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[ So Many : Louis' Heart : Frozen Coliseum ]

Finally up and ready, Jenny thanked Dawn before deciding on a plan of action. She was distant enough from the vacuum-like spell to be able to ignore its force, but that didn't mean the heartless should be allowed to continue.

Calling on some of her glyphic powers, she summoned a Hidden Star underneath Rachel, which detonated into a small pillar of non-elemental energy instantly. With any luck, the damage would have interrupted whatever she was trying to cast.

With that accomplished, Jenny began to play her Haste song once again, enchanting everyone with its accelerating power--though she left the generals out until otherwise told to include them.

"Huh!" Matthew shouted as he jolted back to consciousness, Raised by Amy. He looked around, noting the chaos, and gave a long, whining, "Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

"Thanks, Amy," he said, gratefully nodding, before getting to his feet and running over to Leon as his summoned shouted in his mind the item combination to try. Shoving both hands in his pockets, he pulled out a different item in each--an Antidote and some Eye Drops--and shoved them together. The bright light of synthesis shown from within his grasp, and as he pulled his hands apart, he found a bag of Smelling Salts, which he sprinkled over Leon's face, focusing his alchemic magic into the attempt. With Haste, he was able to complete the revival--and he cast Cura on the gunblader, pulling him out of his critical condition.

With Joe Arisen at full health, Melisandre took a breath and turned her arm to Dani, beginning the same spell again--but due to Jenny's Haste, she was able to complete it and then start on Axel, which would take a few more moments.

With more and more seeming to turn, Sayrike looked around in confusion. "The weird general things are helping us? What's going on?"

She cast Shellra on Joe, Kyle, and Dani, seeing the older man and the younger assassin back to life--all three of them had low magic resistance, so they'd need it--then she cast Cura on Jenny, making sure she was up to par after being Raised. Afterward, she focused on the enemy, trying to keep her guard up just in case something happened.

As Rachel rambled on and unleashed her "Anti-Aero" spell, the massive red wyvern seemed to bare its teeth in what could only be considered a... grin? A smirk?

The beast, easily two stories tall when flat on its feet and wing-arms, gave the barest of hops into the air before lifting its front arms up and out, spreading the webbing of its wings. With its own force, and the pull of the vacuum currents, the wyvern soared at the Heartless Rachel like a blurred wall of scales, talons, and teeth. As it neared her, it pulled its limbs close, like a trap, to crush Rachel underneath its mass.

[[ Revival Note: Due to Haste, you'll have some actions post-Raise (that you can use to start another one if you want). Also, because they were completed "before the round ended" and they're also Hasted, the people successfully revived can get one action this round. Incidentally, that just leaves John to be revived. ]]

[Dawn : Louis' Heart : Frozen Coliseum]

Dawn took a moment and let out a deep breathe then she heard what 'Rae' was ranting on about. The dancer felt her eyebrow twitch in annoyance and anger.

"Guys, I dunno how well you knew or liked her, but I just want to punch her right in the jaw." the dancer vented to those who were close enough to hear, "Mary Sue, my a**. Stupid little b***h...."

Without waiting for a response from anyone, Dawn started dancing. As Jenny tried to interrupt the caster, Dawn aimed to drain the Heartless of it's energy. It's magic. At the same time, Dawn was hoping replenish her own supply.

{Bobbi, Demyx, Zell, Red XIII, Yuffie .:. Louis's Heart .:. Frozen Coliseum}

Bobbi was less astonished that one of her arrows got through not-Rae’s defenses, and more pissed that only one arrow got through Rae’s defenses. Bobbi called bullshit. That Mary Sue spiel not even three seconds later was spot-on, despite Dawn’s protests.

The archer blessed Jenny for the Haste spell, set an arrow to Taulmaril, and charged it with her Piercing Icicle again, since that was the one that got through. She added another layer of magic to the arrow, though, this time adding her Hypothermic Shot, which, if it impacted, would force the Heartless’s mana to essentially go haywire. The Shot would drastically lower her body temperature, and her mana would be forced to stabilize it. That is, assuming the Shot even worked.

Bobbi took a moment to Read the Wind, heightening her arrow’s speed when she loosed—and had to take an additional moment to enact her Expert Focus, when she saw Joseph charging in on glyphs that had formed oh so conveniently for him.

If we’re supposed to be working as a team, isn’t it a good idea to let the rest of the team know you’re up to something? she thought, partially in amusement, partially in exasperation. When she had Joe’s trajectory locked, she was able to alter her own to prevent interfering with his attack, and loosed her dual-spelled arrow, timed to impact at the same time as Joe’s attack.

[[Actions used: 4/4 1) Piercing Icicle (ignores defenses), 2) Hypothermic Shot (screws with mana), 3) Read the Wind (increases speed, arrows only), 4) Expert Focus (increases accuracy)+loosed arrow.]]

Demyx was disappointed but unsurprised when his attack just splashed against the Rachel-Heartless’s shields. He frowned when he saw the wing-demon-appendage-things lashing out, seemingly with minds of their own—which was confirmed when Rachel started throwing a tantrum at them. The fusing of the things made him swear, a nice little epithet he’d picked up from the Earthlings.

"Well, s**t."

He was far enough back that the girl’s spell didn’t affect him—an advantage to staying on the sidelines as much as possible, and he’d be quick to point that out to anyone who complained this time. From his safe distance, Demyx summoned two more spheres of water and sent them screaming on a collision course with the weird appendage-demon-fusion-thing’s head.

[[Actions used: 2/2 One for each Splash spell (the water orbs)]]

Zell was pushed back by the weird appendages, though he managed to twist mid-air to land on his feet. He wasn’t deterred by the guardians, or their new fused form—instead, he decided to target them directly.

Using the anti-aero spell to his advantage, Zell leaped in, fist raised and ready to strike with his Rapid Punch technique. The blows were aimed literally wherever the monk/conductor could reach, each move blurring into the next, making the blows difficult to intercept. He continued raining blows in rapid succession for as long as he could.

[[Actions used: 1/4… or more, depending on how long he gets to hit things.]]

Nanaki Howled one more time, this time granting Bravery to Joseph, Kyle, and Yuffie. Before the last echoes of the howl died, Nanaki was off like a shot, launching a Fira ball ahead of himself, and following after it to Bull-Rush the Rachel Heartless. He’d noticed the glyphs form from Kyle, and Joseph running along them, and intended to knock Rachel back into whatever attack Joseph had in store.

[[actions used: 3/4… 4 depending on how much distance he has to close]]

Yuffie caught her shuriken as it was deflected back at her, and immediately lobbed a Gauntlet at Rachel. As the projectile was in the air, she enveloped her shuriken in her Fuma Fatale spell, basically doubling the surface area of the weapon via magic. As she got closer, she began to feel the pull of the anti-arrow spell, and let it suck her in closer.

When she was at a distance she liked, Yuffie poofed, disappearing in a cloud of smoke and reappearing several feet in the air above Rachel. With a shout, she brought her Fatale’d shuriken down in a powerful blow, aimed directly for Rachel’s head.

[[actions used: 4/4 (why do all of my people get four actions when Hasted wtf): 1) Gauntlet 2) Fuma Fatale 3) poof 4) whack]]

{James ; Leon ; Auron : Louis’ Heart : Frozen Coliseum}

James watched as his Dread Cannon hit Rae’s shadow to no effect along with everyone else’s moves due to her barrier, with the exception of Mizu’s arrow. The corsair took a moment to clear his head trying to shake the slight lingering effects from the attack he had used.

’Try to remind me not to use that again… That was not worth this feeling,’ James mentally told Fenrir.

’Indeed… your group doesn’t need the advantage that badly, Fenrir replied with a slight mental nod.

By the time the corsair had successfully shaken off the ill feeling several things were noticeably difference, the additional boost of speed of his regular movements could be felt as Haste was once again cast on the group expediting their actions once again. The corsair used the haste to charge up and then unleash a Fire Shot and followed it up immediately with another Fire Shot timed to impact with the rest of the oncoming attacks.

A strong scent was the first thing Leon became aware of as he slowly came to. The smelling salts taking their effect by reviving and slightly raising his health. He felt as Mathy followed up with a Cura to bring him out of critical. He gave the Alchemist a nod of thanks and slowly brought himself back to his feet. Unsure how best to act, the Gunblader remained where he was, charging his energy.

Auron was just out of range of the Anti-aero that drew the others in, the majority of them seemingly willingly and moved out of the way right as the dragon closed in on Rachel. With all of the attacks coming in from all sides the Unsent Samurai didn’t really see an opening in regards to him being able to attack so he focused on catching his breath and focusing his energy until he would e able to strike once again.

Joe felt a deep satisfaction as his attacks hit their mark, his opponent's eyes widening in shock as she realized just what he could do.

He was so caught up in the feeling, he forgot one of the most important rules of fighting: always be on guard.

The first cuts both cleaved into him; one blade through his left shoulder, another into his right side. He managed to get his blade back into line as the next cut's rained down, the force send him tumbling towards the ground away from the heartless.

He managed to catch himself as he landed, wincing and tasting copper as blood flowed from his open wounds. All things considered, still worth it.

At least the others had gotten back on their feat. Excusing the whirling death scimitar and the fact that he was fairly certain that those ghost had hit an organ, things had gone off without a hitch.

And as he saw Kyle's wyvern leap into the air above Rachel, he smiled. He might not be able to move, but he was more then able to return the favor. He raised his sword arm up and focused on the creature, a picture of it's mass appearing in his mind. And then, he imagined it getting heavier and heavier, focusing in as much energy as he could into it. As the picture became clearer and clearer, the beast itself began to fluctuate with gravitational energy, it's immense weight further accentuated by the grey knight's spell.

Unable to contain himself, he found the woman's eyes and grinned through bloodied teeth as the beast fell through the sky.

'Time for a physics lesson, you narcissistic twit...'

[[AN: 2x charged G-Impact applied to Kyle's familiar. Joe's magic is added to the dragon's flop. With Faith and the charges, this is +24]]

[[Narration : Curtain Fall]]

Rachel, prepared for the oncoming attacks, braced in a defensive stance did not flinch away from the danger that came at her. Like a scene right out of an eastern epic, she stood arms at her side with her boomerang tight in her grip.

There was a line of glyphs around to her side, but she could do naught but watch as Joe vanished into a blur after the first 3 glyphs met his feet, besides, she had... bigger matters to attend to, primarily the dragon leaping at her face.

She was ready for it, prepared for the attack and yet, something held her hand. She hesitated, body frozen. Why couldn't she move? Why was everyth- her eyes fell on Kyle, his hand outstretched, the magic holding her limbs tracing back to him.

Then everything hit her at once. Fire burst from her feet, the dragon crashed into her, Joe's broken weapon driving into her as the entirety of the forces pressed against her, pushed her backwards.

The air settled around the dragon's body, but something, still wasn't right. The magic around the dragon... even the floor that lit up at the point of impact with circuits of magic, was not at ease. There was a pull of magic... not physical, but spiritual... like mana was flowing directly into the impact point as a single white feather glimmered into existence and floated down.

It passed through the dragon's hide... through its belly... until at last letting out a small flash beneath its form.

There was a sudden explosion, the dragon lifted off the floor and thrown backwards. Joseph and all those close were launched or perhaps even dragged across the floor(unharmed thanks to Kyla's buffs) as the girl emerged battered, bleeding, but floating as energy flowed into her from the curved blade in her grip.

A white outline around her form flickered and faded as she coughed, "I'm... not done yet!"

Yes, you are.



There was a flicker of golden light as Bael, the small, animal-like general of ice and blackened crystal collided with one of the girl's 'wings'. He bit down hard on the face of her unfortunate guardian and reared back, lifting from it a glowing blue crystal trapped in its mouth.

Rachel turned to look, rage engulfing her expression while she watched her blue guardian turn to black-dust. Yet, even as she contemplated the loss, yet another blur flickered past her on the other side. There was a line left in the blur's wake as the entire wing... body and all separated from Rachel's shoulder and the gold crystal in the monster's eye clattered across the floor. Atir dismissed her scythes from her braced position after having practically teleported across the battlefield.

Rachel couldn't keep up. She's just wasted her re-raise, yet here she was losing everything like it didn't even matter. She unleashed a flurry of small holy spells that arced up and homed in on Atir and Bael, a concentrated dispel following directly behind.

Atir and Bael could do nothing in the minuscule split-second between their assault and Rachel's counter attack to dodge. The holy spelled landed direct hits, but rather than explode, they passed right through like miniature canon balls, leaving gaping holes in their crystalline bodies.

The dispel struck immediately after.

"Heh... guess that's it..."
"It was fun..."
"Till next time then."
"Mmm... till next time."

The two fell and shattered into hundreds of pieces. Golden energy splashing outward before flowing into several individuals across the battlefield.

Rachel sneered at her victory and turned her attention back to the others, "Who's ne-"

Dani, flying with impossible speeds and now glowing gold, released Nick's extended whip-blade as he spun the girl around like a centrifugal rag-doll, collided with Rachel's face with an extended palm. Between Dani's hand and her opponent floated a small sphere of water. That sphere, a torrential whirlpool of interweaving streams, compressed into a tightly-bound ball that upon impact, released the pressure like any good bomb: first ripping the space around it to shreds, in-particularly Rachel, followed by an outward force that propelled the insane white mage backwards towards Joseph.

As her opponent retreated against her will, Dani had yet to finish. Her chakram, coated in black flame and spinning above her opposite hand took flight through the cloud of water left in the wake of her psudo-flare. The explosive force of the toss let loose an earth-shattering blast that carried the cloud with it like a double-helix following the path of her weapon.

The blade caught up with Rachel and passed through her chest... leaving no physical wound but vanished in a cloud of black wisps that propelled her further right before the drill of water following behind collided with her defenses, ripping through them and splitting into multiple streams that pierced the girl in a shotgun spread over her body.

3

There, as Dani's attack fulfilled it's purpose, Joseph stood golden light flowed into his body as his weapons glowed. Rachel, too late to dodge, too late to cast any magic and protect herself, was defenseless as Joseph leaped into her, weapons crossed over her torso, then drew them back. There was one thunderous crash after another as the man brought his weapons around again and again in a simple-yet-viscous combo of sluggish-thick wind that held the girl aloft and unable to correct her trajectory that ultimately ended in a downward strike into the floor that erupted upward in a pillar of light and sent the girl skyward.

Bobbi, covered from head to toe in gold, gathered the energy into her bow as she drew it back. There was a snap and the bow exploded, multiplying in size, fused itself to the floor angled up... a golden crystal arrow easily 4 times larger than Bobbi was tall formed between the string and limbs. Bobbi let the arrow fly... and it did, kicking up a burst of air that left a vacuum and clapped like a gunshot that kicked Bobbi's hair into a flurry around her face.

The shot pierced its target right through the chest, leaving the airborne girl stunned and glaring at Bobbi from her suspended position in the sky before the arrow scattered in shimmering diamond dust... spread out in a sphere over the battlefield... then reformed into hundreds of golden arrows that reversed direction and turned the heartless white mage into a momentary pincushion that then lit up in a fireworks show or prismatic light.

Meanwhile, Dani who was held aloft by the force of her own attack fell directly into the open arm of Rera who set her down on her feet before stepping between the assassin and Rachel who somehow continued to float, glowing in the sky.

Joe, who'd landed directly below where Rachel now floated overhead, felt the energy floating around them in golden mist as it gathered on him at last. He looked up, as a massive glyph appeared beneath him and above Rachel.

Black bolts of lightning shot back and forth between the magical floor and ceiling as Joe reached into the aether and pulled forth a massive zweihander made of gold before the glyphs activated in kind on himself and Rachel... reversing his own gravity and multiplying her own, effectively launching them at each other.

From the floor as Joe took flight, an armada of swords just like his joined the flight and as he passed the girl at escape-velocity. Joe cleaved her through,separating her mana into an identical form before him... the armada of swords joined his strike performing the exact same executing maneuver on her at varying angles... after-images of her spirit being split in half by golden copies of Joe repeated until at last she slammed into the floor... pinned by the overwhelming pressure of gravity against her body.

Afloat in the sky, Joe spun around and aimed the tip of his great sword down... and released the last of the immense energy in his magic-manifest sword into beam that careened down into Rachel... obliterating the area directly around her point-of-impact.

"Quickly, we can't let their sacrifice be in vain. Everyone, in position!"
"It's been nice knowin' ya."
"Same."
"No use being sentimental- here goes nothing!"


"You... Yooooou.... I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!" The girl proceeded to scream like an angered child from the crater where she lay thoroughly beaten... her voice carrying like a tornado siren through a megaphone. Above the battlefield a familiar glyph appeared again... only this time, released a white light.

The remaining generals stood at cardinal points of the battlefield and lifted their weapons high overhead as gold light poured off them and ran across the floor in circuit patterns toward the center.

The girl continued to scream, as the light poured forth in powerful and unrelenting flow-like tendrils that didn't seem to target anyone in-particular... but rather the battlefield itself as these tendrils of light spilled forth and collided with ground... ripping through the stone floor, peeling up layers upon layers of crumbling boulders until no earth remained beneath their feet, everyone fell, and luminescence engulfed everything.

2

When their eyes finally adjusted to the scenery, they found themselves at the end of a long, pitch-black ornate hallway with Celtic design carved into the roman-style pillars lining the walls. The way back had collapsed in a pile of onyx rubble. There seemed to be so light source anywhere, but light still existed to see as it was apparently originating from their own bodies.

Far ahead, moving towards a door at a snail's pace, struggling to stand, let alone walk was Rachel.

With a pained gasp, she pushed her good leg against the floor, pressing and dragging her battered torso over the rough stone flooring letting out a hushed scraping noise. Her breathing was heavy, and breaths came in quick succession as her torturous journey to her destination continued by another hobbled step.

This isn't you.
"Shut up, I'm doing what I want," another groan and push with her leg forward.
This isn't what you want.
"That's ******** right," Rachel shouted to seemingly no one. She slapped her arm against the stone and pulled with her fingernails in the cracks of the cobblestone, "This world isn't what I wanted!"
Hurting your friends won't make that better.
"They're not my friends," She gave a push with her leg again, but despite biting down her pain let out a scream of frustration, "They left me to die."
They came to rescue you.
"They didn't try hard enough," she pulled again, but didn't move forward this time, instead stopping to breath, each gasp seething as tears gathered on her lashes.
They did everything they could.
"No, they didn't!"
They're your friends... of course they did.
"What do you know? You never had any friends!" The girl gave another pull with both arms, her legs proving useless.
Just one.
"Oh yeah..." she'd reached her destination, the arched-door only an arms-length away. She pushed herself up with a gasp then 3 short breaths in succession, "How'd that work out for you?"
I killed him.
"Some friend you were."
No- that's not right. I let him die. I didn't then have the strength to do what needed to be done... but they do.

There was a crumbling noise, small pebbles and pieces of dirt clattered around Rachel, bouncing off her back, proving little more than a minor annoyance.

She chuckled morbidly, "Something's going to fall on me, isn't it?"

She turned her head exposing a face stained with dust-caked tears and in shock or fear at what she saw caused her to roll over entirely and clench up her jaw. The dark guardians that were there previously had been replaced by Justice and Nemesis, both devoid of darkness, but there was still a coldness in their gold and light blue eyes.

1

Could you kill a friend if it was the just thing to do?

Could you kill a friend to save them?

They both raised their scythes in two hands and held them at the ready, each blade white as the sun were pouring down on her face on a clear summer morning, Memento Mori, at their backs, between the crossed blades of light, in the darkness of the cavernous ceiling, tooth and fang plummeted headfirst with a roar.

Half a scream left her lips as the blades crossed over her chest releasing a glimmer of light... the dragon phasing through the hallucinations at the same moment cutting her voice short with a crunch.

Not a second later, there was a flash of light along with specks of shadow that floated out from beneath the crumpled body of the Tigrex. Through its body, a heart rose up washing this way and that as though caught in a tide while it reached for heaven.

Winded, Joe could only wince and close his eyes as the luminescence engulfed the battlefield, sending them all falling into nothing.

By the time his senses came back to him, he found himself on one knee, panting for breath in an onyx hallway. Ahead of them, the heartless was limping towards a door, ranting to no one as she tried to make her escape.

"Oh no you....don't!" Joe yelled out as he stumbled back to his feet. Whatever he'd pulled off back there, it had taken a hell of a lot more out of him then he had thought.

Didn't matter. Wouldn't matter. They were going to get this done and then they could rest. First they'd finish this heartless, and then they'd deal with whatever else Louis would throw at them.

Then his eyes widened as a dragon fell through the ceiling and solved the first problem for them.

Coughing as the hall filled with dust, he refocused again and saw Kyle slam into a wall, having made a grab at the actual Rachel's heart as his dragon faded into the aether.

Rubbing his forehead out of weariness, he called out to the group.

"Everyone still breathing? I don't know what the hell just happened, but I think we passed that little trial."