MinatoMinato: 2
Thousand-Faced Bodhisattva: 5, Hyper[5]
You drive Rho Ais forwards right against the Bodhisattva's fist. Myth becomes ruin, protection becomes destruction, the seven petaled flower blooming as an explosion. Yet then, even then, you know it has failed. You've stopped the punch yes, but your chain has not moved, your foe still stands, and as the embers of legend fade, you see that they are unscathed, and all that has moved was their arm, now clocked back by the blast, ready to deliver their answer.
"IN OUR THOUGHTS LIE OUR RUIN, IN OUR DESIRES OUR DOOM. THE MIND IS ITS OWN PLACE, AND IN ITSELF CAN MAKE A HEAVEN OF HELL, A HELL OF HEAVEN. TO ACCEPT THAT WHICH IS BEYOND OUR CONTROL, TO DISCARD THE BASE INSTINCTS THAT DRIVE US, THAT, IS TO TRANSCEND. TO BECOME GREAT, TRULY GREAT, GREATER THAN THE WORLD THAT BINDS US, GREATER THAN THE CHAINS AND SHACKLES OF EXISTENCE ITSELF!"Oh great, they're monologuing. Not the good "go have a breather while I speak" kinda monologuing either, no, it's the kind punctuated with their fist slamming into your chest.
"DO YOU UNDERSTAND NOW? YOU CANNOT HURT ME MINATO! ONLY -I- CAN HURT ME!"Right so they just fucking deck you, and we're not talking about your typical anime-style "throw a man across the room" punch either, we're talking a proper punch, a real punch, a punch you feel deep in your body, a punch where you just fucking crumple. You stagger backwards. You'll admit, that one hurt. You've had worse though, and your foe looks to be about to do much worse.
The lotus sigil traces out beneath them blooming into a ring of swords, their forms forged from starlight, their blades pointed to the heavens, and their formation caging the two of you within.
Thr Bodhisattva disengages their armor with that high-pitched noise, their arms energizing into light and multiplying. Their arms on their left remain bound. The arms on their right readying bombard you again with that godawful barrage of punches they opened the fight with. Not a problem normally, but now you're kinda caged in. Their eye glows red, another beam soon to discharge, just in case. Lovely.
Hmm. No escape eh? That laser's your biggest problem right now - it cover a lotta area most crucially their left side. Were it not for that thyou'd have a damn good opening - bound arms can't punch and if they struggle too much you could blow them right off just like how they escaped your chains the first time. Hmm, alternatively... that armored state could be why explosion didn't affect them. If it's offline right now you could try blasting them again. Those arms can sacrifice themselves the same way your forgeries can, and that beam could probably handle point defense too... is there another angle? Another angle they haven't covered? No. How about then, an angle they
can't have covered?
Minato
Status: Hurt, staggered, Gandiva, Gleipnir (wrapped around Thousand-Faced's left arm), 6 stockpiled units, 5 healing potions
World Line: 6 2 2 5 4 5 6 1 4 4
Alterations: 1
Resolve: 2
Thousand-Faced Bodhisattva
Status: Left arm is charred and bound
I'd strongly suggest spending some Resolve and maybe getting your healing potions readied
Noriko and Yuki"<You two turned in a bounty for an Abyssal Choir early last night. According to our records you engaged it in combat because you misheard its song and thought it had insulted your mother. Upon being presented with the bounty both of you proceeded to whoop and dance for two minutes and fifty eight seconds before taking up a quest to retrieve a bioweapon from the ruins of an Atlantian black site. About an hour later your friend called our desk because you had apparently imbibed the contents of a mysterious flask and felt dizzy. We eventually determined the contents of the flask to be an augmented whiskey. Judging by the noises in the background of the call we have reason to believe you two were engaged in battle with what remained of the facility's defense system at the time. We did not receive further contact until two hours later in the form of a selfie featuring both of you and the vial. The vial contains what we believe to be a super-virus kept under a containment system. Normally this containment system is charged by the facility's power supply, but now that it is removed it will have fallen back on its back-up batteries, which should in theory last for 24 hours.>"ShefActually yeah, you think that should be kosher.