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Nuts. Shouyin would be forced a few feet back, leaning forwards and bringing his heels off the ground as he slid backwards on his toes before hitting the dirt, hopefully shattering any large bulk of ice with the forward fall. As soon as his fingers touched the ground he'd alter the walls once more, aiming to direct his energy into any of the nearby stone (walls, floors inside the fortress if that's the case) and direct it to moving against the first Ice Mage.

Imagine the wall and possibly floor coming alive for the sheer purpose of beating the s**t out of you with stone column extensions and you'd have a great idea of what was happening to that Ice Mage. He'd use the stone as well to smash away any remaining ice buildup before running in again, aiming either to shoot whoever was still on the first floor or repeat the wall beating process with them.

"Situation amber, proceed west by northwest. Go! Go!"

One of the four UGH soldiers communicated to the others through his intercom; virtually noiseless outside of the mask. He waved his arm to signal the others, and one by one the four trained soldiers hustled up the shoreline and into the ruins. It was dark out, their uniforms were black, but they had no trouble seeing each other.

Why? The standard issue helmet for a UGH 4th Class field operative came in two adjustable modes: regular, and thermal imaging. There was far too much thermal going on in the direction of the Kyonuske, however, and that threw off the readings everywhere else. This is why the soldiers had the images staggered... visible light, overlayed with thermal imaging... almost like a ghost image atop everything that emitted heat.

These four men covertly moved through the ruins, attempting to circumvent the conflict between the flame user and the other men; making their way towards the stronghold.

Despite the natural protection his greaves afforded him, this newest obstacle bent on halting Vahn's search clung on, and actually managed to dislodge both his feet from the ground... "!--"

The last time he'd been faced with such a feat of strength had been at the stadium-- but this man was no Tomorrow, let alone Reiko.

But as the Fates would have it, even more s**t was thrown his way, in the form of a random flying piece of debris.

Of doom.

You have got to be---

Without another second to spare, Vahn's right eye opened up, and ******** all if God didn't get stabbed up the a** with the cycloptic beam of black flame that erupted forth right then and there.

His right eye socket was a bloody mess, and probaly the use of that eye was gone for good-- and like any injury, his flame was released through blood.

And right now was a helluva desperate moment.

(( We're going to devolve this s**t a little.


Miners >> Shades

Post order is in factions.

Since Vahn is engaged in 1on1? combat, we will not wait on his posts to advance the NPC on PC action. ))

((By the way, it's a mid-calibre revolver. He's no archer. Furthermore, it's unsilenced.))

Jacob's three wasted shots went to the air. He would have cursed it, but he was half elated by the UGO soldier's bullet's spraying on his side anyways. He twisted to see what was going on with other foes--
and saw two rather large, sword-bearing humanoids of darkness charging through the ruins towards him. They were a while off-- what concerned him more was the incoming ballistics. Unfortunately, not being superhuman had its drawbacks.

Being through virtually all of the cover to be had in the ruins, however, had its advantages. The first shot connected with the wall he was resting against a good half-foot away from Jacob's back (still a startlingly good shot). By the time the second shot was off-- this one sufficiently aimed to navigate the distance to Jacob-- the would-be-target's feet were already in motion at a run.

The full thought-process was along the lines of '

(Except Kami is also our NPC guy.)

(Since Vahn didn't respond very clearly to my pull, I'm going to go with him falling over.)

While Mooo was no Tomorrow or Reiko, a solid tug on anyone's ankles, especially using the full force of Mooo's powerfully-developed-if-not-cut trapezius, deltoids and lats would have been more than enough to yank the Cyclops impersonator onto his side, Mooo's hands grateful as all hell when he let go of Vahn's boots to feel the sudden chill of the air (at least compared to the heat of the boots) to continue his assault.

Pushing off the ground with his right hand, which hurt a hell of a lot, Mooo winced at the pain shooting up his arm, bearing with it and gritting his teeth as he raised his left elbow, lunging about eight inches off the ground so he was over Vahn's legs, driving his elbow down toward the man's hip--there really wasn't much Vahn could do at this point besides roll over and take an elbow either in the a** or in his crotch, or try and put his hand or arm in the way--unless he was gonna fire off another wave of destruction from his colon, if that were somehow bleeding.

Of course, a properly-executed getup elbow took less than a second and a half to complete its motion--give or take a fraction of a second due to Mooo's wince of pain--and in that time, the chunk of wall was right above Mooo poised to land on him and most likely add a fair amount of impact to the attack, wherever it should land.

((No problem Stat Man. I didn't expect it to hit. Thus why I said ranging shot first. More of a "Hey, focus on us, maybe one of those archers will peg you while you're looking at the gunman." sort of thing.))

He was making a break for it. Dammit. Daniel shifted course quickly, guiding his shades to do the same. Rather than running towards him, they were running an intercept course for where he would be, but would most likely not catch up to him if he wasn't slowed down.

Speaking of slowed down, he was charging the doorway. The same doorway the rook and his shades were charging. They, as they had been sprinting right for the door, were much closer than Daniel. They would reach it just behind Jacob, with one massive rook coming in after him, aiming a double fisted hammer blow right where his head was, the only warning besides the rumble of his steps were the words, "Squishy!"

The two pawns on his left flank would dart in, quick and low, with their swords thrusting out, aiming for the left and right kidneys of the man.

The other two pawns went over towards the half golem. One came in high, with an overhead slash aimed for the golem's backside, the other came in with a low, sweeping cut toward the man's knees.

Damn. He was through the wall. Thus the Bishop's shades came towards the door, same as Daniel. They would reach the place about the same time as the human's company.

((By the way, feel free to tell me if you're not happy with something Stat Man. ))