Scene #7575: Dragon-Eating Wolf

Owner	Pose
Hiromi	The closest warp gate to Eredi Mitne is within the vague boundaries of the city itself, though underground. There seems to be quite a tunnel network, though walking in the direction of the tunnels widening would be enough, even without the clearly labeled signs, to find the city itself. There's a slight upward slop, with a paradoxical shift toward fresher air even as one finds oneself in a sprawling metropolis. The break in one of the enormous walls reveals that this place isn't underground, but rather, bordered on all sides by inward-sloping stone, the final remains of a mountain that had beeen dug into right to its structural limits, and these reinforced by past architects and sorcerers. The result looks less like a network of caves and more like an actual city, with buildings of stone, wood, pressed earth, and polished brick. The inhabitants, the kobolds, tend toward a bit more than half-human height, most with blue-to-green scales. They're roughly humanoid lizards with long tails and brightly dyed clothing. The climate here is warm and humid, predictably leading to loosely draped or partial outfits. Back to that break in the wall. Something huge had broken through there, and it's definitely related to the city's panic. There's no professional soldiery in sight, though a lot of the people running about do carry spears, shields, or staves. Most are moving away from some point in particular, though others are running against the flow, whether to find out what's happening or to look for someone they need to grab before they, too, can run. Many, many others are just sheltering in place, barring their doors and windows. These streets weren't made for large vehicles even by kobold standards, so the traffic is considerable, as is.
Hibiki Tachibana	Despite having a rough couple of days, the only thing causing Hibiki Tachibana any hesitation in responding to Eredi Mitne's call for help, reaching through Watch channels and a bit of conversation, is the fact she might miss something back at home. But that's a big potential 'if', and there are kobolds who /definitely/ need help right now. Kobolds who are getting eaten and terrorized. The soreness in her body will be probably be weaned off halfway on her way to the city, dashing at full sprint out of the gate. ...She really was planning on leaving Muramasa back there as a just in case. Honest. Okay, that's only half of it. But since he's here, she won't say no to the help at all. Her own problems are put out of mind by the time she makes it through the widening tunnels and into the wide open city proper, where she momentarily stops and takes in the view--there's been a lot of firsts for her in the Multiverse, and an underground city metropolis is a new one. It doesn't really last very long though, the moment the massive gap in the walls comes into sight and the panicked atmosphere hits, and her expression goes tense. "That's massive...!" Hibiki mutters while sprinting forward and glancing off towards the break, getting an idea of exactly how 'giant' this giant wolf is. "Out of the way, please...! Don't get yourselves hurt, leave it to us!" She calls out towards the few kobolds who are doing the same as she pushes her way through the small streets and dense crowd, which is at least something she has experience in. The last thing she wants is any more civilians to get caught up in things. That's also something she's seen enough of.
Hiromi	Getting through the crowds on the ground level is pretty difficult, as is getting them out of the way, though there's plenty of verticality to this place if someone takes to the rooftops. They're all flat, rain and snow being less than frequent problems, and relatively clear for travel. The people who'd sent out the distress signals aren't in sight. Somewhere, there's a Watch cell, but they aren't equipped for this at all, so they won't be a help in a fight. The local ruler, a dragon named Jergintarth, is off on a diplomatic mission with some nearby Commonwealth territory, and the resident diplomat from the same didn't bring any elite bodyguards, so he's likely still in the embassy. The present evacuation seems more like a spontaneous disaster reaction, with no apparent authority figures handling it. There was likely some cultural significance to the statues in the central plaza. The place is huge, plenty big enough for an oppressively large dragon to address a crowd, with supporting columns disappearing upward into the darkness of the mountain. There are more levels to the city up there, lantern-lit windows like wan stars in the sky. Only here does any appreciable sunlight reach, angling from the break in the eastern wall. Overturned handcarts and the remains of a street market join the wreckage of carved pillars and figures. There are fewer inhabitants here. This is the place people have been running away from. Only out around its perimeter, and only by looking hard, can one find the city's defenders, large squads sticking behind cover, not coming within sight of what's up there, clutching spears, crossbows, and the occasional, light-catching crystal. The equipment within each group is varied, but holds to certain standards between squads, if one bothers to check. They're grim-faced, as far as lizard faces with huge, vertical-slit eyes can be readable.
Muramasa	Muramasa, perhaps due to circumstances, or perhaps to avoid feelings of hypocrisy, avoids chewing Hibiki out for trying to leave him behind again. Instead, this time, they set off together and sprint out at top speed, magical energy reinforcing Muramasa's legs and feet as he dashes out. Maneuvering through the crowds at his Master's side isn't easy, but somehow, they manage. "So this is it, huh?" he murmurs, glancing at the would-be defenders tersely holding the line; they seemed to be armed with a variety of basic weapons, and some of them wielding a form of magical staff, perhaps. Naturally, as they were there to repel their enemy, they weren't making the first move. Looking down to Hibiki before focusing back on the lizard folk, he approaches to ask one of them for more details. "We're here to help, if we can. Can you tell us more about what's happened, and what attacked you?" As far as he was aware, it was some sort of wolf creature eating the citizenry, but it'd be best to get it directly from the proverbial horse's mouth.
Sarracenia	As panic fills the caves, a sight through the huge hole in the mountain wall might only exacerbate things. A wooden ship some 100 feet long that looks like an old world Spanish galleon comes flying down toward the mountain, propellers on its mast keeping it in the air. On the stern of the ship rides a tall woman who looks like a princess. A flowing red royal gown and a gold crown make it obvious, as does her immaculately styled copper-colored hair. The hammer she is carrying that is taller than herself might go against that appearance, though. The airship moves into place in front of the hole, then the princess jumps down and makes her way in. As she does the underside of the airship opens and a ramp lowers to the ground, then a phalanx of piranha plant people with proper weapons and Spanish man-o-war helmets comes marching down. They form up behind her as she strikes a heroic pose. "Fear not, good people of this mountain! Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom, is here to put a stop to this monster!" Then she sees the packed streets. She blinks, then huffs and turns to a gold-helmed plant. "Get the squad to the center of the commotion as quickly as you can, I am going on ahead. And send refugees to the ship as you go." With that, the princess leaps up to the roof of one of the smaller buildings and makes her way by rooftop in the direction that the populace is fleeing from.
Hiromi	In the center of that plaza, great claws had torn open the carved stone, all around a pillar like a smooth, rain-worn spire, on the flattened top of which sits a wolf. The size is difficult to tell from a distance, obviously being far larger than a wolf should be, but not the kind of giant that could trample a city on its own. Yet, it implants in the mind the idea of size, a feeling beyond mundane descriptors like 'the height of a city bus.' There's just the one monster, alertly watching the cleared-out approaches to abandoned market circle. Others have approached, as evidenced nearby, though their remains are in multiples pieces. More often, they're entirely missing pieces, torn apart with great force, some portion left of each. Some partly-cleanead bones, chewed through, have no clear owner. Kobolds bleed red, and there's no short supply of that. It's possible to learn some of this without actually entering, as Muramasa finds. The one he asks shakes his head, but taps another's shoulder, down the line until what must be their officer (his helmet has a much flashier draconic pattern to its metalwork) crawls cautiously undercover to reach him and fill in some details. "A wolf-monster. Never seen anything like it. Never heard anything like it. Might as well be shooting at dragonscales. Easy to find in there, but it's quick. If you're here to help, be careful. It's one thing if it stays in there, but if it's lured out into the city..." The small lizardman shakes his head. Another soldier ventures, "We could trap it in..." The officer snaps at him, "Shut it! Spears don't hurt that thing. Poison darts bounced off. We'd just get more people eaten for nothing. Better it sits there and keeps waiting." There's some grumbling at this. No one is keen on any particular course of action, without knowing how the invader will act. Morale, and hope, are low.
Lilian Rook	<X-Paladins-Chatter> 4 Lilian Rook says, "What's with this entire week?" <X-Paladins-Chatter> 4 Lilian Rook says, "Just one after another." Unfortunately, despite her requests, there is in fact no one else on station to deal with this. Nobody but Muramasa, whom she refuses to count, and ostensibly he is only here to avoid being left behind in the kitchen again. With so many people out of action since yesterday, and the fact that she refuses to put Strawberry Princess through something like this back to back, Lilian debates for a large number of precisely zero seconds whether she really wants to go through with this. Ultimately, the fact that she's one of the few who even can, and a whole thing specifically about people being eaten, makes her sense of responsibility too burdensome not to. Even if they're weird little lizard people and not humans. 'It'll be fine', she tells herself. 'You managed everything else that went wrong this week. This is just a little aftershock'. Lilian finds the highest rooftop immediately available to survey the scene, but it only takes her less than ten seconds to resolutely declare: "This is a shitshow. No disaster readiness, no proper military, and it seems no leaders beyond that dragon monarch who's halfway across the Multiverse right now. It doesn't seem like our ambassador is in immediate danger, but we need to be prepared to extract him if the crisis spreads further." A quick headcount. Not enough to carry things. She asks Muramasa for his status. Still trying to avoid aggravating his injury. "What a shit hand." Lilian moans just to herself. "Couldn't they have spread themselves more evenly throughout the week? Eight people piling onto that Orphenoc was the opposite of helpful, but now I finally get a moment and I'm stuck with city evacuation with just this?" Wasting no time, Lilian immediately follows the current of armed foot traffic to the center of the mountain town. In the dark, her eyes glow very faintly with the magic reinforcing them, though her battlesuit fades into the surroundings perfectly. She makes a thoughtful grimace at the line she encounters, but withholds conjecture for the time being. Instead, she finds the closest equivalent to a captain she can (likely by that fancy helmet, same as Muramasa), and requests that he move the men(?) here back a few blocks to solid urban cover, and to consolidate the picket into six directional units instead of stretching it solid. Given who's here, they'll need space to work with, and to keep the kobolds out of casual crossfire. That taken care of, Lilian says "Just a moment.", and summons an increasingly implausible bird out of the darkness, where a huge black crow appears from the high shadows and perches on her outstretched arm. Whispering something to it, she sends it off again with a flick of her wrist, sending the quasi-familiar out to check the area and locate the monstrous wolf from the air. Equally as important, she sends it to circle around the whole fenced-in area twice, to scout for anything that looks like an obvious ambush point or killing field; especially if the defenders have fallen for it already.
Lilian Rook	Though she makes a face at seemingly nothing in particular, when that field of bones appears to it, only once the crow comes back, does Lilian say something conclusive. "Ordinarily, those sorts of things are supposed to go to sleep once they're done, not sit around like a cat looking for a canary. I doesn't seem to be in any kind of position to trap anyone. Is it establishing territory? Intending to move in? Who knows with monsters-- No, who even knows with dogs? Arbitrary creatures as they are." Glancing back to her meagre assistance with a disappointed look, Lilian motions into the dark zone. "Let's move up. Be mindful of how far you attract its attention; that kobold is right, we don't need it running into the city. At worst, if it runs up against one of the picket squads, we'll need to use that opportunity to kill it when it slows down. Muramasa, stick to the second line; these buildings are all made of stone, so it should be fine if you cut loose a little. Don't burn yourself out, and don't try to get into a brawl. Your Master will no doubt take care of that. I can't exactly instruct Tachibana to do anything but not get herself killed if she can help it." "We're in dire lack of third line support, so I'll do my best to analyze the enemy's abilities and devise a counter-strategy." She doesn't quite mutter 'again' quietly enough. "Hopefully, it's a wild monster that's just too much for these little guys, that moved in once the dragon wasn't around to scare it off. I'll move in ahead of you." That she does. However, it is in the form of a motionless, noiseless little bip. A bleary blink and eye-rubbing 'was I just imagining things?' kind of was-there-now-here. Specifically, she finds as high a place as she can with a direct line of sight to the wolf, that still has cover --ideally a window-- capable of concealing her body, at a middle shooting distance. As long as she lays low and sits completely still, she can watch its initial reaction to the others. Even if it should have an even stronger sense of smell than a normal wolf, it's not as if her scent could physically reach it right away.
Hiromi	Piranha soldiers fighting the flow of traffic are going to have a hard time, though people are more likely to get out of the way of anything that looks that weird. This city is used to the sight of humans, but not ambulatory plants. Reaching the center via the high road, as Sarracenia does, is substantially easier.
Hiromi	For some reason, the officer Lilian finds assumes her affiliation as soon as she starts talking. He instructs one of the squad's sorcerers, "Send it. Tell them the Paladins are here to handle it." That, or it's just the convenient assumption he needs to get his buddies into harder cover. Finding the monster isn't hard. Finding it without being spotted is a good deal harder, though it'll take someone actually entering the plaza to get much of a reaction. There's a reaction to the crow familiar, but no major motion. The one problem with rooftops is that, with most traffic going 'down' and 'out,' someone going 'up' is more likely to be noticed. Lilian's plan of using a window gives her an easier time. There are plenty of higher-up buildings, away from that central area, the city built in as many levels as its structure can support. She just has to avoid the ones that still have lanterns lighting them. Some of those are still inhabited, while others were left in a hurry.
Hibiki Tachibana	Taking the rooftops isn't a bad idea, the denser the crowd gets. Whether through that or force, she ends up managing to reach the plaza with some effort alongside Muramasa--and the more of this she sees, the worse it seems. This kind of sudden fleeing really is all too familiar, even though the circumstances are entirely different. But at least in the ones she's used to, the government helps make sure things run smoothly. Here, it seems like they're reliant on Jergintarth to handle any affairs like this that would crop up, and without him... Here, she glances between the debris left over from what only could have been the wolf that's been terrorizing the populace coming through, and the defenders trying to maintain their perimeter. Even before one of them says anything, she can imagine that what they're equipped with isn't anywhere near enough for this kind of threat. There's a moment where she almost says as much, but stops at the sound of Princess Sarracenia's airship making its landing and disgorging troops. Well, that's one method of getting reinforcements. And while Muramasa gets answers from the officer, Hibiki takes a scant few steps forward, just enough to cast her eyes off towards the distance - on the wolf at rest. It's not as big as she thought it'd be...no, it is. It's a feeling that goes beyond just what she sees. That, and the gruesome sight of the remains scattered nearby it make her give off an uncomfortable grunt, hairs standing on end. "...We'll make sure it doesn't get out to the rest of the city," she finally mentions off towards the officer, even though she has no grounding at all for that claim other than the fact she does her best. "I wish we didn't have to handle it in here at all, but I don't think we'll get a choice." Lilian's comment of 'not getting killed' gets a silent nod out of her, and after a pause, she starts walking again. She's not going to try hiding herself at all, just simply moving in. That kind of approach has the side effect of making her the obvious thing to look at rather than the others trying to get into favorable positions, but mostly, she's just watching the wolf with every slow and steady step she takes, intensely on edge for any reactions from it.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia arrives at the bloody perimeter and comes to a stop as well. She looks a bit sick at the sight, but after a few moments she manages to steel herself. And like Hibiki she doesn't try to hide herself either. She looks toward the wolf, then grips her hammer. "Okay, I will!" she says, probably meant for Lillian. But unlike Hibiki she doesn't approach with caution. The overly enthusiastic and still somewhat naive princess hops down into the plaza and approaches the wolf, giving her hammer a flourish in the process before smacking the pommel down on the ground to make an echoing thud. "So! You could not find the dragon and so thought it was fine to just start devouring these cute little kobolds? Hah! I, Princess Sarracenia, will ensure you cannot cause such pain to any others! You may surrender now if you wish! It will save you and me both a lot of time, and you a lot of pain!" The piranha plant soldiers are still trudging through the streets toward the plaza. They'll be here soon! ...okay, eventually!
Hiromi	Excepting the possibility of Sarracenia rushing ahead of her, the most immediately interesting thing in the plaza is Hibiki's approach. The shift of attention toward her is sudden, a snap of the head to lock both the wolf's eyes on her. Then, it raises its head. It howls, loud enough to be heard throughout the city. A howl is a howl. It's not a language anyone here speaks. It's not even comprised of words in the first place. It's not like there's meaning hidden in it, because the meaning is out there in the open. It hits the mind like the wordless understanding that precedes articulation, or the feelings of a memory yet to form into images. Once transformed into words, it says, "I am Hiromi." That is, clearly, a name. It's a name that exists as overlapping layers of meaning. It means 'wolf,' but also 'the greatest wolf,' 'the final hunter,' 'the terrible and beautiful tyrant,' on and on. It is a litany of titles that tie into a single name, such that the name is everything it represents. It, the wolf that is Hiromi, stands, and speaks with the same not-words, the inexplicably, perfectly understandable, animal noises of a great monster. "The small prey scurries in the dark. Their strong parents are absent. By waiting, I knew some would come or return. Will you take their place? If you are weaker than you think, you will die."
Hiromi	That's about as much warning as they get before the atmosphere changes once more. If announcing the wolf's name had been the nonvisual equivalent of a title appearing together with all its subtitles, the moment before it leaps from the oddly natural pedestal is the near-silent equivalent of an orchestral crescendo and a dried-blood-red bar stretched across the screen. "Come!" is the meaning to the roaring howl as the stones shatter from the force of landing, and this time, it's a command. A command that hits the mind of everyone looking directly at Hiromi. 'Come here.' 'Join the battle.' 'Fight me.' 'Prove your bravery.' It's every taunt at once, but most of all, an authoritative command with the power of a capital-C Command. Sarracenia doesn't need to hear that. She's already there, her demand for surrender not so much ignored as responded to with a claw the size of her body descending with enough force to embed in the carved stones beneath her. Hibiki doesn't need to hear it, either. She's already there, right in range of the wolf's great jaws, about to snap shut on her position. Those kobolds caught in the same didn't survive. Had they been tougher, they would have lived long enough for a neck-snapping shake of the wolf's head before being tossed aside, but none had.
Muramasa	COME. "Gh...!!" Muramasa squirms from his position, having been slinking up onto one of the un-lit buildings, hoping to gain a good vantage point to view the entire plaza from, and be capable of effectively attacking or defending from that point. But, what he hadn't anticipated was this command of ability, almost similar to the Command Spells Hibiki has engraved into her hand; the similarity going as far as the shared ability to force him to comply, regardless of what he himself wanted to do. Accordingly, Muramasa leaps off of his perch and makes himself a known prescence, reinforcing his legs and arms as he bounces into a roll on the ground to kill his momentum. "..d..damnit..." Visibly, his extremeties were all still thickly bandaged from the severe corrosive burns he'd received the day before. Standing tall, he uneasily clutches the shroud of martin wrapped around his neck like a scarf. It's based on both sound, and sight, Muramasa hypothesizes, realizing that he wasn't the only one affected. He'd have to take that minimal saving grace for whatever it was worth, as Hibiki finds herself trapped by Hiromi's jaws, and holds his hands out with a finger extended. Crackles of blue-green lightning whirl around his arm in a clockwise motion, "Trace on." and, once the gun in his head is loaded with the blueprints of weapons, a variety of swords, spears, knives, and other armaments spew at the broad-side of Hiromi's body in an explosive bombardment. "Master, now..!"
Hibiki Tachibana	Sarracenia means shes isn't coming in alone, but she's a little worried about how gung ho the princess is about it. And when Hibiki of all people is thinking that, there's probably some cause for concern. That feeling gets some validation when the wolf finally acts, and its howl resonates across the interior of the mountain...and into her head, getting her to stop in her tracks with slightly wide eyes. She was right. This isn't a normal monster at all. "You--" The sensation of all these titles wordlessly reaching her mind is simultaneously alien and yet not as strange as it probably should be, for some reason. More prominent in her thoughts is actually the fact it can speak at all. If it can communicate, it can maybe be reasoned with - that's her first thought despite its words, and they're all but brushed from her mind when the creature leaps into action and releases that demand roar. She almost doesn't register the compulsion, not when she stiffens up solid under impending death. Balwisyall nescell GUNGNIR TRON! Her own shout comes out at the same time she throws her arms out, crimson pendant she's wearing exploding out into golden light that overtakes her body. Her bandages and clothes erupt off as it shapes itself into the silhouette of an undersuit and mechanical armor, starting at the gauntlets forming over her hands and arms as she goes to catch the wolf's maw mid-snap with immense strength. "Ngh--!" Her muscles burn and limbs strain under the exertion as her transformation completes, just in time for her to get violently tossed aside despite barely avoiding getting bitten in half. She spins through the air, but grits her teeth and fires her Symphogear's thrusters to flip and rebound higher, and then send herself sailing straight down towards Hiromi's head with a wild glint in her eye. Her leg swings up, pistons in the leg armor ejecting as they do, and it comes down hard. The mechanisms slam back in right behind the initial impact, producing visible shockwave that'll be angled to travel straight through the wolf's skull. But there's also something else adding to the strength behind it. Something less physical, a force like a reverberation that'll go through her body. Something that feels plain 'wrong', like it's antithetical to her very existence.
Sarracenia	Giant claw comes down and Sarracenia realizes this wolf is much bigger than she thought just before she is squashed like a bug beneath that claw, leaving her in a small princess shaped crater in addition to the impression left by the claw on the stone. She groans as she pulls herself out of that crater, then stumbles around a bit before managing to get her senses back. "What sort of terrible reasoning is that? You just felt like fighting someone strong and there was no one strong here so you killed people until someone strong showed up? That's how badguys end up getting defeated by heroes you know!" she exclaims, then she goes into a twirling dance with her hammer, swinging it in a series of strikes at the paw that squashed her. "And stop that weird howling! I don't need a thesaurus yelling at me! And if all you wanted was a good fight all you had to do was ask!" she adds. "But don't worry, none of us are weak! You might find out that maybe you are weaker than -you- think!"
Lilian Rook	'Come!' §It's not a wild monster. White noise. Forty eight minutes and forty seconds. Count to ten. Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota. Forty eight and fifty. As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish. Count to ten. Forty eight and fifty. The MA5I-C cyclical rate: 1200rpm. Forty nine and zero. In sixth grade you broke that boy's nose. What was his name? Eric. Nobody found out; not even him.§ §Alright. If it's just this much, there's no problem.§ Unfortunately, the kobolds incidentally set to guard the direction Lilian is closest to are not nearly so immune as she is. Little clawed feet scrabble up stairs. Dazzled lizard brains command grabby lizard fingers to reach out and fulfill that command. They know where she is; she'd shared the information with them after all. They flock to her position. §Shit. I should have moved them all the way out of earshot. Who's to know that a giant wolf runs off a Delusion-hybrid classification powerset? I hate this.§ Lilian leaps from her darkened window, kicking out the curtain rods with both feet and vaulting out the side of the building before the influx of petty guards can pinpoint her exactly; if she's going to be outed, it may as well be at high speed. Her vaulting arc carries her all the way across a street and over to the wall of the next building, which she hits with one foot and hand, and then springs off of at a parallel angle, causing her to disappear behind the back of another high rise. Glowing gold points are left in a sparse trail behind her, at first seeming like they're fizzling on the verge of going out, but on inspection, actually 'boil' with seething and popping points of blackness. They fire in swift but staggered succession, elongating into sizzling lances of mysterious, typeless energy, simply passing through everything they intersect, but dumping enormous quantities of heat(?) through each square inch they touch. From the opposite direction, Lilian slides out from behind a building at street level, that fancy holographic gunmetal rifle-slab unfolded and charged, and blazing away at an incredible rate of fire to hit Hiromi with a couple of solid kilos of tungsten from one direction or the other, at close range.
Hiromi	Great jaws snap around Hibiki, then toss her aside. Muramasa fires a storm of blades as the transformed Hibiki descends. There's some flash of understanding, or perhaps intuition, at the fall of Gungnir. Rather than taking it to the head, Hiromi disappears in an expanding cloud of wind and raised dust, into which disappear Muramasa's blades-- No, she's still there. Definitely 'she,' now, as much as the monstrous form hadn't indicated that at all. The ears and tail are the same thick and bushy fur, but the rest is more than seven feet of tanned muscles under tight-corded cloth. Violet-red is not a usual color for wolf eyes, for those who know such things. Hers are wide. Perhaps more importantly, she's grinning wide. The blades still strike, though now off-aim. Where the kobolds had failed to make a dent, Saber can see solid hits, though it's like using a blade to wear down a statue. Hibiki's foot, it's now clear, has reached not Hiromi's head, but her raised fist, the resulting shockwave from the impact freshly cratering the ground beneath her, raising up slaps of stone to hang weightless for the barest of moments. That moment was all she needed. Hiromi falls beneath the impact, only to turn it into a complete flip that sees her foot lashing out at Hibiki's midsection with the force of a cannon, enough to carry her clear outside the arena if she catches it. In the same, Hiromi's hand stabs out into a chunk of stone, grips it as if a handle had always been there, and rushes Sarracenia's hammerblows. Struck again and again against her makeshift shield, it lasts much longer than it should under any assault, bursting at the same moment as she passes by with a leg-sweep from behind and elbow-drop that hits, whether her target or the ground (stone that proves much softer than the wolf), hard enough to launch her back into the air. The broken ground ripples unnaturally where she lands, then snaps together again to launch her straight at Muramasa. She has claws, not hands. No, there are fingers there, but claws erupt from her skin together with them. They're not sharp, like blades. That means they'll hurt much worse. Lilian is followed. The command hasn't ended, and she's ditched her immediate pursuers, but there's an entire city of weakly defended minds. Running is briefly possible. Hiding is largely impossible. Briefly running, then firing, works as it should. Muramasa is spared a follow-up attack, because Hiromi, presumably now superheated, but hardly dissuaded, breaks the ground again with her leap, kicks off a building that crumbles with the effort, and slams feet-first into her position like a meteor.
Hiromi	There's something else Hiromi's wearing, besides that 'outfit clearly made by someone for whom "clothing" is a foreign concept,' though it's hard to recognize what it is without a careful look. It's in the form of a piece of jewelry around her neck. It's a radio.
Muramasa	Blood spills across the ground as Muramasa narrowly avoids bifurcation, shielding himself with a shotgun-blast of common weaponry flying out in front of him to repel Hiromi, only for her claws to prove themselves superior to the hasty projections, swiping out to nearly end him if he hadn't of been throwing himself into a sommersault backwards. "Hsh..!" Hissing, the stinging injury could have been the end of him, he realizes. <J-IC-Scene> Muramasa says, "Hey. Distract that thing for a minute, I'll be right back." Utilizing his Territory Creation skill to apparate the interior of someone's apartment into a magical smithy, he hurriedly sets about creating an armament to counter that terrifying power. Since he was in such a hurry, it wouldn't function well as a weapon, he understood -- he was taking too many shortcuts; using Alteration to shape it instead of his hammer. NOT LONG AFTER: Hiromi kicks off of a building, and Muramasa dashes out of the window of one across the plaza from it, the shield in his hand having a thick, yet sharp, edge rolling down the slope; almost as if it were a sword that had been forcibly reshaped into a bulwark. It was a Mystic Code that could emit and launch bounded fields at a short range, which if his craftmanship wasn't shabby, should provide some level of protection from that wolf-creature's Commands. In the brief lull as Hiromi address Hibiki, Muramasa gets a running start to bound off of a crumbling wall, nearby, intent on bringing down the sharp, tapered tip into Hiromi's hide. And, it became immediately clear why the peculiar shield was designed the way it was -- The 'shield' was in reality, a blasting plate. With a sharp click, the crudely designed pile bunker drives the exploding Overedge in to strike a visceral blow that he hoped would weaken her thick and tough body enough for the others to finish her off. "Burst open and explode..!"
Lilian Rook	§A woman? She's-- no, more important things. Bullets did less than nothing; she didn't even parry or dodge them. Magical attacks work, but, she doesn't seem to be feeling that level of discharge yet, and I don't know how many more I'd have to hit her with before it ramps up to the point of causing damage. She can tolerate that amount of energy without issue, and it's going to become a huge problem for the others first. I might just run out before I wear her down. Let's dispense with attack magic for now. Keep it in reserve for runes. Think.§ The kobolds chasing Lilian aren't something she considers an issue anymore; given a couple more quick maneuvers, she'll lose them quickly. She's ceased worrying about their safety at this point, or even thinking about them, exactly as taught. If they're lucky, Lilian revealing herself to Hiromi will fulfill the conditions of that compulsion. §Muramasa's weapons are barely doing any damage. There's no way heavier conventional weapons will cut it. If I waste time probing her level of durability, I'll lose my opportunity.§ When her ammo counter hits zero, she throws the emptied rifle in their direction instead, leaving the lead of the column to get bowled over by an extremely overly heavy rifle being flung at him. Lilian hits the release on one of her magnetic holsters and purges the spare magazines and grenades, which thunk heavily to the ground. §Hibiki's attack; that's not a blind reflex. But that doesn't look like any martial art I'm familiar with. Is this what Miyamomo was on about? With 'formless styles' and instinctive body movements? Judging by that counterattack, there's no way I can overpower her in close combat, and with that reaction time, I can't get her with just some well-executed feints.§ She grasps the hilt of her blade, fixed to her side, faerie illusion unravelling in a haze of black smoke. Leather and steel boils away like morning mist, revealing polished magnetite and Celtic knotwork. Red light begins to flow into the lines. §This rock-- It's normal stone, I'm sure of it. Even if that princess is kind of an idiot, her hammer should have pulverized that even with flailing blows. An elemental aspect? Earth magic? That could explain the pillar, and how easily she broke in, not to mention the ground attack. Freeform terrain deformation? That's bad. Everything here is made of earth and stone.§ The falling kick from Hiromi comes mid-sword draw. The subtle scrape of glass(?) over metal is audible in advance of the clap and boom of air that hasn't quite caught up yet. She can look the wolf in the off-violet eyes. Excitement. The wolf can look her in the grass-green eyes. Unreadable. Humans don't make eyes like that. The blade needs another foot of clearance; there's no way she can strike Hiromi. Hiromi can sense the way her weight is distributed, and all the pressure she puts, on the ground; she hasn't begun to move in time, with both feet still firmly rooted. So it violates every core feeling of combat instinct, kinesthetic instinct, and even bestial instinct, when she strikes barren earth, and hard-edged glowing scarlet streamers wind around her leg instead, far sharper than any of the mass-produced blades. Without a vibration in the ground, a whisper of air, the disconnect is deeply perturbing. Something 'wrong'. Like she'd blacked out for a second. But there's no way that could happen to an Archwolf. Lilian is at her six o'clock. Twelve meters. The fully drawn sword radiates deep, bloodthirsty menace; a killer instinct surpassing that of earthly creatures and into truly obscene territory. Or, not quite. Some of that murderous, predatory aura is the girl's.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia ends up flat on her back and smashed into the ground. Again! She manages to get her hammer up between her and the blow this time, but that really doesn't help too much. And she was apparently repelled with just a big rock! "What the-...I smash rocks such as that all the time!" she says as she once again gets back to her feet. "And you got my dress dirty!" she adds before blinking in surprise. "Wait, you're a wolf person? Hmph, don't think I'll take it easy on you!" The princess holds her hammer in front of her, and a sparkling prismatic glow surrounds it before flowing down over her. It causes her hair to start floating upward like she is in water and a bit of a feral glint fills her eyes as a grin graces her features. "Are you ready to see my power?!" she exclaims before the hammer's magic fully takes hold. When it does, Sarracenia starts hammering away with full body up and down swings, slamming the person-sized head of that hammer up and down and leaving craters with each hit whether she hits her target or not. The piranha plant soldiers finally make it to the plaza, and with that compulsion on them they close in on Hiromi as well. The front few rows try to pin her down with their spears and the rows behind them launch fireballs at the swift wolf woman.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki's heel doesn't meet the great body of a towering wolf...but a fist. As the kicked-up dust clears and the situation sets in, almost in slow motion as her eyes lock down on Hiromi's own and go wide, the immediate shock is suppressed as her body responds on its own - and she realizes she's wide open. Amid the still-airborne stone, she also fails to reach the ground before her opponent's own kick smashes clean into her stomach hard enough to make her pupils flicker out of existence for a brief moment. She goes flying out of the plaza at breakneck speeds. She gets it back together enough in time that she doesn't hit the floor, but reorients herself in flight to smash boots-first into the side of a building, cratering the horizontal surface to the limits of it exploding inward. Launching off of it with only just enough restraint that it doesn't actually do that, the Symphogear user leaps back across the distance she just was thrown across to hit the stone of the square hard and waste no time sprinting back into the fray immediately after. She's on Lilian. Not good...! Hibiki's momentum is put into a second launch off the ground, sending her flying fist-first towards Hiromi from the side while her attention is elsewhere. The impact lacks the armor-driven shock as her last attack did, but the same underlying force remains. 'Something, something. Instinct tells me. 'Dangerous.' Why?' She doesn't know why that is...and there's no time to think about it either. But she's sure as hell not going to lose now. If Hiromi wants this armor she cherishes so much, she's going to make her work for it. Her attack doesn't end at just the initial strike. Hit or miss, her feet find the earth again and brace her for spinning her body into a hook with the other hand. A knee strike follows behind it, followed by a burst of her thrusters into a spinning roundhouse. She knows how to fight, that much is clear--but there's an unmistakable element of raw, relentless aggression behind it as well. Her defenses aren't tightened up at all.
Hiromi	Piranha plant soldiers advance as Lilian dodges out of the way--somehow. It's odd. The flow of motion from one moment to the next is missing, with no indication of how. Even a twitched finger would have been caught in Hiromi's vision. Dodging that kind of hit is expected, but the method draws out a puzzled, "Hmmmm?" Muramasa is somewhere else, doing something else, and she has no time to think about that. A lot of things happen, nearly at the same time. Mystic streams of scarlet wind around the confused wolfwoman's legs, a horde of plant-people attack her, and an approaching hammer is breaking the ground to pulverized rubble. The smith Servant reappears with a newly made sword, and there's a combined explosion, crash, crunch, and snap. It hadn't been enough until then, but the blasting shield stepped over some necessary point. Though it hadn't struck anywhere near the same spot as Lilian, both Hiromi's legs were then torn to bloody ribbons, one clear through the bone. By the time Hibiki is closing in, Hiromi has to stand herself up on one leg to receive the first blow. The plants are allowed to strike her, but even with all the injury she's now taken, and without a reasonable explanation as a survival response, it's Hibiki's fist she tries to seriously block. She shouldn't even be able to stand now. But she is. Fist meeting fist, leg strikes countering knees, what was shattered has already mended itself, and though blood still flows, the counterattacks arrive just as quickly. She said she'd tear it off, and that's the first thing she moves in to do, reaching for Hibiki with (mysteriously now smaller) claws with a parry into armlock into tearing motion that doesn't take into account anything about how actually difficult it is to remove important pieces of Symphogear without simply defeating the person wearing them, making up for that with a dangerous surge of strength. Lilian had definitely cut her foot off. It's back now. She's stepping just fine, with no apparent difficulty, when she allows the piranha plants to land any attacks they'd like on her, apart from that she commandeers a pair of hammers along the way to smash in on the princess from either side. The moment Hiromi touches them, they become more powerful than they had any right to be before then. Certainly more than they'd been while hitting her. Being between there would just be a terrible time, and the hammers are a total loss. "You," Hiromi says, swiveling toward Lilian, "I remember," and she stomps her foot. Blood splatters off it. More importantly, the still-intact areas of stone flooring all around suddenly crack and burst, flying up in shards as areas of stone still further beneath extend sudden spikes to break through to the surface, easily able to tear up the legs of anyone nearby. Hiromi closes in. "I have your scent. /He/ gave your form. What did he say...? Again! Show me!" Mercifully, Muramasa only has to deal with the ground spikes, for the moment. His usual luck with women has yet to show itself.
Muramasa	"Master!!" Holding his arm out, Muramasa closed his eyes and focused, "Trace on." Just like before, speed-tracing defensive armaments wasn't his specialty. It wouldn't be perfect, and that's why, rather than the full manifestation of the defensive power of Ajax's shield, what appears in front of Hibiki and Lilian instead to assist in defending them from the assault is a flower which blooms a mere three petals; a mere three layers of defense. "RHOOOOO AIAS!!" And upon battering through the barriers that expands from the flower, the curse delivers that blowback onto Muramasa's own body, "G...ggh.....aaaah!!" As if he himself had received a sound and swift beating, it was a near instant-defeat that brings the Servant to his knees. But, at least he'd been useful in defending the people in his reach. ... yet, that princess girl -- Sarracenia, he reminded himself -- wasn't caught under the umbrella of his defense, and was driven before Hiromi all the same. Gnashing his teeth in frustration, Muramasa breathes out a shuddering, bloody breath, "This ... this ain't it..." Small blessings, he supposed, was that besides the blowback and the shrapnel that had smashed through his reinforcement, he hadn't caught Hiromi's ire just yet. " ..alright, Master. Lilian. I hate to say this, but I'll have to leave everything up to you." As he only had one free hand to use, the other being used to carry around the spent-pile bunker, he holds it out and breathes in. "Trace on." Archer favored turning this sword into an arrow. But for him, he had to do it the other way around -- since he'd gotten it from him, he had to use Alteration to turn the twisted up weapon back into a sword proper, reverse engineering it. When he's done, he holds a pitch black, western sword in hand. " ... Master. You have the power to defeat her. I know you can. So don't give up, and knock her damn teeth out! This is all I got left! Don't give up now, body of mine..!" But he knew that it would. It would fail him the moment he made this stirke, even though he had reinforced it again to make himself move. The blowback of Rho Aias had practically defeated him itself, and so ... this was all that he could do now. The Red Hound Stalks The Plains. "HRUNTING!" Glowing a vivid red as Muramasa charges, the beast-killing sword of Beowulf guides itself as he thrusts, charging it with magical energy to force it into Overedge, extending the length of the tip as if it were a spear to plunge deep into Hiromi's body. And, in that same breath, the projection shatters and Muramasa with a choked "Gh..huah..?!" falls to the ground, defeated.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia doesn't really appreciate the irony of being beaten down with hammers after her strongest hammer attack failed to down her opponent. After being crunched from both sides at the same time by hammers that her own soldiers had been carrying the princess lets out a startled yelp then just sort of...crumples to the ground. "...ow..." Their princess going down ends the piranha plant assault as well. They bark at each other in gravelly voices and move to gather up the princess, forming a perimeter around her as they try to retreat. Spears are aimed at Hiromi to keep her from coming after them as they head back toward the airship. As she is carried away the princess calls out as best she can. "Th-this...does not mean I'm weak!" she exclaims, then winces and looks toward the others. "Don't let her win!"
Lilian Rook	Hiromi is full of energy, calling them out, testing their strength, asking questions and demanding answers, her voice even leaking into the local frequency, though Lilian is certain she isn't using her radio. However, Lilian doesn't have the mental cycles to spare. She'd been trying to give Muramasa orders, but the old man is obsessed with 'saving those in front of him', even extending to the most expendable members of the response team. Think faster. §The old man won't listen. He doesn't have a prayer in close combat, and he keeps stressing that leg more and more. If he'd just protect his Master, that'd be one thing; his combat effectiveness would drop if she ate shit regardless. The Watch's Princess isn't related to us at all though. I'm trying to let her go in first, deal some damage, and show me the wolf's responses, but he keeps getting in the way trying to save everyone. Compromised asset. Can't trust him. Hibiki is holding her own, but only just. She lacks experience. She's going to run out of gas soon.§ When Muramasa's stuck pylon explodes, Lilian crouches in a motion that winds up every muscle in her lower body at once, and then bursts away from the blast zone in one tremendously rapid motion, gravity briefly losing hold of her at the apex of her jump, such that she continues on a super-flat trajectory to the other end of the square, touches down, and vanishes behind the pillars when the smoke blossoms up in Hiromi's face. §Another enemy with instincts like that; I don't think I can deceive her eyes or ears with ordinary means. That instinct of hers; she's hardwired for fighting, I'm sure of it. That might even be to her detriment, though, if I'm very lucky. Not that luck has been on my side today. She's unconventional, certainly, but now that I've seen block Hibiki a second time, I can tell it's not some kind of unorthodox style. She's not being unpredictable on purpose. We're just not used to it yet. If I can get a feel of those timings, her speed and reach and reflexive responses, then . . .§ She doesn't expect the Piranha plants to last. She clearly doesn't expect Sarracenia to brawl it out like Hibiki either. However, they'll both keep the Wolf Queen busy just a bit longer. Lilian jumps one way, lands, leaps again, then doesn't come back down; black static cancels out her gravity and she flies the other way. §Let her assume I'm circle around her right, and I'll take her left. I haven't revealed that trick yet. As long as she's occupied in close combat like that, there'll be too much noise right near her ears to hear me until I'm close. Should I skip ten meters? Twenty? I'll have to look for the moment those ears twitch my way. Christ, look at her go.§ It'd been extremely tough to avoid notice before, but with the current state of chaos, scents and footsteps mingling all over, the frenzy of weapons and impacts and spilled blood, Lilian expects she can get away with using her suit's basic stealth functions and cutting a wide, hovering path behind Hiromi at high speed, forming a three point triangle where she won't be in the same visual arc as Muramasa, Hibiki, or the plant gang.
Lilian Rook	§That hand to hand style; the Princess' hammer is an unfortunately bad matchup. Does that elemental enhancement extend adjacently? Metal? Wood? It seems like the wolf retains the effect when she picks even those up. But she's clearly not using an armed style. It's still instinct. Harm intent. She has some significant gifts, powerful special abilities, but no special techniques. If Hibiki were stronger and tougher-- no, don't focus on what-ifs. Focus on what you have. As long as they keep attracting her attention, you can keep learning. Don't assume anyone else will carry this one. Tamamo isn't here. Strawberry isn't here. Not even Tony or Miyamomo. You can't rely on anyone but yourself. Don't overcommit. Better that you be the last one standing than all go down with the ship.§ There. That's her moment. When Hiromi finally has Hibiki, just at the right grip and angle and time to put in a genuine, credible effort into tearing her super form right off her, Lilian skips thirty meters of flight and suddenly appears nearly between the two. Her words somehow catch up to her, rather than happening in that frame of time. "Cleasa ~ Ag Scoilteadh Eas!" Though Hiromi is decisively a creature of the earth, and not an Outsider, Lilian isn't relying on a special property, but a well-rehearsed version of one of the feats of martial prowess passed down through the clans since ancient times. Concentric, crescent moon trails of sword-light trace a complex arc that in of itself contains a sacred geometry of 'cutting', enhanced with a powerful surge of Lilian's own 'strange-smelling' (really, what is that?) magical energy pushed through the blade, and adequately superhuman strength and speed. Normally, she'd be very pleased if it severed right through Hiromi's arm, to release Hibiki. However-- §Her foot! When did she reconnect it?! So not only is she tough as rocks, but she's a regenerator too! I hate regenerators! Not this again! I-- No, focus. Last time was different. You've been preparing since then. You know what to do. And besides, those bones belong to people. Lizards, but people. Thirteenth Code. It's alright. It's fine if you do That. Just a little. It won't hurt.§ Of course, this brings her face to face with Hiromi, for those words of recognition. Lilian stares at her as if she has no idea what the hell the wolf is talking about, and yet replies with perfect understanding, because . . . §Okada. She's talking about the serial killer. He had something to say, huh? So they're allies.§ "Did he tell you that I'm out of his league, too?"
Lilian Rook	The earthen explosion is right underneath her, spikes and shrapnel and stone fragments fit to cripple her on the spot. Not even the battlesuit's lightweight protection will do much against that amount of force. And yet, Lilian remains a target --the only target, it seems-- that Hiromi cannot decisively catch nor crush. It's exactly like Okada had described to her, in part. 'Like watching a fan dance'. The swordswoman already knows exactly where to stand. Her feet shift gracefully over the earth, stepping and swiveling weightlessly between spikes. The jagged rocky shards flying at her face are turned aside with swift, flowing, one-directional ribbons of sword-work, the blade moving as if by thought, though it is assuredly both hands and their unusual sequence of grips and adjustments of stance that command it. The core of the blast swells from underneath her, leaving no room to stand. And yet, right before Hiromi's eyes, before her immaculate ears and nose, she is gone. There's no doubting it. It's something well beyond human ability. Maybe even human comprehension. Techniques used for catching prey cannot catch this thing. Not prey. Not a wolf. Less a thing of sweat and breath and beating heart, and more a thing of blood-soaked visions. And suddenly, there's an immeasurable, atemporal instant --one that happens in the infinitesimal space between one 'moment' and the next, where the hyper-developed instincts of a God-Wolf take in: DEATH Lilian's sword has speared through her heart. The uncanny colourless edge of the red-black blade has impaled the Archwolf. The feelings of violence and pain and focused killing intent are all there, but it's impossible to say when it's happened. If it's happened. It's a foregone conclusion. Hiromi's heart is skewered. Written into the future, but experienced in the present. A secret technique without magic. An assassination without deception. A perfect strike without a single twitched muscle. "Sorry, but you're much stronger than him. I had to get serious this time." Lilian says. For some reason, she's speaking . . . something. Very, very old Gaelic?
Hibiki Tachibana	Vaguely, amid the chaos of close combat, Hibiki registers Hiromi's ability to recover at staggering speeds. It's not as immediately important as the fact that it allows her to defend against her strikes however, clashing again and again with thunderous impacts. Despite the wolf woman being assaulted from multiple angles, her defenses are impossibly tight. She keeps hitting, and the attacks keep being met - and she her aggressive overextension has her fall right into Hiromi's maneuver. Her blow is deflected, and she's pulled forward into a fierce armlock that she can't break, just barely registering what's about to happen from Hiromi's earlier words as her expression locks up. "Wait--" She lets out a pained yell as the tearing motion pulls at her arm with it, and the Symphogear audibly strains against the immense force shredding into it. It's immensely durable, but not unbreakable. Even Noise can damage it if she lets her guard down, and Hiromi's extreme strength is on another realm entirely. Metal crumples and begins violently ripping apart, plucked along her claws...and then in the blink of an eye, Lilian is between her and Hiromi. It's surprising to her, for more reasons than just the instant appearance, but understanding clicks in when her blade comes down. Not only that, but Rho Aias flares into existence, saving her from also falling victim to the uproar of earth from below. "Lilian!? "Muramasa--!" Wait, what the hell is he doing? Is he really-- 'So don't give up, and knock her damn teeth out!' "You don't have to tell me that...!" No time to think, only act. Saber put his all in. Lilian is absolutely everything doing everything she can too. Sarracenia needs them to win...and she doesn't want to lose. Her body moves on its own, seizing the chance while it's there. Even down one usable arm that may or may not be freed, she still has another perfectly good one. One with an arm unit still capable of shifting and enlarging as metal morphs and internals are expanded to make room for more mass coming from seemingly nowhere. The pilebunker-like units turn and lock into a whirling and exposed turbine, and rocket boosters emerge out the back and fire up to life. It only adds to the force of her entire body whirling around into a single straight punch, a knuckleguard sliding down over her hand right before impact - with her target being nothing more than Hiromi's face. It's going to hit hard enough to make the ground beneath them outright explode with a direct hit. On impact, her skirt thrusters ignite behind her, intending to carry her forward and try to send both herself and Hiromi off the floor - and send them both flying several few dozen meters before she angles down, and the gauntlet smashes back closed over the turbine and enacts a superpowered version of her piston-enhanced strike with the intention to send her as far down into the stone as possible. Chances are good she's actually going to tear her entire other gauntlet free if she still has a hold, if only from the raw speed that Hibiki is attempting to launch her away with.
Hiromi	Sarracenia is taken away. Hiromi lets out a growl in her direction, and the nonwords carry the full meaning in compact form. 'Try again.' 'Any time.' Hiromi has, almost assuredly, never heard the name 'Hrunting.' She's not any mythical creature the Throne of Heroes would have told Muramasa about, and there's no way he could have failed to identify her, otherwise, considering how extremely clear she was in giving her name. It follows, then, that she's from some completely different world. It's purely instinct with which she reacts, giving the beast-killing blade its due respect. It could hardly be a weak attack, from any halfway reasonable perspective, but little about Hiromi is in any respect reasonable, making arresting her full attention a feat in itself. She sets her stance to receive the attack. There's no avoiding it. It should have struck true. There was nothing wrong with his aim. It pierced her flesh. Through one hand, then the other. Claws broken from her, falling to the ground. It reached her heart. It was almost enough. If he'd had the strength for one more swing, he could have cut it out of her. If he'd had the strength to push just a little harder, his sword's tip would have reached her back. If only he'd been just slightly stronger, then no one else would have needed to fight. The other two interceding had saved Hibiki, at least for the moment, having forced Hiromi to defend herself, or else the grapple might have ended in hacked limbs. She has the time she needs to charge up, to build momentum, to strike. She aimed for the face, but what she hits is Hiromis' outstretched hand. Still with the bleeding wound of Hrunting through it, it's not enough to stop Hibiki's full-powered charge. The wolf is neither light, nor off-balance, but taking that blow head on sends them both flying through the air. She needs to move quickly, because even mid-air, even wounded, the claws are still there. Hibiki's arm is right there, and Hiromi still wants to tear it off, if the Symphogear won't come off otherwise. Her claws begin to dig in, stopping only with the colossal impact against the ground, cratering, blasting apart the already wrecked stones, sending pulverized shrapnel everywhere, sinking below street level. The ground opens beneath them. The glint of a wolf's smile is rarely a good sign, bloodied or otherwise. Following one into a mysteriously deepening hole in the ground is something Hibiki should probably avoid. In fact, anything involving grappling Hiromi should probably be avoided, even if it means letting her tear something off in the process. It's hard to say whether the earth pops Hiromi back out, or she jumps out on her own. The hole in the ground is gone like it never was. She's standing there, still raring to go, her wounds closing over, not fully, but just enough that they clearly won't do anything to slow her down. Even when she was missing a food, she'd ignore it. She can't ignore being pierced through the heart. Lilian finishes what Muramasa started. It's true, she's no Outsider. If anything, her essence is entirely the opposite, but that doesn't matter. There was no avoidable technique, nothing to counter, simply the effect 'Hiromi's heart is pierced by a sword,' sans cause. She coughs, once, then stops. Lilian can feel it, with absolute certainty in every sense and instinct. That was a fatal blow, and the immense, natural, supernatural presence in front of her flickers out. She's holding a corpse. Even with the blade removed, and the resulting gush of blood, Hiromi's body remains standing exactly where it is, refusing to fall. Blood cooling, still she stands. She still stands. She smiles. The presence returns all at once, a spirit oppressive in its size, even more so in her laughter. Loud, exuberant, echoing, happy. "I'll play with you again."
Muramasa	The pain is excruciating. Rho Aias, while he did not project the actual armament, he did bring out the concept of its defense -- which is to say that he was able to project the barrier emitted by the shield. It, like Beowulf's sword, was a page he was able to take out of Archer's book; yet, Ajax's shield came with a heavy cost. The curse ran rampant across his body, tearing muscles and breaking bones and bruising skin -- the only reason he'd been able to continue moving afterwards was raw gumption and that he had continuously reinforced himself as he was injured. If his bones broke, he reinforced them to keep them in place and working. If his muscles tore, he reinforced them to make them able to move and do their job. If his organs ruptured, he filled the holes with magical energy and reinforced them, to make them function. If I had been able to push myself even a step farther, would I have won? ... I hate this feeling. But it's pointless to think about what-ifs. I'll just have to leave the rest to the others. He wondered, before blacking out, if this is what Saber had felt when she had been defeated.
Hibiki Tachibana	The ground opens, and not just under her own doing - and for a split second, Hibiki almost doesn't stop herself from trying to chase her, if it means potentially being able to make sure she won't be able to terrorize the city anymore. "Ah--!" And then her fierce expression takes a 180, a dozen other things hitting her at once. Things like an echo of Lilian's voice telling her not to be stupid and get herself killed. The fact she has a lot of other things to fight for. The menacing intent behind that smirk on the wolf's face. And she abruptly pulls away even with claws still embedded in the thick metal of her gauntlet, the resistance strong enough that she actively has to shift all of her own strength into pulling away. It rips and shreds apart, wiring and internal machinery being forcefully exposed as almost the entire arm unit is shorn away to disappear with their foe underground. There's blood in the mix as well, not because her Symphogear is /that/ attached to her, but because of the violent method of removal causing several parts of it to cut into her. All her speed sends her flying into the ground a short distance away, where she tumbles and rolls out of control all the way until she hits the wall of a building, hard enough to leave cracks in the material as it forcefully brings her to a halt. There are several seconds of foggy-headed confusion as she grips her injured arm with the other and struggles to get back up, fails, and just barely manages to crack an eye open to see Muramasa fall--and Hiromi somehow keep going after what absolutely looked like a fatal strike. "You have got to be...kidding..." Her tone is total disbelief at the wolf's utterly joyous tone after all of that.
Lilian Rook	Muramasa had given everything he had for that attack. Hibiki had, instead of choosing to escape, chosen to respond to his wishes and go as hard as she could while she still had strength. Sarracenia was already being carried off, after the Wolf had survived even her impressive rampage. §. . .§ There's no room for any thought at all, about anything going on, for a second that feels too long. Even Lilian's attention is wholly devoted to ending this. To seizing the opening that-- No, there never was an opening. The chance that they could win this didn't previously exist. She'd had to make it. Though it'd tip more of her hand than she liked, once she'd decided to do it, there was no room to keep thinking. If she did, she might think a little too hard, and then That wouldn't be so harmless. §She's-- it's, dead. The thing that killed those people. Ate them. The monster is dead. Even died standing up. Unbelievable. What is that thing made out of?§ Lilian pulls her sword free. The blood coating Night Mist from tip to guard slides down its length with uncanny, frictionless ease. For each drop that drizzles onto the earth, another collects into the endless knots and blossoms of tracery and disappears. Only then, does she breathe out. "Hibiki." she says in English, glancing towards Muramasa. "Take care of your Servant. We're done he--" Lilian senses the beat of Hiromi's heart before she hears her laugh. Not in the literal, but in the sense of something suddenly being very wrong. She struggles not to flinch when the Wolf Queen's overabundance of raw spirit washes over her all over again, this time right up close with her intensely overwhelming, metaphysical 'size'. Tangible 'greatness'. The slow process of tension seeping out of her halts instantly. "You died." she states outright, as if reminding reality that it forgot will make it correct its mistake. "I killed you. I know you were dead." Her knuckles turn white around the hilt of her sword. She thinks of all those bones. "This is playing to you? You had fun with this? You really have no conception of what you've done, do you?" §Don't. You're still in good shape. You're not going to run out of steam right away. But the others can't keep fighting like this. You'll be left in a close up, one versus one cage match. That wolf definitely died. It's not like she deflected it or something. She can-- it can bring itself back to life? How many times? If it was just once, it wouldn't be acting like this; I doubt it's bluffing. Do the mental math. Maybe three or four more times at best. Is that going to be enough? No way to know. Committing to it isn't helping either; it's not like another five minutes of fighting will help this city out in any way. You need to keep landing killing blows over and over, and just have to hope she stops at some point. She only needs to land one lucky hit once, or just wait for you to get tired; she won't. Don't keep engaging. You have information. Come back with it.§
Lilian Rook	"You're causing a big problem for an important ally." Lilian says, trying to boil it down. "Someone who is important to our organization is facing difficulty because of you. Someone who isn't a fighter. I can't afford to keep playing like this while my organization needs me to resolve this situation. I'll have to call more allies, and they'll have to do a lot of not-fighting things to make you go away, so they can have what they need." That declaration doesn't have any real leverage, but the core concept is roughly the same. Because the Commonwealth diplomat here is in jeopardy, a member of the Paladins can't just keep butting heads against the big monster until one of them falls over. The idea that Lilian can summon up a crowd of people who don't feel like 'playing around' to ruin Hiromi's day on such short notice is barely more than a bluff, but it's not inherently dishonest; relevant specialists could probably be drafted up in a few days. What's more important is the contextual payload. The vague, yet grippable wordfeel, like a strangely self-suggestive undercurrent to the whole thing. 'My pack needs me to do something, so I can't keep playing longer. The pack will come here and take care of its own. No more playing.' Or something to that somewhat clumsy effect. §If she's just here to screw around, she has no reason to stay here. Fix on that. She's looking for fun. Not a turf war. Not a pack brawl.§