Castle Hallway [STORM]

[mrcrazycakes]

Up the gently sloping hallway from the sparring field, there was relative peace for a few moments, as if a lull in the repeated cracking coming from the area to observe the fall of the massive Bouguer Anomaly. But such was not the case, as very soon the sound resumed, resonating through the now-fairly-ruined hallway. Paintings had been torn apart, the red carpet in the center of the pathway had been shredded in quite a few places, and--

C-CRACK

-- Anomaly attacking the hallway's supporting pillars was the origin of this sound. In all, there were several groups of varying type, with each group focusing on a specific target, save for a group of Pioneer Anomaly blocking the way.

Pioneer Anomaly:16
Chiral Anomaly:6
Gauge Anomaly:3

Attacking support pillar I: 45%
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]


Attacking support pillar II: 22%
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]

Attacking support pillar III: 67%
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]

Attacking support pillar IV: 13%
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]
Gauge Anomaly [hp=24/24]


In a defensive position
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]
Gauge Anomaly [hp=24/24]
Gauge Anomaly [hp=24/24]

[blazingTactician]

Charging up the sloped hallway, Elliot brandished his spear, eager and ready to continue the fight. Upon reaching the hall, he came across a discouraging sight- more of these monsters, attempting to tear down the very pillars that were holding the roof up.

Quickly, he observed the scene. The third pillar was nearly gone, he had to hurry to it. Unfortunately, the way was blocked by a large group of these foul creatures. There was only one way through...He bellowed out his challenge.

"I am Elliot Zankoth, Knight of Radiant Garden! FACE ME IF YOU DARE!"

He hurtled towards the blockading group, sending out a Minor Shockwave before sweeping around with the blunt end of his spear, attempting to catch as many as possible.

[Blazed Soul]

Ivolt rushed passed a small field, the signs of battle evident in the many destroyed areas on it. There wasn't time to think about that though, 'cause he had to see if there was anyone still alive around here. He'd seen other people fighting back elsewhere, but there was a distinct lack of the Anomaly or defenders, which made him think that the enemy had already gotten this far.

Rushing into the hall, he heard the knight's self-introduction, and barely resisted putting his palm to his forehead in exasperation. What kind of fool was this guy? Just shouting out like that?

Moving up behind the knight, he darted around him and said, "Hey buddy, I think we need ta keep these things from taking out those pillars! In my professional experience, support pillars help keep the ceiling off o' our heads!"

As he said this, Ivolt drew Jambiya, and slashed at one of the Anomaly blocking his way to the support pillars. He'd need to get around them before he could do anything else.

[Attack (blade), Bladed weapon trainee]

[hp=20/20]

[Secret Agent Cat]

Aerith stepped out of the bright portal on which she had passed through to get to this world. She looked around, grabbing behind her to get her guard stick, her only viewable weapon. She had entered a small hallway and then looked around some more. She saw no one, but never the less he saw signs of destruction, which meant she was in the right place. She wondered where everyone else was. Then she heard cracking of sorts and then heard someone call out. She rushed towards where it was coming from and came to a hallway with four pillars which had many Anomaly attacking the pillars. There was also some blocking the way to said pillars. She saw two male figures move in to attack the blocking Anomaly.

Swepting her rod through the air, she pointed it at Pioneer Anomaly blocking the way and a Burst of Light was sent towards it. Her expertise as a mage would boost her attack as well. She hoped she could help here, though she was wondering how long the four pillars would last and if the three of them could defeat all of these Anomaly in time. She looked towards the two guys, and smiled. There was really no time to talk. She just hoped that others would come. Twenty something Anomaly against three wasn't very good odds. But, hopefully three would be better chance than with just two.

[hp=40/40]
Light Burst Lv2 + Light Mage

[The Bilby Guy]

A sudden barrage of Rapid Shot ninja stars rained down upon the guarding Anomaly group from over the heads of the three would-be protectors of the castle. They were thrown at superhuman speed by Yuffie Kisaragi who had hopped upward into the air, her head skimming a ceiling, to get a clear shot from behind the others. Her skill as a Ranged Weapon Student made accuracy little worry for her at her current 10 foot distance from the line of monsters as she utilized both arms to fire a handful of weapons each during this attack and each to follow.

'Man, grabbing all those stray shots from the last fight slowed me down more than I thought,' the ninja noted with annoyance as she saw that so many had beaten her here while she was busy reloading her ammunition. And here she had wanted to make a grand entrance. The ninja somersaulted forward and unleashed another volley of throwing stars almost immediately behind the first as she contemplated this fact at the speed of thought. 'Oh well, I'll just make up for it by having a memorable entrance!'

Yuffie's feet came down not on the floor up on the shoulders of Aerith Gainsborough, who ahdn't been given enough time to turn around to see where those shots ahd come from yet. "Glad you could join us!" would be heard from above her, but before that sentence was finished the burden of the ninja had already left her. Yuffie's Acrobat skills allowed her to perform this feat without Aerith feeling very much weight at all during the fraction of a second she had been there. Not only was the older girl not hurt by the "assist" but she would have barely felt it at all.

Yuffie was too busy to stick around, throwing more of her star-shaped weapons after using Aerith as a stepping stone to maintain elevation while coming into the seven foot range and further increasing her accuracy. Now she threw them with only her left hand, her right switching to her ring-shaped Rising Sun chakrams and adding them to the onslaught. She somersaulted once more to fire off a final volley, this time all Rising Suns, so that the four waves of ranged weapons would pound down upon the Anomaly that blocked the group's advance with almost no break between them and landed in a crouch on one knee just a couple of feet in front of Aerith. her main targets throughout the attack were the larger Anomaly that resembled the one she'd fought last back home and not the Pioneers.

"Now let's go to work!"

Attack Breakdown
Rapid Shot invoked to double the total possible output of ranged weapons in this turn.

3 Throwing Stars per normal handful. 5 handfuls used. 30 stars thrown.

1 Rising Sun per normal handful. 3 handfuls used. 6 chakrams thrown.

36 Ranged Weapons thrown in total. Ranged Weapon Student doubles damage.

72 damage total sent toward the defensive line. 24 each at both Chiral Anomaly and 24 at the first Gauge Anomaly.

[mrcrazycakes]

[Sorry for the wait. Let's make this a bit more high-stakes, shall we? ]

CRRRRACK

The two Chiral Anomaly went down in the hail of projectiles, as well as the first of the Gauge. One of the Pioneers fell to a combination of Elliot and Aerith's strikes, while another was wounded. By now, however, the Anomaly were well aware of their presences, and attacked. The Pioneers lashed out at Ivolt and Elliot with their claws (Weak), while the third engulfed itself in flames and charged forward at a high speed in Aerith's direction. The gauge curled itself into a ball, curiously, not seeming to be interested in attacking...

And still the other Anomaly hammered at the support pillars, the combined attacks taking chunks out of the support and putting a strain on the roof, if the cracks starting to form around the weakest of the structures was any indication.

Attacking support pillar I: 52%
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]


Attacking support pillar II: 36%
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]

Attacking support pillar III: 76%
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]

Attacking support pillar IV: 27%
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]
Gauge Anomaly [hp=24/24]

In defensive position:
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=4/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=4/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=6/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=0/8]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=0/24]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=0/24]
Gauge Anomaly [hp=0/24]
Gauge Anomaly [hp=24/24]

[mrcrazycakes]

[Oi, oi! Get it in gear, fellas! I'm not going to sit here and wait on you guys forever. I can and will be killing off characters who have gone inactive in this thread starting with the next post. You'll be assumed to have gone into a Heroic BSOD and will be torn to shreds by the Anomaly. You've been warned; get your rears in gear!

...What? You can't remember your abilities from this far back? Fiiine, use your updated ones.]

[Secret Agent Cat]

Aerith was glad to see the reinforcements and that it was one of her friends that had joined the ranks. However, there wasn't much time to just stand around and chat. There were many Anomaly here that needed to be dealt with first before the pillars were destroyed and the ceiling fell on top of them all. Aerith had no time to even see where the attacks had come from, or to even really feel who had landed on her shoulders, but she would recognize that voice anywhere.

Aerith was about to attack again when she had to dodge roll out of the way of a on coming Anomaly that had engulfed into flames and was charging towards her. After she would seemingly dodge its on-coming attack she would fire off an ice attack in its direction, to cool it off a bit. After wards, she fired off a spell of poison in the direction of the group of Anomaly that were attacking the closest pillar from where she and the others were. However, she would cast it far enough away that they wouldn't feel the effects. Then she cast a barrier to protect herself from any other attacking foes.

[hp=60/60]

[Recap; Dodge Roll out of the way of a oncoming Anomaly,
attack it with Ice Lv2, cast Poison towards the closet pillar
and cast Protect

[avatar]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/KatsumiX/Aerith/aerith3.png[/avatar]

[blazingTactician]

Surrounded, Elliot could do nothing about the claw that raked across his chest. But the pain was minimal, the knight had faced far worse in his training. Whirling his spear about, he gave a mighty cry and smashed it into the ground, creating a Minor Shockwave that would hopefully blow the defending monsters back.

Closing his eyes, he focused all of his power into his spear, using Focus Lv.1 to improve his attacks.

[hp=28/30]

[The Bilby Guy]

Yuffie's all-or-nothing attack had been successful in helping clear the group's way, but she was also fully aware that her supply of ammunition had been almost completely exhausted in the process. Still, they couldn't stop the Anomaly breaking the pillars if they couldn't even reach them. It was a risk she had to take.

The remaining Gauge seemed to be the toughest obstacle left and she couldn't take it's position as it backing out of the fight, odd as it looked. Luckily all of the remaining Pioneers seemed to have ignored her in favour of the others. She didn't like it when one of them flared up and flung itself at Aerith but the older gal was capable. Yuffie could always double back if anyone ended up in real trouble.

'So, does this mean they left me for the ball guy?' she wondered with a self-depreciating smile as the ninja charged headfirst at the inactive guardian, leaping up into the air to arc down toward it.

Yuffie's approach wasn't all for show. By jumping just short of hitting her head on the ceiling she got a clearer peek into the room beyond now that all the Anomaly blocking the hall who weren't toasted had moved out and/or curled up into a smaller space. It didn't take much to see which pillar was in the worst shape amongst the the four and she flung both her hands forward mid-jump toward the group attacking it, a paper charm held in each at glowed red in her right hand and yellow in her left. The Pioneer attacking the most-damaged pillar that was the most to her left would be targeted by a Thunder while the Pioneer that was most to her right attacking the same pillar would be beset by Fire. Even if the Gauge was readying to intercept anything that went through the hall as long as she had a view of them it probably couldn't stop her direct attacks. She hoped to slow down the attacks on the pillars at least a little.

After her quick double-cast Yuffie would focus back down on the curled-up foe before her. With most of her smaller ammo gone the ninja instead would fall back on her trusty 4-Point Shuriken, holding one of its very blades with both hands as a handle thanks to her skill as a Blade Handler. She aimed to land just in front of the Gauge and launch herself directly into a deadly Blade Dance, a Specialty attack that all but guaranteed at least two individual solid blows enhanced by her Bladed Weapon Student power against the enigmatic target.

[hp=100/100]

[mrcrazycakes]

[Blazed has two turns remaining to survive.]

Two hits were all she got on the gauge anomaly before-- FWOOM-- gone and back in the course of a nanosecond, curling right back into a ball. But Yuffie was unfortunate enough to be directly in its path of movement, getting hit twice in the course of a second as the Gauge struck out at whatever it may have been striking. [4 damage to Yuffie]

In the meanwhile, Aerith's ice attack cooled off the Pioneer that had struck at her, but it wasn't down yet, quickly returning fire with a quick swipe of its claws. [Potential 2 damage to Aerith]

The further Anomaly were struck by Yuffie's magic spells, but ignored the ninja in favor of their duty. Aerith's cast of Poison also hit the group, this time drawing the attention of a few of the Chiral Anomaly. The disappeared into the ground, the three attacking the stronger pillars, erupting from the ground beneath Aerith, Yuffie and Elliot respectively in an explosive surprise attack. [8 damage to each]

The other two Pioneers weren't quite finished either, but were left reeling from the Minor Shockwave and thus unable to attack.

Attacking support pillar I: 58%
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]

Attacking support pillar II: 40%
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]

Attacking support pillar III: 80%
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=4/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=6/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=4/8]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=22/24]

Attacking support pillar IV: 31%
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=8/8]
Gauge Anomaly [hp=24/24]

In defensive position:
Gauge Anomaly [hp=20/24]

attacking:
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=2/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=2/8]
Pioneer Anomaly [hp=2/8]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]
Chiral Anomaly [hp=24/24]

[Secret Agent Cat]

With Aerith trying to attack the other Anomaly she didn't have time to move out of the way of the Pioneer's claws, however it did little to no damage thanks to her protection barrier. Her poison attack had called to attention some of the Anomaly who had been attacking a pillar and Aerith's attention had been drawn away by the attacking Pioneer and she had indeed been surprised attacked by the Anomaly, however since her protection barrier was still up she would receive lesser damage.

Aerith decided to call upon the magics, casting a arsenal of different magics. First she attacked the pioneer that had been attacking her with another ice attack. Then she would cast entangle to cut the mobility down of one of the Chiral Anomaly which she had caught the attention of. Aerith then casted a burst of light towards it, which with her affinity with light it would disorient her opponent. Then, she stood in a defensive position waiting for other Anomaly to attack.

[hp=55/60]

[Hit by claws, damage halved by Protect; 1 dmg.
Hit with surprise attack, damage halved by Protect, 4 dmg.
(Also forgot to mention Ice Mage which will slow down effected foes somewhat for the post following a successful ice spell.)
Attack; Ice, Weak damage.
Entangle towards a Chiral Anomaly followed by a
Burst of Light; Average dmg, enhanced with Light Mage which disorients the opponent for 3 turns.

[avatar]http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h276/windrider28/aerith3.png[/avatar]

[The Bilby Guy]

In the midst of her rapid slashes Yuffie felt a very familiar and unpleasant sensation. Specifically the sensation of being slammed into at breakneck speeds in her back a mere millisecond after she had just been slammed into at breakneck speeds in her front. It was not a memory she enjoyed recalling, but the ninja's up-heaved mental state at least now was able to get an answer to a lingering question involving an unidentified runaway train back whens he fought that huge fire Anomaly. It was one of these jokers.

"OK, now you've made me mad," Kisaragi muttered out as she wobbled ungracefully on her feet, still reeling from the attack. Her training let her recover faster than most could, but that was still quite a shock. She had expected to be able to avoid any counter-attack even at close range. Yuffie didn't like reminders that she wasn't untouchable. "Get ready, because now I'm... uh-oh."

Speaking of reminders, Yuffie's jarred state caused her to fail to react quickly enough to the Anomaly in the hall beyond her current foe. Some were slipping into the ground. As a result it was no longer just her mind but her body itself that was up-heaved into the air by a powerful blow from below. Luckily enough this was just the wake-up call that Yuffie needed right now. It was obvious that the Anomaly, for whatever reason, wanted to "bring down the house". She didn't have time to be struggling in here. Aerith and the others took up the good fight against their attackers but the sole remaining sentinel was curled up again and ready to go.

It was time for desperate action.

"Everyone, look away from me!" Yuffie yelled as she landed back on the ground, new Chiral added to the foes around her. The ninja's large 4-Point Shuriken was still in-hand and ready to go so she made good use of it. Bearing ahead and ignoring the present dangers Yuffie tossed her weapon hard toward the Gauge and dashed in fast after it, away from the other Anomaly. Her throw was to strike the Gauge with her skill as a Bladed Weapon Student, but that would not be all. At contact her Blinding Impact bracelet took effect, causing a bright light to flash out from that point of her weapon's impact. Any Anomaly that might try to follow her toward the Gauge should hopefully be blinded. What Yuffie didn't know was whether the Gauge itself could see when curled up, but that didn't matter. What did matter was whether it could see when it went nigh-supersonic, and if so then the flash should throw off its ability to aim if tried to do so as she ran not into it, but by it.

As the flash went off Yuffie herself performed two actions. The first was to veer to her right and and the second was to use another paper charm in-hand to cast Ice on the Gauge at the same time her weapon struck for a double frontal-attack. This was so that the defender would be focused dead-ahead if it planned to counter. Having cut off the sight of anyone who might be looking her way though, the ninja would go into her Sneak mode and attempt to move unnoticed near the right wall of the hall right past the last guarding Anomaly and into the main hall.

Sure, the place was full of enemies and she'd have rushed in alone... but hey! She was the Great Ninja Yuffie!

[HP=88/100]

[Blazed Soul]

Ivolt took a claw across the chest, and was lifted up before hitting the ground hard. Shaking the daze away, he gauged the situation, and started running to get back into the battle.

Charging forward along a wall, Ivolt quickly looked around the room and made his decision on who to attack. Pulling his Rondell Dagger into his hand, Ivolt ran up the wall for a few feet, before kicking off the wall sideways in a burst of insane speed, flying towards the Anomaly on the third support pillar. As he approached two of the most grievously injured Pioneer Anomaly, he pulled his daggers out, trying to catch both of them in a brutal slash made worse by the speed he was moving at.

Sliding with his momentum, Ivolt spun around to face his enemies, sliding the Rondell Dagger back into it's sheathe, as he readied for a retaliatory attack. Waving Jambiya at the Anomaly, he said, "Come on then! You ain't gonna get much more o' a better chance to hit me than this!"

Despite the attitude he was giving off, Ivolt was already making plans on how to get the hell away from where he was. No point in being surrounded like this.

[hp=18/20]

[Hit with a basic attack: -1 hp. Used Basic Parkour to move sideways up a wall, before using Advanced Jump Boost to perform a long range lunge at the enemy, slashing once at each Anomaly with 4 hp, using Bladed Weapon Trainee. Readied self to use Basic Counterattack.]

[Rocket!]

The air was cold.

It bit away at Akilah's skin through her thick brown coat, the wind shoving the cold air onwards in an onslaught against the inner warmth of the coat.

The sky was red.

Akilah shook her head free of the nervousness making her mind quite so... so jumpy.

Time to play ball.

First order of business: nerf the busybodies.

Akilah kicked off the ground, sending some fluttering remains of a rug to the air as she took to the sky using her own Super Glide magic, zooming above the immediate danger below.

And then, with a grin, Akilah filled her hand with lightning.

The woman shot thunder down from above, sending a powerful Lightning Lv2 for the Chiral Anomaly that had attacked Aerith. And with Akilah's own stronger-than-average handle on lightning magic, the damage would be lasting. [Lightning Mage and Lightning Elementalist are in effect-- the big blast of lightning's going to stay up for a full turn, it'll deal 6 damage, and it'll jolt the Chiral Anomaly. ]

Akilah gritted her teeth as she kept her hand gripped with the lightning, forcing it to remain as it was for the next turn. A big pillar of lightning that did six damage and jolted enemies-- if anyone else wanted to toss an enemy into it, it'd be a big help.

And then Akilah blinked.

Was that--

It was!

The elementalist barked out a short laugh--

It was Aerith!

Oh, Akilah'd heard of the woman-- and her sweetheart-- from around town. She was quite the mage, too, as she recalled...

A grenade slipped into Akilah's free hand, gripped fiercely with intent to cast a Magical Mine on it.

Akilah could use Aerith.

"Aerith--" Akilah barked out, "Up here!"

And then Akilah threw the grenade at the young woman.

Oh, don't go fretting about fire and pain. This particular grenade had little more than confetti in it.

But when it landed down below, and hit Aerith-- casting Haste Lv2 on her--

Well.

Akilah couldn't manage a grin as she kept the lightning bolt of hers live.

Aerith was going to be able to make a lot of good use out of 12 actions per turn.

Akilah Aultman :: Flying high above the field
[hp=102/102]