Badgers (ps unfinished spoilers ahoy)
The Shinigami didn't seem to have much time to communicate amongst themselves as, with only a single attack in so far, they were mostly acting of their own accord in a sloppy and unnecessary manner. They had continued to struggle amongst a problem that had been relatively solved by one of their own higher-ranked members even though they weren't in much danger; Oghma had decided to take the illusion into consideration and reduce the force of the jet black liquid so that the illusion was doing more work than he was himself. The illusion itself was absolutely useless as an attack against him because it was within his power to alter and recode matter and anti-matter, so seeing through an illusion was like looking through the clearest of windows.
It was a slight blow to his pride that they didn't know, regardless of the fact this wasn't his realm of origin anyway.
There would be a good amount of time to show them the error of their ways in due time, right now they hadn't finished their little counter-attack. Or rather, it was The Lady Shinigami who had not finished her counter-attack. Only a slither of knowledge was had on her within Ayreith's memory, and neither the power of illusion nor the short-barreled rifle she now wielded was a part of these memories. The last weapon he could recollect her holding was a naginata, but then that was a fair while ago. He half wanted to ask her why the change, but then he was hardly interested in learning the secrets of the dead.
With the display of a rifle it'd be obvious some projectiles would be flying his way at any moment and sure enough, ratta-tat-tat, here they come! Oghma released his focus on the black liquid and it began to dissipiate at a rapid pace. Using the same palm he had placed on the ground as a point of focus just infront of him once he stood fully upright, he formed a small, invisible bubble-dome that circled around him with a three metre radius. Anything inside the dome would experience a sudden and extreme shift in gravity and, in the case of projectiles, enormous air resistance. Another dome raised itself in a two-foot radius from himself and this too was a gravity altering field; a repulsion zone that mimicked the effects of being underwater, save the drowning part that is; so when the bullets zipped his way they were either relinquished of all their momentum and pushed into the ground or they were sent this-way-and-that-way by the inner shield.
Amidst the excitement of being shot at Oghma had failed to notice that, one-by-one, the Shinigami were vanishing from their spot. Where they went, he hadn't a clue, but it looked as though they were beginning to form some idea of the teamwork that they were in dire need of. The Lady Shinigami herself still hadn't finished either but that focus was on Schoefield now, rather than himself. At least, it was up until the point an oversized bird plucked her up from the ground and did away with her, before coming back again. Oh, and yeah, there was a big ol' green cube of some sorts that had appeared from out of nowhere. This ordeal must have been really uninteresting to him, he hadn't even cared to noticed it's existence. There was that other whacky who had been doing his best to keep out of the pull of his previous attack, quite impressive that he was able to manage it. He'd have to keep an eye on that one.
When he had the eye to spare. At the moment, the sky was falling.
Or close enough to it.
There were three figures stood atop the 'roof' of the green cube surrounding the clearing, they must have been the ones that vanished all of a sudden from his grasp. Not only that, but that big b*****d bird has decided to come back over with Kaori right there alongside it. It was definitely much too big, but such things were native in his own realm. Hell, he had been the one to design them. Oh and yeah, the 'roof' of the green cube was falling with good speed. Looked like the plan was to crush 'em all and, if that didn't work, throw in some heavy manpower (or bird power) into the mix.
Oghma still had to teach them all a lesson, the Lady Shinigami especially. It may not be his world, but he still had all the power to do what he wanted with it.
Had his own essence not been attached to the soul of another feeble being, then this situation would be an absolute cakewalk; he'd be able to dematerialize himself and spread himself across an enormous scope of the land and rip it all to hell. As it was though, he'd have to settle with just shifting himself into a spectral shell, a form unaffected by the phsyical world. There was still no certainty that the falling cube would not do any damage, it could effect ghosts and the like, so he sank himself beneath ground level and disappeared from view. All remnants of the black slodge he had spread across the land would now be completely gone now as well if it wasn't before and presumably, the illusion would too. He could dispell it himself if he wanted to, just to make sure. The Lady Shinigami's illusion powers held no ground against someone who could do the exact same tricks, but actually do them. It didn't bother him though. Might even cause them to bumble around a little bit more.
In the meantime, Schoefield was performing his own evasive measures. The ranged attack against him had been quite the surprise, though he should have expected it from a band of idiots like this; he couldn't help but grin at their desire for suicide. Unlike Ayreith, where projectile attacks where next to impossible to hit the man, Schoefield had very little defence against the bullets in the form of shields and such. In fact, he had very little defence overall, but then a good offence more than made up for that, and he was going to prove it.
Snapping out a hand and lifting a finger to point towards the general direction the woman had fired from, he drew a rectangular shape in the air which eventually marked out a light screen of sorts. It was wide enough to cover himself and a small area around him but, as a stationary object, it wouldn't do a damn thing. So, with his other hand now curled into a fist, he punched it forwards and 'punched' the screen torwards the oncoming bullets. With the screen moving forwards he had now given it some force and, with a little conctration, it would be able to disintergrate anything in it's path which, unfortunately, was nothing living. They had all run away somewhere by now, and even Oghma was sinking beneath the ground without so much as a 'howdy-doody'.
Having concentrated solely on ridding himself of those little projectile threats he hadn't managed to grab a proper glimpse of the big, dark 'thing' that had swooped away with the gun jockey. It came back again moments later though. Later as in, now. Some sort of green thing was rapidly falling towards him though which sort of distracted him
---- number 2
Well now, this was becoming an oh-so-slightly interesting little bout; incompetence often added a humurous tint over a scenario.
The Shinigami didn't seem to have much of a grasp over the concept of 'teamwork' as they were... uh... to be honest, Oghma wasn't to sure they were up to individually. Unlike Schoefield, he was rather skilled at reading the skills and abilities of other people, and he was able to do that right now, it was just baffling as to why they had such little communication between themselves. The one he recognised as Guyy was able to shield his own and another's departure beneath the ground using a form of shadow magic, though he knew that more through the mind of Ayreith than his own skill of deduction. What was weird about this was that by time he conjured up the shadows, another member of his clan had managed to nullify the entire effect of Oghma's attack. Well, to say nullify is perhaps insinuating that it was a powerful counter-attack, which was absolute rubbish. An exact illusion that mirrored the effects of his assault had been laid atop of the real one, acting as a form of barrier that prevented his own force from having much effect against the clan. It was absolutely useless if it was meant to confuse Oghma as bending reality and altering and recoding matter was pretty much the focus of his strength; mere trickery that only pretended to have the same effect was like looking through an open window. The only thing the illusion had managed to do was cause a touch of surprise to he that be bald. That, and the lack of communication between the illusionist and the rest of the clan would add an element of confusion to their ranks, perhaps.
Surprise that was amped up further when a ranged weapon was used agaisnt him. The Lady Shinigami, both the illusionist and attacker in question, wasn't known by Ayreith to have been much of an illusionist, nor much of a gun-toter. There she was with a rifle in her hands though, and it was clearly her that had been laying a veil over reality. This made things a little more interesting, a little more worthwhile.
Oghma wasn't completely used to projectiles being fired towards him as technology had not extended that far when he was in power back in his own realm; a perfect time to learn something then. By this time his focus upon the pool of absorbing black liquid had diminished considerably and it remained only in effect so that the illusion continued to play on, it may still be able to confuse the clan through further miscommunication. Oghma stood himself upright and snapped a finger to perform the same time bending trick he had used before, only this time it would not completely halt things. Instead, everything that surrounded him moved at around a hundreth of their previous speed while Oghma continued on as normal. He had slowed down time for everyone but him as it were, or in a different light, had hasted himself to incredible speeds. Using this to his advantage, the bald fighter walked casually towards the metallic projectiles that Kaori had fired. Ayreith knew what they were but he was not exactly proficient with elemental properties and how to re-write matter, so that made him kind of useless here. Oghma nabbed one of the bullets in mid-flight, holding it close to one eye toward the light as though one were examinig a jewel (ignoring the sunglasses). That keen eye took in every little detail, right down to the atomical structure, it's density, the various alloys and whatnot (all of that scientific mumbo-jumbo that this writer cannot be bothered to learn about right now, y'know). Looks like these things would make quite a mess if they were allowed to hit. Schoefield might be in trouble, he was usually stupid enough to try and prove his strength against whatever was sent his way.
Speaking of the devil, upon time returning to normal, Kaori fired off a few rounds towards said person built of pride. The man, who had been unaffected by Oghma's attack thanks to a little platform of light acting as solid ground, had vanished as soon the first shot was fired. Gone, poof in a flash of light. He reappeared seconds later in the exact same spot and... that was that. He didn't do much else.
Oghma switched his focus away from his comrade and back onto the Shinigami, or... what Shinigami were there. Kaori had vanished just as some big black whatjamadoody swooped over the field and wooshed away agagh
