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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 17:08:03 GMT -5
Souji had actually intended to go with Minato, but the way Naoto had gone was the same was as Minato. He sighed, and took the last remaining direction. "Good luck."
After a few minutes, Minato and Naoto came across a group of shadows. They all seemed to be Maya types.
"I'll take care of these," Naoto said. Sukuna-Hikona raised its lightsaber, and several glowing white spell tags appeared around the shadows before the shadows exploded into whatever it was that made shadows up.
"Mahamaon?" Minato asked. Naoto nodded.
"It looks like those shadows were offshoots of the main shadow. I don't sense the shadow's presence around here," Naoto said.
And unbeknownst to the rest of the group that had come to take down the Arcana Shadow, Kanji was heading right towards the shadow itself.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 17:26:44 GMT -5
Yuugi and Atem had reached their location. Yuugi was hanging back as Atem did most of the damage. The short teenager didn't know when Temu had picked up the skill, but Atem was able to hit all the shadows at once with a zio attack apparently named Mazio. He kept a defensive stance with his sword and made sure Atem had Rakukaja active the whole time. The former Pharaoh was doing well enough without Dia.
A final Mazio and the remaining shadows dissipated into the emotional miasma that formed them. Atem rubbed the back of his neck. This wasn't the main shadow, he had probably worked harder than he should. He regretted not asking Souji for some of his skill point healing items now. He looked back at Yuugi.
"This isn't good. It means one of the other groups will find the main Shadow, and Kanji is by himself."
"That's just a one in four chance though, right?"
"Except I think this Shadow is more devious than we're giving it credit for... we need to head back."
-----
Atem's worry had been an understatement. The shadows were all notoriously quick. Not the Mayas that Minato-tachi and Yuugi-tachi had fought, but with the boost the Duelist Arcana gave them, they had been able to constantly move around the four points picked up upon by the group. When the group had split up, the Duelist Shadow had shifted to wait for Kanji. He was by himself and seemed the most reckless of the current group.
The shadow that would await kanji looked like a nightmare fuel combination of animals. Its hindquarters were much like a hippopotamus, its frontquarters like a lion. The head was that of a crocodile with a lion's mane. The head and hindquarters were silver, the frontquarters gold. A gold "third eye" of sorts was upon the forehead of the crocodile head, and stupidly large falcon wings extended from the back of the creature. Its tail was like a lion's, except the tuft looked like a mace. Atem and Yuugi would know it seemed to have based itself upon the creature known as an "Ammit" in Egyptian mythology... the others, who knew?
As soon as Kanji was close enough to see it, it let out a roar, loud enough that there was a slight chance the other groups would hear it. It was a little odd a lion's roar was coming from a crocodile's head. It launched itself towards Kanji, a cast of Elec Break occuring mid-launch.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 17:42:13 GMT -5
Using his stupidly overpowered ascended Persona, Souji had no trouble defeating the shadows that he'd gone to fight. He felt two other presences disappear as well. So that meant that the Shadow had been hiding at one point of the cross.
And then Souji heard the roar.
He whipped around. That was the way Kanji had gone. Of course it was the way Kanji had gone!
Without a second thought, the teen ran off in the direction Kanji had gone.
---------------
Kanji flinched as the Elec Break hit him. Alright, so the bastard lion... crocodile... thing was going to use electricity attacks. Bring it on.
"Crush 'em, Rokuten Maoh!" Kanji yelled. Rokuten Maoh swung his club/sword down at the shadow in a Mighty Swing.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 17:54:04 GMT -5
The Shadow felt the impact from the fire-like blade. It had to use its wings to adjust fafter getting hit. Which showed another wonderful trait of the thing. Those wings weren't just for show. A bit of electricity crackled in a ball above its back, roughly where the wings would meet if the positioned right, and a huge bolt of lightning shot at Kanji. It wouldn't take a genius to know it was Ziodyne.
-----
Both Atem and Yuugi had broken into a run upon hearing the roar. It was coming from far ahead, the direction Kanji had gone. Atem had an intense look on his face. He had expected this. But they couldn't have gone in one group. If the Shadow was this manipulative, it would have had them on a wild goose chase all night. He didn't know how many shadows an Arcana Shadow could attract, but there was a chance they would have never found the boss. Even more than that first hour, he was frustrated the souls that made up Duel Monsters were sealed during the Dark Hour. Even if the gods were immune to the Hour, as he suspected, he wouldn't have the necessary tributes.
They reached the main area the same time Souji. Yuugi gave him a worried look, "Where's Minato-kun and Shirogane-chan!?"
"They'll meet us!" Atem shouted. He saw the look on Souji's face. It wasn't just a case of urgency. Kanji was a close friend of the silver haired teen's. Atem picked speed back up, having no doubt Souji and Yuugi would be on his tail. With the concern in Souji's face, the teen would likely overtake him. Nefertum and Temu floated above their respective other selves as they ran.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 18:04:49 GMT -5
Without his resistance to Electricity, Kanji was hit rather hard by the shadow. This wasn't good. And this shadow seemed rather strong too... he couldn't beat it by himself. Especially if he was restricted to physical skills like he was. Kanji had no healing skills on his Persona.
"Lay down and die already!" Kanji yelled as Rokuten Maoh used Vile Assault.
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Souji had easily overtaken Atem, and Izanagi-no-Okami, which was still materialized, had followed after quite quickly. It wasn't long before Souji made it to the shadow.
"Sempai!" Kanji yelled. Souji took up a battle stance. Right. They needed to do this now.
------------
Minato and Naoto were both on their way to the battle. This had been just what that shadow had been planning. Split them up and then take them all down seperately.
"Dammit Kanji!" Naoto yelled as she and Minato approached.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 18:11:42 GMT -5
Understandably for the skill, the Shadow was hit harder by the Vile Assault. It actually dropped down a few feet, having to fully extend its wings to catch itself. It was a few moments after Souji had arrived that Atem and Yuugi showed up. It was after Kanji got hit by Ziodyne, so Atem managed to make a mistake.
"Temu, Zio!" shouted the former Pharaoh. The attack impacted without a hitch... and the Shadow seemed to be the better for it. Atem cussed under his breath. He hadn't realized the damn things could be healed by the right attack.
"Use Dia on Kanji!" Yuugi ordered. The skill was really rather useless at this level of fighting, but Nefertum didn't have any other healing abilities. The most it would likely do is give a small boost to Kanji. If that much.
"Yuugi, the sword!" Atem shouted. Yuugi nodded and tossed the sefet to Atem, who caught it. The moment of distraction meant the ensuing Maziodyne hit him a bit harder than it might have. It hurt like hell, but at least Temu was resistant to the attack.
Yuugi looked behind him. Where were Minato and Naoto...?
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 18:19:39 GMT -5
Souji had no idea where the two of them were himself, but now they had to help Kanji. He commanded Izanagi-no-Okami to fire off a Garudyne attack at the shadow. Hopefully the shadow was weak against Garu skills...
Naoto and Minato's arrival was announced by a Megidolaon attack exploding right above the shadow, hopefully doing a fair bit of damage.
"Sorry we're late!" Minato yelled.
"It's no problem, now get back!" Souji yelled. Minato still couldn't summon his persona, and it wasn't worth it to risk it. Minato had already stepped quite a bit away from the battle as it was.
Kanji felt a little better thanks to Nefertum's Dia skill, but not much. Rokuten Maoh used the same attack as he had before, seeing that it had done quite a bit of damage.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 18:28:18 GMT -5
The Shadow didn't appear to be weak, but it certainly wasn't resistant. And the wind-based skill had the unintended but helpful effect of knocking the flying shadow into Rokuten Maoh's sword as it came down. The shadow roared indignantly and an energy pulsed out from it. Minato was hit by it too, despite his distance. The entire group felt the draining effect of Masukunda.
The creature had flown higher after the attack. Elemental attacks would still hit it, as would Persona based physical ones, but it was effectively out of the range of Atem's sword. He clenched his teeth as the Masukunda hit. Yuugi felt rather useless during all of this. Atem couldn't use his cards, he couldn't use his COMP. And Nefertum was not useful for direct battling.
"Rakukaja!" he ordered, and Nefertum did a motion similar to when he cast Dia. He'd felt the draining effects of the Masukunda, and while raising the party's defense wouldn't nullify it, it would at least make the group less vulnerable. It didn't change how useless he felt here.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 18:42:30 GMT -5
Souji flinched. This was going to make fighting this shadow a lot harder than it should be.
"If anyone has Dekaja, now would be the time to use it!" Souji yelled before firing off an Agidyne at the shadow. The Agidyne ended up missing by a fair amount. Souji swore. His aim was really off.
Sukuna-Hikona flitted up to where the shadow was in the air before taking its saber and flying around rapidly, attempting to slash the shadow with its Vorpal Blade attack. Vorpal Blade tended to hit multiple times, so it had to hit at least once.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 18:55:52 GMT -5
A large ball of lightning appeared between the wings of the Shadow and it fired off another Maziodyne. Atem hissed as the attack hit him. The mere fact that he was resistant and it was doing this much damage was a pretty painful indicator as to how much he was outclassed here. He jerked his head as he heard a thump. Yuugi had fallen to his knees, and Nefertum had vanished, the card appearing in Yuugi's pocket. The attack had been enough to break the concentration needed to maintain his Persona.
"Yuugi!"
Atem took a defensive position in front of Yuugi and mentally ordered his Persona to attack. Temu shot towards the Shadow, having to dodge to avoid getting hit by a sideswipe. It placed its full palm on the creature the first chance it got and its "third eye" glowed. The Shadow jerked back, and seemed to have gone into a panic mode. Those familiar with Shadow fights would realize Temu had managed to inflict fear on the thing. How effective it would be remained unclear.
As it was, Yuugi had been knocked prone and couldn't attack.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 19:06:37 GMT -5
Obviously, Yuugi being knocked down was not a good thing, and none of the three Investigation Team members could use healing skills.
"We've gotta finish this thing off now!" Kanji yelled.
"You two keep using Physical skills on it. I'll figure out its weakness. Atem, you try to keep it afraid!" Souji yelled. Izanagi-no-Okami fired off another Agidyne at the shadow, this one hitting. Kanji and Naoto continued using the same attacks as they had before.
Minato ran over to Yuugi to help him up. "You should step out of the battle for now..."
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 19:12:44 GMT -5
Yuugi really didn't want to step out. He didn't want to leave Atem to fight. He was having troubles, and he didn't want the taller teen to get hurt because of him. His legs were weak though, and he probably would have been near hopeless for getting up without Minato's help. Minato could probably tell with how much Yuugi was dragging him down by the arm. He glanced at Atem, who was so focused on the fight he wasn't even sure the former Pharaoh was aware of him. He turned to Minato sadly and nodded, taking the teen's support to stumble back with him.
Atem nodded, going into defensive. The Shadow still seemed to be suffering the effects of fear, and it actually hesitated before attacking. And instead of firing off another Maziodyne, which would have probably been the best choice at this point, it instead through another status ailment effect at the party. This time it was Matarunda, and most if not all would get tagged with a decreased attack.
Atem recognized the strategy, and realized they had a chance after all. He turned towards Souji, "Hit it with everything you've got! Its trying to play it safe by making us as weak as possible!"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 19:23:27 GMT -5
Atem didn't need to tell Kanji twice. Kanji decided now was the time to whip out his most powerful physical skill. Primal Force did some rather severe Physical damage to one enemy, and it also cost a lot on the part of the user, which was why Kanji didn't use it much. But if the Shadow was going to play this way, well, he was gonna go all out. Rokuten Maoh took his blade and slammed it down hard on the shadow. Kanji flinched from the spiritual recoil. Skills that cast from HP suck.
Sukuna-Hikona fell back as it charged up another Megidolaon. Izanagi-no-Okami was doing the same thing, and the two of them fired their Megidolaons at the same time. That was sure to do quite a bit of damage.
Hopefully.
"Come on..." Minato said from where he was in the back of the group.
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Post by mugenginga on Nov 1, 2009 19:29:11 GMT -5
Quite a bit of damage? Quite a bit of damage!? Let's just say the combined force of the anvil like blade strike, which looked like it hurt like hell even with Kanji's attack being dropped did "quite a bit of damage". The combined forces of both Megidolaon's collided on either side of the creature and exploded with such force it was basically impossible to see the damn thing... until it came crashing down from the solar-level light explosion, the areas of its body with gold fur literally smoking.
It hit... hard, to put it nicely. As in the tiling of the ITS cracked. One almost has to feel sorry for the janitor the next day, who would end up having to explain the freakish impact that no one had seen or heard. Despite all that, the damn thing still moved. Its wings were twisted badly and if it had been something other than a shadow it would probably have broken most of the bones in its body, but it still moved. It couldn't attack due to setting new records for getting knocked down, but it was still alive.
"We can defeat it if we hit now!" Atem shouted. He didn't know terms like "All Out Attack" but that was indeed the opening that had just arrived. And there was little doubt that said All Out Attack would throughly destroy the thing.
On a side note, it was still scared. But as things were now, can you really blame the damn thing?
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Nov 1, 2009 19:34:56 GMT -5
Souji gave the nod of approval to the rest of the party. Hell yeah he wasn't going to pass this chance up.
"Yeah! Let's kick some ass!" Kanji yelled. He grabbed his weapon (a large desk chair) and ran forward. Naoto and Souji both followed after, and Minato, not to miss out, grabbed his short sword as well and ran into the All Out Attack.
Admittedly, it was a bit hard to see what with the cloud of dust the fighting group had kicked up, but they were practically murdering the shadow, just with their melee weapons, not even needing their Personas for this part.
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