destinystrings | Free Battle: Capricorn

Entry tags:

Free Battle: Capricorn

Who: Atsuro Kihara, Open
Where: Leo -> Capricorn District, night
Summary: Skill cracking, magnetite-farming, and leveling up. Atsuro's no stranger to training...
Warnings: None

[private, voice to Ludwig Beilschmidt]
Hey, ah... Ludwig. ...Do you mind if I call you that?

We're getting close to another full moon. ...That's when they said the demons came out in full force, right? I think we should try and get a handle on summoning our Personas before we have to face something else like last time. I've tried to call Enki a few more times; I don't think it's possible just to do it for fun - it might not work unless we're really in danger.

Can we meet tonight by the town hall in Leo? Let's say... about 11:30. I saw you were asking about Personas; I can fill you in on what Enki can do then before we head out.

[public text]
Hey! I'm heading out to do some training tonight. Free Battles are a free action, right? Don't wait up; I won't be getting back until after that 13th Hour.

Feel free to join me if you want. I'll be outside Capricorn.

[action, town hall]
Half an hour to go.

Atsuro shuffles nervously in front of the hall, his fingers toying with the adjustable strap on his bag. The text had essentially been spam; he wasn't sure why he'd felt the urge to announce his plans to the whole city. He'd met maybe ten people here. Probably three or four of them actually cared. Naoya, of course, would want to keep tabs on him, but Naoya kept tabs on everything without anyone needing to check in, anyway.

The real reason, of course, was so that someone would come looking if he ended up dead or unconscious somewhere. He wasn't afraid of the demons... Not really. A pack of Waira were nothing in comparison to Belberith or Babel. But he'd been shaken; the idea of being plucked from the verge of defeat by what was essentially a happy coincidence didn't sit well with him. What if it'd been a one-time deal? What if his Persona just... never came out again?

Thou art I and I am thou. He'd never thought of himself as a great fighter. All he'd ever wanted to do was survive. No one had asked him to join a team or become a part of something greater - He, along with the rest of Tokyo, had simply been thrust into a situation where they had to pull out all stops if they wanted to live to see the next sunrise. Of course, he'd given it his all. But after living through those seven days of terror and panic, these three weeks of leisure had reminded him... This was what he'd been fighting for. So that the world would go back to normal and he could resume his normal life. Did he really want to stay here and keep on fighting? For some purpose he didn't even fully understand? Yeah, it was neat and exciting and novel. But so was the thought of playing an MMO with his forum buddies again, cramming for placement exams, and hanging out with Yuzu and Kazuya at the mall.

...He sighs slightly and shakes himself out of his thoughts. The important thing at the moment was to gain control of this power he didn't understand. Making a decision when he still felt lost and confused... Probably wasn't the best idea.

Atsuro finally stops fidgeting and seats himself on the steps of the building, watching the nightlife die down as the 13th Hour rapidly approaches. Ludwig ought to show up soon. ...Maybe some others would too. He finds himself scanning the faces of those passing by, hoping to find someone familiar.

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"Tch! Unpleasant little..." She aims her staff at the creature, a few dark spheres shooting out and aiming to smack him point blank. Useless when alive, but maybe of help when dead.

"You haven't seen nothing unpleasant yet." There's no better word for what the Incubus does next but cackle. The discordant laughter is almost tangibly painful as it echoes through the still night, interrupted only briefly as the creature thrusts out a hand to draw in the darkness. [XXX-BLOCK-XXX] Its laughter in rhythm now with the tapping of its foot, the demon strikes the ground one last time as the earth erupts around it.

"Oh geez...!"

Enemy Party:
Incubus Lvl 34 HP: 341/341
Yurlungur Lvl 45 HP: 423/423
Yurlungur Lvl 44 HP: 409/409
Yurlungur Lvl 47 HP: 445/445

"Those things're everywhere!" The humongous worms writhe and squirm, intertwining back and forth as they burrow through the earth. It was hard to tell where one ended and another began; certainly, there seemed to be much more than merely the three.

"Whaddaya say we take care of those introductions now?" The Incubus hisses before springing Misery with claws outstretched.

Edited 2012-10-03 04:40 (UTC)

"How about we don't?" Before the incubus has a chance to connect, Misery disappears, reappearing several feet away. She raises her hand up and, almost as if instinctively knowing what to do, seems to summon a tarot card into her presence.

The Hierophant.

With a casual swipe, she shatters it like glass, and the vaguely eldritch, brainy Omoikane appears to represent her. "Right, let's see what you can do, hmm Omoikane? Let's start by taking the point out of those nasty little claws."

Omoikane waves his tentacles, and casually casts Tarunda on the incubus as Misery cackles.

"Tch!" The demon smoothly recovers from its missed swipe, flitting higher into the air. "Think you can douse my passions with a single spell? You're gonna need a lot more than that to dull my blade!"

Two could play at the cackling game. The Incubus backflips in the air and swipes at nothing in particular with its claws - immediately, a pillar of flame springs up where Misery hovers.

"Blech." Atsuro makes a face as the rainbow serpents finally stop writhing, making a concerted effort to rapidly whip in his direction. "I always heard worms could keep on living if you cut 'em in half. Here's hoping that's one of those lies the older kids tell ya." The Power descends from the sky as Shiisaa takes its place beside its master's side. Three on three.

She scowls, darting out of the way of the flame column, but it still manages to slightly scorch her arm. "Little pest!" she growls. She flits around, summoning large stone blocks to plummet around the area of the incubus before remembering the Persona. "Well come on, help me out with this!" The Persona (maybe a bit reluctantly) casts Sukunda; let's see how well it dodges blocks with THAT on.

The Incubus chuckles again as it ignores the effects of the stat-lowering, darting forward once more with a series of bursts of Agilao. The loss of accuracy means its aim is slightly off on occasion, but fire, unfortunately, has the tendency to spread. "All bark and no bite. You got anything that'll actually put a scratch on me? C'mon, show me some... punishment.

On the ground, Atsuro takes a breath as his demons dart forth to initiate combat with the fertility serpents. Persona... Summoning his Persona... The witch had done it so effortlessly just now; surely it wouldn't be any trouble for him...

Oh, now she's really getting pissed off. She dodges as best she can, but she's beginning to look significantly scorched now. "Omoikane, you can do better than THAT!" she shouts at the Persona. She activates her own Dark Orbs as protection while the beleagered mental representation begins firing off rapid shots of Zio at the creepy creature.

"Eheheheh! Harder! Try harder!" The aptly described creepy creature flits and darts through the air as the lightning strikes come fast and furious. Given its lowered Evasion, it, of course, eventually falls to a --

"Tch...! Hah, so the girl has some sting to her..." The Incubus skids to a stop as it lands heavily on the ground, its body flickering slightly with residual electricity. ""No matter!" Thrusting out its clawed hand once more, the Incubus flips gleefully into the air as what appears to be a net of magic lashes forward towards Misery. Life Drain.

"Persona Persona Persona..." Power and Shiisaa were no match for the high-leveled demons. Mazio keeps them at bay while the angel stabs and spears, but they are forced to retreat soon enough. Atsuro feels his heartbeat increasing as he stands his ground, watching the Yurlungurs approach. This was good. This was the situation he wanted to recreate. A feeling of impending loss, of a desire to win against all odds.

...Perhaps it needn't be recreated so realistically.

"KYAH!"

She feels the net hit her, feels the energy drain from her. Feels the sting, the anger.

Right. If that's what he wants.

She dispels Omoikane. Useless brain wasn't doing her much good right now anyway. "I won't..."

She begins to glow as another card descends in front of her.

"...be stopped..."

The familiar form of the Tower can be seen.

"...HERE!"

She shatters it. A figure emerges from her, less alien looking than the brain -- and yet somehow more terrifying in visage. A slow voice croaks from its mouth:

"Come... embrace the rage..."

She points to the creature. "You're in my command now. Waste him."

He opens an eye with a malicious twinkle before darting forward at the Incubus in a Kill Rush.

Where before the Incubus had displayed a loathsome glee, its features take on a more austere malevolence as it watches Misery swap Personas. The atmosphere of the fight had changed. His opponent was stepping it up a level; it would have to do so in turn if it wished to come out the better in this fight.

"Changing strategies...? Hahaha! I'll drain your spirit before this hour has passed!" The devil shrieks as it opens its mouth and spews a miasma from its mouth, a Poison Mist attack that does nothing to prevent it from being roundly smashed by the Kill Rush. The Incubus bounces backwards a few steps and growls.

HP: 189/341

"Persona!" With a sound like shattering glass, Atsuro thrusts a hand forth almost simultaneously with the Kill Rush cast by Ballos. The ghostly apparition of a half-naked man cloaked in streams of water appears, calling forth a flood to wash away the Yurlungur. "Yes!"

She darts out of the way of the inaccurate fog, her own anger visible on her face. The Persona seems to be reveling in this assualt more than the previous one. With a flick of her wrist, she orders "Uncle" to cast a lightning spell, much stronger than Omoikane's. Zionga. She throws in her own attack, another set of black orbs she hurtles in the creature's direction. Two on one. Does she care? No.

"Pfah!" The Incubus flits forward as fast as it can, taking the dark orbs full on and blocking them again with its innate elemental nullification. The Zionga is more tricky, but a practiced combatant can sense the tingle and the taste of copper - and quickly abscond.

Its claws are wreathed in flame as it lunges towards Misery, slashing twice, and in a perhaps unexpected move, whirling around to stab as well with its barbed tail.

Somewhat removed from this much more dramatic battle, Atsuro heedlessly continues with his routine monster extermination. He'll glance up eventually.

She scowls as he rushes her. Then smirks. And... vanishes.

Leaving a block to fall down where she was -- and a waiting Persona for whereever the creature tries to pop out ready to assault dive the little creature while she watches from a short distance away.

The momentum carried by the Incubus means it continues to fly forward even after it rushes through the spot where Misery had been; the falling block only catches its tail as it begins to flip head over heels in a rather undignified fashion.

"You little...!" The word that had been about to ensue probably would've been 'witch' if it hadn't turned sharply towards Misery to catch her eyes. A baleful expression comes across its features as it shrieks harshly again, projecting an image that induced an irrational terror in all who gazed upon it. An Evil Smile. If it couldn't defeat her through brute force...

In all of this, it ignores the Persona entirely, recognizing from previous experience that it was nothing more than a spiritual manifestation of the actual combatant. Perhaps this was a mistake.

Unfortunately for Misery, it takes somehow, causing her to recoil in fear.

Unfortunately for the Incubus, this does nothing to sideline the Persona whose own momentum is currently barreling towards the creature with yet another Kill Rush.

The demon smiles wickedly as it sees that the status has taken hold. Incapacitated in such a manner, the foul little witch would be easily disposed of. Soon it could do with her as it p --

"Khh -- !"

The demon goes bouncing across the soil as the Persona's attack strikes before the Fear can fully take hold.

HP: 2/341

"This always happens." A voice pipes down from below as Atsuro finally takes note of what's happening above his head. A brief summon of his Persona and a Patra is duly applied to Misery. "I think you deserve the final blow here."

"Hrrr...! You little piece of -- "

"...And hurry. I think we're going for a PG rating."

The fear fades, but the anger's still there. "Gladly." She raises her staff. Screw "Uncle," she can do this herself. She lifts her staff. Don't tell me she didn't learn her lesson?

...and then it turns out, oh hey, she has a lightning elemental spell of her own, even if they're kind of black in color too. Go fig.

"Ghhrkkaaaaaaaaaa -- !"

It isn't an explosion, per se, but with the black lightning acting as a catalyst, there's rather a lot more pyrotechnics than Atsuro is expecting. He watches as the demon vanishes off the face of the earth in a final flash; true to the way things worked in his world, the last Yurlungur he'd been fending off disappears as well. This likely had nothing to do with any 4th wall-breaking game mechanics more than it was a demon knowing the right time to abscond.

Three demons down. The Yurlungurs hadn't proved very difficult at all once he'd realized they had a weakness to Shiisaa's Mazio. With his Persona backing him up, he'd been able to fend for himself quite easily - it probably helped that they didn't have any vocal cords. Enemies with snarky commentary were always more difficult to fight.

Atsuro dismisses his demons and jogs lightly towards where Misery is hovering.

"You alright there? I can get Laksmi to heal us up."

She hovers, looking at the remnants as her chuckling Persona disperses. She doesn't seem happy for the end of battle. She seems... frustrated.

"...tch. To think I would let HIM out... Am I really so hopeless?" she mutters.

"..."

He can't make out her words exactly, but his psychic talents and remarkable knack for empathy tells him that something rather undesirable had happened during the fight. ...That and they had just been discussing this before the fight. He casts a glance towards her initial Persona before it vanishes - assumedly back into her heart.

"Hey. Don't worry about it. It was your first time fighting these things; you'll know what to expect next time."

She glares at him a bit. "Don't treat me as if I'm some sort of battle amateur, boy. I've fought more battles than you've probably ever dreamed of." She turns away in a huff. "Let's just harvest what we can from these miserable creatures and go home, hmm? I'm bored already."

"Well... Yeah, but just because you know how to play basketball doesn't mean you'll be any good at soccer." This is perhaps meant to be wise inspiration, though Atsuro isn't even sure what that's supposed to mean once he's finished speaking. He shrugs slightly.

"We, uh. ...Collected 1x Sooty Corpse?"

"Hmmph." She could be snappier, but she doesn't quite have the energy. And, well, she supposes he means well enough, even if he doesn't know what he's talking about. She floats over. "Perhaps there'll still be something salvagable, at least," she mulls.

She pauses. "...goodness, this little creature is all facade. There's nothing BEHIND this obscene piece of decoration."

"W-Why are you looking?!" Even if it was a demon, Atsuro can't help but feel a pang of sympathy. Poor guy. Death ought to be respected or. Some sort of sentiment along those lines, anyway.

"Aw, geez. Don't tell me you go in for the ancient Eastern medicine. ...Try mimetic magic; things symbolic of a phallus are good enough. No need for the real thing."

In her opinion, if anything is stupid enough to attack her, it deserves everything it gets. She's entitled to it helping with her "research."

"Can't be too sure what will be useful! Besides, considering its disrespectful tone, seeing the truth is rather enjoyable. Ho ho ho."

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otakuro - 2012-10-22 01:19 (UTC) - Expand

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