True, though that skews the perspective a lot.
And as @beth02 just pointed out, the sheet is faulty and should have Boosted Flight, so the point is moot anyway. We can most likely not outmaneuver Alex, at least not alone.
@Naron and @ReaperofInterest have suggested grappling her, but not only is the velocity differential large enough to potentially splatter her (you can't expect an optimal interception, especially since Sega's Flight isn't Boosted) (don't ask me how she survives bouncing off of magical platforms at 300mph)
Actually, I doubt that the grapple would slow them down overly much... besides, I elaborated that I thought more of "grab her and hang on before she can fly off again" in order to have her definitely in range of Core Purge.
Besides, we know that the platforms completely cancel their momentum if they want them to, because of magic.
A little confused that Sega really does not seem to have Boosted Flight; I thought she did... weird.
Adhoc vote count started by Naron on Oct 29, 2017 at 2:23 AM, finished with 16722 posts and 14 votes.
[X] Plan Grab Her Version 2
-[X] Activate Core Purge, make sure that it's targeting Juggernaut Drive's Control Seal instead of her, and keep it active until she's down
-[X] Try to get Juggernaut Drive within Core Purge range, while avoiding that spear. If Sega's in danger though, try to take the hit for her
-[X] Yell to Sega that if she can, she should grab Juggernaut and hold her still
-[X] If possible, block Juggernaut's attacks with the skills you've learned.
-[X] Ask Sega how Juggernaut's spell works.
--[X] If Juggernaut throws her spear, avoid intercepting Juggernaut's attacks
--[X] If Juggernaut has to get in close and stab, consider deliberately getting Juggernaut to cast her spell at you so as to bring her in Core Purge range
[X] Plan Grab Her
-[X] Activate Core Purge, make sure that it's targeting Juggernaut Drive's Control Seal instead of her, and keep it active until she's down
-[X] Try to get Juggernaut Drive within Core Purge range, while avoiding that spear. If Sega's in danger though, try to take the hit for her
-[X] Yell to Sega that if she can, she should grab Juggernaut and hold her still
Hm...
Actually, all the Drives have regular Flight listed, but Alex definitely showed that hers is boosted in the Update.
Maybe this was an error Crystal copied over from one sheet to the next while creating the Drives?
To be fair, I had to be told by discord that Juggernaut Drive not having Boosted Flight means that the speed gap isn't the reason why Supremacy Zone didn't make us intercept her attack.
Your stance shifts, and a knee lowers to the ground. White Soul blinks in surprise as even Sega stops trying to shout at you through the barrier. You hear Red Rose ask something, but it passes through one ear and out the other as you focus on your enemy.
Ignoring your sister and the expert on White Soul probably wasn't a wise move. @Crystalwatcher - Would you mind telling us what Sega said and Red Rose asked after the mission is finished?
Time seems to pause as light begins to gather at your feet. White Soul realizes what you're doing just as your feet crack the stone beneath you and you accelerate from zero to two hundred miles per hour in a motion.
You nod in determination. Then in one fluid movement, you duck low, transform in a flash of light, and push off the ground, all in less than a second.
Judgement Core's eyes widen in surprise as you close the distance between the two of you in moments. The ground you started on shatters from the force of your takeoff, and the fifteen yards mean nothing.
Once upon a time you believed you knew what 'fast' was. Not so long ago, though it feels like an age, you remember Truth smashing through demons faster than what you had once thought possible. But now you know better. You cross the sixty feet between the barrier and your target point in the blink of an eye.
Nepgear, Nepgear, Nepgear. You haven't even began to understand what speed is. I mean you'll never reach supersonic speeds within the duration of this quest since that requires Level 78 Flight and 27,030XP. There are still real speed demons (heh) out there. Archangel Gabriel has Level 51 Flight and so is quite literally more then twice as fast as you are. Of course the currently winning plan will have Nepgear at 270MPH as the sixth fastest person we know off:
"Follow... Follow... Follow... Follow... Follow... Follow... Follow... Follow... the Waves..."
The world shatters, and White Soul flickers.
Your spell floods the area with a tidal wave of light, but before your eyes she does the impossible and dodges it. She slips between the individual bolts where she can, and for those she can't she simply fades through them like a ghost.
Well. I'll give her this; White Soul definitely deserves that reputation of being almost immortal. She literally dodged through our Rain of Light. This is doubly impressive when you consider the raw damage of each attack (25K) is enough to artificially trigger Collateral Damage.
"What-?!" You halt your forward movement and stumble backwards, trying to gain distance as White Soul seems to literally flow towards you. Stone cracks and shatters as your power sweeps it from the world, the confined space that had been the battlefield widening under the wave of your light.
This was the wrong move. We should have popped Core Purge here. It's understandable that Nepgear didn't since it wasn't in the winning vote (clearly we need more clauses!) but with us at close range and White Soul closing it would have been the perfect moment to go "Surprise Bitch! Core Purge!"
This was the girl that had tricked entire realms into thinking she was immortal.
This was the girl that had held the top of the food chain ever since it had been defined.
This was the girl that had stood above even those that were seen as gods.
The Immortal Messenger of Darkness: Magical Girl White Soul.
While certainly impressive I must point out that being hard to kill does make up for a lot of stuff. There is a reason everyone in the Top Ten list has abilities that make killing them supremely difficult. Not dying means living to learn from your mistakes.
You snarl, and cease your retreat. "Hhhryyaaaaaaaa!!!!" White power floods from your blade as you bring it down atop the onrushing enemy, but as you watch she dives under your swing, the white pane of oblivion sweeping cleanly over her head. Rolling behind you, White Soul kicks off to avoid your back-swing that cleaves her afterimage in twine. Her hand ghosts across your shoulder as you look up, just in time to watch her smile down at you amused.
I'm quite curious as to why Nepgear thought Celestial Severance was a good idea here. A flat plane is the easiest type of attack to dodge and given White Soul's ability to dodge freaking rain there was no chance of that hitting. Purifier Beam would have been a far better choice since with Apocalypse it's got some serious splash and thus more likely to actually hit White Soul.
Then a literal tidal wave of white liquid slams into you like a freight train.
White's River plows through rock and stone and mortar like it's wood and paper, the rules of the world insufficient to survive the rigors of Magical Girl combat at the level you now stand.
Old vines and ancient stone shudder and pull, as a cascading wave of cracks race up the hill as you fight. The zigguraut that sits atop its apex sags as it's ancient foundations are severed from what once held it aloft. And with a mighty crash, the stone gives way.
Your battle with White Soul halts at the sound. The both of you turn to look at the suddenly advancing wall of stone as it barrels towards you. "Oops." Your opponent gives you an exasperated look before swinging her arm around and guiding her River to punt you into the oncoming flood of stone.
You don't see everything that happens due to the stone that washes over you. That, and also the fact what should have been a painful assault felt more like a bunch of children throwing those stupid fuzz blocks at you. So when you erupt from your temporary 'tomb' in a burst of power, you're slightly surprised by the freed Assault Team surrounding White Soul atop the pile of rubble that had once been the center of the Necropolis.
"The hell? What the fuck does it take to kill you?!"
You smile sheepishly at White Soul's demand as both Sega and Red Rose gape openly at you. Insight simply rolls her eyes and mouths something you can't make out."More than you've got."
While this arc has had issues with enemies canceling ICORE it still remains my favorite purchase of the quest. The ability to have the former #1 smash us with her weapon multiple times and even drop a ziggurat on us only to say "Was that supposed to hurt? " makes for some truly great moments.
I'm actually kinda surprised that Sega was surprised at Nepgear's tankiness. She even admitted a couple hours ago the Nepgear was a super tank:
You blink, but Sega takes no heed of your surprise.
"That hit... I know my own power enough to know that hit would have smeared me across the ground." Her hand absently traces the outline of your face in the Messenger's armor. "And... you just shrug it off. Nothing more than dirt in your hair to show for fighting a girl that was strong enough that it took all three of us to kill the first time." She laughs self-deprecatingly before she steeples her fingers beneath her chin and rest her elbows onto her knees. "They called me the 'Indestructible Girl' you know. But now look at me... not even six years now, and I'm already on back burner to the newer generation. Is this what the Goddess' felt when we were on the rise? What the Old Guard felt when the Goddess Four stepped up to the plate?"
Then again I suppose the difference is that against Sixth Heaven Nepgear got KO'd for several minutes while he she just shrugged everything off. Still I bet Team Gear wouldn't have been surprised!
"Umm... if I remember everything correctly... More than you have." A feeling of smugness curls into your gut as the three girls blanch. "Honestly? You can't kill me White Soul. As Sega would say: Kudos for trying."
The realization after the last update that even if she threw everything at us White Soul would be incapable of killing Nepgear was really quite satisfying. So I 100% understand Nepgear's smugness here. Also I'm betting that Smug!Nepgear is super cute!
So... I'm guessing the other three girls were blanching at the sight of Juggernaut Drive not Nepgear's neigh invulnerability. Understandable but sad nonetheless. Also I kinda feel sorry for JD; that's an incredibly stripperiffic costume.
Juggernaut Drive. The Magical Girl that defined the term 'offensive power'. The Unstoppable Spear.
Is now a good moment to mention that on top of being hard core Nepgear actually has more offensive power then JD? Admittedly we need to use spells but with Calamity Circuit that isn't a problem like it use to be. JD's only advantage in offensive power is her six APTs to our four.
Also unless I missed something JD is actually limited, aside from The Unstoppable Spear, to melee range. Not once do we see any mention of her throwing her spear and unlike Red Rose's spear it doesn't have the Return ability.
The motion is smooth. So smooth, in fact, that you cannot see any strain pass through her muscles, as if she were simply moving her arms. That beautiful spear rolls across her shoulders in that motion, the furthest end finding its way almost naturally to her opposite hand. From there it traces a nearly beautiful arc from her shoulders to your side.
You feel most of the bones in that side of your body turn to powder on impact.
The world around you roars in shattered agony as the raw force propagates itself outward in a wall of energy that disintegrates everything in its way. Rock turns to dust, as the sound of a breaking gong fills the air...
You blink.
The sky stares back down at you.
"Wh-" Pain. It swallows your mind whole as your brain catches up to the sudden damage, and you choke on the blood as it tries to erupt from your throat. Your body forces itself into an upright sitting position, as you void the blood attempting to drown you.
Huh. Why is your blood purple? Questions for later.
You fight through the pain and force magic into your wings, shakily taking off from where you landed after Juggernaut's hit. And once you see it, you almost fall out of the sky again.
Where you had been standing is easy to see: a cone of pure destruction converging onto a singular point where two lights and two more indistinct figures, are still standing. From there, it's a straight line in the dirt that resembles the impact pattern of a meteorite, digging a massive trench into the ground.
While, as always, Indestricble Core is awesome the credit for surviving this must go to Segarite Core's Health boosting. This also brings up an important question;
@Crystalwatcher - How does excess Health work? Because the above quote certainly makes it seem like Nepgear suffer actual physical injury but at no point did her Health actually drop below the bonus from Segarite Core and into her actual Health.
I bring this up since going by the described events someone without an immunity to Body Damage Modifiers would be dead form the level of injury, massive numbers of important bones being powderized, even though they only lost excess Health.
Somehow, even at this distance, you can see the look of sheer surprise on everyone's faces as you hover over the damaged earth. Surprise that you are still alive. A tiny urge promptly takes over and your hand moves on its own, presenting a one-finger salute to White Soul who, also, somehow sees it.
White Soul: "Fuck. If even that couldn't kill her I never stood a chance. Damn, that girl is even more OP then Amanda."
Sega: "Holy Fuck Ana! I already knew you were stupidly damage resistant but what the hell have you been doing to survive a hit from Alex!?"
Red Rose: "...damn. Now I kinda wish I'd grabbed her as my apprentice back then. Shirley's great and all but this is a whole different scale."
Insight: "I... I shouldn't be surprised she survived that. Yet somehow I still am. If I needed a lesson in the difference between a top tier girl and me this was it."
The whole world roars as reality seems to bend. A shattering sound as stone, rock and dirt give way before that which strikes it from the world. A wave of dirt sweeps across everything as a trench is gouged into the skin of the earth.
"Holy shit!"
"What the fuck was that?!"
"Think someone hit Solid Core." James' voice cuts off the exclamations of surprise as he points into the sky. From the far end of the new trench, a soft light rises from the gouge of the earth. Rei's magically enhanced sight easily picks out her familiar form, as Nepgear raises a single finger into the air at whoever it is, she had been fighting.
Ah, Team Gear. If there is one group I can trust to be utterly unsurprised at Nepgear surviving the impossible it's them. Seriously the whole area just exploded with a crazy long trench and James is like "Oh, they hit Nepgear. Eh, she's fine."
The soldiers that had been manning the barricade scramble in their haste to get out of her way as she approaches. Lightly, she waves the Fragment of Annihilation, and everything before her ceases.
Stone, rock, and bone disintegrate and leave a near perfect path from where she stands to the final two combatants on the current field. Red Rose visibly pales at her sudden entrance, while White Soul swallows. The entrance of the Annihilator is not something that is easily missed, for her Presence is not the kind to be looked over.
Well. It's a good thing we decided to send all the captured girls back to the barricades because if we'd left them behind they'd be dead again.
I can guess why Red Rose is pale at the sight of Goddess Gold; "I just let her apprentice almost get splattered by Juggernaut Drive. I really hope she's not mad."
"I remember you." Goddess Gold places a hand on her hip, as she tilts her head to the side almost curiously. "You fled from me. Before you died." Almost unconsciously the resurrected girl takes a step back. "I didn't really put much effort into ending you, since I didn't think it'd work... but now that I know that you're not immortal... well."
Red.
Power enough to choke the world. An almighty weight that desired to bring everything before her to its knees. Such was the nature of the red maelstrom that wraps itself around her almost dainty hand like a mad hound of Hades, baying for blood and begging it's mistress to be released. She needs to die.
The Goddess' smile is not warm. It is not benevolent. It is the kind of smile ones gives to a particularly annoying trespasser before ripping their guts out. "You're not going to be escaping from me this time." The Chains of the Earth rise from their tombs at her silent command.
So going by Nepgear's Health down below three turns have passed between her getting blasted and the update ending. Seeing as Rei entered while we were dog fighting with Alex It seems reasonable to say those three turns took place after this scene. Rei's Overwhelming Presence does 1,000 damage per turn plus an extra 300 damage every turn after the first. So by now it should have hit White Soul, and her Control Seal, for:
White Soul has 6,666 Health with The 'Kind' Monster ensuring she doesn't die until she takes 19,998 damage. Her Control Seal, assuming it's like the others, meanwhile has 5,000 Health and so should fail next turn since the total damage should hit 5,800.
The real question is whether or not Red Rose can talk Goddess Gold down from killing White Soul once White Soul is unconscious.
"ANA! DODGE!!!"
You barely tilt your head in time to avoid being hit by the green spear as it passes you by, the gleaming edge almost softly caressing the skin of your face before threading it's way through your hair. Then the aftershock of its passage hits, and you're sent tumbling through the air.
Wow. Alex must have really been fucked up by her Control Seal to think that killing Sega's sister, her whole reason for living, is going to help Sega. Capturing Nepgear and arguing that the Unified Darkness are going to win and that the only way Sega can keep Nepgear safe is by joining would have been a hell of a lot more effective.
Just imagine Alex acting like Sega did under the Control Seal. If she was persuasive enough, and had Nepgear unconscious, we might have woke up in Unified Darkness controlled territory.
The Unstoppable Spear nearly impales her for her trouble. Alex's green form blasts past your sister as the roaring wave of energy that is your Purifier Beam nearly swats her from the sky. Instead, the veteran Magical Girl dodges on a dime, taking a fully right-angled turn to the side as your power obliterates what pieces of chain had been coming down from Sega's attack.
We're damn lucky that attack missed. Even without the +50% damage from Supremacy Zone a single hit from Nepgear's Purifier Beam is enough to vaporize poor Alex:
Purifier Beam: 12,921 Base Damage, 1 Dice, +6,460 Supremacy Zone = 19,382 Total Damage
Juggernaut Drive: 165 Base Resilience, +1 Dice -1 Dice Smote, -123 Juggernaut = 41 Damage Reduction
19,341 Total End Damage
Steel Frame 10% No Longer Human 50%
8,703 Final End Damage
The Insurmountable Gap
17,406 Final End Damage
Juggernaut Drive: 750 - 17,406 = -16,656
Alex flickers through the air, making hard turns as she bounces off the platforms that form beneath her, and rushes you.
"Gah!"
Again, you barely dodge the Spear that took a Goddess to kill.
"Ana!" Your sister catches you as Alex tries to make another pass, vanishing into the growing forest of chains. "Dammit. She's too strong, you need to get out of here!"
Nepgear, Nepgear, Nepgear. You haven't even began to understand what speed is. I mean you'll never reach supersonic speeds within the duration of this quest since that requires Level 78 Flight and 27,030XP. There are still real speed demons (heh) out there. Archangel Gabriel has Level 51 Flight and so is quite literally more then twice as fast as you are. Of course the currently winning plan will have Nepgear at 270MPH as the sixth fastest person we know off:
Wow. Alex must have really been fucked up by her Control Seal to think that killing Sega's sister, her whole reason for living, is going to help Sega. Capturing Nepgear and arguing that the Unified Darkness are going to win and that the only way Sega can keep Nepgear safe is by joining would have been a hell of a lot more effective.
Since Juggernaut knows that Red can revive people and probably has being killed by Ichi fresh in her mind...
Well, killing Nepgear and having Sega follow her to the safety of Goddess Red's abode would get the Drives (and the little sister Cores) back together. That's a similar conclusion that Sega and Rev seem to have reached since they 'retired' after Alex perished, that the best thing they can do is to try and get out of this whole war thing. If the Drives have social issues like Nepgear that wouldn't need a very big nudge to take hold.
Even the bit about killing Anastasia can be explained in context since both Solid Drive and Juggernaut Drive have been dead recently. It's still really mean, but there's some logic Alex could point to to justify it.
Although we can only survive a Brahmastra due to our 'save from death' ability. Unless we've been in combat for a stupidly long amount of time (44 turns of Segarite Core).
An Answerer can be survived without using our 'save from death' after 16 turns of Segarite Core.
Also, we only need 10 turns of Segarite Core to be capable of surviving a full power Oblivion Awaits. Granted, surviving a turn against a serious Rei is a completely different ball game. ((((10m Base Damage + 400 Epic) - (2600 Base Resilience + [0-400] Dice + 500 Divinity)) * 0.01 ICORE * 0.5 No Longer Human) - 6000 Max Health) / (4500 Segarite Core) = 9.77
The calculation looks a lot clearer if you remove the Dice and Existence bonuses for being too small to matter. (((10m Base Damage - 2600 Base Resilience) * 0.01 ICORE * 0.5 No Longer Human) - 6000 Max Health) / 4500 Segarite Core = 9.77
It's not that, Obliterate doesn't bypass Indestructible Core's One-Turn Save, despite it's Auto-Kill effect against mortals. So Nepgear can tank a Nuke tot he face and stand back up.
This is probably because the nukes don't have a Growth Affinity and Auto-Kill effects on work on Magical Girls when the caster if of equal or greater Growth Affinity.
Also we could survive the Brahmastra through raw numbers if a battle we're in lasts for 44 Turns. That might seem outrageously high however each Turn only lasts ten seconds:
so 44 Turns is only seven minutes and twenty seconds. Considering that any situation that would be worth nuking would probably have been going on for at least an hour (360 Turns) it's not that unreasonable.
This is probably because the nukes don't have a Growth Affinity and Auto-Kill effects on work on Magical Girls when the caster if of equal or greater Growth Affinity.
