trans_9 | From Dusk Till Dawn...

McNinja peered down at the swarm underneath them, eyes wide and expression serious. Zombies. It had to be freaking ZOMBIES.

As they neared the doors he looked up to his fellow GLaDoS kidnappee and tapped her arm, drawing his katana from it's sheath on his back.

"Hey, drop me here will you?"

The girl blinked down at him. She had to have misheard that. "...here? Are you sure?"

They were at least a hundred feet above the ground. Probably more than double that.

"Trust me." He gave her a thumbs up. "I've got this. Just give me a good swing toward the building and let go."

He paused. "And thanks for the lift this far by the way. Remember if you have to go it on the ground aim for the head, don't let them grab you, and hit them twice if you're not sure. However in your case I'd suggest staying airborne and pulling some magical carpet bombing."

Nanoha nodded, giving the man a small smile. "All right." If nothing else, their time spent running the mazes had led her to trust McNinja's judgment. "And don't worry about me; I'll stay out of their way and soften them up for you." It was just like how she'd done in drills back with the TSAB - stay in the midfield and support her close-combat teammates.

"Good luck!"

With that, Nanoha changed direction, flying more forward than downward, and used the momentum to spin around, giving him a fling in the direction of the Vatican.

This was something McNinja had always wanted to do. To start from a great height, take a fall and ad-lib his way through the landing. No tests, not guarantees, just to trust that he'd figure it out and it would work.

As Nanoha's fingers slipped free of his coat that confidence in the first plan that came to mind settled in as he dropped into a power dive, aiming for the side of the building, he flipped head over heels at the last moment, landing feet first against the brickwork, digging in to take advantage of the fiction, reaching back to touch the wall with one hand and slow his descent into the mass of undead below.

It didn't slow him by TOO much, really... but it gave him a great base to push off of.

A few feet above the crowd he launched from the side of the building, leaping into the frothing mass and starting to leapfrog over zombie heads and shoulders, running across the skulls of the hoard (many of which collapsed under his weight) sweeping low to decapitate or de-limb all the ones that reached for him as he made his way along trying to loop back towards the doors.

Nanoha would trust him to handle himself just fine in a fight... but she'd do her part to support him from a distance, too. Even as McNinja was falling, the girl leveled out, straightening up - and she leveled Raising Heart, pointing the business end down at the mass of zombies. She spoke a quick mental command to the staff, and its synthetic voice answered.

"Excelion Mode."

Even if the more powerful (and stable) Exceed Mode still wasn't available, this would do for now. With a quick wash of magenta light, the staff head reassembled into a spear-like shape, and sprouted a pair of ethereal-looking wings. Nanoha closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the staff start to feed off her magical power, channeling it into raw destructive energy. The air around her hummed, with sparks of pink light swelling into spheres the size of basketballs, first two, then four, then ten.

"Divine Shooter."

The orbs shot down through the sky at the mass of zombies, Nanoha controlling their path, and where they struck the ground - or undead flesh - they exploded in a powerful burst of magical energy. These weren't the living; there was no need to hold back on them. More orbs spun to life around her, and she directed them to follow, exploding around McNinja to help soften the numbers.

Edited 2009-10-31 06:51 (UTC)

Well, there's not all zombies down there... but the thousand-foot-long blasts of purple energy every ten or fifteen seconds, carving runnels down the ground of the Square, make Meluly's position as she tramples through the hordes pretty obvious. She's trying to channel them away from the Basilica, but the problem is that without any actual morale or intelligence, all she can do is vaporize a long line of zombies with each shot, with the rest simply surging in to fill the gaps again.

And the sheer mass of bodies has kept pressing her back, towards the entrance and vestibule. The power armor is strong enough to splatter individual zombies easily, but there's just so damn many of them that she keeps getting tugged along with surges of the mob, able to get herself more firing space only by dashing straight down the gaps the suit's own energy beam is opening.

"Those who are worn out, go back with Mister Hellstorm!" Pirogoeth shouted, looking at those who had come out with her and others who came later and might have gotten closer. "I will hold them at bay for you to get it!"

And then the cavalry arrived in the form of Dr. McNinja and Nanoha. She didn't know Nanoha, but she did remember the doctor.

"A fighter as well as medical aid? It seems thou hadn't left for long," Pirogoeth called to McNinja, helping with decreasing the body count. If McNinja remembered meeting the healer woman, he might note she also apparently sets things on fire.

Pointing with his trident, Daimon sent a surge of soulfire at the zombies crowding his fellow soldiers, hoping to clear a pathway for everyone to converge. They could not go on like this forever, surrounded on all sides. This would require teamwork.

From her vantage point up in the sky, the TSAB aerial ace could see the various people on the ground, separated from each other by waves and waves of zombies. So the least Nanoha could do was help them clear a path.

"Excelion Buster."

A magenta burst of energy erupted from Raising Heart in the form of a powerful beam that scythed through the air and the zombies alike, vaporizing undead flesh as long as she could sustain the power output, trailing a line of fire between the various pockets of resistance.

Pirogoeth trusted Daimon to clear the path before the people. She made sure none of the zombies rushed in from behind.

She was used to this. She fought out of villages like this. Kingdoms, caves, ships, everything that allowed a crowd almost.

She fought out of her own kingdom like this. She would not wear out easy. She could still fight and she would. She would not stop because she knew, she knew, that they would not stop until they could no longer move.

From Dusk Till Dawn...

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