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Nexus Campus Town

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Panda:
Nanako

Nanako froze when the man's eyes met hers, the squawking flame chicken forgotten for the moment. Those eyes, that look, she'd seen it many times before.

"Zeke?" came the words, even if she didn't believe them herself, "How are you...what?"

Her throat felt try as she felt like she was falling into herself, that same feeling when she'd first met the man, the endless void yawning wide before her as if to swallow her whole. The Grace reacted as well, burrowing deeper, the pain of a dozen cold knives sliding into her back that much faster. It almost felt like the chilling shards were converging, ever so slowly as they crawled deeper into her.

"It was...a guided tour," she said, tossing the bird aside dismissively the battle raging behind her forgotten for this brief moment.

Kotomine_Rin:
Lawrence

"S-SWKWAAAAHH!!"

"Is that so..." Lawrence's eyes narrowed icily. A snap of his fingers, and a spark lit up between the two for an instant. Using that thing inside her to communicate was child's play, information transfer was what he designed them for in the first place. It took no time to convey his feelings to her.

No matter.
Like a scalpel burrowing in your brain.

You are no fool.

You knew what wild abandon meant here before you struck.

Was it carelessness...or something else drawing you here?

It matters not. However...

If you are to disturb this land further, I will be its sentinel... and I shall reap you.

Make your choice.
And in an instant, he was gone.


Costin

"..."

The mage was adequate, but not even worth picking his teeth with her bones. That attack was too telegraphed, too deliberate. She was distracted in her purpose, and that wouldn't do. The slightest tremors in the ground triggered his reaction before the spikes emerged to skewer him. He was simply a step ahead of her.

His curse swelled and burst. It was a heartbeat.

Instantly, numerous weapons tore out from his body, bloody and blackened. A sword that belonged to a stranger. A limb that belonged to a nemesis. A dagger that belonged to a colleague. A spear that belonged to a friend. The countless instruments of harm were a karma he bore and released, and for each steel lance, a bloody weapon shot out  to intercept it.

But not the headmaster. For her, a weapon wouldn't do. His clawed paw swung down like a hammer to grab her face, but -

CRRRRRRACKKKKKK!

The next thing the headmaster saw wasn't the chunks of her body being flung about, nor the color of her innards. Lawrence teleported right in the way of the attack, covered by the blackened grail king. Even that protection cracked and screamed from the impact, but the grail king grew and grew, resisting with everything it had. Providing a shield and a spear with Lawrence's own life as fuel.


Lawrence

"This place is not yours to ravage." Black mud poured out of his chest, where the claws almost reached him. Lawrence's glare was unlike anything before. Even if the defense quickly cracked and gave way to his exposed body, he grit his teeth and truly resolved himself to defend the headmaster.


Costin

His look was of utter disinterest, and even disgust. Well, its not like he was seriously trying to kill that robed wench, so even a swing like that was soft enough to be held off for a bit. "Slow down there bud. I might just kill you for real."

A flash of crimson was the only warning they'd have of the kick launching their way. It threatened to decapitate the meddling mage here and there and crush the woman in one fell swoop.

YOLF:
Headmaster

And then, first in this exchange, her expression slipped into clear scorn, and a snarl tumbled from between her gritted teeth. If his ear was sharp enough, perhaps he could tell. The Headmaster had no intention, none whatsoever, of humoring him in the way he desired. This was no place for the mania of a fool who delighted in stoking the flames of death.

And so, with a minute flick of her wrist hidden behind Lawrence's body, in the instant the vampire swung his leg, the bars and meshes of iron he had so easily discarded split in the air, and double their number threw themselves in impaling arcs from his flanks, so quick the air was rent in their wake, and dozens of sharp pellets torn loose from the buildings and road too let loose sonic screams in hurling themselves at the hunter.

Panda:
Nanako

Nanako felt that spark run down her spine like a jolt, lighting along the shards like a live current. Time seemed to grind to a halt as he spoke through them, just as Zeke had. What he said cut deep, words sinking into her head like knives as he got right down to the core of the matter. The shards sliding into her back started vibrating, whether with anticipation or fear she didn't know. The feeling of fiery heat piercing her back spread, as if it were following her veins and nerves to spread throughout her body. However, in the same stroke, he'd exposed himself just as much, opened himself to the same line he'd used to speak to her.

You have his eyes.

And nothing else.
There wasn't time to think, when Lawrence vanished. Fortunately, Nanako didn't need to, as the roar of battle came rushing back to her. She saw Cossie descending upon the headmaster, felt that growing need to hear his body give out again boiling in her blood, saw Lawrence interpose himself between them, saw the headmaster try to riddle him with steely flechettes.

The squirrel girl moved to leap back into the fray and suddenly the piercing molten heat turned ice-cold. Nanako was moving before she could process the sudden temperature shift, and the ground exploded under her feet, the sheer shockwave of her step carving a trench into the ground behind her, obscuring the building behind her in its dust cloud as the sheer force of her step cracked  stone, rattled steel, and shattered glass even from this distance.

Nanako moved with more force than she ever had before, the sound in her wake more like an artillery report than the usual gunshot cracks. The screaming storm of shards was drowned out in that moment, and now Nanako stood where Lawrence had before, shining feathers tracing lines along her limbs, armoring her boots, covering her hands with clawed gauntlets, flowing around her tail like a wispy trail of steam. She'd caught his crimson scythe in her hand, the follow-up kick stopped cold with her tight grip on his shin. She tightened her grip and felt the bone begin to crack and splinter.

"Getting distracted in your old age, gramps?" Nanako growled, a hungry smirk showing pearly-whites, "You're fighting with me, she can wait her turn."

Kotomine_Rin:
Costin

As his kick approached, his circuits flared with a vermillion hue, crawling on his limbs like tattoos brimming with magic. It was a quick, almost undetectable thing - the fact the hunter's expression changed. Even with this speed, even at the point air itself ceased to be a conductor, his senses were sharpened to the point he could perceive it. The stakes, the hurling debris... everything.

No.

Even they almost seemed to stop before the comet that crashed down. The explosion of force from all four of them colliding, their wills... for a second, even the future wavered before this clash, giving way to new uncertain possibilities, masked by an explosion of dust.


Lawrence

"Argh-!" The sorcerer let out a pain cry as the comet hit critical impact, the force so massive, it uprooted the grail king and launched them all backwards with the resounding explosion. The reverberation crushed his eardrums, and the shockwave was enough to crack his shell visibly as the grail king flung back - losing its shape in the process.

How... inelegant...kh..

Thrown back, he landed against a wall and broke his arm with a visceral snap, vomiting a spew of mud from the pain. If he wasn't pulped on the spot, it was only thanks to his shadow armament's defenses, allowing him little reprieve as he clawed on the floor in pain.

His eyes looked back at the Headmaster, his familiar covering her body in favor of his to cushion her own impact, to focus on defending her. The moment the master found her safe landing, the grail king spoke. "Are you alright milady?"

Meanwhile, his eyes darted around quickly, observing his surroundings. Observing the letters carved around them. Narrowing as he understood their intent. Immediately, Lawrence wiped the mud off his cracked jaw. "Please, don't exert yourself. The entire perimeter will soon be fully evacuated. I have a plan to take down this beast, but I need you to trust me."

Lawrence flicked his wrist once. Phenex cried out a hellish scream, and a pillar of flame came crashing down on the two like a wave. He looked like he was in agony right now, but he did everything in his power to buy his lord time and protect her.



Costin

The iron stakes and weaponized rubble yet to be knocked away sank into the apostle's flesh, the rest flung away by the booming impact. And yet, it was utterly absurd, for he somehow moved his body at the last second to avoid the shards breaking any vital limbs, making even this seemingly severe damage a cosmetic hindrance at best.

But it did hinder him. The fact was, the two women were good enough to warrant using this much power to begin with.

The hand crushed his foot, the grip was hardened. But his reaction wasn't delayed in the slightest. At once, his foot pulled out with a horrifying sound, utterly degloving the caught limb from its hide to break free. Blood, meat and raw bone exposed didn't matter at all, her pearly white smile met his own silent grin.

A red light flashed like a blade, finally revealing a true exchange.

The serpentine flurry of kicks came down like rain, his foot now a sword-like blade aiming for her vitals expertly while his long limbs  swooped down like waves - hurling a terrifying combo. Each blow had an utter lack of wasted movements, and had the precise aim to either bait or hit the beastgirl where her body would break the easiest. Her liver, her gut, her nerves, her blood vessels. He spared none of them in his intent.

And then came a sea of flames, washing over them both.

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