Cross Effects 3.0 - June 23, 2016—April 02, 2018

[Kotomine_Rin]

Vanguard

Vanguard shrugged and smiled cryptically.

"Perhaps. The question is which one of us will be the one to savor it." He answered absently, it wasn't sure if the us he was referring to was himself and Erica or the creature and himself.

He walked calmly towards the arena, taking a glass of mead from a crowded table, much to the spectator's outrage. Drinking the foul, bitter brew sent a burning sensation through his body, coarse and wild. Of course, it was all fake, an imitation of what it meant to be alive. It would do.

For now.

"Erica, it is time for lesson number two. I will not have you join this battle simply as a follower, I have no need for a conformist.  If you do fight at my side, it must be your own conscious choice to do so, a chosen path determined by your values. Is this fight worth battling? Can I afford to die here? Do I have anything to lose? There is no wrong answer, as long as you choose. So tell me, which road will you take. The slave or the man, the living or the dead? Will this meal be one you can savor, even if it is your last? Choose."

[Thedoctor]

Shinobu

The massive werewolf did not fall over from the impact. It wasn't of any consequence anyway. It was clear from the start she wasn't taking it seriously. A sharp pain soared through her being emanting from her leg. Claws pierced her deeply as she was being pullled. The blonde vampire yet again found herself yanked off from the werewolf. Letting herself go with the flow, she ended getting slammed against the wall by the clearly overwhelming foe.

"Having fun are you not?"

Her hand reached up to his head which she could barely reach and then she....scratched him behind his ears.

[Thedoctor]

Archer

"On the contrary, you're the biggest victim"

Her attemps to break free was rebuked by him as he pulled her smaller frame onto his laps. The tickling never stopped, it was relentless and without mercy. Like the wrath of a furious god, it enveloped her whole being, for all of eternity, the torture commenced. In reality it was only a few seconds before the man in red stopped.

[Kat]

Rikuyo

Even if she wasn't unable to counterattack, Medaka did still fine job under pressure. Either Shinobu must have trained her well or she was enough skilled before becoming a vampire. Anyway, she guessed that she would recover from minor wounds easily anyway. Normal punches and kicks weren't enough to deal with vampires that weren't disappointing. Still, she could afford playing around for a while. There was no need to test out that technique yet.

Rikuyo now assumed a difference stance, no longer standing on her hands. She took an upright stance and launched another flurry of kicks. Normally, this pattern would be quite predictable, but the redhead mixed in strikes delivered with her tail. People used to fighting humanoid opponents with only 4 limbs should have trouble adjusting to the pattern, especially considering Rikuyo's speed, but if Medaka dealt with that well too, then the warm up was over and the red head would start using her fists as well.

[SINIB]

Jeanne

She took the cup that was so gracoiusly offered her and had a sip of it, It tasted wonderfull but she didn't feel like showing it to him...then why? Why couldn't she stop drinking it? she had another sip and then another, until she had downed the entire mug. The vodka spread through her like a fire, a very pleasant fire. She came to herself suddenly, looking at the mug with a shocked expression.

Shirou Emiya

As soon as she finished her first cup, Shirou was ready. He was already holding out a second mug, about twice the size of the first one, smiling smugly at the blond's reaction.

"So, I take it you enjoyed it immensely, Ruler." He prodded her a big more, taking great enjoyment from this turn of events.

[SINIB]

Muramasa Katase

"Ugh, vampires," she said with a not entirely falsified expression of disgust on her puppet's face. "Dead things should remain in the ground where they belong."

Were they not aware of how rude it was to get back up after a sword as deadly as Muramasa had cut them? And where they hunted her own victims had less blood to spill on her blade! The chorus of damned souls within her steel agreed that vampires were truly disgraceful creatures.

After shaking her head and replacing the look with a slight smile, she continued. "As for me, I just went with whichever spot Minato-chan here suggested. She has a better head for real estate."

Minato

Crap, was that a well known rumor? A mistake on her part, but not something impossible to handwave. "Honestly, outsiders didn't visit the place where we used to live much because of its bad reputation and my husband died this year, so there was so much on my head. I just looked for a nice looking neighborhood in hopes it's as safe as it looked like."

Sakura Matou

Sakura smiled happily at Katase, exuberant that this woman agreed with her sentiment. "Right? It would be so much better if the filthy creatures would just all get purged from the planet and burn in the lowest circle of hell for all eternity!" She giggled as she finished her sentence, clearly proud of herself about something.

"And well, you made the right choice, even if it's just entirely luck. This place is well known as one of the safest places in the Nexus, you know."

[SINIB]

Mordred

"That doesn't mean you should eat everything. It's not okay if you don't have any standards. You better listen to me and Sakura about cooking." Sakura seemed to speak with common sense at least about food. "I could then take you both one day to a place where they serve genuine kebab. I'll take a beef steak if they don't have lamb here."

Auspicious Breeze

"Eh? I've never gotten sick from food before. So, it's okay!" Breeze grinned at the thought while flexing the muscles in her arm as if to go 'look how tough I am!' "What doesn't kill you just makes you stronger. Eat enough spices and you'll train your stomach to survive anything!"

Except that 'coffee' stuff. Why would you want something you drink to be hot? The point of drinks is to be cold, so they shouldn't be hot. Good thing coffee apparently came in cold too.

People ate trees here? Wow; they must be really neat little trees. "Welllll, okay! I'll try it. But only because you're recommending it, Sakura."

IRON=SAKURA

"I'm glad to hear you hold me in such high esteem." Sakura said to Breeze with a light-hearted chuckle. "And I've had lamb before, but nothing beats a nice good juicy steak." She said to Mord, pointing her fort at her.

Just then, a waitress walked up to their table, smiling warmly at the three. "Hello, my name is Jessica, and I'll be serving you today." She said, introducing herself. "Would you like any drinks or are you already ready to order?" She asked the two. She knew what Sakura wanted. That girl came regularly and always ordered the same ridiculous meal. She always ate all of it and paid, though.

[Kat]

Mordred

Huh, her tastes were rather simple, but at least she didn't eat anything bad either.

"I'd like to have a cup of tea, please." She wasn't really that hungry to start the lunch immediately. She ate a solid breakfast back in the morning, so for now a nice tea would do.

[yinsukin]

Medaka Kurokami

Rikuyo was obviously pretty experienced.  She switched her battle stance immediately after delivering the kick.  Her opponent then showered her with a flurry of regular kicks.  On instict, Medaka lowered her stance, bracing her body for the flurry of impacts.  As each kick came in, she was able to block each one by observing her leg muscles and move her body ahead of time accordingly.  It was the predictability of the kicks that made it possible to keep up with Rikuyo's superior speed.  The tail on the other hand was a bit much.  The first few times she used it, Medaka was struck in the face and torso, blood flooding into her mouth with each strike..  Thankfully, her lowered stance kept her from being knocked back outright.

The blue haired vampire bide her time, enduring blocking all of the kicks while enduring the strikes from the tail.  She waited until the tail aimed for her face.  Then, she caught the tail in her teeth, biting down on it and pulling the girl towards her.  She would then follow up with a swift side kick, cocking her leg up and striking with the blade of her foot.

Even if she managed to counter her off here, this would only be the beginning.

[Aiden]

Auspicious Breeze

Ohh, this was her favorite part of restaurants in this city - there was always a high chance of cute girls taking the orders! Breeze grinned at their waitress. "I'll take the... fruit punch," she said with only one little glance down to the menu. It sounded good, really.

-------------

Muramasa Katase

"Now now, let us be fair to them - the ones who aid in that process should get a clean demise for being reasonable," she said to the cherry tree girl with the gentlest smile, amused by her vicious enthusiasm.

The thought of her... offspring, being in such a safe place and away from danger was strangely comforting. Katase supposed it was better that the only thing that could potentially slay them was herself. Yes, that was certainly the reason why she liked the thought. Certainly.

-------------

Ron

That's not fair.

Some instinct nudged at him through his barely-controlled killing haze to just change back and relax. It must have been the months of having a pretty girl rub behind his ears like he was a domesticated puppy. Yet he still wanted to kill her (did he really?) so he should just bite her arm off since he had her by the leg and it'd be so easy!

Ron got about as far as digging his teeth into Shinobu's wrist and tasting her blood before he realized he only had a few seconds left before he lost control completely anyway. She hadn't done anything wrong enough to let himself lose control just to kill her. So, the werewolf swallowed his fury and hunger and a bit of blood and shed some mass from his body. He released Shinobu's leg as he was settling down onto four legs instead of two, and looked down at her from there.

He was 'just' a magnificently proportioned horse-sized wolf now, growling his frustration with the vampire rubbing at his ear.

[Thedoctor]

Shinobu

The blond vampire kept up the rubbing as he bit into her wrist, she didn't show any outward reaction to it, far too used to feeling pain by now to be affected by anything but the most extreme cases. Shinobu felt her leg being released as she sank down from the wall, the cause of it was obvious. The werewolf had shrunk down himself, seemingly losing his rage. He was now a wolf the size of a horse however there was something about his looks. He is rather aestethically pleasing to look at. The wounds that had been inflicted by him had already closed by the time she decided to speak up.

"Such a magnificent wolf you have become!"

The vampire pulled him by the neck into a hug, rubbing his soft fur with both her hands.

[Aiden]

Liam

"Problem's findin' an entrance. Could be in one of the buildings for all we know." Liam checked the ground once more, tapping it and listening with twice the hearing any living person could muster. He could hear Petra's heartbeat from hear, but the hard soil made it so he couldn't hear that sorta thing too deep underground. "Reckon we can figure somethin' out there though."

[Kat]

Julius

The nobleman thanks to Kuro's assistance managed to deflect the rain of swords. However, there was something wrong about Kuro. He couldn't say what exactly, but his instincts told him so.

"Are you alright?" He called out to her with concern in his voice.

[Kat]

Petra

"Hmm, but where we could find it? Maybe let's search through the site." Exploiting her skill as a 'Ruler', of course Petra would have little trouble finding the right way. But she had to procrastinate on purpose to not look suspicious. After enough time spent on searching she 'found' a tile that seemed to beabove hollow space. "Maybe there is an entrance below that tile."

[Kat]

Minato

Too be honest she wouldn't want vampires burn in the lowest circle of Hell. If Satan existed, he didn't deserve their company.

"Ah, then maybe putting a sign telling vampires to keep out was redundant. It's so fortunate that vampires are not even people. Any insane vampire sympathiser can't accuse good citizens of hate speech. Those people are the worst. Only mentally unstable or mind controlled person would suffer a leech to live."