2021-08-06 - Hot Potbelly Ogre?! Yumi Shines For Hanae's Sake!
| Title: Hot Potbelly Ogre?! Yumi Shines For Hanae's Sake! | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Yumi and Hanae invite some friends out for hot pot. An Ogre wasn't invited, but shows up anyway. | |
| Who: Yumi Ohzora, Hanae Fujioka, Mikoto Minagi, Eri Shimanouchi, Fuu Hououji, Fumiko Inoue, Conflagria | |
| Where: Uminari Seaside Park | |
| OOC - IC Date: 2021-08-06 - 2015-12-14 | |
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Nabemono is the traditional winter dish of Japan. The broth is boiled in one big pot, and everyone gets together to take their favourite pieces; many a gathering has been written around Japan's hot pots. These are, of course, usually held inside, but...
Everyone knows today is supposed to be a lovely day, mild and sunny. That is to say -- everyone who watches the weather channel. That is to say -- everyone whose parents watch the weather channel. This happens to include the eleventh-grader Hanae Fujioka, flower of Infinity's swimming club and Yumi's former roommate, who happens to have just the camping gear for this situation.
Witness: the PORTABLE HOTPOT.
Uminari Seaside Park has some outdoor cooking facilities, though they're usually taken advantage of in the summer. This may well be a boon in disguise, because it means this forward-thinking party can take the choicest position by the bay, King Penguin overseeing their conference with an approving eye. Yumi and Hanae have invited friends and associates, of course -- this is the core tenant of hot pot -- and the pot bubbles over the cooking pit, cheerfully. It's not impossible for someone to drift in, drawn by the scent of boiled broth.
Let us note here, gently, that Hanae is the one attending the cooking pot. She knows Yumi better than to let her try.
One of those friends -- who may well have just drifted in on the scent of food, let's not discount it -- is Mikoto Minagi, who coils around Yumi with a hand lashed around her waist, in shameless affection. She spins on a heel as she unlatches herself, hands clasped up to her chin. "It smells good!"
There's a moment of distraction to Hanae, before she grins. "No touching 'til it's done. And don't even think about adding extra iron!" She points her ladle at Yumi, accusatorially.
It's the sort of companionable banter which characterises the wait for the HOT POT. There's still plenty of time for people to get here, too.
Today will be a good day..!
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Yumi loves things that are warm in winter. She's the kind of girl who wears tights with her summer uniform half the time, because of how easily cold she gets, and hot pot is nice for everyone! ...But, for the record, it is absolutely for the best that Hanae is handling the hot pot rather than Yumi. Yumi's cooking is...
...legendary.
But Yumi is the giant beanstalk around which the party is gathered, ruffling Mikoto's hair a little idly before suddenly--
"Ohmmmuguh that was ONE TIME, Hana-chan!" Yumi complains, but she's not really particularly mad. She laughs a little despite herself or maybe at herself anyway. "...It does smell good..."
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Eri arrives shortly after Mikoto, her pace sedate as she walks up. Right now the day is mild and sunny, yet all the same, she's wearing a winter peacoat that's a muted dark grey, a checkered green scarf loosely hung around her neck to make allowances for the temperature, a pair of checkered green stockings, and boots.
"Now now... it's not nice to tease Yumi-chan about that."
Eri's holding a shopping bag at her side. "It was an honest mistake."
Eri says as she comes to her defense, which is perhaps a touch hypocritical as she's teased Yumi for it often enough in the past, "The only reason you're not teasing me for worse is because you didn't see my early efforts."
There's a glint of something in her glasses as the sunlight catches the lenses just right. "I made sure of that."
One can almost imagine her burying the evidence, literally.
"Anyhow I come bearing gifts. Presenting more fresh produce for the feast. Please take advantage of it."
As Eri hands over the shopping bag to Hana, containing all kinds of hotpot ready vegetables that have already been chopped up and prepped in separate containers.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
There's probably a saying about hot pot parties to the effect that "friendship is the best seasoning," or something along those lines. If there is, Fuu doesn't actually know it - but she's all too happy to help put the principle into action, showing up with a supply of ingredients that can be added to the pot.
Fish cakes, eggs (some hard-boiled in advance, some which will need to cook long enough to get there - the latter are still in their shells, natch, so be careful), chicken, pork ... clearly the archer wanted to make sure all bases were covered. "I probably should have asked what kind of broth you were planning around, Hanae-san," Fuu says apologetically as she offers the insulated bags. "But between these and Eri-san's offerings, there should be no way anyone leaves hungry today, right?"
Once she's delivered her burden to the cook in charge, Fuu turns her attention to the others. "Yumi-san, thank you again for letting me know about this party. Mikoto-san, Eri-san, how are you both doing? It's been a little while since we talked."
<Pose Tracker> Fumiko Inoue [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
What a surprise! No, not nabemono in the winter - that is traditional! But Fumiko being invited? When Yumi offers her an invitation after Drama Club, she gives a polite but calm "thank you very much, I will try to make it." However, as soon as she got home, she excitedly rants to her Kwami, Ressi, about how great this is to be invited to more things with more friends. At the mention of food, however, Ressi mysteriously senses danger and must come along in secret for Fumiko's own safety.
"Sorry I'm late," Fumiko exclaims, bowing to Yumi. She then stands up straight and waves to everyone. "Hello! I hope that bringing carrots was okay!" She pats a bag of groceries and smiles. "Pleased to meet you al- hey... I know you...~" She looks at a few of the girls she knows, and hopes they consider her a friend.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"And what about that time you decided to add bone chips to my omelette so it would have extra calcium?" Hanae accuses Yumi right back, a hand to her hip. "I'm not even going to mention the magnesium incident. You know what you did." When Eri comes to her defence, Hanae sighs a mighty sigh. Fuu and Fumiko have come to give her prizes too, though, and when she looks through the various bags of offerings, she grins. "All right, Yumi-chan, you're forgiven... on the basis of bribery!"
Hanae gets to adding the extra ingredients to the hot pot, humming cheerfully to herself. From her seated position, she has a great angle to watch as Yumi's friends mingle with each other; there's Fuu connecting with them in her usual polite fashion, there's Mikoto moving amongst them to hug Eri now, instead. Eri can joke around with them so easily, and she's even made friends with Fumiko, from Drama Club...
The smile on her face for a moment is as despairing as the cool winter sun, shining without warming. "What great friends," she says, quietly, and it might sound like encouragement.
Mikoto smiles, sunnily, to Fumiko. "Yup!" She chirps, and Hanae's conclusion seems entirely correct, in Mikoto's case; she seems as if she already considers herself friends with Fumiko. To Fuu, she surmises: "Good! There's nabemono!" ... well, it is Mikoto.
"It'll be ready soon!" Hanae calls out to assure everyone, her own cheer returning. "Just give me a little bit to add these extra in..."
But clouds must have fallen over the sun, up there -- because it gets a little shadier, all a sudden. With it comes the sudden urge to simply lie down... and have a nap. It's a great idea, except for the fact that everyone seems a little wobbly all a sudden, and -- well, there's at least someone here who recognises a sleeping spell, surely. The magical girls in the area will find within them the strength to resist, but Hanae -- a perfectly normal girl -- slumps away from the cooking pot, with a soft, understated "z".
Mikoto shakes off her own yawns, looking over to her in concern, and back to: "Yumi..?"
But it's not impossible for something to drift in, drawn by the scent of boiled broth.
BGM shift: SB YUNE - Dread of the Grave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH0EpArEJRE
All a sudden, the ground... shakes. Pound-a-pound, once and again. From behind the obsfucating form of King Penguin's slide and over to the other side of the group leaps a figure three times the size of a man, tusks hanging long from his jaws, face all painted red and black. Patterns sprawl over his hanging belly, the vast claws which grasp two long bones like massive clubs. His chest is bare, and the loincloth about his legs is simple and stained by a dozen dropped meals.
Mikoto draws her blade from its case and charges him immediately; of course Yumi can expect her to defend her friends. (Yumi can expect this loyalty.) But that vast creature's twin clubs snap shut on Miroku's blade, just before it can make contact. "Rrrr--eh?" Mikoto's growling ends in a surprised noise, as she looks from the red-and-black face of the Ogre, down to the black sword Miroku, and back up to the Ogre. Blink, blink. In that momentary bafflement, the Ogre takes advantage of her confusion to spin rapidly about, and fling her off towards the bay. "WAAAaaaaahhhhh...!" Mikoto wails, as she disappears with a cheerful little *twinkle*.
"GYAH HA HA!" The Ogre bellows, slapping a bone to his belly, with a deep and rakish laugh. "ME WANT... DINNER!" He brandishes one of his clubs, pointing it straight...
... at the sleeping form of Hanae.
The shockwave of his club lashing out to a point washes over everyone still standing, and with it is carried the stunning revelation that those tusks aren't just for decoration. Running away is a perfectly reasonable thought for any normal girl at this point -- and the playground behind them offers plenty of opportunities to hide. Or, for any girls occupied with secrecy, to transform.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi transforms into Youma Form Hot Potbelly Ogre! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 4 opponents! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used LET'S EAT on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi accepts Mikoto Minagi's LET'S EAT, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Empower and Surge applied to Mikoto Minagi!
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"You're welcome! The more the merrier, right?" Yumi waves a hand a little at Fuu as if to say it's all fine. "Besides, you sure did bring food. Hana-chan might actually not be hungry later..." She can totally get her back a little. Until--"Augh! The magnesium...!" But Eri--Eri, and her earlier efforts.
"Are you OK, Eri-chan?" Yumi says, putting the back of her hand to her forehead. "You're being awfully nice." A beat, "But bribery works."
Then a beaming smile to Fumiko as she apologizes for being late. "You're right on time! Carrots don't take that long to cook anyway, right?" ...Do they?? She really has no idea.
It is pretty nice; Yumi may not be doing a lot of the work, but she is happy with her efforts thus far. There are people here! She... doesn't notice Hanae's quieter words. Instead, she suddenly wobbles on her feet, and this is not so unusual to Yumi; she fights it immediately, putting out a hand for the closest person whose shoulder she can grab--Mikoto's--to push herself to a seat. But Mikoto looks to her in concern, and she notices--
"Hanae...?"
The ground shakes, and Yumi has a very bad feeling immediately. "Mikoto--" A wail. A twinkle. And then suddenly that deep laugh, the clubs...
Hanae.
"NO!"
Suddenly Yumi reaches out for her phone and taps a button--a staff pops into existence, white wood gently spiraled with a green crystal at its tip, and she lifts it up. "Staff of Lost Ivy--In my hand remembered be!"
She doesn't run. She doesn't back up. Instead she shimmers green, and her attire changes; uniform becomes a different kind of uniform, a black dress with green leather boots and gloves and boots, a pointed hat with a wide brim, and a braid of her gray hair all at once.
"Where are these spells coming from--"
She doesn't know, but she can't stop to think about it. She points her staff at the Ogre. "Know the agony of hunger unfulfilled! Hollow Curse!"
A green-black curse projectile rushes for the Ogre, and Yumi runs in front of Hanae to stand her ground before her friend.
COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has fully healed herself. COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora transforms into Witch Ivy! COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has used Hollow Curse on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has finished attacking. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to brace Yumi Ohzora's Hollow Curse, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Diversion applied to Mikoto Minagi!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"That is the idea... after all..." The corner of Eri's lips take on this mirthful tug as she answers Hanae's acceptance of her bribery, "... that is the Ohtori way." Before she looks Yumi's way and grins, "So - what, if I'm being nice - it must mean I'm falling ill? I am capable of it... from time to time."
Eri puts an arm around Mikoto as Mikoto comes to hug her. "Where's this coming from?" She gives her this fond look, before ruffling her hair, "Hai... Hai... I promise, I'm not about to run off anywhere..."
Eri gives Fuu a glance upright as she asks how she's doing, "Well... mostly I'm yearning for the Winter Break." She says with this coy look at her, "I certainly have plans enough once finals are over."
What are these plans? Why is she giving that look?
"Oh? And who is this now? Carrots? I'll have you know-" She says with a teasing tone as Fumiko greets them, "-I have high standards."
Hanae says it'll be ready soon, and Eri makes no effort to hover. It is not her kitchen space after all, nor is it her event to supervise. Seeming to enjoy just the privilege of being yet another guest...
She doesn't seem to notice the moment that they all become covered in shade. Until...
She puts a hand to her forehead, as if she suddenly feels just a touch light-headed. "That's odd." And then Hanae slumps...
"Ah."
Perhaps she's enough of a veteran now at least to understand the implications. The ground begins to shake, and squaring her stance, the ring on her hand vanishes, to reappear as a small ornate egg. With a flourishing spin, she transforms, as the leaves on the ground seem to rise up, trailing across her body. As they go, her clothing changes into her magical girl outfit. Until eventually she tugs a long green vine, laden with sharpened thorns out of the gem, which vanishes to reappear on a subtle barette in her hair.
And that's when she sees Mikoto's swing caught between two clubs. Usually when Mikoto swings at a thing, Eri has nothing to worry about. Yet this time...
"Fall b-!" She calls Mikoto's way, as if noticing just how grossly she underestimated the creature's strength... perhaps... for reasons.
All the same, she understands at least that Yumi's old roommate is under threat.
Leaping up as the shockwave hits the ground, she lands towards one of it's flanks. Her strategy is simple, distract it from Yumi - who is standing inf ront of her friend. She doesn't like the idea of Yumi taking a direct hit. Noting Yumi casting her curse... she decides something stands at least half a chance. Her whip flies through the air over it's shoulder as it suddenly tries to go round and round and round the creature's wrist... and the handle of the club it's attached to . Eri then suddenly runs behind the creature, towards it's opposite arm... and yanks the whip taut.
Her strategy is deceptively simple. At this angle tugging it backwards threatens to bonk the Ogre with its own club right in it's face.
Assuming... Ivy's curse weakened it enough that she can actually pull it off.
"Ivy! Can you put her on your broom? Any spells to get her out of here?"
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi perfectly dodges 11 Fatigue damage from Eri Shimanouchi's Gardener's Grasp, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge!
COMBAT: Fumiko Inoue transforms into Serpentina Ruse!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Mikoto's proclamation that there's nabemono prompts a smile and a nod from Fuu - not the dismissive sort, but a genuine acknowledgement, even agreement. "There is indeed! And a long tradition of friends and family gathering around the pot on a cold day. Granted, today isn't as cold as some -" She actually checked the weather forecast herself, rather than depending on her parents to relay it. "- but still worthy of being warmed by food and friendship, isn't it?"
Eri, too, draws a nod of agreement from the Infinity student. "I'm looking forward to being done with finals for the term, no question about that. Hopefully our art teacher won't throw too many surprise questions on the test; if I have to try and remember the difference between Ionic and ... what's the other kind again? Tonic?" She sighs, shaking her head. "Give me a test where I can reason the answers out instead of depending on brute force memorization." Even the ever-studious Fuu has her academic woes and travails.
And then, some which have little to do with the hallowed halls of learning. The drop in temperature prompts her to tug her heather-gray sweater a little closer about herself; the wave of drowsiness which comes close with it actually makes her head droop a bit, only to shake it off, blinking awake and straightening her glasses. It's the fact of Hanae's sudden flop (away from the pot, thank the heavens) which actually puts the bespectacled blonde on alert.
Even before the thumping of the ground, like a great heart - or like footsteps looming steadily closer.
"An ogre?" Fuu's first reaction appears to be one of bemused disbelief - but when Mikoto, one of the strongest magical girls Fuu knows for her weight, gets slung off over the bay, Fuu's green eyes go wide. "MIKOTO-SAN!!!" she calls out, casting a worried glance after her friend - and then turning her gaze to the ogre ...
Right in time to get blown away by the shockwave from the clubswing, tumbling away. A really sharp eye might notice that her tumble isn't entirely uncontrolled - is she pushing herself further along? Maybe - but it gets her further away from the ogre ...
Far enough, in fact, that when the Magic Knight of Wind rises to her feet after her whirlwind transformation fades, she's well out of melee range (for now) and excellently positioned to unleash arrows or spells upon the ogre.
The latter comes first: a cry of, "WINDS OF ADMONISHMENT!" heralds the howl of a sterner wind, descending and converging in an attempt to bind the ogre where it stands. If the monster can't swing its club so readily, that should reduce the threat ...
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Wind Knight! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Serpentina Ruse [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Friendship sure is nice, Fumiko muses as her carrots are accepted by Yumi and 'judged' by Eri. And Mikoto greets her like a friend. This was turning out nice! She smiles as she hands over the carrots. She tries to figure out who to talk to first... but then gets the urge to lay down, maybe take a nap. Before she could follow those urges, mumbling sounds came from beneath her coat. She shakes her head clear, only to see the giant ogre. Quietly, she mumbles "Guess you were right" to her coat, but out loud, she shrieks. "It's gonna eat meee!" She darts away, hiding behind the protective guardian penguin.
Completely unrelated and completely by chance, the Snake Miraculous hero Serpentina arrives! "Seems like someone is upset they didn't get an invitation," she says to the rampaging ogre. "There is plenty of food to go around, but trying to eat an innocent girl is wrong! If you could mind your manners, we'd gladly share food with you, but for crossing the line, you must be stopped!" She dramatically points her parasol in her right hand at the beast, left hand on her hip, looking sideways at it. "A shame we all must fight you, but you asked for it!"
COMBAT: Serpentina Ruse has used Ramble On on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Serpentina Ruse has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi braces 10 Fatigue damage from Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Mikoto Minagi's Block and Parry abilities activate! Cripple applied to Mikoto Minagi! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to dodge Serpentina Ruse's Ramble On, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mikoto Minagi is Quipped!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Where ARE those spells coming from? There is a distant dark chuckle, by the trees which line the path in towards the lake; the shadows obscure her, but that's a feminine voice, hat all drawn to pointy tip and broad rim, hair which flows down like fire around her edges. With the flutter of a cape she turns, and disappears down the path.
She has left a hungry soul to fill the void; she scarcely needs to linger.
The Ogre takes a thunderous step forward, only to be met by the pure energy of the Staff of Lost Ivy, who refuses to flee. He wails as the Hollow Curse crashes through him, clubs slapping at his jiggly-jelly belly. "NO, NO, NO! ME HUNGRY! ME EAT!" It's an awfully simple way to approach this situation. Speech may not be entirely paired with reason, for this particular monster.
His club crashes forward --
Only to have a vine come into his field of view!
He pulls his arm back, and Eri's whip wraps around his bone-club, instead. Around and around and around he twirls it, and he spins around when Eri runs behind him. Instead of hitting himself in the face, he pulls the whole club back to pull her in -- and THWACK, his other club comes down atop her.
He proceeds to bite the whip to free his club from its cruel embrace. Now his bone club has thorns. He has become more dangerous.
"PFEH," he spits out a bite of whip, sticking out a tongue which is blazingly, outrageously red. "NOT DINNER!" He stomps his big, bare feet, petulant. "FINE! ME EAT YOU FIRST!"
This is both a reassuring statement for the prone form of Hanae, and a terrible omen for the girl standing sentinel before her. Because the Ogre rounds on Lost Ivy, furiously, and crashes both his clubs together -- with her in the middle, teroyaki clasped between the cruelest chopsticks in the world.
Luckily, the world will never know whether bone clubs really work as chopsticks, because as they clap down, the buffeting Winds of Admonishment interrupt his buffet. The Ogre releases his clubs so he can stagger to the side, only to be faced by... a fierce declaration. "ME NOT ASK," he says, and an Ogre saying something is apparently analogous to an Ogre yelling something. "ME EAT!" He crashes his clubs together, slamming them down on the ground to rock the earth beneath the Wind Knight and Serpentine Rusa's feet.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Hunger Hype on Eri Shimanouchi. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Sized Up For A Snack on Yumi Ohzora. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Drumming Up Dinner on Serpentina Ruse. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Drumming Up Dinner on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking. COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi perfectly dodges 18 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Hunger Hype, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Eri Shimanouchi's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji dodges 21 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Drumming Up Dinner, taking 31 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Fuu Hououji's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"Oh, are you having some trouble with art?" Yumi asks Fuu. "That's my main subject, so I'd be happy to go over it with you later." Yumi is technically more into painting then architecture or even the Classics, but even so at Infinity she's expected to know more than just what she works on herself.
She's looking forward to break too, of course.
"Just run!" she offers to Fumiko, "It'll be okay!" But Serpentina arrives and, "Whew--we could use the help," she admits, looking worriedly back at her friend. Eri moves in to help--but even Eri, one of the strongest magical girl she knows, has trouble with this Ogre. And Yumi suspects there's something strange going on, because--
"Who--"
The laugh from the distance can't take priority over a very hungry Ogre who has a lot of things to say.
Yumi throws up a barrier before herself as the ogre brings down his clubs, and whether the barrier would've been enough is thankfully not tested--Fuu's magic helps, and Yumi takes what little space she has left and scoots back. "I can try!" she calls back to Eri, and her broom pops into existence with a brilliant shine of light--but she can't get free enough of the ogre to actually help with that, yet. So instead she has to try to make a way out.
"Of course you don't ask, you jerk!" Yumi says, appreciating Serpentina and Fuu in the moment rather a lot. "But I'll feed you something you won't like!"
She hoists the Staff upward and begins to focus. "Holy light, overflow in radiant might! Sacred Ray!"
A green-white beam of coruscating energy--far unlike the curse she just cast--rockets towards the Ogre.
COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has used Sacred Ray on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Eri might have been amused by the idea that Fuu is being thwarted by architectural styles, but the conversation shifts into battle far too quickly for her to tease her on that.
Instead, she witnesses the ogre bite off her whip, and gets yanked when he pulls her in.
Rather than test her luck, Eri lets go of the whip just as the other club tries to pin her in place. The club coming close enough to nearly part her hair. "What? Not a fan of vegetables?"
Eri taunts it as she hits the ground, and immediately falls forward to run through its legs in an attempt to disorient it as she darts around, staying close to the ground. "If ever there was evidence another friend of mine was going to defect to Dark Fall... truly it is your dietary preferences."
Despite her confident outward appearance, she breathes an internal sigh of relief when the Ogre decides it is better off eating her first.
Everywhere she seems to run along the ground, there's a glimmer of green magic. Tiny sprouts following her foot steps as she tries to run around the furious - and hungry ogre in a flanking circle where she tries to keep just ahead of its ability to turn and strike her.
And then abruptly, the gleaming magic all seems to connect itself as multiple vines burst from the ground and try to encircle each of its limbs in multiple places, trying to leverage the Ogre away from Yumi and Hanae.
The girl reaches up to her head, and pulls out another long thorn whip from her limb.
"Come on. Surely you're not the type to play with your food? So immature..."
Eri says as she glances Ivy's way as she unleashes her purifying magic, and without saying anything, she subtly shifts her stance... the way she sees it. The Ogre is either going to focus on her, or that purifying spell is going to bring its unholy wrath down on Yumi.
Either way, one of them might need to run interference to keep Hanae safe.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Dryad's Interdict on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi dodges 5 Fatigue damage from Eri Shimanouchi's Dryad's Interdict, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Mikoto Minagi is Quipped! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to dodge Yumi Ohzora's Sacred Ray, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Stagger and Tangle applied to Mikoto Minagi!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
The chuckle, and the figure from whom it emanated, both go unnoticed by the Wind Knight; if she's aware of the laugh to begin with, it's little more than background noise in the face of the ogre itself, and of the literally earth-shaking counterattack which the monster launches.
And it shakes the ground so violently that despite her attempt to leap away to safety, the Wind Knight still winds up getting bowled off her feet; she just manages to roll through the fall and come back to her feet, before springing through the air, landing atop the King Penguin slide.
"I don't suppose there are any magical girls who draw on the tale of Momotarou for power?" she suggests wryly, her bow and quiver materializing as she regains her balance, inwards and outwards. Precision of her landing aside, that wasn't her best jump, and she can still feel it, as if the ground hasn't quite settled down again. Or maybe that's just her inner ears remaining wonky. Still, her sense of balance isn't going to stop her from putting a few arrows into the ogre; she wastes no time in nocking one to her string, and drawing back, taking a deep breath to center herself before she settles into readiness, lining up her shot.
She could draw upon her magic to boost the shot ... but for the moment, she relies primarily on skill, letting the power that already suffuses her Wind Knight form be the source of this arrow's strength, and the arrow flies.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Basic Archery on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi braces 5 Fatigue damage from Fuu Hououji's Basic Archery, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mikoto Minagi's Block and Parry abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Serpentina Ruse [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Serpentina stands strong as she stares down the ogre. She will NOT let it intimidate her, especially since her allies are here, doing their best. At least, that was the plan, until the beast's strength was enough to shake the earth. She attempts to jump out of the way of the shockwave, but misjudged the range of the attack and is sent tumbling. Actually tumbling. Gymnastics really paid off as she avoided getting hurt, though it took a second to shake the dizziness and shock from the attack off. "Hmph. Not exactly good guest etiquette." She bravely charges at the ogre, leaps up, starts to thrust her umbrella at it... but just before the last few moments, she opens the umbrella too far, sending a gust of air at its face and launching her backwards - hopefully out of range of any counter attacks.
COMBAT: Serpentina Ruse has used Wind Wall on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Serpentina Ruse has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Running, in the face of an Ogre, is an eminently sensible plan. They're STOMPY, they're CONFRONTING, and they're so, so very HUNGRY.
He finds himself faced with flowering magic in the form of a Puella Magi's vines -- the first he kicks away, but he is no graceful dancer, and Eri is so quick that the entire FIELD is overgrowing. His club is pulled away from Lost Ivy --
For a moment, he just looks out over the greenery, eyes growing big as saucers.
His face twists back when he hears Yumi's incantation, though, and he's rather much too grown-over to run from it. The blast catches him square in his voluminous stomach, and the good news, for the Ogre, is that it blows him free of all those vines.
The bad news is that the reason he's free is all that green fire which spreads across his body from the purifying point of contact, bringing him to a howling point. "OW! OW! BIG OW HURT! ME NOT EAT OW FIRE! NO!!!"
He chomps the arrow, as it flies through the air. This, it turns out, is also not food, because when he bares his fangs again, there's an arrowhead lodged between his teeth. He's gonna need a real big toothpick to get that out. He stomps over to the Wind Knight, and hefts one of his great clubs, bringing it down.
The Ogre turns and stands firm, as Serpentina Ruse charges with her umbrella -- apparently, he doesn't fear umbrellas quite as much as purifying rays. But his CHOMP is defeated by the way she opens her weapon up and goes sailing backwards. His vast hand reaches back, and... he flings one of his bone-clubs at her.
That at least means he doesn't have two clubs any more, right..?
But he STOMPS the ground -- and another bone-club erupts from the ground, RIGHT under Eri's feet. Touching the new growth of his magic is a terrible idea, as if the very magical idea of the Ogre's weapons invokes ideals of consumption. He tromps over to retrieve it, and brings it down on Yumi's head, the rest of that desire to consume carried entirely in his strike. She may need to find some way to protect Hanae from the strike, just as much as she needs to defend herself.
"HUNGRY!" He yells, in escalating rage. "HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HUNGRY!"
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Hunger Hype on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Bone Distance on Serpentina Ruse. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used I HUNGER on Eri Shimanouchi. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Feeding Frenzy on Yumi Ohzora. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking. COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora counters 20 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Feeding Frenzy, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Yumi Ohzora's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! Mikoto Minagi drains 8 fatigue from Yumi Ohzora! COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora's counterattack, Witch's Mirror, partially gets through, doing 17 Fatigue damage to Mikoto Minagi! Critical Counterhit! COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi counters 11 Mana damage from Mikoto Minagi's I HUNGER, taking 11 Mana damage! Eri Shimanouchi's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! Mikoto Minagi drains 8 mana from Eri Shimanouchi! COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi's counterattack, Gardener's Trick, partially gets through, doing 20 Fatigue damage to Mikoto Minagi! Critical Counterhit! Exhausted applied to Mikoto Minagi! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji counters 5 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Hunger Hype, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Mikoto Minagi is Psyched! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji's counterattack, Unorthodox Swordplay, partially gets through, doing 5 Fatigue damage to Mikoto Minagi!
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Yumi would rather be discussing homework. Instead, she's in a pitched battle to defend her friend who is at least not awake to stress out about it.
"I could go for peaches," Yumi answers Fuu, relieved at least that they have enough breath to be wry about things. But to Eri, "They are absolutely the types to play with their food, Eri!! And they are very bad guests!!" to Serpentina, no less. At least Serpentina gets out of the way fairly quickly. But Eri--well, Eri is shifting. Yumi has fought beside her long enough to know that she's going to try to run interference, which will make the next moment easier, hopefully--
"That's right, you don't eat fire! There's more of that coming for you, too!"
She stares a little as she sees him conjure a new weapon, wincing at the sheer consumption of its power. But stomp stomp, and Yumi's eyes widen. He yells, all right. She starts tracing a rune of reflection, and throws up both hands with her Staff to block the club with her magic, deflecting away from Hanae. A great beam bursts out of the clash straight towards him, but her barrier is imperfect--Yumi finds herself smashed down hard enough that the ground buckles beneath her, driving her a few feet down into the ground... but keeping Hanae safe.
"...Eri-chan, I think doing the greenery thing is distracting him. You miht want to keep it up." Oof.
"I'll try to--" Huff. It's incredible, the strength the magic gives her--but even so she's feeling tired already. "I'll try to weaken him if we can get him, together!"
She throws out another rune, carving it into the air in green and black, and the magic launches forth to drain strength and power.
COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has used Weakness Hex on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has finished attacking. COMBAT: Serpentina Ruse perfectly counters 35 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Bone Distance, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Counter! Serpentina Ruse's Reverse ability activates! COMBAT: Serpentina Ruse's counterattack, Cobra's Hood, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Mikoto Minagi!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
A bone club starts to erupt under Eri's feet. And suddenly she leaps up from her position. The club however juts out, clipping her foot in mid-air, and she feels this sudden hunger gnawing at her being. While most people would not know to look...
... the gem she sports in her hair darkens fractionally.
Fortunately, it's only a momentary touch, because she's back-flipping, and her whip encircling up with her, then around in the revolution of her momentum.
She sweeps it up and slaps the Ogre hard as it moves to retrieve the bone club, square in it's solar plexus with a blow that tries to knock the fight out of it.
Landing backwards, she dances away, grimacing as she touches her gem.
It's hunger tantrum though causes her to race away, running low to the ground. She scythes her whip around in a sudden revolution, before slapping the ground at it's feet. The impact strikes with a crack that's surprisingly muted...
... as the tip of the vine suddenly slithers underground. A subtle hand motion from the wielder directing it's flow. The ground begins to move aglow.
"You say that as if I'd stop." Eri says Yumi's way, utterly playing off the moment of existential horror with the resiliency of someone who encounters such frequently enough that she can - even with this new variety of it.
"After all, unlike someone-" She says, deftly ribbing the breadth of Yumi's magical aptitude, "-Greenery is my whole arsenal."
And then razor sharp serrated foliage bursts out of the ground like so many blades. To those familiar with gardening tools, the thorned vines look vaguely like more organic versions of Hori-Hori knives.
The foliage tries to rake across the ogre, one after another in an attempt to cut and cut and cut, trying to box it into something more difficult to escape with Yumi's weakness curse upon it. "... I do always prefer... that." She says with a smile as the horror feeling recedes, "Together."
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Horticultural Horizon on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Serpentina Ruse [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Serpentina watches the bone fly straight for her. Her umbrella is already overextended, and she's in midair. Luckily, thrusting the umbrella at the bone closes it, just in time for her to re-open it like a shield. It knocks her back even further, but with no harm done. "Close one," she says quietly, sighing as she lands.
Everyone seems to have a plan. Everyone seems to have a role. But what about Serpentina? Should she keep acting the distraction, or hit back hard? Normally full force combat is one of her ally's things, not hers, but she's feeling particularly bold. She dodges back and forth, looking for an opening, chasing an opportunity down.
She spots it - while Eri's sharp greenery attacks from one side, Serpentina launches a series of pokes and strikes with the parasol, along with a few kicks for good measure. "Hope I'm not misreading you," she says to her allies. "I really need to talk strategy with you all sometime..."
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Wha --" Bow and quiver vanish, replaced by the Magic Knight's sword; her ability to swap weapons at will, flaring into or out of her glove-jewel, makes it easy to switch from ranged battle to melee. What's harder is getting her sword into the right position to block an incoming swing when the attack comes at her so quickly.
On the plus side, the Wind Knight manages to deflect some of the club's force, and even to riposte with enough force that the ogre ought to feel it. But the blow carries enough force that the green-clad Magic Knight stumbles off the top of King Penguin's head - and then slides down its tongue, like a girl half her age might be expected to in the course of playing on that slide. Fortunately, the ogre is spreading his attention around enough that she can come to a more or less safe landing while his attention is on a different magical girl.
The thought crosses her mind to see if there are any beans among the vegetables that Eri brought, but there isn't enough time to go rummaging through the leftovers. The thought of letting the ogre eat from the hot pot comes to mind as well, but it'd be a very small meal for an ogre that size, and this ogre is very clearly not an omnivore, given its fixation on human flesh. I suppose beating oni-san up is our best course of action, she muses, sword disappearing and bow rematerializing; as soon as the quiver has settled across her back, she's already reaching for an arrow - and this time, there's a noticeable breeze picking up around the green-clad Magic Knight. Now, if she can just put enough wind behind her next shot ...
The appearance of calm which comes over the Wind Knight is almost entirely out of place amidst the fight; the only indication tht she's aware of the battle raging on is the glint of determination in her gaze as she tracks the ogre's movements, picking her moment, her opening, her shot. Even the wind that whips at her hair and skirts seems to be set out of her mind as she lowres her bow, draws back on string and shaft ...
"Gale Arrow!"
And as the arrow flies, the winds gathered around the Magic Knight follow - a powerful gust, focused around and along the arrow's shaft, steadying its flight as well as speeding it on its way. The Gale Arrow might not actually knock the ogre off-balance - but if it was expecting something as gentle, relatively speaking, as the first arrow she loosed, then it's going to get a major surprise this time.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Gale Arrow on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi dodges 3 Fatigue damage from Yumi Ohzora's Weakness Hex, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Yumi Ohzora is Psyched! Exhausted applied to Mikoto Minagi! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to counter Eri Shimanouchi's Horticultural Horizon, taking 39 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi's counterattack, Drumming Up Dinner, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Eri Shimanouchi! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi braces 18 Fatigue damage from Serpentina Ruse's Umbrella-Fu, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mikoto Minagi's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi braces 13 Fatigue damage from Fuu Hououji's Gale Arrow, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Mikoto Minagi's Block and Parry abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Maybe the Ogre would like peaches? No, that seems unlikely. The only thing this Ogre seems to want is human flesh.
"ME CRUSH YOU! YOU BE GARNISH!" How this Ogre, who speaks with such simplicity, knows such a word as 'garnish'...
... it would be funnier if Yumi weren't being crushed under that club. His magic discharged, he tries to step out of the way of her runes, but he's just not quite fast enough. The hex curls around him, and he is taken a step from his glorious strength to something more approachable by mortal hands. He finds himself faced with more of those vines --
Once is a marvel, but twice is annoying, and he slams his clubs down on the hori-hori vines. They are not moles, and it fails to send them back into the earth. Instead, the vines grow over his clubs, up to his patterned arms, making sashimi of his many tattoos. What drips from him is green and brown and black, if it can be called blood at all.
His annoyed growl pitches in the background of Eri's recovery, as if the very concept of doing this together is the thorn in his side. He needn't be so metaphorical, though -- because Serpentina Ruse appears quite literally at his side to needle him with parasol pokes. "NOT DINNER!" He chastises her, as he wrests his clubs free, just a moment too late to strike her down.
He tries chomping the Gale Arrow. It blasts into the back of his throat. He goes, "COUGH! COUGH! HACKKK!", and buries one of his clubs in the ground so he can reach back and grab it and pull it free. The shockwaves carry forward to shudder at Eri and Fumiko's feet, as if his solution to their slipperiness and speed is simply to make more of the ground unstable around them. "YOU IS BAD DINNER KNOWING!" He criticises Fuu's cuisine, as he picks up his club again, and throws it towards her.
He whirls, grasping his remaining bone in both hands, and brings it RIGHT down on Yumi, in a blow which threatens to shudder the earth.
He seems... terribly focused on crushing Yumi, specifically.
Perhaps it's because she's the one guarding his dinner..?
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Rub-a-dub-dub! Thanks For The Grub! on Eri Shimanouchi. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Rub-a-dub-dub! Thanks For The Grub! on Serpentina Ruse. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Bone Distance on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Sized Up For A Snack on Yumi Ohzora. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking. COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi braces 10 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Rub-a-dub-dub! Thanks For The Grub!, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji perfectly braces 29 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Bone Distance, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Brace! Fuu Hououji's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora braces 29 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Sized Up For A Snack, taking 24 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Yumi Ohzora's Block and Parry abilities activate! Trap applied to Yumi Ohzora! COMBAT: Serpentina Ruse perfectly dodges 19 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Rub-a-dub-dub! Thanks For The Grub!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Serpentina Ruse's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
There's something to be said for backflipping! Yumi isn't doing it. But Eri can. Yumi notices, all right, the way Eri's gem darkens just a bit, the way that impacts her. Yumi worries, immediately--but the ground is moving, and--
"The whips totally count as--" Huff. "Separate!" Unlike someone!! Yumi, who--yes, has a lot going for her. She prefers together, too.
"Talk later, hit now!" Yumi suggests to Serpentina. "You're doing just fine!"
Fuu's arrow at least gives Yumi a brief moment to breathe. But--
"Garnish!?"
But the Ogre is coughing, and hacking, and swinging, bringing down a blow for Yumi that is terribly focused and terribly powerful. The young witch throws up another barrier with her hand, but the barrier shatters after a moment, Yumi thrown down over Hanae with a surprised cry that doesn't see her immediately get up.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"You're quite correct, oni-san," the Wind Knight replies serenely, even smiling at the ogre and offering a slight bow ... and then, sweeping her left arm upwards (bow still in hand), she conjures a curtain of wind which intercepts the thrown club, not only blowing it off-course but sending it sailing off over the harbor. "I'm terrible dinner. You would suffer indigestion beyond belief if you tried to eat me," the Wind Knight finishes.
The focused state she entered into before loosing her Gale Arrow is still with her, giving her a mix of calm and clarity without which she'd have been hard-pressed to deflect the club-throw. That focus may not last much longer, thouh, particularly when she sees Yumi bowled over in defense of Hanae.
The winds gather once more as the Wind Knight dismisses her weapons, drawing her hands and arms back, as if pulling the storm together in preparation. "I'm afraid you're going to feast only upon your own demise, oni-san," she says mildly, her gaze not so much 'hardening' as 'crystalizing,' the calm focus in her eyes replaced by an unyielding will. "Emerald ... CYCLONE!!"
Her arms sweep forward, and the tempest howls forth, flinging the full fury of the storm straight at the ogre - not to knock it off balance as she tried earlier, but attempting to rip it apart with the winds' gathered fury, not unlike the fabled kamaitachi writ large.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Fuu Hououji has used Emerald Cyclone: Focused on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Serpentina Ruse [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
The ground quakes once more, but this time, Serpentina is ready. She jumps up, starts to fall back down into range of the shockwave and cracking ground... and opens her umbrella, seemingly catching an updraft and floating higher. She hangs in the air for a couple seconds, then twists around, spinning in the air like one of those old sky dancer toys. She whirls towards the ogre, and attempts to deliver a rotation-powered kick and bounce off to land on her feet on the ground. Hopefully after the ground settled down.
COMBAT: Serpentina Ruse has used Spinny Kick on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Serpentina Ruse has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"No, not at all." Eri says to the idea that Serpentina might be misreading her. "I'd say you're doing exactly what you ought to be." She says, with only the slightest touch of a tease, before her glancing over her shoulder at Yumi, "And here I thought it was a grand witch tradition to consider my ilk one trick ponies~"
By her tone, Eri of course implies that she doesn't think that YUMI thinks it. Just that she's been through the Infinity Dorms often enough to realize that many witches do.
After all what Eri wants her to do, is to distract from Hanae and Ivy, and if Serpentina poking the Ogre through her vines does just that, it's a good enough strategy in her book!
Though as the Ogre pulls his club free and sends the ground tremoring with shockwaves, Eri suddenly drives the hilt of her whip into the ground, grasping it like she just planted the wooden handle somehow, as easily as she did a tree, and grasps ahold of it.
It's not the easiest ride to weather, as the ground constantly threatens to knock her prone, but she manages to keep stable without any embarrassing accidents.
Until the last second, when she sees Ivy fall onto Hanae. Wrenching up the handle of the whip from where she planted it in the ground, she traces her fingers across its length. And all the thorns suddenly shimmer with a light.
With a sudden pivot that looks like a normal simple whip strike, she revolves it with even greater power until it is but its lengths appear to be just a mere blur. And at the last moment before it strikes, the thorns grow to be as long as short swords - to be driven into the Ogre's flesh.
CRACK
A moment later, Yumi feels Eri's fingers around her wrist, as she pulls her up to her feet, then bends over to grab Hanae and pick her up. "I'll take Hanae-san for a bit. You do what you do best."
Shine.
A single word, which Eri doesn't say, but aptly describes what that is.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Aerating Edge on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"There are definitely better traditions!" Yumi answers Eri, and she rather wishes she could copy Fuu's calm and focus at the moment; she feels dizzy. But there on the ground, she for a moment can't move--until she feels Eri's hand take hers. She looks up, brim of her hat cutting off the sky as she sees Serpentina and her rotating kick. She's up at her feet, and Eri--
"...Thanks," Yumi says to her, and breathes in, trying to catch her breath. She lifts the Staff. "...Come on," she says. "We just need... a little more."
She traces runes with her Staff, white-green, so unlike her curses; it's a warm power, a heat that radiates but does not burn any of the girls here. It feels like growing things, and smells of flowers, is reminiscient of the sunlight after a cold day.
"O Staff..... Grant us your light!"
Yumi rises off the ground and her staff suddenly shoots forth a beam of sunlight that expands, becoming a brilliant column of white-gold. "Blessed Shine!"
Where it touches the Ogre light turns to green, purifying flames; where it touches the ground, broken grass and flowers mend and grow and heal. And its gentle force requires Yumi to do her best to hang on.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Yumi Ohzora has used Blessed Shine on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has finished attacking. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Finisher, Emerald Cyclone: Focused, taking 70 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to brace Eri Shimanouchi's Aerating Edge, taking 45 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to brace Serpentina Ruse's Spinny Kick, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Serpentina Ruse is Psyched! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi braces 50 Fatigue damage from Yumi Ohzora's Finisher, Blessed Shine, taking 33 Fatigue damage! Mikoto Minagi's Block and Parry abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Down comes the club, a gavel of heated judgement -- it crashes THROUGH Yumi's barrier, in an act of brutal violence which staggers reckoning.
He doesn't use fancy words like 'demise', so it's no wonder he's not expecting what happens next.
As that club presses down -- just before it can ask Yumi just how MUCH she's willing to cover her friend -- the Ogre is blown off his feet entirely by the focused gusts of Emerald Cyclone, pulled to-and-fro in the wind. His skin bubbles, as if those myriad hori-hori cuts had scored his flesh in the manner of cooking, holes all poked by a parasol in order to release what leaks from him. Parts of him slough off in the storm, malleable in the wind. He is still quite solid, when he lands, using the very force of himself to ground himself against the wind. He is still quite solid, but...
Boil, bubble, toil and trouble, it's in his arms, it's on his back, it's across his rolling, rippling belly. He's bubbling up, just like that forgotten hot-pot -- somehow, it hasn't been upended throughout this entire fight.
He can't quite advance on Yumi again, because there's a Miraculous-user twirling down around him. That kick cleaves one of his massive tusks, distended, straight in two; one half lands on the earth, and melts into it, bleeding back to the roots.
"GO 'WAY," he says, as if his voice, too, is becoming a little more slick and brought-together, syllables bleeding over each other. In direct defiance of his order, Eri's whip lashes out in Serpentina's wake -- sharp as a short-sword, faster than a bullet. He howls, and when he takes a step through those horrible, too-long thorns, parts of him drag along with them, bubble-bubble away from the Ogre and falling back down, down, down.
His dinner has been taken from him. He's having a really bad day, all a sudden.
Particularly when Yumi lifts the Staff of Lost Ivy.
He can't block the sun itself. It shines more brightly, more fiercely, more WARMLY in the clear winter's day; it shines through the clouds; it shines on the grass. From those runes, light, a matter of the sun itself, focused and shining --
Here, again, is that green flame. It covers him, but it does not CONSUME him -- it is not hungry, the way he is. It burns; it burns away. He is screaming.
He is screaming words. "NO!" The Ogre cries, as those green flames boil-bubble him, and he sinks, seeping green-black smoke, bleeding into the ground. "ME NOT FAIL... CONFLAGRIAAA!" The light consumes him -- the flame flares -- and he's gone.
The purifying light has restored all that broken ground, the playground... and, it seems, Hanae's nap, too. The swimmer grumbles, as she pushes herself up. "Huh... wow, pulling those all-nighters for finals is really doing a number on me, isn't it..?" She rubs her eyes, and yawns, looking up to Yumi. "Oh, geez, did I worry you? Come on! You know you don't have to worry about me! Not even lit is going to defeat me, this time around!" It's a brave boast, considering last semester's results. It's entirely unfitting to what Yumi has just endured, too, but...
"Ah!! The hot pot!" Hanae yelps, as she hurries over to check it. She fiddles with a few knobs, and sinks back, with a triumphant sigh. "Safe..! Okay, everyone! Looks like it's just about done, so gather up!"
Maybe today can still be a good day.
(Mikoto will show back up eventually, a crab still attached to a braid. She's fine, too.)
~*~*~
Atop a broom, a dark witch sails into the afternoon sky. She's above the cloud cover, so it hardly matters that she's out in broad daylight. Her footsoldier has been dismissed, and she is left only with her bitterness.
"Ungrateful girl," mutters Conflagria, of the Hollow Four, untouched by the chill winds. "You don't know how lucky you are..!"
A fleck of flame becomes a burning portal; she sails through it, and away.
