To go with your crew...

[highseasmods]

Who: Everyone who is fighting in the battle to kill the witch.
Where: The Black Fortress in the East
When: Jan 24th-25th
What: The grand battle to get back what you have lost, get revenge for what was taken, and avert disaster.
Warnings: Language. Death. Victory. Defeat. True love. Miracles.
Style: Text or prose
Status: Open to all



The black fortress ripples with shimmering iridescent energy, the piles of black coral heaped on roped together barges around it, bobbing in the waves. On the largest barge stands a slender man with a copper belt, wearing a face mask, orange red hair flecked with black from ash or dust. As the dawn slowly folds over the ocean, he'll look up, as if hearing some hidden voice.

At the top of the fortress, a figure climbs into vision, a woman, dressed in gray, features obscured by a hood with impenetrable darkness behind it. She staggers a moment as if she is weary, then straightens to her full height. As she speaks, her voice comes out of the journals, echoing over the water, low but clear.

"This is no small task ye do. She that rots within'll do anythin' ta stop ye. Don't hesitate to kill what ye find. If they were human once, they hain't no more. Watch out for her golems, too, or they'll drain ye dry quicker'n a wink. But if ye can get rid of 'em, it'll weaken her." She hesitates, cants her head to the side. "And if ye lot aren't as much of a bunch'a idiots as usual, ye might come out alive through this."

That said, she raises her hands. After a moment so does the man on the barge. For a moment, nothing seems to happen and then iridescent light shimmers over the coral, seeming to match that which surrounds the fortress. It crackles and dances like a fire, and then without warning bursts into a furious life, slamming against the energy of the fortress. There is the sound like thunder and light snaps and crackles, zipping with energy. Then with a woosh the light flies upward, taking the figure with it. The man on the barge lets out a cry like a seagull and dives into the water as if intending to swim after her.

For the boats that remain, a part of the fortress will crumble away into the sea, revealing a small harbor and an open doorway. Enter all ye who dare.


[If things become too crowded, feel free to make another thread outside of these. Just put where you are in the header.]

Comments

[letteropener]

Three of them, so quickly? Well, this simply would not do. Celestia hurled a bolt of magical energy at Link -- not lethal intensity, simply a strong blow to knock him back and buy her the moment she needed to knit together a more capable spell. Swiftly, she poured energy into the first and best target she saw -- Link's sword, which she imbued with a powerful Want-It-Need-It spell.

Let them try to oppose her while they all fought over possession of the enchanted sword!

[thethundersaid]

Sasuke barely had time to blink before he was in the air, chakra forming around him to cushion the impact -- which ended up being cushioned in turn by Itachi, both of them fetching up against Susano'o's spine before striking the wall, air whooshing out of lungs. He landed in front of Itachi, the sword he'd taken from the armoury already at the ready before he'd even fully registered just what they were fighting, which was ...

A horse?

They were fighting a horse. With a horn. And wings, and shimmering with colour -- right. Stripping his reaction down to just the assessment needed for battle, he watched the flow of chakra she flung at Link: not unlike what Marvelous used with that talking weapon of his, just raw power thrown away from the body. She'd been able to move him without moving herself, either.

And behind her, on a throne -- the witch.

"Are you alright?" He asked Itachi over his shoulder, eyes not leaving the winged-horned-horse even as he reached up to hold down the Talk button on his earpiece: "We've found the witch. There's a --" ... no other way to put it: "Magic horse in the way."

He barked out the directions without waiting for Marvelous to respond, standing in preparation to attack -- until he suddenly felt a strange, ferocious pull and found himself staring at the sword in Link's hands, inexplicably wanting to snatch it from him. To run the horse through, to cleave the witch open, whatever it was: he stood frozen, wide-eyed gaze locked on the sword.

[forhylia]

The shock knocked Link clean off his feet, and his back slammed painfully against the stone floor. He gasped for air, eyes darting wildly between the horse, the brothers and...

Link's gaze locked on his sword. Yes, of course there was already a deeply rooted instinct to hold onto it. It was his greatest strength, his point of expertise. But just then, for some reason he couldn't fathom, he was obsessed with it. The fight was no longer about the witch, or the magic horse before them. It was about the modest blade clutched in his fingers.

Still catching his beaten breath, Link returned to his feet on shaking knees. He stumbled backwards; yes, definitely a bruised rib.

[forthevillage]

"I'm fine." Itachi staggered back up next to his brother. It had been ridiculous, in retrospect, to try and help Sasuke then when Sasuke had Susano'o for protection. After several days without access to his chakra, it was easy to forget that not everyone was as restricted.

When the spell hit Link's sword, Itachi was just as affected as they were. The difference was the way that the ninja handled such desires. The spell bypassed his usual disinterest in most material things (unless he needed them for a specific goal) and he very much wished to grab it out of Link's hands. Three things stopped him from automatically doing so.

Firstly, he still wore the collar. He would stand little chance against the others here until it was removed. Second, ingrained deeper than anything into Itachi's being was the importance of his brother. In that way, Sasuke getting a hold of the sword was almost as good as getting it himself. Thirdly, he had far more patience than anyone his age had any right to have. Trying to grab the sword now would get him nowhere. If he really wanted to get his hands on it he would have to wait for the right opportunity.

And it was looking as if his earlier decision to leave the collar on hadn't helped him much either. If it had, he would never know. To be able to do anything here, it would need to be removed. He reached for the better of his two swords, bringing the end up carefully to a weak point in the band in order to cut it free.

[letteropener]

Ah. No, Celestia did not particularly want anypony freeing themselves from the collar. Better to keep them weak and helpless. Celestia widened her stance slightly, lowered her horn, and fired a blast of solar energy at Itachi, a hot, powerful lance with much of her magical might behind it.

The other two seemed quite occupied. Perhaps the collar was interfering with the spell -- she couldn't begin to guess what was going on in Itachi's mind to ward off its effects, but she had no intent of leaving him able to oppose her.

[gokai_red]

From deep within the fortress, there suddenly came a rumble. Then another. And another after that. Suddenly, one wall begins to shake violently with what is undoubtedly an explosion. Then another noise.

"-iiiiiiNAAAALLL WAAAAAVE!"

The wall explodes into the chamber with red energy, debris scattering into the air and across the floor.

A magic horse. Of course it was a magic horse, he'd been thinking his whole way there. He didn't expect that this witch employed something that would be referred to as that regularly, either, so he highly suspected another possessed. One which he would not want killed.

Still, as he comes through the dust, all he can make out is the glow of her blast. He knows for a fact that's not one of his, so he took a chance and fired a round of bullets through the dust cloud towards the glow. Not expecting to hit her, but hopefully be enough to throw her off.

"Sorry we're late, had to take a shortcut!"

[thethundersaid]

If his eyes were anything but what they were, Itachi's danger might have broken the powerful sense that he needed to exchange the sword he'd taken from the armoury for Link's. But they were, and even the instinctive pull to protect when Celestia attacked didn't break his concentration. The purple skeleton of Susano'o flared up around Itachi instead, two hands folded in front for extra protection against the blast, the pain of the chakra drain lancing through every cell, but too familiar to jolt the mind.

But the skeleton's head turned in surprise when the wall caved in, another layer flickering into existence (flesh and armour, nearly solid chakra) instinctively before resolving away again: just Marvelous, responding to the call. Good: that meant that Marvelous and what members of the crew with him could handle the magic horse in the meantime.

"She can throw you without touching you," he warned, triangulating the distance between himself, Link, and the winged horse. "Watch yourself."

And with that, he headed for Link, voice urgent: "Give me your blade. We need to switch."

[missvicegirl]

Marvelous's usual showy entrance was punctuated not by an equally bombastic one for Luka, but rather, a more subdued one as she slunk in behind her captain. Then, thanks to her sharp eyes, she saw through the cloud of dust and debris to see Celestia herself.

She waited a bit, and hoping she hadn't been noticed, took aim and attempted to shoot the winged horse's horn. Her attempt wasn't so much to destroy it, but knock it off course of whatever she attempted to do next, but if she did break it... Well, better injured than dead, right?

[forthevillage]

When the attack came, Itachi didn't even move. This time, he expected the protection from Susano'o. It might have been a bad assumption to make, given the spell, but he wasn't aware of it. If not for that, he had already come to terms with the fact that Sasuke would try to protect him.

He didn't even look up as his captain burst in, instead focusing on the collar around his neck. Once his brother had the sword, if just that wasn't enough, he might be able to ask him for it after the battle... But the battle had to end soon for that to happen, and getting his collar off might make that happen faster.

Careful, so as not to cut his neck in the process, he managed to sever it. The flow of chakra back into him caused him to need a moment to reorient himself, but he was soon up and moving again.

[letteropener]

With a powerful beat of her wings, Celestia took to the air, leaving behind the bullets in a downdraft as she took to the air. The Want-It-Need-It spell was moving too slowly, so she took another tack: her horn abruptly flared blinding bright, like looking at the sun at high noon. Those who were facing the sword or already affected wouldn't be blinded, but the unaffected ones, the ones facing her...

[dragonbadfaith]

Draco...was still hanging back outside of the room for a moment. Who would've thought that being involved in a bloody huge zombie war would be so exhausting? This was definitely something he was going to have to work on. Though, how, he wasn't sure.

But that wasn't important right now. He'd been dallying long enough, and while he was reasonably certain the rest of his crew didn't actually need his help as they all seemed to be fully capable fighters, he still figured he could at least pretend to be useful.

Being a burden wasn't a very appealing option, surprisingly.

Wand gripped tight in his hand, he leaned around the doorway and tried to make heads or tails of the situation. He couldn't see just what they were fighting, and so assumed whatever it was must be farther into the room. Instead, his eyes darted around to Sasuke and Itachi, then over to where their captain was standing in front of a huge hole in the wall.

Really, there was a door.

Then he found Link. And the sword in his hand.

He stared.

That sword.

He had to have to have it.

If he was back home, he would've instantly demanded that his father buy it for him at once. But alas, that wasn't the case, so Draco was just going to have to take care of this himself.

He lifted his wand, pointed it right at Link, and shouted:

"ACCIO SWORD!"

[sun_goddess_sacrifice]

It took Futo a bit of time to arrive to the scene, so she wasn't there for Marvelous' spectacular entry. Instead she was there just in time to see Draco, though she was still unaware of what was happening inside the room.

"Should you not keep to somewhere safer?" Children and students should not be thrown into battle, until it was deemed they were ready enough.

Though as she spoke she entered the room only to witness his spell, and the brightness of the light that shown above. What were they fighting? The disembodied voice of Itachi from the questionable artifact had spoken of a magical horse.... Perhaps a kirin? That would explain the brightness. But kirin were divine beasts. The situation was quickly becoming overwhelming and uncertain.

[forhylia]

Excellent. And here came Marvelous and his own gaggle. Perhaps a moment or two earlier would have been preferable, but who was Link to complain? But when Sasuke approached him asking, no, demanding for his sword, his grip tightened. He frowned.

"I will use my own blade, Sasuke." It was just as he was about to dash in once again when the sword flew from his hands toward Draco. He took no notice to Celestia's new attack, already taken by the want, the need for his sword. But he recognized the magic boys' abilities when he saw them, by now.

"Coward! Return it!" Empty handed and a sitting duck in this fight, Link's attention was torn between Draco and the horse that had now taken to the air.

[missvicegirl]

Luka brought up an arm to shield herself from the blinding light, crying out as it was effectively filtered and intensified through the visor of her helmet. She let out a cry as she stumbled forward, seeing spots and effectively blinded... as her Gokai Saber flew out of her hands, flying towards Draco.

The wizard hadn't specified which sword, after all.

[thethundersaid]

His eyes narrowed at first, irritation flashing over his expression at Link's refusal -- they clearly had bigger issues to worry about her than who carried what sword, so ... but if they had bigger issues, why did he need to exchange his sword for Link's? What purpose would that serve?

The frown was turning confused when suddenly he heard first Draco's voice and then felt his own sword fly out of his grip, heading point-first at Draco. His uncomprehending gaze watched the arc of it for a second, just long enough that he was looking away from the now-airborne horse's when she attacked. Through the bright light, he saw that Link's sword had flown toward Draco as well, and another --

"Get down!" He yelled at the boy, chakra bursting to his feet as he sprinted towards the flying weapons, aiming to snatch them out of the air before they were stuck with a pincushion instead of a lock-opener.

[forthevillage]

Itachi glanced up in some confusion at hearing Draco's spell, only to have both of the swords at his waist slip out and fly in that direction also. Then Sasuke was moving, and the idea of his brother running toward the center of a mass of flying weaponry didn't sit well with him at all. His own Susano'o wasn't nearly powerful enough yet to reach out and block them. He had to trust in the other ninja's abilities to protect himself.

Perhaps their opponent would be distracted by this. If she was, it would be a good time to attack. As long as one of the others didn't grab Link's sword in the process... which admittedly was a thought distracting him...

No, he had to focus on her. If she was defeated, then the immediate need for the weapon by others wouldn't be as strong, and he might be able to grab it up in the aftermath. Collar removed, he made a few quick hand symbols and blew out a fireball in the pony's direction.

[letteropener]

Celestia rolled to the side neatly; a thousand years of practice made her a fairly decent flyer, after all. That curious summoned creature had blocked her first blast in his direction, so Celestia took a different tactic -- she levitated a large piece of rubble behind Itachi, then flung it at his head with every intent to strike him in the back. If he didn't know it was coming, he could hardly block it this time.

[gokai_red]

Like Luka, Marvelous was temporarily blinded by the light. And like everyone else, his sword went flying from his grip at about the same time. Blinking spots out of his eyes, he didn't have the luxury of checking to see where his Gokai Saber had went.

He just knew that this damned horse was still trying to kill them, and Itachi in particular at that moment. Growling, he moved further into the chamber, training his gun on her as he trusted the ninja to have enough mobility to get the hell out of the way. He focused as best he could and noticed...

A collar.

With a stone.

"Huh. Neat," he mused to himself, and quickly brought his gun up, firing at her wings as she was busy attacking Itachi. "Hey! Can everyone just FOCUS FOR ONE DAMNED MINUTE?!"

No, seriously, they seemed scattered. What the hell was going on there? But for the moment, he just focused on aiming.

[dragonbadfaith]

Focus? Ha, not bloody likely, not until he had that sword in his hand.

Draco watched in giddy anticipation as the spell worked, already feeling slightly smug that the sword would soon be his. It came zooming towards him, and—

And so did Luka's. And Sasuke's. Oh, for Merlin's sake, there were like six swords coming at him all of a sudden! Honestly, that was just incredibly unnecessary!

Also pointy.

And probably dangerous.

It took a split second for it to register, for Draco to get past the overwhelming need to be the owner of Link's sword and realize somewhere in the back of his mind that getting out of the way would be a brilliant idea right about now. His eyes widened and he heard someone shouting at him, but it sounded as if the words were coming from underwater and he was too busy ducking back around behind the doorway as quickly as he could to pay them any mind.

Those swords were still going to come to him, though, he'd summoned them after all. Panic seeping in, he slid down the wall until his arse hit the floor, flung his wand hand out in from of him, and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Arresto Momentum!"

...When a beat passed and he hadn't found himself skewered six times over, he cracked an eye open -- only to find all six swords still coming at him.

Luckily, they might as well have been moving through molasses now with all the speed they had.

Well then! Shouldn't be too difficult to hop back up and pluck that sword right out of the air now.

Draco grinned.

Magic was awesome.

[sun_goddess_sacrifice]

Oh for the....

Draco was going to be a burden, and before she could even attempt to assist in the battle with the horned creature she would have to make sure the silly kid didn't kill himself. At least she could trust the others to figure themselves out, at least she hoped.

She took a place in front of Draco, facing towards the swords and holding in her hands a rather unassuming short sword, it almost looked more like a sheathed long dagger. She used the item to trace the outline of a five pointed star, with each point she spoke, and each line in the air took on a soft glow. Her words were quick and no doubt hard to understand. There were mentions of north, south, east, and west along with elements such as fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. As she cast her spell the Futsu no Mitama no Tsurugi which was what the unassuming sword in her hand was took on a faint glow, not something one could really see, but more something they could sense.

After her set up was complete she brought her hands together, sword in hand in a clap and then pushed her right hand forward with a measured 'Ha!', holding the sword pointed upward as she did so as if shoving something hard out from her.

The star pattern flared before seeming to fire something out, but it was too quick to really see, the only thing one could grasp was that each sword, though moving slowly, now stopped and fell to the ground. And though she had been trying to simply cancel Draco's spell, it also canceled Celestias original one.

[letteropener]

Attacking Celestia's wings, while not a very bad idea on the surface, had little effect -- the bullets punched through and shredded a couple of the long primary feathers, but she had plenty to spare. She dropped back down to the ground, because transitioning between ground and air was effortless for somepony who had been flying for centuries.

Irritated as she was that her Want-It-Need-It spell had been negated, she nevertheless saw a bright opportunity in Draco's summoning. She quickly hurled a broad Come To Life spell onto the fallen swords, animating them to attack their fellow owners and swirl through her enemies like a whirlwind.

And if Futo tried that same negation again, Celestia would blast her in the middle of it.

[forthevillage]

The Sharingan granted its owner a powerful set of eyes, capable of seeing and being aware of actions so quickly that to some it might seem as if they see things coming before they happen. It also allowed them a range of vision beyond that of the average ninja. That the rock was behind him made it more difficult, but her look of intent in his direction accompanied by his own keen senses caused him to throw his own Susano'o up around him as he ducked. This sheltered him just enough to avoid serious damage.

With the spell negated, the need for the sword cleared. The desire had been so unlike him that it didn't take much thought to come to the conclusion that his mind had been influenced again. Again. It really upset him that such a thing could happen so easily here. Still, his judgement had been clouded enough. He couldn't allow himself to get angry on top of that.

He had to wonder if it was possible to catch this creature in one of his illusions. Something simple such as displacing his location could work, and she had already looked in his direction so catching her eyes shouldn't be difficult.

Should he keep her attention on him with further attacks, or should he help with the mess the others had made? Itachi was still used to being a solo operative, so he worked on trying to get her to face his way again, shooting several small birds of flame at her from different angles.

[thethundersaid]

Sasuke was already halfway to the swords when Futo cast her counter-spell, and the startled momentum carried him right into their path when he realised that it made no sense for him to need to trade swords with Link -- and the next infuriated realisation that it must have been some kind of control of the mind -- it was only the fact that whatever magic she used to animate the swords reflected as chakra that Sasuke managed to react in time. The purple ribcage flared up around him just before the actual swords completed the path of their intent, metal clanking against solidified chakra as Sasuke whirled around to face the proper enemy again.

Clearly, shinobi techniques couldn't counter her magic, but if the body that controlled the magic were taken out, it would probably amount to the same thing. With their least combat-experienced out of the way, there was room for more damaging jutsu.

Susano'o vanished as Sasuke refocused his chakra, sending out a spray of crackling lightning-needles into the path the horse would need to fly to avoid Itachi's fire. Though not physical, when one buried into the body it wouldn't slice flesh but disrupt electrical signals, interrupting the flow of energy that kept her moving. With any luck, enough would strike that her speed would be affected.

And if she managed to avoid both of their attacks -- hopefully someone else would pick up on barraging her.

1/2

[gokai_red]

Marvelous spared a look to see just what the hell the commotion was behind him when he saw his (or maybe Luka's) Gokai Saber flying back towards him. He didn't have enough time to dodge, and the blade caught him in the shoulder. Sparks flew as he was tossed back, tumbling back a bit, but rolling back into a crouching position. He cursed and grabbed his shoulder for a moment, thankful for whatever protection his suit provided.

How did that work, anyway? ...dammit, no, that was not the time for Sasuke's earlier prying questions.

This was not going to work.

He rolled back to his feet, dodging another blade, chucked his Gokai Gun in Luka's direction without a word, and pulled out his Mobirates and Shinken Red Key.

"GOKAI CHANGE!"

2/2

[gokai_red]

"SHIIINKENGER!"

As kanji flew out over his helmet and his suit began to glow brightly, he threw a hand out and caught a Gokai Saber by the handle. Still not sure which one it was, but it didn't matter, as the saber changed with his suit, and into a very strange looking katana.

Flipping the Shinkenmaru around once, he then sheathed it.

Different sword now, technically. Even if it was a pirated version of it.

Rushing her would only prompt her to go back to the air, Marvelous knew. They couldn't afford to let this drag on, but at the same time he did not want this horse dead.

So he spun around, ducking the other Gokai Saber, and unsheathed the Shinkenmaru. A spin of the disc, and it grew into the giant sword, Rekka Daizantou. He then dropped the handle down on it, forming what now looked like... well, a rather large cannon.

"Rekka Daizantou - Ozutsu Mode!"

Sparing the chance of getting hit with one of the flying swords again, Marvelous took aim - launching one powerful, spinning disc of flame straight up above Celesia. Into the ceiling. An explosion followed, and then rubble descended straight down towards her.