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"Alright, get yourself fixed up. I'll handle these mongrels!"
25-20, sword an axeman with the Iron Sword

"And here I assumed it would be like singing songs around a campfire."

Turn 3, Draco Zoanthrope Group
[Now Playing: ~The cyborg fights~]
A lot of things happen in the next couple of seconds.

Firstly, Ai's magic kicks in at this particular moment. The Zoanthrope is redirected towards Ai instead through sheer force of will, Ai's imposing aura forcing it away from its course towards Haruko. With a wave of her hand, she casually smashes a blast of sheer force into it through the air, attempting to pancake it in mid-air like a fly with a flyswatter. Excellent idea. Of course, in practice, now Ai has a dragon-bat creature flying towards her instead of towards Haruko.

Secondly, Haruko coats herself in fire, moving towards the Zoanthrope. Had Ai not moved it out of the way, Haruko would've collided head-on with the beast, possibly causing far more damage to both of them as you both learned what exactly happens when you attempt to put out a fire with a bigger fire. As it is, Haruko clips its wing hard, the force jarring Haruko but causing a loud screech from the beast as its right wing is seared with the fiery blazes of the sun.

And then this is where it all goes wrong.

The Zoanthrope, at that particular moment, was less a plane on fire crashing into Haruko and more of a self-guided missile with a payload to deliver; an extremely volatile missile with a very explosive payload. And Ai's just redirected it towards herself, Yamato, and Amelie, and away from the fiery bird with her powers.

And then Haruko lit the fuse.

A surge of blazing flames fills the area, and you all take a faceful of explosion. Haruko and Yamato, as the closest to the explosion, are both thrown back by the force, though Haruko remains in the air and Yamato managed to absorb some of it by cutting it. Still, you're both feeling as if you've seen double. It actually manages to blast Ai back a fair bit, the roof she's standing on scorched around her. She's still standing, but the clothes she's wearing have seen better days by now, and getting soot everywhere in your clothes is a pain that isn't exactly covered by your magic. As for Amelie, she was standing the farthest back from the blast, and only takes a mild hit, not that she has nothing to worry about as the bats; your momentum carries you through one swarm, only to take quite a few slashes and burns as the miniature bat-dragon creatures focus on mucking up your day and their brethren surround you.

The bat isn't faring too well, of course; between Ai slapping it, Haruko burning it and the force of the explosion, it's barely in the air at this point. Still, considering what happened with all the other Zoanthropes whenever you hurt them bad enough, it isn't quite time to call it a day yet. Indeed, it has its eyes on Haruko, a sitting duck in the air at this particular moment, preparing once more for another attack on her.

---

Turn 1, Aranea Zoanthrope
Zoanthrope Engaged
[Now Playing: ~Pray Me Revive~]
Ito falls back for the moment, taking charge and focusing himself, steeling his mind for the task at hand. Maki, Ragnar and the others had this handled, at least for the moment; civilians though they were, they were far more useful than the idiots doing less damage to it with their guns than the tiny blonde girl was about to do to it with her fist. The soldiers, for their part, take their warning and go, using the distraction of the newcomers to collect their comrades, barking out orders for reinforcements.

Ragnar positions himself between the escaping soldiers and the Zoanthrope, spear out like a hunter waiting for its prey to spear itself on it through sheer momentum, like a boar impaled on a spear struggling to get up against the crossguard.

Except boars aren't exactly possibly intelligent half-magical abominations that were most likely factory-made. And the spider was a lot faster and a lot more agile than a normal animal. And, regeneration aside, you're not much tougher than a normal human.

As with all situations, there's good news and bad news about yours.

Good news, it's going a little too quick to completely avoid your spear, and Ragnar manages to skewer its shoulder, tearing a fairly big hole in its right side. Bad news, the Zoanthrope managed to lash out two of its talons into your gut, knocking the wind out of you and throwing you back. And caustic blood is currently splattered all over your body, melting through your skin like they were butter on a hot skillet.

Even better news for you, however, Maki is right behind you.

Before it can wrench itself off Ragnar's spear, Kamen Rider Volt swoops past like a red and silver blur. Maki's fist smashes it in the gut, electricity sparking off of it. The Zoanthrope is thrown off of Ragnar's spear by the sheer force, not that it can really do anything as Maki sends it flying, boosting into the air in pursuit before landing another punch on the creature, smashing it into the hospital wall hard enough. A few cracking sounds can be heard as the Zoanthrope slides to the ground, limbs bent unnaturally but already setting up in shape. Two plasma shots blast it in the side as Kiyo shoots at it, the Zoanthrope's eyes flickering towards her quickly. A red aura surrounds it, as it leaps towards her, pouncing past the recovering Maki, claws ready to lash out and ruin Kiyo's day for her.

Just in time for Spica to round the corner, Lapis in tow.

Minato, for his part, was trying not to stare at all the cute girls in swimsuits. Mainly because his girlfriend was right there. And also because he had other business aside from ogling the cute girls, but mainly because his girlfriend was right there.
"Alright. Well then. At least it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be."

Turn 2, Draco Zoanthrope Group
[Now Playing: ~The cyborg fights~]
Ai realises that she's not in the best position, even with her imposing aura; whatever magic drove her, it wasn't quite strong enough to reach the flying creature in midair. Yet. Good things come to those who wait, and Ai was perfectly content to wait for the moment; in her case, wait between the Zoanthrope and Yamato, currently stumbling around the roof trying to avoid the Zoanthrope's attack.

A blast of searing hot plasma soars right over Ai's head, somehow avoiding searing her head, as Haruko appears from behind, Amelie not far behind. The miniature star expands as it flies, the Zoanthrope swerving to avoid the blast; its crippled wing, however, slows it down. Even with the harsh winds around it seeming to lessen the effect of Haruko's attack, it still manages to sear its underside, causing it to project a massive screech of pain.

However, pain and damage do not consist of inertia. The creature was already flying rather quickly, and with neither Ai nor Haruko managing to put any serious impediment in its path, flying through the pain, though undesirable, was very much possible.

Haruko's attack doesn't quite stop it from assailing Yamato, currently too sluggish to quite avoid the attack, as it swoops past Ai and exhales a harsh, scorching burst of wind hot enough to set anything aflame, searing Yamato's clothes and singing him. Before he can quite recover, two claws rake themselves across his chest, the claws seeming quite a fair bit less keen as the air seems to grow heavier around them, but not enough to blunt the blow, not enough to save him. Still, he manages to recover himself, the pain of the attack shocking him back up. The winds around it seem to blow faster and harsher as it retreats away, making a U-turn, its course taking it directly towards Haruko. The air around it seems to glow with intense heat.

As Amelie makes her arrival on the battlefield, from the opposite end, three swarms of those same smaller, bat-like cyborg creatures appear, swooping in to intercept Amelie before she joins the fight; possibly to harry her, or at least to keep her away from the main fight while the larger Zoanthrope handles the others. After all, power in numbers applies both ways.

---

Hospital Group
"Alright, let's get a move on!"
Maki nods as Amelie and Haruko leave to deal with the other Zoanthrope, leaving her, Ito, Ragnar and Kiyo to deal with whatever was happening at the back of the hospital.

As they swoop around to deal with it, Kiyo is the first one to lay eyes on what's going on.

The back of the hospital's already a miniature warzone. Two of the Eden Foundation troopers are lying at the base of the wall, their limbs bent in unnatural positions as they scream for a medic. Four others have set up a barricade using a car nearby, popping up and shooting at the Zoanthrope, their bullets doing absolutely nothing as the Zoanthrope runs directly at them, all eight of its eyes red and glinting with malicious intent.

For the Zoanthrope here is the spider-like creature you fought yesterday. Instantly, you know this can't mean anything good; perhaps whoever is behind the Zoanthropes can make more of the same ones, like a production line. You know this isn't the same one you detained yesterday; otherwise Spica and Lapis would've told you about it already.

Regardless, this is your task; dispatch the Zoanthrope before it hurts even more people.

As for Ito, Zaruba isn't able to tell you much; something about the hospital, whatever it is, is disrupting the Madou Ring's ability to sense things, as easily as it seems to be doing to Lapis. One thing is clear though; there isn't a human to be cut out of the Zoanthrope. If you intend to save the person within this creature, you're going to have to do it the hard way.

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