Scene #3520: They Go Out With A Bang?

Owner	Pose
Tamiel	Since the last attack, there's been a scramble to repair the defenses! At least a few of the turrets have been put back together or replaced, but the gate is... well, it's back together at least, but the main gate of the fortified city of Delte is still in poor shape. They're working on it, and it's at least closed and sturdy enough to stand up to any normal assault, but a prolonged seige or any blast like the last one it took will obviously make it a non-issue. One would think that it would be easier to just move Sophia to another city... but even with the common threat of Heaven, nationilsm and petty politics are an issue. The best that they've managed to get are some pretty serious reinforcements and air support, but moving the renegade grigori is out of the question for now. Fortunately, Heaven is both arrogant and kind of in a tough spot. After the last time turned around suddenly, they're more cautious... but they don't trust the Confederacy enough, yet, to let them command any incoming forces directly. That means Tamiel is their only option to command them, and Tamiel's kind of a really bad commander. Fortunately, she'll listen to the other Confeds who are available if they have another idead aside from 'fly in, bust through, and blast the bunker with as few casualties as reasonable.'
Adelyn Lysen	While the whole 'flying around' thing might give some people the opposite impression, Adelyn Lysen has only been capable of that since getting her hands on Pure Guardian. Earth magic is far more her style, and if it's just normal dirt, shaping it is a quick and largely painless process. Slower than running, yes, unless she puts a lot of effort in. Slower than flying, certainly. But, especially if there's anyone else around who can assist, it will get the job done. She's not knocking on the front gate. No, she's shaping a tunnel ahead of herself, about ten meters below the surface, walking with anyone else who's either there to help or there to pop up inside the city. Popping up may be a bit more troublesome than digging down, depending on the foundation of the city, but there's surely someone around with the raw strength for it.
Lu-Mey	"Nuh uh... I'm not throwing you again..." "Oh come on, it'll be fun!" "N-no. It's not fun- I get sick every time I see you land. And worried." "Awww that's adorable! If you weren't inside an Armour that used to be powered by my husband's still beating heart I could just eat you all up." "Th- that's kind of something I'm worried about too." Lu-Mey has arrived, and of course her usual entourage of the red and blue princesses of Lord Rainbow is here with her. Lu and Ao-hime are currently perched on the massive armored bulk of Shen-di, Aka-hime's red-plated Yoroi mecha. Hissing and venting steam as it plods along on the road for Delte. "Seriously, boss, you're giving my little sister nightmares. She's like ten!" "It'll be fine, this time, really! I won't make a mess, look!" Lu-Mey displays to the pair that she will be fully safe, motioning at the bike helmet worn awkwardly on her head over her horn. "No." "No!" "... When did you two turn into teen rebels...? Hmph, fine. We can just get in another way." The oni chirrups, climbing to stand with one foot atop the mecha's chear, pointing imperiously at the main gate. "Go forth!" "Um?" A pat-pat of her foot atop the armored helmet and she POINTS, "Charge the gate." "Okay..." Another hiss and the heavy plated red steel titan jerks forward-- Lu-Mey damn near gets flung right the hell off, with a squawk that says she may not quite have been ready, and thumps her helmet on a backwards flip off the head, before Ao-hime catches her. Because Shen-Di begins to charge. A heavy bulk of mechanized menace, beginning to make for the damaged front gate, gaining speed into a full on sprint the whole way.
Shin Tokuyama	Shin took some time off to recover after that epic ass-beating he took the last time he was here, but he did come back once in a while to check on the situation and make sure the base was still holding strong. This is one such visit, with the martial artist having parked his bike nearby. Even this long after his fight with Lezard and his Catalyst, his hands and arms are still almost entirely bandaged up underneath his suit. "Oh god damnit," Shin says as another attack begins, starting to unwrap his hands and let the bandages fall to the ground, "What perfect timing. As soon as I get here, the attack begins on this place." Meanwhile, in Shin's head: . o O (Dude, what perfect timing! As soon as I get here, the attack begins! I was waiting for this.)
Lezard Valeth	The great thing about using dead people for your army is there's /so many/ of them. A suffocating darkness rushes across the battlefield before the main gates as Lezard Valeth, Necromancer of Midgard, takes his place once more. Again he raises his hands and calls forth his undead hordes. Despite the nature of such an assault, the fact that he can simply throw bodies at the problem endlessly poses an issue for any siege defense. Unless Lezard himself is driven off or enough firepower is levied to counter the horde rising up and knocking at the door, sheet attrition will functionally hand the city to Heaven, and the Grigori within will be all but doomed. "Come, heroes. Embrace battle! Come, and see if the Choose of the Slain will have mercy upon you!" Lezard laughs, his voice rolling like thunder across the field.
Kyra Hyral	There is absolutely no sign of Kyra anywhere among the fortified walls of the city of Delte. Perhaps that is for the best given the encroaching forces of the Confederacy and Heaven descending upon Delte, ready to reclaim their traitor Grigori. However, the white mage has not left those stationed here without help, even if it's more biased towards the organic defenders. Her potions and devices have been distributed throughout those here with instructions on how to operate or consume each one. First is the standard HiPotion, orange in color. Use is easy: consume, be healed. Works for most nonmortal wounds. It is available in drinkable form in flasks or in syringe form, which apparently works even faster than regular ingesting. For magic casters, there are also ethers available, blue in color. They too come in both flask and syringe form. An ether will restore a small amount of magic particles and/or most equivalents found throughout the multiverse, including Ki. There is a special mixture Kyra's affectionately called the "Shitkicker" which, upon taken via syringe (the only way offered), bestows the user a heap of buffs for a solid five minutes (1 round). The buffs include Stoneskin (up physical defense, leaves the skin hard as rock), Shell (magical defense up), Bravery (ups physical attack), Faith (ups magical attack), Blink (ups evasion, makes the person flicker in and out of existence), and Haste (ups speed). Finally, a number of explosives flasks are available. They don't activate until the glass is broken and the mixture is exposed to air. Although Kyra spends a lot of time drilling in this particular detail, she's sealed the corks on the flasks shut with crazy glue so people don't blow themselves up by accident. Deep beneath the fortified city of Delte, hidden in a bunker, accompanying Sophia, is where the white mage and chemist can be found. She's entirely geared up with the alchemist Cure-All weapon strapped to her back and a Galiandan dart rifle dangling from her shoulders in front of her. The usual moogle hoodie she wears has been replaced with a comparatively dull black hoodie that is lightly armored on the inside. She's procured herself a chair and made herself comfortable while she hangs out with Sophia, showing the Grigori the wonders of Youtube via a tablet set on her lap. "Ooh, here, check this one out. They call it Pizza Rat." She giggles, switching to a brief but heart-stirring video of a rat dragging a piece of pizza as big as it is down a flight of stairs.
Gudako Ordria	Plan "floor door" is how Gudako is doing this. It was the Berserker's assumption, at least, that since their target is a 'bunker', getting on top of it and digging straight down-- making a door in the floor, if you will-- was her choice method of handling this. And having already wasted a Command Spell the night before, Gudako wasn't feeling strongly enough on the matter to rein her Servant in. Rather, she just told Caster: "You should babysit Berserker, just in case. I'm gonna hang back here and catch up on my idol animes!" Via cellphone, one assumes. And so did Berserker, the red-robed, pink-haired foxcatgirl, make a beeline for the city walls, with a second presence incorporeal with her. She stops at the walls, glances up, glances down. Disappears. Attempts to pass through. Complains and grunts very loudly. Reappears. And then just tears into the walls with her bare hands (paws) instead. It goes a lot like NYANYANYANYANYA, pretty much a cat making a tunnel. Through a wall instead of under a fence. And if that works, her beeline extends to the BUNKER, where instead of trying to enter the building, she starts digging straight down. Guess subtlety is out the window, but she's... 'infiltrating'? In a very loose definition of the term?
Ellestaria	Ellestaria is in the bunker as well... with Kay. The Atlantean isn't with Sophia or anything, because she's talking to Delte first. The matter of discussion involves Sophia, however! "If at all possible, it would be extremely convenient. I only need it for comparative purposes. I will of course share anything I find with you, if you wish. The blood sample need not be large." Yeah, she's trying to get a blood sample from Sophia. When the attack comes and the alarms blare, she sighs. "We'll discuss this later. Maybe we should ask Sophia." She's going to head out of the bunker, electricity suddenly crackling around her as she enters her Spark Form to get into the fray... though it's not clear who she's going to run into first.
Himei	Unlike others who may be hanging around in the bunker, Himei is actually just in the city. She's hanging out with the guards, so she gets a full view of the armor charging and the undead hordes advancing on the city. It's going to be one of those days. "I guess it was only a matter of time. Oh well, at least we have people in the bunker," she mutters. With a heavy sigh, her clothing shimmers, and the silver-highlighted sailor fuku that shows up when she enters her powered form appears. It's a no-brainer, after all, that undead hordes probably fall under her power's purview of 'supernatural evil' and such. At least, she hopes. Certainly worth a shot, right? Silvery light lances out toward Lezard's undead, but Himei's range is a little limited. It's going to be a challenge to keep them from overwhelming unless she figures out something else to do, but this is mostly to buy time. With a disintegration beam, if it works, or harmless sparkles if it doesn't. Sigh. "Someone's going to need to take care of that yorai," she calls out.
Berserker	When Berserker of Gudako busts through the wall, she'll find someone standing there waiting for her! Namely, Berserker of Kay. The young woman is in her natural form as well, fanning herself and eyeing the incoming Tamamo. "Hello again! I'm sorry, I don't think this is a good place for you to be digging. You don't mind if I slow you down a little, do you?" She knows she's unmatched in these circumstances, without at least some Mad Enhancement going on, but that's okay. All she really needs to do is delay her a bit, right? Which means... Fireballs. Pew pew.
Tamiel	SO! What's going down? Adelyn's tunnel is... actually fairly effective. It's not that the city doesn't have defenses against such things, but they aren't usually done quite this way, or with quite this subtlety, where subtlety is defined as 'during a direct attack' like what is happening. Some alarms might be set off, but amidst all the other things that's... pretty tame and unnoticed, so breaking through in a quiet corner of the city is a thing that happens. Most of the forces are distracted by... The armor that's barreling forward. Some shots are fired to slow it down, and they might actually damage the yoroi or the woman who was 'riding' it, but really they're dealing with other things like the incoming undead and grigori. Speaking of which, there are undead hordes basically knocking on the door, though right at the moment the walls should hold them. Even if the gate is shuddering and creaking already from the impact of the armor, the WALLS should hold. Treated with anti-magic as they are, they are also difficult for Berserker to dig through! They are vulnerable to the brute force involved, though, and the magic powering Berserker is much more concentrated than the simple enchantment intended to blunt mystical blasts. She'll be able to break through and see the city militia scrambling to defense. Tamiel will hang back for now, so as to keep things a little simpler.
Tamiel	Kyra is showing Sophia stuff! Sophia is... actually pretty old for a grigori, in her thirties, and showing some scars of battle. She's cuffed by some pretty hefty chains, though they don't restrict her mobility that much, nor does she seem to mind. "... pizza rat. Truly, the wonders of the surface are amazing," she says drily. Unlike Tamiel, Sophia seems to have a sense of sarcasm and humor. "Is this what more peaceful worlds do?" Oh yeah, she knows of the multiverse, it seems. Ellestaria is meeting some resistance about the blood thing, if only out of sheer suspicion, but the general response is: after the alliance is settled, that seems reasonable. Coming up from the bunker will find an entire elite(not Elite) unit of soldiers forming around to guard the bunker.
Shin Tokuyama	Shin would love to go deal with the catfox and the encroaching fluffiness which that entails, but Berserker seems to be aiming towards that with her own goals. Thusly, as the martial artist undoes the wrappings around his hands and lets them fall to the ground next to him, it's back towards the gates that he stalks. After all, the undead were back. He waded into them fearlessly last time, no reason not to do it now. Jacket and tie are taken off and tossed onto his bike again, "Welp. Second verse, same as the first, I suppose," He muses, taking the sunglasses out of his pocket and putting them over his eyes. He's rolling up his sleeves as he hops upwards and atop the gates, standing there to watch the approaching army as he rolls up his sleeves. His arms are mostly recovered, but still feel a bit numb. That might not be a bad feeling to go into a heavy fight with, though, since he hops off the gate and brings his fist down towards the ground, "POWER!" As he lands, his fist wreaths with ki and then discharges it in a conal blast of fire and ki energy in front of him, "GEYSER!"
Kyra Hyral	"Oh yeah. They film all kinds of silly stuff like this and it sometimes goes viral." Kyra explains, not at all put off by Sophia's dry tone. In fact, that's probably exactly why she gives her a straight answer to the probably rhetorical question. In Kyra's mind, it only made it funnier. "Otherwise it would be stuff like 'My town being invaded by aggressive aliens, you wouldn't believe what happens next!' all the time." There is a distant rumbling above as the Confederates begin their attack. Kyra looks up at this, then mutters for an update for what's going on out there. "Hey Sophia, why are you still being chained? Do they not trust you?" Kyra stands, passing the tablet over to Sophia, unless she's cuffed with her hands behind her back. Otherwise, she'll leave it on her recently abandoned chair. Kyra seems to be preparing something-in particular, she takes a syringe off of the bandolier she always wears and injects its contents into her forearm. They're painkillers, just in case something happened to breach the bunker, and something that her spells couldn't replicate.
Adelyn Lysen	One problem with being underground is that it's hard to get a sense of where things are above. Usually, that's the case, at least. For Adelyn, most of her sensory magic continues to function perfectly fine through any mass of earth she can touch. She can tell roughly where the harder-to-breach areas are around her, particularly where anything is that's magically protected, though not necessarily anything past those protections. Since things are so noisy above, she's staying below, and looking for the hardiest part of the city with the highest defenses--with a subconscious bias toward whatever's the most magically hardened. The tunnel continues in that direction until she's interrupted, either by defenders above her or by hitting something she can't dig through. From there, she plants breaching 'charges' in the form of coherent masses of shaped arcane and fire mana, and exits the tunnel by going straight up 'till she reaches the surface. Depending on just how tough it is, the breaching may not work, since this is only partially within her specialty. Either way, it won't be subtle, and it would be rather dangerous to stay in the tunnel while it goes off. There's also the risk of running straight into someone as she surfaces, but there's not much she can do about that that wouldn't produce an unacceptable delay.
Gudako Ordria	Catzerker breaks through the wall like the Kool-Aid man. Unfortunately she promptly runs straight into fireballs, rather than a bunker. Singed and burnt, she tumbles onto the ground and rolls, not graciously at all, coming to a stop and shaking her head, glancing left, right, then straight ahead at the other Berserker. "Oh! HI!" Excitement, soon replaced by confusion as the incorporeal Caster chides the cat. <<Please focus. Or master isn't going to give you any treats. Just push to the objective, you can handle the hits.>> Catzerker huffs, and then stomps, rising to her feet again. "And it's a bad place to stop me digging! NYA! Can't stop me, cats eat dragons for breakfast!" She suddenly LUNGES for Kay's Servant-- and then serves unexpectedly right, with a plunge straight into the ground. She's turned incorporeal! Clean through the earth, all the way down to the bunker's most secure level. She hits a snag when she can't just phase through the walls, though. It's surrounded by earth, mud and concrete that the Berserker becomes physical again, and begins clawing at the walls of the bunker from the outside. But Kay's Servant can pursue! And the cat's focus even means the power gap might not matter, if she isn't getting attacked back.
Lezard Valeth	Himei's burning bmeans scythe into the undead, searing them. Vile abominations summoned up from Niflheim, condemned for cowardice, avarice, or simple cruel fate, the beams have their supernatural power and annihilate them as they are touched. And if that was not bad enough, Shin Tokuyama, the Hero of Fists, takes the field once more against the undead army. The Power Geyser blasts forward, still as effective as ever. Lezard scowls. Of course, if one uses the same tactics, the enemy will use the same in return. "The Hero of Fists, of course you would return!" Lezard calls out, clenching a fist as he looks up. "And you..." He speaks to Himei. "You think you can defy my sorcery?! Foolishness! I will shoe you a sample of my power!" He raises a hand, and that purple, unholy flame of Niflehim alights in his hands as he calls up... Something greater. Something... darker than before. With a surge of blackness, the flickering wasteland that Shin cleansed of evil with his powerful strike rips open, gaping wide as an abyss yawns before them... And a great paw reaches up from the darkness, pulling itself upwards. Massive sinews flex beneath a leonine body, three heads rising up with dark, terrible eyes. Great dragon wings unfold from its back, and a hellish dragon's tail lashes back and forth from the body. Flanking the lion's head, is the head of a ram and the head of a dragon, each adding to the cacaphonic noise as it stares forward at Shin... And the damaged gate beyond. "Today, Hero of Fists, you shall perish. BEHOLD MY MASTERY OF LIFE ITSELF!" He cries out, moments before the massive beast lunges forward, swiping with a paw. The tail lashes out, crushing other undead around it.... It seems to be as much a danger to the army as it is to Shin, at least. "And as for you..." Lezard looks up to Himei. "Feel free to look on while your comrade in arms perishes. It will be most educational."
Lu-Mey	Shen-Di advances. Rushing headlong in that sprinting charge, the Yoroi pumps its massive arms, every step churning the earth, slamming down with the force of a small quake and resounding like thunder. The Armour pushes to a speed that is blatantly dangerous, joints venting steam and exhaust as it seems to almost shake the earth with its charge. For dearest life, Lu-Mey and Ao-hime hold on to the mechanical monstrosity, the child piloting it from within squealing at the top of her lungs as the defenses begin to fire upon her mount, but the Yoroi holds strong. Plates dent and crumple, ablative armor shatters and sloughs off like an insect shedding chitin, steam gives way to noxious black exhaust. In life, the Oni the mecha was named for was stalwart, a brave and unyielding man with soft place in his heart for children, and a strength that when turned to war, was nearly unstoppable. The true epitome of a man among men, of the Lu-Tirae race. "--Sis?! SIS! SLOW DOWN! THIS IS A BAD IDEA!" Ao-hime howls, regretting the decision to follow Lu-Mey's lead once more. In death, the Yoroi that shares such a name is no different. No amount of punishment seems to STOP the red-armored giant, and no harm comes to the tiny pilot within. Without however... Shen-Di strikes the front gates of the city of Delte with all the force of a typhoon, lurching forward to barrel into the defenses shoulder first, it smashes through with a thundrous and explosive might, rendering the gate little more but splinters and exploding rubble. And with a ragdoll flop, Lu-Mey falls right off the machine, landing to the ground in a limp heap, with a jagged hunk of debris impaling her from throat to gut. "Did... Did we get through?" Aka-hime's voice crackles over the mech's loudspeaker. "Grrhglgk." "The boss says yes."
Kay	Kay's in the bunker too, but mostly listening and watching Kyra. When the attack hits, she grimaces, but she isn't going to stop Ellestaria from running off to save the day. From what she knows, the Biomancer is pretty solid, though she hasn't really seen her FIGHT ever. "Levi, see if you can't pop up and support Berserker," Kay says to the little Familiar, sending her off to dart toward where Berserker is fighting... only to change her mind. "No, wait. Take care of the one hitting the bunker. That's kind of your specialty." Huh, it's been a long time since Levi's earth-aligned demonic nature actually MATTERED for something. The little Familiar burrows into the ground as she leaves the bunker, moving like a land-shark toward Gudako's Berserker rather than even trying to turn incorporeal. Kay settles down and begins to draw out another summoning circle. She has time, this time, or at least thinks she does.
Tamiel	Adelyn's seeking of the fortified positions will uh... find the bunker pretty fast. It helps that Lu-Mey can give an approximate position, but the important matter is that Adelyn can erupt at any point around the bunker she wishes and attempt to penetrate. This means she's basically going to get a sneak attack in while Kay is preparing stuff and Kyra's getting ready. As for Kyra, Sophia shrugs. "They have reason to be suspicious. Most grigori who turn are much younger and less valuable. They have no treated me poorly." She wiggles her fingers a little, then nods at the 'cell' she's held in. It does have a comfortable bed, a television, plenty of reading material, and so forth. "I volunteered for the chains, to make them feel more comfortable. They're less confining than what I usually wear."
Shin Tokuyama	"Well shit," is pretty much Shin's reaction. I mean, it was satisfying to blow up the army again, but that huge beast he summons right after is clearly a cut and a half above the rest of the army. And more than a little above Shin. But once again, the city needs a wuxia fighter to defend it from the enemies at the gate. Fortunately, there's a lance of silver light, and Shin's attention is drawn elsewhere. He regains confidence at being offered help by a friendly force! Shin stomps a foot down and finally manages to answer Lezard, "IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT BEAST YOU SUMMON! The Defenders of this city will come to stop you, Evil Mage! Now you face a teamup of the Hero of Fists and the Guardian of Love!" He points right at the beast. He doesn't know Himei's actual title. He then charges in towards the monster, one hand glowing with a red energy. He tries to deliver a leaping uppercut towards the jawline of the chimera, but he's still MUCH weaker than it. About three points weaker, actually. So Himei will probably do most of the heavy lifting, for all his theatrics.
Ellestaria	Ellestaria is crackling and sparking when she arrives on the surface. "I will handle whatever is taking down the gates. You keep the undead out of this," she orders. The sorceress is already heading for the gate... and thus gets a front row seat to it going down. Now there's Lu-Mey, gurgling around an impalement. Interesting. Ellestaria watches clinically for a long moment, then shakes her head. "I'm afraid I cannot let you go any further." "Wrath of Gaia," she intones, slamming her palm into the ground. A line of rough spikes blast upward, then another, the two lines twining about one another as they tear toward the invading armor and kijin.
Berserker	Oh dear. Berserker, the other one, dematerializes. That's a valid tactic, though! Kiyohime fans herself with a frown, "Oh, I'm afraid I can't very well allow that, can I?" She isn't going to try to directly fight Berserker, she isn't that kind of Berserker! Instead, she floats backward in a much more elegant manner, then repeats a trick she tried earlier, last invasion. This time, the shimmering magical aura envelops the wall of the bunker, reinforcing it.
Adelyn Lysen	Fortunately, no one immediately accosts Adelyn while she's out on the surface and vulnerable to that sort of thing. It gives her a moment to look around, too, which means she sees a yoroi breaking through the gate, and some fighting in that general direction. She doesn't see Lu-Mey but, eh, she's probably fine. With a snap, the breachers go off. Flame and smoke fill the tunnel, as well as burst up through the hole she'd just vacated, even with the nature of the magic forcing most of the explosion inward. The fire continues for several moments longer, but is suddenly snuffed out--as well as all light from above--when Adelyn drops back in. The darkness changes in that subtle way from a mundane lack of light to the mana-infused Darkness, shapeless existence out of which one might hear the a click-clack of claw and chitin, and an inhuman, gurgling growl from lipless mouths and teeth-filled throats. Adelyn isn't the first to enter the bunker. Demons--summoned through the connection to the metaphysical planes known to her world, not the ones at war with Heven, here--scout the way for her. Four-legged, insectoid beasts with scythe-like claws and far too much in the way of teeth and spiked armor. The oddly-jointed legs let them run quickly while keeping low, and she steps out of the Darkness to follow them, while the summoning circles in the tunnel behind her continue to send reinforcement.
Himei	Well, the good news is her attacks worked. Himei's pleased to see that. The bad news is there's a MUCH BIGGER threat coming on, and she's still up on the walls. Being taunted. Well hey, taunting works well on Himei sometimes. She's already drawing her... sword? "Sorry, Lezard. I've never really been a watcher, and you should know this by now." Then again, Lezard never really saw her but for a couple brief periods. She doesn't leap down immediately. She's listening to the radio, watching the developments unfold. Lest is handling the gate, good. She can spread the wings that manifest at her back and leap off, streaking toward the chimera that's been summoned and giving Shin a little support. At first it's in a pretty simple form. "Searing Starfall!" It's a scattered attack, a series of tiny and fairly weak but numerous sparkling lights that streak down toward the summoned creature, hopefully passing harmlessly through Shin. She's assuming he isn't secretly a demon or something. It's mostly meant for cover so she can close in to melee range.
Lu-Mey	Gurgling, twitching, slowly losing the light from her eyes as her breathing stills, and Lu-Mey is no more. Dead to every possible means of detection. There's not really much a corpse can do when Ellestaria casts her spell, and the jagged earth rises to meet the Yoroi and Kijin. With a CRUNCH of metal, one of Shen-Di's legs is impaled, the whole mecha wobbling with a crumple as it drops to a knee, with a shrill cry from the girl inside. Ao-hime is more lucky in the ensuing spike helix, using the larger machine as a point to climb, nimbly darting up the Yoroi as she draws her guns, training them on the Atlantean. "HEY. You are scaring my sister!" The cyborg princess snarls, but before she can snap off a shot... "Uhuhuhu..." A sickly, gurgling, giggle floats eerily from the mangled oni. Wet and sloppy, blood frothing from Lu-Mey's lips as she pushes herself to stand. "Oh no no no, you won't be dealing with children that way... Today... Today you dance with Lu-Mey~." Dusky skin crawls visibly as she smiles a bloody and sharp-toothed smile, her rib-cage visibly grinding around the hunk of wood poking clean through her chest, bones squirming aside with several popping sounds... Before the Oni's body forcibly ejects the jagged and broken segment of what used to be a part of the gate, from her chest cavity, right for the biomancer.
Kyra Hyral	"Well that's good at least. Still, it worries me to see you locked up when we're here to protect you." Kyra frowns, peeking into the cell. "Not to freak you out or anything, but I'm pretty sure the city's under attack and the Confederates are trying to get at you-" The whole bunker shudders as Adelyn blows a hole inside and the light is suddenly snuffed. Digging through a pouch, Kyra produces a glowstick and strikes it, filling her immediate area with a green chemical glow. "This is bad. This is-" she hears the chitter and skitter of claws on the ground. She tosses her glowstick in the direction, lighting up the incoming demons from below. "This is very bad!" A murmur escapes Kyra and she starts to cast, magic particles flowing through her fingers, drawn from the sun-like reservoir inside of her. Only something twists within her, the reservoir souring as she tries to direct a Protect spell onto herself. She can feel it and tries to cease but it's too late, like water flowing downhill, the magic races to "completion." Those sensitive here can feel the wrongness as the Wild Magic takes hold. A scream escapes the white mage as her skin turns green and stretches, her proportions warping and overflowing, clothing tearing and leather straps creaking. Common to the sewers of Ramuh, Kyra's home, is a horse-like creature known as a Mallicant. Formerly descended from a Nightmare, these monsters came to be by feeding on the Malboro, another creature common to sewer environments. Mutated and covered with a grass-like main, long tentacles tipped with poisonous stingers emerge from their necks, each one capable of moving and striking with the speed of vipers. Via corruption of her white magic, what was a Shell spell becomes the Morph ability of the Morpher, in part brought by the painkiller that Kyra just injected into herself, which was made from Mallicant venom. Shreds of clothing slough off to the floor as Kyra screeches in rage and charges into the demons, kicking, mashing, and biting all that get in her way.
Tamiel	Adelyn is able to breach quickly because... she snuck around. Berskerker is going to have a bit tougher time because of all the interference she's getting, but it's pretty clear these bunkers weren't meant to hold up under a sustained assault like that, even reinforced. It's only the delay from all the others going after her that gives it a chance to hold under her. Then again, that was kind of the point, wasn't it?
Kay	"Aw crap," Kay mutters, as she feels the shudder of the breach and the lights flicker off. It isn't as terrifying as it could be, because she's been in bad situations before, and she's also a summoner. She's been preparing, too! The circle drawn before her flares with life while the guards rattle off small arms fire toward the incoming demons. Her own demons erupt and begin to dart forward. They're smaller, skittering ones this time, crawling over the ceiling and walls with quick, lashing tentacles that try to impale the incoming forces. But the problem is, her biggest hitter and her Servant are already busy with the Servant outside. These are small fry and she knows it. "I hope you guys have an idea."
Lezard Valeth	Lezard continues to stand back as the Chimera is confronted by Shin and Himei. "The Hero of Fists and the Guardian of Love?" He scowls. "As if someone like you could understand." The chimera looks like it's about to smash into Shin with a blurred priority launcher low with Super Armor, but Himei's intercept causes the chimera to fall back under the bombardment. While not /as/ tainted as the undead, this is kind of a binary thing, really. You are or you aren't, and the Chimera is. The strikes sear its flesh, interrupting it long enough for Shin to drive that uppercut into the beast's chin and send it flying over end, crashing onto it back! "Tch! So you might have some faint talent after all." Lezard replies. "But underestimate it at your own peril!" From its fallen state, the heads writhe, and the dragon head unleashes a belsh of flame towards both Shin and Himei, scorching the area! "Interfere or stand back as you will, it will make no difference!" Lezard declares.
Ellestaria	Seeing Lu-Mey come back up like that immediately raises her threat level in Lest's eyes. "A regenerator. This could be... difficult." For all that she's learned, Ellestaria isn't so much a battler as she is a researcher, and she watches with a bit too MUCH fascination as the ribs snap back into place. She's unprepared for the spire of wood that is hurled her way, a quick barrier attempted but failing to blunt the impact. It imbeds into her shoulder, blood spurting out the back with a grunt. Yanking the improvised missile from her arm, Ellestaria peers at Lu-Mey with a frown. "This could get annoying, but I wouldn't mind a sample of your blood, too. Hold still." Her hand drops the shaft of wood and instead sends a crackling blast of lightning toward Lu-Mey.
Adelyn Lysen	While Adelyn is specialized as a summoner, this is rushed work, meant to scout the way and dispatch any common combatants, not to deal with large monsters or elites. The demons that come for Kyra are fast, armored, and dangerous, but not to the level that she--in the form of a green, tentacled equine--can't dispatch the first to appear, even with only animal instinct to work on. This leaves plenty of openings for Kay's summons to work. Nothing so neat as disappearing back into mana occurs, here. A crushed demon leaves a messy corpse, with sickly, yellow fluids. They're fearless, of course, and more merely leap or crawl over those are that slain. Adelyn's sense of her summons is minor, since these are being reinforced from the summoning circles she'd opened in the tunnel, and their number not fixed. On the other hand, Wild Magic just occurred, and with her sense for the flow of mana, that uncontrolled surge is something the archmage cannot help but notice, well before having any idea of just what Kay is doing. Berserker and Berserker are also on her radar, but she holds some hope that their fight won't get in her way. Her arrival won't take too long and, again, won't be terribly subtle. A cyan halo spins, just perceptibly, above her head, illuminating the halls dimly in washed-out colors, yet making her red eyes seem all the brighter. There won't, immediately, be any words when she spots the Mallicant. Perhaps later. For now, only missiles and magic, and another surge of demons skittering to either side of the arcane bolts. It may take her another moment to notice anyone else in the room.
Shin Tokuyama	Shin doesn't really have a viable defense against fire except to stand his ground. And so when the massive wave of fire washes over him, he plants a hand into the ground and drops to a kneel to keep from being blown backwards. Still, it's incredibly painful and burns off almost the entirety of his shirt, leaving him scorched and still flaming in places. As he stands back up, he has only one course of action. He stops. He drops to the ground. And he rolls around a bit to put out the flames. This is basic fire safety and immensely important, even in the heat (hahaha) of battle. Once properly extinguished, he springs to his feet. Luckily, and notably for Himei, her own barrage didn't actually seem to injure him. He is ostensibly a totally normal human, it would seem. "It will make all the different, Lezard! For when our powers combine and we team up, we become the legendary duo of Fate and Love!" He flexes and then coils back his hand, "And we're going to smite any monster that attempts to harm those we protect." Sorry, Himei. Shin is taking care of all your speeching for you, at least. He thrusts his hand forward and sends a rippling red ki blast across the battlefield. It tries to hit one of the heads right in the face and explode in a blast of flame.
Himei	"Dude, I'm not the-" Too late. Himei's reply to Shin will have to wait, because she's getting blasted by flames! Jerking herself back with a flap of immaterial wings, she tumbles away, her left arm catching fire on the sleeve. She's quick to roll onto the ground and snuff it out, but that had to have hurt. "Ugh, do we HAVE to do speeches?" Himei huffs... and Lezard is getting in on the act. This is the worst thing possible. At least, that's what Himei thinks until she realizes something. "Your immense power, your dedication, your anger about love... you aren't a wizard at all!" She sheaths her sword and cracks knuckles. Her eyes flash green for a moment before she bursts forward with insane speed, activating the Raging Behemoth Charge to close the distance toward the chimera at high speed. The punch she's throwing will have quake-inducing force, if she manages to land it anywhere vulnerable. "You're a Dark Magical Boy!"
Lu-Mey	It's a gory and explicit process. The way Lu-Mey's body begins to repair itself right then and there. With a flick of her wrist, the oni casually produces a silk fan, covering her face and fanning herself as if THAT was the part of her that should be covered. The ragged edges of her wound whiver and wrigle with life, hundreds- maybe thousands- of white and red worm-like creatures peek from the jagged mess of bloody and torn flesh, pulling the wound together and knitting it sealed. Bones shift visibly and crackle as they pop into proper place, before the massive wound is little more than a red line running up her belly, and even that is slowly beginning to fade, until there isn't so much as a scratch to show she had been dead a mere moment ago. "Difficult and annoying are my job! I guess you didn't luck out?" Prodded with that killer titter once more, when Ellestaria catches the hunk of bloodied debris. "Uhuhuhu~." Ah, but it's time to dance. The fan is snapped away, and as though on cue, when told to hold still, the red-clad dancer jinks aside in a twirl. Elegant, graceful, dress swishing and flowing in her wake, it would have been impressive to just watch, if she had only been a bit faster. "Hrrhk!" Searing jolts of hot voltaic pain lance through her nervous system, causing her to collapse in a pile of twitching, jittery, gasping pain as the lightning bolt briefly hijacks her whole central nervous system and replaces the whole thing with pain. Every neuron searing with screaming pain, she drops like a sack of potatos. Such is life for she who enters battle in little more than a silk dress. It takes her a second to scrabble back to her feet, wobbling, blood creeping from her ears, nose, and eyes, body hissing and smoking like fresh cooked meat. "Okay. You want some of my blood? You can have as much as you like! If you can separate it from all of yours that I spill." Her skin -crawls-. A visible slither of something terrible and serpentine in her gut, veins popping up and throbbing all along her right arm, working their way up her neck and cheek, as her fingers jerk, and twitch- and CRACK with a sound very much like bone breaking. Just like that, every bone in her arm begins to break on its own, muscle throbbing, jerking, distending as flesh tears and from the shoulder down, everything is displaced and mangled in the resultant outward eruption of bone and chitin. Wobbling and noodle limp, on shredded tendons and muscle, jagged spurs of black bone snap forward in a blade-like array. Something with an EYE peeks out of the mass, chittering as it suddenly LASHES forward with the speed and -snap- of a whip to try and shear Ellestaria into minced meat. Science is dangerous, kids.
Kyra Hyral	An experienced Morpher will have a good deal of control over their monster bodies. The best can even hold onto their actual mind while changed, able to behave rationally instead of giving over to the instincts of the beast. Kyra has no such control. In that moment where there is a brief lull in the demon waves, the Mallicant bends down and crunches into one of the demon corpses, tearing at the chitin and chewing. It's only a moment. There is little thinking needed to be done when attacked by something. Demons, an Archmage, it does not matter. Upon closer examination, it does seem that the beast has some degree of magic flowing through it too. It is capable of casting, in fact, though there is little motivation for it to do such a thing. Kyra bucks and whines when Adelyn's magical projectiles slam into its side, leaving a smouldering, very foul-smelling mark. The odor, unfortunately, is reminiscent of the bad breath of a malboro but fortunately not potent enough to cause its legendary litany of status effects. Hissing, Kyra turns and charges Adelyn personally, the stinger-tipped tentacles along her mane whipping out at her ahead of her charge. Each one is capable of injecting venom.
Lezard Valeth	"What is this inanity!?" Lezard yells in irritation. "Why do you even care? These people have done nothing for you! These people /mean/ nothing for you. The only reason why you would do such a thing is because you have something to gain out of it!" He hisses to himself, growing ever more agitated as the battle with the Chimera progresses. The Chimera, meanwhile, prepares to pounce upon Shim once more, but in the middle of the air, the colossal sound of Himei crashing into the beast can be heard for a mile around. Time almost seems to slow down as the newly-christened Guardian of Love impacts, deforming altered flesh around that massive punch. With a scream, the ram head rears back, a gout of frost building within its gullet, but aruptly OUT OF NOWHERE, THE POWER OF TEAMWORK STRIKES. Shin's ki blast slams into the ram's head, impacting it and engulfing it in a detonation of flame and power! A moment later, the beast crashes into the ground, cracking the savaged rock even more under the force of the impact. With a howl, it skids backwards, throwing up long trails of rock to either side, cleaely gravely wounded from the devastating combination attack. The missing head seems to drop some kind of sizzling ichor to the ground, the beast thrown off of its balance from the relentless assault as well as the missing head. "DAMN YOU ALL! Do you even understand how much work it is to make a proper chimera?" Lezard hisses. The beast, even wounded as it is, seems unwilling to abandon its potential meal, however, and turns, lashing its tail towards Himei to try to strike her down before attempting another crushing pounce! "What do you even mean, a Dark Magical Boy? I will not fit into your silly classifications! Heroism... Fate... Ignorance... Hope... Even your vaunted Love," utters Lezard, his eyes narrowing. There is a sudden surge of power as he pulls a black, twisted staff from the darkness around him, holding the Manus Catalyst forward as he begins drawing in power. "I will crush them all!"
Kay	The demons that Kay summons are not as weak as some of the others, but Adelyn has more experience with it. Fortunatley, Kyra just turned herself into a monster to tear into the demons and... huh. Is that who Kay thinks it is? She doesn't even notice how easily she's seeing in the dark as she gets an idea of who Kyra's going after. "KYRA! Be careful!" A warning is the best she can do, really. Well, not quite the BEST. Backing away, Kay draws her pistol and fires off several shots to cover the transformed medic. NOW it's the best she can do... though about half of those shots have that weird barrier-piercing power behind them.
Ellestaria	This is really fascinating, and Ellestaria is wanting to take a better look, but getting snakelashed is a bad way to get a closer look. As much as she tries, she's not able to roll to the side in time, and the lash bites into her hip and draws more blood, splattering the ground as she staggers. Letting out a short cry, she stumbles and clutches at the wound as the creature prepares for another attack. The counter is from an impossible angle. Tail whipping about - tail? - yes, it's a tail from Ellestaria's rear, a sinuous prehensile thing that darts right in toward the symbiont that's assaulted her. A gleam of a stinger upon the tip can be glimpsed before it drives into the strange creature, both pinning it and injecting a paralyzing agent at the same time. Bloodied but not beaten, Ellestaria whips out... a scalpel. "Fascinating..." The blade lowers toward the snake lash, flicking out to try to vivisect the annelid while it's pinned.
Shin Tokuyama	"COBRA KAI TIMES TWENTY!" Shin says, stomping his foot down on the ground as the energy ERUPTS around him, swirling and kicking up a gale of wind and coronas, even lightning bolts, of ki surrounding him. It still doesn't buff HIM at all, but he looks totally cool as he does it. "Gain... losss... meaningless words. Experience can never be gained or measured. I help them for the experience of doing so. And for giving them the priceless chance for experiences in the future," Shin comments as he walks forward a couple steps, "And that's why I'll care. Because these people deserve to not be crushed under the incessant assault this world brings them!" Shin lifts his hands and strikes a fighting pose, "And if I have to fight people stronger than me, even impossibly so, to protect them? I will. I will do whatever it takes to give them the experience of even just one more tomorrow." And then Shin rushes forward. He's seen the Catalyst of Manus before. He's been hit by it and it hurts. He also knows that Lezard has spells that can nearly kill them. Shin won't win this fight by fighting clean, and he knows that. But in the real world, not every fight will be a clean one. So, with the coronas of energy around him, Shin rushes in towards Lezard with a spinning heel kick. It might look like it's aiming high, but at the last second it curves and arcs downward, trying to slam his heel into the knee of the Wizard at full force.
Adelyn Lysen	The fact that Kyra no more than smoulders causes Adelyn to faintly frown, and she's already stepping back and casting as the morphed mage turns and charges her. Adelyn's had the advantage of seeing how quick those tentacles are in stabbing her demons, so she's not about to bank on being able to dodge once they're in range of her. Instead, another demon leaps to her rescue, speared by the stinger and then continuing its launched arc into Kyra via pure momentum, even as it dies. Not quite in the room, shielded and backing off, the Confederate is a diffcult target, but certainly not an impossible one while unaware of Kay's presence. This changes the moment she shouts. It is not quite enough time to both parse through memories of the voice, of capabilities, analyze, construct a countering spell, and cast it. It is enough time to shift the defensive ward she was already constructing in Kay's direction. Most of what would hit her, does not. The barrier-piercing bullets, on the other hand--these are only slightly deflected before passing through the ward. One strikes Adelyn's shoulder, tearing likewise through the enchanted robe, and triggering its embedded healing magic. "That summoner, is it? Is this horse yours?" Starting a conversation will not, in her case, slow down her next spell. The pain would, but the enchantments take care of that. The first motion is a reconfiguration of her ward, still mostly intact despite the shots, which explodes at Kyra with concussive force, a spell with a purely physical effect. That's meant to buy time and distance, more than damage. The true danger comes from every corner of the room, an oppressive surge of Dark that maintains coherence even when brought into the light, rolling like a wave to wash across the illuminated area. It doesn't do much, on its own. Just slow down the motion of anything that isn't a creature with specific wards or powered by Dark mana, and then begin to burn like acid.
Himei	"Yeah, that's what they all scream indignan-" Indignantly, Himei was going to say, but she's remembering now why she doesn't engage in witty banter while fighting. Namely, the tail smack comes out of nowhere and impacts pretty hard. She's been hit harder, sure... but it still means she's hurtling back and slamming hard into the ground as payment for her carelessness. Whoops. Oh well, she's just on her back, but that's not a big deal. Except that this giant bloody thing is leaping toward her, leaving Shin alone to handle Lezard. This isn't a good thing, is it? And no matter what, she'll be at best pinned for a few minutes even if she kills this thing. She'll just have to see if she can make it smaller. "SMITING STAR OF HEAVEN!" Himei shouts as she forces her hands up, the burnt one not quite able to spread fully. The blazing star of mystical power that she summons launches upward to explode in that holy-like light, trying to blast as much away as she can before getting uh... smooshed. Yeah, she named an attack after the dead Confed Shogun.
Lu-Mey	Bone-hard and razor sharp, Lu-Mey's whole arm is reduced to nothing more than a mulched mass of Talonfangs, almost rabidly vying to feed. And as soon as Ellestaria is cut, the all of that blood soaks right into the jagged and bony insectoid killing machines. The Oni is damn near cackling as the Atlantean is toppled from the strike, but very quickly that smile is wiped off her face. When Ellestaria's tail lashes back, jabbing her arm and shunting that numbing payload of paralytic toxin, the Oni's arm twitches. Jerking and trying to keep up activity as normal only fails. With one last jerking writhe, her arm, in entirety goes limp, chittering sluggishly and screeching out in a pain all its own as that scalpel begins to TAKE IT APART WHILE IT'S STILL ON HER. The myriad of motions Lu-Mey experiences in this instant are jumbled and confused. There is rage, of course, at being foiled from claiming her prey. But this is tempered by one part confusion and two parts sheer revulsion as the biomancer begins -vivisecting- her. Not only does it dredge up terrible memories, but it's... "What- what are you doing- AH! Hey that hurts! -No no stop you're hurting -it-!" It's /shocking/. For a few debilitatingly painful cuts, she's just left staring aghast and bewildered. Too lost in the moment to even try pulling herself away, her next reaction is one of panic. "R-RANCHIKI!" Her stomach churns, something slithering against her belly from withinm before ERUPTING outwards in a shower of blood and muscle. With a SCREECH, a massive centipede lashes out, pincer fangs snapping and biting, trying to gouge and tear at the wrist with the scalpel as Lu-Mey finally regains the presence of mind to back up squealing.
Kyra Hyral	The demons function as intended: they get in Kyra's way, slowing her down and enabling Adelyn to escape the stingers. For now. The dying demon smashes against her, halting her for moments before she rears back on her hind legs and brings her hooves down, crushing the already-dead demon beneath them, slicking the ground beneath her with yellow demon guts. She presses onwards, right into a concussive blast that knocks the Mallicant across the room, almost right into the bars of Sophia's cell. Wobbling, the Mallicant picks itself up to make another one of its mindless charges. The pain doesn't seem to slow it down, thanks to the numbing drugs Kyra took before this incident. Another lunge is made at Adelyn, tentacles splayed, mouth open as it tries to take a bite out of the archmage. But then the body of the monster ripples and shrinks, the Morphing effects wearing off, Kyra lacking in the experience of a real Morpher to keep it going. Very soon, it is the white mage, in tattered clothing and belts that are numerous enough to keep her decent. The haze of bestial behavior lingers in her mind for a few seconds as she tries to complete the former action of biting Adelyn. It's not going to hurt nearly as much now though.
Tamiel	The fight breaking out in the bunker is pretty bad, for the woman in the cell. Seeing her defenders going like that is one thing, but she can't do much. Her Armament System is disabled, her hands are bound, and aggressive magic sealed. The only thing she can do is... "Mn," Sophia considers, then offers up a minor shimmering of power. It's a protection spell for the two defending her, that's all. A minor but decent one. She is far more skilled at magic than most grigori, she can handle that much, and it might keep them alive.
Kay	"Yeah, hi again," Kay says to Adelyn. Her shots don't last long becuase she doesn't have many in the clip, but that's okay. She's surprisingly capable with a well-aimed kick, though only when dealing with demons. It's... not something she's going to be able to handle soon enough. That's because she doesn't have any real protections against the magic flowing outward. Oh, sure, she does, but nothing she can direct. The World Core Fragment will actively resist such things, but she has no control over it right now... and thus she's starting to get a painful burning rushing through her. "We gotta get out of here," she mutters. And she does so the only way she can think of. She's going to rush forward - way faster than a human should - and grab Kyra. She's going to TRY to get to Sophia too... though her offer is probably going to be more along the lines of 'what do you want?' than rescue, given the situation. She can't hold out very long against a spell like that, and by the time she's over to Kyra she's already faltering.
Lezard Valeth	It was such a GOOD PLAN too. But then, chimera are not known for their extensive tactical acumen. The beast, in the air already and bearing such mass, is at the maercies of basic physics, which Himei exploits ruthlessly as she calls upon the SMITING STAR OF HEAVEN. The burning holy light flares, searing brightly to intercept the beast. It cannot evade the attack, and the result is basically inevitable. As the brilliant holy sphere detonates, the chimera is engulfed, becoming a shadow amidst the light before it dissolves with a final roar, becoming nothing more than sparkles in the air as the powerful holy strike lands. Well, that's one way to free yourself up. Meanwhile, Lezard himself grimaces. "Well, if you want something done right, clearly you have to use better quality... WHAT?" Lezard pulls back, bringing the Catalyst to a defensive position as Shin unleashes the burning spirit of COBRA KAI TIMES TWENTY. "What is this... Power?" Lezard says, uncertain for a moment. "... Wait, this isn't power, this is nothing more than a flashy bluff! You fool!" He raises his staff to attempt to block the kick, but Shin's cross-up game is on point, and the high guard cannot block when Shin dips down to unleash that most dirty trick from that bag of dirty tricks. "Did you think I would fall for such an att-ACK!" There is a low crack, as Lezard's leg is struck right on the side of the knee, at its most vulnerable point. As altered as his body is, it still obeys the rules of human physiology. And that's why he falls to one knee, gasping in pain. "You /BASTARD/! You are going to beg for mercy before I annihilate you!" He screams in anger, indignation, and pain, as he thrusts the Catalyst forward. "POISON BLOW!" He screams. With a surge of dark power, the ground below Shin bubbles, a purple miasma belching upwards with horrible toxic fumes. "NOW PERISH IN AGONY!"
Shin Tokuyama	Shin does... not have much defense against poison gas and noxious fumes, actually. And it shows due to the fact that he's about mid-liner when it happens, "Haha. As strong as you are, I can still limit that mobility of yours if I ju-" The upwards belch of miasma causes his eyes to water and for him to clutch at his throat, choking heavily as he wobbles and tries to stagger backwards out of it. He manages to actually stagger out of it, but by that point he's already gotten a good lungful of the incredibly dangerous gas. He's wheezing for air and trying to stay conscious, but to minimal avail. Because he abruptly seems to stagger on his feet and then keel over sideways onto the ground, shallow breathing indicating he's alive, but struggling.
Adelyn Lysen	Well, that's certainly a sight. The monstrous horse turned into a person, and it's one Adelyn recognizes. It--she--is also trying to bite her. How... peculiar. There's a silent pause that isn't silent at all, if one listens to a quick bit of contact between her and a certain Wraith. During this, Kyra succeeds in getting quite close, and the magic circle hovering in front of her left hand--pointed toward Kay, but drifting toward Sophia--does not discharge whatever it is preparing. Her earlier spell, the Dark mana concentrated throughout the room, is still in effect, but what to do with the moment of time it will grant her is uncertain. Close combat is troublesome, and even with her demons in the room, they continue to do not much more than buy time. All terribly troublesome. What are her allies doing? Fighting outside, certainly. Perhaps she should count herself fortunate that only these two and the target remained as notable defenders within. Oh, well, no use complaining about it. She'll just bring up her left hand, sparkling, blue-white gem between her fingers, and-- Kay gets to Kyra before she can toss the lightning-infused spell-gem down the bestial white mage's throat. "Hm." Unfortunate complication. The fast motion is almost enough to get her to cast early, but she tends toward caution--as do most people of her country who wish to live for long periods--and it's just so... terribly wasteful. "I don't suppose you'd barter? Oh, but I won't give you the target. You don't have enough to offer. Something more like 'allowing you to leave without further damage and-slash-or death.' The entire bunker is more or less overrun by now. You can't expect reinforcements before I have the chance to at least kill that student." There's every possibility that Kay could escape with Kyra while dealing with Adelyn in the non-verbal sense, but the archmage is reasonably certain that freeing Sophia won't be possible under the same conditions, so she loses very little by asking.
Ellestaria	Whoops. It's been a while since Lest was in the field, so she got distracted, didn't she? The centipede comes at her and opens up another nasty gash, right along her arm, but it's enough of a distraction that the tail comes loose, and Lu-Mey can jerk herself free while Ellestaria is sputtering. She doesn't say anything more... she realizes she's in danger now. A crackle of lightning surrounds her as she unleashes stored power, blasting a small circle about her. That should save her from getting eaten alive, but it leaves her bleeding and hurting, just like the old days.
Lu-Mey	Nope. Nope. Just like before, Lu-Mey is DONE. See, the truth of the matter is... Flat out prolonged fights are not to her taste. Much like the centipede, her specialty is the art of vicious and violent surprise, and... That has all but prettymuch evaporated after she picked herself up from dying. Freshly seared and hissing with renewed pain, she backs off. Fast. Ellestaria doesn't particularly need to discharge that sudden voltage, Lu-Mey is already throwing herself away from the Atlantean in a tumble, body working to counteract the paralytic as her arm begins to twitch and slither on its own all over again, but... "It's been fun-- bye!" She's already hauling ass in the opposite direction, arm flailing and centipede hissing from where it hangs out of her gut.
Kyra Hyral	The haze of being a very aggressive, carnivorous horse fades from Kyra's mind, though not soon enough to prevent the leap. Kay makes a fantastic save, pulling her back before she winds up swallowing a gem from Adelyn. She recovers her barings at this time and all too happily backpedals from the archmage and her demonic hordes. One of her hands grabs onto Kay as they both sink backwards towards the cell containing Sophia. She can feel two opposing forces at work here-the low level Protection spell that Sophia had cast earlier and the crushing darkness being maintained by Adelyn. "Are you really sure /we/ don't have anything to offer /you/? Forget about the Confederacy and the Grigori for a moment here. You're a mage, a really high level one at that. As a fellow mage, I'm very sure I have plenty to offer you in the form of research, technique, and mixtures that you have not encountered before. I'm sure we can work something out." Kyra tries to hide a wince as the darkness spell continues to burn at her.
Kay	While in pain, Kay is at least pleasantly surprised by the offer to negotiate. She can roll with that. She has an idea. "Yeah... yeah. I think you've won. We could maybe make it harder, but..." She starts edging toward the exit. "Tell you what. We'll leave if you don't kill her. She doesn't deserve that. I know that's what Heaven wants... I've seen how they handle it." Here, Kay's going to make a gamble. "You can take her and study her instead, if she allows it." It's a pretty obvious ploy of 'we'll try rescuing her later,' but she's betting on Adelyn's curiosity. But 'if she allows it?' that's because she finishes drawing her backup pistol at her back, and she's giving Sophia a look. An offer really. She can shoot her here and save her from possible torture, or they can try to rescue her later.
Adelyn Lysen	It's certainly not as if Adelyn trusts Kay not to attack during negotiations, and she's expecting the two of them to make a break for it the moment talks break down, if not sooner. That would be suboptimal, and she'd like to avoid it. For that purpose, the foot-wide spell-circle over her left hand is reoriented toward their escape route. The demons, heeding an unspoken order, have stopped attacking, but the burning, smoke-like Darkness is still present. It has more of a slowing than damaging effect, and it doesn't go high, but it's certainly not comfortabe. "You cannot guarantee that cooperation, therefore, you cannot give the target to me in any respect I could not already take her." Spell-gem tucked into her palm, she points directly at Kay. "/However/, you have something of interest to me, and I would see it studied before your dangerous activities result in your death. I will allow this to happen later." To Kyra, she shows slight surprise. It's possible that she'd assumed the white mage to not be smart enough to say something so reasonable. "Allowable. You should consider the quantity of material assistance that you would equate to the value of your life." She's not saying anything about what she plans for Sophia, even though Kay's guess was basically correct.
Himei	Oh, that went better than expected. Still, Shin's poisoned and Himei's injured, so Himei doesn't exactly relish going into a full on fight with Lezard. She'd have to whip out tricks he hasn't seen yet to really take him on... and she's fairly sure he has tricks she hasn't seen yet, as well. It's too risky. So she's going to swoop in and grab Shin. "No point in keeping this up, they're already at the target! Come on, you. No point in fighting the Dark Magical Boy further! You can have another training montage first!" She DOES know how to speak Trope.
Kyra Hyral	Making a break for it didn't seem like it was possible right now, even if Kyra slammed both her and Kay with her Shitkicker formula. Idily she wonders if Sophia could have stomached it and fought her way out while they held off the demons. It was too late for that now, though, they were outnumbered and Adelyn was aiming at the most likely escape route. Kyra winces, unable to hide it this time, at Adelyn's response to Kay. Not only that, it does seem that Adelyn has some kind of curiosity with Kay that meant sparing her today. Her stomach twists knowing that she doesn't have a similar contingency and starts to direct her magic particles to her command seals. Adelyn would have to fight through Nero first if she wanted to kill her her- "...a year of material and time comes to mind." Kyra offers, if reluctantly, not entirely thrilled with the idea of being obligated to a Confederate. "I gather and produce material all the time. It's a natural outcome of slaying monsters. There's little I can't find some use for." More stalling, really, though she likely does mean the bargaining of her end. On one hand it did mean protection, of a sort, from Adelyn for a year. Kay needed time, though, to do what she needed to do.
Tamiel	Sophia regards the whole idea thoughtfully. She shakes her head, "I could kill myself, but I think if it spares these two, I'm more interested in seeing what they can do." Which is an odd way of putting it, isn't it? She muses thoughtfully on the idea. "I will go peacefully then. Though I wonder where her wings went." She isn't going to explain that statement as yet.
Lezard Valeth	Lezard doesn't bother screaming epithets or curses at Himei and Shin as they escape, simply scowling at them as they make their escape. Mainly this is because his leg goddamn hurts and it's totally ruined his groove. Ugh. When you're out of your groove you just can't do these things properly. As a treult, he mostly uses his Catalyst as a splint to help himself stand up again, waiting to hear from the others about the results of the battle before he has to figure out if he needs to find a solution to the standing problem.
Adelyn Lysen	Adelyn considers, and gives Kyra a short nod. "One year of your time and material. Acceptable. I know where to find you, and you will easily find my people." Then, Sophia. "Yes." It's unclear as to what she's agreeing with, and as lacking in explanation. It's not to the matter of her coming peacefully, at least, since she responds to that afterward, in a different tone, "Very well. With your cooperation, leaving will be simple." Getting into places can be difficult, but for exiting, Adelyn knows a fair few transportation spells, and came prepared. It'll leave the room a bit messy, but it'll get them back out of the city, if those outside bought her enough time. Odd that no one else made it this far, but, tch. Some things can't be helped. She'll get the full story later. Kay's response is received and responded to in more public fashion.