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((I thought it was in the abdomen.))

((It was in the abdomen.))

((Fine then, the cut is still where I thought everyone thought I was putting it and is below the heart. Mmk?))

((Very well.))

((Oh, <******** yes Rule of Cool. As we all know, Joe practically runs on that trope. And I've had something ready for this day for a while. Here we go.))

“Do you think he's OK?” Marco asked, worry evident in his eyes and voice. He stepped back from the table a bit, to see if his work had had any effect. “I wonder if it worked.”

In response, Joe sat up at the waist and looked at him, a slight squint of disbelief showing under his right eye. “Am I OK?” he repeated slowly, his voice further echoing the disbelief. He slid over the edge of the table and stood firmly on his own two feet.

“Am I OK? WHO THE ******** DO YOU THINK I AM?!” Joe roared. He took a step forward, a little totteringly, then another, steadier step as he advanced with building speed on Marco, who continued to back up. As Joe came, all of his various wounds glowed with the return of Joe's mana and began to knit themselves together.

“You can't think you can kill me with a wound like that – a wound to the body! The fire of my soul will blaze a path to a brighter future! I will lead the righteous people of our sect to a better life! I will burn my way across the sky, blaze through the impossible, and blast reason to bits on my way to justice! For my unwavering resolve and fiery soul are my weapons, FOR I AM A LOVER OF JUSTICE!”

Marco first looked at Joe with a look of uncertain shock, then at Fyrin with a sort of questioning disbelief. It was also all he could do to restrain his laughter.

Joe's wounds had sealed themselves during his brief but passionate soliloquy, and his eyes were dancing balls of white flame. After being bereft of magic for the first time in his life, Joe found himself much more sensitive to its presence upon its return, a strange but welcome side effect. He looked around the room and was amazed and impressed at the amount of magic that he could sense not just in the immediate area, but also in the building as a whole and the ships outside. There was a team of vampires two halls over, and beyond that Joe thought he could sense the strange signature of Jessica, the United they had fought a while before, and a few others of a similar energy type. Joe knew where his destiny lay.

“Go on with your mission,” Joe said in a tone that cut off argument before it could even be voiced. “I'm going to drive forward and catch the enemy off-guard.” He held out his hand expectantly, and Marco tossed him the Saint's Saber. Joe snatched it out of the air, tossing it a bit within his hand to settle it, then gave it a few experimental swishes before turning to the wall between him and his destination. He took a steadying breath, raised the Saber, and swung.

A invisible crescent of cutting, razor wind whipped forth, slicing ruthlessly through the stone and steel. Another slash, delivered backhanded and almost lazily, and an X was made. Joe flicked his hand forward, and an explosion went off against the intersection of the X. Large pieces of wall were blown into the hallway. Joe stepped calmly over and repeated the process, blowing his way to his destination. He slid casually down the rubble, one hand in his pocket and the other leaning the Saint's Saber easily on his shoulder as he regarded the vampires in his path.


A couple of the ones up front winced as Joe slowly advanced down the hall, but the other five were further back. They hardly did more than blink as Joe's massive mana flow entered the hall, although their discomfort was evident before and especially after Joe came to a halt about 20 feet away and pointed the Saber at the apparent leader, a grizzled vampire with a scar for a chin cleft.

“You,” Joe said, his orbs meeting the the vampire's eyes. To the credit of each, neither blinked. “You who would prey on the weak and innocent' who would take advantage of the darkness; who would act cruelly, feed on children, and flee from justice – I have come for you. The blazing light of my justice shall illuminate your sins, and I will cleanse you in the fires of my own righteousness! You who would use the darkness and prey on others' fear -”

The two frontal vampires, who had been fidgeting uneasily as Joe spoke, reached some kind of unspoken agreement between themselves and suddenly attacked, one high and on the right and the other on the left, low. They closed the distance rapidly, and Joe was still pointing the Saber at the vampire captain when they closed their pincer.

Joe took a step back, just outside of the attack. Mana pulsed down the Saber, disorienting the eager vampires long enough for Joe to neatly decapitate the one on the right. As the other watched his companion's head trace a gory arc through the air, Joe's hand locked over his throat. The vampire croaked in morbid surprise as Joe slammed him into the wall. The white fire started – rather symbolically – over Joe's heart, and spread quickly over his body. It engulfed the vampire as he let out a dying shriek, igniting it as he burned to ash. Within a few seconds, the only thing left was a scorch mark and a fistful of ash in Joe's palm.

“...I will show you fear in a handful of dust,” he finished, letting the ash fall to the ground as they readied to fight. By now, all of the vampires were expressing varying levels of discomfort at the mana being released, but they were galvanized by the deaths of their comrades. Joe walked forward calmly as the vampires attacked, and the fight was joined.

((Mwahaha, I am Siber! Fear my wall of text and my character developing skills!))

Fyrin sat through Joe's speech, face buried deep within his palm. "Let's... let's just move on, shall we?" he offered Marco.

---

((Jacob and Paul are not in the same building, right?))

Paul activated the scope on his rifle. This was going to prove massively advantageous. He took a bead on Takeshi, or what he presumed was Takeshi based on mana visibility, and shortly the only light in the room was three-round bursts of fire emanating from the barrel of Paul's rifle.

Paul had discovered to his chagrin that in the dark, the zombies were either more frightening or more frustrating than they were even normally to him. He'd have to take them down from the source, and anyway Takeshi had been a pain in the backside here long enough. Just forcing him to fall back for good would be nice enough.

((I feel like I'm forgetting someone, but Darius left...))

"The bomb already went off?" Fyrin muttered, a little alarmed but still in control. "In that case let's see to it that everyone gets out safely. I'm getting impressions that everyone on our side's alright, but it sounds like Darius had to bail on us. Let's just ensure that everyone pulls out okay, I think we've done all we were meant to."

Within two minutes, Joe was standing in a scorched and scored hall, vampire corpses lying all around him. Only the leader still stood, unflappable as always.
"You still stand in my way? Impressive; I admire your strength of soul. However, compared to my fire, you shall fall like the others for standing in my path!"
In classic samurai style, the two ran at each other, the vampire drawing a sword on his back and Joe hefting the Saint's Saber. They flashed past each other, and there was a glancing cling as the two slid to a stop. After a second, the vampire's head slithered to the floor in four parts, and a cut opened across Joe's chest that healed as he stood.
He glanced back at the vampire. "A worthy opponent." He sheathed his Saber and set off at a jog. He was near to the source of the energy. He blasted a door open and stepped through, ready to fight the woman and...
...well, that was an anticlimax. There were no unjust opponents to be battled within. It was a dark, stone chamber. Hewn into the walls and floor were complicated thaumaturgic symbols. The main point that drew Joe's attention was a strange metal protrusion in the center of the room, similar to an altar. Joe advanced on it to get a better look.