Scene #5979: The Dark Lady End Game Part 2

Owner	Pose
Tomoe	Tomoe rises up in the sealed pillar of violet light and the bones of the dragon start to take into a formation of an actual living dragon might have and Tomoe rises up to the center of the middle skull. Flesh, organs and the other things you'd expect take shape and it's a good thing it's in the now expanding pillar, as everyone here would otherwise pounce the thing before it could finish forming. Cardinal may have been paying attention to everyone native and non-native alike. Tomoe herself is encased in a translucid crystal on the forehead of the middle of this massive three-headed dragon which keeps taking form. Black scales grow back over the exposed flesh rapidly covering the form. When this is finished all three heads let out a roar, it drops to the ground the field drops and it spreads out its wing on the hud those could see the bosses HP bars and its name. Dark Lady the Dragon It lets out another bellow and starts breathing fire at the assembled heroes. Worse the sound of armor jangling can be heard, it seems the boss is calling adds, but that's when something unexpected happens, Karian already moving to intercept the incoming monsters, when he will find he has back up, the Theif and the mage join him even as Brick, the other thief and the Priestess show up. Brick calls out. "You worry about the dragon we will handle the rest, The Dark Lady told us if she didn't check in after so long to haul here." They are not alone it seems Deidra was the one who let them into the castle and lead them down here as well. She's hanging back though it's odd a non-combat NPC would show up to something like this. Meanwhile the dragon is breathing fire from its head trying to pin down our heroes. With Karian taking the lead on add control and him having back up of Brick and the rest that should be one less problem for the party, now it's time to deal with this and hopefully end the quest chain.
Silica	Silica dives out of the way of the fire breath, the outer edges licking at her coat tails, and her actual tail, setting the dark fur alight before she can put it out. She skids back a few paces, and lets out a shrill whistle. The scattered pets emerge from their hiding spots, and Tetsu the dragontiger manages to get back on his feet, shaking out then roaring defiantly at the three-headed Dark Dragon. Silica whistles again, and the pets converge, attacking in their massed formation just like against Brick, bubbles, sonics, ice and even flame breath from the dragontiger, coming from all directions. While they do that, and while she has some breathing space, Silica turns her attention to her actual role. She begins to chant, runes locking into place before a bubble of defensive energy springs up around Leyanne. It shimmers for a moment, then fades from sight, though the mouse is still protected within the energy sheaf. "Focus on taking the body down... I'll see if I can't get to that crystal to get Tomoe free!" she calls to Leyanne, and the others.
Orchid	Well, there's some good news. For one thing, Orchid was able to use one of her subtanks to recharge with, offering the other one to Staren for his armor. The other good news is that the same 'improvements' Orchid made to slow Brick will also slow those additional creatures, making it take longer for them to arrive. The bad news? Most of her spiders that were involved in stopping brick were damaged past the point of useful, and while she might repair them later, they're out of the fight. Other drones are in the castle, but they'll be trickling in. Further, Orchid is still kinda frazzeled from the last fight. Still, she'll do what she can. Which, for Orchid, means holding up her shield, looking through the flames, getting a feel for both this room and possible weak points on the boss. The fires scorch her, but she gets an idea of the room. She's sharing what she's seeing with her allies, and establishing a link with Staren so he can see the openings. "There! The wing joints!" she calls out. She starts moving around, keeping her eyes open, calling out the weak spots. No, she's not shooting, but she is helping her allies hit the dragon-parts of the boss better.
Yuuki Konno	Yuuki's hurt, having flung herself headlong into a pillar of dark energy and bounced off it. But her body's hurt isn't really all that major. She'll recover from that. The true pain is in her heart, having seen her friend so unjustly taken away. As such, she doesn't even try to defend from the blast of dragonfire. Luckily for her she isn't in the main path of the blasts, so she's only barely singed. The heat of the flames does awaken something in her however; her own burning fire. She looks up, eyes tracking the dragon, the heat of anger burning within her. "GIVE HER BACK!" Yuuki roars fiercely. She takes note of where Tomoe disappeared into the beast, marking that location as off-limits. Once again she launches herself into the air, tossing aside the short sword she's been using as a ninja. Her own normal blade, the obsidian duelling-sword, forms at her hip and she draws it quickly, lunging to drive it into the dragon's flank. She doesn't accept the dragon as the truth, and figures she'll just have to prove her conviction that it's not the whole of what Tomoe's become.
Leyanne	The Megamouse gives Karian a look... just in time for one of his men to arrive in support, and throw the heavy weapon to her. Leyanne catches the gun, briefly appraising itself as to how it works, sheltering behind some debris as she straps it in place. Still, she's a little singed by the flame washing around her cover. She cusses, before stepping out of cover. The heavy bolter has a unique report; each round is fired with a conventional BANG followed by the roar of the shell's rocket propellant igniting and carrying it towards the dragon on a little tongue of flame. A second or two after impact, the shell further compounds its damage by exploding. Tiny sweeps her aim up to one of the heads that /doesn't/ have a crystal on it, holding the trigger down. "I like this gun!"
Josuke Higashikata	Josuke had been staying back from the site as the transformation occurred. He'd kind of expected something like this, truth be told -- with the 'heroes' out of the way, any other 'Dark Lady' would then try to ascend to the level of a goddess, right? So... yeah, the formation of a giant massive dragon using Tomoe as a brain doesn't surprise him too much. And of course, dragons breathe fire, so... OH SHIT, FIRE! Josuke jumps out of the way, missing the brunt of the blast, feeling the heat scorch his back. Thankfully he didn't take a direct hit, that would probably have ended his usefulness in this fight pretty quickly. And possibly his life. But he needs to do something to help. He can't really fly or keep up with the dragon. But there is something he can do. Right now, he's going to see if he can get Orchid's spiders back in order. They might have additional combat capabilities. For now, he starts trying to gather the broken spiders, weaving around allies (and possibly enemies) where possible. With Crazy Diamond's repair abilities, it shouldn't be too difficult or take too long. He gathers as many of the spiders as he can, in a small pile, and then tunes out the battle. This is, to note, leaving him open to attack. "CRAZY DIAMOND!" he calls, mainly as focus. The Stand appears, rising up from his body and glowing with an orange-gold aura. Its punch flurry is aimed at the pile of broken spiders. But instead of breaking them further, that aura gets transferred to the pile. Should this work as expected, one by one the spiders will start to knit themselves back together, strewn pieces of robo-spider flying from wherever they've landed, to join back to the greater whole. Careful of flying robot spider parts...
Staren	Staren's attempts to attack the pillar of light are to no avail. And now the dragon is... forming? "Oh shit." he flies away from it cautiously. After it finishes forming, he asks, "Tomoe? Tomoe are you in there?" But the only answer is fire. He's pushed back a bit in the air as the fire washes over him, but he brought up his forcefield in time, and it holds. And now he can see... she's encased in a crystal? So she isn't transformed and possibly posessed like he was expecting, more like she's... imprisoned? But why? It doesn't seem like the dragon is keen to answer that question, though. And then Orchid gives him the assist! He takes the subtank curiously and... absorbs it. His dented and scratched armor becomes shiny and new. His forcefield recharges. "Wow. Nice!" His eyes are drawn back to that crystal, though. "I need to get to the head! Maybe we can break Tomoe out!" Still, he's not actually sure how to break Tomoe out yet, so he'll take the advice, his energy wings remanifesting as he tries to circle around the dragon behind it. Wing joints are a troublesome target to hit with ranged weapons. Oh, he pelts it with his beam cannons as a matter of course on the way in, but then he draws his plasma saber, though he doesn't initially activate it. Maybe the dragon won't know what it is? Mentally, he frantically changes some settings. He swings, pinkish-purple fire extending from the hilt and sweeping towards the dragon's wing. Much more than in normal use, the 'beam' is wider and longer and brighter... And to add more injury to injury, Staren activates his armor's shock function and lets it conduct through the plasma to give the dragon a nasty jolt! ...and then the sword burns out, the hilt blackening and crumbling. Staren catches the clear, spherical crystal from the pommel before it can fall, and slips it back into his bag.
Kirito	A moment before impact Kirito realizes the pillar of light is SOLID and attempts to put on the brakes. This only part works. He bleeds off a little momentum but still slams HARD into the object, and rebounds down to the ground in a heap. But he flips to his feet and draws his blades again. "... Tomoe...!" The boss meter is incredibly discouraging. The CRYSTAL is also not at all heartening. He has NO idea what this development means.. only... "The chance of a quest necessitating anyone die... has always been zero. No matter what happens..." He can tell himself this anyways. But does this premise still hold? And can they find the right answer? Is it as simple as killing the dragon...?! No time to think about it! Flames come down at him, and Kirito instantly activates Spinning Shield, twirling Excaliber out in front of him into a glowing, whirling blur! The flames slam into this... and are diverted every which way, inflicting negligible damage. Battle Healing has it regenerated in no time at all! "Dammit... no time to think...! Just don't aim for the crystal!" His wings vanish, having been exhausted for the moment... and so he dives in low, going for the claws and base of the tail with a series of rapid blitz-by sword slashes!
Tomoe	Silica can be overlooked can be ignored this is a very dangerous thing while she may seem unassuming she did live through the death game and has wandered the multiverse since. This is where the Dragon learns that painful lesson. Silica's pets lay down a dazzling array of spells which pummel the boss taking a good bit out of the beasts HP bar from the get-go. Yuuki is on the assault now hr blades are singing already as she joins in the assault for the dragon just getting a good bite into the flank adding some more damage to it and keeping it's attention off others in the party for the moment. Orchis is keeping to a more supporting role but that's still very useful as she calls out weak points for her allies which will let them do a great deal more damage. A alien mouse gets a bolter and she seems able to use it just fine, the exploding rounds are doing a large amount of damage each shell is doing a very noticeable about of damage after it hits and detonates. This causes the Dragon to turn its right head at Leyanne hissing. If Tomoe could hear Staren? It's unknown and even if she replied it would be drowned out by the sounds of the fight. She's not a happy camper from the look on her face if one can get a look on it. Stren's beam I mean plasma sabre scores a nasty hit as he catches the dragons' wing and it actually /does/ some serious damage heck it seems to injure the win he's found a weak point from the looks of it. Josuke meanwhile keeps busy getting Orchid's spider drones back into action which will hopefully pay off for the party while Kirito scores a very nice hit of his own and the Dragon rears back now twisting it body trying to tail swipe everyone in the ranger with it. Meanwhile, a timer might be noticed there's some sort of cast bar going on if one pays attention to the HUD. Meanwhile Deidra whose keeping behind Bolt and smacking the odd creature with a frying pan looks on with a strange look on her face she feels like she knows this. The spell reads Dragon Goddess transformation.
Silica	Silica ducks under the tail swipe, barely evading it, but her pets are a bit slower on the reaction. Pina barely manages to evade, but Hibiki and Kobayashi get solidly smacked, launching them into the walls where they slowly float down, KO'd. Nana, Vector and Tetsu hunker in, the smaller ones hiding behind the larger frame of the dragontiger, who weathers the assault. Silica lifts her head after the swipe passes, watching her retinue getting clobbered. She then arches like a sprinter at the starting blocks, then runs at a breakneck pace, aiming to mount and wallrun up one of the dragon's legs to get onto its back. Once there, her dagger gleams with mana force, as she slams it down in a blindingly quick four-hit stabbing strike, that causes ice to erupt from the other side of the dragon's body.
Yuuki Konno	Yuuki's in her element, furiously dashing and dodging around the dragon's massive body. It's a shame it's her friend, only she's not convinced it IS her friend. She has to believe it's not, that she has a chance to destroy this body without hurting Tomoe herself. And if she's wrong, well... hopefully sap of the world tree will be enough. But no, Yuuki has no intention of being wrong. Instead she vaults over the tail, her sword remaining in its path to be the only part of her to take the blow. Possibly to the dragon's consternation, that is. She may not be striking particularly hard, but she lays out a pattern of strikes as she spins, vaults and moves. Four, five, seven hits; none of which are devastating, but all of them together can't be easily ignored.
Josuke Higashikata	Josuke fixes as many of Orchid's spiders as he can, but then he soon has to dodge a tail smack. He uses his Stand here, directing it to pick him up and toss him back, out of range. However, the Stand is still in place when the tail comes through, so Josuke still suffers the damage as Crazy Diamond is smacked hard in the body. But at least it wasn't his own body. That would have been broken ribs if it had hit him. He IS paying attention to what of the HUD he can see. And a 'casting' icon isn't a good thing to see. He can't directly touch the icon... but maybe he can 'roll back' the casting status? Josuke summons Crazy Diamond again, and has the Stand pick him up and pitch him at the dragon. He's going to try to land on its back, and if he can, resummon Crazy Diamond. What's he doing now? Since 'casting' is a state in the MMO-themed world they're in, theoretically he should be able to 'undo' the state and return the dragon to a non-casting state. Theoretically. There's no guarantee that's going to work. And if it doesn't, he's on the back of a dragon that could just turn around and eat him before he can get away...
Orchid	The fist hits the pile of broken robot spiders that the remaining spiders had been forming, scattering them around. The second set kinda glares at Josuke, until they notice that the first set has been repaired. They're not that smart, but they have a basic understanding of cause and effect. Still, spiders go flying everywhere, including at the giant bone dragon. Over with Staren, once the Sub-Tank repairs his equipment, Orchid puts the empty back in storage; much like a canteen, the sub-tanks can be refilled, unlike the earlier, more primitive, E-Tanks. Back at the ranch, Orchid is the sort to pay attention to the HUD elements others might not notice, even if normally outsiders don't see the HUD. (It's just a client side fix, an easy hack, really). Okay, what can Orchid do to disrupt the spell? Well, she can send her spiders, those knocked onto the dragon god, into the eye sockets, and try and weave them shut with silk. Or failing that, to climb under the eyelids, and get stuck there. Meanwhile, Orchid herself is trying to jump over the flailing tail, using her shield to absorb some of the impact so she can make an acrobatic leap over it, biding her time for when she will make her move.
Kirito	TAILSWIPE! Kirito reacts swiftly with his Cross Block skill, catching the tail at an angle and diverting it around him with a thunderous crack-THOOOOM, the air bursting into shockwaves from the impact! Still, it's all he could do to just divert the tail. The impact still registered hard through his mastered Parry, inflicting considerable injury to his health meter. But what it didn't do? Is knock him flat and send him flying. He is now under the dragon's guard, and he uses this for all it's worth! The Black Swordsman BACKFLIPS high up into the air and swoops down for the Dragon's back... driving Excaliber straight down. The holy sword gleams with purple energies that crackle and sizzle... and then he comes DOWN, trying to impale the weapon into the dragon's spine and send LIGHTNING surging through its whole body via what's normally an Area-of-Effect sword skill 'Lightning Fall'! "Keep an eye on that matter! We're in deep trouble if we can't slow it down...!"
Leyanne	Leyanne growls makes no attempt to dodge the tail. Instead... she grabs for it with her left hand. The whiplash motion causes the mouse to grunt in pain, warning sigils flashing across her vision to let her know she has, in fact, just ruptured a hose in her arm... but the system is compensating. She waits for the right moment and lets go... hitting one of those wings. She pushes her hand into the leather of the wing to slow and guide herself, landing on the Dark Dragon-Lady's back... just behind Kirito. Wrapping her tail around a handy spike, she attempts to steady herself a moment, getting a good grip on her shiny new boltgun... Before opening fire into its spine.
Staren	Staren sees the tail coming in time to dly up out of the way and dodge. And from that vantage point, he gets a clear glimpse of Tomoe. So she's awake! That's unexpected, but gives hope that she might be able to fight this from the inside. He expected the... whatever's doing this would have subdued her. Well, the wings are weak points and it's got one more. "Hang in there, Tomoe! Fight it, if you can!" He draws forth what looks like a very large-bore rifle and aims where Orchid's targeted. <<"Stay clear of the wing!">> he warns over radio, and fires! It turns out the weapon is a minimissile launcher, and Staren hopes that plain old high explosives will do enough to hurt the wing joint even if he doesn't hit straight on!
Tomoe	Silicia is too quick of the bane of fantasy gaming, the infamous dragon tail swipes luckily for her. Then she's on the dragon itself wall running on it and stabbing the hell out of it as the ice erupts and blows out the other side of its body. Meanwhile, Yuuki gets to the point of things, and she makes a blitz of attacks, once that gets the dragon's attention and keeps it focused off the others for a moment causing an opening for Orchid attack while it doesn't do much damage? It does get the boss trashing snaring and raging over it and distracted as the eyes are assaulted and it's having issues with dighting now and Josuke's caught on to trying to interfere with the boss's spell it's not interrupted but it suffers a noticeable push back on the casting bar giving the party more time before whatever was going to happen? They have more time. Kirito is ready for the tail swipe, it's like he has a good deal of experience with how dragons work in video games and given the changes to reality? It's now a very useful skill and he uses parry on the darn thing. He's under its guard and the Black Swordsman deals some serious punishment into the things back it howls in rage and Leyanne doesn't make it's mood any better either as more punishment is hammered into it. Staren then sees to it that the dragon ends up grounded as he tears into the wings and one goes up in a shower of light shards, destroyable body parts? Okay this could be the first phase of a multiphase raid fight and then the Dragon just howls it starts lashing out with fang and claw, it's so cheesed off at Silica and Kirito that the left and right heads try to swallow them /whole/. Meanwhile, Deidra and Bolt take down another oddly none of them are the humanoid types no goblins or orcs oddly enough.
Leyanne	Leyanne sees the head start to go for Silica... aw hell no. She's been being helpful to the mouse this fight. She slings up the boltgun and sprints to put herself in the way. "AW HELL NO!" She bellows, shoulder-barging Silica out of the way just in time to get chomped up. Unfortunately for the dragon, she's fully armoured, and she's got metal bones. The teeth are more likely to break on the mouse than she is under them. Especially considering she rapidly begins to punch around inside the mouth, primarily aiming upwards in an attempt to reach the brainpan - before the dragon actually swallows.
Yuuki Konno	Yuuki continues to flip out, darting around Tomoe's dragon form and being wherever she's not attacking. Also attacking wherever she's not defending. This would be almost fun if she weren't so deadly-serious. She's still drained from the earlier fight, though her mana pool is regenerating. Almost, she has the power to pull off her signature move. Almost. Besides she hasn't identified a good weak point. Mothers Rosario is a fine attack, but it doesn't cleave. She can't chop the head free with it. No, she thinks she might just have to try her best to wreck the dragon's body or possibly the wings, and let the others have their chance to deal the finishing blow. For now though, she works on positioning. There seems to be no particular method to her madness, as she bounds all about the great dragon, laying out hits delivered with all the power of her tiny fairie arms...
Josuke Higashikata	Unfortunately Josuke is stuck where he's at. It didn't roll the attack back completely, but it pulled the timer back some. Every little bit helps, Josuke figures. But with the way it's flailing about, he has no choice but to hang on, otherwise he's gonna get thrown into a wall. Unfortunately, that means he doesn't have a hand free when the dragon leans back to try to bite him. Josuke narrows scowls at the approaching dragon head, and just as it comes in for the chomp, a move that would surely have given him the Jurassic Park treatment (minus the toilet), he summons his Stand. And as the head comes in for the chomp, Crazy Diamond bats it away with a loud, "DOUUUURA!" Josuke sighs in relief. Well, since he's got his Stand out, let's see if he can't do some damage up here on his perch. He directs the Stand to unload a barrage of punches on the dragon, as near to the joints of its necks as he can possibly aim.
Orchid	For once Orchid's dash-boots do the trick, letting her evade the fangs and talons of the three-headed dragon. She's doing her spotter thing again, trying to look at the entire fight. "Oh no, I don't want to do that again..." Yep. Orchid just remembered how resonant deconstruction works so well on crystal... but maybe she can do it from a distance. Yeah, maybe... Still, she needs to hit the crystal that is keeping Tomoe imprisoned. Thankfully, she has spiders riding the dragon still, and several are ordered to go onto the crystal and detonate, which should make it ring well enough for Orchid to hear it.
Silica	There's the problem of mounting the boss monster. She's about ready to try dodging away, when Tiny comes barging in, shoving her away. She's a light frame, and the heavy battlemouse connects pretty solidly, knocking her over the other side of the dragon. She falls, and lands heavily on the floor, but picks herself up with a sinuous feline flip back onto her feet. Uttering a few words of power, she's surrounded by healing energy that cuts the edge off of the pain coursing through her. She backs of further as the dragon continues to writhe and thrash about, then begins chanting again. "seír slita fimm grounn vindr!" Several boomerang-shaped blades of vacuum magic appear, then lash outwards, aiming for weakpoints others have exposed already.
Staren	Staren is on the ball today, dodging and weaving through the air with years of aerial combat experience! The dragon comes close, but close only counts in horseshoes and missiles! It's a matter of inches, though! As the head comes up for a bite, he takes the opportunity to land ATOP it instead, next to Tomoe and the spiders, switching out the missile launcher for what looks like some kind of sleek, minimalist space raygun. 'I'll get you out of there!' he thinks! With that in mind, he aims at the edges of the crystal point-blank, and starts firing RAISER energy bullets calibrated to penetrate slightly before exploding with just enough energy to hopefully not harm Tomoe! But will it be enough to break the crystal apart?
Kirito	Oh crap, one of the heads is coming straight at him. Kirito wrenches his blades free of the creature's back and faces the head... well, head-on! His stance shifts for bettter bracing, legs a bit further apart and spaced out front-to-back. A surprising amount of combat is footwork, and he's a veteran at this! DOWN comes the head, and Kirito decides to do something pretty crazy. He abuses his quick-swap add-on to One Handed Swords, replacing Elucidator with a non-descript quality drop he got from a recent boss... and shifts to half-swording, THRUSTING the weapon into the gaping jaws as they're coming down and twisting his body away. The dragon's teeth DO scrape at his arm something fierce, drawing deep colorful gouges... but... But with any luck, this will either result in the dragon's soft innards being speared by the spare sword, or at least the sword holding the mouth open... either way, Kirito swaps Elucidator back into play and goes wild with a series of slashes designed to go after soft spot on the head!
Tomoe	The Dragon tries to eat Silica, this does not go well as Leyanne gets up in its face and then in its mouth, she punches oh lord does she punches and she does not stop. The dragons other two heads let out a howl of rage anger and pain and s the head that tried to eat Leyanne /explodes/ in a shower of shards of light and Leyanne might have to deal with a fall and the life bar of the boss is seriously tanking a hit there. Silica with not being eaten has had some time to get a chance to let off a spell as she makes use of vacuum elemental attack the boomerang-like blades of magic cut into the dragon again not letting up on the pressure. Josuke just does what a Jojo does best, punch things really darn good. His stand punches and punches, again and again, tearing off more and more hp from the dragon. Orchid causes more troubles a lot more trouble with her own and the spiders detonate but the crystal seems to have a higher armour rating than the boss as it doesn't seem to have lost very much HP, this might be a good thing in the long run. Tomoe may be a lot harder to harm in there or could blowing it up harm her? Yuuki is being very ninja-like as he flips out yet she does not kill anything for a moment? It seems, that Yuuki's is trying to set up for something later doing a fair bit of damage with her rapid attacks on the thing's form. Staren is now on the things head is trying to but as Staren attacks the edge of the crystal? The dragon pops some defence ability wait was that one of Tomoe's own uniqu4e skills? Yes, it did and the blows just do not breach the thing's farm or do anything to the crystal. The now two-headed dragon's second head does not get Kirito to snack on it just gets a good deal of pain and damage. The now very badly mauled dragon's cast bar is almost done whatever the quest wants to Ascend Tomoe into? Is almost at hand now is the time to go all out and the main head trashes trying to throw those on it off, and Yukki would find she has a moment to strike at its neck from its position, while everyone else would find it attacks patterns are changing a storm of fire, breaths, claw strikes and tail attacks are launched in a fury. The ads are just about done thanks to Karian and the heroes and Deidra looks at the room and gets a look of horror on her face as she mutters "I have been here...before."
Leyanne	Leyanne growls as she /explodes/ out of the top of that head... only to tumble to the ground so hard she actually bounces. Then the flame washes over her, the mouse growling loudly as she stands up, pulling a tooth out of her thigh. "Nyargh!" She snarls. "It can't take Tomoe out of here... if the head she's on isn't attached!" The mouse snarls, bringing her big gun back into play. The odd, dakka-whoosh-dakka-whoosh report of the heavy bolter echoes through the room again as the big mouse brings it to bear, aiming at the base of the beast's neck. She fires, and keeps her aimpoint on where she expects the spine to be, attempting to sever that central head and give the others time to free Tomoe.
Yuuki Konno	Yuuki's knocked back from the hit from the dragon head, half-spun around in midair as she's flung back, her sword flying out one-handed behind her. Her wings blur, stopping her movement only a few feet away. And then... her sword begins to glow. The position was carefully calculated. The distance is right for a lunging strike; the half-turned posture and back-flung sword enough to trigger the start of the Sword Skill she designed. Abruptly she blurs forward, propelled by her wings. "HyyaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHH!" The sword comes forward, an arcing cut aimed at the base of the dragon's central neck. Arm flashing back and forth, she drives the blade forward. It comes back around again, a second arcing cut that's no true cut. Both arcs are a series of thrusts, aimed to drive deep. Then her sword comes back a third time, only to spike forward again, aiming for the center point where the two earlier attacks crossed. Eleven hits in all, so fast that they seem to be no more than three hits, with an explosive release of deadly dark magic in the final thrust.
Josuke Higashikata	Placed where he is on the dragon, it's likely that the dragon's still trying to bite him. Fortunately he's made a careful placement of his Stand -- facing the dragon's heads, and between him and aforementioned dragon heads. Which is fortunate, as the beast bites back at him again! Crazy Diamond is ready, raising its arms in preparation for the strike. Though the dragon's fangs scrape across Crazy Diamond's chest, opening more identical wounds on Josuke, the Stand actually CATCHES to dragon's head, holding it away from more serious damage of Josuke's person. Josuke quickly scoots where he and the Stand are touching again. He's seen that casting bar -- they don't have much time left. Enptying his lungs of all the air, holding a moment, taking a few more deep breaths like that... and then he pulls in a massive lungful of air, seeking to pack every available square centimeter of space in his lungs with air. Just like Jonathan taught him. This thing might not be undead, but maybe the Hamon will ring its bell just that bit harder. The yellow Hamon energy sparks through Crazy Diamond, collecting in its fists. And as the Stand delivers a full-force, full-speed flurry of punches, its ascending Cry is matched by Josuke's own kiai of focus.
Silica	Silica is thrown back, skidding along the floor after bouncing a few times. She's hurt, and staggers slowly back to her feet. Clutching her side and the large red wound there. She pants heavily, then brings her fingers up to her mouth, and lets out a piercing whistle. Tetsu comes bounding up to her a moment later, flanked by Nana, Vector and Pina. She looks between her four remaining pets, and nods, mounting Tetsu then using non-verbal command clicks to get her pets set up and ready. Nana charges forward, and as the dragon begins to bring down a foot, the ice board curls up and emits a large mound of ice to trap it in place. Pina's next, using her Bubble Breath attack to muddle the dragon's AI in a Disorient status effect. Vector then moves in to strafe the dragon for weakpoints with a series of stinger strikes, and finally Silica rides Tetsu into the fray, following Yuuki's assault. She won't get on top of it again, but rides past the legs, aiming to slash open hamstrings and cripple the beast to the others can get their hits in. Tetsu also roars, lashing out flames against the Dark Dragon's legs.
Kirito	The thrashing dragon's assault is enough to nearly knock Kirito off the creature's back! He darts this way and that, fending off one of the heads with everything he has. Flame breath scorches him, fangs keep gashing his side as he swerves and parries... his health is starting to plummet. But he's got an eye partially on his cooldowns... And one of them just ended. With a heaving inhale, the Black Swordsman gathers his focus. The world slows in his eyes. His sword grips tighten ever so slightly... "And now... FALL, DRAGON!" Celestial Blades activates, both Elucidator and Excaliber are possessed again by the lights from the heavens. Starburst waves and vivid trailing energies scream from them both as he carves into the dragon's back and towards one of the necks with a freakish barrage of criss-crossing slices that leave burning coronas of light wherever they strike. It's a total of 27 hits and it's over in almost a flash... Leaving Kirito still standing on the dragon's back... and there's a dangerous look in his eyes. A look of purest fury and fiery determination that's simply NOT going to stop there, even as his body tries to freeze up. Defying ALL LOGIC and the rules, the boy screams raggedly at the top of his lungs to draw both his blades back and into a deep stance, weapons angled forward... Yeah, this one's new. A brilliant pillar of regal crimson-bluish-purplish-whitish whirl up around him, reaching for the heavens, as this odd skill is demonstrated to have a CHARGE UP PERIOD. And then, with a thunderous noise, all the energies coaelsce back down into the blades, which now glow too brightly for any details to be made out. It is as though Kirito wields two shards of the sun itself... "FAAAAAAAAAAAALL!!!" FORWARD he lurches, leaping into series of whirling diagonal down-left slashes. The momentum never ends, the moment his feet touch down on the dragon's back he spins again for another round of slashes. Again and again, each sending off huge plumes of green-blue energy, every impact accompanied by a thunderous shockwave! And just as he comes to a halt after 14 strikes... a pause for breath, and the young man screams murderously again and resumes the assault, this time with down-right slashes which shift into forward vertical spins, like a living buzzsaw! With the final strike, he's in a deep stance, the blade thrusted straight for the dragon's spine and a blinding flash of light erupting from the point of impact!
Staren	Staren tries to break the crystal and the dragon invokes... "F***ing INVINCIBILITY FRAMES?! Are you KIDDING me?!" Staren shrieks the words out in annoyance, then gets back on task. Per Orchid's suggestion, he pulls some small devices from his bag and slaps them on the crystal before the head finally flings him off! At least that puts him out of range of most of its other attacks, though the fire breath strips away some of his forcefield. The scientist recovers mid-air, firing a succession of weapons at the dragon's main body in an attempt to just push its HP bar down! The beam cannons of course, the energy weapon he's holding discharges all its energy in one high-power explosive projectile, he pulls out a smaller raygun and does the same, and finally pulls out a pistol, each bullet exploding into a lance of extreme physics like the missiles he used on Brick's shield! Staren doesn't really have anything to say to the dragon as he shoots, shoots, and shoots some more. He just kind of growls angrily.
Orchid	With the data from Staren's microphones, Orchid thinks she has the resonant frequency of the crystal trapping Tomoe. Thing is, while she's coding it into her sonic screwdriver, she isn't looking up, so is struck full on my the Dragon's fury. Bashed, battered, but not broken, Orchid stands up, and points the sonic screwdriver at the crystal on the dragon's head. There's nothing visible, but there is a sound. It's somewhat focused at the dragon, but it'll be heard throughout the room. When an object is hit, energy enters it, then the energy dissipates out. When an object is repeatedly hit, the energy is likely to not build up, instead later blows canceling out the earlier ones. But when an object is struck at its resonant frequency, the energy will build up, and build up, the object shaking itself, the energy not having enough time to dissipate before- Well, if Orchid's trick works, the crystal will shatter, like a wine-glass in the voice of an opera singer.
Tomoe	Yuuki is if not the most? One of the most dangerous sword wielders in her native world and she's about to show it as she makes use of a move that Tomoe herself could not keep up the input for to make? The dragon does not have a chance the attacks come again and again and again rapidly. The blows do so much damage the dragon can't really keep up with it and the blades cut through the base of the main head of the Dragon, the neck explodes into shades of light but the head does not. Staren opens up on the dragon's main body doing is making whoever designed the Valkyries of Macross missile hell launch systems proud? As it does a good deal of damage and the boss is now on it's last health bar which is rapidly dropping, the big thing though is what he's done with Orchid the help to her plan makes it work the crystal is shaking it's vibrating and it shatters leaving a somewhat moving Tomoe surrounded oddly by crystal shards which have not vanishes, could they be a drop? Tomoe groans she has a hell of a ringing in her ears. She's not getting up for a moment till the world stops swimming. Silica is not down she would make pokemon trainer proud of how well she works with her creature pals and how well they work as a group. Ice Bolts slam into the body Vector adds to the damage. Thanks to the ice it can not move now the beast is pinned taken more damage opening things up for Kirito and Josuke. Kirito has sene a lot he's lost a lot and ever since the fusion of the VR to reality? Has it really ever been a game for him anymore? The blades of Elucidator and Excaliber are brought into play and he just hacks and he slashes he just does not and the bar if anyone is watching just melts away leaving only a tiny red sliver there isn't much left to do and Josuke is quick on the follow-up. Josuke is putting his skills to goo use as his Stand punches the body again and again. It's hard to track with the naked eye, and after a moment the bosses HP meter is finished off the last head gives a rage-filled cry as the boss explodes into a shower of lights shards. Followed by the words hovering in the air. Congratulations Josuke would find he gets the last hit bonus at his feet is a God Dragon Leather Jacket. Yuuki would find she's got a Goddess Dragon Head trophy in her inventory on top of the typical themed armour and weapon drops. There's also a mess of crystal drops and then there is a rumble. The Chamber is coming down it seems like it's time to pull out and Deidra calls out. "Come I know a way out if this is the end of this damn place than I and everyone else are free of it." The Heroes and Karian are getting ready to move out, and Bolt sighs as he slings Brick over his shoulder and makes for the exit.
Orchid	Her trick worked! But the day isn't over yet; before Orchid can do much more than catch her breath Tomoe is on the ground. Instinct and programming takes over, and she launches into action again. This, much more than the fight before, is where she can do her best to help. She's going to check the woman's condition, and provided she's stable, carry her off in her arms... And she may have picked up some of those crystal shards. Who knows, maybe they'll restore her depleted weapon energy. "Okay, and which way out?" she asks, before nodding to and following Deidra. "I hope my webs weren't too much," she adds.
Josuke Higashikata	The leather jacket isn't so much 'at his feet' as it is 'floating in front of him'. Floating because... suddenly Josuke's ride is gone. The dragon disappears into shards -- which he should have predicted, because this is a video game, and that's kinda what these boss characters DO in video games. He does grab the jacket, though. But he's also falling out of the air, and that's a bit of a problem! Of course he gives a yelp of surprise, so if anybody needs to know he's in trouble, there it is. While falling, he notices the place is coming down. And what's he worried about? Tomoe. He wonders if the quest chain has been satisfied, if Tomoe's finally free of this 'Dark Lady' BS...
Yuuki Konno	Destroying the dragon's body without letting it also destroy Tomoe. That was Yuuki's goal, and the only outcome she could allow herself to percieve. Using her ultimate attack to sever the neck seemed like a good way to bring it about. Of course she wasn't alone. Like in any boss fight others fought beside her, united in purpose and heart if not always entirely aligned in action. It was enough. Exhausted, hurting from two battles in a row where she depleted her reserves, she allows her head to droop. Then, perhaps, it might appear it's not wholly a slump. It's ... a bow of sorts, to the sharded body of the dragon. She breathes deeply, panting, maintaining the strange midair bow. Finally, she opens her eyes and allows them to seek out her fallen friend. "Tomoe!!" Yuuki cries out, the imp suddenly moving again in a combat-speed blur to throw herself at the larger girl. Others helping Tomoe out may get swept up in the hug. She may not know everyone here very well, but they fought two bosses together. They deserve at least a hug for that!
Leyanne	Leyanne watches the dragon explode out from under Josuke. She watches him fall, sprinting clear across the chamber and sliding so that she manages to cushion his landing with herself. He lands on her midsection, which is relatively soft, and without any of those annoying metal-plated bones she's got. She grunts loudly with the impact, nearly folding herself around him. It takes her a few moments to untangle herself and get the pair of them back to her feet. Tiny grins "We should get outta here, right?" she comments to Josuke, pointing after Deidra and starting to follow.
Staren	CONGRATULATIONS Is... is that it, Staren wonders? Was this just a normal boss? Is THIS what was supposed to be the next phase of the boss fight against the Dark Lady, if they hadn't broken the quest and accidentally made Tomoe the dark lady? Well, Tomoe's safe, and that's what matters most. But she's not safe for long! None of them are! The castle shakes. "Oh COME ON! Since when does this happen in MMO raids?!" Staren protests, but he stows his weapons and, after checking that Orchid's grabbed Tomoe, heads for the exit. "Follow me, I mapped the way in!" A map he shares with Orchid and anyone else who has the technology! Others will just have to follow those who do!
Kirito	When Kirito comes back to his senses from the battle fury, it's with a BIG BOLD GOLDEN CONGRATULATIONS burning in the air. "......" How many times has he seen that in a situation like this? The word has basically lost all meaning at this point. Congratulations. YOU SURVIVED. ... How many died? Yeah. Bad memories with that word. He shudders where he stands. He'd gone so long with that problem suppressed, fighting bosses just fine... Not anymore. He splutters out some exhausted nonsense and turns around, looking frantically for wherever Tomoe is... but oh. Oh good. She's free. "... that's great to know..." He murmurs under his breath, exhausted and a little dazed. Then begins... THE RUMBLE. "... you've got to be kidding...!?" He KNOWS WHAT THIS MEANS. "... EVERYONE GET OUT NOW!" DASH DASH DASH! All his exhaustion is shoved to the side. Kirito frantically dashes for the exit... and if anyone's lagigng behind he'll try to drag them with him!
Josuke Higashikata	"Oof!" Soft midsection or not, it's still a pretty high fall. And he's kinda heavy for a 17 year old kid. "Whew... thanks," he says, on a sigh of relief. He'll help Leyanne get untangled and to her feet. And he nods at the question. "Yeah. The whole place is coming down!" And then he'll follow the others out... but he'll keep near the wall. Why? Because on the way out, his Stand is sticking out of his back partially, a hand running against the wall, trying to temporarily fix the part of the hallway he's in. Hopefully this will provide some extra time and a little extra security to the people on the way out.
Orchid	"Yeah, looks like we won what matters," Orchid says, accepting the overflow of Yuuki's hug of Tomoe. "We still need to get out, but that- nope, not gonna say it, not gonna taunt Murphy, not this close to the end."