It had been several years since anyone had heard anything out of anyone affiliated with Shadow heart or with most of the more notorious dark guilds in general. Shadow Heart had been a major concern back in the day, and Tatsuma had gone to face down the Shadow lord way before he was prepared and it had negative consequences. It was a major deal to learn how to use his magic the right way, not just in bulk or for big, flashy, powerful spells, but in smaller more significant ways. It wasn't to say he didn't have his share of extremely effective powerful flashy spells, but it wasn't those that people needed to be afraid of. He thought about his previous experiences in the past, but only because he was looking at something similar to that time. The group of swordsmen that had been given Vanix Tracy's sword when the Shadow Lord destroyed the Fairy Tail Guild hall was now coming to Hosenka Town thanks to a weapon that was allegedly being held there. He hadn't seen it, nor did he know where it was stored, nor did anyone in the town seem to know of where it might be held, but the important part was that someone dangerous thought it was here.
"Now would be a great time to have some friends to help with this mess." He sighed into the air. It wasn't that he didn't think he was strong enough to handle the situation, but there were eight of them and it was difficult to try to control that kind of collateral damage. Friends would make it so that he wasn't fighting a crowd by himself and it would be easier to protect the citizenry. Kotone would have wanted to be here, but he had no way of getting hold of her in this short of a time. All he could do right now was hope and wish that someone would get there.
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The group formerly known as the 88 stood on a hill above Hosenka Town. "Is the pathway secure." A male figure standing next to the man in the middle inquired. "No, there's an obstacle in the town, but only one. It may cost us a small amount but if we operate independently we should be able to overcome him." Another, female figure stated. "Move swiftly and strike as two hundred and fifty six points. We act starting now." The central male figure stated.
Last Edit: Aug 23, 2015 2:39:32 GMT by Tatsuma Kiryu
Post by Chryseis "Crisis" Teotwaki on Aug 25, 2015 8:05:14 GMT
"What am I, chopped liver?" If collateral damage was the problem, then Chryseis "Crisis" Teotwaki was the solution. It was her magic's best trick, after all. She had followed Tatsuma all the way out here, although she hadn't actually caught up to him until just now. It would be understandable if he hadn't noticed her before this moment. At least, if it weren't for his Dragon Slayer super-senses. Or was she seriously that far behind? Not that it bothered her any. She was just jazzed to be on this mission.
"So what's the situation?" she asked eagerly. "Ninjas? Demons? Pirates? Ninja demon pirates? Whatever it is, I'm ready for it!" She reached behind her and pulled out an impossible number and variety of weapons, cleaning equipment, and a fishing rod. All illusions, of course. "I'm loaded for bear and ready to go!" She could barely see around it all. "Just point me in the right direction and lemme at 'em!"
Post by Tatsuma Kiryu on Aug 25, 2015 20:40:24 GMT
He wasn't excessively concerned about someone following him and was only partially on guard. If Crisis was here there could... wait he hadn't worked with Crisis in... probably a very long time. Some of his memories before his deathw ere still a little bit sketch if they weren't etched in very well. "Assassins... very very organized assassins. Remember when the guild got attacked. Vanix lost one of his swords, this is the group that stole it before I managed to recover it back." He explained, hoping to clarify the fact that these were not people to be taken lightly. "Also to be clear, there should be eight of them remaining at this point and each one of them is extremely experienced." He added. Each one of them was probably as strong as their leader had been and the fight he had gone through back then had been extremely difficult. Given that he was stronger now, he still didn't like the fact that he was about to have to face them down again as there were 8 of them.
"So any chance you brought anyone else with you? I mean we're still technically outnumbered."
Post by Chryseis "Crisis" Teotwaki on Aug 26, 2015 7:54:47 GMT
Tatsuma wasn't likely to have known Crisis before Shadow Heart had been taken out four years ago. She wasn't even a wizard back then. Of course, he could be confusing her with her mentor, who was also named Crisis, dressed similarly, and had the same skin tone. Different magic, though. That particular Crisis was current out of the country, however the Crisis here would have to agree that it would be pretty awesome if "Big Sis" was here for this gig. But hypothesizing about theoretical adventures would have to wait. There were assassins afoot.
Crisis put away the illusory arsenal as she glanced behind her. "Huh. I could've sworn..." She turned back to Tatsuma. "Maybe they got lost. Either that, or the assassins got them already." She narrowed her eyes. "They are a shifty bunch..." She shrugged. "Well, what'cha gonna do? I bet they'll show up in the nick of time or something. Big Damn Heroes moment, play the guild theme, you know the drill."
((Full disclosure, I completely forgot about this thread, however seeing that it's my only active one that won't happen again.)
"We have a guild theme?" Was the only question Tatsuma could think to respond with. Despite thinking that he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, he focused more on the ally that was there with him so that he could try to formulate some sort of strategy. He knew literally nothing about this girl and this was a bad place to talk about it so he was going to have to work on it as they were fighting later... if there was any fighting later because he sincerely hoped there wouldn't be. "Well I guess this is going to be what we're working with. I have no strategy at this point so we're literally winging it." He explained. In truth the act of not have a strategy was, in and of itself, a strategy.
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Two of the strange figures on the hill dropped down beside the bridge into town while the two light guild members talked. It was decided to match the two of them with two of their own in order to delay their entrance into town, but the actual measures to be taken hadn't been decided yet. The older male held his hand up, summoning five shadow ogres as he waited. The hulking, ten-foot-tall figures materialized invisibly as part of the shadows and waited for the two to get to the bridge for the intended ambush.
Post by Chryseis "Crisis" Teotwaki on Sept 3, 2015 7:47:03 GMT
"Yeah, sure," Crisis said when Tatsuma asked about their guild's theme. "It goes like..." An electric guitar appeared in her hands and she began miming silent power chords with it. "Da dada-nana na na na, DAH dada-nana nana nana." The guitar vanished as she continued. "Then there's, like, flutes and bagpipes, I think. It's all really epic." She nodded as Tatsuma explained their total lack of strategy. "It's just as well. 'Plans never survive first contact with the enemy.' Especially our plans. I doubt many of them even get that far. On the plus side, anyone expecting us to have a plan will be totally unprepared for our spontaneity."
Before long, the two of them arrived at the bridge. Crisis couldn't help but feel as if they were being watched. Perhaps it was just the anticipation of facing assassins and the presence over ten-foot-tall shadows all around the bridge pushing her anxiety buttons. It felt like there was a sniper in every window and boogeymen in every shadow. That sort of fear could keep you sharp, but it could also distract you...
She stopped just short of the bridge and glanced around. "You know what?" she remarked as she tilted her hat down, the eye-emblem on it opening wide. "This entrance needs a bit more flash..."
She flipped off her hat and waved it in a huge arc. Maple leaves erupted from within it, multiplying and swirling around the bridge. The leaves covered the floor of the bridge and continued to fall from the sky as she put her hat back on. They were mere illusions with no substance, passing through surfaces like phantoms on the breeze.
"Now this is the proper atmosphere for fighting assassins," Crisis remarked as she stepped onto the bridge.
Post by Tatsuma Kiryu on Sept 3, 2015 16:24:43 GMT
Well she was definitely a fairy tail guild mage. Eccentric and whimsical, she certainly fit in with what people had come to expect from Fairy Tail. In addition to that, Tatsuma had his own sense as well. Even without magic, the bridge was a tactical nightmare and common sense told him that. Knowing that fact, he assumed the assassins would have ignored it given that it was so obvious. On the other hand, if the group remembered him or had done any homework on who he was, it was could be surmised that they would have assumed that he would assume the bridge wasn't going to be a target because it was a tactical nightmare. The entire thought process made the prospect of the bridge a coin toss, and as such he simply gave up, shaking his head as he crossed the bridge among the illusory maple leaves.
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The two figures under the bridge smirked, the female figure stood slightly further concealing her and her companion in shadow as the Ogres attacked. The spell she was specifically designed to help thwart the dragon slayer's ability to detect them, but the Ogres were harder to use during. When maple leaves suddenly started falling she questioned it, but the consistency of the ogres became that of hazy mist to avoid them. Unaware that the leaves were illusory she motioned to her companion who began using his own shadow magic. An array of spikes formed in every direction on the bridge. Shadows made solid erupted from every part in every direction as the Ogres were finally given solid form to try to flank the two figures that stood before them. ---------------------------------
Tatsu sprang into action as the spikes erupted. He could have dodged, but instead he simply faded into the void. His physical being was no longer present, but his image was. His body was skewered by the spikes as he remained there, unharmed and phasing through, though he let himself slump slightly to appear dead as he left Crisis to deal with the Ogres. Resolved to help if she needed it, now was a good chance to get some combat information.
Post by Chryseis "Crisis" Teotwaki on Sept 5, 2015 2:11:04 GMT
Crisis was launched upwards, protected from the spikes by the lattice of rakes she had hidden underneath the illusory leaves. She hadn't expected to actually use them like that. They were, in fact, a trap she had laid for the assassins, as she had expected them to leap out from the shadows only to be smacked in the face by the rakes. If the plan had succeeded, it probably would've seemed pretty clever. Instead, she was now surrounded by flying rakes, lunging shadow-ogres that probably wouldn't've been affected by the rakes anyway, and Spiked-Wall Man. Also, Tatsuma was dead, apparently.
"Tatsu!" she exclaimed upon looking back at what appeared to be his body. There was no way Fairy Tail's own Wizard Saint was one-shotted by the first freakin' trap! He must have something up his sleeve. Crisis would have to assume that until she had time to actually deal with that. Right now, she was being attacked by ten-foot shadow-ogres.
Still flailing through the air, she brought her hands up in front of her and erected a spherical, translucent, energy barrier around her. The ogres' attacks struck, sending her to the ground and into the spikes. The Shield Sphere held, but was already starting to crack. She only needed it to remain up long enough for her to deal with the spikes.
“Dimensional warp engaged," she said as she climbed to her feet and adjusted her hat. "Expanding distortion field. External parameters defined. Internal boundaries unlimited." She held out a hand in front of her as a magic circle expanded outward to encompass the entire bridge. "Crisis Gate, OPEN!”
Time and space warped around everyone within the field. The bridge itself fell away as massive, emerald-scaled serpents streamed out from every direction. They coiled about, forming gleaming towers lining a winding road through a lush jungle, at one end of which sat a massive, Incan pyramid.
Not one to rest on her laurels, she immediately began her counter-attack. The shield dropped as her arms lashed out to either side. "Hard Light Illusion." As her arms moved, a pair of massive guns, each constructed from a multitude of smaller guns, appeared in either hand. "Danmaku Shooter!" From these guns came a relentless barrage of gunfire, laser beams, and rocket-propelled grenades, loosed with little regard to accuracy and threatening to shred anyone hapless enough to be in proximity.
Tatsuma opened one eye and looked around for but a moment while Crisis activated her spell. Illusions? Something made solid? Normally dragon slayers had a propensity to see though weaker illusions but this was not one of those instances and the illusions, if they even were illusions instead of constructs like they seemed, were indistinguishable to the eye. In addition she also summoned a multitude of weapons and began assaulting the shadow ogres with it, that distraction gave him a split second to focus his own vision and he closed his eyes, sensing the bio-electrical signatures of the people around him while she kept the other constructs busy. A brief view showed him that the shadow Ogres were not handling the lasers very well especially and that was a significant advantage. Meanwhile he did manage to pierce the hiding spot of the summoners, his eyes giving way to their position just at the last instant.
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The second their veil was pierced the two stepped out from the bridge and up to engage their opponents. Decidedly the girl in the faced up against crisis and the male faced up against Tatsuma. It was too much of a risk, the female used some sort of construct magic like she did, but since their cover was blown, it was time to face their enemies. -----------------------------------
The girl facing Crisis held her hands to either side of her and drew in closing her hands slowly. "Shadow make, Hydra sphere!" She cried, summoning a huge ball of shadow snakes that seemed to share that as a body while countless heads extended from all over the ball. "You have the honor of falling to Kallista of the poison blade. Fall into despair." He taunted, drawing the blade at her side. "Shadow make, drake shield!" She exclaimed as a medium sized dragon made of shadow formed and curled itself into the shape of a large shield which she equipped with her sword.
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The man facing Tatsuma seemed visibly shaken. He wasn't planning on having to face the guy on these kind of terms. "I am Asuka of the unlimited blade, Fall -" The assassin started. "I'm familiar with your introductions. I also seem to remember killing your leader so you may want to rethink this." Tatsu warned, fully done with this entire night already. "Shadow Make, Seven hand sword!" Was the man's response. A semi-solid after image was left in the spot Tatsuma had been standing before as seven individual swords lanced into him and an additional one struck for his body, meanwhile he had moved behind the man, coating the edge of his hand with electrical energy and swinging it to decapitate the guy. Sure of the success of his strike he started to walk away, only to find himself dodging another set of blades flying in his direction. Had the guy survived decapitation?
Post by Chryseis "Crisis" Teotwaki on Sept 5, 2015 7:57:11 GMT
"Just the lasers?" Crisis remarked as she tossed away the guns after seeing the lasers disrupt the shadow ogres. A sword hilt then appeared on her hip and immediately flew into her hand. With a click and a fwoosh, the hilt produced a blade of energy. Several successive fwooshed later, the end of the blade forked several times until transforming into a giant rake. With a mighty swing, she cut a swath through the remaining ogres. Also, Tatsuma was alive after all, which is nice.
Tatsuma tagged the assassins, and subsequently they came out of hiding. Crisis scoffed as she found herself facing off against the lady assassin. "I get to fight the lady. Kind of a cliché, but I don't mind as long as it's a good fight." Her light-rake shifted, transforming into a large squeaky-hammer that she held in a similar pose to the woman. "And you have the indignity of fighting Crisis Teotwaki, The Fairy Trickster of Fairy Tail! Fail to be impressed!"
Crisis stepped forward and was promptly launched into the air by what appeared to be a spring hidden under a panel in the ground in front of her. She raised her hammer over her head as she ascended, the weapon quickly growing bigger before she descended to bring the hammer down upon her opponent. "Hard Light Hammer Time!"
Post by Tatsuma Kiryu on Sept 5, 2015 23:55:03 GMT
The man that Tatsuma thought he had decapitated seemed to split into two people, one with almost no distinct features besides the human shape and the sword in his hand. "Shadow make, Doppleganger!" The man said with a smirk as Tatsu dodged the sword he had surprised him with. On the ground was a number of liquid shadow bits that told him the man had used a shadow double to evade the decapitation. That would certainly make killing him difficult. "Make magic? You have a skill like this and you're using it to be a petty thief? What a waste." He responded angrier now and still kind of wishing he was fighting the female warrior. Wordlessly he activated one of his legendary spells, a dark black fang materialized in his hand. He appeared to not move for a split second while his outline blurred slightly and then returned to normal, after which he crossed his arms. He didn't speak, it was unnecessary focus right now at this point. Lightning arced from his fingers and continued to blast his opponent, the shadow make creatures that the man formed were obliterated by lightning while the caster had to figure out a way to counter being electrocuted. Eventually, he ran out of mana, victimized by the black fang that was implanted.
When Tatsu had appeared to blur, he had moved fast enough to leave an after image while he appeared behind him and implanted the black fang-shaped bit of void energy in the guy. In the end, Tatsuma had cast his spell to drain his mana while the guy had used the same pool. When he finally fell to the ground, surging with electricity, it was too late for him to realize that he had fallen victim to one of the lesser known tricks the dragon slayer tended to employ. "I hope you survive this and turn over a new leaf. In the interim, you can think about your life thus far."
As Crisis zoomed in on the woman, Kallista, the shield formed to life, dragon claws reaching for the handle of the hammer to stop it while the tail of the dragon lanced out to attack with Kallista's sword. "You're right I'm not impressed!" She roared as he kicked the dragon into its final gear and the head lanced up to breath a cone of shadow at her.
Just before the dragon went to breath, her companion fell to Tatsuma. "Asuka!" She shouted, causing her momentary distraction and the drake shield stopped moving.
Post by Chryseis "Crisis" Teotwaki on Sept 7, 2015 7:58:05 GMT
"Well, that figures," Crisis remarked when the woman, Kallista, completely stopped her attack with her shield, which promptly latched on the hammer. The Hard Light Illusionist promptly leapt back and narrowly avoided being struck by the woman's sword or her dragon's tail. Crisis smirked and scratched her nose with her thumb. "Ha! I got you to do what I wanted! I'm totally in your head now! Next thing you know, we'll be..."
Crisis trailed off as the shadow-made dragon opened its maw and exhaled a gout of shadow energy at her. She stared at it like a deer in the headlights a moment before raising her arms to block. When she realized she wasn't being engulfed in unfathomable darkness, she looked up and saw that Kallista was being distracted by Tatsuma. Had he called her Asuka? Did he have a history with this assassin? Would he mind terribly if she just bulldozed her right now?
She promptly stepped aside and out of the path of the shadow-flames in case they started up again. Crisis thrust her hands forward as a magic circle appeared before her. "Hard Light Illusion! Laser Mongoose!" A shaft of light erupted from the circle, quickly forming into a giant, glowing, weasel-like feliform made of light that streaked towards the assassin with intent to shred through her with claws and fangs.
Post by Tatsuma Kiryu on Sept 8, 2015 23:59:52 GMT
Tatsu watched as the attack, apparently titled "laser mongoose" streaked toward the female assassin who seemed to have been distracted by her companion's defeat. In the business they were in it was surprising that she cared about her companion. Still, if she survived she might learn that her actions were destructive for personal relationships and give it up... either that or harbor a very strong grudge against Fairy Tail or Tatsuma perfectly. He stayed focused on the attack as she raised her shield to block the laser mongoose and as the attack tore through her shield, cutting her deep on the side as she attempted to dodge. She fell to the ground, writhing in pain, alive but pretty badly injured. "Hmmm, looks as though this is a bad business for those with loved ones." He said, moving to stand next to Crisis now that their battle was finished. Given that the attack hadn't killed her right off the bat he wanted to give her incentive to turn over a new leaf.
Wordlessly, Tatsuma stretched out his hand, causing a black aura to appear over her side. It only took a few moments, he didn't heal her completely, but he did heal her out of the critical zone. She would definitely survive. With that action taken, things set in order, it was time for them to keep moving forward. "laser mongoose? How did you come up with that?" He asked Crisis, completely serious about the process she had used to get there. It was interesting.
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The battle had been decided between the Fairy Tail mages and two of the remaining 8 swordsmen were down. There was no reason at this point to just continue dealing with them in fair groups. "Satyros, Tenjin, Kage, Mahouji, move forward and take control. We need to buy more time and the person with the dragon slayer appears to be a bit stronger than originally anticipated. Don't underestimate them." The man with glasses ordered as four people disappeared, heading out to delay the pair for a bit more while he and one other headed for the hot springs.
Post by Chryseis "Crisis" Teotwaki on Sept 11, 2015 6:28:10 GMT
As Kallista hit the ground, the Anacondaban Highway illusion also dropped and left them standing on the bridge. Laser mongooses (mongeese?) aside, it would seem her personal attachments to her comrades was her weakness. Kind of ironic, considering personal attachments to comrades was Fairy Tail's major strength. Something of a mixed message, suffice it to say, unless the point was about being an assassin.
Then Tatsuma asked her about the laser mongoose. "Well, the shadow-monsters seemed to be more vulnerable to light-energy attacks than to my hard light constructs, so I figured her defenses had the same weakness. And her shield was made of snakes, and the mongoose is their natural enemy, so I figured if the light weakness didn't hold I could have a thematic advantage to fall back on. Plus, I didn't want to be too predictable by just firing lasers all the time."
She looked over at her injured former opponent. "Is she gonna be alright? I think I hit her a little harder than I intended."
Post by Tatsuma Kiryu on Sept 12, 2015 11:54:34 GMT
Tatsuma looked at the girl and shrugged. "I healed her so she should be getting up at some point, but she's going to live. Also good assessment, I mean the shield and sword combo was pretty good though, I'm actually impressed you got around it." He said with a smile as he started heading toward the hot spring. To get there they would have to go through the town square and that meant another possible ambush point, the only problem was that it was obvious and that seemed really stupid. "It's possible I'm overthinking this but I have an odd feeling we're not going to get very far with this. We're going to end up fighting enemies all the way up to the hot springs which is where we're going, we won't get there before they reach it. I think they're just buying time." The assessment wasn't necessarily invalid, but it seemed like they knew who he was for the most part. That made Crisis the Ace in the hole, but he wasn't comfortable killing any of them without knowing for sure that they were in fact the criminals they had been back when he first fought with them.
He continued walking regardless, but he didn't like what was going on.
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The four headed in the opposite direction of the hot springs quietly and without a word. Once they got a sight on their targets, they stopped, waiting for them to enter the alleyway. It was the perfect ambush spot for what they intended.
