So nobody wants me to stop huh? At least I won't waste the 10 pages of completed material (baring the Epilogue) I still have.
So here's the non-ending version of the next scene. I'll warn you, this is a BIG scene. And because it seems to be the way I'm going further along in the story I'm going to slow down my release schedule from once a week to once every two weeks. Hopefully this'll allow me to keep going on this without grinding to a halt.
“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting
**24**
They’d obviously had the monitoring A.I. give them more stuff A.C. noted, parrying an Element away and using the movement to plant a spinning back axe kick across the Otome’s face. Still, it was logical that they’d upgrade to Meister Otome. She didn’t recognise this one though.
It wasn’t very often that she got to use the Zero-G combat skills Kasumi had forced on her, but high mobility air combat certainly counted as a good place. The Meister Otome obviously didn’t have the same skill set.
What she did have was near equal speed and strength as her, and one heck of a tough Robe. Oh, and support.
Which was why the cyborg psudo-senshi had taken to darting in and smashing the Meister Otome around the arena, disrupting the ability of the supporting forces to gather or assist without getting in the way.
“You know,” A.C. said conversationally as she parried a thrust of the Otome’s sword like Element, before jabbing her elbow into her opponent’s face, “it’s rather impolite not to introduce yourself.”
The Otome scowled, then swung her sword with force. A.C. knew it wouldn’t hit her, so she dodged up and let the shockwave pass underneath her.
“Now that was downright rude.” The raven-haired mage-senshi observed, darting forward with a thrust from Laevatein which the Otome was forced to drop under to dodge, which lead to her getting kicked in the face. A.C. took advantage of the stunning blow to grab the Otome’s left arm and put her in a hold. It also allowed her to see the GEM in the Otome’s ear.
The cyberneticist had to disengage quickly when spell-fire headed her way, unable to quickly pull her opponent into the line of fire.
A quick Burning Mandala scattered the mage group, one being knocked back when a burning disk slammed into their shield, before the Belkan Knight cyborg’s speed brought her into range to slice them apart.
The tactical processor in A.C.’s head noted that she was in danger of being surrounded, and began suggesting ways to escape.
In a quick and smooth move, A.C. thrust Laevatein into her back bow and pulled out the Anti-Materiel rifle.
Deimos snarked as the cyborg cleared a path, five rounds rapid style. (A sub-process in her cyberbrain noted A.C.’s desire to investigate induction interfaces for smartguns, and to pick up a couple of AM rifles for Roberta. With drum magazines.)
The fuku-clad psudo-mage-knight had to pull up short as the Meister Otome slashed through the gap the white and red wearing cyborg had just cleared.
Device and Element clashed as the two duelled for several seconds before the cyber-mage-senshi’s superior speed let her create an opening and snap-fire a silent Fire Soul into the Otome’s gut.
Plasma and Repulsor bolts filled the air in front of her, making her flight path more erratic as she dodged.
Raketenfrühwarnung. [Incoming missile.] Laevatein announced.
A.C. dove to the deck and pushed up her speed, an aura of purple energy forming as she pulled up. The shock front ripped up the ground less than 30cm/a foot below before A.C. yanked herself through a 90 degree turn to port around the corner of a building then slammed her feet into the ground and leapt for the sky.
The crack as she passed the speed of sound sounded loudly in the arena, rattling the senshi-knight’s body as she almost immediately pulled a J-turn and shot back downwards with blade burning like a meteor into a hidden group who seemed to be co-ordinating things.
The missile, desperately trying to reacquire the lock the mage-cyborg had shattered in her practically impossible manoeuvring with the group’s assistance, followed her in.
The explosion as A.C. slammed Laevatein into the ground threw up a dust cloud that partially obscured her and blasted the co-ordinators off their feet, preventing the missile lock for precious fractions of a second and disrupting the guidance signals. Then A.C. leapt skywards once again.
Straight at the missile.
The two flying objects crossed at 2000 kilometres an hour, leaving the missile no time to even attempt to change course before impacting the ground and destroying the hidden post.
A power surge caught Laevatein’s attention, causing the mage-borg to slam on the (air)brakes.
A blast of green energy shot through roughly where she would have been, but A.C. prevented herself from looking back along the shot’s path. She instead did something unexpected and headed directly at the largest group of Op-For.
Landmates, Hardsuits, and Mages opened fire at the rapidly approaching figure, who dodged or deflected with an angled shield before she simply rammed into those who didn’t dodge.
One Mage stayed plastered to the plain of the shield from air pressure before A.C. stopped dead and took off on another direction. The mage continued on for almost a hundred meters before splatting against nothing in mid-air.
The orienteering system in the raven-haired cyborg’s tactical processor delineated one edge of the Arena. Said cyborg ignored it at the moment, as smoke grenades started airbursting around her.
Schlangenform.
Laevatein scythed through the smoke before resetting to Sword Form as the knight-senshi directed her attention back to the grenade shooters. A glint of light had A.C. dodge up, causing the mage bolts to collide below her. Igniting Laevatein she swept him down through them, detonating them as they tried to separate and go after her again.
The blast wave dispersed the smoke enough for the cyberneticist to see she was surrounded. As the smoke cleared way she looked around to fix their positions in her tactical processor. It wasn’t the best of englobments, with the Op-For dangerously close to Blue-on-Blue if she dodged, but they were at a range she couldn’t attack quickly enough to punch a hole. Tricky.
“And what will you do now?” The green GEMed (the Grassland Roaming Peridot she would later learn) Meister Otome asked, almost pitying the flame-wielding senshi in front of her.
A.C. smiled. It wasn’t an evil smile, or a victorious smile, or any of a dozen grins or smirks. It wasn’t even a mocking little half grin, just a smile.
It scared the begeezus out of those who saw it.
“KAGUTSUCHI!”
And the world became flame.
***
“Oh Crap.”
The rest of the Forge Crew just nodded at Kasumi’s deadpan reaction to the latest twist.
***
It rose from the manifested sea of flame like a submarine, calmly and without fuss but with all the former’s deadly purpose. Multiple eyes, green as emeralds, blinked in sequence as the creature rose further out of the raging fire.
To the side, golden rings spun into existence around A.C.’s wrists and ankles.
Finally the huge white beast emerged fully from the torrent, wings of fire and claws trailing ribbons of flame.
To the fright of those around, A.C. turned to face the Phoenix-Dragon Child with a smile. Floating over, she fondly patted the side of its head before rising a bit to scratch tenderly behind a major eye-slit.
Kagutsuchi made a rumbling sort of sound that was pretty much a purr comprised of clicks and whistles, and leaned his head into the scratching.
“Yes my Dear, it’s good to see you too.” The raven-hared cyborg relied in loving tones, continuing to scratch. “I’m sorry we had to meet this way.” She sighed longingly. “But I suppose needs must. Ready to stretch your wings?”
Kagutsuchi clicked in assent, turning his head to face the assembled forces. With a crack and hiss like an airlock opening, the phoenix-dragon revealed the many razor-sharp dagger-like teeth filling his mouth.
“Thank you Dear.” A.C. floated over to kiss his cheek, before rising out of the way.
The domes on his wings popped up and started spinning, igniting a fire in his belly that visibly bulged and glowed. Winds blew up out of nowhere, causing the flyers to suddenly need to focus a bit more on maintaining position.
“As for the rest of you.” The Belkan Senshi of Mars turned cold emerald eyes on the forces surrounding her and her Child. “Shoo.”
Kagutsuchi fired the bolder sized fireball out at the crowd, most of whom dodged.
Most.
The few it did hit were armoured enough for the fireball to explode with huge force.
The golden bands floating around the Senshi-Cyborg’s wrists and ankles span faster, turning into blazing rings of golden energy.
Schlangenform.
A.C. whipped Laevatein around herself and her Child, catching some of the disorganised flyers, before calling forth a stream of flame and setting it writhing snake-like at the Meister Otome.
Said Meister Otome emerged from the torrent singed, scorched, and snarling mad, just in time to catch the newly revealed Fire HiME’s Blazing Meteor Kick in the stomach and be blasted into depths of the underground complex.
Kagutsuchi wasn’t idle either. With a flap of his mighty wings he shot towards a group trying to take cover on the ground and strafed them with his fire-trailing talons, ripping up the ground and leaving a wall of flame in his wake.
Down on the ground, a team tried to launch an anti-aircraft missile, only to be interrupted by Deimos slicing through them.
A sniper in a second team near them tried to track on the blue-clad fairy, but had to yank his weapon off target as Phobos dashed across his line of fire with a Mage and Otome in pursuit.
Phobos twisted over onto her back to fire a Fire Soul at her pursuers, then flipped back over and pushed up her speed. Darting tightly around corners using her small size, she tried to shake them. Given how much she had to jink to avoid spells from the Mage, it didn’t help much.
Suddenly she shot for the sky, obviously intending to use the space to manoeuvre an escape. The Mage and Otome followed, intent on their quarry.
They barely had time to realise their mistake before the jaws snapped down on them.
Kagutsuchi spat out the ruins of bodies as he banked sharply into a Chandelle before sharply flapping his wings to ‘bunny hop’ in midair while braking sharply. There was a terrible screech as his talons tore into the armour of the landmates following him as he dropped onto them. Compromised and aflame from the fire trailing from the talons, the landmates dropped like stones when the phoenix dragon let them go.
The two wrecks smashed down and exploded, blocking the sightline to A.C., who used the gap to dance out of the partially formed trap. Using her ribbons, she snagged the leg of a Silver Sentinel who didn’t get clear fast enough and threw him into the thickest of the cloud of people around her.
Quickly spiralling to get a get a view of her position, she spotted the Meister Otome coming at her at a high rate of knots. Bringing up a shield triangle, she counter-charged before stopping her shield in place and slamming into it as though she’d jumped down from a great height. Muscle bulged along her legs and arms as she soaked up the impact enough to push herself off in another direction.
This redirection forced the Meister Otome to slow down to change direction, which in turn let A.C. block the Otome’s Element without harm to her or Laevatein. Device and Element clashed as the two engaged, broke, and engaged again in a chaotic looping spiral. Suddenly the Otome pushed, light-bands flaring, aiming the two of them into the ground. A.C. spun the two of them, but the Otome rolled with it to put the raven-haired flame-wielder on the bottom of their pile.
A.C. grit her teeth as she rolled the two of them again, pulling in her ribbons as they closed in on the ground, and let the Otome counter again as she got her feet into the Otome’s middle.
The fuku’s back ribbon’s snapped down into the ground in a double helix, forming a spring shape that soaked up all the speed of impact for the cyber-mage but driving the armoured heels of the barrier fuku into the Otome’s stomach through her Robe.
Then the ribbon spring rebounded and A.C. pushed off with her legs.
It was only luck that the out of control Otome only scraped the surface of Kagutsuchi’s photonic fireball.
The phoenix-dragon snorted in frustration as he flashed through the empty space behind his attack, jinking to prevent his own opponents from getting a good shot at him.
The landmate just got tone when Phobos shot straight down through their formation, causing them and her tails to break off before they crashed into one another.
The red clad Guardian Fairy wreathed herself in flame and smashed into the middle of a group in the ground, blowing them all off their feet.
Deimos flashed through, trailing a zigzagging line, before smashing into the chest plate of a Silver Sentinel and cratering it so deeply the figure folded around the impact point.
As the Blue Sky Sapphire dashed away from the explosion of the power armour, his companions got a surprise of their own as the Martian HiME smashed through a nearby wall, Elements blazing like rings of sunlight over the purple aurora of a Panzer Geist, skipped with her next step, and leapt into a 1080 helicopter kick with feet and ribbons sheathed in flaming plasma.
Now past the group, the Belkan psudo-senshi pulled out an assault rifle with underslung grenade launcher and dropped into a forward split as she touched down, letting two 40mm grenades to pass over her head. As the shock of impact with the ground ripped through her, she let off a quick three round burst followed by her own 40mm grenade and rolled sideward to spring herself up with a single arm.
Kagutsuchi streaked overhead, talons outstretched as he tore up another formation (and the ground) before launching himself off in another direction.
Two missiles roared up after him, before exploding under a barrage of Burning Mandala’s from Deimos. In return, a grenade airburst nearby, knocking the lively fairy out of the sky in a tumble.
That position was summarily reduced by a scowling Phobos, avenging her twin.
Deimos growled as she picked herself up and shot back into the air. she interrupted herself as the decidedly singed Meister Otome came back at the combat cyborg.
This time A.C. interrupted the Meister Otome’s charge by swatting her into a building with her ribbons. Snarling as she pulled herself out of the rubble, the Otome lunged at the emerald-eyed HiME-Senshi with her sword like Element thrust ahead.
Stepping inside her attempted strike and trapping the Otome’s leading arm under her own, A.C. yanked her opponent towards her and head-butted the Meister Otome in the face.
“Greenpeace always said I had a hard head.” A.C. grinned savagely at the bloody face of the Otome as she grabbed the other arm and with a hard pull dislocated the Otome’s shoulders.
Barely letting her opponent cope with the savaging, the HiME-fied Belkan Senshi leapt and dropped her full weight on the Meister Otome’s head as she slammed a kick into the face of an incoming Pearl Otome. Using the Otome’s head like a pommel horse she flared her legs around gymnastically, swinging round to hit another Otome. She swung around a couple more times to keep the area around her clear, then she pulled a handstand and a leg split, using the momentum to snap the Meister Otome’s neck before throwing herself clear. With a thought, her back ribbons extended as she finished her ‘spinning dismount’, turning the area around her into a deadly bundle of blades.
~ This has been going on far too long. ~ The Raven-haired cyberneticist thought. She considered several options her tactical processor suggested.
She sent, taking off.
Kagutsuchi banked around, belly already glowing, then fired one of his boulder sized photonic fireballs into the ground near the freight elevator to blow a large chunk of the roof in with a huge explosion.
In the quiet of the explosion’s aftermath A.C. got into position, ignoring the nervous Op-For coming out of cover. Taking a deep breath, the floating senshi cyborg began. She lined up the grey-backed half-sun amulets vertically.
"Lord of the Darkness and the Four Worlds, I call upon you, grant me all the power that you possess!"
The stones glowed a purplish red. The raven-hared woman noted the surge, transferred Laevatein to one of her ribbons, and moved on to cast the spell she wanted.
“O Spirit of Thunder, swift in the sky. You who make the Earth and Air tremble with your voice. I, your servant, call upon your awesome power.”
The ash-filled sky rumbled. Then again, the clouds gathering over the spot A.C. was floating at.
“Power that smashes, I call upon you now! Become thunderbolts in my hands!”
Raising her hands above her head, a magical array flickered into being. Most of those watching didn’t immediately recognise the form of the array, a great circle with subordinate circles arranged around the edge.
Then the array lit up…
…And the lightning came.
Bolt after bolt struck the array, the vast charges created by the simulated eruption increasing the number of strikes to hundreds, then thousands, then a continuous series of strikes writhing like snakes as the array brought in the power from the clouds.
Silhouetted against the glare of the array, its blue-white lines turned photo-negative, the Scarlet Angel looked down on her enemies. Then she swung an arm down to point at them.
“DESTRUCTIVE THUNDER!”
From the sub-arrays, huge bolts of power ripped through the air to lance through the formation to score the ground.
Those few elements that had managed to raise some sort of shielding remained behind said protections, most in a poor state as they’d barely survived. There had been no doubt some had succumbed to the raging torrent of power the sorceress had called down from the volcanic clouds.
“Karyu…Issen!” A.C. went for the kill, sweeping the line of white hot fire across the remaining groups she could see, the respawn timer ticking away. Seconds past as the HiME Senshi of Fire scored the landscape with her element, Fire Souls and Burning Mandalas eating into every hidey hole she suspected might have a group of Op-For sheltering. Ravaging streams of flame stormed into buildings to ignite fire-storms, Phobos and Deimos added their own flames to the mix, and Kagutsuchi finished his earlier job by blasting the opening of the cargo elevator with a large fireball.
The respawn timer expired, and the sim wasn’t over.
With a growl, the cyborg-mage called her Child to her, where with a flash of light he vanished, and headed into the underground.
***
***ALERT*** - New Record!: Most Kills in a Re-spawn period at 93. - ***ALERT***
“Damnit.” Lebia said as the banner scrolled across the bottom of the screen. “This close to an end.”
“Aye.” Adonis sighed. “You ken that things will get worse now.”
“If it wasn’t for the fact cutting the Interwave link would be outside the safeties’ reaction limits and cause a hundred cases of severe dump shock, I’d have done it already and stopped this.” The blonde muttered.
“Any chance of triggering the safeties anyway?” Greenpeace asked.
“No.” Eddie replied. “They’re hardwired into the interface hardware with no way to access from outside.” He paused. “At least not without an 87% chance of feedback because we’d have to break the sensory dampener.”
“That’d be bad.” Greenpeace noted drily. “Important safety tip there, thanks Egon.”
Oh Rob? Natsuko made her luck roll here. She still hasn't been killed yet.
So here's the non-ending version of the next scene. I'll warn you, this is a BIG scene. And because it seems to be the way I'm going further along in the story I'm going to slow down my release schedule from once a week to once every two weeks. Hopefully this'll allow me to keep going on this without grinding to a halt.
“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting
**24**
They’d obviously had the monitoring A.I. give them more stuff A.C. noted, parrying an Element away and using the movement to plant a spinning back axe kick across the Otome’s face. Still, it was logical that they’d upgrade to Meister Otome. She didn’t recognise this one though.
It wasn’t very often that she got to use the Zero-G combat skills Kasumi had forced on her, but high mobility air combat certainly counted as a good place. The Meister Otome obviously didn’t have the same skill set.
What she did have was near equal speed and strength as her, and one heck of a tough Robe. Oh, and support.
Which was why the cyborg psudo-senshi had taken to darting in and smashing the Meister Otome around the arena, disrupting the ability of the supporting forces to gather or assist without getting in the way.
“You know,” A.C. said conversationally as she parried a thrust of the Otome’s sword like Element, before jabbing her elbow into her opponent’s face, “it’s rather impolite not to introduce yourself.”
The Otome scowled, then swung her sword with force. A.C. knew it wouldn’t hit her, so she dodged up and let the shockwave pass underneath her.
“Now that was downright rude.” The raven-haired mage-senshi observed, darting forward with a thrust from Laevatein which the Otome was forced to drop under to dodge, which lead to her getting kicked in the face. A.C. took advantage of the stunning blow to grab the Otome’s left arm and put her in a hold. It also allowed her to see the GEM in the Otome’s ear.
The cyberneticist had to disengage quickly when spell-fire headed her way, unable to quickly pull her opponent into the line of fire.
A quick Burning Mandala scattered the mage group, one being knocked back when a burning disk slammed into their shield, before the Belkan Knight cyborg’s speed brought her into range to slice them apart.
The tactical processor in A.C.’s head noted that she was in danger of being surrounded, and began suggesting ways to escape.
In a quick and smooth move, A.C. thrust Laevatein into her back bow and pulled out the Anti-Materiel rifle.
Deimos snarked as the cyborg cleared a path, five rounds rapid style. (A sub-process in her cyberbrain noted A.C.’s desire to investigate induction interfaces for smartguns, and to pick up a couple of AM rifles for Roberta. With drum magazines.)
The fuku-clad psudo-mage-knight had to pull up short as the Meister Otome slashed through the gap the white and red wearing cyborg had just cleared.
Device and Element clashed as the two duelled for several seconds before the cyber-mage-senshi’s superior speed let her create an opening and snap-fire a silent Fire Soul into the Otome’s gut.
Plasma and Repulsor bolts filled the air in front of her, making her flight path more erratic as she dodged.
Raketenfrühwarnung. [Incoming missile.] Laevatein announced.
A.C. dove to the deck and pushed up her speed, an aura of purple energy forming as she pulled up. The shock front ripped up the ground less than 30cm/a foot below before A.C. yanked herself through a 90 degree turn to port around the corner of a building then slammed her feet into the ground and leapt for the sky.
The crack as she passed the speed of sound sounded loudly in the arena, rattling the senshi-knight’s body as she almost immediately pulled a J-turn and shot back downwards with blade burning like a meteor into a hidden group who seemed to be co-ordinating things.
The missile, desperately trying to reacquire the lock the mage-cyborg had shattered in her practically impossible manoeuvring with the group’s assistance, followed her in.
The explosion as A.C. slammed Laevatein into the ground threw up a dust cloud that partially obscured her and blasted the co-ordinators off their feet, preventing the missile lock for precious fractions of a second and disrupting the guidance signals. Then A.C. leapt skywards once again.
Straight at the missile.
The two flying objects crossed at 2000 kilometres an hour, leaving the missile no time to even attempt to change course before impacting the ground and destroying the hidden post.
A power surge caught Laevatein’s attention, causing the mage-borg to slam on the (air)brakes.
A blast of green energy shot through roughly where she would have been, but A.C. prevented herself from looking back along the shot’s path. She instead did something unexpected and headed directly at the largest group of Op-For.
Landmates, Hardsuits, and Mages opened fire at the rapidly approaching figure, who dodged or deflected with an angled shield before she simply rammed into those who didn’t dodge.
One Mage stayed plastered to the plain of the shield from air pressure before A.C. stopped dead and took off on another direction. The mage continued on for almost a hundred meters before splatting against nothing in mid-air.
The orienteering system in the raven-haired cyborg’s tactical processor delineated one edge of the Arena. Said cyborg ignored it at the moment, as smoke grenades started airbursting around her.
Schlangenform.
Laevatein scythed through the smoke before resetting to Sword Form as the knight-senshi directed her attention back to the grenade shooters. A glint of light had A.C. dodge up, causing the mage bolts to collide below her. Igniting Laevatein she swept him down through them, detonating them as they tried to separate and go after her again.
The blast wave dispersed the smoke enough for the cyberneticist to see she was surrounded. As the smoke cleared way she looked around to fix their positions in her tactical processor. It wasn’t the best of englobments, with the Op-For dangerously close to Blue-on-Blue if she dodged, but they were at a range she couldn’t attack quickly enough to punch a hole. Tricky.
“And what will you do now?” The green GEMed (the Grassland Roaming Peridot she would later learn) Meister Otome asked, almost pitying the flame-wielding senshi in front of her.
A.C. smiled. It wasn’t an evil smile, or a victorious smile, or any of a dozen grins or smirks. It wasn’t even a mocking little half grin, just a smile.
It scared the begeezus out of those who saw it.
“KAGUTSUCHI!”
And the world became flame.
***
“Oh Crap.”
The rest of the Forge Crew just nodded at Kasumi’s deadpan reaction to the latest twist.
***
It rose from the manifested sea of flame like a submarine, calmly and without fuss but with all the former’s deadly purpose. Multiple eyes, green as emeralds, blinked in sequence as the creature rose further out of the raging fire.
To the side, golden rings spun into existence around A.C.’s wrists and ankles.
Finally the huge white beast emerged fully from the torrent, wings of fire and claws trailing ribbons of flame.
To the fright of those around, A.C. turned to face the Phoenix-Dragon Child with a smile. Floating over, she fondly patted the side of its head before rising a bit to scratch tenderly behind a major eye-slit.
Kagutsuchi made a rumbling sort of sound that was pretty much a purr comprised of clicks and whistles, and leaned his head into the scratching.
“Yes my Dear, it’s good to see you too.” The raven-hared cyborg relied in loving tones, continuing to scratch. “I’m sorry we had to meet this way.” She sighed longingly. “But I suppose needs must. Ready to stretch your wings?”
Kagutsuchi clicked in assent, turning his head to face the assembled forces. With a crack and hiss like an airlock opening, the phoenix-dragon revealed the many razor-sharp dagger-like teeth filling his mouth.
“Thank you Dear.” A.C. floated over to kiss his cheek, before rising out of the way.
The domes on his wings popped up and started spinning, igniting a fire in his belly that visibly bulged and glowed. Winds blew up out of nowhere, causing the flyers to suddenly need to focus a bit more on maintaining position.
“As for the rest of you.” The Belkan Senshi of Mars turned cold emerald eyes on the forces surrounding her and her Child. “Shoo.”
Kagutsuchi fired the bolder sized fireball out at the crowd, most of whom dodged.
Most.
The few it did hit were armoured enough for the fireball to explode with huge force.
The golden bands floating around the Senshi-Cyborg’s wrists and ankles span faster, turning into blazing rings of golden energy.
Schlangenform.
A.C. whipped Laevatein around herself and her Child, catching some of the disorganised flyers, before calling forth a stream of flame and setting it writhing snake-like at the Meister Otome.
Said Meister Otome emerged from the torrent singed, scorched, and snarling mad, just in time to catch the newly revealed Fire HiME’s Blazing Meteor Kick in the stomach and be blasted into depths of the underground complex.
Kagutsuchi wasn’t idle either. With a flap of his mighty wings he shot towards a group trying to take cover on the ground and strafed them with his fire-trailing talons, ripping up the ground and leaving a wall of flame in his wake.
Down on the ground, a team tried to launch an anti-aircraft missile, only to be interrupted by Deimos slicing through them.
A sniper in a second team near them tried to track on the blue-clad fairy, but had to yank his weapon off target as Phobos dashed across his line of fire with a Mage and Otome in pursuit.
Phobos twisted over onto her back to fire a Fire Soul at her pursuers, then flipped back over and pushed up her speed. Darting tightly around corners using her small size, she tried to shake them. Given how much she had to jink to avoid spells from the Mage, it didn’t help much.
Suddenly she shot for the sky, obviously intending to use the space to manoeuvre an escape. The Mage and Otome followed, intent on their quarry.
They barely had time to realise their mistake before the jaws snapped down on them.
Kagutsuchi spat out the ruins of bodies as he banked sharply into a Chandelle before sharply flapping his wings to ‘bunny hop’ in midair while braking sharply. There was a terrible screech as his talons tore into the armour of the landmates following him as he dropped onto them. Compromised and aflame from the fire trailing from the talons, the landmates dropped like stones when the phoenix dragon let them go.
The two wrecks smashed down and exploded, blocking the sightline to A.C., who used the gap to dance out of the partially formed trap. Using her ribbons, she snagged the leg of a Silver Sentinel who didn’t get clear fast enough and threw him into the thickest of the cloud of people around her.
Quickly spiralling to get a get a view of her position, she spotted the Meister Otome coming at her at a high rate of knots. Bringing up a shield triangle, she counter-charged before stopping her shield in place and slamming into it as though she’d jumped down from a great height. Muscle bulged along her legs and arms as she soaked up the impact enough to push herself off in another direction.
This redirection forced the Meister Otome to slow down to change direction, which in turn let A.C. block the Otome’s Element without harm to her or Laevatein. Device and Element clashed as the two engaged, broke, and engaged again in a chaotic looping spiral. Suddenly the Otome pushed, light-bands flaring, aiming the two of them into the ground. A.C. spun the two of them, but the Otome rolled with it to put the raven-haired flame-wielder on the bottom of their pile.
A.C. grit her teeth as she rolled the two of them again, pulling in her ribbons as they closed in on the ground, and let the Otome counter again as she got her feet into the Otome’s middle.
The fuku’s back ribbon’s snapped down into the ground in a double helix, forming a spring shape that soaked up all the speed of impact for the cyber-mage but driving the armoured heels of the barrier fuku into the Otome’s stomach through her Robe.
Then the ribbon spring rebounded and A.C. pushed off with her legs.
It was only luck that the out of control Otome only scraped the surface of Kagutsuchi’s photonic fireball.
The phoenix-dragon snorted in frustration as he flashed through the empty space behind his attack, jinking to prevent his own opponents from getting a good shot at him.
The landmate just got tone when Phobos shot straight down through their formation, causing them and her tails to break off before they crashed into one another.
The red clad Guardian Fairy wreathed herself in flame and smashed into the middle of a group in the ground, blowing them all off their feet.
Deimos flashed through, trailing a zigzagging line, before smashing into the chest plate of a Silver Sentinel and cratering it so deeply the figure folded around the impact point.
As the Blue Sky Sapphire dashed away from the explosion of the power armour, his companions got a surprise of their own as the Martian HiME smashed through a nearby wall, Elements blazing like rings of sunlight over the purple aurora of a Panzer Geist, skipped with her next step, and leapt into a 1080 helicopter kick with feet and ribbons sheathed in flaming plasma.
Now past the group, the Belkan psudo-senshi pulled out an assault rifle with underslung grenade launcher and dropped into a forward split as she touched down, letting two 40mm grenades to pass over her head. As the shock of impact with the ground ripped through her, she let off a quick three round burst followed by her own 40mm grenade and rolled sideward to spring herself up with a single arm.
Kagutsuchi streaked overhead, talons outstretched as he tore up another formation (and the ground) before launching himself off in another direction.
Two missiles roared up after him, before exploding under a barrage of Burning Mandala’s from Deimos. In return, a grenade airburst nearby, knocking the lively fairy out of the sky in a tumble.
That position was summarily reduced by a scowling Phobos, avenging her twin.
Deimos growled as she picked herself up and shot back into the air. she interrupted herself as the decidedly singed Meister Otome came back at the combat cyborg.
This time A.C. interrupted the Meister Otome’s charge by swatting her into a building with her ribbons. Snarling as she pulled herself out of the rubble, the Otome lunged at the emerald-eyed HiME-Senshi with her sword like Element thrust ahead.
Stepping inside her attempted strike and trapping the Otome’s leading arm under her own, A.C. yanked her opponent towards her and head-butted the Meister Otome in the face.
“Greenpeace always said I had a hard head.” A.C. grinned savagely at the bloody face of the Otome as she grabbed the other arm and with a hard pull dislocated the Otome’s shoulders.
Barely letting her opponent cope with the savaging, the HiME-fied Belkan Senshi leapt and dropped her full weight on the Meister Otome’s head as she slammed a kick into the face of an incoming Pearl Otome. Using the Otome’s head like a pommel horse she flared her legs around gymnastically, swinging round to hit another Otome. She swung around a couple more times to keep the area around her clear, then she pulled a handstand and a leg split, using the momentum to snap the Meister Otome’s neck before throwing herself clear. With a thought, her back ribbons extended as she finished her ‘spinning dismount’, turning the area around her into a deadly bundle of blades.
~ This has been going on far too long. ~ The Raven-haired cyberneticist thought. She considered several options her tactical processor suggested.
She sent, taking off.
Kagutsuchi banked around, belly already glowing, then fired one of his boulder sized photonic fireballs into the ground near the freight elevator to blow a large chunk of the roof in with a huge explosion.
In the quiet of the explosion’s aftermath A.C. got into position, ignoring the nervous Op-For coming out of cover. Taking a deep breath, the floating senshi cyborg began. She lined up the grey-backed half-sun amulets vertically.
"Lord of the Darkness and the Four Worlds, I call upon you, grant me all the power that you possess!"
The stones glowed a purplish red. The raven-hared woman noted the surge, transferred Laevatein to one of her ribbons, and moved on to cast the spell she wanted.
“O Spirit of Thunder, swift in the sky. You who make the Earth and Air tremble with your voice. I, your servant, call upon your awesome power.”
The ash-filled sky rumbled. Then again, the clouds gathering over the spot A.C. was floating at.
“Power that smashes, I call upon you now! Become thunderbolts in my hands!”
Raising her hands above her head, a magical array flickered into being. Most of those watching didn’t immediately recognise the form of the array, a great circle with subordinate circles arranged around the edge.
Then the array lit up…
…And the lightning came.
Bolt after bolt struck the array, the vast charges created by the simulated eruption increasing the number of strikes to hundreds, then thousands, then a continuous series of strikes writhing like snakes as the array brought in the power from the clouds.
Silhouetted against the glare of the array, its blue-white lines turned photo-negative, the Scarlet Angel looked down on her enemies. Then she swung an arm down to point at them.
“DESTRUCTIVE THUNDER!”
From the sub-arrays, huge bolts of power ripped through the air to lance through the formation to score the ground.
Those few elements that had managed to raise some sort of shielding remained behind said protections, most in a poor state as they’d barely survived. There had been no doubt some had succumbed to the raging torrent of power the sorceress had called down from the volcanic clouds.
“Karyu…Issen!” A.C. went for the kill, sweeping the line of white hot fire across the remaining groups she could see, the respawn timer ticking away. Seconds past as the HiME Senshi of Fire scored the landscape with her element, Fire Souls and Burning Mandalas eating into every hidey hole she suspected might have a group of Op-For sheltering. Ravaging streams of flame stormed into buildings to ignite fire-storms, Phobos and Deimos added their own flames to the mix, and Kagutsuchi finished his earlier job by blasting the opening of the cargo elevator with a large fireball.
The respawn timer expired, and the sim wasn’t over.
With a growl, the cyborg-mage called her Child to her, where with a flash of light he vanished, and headed into the underground.
***
***ALERT*** - New Record!: Most Kills in a Re-spawn period at 93. - ***ALERT***
“Damnit.” Lebia said as the banner scrolled across the bottom of the screen. “This close to an end.”
“Aye.” Adonis sighed. “You ken that things will get worse now.”
“If it wasn’t for the fact cutting the Interwave link would be outside the safeties’ reaction limits and cause a hundred cases of severe dump shock, I’d have done it already and stopped this.” The blonde muttered.
“Any chance of triggering the safeties anyway?” Greenpeace asked.
“No.” Eddie replied. “They’re hardwired into the interface hardware with no way to access from outside.” He paused. “At least not without an 87% chance of feedback because we’d have to break the sensory dampener.”
“That’d be bad.” Greenpeace noted drily. “Important safety tip there, thanks Egon.”
Oh Rob? Natsuko made her luck roll here. She still hasn't been killed yet.