[IC] TTG Chapter 4: Greed

[Komodojoe]

Strider vs. Libra

 

"O-okay." Morgan was a bit thrown off by the enthusiasm. The people she'd fought before were a bit more serious than Libra was. Well, maybe not the Giant as much as the other two. I mean, she was, but the situation was different. It was kinda heartening to see that not everyone was just here to try to take home the gold-er... godhood. She'd always been told to have fun when fighting like this, but it's always been hard to when everyone else is... you know... Let's just say it's a nice change of pace, and one good enough to put a smile on her face. "Y-yeah, sure. Let's have some fun.

 

Seeing as Libra made the first move, even if it was in the most literal sense, Morgan figured it was her turn now. She jumped and jetted over to her right, careful that she didn't crash into anything, and popped a few rounds off with her railgun. She didn't really expect too much to happen at the start of the match, but it's still probably a good move to keep her distance and have a close eye on her opponent. If Morgan knew anything about MADs, it's that they always have something up their sleeve, even when they don't have wheels.

[Chevaleresse]

Hellfire Knight vs Supernova

 

Hiroki simply had her mech float a bit to the right, to throw off Supernova's aim as she continued to pepper his approach with plasma fire. He really should try to change up his tactics. The fist caught her just on the corner of her right chest plate, jerking the entire right side of the mech about. A few warning lights went off about the guns he'd been aiming for went off - but she didn't care. Her mech spun about once again, and she aimed another grab at him as she activated the Mantle once more - and this time, he didn't have enough juice left to get out of dodge free.

[IntSys]

Supernova vs Hellfire Knight

[3 point Reflex bonus - Guaranteed dodge twice per battle: 1/2 used]
 

This again? Tai met the approaching claws with his knuckles, knocking both of them aside like a whirlwind. Not even a surprise anymore. He ran from the mantle again, flying into a familiar ring of rubble. He had landed as soon as he got there, hoping to exhaust more heat before the second barrage started. Once again, he readied himself for the next impact.

 

One more...

 

The scrapped tunnel he had made before remained over the ring of rubble. Several boulders were left around the rubble as well. Should he take the plasma one more time, not even a boulder in the way could save him.

 

Like a candle held against a flamethrower...

 

Edited August 10, 2017 by IntSys

[Chevaleresse]

HK vs Supernova

 

The fact that he had dodged was frustrating, but not enough to really affect her. She was already clearly at an advantage, and Supernova wasn't doing much but dodging and taking cover from her. She shook her left arm a bit - the hammerblow had bent some of the fingers in the mech's hand further than they were intended to go, and she could feel the increase in stiffness. She took the barest moment to set up her next move on her systems, and then put it into action. The Mantle exploded into a wave of plasma once again, initially appearing to be similar to the first exchange. However, the leading cone was more for show than anything else. The bulk of the stuff was jetted directly backward, shoving Hiroki and her mech forward toward Supernova in a straight line at high speed. As she moved, her guns flared to life, blasting at Supernova and the area around him in an effort to catch any attempts to dodge.

[IntSys]

Supernova vs Hellfire Knight

 

As Hellfire Knight emerged from the wave of plasma, Tai was taken aback by the bold approach. He would never have thought about a FAD personally approaching him. It was almost too good to be true.

 

He immediately rocketed himself to the left, letting the guns lay waste to the boulders around him. He hopped from boulder to boulder, but instead of moving away from Hellfire Knight, he ran toward the direction opposite to where they were going. With the difference in velocity nearly doubling, his opponent wouldn't be able to aim as accurately as before. As the distance between the two shortened, he thrust himself toward Hellfire Knight's right side, aiming for a decisive hammering blow to the right elbow with his right knuckle.

Edited August 10, 2017 by IntSys

[Shamitako]

Libra vs. Strider

 

The railgun fire exploded against Temperance's armor, but by the time the smoke cleared, she had already repaired it. "Wow!" Temperance said cheerfully, "That's a really cool gun." The crowd was extremely excited by this flashy showing.
"This seems like it's going to be rather easy." Kayli chimed in.
"It seems like it's going to be a lot of fun!" Temeprance shot back. The slings whirred to life, charging up and firing two chunks of metal at Strider. With the charge time, temperance didn't expect them to hit, she just wanted to keep up the fight's momentum. The crowd's energy was skyrocketing along with hers.

 

Morgan could feel her own excitement rising exponentially. Her heart raced and hot blood ran through her, she felt like she could do anything.

Cardinal

 

Cardinal watched Tai fight. She could tell that this was next to unwinnable for him, but she refused to give in just yet. She promised herself she wouldn't help him. It was his fight, and the Hellfire Knight wasn't a monster like Temperance. Still, she couldn't help but be a little scared for him.

 

Aries

 

Aries was watching Mommo's fight of course. He was tempted to send her a message letting her know he was there rooting for her, but decided against it. Best to let her focus. He didn't know whether she'd win or lose, but just seeing her fight... It confirmed it, he knew for certain how he felt, no question about it.

 

Blink

 

Also among those watching Supernova and Heck fight was Blink. But unlike Cardinal, she wasn't here to see who would win, she already knew Hiroki would be the victor. It wasn't just that Supernova was outmatched in construction or skill, no, it was more than that. Hiroki wouldn't lose in a fight like this, she would overwhelm any opponent. Not because she was better, but because she had to be better. And so, confident in Hiroki's ability, Blink focused on listening for Nil to show herself.

[Bfroger6]

Mommo - Giant v Revenant

 

Mommo was caught off guard. She glanced at the screen left and right as the static exploded in her comm, covering the noise with even further noise. The voice she heard over the radio gave her goosebumps but she didn't back down yet. Holding the pendant in her hand she gripped the controls and laid a series of grenades in an arced but full circle at a large enough distance around herself so the blasts wouldn't penetrate her shieldings, ready to detonate at a moment's notice. The Revenant would hopefully be unaware of there scattered explosives as they were masked by the same curtain that masked Mommo as well, unless they had a sensor or something.

 

On the other hand Mommo's own sensors were in disarray. She couldn't get a solid reading and could therefore not anticipate where her opponent would approach, hence the cornucopious wasting of a fair share of her clusters was needed. She waited though and readied all of her systems that weren't being blocked by Revenant's static. Her cannons fully loaded, rockets set and the main cannon lodged on the Giant's arm, she was ready to take the other head on.

[Chevaleresse]

HK vs Supernova

 

Were this any other field, Supernova's tactic would have worked like a charm. It would have been difficult for her to spin fast enough to keep her guns trained on him, if it were possible at all. However. . . The rocky field, for all the cover it had been providing Supernova, now turned against him. The rocks made it so that she could keep pace with him and then some, leading her shots and blasting an arc just wide enough that he wouldn't be able to dodge without stopping his forward momentum. When he dashed in, she aimed a kick right into his path, firing off the gun mounted on the back side of the leg at the same time. He was faced with a choice: land his attack and take the blow on his chin, or cease and try for another approach. 

[Sutoratosu]

Revenant v Giant

 

Sully watched as several more hits suddenly appeared on the readouts- something at least partially metallic from the results. Mines? Hmmmm perhaps, if they were small. but with as many as were coming up now, he doubted it was that simple. Either way, It always amused him really, when folks tried to hide themselves or set up traps or whatever... as if he hadn't spent damn good resources refining and improving the rigs sensor array. Knowing was half the battle, after all... it was Tesla's moto. The old saying she adhered to when she designed the sensors for her own mech. Just as he'd sensed Supernova's heat flaring up to ridiculous levels, just as he had detected Strider activating some sort of shield around itself, firing barrage after barrage of bullets, or when they had been lurking beneath the waves, trying to climb back up to take him by surprise... he would not be fooled here. As Revenant had so manically told the other combatant, he truly did not need to lay eyes on them. For they had ample means to track, to monitor.

      And as he watched them bloom across the array, scattering, he could not help but consider the irony of it all. All his opponent had done was give them something to repulse back at them... had they any interest in closing in right now, he or Revenant could've easily used the fields to just launch themselves up and over the damn minefield and render the tactic moot to begin with. And then there was Ragnorok as well...

 

But fine. If doing this made them feel safer, so be it. He would not let the opportunity be wasted either way.

     "I don't think they understood the first time..." the beast leered

     "Then we'll send a stronger message the second."

 

As the beast cackled in concurrence, Solomon did just that. Being sure to keep their path well beyond the outer boundaries of the virtual minefield that had been set up- for regardless whether they were true mines or not, they fulfilled the same purpose, to deter direct approach -he reached out with electromagnetic force, took hold of several the smaller metallic signatures that had been scattered on the radar and with a mighty repulsion, fired them back towards the Rival Mech's position, sending a bouquet of the Giant's own explosives hurtling towards its chest.

 

The background whirring continued all the while, as whatever was its source continued to whiz to and fro in the darkened outskirts of the arena. Though their noise was gradually building, as if coalescing into something greater, deadlier.

[IntSys]

Supernova vs Hellfire Knight

 

[3 point Reflex bonus - Guaranteed Dodge: 2/2 used]

 

The knight's rising leg caught Tai's attention as he quickly dived downwards and redirected his right fist to slam the leg back into its place, preventing the leg guns from shooting him. The punch would cause more damage than usual thanks to Hellfire Knight's velocity, while making the knight spin downwards, with their face slamming into the ground.

[Chevaleresse]

HK vs Supernova

 

The hammerblow did indeed spin the Knight around, spraying the entire area with fire as the targeting systems on the Knight frantically tried to resume a normal firing pattern. However, the mech's center of mass and lift was around the chest (and almost dead center in Hiroki's own, a deliberate design choice); a torque, such as the one just applied, would spin it about that point. And so it did, bringing the leg in a three-hundred-and-sixty degree arc, right back down on top of Supernova as the guns continued to pepper him with plasma. 

[IntSys]

Supernova vs Hellfire Knight

 

Tai had already blasted far beyond the leg guns' line of fire by the time the leg made a full revolution, taking a few hits from the spray of fire as the two's distance expanded as quickly as it had shrunk.

 

He flew into another array of boulders, spun his right fist into the ground, breaking his momentum, and then made a sharp U-turn. What was before his eyes, though, was incredibly discouraging; the punch was shrugged aside as if barely anything happened. He pulled his brakes and stopped, taking his time to dodge the knight's rear guns with his thrusters.

 

Everything had already been decided after that point, and Tai himself could see that. He could already see the knight raising their mantle once again in the near future. From a distance... it did look like a shield. That could be the last piece to his Nova Strike's activation. Unfortunately, with the mantle having already demonstrated its function as rocket fuel, Nova Strike would never be able to hit.

His armor has already been mostly shelled by the incessant plasma fire. All that was left was for the knight to land the finishing blow, and he couldn't hide forever.

 

"I give up."

[Chevaleresse]

HK vs Supernova

 

Hiroki braced herself mentally for a moment. Blink wanted her to try and kill him. It. . . didn't feel right. But Blink said it would be okay, right? And Blink seemed legitimately concerned. . . but could she actually trust the goddess? She was still raw from the situation with Kagari - even if the other woman had the best intentions at heart, the betrayal in the moment still stung. No. I can do this. He'll be fine, if Blink doesn't intervene then someone else will.

 

Supernova's surrender was met with a powerful beam from her main cannon and the shoulder guns, the trio homing in straight toward his chest while the auxiliary guns scattered fire in a wider pattern.

[IntSys]

Supernova vs Hellfire Knight

 

The ample length between the two competitors allowed Tai to pull away from the beam and immediately take cover from the scattered fire. He was lucky that he hadn't hit the shutdown switch yet. "Are you mad? I'm done! Respect the rules, damn it!"
 

He began jumping from boulder to boulder again, avoiding the knight's merciless assault. It was as if someone signed him up for a deathmatch behind the scenes.

Edited August 12, 2017 by IntSys

[Shamitako]

Cardinal

 

Cardinal's eyes widened in shock. Tai had surrendered. No one else besides herself and the two competitors could have heard it, but her had definitely given up. In the state he was in, Tai wouldn't have time to react. Cardinal herself didn't have time to warn him, let alone shift to project through him. She didn't have time to think of alternatives, only time to act.

Spoiler

 

A pitch black rift opened up in front of Supernova, absorbing the Knight's treacherous attack. Cardinal herself stepped out from the rift. "I am C-Cardinal, the Tenth G-God." She announced to the Knight, "A-and I refuse to let you h-hurt Tai. You've al-already won. So l-leave him alone!" She spread her arms wide, a gesture that she was pretty sure meant she was guarding whatever was behind her. The crowds were rife with confusion. They didn't know exactly what was happening, but it was obvious that something like this wasn't normal.

[Chevaleresse]

HK, Supernova, & Cardinal

 

The barrage petered out as soon as Cardinal appeared, a few stray shots spattering the arena before Hiroki could fully shut down the automatic fire on her mech. She even disengaged the thrusters that kept the thing slightly aloft as a further sign of the cessation of hostilities; the weight of the Knight was enough that dropping even that short distance was enough to send a clang echoing through the arena. Hiroki kept the mech summoned, however; she didn't know if her foe would come in for revenge.

 

She felt a mixture of emotions, the first being relief: she hadn't had to attack a defeated foe more than once. The second, though. . . "Don't tell me to respect the rules when you're relying on Nil to save you. At least I can stand above the rest without someone propping me up." How dare he cheat against her? Had he no pride? How could you prove your prowess if someone else was winning your battles for you? A strange, third urge rose up in her chest. The whole point of the tournament was earning the right to challenge Nil, right? So what if she just. . . did it now?

[IntSys]

Supernova, Hellfire Knight, & Cardinal

 

"I did NOT ask for it, you scum! Throughout my career I have never seen someone as underhanded as you, trying to kill even after the battle had ended!"

The realization of how the Tenth God had deceived him all along, and the anger of hearing how Hellfire Knight thought it was completely justified to attack after the battle had ended, drove him mad.

"If you want me dead so much, then come on! Pull that shit again! Cardinal, leave us!" Tai rushed head straight into the knight's line of fire, leaving himself completely vulnerable.

Edited August 13, 2017 by IntSys

[Chevaleresse]

"I've already won and then some. You're not worth the effort." Hiroki was glad for the voice changer. It made her come off much calmer than she actually was. This confrontation, for all the excitement that came with it, made it feel like there was someone pressing down on her chest. Blink could show up any time now and bail her out of this. "Don't push me, though. If you want to push this to the end, I'll oblige you." Please don't please don't I really don't want to kill anyone I just want you to stop I already got my win nobody needs to die

[IntSys]

Supernova

 

"What was that? 'Don't push me'?" Tai clenched his fists, "what's with the modesty all the sudden? Weren't you perfectly fine with killing me just now?"

"Oblige me, then, if it makes you feel better about pulling the trigger again!" he rocketed forward, approaching at an even higher speed. His knuckles weren't even up front acting as a riot shield. He was, in all senses of the word, insane.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Pedophile LOLI_HUNTER v.s. Silent Requiem

 

Kagari sighed. She wasn't in the mood - more importantly, she couldn't get in the right frame of mind to care right now. Still, losing here would reflect badly on here - might make Hiroki feel contempt as well as hatred. And that was unforgivable. She thought she felt the presence of a loli in the crowd, but couldn't bring herself to care enough. She reached deep within herself.

 

Oi. Switch with me.

 

You sure?

 

Yeah. I'm not in the mood right now.

 

Okay.

 

Kagari withdrew into herself, feeling her other self emerge from deep within. Her colder, more rational self took the reins.

 

"Well then. All systems functional. Field is advantageous. Let's begin."

 

With no wasted movements, Koizumi deployed her bit systems and drew her short sword, dashing in straight towards her opponent, opening with a straightforward lunge.

 

 

 

 

[Shamitako]

Blink

 

As soon as the crowd started murmuring about the intruder, Blink was ready to dash in and help. But someone caught her by the shoulder. "Don't" Seeker commanded. Blink hesitated. She was already in hot water with the other gods but she had promised Hiroki she would help.

"Amelia I'm not stupid." Seeker continued in a softer tone, "I won't stop you. But if you go down there I will no longer be able to defend your actions."

"Then thanks for defending me until now. I'll take my own defense from here." Blink shook herself free of Seeker's grip. Her mind was made up. She would not leave Hiroki out there alone, even if it meant an end to her already strained relations with the others. She vanished from the crowd, heading into the arena.

 

Cardinal

 

"N-No st-stop." Cardinal feebly reached out in a vain attempt to end Tai's suicidal charge. She had tried to protect him, and he had told her to leave. Her body flickered and distorted for a moment. Rage welled up inside of her. "I said stop." she snarled. She teleported herself in front of Tai, raising her shield rift in a sphere arounds herself. Supernova simply came to a stop when he collided with it, all of his forward momentum draining away into nothingness. "Why?" She asked him, "I just wanted to protect you." She fired a pair of dimensional rifts at his torso. They distorted his mech, causing severe damage to its systems as they ripped through reality. Yet worse was the excruciating pain that ripped through Tai's own body. "All I wanted was to keep them from hurting you." Cardinal's wrath was growing. "So then why?! Why do you run from me?! Why won't you let me protect you?!" She fired another distortion through Tai's torso.

 

Blink

 

Blink was forced to hesitate again as she listened to Nil turn on Supernova. She exited into reality behind Hiroki and whispered a message to her over comms. "We're a bust. I don't know what the fuck the Tenth has going on in her head, but I ain't fighting her like this. She might turn on the crowd. Dismiss your mech and make a break for it on foot. If you're lucky she won't see you. If not I'll do my damnedest to distract her."

[IntSys]

Supernova

 

For a moment there, he thought the knight had finally decided to fire away. The pain was just as what he had expected. But as he reopened his eyes, he found himself colliding against Cardinal, slashed repeatedly by an otherworldly force. As each hit landed, he began to come back to his senses with screams of agony. He could not muster enough strength to even move a limb. He wasn't even sure if his torso was still there.

"... H-Have you ever... worked?" He muttered, hanging on a thin breath, with his dazed eyes desperately trying to focus on Cardinal. "I-I got to where I am from working with my two hands. I reap... what I sow. My struggles... should not be a part of yours."

The mech started to run an automatic recovery sequence in response to the dimensional rifts. "Why... do you want to... share my burden? In this arena... everyone fights on their own, for themselves. Some... may have a computer coaching them, but regardless... it's always just a mech against another. No one... has a guardian."

Cardinal's face blurred in his eyes, as he gasped for more air to sustain his consciousness.

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki nodded somewhat shakily, the motion barely visible through the mech. She stayed still for a brief moment as she disengaged one arm from its normal place and wormed it up along her side until she could reach the side of her face. Just before her mech vanished, Tai heard a little girl's voice over his comms. "I'm sorry." And with that, she turned to run, kicking off her shoes and tossing the cloak to the side, her now-bare feet pattering across the rocks of the cave as she sprinted toward the edge of the field. But. . . wait. What if Blink needs to fight Cardinal right now anyway? It's my fault that Supernova is being attacked right now. . . She ducked behind a stalagmite, peering out to observe the situation from befar, trying to ignore the part in the back of her head screaming at her about revealing her identity in the middle of her home plane. 

[Shamitako]

Cardinal

 

Cardinal couldn't understand Tai's sentiment at all. What was so wrong with trying to protect someone she cared about? She was doing this for him. Couldn't he see that? Had he not seen Temperance for what she really was? Had the knight not just tried to murder him in cold blood? All she wanted was to save him before the gods' foolishness consumed him. "I don't know why!" She said, firing off another rift. "My chest burns whenever I see someone else try to hurt you." Yet another rift. "I don't care about this farce of a tournament. I'll just have to kill whoever wins." And another. Cardinal felt herself distort again. "All I wanted was to live. But it's more than that now. I don't know what makes it different, but this time it feels so much more real. I will survive. And I'd like you to survive with me."

 

Cardinal distorted yet again, this one significantly more violent than the previous ones. She was out of time. Her rift shield collapsed inwards, taking her back home in its black folds. She landed roughly on the floor, having returned several feet in the air. She hated this. It was so much easier when she could reset after a mistake.

 

Blink

 

Blink breathed a sigh of relief when the Tenth left. Supernova's mech was still active, so regardless of the pain inflicted, he would be unharmed. Hiroki's escape had gone unnoticed as well. It seemed things had turned out alright in the end. Although Blink herself was going to have hell to pay later.

[Chevaleresse]

HK vs Supernova(?)

 

Nil was gone. That much was good, at least. She leaned a bit further out of her cover, looking around cautiously, and then skittered up back toward the center of the arena, in the direction of Blink and Supernova - still outside her mech. At this point, it wasn't worth trying to hide herself. Hiroki tried to just ignore the looks of the crowd as she made her way across the rocky field, a vague thought that her feet were going to be dirty later drifting into her mind among all of her swirling concerns. "Um, Supernova, are you, um, okay?" She tried her best to call out loud enough to be heard, but it caught in her throat halfway through, coming out much quieter than she'd intended.