Less than an hour ago you were within thrashing range of a van-sized demonic caterpillar. You watched a huge monster worm get sliced in half only minutes ago. Now you have a chance to disrupt whatever plans the forces of Hell may be advancing by defeating their Magical Girl that appeared.
How to accomplish it? She radiates a good chunk of power and has your magic empowering her. Deductions snap into place when you examine how she holds herself and her weapon. She's prepared to dodge and keeps the point of her long spear ready to interpose. You doubt you could scratch her without resorting to spells, which makes it important that you get the drop on her and make the first shot count.
A kernel of a plan coalesces, grab the invisibility material and then Shift on top of her to cast Wave Force. Once that connects you'll follow up with heavy blows before she can recover from the shock.
You force resolve through, you will succeed.
"I'll talk them down," you say, "or make them follow anyways."
"Leave them if that's the case! There's a lot of sentinels that are going to come running after that explosion." Starlancer shouts.
You fly nearer to Cook, "Stand down! My head was messed up by those things, so was yours! It would be lunacy to send a Dark Magical Girl here."
While talking you produce a panel to display text, 'Give me the Invisibility vial and run. I have a plan."
"My head is fine! You were the only one mindwhammy'd, just run and stop her from trying to kill us!" A bottle becomes visible when Cook flicks it towards you, you catch it.
"Grab him or leave him! We're almost out of time!" Starlancer taps her spear on the ground, fidgeting.
The bottle pops open when you use the Panoply to give it a twist. The slick fluid flows rapidly, making the covered parts of you Panoply vanish as it goes. In moments you've covered one side of yourself to become unseeable. In the next you Shift to hover behind Starlancer and start preparing Wave Force.
(Summit: 9557 -2440 = 7117 Health)
Power has just started to gather in your new position over and just behind Starlancer, but she springs into action and leaps towards Cook. Your mouth goes dry as you watch her hurl her spear in midair, fast enough to leave a wake through the rain, right into Lysander Cook before landing gracefully outside of Wave Force Range.
(Mythril Spear: 5600 Base Damage, +302 Dice, -1200 Concealed Target, +10 Surprise = 4712 Damage
Lysander Cook: 170 Resilience, Dice Negated, -50 Holyshit She's Fast, -50 Too Slow = 70 Damage Reduction
4642 End Damage
Lysander Cook: 850 - 4642 = -3792 Health)
The thrown spear goes through Cook, leaving a mist of blood as it flies out the other side. The stealth function fails to reveal a suit of powered armor with a gash torn in its side. The corpse of the fallen soldier begins to fall over.
You abandon the energies by accelerating towards Starlancer. Teeth are strained to keep from screaming as you rush to deliver a mighty blow to the target before it finds Shah.
She speaks as you accelerate, "Maniac!"
Your Panoply shoots out as you fling and expand to a wrecking ball to strike her. Starlancer twists in place and is suddenly holding a spear set to catch your blow.
(Crushing Panoply: 1040 Base Damage, Dice Negated, +520 Ramming Speed!, +520 RAGE, +200 Light of Discovery, x3 CRUSH = 6840 Damage
Intercept!
Mythril Spear: 5600 Base Damage, +448 Dice, -500 Weak Stance, +300 Legendary Power = 5848 Damage
Panoply wins.
Mythril Spear Punches Through!
992 Intercept Damage to Starlancer
5848 Intercept Damage to Summit
Magical Girl Starlancer: 990 Resilience, +406 Dice, Defensive Roll Inactive (Grandstanding) = 1396 Damage Reduction
Attack Ineffective!
Magical Girl Summit: 680 Resilience, Dice Negated, +877 Reactive Field, +500 Resistant to Darkness Effects, -300 Hostile Legend Effect = 1757 Damage Reduction
4091 End Damage
60% Ceaseless Warrior
1637 Final End Damage
Magical Girl Summit: 7117 - 1637 = 5480 Health
+1 stack of Ceaseless Warrior (3 Extra ATP))
When the weapons meet a surge of light erupts from your Panoply, an avalanche of orange slams into Starlancer and knocks her from her feet. But the spear she was holding punctures through and nearly hits you in the face, a hurried yank on yourself making the attack graze your skull.
You pull the spear free with gritted teeth. 'Weighing' it with your senses reveals that it's too 'dense' to absorb it, so you grip it on both ends and try to slam your Panoply into it. Annoyingly it had also hit the beacon you were carrying, not that it was useful with Cook dead.
Starlancer rolls once and darts to her feet, shouting "Foxbat!" as she rises.
**???
The attempt to break her spear fails when it suddenly vanishes from your hand and appears in hers. There was a twinge there… an ephemeral contact between dimensional boundaries.
You take a second to reconfigure your Panoply for maximum damage while Starlancer's eyes dart around. When she turns her head to scan the area you charge in again. Orange light rippling from dozens of angry blows as you dive at her once more.
Starlancer's attention snaps back to you. (Can she can see where the hail is bouncing off of you?) She thrusts her spear into the thicket of your attacks and tries to shove herself out of being pummeled.
(Panoply: 1040 Base Damage, Dice Negated, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +520 Ramming Speed!, +520 RAGE, +200 Light of Discovery, x3 CRUSH = 9960 Damage
Intercept!
Mythril Spear: 5600 Base Damage, +125 Dice, -200 Falling Back, +300 Legendary Power = 5825 Damage
Panoply wins
Mythril Spear Punches Through!
4135 Intercept Damage to Starlancer
5825 Intercept Damage to Summit
Magical Girl Starlancer: 990 Resilience, +321 Dice, +990 Defensive Roll, +100 DODGE! = 2401 Damage Reduction
1734 End Damage
50% Polaris Armor
867 Final End Damage
Magical Girl Starlancer: 8000 - 867 = 7133 Health
Magical Girl Summit: 680 Resilience, Dice Negated, +873 Reactive Field, -100 Accepting the Blows, +500 Resistant to Darkness Effects, -300 Hostile Legend Effect = 1653 Damage Reduction
4172 End Damage
60% Ceaseless Warrior
1669 Final End Damage
Magical Girl Summit: 5480 - 1669 = 3811 Health
+1 stack of Ceaseless Warrior (4 Extra ATP))
A corona of starry darkness cuts through your attack, there's enough blows raining down that you get in a few good hits. You suffer a heavy strike in return from her corona cutting through your attack and hitting you dead center.
As gratifying as it is to watch her bleed you need to calm yourself. Even giving your all to attack isn't going to win you this fight. You'll need to push her into making a mistake and hit her with Wave Force.
Starlancer sprints away from you and hurls her spear at you. A carefully-timed slap catches it in mid-air and sends it tumbling harmlessly.
(Mythril Spear: Attack Negated by Inhuman Skill!
+1 stack of Ceaseless Warrior (5 Extra ATP))
The spear is back in Starlancer's hand before it can finish falling to the ground. You fly through the thinning hail and rain after her. Even with the beacon slowing your flight you are much faster and more nimble than the ground-bound MG.
You keep track of her feet and how she holds herself. If she loses her footing you'll have a shot to use Wave Force, if she drops her guard you'll be able to hit her without suffering retaliation. Small mis-steps are exploited by you faster than she can correct them. Another few seconds and she'll have to drop her spear for just long enough to let you Shift into her way.
And then something thuds into the ground from nowhere (Earth, Chaos), it pulses brightly.
(Grounding Stones Check: 2
Magical Girl Summit: Dice Negated
Summit: Flight Negated)
You are promptly yanked from the sky. The fall isn't enough to hurt, but you lose part of a second falling eight meters -- enough for Starlancer to pull away.
"
Twilight!"
(Twilight: N/A Base Damage, +88 Dice = 88 Damage
Magical Girl Summit: 680 Resilience, Dice Negated, +13 Reactive Field, +20 Resistant to Darkness Effects = 713 Damage Reduction
Attack Ineffective!
Ceaseless Warrior stacks set to zero!
+1 stack of Ceaseless Warrior (1 Extra ATP)
Her strange spell doesn't harm you, but the sudden loss of suppleness in your Panoply is quite aggravating. You reconfigure and shove yourself after her.
You can't lift yourself into the air. Jumping is possible, but you have somehow lost the ability to hover and control yourself in the air. This is a more worrying problem. You toy with the idea of trying to destroy the thing powering the effect, then discard it. The 'echo' you can feel makes you suspect that there are at least three of those things.
No matter. You're still faster, more nimble, and have better reactions, even on the ground. Losing flight does slow you down and keeps you from hitting quite as hard. You probably can't hurt her past her retaliation effect now.
The pair of you zip along the ground and over a gang of demons covering their faces with their hands. Shah appears to have either been left behind or departed on his own. Starlancer isn't spending any effort to attack you, you realize, just keeping herself (barely) out of Wave Force range and staying prepared to retaliate.
A trickle of panic pushes you to Halt around yourself, as far as you can.
"Ascalon!" she yells.
Something pings within the Halted region. Whatever method she's using to speak across dimensions was just, well, halted.
"No! I'm not that close!"
In some ways this is more bad news. You've already been restricted from flying, calling for help, and attacking her, now you'll have to keep Halting up to prevent her from summoning aid -- which means you can't warp space in other ways. But the way she contracts on herself as she presumably doesn't get an answer is reassuring.
"Anna! Wait!" Starlancer stops leaping away and calls out.
You take the opportunity to plant yourself about two meters away. She holds her spear ready, but doesn't retreat.
"If you use your wave I'll be able to attack you, you'd die and I would be only be injured. I've just been trying to talk to you." Starlancer pleads.
Trading a Wave Force for another hit doesn't seem like a bad trade, still…"How do you know my name?"
"Silver Regent got ahold of your dossier somehow. It's inaccurate, you hit harder than it said and are much tougher."
"Why are you doing this?"
"Wars are usually decided before the first shots are fired. The rest of the Unified Light can hardly reach Earth, when war broke out on Hope they lost even with prepared defenses and everything they could put together. If any part of human civilization survives it will be if we can arrange for a Human State to hold its own within the UD, like mine." she declares.
"And you would expose billions of people to the depredations of-"
"The UD isn't that far ahead of Humanity for causing human death and suffering! And I hate what the demons do, but no one is strong enough to stop them. Build industry for me and we'll both be stronger together! And we'll prove that demons keeping Magical Girls as slaves is inferior! I'll help you kill Marax myself for what he did to you."
"I'd rather win." you answer.
"So would I, but the war hasn't really ended. The current ruler of Hell has been dividing humanity for years. It's why the Counter Force is preparing to abandon Earth, if you've ever wondered why you're guarding Fairies here instead of humans on Earth."
A stray bolt of lightning reveals the silhouette of a dragon (Fire, Rule Legend) falling to earth above you -- and one of the demon twins you fought earlier behind you.
(Grounding Stones Check: 7
Prince of the Sky: No Dice
Prince of the Sky: Flight Negated)
"Pollux! I have found her!" Castor yells.
"If you stop your halting effect I'll use an escape stick, otherwise I'll need to back the sentinel up if you fight." Starlancer says quickly.
You have a rather strong hunch that she'll call in something crazy instead of leaving.
----
Status of Forces:
Magical Girl Summit: 3811 Health, Magic Modifier nullified, Flight disabled, 1 bonus Attack per Turn from
Ceaseless Warrior
Lysander Cook: DEAD.
Mohammad Shah: Missing, you think he got away.
Radio communication is unavailable.
Monster Keeper: Annoyed, Flight disabled, 2551 Wonderwall, Full Health.
Steel Monsoon: Full Health, 2551 Wonderwall, 203 Stacks of
No Kill but Overkill.
Flawless Paladin: Full Health, 2551 Wonderwall, has a med-kit.
Ninja of Light (Afterimage): Full Health, 2551 Wonderwall.
Pollux and Castor: Behind you.
Magical Girl Starlancer: 7133 Health, trying to look friendly. Using Summit's Magic Modifier for herself.
Lesser Demons: Running away.
[X] She can't get away from you now! Wave Force! (Keep Halting going.)
-[X] Then what? (write-in -- Monster Keeper, Steel Monsoon, and Flawless Paladin are going to land behind you shortly, so feel free to boss them around too.)
-[X] Actually, you ZOTT-ed her when she tried to tell you not to. (Most of her dialogue doesn't happen and the fight starts a turn earlier. The twins and your reinforcements arrive after a turn.)
[X] Drop the Halting effect and teleport to somewhere safer!
-[X] Damaging Teleport, pop back after patching yourself up a bit. Plan for the others? (DIFFICULTY SPIKE should be fine, you softened them up for them)
-[X] Short Teleport, Battle Plan? (Again, you can control the reinforcements. Perks of having 360⁰ vision and Diamond Mind.)
[X] Offer to go with Starlancer
-[X] You escaped Hell once on your own, you can do it again.
-[X] Maybe she's right…
+50 EXP Summit Endures
+25 EXP Cavalry's here!
+400 EXP Survived a fight the GM thought was going to drop you
+5 EXP Death of Lysander Cook
+5 EXP Mission success no longer possible
384 + 485 = 869 Total EXP
[X] EXP Plan?
(OOC: There ended up being a rather long "don't attack her she gets more powerful/she gets to use her stupid intercept" section where not much happened. I had to rewrite a bit because I had Starlancer make some choices just to give free hits, when she has an agenda and shouldn't be a punching bag. Have some extra EXP to make up for it...
And Shah got out of the radio jamming so you got some help. Veekie wanted to know more before committing to Wave Force, so here's some more info. Good Luck!)
