middleofsomewhere | The Will to Fight: Finale: All teams

The Will to Fight: Finale: All teams

The Far Gate

Given that people have scouted ahead, it will be no surprise when those who arrive at the Red objective find an army of demons there. Unlike the other packs they have encountered, these ones are not roaming, and don't appear to be heading towards the city. Instead, they are guarding something.

A gate. It is larger than the others they have seen so far by an order of magnitude, and if there are this many demons outside, the keystone must be guarded just as well.

For those who are actually on the red team their SCA will flash up a message: This gate has multiple keystones. It is the focal point for other gates closer to the city. Close it.

Around the City

In the Caverns

Once the rockfall was cleared, those that wished to could make their way back towards the city. They might come across demons on the way, small packs scouting the land and hunting survivors, but for the most part their way will be clear until they get to the city and to the Voidtrecker camp.

For everyone else, there are plenty of non-combatants that need protecting. The cavern itself remains warded against demons, but patrols still pass and keeping everyone safe and hidden is important.

Almost all the citizens have thrown off the mind control now. Some of the younger children have started having nightmares, and keeping everyone positive and calm is harder than it was before with a goal in sight.

In the City

The sigils hum and glow. For those feeding them power it's a very long couple of days; though once the monks are free they join in, brusquely waving off any questions or concern about their wellbeing to focus on the task at hand: protecting the city. They will of course accept any extra energy. The wards are not meant to go out completely, it will take a lot of energy to restart them.

By the eleventh day it is clear something else is wrong. Some of the focus stones on the city walls are out of place, either knocked awry in the battles before the false peace, or sabotaged by demons. Either way, for the wards to fully activate they will need those not giving energy to go out onto the walls, to find the stones and align them. It's not too technical but might be dangerous, because outside the walls, a fight is about to begin…

The Battle for the City

The attacks have gotten more frequent but on the evening of day ten they stop. Silence. No gates open, no demons attack. The whole night is spent in a tense, almost eerie silence.

It is broken at dawn the next day, two massive gates open, one to the north of the city and one to the south. Demons march out, heading towards the city.

Not just demons, they each have two large structures, siege machines. It seems they wish to knock this city down completely, securing their victory over the humans.

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Nozomi's exhausted. She can feel her power as Cure Dream being weaker than usual. Her costume was more frayed than usual from the blows she took. She should be resting, but instead, she's standing her ground, waiting for the word to move.

She's gonna hafta talk to someone about expanding her usage so that she could be more useful than this...

Rose uses the lull to prep, securing her batons in easy reach and checking the charge on her borrowed laser rifle. She quietly listens to the others discuss tactics, when something one of them says catches her attention.

She's reluctant to reveal a trump card, but needs must. "I have something that might help with the machines." She hesitates before removing her sonic blaster from a trouser pocket. It's not particularly impressive to see, looking like little more than a futuristic handgun. "Should be able to take out a good chunk and from a distance, but I've never had to use it against demons before, so..." She shrugs, careful to keep both firearms aimed away from her allies. "Results may vary."

Casper is, frankly, exhausted - but he's not so wiped that he can't help a bit. Or a lot, and then collapse later. "I can increase everyone's agility a bit, but I can't do too much else while the effect is going on. It's going to take a lot of breath control, especially if I want to make it loud enough for everyone in the group."

The field would be quiet, peaceful, were it not for the readying of weapons and the crunch of earth torn up by demonic claws and great, spiked engine tracks. Ripples of hissing laughter and chants go through the ranks, the demons gaining confidence from the lack of movement from the defenders.

The lines of the Voidtreckers are still untouched, the demons are gathered about the siege engines rather than running ahead... until two of the smaller overseers screech out commands, and two large groups split out, left and right, looking to encircle the Voidtreckers. The engines continue straight on.

A third overseer completes its chant, and spheres of decay arc like mortar fire towards the more visible individuals: Devero, Koumyou and Trunks.

She takes the sword from Jiu with a certain amount of bewilderment - what's she meant to do with this? - but given his hunt for stones, she quickly transfers the sword to one hand and fishes one of her two remaining rolls of throwing knives out of her pocket.

"We'll trade," she tells him, which seems better than just taking the guy's weapon. Knives are probably better than stones, while he has them? She hopes so. Willow's admonishment has her puffing up. "And the same goes for you and everyone else! If you're in trouble, you should definitely save yourselves, okay? We'll just have to rescue you otherwise, and it'll be a lot of hassle!"

It looks like everyone's going to be splitting, either taking out those machines or fighting from here, so she gets to her feet and takes a few steps back so she can cover Casper and Willow.

"XiXue, use your mist from last time." The Vulpix inhales, and then breathes out a chilly, glittering Mist. Sinking to swirl around the feet of those not moving forward, the enchanted vapour wards off the exhaustion of the demons' magic.

Seeing those projectiles coming their way, Koumyou Sanzo...

Doesn't move.

But the paper always draped ever-so innocently around his shoulders sure does, rustling in a breeze that isn't there, before numerous -- impossible to even count -- tendrils of the Light of Creation itself unfurl through the air, some nearly a hundred feet long, reaching almost hungrily for those spheres of decay, blazing a searing white with holy power.

The priest is careful not to let the glow get so bright that it will blind everyone here, but it's still a lot. And anyone who's seen it in action before will know he's definitely holding the artifact back.

"I suppose I'm on defense, then?"

If there are others going for the siege engines, then he may as well focus on protection instead. Or, if he draws enough attention with the sutra, perhaps he'll split off as a distraction once the demons are good and fixated on him.

Fortunately he wasn't having trouble with lucidity, and he wasn't even surprised that Gen was skittering after him.

Senku didn't even need to look back. He half expected him to follow anyway.

It took a lot of luck, luck he didn't normally have that he wasn't noticed yet, but so far so good. That was the only reason he hadn't said something, they were creeping around.

If the demons took notice of them, they might be in trouble. They just had to get around the group to get a clear vision of that contraption, and to get at it.

Gen flinched though at the sound of mortar fire - glanced just for a moment back. That could be them. It looked as if at least someone was doing flashy - literally - to magically shield everyone. But -

“At least they’re drawing their fire,” Gen said like it was a joke, that he wasn’t worried, a more obvious lie than usual. “You think we should approach it from behind, Senku-chan?”

"That you are, Sanzo-sama," Devero says, squinting one eye and zooming in with his Interface to track the trajectory of those incoming projectiles.

He cuts looks away as the writhing shield of nearly incandescent paper rises between them and the demons' magic, turning to track the progress of one of the two flanking groups. "Look alive, we've got incoming to the left and the right!" he bellows. "Loose ranged attacks as soon as they're in your range!"

Suiting action to word, he sets his feet, raises his Sanzo-blessed pistol, and sights through his Interface. As soon as the first of the demons are in his range he starts to snap off shots.

Trunks had raised his hands, ready to fire blasts of ki at the projectiles. He pauses however, as the Priest lets the artifact shield them. With a nod he smirks, and beings to charge his ki blasts for just a bit more power. Ready to unleash them when the demons are in range.

Any that survive the initial onslaught, he'll transform and charge at to provide a ready target and distraction.

A light chuckle at A-Qing's boldness and a nod at Devero, drawing an arrow with a crackle of lightning around it as one glows with a rune and lets it fly with sparks trailing behind it towards the on-coming swarm, ready to crash into them with a blast of chain lightning.

Three more arrows drawn, each engulfed in holy white-gold flames this time as they fly at one of the engines.

Okay, fine. Fuck the Song. He raises a hand in the air, and suddenly a large cylindrical area about twenty feet wide in the middle of the demons is pelted by huge hailstones for a few seconds. The area becomes slick and difficult to walk on for about half a minute after that, but hopefully it's enough damage to sting.

Casper whistles to Bob and the boy and raven take flight on black wings. Casper taps his baseball bat to his chest and lets the icy armor spread over him. He's wasting magic, but this feels like an endboss to him.

He flaps in the air, letting three globes of light drift into the back of the demonic line and then explode like a silent flashbang with a snap.

One of the problems in helping out as he could in the caverns has meant he's also slower going, and much less useful down there, with whatever abilities he has. Not only that, but whatever resentful aligned energies he'd sensed when they first arrived are now firmly ones he can't touch until he's outside the walls of the city.

Which means when he's adding in his own distance attacking help, it's to a song played from just outside the walls, calling on and directing the lingering resentful energies to coalesce into the more familiar form for him: not zombies, as would be the case of either other man bearing his name here, but instead viscous shadows that shriek as they soar and dive and weave into the triply divided demon forces. His aim, such as it is, encouraging the smallest ones calling orders as primary targets, because harrying forces and letting whatever hits are raining down from the rest of those here is more useful than expecting he's going to rate a particularly high kill count himself.

Then again, who knows? He has to keep his eyes on the battle and wary of the sort of attacks that might target him where he's half covered by a cracked boulder, stream of music continuing as he plays his flute and the shadow dense forms of the resentful dead dive and weave, tireless, unlike their director. He's just going to have to keep an eye on those of their forces engaging closer there, to keep that attacking force turned away from them.

Battle is joined, if at a distance. Devero, Willow and Trunks all hit their targets, and the front line of demons falls in a storm of ki, electricity and blessed bullets. It delays the sides' meeting by a good few seconds; the demons behind the fallen leap and claw over their fallen comrades without blinking. Other Voidtreckers dispatch demons on the left and right, but the flanks are moving faster than the central pack.

Koumyou's display certainly attracts attention - rather than seeming discouraged, the two casters renew their efforts, and crackling spheres begin to rain down on the area and around it, as if to test his defences.

The missiles catch several of Wei Wuxian's resentful shadows, though the energy only distorts their forms for a moment. Darkness ripples into one larger shape that continues diving towards the casters, successfully interrupting one of them. It's fortunate, because it means that one of the two spheres they were aiming at Casper flies wide, leaving him one to deal with.

A less fortunate side-effect is that, in efforts to avoid the lashing sutra, a pack of five demons swerves to go around - and are heading in the direction of Senku and Gen.

The first of the two siege engines shudders as Willow's three fiery arrows slam into it, the holy power appearing to eat away at the black slime painted across the machine for the few seconds they burn against it. The second engine pauses as its attendants are blinded by flashbangs, but a previously unseen overseer snaps out a command and they continue to push, albeit more slowly.

Shit. Stealth time was over. Senku saw them coming and he took a quick glance over his shoulder, not sure if they’d caught the attention of their comrades or not, but he had Gen at his back, and this situation was less than ideal.

Story of their lives, really.

The first thing he summoned out of the arms band was his axe, decently hefty wood and stone and he passed it back to Gen. He didn’t speak, he knew Gen understood the gravity of the situation.

The second item was the crossbow – thank whoever that he built it ages ago for protection – and he raised it, stepping backwards to close the gap between him and Gen. There was a chance they weren’t seen...no there wasn’t. They were coming straight for them.

“Fuck.” He muttered under his breath. “Some nitroglycerin would be particularly helpful right about now.” They saved their banter for medium-dire situations. Being caught out by five demons was about as severe as it got.

Senku took aim and began firing arrows, the arms band giving him unlimited ammo, at the legs of the demons. He just wanted to stop them in their tracks.

Story of their lives, as always.

(Gen is the first to say that if he's caught in a battle, something's gone terribly wrong - and see how true that is? They weren't exactly well prepared - with either skill or equipment.)

He took the axe, tested the weight in his hand - he had a small knife up his sleeve that he could throw, but only one, so if he was going to use that, he'd need to make that count. Two, if he stole the one that Senku kept. That would be a last-resort option.

"I never feel amazing when our best option would be to make a bomb," Gen quipped back, and was prepared to try and smack the first demon who came near with his wood-cutting axe. It'd at least buy Senku time to flee, if an axe to the face didn't kill it, or - more likely - he missed and hit a shoulder or its chest.

Koumyou folds his hands back into his sleeves as several dozen tendrils of the sutra coil and spiral and interlock overhead, forming a brightly-glowing dome high over the group as the crackling balls of decay pelt it.

More tendrils drift through the air, ready, mostly overhead so as to not block everyone else's movements or ability to fire weapons. They keep especially clear of Willow so that her shots won't be hindered even if she has to aim upwards at all with her bow.

A few long tendrils shoot off to the side at the oncoming demons, Koumyou intending to run a bunch of them through on each branch of indestructible holy paper.

A smirk as she sees the holy flame appeared to have some effect even to make it pause, drawing two more and loosing them with the same magic applied. If she can keep aiming at the big thing, something could be done as the others handle the swarms.

Her glance turns to the splintered group heading towards Gen and Senku and draws two arrows, one crackling in that same lightning and a second enveloped in the same white-gold holy flame sent off against the siege engines. Both charged with magic for an area wide blast as they fly.

Gods damn it. He folds his wings in to drop below the sphere, spotting Senku and Gen. He takes a deep breath and Sings at the top of his lungs, diving towards the group nearing the two boys. If it works - and they're not strong enough to shake off mental-targeting magic - then Casper will be their target.

As well as the target of anyone else in hearing range that's an enemy.

... Which isn't great, but better than getting them killed.

He calculates trajectories and responses he's seeing out of fellow train-bound, deciding they have the bulk of that split handled, small as it is; so Wei Wuxian focusses instead on dropping down lower and playing still as he moves partly like he's dancing to shift position, notes in music coaxing, demanding, as the coalesced form of resentful energies dives again at the casters. If it arcs wide, it only does so to try to find the unseen overseer for the machine itself, before diving back into interfering with the casters as much as possible.

If he's been having to dance out of range of any errant missiles, well, what is any battlefield if you can just pose on top of a large stone column and not have to move? (Far easier to concentrate through, that's true.)

Cassie's been trained well enough to know which shots are the right ones to take. She's hovering above the action with her rifle trained on what she's looking for.

And then she unloads - a barrage of suppressing fire, charged with shadow energy, in an effort to disrupt the siege engine and the demons operating it. A moving row of green flame surrounds the weapon - and will continue to do so as long as Cassie's got a good shot at it.

Oh, of all the times to spaz out and forget she’s in a battle! But, Nozomi takes note of the siege engines. One is taking damage and the other is slowed down.

She’s going to gun for the slower one, charging forward, she holds her hands out. “PRECURE...!” she shouts out. Her hands glow pink as it readies her Shooting Star attack... but she won’t do it.

Instead, she’ll use that purification magic and her enhanced strength to try and stop the slower siege engine. Maybe even push it back!

Trunks lets himself power up fully, which does make him a more obvious target with the golden aura around him. But he'll keep firing ki blasts, some large enough to take out a truck easily, at the Demons. Much like Cassie, he's attempting to do suppressing fire and keep the demons off-guard.

As soon as one of the flanks is close though, he'll break off and head to keep them busy, sword flashing all the way.

It's easy to lose Devero in the chaos of the battlefield. After all, he's just a man with a handgun-- no holy artifact of unimaginable power, no glowing corona of ki energy, no flaming arrows. Even his holy bullets just look like bullets until they burn whatever they strike into ash.

But he could be a machine, he's so steady and precise with that handgun. That's not to say that every shot he fires finds its target-- he's not that good a marksman-- but he stands steady as the second wave of demons surges up behind the fallen first.

Only when his clip is empty does he break stance. He returns the weapon to his ARMS band so it'll reload and draws his tac batons. "Get ready for contact!" he bellows to the Voidtreckers still on the ground with him.

With flicks of his wrists he extends his batons out to either side. They come alive in his hands, electricity crackling from the tips. With a yell, he launches himself into the fray as the demon ranks close with the Voidtreckers' defensive line.

Rose watches and does what she does best: adapts. A good number of the others decide to focus on the siege engines, so she tucks away her blaster.

Instead, she focuses her efforts on the demons trying to flank them on the right, hyperaware that letting themselves get caught in a pincer maneuver is a Bad Idea. She steadies her laser rifle on some rubble, patiently waiting for the enemy to come within effective range before aiming and taking only potentially lethal shots.

She can’t help clicking her tongue in disapproval; these are her least favorite type of battle.

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