Mosaic City, located along China's coast, is quite large city sometimes called the Crossroads Between Nations due to its diverse population. While it was once a large tourist spot, the city was placed under a blockade as the military appeared claiming there was a radiation leak. The true hazard, however, is much more sinister.
Post by Ayakura Alisa on Mar 27, 2014 21:55:10 GMT -5
The door was, of course, naturally, very resilient. Of course, I felt like I shouldn't have been surprised when the two stone gargoyles watching guard over the door were powered with some magic electricity and sprung to life. Yet I was surprised anyway. Also, I'm fairly sure the voice announcing the system was definitely more girly than I imagined. Just where did it come from? Regardless, I soon saw the gargoyles rush at my allies, attacking fiercely. But only after the energy blast from the door slamming into all of us, causing me to stumble back and fall on my bottom. Ugh! Rolling forward and flipping upright into a standing position again, I whirled around and saw a giant metallic and draconic creature appear, was this yet another Shadow? Looks like it. While Ran had already used her spell to make us stronger, this dragon bird thing let out an all-too-familiar blast that cracked through our empowering spells and negated them.
Annoying.
Fortunately Ran had similar sentiments and cut that bitch. Well, okay, I was mad too. I lacked any sort of multi-target offenses, so I would have to choose my target wisely. The Shadow that appeared seemed quite pesky to leave to his own devices. So I would deal with him first.
Charging my arm with electricity, I aimed at the large flying Shadow that literally just arrived, and let out a fierce bolt of thunder at him.
Vice saw the blood seeping through his shoulder when the Gargoyle impaled him with its spear. The attack dealt damage off the charts, but not to the point that Vice would actually freeze up, scream, fall to the floor, and just turn into a pathetic mess. It was, however, enough that Vice didn't even feel it anymore. Fingers moved still, but with limited control. Physically doing anything with his sword or his gun was useless and using Arondight's powers didn't require him to use any of his limbs so long as he still had the mental capacity.
Still, the blood flowing from his shoulder wound was pretty damn drastic and Vice was still wondering why the hell he wasn't feeling anything from it anymore. His body understood that it should be in pain, and it was going through it, but there seemed to be some kind of haze on his mind that kept telling him to go forward. So the young man stood there, having withstood both Almighty and Pierce against his body, and silently called for his persona. The Gargoyle, weirdly enough, could wait. They had a new person to play with and the biker wanted some new dragonskin for his wallet. The fallen emperor raised both his hands, an orb of Almighty energy amped up with a mind charge floating between them.
Vice wondered if the pallet of a Black Dragon is fine with a Black Viper
Post by Soren Jensen on Mar 27, 2014 22:28:16 GMT -5
There was a castle in the skies. This place was a testament to the efforts of Shadows. Clean of humanity's stains, the place was honestly a glorious escape for those looking to avoid humans. Or so he had thought. The howl of an ally reached his mind. Another battle? And with a guardian in a place like this? Truly, these humans could not leave things alone. Such shameless, disgusting, bothersome eyesores needed to be purged. Of course, he knew even before trying to approach the location that he'd need to be careful. He wasn't at his full strength yet. More than that, even if he was, he couldn't just spew off skills with large attack radii. Becoming a hindrance for his allies was something he absolutely could not tolerate. The armored Shadow turned and honed in on the signal. And it seemed there was another there, as well. He needed to hurry.
He ascended the steps. His armored feet echoed as they slammed into the stairs. The Shadow's steps were slow, not because of relishing the moment before another fight but because of caution. The wargod reached the top and checked the area. The guardian and his minions acted as the door. The other sensation he felt was the demonic-looking Shadow. He offered a slight nod towards both parties before looking over the humans. There was a girl with scissors, two women with small blades, an unarmed girl, and then a man- no, not just any man. That was the one he had encountered at the hospital. One of the murderers that had slain his comrade. Were it not for their numbers, it would have been good fortune to come across him there. He already knew what that one was weak against. However, given their numbers, there was likely a healer. It would be good to figure out exactly what worked where. He wanted to unleash some quick area attacks, but, again, the risk was too large.
Opting not to reveal his elemental affiliations yet, he readied his spear. Dream Needle would maximize his damage output while ensuring that he did not endanger his allies. More than that, he had four subjects to test against. He then focused on one of the women with knives. She seemed like one of the more “offensive” members of the troupe. Until he could identify the healer, that was the best he could do.
Action: Dream Needle on Alisa; roll not included because Unshaken
Post by Luka Kurokawa on Mar 27, 2014 22:34:33 GMT -5
Soon after the attack hit the wall, some sort of girlish voice began to speak. Something about a defense protocol? Regardless, Luka was on high alert as soon as she heard all of that. Looking forward, she saw the door release a large amount of energy. Look out! Quickly calling out the incoming attack, mostly out of pure reaction, the girl ran back only to be hit anyway.
Turning around, it seemed that the door wasn't the only thing she needed to be worrying about. The statues in front of the door were no longer just statues. they were moving and flying around just fine. To make matters worse, one of them targeted Luka and swooped down, slashing at her. Luka could feel the cut. It hurt a lot. She could still fight, but she was already pushing it.
Then, the bird came. Some sort of bird shadow had come out of nowhere and began to attack. it started off by removing the buffs that Akira had placed. That was no good. And that didn't seem to be the end of it either! An armored figure came out and attacked Alisa as well! It now seemed that there were technically five threats in front of her. It was a five versus five? Quite interesting, considering her abilities had evolved further recently.
Hel! Chaos Element! Her persona that had been charging up until now began to rise in front of Luka. And then, it happened. The large mass of energy that she was accustomed to was not there. Instead, many masses of dark energy began to form! Then, each mass began to descend on each target!
The door began to recharge its power after that last blast. It wouldn't be doing anything else for the time being. However, it did sustain an attack. The dark attack seemed to work, though one could not be sure how effective it really was. The barrier shuddered quite a bit as the blast connected, though it regained its shape moments later.
The two gargoyles who had also been hit with the dark attacks seemed to take neutral damage! The attack seemed to make them slow down a bit. The gargoyles chose not to attack this time either. Instead, strange markings much like on the door began to cover their body as strange waves came from each of them. A purple wave came from the blue-eyed one and an orange one from the red-eyed one. All users' stats decreased! All shadows' stats increased! Taking the opportunity presented to them with a weakened enemy, the gargoyles chose to push them even further down to stay ahead. Next time though, they would be lucky to stay afloat.
Post by Ayakura Alisa on Mar 27, 2014 23:06:03 GMT -5
After I launched my bolt attack at the Shadow bird... flappy... dragon... bird.. demon... Thing? What the hell was that? I looked around and soon was briefly caught off-guard in a moment of weakness as an imposing armored figure came up to me and tried to ram his spear into me. I stumbled back from being startled, but the tip still pierced into my body, causing me to scream and fall over backwards. Of course, being weak to piercing things is still proving to be an annoyance even to this very day. On top of that, as Luka bombarded the Shadows with her darkness magic, the two gargoyles seemed to do something strange. The enemy Shadows seemed to look stronger and I could feel my own body weaken a little, almost as if atrophying.
Weakly standing up and clutching my wound, I growled.
"Hold up, I can take care of this." I started to begin chanting something most likely odd to my allies. 南無妙法蓮華経・・・ It was a Japanese mantra. As this was going on, the purple miasma surrounding me and my allies dissipated accompanied with the sound of glass shattering. It was, Dekunda. Our statistics would become normalized. I stepped backwards, away from the armoured knight, knowing that he would be a formidable foe. He seemed to be some sort of war god. Physical attacks would be useless against him.
(( Cast Dekunda ))
Last Edit: Mar 27, 2014 23:06:59 GMT -5 by Ayakura Alisa
The User carefully placed his free, working hand on to his face and swiped back the hair that was beginning to block his vision, or what was remaining of it anyway. Not now. Gritting his teeth with as much force as he could, Vice tried to clamp down his nails into his hands in order to keep himself awake through this tribulation. That monster was here. Ignore the Gargoyles, the gates, the feathered Dragons. Ignore everything. Stay awake. Vice forced his eyes open, mustering energy in order to amp up his next attack. He was here. Again. Anger, fury, boiling blood turning into a sheer want for vengeance. The biker tried to calm himself down, whatever happening around him just passing by as a blur.
Snapping out of his momentary funk, the User poured forth more effort into his charge up to make his attacks matter. A god of war and a dragon, gargoyles and a massive gate. Seriously, there was some sort of symbolic shit being cooked up here.
Post by Akira Nakajima on Mar 28, 2014 9:35:43 GMT -5
A lot had occurred in the gap of time between attacks. A new challenger appeared, for one. This was an armored Shadow that looked more imposing than the typical knight-class Shadow. So they were fighting a guardian and two add-ons. If the last time was anything to go buy, both of them were likely sentients. They'd need to be careful, it seemed. Other than that little issue, what else had happened? Ah, right. The two gargoyles utilized full-range buff and debuff skills, it seemed. What a bothersome situation. Even if he might've nullified the threat of having the buffs canceled out by the one guy, the other two would just spew those off to erase the efforts, matching them turn for turn. If that was the case, then buffing was unnecessary, especially given that Alisa could outright counteract the effects of the debuff. On the other hand, unless someone could counteract buffs, the enemy would need to continually be debuffed. Seriously, what a bothersome bunch.
”I'm going to heal. Alisa, if they use that debuff again, please counteract it in the same way you just did. I'm going to tentatively go on the offensive, since I have a few AoE's to use, after healing. Need to implement some crowd control. There's way too many to just keep attacking them one at a time unless the payoff is good enough!” The crossdresser sighed slightly. Sure enough, like an RPG, the enemies and fights were becoming a bit more bothersome. Hell, Murphy basically dictated that the other new Shadow would be able to cancel out debuffs, after the first add-on could cancel buffs. He was calling it. That shit was as good as a definite.
”Alma Elma, Mediarahan. Heal everyone here.” The succubus spread her arms out to heal the group of Users. Assuming that nothing exceedingly bothersome occurred, he could use his next opening to unleash some liquid fire. Maybe one of them would be weak to fire? That'd be nice.
Post by Luka Kurokawa on Mar 28, 2014 11:23:23 GMT -5
Luka's attacks seemed to work on the door and two two gargoyles. Yet, neither the door nor the gargoyles ended up attacking back. The worst the gargoyles did was use their buff and debuff abilities together. The other thing that Luka noticed was that their attacks were spread out a bit. She had attacked everything together at once, but if she had not, her focus would have been the door. It was the main threat considering that it was controlling the gargoyles. Yet, nobody else seemed to be attacking it. Their efforts needed to be focused a bit.
Akira brought up the point that they had a lot of enemies, meaning large area attacks would be best. He was right in that regard, but Luka felt the need to add on. AoE skills would be preferable. If you don't have any, focus the door! That's our main threat right now. If the door was destroyed, the gargoyles would likely fall. Then it would simply be a five versus two.
Luka felt herself being healed completely a moment later. With renewed vigor, she began to charge up for another attack. Her last dark attack served its purpose well enough so why change strategies? The amount of damage that she could deal with that attack was far beyond that if her other attack.
What are they?! They began flinging around spells that rivaled or even exceeded the power of his own. He saw, then, the shapes that were beside them. These things sent their powerful spells toward him, causing him great pain. However, the masses of darkness did nothing to considerably scar his body. Their marks, like smoke, fizzled right off of his metallic 'bones'. But the lightning spells and that one spell of pure energy, like those marks, sent him crashing down onto the floor in front of the gate.
There was another attack that he had forgotten that had hit him: a girl ran up to him and slashed at him. Despite his resistance to the attack, Hao felt powerless. There was no way to explain the sensation. Something bound his abilities to cast spells. Suddenly, he didn't think of them as prey anymore. They were shown with an even harsher light upon them: He hated them. They have proven themselves to be challenges to his power, and so they must be destroyed at all costs. Their bodies in mangled shreds was to be their fate today. Even if he cannot use spells, he could still claw them apart and flay their puny little beings.
Angra Mainyu pushed against the floor to stand upright, seething with this fury. His large wings flapped again, a little bit more than a few black feathers dropping onto the ground. Hao rushed forth at Luka and extended a leg out to her. He would attempt to swiftly close his talons around her once and then fly back to his previous spot over the gate. Then, he glanced down on his armored ally(?) for a short and sweet second, hoping that he could do better than him.
Post by Soren Jensen on Mar 28, 2014 22:00:56 GMT -5
It had seemed that he had gotten a lucky guess in terms of weaknesses. So that was two of the selection before him that exhibited extreme vulnerability to his predominant attack type. Other than that, there was little else to note. A massive blast of destructive dark energy crashed down and surged, hitting every one of his allies. And himself, but he nullified darkness, so it wasn't much of a bother for himself. Debilitating energy was unleashed on the Users, while an uplifting aura was emitted and washed over himself and the other Shadows. One human neutralized the hex with a spell he was all too familiar with. Two others charged themselves for further offensive strikes. The greatest boon to waiting, however? He determined exactly who the healer was. Or at least one of the ones with healing capabilities. He honestly hoped that there was only one, however. Two healers would have made it difficult to take down the group, even with their numbers.
Leveling his spear, the wargod charged towards the healing girl, prepared to unleash a Dream Needle!
Action: Dream Needle on Akira; no roll for sleep due to Unshaken Will
Post by Holly Mason on Mar 31, 2014 10:51:43 GMT -5
More attacks from the shadow that dropped in after the door did, but it looked like Ran did something to it to prevent it from causing too much damage. Another one dropped in though and they were suddenly fighting more enemies than she had ever taken on at once in the past. Normally, Holly wouldn't mind. Hell, normally she'd think that this was super exciting and would suddenly become more energetic and would likely start belting out orders much louder than she needed to. After fighting the dancers in the mall her thoughts towards shadows changed. It wasn't the dancers themselves that made her think, but the obviously sentient shadows that were there. Just what were they fighting?
The status on the door used some tricks that she was very familiar with. It was about time that powerful shadows picked up a trick like this. Unfortunately, it would do them no good with her here, but it was...perhaps a little disturbing to see shadows using actual strategy. The other shadows attacked, but neither of them were aiming at her, so she didn't have much to worry about. The healing wave closed all the wounds from the door's initial attack. After seeing the second shadow drop in Holly hesitated for just a moment. It would likely not even be noticeable to people that didn't know her well, but for people that did the slight pause would definitely be strange.
She shouldn't have come here today, not while the images of those shadows were still fresh in her mind. Holly thought seeing such obvious monsters would get her out of her funk, but if anything it was just making it worse. It meant she really couldn't tell which were okay and which were not, or if they all weren't. The whole incident was just making her question whether or not any of this was actually right. That said, while the shadows here showed a degree of strategy with the use of buffs and debuffs, they didn't show any signs of genuine intelligence. They were probably just mindless like the rest. Even if part of her knew that was probably not true of the two that dropped in, it was easier to think of it that way. Right now, it was better not to think too hard about any of this. At minimum, she really couldn't let the other users get hurt.
So, with a flip of her hair she called forth Anaisa Pye again. While Holly's own grin didn't fade, her persona didn't look as happy as usual. Her debuff canceled out the buffs they just put on themselves.
Again, only a single attack managed to land on the door. Luckily, it was rather powerful on its own to make up for the lack of offensive power displayed. The door had also finally finished up charging its attack. Finally, it released yet another blast of energy dealing Major Almighty damage to the party! From there, it began to charge up once again.
The gargoyles were hit with the same attack, seeming to sustain even greater damage than the door. Evidently they were not as sturdy. Nonetheless, they were still more than capable of holding their own in the fight. The blue eyed gargoyle gazed at Vice, but did nothing since it didn't effect him! It then turned to Alisa and lunged its spear at her for Severe Pierce damage! meanwhile, the red eyed gargoyle's eyes began to burn with rage as it gazed at Akira. Unfortunately, Akira was immune to its effects, whatever it was. Then finally, the gargoyle swooped through the air and swung its halberd at Holly for Severe Slash damage! However, the attack misses!
Though faint, the door's seal showed signs of weakening. Meanwhile, the gargoyles seemed to be rather beaten up as well. There was really no telling how close they were from going down. Despite the condition that they were probably in, both gargoyles were managing to fight at full power.
Last Edit: Mar 31, 2014 16:53:25 GMT -5 by Za Bossu!
The familiar feeling of his wounds stitching back up made itself known to Vice not long after Ran had announced his plans. Another scan of the battle proved to do nothing but remind the biker that there were 5 Shadows that needed to be taken care of and that, most likely, Luka was right. Their main objective here really was the door and the other two could be left alone if they were too exhausted to continue the fight after the completion of their main goal.
Refraining from throwing another amped magic attack at any of the mobile shadows, specially the dragon and the wargod, Vice took the dark specialist's advice and raised a Black Viper high into the air, feeding it with as much energy as it could hold before launching it right at the Door. If it broke down, then the gargoyles would most likely fall. If it didn't, then it didn't. The only possibility that worried him was if there was something behind that door, just waiting for it to be released.
Post by Holly Mason on Mar 31, 2014 23:07:18 GMT -5
Only one attack from the shadow's next flurry of blows hit her. Two were aimed, but the shadow missed completely and put a small dent in the floor next to her. In fact, most everyone seemed okay, with Alisa being the only one to take a good amount of damage. While, she supposed it was good to note, it didn't exactly change her course of action yet. If there was healing that needed to be done Ran would take care of it for now. Even the notes about which target to hit didn't matter that much to her in the end. Her place was still making her enemies weaker and therefore her allies stronger. With another crushing of her card, she called forth her persona to weaken all the shadows. This would be the second stack, though the newcomer would be at his first simply because he wasn't there for her initial casting. Whether or not it was worth casting it one more time instead of attacking just for him was questionable, but it was something to keep in mind. It was a very powerful shadow after all.