Emily: 5, Hyper[3]
Mizuki: 4
Noriko: 6, Hyper[3]
Shichiro: 4, Hyper[6]
The spears practically
detonate, expanding with near-explosive force as they are wreathed in spell-eating flames. For a moment, they envelop Shichiro igniting his clothes and burning his flesh. His shirt and jacket are reduced to cinders. The ink on his back seems to run, as if melting from the heat. A tattoo of a kirin melting away into black pigment. But the Aramitama, the Aramitama remains.
Acacius had known it from the start. There was no way to save Shichiro. The covenant, the intermingling of selves. He was damned the second he accepted.
It is something akin to a retch. Driven not by reflex but by impact. The force of Noriko's strike forcing blood up his throat. The shadowy grasp kept the cigarette in place, but the blood, the blood snuffs it out.
The light leaves Shichiro's eyes and his fist crashes forwards.
Shichiro is no more.
Now ariseth Sigurd Sauer.
Noriko may be agile, Noriko may be accurate, but so too is Sigurd. There is no restraint now, no hesitation, and there is no dodging that punch.
Black smoke mixes with white. Two impacts. The first from Mizuki's heel, the second from Sigurd's fist.
Noriko slams against the window, glass cracking but holding, barely.
She's hurt. She's winded. It could've been worse. It easily could've been worse. Fucker
reinforced the window. Reinforced it a real particular way, tried to lacerate her with it. Had she no reinforced it herself, he would have succeeded.
He hadn't hit her either.
This? This wasn't from the punch. Right before impact, Mizuki teleported in and kicked the spear jammed in Sigurd's back. The wrenching motion counteracted the rotation of his hips and robbed his punch of that last shred of force, that inch of reach. His fist had halted just before it hit Noriko. This wasn't from the punch, this was from its shockwave.
Before she even lands Mizuki is firing, a high caliber bullet streaking towards Sigurd's temple... and pinging the fuck off. Black. His temple is stained black. The running ink, the black blood his tattoo turned into, it rushed to his head, and as her bullet struck him, spectral scales materialized to block it.
Fuck.
She teleports again, dodging a retaliatory kick as Emily goes for his gut. Sure enough, the black blood races to his stomach, ghostly scales forming to obstruct her shadowy fist. This time, Noriko is ready however, the fading embers, the last remnants of her Agneyastra gather, and the scales
ignite. Acacius' fist punches through the flames jabbing Sigurd and delivering his payload.
Instead of retaliating this time, Sigurd opts to toss away his captured spear and beat his hand against the one lodged in his chest absolutely
launching it out at absurd velocity and blowing it through the wall behind him. Darkness congeals in his hand forming a mechnical heart and the world seems to warp around him.
It feels almost like being caught in an explosion. Mizuki and Emily find themselves being forced away, not by a blast of force, but rather by the space between them and Sigurd
expanding. The restaurant, the broken furniture, the burning corpses they seem to just be blasted away completely, the world being ripped out from under the squad's feet, and replaced with something else entirely.
Y'all find yourselves in a veritable dragon's hoard of spent bullet casings glistening gold beneath the sunbeams filtering from above. The dragon is dead, synthetic blood pouring from where its chest was ripped open and its heart torn out. Its blood fills the miniature caldera around which its sparking mechanical form is wrapped, faint wisps of gunsmoke rising from the cannon it had for a head.
Standing in the center of the caldera, wounds healed and arms glowing is Sigurd. This is his Sanctuary. His turf.
Sanctuaries are supernatural alternate spaces. Think of them as pocket dimensions of sorts. On Earth where there is very little ambient spirit energy, they can typically only be created on leylines.
Aramitama however can create their own sanctuaries without the use of leylines. These typically serve as their hideouts and bases of operations. However, some may instead opt to weaponize them, overlaying them onto the external world to help them fight.
An anomaly is a supernatural distortion created by an Aramitama. Within the area of effect of an anomaly, they receive certain boons. These can range from things like being able to quickly teleport back to it, to being flat-out impossible to kill.
The center of an anomaly typically looks like some sort of heart and must be destroyed to stop its effects (though some anomalies might self-destruct as the price for using them).
As the area of effect of an anomaly cannot cross out of a Sanctuary, Aramitama that wish to use their effects outside of one will need to conceal them somewhere.
((Sigurd meanwhile just opted to essentially sacrifice the power of his new Anomaly to heal himself since he got so badly wounded.))
Emily, Mizuki, you both are standing fairly close to Sigurd in the caldera, not in melee range just yet but not too far off, you both can close in real quick even without using any tricks. Noriko, you're further out; the two spears you didn't send to engage him are about the same distance from him as you are, the two spears you did fight him with are even further out due to getting thrown or launched by him.
A metallic
three-section staff coils out of the blood into one of Sigurd's hand, followed by a very modern-looking belt-fed automatic rifle.
He's going to open fire on Emily and Noriko, not moving to close in or maintain distance.
Emily
Status: Fine, Torpor (1 Turn Remaining), 1 healing potion
World Line: 5 2 1 2 5 1 1 3 4 2
Alterations: 4.5
Resolve: 3
Mizuki
Status: Fine, 1 healing potion
World Line: 5 2 3 1 2 5 3 2 5 2
Alterations: 5.0
Resolve: 3
Noriko
Status: Hurt, winded, 1 healing potion
World Line: 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 3 6 4
Alterations: 5.0
Resolve: 3
Sigurd Sauer
Status: Fine, Skip A Beat (1 Turn Remaining), poisoned by Torpor (1 dose), armed with a three-section staff and a belt-fed automatic rifle
Location: Caldera center
Details: Firing on Emily and Noriko with the rifle.
Sigurd would've landed a glancing blow on Noriko if Mizuki hadn't performed a close-range teleport strike. Actually he'd have landed a direct hit if she didn't have a spear in his back (since even if Mizuki didn't teleport in she would have used the spear to throw off his punch).
Congratulations all - Shichiro may be dead, but you've dealt enough damage to his body Sigurd had to use his Anomaly to heal. If he had taken less damage, that Anomaly would've turned into a doppelganger and you'd be fighting two of the fuckers and his kit was very much designed for that kind of fight.
Torpor will begin to take effect in subsequent turns. The Hyper Duration only covers how long before Emily's attacks stop inflicting the poison, the actual poison and its effects will continue even after the Hyper expires.
Sigurd did not contest Emily's attack as he did not expect Agneyastra to disrupt his armor.
Author
Topic: Tengoku no Owari RR IC - The Dragonslayer (Read 2626 times)