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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Casper makes sure the two boys are on top of Willow and rises himself, angry at the creatures that have been hurting them, have been hurting his teammates and fellow Passengers.

Casper turns towards the largest demon left and swoops towards it, holding a hand out and making a crushing motion as ice blisters start to form.

He then goes to land on the demon, placing a hand down on the thing's head and holding his bat in another. He forces some of the power from his bat down through his body into the creature, trying to grab hold of the temperature around the creature, inside the creature, and lower the temperature enough to start freezing any liquids inside of the thing.

Edited 2021-03-25 03:00 (UTC)

It was honestly taking all his concentration and skill to keep the demons from overwhelming them AND defend against Nozomi. Part of him spared a moment to be glad HE was her target, given the power behind her hits. "I'm not a monster at all!" Trunks shouted back. "Wake up!"

She doesn't need to be told twice, and as soon as both boys are safely aboard her, she lifts off trusting Casper to run defense even if she's still worried about him after the other day with the exhaustion. She has to just trust he'll have her back as she goes back towards the spot she'd left. It's in the middle of it all, but with Koumyou's wards and everyone fighting in all directions, it's the safest place she can think of since drawing the demons back towards camp could be disastrous with the capable fighters mostly in the chaos.

She speeds back, blasting flames on any demons below heading in that direction, as well as letting a warm light wash over Gen and Senku with a healing aura. It's not a full heal, but it should stabilise any other injuries Casper hadn't gotten to yet.

The holy golden dome of woven sutra tendrils is indeed still up, shining like a beacon -- a single safe oasis in the chaos of this battlefield. Even with Koumyou's focus being split in multiple directions, the sutra shows no sign of wavering. It glows brighter for a second here and there, almost blinding to look at directly, but that's the only variation in its status.

Koumyou Sanzo, after all, used to be entrusted with the control and protection of two of these things.

That isn't to say things are fantastic under the dome at the moment, with Devero... trying to kill him? What the fuck? Koumyou leaps away as Devero lunges with his batons sparking, landing a good ten feet away from him. The priest raises his hands, grabbing at the air between them with both in a snatching motion.

One charge of sparking, arcing, holy electricity from the batons siphons off as though it had struck its target, not enough to drain the batteries but enough for Koumyou to pull the crackling power to him in a huge ball between his hands, and then--

He flings it past Devero, right at those spectating demons. As the ball of energy flies, it elongates and shifts, becoming a long eastern dragon just like the one he likes to make out of water. It gives a staticky roar as it plows into the demonic audience.

It won't dissipate with one hit, either, rampaging through the ranks. Though the initial holy electricity had come from Devero's blessed batons, Koumyou's chi fuels it even further.

"Devero, snap out of it!"

One last shot to try using his words, first. Though Koumyou doubts that's going to be enough, he has to at least try before escalating. He's not quite as impulsive as he'd been at age ten.

Wen Ning falls from the heavens, taking care of the demons daggers and helping bring a halt to demon progress. Knives thrown by another trekkie brings down two demons to where is a simple matter to say that they stay down.

He's tiring, he can feel it, but he's not bleeding from any deep cuts or his own cultivation. Trusting implicitly in Wen Ning, he strengthens his stance and his playing. Targeting the many points of chaos on field would be too much strain, too much of everything: instead, he instructs his spirits to run interference for Cassie and also those landing on the siege engines, with only one alternative instruction for the remaining draconic maligned spirits: to locate the daggers of the torn apart magicians, and, if found, deliver them both to Wen Ning.

He has to hold on, and calm these spirits in the aftermath. Or else... something. He's sure of that much.

Having fought at Wei Wuxian's side as much as he has, Wen Ning can tell when the man is exhausting himself. He won't be leaving his side. For now, he is essentially a shield. There are others who can wade into the demons on the offensive. Too much has targeted the demonic cultivator already and he wants to make sure what playing he has left in him remains unhindered.

At some point he really needs to get a spiritual weapon of his own. He'd never been a particularly strong cultivator before, but he has better control of the resentful energy within his meridians now. It would be more useful than having to rely on his fists. Wei Wuxian doesn't even have his sword, so he can't borrow that either.

"Stay behind me." Even his instructions are polite, deferential. One could almost hear the unspoken 'please'. As demons approach, he prepares to do what he can - even if that means shoving his foot down their throats.

Rose salutes Cassie in return before kicking the demon away and promptly vacating the premises. Is the demon happy that she stole his weapon? Probably not. Is she going to stick around to see? Hell no. Besides, it looks like Cassie is going to make things very uncomfortable for this particular batch of demons very soon, and she for one does not want to be collateral damage.

She focuses on running and dodging until she can duck behind some cover. The whip has tangled her batons into uselessness and she needs to take a moment to fix it. She hisses in pain when her bare skin makes contact. Right, toxic whips; she knew that. Definitely getting gloves for next time.

Fuck it. Rose drops the tangled mass for her sonic blaster. She likes guns better anyway.

Once Hua Cheng mows down the demons that gets in his way, he made it to the siege machine that Xie Lian is on.

"Dianxia." A man of his word, where there Xie Lian, he will always fight by his side.

On one side of the siege machine that Xie Lian is on, Hua Cheng searches for a weakness and with his fists, summoning his spiritual ghost king power, he pounds away at the siege machine with his fists in an effort to break it down and destroy it.

The sprint back to the dome doesn't clear anything up. She can hear other cries, is vaguely aware that more have joined by spots of colour, the pressure of larger attacks rippling through the air, new voices, fire-- but none of that is important when Devero is lunging for his...

His... she doesn't know what they are, actually, but she's certain that 'attacking with intent to kill' isn't part of their usual activities. Caught up, and definitely still young enough to be impulsive, she uses her momentum to dive at his legs, hoping that her slight weight can at least knock him off-balance. The priest can handle himself, she hopes, but she wants to give him time.

"Sorry," is what she yelps. "Xixue, help--" Her fox, rather than tackling him, sends out a burst of eerie light, the colours flashing and dancing in front of Devero's eyes.

With the sudden arrival of new Voidtreckers, chaos rules over the battlefield.

Shadows are everywhere, smashing their insubstantial forms against the demonic forces; silvery blades and blazing fires seem to be in every battle at once. The violence of the newcomers sets the demons back for just a second, waiting for instruction, for orders that cannot come, before the packs descend as one into a desperate berserk.

The second siege engine is almost completely obscured by the energy being thrown around by the Voidtreckers fighting beside it; Trunks will find his frantic defence grows easier and easier as the shockwaves from the blows he blocks from Nozomi annihilate the demons caught nearby, tearing great gouges in the earth. The shadows sent to harry the engine either flee or are destroyed, unable to withstand the power of a furious Cure. Even the engine creaks under the backlash-- and again, when Xie Lian arrives atop it and sends a blow straight down into the structure. Perhaps his luck is great after all - he's a being able to withstand the battle going on below. By the time Hua Cheng joins them, the entire engine is crumbling under his god's strike, his own blows the nail in the coffin. The demons inside spill out to engage, but their numbers are no longer enough to overwhelm.

The ground shakes with the force of their battle-- and then it quakes again, this time from the direction of the gate.

Those in the air - Cassie and Casper and their own small flock of shadows, dispatching the last of the greater demons; Willow, Senku and Gen, winging back to the supposed safety of the sutra - won't find themselves inconvenienced. Anyone on the ground, such as Rose, Devero or a-Qing, will find it far more difficult to stay upright. The sutra flares, as if reacting to some great force, a presence it cannot tolerate--

Another quake.

One of Wei Wuxian's shadowy dragons manages to catch two daggers in its maw - along with half the body of a magician, and a good chunk of earth. It shoots towards where Wen Ning and Jiu are locked in combat against their own respective circles of demons, following its master's tune, and lands in a pile of wispy, freezing coils, a tamed beast. The other giant shadow is less fortunate - it swerves to snap and slash at one last magician lunging for Lan Wangji, and is launched into the air by the crackling form of Koumyou's own qi monster. The two forms coil around each other for barely a second, the unfortunate demon caught between them visible one moment and torn asunder the next. And then, they part, in a triumphant crack of thunder, ripping through the remaining demons to return to their respective masters.

The balance has swung back to their side. But, for how long?

Edited 2021-03-25 22:43 (UTC)

Thankfully, with the demons taking most of the collateral damage between him and Nozomi, Trunks is able to focus his defense more on her. Hand-to-hand, blocking, redirecting--trying to not hurt her. If any demons survive getting close to them, out comes the sword, but otherwise his focus is on Nozomi. As long as she's targeting him, she won't hurt anyone else.

Eyes narrowing, he remembers some of the tips and training he's been getting lately. From his father, and from all his time with training with Cassie. They're on par strength-wise, and she does have magic, so a grapple hold might not be a good idea. He's still going to look for an opportunity though; take an opening if he gets it and grapple her to still her.

Edited 2021-03-25 23:56 (UTC)

Nozomi’s assault on Trunks continues and it’s quite clear that Nozomi is starting to tire. The adrenaline fueling her fight is starting to wear out and the Cure’s strikes are getting sloppier and weaker.

“This... I-I can’t...” she mutters, still trying to fight. She’s going to whiff one punch completely, allowing Trunks the chance to grab her and hold her back.

“I can’t stop... I...”

The shadow dragon's landing momentarily attracts Jiu's attention - or to be more specific, the shiny weapons he can see glinting from its mouth. He tosses another pair of qi-charged daggers at the nearest demon and creates a five-second wall of flame for cover before turning with a swish of his tail and running to scoop one up before somebody else gets the same idea. Surely these must be better than the knives he's been using thus far, right?

Whatever else might be going on, Cassie's got one mission. And that's to point at everything that's pissing her off until it burns, explodes, or otherwise stops moving. And right now, that consists of the not-quite-as-many-demons-as-there-once-were demons beneath her, who made the mistake of pissing her off without finishing her off.

The ones that are smart will at least try to scatter. The ones that aren't are having a very bad time right now.

He jumps off the engine and calls Rouye back. The bandage slides around his arm as he removes that dagger from his waistband. If it works like it has been it should draw many of the demons back towards him. He doesn't mind being a target. He takes down as many of the ones fleeing the engine as he can, smiling at Hua Cheng as he moves past the Ghost King.

"Looks like we arrived just in time." They were perhaps a much needed second wind to assist the fighters that were starting to wear down. He isn't much good for wide range attacks but he can certainly take care of any the lingering demons around these engines. "We might want to keep an eye on the gate."

Those rumblings of the earth and the feeling he is getting from that direction makes it seem like they might not be quite done yet. He might be making his way closer just in case.

For once Xue Yang has gone off from the red team and decided to see what issues some of the others were having. He did not expect the chaos he encounters but it sends a thrill down his spine as he wields a sword in each hand. The rumbling of the earth is hardly a concern but what does worry him is how the demons seem to be reassembling themselves. Something isn't right and he isn't about to let them all go.

With two quick swings of the swords he sends cracks of lightning towards the retreating demons hoping to take most of them close to him down before they can get back to their leaders. "Don't run away yet. I just got here."

He spots a few familiar faces in the crowd so perhaps he isn't too late to have a little fun after all.

While they were airborne, and taken to safety, they wouldn’t be airborne forever. Senku was fine with being on the ground, except for the fact it was trembling like an earthquake was happening.

His brow furrowed at that.

He nodded his thanks to Willow and instead focused on fussing over Gen. “How are you doing?” He asked him, annoyingly pressing his fingers to Gen’s neck to check his pulse.

Senku had no idea whether or not between Casper and Willow if he was healed completely, but all the same, he couldn’t be feeling that great after leaving his blood over there, he figured.

“Thank you for the, ah, healing, my friend,” Gen told Willow with a slightly more usual smile to his normal self.

He no longer felt like he was a newborn deer, hardly able to stand on his own legs. But he still felt a little dizzy and woozy. Like he’d stood up too fast after lying down for hours, but it didn’t go away. The last residual affects of the blood he’d lost, he guessed.

But Gen would let Senku fuss. He’d probably feel that his heat rate was pretty elevated as his body tried to cope with the trauma of injury and stress of battle and the confusing signals of being healed twice by powerful magic users.

“Much better, believe me, darling,” Gen murmured. “Forgive me for not getting you to the machine in time.”

The engine crumbled from the hard impact, utterly crushed.

"We're on time." Not a man of many words during combat. There's a rumble from the direction of the gate, but he needs to focus on killing the demons that spilled out to engaged with him, and he cleared the obstacles by killing the rest of whoever stands in his way.

"Still a long way to go." He eyes the gate, it seems to be the source of the quake.

Lan Wangji is too busy fighting his own demons, stabbing repeatedly, slicing off limbs. He noticed a magician is aiming to lunge for him, but then a giant shadow came to attack and launch into the air by another monster.

Together, he and his youkai fight as one, and continue the fight, setting ablaze the demons with his fireballs and fire sword, burning and killing asunder.

The energy dragon is impressive, even for Wei Wuxian. Keeping up all of this can't be easy on him, though. Wen Ning wants to chastise the man further, tell him not to overdo it, but he has to let his friend judge his own limitations. He doesn't want to boss him around. He's here to protect him from harm, and if that means carrying him off the battlefield then that's what he'll do.

Meanwhile he seems to have gone out of his way to bring over some kind of weaponry. (That had been on purpose, right?) He's not used to fighting with daggers and these don't seem like ordinary daggers to begin with. All the same, it would be nice to have something with a sharp edge. He quickly makes for the other one before it can be grabbed up as well.

Though as he does so he catches the arrival of another familiar face out of the corner of his eye and suddenly the level of danger they might be in goes up a whole level. Xue Yang. He can only hope that he's distracted enough by all the demons that he won't bother harassing them.

There's a shriek of acknowledgement to the thanks as she speeds back to land, seeing some sort of rumbling from down below, giving her a bad feeling as she sees the chaos as well of teammate against teammate. She sets down, thankful for the safe flight, reverting back to her human form and immediately takes the Ether she'd been saving for a situation like this. She begins throwing orbs of light towards all allies, healing light with a rune of magicked defense packed into them with a large heal in them. It's time she switched to defensive and healing for everyone.

"Prepare yourselves you two, or stand close." She calls back to Gen and Senku, trusting her gut feeling.

Devero roars with inarticulate fury as his target dodges so neatly and s far out of reach. He pivots sharply on his heel to give chase, but before he can, the demon is siphoning the electricity off his weapons and forming it into--

He throws himself to the side as the demon launches the monster at him, somehow managing to dodge the attack. The shape of it is so serpentine and majestic that he actually pauses to watch it surge past. It recalls the exquisite dragon that Koumyou had made out of snow at the winter faire, drawing on Devero's chi to give life to the creation. Devero's expression softens as he watches it pass, and he wants to believe it had been cast by the hand of his Sanzo--

Instead of his Sanzo's murderer. His hands tighten on the batons and he swings his gaze back to the demon in question. "How dare you?" he screams, the anger in his voice an imperfect cover for his grief and horror. "How dare you make something that looks so much like his right after you killed him?!"

He gathers himself to resume his own attack, which is about the moment that a-Qing reaches him. If he'd had just her to contend with, Devero might have been able to keep his feet. But an instant after a weight crashes into his legs from behind, the ground jerks beneath him and Devero goes down with a yell.

He thrashes and kicks until he's flipped over onto his back, his enraged eyes locking on the foolhardy little demon who's tried to grapple him. His lips pull back from his teeth and he drops one of his batons to grab for the loathsome creature, raising his other weapon just as the charge returns to it and the tip begins to crackle and spark anew.

"You can't stop me," he snaps, "I'll kill every last one of you if I-- augh!"

This demon-magic attack he doesn't have a chance to dodge. His eyes are suddenly full of lights and, even on the ground as he is, he feels vertigo take him. "No!" he cries out, and strikes out blindly with his baton anyway.

The healing from Willow is appreciated, it gives Koumyou a clearer head, the stinging pain from glancing blows fading, some of his energy coming back to him as he watches Devero.

...Well, that cinches it. If Devero thinks Koumyou's dead -- that whoever he sees in Koumyou's place killed him...?

It's not like illusion magic is unheard of on his own world. And it's not like it's unheard of for it to be demonic in nature, either.

Devero had gone out among the demons, and come back like this.

His mind has obviously been tampered with, muffled by demonic influence.

When the big guy goes down, Koumyou rushes forward, grabbing at his baton hand's wrist with one hand and latching onto Devero's forehead with the other.

"Sha ri shi shiki fu I ku- ku- fu I shiki," the sutra above them pulses with brilliant light to the rhythm of his chanting, "shiki soku ze ku- ku- soku ze shiki. Ju so- gyo- shiki yaku bu nyo ze--!"

Holy light just as bright as that of the sutra leaks from around his hand on Devero's forehead. Exorcism time!

He braced against the shaking earth, as if an earth dragon was likewise trying to claw to the surface. No such beast emerges, but he ends up stumbling, still playing his flute and eyeing Wen Ning's position as his defender.

He shifts to keep himself both closer to Wen Ning and further from any still encroaching demons, then looks back out to the failed engines. It's a blur of familiar and unfamiliar faces, and past that, he tips his chin in and changes the notes to his song: the two large resentment filled shadows taking on the form of dragons, not equally powered after one's entanglement with the dragon qi from Koumyou. Ozone singes the air as if lightning had followed that thunderous noise.

With A-Jiu and Wen Ning both picking up the dropped daggers, and everyone ignoring the half demon that came along with them, also the dirt. He's even more exhausted, but sends those two dragons swirling out again, a cacophony of shrieking voices that stay low to the ground, barreling into and beyond remaining forces as they head beyond the broken engines, aiming to slam into the gate.

He starts to slump, stumbling forward a step, and one of the remaining smaller resentment filled shadows dancing to his tune breaks off from harrying demons to offer a bump of support for Rose and a-Qing in case of any other quakes.

Wei Wuxian stumbles again, feeling light headed, starting to bleed from the corner of his lips as he continues playing.

rolled the appropriate dice for the second thing and that's a lot of successes

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do it coward

ROUND

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