Tunnel to hell [Mod]

[Layla Amare]

Layla didn't take much convincing to come back here. Or any, really, since she decided to do so on her own. She should have, since her last experience leaving the safe zone nearly killed her (again), and yet here she was. She had this special power protecting her now, so if more of those formless monsters (shadows, were they?) showed up, she would at least have a fighting chance. On top of that, she had packed a couple of training otta with her this time, so she would at least have a weapon. A...weapon designed for training purposes and therefore much less dangerous than a proper weapon, but it was something at least.

She walked slowly through the tunnel, but it was all she could do to keep from running. There was a certain excitement to putting herself in danger that she couldn't get anywhere else, but she did still wish to make it back out. So she would take it slow. Watch where she was going. Make extra sure to be careful of corners, side paths, and blind turns. Not be distracted by the fact that something like this was being hidden from the entire city.

...the last one was admittedly much harder than the rest.

[Erithania]

Beware, Squiggle the Death has appeared!

Yandere Magus

Skills

If I can't have you. . . Zionga
Nothing can split us apart. . . Garu
IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou. . . Agi

Resists: Lightning
Weak to: Ice

[Layla Amare]

Sure enough, it wasn't long before Layla caught sight of a shadowy, formless mass crawling along the ground toward her. She turned toward it, slowly, trying not to make any noise as she spread her legs and dropped into a ready stance. It lunged, but she was ready for it, jumping over the crawling mass and striking at it with an otta as she landed. The weapon struck a squishy, gel-like substance that spread out from the point of impact. It rose into the air and began to take shape: first a blue mask with hollow eyes and a blank expression, then a figure in striped robes, with a cloak that had massive black hands attached. Layla backed away, trying to avoid making any sudden moves. The shadow spread its cloak arms wide...

...and waited.

"Um...." Layla said, continuing to take cautious steps back. She returned to her stance, but the shadow didn't attack her. Instead she heard a voice, much like she occasionally heard before her persona awakened. Deep, distorted, and unintelligible, and yet she still could have sworn it just said 'come to me'.

"No thanks," Layla said, trying to recall how she had summoned her persona before. Power welled up with in her, reaching a breaking point before exploding forth. The golden-clad figure of Yamantaka materialized behind her, dozens of arms spread wide. Seeing the persona, the shadow's body began shaking as though with rage. An inscription of white light appeared on the ground beneath it, not unlike a mandala in design. A brilliant light erupted from it, engulfing the shadow, but not before it prepared an attack of its own. It leaned back, even as the brilliant light burned through its body, then lunged, thrusting both its normal arms and cloak hands forward. A bolt of lightning descended from the sky, crashing down on Layla...to surprisingly little effect.

That wasn't to say it didn't hurt. In fact, apart from the flash of pain that spread through the body as it hit, the force of the bolt nearly knocked her over, and it took a few seconds just to steady herself again, but it still did much less than expected. She was still standing and still, more or less, fine, despite being effectively struck by lightning. Was this also her persona's power?

On the other hand, the wizard-like shadow was still standing as well. Clearly much stronger than the last shadow she had fought, and no longer as passive as before she had summoned her persona. "Again! Do the light thing again!" Layla called out, summoning Yamantaka again. She knew the name of the skill was Hama, at this point, but 'the light thing' was much easier to remember. A second flash of light erupted from beneath the wizard shadow's body, burning through it again, but still it managed to stay standing. Layla, meanwhile, was struck by another bolt of lightning, but this time she was prepared for it. It didn't hurt any less than before, but she managed to keep a steady footing and stay balanced as the attack hit. "Let's try something else, then. Hit it with lightning!" Yamantaka raised the vajra it carried to the sky, bringing down a noticeably smaller lightning bolt than the shadow's own down on top of it. It was also noticeably less effective, only shaking for a split second before it returned to normal. Or...so she thought. It was no longer standing tall, but leaning to one side and no longer steady. She was sure it had resisted her last attack...maybe the damage was adding up? That was good, though. It meant she was almost done!

Emboldened by that, Layla leaped toward the wizard shadow, drawing back her otta. She charged straight through a flash of fire that it hit her with as a desperate attempt to fend her off, barely even noticing anymore as she reached the shadow and snapped the otta forward. The ball tip of the weapon struck its neck, just beneath the mask. She couldn't tell just how effective it actually was, just that it was enough, on top of everything else, to finish the shadow off. In a familiar display, it began to collapse back into a formless mass and dissolve.

[Erithania]

Round two won't be as easy.





Fortunately, that's for another time! Have some FP.

[Layla Amare]

Hoo...that was more trouble than she thought. Either she had just plain fought a weaker shadow in her first encounter, or a persona's initial awakening was much more forceful than the usual, regular encounters and life or death battles. The former seemed much more likely, though.

Layla dropped onto one knee and took a moment to rest. Her body felt much heavier than usual, and she was having trouble catching her breath. Fighting with shadows, it seemed, was the most strenuous activity she had taken up yet. The battle itself wasn't even as intense as some of her kalari training back home, but there seemed to be mental exhaustion involved on top of physical. The feeling of mental weakness was very familiar to Layla, so she picked it out easily on top of her physical exhaustion.

"Guess I'll have to take this more slowly," Layla thought out loud, turning to head back. Despite her daredevil nature, she knew there was a fine line between reckless and outright suicidal, and she very much wanted to stay on the 'reckless' side of that line.