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

[sun_goddess_sacrifice]

Futo was about to yell at Draco to go somewhere else when the shock wave happened. It threw her back, though she managed to avoid getting slammed too hard into the wall by taking flight and using her legs to land in a crouching position against it.

Their opponent was just too strong and they were completely disorganized. The creature also seemed to counter all that came towards her. Very well, Futo would just use something that didn't just come from the front or somewhere easily anticipated.

"Saint Girl 'Sun Goddess's Sacrifice'!" she flew upward to have a more central location before the room began to fill with charms and balls of light. Her crew mates would find they were harmless to them, however Celestia may find each one that touched her stung.

It started off with a pattern of light only to change to sealing charms everywhere going in every direction. Even if her spellcard didn't work, surly it was distraction enough to be focused on.

[missvicegirl]

All this time, Luka had been dealing with her own Gokai Saber trying to attack her. Eventually, she ended up grabbing it out of the air, and stabbing it into the nearest wall, pulling out the cable, and effectively tying it to a nearby pillar.

"NOW STAY THERE!" she said, before turning around and taking aim at Celestia... only to be thrown back by the shockwave she created.

"I am so damn tired of that..." she muttered, as she picked herself up.

Taking aim with her gun and the one given to her by Marvelous again, she began unloading bullets at the winged unicorn.

[gokai_red]

Marvelous spun the Rekka Daizantou around, slamming it into the ground and breaking through the stone as Celestia's shockwave sent him flying back. He managed to ground himself, and NOT fly right into the wall, but he tore a nice trench through the stone flooring as he did so. He wound up holding onto his weapon with the same arm that had been struck by his saber earlier, and holy hell. That hurt.

Draco was right, they did need a plan... and seeing everything so far, and what she was capable of, seeing they'd have difficulty getting CLOSE...

It was ironic that Draco was the one to bring this up.

"Already got a plan!" he said, regarding the one he just came up with ten seconds before. He yanked the large sword out of the ground, and reverted it into its katana mode. "Everyone, flank her! Hit her from all sides, not just one! Keep her busy! But don't kill her!"

He cocked his head towards Draco. "Meanwhile, you. How close you gotta be for that levitation stuff?" he asked, and pointed to his neck. "I want that collar off that horse."

[dragonbadfaith]

Plans were good. Being a Slytherin, Draco was rather fond of them. Anything was better than that whole 'charging in blindly' thing, especially if it meant he had a better chance of coming out of this alive.

He held his shield charm in place in case any other attacks came his way, and then glanced across at Marvelous, then over to Celestia, before finally looking down at his wand, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Distance isn't so much a problem, I just need a clear shot at her! The bigger question is how to get the bloody thing off -- is it a lock of some sort? Because that I can handle."

[letteropener]

The irony of using something called 'Sun Goddess's Sacrifice' on Princess Celestia would give everypony a laugh later no doubt, but the alicorn addressed herself to both the spell card and the continuing onslaught of bullets by the simple expedient of teleportation. The chain-teleports necessary to leap from safe place to safe place within the convoluted seal patterns bought them time, however, time to plan...

[forthevillage]

Itachi's careful eyes watched Celestia as she moved. She could teleport, much like the flash-stepping some ninja were capable of, though he had a feeling it was a little more complex than that. The Sharingan allowed him to take in everything easier than most, so he watched for openings in Futo's attacks, watched which ones the unicorn chose to move to until he began to get an idea of how she chose a safe location.

He aimed another, larger round of phoenix flames then - not directly at her, but at the next best openings she was bound to teleport herself to.

[missvicegirl]

This was a case where Luka's sharp eyes, again, came in handy. Thanks to those and battle honed reflexes, she was able to quickly spot and take aim and fire at Celestia when she changed positions. Not powerful enough to kill her, by any means, but still, they would hurt.

[thethundersaid]

Susano'o was going to be a serious chakra drain if he kept needing to pull it up like this, but it kept the shockwave from impacting fully, giving Sasuke the time needed to leap onto the wall and race up it for a better vantage point. Marvelous's shout only confirmed Sasuke's plans, and whatever he and Draco were discussing would hopefully capitalize on a mass attack launched on the flying creature.

The biggest difficulty would be not killing her -- worse even than trying to capture a bijuu, given that for all she seemed powerful she didn't look like she would have the physical resiliency of a bijuu to being brought to the brink of death. Itachi was using fire, the Sharingan reading her movement and intent; with that attack coming from Itachi on the ground and the net-like thing Futo had cast spanning horizontally across the room, that left her the option to lower altitude for her next flicker, forcing her closer to the rest of the crew, or to attempt to go higher.

So he'd cut off one of those options: Mangekyou flaring to life, Sasuke drew on his chakra and focused: in the next moment, black fire raced across the ceiling, webbing across it and making it impossible for anyone to attempt to head closer to it.

[letteropener]

Celestia had very deliberately made her teleportations jump not just horizontally, but vertically, exploiting all three dimensions to confound her foes and minds that were less used to flight. That, however, quickly ended when the ceiling burst into nightmarish black flames, leaving her vulnerable to strikes from the guns. As lines of blood splattered her pure-white coat, she thought quickly, then elected to take inspiration from what she'd seen. As soon as she found the opportunity in the midst of the spiraling seals and attacks, Celestia conjured a wall of flames from the floor to block the sight of her opponents and leave her free to dodge the remains of the spell card without being anticipated.

[sun_goddess_sacrifice]

The reason for the name was simply the the level of such a spell, the reference to the sun goddess simply part of the story and a lending of power. Telling stories of the gods was one of the basic ways of casting magic after all.

"Fire...." Futo didn't like what they were doing. Fire wasn't the answer, this was a creature that no doubt was affiliated with such. She could tell already. They needed water, but they needed a lot of it. "Do not feed into her specialty! Bring forth water!"

She cancelled her spell card and instead switched to summoning water, as much as she could. Surrounding herself in it and causing pillars of water to rise from the ground.

[forthevillage]

They had no idea if fire was the only specialty of this horse. For all they knew she could have all the elements at her command, powerful as she seemed. Still, water did seem to be the better option for the time being, and that was one thing that Itachi could work with.

While he couldn't summon as much of it as he could with fire, he could still add to and work with what Futo had already brought out. With a few hand signs, drilling spikes of water began lashing out from the pillars that had been created, leaving even less room for Celestia to take cover in.

[letteropener]

Itachi had the right of it, or at least close to -- as soon as they began summoning water, Celestia planted her hooves and reached out with her telekinesis to grab the water in an iron magical grip, then hurl it back at her foes. Her eyes blazed as she lowered her head, intent on taking out at least some of them with this attack and thus committing her strength and attention to it.

[thethundersaid]

Sandwiching them all between fire was probably not the best situation for them to be in, but at least it meant that her attention was directed downward at the group on the ground. Sasuke kept his own position high on the wall; the water might hurt the others, but it would put out the flames and keep them from burning, at least, and while she was looking elsewhere he had no time to hesitate.

The giant form of Susano'o formed around him again, draining chakra at an even faster rate than before. He needed to conserve it, but he could only rely on theory instead of practice with this next attack, but if they were trying not destroy her and she held the key to getting to the witch beyond her, he couldn't use the fire again.

Lightning blazed up instead of fire as he forced unruly chakra to take shape, an enormous arrow dragging through the bow in the giant's arm before launching at her back -- and splitting mid-air into a rain of electric needles instead, numbing to the touch.

[gokai_red]

Everyone else was doing quite well to keep her busy, so Marvelous was taking his relative time. He snuck and dodged behind pillars on the outside of the chamber, ducking under where Luka had her Saber tied up to one of them as the water was tossed back at them all. He didn't want to get hit with that from Itachi again.

A red flash and he reverted back to Gokai Red, loading one Ranger Key into his Saber's cylinder.

"FIIIIIIINAL WAAAAAAAAVE!"

The completely unsubtle and loud proclamation wasn't great for a stealth attack, but it wasn't what he was looking for. He dashed out, sword glowing a bright red, trying to slip towards her from behind, or at least the opposite direction everyone else was aiming. He swung the saber, launching a blade of red glowing energy at her, but aimed to just wing her at best, and hopefully distract her at the least.

"DRACO! ANYTIME NOW!"

[dragonbadfaith]

Welp, hopefully it was something a simple unlocking spell could handle.

Draco took a deep breath and then jumped out a few steps, dodging around some of his fellow crew members to make sure he had a clear shot. There was no messing this up, he wasn't sure he'd have a second chance.

He lifted his wand, pointing it at Celestia's neck.

"ALOHOMORA!" he bellowed, and then immediately followed it up with a jerking motion of his wand, like he was yanking something back, and a shouted, "ACCIO COLLAR!"

Now please Merlin say that worked, otherwise he was likely to have the entire bloody unicorn flying his way.

[letteropener]

Celestia spun in place, one wing raised reflexively as she threw out a bolt of light to deflect Marvelous's incredibly-blatant attack. In that respect, his plan had worked perfectly -- though she knocked away his energy blade, she couldn't pay attention to everything at once. The electrified needles lanced into her back and side; one wing and her foreleg drooped immediately, making her stumble with a surprisingly equine neigh of surprise.

She felt the collar unclasp, and mindlessly seized it with her telekinesis to hold it still, that directive overriding others. But now she was completely vulnerable.

[missvicegirl]

Okay, Luka had provided supporting fire for the last few minutes, but now she knew everyone involved needed as much ranged firepower as they could get.

"HEADS UP, MARVELOUS!" she cried, throwing her spare Gokai Gun to her captain, before running to get into position in case this plan went horribly wrong in the next few minutes.

[sun_goddess_sacrifice]

Controlling her water with telekinesis did little but perhaps bother her companions. However it served it's purpose and it was time to change it, especially since they seemed to finally be on the winning end.

As the others started their attacks and Draco went for the collar and Celestia tried to keep it, Futo changed her element.

"Water grows wood!" the water that was still around, and the water the Celestia had been throwing back started to get absorbed by branches growing out of the ground. They grew rapidly and similar to vines they wound around objects, Futo's goal to use them to help keep Celestia in place by warping her as best as possible in them.

[gokai_red]

Marvelous raised a hand to catch the gun, while at the same time chucking his saber - Shinken Red Key still inserted into it - back at her. Her caught the firearm, and raised it.

He cocked back the hammer.

The collar was still there, but starting to unclasp. Futo was raising something to try and keep her in place.

For many others trying to do this and not KILL someone would seem utterly insane. In truth, it probably was. Many of those others might not be able to shoot an incoming bullet cleanly out of the air.

Marvelous could.

So, he took some amount of faith that the other distractions would do their job, aimed for the collar... and took his shot, one round bullet erupting from the gun's barrel.

[letteropener]

When push came to shove, and magical might dueled, with vines and needles and so much else running interference, the tide finally turned when a bullet aimed at the collar drove the band into Celestia's throat like she'd been punched. The alicorn choked hard, gagging against the sudden spasming of her throat muscles, and the sunlight glow faded. The collar sprang free to follow the behest of the Summoning Charm, leaving Celestia to collapse at the mercy of the incoming attacks that hopefully no one wanted to press on her abruptly-limp form.

[forthevillage]

The idea wasn't to kill the creature. With her down, they'd need to find a way to keep her that way so that she couldn't use her abilities. Itachi glanced down to the collar he'd cut from his neck. It had fallen to the floor some ways away and he made a dash for it.

If this collar would work on her the same way it had worked on him, they might be able to keep her powers under control for now. He didn't know how well it would work with the witch still controlling her, but right now it was the best shot they had to keep her from getting back up and attacking them again. The ninja grasped it on the run, continuing on to kneel at her side.

It wouldn't fit around her neck. As a pony, hers was thicker than his. However he should be able to get it around one of her legs. "Quickly!" he yelled to the others. "I need something to attach this! A pin. A nail. A spell. Something."