Scene #7323: Turf Wars

Owner	Pose
Vergil	The battle is taking place in the depths of the Four Caverns. Locals have reported the sound of terrible roars, the flapping of great wings, and the scrape of sharp claws against the rocks. The source of these sounds is to be located in a great cave lit by luminescent crystals. There, two great creatures face off, circling each other warily. One is a great wyvern, standing upon hindlegs and balancing using the talons of its wings that make up its forelimbs. It's covered in great broze scales that glow with a cherry red from within, bristling from the underside of its long, thick tail and its scaled mane that evokes a pinecone. The other is a tall, thin bipedal reptile, covered in bronze skin. Its hands terminate in four long, thin fingers and an opposable thumb, each of which has a savage-looking talon jutting from it. Great curled front-facing black horns jut from its skull, and bone ridges emerge from its back and its joints. It's feet are akin to depictions of raptors, with a single raised toe bearing a vicious curved talon suited for climbing and gripping. Suddenly, both creatures rush at each other. The great wyvern attempts to bull-rush the smaller reptile, but it leaps to clamber and scrabble upon the wyvern's head. Once it has purchase, it starts frenzying, clawing ferociously at the wyvern's head, causing it to roar with such volume that the cavern shakes before it rolls over, pinning the reptile between itself and the cave floor. Watching all this from atop a rock formation is Vergil, legs crossed and his head resting upon his fist.
Guzma	Guzma heard giant monsters, and immediately came out to play. He's here with Tupp, Rapp, and Zipp, and... Well, this is certainly awesome. Giant monster fight! Maybe he could beat them up, tame them, and bring them to the Concord for good boy points. Or at least so he thinks, until he spots Vergil on top of a rock formation, due to the light of one of the crystals. Slowly approaching, trying to avoid the fighting, as he almost stumbles from the shaking before he steadies himself, Guzma moves to start climbing halfway up the formation, stopping in range of Vergil. "Hey! Hey, guy! These things yours? Which one you betting on?" First impression, after seeing Vergil: monster fightclub.
Cantio	Cantio's heard of giant beasts vying for territory before, but this is the first time she's gotten to see this sort of thing in person. There's a long moment where it looks like Cantio might just be getting ready to sit down to take in the sights rather than get involved herself, but when she sees Guzma approaching Vergil... She scurries over to take a seat over there instead. Might as well stick with the audience. "This is exciting, isn't it? A real, honest fight among nature's greatest predators!" She doesn't do a great job hiding her excitement over the scene, even going as far as taking a tablet out of her ever-present digital inventory and propping it up on a rock to get a good, steady view of what's going on. She's totally taping this. "The size difference could be an issue, but the smaller one looks rather crafty..."
Xion	There had been a quest in Xion's quest log that had been greyed out forever. One of those real 'advance the main story a bunch and this will open back up' situations. And then, one day, while getting groceries... The Blade of Judgement Proceed to the Four Caverns Xion's tracker updates. "Oh wow! A special event, I'd better..." She looks down at her hands, full of canvas bags. AT THE LAUNDROMAT: Mog is startled by a Corridor opening horizontally, and the groceries dropping through onto the counter in a pile. "K-kupo?! Be more careful!" AT THE FOUR CAVERNS: A grey-hoodie'd Xion in a sky blue top and shorts leaps out from behind a rock, pointing at Vergil while the air is punctuated by monster screeching. "Vergil! What cursed demon sword are you after this time!? Are you here to be a bully again? Um..." Her finger wavers, and then drops. "Uh, what's up, everyone?" She tries, sheepishly.
Vergil	Vergil looks down at the arriving group, a look of vague disdain on his face. He first addresses Guzma. "They are not mine, no." Next, he addresses Cantio. "It is not honest. This fight has been arranged." Finally, he speaks to Xion, who is most familiar to him. "I do more than seek out swords, you know," he says with a grimace. Realising he now has to justify himself, he scowls. "Someone is pulling these creatures into the demon world to move them around for these fights. I caught a glimpse of them while I was there. No one should be able to do this, not without Yamato. So I am awaiting the perpetrator to confront them." The wyvern rolls off the reptile, leaving some of it scales buried into the rock around it. They begin to glow red hot as the reptile gets to its feet before exploding. The burst of flame, the flash of light, the sound seems to rattle the creature, causing it to stumble back before breaking into a run. The wyvern, sensing weakness, gives chase, moving surprisingly quickly for something so bulky. The reptile turns sharply, using its claws to quickly find purchase and turn itself, forcing the wyvern to scramble to keep up. It runs, runs... towards the group, before leaping into the air and clinging to the cave wall. The wyvern is moving too fast. It can't stop now. And the look in its eyes says it doesn't intend to stop.
Guzma	Guzma's doing play-by-plays with Cantio. As Xion arrives, he turns to her. "Yo, monster fights." He's about to respond to Vergil, probably something along the lines of 'cool, I'm just gonna watch the fight', when the wyvern comes crashing at them. Guzma's eyes widen, as he moves to push off the rock and dive to the ground, where the trio wait, and try and drag them to the ground for the beast to come overhead. Once it's hit, or alternatively, is out of their way, the group rises, and moves backwards away from the beasts. "Alright, screw that. If we beat these things up, you think your perpetrator will show up?" He's juggling a Pokeball in hand, but doesn't throw it, yet. He's trying to track if the creatures are gonna continue hunting them, which determines who he sends out.
Xion	Vergil certainly is the kind of character where, if weird Demon Situations are happening, pointing an accusatory finger his way is rarely wrong. It still can be wrong, of course. "Oh, so you're like an intense... dark... hero?" She was about to say 'jealous', but switched to 'intense', because Vergil has been nebulously not-unpleasant to her, and thus responding positively to positivity is called for! Shifting her stance as she slides her hands into her pockets, Xion nods slowly. "So you're..." She flashes with insight, eyes popping and a goofy smile on her face. "... doing the 'Riku thing'! The Seifer thing? You're like a bully of dark justice. Like Larxene!" Xion nods firmly. "I understand completely." Guzma, Local Miscreant, decides that beating them up will draw out the perpetrator for BULLY JUSTICE. "You think so?" Xion draws out her left hand to gesture forth motes of blue that swirl once before casting out to burst in a shower of bubbles and seltzer geysers. "Watera!" She just splashed both of the monsters. You know, to be safe.
Cantio	"That's... Oh." Cantio sounds rather disappointed when Vergil reveals the origins of the battle, although it fades rather quickly as she giggles quietly at his response to Xion's accusation. "That's a pretty dire scenario if that's the case. Does that mean..." There's still a hint of hesitation in Cantio's voice even as she considers the possibility of interfering with the fight, and that continued gleam in her eyes as she watches the monsters battle on is a pretty good indicator of why. The explosions from the wyvern's scales somehow just make that gleam even more intense. "Amazing! If I could mimic that with some of my machines..." The gears are turning, and they're all turning in terrible ways as Cantio's already taking mental notes. Of course, she can't stay where she is for long as the fight draws closer to the group. She picks up her tablet to get a good shot of the reptile on the wall, then turns it quickly to the wyvern as it's already barrelling closer. Cantio only has enough time to hurl her recording tablet aside (where it starts floating, revealing itself to be a drone because of course it is) and yank her great sword-esque weapon out of her immaterial inventory just in time to put it between herself and the wyvern as it runs her right over. "Guh... Th-that should work, right? If they're bringing in these creatures-" Slipping out from underneath the explosive wyvern, Cantio scrambles sideways to regroup with Guzma and keeps her sword braced in front of herself defensively. "-then they'll probably intervene if this fight ends prematurely." Her other hand glows with a blocky, weirdly pixelated light momentarily as she casts a healing spell on herself, hatily knitting up the wounds from being trampled as she keeps her eyes peeled on both of the beasts. Her face only pales slightly when Xion opts to douse both of them. There's a long, uncertain "uhhhh" coming from her, but she's not quite confident enough to really call her out on that. She does, however, inch forward a bit more, ready to jump to Xion's defense at the first sign of something charging!
Vergil	Vergil just gives Xion a look. A single raised eyebrow expresses the extend of how befuddling her words are. "I am not a bully," is eventually what he settles on. "Bullies enjoy tormenting those weaker than them. But nor am I a soft-hearted philanthropist like my brother. I am here purely to satisfy my own curiosity as to what other than Yamato can part the veil my father created." Neither Bazelgeuse nor the Deathclaw appreciate being blasted by high-pressure water from Xion. The latter scrabbles as the sheer surface it clings to becomes wet, while the former shakes its head to clear its eyes. However, the Deathclaw does not come down to answer this attack. The Bazelgeuse is here to do that. It begins slamming the ground with its head and neck, sending scales about with each impact. With its more limited intelligence, it only sees other creatures, /prey/, in its territory, and refuses to let it stand. But the Deathclaw is smarter. For the moment, it has breathing room, and a distraction it can exploit. It stays above, climbing up the rocky structure Vergil also perches on to wait. "As for the perpetrator... they will show eventually. Whether there is one body here, or two, or four, or five. And I would rather conserve my strength for them, just in case." That's his way of saying he's not going to helping with the angry Bazelgeuse, the prick.
Guzma	"Yeah, I'm the bully." Guzma corrects, and then tosses out the Pokeball in his hand. Scizor is released, the red mantis landing on both feet, punching out once, and then- Scales come forth. Guzma and the Goonzmas move behind Scizor, who dives to intercept the scales, smashing a few out of the air and getting hit by one, which pushes it backwards and forces flinching. After a few seconds, Scizor punches the air again... "Bullet Punch." And then races forward, launching a metal fist straight into Bazelgeuse's face. Scizor will be the aggro today, as the metal super-bug.
Cantio	"It really would be interesting seeing other types of long-distance transportation that could even work on creatures like these, wouldn't it? If it's something that could even be replicated back home..." Even with the threat of immediate explosions, Cantio's mind is still fixated on anything but the danger. It's not until the scales start flying again that her focus returns to the matter at hand, and there's a brief moment of relief when the Deathclaw doesn't accost the group alongside the Bazelgeuse. It's only a small relief, however, since the Bazelgeuse's attention seems to be focused firmly on the group in front of it now. "Are you, though? I don't think I've ever seen you picking on anyone weaker than yourself. Er. Any of you, really." Gripping her sword with both hands, Cantio opts for an approach that might even be familiar to Bazelgeuse: she just charges head on towards it! Despite the size of her (relatively) large sword, however, she wields it like it was a much lighter weapon, dashing around the wyvern and laying into its legs with a dizzying array of rapid slashes while staying away from its face and tauk. "Unless... Does this even count? It's much too large to be considered weaker!"
Xion	Bang. Bang bang! Bang!!! The Bazelgeuse beats its body into the earth, sending tremors that Cutscene Stagger Xion, her legs wobbling and fighting for stability for just a moment before she finds her feet under her in a battle-ready stance. "Woah! Heavy!" Xion observes, hopping and siderolling around the cast-out cones. "Three or four or five? That's at least one too many! At least!" She gasps, backstepping a cone that lands right beore her and assuming a swordless iaijutsu stance. "But if you're going to wait for that other guy, I'll just have to handle this demon problem demon style. Master Form!" Xion's grey hoodie flashes and blooms a cardinal as it color-shifts, the dark drawstrings bleaching white. A quartet of keychains spin around her in a colorful orbit, and as the crescent moon one spins 'in front' of her, she dashes through the outline. In her hands is a loud metallic 'shwink!' that forms a guardless 'katana' keyblade with the tooth like stylized jagged action lines at the cap of the slightly curved longsword. At the end of her lunge she swings out with her blade, a line-hurricane of phantom after-slash following out from her stroke.
Vergil	BAM! Scizor's metal claws slam deep into Bazelgeuse's face, dislodging a tooth and causing the massive wyvern to stagger back. Cantio follows up by slashing the legs. Whipping around a weighty weapon so lightly makes it bury deep, causing the monster to lose balance and sink to a leg. It tries to close its wings, but Xion with her mimiced might is too fast, slipping through its guard to carve up the monster's whole length. It's wounded, but not down yet. Finding its foot, it lets out another deep roar, the kind that rattles your skull and bursts your eardrums. But the Deathclaw on the wall is seemingly unaffected, taking the opening to leap down on the Bazelgeuse's back and start slashing viciously at its wings. The wyvern flaps them rapidly to take off, trying to shake off the reptile as it digs it claws into the gaps between its foes scales to cling on. But as the explosive monster takes flight, it drops those scales like bombs, barrel-rolling to both extend their coverage and shake the Deathclaw, rendering the ground a massive hazard. Explosion after explosion shakes the ground and walls, making the cave ceiling rattle in a concerning way.
Guzma	Bazelgeuse can fly. That's not good, as the roar shakes Scizor backwards, and the four humans cover their ears as they fall back. The bomb scales almost drop on the humans, until Scizor moves to intercept them, blasting to the ground wounded. As the explosives continue to go off, Scizor pushes the four to safety, as Guzma's chatting on the radio, and then... Swords float around it. It grows stronger, faster. Again. Again. Another ring of explosions come out. Scizor moves to meet them. It moves to jump onto a scale, speed past the explosion buffeting its armor, and then launch one more Bullet Punch into Bazelgeuse's face. This one is /much/ stronger. Explosively strong.
Cantio	Cantio's theorycrafting is paying off! As theBazelgeuse loses its footing and the Deathclaw springs into action, she gets a moment to breathe while figuring out her next avenue of attack. Alas, that moment doesn't last long as the Bazelgeuse shrieks, rattling inside of her head and forcing her to stagger back while it gets an opportunity to recompose itself. Luckily, she's not on the receiving end of the creature's swinging body as it's accosted by the Deathclaw shortly afterwards. Unluckily for her, it starts releasing more of those explosive scales. "Watch out! Oh dear... Switching to support!" Bracing her sword in front of herself again, Cantio fades from view as she's surrounded by several explosions. hidden briefly by a pillar of light. When the light fades, her hair is considerably pinker, her eyes are considerably brighter, and her outfit is considerably more cartoon heroine-y complete with matching gloves, boots, and plasticky battle leotard. Also, her swordlooks even chunkier than before. There's assorted odd bits sticking out of it, lasers lining said bits, and she's holding it by a handle embedded in the base of the blade itself rather than by a handle like earlier. As the Bazelgeuse starts to fly around with the Deathclaw on its back, Cantio too takes flight, following behind it while focusing her magic on more healing spells. The targets: the Scizor and Xion. She's (relatively) safe for now, at least, so she can instead focus more on keeping her allies in the fight. She does take the occasional shot at the Bazelgeuse in the most literal sense, though, pointing her blade at the giant and shooting lasers at it! Because that's what swords do.
Xion	Xion is impressively sure-footed once she's out of the Cutscene Tremor and Roar gimmicks of the Bazelgeuse, but the massive flying pine cone terrorist bombardier wyvern is more than 'stampy foot, honky snute'. The honky snute is, however, still effective as all get-out. Clapping both hands to her ears, Xion makes a pained noise as the monster takes flight even after the meteoric drop-attack from the Alpha Deathclaw. Xion had forgotten about the mutant biped! "Aaah! When did that get here?!" She shouts, finally noticing it. "I thought Vergil was going to kill himself for a fifth corpse!" H-how did she miss the Deathclaw? Did it crouch slightly? Is that how anything works? It was sneaking around! The rain of explosive pinecones catches Xion in an array of blasts, forcing the Nobody to soak flaming plumes of damage as she maneuvers through the field, trying to track both enemies and not get blindsided by either. As a rain of pinecones come dead on for her, she spins in her stance, taking blade in both hands and home-run swinging at the trio of deadly pinecones. An azure slash flashes across the air in the wake of her blade. Reality slips on the cut, and as it rights itself, their momentum is reflected and with an added burst of wind, sent flying at the Deathclaw. "Don't get sneak attacked! Both of these things are super dangerous!" "WHICH DEFINITELY MEANS NOBODY HERE IS A BULLY!"
Vergil	The impact of the Sword Dance-boosted Bullet Punch is incredible. Immediately arresting all of Bazelgeuse's forward momentum, the wyvern rapidly flaps its wings to try and stay airborne. But a laser from Cantio's powered-up state blows a hole through the membrane in one of the wings. The Deathclaw smells victory. It leaps off the falling Bazelgeuse and begins to fall after it, claws poised to use the force from its fall to bury deep inside the wyvern and rip it open. But the deflected scales from Xion bury deep in its chest mid-fall, the impact penetrating its hide and the resulting explosion blowing open its chest. It screams in pain and outrage as it lands in a heap next to the Bazelgeuse, slowly starting to bleed out. Neither is dead, but both are near it, thrashing as they attempt to power through the pain. Vergil finally sees fit to descend and look at the two. "Well now. With this little bout thoroughly spoiled, the one responsible should arrive any moment now." He's keeping one thumb on Yamato's hilt, ready to draw at a moment's notice. And indeed, someone arrives. A hazy, black-purple-electric blue cloud forms in the air, and a figure descents. A humanoid, covered in grey skin and scales, with batlike wings, claws, taloned feet, and horns, one of which is broken. Their eyes burn with a violet light as they regard the four and... bow, courteously. https://puu.sh/GE9BI/fa9ea1c27a.png "My apologies if these tests disturbed you. I tried to find isolated places... but humans tend to leave no place isolated for long." He chuckles, a deep and gravelly sound like metal scraping against rock. Vergil draws Yamato and points it at the demon, but before he can even get a word in, the demon speaks again. "Ah, Yamato! I haven't seen it since..." His hand comes up to touch his broken horn. "Then you must be one of the children of Sparda. Ah, I had hoped to meet you, but to do so when I'm so busy... I suppose it will have to wait for another day." Vergil seems rather nonplussed, which allows the demon to check on the two monsters. "Do any of you mind if I take them back with me? I suppose I can call this a draw and use them both."%
Guzma	As the monsters fall, Guzma staggers back, raises a fist into the air, and calls Scizor over. When the demon appears... Well, the politeness stuns Guzma. It stuns /Vergil/. He just stares, and then... "Yeah, uh, sure...but I'm taking this tooth." He grabs the Bazelgeuse tooth with both hands and lifts it firmly into the air. "Gonna hang it on my wall."
Cantio	Cantio's sword continues to glimmer long after firing that laser, and she glides downwards slowly while the Deathclaw follows the Bazelgeuse down in that almost-death spiral to the ground. She winces slightly at the explosions and the screaming, but there's still a deep sense of relief as she shimmers and transforms back into her less flight-capable and more clothed state. The sword stays in the same shape, though, as she approaches the creatures. Raising her weapon, she looks ready to put them out of their misery when she hears someone else approaching the group. Turning towards the scaled person, there's a brief moment where she weighs her options, then gets caught off guard by the bow and returns it with one of her own. Even under these circumstances, she still needs to show good manners. "Humans really can be surprising, can't they? It's quite impressive, really... Er." Focus, girl, focus. "You... Know each other, then?" She glances between Vergil and the stranger, finding her question answered by Vergil's own question over the radio. "I don't see why not, but... Um. Why are you having these creatures fight here, anyway?" She doesn't stop the demon from approaching either of the monsters, simply stepping towards the Bazelgeuse herself to check out its wings in particular. She tries removing a couple of the looser-looking scales gingerly, apparently having the bright idea to try and bring some of those explosive things home.
Xion	The politeness strikes Xion, too, but in the way a demon would love: immediate acceptance! "Uhm, one second." She raises a finger, the universal signal for 'hold that thought', and flips out her phone, her keyblade hovering in a lazy tumbling orbit around her. "What... is... the... most... valuable... part... of... dinosaur... dragon." She vocalizes, while people act confused. "The plate? That can't be right. Why would a dragon have cookware?" Xion seems to think the Alpha Deathclaw is grody, and avoids it openly, instead plucking off some scales and an inert pinecone explosive -- and an odd, golden medallion -- before hopping off the insensate beast. "Sure, whoever you are! That's fine. Is that it?"
Vergil	"Take what you like. You did best them anyway. My men will tend to these creatures afterwards," the demon says hospitably, allowing Guzma and Xion to claim their spoils while he answers Cantio's question. "Ah, well... I have a certain goal in mind. And to accomplish it, I need all the allies I can get my hands on. This Multiverse is an excellent place to do that, but I require the absolute best of the best. Hence these little contests to establish who is worth my time." Vergil, as if spurred by Xion saying 'whoever you are,' asks, "Who are you?" The demon bows once again, a strange smile on his face. "Me? I am Amii. A demon of some infamy among my own kind. And yes, someone who fought the legendary dark knight Sparda once upon a time. He is the one who set me on the path I now travel. You could say I am his squire of sorts." These words set Vergil off. Yamato is brought to bear as he crosses the distance between he and Amii in an instant, blade meeting claw. "Ah, but I suppose that may be a bit insensitive to his true progeny? My apologies. The title stuck long ago." Amii's passiveness seems to make Vergil even angrier. He sheaths Yamato and storms off, leaving the demon to shake his head. "Ah, what a terrible first impression I've left... I'll be off now. Apologies again for the bother everyone, it won't happen again." And with that, he places a hand on the two wounded monsters, and that strange cloud encompasses them all. Once it clears, they've vanished without a trace.