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Shouyin wasn't sure how clear the ice cube was, and how blurred things were when he looked out of it, but if he could even just catch shapes, then he'd probably notice a little of the Ice Bishop's dance, and that Rook's fist coming at his face. As such, with what little time as he had left 'til impact, all stone maneuvers would cease, a sudden halt to the assault on the Bishop and the pounding of his chilly prison in preperation for something else.

ONOMATOPOEIA! And the Rook's fist connected with however much ice was in front of Shouyin's face, eventually slamming into his fantastic visage itself, and sending him flying. But as the half-golem was sent a'sailing, those two left fingers would swipe against the edge of the opening where he'd settled them previously, and they'd take the northern wall's (or southern; whatever one Shou is exiting out of) foundations with them. It was assumed Flare's fireball wouldn't be released, since she'd just hit the Rook that'd postioned itself in front of her to hit the half-golem.

Shou would go flying back as the building started to collapse, hitting the ground and doing a backwards roll before pressing his hands against the dirt once more and basically dismantling the fortress on top of the Shade forces inside. Turning it to rubble, crushing everyone inside it, all that jazz. Assumedly around the time Kami, Daniel and all their crew had entered into the fort.

The walls of Jericho were tumbling down.

Jacob's reaction to the two following shades was partially decided by the sudden absence of his field, and the impression that a massive fireball pointed at a man is want to make. Possibly more so by the building's sudden state of collapsation.

As for Dispelling the field, it may have tripped the mage up considerably: as soon as his dark energies reached out to touch it, it winked out of existence. It was a fragile, weak power, controlled with only a thought on Jacob's part.

His mind registered that he needed cover--again-- and there wasn't as much to provide it this time. The answer was, of course, the bodies of his attackers. The man completed his roll ahead of the shades, and caught the diagonal-slashing attacker's blade in between the axe's handle and the bucklers spike of his proper side. The flourishing shade's blade was bashed downwards, using purely the spike, after which Jacob's wrist twisted inwards, on the opposite side.

He stepped into the attack, maintaining contact with the shade's blades, and stabbing forwards with the buckler's spikes. The eighteen-inch long metal shafts should slip right into the shades, and he angled them slightly downwards: the soft-tissue damage would be enough to slay any attacker. What was more, he didn't stop there, (regardless of whether or not he penetrated the shade-pawns, simply grappling them was fine.) He continued, lifting them in front of him by their own torsos or weapons, to act as shields against any incoming fireballs or archer attacks...
As Jacob backed out of the hole opened by the pretty-boy.

It was time to get some space.

The men who'd been firing at Stryphe's Shadeknight buddies would have to be on the lookout for orbs of speeding, green, crackling energy heading in their direction. The blast would most likely render them all unconcious if it hit anywhere reasonable. It was kind of a blind shot with Stryphe barely being able to tell if those bullets had come from behind some sort of wall or not.

Two more orbs would follow the first, because it was dark out. Stryphe had decided not to bother with the two bloodied and bruised combatants ahead of him and decided to try and actually thin out the enemy forces, careful note of his surroundings always being taken.

And he didn't even bother to wonder when it sounded like the fortress was coming down- there were so many powerful people in this Vale that Stryphe was surprised it hadn't already been engulfed in some sort of destructive wave or swallowed up by the ground or ********>," He hissed, "I need a cigarette."

(( Okay, I have to find a little fault with Shouyin's post. If only in that he basically just instantly destroyed the fort, after nearly freezing to death, and getting punch in the face obscenely hard. I'm not going to argue with how his power works, but i'm going to have to say no to instantaneous destruction of the entire place. ))

Sssssssssssssssssssssssswwp! CRASH!

The orb impacted the side of the ruins that the men had just stepped around. They hadn't seen it coming, but they should have. It took them by surprise entirely, and the impact knocked one of the men to the ground, while sending debris flying everywhere.

A stray stone struck the minigunner in the head, though his helmet protected him, he was still rattled and lay prone upon the ground for a good while.

"GET DOWN!" the voice crackled over the intercom.

The other two turned in the direction that the orb had come from, only to see a massive ball of heat and energy before them, so much that it whited out their heat sensor screens.

Two balls. Two men. Two dead men... with balls.

((Sorry, Shou, but we can't let you just bring the entire fort down in one post. Judge ruling is it takes three posts of doing whatever the hell it was you were doing to bring it down.))

While Mooo's elbows were down to guard body blows, that didn't mean they were 100% effective. Vahn's Liver Blow slipped in, blowing Mooo to the left and causing him to temporarily freeze up--he wasn't able to tense up nearly enough in time to take it as well as he normally would have--and Mooo stumbled up against the wall, breathing hard and trying to pull his hands up to his chin in his usual stance.

He wouldn't be able to strike back right this instant--getting hit there usually stalled a person for a few seconds--but his eyes burned with spirit, and there was no way in hell he'd fall. Not yet.

((If the whole thing falls on my head, so be it. As it stands, most of this would be before the falling anyway. Once that is sorted out, I'll deal with the collapsing fort.))

As Daniel came in, so did someone else. Someone in a big hole. With no cover. With a battle cry to draw attention. Yeah. It wasn't that hard therefore, for him to get a fix on the person, his pistol leveled at the target's stomach, firing five shots, each one traversing a little higher than the next, as recoil threw off his aim.

Meanwhile, the four fresh pawns split, two to a side, giving Daniel his clear line of fire, while they rushed the wall breaker, it was a busy feat, requiring a wide path to be able to get there...

The pawns were lifted by Jacob, lots of dead weight, but they didn't seem quite dead yet. Severly weakened, yes, but they weren't melting away, as they did with death. Instead each one formed a small, dark blade in their spare hands, stabbing down at him in spite. (Shades will probably be dead due to wounds at the end of your next post Jacob.)

The rook was big, stupid, and big. Thus as Shouyin went flying, it watched, waiting for it to land, before he charged at the golem again. The two shades flanking it remained in their defensive posture, covering the wounded titan.

The Bishop, with a clear line towards the hole, the man, and Jacob, as he made his way there, fired a blast towards them, a small globe, aimed at the ground under the man's feet. Another Null blast, basic, explosive, probably did jack squat against shades caught in the blast.