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Nexus Campus Town

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YOLF:
Headmaster

If she ought to have been grateful, what instead the assistant professor found on her face was an uneasy scowl with no joy for his actions.

"I would have been fine," she said. "Take better care of yourself."

Lawrence soon found himself pulled up in defiance of his body's fragility, and his crippled arm hoisted around the Headmaster's shoulder, the better to support him to his feet.

Turning her face from the plea to play into his plan, the Headmaster only followed the chaotic confluence between the vampire and the re-emerged, transformed squirrelgirl, and at once she stomped her foot.

A telepathic warning sounded in Nanako's head for only the briefest interlude - 'If you don't want to be caught, quit this clash now.'

Every stone under the entire street reverbated once again, as did her remaining warriors of stone, and in an instant an avalanche of rubble, steel, cement, glass and rock thundered free into the sky. The numerous debris swirled around the flames led by the floating familiars and hurled themselves in a crushing rain to surround it like a dome, piece after piece streaming in to form walls on every side.

Panda:
Nanako

The sound of Costin's leg degloving was a new one, another shiver up her spine, the same way the feeling of his bones breaking felt. That Costin now resembled a pincushion more than a man mattered little to her. That the headmaster was warning her to back off or she'd be caught mattered even less. The sea of flames washed around her like rain off her back, abyssal nothing swallowing whatever would have touched her, a singular oasis amidst the inferno, and it was already occupied. Her foe was before her, still moving, still fighting. He was more skilled by far, but she was faster. He'd stopped talking, but that was fine. Nanako had better things to do with her mouth right now anyway.

Hazel eyes tracked the sword-like limb with single-minded focus, the flurry of blows melting away before her eyes even as pain exploded across her body like firecrackers, fists and feet battering away at her with agonizing precision. She weathered the hits with that same smile, until the hardened leg finally descended. With a movement that was more beast-like than human, she caught the bloody blade between her teeth, still grinning all the while. Pain that would have crippled another woman drove her to greater heights, and in the same moment that she caught his leg, she brought an open hand around and simply shoved Costin away with a sound like a cannon shot, yanking back on his leg as she did.

As the Headmaster had warned, debris rained down around them, making a dome of stone and steel and their creator's will. At this point, it didn't matter to Nanako. If anything, the narrower arena only made their fight a more intimate affair.

Kotomine_Rin:
Lawrence

The grail king stared, the shadowy mouth agape. "... that works too milady."

But Lawrence didn't share that sentiment, directly anyway. Hanging off his lord's shoulder painfully, he still focused his sorceries to the best of his abilities. He couldn't put his safety above that woman, she was too important.

He spoke.

"There's an old legend in my world of origin. Its founder... the Heaven Hunting Vanguard was famed for not creating any kin of his own. In exchange, if he happened to find someone of his liking, he gracefully taught them his martial arts, with utter disregard as to whether they were kinsmen, beast, or members of another origin. And once his pupils reached a satisfactory level of skill, he rewarded them with a Godkilling blade of his own, forged from his own blood, to further rule their own circles."

As he said that, his fingers trailed arrays of old magics. Weakened things that stood the test of time, calling forth the nightmare of the old fae queen. The once cute snake was now a massive serpent drawn from the earth, letting out a shrill cry full of poison, to draw the call of nature. Meanwhile, Phenex's wings fluttered, drawing more hellish incantations so the flames inside the dome may not die.

"The twin fangs and seven claws of the Qliporth. They were the floor administrators that ruled over my homeland's floors. I... knew them well. They were a rigid brotherhood tied not only by blood - but by arts and blade."

Cracks began to show on his face. As he spoke this tale, he showed visible disgust... and sorrow.

"But eventually, one of those kinsmen...had died."

And the cry of Lawrence's nightmares reached their apex. A wave of overpowering nature and greenery smoldered the earth, crawling towards the dome with alarming speed. Sinking its poison inside, and spreading vines and roots deep in that shell to fan the hellfire swirling. It would soon turn into an inescapable oven.

"Blade and seat were stolen by an aberration, a vampire who clawed from the bottom rungs of the tower. But that tyrant should've died long ago, it's something that won't stop until it reaches a heaven built atop its corpses. That calamity... was none other than..."

Kotomine_Rin:
Costin Andrei

The flames didn't just burn, they ate away at the life in him. Despite that, his shit eating grin didn't fade.

The beastgirl's body showed no signs of breaking.  Despite that, his shit eating grin didn't fade.

And so the storm of strikes showered the dome's interior. Burning flesh crashed against unyielding flesh, and the apostle's blood swung freely like a weapon. He noticed it all: the way her warm body resisted his strikes, the way his blade failed to sink into her - as if something dulled the mass of bloodied curses. Was it endurance or something else? When his axe-kick to her face was stopped by her savage bite, he already realized it.

Despite that, he kept smiling.

BOOOOOM!!

The follow-up was so fast it could hardly be observed. She struck his chest with explosive power and pulled to tear his leg, but he reacted in the nick of time and detonated the edge of his bladed limb. With a gruesome blast of curses, his leg was set free and his body shot back like a rocket, slamming hard into the debris to the point it visibly cracked. Enough to let him land on his hands and feet. The fact he avoided losing a limb was impressive enough, but there was something more to that. Even behind his sunglasses, his expression was still awake. That instant, the immediate spot he touched grew dozens upon dozens of bloody spears, sprouting up the sky like a murderous tree - reaching for Nanako there and then.

"Heh... la naiba." He coughed a spew of blood, a neat hole now cracked into his chest like a second mouth. And as if perfectly awaiting that impact, the flames that were bouncing around the dome's interior came swirling back, slamming against Costin's hunter attire once more. His bloody clothes bulged and shifted into something else. Something thicker and layered, holding vacuums between the blood fabrics to shield him from the flames.

The curses and weaved spells forming his bloody attire pulsed with hunger, his defensive circuits quickly filled to the brim. All it'd take was a moment, an instant, for the tides to crash once more.

I see... you want to die and be released from your suffering? Damn shame...

Despite all this, his shit eating grin didn't fade.

"Self taught, and not half bad..."

YOLF:
Headmaster

As she listened to the tale, the Headmaster's hold on the professor's body stilled, and then reasserted itself. She focused on the devastation still singing before them, but some tension bled from her grip as she made sense of something.

"Fascinating story, but have you considered he is an alternate self from the man you allude to?" She asked. "Such things are not unprecedented here."

The battle waged, and before the situation could change again, a final boom hammered the dome sealed. But the rain didn't cease. The Headmaster brought her foot down, and the strengthened debris continued to fall like a precipitation of nails, making the walls thicker and thicker.

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