3379/Stopping By To Borrow A Cup Of Naaru

Stopping By To Borrow A Cup Of Naaru
Date of Scene:	12 November 2015
Location:	The Tundra
Synopsis:	Lezard Valeth has his sights set upon a singular prize: A being of Light kept by the Draenei of Azeroth, a Naaru. To accomplish this goal, the Confederacy marshals its forces to strike at the Exodar...
Cast of Characters:	202, Alexis, Lezard Valeth, 626, 679, 687, 707, 780, 785, 818, 860, 878, 908, 911

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Ivraala (679) has posed:
    The Exodar sits as the crown of draenei presence on Azeroth. The crashed ship is still embedded in the earth on western Azuremyst Isle, shards of purple crystal scattered over the landscape, but it is at least a beautiful landing site, looking more like a towering building of metal and crystal. A magical aura permeates the entire structure; perhaps not very strong any longer, now that it's lost its flight capabilities, but it's obvious this was once something even more magnificent.

    The draenei have made a sort of city out of the crashed ship. Magically enchanted 'wires' course holy energy throughout the ship, powering the various systems to make life comfortable: heating, lighting, and so forth, all what one would normally expect electricity to do in more advanced worlds. The city - for that is what it is now, thanks to its gigantic size - houses inns, shops, elekk pens, holographic museums of the Burning Legion's abominations, all accessible through sweeping pathways of metal in what is very much a cavernous opening.

    Unfortunately, it's still not in very good shape after the crash so long ago. Stairs are cracked; the entryway is mostly a jagged, gaping entrance leading down a broken path; some massive wires for magical energy are still under repair. It's a home, though, and one protected by the strange being of pure Light that rests at the bottom of the cavernous entrance: O'ros, one of the few remaining naaru, a being of energy that looks to be nothing more than a giant symbol of blue crystal radiating a light that is the very essence of holiness. A holiness that the draenei that live in and guard the Exodar hold steeped in their very being, but all of whom pale in comparison to that of O'ros.

    It's a calm evening so far, though. Draenei guards mounted on armored elekks, mounts somewhat like elephants and equally as powerful, sit patrolling or flanking the entryway. The temperate weather of Azuremyst Isle is as pleasant as ever, allowing wildlife to roam freely through the forests surrounding the Exodar. It's a day where nothing, it seems, would ever go wrong.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
A kinder person would have informed the Draenei what was to come. A more hnorable person would make demands. A more considerate person would have perhaps offered some kind of trade. Surely the Draenei would have been glad to share knowledge of the Light with those who are interested.

Lezard Valeth is none of those things. Upon learning of the nature of the Naaru and the power they provide, the Necromancer of Midgard had laid down a plan to acquire it. This plan is fairly simple. Gather together a large number of Confederate Elites, point them at the Exodar, and promise them they can have anything they wish other than the Naaru. Surely such a city would have much to offer for those interested in plunder or knowledge, as the Draenei have a great deal of interesting lore.

Teleportation circles manifest near the entrance to the Exodar, the vanguard of expendable troops arriving and beginning to the assault even as the second line, Elites all, manifest near the ship. Lezard looks upon the capital of the Draenei with gleaming eyes, anticipation clearly visible in his stance and expression as he strides forward. "Come! Forward, all! Crack this damned place open like an egg and sup upon its riches!" The Necromancer laughs as blasts of Dark power rip through the air, hurling a cascade into the defenders from the black, twisted staff he carries.

T-elos (785) has posed:
T-elos was bored. When T-elos gets bored, things blow up.

It's not quite that simple, though ultimately it's not that much more complex, either. T-elos joined the Confederacy as muscle. She wanted to assert her power even if she had few plans of her own (yet), and she simply hasn't done so that much lately.

But that means when other people went looking for that muscle, she had no problem with volunteering for it. It might be fun, she thinks, to go goat hunting. And she wants to see what else is here.

T-elos appears in the teleportation circles nearer the ship. She has something new, or at least something unusual, in her hand: a cannon that's probably as long as she is tall, held with both hands, right further ahead of the left.

She walks forward, bringing it up and immediately firing the thing near the entrance. A bright pink energy ball blasts from it, impacting and exploding into a fountain of light and force that leaves a large crater in the dirt. Her shot fell a little short of the guards at the entryway, though with the blast radius it doesn't matter that much; it's apparently the energy version of a bazooka.

"Oh, I /like/ this one," T-elos says, raising the F-BSHOT slightly higher for the next shot.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    "'Holy' magic, is it? It's not really my preference, but I can at least make use of it." Adelyn Lysen is here in person, though when the troops start to advance, she's naturally chosen not to join them. No front-line fighter, her. The archmage of the Nation of Towers hangs back, and while Lezard orders the assault and begins a direct attack, she sets about her usual goal of 'ensuring inevitable success.' In this case, it involves the formation of yet more summoning circles. The first set were to bring the main forces here. Adelyn's are instead a product of magic opposed directly with Light, and draw from 'off-world' in a different sense.

    Scaled, webbed, and scythe-clawed horrors begin to appear from the roiling darkness that envelops the ground over her summoning sigils. Mouths with far too many teeth roar, and they advance on two legs or six. The leaping, dog-sized demons will be the first to reach the defenders, but the spindly giants won't be far behind them.

    Those circles are, for the most part, just going to keep working, even once Adelyn is done with the setup and starts moving forward. She'll probably have to go in, herself, given that these servants are not smart enough to find valuables for her.

Vergil (878) has posed:
     It wasn't exactly his cup of tea, so to speak. He was more used to stone or a more earthly medium of constructing something.

    A blending of mysticism with technology was not something he found familiar... though he could appreciate the subtly of the construction, marred by crash-impact damage that it was. The flow of power and holy energies palpable wherever he looked or went, giving it a literal feeling of being a living city.

    If nothing else, it would normally be a very interesting excursion point to learn on the new culture from, the museums especially.

     ... however, that was not what currently occupied his attention. Rather, that designation was held by the glowing form of the so-called 'narru.'

    A being that served as a personification of powerful holy energies... and something that radiated more then enough power, and sat upon more then enough ancient lore and relics of old, to pique the interest of Vergil.

    In all likelihood, he probably looked like he and the black mage Lezard Valeth came from the same place - tailored coats, an almost aristocratic appearance and both desiring nothing but the advancement of their own power... though their goals were their own.

    Of course, that is not to say they are the same. For example... Vergil, overall, did in fact consider himself more honorable, as he looks a mix of observatory curiosity at the sight of the Necromancer's borderline-steryotype mad-cackle and leading of his forces, though is overall disinterested by the slaughter. He of course has no qualms of obtaining relics or knowledge or partaking in such sieges like this in order to attain them... but that does not mean he must approve of the full brazenness of it.

     As such, he actually doesn't feel at all intimidated in glancing to Lezard, hand resting upon the pommel of Yamato almost disinterestedly. "If there is anything left by the time we get there, you mean?" he asks in a dry-sardonic mock-question. "While you're assured to get the most valuable item?"

    He lets out a mock-sigh - he doesn't expect an answer to that. If he has a /chance/ to get something of the naaru, he won't hesitate to take it... but for now, he could not afford to become too greedy. It wouldn't do to break ties or burn bridges so rashly.

    As such, with a simple kick-off, Vergil leaps forward into the fray, drawing Yamato with practiced ease to slash apart and cut down any enemy in his way, his steps fluid and graceful as he faces his opponents head-on... though he only takes on those who face him directly and are willing to fight.

    There was no sport or challenge in attacking unaware or unwilling enemies, after all.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "This place seems to have a lot of ambient magic, master!" comes the voice of the pink-haired, fox-eared-and-tailed blue-robed female Servant atop a small mound overlooking the Exodar, as she turns towards her master. "It's like everyone here has a lot of potential!"
    "Heh? But what am I going to do with goats?" Gudako asks her Servant, the auburn-haired teen crossing her arms-- but still smiling, a wide, expressive 8D. "I already have two foxes, and one is also a cat, isn't that enough pets?"
    "M-Master! I am not high upkeep! OOOOOH, sometimes Caster wonders why Caster bothers! Why don't you just send Berserker to kill them all, huh? HUH? HUFF!" the Servant goes.
    "Nah, we could just watch. Peanuts?" Gudako extends a hand holding a bag of peanuts to her Servant, and the Caster grouses a bit in response.
    "Then why'd you bring Berserker too? Caster is all you need!"
    "Oh, it's in case this place has giant mice, duh."

    Have you seen the size of the wildlife here? Gudako's totally right, this place could have giant rats or mice. And probably does. Also they probably shoot magic or something.

    Well, for now, the master and her Servant, plus an extra spiritual presence like a second Servant, idle in plain view, watching.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
For the second time in two days, Ark steps out of one of Lezard's teleportation circles. This time, he isn't there to stand around posturing.

"Give it to me." He waves his hands towards him. An older man in most of a dark grey suit (he's got the jacket, tie and trousers, but it doesn't go with his odd porkpie hat or plainer collared shirt) hands him what looks like a black rectangular box attached to leather straps. Ark puts it on like a backpack while Caster speaks: "There are six units. Detach them where you need them; they should deter attackers where you leave them."

"Got it." Ark adjusts the straps after unslinging a compact bullpup rifle from one shoulder. It looks a lot like one of his pistols, but bigger in every respect. "Hold this position; I'll call you if I need you."

Caster nods. He sees the violence breaking out and swallows, adjusting his tie. "Good luck, Ark."

Ark turns towards the fighting and gives Caster a thumbs-up over his shoulder. He leans forward and takes off at a run, rushing towards the front line near the ship, an indistinct blob of steel grey going a little bit faster than normal people. There ought to be a gap to get inside that he can take advantage of, and until he finds it, he answers the call of local interference with bursts of well-placed automatic fire.

Elizabeth Bathory (911) has posed:
    Where Lezard goes, pain and suffering are sure to follow! Which is now personified, as 'Red Lancer' (Or, Idol Lancer, whichever you prefer) Elizabeth Bathory takes to his side as he appears and makes his grand, cackling proclamation about the disposition of the forces arrayed against the Exodar.

    This terrifying girl, who is the 'most prolific female murderer'... Hums a catchy tune next to Lezard, as she has two large sacks - one of which is full, and the other of which is empty. She picks a CD out of the full sack, signs it with a silver sharpie, and then adds it to the empty sack, working through her backlog of media. "Master, if you say this place is a giant fan-club for me, I'm not going to believe you this time. Once burned, twice shy, and all that!" She chides, as she works through all those CDs she has to sign. Gudako gets a look, and then the surroundings, as 'goat' is talked about.

    "Goat... Are we hunting? Goats aren't good game, you know. Stringy, needs to be curried." She notes, with authority. "Would you like me to make you some goat stew, Master~?" Liz wonders with good cheer, casually conversing while a terrible invasion goes on.

    "Though, I'm surprised, don't you have armies and generals to handle all this warmaking?"

Tijah El-Borak (818) has posed:
    Earlier...

    Tijah had spent sometime wondering the world, perhaps slacking off on her own responsibilities. She hates the word, really...she should be free to come and go as she pleases, she doesn't want the responsibilities of protecting others...simply to do things at her whim, and enjoy life for what it is: a grand celibration. A test of one's skill, prowess...to compete and compete with one another! But sadly...so many people do things that are terrible, simply for the sake of...who knows? Tijah just tries to understand some people, and she can n-

    A signal from someone alerts her to...she frowns. Invading someone's home..? She takes a breath, well...sometimes, even Tijah can be moved to do something. One's home is one of those things...one of those things you just do not mess with.

    NOW..

    Somewhere that is here, Tijah looks down, having jumped on something high. Part of the ship to get a good vantage...geeze, that's a lot of people. She sweats a little, really...it's a lot of work, but...well, even she is filled with SOMETHING to deal with these rude guests! She lets magic flow through her circuts, combing spell with spear. Her hand reaches for the RUNE SHIELD, a very fancy looking shield with runes carved on it. It looks heavy, especially given her statue, but she weilds it effortly.

    "Rain of spears.." She says, followed by, "Thundaga!" She says, and throws her spear into the air...

    A small circle of spears falls down, and when they do, a blast of lightning rains down, but instead of just hitting one thing, it splits, channeling into the multitude of spears, aiming to fry a decent sized area. The aim was to try and surprise, and to shock a group of minions, trying to drive them back from the Drenai forces.

    Tijah lands, the spears disappearing, and she draws a curved blade, looking like she is more ready to dance than fight. She doesn't say much, just grinning..

Ivraala (679) has posed:
    While Ivraala may not be welcome in the settlements of the draenei, that doesn't mean she can't hang around nearby without their knowledge. The Death Knight is setting up a small camp in the forest this evening, attempting to keep the small blue dragon whelp beside her relatively calm and not puffing cold around, but that focus is quickly broken the moment tremendous crashes and howls echo from the nearby Exodar. Ivraala jolts upright and looks toward the crashed ship, and it's only a second later before she's on the back of her undead Deathcharger barreling toward the source of the commotion.

    The draenei are taken completely by surprise; it's extremely rare, if ever, that the capital comes under such furious and sudden attack. The draenei are nothing if not quick to respond to hardship, however, and while the entrance of the ship is suddenly under seige from all manner of unholy abominations and two mounted elekks are sent trumpeting and tumbling from T-elos's blast, the holy forces are doing their best to push against the hordes with all the weapons they can muster. They buckle a little against the overwhelming numbers, but they don't quite falter...yet.

    The draenei that suddenly barrels in on an undead horse to trample through the demonic hordes is decidedly /not/ holy, devoid of Light and steeped in death. Strange, then, that she's fighting against the Confederate forces storming the Exodar with the hefty two-handed axe in her hands. She dismounts mid-charge, leaping off the Deathcharger's saddle amid the armies of Lezard and Adelyn. Furious shouts come with the swing of her axe and the frostbitten wind that she hurls at her opponents, seeping a devouring cold down to their bones.

    She may be a shadow of death in this sanctuary of light, but it's clear Ivraala has chosen to defend the draenei today.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"HIGH SPEED XIAOMU!!"

Three words, plus a hail of bullets, herald the Shinra sage fox's arrival at the proclaimed high speed, aided by a block of ice sliding rapidly along the ground. Xiaomu's monk staff is planted in the ice 'sled's' rear surface, the ice magic with which the staff is imbued acting to both keep the chunk frozen and keep it moving forward; that leaves both of Xiaomu's hands free for shooting at the inbound horde of Confederates and summoned minions.

The ice block is going to hit SOMETHING eventually that it can't just mow over; before that happens, Xiaomu re-holsters her handguns, grabs her staff, and backflips away from her 'ride' to land lightly in a standing position, ready to continue. Her gaze sweeps across the hostiles, looking for familiar and unfamiliar faces alike; Lezard is the only one she really knows, but the size of T-elos's gun is an easy attention-getter.

For that matter, so is her fashion sense. "Hey, silly question and maybe a little rude," Xiaomu calls out to the dark-skinned, silver-haired gynoid, "but ... you're not something like a Shinki, are you? - No, they have bigger and cooler armor ..."

She shrugs. "Either way, you and your buddies are trying to raid an inhabited ship, what's it gonna take to turn you around and send you back home, preferably empty-handed?"

Kay (780) has posed:
    Well, it looks like people need help! Kay's still getting used to having these... allies. She's starting to actually like some of them, though! Ivraala is... not one of the ones she actually likes, as she doesn't actually know the Deathknight, but she can empathize with a home being under attack. She's thusly riding to the rescue on a local mount she's commandeered! The horse is galloping swiftly from the Warpgate, thundering toward the Exodar in pursuit of the carrot hanging from the stick propped before the horse's head. No wonder she got here so fast!

    Cresting the nearby ridge, she skids the beast to a halt, and moments later the small demon running beside the horse also halts. "Riight. Maybe I picked a bad fight to join in on. Berserker, Levi, do what you can to harry them and keep anyone off me while I get to work."

    Levi grunts in reply and bursts forward at high speed, also charging in toward the armies to lay into them with a flurry of claws. Kay drops off her mount and kneels down, mystic sigils starting to form in increasingly complex patterns around her.

Alexis has posed:
    Some people don't ask questions when a call for help goes out, they just get up and go help. Especially when it involves invading the homes of others, which usually means raiding and pillaging and other nasty things that go on during a siege. Fortunately a certain pink haired master of seizure monsters is one such person.

But her means of arrival isn't the most obvious one. Not just because she's not as flashy and flamboyant about entrances as some people may be... It also probably has something to do with her choice of travel being a means that just isn't in itself visible.

At least not until a piece of ground cracks a bit a few meters from the Exodar's exterior, only to sink in briefly and then burst outward from the force erupting beneath it, and a towering serpentine form rises out of the opening. Light briefly flickers across it's metallic segmented and spined form as the Steelix roars, while Alexis is standing atop of the Pokemon's head.

"No time for introductions, Titan. Gotta do something about those advancing forces."

A rumble like stones grating together emits from the beast as he heaves the rest of his bulk out of their tunnel, only to twist and slam the massive tail down to the ground, throwing up enough strata into the air that it comes crashing down towards the minion forces very much like a Rock Slide the attack is named after.

That's probably going to get someone's attention. Hopefully, and take some of the pressure off the guards.

T-elos (785) has posed:
The F-BSHOT is a little slow to cycle. It's meant to be fired once and then unsummoned in favour of a more rapid-fire weapon, or used as artillery - T-elos fired it at low charge, but low doesn't mean no time.

What this means is that the guards that are bowled over by T-elos aren't immediately shot by a follow-up explosive blast. She's ready about five seconds later for another shot, so she raises it -

- and is addressed by a fox-girl. T-elos does not bother to put down the gun, taking aim for the second shot, letting the charge build for a few seconds longer. "Do I really look like a giant Shinki?" T-elos responds, before firing it at one of the elephants to prevent the guard from remounting. The blast this time is more intense, though the blast radius isn't really much bigger.

Only after that does she turn to look at Xiaomu, opening her hand. The large cannon is surrounded in crackling blue, like electricity running down its length; it barely leaves her hand by the time it's vanished, fading away. "I am the TP-XX battle android. T-elos. And you - you're making a mistake. But if you want me to leave..."

She smiles. It's not very pleasant. While she speaks, her hand whips up, intercepting an arrow shot at her, a stray shot. "Ask nicely." She'll still say no, of course.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
"If you have any use for this being, Vergil, you are welcome to make what use of it you can. I am not going to keep it all to myself. And someone like you should hardly be worried about /speed/." Lezard replies patiently to the demonic man.

Even if he would in fact do so if he wasn't called on it.

The Necromancer then pauses to glance to Elizabeth, then chuckles for a moment. "You are not thinking ahead, Elizabeth. All these places are simply fan-clubs waiting to happen with the proper display of your superior skill." Lezard replies. It seems he's more than happy to keep feeding Elizabeth's ego. "And if they won't be part of your club, surely they aren't worth keeping around. A charnel-house is just as suitable, is it not?" He chuckles, and then folds his arms as the armies clash. "We are hunting, yes, but something more interesting than goat, and not for food. Is that how you usually prepare goat? Perhaps we will have to try it sometime."

His eyes narrow at the sight of Ivraala charging into the troops and cleaving into them. "Hmm. I've seen them before, I believe..." He considers for a moment, and then nods. "Yes, I believe it was during that affair with the great undead dragon." He chuckles for a moment, and then looks back to Elizabeth. "Until recently, I have been something of a solo operation, my dear. That said, there is some value to keeping the... personal touch. I do not expect anything to be able to seriously threaten me here." He gestures over the area. "If you see anyone worthy of your time, feel free to kill them. Or recruit them, I care not which as long as they stay out of our way."

He turns back to the approaching Ivraala. "Speaking of in the way..." He growls, and thrusts the Catalyst forward. "FIRE BLAST!" He calls out, a localized detonation scattering troops and defenders alike. From the smoke, the Necromancer steps forward, his lenses gleaming as he looks upon the Dranei Death Knight. "You are an unusual one. A being of the Undead, protecting the Light? The irony is fantastic." He levels the Catalyst towards Ivraala. "Begone, before I crush your will and add you to my collection! I have never seen a specimen such as you, it would undoubtedly take some time and be... excruciating."

Berserker (860) has posed:
"Of course, beloved," the voice beside Kay answers. Berserker, again in the form of a dark-haired young woman rather than her 'true' form, materializes near the forming circle and snaps her fan out, fluttering it around her face in a little fanning motion. "Not to worry, I will not let anyone lay a finger on- oh my. Is that who I think it is?"

Abruptly, Berserker is a blur of motion, zipping over several dozen meters to perch at a higher point and... wave her fan toward Godaku. Or rather, Godaku's Servant? "Helloooo! I'm sorry I didn't answer your last post! It looks like I got Berserker again~ Caster this time for you?"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Lezard's sure a busy boy lately." Kyra comments from behind Tijah, easily keeping up with the knight. She seems to be less encumbered than usual, which is something strange to see out of the chemist who lives and dies by their mixtures. There is the grenade-launcher-lookalike, the GLEAMING GRENADIER'S CURE-ALL, strapped to her back and in both of her hands she holds her hunting rifle, already loaded with darts.

    The precise nature of those darts remains yet to be seen.

    Before Tijah goes TOO crazy, Kyra reaches forward and taps her on the back, dropping a Bravery and Faith on her fellow classmate, further empowering her offensive abilities against the invaders. "I'll be sticking with you." she confides in her.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "Master! Other Servants! No wait, just one!" Caster says, but before she can really motion, there is a shapeshifted Berserker waving her fan at her. The fox-eared Servant points accusingly, glancing sideways at her master. "Eeeee! Look, master! It's one of my internet fans! I told you I had them and I wasn't making it up for your attention!"

    Caster reaches forward, to grab one of Berserker's hands and shake it vigorously. "Yesyes! It's Caster this time, which is Caster's best class! I have a loving and caring master too, see?"

    She motions towards Gudako.
    Gudako is playing a cellphone game right now, humming to herself.
    Caster huffs and puffs.

    "I-It's just very well hidden! I swear! Oh! What's your username? I don't remember seeing that face before, and I never forget a face~."

    The presence of a second Servant hovering around would be difficult to mask, but for now it seems idle by the teenage master. Suspiciously idle. It's not even 'watching'. It's present, but also... not?

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"That was my first thought," Xiaomu says with a shrug and an apologetic grin. "Guess that counts as my mistake for the night, hopefully I only need the one. At any rate, T-elos - I'm Xiaomu, 765-year-old sage fox, liaising to the Union on behalf of my home agency." She bows slightly, never taking her eyes off the TP-XX, and quickly straightening back up.

"So with that said ... would you kindly tell your friends that the Exodar is closed to visitors whose idea of 'knocking' is to open fire without provocation? And once you've done that, I'd be most grateful if you'd turn around and leave without further hassle. I think you'd be grateful for the chance to get out of here without taking enough damage to ruin that really nice skin your body's outfitted in, or to risk enough clothing damage to show off how realistic the body underneath turns out to be. So, if you're willing to do this the easy way, I think both of us would be a lot happier for it, wouldn't you agree?"

She's braced just in case asking nicely doesn't actually do the trick, but there are so many expressions which could apply here. 'A smile is cheaper than a bullet' is one of the more modern.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    The horde of demons crash against the defenders, the smaller ones slipping past wherever they can to cause yet more mayhem and tie up reinforcements. Those that don't manage to get forward are highly vulnerable to the widespread attacks coming in from the responding elites, and die in droves--but they're summoned at a similar rate. This is still 'acceptable losses.' The larger, insectoid monstrosities are hardier, even if they're still swiftly-summoned, low-class monsters. Ivraala's and Levi's tactic is more effective on these, cleaving carapaces one or two at a time, than that area-effect approach.

    Adelyn is watching, but unworried. The defenders are tied up, and she is still free to act, at least for the moment. An active scanning spell she'd cast before their entrance audibly pings, alerting her to, of all things, someone summoning demons. Apart from the appearance of a knight steeped in death magic, it's one of the last sorts of defenders she'd expected. Apart from that, it's her own field of expertise, and therefore of immediate interest. There's even another Servant-like reaction in the area.

    Her launch into the air is sudden and easily noticeable, wind pushing a brief hole in the dark fog spilling out of her summoning array. A grimoire floats in front of her, maintaining relative position, pages fluttering as she searches for appropriate forms of 'greeting.' "Ah, this one."

    Kay will likely hear a keening sound before the air rips apart, with little visual warning (but sufficient magical) to accompany the sound before the air near her rips apart so energetically as to leave behind a fireball, sucking the surrounding air into it. Or, it will, if the triggering flow of disruptive mana doesn't hit anything on the way.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
Ark moves closer. He keeps low, using the terrain around the Exodar itself to give himself some minor amount of concealment. The fighting is thick enough that he can go nearly unnoticed; anyone who disengages with the Confederate regulars to spot him inevitably gets stabbed, spelled or shot. It's rather convenient, actually.

He breaks away from the main fight, approaching the hull of the ship from a different angle. He's clearly looking to get inside, and the goat-like A-Ray defenders (at least, that's what he sees them as) are not letting them get anywhere near the actual entrances. As much as he wants to personally put an end to each and every one of them...

Ark fires a grappling line towards the top of the hull. He expects draenei defenders up there, not students from some magical academy on another world. He scales the wall as easily as walking, pulling himself up behind a crystalline portrusion and removing a piece of the odd backpack.

With a quick and none-too-gentle swing, Ark slaps it against the hull and twists the top of the cube he's holding, unfolding the corner pieces and apparently locking it into place. The power cell inside starts up with a whine, beginning to build enough of a charge to make a new hole in the exterior.

It is not terribly stealthy. Little involving breaching is.

Berserker (860) has posed:
Berserker grabs Caster's hands, excitedly laughing, "I see, I see! That's wonderful! Oh right, you might not recognize me like this. I go by the handle Trogdette!" She gives a little squeeze before releasing, clapping her hands. "I think I found The One! This one, surely! I'm almost certain they won't burn up this time!"

Aaaand about right then Kay is being attacked by a fireball from nowhere. "Hm. I should probably go help her, actually. Here in a bit! How have you beeeeen?"

Vergil (878) has posed:
    Vergil actually directs his gaze fully on Lezard for a moment... then actually lets out a bemused, yet cynical smile. "How nice of you to lie on my account, as though you ever planned to share it... though if nothing else, I don't in fact blame you if you plan to keep it's power to yourself. It's what /I/ would do in your position, after all."

    And so Lezard gains a bit of acknowledgement from Vergil, the half-demon admitting that, while they have different ways of doing it, he can at least respect the man's ambition and politeness... and not hold a grudge even when it's what Vergil considers an outright lie.

    Not that would stop Vergil from taking advantage of an opportunity if it presented itself. That would simply be fair sport.

     However, while he is in the midst of battle, he takes note of the storm of flowing lightning striking down on them abruptly on the back of a flight of spears-

    -one of which he swiftly strikes with a kick, Yamato vanishing to be replaced by the greaves and gauntlets of Beowulf to bat the weapon aside when it arcs toward his general area, his interest piqued as he gazes upwards with an inquiring expression.

     ... and shortly afterword, it morphs into the slim smirk of one who feels he has found himself a worthy challenge, Beowulf once more fading to allow Yamato to reappear at his side as he places one hand upon it's hilt while beckoning Tijah El-Borak to come down...

     A gesture of invitation that would snipe at her pride - a question on if she has the will to fight him on even ground. Something she likely will not take kindly to.

Ivraala (679) has posed:
    Holy bursts of energy pulse against the assaulting wall of demons, the draenei bringing all their power to bear against the almost familiar horde. Civilians are already being evacuated to safer quarters deeper in the city; the musical voice of the naaru O'ros chimes through the Exodar's residents, felt much more than heard as it assures them that they will be safe, they will be protected.

    The front lines part just enough to allow elekk-mounted paladins to bound over their heads, charging in to stamp heavy feet and swing powerful tusks at the larger beasts. All their numbers are, however, limited; where one draenei falls, a demon may slip through, scurrying in between the forces. While they may be dispatched after harassing approaching reinforcements, that success can only last so long.

    Ivraala, tireless and determined, continues to sweep her axe and unholy magic through the forces assaulting the Exodar, bringing her corrupted power to bear in defense of something she no longer holds. It's only the sudden explosion near her that draws her focus away, jarring her aside as the blast sends her stumbling, but still on her hooves.

    The moment she whirls around, her furious snarl is leveled toward Lezard.

    "You wouldn't be the first. I gained my freedom once before; I will do so /again/, especially if that comes at the defense of /my people/!"

    Her arm lashes forward, tattoos along her arm pulsing with a cold light from beneath her skin. A howling wind is sent buffeting toward Lezard, one whose unnatural cold bites down to the bone and infects with the consuming illness of Frost Fever.

    "Why do you come for them? Is this revenge for ensuring you weren't successful with the Scourge? What do you have planned here?"

Kay (780) has posed:
    As Adelyn watches, the circles complete and two flying demons erupt, bolting toward the lines to reinforce Levi. They aren't as powerful as the Familiar in there, but each one is surprisingly strong, more than a match for most normal troops. The circle is still empowered, too... and it looks like Kay is summoning more. At least, that's the plan.

    She'd planned on four. Looks like she only gets two, because a sudden fireball erupts. "SHIT!" She hurls herelf backward at the last instant, but 'last instant' is only so good. She's DEFINITELY faster than any human has a right to be, but still ends up rolling, smothering the flames of her hip and arm with a wincing, pained expression before sliding to one knee, her pistol drawn.

    At first, she's looking around wildly, but after another second or two she's taking an even breath, narrowing her eyes... and starting to follow the trail of mana. It's evidently taking a lot of concentration for her, though, so Adelyn still has the drop on her... just not complete surprise.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "If you need anything else, just ping me on the radio." Kyra tells Tijah, gesturing over her shoulder with a thumb. The fighting is so thick it seems that today she's going unnoticed-probably until she aggros someone, which is advantageous if she just stuck with healing and watching everyone else's status.

    As she watches, she does take notice of a shady character making a break for the ship. Not the entrance, though. Frowning, Kyra watches as Ark fires a grappling hook on the ship and scales up the side. Silently, she breaks away, murmuring a word as she casts float on herself. Floating doesn't mean flying, however, so she grasps the dangling end of the grappling hook rope in order to follow him up the side.

    Halfway up, she sees him stick something to the side of the ship and right away she recognizes it for what it is. "Well that's not very nice." she remarks, flipping her left hand so the back of it faces upwards at Ark.

    The Matter Manipulator on the back of Kyra's hand expells a cryogrenade, shooting it at high velocity at Ark. This device made by Kyra unleashes a blast of liquid nitrogen when it explodes on impact.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "Aah! Yes, hi! It's been a while! I liked the lighter hair a bit more, and the horns!" Caster giggles, paying no minds to the ongoing war just down the hill. She oohs as Berserker explains she finally found the one, grinning.

    "That's good! You should buy a big bell anyway, you know how humans can be sometimes. You get all close to them and then you're not human enough for them, huff. I'm lucky too, master really cares about us!"

    Cut to Gudako, currently browsing Craigslist on her cellphone to see if there are any Servants looking for masters. She idly mumbles: "One star, one star, one star... all trash."

    Cut back to Caster and Berserker. "She's... very good at concealing it. Oh, I'm good! Master already won two Grail Wars, but I don't have a wish besides being at her side. What about you?"

Tijah El-Borak (818) has posed:
    "Looks like we got a challenger.." She says to Kira, with a grin. "Keep up girl, I am going to go pretty fast here...he looks strong!" Tijah says, with a wolfish grin...if Virgil was looking to try and offend her, he has failed. Challenging her only gets her /excited/. She jumps down, running along the building as she moves to get closer, jumping with cat's grace, both because of her own skills, but also thanks to the buff from Kira, before rolling across the last of the length and leaping at Virgil. Instead of a spear, a sword in her hand. It is ornate...very well built, and with a lot of arcane symbols on it, but it's hard to tell if they were part of the original design or not..

    She swings, the sword catching on fire as she does, threatening to combust anything it connects with as she swings at Virgil.

    "That's some way to ask a girl out, mister!" she grins, holding the shield with ease, ready to continue this.

T-elos (785) has posed:
She did it. She actually did it.

T-elos was not expecting the fox sage to either politely introduce herself or politely ask her to go away. It's almost cute, in a particularly demented way. It actually gets T-elos to stop shooting at Exodar targets for a few seconds; she doesn't call out another gun immediately after dismissing her last.

"Hmm," she says, as if actually thinking. "Let me consider this." She stands there, in thought, for a few seconds.

And then T-elos abruptly moves. Her hand literally blurs as she picks the pistol out of her thigh holster, pointing it right at Xiaomu's head, though she doesn't immediately fire. Her lips curl back in a smile that looks more self-satisfied than actually amused. "I don't think so," she says. "Why don't you mind your own business before you threaten to strip me?"

T-elos fires. She has shifted her angle just enough that she is firing a bullet, accompanied by a pink haze of energy as the discharge system fires, at Xiaomu's shoulder instead of her head. A smile may be cheaper than a bullet, but T-elos buys bulk.

Elizabeth Bathory (911) has posed:
    Elizabeth has been causing no small amount of consternation to the normally 'Solo Operation' of Lezard Valeth, but mostly she has been settling in, and feeling out her new master. Who is male! This is fortuitous for Lezard in ways he may not totally appreciate right now. As things become well and truly embroiled, Lancer glances out at the battles. "These big scale battles are worse than a bad concert. All these people, moshing in a crowd, peasants mixed in with their betters. And goat /person/ meat... Probably stringy. I'll get some curry, and you can try my cooking later, Master~!" She annouces with the finality of a decision that has already been made, and then wanders off... Towards the fighting? Nah, towards KYRA! The support caster gunner? How delightful!

    The horned girl leaves Lezard to his business, as she laces her long clawlike fingers behind her head and saunters on up to the white mage. "I heard you! On the... Crystal-fanclub-device! You were talking to Lezard, weren't you? Are you nobility? From a powerful family? Of a good lineage? Bought one of my CDs?"

    There's light laughter. "Forget that last one. Even if you love my work, it still doesn't make speaking against nobility acceptable!" She accuses, bringing forth a claw to waggle at Kyra chidingly.

Alexis has posed:
Well it would seem the other Union Elites have the invading Elites squared off for the time being. Some 'heroes' would be bothered by this, but as far as Alexis is concerned, it's not important. Not everything that needs to be done on the battlefield has to be a tremendous event changing activity. There was still an army of enemies knocking at the doors, and vastly overwhelmed guards trying to fend them off.

"Titan, use Stealth Rock." With a confirming snarl the Steelix squinted it's already beady (in comparison to its body size) eyes and focused the small amount of electromagnetic current that rippled through the lodestones that composed part of it's internals. In response multitudes of magnetically charged rock spikes emerge from the ground, seeming to just hover there. At least until an enemy unit moves close enough to trip the hazard like a landmine, and the charged spike suddenly hurtles towards them.

Then Alexis plucks up a second Pokeball, tossing it towards the ground. "Go, Livewire!" From which a large predominately yellow spider-like pokemon emerges. Alexis points it at one of the groups trying to surround the draenei guards. "Slow them down with Electroweb!" The Galvantual chitters and leans forward, shooting webbing from it's backside that spans out like a net as it hurtles through the air towards some of the invaders.

The difference being this net is -electrified-, and getting caught in it is like getting hit with a high powered taser besides the stickiness.

Vergil (878) has posed:
     As the warrior descends down the building, Vergil watches her with a mix of interest and budding, if calm anticipation for the battle ahead.

    He also managed to let himself admire the design of the blade she now wields - and musing about whether or not it might respond to his command if he were to claim it for himself - as he swiftly swings the scabbard of Yamato up with one hand to parry the oncoming strike.

    In that same motion, his other hand draws Yatamo itself out to slash against her in a swift counterattack when the sheath slides her sword away - though her shield likely means Vergil's swift stroke is blocked due to both the shield's size and the speed his opponent wields it at.

     "Glad to see you took kindly to it" Vergil replies, a sardonic smile playing off his features as he flourishes Yamato for a follow-up strike that comes as fast as lightning, moving like a blur of sapphire as his coattails trail behind him with the forward dash. "It's been a while since I've had a proper fight. Don't disappoint me."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
'High Speed Xiaomu' isn't just a battlecry. Getting a pistol pointed at her face is enough to make the sage fox prepare to dodge; the flicker of tension that precedes T-elos's actual firing cues Xiaomu going into actual evasion, thankfully *away* from the shoulder that the battle gynoid shifted her aim towards.

"You're attacking the home of a Union ally," Xiaomu calls out, "and you're under the leadership of a guy who's managed to rub me very much the wrong way. This kinda *is* my business, the rest of it was just trying to be considerate! But if you don't mind what shape I leave you in --"

She draws a pistol out from under her vest, and it's not one of the pair she was wielding earlier; a flurry of ice bullets races towards T-elos as fast as Xiaomu can pull the trigger. The sage fox isn't standing still while she fires, either; she's in full-on run-and-gun mode, looking for possible cover and other potentially useful battlefield features. Terrain, allies, enemies she can duck behind from T-elos's fire, anything.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    Adelyn isn't really a 'stealthy' fighter by any stretch, even if she has an invisibility spell or two in there (which is so easily countered on her world that most magi consider it useless). Still, she seems to have lucked out, having the high ground and the continued element of surprise, which should be enough to let any competent mage win the day.

    Instead, she lets the wind carry her along, closer than she needs to get, while studying the opposition. Her only act is to begin manipulating the mana in Kay's area into an alignment more suited to her purpose. Kay's demons may have left, but casting that kind of magic gives her the concentration of Dark to start an elementally-aligned but effectively unrelated spell.

    She says, "Hello! Please continue your cooperation," as the ground undergoes a transmutation into a sticky, acidic sludge, again targeting a circle around her victim, this time traveling inward. It almost looks alive as ropy tendrils fly out of it, to grab anything that's moving, but it's more like the unthinking violence of disturbed water.

    Pay no attention to the summoned demons being slaughtered back there, without her support. She barely is, the current target being her focus.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
Lezard has never fought a Death Knight before, and it shows, as he wasn't prepared for the chilling windblast. The frigid air builds rime across the Necromancer, the magically inflicted disease causing him to shudder as he stumbles back against the force. "Your people? Are they really? Hah! I suppose they're not Elves, at least." Lezard replies with a scowl. He steps forward, fithing against the debilitating sickness as he does so.

"The Scourge has some very unusual ideas about their place in the Multiverse. Regardless, your failure in preventing my association with Sindragosa was only part of it. Simply put, you have something I desire." There is a sudden gesture as Lezard causes the ground to explode beneath one of the charging paladins, reaching out and detonating a sedon blast in the air to turn the Palading into a falling missile towards the Death Knight. "Surely someone such as you is intelligent enough to understand what could gain my interest!"

Even as the Paladin falls towards Ivraala, Lezard thrusts out his Catalyst once more. "DARK SAVIOR!" He calls, black blades forming in the air of shadow and raining down upon the Death Knight and the Paladin.

T-elos (785) has posed:
"Oh, he's not my /leader/," T-elos says, breezily. "I just thought I'd come along. And why not? Are /you/ going to stop me?"

Apparently the answer to that is 'yes'. Ice bullets rain down on T-elos, though - like Xiaomu - she starts to move almost immediately. T-elos may not be as fast as Xiaomu, but she's fast enough; fewer of the bullets than the fox sage might like impact, leaving little frigid dents in T-elos' plates - or, more commonly, little frozen-over holes in her skin, because way more of T-elos' body is unarmoured than armoured.

"You can't hide forever, little fox!" T-elos drops and slides under a very confused elephant (okay, okay, elekk; she doesn't know the difference), scrambling up on the far side. She hasn't pulled out a heavier weapon yet, firing bursts of two and three from the revolver as she gets more or less clear angles of fire. She has been distracted from attacking the Exodar, at least...

...though she tends to leave a trail behind her of shot people and damaged objects anyway, so it may not matter as much that she's focusing on Xiaomu even if she's not using heavy weapons against the defenders. As she keeps firing, the MAGDALENE-16 begins to smoke as it overheats, pulling more ammunition from nowhere in particular (she's fired at least twenty shots out of a weapon that looks like a six-shot revolver).

Ark Line (687) has posed:
There is something to be said for surprise attacks: they are typically accompanied by the words 'and then the surprised party died horribly.'

This is why Ark has gone to great lengths to teach himself when to recognize an ambush or an opponent sneaking around. Case in point: Kyra talks to herself. It's to deliver a solid line that would have her teachers nod with approval, yes, but it's still sound.

The grey-clad young man tucks his legs underneath him and hunches his shoulders. The cryogenic grenade goes off when it hits him high in the back, freezing the boxy backpack and the cloth covering him. He expected an explosion, not something like that, and there's a hiss of breath when he feels it touch bare skin. Ark drops his gun to hold onto the line, snatching his hat off his head before it freezes to it and producing a knife from somewhere. He slashes through the straps and fastenings with speed and precision.

The backpack comes off along with the discarded poncho it's now frozen to. It joins the hat and submachine gun on the way to the ground. It's the most important part to lose, because it's big, heavy and falling right towards Kyra's head. This is in no small part because Sir Isaac Newton said it was so.

Ark is left in tactical gear crossed with light segmented armor, all of it an identical shade of steel grey. His vivid purple hair stands out like a sore thumb, and his bright amber-colored eyes glare daggers down at the interloper below him.

The thing attached to the hull is otherwise unaffected. It's glowing from a circular cavity on each side, and the air is starting to get awfully warm.

Kay (780) has posed:
    Kay is indeed fortunate that Adelyn is curious, otherwise she might be mauled pretty badly. Instead she simply provides a LOT of data for the mystical researcher. Mainly in how she gets out of the way of the dark blob trying to capture her... well, mostly gets out of the way. One of the lunging things wraps around her ankle as she does her quick evasive maneuver... quick but clumsy, as it turns out.

    The idea was to hurl herself up and out of the way in a nearly-uncontrolled flight, and allow Berserker to catch her. Instead, she rockets upward all right, but the sludge has snagged her ankle, and instead of a mostly-graceful arch into her Servant's arms, she's yanked right back down, slamming into the ground outside the 'circle' but with the tendril still wrapped around her leg. "GUH!"

    She does fire off a few bullets at Adelyn, but they're wild, and even if they do hit they're trivial to block.

    Levi keeps just fighting physically, but the two flying demons that Kay summoned are going to search for anyone who might be causing trouble in the incoming army fighting the Draenei... and swoop down on them, trying to haul them into the air and hurl them into the side of the Exodar.

Berserker (860) has posed:
"Ohhh, you got one of the tsundere types. I didn't know that was your type!" Berserker tsks, fanning herself. "Mmmhmm, mmhmm. Well, she looks very dedicated to her work, that's good! As long as you're trusting one another, that's what's important!"

She siiighs. "My Master is a pragmatist in with a bunch of heroic sorts. It's interesting though! Doing the hero thing that is. My Grail War seems to have stalled a bit, and we have FOURTEEN Servants. It's a mess! There's this adorable assassin girl, a wordy nobleman, and of course two petite blonde Sabers. One of them has a fouler mouth than the other, so at LEAST I can tell them apart. I really don't know where the war is going but that's all right, I'd just wish we could be together anyway."

She looks toward Kay, then frowns. "Hm. It looks like she needs my help, but she's telling me to keep away..." She fans herself. "You don't think she's trying to spare me with heroics, do you? I'm... I'm flattered, but I don't think I should accept. What do you think?"

Tijah El-Borak (818) has posed:
    Virgil and Tijah clash.

    The scabbard stretching her, it does not disarm her, but it does through her arm out wide, preventing her from a follow up strike or defensive parry. However, sword strikes shield...and Virgil will notice something. The Shield is very well designed too. Large, a bit larger than a kite shield, but covered in runes...different than the sword. These ones, however, ARE designed as part of the original shield. The shield itself...also slowly draws in magic. Ambient magic directed at it, including magic weapons, if applicable. She grins, earnestly as contrast to the sardonic tone of the other fighter. "Heh...I was just about to say something similar, pretty boy!" she jests. However, the lighting fast strike is matched with the speed of her shield. Dispite the blow, however, she is forced to stagger from the blow...

    She is surprised, if that hit her without the shield...well, now things were getting INTERESTING. She flexes the arm under the shield, working out the numbness of the blow, and truns towards Virgil. She moves making her body move fluidly...

    Tijah too, can move lightning fast, but in this case, it is because she becomes a lightning bolt, dashing right towards Virgil, if she connects lightning magic sprays in all directions, including through anything she touches. The lighting goes away when the dash is completed...and by this point, she's putting her power behind the attack, trying to force Virgil back from the powerful blow.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    That small point about aggro and getting it seems pretty relevant right now. Kyra does notice that the spread for the grenade didn't seem as ideal as desired but it at least disrupted the skulking guy. She had mentally prepared for something to fall (the alternative being Ark getting frozen to the side of the ship).

    Kyra pushes off the ship with her feet and swings sideways, the frozen backpack and poncho dropping right to the ground. It might even hit poor Elizabeth if she's not careful! Speaking of...

    "Uhhh...Let's see..." Kyra leans back to peer at Elizabeth upside-down on that rope. "No, yes, debatable, no. Respectively!" She stares at Liz for a long time and then...reaches out, poking one of the horns with a finger, gasping when she finds them to be quite solid! "It's /not/ a headband. Er, anyway, 'scuse me, I need to stop this guy-"

    She peers up again and gets a better look at Ark, who is decked out in fancy armor and has bright purple hair. Inwardly, she cringes, wondering if she's bit off more than she can chew. Outwardly, she lifts her hand again and fires something /else/ at Ark. This time, it's a glass-encased object that releases a strong adhesive when it breaks open. It might slow Ark down, or worse, get him stuck by his hotly glowing device.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    Even someone like Adelyn doesn't have the ability to analyze this much data in real-time, but it will save until she can hand it off to, probably, a team of apprentices, to dispassionately play back the image of Kay hitting the ground over and over while they write reports she'll skim. Such is the busy life of an academic.

    Bullets come flying her way, and strike a kinetic ward, having pushed past the threshold of 'energetic enough to hurt.' They are blocked, to no *apparent* effect, though a sense of her ward's spell keeps her informed as to how much more it can take. This ward isn't a self-repairing type, for the sake of being harder to break in the first place.

    "Hm. You aren't going to call them back? That will make this a rather poor demonstration of your abilities. You are a summoner, aren't you?" Adelyn shrugs. She isn't moving to dodge, so Kay could just keep shooting her until her ward breaks, but in the meantime she'll have to deal with the tendril of sludge releasing her, which it does by bursting into flame, along with the patch of ground she'd escaped. Unlike the earlier spell, this looks like it's going to burn for awhile.

    Adelyn would like to seal this off with some Earth magic, but the flight spell makes that hard to manage simultaneously. Unfortunate limitations of her elemental system.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "I don't know if she's tsundere! She's always smiling. Sometimes it's a bit creepy. Sometimes I wonder if she has the ability to feel love! Ah, ah~ that's silly, of course she does. Caster will find a way!" Confident, at least, is one thing the fox is. "I wouldn't have minded a hero, I think. But that's good if yours stalled! It means you don't have to worry about it!"

    Then she ponders the question, and smiles like a devil. "No, no! You shouldn't listen to that. Silly masters, don't they know if they die we go away? You shouldn't risk it! You should tie them up if they become self-sacrificing, before it ends up costing them! Curse them and make their legs shrivel, so they can't escape you!"

    Well that's... positive advice.

    It seems at the mention of needing to go help, Gudako intrudes in the conversation though. "Ah? I'm going to get yelled at by mister Valeth if I let you go help. Caster, that would be awful, please restrain your friend~."

    "E-Eh?! Master, she's harmless! And a good friend!"

    "Huh? You won't? Huuuuuh. Berserker, please restrain Caster's friend."

    A second Servant appears at Gudako's feet! It's... the exact same foxgirl. But her hair is in a big, dirty ponytail instead of pigtails, and her robes are red instead of blue. Also she's wearing big, orange, cat-patterned mitts and boots, with claws and all. More importantly, she is snoring loudly, curled up in a ball next to Gudako.

    That explains why the second Servant felt... absent.

    "Ooh. Just my luck." Gudako says, but does not lose her smile.

Ivraala (679) has posed:
    Ivraala's eyes briefly go wide as that paladin suddenly goes flying. Ivraala is durable, but that male crying out in pain and hurtling toward her clad in armor is not something to simply shrug off. But she can't just let them die-

    Too slow to react properly, the Death Knight is sent crashing to the ground beneath the paladin, crushing her just a moment before the blades rain down. She survives, numb to the pain of a few broken bones from that impact. The paladin, impaled multiple times by that black rain, doesn't.

    Quietly cursing to herself, Ivraala pushes the draenei's body off her as she shuffles back upright. Damn her hesitation.

    "If you wanted me, then you could have just /found/ me," the Death Knight hisses, lashing out her hand out again and sending shadow seeping into the ground beneath Lezard in a large circle. The earth decays beneath his feet; shadow consumes and corrupts, reaching up from the rotting earth to eat away at him from below. "What could possibly interest you in-"

    Ivraala freezes, then, realization dawning on her expression before twisting it with an arctic fury that cracks through her voice. "...if you lay a finger on the naaru I will break EVERY BONE IN YOUR BODY!"

    The draenei seem to be gaining some success against the forward siege, thanks to the assistance of Kay and Alexis. They start to make a push forward, shouting their determination as they try to drive the assaulting demons further back from the entryway.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
It's probably mostly the fact that T-elos doesn't give much of a crap about precision aiming that serves to preserve Xiaomu from unnecessary bullet holes; however, the fact that the collateral damage is al adding up on the draenei's side of the field is far less than optimal by Xiaomu's standards. Leading her back into the throngs of Confederate summoned minions seems much more advantageous, even if it also means Xiaomu has to put herself in greater danger to do it.

Eh, she can improvise.

"XIAOMU SURFING!!" calls the sage fox, switching her aim from behind her (at T-elos) to in front of her (at some Feddie minions) - and the icy bullets are followed by a more focused and sustained wave of magic from her staff, conjuring another fast-moving block of ice. If Roc's Icebrand froze enough minions for her to make a halfway-decent ramp, then Xiaomu's 'surfing' ice-sled climbs it; otherwise ...

Are there enough minions, and are they big enough, to actually slow Xiaomu's progress into the swarm?

Vergil (878) has posed:
    Sparks fly - steel clashes, demonic against rune-engraved.

    As Yamato slides across her shield, Vergil's gaze focuses on it to note the intricate runes against it's surface... as well as noting how it seems to sap magical energy gradually in from it's surroundings like a sponge being set into water to let lie, the energy seeping in slowly rather then aggressively being sucked in.

    Seeing her stagger, Vergil drops into a guard-stance, angling Yamato's blade towards Tijah's center-mass.

    Though when she dashes forward, he takes note of her change into a literal bolt of lightning, narrowing his eyes as he muses on her affinity being electricity.

    And based on her prior use of area-of-effect attacks, she had the ability to hit quite a wide impact zone.

     So he decided on a more metaphysical means of defense.

     "Spiral Swords."

    As he quickly brings Yamato back into preparation for a counter-swing, eight phantasmal-blue 'Summoned Swords' materialize in front of him, arranged in a circle so as to blunt and absorb, blunt or bock as much of the lightning in the attack as they can - though some light scorches are still likely to form against his clothes - so as to leave only the physical force of Tijah's sword to block against-

     -but even then, it's enough to force the the Son of Sparda to dig his heals in as his feet slide back a few steps, his delivering a horizontal slice with Yamato colliding against her blade and resulting in him getting pushed by the force of the blow. He's forced to take another step back to re-evaluate his opponent's strengths.

     "Not bad" he replies evenly as he in turn retaliates with a swift series of cuts - two horizontal, one vertical and three diagonal - though the strikes, while strong in their own right, are less so then a concentrated blow as he the attacks are more reliant on speed and angle-of-attack then stopping power; a strategy for trying to get past that sizable shield as it keeps much of her flank covered.

    Based on that, there's a less-then-half chance any strikes will make it through.

Kay (780) has posed:
    Oh. It caught on fire. That's unexpected. It also causes Kay to scream loudly and yank her leg back, but it's already smoldering, and she's struggling to get to her feet. The burns by now are bad enough that she's going to be limping if she goes somewhere.

    She does answer the woman's question though. "I summoned them for a purpose. I'm letting them fulfill that purpose." She checks her ammo, then nods to herself grimly. "You're toying with me, aren't you?"

    She snaps the pistol up and fires three more shots. The first two are like the others, weak an simple. It's the final one that's weird, with a subtle difference that lends it a disproportionately powerful barrier-piercing effect. In the process, all the mana within about ten feet of Kay is suddenly Holy-aligned. It doesn't look like she did it intentionally, though, because she's slowly limping herself backward and glancing toward her hand, pondering the Command Spells there.

Tijah El-Borak (818) has posed:
    Vergil is...very fast. It's pressing her hard to keep up with this, but she somehow manages it...well, mostly. Her shield comes up, but Virgil may notice that her defense isn't just from the shield, she herself is very light footed...she acts more like a Hoppalite, than a knight might. Utlizing her shield and movements, rather than trying to block and parry. However, because of his speed, more than one blow can make their way by her defenses. One blow bouncing off of her armor, thanks to the buffs from Kyra, but another managing to slide across her skin, getting a bit of purchas...if not for her movements, she might be skewered.

    She falls back, stinging a bit, but she did not parry...she might have prevented damage if she had tried, but she did not.. The reason, is simple, she wanted the sword free to attack, when the last blade manages to cut, she uses the force of the blow to spin, to try and rotate around Virgil, and try and attack from his flank. This time, ice creeps up along the blade, and when she swings, IF she hits...ice will spread across, aiming to slow and numb, aiming to make it more difficult to dodge and swing...frostbite is a pain!

    "Nice moves yourself. I might be dead where I stood if I were any slower...still hurts like a bitch.." She grins, not withdrawing, instead, more determined!

Berserker (860) has posed:
Berserker is now considering Kay's situation, and it looks like she's pondering darting over there after all. Kay told her to stay away, but if Adelyn is REALLY just toying with her, she's going to need to help her Master. It's a little fretful, because in her current state Berserker isn't really all that effective in combat. Stiiill...

Her thoughts are interrupted by Gudako's words. Blink blink. "Ah? I'm sorry, are you wanting to keep me away from my beloved?" She fans herself a few times, staring at Gudako instead of Caster. "Why? Do you want her for yourself? You can't have her, she's mine."

Lezard Valeth has posed:
"I have no objections with addressing multiple issues at once." Lezard says with an arrogant shrug.

An arrogance that quickly becomes surprise as the Death Knight corrupts the ground below Lezard. His eyes widen as he feels the corrption rip into his flesh, consuming parts of him as wounds rip open. "GGggh!" He hisses in pain as he hurls himself out of the circle in a moment of desperation, colliding against the wall of the Exodar. "Well then, a fellow student of the Dark Arts, are we?"

He grimaces, wiping blood from his mouth. "If you think breaking every bone in my body will stop me, you are not only mistaken, but ignorant besides." He straightens, trying to ignore the pain wracking his body as he focuses for another spell. "I will not be denied by a corpse! Now open the gates of Niflheim, more souls await!"

Suddenly, he lunges forward, the spellcasting pose a feint for a lunging strike. The Manus Catalyst whips through the air with bone-shattering force as he shows that despite his wizardly demeanor, he's more than willing to take thing to hand to hand combat. Each strike by the Catalyst is accompanied by a surge of explosive blackness, sprays of consuming Dark exploding outwards as he mixes spells into his attacks, the blackness striking with heavy, almost physical force as it shreds life force and flesh with equal facility.

T-elos (785) has posed:
The downside with Xiaomu's plan is that T-elos is reasonably clever - at least clever enough to /stop/ shooting her allies, once she realizes she's actually doing it.

Xiaomu freezes some minions, and T-elos stops firing quite so randomly as Xiaomu leaps onto an ice block. She's actually put her pistol away to let it cool down anyway, dropping it back in its holster while she pulls out a new, different weapon.

'Pulls out' is kind of the wrong word, because it appears on her body, forming around the lower part of her left arm as if it had been made there and replacing her hand entirely, sleek and streamlined. T-elos slows down from her flat-out run to aim it at the surfing Xiaomu while at a slow walk. She's amongst Confederacy minions now; they're not trying to kill her. It helps.

"Running already?" she calls. "I thought you wanted to do injury to me. I'm not that hurt! Shall I leave you alone and go inside? Or do you still want to stop me?" Response or no, T-elos fires - just one shell, but it explodes with a kinetic shockwave and blast of flame on impact. She's aimed it at the block Xiaomu is on, just under her feet - to explode under her, shred her with frozen shards and send her flying!

"I thought I'd be enjoying myself by now!"

Elizabeth Bathory (911) has posed:
    FEH, FALLING THINGS! ELIZABETH BATHORY DE ECSED WOULD NEVER BE--

    Elizabeth is brained by falling backpacks, which causes her more shame than damage, making a little 'waiii' sound as she clutches her relatively undamaged head and frowning. "Keep possession of your belongings!" She announces imperiously, annoyed. But the general responses are more or less pleasing to Liz - she's noble-ish, of a decent lineage, but not 'royalty'. Well, that's decent enough, right? She has to fill her own backlog and refresh her stores, but...

    And then Kyra touches one of her curly horns.

    The blush that crosses her features is immense. "D-do you want to die?!" She accuses, utterly aghast. "Of course it's not a headband! I have the blood of dragons. You! Strange master-servant!" Elizabeth points at Ark.

    "Teach her a terrible lesson for defiling my adorable character-objects!"

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "I don't really have a use for people," Gudako says with her wide smile, before she slaps a closed fist inside her other palm, in that 'I've got an idea!' way. "Ah! But do you want a new beloved? Hm. Two Berserkers is kind of a weird lineup, but I think with a Caster I can make it work. How about it? I have all the magic you could ever want. Then you can be with your foxy friend or whatever and it won't inconvenience me."

    Her Berserker continues sleeping.

    Caster squints and takes a step back from Kay's Berserker. It seems she's smart enough to know what is being triggered right now.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    "Would you rather I kill you?" Adelyn sounds curious, if anything.

    The first shots are similarly deflected by her ward, but her head snaps back at the sudden shift of mana. It's the change of aspect that surprises her, sensing what looks to her spells like Light, rather than immediate knowledge of the charged attack coming her way. The jerking motion saves her either way, as it's one of her headwings that's clipped instead of her head. The force still hurts terribly, but with her anatomy as odd as it is, damage to the visibly inhuman portion won't actually end in her death in any case.

    "Oh, that's new. Much better! Though not enough, if you're not even using your full strength against me. Insulting, really, and more than a bit suicidal."

    The change blocks off another good avenue of attack, and so this actually grounds Adelyn. That is, she drops suddenly to the ground, landing heavily, but nowhere near heavily enough to explain the way the ground buckles and breaks beneath her, fissures opening up over a wide area as mere collateral damage, and in Kay's direction in particular.

Vergil (878) has posed:
    Vergil finds himself intrigued by Tijah's more comparatively conservative stance compared to what he expected.

    That's good, though. There was no sport or enjoyment to be had in an easy opponent.

    Likewise, as Yamato manages to graze upon it's mark, the Son of Sparda sees her spin around, enchanted frost working up her weapon as it cuts through the air towards him.

    So he switches tactics as he swings his open arm out against the blade-

     -and in an instant, Yamato and it's scabbard are gone, the gauntlets of Beowulf meeting the frozen blade as shards of ice clash against the flash of light-elemental energy the gauntlets are imbued with, the Son of Sparda wincing as frost coats his limb as he is sent skidding backwards, leaving deep groves in the dirt as his heals dig through the ground in his backward slide.

    Looking at his arm - encased in ice from the elbow down - he slams his other gauntlet against it to shatter the frost encasing his limb, revealing the other of Beowulf's gloves.

    Even through the weapon, he felt a twinge of a chill in his hand, and his coat had several new rips in the elbow where the ice reacted up to his elbow and froze at the joint.

    Yet he can't help but smirk in response. "You're holding up well, though... and you're full of surprises." Taking up a guard stance, Vergil now comes at Tijah with punches and kicks from Beowulf to try and offset her guard by getting close to her guard and attempting to work through it, though the strikes of Beowulf - dealt through tough gauntlets and greaves - may be more powerful attacks, they are in turn naturally slower then the swift and precise strokes of Yamato.

    He's switched tactics to try and break through her guard, though the fact that his style relies more on close hand-to-hand leaves him a bit less of an opportunity to dodge or pull back... and attacks on his limbs are more likely to jar the limbs themselves over time, now utilizing a comparatively more blunt style of attacks.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
You'd think people are less accurate with heavier weapons than with small arms; however, T-elos demonstrates that she's an exception to the rule, and blows up Xiaomu's conjured ice-sled, blasting the sage fox up into the air with a mix of ice shards and fireball propelling her in a none-too-graceful arc.

It doesn't ENTIRELY stop Xiaomu from shooting back - actually trying to fire some freezing shots right down the muzzle of T-elos's rocket launcher, or whatever that is. A few shots are aimed at the gynoid herself, too, rather than her weapon.

And then Xiaomu manages to conjure ANOTHER ice block upon landing - and comes racing out of the minions, peppering T-elos with additional ice-elemental gunfire. "If I was running away, I wouldn't be trying to lure your fire into your own allies, would I?" she calls out -

And then actually jumps OFF her high-speed ice-sled, leaving it continuing to race towards T-elos while Xiaomu seeks some semblance of cover from the next shot. Amongst the minions, in fact.

That's not going to end badly at all, is it?

Alexis has posed:
Seeing as most of it's area-effect attacks that would work best against large groups would also put their allies at risk, the Steelix mostly looms at the back of the defending Draenei as a big metal obstacle. Alexis' Galvantula continues to run interference with his electrified webbing and summoning up clusters of shadowy bugforms with Infestation to swarm over enemies, mainly slowing and trapping whatever minions possible for the guards to dispose of.

She can't do much from atop his head now so Alexis slides down the Steelix's backside to reach the ground, leaving him to rear guard. Instead she releases a different pokemon, and a large moss-collared goat appears at her side, bleating loudly. Alexis climbs onto the Gogoat's back, grabbing one his horns with her hand to initiate the emotional sync Gogoat is capable. "Let's go, Brushguard. I feel like a few rounds of Minion Polo. Yah!" With another loud bleat the goat stomps the ground a few times, then rushes into the enemy army literally headfirst. It's a goat. It's charging. It's not going to stop just because you get in it's way, there's a reason 'ram' is called what it is.

As for 'Minion Polo', Alexis appearently meant exactly that as she pulls a polo club from her bag of sports gear, and swings at whatever enemies manage to avoid the angry goat charging through them.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
One other thing Kyra would notice quite easily: he's got something concealed around the small of his back. It looks like a dagger made of human bone. The surface is kind of rough, from there; maybe it's carved?

Ark is not quite sure how to respond to Lezard's new servant whatever-her-name-is the Pop Idle accosting Kyra and demanding a lesson be taught. He isn't even sure Pop Idol is a real Servant class.

"Sure. Hey, you! Don't defile her adorable character-objects!" Ark calls down at Kyra, who is still clinging to his line. It's not really rope; it definitely provides a better grip than that. "Whatever that means!" He flings the knife in his hand at her at about the same time she generates a new sphere and lobs it up at him. They're trading thrown weapons, here.

He's expecting something like that, though. "Correct Future!" He puts his now-free hand to the bone weapon.

A haze of amber particulate springs up around him. He turns on the rope just as the sphere reaches him, passing through the haze in the process. The amber light winks out, instead surrounding the bone weapon. The glass-encased object hits him dead on...

...and doesn't break. It bounces right off. Ark catches it on the toe of his boot, balancing it there while he peers at Kyra. He bounces it a couple of times, grinning.

Then, he knocks it upwards, lifts his leg, and axe-kicks it back to Kyra. It /still/ doesn't break -- but that decrease in fragility ends the moment it leaves his person.

The thing on the wall, meanwhile, is filled with white-hot energy. There's a sound like a screeching kettle from it as it vents heat backwards, fires a cutting beam forward and begins to slowly descend.

Berserker (860) has posed:
Berserker remains fanning herself, but it slows as the offer is made. She glares at Gudako, and it's pretty obvious to Caster that it suddenly isn't a friendly look. It should be obvious to Gudako, too, when Berserker speaks... her voice is suddenly very, very level and frosty. "That would mean betraying my word to my beloved, after she had just entrusted me with one of her closest secrets. If there is one thing I absolutely despise, it is breaking one's word."

Kay's mana drain will suddenly grow MUCH stronger, though given Kay's reserves this likely won't be a problem yet. The smiling Berserker's aura suddenly becomes oppressive, steeped in an immense amount of prana. "Would you care to rephrase your offer, miss? You're Tamamo's friend so I'd really like to keep matters between us... civil."

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    It would be hard to miss the build up of mana.

    Unfortunately, Gudako has no filter, nor is she capable of feeling that sort of pressure. She just keeps smiling wide, glaring the Berserker right in the eyes. Well, less glaring and more... looking at with a dead expression? It's weird. Disconnected.

    "I guess that's a no. That's too bad."

    She produces a satchel of cat treats out of a pocket. She shakes it once, and wouldn't you know it, Berserker is immediatly up on all fours, at full attention, big huntress eyes locked on the pouch of candy.

    "Berserker~."

    A single cat treat is tossed at Kay's Servant.

    It's not threatening, save for the fact the catty fox surges up, chasing after the treat, front paws extended out. "NYAAAAAA!!" That's one way to get your Berserker on a job.

    Caster seems to be getting increasingly worried.

    Guess that's a no for civility.

Tijah El-Borak (818) has posed:
    Tijah has a respect for Vergil's stance...they go back and forth...but that quick weapon change at the right moment was something else...infact, it was starting to get her heart pumping. She tries to set up something, but right now, she's gota survive on her own wits. Right now, Vergil switches it up, the gaunlets from earlier are out, and they come down at her. She leaps back, not silly enough to challenge them right on. The choice was correct, but the force of the blow is enough to cause her to slide back, even with the shield out, she felt that one. At ground zero...

    She flexes her hand again, those were crazy...She continues to try and keep her distance, as he come smashing in, just narrowly trying to stay out of range, but even near misses are hard to stay standing against...buuuut...

    After ONE smash, she kicks the ground forward as she lands, instead of trying to bounce back. A statue being destroyed in the process...but she channels something. Her sword glows, but not any elemental color that telegraphs the attack.

    She seems to disappear, appearing once more on the otherside of Vergil, and if he wasn't careful, the lightning flash step, somewhat similar to what he used earlier...

    However, what follows is a strange circle of light, aiming to surround him, and as quickly as she strike, aims to crashd own on the place she stuck, aiming to FORCE it's way through, and ripple through the area in the force of a strangely non-elemetal explosion.

    "SCATHE SWORD!" she shouts somewhere in there...but well, sound travels slower than light!

Ivraala (679) has posed:
    "Not a student by choice," Ivraala hisses to Lezard, wheeling around to keep him in her sights and clutching her axe in her hands. "But I make do with what I have now. It seems like enough to keep you at bay, at least!"

    With a shout, Ivraala lifts her axe, charging ahead toward Lezard - but his catalyst intercepts, striking with much more force than she expected from the raw assault she feels. The paired strike of the heavy catalyst and accompanying Dark slam into her stomach, lurching her forward with the impact; another one hits, launching her back to tumble across the ground until she skids to an unsteady crouch. She tries to stand, but falters, not out of pain but simply thanks to a lack of proper support from damage.

    Well, if she can't walk steadily yet, she'll just have to do her best from here.

    Another lash of her hand sends a sickly green orb of pure unholy energy launching out at Lezard, the type that would be beneficial to any undead, but which only blasts against and consumes the living. "I...am not just a /corpse/! I am no less than /any/ of those around me! And I-" Another howling gale suddenly lashes out from Ivraala to once more bite down deep to Lezard's core with its infection. "-will /not/ allow you to just step over me!"

Kay (780) has posed:
    "Yeaaah, I think I'll skip on the death part," Kay replies, loading another clip. Of course, she's ALREADY at a disadvantage here. Her bullet may have winged Adelyn, but Adelyn got in some really good hits without even trying, earlier. Kay knows she's outmatched... and doesn't know she could put up a decent fight if she could tap into her full potential.

    That's the problem, really.

    "What are you TALKING abou- AH!" Kay stumbles back, and not entirely because of her burnt leg! It's largely because hey, a fissure is opening and she's now... well, skidding and sliding in. One thing she DOES have control over is her reflexes, though, and she can scramble to grab hold and keep from falling outright. It still leaves her in a bad position. Right at this moment, Adelyn overwhelms her.

    ... Which is why she finally does send a mental command to call Levi back, though it will be a few moments before the Familiar can dash to her side. She can feel the mana draw Berserker is doing, so she knows the Servant must be busy.

T-elos (785) has posed:
When you fire less often, you watch each shot better. T-elos pays more attention to where the L-CANNON shells go only because she doesn't get as many of them. It helps that the cannon is literally on her arm; it makes it a hell of a lot easier to aim. It goes exactly where she points!

None of Xiaomu's shots go down the barrel, because T-elos tilts her arm so that they impact the side instead. This is annoying but not as dangerous. Nothing explodes, though she's starting to take damage that's adding up.

"Not very well," T-elos says, as Xiaomu kicks off the remains of the ice chunk and - oh, that's coming right at her, isn't it?

An instant before it should hit T-elos, the ice chunk explodes. Big pieces of it hit T-elos anyway, though less than if she'd allowed it to impact in one piece; a cloud of steam rises into the air, shrouding T-elos from view.

She steps out of the cloud several moments later. She looks windblown; her hair is slightly mussed, and there's more damage on her body. She ignores it, but it's definitely present. "Oh, you should not have done that," she says. "I'm getting tired of this cat and mouse... or, I suppose, cat and fox."

Xiaomu is hiding in the minions, all right. Right now she's in a cluster of undead provided by Lezard. There's only one problem with that: T-elos doesn't care.

The emitters around T-elos' body, set to the sides of her chest, shoulder, hip, and thigh, as well as her 'ears', begin to sparkle deep inside. The crystals begin to glow a faint blue-white as T-elos leaps, throwing herself into the air a good forty feet (she bounced off one of the biggest chunks of the ice to get that height but may not have needed to).

As T-elos reaches the apex of her jump, they all fire. Lasers, but not straight lasers; they twist and form into a ball of light, closer to Xiaomu than T-elos. The white-blue ball sends stark shadows, so bright a point is it as it descends, accelerating as little streamers of energy continue to connect it to T-elos' emitters.

When it impacts - Xiaomu, the ground, whatever - it explodes in a massive shockwave of light and power. This shatters skeletons and dismisses zombies, blasting at /everything/ nearby. T-elos does not care about Xiaomu's cover; the energy satellite goes off like a bomb.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "You were blushing, you know~" Kyra teases Elizabeth. "When I touched your horn. I think you /liked/ it. /Cute/!" She would be doing it again-she's not afaid of Liz yet-if Ark hadn't yet decided to 'fall in line' and plot to take a detour with the white mage.

    Apparently this involves 'not getting hit by one of Kyra's mixtures." As it is launched back at her, she tries to catch it and succedes at the cost of letting go of the rope and floating back down to the ground within arm's reach of Elizabeth! It also breaks, covering her with sticky, yellow-hued adhesive. It starts to harden immediately, prompting Kyra to eject another mixture from her Matter Manipulator, though this one is NOT shot at Ark. Turns out it's a counter-agent to the adhesive and something that Kyra wisely always carries along with her Slowhesive. Kyra douses herself with it and the adhesive dissolves, restoring the girl's mobility.

    "Hmmmm!" Kyra sidefloatsteps so she at least has Elizabeth in her field of vision before she finally lifts that rifle and fires, aiming right at Ark's device. Turns out that those are /explosive/ darts so even if she does manage to desroy the laser cutter (?) that Ark deployed, there might still be a hole in the ship afterwards.

Berserker (860) has posed:
A cat treat. But with other Berserker being a cat, that means... well, Berserker isn't an idiot, and knows what's coming. The response was FORTUNATELY not strong enough yet to trigger her full venting, but there's still some steam that Berserker needs to let off. "No no no no NO!"

It's getting steadily louder, but it won't last long. The last, shouted denial comes with a sudden BLAZE of flame from the flick of Berserker's fan, hurled largely toward Gudako... which fortunately for the Master, means Catzerker is going to tank it! And CAN tank it! It might hurt, but there's nothing to stop the pouncing cat from slamming into Berserker and bearing her down to the ground despite what she's casting, and thankfully it ALSO shuts her up... for now.

Vergil (878) has posed:
     The draw of power to her blade is enough to have Vergil prepared, though what form it takes is harder to discern. Regardless, Vergil's reaction - his realization of what is happening - is near-instantaneous in regards to seeing the attack, eyes widening a bit when Tijah re-appears at his opposing side.

    Beowulf vanishes, the ring of steel being ripped free of it's sheath echoing out as Yamato's edge flashes, it's owner dropping into a deep stance-

    -and the explosive force of non-elemental power is met by burst of something similar... yet very drastically different, the opposing forces causing the ground under Vergil's feet to shatter as they clash.

     When the small kuck-up of dust dissipates though... a soft pattering of something hits the ground.

    Something red... though, strangely, there's not much of it.

     Vergil, his hair having fallen loose down his face, is bleeding from a gash put in his shoulder, his elegant coat sporting a tear in it that reveals a wound in the skin... yet the trickle of blood is disproportionately small.

     ... and what's more... the wound is shrinking before Tijah's eyes, flesh knitting back together and sealing up abnormally fast.

    Vergil himself, after the injury has sealed from what can only be supernatural regeneration, works the lingering pain out of his shoulder as he brings his hand up and slicks his hair back up, looking a mix between impressed and decidedly serious. "Well... that's interesting. I can't even remember the last time anyone did that except for my brother." He angles the tip of Yamato at Tijah, seeming to give her credit for drawing blood. "I might actually enjoy this."

    Of course, he already has - it wasn't often he met anyone that could take him on blow-for-blow.

    Time to see if it stayed that way.

    Once again, dropping into a stance, Vergil dashes forward - and this time, his speed is redoubled, his body trailing the faintest edges of a blue aura as he starts channeling his demonic power into his attacks, Yamato's strikes having more force at the end of his combination attack of vertical and horizontal strokes as the last one is charged with a shimmering blue light, the force of this stroke twice as strong as those before.

    He's now fighting increasingly harder... and wondering what she will throw at him next.

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    If it were just a matter of climbing back out, that would be one thing, but Adelyn isn't making it so easy. While the single spot she's standing on seems almost stable, the localized quaking continues, deep rumblings answering the call of her mana, and the walls of the fissure letting loose rocks and dirt to fall into the chasm below.

    While it is occupying some of her magical output, it doesn't occupy much of her attention, as soon as Kay is hidden from view--if still visible to Adelyn so long as she's doing anything magical--which allows her to wipe at the blood dripping onto her face from the bullet wound, and turn to look in the direction of the main portions of the battle. It's too far for her to provide support within her specialty, but with Levi closing in--range is only an issue for her 'support' magic, in the first place.

    The grin that accompanies the pair of yards-wide spell circles that appear in the air, glowing with the Arcane, is almost feral. They fire beams of incandescent, sizzling energy that leaves behind the scent of ozone. First two, and in a moment, the discharged circles crackle, incomprehensible lines of runes unravel in the air, and reconfigure into four. They fire, reform, and fire again.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
T-elos not caring about her own side's mooks is a problem? Well, not for Xiaomu it isn't - that was actually all part of the plan, but she hadn't reckoned on exactly how gleefully the gynoid will shoot anything near her target.

Either way, Xiaomu's not expecting her 'cover' to give her THAT much protection - the whole point WAS to draw T-elos's fire into Confederate mooks, not to use them for shields. And it helps that T-elos's next choice of attack is EXTREMELY visible: the charge-up is noticeable enough on its own, but leaping forty feet in the air before you fire it off?

Plenty of warning.

Xiaomu bolts off to the side as soon as she spots the ball of light forming and descending; the fact that she was in a horde of relatively-mindless undead is a pretty beneficial advantage. The Roc's Icebrand has been holstered by now, and she uses both hands plus her staff to smack undead out of her way. She doesn't QUITE get out of the blast radius in time, though; the shockwave knocks the wind out of the sage fox's lungs, whether by itself or by flinging her face-first into the ground several meters away.

And Xiaomu doesn't let a little thing like not being able to breathe stop her, either; she was fishing out a grenade already, and somehow she still has a hold of it after T-elos's little inspirational display of overkill. The pin goes one way, the spoon goes another, and the grenade itself follows yet a different path from either; it's that last which T-elos should probably be worried about, since Xiaomu's trying to plant it where T-elos will be landing from that leap.

With some extra luck, T-elos will be distracted by the fact that Xiaomu is rather decidedly the worse for wear now. Explosions and whatnot have not merely torn at her clothes (although the sage fox is still decent, her qipao's seen better days; her vest seems more resilient) but managed to open some actual injuries on her body as well. Her wounds hurt enough for the sage fox to remember that at LEAST one Confederate has evinced a desire to collect samples from her; Xiaomu would very much like for those samples to remain uncollected.

... oh, and that grenade Xiaomu tossed? Enhanced with fire-elemental magic, so the fireball when the grenade goes off is rather literally a ball of fire (in addition to the usual concussive blastwave).

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    The catty Berserker is pelted by a fireball! ... and unfortunately does have the strength, agility and perhaps more importantly momentum to keep that pounce going. The slam into the other Berserker grounds them, but claws aren't used, nor any other methods of mauling the yandere. Despite being burnt and singed from the attack!

    Instead, the fox pretending to be human pretending to be a cat chomps on the cat treat, and then purrs, and... just sort of cuddles up against the other Berserker to resume her catnap, except on top of her.

    Gudako keeps her deadpan empty smile expression, but makes some sort of confused noise. Caster regains her smile, letting a sigh of relief out. "Well, you know what they say about cats, master~. Is cat, won't fix. Caster is the better Servant, don't you see~?"

    "Ah, you two are such a pain. I should have wished for competent Servants," Gudako says, still smiling in an entirely offputting way.

    "I guess neither of my Servants want to fight you. It'd be a waste to blow a Command Spell on this, I can think of a million better uses."

Lezard Valeth has posed:
"Someone of your level should be honored that I am even wasting my time on you!" Lezard spits back, his arrogant words ringing fairly hollow in the face of the obvious damage he has sustained. However, there's something in his eyes... The gleam of absolute belief in their own power. Even so, there is a wave of energy as he immediately tries to erect a barrier against the orb, but it punches through, shattering it and crushing into the body. There is a cry of agony that emits from it as he is thrown to the ground, body writhing even as Ivraala follows it up with another wave of frigid disease. "You... YOU..." He gurgles, before he falls over, ceasing motion and slumping over, apparently deceased under the assault. Gleaming motes of light rise out of Lezard's body, wafting up into the air.

In a way, it's kind of pretty.

Until there is a low chuckle, and the sparkles gather together, light coealescing into a spiritual form that hangs above the corpse, floating there. Elizabeth might feel an odd lurch as the Command Seals vanish from the body, reappearing on the specreal Lezard's hand.

"I suppose I must congratulate you." Lezard states, dusting his spirit form off. "You're the first person in some time who has managed to cripple my physical body to that degree. However, as you should well know..." He shrugs. "The body is but a vessel."

There is a sudden pulse of raw power, a shockwave ripping through the air and throwing undead, Draenei, and demon alike back from him like ragdolls. A beacon of energy erupts in the middle of the battlefield, a magical circle drawing itself around him as the energy coruscates around him in a tornado of magic. "Consider this your reward." He states, raising his Catalyst.

The sky above the Exodar flares with dozens of tiny suns, flaring bright as they rotate, collecting towards each other.

"YE OF DETESTABLE NAME AND VIRTUE, FALSE APOSTLE,
THOU ARE BADE BACK TO THE ABYSS!"

As the masses fuse, a gigantic beam of eye-searing light blasts downwards like a massive spear.

"SERAPHIC LAW!"

The scorching blast is aimed to strike not only through Ivraala, but to punch a hole in the Exodar, trying to open a hole directly through the city towards where that pulsing heart of the ship may be, where the Naaru would be resting.

T-elos (785) has posed:
Well T-elos wasn't going to fire it /through/ the crowd. That's inefficient. It would have hit someone first and just not gotten to Xiaomu in the first place.

T-elos sees that there is a grenade arcing toward her landing point. She deals with it in the simplest way she can think of; she fires a thinner energy beam from one of the emitters at it, not bothering to form it into the ball. It lacks much power, and doesn't even penetrate the exterior of the grenade.

But what it does do is deflect it slightly. The grenade hits the ground a yard or two away from T-elos. It explodes all right, but T-elos is mostly just singed instead of really hurt by it. Given she's as tough as she is, and given the injuries she's already taken, it doesn't really show up; she feels it, but what she has already is worse.

"Oh, I like that," T-elos says, momentarily distracted by a holy superlaser. "If I'd known he'd wanted the big guns..." But more of her attention is on Xiaomu. "You're still here?" Well, there; she's a little further off.

Her pistol's nice and cool by now. T-elos draws MAGDALENE-16 again, pointing it at Xiaomu. "Last warning. Before I come over there and use your tails for decoration." Being T-elos, even her warning has a shot or two, though they're not that powerful. When alone, anyway.

Elizabeth Bathory (911) has posed:
    "One also blushes when they are embarrased! Foolish mixedblood!" Elizabeth calls, annoyed, stamping one foot while pointing an odd-colored finger at Kyra, as her draconic tail flicks behind her in annoyance. "The mere idea that being touched that way would be pleasing - it's not your role at all! Hmph! I am an /idol/, and thus a paragon of purity! And you... You probably have a /boyfriend/." She sneers.

    "Even if you're not a pig, you're as uncouth as any peasant! That's why you should be put in your place, by the power of nobility!!!"

    She watches Ark deflect slow-goo with his Correct Future power, which makes her smile. "Yes, turn the pitchforks of the serfs against them, and see them mired in their own problems!" She preens, ignoring the fact that Ark Line is almost certainly not landed nobility. She lives in a 'special' world.

    There's an inkling though, as Lezard uses his SUPER LASER, and also gets thrashed physically. "Is my master in danger? It'd be the worst if I got unsummoned so quickly. You!" She points at Ark Line. "Continue punishing this mixedblood! I need to check on my Master!"

    And she's off, running back to Lezard. "Are you alright? It would be inconvenient for you to die one day after summoning meeee!"

Tijah El-Borak (818) has posed:
    Tijah blinks slowly at the healing...well...

    "Huh. That's inconvient for me!" She says, still cheerfully. Grinning, she spins her sword and regrips her shield, ready to buckle down. Then it comes, Vergil REDOUBLES his speed, his attacks coming in much faster...

    "STONESKIN!" she calls out, her skin taking on a harder form, to try and defend against the strikes, but she trades some of her mobility...but at this stage, when your opponet is faster than you are, it's a trade she can afford to make. Initially, the strikes may find that even though he glanced her like before, they draw less blood than they did before...but at the same time, they were still blows.

    Her sheild gets in the way a few times, no less slow than it was before...but she can't be everywhere.

    However, the blue aura hits the shield.

    Magic stops, before absorbing into the runes, filling her with a blue magic for a minute.

    "MY TURN!" She sounts, swinging her blade at the same speed he was, aiming to redirect the magic back at him...litterally trying to hit Vergil with his own attack, by transfering the magic from her shield, into her sword in nearly the same breath.

    She, however, is breathing heavily, it's taking a considerable effort to just /not die/ and Vergil, can heal...though perhaps it takes him energy too? She doesn't know...and that knowledge might be the edge Vergil needs. However, she's still not stopped smiling.

    "Oh man, you have a brother? Is he as nice to a lady as you are?" she laughs a little... "Yeah...you might win this one, I'll admit that. Still...no reason to get all sad and angry about it." A beat, "So you have a name?"

Kay (780) has posed:
    It turns out that Levi is... a lot tougher than Kay. Not so tough that she can actually shrug off the barrage heading her way, but tough enough that it doesn't down her. The Familiar shrieks and staggers back, just outright tanking the shots and holding up arms before herself. No words, though... apparently she doesn't talk much? She's been driven back though. Stronger she may be, but the hissing demon is still marginally weaker than Adelyn's spells.

    Kay, meanwhile, curses as her grip uh... well, it stays solid but the ground she's grabbing does not. "Crap," she mutters as she slides right into the chasm, vanishing with a loud 'crunch' of snapping her leg. Well there goes any real chance of escape. Probably.

    The remaining flying demon - the other having fallen to the massed opponents by now - turns and wings toward the battle while Adelyn is fighting Levi. She'll sense Kay move again... this time in the form of a hurtling object flung upward! It's high speed flight! And... um. It's pretty obvious why Kay didn't want to use this before, because she very clearly has no way of controlling where she's going, and only flung herself in the /very vague/ direction of her flying demon in the hopes that she'll be caught. "CRAAAP!"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Sorry, I'm kind of attached to these!" Xiaomu retorts - and then does the last thing T-elos probably expects: charges STRAIGHT AT HER at a ludicrously swift dash.

It's not an exact straight line, of course; the sage fox is bold, not suicidal, and she leads with a wave of ice magic that - while it's not going to freeze anything solid - should help to confuse the paths of bullets due to sudden differences in air density. Mostly she's relying on erratic zig-zagging, though, instead of trusting that cold-shield to do much to protect her.

As for the rest of it, she's aiming to get right up in T-elos's grill, grapple her, and slam the battle gynoid into the ground with what most pro-wrestlers refer to as a powerbomb: grab T-elos by the thighs and smash her down back-first as hard as she can. And as slender as she looks, Xiaomu knows a lot about practically-applied leverage.

Berserker (860) has posed:
There's a good side to this happening. Berserker suddenly has a purring cat on her, and apparently it's enough to knock the Servant out of her growing anger and realize that Gudako really doesn't ACTUALLY want to steal her away from Kay, but that they're simply on opposite sides. Right, that thing. "Oh, is that all. Well you can slaughter goats all you want, I don't care." She really doesn't. "I was only here to talk to Caster. If you'll excuse me, I'd best be getting back to Lady Master before something terrible happens. If she dies because of you, I'll have to burn you all~"

She says it so cheerfully, too! And Caster gets a smile, "It was great seeing you! I'll keep your bell idea in mind, okay? Let me know how this one works out. If she ever mistreats you, you know who to call! We'll just cut off her command seals and give them to someone better!" Maybe she shouldn't say that in front of Gudako, either. Either way she's going to try to squirm out.

Ivraala (679) has posed:
    ...he's dead?

    Ivraala's confusion is clear in her stare as she kneels there, propping herself up on her giant axe and watching the body of Lezard. That can't really be it. Can it?

    ...no, it's not.

    The draenei watches as Lezard's ghost rises from his body. It's a strain, but she stands, if slightly hunched over, clutching her axe in both hands. Determination keeps her on her hooves, placing her in the way of Lezard and his allies, if only temporarily.

    Words have left her. Instead, she simply cries out, her roar echoing with defiance and fury as she pushes her remaining strength into charging toward Lezard. Axe raised, she rushes toward him as he readies his next assault. The coating of frosty mist around her axe blade coalesces, growing to a sheath of raw runic magic ready to burst with enough force to kill a lesser beast at the first strike. The weapon raises, then comes down-

    The result is hidden in the blinding light of that holy beam.

    The Exodar is a durable vessel. It had to be, to survive such an impact as well as it did. The hole Lezard's blast punches in it may not be gigantic, therefore, but the searing portal it makes in the center of blackened metal is certainly large enough for his purposes. The blast rocks the many draenei fighting for victory off their feet, many too close to the blast to remain conscious - or alive.

    And Ivraala lies crumpled in the grass, her body and armor searing from the devastation of holy power blasting through her undead form. All she can manage to move is the hand that jolts and reaches slightly, lacking enough strength behind it to proceed much further.

    The path to the seat of the naaru is a direct one. It seems the civilians have all been safely evacuated; the soldiers haven't been so fortunate.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "Killing goats doesn't sound like much fun. Maybe if I had an altar and a god to pray to, I could try getting favors out of them with that." She ponders. What are the odds there's an altar somewhere close? Ah, probably too low. Too bad.

    Caster nods cheerfully, and it won't be difficult for the pinned Berserker to gently siddle away from the sleeping one. HOW Gudako won a Grail War with that cat is highly questionable, really. Maybe the other Servants were just that bad. Or this pen pal of theirs really must be a good friend for the two Servants not to want to attack her.

    "I guess you've been held long enough. Say hello to your master for me! And if you ever burn her down, come to me~," Gudako says, reiterating her offer. She doesn't seem to mind the treachery talk all that much, truth told! She just can't be bothered by dumb stuff like that. Well... once the Berserker is gone, she does say something on the matter.

    "Caster~." 8D
    "M-Master?"
    "You're grounded, no treats or headpats for a week~." 8D
    "A-Awwrr... that's not fair, Berserker is asleep!"
    "She's a cat, what's your excuse?" 8D
    "I-- but-- awwrr..."

Ark Line (687) has posed:
Ark doesn't mind so much when Elizabeth asks (okay, tells) him to do something for her. She seems pretty reasonable to him. It's not like she's talking about eating people or anything. She's a little strange, sure, but there's just something so /innocent/ about her!

REGARDLESS.

Kyra has a counter-agent. Ark nods a little, apparently in approval.

Then, right about when she throws the dart, he hurls himself off the line. The dart hits the device with a bang, one that gets significantly louder a couple seconds later. It breaches whatever containment there was inside, and there's a blinding flash and a tremendous explosion where there was some kind of laser cutter a moment ago. This is almost immediately subsumed by Lezard's deployment of a straight-up /doom laser/, which turns his small hole into a much bigger one.

Ark hits the ground rolling. He hops back up to his feet in a fluid, practiced movement and steadies himself. He looks a little singed. "Sure thing, Miss Idol." The Liner raises his left hand, the free one, to wave as she takes off running. As soon as she's out of earshot, he exhales, turning back to Kyra. "/That/ was weird." He looks her up and down. "You don't look like an A-Ray. Why're you fighting for these things?"

He has that bone weapon fully in his hand, now. At a glance, it looks like a carved, blunted bone dagger with a squared end instead of a point. It isn't, but it's the closest approximation to those who aren't used to seeing obscure martial arts weaponry in their daily lives. Ark seems totally at ease, despite his position and the battle going on around them. There's no telling how fast he can draw one of those pistols he's carrying, though...

Adelyn Lysen (202) has posed:
    A few plans go through Adelyn's mind, quickly enough that they come through as interrelated concepts more so than words to be spoken. First: Knocking out the flying demon, preventing escape. Outcome suboptimal. 'Holy demon summoner' remains a curiosity worthy of study, fall likely to result in death. Second: Capture via Dark bindings. Outcome negative. Her most effective binding magic would be destroyed by a repeat of the Holy-shift that Kay effected earlier. Third: Capture via alternate means. Too many variables to presently consider; battle ongoing.

    Knowledge is power. Denying the opportunity to gain knowledge requires sufficient justification, and there isn't yet enough for her raised hand to fire what may be a kill-shot. Unfortunate, but a future encounter will give her time to devise failsafes, while the current situation is not conducive to further study. So long as Kay no longer threatens her, there are other priorities. It would likely be different had Berserker been there, but--Gudako was good for that, at least.

    Lezard dies, and unleashes his magic. Well, isn't that impressive. Adelyn had not actually been aware he had that sort of trick hidden away. Clever, and something for her to look into. In the meantime, the Exodar is hit--and breached. "Finally."

    The only one with a good chance to stop Adelyn as she lifts off and heads toward the crashed city-ship is, that she can see, Berserker. That would be awkward, since it would result in Adelyn reversing her decision not to kill Kay, today. She'd much rather just be given the chance to enter the Draenei's ship and direct her surviving minions (and those that managed to slip past the defenders) to loot anything potentially valuable. Books, scrolls, that sort of thing. She'll sort out what's actually worth reading later.

Vergil (878) has posed:
    As blade clashes against shield and sword, Vergil can tell that Tijara's speed has decreased - the reason why becoming apparent as, while his blows are able to impact her with higher frequency, he is not cutting her as deeply as before.

    However, he does narrow his eyes in surprise and interest at how the shield absorbed the power of his attack.

    So it really /was/ like a sponge left idle - dump water onto it and it would soak it up the energy far faster then if left passive.

    As the attack is redirected onto him, he blocks by taking Yamato's blade and scabbard together in a cross-block, grunting in pain as the edge still manages to deliver enough force to bite into his arm a bit and draw more blood - though it, like the prior wound, closes rather quickly - and in a familiar patter, he is sent skidding back across the ground.

    It's true that there /is/ an eventual limit to what his regeneration could cover - if he took too many fatal or serious blows, it would strain him and eventually give out as his body exhausted itself. Even then, his high-speed regeneration didn't erase the pain left by the wounds, which lingered at the spots where he suffered injuries. And of course, his regeneration did nothing if the attacks severed a limb outright - if he was decapitated, he was fairly certain even he would die.

    But, so long as he didn't take any severe blows - like having his organs slashed or getting impaled through the head - he could last a fairly long time. Repeatedly taking lethal blows though... that would be a problem.

    However... the fact that she's standing up against him like this at all is reason for him to give her a measure of respect as a worthy opponent.

    As such... he would show her what he normally reserved for those he considered worth his full measure of power.

     Before that, though... he does let himself release a dry chuckle at how Tijah regards his brother as a 'lady', the comment on him being one too glancing off him though. "Not quite. He's rather uncouth, actually."

    He does however raise one of his brows at her seeming to admit she believes he's won... not that he would disagree. Rather, most warriors do not tend to admit such so openly.

    He had ever more reason to consider her a worthy opponent, then... and to that, he answers her question with the response that pre-empts his final display-

     "Vergil. And you?"

     -as his body changes in tune to the invoking of the Devil Trigger, scales replacing the fabric of his coat and hard chitin plates forming where his black clothes had once been. The sheath of Yamato fuses to his left arm, becoming a scaly protrusion not unlike a scythe going from the limb itself. His eyes turn pure blue, teeth becoming sharpened like knives as his flesh turns hard and dark as coal. Claws form on his hands and feet and his hair is replaced by a bony crest resembling the helm of a samurai, coattails becoming wings that spot from the base of his spine. "I would know the name of the one I have faced in battle... and shall meet with my final strike."

    And after - or if - she gives the response... he charges her, vanishing with a speed equal to her lightning flash step-

    -and filling the air with the singing of a thousand swinging strokes from the silver blade, all directed at his opponent from every angle.

    "JUDGEMENT CUT."

     The ripping of the air soon follows as the strokes, faster then sound, leave their marks, the final sound being the chinking of the blade as it is returned to it's sheath, the human Vergil now standing in place of the demon on the other side of his dash forward.

    He looks more tired - but very much satisfied by the fight... and even looks somewhat respectful noting that his opponent actually managed a counter, the deep, pleading gash in his side healing slower then the previous ones from his demonic energy having been extent on his last attack.

    A fight that in and of itself made coming out here worth it.

Alexis has posed:
    Brushguard skids to a stop suddenly, both Gogoat and Trainer turning their gaze upward for a moment as pure power rips through it. "What the holy hell was that?!" That's not going to be good at all.

    Unfortunately before Alexis can turn him around and rush back another wave of the minion army descends upon the defenders. To the point that several blows almost topple the goat-mon over, if it wasn't for his mountain trekking sturdiness.

Alexis is still cussing up strings that are best left untyped even as Brushguard restablizes himself. Then reachs for the two remaining pokeballs she has. Naturally these hold her two strongest pokemon, the Typhlosion and Entei appearing alongside her current mount. Ditching the broken club afterwards, Alexis regrips Brushguard's horns with one hand and wipes some grit and grime off her face with the back of the other. They need to hold out now more than ever, less the Exodar get mobbed in the wake of that massive magic laser.

"Screw the Casual defense tactics." Scorch's entire form is already starting to glow as brightly as his flame collar, while on the other side Wildfire snarls through bared fangs at the encrouching hordes. Alexis does the Dramatic Command Giving Point(TM) a lot of monster trainers utilize from time to time towards the enemy masses.

"BURN THEM ALL DOWN!"

What do you get when you combo a badger named after fever and explosions, and a physical embodiment of volcanic fury?

A whole *EXPLICITIVE BLEEPED* lot of FIRE, that's what. Between Scorch's Inferno blasts and Wildfire causing potent Lava Plumes to erupt from the ground, there's lots and lots of fiery retribution to go around, focused on keeping those minion forces at bay.

Alexis, on the other hand, turns her 'mount' around. "Get the wounded and get to shelter!" she bellows at the remaining guards. At the mention of shelter Titan drops his length to the ground with a heavy thud, forming as much of a wall between the Exodar and the oncoming masses as possible; considering Steelix is one of the longest known pokemon that's plenty of blockage! But it's not going to hold out forever, hopefully it'll be long enough to give the remaining Draenei enough cover to get out of the devestation zone.

Alexis jumps off her Gogoat to help a wounded soldier to her feet and support her off the field. Which frees Brushguard to extend several vines from his bush-mane to pull a couple of wounded that can't walk onto his strong back for emergency evac. Even her Galvantula gets to helping, snagging a downed dranei with webbing and dragging them behind the Steelix's bodily cover.

T-elos (785) has posed:
T-elos has to admit that she did not expect Xiaomu to close to melee.

T-elos is surprisingly heavy for someone of her build. Xiaomu may actually have a little trouble lifting her up if she isn't expecting it, though there are heavier people around - T-elos isn't actually that /big/, since she's only about five foot five (plus heels, plus hair).

"What?!" T-elos is actually angry about being hefted up. She is slammed down on her back, which causes a heavy thumping sound - but that means her front is pointed directly at Xiaomu, and those energy emitters are all glowing again...

T-elos doesn't make the ball this time. It's just a sudden blast of light, a half dozen rays upward at Xiaomu. "You will get your hands off me /this instant/," T-elos snarls; she tries to wrench herself to her feet, and she is definitely above human strength.

She follows this up with a left hook. It's a hell of a punch, let's put it that way. Her face is twisted into a rictus of anger.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
The air seethes and warps with a shimmering effect in the aftermath of the beam. Lezard sighs, looking at the damage, and arches an eyebrow. The Draenei gifts for construction are also notable, it seems.

Also notable is that the Death Knight managed to survive. Lezard frowns for a moment, but does not say anything. He does, however, pointedly enter the hole he made by stepping over Ivraala's fallen body, because he is a vindictive jerkface.

While the physical shell of Lezard Valeth begins to rapidly decompose on the battlefield, the true spirit of the Necromancer strides down into the hole, towards the chamber where the Naaru waits, since it seems unwilling to do much else. As his Servant joins him, he glances over to her and smiles. "I will be fine. I am, perhaps, more like a Servant than most expect I suppose, but you need not fear. I will never die so easily. Come with me if you like, we have an unusual entity to pack for transportation... Not by you of course."

Once they reach the chamber, the Naaru will probably not have much time to object before Lezard calls up a teleportation circle in the middle of Exodar, manifesting a massive golem forged of amber=colored crystal, which will proceed to subsume the manifestation of the entity unless stopped in some fashion.

And Lezard is more than willing to make his displeasure towards anyone else who interrupts well known.

Tijah El-Borak (818) has posed:
    Tijah just continues to grin...

    "Tijah El-Borak." She says, as a measure of respect to Vergil. It was something you did, if one asked your name, and they were either fun or honorable you gave it...seemed to be a Multiversal standard! However...then it came.

    The transformation was a bit shocking, but she held her ground...infact, that...was...hm! She reserves the idea for later, something to work on...maybe.

    Assuming she can survive. Right now, that's the first thing on her mind, because now, the attacks come from /everywhere/. This time, there is no magic to absorb, but...

    "HASTE!" she casts, with a help from a split second casting. However, as time might slow slightly for her perception, the attacks were still /in every direction...she still had only seconds to respond.

    She moves, holding her shield up, and trying to parry with the other blade. However, even that wasn't enough. Several still break through, full of power, and if not for the stone skin, she would be dead where she stood. Still, the strikes were potient, cutting through the magic protection, and her own armor causing a massive gashes across her body. She staggers, the blows rocking her ontop of everything else...she is breathing heavily, blood running down her arms and chest, she turns, however...

    "I never thought I'd have to USE this..." She grins again, even in the face of defeat...in the face of possible death, well... she sucks in a choking breath, and holds the sword up...holding the blade shakily in both hands...she gives up any defense for this...

    A strange power seems to glow from the sword... "SHOCK!" She screams putting EVERYTHING she had left into it. What happens, is a burst of pure magic rips through the air, aiming to try and rip through the wounds she managed to inflict, aiming to not just try and open them, but cause them to SURGE with the same power she channeled...

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu is a quick study, and has already pieced together that glowing emitters = get the hell out from in front of them.

So she doesn't try to roll T-elos up for the pin, but settles for the powerbomb followed by scrambling clear. Which leaves her pretty open when T-elos regains her footing and decks the sage fox.

That doesn't QUITE put Xiaomu down for the count, but it means she's pretty vulnerable. She's down to 'get out fast' mode, pretty much, and she has a distinct suspicion that if she gives T-elos a clear shot, the gynoid will take it and make good on her threat to collect Xiaomu's tails for a trophy.

Answer: don't give her a clear shot. The trick is how to do that ... and the sage fox still has some tricks up her minimally-existent sleeves.

The foxgirl clutches her staff with her left hand, raising her right to point her fingers at T-elos. "Dakki no Kata - !" she gasps - but it's enough; her raised hand starts glowing and she starts trying to pull 'wisps' of energy from T-elos's body. Sure, T-elos isn't human, isn't even organic for that matter; energy is energy, though, and Xiaomu is trying to disorient the gynoid while simultaneously attempting to recoup enough energy to speed herself on her way to safety. If it leaves T-elos too weakened (in combination with the rest of the fight, anyway) to join in plundering the Exodar, all the better.

As for Xiaomu? She's high-speed-Xiaomu-ing outta there while she has the chance.

Berserker (860) has posed:
Berserker could possibly move to stop Adelyn from going farther. That isn't her priority though. At the end of the day, her loyalty lies with her Master... and that Master is in danger of falling. She'll sweep in with a great leap, grabbing hold of Kay in midair and landing lightly with her.

"I'm very sorry, Lady Master," she murmurs. "I shouldn't have left your side. I'll make it up to you by destroying that woman next time I see her."

Ivraala (679) has posed:
    The voice of O'ros rings musically in Lezard's mind, more felt than heard, once he arrives at the naaru's chamber.

    "The Light has not been blotted out by those greater than you, warlock, and it shall still shine yet."

    The naaru seems unable to give much further objection before it's taken into that golem.

    The wounded are carried away; civilians will emerge once the danger has passed. The Exodar may not quite be devastated, but it will take time to rebuild and recover from this assault. Time and effort that the draenei are, unfortunately, all too accustomed to.

T-elos (785) has posed:
Actually, there's a bit of a surprise for Xiaomu: T-elos /is/ organic, or at least partially so. She's more like a cyborg than a full android. A lot of the organic material is artificially reconstructed or mechanically reinforced... Mysterious. But there's enough nanomachines and other parts in there to keep it running, anyway.

The combination of mechanical energy draining and impact against her organic portions is enough to slow T-elos momentarily. It doesn't last for long, but it doesn't have to; Xiaomu is fast, though she is sped on her way by an angry, somewhat disoriented T-elos firing her pistol again. Getting out of range is a good plan.

"You had better run!" T-elos yells after her.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "/Mixedblood?/" Kyra sounds extremely confused by this particular label. Mentally, she makes a note for a better explanation later, even now she's only half-listening to Liz ranting, spending more time watching Ark as he works. "Uh huh. Yeah." She's only half picking up words, though she did seem to admit that, yes, she has a boyfriend.

    It even takes her a few moments to realize that Elizabeth has taken off after Lezard to check on him. Sure, she sees him leaving in light of his big flashy spell, but dosn't realize that she's no longer being ranted at by 'nobility', having been so focused on Ark and the hole she half-believes she put in the ship. "Because I oppose Lezard." she says simply, shifting so she aims her rifle directly at Ark. It looks like it's still loaded, persumably with more of those explosive darts. "He's a little rivaly. Just a little."

    She doesn't want to discover how fast Ark can draw those pistols but she'll ifnd out anyway as she fires a dart at him.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
As the Naaru is captured in the massive Crystal Collector, the construct shines with an internal Light, gleaming gold from the entity caught within. Lezard simply adjusts his spectral glasses (Yes, he has them even as a spirit form), and smiles. "Come, Elizabeth. We have everything we need here. I will need to decant a new homuculus body." He scowls. "It appears I have much yet to research. Flesh bodies are wonderful protection, but they have so many /weaknesses/. One day... I will discover how to transcend those weaknesses, and we will supplant the gods themselves." As he stretches his hands outwards, a teleportation circle opens, the Necromancer and his Servant (if she wishes) vanishing along with the new captive cage for the Naaru.

The Undead Lezard has brought begin to vanish as well, the disposable entities falling into purple-lined abyssal holes as they are drawn back to the torments of Niflheim.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
"I suppose that's pretty reasonable," Ark responds, sounding like it's only maybe /half/ as good a reason as he'd've liked. "I don't really have any reason to kill you --"

Kyra fires, and finds out precisely how fast Ark can draw his gun: too fast.

She can see him move his arms in a circular motion the moment she pulls the trigger. His right hand passes in front of him first, and there's a sound of something small being struck as he swats the dart out of the air with the bone 'knife.' It hits the ground behind him off to his right. He completes the circle with his left, leaving it level with the rifle --

And there's the gun. The pistol in his left hand is a compact weapon, sleek-looking and futuristic. Kyra doesn't get much of a chance to look at it. Ark fires twice at her midsection, the mass driver flinging metal slugs into the air with an electric flash and a flicker of the same amber light that caught hold of the adhesive earlier. This time, Ark's using it to alter their trajectory, curving shots towards her to ensure a hit -- if she doesn't have a trick to move very, very fast, anyway. The bone thing in his right hand is glowing the same color.

"-- so I'll just get out of here," he finishes, as if he wasn't interrupted.

Ark starts moving around Kyra, back away from the Exodar. He's keeping his gun trained on her. He's also leaving the backpack with the rest of the cubes attached where it fell. Apparently, it isn't important enough to risk going back for it, and it's terribly easy to find Ark if he gets out of sight. Just follow the narrow trail of dead foliage and patches of steel-grey sand.

Vergil (878) has posed:
    It takes him aback, admittedly. Hardly anyone besides Dante had ever stood up to his strongest attacks and yet was still able to fight back. Hardly anyone had deflected as many of Judgement Cut's maelstrom of slashes and strokes before.

     Thus, her final attack actually does catch him by surprise - "So you can still-!"

    He meets the attack with his own, once again pulling Yamato free to swing in a counterattack, attempting to cut through the offending power to her... but it's not the force of the attack itself that is the issue, even as demonic energy surges through Yamato's blade to try and slice through the oncoming wave and it's wielder with his own power in a last response to her final strike.

    Rather, it's what happens when his still-sealing gash suddenly splits open again as if someone took forceps to it and not only forced the wound open again but jam a power cable into it. This happens again with even the slight grazes that are still healing, three more wounds opening across his body - one on his right thigh, another on his left forearm and a final one against his cheek, all becoming deep slashes that bleed profusely.

    The result is that, while Vergil believes his attack cut through much of the wave itself, his insides are half-pummeled by what vestiges of it weren't dispersed, culminating in him almost buckling and hacking up blood as he is left in the final stance of his swing against the attack. Crimson fluid leaks out of the wound in his side - healing even slower then before as his body prioritizes repairing his organs over his flesh - and he breaths through deep breaths that he seems to be focusing on as a way to take the edge off the pain. His shoulders are slumped a bit and trickles of red have stained his lips and chin.

     ...

    But ultimately... he's still standing. He's battered and will need rest after this is said and done... but he hasn't fallen.

     And... after a long minute of contemplating what had just happened... he lets out a breathless chuckle, bordering on half a laugh, as he straightens up through noticeable pain, his pride demanding he do nothing less against someone who actually managed to deliver another blow after facing his Judgement Cut. The wound in his side is healing over slowly but surely, the majority of the bleeding already having stopped.

     "That... was unexpected. If I'd taken that full-force... I might be on the ground myself right now."

    It's as much of an admission as he would ever give - the most steadfast acknowledgement that he'd met someone who had the capacity to equal his attacks blow for blow. In fact, the only thing that might have ensured it didn't simply break even was the fact that his demonic heritage blessed him with such potent regenerative power... and even then, he was still feeling her final attacks.

    After a few moments, he swings his blade to the side to flick off the blood on it's surface before sliding Yamato back into it's scabbard, looking at his opponent with something that appears to be acknowledgement. "Very few people earn my respect. Fewer that do manage to survive an honest fight with me." He lets out short cough, expelling the last vestiges of blood from his lungs as his organs start to finish healing. "Perhaps we will cross blades again one day. If so... I'll be looking forward to it, Tijah El-Borak. Though be prepared for it to be a fight to the death when that happens."

     With that, Vergil gives something of a respectful nod mixed with a smirk and turns to rejoin Lezard's forces, his straight posture and even pace masking the lingering pain racking his body from the damage to his body, inside and out, his opponent inflicted on him.

    He would sooner die himself then show weakness like that. Especially to an opponent who did him the courtesy of giving him perhaps the most substantial battle anyone in the Multiverse had given him thus far.

    Hopefully... Tijah El-Borak would be the first of many to do so.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    MEANWHILE, IN DARNASSUS.

    "Master, I don't think we should have stepped into that mage's portal when he said he couldn't take us to the Citadel and you said 'oh, darn then'." Caster says, as she glances at her surroundings.
    "Nya, nya, it's fiiine!" Berserker says, as she chases an owl.
    "You should listen to Berserker more, Caster. Come on, let's find a map!" Gudako answers, leading the way away.

Tijah El-Borak (818) has posed:
    She laughs a little...oh she realized she had lost, but it still was fun trying to win...or at least fight against overwhelming odds. She feels her breath grow shallower, she's going to need a white mage after this, but she keeps herself on her feet as Vergil reguards her. "You weren't bad...yourself. I guess, we'll still call this your win." she says, with a grin. Nah, no need to get prideful, it was obvious he could have probably done the job, or gotten close...but well Kira is around.

    However, he's respectful, and that's something she can grock. Some people are like that, and well...it's not her job to tell someone how to live. Plenty of people are live by the sword types, and well...she can respect it.

    "Oh yeah...expect our next fight to go a lot differently." She says, with that same determined grin. "Be seein' ya," she says, as if reguarding a friend as he leaves, and she turns a corner slowly, to collapse against it.

    She was glad she managed that, because right now she barely had any strength left to stand...yeah, she's gona need that doc.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "That's good to hear." Kyra points out. "I like it when people aren't out to kill me." Despitethat, she fires anyway. He reads like an Elite and she has yet to meet one that could be taken out in one explosive dart. Maybe he'd do that strange 'Correct Future' thing again. Or he could just shoot her in the stomach. She's not an official Gunner so there are no sneaky tricks in her book that let her deal with bullets.

    She grits her teeth and wobbles. Fortunately, there wasn't anything under the hoodie today that would explode when struck so the bullets hit meet. He can see her mouth is moving as one hand drops away from her weapon to push against her now bleeding abdomen. White light follows and the slowly-spreading bloodstain stops. "Alrighty." she seems completely okay with him retreating and doesn't even pursue. Kyra stagger steps sideways as she continues to feel the shock of being shot, even if the damaage was no longer happening, before steadying herself.

    Very promptly, she grabs the backpack and poncho before making her own reteat.