The District of Columbia

[SINIB]

Lily

"Nope... we're going now!"

And with that Lily flapped her wings and took off while holding onto Americana. Her grip didn't falter as they got higher and higher and then they begun heading away from her district, her center of power.

"I do wonder what will happen when you get too far away from your believers. Lets explore together mhmkay.."

It didn't take that long for them to reach an empty clearing in a forest, where Lily then landed. It was beyond the edge of Dunham's border, and they were now back in Columbia.

Americana

Americana struggled as she was flown away, trying to escape from Lily's grasp, to do anything to get out of here, but from this position, she was unable to do much more than to struggle. "Let me down! The only thing that will change is they would have my protection! They're going to be attacked!"

She glared at Lily with fury in her eyes.

Still, she could feel her power waning, and Columbia's influence growing at the same time, slowly, painfully encroaching upon her.

[Bern]

Lily

"Nah I'll protect them don't worry and for that matter so will you.."

The temperature rise just a tad as Lily wilfully focused the Succubi aspect of her aura on Americana. "The only thing that'll change is you becoming bombshell babe, you could be so cute if you just put in a bit of effort, I'm almost jealous..."

Her grip was unrelenting still, the redhead would keep this up until the fight left the goddess, which should be when her stuff disappeared, since it felt like they were from belief. "What are you gonna do when that fancy armor of yours goes away? That should count as my win, you did agree to this duel after all, are you planning on not honoring it?"

[SINIB]

Americana

The Avatar's responce was to spit at Lily's face. She grinned at her with malicious anger, laying still upon the ground, protected by the unwavering faith of her devotees and her iron will to remain free. "Even if this is the end of my independence, you will be doing no such thing. I will not allow it." She replied. Her green eyes shone with the beauty of emeralds, using her own aura to protect herself from Lily's deleterious effects.

"The agreement was simply for me to smile. No more than that."

[Hibiki]

Nika

"Just another vampire. Nothing to talk much about, a matter of pride and showmanship between one creature of the night and another. It's simply damn too sunny now for a round two, you know? It'd just wouldn't feel right for a proper rematch to be held under the rays of the sun."

On a night, moonless or not, where the true domain of every self respecting vampire lied.

[yinsukin]

Suerte

A warriors pride then?  Suerte briefly pondered the proud warriors she had killed in the past.  There was something admirable about clinging to such an abstract idea, to keeping the self even as death closed in.  That was what made it so hot to snuff both their pride and their life out at once.

"I see.  Well a duel is something that isn't really my problem," she said, swaying her hips as she approached the cashier's counter.  Slamming her enormous bag on said counter blocked the view of the cashier.  "I'll be paying with card."

Suerte turned to Nika.  "Well I hope you win your duel.  It would be a shame if this was the last time I saw you."

[YOLF]

Longirsu
Columbia, forest clearing

At this distance, some hundreds of meters away, he had visual confirmation. He was suspicious that the disturbance on the border between districts caught by his drone was what it appeared, but now, there was no doubt as to the identity of the figure that had been forcefully relocated over the river. The biometrics were a match for the physical form of the Goddess Americana. A stroke of potential luck.

Soaring in the sky on an advanced terrortech unit, Longirsu patched in to Ib's channels. [Sighting confirmed.] The information automatically synched itself to the enclosing automata's system. [Engage freely. Let us lend our neighbor a hand.]

The conductor of warmachines folded one hand behind his back and raised the other. Three other combat units, basic in all but their movement abilities, rushed out from the depths of the park to distract the red-haired, fire-aspected girl with their pincers.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Galatea

[Target confirmed. Access of analysis stream confirmed. Production confirmed.] Lesser machines gathered on the outskirts of the clearing and simply watched as the vanguard charged in. But even those functions were inferior to Galatea's own. Everything within this area was slower than her. The target was superior to her in strength. She would act accordingly.

Inborn elegance and mechanical precision perfected by once-trembling hands guided her body. She waited only for the faintest flicker of awareness, the urge to act as the Terrortech forces moved in and the redhead was forced to react to them while still dealing with her captive. Then Galatea charged. Beneath her legs the earth crumbled. The branches of trees snapped off in her wake. But before the wood could even hit the ground, before so much as the sound of her movement reached the area, the automaton was already there with her scythe raised. Extending the point of impact was ideal, so the blade descended to cleave her from shoulder to hip from behind.

[Bern]

Lily

The redhead hadn't moved a muscle as the first wave of machines had approached them. If she couldn't control every aspect of her body down to rhythm of her heartbeat, then she had no business still being alive.

"I see..."

With a loud clang the scythe hit her shoulder for a swing that was clearly meant slice her in half, yet the force behind it was quite inadequate and stopped cold against her shoulder bone.

This was the moment she had waited for, she'd deliberately appeared to lower her guard just for this moment. Her hand had already moved as the edge hit her flesh, before even the sound could have reached her ear. Her hand had moved in order to grab the top of the scythe and then pull it out of her opponent's hands.

"Friends of yours? and here I thought this was a duel..."

[SINIB]

Americana

"Humiliating." The goddess muttered under her breath. This entire state of affairs made the blond goddess's blood boil with fury. It was absolutely humiliating. This-woman-had come to her land, directly challenged her to a duel and simply carried her off as if it were nothing. Now, her only chance at escape was thanks to these two mysterious vagabonds showing up to save her.

It was unacceptable. She couldn't allow herself to be this weak. She needed to protect her flock from the angry hordes who wished to swallow them up.

The moment Lily shifted her attention to Galatea, she pushed up with her full strength, glowing with energy and determination, trying to push Lily off of her.

[YOLF]

Longirsu

His face clouded over with the outpouring of new data on the first clash. Reaction speed alone could not account for the swiftness of the girl's response, suggesting mental faculties or trained instincts that could not be accurately tracked from bodily tells. The equipment he had painstakingly crafted for his instrument of devastation was being seized with a certainty that galled him.

No. It was still alright. The toughness of her frame was unexpected, but to eventually carve through any force, no matter how stubborn, how hopelessly enduring, how stupidly hopeful, was the purpose of the scythe. The goddess's next move should provide Ib with a distraction.

Lightning leap and whirred within his nerves, connecting his will with his machines. The machines he had sent and the ones Ib created, changed their aim to the softest points in the human physiology and the enemy's limbs that yet restrained her captive. At tbe same time, his platform hissed with depressurization, and his hands reached to his sides, wrapping around the handles of the objects offered to him.

REROUTING POWER. In his grip, the World Legacies thrummed.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Galatea

Her sensors told her what the obvious shifting of the scythe made clear. She would not be able to hold onto the Tuner, not as the girl bent over and began to leverage the power condensed into that tiny frame to pull on it. An unworried, simple message sent itself back to her creator in an instant. [Result is below expected predictions. Highly skilled. Incredible bodily control and physicality. Overall evaluation: below opponent designation range "World Hero Avram" but within the category in which the creator expects personal intervention.]

But Galatea did not pull back even as she released the scythe. "Energy readings trace you to the demonic power designated as Elizabeth, but your readings are also impure. Was your conversion voluntary or coerced?" Following the query of her melodic voice was a slight shift of her head. She didn't wait for the answer as she connected to the more stationary units at Babel and opened her mouth. The high pitch screech that burst from her mouth could turn a human's body to red jelly intermingled with bone fragments, and it could deafen them even if they were outside of the focused cone of sound that blasted right at the succubus' head.

[Bern]

Lily

"Then I'll help myself to thi- Whoops... Owiiee! You trying to make me deaf or something??" The sonic blast made her skull ring but none of her mental faculties were that fragile, for such an attack to truly matter. It didn't really affect her motions. Regardless she had kept her grip on the scythe thingie and even flipped it around in her hand to get a better grip on it.

And then Lily put raised her foots quickly to kick the rising Americana and used her as a springboard, for a back flip that would take her right over the head of the odd sounding robot behind her.

But as she flipped over the robot girl, her long red her hair and her equally long tail swayed in the air beneath her, and they'd undoubtedly bump right into the robot unless she were to do something.

[MissingMandible]

Prodigal Child, Command Tank of Fifth Company
Woods near Lancaster Bridge

The 3rd Heavy Armor Battalion set up shop in these woods late last night as a part of a larger formation, protecting Dunham's side of the Lancaster Bridge in the event of a Columbian invasion. Things were getting too hairy these past few days not to, especially with those two attacks with the major powers Dunham was stuck between. This ultimately meant that First Sergeant Abhuraya Aoi has not gotten anything to eat or sleep for at least twelve hours now.

Captain Nishizumi Miho was currently away at the officers' meeting with command, leaving Aoi and her four crewmates - Privates Guso and Swanson, Corporal Akiyami, and Sergeant Suzuhara - to make a small camp by their tank as they await orders. The camp itself wasn't much, really, just a few folding stools surrounding an electric stove. Aoi herself was sitting on one of those GI Assholders, leaning forward and paying rapped attention to Guso as the private brewed the nectar of the gods on the stove - hard coffee. Bitter, bitter coffee, a drink beloved by every soldier that has the power to uplift even the most weary of hearts. "No matter hard you stare at it, it won't get finished sooner, Ma'am." Guso's trademarked deadpan brought her back down to reality.

"Tch," Abhuraya muttered, shifting her attention to her next need, "Hey, Swanson, Akiyami, you two finding the rations?"

"Got'em right here, Abhuraya-dono!" came Akiyami's cheery voice as the two subordinates crawled out the tank's side hatch, arms filled with MRE packaging, "Breakfast Menu Twelve, coming right up!"

"Coffee almost done?" Swanson's voice wasn't as lively as the Corporal's, looking like she's about ready to collapse from exhaustion herself.

"About another minute."

"Good..." The blonde private dropped her load of MRE's nearby the camping stove collapsed onto her stool as Akiyami started preparing the food.

Aoi could only stare as her subordinate started humming with a smile on her face as she tore into the packaging. "I don't get it," she started, "How are you always so...springy, Yukari?"

"Oh!" Akiyami looked up, "That's because -"

"Pack everything up!" Miho's voice suddenly rung out.

The Auburn-haired captain was practically sprinting up to their camp, a serious look plastered her face, immediately setting everyone on edge. Aoi met her as she entered the camp while the four others started shoving everything into the tank's myriad of crates, storage boxes, and armored containers. "Something happened, ma'am?"

"Americana's been kidnapped about forty minutes ago," Miho started explaining as she started climbing up the tank to the command hatch, earning gasps from her subordinates, "She's been taken somewhere into Columbia near here, and the 7th Calvary broke formation and crossed the bridge about fifteen minutes ago."

As everyone took up their positions inside the tank, Miho continued "High Command is treating this as an attack by Columbia, and we're to follow the 7th across the bridge."

First Sergeant Abhuraya Aoi's day is about to get even worse...

[Hibiki]

Nika

"I don't plan to lose. And honestly duels to death are, well, such a shame? When you see a talent, and it's not a fight for survival, it's just so damn waste to off them. A dead man or woman don't learn from their mistakes."

Keeping in mind what she said before about separating wheat from chaff, it was pretty obvious there was some dichotomy in her logic. Duels to death were a nonsense, but all was fair in war, it looked like.

"But well, thanks for the words of encouragement, anyway. But the day is still young. I'm just trying to not think too much about until the sun sets." Shrugging, she just preoccupied herself with thoughts about the now rather the future, even if she was of course looking forward to a proper fight under a moonlight. "We've got the guns, anyway. Maybe we will even get to put them to use soon enough? Doesn't look like a too rowdy neighborhood, though, at least on a first glance."

[SINIB]

Lily

"Then I'll help myself to thi- Whoops... Owiiee! You trying to make me deaf or something??" The sonic blast made her skull ring but none of her mental faculties were that fragile, for such an attack to truly matter. It didn't really affect her motions. Regardless she had kept her grip on the scythe thingie and even flipped it around in her hand to get a better grip on it.

And then Lily put raised her foots quickly to kick the rising Americana and used her as a springboard, for a back flip that would take her right over the head of the odd sounding robot behind her.

But as she flipped over the robot girl, her long red her hair and her equally long tail swayed in the air beneath her, and they'd undoubtedly bump right into the robot unless she were to do something.

Americana

Before the ringing had left her ears, she spun around as she stood up, her sword having already disappeared from her hand, reappearing as she thrust straight up at Lily's gut from beneath with the fluidity of water. Her spies had already told her about them already-they seemed to be scouting out the splinters of Columbia to set up shop.

"Tch." Now she'd owe them a big favor, and being in the debt of a mysterious mage and his creation was never a good thing.