high_seas | To go with your crew...

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Don't worry about being slowed down," Sasuke said, voice dry, and focused his chakra. Skeletal arms sprouted from the ribcage of Susano'o still glowing around Link and Draco, sweeping to each side to widen the swathe through the undead that had been made. "Didn't you say you may run out if you use your powers too much? Save it for the witch."

But he'd been where she was before -- he could see it in Rikka's eyes, in the tense coil of her movements -- and knew there was little point in words once that precipice had been reached. She was dressed like something out of a little girl's dollhouse, but violence was in her movements: so Sasuke didn't bother speaking any further, forging forward toward the entrance instead.

As an afterthought (and precaution), he shouted back at Draco: "Keep up and you won't burn."

Hmph, fine, no protection spells for anyone else then.

Not that they needed them.

He scowled at Sasuke's back, shouting another reply: "I am keeping up!"

It wasn't untrue, but only just barely. He'd never been in a situation like this before and 90% of his physical activity before arriving in this world involved sitting on a broomstick, which...unfortunately wasn't a huge help in the being fit department. He managed to stay within the purple thing, however, even though he hadn't a clue what it was. Why question it when it was dead useful?

Draco kept a steady barrage of spells going, as well, for the zombies that managed to slip their defenses. His attacks weren't exactly deadly, that kind of magic wasn't anything he could really do yet, but he could at least keep the monsters at bay and leave a trail of petrified zombies behind them.

"This much is fine," she insists. It'd take quite some time to drain herself dry with melee combat and the occasional icicle or blast of frost... probably. She can't shake the feeling that something's wrong, but that probably has to do with her heart being six kinds of off today, so she'll just power through it as best she can. She'd meant what she'd told Marvelous before - if hate was all she had left to work with, that was what she'd use.

Raising an eyebrow at the purple flaming construct as it grows behind her, she can't help but add, "What about you? Isn't that draining?" She spins and drives a neat kick into a zombie midsection, throwing it into the water several yards away before continuing to run.

Her attention does return to Draco for a moment, but mostly to confirm he's making himself useful back there, which... he definitely is. It's a pleasant surprise given what she'd heard about him, so for the moment she doesn't worry about his safety - between Sasuke's purple flaming death thing and Draco's magic, he'll probably be all right. Which is good. That means she can save her powers for something important, like Mana and Alice.

"Just don't become a burden," he said, shrugging one shoulder before sending a spear of electric chakra through a lunging zombie. It wasn't in Sasuke's nature or interest to question what someone claimed to be capable of, though he did note the difference in appearance of her ice powers today -- then again, he and Itachi set black fire with an eye each. Amaterasu had no place here, not when it could spread endlessly through the throng of undead, but the precision of those ice spikes was certainly useful, whatever their colour and the strange unsteady pulse of chakra (or whatever her energy was) lingering around them.

"This?" The drain was so familiar by now that he barely paid attention, for all that his chakra reserves were limited by this world. His mouth curled up at one corner as a small group of zombies broke off and headed for them, apparently intent on cutting them off from the entrance. With a mirthless chuckle, he returned the words to her: "This much is fine."

And he stepped forward with her to meet the oncoming group, dropping into the relaxing simplicity of hand-to-hand combat. He'd warned Draco before that he would hear much more of bones before this was over, and made it true now; stragglers that got past them made straight for Draco, instinctively avoiding Link's more obvious sword.

"Petrificus Totalus! Stupefy! Reducto! Stupefy!"

Draco had switched over to autopilot at some point and was just continuously circling through his wheelhouse of offensive magic. Various spells had the zombies stiffening up and dropping like bricks, getting knocked aside, or being blasted out of the way entirely. There seems to be no end to them, which is frustrating, not to mention tiring.

After awhile, he lets some more powerful spells slip into the mix, which may or may not be a good thing.

"Confringo!!"

Like that one, which more or less causes the zombies to flat out explode. It takes some of the stone wall with it, blasting off chunks off rock that he quickly deflects away. Oops.

"There's too much at stake here," she shoots back. "I can't afford to slow us down." Really, her single, solitary goal is the recovery of Mana and Alice, if it's possible. But she has a sinking feeling it might not be, and that's why she's resolved herself to see this through until the witch's blood coats the floor. It's not something she's going to be proud of later, but it's what's important now. She raises an eyebrow at his returned comment on his own power, but she wasn't here to watch over him and make sure he didn't do anything he couldn't handle. That wasn't her job, and she didn't have time for that.

Draco, on the other hand, was impressing her with a fairly vast array of spells, and it probably didn't help that she recognized them as things he should actually know for the most part, rather than throwing out Unforgivables left and right. She winces briefly when he throws out the last, though, and mentally wills him to return to stunners and body-binds before they got caught in the crossfire. Aloud, she adds, "Aren't you overdoing it back there?"

No, they certainly couldn't afford to be slowed down -- though they might be if one of them got hit by friendly fire, which very nearly happened as Sasuke ducked out of the way of a flying shinbone from Draco's undead victim. Rikka spoke before he could, which meant that Sasuke instead turned his attention to the nearing door, now: they could wreck it and end up with zombies pouring after them en masse, or they could try to break in and shut it on the walking dead behind them.

It was entirely likely there would be more zombies inside, but at least they wouldn't need to be constantly checking behind them if they could close out the ones by the shore. And it would give Draco a function other than dangerously exploding his enemies.

Turning even as Susano'o swung through a group with its chakra sword, Sasuke reached back enough to grab Draco's shoulder, pointing at the huge doors: "Your job is to get that open. We'll cover you."

He'd meant it when he'd told Draco that he'd be aiming the wizard at locked doors.

"Apologies," Draco called back, gritting his teeth a little. Right, might be best to tuck that spell away for now.

He merely raised an eyebrow when Sasuke grabbed him, though, glancing briefly at the door.

"Cover me?" Did he expect this to take long? Assuming a simple unlocking spell would work here, anyway. If it didn't, well. Maybe Draco would have to break out that exploding spell again after all. Pushing that thought aside for now, he pointed his wand at the door.

"Alohomora!"

He was satisfied -- and relieved -- to hear the faint sound of something unlocking, and then he looked at Sasuke again. "There, done."

To go with your crew...

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