Fight for Power

?-Orvtre-?

Here come the unkillable Black Nectar Shades. Sigh.

Dusk had told me about some of these guys from a thousand years ago; in particular, he singled out Shadow as someone I should keep an eye out for. He had this long, thin tail and a scar over his right eye. Naturally, someone with that exact physical description just headbutted me.

I wasn't going to use electricity here; Dusk had noted that ozone enraged Shadow further, and the more enraged Shadow gets, the stronger he gets and the more difficult it is to handle him. Time to try and slow him down. For this attempt, I used ice and I tried to freeze him some, while keeping him busy with ranged attacks.

As it turns out, that tail of his has quite the reach, and Shadow was able to whip at me with said tail even as I tried keeping him back with a laser barrage.

Elsewhere, Bloodriver was preoccupied by a Black Nectar shade who was probably the source of that Radio Knife, judging by the Room that said shade put up. Bloodriver had been firing away at the shade with blasts of light, and was being careful in avoiding melee range.
__________
@-Rune-@

She had finally gotten that vacuum spell adjusted, goddamn. It had been initially meant to stop L's power, but that hadn't worked. Said spell had needed some fine-tuning for it to work at all as a defensive measure against Skys***ter's power.

Antispy work had been taking up a lot of her time; enough to make her a tad rusty at combat. Unfortunately, it had been starting to show against Skys***ter.

With the modified version of the vacuum spell, Rune had an additional layer of defense against Skys***ter's power aside from her standard barriers. However, what that meant was that Skys***ter now prioritized using his gravity hammer, bolter, and power boots to attack, switching his power to a secondary means of attack.

All of this was complicated by the fact that the Cathedral Stormrider was now firing on the city.

Whoever had ordered the ship to start firing had not been particularly concerned with avoiding having the Boyz caught up in it, and Skys***ter was unhappy with that. He was even more unhappy with some of the weapons from the Stormrider missing their intended target, Rune, and slamming into him instead. Skys***ter's gravity hammer staved off the worst of that, however, Rune took that opportunity to land a big hit on him.

"Arcane Spear Strike!" Rune roared, bringing forth a brutal blow against the Warboss. Skys***ter staved off the worst of that attack by kicking her at the last second, but blood was still drawn from that blow.

<Libera>

Black Scythe was one thing, but him having an unkillable army to call out at will was just unfair.

Fortunately, Libera had never really cared about concepts like "fairness".

"BLAZING SPIRAL KIIIIIIIIIICK!" Libera bellowed, spinning his foot into one of the shades and launching forward, splattering it all over the floor as he tore through several of the others. It wouldn't kill the phantoms, but it would keep them preoccupied while they reassembled themselves.

"Flamewheel," one of the phantoms replied, launching a spinning, blazing kick of his own. The clash sent both of them skidding away from each other, and surprisingly the phantom recovered first, launching another flamewheel. Libera did not respond in kind.

"BUSTER BEEEEEEEAM!" Libera roared, slamming his hand together to fire a thin laser that went through the phantom like it were made of butter. The thin beam continued until it hit the wall of the Path of Time and went through that too, piercing through to lance out across the landscape and off into the distance, leaving behind only a small hole to show its passage.

"Comin' through!" Digital Gear yelled as he skidded by, shields holding up against a huge red beam that Black Scythe had fired at him, missiles launching forth from his back in enormous quantities as he went. Libera took the moment to add a few drill missiles to that before a pair of Phantoms jumped on him, wrestling him away from the duel between the Supreme Warboss and Digital Gear.
______
<Beta>

While a very large number of phantoms had gone after Libera, Beta and Vashj had found a fairly substantial number had descended upon them as well. Fortunately the two of them worked extremely well together, Beta being an endless well of water for Vashj to pull from. Sapphire had joined in, using the water from Vashj and Beta's attacks to freeze the phantoms and s***ter them.

What would have been an enormously successful tactic against anyone else was just an inconvenience for the phantoms, though, even if it did slow them down immensely.

"Electrodispenser," one of the Phantoms growled, and the orbs of lightning cascading through the area very suddenly put an end to their tactic, forcing Beta to back off before she got fried. Vashj, however, didn't seem to care as much, instead taking the moment to gather up all of the water she currently had stored.

"Rain Shower!," she shouted, gathering small orbs of water and then launching them palm first like spears at high speed. A few were intercepted by the lightning orbs, exploding into steam. The others carved through anything in their path, scenery and Black Phantoms alike.

Meanwhile, Sapphire had gotten tangled up in a melee with a Black Phantom that appeared to be made of swords, if him pulling them out of his body repeatedly was anything to go by. Jerk didn't even have the decency to freeze properly.

Still embroiled in his battle with Black Scythe, Gear glanced at the charge meter in the upper left of his vision. Still only 68%... damn thing took too long to wind up the Fold Drive. They were going to need to improve that.

?-Orvtre-?

Shadow is really a troublesome opponent to fight against. Especially considering the fact that he can't be stopped by deathblows anymore.

An attempt by the longtailed Black Nectar shade to slam me down onto the floor was interrupted when I sliced the tail at the last moment, however said tail quickly regrew.

Really, Shadow seemed like more of the melee type, but keeping him out of melee range was only partially working, mainly due to that long reaching tail of his.

However, I was still dual wielding the Prism Cannon and Gurgurant, and I am slowly getting used to fighting Shadow; I'm starting to get better at parrying/avoiding Shadow's tail. That training I did with Demon Blade back then really helped.

Anyways, since ice alone wasn't working well enough at slowing Shadow down, I've started adding my petrification power to the freeze blasts to slow him down further.

That said, during one of my attempts to parry/dodge his tail, Shadow caught me against and leapt forward in an attempt to punch me. I replied by unleashing a blast of ice/petrify with my Prism Cannon while simultaneously sending a Gurgurant-enhanced magma cut Shadow's way.

"Thermal Shock," I whispered, as the attack caused Shadow to crack. I created some distance between us before the Black Nectar phantom reformed and renewed his attack on me.

Black Scythe

Gear had always been an annoying opponent. Now he was just somewhat moreso. Even being forced to rely on heavy attacks just to get through his shield, though, Black Scythe would not have much trouble bringing him down so long as he could land one good hit.

Digital Gear, knowing this, had very intentionally designed his warframe to compensate for that. Big attacks strong enough to break his shield were almost universally the slow kind that he could avoid with enough speed. He'd have preferred to also have one of those fancy one-point shield systems as well, but the frame just wouldn't accommodate that with the design specs he'd laid out. Still, the hardened shield was working well enough.

"What's the matter big guy, slowing down?" Digital Gear taunted, continuing his beam barrage from long range. They'd changed from purple to blue now, signalling a switch in power source. What it was, Black Scythe couldn't identify, but either way they kinda stung if he didn't use Resonance to block them in between the missile salvos. He'd been trailing behind for about a minute now, and Digital Gear assumed he was probably charging something.

He'd have been a bit more proactive had he known what.

"Dimension Whirl," was Black Scythe's only reply, spinning on the spot as a massive green energy blade extended out around him, bending as he turned before lashing out in all directions. Several waves of the bladed energy expanded outward at incredible speed, giving Gear only barely enough time to throw up his active defenses before it hit him.

The first wave smashed his hardened shield immediately, and then the rest hammered in on him, battering his ether shield repeatedly. Even with that, a few waves of cutting force punched through and scored cuts across his warframe's chest, adding to the one that had only just started to repair itself. As the attack's force wound down, Digital Gear let loose a hissing noise before directing his weapons back at Black Scythe and firing an enormous heat wave.

Why disperse heat when he could fire it at his enemies, after all? The wave caught Black Scythe with his guard down, coming so soon after his own attack, and left a big chunk of his armor glowing with heat. He responded with a giant heat wave of his own, looking more like a tidal wave of fire than anything else, and then followed with a beam of dark flames. Letting his shield take the wave and dodging the beam, Digital Gear glanced at the charge meter again. 82%... hurry up, dammit!
___________
<Quicksilver>

"No, no, nononono, hey, stay awake!" Quicksilver shouted, slapping at Juggernaut's face.

He had dodged the Dimension Whirl by moving between the waves of cutting force, though he hadn't seen how anyone else had handled it other than Sigma and Juggernaut. Sigma had merely used his own blades to block.

Juggernaut had had nothing to block with, and had taken the full brunt head on. Several deep gouges were scored across the front of his body and his arms, all bleeding profusely. Even if he couldn't feel pain, he could still be injured, and this was probably the most injured Quicksilver had ever seen him.

"s***, s***, s***, help me out here!" Quicksilver called out, clearly on the edge of panic. Juggernaut was badly hurt and they still had Black Phantoms closing in. This was not the kind of situation he was happy to be in.

<Aeonus>

He'd picked up more injuries along the way, but he'd also given several more to Chi and Libra, more to them than he'd gotten. It was down to a particularly dirty trick he'd started using.

It had started when he'd missed with a particularly strong projectile, a missile he'd pulled from some point in the future. Libra had managed to put up a shield and dodge aside before the missile pushed through.

Shi didn't pull it off the second time. Aeonus had rewound time to replay the attack and catch Libra off guard. Chi didn't fall for the same trick so easily, but for Libra, time was linear. Suddenly being pulled backwards in time and forced to dodge an attack a second time could be very difficult to work with.

Shortly after that the Cathedral had begun firing upon the city, and now Aeonus was pulling shots to his location in order to hurl them at his two opponents.

"Don't you think this has gone on long enough, Aeonus?" Chi called out to him, banishing an incoming shell to some far off point in space.

"No. This hasn't gone on long enough until you've given up," Aeonus growled back, dropping a bunch of sand blasts upon the two of them to emphasize his point.

"Then how about telling us what exactly it is that has pushed you to this point?" Libra shot back, cleaving through one of the sand blasts with a blade of light, then throwing it in Aeonus's direction. He simply moved aside from it as Libra continued, "What could possibly make you believe that this was a better option?"

"You cannot understand what I've seen," Aeonus hissed as Chi warped in beside him to engage at close range, "I cannot speak of it. I cannot even think of it! The bargain I made was to return with the knowledge of what I needed to do to stop it. This was my solution. A blessing that you simply cannot comprehend!" he roared, slashing at his past self with his claws.
______
??????

Across the city...

A lone red Pikmin, clad in some odd, leathery clothes, saunters through the streets without a care in the world. He doesn't even seem to notice the incoming shell until it stops a few feet from him and hangs in midair. He turns to look at it with a gaze full of contempt.

"Pah! My faith is a shield, proof from your blasphemy! BEGONE!" he yells with almost explosive force, and the shell is suddenly sent flying backwards in an arc until it hits the Cathedral.

"Come forth, brothers and sisters! The hour is at hand! Today marks the beginning of a new era! OUR ERA!" he bellows, and unspeakable nightmares begin to crawl out of the shadows...

++Bloodriver++

Juggernaut needed healing and protection immediately. The problem, of course, was that Bloodriver was currently occupied in combat against the Radio Knife dude.

Right when Black Scythe's Dimension Whirl was about to reach them, Bloodriver narrowly evaded both that attack and the Radio Knife the Black Nectar shade attempted to hit her with, knocking said shade in the path of Black Scythe's Dimension Whirl. That was enough to temporarily incapacitate the shade, deactivating the Room and giving Bloodriver the opportunity to rush up towards Juggernaut and stop the giant's bleeding.

The medic went right to work on healing Juggernaut and replenishing his blood supply while Xenon fended off some of the Black Nectar shades with blasts of light. Quicksilver immediately assisted in repelling the Black Nectar shades to prevent his friend from dying.

Elsewhere, Orvtre was facing off against Shadow. Shi had started utilizing clones to fend off the Black Nectar phantom, but attempting to use the same trick Bloodriver had done earlier did not succeed, as Shadow threw a clone in the path of Black Scythe's attack instead. Narrowly evading the Dimension Whirl, Orvtre hirself headed off in Juggernaut's direction to provide shields, barriers, and additional healing for the giant Purple Pikmin.

Shadow's attempt to catch Orvtre with his tail again was thwarted when Sigma literally cut in, slicing Shadow's tail to pieces and then delivering a bladed punch to Shadow's gut.

Fallen Seraph

"At long last, the time has come. The beginning of the end for my hated enemy," Seraph drawled as he rose from the shadows alongside the faceless horrors of the deeps. Pikmin rose from those shadows as well, those who had answered Sulphur's call.

"Ah! Lord Seraph, to see you upon the field of battle is a singular honor! We are blessed this day by your presence!" Arygas called to him, voice as loud as always. He wouldn't be able to hear anything Seraph said out loud, so the Fallen simply favored him with several large, toothy grins as he shifted past.

"I will find Black Scythe. The rest of you, cause as much havoc as you please! Let the world know that we have risen from the shadows once more!" Seraph called out across the group before he moved like black lightning, headed toward the entryway that lead down to the Path of Time...
______
[|Mara|]

"Priority one target identified. Master Omicron, orders?"

"G is already dealing with Black Scythe, do not allow Seraph to engage with them. Keep him busy."

"Yessir," Mara replied, thrusters igniting as he shot towards the entrance to the city's underground. Seraph was fast, but his shadow was obvious from up here, and all Mara had to do was fire the pin to trap him in place.

Seraph, naturally, was not to happy to suddenly have his movement arrested by something, and shot up from the ground to inspect the large metal device pinning his shadow to the spot. That was when Mara descended before him.

"Master Omicron has ordered me to... occupy you," Mara told him shortly. Seraph stared at him for a moment before breaking out into a number of shark-like grins.

"Heh. Hehe. AHAHAHAHAHA! Is this Omicron's plan? To use my old shell against me? Fool!" Fallen Seraph cackled, pulling the pin up and snapping it like a twig. "Does he think that toy can stand against me now?"

"Let's find out," Mara replied, before warping a pair of bulky guns into his hands. "Agni Gatling!" he called out as the golden weapons unloaded a barrage of small purple shots. Seraph hissed in pain and recoiled from the barrage, sending a wave of shadowy spikes in Mara's direction that the robot dodged away from, dismissing the now unloaded guns as he shot up into the sky to rain down shots from above.

"Hah! Maybe you'll actually provide an amusing distraction. Well then, show me what kind of toys Omicron's given you!" Seraph growled, shadow writhing as he prepared to strike.

)))Digital Gear(((

'96%, come on dammit!' Gear thought to himself as he skittered away from Black Scythe's latest strike. The Supreme Warboss showed not even the slightest indication of slowing down, and actually seemed to be picking up speed and power as the fight continued. He really wished he'd been able to fit one of those one point shield systems on this thing...

"Super Inazuma Kiiiiick!" Libera bellowed as he came in on Black Scythe like a freight train, striking him in the shoulder with a lightning-infused kick that sent him skidding along the floor. Before Black Scythe could slice him in half, Libera kicked off and skidded to a halt next to Gear, giving the metal overlord an untrusting glare.

"Got something up your sleeve?" Libera prodded. Gear simply grinned.

"Oh yes. Should be ready any second now."

"If it means we walk away from this with no casualties, then I'll keep him busy," Libera replied, before diving back in to grapple with the Supreme Warboss. Well, far be it from him to look a gift horse in the mouth, Gear thought as he prepped his solar battery.
________
-{Arygas}-

"O, brothers and sisters of the Damned! Cast out these heretics, these pretenders, these heathens who think to clad themselves in the dark! For we are the true children of the shadows, not they! It is we who serve the True Darkness, and we who shall inherit its power!" Arygas chanted as the Cult clashed with what Black Pikmin still remained in the city. Their numbers had been diminished, but those who remained comprised mostly the strongest, and they would not fall without a fight.

The deaf priest continued his sermon as he marched through the abandoned streets, ignorant of the explosions that sounded around him. The Cathedral had begun focusing all its firepower on his location after he'd sent a shot back at it, and while they hadn't hit him yet, return fire from the Cult had met with a shimmering field around the ship as the 'Ard Boyz went to work to keep the ship safe. The commotion had drawn the attention of Skys***ter and Kanaedolph, though they were currently stuck in their own fights. With Kazul stuck defending the unconscious Barrack from Dusk, that left only one Warboss actually capable of fighting back directly against the Cult of the Damned.

So that was how the faceless ones came to find themselves in battle with a tide of undeath. Ark'thugal, backed by a veritable horde of newly risen Death Knights, flew over the chaos upon his plague wyrm, cackling like a maniac.

"Oh yeah, this is the good s***," Ark crooned as Eranikus let loose a stream of his plagued breath upon the cultists. "This is what makes it all worthwhile!"

?-Orvtre-?

Juggernaut was in trouble, so Bloodriver, Quicksilver and I were helping him stay alive. I was working overtime in that regard, making multiple clones and spamming lots of heals and shields to protect Jugg. The problem we faced were, of course, the Black Pikmin Phantoms attacking.

Quicksilver immediately went to deal with that, knocking down several Phantoms. Before they could get up, I made a dozen or so clones and descended upon them, unleashing a flurry of ice and petrification to slow them down. Quicksilver followed up by s***tering them with a kick, and I followed up with that by pummeling them with earthen blows.

The Flamewheel Black Nectar phantom, however, refused to be frozen and attempted to attack Juggernaut. We would have none of that.

The only warning the The Flamewheel Black Nectar phantom had was Xenon and I impaling him with a web of light, immobilizing him for only an instant.

It was an instant that would be very, very painful for him.

"Infinite Mass Punch," Quicksilver hissed, punching the Flamewheel Black Nectar phantom with a near light speed fist. Said Black Nectar phantom was promptly flung back at escape velocity. Quicksilver wasn't going to hold back when his friend was in danger.

Elsewhere, Digital Gear was fighting Black Scythe. The Supreme Warboss was about to do something, but was interrupted when Silver Scythe warped in and unleashed hell, unloading all of its weaponry on him. Took it long enough to get here. Black Scythe attempted to maul the giant robot with his claws, but the robot proved resistant to damage, retaliating by slamming the Supreme Warboss down into the dirt with a humongous metal fist. Digital Gear took that opportunity to potshot Black Scythe with even more missiles, while Libera fired off more drills at the Supreme Warboss.

Black Scythe then got up in a rage, on the cusp of firing off another huge attack. Bloodriver, Quicksilver and I braced for it, readying ourselves to protect Juggernaut from what would come next.

Thankfully, this next attack had not been sent our way; it had all been aimed at damaging the enormous mech that Digital Gear had called in. We couldn't rest easy however, as the Black Nectar phantoms could not be killed, and they persisted in their attempts at killing us.

]]]Skys***ter[[[

The fight with the mage had been highly entertaining, but Skys***ter was right about ready to end it, now. The vacuum spell she'd been using had let her go toe to toe with him up until now, but this was the end of that.

"Been fun an' all dat, but I fink iz time ta say our goodbyes, kiddo," Skys***ter called out to the mage over the noise of the Cathedral's guns. Rune didn't give him a response other than narrowing her eyes and preparing her shields, but Skys***ter didn't make a move towards her. He simply pointed upwards.

"Gunna give ya a taste of how I gotz me name," the Warboss said with a wicked grin as Rune took in the massive crack in the sky above them. Rune immediately cast her vacuum spell at it, but Skys***ter simply laughed, holding his gravity hammer up like it was an umbrella.

"Nature abhors a vacuum, missy. Howse ya tink my ability works?" Skys***ter sneered, clicking on the wide-range field on his hammer.

"s***tered Skies!"

The massive crack imploded on itself, a ridiculous, hurricane force wind forming as the vacuum collapsed, funneling all of that air directly down on Rune. The impact was roughly akin to a bomb going off, the street cracking underneath the force as any and all debris in the area was blown away as if it all weighed nothing. Any windows that hadn't been s***tered by the earlier fighting now exploded from the air pressure, and Rune herself was driven to her knees as the intense winds s***tered her shields.

Skys***ter stood through the whole thing, unmoving, until the wind died down a bit. The massive squall had affected even the weather, a turbulent sea of clouds forming over the city that brought in torrential rains with them. Rune had been left kneeling in the middle of a shredded piece of road, sparks jumping from her equally tattered body. Skys***ter favored her with a grin that did interesting things to his scar.

"Gotz ta give ya credit fer livin' throu dat," Skys***ter commended her with a polite clap, then charged at her with his gravity hammer reared back.

"Astral Purge!" Rune ground out, a blast of intense energy emanating from her body. Skys***ter abruptly ground to a halt and swung his hammer ahead of him to deflect the worst of the blast, and when the smoke cleared Rune was nowhere in sight. The Warboss clicked his tongue in disappointment. After all of his time she'd wasted, he'd been looking forward to a killing blow.

His disappointment was short-lived, as that was the point where a bunch of Cultists swarmed around the corner, bellowing death to everything opposed to them. Well, a bit more of a distraction couldn't hurt.