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[Powder Miner]

Faith's gaze towards the twins was full of something alright, but it wasn't homicidal or killing intent, just raw frustration. These fucking two, she swore to God, they were uniquely frustrating to deal with. She made an irritated groan in the back of her throat, and without speaking, but with baring her teeth, she tried again, this time trying to generate a dual-emotion shield under the gap to cover their side of the court and then move it upwards -- if she could catch all four balls with the same shield, even if it was stretched thin and couldn't meaningfully stop them on its own, then she could control them and in so doing stop them that way.

[Empiricist]

Minato

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Minato: 6, Hyper[3], ? ? ?

Alabaster Pugilist 02: 4, Hyper[6]
Alabaster Pugilist 05: 6, Hyper[5]
Alabaster Pugilist 06: 1, Hyper[5]
Alabaster Pugilist 07: 6, Hyper[4]
Alabaster Pugilist 08: 3, Hyper[4]
Alabaster Pugilist 09: 2
Alabaster Pugilist 10: 5

[Now Playing:

Enemies

]

Flames consume you though they do not burn you,
standing here defiant though fortune has once again spurned you.
With these cut and trembling hands you grasp,
a childish dream that seems further each day than the last.

The path to being a hero is not the same the stories tell,
nor is it one you can claim to follow especially well.
Yet to this and every challenge hence you shall rise.
For man errs, till he has ceased to strive.

And so in an arc your hand does trace,
conjuring flame and steel with measured haste
as you entertain a most curious thought in your mind
seeking to pay the alabaster bastards back in kind.

Chain and spear now blend
uniting as harbinger to a most gruesome end.
A ward against the foe that approaches,
tip tracing the airspace it encroaches,
your adversary ablur,
their fans awhirr,
as their hammer crashes down upon you.

The price you paid was a pittance,
a forgery sacrificed to shield you from the weapon's emittance,
the blast throwing you back,
widening the gap,
though you've most certainly seen better days.

Yet here you still stand, injuries be damned,
and for that you have been rewarded.

Your foes served up on a silver platter,
make haste, no time for swagger;
your target's in range, your munitions deranged,
you let loose and take the fucking shot.

Your arrow sings a symphony
with the scream and hiss of promised calamity.
Tongues of flame becoming burning chains
as it streaks towards its prey.

Through the vanguard's body it tears, piercing all the way into the formation's rear.
Two now chained, most certainly maimed, and subject to an awful lot of buggery.

With the enemy riposted (and the narrator's care for rhyme exhausted), you turn your attention to other matters at hand. 05 is, actually still active, they were fast enough to leap off the ladder as you impaled 02, 09 meanwhile, well, they're chained up with 02 and let's just....

BANG!

They're out of the equation now.

05 you fire another arrow at but they manage to dodge away, riding the blastwave backwards, at least you've disarmed them and widened the gap, plus now you're the one with the range advantage. 10, proves to be similarly fast, managing to leap off its ladder and out of your third arrow's path, 06 isn't so fortunate. You weren't aiming at them though they were pretty close to your target on the ladder, and they did manage to move out the way of the arrow too, but unfortunately for them, a simple dodge like that ain't enough. Proximity detonation, bitch. Yeah they're on the floor now, casing all cracked and spear blown out of their hands.

07 and 08 continue their charge as you reset your footing and adjust your skirt.

Wait, skirt?

You bring a shield closer, you can barely recognize the man in the mirror so to speak. For starters, it takes you a moment to realize it's a man. The uh, good news is you look super cute with that light makeup and those hair decorations? Is that good news? The bad news is uh, your armor is missing and instead you're dressed in an adorable frilly maid outfit and you could probably pass for a girl.

Oh also 07 and 08 are lunging at you with folding chairs that you've the sinking feeling are going to explode, 10 is hurling a spear at you, and 05 and moving over to retrieve its ladder.

Spoiler: World Lines (click to show/hide)

Minato
Status: Critical, Gandiva, 5 stockpiled units
World Line: 1 2 5 5 2 2 1 5 6 1
Alterations: 5
Resolve: 3

Alabaster Pugilist 02
Status: Defeated

Alabaster Pugilist 05
Status: Fine

Alabaster Pugilist 06
Status: Casing badly cracked, prone

Alabaster Pugilist 07
Status: Fine, armed with a folding chair

Alabaster Pugilist 08
Status: Fine, armed with a folding chair

Alabaster Pugilist 09
Status: Defeated

Alabaster Pugilist 10
Status: Fine

Spoiler: Notes (click to show/hide)

Faith
Shield comes out, sorta okay? You're not entirely used to applying it to things other than yourself. Then you stretch it out and, yeah. It just, disintegrates into a haze of energy, sorta like your blinding spell but more dispersed. Hmm... maybe you could use this? You doubt you'll be able to stop the balls in time just by contaminating and manipulating them, but maybe you could do something to the haze?

[Powder Miner]

Faith, evidently somebody with a positively boundless well of frustration, let out yet another aggrieved groan. This time, she openly made a haze of the dual emotions, not even trying to shape it into a shield — and she let a lot of her annoyance into this particular haze, hoping to cause it to damage the balls at the same time as it gave her control of them. Hopefully the damage from the negative aspects of the haze would combine with her own slowing control to destroy the balls before they could detonate.

[Empiricist]

Faith
Right, so you pump more and more negativity into the haze, the whole mess coming alive with rumbling arcs of purple energy, like a particularly angry thundercloud. Unfortunately while the balls do slow well uh, remember how you've limited your output and how you've been blasting the shit outta the balls with focused beam and explosives prior? Yeah uh, that cloud ain't gonna cut it.

Boom.

This time, the twins just immediately call down the redo immediately.

Okay, so you deploy a haze, you can't damage the balls directly (though you'll certainly keep this trick in mind for later), but you can pump energy through it and you can manipulate it, maybe you can do something with that?

>[] Do the haze again, but this time manipulate it into condensing into four shields
>[] Do the haze again, but use it to fire off a barrage of bolts
>[] Do the haze again, and try channeling a beam that comes out of one corner, then another, and so on
>[] Haze, focus them to just the corners, gather energy, when the balls come through, pump those fuckers full of energy and hard manip them
>[] Do something else
>[] Fuck it, let's have a look at them tomes, they can't be that bad, right? ...right?

[Powder Miner]

Another annoyed noise emanated from Faith. However, she was getting an idea. Though her memory of the fight with that fucking Stalin thing was mostly a blur, she did remember that with her magic lingering around Stalin she’d still had control over it to some extent. So, maybe, if she could achieve the same thing... admittedly, she wasn’t in the kind of mood that would make A Hit For Hope EXTRA powerful, but it was a pretty fucking strong spell either way, and if she could get it to somehow combine with the probably-Don’t-Look-At-Me cloud, then maybe she could make some sort of expanding explosion homing cloud that would pour into the explosive balls, or something.

And that’s what she tried to do.

[Empiricist]

Faith
With rumbling roar the cloud just fucking explodes upwards, thickening and roiling with newfound power. It sweeps over the balls and then compresses, splitting apart into four small tempests that sink down into the spheres of energy, like water whirling down a drain. The balls now crackle with the same energies as your magic, fiercely so to, you've basically made them your bitch.

You hurl them up and then... a fucking shower of tiny balls appear, your four big contaminated ones currently in their midst.

[Powder Miner]

Well, with all of the effort that Faith had expended over the course of this training session, she didn't feel like she could summon up another Hit for Hope... but thankfully, she might not have to. She HAD just saturated the four balls with the energy of an extremely explosive and powerful homing double magic cloud, after all... and, after all, the balls DO detonate. So she spaced them out to hit the entire crowd of balls, and then she detonated all four of the balls, hoping that the energy in them would boost her explosion.

[Empiricist]

Faith
And detonate they do, pulses of energy crashing out from the four orbs and into the shower of balls. Long story short, the barrage is halted and it all fizzles. The barriers disengage.

"Congratulations. You're free."
You're pretty sure they're just saying shit again, but holy hell you can't help but agree, that was fucking awful.

[Empiricist]

Faith
For the moment the breeze is a gale, coastal winds scattering a shower of petals through the market. In times past, sailors staked their lives on such fickle winds, lives and fortunes, kingdoms and futures made and broken by their whims. Your past was much the same, winds more figurative, but no less capricious. Is your present the same? Are you still a slave to fortune or have you the strength to forge your own path? It's hard, hard to say, the world feels stranger like, more dangerous too, manic, mad. You thought you only had, to put it lightly, only the rest of your life to worry about. But no, there's assassins too, and Kung Fu Hitler, and whatever the hell Sol and Luna are. And yet, and yet, you have agency, don't you? A card and account off-realm, magic arcane and vaguely war crimey at your fingertips. Hell, you could even run away if you so chose. Become an adventurer or something, live out the rest of your days here, never to return. The winds blow once a more, putting an end to your reverie as-

Oh fuck, that's not a regular wind.

[Now Playing:

Sable

]

A cocoon of petals rushes into the air before exploding open. You see a girl in a hooded cloak as red as her rose petals taking aim with her weapon - some kinda elaborate cross between lance and rifle. The gunfire follows swiftly, antimaterial rounds crashing down into the marketplace.

Y'know for people caught up in all this, the civies seem pretty fucking chill about the whole thing, the largest reaction you see being someone taking out a camera to film it all.

It's not like long before her quarry reveals themselves, crashing through a stall, the tables and wares rearranging as soon as they're clear. It's... you're pretty sure that's a keijo practitioner. She's dressed in one of those one-piece swimsuits that Yoake seems to fond of, augmented with coats, boots and belts formed of colored smoke. Wings of blood tear free of her back as she weaves near with frightful speed, speed that is soon matched when the girl in red comes crashing down upon her.

It was a vicious thrust, a diving strike aimed to crush and impale. A shame it missed. The spike buries itself into the pavement as the Keijo practitioner side steps out of the the way, moving to retaliate, but the oxymoronic sniper isn't done just yet. She pulls the trigger and the spike seems to burn with energy, petals of light scattering off its radiant form as it explodes out from the pavement in a brutal cleave. This time, the Keijo practitioner isn't so lucky. She moves to dodge but the energized lance catches her arm blasting it clean off. Not that is slows her down. Her arm's gone but the blood inside it stayed, a whirling disembodied mass of blood vessels that shift into a hand, a claw, and then a cleaving limb that scythes through the air aiming to pay the sniper back in time. You see the practitioner use some kinda vial and limb just explodes with flames, though not even that is enough as her foe parries the strike with her own weapon, sent skidding backwards as her rifle ejects an empty cartridge.

Festival duels as you've been told are to first blood, but neither fighter seems to be about to break it off, though you think you got a good idea why - the practitioner's arm is regenerating and a frightening rate too.

Wait a minute, isn't that...

Sakurako
You've been shot, stabbed, dismembered, beaten, blasted, thrown, slashed, and you feel fucking great. No seriously, you feel amazing. Any pain you might be in is just utterly buried under a minty numbness that pervades your body, and above and beyond that you feel euphoric. You feel happier, the world seems brighter, vibrance and violence blending into a colorful blur. You're alert, you're focused, you're also missing an arm, but it'll be back soon. The infusion syringe, that you won't be getting back, but that's fine, Marta blew one of her cartridges too on that attack, didn't have much to show for it either, and when it comes down to it, the longer this drags on, the better it is for you. You're not just getting faster, you're getting better, better at leveraging your techniques, better at controlling your powers. That blood claw? You couldn't do that before that's for sure.

Here's another: your foes aren't dumb, they can see the writing on the wall as well as you can.

"<This is bad, she keeps getting faster and faster.>"
"<We'll finish this quick then, you ready?>"
"<No, but let's go for it anyway.>"

Marta spins Alfbern in a circle before slashing at thin air, more of her rose petals scattering before the pair.

" Bankai! Godslaying Crimson Thorn! "
"<Soul Resonance! Marche Au Supplice!>"

Hey wait, isn't that Faith back there?

Spoiler: World Lines (click to show/hide)

Sakurako
Status: Critical, missing arm has regenerated its skeletal structure, 23 stacks of the Clock Up
World Line: 3 2 3 5 6 4 1 3 2 1
Alterations: 4.5
Resolve: 3

Marta
Status: Fine

Alfbern
Status: Fine

Spoiler: Notes (click to show/hide)

You have four infusion syringes remaining. They briefly endow your blood with elemental properties. I'll let you decide what the remaining four are.

In TnO++, you gain 0.5 Alterations per turn up to a maximum of 5. You can add or subtract 1 from a die in your World Line using one Alteration. You can spend as many Alterations as you want per turn. Result burning and the old Alterations are not possible in this.

[ragnarok97071]

This is all... extremely concerning. Okay. Priorities. Don't get Faith involved. She's got her own problems, don't need to make her save you.

again.

again.

Wow you really suck, huh? Best not make it a third time. Still, this was cool as shit.

Shit, they were doing some bullshit. some over-the-top finishing move probably. Well, only one thing for it.

Clock Up 4

Her veins swell, and she feels lightning surge through her veins, the world slowing just that tiny bit, and she sprints to the side, zig-zagging through the market, behind stalls, under low barriers, trying to both draw them away from Faith and hopefully lose them in the sprawl to give her a moment to heal and go on the offensive without her blood spraying out of her mangled arm like a firehose.

Well. More than usual, anyway.

Alter to a 6 since they appear to be about to do some crazy shit.

World Line: 3 2 3 5 6 4 1 3 2 1

[Twinwolf]

Send a black arrow towards the courier, then charge the guy down. Did I say you could get away?

Also laugh in a mildly maniacal and probably concerning way.

[Empiricist]

Yuki and Noriko

Spoiler: Rolls (click to show/hide)

Noriko: 2, Hyper[3], Fiat
Yuki: 1

Gwen: 5
Munificient Paladin: 6, Hyper[5]
Audacious Courier: 6, Hyper[3]
Reticent Magus: 6, Hyper[5]

[Now Playing:

完全感覚Dreamer

]

It starts with a spark, an ember, a counterspell. Basic. Weak. Trivial. Get a good teacher and you could learn it in a day. Or a night. A lone flame that burns with and burns away magic. To try and counter the blast was madness, like trying to stop a runaway car with peashooter. The difference in power, the difference in magnitude, it is undeniable.

But if the still air can be roused to a tempest, then so too could this flame be kindled to a raging inferno.

From the spark it grows, a roaring conflagration burning a deep red as it rages. It consumes the blast, it consumes the shrapnel, it consumes itself. In the end, there is nothing but flames, flames and a spear lancing through them.

The munificent paladin staggers backwards as the spear crashes against her side, a brief pause opening in her wild sprays as she rights herself, Noriko herself taking the time to disengage. Light rises from the point of impact, and girl begins to heal. Looks like it'll take something a bit harder to take her out of commission.

The courier rushes forth, magus blasting into the air and landing in his arms as he speeds forwards along his aerial path, Yuki and her black arrow in hot pursuit. Still, there's a coupla issues. Firstly, the arrow's fast, but it's no faster than Yuki, in fact it seems to move at the exact same pace meaning it's less an attack and more just a one woman pincer manuever. Secondly, it can't fly, it's restricted to the ground, and the courier is in the air. And lastly, he is simply faster, if only because of his boost. Still, he won't reach the girl in time. He might be fast, but the black tide had a headstart, and now they leap up, a tidal wave seeking to crush her.

"<Ruben! The armor!>"

There's a blast, smoke and debris rising from her position. The audacious courier darts out dragging the the magus and the pugilist behind him by their collars. He starts moving for the paladin but-

"<Take Ruben and Gwen. Run.>"
"<Are you insane? You won't last a minute against those monsters.>" He pauses wincing awkwardly before glancing at Yuki. "<No offence by the way, but you guys are crazy strong. _{Please don't mark me down for that.}>"

"<A minute's a good enough head start.>"
"<And you? You won't escape.>"
"<No, I suppose I won't. I'm not much use anyway; any good hit and we're done for.>"
"<Ah- wha- No! We're not leaving you behind! If anything I should stay! I screwed up!>"
"<You won't last. Please, I'm begging you, run.>"

With resignation she gets back into stance, gun barrel tracing along with Noriko's movements.

"<And er, Gwen, win this one for us please.>"

Ruben tosses her two spellcircles and gets to work on casting a third on her. The courier accelerates again, moving to disengage. Gwen can only watch helplessly as she's dragged away.

Steeling herself, the munificent paladin opens fire once more determination in her eyes, and wisps of light leaking from the gaps in her plating.

"<I am Nadiye Esposito, Paladin-in-training and student of Kingshaven Military Academy. This will be my last stand!>"

The first spell circle begins to explode above her, threatening to scatter cluster explosives around her position, gritted teeth betraying the pain now eating away at her.

So what she's planning, a self-empowerment technique like Minato's dai-henshin. It'll burn away at her, eating away at her more and more. She's on borrowed time now, but if she took a good hit it'd all be over anyway. Apparently anyway? It's doubtful she'd die, but it's doubtful they're expecting any fatalities at all, the courier spoke of this like it's some kind of exam?

Spoiler: World Lines (click to show/hide)

Noriko
Status: Fine
World Line: 5 6 5 1 1 5 3 6 1 6
Alterations: 5
Resolve: 3.5

Yuki
Status: Somewhat hurt, some shielding
World Line: 2 2 4 1 2 3 3 2 3 4
Alterations: 3
Resolve: 3

Gwen
Details: Getting dragged away by the Courier
Status: Critical

Nadiye
Details: Spraying bullets at Noriko, activating a self-damaging buff
Status: Somewhat hurt

Audacious Courier
Details: Fleeing the combat area
Status: Fine

Rube
Details: Getting dragged away by the Courier, cluster bombing around Nadiye, tossing her another bomb, and equipping a third to her.
Status: Fine

Spoiler: Notes (click to show/hide)

Fiat: Noriko's stats are being refactored. As such, her action was run based on her estimated post-refactor capabilities rather than her current capabilities.

[Powder Miner]

Faith awkwardly raised a hand in a half-wave as Sakurako blasted by, but just as awkwardly lowered it because, you know, Sakurako was in the fucking middle of a fight. A super gory one, too, Faith hadn’t realized that Sakurako could do that and to be frank it was kinda freaky. Maybe it was one of those festival duels they had around the city? Probably was. But, uh... well, Faith decided she would follow along at a little bit of a distance A: just in case and B: because if it is a duel she didn’t really have anything better to do than watch anyway.

[Empiricist]

Faith and Sakurako

Spoiler: Rolls (click to show/hide)

Sakurako: 6, Hyper[4]

Marta: 5, Hyper[R]
Alfbern: 4, Hyper[R]

An unearthly aura envelops the girl as her rifle turns to light. Its silhouette alters as two pieces split off from the mass and attach to her. The rifle has traded its complex mechanisms for a sleeker more elegant construction, while a pair of triangular speaked-lined have attached to the girl. You hear that disembodied voice again, now reverberating with a hint of feedback.

"<Wavelength Identified as -  Execution Type. Commencing amplification.>"

[Now Playing:

King Nothing

]

A dull riff resounds from the speakers as a sphere of twisted light expands outwards, catching Sakurako as she dives to disengage, trapping her within a snowglobe of stained glass. Rose petals fall freely within while hues and colors seem shifted. Everything seems slower. The girl because she's no longer dashing, Sakurako because well, it's as if she's moving through treacle. Whatever speed advantage she had has been practically leveled with her movements now only faster by a sliver. Though even in that span of time, her arm has already regenerated.

With movements measured and deliberate, the girl loads another cartridge into her weapon, the spike retracting as it lets loose a burst of anti-material rounds towards Sakurako as she advances, aiming to close the gap.

You hear a voice and turn to find yourself standing face to face with a lady with bat-like wings dressed in what appears to be a mix of a smart casual dress and tactical armor "<Guessing you know her?>".

Spoiler: World Lines (click to show/hide)

Sakurako
Status: Mostly fine, 35 stacks of the Clock Up, slowed by the Execution Wavelength
World Line: 2 3 5 6 1 3 2 1 4 5
Alterations: 2
Resolve: 3

Marta
Status: Fine

Alfbern
Status: Fine

Spoiler: Notes (click to show/hide)

Kudos to Strider for the music suggestion.

[Strider03]

There was nothing more he could really do for now. The adversaries--both his and the girls'--were not making any moves, and Shef knew it'd be useless to attack them himself right now. This seemed to be their preparation phase, and now would be one of the only times he could get away with little risk. And he'd certainly be able to find them again. So he left, wandering his way through the crowd, in a direction that would take him to some more lightly packed streets.

There, he took out a phone, and began to search for locations where he might buy some combat useful items, and headed over, building up a list all the while in his head.