Castle of Chaos (Gen/"Allies")

[Augen]

Augen looked around him. All the puffballs were staring at him now. And they were starting to look a little vicious.

"... Alright, alright. I'll get away from this thing, will that make you happy," he said, walking away from the machine and back torwards the doorway... However, instead of walking through the doorway, he decided he wasn't done with this room. Putting his foot on the wall, Augen looked back for a moment before sprinting up the wall (forgot he could do that), turning around when he hit the top to look at the room's entrirety from a bird's-eye view.

"There. Is that better?"

[Genshuku]

On Drake's transformation, the puffballs knew what was coming, and they were all drawn towards the white one at a high speed, forming some kind of large, floating ball thing, with all the black ones on the outside, before Drake's fire even reached them. And, what's more, even more of the black ones were flying in from god knows where, forming an even bigger puffball cloud. And as that happened, several of the black things from on top of the ball suddenly shot upwards.

The fire had actually reached them by now, but it seemed to only make some of the black ones fall off, not really doing much at all.

Then, the puffballs shot upwards came...down. Only down means covered in a green glow, felt like bullets, and were going very fast in a thick stream in Drake's location (which were shot both in the location where he was and where he was going, along with some places of where he COULD be going if he noticed). With all of it's fire focused on Drake, it was rather thick and covered a wide area (as said), and therefore dangerous.

During all of this, the white one was using telepathy for everyone in the room, ignoring everything else, most notably Augen's climb).

"Of course someone decides to defeat us, they ALWAYS decide to do that....*sigh* Anyone that does not leave this room immediately will be treated as a hostile. The room will be sealed shortly. Leave or die, break, burn, whatever."

Shouki heard this. Her situation, everyone's situation, was pretty much die or die anyway. So, she decided to fight this thing. Not having much of an option to attack it any other way, she decided to jump and slash at it. This predictably did pretty much nothing. Drake's offense was probably the best one, really. She needed a different tactic.

As Drake was the higher threat, they didn't even so much as target anyone else. This was rather bad news for Drake.

[shiningdrake]

...Whoa. That didn't look good. They were all in one place, around the white one. Or... Shielding it! Maybe if he could manage to get to that one, he could get rid of it! His fire was only affecting the outside apparently... But if there was something that could affect the one in the center... That might work!

Unfortunately, there were a huge number of them coming at him, using themselves as projectiles apparently. And they were coming FAST. And over a pretty wide area. There was no way he could get Skyfire to hit the main thing... But Frostblitz probably could! And once he cast the spell, it was just a matter of staying alive until it did its damage. And fortunately, Drake was VERY hard to kill~

FROSTBLITZ! Drake shouted, and a circle of icicles appeared around the ball of puffballs. He shot upward at as high of a speed as possible, doing his best to try and avoid the attacks of the puffballs. Of course, it wasn't easy, and whenever he did get hit, it HURT!

If the puffballs didn't destroy the (rather solid) icicles, then soon a web of lightning would form between the icicles. Of course, the current might transfer through the puffballs themselves to help take more of them out. Then the icicles would explode, and the current would just go wild... There was about zero chance of that being completely blocked at the center. Then when it finally froze... Any caught in that would almost certainly be KO'd. There wasn't any chance whatsoever of the ones on the outside even helping the white one against that part.

...Of course, there would be a problem if it actually managed to move outside the area of effect. Drake shouted to his allies (but NOT to the puffballs, he didn't want them to hear) Try to keep them inside the circle! I can take them out as long as they stay in, but they can't be allowed to escape!

[recon5]

Mokuko was mostly confused by what was going on inside the room but he could see that Drake and Shouki had begun to fight the puffballs and that the puffballs had begun to fight back. He didn't want to be left out so he pulled Hazard Sign: [Astral Web] from his bag and declared it, hoping that he would be able to help his friends somehow.

The card caused all twenty of his Astral Strings to fire continuously into the room and the thin beams reflected off each other, the walls and the air itself to fill the room with a loose web of energy. He was sure that his friends would be strong enough to withstand the beams but the puffballs they were fighting didn't look half as durable.

[Augen]

Augen looked downward... Good, it seemed the puffballs were preoccupied. That should make this much easier.

Augen retracted his metal stick back to normal length and reached into his coat, pulling out his liuxing-chui. If all went well, this should be easy. He pressed his club against the ground (well, the wall... but his ground) and yelled once again. "Ruyi... Jing... BANG!!!"

With that the club extended once more, creating a momentum which propelled Augen upwards (well, up for Augen anyway). Augen had gotten closer to the key, but just this bound wouldn't be enough. Thats where liuxing chui came in. Augen spun his weapon and hurled one end of it around the key, trying to coil onto it's tether. About 50 feet up... This was a risk, but hey. He'd had worse.

[Genshuku]

The door that had brought them in shuddered. About 5 seconds later, it closed, so tightly that it was impossible to open, and did so with a VERY loud slam. Matter of fact, it was so loud that the so-called robot in the glass sphere started to wake up. On realizing that there were people out there that were beating up the thing that was keeping her here, she started to cheer them on.

"Zii zi zii zi ziii!"

The glass sphere didn't completely block the noise, but it was quite muffled. Hell, for all anyone else knew they could have formed actual words.

Shouki noticed that she was doing crap to the puffball cloud. Clearly, she might as well be on the sidelines if all she'd be doing is this, which might as well be labeled as 'only getting in the way'. So, she might as well try to do what Drake asked. How she'd do that, she had no idea. She wasn't even going to get time to think about it before the white one spoke to her (telepathically, of course).

"If you insist. It's your life, after all. Die, quickly."

What then followed was equivalent to mind-rending talking, like hearing everyone's voice in a cafeteria as you were right next to everyone at the same time. It was all of the minds of those puffball things, so Shouki was the only one to hear it. And boy did she hear it. However, she managed to keep moving, but something was clearly wrong with her.

The white one picked up what Drake was thinking, simply by reading the top of his mind (just the part in bold) with it's power (and without his permission). Apparently, if they were to stay inside the circle, they'd be at a disadvantage. So, it was time for an attack that would also get them all out of there.

Suddenly, all the puffballs went where the white one was while glowing, and pressed together to the point the whole thing actually looked small. Then, they suddenly all shot out at high speeds and at once. The black ones would most likely do moderate damage to what they run into, while the red ones would sting a bit more.

The green ones were more deadly, as the green ones actually glowed so much they were actually bigger than before, and the white one was just plain lethal. It was heading for Drake, of course, and it would change it's course to get him if he only tried to slightly dodge it. Even slashing that one would hurt like hell, and trying to shoot it would probably be negated by the very power which it was coated with.

The icicles would all probably be destroyed, but all they were focusing on was getting away from the circle, and they had achieved that much. There was not a single one anywhere near it anymore.

The strings that Mokuko used weakened all the black ones considerably and hurt the red ones just a tad, but the rest pretty much ignored them, due to being covered by that power.

Meanwhile, Augen tethered around the key's container. Hey...this glass orb was tightly on the pillar, but not 100% sealed on! It's probably removable, with enough force. Not like it'd help him, as the door was shut so he couldn't do anything with it now anyway. It also seemed breakable, but sturdy. Again, not like it mattered because this door didn't even have a lock. There was possibly a way to be handy with the glass, but it certainly wasn't the key's container that needed it. Perhaps a different container, who's content is kind of screaming for something here.

"Ziii ziii!"

Shouki tried to dodge the incoming assault, and did very poorly, getting battered with many of them. It's a good thing satoris can take a lot of hits, with how much she already took from that so early in the battle. She did slice at a few of the red ones as she tried to dodge, which did a tad of damage to the thing as a whole, but besides that, nothing.

[shiningdrake]

No! This was bad... Not only were they getting out of the circle, and destroying the icicles, but they were scattering all over, and they would obviously HURT if they hit. And he didn't think he'd be able to dodge all of them... However when he saw the white one coming toward him, he got an idea. It had a LOT of power surrounding it, but hopefully he'd be able to take it out...

Instead of trying to dodge it, Drake shot toward it at a considerable speed, even as it came toward him. While he was moving, he shifted into human form, with his greatsword in his hand, enveloped in blue flames. He swung the blazing sword toward the white puffball, and hoped that this would finish it...

[recon5]

Mokuko was surprised that his spellcard hadn't managed to destroy any of the puffballs. Some definitely seemed to have taken damage but he wasn't sure if it had been caused by his Astral Strings or by Drake's vastly more powerful attacks. With his spellcard in progress, though, he couldn't do anything other than floating in place and maintaining his laser web, so he tried his best to put more power than usual into the beams.

The sound of the door closing startled him and he realized that he'd moved back into the room while declaring his spellcard. Before he could react a black puffball slammed into his face and whipped his head back, and a second one hit his right hand even as he tried to right himself. Barely a second later, two red puffballs and a black one hit him in different spots, canceling his spellcard and driving him backwards into the closed door. He heard a worrying crack from somewhere in his torso as he hit the metal surface and he knew he would be battered to pieces unless he started dodging.

He twisted his head back into its proper position and took to the air, more focused on avoiding the puffballs than actually shooting at anything.

[Augen]

Augen climbed upwards on his liuxing chui, closer and closer to the container of the key. Hmm... Maybe this could work... Maybe not. No harm in trying, Augen thought as he turned his club back to normal size and tied the other end of his liuxing chui around his torso like a harnes.

"Alright... Here I go... DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!" And with that, Augen let go of his tether and began thrashing violently at the key's container with his club. Whacking. Whacking. Kill. Kill. These were the thoughts that went through Augen's mind.

[Genshuku]

And so Drake swung the blade at the white puffball...

If Drake's sword wasn't made of some weird metal, he wouldn't exactly HAVE a sword anymore, and this made it quite clear.

Because it wasn't stopping or changing course, oh no.

It was going, and there wasn't a normal metal on the planet that could stop it. Luckily, the blade wasn't made of normal metal. It even went straight for the ball's life force. However, the magical aura surrounding the puffball seemed to not only completely negate the effect, as the sword wasn't even GETTING to the puff, it was simply colliding with the magical force it was exerting, which did absolutely nothing to it for reasons that are currently unstated. The puffball was also moving with a force that simply did not allow for Drake to continue blocking, as it wasn't the sword that was limiting Drake, it was his own arms. The ball pressed against the sword even harder as time went by, taking no damage. If it were to continue like this, it would probably make Drake's arms completely give in and then hit him as he gave in. Clearly, he doesn't want this.

Mokuko's webs were doing quite some damage, it was just taking time to actually show. The power up of the webs (for as long as they were there anyway) slowed the ones that had slowed down before even more. But...eh? They aren't taking more than they should be! Instead, the red ones were taking more damage now, and seemed to do so much more well than the black ones could. However, his webs would have another, much more positive effect, which will be noted later. Yet still, the green and white ones had cruised right through the strings as if they weren't even there. It was certainly the aura, it have negated the energy attack as it made contact.

Augen seemed to have found a safe-spot amongst the attacks, one he wouldn't find again. Perhaps the weirdness in his mind gave him the blessing of the castle for that moment...but who knows? In any case, he wasn't going to get lucky twice. He then violently attacked the glass ball with the fury matching someone else in a distant room (unlike that person, there was no credit bonus for this). It took some time to crack it even with the added attack power of rage, but it eventually gave in and let a hole be punched in it. The glass ball made quite a loud breaking sound, which screwed with the minds of every single one of the puffballs (helping out with the earlier stated much more positive effect). It also followed a prompt response from the white puffball, once it stopped moving against a wall or something.

"...God damn it, where are we going to get another one of those things? You'll die for that. Not like it wasn't a given in the first place, but for that, you get to die quicker."

Also reacting to the shattering glass was the robot inside the other container, who after seeing that one opened was very much excited at the possibility of her's getting opened as well. Even if she couldn't mount an offensive, she could certainly mount a defensive. Clearly, this was a sign to scream louder and perhaps try banging it herself. Not like she had the force to break it, but these people might have a shot at getting her out of this cage. So, she began to do exactly that. She began to tackle at the inside of the cage, whilst screaming as loud as she possibly could.

"Ziii! Ziii!"

Through the cage, it was about as loud as normal talking, which wasn't much. But, it was most certainly an improvement at trying to get anyone's attention. Sadly, the puny tackles nor her somewhat high pitched voice could break the glass.

When they were all done 'spreading out', the green ones suddenly stopped upon hitting the wall, having reached it first, at the exact same time as the white one. Being somewhat alone unlike what should have happened, not to mention lacking a great deal of their concentration, they panicked. In this case, it meant do absolutely nothing for a while, in order to try and shut the panic down. They even stopped glowing, and were quite open now. Eventually, the red and black ones would get there, and they would resume what they were doing. But for now, they couldn't.

Matter of fact, that's what the red ones did right after. They weren't AS open, due to being there for a shorter time, but they were certainly there. By the time the black ones got there, this post ended.

[shiningdrake]

What was this thing?! His attack didn't seem to be doing much... If anything. It was just pushing against the sword, HARD! He somewhat doubted that he could take out all its energy before his own was gone, especially after having been hit by several But what could he do?

Suddenly, something else caught his attention... The girl in the cage! It looked like... Did she want out? Drake wondered... Could she possibly help them? It didn't seem likely, but it might be possible... After all, weirder things had happened.

Drake stopped trying to actually harm the puffball, and instead, used the sword to push himself so that he'd move AROUND it. As soon as he'd done so, he shifted into dragon form quickly and used his ice breath to attack the puffballs on the other side of the room. It wasn't nearly as wide of an area as his fire breath for the attack, but it was a longer range, which is what he needed at the moment.

When Drake reached the glass container that the girl was inside, he shifted back into human form with his greatsword in his hand, and smashed down upon it, saying, "Don't worry, I'll get you out.| He focused to try and make sure that the sword itself wouldn't do any real harm to her... Of course, he couldn't exactly affect what the glass would do once it shattered...

[recon5]

Mokuko realized that the red and black puffballs had become disoriented somehow, or at least they weren't rocketing in his direction as frequently as before. He was finally able to devote some attention to shooting at things and opened fire on the red and black puffballs, hoping to confirm if he could actually damage them.

If he couldn't, well, he could still go back to dodging...

[Augen]

Augen quickly snatched the key and stuffed it into his coat. That was a close one... But now it was his. One down... Now to help with those puff balls... Lets see. What could Augen do...

Ah yes! Bullets are metal... Metal conducts electricity. So if the gun and the taser were hel-- Zzzzzzip!!!

What was that noise? Oh... That's right. The liuxing chui sliped out of it's knot. Well that's just great, Augen thought, as he plummeted downwards towards the floor. Which would probably hurt.

[Genshuku]

(I'm horrible with this thread. I should hang myself. D:)
(Or better yet, Kitten should help. D:)
(Or better yet, I should continue living like this as punishment. D:)

The white puff quickly flew past Drake after his clever maneuver (and killing quite a few with his maneuver, though most of the dead seemed to be black), and hit the wall like the rest of them...well, like the rest of them should have, on almost nano-second (but not, due to the webs) sync with the green ones. Realizing that the rest of them weren't there, it simply waited for the rest to come back, not being able to do much else while the rest was in an uproar. It kept it's nigh-impenetrable magic aura though, so there wasn't much point in attacking.

Mokuko began shooting at the red and black things, which went poof as the shots connected. He didn't have much time to shoot the open ones though, because when the last one reached the wall/floor, the next phase of the attack started, and as the red and black ones came later than the green ones...

But before that, Drake actually broke the glass ball that contained Zi, an obviously relieved robot. The glass did indeed shatter on the critical hit (the not planned critical hit), which made it shatter more grandly and all over Zi in many semi-sharp fragments. If Zi had soft skin like most organic lifeforms, there would be a few cuts and scratches. But instead, there were little tinks as the glass collided with her. Good defense, that's a start. And the covering was good enough to not even show the scratch~ What a builder~*

"Ziii...Ziii, zi'i ziiiiii!"

This translated as 'Whew...Wait, he's falling!', and the first word was almost decipherable as such. Being trapped like that was quite maddening. Anyone would go 'whew' or something like that.

I'll take this time to remind everyone that there's a bunch of powerful artifacts in the many other glass spheres on display. These are unbreakable, but it won't stop you from trying later, will it?

Back on topic, the robot quickly got all of those cords out of her (they were uncomfortable for many many reasons), and jumped to the floor, then ran to Augen's landing point. When needed, she could run pretty fast. She then proceeded to catch him in such a way as to cushion his long fall. Granted she might not be able to stop the fall completely, but it was better that this person not take it all.

(Augen was caught by a (robot) loli. Is this new?)

I guess that was useful. She did seem in a hurry to not have that guy crippled. After all, he was in the same party as the people trying to save her from these...things and people.

In any case, when all of the things reached the end of their paths, they all came back to form into a small ball.

This 'forming' process was with power auras of doom back again (in the case of those that actually lost them), and now the group was dodging in reverse, with Augen no longer having a safe spot and Zi no longer being in a safe spot sphere.

It was a good thing this new 'Zi' person acted fast, as everyone was useful in this situation, robo helper and Aussie ranger alike.

Granted she didn't quite get the robo thing, nor did she even know what an Aussie was. The first being more important, due to not quite being able to exactly read minds at the moment, she couldn't get any reading from this girl (the second one still being important because you don't know what you're missing). That wasn't important at this particular moment though, she needed to focus more on the fight. Shouki slashed up a bunch of the green ones before that maneuver happened, and after it she had no choice but...oh, most ones she had slashed near her were kind of 'poofed' now, and she didn't really have to dodge much. It's great being near walls from the start~

And it's worse, the closer you are to the center.

*(Yeah, wwwhhhaaatttt a builder, dood. [/sarcasm and inside information])

((WARNING: I worked too long on this post, and too late in the night (to the point it looped to morning) (and by that I mean I was driven off topic countless times in the making, from music to news reporter failures to cleaning my keyboard) (those were in no particular order) so I probably messed up. Reread the thread and catch me on my errors. :V))