Mami's advance is pure grace, and a thing of beauty to behold. She spins, darts and flourishes her muskets with a pure elan that is almost a dance, if it weren't punctuated by the earsplitting cracks of gunfire. The sheer artistry of her dance is almost enough to make you stop and stare, and it's easy to see why everybody would look up to her as a mentor and inspiration. And by no means does she sacrifice effectiveness for the aesthetic: every elegant shot punches clean holes through a Familiar, at times skewering two at once.
On your left, Homura has none of Mami's grace, moving instead with a brisk, impatient cadence. She wields her dual Berettas with unerring accuracy that rivals Mami's. Every motion is mechanically precise, the precision of long practice. Then the pistols lock open, her shield clicks, and she's suddenly holding a Minimi machine gun, which chatters out one and two shot bursts. For all that the gun weighs several kilograms, she hip fires it with ease that rips through the oncoming wave of Familiars.
You, by contrast, have neither Mami's elegance, nor Homura's mechanical precision. But even having decided to try not turning the Witch's own Grief against it in hopes of
not being the target of its ire, you have raw power to spare. At your command, the small cloud of Grief becomes a razor sharp spray of shards that swoops and strikes like a particularly enraged cloud of wasps, shredding any Familiars that survive the river of firepower rippling forward from the two gunners at your sides.
The few Familiars actually slip through the sandstorm of bullets and your defensive, buzzing swarm are met by you, warhammer flashing in silvery arcs that launch the Familiars on long, soaring flights. Those that you don't pound into the ground, at any rate.
The three of you descend down the colossal terraces, tearing apart the mobs of Familiars that descend suicidally upon you as you go. And then, all of a sudden, the three of you stagger as the terraced steps flash white for an instant. There's a brief, flickering line of text that you don't catch, before the steps revert back to their original black and blue colouration.
Nearly eight per cent of the mob of Familiars have vanished, in the interim.
"Huh," you comment. "That was odd."
Homura's frowning, and looking around thoughtfully, as is Mami.
The screeching of an attacking Familiar, however, is enough to snap you out of your reverie, and the Familiar is shredded into straw by two simultaneous shots, and then that straw is belatedly reduced to drifting flakes by your Grief cloud.
Familiars begin to pop into existence again, one at a time, and then a continuous stream that the three of you ford through effortlessly. The three of you resume your inexorable march downwards, descending into the misted areas below, the intermittent whiteout pulses coming more often as you descend.
"This seems to be a time slowing field," Homura volunteers while locking in a new belt of bullets in the short lull after one of the pulses. She sounds slightly surprised, or at least as surprised as she ever gets.
"I agree," Mami nods. "I've only heard of such things; they seem to be rare."
The final level is almost a surprise, when you arrive at it. The monolithic bulk of the Witch suddenly looms out of the mist, and you squint at it, trying to discern its form.
Homura grumbles, and raises her left hand, the one bearing her shield. You can
feel her building up a pulse of magic, which she releases all at once. The burst of magic blows away the mist entirely.
You stare at the Witch. It's a giant, misshapen bird, one with an titanic, curved beak that looks like it could snap up any one of you in one shot. A metallic groaning noise draws your attention to the bird's feet, and you see that it's perching on a considerably smaller metal box that looks like it can barely take the weight. One enormous clawed foot comes down particularly hard on the box, and the Barrier whites out again.
When the pulse has passed, the Witch is no longer in the same position you'd last seen it, and is instead staring intently at the trio of puella magi before it with both eyes.
[] Solo it
[] Try to drain it
[] JOLLY COOPERATION
[] Write-in
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The mist removal thing is apparently a thing Homura can do. It shows up, much like her purple laser blasts, once in Episode One and is promptly never mentioned again. But hey, it was in the show.
Hm. Something to chew on: How often do you think powers reoccur?