Zoanthrope EngagedAs Hayato and Tohru get the last child out of the park, the newly-transformed heroes are the only things standing between the gargantuan Zoanthrope and the rest of Touto. It releases another high-pitched grunt, seemingly pained, wrenching itself away from the splinters of the destroyed stage, facing the party and studying them with its glowing crimson eyes.
In this moment, it is no predator, but prey, a cornered rat faced by many foes. It staggers back for a moment, before stamping its feet on the ground, grunting (or is that a whimper). It is this moment that you remember one thing, just one important thing.
A cornered rat fights worse than one with hope of escape.
[Now Playing: Astalos Battle Theme]Party
Agatha: 3, Skill [3]
Amelie: 3
Haruko: 3
Juliet: 1
Maki: 4, Skill [3]
Suzu: 4, Skill [4]
Taro: 4
Viverra: Alteration [5]
Yamato: 5, Skill [4]
Yui: 4, Skill [4]
Enemy
Cetus Zoanthrope: 6, Skill [6]
Maki and Yui, being the closest to the Zoanthrope, move quickest towards it. Yui stands still for a moment, strumming an excellent tune that seems to fill the muscles of the whole group with energy. The whole group feels faster, moving far quicker than they really ought to.
The red-clad Kamen Rider launches herself directly at the beast, her gauntlet sparking with blue lightning as she collides with its side. Her fist smashes into its target with force unrivalled; had this Zoanthrope been anything less than a massive beast, had it been closer to her size, the force of the blow would've sent it flying, or at the very least staggered it. As it stands however, it barely moves from the force of the blow, but Maki isn't one to be deterred; she may not be trained in fighting, but experience has taught her much. Her fists carry on her momentum, landing blow after blow on it, the metallic, plastic-like hide of the beast seeming to buckle and crack against Maki's strikes. The Zoanthrope responds by shoving her roughly back, attempting to ram her hard, but its own attack attempt barely fazes Maki, whose body seems to spark with electricity before mitigating the impact.
Maki's attacks, however, have left their mark as it leans on its left, the hide on its right side sparking and the hide in that area clearly bent and cracked.
Amelie, Taro and Yamato arrive next.
Amelie jumps around, evading Maki being hurled back with her typical deftness, gliding through the air with all the grace her magic can muster, slingshotting around her allies before hurling herself at high speeds towards the Zoanthrope's side, her foot colliding with the spot Maki struck. The Cetus Zoanthrope releases another pained cry, groaning as it swipes Amelie back with a roar, but the damage is done; its movements are slower as Amelie's gravity magic takes hold, and the cracked area on its side splinters more, and Amelie is able to right herself faster than her friend.
Yamato follows up on Amelie's attack, ducking underneath Amelie, his sword attempting to cut through the Zoanthrope's hide on its legs; his blade, however, simply grinds against the seemingly-soft and simultaneously-hard material that its hide is made from, simply sliding off. He feels the energy and strength of the earth fill him as Agatha uses her magic upon him. Undeterred, Yamato continues his assault, stabbing upward into the wounded area that Maki and Amelie have softened up. The earth cracks beneath the Zoanthrope, staggering it further and causing it to raise its wounded leg up to avoid further pain, but the ground beneath it shifts with the cracks, causing it to almost trip.
The beast roars with another keening noise as Yamato's strike hits skin beneath its hide, drawing blood. Yamato attempts to follow through, but the Zoanthrope throws him off, delivering a powerful kick against him in mid-stride. The effect is akin to a fly being swatted by a flyswatter.
Yamato is hurled back, heavily bruised and winded by the blow. Nothing he can't shake off, but he should probably be more careful about getting too close to something so big.
Taro arrives shortly after, running and attempting to distract the Zoanthrope, phasing through Maki as she stops herself from being hurled back.
It seems to decide one thing that moment, however. If Taro wants to be hit, then so be it.
And hit Taro it does.
Along with everyone else within distance.
With a loud, shrill roar, the Zoanthrope seems to be taken by a berserker rage and lashes out as much as it can, using its body to swipe and smash everyone and anything around. Taro is first hit; even with his ghostly, intangible body, the rampage still catches him, throwing him back a decent distance, his body flickering with the force of the strike. Maki is also caught in the burst, thrown backwards, her barrier breaking and unable to mitigate the damage much, and Yui, standing within range, is also hurled back somewhat. Sato and Amelie are also smacked around in its self-destructive rampage, thrown around, but being farther than Maki, Yui and Taro are, they're effectively just scraped.
Viv takes this opportunity to call in her inner cowboy and borrow some stuff from ACME, throwing a cartoonishly-large lasso on top of the Zoanthrope. Of course, the difference is most horses aren't almost as large as a small house, aren't usually rampaging around like the bastard son of Godzilla and the Hulk, and aren't abominations of nature. But of course, Viv is a living cartoon character.
So of course, Viv ends up dragging herself on top of it, and of course she's now riding the Zoanthrope, with the lasso as her reins. Well done.
Juliet throws things at the Zoanthrope, but given her luck, all she manages to really hit it with is a pair of fluffy dice and some interesting-smelling pom-poms, the smell of which actually staggers her for a few seconds as she hurls it wide and misses her target.
Not so unsuccessful, however, are the combined barrages of Suzu and Haruko, plasma and magical orbs hailing down on top of the beast's hide. The hide on top, as with Maki's own attack, starts to buckle and crack with the barrage, as the Zoanthrope screeches and attempts to swipe Viv off of it and move away from the blasts as the hide on its back, a few inches behind Viv, begins to crack. It manages to collect itself, roaring defiantly (and woundedly) at its assailants as it moves away from the cracked ground with surprising deftness for its size, attempting to regain its footing.
Party:
All: Accelerando
Agatha
Status: Healthy
World Line: [1 6 5 5 6 2 4 1 5 3]
Alterations: 3
Will: 3
Amelie
Status: Slightly Wounded
World Line: [1 4 1 3 4 1 6 1 2 3]
Alterations: 3
Will: 3
Haruko
Status: Healthy, Low Criticality
World Line: [1 4 4 3 3 2 1 6 4 4]
Alterations: 3
Will: 3
Juliet
Status: Healthy, Staggered
World Line: [2 5 4 1 4 1 4 4 4 3]
Alterations: 3
Will: 3
Maki
Status: Fairly Wounded
World Line: [4 6 2 6 4 2 5 3 5 4]
Alterations: 3
Will: 3
Suzu
Status: Healthy
World Line: [2 3 4 4 2 2 3 5 5 1]
Alterations: 3
Will: 3
Taro
Status: Slightly Wounded
World Line: [2 4 5 1 5 5 1 5 6 3]
Alterations: 3
Will: 3
Viverra
Status: Healthy, Riding the Zoanthrope
World Line: [1 6 4 2 3 5 2 1 2 1]
Alterations: 3
Will: 3
Yamato
Status: Fairly Wounded, Winded, Strength of the Earth
World Line: [1 1 5 6 1 2 5 3 6 2]
Alterations: 3
Will: 3
Yui
Status: Fairly Wounded
World Line: [3 4 5 1 5 3 3 4 5 6]
Alterations: 3
Will: 3
Enemy:
Cetus Zoanthrope
Status: Fairly wounded, right side weakened, back weakened, right front leg bleeding
Author
Topic: Rise of the Magic Girls: Rebirth [IC]: The Spider, Snake and Bat (Read 43991 times)