Kada took the first action, or at least attempted to. She placed her hands on the long table, trying to melt it and use it as a weapon. But nothing happened other than her smudging the surface with her fingerprints. “Damn, I’m not surprised, but still disappointed.”
She was met with several spats of annoyance from fellow members having trouble with their Curses. “I’m trying to make hallucinations, but nothing seems to be working.” “My rumors don’t seem to be affecting her.” “She’s having no response to sound tuning and amped volume.” “I cannot assess her guilt.” “She has no pain to exploit.” “No flows to manipulate.”
“And obviously I can’t teleport her,” Phon brought up the rear of bad news.
“Did you really expect otherwise,” Rathe stared back with condescending eyes and a satisfied smirk. “Your powers come from me, did you truly think that they’d have any effect?”
“Well not all of us are handicapped,” Xard took center stage. He held up both hands, and for a brief moment, pressure built up in his palms. Then there was a massive blast of energy that surged forth. It pierced right through Rathe’s chest, punching a huge hole through the center of her torso. And it kept going, so strong that it obliterated the back of her throne behind her, and kept going to the far wall, leaving a massive dent.
A surprised shock splattered across Rathe’s face. She tried to move, to rise from her seat, but found the matter fruitless. Her words gasped and failed to form. And when she tried to take a step, she crumbled, collapsing to the ground. And then her body shattered, breaking down into a million small fragments that sprayed dust across the floor.
The Fiends all looked around, wondering what had happened. Should they still be on guard, was it over already? Could they begin to celebrate? Was it really that easy? “What did you think of my performance?” Rathe’s voice haunted them as a new version of her rose from behind them, sneaking up on the crowd, making them all quickly whirl around and tense in defense.
“I was never sure if anyone would ever come to fight with me, but I often thought about how I’d look when I died, so I rehearsed it a few times. I wanted it to be believable and impactful. What would you judge it? It’s been a while, so I’m probably a bit out of practice. I’d say like a 7, maybe 8 out of 10. Don’t look at me like that. You do a lot of strange things to stay entertained during millenniums of boredom.”
“Speaking of, Xard,” another Rathe popped up right in front of him, about on par with his height. “Have you had your fun?” She swung an arm, slamming the back of her first into his chest, returning the favor. The man went flying backwards, crashing into a wall with the sound of both cracking rock and bone.
A trio ran over to check on him. “I’ve nullified the pain, but he’s unconscious,” Alk reported.
“Several broken ribs and a severed spine, the back of his skull is cracked, and there’s lots of internal bleeding,” Farian gave his diagnosis. “He’s minutes from death.”
“I’ve got it,” Ahvra placed her hands on him and de-aged him by just about a minute. All of his wounds healed instantly, and he awoke. But he was still dazed and drained from his injuries, and it’d be a bit before he could get back on his feet.
“Shouldn’t he have been able to absorb that?” Niloy wondered why he’d been hit so hard.
“I saw it,” Feyj informed them. “A moment before he was hit, Xard’s posture suddenly changed. It slouched. Rathe weakened him somehow, to the point that he couldn’t use his Curse.”
“Very astute,” the demigod sarcastically spouted. “And I can do the same for all of you if needed. But it doesn’t have to come to that. As you can see, your efforts are pointless, and you can’t kill me, for I am the world itself!”
“Though I don’t mind roughing around as a bit of sport for fun. After all, the best way to deal with rowdy children is to tucker them out. So what will it be? Do you give up?” A circle of Rathes popped up around the crowd, surrounding them completely. And then they all laughed in unison. “Or do you want to play some more?!”
Phon answered the question with action. She teleported herself behind two of the rocky clones and wrapped her yo-yo’s around them with blazing speed. Then they pulled back, whirring their buzzsaw blades, slicing through the stone body and ripping them apart, reducing them to rubble.
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Niloy then started spraying two Rathes with her water pistols, coating them and then turning it acidic. Even the demigod had to writhe at that as her form was corroded and withered. Itsy then followed up with her arms outstretched on either side, smashing through the demigod’s weakened hide.
Laurim transformed into a Bull Shark and rampaged towards a Rathe. She headbutted the demigod first with her horns and then followed up with her jaws, nabbing the reeling woman. The beast then shook its head wildly, tearing into the rocky flesh, before it finally crunched down on the divine body, snacking on it to smithereens.
Chorus didn’t attack Rathe but rather flung their wardrobe at Victori, swallowing the girl whole before spitting her back out a second later, sporting fancy new techie armor. “Battlesuits, battlesuits, get your battlesuits!” The Quick Changer called out to the crowd as they continued to forcefully don new attire onto the weaker members who weren’t conventionally suited for fighting. “I had quite a few made, so if you need one, let me know!”
They would serve as a form of protection but also had built in weapons and aim-assist modules, turning even non-combatants into capable soldiers instantly. The armor would take quite the impact and there were built in weapons, all sporting a new ‘Avoidant Ammo’ that Nathym had made specifically for cooperative group battles. The ammunition would swerve mid-flight around anyone with the gizmicro signature embedded into the Fiends, able to distinguish friend from foe, and then return to their original course.
Any in the group firing traditional guns were using it as well, so they wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally harming one of the others. They were also loaded into the weapons that Rishaki was currently dumping out of her chest, free for anyone to use. And if Rathe were to pick one up and try to use them herself, she’d find all of her shots missing the mark.
Once Chorus had suited up all takers, they themselves equipped their own extravagant armor and joined the fray. Unlike any of the others, though, they had rocket shoes that fired in the opposite direction, not allowing for flight, but rather speedy kicks. Matched with the absurdly long bladed heels, they made for a deadly impalement to any who would meet that boot to the face. As Rathe herself found moments later, her skull pierced through.
Feyj also worked with strong piercing attacks, dodging the demigod’s every swipe as he jabbed the pointed tip of his cane into cracks in Rathe’s form. The Royal pried out pierce after pierce from their body until it had destabilized enough. Then with one final precise strike, they made the stone clone collapse to pieces.
Since Kaizu couldn’t rely on her Curse, she returned to her assassin ways, skulking around the battlefield. Any time she saw a moment of weakness or falter that her fellows couldn’t capitalize on, she exploited it, appearing out of nowhere and going for the kill, quickly racking up a body count faster than anyone else.
Unlike others who dealt with finesse, Roque went with methods of more all encompassing destruction. He began by targeting a cluster of demigods that appeared to be preparing some form of long-ranged cooperative attack. The Swindler unfurled a contract, spawning his cottage above them. The cozy home then plummeted quickly, crushing them all underneath.
Then after removing the domicile from the field, not wanting it damaged further, he brought out a new toy. The ‘Money Waster’, a mini-tank that fit only one. He hopped into it and opened fire, blasting one of the divine with a missile that pushed them back with so much force that they skidded to the far wall. Roque then pressed another button, causing the projectile to explode with fiery chaos. Then on the back of the tank, his helper, the mechanical Ratcoon Thievius, loaded the next shot.
“Allow me to borrow this,” Mallea nabbed Ahvra’s broom since The Witch had stuck with Xard, helping him recuperate by jump-starting his flows of blood and electrcity, and ready with her own tricks to keep Rathe at bay if she tried anything.
The butler then attacked not any of the free-standing demigods, but rather the floor. Since none of Rathe’s deaths were clean, they left a lot of debris and rubble scattered around, creating tripping hazards everywhere that the members were already finding to be a nuisance. But Mallea cleaned it all up, pushing the excess stone into tidy piles while also providing general support. If any of their weapons jammed or clothes were torn, she was there to make them as good as new without the fighters having to slow down for even a moment.
“Watch out!” Valen suddenly pulled a member back, tugging on the veins in their body, and at the same time used Xard’s golden blood as a shield to protect another. A group of Rathe doubles had spawned in the middle of the Fiend crowd in an attempt to ambush them. Most in the group noticed the sudden foes, but The Bloodletter saved those who didn’t.
Since trying to figure out which vials of her vast collection of blood would actually work against the demigod would be a troublesome effort, she stuck mainly to defense and support. The woman took care of those in the main group while Phon defended the stragglers in the far reaches, teleporting them out of harm’s way as needed. Together they minimized any injuries.
And a trio of Gatrim, Ipucco, and Nachi hunted down the interlopers that had infiltrated the main pack, dispatching them before they could cause further confusion. Together, the group fought back against everything thrown at them, but their foe wasn’t even close to running out of tricks.