers. So this was that ‘Nox’ figure Happy Chaos had mentioned. And, of course, Happy Chaos himself, arriving in a car. She still didn’t know what to think of Happy Chaos. It sounded like he chose that name himself. He was pretentious and above-it-all despite this being apparently the only thing he thought was worth doing. Whatever ‘this’ was.

”Collecting…Wakfu? What? Does that mean-?” Sakura asked, confused, and dreading the answer. But Goldlewis’ response and Nox’s general demeanor confirmed it for her.

”Indeed. As if we could trust someone as low as that with the power to make the world better. Once again, another fool who would rather do anything than facing the problems of the world head on. It’s all machinations and magic and grand ideologies. And ‘sacrifice.’” Karin said bitterly. ”It’s all so terribly performative. It makes me sick. All of these self-important ‘woe-is-me’ murderers galavanting about like it’s their own personal hell and not one they’ve made for others. You can’t go two meters without bumping into one in this place.” She crossed her arms.

”And for what?” Karin asked rhetorically. ”Nothing. They’ll never succeed.”

”Sam-san?” Sakura asked, recognizing the swordsman. She looked at Roxas in disbelief. ”What are you doing here? Don’t tell me this guy beat you up and now you’re following him around.” She indicated Nox. ”You seriously need a hobby.” She was a little frustrated with him, and the fact that they were probably going to have to fight. He was really strong, too, and the last thing they needed was more problems.

”If you want to follow someone around whose actually strong, I know a guy who's perfect.” Sakura said. A bit dreamily, towards the end there. ”Err, I mean, perfect for that. Perfect for following around because he’s strong.” She cleared her throat.

The swordsman gave her an easygoing grin. “Tell you what. If you win, you can introduce us.”

”O-okay!” Sakura got into her fighting stance, focusing up.

The time for battle had come. And no sooner than it had started, Goldlewis was dead. He challenged Nox, and died instantly, for Nox had some kind of overwhelmingly powerful time magic.

”Wh-what?!” Karin exclaimed, outraged. Certainly, she had little intention of using lethal force herself. For Nox to render Goldlewis helpless and then execute him in cold blood was beyond forgiveness.

Sakura stopped dead in her tracks and gasped, covering her mouth. ”No!!”

Karin looked at Tycoon and Nox’s crew, trying to strategize. What should they do? They had to be wary of Nox and his ability! Sakura, however, wasn’t going to be paralyzed for long. She rushed ahead, angry. She would fight Nox, or anyone who got in her way. It was all the same to her, now. It ended up being Karen Travers who interposed himself between Sakura and Nox, running to take her head-on. Sakura sprinted ahead and then stopped on a dime, shifting to the left and swinging a kick into his knee.

Karin felt obligated to follow after her friend and so she did, running behind her. She aimed to jump over Karen and kick him in the back of the head and then strike him, only a short amount of time after Sakura made her approach.

Rather than try to blindside Sakura while she went for Nox, Karen meant to provoke her into attacking him instead, and when the girl rounded on him he reacted defensively. The Septentrion put his momentum into an aggressive parry, striking Sakura’s leg with his palm just before her kick could connect. His skill -and strength- left him at an advantage with his foe off-balance, and Karen didn’t waste the opportunity. He pounded his fists together, activating Pyrokinesis. Flames very much like Hanabi’s engulfed the lower halves of his limbs, and he lashed out with a dizzying backhand toward Sakura’s head before abruptly disappearing with a whirring blip. Sakura brought her leg down quickly, and raised her hands to her head, absorbing some of the force of the blow, given the brief window to defend herself due to Karen activating pyrokinesis. The Street Fighter had only the briefest chance to recall the sound of Luka’s Teleportation before Karen’s elbow flew in toward her back, expelling a concentrated jet of flame. The sound tipped her off, and she turned and took most of the force into her arm instead, the jet of flame sending her skidding backwards.

That move put Karen right in Karin’s path. He whirled to face her just as she jumped over him, seemingly giving her a free shot at the back of his head. Instead, knowing the psychological damage an untouched foe could inflict, the Brain Eater showed off Sclerokinesis right away. Karin’s kick connected with a body as solid and impermeable and titanium, and the next moment Karen’s hand closed around her leg to pull her into a fiery downward punch that bounced her off the floor. After switching off Sclerokinesis, another teleport brought Karen right to his foe so that a snap kick could add both insult and injury. ”Agh!” The floor-bounced Karin took the hit in the ribs and flew backwards, tumbling along the ground before pushing herself back to her feet. If she was phased psychologically, she didn’t show it.

Karen Travers then deactivated Pyrokinesis to save energy, dispersing the flames by arrogantly dusting himself off.

Sakura dashed right back into the fray, tears brimming in her eyes. She zig zagged as she approached. She came from the side and aimed to slam her elbow into his kidney, and then snap her leg out for a light kick against his leg. Non-committal attacks trying to bait out the use of Sclerokinesis or other defensive tactics while keeping herself mobile. Forced to block the attempted kidney blow, Karen gave his opponent a cold look. If she was willing to try and jolt him like that, he could afford to answer in kind. For a brief moment he bided his time, defending himself adeptly. Just long enough for Karin to regain her feet and rejoin the fight. Then he activated Electrokinesis in a burst of sparks, teleported straight upward, and after a second unleashed a lightning shower over a wide area.

Sakura reached out to grab his arm and force him off balance with her technique, but all she got was a brief jolt of sparks. Sakura glanced over her shoulder to block his behind the back attack, but all she saw was his shadow. He was above her! The electricity coursed violently through her and she squeezed her eyes shut, her arms flying out to the side as she grit her teeth. ”Rrrgrgrgrgrgrh!” She groaned loudly.

Karin could see the attack from this distance and back stepped the electric shower. It stopped, and her opponent began to descend while Sakura stumbled forward. Karin dashed forward, an orange and red torpedo. She fired out her grappling hook to stick into his shoulder while he was distracted and then pulled herself forward with high speed and force, looking to slam both her boots into his side and knock him over. The hefty collision knocked her target back, but he managed to salvage his footing by spinning with the force and slide to a stop in a crouching position. Eyes tightened, Karen poured electricity into his right hand and stepped forward with an overhead chop, seemingly much too shallow until a wave of lightning bolts blasted down in quick succession in front of him. Into the storm he charged, and the moment Karin weathered the last of the bolts her guard received a flying double snap that weakened her guard even further. The assault pushed her back, but before Karen could overwhelm her, help was on the way.

World of Light

Without Knowing Y

Blazermate, Susie, and Roland’s @Archmage MC, Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man, Sakura and Karin’s @Zoey Boey, Pit’s @Yankee, Roxas’ @Double, Goldlewis, Sandalphon
Word Count: 5836 (+6)

”Goldlewis!” Midna cried out in alarm as the heavy set man was sent tumbling towards the edge of the bridge after the laser scattered them all. Her Beast Legion surged forwards with her on its back as she formed and reached out a shadow hand to grab a leg. Yet even with her fusions and her bestial steed, she wasn’t enough of an anchor to halt his tumble entirely, the man rolling off the edge and leaving the princess to jam her lance into the ground and her beast legion’s claws scraping against the remains of the bridge as they tried to keep themselves from being dragged down after the man they were holding onto. This wasn’t helped by the fact that Goldlewis could neither truly see the Beast Legion nor grab onto it for purchase.

Karin had dashed towards Goldlewis, but she would meet with Midna instead. Concentrating, she dashed in, and grabbed the Best Legion’s rear legs, wrapping her legs around it and facing backwards. Then she fired out a grappling hook at the ground and pulled it taut with her arm, acting as the last anchor point. ”Pull!” Together, the combined urgent strength of the two Seekers and their assistants, be they monstrous or mechanical, were enough to start pulling Goldlewis back from the brink. From within his coffin, the UMA lent a hand as it stretched out numerous arms to help drag its partner to safety.

Sakura got up from the ground, casting a distressed look at the situation. The best way she could help was to prevent whatever Y was now from interfering, so she just started running towards him, zig-zagging every now and again to throw off his aim. Y snapped his fingers, and above him a series of bright flashes heralded the manifestation of energized cube-clusters. The clusters then fired forward in a wide spread, bouncing off the ground around Sakura as the girl dipped and dodged. Rather than keep shooting, though, the Moebius then charged forward. Almost twice Sakura’s height, he lashed out with long limbs in a giant backhand, then spinning hook kick, and finally a somersault heel drop.

As Y charged to meet her, Sakura yelled out a battle cry. She had to duck under the backhand, and used her forearm to deflect the force of the hook kick. She returned fired with a kick of her own- it caught air as he somersaulted over it and dropped the heel on her. She raised her arms and caught the heel, but the force was immense. Sakura gasped, and was knocked to the ground.

Roxas, too, pushed himself back to his feet. He’d managed to avoid taking a direct hit from that laser attack, but that didn’t keep him from sprawling out on the floor with the wind temporarily knocked out of him in its wake. He really didn’t have time to deeply analyze what was going on with the Moebius, but he decided he needed to get in there and do something. Not long after his attack knocked Sakura down, Y would find himself being shot at by Roxas’ RockGun. He of course was also running toward the Moebius in the midst of this. But rather than try attacking head on, Roxas instead suddenly turned into a streak of light that shot around Y in order for him to unleash his Cross Slash from the flank, ”Bring it on!”

Popping up on their feet, Roland, Blazermate, and Susie got up to deal with what was the last fumes of this Moebius. ”Did, did he just eat us, then vomit us up? This is so weird. ” Blazermate said, trying to figure out what was actually going on as she went and did her job of healing. Being next to the medabot, Susie and Roland shook their heads as they didn’t even want to think about that as they got ready to deal with this guy, Susie needing to keep mobile on her transport now as her business suit was too damaged and would need repairs now.

The shots, landed just as Y rebuffed Sakura, seemed to annoy him more than anything. He conjured another flurry of cube clusters, but the keyblade wielder repositioned in a literal flash. A blistering flurry of blows rattled off his arm, upper leg, and ribs, prompting Y to return the favor. Pivoting with deceptive speed, he launched a turning side kick at Roxas followed by a lunging palm. Before he could do any worse, a slug of weaponized sunlight slammed into the Y’s hip, and when the Moebius craned his neck around to fix his vivid purple eyes on the source, he spotted Sandalphon’s Eye of Sol with a smoking barrel.

”You must go,” he announced, stretching out his arm to extend his index finger toward her. A mote of otherworldly light flared up at the tip, and the next moment an immense purple laser screamed her way. But the archangel had already vanished, teleporting to Roxas’ side. Snowflakes in her eyes, Sandalphon launched a Frost Lock at Y to coat his body in ice. It would take another at the end of a twelve second cooldown to freeze him completely, but it was a start. She jumped backward for safety, stowing her rifle and brandishing her gunstaff with a flourish. Meanwhile, on his opposite side Goldlewis began to pick up speed, approaching the Moebius with his coffin at the ready.

Having pulled him up from the brink Midna was right alongside him, before picking up the pace as they got in close, racing ahead to lance strike Y, before chain summoning Minions to follow up her own attack. Y turned to answer in kind. A giant Flygon swooping overhead to deliver dragon claws, preceding an equally giant wolfos pounced to deliver a savage bite before it got shaken off, and then finally a regular sized Darknut to use the distraction of the bigger minions to deliver a heavy sword strike. Unfazed, the Moebius sidestepped the mighty slash and delivered a punch to the Darknut’s cuirass that caved in the armor like tin foil.

Then a moment later Midna was wheeling away, and her minions had dropped back into portals, clearing the way for the next attacker.

Following up behind Midna was the swift Karin. As she ran forward she was rejoined by Sakura. They ran side by side before splitting and moving to attack from the left and the right. Sakura slammed her fist and did a spinning kick into Y’s knee while Karin targeted his opposite thigh with a series of elbow strikes. Though their predecessor bought them a precious moment, the Moebius wasn’t going to stand there and take it for long. After stepping back, he extended the tentacles on his head into the bridge, and the next moment their piercing tips burst up beneath the street fighters like a forest of purple spikes. They stepped backwards to avoid the tentacles, and due to their experience they figured once they had gone in the ground the only place they could show up next was beneath them. They retreated backwards and braced themselves to block the upcoming spikes, but were forced away.

While that was going on, Roxas used the momentary reprieve to summon Burn Rooster. After which he sprinted toward Y alongside the Reploid only to split off from him so that they could launch their own pincer attack on the Moebius. Burn Rooster leapt high and crashed down onto Y from above with a fiery flying kick. Meanwhile Roxas veered around with his StepSword dash so that he could lunge at Y from the opposite direction as his striker.

Zenkichi added to the barrage of blows with a charging slash attack, Geralt leaping in overhead with a screaming overhead slam from the Hateful Flesh right after him, leaping high to avoid a counter-attack while Zenkichi stabbed his greatsword at the Moebius. Y actually caught the tip of the sword’s blade in his fingertips, shocking the detective with the strength and dexterity that such a feat demanded, but before he could do anything with it Geralt’s jump attack landed and knocked him back.

Blazermate made sure to heal up those she could, holding her shield arm forward as she did so as she was expecting this guy to go after her when she started healing. Susie, seeing the huge brawl in melee, decided to stay at range and pelt Y with her blaster fire. Melee looked pretty clogged, and seeing Roland dashing in, she decided it would be best to stand back for now.

Roland meanwhile joined in the melee fray with Roxas, Zenkichi, Geralt, and everyone making that area pretty busy. He used his hammer to try to deflect a few cubes as he got close, although that probably wasn’t the best tool to deflect these things. That would be counteracted though as he swapped from his defensive weapon that lost him those clashes, to his more offensive dual swords which he used to use a flashy swift swirling sword cut on Y and getting ready to deal with his next attack.

Purple light swelled around Y’s core with unusual intensity, and when he posed the next moment, glowing purple cracks spread across the bridge around him. His attackers had only the briefest window to react before enormous, jagged outcrops of a violet, icelike crystalline matter burst forth. Goldlewis has paused at the fringe of the melee so as to not overcrowd the others, but now he made his move, roaring as he smashed his way in through the spikes with a Behemoth Typhoon. His coffin’s momentum carried it around in a whirlwind revolution, and as he closed the distance it careened toward his enemy’s head. The Moebius blocked it with his forearm, stopping the mass of metal short, then launched a prodigious snap kick with enough raw power to tear the coffin from the veteran’s jarred grip and send it flying into the air. He then pivoted and planted a turn kick directly in Goldlewis’ belly, eliciting an agonized gasp as the big man sagged to the ground. When Y tried to withdraw his leg, however, he realized that Goldlewis had grabbed on, clinging to his ankle with both mighty mitts to stop the Moebius from moving. Y extended his arm toward Goldlewis, but an ether bolt from Sandalphon splashed against the temple of his mask, distracting him for the brief moment the others needed to make their move.

The team's other angel crashed into the fray at this point with his Upperdash Arm. It had only taken Pit less than a minute to recover from dodging the laser, dismiss his bow and equip the arm, and make it back to the fight while looking for an opening - but in the heat of battle seconds made all the difference. Looking to make up for his perceived lost time and make the most of the seconds Goldlewis was buying them to keep the Moebius locked down, Pit drove the arm into Y with abandon - and its starry, glowing core shone all the brighter as he pulled back for another go.

Sakura had backed up, but Karin looped around behind Goldlewis and came around his flank. He just took a hit for the team and she intended to help make that pay off. She ran in on Moebius Y’s side and then slid in and under him, looking to slam both feet into the Moebius’ ankle and carry forward so she would be out of the way when he fell over. Already off balance thanks to Pit’s full-force slam, Y found himself unable to stay upright.

Zenkichi, having backed off a bit after Geralt’s rescue, was able to dodge the spikes, but Geralt found herself knocked on her ass, groaning before pulling herself up and hurling a small glob of explosive flesh at Y from afar, while Zenkichi called on Valjean to attack with a One-Shot Kill to help rack up the damage.

In a different scenario, the sudden burst of spikes would have caught Roxas completely off guard. But thankfully in this scenario, Roxas had absorbed the spirit of RockTrans, and this gave him the intellectual edge to calculate an incoming attack from below and essentially back-dash out of the way before he could be skewered. Even more so he was able to use this newfound ability to calculate a path through the jutting spikes of violet ice that he could traverse. It turned out that combining enhanced calculations with Flow Motion made for an even more maneuverable combatant.

And at the end of this brief stint of platforming, he found himself jumping up just as the Moebius was tripped over by Karin, ”Gotcha!” he cried as he let his momentum take him downward into an empowered downward thrust with his Keyblade. But he was quick to jump out of the way after this so as not to obstruct anyone else who attacked next. His attack struck home, roughly around Y’s collarbone, and while his lack of commitment meant he could’ve dealt more damage, his blow paved the way for his successor to act.

Said attack came from above from a Midna who was riding on the back of her Vibrava (which she had used to avoid the floor spikes). Princess and pokemon swooped over their foe, airdropped an electrically charged Clubba Club directly on the Moebius, the massive spiked ball’s impact causing a lightning bolt to arch down after it as a follow up strike.

Though floored long enough for Seekers to start beating him while he was down, Y wasn’t defenseless for long. Midna’s tag-team galvanized him into action, and he began by twisting around to deliver a crushing blow to the side of his captor’s knee. Already shaken, Goldlewis yelled in pain and released Y’s leg as he fell on his back. Legs whirling around, the Moebius regained his feet and brought one leg down with a stomp. A bright purple ring shot outward along the ground, tripping most of the Seekers with surprising speed. Just then the veteran’s coffin slammed back down into the bridge with a terrific noise, and as if on cue Y thrust his hand upward. Energized purple cube clusters began to fall like rain, exploding among the gathered heroes.

Crosshairs in her eyes, Sandalphon swept through the storm with calculated grace to bring her gunstaff down on her enemy’s head. The Moebius saw her coming, and was almost affronted by the healer’s pitiful attempt. He dodged the swipe easily, then let loose a single hook punch that fractured the archangel’s ribcage with a horrible crack. She gasped, agonized, but clung to her faculties just long enough to spring the trap. Y would have surely dodged an icy cluster if she threw one his way, but now that he’d ensnared himself in her wires, he couldn’t avoid a point-black Frost Lock. Sandalphon cast her spell and froze Y solid, then stumbled away. Though she planned to treat herself immediately with Angelic Praise, her body was too human to pull off such a feat. If none of the others put aside their chance to whale on the Moebius in this brief, three-second window in order to stop her fall, the archangel would be down for the count.

Roland had gotten knocked back by the area blast of Y, much like some of the melee. Although unlike Roxas, he didn’t have flowmotion or anything to counter it, using only his reflexes to try to deflect it with his sword, which ended up with him being launched back and hurt. Being ranged combatants, and fliers on top of that, Blazermate and Susie avoided both of Y’s counter attacks on the melee to get them off of him, although Roland wasn’t as lucky getting knocked on his butt by the shockwave coming his way and getting staggered as he tried to get back into combat. So it took some time for him to get back into the fight. At least Blazermate could heal him while he was getting smacked by the various AoE attacks, as well as any of the other melee that flew her way. She would need to send her drone out to heal the melee that stayed in though, whose healing wasn’t as efficient.

Susie meanwhile stayed at range for the most part, getting closer as she noticed Y’s attack range for more accuracy. This would eventually put her into a good position later, but first these three would have to deal with Y’s purple cube rain attack. Blazermate could handle the first cube with her personal shield, before using her projectile shield to block the rest. Roland recovered from his stagger and began to deflect the ones that came his way with his lance as he moved in to attack, only getting hit when he failed to deflect one, and Susie moved under Blazermate’s shield as it went up.

Once Sandalphon had gotten gripped and started to take s severe amount of damage, Blazermate approached her to start to heal her up, putting her medibeam on her as she flew up, giving her a bit of healing as she fell. Susie, having followed Blazermate for safety, saw the large angel also flailing, and summoned her business suit to catch her in the nick of time, a suit she’d get out of once she set Sandalphon down since it wasn’t doing so well at the moment. Set down rather than supported, Sandalphon couldn’t compose herself to cast Angelic Praise, but at least she was undergoing treatment. This left Roland to attack the now frozen Y, unleashing a lance thrust, a sweep of his dagger and finally activating his EGO, the False Throne. This changed the area into an emerald throne room for 10 seconds as Roland encased himself in emerald, dropping two columns of magical emerald that exploded on Y. This had an added effect of cleansing the debuffs of any allies the emerald shrapnel hit, but the damage was pretty basic.

"Three phases, and he isn't even the final boss!" Pit griped. He was back on his feet now, firing energy discs from his Arm at the Moebius. The Arm, as well as the angel's front, was scuffed and charred thanks to Y's explosive barrage. The wave he'd sent out had sent Pit tumbling onto his back on the ground, and though he'd raised the Upperdash Arm to shield himself from the very worst of the cube rain it was hardly designed for protection.

Still, being beaten up and wounded had (almost) never stopped Pit before. The transformations had to be taking a toll on Y, but with the way his current body looked it was hard to tell how much damage he had actually sustained so far. The Moebius was tough; far tougher than Pit thought he'd be, even after becoming that giant monster. They could only keep attacking and hope they were getting somewhere.

And if ever there was a time to pile on the damage, it was now. Following Goldlewis' example, Sandalphon had put herself in harm's way to freeze the Moebius. Pit revved the Upperdash Arm once more for a repeat performance, this time with a true uppercut that could send the Moebius's frozen form into the air for further follow ups. As soon as Roland's emeralds broke apart Pit went in and swung.

Roxas wasn’t quite as lucky as last time. The raining cubes caught him and he wasn’t able to get himself away fast enough to avoid getting caught by some of their blasts. And while those alone weren’t a huge deal, the following shockwave was. In fact the rain of cubes kept the Nobody too distracted to avoid that shockwave attack until it was too late. That sent him sprawling back a bit and left him briefly winded for a moment. It was a good thing so many of the other Seekers were keeping Y occupied or the Moebius could have swooped in and attacked the Keybearer with something worse. Roxas also noticed the medal from his helmet had ejected. Great, that meant he couldn’t use either of his medabot weapons until he could undo the damage he’d taken and reinsert the medal.

Well, he still had his Keyblades and magic, so it wasn’t like Roxas was totally helpless. He brandished Oathkeeper and Oblivion after spotting Y falling victim to Sandalphon’s freezing attack. He sprinted forward and then after a few meters became another streak of light that homed in on the Moebius like a zig-zagging line so that Roxas could break out a Cross Slash as a follow up to Pit’s attack. By that point the three seconds had passed and Y had unfrozen, but after Pit’s Upperdash Arm launched him into the air and the Cross Slash kept him juggled, the time was ripe for a finisher to throw him back down.

Like a bat out of Hell, Sakura shot to meet the Moebius midair, fists raised and clenched together above her head. Ichi-ni, san! She slammed her fists into his chest three times, bouncing higher on the first two hits before sending him crashing back down to Earth on the third. They landed next to each other, but Sakura landed on her feet. She grit her teeth and pushed herself forward and swung her leg up high, performing a Flower Kick to chop into his shoulder and push her offense forward before he could find his footing.

Wise to her game, Y rose to a crouch with his arm upheld as a shield. Despite her strength, Sakura’s leg struck what might as well be a solid wall, and then she was face-to-face with an otherworldly entity. Her allies were at her back, though, so Y couldn’t afford to spare much time. He aimed a brutal headbutt at her, trying to stun her with a rock-hard impact from his mask, then use his head tentacles to grab her by the arm and hurl her at her allies. Sakura’s head jerked backwards from the impact, and her eyes crossed. ”Ugh!” For a moment she sagged, shoulders slumping, before being used as a projectile. Her trajectory put her on a collision course with Pit, who'd been lining up for what he'd hoped would be another good walloping delivered to the Moebius. When he realized what was happening he hastily dismissed the Upperdash Arm to try and catch her, but the belated attempt saw her just crash into him, sending both youths sprawling to the ground.

Sakura shook the stars from her head, and quickly but sheepishly pushed herself off of Pit. ”Gomen ne!” She said apologetically, her meaning clear despite the brief language barrier. She reached down to help him up, and took a moment to dust him off, a mostly useless gesture but he let her do it and added, "No worries!"

Before the Seekers could converge, Y leaped away, a barrage of mildly homing purple bolts flying from his fingertips like an extradimensional chaingun, many of them arching up into the sky and forcing Minda to call off a diving bombing attack she’d been about to do, and she still took several hits despite this evasive maneuver. Once he landed, the Moebius held up his palm, gathering power into a crackling violet nexus.

As much as he still ached from the crushing blows he’d sustained so far, Goldlewis couldn’t stand idly by when he spotted Y charging up some sort of energy bomb. With a groan he picked up his coffin, hoisted it in front of him, and cracked open its lid to deploy a shimmering wall of blue hexagons. Of course, the battle had moved since he got floored, and his shield wouldn’t do the others much good if they weren’t behind it. “Behind me!” he called, inviting the others to shelter–if they didn’t plan to try stopping Y in his tracks.

Pit poked his head out around Sakura, looking first to Goldlewis and then to Y. His eyes widened upon seeing the growing power the Moebius was collecting in his hand. That doesn't look good! Even so, it had to be some drastic last ditch measure, Pit thought. He wasn't sure he wanted to risk the timing on his orbitars, so he took Sakura by the wrist and dragged the both of them over to huddle behind Goldlewis' shield. Sakura followed behind Pit, rushing to get behind Goldlewis’ shield. ”Th-thank you!” She said to both of them.

From behind there Pit could still attack thanks to the properties of his light arrows, so he resummoned the bow and fired the snaking rays of light from behind cover. When the Seekers withstood the latest attack Y was planning, Pit was sure he'd be winded enough for all of them to go back on the offensive.

While Zenkichi took cover behind Goldlewis’ shield after the blast wave of energy left him vulnerable to a heavy barrage of falling cubes, Geralt was running in, homing shots crashing into her but not halting her frenzied advance. Her Hateful Flesh lashed out violently, prematurely detonating the energy bomb as Y sent it hurtling her way, though unfortunately it did not seem to damage its creator. She snarled, yanking on the tether connecting the cleaver to her and using the momentum of the return yank to whirl it overhead before launching it at his feet. While he dodged the attack, she drew her silver sword and stabbed forward, plunging the blade a few inches into his gut before the Moebius turned violently, injuring himself a bit more, but also forcing Geralt to retract her blade or risk being dragged along with it. She chose the former, blasting Y with an Aard to keep him off-balance long enough for somebody else to land a hit.

When it came to his homing shots, Blazermate, Susie, and Roland were uniquely equipped to deal with them, although Roland much less so than the bots. Blazermate’s projectile shield simply made the bullets fizzle, with Susie hiding behind it as well. Roland meanwhile, being much more out of position, could deflect most of the shots, but even his ability to deflect range attacks wasn’t perfect: he wasn’t the blue sicko after all. So while he could deflect some of them, he couldn’t get them all, and he’d have to fall back, alongside the bots, behind Goldweis’s shield as Blazermate’s projectile shield would expire before that blast went off.

Having wheeled away to avoid the homing shots, Midna now came in again, weaving in between the falling cubes upon the back of her flygon. The incoming lance strike was rather predictable however, giving Y just enough time to charge and direct a beam her way. Well aware of her predictability however, the princess tilted her flygon by 90 degrees before the energy blast rang out, and then materialized her Beast Legion to its side, which immediately kicked off of it, launching the two apart to either side of the beam.

Beast Legion and Flygon both hit the deck just behind Y, before leaping past each other in an X, claws slashing at his back while Midna crescent moon slashed her Volcano Fragment into her hands and into the Moebius, igniting him at the same time as the astral chain bound around him.

That was as good an opportunity as anyone could hope for. Once the bomb had been taken care of, the others continued to push forward behind the frontrunners, careful not to get caught in the crossfire. Goldlewis had dropped his Wall of Light in order to pick up the pace, as he could only move so fast with it deployed and defense wasn’t going to win this war. And now, seeing the Moebius bound in chains, the veteran was glad he did. “Let’s finish this!” he rumbled, charging in after Midna. Y’s limbs might be bound, but his tentacles weren’t, and he sent them forward to try and stab Goldlewis in a half-dozen places. With a roar, his Wild Assault plowed straight through, bringing the big man close enough to use his favorite technique. “EAT SHIT!” His Down With the System struck Y dead on, smashing him out of the chains and a dozen feet into the air.

With Y being pummeled with Goldlewis’s ultimate move, Roland decided to use his own. Susie and Blazermate really didn’t have much in the way of ‘finishers’, with Blazermate needing a bit more to charge another kritz and Susie just having projectiles. Roland meanwhile, after the whole bomb and homing gatling rain, had finally hit emotion level 5, and with it gained the ability “Magic Trick”, with a seductive, sinister womanly voice saying “Cowardly kitten. I’ll give you the courage to stand up to anything and everything.” as well as the EGO page Harvest.

Seeing Y fly through the air due to Down with the System, Roland unleashed his wombo combo as well. First starting with Harvest, turning the area into a wheat field and donning the appropriate EGO as he shot a barb at Y before zooming in to drive his scythe at his head. Then Roland used the ability he had just gotten, Magic Trick. And in quick succession, he used all the EGO pages he had previously used during this combat. Starting with False Throne which conjured pillars of exploding emerald, followed very quickly by making Y fall to the ground by dropping a house onto him, and finishing with another Harvest, at which point the pillars of emerald exploded dealing their damage as well. The area rapidly changed as he used each EGO, exhausting Magic Trick and leaving the area back to what it was as it seemed the EGO space caused by magic trick didn’t last like it usually did. Roland was a bit sad he didn’t have Furioso to add to this, but for some reason he hadn’t been able to use that move yet, something was blocking him from doing it.

Roxas had been caught by one of the Moebius’ previous lightning bolt attacks. It left him momentarily stunned until this moment. He wasted no time and launched himself back into the fray as Roland was ending his barrage of attacks. Coincidentally, the Keybearer’s path took him right by where Pit was. And without much in the way of communication and warning, Roxas thrust his Keyblade upward as he passed by his angel friend. ”Light!” he gave the cry that was starting to become increasingly familiar to the other Seekers. The telltale sign that he was sharing his Light with another in order to combine their strengths for a powerful team-up attack.

Feeling the energy enter him, Pit picked up his pace so he was right beside Roxas when they both launched upward. "A combo attack!" he exclaimed, already drawing his bow back. Roxas' Light swirled around the divine weapon, making it glow bright and grow in size. The light arrow waiting to be fired swelled in size and strength, so much so that it took both boys to pull back on the ethereal bowstring. With Roxas helping, the two shared a glance and nodded, letting the arrow loose. It soared forward like a forceful laser, and when it struck Y it exploded into multiple smaller arrows that circled back around for additional hits and damage. If multiple enemies were present, these arrows would have spread the damage out - but with only a single enemy they all converged on the Moebius instead.

Karin had taken a moment to focus and switch into V-ISM mode, which gave her mobility and custom combos. A resource that she now intended to spend given how conservative she had been. They were passing Consul Y around like a tennis ball and Karin was more than happy to take her turn, a furious grin twisting her features as she dashed to appear behind us. Flattening her palms against the ground, she flashed and a series of blue transparent afterimages began to trail behind her rapid movements. Now she could link special move into special move for the next few seconds, to devastating effect. ”You can’t hope to defeat us!” Karin shouted, dashing in and unleashing a spurious series of triple, alternating palm strikes.

”You don’t have the will!” She punctuated her Custom Combo with a stomp that shook and supported a final elbow strike to send Consul Y skidding and stumbling away from her.

Geralt and Zenkichi both charged in, blades high as Karin smacked Y with an elbow strike, Zenkichi going low as Geralt went high. Zenkichi’s greatsword swung slightly upwards for his knees, while Geralt’s silver sword swung for Y’s neck and aimed to drag through his chest. Y crashed to his knees, with Zenkichi drawing his revolver while Geralt grabbed his hand crossbow. They stood side by side as each fired a shot into the Moebius’ head, before stepping aside for their Legionis ally to finish their enemy.

After all, if anyone had the right, it was Hayato. He’d chipped in throughout the fight whenever possible, switching between his weapon modes as the situation demanded, but with Y clearly on his last legs thanks to the Seekers’ incredible efforts, the time had come for Hayato to take the stage for the final act. Perhaps sensing his imminent demise, the Moebius pulled out one last trick.

He duplicated himself, standing five abreast as the last of his power welled up inside the doubles’ Moebius cores. The next moment, a laser blazed forth from each, threatening almost the entire bridge. Behind the policeman, Goldlewis put up another Wall of Light to protect his friends, but Hayato did not turn away. He turned the momentum of his headlong sprint into a low slide, then sprang up between two of the lasers and sent his Sword Legion flying upward. His partner turned, hooked its blade around the chain, and gave it a yank to pull Hayato up after it. Then it crossed its blades to form a springboard that launched the young man back down. He flew down, landed behind the five, and whipped around with the Sword Legion summoned anew. Time seemed to slow as he took aim, visualizing a single, narrow line that connected all five figures. The next second, the Sword Legion unleashed a lightspeed cut, destroying the four fakes and bringing the real Y to his knees in a single, reality-cleaving slice. Hayato yelled, and with every fiber of his being, drove his x-baton into the stab wound that his sister Akira left behind.

World of Light

Debridement - Artorias & Teemo

Ganondorf’s @Double, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Ms Fortune
Word Count: 3270 (+4)

Of all the Seekers, Ganondorf was the one who was probably the least shaken by the Consul’s trick. Instead showing any looks of concern or guilt, he instead fixed his sneer on the Consul himself. ”Hmph!” he snorted with contempt, ”If this is supposed to be your sad attempt at guilt-tripping me, then I’m afraid you’re sorely mistaken.”

The warlord brandished his newly acquired trident and shifted his focus between Artorias and Teemo, ”Any who stand in my way will fall!” After that he lunged for Artorias. His polearm gave him a longer reach than Artorias had with his sword even with the latter’s increased height. And unlike with his own swords, Ganondorf’s attacks were now fast and seemed to carry with them an aura of thunder and lightning. He gave a quick thrust and a sweeping swing follow up that were both deceptively quick. But then he followed that up by hurling his Trident which proceeded to spin through the air around in a circling pattern, while the weapon itself became temporarily electrified for added effect.

Ganondorf’s furious strikes hit home, but the infected knight flinched only slightly. The condition that dulled his senses slowed his reactions, but made him uncaring -if not impervious- to pain. Only one thought seemed to consume Artorias: slaughter. Once provoked, he launched himself forward in an ungainly front flip. His greatsword struck the floor with a tremendous clang, scattered infected slime that left a stain on the floor. After only a brief pause, he unleashed two more somersault slams in sequence, each covering enough ground to chase Ganondorf down if he tried to flee.

Nadia, not knowing how the virulent contagion spread, was sufficiently alarmed by and averse to it that she couldn’t bring herself to dive headfirst into battle with the gusto of her brutish companion. As such she produced her bait launcher and began to circle around, waiting for a little space that the strange weapon’s summoned tiger could fill. Her foes did not share her reticence, however, and as Ganondorf contended with Artorias in a high-impact clash of the titans, the other infected husk started causing problems. Since Teemo lacked many of his basic abilities, he could do only one thing: spit darts from his little blowpipe at a rate of one every two-thirds of a second. Instead of their typical poison, the former Yordle’s darts glowed with the luminous taint of the infection, proving highly caustic against armor and flesh alike. They might seem like little more than gnat stings at first, but Nadia could already see that if the Seekers allowed Teemo to aggress unhindered, the damage would quickly rack up.

“I’ll handle the little squirt,” she announced, a touch of urgency in her voice. Having not met Teemo in the course of her travels, the feral saw nothing more than a threat to be put down. Seeing a lull in the brawl with Artorias, she took aim with her bait launcher. “In the meantime…let us prey!” With a foom a juicy red steak flew through the air to smack wetly against the infected knight’s armor. If that impact was harmless, though, the burly tiger that poofed into being was anything but. In a lethal fury its huge claws raked across tarnished metal, living wood, and infected flesh, keeping Artorias busy for a moment that Ganondorf could use as he saw fit.

With that, Nadia stowed her launcher, got down on all fours, and sprinted toward Teemo with a burst of speed. The husk seemed to notice her and lolled his head her way, the aim of his blowgun shifting. He opened fire with remarkable speed and accuracy, but while Nadia found she couldn’t really dodge them, she realized that they weren’t impactful enough to stagger her either. A moment later and the cat burglar was in melee range. At that point, Teemo couldn’t do much other than walk backward between shots, mindlessly trying to burst Nadia down before her dancing blades took their toll.

Jesse owed Artorias something. She was surprised to see him. The least she could do, she thought, was dust him, and avenge his death. While Ganondorf engaged in close combat, she moved around the side, levitating to give herself a little bit more range on his sword. She lined up a Pierce shot and fired it into Artorias’ side while he was battling Ganondorf and the cat. And speaking of the warlord, Ganondorf used this moment to summon his moblins. This squad in particular wielded long spears of wood and bone. They formed up behind their master, who then proceeded to lead them in an infantry charge against Artorias. The moblins themselves weren’t nearly as strong as the man commanding them, but with his direct leadership in this fashion their attack could be much more coordinated than it would be if they were on their own.

Of course, against a scarcely-human monstrosity glutted on the primordial infection and the Grievous Miracle, such small fry might as well be lambs to the slaughter. Though harried by Jesse, Artorias managed to jam his mutated wooden arm into the earth, and through the earth snaked Ten Piedad’s cruel thorny briars. By pure coincidence, both Jesse and Ganondorf had taken a break during that fight, so they didn’t know what to expect–but Nadia did, and her fight with Teemo was one-dimensional enough that she could keep an eye on the main event. “Watch out, below you!” Nadia called, a split second before the brambles shot up from the ground to slice and pierce through her allies. The moblins got the worst of it, but even that barely compared to what came next. Artorias launched toward Ganondorf with a double spinning slash meant to cleave through him and any minions that remained.

It was incredibly fortunate that Ganondorf had only just last night absorbed the soul of an agile fighter like Oberon. Bullet Jump enabled the warlord to launch himself straight up in time to dodge the incoming spinning slashes. While in midair he jumped a second time, allowing him to flip himself over the knight’s head so that he could land in a position behind him. The moblins, however, were not so fortunate. The few that remained were easily felled by Artorias’ attack.

Jesse didn’t need to be told twice. She zipped through the air as a blur using Evade, the spikes caught empty air. “Thanks!” She called out.

The infected knight brought forth brambles over such an area that even Nadia needed to dodge away, giving Teemo a chance to hide behind the thorny growths. When she got back up she didn’t immediately spot him, and though the lifeless trees soon receded, she met with a bewildering surprise: her opponent had disappeared. Baffled, she looked around for any sign of where he’d gone. Had he burrowed into a hollow that one of the briars left behind? Her answer came in the form of a barrage of darts as Teemo uncloaked, his attack speed heightened by the element of surprise. “Aw, still got some tricks, huh? Good for you.” Nadia muttered through gritted teeth, trying to block the darts. “Well, two can play at that game. And three’s company.”

Loosening her seams, she ejected a lot of blood, creating a copycat on either side of her. They raced around to either side, confounding Teemo with a target-rich environment, and reached him a moment later. One spun up her arm like a drill and jammed it into the infected boil that had replaced at third of his head, stunning him as she sunk her copied limb up to the elbow. Her counterpart seized Teemo’s blowgun and snapped it across her knee. Then the first copycat exploded, staggering the husk long enough for Nadia to close the distance. After absorbing the other copycat, chained together a crouching light kick into One-Two Pun-isher, then clasped her hands and disjointed her arms for a lashing upward wallop to launch Teemo into the air. Leaping up after him, she struck him with X-scrape Claws, then canceled an airdash into another one followed by an axe kick. A light Fiber Upper relaunched him for a low-altitude Shock and Paw, another X-Scrape Claws, and another axe kick before she landed and kept the combo going. Ears Pierced led into her Cat Scratch rekka, which she ended with a Fluffy Soft tiger slash that triggered New Moon.

That burst of damage turned out to be overkill; even with the infection making him less squishy, Teemo was deader than dead. “Whew. I really went ham…ster.” Though that turned out to be a problem. His body began to swell up, hissing as it shone with the infection from within. “Uh oh.” As the husk tried to lurch toward her, she quickly drew a boxcutter and slashed at his legs, then hightailed it out of there. A second later the husk exploded, scattering lambent globules far and wide.

The floating Jesse had touched briefly on the ground and jumped up again as the brambles roiled in the ground beneath her.

Ganondorf had to admit that brambles were unexpected. Having already used up his midair jump he had no choice but to finish landing just as the brambles stretched out around the knight. The warlord swirled his trident around in a circle in front him. This at least kept the brunt of the brambles from hitting him. However, a few on the sides did manage to graze him. Ganondorf responded with a sharp inhale that was followed by a gout of purple flames exhaling out of his mouth.

That wasn’t meant to be a particularly powerful attack. Instead it was intended to mask what Ganondorf tried next. Jesse used the flames to rip a stone from the earth and fling it at Artorias’ chest to crack into his armor and cover Ganondorf’s approach. Ganondorf suddenly rushed forward and attacked with a lightning quick spear-thrust. He followed that with an upward swing that normally launched most enemies upward. The 12 foot knight, however, was a bit too heavy to be launched. But the upward swing also served to launch Ganondorf himself upward. And once airborne he threw his trident straight back down at the knight’s torso. Then he focused his magic and called down a powerful lightning bolt to strike the embedded weapon like a makeshift lightning rod that in addition to dealing heavy lightning damage also produced a shockwave of thunder that could hit or push back any smaller targets gathered around the skewered Artorias.

Softened up by purple flame and Jesse’s boulder, the infected knight took a handful of trident strikes followed by a thorough electrocution. Ganondorf’s magic might not conduct through his wooden arm, but between his metal armor and his bloated pustules, the rest of him spasmed and smoked as the lightning coursed through him. Artorias hopped backward, taking the trident with him, and released an inhuman howl. Then he slid forward, practically riding a tide of corruption, in order to brutalize Ganondorf with an upward greatsword slash.

The trident didn’t stay with Artorias for long. Almost immediately after the previous lightning attack subsided, Ganondorf reached out a hand and used his magic to call the weapon back to him in a dark cloud. And when Artorias came charging at him, Bullet Jump proved once again to be quite the godsend for Ganondorf. He certainly understood why Oberon was such an annoying opponent in the previous battle now. With that ability, Ganondorf dashed forward and jumped to the side just before the upward slash could catch him.

With Teemo taken care of, Nadia rejoined the fight against Artorias. Her opponent, while annoying, had been a pushover, and one look at the infected knight reminded her that she needed to change gears. For one, his armor might shatter her blades, so she couldn’t just start whaling on him even if his oblivious rage gave her the opportunity. As the knight’s huge slash concluded, the feral moved in with both boxcutters drawn. Since it worked for Ganondorf, she unleashed a little lightning of her own. She blitzed straight through Artorias with Charge, then whirled around with Battery, a simple but effective strategy that had already become a favorite. Her blades’ crits struck her target’s wooden arm, tearing chunks from the timber, but it wasn’t enough to make Artorias flinch. His arm disjointed to wallop her away with a gnarled backhand, reacting with her electric nature to inflict the accuracy-reducing debuff Grounded. “Aw, not this crap again,” Nadia moaned, picking herself up. “I got enough of this tree-tmeant last night!”

As if in reply, the knight planted his arm into the ground, sending forth another wave of briars.

Jesse jumped and Levitated over the briars. She thought about using Healing Waters, but the fight was much too hectic with too much hazardous space, it might just force her teammates out of position so it wasn’t worth it for now. It could come after. While Artorias still had his arm in the ground, Jesse reached for the wall and pulled out two large stones, and flung them at him one after the other. “It’ll all be over soon, Artorias,” She called out somberly.

With Bullet Jump, Ganondorf could double jump out of the briars’ range. Before he landed from that he instead aimed his trident downward and proceeded to drop like a meteor onto Artorias with an electrified downward thrust.

In quick succession Jesse’s boulders pounded the knight’s center mass, crumpling his chestplate and puncturing whatever remained of his internal organs. The impacts left him doubled over for a brief moment, but that was enough for Ganondorf to land on him, burying his weapon in the enormous, throbbing pustule on the knight’s shoulder. It ruptured like a rotten grape, sending out a fresh wave of infected slime to join the rivulets leaking from his armor onto the floor. Such a landing would have flattened practically anyone against the ground, but somehow Artorias remained upright, bent but not yet broken. He thrashed around drunkenly, threatening to send Ganondorf sprawling onto the floor, and after a moment turned toward Jesse to throw the both of them at her with another giant somersault.

Jesse watched it come in. Couldn’t dodge too early, lest he course correct. She used Evade and zipped out of the way, backing up mid-air. She landed on the ground, and switched to her gun since she was out of energy. She used Grip and began to shoot Artorias down.

Not even bothering to try and attack with her accuracy crippled, Nadia stayed just out of melee range to watch and wait. Ganondorf made for quite the sight hurtling himself around like that, but she couldn’t deny just how effective his bullet jumping was. Had Artorias even hit him yet? Then again, the diseased monstrosity before her was a far cry from the knight she fought alongside yesterday. The sight of the bloated husk flailing around, shrieking incoherently and awash with the infection, etched a deep frown into her face. F was right about one thing; it was past time the Seekers put this abomination out of his misery.

A moment later, Nadia felt a weight lift from her as Grounded expired. “Back in business,” she muttered, taking off at a run. Circling Artorias, she darted in and out of range to slice at the breaks in his armor again and again.

“This fucking sucks.” Jesse complained. “God damn it. Can’t wait for that little shit to finally have to face us.” She sprinted and circled the opposite side of Nadia, but from a distance, and shot at Artorias’ head and shoulders with Grip to avoid hitting Nadia.

Artorias wouldn’t have to try bucking Ganondorf off him for much longer after this. Namely he pushed himself off willingly and hit the ground with a… less than graceful landing. His trident had been pulled out as well but left Ganondorf’s grasp midair and punctured the ground right next to him. Well, needless to say it would have been quite a predicament to be skewered by one’s own weapon. The Warlord pushed himself to his feet and then reached over to grab the shaft of the trident, ”I’m growing tired of this!”

He launched straight forward, using Bullet Jump to give him some extra momentum as he attempted to slide into Artorias’ legs with a fiery Warlock Kick. If it went well, the attack would knock over the twelve-foot knight and provide an opening for Jesse and Nadia to capitalize on.

Seeing the big man on his way, Nadia made her move. “If there’s one thing I have…it’s purr-sever-ance!” With that she put all the strength she could muster into an x-slash into the infected knight’s Achilles tendon. Infected or not, no leg could stay standing if that muscle was cut. Nadia didn’t exactly like doing this; it was a vicious tactic, best reserved for the most desperate measures and unsavory characters. Still, it worked wonders. The knight’s leg buckled beneath his weight, and for a moment it took everything he had just to stay upright. Infection gushed to the crippled limb to reinforce it, but the next second Ganondorf delivered his kick with bone-cracking force. Something snapped, and with a protesting gurgle the infected knight went down face-first.

“Now we’re talking!” With her opponent laid out, it was time to go all-in. Nadia could feel that she’d built up just over three bars of dramatic tension, so once she leapt into the air she pumped all three into a souped-up Purrge of Vengeance, an orb of raging water twenty feet in diameter. “Say good KNIGHT!” She hurled it down to detonate against Artorias in a massive explosion of Hydro energy.that also applied Wet. In the wake of the watery blast Nadia dropped down onto the knight for a spine-tingling stomp much stronger than it looked thanks to the Mantreads and 2700 Pound of Justice, then sprang away.

With one more Bullet Jump, Ganondorf double-jumped into the air where he could throw his trident straight down and into the knight’s back the moment Nadia cleared the way. Then before he fell back down, Ganondorf outstretched his arms and used his magic to summon another lightning bolt to strike the weapon. With Artorias afflicted with the Wet status, a strike from a lightning bolt was going to deal more intense damage than usual. After the bolt dissipated, Ganondorf hit the ground with a slam due to his weight and size, but he was able to call the trident back to his hand regardless. That final meteoric strike proved to be the metaphorical straw that broke the camel’s back. The overwhelming overdose of electricity flooded through the infected knight’s twisted, ruined body, popping every blister and boil at once. A rancid foetor filled the air as the husk thrashed spasmodically, seeming almost to deflate; the infection smelled sickly enough to begin with, and charring it did it no favors. After another moment, the once-proud knight crumpled to the ground, no more than a hollowed-out shell.

”Hmph…” Ganondorf muttered alongside his heavy breaths, ”Seems he’s finished. Such a waste.”

“Yeah,” Jesse said sadly, before her eyes hardened again and she sprinted after the Consul F.

The armor of Artorias was damaged beyond repair, and only his greatsword could conceivably be saved. That, however, could wait until later. Right now, the Seekers had more business to attend to.

”Say your prayers, Consul!” Ganondorf declared with a threatening gesture toward F, ”Because YOU’RE next!”

World of Light

Level 8: 011/80
Word Count: shor
Location: Mercy Dream
Points Gained: 1
NEW EXP balance--- Level 8: 12/80

---

"Thanks for getting us food, you two." Jesse said. Though it was only after most of it had been eaten that she had the thought to try inflating it with her Tool Gun. It...kinda worked. "Do you think it has the same caloric value?" She asked the Seekers rhetorically, looking at her slice of roast duck that was now the size of a dinner plate. Regardless, everyone got a little bit more to eat.

Ganondrof shared some useful info. "I'd like to get a look at one of those things myself, at some point. Know what we're up against. And...destroy it? Or just leave it be? Maybe a helpful hooded person will be there to drop the smallest scraps of information again. They should just make a pamphlet. I'll make a damn pamphlet." Jesse said. Polaris twinkled on the edges of her vision.

You have the excuse of not being able to talk to me directly. It's just a little annoying to still not have the full picture. All the more reason for us to go back to the Oldest House after taking out the Guardian.

Regardless, it was time to get down the Chasm. Everyone had their own ideas. "Well, I know that we- I can just float down." Jesse said. "And if, anyone wants, I can shoot them with the balloon gun until they are slightly less then buoyant and you can do the same?" She offered reluctantly. "Probably not ideal, though. But, it's an option. I'm sure with all the wizards here we can figure something out."

Regardless, Jesse would take an easy step off the edge and Levitate from drop point to drop point, never dropping too far but usually staying right next to the edge.

World of Light

Sakura Level 10: 46/100
Karin Level 7: 22/70
Location: Arabahaki
Word Count: 504
Points Gained: 2
New EXP Balance--- Sakura Level 10: 47/100 (Still need to level her up, but idk)
Karin Level 7: 23/70

Sakura kept chucking fireballs, watching Karin and Goldlewis anxiously between her techniques. Things were…going! Going well? Hard to say. They just had to keep wailing on him until something happened!

Karin’s heart was pounding. She was having to be aggressive to carry her weight as a dodge tank. She could afford to be reckless because there was no chance she would fall to her death, she was confident in her skill with the hook at this point. But if she was struck even once she could be sent flying.

Consul Y kept rambling. ”You nutcases can imagine the end of life as we know it easier than you can imagine a chance in social policy!” She shouted at him, frustrated.

Karin was on the floating platform when his ribcage open and he began to consume them all. Thus, she was one of the first to go in. Logically, she knew that if Consul Y had a ‘kill them all’ button, he would have pressed it by now. This was more likely him getting desperate, or even more likely, just him changing tactics. So there was no way they were all about to die.

Still.

”Aaaaaaaaah!!”

”Bwaaaaaah!!!”

When Sakura opened her squeezed eyes and uncurled from her ball, she peered around the room. ”Oh…huh…cool?” She said, standing to her feet. Karin stood up and dusted herself off, clearing her throat.

”Be on your guard.” Karin warned, looking at the pulsating polyhedron. Just then it fired out a lance at Sakura, who ducked it, nearly losing a lock of brown hair.

”We’ll just destroy him from the inside out, then.” Karin confirmed. She and Sakura strafed in tandem, avoiding a series of barbs that trailed after them. They hooked around and slammed into some of the wireframe guardians. There was a brief exchange of blows that ended with the phantoms broken to bits. Midna was doing her part though, and Karin and Sakura eyed the core. Glancing at each other, they nodded.

”Game over!” Sakura yelled, leaping and slamming her heel down on the vortex of shapes while Karin came in low and slammed her palm up into it. It was like kicking a bunch of ultra-hard plastic plates floating in jello, Sakura thought. The two backed up as the thing counter-attacked, their forearms and knees scraped and chipped against by the offensive barbs. But they wouldn’t be deterred for long. Sakura blasted through a lance aiming for her torso and followed the fireball in. Karin travelled in her wake and the two encircled it with a series of punches and kicks. Karin pulled back before Sakura did, and the brunette caught a lance in the tummy for her trouble. It stuck against her, not breaking the skin but getting caught on her body before departing with a yellow spark. Grunting, she kicked away and shook her head, grinning for a half-second before dashing back in.

”You’re gonna get it now! Hope you bought polygon insurance!”

”Polygon insurance?” Karin asked.

”Hush! I’m concentrating!” Sakura shouted back.

World of Light

Sakura Level 10: 46/100
Karin Level 7: 22/70
Location: Arabahaki
Word Count: 1,116
Points Gained: 2
New EXP Balance--- Sakura Level 10: 47/100 (Still need to level her up, but idk)
Karin Level 7: 23/70

Splendidly might have been an exaggeration on Karin’s part. The battle was beginning to wear both of them down. Fortunately, the Seekers were relieved when Hayato arrived, turning into a bestial form of incredible strength to turn the tides in their favor.

This, of course, prompted their true foe to turn into a giant purple three-masked monster. After forcing the clones to eliminate each other, which earned a startled gasp from Sakura and a disapproving raised eyebrow from Karin.

Sakura turned to face the giant monster. ”Why do you crazies always ramble about your stupid motivations when you’re trying to kill people…?” Sakura asked herself, a bead of sweat rolling down her face.

”Hmmph.” Karin narrowed her eyes. It was like Jena all over again. Giant monster. Floating platforms. With her grapple hook, she could maneuver and strike Consul Y, hit-and-run style.

Sakura stayed behind on the ground. ”Overdrive Ostritch” She called out, and her new Spirit appeared at her side. It began chucking its Sonic Booms, or rather, Sonic Slicer, but Sakura just thought of Guile when she saw them.

Sakura charged up a big hadoken, and began lobbing them like artillery shells. Since this target was so big, she sacrificed speed for damage and size. They travelled through the air at a sprinters pace and exploded on impact.

Karin meanwhile hooked up to a floating platform and then leapt to another one. She would have to be careful not to fall. She tried to threaten Consul Y with her presence, baiting him into swatting at her so she could avoid it and take the heat off her teammates.

If he didn’t, then she would grapple to his right most mask and slam into it with a kick, before pushing off with a powerful impact that would send her flying back to hook back to the bridge and to safety, before repeating the process.

World of Light

Sakura Level 10: 31/100 +20 -5
Karin Level 7: 01/70 +20
Location: Arabahaki
Word Count: 1,116
Points Gained: 2
New EXP Balance--- Sakura Level 10: 46/100 (Still need to level her up, but idk)
Karin Level 7: 22/70

It was good to see Sakura again, Karin thought, and the other street fighter was clearly pleased. She ran up and wrapped her arms around Karin, forcing Karin to support her weight.

”Ah! Karin-chan! I- Oof.” Sakura regretted her cheerful reunion hug, clutching her own bruised ribs from the battle against Konoe.

”You’re hurt?” Karin asked.

”Nothing I can’t sleep off,” Sakura reassured her with a wink. ”Or nothing that these two can’t fix. Blazermate-san, could you do me the honor of saving my butt again?” Sakura asked. And in what would be a week of rest and recuperation went by in a few moments.

Sakura bowed to the healers gratefully. ”Arigato.”

”Ah, well, now we will fight together for certain, Miss Sakura. I know it was tactically sound for us to separate, but…”

”Awww, you missed me?” Sakura teased.

”Hmph. Well, yes.” Karin said. It was a two-sided attack, because the unexpected sincerity also caught Sakura off guard, meaning Karin was the winner of this discussion.
”...Oh! …Well, good. I missed you too. It was scary for a little bit, there, huh? ” Sakura said, rubbing the back of her head. ”I’m just glad we managed to beat Konoe non-violently, at the end of it.”

”Rufus Shinra hardly deserved anything but a thorough stomping. Fortunately we were able to deliver.” Karin said, coolly. ”And it seems that Shinra, and Armstrong, have both perished…I suppose Rufus felt no desire to protect his father. Only this wicked place and his seat of power.”

Later on, Sakura and Karin were quiet as the conversation with Karen was underway. Sakura squinted at the box. That whole thing with Lili’s dad was still a mystery to her. All that mattered now, though, was that Karen didn’t want to fight.

Once they were inside, they saw their enemy. Sakura smacked Karin on the shoulder and pointed, wide-eyed, at the Master Hand. Naturally, Karin’s eyes were already drawn to it. ”What on Earth is that ugly thing?”

”The big hand! It showed up the last time we fought a Guardian. Koreda yo!” Sakura clenched her fists.

”Not yet. A cowardly consul blocks our path.” Karin said. She stepped forward.

”You overestimate yourself. What is it with you villains and always believing you’re the omnipotent height of creation? So bold for nothing more than a lackey.” Karin said. She turned to face her opponents…opponent?

”W-wait, huh? What? Is that..? But how-” Sakura shook her head and got into her fighting position.

”Stay close to me, Miss Sakura. We can take them.” Karin rushed ahead to meet the clones in battle and to give the ranged fighters and supports some more room to operate. Sakura and Karin met baton and armor with fist and ki.

They found that one of these women would make for a decent street fighter all on their own, but a platoon of them had them on the backfoot. Sakura blocked one strike and struck out at her opponents face, smacking them down. Before she could push the offensive she had to duck and dodge under the twin swings of another officer, before she winced as someone zapped her in the back.

Karin whiff punished one Akira, sending her flying, but another one struck her face.

Their fight was primarily a two on four, with each street fighter primarily dealing with two of their own legio. But often it was a two on five and occasionally a two on six. Karin was stern and concentrating as hard as she could, but the look on Sakura’s face made it plain that she did not like how this was going.

If there was one good thing about being outnumbered, it was that Karin and Sakura could access their V-Triggers at an exponentially faster rate. ”Come on! I’m not scared!” Sakura shouted, bursting into blue flame that coalesced around her hands and feet. She took both of her opponents on at once, catching them both in a flying spin kick.

The burst of light and power caught the attention of the others. The officers had power of their own, and Sakura found her arms bound to her body as blue chains wrapped around her. She gasped, looking at the anchors.

”O-oi! Let me g- aah!” Sakura cried out in pain as the Akiras took the opportunity to start wailing on her. Sakura just had to grit her teeth and take it, squeezing her eyes shut as she felt the solid impacts and electricity course through her. Electricity could weaken her ki, and she felt herself start to get dizzy.

”Kanzuki-Ryu Guren No Kata!” Karin shouted angrily, also enhanced by V-Trigger. She swept through Sakura’s attacks with a series of palm strikes that finished with a powerful elbow to send them all spinning. She took a thwack on the back of the head for her trouble but returned fire with a slicing kick that forced the Akira to back up.

The chains dropped after the couple second beating, and Sakura slapped either side of her head to refocus herself.

Karin was indignant when a clone did the very same thing on her. Suddenly, she was wrapped up as well, with nothing she could do about it. ”You lowly- ugh!” She was kneed in the gut for her trouble.

Sakura rushed to aid Karin but found herself wrapped up AGAIN. ”Oh come on!” She shouted angrily. Her muscles bulged and she found a loose point to break free in less time than before, the astral chains losing some of their efficiency. The officer that rushed in to take advantage of Sakura’s weakness was blown up by a fiery uppercut that sent her flying.

But it did prevent Sakura from coming to Karin’s aid, who spun away from a solid impact as the chains released themselves. She parried the next attack and went full evasive, gritting her teeth as she tried to avoid the batons that would be deadly if she let herself get overwhelmed. Karin wasn’t nearly as tanky as Sakura was. Sakura had a higher vitality by default but her time in the World of Light had given her abilities to survive damage that Karin simply lacked through no fault of her own.

Sakura blasted the ground in front of Karin with a Hadoken to force the horde off her. She swept in and pressed her back against Karin and the two stood back to back, breathing heavily. While they were worse for wear, the officers they faced were wary to charge in lest they receive another strong blow from the two fighters. They weren’t exactly damage-free themselves. Still, in a knock-down dragout fight like this, the advantage lay in the party that didn’t need to fight more opponents immediately afterward. In this case, that meant that the ‘clones’ currently had the advantage despite going blow for blow on the pair.

Back against Karin’s, Sakura clenched her raised fists, while Karin’s hand flattened out into her usual knife-edge palms.

”You holding up?”

”Splendidly!”