Energy drew in. Light curdled, air warped and the qi of the world screamed. The forward edge of the blast appeared as a roiling miasma of gaseous sludge, rapidly expanding outward. Ling Qi knew, instinctively that the cursed and impure energies rippling out would decimate everyone nearby. She felt a sharp spike of pain through her dantian as the stillness of the Black Mirror technique first rippled, and then shattered, the force of the explosion barely reduced.
She felt her reveling phantoms wail, even as they threw themselves at the shishigui in fury as their limbs dispersed into mist. She felt Sixiang strain, trying to resist the shredding of her constructs.
Ling Qi saw Cai Renxiang being pushed back, her blade screaming against the edge of the pressure wave. Zhengui pulled his limbs into his shell so quickly that it might have been comical in another situation. But any humor fled at the still deep cracks in his shell, oozing magmatic blood. Flowers bloomed in a circle around Ruan Shen. They withered faster than they bloomed, even as his eyes burned green, the sheer vitality of spring cleaning a shrinking sphere of air around him.
She felt the terror rising from the other disciples, turning away from their battles, knowing that their techniques would not be enough.
A nice look at everyone's ultimate defense techs:
-Ling Qi - Black Mirror, then toss PLR's phantoms to substitute.
-Cai Renxiang - Perfect Parry!
-Zhengui - Withdraw, if not for all the friendlies I'd expect Rebirth Inferno next.
-Ruan Shen - Healing Circle? I'm very much unsure about trying to outheal this kind of corrupting attack.
-Everyone else - Get instatly killed if you don't have a minimum C rank Defense Ultimate to pop.
Her hair started to burn, and she felt her hands, exposed to the air start to blister. She would endure, her friends would endure, but so many of her allies would not.
And, even if they weren't friends, Ling Qi really didn't care for that. Even if her fellow disciples could be obnoxious, they were people. They didn't deserve to die out here, to this monster's desperation move.
Overhead, a curving ebony blade rang with new vigour, and the Mist grew deep.
For a moment, Ling Qi felt her awareness spread far beyond her body in the thickening mist. Zhengui, she wrapped in her arms, and he vanished behind a wall of mist. Cai Renxiang fell beneath her sleeve, tendrils of light mingled with a mantle of shadow. Ruan Shen's bright spring grew cloudy, and petals bloomed under friendly rain. For the others, she had less attention, but the train of her gown shielded them all the same.
"Nobody dies today."
I wonder how much the others saw of this. Its always a little tricky aligning whats going on to what people can see of domain weirdness.
Then the impact struck, and Ling Qi found her awareness very much in her own body as she was tossed backward, tumbling end over end, Black Mirror, Cai Renxiang's light, the Mist, it all took the worst even as the techniques she had layered over herself shredded apart.Only the energies of the Wind Thief she held on too, dispersing her tangled limbs into wind and reforming with her feet touching the caldera floor.
Damn, the thing is NASTY, pre impact dispel stacks, blew through most of our dispel mitigations too.
Before her was a crater. Twenty meters deep, it looked as if a huge scoop of stone had simply vanished. Her eyes alit on Zhengui, struggling to his feet, his shell pockmarked and bleeding from a thousand cracks, but still intact. Ruan Shen knelt in the midst of his flowers, breathing heavily as smoke rose from his raw fingers. He was covered ugly burns, and half of his hair was gone, but flesh and hair alike were regenerating in flashes of green. A half dozen other disciples lay scattered about, burned and broken by the shockwave, but they were still breathing.
Above, a sphere of radiance floated, only to split apart into wings of life, revealing a frowning Cai Renxiang. The sleeves of her gown were gone, baring her arms to the shoulders.
Zhengui tanked it on his armor, seems he didn't need the death save, though his armor is pretty much shredded.
Ruan Shen is regenerating the damage. Might have been nasty if he got damaged beyond what he could outheal I'd guess, regeneration defenses are great against peers and lessers, but vulnerable to being broken by greater force.
Renxiang sacrificed her sleeves for a defense, after mitigation and the charge usage she's not even really hurt. Thats Ducal defenses for ya...though the last time Renxiang had to shred her sleeves was to parry Liling's spear tech.
Of the Shishigui and his barbarian allies, there was no sign.
Fled, as expected.
For a moment, there was silence, but then a hurricane of wind ripped through the broken wall of Caldera, and it was everything Linq Qi could do to not be blown away.
She stared out through the gap at the rising cloud of smoke and debris, a tall pillar with an expanding cap. It rose from a blackened crater where a valley had once been. Ling Qi dragged her eyes upward.
That is a mushroom cloud.
That was one of the falling stars.
The clouds rose in a kilometers wide funnel above the caldera, whirling walls of wind that screamed at speeds fit to tear trees and whole hills from the earth. The circle of visible sky was awash with light, countless burning stars blooming and dying. The Elder stood motionless.
No that wasn't right she realized as a mountain peak caved in, crushed in the shape of a foot. As a second falling sun detonated kilometers away and still ripped at her hair and gown. He appeared to be still because she could not see him moving. She saw a thousand, two thousand detonations of light in the sky, and the air wailed with unending thunder. She could feel the wind around her, feeling it distorting, the world's natural flows bending and buckling under their weight. She could feel the storm deforming, heaven, water and wind qi carving itself into the world in unalterable grooves.
To be a Red seeing Cyans at work once again. Reminds me of that scale.
Around her, Ling Qi noted the other disciples, only now climbing out of grasping roots that prevented the wind from hurling them about like matchsticks. Most were struggling to their feet, but Ling Qi could sense the impurity in their auras, burning and sizzling eating away at them. She could even feel it on herself, clinging to her skin like oil. Ling Qi grimaced, if she had saved them just too…
A bell rang, clear and high.
Harsh light washed over the crater, but it's touch was kind. Not soft, never that, but kind all the same. Ling Qi let out a breath as she felt the oily weight of impurity vanish from her channels, and inside her dantian, her spirit's presences pulsed with relief.
"I take back at least half of the bad things I've thought about that one," Sixiang mumbled.
As some suspected, the impurity blast had a further DoT effect because fuck you thats why. It wouldn't even harm the stronger ones that badly, just the weak ones who needed a death save.
Good thing we still have the boss dispeller, and Renxiang's Domain Weapon is back online. Six isn't one much for regrets, but there's some regret here and now.
"I'm sorry Big Sis," Hanyi whispered, her mental voice was ragged and rough.
She hushed her, willing her to rest.
Did pretty good Hanyi, just not enough defense to brawl in Ling Qi's zone yet. She did take out a Dancer, which is great.
Renxiang landed at her side, a ribbon of liquid light swimming through the air. Casting it's purifying light despite the frayed edges and spots of black that marked it.
That is...not good. I hope that scrubs off.
A Domain Weapon is an anchor point for your domain, so if its contaminated rather than just dispersing thats worrying.
Granted Shenhua can fix it, but most people don't want Shenhua in a fixing mood.
"That was good work," the heiress said quietly, and Ling Qi knew only she could hear. "Liming gave me some difficulty in those last moments."
Renxiang's voice was rough. There was raggedness to it, sourced from the ugly burns that marked her throat.
...we were
this close to a Liming Awakening Interrupt.
The storm raged and a titan with lightning for bones and clouds for flesh grappled with a great golden mountain among the jeering stars. Rays of harsh sunfire and heavenly bolts tore at the mountainside, sending a million tons of stone crumbling down. Within the mountain dawn's light bloomed, a thousand colors spilling from painted caverns. Harsh and soft sunlight clashed, and lit the vault of heaven aflame.
A hundred thousand arrows roared from the bowstring. Each one a shard of sunfire, fletched with the storm. They flew unerring and one hundred fists the size of hills shattered the air, punching them from the sky, and battered the Cloud Titan, but could not catch the scattering sky. Behind the fists a mountain bled liquid sunlight from a thousand tiny wounds.
Sky Titan's the Cloud Nomad alright. Pretty straightforward Sun Sky Storm themes
Golden Buddha Elder's gone with the body is a mountain + body is a temple, I recall one of the Sun aspects was a patron of arts, so he cultivates that amongst Mountain.
The arrows are sun based, which isn't unusual either.
"I will provide vigil, Ling Qi help get the others on their feet," Cai Renxiang said crisply. Ignoring the painful rasp, she turned her eyes to the others. "Recovery Formation on Disciple Ruan!"
Ling QI shook the pressure invading her thoughts out. "Right," she grimaced.
Swiftly, she scanned those climbing to their feet and blinked to the side of a young man as a broken ankle collapsed under his weight. She caught him halfway to the ground, and then a swift leap carried him to Ruan Shen's side. She vanished on a whisper of wind, repeating the action twice more. Even with the pressure above, Ling Qi could not help but notice a change in her peers.
There was no hint of the jealousy and sullen dislike that had simmered beneath the polite surface. She wasn't sure it would last, but for now the battlefield had stripped it away.
Ling Qi returned to Ruan Shen's side with the last of the disciples in time to hear Ruan Shen's soothing song, and feel the soft spring melody wash over her. She felt aches ease and pain grow dull, though she could tell that it was temporary.
Around her other's straightened up as broken bones slid back into place, and flower petals fell, clinging to and staunching wounds. "We'll all need a visit to the Medicine Hall, but I can keep us on our feet," Ruan Shen chuckled.
It'd stick, life debts are big even if the ones who owe it aren't.
And this is respect that'd stick.
Temporary health levels makes sense, pity Zhengui is too tired to add his own.
Just great, Ling Qi thought. She glanced to the other side of the caldera where the stone still rested. The moisture thick air around it glimmered with rainbow light. "I suppose I can move it," Ling Qi said, she had enough qi to use her Grinding Glacial Melody technique quite a few times."
Ling Qi: "I'm far lower in qi than I've been in ages."
Also Ling Qi: "I can keep using my bulk mover song quite a bunch more though"
Mook Disciples: O.O
"I will pierce the caldera wall," Cai Renxiang said grimly. " And assist with the movement. Sir Ruan, bolster our efforts. The rest of you, perimeter and watch for foes."
The chorus of agreement was perfunctory. No one wanted to stay here. They moved toward the wall where the stone rested, and Cai Renxiang descended, drawing back her saber. Three swift slashes carved through the already dissolving rock.
When the tip of Renxiang's blade bloomed with light and unleashed a small ray of scouring light over the stone and the wall however, something strange happened. The stone, so inert up until now wobbled violently, and rolled forward. Cai Renxiang let out a choked off grunt of pain. Her free hand flew up to press against her temple.
Behind the starstone, the wall that had been targeted still crumbled away under the blast.
Everyone scattered as the stone rolled toward them, defensive techniques blooming, only for it to rock to a stop when it reached a small upward slope in the broken floor. They all eyed it warily.
...that is weird. The gesture sounds like her perception art picked up something?
As they dashed down the mountainside, following the bouncing stone. She felt the Twelve stars leader's attention turn.
He wasn't visible as a person any longer, but a screaming funnel of iridescent wind, but Ling Qi could imagine that she saw glowing eyes shift toward them and widen in fury.
Qi has a talent for attracting aggro!
But they were far from safe. Ling Qi nearly stumbled as something rolled out like a wave of pressure from the battle behind them. For a single moment, it drowned out the sounds of the clash, the sound of the rolling stone, their feet, and even the continuous thunder of the clash overhead. It wasn't a sound, not really it was the antithesis of sound, before it sound rotted and crumbled.
It felt like her Call to Ending, but so much less peaceful.
Out of the corner of her eye. She saw the Twelve Stars leader, once more a man and an eagle, soaring in the sky. His mask was gone, baring a wind weathered face. In his hand was a warhorn, hewn from starstone, gleaming wetly in the rain. The awful not-sound emanated from it.
Ling Qi tried not to gag as the stench of burning flesh assaulted her nose, and tried not to stumble as the rain began to pound down with enough force to crack stone. She didn't look up, even as the mountain groaned and grumbled, and the ground beneath her feet began to give way.
All around her, trees tipped crazily as weakened soil began to slip downward, a vast mudslide picking up momentum under her feet. She could barely hear Ruan Shen's song or the voices of her allies over the cacophonous noise. Despite the unsure footing, Ling Qi darted downwards, keeping the rolling starstone moving even as the muck tried to bury it once more.
They ran on, and behind them, the world came apart.
The wind and pressure nearly crushed her. Trees and stones the size of houses whirled into the air, dragged into the sky. All save the starstone, which seemed to care not for the mighty forces above.
Yet it responded to her melody all the same, even as the song was drowned out.
A girl at Ling Qi's side stumbled and fell, and it was only Ling Qi seizing her arm and dragging her up that kept her from being devoured by the mud. They were nearly at the bottom of the mountain, and Ling Qi could sense, faintly the qi of imperial cultivators ahead. They only needed to cover a few more kilometers.
What the heck is that horn? It sounds like it melted basically the whole mountainside. But the oddity is he didn't use it on Guan Zhi throughout the battle?
A friendly fire option or a talisman that is used up in one shot?
From the east came a river. Torrential and furious it made its bed in the sky, whitecaps currents howling above the thunder of fists and the rumble of stone. On the river came a great ship, a sleek thing of bronze, with sails of purest silver. Beneath it's deck whirred clockwork of unimaginable complexity. Upon the sides of it's hull panels drew down revealing a thousand weapons of innovative and cruel design.
From the west came an inferno. All consuming and vast. The flame ate the clouds and hissed and crackled with joy among the steam. In the burning depths was a platform of soot and ash. There demons and ogres beat out a warsong upon drums carved from magma and fear. A hundred devils in soot blackened bronze cavorted before the burning throne of skulls at its core. Lo! The Burned Queen had come, and the court of devils marshalled for war! A paneled mask whirred and clicked, transforming a cruel smile into a bloodthirsty shout, and a tremendous gauntleted hand rose and clenched into a fist.
The storm screamed as barbed hooks of silver and wit punctured the clouds and hooked upon lightning wrought bone, and nets of steel and resolve tangled it's currents. The devils swarmed, laughing their cruel laughs even as lightning unmade them, a thousand slain only for a thousand more to emerge, born from the inferno's embers. And the drums did beat, pounding a mocking funeral dirge. The river crashed down with a dragon's roar, scouring away the whirling winds to expose the titan at the core.
Through the river waded the scarred golden mountain, his hundred fists raised not in defense, but with intent to strike.
The barbed lashes forged from hate tore apart the flesh of clouds, and the devils shrieked in delight at the touch of the sky's blood.
Suffer. Crackled the flames.
Vengeance. Roared the river
Die. Spake the mountain.
One hundred fists crashed down, and bones of lightning fractured. The silver sailed ship cut unerring through raging waters of the river, as it coiled 'round the storm, the chains of its' grapnels binding the storm even as a hundred new weapons wrought of a war forged mind wheeled forth onto the decks to speak.
But the storm did rage. The mountain earned new scars as suns bloomed upon his sides and sent a million tons of stone and gold sloughing off. The Burned Queen laughed as lighting struck deep into her court, slaughtering demons and blackening her flesh. The river boiled with sunfire, the rising steam a scream. Only the ship was pristine, darting through ten thousand arrows untouched.
Others already made pretty good guesses, so I'll skip the details on this...other than observe that apparently we have Erembour as a Sect Elder and she's probably the source of that spoopy art.
Lighting fell from the sky, a river of electricity.
Cai Renxiang's light flared, and for just a moment there was no rain. Above she blazed with colorless radiance and the lightning sparked and crawled over the smooth aegis of light that had bloomed.
"Shit, the shamans are going active," Ruan Shen hissed. "We have to-"
So from the looks of it, the Shamans work up a big charged attack, then unload it. Not sure how sustainable stopping it is...but then I'm not sure how the shamans are even staying in the air with that clash happening.
The storm bled. Swathes of Cloud flesh boiled under the heat of the inferno and the beat of the drums. Bone broke under the mountain's fists and it's winds ever slowed under the machinations of the ship. The river crashed down, and this time the current punched through, a million tons of raging water breaking through the storm and out the other side.
The storm raged against inevitability, and winds fit to scour the very world began to shriek. It…
Dawn came in the south.
Unlight rose over the mountains. The sk#@%^^&@@^%#
Radiant Titan, trailing hair and veil as one. Eyes of crimson fall upon the impure world. S@(*&())&^%%&*())))^%^%$&%^&^%&^ Seven Colored Sword of Ruin ris%&^*(^*%***&(&^&^&
And all the world crumbles.
Ah, poop. They have their own counter ambush.
And what looks
awfully similar to Shenhua's barbarian twin.
...given the throwdown, whats the odds that our own Sect Head is standing by to counter that?
Ling Qi fell to her knees under the wave of pressure that struck her back, and droplets of red spatter the mud as the air is driven from her lungs in a spray of blood flecked breath. Her eyes burn with the shadow of the light that just bloomed across the sky. Her ears ring in the eerie silence that is the end of the continuous ringing of thunder from above. Around her, allies lie scattered and groaning, only Cai Renxiang remaining above.
*spits blood*
Which effect damaged the starstone?
It seemed impervious to anything Green.
