Post by Jade on Aug 2, 2021 0:33:02 GMT -5
Lilin Post #11 / Tally Post #11
Odaki came to rest on Lilin's shoulder as she simply stood on the street, admiring the shape of the ship hurtling out of the sky. As it drew closer, her strange diamond-shaped pupils slid down toward where Scarlette had been standing, just in time to watch the other woman vanish from sight - a scene that got a scowl out of the hulking devil, but one that folded in on itself as her entire body became naught but a swirling pillar of black smoke.
The ship crashed into the street, causing a cacophony of splintering wood, cracking stone, and the continued screams of those affected by the impossible event. The pillar of smoke traveled upward and through the rubble, paying no mind even as rubble flew through her, until she was on the other side, back under the morning sun. The smoke hung in the air, a mask-like face and arms made of the same stuff as the rest appearing out of the cloud as Lilin observed the area.
Scarlette had taken off from the area of their little duel, and had called in some sort of weird backup - well, she was an ability user, that much Lilin knew already, so they couldn't be that weird - in the form of... One entity as large as her Shade of Strength, and then three more following behind of a size similar to the woman herself. The smoke-pipe shifted to the side, warped and strange in its own rate in its gaseous state, as the Smoking Devil's scowl grew.
The hanging cloud of smoke collapsed in on itself once again and shot off through the air like a spear, traveling at an angle to avoid Scarlette but with speed to match the odd drifting jumps of her opponent's ridiculous-looking minion. Of course it was obvious what the other woman was after - how couldn't it be? All that was left to do was to salvage as much of the situation as she could before the Red Terror could lay her hands on her prize, to put control of the game back in her hands.Quite literally, in fact.
The Phantom Thief looked over her shoulder for the strange man who had been following her, but instead found herself looking at the encroaching form of that scarred woman Lilin had been fighting. She had only seconds to process the terror of that before that was obscured, her entire world going dark, leaving her with only the sensations of claustrophobia and falling.
When light got back to her, Ophelia nearly fell over from sheer disorientation. She'd been traveling along the rooftops still, but the cloud of smoke had knocked her off and deposited her on the street level again, and the sudden change in scenery combined with the unforeseen nature of it all had her dazed. "L- Lilin?! What are you thinking-?!"
The cloud of smoke that had tackled her off the rooftops coalesced in a hurry, back into Lilin's original, diminutive form - except for her left arm, which remained a cloud of black smoke from the elbow down. Her right hand reached into that cloud and pulled out a bottle, at which Ophelia quickly felt over where she'd been hiding her bottles only to find them all gone. The thief had to lunge to catch the bottles being pulled from the smoke cloud as Lilin began tossing them carelessly over her shoulder. "Not this, and it ain't that... Which one is it, which one is it...?! A-ha!" The remaining bottles, unwanted, fell to the ground as the little devil's left arm reformed, holding onto her gigantic blade... And, in her right, was the bottle containing the Red Terror’s ship.
"Tha can thank me later, stickyfingers," Lilin said, talking over her shoulder even as her legs lost substance and a pillar of smoke rocketed her back up toward Mock Town's upper levels. "Oi, l'il red! Tha want tha ship so bad, sit thaself down and parley!"
Ophelia was left standing there, holding six glass bottles between her arms while a dozen more rolled around the alley. She blinked, and then trailed the already dissipating pillar of smoke up toward where Lilin had disappeared onto the roof. "... What?"
The spores that had gotten in her clothes and on her skin began to bloom into fungal growths, even as Sadako's hair wrapped around two more of her arms. The edges of her vision were beginning to dim, and her lungs were screaming - there wasn't anything else for it, she had to breathe.
Tally held out just a moment longer, performing the same snap upward and grab trick to the two new lengths of hair attaching one of her opponents to her and once more attempted to pull the girl. But this time, her goal wasn't to swing her off the dock - she pulled the girl toward her with the intent to grab her. With that action complete, the martial artist relented and finally inhaled... And then set her sights on the mushroomancer, whose eyes had been taken off the skirmish on the docks.
With greater speed than her bulky form would've suggested possible, Tally lunged for the scrawny merman, reaching for him with one of her free hands. Even if she didn't manage to grapple him, her intent was the same - she was going underwater, with the aim of taking both her opponents with her.