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Silver Carnation COOLSVILLE, MAINE - EARLIER
It's a nice summer day on the coast. Or, it should be, at least. The small town of Coolsville basks in summer activities, when a dark shadow appears on the horizon. The screams echo out, an alert.

The Endling's too fast. It skids across the water like an insect, long legs and a massive orb-like gelatinous body protecting its glowing core. The available magical children in the area come out. The Endling is hit. It thinks. It adapts.

It ruins everything.

COOLSVILLE, MAINE - NOW
The town center is mostly rubble, to those coming into town from the warpgate a few miles out. Finding the Endling is difficult, in a way. It's not that it's hidden, but there's a reason the town is rubble.

Chunks of building, pier, road, concrete, and earth are floating around it, creating a debris barrier. Two magical boy first responders, with topknots and samurai-like mahou outfits, blue and red, are respectively floating around the exterior trying to snipe shots which are blocked by debris, and trying to get into the interior of the debris field. Whenever Red Ogre moves into the field, one of the legs suddenly bends up, and moves to skewer him, as he takes cover behind debris. Each leg is revealed to be covered in strange 'feather-like' nubs, probably to slice into prey.

There's still people alive, most likely, as it hasn't wrecked every building in town and there'd be people sheltering in place, with outgoing roads clogged, but the Endling and the debris field both are moving inwards as it gets a chance. Nobody's trapped in the rubble below its 'feet', though.

Nobody alive, at least.
Brooklynn Bailey Brooklynn gets wind of the Endling attack, and being part of a mercenary force that goes around trying to make a name for themselves and also the capital for their own situation can't exactly pass this up.  What she arrives at is a mess, the creature is using a debris field to protect itself from range.  Worse, there are civilians in the mix.  

This causes Brooklynn to sigh, which means there is a greater danger here to those people, worse that they can't rush the monster quickly, with some of the biggest weapons that the group has.  "With me," She says to her soldiers.  All of them dressed in somewhat similar outfits, most of them seemingly scavenged.  All of them hold a shield and slide their face armor forward to shield their faces.  

Brooklynn produces a spear made out of flames, as she raises the weapon.  "That fighting head-on..." she says, with a voice with extra weight. "Take upon you my strength, share it between you!  Let us fight together, to kill our foes and protect our people!" The flames wrap out around her, those who are willing will feel themselves becoming both TOUGHER but also regenerate faster.  Not only that, she boosts everyone's strength with her own powers, aiming to enhance those particular talents even further.  

Civilians too close to the zone will feel this strength too, hopefully giving them enough of a boost to run.  The spear comes down, pointing at the Endling.  She makes her challenge and attempts to draw its attention.  More than that, her eyes are glowing like brilliant bond fires, and her body has a supernatural glow to it.  Angelic-fire feathers randomly manifest and unmanifest in her direct presence.  
Tamamo <J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Has the town been evacuated?"
<J-IC-Scene> (NPC) Blue Ogre says, "Shelter in place. People are on the roads, but they're going to clog it up and make things worse. This town didn't have anything to warn them."
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Lilian, please put me down ahead of its path, would you? And take some of these talismans."

    It is entirely possible that there would be no danger to anyone further, should they simply focus on annihilating the enemy. But Strawberry Princess, at least, has warned of how unpredictably dangerous these enemies are, given their capacity for learning. Leaving a family directly in the path of the strange creature, let alone a sprawling neighborhood, doesn't sit right with Tamamo.

    The talismans she hands to Lilian, one portion of a set, are for defining the points of a barrier. She's used similar things before, and anyone can place them down, given they have either a sufficient grasp of arcane geometry or precise instructions, and the mobility to get in and out of dangerous areas safely. Lilian should have no trouble with that.

    Still keeping to some distance, Tamamo quickly sets about defining a wide rear area for the barrier to take up, letting the slips of paper fly from her fingers and stick to poles or buildings. Before even checking that Lilian's used up all of hers, Tamamo begins the long incantation, a high-speed, ancient tongue twister of a spell that's confusing just to attempt to listen to.

    The barrier won't have much effect on humans, but on things 'far from human,' entering it will be a subtly baffling experience that turns one round and round in endless circles, preventing forward progress without conclusively allowing one to turn another way to avoid it. Carefully backing up a long distance and taking the long way about would still work, of course.
Cantio One primary opponent, countless obstacles, at least two local responders, several more Concord responders, and an unknown number of survivors or bodies to recover. Cantio has to remind herself of the numbers just to keep her head on straight, although her focus is not on diving right into the fray to beat the crap out of a giant monster. She'll leave that to the more stabbing or punching inclined Elites, instead turning her efforts towards locating and identifying which buildings might have people sheltering in place.

Unfortunately, Cantio can't see through walls. What she can do is move from from building to building, using her transformed form's flight capabilities to get around fairly quickly while utilizing telekinetic to force open outside-facing doors and windows. Once they're opened enough, she can hurl and jam her drones inside as many of those buildings as she can reach with that same telekinesis. She's not stopping inside any of the buildings, though. Not yet.

The drones being dropped off, meanwhile, repeat the same message over and over in a robotic and only moderately unnerving synthesized voice at an incredibly high volume: "We are here to help you. Come this way." The drones themselves aren't going to get anyone out or protect them, though, but it may just make it somewhat easier to tell which buildings even have anyone alive enough to save.
Okada Izou      You ever have one of those...moments...in life where *everything* suddenly stops making sense? One of those world-twisting events that jar you straight out of your comfort zone and present to you a bigger, wider, and scarier world? Not even some eldritch truth or some great terror strike or something - just a realization, a mundane little one, that tells you, 'hey, wait. The world doesn't make sense right now.'

     That's been Okada Izou's **entire week**.

     This is no exception.

     Okada Izou was not expecting this. Okada Izou was not expecting actual, literal giant monsters. He was not expecting some kind of horrifying massive orb-like gelatinous body. He was not expecting small children in samurai gear.

     Actually, no, that was expected. He's pretty sure that they used child soldiers at least once in the Bakumatsu.

     So, given that his worldview has been *utterly* twisted into all sorts of unpleasant shapes for about the, oh, eleventy-billionth time in the last five days, Okada Izou's response is really quite understandable.

     He is screaming, loudly, as he charges directly at the thing.

     The scream, if anyone is paying enough attention, is something akin to 'FUUUUUUUUUUUCK THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS'.

     Izou's toolkit is, after all, extremely limited. He has exactly one real skill: killing people. This is, in fact, not people. It is decidedly not people. It is some kind of horrid ooze bug. It is like someone pulled open a cicada and the inside was goop and then also it had a ton of shit around it and also the legs were full of blades and why is this.

     Not 'why is this happening.'

     'Why is this.'

     The only things on Izou's mind right now are 'sword' and 'don't die.'

     So that is what he's doing.

     He's just charging directly into melee and going at it.

     Granted, 'charging directly into melee and going at it' is still an absolute savant of killing things with a sword getting into melee and going at it. The only meaningful target is the feathers, so that's where the sword is going - absolutely precise, no wild swings, no slashing at the legs pointlessly, but laser-targetted strikes at the points where the feathers connect to the leg. It is like watching art.

     Where the artist is screaming the entire time.

     Which is probably still art.
Hibiki Tachibana     A call for help over the radio, and coordinates given. Endlings are not something she's ever encountered before, only heard maybe once in passing in conversation that involved Strawberry, if even that. But if they're anything like the monsters she's used to fighting, she can manage something. A bit of chatter later, and that's all Tachibana Hibiki needs to hurry over as quickly as she can to help out the magical boys and the other responders.

    A lot later than she wishes she was, once the state central Coolsville is in becomes apparent.

    "--Gungnir TRON!" Her shout can be heard right as she starts getting close in her dead sprint down what remains of the streets, golden light shrouding her body before it breaks away mid-run into her Symphogear-clad figure. She can see Red Ogre and Blue Ogre trying to hold their own and figure something out. Sniping isn't going to get far, but Hibiki can't do that anyway. But she manages to get a solid enough look at the Endling's legs when it shoots out to try to skewer the former of the two, and gets an idea on how dangerous it is. Not just skewering, but rending.

    That's still not going to stop her from sprinting right past Blue Ogre and moving to put herself in the direction that the creature and it's massive debris field are slowly moving towards. Lilian's warning echoes in her mind, as does Tamamo's mention of talismans. "...I can't do anything like her, or even slow it down with the environment..." She mutters to herself while moving, eye out for any civilians who are still stuck way too close to the action. "...But it'll have to get me out of its way if it wants to keep going!"

    Once she's also squarely right in the path of destruction, Hibiki kicks off the ground and dives forward into the mass of rubble. She's expecting it to lash out at her too--and responds with a thruster-assisted sideways movement while rotating to smash her fist into the side of the limb as hard as possible, bladed feathers or not. If this thing needs all this to protect itself, it's possible it's not so durable...and she can find a way to get to it. Either way, she's probably going to end up ducking behind some debris herself immediately after so she's not attacked again before she recovers. Maybe if she can push this forward as cover to get closer...
Lilian Rook     EARLIER:
    "Strawberry. Unaone."

    NOW:
    This is Lilian's third Endling encounter. All she can feel relieved about is not having to encounter another traumatized little girl and her dead friends. Tactically considered, this is significantly worse than that. Much worse than the one before, still in its spatial 'cocoon'.

    "This is an absolute mess." she surmises after only a cursory glance of the field from the air. "What good is sheltering in place if it's just going to tear the shelters right out of the ground with that power anyways? And if nobody's evacuated, then they can't even deploy a nuclear weapon as a last resort." A beat. "Americans, I swear to God."

    Since it seems Tamamo has picked up on the same issue, and wisely would like very little to do with getting up close to that monster, Lilian abides her request to be put down well ahead of its path of destruction, where she might help move those still in the way. She herself is dressed in her battlesuit already, and seems to have foregone any kind of ballistic armament for this case; the ~~oni~~ ogre twins had made it abundantly clear that they can't get a clear shot on it before she'd even gotten dressed, and saving magical energy is the same as wasting time in this case.

    §The debris field doesn't look as if it's being actively manipulated, but it's not dense enough that it should be impossible to attack from range. Either those two are generally incompetent at long range, or the Endling will reposition it once we engage; or it'll learn to. The more it moves around, the more it'll churn up the infrastructure and the more shielding it'll pick up; there's no way I can tell if it has a maximum capacity, and if it does it'll likely use the excess as weaponry. I have to close in before it builds up a wall too dense to get through, and slow or halt its movement before it accumulates too much mass.§

    Though nominally allied, the extremely helpful righteous flames summoned by Brooklyn don't seem to attach to her. As she silently ignores them, it's not really possible to tell if it's a compatibility thing, ideology thing, complete confidence in Tamamo instead, sheer arrogance, or some combination of the bunch. Having palmed the talismans before relocating Tamamo herself though, she makes certain to place them as a maximum priority strategic concern. Telling her only to be careful, Lilian then disappears from the street, and rapidly blinks between points in the array she'd scoped from the air, appearing just long enough to precisely place and secure them.

    "Perfect. That's just what we need." she calls out into the radio. "The rest of you, if you have any sense, focus on limiting its mobility; we don't need it picking up any more material, even if all the civilians escape."

    Lilian arrives into the fray first. Of course she does. She can't be stopped from doing so. Ascending from street level, accelerating hard and gaining speed in a straight line with each passing second, she aims herself like a human missile straight through a narrow, winding gap in the orbiting clutter, and--
Lilian Rook                 -----[stop]-----
    --slips between two huks of rubble, lithobrakes hard on the vertical side of the one behind them, and launches off it at an acute angle, winding around its perimeter and hitting a wildly angled piece of highway, running along its tilted top surface, leaping to a suspended telephone pole, gaining air to brush over the top of a mangled urchin of excavated pipes, and hits a slab of road at a thirty degree angle, sliding down it at great speed and leaping from its edge into the inner zone, batting aside floating pieces of asphalt and twisted metal as she goes.

    Something that'd be borderline suicidal to attempt normally, made plausible by her impatient insistence that it all stand still so she can take an unchallenging run across a stationary obstacle course. The idea is to avoid doing it twice.

                -----[start]-----

    --disappears into the hazard field, emerging near instantly into the eye of the storm with a sliding leap from a piece of suspended road, her thoroughly unnatural sword gripped in both hands. A scarlet streak splits the air at a steep downward angle, intersecting one of the monster's lead legs. Close inspection, for just an instant, sees that it's only cut halfway, leaving a little over three feet of clearance to avoid touching those bristles. This sharply resolves itself as Lilian impacts the ground behind that leg at high speed, crunching the broken asphalt underneath both legs, bending to absorb the shock, then launching back upwards in an extremely narrow 'V' shape to cleave through the other half.
Staren     Staren is riding a flying broom sidesaddle, because SOMEONE stole most of his methods of transport. She's got the goggles on, for once, and is frantically trying to come up with a way to fight something that blocks long-range attacks and is probably really strong in melee. "Wormhole link established... good. Let's get more eyes on this thing..." Spherical, coconut-size drones appear in her hands as she tosses them into the sky one after the other, little ion jets allowing them to hover as they spread out high above the battlefield.

    Getting grappled has historically not gone well for Staren. As Brooklynn says she has a plan, Staren flies down to hover over her and her soldiers. And ends up... enhanced! Physical strength and toughness is... well, okay, that's kind of what being a combat robot gets you, right? Maybe they can work with that. She reaches into her coat and activates *something*, magic effects of flight and protection invisibly surrounding her, allowing her to stuff the broom into the bag before flying onward.

    Still, boosted toughness or no, Staren doesn't want to facetank debris and then get thrashed; they'll need SOME plan. And that means they need data, and that means eyes on the monster. Staren has One (1) idea for breaking through the debris field: But first, she fires off a flare that lands on the ground near the edge of the debris field. <"Get ready, but don't get caught in the blast!">

    Staren holds out an arm, and there's a flickering of distorted space, and a missile appears, of the size that would normally require a shoulder launcher. With enhanced strength, she just hefts and tosses it before it arms and launches, guiding itself into the edge of the debris field next to the flare and detonating. It really would no doubt be a VERY satisfying explosion were it not just slamming into debris. Nonetheless, Staren's already diving for it to try and fly through before the dust even clears, not sure how long or how well that will have worked... At least thanks to Brooklynn, they can hopefully withstand it not working as well as planned.
Strawberry Princess      Strawberry's approach makes a shrieking, Dopplering noise- she's just barely subsonic, and the air howls as it parts ahead of her Shimmer Aura and collapses back down in her wake. She's a thin streak of pink light overhead painted against the sunny blue sky.

     If this were in its Chrysalis- even if it were still over the ocean- I could get rid of it. But there are thousands of people here. The radiation poisoning... it's not worth thinking about. I can't.

     Her body subconsciously lines up the shot; she sights the core from thousands of feet overhead, finds just the right angle she'd have to take to evaporate it. Her fingers twitch, just a millimeter, on the trigger. But the safeties stay on.

     Even if this were the old days. I was strong enough back then, wasn't I? And I could fight without making an irradiated wasteland. I didn't need an actual plutonium reactor to be Strawberry Princess. I didn't-

     No. Deal with what's in front of you, Strawberry. It plays.

     So she hits the boards, swooping downwards at harrowing speeds and blowing right by Brook with a gale-force wind to grab a bit of those holy flames. Her body registers the enhancement's effects before her mind does, and it smoothly takes advantage of it: her momentum carries her into the debris-field, where death-defyingly narrow maneuvers and seemingly lucky positioning see her through by inches. With her newly-augmented strength, she grabs the largest piece of concrete she can find- easily bigger than a minivan- and swerves off straight up, climbing thousands of feet into the sky.

     'Strawberry Princess' knows how, even if you don't.

     She reverses direction hard enough that, if her body weren't augmented by Brook, she'd absolutely black out. Plunge faster than terminal velocity, fast enough that you can feel your blood shifting, fast enough that the air shrieks around you.

     A hundred feet above the Endling, Strawberry releases what has now become a several-ton near-sonic kinetic penetrator above its gelatinous body, pulls out of her dive with razor-thin margins, and swoops back up into the sky.

     Because Strawberry Princess kills monsters. And I'll always find a way to be her.
Muramasa <J-IC-Scene> Muramasa suddenly says, "This time, I'll fight, too."

Armored tabi scrape against the ground as he comes to a skidding stop, leaf-shaped blades in hand that had assisted him in getting here in a reasonable amount of time. They disappear into motes of light as he dispels his projections, and gazes upon the Endling in the distance -- a genuine monster.

    An enemy of humanity.

Just how many lives had it taken already, the bodies; or at least, what was left of the cadavers, listlessly left to be trampled over by the thing, he wondered. "There goes Assassin," he mutters as local Manslayer Okada Izou charges straight ahead.

The two 'ogres' and Izou all, unsuccessfully, attempt an assault on the Endling that is repelled by its vicious counter-attack, The debris is what's stopping most of us from getting at it to attack. If we could blow it away, then it'd be possible to get a decisive strike in ...

As the Elites collaborate over their communication channels, his plan of action is decided on quickly enough, in that he would focus on striking it with as powerful as a strike as he could muster and, thankfully, he could do so without endangering Coolsville's residents any more than necessary.

Holding out his hand, Muramasa breathes in and closes his eyes, he needed to focus and summon the armament he needed by the time an opening in the tornado appeared. "Trace on."

        Commencing Projection.

The weapon he had in mind wasn't a sword, and because of that, it would be more difficult for him to successfully apparate. Magical energy twists into a skeletal grid in his hand, I only saw it once. Rider's Noble Phantasm .. the one from Shimousa.

That woman, her Noble Phantasm summoned the armaments of her most trusted warriors. All of them could have been useful, but in terms of raw power packed into one blow ... there was no doubt, this was one of the strongest things he could produce.

In his hands rests a masakari axe with a massive, golden head with ribbed segments and a handle jutting out the top, rigged to a simple trigger mechanism.

    "Alright, the projection is stable ... now ...!"

    Commence Reinforcement.

By reinforcing it with his magical energy, he could overcome the degredation in quality from projecting it outside of his inner world. Brandishing it to his side with both hands, Muramasa took off into a run that quickly accelerated into a full force sprint.

With this, he would draw out every single ounce of potential within the armament and use it all up in a single strike. In that regard, what he was performing was similar to Archer's Overedge technique, he supposed.

Muramasa bolts through the opening and kicks up, leaping as high into the sky as he could with his reinforced legs.

"Golden...
SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK!!!!"

Golden Eater is the axe most famously used by Kintoki, one of Raikou-no-Minamoto's heavenly generals. Within it are contained fifteen cartridges loaded with magical lightning that when released, activate a devastating explosion of godly thunder.

Pushing the axe past its limit, all for this one strike, the great flash that roars louder than the storm is a breath-taking eruption heavenly strength that swallows but Muramasa and the Endling in the thunderclap.
Silver Carnation Brookylnn and her shoulders rise forward. She makes a challenge, and empowers both her allies and the civilians, giving them speed. But they're not leaving, yet - it's not safe. The Endling responds to her challenge with a leg. It moves to try and impale her, and whip her up into the air with extreme speed.

Lilian is both right and wrong about something, as this happens. The two Ogres aren't incompetent - the debris field can be actively controlled, and is shifted around to focus on the direction of people coming in. It doesn't *expose* the other fronts, but it does harden up, making it denser, as it rips more concrete out of the ground to bolster.

As she cuts through one of the legs, and Izou begins cutting into the bristling 'feathers', destroying one, they both notice something immediately, and both have the reaction time to do something. The bristles fire out, attached to the leg like tendrils. They move to try and stab, though luckily, they don't have more bristles attached to them. Yet, anyways. Izou will find dodging easier than blocking - they'll likely smash through his katana, but they're not used to his sheer speed yet.

The mixture of Tamamo's barrier and the others going into melee, luckily, is going to prevent it from keeping moving. This is good, because Cantio's cries out can reassure people, with their regeneration, to start moving, but she'll likely want to grab them and evacuate themselves before legs and bristles impale into them, as they're moving for everyone on the field.

Hibiki smashes a limb. A bristle fires out to skewer straight through her, but ducking behind debris is useful, because it gives her enough reaction time to dive out of the way, preventing an untimely impalement.

Strawberry drops a piece of concrete from a hundred feet in the air, and learns something very useful: it must actively choose to add something to the debris field, and hasn't been thinking about 'above'. The concrete penetrator blitzes through most of the goo, hitting the core, but it's not enough to kill it, even as bristles fire up to try and grab her out of the sky as it perceives the hit. Another shot like that won't work without a setup.

Staren's missile is launched into the debris field, as yet another leg is grown and fired out. Because the field's hardened, it doesn't get completely demolished, but it does split up, becoming more chunks instead of a tightly focused field, allowing the more mobile members entry. Luckily, Muramasa's thunderclap comes down before it fully adapts, but the goo is...weird with electricity. It surges through it, electrifying it! Luckily, some of the electricity does hit the core like Strawberry due to the lack of thought, but it's adding another hazard.

Blue Ogre takes his chance to fire, getting a hit on the goo and burning into it. Red Ogre moves to dodge a leg and bristle, and is about to fire at it again himself, when his phone buzzes. "ALRIGHT! SHE'S HERE!"
Silver Carnation Past a building Tamamo and Cantio are near, they hear a cry out, pointing to the air to the distance. "It's her! She came to help!" The voice of a child.

Silver Carnation is not particulary fast for a magical girl. She's faster than a car for sure, but nowhere near Strawberry's pace. But her agility is tremendous. She suddenly blitzes in, flipping around tendrils as she lands on a chunk of debris. <"Dino, set up my anime motivational OST playlist."> There's a grunt in response, as she grins.

<OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0bAmOVRKhs>

She's five foot even. Light blue hair, a silver cap, and a naval tassel'd-like uniform, also silver. A carnation is pinned to her chest. Her wand, with the light blue-green crystal is pointed forwards, as another leg comes flying for her. She puts pressure against the debris, and...

It explodes underneath her feet, as she launches off it, dodging the tendril effortlessly. "The shooting comet that burns through the sky! The shining star star everybody loves~! Silver Carnation is here!" It sounds like a media jingle.

She's moving through the opening Staren has left open, trying to get towards the goo as she focuses her radio. <"Blue! Focus on limiting mobility and evacuation - your range is too focused for this fight. Red! Fire on that goo, try and focus the legs from the others! Don't use your Heart Ability unless you have to, we don't want it to adapt." They affirmative and grunt, respectively, as Silver begins firing silver-colored energy shots, her Purifier Beam. They're spread like a submachine gun, and have bad accuracy, but it's big enough that some hits are getting in even when she's not at optimal range. The goo peels off like before with the other Purifier shot, and isn't adapting to regenerate.
Lilian Rook     "Who's this lunatic?" Lilian can't help but ask, when Okada charges into leg-level ground zero after her. Seriously. Some Japanese dude in street clothes doing a banzai charge on this thing-- is he a civilian? Like, a crazy one with some kind of something something pride?

    "Whatever. If we can get two focused on policing the area, two focused on burning down its regeneration, two focused on clearing the field, and two focused on power hits to its center mass, we'll be in a good position. Three line doctrine. Heavy hitters to the front, sustain at middle range, debris duty at the rear. Territory control as a back line; shield them. 'Middle range' will still put you close to or in the field, though. Don't bother if you're fragile." Her decision to have others bother with the debris field at all is a calculated one.

    §So, it is moving them around manually. Figures; it probably wouldn't have gotten this far if their orbit was regular, or even random. There are only a couple of people here suitable for attempting a core shot. Limiting its movements shouldn't take all of our combined efforts, but most of the others can't operate in this level of ambient hazard. Reducing the area threat is likely our best shot; if we can keep it pinned under sustained fire, a combined power blow should be able to eject the core from its mass. Then I can take care of the final sprint.§

    The bristles firing out at her from the severed leg is unexpected, but then so are most things Endlings do, in her limited experience. Enough experience, though, to come prepared with an 'expect the unexpected' mindset.

    §They're attached? It won't discard them? It might be ready to control their movement in flight. Trying to slip between their trajectory won't be reliable if so. I could back into the debris field again, but then it'll cost me a ton of time to weave in and out of it repeatedly; too much stress. A static defense then. That projectile velocity; twenty meters should be fine.§

    She spaces herself out to a respectable distance, giving her just enough time to respond to the handful of projectiles that'll hit her if she stands still instead of running around dodging. Night Mist won't break from defending herself like a swordswoman. Scattered bristles are slashed in half straight out of the air with motions that can somehow be described as 'flicks of the sword' and 'power chops' at the same time, smooth steps taking her to the side of each spine and clattering bashes of flat and edge deflecting those to the sides into the ground, before the rebound of each strike is used to sever the tendril of each adjacent bristle.

    §The hell is that fluid mass made of? The electrical current from Muramasa's attack isn't grounding through its legs. It's circulating. A circuit? Night Mist is insulative, not conductive, but we need diffuse close combat support to wear it down. If it's a circuit, then . . .§
Lilian Rook     Lilian scans around the debris field quickly, and then her eyes settle on a collapsed traffic pole, wrenched out of the ground, but otherwise intact. She swoops over to grab it with both hands, and then with a moment's pause of inertial effort, heft it over her head with both arms, accelerate forward, leave the ground, and ram the entire metallic pole deep into that gelatinous body.

                -----[stop]-----
    Just a split second before, Lilian covers her bases. The electricty won't jump down the pole and into her hands if she doesn't allow it. Current isn't real. Lightning cannot harm her. Base physics have no hold here. Not in this private world. She kicks the base of the pole down, until the tip is piercing the electrified jelly, and the base is touching the ground.
                -----[start]-----

    It lists immediately, until it hangs vertically from the monster, and when the base touches ground, it should conduct the lightning circulating in its body straight into the earth.
Okada Izou      The tendril comes stabbing in. He brings his blade around - he's not stupid enough to block. Instantly he recognizes that it's stronger than his steel. Instantly he recognizes that it's stronger than *he* is. What he can do is one of the oddest parries in the world. No other idiot would think to do something like this. Logical, rational thought would hesitate even the most seasoned bladesmaster from this kind of idiotic gamble. Trained instincts would tell them not to even try.

     Izou does not have trained instincts.

     So his blade glides along the tendril. Sparks fly as he wheels the katana around the thing, his foot stamping against the leg. It sends him upwards for a brief instant. It's a brief instant he can seize on. His foot whirls around to press against the katana's back. He slams it down and goes flying upwards, the blade whirling upwards with him.

        <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Who's this lunatic?"

    That, Izou can focus on. That is a set of words that Izou has heard a whole lot of times. That is a set of words to which Izou always has an answer.

     That cuts Izou's maddened screaming, his complete shock, his inability to process anything about the surroundings other than raw instinct, down to nothing. His wild screaming turns into a maddened grin. His eye, peeking out from under his hair, almost seems to glow a wicked and horrifying yellow.

     "I AM!"

     "A GENIUS!"

     And then he's gone.

     He's literally gone. He's just disappeared out of sight. He's vanished from perception - from all perception. Instant, complete, and utter invisibility. Not a whisper. Not a hint of noise. Not a thought. Not a stray break in the wind or the light. Nothing.

     And then-

     "SWORDSMAN!"

     The Manslayer reappears on top of the thing in mid-stab. His blade digs into the goo. He kicks off the goo with explosive force, laughing wildly as he does so.

     The sword shatters under the sheer speed, weight, and leverage. He releases the hilt the instant it does, leaving fragments of blade and hilt stuck directly in the monster.

     His hand goes to his head. "Hey, hey, HEY, HEY, HEY! BLACKSMITH! GIVE ME MORE! MORE SWORDS TO BREAK! GIVE ME EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT! TAX THAT BULLSHIT NOBLE PHANTASM TO THE LIMIT AND I'LL SHOW YOU THE GENIUS OF THE GHOST OF TOSA!"

     The core electrifies.

     Izou's feet whirl only slightly faster than the core can just fry his feet. One of his feet whips off his clog, sending it whirling.

     It has straight up caught fire.

     His other foot lands on the hilt of the blade he just jammed into the thing.

     The hilt is wrapped. The blade is not. But it's grounded, for the moment. He swaps feet again and sends the other clog (also bursting into flame) flying, too.

     "FUCK YOU!" He screams at the monster loudly, "YOU OWE ME A NEW SET OF SHOES!"

     Yeah after his famous line he's not adapting very well.

     He does, however, notice Silver Carnation.

     His response is exactly what you expect it to be.

     "REAL CUTE!" He screams. His feet dance atop the katana, carefully avoiding bursts of electricity, "SUPER CUTE!"

     "CUTEST IN THE WORLD!"

     He is probably lying through his teeth but it is again some mild moment of sanity he can latch onto.

     The lightning disperses into the ground. Izou hops off the hilt and onto the goo.

     He is in his socks.

     It is disgusting.

     He is not a happy puppy.
Brooklynn Bailey Brooklynn is directly focused on.  She raises her shield in defiance, and the force is enough to toss her like a rag doll away.  However, unlike most who would have been split down the middle by the pure force of the attack, she slides to a stop a distance away.  Injuries are there, blood from where the force of the blow pierced her shield, but already starting to heal.  

Brooklynn is running full force.  She's not a speedster, but she's /strong/ and can clear distances at surprising speed.  She aims to once more enter melee range, as her flaming spear takes shape again.  Her eyes blazing, a bit of an inhuman quality to them as she aims to close the distance to the Endling.  

Every time she uses her powers like this, she has that nagging question.  Was she human anymore?  What was this power really anyway?  Human collectiveness?  She doesn't even really know, just what she has been told.  

Right now she just charges, her spear aiming to break through the debris, aiming to not just punch it, but BURN it away with the power of the spear, and then more fire.  Aiming to melt away things that were flammable, and direct the remaining force inwards.  
Cantio They're gathering. Perfect. Breathing a brief sigh of relief, Cantio slows down momentarily as she swipes through a floating tablet to see where her drones are, getting a quick headcount on where all the survivors are. Unfortunately, she can also see the legs and bristles moving for them as well, limiting just how much she can plan out for the second part of the evacuation plan.

"Where's...?" Coordinates for a safe zone? Too slow. "Oh, hell with it!" She swipes through another menu, stabs her finger at the first item on her list, and the drones begin phase two of the plan.

"We are here to help you. Come this way." The vacant-eyed machines repeat on a never-ending loop, each repetition growing only louder even with those tendrils and spikes coming ever closer. Once Cantio enters that command, though, they actually spring to life, hovering in place and launching tendrils of their own at the survivors within tendril-launching/straight line range.

It might be mildly terrifying, but it's the best Cantio can manage on short notice. The tendrils hold onto those people tight as the drones start launching themselves out of those buildings, going right through doors and windows while (probably) not slamming the civilians too hard into things on the way out. Once they're out of the buildings, they gather around Cantio's tablet which has since turned into a giant boxy head with an open-mouth. Cantio herself, meanwhile, even takes a detour to dive into the building where she had heard the shouting child.

"We're with her, and we'll get it taken care of. Believe in us!" She proclaims to the child with a confident smile, unconsciously nodding her head to the beat of Silver Carnation's tracks while moving to hoist the kid her up and get them into that boxy Cantio-headed robot as well. Once the boxy head has everyone safely inside, it starts flying off into the distance. It doesn't go towards any safe zones or recovery areas within this area, though. Instead, it just keeps flying, seeking out the nearest warpgate to get them to safety!

Cantio's just going to have to remember to apologize later.
Tamamo     They've managed to stop it from advancing, but the arms-upon-arms give it a bit more range than she'd hoped to encounter, even if it doesn't start using the debris as projectiles. Tamamo maintains her distance, as she said she would, but when Silver Carnation starts giving orders to the Ogre Bros, she draws a particular card from her sleeve.

    Well, no, it's another talisman. She'd never gotten the hang of throwing cards.

    Rather than trying to throw up more shields to block off the civilians from being attacks, Tamamo focuses her considerable affinity for manipulating the threads of Fate into personalizing this for the situation. Neither target is very familiar, and one is distinctly alien, but it only needs to work somewhat well. It might even be a bit of a dangerous thing if it worked too well. She has to walk over a bit to one side, then the other, trying to maintain a position behind cover before finally getting a good sight of Red Ogre, and lets the talisman fly.

    It keeps flying, as if pulled by invisible strings, drawn straight to the magical boy's back. It's a kind of Fated Meeting blessing, though in this case, more of a curse. He is now, for a short while, fated to draw the massed irritation of the Endling, as well as some ire from anything else hostile to him. That should make it much easier for him to follow the newly-come magical girl's instructions.

    Tamamo's healing talismans are on the way. They'll likely be needed.
Okada Izou      Tamamo suddenly makes everything hostile to Red Ogre pay aggressive attention to Red Ogre.

     The only warning Red Ogre gets when he gets close/the monster gets closer to him is the sound of air.

     And then he no longer has hair. He is very lucky that Okada Izou's precision is absolutely disgusting. He might've been scalped with a less skilled swordsman.

     "FUCK YOUR BULLSHIT WESTERN IGNORANCE!" Izou screams in his face.

     He is having a Very Bad Day. He needed this.
Muramasa         "Hauh ..."

The Golden Eater had shattered in his hands when he struck with it and fired its load. That was the natural result of pushing something past its limit, and drawing forth all of the might it ever had, or ever could have, all for one heartbeat. "Y'know ... if I'd hit just about anything else with that, it would've been a done deal ... " he grouses to the Endling, grimacing from where he'd landed nearby. His magical circuits were burning hot and throbbing painfully, and he didn't need to check himself to know that he'd ate through most of his body's Od with that stunt.

That he wasn't taking a seat to catch his breath could be considered an ode to Brooklyn's previous efforts to strengthen the Elites with her abilities, in perhaps greater consideration than his gumption.

<J-IC-Scene> Muramasa says, "This might be a bad time to bring this up, by the way, but I basically spent everything on that attack just now...so, basically, all I can do now is offer my support."

With his blunt and straight-forward admission, all he can do is weather his allies' disappointment. In the end, it was just bad luck that his lightning-based attack hadn't been very effective.

At least, he's not the most miserable one here, judging by what was happening to Assassin, which, "You want me to give you my swords so you can go off and break them? For a genius, you really are stupid."

With a sigh, and a moment of consideration, Muramasa wound up swallowing his pride in the end. "Fine. A Barrel of Swords."

Using what meager magical energy he had left, he could project a handful of swords .. katana, odachi, nodachi, tachi, and wakizishi. Cursed implements. Muramasa-style swords, some of his 'failures' that existed only in the memory of his soul.

The shot-gun like volley is sent Izou's way, but the method of delivery is just as likely to skewer him as it is to deliver him weaponry. But, it's Okada Izou the Genius Swordsman, right? Surely, he'll be fine.

But aside from that, for now, all he could do was pull back and wait for Tamamo's healing talismans to soothe him. He hadn't suffered any physical injuries yet, so he could re-purpose them and harvest some of the magical energy inside to get himself on his feet enough to perform an adequete support role.

    "Hey, you. Hold on."

Stopping Hibiki in the interim, Muramasa reaches out and places his hand flat against her chest. Before she can say or do anything to claim recompense for this slight, his eyes widen slightly in amazement. "Wow, ain't this somethin' you're wearing? How interesting .. but this ain't the time for that. Here."

Reinforcement could be used to strengthen even paper to be as strong as high-grade steel. For something like a Symphogear, even without much in the tank to pour into it, circuit-like patterns of glowing green light cover Hibiki's mahou-armor as he does what he can to strengthen it. "This'll wear off as you fight, so keep that in mind, 'kay?" he says, as he drops his hand.
Staren     Staren frowns when Lilian shouts about a lunatic over the radio. Even though they're plenty recognizable, Staren has... issues. She bites back any retort, though -- a conversation over the radio with Lilian will only end up making Staren look bad.

    The debris doesn't break apart as much as Staren would like. Only because of other sensors seeing into the dust is Staren able to avoid an embarassing collision! The local magical girls have arrived! Staren smiles at Strawberry's attack, and at Silver Carnation, who certainly has showmanship! But now... Staren's in the field with the gel... bug... bristle... thing. And it seems to be adapting to attacks. Staren... Staren probably has a wide enough variety of weapons that they could cycle through them for some time, but it might be better to try to minimize using them all up before thinking of the most effective way to use one! But... perhaps there's something to try: Staren contacts the lab, and...

    A little rubbery ball appears in her hand.

    She squeezes it. Hefts it. And then pockets it. Back at a lab in El Dorado, a design for a mech-scale laser rifle is adjusted, power and weight formulaically optimized to specifications gathered from the sensor data Staren just sent. An appropriately-sized nuclear reactor is pulled from storage and slotted into a backpack unit, then connected to the weapon as it finishes assembly.

    Staren holds out their arms, AR already showing her where the weapon will be positioned. A slight distortion in space, and... suddenly she's got a backpack helpfully marked with a nuclear trefoil, connected to a massive laser cannon. She grins, and FIRES at the monster's center of mass... and then immediately starts flying evasively, if given the chance to fire again, the cannon cycles to a slightly different frequency of light each time. Hopefully that helps! If not, they've learned something!
Strawberry Princess      Strawberry is aware of the sharp tendrils reaching for her, even before she flips around in flight to aim back down at the Endling during her ascent. Her body provides a checklist of solutions, most of which are inadequate:
     (Blast them.) You can't; populated area.
     (Call for Lilian.) This is an Endling. You shouldn't embarrass yourself.
     (Use your gun.) No, don't let it adapt to bullets.

     What her body finally arrives at is, like usual, clever. Her body splits into a half-dozen ghostly pink eidolons, each of which breaks and runs in a different direction- and then disappears a split second later, leaving only the real Strawberry behind, who's juked hard left and down. One of the barbs glances off the Shimmer Aura right next to her head, chipping her visor even with the diffused force, but she's still flying. Swooping in beneath the sharp points, she grabs the tendrils with her Brooklynn-bestowed super-strength and tacks between the Endling's legs, trussing them together.

     Does it know what "a knot" is? Does it know how to deal with its own body being the obstruction? Probably not, but it's about to learn.

     While it figures out how to untangle itself, Strawberry calls up the memory of a past desperation technique: a mahou's costume and wand are made of the same stuff as an Endling's body, and sometimes tougher. She reverse-grips her wand, soars upwards towards the Endling's underbelly, and drives its sharp butt into one of the gouges that Silver Carnation made- then swerves along the Endling's body with the full force of her flight, turning the deep pierce into a long, ruinous gouge.

     At the tail end of the gouge, she locks gazes with Silver Carnation. With her visor half-broken, the other magical girl can see her face-defining scar and one wild, wide-open eye. It's a lot different than how the press releases show her. The prickle-tingle and metallic taste of her wand's reactor is new, too. Already, new barbs are probably already lunging to skewer her, but she takes the time to say:

     "Please promise me you'll be okay."
Hibiki Tachibana     A lot of things happen. Debris is smashed, kinetic makeshift-projectiles smashes dead center, lightning strikes--and Hibiki has found out what she needs. With the help of the rubble, she avoids getting speared through herself, and figures out how these skewers of the Endling's actually work. Part of that is also owed to Izou similarly smashing his face into things. He's even more wild in person than she thought over the radio. "Okay--" Lilian's plan hits her headphones, and her eyes narrow with the beginnings of something of her own.

    Before she moves, Muramasa steps in on the edge of the field, and Hibiki looks surprised at his presence at first. "Wait, what're you...?" She's less offended by him planting his hand on her chest than dumbfounded, and even passes over his comment about her armor in the moment when her attention is instead taken by the light starting to radiate across it. A few blinks, and she looks back up at him...and then tightens up her expression with a fresh burst of determination visible even on her half-obscured face and nods. "...Thanks, Muramasa! I'll put it to good use!"

    Allowing Brooklyn's flames to ignite along the blacksmith's own empowerment, she takes a deep breath and uses her grip on the surface to launch herself off and away. Another skewer comes, but she doesn't bother trying to contest this one. Her Gear's thrusters blaze to life and send her spiraling to the side and towards a chunk of uprooted concrete, putting it between her and it as she plants her feet and launches forward off of it, intending to outspeed it off strength alone before it even has the chance to catch up.

    Silver Carnation's dramatic entrance draws her attention as she moves, eyes flicking over to the other magical girl darting through obstacles with that rapid agility. It's a dramatic entrance for sure, but focused as she is right now, Hibiki accepts it for what it is - another powerful (and stylish) ally. ""...She's right, let's worry about this thing first!" Her leg pistons slam outwards and then back in with a powerful shockwave to send her tumbling over another piece of debris in the opposite direction from an approaching leg, and she holds both arms forward by the time she's righted herself.

    The gauntlets morph and double up in size, pilebunkers replaced with whirling turbines--and rocket thrusters emerging out the back that immediately ignite to shoot her forward at breakneck speeds. "HaaaaAAAAH!" She drops the idea of trying to avoid tendril skewers after that; the healing and regeneration she's been given and Muramasa's Reinforcement plus her heavy acceleration has her on a straightforward path towards the core, where she fully intends to try taking any attacks to the chin and double-punching through anything that tries blocking her path. The simplest way to get to their target is a straight line, after all. And she doesn't think it's adapted to extreme blunt force yet.
Silver Carnation Mid-air, Silver Carnation poses at Izou as he shouts at her. A thumb and a finger extended, with a smile, as she watches Cantio's Wagon Of Civilians escape. They're safe, if disoriented and also in a completely different world.

Izou is being electrified as he and Lilian ground the Endling's goo, preventing the electricity from being a danger to other melee fighters. Another leg juts out at Silver Carnation, and she moves to land on more debris, keeping herself safe. And then another strikes through the debris, hits her Shimmer Aura, bruises her, and sends her flying back.

"If that's the way it's going to be...alright! Time for a shell game."

Transluscent copies of Silver Carnation appear. The legs and bristle-spears come flying for her, as each copy starts making defensive maneuvers. One is struck behind cover. Another, hit in the air. Another has the bristle come out of the leg and hit in the back of the head. But the last one...

Perfect evasion.

Silver suddenly is moving again, all copies gone, as she blitzes past debris. "Nice try, but you missed!"

As she moves in, Strawberry begins tearing through the goo. She turns the gouge into a large scar, exposing the core with the help of Staren's variable laser blasts doing repeated damage. Muramasa's buff on Izou will certainly let those swords help cut through the goo, too, and Brooklynn can start breaking through some of the debris blocking the final hit.

A Reinforced Hibiki is busy breaking the final path to the core and helping destroy that goo when Strawberry speaks to Silver. Silver's response is to return the gaze, and speak with a low and quiet tone. Her words are venomous and full of hate.

"No thanks to you, I will be."

Meanwhile, nobody is being speared. That is because Red Ogre, now topknot-less, is flying through the air screaming lightly as they ALL chase him. Right before one can hit his Shimmer Aura, space suddenly rends, and he's elsewhere, flying at the same exact velocity and having to shift to not hit debris. His shots help finish off the goo, and...

Then, as he makes some range, the Endling gets a thought. It realizes something. Everyone is in melee. It can't let them kill it.

Concrete begins to lift up again, as the debris field starts pushing inwards. And inwards. Flying rapidly, you're either inside it or outside it, as it forms a giant sphere around the Endling. The core is exposed, but there's two things happening.

IN MELEE:
You are in a giant sphere of debris. The core is exposed, but legs and bristles are moving around, shifting from 'below' the core to around it, and trying to rip you apart by spinning rapidly. The sphere is slowly rotating, making you have to run to stay stable, or alternatively fly.

OUT OF MELEE:
There is a giant flying death pinball coming at you like this is an Indiana Jones movie. It will absolutely hurt if it impacts. It could even squash you. It's aiming for Red Ogre, mainly.
Silver Carnation Back in melee, Silver focuses her Shimmer Aura fully to her arms with a sheen - Strawberry can notice it, and this is incredibly risky. But more of those silver transluscent copies appear. She has a plan.

She's going to punch the core to death.
Okada Izou      Muramasa starts just *launching* swords at him.

     That is not what Izou had in mind.

     As the swords come flying in Izou can't even *respond* with a rude counterargument. He's too busy evading them. He's not a Berserker, he's not a Knight of the Round Table, and he damn sure doesn't have those reflexes. It's when the swords *stick in* that Izou actually grabs them, whirling them out of the ooze and into new and exciting motions. He's not doing stances, he's not doing forms, he's not doing anything recognizable as swordsmanship of any formal school.

     It really is just natural art.

     And then the core comes undone, and makes itself known, and starts spinnng. But this time, Izou does not scream about this being bullshit. This time, Izou does not scream about it being total nonsense. This time, Izou does not shout that it is stupid.

     This time, Izou's lips are twisted in a wicked grin.

     The thing spins. Izou spins with it. He does not need to run. He does not need to jog. He does not need to move at all. He jams Muramasa's blade into the thing's side and then releases it. His hand goes to his sheath.

     Izou does not go invisible. He does not flicker out of existence. What he does do is suddenly accelerate ludicrously fast, and the sphere accelerates with him, like a log spinning around at high speeds with that one asshole in a cartoon suddenly running super fast on it.

     And then the sheath comes out of his belt, digging into the core - and on the backswing going straight for Lilian's throat, aimed to crush her windpipe in one go.

     All he says as he slides past her is, "Oops."

     His grin is wide and wild.
Brooklynn Bailey There is a spear in her hands again, Brooklynn looking up as the creature attempts to tear them away from its core.  However, it was too late.  Thanks to the efforts of so many they were within striking distance.  Even as it tried to defend itself with its incredible tendril-arm-teeth-things.  

She pours her flames into one strike.  Her body glowing in flames as she flies towards it.  She's not fast, not like Strawberry or other flight people...but she's nearly unstoppable.  Even things came to whip her, she had put everything into this charge.  Flames sear anything that gets too close...

And she attempts to straight-up bullrush the core, her own flaming body aiming to lead the charge and explode in incredible heat once she connects.  This leads her to not nice the bad doggo stab Lillian.    
Muramasa Cut off from Tamamo, Muramasa grimaces at the barrier as it begins to pick up pace and become a whirling sphere of destruction, with all of them trapped in its 'eye' ... granted, they were next to the exposed core, he had virtually no magical energy to attack it with. Although there were benefits to having a physical body, that he had to rely entirely on his own subpar reserves of Od meant that when his tactical decisions backfired like this, he really was just deadweight.

It wasn't unlikely that they could polish this thing off without him contributing, but if they couldn't, then all of them were cooked geese.

Okada Izou going off the rails to try and murder Lilian was what catalyzed his decision, and banished his hesitation. It's not like it has to be a permanent gig. Alright.Pushing himself against the whirling current, he looks to Hibiki and raises his voice, "Oi!"

"I don't have any time to explain, but ... I'm in kind of a jam, so just go with the flow."

With the power of the Command Spell, it didn't matter how much or little he had in the tank, or how much or little she had to give to him ....

    "I ask of you, are you my Master?"

The nature of the relationship between a Master and Servant was such that, with an absolute order, he could fight at max power even if he had no energy to do so under normal circumstances.
Hibiki Tachibana     The downside about moving in the straightest, shortest, quickest path is that past barreling through everything in your way, your reaction time isn't as great as it can be. Thanks to everyone's efforts, from Silver Carnation's copy-aided closing in all the way down to Red Ogre's selfless contributions to the cause and shots that help them tear through the goop, with Hibiki doing her best to simply blitz right through it and obliterate it--but she wasn't expecting the Endling to try defending itself this way.

    The Gungnir girl slams everything-first into the wall of the sphere, only stopped from the sheer density of all the debris gathered together. She's embedded about five meters in it.

    "Damnit--" She grits her teeth and pries her face out of rubble while also pushing herself backwards, head spinning and only spinning faster as the sphere they're trapped in begins picking up speed and she struggles to brace against the movement, even with her own triple-set of thrusters.

    She looks over her shoulder and then spins, back towards the core and the whirling death surrounding it...and Silver Carnation going in for the melee. "She's..." She's not sure if the slight feeling of kinship she feels there is because she's a magical girl who also uses her hands, or because she's also crazy enough to dive in against that thing.

    --And then there's also Izou going wild. Wait, what is he /doing?/ It's a mess of chaos, and there's hardly any time between that and Hibiki's attention quickly shifting to Muramasa. "--Eh!?" Master?

    There's the briefest pause, before Hibiki does what she does best, hearing the tone in his voice.

    "I don't get what you're asking at all, but sure! I'm your Master!"

    Which is going with the flow whether she actually understands what's going on one bit or not.
Tamamo     Tamamo considers getting up and outside the range of the giant death ball, but that would be difficult. She can't actually fly, and anything she jumped atop, or behind, would be crushed by it. If it went out to crush more of the city, that would be even worse. She certainly wouldn't like anyone crushing /her/ home, even if she wasn't in it at the time.

    She'd intended to provide direct support for those closer to danger, but now that's nearly impossible. She'd already sent a few talismans toward Muramasa before the debris closed in, but that's as long as that plan survived. Not quite the amount he'd need for another killer move.

<J-IC-Scene> Strawberry Princess says, "... Get it out towards the water. It's high. I have my shot now."
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "How to move something of that size, I am uncertain."
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Ah, Red Ogre, might you run toward the water?"
<J-IC-Scene> (NPC) Red Ogre says, "TRYING!"

    With that much inertia, it shouldn't be easy for it to turn back in any other direction. He seems to be using some mobility power, but whether it's mages or magical children, their magical endurance is less than endless. Leaving her current position, she kicks her geta against the ground with a deceptively light step, sailing through the air on her way to parallel the Death Sphere's progress.

    She'd already attached one talisman to him, and it's keeping the hate focused on him... though that had one uninteded consequence, for which she will apologize, inside her heart. The next talisman that finds his back is more immediately beneficial, not doing anything to aid in any wounds he may have suffered, but using Tamamo's particular talent as a medium of usable power, providing a light like the Sun together with an immediate, lasting charge-up of his qi, whatever name it might go by in the local slang of magical boys.
Staren     Magical girls.

    Staren's envied them at times. To have the universe recognize your good heart and not only validate it but give you the power to wield that inner light as a weapon against evil, channeling power from the same positive emotions you're fighting to give others a chance to experience...

    But it was something he could never have. That sort of thing never happens to Staren. They've had to scrabble and claw for every bit of power they could wrest from the Multiverse...

    Or have they? Sure, REFINING magic and technology is hard work, but... getting access to new tools to refine has mostly been the result of making friends along the way. Was the real magical girl inside you all along, Staren, gaining power from her friends and from those she helped while you raged against the Multiverse demanding it give you more, thinking you had to prove yourself by winning by your own force?

    Unfortunately, there's no time for such intense self-reflection, as Staren is spared immediate bristle attacks but finds the debris field *shrinking* in around her, forcing her closer and closer to the monster. Fortunately, those camera drones alert her to the change, and Staren's computers begin tracking the debris, plotting where it's moving so she can begin to move about within it, leaping off chunks of debris with intense strength, while using magic flight and firing a grapple tag from under her labcoat to fine-tune movement in midair, firing every few seconds as the laser comes off cooldown and then leaping again as their HUD warns of an immenent collision!

    But the field KEEPS SHRINKING until there is no in-between. There is only cramped space with an Endling that asks of those fighting it one question:

    WILL YOU BLEND?

    Staren's laser cannon is rapidly battered to unusability, the prototype was NOT designed for durability. Staren themself soon has bristles tearing into the invisible armor they activated earlier. And then through it, tearing into her in a way that would be instantly deadly without Brooklyn's reinforcement -- the only reason Staren dared stay inside. "Ow! Fff! Geeze that hurts! How does anyone FIGHT like this?! OW!" But, this is just pain and suffering for no reason if they don't come up with a plan...

    Another prototype is quick-assembled, from demolitions blueprints and missile warheads, and warped in. As the endling tears at her, Staren slaps some sort of mine on its body, and then another, and another, and another, and another...

    When Staren hears others gear up for their attacks, the 'mines' activate, each one functionally a single-shot, point-blank-range plasma cannon. Hopefully it won't get the CHANCE to adapt, afterwards!
Cantio With the civilians that she's aware of cleared out, Cantio can breathe another sigh of relief. "The survivors have been extracted. You're clear to hit it with everything you've got!" Cantio relays to her allies on the field as she looks up, only then noticing  the giant flying death pinball coming right... Well, sort of around and at her.

"... Oh no." Hastily shrinking and stuffing her drones back into her suit somehow, Cantio kicks her feet up before propelling herself backwards just to keep herself from getting flattened on its way to Red Ogre. As she panic-flies around, however, something starts to click in her mind.

She still has that power from the Green Knight. She also has that power from the Queen in Veils (or rather, its pilot). If it's not coming straight for her, then she might just have enough time to take advantage of that projectile. She starts flying towards the death ball once it's occupied with Red Ogre, concentrating telekinetic force onto the thing to try slowing it down and condensing the debris mass further into itself.

"This is going to look so cool...!" She mutters aloud to herself as she reaches the debris ball, using her enhanced physical strength next to just start forcing the thing to move according to her whims rather than the Endling's. Her target: The sky above the core. She drives one fist upwards at the death ball while adding more forceful telekinetic blasts to the underside. Sadly, itt probably doesn't look as cool as Cantio would like considering that she recoils shortly after the punch, likely from punching a giant death ball with little more than a plastic glove covering her fist.

At least she can keep those telekinetic pushes going to try and just force the thing further into the sky instead of actually using her hands on it again.
Lilian Rook     Taking a breather after the stunt with the pole, Lilian takes the time to admonish the blacksmith, just a little. "Ideally this should teach you a lesson about killer moves. You didn't think there was a good reason swordsmen don't just go for one from the start?" Despite her disappointment in his admission that he'd used up all his energy, her tone is that of a lecture. After all, she *does* want him to get better at fighting, and not just forging swords.

<J-IC-Scene> Okada Izou, over the sound of everything happening at once and also the radio muting, says, "What kinda idiot doesn't try for a one-strike kill?!"
<J-IC-Scene> Okada Izou says, "You want the other guy to *attack back*?!"
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Someone with a credible opponent."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I suppose I should expect as much from someone described as an assassin."

<J-IC-Scene> Okada Izou says, "You laughin' at me?!"
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I'd laugh if it were funny."
<J-IC-Scene> Okada Izou says, "I'll remember that."

    Lilian's strategy progresses mostly as she'd initially analyzed. "The central mass is behaving as I'd expected, electrical properties aside. Get anywhere above it, and apply maximum force; see if the hydrostatic pressure can't eject it. Cut away as much mass as you can. Once the core is airborne, we can take a killshot from a lower angle without hitting the city." The new girl's arrival is sudden, and after a moment's consideration, she decides more annoying than relieving, though it is none of the mahou's fault. "Carnation-- a different coven? Why'd they only scramble one? Considering how far it must be to the next base; are they taking the piss?"

    The combined assault finally tears the Endling's central, gelatinous mass to pieces, and ejects the core according to the outline. Remaining grounded, Lilian follows the spinning sphere only with her eyes, drawing her left hand up to her opposite shoulder with a conductor-esque sweep, twisting her fingers in such a way that gathers up a miniature storm of glowing red motes, coalescing into a single, bright point.

    There's a moment where she is wholly focused on the magic, and then next, without a transition at all, a moment where she has 'already become aware' of Okada's intended retributive incident. Though there's only a fraction of a second to really examine it, it feels different from 'noticing him', and different from 'instinct'. It's almost rehearsed. Like a moment of freestyling in a stage play to get back to the next line in the script. Decidedly uncanny.
Lilian Rook     With all that magic gathered into one hand, she can't grip the hilt again properly. Instead, her sword is swung up over her head and angled down across her other side, catching the scabbard on the flat. The impact of wood on metal doesn't sound anything like it should; the eerie black blade makes a noise like wind through rocks. She turns sidelong with his pass to free up a line for her arm, and then finally thrust her hand forward with a snap of her fingers, just as Brooklyn tackles the core into the debris wall, and as Hibiki strikes it with the force necessary to break it, firing a tremendous spear of fog-shrouded ice that sounds like a gunshot, and bursts like a cannon shell on impact, aimed to drive the orb through the breach and launch it well out into the sky towards the coast.

    And yet with that hand freed of its magical charge, she finds time to bring it back to the blade, grip the strong in thoroughly western style, and 'free up' her stance from that friendly fire with a maneuver that is 'incidentally' exactly the same as a powerful, half-sworded pommel thrust, designed to cave in helmets and crack skulls.

    It looks so smooth and effortless, but Okada can feel the smouldering vitriol inherent in the swordplay, as well as the uncomfortably malicious aura inherent to the sword itself. A sword genius can feel out through the single clash that she isn't quite as fast as he is, but somehow considerably stronger, that her sword is considerably heavier than even its length should suggest, and that she knows what she's doing with it more than she's let on. "It's dangerous to get in my way." Lilian seethes back.

    But this is still currently a crisis that involves Strawberry's world. She can't just turn her back on it. Lilian briefly braces against the ground, building up tension and power in her physical frame as well as the magical energy flowing through and down her body. She dents the ground with the force of motion it takes to actually pursue the airborne core, cancelling gravity along the way and smoothly angling something like a slow motion jump so that she just hits the breach in the wall feet first, and then can repeat the process to maintain her speed. Aligning her whole body behind the tip of her sword, she follows up Cantio's telekinetic blast with a high velocity stinger motion, designed to either pierce through or simply hurl the core even further, becoming the next step in the chain of Elites accelerating it out into the open.
Muramasa I don't get what you're asking at all, but sure! I'm your Master!

With those words, the contract was sealed. He could feel 'it' --the tether that bound himself and Hibiki Tachibana together. That bound their fate, and their very lives. It was the connection of a Master and their Servant, which allowed the Servant to receive nourishment in the form of the Master's magical energy. And while useful, in this instance, what was important in this instance was the Command Spell. Through this connection, even if the Servant cannot hear their Master's words, the Command Spell will travel down this 'line' and jack into the Servant directly, forcing them to act.

Hibiki, for her part, has an awful burning sensation on her palm, as if it were being scalded and cut at the same time, providing her with three absolute orders that she can dispense.

<J-IC-Scene> Hibiki Tachibana says, "D-Did we really need to do whatever for me to tell you that!? ...Whatever! Muramasa! Take it out with everything you've got! I'm right behind you!"

The outer-most marking on her hand, the physical representation of her authority over him, disappears in a bright flash.

Muramasa's body is flooded with newfound energy as the sigil is consumed, and he breathes in, " ... Understood. I'll redeem myself with this one!"

Dashing out with Hibiki, he projects two blades in hand and weaves strikes, each blow flowing one into the other.

    He was not Musashi Miyamoto.

And, even if he perfectly extracted that swordsmanship and put it to work with his body, he would be unable to perfectly reproduce that attack. In the end, all he could conjue was its image ... but, even that would be more than enough, in this situation.

Earth    Wind
    Water        Fire

A blade that cleaves the ground. A blade that slices the sky. A blade that parts the water. A blade that splits the flame.

His back ramrod straight, the elements converge and become a blinding light as he strikes. Void.

    A blade which pierces the nothingness and reduces everything until it can no longer be reduced.

    Ishana, Daitenshou . . .
Okada Izou      One glance, and it's his.

     That's the danger of Okada Izou. That's the danger Muramasa warned her about. One glance, and anything belongs to him.

     She blocks the strike with a rehearsed, practiced motion. It's something more than 'learned', it's 'rehearsed'. It's 'a dance', or 'an expectation'. That's interesting. Worth remembering.

     The pommel strike comes swinging in. Izou's sheath comes up to block it, both hands behind it. The blow sends him rolling onto the outer debris layer of the core, landing in a crouch on the wall. He rebounds off it and skids past her as the core shakes, as Hibiki slams the debris wall, as as Brooklyn forces it against the solid object.

     The sheath is broken in half.

     Izou does not appear to care. He's flipped the sheath around into a pair of blunt weapons, wielding them both like he's reverse-gripping two kodachi. He whirls them around, digging a little extra distraction into the core to buy himself some more 'legitimacy' in the 'accidental friendly fire.'

     The improvised blunt kodachi come swinging upwards. One of them goes for her jaw, as if to knock her brain enough to stun her for a brief instant. But the other-

     -the other, he's reversed it for what looks a lot like a pommel strike.

     In fact, it looks almost exactly like hers.

     Except *decidedly* more lethally targetted. Rather than raw force it's been bent to take advantage of his sudden two-sword style, to slam her in the side of the head and further shock her brain.

     It's the last shot he'll get before he has to bail, and he knows it, but Izou can't help but take it.

     "A lot of people have told me that."

     "A little advice, amateur."

     "You make every shot a killshot. When they slip up, they die."

     His grin vanishes along with him, a cheshire cat (dog?) smile. He knows he's not gonna kill her with that strike, but that's really not the point.
Strawberry Princess      Strawberry instinctively tries to floor it out of the debris-field-turned-trap the moment she notices it coalescing, but its gaps shut just before she can navigate between its lethal legs to safety. Using her newfound durability, she lithobrakes hard on the inside of the shell, concrete cracking under the impact of her feet, and then looks up to face the Endling's core.

     Silver is bashing it with her fists. The other Elites are chipping away at it every way they know how. They'll almost certainly be able to take it down. Almost. She could turn her wand off and let the new girl have all the glory- probably, probably. But isn't it safer if I...?

     No. Be honest with yourself. Is that the only reason you're doing this?

     "Firing on low! Three," Strawberry shouts, lining up her shot and aiming down the sights of her wand. The crystal at the tip of her wand, typically dull, flickers to glowing life reluctantly- like Silver's crystal, like the Endling's core. The reactor is shrieking already at an inhuman pitch. Fuel rods crunch and grind metallically as they pull out.

     I'm Strawberry Princess. And Strawberry Princess kills monsters, right? ... But is it really okay to take that away from the others? The Ogres, and Silver Carnation, and Hibiki, and...

     "Two." The tip of her wand is brighter than the Sun, a single unbearable pinprick. The air tingles. A Cherenkov-blue column of light shines out ahead of her, painting dead center on the Endling's core- where Lilian was an instant before, or maybe daringly still is. Steam vents from the wand's reactor, coolant overwhelmed by the positive feedback loop.

     Maybe it's spite. I should've evaporated this Endling right at the start, I should've been able to, but I got *cheated*. I should've been able to stop it before it hurt anybody at all. Am I angry? Is that what this is?

     "O-"


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     Every color is bleached to blinding white and every shadow is erased. Stray paper and cloth is ignited in the pulse of heat, a cruel child's magnifying glass aimed in every direction. The sound of the Annihilator Beam being fired hits like a palpable shockwave, but it keeps going, a deafening thunderstrike drawn out into an intolerable roar.

     It puts a hole in the core, and then it puts a hole in the shell, and then it makes steam rise from the ocean behind, flash-boiling the surface of the water on its way out.

     I'm sorry, Silver Carnation. I have to keep doing this.
Hibiki Tachibana     "D-Did we really need to do whatever for me to tell you that!?"Forging a contract of any kind, temporary or no, isn't what Hibiki planned to do today. Definitely not in the utter chaos that is them all being trapped inside this sphere. But there's no time to think about it. Not while this thing is still rampaging on, and they're all at risk of getting chewed up by this core more by the moment. Without even thinking about it, she replies back towards Muramasa at the top of her lungs.

    "...Whatever! Muramasa! Take it out with everything you've got! I'm right behind you!"

    And she is. Massive amounts of thrust alone aren't enough to completely fight against the flow, so Hibiki resorts back to ejecting her leg armor's pistons--they extend outwards a full meter, straining against their own bindings for a moment before impacting back into place and ejecting an absurd, visible amount of force directly behind her. She rides the shockwave that propels her forward and lunges directly for the core right alongside the Servant, rearing back one of those full-blast rocket fists as she goes. The fierce burning in it from the Command Seal emblazoning itself doesn't bother her. Or more accurately, she hardly even notices it compared to how tightly her hand is clenched already. "HRRROOOOAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

    Despite the blurred blades spinning and threatening to cut her apart in the absence of any true protection like Silver Carnation, Hibiki puts everything into the durability of her reinforced Gungnir, and her own knuckleguard-covered fist--punching forward with all the force of an actual unstoppable spearhead to contest the Endling's defenses.

    It's not a barrage of blows, like Silver Carnation, nor a string of masterful swordsmanship like Muramasa. It's a single strike with everything she has behind it, the moment of impact locking her exposed armor back into place as lightning and light erupt off of it, channeling forward into a single, almost ridiculously explosive attack.
Silver Carnation Everyone attacks at once. A flurry of blasts. - the core, Staren learns, is bad at adapting. A flurry of blows, as Silver begins hitting it over and over. Musashi's swords channeled through Muramasa. Lilian's piercing strike. Hibiki's fists of fury. Brooklynn's phoenix fire. Izou's sword.

The countdown comes. Silver wants to object. She can't. Meanwhile, Cantio has thrown the sphere far away, and now Red Ogre, with the full power of Tamamo no Mae, is pulling it away towards the water. It's safe.

Silver takes the safety precautions. She knows she has to, she's not fast enough to stop Strawberry. She wouldn't. She's not strong enough, mentally, to stop Strawberry.

The beam melts through the core, through the shell, and through the ocean. The core screeches to a halt, destroyed, and goes dull.

It is to everyone's GREAT luck that the debris ball does not fall apart completely over the ocean and dunk them. The debris field remains, to be cleaned up another day. It's already splitted open, allowing Izou out, allowing the others to fly or jump out. Silver, as the Endling finally is dead, looks up. She smiles.

It's a fake smile, the one Lilian would see right through, but perhaps not the others. "Good working with you all! I should go check on the Ogres, and deal with the inevitable press conference. I'll have my radio line on later."

And then, Silver flies off, to regroup with the boys she knew well.
Cantio Shaking her hand off as the pain starts to slowly subside, Cantio lets out a heavy grunt of exertion before glancing around. "Everyone okay? Nothing missing, everything still where it should be?" She waits a moment to confirm that nobody's screaming in pain, then forces an awkward chuckle. "Good work, everyone. It was... Ah. It was good working with you, too!"

She shouts that last bit up to Silver Carnation, although she'll probably catch the subtext later.

Despite her relief, however, there's still the matter of Lilian being Lilian. Cantio looks in her direction, just watching her cautiously for several moments before looking towards Muramasa and Hibiki. "So what was that with the.. Er. What was /that/ just before?"


MEANWHILE

Those aboard the flying Cantio robot head are eventually treated to quite the sight as they emerge from another warpgate: A modern-looking city, lit up with a whole lot of neon while pleasantly upbeat city menu music plays far below them. A concert is being held, but they only pass over it as they're promptly deposited into a large room that's still probably a bit too small to comfortably hold them all for long. It looks like a cross of a girl's bedroom and a workshop, complete with hanging racks of power tools, fluffy bedding, and screens for all manner of (locked) computers.

Also, a mini-fridge. There's a lot of pudding and water in there if they're hungry, complete with those tiny plastic spoons.
Staren     Strawberry calls out protective measures.

    Staren's eyes widen. They're all INSIDE the debris ball, is that REALLY safe?! She does NOT summon a radiation suit. The prototyper just sends over a thick steel PLATE, behind which Staren follows the safety measures.

    After it's over, Staren activates environmental sealing spells, just to be safe and make sure they don't breathe in any radioactive dust. The plate rolls over with a loud CLANG as she flips it over like it's nothing, strength still enhanced. "Damn. Well, you made sure it's dead." She turns towards Strawberry Princess. "Any measures I need to tell the Concord medbay to take?"

    Staren checks their internal nanomachines' readings for radiation exposure.

    "...It's good to see you again, by the way." Staren smiles awkwardly. "How have things been on this world?"

    Also, Staren finally has the presence of mind to save EVERYTHING the sensors got on the magical girls' respective attacks. Let's see what science has to say about how magical girls work...
Muramasa The swords fade into motes of light as Muramasa falls onto his back, rocking back from the heels of his tabi. "Awah..."

His limbs felt like they were filled with lead, he couldn't move an inch. But that's the natural result of pushing your body so far past the limit that it should've broken down already, he supposed. But, as long as he maintained his contract with Hibiki, he'd recover eventually.

It'd put him in something of a pickle if she decided to leave it at that, since he'd have to go around begging for help otherwise, and the thought didn't appeal to him, even if he was sure Tamamo would be kind enough to lend him her help.

After considering it, he chuckles. What would be, would be. ... it's funny, though, she does remind me a bit of you, Musashi.
Lilian Rook     Lilian is indeed exactly in the wrong place to be when the blue light beams through her space. Strawberry knows to trust her with this, but the reasoning is more frivolous than making absolutely sure of guaranteeing the kill shot. She could 'teleport' away at any moment, but for just a moment longer, it's pride in the way. Especially after the way she'd talked to Muramasa before.

    She has both hands now. Releasing the blade, allowing it to spring back up, and instead pulling her fingers back against the very base of the long and counterbalanced hilt, has the blade whip back around to split the first saya fragment straight down the middle in an instant, the strength concentrated into her fingertips finely maneuvering the western-style weapon's balance with nearly leverage alone. The showy maneuver leaves the sword wedged in a position that isn't adequate for defending her head from the second blow.

    Yet again, there's that subtle, perverse feeling like she knew this line was coming. Like she'd watched the movie ten times already. It's a little more believable this time, but what's unbelievable is the way she chooses to deal with it; at the start of his 'pommel' thrust, just before it can gather terminal speed, Lilian pushes right into him with her superior strength, and then smashes her forehead directly into the base of the second saya piece. Despite the skill behind it, it is, after all, merely hollow wood, and her supernaturally enhanced toughness is something she knows is stronger than wood. Since it has to be aligned for a straight jab, there's no way for it to flex either. The scabbard was already toast, but it is now extra toast.

    "Do you really think I'm going to fall for my own moves? I thought maybe you had some combat experience, but you really do think like a lowly serial killer."

    "I suggest you don't give me a reason to make you the first person I kill. You cannot conceive of what you're trying to get yourself into. Subhuman stain."

    Sadly that's as far as that exchange can escalate. The annihilator beam is inbound. Okada has shown the instinctive good sense to get the fuck out of the way. Lilian has to do the same; getting atomized is not a good flex. She just bips out of the way, leaving the giant, glowing 'gem' to get ashed by the nuclear beam, from a safe distance away.

    When she's back on the ground, Lilian has a few words of appreciation. "Congratulations. You're getting better at this." ostensibly meant for Muramasa and Hibiki. "Thank you very much, as usual." she spares for Tamamo, in a moment of open gratitude. "Your assistance in removing the civilians is appreciated." is a more iced note of approval to Cantio doing something useful. "It's like I said. You have everything you need right here. There's no need to worry." she says to Strawberry.

    And yet, for the alleged cutest magical girl in the world, her eyes narrow at the same moment she sheathes her sword, with that glassy scrape and ringing click. "What's your problem?" One of those things was not like the others. Oh well.
Staren     In response to nothing that's happening here, Staren VERY ABRUPTLY yanks off her backpack and inspects it for damage, alarmed, and then relaxes with a sigh of relief.
Hibiki Tachibana     It's all over, and the quiet after the battle as the remains of the debris sphere settle is almost unthinkable after all the chaos that led up to that point. A wincing Hibiki with one /supremely/ sore arm is left picking herself back up physically and mentally as she catches up with everything, her armor releasing a hideously large burst of steam out to the side as she pants for breath. Strawberry managed the final shot...

    "Ugh..." Straightening up some, her attention goes towards Silver Carnation as she glances upward. That smile...doesn't resonate with her like a normal one does. Hibiki knows what a fake smile looks like. There was a time she made a lot of them, at least until she couldn't even manage that anymore. "--She..." But before she thinks of saying anything on it, she's flying off. "...She's gone."

    There's a brief purse of her lips, then she glances over to the fallen Muramasa. He looks like shit, but a lot of them do, and it speaks to how much effort he put into all of this. Was he really relying on her for that back there...? It was a spur of the moment thing, but...

    Shuffling in place, Hibiki glances to Cantio and sort of rubs the back of her neck. "I'm, uh...I dunno." She says that outright. She's gonna need as much of a crash course as she is. Lilian gets her attention after, to some slight wide-eyed surprise from the girl before she glances off somewhat to the side. "...Thanks, Lilian. I tried to listen to your advice. And I appreciate it." She takes a deep breath, lets it out, and then idly looks at the back of her still-sore hand.

    Wait a second.
Tamamo     Tamamo knows what that light is, and she wouldn't need the warning to recognize it. At the same time, a hundred other signs tell her the battle's over. Barely giving a glance to how hard she'd worked Red Ogre, Tamamo speeds along, cloth flowing in the wind, to meet up with those inside. Most especially one or two of them.

    And then Lilian is coming back to meet her. "Oh, are you uninjured? Let me look over you. Ah, your armor has not torn, but that does not mean you are unbruised. You have no difficulty walking, at least. Is that a mark on your face? Now, where did..." It's a quick but thorough evaluation that continues, though she's not prone to more than cheaty magical healing, in general, as opposed to doctor's evaluation.

    After an (in)appropriate amount of fussing over the mostly untouched Lilian, Tamamo sees to Muramasa. She'd already pulled out a few energizing talismans with the intent of helping him, and it simply doesn't feel right putting them away again, just because the monster is slain. There isn't that same air of 'fussing' as she passes along those prepared blessings, along with a nod to Hibiki, and then she's on to check on the others.

    Strange. That rather loud girl already disappeared. It must have been while Tamamo was distracted.