Welcome to Gaia! ::

*Kold forms ice on his shoes and dashes towards the red ghost. 'Cooling is the slowing of molecules.' He smirks as he thinks to himself. 'Ordering me around like that....I would have done that anyway.'*

*Kold reaches for the ghost and a dry ice claw extends from his palm. The claw grasps the ghost and crushes it. How ice can freeze and crush a ghost would normally be impossible, but don't forget...this place is affected by will. Physical boundaries are a bit more flexible here.

With any luck, the energy drain effect should cease. Reishi's healing will stop too, hopefully*

((Basically:

- Brimmstone destroys blue ghost (stops Reishi's barrier)
- Kold destroys red ghost (stops Reishi's healing)
- Pink Ghost revives them
- Yellow Ghost is making several quakes on the platform floor, slowly breaking it and causing shockwaves

-Nice Reishi says to stop Yellow Ghost, prevent platform from being destroyed.

- Reishi still punching, focuses on Kokujo...then stops punching after a few seconds.
- Reishi does a really fast 3 combo attack on Kyla, then retreats to recover.
- Reishi stops for a few seconds (intending on doing the air punchy again when he recovers)

- Kold essentially casts Float on the party (unaffected by quakes), but remain stationary and focused to maintain it.

- Red and Blue are about to attack Kold, but are delayed slightly. ))

*'I'm getting really sick of these distractions.' Brimmstone says to himself as he adjusts to floating above the quaking platform. He dashes over to the yellow ghost.*

*Brimmstone coats his hands and feet with magma, then cools them to make lava gauntlets and greaves. Flickering orange flames leak through the cracks.*

"Diving Flare." *Flames erupt from the bottom of his feet, and he rockets towards the yellow ghost, readying a double punch. As he approaches, he looks like a meteor surrounded in flame. He knocks the yellow ghost loose and sends it flying. Brimmstone slams his feet on the ground and sends lava into the platform, then cools it. This fills in the cracks from the quakes, repairing it.*

*Brimmstone rockets to the other side of the ghost, and spins in mid-air. He looks like a spinning fireball* "Blast Emmisary!" *Brimmstone scissor kicks (you know, the upside down kick in soccer) the yellow ghost and sends it flying yet again towards the red and blue ghosts. Brimmstone placed a magma bomb on the ghost. It will detonate when it gets close to the Blue and Red Ghosts.*

"How do you like that? Don't think that mere flames are all that I'm capable of." *Brimmstone looks quite pleased with himself.*

*Reishi recovers and attempts to dodge Kyla, but the increased gravity from Holy Orders slows him down. He turns slightly to minimize damage at the last second.*

*Kyla's sword attack completely tears through the Monkey Ghost Sheet and it disperses. The sword still manages to hit Reishi's wound. It would have been a deeper cut if not for the dodge attempt. Still, it's more damage adding up to his paralysis.*

*Blast Emmisary detonates and destroys Clyde and Blinkie (yellow and blue), but powers up Inkie (red/fire). It begins to pulse and grow in size, foreshadowing its explosion*

*With the quakes no longer a problem, Kold awakens and ceases his "float". With the bomb ghost in his face, he doesn't have much time.*

"s**t!" *he pulls a vial out of his pocket and throws it at the ghost, detonating it prematurely at a safe distance. Dry ice, water, and the vial's shattered pieces remain on the floor. It was a pre-made dry ice bomb.*

"Didn't want to resort to that. I only have so many of those."

*Pinkie is about to use Center Box again, but is eaten by the Dragon of Darkness. All 4 ghosts are now out of play.*


"Excellent! The platform is safe."

Ghost Summoning: Angel Sheet!



*Reishi dons a serene sheet ghost with a halo tucked between it and Reishi. It expels Kokujo's Holy Orders effect, then halos appear above Kold, Kyla, Raiden, Kokujo, and Brimmstone. They expand and emit a light briefly. Like a scanner. The halos then transform into....well...these:



*above each person appears the following:



Odsah: Kold's blue intense-face frost phantom



???: Kyla's: lunar bunny phantom



???: Raiden's: owl-stag-misfit-thinger phantom



Weimar: Kokujo's Sephalopod umbral phantom (( ninja ))



Solash: Brimmstone's griffenix phantom


((This is another "Choose Your Own Battle" thing. Have your characters face off against their Facsimile Phantoms any way you wish. The idea is that we're fighting against enemies that have the same powers, fighting styles, and thought processess...as floating adorable ghosts. You can also attack Reishi during this time, as he'll be attacking too. Have fun!))

*Kyla and the Lunar bunny thing blink at each other. They stare at each other for a long time. Since they share fighting styles and thought processes, then the immediate reaction for both, is to attempt to size up the situation. They glare and circle each other, slowly drawing closer and closer. Suddenly, the bunny springs for Kyla, and she leaps at the bunny thing

...and they hug*

It's...so...cuuuuuuuuute, mew mew!

*Unable to determine whether or not the bunny would attack, defend itself, if it was evil or good, Kyla decided the best course of action would be to react naturally and hope that in sharing a thought process, the bunny would react the same way. When Reishi screeches, Kyla covers the bunny's ears with her hands, and it extends it's long ear wing things to cover Kyla's ears*

*Kold and Odsah stare at each other for a few moments, then both of them fire Glacial Cannon at each other. The ice beams connect and cancel each other out with a flash of light. Odsah travels through the Glacial Cannon and dashes past Kold with his spinning golden ring. Kold jumps back, and is grazed by the ring slightly. The sleeve on his left arm is sliced, but it didn't reach his skin.*

"So that ring of yours is supposed to mimick Sohi? Interesting."

*the two dash past each other, matching each strike, continuing the stalemate. All the while, the area around them begins to steam. It's hard to tell if it was Kold, Odsah, or both...but an ice dome forms around them and dry ice is formed inside the dome. With the dry ice's carbon dioxide overpowering the oxygen inside the dome, it's become an endurance match. They'll both lose consciousness sooner or later. Then suddenly, Kold's voice can be heard. It's barely audible, perhaps hoping no one else will hear."

"KoruDo Ougi: Kyuurei." (Freeze Path Secret Technique: Nine's Zero*)

*in an instant, an intense air distortion occurs. All the air around the entire battlefield depressurizes, causing a vacuum that is pulling towards the dome. This lasts for less than a second, then suddenly stops, then the temperature drops to well below freezing, though it slowly returns to normal. For a moment, there is silence...then the dome shatters. The dry ice surrounding Kold and Odsah is no longer evaporating, but rather the dry ice itself is frozen within a different, strange new type of ice. Kold's never been seen using it before. Odsah is cut perfectly in two halves, but each half is frozen. Like a statue cut by a stone cutter.Though everyone is probably preoccupied, Kold shatters the ice residue and evaporates it and gathers it onto Sohi. He whispers again.*

"As expected of my doppleganger. You backed me into a corner. You will never reveal the secret of that technique to anyone...ever.." *Kold swings his sword to the ground and does a ceremonial sheathing. He pauses, then clicks the blade into the scabbard. Odsah shatters and completely evaporates, leaving no trace. Kold coughs and takes a moment to catch his breath.*

(*kyuurei is also a word means "rapid cooling" in Japanese)

Corbenik was plonked on his furry rump at an empty end of the large platform, watching the back and fourth between Kokujo and his octo-foe as one might watch some sort of tennis game. He cocked his head to the side slightly, seeming for one of his rare moments to actually be thinking about something. "Hm, y'know I can't help but feel I'm missing something that should be obvious to me here. I could sure go for some tasty seafood right now though. I wonder if emoness makes it more chewy..." He wondered to himself, then seemed to be struck by an epiphany.

Meanwhile the battle between Weimar and Kokujo was in full swing. The shadows followed and crashed back and fourth, their intangible shapes twisting and morphing with each attack and counter. To someone untrained in the arts, it would be extremely difficult to even tell who was controlling what parts of the shifting darkness at any specific time, and indeed, the control shifted constantly as Kokujo and his doppelganger vied for an advantage over one another.

Weimar flexed its ethereal tendrils, seeming to osmose some of the surrounding shadow energy before extending them outwards and whipping them round towards Kokujo. Their ends tapered into deadly points as they stabbed towards the shadowmancer.

"So you can use your own body for your shadow techniques as well..." Kokujo noted as he prepared himself for the attack. He launched himself upwards to avoid the first few, weaving with deft agility through the onslaught of ghostly appendages as he fell back down, using platforms made from the surrounding shadows to change directions several times. Landing, he quickly turned to parry the final one from the shadowy floor, a surprise attack that might have caught Kokujo more by surprise, had he not been of the same mindset.

Kokujo drew his shuriken from his back in a wide slashing arc, severing most of the disgruntled ghost's extended limbs, and bringing the blades round to hurl up towards the floating Weimar.

Weimar's tentacles seemed to dissolve back into their normal size. He quickly flapped them downwards to propel himself, as if the air was water, just over the whirling shuriken, and sending himself in a tumble back towards Kokujo. Spinning as he fell, Weimar's ethereal aura started changing shape once more. His tendrils began to morph into 4 large blades, identical to Kokujo's shuriken, with Weimar's skeletal face in the centre. He began picking up more and more speed as he spun himself at Kokujo.

"Hmf, so that's how you intend to mimic my weapon attacks is it?" Kokujo frowned up at the approaching Weimariken. He had a plan in mind though, and instead of attempting to parry or dodge, Kokujo readied himself, standing his ground. Below his feet, shadowy hands emerged from the ground, latching onto Kokujo's lower legs to provide a brace. His mechanical arm was bright back.

In the background a dark arm burst from the ground, grabbing Kokujo's spinning shuriken and snapping it back round in a quick 180 degree arc back where it came.

As the Weimariken crossed the last few feet between the two, Kokujo quickly swung his metal arm forwards with all his strength, connecting his metal claw violently with one of the dark purple shadow blades with a great metallic crash. Parts of the rock bellow his feet cracked and splintered off, but Kokujo grimaced and stood his ground.

The blade he had caught changed from murky purple to black, seeming to burst as Kokujo manually converted the shadow energy of part of Weimar's body into his own and dispelled it. Seeming prepared for this, Weimar dashed forward under Kokujo's guard before he could follow up. The remained of his body morphed into one larger blade, stabbing himself towards Kokujo's stomach. There was a whoosh and the glint of blades. Kokujo's good arm shot out to snatch his own shuriken as it came back. Doing nothing this time to brace himself, the force from the shuriken was enough to pull Kokujo back and away from Weimar's follow up strike.

Using the momentum to his advantage, Kokujo swung himself right round, ready to loose his weapon at Weimar once more. Seeing this, Weimar began to dodge, knowing it's small size made it a difficult target. Unseen by it though, Kokujo had retrieved the small shadow kunai he'd picked up earlier while his back had been turned to Weimar. As his feet hit the ground again his free arm lashed out, sticking the enchanted Kunai square in the centre of Weimar's shadow. Though capable of working round such tricks with Kokujo's power, the move caught Weimar off guard for a crucial second, effectively nailing him in place while Kokujo brought his primary weapon to bear once more.

Black energy pulsed from the large blades as Kokujo prepared to make the best out of the small window of attack. "Zero Cutter!" He called, hefting his powered up weapon at Weimar. Dark barriers were flung up hastily from the darkness, only to be cut asunder by Kokujo's special attack, going on to cleave into Weimar itself, severing a portion of it's skull mask and dropping the octopus creature to the floor.

Kokujo looked down disdainfully at his defeated doppelganger as what was left of it tried to recover. It glared up defiantly at Kokujo, seeming to refuse its defeat as Kokujo probably would in similar circumstance. "Hmf, an interesting attempt, but there are some things about me that you cannot simply mimic with your tricks..." His eyes glanced away for a second or two as he heard a soft padding sound approaching the pair "...But perhaps the one you should most be concerned with now, is the fact that you don't poses the contract..." Kokujo finished.

Just as Weimar seemed to have regained the ability to float it was suddenly jumped upon by the black furry figure of Corbenik. He pinned the beaten Umbra-being to the ground, grinning down at it with a rather unsettling smile. His beady red eyes seemed to glow more in the shadow as Corbenik leant down "Tell me Emo Zoidberg, are you chewy?" He asked. Weimar attempted to push Corbenik off, only to find that parts of his ethereal shadow body were already starting to be absorbed into Corbenik. Corbenik opened his mouth and what followed could only be described via the noises Corbenik made in it's process. "OOOOOHMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM-NOMNOMMM-NOMNOM-numnumnumnumnumnummm"

"Must you make that noise every time you do that?" Kokujo sighed as he retrieved his shuriken. He was soon more occupied with shooting a critical look over to where Kold had finished with his own battle. He had noticed the sudden change in the air during the battle "I wonder, are you keeping something up your sleeve, Kold? I've never seen him use an ability with similar outward effect, Interesting..." he thought to himself.