Operation: Siren Silence
Cycle 2 - Dragontail
Cycle 2 - Dragontail
A decisive onslaught!
Seizing the moment where no one's resources were exhausted, where no one had yet to fear the scepter of death, @Cynna drew out the shadows that seeped beneath the twilight colorations of Rice Shower. In one instant, Hard Plume was bathed in darkness, her mobility compromised, all her fanciful sensors relaying a singular image into her neuro-brain: the haunting run of a ghostly horse, each hoofstep echoing in her mind.
It was hypnotizing. Entrancing.
It did not last.
Shadows pulled away, revealing the Saviors that surrounded her. Lightning struck twice, @Nyancy and @Aerial's synchronized blows scorching the azure plate and frying surface-level circuitry, but it was @Jin's contagion that that caused her frame to seize up. Something had gotten into her, something that applied scientific understanding within magical application, changing the very properties of the materials that composed her…but what of it? Black fluids, viscous and hot, spurted out from every opening in Hard Plume's body, an emergency expulsion that dispelled the unnatural creation.
That black rider had gotten past, but for all the threat he presented to her siblings, Heavy Plume understood her priorities and leveled her gun upon those that remained. Up close, the Displacer Cannon was even larger than the clustered Starcalled could have imagined, a weapon that in the hands of the sleekly-designed Regulator looked…like a sawed-off shotgun.
The trigger was pulled and light became sound.
A thousand pellets smashed into the Starcalled, followed by a shockwave that sent both rider and steed reeling back! And as they recovered, scrambling to right themselves and continue the chase, it was a recovery just swiftly enough to watch as a star fell from the skies. Shrapnel and flame struck all equally, mercilessly, and only Thunderstruck was spared the worst of the combined assault by @Valmont's Arcanamancy.
Cepheid (@Jester) and Event Horizon, streaming out from the smoke and debris, had been quick enough on their feet to avoid the hellfire that had almost visited them, and could see clearly the culprit of that secondary attack.
Smoke rose from the culprit of that second shot as Baby Magnum re-leveled and reloaded one of her cannons, even as sparks scattered from the other one. @Madison Freebird's rifle shot had landed true, piercing into a joint and preventing the second cannon from aligning and completely wiping out the backliners, but that miraculous shot had earned her the ire of Old Fashion. She was scarred, after all. The one most accustomed to melee, the one that marched to the front to scatter her foes, while Hard Plume displaced and Baby Magnum bombarded. So to have both sisters be in harms way, whilst only a loudmouthed swordsman struck a glancing blow against herself?
Plasma heated up, her heavy gauntlets growing incandescent with the latent heat.
It was unacceptable.
One scorching fist impacted @Schilva Flasch, enormous enough to send Twin Turbo Kai Ni almost into the side of the canyon wall, before Old Fashion wheeled around to clap both her hands together and cascading the darkly-garbed Sheriff with azure flames. It was a baptism in inferno, a blinding veil followed by an excruciating pain, and when the Sheriff could see once more…she saw Old Fashion looming there still, ready to continue what they had begun.
But their surroundings had changed.
Lights zipped by in the narrow interior of the Dragontail as hooves pounded and wheels screeched. The air pushed into them was cold and metallic, stained with the stench of rust and flame. It had been a small space even for adventurers on foot, a proving grounds stripped of valuables and strewn with discarded plating. Now, upon Magisteeds? The winding corridor became deadly, forcing tight turns to keep up the pursuit of their enemy, who themselves moved with an inhuman certainty stemming from having programmed the path of the Dragontail into their very hardware. If the Starcalled slipped up, they would fall behind. And if they fell behind, that meant they would only continue to be bombarded by Baby Magnum's cannons.
Or, perhaps, they would be consumed by the Sentries that zipped to-and-fro first. The flying drones, too slow to keep up, nevertheless tried to catch the Starcalled off-guard, flinging their bodies in the way of the Magisteeds in an attempt to impede them. Four of the Sentries even managed to latch onto two members of Emergency Response, emitting a throbbing crimson light.
Many of squad was injured, and their formation was beginning to scatter, lengthen.
Would the Dragontail be their grave? Or would the Starcalled break through, and return to day?

