A Clash of Resonant Hearts

As fine as their manuvers were, Rush and Richelle forgot two things. One: There are two sides to a wall. Two: What goes up, must come down. Sinna was no fool. While she didn't anticipate them reacting so well to her orb, what she did know was that it hadn't detonated. It wasn't some simple grenade that was timed. That would be a different move, for a different occasion. Mana pooled in one hand as she awaited to hear the noise she so desperately waited for.

Poor, poor foolish Richelle. In deflecting it upwards, she prevented the Stygian Pearl from flying any further. Which meant that the point of its detonation would be exactly where it SHOULD have detonated, albeit minus two targets. But it would still detonate in a mess of broken buildings, crushed cobblestone roads, and trash heaps. And what happens when a freshly broken pile of rubble gets stirred up?

The ting of the pearl hitting the pavement was the noise she anticipated. A concussive BOOM echoed through the area, right as Richelle made her remarks. Sinna ignored the woman, vaulting over the wall and heading into the newly formed dust cloud. It really was a shame that they chose to flank her from her sides, really. In the cloud of smoke, she sweeped up a handful of metal shards and pebbles, throwing them into the mana pool in her hand. Sure, her sticky grenade could stick to objects. But, it was so effective it could have objects stick to it. What is more effective than a shrapnel bomb? The witch held onto it, waiting for the right moment.

Sinna turned around in the center of the large cloud (Or so she believed) and Raven Retreated one time to fling her to the other side, where there was a whole new row of half-destroyed buildings for her to hide out in. It would serve her interests to keep running through the convenient cover, so she did just that.

Little did she know that her little journey through wreckage would bring her closer to Lao.

 

Shuya took a shot a Sinna just as the impact of the Stygian Pearl hit him, flinging him to another edge of town and knocking him out both at the same time. A couple moments passed before the Nobody recovered, as he got up rubbed his aching it took him a couple minutes to process the damage that that one attack had managed to bring upon that part of town. Rubble was everywhere, and as Rush prepared to look for the one who caused this destruction he was surrounded by a horde of heartless.

"I guess that will have to wait for now..." Rush thought to himself as he went into a stance.

 

Richelle lifts her shield right in front of herself so that she can block the explosion. By the time she put her shield up, she saw that the mage is gone. "She's gone again...hm..." Richelle walked up to the gunsman and started to converse with him. "We need to destroy the walls. She is using them as her strong defense. Knowing her, she will try to use a sneak attack. We must be discreet." As she looked around, she was shocked. A thunder spell caught her eye from afar as her own captain was using it in an attempt to kill the enemy.

"Ca... CAPTAIN LAO! NO!" Richelle ends up running towards her leader, trying to save him with her own defense spell as soon as possible. "Hold on! Please!" Not thinking, she let her emotion push her and forget all about the mage, only thinking of Lao and to protect him.

 

Sinna could see it. The moment Richelle's grief overcame her awareness, she had lost. The witch was always aware, always ready for that perfect opportunity to strike, and it was then and now. One JJavelin to the back of the head is all it would take to potentially kill the enemy spellcaster, and exactly that was cast. Richelle would never see it coming, the witch reasoned. Why would her guard be up after seeing a loved one so brutally killed in one go?

Sinna wasted no time after the spell was cast. She trawled the houses in various states of disrepair and destruction, some with minor, some with major, damage. On the way to seeking the final barrier to her progress, that Nobody sniper, she picked up a cast iron pan that could likely bludgeon a minotaur to death and still be dent-free.

She didn't stop moving. Her movement stayed erratic like a rabbit's, ducking, bobbing, and weaving as much as possible in case that sniper took another shot.She only had enough mana for a few more tricks, plus that saved sticky grenade, so she had to make the rest of it count.

 

Rush saw the Javelin heading for Richelle's head and just barely managed to cast a reflect, blocking it as Rush scanned the area, checking for the source of what could have been Richelle's death. "Damn... she's on the move, what is she... some sort of Ninja?" he said as he loaded fresh ammunition into his blade/sword. He decided it would be best to get Richelle back on her feet, it would be best seeing as he probably wouldn't be able to take down that mage alone. As he made his way over to Richelle he made sure to look out for Sinna. As he looked over Lao's body he sighed, "He died the death of hero... so, are you just going to let that slip past you and stay depressed or will you fight and make his sacrifice worth something?" said Rush to Richelle.

 

OOC: Calling baloney, considering that Reflect is a short-range spell and Rush was nowhere near Richelle.

 

OOC: I'll just pretend that it never happened.

Richelle looked back to see if Rush was ok and saw a javelin heading straight towards her. She lifts up her shield up by the time she stop running but was thrust backwards by the force of the javelin. Falling backwards, she decided not to worry about the black mage. She was more concern about her leader. The soldier continue running until she finally stood over her captain. "Captain Lao? Captain? Please! Wake up!" She tested Lao's pulse only to see that he is truly gone. Richelle did not know how to express herself at all. Nothing but tears was rolling down her face.

"i cannot...express..." Richelle closed her captain's eyes as she saw the weapons of her leader. Looking at them, she picked up the Dragontail spear, put it on her back and put the Dragon Wings swords on her side. "I will fight until I see the end... but..." The lady sighed and start charging up, glowing a light sapphire around her. "Captain... give me strength..."

 

Sinna located the gunner, ending up in a building behind him. Her years of destruction, both subtle and overt, taught her when silence was key and how to spot a troublesome floorboard, so her movement was absolutely silent.

Just one more. . . She thought, peering at him through an eye-sized hole in the wall below a window and entirely unaware that Richelle managed to miraculously notice the Javelin in time.

There were ways to kill without the use of magic. There were ways to land without alerting an opponent. Sinna knew all of them. The anarchist gracefully vaulted out of the window, her sling held in her outstretched hands. One hand, the one with the sticky grenade, had the sling partially wrapped around, so that if she detonated it, she would suffer less damage to her person. Probably still would lose her hand, though. Her projected course of motion would put the long, thick fabric just in front of the gunner. When she landed, she would pull the strap tight and wrap her legs around his waist, ensuring that her grip stayed and his neck throttled. If he made any motions to escape, she would detonate her bomb. In any case, this last support of government would fall.

But why would he know if she was above him, Sinna reasoned. There was no possible way he could be alerted in a mere second to get away from either an imminent choking or a shrapnel-laden death.

Check, and mate!

OOC: Since his last post was void, I took it into assumption that Rush was just getting up from his little incident with Sinna's explosion.