If chaos had a sound, it would have been a metal fork scraping against a plate amid the two screaming consciousnesses, the scientist's desperate instruction, and Alexina's borrowed directive vying for control over the cracked flatware that was Accelerator's mind. Had it not been for the lifeline that was the elf's soothing song helping him navigate his splintered psyche, Accel... no Ahylios, would have done the unforgivable. For a brief and crucial moment, Accelerator's eyes cleared, red rings fading as he reasserted control over himself, if only temporarily. The previous trembling and head-scraping nails stilled as the crackling electro-field surrounding him flickered and died out just as Harper, Luthien, and the two Aristo goons jumped within striking distance, all fumbling to retrieve the tear-wrought baby.
Luthien launched herself towards the falling baby with outstretched arms while Harper followed suit with a floor chunk protecting them both. On the other side of the blue-haired Magia was the long-haired A with her leading arm reaching for the baby while D had his weapon out ready to repel the competing pair. For a second, it seemed as though the air itself held its breath as four sets of hands were about to catch the precious bundle when Player 3 joined the fray.
From A's eye emerged a blade, followed by an entire man with his long dagger slamming right into Harper's makeshift shield while his free hand wrapped around the baby.
CLANG!!!
The sound of metal and stone colliding rang out sharply through the egg room, the magic of the blade passing through the stone, hitting the two on the receiving end.
"So we meet again... Luthien was it? I'll be taking this child. No alimony, alright? Have a nice and long life." The long-haired Vern stole a glance at the elf and the beastfolk in front of him before kicking off of the floor chunk, smoothly sweeping the crying child into his free arm and tucking her against his body with a gentleness that belied his brutal entry. Vern then disappeared into a sprinting blur along the ground, making away with the child.
With Harper and Luthien surprised by Vern, A and D took the chance to attack them and would have succeeded had it not been for Imoogi's bottle of Verdant Venom getting swept up in Vern's movement and kicked off toward the four where it exploded into a cloud of gas. A and D inhaled the majority of it while brave Harper got the rest of the huff, taking one for the team. Both A and D suddenly started moving erratically, burying their weapon into each before they flailed wildly, attacking anyone who gets close.
Despite the onslaught of multiple attacks seeking to lock down her movement, Szofrit pressed forward unrelentingly with the writhing mass serving as limbs that obeyed her basal desire. With MAI's time acceleration and Mizuki's arboreal reinforcement, the unstoppable carnage dragged itself through the room she ended up in, the heavily damaged mechanical body crumbling with each passing foot.
Though Mizuki tried to pass some kind of primal message along, it was as if a wolf was howling at an unmoving wall. There wasn't a single semblance of mind inside the crawling horror eyeing a single destination. Like the deathly gaze that had completely crushed the many swords and wands raised against her, the red dot in Szofrit's eyes burned as they followed the crying child stowed away by Vern. She raised what was left of her arm before the Raging Steel ground along the floor, quickly catching up to the thief.
The force and power behind her attack would have turned Vern into red mist had Alexina not jumped in to intercept the attack by herself.
"VERN!!!"
A sharp shout came from the pink-haired woman as she braced against Szofrit's attack. Sparks and blood splattered every which way as Alexina shielded against the attack. A shimmering barrier of blood and fire erupted from Alexina's palms, colliding with Szofrit's attack in a cataclysmic explosion of light and sound, flashing and booming like lightning and thunder.
For a moment, it seemed as though Alexina might have successfully deflected the blast, but the raw power behind Szofrit's maternal attack easily overpowered her. The second Vern was out of the way, the witch tilted the shield and deflected the rolling bundle of death shards. They cut deeply into her body on their way up to the ceiling.
No amount of metal could slow the spinning steels as they chewed up the compound with a metallic shrill, serving as a stark reminder to those looking on just how much manpower it took to take down the death machine.
Seconds later, massive chunks of debris and literal foundation pieces holding the compound together rained down. The room trembled, dust and sparks filling the air, lights flickered frantically.
After the desperate assisted crawl and the massive attack, the combined attacks finally began to take their toll on the creaking machine.
Fiora's blade, wreathed in crimson energy, carved deep gashes into Szofrit's armored frame. Fueled by her battle spirit, they penetrated deeper with each cut.
Lune's gravity grip meanwhile tightened around Szofrit as the Steel Auxesis pierced through the biggest gap in the magia's structure.
Ronja's magia magnetism pulled Steel Auxesis deeper until it pierced the floor, pinning Szofrit in place to expose her defenses for follow-up attacks.
Yugam's blade, Unmei, meanwhile plunged through Lune to reach Szofrit's core, sapping life from the woman to power the pulsing death crystal bursting inside her system.
The eye inside Szofrit's chewed up shell flitted frantically, darting from one murderer to the next. With a mechanical shriek, Szofrit gathered her remaining strength. The air around her began to distort, crackling with energy as she channeled power through her damaged systems, preparing for a swan song that would have engulfed hers and the adjacent chamber in blood and steel. Anyone remotely close to her would have felt the coalescence of the invisible death passing through them to collect inside Szofrit's bleeding core.
No one knew that feeling better than the red-headed knight, who was right behind the group dragged along by Szofrit. Levi stood with gritted teeth, watching as the others piled on Szofrit, his hand opened, palm pointing toward the Mother of Machines. Above the fray was an army of swords spinning in place. There wasn't even a single second to reconsider what he was about to do---they were all staring down the barrel of a smoking gun.
"Sorry. Next round on me. Don't haunt me for this." Levi said as he closed his eyes and opened them into a strong glow.
"Sword God's Technique: 7th Epic - Bladestorm."
The swords all stopped their spin and instantly homed in on the silent death beast, skewering it and every single person on or within a couple feet of her. Blood trickled and pooled on the cold floor as the compound toppled all around them like dominos, covering the sound of Levi's sin.
With his mind finally free from external control, Accelerator's hauntingly blue eyes with glitching green rings blazed with renewed purpose as he realized that Vern had made away with the baby.
In a burst of speed, he lurched towards Ordnung, who was still leaning against Imoogi for support and without hesitation, the blue-headed magia wrenched the pistol from the blond researcher's grasp. Pivoting on his heel, Accelerator took a second to lock onto Vern as he channeled his energy reserve into the device, his finger tightening on the trigger.
BANG!
The shot echoed through the collapsing room and pierced the parrying Vern through the leg, blowing out the tendon connecting his foot to the rest of his leg with the sharp lightning. The impact caused the youth to stumble. It did not loosen his grip on the child, however, but it did give the rest of the able actors time to catch Vern before he escaped into the shadow field Alexina came from.
Accelerator wasted no time as he adjusted his next shot, aiming directly at Vern's head with a fatal shot hot in the chamber.
Before he fired the gun, however, a flash of steel cut through the air, accompanied by the distinctive whistle of a blade in flight. Before the battle-focused Accelerator could react, a katana slammed into his body with tremendous force, embedding itself deep in his guts. The blue-haired man staggered, his pistol hand slackened as pain exploded through his system. When he used his free hand to pull the sword out, it was already gone, along with a chunk of his sides. Standing behind him was a helmeted magia with the offending sword in his hand, pointing downward. He had somehow dealt a heavy blow and retrieved his sword in one motion so swift that not even Accelerator was able to follow.
"Whoa! I wouldn't move if I were you, Mr. Gunman sir." The swordsman spoke with a subtly synthesized voice.
The man, however, broke his attack stance as quickly as he dealt the blow to Accelerator as he turned around and called out with a hand next to his non-existent mouth,
"BOSS?! Are you okay?! Sorry I'm late, I can't jump out of people's eyeball like Vern can. Isn't that like cheating?"
"Reta-darling. Cover Vern, we're getting out of here..." Alexina groaned a pained reply amidst the collapsing chaos.
"You got it!" The swordsman chimed, taking several steps back with his glowing blade assuming a defensive position in front of his face as the glow of his helmet slowly entered the thick dust screen that had veiled the entirety of the egg chamber. As Reta retreated, he felt a strange pull toward the adjacent chamber. He fought against the strange feeling as chunks and debris fell down around him, rushing him to his escape destination.
Off to the side, Rael should have gotten a message from the summon that the hidden elevator Ordnung mentioned had been found. The mental ping pointed to the chamber Szofrit was in.
Accelerator, who had keeled onto the ground, turned to Imoogi, who was the closest person to him, and spoke to her in a strained voice,
"Miss, se-se-secure the future and ta-take Ordnung and re-researchers out of he-here."
To anyone else who was able to hear him through the dust mist, he raised his voice,
"Ta-take me forward, I ca-can see the ba-baby. Hu-hurry. Ta-take su-survivor. E-scape. My di-directive, re-reactivate. Pl-please hu-hurry."
Though he was barely able to keep his lead-heavy head up, Accelerator's eyes never left the sight of the child. His coronal rings zoomed in and out erratically, making a visible whirling sound as he waited to be used.
Cycle 8
Rules
- This is a megathread so all megathread rules apply.
- Up to 2 characters per OOC account may participate in the event.
- Max 1 reply per character per cycle.
- Max word count is 700 words excluding BBcodes.
Meta
- All electronic, magical, or telepathic communication has been restored.
- All UI-functions are now restored.
- A and D are affected by the baby red fever potion and have damaged themselves and become rabid, attacking anyone who approaches them.
- Vern will escape with the baby if no attempt is made to get her back.
- A countdown has started for Accelerator's directive.
- Accelerator is heavily injured.
- Ordnung is heavily injured.
- All the un-named enemies and researchers in the egg them are heavily injured or dead from the collapsing floor.
- The MITHRA is in the process of collapsing, failing to escape is instant death.
- Players who are UI-locked and are trapped under the rubbles will not be able to be revived, get their corpse out of the collapsing MITHRA ASAP.
- The hidden elevator has been revealed by Rael's summon.
C7 Damage Phase
- Anyone who is currently in Szofrit's melee range must take 12d20 damage from Levi's ultimate attack.
- @Lune is dead from Yugam's ability.
- @Harper takes 4d20 damage from Imoogi's gas and Vern's blade and 1d3 (1. anger, 2. sadness, 3. fright) this emotion is now charged.
- @Luthien takes 2d20 damage from Imoogi's gas and Vern's collateral attack.
