Chevaleresse

L7 and dance Lizaveta and Lysander while shaking booty provocatively

P12, poke Emilee's butt until she heals me

Nemesis took a moment to look over his guns, inspecting them for damage incurred during the fight, then mechanically reloaded the revolver in case anyone else decided they wanted to try their luck. "Good," he finally commented. "We shouldn't spend time doing anything but pursuing our goal, anyway." Nemesis glanced out the shattered window by which the assassin had escaped, still trailing blood. "Do you have any idea who that was? With her escaping, the Monolith will have our descriptions."

Marisa's light show continues, warped rays of light continuing to stab upward from the earth at the party. The myriad beams of light threaten to converge on Hikari and Isobel if they don't avoid them! Isobel feeds Lamdba a genetically modified poppy, and the medicines quickly set to work repairing her as best as they could. She recovers [11] HP. LOTUS, meanwhile, gives Masako some brief advice on movement. Rory takes the opportunity afforded by the advice he recieved earlier to reposition. Masako dodges Marisa's danmaku while setting up her own spread, threatening Marisa if she tried to move in for a kill. Empi uses her own enchantment to counteract the one on Walmond, allowing her to cast spells once again. Yet more beams of light shoot upwards at the party, this time converging towards Lambda once more! Hikari casts an enchantment on Rory, increasing the power of her strikes once more. The surplus energy allows him to recover 6 HP. Marisa's assault continues, this time tracing lines from the ground through Isobel again and then seemingly through herself. Lambda manages to weave around the attack, but Walmond is struck for 32 damage, fried by a laser! Not wanting to take another hit, Walmond focuses on dodging, as does Lambda. Ritsu moves to patch up Rory, allowing him to recover [15] HP. Initiative Status

Scarlet was already moving towards Akihiro as she saw the kid take hits. She scowled at the man who apparently thought shoving alcohol down his throat was going to help, but chose not to say anything about it for the moment. "Hold on for a second, kid, this is probably going to hurt." She held a hand to him, and mentally commanded her nanobots to fix him up; they were too small to see with the naked eye, but they slipped through her skin and set to work patching his injuries as best as they could. Field Patch Akihiro for CON [8] HP.

Mitsurugi remained silent as Ako spoke. She had a potential answer, but not one that was comforting to either Ako or herself. "A great deal can happen among mortals over a thousand years - and it is their thoughts on what I ought to be, not mine, which determines how I may change. All I can do is influence them to the best of my ability." Her voice sounded incredibly weary as she spoke, though she regained some vigor as she returned her attention to the shrine maiden and the situation at hand. "Perhaps I can make an impression in this place by defeating these youkai. First, though, we should find Susano'o. This world may be different from mine, but it cannot be a coincidence that one bearing that name is here."

Hiroki remained still for a moment. She'd. . . done it. Arcturus had admitted defeat. Her brow was dripping with sweat, her mech was all but destroyed, but she'd somehow done it, beaten the one even the gods were afraid to face in combat. Her reverie broke when she realized that motion had been a gesture and not just supporting himself. That wasn't a mech, he's actually hurt. She dismissed her own mech, falling to the ground lightly and walking over to him. A flash of guilt appeared along the way - this reminded her of the incident with Supernova - before she smashed it down. He had known what he was risking by entering combat, she couldn't get hung up on feeling bad over hurting him. Unsure of what he wanted, she knelt down a short distance away, giving him a questioning look.

Hiroki shook her head, the motion visible with her armor absent. The creaking of what remained of the mech, still superheated from the state it had just been in, was audible. She took a step forward, and the creaking became a screech as the overtaxed motors driving the motion finally gave in, sending her forcibly to one knee. The remnants of her visor helpfully informed her that the right knee joint of the mech had failed. Hiroki pushed herself back upward, the Knight's frame still protesting the motion. "I refuse," she said quietly. "This all means nothing if I give up now." Her voice, though louder now, wavered with exhaustion; the mech prevented her from taking any real damage, but there was still feedback when it was damaged, and its heat control was compromised besides. "The Hellfire Knight doesn't give up. Yukimura Hiroki, does not give up." She pointed her right arm at Arcturus, as if the cannon were still there. "You yield, because I won't stop."

Hiroki's tenuous shell of confidence blew away as Arcturus vanished. She desperately tried to energize her armor and block whatever Arcturus was doing when he reappeared, but the system refused to do so - that, or his vector of attack was such that her efforts only accelerated whatever he was doing to her. This can't be happening. She had been so close, and it was happening again. Desperation filled her as the crater appeared before her. Not again, I can't lose again. Not like this! The pain of the impact was enough to squeeze the tears that she'd been holding back out of her, blurring her vision as what remained of her controls told her that she was, essentially, defeated. Main cannon, gone. Secondary guns, gone. Claw, auxiliary guns, gone. All that remained was some maneuvering jets. I refuse. It was going to have to be enough. What remained of the Hellfire Knight stepped back out of the crater and turned, slagged armor sloughing off and exposing a network of glowing pipes and more mundane wiring. The outline of Hiroki's body within the mech, coiled in wiring as it was, was visible, backlit by the minature sun of her generator. It only seemed to highlight how small she was in comparison to her own mech, suspended within it the way she was. Still, even with her armor annihilated and her vulnerability exposed to the world, she stepped forward. And again, and again, until she was running forward, the overheated servomotors in her armor screaming as remnants of her jets tried and failed to assist their movement. She was the Hellfire Knight, she was the strongest fighter in all of Tempest, and she was not going to allow herself to fall today. The glow of her mech's power system grew brighter and brighter, and soon the entire frame joined it, the Knight shining with incandescent light. It wasn't long before it was impossible to make out a shape at all; Hiroki's mech seemed to become nothing more than a ball of plasma. And then it grew. As the light moved toward Arcturus, it expanded, filling more and more of the arena as it approached. Hiroki felt the mech melt away around her, but it was different this time. No longer was she being battered about by her opponent; this was her power, her strength doing so. Her mech became an artificial sun, no longer creating the illusion of filling the arena with divine fire but doing so in actuality, expanding to cover and envelop the area in her determination and her wrath, a wrath that sent itself hurtling towards her opponent.

Lucine shot Nader the classic "I told you so" look that seemed to be common to all girls over the age of five or so before returning her attention to the "monster" ahead of them. "We didn't even know there was a fridge here." Her stomach growled. "Maybe that's a good idea, though. . . But, um, we're kinda new around here, this is the first thing we really saw other than some dusty rooms."

Mitsurugi shook her head. She didn't understand. The goddess appreciated Spicy's help, but she didn't understand. It might have been Orochi's power twisting her own, but for the exact opposite of her intentions to happen, and in such a focused and destructive fashion. . . what did it say about her nature? "I am an avatar of the powers ascribed to me first and foremost. I do not 'make mistakes,' not with this. And yet. . ." Could she truthfully say she didn't mean it? "I do not know what this means." That, at least, was not entirely a lie. "You have a point, however. Yamata no Orochi must fear our intervention."

"It's good to meet you! Hey, by the way, can you read draconic?"

"I. . . I don't know." Her arm slowly fell to her side. She certainly did not feel all right, and she could not say for certain if she truly hadn't meant to do that. "I saw him," she said after a long moment of silence. "Yamata no Orochi." Did she dare tell them what the creature had offered her? She glanced aside at Spicy. The woman had been willing enough to share her own struggles with her darker side. Mitsurugi pitched her voice even lower, words nearly inaudible. "He offered me an alliance. A blood pact." She would not say the worst part.

"♪A star in the night, and a bearer of hope, he rides into glorious battle not alone, along with the valiant warlord~♪" Justine sung as she followed Ferdiad's rally, moving forth at his call to arms. I5 and perform Baldur and Shin once they move

Gwyn slung themselves over Gaheris's neck, landing adroitly in the saddle - a thing that seemed to be scavenged together and odd as the pair that made use of it - before Gaheris took off. A familiar face stuck out to the wyvern rider as he got an aerial view of the square. "Gaheris, do you see what I see?" The wyvern rumbled in what might have been an affirmative. "That's gotta be Arissell! I'm gonna kick Ari's butt, 'cause I'm still the strongest half-fae in Tameloc! Let's go!" This time, the wyvern roared, a powerful sound in deep contrast to the lizard's earlier demeanor. "That's right! Bad guys beware, we're coming for you!" F10

Mitsurugi was deathly silent for a moment, standing as if frozen in the position she'd been in when the bolt struck. Ako, though, was close enough to see that the goddess trembling slightly. "Have. . . Have I truly fallen this far?" she whispered to the air, voice quavering. "Is this what I am?" Yamata no Orochi, appearing before her in a vision. Roaring at her, challenging her with. . . an alliance. The power she so craved to taste once more, power she had only grasped for fleeting and painful moments in her long life. To bring ruin and disaster to the world that had discarded her like a broken tool, or at least one that would inevitably do so again given time. "Is this what I always was?" A tear slid down her cheek. She had denied it for so long, even as she felt that dark power creeping into her bones, binding her core together even through the most faithless of times. Monster. Demon. Youkai. Saigai Mitsurugi, the bringer of storms and harbinger of ruination. Perhaps it was foolish to think she could be anything else. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

Mitsurugi slowly sheathed her weapon, the blade sliding back in with a slight click. She turned to face the shrine as Ako spoke. "That is unfortunate indeed." The goddess assessed it for a moment. Rebuilding wasn't exactly her strong suit - in fact it was very nearly diametrically opposed to what she represented - but she could perhaps help in her own way. She gestured to the side, and a blank slip of paper appeared in her hand. "Let me do what little I can." She focused on the paper. It had been some time since she'd given out a blessing, but the air was good, and perhaps being in a land whose gods were still beloved would ease her path. Mitsurugi pulled at herself, trying to push a small fragment of her own power into the slip, to create a ward that could dispel storms from the place until the shrine could be made to weather them.

"It's perfectly fine, Stella. We want freedom and happiness for everyone in Purgus, after all. If speaking to me as a friend and companion is what you desire, then it would be strange indeed for me to deny you." Justine couldn't deny that her head was still in the clouds; this all felt unreal. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been this excited. Well, excited for this long, anyway; she was a fairly excitable person. "As for your question, truthfully, it can be difficult. Taking pains to hide ourselves from sight, to protect both ourselves and those we hold close to our hearts. . . but our task is a noble one, and I can't imagine many things that would be more fulfilling."

Rhian spat out a mouthful of blood, before responding with an ever so eloquent "Fuck off."

Yet another array of warning lights went off as Hiroki struck. She'd been anticipating some damage, but didn't think he'd be able to score such a direct hit that time. Her power routing itself was starting to show warnings, though whether that was due to the new hole in the front of the mech's armor or the fact that the systems were trying to compensate for a new massive heat source was unclear. The critical components were located on her back, so she didn't pause to worry about it yet. Over half of her firepower was crippled right now, by her estimation - firing her main cannon seemed like a bad idea right now - but that didn't mean she couldn't still do some damage, and right now she had an advantage. Hiroki continued to press her assault. The first step was keeping him away from that blade now that he'd dropped it. Her mech spun about again, flinging the man - he didn't seem to have an actual mech, or at the very least had one that didn't follow any of the rules - into the air at an angle while he was still off-balance. The ballistic arc was an easy one for her computers to trace, and her remaining shoulder cannon alongside the remaining guns on her wings traced out a narrow, but intense arc of fire, ripping though the fog towards him.

Nemesis approached the door; he'd have to get closer to get a clean shot. Entering the cabin with the long rifle was a no-go, and so he slung it back over his shoulder before pulling out the revolver. It was a risk; Nemesis didn't have much going in a close-ranged confrontation besides quick reflexes, a sturdy blade. . . and a plan. He lead with the gun as he pushed into the cabin, preparing to fire all six bullets in quick succession and fan the assassin down if he got a favorable angle. If she rushed him, he'd go for a quick draw-strike with his katana, and if that failed, there was always his Drive, the second chance he would create for himself.

Heidrun read the papers aloud to the rest of the group, only stammering a bit despite her continued discomfort with the situation until the the rigger's "name" tripped her up entirely, at which point she just turned the paper toward the team and gestured at what was printed on the paper for a moment before hurriedly continuing. She looked to Alexandria first as she finished, gingerly placing the papers down on the table in front of her as if she still expected them to catch fire and detonate at any given moment. "So, umm, how do you guys plan on approaching this?"

"Well, that's awfully nice of them, isn't it? Come on, tubby, wouldn't want angry void people to cook your bacon." She gestured vaguely at Austin while toting a gun that looked out of place with the gem's small frame, opening the door with a satirical bow and flourish. "Unless we want to see if the mighty Poncio can vanquish his foes or whatever, that might be entertaining for a couple seconds."

It took everything in Justine's power not to scream or faint on the spot from pure joy. Stella thought she was cute? And Arthur had been praising her as well. . . Her irritation with Baldur was completely forgotten; it was difficult to stay upset when it felt like her dreams were coming true. The conversation taking a more somber tone finally brought her back down to earth, though it was difficult to keep a slight lilt out of her voice nonetheless. "I don't speak for the group, of course, but my heart told me from the very beginning that we should trust you." She thought for a moment, considering what the queen had revealed, and what she had said about it. Some kind of mark of shame, cast upon the royal families of Purgus by the gods themselves, perhaps? "And maybe. . . maybe it's a good thing that the mark doesn't shine bright. If it's meant to brand you as a selfish tyrant, then perhaps your gentle rule and good intentions suppress its angry glow."