Re: The Jamaican Acquisition

Tue Apr 18, 2017 10:45 am

<< PLAY THE MUSIC FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE >>

Artist: N/A - Song: N/A - Word Count: 1591

Stings body whistled through the air as his fist crept ever closer to his end destination. But in an instant, a thought passed through his mind as he noticed the girl in his peripherals.

“What the fuuuuckk-----”

As his eyes moved within the constraints of his skull, he came to quickly notice that whatever his fist was encountering wasn’t Magnolia, a dummy? An illusion? A doll? Possibilities shot through his mind as his fist shot through the air; his electric current armor radiated, forming it’s signature network as Magnolia landed two abrupt shots to the wrist and shoulder. His eyes narrowed as he neared the ground, his neurons fired rapidly across his nervous system as he attempted to comprehend what had just happened.

“FUCK”

Shouted the orange haired Vizard as his right fist connected with the ground. The kinetic energy that was generated by his descent and the additional force that was applied to his body by the Shinigami girl began to instantly seep into the ground. It was a transit property of his electric current armor; the ability to shift all his bodies kinetic energy to one point to deal the upmost damage. Thereby, the instant his fist smashed into the ground, his body came to a stand still while the very earth around it cried out in agony. The earth shook from the impact and began to crack beneath his fist, before the kinetic energy radiated from the point if impact into the vicinity.

In split second, a crack turned into a full meteoritic eruption. The force that was to be generated by Sting crashing into the ground like a loose canon would have created a lot of force, but not anywhere near as much force as what his punch had created thanks to the support of the electric current armor. In that instant, the electric network that covered his body blinked on and off, casting an orange hue over the ground around him. The seismic vibrations would begin to rip the very earth from the grounds as they travelled out from the center point of impact into the immediate vicinity.

The ground would ripple as the paved areas erupted, leaving nothing but dirt. The ripple slammed into the dome that was forged by one of the combatants, shaking the very fabric of the masterful creation that had kept the group hidden from the rest of the world. In the meantime, Sting remained motionless, his fist still embedded into the ground as the earth beneath his fist simply disintegrated from the pressure generated by the impact while rubble flew in every direction.

He eyed his right fist as the last trace of the electric current armor began to slowly blink off. Suddenly, his sight was diverted to the crack that had formed on the opposite side of the dome, it appeared that there was a means of escaping this tragic barrier technique. As his sight focused on the barrier, he came to notice a creation manifest itself from the body of a women that stood but a hundred or so meters away from Stings location. However, as the ripple returned to the center point of origin, the area was engulfed in a thick layer of dust that immediately obstructed sight.

He grunted briefly, as his spun on his heels to glance over at the young girl that rather marvellously finessed her escape from near instant death. Raising his hands, he clapped as his psychotic smile crept back across his face. As his hands clapped together, energy erupted from his body with every clap, pushing the thick layer of dust to the outer areas of the dome. In a matter of seconds, the dust passed the individual that was dressed in a rather stupendous suit. It appeared that he survived the initial point of contact with the Cero, which was rather impressive.

While Stings was facing Magnolia, his eyes briefly wondered over to the location of the white suit buffoon, his lips parting as he addressed the previously asked question.

“Sting. Chikara.”

The clear majority of individuals who knew that name presumed that Sting was dead, even his own brother was under the impression that Sting had gotten himself killed. The speculations were down to the fact that since Sting attacked the Seireitei but a year or so ago, no one had seen him and thus everyone presume that he had died on his little venture. How wrong were they, ey?

As his lips parted and the words ‘Sting’ and ‘Chikara’ escaped his mouth, his energy exploded upwards around him, forming an orange, menacing skull that lingered briefly. The skull ascended around twenty-five meters into the air before abruptly vanishing. Sting stood there, raising his right hand up to his head, pushing it toward his left shoulder before bringing it back to his right shoulder. In both instances, the bones around his neck, released the compressed air, releasing a thorough cracking sound. His eyes focused on his arm once again, as he shook his head; the smile slowly crept away as he focused on Magnolia once again.

“Look what you’ve done… ” he uttered. The electric current armor briefly flickered across his left arm and torso before dispersing once more. “That was nice-, what you did back there… No one has eeeeveeer dodged my punch like that. Hahah-, I like it. I miiight- even let you live after I beat you into the ground.”

“She made a fool out of you. And you’re complimenting her? This isn’t like you. Let me take the driving seat real quick, Ill show you how it’s done… ” the voice of Stings inner hollow passed through Stings mind, as an irritated look shot across Stings facial region.

For a brief instant, Stings left eye turned black as the hollow attempted to take control of his body. In that instant, the inner hollow shot a wink toward Magnolia as Sting immediately re-assumed control. The eye returned to it’s native colour as the dust that had settled on the ground erupted into the vicinity; Sting was on the move.

From Stings perspective, he had to take another approach with the girl. Attempting to finish it in a single blow wasn’t the best course of action. So, he decided to go toe to toe again the Shingami girl. As he utilised the Hoho method of transportation he closed the gap between himself and the girl in an instant. His left fist was already moving towards its intended location, the chest. Stings attacks carrier pin point precision, hence why he shifted his weight into the punch to generate enough force to prompt the girl to evade.

The instant she utilised Hoho, Sting would pursue and the moment the lightning surrounded her feet, two spikes would edge forth from the lightning, aiming to pierce the girls Achilles at a moment’s notice. Sting would simple utilise the electrons and protons that radiated ever so abundantly from the lightning to create to basic constructs that would oscillate at an accelerated pace, fast enough to effortlessly slice through the Achilles, upon contact. The situation would put the girl in a bit of a predicament, as no doubt she would be focused on the barrage of punches that were coming toward her before ever considering her own strengths as weaknesses.

If the spikes were to pierce the girls Achilles, Sting would swing two punches toward the girl, the first of the two would be delivered by his left fist as he’d deliver a crisp jab to the girls abdomen, while the second punch delivered a powerful straight to the girls ribs in an attempt to shatter the bones that kept her lungs in place. Naturally, the right first would connect with the right side of the girls ribcage, giving her the opportunity to suppress the dispersion of pressure across the ribcage, so that not all ribs are broken in a simultaneous fashion. His left fist would connect with the general area around the adrenal glands. The damage from the left punch would be felt around the girls kidneys but it wouldn’t be long before the pressure from the quick combination sent the girl flying into the distance.

Had the attacks been performed with the electric current armor still active, Sting would have been able to deliver body disfiguring blows by focusing all his kinetic energy to a single point of impact. As a child, he was always told not to play with his food, but it had been a while since he had last enjoyed a good fight and considering what the girl had already shown him, there was no doubt more in store from this petite machine of a Shinigami.

If his plan was to be successful, he would simple stand still, allowing the girls body to fly off into the distance from the pressure of the punches. His right hand would ascend a moment later as he’d shoot an additional Cero toward Yaksha. Hell, if one resulted in the loss of a leg, Sting wondered what another one would do to the suited and booted hollow.

Naturally, there was one member of this battle that Sting hadn’t forgotten about, the girl with a rather disfigured creation who had created this dome. Because she was in the equation, he remained on guard, if she had attempted to interrupt Stings plan, a whole different approach would have to be taken to secure the outcome of this battle…

Wed Apr 19, 2017 9:32 am

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The Jamaican Acquisition - Page 2 6EdIfMt

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Artist: N/A - Song: N/A

Dust and debri clouded the air, until the sharp staccato of sting’s hands broke both the silence after the otherworldly collision and dispersed the very dust cloud which obscured everything. Her eyes shone like golden swords, glinting with ferocious intent; her stance shifting almost imperceptibly; her foot shifting forward but an inch as sting began to speak, his gaze already having shifted to another person to answer a question whilst magnolia’s sword slipped back in its sheath. This entire time though other than those two small actions magnolia hadn’t actually moved that much, rather the shinigami had maintained a calm aura about her, one that was only permeated by the sensation that she was a honed blade, that every inch of her was focused towards this fight. Infact as sting tried or at least spoke at her, the shinigami hadn’t answered or retorted even once, rather this normally rowdy lass was completely silent, and eventually her silence was rewarded as the tensions hit an all time high.

Sting for a lack of a better explanative to get down the sequence of events, essentially in time that rivaled that of instantaneous movement had appeared before her, almost like he simply ceased to exist at his previous location, and had almost upon a whim decided to suddenly occupy the space in front of magnolia, it was That fast. Yet, sensing something even as minute as stings own tampering with the electrical cloud of ions and electrons that permeated the air was enough to tip her off that something wasn’t right. So rather than evading the movement that sting laid upon her her eyes rapidly shifted back and forth, clearly taking in several if not more things at once.

Almost in slow motion magnolia’s perception of stings movements had slowed them down to a crawl, in the thrall of battle she had entered a state of hyper awareness, by focusing on sting and only sting; filtering out everything else, she was able to achieve this state, so as stings fist infinitely neared her chest her back foot rather than moving in a smooth cresent, had twisted, her entire body shifting along this axis so the fist slid by her, just barely brushing against the surface of her clothing to cause a ferocious blast of air to fly by her. Then? As stings second attack took place, in conjunction with her manipulating the very ions around her, as a countermeasure to the oscillating force that had been directed at her body, a magnetic phenomena forcing the very ions that comprised stings attack to become opposing from one another, not only removing oscillation, but ripping it apart outright.

If this wasn’t enough , as sting's fist neared her gut, due to her new body position it was just right for her elbow to meet stings oncoming fist, this short and compact blow having ample force and angulation to shatter the bones in stings had from a short exchange such as this that probably spanned a second at it’s maximum time-frame, and infinitely shorter at it’s fastest. If one way paying attention they’d notice a second aspect to why this second punch, with it’s monstrous force couldn’t fully exert itself upon her. Which was in the second her elbow had contacted his fist, she had stepped inwards, meeting it while his arm wasn’t fully extended rather than when it was. This of course drained a small portion of the attacks potential from it, weakening it to some point.

Now while all this was going on, magnolia’s body then slid in time with the brief moment between impact and reaction. Once again utilizing the precise moment that their bodies clashed to strike the partially extended and slightly bent surface of stings elbow. Just like he previously sought to cripple her, she had returned this sentiment, this fast blow which took place by her arm rapidly extending to slam into the joint an an angle. If this took place in the second of impact it was highly likely for the joint to actually become vaporized.

From there she decided to give him a taste of his own medicine, electricity rapidly condensed into the form of an electromagnetic wave, expanding directly from her body anything metallic, or that could be magnetised would quickly groan under the force within a mile. From there? It would all be thrown backwards, piping in the ground, twisted steel beams of buildings, all of it simply was blasted away in this moment; and while this all occurred her tiny fist slammed into the male's stomach. Utilizing demon shattering blows and iron fist in conjunction it would have enough force to not only most likely rupture organs, but the blow itself would whip up a blast of air that would cause a circular gouge to be hewn from the earth behind sting, the gargantuan force only stopping as the wave of earth it took with it turned into another pile of rubble. Following this motion her hand made a knife shape and slid across the air in a diagonal descent, pulling back to once more be tucked by her side.

The outcome of this motion? The thin layer of reishi she had condensed upon he palm was enough to leave a huge gash in the ground, the electron repulsed in the shape of a knife-blade easily ripping through the already shattered earth, given at this point? They’d most likely be standing in a meteoric crater, spanning at bare minimum two miles in circumference, just from the forces at play from the truly catastrophic amount of force that was being thrown around. Heaven and earth simply were in a constant state of upheaval, and even so magnolia still refused to talk, she simply reacted in the heat of battle, because in battle; the careless would be slain, and the cautious would be victorious.

Thu Apr 20, 2017 7:18 pm

CRUSH THE INVADERS

MASARU

Song: Kamen Rider Necrom Theme - Artist: Kamen Rider Ghost - Words: DUNNO

He had been down for long enough, the time he spent laying down he should have spent fighting of making more ganma. As the ganma stood he looked around and realized...if he could make them from nothing...maybe he could make them duplicate themselves and thus double or even triple the number of troops he had. Standing and walking out, the commander tried to stop him, Masaru pat the blue ganma's back as a sign of thanks but Masaru and his gathered around, there were at least 50 in the room Masaru was in...but there were more spread out through the ruined building. By pressing the button on the side of the Uloader made his reiatsu surge through him and he slammed his hand onto the ground and a green circle with varying glyphs and symbols appeared and the ganma all started to split, divide and multiply en mass. As the troops multiplied in great number and an army was more swiftly formed the Blue ganma would split as well but only once.

Draining the energy from himself again as he pushed himself simply too far and then just focused more. He was determined to see his army come into existence and play a vital role in stopping sting, he inhaled sharply and then let out a determine shout as he pushed himself further and the Ganma army sprung up. Pulling out the Musashi Eyecon, Masary stared at it for but a few seconds and activated it. Placing it in the uloader while exhausted was probably the best thing for him as the Dmashii few from the eyecon and replaced the Necrom damashii. That familiar slow tune played as the Uloader called out -Thousand Cuts-. Pulling out the GanGanSaber Masaru sighed as his energy was restored by the eyecon...at least enough for him to not feel like fleeing to go sleep mid battle. Masaru and his commanders spread the forces out and into two groups, the gunners and the bladesmen.

Masaru gave a signal, pointing his blade at Sting and all the Ganma opened fire at him, trying not to hit Magnolia or anyone else that was fighting sting. Masaru swapped his weapon to gun mode and fired as well to try and pin Sting down somewhere, the high powered reiatsu shots might not even hurt him but with so many they might be able to make a dent or distraction large enough for someone to land a finishing blow. His part didn't have to be that as the hero, just the helpful soldier.

Sat Apr 22, 2017 9:39 am

Yaksha, The Anthropophagus

Yaksha

"Mirja...a woman after my own heart, it seems. I hardly even know why I'm here, at this point."

These words were spoken with pride and excitement, moreso than any sense of despair or doubt; if anything, Yaksha seemed happy about the fact that he had so little to do here, besides watch the others behave as incredible heroes would; facing down an opponent with precise, absolutely brutal blows, and overwhelming force. He had just one complaint, if he was being honest. This entire encounter lacked a proper sense of pageantry, of...circumstance. Why was it that fights couldn't be exhilarating? Why was it everyone had to act as if the proper way to defeat your enemy was to pound their skull into mush, and then move on with their days?

It was so...disheartening, to see. All of this happening in dead silence, with little more than the sound of flesh striking flesh to punctuate the matter. Even now Yaksha's mind raced and boiled over, watching every strike and every riposte, drinking in the details of a truly kinetic battle. The movements were ones he couldn't aspire to for quite some time, and even his eyes were beginning to water from trying to make sense of all of the discordant, jarring information he saw. But he had managed to absorb the gist of it, and the simple fact was clear: The girl was winning. Sting was striking savagely, with great force and little real sense of purpose. It almost looked like he had no clear path to victory, and the girl was dissecting his every blow.

And why was it that Yaksha had commented on Mirja? Why, because the tactic of this electrically charged woman was perfectly transparent, to him; a veteran to the art of tactics, a man who had used this very same trick a few weeks back, could see just where this was heading. His body even twinged, countless parts of his body aching at the mere thought of a repeat of that time. He turned on his heel, raking a hand down the air. Each blow, each parry, each attack, each and every motion, was causing seismic events that could normally remodel an entire continent...and all of it was towards the same goal. Yaksha could sense it in his mind, could already feel the countdown beginning. It would take five, perhaps ten seconds for the efforts to bear fruit. That meant he needed to get out of this dome ASAP, before the destruction-

What was that? The glint of gunfire? Gods damn it, there was a small army there, and they were literally firing on a spirit being that, in all likelihood, could probably stop their hearts with a glare. They were going to get themselves killed, and they wouldn't even have time to appreciate it. To understand what they'd done wrong. There would be no learning from this mistake. He closed his eyes, extending a finger towards the space between them, feeling his mind stretch and reel at the difficulty of what he was about to do. The very air between him quivered, as he tried to feel out the pathways, the tangled and gnarled web of space, that he'd have to circumvent. It was a space he could step across with a single sonido, but that wouldn't cut it; there was no guarantee they'd be able to move as quickly.

And so, with a come-hither gesture, and enough concentration that Yaksha could feel his blood pressure roaring in his ears, Yaksha opened a second garganta, right next to this band of people. He spoke in a terse, pained tone, which carried from the tear in reality as if he himself were standing there.

"There is going to be an explosion in ten seconds. Step through the hole, turn 75 degrees, and step through that hole. Don't die like a moron."

This said, Yaksha turned towards his initial garganta...and stumbled. The effort of holding open two portals like this, of twisting space into such knots within such a confined area, was too much. It was easy to do on the macro scale; no different from placing five or six large red pins on a map, and then drawing a few lines. But these two portals themselves felt more like...a network of five or six pins, each interwoven with strings, strings that he had to keep holding every second. He could feel a blood vessel burst in one eye as he twitched three fingers, trying to keep the portal from closing, and snarled.

"And if you can find some time to give me a hand, I'd appreciate it."

He rose to his own feet, closing his eyes, and trusting his own intuition, and his internal clock, to save him. He couldn't possibly have been on his side more than three or four seconds, certainly he had ample time to...

WHOOMP.

It felt like a giant had slammed into Yaksha's back with an enormous pillow, flinging him through the garganta he'd formed, and leaving his back covered in painful burns, and no small amount of shrapnel. He could feel his mind threatening to shut down, the jarring discordant information threatening to leave his mind trapped behind a membrane once more. He had a few dreadful moments of uncertainty, as he tried to remember what happened...

"Dust explosion. Too much concrete being thrown up, filled the dome. A small spark is all it would take to go sky high. They were throwing around nuclear forces already."

Yes, that was right. That made sense. Cling to that. Hold onto those thoughts Yaksha, let your brain continue to dissect and reassemble what was going on, pay no mind to the enormous shards of stone lodged in your back, or the part of your brain screaming that you couldn't feel your legs you should be able to feel your legs they're your fucking legs so where were they?

Where they were, as a matter of fact, was about ten feet off to the left, lying in mangled stumps.

Coding Altered From: [The Frost]

Mon Apr 24, 2017 1:14 pm

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Artist: N/A - Song: N/A

In the midst of mayhem, two things struct a chord in magnolia’s mind. One was during this fight her opponent seemed sluggish. The second was, after a period of time the opponent got immensely faster. As stings hand shot forward, discernibly towards her wrist in the midst of an attack, magnolia’s body which had been moving at high speeds upon a singular focal point would do something strange, something that would require for onlookers to slow down to probably millionths the current battle speed to truly comprehend. In the moment stings hand came for her arm, it shifted ever so slightly, even if he had gotten faster to the point that it was hard for most people to comprehend it; for her? It was all but a matter of focus, and this time she lost herself in the pools of comprehension, as her body speed rapidly increased to the point that stings grab? It had only grazed the wrist since in that moment, Magnolia’s body comparatively to stings was actually standing sideways at the same time his grab took place.

Once more the after-image dissipated within the clutches of his fist, but this time a small bit of blood flowed from the scraped skin around magnolia’s wrist, she had been injured by the increase in timing. Yet at the same time sting tried moving backwards he’d find in that same exact moment something smashing into the lower half of his body with forces that could shatter the entire city with but a careless swipe. It would most likely counter the backwards motion in a very simple way; tripping him. The force leading for him to become a rag-doll flipping backwards and once again tumbling, skittering and shattering himself upon the earth. Magnolia’s foot also had retracted the moment of impact landing in her previous position solely on the off-chance that sting managed to pull something funny while trapped in the throes of his own inertia.

Upon his chaotic path against the earth, it would most likely tear another huge chunk from the ground beneath, everything in magnolia’s eyes having slown down once more as she ignored the zanpakuto which was attacking the weaker people around them. Rather than protect them she exhaled and centered herself once more, her expression remaining mellow as she looked at sting. Soon the oscillating spheres of energy had flown towards the one known as Gamma. Now while magnolia did nothing to stop this from happening instead she had exhaled and allowed her feet to shift into yet another stance, Her breath coming out in a cloud of still which billowed forth from her lips.

Other then her counter attack she didn’t seem to move much. Rather her fist came forward half an inch to strike the air itself. However in that half inch if one was paying attention they’d see distortions in the air which came from the concepts of attraction for several hundred feet surrounding that fist becoming repulsed. In essence? The seven hundred by seven hundred foot chunk of earth had become a magnetic body in which magnolia was the opposing force to. She let out a ”HA” sound from her mouth as suddenly all that force dislodged the chunk of earth which would smash into sting hopefully burying him under a mountain of rubble, while surrounding her the ground had already begun to cave inside.

Huge cracks formed on the earth at the bottom of the crater from the confines of their bout. This earth already seemed like it was ready to give at a moments notice; something magnolia hadn’t really drawn upon yet, but at the same time had slowly begun thinking about ways of putting the very terrain to use in the midst of this battle. Yet, her eyes never once left the direction sting came from, she was hyper focused upon his signature, and was ready to react to even the smallest change within it. Given she wasn’t playing games here, she was playing for keeps, and she wasn’t about to mess that up.

Tue Apr 25, 2017 8:53 pm

CRUSH THE INVADERS

MASARU

Song: Kamen Rider Necrom Theme - Artist: Kamen Rider Ghost - Words: DUNNO

Agony, that was the proper word for it and while the entirety of his forces were cut down so easily as he was, his one surviving ganma was his general, which had managed to suffer minor damage to its arm. The blue Ganma picked its master up and made it's escape, the uloader being picked up as well. Masaru's thoughts were of the pain, the blood loss...and his dissapointment in himself. His own mind shouting at him, calling him a fool, a failure, worthless. As the ganma made its escap with him he felt the pain suddenly shoot through what was left of his entire body, a shout of pain escaped him, the uloader no longer being attached to him meant he looked human again, the blood stained hoodie he wore was ruined now. The Ganma sped up, the usual scavenger Hollows that showed up near sites like this tried to get a bit in but were torn apart by the ganmas kicks alone. It was determined to see Masaru its master to safety, enough that it sacrifices an arm for him. As it reached a safe distance, there was honestly nothing it could do.

Masaru was more or less dying, he could feel it but as the ganma collapsed to its knees and looked to the boy,the wounds it suffered were too much for it and it fell back, lifeless. Slowly breaking apart and fading to nothing, meanwhile what used to be a human boy was reduced to a torso and severed arm was just laying there, the eyecon in the uloader began to glow, Masaru's body liquefied and the Musashi eyecon ejected itself from the Uloader and the Necrom Eyecon took its place and the green liquid that was Masaru was absorbed into the eyecon. The Uloader and Musashi eyecon began to float way, retreating and allowing Masaru time to rest and the Eyecons made their way to the Vanguard, they were not going to be happy of his failure...at least he thought they weren't. But he was going to live another day.

((OOC: Leaving thread, mortally wounded, may return later))

Wed Apr 26, 2017 6:16 pm

Yaksha, The Anthropophagus

Yaksha

Dark. Ye gods, it was painful, and it was dark. Mirja's barrier had already been destroyed, so why was it still so dark? Yaksha could feel the sun bearing down on his skin-but not his legs goddammit this was going to keep bugging him until someone answered him where had those things fucking gone!?- and yet he couldn't see any light. He could hear the sounds of combat, far off and distant, as if they were coming from the other end of a very long tube. They even sounded...faintly metallic, now that he was focusing.

He could tell his eyes weren't close, the same way he could tell that his nose was still in its rightful place, and his fingers were all functional; there was simply some part of his body telling him that those muscles were all in the relaxed position, and if he was having trouble seeing it was no fault of theirs, thank you very much. He let out another slow, ragged, pained exhalation, and clenched his fists. He wasn't quite dead yet, but he was on the verge. Probably as bad if not worse than the last time...and the last time he'd only managed to get back to the light with the help of a particular very impressive arrancar. This time, he had no one to help him.

"At your own pace, I suppose. This is all happening at the speed of thought, so it won't take more than a few seconds in the outside world. That is how this works, right?"

"Man. Leave it to you to always try and put yourself in the driver's seat, to your dying breath. You sure you'll be able to keep that smug smirk as I take everything you've been building, and smash it over my knee?"

"Not only that, Salt. I'll laugh as your knee shatters to pieces. That which I've built can't be so easily destroyed. Not even by my own hand could I unmake that which I've made. But you would never understand that, would you Salt? You were always so absorbed in yourself."

Yaksha couldn't see the creature, but perhaps that was just because his mind was still too fractured and fragmented, so many nerve endings screaming bloody murder, demanding he shut down and focus solely on healing. But that couldn't happen; if Yaksha allowed himself to succumb fully to instinct, he wouldn't get back up. He knew that, instinctively, the way a wolf knew never to leave its throat exposed. He knew that he had to keep his mind working throughout the entire healing process, taking stock of each and every moment, and fighting off the influence of that damned parasite every step of the way.

"I do hope you have something better than a superpowered tapeworm in your corner this time. I've been at this for centuries, and it'll take a bit more than a case of severe indigestion to finish me off."

"Heh. Heheh. Tapeworm, sure. Yeah, that sounds about right for a description. Biggest, nastiest tapeworm you've ever met. I don't need to tell you about cordyceps, though. Or any of the countless others. Shit's inside you, and you can't fight yourself. Not forever. I don't need anything but a tapeworm, and a ton of patience."

As he said this, the darkness seemed to coalesce and thicken, taking on a familiar shape. At least...familiar to an extent. The Salt Yaksha remembered had stood around six feet tall, bulbous and bloated, with slender limbs. But now, it seemed that all of that fat had found its way into his arms and legs, giving him the appearance of a gymnast who had somehow gotten a limb transplant from a professional body builder. Slabs of muscle, handsome and well-stacked, were layered on top of each other, making each movement almost impossible to look away from. And his eyes were even larger this time, filled not only with occasional black fissures, but even swimming neon-colored things. Yaksha didn't need more than a second's guess to figure out what those were. Or how he's gotten such a makeover.

"Death of a thousand cuts, Yaksha. You'll keep coming back here. I'll keep asking the same question, playing the same game. And you'll keep getting back a little slower each time."

Yaksha tilted his head to the side, staring ruminatively at the hollow in front of him. There was no expression to be found there, no sense of concern or fear or hatred. If anything, it looked like Yaksha was just...waiting. Patiently. He didn't even bother to react to the words of his guest, tilting his head to the side ever so slightly, as if he were listening to another conversation.

"Watchya doin', Yaksha? Hoping one of your friends is gonna run over here and patch you up? Ain't gonna happen. You just don't have the flesh, man. Skinny fuck like you, been starving yourself so consistently. You're never gonna patch up the damage you've taken, without falling into the muck."

"Oh, probably not."

Yaksha's tone was mild, distracted, as if someone had asked him about the weather while he was working on a difficult project. Salt paused, leaning close, and gripping onto Yaksha's head with his free hand, lifting it up to look into his eyes. Ye god, those incredible things, so captivating, so powerful...what madness had driven Yaksha to take something this beautiful out of this world? What sort of beast could keep living in the world knowing it had unmade something like this?

"You've gotten damn good at lying, but I'm you. You can't lie to me. You're sending out a distress signal. Of sorts. You're...telling someone to bring you your legs. Who is it? The fuck you made those portals for? He's probably bleeding out too. The girl doing the fighting? She steps over here, you both die. Mirja? Hell, that girl would probably just laugh at you for asking. Who's your hail mary, Yaksha?"

"You are."

"...Heh. Hehehe. You stupid son of a bitch. I don't even exist out there. What am I gonna do, pick up your legs and walk 'em over to-"

In the real world, Yaksha's legs slowly, carefully, began to rise from the ground, dripping ichor. There seemed to be a lot of burning and scarring, but the spine itself was mostly intact; all that it needed was a proper connection. Something sending the signals. And without so much as a single nerve impulse from his head, the legs flopped over hideously, with a pathetic sickening squealch, dropping them nearer to Yaksha.

"Cordyceps. Your idea, Salt. The Juin are all throughout my body. And there's Juin in here with me, and over there, in my lower body. I can't do anything complicated with them yet, but getting them to communally give my muscle fibers a kick in the ass isn't too hard, for them. There'll be hell to pay for it, but...I'm hardly going to need additional flesh, now. It's just a matter of fitting together the puzzle pieces, and applying a bit of glue."

"So your chances of survival go up from 0 to 10%. Even by your standards this is grasping at straws."

"What can I say, Salt? I'm a gambling man, at heart. I never miss a chance to double down."

"Is that who you really are, Yaksha? A gambling man?"

A snap of fingers, and Yaksha's gigai could be seen, standing right there, next to Salt. There were those same multicolored flashes just behind his retinas, catching the eye, and the same expression as Salt. He even began to speak in stereo with the hollow.

"One day you'll be stuck down here. One day you'll come for a visit, and the door'll lock behind you. And then we'll have a nice long game of hide and seek, while I ride you like a workhorse. God, I'm looking forward to it."

"Fuck you very much, Salt."

All in all, it had taken perhaps thirty seconds, from start to finish; for his legs to rise, fall, and rise enough times to get close enough for the two portions of flesh to meet, and the regeneration process to begin. Salt wasn't lying; Yaksha was pretty heavily malnourished at this point, and now he was feeling the strain. Every new synaptic response felt like gasoline being poured onto his nerve endings, felt like he was burning underneath his skin. And his hunger, his horrendous ravenous hunger, was ripping him to shreds.

Even if he stood up from this, there was no guarantee he'd be Yaksha. The hunger felt like a creature all its own right now, throttling him, digging its nails in across every inch of flesh, ripping the air from his lungs, and forcing his thoughts to jumble. He may well get to his feet again, only to be struck right back down again.

Coding Altered From: [The Frost]