Description: Some people don't get to return home. When the spiders have infested the place you once felt was safe, it's pretty easy to give up, to hide, to wait until it all goes away. Then, sometimes? For some, that just isn't acceptable. Gan and Shurui face off against Krizalid himself, one of the field commanders of the invasion.
It probably wasn't a good idea to come back here, acting like a stray cat knowingly heading straight into the lion's den. But, with other students gathering around to lay one more siege to regain the grounds of Gedo High, it wouldn't do to lay back at Futuba Mansion and hope things turn out in her favor. No. The idea of going into NESTS' temporary base may be madness, but if she timed her attack at the same general time as everyone else, it would only help the others there. It's not insane if you're one of many, instead of one of one. Not even NESTS can withstand the power of a bunch of pissed off Gedo students. ... That's what Shurui's banking on, anyway.
Of course, the Gedo girl didn't come alone.
Dwarfed by the bulk and height of fellow Gedo student Gan Isurugi, Shurui plays the scout, noting the positions of various auras within her eyes' range of perception. Guards are everywhere and unavoidable, especially now that it's not just Shurui but Gan that needs to keep out of sight, but, at least, Shurui's had some luck with avoiding tricky situations when she makes the call to move. Mostly? She's been playing it by ear. She and Gan have the same objectives and are better able to handle a bad situation as a pair than alone, after all, so if Gan decides something, Shurui may have no choice but to follow through with it alongside him. "You wanna hit the dorms?" she asks quietly over her shoulder at the sumo wrestler. "Heard that's where NESTS's been keeping their stash of weapons. The two of us might be able to do some damage. If it gets too hot, we can bail." She frowns as she glances towards the building, squinting her eyes in vain. "I need your eyes. You see an opening? A window or something?"
Following after Shurui, Gan would make sure nothing came to harm the Gedo girl. He had failed with Akira. He would not fail the don once more .. and with a more fragile student, at that. He has no doubt she can hold her own.. but Gan still doesn't believe it to be right to let a .. much smaller, frailer looking girl to lead.
He lets her scout with a guilty conscience, but it is at ease when he learns that it is through her mind, and not her eyes, she does such a thing. He could never understand it.
Gan had come to free the school. It was a mistake to allow it to fall into such hands before - and now that there comes a time to free it, Gan leaped at the chance. He had not been there to protect those who needed it most. At least now he will have a chance to make it up to them.
Crouching a bit behind a raised table, Gan nods. "If we can disarm them .. then we may get the upper hand.. where it matters most." He does not understand 'hot' nor 'bail'. But that is Gan. "... Right." Or so he says.
Rubbing his chin as he peeks over, glancing at the dorms - the Gedo giant sees something. "..Yes. It is a door.. most likely locked." Because a simple lock will clearly keep people out. .. An opening? But that's not..
"There will be in just a moment." Is there a window? No... "There .. is a ventilation shaft as well." But to let Shurui in one of them - could she sense cold steel winding aimlessly through the building?
He would rather make his own entrance.
"Commander!" "Stand aside..don't do a single. thing. I've had enough of the worms today."
The lanky NESTS commander's silhouette is emboldened by the drape of his coat as he walks past the retinue of guards assigned to hold the line at the weapons facility, stepping over the limp body of some random student who thought they were gonna run down and get into the weapons cache in the midst of the carnage. His boots make an ominous ring on the floorboards as he ghosts past, his aura standing out as familiar, poisoned, black and angry in Shurui's view, and one aura that the others step aside for. Focused beyond all measure, it moves to the wall, cat's scarred eyes narrowing as the commander pays mind to the alert that's been going off in his HUD for the past minute or so now. After all, the attack in the other areas has already woken him up from his nap. He's already ready. See..
/!\ Alert. Two unauthorized signatures detected.
Shurui's not the only one who can see through walls.
/!\ Beginning target acquisition...
An expression of his nigh legendary temper: Red welts open across the wall in two meter long strips of ragged red clawmarks, cris-crossing over eachother as the reinforced steel banding and cheap drywall bubbles and melts, the paint bubbling and peeling before the entire wall simply caves in a hail of smoke and brimstone, the NESTS commander Krizalid stepping through the hole like a barracuda in the night, beating Gan to the punch. Guards scatter in all directions as he passes, his claws dragging arcs of black electric impulse off the ground with each step. Angry red reticules form in his vision over the table and the two crouched behind it, battle data analytic systems idly calculating and hypothesizing the exact locations of the two's jugular veins based off of the size and shape of their heat signatures.
"Idiots. Imbeciles. Coming to /my/ sector during an attack," he growls darkly. "WHAT FINISH DO YOU WANT ON YOUR COFFINS?!"
He doesn't bother with anything else. The routine simply isn't going to work against someone as impatient as Krizalid. That table that Shurui and Gan are currently depending on as cover is only going to remain standing for about the next ten seconds before Krizalid tears it to scraps and splinters with blasts of black force, flicked off of his talons like water off of damp fingers. Nnn. Wasting time with pointless honor, trying to make up for past weaknesses and failures. Krizalid would tell it to you himself, if you only asked:
Make it up to the spirit of your mothers when they see what Krizalid's done to you..
COMBATSYS: Shurui has started a fight here.
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Shurui 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Krizalid has joined the fight here.
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Krizalid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Shurui
COMBATSYS: Krizalid has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Shurui 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Krizalid
COMBATSYS: Gan has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
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Shurui 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Krizalid
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Gan 0/-------/-------|
"...." Gan's reply isn't quickly answered; while the Gedo girl tried to explain her sight in the plainest of terms, it doesn't help that she's prone to stopping in the middle or her sentences to stare at something just beyond. Through a wall. Atop a building. She's not daydreaming; anybody could see by the paranoid, nervous flickering movement of her eyes that she's on alert.
Something's got her attention. Something.... familiar. The black, fiery coiling of that aura inside the building just beyond the wall is familiar, yet still a stranger to her as much as any soldier rushing by. The weakening aura on the ground is too faint at this distance to determine identity, but clearly, it's one student or another that's trapped there. "I can fit in the vent, but can you? Separated, we'll get weak-" She turns her head, looking towards Gan hunching behind a scrapped table lying on its side in the open. "-er."
It's so much easier to think about stealth when you're the only one you need to hide. Unfortunately? There's no real moment to think on this further, as Shurui's senses scream at her to notice the buildup of power charging the wall next to them.
"... Shit." Shurui made a fatal mistake in depending on her sight: she's not always the one who can see past walls. "Get ready- we're gonna have deal with this one." The growling scream makes the girl tense, ready. He's coming, whoever this guy is. "... Get set." Her fist becomes laced with grey psycho energy.
The table shatters. "GO!" In that spilt second, Shurui punches her fist into the ground, the energy fusing unevenly with the ground to create a small earthquake in the immediate area as debris flies, the energy attempting to discharge into Krizalid's feet. The game's afoot.
Unlike Shurui, Gan can only tell something bad is afoot from looking at her - as well as hearing her voice. He can't tell much about her. Or, the area beyond. "..You're right. That would be a terrible mistake." He notes, as he still hunches. Things will be going well. He would break down the door. "Then I will make a way in...."
Noted, of course, before the reinforced steel of the building and the drywall suddenly melt - the wall just exploding outwards. Gan now uses the table as 'cover', mostly to shield Shurui from it. What comes is far worse than a bomb, as he had thought initially. It's a NESTS agent. A very powerful one, from what he can see.
The insults, the actions. Gan agrees with Shurui on this. ".. Prepared.." A single word answer, and Krizald is already ontop of them - the agent tearing through the table - and unlike Shurui, he's not so quick. "Ready..." He pushes off the ground, massive trunk like arms pushing him away from the shrapnel, and onto his feet.
The Sumo .. nearly pivots on his feet, wooden sandal still raised, as the ground begins to shake. The psychic energy may be something alright, but Gan slams the leg he has in the air hard onto the ground, and towards Krizalid. It's not just the chi he has to worry about - it's the foot that's fall - meaty and large that it is - that is threatening to crush him to the ground.
"Hahahah! On it!"
COMBATSYS: Krizalid dodges Shurui's Little Earthquake.
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Shurui 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|-------\-------\0 Krizalid
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Gan 1/=======/=======|
COMBATSYS: Krizalid interrupts Rough Wave Stomping from Gan with Demon Landing.
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Shurui 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|===----\-------\0 Krizalid
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Gan 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
The massive sumo just throws the bits of table away like they were droplets of water. Krizalid stalks forward, a predator in every sense of the word, hungry for real measurable success after his embarassing failures over this campaign--at the hospital, and at -- gh -- the copy's hands. Bitter in every way, Krizalid's eyes sight down the barrel of the cannon and find the bullet in the back.
Now fully exposed, his suit's wired sensors can now transmit the appropriate locations of every weak point on their body to him, details idly noted.
There's no reason to make a way in anymore, Krizalid carved a hole himself right in the side of the building on his way to murder the two, but when they start to move against them, he can only grin, the white edges of his smile hidden by the collar of his coat. "Did you think..."
/!\ Alert. Spectral buildup in the earth pattern.
Over the blast wave that Shurui sent, Krizalid flips back, high into the air. Force impulses from the dual chi waves knock him back, his body rotating fully with the pure kinetic force. It's the single orbit of a buzzsaw. "...that you could just sneak in here..." Suddenly, his lanky frame just shifts momentum in the air as he seems to kick off of nothing, suddenly falling as the "BLADE OF GUILLOTINE" on Gan.
"....Just make _sport_ of _my men_..."
Though only just shy of 200 lbs, sheer speed, the weight of his equipment and the force of his momentum have shifted to make him seem much heavier. Though it seems a little like David slaying Goliath with but a sling, Krizalid aims to just knock Gan over, pin him down, and begin to tear him open like a Christmas turkey. After all. Krizalid doesn't even see it that way. "You think it's that easy?!" If Gan doesn't get Krizalid off him soon the NESTS experiment is gonna be up to his elbows in the boy's viscera shortly.
See. In his mind, it's a little different.
Krizalid is Goliath.
These two are David.
It's wince-inducing, to have Gan take all the blows. His aura is strong and sure, no doubt, but NESTS's operatives are engineered specifically for battle. To knowingly allow Gan to go against this different kind of behemoth...? No, she has no choice. Being noble and taking blows just because she has some inkling of what this dark man is capable of? That won't help anyone. She'd double over in two hits, leaving Gan to a fate even worse.
But that doesn't mean Shurui's going to just leave Gan to take the man's abuse. Taking advantage of the potential lack of attention on Krizalid's part, Shurui circles around quickly. Engaging the side of one of his legs, Shurui attempts to twist her leg in against it, pressing around with a sharp enough jerk to potentially disturb the man's balance, thus making him fall.
It'll take more than tricks like these to beat him. Shurui knows that. There's also the the very real danger of this stranger finding the time or resources to note her identity. So far, he seems clueless. That's good. If he knew, that would had a further level of unknown danger to the mix. Kula may have reacted to her in an oddly positive fashion, but what of someone else? She could only pray that this operative would at least not give a shit.
She can't imagine what it'd be like if this man had a personal agenda against anyone, much less unfortunate strangers invading his turf.
Immediately, something is wrong. The form of Krizalid, even as he's knocked away, reverses. He's not ready for Krizalid's fall, and when the man comes down towards him, Gan is struck hard. The leg smashes into him, and then the rest of Kriz, knocking the barrel chested student over, causing him to collapse in a loud and heavy heap.
Gan has the lovely feeling of a tiger tearing at him, trying to get into the rather massive meaty muscle that is Gan. It's slow going, but Krizalid would probably have a good chance of getting through Gan's barrel like chest if he didn't fight back - heck even if he did, on a good day!
"GRAAARGH!" Gan roars, pain filling his senses - there's nothing good about this at all, right now. Krizalid continues to assault Gan, as the boy tries to fight off the Nests agent. "I didn't come here for your men....." Gan manages to get out, all the while writhing.
Shurui moves, attempting to engage that leg, to twist it and jerk his balance. If Krizalid goes for it, there's suddenly something bigger to worry about. "I came here .. to get you out!"
Both massive hands would come around to grasp the NESTS weapon, red staining the normally green clothing. "HRAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" If he's not nimble, Krizalid is going to be hefted straight into the air. Then, and only then, would he be grasped by the legs, and made to suffer the fate of an overly large children's toy.
Whipped about, Krizalid would find himself bent and tossed in ways normal humans.. and even trained clones.... should not be bent in, before being thrown towards the ground in an effort to show him to his very own personal crater.
"Your men and you .. don't BELONG HERE!"
COMBATSYS: Krizalid blocks Shurui's Quick Throw.
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Shurui 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|===----\-------\0 Krizalid
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Gan 0/-------/=======|
COMBATSYS: Krizalid endures Gan's Helicopter Smash.
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Shurui 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Krizalid
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Gan 0/-------/=======|
Krizalid is less tripped off of Gan and more violently torn out of him. Gore and muscle fiber trailing off of his arms up to the limiter engagements, he is removed as part of an overly vicious process of cat and mouse. Shurui is successful in gaining his attention, attempting to twist his leg to throw his balance and attention off Gan, but it's harder going than Shurui might have thought. It's easy to think that Krizalid might have hidden an extra joint to his leg that he didn't tell anyone about, from the way his knee lifts and twists with the jerking motion to diffuse the force against the little girl. Then his other leg hooks around, in a savage attempt to kick her in the ja-
Or so Krizalid's plan was until Gan roars, gripping him like a toy. After all, Krizalid is fast, but hardly the kind of agile he'd need to be to evade that kind of speed from a zero distance. Instead, the operative is bent and twisted about like a rag doll, not putting up much of a fight at all as he's cast limply into the crater, damage notice springing up all over his mnemonic display as his suit and his body absorb the impact..
His eyes slide open.
His form twists in the air just after the first impact of his body bouncing into the air, his form twisting as his leg skids across the ground, darting downwards to engage earth like a landing spike, his other cracking in the air as he works a kink out of the joint, coincidentally the leg that Shurui just tried to twist apart. "See... that's where you're wrong," Krizalid corrects Gan, his breath ever so slightly labored.
"I think we belong here more than you and your lot ever did!!"
His leg scythes through the air as he curls it around and whips it high, churning the air in front of him into a charged storm, a whirling blast of rending wind that cuts the air as he spikes his reserves to start a countdown the hard way, and pour more force into the torrential blast before him. It chews up the earth as it crackles and carves forward, energy crawling in its wake as Krizalid attempts to come unnervingly close to tearing Shurui in half with the air itself, the penalty for her distraction.
A good thing Krizalid knows nothing about Shurui or the company she keeps.
A good thing indeed.
COMBATSYS: Shurui blocks Krizalid's Typhon's Rage - Strike.
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Shurui 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0 Krizalid
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Gan 0/-------/=======|
One could say Shurui was lucky. Gan too; no doubt he'd be included in Krizalid's fury by simple association if things became known. However, in the wake of Krizalid's current lack of knowledge, there are questions. That coiling of energy. Firey, even. It seems familiar. The idea of 'fiery' could bring up K', but, until she sees that in action, the implications of such a similarity are best not pondered immediately.
The fact that she shouldn't be thinking about this during a difficult battle with the mysterious man is pretty much a given. As Krizalid whips his other foot around, Shurui is already attempting to react, her eyes seeming to stare at something just beyond the man's body. Yet, Gan interrupts this entirely, saving Shurui from the potential counterattack. Alone, they would break against this man's assault. Together? They just might make a mighty dent in the man, and possibly take control of the cache of supplies possibly within the dorms. If this man's guarding it, it has to be something valuable.
But they have to defeat him first. And that'll be a feat in itself. As the man stirs the very wind itself and unleashes it against a distracted Shurui, it seems dire for the girl. Yet, as if sensing Krizalid's very attack, Shurui whips around, bracing herself against the dirt in the scant moments she has before impact before the attack meets her square on.
It hurts. Yet, somehow, she's still standing. And, now that she's taken in their conversation, the Gedo girl finally has something to say to the pale-haired man. "So you're saying...." Shurui says, slowly lowers her shaking, pained arms, "... You guys belong at a high school? A bunch of high-class scientists and assassins capable of who-knows-what? What, you missed a few things in lab?" She laughs. "Gedo lost what made it powerful when you drove us out. Right now? You just got a bunch of buildings on your hands."
It's in that next second that she darts forward. "Gan!" She can only hope he's quick enough to realize a potential opening when he sees one. Charging her right fist, she attempts to ram it into Krizalid's chest. If it connects, psycho power will erupt from that point, coursing through Krizalid's body and out the back like a lance. When opted to by Gan's own attack, she'll disconnect the charge, setting Krizalid free.
He manages to land, of all things. Gan hadn't seen a man able to take it .. able to resist it.... and yet, that is clearly what is before him. "Hmmmm.." Gan takes a moment to think - looking upon Krizalid as he lands, spinning about - and sending a whirling blast of wind towards Shurui. It's possible she will take the blow far better than he will.
He could be also, incredibly wrong.
"To suggest such a thing .. I won't let you claim the Don's work was worthless!" Thinking is forgotten! It's time for action! He can only watch as Shurui is forced to weather the near literal storm, and it's as she comes out, at least in one piece but worse for wear, that Gan is certain - he can't wait any longer. ".. The Don.. the students he's taught.. and the knowledge he's passed on to every one of us!" The Gedo Sumo bellows, blood dripping down his lacerated chest. He can still breath, so he can still yell.
Shurui calls out to him - and Gan responds. As Shurui charges to ram the blade into Kirzalid's chest, Gan comes from the other side, charging first, one hand pulling back before lancing towards Krizalid, a palm strike laced with energy.. and then another and another - each of them designed to impale him farther onto that psycho 'lance' that may just erupt from him!
"We'll .. SHOW YOU THAT POWER!"
COMBATSYS: Krizalid endures Shurui and Gan's Gedo Pride.
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Shurui 1/-------/=======|=======\===----\1 Krizalid
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Gan 0/-------/=======|
"Whatever.."
He's not interested in their babbling right now, as much as he is their bleeding. No, that's not quire accurate. Shurui laughs at him, and he riles, ever slightly. She withstood his rage. At which point he makes a decision. They move towards him, and he carefully takes stock in their movements, ignoring the warnings that flood across his screen of imminent damage, instead stalking towards them, every sway of talon and stray boot step a deadly calculated thing. Did they really think they were just going to defeat him?
Krizalid isn't anything short of impaled. Man or demon, he bleeds all the same. The young man is run through by the girl who lands in him like a small javelin, causing even his weighted boots to cede ground as she knocks him off-balance with a punch that turns out to be much more, his display flooding with damage advisements. Then he's crashed into by 250 pounds of rage, the titan lurching into motion, hitting Krizalid like an angry mountain and nigh crumpling the boy with every thrusting cannon-blast of a palm.
Krizalid is crumpled like paper.
But, steam pouring from the collar of his coat as if overheating, the NESTS operative never quite falls.
"See," he breathes, "that was... kind of the point."
Standing in the tracks that his boots dug through the ground as Gan pummelled him back, Krizalid straightens, spreading out his arms as he fixes Shurui and Gan with the most dreadfully dire and bored look he can, the steam now boiling from his sleeves as his own coat begins to smoulder. Burn. Then vaporize, in an instant, as Krizalid incinerates the entire affair off of him in a wave of the sacred fire stolen by the masters of darkness and imbued into his own blood. In that moment, he is less an operative and more a very angry young man.
"All this is? Is a building, that had a bunch of stupid kids in it. And you know who owns it? The strongest. That's the way of things. But the only thing I see here.. are ants." Esconced in glistening white-hot steel, Krizalid shines as his entire body seems to boil with fire. "Trying to piss off the master of the house." He glares, pointedly.
"And... I think you just fucking did."
He steps forward.
And carves a blinding fast saltire cross through the air with flaming talons, cutting with fire so hot it melts the air itself, centered over the closest target to him -- Gan, trying to simply speed through, to boil away every last thought he had concerning guarding or stopping his attack, forged of the highest pedigree. It's part of his point--he's not gonna back down, never has, never will. Instead, it's part of his plan. Take out the biggest one, so he can spend the rest of the day educating the little one as to why it's a bad idea to make fun of NESTS.
Even the ground gives way underneath Krizalid's talons, molten and glowing-hot in long angry lines where his claws passed in simple proximity. That's the meaning of Krizalid's fire.
He's gonna make them both wish they never got out of bed this morning.
Krizalid's fire burns in Shurui's mind. "...." Yeah, that fire is unmistakable. She narrows her eyes. It's not that it's an identical match to K''s; it didn't need to be. What it needed was the seed of that flame came from the same source, growing into its own separate, terrible entity. Shurui's never had to seriously stand up against K''s flames, to feel that burn driven by pure rage. Now? She just might face something just as horrible a concept.
That is, if she idly stands by and allows this moment come to nothing. She saw the man re This man won't back down; that's why they need to take him out if they are meant to do anything useful at all. Thus, she moves in against Krizalid's side in a smooth motion, her expression startlingly neutral for someone straying so close to such flames. Her fist then rockets forward in that small space of an inch or so, smoothly releasing against the mysterious man's back.
Things may get difficult from here on out. She can only prepare and get in her attacks while she can.
Gan checks.
COMBATSYS: Krizalid successfully hits Gan with End of Heaven.
-+- CALCULATED HIT -+-
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Shurui 1/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Krizalid
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Gan 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
COMBATSYS: Shurui has left the fight here.
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Gan 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|==-----\-------\0 Krizalid
COMBATSYS: Gan can no longer fight.
> //////////// ]
|==-----\-------\0 Krizalid
COMBATSYS: Krizalid has ended the fight here.
There's nothing he could truly do.
Krizalid burns off his coat, and with such power, he'll be able to do far worse. Gan threw everything he could have. He threw his own body into - and much the same, Gan's own body is the object of Krizalid's anger this time - the flaming talons, cutting, burning. Gan is terrible with such energy.
It cuts into him - burns almost to the third degree instantly, as the massive student is tossed backwards. It's grateful that Gan is not in the direct middle - even as the boy tries to push himself through it. To keep fighting. He can't give up for the students. Those he let down. The Don.
In seconds, it all doesn't matter, pain flowing over him, the same as the fire that tears across him, burning the flesh and more. He is used to such abuse - but never in such large amounts. The talons leave marks where they strike, bloody ones, and Gan is knocked over, away, and even leaves a mark in the ground. The crater, and himself, smouldering.
He is beyond words now. His head swims, his body weak - unable to keep fighting. He may be able to at least give Shurui a chance - to assist her, if nothing else. The Giant of Gedo finds enough strength to stand, teetering, smouldering.
His eyes focus on Krizalid. A goal. There is no words for such a man. Everyone he had spoken to had claimed that the anger the boy contains, as hot as the flames that the operative had bathed him in, should be put to good use on them. He had never hoped to come to such a situation. As he learns, things change.
"HGRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" A guttural roar comes from him as the sandals, burned off, finally collapse under his weight. He still runs, massive hands reaching out towards Krizalid, "I'll do more .. THAN JUST PISS YOU OFF!" He doesn't have anything left to give. He can't keep on fighting.
If he can just grab Krizalid's leg, it might all be over. He won't let him harm Shurui, if he's at least capable of that. To keep her, if nothing, safer than he ended up.
COMBATSYS: Gan can no longer fight.
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Shurui 1/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Krizalid
COMBATSYS: Krizalid blocks Shurui's Strong Punch.
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Shurui 1/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Krizalid
COMBATSYS: Gan successfully hits Krizalid with Concrete Smash.
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Shurui 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Krizalid
He manages, through all the pain and torment he puts his body through, to grasp the man. It's all he could have hoped to do. The student wastes no time.
The poor building will at least be used to fight back against Krizalid. 'Just a building'. Until you are slammed against it, like Krizalid is soon to be. "Hahahahahahah!" He may not be all right at this moment. Pain fueling him, anger and determination allowing him to push himself forwards. Swung upwards, off his feet, Krizalid is forcefully brought upwards and whipped. Where as Gan normally tries to keep the amount of damage done from face to floor low, there is no care here.
He's brought down hard, like a ragdoll, against the ground. It's just the first of many, Krizalid finding himself whipped about like a toy once more, but now there are impacts.
First against the ground he had boiled moments ago, his face being smashed against it especially, before the wall of Gedo gets an imprint of Krizalid's face as well, a mark to remember. The wooden siding gets a very new window, and Gan only laughs. He continues to laugh as his limbs go numb, finally, the giant's grip launching Krizalid away, not through choice, but because he cannot keep a grip.
The laughing ceases, Gan staggering, legs going numb shortly after, before the giant collapses to the floor.
At least he didn't collapse on the boiling ground.
He won't not make a good steak.
And with the twin vicious arcs of sacred fire, Gan is simply undone. Thrown away like trash, Gan is made into so much crater decoration. Smoke rides from that crater, shrouding the devastation. See, it's exactly like Krizalid figured. These kids were all talk, no action. It doesn't matter how big you are, or how impressive you look. "It doesn't matter what you think, what your pride is," Krizalid states to Shurui evenly, reaching behind himself with a preeternatural speed to snatch Shurui's wrist in mid-punch to his back, hitting his armor feeling something like punching a steel oven.
Like a scarecrow the boy seems, dragging Chiang to his front roughly, lifting her off her feet with limbs that just seem far and vastly longer than they should, dangling her by the wrist in his claws, still scalding hot from the fires of heaven she just set loose. Shurui, if she could see, would easily be able to get a look at the data still running just behind the lenses of his eyes.
"You're just a bug." And in his other talon, he's holding just a little more of that smouldering reap.
"At the end of the day? It all goes to who's left standing."
He lifts the Kusanagi flame in his judging talon. Shurui can try to fight with her remaining arm if she likes. In fact, Krizalid's coming nothing short of daring her to. Daring her to fight him, to try and prove she has some kind of worth at all. Give him that. Give him a limb. Give him anything you want. Just give him something else he can tear off.
"And I'm not interested in you breathing my fucking air anymore.."
--?!
Suddenly, a shadow dwarfs Krizalid. The giant is still standing--!?
Somewhere along the line, he loses grip of Shurui. Then. Laughing, cackling like there was some kind of joke going on that Krizalid wasn't let in on, Gan just whips Krizalid against the ground like a piece of well worn leather, his suit recording all manner of broken bone and misery, getting thrown into and against the building, his body carving through wood siding in a calamity of damage that Gedo students would have surely been made to clean up in the old days, his body whipped through the air, his limbs trailing behind him like streamers as his bleeding body goes flying at an angle, tearing through siding like a shark's fin cuts the water, before he caves in the wall and lays there in the dormitory hall, still.
/!\ Error. Damage maximum exceeded. Reboot battle? <y/n>
COMBATSYS: Krizalid takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Shurui 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Krizalid
COMBATSYS: Krizalid has reached second wind!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Shurui 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Krizalid
....
Triggered by an unseen hand, the alarm and alert systems of the dormitories trigger, causing a wide-scale evacuation of the gathered guards. As if someone was tired of the war. This failure was beginning to wear on the soldiers and mercenaries. It's enough of that.
Though the goal has been accomplished, at what cost?
Is NESTS losing its perspective?
Movement. A counterattack. Shurui's senses spot it, but a nanosecond of extra time is nothing compared to a NESTS operative's speed. A second later and Shurui finds herself roughly dangling in the air, skin sizzling from the metal claws coming into contact with her skin. She cries briefly in surprise and pain, then, falls silent.
Something lights up in those eyes. An instinct, a wire crossed that no mere student should have in the first place. Survival, but not the desperate sort. Something more... critical. Krizalid will get her arm, alright, but it won't be free. Psycho power rips down her free arm, readying itself to attempt to jab at the tall man. You can't depend on others to free yourself. The only one you should ever depend on is yourself. Shurui will make her own path.
.... This mindset is why, when Gan comes in for the final blow, Shurui is surprised out of her stupor, falling from Krizalid's grasp and falling onto the ground, holding her burnt wrist with a pained expression as she scrambles up. "...." Gan's unconscious, but.... it's over? Shurui's body sags. That aura... that man must be unconscious. Maybe. Or he might not put up much of a fight.
It's then that an odd, yet logical thought forms in her head as she stares at him in the rubble. It would be perfect just to finish the job here, to take what's left in her body and possibly try to end this man right here and now, but as she looks at him, looks at that strange aura.... He's a clone too, probably. Like her. Like Kula. Maybe K'. It doesn't matter what project he's from, what he just tried to do to her and Gan, or who he's supposed to be; she can't kill him.
Let the soldiers take care of him. She has her own person to cart to safety. Somehow. At least the dorms are theirs now; she can take Gan there and treat his wounds as best she can.
COMBATSYS: Shurui takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Shurui 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Krizalid
COMBATSYS: Shurui has left the fight here.
> /////// ]
|======-\-------\0 Krizalid
Log created on 19:47:47 05/16/2009 by Krizalid, and last modified on 01:10:45 02/06/2011.