Golden Gate Empire: Dreams of Grandeur [IC | PG-16]

[Mr. Hyde]

 

Louis smiled wickedly as he skewered the man who had caused him so much pain.  He almost went to strike the corpse again and again, before that spectral Tiger had manifested back into the physical world.  Louis changed his stance a bit, ready for it to pounce, but it merely faded away into the distance.  Louis spat on the ground, towards the General's dead body, pinned against the tree.  

 

"Call me a warm-up again, if you can."  Louis cupped his ear, only to smile, ear to ear.  The silence that permeated the air was oh so satisfying.  "That's what I thought."  Basabth had finally made his way back to Louis from the crater he had made in the ground, quite lazily as well.  

 

"Geez...that sucker really laid it into me."  Louis proceeded to flick the shadow demon's head.

 

"Thanks to you getting cocky, he got to lay it into me too, fool."  Basabth stuck out his tongue at Louis, only to have it be grabbed and shaken every which way.  "I'm fragile.  I can't afford to have you get hit that hard, remember." 

 

"LOUITH!  GIFF MY THONGUE BAFF!"  The void spawn cried out.  Even though he looked so imposing as of now, he was still the same Basabth.  Turning around, he found two other contestants had sneaked up on him.  That old man, and the tiny woman child.  They stood in some sort of triangular standoff.  Now that the unnecessary interference was out of the way, the actual fight could continue.  Louis was fighting the General for quite a bit, he thought of Bethany nothing more than a sort of diversion by now.  Nothing really worth his interest.  Mere ice couldn't do anything to him...unless she got a lucky shot on Basabth.  

 

"So, uh, how's this gonna go down guys?"

 

He snickered a bit, containing a rather loud laugh.  He placed his hand against his hip, and leaned forward.  

 

"Isn't that obvious?  You're both gonna die here!"  Cackling, Louis' shadows unsheathed themselves from Ife's lifeless body, letting him drop to the ground with a lifeless thud.  Each tendril made it's way, singing through the air towards Bethany.  Meanwhile, Basabth, who had regained possession of his tongue, made a mad dash towards Rawal at a breakneck speed.  He raised a claw in the air, slamming it down where the old man stood.  

[VCR_CAT]

Jack

BGM:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD4SG-TvbWE

 

Jack's whips hit the man, but had little effect as they lashed against his hardened body. In reaction, he grabbed hold of Jack's tethers and yanked on them hard to pull her closer. Jack fell to the ground with a wet splat, mud and water splashing around her. Growling over the filth now effectively coating her suit, Jack looked up to see Bullet pull back his fist and make a sound akin to a shotgun being cocked, the fist glowing a familiar, dark purple.

 

"While that is very bad-ass," Jack complimented, twisting and rolling her body out of the way, and leaping from her back onto her feet, Bullet's punch colliding with the ground with a loud splash and a bang, "no thanks."

 

With each move, Jack had no choice but to extend her tethers as the brute was still holding on tight to them. This gave Jack an idea, partly inspired by the hit 1980's science fiction space-opera film series by George Lucas Star Wars, to use her tethers to tie this brute up in an electrocuting prison, but a loud roar caught her attention. Jack had almost forgotten about the dragon girl, and was swiftly reminded at the sight of a powerful jet of water falling short. Glancing over, she could see the Dragon Girl winding up for another attack, and Jack moved out of the way, but braced herself with her tethers in case the brute decided to pull her back in again, but had a nastier idea. She lunged forward and got in a bit closer to Bullet.

 

"Please, don't hold your breath, big guy," Jack chuckled as she used her second of three Vermilion Cloud salvos; a large blast of bright red, sparking smoke filling the area. In the confusion, Jack leaped forward feet-first, aiming to kick off Bullet and jump out of the way, making sure to keep her tethers slack in the process so he couldn't easily yank her back in.

 

As good as this new auto-loader was, she really needed to take note to be a lot more conservative with this move.

[Hälō]

The small girl peered off into the distance as she watched the events of the outside world transpire as if it were some kind move playing in mind's eye. "It's like I'm there... but not?" Her tiny voice broke the silence of the ghastly white room as she willed her avatar's body to reach out and touch the flames that were rapidly approaching...

 

"No!" A new voice filled the room, as XIII seemingly stumbled into existence a few feet behind the chair in the center of the room. On the outside, her body suddenly jerked backwards, desperately moving away from the flame with a sloppy backpedal.

 

"We're there..." XIII said whilst grabbing the top of the chair and stepping forward so that she was peering down into the shocked expression of the little girl that occupied it. "Well... I am." She added after shaking off the strangeness of looking into the face of the original Lace. "And I need you to get up, now!" Her voice oozed with urgency as she moved to yank the little girl from the seat that granted her control over their vessel.  

 

 "You're the lady from the movies..." Lace's features folded back into a neutral expression as XIII tugged at her with all her might. Despite the woman's titanic strength, the girl seemed to be stuck firmly to the chair by some unseen force. Growing bored of whatever strange game the lady was playing, Lace returned her attention to the outside world. "The fires... they're getting closer again." She observed helpfully, causing XIII to suddenly jump and loosen her grip. 

 

Closing her eyes and concentrating, Lace tried to briefly steal command of her body as she had done moments before. Though it seemed her efforts were futile now with Lace aware of her presence... Was the brat blocking her out?!

 

"Hey, I need you to jump... right now!" XIII looked down to the girl and pleaded as she watch the flames inch closer and closer to her body as the vessel simply stood their staring with the bright expression of the little girl in the chair. 

 

Lace turned up to XIII and tilted her head. "You're pretty!" She beamed up at the woman who was now frantically glancing around the room for something to aid her. "I'm Lace! Your name is Lace too ri-"

 

Desperate, XIII grabbed the little girl by the sides of her face and brought herself in so that their foreheads were nearly touching. "JUMP DAMN YOU! JUMP NOW! O-OR I'M TELLING DAD!" She shouted into Lace's face in a commanding tone.

 

On the outside, Lace's body jumped to attention; easily leaping over the seven foot wall of flame with ease before landing atop a small ledge near the top stone bowl that surrounded the arena with ease.

 

Slipping from her grasp, Beowulf's heavy body started to tumble down the side of the wall, causing a large amount of rocks to also begin breaking free. Before long, the boulders began to accumulate in their journey down to the bottom, resembling a small avalanche as they slid down to the arena, threatening to crush those below.

 

Unaware of this, Lace tucked her knees into her stomach and held herself tightly, tears streaming down her face to join the rockslide...  

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

"Isn't that obvious?  You're both gonna die here!"

 

Did he just...cackle? Is she facing a Saturday morning cartoon villain? Well, cartoon-y or not those shadows looked like they could harm her just as easily as they did Ife. She couldn't let them touch her.

 

There was eight of them, and she only had six spears prepared. She figured she could dodge at least two. So she sent the spears hovering above her at the tendrils. She intended to pierce them into the ground and keep her eye on the others that might still come her way.

 

She wasn't finished there. It was finally time for her to fight. She didn't like it. Didn't want to. But dying really didn't sound like a good time. The wind kicked up and a hailstorm swirled around her, obscuring her from view and caused the area nearby to drop in temperature.

She gripped her pistol, cringing at the feeling of the object, and took aim. From inside of the storm she fired three times, aiming to strike Louis in the left leg.

[Dad]

Bullet Time

 

Bullet's punch whiffed and collided with the ground.  Jack slipped away, using her speed to her advantage.  And while Bullet was distracted by the twig of a girl, he failed to recognize the threat of the dragon maiden.  A powerful geyser of water blasted Bullet to the ground, forcing him to his back.  The mute villain rose slowly, dazed and confused by what had happened.  A second geyser erupted from the ground and based Bullet in his jaw, sending him spiraling back into a tree.  He crashed through it and his right arm was punctured by a large splinter.

 

Annoyed and dizzy, Bullet stood and ripped the splinter from his arm.  It left a clean hole in his arm, identifiable with the now missing right half of Bullet's jaw, thanks to Xia.  With no signs of stopping, Bullet marched forward as Jack bounded toward him.  She sprang off of Bullet's large body, but the man kept walking between her tethers.  He ducked the end of Jack's tether by pure coincidence as he leaned forward to retrieve the large mini-gun he had been carrying before.  Magic poured from his hands into the mini-gun, causing it to spin up and begin to heat.  Turning the gun on the dragon-maiden, Bullet fired a volley of enhanced magical ammunition, intent on killing the beast before she could kill him.  However, he would be in for an unpleasant surprise.

 

---

 

Look!  A Distraction!

 

Choros attempted to finish Angelica off.  The holy flame would consume the remaining two combatants, and the Godstone would be safe once more.  Or so the angel thought.  Before Choros could complete his attack, it was interrupted as a sharp pain entered his left shoulder.  Choros hadn't felt something like this in many years.  Glancing at his left shoulder, a severed arm had entered his flesh, coated with poison.  Choros ripped the appendage from his shoulder and let it fall lazily to the ground.  He still had slight function over his left arm, but he would be at a disadvantage.  He wouldn't be able to fight much longer if he didn't heal himself.

 

The source of the attack appeared to be Mango, who had suddenly found life once more.  To think, he had underestimated such an abomination.

 

The cold flames of Gabriel had not consumed Mango, and only now just narrowly missed Lace.  It seemed that his opponents still had some fight in them.  "Unyielding creature of the earth," Choros moaned.  "I will lay you to rest."

 

With a wide swipe from his sword, Choros sent a massive arch of Gabriel's flame across the arena from where he stood near the Godstone.  He repeated this twice, throwing three waves of fire at Mango and Angelica.

[Alaina]

As the jets of water struck the man dead on, the dragon girl continued to move towards him, slowly but surely. Eventually, though, he got back up from the attack, and what he had done next had caused the girl's eyes to go wide. As his strange metallic device began spinning once again, the girl sensed a large quantity of magical energy being released into it. Her eyes filled with rage, the girl began to charge the man as fast as she could, only to be met with a hail of bullets in her way. Bringing up her arms to defend against the attack, some of the bullets seemed to simply bounce off her scales while others caused cuts across her. Gritting her teeth, both Jack and Bullet would begin to hear the girl growl. As she did, her entire body started to become encased in water, with more water around her starting to be gathered. The water eventually started to spin around into a sphere, completely obscuring the girl from sight, with the bullets that were flying at her merely stopping as soon as they hit the dome. A low growl could be heard from the sphere as its size began to slowly expand. The growl soon stopped, changing into a feral roar as the orb exploded. However, it was not water that erupted from the sphere. 

 

A large serpentine like head made of flowing water shot out from the orb, with lightning speed heading straight towards the man. Opening its maw, with teeth bared, bit down on the man. Its mouth stretching from his head his gut, teeth sunk cleanly in. However, despite this, blood seemed to start spraying from each wound, as the teeth appeared to be spinning, drilling through his entire body until finally, the jaw snapped shut. Opening its jaw again to let out a triumphant roar, the gorey mess that used to be Bullet's body fell to the ground. With the fight finished, the creature stretched upwards, roaring to the sky, and slowly but surely revealing the true scope of its form. The serpentine body stretched wider and taller than any tree in the forest, growing two sets of aqueous claws. Raw arcane power was expelled from its neck as it seemed to take the form of a lion's mane. Lifting itself into the air as if by magic, the creature continued to roar, on the hunt for its pray once again. 

[VCR_CAT]

Jack

 

Jack's tethers had missed, but her plan of putting Bullet in the line of fire had worked very well. Perhaps, too well. Jack could only watch as the dragon girl formed a large sphere of water, expanded it, absorbing tons of gunfire, and ultimately taking the form of a great serpent's maw. The water dragon rushed forward and bit down on Bullet, blood and viscera spraying everywhere. Jack watched, smiling wide and laughing from underneath her mask as she watched the hulking mass of muscle turned into meat-pulp, spat out and dropped to the ground. Finally, Jack's tethers were free from Bullet's grip and all six were returned to her arms, but she had bigger concerns.

 

Jack watched as the water dragon rose into the air, roaring loudly and with pure, raw energy spilling from her neck. Jack called Hack and Slash back to her, the drones soon joining back with their master and slowly hovering around her as she watched the dragon rise into the air. She could tell by this point that the beast had no real means of tracking her, even now it ignored her presence. That said, she took a quick glance through her available arsenal and couldn't find anything that could combat a giant water dragon. She could probably take on the dragon girl herself now, probably use her explosive finger-darts and tear a chunk off its body with one of the cuts or any other break in her scales as a starting point, but to do that she needed to get to the dragon girl first. Or, she left the dragon to deal with her opponents.
 

There was a commotion not too far away, close to where one of the convoys of military vehicles had gone. Even if the other contestants weren't there, Jack wouldn't mind seeing the rest of these soldier-types meet a similar end to Bullet. Knowing that, she sent Hack and Slash back up into the air, in front of the great water dragon, and used their speakers to get its attention with blaring air-horn sounds. Then, both drones used their projectors to make the weak projection of a featureless man wearing a pair of excessively detailed jeans. The hologram wasn't solid or physical, just the simple light, so it floated in the air easily and without any assistance. The man did a silly dance, and would turn around and expose its rear at the dragon, shaking it in her direction. If the goading worked, Hack and Slash would attempt to lead the dragon in the direction of the commotion to the north.

 

Jack wasn't sure how much culture the dragon understood, but figured that something like that was a pretty universal insult.

[Tesability Black]

Basabth's raised claw, aimed at the Shaper still cloaked under invisibility, was stopped in mid-air, a few inches away from the elder's face, a pair of something wrapping around the wrist from opposing directions that were unseen being the cause.

As Rawal hopped back with a jump more fitting of someone a couple of decades younger, the sphere of invisibility pulled back with him, revealing the large tails of both Ur-Glaahks around the wrist and a Wingbolt flying down and beginning to fire away with energy while aiming for a slash with the tail stinger filled with acid foreign to all native to Earth. Once Rawal was out of the way, the pair turned to throw the void being quite the distance away, towards the direction of its human partner.

The remaining Wingbolt flew up behind Louis, aiming to swing the weighted stinger against his head in an attempt to either knock out the crazy funker right out or hopefully put a decent crack into his skull.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Rawal's POV~

I realize you do not wish to kill, but letting a psychotic being like this live would be a disaster, Rawal projected towards Bethany with Talis-Eye's aid as he jumped back with speed that was only slightly boosted by the Eyebeast also pulling him back. Prepare for aid against him.

A silent command sent towards one of the Wingbolt, the serpentine figure flew over towards Bethany's position, ready to help her out as long as she didn't try to kill it in return. As it flew forward, Rawal opened a palm and pushed an orb of essence directly into the ground while Shaping something new.

 

Just underneath the earth, an Artila made from the earth and ground itself burrowed under the surface without disturbing what was above, positioning itself underneath Louis in readiness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Talis-Eye's POV~

A toothy grin emerged on Talis-Eye's face as an idea began to brew from watching the madman and his pet tried to attack Lord Rawal and Bethany and the events that recently happened from both minds as they scanned only the surface of each mind.

A being of shadow, hm, Talis-Eye mused. Hard to act on such if there isn't any shadows around...

Starting from where Talis-Eye floated, though they remained invisible, light began to encompass and surround everything around them in an ever-expanding sphere until the light began to flicker in strength at roughly 30ft from the center. Let's see how this is handled.

Almost as an afterthought did the Eyebeast cover the eyes of all the creations as well as Rawal and Bethany with a thin veil of energy that allowed them to see normally and be unaffected by the unusual light. But they did not stay within it...

[Mr. Hyde]

 

Louis looked on as his tendrils assaulted the girl.  As she sent icy spears towards each of them, Louis opened holes in the tendrils to let the spears easily pass through them harmlessly.  However, the girl became obscured from view, with an icy snowstorm obscuring her and the other opponent.  Three gunshots rang out which instinctively made Louis erect a shield in front of his face, causing the bullets to ricochet off.  He called his tendrils back to him.  There was no use aimlessly flailing them around somewhere he couldn't see.  However, he could seemingly make out some other figures in the storm that he hadn't seen prior.  Maybe it was an illusion cast by the girl?

 

Basabth was stopped in mid-air, his claw right in front of that invisible opponent that he had sensed prior.  It was revealed that two strange creatures with long appendages had wrapped said appendages around his wrists, in an attempt to stop Basabth's attack.  He struggled as he tried to bring the claw down, but he could sense that the being was already out of range.  Behind him, another strange flying creature was attempting to attempt Basabth with some strange attacks with another appendage.  Thankfully, the creatures from before had thrown him out of the way of the attack, flying towards Louis.  Basabth turned his head mid-flight to realize another one of those strange flying creatures closing in behind Louis.

 

"LOUIS!  6 o'clock!"  

 

With Basabth's warning, Louis erected a large pillar of shadow from behind him, which the strange being would fly directly into.  Once it did, Louis would capture the queer beast in an orb of shadow, and slowly crush it to death...or whatever would make it stop moving.  Louis sighed, as the fear continued to grow tighter and tighter around the being.  Basabth was by his side now, as he growled into the snowstorm.  However, a bright light began to emanate on the battlefield, encompassing the entire fight with brightness.  It was so bright that the boy had to shield his eyes from it.  Louis shook his head.

 

"Trying to get rid of the shadows huh?"  Louis smiled as he pointed directly beneath him.  His shadow would remain visible, even though the light had gotten rid of all others.  "It sure won't be that easy."  With no shadows in sight, Louis' shadow began to envelop him.  The shadow began to mold, grow, and expand, until a sphere had grown at least fifteen feet in diameter.  It was then that the sphere of shadows began to morph into another shape: a large black dragon oozing the same strange black liquid that his shadows did.  Basabth took this time to walk into the shadow, disappearing entirely as the new entity enveloped him.  With the shadows so thick in here, Louis' vision was shielded from the bright light.

 

"Where there is light...there will always be shadows!  FOOLS!"  Louis roared, the mouth of the dragon projecting his voice into a booming sound.  The dragon raised a claw, looking for anything that was slightly visible due to the snowstorm.  There was a spherical shape that he saw, right in the middle of all of this light, as he began to swipe at it with all of the strength of the giant shadow.    

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

This was annoying. Shadows, invisible monsters, that light, and a freaking dragon creature. All of this was just...too much. Bethany stood in the midst of her storm, wincing a bit as the hail hit her body. She could handle the cold but she was still vulnerable to the physical nature of the ice.

 

It wasn't enough. Her power just wasn't enough for whatever these people she was facing. Her magic was just...not good enough. The magic these people had access to was just so far reaching, so powerful, what was her wind and hail to that?

 

Still she loaded the last clip, as she had not bothered to get more ammo between rounds, into her pistol. She had to do something right? There were too many people she needed to help...

 

But what would she do? Even if she kept them at bay long enough to have one of them kill the other, she wouldn't be able to fight them....

 

"Sister". Words her brother once spoke came to her then. "You have so much potential inside you. You were born with a gift. I know you can do so much, you just need to let it happen. You just need to let go of what's holding you back."

 

She still wasn't sure what her brother had seen those years ago. But she trusted him. Perhaps now was the time to see what she could really do. It was make it or break it. Two powerful foes around her and something else, yes she could tell SOMEthing was coming this way, on the horizon...The guilt could come later. Now was the time for action.

 

Bethany took a deep breath, smiling humorously as she remembered an old movie she had seen. "Let it go..." She told herself.

The hailstorm ended with a sudden gust of cold air that would extend dozens of feet in every direction. And where it once was centered was Bethany, her eyes glowing white, frost forming around her clothing, face, and hair.

 

She crouched and pressed her hands to the ground. The ground where she touched instantly froze. And then it extended. This clearing they were fighting in was soon covered in ice, anything touching the ground would be stuck fast by it.

 

And then spikes, made of ice and several inches thick, shot up from the ground around both the dragon and Rawal. Not to pierce them but instead to hinder their movement. four of them, for both, at their front, back, and sides. Angled towards their bodies but just barely not close enough to pierce.

[Dad]

Spirit of the Jungle |  Spirit of Battle

 

As war raged on between Louis, Rawal, and Bethany, the inhabitants of the jungle scattered in all directions.  Fleeing from the unknown forces which they had never seen before, the local wildlife sought to escape from great danger.  Except one.

 

Not quite on the cusp of the Congo Basin, she felt a familiar presence.  Turning around, she darted through the trees and began to climb them.  Arriving on the edge of the fight, Yara, the Spirit Tigress, perched in the trees with her eyes settling on Rawal.  There was something about this man that reminded her of Ife.  Before Ife became a war monger and a brute, he was a gentleman.  Before Ife's heart turned to greed, he fought for others.  Before Ife brought down an immeasurable wrath across the country, he was once a revered councilor.  Rawal reminded her of before.  

 

Yara was a spirit of old, having run through Africa for many centuries.  She was born of the African Creation god Bumba and was the first and only creation of his which died prematurely.  Resurrected by Bumba's will, Yara became a spiritual guardian of man, to shepherd the dead and foster great works in man.  While she appears to be made of light, she is, in fact, a spirit.  While she can take on physical forms, she leaves no shadow, nor footprint in her wake.  She may come and go as she pleases, so long as she is not bound to a host.

 

After garnishing many good servants to her will, Yara thought Ife would be the same as her past choices.  But she had failed to secure his heart.  Thus, she was bound to him unto his death.  But now, she had found a new suitor.  Surely, this man's heart was one of the people's.

 

Yara crouched on the branches, sure of her own strength.  With a single leap, she soared over Rawal before entering the spiritual plain again.  No one could hide from her sight.  She landed at the highest point of one of the Congo's many gargantuan trees and whispered to the man.  "You, of one mind and body.  You, of great heart and spirit.  You, of promise and destiny.  Take to my spirit, that we may become one.  That we may see the glory of all peoples."

 

It was a whisper that only Rawal could hear.  It would reach his mind and his heart without fail.  Even Talis-Eye and his companions would sense the whisper.  It was pure and earnest.  And as Rawal but turned to face the whisper, Yara would wait for him to bow his head.  Then, and only then, would she become bound to Rawal, unto his death.

 

---

 

Failure

 

"What did you say?" she asked, her voice masked through bubbling dark magics.

 

"They failed to secure the tome.  The Atlas--it was snatched by some... thing.  It burst from the water and took down our entire fleet in a matter of moments.  There was nothing we could do," said a frightened young man on the other end of the phone.

 

"Excuses.  I don't like excuses," she snarled.  "I'll be coming to get the Atlas myself.  True, your men could not hope to stand up to the likes of the Dragon Titan of the Sea.  But I gave you the tools to corral her.  Had you acted as you were instructed, you wouldn't be in this situation."

 

"Forgive me, madam," the young man responded.

 

"You will still be rewarded for finding the Atlas.  Had I known it was so close, I would've gone myself.  Nevertheless, I will arrive shortly.  Put your new Captain on standby.  I'll deal with the dragon," she said before hanging up the phone.

 

A sinister aura swirled around her fingertips as she tapped lightly on the old oak desk in front of her.  "Xia," she whispered to herself.  "I wonder how much you've matured."

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"Unyielding creature of the earth, I will lay you to rest."

 

"As if."

 

Angelica had been struggling against Choros earlier, but Mango reactivated herself just in time to serve as a distraction, allowing Angelica to regain her footing in a vital moment. Choros soon fired off another volley of his flames at the two of them. The cooldown on her blaster that was caused by Choros' earlier attack was close to done at this point, and so Angelica just had one thing in mind now. She dissolved her body into a puddle of nanite goo to bring her core down to the ground, dodging the flames in the meantime. Rebuilding her body would take some time, and it would leave her to be somewhat prone. But right now, Angelica had something else in her mind.

 

Choros had been poisoned. Lace still was not conscious and soon to be engulfed in flames, yet at the same time Angelica didn't have the time to reach her. She had to end it here now.

 

Yet thankfully, Choros hadn't seem to note the secret plan Angelica had been preparing for a while.

 

"Not only anger, nor I am made of just desire and pride." Some of her tassels started to surround Ohr, and launched the sword towards Choros with it acting as an independent drone to occupy him for a while. "This voice, this mind, this drive, all of it is that of a human. That was what I am truly proud of. Steel is my body and light is my blood, but I am far more human than you, tool of the Divine."

 

The sword went at Choros as if Angelica herself was the one holding it. A series of slashes, parries, stabs, all in an attempt to overwhelm him as Angelica spread her nanites around the arena.

 

"This is my voice. This is my intellect. This is my existence. I am alive. I might not bleed, and I will never rot, but I am alive.

 

This here shall be an act that will prove it. Tool of the Divine, I'll end your age here!"

 

At that exact moment, Angelica's nanites managed to connect itself with the turrets that she had placed a long while ago in the fight. Supplying them with most of the the energy supply currently available from Shangri-la, the turrets rose out from the ground and let out a blast of maximum capacity, yet she didn't target Choros with the attack. All of the turrets had been pointing at one exact point all this time, and now they were set to destroy it.

 

The Godstone.

 

And with that, the perpetual motion device that powered her core finally stopped for once.

 

---

 

"Only one left, then it would all be over."

 

Angelica watched the screen before her, scanning the Internet on whether there were any sort of hint towards another appearance of the last of her siblings. Years of destroying those that were close to her had eaten Angelica's mind for a while, and as she had grown a sense of self-awareness, she started to doubt whether it was really the right thing for her to do. An order from her creator, as she understood it. They were defective and very dangerous to mankind, and thus they needed to be eliminated. Yet, were they really? Only her oldest sibling ended up being dangerous, as she had been twisted into Wrath. The rest were content in living life in their own way, yet Angelica still ended up eliminating them.

 

Only one left. The angel that had been twisted to represent envy. The sister directly below her, Angela.

 

Soon, Angelica's gaze focused on one image. It was that of a girl looking similar to herself but with a messier, boyish-like hair. No names were listed, but it was mentioned that she was seen as a participant in an illegal underground fighting arena, using a spear as her weapon. The picture was taken on a match that she allegedly lost, but it was unclear whether she bled or not. The determination on her eyes, it was completely familiar. Angelica could feel the same determination to live their own life that her other siblings possessed on the girl's eyes.

 

She turned off the screen after, and left the room as she had made her decision. She had to find her. Even posing as a fighter in a tournament similar to this ought to be fine. More than anything, more than the pride from winning such an event, Angelica wished to meet the only remaining individual related to her. Just so she could apologize. Just so she could consciously go against what had been ordered to her, and accept her way of living. As a human, that would be the declaration she needed to validate her existence as one. Even if she wasn't there, then Angelica simply could just broadcast her message on the winning podium, on the largest tournament she could find. No matter what, she would find a way to win it so that could happen.

 

After all, everyone would've loved to have an older sibling they could be proud of.

 

---

[Yui]

---

"Unyielding creature of the earth, I will lay you to rest."

 

Ditto. More waves of that holy fire. If it were regular fire, Mango would have no problem just running straight through it - it was a moving flame instead of a large-scale blaze after all - but it wasn't hard to tell that this was by no means just a regular fire. There was no telling what might have happened if she made contact with it. Best to avoid it. As such, Mango observed the fire making its way for her, and promptly did what any sane, reasonable living creature would do, and stepped out of the way. Attacks are dangerous, but not very complicated. Difficult to tell if Choros is holding back or if larger-scale attacks are impossible for him. Due to the fire attacks and the difference in size, close-ranged combat is advised against. Mango would have to win this from afar.

 

She would have preferred a fight where she can get in close, like she was designed for. This would have to do though.

 

Mango knew how to handle her next ranged attack, once she was comfortably out of the way of the fire. Mango coughed up a small amount of acid, enough to cover her finger-blades with, before swinging her arm with force in Choros's general direction. This in turn created a small spray attack of acid, aimed right at the target. I should have enough acid to do this two... no, three more times.

---

[Dad]

Almighty

 

"Tool of the Divine, I'll end your age here!"

 

Choros observed Angelica carefully.  She had prepared well in advance for her next assault.  Had she struck at Choros, perhaps she could have grounded him.  Instead, she struck at the Godstone.

 

"Are you a fool?" Choros asked.  The lasers reflected from the Godstone's glass-like surface and launched harmlessly into the air where they disappeared.  Dust settled and the Godstone hadn't even been scratched.  Choros had appeared beside the stone, placing a hand on its cold exterior.  Though he was poisoned, Choros showed no clear sign of pain or fatigue.  "Among you, there is but one who could hope to agitate the stone.  And it is not you, Angelica.  No force you could hope to produce could ever scratch its flawless composition."  Choros looked over his shoulder to Lace, who still had not recovered from her previous breakdown.

 

"She was brought here for another purpose.  It is only she who may harm the stone.  Her soul is imbued with magical energy and prevents a grave threat to us all.  The stone protects us from dark forces.  Forces which have been detected as of late.  It is no coincidence that you would come to seek the stone's destruction."

 

Before Choros could act further, a spray of acid hissed behind him, and he only barely got out of its way.  Unfortunately, the acid found its way onto Choros' back, eating away at his armor rather quickly.  He shattered his breastplate with a single punch and it collapsed to the ground.  As the breastplate touched the ground, a great explosion erupted around it, sending dust and gravel into the air.  As the dust settled, Choros watched his armor melt into a puddle of what could be described as liquid white-gold.  

 

"I cannot allow the fate of the world to fall to those as reckless as yourselves," Choros proclaimed.

 

Choros turned to face the Godstone, and with a touch, stepped inside of it once more.  His voice boomed from the stone as he threatened Lace, Angelica, and Mango.  "With the power of the Godstone, I will once more hide this place from man.  But first, I must eradicate you."

 

An iridescent beam of light erupted from the Godstone, firing into the sky above.  If one were to examine the Godstone, they could see Choros' shadow inside of it, on one knee with Gabriel's sword before him, plunged into the stone's bottom.  Choros looked up at the sky from within the crystal and began to chant.  Above the valley, the sky was ignited with a brilliant radiating orange color.  Fire erupted on the horizon and began to spread until it was as far as any of the combatants could see.  A deafening roar stunned them all for just a moment and guided their eyes upward.  And everything above them began to fall. 

 

In an effort to protect the stone, Choros was willing to completely scorch the land of South America.  There was no means of escape, except by interrupting the ritual to which Choros was committed.  And only Lace could do so.

[Alaina]

As the high flying dragon sensed many magic sources around, it let out a roar as it made its way towards them. However, as she flew around, there was one much closer to her. Looking in front of her, she was suddenly assailed by a large collection of noises, unsure of where they were actually coming from. This was followed by another strange image of a man floating in front of her. She didn't actually understand the gesture. However, he was clearly flying. And men couldn't fly. Ergo, he was magic. With her watery drill teeth bared, the dragon opened its maw, snapping down on the image and shattering it. While she was sure it should have killed him, Xia saw the projection continue to form in front of her. Continuing the process, the dragon continued to snap down on the image, only to soon realize this was working. Midway through this goading process, the dragon decided to take on a different approach to killing the magic man. A large gust of wind could be felt going in her direction, as she inhaled, only to let loose a bellowing roar. From its mouth, a giant cone of heated pressurized steam erupted in front of her, in an attempt to kill the flying man.

[Tesability Black]

~Rawal's POV~

It was narrowly done, but Rawal did dodge a good number of the shards popped up around his being, unsure if any were supposed to actually harm him, however. Looking up to see one of the Ur-Ghlaaks captured in one of the orbs of shadow, Rawal raised a hand towards the imprisoned creation, focusing on it for the moment.

Soon, the orb became smaller and smaller at a much more rapid pace, until it could squeeze no more. Once the orb gained any form of opening, however, a glowing green energy zipped away towards Rawal's outstretched hand, phasing into it and becoming one with him again.

He still needed to rest to recover the Essence lost, but it was better to lose half of what was used than all of it.

"You, of one mind and body," Rawal suddenly heard mostly in his mind, surprised that he seemed able to understand the voice without aid. "You, of great heart and spirit.  You, of promise and destiny.  Take to my spirit, that we may become one.  That we may see the glory of all peoples."

"If you had seen how I had been before arriving here, you would not say this," Rawal could not help but admit upon hearing the whisper in a low voice of his own, almost instinctively understanding where it was coming from, the spectral tiger that he would have called a demon had he been home from lack of understanding.

If Yara had seen whom he had been before his arrival on Earth, the spirit tigress would be nowhere near him to begin with. However, at this point, if she could see into his life, she would have seen the time spent among the stars thinking over his past choices, how he could have done many things differently...

...how he would not have wasted amassing wealth and power that would both lose all value in his own lifetime.

In a sense, he was the opposite of Ife, once lived for greed, wealth and power, and lost it all before he can use any of it, instead hoping only to keep his particular kind of magic alive in a world where the act of Shaping had not become Forbidden and cause enough to be killed on the spot for such a witnessed act.

However, the theft of knowledge directly from his mind by another, to abuse the Art of Shaping for their own twisted gains...even if not part of this contest, he had to remain alive on the fact that he is the only one on this world, outside of the thief, that knows the innate weaknesses shared by all creations, that cannot be Shaped away without making them immediately unstable and explode. And so, after a second that could feel like a year to Rawal, Yara, Talis-Eye and the other creations, he finally nodded before saying, "I have an idea."

Soon, the invisibility dropped and the hood was down, revealing gray-and-white hair held back into a low ponytail...and the face of an androgynous tiger. The arms seemed to have bulked up a fair bit, ending in large hands with fingers that contained retractable claws. His legs have become altered in shape, the boots destroyed to better adapt that of a more-tiger-like leg. Poking from underneath the trenchcoat he wore was the tip of a tiger's tail.

To call him an humanoid tiger now would be...not that far from the truth, in all honesty. After revealing himself, the spectral tiger's temporary fusion with him stealing away his shadow, Rawal reeled one arm back before swinging forward with open palm with an undercut to shatter the ice around him with one or two swings with borrowed strength. Letting loose a roar into the air, himself and the creations that were visible began to glow brightly, the wounds still inflicted upon all beginning to undo themselves, a Regeneration Aura.

Normally, he would not do such a thing, to 'self-Shape' as it were, but now, he didn't have the option of denying himself any form of edge he could get. He could possibly work out something with Bethany at a later time, it's this madman that needed to be erased from existence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Talis-Eye's POV~

Louis would feel an odd tapping near the center of his back between the wings faint enough to potentially not be caught at all after he swiped towards the ball of light that disappeared right as soon as he touched it, revealing nothing in the center of it.

High above the air, almost reaching the clouds, Talis-Eye was taking their time to study the Shadow Drayk. They saw how the amorphous shadow tried to crush one of the creations into non-existence before immediately becoming such a monstrosity. Maintaining invisibility, Talis-Eye dared to move lower and lower until at maximum range, which thankfully meant that the dragon can't just snap them out of the air while all paws were on the ground.

While Rawal was busy with the shadow demon, Talis-Eye took on the role of a 'herd-keeper', directing the Wingbolts to focus their magical fire upon the shadow dragon while guiding the Ur-Ghlaak to fighting alongside Rawal in melee, stunning the demon when possible with its slightly-crackling tip of tail.

Underneath the ground, however, two sets of eyes peeped out through the dirt, the Artila forged from the earth itself poke its head out enough to fire a globule of acid towards the dragon before pulling its head back into the ground, leaving little trace of upturned dirt behind.

[Hälō]

BGM

 

XIII watched in horror as the scene on the outside quickly escalated. Shifting her gaze over to the little girl that was weeping in her chair, XIII felt her tiny features twist into a scowl as she moved closer to girl and grabbed her by the shoulders. 

 

"Please! We have to save them..." She pleaded whilst shaking the child. "Angelica is a friend. We can't just sit here whilst she's in danger..."

 

"I-I don't want to do this anymore..." Lace sobbed. Tears streamed down from her eyes as tucked her knees into her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. "Where is Dad?!"

 

XIII stared down at the girl for a long time. This was her true self?! The original Lace. Nothing but a sickly child...

 

Her attention shifted again to the outside world, where Choros' ritual seemed to near completion. There was no way this girl could protect Angelica... She couldn't even protect herself. "Damn it..." XIII growled in frustration.Was this how it was supposed to end? Did fate expect her to sit here idly whilst this ghost let her new life burn away to ashes?!

 

"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it! DAMN IT!"

 

A sudden pressure filled the room, causing the crying Lace to look up from her weeping. There at her side, XIII had begun to glow with a furious blue aura that seemed causing the entirety of the room to shake. "S-So... pretty..." The child looked on in awe as the older woman's aura continued to grow in size, quickly filling the small white room with it's azure light. 

 

"Dad is dead." XIII's voice reverberated with power as took a step forward. "You're dead..."

 

"And I refuse... to be replaced... by a memory!" XIII growled through gritted teeth as she attempted to force her soul into the driver's seat. She'd destroy the entire White Room if she had to. The entire metaphor could go to hell! "This body is MINE...this soul is my MINE..." The light from her aura had become blinding, and it almost seemed as if everything else around her were being hungrily consumed by it, including the young Lace.

 

"I'M ME!"

 

 

Back on the battlefield, Lace's body had also been enveloped in the very same azure aura. Slowly, she brought herself up to her feet, standing at the edge of her perch high on the wall as she peered down towards the ground bellow. 

 

Without a word she stepped off of the ledge and began her descent. Her target in sight, she slowly reached to her side and grabbed the hilt of the straight-sword strapped to her belt. Lace's aura trailed behind her like a jet stream and when she drew her weapon, a corona of sharpness swirled around it's blade whilst she brought it back in preparation to unleash her signature technique. 

 

It was over in a flash. To any observer, it would seem as if her blade had passed harmlessly through the Godstone. But as Lace landed inches from the artifact, a dozen strokes of light would begin to flash across it's surface, each representing a blindingly fast sword stroke imbued with the power of her soul. 

 

"Iron Lotus..." Lace whispered with finality before slowly sliding her blade back into it's scabbard just as the last of her strikes made themselves known. She was herself. For the first time ever...

[Mr. Hyde]

 

As Louis unleashed a mighty roar, which was just Basabth yelling at the top of his lungs from within the shadows, he could see the floor of the Congo Basin cover itself with Ice.  He couldn't feel it from in here, but it seemed the Ice Witch was definitely powering up.  Without much notice of the girl, Louis successfully knocked out that orb of light, dissatisfied that there was no one there to crush.  It was then that large spears of ice erected from the ground around him.  The construct turned perfectly still, to avoid being skewered by the attack...for now.  The dragon's face mimicked Louis' smirk.  As he went to talk again, his voice would be projected from the dragon's mouth.  

 

"Oh sweetheart...you really aren't armed to deal with me."  Louis swam among the inside of the shadows to make sure none of the icicles would poke him.  The dragon began to slowly walk forward, opening holes from in the shadow to encompass the ice spears until the almost ran him through.  Then, with a harsh crunching sound, the shadow closed off the hole.  The dragon then knocked away the rest of the ice left that stood in his way.  From within, Louis looked as the spears traveled it's way up through the dragon's insides, as if millions of microscopic hands were pushing it through.  They stayed in the chest cavity, along with Louis, for the time being.  "A gal like you...such a shame you have to die.  It's almost too pityful!  HAHAHAHA!  THAT'S WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT!"

 

Some more crunching could be heard, before another roar equaling his own was unleashed into the air.  Louis looked to see that the one he couldn't see before had revealed themselves.  Louis could hardly contain his laughter, as a giant Tiger Man with gray hair stood to oppose him.  He seemed strong, knocking away the same ice structures that he had before with a couple of swings.  These creatures flying away must also have been his.  The man was armed to the teeth.  The hilarity of the sight made Louis not take him as seriously.  

 

"Louis...he has a different ire to him now...I can't quite place it...but it reminds me of that General guy..."

 

Louis snickered.  

 

"Well...we killed him just as easy.  This gross tiger monsieur doesn't seem to be much different."  Louis' eyes locked on with the shadows of some trees behind the tiger man, making it his own.  The attacks from the creatures flying around him didn't seem to bother the shadow much.  They weren't even powerful enough to breach it.  A rumbling from below was neglected by Louis, but Basabth had taken notice.  A creature burst fourth, unleashing a glob of liquid substance that began to fizzle at the shadow.  

 

"Louis, we got acid on the crotch!  I repeat, acid on the crotch!"  

 

"Don't want a loose end, now do we?"  Louis smiled, as the bubbling piece of shadow began to melt away from the dragon construct entirely.  It drooped back onto the ground, directly above where the creature had come forth, with an inky splash.  Louis began to make his next move, raising a large claw into the air, and bringing it down swiftly to swipe at Bethany.  The dragon's head aimed towards the Tiger man, opening it's maw, and unleashing the Ice spears that had been shot at him earlier at him.  They were unloaded sequentially at a breakneck pace, like that of a mortar shell.  From the shadow that Louis' will had taken over, a tendril had been constructed, shooting it's way at the Tiger Man's legs.  It hardened itself to be able to slash tendons, if it so made contact. 

 

"You should have ran while you both had the chance!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"   

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

This was getting to be a pain. There was nothing more demoralizing than having your actions shrugged off so easily. What were these things she was facing? They were even stronger than that so called dark goddess and it had taken both her and Lace to take that one down.

 

Was her only choice to wait it out and hope they wear each other down?....No, that wasn't an option.Not from what that psychopath was saying. She had hoped, after her fight with Lace, that the rest of the contestants would be just as reasonable. But this Louis...had a few screws loose. He didn't just want to win. He wanted to kill them all.

 

With a sad sigh Bethany watched as the claw came in her direction. So this was how it'd be? "You know, I really don't feel like dying today."

bgm

If her spears weren't enough to hold him, she'd just have to think bigger. Hands placed once more on the ground, she waited for the claw to get nearby, and unleashed her magic. Instead of simple icicles a wall of ice shards erupted from the ground, growing in size the farther they got from Bethany, until they were a dozen feet into the air. The solid constructions rammed into the claw and attempted to swallow it by covering the thing in ice.

 

From what she had seen him do earlier she figured he'd be able to either get out of that, or just tear the claw from the rest of him without problem. The issue here was the limit of how much he could create, which seemed to be limitless.

 

Bethany stepped to the side of her ice formation and cast her second spell. A wind blew past her, fierce and bitter cold, and struck the central mass of her opponent's shadows. The ice immediately began to freeze it over, creating a shell around the shadow dragon. If she could freeze the area AROUND him, perhaps he wouldn't be able to slip through so easily.

 

She shuddered, feeling the cold extend through her body. Even in this place, even covered in clothing, Bethany couldn't escape the frosty grip of her own magic.

 

But she'd hold out. No one was going to keep her from achieving her dream. Not even herself.

[Maeriberii Haan]

 

---

 

"Damn it...my gambit failed."

 

That was quite a blow to Angelica's pride. Having done such a spirited speech backed with her wish of meeting her sister again, but in the end her attack was nullified as she was not one of Magic. Although, luckily for her Choros didn't go for the kill when she was vulnerable, and she managed to regather enough of her nanites to reform her body into a nimble moving form.

 

Lace!

That was the first of her thought by the time she could move again. Lace was at risk of being incinerated and Angelica, started moving towards her. She attempted to legitimize her act in her mind by claiming that she only wanted to have Lace defeated with her own hands, but she actually did feel some nice companionship with the girl. However, it seemed that her concern was unneeded. Lace had chosen this time to return into the fray in a spectacular fashion. With an azure aura surrounding her, she descended towards the Godstone while Choros was distracted, and let out a flurry of cuts that Angelica's sensors could barely even follow. Soon she was done, and Angelica merely stood on her ground, her sword having returned to her.

 

Now, it would be best to wait and see what would happen next.

 

 

---

 

[Dad]

The End of an Era

 

There was a flash of light as Lace danced across the battlefield.  The beam which was rising from the Godstone began to flicker until it stopped entirely.  The rolling thunder ceased and slowly the sky became quiet.  The fires began to fade from the sky above but dark clouds remained.

 

Inside, Choros clutched his chest, a sharp pain suddenly rising from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head.  "You... fool," he muttered from inside the stone.  Choros could feel his magic trembling inside of him.  He emerged from the stone with a frightened look on his face.  His sword clattered to the ground and Choros fell to his knees.  "Interrupting a holy ritual with your own soul," Choros mumbled.  He looked on to the Godstone as it's once perfect surface was now etched with a crack.  Choros could feel his connection to the stone waning.  "Only the divine have been able to prevent the stone from being touched by black magics for so long," he almost whimpered.  "But you," he said turning to Lace with a dead expression on his face.  "You alone have sealed the fate of the entire world."

 

Choros raised his blade from the ground and sheathed it on his back.  "That was not meant to be a challenge, you fool," Choros said, shaking his head.  "Because I am the last of my kind, I was the remaining soul to keep the stone protected.  You have severed my connection to it."

 

A chill ran up Choros' spine as he turned back to face the Godstone.  He placed a hand upon it, and the stone began to burn his flesh.  Choros removed his hand immediately and balled it into a fist.  "There is no doubt now.  If the same evil which I felt some days ago learns of the Godstone's state, they will seek it.  And I will be helpless to fend them off from this world."

 

Choros' spread his wings and flapped them twice, fluttering into the air.  "They will come.  And because of you, this world will burn."

 

With another flap of his mighty wings, Choros soared into the sky and disappeared among the clouds.  His ties to magic, the Godstone, and his beliefs all had one thing in common:  they were re-shaped now because of a new enemy.  An enemy to which only he and a few others were aware.  If his words were true, what had become of the Godstone?  Who was it that was coming for the Godstone?  What other magical artifacts were vulnerable?

 

---

 

Christmas in July

 

Her eyes lit up like a child's in a candy store.  Every inch of her body reverberated with glee.  She almost couldn't contain herself as she sank to her knees and clutched her chest.  She could feel herself quivering from excitement, and she almost wanted to scream.  She bit her lip hungrily as she looked up.  It finally happened.  The last divine being had had their connection to the Godstone removed.  A free-flowing energy suddenly returned to her, no longer restricted by the magic which once kept her tame.  This meant one of two things: either the angel was dead, or someone had connected a soul which was not divine into the Godstone.  Regardless of how it happened, she knew that now was her time to act.

 

"Ohoho, yes," she moaned to herself.  She slowly stood up straight, licking her lips.  "Now.  I need the Atlas," she reminded herself.  "If I go after the stone now, I could get caught.  The Atlas, not so much."  She cloaked herself in an indescribable darkness that turned her eyes a deep emerald color.  Then, with a snap of her wrist, she opened an even darker wormhole at her feet.  Slowly she sank into it, only a few thoughts on her mind:  kill Gerald Dillinger, seize the Atlas, and destroy the Godstone.

[Yui]

---

"You... fool."

 

Mango's attention turned to the Godstone, Choros, and Lace. Whatever it was she did, it was working. The Godstone didn't seem to do any of the crazy stuff it was doing earlier. Good. That would make it easier to deal with Choros himself.

 

"Only the divine have been able to prevent the stone from being touched by black magics for so long. But you. You alone have sealed the fate of the entire world. That was not meant to be a challenge, you fool. Because I am the last of my kind, I was the remaining soul to keep the stone protected. You have severed my connection to it. There is no doubt now. If the same evil which I felt some days ago learns of the Godstone's state, they will seek it. And I will be helpless to fend them off from this world. They will come. And because of you, this world will burn."

 

And with that, Choros took off to the skies. When did anyone tell you our fight was over? If he won't fight, I suppose it's back to the reason I came here. Those two. Lace and Angelica. Given her ability to stop the Godstone, it was pretty easy to infer that Lace was the stronger one here. Which left the question: Was it more efficient to remove the bigger threat first, or let her tire herself out against Angelica before finishing the job herself? Mango was leaning toward the former. There wasn't any way to account for the possibility that Lace would decide that out of her two remaining opponents, it would be better to remove Mango herself from the picture first. If Lace went for Mango while Mango was trying to fight Angelica, assuming the latter had the presence of mind to retaliate, there was no way Mango would win that fight with only one arm. Her target had to be Lace.

 

Even against Lace, it will be an uphill battle. I was trained for this. And so, Mango started in Lace's direction. Only to lazily fall face-first onto the ground beneath her just a couple steps later. Crap. Mango looked at the stub that used to be a full arm until this fight started.

 

Blood loss. This body was built to last, so it shouldn't be fatal unless this fight drags on to be particularly long. Even so, I've lost enough to drain my strength. If one of them gets too close then maybe, but I'm not killing anything from down here otherwise. I've failed.

---

[Hälō]

"You... fool." 

 

Lace didn't bother to turn and face the angel as he fell to his knees. Instead she chose to walk forward towards the small crater left in the ground from where she had dropped Beowulf. 

 

"Only the divine have been able to prevent the stone from being touched by black magics for so long. But you. You alone have sealed the fate of the entire world. That was not meant to be a challenge, you fool. Because I am the last of my kind, I was the remaining soul to keep the stone protected. You have severed my connection to it. There is no doubt now. If the same evil which I felt some days ago learns of the Godstone's state, they will seek it. And I will be helpless to fend them off from this world. They will come. And because of you, this world will burn."

 

As Lace bent down to pick up her blade, the angel continued his warning before finally shooting back up towards the heavens, leaving the three girls to their own devices once more.

 

"His kind sure does love to talk..." Lace called over to Angelica and Mango as she rejoined the gathering, careful to stand an equal distance between the other two girls. 

 

"So-" Lace began, only to be silenced by a sudden move by Mango. Prepared to defend herself, Lace sword hand twitched slightly as the experiment started towards her. However it seemed that Mango had been pushed to her limit, and promptly fell to the ground, clearly succumbing to her wounds.

 

Sighing, Lace hoisted her broadsword up and slid into into the scabbard at her back. She almost felt bad... whilst she was dealing with the original Lace in the White Room, these two where out here making sure she wasn't barbecued.  

 

"Please, don't push yourself anymore. You fought well..." XIII smiled with rare warmth as she looked down at Mango. 

 

Seeing Angelica's sword had returned to her, Lace then shifted her gaze to over to the blue haired girl. Just like Bethany, she considered Angelica to rival, and despite the fact that they were also friends, XIII couldn't help but feel her combat instincts urging her to put herself against the android...

 

"I don't remember... was burning the world on our list?" Though there was warmness in her gaze, a slight tension had gathered in the air between the two as she smirked at Angelica, waiting to see what the other girl intended to do. 

 

[Tesability Black]

~Rawal's POV~
{With Talis-Eye's aid,}
She will freeze from the inside out if not careful, Rawal suddenly heard in his head as the elder jumped back a great distance away from the ice and tendril that tried to harm him in differing ways, landing on both legs and one hand on the ground as he glanced towards Bethany. A deep growl leaving his throat, he raised the clawed hand not already on the ground towards Bethany, a claw that glowed faintly.
{Rawal swapped with an Ur-Ghlaak}
To the icewielder's surprise, she would find herself glowing and the edge of the cold would find itself combatted. Its presence would still felt, would still try to claim her, but what damage would be done would find itself almost immediately undone.
{While keeping the exchange}
The Regeneration Aura wouldn't help her against further harm, but it would at least help keep her from destroying herself.
{unseen by all, after the spell.}
For the moment, he moved to stay just out of the fake dragon's range, the tigress' form woven into his own aiding him in that regard.
{An Ur-Ghlaak waits to grab and throw it,}
I need to find out just how much this child mirrors the Drakons, he thought to himself as he gave silent orders to the creations above and below the ground. With that, he gave a challenging roar towards the shadow-Drayk, hoping it would accept the challenge.
{braced for pain from the potential impact.}
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Talis-Eye's POV~

"Well, ain't this arrogant," they muttered to themselves, not even bothering with keeping their thoughts to themselve from so high up. A moment passed before a thought came to mind, a thought that was projected down towards the girl chilling herself to the literal bone.

Would you be a dear and fire off a few more of those ice shards towards the Drakon? Fear not about your aim, I have this covered.

If Bethany were to summon and fling more ice towards the shadow, she would find their aim to be far more true...almost seeking.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Wingbolts were getting irked at this freaking thing. None of their bolts of energy seem to phase it, and it seems unaffected by their physical strikes despite lacking any real hide.

It was annoying!

One of them floating in the air without bothering to flap its wings, it brought one of the claws to its chin for a moment before a metaphorical lightbulb appeared above its head.

It had itself a smart, maybe also a crazy, but definitely a smart...it hoped.

Folding its wings in, the Wingbolt dive-bombed into the shadow and its liquid nature, hoping to get into the heart of this thing and possibly fire away at it from inside. One of the Ur-Ghlaaks stayed back as the other decided to charge forward, trying to grab one of the creature's legs and pin it in some way.

From underneath it once again, a pair of eyes popped out, correction, appeared to phase though the earth as if it itself was part of the unturned earth before a maw appeared and fired more acid at the underside and dove back into the ground without missing a beat. The Artila that did this seemed to act more like a phantom would through solid objects in the dirt, leaving nothing disturbed in its wake.

[Mr. Hyde]

 

Louis looked on with a bored expression at Bethany, as she gathered a huge storm of frost and launched it at him.  Admittedly, he began to shiver.  He could see his breath from inside the shadow, and it made him smile a bit, cockily.  Ice began to form around the huge shadow dragon as well, trying to envelop the whole body and make him stationary for a time.  It was a nice attempt for the girl, a good idea at least.  Louis let the frost overtake him and cast the shadow dragon in ice, making him look like some cheesy statue.  From across the way, he heard another roar.  It was the old man...tiger...thing.  Louis still looked on in disgust.  

 

"funking furries..."  He groaned.  From all directions, that man's creations began to push another assault on him.  As soon as they all drew near, an immediate shattering would be heard.  Anyone looking directly at the shadow dragon would notice that the whole creation had grown fifty percent in size.  Louis made the dragon contort weirdly enough for it to take a step forward, where the creature that shot acid resided.  The foot landed ontop of the acid, and the ground below it.  Using some concentration, underneath the foot, a shadow drill formed, burrowing deeper into the ground.  From behind, a winged creature began to dive.  Before it would reach it's target, Louis concentrated more to turn the tail of the dragon into a hardened blade, using it to swipe into the air to intercept the creature.  

 

"Keep it up, Louis!"  Basabth cheered.  Louis, still grinning wickedly, made the dragon push it's assault with more steps.  

 

"This is the end for both of you!"  The dragon cocked it's arms back, and shot them out.  The shadow's stretched so that the arms began to chase after the two.  However, both began to arc in shape, as they attempted to approach each contestant from their side.  The giant hand that headed towards Bethany appeared normal.  It only looked to grip the girl tightly with the entirety of the hand.  Conversely, the one approaching the old geezer was a bit different.  The arm began to contort, unleashing multiple lashing tendrils that hid behind the hand.  "Basabth, now!"  Louis echoed in his mind.  From the hand that approached Bethany, Basabth sprouted out as if leaving a pond of water.  The speed and momentum was enough that Basabth was launched quite quickly towards Rawal.  The shadow demon's claws shot out, aiming to rip and tear the old man asunder.  

 

"DANCE PUPPETS!  DANCE!"  Louis shouted from a fair distance away.