Scene #7693: What Lays Beneath p3

Owner	Pose
Ishirou	The creature's jaw bursts through the water, eating the Bulette in a single gulp. It rises over the waterline, revealing that it's more turtle than a lizard. Six arms lift it up over the water, and a dark hard shell rides on its back protecting much of it from artillery or orbital bombardment. It's head a combination of turtle and lizard looks up as it seems to swallow the other creature, and its eyes ponderously turn towards the city. As each of the six legs walk the massive claws can be seen as if this creature had any real need to defend itself from anything its size. The thought was frankly comical given the size of the creature. The underside of the creature was similarly coated in a shell, leaving only its heavily scaled legs, a singular tail, and its massive head free. As it moves the ocean does as well, the beach line slowly starting to recede as it gets closer. Fortunately, the movement of the creature is ponderous at best. One might think that it'd just slowly walk somewhere else as slow as it's moving until its mouth opened up. Water flooded into the creature's maul, before being fired out in a massive pressure wave of water and force. The beam firing out towards the wall of INDUS itself, shaking the entire city to the core. The wall holds, but there is clearly panic happening in the city now. "Oh no, that's not good. If it can do that from that range..." I4 says, with some worry in his voice. "Come on, we have to have something on this creature..." he says trying to sort through layers and layers of data of old and powerful Nullborn. The second concerning thing that happens is after the strike, its shell starts to electrify.
S6	-UNKNOWN NULLBORN DETECTED.- -INITIAL IMPRESSIONS: SA RANK GENERAL OFFICER. TENTATIVE DESIGNATION: TYPE MEGATHIRIO.- From within the flight unit, S6 skims across her readouts. Damage reports from the fight against the Bullette are cast aside for now and she fixates on the moving island that is this colossal new enemy. Quietly, she murmurs, "Several times the mass of any Kolossos or Bullette on record... Just where was this thing hiding?" -UNKNOWN.- "I was not asking you--" -INCOMING TRANSMISSION.- S6's attention shifts from chiding her POD to the communications window in her HUD. It expands and resolves into an image of the FANTOM commander, I1. "S6, I have a different mission for you. Only you can carry this out. I can't trust any other android to do this." Pale blue eyes narrow behind the Type 51 visor. From the ground, S6's flight unit is easily observed quite suddenly banking away from the kaiju-scaled Megathirio.
Arkae Zellar	MUCH MUCH EARLIER: "Hey Arkae, the Bergen Village town guard wanted to know, can you chase this goat out of town for them? It should be a pretty quick quest." 16 MONTHS LATER: "And that's where I've been for the last sixteen months," Arkae says to Staren, finishing the story. "Also, you look different - have you lost weight?" There'll be time to socialize further later. Right now there's a monster to fight. "That thing's got a huge mouth," observes the tengu, pulling a bottle from her belt pouch. "Want to bet I can lob a whole thing of poison straight down its throat?" She tosses the bottle in her hands a few times, testing the weight of it.
Tamamo	"Oh, now, that is hardly fair! We worked very hard on this trap, only for its prey to be stolen by... come to that, what is that creature?" Tamamo is momentarily overwhelmed by the sight of the city wall being struck, falling back on an emotional plea for fairness and reason to rule the world. Like all such pleas, it is wholly without result, though she still prefers that over holding in the tension of the moment. That S6's POD has (tentatively) identified the creature only comes to her afterward. "Yes, I see. One problem cannot be resolved without another rearing its colossal, water-spewing head. Very well. I shall soldier on, as I must." More loudly, "Those who may fly, here, to my hand!" In her raised hand, bundles of bound paper strips, of a subtly ill appearance, each one a prepared curse, each one far more effective should a more mobile combatant carry it to some vulnerable portion of the enemy.
Staren	"And that's where I've been for the last sixteen months," Arkae says to Staren, finishing the story. "Also, you look different - have you lost weight?" Staren looks up at Arkae, having been drifting in and out of consciousness after Arkae found her passed out next to a huge, waterless pond in what looks like a cross between a Rebel Alliance piloting suit and a cowboy outfit painted safety-orange and white, still attached to her parachute. The small woman -- though with the same color of skin and eyes and hair and the same cat ears -- reaches up with difficulty to release the seal on her helmet and pull it off. She looks deathly pale. Staren may or may not have been conscious enough to follow the story. Probably not. "I've lost... a lot of blood..." she replies, barely above a whisper. Then she stares past Arkae at something only she can see. "Oh good... it's here..." She collapses against the bird, saving her strength. A truck with a nuclear trefoil on the side drives up, as well as a hovercar, and some humanoid robots in blue vests and caps with hi-vis silver stripes hop out. There's a sonic boom and the Star Hawk drops out of the sky, transforming to human mode and landing. It has clearly been hastily patched up, some panels still visibly damaged or not matching the wear on adjacent parts of the machine. It has the shoulder packs now, when it didn't before. Staren smiles and then closes her eyes and goes still. "Ohhhh that feels SO much better!" Staren's voice comes from the mech as it stands up and mimes a stretching motion. "Don't worry about my body, the robots will get it to safety." She turns and kneels in front of Arkae, the cockpit opening to reveal an empty chair. "Here, I'll give you a lift closer, then drop you off, unless you wanna try to fight from in here." And she will totally do that! "Hold on tight!" The Star Hawk takes off and goes jet mode to fly to the beach in the distance, before landing again to deploy Arkae and a bunch of sensor drones which spread out over the beach and ocean.
Kukuru	"... Oh. That's a big one." Kukuru observes dryly as she watches a new creature burst out of the water to devour the crap out of the Bulette, then start approaching the city with what might as well be an electrified body and firing a giant death beam towards the city of INDUS. <<"Is this still in our pay grade?">> She muses aloud over the radio, stretching her arms out over her head before getting back up with a moderately concerned look on her face. <<"And.. Actually. Um.. INDUS people. Are you going to be paying us for handling this?">> For the time being, the horned woman seems content to take cover behind a particularly large rock, peeking out every now and then while looking the creature over with her enhanced eyesight. As she does so, she's looking for anything that might look like a particularly vulnerable point to focus a potential attack on later. It takes a little longer for her to actually start teleporting from spot to spot, seemingly at random as she bounces from behind a rock to atop a tree to falling from mid-air behind the giant, all in the hopes of spotting something worth tearing apart. <J-IC-Scene> Kukuru says, "Have you ever fought a this before? I'm looking for weak spots on it now, but having somewhere to start looking might help." <J-IC-Scene> S6 \| I1 says, "Afraid not. This is entirely new to us, too. We'll have to learn as we go; but some things are obvious at a glance. Breaking through the shell doesn't look too promising. Try the face and eyes. Be aware of the breath weapon." It's pretty obvious in hindsight, but it's still good to confirm. Another burst of dark energy, and then Kukuru reappears right above the Megathirio. Letting gravity handle the bulk of the work, she dives right in front of it, human torso-sized claw brought out to rake it right across an eye.
Staren	Okay, before actually reaching the beach, Staren turns around and lands again to pick up the warheads after the robots removed them from the missiles. Into the cockpit they go. Arkae can ride comfortably with nuclear bombs sitting next to her, for sure! Anyway, Staren arrives at the beach, the mecha landing in front of Lilian, kneeling and popping the cockpit open so Arkae can get out and so Lilian can retrieve the bombs. A bunch of sensor drones also warp in. "Good luck with whatever the plan is, let me know if I can help. Right now, I'm going to try this." One of the shoulder packs unfolds into a sniper-rifle looking thing that's longer than the mech is tall. The cockpit closes and it stands up, turning to face the kaiju in the distance. One arm reaches up and pulls down the rifle's foregrip. Staren decides to aim for one of the eyes. The other shoulder pack opens, and a missile -- the size of one that could be fired from a shoulder launcher on foot -- arcs out and zooms towards the distant kaiju, aiming to hit it in the eye/lid with a jet of HIGH-ENERGY PHYSICS. Which is just to soften the targeted spot up. Inside the cockpit, a trigger button depresses. Pylons deploy from the feet, digging into the ground, and stabilization thrusters fire from the Star Hawk itself and from armatures that have folded out from the weapon. The magitech-enhanced railgun fires a shell at such speeds that the air between the barrel and the target is ignited into a line of fire, and a whole lot happens in the space of nanoseconds, the round firing a series of laser pulses as it approaches to try and drill into the target before it impacts at hypersonic speed and then, a few nanoseconds later, the magitech bomb detonates, opposing-aspected elemental energies combining in a violent explosion!
Lilian Rook	After blowing the bottom of the basin to intensify the pull of the vortex drain, and thus eventually flushing the carcass that marks their victory out to sea, Lilian had been pleased to sit back and verbally 'expect another Euphrates', and that 'she'd say Indus but that's already taken', as a reasssurance at the temporarily disgusting state of the river where it breaches back above ground. Most of the ammunition is gone, the charges have been used to the last, and obviously her runes are carefully arranged and magical no longer, but that's naturally following such a successful conclusion. And yet . . . <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Ah . . . A real Titan-class, huh?" <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Hah . . . I'd hoped to get around to something like this, but not for another ten years. §Why now? Why this? Why is it always this? Is there a god I pissed off by laughing and saying I'm an atheist so many times? I can't even laughcan't even laugh anymore; no matter how much work I put in, it keeps coming down to this same thing. Size. Strength. Halfway invincibility. Giants flinging ordnance from a sci-fi novel back and forth. Did I slip and change genres back then? If it's not a lunatic like a kaiju, it's a literal one. Over and over and over. What was the point of all that? For all that talk about presence of mind, this is just another slugging match for titans, isn't it? Is this someone's idea of trying to tell me to go home? Something like 'stop exceeding the role of support'?§ <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "... Lilian." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "I'm scared." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook slowly breathes out, and holds empty, for several seconds over the radio, going silent with the switch still live. "Do you want to retreat, Rita?" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma struggles internally for almost as long. "... No, Ms. Rook." §Screw that. I refuse to believe I spent all of that time learning something less important than getting big and flashy. I'm not here to quickly and efficiently fuck off and beg someone else to handle it. I'll do this to. And then I'll find a way to make it easy. Like always.§ <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "We'll figure it out, Rita. We've used up pretty much all of our preparations, but part the use of preparing like that is having energy to spare after. We've suffered no casualties, and there's an entire ocean to work with now. If you think you can't do it, there's no reason not to retreat now. If you think you can, then we don't have time to be feeling scared." <J-IC-Scene> Staren deep breath. "Nukes ready, but I dunno if we can count on them doing much... maybe if we get it to eat them...?" <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook latching on with sudden intensity, says, "Eject them from the launcher. Remove the warheads and move them to manual detonation. If you can't, upload the instructions to me now." <J-IC-Scene> Staren says, "...Oh right, you teleport. They're by the lake we made. Released, transmitting you control codes." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Staren, can you convey them here without detonating them?" <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Going all the way there and all the way back here is going to be more draining than I want, and our margins are very thin." <J-IC-Scene> Staren says, "Sure, do you want me to hold on to them or bring them to you?" <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Bring them here."
Lilian Rook	Lilian flies by and snags a fresh batch of talismans from Tamamo, without a word, but holding her hand tighter and for longer than need be for such a quick exchange. She stops at one of the few remaining buildings, and hefts the last remaining launcher, though she doesn't expect it to do any good from afar. Picking up one of the spent magnetic warhead belts too, she uses it to wrap up several of the ejected warheads as a simple carrying loop, mostly fixed by their metallic hulls, and keenly reminding her of how heavy Strawberry's wand must be when she has to heft the nulcear material. The munitions and launcher are obviously incompatible, but don't seem to be related. From there, she accelerates out beyond the shore 'manually'. §Given something of that size-- Yes, I still need t0 prioritize using 'it' defensively. Even moreso, given that huge radius of attack. It shouldn't be able to redirect said attacks easily once they've already been launched, so it'll be a reactions game. I can't afford to spend much at all on travel. Offensively . . . It'll be fine if I bend it a little. There's an entire city depending on it; surely this falls under the Eighth. Besides, the others are occupied. 'Head and face' are obvious, but we won't get to destroying its vital organs just through the eyes, as ideal as that would be, and who even knows how hard they must be to withstand ocean pressure. The mouth is where I'll want to aim, but that's also where its bombardment attack originates from. Playing a timing game is easy --I always win those-- but that's not the problem.§ Flattening her profile, pushing her speed, gradually dropping height as she goes to cash in the stored energy of gravity, Lilian accelerates straight towards the titanic Nullborn's head, and dives just slightly short of it, turning vertically and pulling sharply back up to bleed off momentum with wind resistance by arcing under its chin, and then getting so close to its maw that she could plant her feet next to its teeth. She unholsters the launcher, arms the tines, and empties the last remaining mag-belt straight into a single fang at point blank range, having to fire it one-shouldered so that she can shield her face with her other arm from the dangerous amount of hot plasma light. §Even if any of my weapons went all the way through, it's too big for even a perfect damage distribution to affect it. So first let's focus what I have on one point. Even just one tooth should be enough for the next stage.§ She hurls the spent launcher away into the ocean, and withdraws a sheaf of curses, scattering them over the side of the monster's jaw in the same moment she bends both legs and launches herself away at top speed, falling nearly to the surface before banking and taking flight again.
Rita Ma	THEN: Rita the perfectly-ordinary-girl drags herself out of the now-emptied basin, the last of her artificial seawater cascading off of her eerily waterproof hair and clothes. Her expression is haggard, but also cheerful in the specific way of someone hoping to be praised. "We did it," she says, her tone betraying some amount of disbelief. "We really..." NOW: The immense monster erupts from the ocean, clutching the Bullette between its teeth. Rita stares with a shaky, glassy-eyed expression. Somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind, a very small voice is indignant that somebody stole her lunch. The greater part of her is just plain terrified. Rita is ten years old. The leviathan Karnassi rises from the water. Her father gives his life to protect her from it. Her last memory of him is as a broken corpse, human and monster blood mingling in the water. Rita is seventeen years old. The leviathan Genod rises from the water. She tries to imitate her father by shielding a little boy with her body, but Genod has a worse fate in mind. She is never the same again. Rita is twenty years old. The leviathan Megathirio rises from the water-- <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "... Lilian." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "I'm scared." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook slowly breathes out, and holds empty, for several seconds over the radio, going silent with the switch still live. "Do you want to retreat, Rita?" Rita's heart is pounding, and its rhythm is unfamiliar. This body can't even give her the decency of a real human heartbeat. Her hands ball up into tight little fists. Her eyes scrunch shut, blocking out the world for just a moment. Deep breaths, in and out. (At least she still has the luxury of lungs.) <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma struggles internally for almost as long. "... No, Ms. Rook. <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "If everyone else is going to be here... then I'll try to do my part too." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "We'll figure it out, Rita. We've used up pretty much all of our preparations, but part the use of preparing like that is having energy to spare after. We've suffered no casualties, and there's an entire ocean to work with now. If you think you can't do it, there's no reason not to retreat now. If you think you can, then we don't have time to be feeling scared." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "I don't know how much I can do, Ms. Rook. But I'll try to be careful with finding out." Her eyes open. If she were a real hero, like her dad or her brother, there'd be a fiery bravery in them. But she's not. Her expression is steeled, but her hands still tremble; raw anxiety still thrums behind her eyes.
Rita Ma	The Hydra Plant replicated whenever it was hurt. When I ate it, I stole that power. I knew from the start that'd be something to save for emergencies; I don't know how well I can control a second 'me'. ... This is an emergency for sure, but I'm just too empty to do it. Rita takes a deep, deep breath. She walks towards the ocean, and then runs, and then sprints at an inhuman pace, each step tearing up the sand. When she hits the ocean, she doesn't slow down but speeds up, slipping beneath the surface and leaving behind a torpedo-like trail of whitewater. When she breaks the surface again, it's in a flying-fish-like leap. Invisible tentacles stab into the beast's body and haul her upwards, each one a foothold in an ascent so rapid it carries the leap's momentum. One she's at an inconveniently high spot on its neck, and safely away from that crackling shell, those invisible tentacles burrow in deeper and start to feed. Glowing blue essence flows towards her for as long as she can stay attached, but this is a hurried tap rather than a deep draining. I can't kill it like this- not until it's weaker- but I just need to recharge a little. The Bullette cost me too much already!
Ishirou	Curses run across the creature, who releases a roar in defiance at the sudden attack. The creature continues forward, powerful, old, and more like a mountain than a monster. Each step was like a terrifying shaking of the earth, as its eyes seem to focus on the source of the curses. It sees you, despite its size. However, before that DEADLY NEURO TOXIN was sprayed through potion from across the non-shelled portion of the creature. Despite its size and ponderous defense, it was odd that such poison could actually affect a creature of its size. At the same time, though, Nullborn were not exactly creatures like animals were. Biology might be more of a suggestion, which works for and against them. Its eyes are attacked by (to it) a very tiny sloth monster. While it DOES draw pain, the sheer size of the creature, and the fact there seems to be a strange film over the eye dulling strikes cause it more to stare at you than rear back in pain, but it DOES feel them, as its eyes are forced to blink to recover themselves. This doesn't stop PHANTOM operatives to fly out from INDUS, in armors similar to S6's, they seem to fill the sky, and release shots from their onboard weapon systems, aiming to try and see where exactly the creature can effectively be hurt. However, Staren capitalizes on that, firing his own SCIENCE MISSILE. The Kaiju's eye closes, but despite that the massive creature is ROCKED by the explosion, stumbling to the side from the explosion. Its face burned and damaged, but the eye opens up, its baleful gaze focused on Staren now. However, something else attempts to distract it, its mouth shut by a very specialized fire that wasn't there before. It rumbles in pain, the fang shattered by the attack. Lilian wasn't there before, but it can't see them. Only glimpses and feeling something there. He also feels another thing across its neck, and more so when it pierces the places between its scales. Drawing out blood and feeding on it. It rumbles in pain, trying to sway its body to get her off. Eventually, it pauses for a moment. Its body starting to glow more violent with energy. Electricity Kirby crackles around its body, seemingly coming down in waves across the shell before a literal thunderstorm surrounds the creature. Everyone on it or very close to it will experience this intense thunder. However, its head turns towards the beach, its mouth opening wider as air and water are sucked in again. Moments later a giant blast of water and force are fired at the beach, specifically at Staren. It recognizes the threat at long range, and the creature is very much built to deal with long-range threats. -------------- Elsewhere. I4 is running through the overgrown city ruins, hitting the top of a building to look out over the battle. Ugh, he was all the way out and decided to run in on foot. He can make it with just more time, but he sees S6 fly off from the battle. He figures she is here to pick him up, which would be great! "Hey S6, thanks for the ride, but.." he says as she lands. --------------- The PHANTOM forces continue their assault from all angles. This time missiles are deployed, trying to weather the storm that is building up around the creature, but they are left to try and deal with the thunderstorm the creature releases as well.
S6	With the battle raging on in the distance, S6 banks her flight unit over the ruins until she finds him. Her jaw sets in a firm line and she rolls the machine into a dive. Near the ground, the machine unfurls back into its robotic humanoid shape to touch down. Rather than keep the engine running as one might expect, though, the turbines wind down. The torso plate slides apart, and S6 disembarks. Her POD is not far behind. The first warning is her face. While she wears the blindfold-like visor, her jaw is set in a tense line, almost a frown. A face I4 has seen before: The intense, controlled focus she displays when fighting Nullborn. Virtous Treaty and Contract both flicker in across her back in sprays of golden sparks, with Contract swinging down into her waiting hand as she approaches. At perhaps ten meters, S6 brings her free hand up, then slashes it forward. The larger of her twin swords, the Treaty, swings off her back into a projectile arc perhaps not directly aimed at I4 himself. No sign of Myraina infection. No presence of logic virus. Completely wordless, without any greeting or declaration, Striker Six engages Inspector Four in the crumbling ruins of Old Indus.
Tamamo	Faced with the quickly mounting danger, Tamamo doesn't leap into it, but gets herself to cover, making quickly for conveniently located ruins. Though she'd initially thought herself safe -- or at least, safer than Staren, who actually has the thing's attention -- this is more like a hurricane coming to land than a monster from which she can hide. Lightning strikes even her covered position, crackling and bursting invisible wards. She can refresh those, to some extent, but not without expending a great deal more focus. And so, she does, changing out her usual set for some quickly-drawn protections, lines left glowing in the air for brief moments, more suited to this wide-angle attack. "Something of a force of nature, is it? A storm to wash us away, as we sought to wash away that beast of earth? I know of these things, too." With those preparations made, she snaps her fingers (purely for effect), igniting the cursed talismans left on the Nullborn, mounting the draining effect on its magical reserves.
Kukuru	"Huh. That's pretty convenient. Sucks for us, but..." Noticing that the giant has that strange film over its eyes, Kukuru flips herself around in midair as she looks for a good spot to teleport so she doesn't just hit the water like its solid concrete. Before she does, however, lightning starts coursing through the creature, and it starts coming down at her along with everyone else. Luckily, Kukuru's reflexes with her eyes and teleportation are better than her physical moving reflexes. It only takes a lightning bolt blasting into her arm to get her to warp herself multiple yards away from the monster altogether, avoiding the more unfortunate possibility of getting hit by five or six of those in a row. It's not until she's about to hit the ground that she teleports herself right back up into the sky above the kaiju again and falling with the same momentum from before. Weaving between the incoming missiles from the FANTOM forces, Kukuru identifies her next target as she falls past it and teleports herself back up again: The face. Again. It was sort of starting to work the first time, so why not try it again? Instead of just trying to slice into it, however, she actually tries catching her claws through a large portion of the beast's face this time, both to carve the crap out of its face and also to actually slow herself down enough to mount the beast's head. Yes, it does mean being dangerously close to its mouth, but it also means she can start stabbing it in the face, the mouth, and being a general nuisance with what amounts to swords for hands.
Arkae Zellar	"Ah - not good..." Those are Arkae's last words before teh giant blast of water and force are fired at Staren. Unfortunately, she happens to be holding onto Staren and using her as a ride at the time. When it all clears, there's a very doused and battered looking tengu clinging on, not looking terribly happy about it. "Okay! Clearly I've been chasing goats for too long, and I need to step up my game!" She adjusts her position, and pulls out a double-fistful of bottles from her belt. "Staren! See if you can get closer to its front!" And with that, she starts pitching bottles overhand, at everyone within range who looks like they need it - health, mana, buffs, anything and everything she has on hand, burning through most of her supply. "And then one for you, especially-" She pulls out Tamamo's curse talisman, slaps it onto one particular skull-shaped bottle as though the talisman was a label for a mason jar, and then winds up and throws it as hard as she can for the thing's mouth. "Take - your medicine!" It's not medicine. It's possibly the opposite of medicine.
Staren	Vents on the sniper railgun blow out green clouds of vaporized coolant for a second. Staren's heart isn't pumping, her hands aren't clenched and shaking. She doesn't need to breathe. Perhaps on some subconscious level it feels... off, but Staren doesn't focus on it now. Although, it does distract her when the beast begins to step forward and something feels off. It takes her a moment to realize that it's because she's only feeling the rumbling earth through the mecha's sensors, rather than through her seat. Her attack was not subtle; the line of ignited air is a big glowing tracer pointing right back to her. Staren's in a 40-foot-tall warmachine. She IS a 40-foot-tall warmachine. She thinks she's ready. She still thinks OH FUCK I HAVE ITS ATTENTION when it turns her way and opens its mouth, although there's no accompanying rush of epinephrine. Escape? Wait, is Arkae still in her cockpit?! The sniper railgun folds back up, the armored cockpit cover closes, and she kneels down, left arm back deploying a glowing green energy barrier like a shield not quit big enough to hide behind. Arkae is subjected to the sound of tearing and straining metal and a terrible shaking, as well as whatever shockwave manages to transfer through the armor plating. The Star Hawk is pushed back through the sand. Armor begins to strip away from the kaiju-scale powerwashing where it isn't covered by the shield (the antenna-ears get clipped and tear right off), and water gets into the insides, forcing redundant systems to kick in. The shield itself flickers and appears to crack, and finally breaks JUST before the breath attack finishes, the last bit of water and force knocking Staren on her ass. There is no pain, but the alarms going off in her hearing and HUD make Staren mentally grit her teeth. She quick-stands using thrusters. "You alright in there, Arkae?" The cockpit reopens to let Arkae attack or disembark, while Staren considers options. She has lots of firepower to shoot it with, but it just has so much mass... at best she can reduce a tiny fraction of it to a pulp unless she does... more. "Arkae, I'm gonna get close. Get out now if you want to stay away from it." Staren runs and leaps into the air, transforming to hybrid mode to boost closer, then landing on the beach nearby. Staren makes a semicircle around the monster, warping lightning rods into place in the sand to try and pull future lightning attacks away from others. Sensors monitoring the group try to find attack opportunities, more missiles launching from the left shoulder pack to soften up where allies are attacking. Staren flies up. And up and up. The legs and arms fold up as she gets high into the sky, then cuts the main engine thrust, maneuvering thrusters doing a one-eighty before she starts to fall... and the main engines and rocket boosters kick in as she builds up speed, diving DOWN. At the last second, she transforms back to humanoid mode and a... what can only be described as an oversized DRILL SWORD, comparable in size to the mecha itself, is warped in and she thrusts it downward, aiming to land with all that force right on top of its head! The skull will surely be a challenge to get through, but it's got to be easier than the shell, and if she can do enough damage with subsequent attacks to reach the brain she can end this, right? ...Do nullborns have brains? If they didn't, why would they have heads? Oh well, too late to abort now!
Rita Ma	Rita's face scrunches up in a grimace as the beast tries to shake her off- no, that's not the only reason she's wincing. The memories in its essence wash over her. It's an unfamiliar feeling, but for a creature 'made of energy' like this, it only makes sense. Why do you hate people? How is Indus hurting you? I don't understand! ... And I won't have any sympathy. If you know what you're doing, that only makes it worse. Monsters that hurt people have to be killed. It seems to mirror the feeling, if that titanic electrical discharge is any indication. But this time Rita is ready. Bioelectric bony 'fins' erupt from her back with a convulsive cry, her hands become black and clawlike, and lightning of her own leaps between the plates. When the leviathan's electricity lashes out, it refuses to strike her! Gilderganon and the Defender both used that trick against me. But I learned something: electricity flows from negative to positive. If I'm as negative as you are, I can't be shocked at all! The missiles, though, are more of a concern. Rita pulls her tentacles out and leaps off of the leviathan before they can impact- any ordinance being used against this beast is definitely going to be capable of maiming her, too. In midair, the last few drops of ancient essence she'd managed to extract flow into the core of her body. She twists around with the help of her tentacles and outstretches one hand towards it. I was hungry before, but this is more than I bargained for. Even though it's barely slowed down, my body is practically glowing from the inside out! I have to spend some of this energy... and I know exactly how. Rita's invisible tentacles multiply grotesquely in size and number with the stolen energy, visible briefly against the cloudy sky as a blurring distortion. When she closes her outstretched hand for effect, they wrap themselves around the sea-monster, anchor deep into the seabed, and then calcify and assume the appearance of massive iron chains constraining its torso and limbs, each link thicker than a refrigerator. By the time she's landed hard on the beach next to Tamamo, the chains have begun to radiate an unwholesome hungry energy. Any mana in contact with them- including the leviathan's magical body- is rapidly siphoned away, as if drawn into a bottomless void.
Lilian Rook	"Staren, don't anchor yourself down like that in its firing arc! Your robot isn't going to win a tank battle with this thing!" §If nothing else, they've gotten it's attention. That's fine for now. FANTOM, the Concord; they're more expendable than Indus is. Well, they're frankly less expendable than usual; in this situation I still need to at least make sure they use up all their firepower before going out. But doing this while trying to block it from shelling Indus to the ground would be the worst case scenario.§ "And don't get stuck on the eyes! They're the obvious weakpoint of any living thing, so the way they'd need to adapt to stay intact at the bottom of the ocean can only be a problem!" Lilian next calls out to Kukuru. "Good! Focus on piling on as much magic as you can! Anything that doesn't diminish badly or cost extra based on the target's size! If it does, exclusively scale it down to the head and neck!" next for Arkae. §It's building up. I can see the frequency increase. Taste ozone. No, it's not good enough to judge it that way; tap in and-- Now!§ Nominally, there isn't actually a way to 'dodge' electricity. If it has arced into someone, the circuit is already complete, and process of it getting there is measured in millionths of a second. Even that doesn't seem to have any bearing of that combination of mysterious presience and powerful zero-warmup teleportation Lilian uses to escape danger. This time, she has to back extremely far off however-- otherwise the arc will just extend further to catch her wherever she reappears. She specifically chooses one of those lightning rods too. "All of you! You want to be close to these lightning rods, not far away! Everyone's already damp and has low electrical resistance; if you wander too far, it'll still be easier for the lightning to go through you than divert to a rod!" Of course, Lilian expects certain people to know how those work, but it bears repeating. Just like she expects Tamamo already knows exactly what to do here, and won't waste effort trying to chip down this beast with fireballs. "Rita! Blood! And don't eat it!" Lilian suddenly calls out without elaboration, falling back to reuse that magical 'particle' attack she'd fired on the bulette, angling hundreds of piercing, semi-intangible lines of mystery power discharge through vectors intersecting the underside of the supergiant Nullborn's jaw and the roof of its mouth between its eyes and nostrils. It's a clean miss for where a brain would be in a normal creature, but that's not the point.
Ishirou	The ignition of the second stage of curses certainly gets the attention of the beast. The eye facing Tamamo looks at her. For a moment, the idea that it might recognize her as a threat was there. There is an intelligence behind those eyes. However, before anything happens, that same eye is jumped on by Kukuru. The claws slash through it, causing it to rumble in pain. This time, the eyes close and open again, ponderously slow, but now she has its full attention. Until the potion hit's the mouth of the creature. The mixture and curse work in a strange way, causing the mana in the body to surge and hurt it. It rumbles in discomfort and pain, shaking back like a creature who just needs to throw up. The Drill that tries to piece the heavens falls down on the creature's head. Cracks across the scales form, shattering damaged parts and forcing it to roar and shake its head. The attack falls across the side of its face when it moves, still damaging but clearly dulled. Chains wrap around its body, as it tries to shake itself free. Mana is drained, but Rita can't even begin to feel the bottom of this Nullborn's reserves. Using the chains as an advantage, the PHANTOM units are informed by the supporting Inspector units on where to fire. A large number of missiles focus between one of the legs and the shell. Threading the needling enough to release a massive explosion inside the shell. This shakes the creature but does not stagger it. Those large eyes now glowing red. Rods and magical lines shatter into the face and underside of the jaw of the creature. The entire face is larger than the bulette was, by orders of magnitude so. It shakes its head, closing its eyes as it does so, and only opens them again after a moment. It shakes its large head, trying to throw off what it can before it stops struggling against the chains. The ocean swells again. This time, the clouds become darker, thick enough to start blocking out the sun, the deep dark color that you get in the strongest of storms. This time there are no focused attacks, instead of lifting its head up and unleashing hurricane forces winds in all directions. However, it also focuses a vortex on Tamamo, trying to tear her apart with whatever the vortex can pick up. -------------------- I4 pauses, why is she setting down? It hits him almost too late, but by then it was too late to actually avoid it. the slash catches him off guard and forces him to roll. He calls out for help, but the pain inflicted on him wasn't just physical. That blow did more than hurt his arm. His mouth scrunched into a painful expression. It couldn't be happening...there had to be something wrong here. There wasn't any logic infection, no nullborn signitures. They sent her to kill him. Her of all people. I4's fists ball up, could he do it..? He had to live, he just realized it. But...those times for her. That car trip. It was a betrayal he couldn't even begin to understand. However, the POD chimed in. -S6 has engaged in combat mode, you must defend yourself until support can arrive.- I4 rolls back up to his feet, and jumps back, trying to put distance. She was far better in melee than far away. I4 fires a blast of energy at the ground in front of her, trying to blind them. It won't last, nor was it meant to. Expecting her to dive forward, he had already prepared a magical effect. A blast of energy aiming to mine the ground between them and force her to consider other options. Hopefully, this buys him time.
S6	S6's POD has a small red light on it, just above and to the side of its main viewfinder; it's recording the fight. She plants her foot and leans back, placing her sword on the defensive while also raising her arm to shield her face from the energy blast. She does not charge, though. The golden runes of the VRCS flicker into place on various points of this highway overpass, and she wrenches with her free hand. The road surface buckles immediately as S6 tears the reinforcing rebar out and curls it aside as one would roll up a carpet, amidst the bursts of magical mines dislodged by the motion. Her teeth are bared when she at last lurches forward into a dash across the ruined roadway. Her motions are as quick as one might expect from a Striker; but her timing seems off. The strikes she leads with her sword are just slow enough to react to. There's a cadence to it. Almost like a dance to an achingly familiar song. It might take everything I4 has to keep up with her; but isn't she faster than this? Is S6 really so cruel as to toy with someone? No, that can't be right. As the Megathirio darkens the sky with its power over the sea, S6's POD floats further away, drifting aside with the baleful crimson LED of its recording indicator still lit.
Rita Ma	Rita reflexively answers the gale-force winds by throwing up a shield of tentacles, calcifying into something that looks like sloped metal cover- part of the hull of a beached ship, maybe. She hides in its shadow to coordinate with her teammate. "Blood," Lilian had said. Rita tenses up. It'd be easy enough to snatch some from the monster's open wounds, but... What she did with the sword, against the worm-mother. She stabbed the child and the parent died. That's what she wants the blood for, isn't it? She can hurt things through connections like that. But for the Hydra Plant's powers, I need to be wounded too. The deeper, the better. And after eating the monster's essence, I'm connected to it too. ... I just have to be brave. "No," Rita says, turning to face Lilian with an anxious, almost guilty expression. One arm hangs by her side; the other hand indicates a spot off-center and at the base of her ribcage. "Stab me instead. I'm connected to it, and I need to be hurt for this to work." A cursory look at her mind shows she's sincere, if afraid. This isn't just a self-loathing thing. And thus far, she's managed to go completely unharmed. "I trust you, Ms. Rook. Please."
Staren	THIS IS A DRILL. Which means it is designed for breaking things with the tip and then digging into them. The mass of high-speed metal doesn't do NOTHING as it grazes the side of the turtle's face, but it's not the beginning of progress Staren hoped for! Also, she isn't able to fully slow down, and lands with a bit of a CRUNCH, legs straining to stand afterwards. While Staren struggles to bring up redundant systems, hurricane-force winds blow the machine over again. ...Honestly, even hurricane-force winds aren't really much, to a war robot? Or, they wouldn't normally be. But here, already half-ripped-off armor panels catch the wind at bad angles and peel back further, and wet sand is blown under them. It's a bad time all around! Staren stands, rockets firing against the wind to try and get her above the turtle again. Lesson learned: Stop trying to throw more power into attacks. Slow and steady wins the race! But can you really out-slow-and-steady a turtle monster...? Hopefully the metaphor doesn't apply that far... Struggling against the wind with rockets, Staren tries to use the maneuvering thrusters to guide herself atop the monster's head again. She contacts the lab and warps upgrades into her feet -- she can't use the stabilization pylons on a target this hardened, so she'll need something else: A magictech gripping field. Hopefully the nullborn doesn't just eat the magic away immediately. Damn, that's probably why the earlier shell was less effective than hoped. The sniper railgun fires magic explosive shells, after all... Staren frowns, mentally -- the robot's head lacks the expressive face needed to actually frown. She lifts the drillsword again. It spins, and surrounds itself with a shredding energy field. She once again tries to press it against the top of the creature's skull, focusing on control this time rather than raw power.
Arkae Zellar	"Lightning storms!" Arkae scrambles for whatever cover she can get - which involves getting inside Staren's mech. Or possibly inside Staren? Arkae isn't sure how that works in regards to what Staren's 'body' is right now and doesn't particularly want to think about it too hard. "It's bad out there - not sure how long I can hang on before I'll have to withdraw," she says, once she's inside sufficient cover. "... Oooh, are you doing a giant drill attack?" she says, looking through whatever amounts to a windshield. "Yeah! Drill its bones out!" "Here! I'll help! Where's the gas tank on this thing?" She does a quick look around as she pulls out a potion. "... Can't find the gas tank! Okay, that's fine, this should still work! Probably!" She just pours the potion on Staren's nearest control panel. Nothing happens immediately, and then Staren feels a massive powerup as the Heroism potion takes effect!
Kukuru	It recognizes that she's there. good. "Good point, Li-li. I'll go for... Uhh." Kukuru's not actually sure what to target next. The head and neck had just been pointed out, and it's close enough that she doesn't even need to teleport. Standing on the Megathirio's face, she makes a big elaborate motion of clambering across it's face, preparing to dig her claws deeper into it's mouth when those winds start to blow. They blow a lot harder than Kukuru had expected, even. She only manages to tap its face once before she gets blown right off beast's face. She tumbles head over ass several times in midair even before she starts to descend, but she's able to avoid becoming a splatter on the ground by teleporting herself mere inches away from solid ground. She still hits the ground rather hard, but before she can actually build up deadly momentum from falling as well. <<"Electricity and strong winds... This one's really tricky to deal with, huh?">> Staggering back onto her feet, Kukuru focuses some healing energy through her limbs to take some of that edge off, and then she takes a moment to recollect her thoughts again. Seeing Staren's robot aiming for the top of its head, however, gives her an idea! <<"Keep pushing down, Staren. I'm gonna pull up.">> She explains her 'plan' with as little fanfare as possible before teleporting once more, this time landing on the front half of the giant turtle thing's head/mouth. She takes a moment to stretch her arms out, lets out a weary yawn, then slams her claws downwards to try sinking them into the upper part of its mouth. Once her claws find purchase... Kukuru starts yanking upwards. It's not in a single smooth motion, but frequent jerking motions, occasionally aided by stomps on one side, as though she's trying to break its face bones just to force that part of its mouth open. Considering the size difference, she probably isn't going to be moving its entire head up, but she is aiming to put as much pain on its mouth and nose as she can with nothing more than stupidly huge claws and freaky science project strength. Or whatever she is.
Tamamo	Tamamo catches the potions from Arkae, though rather than drinking them, she quickly opens several of them, dips her fingers in, and draws magic from them in sparkling trails through the air, transferring that energy onto a freshly inked set of talismans, skipping the use of herself as a medium for the transfer of mana. These new blessings are for something that conflicts strongly and directly with what she's now experiencing. There are numerous ways to control the skies, whether to bring rain or to ward it away, even aside from mystic ritual. As the vortex forms, and tears at her surroundings, the ruins crumbling even further in crashes that would be deafening, but are drowned out in the storm, Tamamo raises her swiftly completed project into an array before her, and makes use of that one method rather unique to her own nature. Her preparations and her wishes connect to her point of origin, and the array of paper charms dry and wither in front of her, one by one. It doesn't matter if it isn't her world, and it doesn't matter whether the age of gods persists. The connection between her and She of Pale-Gold will remain so long as Tamamo no Mae exists. This forms the bridge between herself, there among the ruins by the beach, and the Sun. Her blessings of fair weather are carried heavenward. It's nothing so simple or crude as heat that flows down, or strong winds that push away the clouds. Violent motion creates friction, to violent results. What flows outward from the center of her ritual site is an assertion of calm skies, from which the clearing of that darkness and the shining of the Sun necessarily follow. The uncountable, subtle changes in air pressure, temperature, humidity, wind, and the makeup of the air are carried out with such subtle precision that it appears as if no force was exerted at all. Even if it is the Will of the Earth that a storm should appear here, for this moment, it is the Will of Heaven that it does not.
Lilian Rook	§They're listening. But is this working? The curse magic is perfect, but there's no telling how much energy it has. The lightning rods are doing their jobs, but who knows how long they'll last. Our weapons are capable of damaging it, but do we even have enough to close this out? Even if we cripple it, it can still keep hitting Indus from here; we can't even prioritize its mobility. Even if it is only Staren's, that giant robot is bouncing off. Even Rita is struggling to put anything on it, and this is her ideal match.§ Even if the lightning can't catch Lilian, the wind doesn't need to; until one dives beneath the waves, the wind is simply already there. There's nowhere to go. When the gale picks up to a flattening shockwave force in all directions, Lilian does her maths in a split second, and determines that she'd have to more than just leave the entire combat area to get out of the way. The best she can do is throw herself to the ground to minimize her wind profile and use the huge hunk of metal she's still lugging around as a wind brake and staying weight. Even then, just being in contact with it sends vibrational impacts all the way through her bones. Lilian's arms and legs strain with the effort of staying in place. Ears ringing from the howl, eyes stinging from the wind, nose burning from the salt spray, stomach turning over from the quaking, Lilian looks for anywhere that will hold a rune under these conditions, and then spots Rita raising her ossified pavise, and gratefully teleports over, dropping her burden in the shadow of the structure and drawing Her Sword before even stopping to lean and catch her breath. "Do you have it?" she asks, too quickly for her to verbally grasp what Rita asks a moment later. §She means it. I can't feel any regret or deceit on her. Fear, but that's just normal. Even I feel like I'd like to panic right now. She didn't just blindly trust me; anyone should be able to trust that their immediate comrades in arms won't intentionally do wrong by them at a time like this, but she knows what my next step is going to be.§ "Ah, you figured it out, didn't you." Lilian replies to Rita. For some reason, most of her urgency has faded away, all at once. "That trusting me is the right answer." §Either way, I don't have time to be worrying about whether it'll work or not. Even if everything else goes wrong, I should trust that what I want, won't. And if I should get hurt, or need to try again, there's someone I can trust, doing her best out there, and waiting for me. There's no point in giving it anything less than my all and leaning on her a little bit if I have to. Maybe I should be more serious about bringing Rita in too.§ "But this is probably going to hurt, a lot. So don't flinch." Lilian takes a deep breath to get back her energy, another to focus on the sword, and one more to dispel the churning gut-unease about swinging it at a girl just standing still in front of her and saying irrational, trusting nonsense. "Cleasa Iontach--!" The penultimate step of her attack plan is exactly as Rita expected. Unfortunately this means that Lilian has to pierce Rita's throat, to the side and angled upwards behind her jaw, to mirror the damage correctly. There's no point in trying to bleed out or asphyxiate a deep sea monster of that size; what she's doing is sympathetically translating the attack to the side of the giant Nullborn's face she'd already previously damaged, and finally forces its jaw open completely, leaving it unable to close it again, or shape any more beams. Then she picks up that heavy weight, and flies straight towards it.
Ishirou	The plan did not work out, but I4 was already thinking ahead. He couldn't stop, because right now if he did he might stop in despair and let this happen. He couldn't disappoint so many people that had believed in him, even as this situation threatened to devour him whole. The blade comes in, but those strikes are slowed. I4 has just enough time to bring his own blade, Cruel Oath, up to block. Just enough strength and speed to match her blow for blow...which isn't right. He knows this, but right now he has to keep one step ahead. Just keep up with her, he thinks, then he can figure out what is going on..! He uses the Pod to fire a blast of concentrated gravity at the ground to try and slow down S6's movements more. "What are you DOING S6?! Why now? How could...after everything...!" he says, trying not to break down. His hand moves up, starting to hack...but stops. He can't do it...not to her. He screams in frustration and fires a beam of energy from the pod at her instead.
S6	Steel rings when blade meets blade. S6 presses her advantage just so, but yet not enough to overwhelm. Gravity increases and she actually stops. Heels digging in, she hurls herself back, skidding out of it in a spray of rubble, which gives I4 all the room he could want. She gestures as she lifts back into her readied stance, and the larger Virtuous Treaty tears itself out of the structure it had buried itself into, returning to float across her back. The POD's recording indicator flickers, then turns blue. -AUDIO CORRUPTION. IRRECOVERABLE.- Without hesitation, S6 discards Contract, swinging it up across her back while Treaty rolls forward into her hands. At last, she shouts, her voice so filled with tension that it nearly cracks, "Do you trust me?!" She doesn't wait for an answer. While the sky begins to open up with rain, she hurls herself forward. There's a brief shower of sparks when the Treaty's blade slides across the pavement, and she brings it up in a broad, angled crescent arc.
Ishirou	The swinging blade forces I4 back, but enough to slice across his face, tearing the blindfold off and revealing the bright blue eyes of I4. He's on the back food as he falls back, but what surprises him more was the question. Does...he trust her? Despite this moment, he goes with the only answer he's been able to give her. "Of course...but...what are you doing?!" he asks, nearly demands from her. What was she doing? Was she trying to kill him?
S6	When I4 falls back, S6 presses the advantage, closing in and presenting him with the point of her sword while she stands over him. -RECORDING TERMINATED.- -CORRUPTION DUE TO HACKING INTERFERENCE.- Without hesitation, she swings her sword up, then down, discarding Virtous Treaty to the side where it jams itself in place. Her legs give out and she crumples in place, only staying upright by catching herself with her hands. Unsteadily, she murmurs, "...I was able to carry out the mission... POD." -DATA SUBMITTED.- -ALERT: VIDEO AND AUDIO CORRUPTION IS PRESENT.- "Just do it," she mutters, reaching up. With shaking hands, she removes her own blindfold-like visor so she can make eye contact, "...I... I'm sorry. There was no other way. I understand if you do not forgive me for this."
Rita Ma	"Of course I trust you," Rita says, forcing her voice to sound more brave than she really feels. Her hands are balled up, knuckles showing white through the skin. Her pupils are constricted to points. "You trusted me, Ms. Rook." It's the hardest thing in the world just to stand still like this. The scary hero with the magical sword... isn't that what monsters like me are supposed to be afraid of? Then if I can stand here and not flinch, it proves there's still part of me that's not a monster. ... It feels a little easier if I think of it that way, at least. Rita's eyes follow the sword as it stabs forward. Her hands unclench and leap upwards as if to grab it, but she arrests the reflex before they get above her waist. Her flesh resists the blade, but- fortunately- not enough; angled surfaces that could turn it are bared perpendicular on purpose, muscles that might tighten ahead of it are relaxed as much as she can bear. She drops to her knees when the pain hits and clamps both hands over her mouth to muffle the noise, her eyes open wide. There's no point in yelling. Vines of half-vegetation and half-flesh start to wind and coil out of the wound. ----
Rita Ma	Three entities that are almost- but not quite- Rita race across the beach, side by side. One of them has three arms, the extra one sprouting at an unnatural angle from the torso; another tastes the air restlessly with a too-long tongue; the third has angry red gills gashing its sides. All wear a glassy, sharklike expression, the kind that feels primally wrong when transposed onto a human face. None bother to hide their tentacles or their monstrous bodies. They know exactly what they were made for, and they coordinate perfectly. In synchrony, they manifest Gilderganon's bony bioelectric fins to protect themselves from the monster's aura, swarm around it like piranha, and do their worst. Spikes of calcified tentacle-mass impale into whatever openings they can find, carrying more of that lethal magic-draining effect. Glowing cyan venom is injected into its eyeballs by tendrils that could puncture the hull of a battleship. Bioelectric organs are overtaxed to give the leviathan's body a positive charge, attracting the lightning strikes from overhead into its own flesh until Tamamo can banish them. And, of course, at the end, three appetites try to suffice where one faltered. Every existing injury is a convenient hypodermic port for their vampiric hunger, allowing greedy tentacles to stab deeper than they could on their own. Created with only a ghost of life, the flawed clones are ravenous for whatever life they can steal.
Rita Ma	---- Rita sits on the sand behind her faux-iron fortification, rummaging through her pouch of supplies. A homemade caustic pencil stems the bleeding; a sterilized gauze patch held to the hole does the rest. Once the bleeding's more controlled, she pours some hydrogen peroxide into the wound, winces as it stings, and then looks up at the sky while the bubbles trail down her neck. "Awful," she says. That seems to be her opinion of the whole thing.
Ishirou	Staren and Arkae combine their efforts, Arkae turbo-boosting the other's drill. The nullborn's head clashes with the drill sword. Both of them showering sparks where it drills. The scales are /tough/, as Lilian is right, it's made to resist deep ocean pressures. However, between the two of them COMBINING THEIR POWERS, the drill makes headway, shattering the scale and digging into the creature's skin. It shakes its head in pain, but the skull still needs to be drilled through. Kukuru focuses entirely on its mouth, trying to cause damage to the bones there. While she can do an appreciable amount of damage, this creature's gigantic, and its bones are made to survive pressures similar to her attacks. She does start drawing blood around its upper lip, causing it to shake its massive head. These attacks are building up, forcing it into a corner. PHANTOM forces are being caught up in the storm, though more deploy to both support the fallen units, and to also keep pressure on the giant monster. In unison, lasers fire, trying to punch through the defense that all of the others have caused. However, when things look their most grim, Tamamo defies the will of the earth, by asserting the will of the heavens. The two forces clash. The closer you are to IT the stormy weather appears strongest, but over Tamamo the sun shines brightly. She pushes forward, trying to take control, but it still has fight left in it. The clash forces it to exert effort, which in turn hurt it. This is until a monster-sized wound opens up across its face. This time it roars, injured severely from the attack thanks to Lilian's sympathetic strike. The creature stumbles at that, allowing Tamamo's control of the weather to edge towards her favor. Copies of Rita unleash hell, wound opened up are quickly assaulted by the vines and tentacles. Poison attempts to dig deep into its body, as even its own storm is turned against it. Its vision swims, staggering as it is nearly eaten from the inside out, but it's just barely not enough. The creature ROARS, sending a shockwave from it before the water around it flows over and around it. It wasn't an attack, but a defense, as it sinks back into the water. Sinks deep within in and swims away. While the monstrous creature was not killed, it was driven away, driven back from the city. Perhaps it wasn't ready to die to destroy Indus. Rain falls, until Tamamo's field clears it away, returning the skies into a bright sunny day. ------------- The blade comes down. I4 can barely believe it, even as S6 hovers over him, barely able to push herself, even more, he can only look to see his arm detached by the blade. The shock of it all was too much for him, as he looks up at her. Remorse was clear on her face, but his systems were pushed to their limits, and he simply goes unconscious from the overload of pain and losing an arm. That or perhaps it was the shock of what happened that did it.
S6	She gets no answer. I4 passes out, and S6 is left in the silence of the rainstorm brought about by Megathirio. She is only distantly aware of the battle ending in the distance, with the screams of the Nullborn and the thunder of weapons and spells fading. Though he is unconscious, she still talks to him, her voice a low murmur, "I'm not strong." Her hands lift, wrapping around herself, "I'm not. Not in the way you need me to be... But I will carry the whole weight of the world if I have to." Her POD descends, collecting I4's severed forearm in its manipulators. S6's head shifts, eyes wandering to the drone. Her gaze lifts to the rain-choked sky, eyes closing. She sits like this for a long time. But eventually the Striker rises to her feet, collecting I4 in a princess carry, Cruel Oath joining Virtuous Contract across her back as she walks away from her smoldering flight unit.