Current Energy: 2
Current Training:
Magic Resistance (7/10)
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
City Center, Canberra
"Can you make another gap?" You send to your Master carefully, even as you pivot to allow a piece of debris to burst across your back instead of slamming into her head.
She merely groans in response, stumbling slightly from your grip to weakly pull her sword upward, ripping open a Gap infront of her. The motion isn't quick or singular, as her usual Gap creations are. It is anemic at best, a slight nick in the surface of reality that slowly expands to match the typical size of one of your Masters portals.
"Good. Take her back to Brockton Bay. I'll stay to make sure the Simurgh is driven back," Alexandria quickly puts forth, apparently having managed to regain her composure and return to giving commands.
"That will not be neccessary," you negate, helping your Master stumble into her own gap, which quickly seals behind her.
"Her Oathbound remain, so I too shall stay. Taylor will recover shortly to assist." You state bluntly, turning and drawing Gram from your back for perhaps the first time in this fight.
Your originally orders from the PRT were very clear. Neither you, nor your team, were to directly engage the Simurgh in any capacity. Prior to this, you had held to that. You had defended, dodged, and otherwise done your utmost to stay out of the line of fire.
However, as all good Heroes quickly learn, there comes a time when following orders ceases to be practical.
"You don't understand, if she can disrupt the Simurgh even temporarily, she's a strategic asset. We can't afford-" Alexandria begins to explain.
You feel for the woman, you really do. As far as you can tell, she has spent her entire adult life defending this country, and in the case of the Endbringers - the world. In return, her political station has been stripped from her, those who once supported her ridicule her, and through no fault of her own, this very battle has gone so far off the rails as to constitute a nearly complete failure.
From your point of view, Alexandria is an example of how one can do everything right - and fail anyway.
"Be at ease, Alexandria," you state, the heroic moment - and yes, you are aware that you can be sort of a dork at times like this - getting to you.
Dramatically, you flare your cape outward while brandishing Gram, while gazing fondly at your embattled comrades in the distance as they draw ever closer to the Simurgh. Whatever effect Magic Resistance has had on the foul creature, the Simurgh has clearly changed strategies, having shifted from a wide area barrage to a continuous stream of attacks directed at your Oathbound.
"We are here," you declare, before crouching downward and finally cutting loose.
It should be noted, at this point, that your average Saber servant is capable of moving at speeds roughly comparable to a fighter jet. They are capable of feats of strength and precision that would easily rank them among the greatest capes alive, including the Triumvirate, and they often have the martial skill to match it.
Your current Emulation is not an average Saber Servant. He is, in many ways, the peak of what it is to be a Saber. He is faster and stronger than nearly any other member of his class, with few exceptions.
And that is before the powerful multiplicative enchantment your Master wove about you.
So when you say you cut loose, what you mean is that the you moved from where you were, to where your team was, quickly enough to cause the very air to boil in your wake.
After getting some distance from Alexandria of course.
"Welcome to the party! We got rocks-" Trainwreck yells at you as you arrive, smashing an incoming building and then pivoting to his shoulder absorbs another such attack instead of Oliver.
"-rocks, and if you wait a minute, chicken!" He yells at you boisterously.
"Ohshitohshitohshit-" is Olivers terrified greeting as he continues to frantically swing his rifle about to fire at anything that he can draw a bead on.
"Come friends! I shall clear a path!" You reply, rocketing forward once more. A grin spreading across your face as you hone in on the eyeless visage of the Simurgh.
Somehow, it doesn't look quite so smug as before.
You are not delicate during this charge. You are strong, and you are fast, and you must be the vanguard. So you use everything at your disposal, your blistering speed allowing you to use your body, your throwing knives, and Gram, to blitz the Endbringer, creating a clear path through the debris for your team.
As you travel, you just barely make out the terrified form of Greg, his mask ripped asunder, picking his way forward through the city.
But you have no time to check on him, as you raise Gram in a moment of pure bliss, ready to cleave the Simurghs machine in twain and-
And you find yourself flying past her, then quickly slammed into the ground by an airborne building as she turns, causing you to move through the gap between herself and the machine - a sprayer of some kind, with an unhealthy green substance in a clear tank at its center.
Grunting, you push yourself upward, throwing away the rubble above you and quickly dodging out of the way of another, similar attack. Off to one side, you can see that your team has arrived in the moment of safety you provided them, and have proceeded to engage the creature, which dodges graceful around many their attacks.
Many would be frustrated at this moment.
Many would probably not understand that for the most part, the Simurgh doesn't dodge.
Attacks simply do not hit her.
Emboldened, you press the attack, launching yourself forward once more to stand with your team.
"Where's Taylor?" Parian asks you between short pants, obviously tired from the excessive running about. She is not as accustomed to pitched combat as the others. Even Oliver spends more time preparing to fight than she.
You resolve to ensure she makes it home safe, just like everyone else.
"In a Gap, recovering. How strong can you make your thread?" You ask suddenly.
"...why?" She asks cautiously while Trainwreck distracts the Endbringer, Oliver having dismounted from his back to run counterclockwise around it, providing him with covering fire.
"I require a means to catch myself when she dodges, or I fear I'll be sent past the horizon." You admit. There really isn't anything else for it. At the speeds you move, not having anything to catch yourself on can be dangerous, especially against an airborne foe.
Typically you could use Runes to circumvent this difficulty your energy reserves are... painfully low. You can't afford to waste even a single point of power unless it will guarantee your success.
Parian purses her lips in response to your question, but obviously doesn't have much time to think. Quickly, she gestures at the knit representation of your current form, which ralidly unknits itself into a bundle of freefloating threads, that then reweave themselves into a several foot long cloth rope.
"I can only hold it together if you stay in my range. If you get to far it'll tear," she warns you as she has it float towards you.
"Much appreciated," you respond, quickly winding the rop around one of your daggers.
Now then. You just have to destroy the machine, and then distract the Simurgh long enough for your Master to recover and kill it.
That shouldn't be too hard.