Scene #6139: Seabound Parade

Owner	Pose
Ryouma Sakamoto	The fortress-city Greomor has always been a neutral point in the "war" between the Concord, the Paladins and the Watch - refusing to give the Watch shelter, to abide by Paladins laws and to buckle under Concord pressure, it has nonetheless never crossed any of them enough to incur their more thorough wrath. They've been polite, minded their own business, and generally turned a blind eye to factional presence as long as it wasn't official. That's probably about to change. It is night, barely past midnight. The sky is covered and stormy, and it's raining violently. Locked in the middle of nowhere with no a drop of water for hundreds of miles, one would expect naval warfare the least of Greomor's potential problems. And yet, here we are: the fortress-city is surrounded by stormy waters and pirate vessels, some of which are firing their cannons at the walls to tear them down, some of which are up against the walls for the crew to board the ramparts, and one of which, the flagship, is parked directly before the city gates. There is not a drop of water in the city, yet, but the walls won't hold forever. Once the first of them goes down, the water will rush in. And that's probably not a good thing. All are asked for help. Those with more accurate magical senses can tell the water is not natural - reality is being overlapped locally, such that a very violent sea is just... overlapped with the surrounding land. Onboard his flagship, FINA-BLOOD SVELTEN, the blond man in impeccable white armor, decorated by a crimson moon bound in chains on his shoulderpads, steps onto the prow of the vessel, laughing. "Please, do open up! I'm afraid the time for feeding is upon us, and the longer you delay, the less time we'll have to make sure we do it right and painless!" Essentially a threat. Make it snappy, or we'll take our time.
Gilgamesh	ABOUT AN HOUR AGO "It's called a Youtube," Gilgamesh explains to the green-haired...man?...at his side, holding out the phone. On the screen, a cat playfully bats dust at a dustpan. The video is titled CLEAN CAT SWEEPS UP DUST BUNNIES. "It's full of amusing videos of cats and humans acting like fools." They're walking through Greomor largely entirely by accident. Gilgamesh didn't intend to be here, but Gilgamesh has never particularly cared where he goes. He is the King of Heroes. He wanders and adventures as a reflex, as an instinctive feeling. He just...goes where he pleases, without regard to things like laws or orders. He's the King. Whose laws supercede his? Nobody's, that's who. That's rhetorical. Nobody's laws surpass the King's. Even though he's covered in bandages that wrap over one eye, both hands, and all the way around his torso, he's still ridiculously pretty and ridiculously imperial. Perfection doesn't stop just because you're injured. Injuries just become accents to perfection. And you don't stop being the King just because it's someone else's house. "Oh, and this one-" RIGHT NOW "-'wrestling,'" Gilgamesh says, sounding amused as he stands on the wall, holding the phone out to Enkidu, "They think this is 'wrestling.' It's sad, how far humans have fallen." The violent rain sweeps past him, swirling his long black coat and blonde hair. He hasn't bothered with an umbrella. He's perfectly fine with the rain. The only thing that's annoying him is how hard it is to make out the brightly-colored individuals on the screen of his phone, and the sound of Fina-Blood Sven laughing. When the vampire makes his demand, it drowns out a shout from the phone, and Gilgamesh's fingers crush the device reflexively out of sheer irritation. "Damn!" Gilgamesh swears, looking at Enkidu. "They don't make things that can stand up to me." He plants one foot on the edge of the wall. "Vampire!" He shouts, "Your loudmouthed boasts made me and my friend miss the best part! How dare you come between the King, his friend, and their entertainment, making such pointless demands!" Gilgamesh's red eye twitches. "Irritating corpse." "Well, I suppose I'll simply have to kill you and make you go away. " The King of Heroes tosses the broken remains of the cell phone up and down in his hand, as if considering. Then, without a second thought, he flicks the thing at the distant pirate in his impeccable white armor with the force of forty men behind it. The shattered hunks of phone fly like bullets. They might not have done much damage on their own, but they're being backed by the strength of the King of Heroes. A moment later, he pauses, as if realizing something. "Enkidu?" He asks. "Any reason I should choose some other course? Though I suppose it's too late now."
Haguro	Hearing a distress call from a neutral body would normally be enough to spur Haguro to investigate. Hearing that the distress call is coming from a place where the very terrain no longer makes sense? Even more reason to check the situation out. What she wasn't expecting was for the land-locked city to be surrounded by water, nor for there to be pirates of all people Attacking it with.. Boats?! Best not to think too hard about it. She'll have time to try understanding the whole situation after the city is safe. The shipgirl can be seen skating along the surface of the water at a rapid clip, turrets adjusting on the fly while she smacks the armored plates on her arms and legs to make sure they're good and snug. The pirates have already issued their warning, but she's hoping some outside intervention could put a stop to all of it. "H.. Halt! This area is under the Concord's provisional protection." It's a bit of a... No, it's a pretty big stretch considering her lack of actual authority, but Haguro's heard enough about the region to guess that it may not be a bad idea to get on the city's good side in the long run. Besides, if she can make a good showing? It might be just the proof she needs to convince herself that the training is going somewhere. "If you cease this attack, we will allow you to leave peacefully! If not..." She raises her arm, aiming her wrist and shoulder turrets at the FINA BLOOD SVELTEN. "Then your lives will be forfeit!" She's hoping the warning will suffice, not willing to fire juuust yet. If diplomacy can work, then why not? Plus, she doesn't have a phone or anything lesser to throw at them. Not at this range, anyway.
Doctor Strange	Burning in the darkness, despite the rain, is a glowing ring of sparks. It's as if someone has burned a hole through reality with an arc welder. On the other side of that hole is a picture of the New York skyline, visible for just a moment. Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, passes through this portal, closing it behind him. The rain doesn't take long to soak him. "...huh." He squints--wasn't this place landlocked the last time he visited? A quick survey of the scene provides him with the explanation for the seemingly unnatural waters. Magic, likely the work of the pirates laying siege to the city. He flies above the city, observing the assault from the air. Cannonballs from a few of the ships make the breaking of the walls a matter of time rather than the impossibility it would have been without the unnatural waters. Their leader used a word Strange isn't crazy about. 'Feed.' An illusory Strange appears on the deck of Svelten's ship. Above him, there burns an orange, mystic glyph in the shape on an eye, seemingly unfazed by the rain. Haguro and Gilgamesh have the threats in hand. So, rather than double down, the illusion-Strange clears his throat and meekly makes an addendum. "I can get you guys food that isn't, y'know... sapient, if you can swing that. But, whether you can or not, I'm just gonna keep repairing the walls until you leave or..." He nods backwards, towards Gilgamesh and Haguro. "They kill you." After a sharp, amused, exhale, he adds, "You think you're annoyed now, just wait."
Enkidu	AN HOUR AGO Enkidu is thusly entranced by the notion of cat videos on the internet. The plainly-dressed figure accompanying the King through the streets of wherever-they-are seems most intent on the moving pictures before them. "A... Youtube," Enkidu echoes. He(?) is all up in Gilgamesh's personal space, largely so he can see the video more clearly. He's kind of marvelling wide-eyed at the thing. In the video frame, the cat's tail goes crazy, and it tumbles around for no good reason before batting more dust into the pan. "Is this... the true form of modern civilization...?!" NOW, ISH Enkidu is laughing, now. "That isn't even a little bit correct! Their technique is terrible!" It's been a pretty good time of just walking the streets and screen-watching, and it's taken them to the wall and the shore. Mysteriously, nobody has stopped either of them getting there. "Why does that man have a box on his head, though --?" Suddenly, VAMPIRE PIRATES. Enkidu looks up sharply, eyes scanning out over the water. "The sea..." He narrows his eyes. "It has a second voice. Something is intruding." His momentary dramatic commentary is interrupted by Gilgamesh flinging his crushed phone out over the water. When Gilgamesh looks to Enkidu for an answer on if they should do something else, Enkidu is on the far side of an increasingly growing pile of round stones the size of cannonballs. Which he's throwing one-handed. After the third or fourth, Enkidu pauses, arm drawn back for another pitch. He peers at Gilgamesh. "...Should I have waited?" Beat. "Well, there's always next time, right?" toss
Orchid	Sometimes you just go out shopping, roping along a Servant to do the heavy lifting, and while wearing something fun. Which is how Orchid has wound up arriving at the city walls. In addition to the hair and the chiton, she brought her snake drones. She's still got the shades on, but her hair is prominently hissing, extended out from her head, as the snakes fan out from her location. They'll swim into the water, up into the ships, where they will attempt to spike the guns there. They'll also give her the insight as to where Archer should be aiming.
Archer EMIYA	Archer is somehow roped into helping Orchid run errands. He isn't sure how... Well no that's a lie, he knows EXACTLY how, but it's too late to bail now. He's garbed in his 'I'm totally a civilian guys' wear, grey shirt, black pants, pointless prescription glasses that do absolutely nothing for him, and is also carrying a boatload of STUFF. The carrying of STUFF changes quickly though as Greomor is seemingly attacked, at which point Archer is quick to drop everything, not even apologizing to his reploid companion as he finds the safest vantage point to climb up on to get a better view. "You..." The Heroic Spirit's usual armor materializes over him as he prepares himself, taking a deep breath. "You know, I never did get to pay you back for just casually bearing yourself like that to all of us. So here, in repayment, let me bear myself to you!" They shout out to Fina-Blood Svelten, unsure if they're able to hear him, but ultimately uncaring since it's more the principle of the thing. Now he just needs to live up to what he said. Archer closes his eyes, ignoring the surrounding chaos as he begins chanting. "I am the bone of my sword" "Steel is my body and fire is my blood" "I have created over a thousand blades" "Unknown to death" "Nor known to life" "Have withstood pain to create many weapons" "Yet, those hands will ever hold anything" "So as I pray..." Archer's eye open as he swings a hand outward. "UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS! A flash of fire spreads out from Archer as his Reality Marble spreads outward, doing its best to overwrite the True Ancestor's but ultimately turning the battlefield into a patchwork of littered swords and ocean. "Now.." Like a conducter, Archer raises his hand in the air, a torrent of swords springing forth almost instantly to attack Svelten's ship and possibly him as well. He's not exactly being accurate.
Ryouma Sakamoto	Gilgamesh and Enkidu hurl phones at Blood. Those two are still strong enough to bruise the vampire's face. Ah, at least it reveals he doesn't have some strange, superhumanly hard skin. On the other hand, the wounds seal back up in an instant, the flow of time rewinding around them. Strange can tell this isn't an active effect - vampires of this world, and he'll observe this with Blood's minions too, seem to regenerate through very localized time reversal, not a growth spurt of fleshy materials to seal wounds. Regeneration is regeneration, at any rate, whatever the mechanism. "Ahaha! O King, had I known, I would have put on a much more formal show just for you! But I'm afraid we're all very hungry, and you and your queen are in the way." Did he just misidentify Enkidu? Well he is pretty far. The knight then smiles towards Haguro, flicking his shoulder-length blond hair away. "I will take that chance, young lady. Doctor Strange offers alternative feeding methods. Blood actually laughs. "Oh, how generous of you! But I'm afraid our blood-curse requires it fresh, and soulful. By all means try, though!" Orchid's drones set about sabotaging the flagship's cannons. They're relics, easily taken apart by advanced drones. Blood's men make no attempts to save them. On the other ships, the drones are met with some resistance - some cannons fall apart, but others are saved by vampiric knights and pirates who swing with a variety of melee weapons or claws. Then swords. So, many, swords. Blood's ship is pelted by countless magical blades, tearing holes into the wooden pirate ship and blasting away some crewmen and spirits too. No, more importantly, reality is screwed up. There are gears in the sky, swords in the water. A few ships are now landlocked again, caught on the hill of Unlimited Blade Works.
Ryouma Sakamoto	Fina-Blood Svelten finally steps off the prow of his ship. He looks overboard, staring at the blade-filled waters, then up at the gear-filled stormy skies. "Now THAT is interesting. Very well then! Allow me to show you the power of my PARADE!" Blood signals for his men on the ramparts of the fortress. All of them do their best to grab defending soldiers, inflict bleeding wounds, and then hurl them into the waters. The water immediatly begins bubbling and churning. Blood shouts. "For once the sea runs red, there can be no escape!" This world... is not just seas and a storm. This world is a predator. The massive tentacles of a kraken erupt from the depths, wrapping around one of the walls. Sharks of various species start slamming their heads into the chunks of wall that are underwater. It's interesting to note - some of the creatures already have swords stuck in them, slowing them down. THANKS, ARCHER. Cannonfire multiplies and intensifies across the fleet. White Knight Blood draws his sword, pointing it at Doctor Strange, the cutlass of gold and glimmering silver seeming bloodthirsty. "Well then. Do you still believe you can keep the walls standing with your sorcery?" It's a challenge. He's not being dismissive. He sounds like he... WANTS to see that? He's interested. Fascinated, despite bloodthirst. BLOOD swings at Doctor Strange, his blade releasing a slashing whip of red light and liquid. THE KRAKEN's tentacles crash near Gilgamesh and Enkidu, allowing a half-dozen vampire pirates to enter the city and open fire with their flintlock pistols at them. VAMPIRE SHARKS attack Haguro, jumping at her from the depths. VAMPIRES AND SPIRITS claw at Orchid's drones to keep them off the cannons. CANNONS open fire in repeated volleys towards Archer.
Doctor Strange	When Svelten strikes out at the illusory Strange, his attack just... makes the sorcerer completely disappear, as well as the burning 'you're being watched' symbol. Way up in the sky, the real Strange runs a hand through his soaking wet hair. The magical feedback of the attack has left a smoldering, labrynthine wound across the back of his hand, glowing a dim, baleful red. "Well, I tried." Note to self: do /not/ fight that guy up close unless absolutely necessary. He takes a moment to survey the battlefield--for that's what it is now--in order to get some ideas for dealing with this. He's met with the patchwork of swords and ocean Archer and Svelten's Reality Marbles have made. Shaping matter in the physical plane is forbidden, exactly because of clusterfucks like this. What used to be a landlocked fortress city is now an island fortress surrounded by pirate ships and swords. Well, there's no rule saying you can't shape matter in the Mirror Dimension and then throw it back into the physical plane, is there? The very tail end of Archer's light barrage--the last few swords--disappear into a barrier seemingly made of reflective shards of broken glass, suspended in the air. They come out of the other side as whirling lotus flowers made of swords, greatly increased in numbers. As they spin through the air, the sword lotuses catch fire, skimming across the surface of the water to slam into whatever ships they can. Meanwhile, another Strange opens the Eye of Agamotto, focusing upon the walls of the city. A band of emerald energy forms around his wrist while his counterpart attacks the pirate fleet. Aiming his outstretched hand at the fortress walls, Strange turns time backwards, repairing cracks and reversing damage to the walls where he can. This is largely just a stalling tactic, however--anything he undoes, the fleet can redo for as long as they have the ammo.
Haguro	So much for the diplomatic approach. On the plus side, Haguro doesn't recognize anybody else here as Concord representative, so that might work in her favor later! At the very least, she... Actually doesn't recognize quite a few of these people by sight alone. Gilgamesh and Strange do register for her once they speak, at least, but she makes a mental note about Enkidu having some sort of odd prowess in throwing... Rocks? She'll have to do some digging later. As for the task at hand, though, it's not like this pirate captain couldn't be a useful contact down the line, either. If not for the fact that he's sending sharks after she'd be... Wait. Vampire sharks? This is getting to be too much to think about right now. The Cruiser watches as the teeth-filled creatures rush towards her, pivoting at the last moment and semi-limboing underneath the pair while using her elbows to push them away from biting right into her. "Th-that's unfortunate. Alright... Haguro of the Myoukou-class, engaging!" Shouting out to nobody in particular, she continues spinning with the sharks' charge while reaching back to try and grab one of them by the tail. Doing something like this on land would be incredibly risky, what with having to turn her feet and twist her body at just the right times, but this fight isn't on land. It's at sea! Sort of sea. Close enough to sea that Haguro's fighting in a comfort zone, and she's agile enough to try yoinking the vampiric fish out of the water to swing at the other vampire shark like a fleshy sledgehammer!
Orchid	The good thing about fighting with drones is that it keeps Orchid herself out of most of the line of fire. Still, while some of her drones are taken down, the others do their duty, unmounting cannons, stealing cannonballs, and even two brave ones sneaking into gunpowder sacks to light them on fire, others distracting the crew with bites. No venom, but they are going for eyes. They've got the easy job, Orchid has to make sense of what she is seeing. Between the attack of sealife, the waves fighting land fighting swords, and Dr. Strange's special effects, the reploid is having trouble trusting her eyes. This means she's still sitting there, trying to focus on what winds up being where. Like for example, is that a girl skating on the water? A fleet daughter or a mirage? Trying to sort out what she sees when she looks at Haguro.
Enkidu	Enkidu doesn't seem particularly off-put about being misidentified as female when his gender is both malleable and irrelevent. Also, there's the whole thing about his human appearance being largely made in tribute to a woman, so... well, it'd be weird if it bothered him. He mostly just blinks a couple times. "Oh, we're only friends! I'm just a lump of clay!" he calls back, his voice carried clearly via wind and water. Enkidu looks thoughtful for a second, and then adds, "I think Lady Priscilla might be his queen, in which case you are very fortunate she is not presently here." There's a nod. Enkidu seems satisfied with the answer. Tentacles erupt from the water, striking the wall. The Kraken is a living siege ladder, allowing vampiric pirates up to the wall. Gunshots ring out, and Enkidu's plain white clothing is perforated, punctured by primitive shot. He drops to a knee, hands on the wall beneath him -- from pain, maybe? Damage? All around him, swords grow out of the already-confused environment, and Enkidu's brow knits in a mixture of irritation and concern. A second or so later, bits of lead clatter to the top of the wall, pushed out of his rapidly-healing, bloodless wounds. "Overlapping Reality Marbles may make things more difficult," he tells Gilgamesh. He lifts himself into a runner's start. "But if we destroy the source of the first, the user of the second will likely allow it to collapse. So...!" Enkidu takes off like a shot. He rushes the vampires at a dead sprint, the ground behind him blossoming into a garden of hafted weaponry: spears, lances, glaives, guisarmes, halberds, pikes... all of which have pointy things to shove through vampire chests, and all of which appear to be made out of the same stone as the wall. Gilgamesh has his pick, and a path that Enkidu blazes for him towards the kraken tentacle, which is merely the first stepping stone on the way to the ship. Blazes? Carves. Enkidu's forearms appear to have been replaced with machetes, which he puts to immediate work on the pirates. Chopping them into tiny cubes will stop them from healing eventually, right?
Gilgamesh	"So far I have met only one woman I would make my bride in this disgusting modern world," Gilgamesh says idly, "And my friend Enkidu is not her." Saying the name Enkidu is probably enough to let the vampire know what he's in for. Gilgamesh's face goes red hot at the statement about Priscilla, and he coughs and waves his hand in front of his face, fooling nobody. He's still got a light blush as he speaks, but it's tempered by his dripping distaste for the Vampire. "Unfortunately for you, you disgust me," Gilgamesh says, "So I'm going to continue standing right here, in your way. It's the duty of the King to eliminate things like you, anyway." The King of Heroes's smirk becomes predatory as he leans forward, as Archer unleashes his Unlimited Blade Works and splatters patchworks of swords across the landscape. That was good, very good. Gilgamesh chuckles quietly. "So you might as well turn tail and run. It'll make the chase more entertaining." The answer he gets is tentacles smashing against the wall and vampire flintlocks firing at him. Several of the bullets he bats away with one hand, but a few of them find purchase through his coat, digging deep into his already-damaged, bandaged flesh. One of them carves through his unbandaged cheek, and blood flows down, thicker than the rain and as beautiful on the King as makeup. This might be a problem. The King's blood, even in the rain, smells like ambrosia. The water can't wash away or cover up that heavenly, perfect scent, the scent of a divine creature's blood that wafts from his body, the sort of thing that only a vampire could reliably perceive as different from human blood and yet a vampire could not /help/ but perceive it. Gilgamesh doesn't appear to care. The King of Heroes grabs one of Archer's swords, stuck in the Kraken, and drags it along the beast's tendril. It shatters under the extreme pressure of Gilgamesh's strength, breaking inside the wound before he can complete the pull. "Hmph. Enkidu! I need something stronger than this!" Enkidu provides weapons. Gilgamesh scoops up a halberd in one hand and gives it a practice sweep. Then, Enkidu goes off ahead of him, and Gilgamesh /tsks/. "Hey, wait for me!" The King runs. He stabs the halberd into the Kraken and slides it down after Enkidu, a huge grin on his face. "What do you say we make it a race, Enkidu?! The one who kills that meddlesome vampire wins!" Yeah he doesn't actually give a shit about the town at all, this is just an excuse.
Archer EMIYA	Archer jumps out of the way to avoid the cannon fire, though this doesn't seem to pan out well for him as he's still caught in the explosion, causing him to tumble down and hit the ground with a metallic thunk. He's quick to recover though, brushing himself while completely ignoring the bruises and bleeding wounds on his body. Thankfully even without with vantage point, he's still got an extremely vague idea of where everything is. Sorta. "Alright, let's try that again..." Archer sticks a finger in his ear, digging deeply to try and stop the ringing caused by the cannon fire. He also casually lifts up his other hand, the swords at the bottom of the ocean responding to his will as they shoot upwards, attempting to pierce through the hull of the vampire's ship as if trying to sink it. Or hit the captain. It's probably to hit the captain.
Ryouma Sakamoto	It turns out the answer is yes, Doctor Strange can still handle the walls. Blood seems cheerful at the news, the challenge all the greater for him. Especially when flaming blades enter the equation. They tear through ships with little effort - Archer's already potent blades, made even moreso by Strange's magic. Blood, for his part, protects himself with a shield of blood, for what good it'll do. Haguro bludgeons a vampire shark with another vampire shark. Blood's attention is momentarily taken by this feat, and he laughs approvingly. "Oi, young lady! Perchance might you be looking for a new crew to join? We pay in blood, plunder and challenge!" Real offer. A ship explodes as Orchid's drones light ablaze its stockpiles of gunpowder. Blood responds by swinging his blade, commanding the storm. A wave of water and blades washes over several ships, and while some crewmembers are impaled by the sharp waters, this also gives an unending swarm of piranhas a chance to be airborne. Enkidu hugs vampires. Their regeneration can't do miracles. Not theirs, specifically, anyway. Cutting them into pieces works just fine. It helps that they have no idea how to FIGHT Enkidu. Gilgamesh meanwhile takes multiple swings at the massive beast - its wounds heal faster, being larger, but he's straining it. Archer readies another flurry against Blood's flagship. This time, the Dead Apostle Ancestor responds to the assault himself. His form shreds itself apart, blood gushing everywhere and multiple, bloodied versions of him reappear. His teeth sharper, his eyes bloodshot red, his hair no longer clean and fancy. Like a storm of blood and steel, he begins parrying sword after sword, breaking the weaker ones with his own blade. And then the vampire grins. Several copies of Blood surge for the several copies of Doctor Strange, making impossible leaps to reach even the flying ones. They slice and dice incessantly, their blade looking for a meal. Several more copies rush straight for Archer, attempting to bestow the same fate upon him. Orchid's drones become the prey of FLYING VAMPIRE PIRANHAS, some of which have swords stuck in them, while Haguro now contends with hands surging from the depths. Blue, sickly, drowned men and women trying to drag her under in the hostile, churning waters. Gilgamesh and Enkidu contend with the Kraken, which starts flailing madly, half a dozen tentacle crushing through the city walls to reach the king and his friend.
Gilgamesh	Gilgamesh lands atop the Kraken's head, only to get absolutely smashed down by the beast. The flailing tentacles bat him about, smacking him to and fro. It hits him hard enough to nearly knock him off, but his hand snaps outwards and grabs one of Archer's many weapons stuck in the Kraken's body, a large greatsword that looks extremely familiar to him. He dangles there, a look of irritation across his bruised and bloody face - not because he's angry about being injured, no no. Gilgamesh is angry that Enkidu has a head-start over him now. He pulls himself up and pries the greatsword free. It's slightly more durable. Hefting the greatsword over his shoulder and the halberd in front of him, the King of Heroes goes running, racing forward like a lunatic. He springs off the Kraken, lands on one of the sharks, and runs off it, racing across the water with enough speed to drive it aside. When the hands try and grab him he swats them with the greatsword. He casts a look over his shoulder. Enkidu is much, much faster than he is, so he'll have to pick up the pace. Gilgamesh steps on another shark and leaps up onto Blood's deck. His eye trails red light as he brings the halberd and greatsword screaming down for the vampire with all force. The greatsword will shatter on impact into a thousand tiny pieces. The halberd will not.
Orchid	Okay, Orchid is certainly going to have to develop some amphibious drones. The snakes are not doing well against the piranhas. The fact that they lack blood to drain does mean that they will prove fruitless meals, and their shorting energy cells may mean they are lethal meals. Over with Orchid, she's advising Archer in which angles the blood-clones are coming from. Further, she's pulling something else out from her purse; one of her blasters. Slipped over one hand, she starts sending some precise shots at the ships. She's still on the walls, but she can see where the ships are the weakest, where the wood, once holed, will allow in the water summoned by the pirate captain to go on, dragging them down. Her snake hair responds with each attack she makes, flaring out around her head. And if her guess about the vampire's ability to hear heartbeats and smell blood is right, she may be harder for him to localize than he may understand.
Haguro	As Haguro follows through with the rest of her swing, the dumbstruck look on her face makes it obvious that even she's surprised that she pulled that off. So many things could have gone wrong with it, but they didn't! he refocuses as Blood gives her that offer, though, and she masks her disgust with an odd.. Grin? Grimace? She still needs work on trying to be coy about anything. Her expression doesn't look annoyed or disgusted, but instead looks like she's trying to hide a bad leg cramping or something equally uncomfortable. "I'm afraid I already work with two crews! But...!" Another stumbling block. How do you try to be vague about keeping negotiations open when he's still actively an enemy? Maybe just not finishing that statement will be a clue. That, or a terrible breach of etiquette. She's fairly certain using corpses as attack anchors is also a pretty strong breach of etiquette, too. It's especially horrible for her, though, knowing what she does about the risk of a Fleet Daughter sinking and turning into an Abyssal. Instead of yanking limbs off and using them as bludgeoning implements, though, she... Waits. The real target is the vampire commanding this whole crew, not just his minions. Wasting time going after them isn't going to stop the attack on the city at large! By the time Haguro comes to this revelation, the hands have already dragged her down to roughly waist level. Two birds with one stone. Motivated partially by prioritizing a more important target and largely by freaking out over nearly getting pulled underwater, Haguro launches herself forward back onto the surface with a sudden burst of speed with or without those arms still holding onto her. As she speeds forward, she takes aim at the vampire's ship and starts firing shell after shell at it!
Doctor Strange	The skies are suddenly awash in duplicates of Blood, many of them leaping through the air to reach the outnumbered sorcerer(s). The one fighting is, strangely, less ready for the assault than the one repairing the fort. His red cloak seems to abruptly yank him downward, saving him from being skewered by Blood's attack at the cost of suffering a nasty cut across his arm. When the Blood clones reach the Strange repairing the fort, however, he acts as if he knows they were coming. He turns to face them, sporting the same cut that the attacking Strange did. A portal opens up before him... and water spews out of it in a wide cone. Beneath the surface of the Reality Marble's sea, that portal's counterpart sucks out the very water being used to repel them. The Strange who had launched the burning swords at the ships disappears in a flash of emerald light, traveling back in time to begin repairing the city walls. That just leaves the one at the city proper. THAT Strange, who we may now assume is the Prime Strange (are you still with me?) centers himself, flying high into the air. Palm resting over palm, the sorcerer centers himself, exhaling as the amulet around his neck glows brightly green. As he performs an elaborate series of fluid, martial gestures similar to 'internal' styles like Baguazhang ('Ba Gua') or Taijiquan ('Tai Chi'), a large emerald circle appears over the city. Lines and shapes appear within the circle until its shape becomes apparent: a beautiful, emerald glyph clock. The hands of this clock turn backwards rather than forwards, slowly repairing the damage caused by the pirates. It's much, much slower than if Strange were doing it himself, and can't 'outdo' them, but it's better than nothing. Meanwhile, a series of Stranges suddenly appear in the air, each one in a similar flash of green light. Each one conjures a portal to some far-off, frozen world in the midst of a vicious blizzard. The portals are turned on their faces, cold winds blowing downward, and flung across the surface of the water, towards the captain's ship. They circle it, freezing the water in place with the biting cold that spews from each, the ice squeezing the vessel like a vice.
Enkidu	Enkidu goes through the vampires like a hot knife through butter. It's worth noting that this knife moves at speeds far and away faster than even the finest of butter-spreading tools, so it's a little bit unfair. Whenever a pirate thinks he's got the knife-hands under control, Enkidu changes it up, going from blades to spears to axes in rapid succession. Fighting him like you'd fight a human is just a losing proposition. Gilgamesh proposes a challenge, which Enkidu agrees to with gusto. He jumps off the wall and onto the kraken's tentacles, sliding down the back and then running towards the main body. It flails, which is a problem; it flings him off of it with a snap of the limbs and swats him against the wall, cracking masonry and smashing the clay person like a bug. Enkidu sticks to the outer wall like a fly on a windshield, limbs splayed in unnatural ways. A couple seconds later, he peels himself off the wall. His body flattens on one side and bulges on the other, left arm shrinking and right arm growing. He grows himself out of his outstretched hand, his new right arm grasping the tentacle as his flattened former body becomes inert clay against the wall. His brand new budded form resolves into solidity, and then swings itself up on top of the tentacle. Enkidu takes a half-second to figure out where he is -- He runs again. This time, he attacks with his feet. Spiked chains fire out of his heels with every step, launching like rocket-propelled grappling hooks straight through one tentacle and into the next on the far side. X-shaped anchors keep it stuck in place when his foot leaves the surface of the tentacle he's using as a roadway, detaching seamlessly and without slowing him down. He does this with every single step -- and he's going at a dead sprint and at blurring speeds, making a bee-line for that mouthy vampire. He's got a race to win.
Archer EMIYA	A pair of black and white blades appear in Archer's hand as the blood copy of FINA-BLOOD SVELTEN goes after him, his eyes narrowing as he concentrates on finding an opening. Something that's made even easier by Orchid's directions. THANKS ORCHID! "There. Too slow." They jump forward at alarming speed, slashing the fake vampire once. twice. thrice. A lot of times before it even has a time to react, the sister blades making quick work of the bloody doppelgänger as it's splattered across the ground. There's no time for Archer to admire his hard work though, as he's quick to try and find a new vantage spot to snipe from.
Ryouma Sakamoto	Gilgamesh cleaves one of the kraken's tentacles clean off with the blade. He runs for Blood's ship and comes in swinging. Blood - one of them, anyway - blocks with his cutlass, and then gets torn into bloody shreds. His existence becomes a pool of blood that splashes onto the deck. Orchid is right about one thing: Blood can't find her like this. No heartbeat. No bleeding. For the time being, it seems she can take free potshots at ships, blasting cannons and crewmembers with no one to interfere. Haguro opens fire. One copy of Blood leaps off his ship, twirling his blade. It seems to multiply into a dozen bloodied, red copies of the sword as he slices downward. He cleaves the incoming shots! And then splashes into the water, disappearing. Doctor Strange's clones are a confusing, temporal mess. Blood is obviously struggling to keep close track of which is which. Not only are his abilities to repair the city contextually speeding up due to the crew's reduced numbers, but he's doing a very good job keeping the pirate in place. His ship frozen, and even copies of Blood stiff and frost-covered due to the water. That sorcery is very potent, he notes. Enkidu claims another set of tentacles from the Kraken, which now actually withdraws into the depths momentarily as soon as the two are off its back. Head. Either or. His landing on the ship shatters frozen copies of Blood. Archer slices through his own copies like they aren't even threats. It might just be, that Fina-Blood Svelten counts as 'a monster' for the purposes of his blades. Or it could just be superior swordsmanship. Or a mix of these factors. But where is Blood, now? There's a heavy crash in the water. AN ENTIRE CASTLE surges from the depths of the sea. No, it's... it's a battered, broken castle. Its parts are arranged like limbs, a castle taking the shape of a massive humanoid of broken marble. White Knight Blood is atop it, giggling like a madman. "Behold, Van-Fem's pride! My greatest conquest! HA! He still hates me for it, the worthless rat!" The castle, by the way, is A VAMPIRE. Doctor Strange can tell. Welcome to high-tier Dead Apostles. "Now then, let's kick this up a notch! Come, challengers, and face the greatest weapon in my Parade!" The castle-golem shudders, and cannons appear in its various holes, crewed by vampires. The cannons let loose bloody, fleshy blasts of light, which batter the entire battlefield with neither accuracy nor grace, but plenty of showmanship.
Gilgamesh	The castle lands. It's ridiculous, but it's no more ridiculous than things Gilgamesh has literally killed before. His wild, delighted grin says more about him than anything else - this is what he lives for. This is what he yearns for. This is what he longs for. He, half-broken, the King of Heroes, exhausted of all his power and pressed into the corner, continues to fight like a madman because the simple truth of it is that he delights in it. The cannons fire, light punching through his side. At first it's just a graze. Then it gets substantially worse. The King of Heroes does not care. He's healing, of course, but more than that, he's simply powering his way forward, powering his way onwards. Archer has given advice, but Gilgamesh is far too gone as he races forward along the water, snapping up blades and flinging them at the castle with enough force to shatter them and provoke Broken Phantasm manually. But that's not his target. His target is still Blood. He runs, straight up the side of the castle. He runs past the vampire crews, past the bats, past the flashes of light. He's running fast enough to dislodge parts of the castle as he shoots up past the top, clutching the halberd in both hands. The King of Heroes falls, mad joy in his red eye. "I've come to win this race!" Gilgamesh shouts as he brings the blade down on Blood with enough force to cleave a building in half - and, very possibly, cleave the one they're standing on. The sheer force of his blow, backed by his power, is too much even for Enkidu's clay halberd, and it shatters on impact, bursting into fragments. Gilgamesh whirls to grab a weapon out of the air, clutching a blade made of water, and spins it around with all the power at his disposal for Blood again. Gilgamesh is not a skilled duelist, but raw power is always on his side. "An entertaining weapon!" Gilgamesh shouts over the din of battle as he brings the blade around again, "But unfortunately for you, you have challenged the King of Heroes! There is no task impossible for me!" He clutches the watery blade in both hands and drives it forward for Blood's neck.
Doctor Strange	When someone says 'kick this up a notch' you are legally required to make an Emeril joke--but Strange forgets this, because he is stricken with momentary shock at the grisly implications of a building he's iminently aware is a vampire. The sorcerer takes one of the castle's blasts to the gut, sending him tumbling downward through the air, briefly disappearing in flashes of green light to satisfy causality. This leaves him woefully unprepared to navigate the gauntlet of gory attacks, which clip him twice more before the Cloak of Levitation can halt his descent and right him. It flares out behind him, covered in blood and viscera from the attack. Strange wipes both that blood, and his own sweat, from his brow. That thing is tougher than he'd have imagined. The town looks fine... there are plenty of people here... no. He'll be fine. He's the Sorcerer Supreme. Once more, Strange opens the Eye. Only this time, it's not one temporal clone that appears. It's a squadron of them. Each one of them begins weaving a spell--the exact same spell. The night sky, dimmed though it is by the heavy, violent rain, is suddenly awash in glowing circles of orange glyphs. Each Strange twirls his arms backwards, bringing palms together. Each one brings his hands just behind the waist as magical friction begins to spark between his glyphic discs of energy. Each one kindles a small pinprick of light no bigger than a golf ball between his palms. A swarm of slow-moving fireflies advances on the castle. But they aren't fireflies. As they fly through the air, the projectiles swell, growing to the size of coconuts, then basketballs. By the time they arrive at the castle, each is the size of a wrecking ball, and while they are more than slow enough to shoot down individually, there is a /lot/ of them coming. Where they strike the castle-golem, they illuminate their surroundings with near-blinding clarity, as if a strike of lightning were frozen in time. That should make things easier for his allies.
Haguro	Is the commander of this crew coming down to fight her himself, then? Haguro's not nearly as concerned about Blood cleaving her shots apart (likely just making him look cooler when they explode harmlessly behind him) as she is about the fact that he's diving right off the ship! And... Not coming back up. That was just a clone, then. Where's the real one, then? Still skating along the surface of the water to keep herself from being caught off guard again, Haguro's keeping her eyes peeled with half a mind to fire on the ship itself again when she can feel something stirring beneath the waves. "Where is... Below us!" Haguro shouts out in warning, yelping when the force of the castle emerging flings her into the air. She goes much higher than expected, even, and it's not an entirely terrible feeling. Is this what it's like to fly? If only she had more time to enjoy this. Alas, the view is rather bad considering the confusingly built castle that's firing a disturbing amount of... SOMETHING at everyone which the heavy cruiser can't even identify. It's also around that time that she realizes that fighting in the air isn't her forte. There's also a lot of shots going around. As she falls, Haguro starts firing down rapidly at the castle as well, both to slow down her descent and to intercept those incoming shots since she's not in any position to really swing herself around and away from them. At the speed she's going at, though, there's one other thing she could do. Haguro recalls that one salary man that attempted a diving attack against the zombie. Maybe this would be her moment. Two problems, though: One, the salaryman nearly killed himself because he MISSED. Two, she is much smaller than the castle. Time to fix number two, then. The shipgirl's body shimmers as space distorts around her, the air warping as the sound of steel creaking and horns blowing starts coming out of nowhere. Where there was an office lady with guns falling at the castle-golem is now an entire warship falling at the castle-golem, firing all sorts of ordinance at it while the spirit inside braces for impact!
Orchid	Now that's a big castle. And while Orchid tries to dodge, the fact that she is less able to be targeted doesn't make much difference when there are THAT many incoming cannonballs. Still, she isn't knocked from the wall... and she has a few drones left, bats equipped with small blasters. She looks at the castle... marvels at Gilgamesh's stunt, and notices something about it. Sure, it may be a vampire, but it had been depending on water pressure to keep it up and intact, with that water drained away, her bats may be able to knock down a few critical bits of stone, and with them, knock down much larger arches, and with those arches, take out some of the cannons. Of course, if this doesn't work, she will be nearly completely out of options.
Archer EMIYA	Archer does his best to avoid the cannons being fired from the giant CASTLE VAMPIRE but despite his best, it's not good enough, ending up getting caught in the splash damage. His precious red mystic code is reduced to mere tatters as some of the flesh on his arm is peeled back to reveal a network of tightly knitted blades. He can't stop now though, he's gotta power on. Ignoring the pain, Archer continues making his way towards a clear vantage point, bow now in hand as he readies himself for probably the stupidest thing he could think of. "Sorry, Saber." Archer's free hand glows with a green circuitry pattern as he produces Excalibur. The shape is off though, more akin to an arrow than an actual sword. "One." Archer loads Excalibur into his bow, the modified blade already humming with power. "Two." He pulls, taking aim. "Three." Archer closes his eyes and fires, the sword arrow finally being let loose and flying directly for the Man-Castle's stomach with the force of a small missile. It explodes like a small missile two, erupting into a massive explosion of light on impact.
Enkidu	Enkidu makes it from kraken to ship. He skids to a halt, planting a heel and whirling around to search the vessel. He cocks his head and listens, sniffing the air and coming away with the scent of blood and sea-salt. The sea tells him that... Enkidu looks down, and then up as the castle explodes out of the ocean. His hair is whipped into a frenzy by the sudden storm-wind that accompanies such a huge edifice coming out of nowhere. His shoulders heave as he takes a breath -- his first of the battle. "A contest, then," he says to himself. "Calibrating..." The cannons appear and open fire. Enkidu looks at them for a half-second, gauging trajectories with nothing but gut-feeling. He slides a long step to the right, dropping down onto all fours as the ship explodes all around him. Beams cut the vessel apart, and the viscera that follows detonates it into flinders and gore-coated ash. The bow splinters off, and Enkidu rides it to the sea. He touches the surface. Weapons of water fire straight upwards, held together by the miraculous magic that Enkidu bestows upon them as he forges them from the stuff of seas. He plunges into the icy depths, dunked underneath the surface. His body glows, a flickering aura of gold suffusing him. He holds out his hands, and something golden fires downward, deep into the black. Fifteen seconds later, Enkidu breaches the surface. The kraken he speared with the ladder of spiked chains is dragged upwards like it was an enormous pincushion, bringing with it a tremendous spray of sea-water. The tentacles that he impaled get flung towards the sky, and new chains of brilliant gold hold it fast, forcing it like a puppet on strings to lift itself upwards and slam its tremendous bulk down onto the castle-golem's parapets. On its back, a shape in white and green rushes across its body, loping on all fours like a wild beast that ascends towards the top of the thing at a frankly disconcerting speed. The Kraken begins to fall. Enkidu clears the end of the tentacle, getting into mid-air, his robe flapping in the wind. He goes into a spin, his arms coming together and fusing into one piece, turning into a tremendous weapon wrought of bronze and white stone and gold: some kind of elongated mace, or maybe a sharply-edged hammer. The sea-spray descends with him, racing Enkidu towards the top of Blood's head. The sea-spray stopped being water the instant it left the ocean. The sea-spray is blades, spears and knives descending in an endless torrent from his every side.
Ryouma Sakamoto	The conquered golem-castle of Van-Fem is massive, armored, and a vampire. It goes without saying that its defensive capabilities match its offensive ones. The King of Heroes crashes down with a halberd, shattering the castle along its center point with a massive rumble. Blood, however, does not allow the golden man to reach his neck - he dives backwards, the ramparts of the castle protecting him as Gilgamesh's blade cuts them apart, marble and flesh crashing into the waters below. Doctor Strange sends forth massive balls of fire - each explosion blasts away stone or cannons, breaking through the castle's impressive walls to leave it covered in even more holes. Then the castle shudders, and stone grows back, as if it were flesh upon a regenerator's body. The damage is undone, at the cost of its... mana? Whatever it's fueling on. Probably blood. Haguro's various shots are no less threatening - Blood zips through the inside of the castle, avoiding the repeated blasts, and then a WARSHIP tackles the golem from above. The castle crashes into the water, now partially submerged under Haguro's full-sized booty. Orchid's drones are more than able to disable some cannons - in fact, some cannons can be made to detonate outright, getting rid of the castle's undead crew at the same time. It's pretty nasty. But again, it regenerates. Starts rising, trying to shove Haguro off it. Blood is back on its head, observing the situation. Holy light. Antithesis of vampires in every way conceivable. Archer's attack strikes a critical hit, blasting a massive hole into the golem-castle's stomach. It does not regenerate from that one. The holy light has made the massive wound a permanent one upon its body. A scar it'll bear in future encounters. And then Enkidu. Enkidu defiles the kraken even further and uses it to ramp into the castle. A massive weapon accompanied by a rain of smaller ones. The golem is battered heavily, losing the arm it used to shield itself and the remainder of its crew. Silence falls on the seas. The storm begins receding. "Ha! Now that... you are all /incredible/!" Fina-Blood Svelten gushes, from stop his broken castle. "No, even if we could not feed, this was worth it a thousand times over. Holy light like I've never seen before, magic that commands time itself, kings and creatures from eras past wreathed in Mystery, robots and warships. How could I possibly compete?" The ghostly fleet, the vampires, even the castle begins fading away. White Knight Blood takes a grand bow. "I concede the day, champions. 'Till we meet again!" They all shimmer out of existence. All that remains modifying reality now, is the endless broken plains of Unlimited Blade Works, the hill of endless swords, the smogged skies and the churning gears of a fate that goes ever-onward like a machine.
Gilgamesh	White Knight Blood leaves. Gilgamesh purses his lips irritably. "A tie," he says to the air, "I don't like it." He considers this for a moment. Then he grabs one of the swords off the plain and turns, flinging it at Enkidu with a wild grin. "We'll settle this properly, then!"
Enkidu	Gilgamesh flings a sword at Enkidu, and there's a horrible THWOCK whump Enkidu's severed head blinks up at Gilgamesh from the ground. "Great shot! You got the head, so that means you win!" His toppled body does not give a thumbs up because that would be silly.
Orchid	"That... could have gone better," Orchid murmurs, looking down at herself. She then looks inside the city walls. "But I can't say it went badly. Will take some doing to fix this, but my hair survived." She sighs as Gilgamesh and his buddy playing. "Need any help down there?" she calls out.
Haguro	Even as a ship, even after landing on her target successfully, even with all her armor and training and her ship form's armor... Landing on someone after falling from high speed still hurts. Haguro (the ship) rolls off as the regenerating castle forces the cruiser to slide off of it, and the only way she can stop herself from capsizing upon landing in the water is to transform back in quick succession! Luckily, all that damage to Blood and his castle seems to have done the trick. He's even congratulating them. Although Haguro's turrets are still active as she scrambles back onto her feet, she doesn't fire right away things start to disappear. The wet things start to disappear, anyway. The shipgirl wobbles a bit as the water turns to solid ground and swords, and then she starts the trek back to the city while picking up and nudging some oft he weirder looking swords on the way. "It's... Everything's okay now! The joint operation was a success!" She's still shouting at nobody in particular, but everyone needs a pick me up sometimes (some more than others, especially if their heads are no longer attached). Plus, she needs to make sure the inhabitants of the city know who was involved and that they're safe.
Archer EMIYA	Archer sighs wistfully to himself as he is now able to stare upon the sword-filled wasteland that is Unlimited Blade Works in all its entirety. It's a world that stands as a testament to one boy's foolish pursuit of Justice. The crowning achievement of their life. The one thing he can truly say is HIS. "No regrets." Archer mumbles under his breath as his Reality Marble slowly begins to fade away, taking the swords, smog, and gears with it as the city returns to looking the way it had before.
Orchid	While the ship-girl is still in her larger form, Orchid was able to get a good look at the prow. Thankfully, she knows how to read Japanese, so can call back when she approaches. "Ahoy Haguro! Thank you for your help!" She's still up on the wall, but is considering how to get down. It may be faster to just jump off, but she left her dash boots at home.