trans_9 | In Which Zetta Trains

"Not at THAT level of Prinny," he said. "You kinda need a stronger opponent to gain any meaningful level of experience."

"Then by all means," Alessa said. "This was partly for my aggression. I've been cooped on this ship for too long with no way of releasing said energy, and for something like me, that is dangerous. What can you show me, and if you're doing that, please remove all safety protocols in the Sensoriums. It has to be a real monster."

"I always turn the safeties off," Zetta said, as if this should be obvious. "It's not worth experience otherwise."

Hmm, let's see. Demon-class and reasonably powerful, so what would he uses as a challenge... Oh hey! A moment of concentration brought a new field of stone and steel jammed adjacent to the placid field. In the center stood Raiden, the ogre-ish dude who had challenged him in the sanctuary of the Sacred Tome. Let's see how THAT went.

"Good," Alessa said. "If they were on, the purpose of this would be moot. I have to actually hurt and be able to be hurt by this creature."

When the ogre came forth, Alessa smiled. Oh, so this was the route he wanted to go? Well that was fine. She wasn't one to throw all of her powers in one basket anyway. The arena, dimly lit, now began to slowly darken, and then there was nothing but the dark until a piercing siren filled the place. The air prickled, and now there was the noise of buzzing, as it looked like many bugs were gathering together, and then the light returned.

Alessa was no longer there, but another creature seemingly born of rot itself, with the body of a man but the head of triangular shaped object. He wielding (http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/tt349/NaTeuk_2009/Silent%20Hill/silent_hill_wallpaper_pyramid_head.jpg) the biggest sword anyone had ever seen.

Raiden: meet pyramid head.

"I am called Raiden," the ogre said, completely not in touch with pop culture. "As per my master's orders, I am here to destroy you."

Lightning flickered over its form as it spoke, though it waited for the attack in a casual guard position.

Pyramid head said nothing, simply walked toward the ogre, wielding the large knife as if it were nothing. By himself, Pyramid Head was a force to be reckoned with: it could rip the skin off human flesh easily enough and, it being a demon from Alessa's own making, was not susceptible to magic.

It would come down to a battle of strength, and it was clear, as the sword came down on the ogre, that Pyramid head wasn't playing around.

The ogre had the strength to exchange (one or two) blows with the Overlord. The sword struck hard on one arm, which absorbed the force of the attack. The ogre grunted in pain, not unaffected but by no means unable to continue.

With its other hand the ogre thrust forward. Balls of lightning burst of the drums it wore on its back, lashing forward to scourge its opponent with ferocious electrical force.

Pyramid head was nowhere near as fast as the ogre. He had, after all, always been a slow moving minion. His asset was being tenacious and devastating, so a hit like that from the ogre was definitely going to hurt him.

But Alessa had been expecting that anyway. A minion was only good for this sort of thing. After all, they were more for killing humans. For something like this, their purpose was different.

A distraction.

Alessa appeared behind the ogre, her monster tentacles wrapping around his neck. She had already seen that he had the ability to use lightning, so there was little time to waste. The tentacles went straight for the kill, and took off the head.

[OOC: let me know if this is ok?]

Taking off the head had been a damn dirty move, at least in Zetta's opinion. Entirely worthwhile and commendable, of course, but it simply inspired Zetta to play dirty as well. His commands to the sensorium quickly dictated that decapitation simply wouldn't prove fatal to Raiden. So the ogre still stood, even as blood gushed from its wounds, and though it couldn't see Alessa it didn't need to.

She had come from behind, and that was where the creature's drums joined its back. Gigawatts of electricity raced out into Raiden's body, and thus into the tentacles as well.

Honestly, Zetta had planned to give Alessa the chance to just vent, but asking the petty and arrogant Overlord to let someone else win really was asking too much, no matter how well-intentioned he was.

Playing fair, in Alessa's opinion, was for idiots, and ones that didn't live long. However, she had counted on the head job to do the trick, and when it didn't, opting instead to shoot electricity at her, she was a little surprised. She was pained of course, but that would be tolerated. Besides, she'd been nice, trying to cut off its head.

Now however, she was bleeding, and being nice was no longer in her interest.

The tentacles started to wrap all around the Ogre, absorbing the shock, but getting tighter and tighter. This wasn't to strangle, that would have meant that Alessa had learned nothing. Now she was seizing in vital parts and, in one move, tearing at every part secured.

Alessa was a messy demon, and her death tolls were equally such.

At this point they'd entered a war of attrition. The drums continued to ground lightning into the demoness incessantly, drawing from a practically unlimited supply (in that Raiden's SP pool wouldn't be exhausted before someone's HP pool was). The only question was which of them would drop first.

Able to take pain? Alessa could do it. Her worst fight had been with the Nightmare King, since he had sent literally dozens of monsters down her path. But she was impatient, and she refused to be beaten by a creature like this. Now, instead of going for a ripping kill, she unleashed her own darkness into him, trying to rot him from the inside. Soon black veins would show on his face as Alessa attempted to overwhelm him with her own dark essence.

See if he could withstand THAT.

Pain? Well, Zetta would just call it hit point damage, but it seemed to work out the same. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Raiden was the first to drop, simply dissolving into goo which then dissolved into nothing.

Hopefully Alessa doesn't take too long to savor the victory, because behind her a crash announced the appearance of a new stage, followed instantly by some creature on that stage hurling a Prinny at her. "Uh, hi, dood?" the demon-penguin said as it hurtled forward to say an explosive hello.

Alessa was not one for savoring a victory, however brief. Rust, chaos, blood was her knowledge, and even if she did not show it, the Overlord would see it now. This was the Alessa Sasami, Vivio, Nanoha did not see. It is the Alessa Evangeline sensed, one that discarded the explosion as easily as brushing off a fly.

She was attentive now.

Zetta reluctantly admitted that he'd underestimated her. Not that he'd forgotten she was a demon, mind -- if he had, he'd have probably attempted to challenge her with two million Earth Defense Force battleships, which even a reasonably capable level 70 demon could destroy in a matter of minutes. No, Zetta was rapidly reassessing Alessa as someone who, like Nanashi or Evangeline, ought to be classed with the strongest Overlords he knew.

Which, really, Zetta was just fine with, so long as he was still on the top of the heap. (Which, sadly, no one seemed willing to acknowledge despite its absolute literal truth, most likely because he was stuck as a book.)

He'd throw a challenge at her after she'd vented some energy on a horde of mooks. Even now a few of those mooks were pitching spells at her, fire and ice and wind magics exploding around her.

It was to this scene of mayhem and carnage that Shiki entered the Sensorium. The sheer malice and bloodlust circulating about the battle between Demon and Mooks sent Shiki beyond his point of control. Removing his glasses, his blue eyes seeming to glow, Shiki rushes into the maelstrom of battle, drawing his knife to aid him.

Whenever an unfortunate Prinny would find itself in his way, Shiki would quickly slice it into pieces and continue advancing without slowing. His speed was beyond that of a normal human, and his aura was threatening enough to cause most Overlords to shake in fear.

(Notes: All of the minions are cleanly sliced but in different pieces)
(Note for Zetta: The HP and Max HP of those killed by Shiki instantly drop to zero with no amount of damage being displayed)

Alessa was not one to be shaking with fear anytime soon, and while dispatching Prinnies had been her primary aim, she watched him with a very keen interest. She had not, after all, seen a type like him before, particularly when his appearance said one thing, his aura another.

She looked at the boy and spoke. "What brings you here?"

The cutting-into-pieces thing didn't bother Zetta, that sort of thing happened all the time in the Netherworld. Even the instant-death effect was standard game fare, right?

No, what irritated Zetta was his complete inability to read this kid's level. How is he supposed to properly balance the fights to maximize experience gain for everyone?

Oh well. Zetta just kept adding five to the levels of the Prinnies till Shiki couldn't one-shot them any more.

With fluid motions, Shiki continuously dispatched the monsters spawned by Zetta. While it became harder to hit them, just one wound was all it took to take them out. Every once in a while, Shiki would take a glancing blow, but ultimately he would appear to be unaffected by the attack.

Knowing that the Demon and Overlord were actually passengers, it took every fiber of his concentration to hold back his Nanaya instincts, his instincts to erase their very existence. As such, he tried his very best to pay them little attention.

"That's rude," Alessa said, and now she was actually starting to feel a little annoyed. Really, she had been doing this to taker care of pent up aggression, and here comes this boy just killing things off without so much sda an introduction.

He had better PAY attention, because in a moment Alessa was going to be looking for another opponent from the Overlord that he hadn't annihilated yet.

Continuing his mad dance of death, Shiki's speed catapulted well beyond anything a human should be able to achieve. For the briefest of moments he disappeared from sight as if he teleported, right next to the fuming demon.

Nanaya was taking control, constantly yelling "KILL! KILL! KILL!" in Tohno Shiki's mind. All limiters removed, his instincts told him to destroy the most dangerous entity in the room. Alessa's lines and points were barely visible, but he could trace them.

See, this is exactly what Zetta hates about being a book. He's the most dangerous entity by far, damn it. Strongest mana power in the universe? Hello?

Uh, but yeah. Zetta squinted at this suddenly developing-scene as he pondered an intervention, should one become necessary.

Before he could deal the lethal blow, the whizzing bolts of magic forced him to quickly jump back. Quickly spinning around, he "killed" two bolts of fire aimed at his back and stabbed a Prinny leaping at him. As Nanatsu-yoru entered the Prinny's chest, Shiki chose not only to kill the Prinny, but all of its forward momentum as well.

Which was an excellent idea -- but Prinnies explode. It's one of the fundamental rules of ~~the Disgaeaverse, but oddly not Makai Kingdom, but we ignore that for the lulz~~ the cosmos. So even if you kill its forward momentum as it flies, well, kaboom.

(Also possibly Zetta is being a sadistic bastard about it all.)

Alessa was still watching this newcomer, already battling her internal feelings on fighting the impudent boy and yet still getting her aggressions out. The prinnies that came she grabbed and flung carelessly: she was not ignorant of the fact they exploded. She wanted to see what the impulsive one would do.

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A New Challenger has Emerged!

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