Self-Determination (Ultimate / Open to Max 3)

[Ayakura Alisa]

I held a collection of notes in my hands. These were all notes I found throughout my explorations in the unmoving library, all written in the handwriting of my parents. I matched them up and realized that at the very end of the day, I was still reading nonsense. Nothing made any sense. Nothing had any sort of coherent meaning. It was all meaningless. I sighed and returned to the hallowed halls of the library again in hopes that I would find something else. I stood at the entrance and sighed. The sleeves of this brighter, whiter furisode seemed to billow uncomfortably around the area. I looked down and saw my own shadow, but there was nothing strange about it. I was starting to feel something very ominous, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from.

I sighed and muttered some stuff to myself before walking back into the halls again, alone. If there were any candles in the area, they would definitely amplify my shadow considering how dark the area was. I didn't want to worry about what was going on right now but there was something about it that was very off. I kept staring at it before grumbling and continuing to move on. Soon enough, I started hearing footsteps. Footsteps? Where did they come from? Had someone begun to follow me? I turned around and saw nobody there. I shrugged and continued moving on ahead.

The footsteps continued.

"Hey!" I called out to nobody in particular. "Is anybody else around here?"

---

Open to a maximum of 3. If your character has no clue who Alisa is or has no existing relationship (friendship or colleague or no) you probably don't want to jump into this thread.

[Pyxis]

Once again, Pyxis was in the library. She was somewhere between exploring and hunting shadows, although the latter seemed to be in short supply, at the moment. She'd gone through a few battles so far, all of which had been won rather quickly through overwhelming power. But now, there wasn't much of anything around. For once, she couldn't detect any shadows in a close enough range for her systems to bother alerting her. So, she was just exploring.

Normally, the library was just another location to Pyxis. Experiencing something so often as a battlefield took away a lot of the eeriness even to unsettling places. But for some reason, the silence and emptiness made it all the more unsettling than when shadows were lurking around. Out here, where such strong shadows were supposed to be all around her, she wasn't quite sure how to deal with nothing.

Then, she heard a voice. An instinct very un-machine-like within her caused her to jump, but she quickly calmed down as she realized that she recognized the voice. It was just Alisa. It came as no surprise that Alisa would be around as well, save for the fact that Pyxis hadn't actually noticed her. But, her sensory systems were clearly registering the presence of a human nearby. Was she just not paying attention?

Pyxis approached the source of the voice, careful not to surprise her by suddenly appearing. "It's fine. It's just me," she said.

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe couldn't believe she'd actually gone and come here. It was on one of the maps Vice had given her in the past. Deep into the Shadowlands, a citadel of Shadows. A place she'd never dared approach before.

She gulped. Honestly, why had she come here?

Curiosity. Dejection. A desire to challenge herself. A need to fight something harder than usual.

Was that all?

No. A premonition. Something was going to happen here. And it was something she needed to be there for, for some reason.

Have you considered that this 'some reason' might be your doom? Hypatia chided her as she hurried down the bizarre halls.

Oh yes, her other self did not like this idea one bit. And she was right. The feeling that brought her here was almost ominous, as was her blatant disregard of her safety. But screw her safety. She found herself in a library. This was... strange. On one hand the sight of so many books and shelves was a tiny bit of heaven on earth for her, but on the other hand...

What is wrong with this place? she thought.

The air... felt suffocating. She felt it thick and sticky, like she could reach out and touch it. She didn't like this place. It was so quiet that she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand upright. She shook herself down in an attempt to relax but to no avail. She was tense with survival instinct.

Then she heard footsteps in the distance. Tentative and somewhat... ominous. Phoebe gulped.

"Hey!" came a sudden call from the distance. "Is anybody else around here?"

Phoebe jumped a bit and let an embarrassing squeak of fright. That voice echoed down the vast halls in an almost otherworldly way but... it still sounded familiar somehow. Phoebe started heading towards it.

"H-Hello?" she blurted and realized it was too weak to be heard.

Rally yourself, Hypatia said.

Phoebe proceeded down the hallway of bookshelves and turned around a corner. She breathed out. There, between shelves, stood two human figures. She knew them both. There was Alisa and... that girl in the tattered maid uniform. She didn't know her - or rather, she thought she did but not very well, since she couldn't remember her name.

"Alisa?" Phoebe said, enough to be heard, and approached. "Wh-What are you two doing here?" 

[Akira Nakajima]

Just another day, just another search. To the present, though, the boy had found not a thing worth noting in the library. Outside of, well, typical Shadows. Not another one of those impressive blood-colored Shadows, or that Reaper from before. In other words, nothing especially interesting. Most of the books he had found lacked any contents that appealed to him, as well. No interesting fiction, no ero, no game-related things. All of the ones he found were scientific, in other languages, or things like that. Now, that wasn't to say that what he was looking for wasn't there, of course. He was willing to bet that Murphy just altered reality and removed any probability of him finding what he was looking for from the pool of causality. Sounded legitimate, at least.

The boy heard noise coming from the entrance of the library. Faint, but there. He supposed it was worth checking out. Perhaps there were humans. Perhaps there was something worth killing. Either way, there was something, and he was within the realms of boredom that he didn't mind verifying. The boy was dressed nicely, despite the location. Flat black pumps served as his foot-based protection from the floors. Reaching from those confines were equally black thigh-highs, which hid their mouths from view deep within his crimson and black-checkered skirt. It was pleated for movement, and reached to his knees. Tucked within it was a pure white blouse, but that was irrelevant. A maroon vest, zipped up, and a black jacket, left open, covered his torso and arms. Naturally, given where he was exploring, he wore his Leviasuit under all of that. Of course, nobody needed to know that. It was his ace in the hole.

”This is certainly an odd place to have a girls' outing to.” The boy in drag noted lightly, in that feminine tone reserved for his crossdressing. ”Am I. . . interrupting something interesting?” The boy in drag questioned as his expression turned playful. Alisa and that maid, Pyxis, were there. As was that woman from the last two major battles. Interesting and mildly unexpected to encounter them all there. Lowering his scissors, which had been at the ready, just in case, he let the massive clippers point towards the floor as he approached. At his side, and some few steps behind, was Alpha Elma. It went without saying that he explored with his Persona out.

Never knew when things would get nasty, after all.

[Ayakura Alisa]

I turned around. It was just Pyxis. Thank goodness. The familiar maid uniform. I was not in that uniform today, of course, I was in this furisode kimono of mine. A stark contrast to the last one I had, mind you, which was pink, while this was white. Still. I nodded in acknowledgement to her before I whirled around and saw Phoebe arrive as well. Wasn't it dangerous for her here? Had she grown strong enough to bear the terrors that were in these hallowed halls? She asked Pyxis and I what we were doing here.

"I'm just in search of answers, as usual. Answers I seem to be struggling to find," I simply said softly. "I can't answer for her, though." As I finished speaking, I heard the sound of loud footsteps. Pumps. Definitely. Eventually, I recognized the figure that approached. It was none other than Ran, who wondered if she was interrupting something interesting. Not really, it was just a chance meeting amongst the four of us. I looked around and then turned forward, away from everyone else. I sighed and looked down, looking at my shadow.

"Not really, Ran. Not interrupting a thing. We just happened to all arrive here, utterly and completely coincidentally. Though, I figure you all might be feeling something rather... ominous," I said, continuing to look down. Sighing, seeing nothing wrong with my shadow, I smiled as I turned my head back. "I think we should all be careful here. You never know what you might encounter. I mean, I have a really bad feeling about this." I looked back down again.

My shadow was gone. What? My shadow has disappeared! Where did it go?!

You should keep on your guard. A voice that sounded like a distorted version of mine suddenly bellowed out of... Somewhere. I looked forward again and saw a mirror image of myself; it appeared to be me for sure. Looked like me, certainly. Though, this woman... was dressed in a sultry, black catsuit. On her side a nodachi was kept, unkemptly its edge grazed the ground. Her mouth was covered. What took you so long? Mom and dad are most certainly gone by now. In response to this woman, all I could simply do was blink. I knew something was off. My shadow had literally manifested. I shivered. There was still doubt in my heart, after all. The inkling of desiring revenge.

They have become Shadows too. You're far too late.

"I'm afraid I can't answer to that," I simply said, shrugging, before looking awkwardly at my companions, wondering what they'd think of this. I doubt our friends over here would be able to solve the mystery of mom and dad too after all the goddamn time you wasted over this bullshit. "But indeed, answers could not be sought in this hellhole. The only way is to fight to the truth, is it not?"

They're fucking gone already, don't you see that? The notes we collected are meaningless; they wrote those in their dying throes! The void, the void! It does not mean a damn thing! Emptiness?! No, we must seek vengeance!

"Pyxis, Phoebe, Ran..." I simply ignored what... I said. Well, that which was 'me', but not really 'me.' "Heh... Isn't this such a sorry sight? This must be the angry part of me manifesting into a thing. How unpleasant."

Don't you DARE ignore me! Our friends over there, they're freakin' useless. When have they ever respected your goddamn strength, hmm? I tell you, together, we can take this world by storm. One neck at a time. My Shadow wiggled her nodachi menacingly at us. I grimaced.

"Our colleagues and friends have been a great asset for me," I said solemnly, trying to muster all my resolve. "Do not disrespect their wishes."

For fuck's sake, being around other people has mellowed you out too much. What happened to that maniacal glee you used to take whenever mom taught you how to shatter blocks of wood with your hands? Or when you could easily shoot down a bird in the sky with a bow? Holy shit, woman! Fuck! This is all your fault! The... Fake Me, I shall say, shuffled back, effortlessly drew her long-ass nodachi with one goddamn hand and pointed it at us. She growled. You three punk-ass bitches got something to say for yourselves? Explain yourselves! What did you do with her?!

My Shadow was clearly my vengeful, violent, "Assassin Aspect." It was the "me" that believed I should kill and kill and kill, and work as a lone wolf. But Chidori and Pyxis and Ran taught me that it was not right to do that. So my Shadow wanted to lash out and fight against it. I stood my ground and gripped my knife tightly.

[Akira Nakajima]

Bodysuits were okay. It really depended on the execution of the outfit. That said, Akira honestly couldn't find himself too impressed with the execution that Alisa's Shadow had apparently gone with. Then again, going by his own experience with his Shadow, he could safely declare that Shadows might not have been entirely in their right mind to begin with. There was a topic he hadn't dealt with in a long while- the investigator's parents. Ah, actually, more than that, he had shelved that topic into the deeper, darker, dustier reaches of his mental filing cabinet. He hadn't forgotten about it, per se. Then again, he really didn't care too much about it, either. He had mentally marked the couple as deceased. All the same, it was a topic he didn't plan on focusing on with the woman.

He shifted his weight onto his left foot, which was further back than his right. Well, going by the way the Shadow spoke, conflict. . . might have been unavoidable. Lovely. Then again, he had to engage his own Shadow before literally accepting it inside him. Ignoring the Shadow's words, he instead turned his attention to the woman in question- the origin of the robber-fetishist wannabe. He didn't even look too bothered. No, instead of looking distressed, he smiled. It was warm. And knowing, as well. After all, he already dealt with his Shadow.

”Sorry or not, angry or not, forgotten or not, don't reject it.” He calmly told her. ”That Shadow is a part of yourself. It may not be the whole you you've kept hidden, but it is tied to you. You might not even remember what your Shadow signifies. I know I didn't, not until I got a lecture.” He winked at the investigator before pushing his glasses up. ”Whether you accept it and move on, or you intend to pummel it into submission, you have my support. Just don't try to save face.” The smile warped into something slightly more mischievous and sinister. ”Trying to deny your secrets makes it easier to tease you, after all.” With that, the boy raised his arm, letting Elma unleash a Heat Riser of the group of Users. If they didn't fight, that was great. If they did, at least they'd be ready, yeah?

”Proceed however you feel is right. Know that I've got your back, though. Figuratively and literally.” Ah, and that was something he never would have told her when they first met. How times changed.

[Pyxis]

Okay, Pyxis got it. From what Alisa had told her about her parents, and how she had been trained, she was not terribly surprised by the obvious shadow that had approached them. She looked the part of an assassin, or at least a fighter moreso than an investigator. With a large sword that would have looked a little more threatening if the shadow wasn't trying to ruin the blade by dragging it across the ground.

But seriously, a catsuit?!

No, that wasn't important right now. Somehow, Alisa's shadow had broken free. She hadn't seemed all that emotionally vulnerable the last time Pyxis had talked to her, so that probably wasn't the cause. More likely, she had suppressed the thoughts and instincts that the shadow embodied so deeply that it had to break free, and had only done so now because it had finally reached that breaking point, so to speak.

The shadow's words seemed to confirm that. Demanding vengeance? Anger at being ignored? Insistence that Alisa had gotten too mellow. And of course, the accusation suddenly leveled at Pyxis and the others who had showed up. Well...maybe the shadow was right on that. She had tried her best to keep Alisa from losing it after Chidori's death. At the time, how successful she had been was in serious doubt. But now, hearing that from the shadow, she knew she had accomplished something. Despite, or perhaps because of, the shadow's anger, that was something to be proud of.

But that wasn't something Pyxis was going to say. That could wait. More important was how Alisa would deal with the shadow. Ran nailed the issue, right in one. Accept it, beat it, whatever, the only thing Alisa couldn't, or shouldn't do, was deny it. She didn't need Pyxis to repeat that for her. "Alisa," she said, stepping forward and resting a hand on her shoulder. "Since all that's out in the open now, I want you to know that I've always had the utmost respect for your abilities. I may not have approved of it at the time, but fighting shadows without even awakening a Persona is not something just anyone can do. And now you're probably quite a bit stronger than me. That's not something I easily admit too." Okay, she acknowledged it was true many times. But actually saying it, now that she was at the best she'd ever been, was a different matter. But, there it was.

"I'll stand by what Ran said, though," she added. "Whatever you do, I'll be by your side."

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe was frightened by the appearance of the other Alisa, not quite sure what was going on. Ran called it a Shadow, and suddenly Phoebe had an epiphany. If this was according to Jungian psychology, then it was a 'fake'. It was her innermost thoughts. But that didn't necessarily make them all real. It was...almost like a child throwing a tantrum and tantrums are rarely about what they appear to be.

Still, what she said was awful. Alisa... had lost her parents to this place? And did she really feel this way? That she was growing weaker because of her connection to people...

No, that's not true. Being with others makes us stronger, not the other way around, she thought. I was weak and frightened as a chicken before I met other Users. So... this is wrong.

As the entity spoke, her fear was slowly getting replaced by a righteous indignation that grew and grew until it couldn't be contained anymore. So, this thing was her Shadow, come to claim Alisa just like one had apparently claimed Vice.

Over her dead body.

Ran and the other girl were absolutely right. While what the creature may have spoken truths, Phoebe had a feeling it wasn't the whole picture. She drew her hammer, stepped up beside Alisa, twirled the hammer down and let the head thunk on the floor decisively. Hypatia appeared behind her, her shield raised in a stance ready for combat, endowing them all with an added layer of Rakukaja.

"They're right. No matter what, Alisa, I'm with you too. When I first met you, I was a scaredycat, but you showed me I wasn't alone," she said. "I learned that I wasn't weak. So now I'd like to repay the favor. You are not weak. That's a ridiculous notion. You're stronger than it is, stronger than you think. But anyway, if you feel like you'll falter, I'll lend you my strength, anytime. Because I think you deserve it. If you choose to accept this Shadow, I'll stand by you. But I am not going to let it hurt you. If you want to fight this thing, I'm with you. Let's go."

[Ayakura Alisa]

I tucked my arms into my sides. Pfft... You're all pathetic...

"There's a time and place for everything," I said simply. "Now's not the time to become the killer I could have been..." What Ran said was true, to some extent. I was still mad about the situation and disappointed in myself that I couldn't conclude my personal case. On that level, I had failed. I had to accept that. It was my inability, my failure after all. And a part of me did desire vengeance. I couldn't deny that. I couldn't reject that notion after all, no matter how much I may have wanted to do so. I felt Pyxis' hand on my shoulder.

I didn't turn to face them. I still looked at my Shadow, though I nodded, as if acknowledging the three girls who stood by my side. "Look..." I spoke again. "It's true. Perhaps, just perhaps. We could be seeking vengeance right now. I've been thinking about it. I was pretty pissed. You're pissed too." I started approaching the Shadow, who still had her nodachi pointed forward at us. I kept walking until the nodachi's point was about an inch away from my neck. The hell are you saying? Come with me. Let's ditch these guys and get going.

"I can't leave them. But I won't ignore you, either. Why don't you come with me instead."

Hahahaha! Are you shitting me? Do you expect me to follow your orders? I'm clearly the stronger one here. The Shadow before me poked my neck with her nodachi. It stung a little and I stepped back. I touched the point where the blade pricked me. There was blood drawn. I grimaced. If you won't follow me, and leave them, then I'll make them disappear! I'll take you with me and we can go on a magical adventure. It will be lovely. The perfect bloodsport!

I gripped my knife. "You won't harm them! I am you, and you are me! If you want a goddamn fight, I'll give you a goddamn fight!" I glared at the Shadow before me. "It is very clear to me that the only way you will see things in any way is through the heat and adrenaline of battle! I will give it to you! I will prove it to you. Rage and anger can be controlled. I will tame you. I will make sure, that your wrath will be put to gooooo~d use."

Is that so~? Do you really think you can tame the savage beast? Do you realize, that you could have been me if you made just one tiny, little mistake? My Shadow soon giggled and winked at Pyxis. Heh~! Fine! I'll give you a shot! Come on, come and wrangle the raging bull! Show me what you got! Hell, your little friends can join in too! Little Miss Ran and The Butterball and The Battle Maid! Let's have a goddamn bloody party in here!

My Shadow started laughing maniacally and I simply growled, standing my ground. Soon, my doppelganger's eyes started glowing as she somersaulted back and swung her nodachi effortlessly with one hand, spraying blood all over the ground and on the bookshelves. I groaned as something started welling up within me. A strange feeling. But it wasn't necessarily a negative one.

"Guys... I'm glad you here now. I need some help. This is what happens when I get mad. When I get mad, reason fails to overtake me. Sometimes, fire needs to be fought with fire. I'll wrangle that wannabe back in me if that's what it takes."

The Shadow continued to laugh.


Alisa's Shadow

• Hyakka Ryouran (Minor Slash damage, randomly hitting 8 times)
  
• Chi no Mai (Severe Slash damage to all targets)
  
• Jigoku'en (Severe Fire damage to all targets)
  
• Eternal Eye ()
  

Absorb: N/A || Null: N/A || Resist: Physical || Weak: N/A

[Akira Nakajima]

So the woman had the resolve to acknowledge up was up and down was down. Good. She was already leagues ahead of Vice. The boy in drag had pretty much ignored everything the Shadow had uttered up until he noted something particularly interesting. The maid was called a “Battle Maid”. The larger set woman- Phoebe, he believed that third name uttered was?- was called butterball. Okay, both names were, on some levels, adequate. He almost felt a little left out by just being called “Ran”. Or, maybe, that was a sign of something he could tease the woman with? The situation might have been serious, but Alisa. . . was still a toy for him to tinker with later.

”I noticed it called me just 'Ran'. You must really hold me in high esteem. Or maybe. . . there's something else?” With a playful, predatory smirk, the boy winked at Alisa before turning his attention to the situation as a whole. ”Well, time to beat it down. Wrangle it down, or what have you. You could try eating it, like I did with mine. Well, whatever. Elma, another Heat Riser.” The boy willed for a second Heat Riser. Thanks to him acknowledging the fact that a battle was more than a little likely, that made it the second all-around boost to combat efficiency.

”Leave support and healing to me. Nobody will die so long as I'm here.” He calmly stated, leveling his scissors in front of him in a defensive manner. He meant what he said, as well.

Action (for clarity: Heat Riser
Notes: Heat Riser x2; first utilized as a precaution before the engagement


NBhxTpVA1-5

1-2, dodge the blade of blood; not worried over the smaller slashes.
1-5

[Pyxis]

Pyxis emulated a small sigh of relief when Alisa acknowledged the shadow in front of them. Even if Alisa denied it to the point that it attacked, Pyxis would protect Alisa for as long as she could. Even if it destroyed her in the process. If it meant saving Alisa from the same fate that Vice had undoubtedly suffered, any amount of damage, even 'dying' would be worth it. But hopefully it wouldn't come to that. Even though the shadow decided that accepting it wasn't enough. Only leaving the three of them behind would satisfy it, apparently.

But thankfully, that didn't seem to happen either. Which meant that a fight was inevitable after all. So the same thing still applied. She would defend and fight alongside Alisa with everything she had. An incredible power welled up within Pyxis as Elpis materialized behind her, her hair and dress shining brilliantly. Even alongside the familiar feeling of an aura of strength taking hold and her weapons charging up instantly, a different aura materialized as well, adding to that which Ran had produced. One of protection.  "Don't worry," she said.  "I'll be with you as long as it takes.  No matter what happens."

And then she attacked, raining a storm of meteors on the shadow. Pyxis noticed that they didn't affect it as much as she had hoped, though. But they still dealt damage, so she had a chance. If her other attacks were resisted as well, she would just have to overcome that resistance with sheer force.

[Actions:
+Auto-Rakukaja
+Auto-Tarukaja
Power Charged Agneyastra]

Dodges - Minor, Minor, Severe
awtpzCqr1-51-51-5
1-5�1-5�1-5

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe narrowed her eyes at the Shadow as it spoke. It just stirred her indignation. So it wanted a fight. Very well, for Alisa's sake, Phoebe was planning to give it one. She wasn't afraid - because she wasn't fighting for herself but for someone else. And because she'd stopped being afraid of blades ever since she realized Hypatia nulled slash attacks. As she took her post besides the girl called Pyxis for an attack. She smiled at Ran in gratitude for the buffs. Those would definitely help.

"I'm gonna try to catch some of its attacks if it uses that sword," she said calmly. "She can wail on me till the cows come home, if she likes. It's not going to do jack. If cutting attacks are anyone's weakness or you need a breather... I'll cover you. For now, she's going down."

Hypatia attacked just as the maid girl's attack was waning, thrusting her spear skywards in a decisive, regal move. It called down a rain of arrow-shaped shards of energy that covered a wide area around the Shadow, giving it little chance of a dodge - unless it pulled an ace out its sleeve, so to speak. Phoebe wasn't completely sure what sort of an effect it had on the Shadow but it was her strongest attack so she gave it a shot first.

"I'll show her, 'butterball'," she muttered, a little irritated. "Even Kyle's stopped calling me that! I've lost weight," she added, a bit more light-hearted.

[[Action: Arrow Rain and tank deployment]]

Roll High Counter (if 1, counter!)
Minor hits: 7Iq7||LR1-5 1-5 1-5

Severe hit: 1-5
1-5�1-5�1-5�1-5

[Ayakura Alisa]

I gripped my blade and pointed it forward, shooting out electricity from it while Pyxis and Phoebe were laying down their attacks on the Shadow. She seemed to be resistant to the strike and piercing attacks that their Personas threw at her, though my electricity seemed to shock her just fine. My Shadow flinched backwards and soon a large glint from one of her eyes flashed, it seemed to be clearly visible to us but I could tell her gaze was set on Phoebe. Hmph, I can tell immediately, you're immune to both my methods of attack... But that's fine by me. It's impossible for you alone to cover three different people at once! Activating Eternal Eye!

The area began to rumble for a slight moment, but the tremors stopped. What had just happened? Soon, I could sense an intense killing aura from the Shadow. Cover this, you little punk! My Shadow soon started leaping from bookshelf to bookshelf around the four of us, slashing at us from all sides, even if she knew that Phoebe was immune to slashing attacks. Her furious slashing, I counted them as she leapt about and literally did the ninja flip out. They were not so painful when individually calculated.

However, I counted. She slashed a total of sixteen times. On top of that, she flipped back in front of us and did a horizontal and vertical cross slash, releasing what was literally waves of solid blood which struck at everyone. I knew that Phoebe was going to be safe, but what about the rest of us?! If it weren't for Ran's use of the Heat Riser, that would have been incredibly painful. However, it looked like the Shadow faltered for a moment, almost as if she was catching her breath, for a moment, but she shook herself and readied herself for another attack. I could tell, though, that her defenses were lowered. Greatly lowered. It was just like my own style, heavy offense before defense, except she took it to the extreme.

"Is everyone okay?" I panted as I braced myself.


Eternal Eye - Grants triple acting to the user, but gives the user 3 Rakunda debuffs.

[Akira Nakajima]

”Everyone will be fine.” The boy calmly assured Alisa, despite having taken the larger hit. The smaller attacks were negligible, at best. Only good if it was against a single opponent. Of course, even then, killing something with bug bites was only an option if the damage couldn't be reversed. And, naturally, the boy could heal, when necessary. However, he did learn from the exchange that Phoebe could nullify Slash attacks. That was something to keep in mind for the future. Never knew when they might have to fight alongside each other. All the same, it was time to act.

”I'll begin healing after this. Pretty sure everyone is still fine for the time being. That said, Elma.” He reached for the dominatrix's tail. The succubus looked far less amused than her earlier iteration had when the exchange occurred. All the same, the boy stroked and pumped the tail before a spurt of liquid fire shot upwards and rained down on the Shadow. If it resisted Strike and Pierce and wielded a sword, he had to doubt that his scissors would deal full damage. Instead, he'd opt to experiment. Plus, the Shadow would be linked to Alisa. With a bit of H-game logic and a lot of luck, he could maybe find some interesting points about her through poking her Shadow for resistances.

Jaded motives and logic, but, hey. He was helping.

Action: Maragidyne to test for resistances.

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe braced herself when the Shadow made her move. The glint in her eye was sinister, but Phoebe felt solid as a rock. She wasn't scared at all.

"Hmph, I can tell immediately, you're immune to both my methods of attack... But that's fine by me. It's impossible for you alone to cover three different people at once!" the Shadow hissed at her.
 
What she says... doesn't matter.

Phoebe just smirked faintly. "Welcome to the land of 'too frickin' bad'," she muttered. "You're right, I can't cover everyone, but you just gave away your attack methods, silly goose," she said more confidently. "So, you're all about slashing and fire. Too bad."

When she attacked, Phoebe was ready. The slashing attacks had absolutely no effect on her indeed but this thing was so fast that Phoebe couldn't hope to intercept all of them. She still tried and managed to catch one intended for Pyxis and another intended for Alisa. They were all minor ones but the last one, the stronger one, that was what she had to watch out for.

Okay, now I know how she moves. I can work with this. I'm slower than her but she has to step back to hit us with the big one. I can cover someone-- like our support, to keep the rest of us alive.

"Ran," she said to the girl. "If you need to do some healing, I'll keep some pressure off you," she said briskly.

Then she followed her example to test for weaknesses. She barely had to nod at Hypatia for the armed philosopher to drum her shield with her spear, then point its blade heavenwards, calling down a bolt of lightning upon the Shadow. All the while she was keeping her eyes on it, to know when it was time to move and intercept at least part of the attacks.

[[Action: Zionga]]