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.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Pressure Mounting Up

Hiro was starting to breathe heavily, the tussle against the mad alchemist and his horrific experiments starting to wear him down slightly. It hadn't been that long since the fight against the warlock, and unlike his implacable rusted companion Okor, Hiro was not cut out for endurance. He was a shock and awe combatant, steady enough to hold his own in a duel or in a battle, but multiple fights strung out one after the other were one of his soft points.

He'd tried to train himself for more endurance, spending nights practicing with a long piece of rebar he called his "Redneck Katana". It had helped his balance and his form, but the hacker was just not built for constant entanglement. These thoughts were running through his head as he made another split second dodge to escape the burning acid hurled his way by the two flesh dogs.

The silence thwipping of his shuriken pistol cut chunks of flesh off the hellish pets, but it was no use. The dropped pieces just globbed back onto their bodies, and Hiro's strongest projectiles had only managed to scorch their twisted pink flesh. Five Chernobyl Packets just didn't pack enough of a punch, although their erstwhile ally in the orange combat suit seemed like they were toting an armory that was more equipped to fight horrendous, formless monsters. The beam she'd unleashed definitely hurt the things. It seemed like Hiro was the odd man out in this fight, so he scanned the battlefield and zeroed in on the one target he was more used to dealing with; the corrupted alchemist.

Just as he was about to dash forward and engage, Madotsuki underwent a blinding transformation and rushed him, firing blasts of light and momentarily overwhelming the mad potion brewer. "Well, shit Mads...didn't know you could do that." Hiro muttered to himself. Maybe a boost would be prudent. The gently glowing purple of the darkchips slotted into his wristcomp caught his attention, and the hacker could feel the urge to use it tug at his head. Perception slowed as he held a miniature debate in his head. He was sure his program had isolated the corrupting effect...but the gnome had seemed worried about other energies she'd detected. But she was a bumpkin! A friggen' magician, living here in this primitive, backwards verse that didn't even see fit to send troops to defend their villages. He could handle anything these fricken' chips threw at him, and Nebula to. Better to use the enemy's weapons against them.

Plus, he felt a little emasculated seeing a 16 year old go all biblical in front of him.

-tap tap tap-

Immediately, his body was covered in dark purple flames and he felt as if he'd slammed four energy drinks in a row. The colors got brighter, noises got sharper, and his vision went eagle-eyed with detail. Which was good, because he saw the angelic Madotsuki sail backwards as the alchemist hit her with some sort of yellow, molten spear that flowed back to his arm. 

Purple smoke formed an outline of the hacker before dissipating as he dashed forward, katana ready to be drawn in a powerful slash. He zipped in front of the Darkling man with intense speed, and drew a thin bloody line across his coat, which made the man shrug and swing his metallic appendage at the silicon samurai. Hiro responded by dropping into a defensive stance, catching the approaching limb in the elbow and arresting it's forward momentum. They both paused, simultaneously as the motion was something neither had expected. 

But Hiro was much faster.

The counterattack nearly cut the man's fleshy arm off, and the hacker took a step back to boast as purple flames set the man's clothes alight with cinders. However, his blow hadn't damaged his target enough, and before he could twist away golden fingers grasped the bare blade and squeezed, shattering his sword into glass crystals. A reflexive jerk to the left prevented Hiro from getting a handful of glass shoved into his torso, but didn't stop the meaty fist crashing into his jaw and sending him backwards a few steps.

Sheathing the katana handle and setting the reforge function, Hiro drew his tanto and circled around the alchemist, still burning with the flames of power. Dash, dash, dash, and the damage was showing. Like most of his opponents, Hiro was just too fast, his tanto finding unprotected spots seconds before they disappeared again, a blade through the ulna, a severed pinky, a nose tip severed. The hacker-ronin was a jive talking blender, and it never showed better than when he had two weapons in his palms. The overconfidence was palpable, which is why he felt something was wrong as the alchemist stared at him with glee.

No, stared past him.

His coat flapped but not fast enough. flames trailed behind him.

He could see the ball of disgustingly green acid sail less then three inches from his nose as he backflipped over it, the gooey dogs looking self satisfied as they thought they had got him, when instead their projectile hit their master instead.

Thank Omni for superpowers, right?

922 Words
Hiro used Inner Power darkchip, +1 to all stats for the round
Hiro used Totsuzenshi, Chernobyl Packet, Eldar Pistol, Regretful Tanto.

[Nebula]

An otherworldly yowl escaped the maddened alchemist as globs of acid chewed voraciously into his flesh. His heretofore well-kept academic trappings disintegrated in large patches, revealing a spiderweb of vein-like beads of metal stretching from his malformed shoulder joint and down his scrawny chest. With a snarl, he wrapped his immense golden mitt around a glob of dissolving flesh, tearing the hunk of afflicted meat free with abandon and hurled the caustic slab at the damned ronin. Hiro’s eyes widened at the display, his augmented reflexes allowing him to dodge the bulk of the assault, though he was close enough to catch drabs of acidic spatter as it passed him. The dark conjurer grinned with self-satisfaction as the swordsman stumbled, hurriedly using his katana to abrade his rapidly-dissolving outerwear. The alchemist closed his darkened eyes, taking advantage of the momentary pause to begin his next ploy.

Elsewhere, the plagued paladin wrestled with what remained of the corpulent titan, blade hilt-deep in the construct’s gut. Okor could feel the thing thrashing its last, death throes becoming weaker as the caustic pathogens took their toll on its newborn flesh. All at once the knight felt the creature cease struggle, collapsing into a soupy puddle around his mangled armor. Nurgle’s chosen stood tall, smearing the slick remains off of his own tainted flesh. It had fallen.

”One...down,” Okor muttered, setting his sights now on the pair of acidic lifeforms.

Madotsuki and her gnomish companion were way ahead of him, plying the pair of caustic gels with their own signature destructive blasts on their respective ends of the clearing. The dreamer’s recent transformation had begun to falter, though this did not stop her from tearing into her foe with wave after crescent wave. Unable to bear the assault and too far away to effectively attack and feed, the scalding puddle-beasts were forced to retreat, scampering sloppily toward the ruined cottage. Samus spied the fleeing foes, taking a second to lock onto each of them before taking aim, leaping skyward, and spraying them with gattling cannonfire. The wretches hissed and bubbled as they attempted to evade the rain of energy bullets.

Hiro saw it first. “Okor, turn around!”

From across the clearing, the necrotic warrior turned to see the remains of his regenerating foe coagulating and taking the form of a bulbous flesh tone serpent, now making a beeline for Hiro’s location. He paused for a moment, pondering the thing’s intent. ”The alchemist...he is calling the golem.”

Above the ado, Samus somehow heard Okor’s words. It didn’t take even her level of strategic understanding to figure out what the conjurer was planning. She glanced at the panicked acid blobs, rushing blindly away from their master despite the constant pummelling of Madotsuki’s energy waves. Squaring her stance, the bounty hunter raised her arm cannon and unleashed a cord of fluorescent energy, catching the side of the amorphous meat worm and dragging it toward her with a might heave. The abomination thrashed against the tether as it was dragged through the pair of corrosive mutts, ebon acid washing over its muscled hide. The golem’s flesh began to rapidly burn away on contact, only to reform just as quickly. Samus dug in her heels, dragging the mixture of acidic meat farther from the channeling alchemist.

Hiro watched open-mouthed as the acid blobs began to shrink, their biomass unable to keep up with the impressive regenerative capabilities of the panaceas abomination. In similar fashion, the repeated non-stop regeneration had begun to take its toll on the regenerator, the pace of its self-healing now noticeably slower. A sly grin crossed his face as he turned to see a now somewhat panicked alchemist trying desperately to control his minions. Not wasting  another second, the hacker drew his blade and charged, driving the glass katana through the conjurer’s chest.

As if on cue, the pile of mixed meat and acid ceased movement, dissolving slowly into puddle of gray goo. The alchemist’s eyes bulged as he took his last breath before falling limp. Before any of the gathered heroes could take a step toward their defeated foe, his metallic arm separated from the socket, crashing to the ground and shattered to dust, replaced by a hunk of black crystal, the size of a melon, pulsing with veins of deep violet.

Encounter: Complete!

Damage Report:
-- Samus suffers 1 damage
-- Okor suffers 2 damage
-- Madotsuki suffers 2 damage
-- Hiro suffers 2 damage

Spoils:
-- From the remains of the alchemist, there is a medium-sized chunk of Dark Power, ripe for the taking. What abilities it has will be revealed if you choose to take it.

Furthering the quest: After completing this, the radar of the Liberator Aides will show the Stronghold for this area, deeper within the very forest you've found. You will be able to reach it without much difficulty, but Nebula's forces will be on high alert, this close to their base.

You have four days to make one post each, which may be up to 800 words to settle the spoils and move on to your destination. Happy hunting.

[Madotsuki]

Finally. It was over. But now there was nothing left to release her pent-up energy on (and there was no way she would attack her friends just to ease the pain) The dreamer fell to her hands and knees, her wings wrapped around her body like an eerie veil. She took long, deep breaths, trying to focus her mind on something other than the burning sensation (which admittedly was starting to ebb away).

"Hey, M? You okay?" Asked the ronin, kneeling down to examine her despite being unable to see her form underneath the glittering appendages.

Madotsuki lifted a wing so Hiro could see her face. 'I... think so. I just need a minute.'

"Looks like some sort of energy overload," Shinnah commented, not having to crouch because she was only two feet tall. "I recall a group of demon hunters that did basically the same thing-- except that in their case, it was more of a voluntary thing and it was fel energy. Just try to rest and it should work its way out of your system."

'It burns,' was the reply. It wasn't an angry or sarcastic counter to say that it was really hard to relax when she was in pain; it was just an objective confirmation of her current state.

"Sorry, there's nothing I can do," said the gnome, fingers fiddling with her staff. "Warlocks aren't exactly the best at healing magic."

A few moments passed. Slowly but surely, the half-baku's wings began to dim and flicker. Just as they were about to fade out, they retracted back into her shoulder blades. The countless, abyssal scars that ran the gamut of her skin stitched themselves back together, save for the one that was originally inflicted near her right eye. And now the pain was just a memory. She took her time in pushing herself to her feet, testing her muscles to make sure she was still in working order.

"You sure you're okay?" Her samurai friend asked, standing up.

'I am.'

An awkward silence followed before the warlock spoke up. "How about we check out the alchemist? Looks like he dropped something neat."

The dreamer nodded, currently in an almost blissful state now that the overwhelming pain was no longer there.

Okor and Samus were already examining the spoils when the three arrived. When the gnome had the chance to get a good look at the melon-shaped object, she smirked and glanced up at the digital ronin. "Still think that this group is just using superior technology?" She asked, the slightly-annoyed glint in her eyes confirming that she had not forgotten the samurai's indirect insult from earlier.

"If it is," he replied, running a hand along its black surface, "then they need to work on making it more mobile."

"It's possible that the power contained within this thing is too strong to be contained in something as small as a Dark Chip," suggested the bounty hunter.

"You don't say." The ronin watched the crystal intently, with Madotsuki know kneeling by his side. "You thinking what I'm thinking, Mads?"

'It definitely could be useful, but how are we going to channel it? Would it even be safe? The gauntlets were made for the chips, not...' she lightly rapped on the object, '...whatever this is.'

"There's only one way to find out," Hiro replied, lifting up the crystal.

'I guess so.' She traced along a vein of glowing energy. 'Maybe we should start here?'

576 words. Madotsuki wants to take some Dark Power.

[Samus Aran]

Samus didn’t like the look of this. A chunk of ominous-looking dark energy, which they’d already been informed was highly corruptive in nature … and they pick it up? Were they stupid?

“I highly advise leaving that alone.”

The others looked to her to see the air had changed a little. Hiro was the first to respond. “Advice noted,” he said.

Samus narrowed his eyes into a scowl. “Weren’t you paying attention? This stuff is addictive. It erodes your sanity. Your sense of self. You want to pick it up? Why?” It wasn’t a question. “Stand back and let me destroy it.”

“Like hell.” Hiro moved between her and the artefact.

“Tch.” Samus looked from the hacker, to the gifted girl, to the undead monster. They all stood between her and the dark energy. Of course, it had been foolish to think that these people had come here to save a verse. She hadn’t failed to notice the EPD crest emblazoned on Hiro’s coat lapels. The gnome had been less blatant about it. People in the Empire and the Kingdom wanted their hands on this stuff.

Just like the Metroids, just like phazon. And before that, in her own universe, there had been many things like it. When humans had lived on a single planet, they’d fought over oil. Some things simply never changed.

Samus relaxed her body. “Listen. I know you’ve been asked by the Empire to retrieve this stuff, but is it worth the risk? To yourself?”

“Wrong again,” replied Hiro. “This is for us right now. We’re going to need every edge to come out of this alive. And I intend to live a marvellously long life.”

The bounty hunter cocked her head disbelievingly. “You think you can control it? You think you’re smarter than Doctor Regal?”

A smirk crossed the hacker’s face. “I’ve handled worse.”

Samus all but threw her arms in the air. “Really? Really?!” She took off her polite mask and adopted a tone she generally only took with unrepentant pirates and slavers. “You ever had your friends lose their minds and try to kill you?” She paused, taking Hiro’s momentary hesitation as a ‘no’, before continuing. “It’s not worth the risk. I’ve seen forces like this in action. They are best destroyed at the source.”

“Is that a fact?”

Samus didn’t like the look on Hiro’s face. The smug look of knowing. She didn’t like the way he looked at her with those glowing goggles: like he could see beneath the armour.

“What’s that power source on your chest?” he asked matter-of-factly, not even bothering to be subtle. “The one you haven’t used yet.”

Samus grit her teeth. Motherfucker. Was he hacking her suit somehow? Her eyes flit around the HUD for any suspect activity. Nothing. Back to that smug grin. “How’d you do that?”

“Same way I’m going to break these dark chips.” He twanged his goggles with a grin. “Technology!”

[Okor]

Okor turned his helmed head towards Samus, warp-spawned parasites crawling under his skin, feasting on his ever-healing flesh, squatting among the liquidized ruins of the flesh-golem, wiping his plague-drenched blade ‘clean’ against the armour of his thigh. A low chuckle escaped his tortured throat as he began to speak, the sound reverberating around the ruined remains of the village. ”Do not be so quick to take us for fools, Aran. I know the value of my own soul to the… decimal, and I will not so readily sell what little I have left for power’s own sake. If these Dark Chips want to claim me, they will have to compete with my Gods first.” He rose, striding towards the sable shard being inspected by the young witchling.

”Careful, Madotsuki,” he said, a claw placed over her hand making some approximation of gentleness to guide her away from the crystal. Nanoscopic runes crawled over its surface,  the dark fire burning around their edge visible only to one so damned as Okor. He raised an armoured finger, pointing towards where her comparatively miniscule hands had been running towards. ”The runes spiral around each other, here. It’s a rather… potent gathering of power.”

“I can’t see any runes,” stated the dream-killer, curiosity evident upon her face as she inspected the crystal closely. Okor blinked, leprous lids closing over his God-granted eye. ”No, of course not. With the thousands of realities Omni has pulled from, not all of them would know of Warp-magic.” Okor looked at the ground beneath him, reaching down to raise a stone the size of human eye to closer inspect it. Nodding in approval, he dug his claws into his his own palm, translucent blood cascading over the pebble. Words in the black tongue of Nurgle slipped from his mouth, his host of parasites and pseudo-symbiotes rustled in chorus with his words, a low hum accompanying each of his words. The ambient hum of his fellow abominations twisted and turned, forming new words, a second voice formed from the relentless hunger of his host speaking a second incantation.

As both chants came to their conclusion, he opened his fist, the stone turned milky-white and barely translucent, miniscule runes circling around its edge. He tossed the tainted stone to Madotsuki, the barbs and scars needed to speak in the black tongue slowly fading as he shook his head, the emphatic aftermath of his amateur magecraft attempting to wrack his warp-touched mind. ”Here. You should be able to see through this.”

Madostuki looked curiously at the stone, the runes along its edge seemingly attempting to crawl away from her sight. She rose the runed rock to her eye, letting out a small gasp as its dark magic revealed the veritable manuscript etched in ever-shifting sigils upon the crystal. “How… What does this mean?”

A talon reached out, pointing towards another twisted mass of tainted runes. ”The script is vastly different from my world. The basic principles should still be… transferable, though.” His hand drifted over the crystal, a single drop of diseased blood falling from his still-wounded hand, quickly being absorbed by the sorcerous shard. Black lightning coursed through it, the infinitesimal amount of blood being carried through the crystal by a chariot of coruscating arcs of electricity. After a few seconds of this light show, it spat the drop out at speed, the blood turned black and acidic as it ate away at the wall of a nearby hut.

”Blood in, blood out,” chuckled the Plagued Paladin.

“... It’s a heart.” Concluded Madotsuki, keeping her voice neutral, regardless of her feelings on the matter.

646 Words according to the OV.

[Hiro Protagonist]

After his verbal joust with Samus, Hiro was feeling quite self-satisfied. Who the hell was this hypocritical tin can to admonish him on the use of corruptive power? Especially when they had a glowing reactor on their chest leaking bad juju?? Hiro didn't need to pour over the technical specs gleaned by his googles. The amount of energy coming off of it, plus the fact that Samus hadn't used it during the last fight, told him all he needed to. That was an "oh shit" button, just like the program Okor's wraith had left in his wristcomp. Although that one had come in handy during the Darkshire fight. His wrist had been numb for hours from the OM drain, though.

Crouched over the burning purple crystal, Hiro had a finger on his goggles and the other making swipes in the air. Full on hacker analysis mode. "Yeah....mmhmm. Oh, really?...interesting. Woah, no way. Hoof, what a punch!" 

Samus folded their arms in front of their chest and cleared their throat conspicuously. "Would you mind enlightening us on your findings? Since you seem to be more than capable of vocalizing to yourself."

Hiro stood up and grinned. "Like Okor said, it's a heart. There's a lot of biodata in there, which leads me to believe it most likely is meant to bond to someone's body and replace their actual heart. Can't be good in the long term, but it might make the difference between life and death against these Darklings. That last fight was rough, and I think we're getting closer."

He tapped the Liberator attachment to his armband. "Look, see? All those purple blobs are concentrations of dark power....and then further up, there's a huuuuge mess of 'em. 'S gotta be their headquarters. So I say we get a move on, right?"

The companions nodded and began to get ready to travel once more. Hiro picked up the chunk of Dark Power gingerly, and handed it to Okor. "Can you carry this for now? Like, without it bonding to you? Someone else might need it in a pinch." He cleared his throat. "Also, I don't think you're the most likely to need a eleventh hour evil power up."

"I will carry the burden for now. Simply having it on my person will not extend it's effect to me. I have dealt with far worse in my universe." The Plagued Paladin spat. "Besides....there is much I can glean from it that you are not able to, and vice versa. I believe it to be a ....fusion, of two power sources."

Hiro nodded as Madotsuki confirmed Okor's conjecture. "I can see what he's talking about, Hiro. Sigils and swirls and all sorts of eldritch markings. Your tech analyzed the scientific aspect of it, but that's not all there is to see."

The hacker shrugged and pulled out his pack of cigarettes, lighting one and blowing the blue smoke out through the forest trees, leaves shushing in the breeze. He turned to Samus and gestured with his free hand. "You coming? Or do you disagree with our decision enough to leave? Either or, time's a wasting. We need to keep moving before we get ambushed."

[Nebula]

Begrudgingly, the ironclad mercenary followed her peers out of the clearing, leaving the wreckage of their battle behind them. It was evident that she was not keen on working with this particular group, though she knew that if the dark power overcame the group she’d need to be there to control the situation. Samus couldn’t risk leaving the hacker alone with a chunk of Nebula’s influence.

“We’d better step it up,” Hiro noted, striding to the head of the group. “Nebula’s probably sending these goons after us to slow our pace. That gate has to be around here somewhe-”

Samus had watched it happen in slow-motion. From high overhead, something had dropped abruptly onto Hiro’s head, the substance splattering against his bushy hair and beginning to dribble down the back of his jacket. As he let out a cry of surprise and began investigating the event, the bounty hunter caught sight of what was, at least ostensibly, some variety of bird fleeing from the area. It dipped and bobbed in the air as if drunk, letting out a wretched caw as if it were gargling muck. Nebula’s corruption seemed to have influenced even the wildlife.

“SHIT!” the hacker ronin cried out, casting his overcoat off and batting at his hair. Tiny wisps of dark smoke rose from the mess, causing Madotsuki to cover her nose and recoil from the stench.

”Yes, it does...seem to be.” Okor returned, single afflicted eye gazing down at him unblinkingly.

“Some fucking bird just shit on my head!” Hiro elaborated, incredulously. “Ugh, this shit burns!” The hacker grabbed at the thick blob of excrement, hurriedly flinging it to the dirt with a groan. He scowled at Samus as he retrieved his jacket; he didn’t need to use his goggles to know she was smirking underneath that helmet.

“The trees seem to be getting more and more sparse,” Shinnah announced, now several meters away from the rest of the group. “Sorta seems like we’re in another clearing now. It looks like there’s something up ahead…”

Just as she finished her sentence, Madotsuki leapt forward, blade in hand. She crossed in front of her companion, raising her knife in time to parry an incoming projectile. The ebony arrow ricocheted with a clink, followed soon after by a hail of similar darts. Gnome and Baku stumbled backward, reflecting the incoming attacks before they could find their mark.

“So,” a powerful, commanding voice boomed from up ahead. “You’ve found my arena. If you want to proceed further, you’ll have to defeat me.”

Standing nearly ten meters from them stood what could only be described as a being simultaneously equal parts man, robot, and horse. The robotic centaur boasted emerald armor from pauldron to hoof, separated here or there by the odd panel of yellow or blue. A trio of foot long, formidable horns curving up from the sides and front of his helmet in a triangular pattern, accentuating his beastly nature. His right hand appeared to be missing, instead replaced by what Samus immediately recognized was an arm cannon. Some distance behind the cybernetic beast of myth stood a shimmering violet portal, emitting an eerie glow. From high above the group could hear movement among the branches; whatever was scrambling above no doubt the source of the arrow volley.

“My archers won’t interrupt our battle without my say-so,” Centaur Man assured them coolly. Without another word, he raised his arm cannon, motes of light beginning to coalesce at the end of the barrel.

The battle had begun.

The final guardian before the nebula gate has appeared. Centaur Man's stats and abilities are as follows: [spoiler]

CAMELOT DARKLING COMMANDER

CENTAUR MAN

Proficiencies: Physical Strength, Ranged Proficiency, Area Attack Proficiency
Powers: Burst Movement, Hive Mind, Enhanced Senses (Basic), Stealth, Suppression, Time Manipulation, Survival
Moves: Centaur Arrow, Energy Shot, Firing Zone, Centaur Charge, Plasma Blade, Stamp, Gore, Centaur Gale
Super Moves: Centaur Flash (T1 Utility), Dark Flash (T1 Defensive), Plasma Arrow (T1 Offensive)
Transformations: Dark Surge (T1 Power up)
Unlocks: Two stat increases
Base stats
ATK: 3
DEF: 2
SPD: 3
TEC: 4

-- Centaur Arrow: Forming a bow of energy on his left arm, Centaur Man draws back and unleashes an arrow, roughly four feet long. It is exceedingly quick and accurate, taking only a second to form the bow and fire, though not particularly powerful. It has an effective range of about 40 meters.
-- Energy Shot: Centaur Man fires a shot from the buster on his right arm, the shot taking the form of a glowing white orb about three inches in diameter, which explodes mildly on impact. It has a range of about 20 meters, and can fire at a rate of about three shots per two seconds, though individual shots are not particularly powerful.
-- Firing Zone: Centaur Man unleashes a storm of fire from his buster, spraying out several dozen shots (approximately 60 of them) over a wide area in front of him over only two seconds. Each individual shot is just as powerful as his regular shots, but the rapid energy burst overheats his buster and must cool down for at least ten seconds afterward before even a regular shot can be fired again.
-- Centaur Charge: Centaur Man wreaths himself in a field of the same energy as his arrows, and charges forward in a straight line for approximately twenty feet, aiming to bash through or smash aside any targets in his way, inflicting only mild damage but throwing them violently out of his way.
-- Plasma Blade: Centaur Man forms a long, glaive-like weapon of energy in his left hand, taking roughly two seconds. It is extremely sturdy, and packs a significant punch, with a reach of nearly three meters at its longest point. It is otherwise an unremarkable weapon.
-- Stamp: Centaur Man rears up on his hind legs and strikes out with his hooves, smashing down with a fearsome kick that can actually crack the ground under him. It’s a straightforward, but powerful attack.
-- Gore: Centaur Man tries to simply gore his target with the horns on his head, either at a standstill or as part of a charge. They are extremely sharp, and are well-suited to the stabbing motion.
-- Centaur Gale: Centaur Man employs a weakened version of his Centaur Flash, taking only half a second to charge. The immediate area around him -- for roughly ten meters -- is blanketed in sparkling, shimmering lights, and targets within that area find their perception of time dramatically altered. To them, it seems as if Centaur Man is suddenly moving much, much faster -- well over twice as fast -- or they are moving much, much slower. This area of effect moves with him, and lasts for roughly five seconds at a time, requiring fifteen seconds before it can be used again.

(Super Move descriptions, and power up stats are intentionally left out. They will be a surprise.)[/spoiler]

The battle begins now! This will be a three-round fight. You have 72 hours and one post of up to 800 words each. Nebula will post again at the end of the round to tally up damage and begin the next round.

Ready? FIGHT!

[Samus Aran]

He’s confident, Samus noted with a smirk. Especially considering they were five-versus-one. As he brandished his arm cannon at them threateningly, Samus walked sideways, coolly keeping her gun arm and sight trained on him as she did so. It was a large, open clearing; plenty of room to fight. The tall trees that dotted the area around the portal might have been a problem, but the archers within them didn’t seem to be taking part in this fight.

At least not for now. Samus knew better than to fall for a surprise attack. She’d have to keep her eye on the danger sensor on her HUD.

Samus might have questioned the intelligence and moral fibre of some of her companions, but not their martial ability. If this was really five-versus-one, the centaur man had better have some serious power up his sleeves. Or they were going to take him apart.

As if he knew was she was thinking, the centaur-man unleashed a rain of shots her way. Samus was still a fair distance away from him, and raised her Barrier Beam almost lazily, keeping a watch for what her allies would do.

Madotsuki retaliated almost immediately with her own energy; a writhing column of something that was definitely not familiar to Samus. Meanwhile, Okor, Hiro and the gnome’s familiar stepped in to engage the monster in melee range. Samus almost felt sorry for their adversary.

As he was pushed back momentarily by the simultaneous assault, Centaur Man bellowed out; “I ain’t no joke!” He reared up on his hind legs and brought them crashing down, sending his three melee assailants flying backwards.

Samus raised an eyebrow and glanced down at her arm cannon. Fully charged, but there was no point wasting it on a less-than-critical blow. They could end this quickly with the right tactics. She watched, and waited for the right moment, continuing to circle outwards. Madotsuki and the gnome were doing the same thing in the opposite direction, although they were being more proactive in their attacks.

The Centaur Man charged forwards, managing to lift the great Okor off the ground and spinning overhead. Hiro rolled and Azzathec crashed harmlessly to the side. This was her chance.

Samus dashed across the ground, engaging her Rapid-Propulsion-System before flipping up and into the centaur’s blind spot. He must have had some kind of sixth sense, as he looked up to meet the hunter as she descended with her arm cannon outstretched.

That was fine. He could look.

A green-tipped missile burst from the barrel of her gun. She froze in the air to watch Centaur Man’s eyes widen; then he disappeared in the light of the explosion.

That wasn’t meant to happen. He reappeared a few metres away, panting. He looked pissed off. Maybe a little bit burnt. The super missile had connected after all; but he’d quickly dashed out of the explosion. Samus tutted herself mentally.

Centaur Man’s response was no half-measure. With all of the combatants to one side of him, he unleashed a storm of bullets in their general direction.

“Behind!” bellowed Samus as she brought up her arm cannon in a defensive measure. The gnome and girl ducked into her Barrier Beam, while Okor simply crouched, Hiro comfortably protected by his massive frame.

The rain ended, and they dispersed again. Centaur Man looked undeterred. In fact, he looked to be … enjoying it. He grinned. Then he lit up, the blue light only visible around his frame for a half-second before it exploded outwards, bathing them all in its radiance.

Samus turned to escape the sphere. But as she did so, she was shocked to see Centaur Man directly in front of her. It was as though …

He burst towards her, and plowed his arm into her stomach.

… Time had slowed down.

She was flying backwards before the pain even registered. Even on the HUD – and that was impossible. That thought had barely a moment to cross her mind before she hit the ground, rolling.

Samus grunted. On the plus side, she was out of that sphere now. True time manipulation? That was a neat trick.

The rest of the combatants came tumbling out of the sphere after her. It raised her spirits slightly to see that she hadn’t been the only one to fall prey to that attack. “Doesn’t seem like there’s any defense against that,” Samus noted aloud.

Centaur Man galloped towards them, as the bubble vanished back into his frame.

“But he can’t use it all the time,” noted the gnome.

That was right. Samus took to her feet. The outcome of the battle would hinge on whether he had any other tricks up his sleeve.

[Madotsuki]

The dreamer staggered to her feet, caught off-guard by the charge that had forced her out of the time bubble. She had attempted to phase through it, but she had been pushed away with the full brunt of the attack as if she were solid - apparently the shield surrounding the robot whenever he did that had to be made of some sort of energy. Well, the more she knew...

And speaking of knowing, when she took a moment to perceive the fight, she noticed that her weird sixth-sense thing was no longer helping her. It was almost jarring, but given that she had barely had it for an hour or so, it wasn't as if she had lost her sense of sight or anything. Now that it was gone though, she needed to fight with caution. It helped that she had a team to fall back on, but how was she going to approach this?

First off, this mechanical centaur was sentient, or at least designed to operate without a handler by the way he acted, so there was no cockpit or controls she could mess with like with the massive robot down in Tier 7. The joints of his casing seemed somewhat vulnerable though, so that was probably a good place to start.

She cut off to the side, fading out into the scenery as she readied another pulse. She just needed one good shot, which she mentally communicated with the others.

The cybernetic myth almost seemed confused at her sudden disappearance, but there were more important problems to worry about, like the sheathed, glass katana aimed at his face. He blocked it with his arm cannon, and then retaliated as a shining green blade burst forth from his hand and swung down at the ronin. Given the suddenness of the attack, Hiro could only guard himself with the fragile weapon. However, the impromptu defense proved just solid enough to push away the giant glaive. A loud shattering noise indicated that the sword had cracked.

"Glass?" roared Centaur Man in triumph. "Come back when you have an actual weapon!"

"Like this?" The samurai whipped out what had to be a pistol and fired, with only four soft "fwip" noises to tell that he was shooting. The robot recoiled for the briefest moment when the projectiles cut into his armor, and the plague marine took advantage of that opportunity by heaving all of his momentum into the quadruped's side, tipping him into a precarious angle. The bounty hunter followed up by latching onto the machine's airborne front leg and tugging, sending the enemy toppling over.

He strained to right himself, firing off laser blasts at the group, but suddenly the half-baku was there, her and the gnome blasting at the joint in his back-left leg at point-blank range. The limb broke asunder from the rest of his body, skidding and bouncing across the dirt before settling to a stop several meters away.

Everyone promptly began to lay down the pain with their best weapons, taking advantage of the centaur's near-helpless state as they avoided his other weapons.

But he still had that stupid grin on his face! Why?

The realization hit Samus in the head, literally; Centaur Man's detatched leg kick the Chozon fighter in the back of her helmet with a cloven hoof, sending her sprawling into the grass as the robot's cannon began to glow.

"SCATTER!" announced the gnome, rolling out of the way as Azzathec tried to pull the bounty hunter along with her. The others were not quite as fast, but they situated themselves behind Okor as a flurry of energy orbs launched out of the centaur's gun.

The attack provided him a chance for his leg to hop over and reattach itself. The cybernetic monster pulled himself up, laughing up a storm as he summoned the blade once more. "I'm made of tougher stuff than that!"

655 words.

[Hiro Protagonist]

The samurai was hunkered behind the massive bulk of Okor's armor, steadying his breathing as his goggles traced out the defense grid overlay on his HUD. Centaur Man laughed as he sent a wave of floating orbs right at all of them, Hiro trying to analyze the Darkling Machine's composition. Why did it seem so familiar? There was something about his attacks, his body, his energy...he dodged out behind Okor and sliced one of the bullets in half with his tanto, the katana undergoing a repair cycle on his hip. The energy discharge burned his forearms, the tanto not having enough range to disable the plasmic projectiles at a safe range. Well...if that was the only weapon he had at his disposal...then he'd just have to get closer.

He sheathed one of the omnilium treated blade, pulling out his pistol and advancing as he answered Centaur Man's barrage with some shots of his own, his metal frame thunking and creaking as the monomolecular shuriken carved dints into his armor. As fast and powerful as the Darkling Commander was, he couldn't focus on all of them at once, and with Okor firing a steady stream of bubonic bolts at him, Samus blasting him with bolts of energy, and Madotsuki sending waves of dream energy in the form of giant fists, the speedy hacker went unnoticed for the few precious seconds he needed to dash into range of the robotic centaur.

"Get the hell back, loser! I'll stomp you flat! Gyahahaha!" The half machine half manhorse reared up once more, those metal hooves flailing through the air and coming down where Hiro had been a second ago. Just before the impact, he'd shrugged off his coat and dug both tanto into Centaur Man's wide and armored underbelly, using his enhanced flexibility and acrobatic skills to cling underneath their enemy. Hiro blinked and rolled upwards, kicking his boots up in the air and stabbing new handholds into Centaur Man as he tried to buck the hacker off, going full on crazed equine. "Ah! What the...get off!" The commander howled, kicking his back legs and firing indiscriminately all around, unable to focus on the hacker climbing up his body and the other four attackers.

"Yeah...give me about a minute, and I will." Hiro spat, landing on the mechanical myth's back, stabbing his tanto deep into the machine's armor plating and peeling off a sizable plate of armor. Upon seeing the exposed wires, tubes, and what looked like biomechanical plasma, the digital daimyo realized why Centaur Man had seemed so familiar. He was a living program. Just like Colonel, the bot he'd met in Dante's Abyss. Same internals, same operating system, probably. But he didn't have thirty minutes to mess around in the Commander's root menu, he had less than thirty seconds. And with the gaping "wound" he'd just caused...maybe.

He clicked something on his wristcomp, and reached forward, fastening his arms around the hulking half horse's neck, squeezing tightly and attempting to choke him out. "Are....are you serious, buddy?" The Darkling asked incredulously. Hiro just kept squeezing and grunting. "Worst mistake of your life, moron! Catch!" The Darkling twisted his head...his severely pointy head.

Hiro's eyes went dead as one of the side horns stabbed straight through his skull and withdrew, leaving a gaping bloody hole. Centaur Man guffawed, and paused a second to stare with glee at the rest of the Liberators. "One down, four to go! Haw haw haw!" Hiro's limp corpse lolled on his back, limbs flailing as it began to slide off.

"Actually, you missed."

KSSHBOOOOOM

Centaur Man was enveloped in a crackling haze of dark purple energy, Hiro's finger outstretched towards him as he perched on a tree branch above the fight, his frame pulsing with the same purple energy. "Woah there, Hoss! Looks like we got a wild filly to break!" He quipped, grinning boastfully and tapping his wristcomp at his compatriots. "What did I tell you? These chips are coming in handy!"

696 Words
Used Body Double Dark Chip

[Okor]

Viridian orbs cascaded across Okor’s carapace, scorching the sullied steel as the centaur emerged from the dark haze of Hiro’s detonating double. Haughty, mocking laughter came from the half-man, rearing up as their energized blade burnt a path through the air, the very atmosphere itself being ionized. “You fools! How can you hope to stand agai-”

A bolt shell interrupted their gloating, the irradiated round detonating mid-air, sending shards of tainted shrapnel spiralling through the air, miniscule fragments embedding themselves in the android’s synthetic flesh. “So be it! You have cho-” Another shot ricocheted off of the cybernetic centaur’s armour, the detonation scything through mechanical meat, revealing a twisted mixture of pistons and ivory bones, ridden with slowly pulsing purple crystals. “Have you no respect f-” A final round raced through the air, a distorting haze appearing in front of the Neblua-sworn warrior, their burning blade cutting through the suddenly slowed shell, the two halves spiralling off behind them, their payloads rendered inert.

”No,” sneered okor, a rotting hand pulling back a rusting bolt on his weapon, a verdigris-coated casing falling to the ground as acrid smoke rose from the tumbling spent shell. His greaves churned the earth before him as he moved, mould and fungus beginning to bloom in his wake. A fresh barrage of bolts spewed forth from the Centaur’s custer cannon, each one charring armour and festering flesh as they kissed his blessed and blighted body.

“You shall be trampled to dust beneath my hooves!” Screamed the foe, mechanized appendages activating, an emerald field of energy coalescing around the amalgamation of man, machine, and mount. A field of temporal distortion emerged in front of the Centaur, compressing the timeline as it raced forward, gleaming horns levelling out as the beast became little more than a streak of energy, closing the distance in less time than it took for Okor to blink.

No mortal man would have been able to dodge the charge.

Okor was no mortal.

This had little to do with his ability to dodge it, nonetheless. His emaciated frame merely set itself in preparation, the force of a thunderhawk’s engines behind the beast’s blow as they embedded their horn in the Plague Marine’s torso, seeking to pierce his heart.

”Not one step back.” Snarled the septic soldier, shattered bones drifting through newly liquified flesh as his hands grasped the two other horns of the Centaur. With a screech of rending metal and a crack of bone, their right horn came free, a spray of oil, blood, and something worse accompanying it. Raising the fractured horn overhead like a sacrificial dagger, the gene-forged weapon drove it downwards, its shining tip tearing through the creature’s cybernetic carapace.

With a roar of pain and anger, the Centaur tore itself free, its freshly shattered horn embedded in their back, slowly being stained with tainted ichor. An entirely different form of corruption dripped from their forehead, translucent vitae rolling in rivulets down the antler. “You’ll pay for that,” they promised, wiping black liquids from their mouth with the back of their single hand.

The Plague Marine’s response was to shrug, some part of them that had seen them through ten millennia of warfare calculating the odds. ”I doubt it. Four warriors, each of which could kill you on their own, against a single, sad, quarter-man.”

“How dare y-”

”Madotsuki.”

The centaur turned, but not nearly fast enough. A fist forged from pure will and imagination cracking them across the jaw, sending the creature sprawling to the earth in a tangle of animalistic limbs. The youth stood atop a collection of rubble, their blade clutched in one hand, palm still extended, iridescent energies still wafting from it.

From their prone position, the Centaur began to rise, ebon ichor flowing freely from their mouth, staining their breastplate sable, laughing through a mouthful of blood. “Oh, you fools.” They turned to face the grouping of Primes, all of them taking advantage of the brief reprieve to reposition and reload. The Nebulous warrior’s eyes began to turn black, purple veins running through the irises as they began to stand on all four bestial legs. “This is only the beginning of your suffering.”

734 words.

[Nebula]

Insolence.

Centaur Man’s adumbral gaze slid slowly past each interloper as he exhaled rattling breaths. He could feel his murky ichor dribbling from his cybernetic lips, mixing with the various mechanical fluids leaking through his damaged carapace. His foes had paused, seemingly taking stock and counting the steps toward the victory. The mythical machine felt a sly smirk cross his lips as his hemorrhaging abated, Nebula’s gift enrobing him in empowering warmth. His quaking limbs tensed and steadied as spiderwebs of inky energy wrapped gripped his armor. If only they knew.

He’d have to show them.

With alarming agility, the mechanized beast-man tore across the clearing, a vibrant magenta bow materializing in the grasp of his left hand. He took aim as he galloped, letting loose the shining arrow toward the brazen child. Madotsuki dodged the dart, slipping out of reality for a moment as the projectile impacted the earth just inches from her feet, taking a sizable chunk out of the forest floor. She had little time to rejoice before the crazed centaur charged directly for her, hooves poised to trample her into the dust.

The sound of an unsheathing blade drew Centaur Man’s attention away from the dreamer, his bow vanishing in an instant as a glowing plasma blade took its place to parry the incoming silicate sword. He cackled as the ronin’s sword shattered on impact, shards of glittery glass clinking uselessly off of his chestplate. Hiro’s eyes widened as his cybernetic foe leveled his blaster at chest-level and fired, the percussive blast tossing the hacker aside like a rag doll into Okor’s repugnant embrace.

“I will grind you all to dust,” Centaur Man sneered, rapidly firing a spray of cannonfire in the direction of an approaching Shinnah. Azzathec quickly appeared before her, roaring with agony as it soaked up the destructive salvo. The familiar collapsed into the dirt, barely able to support its own weight. “One by o-”

The mythical machine’s taunt caught in his throat as an explosion rocked the ground beneath him, causing him to stagger backward. He felt a second blast scorch his underside a second later, causing him to cry out with a mixture of rage and confusion. Centaur Man reared onto his hind legs and brought his iron hooves down with prejudice, the spheroidal culprit quickly rolling out of the way of the thunderous impact. He snorted with rage as he took aim at the morph ball, slamming the fleeing foe with volley after volley of cannonfire. The bounty hunter emerged from the ball a few seconds later behind Okor, now somewhat worse for wear.

“You will fall,” Nurgle’s Chosen rasped, lowering Hiro to his feet. He leveled his bolter at the equine enforcer, striding forward with purpose. Round after rad round poured from the barrel, battering his opponent’s chest. “Nebula stands no chance.”

“ENOUGH,” Centaur Man roared, a sphere of distortion appearing around him as Okor’s bolts slowed nearly to a stop. He seethed with rage at the plague marine’s words. His audacity. The chimerical automaton raised his magenta bow, electricity crackling at his fingertips as he funneled energy into the arrow. Dark flames flickered at the arrow’s head as he pulled back the nonexistent bowstring, the gathered liberators realizing this was no ordinary arrow. “Now burn!” he cried, letting loose the calamitous projectile.

DAMAGE REPORT
-- Okor: 2 damage
-- Samus: 2 damage
-- Madotsuki: 3 damage
-- Hiro: 3 damage
-- Centaur Man: 11 damage

Centaur Man used T1 Power Up: Dark Surge for the entire round. New stats are as follows:
ATK: 5
DEF: 4
SPD: 4
TEC: 4

Centaur Man used T1 Super Attack: Plasma Arrow. Primary target is Okor.
T1 Super Attack: Plasma Arrow: Centaur Man forms his energy bow as normal, funneling a much greater surge of energy into it. It takes three seconds to form up the arrow, which crackles and wavers with excess power, flickering with dark flames and sinister lightning. When it is readied, he fires it, and it thunders to a 120 meter range, effecting everything within a three-meter wide path along its trajectory. When it reaches the end of its range or strikes a target, it explodes in a shower of dark flame and purple lightning, searing and burning whatever is struck.


Just like before, you have 72 hours to make one post each, up to 800 words. Contrary to initial plans, this will be the last round. Get back to wrecking.

[Okor]

Okor was unable to do anything but grit his fangs at the plasma-based projectile raced towards him, bolts of black lightning arcing off the abominable arrow, scorching the earth black with its baleful energies. The child, the hacker, and the hunter moving almost imperceptibly away from his rotting bulk, seeking to escape the oncoming doom.

That was not the way of Nurgle. His host of parasites writhed within him, shifting free-floating bones plates to the fore, attempting to preserve their ancient host. Others fled, attempting to deny the eternal truth of entropy, that all things must end. Beneath his ancient helm, Okor’s rotting face slowly split into a grin, accepting the devastation that was now but a mere inch away.

With the sound of screaming souls damned to suffer in the name of Nebula, and the stench of burnt flesh, scorched steel, and the ozone set aflame, the plasma arrow connected with the plagued paladin’s chestplate. The three other Nebulous warriors were sent flying from the blast, their flanks scorched by fell energies. The mouldering mass of the marine was sent careening backwards, trailing smoke and black fire as he careened into a thicket of dead trees, bones cracking as they met the copse of corpse-wood.

“Don’t you see it’s no use struggling?” screamed the Centaur, rearing up on its back legs, levelling the blaster that had replaced their capacity for a peaceful life as it sent beams of black energy towards the hunters. “The glorious light of Nebula will shine eternal!”

”Enough,” snarled Okor, forcing himself up from the branches that impaled his mummified flesh. He took a shaking step forward, born aloft of shattered legs that dragged behind his diseased bulk. The quarter-man loosed another bolt, piercing Okor’s chestplate and emerging out of his back. ”Nebula’s light is dying.” This statement was met with a roar and a seemingly never-ending hail of bolts, each lance of dark energy tearing through his ceramite carapace and withered flesh.

Yet still, he came, roaring his defiance over the hail of las-fire. ”You can rage against it all you like, but the light is dying!” An arm bent at an unnatural angle twisted itself back into place with the now-familiar sound of tearing flesh, the branch driven into his wrist little more than an annoyance as he drew and fired his pistol in a singular motion. The centaur hissed in annoyance as it easily dodged the shell, its alchemical payload setting a tree alight behind the abomination. ”There will only be darkness, when we… are done with you. No god, no light, no hope, no tomorrow. Another tortured step, bones cracking as the twisted creation of meat, metal, and warp-stuff within his armour forced his errant endoskeleton back into position. ”There will only be darkness. For the eternity of that singular second, you will have been left behind, your soul sworn to an errant wisp… forsaken, for the merest scrap of strength.”

He spread his arms wide, charred flesh explosively expanding as it grew to fill the holes blasted through his torso. ”You are but a candle in the wind, flickering and fading.” He hefted his blade, the centaur’s own energized saber springing to life as they charged forward to meet, each warrior eager to tear down the blasphemer before them. ”But corpse-gas burns eternal.”

As they closed the distance, hooves trampling the earth beneath them, blades held high, Okor’s abdomen exploded. A grotesque arrangement of tentacles and teeth made their presence known, reaching out to Embrace the Centaur. A plasma-borne blade scythed through the weaponized innards, burnt offerings falling to the mud beneath, but the hunger of the ancient abomination was undeniable. Tendrils wrapped around their limbs, a string of curses streaming out of the centauroid warrior’s robotic mouth as they swore bloody vengeance upon all those present. His ribs spread wide, gnashing at the synthetic flesh before him, Okor looked to his allies, one of his fists wrapped around his own guts, keeping the beast’s bonds tight.

A single word escaped his leprous lips, speaking through broken and bloody fangs. ”Kill.”

713 words, used 1 SP to heal 2 damage. 4/6 SP remaining.

[Samus Aran]

Stuck in the time distortion field during the critical moment, they were helpless against Centaur Man’s arrow.

The darkness burned like nothing else; it was as though Samus has been plunged momentarily into a cloud of evaporated oil, soaking through her pores and rattling the systems of her Power Suit. Then the explosion came, throwing her from the ground. Only through years of training and experience did Samus manage to still keep her sense of mind, allowing her to fall properly and avoid taking serious damage.

Then it was over, and all that was left was the residual damage and pain. Samus took a breath, orienting herself before rising to her feet with a boost of blue light from her jetpack.

Okor had taken the brunt of the attack, and now stood toe-to-toe with the foe. Using his own … insides as a rope to keep Centaur Man immobilized. Samus felt a measure of respect burgeoning for the inhuman soldier, even as her stomach turned witnessing the extent of his mutation. He’d put himself in the line of fire to open up an opportunity for the rest of them to attack. He knew his role as frontline protector, and did not shy away from it. Corrupted or not, he was a true warrior.

And Samus would honor his request.

During her time in the Kingdom’s boot camp, she’d used practice blades. Day in, day out, she’d trained with the sword. Part of her had considered summoning such a blade, much like the one she’d temporarily acquired in Dante’s Abyss, but Samus had always been more pragmatic than romantic. As such, she’d come up with a far more multipurpose solution. The Buzz Beam. Half-chainsaw, half-sword, and borne of the same energy that powered her arm cannon. It was time to find out just how hard Centaur Man’s hide was.

They charged in unison, Samus and Hiro approaching one side of Okor and Madotsuki the other; Shinnah crossing around so that she could fire from the rear. A step from Centaur Man, Samus twisted her right hand to activate and lock the Buzz Beam, immediately causing a bright orange blade to protrude from the arm cannon. Then she thrust it into Centaur Man’s side.

The quadruped screamed and bucked as the solid beam fizzed and sparked against his dark energy-imbued armor. After a second the hard metal gave way to a squelch, and dark ichor coursed from the wound.

Centaur Man reared up and pointed his blaster towards the array of Okor’s innards, letting loose one, two, three shots. The marine’s guts finally let go, though it occurred to Samus in a horrifying moment of insight that they didn’t … seem to want to.

Okor’s sacrifice had bought them time to seriously injure the quadruped, but the fight was still far from over. Anticipating the move, Samus hopped backwards – and, just as she’d expected, the blue dome reappeared, bathing them all in its time-dilating light. This time, though, it seemed like the exclusive target of his fury was Okor; he’d reared his cannon and focused the storm of high-capacity fire solely at the disease-ridden warrior. Even with his inhuman capacity for enduring damage, it was more than he could withstand. Samus could only watch in horror, slow-motion, as Okor ate orb after orb of energy; across his face, shattering against his shoulder plates, sinking deep into his exposed innards.

In the final seconds of the time-bubble, Centaur Man relented his assault, ducking out of the array of slow-motion projectiles that Samus and the others had sent his way. He ate a few of them, but didn’t seem to mind. His mission was accomplished, and as the bubble collapsed in on itself, Okor flew to the floor.

Samus just barely restrained herself from unleashing another Zero Laser then and there; they’d not entered nebula space yet, and they didn’t know what awaited them. Instead, she did the next best thing, twisting her clenched fist to open up the wings of her arm cannon and activate Gatling Mode. Hiro had been even quicker than she to retaliate, leaping onto Centaur Man’s back and going for his spine even as Samus unleashed the energy rain just inches from him. Neither of them cared that much. Okor had bought them an opportunity, and respecting his command to ‘Kill’ was the very least they could do.

[Nebula]

Cannon-fire poured from Samus’ artillery, spraying its energetic salvo across the mechanical chimera’s flank. Centaur Man ignored the white-hot pricks of pain as he focused on the begoggled samurai currently astride him. He tossed his tri-tripped crown from side to side like a finicky foal, attempting to gore the hacker before he could steady himself. The ear-grating sound of blade-on-steel informed the machine that he would have no such luck. Improvise it was, then.

“Nebula cannot be defeated,” the mythical machine rasped, spitting gobs of dark viscous liquid from his nigh-frothing gob. Before Hiro could reply with his usual one-liner, his mount reared, kicking his forelimbs high into the air in an attempt to shake him off. The rider clamped his thighs around Centaur Man’s back, his free hand fanatically scouring for a handhold as he stabbed wildly with his tanto. The quadruped’s back, saddle-less and slick with blood and hydraulic fluid, proved to be impossible to stay firmly astride, with Hiro finding himself slipping backward toward his foe’s haunches. Sensing the jockey’s shift, Nebula’s commander threw himself forward, catching himself on both his equine and human-esque forelimbs. With no way to keep himself atop the steel stallion, the hacker found himself soaring skyward in a high arc, landing a few feet from what remained of Okor.

”Hiro!” Madotsuki cried out, watching as the ronin landed with a thud beside her. Gritting her teeth, she slashed viciously at the air with her blade, wide crescents of dream energy tearing through the clearing toward the menacing machine. The blasts found purchase, though they did little but draw the centaur’s attention.

“I’m finished here,” Centaur Man uttered, standing stock-still as the night slashes and gattling fire continued to sear his side. His eyes began to glow brighter, a violet shine visible through the dark haze issuing from his sockets. A long few seconds passed before the attackers realized their folly.

“He’s preparing somethi-” Shinnah’s voice caught in her throat as the familiar turquoise sphere of energy bloomed around the centaur before bursting forth to enormous proportions. The battlefield itself was swallowed up by a mammoth sphere of distortion, each combatant frozen where they stood. All, that was, save for Centaur Man.

Five.

The mythical machine charged forth at once, eyes set on the armored bounty hunter. In his left hand appeared a bladed polearm composed of vibrant purple energy, the blade portion wreathed in black mist. As he reached his target he brought the weapon down in one swift motion to cleave a wide slash across the crouching mercenary’s chest. Samus staggered as the blow fell, suddenly shaken from the time field’s effects. The Chozo’s champion was only able to turn her head toward her attacker before an adamantine hoof caught her at the shoulder, sending her tumbling toward the treeline.

Four.

Centaur Man dispelled his glaive, summoning up his familiar bow in its stead. He notched an energy arrow and pulled back at the projectile’s tail, taking aim at the knife-wielding dreamer. With a sinister grin he let the arrow fly, the enormous energy dart slamming into the ground immediately in front of her, knocking her from her feet. Nebula’s commander raised his arm cannon as the dreamer shook herself from the Flash’s influence. Before she could raise a finger to retaliate, a veritable downpour of cannon fire fell upon her.

Three.

“You’re sloppy!”

The cybernetic beastman turned to see a smirking gnome and her recently re-summoned familiar, shaken free of their prison by his assault on Madotsuki. Her lips began to form the basis of some hex or another, though it wouldn’t matter.

Two.

As the orb of distortion began to falter, Centaur Man set his sights on the last of his opposition. With unreal alacrity he dashed forward, disappearing from sight before Shinnah could command her fel guardian to strike. The gnome warlock frantically scanned the area for his location, though he soon made his presence known. Her mouth fell open as he reappeared in front of her, head lowered. With a wet squish, his leading horn tore a hole through the mage’s chest.

One.

With a flick of his neck, Centaur Man cast the girl aside, her limp form plopping beside Okor’s ravaged remains. With a dark chuckle he turned away as the plague knight began to stir. Nebula’s chosen ignored the movement as he trotted casually across the clearing to the portal. The rest of the Liberators would soon follow suit, though it was for naught.

Centaur Man cast a glance over his shoulder. “Nebula endures," he called, stepping through the portal.

Challenge complete. Centaur Man has left the battlefield.

You have the option to pursue him and finish him off, or merely follow through the portal at your own pace and continue on with your task.

Damage Report:
-- Hiro takes 5 damage
-- Madotsuki takes 5 damage
-- Samus takes 3 damage
-- Okor takes 3 damage
-- Shinnah has died
-- Centaur Man suffers 7 damage and makes an escape attempt

Everyone has four days to post at your leisure to progress through the portal.

[Madotsuki]

Her body burned. Oh, what was happening? She struggled to raise her head up, but black rimmed her vision. She did, however, catch Centaur Man, who was now unceremoniously hoofing it away from the group. But she couldn't do anything about it. Her head fell to the floor, her thoughts blanked out by pain and noise. They were speaking, seeing if everyone was okay, but... they were missing one.

The sheer thought that someone had died gave her enough adrenaline to stand up and glance around. Okor and Hiro were up, and so was Samus, but... where was Shinnah?

...Oh. She dashed across over to where the gnome warlock's body rested, falling to her knees when she arrived. Right through the chest, too. No. No no no no this wasn't happening. This couldn't have happened. Not now! She still had her life ahead of her!

Azzathec stood by her side, having turned transparent. A purple circle was below its feet, tendrils of magic licking off of the demon's skin into the air. ...Wait, if she was dead, then she no longer had any control over the winged beast. Would it attack them?

But that wasn't the case. The Doomguard began to sink into the symbol like it was quicksand. As the ground enveloped it, there was a look on its face that the dreamer couldn't identify; anger? Sadness? Triumph? Relief? The intended expression didn't come out as intended from its reptilian features.

And then it was gone.

She turned back to the corpse in front of her, staring intently at it like it would come back to life - or at least turn to dust like a Prime's body would. But deep inside she knew she was waiting for nothing. The dreamer part of her hoped that the gnome would come back, but the more logical side of her choked and smothered the belief, leaving it to wither and die.

She wanted to cry, but tears wouldn't come. She wasn't... sad, but she was empty, a husk that grew hotter and hotter with the burning sensation of rage. That Centuar Man wasn't going to get away with this; she was going to catch him, and when she did, she would dismantle him into scrap metal!

She stood up, eerily silent. Her fingers clutched around her knife so hard that her knuckles turned white. Hiro had attempted to approach her, presumably to comfort her, but in the blink of an eye she had jumped over him to pursue the robot. Her body stung with pain, but it was silenced by the anger pulsing through her veins.

She was aware of the fact that she would probably die, maybe even be banished.

But she didn't care about that anymore.

She would murder that monster if it was the last thing she did.

482 words, pursuing.

[Samus Aran]

Samus grit her teeth as Madotsuki disappeared through the portal. Chasing might be a bad idea. Was it a worse idea than letting Centaur Man rest and recuperate? They had no idea what was on the other side of the portal … but she was a Hunter, and it was her contract, her duty, to finish the job.

Samus turned to Okor and Hiro. “We can’t split the team,” she said. “We go now, while he’s still recovering. We finish the job.”

Samus charged a shot before darting after Madotsuki.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Hiro groggily shook his head, his body aching from the severe beating he'd received at the hands of Centaur Man. That did not go how he was expecting. The damn Power-Up kicked his ass. "Hey guys, maybe we should take the chance to....stop..and...rest. Damnit." He watched as Madotsuki went near mad with rage the death of the tag along gnome warlock, and Samus charge into the portal after her.

The samurai looked over at Okor, as if to ask for an opinion, but the rotten knight just shrugged.

"Goddamnit."

He brushed himself off, wiped some of the blood from his lip, and pulled out a cigarette.

Lighting it, he hacked up a gob of red mucus and followed his vengeance seeking team into the portal ot the unknown.

Nebula Space.

[Okor]

Okor chuckled, hoisting his blade upon his back, fragments of broken bones shifting within his flesh as he moved. The Warlock was dead: An unfortunate occurrence, but with luck, their summoner would take notice and restore them. But that did not change the fact that they had fallen, that Nebula had presumed to take something from them. Its minions had sought to flee from their inevitable end, attempting to prolong it by a mere few agonizing moments.

There was no doubt in his mind that they would find and end the Centaur. It was already wounded, the scent of its blood still fresh, guiding his steps as he entered the shimmering portal, fangs gnashing together as he sought out the flesh of the foe.