And the next scene...
“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting
**28**
There were many things A.C. would consider beyond her (dancing, for example. Or Tea Ceremony), but being able to see the way the wind was blowing wasn’t one of them.
Admittedly, when you have to dodge railshots from an A4 type hardsuit you kinda get the point (or not, as the case may be).
Of course, making a point like that has its downsides as the hardsuit pilot found out in response when she lost her head following A.C.’s mono-ribbon sword counterpoint.
Saber was hacking her way through another group of Otome, Vivian maintaining watch for anyone drawing a bead.
Like the Sentinel at the back.
Stinger Blade.
A sword construct of blue energy formed over Saber’s shoulder and launched itself downrange, causing the Sentinel to dodge and loose target lock.
Phobos and Deimos were sticking to the roof, then diving into the thick of things and shaking up groups as they tried to form.
Still, A.C.’s tactical processor noted from the map her orientation system had built up (given the variability of the environment) that the mass of fighters were probably moving to one of the larger caverns in the tunnel system where the increased manoeuvrability would benefit the Op-For group more than Team Peters. The warning bounced around the tac-net.
Saber recommended telepathically.
A.C. sent back.
Saber replied.
Deimos cheered, triggering a Bolt From the Blue.
A.C. shot back as she carved a mage in two.
Phobos suggested.
Deimos added.
The green-eyed Magi-borg snapped back, stepping into the attacking Otome’s reach to catch her outstretched arm and snap it. With a spin she tossed the figure into the fire of a Knight Saber.
As Saber smashed in the chest plate of a Silver Sentinel with a swing of her sword, A.C. pulled out a canister-shaped grenade in her off hand and threw it down tunnel while completing her spin.
One of the Spartans let the ‘goalie’ (point defence software) take over and shot the grenade out of the air.
What followed was a cloud of rapidly expanding goopy foam tracing the grenade’s trajectory to splash against the group and cover them in blobs and solid strands of hardening foam that reached all around the outline of the tunnel.
With the Type 17 blocking one end of the tunnel, Phobos dropped again from the roof to unleash a Blazing Meteor Kick and clear a section of the remaining troops.
Now Team Peters peeled backwards to the cavern. Saber wasn’t very secure with this technique, which slowed them down a bit until they had enough space to allow Saber to charge into the cavern as the cyber-mage and her guardians covered her.
After A.C. fell back to leave Phobos as point, she brought her Demon Blood Talismans into line.
"Lord of the Darkness and the Four Worlds, I call upon you, grant me all the power that you possess!"
The muttered activation key brought her a surge of energy and she turned back to the pursuing force.
”Dark Mist!” She called, and a rolling cloud of black coloured fog sprung into being and swamped down the tunnel. Once the spell was cast, she pulled the M4A1 out of storage, grabbed a ‘Jingle Bells’ 40mm grenade from her limited supplies, and in a smooth motion slid it into the M203 under-mounted from the rifle and fired to cause additional disruption.
Then her two fairy companions broke and shot to catch up to Saber. The Lady of Fire brought up a Belken shield facing towards the Op-For squad and followed.
Saber had charged out of the tunnel on the wings of a Flash Move and immediately ran into a second group mostly set up to ambush them. She counter ambushed, ripping apart six of the ten person team before they could react.
A Spartan with the stripes of Master Chief came at the blonde knight with a covenant plasma blade, forcing her to block. Sparks flew as the Spartan’s blade tried to eat into the shrouded blade.
Red and Blue streaks shot out of the tunnel mouth like bullets, slamming into two Mages attempting to cast binding spells.
The final member of the team, a Landmate who’d been knocked over by Saber’s charging assault, managed to get ready to shoot the King of Knights with his weapon when he got to experience being hit with a tank shell via a full speed flying kick courtesy of a temporarily Martian cyborg Flame Priestess.
Stinger Ray.
The Spartan was blasted off his feet by the sudden spell, letting Saber get inside his guard and disembowel him.
Glancing to her sides, she noted the Master’s fairy companions had finished off their opponents and were keeping an eye of the other entrances as her Master’s flaming blade finished carving up the Landmate.
The emerald-eyed warrior sent, pointing to where Deimos was hovering.
Phobos called from her position, before falling back to her twin.
A.C. could hear the roar of turbine engines echoing up the tunnel, knowing that at least two motoslaves and riders were coming.
“Ugh.” A.C. grunted, letting Laevatein be taken by one of her ribbons. Then she made the motions of someone drawing back on a bow, her talismans still glowing. “Freeze Arrow!”
The bolt of icy energy struck inside the entrance and creating a jagged blockage, followed by the sound of screeching tires as the incoming bikes tried to stop. There wasn’t enough time for that however. With a crash of shattering ice and a double explosion, a Knight Saber was flung flailing head over heels into the chamber to land with a clatter on her back before tumbling.
The remaining mobile members of the first squad came out of the original tunnel at a charge, and Team Peters opened fire with spells. The chamber lit up as attack met shield, energies cancelling as the distance between them closed.
The mouth of the second tunnel exploded once again, this time because the group behind the fire blocking it wanted said fire out of the way. Bits of wreckage shot behind the recovered Knight Saber as she dashed to join the front running group.
Schlangenform.
The twin fairy Guardian Senshi almost literally blasted off over the heads of the group in front of them to smash into the group emerging from the scorched second entrance. The cybernetic knight-priestess of flame also shot forward, snapping the bladed chain of Laevatein’s Schlangenform ahead of herself to intercept her attackers.
Behind them the Knight Saber leapt to take to the air, but the tip of Laevatein’s chain-whip scored a deep gouge across the flight control thrusters, leading to them exploding as they engaged and the armoured figure to spiral out of control and crash.
A.C. sliced her way through the rest of the group to the fallen figure, now struggling to get up. It took a few seconds to cut down the mage between her and the hardsuited figure, and then she delivered a palm strike to the head of the armoured woman to stagger her. Her extended hand clamped on to the faceplate of the Hardsuited figure, and the muscles of her arm bunched under her gauntleted gloves as she lifted her enemy to throw her back at the survivors.
“You really shouldn’t assume we’d be sleeping!”
The Knight Saber slumped, as did all enemies in front of her.
“Damn, that worked?” A.C. asked aloud, noting that the talisman on her wrist wasn’t glowing.
Dropping her captive she turned to the remaining enemies, watching as Phobos’ Blazing Meteor Kick took out two more Otome.
Her Element manifested and she tossed a fireball at the roof of the second entrance over a group recovering from the twin’s attack. The concussive blast knocked them to the ground.
In a burst of speed she shot over and recast the Sleeping spell to knock them out as well.
A flick of her wrist deployed the ring pull of the Lamp of Fire, which the raven-haired woman quickly put to use. Then she pointed the Device down the tunnel as her Elements span into rings of energy. Flame ran down Laevatein’s blade, blue and purple-tinged red, to stop and swirl at his tip and gather into a ball of plasma.
“Starbolt!” His master named the attack, and it shot down the tunnel to explode and block it.
She turned, letting the blast wave ruffle her hair as she sheathed her Device in her rear bow.
~ Waste not, want not. ~ A.C. mused as she began stripping down the unconscious Op-For and stuffing anything remotely useful into one of Laevatein’s pockets of Holding.
~ Barbie doll anatomy? ~ The cyberneticist noted as she stripped the black and white innersuit from the downed Knight Saber. ~ Doesn’t seem to be privacy mode, but I suppose the limiters would catch being too correct. I wonder what the spare processing power is going towards, or should I take the Blue Pill? ~ With a mental shrug she moved away from the question, knowing she’d find out. ~ And I might as well take the opportunity to clear out some junk. ~
As Team Peters sped away, Saber asked a question.
“Why did you not end them afterwards? It is not as though in this realm it would matter.”
“Because they are now the Op-For’s problem.” The emerald-eyed cyberneticist replied. “Either they have to be re-equipped, or the Op-For has to respawn them. And until they make that decision it means there are almost a dozen less Op-For around. And they were helpless. That’s not something that matters much in here, but there’s no need to be ruthless if we don’t have to.”
“Ah.” Saber acknowledged, a ghost of a smile on her lips.
“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting
**28**
There were many things A.C. would consider beyond her (dancing, for example. Or Tea Ceremony), but being able to see the way the wind was blowing wasn’t one of them.
Admittedly, when you have to dodge railshots from an A4 type hardsuit you kinda get the point (or not, as the case may be).
Of course, making a point like that has its downsides as the hardsuit pilot found out in response when she lost her head following A.C.’s mono-ribbon sword counterpoint.
Saber was hacking her way through another group of Otome, Vivian maintaining watch for anyone drawing a bead.
Like the Sentinel at the back.
Stinger Blade.
A sword construct of blue energy formed over Saber’s shoulder and launched itself downrange, causing the Sentinel to dodge and loose target lock.
Phobos and Deimos were sticking to the roof, then diving into the thick of things and shaking up groups as they tried to form.
Still, A.C.’s tactical processor noted from the map her orientation system had built up (given the variability of the environment) that the mass of fighters were probably moving to one of the larger caverns in the tunnel system where the increased manoeuvrability would benefit the Op-For group more than Team Peters. The warning bounced around the tac-net.
Saber recommended telepathically.
A.C. sent back.
Saber replied.
Deimos cheered, triggering a Bolt From the Blue.
A.C. shot back as she carved a mage in two.
Phobos suggested.
Deimos added.
The green-eyed Magi-borg snapped back, stepping into the attacking Otome’s reach to catch her outstretched arm and snap it. With a spin she tossed the figure into the fire of a Knight Saber.
As Saber smashed in the chest plate of a Silver Sentinel with a swing of her sword, A.C. pulled out a canister-shaped grenade in her off hand and threw it down tunnel while completing her spin.
One of the Spartans let the ‘goalie’ (point defence software) take over and shot the grenade out of the air.
What followed was a cloud of rapidly expanding goopy foam tracing the grenade’s trajectory to splash against the group and cover them in blobs and solid strands of hardening foam that reached all around the outline of the tunnel.
With the Type 17 blocking one end of the tunnel, Phobos dropped again from the roof to unleash a Blazing Meteor Kick and clear a section of the remaining troops.
Now Team Peters peeled backwards to the cavern. Saber wasn’t very secure with this technique, which slowed them down a bit until they had enough space to allow Saber to charge into the cavern as the cyber-mage and her guardians covered her.
After A.C. fell back to leave Phobos as point, she brought her Demon Blood Talismans into line.
"Lord of the Darkness and the Four Worlds, I call upon you, grant me all the power that you possess!"
The muttered activation key brought her a surge of energy and she turned back to the pursuing force.
”Dark Mist!” She called, and a rolling cloud of black coloured fog sprung into being and swamped down the tunnel. Once the spell was cast, she pulled the M4A1 out of storage, grabbed a ‘Jingle Bells’ 40mm grenade from her limited supplies, and in a smooth motion slid it into the M203 under-mounted from the rifle and fired to cause additional disruption.
Then her two fairy companions broke and shot to catch up to Saber. The Lady of Fire brought up a Belken shield facing towards the Op-For squad and followed.
Saber had charged out of the tunnel on the wings of a Flash Move and immediately ran into a second group mostly set up to ambush them. She counter ambushed, ripping apart six of the ten person team before they could react.
A Spartan with the stripes of Master Chief came at the blonde knight with a covenant plasma blade, forcing her to block. Sparks flew as the Spartan’s blade tried to eat into the shrouded blade.
Red and Blue streaks shot out of the tunnel mouth like bullets, slamming into two Mages attempting to cast binding spells.
The final member of the team, a Landmate who’d been knocked over by Saber’s charging assault, managed to get ready to shoot the King of Knights with his weapon when he got to experience being hit with a tank shell via a full speed flying kick courtesy of a temporarily Martian cyborg Flame Priestess.
Stinger Ray.
The Spartan was blasted off his feet by the sudden spell, letting Saber get inside his guard and disembowel him.
Glancing to her sides, she noted the Master’s fairy companions had finished off their opponents and were keeping an eye of the other entrances as her Master’s flaming blade finished carving up the Landmate.
The emerald-eyed warrior sent, pointing to where Deimos was hovering.
Phobos called from her position, before falling back to her twin.
A.C. could hear the roar of turbine engines echoing up the tunnel, knowing that at least two motoslaves and riders were coming.
“Ugh.” A.C. grunted, letting Laevatein be taken by one of her ribbons. Then she made the motions of someone drawing back on a bow, her talismans still glowing. “Freeze Arrow!”
The bolt of icy energy struck inside the entrance and creating a jagged blockage, followed by the sound of screeching tires as the incoming bikes tried to stop. There wasn’t enough time for that however. With a crash of shattering ice and a double explosion, a Knight Saber was flung flailing head over heels into the chamber to land with a clatter on her back before tumbling.
The remaining mobile members of the first squad came out of the original tunnel at a charge, and Team Peters opened fire with spells. The chamber lit up as attack met shield, energies cancelling as the distance between them closed.
The mouth of the second tunnel exploded once again, this time because the group behind the fire blocking it wanted said fire out of the way. Bits of wreckage shot behind the recovered Knight Saber as she dashed to join the front running group.
Schlangenform.
The twin fairy Guardian Senshi almost literally blasted off over the heads of the group in front of them to smash into the group emerging from the scorched second entrance. The cybernetic knight-priestess of flame also shot forward, snapping the bladed chain of Laevatein’s Schlangenform ahead of herself to intercept her attackers.
Behind them the Knight Saber leapt to take to the air, but the tip of Laevatein’s chain-whip scored a deep gouge across the flight control thrusters, leading to them exploding as they engaged and the armoured figure to spiral out of control and crash.
A.C. sliced her way through the rest of the group to the fallen figure, now struggling to get up. It took a few seconds to cut down the mage between her and the hardsuited figure, and then she delivered a palm strike to the head of the armoured woman to stagger her. Her extended hand clamped on to the faceplate of the Hardsuited figure, and the muscles of her arm bunched under her gauntleted gloves as she lifted her enemy to throw her back at the survivors.
“You really shouldn’t assume we’d be sleeping!”
The Knight Saber slumped, as did all enemies in front of her.
“Damn, that worked?” A.C. asked aloud, noting that the talisman on her wrist wasn’t glowing.
Dropping her captive she turned to the remaining enemies, watching as Phobos’ Blazing Meteor Kick took out two more Otome.
Her Element manifested and she tossed a fireball at the roof of the second entrance over a group recovering from the twin’s attack. The concussive blast knocked them to the ground.
In a burst of speed she shot over and recast the Sleeping spell to knock them out as well.
A flick of her wrist deployed the ring pull of the Lamp of Fire, which the raven-haired woman quickly put to use. Then she pointed the Device down the tunnel as her Elements span into rings of energy. Flame ran down Laevatein’s blade, blue and purple-tinged red, to stop and swirl at his tip and gather into a ball of plasma.
“Starbolt!” His master named the attack, and it shot down the tunnel to explode and block it.
She turned, letting the blast wave ruffle her hair as she sheathed her Device in her rear bow.
~ Waste not, want not. ~ A.C. mused as she began stripping down the unconscious Op-For and stuffing anything remotely useful into one of Laevatein’s pockets of Holding.
~ Barbie doll anatomy? ~ The cyberneticist noted as she stripped the black and white innersuit from the downed Knight Saber. ~ Doesn’t seem to be privacy mode, but I suppose the limiters would catch being too correct. I wonder what the spare processing power is going towards, or should I take the Blue Pill? ~ With a mental shrug she moved away from the question, knowing she’d find out. ~ And I might as well take the opportunity to clear out some junk. ~
As Team Peters sped away, Saber asked a question.
“Why did you not end them afterwards? It is not as though in this realm it would matter.”
“Because they are now the Op-For’s problem.” The emerald-eyed cyberneticist replied. “Either they have to be re-equipped, or the Op-For has to respawn them. And until they make that decision it means there are almost a dozen less Op-For around. And they were helpless. That’s not something that matters much in here, but there’s no need to be ruthless if we don’t have to.”
“Ah.” Saber acknowledged, a ghost of a smile on her lips.