Zool

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

The top of the stone pillar falling off had altered MacKensie's trajectory of flight, throwing her up into the air. Quickly, she released her grapplehook, then fired immediately at the ground and let it pull her out of the air. She landed in the sprinters-start position, on the other side of the stone pillar to Zell, right next to the decapitated head of the metal ninja. Frozen in position as she looked at it, she half-expected it to magically reattach itself to the body, but it didn't, and so she allowed herself to fall back into a sitting position and lean her back against the pillar. She sighed with relief at the raining sky, looking upon it with a single eye, the other one closed up with swelling. Vengeance - it didn't taste as good as she'd thought, but she enjoyed it all the same, knocking Zigmund's head away from herself with her foot so she could be rid of it's presence.

"You there doll...?" came Zell's voice from behind her.

She took a second to wipe the sweat from her brow, pondering the funny coincidence that both of them had ended up here, talking through this same pillar once more. "I am here."

"I think that counts as a drink for me."

She was too tired to laugh but appreciated the levity. It was a team victory. From start to finish, everyone had performed admirably, working together to keep eachother alive, match their opponent's strength and break him down. And only the rain had saved him - almost stealing their victory. But Second Chance showed their determination, bought eachother time and created a situation where they could strike a winning blow. She got up with both pain and pride, noticing that her wounds from the previous night's battles had opened up again. She would need to visit the hospital when they got back to Valhiem.

Hardul's appearance was timely and she gave him her gratitude and let him be off, then looked around at her friends. Adam was sat up but clearly in terrible condition. Before she could assess everyone, James' bloody robes prompted her to action. She hurried towards him.

"Is everyone okay?" Adam asked.

"No," MacKensie answered the red-eyed man with distress, noticing Fenna as she ran to James, remembering how the other Ranger had recieved those injuries. The blood on her was noticable too. How bad? MacKensie couldn't tell. "Clive, Barracker," she called to them, the least hurt of everyone. "Please, help Fenna... and Adam..." she looked around and saw that the ruined temple entrance had crumbled into such a way that there was a shelter - an alcove of sorts - big enough for all of them to wait out the rain and wait for the village of Cherrad to come with medicine. "...that shelter, there."

She helped James to his feet carefully. "Take your time," she told him, putting his arm over her shoulder and then slowly helping him to walk to the shelter in the ruins. As they moved across the courtyard, she smirked at him. "Crazy 'Ogre plan 2.0' hmm? Magnifique, my friend." She chuckled. It was really quite amazing how in-tune with eachother they all were. "What on earth did you do to him? To Zigmund... to make him so vulnerable?"

Once everyone was gathered in the shelter, MacKensie told everyone, "Help is on the way." She checked over Fenna and Adam, to make sure there was no immediate emergency. "You will be okay," she told Adam with relief, placing a hand on his cheek as scanned him up and down. She gave his shoulder a squeeze and one last look of relief before moving to their spear-wielding heroine. "Your shoulder, Fenna..." she checked her over. "We will need to visit the hospital for that, I think," she said to the other woman with a furrowed brow, but ended her assessment with a smile for her. Along with James, their wounds were the most serious. She could not imagine the pain they were in, if she was feeling how she was. Zell's leg needed treatment too, but overall, it appeared that the party would make it to Valhiem hospital, with some help from the people of Cherrad.

And so, the big question remained. "Clive," she began, her tone replicating the surprise she felt when he'd first appeared on his ethereal steed. Unsure quite how to word it, she just did her best; "How are you here? You were..." She shook her head, mystified. "What happened?"

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

"Ada-"

Adam, wait! was what she'd tried to say, upon hearing Zigmund's laughter. A single step toward him was all she managed before the explosion.

She'd been blown into the air, in the direction of the temple, her Class-given reflexes and agility enabling her to flip and land in such a way that her fall wasn't so bad. Still, when she hit the ground feet first, she continued to tumble and roll along some distance before managing to gain purchase on the ground and skid to a halt. Crouched in the three-point stance, one hand held her head as the ringing in her ears shook her brain - her eyes squeezed shut from the pain.

Fortunately, she was in good and safe company, as she'd ended up next to the temple with Barracker and James close by; two people who weren't close enough to be affected by the explosion. But still, Where is Adam? And the others? She managed to capture fragments of the end of the Paladin and Cleric's words to eachother, then another bright light and loud noise seered her senses.

But the light did not hurt to look at. And the noise was relievingly a voice of her friend. A man who'd taken some of the harder hits in their four-versus-one melee assault on Zigmund. Clive. Now she could see that Zigmund was back on his feet - a revelation that shook her core. Zigmund was fully healed! But Clive was too! Each of them empowered with a very visible aura, facing eachother in a stand-off. How the situation had come to this, she was still processing and her emotions were being thrown in all directions - unfortunately, mostly negative...

"I ain't give a damn who you are, I only care about one thing..."

Barracker and James, by this point, had ran past her, both in different directions. MacKensie managed to tear her eyes away from powerful, central focus of the battle, desperate to look around and make sure everyone was okay. James was running towards... she squinted... "Oh no," she breathed. Adam was down and seemed in need of serious attention. Fenna was up and coming towards her. Then she saw Zell getting up before attention was demanded by her fellow Ranger.

Everyone is alive, she noted with relief as she started to listen to Fenna. Relieved, she was, but relief only slowed her descent into darkness.

"I don't know if this works," Fenna said as she put her hand halfway into MacKensie's ammunition pouch and began to embue some magic into a dozen of her bolts.

"My thanks." MacKensie pulled a bolt out, cold to the touch, with an icey glow. "Ice," she said, hesitantly, almost as a question.

"I don't know if this will hurt him more or not, try it with one bolt. If it doesn't work, keep them for later."

MacKensie nodded weakly, her eyes being pulled all over the place. Clive and Barracker were valiant in their effort, but it was not nearly enough. Would there be a 'later?' Was Adam okay? Was he actually alive? She had no answers. She looked back at Fenna and nodded again, "Okay," giving the older woman a small touch on the elbow as thanks and good luck. Fenna turned to the battlefield and MacKensie drew her one-handed crossbow from the small of her back and loaded an ice bolt into the chamber. There was a high probability that this ice bolt would be nullified, due to Zigmund's Source Domain and the fact that her weapon wasn't very powerful in the first place, but they had nothing to lose by trying. The situation was much like her mindstate: Desperate.

'Desperate' turned to 'Dire' very quickly, when Zigmund displayed his seeming-invincibility in a fight with Fenna. "Fenna!" It was horrifying. Her eyes shimmered with fear and the threat of tears. She aimed her weapon, but as Fenna was hit like a battering ram, MacKensie found herself paralyzed, thinking, How did it come to this? We were so close! She couldn't believe how the tables had turned. "Fenna."

"MacKensie." She heard the voice, but couldn't take her eyes off Fenna's half-concious form on the floor.

"This is impossible," she muttered as she took in the aftermath of swift destruction. Everyone was down. And Zigmund was standing tall and all-but untouched. "Impossible."

She was dragged down to a knee by Zell and drawn helplessly to his gaze as he told her what she already knew. They were doomed. "But I can kill him." He put a hand on her shoulder, nodding his head, eyes wide. She could not help but shake her head. Impossible, was the thought running through her mind. She was not convinced. "I can kill him but I'll only get one chance. This sword... once per day..." he suddenly shook his head. "Fuck all that. Trust me. I can kill him but I need to get close, and I can barely walk."

He grabbed her gauntlet, his other hand still on her shoulder. She listened, but her conviction had worn away. She was exhausted. She did not believe. She'd given in. "You can get me there. Twelve yards. That's how close I need to get. Ten metres. Like a football penalty box, you've seen it right? The goal..."

"I don't know," she admitted weakly. His words were swirling around her ears, but not exactly registering. A blockade of despair had formed over her. Her eyes watered.

"Fuck.. listen. Get me twelve yards in. Please. Zip us in there and let me go. Twelve yards.

I trust you," were the last words: Three words that seemed get past the blockade - Three words that snuck into her mind and sparked a small flame of willpower within. He let go of her gauntlet and gently guided her head so their foreheads touched. The flame of willpower that had been sparked, now grew into a small fire. "I trust you." The fire grew. She closed her eyes, prompting a tear to roll down her cheek. Inside, she searched out that fire. It was there... willpower. "Do you trust me?"

"With all my heart," she answered. He'd saved her. On the brink of total collapse, he'd given her something to support herself with: His plan. His strength. But more importantly: His faith.

She took the deepest of breaths and let it out, then opened her eyes. "Twelve yards."

The time had come for action. They gripped eachother around the waist and she concentrated her perception. Twelve yards. With her sharp eyes, she could almost make out the radius around Zigmund. But what to fire her gauntlet at? What to grapplehook onto?

"Bastard! Motherfucker! Die fucking ogre!"

"James, no don't," she bemoaned. James was running wildly at Zigmund. If none of Second Chance's front-row fighters could handle the ninja in close-quarters, then James was...

What? Ogre? the thought brought her mind all the way back to their first day in this world. Their first hour. Their first battle. That's when she realised that James was signalling her! Or Zell! Or both! Surely so! He was too clever, too intentional... it could not be a coincidence. He was enacting some crazy distraction plan and they were meant to capitalise. "Jai vous, mon amie," she whispered. "Lord have mercy."

As he struck, she went to fire her grapplehook and burst into the fray, but her instinct told her to wait, even when she saw him get attacked. Somehow she knew that James was just too damn smart to think a simple distraction was enough to stop this powerful and intelligent foe. Zigmund was no ogre.

And she was right.

James took heavy damage. It was hard to look at - tough to stay put - and MacKensie could only hope that he would be okay. But her eyes were now on Zigmund who was writhing and staggering around, holding his ears. What in the sacred blue had James done!? Zigmund seemed physically invincible. But James had found a way. Whatever their party leader had done, it was something she had not seen from him before. And it was working. Zigmund was stumbling in the direction of the steps of Temple Hill. This was her chance.

Just above Zigmund's head height, she fired her blue beam/wire out and connected to the pillar their enemy was moving towards. It just so happened to be the very same pillar that MacKensie and Zell had been stood against, the night before. A good omen, perhaps.

A trace of a smile crept onto her face as she knew just what to say to Zell. The same thing she'd told him on the walls of Hommas, right before James and Zell had cooked up something ridiculously insane.

"I know that you specialize in stupidity but I'd rather not die again, so whatever you are going to do, do it well."

And with that, she held Zell tight, then they went from 0-60mph in a second, zooming horizontally towards Zigmund's position. At such speed, the wind was fierce in her face, but her eyes remained firmly open and focused on, Twelve yards. And within moments, the time came...

...and she let him go...

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Just had to check Teyao's newly edited Blessings post on the character tab to get myself in on this joke... and now I'm even more confused lol. Guess I'll just have to wait and see how things play out xD

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@SaiyanLol alright, I guess I owe you one. I'll follow your lead xD

God damn it this man just won't die.

@Dark Cloud

Lmao! The delicious irony of this statement. If @Teyao charged for use of this meme, he'd be making a killing xD

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

It took a surge of effort to wash away the dizziness as she lay on the floor. The ninja's strikes were powerful. Eyes squeezed shut, she shook her head to regain herself, then opened her eyes to find herself in a steamcloud. He is in here, she suspected, grasping her dagger and one-handed crossbow from the floor and getting up. Her Ranger perception was good enough to hear him and she braced for defensive action, but she heard him running off. Strange.

After a moment, she walked out of the steamcloud to see Adam was now fighting the ninja. The Druid had used his Shapeshift ability and was doing very well against the weakened ninja. He was marvelous - by some margin, the most powerful member of Second Chance. Just as I guessed, she thought, remembering when she'd first seen his magic back on their first day in Hommas. She walked forward to stand next to Zell and watch Adam, effortlessly and without a scratch, deal with their powerful nemesis. Nature is the world, and she is his ally.

"How you doing there, doll?" Zell asked MacKensie as the steam cloud dissipated behind them.

"I am fine. Thank you," she answered, unable to take her eyes off the fight.

"You still good to go?"

"As long as I live."

Zell and Clive exchanged a little banter, prompting a smirk from the frenchwoman. Adam threw Zigmund away like a piece of trash and MacKensie gripped her weapons tighter. Zell said loudly what she was thinking herself: It was time to swarm their injured predator-turned-prey. Everyone heard the call to attack and promptly rushed to engage Zigmund.

Their syncronicity was beautiful - like their minds were connected. Fenna, with the long reach of her spear, waited patiently for opportunities to attack. Zell and MacKensie had become that whirlwind of blue and green again, capes fluttering all over as they danced around Zigmund, in and out, with attacks of dagger and sword. Clive took brief openings to throw huge powerful punches. Whatever James was doing to contibrute, he would no-doubt be making himself useful in some shape or fashion. In spite of their Zigmund being more powerful than The Listener and The Greater Wrath combined, Second Chance were even better than before they'd walked into the Temple of Hades. Ascension was really something special.

As Zell stepped out of from one of his turns in the team blitz, she ran and grabbed his free hand, him spinning 180 to give her massive momentum as came flying around and into enemy range with a strong kick aimed at Zigmund's head.

MacKensie mainly focused her own role in the team blitz as the initial phase of 'Ruse de guerre' of sorts - meaning that she would loosely act as 'The Decoy' in the fight. She knew that her magical gauntlet was connected to her soul, Ascending as she did, but her weapons were not. They were simple, mundane and not as powerful as the others'. So she lunged in with her dagger mostly head-on, targeting Zigmund's weakpoints in an effort to force Zigmund to block, so that the others had openings to land. She whirled around, dropping bolts into her crossbow - a one handed (dagger-fisted) cartwheel, the action an effort to forcibly draw Zigmund's attention, so he would that see she was aiming - upside down - and firing at his weakpoints, forcing him to react. Again, this was all to create free attacks for the more powerful weapons of her friends.

When Clive threw a punch combo and Zell leapfrogged him into an attack, MacKensie was quick behind in the queue to join in. She jumped high to land a light foot on the shoulder of the American, then pushed off into a sideways-flip, taking a keenly-aimed shot, as she sailed over the target, at the five-slash rip in Zigmund's helmet. She landed behind the ninja, then lunged into a stab, aiming to sink her dagger into Zigmund's hip where fenna had first cracked his armour.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

I'll be posting tomorrow morning.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Dark CloudYou've tempted me to post right now just so I can have MacKensie jump up and then jump off Clive's shoulders right after any potential Zell-leapfrog that is contingent on Clive doing a ferocious punch combo! Troll and have Clive only do kicks and powers all round lmao xD

@Ariana GreyHi Ariana, I think @xenon will PM you when he sees this.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Saiyan@Dark CloudCount me in too xD

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

MacKensie skidded to a halt and dropped to her knees next to James and Zell, her panic subsiding as the light of James' healing spell glowed over her Zell's body. She asked James if the other man would be okay and he appeared confident, so she put a hand on each of her two friend's shoulders and nodded briskly, about to head back into battle, but paused after a step to throw her own answer into Zell's dumb joke.

"So, bossman...?" he asked. "Rushing an opponent roughly twice your strength like a wild caveman.... how would you rate my strategy out of ten?"

"Maybe try not to take the 'Mindless gorilla' thing so far next time, yes?" she said angrily.

James verbalized his agreement, although with appropriately increased intensity and language, making her smile, albeit through a stern reprimanding expression for Zell. Aside from Zell's outburst of stupidity, she knew James' tone well enough to know that the swordsman would be fine. And then there was Fenna and Barracker's teamwork that had been effective enough to injure Zigmund. Even her own brief clash with him at the very beginning of battle had been world's apart in difference to her last showdown with the ninja. They were all stronger and she was confident that they could kill this agent of evil.

She saw the water javelins and Zell warned James in time for all of them to escape direct hits. MacKensie herself had pulled off a a corkscrew flip that saw her spin horizontally over the javelin, it flying past her harmlessly. As she landed, she saw James had blocked most of the damage with his anchor, a little blood trickling down the side of his face from a minor cut. And Adam, who'd taken up a position to cover the battlefield, had saved Zell by throwing a tree into the javelins path.

This really was a different party than the inexperienced, unascended one Zigmund had faced last time. And she was sure that he knew it too.

And then, as she watched the beautiful chemistry of assault from their resident Spear and Greatsword, that confidence she had was ripped from her at the sight of the ice explosion. She gasped, her sharp eyes catching the details of Zigmund's counterattack. The damage was apparent. Adam had once again showed his effectiveness with his magic - his root system somehow mitigating damage, but while Fenna had escaped with minor injuries, Barracker was hurt badly.

"Oh no. Barracker."

Once again, she went to help her friends but was paused mid-step by unexpected noise. Hoofbeats. She looked towards where the horseman appeared, but with glow of the rising sun behind him, horse and rider were almost a silouette. Almost. Her mouth opened, her brow furrowed as her mind told her that she could not really be seeing what her eyes were telling her.

I saw him... die. With her own eyes, she'd watched him drop lifelessly to the floor. With her own hands, she'd helped dig his grave, with the farm man's own broken shovel. Her and Joji had given him his own funeral on the hilltop overlooking Valhiem. How could this be?

"Life is getting up one more time than you’ve been knocked down. An' I came back to be sure you never did."

"Lord in heaven, it is him," she confirmed by his thick accent. She didn't even realise she was crying. "Clive."

Clive Michel was back - riding a ghostly, glowing horse. And he entered battle with a mighty mega-punch that sent Zigmund across the dirt. It was enough to break her from her pause, and while tears still rolled down her cheeks, Second Chance's leader's command was enough to re-engage her mind.

"He is vulnerable, attack!"

MacKensie rushed in, blue flames dancing into existence along her hands and arms, her maximum foot-speed a sight to behold. Knowing James was hoisting up the anchor as she left him, she jumped high and out of the way, to one side, then started her Deadly Flurry in sync with the results of the anchor flying towards Zigmund, aiming for the cracks in his armour. Mid air, she would fire her grapplehook at the ground next to her enemy and speed in like an air-to-ground missile, activating a second Deadly Flurry and baseball sliding right by the metal ninja while letting off 4 bolts-per-second until her blue flames disappeared.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

I'll have time to post later.