The Dark Ages [Dark Data]

[Madotsuki]

Shinnah and Azzathec broke off from the group, running around to flank the enemies as they assaulted them with blasts of fel energy. They intended to prove themselves as a distraction, which turned out to be too effective as the alchemist took notice. But instead of attacking them straight on, he made a little gesture and suddenly the dirt underneath the warlock's feet burst out from the ground and tossed her away. She stood up as fast as she could, adjusting her hood, but barely had enough time to dodge before another patch of earth ascended into the sky.

Deciding that she wouldn't have any time to cast her spells, she chose to run into melee range, swinging the decorated spine she wielded at his face. While the weapon's main purpose was for channeling mana, it was still solid enough to deal decent blows should she get pulled into physical combat. The man with the metal arm clearly wasn't expecting the bold engagement, as demonstrated by the cut across his eye that his face now wore.

Given an opportunity by the gnome, Madotsuki popped out of nowhere, pulling out the diary and pushing her energy through it to bash the man in the nose with a giant fist. But the man was warier this time, raising his foreign limb to block the blow and push the dreamer back. The dreamer withdrew the book and pulled out the knife again, dodging as the earth erupted right beside her. The ground trembled, suddenly raising a wall to block off the Darkling and the dreamer from the rest of the fight.

This unexpected protection caught her off-guard for a moment, just long enough for the man to clobber her on the head with his metal arm too quickly for the half-baku to phase out. Her ears rung as pain erupted between her eyes. And along the rest of her body in small lines. ...Wait, what?

The enclosure around them became bathed in a deep, purple light as she struggled not to collapse from the increasing pain coursing through her veins. She could no longer sense the frantic pounding on the blockade from her comrades, too overcome with pain to focus on anything else. Suddenly it came to a head and the dreamer cried out in a combination of suffering and surprise as a pair of large, delicate wings burst out from her shoulderblades, barely contained by the dirty barricade.

Both of the fighters hadn't been expecting that, looking at the other in confusion as they tried to figure out what happened. She turned to examine her new appendages, staring into the nonsensical images that played out along the gossamer skin. A quick glance at her hands showed that they were cracked and glowing, just like the area around her eye.

Pain kicked in again, reminding her that she was supposed to be fighting. But it wasn't like a throbbing pain that was to be expected from the injury the alchemist had dealt-- rather, it resembled the faint, burning sensation that pooled up in her palms when she readied a magic blast. Except it was coursing all throughout her body. And it was so intense that her body could barely contain it.

The solution came to her almost immediately, but the Darkling realized just a moment too late what was about to happen. He did, however, have just enough time to raise an arm in defense before the dreamer blasted out the back of the enclosure and sent the man flying out along with it. Madotsuki was at his side almost immediately, pummeling him with blast after blast, overloaded with an incredible energy that wanted to exit her body in the most direct way possible. In all honesty, she didn't even care about murderkilling this thing into annihilation anymore; she just wanted the pain to stop.

But it wouldn't.

655 words. Used Stealth, Effect Knife, Shadow Punch, and Ghoul Rush.
Activated T1 Powered-up Form Rapturous Entity Madotsuki. 2/3 SP left.