|
|
Post by Anastasia Dammerung on Nov 2, 2022 2:13:12 GMT -5
"You're mine! Die!"
Lit only by a faintly glowing computer screen, the face of Anya Dammerung didn't quite have the same intensity as her words as her fingers deftly moved over the keyboard and mouse to eliminate yet another player from the current round of the game she was playing. It was past midnight as usual, and she didn't know or care whether her experience with shooting in real life was the cause for her superb performance in this genre of games.
"GG." The round finished with her team as the champions, and so the blonde Quincy washout downed another gulp of the coffee she had prepared earlier while waiting for another matchup. She could afford to be late to work tomorrow; after all nobody had died recently and she wouldn't be called in until someone kicked the bucket.
The matchup finder finished after a few seconds, and Anya re-entered the game. A few minutes in, though, and several loud barks, howls, and crashes could be heard from outside, loud enough to be heard over the gunfire in the woman's headset.
"Oi! Pipe down, would ya?" She yelled while banging on the table, but the sounds only got louder. And then--
The sound of something large toppling could be heard, at which point the power went out and took the game with it.
"Was zur Hölle?" Anya cursed while banging the table again. She pulled her now-dead headset off and marched to the door, where she was faced with a pack of weird-looking dogs, which had obviously toppled the power pole. The dogs growled at her, clearly raring to fight.
“Geh zum Teufel, Scheiße Hunde," Despite being in just shorts, slippers, and a worn, oversized sweater, Anya's face looked extremely irritated. She invoked the powers of her Quincy Cross, summoning twin mechanical dragon heads with battleship turrets mounted on them.
DEVIL DOGS
Type: Destroy (PvE) (Repeatable)
Level: 1
Description: Locate and eliminate the rogue Hellhounds that are terrorizing a region in the Living World. These monsters are invisible to spiritually unaware individuals, about the size of a large wolf, and breathe fire. They have appeared in an area with high spiritual activity and instead of hunting Sinners, are feeding on anything with ample amounts of reiatsu. The pack leader will be larger than the others and sport a fiery mane around their skull.
Locate and destroy at least 6 Hellhounds.
Eliminate the pack leader, otherwise the others will just respawn on them.
|
|
|
PLAYER
This is what it's like being the biggest and the strongest. I don't even exercise.
Koshou
|
Post by Koshou on Nov 2, 2022 19:27:49 GMT -5
Combing through the night, a dark-clad figure flits from perch to perch along the upper levels of the town, unseen and unnoticed by the masses by and large, most of them oblivious to the the call of spiritual energy, or the the things that go bump in the night. This particular night, the figure seems to be in pursuit of something, moving from place to place with intent and purpose that keeps the unknown Shinigami on the move and following some sense of internal compass that takes him in an erratic pattern all across the town. There's a smash of sound that echoes out from somewhere off a few blocks away and it brings the man's head up sharply. Standing with one foot perched precariously atop another of the town's utility poles. As a cloud passes enough to reveal a streak of moonlight, it highlight's the man's face with a brief passage of light.
Messy, spiked black hair has been swept backward to stay out of his face, and the man's features look almost lazy despite the purposeful manner in which he moves and follows whatever trail he's on the hunt for. A slowly burning cigarette is tucked at the corner of his mouth, dangerously dangling from one corner of his lips as the cherry glows with a dull orange color. Shifting out of sight, the commotion draws him toward that direction like a moth to flame. Arriving from a block afar, his Spiritual Pressure is hardly ever concealed or regulated and it can probably be felt by the hounds and the woman peering out toward them alike. Hattori Koshou will arrive just in time to see the aftermath of the pole tumbling down, and in time with that growl that escapes the Hellhound.
"More of these, huh?" He mumbles to himself, hardly loud enough to carry as he surveys the situation.
|
|
|
|
|
Post by Anastasia Dammerung on Nov 2, 2022 19:50:52 GMT -5
After a brief standoff, the Hellhounds charged at Anya, teeth and claws bared. She jumped out of the way just in time to avoid them, and the demonic beasts instead collided with her apartment wall, leaving cracks in the concrete.
"Gah! Don't break my house!" she complained, unleashing a volley of shots down at the pack with her turrets. While most of them managed to make it out with only minor injuries, one took the full brunt of the blasts and disintegrated. This led the rest of the pack to breathe streams of fire at the hovering Quincy, forcing her to dodge and weave in the air while still unleashing shots.
Then, Anya sensed another spiritual pressure arrive, standing on a nearby roof. A Shinigami, and a scruffy, laid-back looking one at that. He was clearly a different person than the one she met that night by virtue of Reiatsu signature alone. Besides, the man standing in front of her was way better built and didn't wear a lame cosplay hat. She still found him mildly irritating, for one reason:
"Hey, Reaper! You gonna help me out here or not?" she snapped at him as she continued to fire shots while dodging the hounds' flames. As if to punctuate her sentence, the hound she had just disintegrated reformed by the pack leader's side and jumped at the Shinigami.
|
|
|
PLAYER
This is what it's like being the biggest and the strongest. I don't even exercise.
Koshou
|
Post by Koshou on Nov 3, 2022 16:15:32 GMT -5
Even from a bit of a distance, perhaps Anya can see the grin that spreads across Koshou's face which makes the precarious dangle of his cigarette all the more haphazard before his lips purse together briefly. The cherry at the end of the smoke lights up, glowing fresh with a bright red or orange and then he's shifting out of sight as he makes his move.
"Take it easy, kidd-" There's a distinct cut-off from the Soul Reaper's voice as the blasts from this girl's ... DRAGON HEADS?! Come whirling and spinning around in a paired blast that slams into one of the Hellhounds that takes the blast from the girl who must be something special, but it seems that Koshou isn't really entirely in the know either! Disappearing from sight with incredible speed, he reappears just in front of one of the other Hounds that has dodged out of the way of the incoming battery cannon shells of reishi energy. That feral grin just plasters across Hattori's face and his golden-bladed Zanpakuto comes slicing down in an over-hand blow that bites into the bone mask covering the devil dog's face and cleaving through it with a slight slowing of resistance and then speeding up as the particles that bind the creature's physical form together begin to separate and fade away. There's a slight clatter as Koshou shifts his sword defensively, protecting against the gout of flames and vitriol that come spewing out of the dying hound. "Watch where you're firing that thing you almost hit me you little brat why I oughta come up there and -"
Taking time out of the fight to turn his attention up toward where the girl has hopped out of her window and the other hounds are beginning to cause damage to her apartment building, the Soul Reaper is almost taken by surprise when another of the hounds comes leaping toward him and past him as he barely manages to side-step the beast's lunge. "Geeez ..." he breathes, his expression quieting down and growing serious once more.
Anastasia Dammerung
|
|
|
|
|
Post by Anastasia Dammerung on Nov 7, 2022 20:32:28 GMT -5
"That's more like it."
Anya's lips curved into a cocky, feral grin as she saw the burly Shinigami cut one of the hounds apart. Two more of the creatures lunged at her, but the Quincy's twin dragon heads lashed out, catching them by the throats and subsequently unleashing a barrage of Reishi shells at point-blank range.
"So, do you know what these things are?" the platinum-haired woman asked as she sidestepped another flame blast and returned fire with her own turrets. Her face became tinged with mild annoyance, but also snark as the Shinigami told her to avoid friendly fire with a bit of name-calling. "I am not a kid nor a brat, old-timer. And I'm an FPS master; I damn well know how to aim. I hope to the Emperor you're one of the dudes who can."
With that bit of trash talk out of the way, which was done more out of gaming habit than an actual desire to insult, Anya went back to shooting at the weird dogs. However, it seemed that the more dogs she shot, the more came at her, with the reinforcements spawning near the larger one with the flaming mane.
"I'm assuming that's the boss. If we kill it, does it despawn the smaller ones or something?"
|
|
|
PLAYER
This is what it's like being the biggest and the strongest. I don't even exercise.
Koshou
|
Post by Koshou on Nov 8, 2022 15:42:54 GMT -5
A number of differing expressions seem to shift across the Soul Reaper's features in the span of a heartbeat as he has a multitude of reactions to the younger girl's snark in the midst of such an attack, but there's little time to decide on how best to react to the situation as the other Hounds of the pack have really started coming out of the woodwork. One of those apartment buildings that rises up with narrow alleyways behind or to the side of them, the space to move and maneuver is already cramped and far from the ideal place to be getting bombarded by an entire pack of enemies.
"They're something like Hollows, but they're supposed to be on guard duty!" The somewhat gravelly voice of the Shinigami carries a friendly baritone that's broken up from the gravel of his smoking habit. His words come among a flurry of sword blows and swift adjustments The smaller hounds that continue to assault them aren't so bad, and Koshou has come to find these well within his reach. As they jump, yellowish flashes of blade shine like dulled lightning as it cuts through a bone mask here or there, shifting or being raised in defense as one of the downed creatures dies in a gout of fire and ash. "We have to put down the Alpha, or they'll just keep coming!" His yell all but confirms the Gaming First Order logic that the younger girl has applied to the situation, and giving her all the incentive she needs to turn those over-kill Reishi shells hurling toward it instead of the hounds in HIS vicinity no matter what she says about her aiming!
One of the smaller creatures comes scrabbling up the side of a wooden fencing on one side of Koshou, leaping through the air suddenly with the seeming advantage of a surprise attack. Turning suddenly, Koshou's hand manages to press against the bone-like mask covering the Hellhound's face with ease and he grabs with a vicious hold. A split-second passes and pale blue lightning comes blasting through the back end of the skull of that hound, obliterating it's head first and then the rest of its body begins to follow suit. "Byakurai!"
Anastasia Dammerung
|
|
|
|
|
Post by Anastasia Dammerung on Nov 8, 2022 21:53:30 GMT -5
"Funny, they don't feel a thing like Hollows," Anya noted as her right dragon head tore out another hound's throat. "And guard duty for what, exactly?"
Sure enough, the larger dog with a flaming mane was the Alpha, and defeating it would take down the rest of the pack with it. The Quincy started approaching it, dodging or smacking aside any hounds that tried to block her way. She leveled her turrets and focused her fire power into the singular target that was the pack leader, but it howled, summoning more underlings to block the volleys of Reishi shells.
However, doing so drew the pack's attention off of the Shinigami, and he would notice that any hounds he was fighting would disengage and join their allies in trying to fend off the blonde woman's salvos.
"Shinigami! I can't keep this up forever, so strike the Alpha while all the minions are blocking my shots!" Anya called, wincing slightly as a bead of sweat trickled down her forehead from the exertion. The collar and back of her sweater was getting soaked with sweat as well, and her shots were slowly but surely lowering in rate and intensity. Eventually, she'd be forced to use the Reishi left behind by the vanishing hounds as well as the dregs of her own shots in a kind of rebreather technique. She hoped she wouldn't have to resort to that, because while it saved her on a couple of occasions, using it always gave her the worst hangover symptoms ever.
|
|
|
PLAYER
This is what it's like being the biggest and the strongest. I don't even exercise.
Koshou
|
Post by Koshou on Nov 8, 2022 22:08:08 GMT -5
True to the Quincy's words, Koshou can turn and look to see that as she tries to concentrate her fire against the leader of this roaming pack that it'll provide him with a little bit of an opportunity to make a move of his own. He grunts, not really having the answers this girl is asking for, truth be told. Rather than answer in the immediate, instead the Soul Reaper is shifting his footing and turning his attention toward the mass. And the damage that this girl is creating in her otherwise quiet neighborhood and with a wince, it seems like Koshou decides it's better off to get this over with quickly rather than try to reign this girl in.
"Just keep that up!"
The Shinigami calls out toward the girl, and he's leaping up into the air while the attention isn't on him. Gaining some height, the Soul Reaper doesn't appear to have many advanced techniques or special skills but what he doesn't have he seems to make up for with a sense of natural talent and raw strength. Finding the top of a utility pole, Koshou finds the opportunity to drop himself into a dropping attack from above as his hands quickly shift to alter the grasp of the hilt of his zanpakuto as he turns the point of his sword edge downward. There's a wordless shout from the man shortly before he seems to make impact with spawning hounds that continue to protect their Alpha and the larger creature itself. With a lasting flourish of the blade, Koshou smashes into the ground with devastating force that doesn't seem to take any precaution for himself or his own well-being as crags of raw spiritual energy and bits of electricity and static seem to thread and spread across the ground and dissipate itself as the Soul Reaper lands with a loud explosion and kicks up quite the cloud of smoke!
"What're you waiting for?! Finish this thing already!" The voice come echoing out of the smoke, coughing and sounding battered and beaten but still alive.
|
|
|
|
|
Post by Anastasia Dammerung on Nov 8, 2022 22:36:07 GMT -5
With a mighty crash of thunder that caused streaks of electricity to arc across the ground, the Soul Reaper leapt into the pack and seemingly smashed all the remaining underling hounds. He seemed quite beaten up by that attack, however, as his voice conveyed.
"What're you waiting for?! Finish this thing already!"
So it wasn't done yet? The Alpha emerged from the smoke cloud, alone and limping, clearly injured. It attempted to shoot out a blast of flame at Anya, but she lifted a turret and shot into its open mouth, causing a small explosion within that made the dog cough up smoke and what appeared to be lava.
Anya charged, letting out a guttural bellow as her dragon turrets reared and seemed to roar as well. The Alpha responded in kind, loping on its wounded legs while emitting a fragmented growl. A moment later, they collided, Anya's twin Spirit Weapon biting and snapping at the hound's body as the creature also attempted to claw at the Quincy woman. However, even though the Alpha's claws managed to tear at Anya's sleeves and the front of her shirt, they did no real damage, while the dragon heads ripped through the beast's flesh easily. Eventually, Anya managed to clamp down on the hound's chest with one turret as she forced the other down its mouth.
"Gotterdammerung." she announced flatly as the blasts tore through her foe's head, finally disintegrating it. The fight over, her Spirit Weapons dissolved as well as she staggered slightly from exhaustion. "You did well today, Jormungandr."
"And I suppose you did too, Shinigami. GG." she said, offering a hand. "I'm Anya Dammerung. Should be nice to at least know your name--"
However, the damage her sweater took from the Alpha caused it to split in half down the front. Anya blushed slightly, but otherwise did nothing.
"I-i suppose you can look a little, for helping me out today..."
|
|
|
PLAYER
This is what it's like being the biggest and the strongest. I don't even exercise.
Koshou
|
Post by Koshou on Nov 8, 2022 22:48:56 GMT -5
The sound of a resounding THUMP comes a backdrop to the clearing of dust, smoke, and debris from what remains of the alleyway outside the back of this girl's apartment building. Coughing, and waving his hand in front of his face it's first the shadowy silhouette of the Soul Reaper that can be seen making steps forward as the dust slowly dissipates to reveal Hattori Koshou as he steps past the last of the obstruction.
"Jeez, that's a bit of overkill, don't you think? What're people gonna -" His voice comes calling out ahead of him along with a friendly and affable expression that graces his features despite being covered in the grit and grime and soot of being half torn apart himself. His words are quick to cut off, however along with rapid blinks and then a nervous ring of laughter along with a close-eyed smile. "H-haha! That's funny! No, no no - I'm sure you have something back up there!" When the man's arm extends it's to hold up a hand in front of his face with palm outward to block his own view while trying to find a way to introduce himself without looking like a complete idiot.
"I'm .. uh - Hattori Koshou! Ne-newly assigned patrol for these parts, while things like these are still running around on the loose! I'd say it's nice to meet you but it's been kind of a disaster!"
Anastasia Dammerung
|
|
|
|
|
Post by Anastasia Dammerung on Nov 8, 2022 23:19:09 GMT -5
Fortunately, the Shinigami appeared to be fine, at least enough to joke around while trying not to look. Anya could appreciate that, as it meant that even this manly specimen of a Soul Reaper wouldn't take advantage of the current situation. It was a contrast from the rumors surrounding the Quincy medical corps. So instead, she held the tattered ends of her sweater together with one hand and laughed softly.
"Yeah, it is overkill, what about it? I don't do things by half measures," she said, looking at the damage to the surroundings. Not only was the power still down, but the battle had left lots of scorch marks and even cracked craters all over the place. "I hope this doesn't come out of my rent."
"Hattori Koshou. I will remember that name. Should you need my services, I'll come to your aid." Anya looked at her apartment again with a hint of irritation, seeing as there were now cracks in the walls. "I really don't want to have to move..."
"See you around, then," The Quincy turned around and walked back to her apartment, leaving Koshou behind her with a wave. Closing the door, she staggered to her bedroom, and for the first time in ages, immediately fell asleep.
|
|
|
