Midnight Assault [Africatastrophe Act II]

So they wanted to rush Kizuna, with her current path she could've opted to chase after the young lion but she had already commited herself towards Kizuna at this stage. Thankfully the geezer seemed to have lost his wits in his old age and Safira had every intention of punishing Alastair for not heeding the wisdom of his elders.

Johann might be fast in his current form but he had more distance, and she had a headstart too. He might've wanted to cleave Kizuna's head but the arrancar purposely aligned her sonido to have her reappear to his senses when he was too close to back away.

"Stupid old fool."

She jeered while her hand went to grab a hold of her target's neck in a way that was almost like a coathanger but it wasn't, it was just leverage for her to swing around and coil her body around his to restrain him. She wanted to dig her nails into his old wrinkly neck if the force of being stopped at such a speed wasn't enough to snap it right there.

"How long can you maintain this kind of power? It must be so taxing on you."

She mocked at him. It was Kizuna turn at the redhead now if she could actually cope with his focus on her assets. A girl like her probably enjoyed the youthful spunk more, whereas she was happy to send the dinosaur back to the grave.

Oh, go figure. Hero boy wasn't giving up without a fight, huh? Well that was fine with Kizuna, she could manage that. After all, now she was having the time of her life, her awareness squarely on this opponent while Safira went to handle the old man. That sword of his was dangerous, she could tell that right away just from how even her empowered Oscuras struggled against it. Still, even with Alastair's blade cutting through one burst, and the old man's ginto forming a barrier against it, she'd spent no small amount of energy on those attacks, giving away flesh and bone for the sake of power. The detonation was still nothing short of horrifying, but to Kizuna, it was just the mark of a successful experiment.

He was fast though. If he hadn't cut straight through the cero itself, she probably still could have moved the pylon away, but that was one more down for the count. Once again Kizuna's form contorted in pain for a few moments, her focus briefly broken by the agony of such an extension of her own body being sundered in such a way. Things only became that much worse as she realized she'd given Safira far too much credit, and Seele Schneider once again flew to pierce her. It was only by merit of their flying through her ring that she wasn't taken out of commission then and there, but apparently, she'd have to keep up her defenses. Blood dripped from more fresh wounds, but that was fine. She'd handle them two on one if she had to.

But pain was the greatest motivator. Her other pylons once more swiveled to face her new opponent, and the wild, unrefined joy in Kizuna's expression only seemed to grow all the more as she was once again pushed to adapt to the situation. Four pylons left, but they were all pretty far from one another. She had a plan this time, her mind still sharp even in the throes of such jubilance and agony. She pointed toward her opponent once more, the thought of the lost pylon already gone from her mind.

"Solitary Driver!"

A Gran Rey Cero burst forward from her fingertip toward Alastair, four more bursting from her remaining pylons, still hard at work keeping control over the battlefield. But a Gran Rey Cero was, for someone like Kizuna, hardly the heights of her power. She was just preparing, waiting for him to take advantage of what surely would have seemed for all the world like she was just losing steam.

Finally, Kizuna was focusing upon him rather than wide area destruction, perhaps he had finally earned that much with those pylons he had destroyed. Even she could not rain down beam after beam in perpetuity, Alastair knew that just as well as she did, but he was hardly fool enough to consider five consecutive Gran Rey ceros a sign of someone slowing down. Whatever that ring was, whatever these pylons were, she had some significant advantages on him in this struggle so he would just have to overcome them.

The Carrington blade had managed to survive one attack, Claudia’s technology once again displaying its prowess, but he would not hesitate to use it again as he darted straight forwards with a powerful flapping of his wings. Spiralling as he went, two pylon beams sailed past him and into the night sky whilst another was met by Falke and deflected to the side at the cost of some of the skin on the hand that held the spirit weapon, but the last of them punched into the side of the Quincy’s thigh and blew out a chunk of flesh in a gory display. The main beam was still coursing towards him, though, and Alastair was left with seemingly no choice but to remain in its path.

Kizuna might have been his focus for the duration of this fight, but it would be quite remiss to say that Alastair was paying Nahash no heed. She had intercepted Johann and appeared to be attempting to overpower his Letz Stil even without calling her own release. There was a danger there and it was more than the foul poison coursing through her claws. So, suddenly, his charge altered course.

His own well-being mattered little, as the proximity of of his body to that overcharged beam peeled the flesh from his back as it passed over him. He cried out instinctively and yet the unbearable pain did not stop, his heart fighting just to keep up with the damage his body was incurring, but he did not falter now. Leaving his comrade at her mercy would simply not suffice, so he burned up as much energy as he needed to launch himself towards Nahash once more with a Hirenkyaku. There was no room for error now, as the Carrington blade came down to neatly cleave away that outstretched arm at the elbow, unwilling to just let her grab hold of Johann for any prolonged period of time, whilst his Spirit weapon came up from below and attempted to do the same from underneath.

He should have accounted for what happened next. As the monumental surge of power from his Letzt Stil dwindled, the last sparks of energy struggling to keep his strength heightened, Johann could see her arm outstretched as he charged forward. The icy cloak had melted away, and even as he slowed and went to alter his course, there was still a high likelihood that he would become trapped.

But, as Alastair charged in to attempt at cleaving Nahash's outstretched arm, Johann could breathe a little bit easier. However, with that confidence in her ability to overpower his Letzt Stil, he was not taking chances. Using the last remnants of his power, he manifested a platform in front of him, using it as a rebound to push him away. It was by no means an elegant maneuver, but it did the job.

In a burst of Hirenkyaku, Johann dashed toward Alastair, grabbing him by his sword arm and pushing them away once again. He held onto the younger man with the grip of a vice, and any attempts to continue attacking them would earn a firm, almost deathly glare.

"We will have our chance, it is simply not tonight."

They were words that he loathed to say, but there was little else they could do. Both of them were worn and beaten, he had expended a majority of energy through his Letzt Stil, along with using all of the tools brought with him, as well as thousands of fired arrows and spells. Perhaps, had he been more prepared, somehow, he would have stayed and fought, or perhaps if he had simply learned and mastered the Quincy's Vollstandig.

But, as it stood, both of them had far too much to lose to fall here. For now, he intended for them to retreat.

While Johann's fading power was to her benefit, Safira intended for these scales to do more than balance. She meant to use the momentum to Johann's disadvantage by increasing her own. The white hair became stained in green, every strand of glossy white hair standing on edge around her like it was filled with electricity. A sickly power of poison coursing through Safira's own veins and tainting every cell of her body so that it looked like she had become shrouded in green fire burning at her very core.

She might not have used her cumbersome ressurreccion but she would give him a decisive defeat and punish her new attacker who had opted to rush her.

He thought Alastair would be his saviour but Safira meant to turn him into the executioner. With the gap between her and the adonis far smaller from the full scope of her self-poisoning of enhancing herself to the limits it was a lot easier for her to chase down and launch the old man into his ally's attack while using the force of the encounter to get her away from whatever powerful beam her partner had in mind to launch.

For once, Kizuna had to thank her partner in crime here for actually being helpful. She'd taken all the heat, and that gave Kizuna just enough space to use the move she'd been powering up. It was a good thing those two were on the back foot, too, because Kizuna herself could tell she was pretty much out of juice here. Turns out doing all the fucking work was pretty exhausting. She was definitely making sure she got a nice payout from this, one way or another.

The remaining pylons moved into a better position, much closer to her foes and in a way that bordered on suicidal. Given the current situation though, it seemed like that was a risk Kizuna could afford to take. And if it wasn't, well, that was gonna suck, huh?


The four pylons unleashed dozens of cero, all shooting outward in an unrefined and scattershot pattern. What she actually hit didn't matter to Kizuna, but that lack of any aim was exactly the purpose of such an attack. Trying to run from something like this would be far harder, when even she herself didn't know where the cero would go. Of course, she'd probably end up hitting Safira with a few of these, but she knew that girl could handle them just fine. Besides, call it a little payback.

His attacks thwarted once more, Johann diving in to stop his attack even before Nahash launched the older Quincy into him, Alastair was driven back as he caught his comrade to prevent him from being launched through the air and sent spiralling away. These Arrancar were simply stronger than them tonight, more coordinated, less restrained. The thought of retreat was not one that set easily with him, not when his body was still capable of giving more, but his noble pride was not worth putting his ally in more danger than he could handle. The phoenix could burn bright because it returned from the ashes, others did not share in that luxury.

“I hope we have done enough. That our allies have been able to evacuate the area as best they can.”

A hollow reassurance, given the sheer number of Kizuna’s attacks that had already scorched the Earth beneath them, but if their work had saved even one life then this had no been for naught. Speaking of Kizuna, though, Alastair could see her powering up for another attack. More beams, no doubt, but the configuration of her pylons was now unfavourable for the Quincy. Too close for them to evade everything, instead he would have time for one last bout of heroics.

Wrapping around Johann, so that he was between the Arant patriarch and most of those attacks, Alastair let Falke’s form expand outwards into that of a giant shield. So unwieldy that he had to sheathe the Carrington blade to hold it with both hands, but plenty capable of catching at least the majority of beams that came their way. Intercepting them was only half the battle though, as some punched through that wall of reishi and into the man behind. Some of the power had been absorbed, but chunks were blown out of the shield until it was closer to a block of Swiss cheese, yet Alastair still stood. The wounds on his body knitting themselves back together as he slowly began to back away. Ready to defend if they came at him again but not looking to go on the offensive again.

Beaten, bloodied, but not broken.

As Johann was tossed aside, launched toward Alastair, he did his best to right himself, only to suddenly be caught by the young man. He summoned Ullr again in the wake of losing his last Seele Schneider, seeing it fall to the ground out of the corner of his eye. He didn't respond to Alastair -- there was hardly a need, aside from further, empty reassurance.

As Alastair brought out his own shield to try and protect the two of them, Ullr expanded, Reishi film morphing the cane into a round shield. Reaching around Alastair, he modified the properties of the Reishi to allow him to hold it behind his comrade's shield, giving them added protection, though it did little in the end. Some of the beams still managed to worm their way through, some too strong to be deflected and sent scattering into the night sky.

With his free hand, the retreating Quincy manifested five balls of energy, tossing them outward as they erupted. Black, smoke-like clouds began to spread and encroach the area around them, masking their physical and spiritual presence as they fled. A modified version of Wolke, one that he was loathe to use ever again. With what little energy the two of them had left, Johann aided in getting them away from their opponents.

The taste of copper in his mouth was just as bitter as his failure.

Thankfully the pestilence that was the quincy thought it wise to retreat. The feeling of the poison in her body was agonising and as they began to initiate their retreat she expelled it from every pore of her body. Toxic green mist coming out of her which had been the source of her sudden burst of power coalescing above her in a mass while blood leaked from her mouth and nose at the toll it had taken.

"Wicked Eraser."

There was no harm in sending them a goodbye present but not to the valiant protectors of the weak, she wanted to send it to the weak foot soldiers that followed them. Throwing the mix of poison and spiritual power at the ground, she moved back up toward Kizuna while the landscape below became enveloped in a green flash of light to clear away whatever structures the Vandenreich had made and left. Nothing would be left to oppose the escaping hollows from the hole at this point now.

"Rest and then we can continue."

She stated to Kizuna, looking at her missing arm like she was a little unimpressed that it had been lost. Oh well, it's not like she was concerned given the fact that Kizuna fought perfectly fine from a distance.