Anicademy IC

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

< @Tiguidi @Ariel @GhostofManchester >

"Okay, really? Might want to figure out how your powers work!" Zothar called to Manny, but slipped out a card and placed it on his focuser. A burning warrior appeared in front of him, and he looked over to Yuki as he blinked at her new form. "You freeze, I shatter?" he asked before she charged, and he smirked a little about that.

The Mangates had, of course, screeched and started to run at the group, razor-sharp claws ready to rip and tear through the students. "Try not to get into each other's way!" Zothar called just as a general thought, sending his summoned creature out to attack with Yuki.

< + @Blitzfang43 >

and coming in behind them, through a different doorway, would be someone who seemed to be without a team...

 

[TravisBM]

"Man this place is too big. Couldn't they have made the place just a wee bit smaller?" Walking around the ruined landscape wasn't quite proving to be as interesting as Quinn initially thought. After all some of the magic gets sucked away when you know that it's fake. Kinda like when learning the details behind your favorite magic trick. Currently the sole student was patrolling after managing to get himself a bit lost from his original group. "It's not like I meant to be slow, but rushing at the enemy did seem like a bad idea. Looks like I was right though. That doesn't help the fact I gotta take this test alone now however."

Pondering his new predicament he was alerted by an explosion nearby. Perking up as the deafening mass of voices could only mean one thing, Mangates. "Splendid. Into the freezer right from the pot as they say. Or do they? Neither here nor there I suppose I might be able to help them out. Might be my last lucky chance to get into a group proper before this is over." He spied the teeming mass a short ways from his position about to engage the party and wondered the appropriate response. He snapped his fingers as he got a good idea. Ducking into a safe hiding spot he began focusing his mind, and reached out toward a familiar presence.

"Sylph. Gonna need your help here. I'll trade out five minutes for whatever your want...within reason." He spoke through the link now established, and paused as he received his answer. "Gods alive what's with you and sweets! Fine five minutes of eating sweets it's a deal. Your lucky I got a bad tooth myself." After the deal was struck he began to gather the wind around him in preparation to hit the group where it hurt, but only after the others had them decently distracted. Gathering the amount required was no joke, yet he also had to make sure he bolstered them and not hit them with a stray blast. "Alright you guys. Let's see what your group is made of."

 

[GhostofManchester]

At first Manny stood back, bemoaning his mistake.
"Eesh. I don't think I could have made a worse impression on the group. Maybe I should-"

Abruptly he was cut off as one of the Mangates, the very one he had blasted in the head, scuttled it's way through the ranks.

As it charged at him, Manny took on the awkward fighting stance of someone who had trained in hand-to-hand, but not very hard.

"Ghost, I need tactical analysis now!"

"Sir, though my neural link does offer me optical and auditory capabilities through your eyes and ears, analysis and readout would be difficult given our time constr-"

"Advice! Agh!"

As the Mangate leapt at him, blades ready to slice, Manny heard Ghost give one clear command.

"Sprawl!"

The most basic technique in close quarters training. Falling to the ground without injuring yourself. Manny fell forward, and rolled around in one motion, swinging his gauntlet straight into the underbelly of the Mangate as hard as he could.

Heart racing, and adrenaline pumping, Manny stood up. Sparing a glance to make sure that his sucker punch had killed the thing, he turned back to the mass of Mangate, and began charging up a blast.

"New non-hostile entity detected." Ghost said

 

[Ariel]

Yuki called out, "Stay behind me!" as she reached the mass of charging Mangates. A moment before they entered arm's reach, she shouted, "Invincible Frost Barrier!"

The tip of her sword glowed bright blue, sending out a beam of light that marked an arc on the ground. A chilling wind blew out of nowhere, bringing a shower of crystals that rapidly formed a shimmering wall of ice that the Mangates slammed into. Their claws scrabbled on the surface of the barrier but could find no purchase.

"Diamond Dust!" Yuki cried, switching instantly from defence to attack. The barrier shuddered, and sent forth a cloud of razor-thin shards of ice. Mangate flesh parted and ripped before the onslaught.

Yuki's grin was almost feral. "Suck them in and wipe them out," she said. "Keep behind the barrier if you want to stay safe."

 

[Tiguidi]

Humming to himself, Neil watched as his teammates rushed through the swarm of Mangates, evading their attacks and tearing them apart. He almost dropped the debris to the ground to watch and enjoy the fight when he noticed a few of the creatures managed to sneak their ways behind Manchester and Yuki while they were occupied with other Mangates. Without a work, he motioned a single finger and the pieces of rocks and walls went flying forward, crashing into the Mangates that were about to sneak attack the others. "Got your backs!", Neil chimed in as he did a thumb up. He quickly looked around the battlefield to try and get as many projectiles as he could control, which included more pieces of debris and the occasional Mangate body. With this inventory, he'd settle on defense for now, covering his frontliners' backs and maintaining Mangates from a distance.

As he looked away, however, he noticed a humanoid figure who clearly wasn't here before. "Looks like we got a newcomer.", he said to Zothar as he motioned towards Quinn.

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

< @Tiguidi @Ariel @GhostofManchester @Blitzfang43 >

"Newcomer, what-" Zothar looked back for a moment, blinking at the sight of a sole other student. "The hell?" he frowned, taking his concentration from his creatures for a moment, who grabbed a Mangate by the head and crushed it with a blazing grip. This concentration allowed a slice to slip by on the creature, and Zothar groaned as he grabbed his arm where the hit transferred.

With the combination of Yuki's barrier and Zothar's creature, the vanguard was rather well covered. However, there came a roar and three things happened at once. Another group of Mangates began to charge from the front, and the ceiling behind crumbled. This allowed more of the same Mangates to pile down, and among them were some winged types with cannon-arms. Yuki would get a round in her shoulder from behind, causing pain but no flesh wounds.

"Damnit!" Zothar growled, flicking through for a second creature. And then, looking down into the overlooking room, he saw a Mangate hive master spawning more of the minions to attack. "Damnit! Master down there! We need to take care of it or this horde will never end!" he roared over the din of battle, his creature shooting a flame blast at a Mangate that was about to slice Neil.

 

[TravisBM]

"A master huh? Looks like they can handle the small fires well enough. Looks like my firepower needs to be centered instead of broad. Alright then, let's do our thing Sylph." He began to absently flick his coin up and down before finally catching on the palm of his hand. Revealing it's face he found it to be heads. Giving a smile the wind around him started to gain pressure and center around him like a barrier. "The winds of fate are blowing my way for a change eh? Well let's not keep destiny waiting as I say."

Raising his hand in the air the barrier began to gather into the palm of his hand. Just like many moths flocking towards a flame they gathered towards the building light. While charging he was seeing the others receive wounds that pressed his urge to hurry it up. "As my title of contractor I bring us into one voice. Let our harmony bring about discord for our foes, and the anthem of victory for our allies. The die is cast so let freedom ring. Let's go, Howling Gale!" With little prep time, he decided the best option was to at least get off one of his better moves that could be cast with his current gathered power. He had his entire attention focused upon Master Mangate so as to at least give the others up top a breather from an endless way and get them back into the fight. "The timer starts now. Gotta make these five minutes count or it's ground zero."

 

[GhostofManchester]

"Sir. I have detected several unknown energy signatures of varying intensity emanating from those upon our team. Were adequate resources and time given to analyze these signatures, it's likely that science as mankind knows it would vastly be adv-"

Manny hardly paid attention to Ghost's chatter, a difficult task when it's a voice in your head, as he was otherwise occupied.

Almost unaware of the Master entering the fray, Manny did his best to duck and dodge the slices and strikes made against him. His jacket getting more and more cut up, blood dripping from slices in his flesh, and his Gauntlet down to its last shot, things were not looking good.

Manny blocked another slice with the gauntlet, grabbing the striking blade, breaking it off the mangates arm, and stabbing it back through the Mangate's head.

"Ghost, please shut up. There's no end to these things! Let's take a step back and reassemble or-"

Manny finally noticed how far he'd come from the rest of the group. He was no longer so crowded by Mangates, but was too far to offer any support to his teammates who were being crowded. He gazed around, unsure about what to do. Then, he saw the master.

"Ghost, I'm going to need some help aiming. I only have one shot left. Gotta make it count."

"At this distance, our odds of hitting the target are 67%, our odds of friendly fire are 13%, and the odds of missing the target and friendly units is 20%. Steadying gauntlet, and locking on."

Manny gripped his arm and aimed it as Ghost directed. Then, he fired.

 

[Tiguidi]

Neil tried to keep calm as the entire area was being flooded with Mangate. The group's positioning was far from optimal considering the enemy's location and types. "Geez, this is bad...", he commented as he tried to control as many pieces of debris as he could. He thought at first that seeing his teammates do all the work would be entertaining to watch but he'd definitely need to get serious, now. 'Defeating the master is our priority but we can't just ignore the weaker Mangates that are swarming us. This random guy seems fixated on the master and it looks like Manchester's trying something over there.'

Thinking for a moment, Neil turned back and telekinetically threw the majority of the debris he held in the air to the winged Mangates. As they were being knocked off balance, the blond quickly aimed at the ones who crashed to the ground in order to squash them with his levitating projectiles. At the same time, he tried to position some of the debris between the Mangates and the students group to create a sort of wall to protect them from any ranged attacks the creatures might attempt. "I'll try to hold these ones off!", he cried out, keeping his concentration on his telekinesis. "Hurry up and take care of the master and the other Mangates in front of us! I can't move this huge amount of debris for too long, by the way!", he tried to force a grin.

 

[Ariel]

Yuki cursed at the stinging sensation in her shoulder, dropped into a deep crouch and then exploded upwards, flinging her sword high, and drawing up a tremendous burst of wind and frost. "Kholodnyi Smerch!" she cried as lesser Mangates were hurled aside by the sudden tempest.

"Gauntlet boy!" she yelled at Manny. @GhostofManchester "You've got a clear shot. DON'T MISS!"

 

[GhostofManchester]

The shot flew through the air, narrowly missing friend and foe alike. And... it made contact.

The Master was thrown off balance by the blast, but largely uninjured. Turning to the source of the blast, much of the horde began to charge at Manny.

"Eeep! That's more of a showing than I was hoping to make!"

Manny began to flee away from the horde as quick as his legs could take him.

Between pants and swears he mustered out "Someone get the master while the kids are distracted with me!"

"Sir, by my estimates, a swarm this large will be able to rip you to shreds at a much faster rate than what would cause a significant distraction. Based on current rate of acceleration, it should catch up to you within 19.8 seconds, and eviscerate you within 5.6 seconds."

Manny ignored that thought, and kept running.

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

< @Tiguidi @Ariel @GhostofManchester @Blitzfang43 >

"What the fu-" Zothar had covered his face when Yuki used her powerful attack, and when he looked up the horde was all going after Manny. "Damnit, stick together!" he roared as he pulled another card from one of his packs. They were doing their best, but a Master - weakened or not - wasn't something that was easy to take down.

Neil had made a wall, which blocked the majority of sight lines from the ranged-using winged Mangates. Yuki and his creature were fighting those that ran around it, and the Master had stumbled though Manny was now in trouble. He growled and looked around, seeing that the newcomer was using a blast of wind to try and harm the Master. He had an idea.

"Hey, you! You can control wind!?" he called. "I need to borrow you! Neil, you too!" he ran over. "I'm going to summon some fireballs. Neil, I need you to keep them from moving and if you can, combine them into one. Wind guy, once they're all together, I need you to use that wind blast again and aim them all as one towards the Master." he growled.

"Yuki, if you can I need you to freeze the Master in place!" he yelled to the sword and ice-user. "This is our best shot, once he's down the horde should disorient..." he took a deep breath.

"Come on, let's go!" he roared, slamming his card onto the focuser. No time to talk, Manny didn't have time. They were all out of time.

 

[Ariel]

"Yuki, if you can I need you to freeze the Master in place!" he yelled to the sword and ice-user. "This is our best shot, once he's down the horde should disorient..." he took a deep breath.

"Come on, let's go!" he roared, slamming his card onto the focuser. No time to talk, Manny didn't have time. They were all out of time.

"I'm on it," Yuki snapped, tracing an intricate pattern in the air with the point of her sword. A six-pointed star, like an immense snowflake, that sprouted fractal growths as it hung in the air. "Freezing Coffin!"

The figure spun towards the Master like a gigantic shuriken, but instead of cutting at him it burst into a cloud of frost on contact - a cloud that froze solid again, trapping him like a fly in amber.

"I don't know how long that will hold him," Yuki said. "So you'd better make this work first time!"

 

[TravisBM]

"Well it looks like buddy boy down there isn't having a good time." Observing the battlefield it seems like the winds were starting to blow out of favor. Squatting down he tried to get a better idea of just where his power would be needed most. The large burst of flame that looked like it would do a bunch of damage only looked like it barely phased their foe. Which meant that his bolts were weaker than the display would have you believe, or masters were tougher than he had heard of. The powers of the others were being put on rapid display, and thanks to being bolstered by Sylph it was easier to follow the chaotic form of action. He started his bad habit of thinking too much when it came to combat about setting up multiple stringed combos...at least until he was yelled at to snap out of his stupor.

"Hmm fire huh? If I had known their abilities I guess I might not have gone with Sylph." This thought got him blasted in the face by a gust of wind that made his usual hairstyle look wild, and was left to think again with the feeling of irritation seeping into the gathering gale. "Yeah yeah i'm sorry. I guess it's not so bad since we can help to reinforce their upcoming attack now. Speaking on that let's start boosting the wind speed more. If he's bringing out flames then we need to match up perfectly. If not then we might as easily burn ourselves alive." Reacting to his will the wind began to focus it's power in preparation for whatever this man had planned. And for the sake of the others hopefully it worked out well.

 

[Tiguidi]

"As much as I love that plan, Zothar...", Neil started, his gaze still fixed on the debris in the air. "... I can't really manipulate things that are not solid for now, fire included! Though blame my lack of practice, I'll get to it when I'm feeling like doing something useful.", he managed a chuckle, despite his inability to help in the way Zothar intended. Immediately after saying that, however, his brows slightly lifted in realization. "Actually... you only want a big ball of fire, right? In that case...!" His eyes strained as he switched his focus towards the Mangates he held to the ground, the floating wall of debris somewhat faltering. The downed creature started to levitate in the air by telekinesis, those still alive flailing about. Clenching his fist, the esper brought the Mangates in his grasp together in a quick motion, forming a large ball made up of the winged creatures. "Set these on fire and send it at the master! Wind boy can help direct it and fan the fire!"

He felt a stinging sensation in his temples as he brought the Mangates ball up in the air, where Zothar could throw his fireballs to set them all on fire. He definitely didn't expect to have to fight a huge swarm in addition to a master right off the bat. Overusing his powers brought massive headaches and that was something Neil absolutely wanted to avoid. Headaches hurt. "Can't really do more than this but I can always crush them together if the fire plan doesn't work.", Neil informed the card summoner.

 

[GhostofManchester]

"Simply astounding, sir. According to all of my calculations, the mangate swarm should have caught up to you and torn you to pieces by now. Should you survive this attack, and we recover the central processing unit of Specter-1586, I will rerun the calculations with a higher processing power and see where the error was made."

Manny was finally cornered. He had summoned every ounce of strength he had in him to get away from the horde, and now he was spent. As the mangate converged on him, weakly he readied himself to block what attacks he could.

"Ghost.... Shut up..." he wheezed out.

Things were in his teammate's hands now. They barely knew each other, and his life was in their hands. Now was the time to have faith. Faith that they would be able to kill the Master.

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

< @Tiguidi @Ariel @GhostofManchester @Blitzfang43 >

"Damn.." Zothar couldn't take the time to look down the path that Manny had ran, and had to focus on his ability and those of the others. He bit his lip, drawing blood, and watched as the Mangate corpses flew towards them. The bundle of enemy would be caught in the newcomer's wind, and his own hinotama fireballs would impact. They began to burn hot, even starting to melt as the fire got hotter. During this time it seemed like the Master could tell it was in danger, and started to struggle against Yuki's ice.

"No. You. Fuckkin. Don't!" Zothar roared as he gave the signal to release the big ball of molten Mangate. It got lobbed directly at the master, and landed with an explosion of flame that surrounded the Master. It roared in pain and shuddered, calling the horde surrounding Manny in its death throes. However, it would expire before they arrived, leaving the masterless horde to wander - feral.

Manny would be able to get back to the group, as the Mangates seemed to ignore them for the moment.