2015-04-04 - Monsters By Moonlight 1

Title: Monsters By Moonlight 1
Summary: A peaceful evening at Ohtori turns horrifying when a horde of red-sigiled bug-monsters makes an appearance. The prelude to something bigger...
Who: Cassandra, Nao Yuuki, Mikoto Minagi, Mai Tokiha, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mars, Cure Rhythm, La Sirene du Nord, Cute Wolf Tsukiko, Fuu Hououji, Lancelot GM: Honoka Yukishiro
Where: Ohtori Academy
OOC - IC Date: 17 June 2014 - 04/04/2015

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLL1cwf-PhU

Tuesday night on Ohtori campus is a relatively quiet affair. There are an unusual number of Sister Schools students present, because Ohtori hosted a number of sports competitions today against their friends and rivals, and for mystery and fun they were night games. Competitors and spectators are now trickling through the grounds, on their way home to homework and bed.

The dorms have most of the activity, even so. Students of all ages are going about their business; cooking dinner and sharing meals, doing homework and studying alone and in groups. The complex of buildings are palatial, especially by dormitory standards, with a few interesting outliers, like the Rose Building that was once terribly posh but is now considered a bit run down (and almost totally empty).

It's an overcast but dry night. Oncoming-summer winds from the sea whip along the edges of the island to furrow the brows of the trees into sharp, swaying glares. With nature and humanity combined to create all this activity, it is truly strange the way stillness has settled into the pores of the area, in the shadows behind streetlamps, and the moments between heartbeats.

A scream erupts from the forest (a popular shortcut across campus), and is silenced almost as quickly. It was a sound of fear and pain.

Afterwards, the sound of silence is overwhelming.

<Pose Tracker> Kanade Minamino [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Kanade had to keep her hand steady as she held the cam recorder of the soccer game. She really couldn't believe she was doing this, yet she felt an obligation Hibiki had really wanted to see the game, she been talking non-stop about it for the last week. She would be here screaming cheers at the top of her lungs if she hadn't been struck by the nasty cold.

Kanade couldn't remember the last time her friend has looked so miserable, well except for when Kanade would deny Hibiki to eat her cupcake. She looked at pitiful as a drown kitten all bundled up in her blankets and constantly blowing her nose. Kanade just didn't have the heart to say no when Hibiki requested that Kanade record the game for her.

It really wasn't the huge of a request, except it was so late when she would normally be studying, and not to mention she wasn't always sure which part of the game Kande should be focussed recording.

"It can't be helped," she muttered. "Hibiki would just be whining all weekend if I didn't." Although, Kanade had to admit if she would feel guilty if she din't at least try-

Suddenly, a scream echoed causing Kanade to jump. What on earth was that? She glanced to the direction it seemed to come from. The forest? And was she the only one that had heard it? Kanade chewed her bottom lip. It would be dangerous going into the woods by herself, but what if someone was in trouble? It was her duty as a Precure to check it out. Kanade tucked the camera into her pack before setting off. If she didn't record the rest of the game, she was certain Hibiki would understand once she explained her reason for skipping out.

<Pose Tracker> Takeo Akamizu [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

It had been a little while since the crushing defeat that Takeo had suffered at the mailed hands of the Dark Knight at the Museum. He had managed to retain Excalibur's sheath, but it was destroyed, a tattered ruin of a magical artifact. Ever since then, Takeo had not been his usual self. Gone was the sarcasm and the easy smile with jokes, all to be replaced by lost looks, and strange of all, quiet. Not even the allure of Bacon had been enough to bring him out of his dorm at night.

It had taken an intervention of some of his friends to drag him to the Kendo tournament tonight and put the stick in his hands and make him compete. Some small part of him had returned, as he HAD enjoyed himself, and had done fairly well, it was clear he was out of practice. He was walking back to his dorms, ignoring the comings and goings of people when the scream had come . He was smiling, but still silent, just starting to return to normal Takeo-ness when the scream comes from the woods. His head snapped in that direction and he blinked, his hand going unbidden toward the pendent beneath his shirt.

The pendant that proclaimed him the Cavalier, Lancelot of the Round Table.

He clutched the pendant uncertain what to do, his own failure warring with his desire to help. He takes a deep breath, and just looks in the scream's direction lost in his own internal monologue for a few heart beats. Finally he decides with a quick nod of his head, and moves toward a secluded spot where he can transform.

Not that anybody wouldn't KNOW something was happening. When Takeo transforms there tends to be lots of noise and lighting. "One of these days I'll have to ask that Rabbit if there's a way to be a little quieter about this... Like. Maybe an atom bomb instead." He mutters and closes his eyes, preparing to transform.

<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Schedules have been all over the place as summer draws nearer - but as fortune had it, Mai didn't have work tonight and was free to attend the sports event. Perhaps less fortunately, the relay race team was short a member, and before she knew it she'd been roped into taking part. So while she escaped the restaurant floor, running around at a frantic pace amid total chaos was still her fate for the evening.

All told, though, the leg of the race - even including the swimming portion - was less exhausting than waitressing work. Maybe a net gain, in the end.

Absolute triumph wasn't quite possible - one of the Infinity teams having taken the lead thanks to some star athletes - but Mai's team didn't do too badly, and she's grinning as she walks back toward the dorms with Mikoto. "Great work, Mikoto! I don't think those runners knew what hit them - and I mean that figuratively, you weren't supposed to actually hit them."

The night is dark, the forested shortcut to the dorms ominous, and Mai's pace falters. It's a bit longer, but there's a route around - one that might be a bit better lit. The better to avoid...trouble. She eyes the darkness, and turns back to her companion. "You know, it's a bit late - but if we stop by the grocery, I can pick up what I need to make udon. I've been practicing, and-"

A single scream pierces the darkened silence of the woods, interrupting Mai's culinary musings. She pales, face ashen in contrast to her uniform, and the woods once again earn her attention. That...it wasn't Takumi, right? Probably not...but that doesn't matter. This is, for better or worse, her school - her stomping grounds, and she's learned that this kind of thing can't be ignored.

"Come on, Mikoto - that sounds like trouble." A glance up to clouded skies, and then Mai starts running forward, into the words, towards what threat there might be. This may or may not be her problem now...but left unchecked, it's sure to come knocking soon enough.

<Pose Tracker> Ikiko Hisakata [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.

Having a night event isn't that common for elementary students, but Ikiko had been determined to cheer on her classmates. There had been triumphs on both sides of the fields, and all in all the games had been fun to watch.

With everyone leaving after the competitions were over, she was walking along, thinking about what to do with the rest of her evening. "Maybe I'll just do a quick patrol," she murmurs to herself. "Just a quick loop, in case there's anything out of place."

She stops when she hears the scream. "Like that," she grimaces, glancing around and darting for the cover of some bushes.

There's a silvery glow, and moments later Cute Wolf Tsukiko bounds out, leaping from treetop to rooftop to lamppost as she heads towards the source of the silenced scream.

COMBAT: Ikiko Hisakata transforms into Cute Wolf Tsukiko!

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Standing in a breezeway, dark silhouettes from nearby pale lamplight, two figures stand close together. A girl leaning casually against the wall. The other, a boy with their hand against the wall, over the other's shoulder.

As the shriek sounds through the night, a hand roughly pushes away the face of the taller figure, a boy she hardly recognizes. Turning her head, she peers into the blackness, her hand still upon the chin of the taller boy. "Hey what's the big-" "Go home."

Straightening like she'd just ruffled his dignity, he brushes the hand away from his chin and looks like he's about to argue, before thinks better of making an issue of it, speaking apprehensively, "It sounds dangerous out there. I'll walk you h-" "No." In an imperious voice that brooked no argument, "Be a good little boy and do what I say."

Her eyes flicked back to his face, meeting his eyes with her own narrowed ones, speaking with a certain intensity. "Or you're going to have bigger problems than a bruised ego."

Not long after 'Cassandra' was jumping from one tree limb to the next in the forest, a blackened weapon held easily, gleaming in what little dappled light did shine through the canopy.

While her thoughts were mostly on finding the source of the scream, she also thought upon how glad she was that she didn't have to do anything to the boy that might have created a second scream. Her passing breaks the silence with every crunch of bark as tree limbs shuddered and leaves parted.

COMBAT: Kozue Kaoru transforms into HiME Kozue!

<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Naturally enough for Fuu, most of her attention this evening was on the archery competition, to the point that she didn't have a chance to watch the other athletes at their respective events. She did make one discovery, though - that an Ohtori student whom she's met in passing is actually on *their* archery team - and after changing out of her archery gear, Fuu is actively scanning the crowd for familiar faces - Rei Hino's among them.

Her search is interrupted by the sound of that scream before she can actually spot anyone she knows in the relative darkness - but with her heart in her throat, Fuu diverts course towards the forest while she's in between one circle of light and the next. As she goes, Fuu fishes her glove-jewel from a pocket of her school uniform, pulling it onto her left hand, and wills the bag with her equipment to vanish into it before she invokes her transformation ...

And shortly thereafter, the Magic Knight of Wind picks up a good bit of speed compared to Fuu's walking speed, making a beeline towards the woods from which that scream sounded so briefly.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Magic Knight!

<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Nori Ankou sits in her dormitory window, which overlooks a scenic patch of open space, and eats a plate of shrimp etoufee while enjoying the leisurely break in the rainy season. The air is still alluringly damp and dark, and the sounds of bustle are pleasant in their distant way.

But the mezzosoprano chorus of bustling persons is puncuated, suddenly, by a single sharp scream, and Nori drops her spoon with an audible clink. Audible, of course, in the sudden silence.

Nori steals a glance towards her dining companion, who had been reclining with a shrimp on her bed. He looks up, meets her gaze, and neither of them say a word. Instead, they seem to be hesitating, before their attention turns towards what sits on a nightstand.

The copperplate-hand letter is still perched beneath it. The brassy lantern, chased with opal and ammolite, glimmers in a strange way beneath the tasteful lighting of the dormitory room. Nori Ankou rises up and steps towards it, her lips barely daring to pass breath. She raises the rectilinear shape upwards, gazing with wonder into the silvery interior, not for the first time. Her index finger toys loosely with the catch for the cover.

She turns to close the windows. They have been painted a dark shade of navy blue - not the frames, but the /glass itself/ - a compromise between a craving for the touch of light and a desire for something closer to home.

And then she slides the Black Mirror into place, behind the lantern. There's a luxurious click, and a darkling gleam - but the words are the same, and the feeling, even if the sky feels darker, and the silver only brighter by contrast.

"Twinned in the mirror--!" And la Sirene du Nord slips out of the window a moment later, moving in the gloom.

"It's a little clumsy to have it in my hand like this," la Sirene murmurs as she leaps from rooftop to rooftop, then down towards the forest copse itself. "But it feels right."

"I'm glad," Batiste says, thoughtfully eyeing the Brazen Pharos as it swings gently in the pale hand of la Sirene du Nord.

COMBAT: Nori Ankou transforms into La Sirene du Nord!

<Pose Tracker> Nao Yuuki [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

The sporting events that were being hosted at Ohtori Academy was the perfect cover for Nao to meet some new friends! And oho, there were just so many new and interesting people for her to meet being the social spi...butterfly that she was! It was almost too easy for Nao to persuade her newest and best friend this evening to follow her into the dark forest located on Ohtori's campus. Unfortunately for her new friend, he didn't seem to know that Ohtori's forest has something of a -spider- problem.

Everything was set for Nao's new friend to have a night he would soon not forget when a scream pierces through the forest air. Nao's new friend quickly proves to be something of a coward and takes off in a sprint in the -opposite- way of the sound of the scream. Nao Yuuky, on the other hand, merely waves timidly towards her departing 'friend'. "Catch you later!" Nao mirthfully intones as she turns towards where she guesses the scream came from. It really was none of her business, but whatever it was had cost Nao dearly which meant that she had something to gain be investigating this matter. Curious as a cat to what was going on (and a little mad that whatever it was caused her mark to run away), Nao ventures forth into the dark woods in search of the source of this pesky scream.

<Pose Tracker> Rei Hino [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Rei Hino's high heels click softly against the tiled pavement lining the pathways of the grand academy with a quiver slung over her shoulder and a bow held to her hip. She's a little tired, a little more invigorated. The young miko had not enjoyed victory in the Archery competition, but she had availed herself well, securing an honorable showing by pinning one to so many painted circles. Phobos and Deimos soar overhead, alight upon thermal winds befitting the vertically expansive architecture of the school, swooping along and dodging between the aggressive breeze.

Among the crowds of competitors streaming out, she notices Fuu Hououji among the Infinity Archery team. They seemed in high spirits, and for good reason. Ohtori had performed well, but the Institute had managed to pull ahead in what had been a close competition. Rei smiles, and raises a hand in a lazy wave.

A long day that had journeyed into night, just past the week's start. A satisfying and tranquil time. The serenity of the scene so mirrors Rei's state of mind that for the moment, she doesn't notice how strange that unmoving quality seems among the bowing trees and slender streams of students. This odd torpor casts the clipped shriek into sharp relief.

Long black hair whips around as Rei turns, her mouth parting slightly. It takes her a moment of thought, but..the forest, surely. Her brow furrows and she takes two steps towards it when her ebon-feathered crows dive down. Deimos tugs at the shoulder of her uniform with her talons, and Phobos hovers in front of her face, quarking in distress. She swallows, a spike of unease threading into her blood.

Clutching her things, she glances around and spies one of her teammates fom the Archery Club. Dashing over, she shoves her book bag, quiver and bow into her hands, blurts out a hurried "Hold onto these for me," and breaks into a run for the treeline. Phobos and Deimos rocket forward, quickly outpacing her towards the woods.

As she passes into the shadows of one of the many tall buildings on campus, Rei crouches between a tall shrub and the wall. With a muted flash, she's ready for whatever it is that awaits..whatever had stirred up her guardians so. She continues on, faster than before, all fatigue from the day and the evening burnt away by rings of fire.

COMBAT: Rei Hino transforms into Sailor Mars!
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has fully healed herself.

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

"Didn't hit them," Mikoto points out casually, toweling off her hair as she walks. But she smiles, adding cheerfully: "Mai was great swimming!"

What Mikoto doesn't say is the way Mai moves so naturally in the water, sure and strong, the same qualities which make her such an appealing choice as a part-time lifeguard. These things -- these reasons /why/ she is complimenting Mai -- are obvious to her, and need not be said.

But perhaps it's for the best that she doesn't elaborate, even if Mikoto's brevity doesn't come from tact.

She does not fear the dark or the shadows, but her face /does/ light up when Mai mentions udon. She opens her mouth to enthusiastically agree and--

A scream comes out instead. Not from Mikoto's mouth, mind. From the deep, dark woods, which is exactly where Mikoto's attention snaps to, her expression clearing itself to make room for intense focus. "Trouble," she echoes Mai, clutching Miroku's strap where it sits across her chest; she swings the holster around, unzipping it in a single motion, taking her claymore into her hands as she runs after her companion.

COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi transforms into HiME Mikoto!

<Pose Tracker> Makoto Kino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

One of her friends was competing today, so of course Makoto Kino was among the spectators. She took in several events because why not, but her main purpose in coming was to cheer Rei on during the archery competition, which she did with great gusto.

As quiet has descended on the campus in the aftermath of the games, Makoto is among the trickle of spectators making their way out... in no particular hurry, since she's half hoping to perhaps catch Rei as she's leaving, if she can find her.

Instead, it seems that what she's going to find is trouble.

The scream catches Mako's attention immediately, and without another thought she bolts into motion, grabbing for her transformation pen as she breaks into a sprint in the direction of the sound. "Jupiter Power--"

Electricity blooms brightly in the darkness, illuminating the silhouette of the tall girl. Moments later, Sailor Jupiter is homing in as though by instinct towards the brief flare of fire that leads her to her teammate. "Mars!"

COMBAT: Makoto Kino transforms into Sailor Jupiter!

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

The trees are oppressively dense after the first few dozen yards. What proports to be a lovely landscape with nothing but trunks, grass, and moss, straight out of an English storybook, conceals a dark heart. Vines tangle, rocks trip, and all the air just seems to wither and die, denying runners even the pleasure of being able to gasp to catch their breath.

They open into a clearing after an interminable period, and there, a girl clutches her sports bag to her chest, sprawled out on the ground, knees scuffed and cheeks wet but otherwise, somehow, fortunately unharmed.

As girls pour into her presence, she starts to stammer. The word struggles, strains for release, tripping over her shock-caught tongue and her fear-thickened throat.

"Muh... muh... muh... muhmuhmuhMONSTER!"

Right on cue, a second scream -- no, screams, this time it's a chorus -- comes from the direction of the dormitory block. Was this attack just a diversion? Or is the attacker moving really, really quickly?

One mad dash back across the forest later...

The low stone walls are dripping with some kind of shadowy murk that occasionally and nightmarishly comes into focus as thousands and thousands and thousands of bugs.

It's not dissimilar to leaving a bowl of ice cream on a nightstand, falling asleep, waking up and having a long moment of 'hm, I thought that was vanilla' before reality comes crashing down: THIS is how you get ants.

Apparently something about Ohtori's old-fashioned manor housing construction is how you get demonic beetles. The only color to them can be easily mistaken for weirdly multifasceted eyes, but is, in fact, coming from tiny glowing red runes on their foreheads. Each and every one has a single such rune. All the runes are the same. They are not recognizable as an Earthly language...

...but they are recognizable as the runes that were on quite a few monsters a month or so ago, like the ones who busted up Penguin Park, Hikawa Shrine and Library Island.

Their millions of little claws make a sound like the world's smallest violin attempting to imitate the world's smallest fingernail on the world's smallest blackboard.

When they meet people -- and, inevitably, they do -- they simply keep on going, crawling up, over, and down the other side. There are several person-sized lumps underneath the demon bug carpet already. It seems they don't keep screaming for very long; perhaps they are catatonic underneath.

Perhaps worse.

At least, that's what they do to the girls. The boys they simply avoid. How strange!

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro transforms into Army of Darkness!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 11 opponents!

<Pose Tracker> Kanade Minamino [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Kanade ran at top speed, doing her best to avoid low branches while keeping her guard up from any creatures that could strike any moment. She continued to do so without stopping until a frightened girl came upon her path. Other people, who must have come for the same reason Kanade did, appeared as the poor victim stammered the word "Monster."

Seeing the fear in her eyes, Kanade took a step to attend to the girl when several more screams were heard. The pure terror in them almost made Kanade bones shake. Kanade ducked behind a tree. Whatever was going on, it was clear as a bell, several people were getting hurt.

She glanced around to make certain she wouldn't be seen before taking out her module. "Terrifying people on a night that should be spend for fun a games," she whispered for no one to hear, but she wouldn't feel like herself unless Kanade expressed the rage that was in her heart. "Unforgivable! Precure Modulation!"

The familiar magic engulfed Kanade, and in barely the time it would take to blink, Cure Rhythm stood where Kanade once stood. Wasting no time, she ran towards the screams. "Head straight, and you should be safe there!" Kanade instructed the girl as she ran ahead to the source of the symphony of screams.

It wasn't long until she stumbled upon the old manor. Hearing the muffled screams, Kanade ran inside, and the sight before made her be tempted to hide under her bed. There were bugs, millions and bugs, and it was certain those lumps under the carpet was where the screams had originated.

"You let these innocent people go right now!" She called out, wishing Hibiki was here. She was much better at stomping bugs than Kanade was. Kanade leaped and proceed to stomp these bugs into the ground.

COMBAT: Kanade Minamino transforms into Cure Rhythm!
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has used Precure Stomp on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Forward, into the darkling forest. If it wasn't quite so close it would be quite homey in its way. La Sirene du Nord strides with caution, but confidence - for some unknowable reason, the Pharos in her hand makes her feel steadier, more sure.

The terrified girl is revealed. She reveals in turn the truth. La Sirene's pale eyes widen -- for that new scream comes out. Batiste, wrapped around her neck, gasps!

Hustle hustle hustle hustle--

"How can there be so many?!" cries out La Sirene, as the shining sea of horrifying insectile creatures is illuminated by the faint lights of the Ohtori dormitory complex. "This is ridiculous - impossible--!"

But they're coming towards her. With /unseemly haste/. La Sirene sucks in a deep breath through her teeth, holding up the Brazen Pharos and saying with a hint of a quaver in her voice, "Be confounded--" She squeezes on its handle, and the cover flips open --

Impossible deep blackness pours out in a sudden snapping lance, cold as night and blinding and confounding all at once. La Sirene exhales as she sustains this darksome 'ray', saying as she does, "Yes -- Yes!" Cure Rhythm has inspired her. Her free hand raises, clenching into a defiant fist. "Let them loose! Be confounded by the perfect blackness--"

COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Pieces of the Perfect Black on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

There was a moment, not long ago, when Mai was in a good mood. She'd pulled off a good bit of swimming - reassuring herself that she still had her skills there, just in case - and while they hadn't won the race, it was fun. She'd had a nice evening, it was kind of relaxing, she'd been making plans for supper.

Then this. The forest was, in a word, creepy - there were signs of things moving through the trees, the shadows cast by eldritch light seemed to reach out as claws, and by the time she caught up to the scene of the disaster...more screams. Things already getting worse. Mai stopped for barely a moment at the girl's side, eyes practically burning with...what is the word for the intersection of anger and fear? "Get into the light - stay safe." And then, she's running.

When she emerges, legs burning from the exertion - work aside, she needs to get more practice running - she stops cold upon seeing just what this threat is. A horrible horde, to be sure - demonic beetles by the thousands, the millions - scrabbling and swarming over everything she's come to see as home. Worse yet - those runes. Those glowing crimson runes, repeated over and over - she can't read that language, but she knows this one character.

"Orphans..." Her voice, perhaps echoed by those few who share this common foe, is filled with dread and horror - so many of them. Going after so many people...some detached part of her sighs in relief - relief! - at the fact that the boys are being avoided. At least Takumi isn't likely to be one of those victims - and his roommate Akira will probably be fine too.

But that doesn't change the fact that most of Mai's friends are girls and thus potential targets for the hoard - not to mention Mai herself. Her brother might be safe, but she has other people to protect too - and fire flashes around her at that thought. Swirling rings of flame, becoming rings of gold and jade, hovering in place around wrists and ankles.

Mai glances to Mikoto, mouth set. "...and they're attacking people. Attacking our place. Mikoto - try not to hurt any people, but otherwise don't hold back!" The time has come for the dance of the HiME - while the stars may not shine tonight, she will.

A black lance and a warrior of white lead the charge, and Mai is swift to follow suit. Mindful of the lumps - catatonic or worse, she can't risk hurting humans - Mai calls upon flames. Roaring, determined flames to rise up from the ground, form a wall of flame to try to contain the horde. They may simply crawl over stone and earth, but fire?

This is how you deal with ant infestations.

(Disclaimer: The Mai Tokiha school of pest control may violate your security deposit.)

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Rhythm's Precure Stomp, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  Cure Rhythm is Psyched!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha transforms into Mai-HiME!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly dodges La Sirene du Nord's Pieces of the Perfect Black, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Critical Dodge!  Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!  
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Infernal Embrace on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Mai Tokiha's Infernal Embrace, taking 12 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  Diversion applied to Honoka Yukishiro!  

<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.

Tsukiko follows in pursuit of the attacker, and her eyes widen when she sees the carpet of demonic insects. Glancing towards the overrun girls, the wolfgirl frowns, then gulps as she looks back towards the swarm.

"Courage," she mutters to herself, then takes a deep breath. "Hey, bugs! I bet I'm too quick to be overrun like!" Tsukiko yells at the beetles. Hopefully they'll hear her and give chase -- and perhaps leave the girls that had been overrun.

COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Bark! on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Bark!, taking 9 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko is Psyched!  
COMBAT: Takeo Akamizu transforms into Lancelot!

<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

That noise happens. Lighting arcs down from the cloud filled sky and strikes at Takeo in booming arcs. With each flash of lightning, a piece of armor appears on Takeo, until a bolt appears before Takeo and he reaches out and grabs it. With a final crack of thunder, Takeo stands holding Arondight, and is now Lancelot. He twirls the white blade and as a Chestnut Warhorse steps out of a shadow, he nuzzles the horse's neck, and pets her nose. "I've missed ya Sparkles." The horse neighs and the Knight of the Round Table mounts.

The pair ride through the woods, Lancelot ducking under tree branches and Sparkles leaping over fallen trees. He holds Arondight low and at the ready as he goes. The forest becomes darker, and then there.

Bugs.

Sparkle screeches to a halt and lets loose a horsey shriek, her front legs pawing the air at the sight of the Army of a Million Bugs of Darkness. Before he knows it, Lancelot is picking himself up off the ground and Sparkles is hiding behind a tree. "Oh man. Are you seriously afraid of a few Bugs?"

Sparkles looks at Lancelot, then looks to the bugs.

Lancelot looks over to said Rune marked bugs and nods. "Yeah. Okay. That's a /lot/ of bugs." He raises Arondight and summons lightning taking a step back and lets the energy fly toward the swarming creatures. Adding his own power to those unleashed by Mai, Mikoto and the others.

COMBAT: Lancelot has used Lightning III on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

While the Wind Knight still doesn't really know anything about Orphans apart from 'nasty monsters' - which is all she generally needs to know, as a rule. The sight of 'hostages' underneath the carpet of creepy-crawlies, at least to judge by the approximately human sizes and shapes involved, is enough to remind her of the incident at the hospital when a larger monster carried at least one patient within its body ... which acted as kind of a reverse human shield, at least where the Wind Knight was concerned.

So rather than produce a weapon at the outset, the Magic Knight of Wind simply raises her left arm, the large green jewel which the glove holds on the back of her hand glinting in the lights around her. "Winds of Admonishment!" she calls out, gesturing with her right hand as well - and a magical whirlwind gathers at her bidding, conjured to try and suck up as many of the miniature monsters as possible, preferably without harming any of the hostages. Hopefully her control is good enough to meet the latter part - it certainly shouldn't be that hard to pull in insect-things without yanking larger targets (like people) into the whirlwind.

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Lancelot's Lightning III, taking 4 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 4 Fatigue damage!  Fuu Hououji is Psyched!  Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!  Cripple and Trap applied to Honoka Yukishiro!  

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Two obsidian missles explodes through the outer woods, gleaming black beaks leading the way like outstretched lances jousting forth. As the foliage forms a thicker and thicker wall, they tilt up, launching to the skies in a near right angle, bursting out of the canopy to proceed unhindered. The dense thicket gives way to a pocket of open-air, and Phobos and Deimos circle it on opposite tracks, scanning, sensing.

There is a girl. Phobos cawws to her companion, and Deimos ruffles her feathers, her head abruptly tilting in the peculiar manner of birds. And then Deimos launches off, ducking down low and flying through the trees, threading out of the clearing through the full encumberance of the wilderness to fly towards...something. Phobos remains, watchful of the girl below but keeping her distance in the safety of the sky. a

Sailor Mars' feet pound the pavement, bursting into the treeline. Her sense of dread has grown to an oppressive extent. She isn't in a panic but the adrenaline pounds in her chest and her ears like a war drum. The woods are more or less civilized at first..her pace slows to navigate the roots and the leaf-strewn soil, but she's able to maintain her running pace.

That ends soon after. It isn't unusual for a forest to seem distinct between the trails where people travel and the wild heart beyond, but this..this is so much more of a difference than she's accustomed to. Has it always been like this? Has the sinister air bled into her perceptions of the deep woods, or have they somehow transformed into something even less hospitable than usual?

It's difficult to see and far harder to navigate. Although Rei's pace slows considerably, the reedy dearth of oxygen affords her no relief. Clenching her jaw, a thin disc of fire alights before her face, offering some meager glow to see by..her mind slicing it back and forth to cut across the brambles and vines, carefully stepping over and upon the treacherous stones.

A dark rocket shrieks, hurtling forward at a breakneck pace, flying just by Rei's ear. Her head whips back, her eyes startled and a little fearful. Was that..it was. She'd know her companions anywhere. Even if she couldn't adequately see them, she could feel them all the same. But it was just the one..whether Phobos or Deimos she could not tell. If it were both, she may have moved forward. One, though..one means that they are not certain. She plunges ahead, hoping that the answers lie beyond.

She comes to the clearing, and Phobos alights upon her shoulder, rubbing her feathery brow against Rei's cheek with noticeable agitation. And the girl wails..and the scream sounds..and Rei runs, wishing she'd turned tail to follow Deimos' omen in the first place.

She finds a nightmare, a teeming wax and wane of an oily and unholy tide washing over the school in the deathly stagnant night. Deimos is flapping her wings a few feet above the revolting stampede, screaming her little lungs out, clashing in a dissonant cacophany with the quiet shrill shriek of the swarm's passage. The runes look familiar, and among such a vast horde they glow like an unholy mirror of the stars above, glittering like hellish jewels in a subterranean sea.

Sailor Mars' head feels faint, and she forces herself to steady her breath before its momentum sweeps her off into hyperventilation. She can..she can tell that there are people, getting swallowed up as though in a flood. She knows that her strengths are not..precise. Panic wells up in her throat and threatens to drown her in reverse, pouring from her lungs out into her mouth, but she forces the bile down..points her fingers..and shoots for the surface of the creeping carpet.

COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Searing Serpent on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Sailor Mars's Searing Serpent, taking 27 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Nao Yuuki transforms into HiME Nao!

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

They reach the girl. She has fallen, Mikoto notes; she was running from something. That's what she divines from the way she clutches her bag to her chest, from the mud and scrapes upon her knees.

Two things reveal themselves, then, in close succession: - A large amount of magical girls have responded to the scream, and, - There are far more screams coming from the dorms.

"Distraction," Mikoto hisses through her teeth to Mai. Her tone makes it clear how much of a fool she feels, to have been fooled by it -- but Mai ran this way, and Mikoto feels compelled to follow her, because Mai is a Good Person who Feeds Her Good Food.

Still. She should have known. Should have known.

Again, through the forest -- Mikoto cleaves through roots as she runs, leaving a trampled, slashed trail which might well make for a nice bush-walking path once all this is done -- returning to the dorms. Looking up, up, up...

At first, Mikoto thinks that the stones themselves have turned against them. But as her golden eyes scan the building, she sees her assumption is false, that the Orphaned beetles march in droves. Up, up, over the women, around the boys.

(She remembers something her grandfather had said to her when she was younger, poking at a trail of ants. "There are some ants who would destroy you if you got in their way like that," he'd said, hadn't he? And chuckled, and ruffled her hair, and tolerated so many of her questions about how ants could be so dangerous. She can't remember the conversation very well, but she thinks of those ants, now, as she watches the Orphans flow like waves over the grounds.)

Mai issues an order, and Mikoto takes it into herself without question. All you have to do is not hurt the people. All you have to do is not harm those innocents, and otherwise, you have to destroy this with all of your power.

That's what was said, after all. Wasn't it? That's what Mikoto hears, gripping Miroku in her hands, charging forward to sweep her blade around them, to scatter the horde.

She screams, but not from fear.

COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

As primal as the forest is, Cassandra doesn't seem perturbed with it. While usually she thought of herself as a thoroughly urban creature, she could adapt to any environs. Even so, she nearly trips up several times from tangling vines, and thick branches, correcting her course each time until she lands on the upper part of a tree on the edge of the clearing.

Once there, she scans the clearing once for any signs of a monster, before falling lax into a position where she leans against the trunk, allowing the others to handle the distraught girl. She wasn't one to offer comfort to people, even if she felt rather sympathetic to her. Making a mental note to figure out who that was later, if she was an Ohtori student, she'd- well, she'd do something. Her lips crease together as monsters are mentioned, as she briefly looks up, searching for a certain source of crimson light amongst the clouds. When a second scream sounds- she growls at the people gathered around the victim, "We don't have time for this. Come on!"

It's not long after that she's at the old manse, dripping with umbral gloom. Seeing that there are so many, she only takes a moment to observe the endless horde of demonic beetles, casting an amused look Cure Rhythm's way, "You'd make an interesting exterminator, yelling speeches at infestations." She rolls her eyes at La Sirene. "And you should stop asking useless questions." She holds her element parallel to the ground, a blackened kama at a glance, until she tugs at a large circular pommel, which falls to the ground with a thud that raises a plume of dirt, linked to the main part of the weapon by a long cord.

She tugs at the cord, pulling the weight into the air, her hand working in circular motions to whirl it faster and faster over head, every so often, she shifts direction, changing the pattern with which the kusari-sama like element flies. Out of the corner of her vision, she looks at Mai and Mikoto, her tone wry, "You don't need to tell her everything, Tokiha. Pretty sure she already knows how to do the obvious."

Shifting from the ball of one foot to the other, she finally spins the weight so that it tries to smash through the front of her ranks, trying to bowl over several creatures. While she doesn't look like she's holding back, she's at least trying to avoid hitting any of the swarmed over lumps that marks each of the girls.

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness, taking 19 Fatigue damage!  Mikoto Minagi is Psyched!  
COMBAT: Cassandra has used Vicious Circle on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cassandra's Vicious Circle, taking 3 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro is Quipped!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  Stun applied to Honoka Yukishiro!  

<Pose Tracker> Nao Yuuki [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

The not quite yet transformed Nao Yuuki stands there with her hands on her hips as she surveys the scene in the forest before her. It had been quite the ordeal to make it this far through the thick underbrush of the woods and she had the tears on her uniform and twigs in her hair to prove it. And the result of all of her trouble was merely being too late to exact vengeance or demands answers out of anyone. Nao clicks her tongue distastefully as she peers around at the others whom had come to presumably help. My, my. What an interesting group. Some girls were transformed whileothers were not just like her. And there was that goody-two-shoes Mai Tokiha and her compatriot, Mikoto Minagi. Nao grins darkly just as a chorus of screams interrupt her thoughts.

Everyone starts to dash back -the other way- and this leaves Nao left to her own devices once again. Okay, that's it. Whatever it was that was causing these screams was nao going to pay! Nao had already lost her new 'friend' and tore her uniform because of this monster. She was going to make whatever it was pay for troubling her and pay dearly. And besides, Nao had a good chance to stretch out and use her powers for once. This idea of doing just that was music to Nao's ears as she begins to make her way back towards the dorms, a mechanical claw with sharp blood-red nails forming over her left hand.

Nao arrives to see bugs, bugs everywhere. A slightly manic grin appears on Nao's face. If only there was a spider present to snatch up all these pesky bugs. Clutching a nearly invisible razor sharp length of thread in her clawed hand, Nao raises her hand up. She then gracefullys brings her arm back down -hard-, whipping the thread towards the nearest group of bugs. This really wasn't her fight, but she could atleast do something to get her blood boiling a little.

COMBAT: Nao Yuuki has used Threads of Fate on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Nao Yuuki has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly dodges Nao Yuuki's Threads of Fate, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

"What the--" Sailor Jupiter is still only partway into the forest when more screams start ringing out from back the way she came, halting her headlong charge short in surprise and a tiny jolt of alarm. "Damn it!"

With only a moment's indecision, she turns on her heel, grimacing in the sudden agitation that comes from feeling like *something,* for some reason, is trying to play her.

To the other magical girls already converged to fight the tide of monster insects, the first sign of Sailor Jupiter's arrival in the area of the dorms is the wind picking up, fresher and more springlike than you'd expect on a summer night like this one, smelling of flowers. It gains force far too quickly to be natural, bearing down on the swam with direction and purpose, carrying with it a torrent of petals too soft and delicate to harm a person, but more than substantial enough to - one hopes - peel the marching insects from their victims and confound any further progress.

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Flower Hurricane on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Sailor Jupiter's Flower Hurricane, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Blind and Stun applied to Honoka Yukishiro!  

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

The cavalry has arrived.

It arrives foot-first: Cure Rhythm's heartshod feet land with a satisfying squish. After the first stomp, however, they begin to swarm towards her, trying to climb up her leg and coat the rest of her.

It arrives in darkness: La Sirene du Nord's lantern sheds its strange lack of radiance. These bugs are darkness themselves, however, and seem able to move en masse -- like Moses parting the Red Sea -- directly out of its way, acting on some strange, unearthly instinct of their own. There are so many of them that they seem like twin arms as they rush back towards her, trying to drown her in horrible, buzzing mandibles.

It arrives enflamed: Mai and Sailor Mars come at two different angles, and the creatures -- which are, to Mai's senses (and those of other HiME present), blatantly and inextricably linked to the baleful blinking red star overhead -- are roasted between them. They layer up against Mai, perhaps instinctively focusing on defense against their native foe, such that the first several rows of beetles roast, but the ones further down are merely lightly crisped. Sailor Mars' have no such survival rate.

It arrives upon the storm: the Magic Knight's whirlwind and the Knight of the Round Table's lightning working in inadvertant tandem; they rush out of the way of the winds only to be zotted by the energy, while still others find themselves met by the windswept floral fury of Sailor Jupiter, a knight of the stars, and swept off of the girls -- Wakaba Shinohara (9th grade Ohtori) and Aoi Senou (11th grade Ohtori) among them. The bugs twitch, though, some of the mass surviving to hear a silvery wolf call for their attention. They're happy to follow her. They are definitely faster than her, though she may be nimble enough to avoid being crushed.

It arrives armed: 'Cassandra' sweeps a row of them back, and they move truly quickly out of the way of Nao's razor-sharp web, once again prioritizing their defense against the feared HiME. Unfortunately, there are an awful lot of HiME present, and Mikoto's grand sweep bisects the wouldbe escapees.

The freed girls do indeed appear to be unconscious, possibly from the sheer horribleness of being completely bug-coated, possibly for more insidious reasons. They are piles of fabric and hair on the ground.

Their little red runes winking in the nighttime air, a veritable tsunami pours out of the forest to reinforce their bretheren, and crashes down over everyone, all at once.

Everyone except Lancelot. He is /meticulously/ left out. It's almost offensive, how much they ignore him.

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Closing The Gap on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Closing The Gap on Nao Yuuki.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Closing The Gap on Cassandra.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Closing The Gap on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Closing The Gap on Sailor Mars.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Closing The Gap on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Closing The Gap on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Closing The Gap on Mai Tokiha.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Closing The Gap on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Closing The Gap on Cure Rhythm.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used No Boys Allowed on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Closing The Gap, taking 3 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Mai Tokiha's Block ability activates!  Cripple applied to Mai Tokiha!  
COMBAT: Cassandra narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Closing The Gap, taking 3 Fatigue damage!  Cripple applied to Cassandra!  
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Closing The Gap, taking 1 Fatigue damage!  La Sirene du Nord's Block ability activates!  La Sirene du Nord's Parry ability activates!  Cripple applied to La Sirene du Nord!  
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter perfectly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Closing The Gap, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Critical Brace!  Sailor Jupiter's Block ability activates!  Sailor Jupiter's Parry ability activates!  
COMBAT: Lancelot narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's No Boys Allowed, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Lancelot is Taunted!  
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Closing The Gap, taking 10 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Closing The Gap, taking 2 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Flash ability activates!  Cripple applied to Cute Wolf Tsukiko!  
COMBAT: Nao Yuuki perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Closing The Gap, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Critical Dodge!  Nao Yuuki's Fade ability activates!  Nao Yuuki's Flash ability activates!  
COMBAT: Sailor Mars fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Closing The Gap, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  Cripple applied to Sailor Mars!  
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Closing The Gap, taking 4 Fatigue damage!  Cripple applied to Mikoto Minagi!  
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Closing The Gap, taking 11 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Cripple applied to Cure Rhythm!  

<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

While you would think the wind would be ideal to counter a wave of bugs with, the Magic Knight of Wind is caught too much by surprise to attempt another spell against the incoming wall of eldritch insects, and instead tries to dive for cover.

She doesn't remotely make it - what cover WAS there going to be, really? - and gets completely swamped by them, letting out a shriek of either entomophobia or simple indignity. The shriek is repeated shortly thereafter, but this time in coherent words: "STORM-DANCE OF KAMAITACHI!!"

THEN the winds rage about her, trying to not only drive the Orphan bugs off of her person but to rip into the 'reinforcements' ... and, well, just generally to rip them. And at the eye of that storm, a rather disheveled- and disgruntled-looking Magic Knight rises back to her feet, her quiver and bow materializing - possibly they'll be more effective than swinging her own sword around would be against this many bugs. She's glancing around, taking stock of her allies' state, but it'll be a moment before she can do much to help them - she *did* have to get back on her own feet first, of course.

(She's also trying not to look incredibly flustered by what just happened, admittedly.)

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Cure Rhythm [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Kanade grinned in triumph as her boots managed to kill a dozen of the bugs, although she REALLY hoped that bug guts didn't leave a stain on them. Her ears caught the snarky comment, that made Kanade blushed. She glanced up to a girl she had never seen before attacking the bugs with a weapon she was certain she seen in one of Souta's manga.

"Yeah, well, yelling makes me feel better!" she snapped back. Kanade didn't like dealing with bugs on a normal dead, and it was taking every inch of will power to not out right scream at what she was seeing right-

There was a tickle on her leg. Fear filled her eyes as she glanced downward. A group of the bugs had now started to climb up her leg and attempted to add her to their list of captured people already. Kanade screamed bloody murder, as she attempted to jump away to shake them away.

It wasn't working! It was like a scene out of her worst nightmare. Gross! Gross! Gross! Why didn't she have bug spray?! She could feel the bugs attack her other leg and attempt to drag her into their horde. Help! Help! Get this things away from her! HIBIKI WHERE ARE YOU WHEN I NEED YOU?! Kanade screamed mentally.

<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

After pouring on the lightning III , Lancelot notices the girl with the rings of fire and blinks. He just BLINKS. "Holy Rabbits. I know her!" He says and then as he does a lighting infused slash at the rune marked bugs of evil he leaps over near Mai and lowers the scarf around his lower face. "Heya. Is NOW an appropriate time to say you smell like Bacon, or is it still not okay? I mean. You're throwing A LOT of fire, and I'm not really sure on the protocol." He takes up a defensive position, preparing for all the doom and gloom the evil army of evil is about to unleash toward him. "Oh my Gosh! I just realized! WE'RE TOTALLY DOING A SUPER POWERED TEAM UP!" He grins and looks to Mai, "This is Totally wicked. It's like those Manga of Super Heroes!" He pauses and taps his chin looking to the sky thoughtfully. "Although. I guess with all these Magical Entities that keep sprouting up all over the place I shouldn't be surprised to find myself in a Super Powered Team up. It's like it happens all the time." He shrugs an armored shoulder and lifts the scarf.

He prepares an epic defense, summoning a shield of lightning on his left arm and raises it, with his sword held at the ready. Looking all the world like a Knight that is prepared to do battle with an army from the underworld he waits

Aaaaand is promptly ignored. "HEY!" He says as all the focus goes to the others. He stands dejected for a moment, "I sort of wonder if this is what it was like in Kindergarten when we told the girls they couldn't play with us." He looks over his shoulder to Mai and to see her assaulted by bugs. "You um? You want some help?" He gestures around him. "They uh. Appear to not see me, and I'm hoping it is because they are repelled by my awesome, and NOT because I smell. That - That would be embarrassing."

COMBAT: Lancelot has used So Confused Right Now on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Lancelot accepts Lancelot's So Confused Right Now, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  

<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.

Tsukiko yelps as more bugs swarm in from elsewhere. She scrambles clear, although a few nip her painfully. "Okay, so you're faster than I thought," the wolfgirl admits grudgingly. "And I *really* don't want to get closer than I have to!"

Looking across the battlefield, she notices a combatant not affected by the swarm. "Well, the best attacks are from sides they're not defending," she muses, running a hand through her hair, findign a loose strand.

"Wolf's Blessing!" she calls out, flinging the strand of hair (now charged with the comradery of a wolfpack) to Lancelot.

COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Wolf's Blessing on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Lancelot accepts Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Wolf's Blessing, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Surge applied to Lancelot!  

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Orphans? la Sirene thinks. How can she tell? But the creatures are not exactly gentle or innocent, whatever their parental status.

When the night is lit up with fire, punishing and purgative, la Sirene is just a little bit relieved. Fire is a good way to deal with bugs. (She also cuts a side-eyed look at Cassandra after that remark. Hmf!!) This distraction doesn't last, of course, because she is immediately thereafter surrounded and buried in bugs.

Batiste squeals and leaps up onto la Sirene's cap and then down to her shoulder to avoid this outcome of bugginess and buzzing sharpness. He succeeds. La Sirene's outfit, which in its gothic elegance and suggestion of a regal militaristic coat has the advantage of showing very little flesh to the open air, /almost/ protects her.

Almost.

'Almost' counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and hugs. It does not when it comes to insect protection. One of them pinches her ear.

La Sirene may seem almost catatonic - but something impels her. Where she might have shrieked and freaked, now she raises up that glittering lantern, the opal and ammolite gleaming richly.

She flutters the catch on the Brazen Pharos - and darkness flickers out and upwards, onto the side of a building. A sudden shadowy impression of a vast and tormented young woman, screaming -- in fact, it's la Sirene silently screaming, but distorted, but perhaps the image of darkness and shadow will be enough to distract the bugs.

If nothing else, la Sirene is pleasantly surprised at this sight - and that pleasant, if shocked surprise is much of why she /isn't/ screaming. The remainder is that she doesn't want a bug in her mouth.

COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Brockenspectre on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Mikoto's warcry is cause for worry - but Mai's relieved to see that she's staying under control. (Which might be a relative term, all things concerned.) As the sword-wielder starts bisecting, Mai takes a moment to look over her own results. The wall of flames seems to have at least cordoned off the beetles - a wall of chitin standing against the wall of fire. Frustrating, especially as the fires begin to die down...

But it's enough that swifter attacks - Sailor Mars's blazing blast, Lancelot's lightning, threads and weights and stomps all taking their toll on the horde - it's making a difference.

And then Mai's hackles are raised as someone calls her out by name - a masked girl. A familiar one - or at least, one she's met before, albeit under calmer circumstance. "Good to see you too - you ever catch up with Zoe?" Not exactly a friendly tone, given Cassandra's words. "And I'd rather be clear than risk-"

Further commentary is cut short by the screech of a million beetles, swarming in unison - for all the fire and lightning and everything, they haven't been stopped. They might not even have been delayed. Yelping in surprise, she tries to summon fire to ward against the beetles - but they're too fast. Too numerous, and Mai is carried by the tide of insects, struggling to break loose. They're everywhere, they're chittering, from the looks of things they have even worse things in mind for those they catch...

Flames are dampened by insect bodies clinging to her rings, but they burn all the same. Guttering, sparking - and then blazing brilliantly. Heat and light erupt in a sphere around her - an instant burst of flame to try to get a bit of breathing room back, to shine in the night. As the fires crackle and flicker, Mai calls out. "Mikoto! Are you all right out there?!"

Her critic is, for the moment, forgotten. But that light might make her a target...

COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Devoted Scintillation on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has used Pretty Cure Punch on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi, taking 45 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Cure Rhythm's Pretty Cure Punch, taking 19 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge La Sirene du Nord's Brockenspectre, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  La Sirene du Nord is Psyched!  Diversion applied to Honoka Yukishiro!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Mai Tokiha's Devoted Scintillation, taking 4 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  Blind applied to Honoka Yukishiro!  

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Such a strange and pungent odor wafts up in a wall as the bugs are broiled into twitching husks. It was like a nightmarish perversion of the appetizing odors of a kitchen or grill wafting into the restaurant proper, an acrid stinking stench of a meat ill-suited for consumption.

Some of the victims are laid bare and exposed, and Sailor Mars almost cries in relief that they are not charred by her flames..but their safety is far from assured, and she remains deep in the clutches of distress and fear.

As seems to happen so often, this sudden crisis has been met with a small platoon of mahou shojo warriors, a squad to meet the swarm. Their magical counter-attacks vary in their effectiveness, but each of Rei's emergent allies stand strong and ready to dish out more punishment..but then, the invading army marches on with inhuman single-mindedness all the same.

In the din, Sailor Mars recognizes a number of past compatriots, but among them all none stands out so vividly as Sailor Jupiter. Rei runs to her, clasping her hand, and smiles, and quickly murmurs that she's glad to see her before returning her attention to the fray.

Phobos joins Deimos, and both hover above the opposite ends of the twisted tidal wave, flapping and crying out to mark the progress of their approach. Phobos turns, though, nearly as quickly as she arrives in that position, and flies to the treeline.

Sailor Mars turns to see what the fuss is about..but it's too late. A second wave bursts out of the forest and pours upon her, needle-like legs piercing at her, vicious mandibles biting and tearing..but mostly, they just wash over her in a disgusting current, doing some damage but repulsing her more than anything else.

Soon enough they're beyond her..but now they must be contended with too. Phobos sweeps over this second army, tracking it as Deimos tracks the first. Sailor Mars catches her breath, closing her eyes for a moment that feels more like five or six..quieting her temptestous urgency for a moment. As much as she wants to pour fire forth like a dragon's breath..she knows in her heart that it is better to take a moment to learn what she can.

She whistles, a sustained and crystalline note across the air. Phobos turns her head, and then the rest of her body towards her ward. "Rin! Pyou! Tou!" The crow takes flight, gliding above the marauders. "Sha! Kai! Chin!" Picking up speed, Phobos opens her beak, approaching Rei where she stands. "Retsu! Zai! ZEN!" As Sailor Mars holds the empowered ofuda as high as she can, Phobos plucks it from her, holding it by its corner in her jaws, and wheels around..swooping back towards the front of the inexorable line like a hawk, she dives down low..jerking her head forward as though pecking a bug from the ground, the bird attempts to stick the horde with the paper slip before soaring back up to safety.

COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Rin, Pyou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen! on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Sailor Mars's Rin, Pyou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!  Analysis performed by Sailor Mars!  Stun and Trap applied to Honoka Yukishiro!  

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Despite the challenging scream Mikoto issues, she heard Mai; she pulls up short of cleaving through one of the exposed girls, clutching Miroku and shifting the stance of her feet to throw her weight into stopping the blade short. Aoi Senou is a girl she knows, after all; Aoi Senou is also a Good Person, though not as primary as Mai is.

She is a Good Person, and more importantly she is a /Person/, and Mai said not to hurt any People, and so Mikoto does not cut her in half. Mikoto would not want to cut her in half even if the orders were different, though perhaps if Mai asked directly she would override her uneasiness with battling noncombatants.

But the way she interrupts herself, the way she stops before completing her motion, she's left open for a moment, and a moment is all the Orphans require. Mikoto looks up, her eyes widening, her lower lip pulling down to expose all of her clenched teeth.

With only a moment to think, she slams Miroku down in front of her, the flat of the blade exposed to the bugs as they pour down like those huge waves in the ocean which catch Mikoto and toss her about -- without the weight of her sword, after all, she's such a /small/ thing...

But the Orphans are not water, not truly, and though she manages to protect her face as she squats behind her sword, they still flow over her arms and into her uniform through her sleeves and through her hair and, and in the worst, worst case, she feels one crossing over her front from the side and feels its chitinous legs as it crawls over her most precious pendant.

"NO!", Mikoto screams, an actual word now, as she shifts and swings her sword again in a wild arc, as much to shake the Orphans from her body as to cut them down. It's hard to tell whether it's a response to Mai, or just a general lamentation, but...

COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Defense on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Cassandra allows herself a wicked grin as she sweeps back part of the infestation's vanguard. Immediately her hand shifts upon the line as she keeps up the circle going, retracting the line smoothly and keeping up the spin. Grunting, she answers Mai sharply, "Whatever you say. And more like tracked down, Tokiha. You sure you want to nanner about that around so many people though?" After all she had pinned the blame on Nephrite specifically to keep any reprisal from falling on Mai.

A moment later she's just staring at Takeo, like he's said the dumbest thing with asking if it's appropriate to tell a girl she smells like any kind of piece of meat, her eyes flicking towards Nao. "Hey Julia. You think that one is a candidate for your special-?" She cocks her head at him as if to emphasize 'you know', "Or is he just a run of the mill idiot?"

Out of the corner of her vision she notes the reinforcements, just as she finishes hopping from one foot to the other. A quick leap and a twist in mid-air and she's facing the new tsunami like wave of bugs, With one motion she stops the twirling, instead gripping the line with both hands to shove back the line against mandibles that had gotten too close for comfort.

Which is the moment she feels a mandibles of another sink into her shoulder. Bloodied, she lands on the ground in a rough roll in order to shake it off.

Putting a hand to her shoulder when she comes up on one knee, she looks at the crimson fluid move over her opposite hand, before her eyes take on a somewhat manic glint as she finally responds to Rhythm. "Well- I enjoy yelling too." She says with deadly seriousness.

Tapping the haft of the kama like blade, two concealed blades slide out of the blackened weight on the end of the line as if they were always there. Twirling the line about in a circle, putting her whole body into it for momentum- she then unleashes it straight forward in a line towards a large group of bugs with a feral warcry, the weight spinning round and round in its chaotic trajectory as a deadly spiral.

COMBAT: Cassandra has used Shearing Spiral on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Defense, taking 20 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly dodges Cassandra's Shearing Spiral, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Nao Yuuki [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Nao Yuuki's green eyes glare angrily at the bugs as they manage to completely avoid her web. She rests a a dangerously sharp nail of her clawed hand against her bottom lip as she considers her next action. These pests were proving to be more than just mere annoyances. She would have to dispose of them and with haste. A brand new thread is raised effortlessly through the air just as bug 'reinforcements' come crashing through the forest. The red-haired delinquent crouches down and leaps up onto the branch of one of the outlying trees. Tch. That was far too close for comfort.

From her new vantage point, Nao can survey the battlefield easily. It was not all the surprising that there were others out there like her. She already knew of a few, but it was something surprising to see so many all at once. Just how many magic girl....Nao finally spies Lancelot amongst the chaos. Well, well. What do we have here? A magic -boy-? And he was complaining that the bugs weren't attacking him? A devilish smile appears on Nao's face as Julia remains unseen within the forest itself. She could easily arrange for him to have a little encounter of his own.

Nao freezes briefly at 'Cassandra's' suggestion. That is some major assumptions on her part. She glares at the other girl and calmly tightens her clawed hand into a fist before letting it go once more. "I would be greatly surprised if he wasn't." The delinquent then shrugs her shoulders non commitedly before turning her attention back to the bugs at hand. She leaps lesiurely through the air and lands on the ground near the base of the tree which had saved her from the bug attack. The young girl then promptly uses her incredibly sharp thread to cut the tree down which causes it to topple over and hopefully cause it to crash down on some of the bugs.

COMBAT: Nao Yuuki has used Timber! on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Nao Yuuki has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Nao Yuuki's Timber!, taking 10 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Nao Yuuki is Psyched!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Sailor Jupiter flashes Sailor Mars a quick, bright smile, greeting her teammate with a nod and a firm clasp of her hand - all they really have time for, because there's evil to be fought here and in mere moments there's a massive wave of monstrous insects crashing down at them with almost no warning whatsoever.

With a spit second to make a decision, Jupiter chooses as she so often does - she turns to face the enemy's attack head-on, crossing her arms before her as though in a shield. Even as the multitude of bugs crashes over her, the wind swirls up around Jupiter in answer to an unspoken call... and when the torrent has passed, the Guardian of Thunder stands tall and untouched, nothing but royally pissed off.

"You all right, Mars?" she calls out, sparks already flashing at her fingertips as she turns toward the biggest mass of the horde - despite the question, Makoto trusts Rei hold her own, and her primary attention is for the enemy that must be put down.

Her usual perferred methods don't seem like they'll do much good against an enemy that's a million tiny monsters instead of one big one, but with so many insects so close together, she figures they should carry a current well enough - with a shout, she throws out her hands, sending thin strands of electricity arcing outward and into the mass of insects. "Jupiter thunderbolt!"

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Jupiter Thunderbolt on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Sailor Jupiter's Jupiter Thunderbolt, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro is Quipped!  Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

The Magic Knight of Wind explodes bugs off of her in all directions, as does Cure Rhythm and La Sirene; storm, punch and shadow seem equally able to burst them away. The ones on Mai, crawling up and down and over and around, are a little bit more recalcitrant -- the fire blasts them back, but their runes flare and they come buzzing back towards her relentlessly.

Or they would, if Mikoto's spinning self -- and massive blade -- hadn't started transforming them into half-beetles and quarter-beetles. Beetle bits fall towards the concrete. Cassandra's contribution is, once again, to drive fleeing beetles into the blender, and also under the hammer that is Nao's falling tree.

When a tree falls at Ohtori, and someone's around, it makes a 'squish' sound.

Meanwhile, Sailor Mars meets an old enemy with the edges of her senses -- the bird-bourne ofuda strikes home, and while it doesn't seem to paralyze the creatures, a worthwhile fact in itself, she /feels/ them, crawling into her rather, as the other girls, onto her. There is something terrible and strange about their spiritual presence; something foreign. Something corrupted. Something Wrong. The same something that hurt her shrine, some weeks ago.

Sailor Jupiter has no such direct psychic connection, but while some of the bugs are faster than lightning, not all of them are, and the link of the currents from her fingertips into the tiny monsters is a satisfyingly familiar one on a different level.

The swarm -- reduced but still massive -- is beginning to move in a far more complex manner. Something is controlling them, perhaps, or else they're far more intelligent than their tiny brains have any right to be. Some of them break off, away from Fuu and Cure Rhythm and Nori and Mikoto, headed up the walls of the manor towards the windows and the innocents inside.

These walls happen to be coated in very thorny vines, but right now that is especially non-obvious. Black chitin and red runes are all that can be seen of the surface.

Others, which might have attacked Sailor Mars while she was guiding her birds, fall back, buzzing her occasionally but mostly heading in another direction, congealing into a massive limb's worth of force and pain to try to swat Sailor Jupiter away. In the same moment this tactic is repeated between Nao -- from whom they retreat -- onto Cassandra, who they swarm.

The remainder charge straight down the middle towards Mai and Tsukiko.

Around Lancelot, of course.

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Clever Feint on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Clever Feint on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Clever Feint on Cure Rhythm.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Clever Feint on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Measured Retreat on Sailor Mars.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Pressing Forward on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Measured Retreat on Nao Yuuki.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Pressing Forward on Cassandra.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Fierce Fighting on Mai Tokiha.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Fierce Fighting on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Misandry! on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cassandra fails to counter Honoka Yukishiro's Pressing Forward, taking 38 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Cassandra's counterattack, Savage Harvest, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!  
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Fierce Fighting, taking 17 Fatigue damage!  Mai Tokiha's Reverse ability activates!  Mai Tokiha's Tactician ability activates!  
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha's counterattack, Sanctum Blaze, partially gets through, doing 8 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!  
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko fails to counter Honoka Yukishiro's Fierce Fighting, taking 26 Fatigue damage!  Stun applied to Cute Wolf Tsukiko!  
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko's counterattack, High-Speed Kick, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!  
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Clever Feint, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Blind, Diversion, Tangle, and Trap applied to La Sirene du Nord!  
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Clever Feint, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  Blind, Diversion, Tangle, and Trap applied to Cure Rhythm!  
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm's counterattack, Pretty Cure Kick, partially gets through, doing 4 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!  
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji perfectly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Clever Feint, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Critical Brace!  
COMBAT: Lancelot narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Misandry!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Lancelot is Quipped!  Lancelot's Block ability activates!  Lancelot's Parry ability activates!  
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Pressing Forward, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter's counterattack, Supreme Suplex, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!  
COMBAT: Nao Yuuki fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Measured Retreat, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  Bind Break! All of Honoka Yukishiro's debuffs are cleared!  
COMBAT: Sailor Mars narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Measured Retreat, taking 4 Fatigue damage!  Bind Break! All of Honoka Yukishiro's debuffs are cleared!  
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Clever Feint, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  Mikoto Minagi's Fade ability activates!  Mikoto Minagi's Flash ability activates!  Blind, Tangle, and Trap applied to Mikoto Minagi!  

<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

"OH COME ON!" Lancelot says exasperated as he once again is ignored by the thing of evil. He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs, Arondight sort of hanging limply. Then he spies the bugs going to attack the innocents in the creepy, clearly not haunted, or evil looking manor. Helooks toward Sparkles, who is still hiding behind a tree a branch held in her mouth that quietly says: "Look. I'm a Tree. Don't talk to me so they don't notice me." He shakes his head. There were just some days where a Knight just isn't at his best.

He turns away form the Clearly not a Horse Tree, and runs to the Manor, leaping up onto the wall and running up it, clearling vines as he goes before he reaches his apex and shouts: "BLADEFURY!" Lighting arcs and flashes as Lancelot lashes while he runs straight down the same side of the wall, trying to clear as many fo the bug things as he goes. Sending flashing steel and lighting through the bugs as he goes before he lands in a crouch at the bottom. He smiles wickedly and nods. "Yeah. They're repelled by my Awesome."

He winks to the nearest person. Be they Magical Girl, Innocent, or Horse. There just comes a time when a Knight ahs to wink, and right now is one of them.

Truthfully it's that or cry.

COMBAT: Lancelot has used Bladefury on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Lancelot's Bladefury, taking 22 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Lancelot is Psyched!  Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Holding The Line, partially gets through, doing 8 Fatigue damage to Lancelot!  

<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Mikoto shouts, and Mai nearly screams in response - her companion is in trouble, and given what these things seem to be up to - visions of torn cloth serving as a reminder of what's at stake - Mai presses onward against the tide. They seem to be bound and determined to meet her head-on, and Mai's flames blaze in response - a roaring infernal shield, glinting with red light within the flames.

It's...partially successful. Bugs burn and crack and explode as they strike it - but their bodies remain to sear at her as she charges recklessly. Emerald winds swirl around her as she tries to get to the source of the outcry - arriving, briefly, at the island of tranquility that surrounds Lancelot.

Her gaze is rather...lidded as she looks over the shining, untouched knight - and starts at the wink. For a moment, her blind panic is forgotten. "They're repelled by something, all right. Just - if they're not going after you, then help those of us they are swarming."

The horde's climbing the walls. She doesn't have time for further comment - having long lost Cassandra and the Senshi and that warrior in white amidst the crowd, Mikoto is her goal. And mercifully, a sword-swinging HiME is not hard to find.

"Mikoto!" Flames signal Mai's arrival - wrapping around the HiME with the obsidian blade, swirling with the warmth of hope, the fury of Mai's protective urges. A mantle of flame - however brief - to sear at the bugs that cling to her, ward them off a moment longer.

Mai follows the flames, nearly crashing to the earth by Mikoto's side. Burnt, charred bugs still cling to her, having battered and seared during her wild dash - the last crumbling away as she catches her breath. "I heard you yell, are you all right?"

COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Affectionate Inferno on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Sailor Mars gives a clipped nod to her fellow senshi. The way these bugs were falling wasn't terribly dissimilar to sailors enduring the crashing waves of a raging storm. Staying on deck and holding your breath seemed to be the trick. "I'm fine!" She shouts, a little more terse than she means to be, given her concentration. "You ok?" Without a further word between then, Rei felt the same way that Makoto did; her comrade could handle herself, no question.

Phobos struck true. Sailor Mars is filled with pride, gratitude, and relief. Battles like this are nervewracking when she thinks of her companions. The typial youma is defined by blasts and bluster, and her agile friends can typically fly out of the way of any danger. This inexorable sludge of fell presence is different. Like lava flow..if either one of her friends gets caught up in the spill then they'll be swallowed up whole, and stand much less of a chance of surviving it than the Soldier of War.

She shouts to them, Phobos and Deimos alike, her voice emphasizing her mental link.

"You've done enough! Warn them!"

They both cry out to her, Deimos in the front and Phobos closer to her, each acknowledging her..and the bolt forward, making their way towards the high windows of the manor that the beetles seem to be pursuing. They flock through the open spaces, screeching and raising up a din of sound and fury, flapping wildly in the faces of the first students they encounter and proceeding on, flying down the stairs and crying out in earnest. They can't afford to reach every room of every floor, but they make a racket on their way down to the front door, exploding out from it just ahead of the encroaching mass, and fly to the next buildings in their wake.

As for Sailor Mars..for whatever reason, even as she holds her fists up and plants her feet in the ground, she doesn't come under particular attack. A mass of insects washes over her but they seem more intent on reaching the other side than anything. There's pain to it, to be sure..but probably less than if they were focusing their fury upon her. But if anything, that makes her angrier than if they'd assaulted her directly.

There's something alien about them, something unsettlingly..beyond, even to a woman such as herself who has studied at length to deal with outsiders. She senses something beyond an animal mindlessness..but no great unique insight is required to notice that. Like so many desperate situations before this one, circumstances are too deteriorated to manage anything more than triage. They can't afford to treat the causes of this mysterious malady.

Her lips break open like a splitting fissure, her face contorting in a rictus of fury. Her chest swells as her lungs fill and she lets loose with a great bellow of rage and conviction. Lifting her heel high to the sky, a furious maelstrom of fire immolates her foot entirely before she drives it down like a sledgehammer upon the demonic flock.

COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Fire Heel Drop on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi accepts Mai Tokiha's Affectionate Inferno, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cleanse! All of Mikoto Minagi's debuffs are cleared!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Sailor Mars's Fire Heel Drop, taking 12 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

With the insects actually trying to actively avoid her now, the Magic Knight of Wind stands her ground, wincing a bit as she sees Cure Rhythm getting utterly and completely swarmed. Some of her other allies look considerably the worse for wear at this point ... which makes them priorities for the Wind Knight to try and lend some aid to.

Luckily for them, she has a spell for that.

"Winds of Healing!" calls the green-clad Magic Knight, and a gentle breeze gusts forth to enfold the Cute Wolf, Cure Beauty, and La Sirene du Nord; besides driving some of the clinging bugs off (despite the ostensible gentleness of the restorative winds), that magical breeze soothes the pain of their injuries and helps to diminish whatever other ill effects the Orphan-bugs have inflicted thus far. It's the best Fuu can do in the middle of a fight and when trying to divide her attention.

And she does NOT expect the bugs to keep leaving her alone like they apparently are right now.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Cure Rhythm.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cleanse! All of Cute Wolf Tsukiko's debuffs are cleared!  
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cleanse! All of Cure Rhythm's debuffs are cleared!  
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Cleanse! All of La Sirene du Nord's debuffs are cleared!  

<Pose Tracker> Cure Rhythm [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

It seems Kanade's fear gave her enough power in her punch to knock the bugs that were trying to trap her. Yet, she didn't have long to recover from her mild heart attack. The bugs were on the move again, and this time they seemed to be purposely trying ot make it difficult to hit them.

"Oh, we'll see about that!" she cried. Kanade glanced around to the rest of the battle...including the boy that bugs seemed to be ignoring? Huh, that was odd? Kanade turned her attention back to the bugs and attempted to counter their move with a hard kick.

She grinned as she saw she managed to strike at least some of the bugs. Suddenly, a gust of wing washed over her, and it strangely seemed to replace the lost energy she had before. "Thank you," she said aloud to whoever cast it.

She returned to her set on the bugs. It was better than nothing, and proceeded to follow up her counter attack a hard punch to these annoying bugs.

COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has used Pretty Cure Punch on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.

Tsukiko lashes out with a kick at the approaching swarm, trying to knock them away. Unfortunately, all it does is maximize how much of her gets hit at once with by the beetles. While they're not as heavy as, say, a youma-fied tire, they also have mandibles.

Lots and lots of mandibles.

The wolfgirl yelps as she gets bitten repeatedly, flailing in an effort to shake the bugs off. Fuu's healing wind helps dislodge the rest of them, as well as soothe the injuries.

"Thanks!" Tsukiko calls back to her green-clad friend, then faces the swarm again. "I don't know what you're here for, and right now I don't care about the details," she growls at the beetles as she leaps backwards to gain some distance before starting to run forward. "But I do know that we're going to stop whatever it is that you're up to!"

And with that, the wolfgirl bounds forward, trying to mash bugs by jumping across them before they can bite back.

COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Overrun Bounce on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

The crows briefly make la Sirene's eyes shine with admiration. What gorgeous black birds...!

She is exposed quite shortly to something a great deal less pleasant, if perhaps equally black, in the form of a swarming surge of the creatures. The cries of Lancelot go unheeded, because while her clever shadow has affected these insects, it has not affected ALL of them. Three of them take this chance to make their presence known on her neck and her left ear.

NOW she shrieks. Thankfully, they do not go for the mouth. But one was fixing to make the jump -- when the soothing winds of healing brush over her, removing the insects and sparing her bites further yet. What's more, her ear doesn't even really hurt. La Sirene's eyes turn towards the Magic Knight, thinking back perhaps to just how recently, in the grand scheme of things, they were foes.

But Batiste is at least less wistful. "Thank you!" he squeaks to Fuu, and la Sirene dips her head in silent return, before her attention turns forwards again, towards...

"What in the world and the sea are they even doing," she protests, before some of the creatures seem to turn back towards her. Pivoting, she raises up that lantern -- which, of course, Fuu would see to be a recent acquisition -- and declares, as her index and pinky fingers raise, "No, you do no such things. Twinned in the mirror -- Les Mysteres --"

What comes out is not /merely/ silver sparkling light that effervesces cryptic symbols. It /still/ is, of course - but now as it erupts out through the forward aperture of that brassy lantern, it is accompanied by an outpouring of blackest knight, spilling out and highlighting the shimmering threads of moonish silver as the insects, hopefully, are crushed beneath her spell!

COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Les Mysteres on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Cure Rhythm's Pretty Cure Punch, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Overrun Bounce, taking 18 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko is Psyched!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges La Sirene du Nord's Les Mysteres, taking 28 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Mikoto is quite effective at insect laceration, and the bugs seem to realise it. The greater swarm breaks from her, enough that although her skin is crawling and there are things there under her clothes and they're wrong and bad and they smell like sick starlight --

Although all these things are happening, she can see the way some of the swarm charges towards Mai Tokiha.

She's able to shake off some more bugs as she moves erratically, leaping onto a brick partition which has lost most of its Orphans, and then down, rolling, coming up with sword in hand in one fluid motion which resembles a cat trying to thrash about and get a strange collar off. But they're still there, and she can still feel them, and even though she charges towards Mai she's afraid and she feels ill and she doesn't like this, she doesn't want this and

Mai is coming for her, as well.

Of course she is.

Mai is a Good Person. Mai is an Important Person. Mai wouldn't abandon her.

The flames which announce her presence burn away the insects, sear them off of her skin and out from underneath her clothes and the scent of smoke is better than the smell of the Orphans, that smell she can't quite put her finger on, the smell she doesn't know how to feel about. She staggers close to Mai, her shoulders heaving as she breathes, her knuckles white against Miroku.

"No," she says, but more softly, now, a little more uncertain. She can't think of the words. She can't remember how her lips move around them, how she sculpts them from her throat across her tongue. But there is one word she still knows, and she says it again, looking up to Mai and seeming, for just a moment, so very /small/. "No."

But Mai's presence seems to help her, nonetheless, because Mikoto shifts her grip on her claymore and glares out at the remaining bugs, the ones which seem intent on Mai. They are Orphan - enemy - they will hurt Mai.

Mikoto launches herself into another attack, sweeping out her blade as she leaps forward to protect the girl who feeds her and keeps her company and whose word she follows because her Lord Brother isn't here.

COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Devastation on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Devastation, taking 9 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  Stagger applied to Honoka Yukishiro!  

<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

When the swarm shift from Nao, to herself, what Cassandra sees is mostly a tide of crimson light bearing down upon her. In one moment of wry clarity born by endless nights staring at starlight, she quips, "What else is new?" Rather than do the wise thing and try to retreat, or at least mitigate the pain, she instead tries to meet the swarm head on, leaping at it with the blackened kama blade extended, to try to carve through its ranks with wide sweeping arcs.

What happens instead is that it washes over her, under her, sweeping her away in the current as if she were one of the girls they'd come upon from the start. For the longest of times she disappears, though the occasional muffled curse and holler is heard beneath them. It's humiliating to her. Even with all of the power she's been given, this situation rendered her so helpless. It was tempting, a fleeting intrusive thought, to just let go, and let what might happen happen. She might be rescued or- her next thought was that that was unacceptable. No 'prince' would come to rescue her, and even if someone would, she had to do this herself.

One arduous movement after another her limbs try to swim through the sea of scarlet, shielding herself from the relentless assault of cuts, she manages to plant her feet on... something, though whether its solid ground or the carapace of more bugs is something she's not going to try to find out.

Growling as she feels herself take another stinging wound, she simply tries to leap out through the horde, up to a higher vantage point. Right now that looks to be a high tree limb, which really isn't all that much safer- but her intent is just to give her some breathing room. Wracked with countless small bleeding wounds, her clothing torn in numerous places, Cassandra takes one deep pained breath after another, somehow. When everything else about her was stripped away, she was still a survivor.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

The answer from Sailor Mars gets a quick, fierce grin from Sailor Jupiter. "No problem!" she calls back - though it quickly becomes clear that she might have spoken just a *little* too soon when the rough "arm" of massed insects comes at her like a battering ram. "--Whoa!"

Her reaction is pure reflex, muscle memory drilled into her by hours in the dojo, never mind that her assailant is many tiny enemies instead of one solid one; as the blow comes in, Sailor Jupiter sidesteps and catches it, redirecting that momentum to slam the column of bugs groundwards.

Or try, anyway. It's... less than fully effective, but all things considered it works better than Makoto could honestly have claimed to expect. Which is to say that Sailor Jupiter remains on her feet, although now - predictably - she's got insects clinging to her arms and crawling busily up her shoulders, mandibles digging in wherever they can and drawing a yelp of surprise and pain and (more than either of these, increasingly) anger. "Ow! Hey!"

She could dislodge them with a few swipes of her hands - but that would waste time, and there are many more of the tiny monsters on the march toward some objective she doesn't know but which she knows can't possibly be good. No, Mars and the Cute Wolf and la Sirene have it right, and in an instant Sailor Jupiter is outlined with the bright energy of her power, a charge that starts at her hands and reaches its crackling threads up her arms, searing any unlucky Orphan that might be clinging to her even as she orients her focus to the place where the insects seem massed the most thickly, gathers herself, and breaks into a sprint that very soon becomes a *leap*--

With a wordless shout, Sailor Jupiter follows the example set a moment ago by the Guardian of Fire, hurtling into the swarm full-force with fists trailing lightning.

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Lightning Fist on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Sailor Jupiter's Lightning Fist, taking 24 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Jupiter is Psyched!  Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!  
COMBAT: Cassandra has used Still Alive on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Cassandra's Still Alive, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Cassandra is Psyched!  Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Pressing Forward, partially gets through, doing 33 Fatigue damage to Cassandra!  

<Pose Tracker> Nao Yuuki [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

The tree falls, bugs are squished, and yet a couple of the nearby bugs manage to bite Nao's legs on their way past. Nao Yuuki scornfully regards these creatures as they retreat away from her. Did they really think they could escape from her that easily? She outstretches her transformed left hand to her side and mirrors this action with her normal appearing right hand. Without any great fanfare, Nao's right hand twists as it to becomes a mechanical claw with razor sharp nails that gleam dangerously in the moonlight. The red-haired teenager was now equipped with a matching pair of claws and the mind to use both of them as she pleased.

Nao could leap to action, but she decides to stand back and merely observe. Cassandra's ability to rescue herself was rather admireable to watch. She cups her own chin with a clawed hand and merely watches as the other girl struggles against the tide of insects. "That looked like it really stung." Nao observes coyly as she wriggles her clawed hand idly. "But I'm assuming you still have some fight left in you and I want to see it." The amused teenager adds as she gestures openly at her sides. "So show me...if you still can."

COMBAT: Nao Yuuki has used A Spider Bares its Fangs on Nao Yuuki.
COMBAT: Nao Yuuki has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Nao Yuuki accepts Nao Yuuki's A Spider Bares its Fangs, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Mai burns bugs off of Mikoto very effectively, but Mikoto's ferocious murder spree is starting to peter out a little bit even so. Perhaps enthusiasm weakens her. Or perhaps she's just overextended. Even so, this time, while she often finds her mark, she is less the blender and more a low-setting mixer, stirring the swarm around without harming it very effectively.

Cute Wolf Tsukiko has more luck. There's a wonderful CRUNCH! as she springs off of the carpet to safety, echoed by softer hisses and pops from the impact of Sailor Mars' fiery heel and Cure Rhythm and Sailor Jupiter's mighty fists. The ones swept away by La Sirene's strange attack make no sound at all, but more of them got out of the way than not.

Cassandra attempts to leap away and discovers that she cannot do so without cost; there are bugs in every conceivable direction, all too happy to fly into her hair and try to get up her nose and in her mouth and all over the place. The feeling of their thousands of little claws is abhorrent. Eventually, though, she pulls clear.

Lancelot finds, as he climbs the walls, that the vines are almost as hungry for his blood as the bugs themselves, which are perfectly content to take little chunks out of him as they scurry out of his way. That's not to say he doesn't kill dozens with his sword and his lightning, but they exact a pound of flesh in return.

At least they weren't ignoring him.

...although now they're turning around and launching themselves off the walls, right past his face, towards the center of the courtyard.

Indeed, /all/ of the remaining bugs are doing exactly that. They have been reduced, perhaps, by half. As the roiling mass of flailing, buzzing beetles begins to grow, and grow, and grow, one can appreciate what a good thing the efforts put forth so far have wrought.

Because otherwise what emerges in a cloud of miasma -- a single, giant version of the miniatures, which have merged into one, with razor-sharp mandibles, claws so pointed that they make the air weep, and, of course, a giantic, glowing rune on its forehead -- would be Godzilla-sized, instead of merely three or four stories tall.

The buzzing is now beneath the bass register, a brutal assault on the ears. And the ichorous, acidic stench burns nostrils and lungs alike.

All things considered, however, these are outweighted by the brutal assault on the everything else, as the titanic Orphan slashes and gnashes with blinding speed, trying to grab some girls, and rip, tear, and destroy others. It is not really a beetle. It has limbs -- and mouths -- to spare.

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro transforms into Orphan Black Beetle!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used OH COME ON! on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used The Jaws That Bite on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used The Claws That Catch on Cassandra.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used The Claws That Catch on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used The Jaws That Bite on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used The Jaws That Bite on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used The Jaws That Bite on Cure Rhythm.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used The Jaws That Bite on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used The Jaws That Bite on Sailor Mars.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used The Claws That Catch on Mai Tokiha.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used The Claws That Catch on Nao Yuuki.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cassandra narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's The Claws That Catch, taking 17 Fatigue damage!  Cassandra's Block ability activates!  Cassandra's Parry ability activates!  Stun applied to Cassandra!  
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's The Jaws That Bite, taking 41 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's The Jaws That Bite, taking 28 Fatigue damage!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Flash ability activates!  
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's The Jaws That Bite, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Cure Rhythm's Fade ability activates!  Cure Rhythm's Flash ability activates!  
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's The Jaws That Bite, taking 18 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Jupiter's Block ability activates!  Sailor Jupiter's Parry ability activates!  
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's The Claws That Catch, taking 25 Fatigue damage!  Stagger applied to Mai Tokiha!  
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's The Jaws That Bite, taking 41 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Sailor Mars narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's The Jaws That Bite, taking 39 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Mars's Fade ability activates!  Sailor Mars's Flash ability activates!  
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's The Claws That Catch, taking 26 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Mikoto Minagi's Fade ability activates!  Mikoto Minagi's Flash ability activates!  Stagger and Stun applied to Mikoto Minagi!  
COMBAT: Lancelot narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's OH COME ON!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Lancelot is Quipped!  Lancelot is Taunted!  
COMBAT: Nao Yuuki narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's The Claws That Catch, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Nao Yuuki's Reverse ability activates!  Nao Yuuki's Tactician ability activates!  Stagger and Stun applied to Nao Yuuki!  
COMBAT: Nao Yuuki's counterattack, To Catch a Fly, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!  

<Pose Tracker> Cure Rhythm [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Rhythm's punch lands perfectly, but she doesn't have long to savour her small victory. The bug retaliate and attempt to bite her. Even though it would be tiny bites, with their large numbers, it was an experience Rhythm craved to avoid. Not to mention there was no telling what kind of an effect the bites would have on her.

She jumped in the air and managed to dodge the attack completely. Luck was on her side tonight! However, enough, was enough. It was time to attempt the big guns and saved the trapped victims.

Summoning her magic with in, her precure module transform into a flute. Rhythm twirled like a ballerina as she flung the flute and cried out before playing the soft melody. "Dolce Lullaby!" she cried before attempting to finish the enemy.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Cure Rhythm has used Dolce Lullaby on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cure Rhythm has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cure Rhythm's Finisher, Dolce Lullaby, taking 27 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Standing up from his crouch and wink, Lancelot clears his throat. "Right. I'll just, ya know, go over there," He points with Arondight, "And look around for a bad guy." Which is when the Large Beetle forms and looms over the group. He looks up and sighs as the thing ignores him again. He waves Arondight at the large bug. "HEY! Cockroach!" He waves his arms as he runs in front of the large monster. "YEAH YOU! Evil bug! I will find an ant and step on it! You know, one of your cousins?" He looks to Mai. "Hey. Um. Are Ants related to Cockroaches? And is that a Cockroach or a beetle?" He scratches his head. "Still. Totally confused right now." He sighs and puts Arondight in his sheath, and heads over to one of the innocents. Lifting one in each arm, he begins to move them out of the way. "No. It's cool. I'll just. Ya know. Be over here. Being useful as the guy who moves stuff. Let me know if one of you girls wanna borrow my sword. It does lightning. I'll be over here." He gestures with an innocent he's carrying. "Being useless." He sighs. "Just like at the Museum. Useless." Then he shrugs. "Though I guess they won't think I'm useless. Since I'm moving them and all." He watches the fight for a moment. "I'm talking to myself again aren't I?"

COMBAT: Lancelot has used Katara on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Lancelot has cancelled their attack on Honoka Yukishiro. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Lancelot has used Katara on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Lancelot has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Lancelot accepts Lancelot's Katara, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Lancelot is Quipped!  
COMBAT: Lancelot is unable to keep fighting!

<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.

While the Dire Beetle is a collection of smaller beetles, the singleness of it makes it somewhat easier for Tsukiko to track. Of course, that only helps as far as she can outrun the swinging mandibles. While the wolfgirl is able to avoid one, the other clips her and sends her skidding across the ground.

"Making it easier for us to aim at you, huh?" Tsukiko grins defiantly as she picks herself up off the ground. "Guess we'll just have to take you up on that, and make you regret showing your face!"

The wolfgirl dashes forward, circling the Orphan and lashing out with swift kicks any time she gets close enough. Every time it tries to move, it will find Tsukiko cutting off its path -- and the wolfgirl is picking up speed, and starting to glow with silvery light...

COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Herd the Quarry on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Herd the Quarry, taking 2 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Unreasonably Fast For Its Size, partially gets through, doing 39 Fatigue damage to Cute Wolf Tsukiko!  

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Perhaps the most eerie part of the entire night has been that..despite all of the havoc that has been wrought, that unnatural stillness in the air has never truly wavered. For all the burnt out carapaces, for all of the bruised and bloodied fighters standing in the wake of the onslaught...for all of the dormitories and buildings that have fallen prey to the wave, that deathly quiet has persisted throughout it all.

All that being said, it was coming to an apparent end. Whatever's taking place seems to be nearing an end game, as the frothing masses congeal within the courtyard, joining forces into a single colossus. Phobos and Deimos have done their work, as best as they could manage. They flock back to Rei, aligning on her either shoulder. Her expression cracks into softness for a moment, relieved beyond words that they're safe and sound, for the moment.

It's all coming to an end now. Whatever the morning may hold is beyond anybody's reckoning. She shouts to her comrades, to the foe before them, and to the mysterious force pulling the strings, who may or may not exist. "This is at far as it goes! Ohtori will stand for another night! Let's show this beast that we won't be beaten! In the name of Mars, we will be vindicated!'

COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used In The Name Of Mars on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Sailor Mars's In The Name Of Mars, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Sailor Mars is Psyched!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

"Eep?" mutters the Wind Knight as all of those little bug Orphans abruptly combine into a single colossal monster -

And then she's knocked FLYING by a pincer, before she can even swap her bow and quiver for her sword; she winds up slamming into the wall of the dormitory, thankfully missing any of the windows - although she may have gotten some thorns in awkward places.

Then gravity gives her a yank, and the Magic Knight in green plummets ... barely managing, at the last second, to tuck herself into a ball and roll with the landing, a bit wobbly as she comes back to her feet. She's still equipped with bow and arrows, although now that the Orphan is a single target, the sword might be a good idea after all.

Rather than swapping weapons just yet, though, she pulls out an arrow, nocking it to her bowstring, and aims for the rune on the giant insect's forehead. She takes a split second to adjust her stance and her grip - and the arrow is loosed to fly through the air, hopefully slamming into that rune.

She doesn't put any magic behind the shot beyond her will, though.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Basic Archery on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Fuu Hououji's Basic Archery, taking 5 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

It takes a while to compose herself as she eats the cost of simply trying to leap away from the swarm. One breath at a time, one after the other. Each one growing just a little less painful, the rush of adrenaline and endorphins temporarily taking the edge off. A fist clenches around her weapon at Nao's tone, but after a moment, it grows lax.

She really doesn't know what she was angry about. It was really a taste of her own medicine, even if it burned when she had to swallow it. "I hardly felt it." She finally lies, though her voice is ragged, belying her attempt to play it off, "After all~ I'm an old hand when it comes to dealing with pests." Winking at Nao, she turns to face the swarm becoming as one giant, aberrant- thing, that really can't be called a beetle. Her jaw sets as she faces the now monstrous orphan, though even she pales a bit.

Not willing to gamble on her chances to move all that quickly right now, she instead raises her element shakily, just managing to set the beard where the blade meets the grip upon the gnashing claw With every movement, she presses back with as much force as she can muster against her coming death, though the strain quickly becomes too much for her. Unhooking her element, she darts out of the way just a split second before the claws would have eviscerated her.

Hitting the ground hard, Cassandra comes up to one knee, staring upwards at the monstrosity like she were a cornered animal. Fortunately for her, cornered animals can be dangerous, but she needed to set herself up for something- very desperate. As a lead up that, to gain herself more breathing room, she rises on wobbly legs and immediately skips backwards, slashing wildly at a single limb as she does so and trying to ignore just how slick her weapon was becoming from blood that was mostly her own.

COMBAT: Cassandra has used Cornered Animal on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

The inkdark shadows that supported the invocation of Les Mysteres ripple and pool around la Sirene's feet. Gradually it evaporates.

The lantern's lens is shut with a soft brassy clink. And then things become a much bigger problem. La Sirene du Nord stares at the creature for a moment, eyes wide.

But... Batiste takes an opportunity to speak to Lancelot, however faint and encouragingly. "No! We're all fighting together, even if our strategies are separate. Don't give up ho - oooope!" Because la Sirene is lunging forwards, just ahead of a biting leg, a jagged mouth -- she avoids this instant doom, but she has to skid out along the ground, spinning and barely avoiding letting go of the Brazen Pharos as she does!

Laying on her belly, breathing heavily, she looks upwards at the creature's underbelly, such as it is. Sailor Mars speaks up. La Sirene's head turns up --

And then she pulls open the Pharos's lens again. That column of black does not seep out like ink the way it did when accompanying her charm; what surges out - no, simply SNAPS into being - is a palpable column of sheerest darkness, standing out quite clearly against the silhouette of the creature.

It is quite quick, for shadow moves as fast - and as surely - as light.

COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Pieces of the Perfect Black on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cassandra's Cornered Animal, taking 5 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge La Sirene du Nord's Pieces of the Perfect Black, taking 19 Fatigue damage!  Blind applied to Honoka Yukishiro!  

<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

The good news is that the bugs are finally retreating, leaving Mai - and Mikoto - in peace.

The bad news is that they're combining into a giant Orphan bug monstrosity.

The slightly good news is that this is marginally easier to deal with. A single enemy, rather than a horde of countless thousands or tens of thousands.

And the bad news is that it's fast, horribly strong, and has enough limbs to spare that everyone's getting a turn. Mai leaps - rings blazing into flame in an instant, carrying her into the air with unnatural swiftness. It's only just enough to save her - in the sense that she's still alive afterwards. Horrific claws slash at her, clip her flight, send her reeling through the air.

Disoriented, spinning uncontrollably, she's unable to deal with any followup - but beautiful, glimmering music slams into the Orphan, knocking it back long enough for her to come to a landing. Not a graceful one, perhaps, but one that she might be able to walk away from.

"...well, it's horrible...but at least there's only one." A beat - this wouldn't be the first Orphan to split into multiple bodies, and that's enough of a danger that she'll need to watch out. She returns her attention to Mikoto, looks from her back to the giant Orphan. It's powerful...

...but they're in the heart of campus. She trusts Kagutsuchi, but in this place - there's trust, and then there's realism. Her Child, much as she'd rather bring him into this, can't fight freely here...so she'll have to do her best in the dragon's place.

Sailor Mars calls out a challenge, and Mai can't help but grin in response. "Sounds good to me - for Ohtori, for our dignity, and for the sake of getting rid of these bugs..." Lancelot is failing, and Mai winces - maybe she'll have to track down the knight later to apologize? There's only so much she can do, though... Cassandra and the thread-wielding girl (another HiME?) are struggling in their corner...and then there's Mikoto. Mikoto, not okay, hurt by the bugs in ways she didn't see...

"Mikoto. Udon, I promised. So...let's deal with this." She turns to the giant beetle-monstrosity-Orphan, glares at that blazing crimson rune - growling under her breath. It attacked Aoi, it threatened the entire female population of the school, it hurt Mikoto...

Mai steps on the ground, hard. No flight - all her flames have a single purpose. She spreads her wings - no, arms, not wings - and her rings begin to spin rapidly. Swiftness becomes flame becomes a white-hot blaze, centred on her...and it just keeps building. A low-pitched whine, air rushing in as hungry furious fires consume it...for a moment, she loses control, a wave of heat billowing towards the Orphan. A prelude, to the fires that are building.

COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Raze You Like A Phoenix on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly counters Mai Tokiha's Raze You Like A Phoenix, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Counter!  Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Oh No Udon't, bursts all the way through, doing 26 Fatigue damage to Mai Tokiha!  

<Pose Tracker> Nao Yuuki [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

This terrible foe they all were facing was seemingly hell-bent on crushing each and every one of them. And Nao Yuuki herself was not exempt from being attacked by this creature. One of its arms reaches out to grab her and succeeds in doing so by grabbing the Ohtori teen around the waist. But Nao is not content with letting this creature toss her around and uses her clawed hands to pry herself loose. Nao hits the ground hard with a roll to mitigate the impact, but the creature's blow was still enough to cause Nao to take care. That was her second close call of the night. She had to stop underestimated her foe and get more serious.

And speaking of getting serious, Lancelot's monologue causes Nao to look over his way and smirk wickedly towards him as she keeps one clawed hand on her hip and another out in front of her. She then shifts this smirk over towards Cassandra. Hmmm. Good. She really did have some fight left in her. Nao follows in after Cassandra and attempts to give a big one-two slash with her threads at the beetle when she passes by. Now that she was closer to Cassandra, she can reply back to her. "Then make sure you don't die. It would be very embarssing for an 'expert' like you to be defeated by a mere 'pest'."

COMBAT: Nao Yuuki has used A Spider's Bite on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Nao Yuuki has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Nao Yuuki's A Spider's Bite, taking 21 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

There is a period of several very long seconds in the midst of the battle in which Sailor Jupiter begins to feel like she may possibly - just possibly - have made a terrible mistake. Despite the fluidness of her enemy, her electrified fist made impact into the thick of the horde with a very satisfying crunch, and the lightning has done its work well... but the end result of that flying leap of hers is that she's landed pretty much directly in the middle of a positive *sea* of insects.

And they're all gathering together into one towering, enormous mass.

Fortunately, the swarm doesn't converge *onto* Sailor Jupiter; if it had, she'd certainly have been completely engulfed. But as it is, she's in an excellent position to get an up-close and immediate understanding of just how huge the new form their enemy has taken really is, and for just a moment she looks up at it with an open-mouthed D: face.

And then it's striking, gnashing at her with one of its far too many mouths, and she has just enough time to brace herself before it tears into her and shakes her in its jaws like a ragdoll.

She lands hard, catching herself in a three-point crouch, mussed and bleeding, struggling immediately back up onto her feet with fresh determination - massive though the enemy may be, it has also made itself one very large target in place of countless tiny ones.

And *that's* something that Sailor Jupiter feels equipped to handle.

"You've got it!" she calls back to Sailor Mars and to Mai, fist smacking into the palm of her hand. "Everyone! Let's take this thing down!" And with those words, Sailor Jupiter hauls back her fist and lunges at the monster with every bit of her strength.

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Jupiter Smash! on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Sailor Jupiter's Jupiter Smash!, taking 12 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Mikoto is not being as efficient as she could be. She steels her shoulders and resolves to do better -

But before she can strike at the mass again, it begins to /congeal/, like that one time Mai was so tired she fell asleep while waiting for something to finish with supper because she'd been working all day (Mikoto could smell the cafe on her, sharp coffee and a hint of sugar) and supper had cooked and then /overcooked/. The bugs meld, and the gargantuan /thing/ which results grasps out at her with chitin-claws like the ones which swarmed over her body -- but large, now, huge.

Mikoto likes it better that way. She can leap away from a single enemy, stagger back. She can see it. She can watch it. It isn't invading her. Large things can topple, can be cut into two -- large things don't seem endless like a swarm. The water has frozen into ice, and Mikoto can shatter it.

It doesn't make the hulking thing any easier to deal with -- the claws graze her as she backpedals, ripping a gash into the shoulder of her uniform. And it stinks even worse, now, but the faint starsmell of the Orphans is replaced by something thicker and more repulsive and more reasonable for a bug to smell like, and Mikoto considers that to be an improvement, even as her face twists into a protesting grimace.

She hears Mai's voice, again.

Udon. A better smell. A better look. Udon is better than this Orphan in every way. Mikoto nods to her, and it's in that gesture, looking to her, that she sees the way the creature interferes with Mai's flame.

Mikoto screams at it, launching herself at it, her blade cleaving into it with the exact same motion she'd made a moment ago.

COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Devastation on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Devastation, taking 19 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

The worm has turned: Now the magical girls are the swarm, and the Orphan the giant.

They come in with small stings and large ones; all of them notable. All of them dangerous. Unlike the swarm which was merely extraordinarily disgusting, engaging this beast is a direct risk to life and limb. The Cute Wolf learns this personally, as does Mai Tokiha; one tries to be clever, the other very, very straightforward, but there are bladed legs everywhere they try to move, fast and furiously present. For a moment, at least, they are not predators, but prey.

But there are so many girls. Sailor Mars rallies the troops, and they charge onwards. Cure Rhythm is first and most impressive, with an enormous musical blast that rocks the beast onto its lowest set of spiny heels. It's recovering, sliding forward as the Magic Knight of Wind fires her arrow, which causes it to go astray. But Sailor Jupiter's punch connects solidly with some chitin, weakening it for what is to come, and La Sirene's darkness flows directly into its dozen or so eyes and lingers there, turning grey-green into impossible, helpless black.

Sight is not its primary sense, and blind or no it has an extraordinary amount of armor. The latter is crucial, turning Cassandra's slash into a nasty but not severing hit to a leg, and the same for Nao's followup razorthreads and Mikoto's enormous blade.

At this point, however, it is softened up considerably.

It hasn't seemed to have noticed, thrashing about as it is across the battlefield. Once again its jaws and legs seem to be everywhere, and at the peak of the tantrum, the rune on its forehead luminesces, then explodes into awesome, terrible radiance, which lances down to encompass Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and La Sirene, who happen to be reasonably close together.

It feels exactly like one might imagine being baked under a huge deathray might feel; agonizing heat, ear-popping pressure, nerve-wrecking, eye-dazzling pain.

COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Titanic Tantrum on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Titanic Tantrum on Nao Yuuki.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Titanic Tantrum on Mai Tokiha.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Titanic Tantrum on Cassandra.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Titanic Tantrum on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Titanic Tantrum on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Honoka Yukishiro has used And Also, It Has A Deathray on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Honoka Yukishiro has used And Also, It Has A Deathray on Sailor Mars.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Honoka Yukishiro has used And Also, It Has A Deathray on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Titanic Tantrum, taking 2 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: FINISHER! Cute Wolf Tsukiko's counterattack, Silver Wolf Tackle, partially gets through, doing 35 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!  Critical Counterhit!  
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Finisher, And Also, It Has A Deathray, taking 70 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Titanic Tantrum, taking 36 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Sailor Mars narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Finisher, And Also, It Has A Deathray, taking 45 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Mars's Fade ability activates!  Sailor Mars's Flash ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Lancelot moves some of the Innocents to safety and then, leans against a wall. Tired. He closes his eyes and when he opens them he finds his armor glowing and then. The armor is gone. Arondight is gone. He leans against a wall no Longer as the Cavalier Knight Lancelot, but as Takeo Akamizu, simple student of Ohtorri. He blinks a few times. "That's new." He says and wishes, likely for the first time that the Rabbit Merlin was around to explain why exactly he suddenly lost his powers. Mid battle. Not that he's doing anything. He's been sort of useless and ignored. He slinks around a corner of Creepy Pasta House, and watches the fight from the bushes. In case he can help get injured out or something. But mostly he sits on the ground. His arms wrapped around his knees and wonders just how badly the Dark Knight really did beat him. He knows the Dark Knight beat Lancelot, and prevented him from getting a cure for Mika, but how bad did the Dark Knight beat HIM, Takeo?

He makes fists out of his hands, and just watches trying not to let a single tear escape for fear of being found out as Lancelot.

COMBAT: Cassandra perfectly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Titanic Tantrum, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Counter!  
COMBAT: FINISHER! Cassandra's counterattack, Wild Animal, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!  
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Titanic Tantrum, taking 33 Fatigue damage!  Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates!  Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates!  
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Titanic Tantrum, taking 26 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Finisher, And Also, It Has A Deathray, taking 41 Fatigue damage!  La Sirene du Nord's Block ability activates!  La Sirene du Nord's Parry ability activates!  
COMBAT: Nao Yuuki narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Titanic Tantrum, taking 21 Fatigue damage!  Nao Yuuki's Fade ability activates!  Nao Yuuki's Flash ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.

One giant beetle legs slams Tsukiko away, and she tumbles across the ground, rolling back to her feet. As the Orphan continues to thrash, another leg swings towards the wolfgirl, possibly to knock the last of the air out of her lungs.

But Tsukiko is back on her feet, and is back up to speed in a silvery bolt of light, crashing through the flailing limb as she dashes across the battlefield like a strike of lightning.

Battered, but still standing, she glances towards the others as she catches a breath. Everyone is still standing, but not by much.

"Gotta do something," Tsukiko mutters, frowning at the Orphan as she sizes it up. She's tired, hurt...

...and too stubborn to give up.

With a feral yell, the wolfgirl leaps at the dire beetle, lashing out with teeth and fists and feet (and did we mention the teeth?) as she tries to grab on and tear out as much as she can.

COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Gnaw Your Head Off!!! on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Bursts of magical light and energy illuminate the sky in the pops of contained explosions. "Godzilla" indeed, the scene more and more resembled a climactic scene from a Kaiju film. And yet, there was remarkably little rubble, remarkably little panic. Unlike the big battles of so many movie monsters, perhaps, if all goes well, this would all go unnoticed by the rising sun.

Again and again humanity's guardians hurled themselves at this abomination..most inflicted grevious damage, but a staggering number of them were blunted completely, suffering far greater punishment than they managed to deal out, savagely smacked down to earth as punishment for their courage. The fate of the battle seems far from certain. All that seems sure is that whatever happens will be by the skin of the Gods' teeth.

The vast disapora of fiendish beetles that comprise the greater mosntrosity each focus and charge their red-runed foreheads, a terribly constellation forming as the red star in the night sky above pulses with malice and blood. The still surface of the sky seems to crack and erupt in fierce fissures, hateful energy pouring out like a pack of rabid beasts, clawing and slavering their way forth.

The chaotic beam of energy that issues forth incinerates the ground that Rei stood upon, moments before..she launches herself forward, Phobos and Deimos taking to the sky in sheer panic..she just barely managed to evade its full brunt, but lay devastated upon the ground all the same. Plunging her closed fist into the earth, she pushes herself up to her feet with a quivering slowness, unable to stand at her full posture.

Gasping for breath, haggard and worn with an open mouth, Sailor Mars wipes the blood and the dirt from her brow with the back of her forehead..and like the phoenix her entire body catches flame. The inferno shudders and churns around her, dancing in a compact vortex, bulding rage with every cycle..and the immolation explodes out of her like an unrestrained scream, a frothing pyroclasm pouring itself onto the many-bodied beetle.

She silently prays it's enough. She has so little left to give.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Mars has used Fire Soul on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

The Magic Knight of Wind gets hammered again, although she tries to evade the insectoid onslaught to the best of her ability - and it's probably a good thing she doesn't have her sword out, just in case the impact would have caused her to land on its edge. (Although her breastplate might well have protected her from injury if that had happened; she's glad, in the back of her mind, not to find out.

It still takes her a few moments to clear her head, catch her breath, and get back to her feet. By the time she does so, her determination has re-solidified, and she's come to the conclusion that out of all her options, her magical winds seem to be her best offense against the insect-like Orphan.

It's time to give that another try.

"Emerald ... !" the Wind Knight begins, bringing her arms up and back as she gathers the force of the tempest, a stiff breeze ruffling her skirt, tousling her hair, and starting to reach forward around her. "... CYCLONE!!" she finishes, flinging her arms forward - and the winds howl away from her, racing towards the giant bug to rip at its chitinous armor and, should it break through, into whatever passes for flesh beneath.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Fuu Hououji has used Emerald Cyclone: Full on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

La Sirene pushes herself to her feet, giving the two sailor soldiers a glance as the others strike home. Tossing her hair back with one hand, the lens of the Brazen Pharos snaps shut. She's about to say something - an inquiry? A greeting? - when the Sun rises.

No, not the sun.

La Sirene du Nord stares upwards as the dazzling light becomes a palpable wave downwards, and that reflexive motion from the charm of les Mysteres brings her to raise up her arm. Her hand tightens --

It's too much. She vanishes from immediate sight.

The light flickers twice, even as the rest of the ray keeps shining - and by the third time the reason becomes clear. La Sirene has been driven to one knee, her cap blown to who-knows-where, her coat ripped down one side, a teardrop shaped leeward space of clean pavement behind her.

The fourth flicker of the death ray comes when another surge of visible darkness pours out of the front of the Brazen Pharos, the screaming agony of sound and light and heat fading enough for her to become audible:

"--home, for now! This is not YOURS! Get AWAY!"

A fifth pulse of darkness, this one pushing up enough to bloom within the white-hot ray and spread around, like ink drizzled into a glass of milk -- if remarkably lethal milk.

"GO AWAY!" La Sirene cries. A sixth pulsation rips upwards, and at this point the beam itself is fading... /which means she lacks opposition/. The surges keep coming up, a tidal force.

"I don't know if you can hear me, if you're a thing or a person or a spirit or a shadow!" she shouts, to hear herself over the ringing in her ears. "But this is not a place where you can play at your pleasure, hurting others, frightening the innocent -- there's enough pain in the world without your help, thank you very much!"

La Sirene's head tilts back as the seventh surge of darkness washes upwards, and THIS one doesn't end easily, immaculate darkness crashing impossibly upwards, pouring out of that lantern. Those who might be in a position to look down the 'throat' of this assault would see a faint suggestion of light in the depths, a thin intense sliver of some other vision, parallel lines of abstract mystery.

The Orphan, in particular, would get to see it -- though the seven following surges of unlight might make it less than inclined to look at the pretty shapes and lights.

COMBAT: FINISHER! La Sirene du Nord has used Paint It Black and Take It Back on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Gnaw Your Head Off!!!, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro's Block ability activates!  Honoka Yukishiro's Parry ability activates!  

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

It is ice. It is ice, it is ice, it is ice --

Very hard ice.

Mikoto's blade scrapes, but does not sever; she keeps running as she hits the ground behind it, rounding back on it in a wide arc without stopping for a moment.

At this moment, there is only one thing on her mind. The command Mai gave her was clear. The harm Mai is coming to is clear. And it has hurt others, others she knows.

It must be destroyed. Must be destroyed, and as Mikoto charges it again, she screams, again, a high and keening noise which starts in her chest and is ripped out of her throat as sparks fly from the edge of Miroku dragging across the ground --

And then she leaps towards it, and swings her obsidian blade with steel-splitting force, all her energy poured into one last attack.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Death on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Jupiter [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Of COURSE it has a death ray. Why WOULDN'T the giant monster have a death ray?

Needless to say, Sailor Jupiter didn't see that coming at all. Her eyes widen in alarm as the rune on the enormous creature's head flares into ominous, glaring red light; in the split second of forewarning, she tries to fling herself out of the way of the blast, an effort that succeeds just barely enough to keep her from being annihilated by the full force of that searing beam of energy. As it is, it hits like a truck, and Jupiter goes tumbling painfully over the ground for a good several yards before she comes to a stop and lies scorced and smoldering and no little blinded by the blazing light and the tears of pain that the impact has brought to her eyes.

But not out. Not quite yet. As much as it hurts, she can't just lie there while the monster is still standing.

Painfully and with great effort, Sailor Jupiter struggles back upwards, bracing one hand against the ground while the other reaches toward the sky. "My guardian star, Jupiter..."

The words come out in a gritty murmur through clenched teeth, barely audible, but the sky answers with a low rumble from the storm clouds that begin to gather out of nowhere... and then the sky splits as Sailor Jupiter's voice rises to a shout. "--Supreme Thunder!"

With a window-rattling BOOM, the lance of lightning comes down.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Jupiter has used Supreme Thunder on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

The downside of emulating Kagutsuchi is that it takes time. For too long, Mai was in one spot, gathering her remaining power, increasing the heat of her blazing fury - bright, burning, and terribly obvious. The Orphan didn't miss it - might have recognized what she was doing, recognized the gesture for what it was honouring.

Not being a completely mindless beast, it responded - barrelling forward, smashing Mai's gathered flame with a massive clawed tackle. Her concentration broken, she's sent reeling - tumbling uncontrollably, scrambling out of the way of being crushed underfoot only by the thinnest of margins. At the end of it all, she's landed back near the forest's edge.

Breathing heavily, she struggles to rise - watching, horrified, as the bug-monster unleashes its destructive beam. Continues to rampage around, trampling heroes underfoot, taking the worst anyone can manage. For all that the HiME are meant to fight Orphans...she's uncertain, again, if she can deal with this.

But there's defiance. There's courage. And...there's Mikoto, still fighting the monster, still refusing to retreat.

Whether Mai can deal with this or not doesn't matter. She has to. Her classmates are endangered, her school is endangered, her fellow fighters against the dark are endangered...and Mikoto. Mai stands, gathers her remaining strength...and utters a word she'd promised herself mere moments ago would not be spoken.

"Kagutsuchi."

In opposition to the beetle's droning noise comes a ferocious screech - flames forming a curtain between battle and forest, a great figure emerging from the fires. A dragon - a phoenix - a Child. With at least a half dozen eyes, it glares balefully at the Child - spreading the phoenix-wings Mai had begun to imitate in a true challenge.

Hesitation - briefly, at its HiME's will, her pleas barely audible against the backdrop of flame. But its gaze goes to Mai's injuries, goes to the peril her loved ones are in - and it strikes. Swiftly, with no buildup, no prelude save Kagutsuchi's appearance. It is but might - a simple expression of fury and flame, a burning force to smash into the Orphan.

COMBAT: Mai Tokiha transforms into Mai and Kagutsuchi!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Immolation on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Nao Yuuki [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Nao's deadly threads don't exactly do as much damage as she would have liked them to do. That really was some serious armor that this creature had! And thus far, Nao's fighting style has been somewhat aloof as she's not been fully committed to the fight. But things have taken a turn for the worse. The creature was now bigger and launching stronger and stronger attacks against them. And one of these strong nearly connects with Nao and she has to hurl herself out of the way to avoid the worst of it. Slowly picking herself back up off the ground, Nao looks legitimately angry now. Playtime was officially over.

With a deadly glint in her green eyes, Nao adopts a chesire grin on her face as she regards her foe. She now reaches out to her sides and yanks two very large threads out of seemingly thin air. These red threads are held tightly in Nao's hands as she awaits her opening to finally strike. Other magic girls were launching their strongest attacks against the creature which meant that Nao's chance was coming soon. It was merely a waiting game until then and there's no other creature more adept at waiting than a spider.

Kagutsuchi's appearance and subsequent attack was just the opening that Nao was looking for. The young redhead dashes forward and begins to slash and slash and slash with those threads of hers. She keeps slashing and slashing with them until Nao has to hunch over, out of breath and with a slightly frantic sounding laugh escaping from her. Yuuki say that the time was nao for her to put everything into a big attack. And that was precisely what Nao Yuuki just did.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Nao Yuuki has used Apocalypse Nao on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Nao Yuuki has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Once upon a time, Kozue believed her life was like a fairy tale. Until the day she fled from a stage where she was to play alone, because she was frightened. Truly who could blame her? She'd never done anything without her prodigy of a brother. From the day she refused to get up on the stage again, her parents looked at her as if she were worthless. So she decided to reciprocate that sentiment and cast them aside.

She'd live by her own rules, outside of the expectations of a society that had tried to decide her worth. She'd be the master of her own destiny. She'd become a wild animal that lived freely. And yet despite that resolution, that wasn't really what was happened, was it? Instead she danced within a cage she barely realized was there, dreaming of attaining the thing she truly wanted if she played this game long enough. It was a lovely fantasy she'd deluded herself into believing.

The delusion allows her to emulate the wild animal within that cage, as Nao's cutting remarks cut even more deeply than the helplessness she'd felt just moments before. With a thought she doesn't even realize she's making, her element shifts, the weight unfolding and becoming a second linked blade which her hand takes ahold of.

And as the orphan begins her tantrum, she matches it with her own howling passion. With each swing it makes at her, her blades sing through the air to kiss the limb coming for her. Each instinctual frenzied movement becomes difficult to follow, not just with the blades does she attack, but occasionally with a kick, an elbow, even a scratch when a single jarring impact knocks one blade aside. One might even swear that she bit the thing, at one point.

And yet for all her sound and fury, she never finds serious purchase, she merely fends the monstrosity off. A titanic effort of her own which leaves her weak-kneed, when the rush of adrenaline starts to ease away and the blood haze fades from her eyes. All of that effort really hadn't made a difference, had it?

Which is when she notes that Mai had summoned her child, and for a moment, she freezes as she beholds the majesty of Kagutsuchi above the forest. One breath after another, she weighs the risk of summoning her own, and decides that she doesn't have the strength.

Not ready to give up though, she did have to admit she needed help, "How about-" She swallows back bile, the mere thought of what she was about to say was galling her to the core, as she steals a glance at Nao during her attack, "-you take it from here." Another ragged breath is taken, before she adds, "Wouldn't want to have all the fun." She makes one last overhead slash, attempting to rake the orphan's underbelly, almost feeble compared to her prior efforts, but she was still, somehow, in this.

COMBAT: Cassandra has used Edge of Desperation on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Sailor Mars's Finisher, Fire Soul, taking 81 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Finisher, Emerald Cyclone: Full, taking 59 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace La Sirene du Nord's Finisher, Paint It Black and Take It Back, taking 144 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Mikoto Minagi's Finisher, Obsidian Blade: Death, taking 120 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Sailor Jupiter's Finisher, Supreme Thunder, taking 105 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Mai Tokiha's Immolation, taking 70 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Nao Yuuki's Finisher, Apocalypse Nao, taking 98 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting!  
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Cassandra's Edge of Desperation, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting!  

<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Distantly, but not too distantly, eyes that can adjust their zoom as a computer's might blink away a variety of targeting and analytical reticules. Much more closely, the school's various security cameras have been recording every bit of this battle.

All of this feed -- which is suddenly nothing but static, reacting as it is to an explosion created of darkness, flame, wind, thunder and blades; then it clears, and there are just girls, girls and an empty courtyard with some unconscious civilians and torn rosebushes -- is being pumped into an underground chamber, in which stands an old man and a little girl. He looks hardy but harried. She looks frail and tired.

They are joined abruptly by a young woman, or something that looks like one. "Four Valkyries appeared to defend the Ohtori dormitories," she summarizes, somewhat unnecessarily. "Plus over half a dozen Apostates. Only one of the Valkyries summoned her Child, and only in the final moments of the battle. There was no opportunity to eliminate Mai Tokiha from the festival, but we can now confirm that she is Kagutsuchi's heir."

The old man -- once confronted in the sleeping mind of humanity by many of these so-called Apostates -- nods curtly. "She will need to be dealt with swiftly. Kagutsuchi is extraordinarily dangerous. We do not want to allow her to engorge his strength."

"Fear not," the woman replies. "She is no stronger than her greatest weakness."

The little girl shakes her head sadly. "None of them are."

Another video camera adjusts its focus on Takumi Tokiha, early to bed in another dorm room building. Other screens pop up with views of other people -- young boys, older women, and a stranger.

"Soon your father's dream will come true," the woman promises.

"For the revolution of the world," the girl replies solemnly, in a devastatingly accurate impersonation of Touga Kiryuu. The old man shakes his head. Kids are so cute at this age.