Roll 71Amatin drew his soulsword, waving it in the air.
"Come on, where is it..."He heard an off-pitch roar--distorted because of the difference in atmosphere--from the other side of the dig site.
The dragon that Amatin had tamed took flight, audibly expelling gas from its mouth. The mixture of air and chemicals evenly spread across the dragon's body, leaving a dragon-shaped trail of it as it flew. It intuitively located Amatin's sword, altering its course for him.
Upon seeing this, the two mercs that Amatin had previously tricked realized what was happening. They abandoned their posts in order to chase the dragon. However, upon firing their weapons, the air around them suddenly combusted and heated up into a mixture of plasma, which infiltrated their suits and fused their joints, immobilizing them permanently.
Amatin turned to rest of the team.
"My dragon is on its way. It will draw the enemy group's fire, but it'll probably try to kill you as well. Run for the dig site as soon as the dragon appears; I'll catch up with you when I make sure it's too busy to come after us.
Meanwhile, provide Varron with some covering fire. Zakroff, get your drone shooting at the repeater guys and whoever strays far enough from Varron."Dragon will arrive next turn. Awaiting further orders.Zakroff nodded, loading the first few shells into his shotgun. He was surprised to feel resistance after only 10 rounds--the weapon seemed as old-fashioned as the pistols he had kept from his childhood days. Shooting at the neighborhood bullies with outdated firearms seemed harmless enough until he became good at it, but now that his life was at stake he had no time to learn how to make a useless weapon useful as he had with his handguns. He cocked the weapon and pressed it against his shoulder, hoping for the best possible outcome as
Varron began his sprint.
As Varron took his leap across the chasm, he realized that only a fool would
not expect him to be a wizard. Thus, he feared that he would be shut down and gutted by enemy fire before he could finish his move. He gulped as he deliberately focused, shutting out all sensory and emotional input, concentrating his energy on developing a spell in order to crush the enemy should his life not end here.
Intended Effect: Create an energy shockwave that stuns and disables troops.
[2] Effect: After channeling (prevents Varron from attacking the same turn), creates a gravity wave that radiates outward, causing unprepared troops to trip.
[1] Side Effect: Varron is affected by the result of this ability as well.
Gravitic SlamZakroff noticed the CQC troopers nearing the chasm. One of them slowed down and brought his flamethrower to his hip. The two with the repeaters raised their weapons toward Varron, immediately opening fire. Zakroff [6] opened fire, his shoulder taking the brunt of the damage as his shells bounced off the enemy armor. However, he noticed a strange red afterglow surround his targets. A flamethrower trooper stood perplexed, confused at the almost-hostile red mist that worked its way throughout his armor.
Suddenly, an intuitive voice blared inside Zakroff's own head:
Where is the blood?Huh? he consciously thought in response.
The bloodshed! You dare to call upon the legion without preparing a proper sacrifice? You shall be cursed should you fail to appease us!Okay...Bloodstone Curse acquired!Zakroff, having failed to rob Varron's attention, stood surrounded by his red mist, gritting his teeth firmly as he watched the enemy continue to shoot.
[4+3] Varron's cloak, however made him maneuver with a swift corkscrew, saving him from the hail of debilitating concussive shells and plumes of green plasma that burst forth, allowing him to land on the other side of the chasm completely unscathed, immediately releasing his stored energy.
[1+1]
The four nearby soldiers, anticipating a special move, all jumped backward. Varron's wave slammed them into the ground violently, dazing them somewhat. However, the wave failed to propagate far enough to cause the LMG soldiers to even twitch.
Milia rapidly fired arrows, using her arrow guidance to cancel out the lack of initial aiming from this distance. She aimed at the soldiers in the distance, the ones with the machine guns, because she knew they were ready to fire, and she knew the team was stupid to not deal with them them first.
[3+Deadeye+1=4+Infinity] Milia's four arrows readily found and dug into their targets. They dealt, respectively,
26,
29,
32, and
26 damage.
Then came the firestorm.
At first, no sound was made. The party was not immediately aware that it was under fire. But Milia noticed the sound of violent hissing coming from the direction of the gunners. Amatin noticed the heated spots appearing in the metal behind him. Zakroff took a blast of photons to the knee. [6] It threw him backward with the force of the sun's energy concentrated into a physical push. While lasers were used to heat the target and melt through it, photon weaponry, while also using light, aimed to cripple and vaporize the target. Given that these soldier's weaponry was powered by fusion cells, it hurt. A lot.
Zakroff's knee was almost blown off, his cloak somewhat distributing the blast. However, the concentrated photons punched through his metal* plating and shattered the bone, tore through the flesh, and crippled him, for
35 damage.
Zakroff grabbed a nearby pipe, separating it from the rest with his reconstruction, and used it to support himself as he hopped out of the line of fire. Steam and coolant spewed from the severed pipe ends, helping to control the heat that Zakroff absorbed from the photon blasts.
*Photon LMG's do 20 ballistic and 20 thermal, 5 shots. Armor reduction is averaged for both damage types. So 4 ballistic and 8 thermal would equate to 6.
(Also, the LMG troopers have 2 accuracy, making their armor penetration better. Remember the formula:
Armor Reduction = Armor * sqrt(Shots Fired/(Accuracy + 1)))
2 turns until Photon LMG volley.Soldier #1-174/400hp-8 defense, +4 ballistic, +12 explosive-Plasma Flamethrower
Soldier #2-230/400hp-8 defense, +4 ballistic, +12 explosive-Plasma Flamethrower
Soldier #3-126/400hp-8 defense, +4 ballistic, +12 explosive-Concussive Repeater
Soldier #4-230/400hp-8 defense, +4 ballistic, +12 explosive-Concussive Repeater
Soldier #5-204/400hp-8 defense, +4 ballistic, +12 explosive-Photon LMG
Soldier #6-132/400hp-8 defense, +4 ballistic, +12 explosive-Photon LMG-Weapon Disabled
Soldier #7-198/400hp-8 defense, +4 ballistic, +12 explosive-Photon LMG
Soldier #8-201/400hp-8 defense, +4 ballistic, +12 explosive-Photon LMG
--------
Kayle put the cannon away, hoping to conserve its ammunition, since she had no idea what to actually use for it in the future. She instead detached her SmartCannon from its mount on her back, slinging the Shatterer, and immediately began strafing the beast, opening fire with the tracking rounds. [1] She managed to deal
29 damage total, as the cannon was not designed to assault large monsters but rather human-sized targets. Instead of scoring successive headshots, the cannon guidance brought the fire all over the creature's body, hitting its spindly yet armored legs, the edges of its shell, its toughened crest, and its bloodstained belly.
Jaffar kept shooting said belly. The monster, after venting its anger via Defeaning Roar, began to stand up. Suddenly, Jaffar felt a bit of terror run down his spine. This was justified. Jaffar, while shooting, noticed that Kayle was getting closer. Suddenly nervous, Jaffar shouted,
"Stay back!", not knowing his own reasoning.
Then the monster charged him. [1+1] He tripped as he tried to dodge. Kayle shouted for him, but by the time he could respond by assuring her, he had been diced for
20 damage.
Despite the wound, Jaffar managed to deal
76 damage with one of his better shots.
[6]
Aduin rode the beast as it continued to intimidate Jaffar, making his way to what he believed to be the head. He braced one arm around the monster's chitinous crest, and brought the dagger down with his weapon arm, scoring a solid and commendable
20 damage to its right eye. The monster screamed as it tried to shake him off.
Valaross Male - 178/1240hp, 0 defense, +12 ballistic, +8 thermal,
Passives:
Hyper MetabolismDefendActives:
Cleave (0/1)**Deafening Roar**Injuries:
Scorched bellyBruised legs Half-Blind[/spoiler] (20% damage amplification)
...
Caplus immediately unslung his hammer, deactivated his static shield for a moment, then hit the front man with a hammer uppercut that launched the victim into the sky, sending him flying into the distance. The hammer vibrated in his hand, humming gently. The meter on the the handle decreased to indicate that a charge had been used.
Caplus then activated his shield again, and stepped forward.
"Who's next?""Caplus," he heard Winfield whisper through the calm.
"Yeah?""I'm going to go after that guy you just risked letting him escape. Watch your admiral.""He's not my admiral, he's--""Shh..."