The Darksong War - RP

An undisclosed US airbase - President Stark addressing the bounty hunters.

The President’s request for bounty hunters had met an unexpected success. Rallying a band of brave warriors, vigilantes and criminals alike…All with the hope to be rewarded the 10 million dollar bounty placed upon Ziah’s head. “I thank you for all for dedicating your time to this cause,” Stark spoke, his words confident and composed, calmly addressing the band of hunters before him as they watched his every move, “if you are here, you have accepted the dangers of this mission and accept that some of you may not return. But…For all who survive, be this mission a success, will receive a 10 million dollar bounty and possibly, a presidential pardon for past crimes…” Having finished the formalities Stark threw down a metallic disk onto the floor as a blue-hued, almost transparent screen was protected into the air.

He pointed to the screen, “We have located Miss Darksong and tracked her down to what seems to be an ancient and abandoned abode. The area is covered in molten rock and is very volatile. Radar has detected many signatures which imply that the area may be harboring weaponry and a foreign substance, possibly metal, which may be used against us if they are indeed weaponry. We are on her home turf…” His face was stern, knowing the dangers of this mission and glad he was not actively partaking, “…Do not expect this to be easy” momentarily pausing, Stark stepped onto the metal disc as a swirling purple ball turned into a blue portal, “This portal directly leads into the location…It is a way one route. The only way in and out is through here, if you get lost while engaging Ziah we won’t be sending out a rescue party…You know the terms,” Nodding, Stark smiled towards each and every bounty hunter…Warrior, vigilante, criminal and hero – “Good luck” stepping aside and allowing the hunters access to the portal, Stark saluted, awaiting the results, hoping for the best yet expecting the worst…Ziah was no slouch, and she was very, very dangerous.

On the other side of the portal

The ancient air was saturated was the pungent smell of molten rock and lava spewing from the crevices and underbelly of this archaic location. An ancient, long since extinct civilization’s underworld which had been buried here for thousands of years. Full of timeless artifacts and exotic weapons of war forged through battle by the pre-historic humans who once thrived within the metallic underworld, Ziah was somewhere…Hidden, waiting, and almost certainty scheming.

It was more than she had expected, but less than she had hoped for.

Ziah's cloak drifted behind her, picking up the dust of ancient corpses and causing it to eddy and swirl. Her tall, armored figure moved through the ruins of Loria with a confident, able stride -- not hindered by the sorrow she felt to see her once-great ancient empire in this state. When the Calamity had swept over her homeland, massive volcanoes had vomited their molten payload over the great cities of Loria, buried them in rock. Few had survived. Very few. The only reason Ziah herself had lived was because she had entered a state of hibernation, buried in the rock all those millennium ago.

Veins of Armorstone had survived, as well. Bare and scorched from the heat of the Calamity, these silvery-black veins of metal had laced Loria way back then. Weaponry and armor had been crafted from it on the Firesalt Forges. Heavy cannons had used it as ammunition, fueled by artificial lightning... lightning that, with some work, Ziah could reproduce.

She knew it was only a matter of time before someone came for her. One did not slaughter a town without consequences, even if Ziah did not intend to "come quietly."

"There you are," she whispered in her melodious accent, smiling grimly as she dusted off a massive piece of Lorian artillery. It lay on a bed of stripped-down Armorstone, likely the reason it survived the Calamity. So remarkable that anything remained of her homeland. Crumbling buildings and the occasional skeleton were not all that remained -- pieces of ancient technology and weaponry were all around, mostly in disarray, but some usable. General Darksong made her way through the ruins, the ghosts of past formations flitting through her memory, teasing her with remembrance of the troops she had once commanded.

Still -- even on her own, not all of these tactics would be without worth. She had held off countless attackers from the gates of Loria, and even more from within the city itself. Anyone who pursued the Military Goddess of Loria would realize their folly... and quickly.

10 Megas is a big amount, that is enough money to last a hundred years on twinkies. The man spoke for a long time, but he needs to listen. Hearing, smelling, seeing, feeling, being and learning about the man he is about to snuff. Opportunity does not come often, it is either this or walking through white house defences to put one between the man's eyes. Personally he has nothing against the man, he even seems like a charming fellow given time. But as a hit man there is no bigger award then killing the head of state, the amount of infamy would plunge him to the lowest circle of the underworld. He does have an agenda but in the truce given he will do his mission, pop a cap on a mutie. He didn't even bother reading up on the files, dossiers can suck a nut. Paperwork is for accountants, he kills for money for entertainment. Now he kills for the world. She will get hers, and he will get his. He brought standard gear, and even takes the consideration to flip the bird at the President. "Sic semper tyrannis"

Ignoring every word he pans through the floating display, he makes a rundown of things. Two handguns, an automatic shotguns, a rifle and another in separate parts. Trusty knife is hidden under his bulletproof coat, his mask is on as he assumes the identity of Mr. Hurt. Minimal gear that leaves little for improvement, but others do not know about his secret. That crazy guy way over his head, carrying what amounts to a 'street cleaner' set when fighting against a breaker of nations. Currently the most ready to die in this ragtag bunch of suicide squad, but he is also curious of the gifts that he will get to try out during this day. Perhaps this woman will be able to give him a new high, a rush of ecstasy with the potential to break through the cycles and create something new. That or it will be the same old thing, repeated ad infinitum. Everyone else looked pumped and ready, he jumped 'first' into the portal immediately soon as it opened and began to move forward. Expecting nothing, in short of death there were many uncertainties. But unlike most people he came prepared, nothing surprises the man with a thousand lives.

The damp humid feel immediately went after his nose, hints of ash and pumice began to rub against his skin. Hot scalding heat radiated throughout the structure. It was like being a part of an Indiana Jones move set, except that nobody had a burning heart. Both guns are out, pointed at the dark as the needle hunt has begun. It felt fun, knowing for sure that he WILL die at some point of the mission. Death is his friend, and this is a party. With a smile on his face he follows the ancient trail

"Kali Ma Shakti de, motherf-ckers!"

Remus was in no way a mercenary for hire, nor did he care much for money. He had lived a previous life of glamour and prestige among his cult after fighting long and hard in never ending magic filled battles would take place during his gruelling service for the cult that once revered him so much. Since then he has been an outcast for reasons he rarely speaks of, secluded in study and minor battle against petty crime he was satisfied making his contribution to a better world. Even if it was a waste of potential with small impacts. However, an opportunity had appeared before him, an opportunity that would make a bigger difference one that would surely be worth his time and be a true test of his seemingly unmatched control of the arcane arts. He wasn't doing it for the money, or for his own fame but for the good of the people that this wretched alien could destroy and to avenge those that had already fallen to it.

During the briefing Remus was giddy with excitement, even though he knew that what was about to unfold could be no less than a lengthy struggle to put down the alien. Before the briefing he had been meditating for a while in preparation and as a result his magic had already begun to naturally flow through him causing the his eyes to glow bright green and have the same colour of energy form around his hands creating small mysterious bubbles of green energy to formulate randomly and then just disappear. His staff had emerald energy crackle from the mystical goop that always floated gently above his wizards staff, he wore all of his gear of course the regal appearance of the robes was not just for show as it offered him and anyone considered by him as an 'ally' to benefit with extra resistance to non-physical attacks, Remus of course being the most protected by this arcane aura. The constant flow of his vast energy levels gave him a slight buzz making him seem quite hyperactive even when he was standing still, he also kept mumbling small phrases to himself and others as a 'good luck charm' for the battle however to those that did not speak in his native cult tongue he was just speaking random and seemingly crazed gibberish. Truly, almost everything about his appearance made him look like a mad man but this was far from the truth as under this light hearted exterior was a unrelenting, serious, powerhouse of an individual that had already imagined hundreds of possible fighting scenarios and how he could best this alien in each one, but of course he knew that leaving everything down to a good guess was unwise. The grand magus has and always will be prepared for battle.

Not exactly knowing what to expect on the other side of the portal he skipped through joyfully like a school girl, looking completely out of character considering the circumstances. His mind was in a jumble of thoughts, plans, spells, strategies, fighting styles, theories, memories and yet he was still in complete focus of the situation around him as the nature of his mind made him think in a different order to the average human virtually making him far superior in almost every way mentally. As he passes through into the portal he examined the scene fully embracing the dangerous environment with both caution and grace, the heat hit robes and he could taste the inevitable fight in the air. To him it tasted sweet and reminded him of cherries for some reason, again suggesting that he was indeed mad, and he pushed on forward sticking somewhat near to the gunman that had already passed on through but not talking to him or paying much attention to him. He did want to see if any of the others wanted to share some plan that involved some kind of team work assuming that they had strength in numbers. More green energy crackled around him as he surveyed the scene, it looked like it had been hit by a big bomb at a first impression but the residual energy suggested something more powerful but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He continued to observe his surroundings and waited for anyone else that was passing through the portal.

The brief glimmer caught the general's sharp eyes, and her body stiffened. While she had little knowledge of portals -- of the magical or technological variety -- she was already expecting trouble, and anything out of the ordinary was a herald for it. Ions began to coalesce and grind together in circuits around Ziah's clenched fist, and she slipped into the background of the underground ruins of Loria... ready to strike at the soonest opportunity. She needed no excuse to crush an intruder to her homeland. She had no desire to show mercy and even less plans to do so.

Sam rolled his eyes as the president delivered his speech, floating behind the others. He hadn't particularly liked Stark since they fought on a certain cruise ship- in which the 'brave leader' ending up fleeing. But this was bigger than his personal thoughts; a psychotic alien had punched a small town to death... neither Stark or his cash reward had anything to with him being here. This was about the innocent civilians who died because of a glorified temper-tantrum.

As Stark gave his final warnings, the Emerald Knight walked past him and entered the portal.... he was growing a bit tired of the politician's voice. In seconds, sunlight turned to darkness; air turned to stone. A ruined city hidden within an huge, expansive underground cavern. The last remnants of an ancient but advanced civilization. "Huh..." The dumbfounded Avatar says as he floats away from the portal.

Pushing his fascination aside, Sam raised his ring and began to focus; the even more-so ancient weapon began to emit a bright light, revealing the cave more clearly for the Avatar and his companions. "So... where to start..?" The Emerald Warrior said, turning to the others who had already stepped through the portal.

The commander of the Deathborn was growing impatient. Whatever was transpiring on the planet below had moved into a subterranean arena, and despite the advanced technology of his cloaked probe, it could not penetrate layers of earth. He sat back in his chair, clawed fingers drumming on the armrests, as he ordered the probe to maintain its position above the entrance to the underground area. He had seen enough battles to know that one was brewing beneath the frozen ground, and if he could not observe it directly, he would at least be able to note who left this battle victorious.

@_avatar_: @remus_crux: @strongarm:

'So... where to start...?'

Ziah's eyes snapped open as the brief few words echoed through her domain, and she slowly clenched on fist. They had arrived, as she had predicted.

The general had never been one for stealth, but she decided to survey the situation as best as she could before charging in, as was the tactical thing to do. A flutter of a cloak and the soft clink of her boots might be barely heard amongst the crumbling volcanic dust and wind tunnels of Loria's ruins, but Ziah tried not to chastise herself for it. She slowly crawled atop a monument -- to her, of all people -- and looked over her own stone shoulder to get a closer look at the invaders. A small, ragtag bunch. She was unimpressed... the last time she had destroyed a rival nation, the retributive force had shown far greater numbers.

One of them even appeared to be a simple man, nothing impressive. It was shameful, even... but perhaps it would be an opportunity for demoralization? "Seize every advantage," she whispered to herself, slinking around the ruins to seek the perfect point for a little 'extrication.'

@ziah_darksong:

Two guns, one mask, multiple possibilites. The cape killer, readies his Macedonian Style as he takes vigilant steps through the natural hazards. Instinct tells him that there are high chances that he will die, but the man moved on with grit clenched between his teeth. Amongst his peers he is the most under-equipped when it comes to the super lottery, one guy can steal powers and another can shoot lasers. He has to 'die' first before his power can activate, before that he is just a talented meatbag with a pair of shooters. The good kind. Holstering the gun to his left pouch Mr. Hurt swallows a pil, a 'booster' that will allow him to take hits without dying too easily. He might end up as a cripple, but it beats having to enter the cycles. He hated those, and only takes them on last resort. Luck will play a big factor in how things will turn out from this point onwards.

A direct hit will end him, a glancing hit will mutilate him, a miss by several inches would knock him down. The papers don't lie and he saw footage of what she can do, he started hearing sounds as the rocks began to fall from the ceiling. This time it wasn't just imagination, both guns are aimed at a certain location.

@ziah_darksong: @strongarm: @_avatar_:

Remus continued to trail the gunman making analysis of each step one by one scanning his surroundings trying to learn more about his environment, it certainly wasn't pleasant and there was danger almost everywhere he looked such as loose rocks in the ceiling, pit falls that seemed bottomless, random alien artefacts containing worrying amounts of power within, even the air had an odd taste to it. With so many threats around him Remus was most assuredly on his guard to the point where even in these circumstances he could be called paranoid. As cautiously made his way through the dark, deep and deadly ruin he kept his eye out for any signs of movement, energy spikes, unusual noises but so far he hadn't been able to detect anything as of yet. He wanted to reply to the emerald hero and discuss and plan, he also wanted to use a spell or two to make sure that everyone around him would put up more of a fight however he worried that they would be discovered and tracked down much more easily if he took any of those actions and so proceeded onwards silent only nodding and gesturing for the one they called avatar to follow with care.

Then all of a sudden he felt a small twinge in the back of neck, then another straight after this time a little more extreme but unnoticeable to anyone around him and just as he began to fear the worst he felt an electrical buzzing sensation in his head frantically alarm him. He stopped for a moment naturally and stooped down to pick up a rock and he began to closely investigate its properties with the buzzing still coursing through his head, the rock was rough, porous, jagged and black like coal and he decided to examine it in further detail and he found that while the smallish rock was rough around the edges it was relatively sharp and aerodynamic. To anyone else this would've have looked fairly normal to see the strange mage look at a rock so intently but it was in fact just a ploy, for the buzzing sensation in his head had only grown more and more intense. This buzzing sensation was a powerful indicator of his, one he had developed over a life of being a constant assassination target and someone who had learned every kind of trick be it magic, technology or mutant adaptation that an assassin may use for he had to face off in the most dire of circumstances and deal with each and every trick. So when the alien thought it was being stealthy by climbing up onto a statue it was only moderately hard for Remus to realise that he was being watched and as such he had picked up on her approximate location in about a minute of examining the rock. To him this was an amateurs attempt and stealth clearly was was not this being's forte, telling him that the alien was probably better suited to properly fighting its opponent face to face.

Remus placed the rock back on the floor and once more began to follow the gunman that appeared to have a similar idea to Remus as to the fact that they were being watched. Whilst he did this, he mumbled as quietly as he could under his breath "Telekinesis" and the rock he had placed hovered into the air silent as a mouse. He began to guide the small rock slowly through the air close to the ground so that it would be harder to see its movement as it travelled towards the statue like a gentle leaf in the breeze, Remus didn't know where exactly the alien was but he was fairly sure that it was somewhere around the statue but because it was so big and the alien could have climbed up to any point on the statue and remain hidden from sight. So once the rock reached the statue with stealth and grace he would simply raise it gently until it was above the statue's head and drop and slam it right into the middle of the statues head, the idea was to make a very loud noise so that he would hopefully catch the alien off guard and hopefully cause it to flinch from the shock of the sudden sound or even better decide to engage or run away. Of course from this distance it would be a little hard to see any movement considering it was so dark but he had dedicated a good three quarters of his attention to the statue and every detail and sound around it meaning that even the slightest sign of change would be more likely to detect. However, it was perfectly possible that the creature could notice the rock or just not move a muscle when the sudden noise was made. Remus grinned under his mask and whispered gently to the air "This will be fun..."

@_avatar_: (( ? ))

@strongarm: @ziah_darksong: @remus_crux: (apologies)

Sam shrugged as he realized he wasn't going to get an answer... everyone else seemed to be trying to remain quiet. Floating back to the ground, he slowly followed behind the gunman and the Magi. Only after a few steps did the Avatar realize something, from the odd behavior of his compatriots; they were being watched. Calmly, he floated few feet off the ground and made his light grow a little bit brighter, trying to see if he could reveal some hint of where the alien might be.

When his silent search found nothing, he slowly brought the brightness down and tried to think of a more efficient way of revealing their opponent. Several ideas flew through his head; baiting, scanning, destroying any places where she could hide... and he couldn't choose. He eventually shrugged it off, hoping that one of his allies had already devised a better plan.

@_avatar_: @remus_crux: @strongarm:

Ziah studied the three. Closely examined their movements, their body language, their expressions. She sought not only to judge their power, but their specific abilities.

For instance: the gunman had a naturally confident stride. The kind of stride that suggested general apathy towards being hurt. Perhaps some sort of enhanced durability? Or something else?

The one in the robes moved more slowly, more cautiously. That one was a thinker, a planner. And planners planned because they wanted an advantage.

The green one wore his abilities on his sleeve. Casual floating, a mentally-activated light source. She had to pay close attention to hi--

The wizard's rock fell, tapping against the top of the statue and poinking harmlessly away. Perhaps it would have been wiser to stay still, move away, assess the situation once more. Wait for a weakness, an exposure. A soft spot. But Ziah Darksong's nerves were on edge, and her body was itching for a fight. Generally not one to give in to overconfidence, she knew this place like the back of her gauntlet.

More importantly, Ziah didn't know that the falling stone belonged to Remus Crux. Logically, a small sound should draw the attention of the three mercenaries. Her options were to evade, or to make that attention worth something.

The Lorian general dropped to her feet, digging her gauntleted fingers into the stone sides of the statue and completely lifting the massive thing -- by the Lost Scholars, it must have been thirty feet tall -- and tilting it horizontally. Her incredible strength and speed allowed her to do this in less than an instant, and with the colossal statue of her own self before her, she extended one foot and forcefully kicked it with all of her strength.

...Sending the multi-ton pillar speeding towards the trio of invaders.

@ziah_darksong:@_avatar_: @remus_crux: [Later for sake of power I want ziah to 'choose' for me, I can't do it myself since it won't be random]

He has been 'raised' and he feels a pang of temporary courage, his guns won't do anything but in a couple of cycles they will eventually pack a strong enough punch. That or one of his 'gifts' will be the right one to solve this question. She is fast, and he has dodged bullets. She is faster, but he has died. Honestly he is more worried about the other two and the 'deviations' that they may bring to the scenario, how awk information will change the flow of the battle.

Magician, it seems that they may have met elsewhere. It could be a bad dream or a forgotten loop but there is something eerily 'familiar' about that alien. Better if they stay apart for the duration of the mission. Glowstick on the other side seems to be queer in a way that he can't put in words, a strange power to be able to bend cosmic energy to his aide. That or maybe the man is really a genie, whatever...

He can faintly make out a giant face illuminated by jade light emanating from he Glowstick behind, he'd thought they'd be fighting a flying brick. This golem is out of the equation, either that is the case or Stark set them up for a suicide mission. From his perspective it looks about at least forty five feet, that and more. Gun's won't do jack sh-t in the grand scheme of things, but they can be used to annoy. Draw attention, in this scenario it is nothing more than a melee weapon.

Drugs helped his legs propel his body with a jump, lack of orientation blinds his trajectory. The gunman took a leap of faith.

@ziah_darksong: @_avatar_: @strongarm:

Remus plan had worked out for him almost flawlessly with the rock appearing to catch the target off guard casing it to make a rash decision quickly with little time to spare for lateral thought and hopefully removing most strategic benefit. However, it appeared that the grand mage had gotten a lot more than he bargained for as the alien showed off its incredible strength and speed by kicking the pillar rather accurately towards himself and the two others who were with him leaving him to think for a brief millisecond of just how strong the creature was. As there were more pressing matters at hand, namely the barrelling pillar of impending doom, Remus had to divert most of his intention of how to get out of the way seeing as his telekinesis could not deal with something that heavy, he looked quickly to his left and to right ignoring the gunamans suicidal leap into the pillars path and within a visceral instant he spotted a loose, largish flat rock about ten metres away "Telekinesis!" he yelled with haste, the rock bolted in his direction skidding across the ground towards his feet.Timing was crucial as he hoped into the air and landed onto the rock as it came under him allowing Remus to use his telekinesis to guide the rock up and out of the way of the pillar whilst he awkwardly kept his balance on the somewhat unsteady flying rock.

The pillar closed in and by Remus' mid flight calculations he approximated that at the speed and angle he was travelling at that point in time that he should just about make it over the obstacle. Higher and quicker the pillar was rushing in and Remus was almost completely out of the way, unfortunately the bottom the the rock he was surfing on clipped the pillar as he dodged and he was sent spinning forwards in a flailing mess right over the pillar and even though he used telekinesis on his own staff to attempt to pull himself upwards to reduce his speed, he still came crashing into the ground with a loud thud. He lay there for a couple of seconds taking in how embarrassing the whole thing was, parts of his beautiful robes were torn and he lay there in a complete heap with a sore head which all together was actually quite humiliating for the mage in way some would just not understand. "Well done" he scoffed aloud "but nooot well enough". He picked himself up in an instant and ran to try and close a little distance between himself and the alien, this creature was obviously too powerful and too quick to be tackled on head to head and so he began his assault by shouting "Telekinesis!" dancing his way gracefully over the terrain thanks to prior short yet in-depth study of the environment he would use the short version of his telekinesis to keep the target in the air for a short amount of time just so that he could use his next cunning spells with more accuracy "Trio weave!" he yelled and his index, middle, and ring finger both glowed bright green and a thick green slime dripped off the tips as he pointed and aimed all three of those fingers aimed with discipline, accuracy and acute aim at the torso of the alien. Each finger would fire one of his three weaves, the weave of strength, the weave of health and the weave of knowledge. As each moment passed he learned more and more about the adversary, it's abilities and their origins were steadily being revealed but it was hard to actually search the mind of this creature for it defences in place to stop intruders, still it's strength and speed were both very useful assets and Remus was certain that the creature wouldn't mind parting with any of its abilities and skills once it was dead.

Never-mind the mental blocks, the mystery or complexity of the nature of the targets powers. Ignoring the fact that they were most likely fully natural, Remus made an attempt to copy the immense speed shown by the creature. To copy the ability would take a little time in itself as this natural ability could not be so easily taken or copied without a reworking of his genetic code, so when Remus did try to copy the speed of his opponent he found that nothing had happened yet. It would take a while for a change to take place, perhaps twenty minutes or so which was fairly appalling considering how long the copy spell actually lasted for. He searched deep in his mind for more ways to prevail in this fight and he hoped that during this little thinking time his allies would give him the cover he needed.

@remus_crux: @strongarm: @_avatar_:

The leap of faith ended with an event so genuinely anticlimactic that it could only be considered amusing. A massive push of the Lorian's own powerful legs sent her rocketing forward, and after quickly redirecting with a flash step she grabbed the leaping gunman with one hand and tossed him with the full momentum of her own leap. It sent the man speeding unceremoniously into the crumbling volcanic rock of Loria's walls, embedding himself.

Ziah's leap was cut short for a moment, however, as she felt tendrils of sorcery touch her body and mind. She dropped her momentum and skidded to a brief halt as she took a moment to sample and taste the magics teasing her, testing her, draining her. She could feel the magic drawing at her speed even as she continued to move forward, growling over the magician's brief insults. "Enough of your trickery," she barked. "You humans sent an insufficient force... you will have to try harder than this."

As Remus focused on his spell, a flash step brought Ziah closer, perching atop the pillar that had just ceased its last roll. "So soft, you humans. Defenseless. Pathetic." The Lorian general lifted one hand into the sky, and a hazy aura not entirely unlike a concentrated heat wave began to coalesce around it. Instants later, a thick bolt of lightning dragged itself from the air itself and came crashing down towards the wizard.

@ziah_darksong:

At first, there was a small, rocky bump behind them... then chaos caught up. In seconds, the huge pillar they had passed came flying in the trio's direction. "Here we go!" Sam shouted out, flying out of the way of the pillar in a matter of seconds; following I suite as his comrades did the same. He was preparing a counterattack when... when the damn alien threw the gunman straight into the wall.

The Paragon of Will was forced to watch as his ally was seemingly slain; it went by faster than he could think up a construct to rescue him. Taken back lightly by the sudden disbelief, he failed to aid the wizard in his magical assault. The Avatar's senses returned to him when he realized his other ally needed aid; the alien broke free from his hold and was upon him, preparing an attack.

With a look of disbelief replaced with one of determination, the Emerald Knight's ring burned bright as the alien summoned it's lightning. In less than a second, the Lord of Light launched between the wizard and the warlord; forming a hasty shield to block the vicious lightning bolt. "Sorry to burst you're bubble, Ms. Supremacy, but there are some things that are stronger than genetics and technology; things like Will."

Sam said as he reabsorbed the shield, right before launching forward and throwing a huge, emerald fist construct to knock the she-devil violently backwards. In preparation for a successful hit, the Avatar created a giant tennis racket behind her, which would bash the alien upwards into the ceiling with the force of a freight train. He knew it wouldn't kill her, but he had a thing for humiliating the supremacist-types.

@ziah_darksong: F-----k!

sh-tc-ck!

c-nt!

d-ckn-pples!

t-ts!

He was crippled.

Waist down.

Thanks to the serum.

He did not quite die.

Normally he would be plastered into fine mush, but the drugs are a teeny bit better than expected. Legs don't work, spine popped like bubble wrap. Left hand crumpled under the rubble and he is struggling to escape, so that he can dip his head into the stream of lava in front of him. He would have sucked down the barrel of his gun and looped his tongue around it but noooo.... they have to bounce off his grip when he smacked the stone walls with his back. God f-cking damnit, sh-t. That is if he can struggle, his ribs do not feel good either as something is 'burning inside'.

Still alive unfortunately, but that can change. People tend to act irrational when agitated, so with that remaining thought he yelled several profanities at the being. He spouted sexist remarks off the bat, referencing several 'too soon' jokes and extremely misogynistic points of view in hopes that she will stomp his head to the ground. His actions may draw attention to his team and hopefully, hopefully one of them can kill him before he compromises their cover. He has expended over 26 languages that can express the word 'whore', several remarks about cows and holsteins. Anatomical parts that have references to felines are also mentioned. In a coarse, and somewhat miserable voice.

He can move his arm as his hands singe from the radiation of the heat from the lava flow, he started by moving slowly. Legs holding back as they are flattened by rock, fingers dip into the hot. He pushed as he screamed, those next to him have lost all measures of stealth as his voice echoes throughout the immediate area. The poor acoustics pinpointing his exact location, let him die.

@_avatar_:@ziah_darksong: @strongarm:

Remus saw that the extraterrestrial was preparing another attack, something was coming his way and he knew that for sure and even as he instinctively began to move aside the lighting closed in on him so fast that there would have been no way for him to dodge. Which is why he was ever so grateful that the one known as Avatar had intercepted the large lightning bolt, protecting them both using a green shield-like construct powered by his own will. "Good work" he announced light heartedly giving praise from behind the emerald saviour. Remus knew that the key to beating this adversary would be to work with the green guardian of light and help him in battle as best he could, just before Avatar moved on to press the attack Remus once again yelled in his eccentric yet metallic voice "Triooo weeeeave" but rather than aiming his three fingers at the alien Remus instead aimed at Avatar using the positive side of the three weaves which would be of great benefit to his ally. He charged in to try and keep up with him as he went in to assault the alien and as he did the grand magus decided that this one would by a very useful partner in battle, he had now almost completely forgotten about the gunman that he had presumed flattened by the pillar, he was now focussed on more important matters. He concentrated for a brief moment and this time he yelled loudly "Immunity!" andas he yelled a bright green wire frame of a cylinder would surround Avatar, it would not obstruct movement or sight but it would protect against all oncoming non-physical attacks for a good half an hour giving this man of great will the means to beat down the alien with greater success.

He would simply allow the two of them to fight each other after that as Remus would concentrate long and hard into the powers that this new creature had shown off so willingly, what puzzled him the most was the lightning as it seemed to have no identifiable source of power but somehow the being could still manage to manifest a great amount from thin air. "How?" Remus thought to himself as he pondered the nature of such a power, he very much doubted that this being was simply creating energy out of nowhere. So many small yet somewhat irritating mysteries were popping up all over the place and the mage could not find the answers, he realised that he he wanted to unlock the secret to this creatures power he would have to search for it in the mind. He would make sure that he was safely behind the man of green light as he began to concentrate even harder, this time he would try and use a power he had not used in a long time. He would attempt to use his grand insight to determine what knowledge and power there was to be taken, he tried to observe the creature just a little bit more analysing each small memory he had of it ten times over looking at the key details, the significant energy spikes, the changes in air pressure, temperature, even biochemical reactions that could have been taking place. Deeper and deeper he tried to venture down, he searched more and more before finally identifying key information within the women-like being that would lead to victory. Remus would then attempt to steal the knowledge that the alien hid within its own mind. It would cost him precious time, leave him quite venerable and overall it would require a lot of his internal energy to complete the spell but in the end the results would be well worth the risk as Remus was intending to take almost every bit of memory, knowledge and even the fighting technique and skills that this alien had learned.

He began to mumble the words for the spell in his language still in his metallic voice but this time more calmed and focused "Oepg cjebldvl pnhe al, Oepg cjebldvl pnhe al. Blh ve, blh zbe, oepg cjebldvl pnhe al. Jejl smj glinih, jejl smj ihew, vnwl nj he hrl amvpi, vnwl nj he hrl amvp. Fo AKronos n dlamjd, oepg cjebldvl pnhe al!". Through these words of great power a cloud of purple and green colour would travel from the head of Remus and find its way to the head of the alien, once it had eventually reached its destination it would in quite simply take away all that Remus had asked for and attempt to return to him. The cloud was not physical and was more of a visual symbol for others that he was taking something away, but of course while the spell could not be resisted or avoided it could very very easily be interrupted and stopped at any point. It was a hefty gamble, for casting such a great and powerful spell had sucked away more than three quarters of Remus' energy pool and even now with his mask dulling the pain his mind was in nearing agony and torment as the mother of all migraines hit him hard leaving him slightly dazed and a little nauseous Only time would tell if Remus was successful.

@remus_crux: @strongarm: @_avatar_:

"Graaagh!" Ziah roared out as the Avatar's green structure sent her rocketing into the rocky ceiling of Loria. Her cape showed some severe tears now, and while her armor was not yet broken, it did appear to be scuffed. As she began to fall from the first swat upwards, heading back towards the tennis racket for another round, she changed her course. She thrust her weight forward and used her flash step, shooting forward into the air and crashing back into the ground.

She had a lot to absorb in those few brief moments where nothing was yet happening to her. Time to assess things, time to be tactical. Time to size up each opponent.

The green one was the most immediate threat. The constructs were too flexible, too challenging to push directly against. She'd have to keep an eye out for them, and use her speed to her advantage if she could. It was her only real option.

The one hurling insults wasn't of particular concern. A man who used words to his advantage before combat should be feared -- but one who used them during was a man who had already played his hand. This particular man, while infuriatingly durable, shouldn't be prioritized.

The robed one was a mystery to her, as he had yet to do anything that dramatic. He seemed to require time, which could be a blessing or a curse, depending on what his powers were and how the battle went.

Ziah hopped quickly to a more remote location, ducking behind a crumbling structure, when she felt those tendrils of magic touch her mind. She had some minor mental resistances, but it wasn't enough....

------------

TORMENT.

I HAVE BEEN HERE SO LONG.

SO LONG.

TOO LONG.

BURIED.

I CAN'T BREATHE. I CAN'T MOVE. I CAN'T... I CAN'T GET OUT! IF ONLY I COULD JUST PUSH... MY WAY....

DARKNESS. MORE DARKNESS, AND MORE HEAT. INFINITE PAIN AND HEAT. MORE THAN I CAN BEAR. I'VE BEEN HERE SO LONG. SO LONG. SO LONG. I NEED TO GET OUT. I NEED TO GET OUT.

--------------

Probing the depths of Ziah's memories may not have been the best idea. However, to the persistent telepath, deeper and older memories could be found. Memories of her training with mutant, memories of death and combat, memories of tactics and strategy. Thousands of sleepless nights spent with the virginal offerings of Loria. And the basic knowledge of how Ziah's powers worked.

Not why they worked, as that was not entirely known by Ziah herself. But the how, that was there. Buried under thousands of years of paralyzed, conscious torture, it was all there.

The lorian general staggered back for a moment, clutching her head from the onset of a sudden migraine. "Your trickery cannot stop me, you insolent vermin!" she roared, flash stepping onto the battlefield proper. As she dashed forward, she spread both arms, giving them the same massive momentum that such a high speed bestowed upon the rest of her hurtling figure. At the tail end of her flash step, now in front of the portal and in the midst of her attackers, she began to bring her arms forward at a speed that blasted past the sound barrier...

...And she smashed her hands together.

@strongarm: @remus_crux: @ziah_darksong:

"Not so fun being on the receiving end, now is it?" Sam said as he was readying another swing of his heavy-duty sports equipment; sadly, his angry tennis ball leaped away. Reabsorbing the tennis racket, the Avatar flew into the air to get a better vantage point for his next attack... he was thinking a giant bowling ball. In these moments of nonviolence, his mystical ally decided to give him some aid rather than continue the attack on the alien warlord.

As the Grand Magus yelled out his words of power, the Emerald Knight felt a surge in his body; the wizard's weaves gave him strength, they gave him health, but most of all they gave him will. The Avatar's ring flashed at the extra power, it's capacity growing tremendously; and on top of it all his ally created a frame of protection to defend him. Turning to his ally, Sam gave a thankful nod before switching his attention back to finding the supremacist and giving her a smacking.

Luckily for him, she chose to point herself out with some yelling about trickery and vermin. Setting his eyes on the warlord, Sam was preparing his next set of constructs when the alien decided to strike back. With incomprehensible speed, the ancient warrior slammed her armored hands together; sending a huge shockwave blasting through the cavern that would sending anything in it's path flying and broken.

Having fought beings with similar tactics before, Sam quickly raised his ringed hand to the Magus and sent out protective bubble shield to guard him. As the blast approached their location, Sam closed his eyes to prepare for the pain... but it never came. Slowly letting his eyes open up, the Avatar could see the rubble around him and the magus getting destroyed by the thunderclap; but the immunity spell had made him... well, immune. Smiling at this realization, the Emerald Knight turned back to the warlord.

The second he saw the shockwave go passed him and his magical friend, the Avatar reabsorbed the bubble shield that surrounded his ally and launched towards the alien at supersonic speeds. Lifting his leg as he approached, Sam planned on sending his enemy backwards with a flying straight kick (inspired by a kung-fu movie...), before lifting his hands into the air and creating a giant sledgehammer construct within them. With the extra strength granted by his ally's buff combined with the weightlessness of the hammer, Sam swung it downwards effortlessly with enough force to slam Ms. Supremacist straight into the floor of the cavern (inspired by Wiley Coyote).

@strongarm:@remus_crux@ziah_darksong:

So far every part of Remus' plan had worked fairly well, each anticipation paid off every spell cast was appropriate and now in his mind there very little left to do to finally take down the alien and collect his reward. He felt the vast amount of memories flood into his mind, he saw the pain and torment and realised that taking all of the concious torment was probably not worth taking from her however the more important memories and information was found and the wizards head shot backwards from the sheer amount entering his mind. "Ahhh haaaa so that's how you do it eh?" said Remus aloud his head still throbbing from the intense migraine he felt from lack of energy and the usage of multiple, successive spells. He now had a clear understanding of this creature and it's origin of power, as he had guessed before it was all natural traits that the alien race held within its genes and stealing such amazing gifts would probably take a longer time as he realised that his genetic make up would have to shift in order to actually feel the effect and he would also have to somehow change her DNA via magical methods to leave her powerless. It certainly wasn't impossible, but it would require a lot of time, energy and concentration and those were things that Remus didn't have right now so his best bet would be to let this emerald guardian smash this murderous alien into the ground and hopefully capture her so that Remus could steal her powers later.

Remus' mental assault was met first with a loud verbal reaction, he took this angered response as an indicator of her next attack and so he braced himself up for whatever was about to come. The creature moved in towards the middle of the the two of them and smashed her hands together in an incredible fashion causing a massive sound breaking wave of force made from her sheer strength. At this close range there would be little hope to escape the blast and damage would certainly be received, but once more the Avatar had come to Remus' aid creating a green bubble around the mage to help protect him from the brunt of the damage that the thunder clap would have done. The destructive wave hit the shield and the force of the impact caused a follow through that sent Remus bouncing around with the bubble getting tossed around inside of it before it finally broke. The wave had passed and had left him quite disorientated, with his left wrist shattered, a dirty cloak and some terrible head trauma. Meanwhile, Avatar was completely unscathed by the blast thanks to Remus' prior enhancements and he watched the man brutally go to kick the alien whilst picking himself up and dusting off his cloak a little. He saw this as an opportunity to finish the fight and so he moved in to the side so that he could get a clear view of the alien for his next move. It helped that the speed aspect that he copied earlier was just beginning to kick in and give him the small boost he needed to get a clear line of sight.

Regardless of the state the alien would be in the green magus would try to hold her still with telekinesis after the avatars attacks, he hoped that in holding her still the knight of will would proceed to pummel the creature more and not give her a chance to rest. "Now just stay there a moment darling, this will only hurt a lot!" he mocked from the side giggling like a school boy in that strange metallic voice, he was enjoying himself quite a lot but he knew that with a being this fast it would be unwise to let one's guard down and so Remus decided to try and tranquillize the alien. "Sleep... you monster" his voice was low and condemning, metallic and serious as he had switched from eccentric and mocking to cold and unforgiving within a moments notice, this was all part of Remus' very curious mental state during warfare which made him effective in combat but gave off the impression of madness and it seemed that it had only gotten worse as time went on. Within the instance of him saying the word sleep, a dark purple beam of energy travelled from his staff aimed with trained magical marksmanship that was refined by long wars and endless practice. This purple beam upon contact with the targets head, would cause the alien to fall into a very deep sleep if it hit and it would last up to a day providing there was no mental resistance however it was not unheard of for the spell to only last an hour or two and generally the will of the individual would have quite a big impact on the spells effectiveness. To add, the spell used up a lot of Remus' remaining energy and even as it was quickly being replenished every minute he would still be left with very little power in him. He was starting to see the world go darker around him as the consequences of using such powerful spells in short time of each other had left a big mental impact and his earlier migraine had only become worse than before leaving him grunting in pain. If this didn't work he would be in trouble.

@strongarm: @remus_crux: @_avatar_:

At least something was going her way, today. She moved to continue her assault, but she was too slow. Her speed being drained from her, the world felt like it was steeped in molasses -- a situation as mentally confusing as it was physically restrictive. Her eyes widened as she saw the metallic mage begin to fire out another bolt of purple energy and started to wonder what this one would do...

...When it was suddenly blocked utterly from her field of vision as she was driven into the ground like a nail hit by a hammer, embedding her in the heated rock. She strained briefly but was pinned by the rock surrounding her, and it took several long moments for her to focus enough energy into her hands . With a scream of agony and a burst of flying rock and debris, she managed to create an outward explosion of lightning. Not enough to harm anyone besides herself, but enough to blast the rock out around her, creating a massive crater where the ancient human had once been caught.

Her armor was now cracked and dented from the explosion, sharp fragments of it sticking out every which way. With a harsh grunt, Ziah moved for cover and tore off a large section of crushed chestpiece, tossing it hard at the Knight of Will before finally dashing out into the clearing where the three had been fighting. While her armor was mostly destroyed and her seal had been broken, she was less durable now, vulnerable -- but faster than before. Quite a lot faster. And she was aiming for Remus.

That bubble had been protecting the little vermin from her strikes, even from her area attacks, but she couldn't see anything preventing her from grabbing the fragments of that bubble and throwing the whole thing upward as hard as possible, attempting to drive it up through the crust of Loria and out into the atmosphere outside with the mage inside. She had to lower the amount of immediate threats and as far as she could tell, Remus was the worst one.

@ziah_darksong: @_avatar_@strongarm:

"Whoopsey!!" said Remus slightly embarrassed as his sleep spell hit the giant hammer rather than the head of the alien warlord, he was running very low on his mana reserves now so that meant he would have to wait a while before using any more powerful spells. Thankfully the target was retrained for moment inside the ground and there was no doubt that his temporary companion would not follow up his attack once she freed herself, even this short moment of peace was bliss for magus as the short break he got in using from not using his spells meant that his energy could return at a much faster pace. Remus made sure that he was a little closer to Avatar so that he could protect the green wizard. Within those moments the woman burst out of her tomb in a rather spectacular way and was already moving, her armour was badly damaged and she appeared to be a little worn down as she made a quick attempt to throw her useless, damaged chest piece straight towards the protector of light and the grand magus was somewhat impressed by the alien's tactical decision to lighten her load by removing her armour. It was quite obvious to see that she intended to throw her armour directly at them due to past displays of over-aggressive nature and so Remus used his telekinesis to re-direct the armour past them and right back at her in anticipation of her assault but it would be hard to hit her as she was moving very quickly and Remus could only guess her next position.

Having access to the knowledge she possessed gave him a large advantage in being able to guess her next move by studying her past conflicts and watching them with perfect analysis five times over way before this scenario had even occurred, it was as if his mind was completely scanning the relevant data in order to give Remus the correct feedback and allow him to make assumptions of a person next actions in reference to their past. While this did not mean he could predict the future it did give a very good indicator of strategy and possible technique. All of this added on to the fact that he knew he had been a large thorn in her side meant that the mage knew that she would almost always prioritise him over his companion, a smart but predictable move as it was really her best hope of surviving unless she simply ran away. The speed powers that he had taken earlier were now reaching their full potential which would be key for his next move, he certainly wasn't as fast as the alien but he wasn't largely slower either so when the creature came speeding towards him with the intention to grab him by the bubble he was encased in he hoped he could react appropriately and in due time.

As she closed in he yelled "Uuuuuppp" lifting himself quickly into the air by using his telekinesis on the bubble he was trapped inside, as he rose up he would change his trajectory so that he would be moving more diagonally to avoid her simply jumping straight up and grabbing him anyway. However, Remus has over anticipated his mana reserves as deep as they were and realised that he didn't actually take that much time to rest after using a powerful spell like sleep and so during his flight via telekinesis he suddenly blacked out for a brief period, which was easily long enough to lose his telekinetic grip on the ball and fall down else where in the clearing. He woke up just before the impact which was fairly bad timing all things considered as while the ball did absorb the majority of the damage once again, it simply shattered on impact and appeared to phase out. The world was spinning, he had landed back first into the ground somehow and he was luck to not be paralysed as excruciating pain went through his entire body making even the mere though of movement unbearable however the magus knew that time was never on his side in a fight and that the alien would most likely be right on top of him to cave in his skull if he didn't make haste. Adrenaline pumped through the battle mage as he quickly righted himself staggering a little as he did, he was just laughing crazily without even thinking about, blathering incomprehensible words at random with some soundly vaguely like insults and curse and other phrases sound like completely random things like ordering a pizza and booking a flight, in this instance the magus had gone completely into madness as he bolted away back around to where he thought the emerald knight might be. He coughed up a tiny bit of blood into his metal mask and he was still laughing like a deranged lunatic, but little did the others know that this was actually Remus at his best. In madness the mage found concentration easier, planning ahead each and ever step over little inches of rock with professional and analytic methods even as he sped along almost as fast as the alien did, his was in his element when he went insane, he fought better and more efficiently when he seemed a bumbling madman. He began his physical assault now while he still held the speed powers.

All this time the grand mage had held onto his staff it was very good for channelling magic but it actually served far better as a weapon. The alien was now exposed and her armour was mostly useless weight at this point, which of course meant that there were now many openings in which he could strike. He jumped dodged and weaved around gracefully towards the alien, bounding past her again in all directions in an attempt to confuse her a little and disorientate her before attempting to place a well timed pinpoint hit with the end of his wizards staff with all the human strength he could muster aiming directly at the back of her neck with the intention of doing some serious damage to the spinal chord, his follow up would be dodging away again running around more and instead when she was eventually looking in the wrong direction at the wrong time he would aim one more and try to strike with the end of his staff aiming for the temple with years of not only his own experience but with some of the aliens own experiences with this similar weapon, he stuck using his momentum to make his strikes even more potent. He spun around and whirled his staff before springing up again and running off once more, he was beginning to tire of running around but he took solace in the fact that he could rest from using his spells. As he came back around in his hit and run fashion he swerved drastically and instead of going for the head again he went low trying to sweep out the legs from under the alien, if she dodged by jumping then he would follow up by trying to strike her from under the chin as she jumped. If she was on the floor he would dash off again, performing his varied pinpoint attacks aiming for eyes, ears, trying to slam the staff into her throat. While he only possessed the strength of a human he knew that in certain places you didn't have to hit hard in order to do damage. To top it all off he was still laughing his head off non-stop, talking about wasted powers and how the alien deserved to die. He did know of course that eventually he would get out played and caught out, but he knew that the emerald knight would probably try to help him if this were to occur. Amongst all the chaos of his rambling only one thing could be clearly hear "Let's test your mettle shall we?" mockingly spoken.

@ziah_darksong: @remus_crux:

Sam smiled cockily as he drove the alien into the ground like a nail, landing beside her head... debating silently about kicking it. How's it feel being at the bottom? Probably worse literally than figura-" Before the overconfident Avatar could finish his snarky remark, the alien roared out in pain and a sent out a bright flash of electricity. Sam quickly flew back, using his forearms to shield his eyes. When the light finally dissipated, Sam managed to open up his sight back up just in time to see the she-devil's metal chest piece flying right at him...

Luckily for the unprepared warder of light, his wizard friend chose to use his telekinesis to redirect the metal armor right past them... and right back at she who threw it. Sam gave an approving nod to his partner before turning his sight back to the alien; ready to continue his assault, until his target launched right past him at her incredible speed. Troubling to keep up with this burst in speed she undoubtedly got from her newfound flexibility granted by being relieved of her armor, the Avatar of Will turned around as quickly as he could; only to find that, in what seemed like seconds to him, his partner was on the ground and the bubble protecting him gone.

Flying forward to his ally's aid while he stumbled away, the Emerald Knight quickly fired a blast at the alien to keep her at bay before launching in her direction and trying to throw another large fist construct; though, he was being a little sloppier now with his friend in danger, and with the alien's newfound speed she could probably dodge his attack rather easily. Luckily for him, his friend had returned to the fight; though he was now acting a good bit irrational... dancing around the alien.

Even so, the Grand Magus still seemed capable of combat... throwing seemingly random strikes using the speed he had stolen from the alien. Sam flew back a little ways to give his ally room to work with, while still maintaining a distance close enough to save the wizard if needed. While his friend demonstrated his impressive mixture of acrobatics and melee combat, the Avatar of Will carefully watched from a distance; whenever he saw a good enough chance, he'd fire a small blast at the ancient warlord. Not enough to send her flying, but it would hit hard enough that it would hurt; a few blasts at the gut, a couple at her legs, and one attempt aimed at her chin. He tried to be sparse with his attacks to avoid hitting his friend, but mistakes were possible... mistakes the alien could likely exploit if they did in fact happen.

@ziah_darksong: @remus_crux: @_avatar_:

- Death -

Now he is back in the briefing room where some of his 'allies' are still getting ready, the headache still lingers from having a refreshing wash in lava flow. He may still be the weakest but unlike them however he knew the events that would happen, and memorised their sequence. A re-run where in this actuality the outcome is different, no longer will he have his spine snapped like a pack of spaghetti. The pill from before had augmented his stats, with death he received yet another boost. In the waiting room he popped a pill inside his mouth, the 'same' one from the previous event that takes place before the loop. Stacking augments, one of the benefits of his loops. Whenever he enters a cycle a random power is gained, immediately he tries many things, but the thing that immediately enters his senses is the readable 'language' that remains to be ubiquitous. A veil has been lifted from his eyes as he can perceive. Understand. Technology, they told him and he returned in gratitude. Stronger, and not to mention that he can interact with the 'all' technologies being presented in the briefing room, he can see his gun. Blueprints, with a subtle movement they began to technoform. Reconfigure. Hearing their thoughts, sending his opinions. Feeling every pulse of electricity that makes for binary code, ons and offs. At this cycle he is the man in the room with the absolute command of civilization. Greg now has a slightly better chance of surviving, he won't commit suicide by lava anytime soon. What is technology? the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, he is not limited to merely the use of machines. He exerts authority similar to that of king solomon to his subjects. His words convened with his own costume, his words shift the architecture and from his power he can see things from their perspective. Without entering the portal he fired two shots, each 'bullet' loaded with a search function to immediately find and 'mark' his target. He did not tell the bullet's to damage, but merely to 'announce' as everything will move along from this path. A snowball has rolled down the top of the hill, and the avalanche will flatten those on the ground.

- Time Lapses -

Everything flowed to the latest moment. Instead. He did not make the jump, he utilised technology. Upon entry he maps the entire structure using lava canals, created by the ancients. The portal/holo-machine, a metallic disc now is under his thrall. A miniature doorway appears on on left side, floating above his head as it glows in unearthly color. Non-euclidean for his own purpose. It does not go gentle on the eyes but with this he has extended a field of death around him, ordered to be monofilament. A passage of blades that cut through spacetime as they lead small openings to wherever, invisible but to the sharpest of senses. Movement in military clothing detected, skittering here and there. Artillery, military weapons that lay dormant. Float. He has drones, alien weapons loaded with insane energies.

Emerald Ring. He can see from it, he sends two guns at his side. Two guns to the wizard.

Round 2

Ready.

Set

Go.

@remus_crux: @_avatar_: @strongarm: @ziah_darksong:

“Enough!”

The cosmic vampire’s powerful fist slammed down on the arm of his commander’s chair, causing the reinforced steel seat to shudder violently. Even immortal ones do not possess infinite patience, and he was tired of relegating himself to observing the energy spikes and tectonic tremors that were the only observable evidence of the battle that took place beneath the ground of the planet below. He had gathered more than sufficient evidence to come to a conclusion.

“Forward turbolaser batteries: I want a focused bombardment of the area of that battle. Break open the crust of this world.” Opening a comm channel to the chambers where the Deathborn waited his command, he continued, “Legions One through Four, board drop ships and deploy to the site of the bombardment. Engage and eliminate the forces attacking the female creature.”

As the ship began to shudder with the recoil of the forward weapon emplacements, Vitus rose and stalked to the hangar, where the drop ships were already departing for their surface attack. Boarding his personal shuttle, he followed them on their entry trajectory. He knew that even his formidable troops would be unlikely to overcome the sheer power of the combatants below, but it made little difference; they were replaceable. All that mattered was that they occupy the hunters until he had claimed his prize.

@vitus: @strongarm: @_avatar_: @remus_crux:

Impossible.

Impossible.

She was being... overwhelmed. The wizard's newfound strength and speed were more than she could effectively block alone, and blow after blow slammed into her, denting her armor like a tin can. Green bolts and bullets blasted into her, tripped her up, caused her to stumble. Miss her blocks and her dodges. She was being taken from all sides and it seemed like nothing she could do was good enough. She became a flurry of action, scrambling to gain any sort of advantage, but if there was anything Ziah was not, it was a berserker. She got no particular boost in times of duress, and she was at her most frightening against weaker opponents. These bounty hunters, though. They'd organized. They'd survived her initial assault and they'd adapted, started to build off of each other. And they were overwhelming her.

She let out a sharp roar of agony as a green bolt slammed into her knee, denting the armor and causing her stance to buckle. She slipped, missed a block, and the foul wizard's mad staff slammed past her helmet, causing it to shimmer and fade before the shaft drove itself into her eye, crushing the retina with a wet, sickening splatter.

"This can't...!" she growled, staggering back, but her dented armor only allowed her to hobble. She stumbled back and fell, a hail of bullets smashing into her dense skin and leaving thick welts. With one smooth movement she tore the rest of her armor off, leaving a sort of primitively-advanced flightsuit underneath. Showing off the matted hair, the grime and blood that soaked her. The pus and darkened blood seeping from her ocular wound. She couldn't win now, couldn't get an upper hand, and she knew it.

Lightning crashed down, striking from multiple angles all at once. Crashing into the rock and armorstone and sending chips of it flying, obscuring the area and her position. One last leap, it was all she had. She jumped with her good leg, using a flash step at the apex of her trajectory to shoot herself upward like a bullet, smashing up through the ground and into the open air.

Ships. Ships and legions. This could be her way out. Loria was damned -- a cursed wreck, beyond recovery. That was more than clear to her now, as it had been when she first found it. Nothing could be salvaged, not truly. Not without workers. Not without her people. Loria was as much an artifact of an ancient time as the lorians had been, and she was truly alone in the world. Defeated and wounded; but not forever. Not for long.

Moving faster than before with her armor off, Ziah flash stepped into the mob of Deathborn and grabbed one by its skull, lifting it. "Where is your master? Are you friend or foe? Speak!" She glanced nervously behind her, waiting for one of her pursuers to give chase.

@vitus:@strongarm:@_avatar_:@ziah_darksong:

Thanks to the combined efforts of Remus and the other partners the alien was beginning to waver it seemed, she was badly injured and her armour was completely ruined forcing her to abandon it and in doing so show the full extent of her beating. A small, tired smirk emerged under the mask of the wizard as the fight at this point was certainly in his favour and if they could continue this relentless onslaught then victory would be a distinct possibility. However, things took at turn for the worst as the very ceiling of the dark, craggy cavern was blown open in a spectacular yet destructive bombing and it became very apparent to Remus that reinforcements were arriving to help the murderous alien to escape and he cursed in his ancient language harshly as he caught a glimpse of the target through the vast amount of dust and falling rocks jumping up through the large hole above and trying to escape.

At this point for Remus there was no real way of chasing the alien from this point as he didn't have enough inner energy to use his telekinesis and even with the new remote controlled guns at his disposal he highly doubted he could fight through the legions of metallic skeleton that were descending upon their position as well as capturing the target. But, he knew that the two other hunters had a much better chance than he did of achieving this and Remus would make sure that they got his support. He analysed the new enemy, necromantic energies spiked up in the area and a deathly aura enveloped him, these were mechanical foot soldiers somehow bonded to a previously found sentience and their weapons appeared to have the design of draining the life from targets ad storing them although this was all just speculation and Remus didn't quite know if his theory was correct yet. He used his speed to help avoid the non stop array of bolts brought upon hem by the robotic army, the two guns acted like sentries as Remus regrouped with his allies and they shot a whatever happened to be the closest target not dealing major damage to their metal body but certainly knocking some of them back and reducing the number of units firing at him. He noticed that these robots were very grouped up in regimental fashion and Remus took advantage of this and using the very last bits of his energy pool he shouted "Trio weeeeave!" and point his three left fingers towards the deadly force that was starting to surround him and his allies. The weave would travel as quick as a bolt of lighting and in such a large crowd with a degree of accuracy that Remus had missing was nearly impossible, but the weaves worked in a very special way as the bolt that carried the effect of the three weaves would jump from deathborn to deathborn like a chain lighting providing there was one three meters away from the last one stuck by the weave meaning that in theory as long as the legions of robots stayed packed together as they were they would all be struck at least once by the three combined weaves.

This would make the army they would have to face much weaker if it was successful and hopefully his temporary partners would find it much easier to push through the company of robotic killing machines and maybe even capture the Lorian. Unfortunately the physical and mental strain on Remus was beginning to take its toll as previous injuries re-appeared after being suppressed by his insanity inducing adrenaline rush which along with his increased speed was starting to fade away, his breathing was getting heavy and fighting in close quarters was no longer a good option. luckily, he did have the two powerful guns under his command and he proceeded to fire upon the foe hoping to take some pressure off of the others. He tried to enter a more focused and meditative state concentrating on his arcane aura which would help protect those around him by causing the occasional bolt of energy to fizzle out and do nothing. His own personal aura, his cloak and his own adaption meant that the majority of bolts fizzled out when they neared him and the ones that did make it through did very little to drain his life as a good quarter of the necromantic power in the energy bolts were converted into energy for his own. Eventually, it could kill him but it would take some time to do so and Remus was still dodging when he could.

He called out he emerald protector of light and said in a relatively calm but loud voice "Got any ideaaas?" He said eccentrically. Awaiting for the one called avatar to come up with a plan or simply try to go after and capture the alien. All through this, Remus was very temped to call a retreat seeing as getting to the Lorian would be very awkward at this point but there was still a chance and he was confident that even if they tried to capture her and failed they would still stand a good chance of escaping themselves from this army that had been thrust upon them.