7156/JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Gaiden Ch.4

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Gaiden Ch.4
Date of Scene:	06 April 2020
Location:	Egypt
Synopsis:	Jonathan Joestar and his compatriots arrive in the Fishing Village, only to find the peaceful abode has been turned into a feeding ground for various undead monsters.
Cast of Characters:	Jonathan Joestar, Arcadia, Rean Schwarzer, Crys Gattz, Haguro, 7234

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Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Last time, the ruins of Carcho were explored and complicated brain busters were solved; however, the forlorn Axl RO waylaid the group's efforts to reclaim the arrows before DIO, leading to the current situation wherein all capable had taken off towards the Fishing Village they'd originally arrived at. Most of them had, anyway.

While Speedwagon's propeller plane could have taken himself and another person or two there in advance, it was decidedly too dangerous to forge on alone considering the nature of their opponents to date. And besides that, Jonathan had every intention of cutting their foes off at the finish line by beating them to their destination on the Steam Boat he'd brought everyone to Egypt aboard.

Jonathan was truthfully happy to have something to occupy his mind. It kept him focused on something other than that tiny, niggling 'voice' at the back of his head that had appeared ever since he had accepted Zero's assistance in escaping Civil War's effect. It wasn't so tangible so much as it was a kind of instinct. Of course, he'd already surmised the unfortunate truth about what it was.

But dwelling on it now wouldn't help him or the others, so he focused his mind and his spirit towards the goal. By the time they arrive back at the Fishing Village, night had already fallen upon them; yet there was no comfort to be found here. Rather, it was eery ... not a single light to be had nor a sound to be heard. It was as if it had become as uninhabited as that ruin. "This isn't right ... " he murmurs.

"It's only been a week, more or less. Where are all the villagers? It couldn't have taken us so long to arrive that it's past midnight. The sun only disappeared an hour or two ago..."

Arcadia has posed:
Forging ahead alone being a bad idea because of the foes they'd been dealing with was also the reason Arcadia had not just flown back to the villiage at hypersonic speed. Even she knew one of these foes would be bad news to tangle with on her own. She was a daredevil, not stupid.

Instead she lands at the edge of the town along with everyone else arriving. Much like Joestar her hackles are immeadiately on edge. "Wouldn't matter if it was," she mutters under her breath. "There is always someone up doing something. No town, big or small, is ever -completely- still."

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
With great haste, the group heads to the fishing village once more, to chase after Axl RO's partner before he could deliver the Arrows to his master. Unfortunately, once they arrive, things are decidently off.

"...Think it's another enemy Stand?" Rean asks, resting one hand on his sword's hilt. At this point, anything could happen with that, including plunging an entire village into darkness. "Besides, wasn't there something about Axl RO's partner hiding within shadows?"

Crys Gattz has posed:
The ruins had been quite a ride the last time, the idea of going alone was not a good idea to her either. She'd been in the multiverse a very long time. She had long learned splitting up the party or going solo was a good way to die or even lose an eye. SO they'd made back to the fishing village and something wasn't right Crys already got a photon sabre in hand and a pistol out as she's looking around.

"Stand or something else I bet. The people either fled, are hiding or something ... disposed of all the remains somehow."

Haguro has posed:
After the last few fights in this region, Haguro's looking about as anxious as usual. Rather, she's looking anxious and on alert, not seeming all that reassured even after calling in for a drop off of her gear. She's still dressed like a tourist on a safari, albeit one with armor plates and weird guns sticking off of her, but...

That might just make it worse, all htings considered. Instead of just looking around with her eyes, she also has to make sure her firing angles are all open! It certainly doesn't help that the village is devoid of people, and the cruiser is already advancing hastily to scope nearby buildings out. "Watch your step, everyone. If anyone's around, there'd be somebody peeking out to see why there's so many of us by now."

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Damocles has stuck with the group this long, and maintains his position as wizard for the assemble aboard Jojo's boat.  He could have teleported on ahead, but that would require leaving his new taco truck, and that was a sacrifice he wasn't willing to make.

Also ambush, alone against the enemy, blah blah.  Yeah but, the taco truck, man.

The darkness was unexpected, but not completely surprising, in retrospect.  "Couldn't tell you where the people are," Damocles remarks idly to the speculation, "But we know our little thieving ninja can use shadows to pop around.  And every other time we've encountered these jerks it's been in teams of 2 or 3.  Wouldn't be surprised at all if he had one guy who created darkness paired with the other guy who used darkness to fight with."

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Tingles ran down Jonathan's neck -- the kind he only got when he was faced with the worst kind of scum on offer. With fists clenched, Jonathan pulled his hat off of his head and discarded it. "This feeling ... it's just like back then."

The clay buildings seem desolate, and dark. "I don't think this is an enemy Stand attack, but rather ..."

Haguro carefully watching the various clay buildings for any sign of movement pays off, as she's alert enough to not be caught entirely off-guard as a large silhouette shambles around one of the open windows. "Hn...nn...."

He seems familiar ... certainly, he has to be one of the burly villagers who work hard all day long to provide. "Warm..it's warm! I need it!"

The words are slurred and incoherent as the 'man' screeches and leaps from his window at her, propelled like a rocket from nothing but the force of his legs. Rather than a living person, he looked like a walking corpse with a deformed face. It was as if someone had plunged their fingers into his jaw to get at his jugular. The whites of his eyes had turned a bloodshot yellow with wriggling crimson irises. Reeking of death and rot, this mad creature ... was surely a Zombie!

An untenable atmosphere of evil fell over the ominous village; rather, this was no longer a 'Fishing Village' but ... a feeding ground for undead!

More of the creatures leave their abodes to feed. Rean finds himself beset by a woman garbed only in a bloodied shaw, her hair caked with dried blood and dirt. She was missing an eye. "Gwaaaah!"

Using her superhuman speed and monstrous strength, she made a grab at his sword-arm in an attempt to sink her teeth into him.

Crys likewise is beset by a large zombie that stood over eight feet tall, had a large and torn up pot-belly, buldging biceps and a thick beard that trailed down to his chest. "Nnngh...."

Snarling, it attemps to batter her with its fists, as if it were a battering ram.

Damocles is attacked with a tall and fit looking zombie wielding a scimitar. He had five holes in his chest, right over his heart. "Huoooh!"

It charges him with a flurry of stabs and slashes in an attempt to wildly overpower him before he can cast a spell. It wasn't intelligence, but rather, raw bloodlust that drove such an action.

Jonathan's gaze hardens as he breathes in. "Kooooh!"
"Overdrive!" he calls, ducking under the creature's sudden lunge to plunge his fist into its midsection, delivering a powerful Hamon shock that causes its body to immediately begin melting into a glowing red slurry, its body being obliterated from the inside out the moment his ripple entered its bloodstream. It was she before hitting the ground. Above, a shadowed figure garbed in a scarf and black cloak claps. "So you haven't been slacking, JoJo. Good. Killing you now would be meaningless if you weren't in tip top shape."

"That voice...you can't be! Why ... why are you attacking us...?!"

    "Answer me, Straizo!!"

Haguro has posed:
<<"There's a person here... Is he cold?">> Haguro relays to her allies at first, peering at the burly villager as he starts to appear in the window. "What do you need?"

Flesh or blood, apparently, as he catches the Cruiser off guard flinging himself out the window right at her! His sudden launching and inhuman power actually gets Haguro off her feet and holding him back with only her boots and hands holding him up by his gut and mangled face, respectively.

<<"... They've been turned into monsters. Don't be fooled by their appearances and wipe them out!">> That'll make things easier, right? They're already dead, and dehumanizing the zombies should make it easier for herself and the rest of the group. Sure, she's in a pretty bad spot right now, but keeping that mangled jaw at bay and keeping one forearm between herself and the villager puts Haguro in a prime position to take care of the problem quickly and efficiently.

The solution: Turrets. The mechanical guns on her shoulder and wrist make a brief noise as she switches from explosive ordinance to solid slugs, firing at the zombie point blank to try and blow him away! <<"Straizo? Is he someone you know, Mister Joestar?!">>

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz gets a chill down her spine her ears twitch a bit as she doesn't like this before she can act for anything that's going on with Haguro? She's under assault and she'll fire her pistol for the center of mass following it with a raised hand and her calling out.

"FOIE"

Sending a burst of fire at the charging man as she tries to wheel out of the way, the Newman seems to be in her element here. She'll fade away firing more shots, there's no banter, no words other than the verbal components needed to use her powers for the moment.

She's thinking though if the village has been turned it could be spreading the area will need to be searched and purged after. She keeps moving for the moment now focusing on the main effect.

Damocles (7234) has posed:
LONG AGO:

"Shoot the zombie in the head!"

"It doesn't have a head.  Look, it says here, 'Headless Zombie.'"

"Well that's dumb.  Everybody knows you shoot zombies in the head to kill them."

"No, -that's- dumb.  A zombie is just the machinery of the human body being animated by magic.  The brain isn't in control, the magic is.  If you want to stop it, you break it like a machine."


NOW:

A zombie lunges at Damocles, swinging a sword around.  Damocles brings his staff to block, the two weapons sparking slightly as they clash.  Zombies!  That one does manage to surprise him!  Zombies who can use weapons and employ tactics.  Damocles is superhumanly fast and strong, but so, it seems, is the undead trying to kill him.

A few things race quickly through his mind.  These things seem to be using some tactics, but they're definitely undead, so it's like that someone else is controlling them.  Didn't Joestar say that Dio was 'a vampire'?  He meant to ask what that meant int his context, but never got around to it. 

The second, more pressing issue, is not getting stabbed.  The zombie succeeds in pressuring Damocles too much to allow him to easily get a spell off.  Largely because he isn't sure what element would work best here, and doesn't want to experiment and end up with a flaming exploding zombie trying to tackle him instead.  However, Damocles does have one advantage the zombie didn't count on:  His staff is more than just for magic.

The Eye of Tzeentch is a Force Staff, and that has a lot of uses.

Damocles isn't particularly trained in melee combat, but he is an Astartes, and has brilliantly good speed and strength, which he uses to parry two sword swings, dodge a third, and then bring his staff around in a counter-blow.  He aims at the zombie's hip.  Hitting it in the torso probably wouldn't kill it, since someone already tried that, and he doesn't know if knocking out its brain would do any good, he has no idea if it needs its nervous system so a strike to the spine is dubious:  However you can always count on breaking the core of a machine.  In this case, shattering the pelvis to completely remove the zombie's legs.  Best case, it'll kill it entirely, but even if it doesn't, it'll force the zombie to crawl around, dragging its legs uselessly, making it much less of a threat.

The Force Staff glows a light purple as the energy field built into it charges instantly when he swings the blade.  Charged like this, the Force Staff is a formidable weapon, able to cut through even advanced military-grade armor like wet paper.

Arcadia has posed:
Or the villiage has been turned into zombies. That's the other reason that it would be completely dead. Figuratively and literally.

"Finally!" Arcadia almost sounds excited despite the gloomy atmosphere. "A SANE fight." Zombies? Sane? At least compared to what they have been dealing with. Go ahead. Argue that point if you really want. She's sticking to it.

Most of the people here can handle themselves against a bunch of undead. Some of them even qualifying as being close to such themselves, right? So instead Arcadia defaults to her usual tactic of honing in on the biggest target possible, would be the towering butterball accousting Crys.

As the Newman is taking evasive measures and counter-firing, the sphinx leaps into action. By using her speed and agility to leap in and give Cry some cover. By leaping on the shambling hulk's back. Because cat. Cats pounce things.

And zoomcats pounce things at tremendous speed, so that is a lot of momentum abruptly (hopefully) slamming claws first into the hulk's rotting form.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
As it turned out, there were people still here...for a certain definition of 'people.' As it turned out, the entire village had become undead, like creatures from a book he'd read once. Ghouls or something like that. Unfortunately, this meant there was no saving them.

A woman in bloodied shawl reaches out to his sword arm, and he swings a kick at her chest to get some distance between them, and then swings his sword again, trying to behead her quickly.

"Damn it..." Rean mutters. How low were these guys going to sink...?

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Standing with his back to the moon, Straizo smirks. "I already told you. I'm here to kill you, JoJo. If you'd like, just consider this my revenge."

"Revenge? I don't understand!" Jonathan yells back, his whole body tensing like an overly wound coil.

Damocles' staff smashes into the Zombie with a powerful whack, but shockingly, it doesn't shatter its pelvis. The sound of a loud crack indicates that the bone was damaged, but not broken, as the creature stumbles. Its transformation into an undead lifeform seems to have strengthened it in every conceivable way, as far as its physicality is concerned. Baring inhuman, razor sharp teeth, it seemingly takes but a moment for its limp to disappear as it charges forward with a roar, striking out with its sword again... while two thin, sharp tentacles burst from its back!

No, rather, they're the Zombie's own veins, altered and weaponized to try and slice open Damocles throat while the other shoots to impale him through the eye.

Haguro blows her attacker away, sending him stumbling back. "Uuuuuhhhh...." he moans. Just as hardy as his compatriot, he seems to have only suffered flesh wounds that expose his rotting insides, showing Haguro that the human he'd been, had died approximately the day after they left the Village.

The handgun seems ineffective against the large beast as it charges. Even the scorching flame hardly hinders it as it covers its face with its arms. The stink of rot and burnt flesh fills the air as Arcadia waylays it, forcing it to stumble backwards, nearly toppling over. "Ungh.."

Claws sink partially into thick, leathery skin. Aside from becoming highly shock absorbant, the zombification process also looks to have improved the tensile strength of their skin to an insane degree, especially for larger specimens like this one. Opening its maw wide, a long and whip like tongue cracks in an attempt to slice Arcadia's head in half before it throws another wild haymaker at Crys.

Rean's sword stops an inch or two into her neck as she snarls and growls, pushing herself forward with abandon. Blood smears down the blade as she attempts to claw at Rean's chest, her nails extending into razor sharp talons.

"That's right! JoJo! For you, it can't have been long ... but from my perspective, it's been about fifty years. You died before I could ever prove myself in my prime. And now, lo and behold, as I reclaim my youth, an opportunity to face you has arrived. After I kill you, I'll have nothing left to prove to myself!"

Jonathan struggled to keep up, but what he'd said established several things for him. First of all, this was not the Straizo of his world, or Josuke's. He came from..somewhere in-between, Jonathan surmised. "Straizo..even from down here, I can tell, you're not even breathing. I can see the horrible glint in your red eyes .. Straizo, you'd even reject your humanity!? The man I knew would never stoop to such things!"

Coiling his legs, Straizo leapt from the building. "Enough. Understand this, JoJo! Even though we had been comrades previously ... I, Straizo, will show no mercy!"

Haguro has posed:
With the man's insides exposed and his lack of reaction to the pain he should be in, Haguro's suspicions are all but confirmed. "These aren't people any more... They're no more than puppets, tools that this Straizo created! Even a direct hit from one of my cannons barely slowed it down!"

Getting back up to her feet, haguro cracks her knuckles lightly before settling into a more defensive stance now that she's back on her feet. "... Good." She mutters to herself as she switches her shoulder turrets to explosives, but she doesn't fire them right away as she instead advances on the zombie.

"Mister Joestar. If you want to survive a fight against a menace like this, you... You don't have to throw away your memories of him, but you can't let them stop you. Do you understand?" She calls out to Jonathan without so much as looking at him, her gaze focused entirely on the zombie before her. The back of her boots glow blue as she speeds forward suddenly without so much as lifting a foot, simply ducking once in mid-dash before springing forward at the last moment, arms thrust forward to catch the zombie's arm. She's aiming to tear it right off the zombie with a combination of brute force and speed!

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz sees the Ruby Bullet is not up to the task at the moment and Crys is going to dance back some more swapping weapons. Given pistols is about as far as she goes? She's going to try something else. The large claw she's prone to using phases on about her arm.

It comes online with a hiss. This however, comes for Crys. She's forced to try and parry with her photon barrier the intercept is partially successful but it can't dissipate all that kinetic energy in one go like that.

She's forced back the force o the impact has tattle here and then there's a look on her face, she sizes it up.

"..."

Arcadia aid is noted and she's going to start counting on it.

She will now turn about the claw will open wide as she leaps into the air flipping once and attempts to come down with her claw getting a grip on the body of the thing if she od she will have the claw close as fast as it can with all three blades trying to crush and tear into the undead horror.

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Frekkin Chaosspawn motherfucker!  Damocles is a little disappointed at the lack of damage his staff did, but it did give him some breathing room, at least he thought.  He fends off a few more sword blows, but is caught off guard by the sudden tentacles. 

With his staff tied up defending the sword, he doesn't have a lot of defensive options.  The strike that goes at his neck lands, smashing against Armorum Impetor and Warp Barrier magic, creating a small shower of magical sparks.  The other tentacle, the one armed for his eye, gets intercepted by a quick grab of his hand, making use of his enhanced reflexes to grab the lethal jab a few inches before his skull is punctured.

His eyes narrow slightly.  The meter in his brain switches from 'real' to 'VERY real'. 

"Alright limpy.  You want to get intimate?  Let's dance."

Damocles takes a half step to the side, shuffling to the zombie's left.  As he does, he twists his staff around, shoving with his strength to try and push the zombie's sword aside as his staff spins around.  His goal is to hook his staff around the zombie, and unexpectedly pull the zombie against him, squeezing the zombie against his armor with one arm, while his other arm plants underneath its chin to keep its gnashing teeth away from him.

Once he manages to get close to the zombie, he invokes Chaos magic.  Luckily for him, Chaos magic doesn't require arcane gestures, just a body that can take the raw energy of the Warp, and a mind that can shape it. 

Which Damocles does, channeling Warp energy into himself, and expelling it as a massive pillar of violet Weirdyre; Raw, entropic Warp energy that explodes outward from Damocles like a fireball.

Arcadia has posed:
Okay, that wasn't as effective as she had hoped. Arcadia has very sharp claws, but they're not very big. So they can't cut deep enough to get through the rubbery reinforced carcass to do more severe damage. About all she does it get it to briefly stop chasing Crys.

A cat-like shriek emits from the sphinx at the whipping tongue and she leaps off the monsters back to avoid being incapacitated via decapitation by it. Her claws are much better used as brakes, skidding to a stop when she lands on the ground again. "Not only is that disgusting, it's also rude! I'm part cat, I don't need help licking myself!" Not that she does! It's just the only witty banter she can come up with on short notice.

"I wasn't going to be cliche. But you haven't left me much of a choice." The crystal foci in her forearms shimmer to a different color in glow. It almost looks like her hands are retracting though in actuality it's the magitek extending outward over them to form a cluster of glowing muzzles. Like some kind of magic powered minigun. "PYRO GATLING!" And fires just as much the same, hundreds of high speed shots in a few seconds.

The one difference is that Arcadia is channeling her Fire element through the magitek, so those hundreds of shots are like dozens of small fireballs, launched fast enough that they'll hopefully have better luck penetrating and/or burning through that thick hide.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
The zombie woman's still coming at him despite having about an inch of her neck gone. These undead were very durable, it seemed. Rean jumps back, trying to avoid those talons, which catch a bit of his shirt, but otherwise don't cut into his skin. He hears Jonathan warning them to not let their guard down, but he might just be trying to remind himself of that as well, given how the person responsible was a former ally of his.

"Jonathan...." Rean murmurs, then nods. "Got it." Rean ignites his sword, and slashes at the undead woman's arms, trying to declaw her - literally. Hopefully the fire would cauterize them too, so that she wouldn't just grow those arms back or something.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
With some wrenching, Haguro manages to take the creature's arm off! As it'd already been weakened by her counter-attack, she was able to remove it before the monster had a chance to recover. The zombie howls as it staggers away from her, but her triumph is short lived, as several of its veins shoot out of the stomp to try and stab into her lower body and begin draining her blood with a powerful suction.

The mangled, tortured face of the Zombie twists into a giddy and sadistic grin. "Eh he he he he he .... "

Meanwhile, Crys' claw closes own around the giant zombie's meaty arm as it tries to swat her out of the air, fracturing the bone with its iron-clad clamp. This puts her in the perfect position for it to try and stab her through her chest with its powerful and abnormally long tongue.

The giant howls moments later as Arcadia's barrage begins burning through its skin at a high pace, leaving it as nothing more than a skeleton with rotting, burned flesh hanging off of it. How it could still keep everything inside and move around is a mystery, but it seemed like it'd be more susceptible to damage, now.

Damocles outwits the zombie's sword maneuvers and pins it to himself. Flailing and scrambling to get at him, its veins are shot through its back to try and stab into him anyway they could, hoping to drain him dry. Regardless of the success in its death throes, the sword wielding zombie's upper body is obliterate by the directed energy attack, leaving it only a pair of legs that stumble forward, struggling to cling to its unlife before falling over.

Rean's flaming slash manages to burn through flesh and cut through durable muscle and bone. Screeching, the woman reels back and raises her stumps, her veins shooting through them to bend around Rean's guard and impale him as she charges forward, intent on taking a bite out of his jugular.

Jonathan grimaces, but he understands where Haguro is coming from. Truthfully, he needed the pep talk. "Straizo...! Kooooh!"

Filling his body up with his ripple, Jonathan moves to intercept the vampire as he falls with a telescopic attack! "Zoom Punch!"

"Foolishness!" Straizo roars, extending a gloved hand to deflect the blow. "All of my clothing has been woven with the hide of a particular insect .. it's highly conductant for Hamon, and as such, it's insulated me from it! Die!"

Stuck at mid-range as Straizo's eyes begin to shine ominously, it's only instinct that saves him. To block or attack .. at this range, ordinarily he would have defended, but with Axl RO's service pistol in his possession, Jonathan quickly whips it out and fires, nailing the vampire in the forehead. The gunshot forces his head backwards as two streams of spinning cerebral fluid shoot from his eyes, superheated by friction and glowing hot. "SPACE RIPPER STINGY EYES -- hm?!"

Jonathan cries out in pain, two deep cuts tearing open his shoulders as the 'laser eye' attack carves off a chunk of the roof of the only wooden building in the village, and cuts apart the clouds of the night sky. Blood gushing, Jonathan stumbles back, dropping the gun to the ground. "W..what?!"

Straizo's head returns to the correct position as he pulls the bullet stuck against his hardened skull out, flicking it back towards Jonathan with his fingers. "Hmph. I have no intention of explaining anything to you, JoJo."

Arcadia has posed:
It shouldn't still be moving, but it is, because zombies don't give a shit about biological limits to locomotion. So it's a walking hulk of bone and guts now.

This is still not the weirdest shit Arcadia has had to deal with lately, but it is getting up there.

The flesh burning away does have her 'SHOOT THE CORE' senses screaming at her now so lets capitalize on that.

The magitek multibarrels recompile back into her armor, but the fiery glow hasn't dimmed from the foci crystals. It does however start to mingle with a more electrified glow as sparks of both fire and electricity crackle around her arms. Now that the rubber-like hide isn't there to insulate the monster... That and she doesn't want to use her bigger flame spewing attacks because of Crys being in the thing's personal space as well. So instead the sphinx surges towards the monster, aiming to thrust her hands into its now exposed body to make sure she makes a direct contact.

"ELECTRICALBURNOUT!"

The building charge is released to surge through the monster's body. Everyone knows lightning produces tremendous amounts of electricity. What a lot of people forget is that electrical current also produces a tremendous amount of heat. Shearing hot heat that, not being constrained to physical flames, is able to burn through things a lot more quickly.

Haguro has posed:
That's one part removed. Haguro doesn't have time to really enjoy that moment of success, though, as there's still three more limbs to remove and multiple veins shooting right into her before she can react. "Wha...?!"

Does a ship girl even have blood, or is it some kind of weird oil-based stand in? Whatever the case is, draining it still has the same effect on Haguro as it would on a regular person: A generally visible discomfort, a limp in her step, and a halt in her previous rapid movements. "So that's what zombies are like in this world.. Or is this the effect of his Stand?"

Questions to be sorted out later. For now, Haguro has two bigger concerns: Dealing with the veins in her leg, and dealing with the zombie so she can regroup with her allies. Suspecting that something might happen if she was to just pull the veins out, she goes for something a little different!

One of Haguro's wrist turrets clicks briefly as a knife on a chain shoots out of it. Gripping the chain, she spins it around rapidly and lowers it to the veins, aiming to slice them apart before advancing once more on the zombie. As that happens, she fires an explosive shell at the ground beneath the zombie to try blowing it to bits!

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz is glad she's not alone fighting this thing as it's proving to be quite tough even with her claw doing some serious damage to the thing? It keeps going. The way this thing can take punishment seemed to fit with stories of undead being far more powerful in undeath than they were in life. She has got some good damage inflicted upon it thankfully. She has to tear it apart like damaging a machine to the point it can't work.

She's caught and even with her barrier the tongue does cut into her slicing through her clothing and leaving a nasty wound in its wake.

Crys cries out in pain and the claw opens, only again to shift as she's fighting to try and grab the thing by the face and crush if she's lucky she might do some serious damage but she has no doubt it may keep going after such an attack.

"Do not let up..."

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Damocles is committed to an all-or-nothing attack here, and doesn't have any method to dodge the tentacles that stab at him, instead trusting on his size, armor and health to get him though the attack.  Spears jab into him, some of the attacks being deflected by his advanced armor and magical protection, but some do manage to pierce his defense and stab into him, allowing the bloodsucking attack to accomplish its task of draining him, before his own attack goes off, and obliterates his target.

In the wake of the blast, there's only the smell of ozone, half a zombie, and Damocles, kneeling in a smoldering crater.

He takes a moment to gather his breath.  That took a bit out of him, but his enhanced biology is already recovering.  He's an Astartes, and they're made of tough stuff.

He looks up when he overhears Jojo's foe bragging about being 'completely resist to Hamon'.  A certain insect?  Well Bugly, there's lot of energy around, and if he happens to be immune to one, maybe another one will be doubly effective.

Damocles pulls himself to his feet again, and with a grunt, swings his staff forward, towards Jojo.  He glows softly with a violet energy as he yells, "Jonathan!  If your 'Hamon' energy isn't the right tool, then give Warp energy a try.  Hold out your weapon!"

The soft, glowing violet energy around him is projected forward, spinning and twisting through the air, until it settles on Jojo a second later.  Whatever Jojo offers:  Guns, blades or even fists, will be soaked in the energy, and for some time after will glow a dark, threatening violet, and crackle a little with violet, chaotic power.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
With a powerful explosion, the zombie fighting Haguro is blown to fleshy chunks, unable to continue fighting, but unable to truly die. At least the morning sun will wash him away when it comes. She's left with fleshy veins hanging from her body that she'll need to pull out, her fluids leaking out the ends.

Arcadia and Crys' giant zombie implodes fantastically, the fluids in its body suddenly converting into gas due to the rapid change in temperature. It smells awful, but the crater of dust and gore is worth it.

Two pincers burst from the sound and clasp around Haguro's legs, crunching armor and slicing into flesh with their incredible strength. A malformed zombie bursts from the ground! Another leaps from the hole in the wooden building created by Straizo's eye attack, flapping its leathery wings. A giant snake's head pops out of the sand to try and clamp its jaws around Arcadia's midsection as the creature it was attached to tore itself from the earth and dashed to meet its comrades on all fours. Finally, from the shoreline, a fat, bipedal crocodile lumbers forth with a sick grin on its face and a rancid, rotten smell coming from its mouth.

"I'm Bowie!" The winged one said, looking for all intents and purposes like a classical devil. Crouching in the position of the Thinker was a neanderthal looking zombie with a gigantic snake the size of a man protruding from his tailbone, hissing. " ... Jimi." he says. The tall and brawny zombie with scorpion claws and clicking mandibles sneers, "Bush!" with his introduction. With a chuckle, the bulbous crocodile zombie tops it off by licking his teeth. "And I'm Gibbons."

    Straizo smirks in raw disgust as he addresses everyone present. "These are my Chimera Zombies. I thought I'd give sculpting them a try, like Dio did. I wonder if you lot will find them as easy as the rest of the fodder?"

Speaking of which, nearly a dozen other villager zombies, all relatively normal looking and generally weaker appearing than the ones they just fought, seemed to have showed up from the buildings like a rowdy gang looking to pick a fight.

Jonathan bends his body, pointing at Straizo from the side with an open palm. "That's disgusting! Those men...!" "Their bodies just reflect their ugly lives now, JoJo. They're all scum swept from Cairo's streets..well, like this, they still serve some meaning, right? ...You let your guard down!"

Charging forward suddenly, Straizo jabs for Jonathan's throat. The rippler warrior blocks, "Huoh!" and the two engage in a flurry of bone crushing blows, budging not an inch. "Warp Energy?!" they say, almost at the same time.

With fists crackling with chaotic energies, Jonathan dives right back in for a powerful uppercut. "Straizooo!" "Hng!"

Thinking quickly, the vampire throws his cloak in front of his body, leaving him only in his robes and scarf as Jonathan's warp-overdrive plows right through it. But, it gave Straizo just enough time to reach around and ... freeze his arm up to the elbow?!

"That Warp Energy .. has the same conductive property as Hamon. But by turning it into an Overdrive, it was even strong enough to destroy my protective cloak ... however, it has the same weakness as Hamon, too. By freezing your arm like this, even that strange energy dissipates!"

Straizo brings his leg up into a powerful kick that sends Jonathan flying, crashing through wall of the large, wooden building. Straizo follows in after him, confident that his zombies would curtail Damocles from interferring further.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
And the arms come off, but somehow that makes things /worse./ Veins come shooting out of the woman's stumps, and Rean maneuvers left and right to slash through them as best he can. Unfortunately, two make purchase in his shoulder and leg, and start to drain his blood. But as the woman aims for his jugular, he thrusts his sword forward, trying to pierce through and immolate her head, and maybe the rest of her too.

Arcadia has posed:
Arcadia shakes vaporized zombie remains off her handpaws. "Disgusting, but worth it." She does a rapid spin in place to shake some of the ichor off the rest of her body.

Just in time for a snake to burst out of the ground and grab onto her. "Hnnh!" The rest of the monster it's connected to heave itself up and bounding away, thumping the sphinx into the ground and dragging her roughly before she mananges to pull herself free of the serpentine jaws and rolling away to get onto her feet. Sees there's actually several of the monsters. "Fuck," the rare full on cuss leaves her lips. "He's some kind of bastard biomancer!" And of course he's still got a horde of normal zombies, too. Well, we'll just deal with removing one advantage at a time. "Deal with the big freaks and give me some cover."

Arcadia deploys her magitek funnelbits, then digs in with her feet and sweeps her wings to forward angles as they spread and deploy the emitters on the ends of the pylon struts. Several similar astral points in space appear around her hands. All which she's aiming towards the thickest portion of the lesser zombie horde.

"VORPAL LATTICE!" Magic lasers erupt from her wings and focal points, firing in a wide spread at multiple heights in front of her towards the zombie horde.
At the same time her funnels angle and fire similar but smaller lasers from opposite intersecting angles. They actually bound off Arcadia's larger direct beams, zigzagging between them to increase the area covered and threatening to slice through anything trying to navigate between the heavier beams of the laser gauntlet.

Haguro has posed:
Breathing a small sigh of relief when that zombie breaks apart, Haguro has just enough time to pull those veins out of her leg before getting grabbed by those giant pincers. She yelps painfully at the scorpion claws crushing that armor into her legs, reaching down instinctively and retracting her chain knife. No sense letting it crush that knife into her legs at the same time. "A Chimera Zombie...? So turning them into zombies wasn't enough, but you merged them with animals as well?"

Gripping one of the pincers in both hands, she chuckles once as her turrets all point downwards at Bush while cycling through their ammunition. "You certainly have a mind in there, Mister Straizo. It's a twisted, vile mind, but I can understand why Dio would want someone like you on his side."

Once again utilizing her raw strength, Haguro starts pushing in both directions on that pincer, ignoring the pain coursing through her other leg and the metal punching inwards that's surely making it worse. "But you still underestimate us... Don't think for a moment that your experiments will protect you!" With another burst of strength, Haguro tries to just split that pincer down the middle with both hands while her turrets aim at the other side of Bush's body.

It'll probably hurt like a son of a bitch, but Haguro's taking that gamble as she unloads anti-air flak at close range, shotgunning countless metal slivers at Bush and her own leg!

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Damocles's eyes go a little wide when the buff he places on Jojo is dispelled.  THAT is a new one.  He can't recall ever seeing anything like that before.  Also, the enemy said something about Hamon energy and Warp energy being 'the same'.  That was close to his own findings, but having someone say that is quite fascinating.  He has to keep that in mind.

Wait.  If that's the case...This guy is good.  And very powerful, but he lacks a piece of vital knowledge that Damocles has.

Well, Damocles hopes.  Unless Damocles himself is missing something.  Let's see which side the God of Knowledge is on today.

Damocles sweeps his staff to the side and then plants the bottom in the ground, striding forward confidently.  "You're pretty good," he admits evenly, heading towards the man.  "This should be interesting.  Here, let's see how you deal with this."  He holds a hand out towards Straizo as an arc of violet lightning courses though him, starting at his feet and arcing up his body in a fraction of a second, until it settle into his fingertips.  At that point, it leaps forward, shooting a blast of lightning from the fingertips of Damocles towards Straizo.

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz gets a shower of gore, the good news it the thing is down and not going to be getting back up any time soon. She clanks the claw once and will turn her attention on what's going on now at this point.

"So that's how it's going to be human."

That's all Crys has to say she now will find that with the zombies down it's time to help Jojo with the mastermind behind this charnel house of a village. Though there is a strong chance the guy has more zombies to throw at her.

"Arcadia we can't sit idle. We need to help, the others."

With that she will see there's a lot more to deal with maybe the mastermind will have to wait she muses. She swaps weapons, it is the sort of weapon Damocles would know very well. It's a massive chainsword a bit sleeker than those from the Imperium, but still a chiandsword and it's bigger than Crys is. She will end up choosing to go charging as the engine of the weapon roars to life as she intends to charge into the hordes using the long chainblade reach to hopefully be able to engage many of the horrors at once.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Despite the fatigue being brought on by rapid blood loss, Rean manages to slay the creature by using its own momentum against it, his flaming sword piercing its brain and incinerating it through the roof of her mouth. It thrashes and wails pitifully before finally sliding off of his blade, dead for good.

In the meantime, Arcadia manages to get back to her feet and begin her counter-attack. Thick, viscuous poison drips from the bite marks left in her body from the attack dealt to her by Jimi. Lasers barrage the crowd of zombies, burning holes and cuts in them. Some lose their limbs, and some unlucky few have their brains cooked out.

The confusing patterns make it hard for the mentally inept zombies to dodge, even if they had the physical ability to do so.

"Hoh? An interesting attack. But it won't help you against my tough hide, you shitty cat! Groooaaaah!"

Gibbons attacks her immediately, lunging much faster than such a fat creature ought to be able in an attempt to snap his jaws shut and crush her.

    "Not so fast, trash!" Bowie roars, swooping down to intercept Damocles. The lightning strikes the creature dead on, but ... its skin just crumbles and peels away, revealing flesh beneath that begins hardening rapidly. "This new flesh of mine excretes an ultra light substance similar to bedrock! I hate that shithead Straizo, but even I know how to be thankful. I'm the happiest I've ever been, even if I look ugly as sin! Kekekekekekeke!"

Flapping his wings, Bowie seems to phase right in front of Damocles with his sheer speed, intent on uppercutting him straight into the sky.

Straizo's red eyes trail left and right in the dark. Despite the only source of light being what poured into the hole in the ceiling, he could see just fine. "Hiding are we, JoJo? I didn't take you for the cowardly type."

Jonathan, covered in sweat and his own blood, grimaces. 'Straizo's Space Ripper Stingy Eyes are terrifyingly powerful .. I'll be pierced in an instant! More over, I have to find some way to bypass his Vapor Freeze!'

Turning quietly, Jonathan crawls up the steps...

Hearing the creak, Straizo immediately jumps to the second floor. "Found you! ...Hm?"

There was blood spatter, but no body. At the last second, the Vampire swings his arm above himself, batting away a lit lantern. Due to his excellent eyesight, he was able to detect the change in light levels just in time to avoid being lit ablaze. "A fruitless endeavor, even a fresh faced vampire could regenerate from such weak flames!"

The fire was spreading quickly, given the wooden nature of the structure. Jonathan stood crouched on one of the rafters, balanced precariously. "Perhaps..but, even the eyes of a vampire can't pierce through the smoke of this lacquered wood going up in flames!" "Tch!"

With an effective smokescreen, Jonathan bounds off out of the hole in the roof, quickly scurrying to hide elsewhere as Straizo was quick to give chase. frustrated that he couldn't find his foe. "JoJo! How dare you bring shame to our battle like this ... fine, if you're so pathetic, I'll hunt you like the dog you are!"

Injuring herself in the process, she manages to free herself from Bush's pincers, crippling one of them in the process. "Guwooooh! Y...you hurt meeeee! You'll pay for that, you bitch!"

Cursing with vulgarity, tears ran freely down his chiseled face as he wildly tries to tackle her to the ground, intent on chewing her face up with his mandibles in his mad charge.

Blood and some kind of cartlidge like fluid leaks from his pincers as he does so, freely gushing.

Crys finds herself chewing through the flesh of a hungry horde as they try to pile onto her, pushing and tearing her way through. These were still superhuman freaks of nature, but it seemed they weren't quite as powerful as that giant she fought previously

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jimi, in the meantime, turns to face Rean. The giant snake protruding from his body moves from side to side, hissing with some kind of acidic venom dribbling from its mouth. " ... we're the odd men out. ... I'm not very smart, but, even I can see that's not good for you..."

The snake gags and suddenly fires a stream of the stuff at the student as a kind of projectile vomit?!

Damocles (7234) has posed:
The uppercut slams into Damocles's face, sending the massive superhuman flipping through the air, a dozen yards, and smashing through the wall of a nearby building. He rolls heavily into the building, and is lost in the cloud of dust and smoke caused by his impact.

After a few seconds, though, he emerges from the hole in the wall, his eyes narrow and angry looking.

"I don't have time for you.  Your 'savior' over there can manipulate Warp energy.  I need to find out how.  I need to know."

He holds his staff forward, his body beginning to glow violet, growing brighter and brighter as he charges some new spell...

Arcadia has posed:
It's not that Arcadia doesn't hear Gibbons coming. Especially when he's yelling insults when doing so.
It's that with her wings functioning as weapons she can't just take off. Sure she doesn't rely specifically on them to fly. But they help her balance and steer, and she's not about to crashing off and incapacitate herself. She does still have her speed though, allowing her to wait until the last few possible seconds before disengaging her laser blasting and spinning to face him.

And thrust her arm into his closing mouth. Gator jaws clamp down hard to tear into the limb. It's only by the virtue of her warded armor and technorganic biology that the arm isn't completely crushed to pieces.

"Eat this."

Arcadia, for all intent and purposes, detonates the arm (technically the magitek intergrated into it) to unleash a massive explosive fireball into his innards instead of having to take the time to burn through the exterior like the last monster.

It'll take her a moment before she can deal with the monster snake venom.

Haguro has posed:
Haguro stumbles onto a knee as she braces herself on her less-injured leg, grimacing at the self-inflicted injury. It was needed to get out of the immediate danger of having her leg sliced off anyway, and it did help her cripple one of Bush's pincers, but it seems to have only made him angrier and compensate through the use of his horrid inhuman face as he brings her to the ground not unlike the larger zombie from earlier!

"Such tenacity... Such loyalty! Or... No." Although she looks awed at first, Haguro expression quickly darkens as a vague sort of sadness crosses her face. Pain, too, since she slams her forearm against those mandibles directly to keep them off her head and likely getting several of those fangs into or through that part of her arm.

"Gh...! You're a weapon, too. Would your master even care if you came out of this alive? Your creators?" She struggles with Bush further on the ground as she braces her forearm up against whatever amounts to a chin on him, a turret twisting with an odd screeching noise as the constant firing from earlier seems to be putting quite a strain on the innards of Haguro's guns.

"There must be someone... But I can't die here, either, so...!" The metal strains as her turrets fire a solid shell sideways at Bush's mandible-covered face. There's a good chance it'll bust up her arm in the process, but it's another risk she's taking by tightening her arm to hold onto those fangs for just a moment longer!

Crys Gattz has posed:
It's time to go rip and tearing she keeps going, she cut through the horde as she keeps going. They get hits in and some get past her energy armour, still, she keeps going sometime she'll let loose bursts of fight ice and lighting as she goes. She just trying to do as much damage as quickly as she can. If these hordes piled onto the others facing the Chimera zombies? That would be very bad news for everyone else.

She will also keep fighting away and she's pretty much covered in zombie bits at this point. She's also finding new ways to hate this Dio too. Given the sort of minions, he keeps in his employ. She also has got the idea of how wasteful he is given how many of his own minions he disposed of.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
And the zombie is down! Unfortunately, Rean's losing blood fast. "ARCUS, activate." Rean says, becoming surrounded in a ring of light. He can't do anything about the blood he's already lost, but at the very least he can get his wounds closed. This, also unfortunately, gives Jimi an opening to just straight on  hit him with acid. Rean lets out a cry, the acid burning though his clothes and onto his skin. Still he tries to hold his focus, just long enough to finish healing himself.

The spell still resolves, closing up the wounds from the zombie lady, but doesn't do anything about the acid. That would require a different spell, one he doesn't exactly have the time to cast at the moment. Gritting his teeth through the pain, Rean rushes forwards and slashes at Jimi, one slash blooming into many as he passes by, almost all focused entirely on his snake head tail.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
"Eh? Are you stupid? Do you have shit for brains?! Something like that's all you can think about when you're about to die, how pathetic!"

Clenching his fists, Bowie began to molt again as he charged forwards, spinning his whole body to generate gale force winds. With his 'skin' starting to break off, the hardened crust swirls in the twister and is shot at Damocles at high speeds. "My RESKIN WHIRLWIND ATTACK grinds down anyone and anything! Disappear!"

But, it was just a fake. As Bowie is ready to gloat for obliterating him in an instant, he finds himself skewered before his new skin regrows. "Agh! You..you pest, how did you .. ?!"

His new skin was slimy and slippery and was molted instantly as he forced himself out of the sludgy shell, a gaping wound in his chest from the stab. "If I were you, I wouldn't try any of that energy crap! You'll regret it if you do, kekekekekekekeke!"

Wiping his clawed fingers along his wound, he shot his hand out in one smooth motion, turning his blood into a spinning and incredibly sharp crescent; needless to say, it'd dig into someone just as well as a blade.

Gibbons clamps down giddily on her arm, but before he can really get to chewing, she sacrifices it to seperate herself from him and try to take him out. His body expands as his eyes contort painfully, before .. he croaks, literally, almost like a frog. No, it surely had to have been a burp as he opened his steaming mouth to release all the excess heat. "Agh...even with my tough insides that can devour almost anything, that was hard to swallow ... it was like trying to eat a whole stack of TNT."

Still wobbly from it, though, Gibbons couldn't go on the attack.

Bush continues to cry incoherently in pain. A weapon? Caring about him after he's gone? He couldn't comprehend any of that. He was even more of a simpleton than Jimi, after all. Having suffered several strokes in his life before being turned into a monster left him totally unable to function like a normal person in the first place. Of course, one shouln't feel too bad about it, it was assuredly 'karma' that a street thug would find no sympathy for his ailments after all the terrible things he'd done.

Haguro eventually manages to blast his head clean off of his shoulders, his massive body slumping over and threatening to crush her, even after she all but destroyed her own body to take him down.

Jimi's snake rears up as he attempts to make it lunge around Rean's sword strike, pouncing on him on all fours as if he were an animal, but the chimera finds himself landing on the ground, off balance. "N..no! My other head!"

Indeed, the snake had been severe from his body, leaving him so off balance that he could move with no grace or percision at all, glaring at Rean as he kicks off for his detached snake tail, attempting to dive straight into the wound and wriggle his way through the body. His head pops out with a sick, fleshy noise as the detached snake was being puppeted from inside, curling up to attack Rean more directly, even after its life had been ended by the sword strokes of the Autumn Leaf Cutter. "This is my last ditch technique ... as long as I can drain you of your blood, I can re-attach my tail and heal the wound, reviving it! Become my food!"

Arcadia has posed:
Arcadia yowls as the recoil lands her on her rump, missing her left arm from just above where the elbow would be. It's okay, it can be fixed. Later, back in the technocracy labs.

The sphinx gets to her feet only to stagger a little from the stinging in her side. But her disarming sacrifice did deter Gibbons for a moment, which is exactly what she needs.

With her good hand she pulls a vial from her inventory, pulls the stopper out with her teeth, the gulps down the contents to nullify the venom. She's really, -really- glad she made that contract with Arkae for the Cure-All potions now. The vial is discarded back into her inventory so she can return it for refills later.

Now back to more immeadiate matters.

Arcadia may be down an arm and hurt, but in the rush of battle that's an inconvenience she can worry about later.

For one thing, she still has her magitek funnels. She directs the attack bits buzzing around Gibbons firing off various electrical bolts to try and keep him at bay while she puzzles out how to deal with him more thoroughly.

Damocles (7234) has posed:
When the whirlwind strikes Damocles, he pops instantly, his entire body bursting in a small cloud of smoke and dust, mixing with the dust lingering from the destroyed wall.  An instant later, the wall next to the hole where the illusory Damocles was standing bursts apart as the real Chaos Sorcerer smashes out, charging with his Force Staff like a lance, looking to impale Bowie. 

Bowie warns him not to use energy attacks, and he takes that warning at face value. Thus far, this group has proved pretty willing to tell the truth about the nature of their abilities, so he figures that trend is probably going to hold true.  Seems like this guy can create a defense for just about anything, but only for one thing at a time, so the key is to keep changing up your attacks.

He has little time to think about that as he's suddenly put on the backfoot, using his staff to swipe away chakrams of razor sharp blood ejected from his enemy. 

Man, this really DOES feel like fighting Chaos monsters.

He would normally use a shockwave to knock these away, but isn't sure what the goop Bowie covered him with will do, so he doesn't want to risk that.  And if Bowie creatively defends himself, then using his staff again would likely not work too well.  So what can he attack with, if he can't use energy blasts or his staff?

He slams one disc out of the air, then another with his staff, before suddenly is taken by an idea and reacts before he really even thinks about it.  A third disc is deflected, not by his staff, but by his hand.  He swats his hand through the air, letting the disk strike him right in the palm.  The disc punches right through his armor and buries itself deep within his hand, one third of the disc getting stuck through the palm of his hand.

Of course, that leaves 2/3rds sticking out of his palm. 

A palm that continues swinging, aimed right for Bowie's head.  Let's see if Bowie can protect himself -against- himself.

Haguro has posed:
Luckily for Haguro, she doesn't know what Bush's past was like. She doesn't have to know that he isn't worth the sympathy at all since projecting like this will likely help her sleep better tonight.

If she gets that far, anyway. On the plus side, blowing the thug's head off means she doesn't have to worry about him trying to bite hers off, but it does take her a fair bit of effort just to push the corpse off of her. Wincing as she holds her injured arm against her side tightly, she pushes herself up with her one good hand before putting a few more shots into Bush's chest and head.

She has to make sure before she steps away, after all. After that, she turns her attention back to the battles going on around the ruined village. Instead of charging right back out into the fray, she keeps on one knee as she scopes out potential targets, letting her slightly-less overworked turret adjust its aim towards the sky.

Her first priority target: Straizo. As the apparent mastermind behind this zombie attack, it only makes sense that she'd aim for him first! If she can't get a bead on the vampire, though, then her next priority is keeping outside threats from turning her allies' fights into losing ones. Mortar fire is the best she can manage on short notice, especially with the already mounting injuries on the shipgirl's form!

Crys Gattz has posed:
Some use the expression heads will roll, as a metaphor, right now? It's factual as Crys is just cutting her way through the lesser creations of the enemy while the rest of the crew are handling the brains. She does what she does best. Fight hordes of biological horrors, it's like she's back on Ragol really. Other zombies end up incarnated, a few get bisected and she keeps going. It's a bloody mess, that's what it is but there doesn't seem to be an end to the legions of the undead bio horrors coming for her. The chainsword just keeps going and she keeps on cleaving shockingly it's not ended up gummed up somehow yet.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Rean staggers a bit at the end of his strike, The combined bloodloss and poison getting to him. It's still not over yet though, not while he's still able to stand. Meanwhile, lamenting the loss of his tail, Jimi proceeds to stick his head up its corpse, and tries to eat Rean.

Ew.

Rean raises his sword to block the snake head by the jaws, trying to keep it from biting into him. "ARCUS, activate." Rean says again, and that same ring of light appears.

This time, the spell resolves into a burst of fire rising up from the earth beneath Jimi.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
The lasers strike against Gibbons durable flesh, aggrivating him with electrical shocks. But, she'll notice, his skin is starting to dry out and flake..exposing gelatinous flesh underneath. Opening wide and expelling a gout of flammable gas that quickly turns into flame to buy himself space, Gibbons is already charging for the shore, doing his best not to get battered by Haguro's cannonade! "D-damn, I didn't think the dry air out here would work so quick on me ... I need to expoliate!"

"Fool! My strategy is unb..unbea...?!?!?!?! Gurgle..."

Bowie gloats again, preening as he spread his wings wide. If he'd been on the ball, he could have avoided the counter-attack, but not even he knew the precise limits or intricacies of his strange biology.

With a shocked looking on his butt-ugly face, his head toppled from his shoulders, the blood chakram having bypassed his defenses. All of his cells were bio-recombinant, and as an odd quirk, trying to alter his makeup to defend himself applied to all active parts of himself. Unlike the dead molts, his blood changed with him and as a result, nullified the effects of his rock hard defense. The unliving head gagged on the ground, choking on blood. "B..bastard...how dare you do this to me! I was destined for great things...and now look at me....graaaaaoh!"

He broke out into furious, unintelligent and bird-like sqwuaking.

Crys' rampage has taken care of most of the zombies at this point, leaving them twitching and immobile on the ground if not destroyed outright. Their moans and incoherent raving go unheeded as she shows her worth on the battlefield, keeping them from providing much needed support to the four Chimeras.

"I've got you -- ?! N...noo..it's hot! I can't escape like this! It's like I've been wrapped in a package and stuck in an incinerator!"

The pillar of magical flame consumes the snake, and Jimi inside of it, cooking them both to a crisp. In the end, he was heated so completely that he turned into incomprehensible sludge, retaining the ability to mumble pitifully in pain.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan carefully hid himself as Straizo stalked the Village's streets. He was in some kind of tanning shack, he figured, where the fish skin would be processed for the scales and oils. He'd managed to cover his 'scent' by exposing Straizo to the smog-like smoke of the burning building, but that was only a temporary reprieve. He had to make his move, and soon. Hitching his breath, he realized that the Vampire moved to the roof of the building he was on! 'Think ... the Vapor Freeze Technique works by absorbing heat and stopping the energy inside the arm via cryosis...even if I lit my arm on fire, it might not be enough. Unless ... an insulator ... just like Straizo brought to defend himself from my ripple, if I can insulate my arm's body heat..!'

His arm was practically thawed out now, having exposed it to his Scarlet Overdrive to do so while on the run. 'Of course ... I've got it!'

Straizo sneered, staring down at the stone shingles underfoot. "Fool. I know you're there, but if you're waiting for me to attack, I'll just slaughter you with my Space Ripper Stingy Eyes --- ?!?! Rgh...insolent ...!!"

He isn't given the chance, as he's blasted across the roof by Haguro's attack! She'd evidently spied him after he took upwards..and through the hole the blast left, Jonathan leapt up himself, landing on the opposite end, balancing precariously on the central support. "I don't think so..Straizo!"

The distance was too close for the vampire to blast him with that eye attack again. Jonathan knew that with his blood loss, this would be his final chance to produce enough ripple to put Straizo down for the count. "Sendo Hamon!"

Golden lightning crackled on Jonathan's fist as he thrust it out in a powerful, fast jab. "You idiot! I'll freeze you solid!" Straizo roared, reaching out to catch Jonathan's fist, only ... his hand explodes in a flurry of glowing viscera that evaporates into dust!

"That's impossible, how did you ... wait, that smell! It's greasy, like cooking oil ... !! You must've coated your arm in oil and charged it with ripple! It slowed down my Vapor Freeze..just enough for it to matter.."

Straizo coughed, Jonathan's fist planted firmly into his sternum. The force of the blow had caused a contortion that may have been fatal if he were still human. "That's right, using oil to insulate my body heat bought me just enough time to send the ripple through your hand and destroy it. It's not as if I don't understand your feelings, but ... to have even joined up with Dio .... Dire and Ton Petti would be ashamed."

Jonathan recalled Haguro's earlier words and steeled himself as Straizo scowled at him. "I was positive that using these techniques that defeated you before would yield the same result, but ... that was my mistake. I regret nothing!"

It was unspoken but understood that while they would be disgusted by his choices, Dire and Ton Petti would naturally have understood Straizo's reasoning, given they knew him best. It's just the kind of person he was, even Jonathan understood that. Raising his good hand, the vampire strikes for Jonathan's jugular!

"I'll send your evil soul screaming straight to hell, Straizooo!"
    "SUNLIGHT YELLOW OVERDRIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!"

Twisting his fist and pushing it forwards with the sudden surge of ripple energy, Straizo gagged as it easily pushed past even his insulated clothing and entered his bloodstream. In that instance, for him, it was like being exposed to the surface of the sun itself. "Fare...well....!!!"

Vaporized so thoroughly that there was not even ash left, Straizo refused defeat, even in death.

Arcadia has posed:
Gibbons exposes his secret to the sphinx, and that's all she needs to pounce.

Arcadia lunges right through the flammable gas, her entire form glowing a bit from the heat. It stings but with her speed the exposure is not long enough to do more severe damage. In fact, it gives her an idea.

Instead of directly chasing after Gibbons the sphinx launches herself in an arc over him, so he gets a few moments of thinking he's actually escaping... until Arcadia swoops down in front of him, turns, and speeds back towards him... and passed him?... T she passes again on the opposite side, and does so into such a tight turn that she goes into a circle around the gatorman. Around and around, faster and faster, whipping up a powerful vortex of wind with her cyclonic motion. Tornados are powerful things, Gibbons bulk isn't going to keep him from getting dragged away from the water for very long. Maybe even eventually lift him off the ground as the whirling winds cut at his drying out flesh. But that's not the real final threat. That comes when Arcadia's voice can be heard, a simple yet ominous whisper under the wailing winds.

"Pyrenado."

And ignites one of her big fire spells into the cyclonic winds, turning it into a blazing spiraling pillar engulfing Gibbons on all sides.

Haguro has posed:
With Straizo's vampire threat dealt with, Haguro finally has time to breathe. She doesn't allow herself to relax just yet, though, forcing herself up through sheer willpower and limping along to see where her allies are in their own battles.

From the looks of it, things are just about finished. Instead of celebrating, though, she hurries towards Jonathan's position while using a nearby signpost as a makeshift crutch to keep herself moving. It would take a while for her to reach Jonathan, and she doesn't look like she's in any shape to actually help with much beyond fire support.

And yet, she's holding her hand out to him. "Let's... Let's go. I think our fight here is done for n-" A pause, and then she looks around slowly at the ruined village. "... Did he have the arrows on him? Or was he not the one with the shadows?"

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Damocles looks down at the surprisingly ornery severed head, and tilts his head curiously to the side.  "Huh, that's a thing.  Usually people stop talking once I do that.  Where are you even getting the air to yell from?" 

He looks down at his hand, and notices that he's bleeding quite a lot, actually.  Letting himself get stabbed won the battle, but it also got him /stabbed/.  Oh well.  He holds his left hand over his right, and channels energy again, chaotic warp energy drifting from the fingertips of his uninjured hand, to the wound he carries.  The energy seeps in, and bit by bit, begins accelerating his healing to patch up that nasty wound.

He's about to walk away, when ANGRY BIRD NOISES catch his attention.  "Hmm, actually..." He says, before reaching down, and picking up the squawking head.  "Neat.  I'm getting all sorts of souvenirs from this trip."

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan shakes his head. "Straizo has nothing to do with that. No, rather ... I think he's been waiting here since we arrived to catch us on the way back."

Jonathan needed a moment to rest and recuperate, to heal his wounds and catch his breath. "Once the run rises, it'll wash away all the remains and turn the zombies into dust .. we just need to make sure they're in the exposure." he concludes.

Straizo's scarf was all that remained, now, clenched in Jonathan's hand with a frown upon his face.

"W..what? I'm being dragged back! F..fine, but if you think that I'm gonna' croak just like that, you've got another thing coming!"

But he's caught in the scorching hot flame, peeling away his hard outer layer and leaving only his gelatinous true form to cook away. It smells disgusting, but gets the job done, leaving him in a hardly better state than Jimi.

Bowie snarls. "You think you're hot shit, but I'll have my revenge!"

    But, what could a disembodied head do, really?

"Tomorrow, if wet set out on our boat, we should be able to beat the thief across the desert and intercept him ... I think." Jonathan says, finally.

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz has finally found the end of the horde she's beaten up, still got that slash across her chest, she's also covered in gore. She turns about in time to see just what befalls Starizo. She knows there's stuff she does not know but also sees there's still at least some clean up to do, she'll keep her weapon ready as she starts to look around she sees Haguro take out the trash.

"I'll start sweeping the area."

Crys banishes her bloody weapon and mutters.

"I'm going to need a bath and a septic shot..."

She's start that sweep as well.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
And with that, the fight's over. Rean falls to one knee, using his sword to prop himself up. A loading ring of light and a green aura later, and the acid is cleaned up, and any burrns from it on their way to healing.

"..." Rean pauses for a moment, staring at the flesh puddle formerly known as Jimi. Jonathan said that the sun would deal with the zombies later but...

With a quiet sigh, Rean casts the fire ring spell a second time, this time to completely burn Jimi's puddle away. Being a vaguely sentient puddle for several hours waiting to die when the sun comes up can't be fun.

Arcadia has posed:
At the end Arcadia launchs herself upward out of the center of the fire cyclone, and a moment later does the 'superhero landing' with her remaining arm to brace herself as behind her the flaming pillar disperses and the charred remains of Gibbons dusts the ground.

As she stands up Arcadia puts her remaining hand over her face. "That guy stunk even worse dying a second time," she complains to no one in particular.

Joestart mentions chasing the thief with the arrows and she nods a bit. "I'll need to do something about this," waggles what remains of her left arm, it's not much, "but I can easily catch up."