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>>45981190

Silence.

The death of Rust Kaiser is an abrupt thing, an impossible truth made manifest. Between one heartbeat and the next - Between the charging of the Singularity Cannon, the last wisps drawn into the yawning abyss - the world begins to move again.

Light returns, first. Not the sickly light of Alura's inferno, or CHERNOBOG'S furious discharge; but true light, a harsh grey illumination like the exhalation of a metal god. It issues from the Memory Towers, all sharp-angled black iron and barbs, now - Crawling with power, jagged bolts of fitful lightning flickering across pitted surfaces.

Sound.

The *snap* and crackle of flames gutters out to nothing, choking smoke swirling in the air from the Thief's charred form. The rush of air from the Singularity Cannon's implosion has ripped the cloak of flames from his back; He lies sprawled, the fabric of his ragged coat melted into him - his armor is black upon him, and his bones are burned with heat. The gnawing flames have turned his legs to ash, stripped the writhing muscle from his borrowed arm - Skeletal fingers rattling as they grip the Fatal Abyss's blackened hilt.

The red pinpoints in his helm are flames, as - methodically, static hissing from his speaker-mask - he reaches into his charred coat with a shaking hand, withdrawing injector vials. The adamant needles crowning the clear cylinders glitter dully, in the failing light - Within the heavy glass, raw Lachryma rills, churning in constant motion...

(Continued)

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>>45981209

There is a gagging, choking roar. ANIMA reels back, that hellish half-real black shape swirling and re-forming. Rotten gore spurts, as those great claws rake at itself - puncturing eyes, gouging new wounds, that vast maw swinging back and forth in frenetic motion. The Cryptid convulses, with frantic inner motion - it sounds like it is choking, gagging on flesh. Tumors bulge beneath the surface of the horror's leathery carapace, sickly wet sounds spewing forth-

The virus. It swallowed Distortion Haze's virus.

The creature's jaws hinge out, wide - A tooth-fringed opening like a chapel cave. Not swinging open to bite - They're swinging open because of the grotesque growth of muscle, of teeth, those jagged needle-fangs spearing into the Cryptid's palate. It *howls*, hard enough to made the air judder, the vast tonnage of its bulk grinding and scraping off the tiled floor. Noxious white froth spews forth, a great torrent of rank effluvium - Slitted eyes rolling in frantic agony, head smashing down hard enough to crack the ground underfoot, mere inches from Haze-

"Choke on it," Haze snarls, his free hand clutching the jagged stump of his severed arm. ANIMA reels, roaring and squealing and shrieking, torturing nerves sending contradictory messages through the Cryptid's unnatural form. It tries rising, but every inch of the vast predator's corded flesh is in open rebellion, muscles spasming and limbs twitching, thick bloody sludge vomiting forth from every orifice as it jerks and twitches and wails-

(Continued)

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>>45981273

The Cryptid is dying. The creature's flesh is already festering, already swelling, like the soft, expanding rind of a rotting fruit, about to burst with decay. Stinking yellow mucus oozes from the Cryptid's maw, every hissing breath fighting the sickening growth of the biological weapon it's swallowed-

-It knows. It knows what Haze has done to it. One vast sickle-clawed limb swings up, even as blood-blisters erupt across the surface, throwing a mutating shadow across his half-collapsed form, ready to wipe him from the face of the earth-

"Joker-" A voice, across the channel. A pained rasp, a sound of utter and helpless hatred. Less than a whisper, now-

Rook.

"Joker-"

There is a glow, beneath the fleshmetal carapace of his mutated armor. The *clack* of magnetic locks releasing, the sharp *chunk* of pistons firing. Like the spinner in a child's game, Rook's falchion skids across the floor towards you; His talons scrabbling against the ground, fighting for purchase, every instinct telling him to reel to his feet, to *fight*-

-But this is all he can do.

"-K̛͉̞̫̮ill ̙̳̝͓͇i̫̪t̬̹͕̼. *̨͍̣̙̬̭͈H͖̬͉̳̜̘͇ur͢t͏̥̹̞̞̟̙ͅ*̨͇̘͍͕ͅ ̢h̻̗̭e̛r̝̗̤.͇̱͙̠͡"

HP: 45.8%
COBALT BOOSTER: 12%
ASSAULT SHROUD: 22%
METER: 0%
ENCROACHMENT: 8%

YOU HAVE CONTROL

maybe you shouldn't be running this early JQOP

>>45982103

My apologies, it's about 6 PM for me here. I think I'll try to move the running date to Saturday instead, to account for time differences. (I just realized it's REALLY early in America.)

>>45981315
>>45982300
I'm awake now.

That makes us two players.

Hopefully more. Some are probably unsure of what to say.

If you postpone the session, can you describe the weapon Rook gave us?

Gotta save Haze and gotta do it swift.
Is Alura the last one standing?

>>45982300
>I just realized it's REALLY early in America
Wait, isn't this your ordinary runtime? Why would you realize just now?

>>45982324

(It's his Tachyon blade, [OMEN].)

http://pastebin.com/8fWB8t8Y

(Yes, Alura is the last one standing. On your side, Haze and Daegal are the ones who are still able to continue the fight.)

>>45982357

(I didn't think it was 6 AM there.)

>>45982424
>(It's his Tachyon blade, [OMEN].)
>precognition
Wait, so you become a mecha jedi if you use that thing?

Man, I wish we could get at least a dozen more level-ups before the quest ends.

>>45981315
>>45981273
What state of repairs are we in JQ? How intact are we?

>>45982580

(Mostly intact, but in bad shape all around.

- Your Tempest Scrander is severely damaged, and you've expended the charge.
- Your Cobalt Booster is also damaged.
- You've expended AUSPEX to use TERRORSIGHT, which means you're down to ordinary vision. (But conversely, you have a bonus to attacks against Alura.)
- Your Sinistral is damaged, and has a chance of shorting out without the explosive effect if it's hit sufficiently hard.
- At present, you can't use the CHERNOBORG configuration for CHAGAN, but the other modes are still available.
- Your right leg is seriously damaged from Rust Kaiser's impaling attack, but you currently have all fours limbs remaining. Most have a bare minimum of internal structure and armor.
- You pretty much have no rear armor.)

>>45982665
What condition are Haze, Thief, Alura and Daegal in?

Right, so we can't take anymore hits. I suggest using the Nova GUn to pop the middle of the dying Anima while at the same time, boosting forward and using our other hand, holding Omen, to slice off Anima's hand at the wrist. Use the communicator to tell Daegal to keep pressure on Alura and give Haze a moment to recover/get his bearings and move to support him.

>>45982724

(Haze: Mostly all right, but missing his arm.

Daegal: His armor's still intact, but his Cobalt Booster has been destroyed, his helmet's been damaged and he's lost quite a few of his weapons. He has severe damage to one leg.

Thief: Both legs destroyed, one arm disabled.

Alura: Just pulled the Condemner from her chest.

Daegal and Alura act after you do.)

>>45982724
This works, though I'd say the Catoblepas might be a better choice, since the petrified parts will shatter under the pressure of ANIMA@s expanding bulk.

>>45982724
>>45982788
Telling Daegal to give us fire support is a good idea.

Should we send a Fortress Shroud to protect one of our team members?

OP, how close is Haze to getting hit by Anima?

>>45982788
>>45982801
Keep the Shroud and don't use Catoblepas; Anima is already falling apart, we just need to blow him to bits and create space. He's dead already.

>>45982807
Yeah, stalling Anima might be sufficient.

Remove its means of attack.

How do we handle the fact that Alura is still there? She'll surely have her own means of attack.

>>45982871
Alura is directly connected to Anima. I'm pretty sure Anima's suffering is going to have a strong effect on her and her ability to attack or react to attack.

>>45982871
>>45982899
She's got the Condemner in her and I think just the Nova Gun alone should be enough to destroy Anima's crippled body. We'll be able to turn on her and both Haze and Daegel can pay attention to her as well.

>>45982801

(It'd most likely attack him next round.

My apologies, but I don't think I'll be able to run the session tonight - However, I'll do what I can to move it to next Saturday, so we'll have ample time to run it.

Also, I'll include all the necessary information in the pastebin, including the information that's been covered here.)

>>45982918
She already pulled it out >>45982753

>>45982920
Thanks, OP.

Kinda bothering that some sessions fall flat.

Last time I couldn't be here because my phone decided that Twitter notifications are outdated.

>>45982920
Well at least I'll expect the next thread.

>>45982300
Pretty sure most of your players are Europeans anyway.

>>45983071
Americans would have gone crazy pretty quickly.

So, should this thread even be archived or ignored?

Also, don't forget to sage.

>>45983281

Ignore it for now. I'll run the session in full this coming Saturday.

Today happens to be daylight savings time, so about half the Americans missed an hour of sleep.

What ever happened to this? I stopped reading when there was too much focus on waifus and not enough on the red world battles. What chapters are skippable if I don't want to read about waifuing?

>>45983917

Basically it's been Red World battles for almost thirty episodes now. You can pretty much skip to Episode 92. Still has waifus, but it's the setup for the final arc.

From 117 onwards, it's all Red World.

>>45983917
You mean the dating sim arc?

It's pretty quick to get through if you go into the archive.
You will miss equipment if you don't read that shit.

And yeah, we've almost spent more time fighting than having down time at this point.

>>45983952

Also, if you really dislike Mio you're not going to enjoy it as much. Because she turns out to be integral to the plot.