Organization XIV - The Story So Far

Sent flying by the direct blow to the head, Alle's head rang as she was flattened against the far wall. She dropped to the ground, limp for just a moment, before springing back up, looking half-crazed from the pain and the rage-spell. Clutching her right hand, she muttered a few words as it began to glow with an unearthly light, and she dashed forward, running on all fours, straight towards Theo.

Thraugg grimaced as he drew a circle in the dust around him, sitting down in the middle and pulling some dried herbs from a pouch on his belt. Tearing away a portion of them with his teeth, he chewed on them, closing his eyes. The tension drained from his body as he muttered a chant under his breath. He had to time this exactly right.

Dispatch scowled. Usually, when his enemies glowed, that didn't mean anything good. He could see the other wizard doing something, out of the corner of his eye, but hopefully Magic Man could handle that, or at least give a signal if he couldn't. Either way, he wasn't about to let himself lose ground here. They'd already wasted way too much time here. If he was honest with himself, he could waste the whole arena right now, but that'd be playing his hand way too early. Not to mention it'd kill everyone in the ring, enemy and ally alike, and that would probably be bad for their score.

Still, he definitely had to do something, and he had to do it now. He took up a position in front of the green swordsman, charging his ki in his hand, suddenly very thankful that they were still a solid distance and several walls away from their hostage.

Up in the stands, however, his observer tensed visibly. "Oh for gods' sakes, kid, don't you dare tell me this is all you got," he growled, though more frustrated than angry.

Lunging forward at top speed, the girl raised her shining hand and thrust it forward...

...Straight into her downed ally, Hero. More specifically, into his Vorpal-inflicted wound. Digging into his flesh with her claws, the light passed from Alle to him. Pulling her hand out, his flesh knit together before their eyes, strands of light shooting between severed flesh and reconnecting it. In seconds, his wound was sealed, and some color had returned to his face.



Sucking in air through his nostrils, Thraugg threw his head back and opened his lips slightly, beginning to exhale a grand plume of fire. The amber light washed over the surrounding area, ash falling from the cloud of smoke created by this conflagration.

The flames surrounding Theo and Dispatch's bodies, filling them with strength, began to choke and die under the ashes, and the orcish mage shot a smoldering look at Kain, who was still under the cloud himself. Alle's breathing slowed. The light shining from Vorpal flickered for a moment, then faded.

Kain was starting to get frustrated. He and Theo could make a break for it, but at what cost? It'd take them forever to get where they were going, let alone get Jackie back. There wasn't a lot of time to spare, but they had been working as a team, as well as they could. The rescue was still on the line, and they could deny points by preventing the other team's rescue. They were being sportsmanlike, and they'd put on a decent show so far. But right now, that mattered so much less: they had no map knowledge, and without the walls being down, Jackie didn't have a clear shot. The walls looked nigh-impenetrable, and whoever these fighters were, they'd stopped their movement.

...movement...

Jackie had nearly warped from place to place, unimpeded by the normal laws of physics.

Moved, through space. 

Moved her atoms, the smallest parts of her, wholly, and together.

Despite the energy they held, despite the empty space around each atom.

Freely.

Freedom of movement. 

He didn't have time to think about the consequences of what was going to happen, but at worst, he'd be out for about a minute, and he'd have to work fast to fix it if it didn't. It wasn't the kind of gamble he enjoyed, and as a value proposition...

No, he'd needed to move away from talk like that. It wasn't a simple matter of whether or not something had value anymore, it was whether or not it "mattered". He could solve something in front of him right here, right now, so he needed to do it. With a smirk at the orc-mage, he called out: "Sorry it had to be you, friend, but you should have killed me in one blow while you had the chance. I'll be taking my hostage back in just a moment, so please, allow my current compatriot to entertain the lot of you for now."

Kain summoned a second lighter into his left-hand palm, and began rapid-fire clicking. "Dispatch! I'm leaving you with quite a bit of power! I should hope you show just enough smarts to not kill all of us. It's quite the headrush! Ta-ta, then!" Flooding, power, overwhelming, power, heat, energy, power, vindication, zeal, power, flooding... As Kain kept clicking, he focused directly on the spot where Theo was stumbling, crouched slightly, and held his arms out to one side. PUSH! was his mental scream, and his body zipped to Theo. Unhindered by friction, gravity, work, and energy, he zipped forward, occupying the space just behind Theo. Kain grabbed around Theo's stomach, slamming down the buttons on the bottom of his lighters, simply labelled Force Feed. Clicking them, he conjured power within to convert himself and Theo into pure energy, quickly calculated the trajectory to arrive perpendicular to the two farthest heat sources in the corner, and with a mighty, deafening BOOM, he arrived with Theo, steam rising up from the two, having zipped past the walls of the labyrinth as if they weren't even there. 

Meanwhile, Kain felt an immense heat from behind him, as Dispatch absorbed the enormous amount of energy he'd left him. I think I might have overdone it a tad. I meant to leave him three star clusters worth, but it ended up being five. I suppose it matters little, though I'd wanted to save the extents of my powers for the finals, when everyone would already know the full capabilities and it mattered to people a whole lot less that I wasn't exactly playing on even ground the whole time.


As he pondered, Jackie called out to the two of them. "Kain! Theo! How in the blazes... I... that wasn't a pun, but seriously, how did you get here?"

And with only that as their ado, the huge, hulking, red-haired man drew his blade and leapt at the two of them, screaming bloody murder.

When the light faded, there stood Thraugg, both hands out in front of him, breathing heavily. One hand held a small glass marble, the other a piece of hardened sap. He could feel the heat on his skin, just from the light that the blast gave off. The walls around them were intact, as were their bodies; Alle and Hero were safe, completely un-vaporized, despite being right in the path of the attack.

In the middle of the flash was Dispatch, now enclosed within a shimmering sphere. This was what had prevented him from obliterating his opposition, as well as a large chunk of the maze they stood in. Despite the force of his blast, the orb remained, trapping him.

Getting his breathing back under control, Thraugg simply looked at Alle. "Hurry." He grumbled, fixing his eyes back on the Saiyan. He kept his arms locked in position, holding their opponent where he was. Noting the power he'd been left with, the mage was glad he'd chosen this manner of defense; this could buy them just a little more time. It was going to get really bad for them in a second.

Picking herself up, the wolf-woman dashed off, with one last look at her companions before she rounded the corner, hurrying off to find the end of the labyrinth. Desperation quickened her pace. Not only had that dragged on for far too long, but that strange wizard bad blown past them in an instant. She'd have to work quickly to free their hostage first. She just had to hope that Arthur would hold out long enough...



After about 60 seconds, the barrier gave out, freeing Dispatch.

Kain was buffeted thrice in a row: first by the question from Jackie, secondly from the recursive blast from Dispatch's beam, and then thirdly by a great, huge, hulking bear of a man leaping forty feet towards them, greatsword held behind him, ready to come smashing down. Kain touched Theo to imbue him with a bit of energy, and pushed him forward towards Jackie, under the hulking man. He himself pushed back...

...and was cut in twain, blood and flames bursting from within his own body. His arms twitched in a macabre pantomime of whatever he'd intended shortly beforehand, his corpse parts falling to the wayside. Arthur, nodding once, turned around to see Theo unlocking Jackie's cuffs. He'd allowed them the rescue, but to him, it mattered little. He'd taken care of the obvious, biggest threat to any of them, and he doubted either of them could overpower him. An Anti-Paladin, he was capable of monstrous feats of strength. He'd studied under dragons, and fought angels with his bare fists. A quivering, cowering girl and some half-cocked, wounded hero could do little against him. 

Sheathing his sword, he raised one flat hand out in front of him, pulling back with the other fist. Jackie grabbed her spear, planting her feet. Theo raised his sword in front of him, taking a riposte stance. He'd intercept the first blow, and follow through. After that, he'd have to hold his own until Dispatch either blew the stadium to hell, or the blasts knocked his foe off balance long enough to capitalize on it. 

BOOM! Arthur darted forward, feet slamming into the concrete below him, aiming for Jackie. Jackie lowered her spear a moment, then brought it up towards Arthur's neck as Theo swung vertically, yet as the beam of light came forward, Arthur parried with one fist, and the beam of light shattered. Theo barked out, "SHIT," realizing that his invincible weapon had met his match. 

In that last moment before contact, Jackie pushed a spark of electricity down into her left heel, then oriented it around to the outside of her sole. Using her newest gift, and a little bit of insight, she pivoted with lightning speed in a circle, bringing her knee up against the calf of Arthur. It wasn't enough to knock the man down, but it was enough to knock him just off balance enough to miss an attack. Arthur's fist sailed with a dark, menacing energy past Jackie's head, and while the blow itself did not impact, Jackie's skin more than crawled: the right side of her face started to melt and darken, withering and crumbling away in places. She barely took notice, the effect was so fast that it killed even her nerves.

And forty feet in the distance, the three could hear the ticking of a clock, and in their minds, they, and three more observers, could imagine two words.

Just. Heroic. 

Finn looked down at the scene below him with mild revulsion. He'd had to witness some pretty heinous stuff, but to Kain... even in this timeline, it was so much to take in. Isis was quivering next to him, and Zero looked on blankly as ever. 

"My, my," called the sprite imp, "it looks like we've had a little bit of a fatality! Too bad for all of us, Kain really was the Soul of the party, wasn't he? At least he went down in a Blaze of glory, hahahaha--"

"Fucking Can It, Frosty." Finn's eyes didn't waver from Kain's body, whose blood now began to shimmer irridescently in various colors, as the ticking continued. Heroic. Just. Heroic. Just. "Just Sit The Fuck Down And Watch The Show. I Didn't Buy You Popcorn For You To Mouth The Fuck Off."

Finn's sight into the timestream didn't give him answers. The coliseum was truly fenced off from the inside out, with no chance of outside interference. But something in him would bet, even just for a moment, that Old Leader wasn't out just yet. Kain had been known to play things close to the chest, and the pratfalling and showboating had seemingly been part of it.

Jackie was still unfortunately too close for anyone's comfort, least of all her own, as Arthur pulled back and elbowed part of her decaying face hard enough she flew through the air, neck nearly broken. Her vision swimming, colors blending, blood streaming from the corner of her mouth, nose, and ears, she put up no resistance to stop her fall and fell near Kain's mutilated body. Theo seized the little opportunity he had and turned his grip around, thrusting backwards into Arthur's chest. While his blade struck true, Arthur slammed himself along the blade, eyes white with fury. He pulled both his fists together and raised them up, before slamming them down onto Theo's elbows in a hammer blow. Theo let go, taking a half-step back, before kicking off the wall behind him and aiming a punch at Arthur's jaw. Arthur responded with his own straight right, which fully dislocated Theo's shoulder in a single blow and began the decomposition process on Theo's left side. 

Theo could already feel whatever profane power this was starting to eat away at his heart, and he knew he didn't have more time. He had about one or two more Hail Marys in him before he gave up the ghost, and could really only hope that whatever Kain's corpse was doing, it'd save them. Just. Heroic. Just... Heroic... the ticking was slowing, coming to a final conclusion. Theo took the last option he had. 

Grabbing the sword with his right hand, Theo poured the last of himself into the blade. A blade made of his very soul, Vorpal was Theo, in a sense: it was his fighting spirit, his desire to protect, and his earnest wish for victory for good, and triumph over evil. Pouring the last bit of life he had into the blade, Vorpal began to glow with energy, as dozens, then scores, then hundreds of small green pinpricks of light gathered around and absorbed into his blade. Locking eyes with Arthur--

--the light grew in size, to eighteen inches and diameter, and shot a beam forward that blew threw Arthur and bored an inch-thick hole in the wall behind him. But the blade and man both spent, Vorpal fell to the ground, rusty and lifeless, as its master too fell, his last, shuddering breath taken. Arthur still stood, despite his immense, gaping wound, and turned.

Turned as a bell tolled, and neither Heroic nor Just was determined as the judgement, the fate of Kain Galdor, upon his death. Arthur turned...

Face-to-face with the first victim he'd killed that round. 

"Now you fucked up."

[One minute has passed.]

As the minute began to expire, and with it, the spell holding Dispatch, Thraugg began to move his arms again, repeating his chant. As the bubble of light vanished, it was immediately replaced with an identical one, trapping Dispatch for another 60 seconds.

This time, however, the mage didn't stand there watching; he was confident that Alle had gotten far enough away that the opponent would forget about her. In fact, he looked so singularly focused on the one trapping him that it was a little alarming. He took off in a sprint, going right by the Saiyan warrior, and - once he confirmed that Dispatch was following him with his eyes, and not Hero - he took off around the corner, down a different path than the one he'd taken to get there. No sense in leading him back towards Arthur and their hostage.

This way, he might buy some time. This opponent was formidable enough to face Alle's strength and speed with little effort, and he'd received alarming amounts of power from that opposing mage. Thraugg briefly regretted not pursuing the bespectacled wizard more aggressively earlier; he wouldn't have to go with such a risky play now. But he was confident in his ally's speed.



Speaking of the wolf-lady, she was tearing off down labyrinthine halls at breakneck speed, running on all fours. Their plan was already in shambles, but she could still execute her part of it, even if she was a bit late.

Propelled further by instinct and desperation, she was already nearly at the end by the time the first minute expired. She was lucky enough to avoid dead-ends on this trip, for the most part, and she was alone, which meant she needn't slow her pace down at all.

Finally, she turned a corner, head snapping to the left. There they were. There was a length of corridor between them, which wasn't exactly advantageous for her. She could build up speed, but her opponent was carrying a spear, and had demonstrated her deftness at their team's little practice bout earlier. If she could just slip past the blade, though...

Kicking off the ground hard, she began to come at Jill full-tilt. She made her approach very straightforwardly at first, gauging how the spear-toting woman was reacting to her. This skirmish could very well end in a split-second.

Dispatch hadn't spent his minute in captivity idle. He railed against the inside of the sphere, punching, kicking and blasting at it, but it gave no sign, not even a hint that it had been struck at all. When that didn't work, he tried rolling it, but his foot merely slipped against the walls, and his shoulder bounced harmlessly back from it. Before the time was half-done, even in his crazed state he realized that the dog woman had been the wrong target, and this realization, combined with the energy he had utterly wasted attacking the orb that now held him, paved the way for conscious thought and strategy to return to him. He still could feel Magic Man's gift of power coursing through him - he hadn't even used half of it yet - but the sobering fact that he'd been trapped in spite of it left him silently cursing himself. And even more so, the words he heard from the stands.
 
"GET A GRIP, YA DAMN KID!"
 
His attention snapped towards the sound of the voice, a familiar sound. But one he hadn't heard in years. Far too many years. He couldn't see the man's face in the crowd, but there was no way he'd imagined it. He'd nearly forgotten what that voice sounded like, after all. But its sound caused a smirk to snake its way across Dispatch's face, one that quickly opened into a sneer. A shadow crossed his eyes as he lowered his gaze and fixed it on the enemy wizard. "...You got it, Chief."
 
His muscles itched for release, but he forced himself to be patient. Only a few more seconds. Three...two...one.
 
The enclosure vanished, and Dispatch lunged forwards…only to be trapped by another bubble.

"...You've gotta be joking," he said. But a few seconds passed, and the wizard disappeared around the corner, leaving the impenetrable orb behind, fully intact. "...God. Dammit. I might just have to kill him whether it's part of this match or not."

The observer audibly groaned, his fingers moving under his hood to pinch the bridge of his nose. "God dammit. This is why I hate wizards..."

Arthur's eyes widened for a moment, the young man's new form wreathed in flames. He was standing before him, despite having felt the young man's body rent before him under the weight of his blade. There should be nothing that could bring him back, he was under Hermes, Hades' gift seemed to be death prevention, so what was going on?! Arthur jabbed forward with his good arm, and struck... nothing? No, it wasn't that Kain's body was wreathed in flames...

...the lack of impact clued Arthur into the fact that Kain was now made of the elements themself. No matter. Arthur pulled back, imbuing his fist with the same property he had used to match the Vorpal blade he'd matched earlier. Infusing it with the unholy elements of corruption into his vorpal fist, he struck towards Kain's face... and met nothing. Even if the man were ethereal, he should be hurt. He should be touched, his soul should wither and rot from the inside out. The damned child should be dead! Why wasn't he dead?! "Who are you? What are you?"

"I'm a former sadsack wanna be celebrated author from a planet that got blown to smithereens by meteors and I barely escaped to an alternate reality with a few others. Most of those who lived that I know of died miserable, painful deaths, as me and three others escaped, and even then I was seperated. I crossed a mortal threshold, and you seem to be a man of faith, holy or profane, or otherwise. My point being, I don't care what you worship: God, Demon, Devil, Eldritch God, or Mystic Authority of any other kind, the next time you meet me in combat..."

Kain reached out with one glowing, firey limb, and grabbed Arthur by the face. Arthur did not burn, but as he was held in place, he began to feel... weak. No... no, not quite. His very will, the zeal he'd taken with him into battle, the passion that he'd lived his life with, was forcibly pulled out of his mind and body, leaving him limp on the ground. Kain turned around, walking towards Jackie. "...the next time? You send them to fight me. Not you." Kain kneeled next to Jackie, passing one hand over her wounds, quickly cauterizing them and sealing them. He handed her the spear that had fallen, and offered a shoulder as he walked over towards Theo. "You think you got one good throw in you?"

Jackie, still dazed, weakly looked over to Kain, wincing at his brightened form. "Maybe. You think we can work it with the walls up?"

"I know we can. I did an improvised version with Theo to get to you." Kain set Jackie against the wall, picked up Theo, and began cauterizing his own wounds too. Theo stood, leaning against the wall. Kain closed his eyes, sending his thoughts outward. Jill? You have a moment? We need a spark of electricity on your end. We're down bad over here, and we can get there... but we're relying on you.


Oh good, came the response. Fantastic. Really. Promise. Bit busy, get back to you in a sec. Thanks for letting me know that mutt-girl was coming. 

Kain winced. What had happened after he left?

Jill had her hands full keeping up concentrating and making sure she was taking in information from each of the others. Her own train of thought? A little convoluted at times for her own good, and that was one thing that she could manage. The disparate, alien, and numerous thoughts of the others? It was something she had trouble adjusting to, on top of maintaining concentration in order to make sure her charge didn't try anything funny. She'd had to take a few steps away from her after the first minute, where the catgirl had attempted to wrap a foot around Jill's ankle and trip the spearwoman. 

Combat broke out, and things looked fine at first... until Jill got a second-hand wave of concussion and nausea radiating out from Theo. He was hurt, bad, but the others were too preoccupied on what they were doing to really fix the situation. The fire-mage in particular had fairly erratic thought patterns, snippets of words or phrases constantly flitting through his mental space, punctuated by singular, crystal-clear observations. She wondered if Goeiz thought similarly, before banishing the wayward thought. 

She observed the transformation of an idea in Kain's mind, and marveled at his tenacity, power, and technique. She quailed for a moment at the power he left for Dispatch, before realizing it was on her side... she hoped. Dispatch was cut off from her suddenly, which worried her. She sent out a questioning thought to Kain... yet even as she finished the thought, his was cut off too. Jackie and Theo still remained, though Theo was in immense pai--

Oh. Oh things really had gone from bad to worse, hadn't they? The guard had struck Jackie, which she was certain was against several of the scoring conditions, before she realized Theo was still up. She hadn't the time to observe beyond that, as the clattering of claws against stone sounded out close-by. 

Jill weighed the standings. Dispatch was down, likely out. Kain was... out. For sure. Jackie was down. Theo was going down. This was about to turn into a 4v1. A problem, but one that she thankfully had some tools for. As the dog-woman rounded the corner, Jill held her spear out in front of her vertically, slamming the pommel into the ground once, and a bubble formed around her and Kailee, rising as her opponent approached. She took a step back, the barrier coming up even as Alle charged, leaping forward.

Watching the shimmering wall of light rise from below the spear-woman's feet, Alle slowed her charge down a notch. She needed just a moment to prepare, and her opponent probably couldn't make an attack from her position. If she was counting on the wolf bouncing off her shield like an idiot and ending up wide open, all there was to do was deal with the shield. Time was of the essence - however, there was Alle's ally, just behind the guardian squaring off with her. Harming her would be bad in a number of ways.

Craning her neck down, with her eyes still fixed on her target, she opened her jaws and bit down on her right forearm, fangs piercing her flesh. Releasing her limb from her maw's fierce grip, blood streamed from the wounds she'd made, leaving a trail of crimson on the ground behind her. As she did this, her other hand pulled the mace from her hip and grasped at the end of the shaft. Once her right arm was free, she used both hands to grasp the weapon, holding it somewhat behind her as she ran. Her stride was still very fast, but with only two legs propelling her onwards, her gait was slowed further.

But behind her, at the edge of the line of blood, a mote of light appeared. It flew along the scarlet flow, growing into a massive, burning arrow. As she drew close, Alle swung the mace with all her might against the barrier, a heavy downward swing. Behind the metal bludgeon, the shining missile conjured by her blood struck the magical shield, bursting into a brilliant conflagration of blue flame. 

All or nothing. Seconds after the spells collided, Alle surged forward again, looking away from the blinding light and reaching out for Kailee's cuffs, or where she thought she'd seen them on her approach. With any luck, the spear-wielding member of Team Hephaestus would be stunned for just a moment, enough to separate them. If not, well... how much worse could this match get, anyway?



Meanwhile, Thraugg's stern face never betrayed his wild heartbeat. He wasn't particularly afraid of dying - especially knowing he would be revived - however, he knew his was a losing gambit, and a single failed judgment would lead to instant annihilation. He wasn't even entirely sure that he'd saved Hero; if this absurdly-powerful young man were level-headed in spite of the cosmic power coursing through his body, he'd likely eliminate the nearest enemy before going after the mage who'd held him in place for one-hundred-and-twenty seconds.

As he turned another corner, dashing off to the center of the maze, he counted down in his head until the moment the Saiyan would be released. 112... 113... 114...

He briefly considered formulating a plan of attack, but the best he would be able to hope for is temporarily blinding his aggressor. Just another diversionary tactic. Guerrilla fighting didn't mean much to an enemy of this scale, not in such a short time. The action he could take with the most impact right now was simply to draw the man further from his ally. Perhaps Hero would be able to assist Alle or Arthur, or even work to divide this enemy's attention. Anything was better than the both of them simply being wiped from the board.

At the count of 120, the bubble vanished quietly, releasing Dispatch.

Of course, several failed attempts at contributing to the fight had made Dispatch angry, which for anyone else would have meant clouded judgement. In this case, however, it had only caused him to burn off much of the energy that had caused him to go power-crazy, and the familiar voice had brought him...almost entirely back to his senses. He spared a glance for the warrior with the shield that had absorbed his blast earlier, but he didn't need more than half a second to determine that the man was too exhausted to fight on.

He took another half-second to scan for energy. Three back at the other end of the maze, and one of them was definitely the dog-lady. The wizard had gone off somewhere else, and--oh what the hell had happened on the other end? Green Sword's energy was completely gone, and while their hostage appeared to be fine, there was no sign of Magic Man's energy. In fact, there was no other human energy there at all. There was something, but he had no idea what it was. Then again, it didn't seem hostile, and after two more seconds, neither of the two had dropped. That was...basically under control, then.

Dispatch sprinted off, back the way he'd come through the maze. The thought of reducing the wizard to smoke was tempting, extremely tempting, but realistically, he could do that any time, and more so if the walls came down. From the way he'd been fighting, he needed line of sight with his target, although you could never quite tell with wizards. Even if he was preparing something, as long as Dispatch kept most of the energy he was left with (about 40% of what had come out of that lighter), he could get in and evaporate his enemy near-instantly.

The maze might have slowed him down on his trip back to start, but something caught his eye, clear as day: a trail of blood. Given the direction he was heading, it could only have been the dog lady's. The trail was bright, clear, and as he ran, it became a little bit sticky on his boot, though not enough to be a real hindrance. After another couple of corners, he spotted a spark moving along the trail like some kind of fuse. A really, really big fuse. Then a blinding flash as it struck...something. He hadn't had time to tell what. All he knew was that his timing couldn't have been better. He didn't even need to run forward from his position. He launched himself directly off the ground into a flying kick, aimed for the enemy's back. If he could drive her into the ground, the match was as good as over. All they'd have to do was wait.

Jill's shield held, but just barely: the orb of shimmering pale gold light flickered and nearly fell entirely for a moment, but came back after the mace and missile blow had crashed into her barrier. Then Dispatch came and vaulted straight into the canine woman, dealing what looked like an initially severe blow. She couldn't tell with the lights and dust cropping up, and the translucent orb shimmered in a way that dampened her ability to see. 

Two stimuli came towards her immediately. First was the sensation of being tightly gripped around her waist, and her balance failing. The cat had sprung up behind her, tackling and grabbing Jill with her legs, intending to throw her off balance and either break the shield or give her companion time to capitalize on the diversion. No words were seemingly spoken between them, yet they acted so that any result would still benefit each other. The cat woman continued to use her unnatural speed, flexibility, and grace to lift her abdomen and swing from side to side on Jill's back, leaving Jill the only choice to hold onto her spear in front of her, planted firm on the ground, to not be whipped into a wall or onto the floor herself. 

The second stimulus was a probing thought from the companion mage. Jill? You have a moment? The voice was incredibly soft, and kind, considering the situation. He sounded genuinely sincere about bothering her, which served to only annoy Jill, considering her situation. We need a spark of electricity on your end. We're down bad over here, and we can get there... but we're relying on you.


Jill stopped an errant 'Oh for fuck's sake' from leaking out into the ether, but instead kept a terse response given her current grapple and outside forces. Oh good. Fantastic. Really. Promise. Bit busy, get back to you in a sec. Thanks for letting me know that mutt-girl was coming. 


Truly? My apologies, I wasn't there when--


NOT THE POINT. HOLD IT. GIVE ME TEN SECONDS, ARGH. WHEN I SAY GO, YOU DO WHAT YOU NEED TO. Speaking up audibly, she shouted out past her barrier, "Dispatch! Grab her! I have to let my barrier down: don't let her get in here! Don't let her move forward!" 

And, raising her spear skyward, she let a small spark of electricity fly off the edge of her spear, and the barrier fell, given the workings of the spell: no life nor strike could come within, so long as no malice, nor action of harm, occurred from within itself. The barrier fell, and Jill staked everything on the young mage, on Jackie, and on her best friend, Theo.

GO!

Struck squarely in the back by the assailant who'd been chasing her, Alle was sent forward only a short distance - straight into the barrier she'd just struck at. Crushed between them, her spine arched and her head shot back, blood spewing from her mouth. Well, her attempt to break the barrier had failed, and the fighter from earlier, who'd nearly obliterated her along with Hero and Thraugg, had not only caught up despite the distance she'd put between them, he'd landed a critical blow.

Her mace slipped out of her grip and hit the ground with a couple of dull clanks. Not like she could keep a grip on it, with what had just happened to her spine. It was the sort of thing most people would pray not to be conscious for, but the wolf-woman held out. There was no way she'd have enough time to prepare another spell of that magnitude again, let alone a greater one, with this other attacker right behind her. Smashing the barrier was no longer an option, her teammates didn't seem to be anywhere nearby or in any state to help, and a number of crucial organs of hers had just gone pop. Yeah, this was basically over already. Even if she somehow defeated these two, she wouldn't be able to walk ten steps.

Taking a sharp breath through her nose, she once again wreathed her claw in light, this time driving it into her own side. If she got another chance to act, she'd need to not be on death's door when the time came. The light-born threads tied her broken body together, but didn't undo the damage done, just kept her from dropping dead immediately. Now that she had a little bit of her range of motion back, she began to turn and face Dispatch, expecting to have to weave through a follow-up attack.

Dispatch hadn't entirely realized the barrier was there as he'd thrown his kick. Only the recoil from his target bouncing off of it informed him of its existence, but he landed cleanly on his feet all the same, smirking at the dog woman as she fell to the ground, and sparing a glance toward his side's hostage guardian as she barked an order that he registered as "keep the dog down." It didn't seem like a problem - the dog was strong, for sure, but she didn't seem to understand that you're supposed to hit your opponent - this was the second time she'd attacked her own team, and this time it was herself. Despite her strength, she was kind of bad at this.

Still, he wasn't about to choke right at the finish line. "Alright. Full speed, then." He shot up into the air, hitting his target height in the blink of an eye - the energy Magic Man had given him was insane. Now that he had most of his sensibilities back, he realised it was actually too much, to the point that he was moving faster than his reflexes could stop him, and he passed his intended altitude by several feet. But he played it off, hovering there for just a moment, one foot in front of the over, and bent slightly forward with his arms spread.

In another blink, there was a sound of crunching brick as he appeared behind the dog woman, a small crater around each of his feet, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, locking his hands behind her head and pushing it down. He could immediately feel that he'd overdone it a bit with his kick as he pulled her back against his chest, and held her firmly while still attempting not to further crush anything - he'd never seen this technique fail, and he didn't intend to be the first.

Alle's lips curled into a faint smile as she realized her predicament. The fighter had opted to restrain her instead of crushing her skull and ending it. Her arms were pinned and her legs weren't going to get her far, but she still had a card to play. Now, the spear-woman wasn't likely to keep up the barrier when faced with a beaten, captured enemy, so there was a chance she'd lower it. Frankly, unless she did lower the barrier, there was no chance of winning, so in a way, this played out to her advantage. If her opponent weren't assured that she was victorious, she'd just keep the shield going indefinitely. This painful predicament could be her one shot.

Kain hoisted Jackie up on his shoulder higher, letting her readjust. "She's got us, you gotta do this now. No pressure, just don't think about the consequences for now." Kain's words were oddly calm, considering that the consequences were probably the worst splattering anyone in this universe had ever experienced, if it only went a little poorly, let alone mentioning how bad it could go if things went really south. 

Jackie closed her eyes, fighting back against the pounding heartbeat in her head, fought against her own pulse, that incessant beating of her heartbeat's drum. After a moment, she let it become the focus instead of blocking it out, and looked up. Her eyes began to glow with a light of power, and Kain braced, focusing on a singular phrase. Transference of energy, transmutation of matter. 

Jackie stared, instinctively seeing beyond the wall, and for a moment, she felt like she could read the electrical signals of several bodies in a frantic, heated scuffle at the other end of the maze. And then, that spark came. A burst of negative ions, seeking and scrambling out into the air, greedily slurping and snatching at anything they could grab, for that match, those positive charges. Jackie slammed through the barrier in her mind that held the font of magical power within her. She jammed that power into her feet, and barely had time to spare for a single thought: reach.

Kain felt the surge of electicity as his legs tingled and his body burst into white light, subsuming him, Jackie, and Theo, transmuting their body into raw energy, and let that energy move freely. Jackie's technique brought the two points of contact together, and their bodies zipped, free of movement, at the speed of lightning. In the space between instances, in the flash between heartbeats, in the pause between thoughts and sensations, they went from one side of the maze, to the other, momentarily suspended in midair as a grand, great ball of light, before the energy popped, and their forms resumed, their three bodies crashing to the ground below them, right in front of Alle. So close to victory, and yet...

Kailee swung her torso violently, and with her spear in the air, Jill was thrown to the ground. Kailee scrabbled, attempting to unearth her own legs. She was feet from her goal, but a few extra inches more and she'd be free...!

As the shimmering wall came down, Alle's eyes regained their life. Reflected in them was the sudden flash as the whole enemy party arrived in an instant. Well, it was do-or-die time. She wouldn't let this end with the two of them still in captivity.

Sharply taking a breath, she braced her neck and torso, forcefully moving her arms down to her sides. This would - probably - break the interlaced grip on the back of her neck. Her jaws snapped open, and then shut upon the man's right hand. Hopefully the pain and sudden loss of grip would daze him just a little. Holding his hand with her mouth and grasping his other wrist with her own, she tugged him harshly over her back, took a step to reorient herself, and hurling him over her own head, aimed right at the new arrivals.

Dispatch hid his surprise as he found his hands suddenly forced apart - did this opponent still have some vitality left, or was he really slipping that much? The sudden, sharp pain in his hand abruptly made him stop caring.

"Gaaahhddammit!" he exclaimed, shifting one foot behind him as she attempted to throw him over her shoulder. No way was he gonna choke right at the finish line! He leapt up, into the air once more, his arms still hooked under the woman's armpits, though now for no other reason than to bring her up with him.

"You wanna eat, puppy, you can tell me how the floor tastes!" Dispatch flipped over his back, releasing his opponent as they both faced downward, and adding a kick just for good measure. He was annoyed now, and impact with the ground would probably kill her. Still, he was past leaving things to chance, and he didn't trust his own attacks not to cause serious collateral damage, so he called down to the others, "Heads up, you three!"

Kain, still in his firey form, simply nodded and inhaled deeply as Alle's body rocketed down. With an immense push of force, collapsing as much of his chest as he could allow, Kain blew a hot, shimmering blast of humid air up and over them, shielding the group from the impact and hopefully keeping Alle at bay for just a moment longer. Jackie's eyes, however, were locked with this feline girl in front of her, blocking her way to the goal. Just a few meters and a couple bodies stood in her way, but Jackie had no room for hesitation. Assuming nothing else would bar her way, Jackie's feet slid into position, spear raised, and with a small jolt of electricity, threw it. If no one intercepted it, she could make it. She'd already sent the secondary jolt to her feet. Kailee reached for the spear, to block it with her body, anything, but wasn't fast enough. It was about to sail over her head...

---A Few Moments Earlier---

"...where am I? ...ah well, it's a trivial inconvenience at most, for the moment. I'll be back in a moment."

"Hey-hey, whoa, c'mon pal, you just arrived like that and you figure you're going back? C'mon, stay a moment, take a load of, try the gyros--"

"Frankly I'm not interested. I know what I said, and my revival will be complete in a matter of seconds. Don't worry, just watch, Lord of the Dead."

"Oh-kay kid, listen, I don't know what rules you think you're getting to play by, but it sure ain't mine!"

"Exactly the point. I was playing my own rules from the beginning, from my own world. So long as I act neither too courageously, nor too villainously, so long as I raise my arms in self-defense, but never just so much as to merely defend, so long as I play the part I was given just so, I'm immortal. Always will be, too, for a countless number of possible timelines. Or I would, but... that's another story for another time."

"I don't understand half of whatever it is you just said, but at least let me get two things straight: your own rules? What does that make you? And for that matter, does that mean you're against something out-and-out immoral, or would you have to... game your system a little more?"

"I'm not one for criminal acts, or acts of ill repute, generally speaking. I'll trick a trickster and feel nothing about it, and I'll turn a marauding thief's knife against them, but little beyond that. So likely no, to whatever you're proposing. As for the first..."

"Well?"

"It takes one to recognize one, and you qualify. So, let that be your answer. I'm leaving."

"...I'll be, he really did come back on his own. Now that's something to keep track of... oy vey."

---The Present, a short Distance from the Fight---

Goeiz turned his attention back to Gestalt. "How goes it? I took the chance to meditate for a while, how do you believe yourself to be doing? What questions do you have? And what answers do you seek?"

---The Fight---

Jackie's mind would have reeled at the last few minutes had she chosen to take them in at that moment. She'd suddenly chosen to draft herself as part of the team, had been handed off to a kindly monk who had known her own teammate, both of whom were from worlds not of hers nor of the worlds she'd been to. She'd been shackled and kept waiting by teammates who appeared like a bolt from the blue, teammates that took immense blows from a ungodly force and were still left standing at the end of it all. One of them conquered his own death, and shortly after, she was forced to put her plan... less a plan, more an idea, into action. A wrong step in the process and they could have been a quantum smear on the walls. But here they were.

So, really, was there any doubt that a simple spear throw could have stopped her at this point?

Her spear flew past Kailee's body, who even in her most desperate moment, attempted to lunge for the spear, jaw opened wide in a last defiant, but useless, effort to do something to knock the spear off course. She clamped her jaw shut on empty air, the spear flew and stuck to the wall, and with a set of twin sparks of electricity, Jackie's form disappeared and reappeared holding the spear again. She doubted if she'd actually won for a moment, when...

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! STOP THE MATCH! WE HAVE A WINNER! THE FIRST CONTESTANTS TO WIN WITHOUT THE OPPOSING HOSTAGE GETTING FREE, WE ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS AS THE HEPHAESTUS-HERMES TEAM!"

Jackie's legs fell out from under her, a sense of elation welling up in her contrasted only by how mentally exhausted she was from the ordeal. Tears welled up in her eyes and she choked out something between a hearty, heavy chuckle and a sob. She shut her eyes to the world and simply held onto her spear, no longer just a weapon to her, but her symbol of victory. 

Kain's eyes flicked over to Alle, and with a snap of his fingers, he sent a spark of warm, soft light into her chest, providing her body the energy it needed to begin sealing the wound shut on its own, cleansing the wound in the same moment with a cauterizing fire. His fire elemental form dropped, and became the boy with the glasses again, smiling in his sunset orange-red robes. "Go ahead. Your companion is no longer of concern to us. Take her and be on your way." Kain turned to Theo and shot him another spark, easing the pain from Theo's concussion and stitching some of the necrotic skin back together.

Theo, for his part, was starting to come to, and with the added clarity, could only smile at the results in front of him. He simply looked Kain in his eyes and nodded, before turning to walk through the door... and thinking better of it for the moment. Instead, he made way over to Jill, who was dusting herself off and leaned in to whisper. "My apologies if I've said this before--head's certainly a little fuzzy--but you really should take a moment to learn from that boy. He's a marvel of a miracle."

[After Alle and Dispatch are finished with whatever, Jackie will pick herself up and we'll have the points and then the characters will have the night to recuperate before round two starts tomorrow, during which I'd anticipated on letting Kain and Jackie interact with some of the other characters from the other teams, and would love to let them interact with Gestalt, Dispatch, and whomever else was available (Tabago and Reumos come to mind).]

"Aw, HELL yeah!" Dispatch exclaimed, pumping his fist into the air. He looked off in the direction of the stands, but...nope. No sign of any familiar faces. Not that he was about to let that spoil his mood! He dropped right down to the ground - the others had done incredibly for themselves, he could hardly even believe it! Both the red-haired spear-wielders had more than pulled their weight, but Magic Man was closer than either of them, and got the first greeting.

"That was awesome! Where did you even get that kind of energy, and why wouldn't you use it on yourself? I mean seriously that drove me crazy and I like to think I've got some serious reserves myself! And then that fire trick you did, and the warping around and man, I gotta be real with you, there's no way I'd have made it back on time under my own steam, so I seriously cannot wait to work with you again! Anyway, though, I'll be right back, gotta check with the others!"

The collapsed redhead was next - not that Dispatch took any heed of her apparent exhaustion, catching her in a headlock and mussing up her hair. "And you! You pulled that off perfectly! And there you were in that side-room talkin' like you had no idea if it'd work or not, that couldn't have gone better! You gotta have a little more confidence than that or - y'know I know someone else who needs to work on her confidence too, although I don't know if you'd get along, she doesn't much get along with anyone but anyway, you were awesome!"

Struggling to her feet, Alle took a few ragged breaths. Well. That could've gone better. And the second this adrenaline wears off, I'm gonna be in a whole lot more pain... Plunging her claws into her own body a few times to cast more healing spells on her various damaged organs, when she finished, she shook her own blood off and moved over to Kailee, looking her over for injuries; more out of habit than anything. "You okay? I'm sorry that I didn't quite make it in time. I didn't think they'd match my speed, let alone surpass it by so much."



Thraugg, meanwhile, simply looked around as the walls came down, locating his teammates. Everyone but him and Kailee had been basically taken down; Hero had been impaled, and despite the healing he received, looked like he was barely conscious. Arthur just looked... defeated, somehow. And Alle was surrounded by her own blood on ground that looked like it had cracked from her being slammed into it.

Quietly, but with haste, he moved over to Hero, pulling the man's arm over his shoulder. "...Let's go back."




Gestalt looked up at Goeiz, startling a bit. "Oh... er, well... I've been a little stuck on this. The writings you gave me are a little too arcane for me to understand, so I tried to focus on visualizing this 'mage hand' thing. Judging by the diagrams, the spell really does create an invisible hand that can interact with the physical world, but again, I'm stymied on how to draw out and direct power."

Looking again at his right hand, he carefully moved each digit in turn as he spoke. "I'm supposed to meditate and look within myself for it, but when I do, I don't 'see' anything. Perhaps I just need more practice?"

It was a lot to try and just... breathe, for Jackie, but she wiped away her tears quickly and turned up to look at him. "It... well, I was thinking the walls would be down the first time I did it. I never thought I could do it through solid objects, so that was Kain's thing. But now, if I have a spark of electricity somewhere, I can move to it. If moving doesn't play by it's normal rules anymore, then maybe I could do it through walls, and barriers. Can I teleport now? Walk up walls?" Jackie paused a second and laughed, the sort of laugh that comes from being exhausted and trying to push away the crying. "Wild Child, I might be dancing with you up in the skies soon!"

Meanwhile, Kailee was sulkling off with Alle, bitterly biting at her lip as she stared at her feet, occasionally leaning onto Alle. "I ain't gonna blame you. Them people had weird magic and they burst straight through the walls. The fact that you got to me was more'n enough... but dammit! Damn this feeling. It feels like... like She showed up again." She looked over at Hero, being pulled over to Arthur. Arthur himself didn't even look scratched, but the expression on his face was so different it sent a chill down her spine. "A-Alle... look at him. Alle, look, he ain't normal. What'd they do ta him?"

Hero, in his daze, simply followed along with Thraugg, glad the fight was over, glad his women were safe and sound, all things considered. Alle looked like she'd attempted to go overboard again, but it just made him smile, and his shoulder twinge for a moment. 

Goeiz pondered for a moment. Holding his own hand up, he spoke, "When I desire the use of my own magic, I imagine a shining crystal, a gem, in a void. It shimmers and glows radiantly, all different colors, and when I wish to tap into it, I imagine a tool to strike it, and let the magic flow from that source. Like a faucet, perhaps." He then flicked his wrist as his pupils glowed softly. The pages turned in front of Gestalt, as if pushed by an invisible hand. The paper tapped at one particular part, and then stopped. "This part here. Visualization. Creating an idea of what you want can help you, to draw it out in the way you need. If I need a little, I use a tiny, small hammer. If I need a lot, I crush it with a great maul. When I'm done, I cover it with the dark, and seal it shut, before it appears again. However you would best imagine your own magic, do it thus."

Jill came into the room, a slight smile on her face. "What's this then? Magic lessons for the apprentice? Surely you're not overloading him like you did your son, Goeiz?"

Goeiz flustered and blushed. "Erky did quite well under my tutelage, thank you. And if you've time to make idle jabs, I suppose that means we were victorious indeed."