Optional Battle 4 - Ghosts of WonderlandShef, sometime in the pastIt was an emergency job. A leyline Sanctuary went silent. No idea why. You accepted the job, because you clearly haven't made enough bad life decisions. Packed a second gun, some plastic explosives, and three healing potions.
Leyline location was unremarkable, just off-center of a busy intersection. The Sanctuary not particularly impressive either, basically just a series of concrete rooms, well-maintained save for how all the security drones have been destroyed. No sign of a struggle, all damage dealt by point-blank or internal explosions. Lowish yield. Reminds you of what Minato does to his enemies now, but to a somewhat lesser extent.
You're a ways into the facility now, halfway through the current room, a long chamber with concrete floor and a low ceiling covered entirely with panels of lights.
What happened?
Why are you falling?
You catch yourself. You don't remember your knees buckling. You don't remember popping any of your caches, let alone all ten of them. But there they are, all open.
There's a figure here too. Closing in fast. Their raven hair cut short, their face obscured by a white mask, smooth devoid of any topological features, not even eyeholes, the only feature a magical circle inscribed upon it with black ink, slowly spinning and shifting. They're dressed with a grey suit, grey gloves, and navy long coat. Your enhanced sight reveals that their mask, coat, and boots are all enchanted. Their gloves are Regalia.
They're charging at you now, closing the distance real fast. Two knives appear in their right hand, conjured by their Regalia most likely, and they toss them at you as they charge forwards.
Your comm link has gone dead.
Shef
Status: Fine, off-balance, 3 healing potions
World Line: 1 4 5 3 6 1 2 4 1 4
Alterations: 5.0
Resolve: 3
Unknown
Status: Fine(?)
Details: Charging at Shef and throwing two knives at him
Hoo boy. This one is gonna be a doozy. Assuming I've statted this up right and nothing entirely unexpected happens, fight is going to initially be very very hard. But once you deal enough damage to move onto the next phase things should start to snowball in your favor.
Please specify what other gun Shef took.
References for the current combat area:
-
Reference 1-
Reference 2Knives, no visible eyes, a lot of probably armored regalia, and quite fast. Also trying to kill him, but that was a given.
Rather unwilling to try to stand back up right into the path of oncoming knives, Shef conjured a portal behind himself. The aperture would snap shut, depositing him on his feet off to his assailants side, and ideally cutting off the knives. Prior to this though, he needed to perform a half second experiment. A flash of light, and a command. Well, two commands. One for the assailant to raise his left arm straight out to the side, and the second for the assailant to recall one of the knives.
Ideally he'd know if the enemy was susceptible to his manipulations with this.
Burst of suppressive fire with MP7, requiem to raise arm and retrieve one (1) knife. Fall back through portal and activate Tighten the Noose[5].
[1+3] 4 [5] 3 6 1 2 4 1 4
As you can see, bringing an MP7 for suppressive fire reasons. Using 30 round box magazines of DM11 rounds, using full auto setting even when I say "a burst of suppressive fire". Sticking a "high power" (by irl civilian standards) laser pointer on the picatinny rail. It's not for aiming, it's for blinding people.
Shef: 4, Hyper[5]
Unknown: 6, Hyper[3]
The MP7 portals into your hand, opening fire as you withdraw. Problem - he's gone. Moment you pulled the trigger the man straight up vanishes. Portal closes catching the knives (fuck they're fast) as they're coming through as you reorient in what would be a flanking position. You let out your Requiem still as a precaution but if it did hit him him retrieving the knives ain't on the table (maybe he resisted, maybe he just had no way to retrieve them, you felt no feedback at all).
He's also right in front of you.
There's no way he could've moved this far with his running speed, especially if he made any evasive moves against your spray. If he's a teleporter he shouldn't have been able to react to your reposition. Assuming it's a simple aim and fire thing (albeit with delay in this case). Dash technique hidden under cloaking? The possibilities race through your mind as he seems to crouch low, another knife materializing in his hand as he goes for a thrust.
Shef
Status: Fine, MP7, plastic explosives, 3 healing potions
World Line: 4 3 6 1 2 4 1 4 6 2
Alterations: 2.5
Resolve: 3
Unknown
Status: Fine(?)
Details: Sort of crouching as they go for a thrust with a knife
Shef sucked in air through his gritted teeth with a hiss, processing the enemy's new position. Teleportation, dash faster than he could see, precognition, time stop or similar, illusions, some form of positional lock on, too many options for what could be going on. And in addition, he'd not gotten any intel on requiem susceptibility. He could try that again. It'd be revealing his hand, but he wouldn't be able to rely on the ability unless he knew if it could act through the mask.
Shef steeled his will and fired off another command, this time to hesitate on the stab. This might give him the reprieve to conjure one of his knockback rounds, and trigger it's detonation before he got stabbed. And if that defense worked, he could catch the enemy in a portal, maybe. Might give him some intel on the enemies mobility tool.
Requiem to fumble the knife. Expulser [3] round to push the enemy backwards, portal behind set to snap shut immediately (the effect of Tighten the Noose). Another burst of MP7 fire.
[4] [3] 6 1 2 4 1 4 6 2
Shef: 4, Hyper[3]
Unknown: 4, Hyper[4]
Your Requiem flare to life, flashing through your glasses and burning into your assailant. And for the briefest of instants you feel something push back. Magic resistance. It halts. They don't try to brute force it, that would take time, and you wanted to stall one way or another. Instead they go with the flow, accepting your command and working with it.
They drop the knife continuing their attack not as an upward thrust but as a light slap, forcing your MP7 away from them as you pull the trigger. You open portals to redirect the fire, readying your expulser as they pivot, bringing the lower palm of their other hand against your throat.
You notice three things.
First, in their knife hand they're now crushing a ghostly syringe, a spirit injector like the ones Satoshi uses.
Secondly their fallen knife is detonating, steel unraveling into raw concept and explosive energy, sort of like Minato's regalia but a bit lower in scale.
Thirdly, their coat's enchantment has kick in. All across its surface, diagrammatic inscriptions reveal themselves with a golden glow as magic pours into them. Theurgy most likely. It's powered by the wearer but the actual magic is being invoked from a spirit or deity.
What does this do?
As it turns out, it redirects kinetic energy.
The bullets striking him. The knife detonating next to him. The expulser you've just shot at him. All that kinetic energy dispersed and refocused. Refocused into that strike.
It's like taking a sledgehammer to the throat. The shockwave shatters the lights above you and you find yourself reeling backwards quite hurt and suddenly unable to breath.
Your foe meanwhile gets launched backwards, their coat unable to redirect all the impact from your attacks, launching them at a diagonal angle thanks to a combination of the expulser blast and the MP7 impacts. You notice that the ground where they were standing has shattered too. Excess force likely having been directed into it.
You can't really gauge their status too well. You're guessing they still took some damage from that exchange, but they've come out on top. For now. You clamp your portal shut on their midsection trapping them in place. They brush their hands experimentally against the side of the portal, not really struggling or fighting back.
They're gonna try something. You just know it.
Shef
Status: Quite hurt, staggered, gasping for breath, MP7, plastic explosives, 3 healing potions, Tighten The Noose (2 Turns Remaining)
World Line: 6 1 2 4 1 4 6 2 3 5
Alterations: 3.0
Resolve: 3
Unknown
Status: Probably not entirely fine (?), trapped with a portal closed on their midsection
Details: Probably going to try and break free somehow
Couldn't breath, his windpipe was crushed, albeit not completely and perhaps temporarily. Shef wouldn't let that stop him. Two small portals, leading from the space behind his back into his lungs, an emergency boost of oxygen. It'd feel weird, and it'd likely be extremely unsanitary for anyone not awakened. However he hoped that benefits gained from his status as such would make this feasible.
The enemy could resist his control, and would absorb kinetic energy through it's garments. Two major issues given that the majority of his arsenal was kinetic focused or vectored via them. Priorities now were dealing damage beyond the coat while he had the chance, and getting some of his control bullets in them. The first seemed more pressing, since the limits of this beings resistance to his control were uncertain. He could keep tossing out requiems forever though, and if it tired them out mentally, so much the better.
Backing away on foot, pop another requiem, again for them to slow whatever they're doing. Summon RAM in other hand, fire two rounds with portal to impact back of the enemy's head, followed by Tracer [R] adapting to however they attempt to dodge the initial shots. If they break free, hold off the Tracer, and just fire a few more regular shots aiming back of the head.
[6] 1 2 4 1 4 6 2 3 5
Shef: 6
Unknown: 4, Hyper[4]
Two portals open, bypassing your throat. It's strange. Unpleasant. Feels like shit. You'll live. You Requiem again, this time feeling far more resistance crashing against you. He can't accept condition eh? You conjure your Regalia and pull the trigger.
You catch your fall into into a crouch locking on and putting another two-round burst at the man. It happened again. One moment you were pulling the trigger, the next you find yourself half fallen over, your MP7 on the ground, and your portals gone. Some kind of cognitive effect maybe. But you didn't feel anything. Didn't see anything either.
The moment you pull the trigger the man seems to vanish again, if only for a split second, suddenly now tumbling on his side a few meters away, chest rising and falling. He's panting. That little trick must be quite tiring for him to pull.
Your MP7 portals back into your hand. He steadies himself into a crouching position, tossing a knife your way.
Shef
Status: Quite hurt, MP7, plastic explosives, 3 healing potions, Tighten The Noose (1 Turn Remaining)
World Line: 1 2 4 1 4 6 2 3 5 3
Alterations: 3.5
Resolve: 3
Unknown
Status: Probably not entirely fine (?), tired
Details: Throwing a knife at Shef
That ability of his can't possibly just be negating your spells outright. There's a trick to it and there should be simple enough ways to harden your spells against it.
There it was again, whatever it was had set off his cached portals at the start. Shef was by this point fairly certain that it was no teleport, as he saw no reason for an ability like that to leave an opponent unbalanced, and to cut off his portals. Could some kind of mental lockdown, nullifying his ability to output magical energy and turning off his brain somehow? Maybe time manipulation, Yoake mentioned that in passing at some point.
But that had the option of being general or targetted effect, and the distinction mattered. Could be something else, even weird causality manipulation. Backtracking and choosing an alternate series of events? Now was the time to test, or at least, set up a test.
Portal up for the knife, return to sender. Requiem to tell the guy to take it to the face. Not gonna do anything, but worth seeing how his regalia reacts. Meanwhile pop a healing potion from behind the portal, and set down a small bit of magic C4 with a timed detonator (with convenient display) set to 5 minutes.
[1+1] 2 4 1 4 6 2 3 5 3
You snap open your portal and pop your Requiem, holding him in place as the knife approaches and... There's an explosion as your feet. Blowing your legs out from under you. You pop a portal open as you fall, landing back on your feet if a bit unsteadily.
You didn't notice that attack at all.
Great. More tricks. Your opponent meanwhile manages to blow the redirected knife early, blocking the edge of the blast with his arms and skidding back a short distance.
You pop a potion and drop your timebomb as two more knives fly out at you.
Shef
Status: Fine, off-balance, MP7, plastic explosives, 2 healing potions, time bomb deployed.
World Line: 2 4 1 4 6 2 3 5 3 3
Alterations: 3.0
Resolve: 3
Unknown
Status: Probably not entirely fine (?), tired
Details: Throwing two knives at Shef
Blast took Shef down to very hurt but then he healed.
Now, he simply needed to force the enemy to trigger their ability. The intel seemed like it would be worth shutting down his command abilities, so Shef began forcing that perceptive aura that he'd noticed in Kingshaven outward, filling it again with his will. Not oppressive, just presence. He'd definitely be able to learn something from this.
Energy output in overdrive, Shef popped another portal for the knives, and began to run. If the explosion that'd snuck up on him last time was point conjured, this might make it just a tad harder. If not, he'd probably get hit by it again. However, he himself would either be hitting his target, or forcing him to expend another dodge, due to the combination of RAM and MP7 fire coming in, vectored through two portals to aim for his adversaries head. All the while, waves of aura pounding in the message that his enemy did not want to be hit by this and that he must avoid at all costs.
Instinct [6] and make the enemy nervous about getting hit, portal to dodge knives, run and gun.
[2+2] 4 1 4 [6] 2 3 5 3 3
Shef: 4, Hyper[6]
Unknown: 4
You extend your aura applying your command through it. This time he does not resist. You open fire and once again the moment you pull the trigger he vanishes. Full on vanishes, straight out of your sensory aura too. There's an explosion. Another conjured knife. He reappears a split second later. Clock doesn't skip. Is he pulling a Minato? Propelling himself with the blast?
If so he must still be physically there right? But if that's the case how is he hiding from your aura? There's something seriously wrong here. You try locking onto him but right before you draw a bead he repeats the trick again. And again. A total of five times in fact. Seems unlikely he'd be able to keep this up, just in terms of knifes being expended. But he doesn't need to - he's rapidly closing in.
MP7 clip is running low. He doesn't quite close the gap just yet, opting instead to maintain his distance for now. Watching. Waiting.
Shef
Status: Fine, MP7, plastic explosives, 2 healing potions, time bomb deployed, Instinct (1/3)
World Line: 4 1 4 2 3 5 3 3
Alterations: 1.5
Resolve: 3
Unknown
Status: Probably not entirely fine (?), tired
Details: Nothing?
That was some confirmation. First, the weird falling thing where all his portals went off, that wasn't tied to the dodge technique. They could be used simultaneously probably, but the maneuverability seemed to be some kind of knife detonation assisted by the kinetic redirect, with cloaking of some variety. He should be capable of being hit in the interim period.
This was concerning, because it meant that the clock hadn't confirmed whether Shef's blackouts were prolonged or not. It had only confirmed that his enemy had cloaking and blast propulsion. Current suspicion was also that he could also cloak the knives. But why not do so permanently? Seemed taxing, might be speed related, Shef noted. Of course this wasn't complete confirmation. The cloaking might just be extremely short duration, meaning it was best used for speedy maneuvers.
Still, the blackouts were worrying. For now, he'd need to stall till he came up with a new plan
Expulser[3] down the main approach line. Requiem to dodge, empty the rest of the MP7 mag and a few RAM shots in the area around the Expulser where Shef thinks this guy will dodge. Conjure a portal to open distance a little bit.
[4] 1 4 2 3 5 3 [3]
Shef: 4, Hyper[3]
Unknown: 4, Hyper[5]
You fire off your bullet and your Requiem telling the man to dodge. He does so gladly, doing another precautionary flicker as he launches himself one of the sparser areas opting to take a few more MP7 rounds than brave the RAM's shot. The rounds slam into him and actually launch him a good distance backwards. It's the coat. It's dispersing the impacts to reduce the damage, in exchange for making them throw him around a whole lot more.
Dispersal and redirection? That's a little complicated for a coat like that isn it? A little
too complicated given that it's well, it's
static. The magic in it ain't changing, the theurgical effect is, but the actual magic of the coat, the inscriptions and everything, the part that actually call down the effect, the part that sends the signal, it's been the same both times.
Still you're sure you've done some damage to him in that exchange. He's hurt, and as you've suspected that kind of cloaking trick might work well when you're trying to draw a bead on him, but if you just hose down the whole area there's no aim to throw off. Your MP7's mag falls out, and a fresh one unclips from your belt, falling down into a portal and up into the weapon.
Between impact of the bullets and your portal you've opened the distance up a decent amount.
Wait.
Why is there a knife in your-
The explosion doesn't hurt that much more than the one that hit your legs earlier, but it still hurts, blasting into your chest and throwing you backwards, scarlet droplets scattering in your wake. You're bleeding. Bleeding from your chest; cartoonishly almost, blood spraying as if pressurized, and the bleeding ain't stopping.
Okay, so that knife was probably cursed. And probably not tournament legal. Lovely.
Okay so, you're currently sailing backwards, the gap has only increased further, you're now somewhat hurt and more importantly, bleeding. Not really at risk of bleeding out (yet another benefit of your supernatural endurance) but it's an annoyance nonetheless.
The man tumbles to a halt, readying two knives but not really doing much right now save for getting into a better stance and preparing to dodge. You think. Guy's hit you twice without you even noticing the attack. Bit of a concern normally. Even more now given that you should be able to see magic.
The time bomb has not skipped a single second.
Shef
Status: Somewhat hurt, bleeding from the chest, MP7, plastic explosives, 2 healing potions, time bomb deployed, Instinct (2/3)
World Line: 1 4 2 3 5 3 6 1 5 4
Alterations: 2.0
Resolve: 3
Unknown
Status: Probably hurt (?), tired
Details: Nothing?
Yeah I'll be the first to say that this fight is not fair at all. At least, not in Phase 1
Lovely. Things weren't going to go well with this. Shef had a brief flash of inspiration. . . pop out the lights? But no, no guarantee of that working and he'd already blown his aura up. He'd be in the dark himself as well. He could take a page out of Evi's book. If he could expose the movements even if not the person, he'd maybe be able to avoid these knives. Maybe. At the very least there'd be debris to toss at the guy.
Smack a remote detonator on the rest of the C4, toss it out in front, and detonate when its on the ground. Ram rounds into the ground about midway between Shef and the enemy, Rapid Fire[4] for saturation. He wants dust, if not to coat that which is cloaked, at least to reveal it via it's absence.
[1] 4 2 3 5 3 6 1 5 [4]
Shef: 1, Hyper[4]
Unknown: 4
You toss the plastic explosive and blow it putting up a plume of debris and opening fire.
And it just straight up doesn't work. The fucker still straight up vanishes anyway and you can only pinpoint the location of the blast he's using to launch himself, not actually where the fuck he is. It doesn't make sense.
There's a knife in your MP7 now. In its magazine to be extact. Two injectors worth of energy in it. You don't even bother dropping it focusing simply on pulling the trigger a few more times and as the knife and magazine blow you see a stray RAM round punch through his side. The fruits of your persistence you note with some degree of satisfaction as your world fills with heat and light.
* * *"Nana? Hey Nana?"Huh? Oh. Right. You spaced out again. That's been happening a lot lately, not that you care to admit it.
No, no, you were listening. Just, tired. You've been busy, y'know, with your part time job and everything. That's certainly one way of putting it.
"Oh really? What was I talking about then?"Uh... well you just had English class so it's probably that (right...?)
* * *Ow! Ow! Ow! Not the face! Ow!
Pouting, Ami lets go of your cheeks.
"Geez Nana, I get you're tired but could you at least be honest?"Yeah that idea sounded better in your head. It's just, ugh, (what is wrong with you?) you
can't tell her. Not in any way she'd process at least. So you lie. You smile and say that you got a part-time job somewhere. Something real boring, a service job near your home. Something involving ketchup. Helps explain the stains. You're a bit of a
dojikko right?
Were anyways. The white lies snowball and before you know it you've made a habit of lying to your only other friend. (God you feel guilty).
Okay, it's not
just that, there's something
else, it's always hard untangling your own thoughts, but if it really is what you think it is... well, you'd rather not think about it.
"Okay fine, but don't do it again or you'll be sorry~!"Well that's a terrifying smile. You promise. Least your words promise that. You? You're promising more you won't get caught. Another white lie beneath the
sakura trees. If you had to be honest, you
might've picked this school just for the trees. Okay not really, but they were a big part of the tiebreaker. Father, didn't give a damn (when does he ever?) and you, well you you saw the sakura in bloom and thought it looked like really romantic, like something out of an anime (talk about embarrassing).
They seemed brighter back then.
* * *"Shef?""Shef?""Shef? Can you hear me?"What the fuck was that? That ma- er, girl? She bleeds, memories? Photos too apparently. You see them flowing out of the wound instead of blood. Your MP7's been blown to shit, you've been blown to shit, and your shirt's fucked. Blood is dripping down your head covering one of your eyes and the arm on the same side, the one holding the MP7, is broken and bleeding. Checking the timebomb, you see that whatever the fuck you just experienced, while disorienting as hell, hasn't actually taken much real time at all.
"Comms were jammed. I suppose putting a hole through her disrupted it."You see some kind of energy begin to flow into the girl as she steadies herself and goes on the approach, seeking to close in and engage in melee again.
"Dodge now! Use that kinetic round if you can. Chain your portals to keep changing directions. Reactive defenses are ineffective."Shef
Status: Critical, arm is broken and bleeding, blood obscuring one eye, bleeding from the chest, prone, dazed, plastic explosives, 2 healing potions, time bomb deployed, exhausted
World Line: 4 2 3 5 3 6 1 5 5 2
Alterations: 2.5
Resolve: 3
Nana Alter
Status: Bullet wound to the side, tired(?)
Details: Channeling energy and closing in, Enn suggests taking evasive action using an Expulser and portals
Standing can be a little problematic if your foe is able to sneak past your defenses entirely, because even if you'd get hit anyways it does allow for them to make really precise attacks and Citadel like they did here.
". . .I see." Shef groaned, pulling his good arm, and portalling out his RAM for a potion. Multitasking a bit, he was conjuring the recommended Expulser round near his chest, to blast him through a random series of portals. Ideally he'd keep that broken up concrete between himself and the enemy but that was certainly optimistic.
"Definitely having a bit of trouble figuring out what she's doing to me." If she was full of memories, could she be affecting his, maybe cutting out short term memories or something? Too specific of a power though, it seemed to Shef.
Expulser[3] through a set of fairly random portals. Pop a potion.
[4] 2 3 5 [3] 6 1 5 5 2
Author
Topic: Tengoku no Owari SI IC: Yuki Is (Not) Fine (Read 226444 times)