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Lenka Utsugi      LOCATION: The Valley of Blue Ice

TIME: 13:00

TARGETS: Gboro Gboro x1, Garm x1, Fallen Cocoon Maiden(Ice) x6, Fallen Ogretail x6

     Those are the mission details that are disseminated among the terminals and through the comms on the helicopter ride to the aforementioned Valley of Blue Ice. It's a frigid area, capped in ice and snow, with a long stretch of highway, alongtop a ruined dam. One Garm, one Gboro Gboro, and a large herd of small types have taken up residence there for the time being. The Garm is the oddity for being where it is among the group, yet the others seem to work alongside it.

     They've turned back a previous group of God Eaters, so now, Blood Unit, along with Threshold; Off-World Special Forces, have been brought in on a collaborative effort to take care of this growing threat. The chopper lands and everyone who was riding departs, and then the vehicle takes off, with the pilot wishing all good luck.

     Lenka steps off, God Arc in hand and a grim look on his face. "...We have two main targets today. The Garm, and the Gboro Gboro." He turns to the others. "The small types are secondary priority, but they'll become an annoyance if left unattended. We'll split into two groups to take down both large largets, as well as the small herds between them." He points his God Arc in one direction down the highway. "I'm going after the Garm. Anyone who's coming with me, form up now."

     And then that blade is pointed off in a direction where the highway veers off. "The others, take on the Gboro Gboro. Keep the numbers relatively even." Then he turns to look back off into the distance, a hand coming up to his ear and communicator. "Fran, what are the Aragami's movements looking like?"
Ciel Alencon     Ceil Alençon gets off the transport right after Lenka, hefting the massive sniper rifle+ that is her God Arc with natural ease despite her slight frame, and looking from one side to another. The mission operator, whose long name is mostly easily shortened to Fran, responds before she does.

    "One large-sized Garm and one medium-sized Gboro Gboro are in the area. The targets are currently separated to feed... coordinates incoming. Do your best to keep them apart."

    Ciel listens to the transmission, then drops her weapon to a combat carry grip and faces about 120 degrees off. "I'll keep the Gboro from coming after you. Stay safe." Looking over Threshold, the offworlders, she adds, "a few, please come with me. But... anyone with freezing attacks should follow Utsugi, while the reverse will do better in this direction." She'll start off at a good clip as soon as people move.
Camilla Ulyssa     Camilla had flown alongside the helicopter rather than taking a direct ride; it's not to be different, it's because when you can fly, and love the feeling of flying, you're less likely to settle for a ride. Especially when your magical clothes protect you from things like the temperature, radiation and lack of oxygen. At times flying literal circles around the vehicle, at other times hanging by any random window and waving inside, the grey-haired foxgirl at least seemed to be enjoying herself, more than can be said for the locals. Except Yuko, probably.

    When they arrive at their destination, she lands where the group disembarks, stretching her arms up and behind her head, grinning in anticipation. "I'll go with you, mister frown. Chin up, your face might get stuck like that if you don't!" If only you could do energy transfusions, Camilla could fuel entire worlds with good vibes. And bloodlust, so that might be less good. But good vibes!

    "What's a Garm anyway?" It's large, though, so that's incentive to go that way. Camilla can't control what elements she's firing about, so she isn't going to worry about that part.
Zephyr Windstar     "I'll come with you." says Zephyr to Lenka, as her body is wrapped in purple light for a brief moment, before it resolves into her Barrier Jacket and the large, two-handed battleax of her Device. "Anything special to note about the Garm? Fast, flying, fire breath?" she enquires, forming up on the God Eater's right side.

    Divine Wind chimes softly. <Receiving telemetry from control. Collating data with sensor systems. I have a lock on all known Aragami signatures.> states the Device, the gemstone at the head between the blades flickering with light as the thing speaks.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     "Threshhold is onsite, Lionheart standing by!" Reinhardt relays over the radio, making his way through snow as he leaps off the helo. His feet trudge through snowbanks and ice like a plow, the climate reminding him of that time in Geneva, when the Omnics hit there during the old war.

    He nods to Lenka, forming up with him immediately. "I'll go with you, then. You'll need the heavy hitters on this one to slay one of those beasts." He says. For a guy in armor like his, he's awfully swift.
Dukemon X Dukemon X, or simply known as Duke by many, was glad to take the Helicopter. While he could easily fly on his own, he rather reserve the energy for the fight. The Knightly Digimon stood about seven foot two and while his body was comprised of armor, he weighed no different than a grown man of his size.

His glowing teal eyes with the edges of gold observed the world as it passed by and at other times, he would close his eyes to rest for a moment. Once the Helicopter landed, the Digimon would leave shortly after others did, in the midst of the explanation to the mission. There was no weapon on him that could be seen, at least not yet, as he had little reason to summon them at this point.

Duke moved to stand behind the Zephyr, as it had been some time since he had seen her, but given his change from being a small Guilmon X, to now the massive knightly form, he wasn't about to directly give away their once acknowledge of past. He did raise his clawed, metallic hand to ask a question, before he spoke up. His voice reverbing ever so slightly as he spoke, "I would like to assist with Garm, but what are its known weaknesses or abilities?"
Yuko Minami <<"I'll be joining Miss Alencon against the Gboro Gboro, then. Remember to come back safely now~">> Yuko cimes in over the radio, sounding as chipper as usual as she hops off the transport, massive scythe in hand and a backpack full of field supplies slung over her shoulder. The brunette hums softly to herself as she stars moving in the reported direction of the vaguely fishy Aragami, already starting to tighten her hold on her God Arc while she tries rather hard not to slip on all the ice and snow covering the area.

     <<"We're glad to have you all with us today, Threshold Unit. Hm... A couple of new voices, too, I've noticed. Just don't underestimate the enemy, and you'll do just fine out here.">> Yuko's doing her best to sound reassuring, although her focus is already starting to hone in as she draws closer to the marked location. <<"Remember: Just because they've stopped moving doesn't mean they're dead yet~"
Yuna Kagurazaka Yuna hasn't forgotten her first fight against a Gboro Gboro, and she's really not in any hurry to try THAT again. So, her initial inclination is to help take on the Garm ... even after Elner goes over the stats for her.

On the flip side, she doesn't have elemental attacks in her arsenal - unless you count Light or Holy, which doesn't really seem to be a thing where the Aragami are concerned. So, based on Ciel's statement, she moves to form up with the sniper and whomever else is headed for the Gboro Gboro. She's already got the Matrix Divider ready in hand, but she's prepared to drop it (literally if need be) and call out her kite shield. Actually, given the 'cannon' she remembers the Gboro Gboro having, that might be in order anyway once they encounter it ... but they have to get there first.

Once she's out of the helicopter and on the ground, though, Yuna is a little slow to actually set off, though, preferring to see how the group is dividing up before she sets off with one team or the other. She can't take long, and she knows it, so she won't be lingering for even as long as a minute - just long enough to see who's going where.
Nagato     Nagato's on site with the rest of the off-world group, her first actual sortie against non-training targets. There's a loud cthunk as the turrets swing and load up shells, following behind Alencon, matching the clip as she stays quite a bit behind, "This is Battleship Nagato, ready for support shelling. Type one armor peircing shells loaded for single target shelling available.." she stops just for a moment, a small plane, a Type 0 Observation Seaplane, is launched into the air and it follows Reinhardt and the other group, mainly to keep eyes on the targets and to adjust shelling to assist if needed.

    "Observation Plane launched. Careful of the airborne scout, it's to let me assist if things get overwhelming." a quick unclip motion and Nagato's double-headed axe is removed from the back holster, a just in case if some Aragami wanted to face her in a head on matchup. "Alencon, I'll be available for explosions. Close range targeting with my secondaries should help, my primary guns should be able to destablize it." With this, Nagato finally falls silent, until she finds that Yuna's coming along.. this sets herself a bit at ease, at least she knew /one/ person coming along.

    "Kagurazaka, line abreast should let us deal with this effectively." she comments, "Let's sortie."
Tomoe Tomoe saw the mission details but the missioned seems to be somewhere cold even with her Avatar? She could damn well feel it and her Physical body elsewhere is shivering a good deal from it but she'll deal with it. She had her wings out like some kind of Angel as she was taking to the skies to make her way in she knew this mission wasn't going to be easy she knew that from her last encounter with the beasts However she does take note of Nagato and Yuna helping out Ciel, and that's what She's going to do as well.

% She hovers in the air and rather than swooping in? She's going to add to the fire power they have by starting to buff herself before she goes in, golden runes dance about her body as she enchants her weapon with fire element. Hopefilly tht will help.

"Admiral, Yuna if you can lay down enough fire I should be able to get up close."
Lenka Utsugi      Lenka nods at Ciel. "Alright. Be careful, and thanks." And then to Zephyr, Duke, and Reinhardt, Lenka nods in turn. But Camilla's comment gets a pause out of him. "......" He brings his hand up to feel his face briefly, then just looks away. "Right." That flew over his head. Or maybe he just didn't care. Regardless, he starts to explain while trudging off.

     "Garm is a large-type Aragami in the shape of a wolf with a blazing red mane of fur. It's got huge stone-like gauntlets on it's front legs, and armor along it's back. But it's still incredibly swift, and incredibly deadly." His eyes narrow as he peers into the distance, walking down the highway at a casual clip. "It's main avenues of attacking are charging, smashing down with it's gauntlets, or emitting scorching flames from them with explosive impacts. ...And watch out when it howls. It's defenses will rise, making it that much harder to kill."

     That said, his footsteps slow down as he comes to spot the beginnings of targets in the distance. Several stationary 'spiked coffins' with faces on them. They turn in place to face the group and then there's a pause. "Now! Move!" Lenka calls, just in time for those Fallen Cocoon Maidens to warp their faces into cannons, firing volleys of frosty energy shots in their direction.

     It's begun. But the main target doesn't appear to be in sight just yet.
Ciel Alencon     Ciel is making good time until they start closing in. She activates her stealth field, then, a sniper-type God Arc function that provides some convincing optical camoflauge via a field of surrounding Oracle cells, but isn't quite so effective if she sprints through it. There's no problem in speaking over her radio, however.

    "Blaze and spark attacks are effective. Freeze and divine elements are almost entirely resisted. The Gboro Gboro is capable of long-range attacks, charging, and thrashing at close-range, but doesn't turn quickly while on land... usually."

    The first Aragami encountered are something more like sentries than anything else. The spearblade-like heads burst out from not just snow but frozen earth, and the Cocoon Maidens stand upright for only a moment before their bodies swing, as if adding a throwing impetus to the energy fired from their heads. They're not particularly strong, but fighting them at all means that the Aragami further in will be alerted. Rather than showing herself here, Ciel has disappeared from sight entirely as she moves off to the side.

    "Destroy and push through. More of them could be hiding below-ground, so take them out as they come."

    It looks like something already has been alerted, unfortunately--just one Ogretail, but even one of these can be nasty if not taken care of, and huge-mouthed biped with the oversized tail is charging forward at whoever's taking the lead, ready to spring up on its tail and leap with crashing force.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt absorbs the information Duke requests handily, nodding to Lenka. "Understood, Lenka. Any weaknesses we can exploit?" He asks, before they're greeted by Cocoon Maidens. "Contact, everyone get behind me!"

    He raises his shields, before he begins to charge the Cocoon Maidens aggressively, his armor propelling him forwards into the fray. "RAAAAGH!" He aims himself toward one of the Aragami, to smash into them like a runaway truck.
Dukemon X Dukemon X follows the group, listening to Lenka as he explains how this monster moves and attacks. His eyes narrows faintly as he flexes his right hand a bit. "This creature sounds like he'll be a nice challenge. I'm looking forward to it." Though any further pleasantries are cut off as they are given the orders to charge.

The former Royal Knight shoves off his feet as the shots come in. One push off and he leans to one side as his cape activates and flows out behind him. With the second push off, he dashes to the other direction, his eyes start to glow as digital particles form around his left arm.

The last shove off, he is now flying across the ground with greater speed. The shield of Agris form on and around his lower left arm as he brings it forward to take a shot directly into the shield and maybe deflect it away from those move in. It knocks back his speed, but with another push off, he is back in action.
Zephyr Windstar     "Got it, charging, explosive blasts from the front gauntlets, and if it howls it's defense goes up." echos Zephyr, looking back at Duke. She doesn't recognize him, of course, but nods to the knight-like Digimon. She then grips her Device, and kicks off the ground, sailing straight upwards to get a birds-eye view on the spotted targets. "Dee, lock-on all targets, prepare Mistral Shooter, Gale Shift." she orders, her eyes panning across the Cocoon Maidens, painting them in her AR view.

    <YES! MISTRAL SHOOTER, GALE SHIFT.> chimes the Device, as about a dozen large spheres of purple energy form around the Mage. Zephyr then points her battleax at the targets. "FIRE!"

    The command launches the spheres out with resonding gunshot-like cracks as the energy surges forwards. She does have to duck and weave past the icy projectiles, grazing a few that score along her Barrier Jacket, leaving purple energy marks that slowly fade, like scars healing over.
Camilla Ulyssa     To say Camilla is bothered Lenka wouldn't grace that with a proper reply besides either not getting it or getting even grumpier wouldn't be quite accurate. Certainly she starts hounding him more as they travel, but there's no malice in her voice, and it seems to be well-intentioned for the most part.

    "Come on, smile! You're saving the world!"
    "For a hero you don't look like you enjoy your job."
    "Don't you guys have Christmas? It's the season to be jolly!"
    And many, many more such quips.

    She's in a good mood, but she's probably not saying the right things to make her good mood rub off on people. Thought that counts though!

    At the sight of the ice coffins, animated and forming cannons no less, Camilla whips her swords out, though they immediatly shift with the clicking and clanking of gears, and the flat-voiced intonation: <Form - Gonne.> And then, the swords are guns, complex, mechanical handguns of black and grey steel.

    "Ugh, small fry. Fine, let's play. Mars, wheel of fate."
    <Your fate is sealed: homing earth beam.>

    With the announcement comes the appearance of runes on the guns, dancing and spinning like a slot machine's display in three columns. They finally settle, forging into the guns a trio of runes.

    And then Camilla pulls the triggers, without so much as a second of charging. Twin beams of brown-orange light fire out, trailing earth particles behind them, almost two meters wide each. They curve-- they home-- the beams follow the ice coffins if they try moving, trying to hit all of them at least once through the curving, and avoiding allies too. It's earth-elemental, also.

    The beams also serve a defensive purpose, as they blast through the initial cannonfire of the Maidens. The cannonfire aimed at Camilla, that is.

    "I'm gonna be mad if we waste so much time on these we miss our mark. It sounds rad as hell." (She DID listen when Lenka explained.)
Nagato     Nagato skids to a stop and hunkers down into the ground, bracing against something hard since ground firing is different than firing on open ocean. "Understood, switching to type three shells after report." Nagato closes her eyes, allowing her radar to gain contact information... and soon, she's letting eight, white tipped, armor peircing shells launch out over the group to crash right into anything standing in their way... ground or Aragami... and upon hit, the shells explode violently.

    "Thirty seconds until shell type switch." she states, eyes opened now that she has her firing line ready. Another scout plane is launched, this time over her own group to better sight things. "Second scout plane launched, I have vision over both fields." she whispers slightly, "Fairies, godspeed." and with another thunk, the new shells are loaded as Nagato plans another firing arc. Turrets swing and cannons lift up as they move into position, it'll take a bit to get proper, enough time for people to clear the way after they get their blood(?) in.

    "Ready for shelling." she states, "Firing line acquired... swinging into position, full broadside in... twenty seconds."
Yuna Kagurazaka "This isn't an ocean battle, Nagato," Yuna says with a wry smile to the battleship, in response to the 'line abreast' order. "And Aragami aren't as conveniently disciplined as the Abyssals tend to be. If we get the leisure to hang back and bombard them, great, but I'm not counting on it ... think of it more like ALO, where the fight can range all over the place."

That's about all she gets to say before the Cocoon Maidens start popping up, literally. Yuna doesn't move too far from Nagato's side, hunkering down to dodge any shots headed her way rather than diving or rolling behind cover ... and then she pops back up, the Matrix Divider flaring in her hands before she takes a shot back at one of the Cocoon Maidens, aiming to blow a hole right through its core.

She'd be a lot happier if she could go into Powered Form, but the rest of the Matrix of Light was busy with something else when the call came through; Yuna was lucky Elner could cue her transformation en route. She's got plenty of allies, though, including a few familiar faces, so she can hardly complain about being 'on her own'.
Lenka Utsugi      Camilla's attempts to get Lenka to smile are met with less than success. ...He's not angry or anything, he's just...quiet. Focused. Probably too much into his work that he does nothing else. "Saving the world... I wonder." He mumbles, and then he shakes his head. "I don't enjoy my job, and I'm not a hero. I do it because it needs to be done." And Christmas? Hah! That's for other people.

     Once things heat up-- or cool down, given their opponents, Lenka is already on the move, deplying his God Arc into shield form to defend against the frozen shots the Cocoon Maidens. "Tch." Annoyances indeed. He didn't have time for this. Nonetheless, those gathered start to make quick work of the stationary sentries.

     They're not particularly strong, and with the combined efforts of Lenka and Duke playing defense, and Camilla and Zephyr providing ranged support, they fall one after the other, breaking down into oracle cells. Reinhardt's charge smashes through those cold shots, and then he straight tacckles a Cocoon Maiden, tearing it from the ground with the force of the impact, and sending it careening through the air before crashing to the ground. Moments later, is dissipates into oracle cells, vanishing into the ground once again.

     It seems their purpose is more to alert other Aragami to the presence of threats. While they don't seem to make any sounds, more Aragami are already showing up. There's a patter of feet as several bipedal creatures show up from further down the highway. With oversized tails and ogre-like masks for faces, they roar angrily and then charge. There are four of them. Two leap for Camilla and Duke, jaws opened wide to take a bite out of them. Another faces Zephyr and raises it's tail, curling it upwards and then firing a volley of frozen spines from the tip of it's tail straight at her. Another charges into Lenka's shield, preventing him from moving on ahead.

     ...And Reinhardt, well.

     While the Fallen Ogretail's engage the group, a heavy stomping can be heard, those terrible footsteps get closer and closer before a huge, wolf-like creature steps into sight. It eyes everyone through golden eyes, then bristles. It's sights lock onto Reinhardt and then it leaps into high into the air, one massive stone gauntlet raised. And it smashes down at the armored knight with pure force!
Yuko Minami Unlike her more stealth-oriented ally, Yuko is more than ready ot just charge right into the fray as those Cocoon Maidens and the lone Ogretail charge for the group. When she hears reports of bombardment, however, she stops abuptly and opts to hang back first.

     "Sticking to long range, then? Well, good thing I packed extras~" Whipping a canister out of her backpack, the God Eater swaps her weapon into a larger cannon-shaped shaped, then jams said canister in before taking aim at the Ogretail. <<"Any sign of the Gboro Gboro yet? Maybe we can clean these out before it arrives and really have some fun." Once she gets the angle more or less right, Yuko fires her blast gun, and a trio of flaming lance-like blasts fire right for the giant-jawed creature!
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt straight up annihilates a Cocoon right on impact, and he hoots in victory as he watches it dissolve into Oracle cells. "THat's right, never underestimate me!" He bellows, before suddenly his pride is short lived. "Oh scheisse-!"

    The Garm arrives, and charges at Reinhardt aggressively, the knight trying to raise his shield to block that gauntlet strike, but it still sends him sprawling back a few paces. "Oof, shows me not to let my guard down so easily..." He muses, before popping his neck.

    "BRING IT ON, I LIVE FOR THIS!" Reinhardt isn't one to back down so easy, as he responds with a furious hammer swing towards the Garm, aiming to clock it right on the jaw.
Dukemon X As Lenka keeps up and assists with the defense, Dukemon X follows his example on tackling the Cocoon Maiden down to the ground. He rolls easily after the tackle and brings his shield back up to ready. The odd digital armor glowing with radiance against any light given and the center gem stone bright blue with color.

As the new threats start to come charging in, his right lower arm glows before digitally shifting into the Holy Lance Gram; A plasma bladed lance. As one of the creatures leaps at him, Duke uses the Holy Shield Aegis to slam it away, before driving the plasma blade into the other.

It is the sound of their true target that brings his gaze over to the massive wolf-beast. "Well now." He says with some sound of enthusiasm with a tone of being a bit impressed by the large beast. In some ways, it reminded him of home, in other ways, it was a true threat as it goes after one of their allies. "Hold on!"

Making sure that the Ogretails have been dispatched that he had to deal with, he leaps forward and kicking it into super sonic aerial speed, attempts to join Reinhardt in knocking some sense into the massive beat. Though in Duke's case, its a super sonic shoulder check right for the Garm's side!
Zephyr Windstar     Zephyr jinks, and jukes through the return fire, but the Cocoon Maidens are quickly dealt with. And, well, she's not prepared for the Ogretail to lash its spines out at her. Divine Wind erects a shield to absorb the first couple, but the third spine lances straight through the weakened defense, and slams into the Mage's midriff, drawing blood as it passes straight through the gap under the breastplate and into the weaker defense of the cloth section.

    The Mage grunts, pull sthe spine free and throws it to the side. "I'll cut that tail off!" she growls at the Ogretail, and shifts her posture, drawing her axe into a strike position, then pulses down to slash at the offending Aragami with an empowered overhead hack.

    <TEMPEST SABER!> chimes Divine Wind, the blades of the battleaxe glowing with purple mana as she goes to cut the thing in half down the middle.
Camilla Ulyssa     Maidens, easy. Cheering up Lenka, apparently very difficult. Camilla likes challenges thoug. That's why when Lenka says not to try to shatter the gauntlets. That, right there, is some fightin' words.

    The appearance of the Fallen Ogretails annoys Camilla, with her sights so set on the Garm. Fists clench, and the guns shine, turning bright white, clicking and clanking again as gears and mechanical parts reform, and Mars, the weapons' AI, announces: <Form - Pugnus.>

    Gauntlets, this time. Big, mechanical gloves covering her hands and half of her forearms. If you want a reference, Reinhardt, here's one:

    "MINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINE!"

    Camilla flares up like a bonfire, bright blue magic leaking out of her like a reactor going critical. As auras go, it's quite visible. She charges, straight for the Garm, ignoring the Ogretails. This has consequences. The beasts' mouths, snapping, tear some of her clothes off and bruise her legs underneath, but they're left behind in the dust. For someone else to deal with.

    That Garm has a comet headed its way, one fist pulled back and ready to deliver a hell of a punch on impact, straight for the abdomen of the large Aragami. Camilla has enough momentum the ground practically shatters underneath her flight, and it's going to crater around the impact site, even if the Garm blocks (which, judging by its size, it probably could!).
Tomoe Ceil could also seem to use the help as more Aragami are turning up and they seem to be like sentries from what she can tell watching out for hte others. as Ceil speakks about destroy the sentries and push through? Shes' gong to come in for a landing, with Dawn Breaker out and the Mourning Wall out as wlel as she mcvoes in. She keeps on her toes with the waring tht there may be more of the 'gods' hiding under ground. It was good to know about such wth Yuna and Nagato? Around she should not be lacking in support with the fire they are laying down and her currently blazing sword will be going to work the moment she crashes into the first of the monsters that have ended up in their way she's clearly trying to act as bait to lure any of the hiding monsters out and to make a go for her.
Ciel Alencon     As a rule, Aragami are tough. Against this world's conventional weapons, they could break through any barrage with impunity. Within that high frame of reference, the small-types are still near the bottom of the hierarchy, and their immunity doesn't entirely apply against something like Nagato's barrage. The shelling is made the more effective for the Fallen Cocoon Maidens, with their adaptation to the frozen valley, having gained a high vulnerability to the element the God Eaters call "blaze." In this case, it's all pretty easy to figure out just by looking.

    Even with that advantage, and even as small-types, they're still Aragami. As colonies of Oracle cells, they're tremendously difficult to kill. Fortunate, then, that the staggered Maidens are subject to follow-up fire from Yuna, and Tomoe's sword. As long as you aim for the core and can either break off the armor or get around it, they'll go down and stay down.

    At the first explosions, Fran's voice comes onto the radio, "All Aragami in the area are alerted and converging on either contact point." On the side with Yuko and Ciel, the main target that comes into view is the expected Gboro Gboro. It sort of looks like a fish around the size of an armored vehicle, with way too much of its body devoted to a mouth rimmed with enormous and very dangerous-looking teeth. It takes a moment to look at its hunters and roar, opening up its mouth and flinging spittle in a long arc, but rather than charging right afterward, the mouth closes, the forward portion raises up on its fins, and the heavy-looking dorsal fin starts opening up. There's a second or two of this to alert the party before the cannon above its eyes--

    A blast of fire knocks the cannon off alignment for just a moment, staggering the Gboro Gboro mid-attack. Ciel's stealth has dropped, and with a second Ogretail charging her, she morphs her rifle into its shield-mode, deploying the buckler just in time to guard. She probably won't get a second chance that perfect, having to switch to her "short" blade to take quick swings and dodge reprisals.

    The first Ogretail isn't just staggered, but knocked down by Yuko's blast, but it's already getting up again, if slowly. Now might be a good time to finish it off, but a third Ogretail is following behind.
Lenka Utsugi      "Tch-" Lenka narrows his eyes, he doesn't have time for this nonsense. The main target is right there! He grits his teeth and keeps the shield up, just long enough for Duke to drive a plasma blade through the Ogretail accosting him. "...Thanks." He mumbles to Duke after, once the creature falls. And then he shifts he weapon to Gun Form, taking careful aim at the Garm.

     Zephyr's cry of pain is heard, and he looks sharply in her direction. Damn it, no one is going to go down here today. The God Eater is prepared to assist her, but is given pause as she seems to be more than okay, charging at her target with that glowing purple battleaxe. The Ogretail growls and leaps at her from the front, jaws opened wide! ...Only to be cleaved into. She doesn't slash the thing in half, no. The axe hitches about halfway, with a cracking sound following. The Aragami freezes up, and then slumps right over, it's core destroyed.

     And then Camilla expresses a total lack of forethought as she just RUNS IN at the Garm. Shit. "Damn it..." Lenka growls, but decides to pick up her slack, aiming his gun at the remaining Ogretails and letting loose blazing shots of oracle energy. The others would have to deal with the Garm. "I'm going to handle the small types, you all keep the Garm busy." He says between shots.

     And the massive wolf itself bristles at Reinhardt, prepared to charge again. But then something slams into his side! It's Duke. The beast is thrown off balance somewhat, but doesn't appear to be heavily damaged. That changes with a hammer slams into it's jaw, throwing it off and spinning aside... But that's just as well. Because mid-spin, the Garm regains itself and lashes out with a heavy side swipe of a stone gauntlet, aiming to swat Reinhardt and Duke away in a single bound.

     Camilla surges in with a blow to the abdomen, and the creature lets out a terrible roar. Golden glowing eyes glaring down at the woman, it clenches it's teeth and then the temperature in the immediate area begins to rise. Those stone gauntlets expand and open up, revealing the molten surface beneath. And the Garm slams it's fists down into the ground.

     What follows is a massive explosion that rocks the area, sending stone schrapnel, flames, and heat every which way. Even worse was that this was right on top of Camilla, and potentially Reinhardt and Duke if they haven't gotten away yet. The explosion also sends the large Aragami careening upwards into the air, where it backflips and lands some distance away.

     This ain't gonna be easy.
Yuna Kagurazaka Yuna makes a mental note: Never mind the inconvenience, bring Jiina whenever possible on Fenrir missions, Aragami need the heaviest firepower she can field. And more often than not, comparably heavy armor as well.

Fortunately, Ciel chimes in with her sniping blast at just the right moment to forestall the really bad time which the Gboro Gboro's nasal cannon was about to give somebody; it looks like that's only going to happen once, though. Yuna's already winding up for her next attack, the Matrix Divider in her hands starting to glow once more with the energy she's focusing into it, as she takes stock of the battlefield.

The Cocoon Maidens are basically out of the picture, but she's not about to take that entirely for granted. The Gboro Gboro is distinctly the biggest threat, but the Ogretails are still just as deadly in different ways ... but that one which Yuko staggered is vulnerable, and Yuna's studied the Ogretails' anatomy enough that she can envision where its core should be. She has a split second to take advantage of its off-balance state leaving the core more vulnerable than it would be normally.

And she takes advantage, a crackling, flaring bolt of concussive radiance lancing across the field, trying to demolish the core of the off-balance Ogretail the way she 'cored' that Cocoon Maiden a moment ago.

She'll be lucky to get a *third* shot that convenient, though.
Tomoe Tomoe moves to intercept the Aragami as they are /very hard to kill and she knows that. Her burning blade hacks and slahse as she ties to get for the core, or hack her way throug it and there's more of them coming thanks to Fran. It's good to have someone watching your back like this in a fight. Tomoe keeps moving she knows she shouldn't sit still with these things and her HP bar is droppign the Aragami are not going down without dealing some nasty hits to Tomoe as well and now something else is coming? She stares and turns about before moving to charge for the first Orgetail she can get to before lauhching a brutal series of blows with her blade, that are acting a bit in human with how fast she's pulling them off. Those who know Tomoe would know she's using some sort of sword skill here.
Nagato     ... "O... of course it's not a naval engagement, Kagurazaka." a pause, Yuna wasn't /wrong/ of course... she coughs slightly, "Y...you're right." she shakes her head a bit and reacquires her targeting. "Okay, confirming elimination and acquisition of new targets. Warning, Type three shell launching. Raining shrapnel and fire down." Nagato's cannons go off on raport, eight turrets firing in sequential order, one through eight. They're launched in a high arc to allow the shells to get the nessecary height to explode.

    And explode they do, the shells explode and magnesium and shrapnel rain, the explosions making thunderclap-like noises as it literally rains hell down on the group of Aragami. The shells were designed to rip through aircraft, but might as well try to see if this will coat the area in damage. Let's just hope her allies can dodge. "Ah, Yuna. Then go do what you need to do, I trust you." she gives that rare smile as she starts to load up Type 3's again into her turrets.
Yuko Minami Direct hit! Yuko's grinning just a little wider at that, but it's not until the Gboro Gboro and another Ogretail show themselves that she swtiches her weapon back into it's Variant Scythe mode. <<"Good shot, Ciel! Do you need any backup with that one?">> She calls out over the radio before starting to rush forth once again, noticing Yuna aiming a blast at the recovering Ogretail and Tomoe lashing out at the newcomer.

     <<"I'l keep the Gboro Gboro busy, then. We've got this, everyone, so just watch your heads~">> After sending out more words of encouragement to her allies,Yuko breaks into a sprint to get around the vaguely fishy Aragami's flank. Hearing Nagato's warning of another bombardment, she opts not to charge into close melee range, but to rear back with her scythe, and bring it down at the Gboro's dorsal fin.

     But isn't she too far away to hit with that weapon? Normally, yes! But the Variant Scythe seemingly extends to over triple its length during the swing, and it's just the right distance away to come down on the Gboro Gboro's top without putting herself in harm's way! Well, as long as it doesn't do anything particular pesky like move sideways!
Mel Brock     "Oh, what the hell am I even /doing/-!"

    High above the battlefield, a crimson vehicle somewhere in the neighborhood of 'the size of a minivan' has come to a stop. Its pilot was unavoidably delayed dealing with a decidedly sticky arrest - what should have been an hour's work ended up being three, holding her back far too long for her to arrive in time. It's been a panicked combination of chatter with the Far East Branch's operators, flying at speeds only allowable thanks to the lights and sirens of a police officer, and quickly trying to put together a plan of action with the briefing-on-the-fly she's received.

    As a result, the ensuing course of action is just a touch hasty, and more than a little... unwise.

    Something separates from the craft high overhead. It plummets straight down, unpowered, plunging towards the battlefield at what very soon becomes terminal velocity. The closer it gets, the easier it is to see that tiny pinpoint sporting the typical grey of a certain Marshal's longcoat.

    Then the Garm explodes itself into the air, a move almost certainly intended to buy it time and breathing room to escape the consequences of its tactics and regroup.

    "Oh no you /don't/!"

    The Aragami hurtles upward. And a wall of force slams it back down. Faint flickers of purple, like brief glimmers of violet sunlight off the surface of a lake, hurtle down into the Garm as a hundred tons of telekinetic force slam into it in mid-air from directly above. She has no further intent than absolutely /smashing/ it right back down into its takeoff point, and the Elites waiting for it.

    Mel herself then quickly whips off her longcoat, slings it down in front of herself, and hardens it into a rideable platform... only just in time to slow herself to non-fatal speeds. Her 'landing' still results in a long, rolling tumble and skid, swearing and grunting the entire way.
Zephyr Windstar     Zephyr grunts as the blade hitches against the Ogretail's Core. She plants her right foot against the limp monster's frame, and shoves to pull the Device free. <<"Ogretail neutralized. I'm moving to assist against the primary target.">> she says. <Master. Barrier Jacket at 80%,Confirming all Drives are functioning normally.> <<"Barrier Jacket at 80%.">> she adds after a moment.

    The Mage turns, to get a face full of the heat and concussion wave from the Garm's assault. She braces, grunting as shrapnel rains down around her... "Alright then. Divine Wind, Drive Ignition."

    The Device chimes, and shifts form, shortening to a single-hand ax, and spawning a pair of spinning 'Bits' in tight formation around her. "Prepare for Wind Control, Blizzard Shift." <Yes. Wind Control Blizzard Shift. Mistral Squal set to Target Mode.> The Bits flit off to surround the Garm, out of easy swiping range, but if it moves fast enough it could swat the tiny things away. They're being used as focii though, as the Mage begins to channel a very special type of spell. She holds her position, and channels energy into a spell seal that appears beneath her feet, another pair of spell seals marking the Bits as the air within their 'radius' begins to drop rapidly in temperature. She's trying to freeze the Garm in place through sheer force of temperature flux. If nothing else, the rapidly forming ice should slow it down.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt clocks the Garm in the face, nodding to Camilla when she swoops in to help add some punishment to her in her own right. He is about to press the assault before the Garm's ground-smash sends Reinhardt flying, shrapnel and flame hitting him.

    Warning alarms blare in his HUD as Reinhardt tanks the explosion, and he can't pursue the Garm in time as it backflips away. "Dammit, we need to press the assault while we can!" He says, before something falls from the sky.

    It's oddly person shaped, and Mel smashes right atop of the Garm with explosive impact. THat can't have been smart, but it was AWESOME nonetheless!
Dukemon X Duke didn't have time to say 'no problem' to the man he was fighting with, no instead he dashes off to go tackle the main objective. However, the main objective, this Garm, was no joke and the Knight Dragon Digimon found himself attempt to avoid being swatted away like a bug! Only, it didn't work out so well and the Digimon goes flying back, slamming into the ground, rolling a few times before spring back up to his feet.

This is about the time he spots the entrance for more assistance with their fight against Garm and gives Mel a nod of his head as he speaks calmly to her. "Welcome to the party."

As Duke readies himself once more, he looks at the impact from the paw and at the tarnished mark that now stains his armor. He knew he'll feel that in the morning, but he was very much still in the fight. This time, he leaps upward and attemps to pierce the armor plating on the massive wolf beast as the others kept it distracted.
Camilla Ulyssa     Suddenly, everything is on fire and exploding.
    Camilla steels herself with the same grin as ever.

    That aura of hers is more than just a show of power; the magic leaking out of her is doing so in sufficient quantity to form a natural shield. Needless to say, if anyone here can harness ambient magic, there's enough in the air to do whatever they want with. Camilla might, to them, seem incredibly wasteful and inefficient in her moves.

    Barrier or no barrier, flames are hot and the explosion is nothing to laugh at. The fox is blown back, scorched here and there, with some bruises caused by rocky shrapnel. She doesn't go far, though, catching herself mid-air with her flight. The pain seems to energize her, if anything.

    Then Mel enters and keeps the Garm from flying off, or at least tries to slam it back down when it does. Zephyr unloads with ice, trying to lock it into place. Camilla seizes her opportunity.

    "Let's see how tough you really are! MARS!"
    Runes dance on the gauntlets, like last time. The AI picks, at random, what Camilla will be stuck doing next, as three runes appear and forge themselves into the metal.
    <Your fate is sealed: wind blast barrier.>
    "GOOD ENOUGH!"

    Green winds pick up around Camilla, forming a shield. If struck, the shield is going to detonate with a blast of wind that could send half a house flying. This includes if Camilla strikes something in melee.

    Which she does.
    She warps in, teleporting to the Garm's side, fist pulled back and then swinging for one of its gauntlets. For the briefest of moments her full strength shines through, enough raw firepower in the punch to make the whole highway shake under the impact. This is a challenge, and she has to take it on.

    Hopefully she doesn't regret it.
Ciel Alencon     Three ogretails are still on the field, but that's about to drop to two. The one Yuko knocked down isn't getting up fast enough to avoid the shot from Yuna. They're a lot tougher than the Cocoon Maidens, and about as tough as small-type Aragami get, but knowing where to shoot makes it a lot easier. That's one down.

    Ciel is busy with the second, which leaves Ogretail #3 for Tomoe to charge at. It tanks the hits with its face-plate, all bone and no weakness, but that at least restricts it from making any kind of counteract against the avatar except for charging as it tries to smash into her and knock her off balance. Either way, that temporarily takes care of all the small fries.

    Or rather, that takes care of all them, except for the fresh pair of Cocoon Maidens that burst up in flurries of snow and dirt. Yuna and Nagato each have frost attacks incoming from surprise angles, having earned some aggro while staying back. The reinforcements are not heavy-hitters, but any time spent dealing with them is less time for the main target.

    And that target is now dealing fiery rain. It does seem effective, burning away flesh where it hits and angering the creature, but with how quickly it's recovering, it would clearly a long time to finish it off this way, without assistance. Noticeably, the head-mounted cannon doesn't regenerate so quickly when struck this way, nor has the mark from Ciel's fire disappeared, whereas the main body is comparatively shelling-resistant.

    Scythe-hits don't fare as well against the back, that "fin" being more like solid armor, but this is immediately obvious to the feel, and shifting her aim to the tail fin from the same position will easily get Yuko a meatier response. And she'll have just enough time to do that before the Aragami moves.

    Its first shot was interrupted, and its been taking shelling since, but its not out of commission yet. The Gboro Gboro's mouth gapes in a strangely relaxed pose, its back fin looks like it's somehow "deploying," and then it fires meters-wide shots of deadly, freezing water, with as much impact as you'd expect from getting hit by a mass of water or ice that size. Tomoe and Ciel are each off to one side a bit, but Yuko, Yuna, and Nagato are all in the line of fire, Yuko most of all.
Lenka Utsugi      Lenka fires shot after shot, taking out the remaining Ogretails as they try to blindside those fighting the Garm. They go down in due time, and soon, he's free to assist. Only, he doesn't charge in just yet. Angry as he might be at the Aragami in general. Instead, his God Arc changes form to Blade Mode, and he starts to walk forward at a slow pace, allowing the others to keep it engaged for the moment.

     And then Mel drops in from the sky. Literally. And she deploys a surge of telekinetic force, attempting to drive the Aragami back down to the ground. It's caught by surprise by the sudden arrival of a new hostile and is slammed flat into the ground. Just in time for Zephyr to deploy her technique, sending out bits to freeze the encircled area. While the Garm remains stunned and down, ice steadily begins to encase along it's body and the ground, sealing it in place for the moment.

     This is just the opening that Camilla and Duke need to charge in and strike. Duke comes in from above, and without resistance, he slams into the armored plating on the wolf beast's back, causing cracks the spiderweb outward, revealing bits of vulnerable flesh beneath. Not nearly enough to kill but it was a definite start. Camilla comes warping in, aiming for...a gauntlet? Of all the places?

     Lenka groans inwardly at this. "Not the gauntlet! If you're going to attack it by the front, go for the hea-" SLAM. A fist slams into one of Garm's stone gauntlets, and the sheer impact and the resulting shockwave causes a small quake to rock the valley just for a moment.

     "......."

     Crick...crack...crackle... Similarly as above, a spiderweb of small cracks start forming in a stone brace. But it's not nearly as substancial as it is on the back. Nonetheless glimpses of molten flesh can be seen beneath. And that's about when their window of opportunity comes to an end.

     The temperature around the fallen Garm starts rapidly rising, and then it stands back up to it's feet, ice shattering. Glowing yellow eyes glaring at those gathered before it, it lets out an ear piercing howl, echoing through the air in shockwaves. It's gauntlets expand, and flames burst from them, lancing about around it's form in a spiral storm that threatens to scorch everything immediatetly around it with impunity.

     "It's activating, stay on guard." Lenka says, gripping his God Arc and then takes a stance in front of Zephyr. Gotta protect allies now. "I'm going for it. Keep it busy." He says calmly, jet black oracle cells building up over the blade of his weapon, slowly forming into grossly disfigured set of jaws, two from side to side, and then an extra up top, growing and growing to a massive size...
Nagato     With the battleship reloading, Nagato is basically a sitting duck... until the surprise of multiple off angle attacks against her, freezing her rear turrets. It's made worse by the freezing water that the Gboro Gboro's firing at her, freezing her third turret. "Nnngh... Battleship under attack, supporting fire disabled!" as the Cocoon Maidens burst up, Nagato's secondaries go crazy and start spewing small, high explosive bullets at them. The secondaries are quite inaccurate, to which she starts a whisper to her partner.

    "Yuna, go ahead and join the main fleet, I'll cover your rendevoux. Now go!" she gives her friend a bright smile and then starts charging at the Cocoon Maidens, her axe at the ready. The fourth turret loads a pair of blanks and starts to turn to the rear as the battleship makes head long towards them. "Gyaaaaaaaah!" she screams out as she leaps towards them, the gun fires and it sends Nagato spinning around, bringing the axe towards the Cocoon Maidens, "SHIZUME!"

    Secondaries go back to firing, mainly to cover Yuna's own join to the rest of the group fighting the Gboro Gboro.
Tomoe Tomoe is crasihng right into Orgetail three so to speak she hits the things face-plane but it's bone, it's going to be arather har to get through that. She does however have some protection from her ending up geting attacke in as many ways as she might otherwise does. She does take some injury from the impact and she will be having several brusies through five system she's using. She's not done yet and she doesn't like the idea of the head butt. She'll attempt to pull off he thing as she's relling from the head butt and try to strike somewhere else that is not all bone.

"You want osme of this? FINE COME GET IT!"
Mel Brock     Mel comes up to her feet, and then hisses with pain in the process; her knee hitting the ground results in a throb of pain. "Oh, that's gonna be a bruise..." she mutters. But Camilla's gone and pissed the thing off. Somehow, the Marshal's not surprised, but it puts everyone in immediate danger, and makes getting a bead on it difficult for the folks with ranged abilities.

    "...alright, then, time for round two."

    After brushing herself off, Mel shakes her arms out, not bothering to put her coat back on for the moment. Instead, she lifts her arms, as if reaching for the sky... and above the Garm, more of those faint, short-lived flickers of purple light start dancing about. She's gathering herself up, focusing, until the moment she hurls her hands straight downward.

    And a /torrent/ of telekinetic force slams downward. Much like before, except this time it's ongoing, an immense amount of pressure. It's aimed at putting the thing on the ground and HOLDING it there, buying the others time to rain hell. Unfortunately, there is a downside to this. This particular assault treads dangerously close to 'grabbing a sentient' - as a result, after a handful of seconds, if the Garm starts fighting against it, it /will/ be able to break free of the oppressive force.
Dukemon X Once the lance makes contact, Dukemon X flips back and lands behind the beast. When the howl hits the air, he winces a bit and takes a few steps back. Those eyes narrow sharply as he can feel the heat in the air start to rise.

He then looks over to Lenka as he asks to keep the beast busy, then glances over at the others. They need to keep it busy and that was something he could provide, just as they could as well he was sure. Kicking back up into the air, dashing this way and that. He uses the lance to generate plasma bursts which he fires down at Garm. One at the head, another at the back, and one for its side.

Duke continues to pepper the beast as he roars down at it, trying to draw its attention, just as he knows the others may do as well. "Come on you ugly beast! Is this the best you can do! I faced far worse foes than you! COME ON AND BRING IT!"
Yuna Kagurazaka "Shugoseiheki!!"

That one word - or rather, one name - heralds Yuna dismissing the Matrix Divider in favor of summoning her kite shield, the 'Wall of the Guardian Star' living up to its name once again. She's not fast enough to keep the new Cocoon Maidens' attacks from hitting Nagato, but - well, this is why Yuna was staying generally alert, not letting herself succumb to tunnel vision against a specific target; she figured there might be more Aragami ready to pop up and surprise them.

It totally still counts as surprise despite her having kind of expected it, though. Nagato tells her to regroup with the others; she nods to the battleship, giving her a quick grin of reassurance and a half-jesting, "Don't get eaten," before she starts making her way across the field. She's *still* keeping Shugoseiheki ready, and a piece of her is actually wondering ...

"Hey, fish-face with the ugly squirt-gun horn! Shouldn't you be on the all-you-can-eat seafood buffet line somewhere?"

Does taunting the Aragami do any good? Probably not - she'd be surprised if most of them can understand what words actually mean - but she's actually trying to draw the Gboro Gboro's attention. And its fire. She's willing to test Shugoseiheki's durability against the 'squirt gun' (which she KNOWS is a lot more dangerous than that appelation makes it sound). "What's your problem, anyway? Don't you like it when somebody has a bigger appetite than you do?" she continues, waving her free arm at the Gboro Gboro.

Her 'free arm' isn't empty-handed, but it could be easy to miss the pistol which she's holding by this point.
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Mel's arrival is a boon to the team, if nothing else the Garm will be held down as Reinhardt gets aggressive once he finds his stride again.

    He notices the rise of temperature, and he nods to Lenka when he orders everyone to keep his distracted. "On it, engaging!"

    The old knight will raise his hammer high, bringing it down on top of the Garm with a loud roar to stun it once Mel tries to hold it in place with her powers. Sooner they take this down, the less strain Mel puts on herself.
Zephyr Windstar     Zephyr keeps up the pressure... but then the Garm activates, and Divine Wind warns that Wind Control can't keep pace with the heat generation rate. "Tch..." <<" I ccan't compete with its heat generation rate. Shifting from Target to Bombard mode. I'll wait for an opening, then fire a Maelstrom Breaker into it.">> "Divine Wind, Bombardment mode!"

    Divine Wind chimes, <YES! MISTRAL SQUALL TO BOMBARDMENT FORMATION. ALL MANA CHANNELS CONNECTED.> The two Bits flit back to form around the head of the Device's blade. Said blade also splits into four, very thing 'vanes' which begin to rapidly spin around the gemstone as energy begins to gather.

    <RECOIL DAMPENERS AND ANCHOR POINTS LOCKED.> A pair of large green 'wings' unfurl from Zephyr's back, and several purple 'ribbons' wrap around the girls legs and waist, lashing down into the ground to lock her in place. <LINKER CORE PRESSURE IS RISING NORMALLY.> "Burn in the pits of hell you sonnuvabitch!" <SQUALL RIN HAS STARTED REVOLVING.> The two Bits begin gathering energy of their own, before firing their own thinner beams to 'pinch' a small circle before the rotating vanes and growing energy sphere. <READY TO FIRE!>

    Mel comes in and smashes the thing back down to the ground, and the Mage roars out. "MAELSTROM BREAKER, FIRE!"

    <MAELSTROM BREAKER. FIRING.> The torrent of energy rushes out from the sphere, smashes into the circle created by the Bits, which pinches it down into a much focussed beam... but it still seems to flow like water instead of a coherant beam. As it nears the Garm, the beam splits into multiple smaller beams, striking all over the things body, boring into it and seeking out the Core. Probably won't find it, but that many variant points of impact should destablize the Aragami's body enough for someone else to get a good hit in.
Camilla Ulyssa     The impact between gauntlets is, to say the least, unpleasant. Lenka was right, this is a tough nut to crack, and Camilla's arm is sore after the hit. Intact, miraculously, not broken or dislocated, but it hurts. Still! She cracked it. Now the Garm is going to hurt everytime he tries using that-- hand? Paw? It's in a gauntlet, who knows. Not invulnerable though. She seems satisfied with herself.

    The Garm gets back up, finally. And it starts unleashing MORE FIRE. Camilla is fast, and begins lancing about herself, keeping up with the flames, dancing through them and avoiding the worst of it. It's hard to avoid them completely, there comes a point where being close to a fire at all is a bad idea, but she's doing pretty well. Her insistance to remain in melee is not that great a deal though, she's certainly having to put more juice into defending herself than the others.

    The randomizer is on cooldown, and the flames have broken the last traces of her wind barrier too. She relies on brute strength, or brute magical firepower instead. Her hands begin flowing a bright blue as she circles around the Garm, passing through arms of the fiery spiral, darting for its back. A one-two sequence of punches, with bright blue beams of magic firing out of her fists on impact. She's going to follow Lenka's advice and try to capitalize on the beast's damaged armor for now.
Yuko Minami Yuko continues to smile brightly as her scythe hits its mark and doesn't quite sink in the way she was hoping it would. There's a hint of annoyance, but she does take note of the difference in 'give' to the attack as the scythe reaches the back, and she draws the scythe back towards her forcefully to drag the blade over as much of the Gboro Gboro as she can before it fires.

     of course, the rookie God Eater still isn't quite as fast on the draw as the other God Eaters nor her multiversal allies, and she's forced to bring her weapon up in its shield mode just as those blasts of water strike her shield dead on. Yuko gets knocked back several yards from the sheer force of the blast, and she nearly topples right over before catching her balance at the last moment. <<"Geh...! Ohoh, this one's got some bite to it! Slashing attacks don't seem to work on the top, but the back... The back feels weaker!">>

     Wincing slightly as she gets back into a ready stance, Yuko breaks into another sprint at an angle towards the Gboro Gboro. Instead of going for another overhead slash, however, she instead does a brief spin before swinging her scythe outwards in a wide arc a few times, aiming to slash into the fishy beast's sides and back this time around. As she does so, however, she does seem to be drawing closer and closer to the Aragami, almost as if Yuko's planning on taking the fight to even closer range. She's also wincing more with each slash, still feeling the aftereffects even from that blocked hit.
Ciel Alencon     Ciel is still busy, but not for very much longer. She tosses a stun grenade, letting it go off with a bang and digging her blade into the Ogretail. One, two, and through and through--and the blade is swallowed up with a black, amorphous mass of that resolves quickly into a set of jaws as it tears in to find the core, mid-combo. The adrenaline rush that follows the Ogretail falling accelerates her backpedaling and switching to gun form, then the sighting along and firing a series of sniper rounds that trail through the air as twin spirals of arcing electricity and flame. She fires until empty, slams home a reload, and fully empties a second time.

    Crushing melee force is a faster way of dealing with Cocoon Maidens, even if rather more dangerous. The one in front of Nagato is just opening its body like the torture device for which the monsters are named, but the poisoned spikes never reach her, as her axe strikes first, breaking through. That's one down. There's still one more, but whether to take it on or focus on the main target is a good question.

    The face-plate is hard enough to get through, but once Tomoe takes the time to aim for the vitals, things get a lot easier for her. The eys, under the neck, into the joints... the feet aren't good targets, but there's plenty of other spots once you look for them, and test them out with the blade. Her opponent is reeling, now, giving a good chance to either push it aside or finish it off, and move on to the next. (Just remember, always get the core.)

    Does the Aragami understand Yuna? Maybe not, but it's definitely intelligent. The look it gives her isn't that of an uncomprehending animal. Whether it's ignoring her provocation because it understands or because it /doesn't/ understand is something hard to answer, but it is definitely ignoring her either way.

    In part, this is probably related to the all that fire from Ciel breaking its dorsal fin, causing the giant beast to momentarily collapse as the Oracle cells are not only unable to keep up with their regeneration, but actually unbind, the damage as permanent as anything against an Aragami gets. This gives the perfect opportunity for Yuko to get her hits in, attacking with impunity against the side and tail fins, all of which are far more vulnerable to weapons like her variant scythe than any other angle of attack, and only taking a little longer for her to break. Usually, staying in close with a Gboro Gboro wouldn't be a bad idea, but once it recovers from its stunned state, there's only as long as it takes to roar its defiance before it begins to thrash, rapidly twisting and leaping, crashing against the earth and leaping again, always in a different direction. No one is entirely safe from this ungainly dance, though running straight away for distance won't cause it to follow with any other target close by.
Lenka Utsugi      Garm activates, evidently quite pissed off now. And it's ready to go. ...At least before suddenly, a metric crapton of telekinetic force is dropped down on top of it. Again. But this time, it doesn't crumple. It stays on it's feet, though shakily, fighting against that crushing force. And it expels heat from it's mouth, glaring Mel's way. She's the one. But it can't just break off and attack. Because there are others attacking it.

     Zephyr switches to Bombardment Mode and powers up. The bits are deployed, mana is charged, and then the Maelstrom Breaker is fired. That beam passes through the gate, and then breaks into multiple smaller beams, bombarding the wolf beast relentlessly. Garm howls and rages, flames expelling from all around as it struggles against the telekinetic force holding it in place.

     And from above, Duke adds in his own plasma shots into the mix from above, smashing into the beast from above, which causes more crackes to expand out across that back armor. It's the perfect opening for Reinhardt, who swoops in and slams his hammer into Garm from above. That powerful strike finally causes the back armor to shatter to pieces, bits of oracle stone material clattering to the ground every which way.

     Camilla follows up with a series to blows to that newly exposed weakpoint, causing the beast to finally crumple back down to the ground, after much struggling.

     This is the exact opening Lenka was looking for. "NOW!" With a massive set of triple jaws formed from his God Arc, he roars, letting loose with jet black jaws that bite unevenly into the fallen Garm, sinking into flesh and tearing away parts of it's exposed body right out. All of that Aragami flesh is devoured by the God Arc, which exposes the gleaming inner core within Garm's body.

     Once the devour is finished, the God Eater's form flares up with a bright yellow aura of energy, and he glares at the fallen beast. "Destroy the core! While it's down!" He calls to the others, breaking forward into a dash, blade held back. He then leaps into the air, and comes hurtling down into the Aragami with an overhead slash, aiming to strike the exposed core directly.
Yuko Minami Slashing up the Gboro Gboro as much as she is, Yuko's building up quite a the reserve of Oracle Cells in her weapon. Strategically, it would make so much more sense for her to back off and charge the gun component of her weapon, but something about that intricate dance with death as she slices into the Aragami is just too hard for to ignore.

     Which probably makes that big hit she takes when the Aragami starts flailing around wildly not much of a surprise to anyone but herself. Yuko cries out in pain as she's barreled back and tumbles over several times before rolling face down, dazed for several moments. She's pretty sure there's a broken bone or two from that impact alone, but the scythe wielder toughs it out, staggering back onto her feet and...

     Staying right where she is. Getting closer to the creature in her state is just suicide, and she instead opts to reshuffle her Oracle reserves into the Blast Gun's reserves before fishing out a stun grenade from her supply pack. "Come on, come on... You want the shiny little ball, don't you~?" Despite the pain lancing through everything, Yuko still keeps that smile going, and she waits until the Aragami thrashes just a scant few yards in front of her before flinging her stun grenade right into its face!
Zephyr Windstar     Zephyr keeps the energy channeling, bombarding the monster. <50. 60. 70 percent. 80. 90.> Divine Wind counts, and when she reaches 100 percent, the beam cuts out, and the Mage collapses into the anchors surrounding her, panting for breath and wincing as she brings a hand up to her chest, over the center but a little to the right. <Master. Linker Core integrity has dropped to 64 percent...> "I know... time to recharge?" <Thirty seconds until Breaker System resets... it looks like the battle will be over by then.> "Right... we'll sit back and watch... Lenka and the others have this."
Dukemon X Duke is ready to strike as the beast comes down. The Gram's blade length extends as the plasma heat intensifies. Lenka calls out for the Core to be destroyed and he rushes in, his eyes burning brightly as he flies in with Lenka's and the other's attacks to drive his own lance right into the heart of the beast.

He has done good, he has once more aided those in need, but he can hear a voice, deep inside. Mocking him for what he has done, questioning him on his actions. But they are whispers for now, voices in his own mind that he keeps to himself.

As for his lance, he doesn't pull away he continues to charge power into the blade. Strengthening trying to pierce it to the other side. Not giving up, not giving in, and trying to ignore the voices from within.
Camilla Ulyssa     A perfect opening, and no more fire to worry about.

    Camilla pulls back a few feet, glancing at her gauntlets. "That was pretty fun. Alright, one last spin, Mars, let's send this one to bed!"
    <Your fate is sealed: small dark blast.>
    "Man, you suck."
    <A good swordsman never blames his sword.>
    "Dick."

    Well, whatever. It'll do. A small ball of dark magic forms up in the air, and Camilla grabs it, crushing it with one of her gauntlets before swinging her hand back, like she's preparing to throw something. Then she does just that, flinging the tiny, crushed ball of magic towards the core.

    It detonates into a blast of darkness, small, extremely concentrated, not much bigger than the core itself. Probably better that way or it'd nail the people attacking the core in melee. Not that Camilla would care if that happened.
Tomoe Tomoe has not forgot an very impornat lesson, she goes for the vital and she is upon the beast without any /mercy/ what so ever. She strikes again and again looking for vital poiint she knows they are not normal creatures and the vital point striks as she goes for under the eyes anre other locations. She strikes again and again with the Dawn Breaker not letting up and without any compassion for this thing at all.

She thinks about what would happen if things like this ever got lose on her own homeworld. She doesn't want to think about it more. She finally finds the core and she just ends up driving her blade through it and hacks at it until she's sure the thing is dead.

Just in time for the big one to start dancing at them all in a way. She turns she takes flight but is smacked seveal timesby the creature before she gets into the air and she's got an idea. She'll switch weapons and attemp to dive bomb the thing and drive rather than her sword into it? Her Naginata. IT's more of an distraction thoug to allow others to get a better chance to go after vital points.
Yuna Kagurazaka Okay, so taunting the Aragami wasn't so much a 'bad idea' as a waste of effort. The way the Gboro Gboro 'activates' and goes crazy all over the place seems like a good reason not to linger too close, though - Yuna's not sure if *she* can take getting jumped on, even with her kite shield to take hits she'd still get physically crushed underneath it - and she bolts for something resembling a 'safer distance'.

She's not one of the fastest runners on the field with Shugoseiheki's bulk slowing her down, but she sprints as best she can, making sure she doesn't blunder into the Cocoon Maidens' attack range or anything. Once she's found a suitable spot to ensconce herself, Yuna levels her pistol and starts squeezing off additional shots, trying to chip away at what weak spots the Gboro Gboro still potentially has. Even if it's potentially going to 'regenerate,' taking an eye out should help carve away at the accuracy of its frenzied pounces, and so forth.
Mel Brock     "Cripes," Mel hisses under her breath in a strained voice. "Hundred tons straight down and that thing's still... these things don't play around." It only serves to drive home just how powerful creatures can get in the Multiverse - and especially on worlds like this one. But it's enough. The brute force approach has held the Garm in place long enough for the others to do some heavy hitting; now it's time for something more precise.

    The Marshal finally releases her telekinetic onslaught, visibly sweating after maintaining it so intensely for so long. Instead, however, she holds out her right hand as if drawing a gun. From the shoulder holster under her left arm, the space cop's sleek, high-tech pistol leaps into her hand; she immediately thumbs the selector to maximum output, takes careful aim, and squeezes off a shot, followed by another.

    The shots are not regular bullets. They are packets of purple light, glowing brightly. Telekinetic energy, condensed into tight packets that hit with enough force to blow holes in concrete. It's nowhere near the amount of sheer power she can put out on her own, but it's much more precise.
Nagato     Upon hearing the status of the Gboro Gboro, Nagato gives a confirmation nod, kicking the last Maiden away before spinning around. "Time for the battleship to make an entrance." she whispers to herself before charging again, this time towards the rest of the 'fleet'. "This is Nagato, coming in." she closes her eyes, her scout plane in the air relays a path for the charging battleship, creating some rumbling here and there. Shimakaze's faster, but a charging battleship has a /lot/ of forward momentum.

    As that stun grenade's flung, Nagato could be seen in sight, heavy steps making herself known to the local crowd with the double head axe reared up for an attack. Blanks are loaded once more and she leaps into the fray, her gun fires, the recoil from it sends her spinning in mid air once more as she slams that axe into the Aragami, while the attack's definitely non-elemental, she shouts a familiar attack that Yuna would recognize, "Whirlwind!"
Reinhardt Wilhelm     Reinhardt watches as the Garm is devoured, and once the beast's core is exposed, he nods to Lenka again. He dashes forwards, hammer slung on his shoulder as he leaps towards the downed beast. His hammer burns with fire that near equals his furious passion, and the old man brings the entirety of his hammer's weight upon the core.

    Rocket boosters send the hammer hurdling downwards, and smash onto the core as well, intending to reduce it to dust as soon as he has an opening.

    The impact he'll strike with is immense, and Reinhardt lets out a roar of effort as the beast is felled by a combined strike.
Lenka Utsugi      This is it, the final stretch. Destroy the core before Garm attempts to attack again. Lenka's blade smashes into the core, causing cracks to form. Once he's done his part, he leaps back, skidding some ways away and giving Duke his chance to strike. Gram slams into the core next, and more cracks form. Garm howls angrily, struggling to get back up, but with the devoured parts of it's body gone, that's a harder job than normal. Made harder by the coming of Reinhardt, whose hammer rockets into the core and slams the beast back down into the ground.

     Camilla and Mel let loose a dark grenade and telekinetic bullets respectively, which impact the core, and at last, it shatters. With it's central 'organ' destroyed, Garm goes silent, and then it starts to slowly break down into oracle cells. No longer a threat.

     "...It's over." Lenka mumbles, relaxing his stance and lowering his God Arc. "...." Silently, he watches Garm beak down into nothing, oracle cells returning to the ground. Then, once it's gone completely, he speaks up into his communicator. "Main target and secondary targets neutralized. Mission complete on this side. How is it over there."

     A sigh follows, and the God Eater looks about at the others. "...Good work." And a small smile forms. Barely there. But it's a smile. There you go, Camilla.
Ciel Alencon     Ciel's gun is empty, and she could get a reload out, but that would waste the opportunity she expects Yuko to make for her. The rifle shifts back into blade form, and she advances carefully, watching the Gboro Gboro's motion, read to dash out of the way. Each leap takes it approximately the same distance. Even if you can't predict the direction (though that isn't impossible), as long as you keep aware of the distance, it's possible to stay just in range.

    Any kind of approach to actually attack is dangerous at this point, but taking to the air does put Tomoe mostly out of harm's way. Similarly, Yuna gets out. Though it's moving around a lot, it has to pause each time, and that gives a chance to put some more damage into it with some careful aim.

    This all ends abruptly as Yuko's stun grenade goes off. It did take timing and positioning, but the fruits of her effort are an end to the "dance" and a briefly vulnerable giant, toothy fish-monster.

    Ciel rushes in immediately, hand lowering from her eyes and still buoyed by her Burst Mode's drastically increased stamina. Her blade thrusts, then slices, then again morphs into a devouring attack as her God Arc surges forward in jaws as big as she is--but not deeply enough to find the core. Even with all the damage it's taken, just one more chance...

    Nagato charges in and gives the beast an axe to the face, chopping into its cannon and teeth. The latter is surprisingly resistant to even this kind of damage, but the former, already hit several times earlier, breaks off. Recovering... doesn't happen, not before Tomoe stabs in from above, and Ciel's second pass with her God Arc finds the core of the still-struggling enemy, finally ending that struggle at a stroke, pulling the black jaws out with a small explosion of gore.

    It'll fade away soon, anyway, and there are showers at base. That said, the corporal looks a little stunned as the enemy dies, and she turns to look over toward the injured Yuko. "Are you alr--"

    Oh, yes, there's still at least one Cocoon Maiden in the area. But they've killed over the quota.

    "HQ, target is down. ETA on extraction?"
Dukemon X Once the creature is defeated, the former Royal Knight leaps back and lands on the ground. Both of his own weapons breaking down by digital light and seeming to vanish as he stands there, watching the Garm start to vanish. He is somber for a moment, in his own thoughts, before he breaks out of them and looks over to Lenka, "Thank you for allowing me to join this fight."

Duke places his fist against his chest, before he bows to the young man. "It was a honor fighting alongside you." As he stands up, he looks at the others, "All of you." He adds with a smile to his voice. "I do hope I can assist all of you again, one day, in the future."

He turns to look at Zephyr, "And are you alright, Zephyr?"
Yuna Kagurazaka The stun grenade catches Yuna by surprise, and she lets out a yelp, ceasing fire and hunkering down behind her kite shield. That means she doesn't get to see the Gboro Gboro being finished off.

She can hear it pretty well, though, and she's kind of glad not to see what causes that kind of unpleasant-sounding noise.

She's still got her pistol in-hand as she pokes her head out from behind her shield, blinks a few times, and looks around. "So, we're all done here ... Anyone hurt, or in need of help getting out when our evac gets here?" she inquires generally.
Yuko Minami As the Gboro Gboro is finally destroyed through the combined efforts of Ciel's swift bladework, Tomoe's aerial slices, Yuna's enhanced blasts and gunfire, and Nagato's brute force, Yuko lets out a long sigh of relief before resting the barrel of her Blast Gun on the ground and using the weapon as an impromptu crutch to approach the rapidly decaying Aragami. "Ahah... Nice work, everyone!" She grins through the pain and balances on her less-injured leg while raising the weapon, the telltale fleshy noise coming from her God Arc indicating that she's about to Devour a chunk of the fallen beast.

     Which she does. Her grin grows slightly at that, but she's otherwise calm throughout the process, extracting whatever useful parts she can from the mass before digging in her supply pack for some Restore Pills and downing a few of them at once. <<"There they are... Ah, I hope I didn't drag anyone else down too much earlier. I guess I still need a lot of practice."

     At least she's still as chipper as ever.
Tomoe Tomoe pulls her weapon free and flips away And lands in a crouch and looks up s the thing finally drops /dead/.

"Damn these things are really something."

Real monsters always got to her, how did evoultion and nature go mad like that? She slumps banishing her weapon for the moment and hopefully they have cleaned up enough of the things here nd she also takes a moment to look over to Yuko.

"Thank you, though this was one hell of a team effort."
Mel Brock     And there it goes.

    Mel's hand opens, and her PCS-3 floats itself back into its holster; after that, she turns and holds out a hand, and her coat finally lifts up into the air and returns to her. She takes a second to brush it off, before sweeping it around herself-

    -and stopping to utter a curse, wincing and rubbing lightly at her left shoulder. Yeah, she's gonna need some painkillers.

    So instead, she slings it over her shoulder with her right arm, and heads over in Zephyr's direction. Girl drained herself dry, someone's gotta check on her.
Ciel Alencon     "We'll make sure to review it in training," is Ciel's response to Yuko. She's as hard to read as ever, but doesn't sound displeased, at least. She'd help Devour the thing, but already got her teeth in twice.
Nagato     Nagato helps with disabling the Aragami so the experts can finish it off... and it wasn't a pretty sight for the battleship. Needless to say, she's slightly unnerved. She keeps her voice to the radios and then makes a call to Hikari Seaport and then backs away, "I'll wait for an airlift to the nearest warpgate. I'm running out of fuel with this sortie and all that charging." she gives a slight chuckle, "This... this was a good exercise, much better than practicing in the ring."