Description: The scene changes after the All Hallow's Eve Ball when an ancient Pharaoh rises from the underworld to take back what is rightfully his. Can the gathered fighters stop the endless chaos wrought by the undead royal's ceaseless vengeance? Don't miss the stunning SNF All Hallow's Eve finale!
Well, that went downhill fast.
Luckily, most of the people who came down with a sudden case of boils or sheer horror have pretty much fled the scene, with a few rolling in horror across the grass off to the side, trying to get the lice off. Every so often, fire flies out of the sky and blows apart some Halloween contrivance or another.
It was once a nice little gathering clear-cut in the middle of the fairgrounds, with the other attractions nearby. Now, it seems like everything's been ruined. Even the stage has been overrun by frogs. A few particularly fat ones near the back may have actually eaten the cover band...
At this point later on in the evening, the festival has basically been completely torn apart. Most of this has to do with the appearance of a massive man at the edge of one the clearing, stiff-limbed and appraising of the damage wrought. Instead of clothes, he wears clean wrapped bandages from toe to chest, and above that, a massive Egyptian crown drapes over his shoulders. Though his eyes glow red, they are inlaid into a face hewn from pure stone.
He seems to have cornered and held a stagehand in his thrall. Somewhat widely, the man seems to have been laid low and is held consecrate at the massive creature's feet.
"I am most holy amongst them all," Anakaris explains patiently, the weight of his regal nature stifling and threatening at once. "You will show me the birthright. Prove your worthiness. Or be cast out."
Tabitha has spent a lot of her time in a borrowed ('borrowed', technically) zombie outfit that isn't hers and doesn't fit very well, being designed for a taller person than her. But it has a mask, and she has a ripped and tattered coat she put on over her dirty (but actually fitting, since it's not borrowed) tank top. She looks like a cut-rate zombie and has spent a lot of the time that she wasn't actually in a zombie rush wandering around.
Spoilers: she doesn't make a very good zombie. That mask is awful. Shouldn't she have face paint instead or something? Also spoilers: being in the zombie rush sucked.
But now there are frogs and locusts and God knows what else; she doesn't. Isn't this the kind of thing that's supposed to happen in the Bible, not real life? Tabitha stepped on a frog earlier. She felt guilty about it right up until the time a whole bunch of them started getting in her way and she felt like she couldn't really move without kicking one of them.
Tabitha found herself attracted to this area without really knowing why. She still doesn't know /why/, but at least she has a source for it as she sees the imposing, massive... person? wearing bandages. That, Tabitha thinks to herself, is a /good/ costume. She can practically feel the regality radiating off him... and the power. It's definitely him, though she can't tell why he's doing what he's doing or much about him beyond his sheer presence.
"Hey, you!" she calls, perhaps unwisely trying to get Anakaris' attention while he ... lectures? the stagehand. "Are these your frogs and bugs and things?"
Sada Asai's costume has gotten all ripped up, but it was basically grave clothes anyway, so it wasn't a great deal of loss. She had been pounding down bottles of Pocari Sweat after certain events happened. Her hair is kind of in her face.
She hasn't been having a lot of fun, and has been avoiding people, who have in some cases remarked on the realistic smell of pickles and vinegar that seemed to be coming off her.
A flood of lice land on her.
Insectoid stink fills the air a little while afterwards. The lice did not survive. Sada hadn't quite noticed, but she did notice what had just gone into her Pocari Sweat bottle.
"EEEAAAAAAAGGGH GROSS!" she shouts, a little unhinged already. Looking up towards Anakaris, she sneers, "Are you the one behind this? This stage show is miserable. You've ruined the holiday!"
Sada rears back, obviously seconds away from chucking the bottle at Anakaris.
This is quite the situation. The fair was supposed to be an interesting event that promised music and fun. It would generally be a perfect place for the runaway project. A large dark-skinned man has made his way into the area. He is not quite a man who likes to be dressed up for the season. Truth be told, he is a fearsome looking man on his own right due to his size and intimidating figure.
Maybe he should had wore some skeleton paint or something. It would had been entertaining.
A coin is often tossed as he wanders into what used to be the attraction. Lo and behold, he can see frogs, fireflies,a nd other sorts of bugs. He frowns, turning his attention to everything before his focus drifts towards the massive mummified man.
"...Interesting."
With a frog moving over towards his foot, Keith glances down towards it and then he gives a frown.
*SQUISH*
"...Hrm." He looks thoughtful, "So much for watching my step." Despite of the plague of insects and frogs, Keith wants to observe the events before seeing if stepping in would be ideal.
In that time, he keeps tossing the coin along his hand before catching it.
Let's say you're a cute, shy nerd attending a fancy public school in a big city. You don't have many friends, even though you'd like some. What are you gonna do? You're gonna think up a costume and then you're gonna go out there and try to be social. Even though a mild amount of natural agoraphobia has you chanting the phrase "ohgodohgodohgodohgod" in your head whenever someone walks too close. NO VICTORY WITHOUT SACRIFICE.
And of course, being a huge dork, he comes in costume as a Puzzle and Dragons card: War God of Night Tsukiyomi. It's probably a good thing fellow students at Justice aren't here to see him in dark purple hakama, a black cloak with embroidered gold dragons, and a shiny (faux-)gold headpiece for the moon's shape.
And just when it seems like he was finally having fun -- he talked to a stranger! This is going in his diary! -- the goddamned Old Testament decides to happen, cool special movie effects and all. Haru Sakuraba dives for safety as a crowd of people sweeps past him in a human torrent, and then... he feels something. It's ~*unnatural*~. He's still adapting to this fancy new sixth sense of his, but some inner sense sends him running toward the situation rather than away from it like a sane person.
This is how we find someone dressed like a mythical samurai-god facing down a gigantic, person-high frog that is blocking his way to where Anakaris is.
And he's trying to REASON with it.
"Ah, Frog-san," Haru says carefully, craning his neck to see what's going on PAST the amphibia. "Please, make w--"
"Ribbit."
For whatever reason, the young psychic looks taken aback. "There's no need for that kind of language!"
What is even going on here.
MOMENTS AGO
The eldest of the Branstein children has been... attending the festival at the very least. To say he has enjoyed it might be a stretch, but it has been interesting to say the very least! Now he finds himself relaxing, enjoying the company of a comely woman that might not be entirely what she seems. The pair have been chatting for several minutes, small talks and jokes. Laughter sparks here and there. It was going quite well, one of them seemed to be getting exactly what they wanted.
The woman brings her wine glass back from her lips, lids lifting off her green eyes as they fix upon the young man across from her, A'del, I can call you Adel, can't I? How about we-" her words are interrupted by the solid, wet smack of a long, pink, slick length of flesh colliding with her head. There is a look of puzzlement across her face before she is tugged from her seat and is drawn, screaming into the waiting mouth of a massive frog.
Drumming his fingers upon the tabletop, Adelheid regards the large amphibian with a measure frown.
SEVERAL FROG-KICKING MINUTES LATER
As the others have been drawn, so has the eldest of the Branstein children. He is currently wiping his hands off with a rag of some sort, mucus and blood leave it stained. Tossing the rag aside, Adel takes his place. Others have already spouted the required lines. he will simply wait for a reply... before endevouring to kick this man until he can be kicked no more!
The costume for lazy people. Peacoat, scarff, detective hat, pipe, and viola you have one patented Sherlock Holmes. At least Ace Vallincourt is making a good go of it, the pipe is even actually lit and full of tobacco, not just a prop that blows bubbles. That would be rediculous, a man has to have standards. He even decided to wear real shoes, then again, at a party like this that has to be a good idea. No clue what you might step in.
It was supposed to be a distraction. A break in training and travel to have a little bit of fun and unwind. And if not fun, at least a momentary distraction. Locusts, however, are not fun in any situation. His eyes slowly drift over to the man on the stage, eyes narrowing at the rather convincing mummy. If ten plaques was supposed to be some sort of schtick, it wasn't funny.
He pulls the pipe from his mouth as he takes a few long strides in that direction, walking light on his feet. And contrary to his costume, looking angered rather than intrigued.
There's enough people shouting, he doesn't add his own voice to it, rather he lifts his foot and taps the pipe against the heel of his shoe.
"Well, this is a bust."
It's a murmur to himself, though he doesn't do too good a job keeping his volume low, dropping his foot back down ontop of a few more bugs with a sickening crunch.
The frogs individually stare at Haru and Adelheid. Yeah, what're you gonna do about it.
As far as the rest of the rampant frog abuse, it doesn't seem to perturb the arbiter of the horde much, who is deeply in the process of compelling the stagehand to do his bidding. Unfortunately, the stagehand seems to be more interested in cowering instead of standing and showing Anakaris to .. whatever 'the birthright' is.
"You will not show me," Anakaris guesses aloud.
The stagehand starts to cry a little bit.
The massive man--a mummy, by all shapes and certainties--frowns faintly.
That's literally all it takes for the mummy to pick up the stagehand and chuck him into what appears to be a portal to... uh, you can hear the guy wailing from about a tree's height up and a football field's length away. A tree cracks as he lands into and through it. Even before this scene fully plays out, Anakaris turns, stating aloud an open declaration.
"I AM KING ANAKARIS THE FIRST," the mummy announces, from deep within a face hewn of stone. Though his voice booms far enough to carry over the entire Festival, there is an impassive tilt to his speech, as if he had carefully considered exactly what he was about to say before it was said. "I am Pharaoh. I am holiest among them all... if you are worthy, come kneel at my feet and I will protect you."
"If you are filth, then stand aside, that we of holy blood may pass to the birthright."
Noticing Sada's windup, the Pharaoh stares at her, through unblinking, glowing red eyes.
COMBATSYS: It is the will of gods. The Pharaoh has come.
ANAKARIS
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Once, the lords of the Asai clan stared down Nobunaga's ambition. That's why their ancestral castle looks like this now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odani_Castle#mediaviewer/File:Odanij10.jpg
Sada Asai is already committed to this action by her stance and posture even if she is given a moment's worth of pause when someone is thrown through a... a portal? Either way, her blind irritability expresses itself through violent action: the half-drunk bottle of Pocari Sweat, now full of dead or dying insects, is hucked at the Pharaoh.
COMBATSYS: Sada has joined the fight here.
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|------------===
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Sada 0/-------/-------|
Tabitha mostly doesn't want to step on frogs for a way more pragmatic reason than avoiding Anakaris' wrath:
They're gross. I mean, come on, who wants to walk on squashed frog? She's already pretty sure she has to wash these shoes like five times... or burn them.
Tabitha feels like she had her question ignored, which was probably true since mummies aren't known for giving the time of day to random boxers. She's still kind of astounded this is an /actual mummy/ and not, say, a person in costume, but the more she sees him move, the more she feels his power, she's sure this is something more than an ordinary mortal. And, of course, it's attracting more than just her, even if she couldn't put a name to the faces that show up.
"I don't kneel. So who," Tabitha says in the tone of voice that suggests she's been offended, "are you calling filth?" The stagehand gets thrown (more or less) and that only makes Tabitha even more annoyed than she already was. She hopes he's OK. "Pick on someone your own size!"
...
"Metaphorically speaking!" she adds, because Anakaris is hella taller than she is. This does not stop her from putting her head down and literally charging across the field, squashing bugs or frogs with abandon now, as she comes in. She leaps en route, coming down with an overhand punch while she's moving almost horizontally an inch or so above the ground, her fist trailing streamers of light like she had a handful of the Northern Lights caught in there. The light - her chi - is extraordinarily cold.
And, of course, there's all Tabitha's arm strength behind it, too.
COMBATSYS: Tabitha has joined the fight here.
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|------------===
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Sada 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
"A Pharoah? How amusing."
A coin finally lands right onto Keith's hand as he finally decides to make his way towards the path of the stage. The amusement has gotten the NESTS Experiment's attention. The man who is designated as Farseer #1F4 is making his way out towards the stage, looking up towards the taller figure. The bemusement on his face does not fade.
"... Good for you."
The man cannot help but to crack a faint smile.
"Want a cookie, 'Pharoah'?" The man starts to turn his neck from side to side, letting a popping noise echo. He is in a very amused state before he finally starts to make his way into the stage. The experiment centers himself over to the stage while the woman throws a bottle at the mummy.
Keith takes the moment to see that other fighters have started to make their appearances. This is why Keith decides to psyche himself up for the stage while he places the hood on his head.
"... How about you entertain me with your divine power? I'll give you your cookie afterwards."
Despite of the stepping into his fighting stance, Keith does not show any sign of making the first strike. It looks like the girl in her misdressed zombie outfit is making her way for the fight. Instead, Keith is mentally preparing himself.
COMBATSYS: Keith has joined the fight here.
ANAKARIS
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Sada 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Keith
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tabitha 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Keith focuses on his next action.
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|------------===
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Sada 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Keith
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tabitha 0/-------/-------|
"Well that was rude."
It's all that Ace can muster as he watches the stagehand being flung through the portal and subsequently flying to what he can only assume is a grisly splattering death. Aren't Canadians supposed to be politer than that?
"And a trick I should learn." In a much more hushed tone. He does sound impressed, then most likely would be impressed by a being who can make portals through space.
He shifts his shoulders, letting the heavy peacoat fall from his shoulders into the frog laced muck that covers the fairgrounds, the scarf likewise tossed aside. Both would only get in his way. The hat remains firmly placed upon his head however, he rather liked the hat. No need to taunt the pharoh comes from him, nor does another attack. People are already handling that. Instead he takes a deep breath, green eyes remaining solidly fixed on the mummy.
The pipe is tucked calmly away in his pocket as he assumes a fighting stance, rolling to the balls of his feet, arms loose at his sides. He sowly exhales and readies himself for what he can only assume might end with him going through a portal, himself.
COMBATSYS: Ace has joined the fight here.
ANAKARIS
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Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ace
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Sada 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
COMBATSYS: Ace focuses on his next action.
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|------------===
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ace
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Sada 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
Welp.
Somewhere beyond this frog are 1.) people and 2.) a loud booming voice that is not only starting to rattle Haru's ribcage but also is really making his proverbial hair stand on end. But it's not gonna budge. "Look, please try to understand my point of view," the Justice second-year says patiently. "I really don't want it to come to violence, but if y--"
Then the following things happen:
1.) The frog snaps open its mouth, tongue flicking
2.) Haru shouts "I'M REALLY SORRY" because
3.) Before the tongue can reach him, the youth has wrapped the cord of, of all things, a rather nice-looking gunmental-finish yoyo around a nearby folding chair and was ALREADY SWINGING IT at the frog before it even opened its mouth.
Net result: the frog goes flying off the Smash Bros. stage, Haru snaps his yoyo back into his hand, and there's a definitive rustling of hakama as he starts making his way toward the giant mummy. "I'll always remember you, Frog-san," he mutters under his breath.
Working a closed hand into the open palm of the other, Adelheid Branstein grinds his knucles in a series of pops and snaps, the process is repeated with the open hand switching with the closed. This giant seems to pose quite the threat to have brought about such catastrophe, now he seems to desire something? What such a being would posesses, surely R could make some use of.
"Bransteins do not kneel so readily or so easily. The times of Pharoahs has passed long ago. Return to what tombs held you and wait to be put on display for school children and the elderly." replies Adelheid, leaning back for just a moment, hands lifting up. A readied stance before he goes darting across the space between, long legs eating distance quickly as he veers around whatever might intercede, snake, frog, toad, lice, or locust... Weren't those plagues less egyptian in origin and more jewish?
Theology aside, Anakaris will soon find a blonde gentleman drawing quite close, his intentions unkind. A foot plants, weight shifting on the rooted heel as the other leg sweeps up high, a strong kick firing off from the kick and arcing high to crash against the bandage wrapped torso.
COMBATSYS: Adelheid has joined the fight here.
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|------------===
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Ace 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Keith
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tabitha 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Haru has joined the fight here.
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|------------===
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Ace 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sada
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Haru takes no action.
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|------------===
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Ace 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sada
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris blocks Sada's Small Thrown Object.
ANAKARIS
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[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Ace 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sada
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris dodges Tabitha's Arctic Blow. Tabitha does, however, successfully hit a sheep!
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|------------===
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Ace 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sada
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris blocks Adelheid's Medium Kick.
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|------------===
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Ace 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sada
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
The Pharaoh stares impassively as a small bottle, full of bugs and .. some form of sugary sweat, bounces off of his vestments, causing a visible stain upon his linen. He tilts forward a moment, as if faintly misunderstanding the intentions of the wispy-dressed zombie woman. He looks over, just in time to see Adelheid hits him square in the chest with his leg.
It is literally like hitting a pile of sand weighing at least a ton, and does little more than ruffle the mummy's bandages temporarily. He looks perturbed.
Just as Tabitha runs full tilt into him, Anakaris simply raises a hand.
The boxer runs full tilt into a shimmering distortion in the air just in front of the Pharaoh. A moment later, she'll find herself none the worse for wear, but roughly exactly where she was before she ran at him. And now the group seems to have Anakaris' attention. He says nothing, directly. She shows no emotion, and though his glowing red eyes seem astutely aware of everything that goes on around him, it is impossible for the mountain to give heed to those before him.
It's hard to tell what he actually did to stop Adelheid's blow without putting up a solid defense.... but though he moves like a thing of flesh, he seemed in that moment to be no more than sand.
"You dare to soil my vestments, and impede my will." Anakaris remarks impassively. "I am kind... I will grant you an audience, and in turn, you will not fail to entertain me." Though his voice addresses all, he seems to be talking personally to the one who
Anakaris opens his hands, spreading them wide.. and reaches into the beyond.
Bandaged hands appearing behind her, the Pharaoh tries to snatch Sada from her spot some ways away and drag her to him personally.. so that he may wrap her tightly in endless linens, to mummify her on the spot. Then, should she not escape his grasp, he will throw her, spinning and with speed just shy of murderous, somewhere past Branstein(?) and through one of the only outhouses not destroyed by the swarm, trying to level it with her wrapped body. See, it wasn't destroyed, mostly because there's another giant frog in there. Potentially using it.
COMBATSYS: Anakaris successfully hits Sada with Miira Drop.
ANAKARIS
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[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Sada
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
Sada is basically OK with mass frogicide but is distracted, even as she straightens up from throwing things. She sweeps her hair back and snaps towards Keith and Ace both, "Are you going to stand there with your dicks in your hands?"
Sada is about to continue on her tirade when she's abruptly snatched up by bandaged hands. Her eyes go wide, wide enough to be seen through the draping of her black forward-swept hair. As she's hoisted up, she screams --
-- It dopplers interestingly as she's drawn through space --
And then she's wrapped up, tight, in bandages, forming a perfectly shaped corpse.
Stains start rising from the bandages, along with wisps of steam. This is not a swift process, though - hoisted upwards, she's hurled forwards, smashing into an outhouse shortly thereafter and dislodging a giant frog, which rips into several large pieces with a mighty noise. What would you expect, after all...
It just croaked.
Sada seems to be taking a moment to reassess her life decisions, even as that acrid smoke keeps rising from her rapidly eroding bonds.
COMBATSYS: Sada focuses on her next action.
ANAKARIS
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[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Sada
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
"..Heh. Have it your way."
It looks like a group of the fighters have already decided to make themselves known towards the man that has proclaimed himself to be a Pharoah. So instead, Keith finally starts moving in with both arms up. He takes the defensive stance while he starts moving towards the Pharoah.
This time, Keith does not flip a coin.
...He flips a cookie.
"I promised you a cookie."
Keith catches the cookie before drawing a fist out to strike the distracted Pharoah right towards the kidneys. The hand that contains the cookie is moving out for a large right hook swing that seeks to shoot straight towards the Pharoah's face.
"Eat up."
Tabitha 'The Crowd' Coren makes a flying leap, complete with chi-imbued punch -
And then she's right back where she started, just landing from the blow that completely whiffed. Because she's not over there anymore. What the heck? Tabitha knows she lacks experience dealing with fighters more experienced than her, but she didn't think 'being teleported back where she came from' was on the cards in most cases. That's really not good for her style if she can be just sent away!
Tabitha spends a moment ditching her too-big borrowed coat, since it's just getting in the way of her arm motion; other people seem to have the mummy's attention. On one hand, that's a good thing, because it means Tabitha has that moment; on the other hand, they /are/ getting beaten up. But they look like they can handle themselves. Right? Right.
Tabitha takes a slower, measured approach this time, circling. She moves in at a steady pace rather than a wild dash, looking left and right at what are, however, accidentally, her partners. Minus the one that just got thrown away - hopefully she's all right, too.
She suddenly accelerates through the last few steps, not at Anakaris' front where he might see her but in his (she thinks) more blind spot - the back, slightly off to the left. Tabitha does jump as she gets there, trying to grab onto Anakaris from the back and wrap her left arm around him in an awkward one-handed bear hug to keep her up. Her right hand hammers repeatedly in very short but fairly strong blows, and the whole thing is finished with a headbutt - if she's grabbed on successfully, this is when she lets go.
"Audience this," Tabitha grunts. Americans and their opinion on royalty, right?
There is a slow roll of the eyes from Ace as Sada snaps in his direction. "If it was in my hand, you'd be able to see it. Besides, my pants are still on. See?""
Infallible logic, that is.
He rocks on the balls of his feet and runs a few steps forward, chi energy flowing into his feet as he does, enveloping them in a golden glow. He skids to a stop, one foot lashing out to send a wave of chi rocketing along the ground towards the mummy. His momentum carries him in a spin, his other foot lashing out with a second smaller wave, that nonetheless moves quicker until it meets up with the first wave, giving it a quick boost that accelerates it on its path.
He holds his position, low to the ground, ready to move should retaliation come his way.
Haru arrives just in time to see Anakaris, an actual honest-to-god mummy, give a girl from one of the local schools the business. That is to say, he gives her the embalming business which actually just LOOKS unpleasant and probably feels an awful lot worse. More to the point, though, that sixth sense he's developed is now going haywire. It's the supernatural equivalent of walking with night vision goggles on from a dark room into a closet with nothing in it but an industrial-powered spotlight.
Anakaris is just this gigantic, room-filling PRESENCE, one that both magnetically draws his eye yet makes him not want to look at the same time. And yet, there are already people here fighting it, without a second thought.
Swallowing his nervousness, the Justice student turns to the 'holy one' and... well, he doesn't have a mysterious awakening or anything. In fact he still looks a little shaky. But for whatever reason, a hand snaps out, wrist loosening, and a... yoyo appears in said hand?
Generating confidence, I'm sure.
"I don't know w-what your problem is, but...!" He doesn't even finish the sentence. He just spins and flicks the yoyo out at the mummy with as much force as he can muster.
Bernstein, right. First scene, kinda rocky.
Adelheid Bernstein's kick landed solidly enough but he may as well have been striking a punching bag for all the effect it had, In fact, it felt exactly like he had struck a punching bag with that kick. Was there even a entity within all of that or was he simply bandaged sand? He retreats a few steps, a withdrawing hop to put him out of the way of the others as they come in to make themselves of one use or another as they please.
Anakaris may very well be the largest thing Adelheid has every had to face. This includes the time that his father made him fight a grizzly bear in order to get to his birthday cake when he turned 12.
Fond memories.
Waiting for his opening, Adel almost strolls around Anakaris, those critical, red eyes of his studying the massive, mountainous mummy for every single moment.
Then he has it, a opening, a gap between fighters and their strikes. He plantgs his heels and gathers himself. His body tenses and a foot trails back, toe dragging in the dirt, his soul, his ki bringing to life a cloudy, silvery light at the lower portion of the trailing leg. With a bark of effort, he sends it scrambling away, leg sweeping forward and up in a kick that has his heel sailing up above his head. Something is sent rushing along the ground, a roiling, smashing eruption of ki that kicks up dust as it goes rushing towards the giant archeological find.
COMBATSYS: Anakaris blocks Keith's Lucky Break.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------========
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Tabitha successfully hits Anakaris with Violent Clinching.
- Power hit! -
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------========
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris endures Adelheid's Grosse Stob.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|------=========
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris blocks Ace's Assaut du Fou.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|------=========
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris blocks Haru's Fierce Strike.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|------=========
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
The Pharaoh admits to only the slightest awareness of the danger a group of trained fighters presents to him.
With Sada handily dealt with for the moment, the Pharaoh turns his attentions towards the others, glaring imperiously down. His moves are not at all fast--he seems barely interested in the movements of Tabitha as the lithe boxer slips behind him at the last moment, mounting him and dangling, trying to headbutt and punch him for all she's worth. This, to her merit, certains comes as a surprise to the Pharaoh, who shifts and lurches slowly under the weight and the onslaught.
He becomes faintly aware of the chi blasts echoing towards him, and a gnat trying to .. punch him with a cookie. It vague annoyance, Anakaris gestures. Suddenly, he and Tabitha are smashed tight into a golden sarcophagus. Appearing suddenly, the sarcophagus seals him inside just as the blasts and punches begin to smash into its surface. It's only Adelheid's charged kick that smashes the surface of the sarcophagus, breaking Anakaris free, with Tabitha still sort of awkwardly riding him. He seems to begrudge her punches only slightly.
"Do not presume to bear unto me false tribute," Anakaris counters, turning towards Keith. Even as he does so, he raises a hand, and Keith will find himself staring into a giant, angry red Eye of Horus, inlaid into his palm. "I do not think you believe as of yet. Trust in me, and I will become your god king. Bear witness, and purify yourself in my wonder..."
From then on, Keith becomes very, very aware of the sky over Egypt.. as the Pharaoh opens a portal deep into the dark spaces of the world. Pouring from it, hundreds of thousands of locusts, frogs, biting flies and mosquitoes. Every wonder and horror, the Pharaoh brings to bear upon Keith, and arguably anybody standing even remotely near him. Ace should be somewhat concerned.
Adelheid has another problem entirely--the Pharaoh turns his other hand into a massive cobra, the bandages around his arm whipping open to greveal giant scaly green flesh bursting from the mummy's arm socket, lengthening, flying, and trying to tighten around and crush Adelheid, just the same as it tries to sink fangs into his neck, in the most horrible fashion.
COMBATSYS: The Swarm has joined the fight here as a left henchman!
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|------=========
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
The Swarm 0/-------/-------|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Keith blocks The Swarm's Pestilence and Plague.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|------=========
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
The Swarm 0/-------/-------|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Adelheid blocks Anakaris' Cobra Blow.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
The Swarm 0/-------/-------|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Haru
Other things Tabitha has never had happened to her: sealed in a golden box with a mummy trying to protect himself. (Tabitha, who didn't do that well in school, doesn't remember the actual word 'sarcophagus' She will probably remember it much later, completely out of the blue.)
Either way, she only sort of fits. It's a tight squeeze, and she makes up for it with the headbutt, dropping off and taking a deep breath - she couldn't wedged in there, they're only really made for one person!
The swarm of bugs and ... miscellaneous crap appearing out of nowhere is a threat. Tabitha can't do much against a swarm (what is she going to do, punch it to death?) but it's not near her, Anakaris is. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good, because she's getting the hang of punching him; bad, because it... doesn't actually seem to do very much. It's like hitting a sawdust-filled bag: not much happens until you split the seam, and she's not sure Anakaris has a seam. Maybe he unravels.
And then Anakaris splits his arms to make a snake. "Oh m - you /do/ unravel!" But getting hit by a snake is not the way to fight off Anakaris! "Just who /are/ you?" Tabitha asks. Unwilling to hive up her assault, she drives another fist at Anakaris, a fast jabbing motion while she keeps her other hand up and ready to block. As if she could block a giant snake or a swarm of bees, Tabitha thinks to herself. What has she gotten herself into?
"You guys," she asks, addressing the others in general. "I don't know you, but thanks! What's even going on here? I didn't mean to be here!" She just felt the powerful aura, and had to come.
"It befits a false king," retorts Keith, who looks more than happy to remind the outsider of his delusion, "... Yeah, trusting is not my strongest point. Sorry, homie."
Keith does find himself in a bad crossroad. When the angry Eye of Horus lays itself out towards him, Keith....
His world changes. His eyes drift up as the sky appears very odd before him. As the portal ripples open, the dark spaces of the world manifests hundreds of locusts, frogs, biting flies. All of the horror are starting to swarm against him.
The NESTS experiment lifts both arms up, covering his face up and he bites through the force of the plague seeking to bite and cover him. While the presence of the creatures seek to rend against him, Keith only staves off the worse of the biting.
Through the plague trying to distract him, Keith decides to deal with this in another way.
"I guess I'll have to deal with a bug spray, "Plan B.""
Desperate times calls for desperate measures. Recalling his visit to a dealer from a black market, Keith is reaching into his pocket to procure a small object with an injector.
Placing the object to his neck, Keith twists the cap and it shoots out something that makes his head turn.
A spike of Psycho Power erupts from his eyes as he extends a hand out towards the plague around him. That Psycho Power is manifested in a form of an invisible force seeking to bowl over the wall of plague.
Sada lays in her ruins, coated in steaming bandages and rapidly degrading amphibian flesh. She pushes herself back up to her feet, veiled from the sight of Mr. Kingpants by the remnants of that croaked croaker.
She breathes in. She breathes out.
Sada wipes her mouth with one hand and steps forwards, now low key relative to her earlier screaming. When a NESTS experiment (not that Sada knows what a NESTS is, despite a recent encounter; she is at least sort of aware of what an experiment is, but we digress, constant reader) throws an invisible force towards the swarm of biting things...
Sada just sees them bunching up.
Pursing her lips, Sada raises a hand to wipe her forehead off. She marches up towards them and flicks her wrist at them. Yes, that will surely do something to the -
A dozen screeching, hissing pops of explosive force detonate outwards. Maybe it will.
"Throw me into a frog, will you," Sada seethes.
There's a look of mild diappointment as Ace's assault bounces mostly uselessly off of the sarcophagus. A mild down turn of the lips, that barely even seems worth the effort. He shifts his weight slightly, ready to once more attack the escapee from a bad horror movie, only to have things around him get biblical.. again. Seriously, what was with this guy and plagues.
For a moment Ace had to wonder if he could do other plagues, like Black Death, then quickly diregards that line of thought as a tremendously awful idea. His eyes dart back and forth betwen the mummy and the swarm of creepy crawlies bursting through a hole in the sky. It seemed most hand the mummy, if not under control, at least occupied, and the swarm was close enough that it might turn on Ace at any moment. So he darted to the side, pulling himself up short near Keith, leg raised in the air.
As the swarm nears he slams his heel into the ground, a blast of chi erupting from in front of him with a loud blast. It's not focused, but against a swarm, who needs focus?
Ah, now that looked to have some effect.
Adel's leg lowers to the ground from it's ascent and the blonde allows himself a slight smile, it crooks at the corners of his lips and narrows his eyes.
Then Anakaris does something unexpected.
No, it is not the deluge of insects and pests, it is the act of turning his arm into a massive, goddamned cobra! Adelheid prides himself on his ability to observe, analyze, and anticipate his opponents movements and abilities. He expected nor anticipated the fact that this crowned giant could turn his arm into a massive, friggen cobra.
Hence forth, he will assume that some people will be capable of turning their arms into cobras of various sizes and act accordingly. Now, he will have to simply fly by the seat of his pants.
He is not fast enough to escape the serpent's coils but when the snake bares it's fangs, Adel is able to catch the creature's gaping maw by it's upper and lower mandible, holding those fangs and the many, many, hooked teeth, at bay. He strains, brow beading with sweat as he fights against the beastly appendage, tightening his jaw even as the coils draw tighter around him. "I.. will not be delt with... so lightly!" the young man utters past clenched teeth as he gathers his will and.. just seems to go hurtling away with a sudden burst of speed, force, and violent intent.
Still grappling the arm that is a snake, Adelheid hurls himself across whatever distance exists between himself and the closest, sturdiest, and most solid wall. He will crush the snake against the barrier and use this chance to extract himself from it's embrace.
For a second, another presence cuts through the overwhelming jackhammer of Anakaris's looming in Haru's mind's eye. He turns to Keith just in time to see Starship Troopers happening but at, like, a 1:15 scale or something like that. The Justice student eyes the rather tall boxer, tilting his head faintly at him. And as far as he can tell, slapping an ancient cursed mummy with a yoyo had approximately zero effect whatsoever, and that blonde kid with the MC Hammer pants looks like he's got things covered?
"Right," the be-costumed psychic says, taking a deep breath.
He sets off toward Keith at a run, stopping just short alongside Ace in the process. Apparently, it's 'use supernatural powers to kill summoned locusts' day, since alongside Keith's burst and Ace's chi blast, Haru extends his hand and gives an inarticulate shout, a field of Psycho Power in the shape of a glowing white lotus erupting from his palm, then shattering into shards that shred the bugs at close range. Maybe, anyway. Aren't swarms weak to area attacks?!
COMBATSYS: Ace successfully hits The Swarm with Defense de la Tour.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
The Swarm 0/-------/---====|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris blocks Tabitha's Guard Knuckle.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
The Swarm 0/-------/---====|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris dodges Adelheid's God Press. Adelheid does, however, successfully hit a sheep!
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
The Swarm 0/-------/---====|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Sada successfully hits The Swarm with Glow Bomber.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
The Swarm 0/-------/-======|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\1 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Haru successfully hits The Swarm with Amethyst Clarity.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
The Swarm 1/-----==/=======|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\1 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Haru
COMBATSYS: Keith successfully hits The Swarm with Kinetic Force.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
[ \\\\\\\ <
The Swarm 1/-======/=======|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\1 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Haru
Haru says, "welp"
The cataclysmic swarm is obliterated!!
Swarms of locusts and frogs and raining blood are scattered everywhere by the antipodal blast of competing powers, growing together into one giant coruscating flowery (thanks Haru) blast, causing the tide of insects to flood past the undead Pharaoh, the god king watching calmly as his swarm is destructed before him.
Notably, frog cooking does not smell quite as great as the French make it out to be, if Sada is wondering.
"Who am I? Who fills the dunes with sand.." Anakaris remarks absently towards Tabitha. As Adelheid struggles against his snake arm, throwing himself against a wall, he'll find his impact surprisingly not dulled by the feeling of flesh, as Anakaris' arm falls away into sand long before he ever makes contact. The Pharaoh seems to take all the time in the world to reflect on Tabitha's pummelling blow. It lands against him, and her fist is lost somewhere in his body. Punching into his muscle is no different from slamming your fist into the sand dunes. He seems to have some sort of control over his body's cells individually, and he seems to be quite content with letting Tabitha hammer away at him. Instead of responding, he rises to his full height slowly.
"If not I, then who? I am the god king of all I survey. Do you feel my holiness? If you do not, simply pray for your health, and do not fear death." he commands, his bandages wrapping tightly around reformed muscle to gesture absently at Haru. From the way his red eyes focus after the young student, it is clear his attention has shifted again, glacially. The pieces of his sarcophagus wink away, and then reform, falling onto Haru and splitting open, slamming shut on him with crushing force. If it successfully shuts on him, Anakaris absently will throw him across the battlefield, the Sarcophagus obeying his command as simply as if he were to pick it up and hurl it himself.
Meanwhile, it would seem that the swarm.. is not actually dead.
Resurging with sickening speed, they flood up and around Keith almost as soon as he attacks, holding him down in mid-comment to worm into every possible nook, cranny and orifice he has. Biting, itching--it's pretty bad. Trying to talk will probably mean you get a mouthful of lice. Better deal with that. More and more of them swarm and flood the area, surging into the battlefield anew, weakened but hardly stymied. Ace seems to get the worst of the rest of whatever Keith is not actually fighting off, as frogs start to bury him alive, passively...
It's also entirely probable that there are untold creatures getting into Sada's dress as we speak.
COMBATSYS: The Swarm successfully hit Keith with Into Your Bed.
- Power hit! -
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
[ \\\\\\ <
The Swarm 1/=======/=======|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\1 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Haru
"..Tsch. That takes care of that."
There was a good deal of satisfaction of watching the swarm become obliterated from the force of the Psycho Power. Despite of their attempts to overwhelm him, Keith along with the others manage to drive them off. However, the feedback has left Keith's body shuddering. "Nggh.." The feedback has left him bit distracted.
This has put him in the eye of the swarm that resurges. They cover up against the large black man. He grits his teeth, turning his head back in attempts to sweep them away. Hwoever, they have flooded him until...
He ends up in one of the frog's mouth.
GULP! Inside of the frog, Keith only muses.
"Well... this is unexpected."
"Pretty sure they fill themselves," Tabitha mutters, more to herself than Anakaris. She isn't getting answers from her companions - well, they're busy too, she figures.
It really is like hitting a sawdust-filled bag, Tabitha thinks. She can pound on it - him - all day and unless she finds a seam or a weak point it's not going to do much other than make her arms tired. Good training, but this isn't really training time, now is it?
Well... maybe it should be.
Tabitha takes a solid stance near Anakaris. He's doing something with his hand - oh. A coffin. That looks really uncomfortable; Anakaris is clearly capable of feats beyond Tabitha's experience - not just things she can do, but things that she thought anyone could do. But it's not aimed at her, and while he's beating up the others, Tabitha does things the slow, steady way.
She punches. And then she punches again. And again. It's not a particularly fast rhythm; Tabitha has kind of a lead fist, every strike with a lot of power behind it but the whole series not especially zippy. But it's at least reliable, a constant smacking of her fists into Anakaris (hopefully) that just keeps going, slow and patient and battering him down. The single strikes aren't working; what about a sustained series?
"Look," Tabitha says, during her steady strikes. "I'm an atheist, okay? I don't believe in God, and I /still/ don't know who you are, but I'm pretty sure if there was a God you wouldn't be Him. He's supposed to be a lot less dead." Pause. "Except for three days around Easter."
Sada looks at everyone else getting in on the bug killing action from beneath her hair. Good, she thinks, heedless that her own cursed arts are perhaps less flashy than...
A heel kick. Ace gets a slightly withering look. He shot fire out of his foot! (Sada is still kind of green.)
The insects rise upwards and lunge towards Sada, who stares at them in silence for a moment. They wash over her in a disgusting swarm, but there is one advantage to Sada's state, to the curse that simmers like sauce - death sauce - i her blood. She is currently overheated, sweating, and bruised... and every louse that touches a droplet of sweat dies in a little meaty pop.
In some eyes, this would be miraculous; she will go almost wholly unbitten when this day is finished.
Sada pivots on her heel then to face towards the purported king. A bug is crawling up towards her eyelid. She feels a certain tension in her gut, looking towards Anakaris - how could you not? The guy threw some kind of evil mummy wrap at her. She couldn't make it out. The frustration from her contact with a Nameless man, and the face-dive she took as a result, simmers in her gut as well.
"You disgusting freak," Sada says to herself as she stalks forwards, her calves tightening as sweat runs down her back, "whatever the shit it is you're doing it is GROSS and FILTHY and you're SCREWING UP THIS PARTY. You - if you're some kind of Islamic terrorist weirdo, I'll take you down! I'll --"
The bug comes to her eyelid.
Sada scratches. She scratches too hard, and between agitation, dehydration, and a brief tear, she feels her eyelid invert momentarily, which stings, and then there's a twitch in her eye and
A ray of red light, already sparkling and erupting as it goes, arcs out from Sada's eye. Those from a distance might think it is in fact an eye laser, but those with sharp expressions or attention spans would see that: no, it's blood, sprayed from her tear duct and a scrape on the lower lid.
Sada lets out a tight yelp of surprise, and pain. But the blood tells its tale.
(The tale is an explosion on what it hits.)
Ace flicks a bit of toasted lice off his shoulder as cooked swarm rains down around him. Not nearly as nice as toasted rice... no where near as nice to be exact. He glares at the mummy, shaking his head as he continues his ranting.
"I am he who causes the toilets to flush, and the cats to make annoying noises in the middle of the night." He even does a fair approximation of the voice. "I'm getting real sick of that."
There's barely a moment's hesitation before he rushes at Anakaris. He's quick on his feet at least once he gets moving. He leaps up on a picnic table, rebounds off of some fallen sound equipment and takes one last flying leap at the mummy man, only to vanish from sight a scant couple of feet away.
There's only a slight delay before he reappears beside the pharoh, already in the process of a spinning kick towards the bandaged monstrosity's side.
COMBATSYS: Anakaris successfully hits Haru with Hitsugi no Mai.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------------===|===============
[ \\\\\\ <
The Swarm 1/=======/=======|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
Well, how about that? They did it! Haru turns toward Ace and Keith, and is about to smile and offer his congratulations on their mutual destruction of a hellplague from the Nile, when a few things happen roughly simultaneously:
1.) Keith starts talking back to a mummy and is then eaten by a frog for his troubles.
2.) Ace quips, then runs, then runs and quips at the same time.
3.) Haru gets the syllable "Um...!" out of his mouth.
4.) A gigantic Egyptian sarcophagus slams shut right in Haru's face, cutting him off.
Then the sarcophagus goes flying into the side of a nearby building at mach speed, shattering against the side of what appears to be a first aid hut and hurling Haru into the air, and then onto the ground, where he lands face down. "No, momma," he says in ataxic confusion, voice muffled by the dirt. "I don't wanna ride the teacups anymore."
COMBATSYS: Haru takes no action.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------------===|===============
[ \\\\\\ <
The Swarm 1/=======/=======|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
That was less than satisfying.
Instead of a snake, Adelheid's hand crashes into a wall, fingers punching into masonry and mortar. With a jerk, he extracts his fingers and dusts off on his pants, patting at the hip of his... somewhat poofy pants. So, there were more tricks than he had expected... A interesting foe if nothing else. Perhaps aggitating, pompous, and powerful, but interesting.
Adel launches himself into the fray once more. Tabitha has the fore, Ace has the side, he shal claim the... other side. Vaulting over one bit of detritus or another, Adelheid closes and weighs in on the matter of Anakaris' dauntless nature. He starts in with a series of kicks, simple but quick. His weight shifts back to a planted foot as the other snapped up and cracked off towards the giant's waist, as high as he could reach standing, possibly. The second would fire as soon as his leg could draw it away, shin hammering at the back of the sandbag's thigh before the last and final blow snaked in to crash against the back of his knee. If there was any endoskeletal structure to the entity, that might just bring him to a kneel!
COMBATSYS: Anakaris auto-guards Adelheid's Fierce Combo.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------------===|===============
[ \\\\\\ <
The Swarm 1/=======/=======|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris blocks Tabitha's Rapid Combo.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------------===|===============
[ \\\\\\ <
The Swarm 1/=======/=======|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris blocks Ace's Astuce du Cavalier.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|-----------====|===============
[ \\\\\\ <
The Swarm 1/=======/=======|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris endures Sada's Haemolacria.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|-----------====|===============
[ \\\\\\ <
The Swarm 1/=======/=======|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
The Pharaoh is cold and distant as he responds with casually lethal intent towards Haru, knocking the student aside inside of his resting place. At the same time, Keith is eaten by a giant frog. All is as it should be. He turns icy gaze towards the others calmly. "Do you not believe in God? Then, believe in me and me alone, and you will still be saved. I am the king eternal," he explains, inexorable in tone and motive.
However, when attacked by Adelheid, the Pharaoh decides to move. Taking a single--one--step forward, he then sinks his leg into the earth before him, as if it were naught but water to his step. He continues onward. The others, blurring kicks and punches slam into his body as he moves slowly, lumbering into them and into the earth as if it were made of quicksand. By the time Adelheid gets to flanking him and kicking, his body is not much left here but spare bandages. You see, luckily he didn't hear Ace's mockery. There is a far louder one on the battlefield.
There is an audible yelp from the other side of the battlefield, as Anakaris reappears from the earth and sand just in time, behind Tabitha and Ace and Adelheid, to absorb the blast from Sada's bloody eye from a handful of spans away. The attack sprays across him, sizzling and leaving a long bloody trail. He adopts a wane look, a little troubled.
"You are loud," he notes, thoughtfully.
"...Praise me."
Suddenly, the stone carving out the features of his face transmute, twisting to animate and face Sada. A wave of sand twirls from his mouth violently, threatening to engulf her. The sand is not just .. normal sand. He is not at all blind. In is in fact the opposite. Anakaris has noticed her body seems to be immune to his plagues. Her purity will be tested at this point, as he uses his considerable abilities. Should his attack land, her body will twist against itself, as he manipulates her on the molecular level. He will give her a means and vestments befitting a servant, and shrink her body.
She will become small enough that the horde of frogs descending on her might be a much, much larger problem than she initially guesses.
COMBATSYS: The Swarm keeps on fighting!
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|-----------====|===============
[ \\\\\\\ <
The Swarm 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: The Swarm successfully hit Sada with Into Your Streams.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|-----------====|===============
[ \\\\\\\ <
The Swarm 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris successfully hits Sada with Ouke no Sabaki.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|-------========|===============
[ \\\\\\\ <
The Swarm 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
Sada bares her teeth at the god, which is less dramatic than it sounds.
Then sand comes in.
I'm being drugged, she thinks as it surrounds her; that's the only logical answer for this. I've been slipped a huge dose of LSD by Islamic terrorists! This is a nice story and she may even believe it later. For this moment, though, Anakaris gets his praise, if indirectly -- Sada lets out a hellacious screech. Pain, disorientation, frustration, helplessness, all of it refined into a ringing note of feminine dismay!
Is she [pure]? Well, that depends. Is hydrochloric acid [pure]?
It's a question for the ages.
Sada finds herself swathed in bandages once more, along with a sassy little piece of head decoration. Her hair is swept back and then wrapped up, and she looks at her hands in confusion. She rips at the fabric on reflex, the world getting disorientingly large, before behind her -
Comes the sound.
"RIBBIT"
Sada looks over her shoulders, one eye still bloody.
The frogs are staring at her.
The bandages on Sada's molecularly distorted corpus start to steam gently.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT is a veritable montage of the miniscule Sada lunging at the frogs and grasping for brittle amphibian bone handholds. Does Sada retain the proportional strength of an irate schoolgirl? Will her acidic sweat slay frogs the same way that James Watt's questionable policies regarding carbon emissions slew lakes in Canadian back country? Or will fast motion and the reflexive devourment of twitching, angry objects put Sada in the belly of the beast?
It is a question for the ages. From the outside, it looks completely ridiculous; wrappings trail, Sada manages several more backflips than are usually the case, and any number of innocent sand fleas perish in the backblast. Won't someone think of the sand fleas?
"I'll pass," is Tabitha's response, keeping up her piston-like punches for another swing or two.
Eventually she has to stop, though, and in her case it's when Anakaris moves too far - when he takes a single step forward, she can adjust, but when he vanishes into the earth, that's a whole other matter. She looks around, this way and that, to see where Anakaris has gotten to.
It's not too far away (he could, after all, have just left) but it is far enough away that Tabitha can't immediately react, not when Anakaris does - he does -
"Oh come on!" That d oesn't even make sense, how can someone do something like that? "That's not even /possible/!" She's beginning to have second (and third, and fourth) thoughts about immediately jumping in against the powerful mummy. At first she thought he was a man in a costume - a powerful man but still a normal person. By now, she doesn't really know what she's in for.
Once again Tabitha bounces on her feet as if warming up. It doesn't take long before she's moving - partway around Anakaris, circling. It looks like she's going to move to punch him, but she doesn't; whirling, Tabitha moves into the swarm, slipping around it with rapid open-hand slaps as she tries to just keep moving, not letting them focus on her. The bright aurora of her chi returns, flaring around her as she whirls, trying to freeze the bugs out of the air.
You can't punch a swarm of bugs to death! part of her mind tells her. /Watch me/, says the other, less sensible part. It might even help Sada free herself!
The kick is about as useful as a fly against a hand, which is to say not at all. And the frustration is starting to show on Ace's face. He starts a little as Anakaris sinks into the ground, unable to help but wonder if the monster retreated, only to have his hopes shattered as he resurfaces.
His mouth actually hangs open for a moment at the... "That's just.. no.." Couldn't have said it any better, nope. He lets out a small growl and charges again. He leaves the fancy tricks behind for this one, merely rushing his way up to the mummy.
Ricochetting himself off a fallen, frog goo-covered port-a-pot, he uses his momentum to deliver as strong a kick as he can manage. His booted foot flaring with chi at the last moment right before impact. As a kickboxer, he can't help but feel a little dismayed at just how ineffectual he feels, even so he manages a rather growly, "Over here, Tut!"
That did not go as he had wished either.
Unconventional opponents were less than Adelheid's forte, his strengths were in the prediction and adaptation to the capabilities of his foes. There was little he could to to adapt to Anakaris' techniques than accept at last that this entity was capable of impossible feats. To allow himself to be surprised once more would only lead to defeat, or worse, embaressment!
His leg thrashes through leftovers and castoff bandages, a flick of his leg discards a few of the wrapings that had twined around his foot and shin.
The giant appears once more and Adelheid's acceptance of the impossible fares well for him, the mountain of a mummy proceeds to alter one of his foes. Adel takes the moment to square himself with the towering entity, attempting to capitalize on his focus.
The Prince of war thrusts his hand forward, open, palm out, he does not grab Anakaris so much as he just seeks to lay hand to the mummy's middle. There, he will focus his Ki into the palm of the out-stretched hand, slivery light welling in his grasp for just a moment before it is loosed ina out pouring of wind that seeks to fling the titan back, if not rip through his seemingly silicon saturated interior!
Everything's a bit of a blur, but eventually Haru crawls out of the nearly-literal hole in the ground into which he fell after Anakaris's cruel reprisal. "Ngh... what just happened..." the young psychic mutters, putting a hand to his forehead and trying to get his senses back. He looks up to see... well, fighters continuing to fight, which is good. They're keeping up admirably with the mummy, even if it seems like they're not doing much in terms of slowing him down? But then his eye is drawn to Sada as the insect swarm descends upon her and she unleashes the bloodiest eye laser since that one Cyclops/Emma Frost snuff fic on Tumblr. That gets Haru's attention.
THEN Sada just straight up gets HEXED. What is that even ABOUT.
But weirdly, FINALLY, Haru feels confident about something. Struggling forward, trying to impose his will on an unruly body, he nevertheless manages to make his way to where the frogs are converging on Sada, looking for and finally finding her. Sort of. "Are you okay? I, uh... I hope this helps!"
The subtitles in the Cantonese version read: "I hope this doesn't make things worse."
The Justice High student extends a hand, palm down, and ~*concentrates*~. His hand glows with a white, pure light and... well, NICE ENERGY™ flows into Sada. It might heal her. It might make her angry. Maybe it'll interact with the curse and turn her into a 15' tall Amazon death machine.
Who can say.
COMBATSYS: Sada successfully hits The Swarm with Brutal Throw Chain.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|-------========|===============
[ <
The Swarm 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: The Swarm endures Tabitha's Arctic Blow.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|-------========|===============
[ <
The Swarm 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: Ace successfully hits Anakaris with Colossal Kick.
- Power hit! -
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|-------========|===============
[ <
The Swarm 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: Anakaris blocks Adelheid's Scorpion Deathlock.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------=========|===============
[ <
The Swarm 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
"Yes... your song and your form entertain me," Anakaris praises Sada, on the shrillness of her scream. "If you survive, you will be allowed to sit at my lap and come under my protection as a vassal. Deliver me the birthright... and then I will rule over you and protect you as is your right..."
The Pharaoh turns to face the others, leaving Sada with the horde.
As Haru and Tabitha rush to Sada's assistance, the swarm begin to surround her. It's lucky they show up when they do, because they were literally about to try and surround and eat her whole. To be fair, she's putting up a fair fight of her own, rolling in the dirt with a very, very surprised frog. Frogs. The whole scene descends into chaos as the crawlers react to their attackers, swarming each in turn in their immediate vicinity as if provoked directly. Lice and boils and blood flood the area, locusts chewing at flesh the same as they devour whole crops. They seem to grow in number as they're attacked, and only the cataclysmic battle Sada's having on the ground including the ice burst in the air will actually overcome them. They might be many in number, but Haru's help might be enough to empower Sada to kill every last randy frog in the area, the power breaking the Pharaoh's hold over his swarm, and, at the very least, combatting the continual warping of his own power exerted over the young girl's body.
What of it... how disappointing.
Now facing his two remaining attackers, Anakaris looks up just in time to see Ace come flying in with the world's most intense kick right into his middle, staggering the Pharaoh noticeably. There is a measurable difference between that blow and the others, in that he felt it hit actual flesh, if dry, instead of sand. Is he simply.. changing parts of his body to sand just before impact? If so, it means he can be defeated. But it will come at a price.
As the god king Anakaris comes back to stand once more, Adelheid takes obvious opportunity to charge up a powerful chi blast right into his middle. Except.. something's wrong. It's not exactly sand that absorbs the shock of the blow, but a set of eyes that open, red and angry, at either of Anakaris' sides. It seems to have a powerful aura effect on that chi...
"I have enjoyed your display. But now, you have angered me," Anakaris mentions, coldly.
"Now, I choose one amongst you to suffer," he says.
And then splits in half at the exact point that Adelheid hit.
Literally, his lower half and his upper half have become two seperate entities as he floats in the air overhead. His arm transmutes again into that horrific snake as he tries to grip Adelheid around the head with it, crushing and biting him, even as his lower half, piloted by some .. bizarre creature that was apparently living in his middle this whole time, advances. It slips its leg through the ground like it were water, bandages unravelling around his leg and showing nothing(!) there at all. The blow bursts from the sands beneath Adelheid, trying to kick him square in the middle while he's trying to contend with the snake from above.
A pincer attack...
COMBATSYS: The Swarm can no longer fight.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------=========|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: Tabitha blocks The Swarm's On Every Field On Every Town+.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------=========|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: Haru successfully aids Sada with Ruby Warmth.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------=========|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: Khaibit has joined the fight here as a right henchman!
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------=========|===============
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: Sada dodges The Swarm's On Every Field On Every Town+. The Swarm does, however, successfully hit a sheep!
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------=========|===============
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/------=|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: Adelheid fully avoids Khaibit's Quick Strike.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/-----==|=======\=------\1 Haru
COMBATSYS: Adelheid fails to interrupt Pharaoh Split+ from Anakaris with Genocide Cutter.
! VENGEANCE !
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Ace 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Sada
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Tabitha
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 1/----===/=======|=======\=------\1 Haru
The cool winds of Tabitha's strikes weaken Sada, if indirectly, though the fury at hearing the giant man talk her down isn't UNhelpful here. How do they weaken her? Not by exhausting her, quite the contrary; they reduce the sweat coming off her, and in turn, the amount of protective sizzling that she has.
Even so, much to the doubtless horror of Kermit, frogs perish in obscurity. They are not the toughest of creatures. Any negative effects from Sada being less of a ball of acid are probably balanced by the frogs slowing down and/or being frozen solid. (Be careful - they can come back from that!)
Later Sada will perhaps be thoughtful about what Anakaris said to her. For now she is furious, even if that luminous ray of *~NICE ENERGY~* joins with Tabitha's ~*ICE ENERGY*~ to shed brightness on her.
So it is that Sada begins to grow once more, ripping through her mummy-wraps in a manner most pleasing to a certain subset of the viewing audience. She takes a moment to smash her heel down into a particularly errant frog, smashing up at some locusts - and throwing an arm over herself as she says, hotly, "I think he's given us drugs!! Stop him, before he makes us all junkies!!"
An exhortation, maybe, to Adelheid, Haru, and others.
COMBATSYS: Sada has joined the fight here in the center.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 1/----===/=======|=------\-------\0 Ace
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Tabitha 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Keith
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Haru 1/------=/=======|
[ ||||||||||||||||| ]
Sada 0|-------|=======
Tabitha 'The Crowd' Coren swings her freezing light through the insects, punching a larger... thing. She doesn't know what it was. Giant grasshopper? It was still pretty small compared to her, but big for a bug. "Okay," is Tabitha's response, "now that's starting to get creepy-sounding." Like a cult leader.
What, like it wasn't creepy before?
Bugs assault Tabitha left, right, and center. Unfortunately she didn't think to come equipped with a giant flyswatter, but what she does have is... herself. She whips her hands around her, trying to block as many as possible from getting close to her by interposing the auroric ribbons of chi so they freeze first. Unfortunately, she's not actually that good with her chi... she starts to weaken almost immediately.
Tabitha growls as bugs start to chew on her. It is unpleasant in a way just getting punched or kicked isn't; she feels disgusted as much as in pain. Ugh, she really wants a bath right now... but at least she got Sada out, who is looking a little bit better than she expected.
"Who said anything about /drugs/?" she asks Sada. "I think he's a mummy! Like... The Mummy. The movie." Tabitha finishes that a little lamely before turning back to Anakaris just in time to watch him... split. In half, apparently voluntarily. And keep fighting afterwards. "Oh that is just gross!" Tabitha looks from one half of Anakaris to the other.
This whole thing makes her fists itch (actually that might still be the bugs). Tabitha picks the obvious target for her. She's a boxer. She goes after the half that has arms, drawing back her fist and holding it there for several increasingly long-feeling instants, breathing in, gathering her power.
And then, in one strong motion, she bursts forward, driving all her momentum, all her weight, and all her body strength in one single blow directly at Anakaris' probably-a-chest, releasing the pent-up force of her tenacity and fighting spirit all at once!
Pay dirt! Or.. pay sand.. or something.
At least Ace gets the satisfying feeling of his kick actually connecting with something that wasn't stone or sand. So this thing can be hurt, the more important question is can it be hurt enough before the group taking him on is completely decimated. As he ponders the question, the pharoh splits, and not in the way Ace would hope.
By know, his only reaction is to just stare... blankly. "That's.. I can't.. I don't.. Screw it!"
Well, a plain old boot the the middle worked before, perhaps it's time to try another one, though the middle would be an ineffectual point at the given moment. He looks like he's nodding as he decides which half is better to go after, and decides since the upper one has the original head it must be the boss.
Logic!
He takes another flying leap, getting just above the mummy-man before bringing down a chi-lit heel, hopefully right on top of his crown.
COMBATSYS: Keith has joined the fight here in the center.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0 Ace
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Haru 1/------=/=======|=------\-------\0 Tabitha
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Keith 0|-------|------=
[ ||||||||||||||||| ]
Sada 0|-------|=======
COMBATSYS: Tabitha has joined the fight here in the center.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0 Ace
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Haru 1/------=/=======|
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Keith 0|-------|------=
[ ||||||||||||||||| ]
Sada 0|-------|=======
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Tabitha 0|-------|------=
COMBATSYS: Ace has joined the fight here in the center.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Adelheid 1/----===/=======|=======\=------\1 Haru
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Ace 0|-------|-------
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Keith 0|-------|------=
[ ||||||||||||||||| ]
Sada 0|-------|=======
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Tabitha 0|-------|------=
COMBATSYS: Haru counters On Every Field On Every Town+ from The Swarm with Diamond Resolve.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Adelheid 1/----===/=======|=------\-------\0 Haru
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Ace 0|-------|-------
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Keith 0|-------|------=
[ ||||||||||||||||| ]
Sada 0|-------|=======
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Tabitha 0|-------|------=
Air-rending ki erupts from Adelheid's hand. He expected a flood of sand or shredded bandages and gauze. What he gets instead is a complete bisection. Light appears in the space between... and then a creepy, little man is peering at him from inside of Anakari's lower half. It's like a cold smack in the face with a soaked towel. For a heartbeat, the red-eyed blonde is out of the fight, looking into the hollow pits that are the eyes of Khaibit. Then the form sinks down and Adel is back and in ernest. He stoops, legs bending at the knees before they send him into a retreating hop that carries him well out of the way of the foot that suddenly erupts from the earth where he had just been standing.
Booted feet scuff the earth once the eldest son of Bernstein lands, body stooping into a crouch to better manage the landing, hands bracing against the ground as his attention turns skywards to the floating, disembodied torso of Anakaris. Another unexpected tactic. This creature is infuriating!
His body tenses, the cobras seeking him once more. He bounds upwards, intending to meet them and cut short their assault, in a very literal fashion.
The serpants prove quicker however, one looping around his face and head with stifling, crushing force, the other finding it's purchase elsewhere. This would be painful enough, the wrenching of his neck and the nerve-rattling pain of having your head squeezed, Then the fangs come, he cannot see to forestall them this time, painful bites that make him twist and writhe in midair, his yelp of pain muffled by bandaged scales as he tries to fight free, grab bing at necks and trying to rip them away from where fangs have been anchored.
Bugs. Lots of bugs. Gross, icky bugs.
All he wanted to do was help people! And find out about the mysterious inner urge pushing him toward Anakaris! What he got was a weird mummy and trapped in a sarcophagus and then there were all these bugs and that girl shot blood out of her EYE and now these creepy crawlies want to OH HELL NO
A cringing, cowering Haru is suddenly and rather inexplicably glowing. This lasts a faction of a second before that pure white glow *explodes* outwards, swallowing up every last nearby locuts, frog, gnat, larva, or whatever in a sweep of energy that unfolds all around him like the petals of a lotus flower.
When the proverbial smoke clears, the Justice student is cowering right where he was, hands over his head, whimpering. Which... persists for a second before he slowly blinks one eye open. "What... just... happened...?" he asks aloud, slowly standing up.
Then he looks down and sees the scorched circle under him, blinking in confusion. "...oh."
Yeah no, staying would be crazy.
"I'm... I'm gonna go try and get help!" the Justice student says, halfway between earnestness and cowardice, before taking off at a fast clip. He really will tell someone who looks capable to come help! If he meets one FAR AWAY FROM HERE.
COMBATSYS: Haru has left the fight here.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Adelheid 1/----===/=======|
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Ace 0|-------|-------
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Keith 0|-------|------=
[ ||||||||||||||||| ]
Sada 0|-------|=======
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Tabitha 0|-------|------=
COMBATSYS: Tabitha successfully hits Anakaris with Impact Knuckle.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Adelheid 1/----===/=======|
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Ace 0|-------|-------
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Keith 0|-------|------=
[ ||||||||||||||||| ]
Sada 0|-------|=======
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Tabitha 0|-------|-----==
COMBATSYS: Ace successfully hits Anakaris with Heel Kick.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------------==
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Adelheid 1/----===/=======|
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Ace 0|-------|-------
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Keith 0|-------|------=
[ ||||||||||||||||| ]
Sada 0|-------|=======
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Tabitha 0|-------|-----==
And then, Anakaris is struck! Even as his subordinate familiar continues to distract Adelheid, the other two launch into the air to engage him. In the midst of almost crushing Adelheid's head in his serpentine grasp, he does not have the same defense that he does normally, his body struck off-balance with the first crushing blow from Ace square down upon his crown, right into the all-out committed attack from Tabitha. The shock is in fact, so much that he is forced to release his grip on Adelheid, whose attack was stymied entirely by his crushing cobra. Even so, that deadly serpent still stares the Bernstein Prince down coldly.
A hairline crack forms in the Pharaoh's face.
The serpent's gaze matches his own.
"This is no cult, this is no drug," Anakaris counters, floating far overhead.
"It is not for cultists to believe what is true," the Pharaoh declares. "I am the morning and the evening star. This is only providence, and the will of God in his kings. Nothing more... now, I will show you the true depths of my wonder."
Anakaris begins to regroup from the damage, and, bandages wrapping tightly around his hands as he returns the serpent to the sand, he spreads his arms wide in a grandiose gesture. What is the Pharaoh going to do?
Tune in next time, on MOTM: THE CHAMPION'S ROAD!!
========
========
LAST TIME on MotM: The Champion's Road:
"It is not for cultists to believe what is true," the Pharaoh declares. "I am the morning and the evening star. This is only providence, and the will of God in his kings. Nothing more... now, I will show you the true depths of my wonder."
The Pharaoh, making a sudden unexplained appearance in the clearing towards the tail end of the All Hallow's Eve festival, had laid siege to all who had stood before him, electing to hold a bizarre court with those he would deem worthy to become his subjects, while searching for something called 'the birthright.' Now, the grassy fairground flatlands in the middle of the ostensibly haunted forest looks liek the site of a warzone, with dead locusts and flies and beaten up frogs laying around everywhere, the aftermath of a vicious swarm attack.
It had taken several bizarre acts of holiness to convince those he was standing against that he was truly a God King, but slowly, surely, they had come to believe. One had even run away to get help, a young student yelling at the top of his lungs about a giant mummy attack. And truthfully, it looks like it--the buildings are blasted to pieces, the result of the feroicty of their battle, and vermin chip and eat at the debris still. The Pharaoh floats high overhead, having seperated at the waist (!) into two seperate sections to attack and choke a particularly persistent fighter. However, all of that is now at an end, for the Pharaoh has risen his arms once more.
"Be still, for I have made my decision.."
And just like that, Anakaris buries the entire fairgrounds in sand. A wave crashes through the clearing, snapping trees in half in its forcve and power. Warping tons in at seeming will, he buries anyone not fast or wise enough to flee. It will take some time for even a seasoned fighter to dig their way out of the dunes, and it arrives so fast that even his lower half, piloted by a seedy eyed subordinate, has trouble walking its way free. It is enough to show his displeasure with them for the time being.
"If my disposition is something you wish... let us see who is holiest," Anakaris comments, absently.
There can be no passion in the voice of a wise and effective king.
COMBATSYS: Anakaris issues a challenge!!
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------------==
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Jira
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Vyle 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Daniel
COMBATSYS: Anakaris focuses on his next action.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------------==
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Jira
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Vyle 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Daniel
There was one veteran in this earlier battle. This fighter had fought his way through the horde of creatures that attempted to take him. However, it was in the end that the figure was enveloped and buried inside of a creature's stomach.
On top of that? Sand. Lots of sand.
A dark-skinned hand emerges from the sand a moment later, drenched with the ooze from the insides of a frog. After those moments, the large black man is pulling himself up. He slowly emerges from the mass of sand that sought to bury everyone within the former party area.
"...Well, this is interesting."
Keith looks rather bemused at first. However, a frown forms slightly when he finally looks over towards the God King.
"However..." A hand reaches into his pocket to procure his coin. With a flick of a wrist, he grasps the coin and he starts to face upward at the God King.
"How about Round Two, huh?" He tilts his head to the side, cracking his knuckles.
COMBATSYS: Keith focuses on his next action.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------------==
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Jira
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Vyle 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Daniel
Jira had climbed herself up to the roof of the haunted building after that encounter within. Her heart is already racing, but a sea of sand washing over the fairgrounds is just plain ominous. She runs to the rear end of the roof, carefully keeping her balance and getting low down to steady for the impact. The condemned attraction suffers a critical blow with the sand surging forth, toppling it over and crashing into the dune.
Jira barely manages to keep on the surface of the building as it succumbs and falls through, leaving her in the sand. Her scanning eyes spot something that makes her heart sink. Getting to her feet on the unsteady sand she removes her sweater and ties it off at her waist- fuelled by the growing unease in her chest, and the new voice in her head she draws out a glowing mote of light from her chest with her left hand. It elongates to arm length before blossoming into an elegant sword, extending from her grip as an expression of her given style. But before she does anything else she hefts up a brick off the ground, spins around once, and hurls it at the standing wannabe god-king!
"Don't go terraforming a place you don't own!" she shouts out in a slighhtly miffed tone.
Halloween, when all the freaks come out to play. You know, at least outside of your usual weekly wrestling show.
Heck, one Vernon Cross was here at the festivities trying to promote for the next Brute Force Wrestling show as they tried to aggressively expand their media reach when things happened here. And if one thing gets Mr. Cross's dander up...it's a missed opportunity for profit. It's enough to bring back some old memories.
Oh, not for him, but for anyone who remembered Cross during his time as one of the worst gringo rudos in recent Mexican Wrestling history. As he climed out of the sand, gone was the put on professional demeanor of a promotion owner. Gone even was the act of the Day of the Dead-style skeleton in his classic green-and-purple highlights. Face paint peeled away as he climbed out of the sand, a glower came on the man known mostly as Vyle's expression.
"Well....thought I smelled something rotting. Not you, mind, but your breath. Cripes, did you eat a dead cat before coming here?" he snapped up toward the mummy, loud enough to hopefully get the God King's attention even despite the distance from the clearing he so hovered over. If this guy wants holy? He's not seeing it in Vyle. Nope, he just brought out a poisonous devil instead, brother.
"You are under arrest!"
That is the shout as spotlight fixes from overhead. A helicopter hovers in the sky, shining the light upon the godking. Fluttering overhead, it bears the insignia of Interpol on the side. Standing by the door, looking out of it, is a man in grey, gripping a megaphone. The helicopter begins to lower, as a long rope drops out from it. The man jumps, keeping close to it as he man rappels down from the helicopter.
It looks like the world police is on the scene.
Clutching a megaphone in his hand, the dark-skinned man is dressed in a grey trench-coat, khaki slacks, and wearing a fedora on his head. Sliding down the rope, he keeps calling out on the megaphone. "This is Agent Little! World Detective! And on behalf of Interpol, you are under arrest for violating international law!" He barks out, as he continues down. "Invoking the plague of frogs and mosquitos are grievous violations of both animal trafficking and biological terrorism! Now if you cooperate, we may look over the plague of lice, scuzzy, as that looks like a -local- precedent, and can easily be resolved by you registering with the local sheriff's office!" The Interpol agent lands on the sand deftly, unhooking his belay from the rappel rope. Holding the megaphone up, he glares at the titanic mummy... thing "Or you can make this hard for me. Want a hint?"
"Don't make this hard for me, scuzzy!"
COMBATSYS: Anakaris dodges Jira's Thrown Object. Jira does, however, successfully hit a sheep!
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------------==
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Jira
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Vyle 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Daniel
"A new court arrays before me..."
Floating in the air, Anakaris faces off against the helicopter with naught more than a hypothetically raised eyebrow. There is something supremely passive in the way the god king addresses those who would be his subjects--he is never directly angry, and any troubles or aggressions he might deign to mention are posed as the simplest and most objective of observations.
A lone brick sailing through the air dusts through him and his notice as a pebble might fall into a lake. Though it hits him--surely it does--it merely passes through a loose section of bandages, trailing sand as if it would have been as wise to strike a cloud.
"You will all gather to my knees," the Pharaoh points out as holy fact.
A second later, a stone sarcophagi is thrown out of a nearby portal into and towards Daniel's helicopter. Splitting in the air while in the very process of careening into and through the helicopter's blades, linen bandages slip out from inside it, trying to wrap Daniel up by the head and drag him inside, just before sailing into--and potentially through--the roof of the same haunted house Jira is occupying. Jira, of course, has problems of her own.
The small beady-eyed creature driving the Pharaoh's lower half has begun a stately advance towards her position, the stilted walking of those legs made worse by the fact that it is currently wading through the sand like water to get to her. It doesn' take long for it to attack though, as the mummy's right leg churns forward int the shifting sands--
And warps into being from a dune forming at Jira's feet, to kick her square in the behind and right off that roof she's posted on.
COMBATSYS: Khaibit successfully hits Jira with Medium Fling.
- CRAZY Hit! -
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------------=
> ///////////////////////////// ]
|==-----\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Jira
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Vyle 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Daniel
COMBATSYS: Anakaris successfully hits Daniel with Hitsugi no Mai.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------========
> ///////////////////////////// ]
|==-----\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Jira
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Daniel
As anyone who's tried to run through a desert can attest to, charging through sand is not the easiest or fastest thing. But Vyle tries, dammit. And while the big guy is too high up to do anything, the lower half (wait, lower half?....) is still in range, the roof that it's engaged on not too far up from the dunes.
Running on sand is not easy. Jumping from it is not that simple too, but despite the shifting base, the rudo/promoter was able to make the leap up there, looking at the pair of bandage-covered legs just as one springs from one of the nearby dunes. "That's new...." he mutters to himself, before trying to dropkick the thing with another big leap. Wrestling doesn't look like it's going to be easy on this thing, so...might as well start with a few basics.
Jira squeals as her one true weakness is exploited, her forward center of gravity. She falls off into the sand facefirst and whines. Getting up to her knees to rub her eyes clear of particles, then her lips before standing.
"Don't just kick a girl off a roof!" she shouts up, her body and her blade flashing a brilliant pink colour as she dashes forward with a growl. She holds her blade behind her, partially in the sand and carving a path behind her as she approaches hher offender. She builds up more and more speed with a glowing on her feet helping her stay sturdy and level on the sand, waiting until she's point blank before jumping upwards and swinging her blade up in an overhead arc, and using the momentum to send her crashing back onto the sand in the wake of a very violent eruption of psionic energy- energy which shouts and screams into the air, more terrified and pained than the atmosphere the faire had previously anyway.
Daniel Jack watches as a giant sarcophagi smashes through the helicopter.
He drops his megaphone.
"Oh no." He says, as the bandages lash out at him. Hands bursting with orange energy, he begins to cut through the air, slicing through the oncoming bandages. He manages to rip apart a few of the linen wrappings, before his limbs are hooked in. Tangling up in the wrappings, he flails around desperately, as he is bound up. Jerked into the sarcophagi, he is tugged within the coffin. He shouts from within, as he tries to smash his way out feebly…
Before crashing right into the haunted house.
Emerging from the wrecked ruins of the coffin, he kicks aside the rubble. Ripping apart the bandages, he puts a hand on his fedora, surveying his surroundings. "Okay," He mutters, "We are doing this the hard way." Watching Jira and the... thing, he makes an instant choice. Hands still burning with energy, he drives towards the creature. Agent Little swipes the air, hurling out a wave over energy along the roof at the creature as he moves up along side Jira.
"Don't worry, citizen, Interpol is on the case!"
COMBATSYS: Khaibit blocks Daniel's Kasane Ate.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------========
> /////////////////////////// ]
|===----\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Jira
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Daniel
COMBATSYS: Khaibit endures Vyle's Light Kick.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------========
> //////////////////////// ]
|=====--\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Jira
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Daniel
COMBATSYS: Khaibit interrupts Volcanic Unload from Jira with Quick Throw.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------========
> /////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Daniel
The Pharaoh's khaibit finds itself in the center of much the same kind of predicament as the first of the Pharaoh's weapons, but without the overwhelming numbers to surround even the more diverse group. However, the small creature is wily, little arms squirming inside of the distorsoed mummy's waist. The Interpol agent's attack resounds off of the creature's bandages, whose frayed ends snarl and cross long before they ever get to the small little thing inside of it. This causes the creature to turn, just in time for a massive dropkick to be put on the hip of its conveyance by the rudo, knocking it--to the sand?
The lower half of Anakaris stumbles, going to one knee. But at the same time, just about as Jira comes in with her titanic explosion, being half-buried allows the sand to absorb most of the shock from the huge upwards blast. At that point, the creature can just kind of reach out a leg at a completely physically impossible angle--to sort of just try to flick Jira casually onto her face in the midst of her great attack.
In the meantime, the Pharaoh hovers overhead, regally surveying the violence. It is only by vague interest that he selects from amongst them a target. Capturing Daniel closely between the two points of his body, the Pharaoh completes a sealing circle, which opens a portal right underneath Daniel. If the Interpol agent finds himself caught in the pale blue light emanated by the hole opened to the beyond, he'll find himself feeling as light as a feather--just before Anakaris's command section falls onto him like an anvil, through the portal, and out of a sister portal situated all the way across the fairgrounds.
"You will be my court amusement."
COMBATSYS: Anakaris successfully hits Daniel with Togame no Ana.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-----==========
> /////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/-------|=======\====---\1 Daniel
Jira's about to tuck into a landing, but she's flicked off to the side and gives an upset huff as she again faceplants into sand. She forcefully gets herself up onto her feet and gathers up a great amount of energy rapidly. Then she channels it to her right palm and juts it out towards that creature that tripped her, twice, and sends a flickering ball of psi energy flying. It blinks brighter and flicks to the normal colour as it travels onwards.
The dropkick hits true, and seems to knock the set of legs into the sand. That's good news, but Vyle isn't about to let up. Not when it seems to still have life in its eyes...? Ok, that's even weirder. But the fact that it has eyes seems to give the rudo an idea.
Sneering, he leaps down after it, and while the girl that it had been harrassing shoots at it with energy, Vyle instead takes to the air...and tries to find the things eyes again. Tapping at his throat, he seems to retch something up before a spray of noxious green mist shoots forth from his mouth, trying to stain the royal linen and find the creature's eyes.
He notices the Pharaoh.
As Agent Little hurls out the wave of chi, his attentions shift to the upper torso floating overhead. Keeping his attention split, he adjusts his footwork, body balanced, feet balanced. He had to keep his attention spread around. The wrestler was on the base. Someone had to deal with upper torso. He was expecting more trouble from that thing. But what he wasn't expecting the blue light under his feet, the floating, and then the staggering impact knocking him through.
But Agent Little is tough.
Body getting tense, the agent uses true grit as he falls through. "Eeeeeeegh!" He seethes, grabbing the section as it smashes into him. Body flowing with chi, he tenses up, trying to man it through as he pops out of the portal, landing in the sands across the fairgrounds, His hat is knocked clear off, as he goes tumbling . He lands sitting upright, dizzied.
"Alright, scuzzy. It sounds like you don't quite know just how deep you are in it!" Agent Little belts out, looking around Reaching out for his fedora, he plants it squarely on his head again. Rising back up, he turns towards the godking. Walking forward, he shakes the sand out of his trenchcoat and slacks. "You are about to face some Todoh-Ryuu Kobojutsu! The stronger martial art in the world! And by the time I'm through with you? You'll have wished to taken me up on that surrender!"
And the agent rockets forward.
Palm strike, hand chop, upper palm strike. The attack chain comes hurling in, blow after blow, chain after chain into the stoic mummy. The world detective was giving everything he got, throwing it all into the creature. Only when he begins to slow down, to burn out, does he stop the chain of strikes. And when he stops, he will try to grab the Pharaoh. Should he successfully get the grips on him, he will pull a hip throw, to send that mummy right into the sands, and hold him down. And what would he finish with?
A finishing handchop, to seal the deal!
COMBATSYS: Anakaris endures Daniel's Harlem Sunset EX.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|----===========
> /////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\0 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Daniel
COMBATSYS: Khaibit blocks Jira's Straight Shot EX.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|----===========
> ///////////////// ]
|=======\-------\1 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Daniel
COMBATSYS: Vyle successfully hits Khaibit with Venom Breath.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|----===========
> //////////////// ]
|=======\-------\1 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Daniel
The khaibit is having a little bit of trouble, stepping back slowly after taking Jira out. It stomps the earth, kicking up a huge wave of sand that crushes most of the psionic energy in mid-wave, washing against the lower half of Anakaris implacably. However, it is not quite as lucky when the rudo spits poison into its eyes--causing an audible screech from the creature, and forcing it to pilot the lower half back away from the pair. However, as it does so, it does something peculiar--it leaps into the air, floating slowly as it forms a protective block coating over its legs, encasing the entire lower half of the body in an inverted pyramid. Suddenly, it hits the ground spinning, like a mad Egyptian top, the khaibit chattering, howling and cackling in a mad, blind rush as it goes barrelling through the two, kicking up twin plumes of sand. It's likely that it will hit Vyle, the main target of its ire, long beofre it hits Jira.
Across the battlefield, the Pharaoh is now engaging Daniel, watching him with impassive glowing red eyes, stony expression (literally, his face is hewn of stone) unreadable as the agent starts in on him. Blow after blow rips onto the floating mummy's body as Daniel gives him a brisk buttermilk ranch salad dressing-down of karate chops. But chopping the Pharaoh is like chopping the desert--though the man's blows land true, it's like he's cutting into sand with each blow, finally causing the Pharaoh to go 'uhfn' faintly as the young man drags the eerily-light mummy to the ground, giving him a chop right between the eyebrows. Another hairline crack forms in the Pharaoh's face.
A soft groan elicits from the god king.
And then he reaches up to grip Daniel by his face.
The Pharaoh rises. It is almost impossible to hold him down--not truly. It's like fighting a weather balloon. Inexorably, Egypt rises. "Who are you," the proud lord wonders aloud, drifting into the sky. "To address I, PHARAOH, in such a way." His words are solemn, as he drifts higher than the trees. Higher than anything else. "That I must bow so low. I am the lord of the Nile, the lord of the sands, the lord of all of my kingdom. What is TODOH RYUU to God? His will be done through my hands, a god king of all renown. If your art is the strongest martially in all the land, then you must necessarily realize that my will is the strongest," he reasons calmly.
Without end, he continues, continuing to drift upward, and expounding the troubles of the divine phenomena which Daniel faces. "My voice resounds in all of the afterlife and beyond... and none else may hear it without trembling. If you are worthy of my rule, then I will rule you. If Todoh does not amuse me... then you will be judged unworthy, and be cast out. So saith I... the Pharaoh, the king eternal."
If Daniel has not escaped, Anakaris the First will slowly begin the process of crushing his head, a hundred feet in the air with nothing underneath him but sky.
Bad times, man.
COMBATSYS: Vyle blocks Khaibit's Pyramid of Warning.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-----==========
> ///////////// ]
|=======\=------\1 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Daniel
COMBATSYS: Daniel fails to interrupt Strong Throw from Anakaris with Jumping Jack Flash EX.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
> ///////////// ]
|=======\=------\1 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Keith 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/----===|=======\=------\1 Daniel
Jira Kasagi looks a bit upset by that outcome from the Khaibit, deflecting her attack like that. But she doesn't let that stymie her momentum,, running over up behind the Rudo in a path towards the approaching maniac. She hops up and gets to Vyle's shoulder before the pyramid gets in too close and jumps up high, to the creature piloting that assault and swings her blade out at it as she leaps past it and landing in the sandy wake behind.
Well, maybe fighting a godking wouldn't be so-
Oh god.
As Daniel hurls the titan down, and lands a chop right between the eyes, Agent Little smirks. Retracting his hand from the attack, he recovers... in time for the Pharaoh to grab him by the face. "MMPH!" Is the response as the air begins to rise. The detective has only one chance. He grabs the mummy by his arm, and begins to charge up a rush of chi energy. With a surge, he attempts to overpower the godking, to flow his energy into the creature.
But it isn't enough.
The surge of chi is suppressed by the sheer presence of the Pharaoh. As the energy is forced back into the interpol agent, he groans, stunned by the lashback. Briefly, he is helpless in the hands of the mummy. Crushed between the hands of the powerful godking, he finally rouses up enough strength to resist again, body popping as bones break. Opening an eye up, he stares straight at the mummy, teeth gritted under his mustache.
"I'm... not... done yet!"
Wiping his mouth clean of the Venom Breath, Vyle looks on at his good work with a smile as the creature screeches and backs away. However that leap into the air definitely concerns him. Even if he's blinded the thing in any signfiicant way, anything coming down from that height would be a bad idea. Furrowing his brow, the promoter backs up a step in those shifting sands....and when the pyramid block shield dives down at him spinning like that, Vyle knows he's in trouble.
Crossing his arms, he's able to soften the blow as it barrels into him, but the blow still sends him reeling and spinning a bit himself. Not enough to lose his footing, but enough to disorient him. Shaking his arms as they tingle and threaten to go numb, he tries to track where the Khaibit span off to...at least until someone vaults off of him from behind. "What the..." he grumbles before narrowing his eyes at Jira. Sneering, he follows in after...though he knows well enough to focus his attacks on the creature still, trying to grab at a leg and wind his legs around one of the thing's limbs still and wrench on it, maybe even take it out of commission temporarily.
It is as she had expected. Halloween. The perfect night for ill omens to come true. A time when the veil between this side and the life beyond always seems to become particularly thin, vulnerable to openings by those of significant power. What she did not figure out in time is where it would take place. It took a while to figure it out; patrolling the streets of the bustling Southtown as All Hallows Eve kicked off into full effect. The festival in the forest to the north was ignored during the day. What relevance could a bunch of commercial nonsense have?
But as evening fell, she began to get suspicious. The reports around Southtown were the usual nonsense. A few parties that got out of hand, the occasional criminal report. Police scanners turned up nothing special. So if nothing was happening in the city, where WAS it? Finally, her attentions turned to the cesspool of commercialism and nauseating festivities that were organized in the forest north of Southtown. It would be an ordeal to investigate, but destiny calls?
Before she even reached the site of utter chaos issuing forth, as some poor kid with a yoyo goes running past, screaming his head off about some ancient monstrocity wrecking havoc, Ayame knows she's at the right place. The wooden staff in her hand is the only visible weapon the girl bears as she bolts in the direction gestured to in panic. But it's not all she's brought.
She comes to a stop in time to see two individuals being targeted by a hovering aberrant with a particularly pyramid themed shape trying to grind at least one of them into the ground. "Tch." This is the first time she's seen something like this - the appalling horror that shouldn't be. And she hasn't even seen whatever it is Daniel is trying to wrestle.
Clad in white and red, her wooden staff already beginning to shimmer crimson, her hand reaches within her opposing sleeve. She isn't sure where she learned to conceal weapons on her person so readily, but the billowing white sleeve draped over her arm just make sit all that much easier.
A step forward is taken, her right hand drawing forth, an intricately rune inscripted slip of paper tucked between two fingers as she narrows her eyes. "We will never surrender one inch to your invasion. The time to prepare for your defeat is already past!" The flick of her wrist sends the paper hurtling forward far faster than seems possible. Even as it flies, it flares to life with a pale, blue, ghostly aura that only seems to spur the slip of paper on faster on direct course for the half-embodiment of the Pharaoh.
Should it find purchase on his wrappings, an explosion of thick, twisting, sinewy strong chains surge forth out of the point of impact and begin to entangle it all about, attempting to exercise enough will to literally drag it down to the ground and continue constricting it. "Learn what it means to be bound," she snaps, twisting her staff up into a more defensive angle in front of her. Aside from being horrific looking, this doesn't seem THAT bad, she thinks to herself. She has prepared for this day for a long time.
COMBATSYS: Ayame has joined the fight here.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
> ///////////// ]
|=======\=------\1 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Daniel 1/------=/=======|-------\-------\0 Ayame
COMBATSYS: Khaibit blocks Jira's Medium Strike.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
> //////////// ]
|=======\==-----\1 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Daniel 1/------=/=======|-------\-------\0 Ayame
COMBATSYS: Vyle successfully hits Khaibit with Viper's Coil.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
> /////// ]
|=======\====---\1 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Daniel 1/------=/=======|-------\-------\0 Ayame
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Khaibit with Binding of the Condemned Soul.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
> /// ]
|=======\=======\1 Khaibit
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Daniel 1/------=/=======|=------\-------\0 Ayame
The force and power that Anakaris levels on Daniel is heady, and for a brief, chaotic moment, all Daniel can see both in his head and his vision is a single terrifying eye embedded in Anakaris' palm--it stares him dead in his face, making it seem that all the world and sky is filled with the veins in its sclera and that the moon has turned into a malevolent scarlet iris. It chokes off all pretense of a counterattack. There is no room to think, no room to breathe, no space and no thing to grab onto. There is only Pharaoh, and his words.
The god king finds him disappointed with the agent's struggles.
"It seems," the Pharaoh observes, ice cold as Daniel struggles in the coarseness of his grip, "that you have come too close to the sun."
With precision, the Pharaoh discards Daniel to earth, throwing him bodily like one might a handful of pence to a pauper.
Down below, somewhere near Daniel's final impact point, it seems as if the khaibit is in a jam. Though its mad spinning top antics get it into the wrestler's grill momentarily, it finds itself caught inbetween the two. For a moment, it is able to juke and evade the two, literally managing to catch Jira's blade on the whirling stones surrounding it as it rides around like a mad top, tilting crazily to lean the pilot away from the blow. However, when that slip of paper lands on the edge of its armor, the khaibit suddenly finds its conveyance rooted deep into the sands, binding it in place, and leaving it monumentally immobile. It turns, staring, wide-eyed at the new arrival. From there, it takes very little time at all for Vyle to mount the bound up conveyance, tear the little squirming creature out, wrap his legs around it, and break it in half like stale bread. Oh, it's still alive--its tiny puny little limbs are flailing rapidly as the familiar squirms in Vyle's grip. Well, for given values of alive anyway. What the hell is that thi--
== BAM!!! ==
If Vyle is still over the Pharaoh's lower half, he will find himself caught inbetween the full boulder-like weight of the actual god king and his lower body. Anakaris has no qualms with crushing Vyle somewhere inside his own anatomy. He lands reverse, facing his back. His torso rotates on his waist until it is aligned properly, regardless of what actually happens to Vyle. The god king lurches to his full height, the chains straining to keep him at bay. "I AM .. PHARAOH."
He is only concerned with one thing of the newcomer.
"Are you worthy enough to worship me?"
COMBATSYS: Khaibit can no longer fight.
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Daniel 1/------=/=======|=------\-------\0 Ayame
COMBATSYS: Vyle dodges Khaibit's Pharaoh Split+. Khaibit does, however, successfully hit a sheep!
ANAKARIS
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--=============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Daniel 1/------=/=======|=------\-------\0 Ayame
COMBATSYS: Daniel interrupts Medium Throw from Anakaris with You Got Jacked!.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-==============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Daniel 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Ayame
Jira Kasagi lands to the sandy arena formed by the pharoh and tumbles, getting to her feet quickly and looking up. Her grip on her weapon shifts to both her hands, squeezing the handle tightly and closing her eyes a moment.
"I need more power. I will not be able to do much here without more help, and I don't want anyone else getting hurt." she murmurs. The response by her weapon is a bright flicker of white light that lunges from the blade up her arms in a strobed progression to her body. It clings loosely over her form and turns pink once she's completely clad in it. Tears run down her face and she stifles a whimper while resuming her guarded stance and opening her eyes, locking onto the pharoh despite her watery vision.
COMBATSYS: Jira balls her fists, tosses her head back and wails to the sky.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-==============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Daniel 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Ayame
THe slippery little creature controlling those legs seemed to be a bit too agile for anyone to catch at first. But with the help of the bindings, and a bit of curiousity as to WHY it was bound, the Khaibit exposes itself enough that, rather than latch on to the legs it was controlling, the luchador simply wraps the dang thing itself up in a legscissored hold, wrenching on the thing to make sure it doesn't start moving again. "How do you like that, huh? Not going to run away now, are you?!" he sneers, holding onto it...at least until he sees what's happening above. "...oh shi-"
It's only a timely release of the Khaibit, and a desperate dive away that prevents Vyle from taking the creature's place within the Pharaoh's body itself. Heart racing at the near miss, the rudo slowly pulls himself out of the dunes he had dived into, looking on at the full height of the Pharaoh...and swallowing a lump in his throat. But...he didn't become an infamous rudo in Mexico for wearing his heart on his sleeve. False bravado is a necessity to playing a heel, and Vyle is VERY good at playing the heel. "Shouldn't you be asking if you're worthy of being worshipped? You know, all I see is some asshat...with an ass for a hat, I'd add....throwing his weight around and being all biblical on us. What's in it for us to worship you if you're going to drop crap on us all the time, huh, band-aid boy?" It's stalling and buying time, sure, but again, it was something Vyle was VERY good at...
COMBATSYS: Vyle taunts proddingly in hopes of creating an opening.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-==============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Daniel 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Ayame
Daniel Jack was in a corner now.
Agent Little takes in the situation to the best of his ability. He was staring into that maddening eye. He was impossibly high up now. He had nothing to hold on to. He had nothing below him. Nothing above him. There was only the Pharaoh. And now was the drop. He struggles briefly, as finally, Anakaris releases him to his fate.
"Too close to the sun?"
Those are the words as the Interpol agent's hands snap up. Gripping the hand of the Pharaoh, Daniel took advantage of the only thing he had: Only Pharaoh, and his words. And now, he had, briefly, a grip on things. His hands were surging again, orange energy flowing from his body to his hands. Kicking his legs, he grits his teeth, desperately trying to reverse his fortunes. He casts a glance to the mummy, before raising a single hand up.
"Scuzzy, you flew too close to -me-"
And he drives a chi-laced hand straight into that eye.
He drives his hands into the eye, struggling, fighting to get control of this impossible situation. His energy flows into the godking as Daniel Jack ignites with stubborn resolve. He grips into the eye-hand of the mummy as he tries to take control of the aerial grapple. To not stay up in the air, no.
To bring them BOTH down.
Clutching the mummy with confidence now, both he and Anakaris come hurtling down, as the agent positions himself in the air. The mummy above. The detective below. A bad place to be, for certain. But as he craters down, he pivots, the surge of Todoh might exploding with his soul as he combines gravity with the signature move of Todoh-Ryuu Kobojutsu:
He Kasane Ate's the godking into the sands.
As the shockwave of chi energy ripples outward, the detective collapses on one knee into the sands. The impact caused hi own body to nearly break entirely from the sheer impact, and his right arm actually DOES break from the impact. But he was, for the moment, still standing.
From the haunted house, they may see the cloud of sand burst up.
"Hmph." It's even worse than she thought out here. The evidence of devestation is all around her. Even still, things are moving in the dark - sharp eyes identifying remants of bugs, frogs, and other things that shouldn't be here. She shifts her focus back to the twisted thing Vyle is tearing the bandages from. That thing did all this? That doesn't seem right!
Standing up straight, she plants her staff against the ground, her right hand going to her hip. "Ridiculous. Are things really so bad that something that weak could run amok for so long?" she remarks, none too impressed at the state of affairs.
That's when it becomes abundantly clear that up until that moment, she was only privy to a fraction of the power at work here - a clarification that happens instantly as Vyle escapes a likely smeared death by the narrowest of margins. Eyes widen slightly, the girl snapping back to a more readied posture, her staff snapping back into place at a defensive angle as she looks upon the mighty, self-proclaimed god king.
Her mouth opens slightly then closes. On one hand, the distructionl all around suddenly makes a loy more sense. On the other hand, this doesn't make ANY sense!! The trappings say Egyptian. The declaration only cements the impression, his voice thundering as the lingering chi bindings strain to abate his onslaught for even an instant.
Ayame sucks in her breath, glancing over Vyle then Jira in turn. Who are these that have decided to face the Wrath of the Nile? Ayame slides her left foot forward, summoning chi to answer her aura's demands. Her lips press together, her expression grim. Perhaps someday she might have to die fighting an abberant such as the being that towers over them all. But she can't let that day be today.
Crimson flames dance in a halo around her feet, rising up into thin peaks of cerulean chi. She's building energy now, potential to be put to use in an instant. The obnoxious individual who narrowly avoided death seems hellbent on getting the Tyrant of the Sand's attention now. At least, she assumes that's what has possessed him to verbally antagonize it so. Uncompassionate eyes look him over briefly. A curious tactic, to be certain. It is buying them time. Time for her to figure out what in the internal hell is going on right now.
In another direction, some woman's weapon flares to life with bright energy. Ayame can't fathom what is going on with her but the powerful emotions radiating off her are palpable enough. Emotions like that can be poweful. Powerful enough to tame the god king? Well...
Wait... there's someone physically trying to tear this invader apart with his bare, chi-infused hands? Ayame half closes her eyes. Good. She needs to prepare. Only the strongest seal will suffice here.
COMBATSYS: Ayame gathers her will.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-==============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Jira
[ \\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Daniel 0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0 Ayame
The Pharaoh lands much more cataclysmically than he intended.
Actually, it is something akin to toppling a building. Though Daniel manages to strike down the god king with a powerful shockwave of a Kasane Ate, sending the Pharaoh tumbling through the air, the angle is definitely all wrong for Daniel's attack. There is something else at play here, sand trailing through the air in four meter high plumes as Anakaris is less slammed into the ground and more run aground entirely upon the desert he created here, crashing and tumbling until he is literally sucked onto his bottom half, which also falls over with the force of the impact, much while Ayame, Vyle and Jira all watch. It's a little bit like watching someone rip the sun down.
It is a blow that gains the Pharaoh's respect.
"Hrngh..." the Pharaoh groans, a sound like the pyramids sliding across the sand eliciting from his moan as he stands, his pace as glacial as it is regal, first getting to one knee, then to his feet, rising to his full height once more. Though it would seem he pays not a whit of attention to Vyle's taunts as he rises, no matter where his unfeeling gaze is, every word the Pharaoh speaks has the quality of addressing all present.
"I am the morning and the evening star," he repeats, calmly. "Who leads the blind and supplicates the weary? Who is destined to bring salvation to the holy sands of Egypt? If not I, then whom? ... yes, you all have amused me," the Pharaoh decides absently. "But now it is time for you to stand aside."
He forms an Egyptian sealing array above his head, a ghostly circular manifest of mystic hieroglyphic incantations, telling in abstract the storyline of kings, for those cultured enough to be able to read it. Arcane formulae scribble out in lines above his head as he silently marshals his strength, forming The Gate, a golden-lined portal with the Pharaoh's visage blessing it. It is a wound in the air. Beyond it, nothing but blackness, cold and foreboding, with the wails of the lost and the damned beyond it. It is a casual thing that the Pharaoh does, opening the door to such damned space. The air sucks in violently, as if the pressure of misery alone sucked everything within.
"I alone possess the right to decide fate. Bring me the birthright. Worship me, and be protected, privy to all my bounty." Anakaris explains patiently. He lifts his hand, the formula from the sealing array writhing ahead of his hand. Slowly, inexorably, he points the scripture towards Daniel.
With a single gesture, Anakaris's spatial chi will try to consume Daniel entirely, seizing rough hold of him in an invisible, vertiginous grip. Daniel has only that moment to resist his will. He has that moment to decide who he wishes to be, just before the scriptures link together into a pyramid shape.
"Forsake me... and know nothing else."
...because if he does not escape, a moment after everyone will witness Anakaris the First pitch Daniel Jack into the underworld with a sweep of his arm.
COMBATSYS: Anakaris successfully hits Daniel with Naraku no Ana EX.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------=======
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Jira
[ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Daniel 1/---====/=======|=====--\-------\0 Ayame
Daniel Jack still had some fight in him.
Maybe.
As both him and the godking come back to earth, he gasps for air, struggling to breath. "I won't stand aside, and neither will Interpol!" The agent declares, as the mummy forms an Egyptian... thing over his head.
As the gate is opened though, he frowns hard, his eyes going wide.
Looking over at the other fighters approaching, he holds up his only good arm. "Wait! Don't come any closer! He does these portal things! Watch out!" He states, as he tries to back away. But as Anakaris points at him, he ceases up, trapped in the grips. He looks at the portal, and he says his last words.
"Oh, the Chief isn't gonna like this."
And like that, Daniel is hurled into the underworld.
COMBATSYS: Daniel is waiting for something...
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------=======
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Jira 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Daniel can no longer fight.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|--------=======
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Jira 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|
Jira's dealing with having this energy coursing through her, wracked with false pain and mental turmoil that brings tears flooding out. But this only seems to embolden her. Hearing the pharoh speak, seeing the glyphs, brings a forced scoff out of her. He certainly fits the bill of a pharoh, she decides. She takes the warning given by her saviour- despite his hatwear- and pulls energy into the sharper portion of her blade.
It seems to require great effort for her to move it down to her left side, winding her upper body as well and she springs into an upward swing, seguing it into a horizontal slash to the left and finally reversing that swing, making her stagger into the sand. Following each of her swings is a wave of energy, but with the next travelling faster than the previous until all of them push up on one another and propel forward to the Pharoh.
"There is only one star I will devote myself to, and it isn't Sol or Luna."
....
....that was new. That's about as much as Vyle can really process when the detective disappears through the portal at the pharaoh's beckoning. It was definitely a great show of power, but Vyle isn't quite sure he saw what he thought he just saw. "...did he just..." he starts to ask, tilting his head...before shaking it. "You know what....**** you. I don't care if I get chucked into another world or something, the only thing I'm bowing is my 'bow in your head," he snaps.
And then he...runs away? Well, sort of. Only up to one of the roofs of another fairground building buried in the sand, using the footing to bound off and back toward the Pharao, trying to make good on his word with a flying elbow smash from the air.
Well. That's... unfortunate. Ayame's eyes take in the sigils forming the incantation. She hadn't made time to study hieroglyphic before. She makes a mental note to correct for that. At the very least, she's seen the pattern and can make efforts to inscribe it for further study later. When one sees the phrase that can open the gulf between states of living with such ease, one would be remiss to not at least try to learn something from it. Especially when it becomes clear the very bold, if perhaps dangerously reckless, man has been pulled through without any further ado.
Once again, she reaches for her sleeve, withdrawing another small slip of paper, runes inscribed on its surface in black ink. Closing her eyes in a moment of intense focus, the ambient energy she had summoned to answer her call is drawn up, surging into the thin card as she imbues it for her next attack.
"Nn..." The man's sacrifice. Hopefully it will not be in vain. The three left standing may perhaps feel a sense of obligation to see that it is not. Eyes snap open, settling on the Pharaoh within seconds after Daniel Little has simply ceased to be found within this world. It is hard to be confident in a situation like this, but for now, her nerves are ice cold. The energy channeled into the card sends her hair and clothing flapping from the currents created as she leans forward, readying her arm in the same way one might prepare to fling a frisbee.
"What is the birthright?!" she shouts back. What is he going on about? His words seem to be a mixture of omen and history, likely easy to understood if one is familiar with the context. But she doesn't have a lot to work with her.
To punctuate her question, the talisman is flung. As with the last, it moves swiftly through the air before it ignites into a huge ball of ghostly fire, the shape taking on the form of a demonic maw as it hurtles toward the Emperor of the Sun at the same time Vyle... literally leaps off a nearby ruin to try and elbow smash the Living Obelisk from above. That, she realizes, isn't even the craziest thing she's seen all night!
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Anakaris with Reliquary of Time Lost.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------========
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Jira 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Anakaris endures Jira's Full Auto.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||||||||||||||||| ]
0|---------------|-------========
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Jira 0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Anakaris interrupts Fierce Punch from Vyle with Pharaoh Salvation EX.
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|--------------=
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Jira 0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 1/---====/=======|
"Of all things left in this world, there is still the chance and the right for all commoners to repent for their sins. I am kind," the god king explains. "But there is no room in my kingdom for those who breathe their last with a curse."
Turning away from the vacuous gate to the underworld, Anakaris steps away from the golden portal patiently, the gate slamming shut shortly after Daniel careens away into it. He has the grudging manner of a ruler whose forbearance has been tested much as a man might be weary after throwing a particularly unruly cat outside. As he is questioned, he seems that he would furrow a brow if his brow were not carved of limestone. Looking upon those collected to him, he nods, gravely, severely.
"The birthright is that which has been stolen from my kingdom. It belongs to my people, and is my gift to them. I have given my audience, and I have been duly entertained. But an invitation to sit at the lap of the god king has been rebuffed... an unforgiveable slight. Wrath is my right alone. Now, all will stand aside or meet God."
He watches Vyle run away, dispassionately satisfied.
The sealed projectile slams into him with preternatural speed, turning to flame and engulfing him in fire. Linens erupting into fire, the god king burns, his body lurching and his doubling over in slow, soundless distress. He burns, as the spirit has been released... but even the work of a priestess is not enough to undo the magicks that sealed his destiny and place in history. Even as he burns, the Pharaoh stands again. He opens his hand, the bloody and gouged eye in his palm twisting in its orbit. He grips the slashing energy the swordswoman makes in his bare, burning hand, absorbing it into himself, feeling that burn. Slowly, the linen of his bandages unravel, whirling about slack just enough to suck the fires into his body. There is an ominous chewing sound coming from within.
When Vyle returns, it almost comes as a surprise, but Vyle's elvow finds nothing but the sands in the Pharaoh's shoulder to meet him. And suddenly, as if hit with a high pressure sandblaster, the god king hemohrrages smiting sand, the entire affair blowing the rudo away from him. He raises a hand, his body lifting off the ground. And when he raises his hand, he unleashes everything upon that man.
Waves of sand mold themselves into angry pharaohs of ancient history, curses upon curses flying through the air. One turns a man to stone. Another turns the heart to ice. Bodies of long mummified servants are summoned almost at will by Anakaris, supplicants who are crushed underneath the weight of the burning sands, but yet whom stay only to block all pretense of escape for the defiant rudo. Fire rains from the sky all around, and Anakaris turns the blood into lightning. Every cataclysm on every point of the earth is channelled by Anakaris into his endless wrath.
If the rudo cannot escape his captors, Anakaris will turn him amphibious, a small froglike version of himself.
And then he will try to crush him underneath the weight of a two story tall sarcophagus made in his image.
The massive golden stone coffin, a building in its own right, smashes into the periphery of the fairgrounds. Heard for miles around, it utterly flattens what was left of the haunted house, sending stray boards flying across the makeshift desert in every direction. It is cataclysm, and only the fastest and most clever can escape a certain death.
Such is the Pharaoh's will.
The element of surprise is a powerful thing. It allows you to make a larger impact for whatever contribution to a fight you make. After all, being caught by surprise means no subconscious bracing of an attack you see coming at you, no mental preparation for the effects, no muscle memory readying your body before your thoughts can catch up.
That, unfortunately, depends on the fact that you actually can surprise your target.
And Vyle, despite his attempts, did NOT have the element of surprise, as is apparent when his attempted elbow smash ends up with him blasted back by what felt like a sandblaster right in the chest. And if that weren't bad enough, what the pharaoh himself rains down upon him seemed to sear him straight to the bone. The sounds of pain are strangled in his lungs, but his expression says it all as cataclysm after cataclysm is forced down upon him. It's only his own personal deterimination to life that pulls him free in time to avoid being turned into a frog, or smashed by the weight of the massive sarcophagus that slams down on where he was held in place.
Still, he manages to feel frostbite in one limb, severe burns in another, and feeling like his legs are encased in concrete. He lives, but it's clear that the damage is done and nowhere near finished at this point. And still, he moved forward, not about to let the proclaimed God King have his way.
%"You....think you can scare me? I had...huhh...had...huh....worse done to me by Yakuza..." he boasts. The veracity is questionable, but despite the crack of stone coming from his own legs as he tried to move forward, he moved on, trying to take to the air and grab hold of one of those big legs and use some wrestling basics to buckle the linen-wrapped limb, with a little bit of leverage....and a slam of those stone-covered legs into the back of what he assumes is a knee.
Jira is breathing heavily, starting to feel the weight of burden from her abilities and their toll on her nerves. She's starting to tunnel, but won't stop her movement. Even with the spray of sand and the shifting waves from impact of gilded stone coffins, she dashes forward. Heat and flame don't seem to be bothering her outwardly, her cold sweat and distraught nerves aren't going to let her acknowledge anything but injury- feeling numb in the wake of energy she's drawn in and expelled, blindly charging in on the self-proclaimed deity channeling profane and twisted powers.
She jumps up as near she can the entity's leg and swings a heavy sidelong cleave in hopes to seriously damage or sever the limb. At best she's just trying to buy time for the others.
Even though her own infused projectile and the series of savage waves of energy from the crying woman seem to strike the incredibly powerful entity, it seems not to be slowed in the slightest. Vyle's reckless dive directly into it is the stuff that legends and tragedies are made of, and even as she watches it play out, she isn't sure which one to file it under.
A faint frown spans her lips as she holds her ground, feet digging into the sand to find secure footing, observing every detail of how the Soverign of the Past manages to absorb or consume attack after attack thrown his way. And then it happens - the grappler of unknown identity becomes the focus point of so many calamities at once, even Ayame can't manage to keep track of them all. It's bad enough to witness the series of curses inflicted on Vyle. It's even worse to be able to see, from her vantage, how effortlessly such horrific blights are executed by the God King.
The entire area becomes a maelstrom of hellfire and Ayame can't help but shift her focus to the heavens long enough to realize she needs to leap to the left to avoid getting incenerated as one of the fireballs detonates where she was standing. The Pharaoh speaks further on the birthright which he has demanded since she got here, but she's no closer to understanding what it could be. "What are you even doing here!?" she exclaims, standing up straight, holding her staff out to her side, crimson flames coursing over the simple wooden construct in her hand. "Kemet is on another continent all together. Why claim this land?"
Her brow furrows, realizing there's something else wrong. "How did you even get here!?" Why is Japan the target for this unknown Pharaoh's wrath? The girl glances around quickly. Is it this place? Was it the organizaiton that put the event together? Come experience the Curse of the Nile ceases to be a good marketing tool when it rampages all of your wouldbe customers)...
She has to hand it Vyle. That the man would go charging back in after that, when evidence of the curses inflicted on him continue to rampage his body, speaks to a certain level of tenacity that is rare to find anywhere. She supposes, in a time like this, his example must be followed. Sucking in her breath, the girl bolts forward, weaving around lingering pools of embers and molten sand from the hellstorm in order get in closer. Her right hand is held in front of her, her left hand gripping her staff at her side. Quickly, she channels even more of her chi into the long weapon.
"I'll be going after whoever's fault this is next!" she declares as she springs into a spinning strike, aiming to bring her burning staff crashing into the legs of the Ancient, pouring her body's strength into the strike, along with all her momentum.
She expects it to be like slamming a rock, however, and compensates, already twisting her body in the opposite direction off the rebound to bring it around to bash with equal force from the other side the moment her feet touch the sand. The final blow would target a knee, slamming from above toward the divine kneecap. Each point of impact would experience a concussive detonation of chi, sparks and motes flying off in all directions before drifting toward the sand. "This land isn't for you!"
COMBATSYS: Anakaris blocks Vyle's Combo Throw.
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|-------------==
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Jira 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 1/-======/=======|
COMBATSYS: Anakaris endures Ayame's Requiem For Fallen Blossoms.
COMBATSYS: Anakaris refuses to stay down!
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|------------===
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Jira 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 1/-======/=======|
COMBATSYS: Anakaris interrupts Heavy Strike from Jira with Hebi no Hitsugi.
ANAKARIS
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0|---------------|-------========
[ \\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Jira 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 1/-======/=======|
"I am god king," Anakaris remarks calmly, as if that much would explain all.
As fire rains from the sky around him, he dares anyone who would rebuke him to say otherwise. "A great sin has been committed, and it is the duty of kings to bear witness and mete out judgment, a weighty vestment ill fitting any commoner," he suggests, staring at Ayame pointedly. His souless, fleshless eyes burn with the same ice fire that he has regarded any other standing before him on the sands this night, but he takes a meaning with the priestess unique to any other here.
Though Ayame has stated that Japan does not fit under the shadow of the Pharaoh, taking a look around would offer strong proof otherwise. The grounds are covered in the shifting sand of the ancient ancestral lands, and the shadow of massive sarcophagi blocks out the light of the moon as much as it gleams in it. Trees have been all but snapped in half and buried by the waves of sand, and all in all, the expanse that was once a fairground has, in most meanings of the term, been conclusively claimed by the Sahara.
Vyle is brave, as brave as a career villain could be, in the face of the astonishing adversity that is the Pharaoh's ill will. Jira comes against him first, slicing at his leg. Though the attack cuts into where a person's tendon might be, the Pharaoh does not, in fact, fall. He merely holds her there, bound up inextricably in his leg. She buys them the precious moments they need to strike him down at his knees. First, Ayame's twin blows force him to take a free step to accomodate the force of the explosive blasts, waves of sand churning chaotically off of his lower body with the motion. They form more linen bandages, strips whipping out and anchoring him against the onslaught, while in the midst of that blow, Vyle's clinging to one of his legs finally brings him to a single knee, forcing his hands into the sand beneath him. It's almost impossible to wrestle the giant, much like trying to lasso a mountain which can become a cloud at will. But tilting him off balance seems to have predisposed him towards kneeling.
His mask cracks further.
"Hrmph... daring to strike me," Anakaris wonders, aloud and lucid.
"There can be only one sentence."
He's not kneeling. He's summoning.
His hands are touching the sand. Look out!!
A sarcophagus boils up from the sands behind him, his kingly visage upon it. The coffin snaps open, revealing itself to be full of giant mummified cobras, much in the vein of his own, earlier transmutations. These curtain out from behind him like a great and grandiose cloak. Though the cobras pose a clear and present danger to everyone standing around the Pharaoh, they seem to be specifically targetting the closest person--that is, the one flanking him, the young psion Jira, whom may still be bound up in Anakaris' sandlike physiology. Anyone not fast enough to get out of the way will be bitten, constricted, and sucked into the sarcophagus, the hydra-like pit of snakes dragging itself over Anakaris and shutting the whole affair tightly onto him.
Whoever is inside with him will get crushed by the Pharaoh's endless sands.
The sarcophagus jumps about, slamming frenetically into the ground in a sickening, physics-defyingly organic motion for a coffin that must weigh in the region of thousands of pounds. It cracks visibly, sand spraying out in all directions.
And then, like a butterfly from the chrysalis, Anakaris shatters the sarcophagus bodily, arms stretching out to either side in the absolute authority that an entire kingdom has placed in his station. "I AM KING!!" he shouts, angrily, breaking for the barest of impossible seconds. His booming voice can be heard for a mile around.
"BRING ME THAT WHICH WAS STOLEN. THOSE RESPONSIBLE WILL PERISH."
Jira, however, is not the average woman. Or human for that matter. The pharoh's body only serves as excuse to leave her weapon where it is, to dissolve into the air and vanish. The oncoming assault of the cobras, and even the entombment fall upon overloaded, ignorant nerves. She's positively luminous, enduring the crushing and the tearing, her body replacing its losses on overtime with the great abundance of energy.... and when the king releases himself from the stone coffinn and proclaims his rank, Jira tumbles onto the sandy arena and takes a moment getting to her feet. Her eyes glow bright, twin beacons of borrowed, dead energy.
"Then as a king, surely your servants will continue to strengthen you even in death. How great is the loyalty of your following, that you have been pilfered and suffered such disrespect?! How eternal is your influence? HOW POTENT YOUR LEGACY!" she shouts out to the pharoh, gathering her amassed energy into either of her free palms and letting out a tear-ridden cry as her palms thrust forward towards her foe and a two pillars of energy churn out through her palms, radiating screams that curdle through the air of hallow's eve, the universal chant of loyalty and service through death. Death to a name that would mean nothing significant to the living, a name that itself is an omen in death. The two lines of energy race outwards to land at the pharoh's upper chest and intersect at some point through his depth, creating a violent shockwave where they collide that grows until Jira ceases the attack and collapses to her back. Then the energy implodes upon itself and grows quiet, along with the glow that had permeated her being.
Brave is a questionable word to use regarding Vyle. Determined, maybe, but in general, his determination operates less out of some moral core than it does out of a sense of spite. He doesn't want this thing proclaiming his domain over everything here to get his way, if only for the sense that he'd have to be included amongst those expected to pay him tribute. And he simply doesn't have enough respect for him to do anything near that.
Besides, Vyle already knows who signs his checks.
Still, the entire ordeal is getting crazier and crazier. It seems like he's able to force Anakaris to a knee...but when something bolts up from behind the pharaoh nearby, showering the rudo in sand, he knows better enough to scramble away...and it's a good call when he sees the mummified cobras bursting out of the sarcophagus. Catching his breath and watching, he sees the sarcophagus burst open by the pharaoh's will as he makes another proclamation.
Eyes looking shocked at the spectacle, he allows himself surprise only long enough for it to settle back into simple spite. Pushing himself back up, he charges, legs still audibly cracking thanks to the stone encasing them. "Just eat me...." he mutters with only enough breath to whisper before he tries to wrench at the re-exposed Pharaoh's ankle. He doesn't expect to completely topple him...but considering the legs were acting of their own accord before? He does his damn best to try and pull the leg free and separate from the king's main body and simply rip it down to throw it back onto the sands. He's not a power wrestler by any means...but he still knows enough leverage that he can try this much.
If only out of spite.
It becomes immediately apparant just how tall the King of the Sands is when she gets close. Even leveraging the reach her staff affords her leaves her feeling as if she is fighting well within the reach of this Uninvited One. Having his admonishment focused directly on her leaves a chill in her blood. The mind recoils at the thought of staying here any longer. A survey of her surroundings leaves her wondering if they're even IN Japan anymore. Gritting her teeth, she sucks in her breath, just as she engages in her melee range combination of strikes. Are these not things she has prepared herself, mentally and physically, for all these years? She can't runaway now. She must see this through.
Her foot lands in soft sand, the girl correcting for the unstable surface without missing a step. She's in close now. An opportunity to figure out a weak point, perhaps? Chances of that seem slim, but she has to think-
That's when she realizes that the movement of the Pharaoh was not submission but aggression. Eyes widen at the construct that lunges up out of the ground, spraying sand into the night sky and blacking out the stars. If he seals himself within he will be utterly beyond reach. There is no time to hesitate, no time to second guess. At the base of the Conquorer's mighty leg, opposite of where Vyle seems hellbent on tearing an apendage free, Ayame snaps her right hand out, attempting to slap a runed talisman against the linen wrappings.
Compared to the feats executed by the Sovereign, her own applicants of chi sorcery must seem as child's play. But even enough violent children can topple the titan. Crimson inscriptions flare to life as she twists around, weaving past one of the snapping anacondas, narrowly missing being entangled by several others. She has to run now. The sarcophagus is about to close and she can't be here for that!!
It is an act of sheer willpower that she manages to thrust out her hand a second time, applying a second talisman over the first, its own inscription flaring deep blue.
One more application of chi will set the seal off and activate the necessary anchor, but there's no time to reach it with her hand - already, the tomb is sealing around her. Thus it is that she leaps backward, hoping to put herself just outside the closing construct, jamming her staff out at the same time to slam it against the seals so that it can serve, for one instant, a conduit for the chi necessary to activate the seal.
She lands, her own sleeve caught between the stone doors before she pulls hard and tears the fabric free, leaving her arm bar and the sleeve dangling in the now closed maw.
Turning, Ayame runs further, only stopping to spin and watch the sarcophagus explode. Against all expectations, the woman she saw caught within its jaws is still moving. Made of tougher stuff than the girl expeted, to say the least, as she cries out her defiant challene against the God King and attacks him without reservation.
"Impressive spirit," she muses to herself. "But is it even her own?" But equal interest to her would be the sudden rise of long, ghastly, spectral arms reaching up out of the sands for The King, each of them seeking audience by gripping, pulling, tearing, and clawing any inch of his body the ghostly hands can reach. Even if they only serve as distraction long enough for the other two to engage safely, they will have served their purpose.
"We have to end ths," she murmurs.
COMBATSYS: Jira successfully hits Anakaris with #Legacy of the Bloodrose Clan EX#.
ANAKARIS
[ |||||| ]
0|---------------|------=========
[ \\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Jira 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Anakaris endures Vyle's Outbreaker.
ANAKARIS
[ || ]
0|---------------|-----==========
[ \\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Jira 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Anakaris endures Ayame's Slumber for the Weary Dead.
ANAKARIS
[ ]
0|---------------|----===========
[ \\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Jira 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 0/-------/---====|
"I am the guardian spirit of all of my kingdom," Anakaris counters Jira, who is still worming about. drunk on her own insensation. "Who are you to question the devoutness of those who accept their master, those holier than thou?" he asks, a simpler tone steeling his resolve. Her bloodcurdling scream elicits a blast that shoots him through to the core, somewhere within his body the two spectral lines entwining to create a devastating explosion. Though normally such damage would be inconsequential to him, it is the straw that broke the back. The sovereign of the sands is made aware that it cripples something deep inside him, the linchpin central to his revival. His inexpressive face seems to darken in shadow only a fraction more.
Though he seems to methodically consider each step he takes as he strode from his tomb only a moment prior, his style is not reactive in the slightest--so when Vyle rushes him again, the mummy barely moves at all. Gripping that creature's terrible leg, there is a flesh-rending snap and crunch with his aggression, and Vyle comes away with the rapidly unravelling bandages and pouring sand that is Anakaris the First, Pharaoh Eternal's leg, as impossibly heavy as it is light.
Anakaris regards it as the faintest of inconveniences, his body lurching with the sudden loss of the leg, but slowly lifting into the air as he compensates by modifying his own weight using his spatial distortion energy. For a sick, twisting moment, it seems as if the Pharaoh might literally be, with an uninhibited and regal disposition, giving serious consideration to Vyle's invitation.
Still, once he regains his royal composure, his forbearance still borders on divine, so great it is that he seems not at all despaired to see his body torn apart and in the hands of others. He regards it with the nature of one contemplating wisely some vast mistake, soon to be corrected. Inevitability is a trait that the Pharaoh has learned well. "What death can befall a god?" Anakaris asks. "Above all others, Osiris favors me. It is all as I have foreseen... and today will bear weight on my memory long after I am risen again. My wrath is not yet spent upon the idolaters.."
He trails off. The king's bound hands lower to his sides, even as he looks down, finally seeming cognizant of the tiny paper slips crossed over his remaining leg, placed at the exact apex of the moment just before his sarcophagus closed, the young priestess having dared the venomous fangs of his multitude of serpents and the darkness of the tomb to place it. He looks up, even as ghostly hands slip free from the sands of his own desert to grip at his body. They begin to drag him, their grip pulling him into the quick as if his sands were only liquid. He doesn't fight it, doesn't struggle or scream. Such would be boorish, and unbefitting a king.
You see, he has faith in his own inevitability.
Just before the sands suck him down into their depths, the Pharaoh has one last pronouncement.
"I will make my return..."
And then he is gone. Slowly, the god-king's constructs--the building sized sarcophagus, the shards of broken buildings, and dead snakes in the grounds, begin to wilt away, all slowly turning to sand. The sand itself, an expression of the vast depths of Anakaris the First's desert chi, also begin to sink into the ground, releasing those long since buried by his will. However, the crushed vermin will still remain a plague unto the area for some time, as will the scarce remnants of the living, as they may have simply been summoned. The fires still burn distantly that fell from the sky. And Daniel is still gone, thrown somewhere without windows.
The Pharaoh has spoken.
COMBATSYS: Anakaris takes no action.
[ \\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Jira 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: The Pharaoh has been sent back to the underworld... for now.
[ \\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Jira 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Ayame
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 0/-------/---====|
In the end, after her attack, Jira just lookes tired. Deep wounds, for some reason, refuse to bleed and her chest takes heavy, quick breaths. Her eyes stare up at the pharoh with an expression that isn't matched by her face. An expression of disapproval before she gives a comment to the sinking god-king.
"Every star burns out in time, gods fall, sands blow away. The strong and weak alike fade into history. Does the loyalty of your servants bear enough strength to send you beyond this trend, are you worthy of escaping Wyrd?" she asks, maintaining her stare until he vanishes. Then she coughs and murmurs, "That hurt." and slowly, shakily rolls onto her front and attempts to stand. One knee, one hand at a time.
"Who are you guys anyway?" she asks indirectly towards the other woman and the rudo left in the wake of the pharoh.
So, you just tore off the leg of a self-proclaimed god. Now what do you do?
This is a question Vyle never had to posit to himself before, and yet here he is, one arm near frostbitten, one arm with 2nd degree burns at the least, and legs still concreted over, having wrenched the leg of the Pharaoh clean off in a rather sickly sound. ANd the feeling is like hefting a torn open sandbag, the weight near overwhelming and shifting wildly enough that he almost falls over completely with it. He's barely able to turn himself around and spike the leg away from him as if he were suplexing it.
And then? Well....he hears Anakaris basiclaly give his 'I'll Be Back' speech. Groaning as his injuries start to catch up with him, the luchador sprawls out, only feeling him sink down to the ground as the sands of the Pharaoh recede. "Yeah, and I'll be waiting with your leg mounted in my office. ***hole," he groans out, looking up to the others. "....I'm someone who needs a hospital, that's what I am. It hurts to live."
Braced behind the wooden staff she knows can't possibly protect her against the like of the Undead Pharaoh, Ayame waits. Either their combined assault will finally complete the unravelling begun by fighters no longer even standing. Or it won't and the Sand Titan will prove once and forall that they lack the means to even abate his arrival. The girl scans the scene, glancing at the fallen form of some who were defeated before she even got here. Casualties of the War of the Nile, she notes to herself.
But then it becomes clear. Jira's attack struck something deep at his core. Vyle's damage will slow his movement. And finally, her own talismans have activated, serving as beacons, shaping and drawing chi from the sands to assault the Great Ruin relentlessly. The girl holds her breath. Will he break free of the shackles, will he reform in yet another, even more horrifying form? Or will he collapse at last?
It seems the trio still standing after so many others have fallen are to be rewarded with a sense of relief as at last the Pharaoh sinks into the ground and all his mighty works begin to vanish with him. Ayame clenches her fist, bolting forward, "Wait!!" She doesn't /want/ him to go? "How did you break through to this world!!" She has to know. Has to know what /they/ are capable of. The horrors coming out of the shadows one after another in these troubled times.
But there is to be no answer here and now. The girl slows to a walk then comes to a stop not far from where his stone visage sunk beneath the sands. "Nn," she grunts, whirling around to see Jira clawing her way to her feet little by little after her defiant challenge to the defeated emperor. Questioned, Ayame glance toward Vyle without a word, glancing over his condition. "Indeed," she replies to Vyle's assessment of his condition. It's rather a miracle either of those two are still moving after what she witnessed being wrought upon them.
A hand fished into a pocket produces a phone that she glances at only to frown. No reception. Breathing in then exhaling, she turns away to leave, waving her hand over her shoulder after stowing the phone. "After all the commotion, help must be on the way. I will make sure of it..."
She pauses for a moment, glancing between Vyle and Jira. Such unexpected last bastions of defense in this war against the past. She opens her mouth, about to remark on their impressive defiance of such a monstrocity. But she changes her mind in the end and looks away with no further word. And with that, she makes clear her intent to leave, having survived the dire encounter with a new awareness of the dangers lurking at the edge of reality, a rather intricate sequence of hieroglyphics that require further study, and, she thinks to herself, an interesting challenge to undertake.
After all, right now, as far as she is able to tell, there is a living man in the Underworld. Someone is going to need to get him out of there before he messes something up.
COMBATSYS: Ayame has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /// ]
Vyle 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Jira
Jira Kasagi gives a sympathetic, wheezing chuckle to Vyle's honest-yet-witty reply and a rather huffy glance to Ayame. No names from them, huh.
"I am Kasagi Jira.. and I'm goign to get home, take a couple baths and call out of my job before passing out. I hope y-you two have a good night." she gasps out, then startss her wobbling, tottering limp off to leave the fairgrounds. "This is going to suck in the morning when the numbness goes away." she adds before zoning out in her retreat home.
COMBATSYS: Jira has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Vyle 0/-------/---====|
Log created on 23:02:10 11/01/2014 by Anakaris, and last modified on 04:29:04 11/07/2014.