Elly Quest - Reaper in Red

[SirChaotick]

Hmm. Now what?

I'd say we stay back and fling more ceramics at her--I daren't get close when Yuuka's firing sparks about.

[Hanzo K.]

Well, Eiki said something to the effect of 'still using that weak power for offense'.
So I'm inclined to think we should just take the kid and hide out under a thick bunker of tiles until things slow off.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Stay back and wait for the blast to clear.

[SirChaotick]

It isn't like it takes a lot of effort to throw tiles at her, but yeah, it probably isn't worth it.
Let's go ahead and do that then.

>"Kid, I think this is a little too high-caliber for us. Let's wait this out."
>Make a thick wall of tiles in the direction of the onslaught and add a roof to it (above our head).
>Do leave a peeping hole in it.

[Raikaria]

Well, Eiki said something to the effect of 'still using that weak power for offense'.
So I'm inclined to think we should just take the kid and hide out under a thick bunker of tiles until things slow off.

Hmm. Now what?

I'd say we stay back and fling more ceramics at her--I daren't get close when Yuuka's firing sparks about.

I'll take this chance to point  Elly can keep her defense up while attacking with her tiles. She does have a limit of generation, but it's pretty huge, over 500 tiles at once.

>Stay back and wait for the blast to clear.

> The blast clears, and you see Eiki, one hand at each side of her, clearly having somehow blocked the attack. Yuuka's cutting returns to her.

> "You speak about me looking down upon you, yet you are still not fighting seriously, Yuuka Kanzami. I would not call that a hundredth of your power." Eiki says.

> "She's joking, right... right?!" the tree youkai says, looking worried. "What kind of monster is your boss?"

> Yuuka opens her parasoul, and starts to spin it around slowly. "Well then, I'll just have to overwhelm your defense. I'll not take it seriously until I'm sure I have to~"

It isn't like it takes a lot of effort to throw tiles at her, but yeah, it probably isn't worth it.
Let's go ahead and do that then.

>"Kid, I think this is a little too high-caliber for us. Let's wait this out."
>Make a thick wall of tiles in the direction of the onslaught and add a roof to it (above our head).
>Do leave a peeping hole in it.

> "Y-Yeah, your boss said to anyway."

> You thicken the defense, and add a roof, almost like a military bunker.

[Hanzo K.]

>Would we be able to make a funnel out of our extra tiles we can summon, and boss can use to enhance her spark's efficiency by putting more power into a smaller area?
>Regardless of if we can or can't do it, let's use our excess tiles to harass and distract Eiki so she can't defend as easily.

[Raikaria]

>Would we be able to make a funnel out of our extra tiles we can summon, and boss can use to enhance her spark's efficiency by putting more power into a smaller area?
>Regardless of if we can or can't do it, let's use our excess tiles to harass and distract Eiki so she can't defend as easily.

> Your tiles would be vaporized.

> You generate tiles and fling them at Eiki from various angles. They just shatter when they get near, like before. The tree youkai generates some danmaku too, which this doesn't reach her either.

> "Elly. You think that you've seen all my Sparks, don't you? No, I only showed you a couple of uses of them. This is the maximum potential of Nature's Power I can output!" Yuuka says, spinning her parasoul faster and faster.

> You see pinpoints of light forming in front of her... you can see ninety, although Yuuka is in the way, so you presume the number is closer to a hundred.

> "Nature's Fury: Master Spark Gatling Gun" Yuuka declares, as everything turns white.

[Hanzo K.]

>Max tiles on the bunker, stat! "Holy sh-! Kid, this is gonna be a bumpy ride!"

[Raikaria]

>Max tiles on the bunker, stat! "Holy sh-! Kid, this is gonna be a bumpy ride!"

> You can feel the tiles being burned away, but not at a faster rate than you can replace them.

> You hear Yuuka laughing as the roars of the sparks fire one by one.

> When the light clears, the Yama is not there.

> "Did I vaporize her?" Yuuka says, closing her parasoul and slinging it over her shoulder, looking towards your bunker... and the molten slag at it's base from melted tiles.

> "Behind you!" she shouts.

[SirChaotick]

Oh dear.

>Simultaneously:
-Turn around.
-Try to dodge whatever's coming for us. Drag the kid along if she doesn't move.

[Hanzo K.]

>And for good measure, set up as thick a barricade of tiles as we can, closing us and the kid off from everything.

[Raikaria]

Oh dear.

>Simultaneously:
-Turn around.
-Try to dodge whatever's coming for us. Drag the kid along if she doesn't move.

> You turn around to see Eiki behind you, swinging her Rod of Remorse. As expected, she is completely unharmed. What's more surprising is how... silent she was getting here.

>And for good measure, set up as thick a barricade of tiles as we can, closing us and the kid off from everything.

> There is no time for this.

> You and the tree Youkai dodge to the side of Eiki's swing, which sends a shockwave which shatters all of your tiles, and sends a blast across towards Yuuka, who evades it. She then rights herself again.

> "You did well to dodge that, although if Miss Kanzami was not so certain of her victory, she would not have been able to warn you of my impending attack, and you would have lost." Eiki says, before pointing to Yuuka.

> "Look at the wanton devastation you cause. In that name of your own ego and position. Your own goals. You are the worst of sinners!"

> "You know, lecturing me isn't gonna help. Elly, I'm gonna lift the first seal on my powers, it looks like I might need a percentile to defeat her after all. Buy me some time." Yuuka says.

> You are aware that Yuuka employs seals on her powers, so that when she is... playing with someone, she doesn't outright kill or vaporize them. This seal ended up sealing off her spark techniques higher than Master Spark, and she employs two seals, to your knowledge. Wanting to lift the first one means she will have enough power to reduce things to atoms, and utilize her Atomising Spark, for which the source of power, instead of nature, is her own boundless energy and power.

> You've never seen anyone push Yuuka in a  fight enough for her to want to life her seals since she applied them.

[Hanzo K.]

>"Got it!"
>Time to trap Eiki in a prison of tiles, and each time she starts blasting from the inside out, we'll pile more on from the outside and push 'em further in!
>"Kid, help reinforce!"

[Raikaria]

>"Got it!"
>Time to trap Eiki in a prison of tiles, and each time she starts blasting from the inside out, we'll pile more on from the outside and push 'em further in!
>"Kid, help reinforce!"

> You surround Eiki with tiles, which she doesn't seem to make an effort to evade. The tree youkai wraps extended roots and branches around them to help out.

> "... Stall for time as much as you want. One percent. One Hundred percent. It doesn't matter. Besides, Yuuka is just a barrier to my objective. All I need do to seal your fate is defeat you, or break your will. I just wish for you to realize the weight of your sins before you descend into Hell... and know my pain for being forced to do this to you. I would rather break your spirit by defeating your master at her strongest than defeat her while she is holding back."

> You feel a massive release of energy, and a killing intent behind you. Enough to make your hair blow in front of you. Sunflowers bloom all over Higan, as far as your eyes can see.

> ".... Even I do not know the limits of my powers after I reunited with my other half, as both of us got stronger over the years... I feel far stronger at this level than I did before." Yuuka says. Her hair has grown longer, back to the length of the day when Reimu and Marisa invaded the Dream Mansion.

> Yuuka takes a step forwards, and the grass grows around her feet.

> "I'm no longer playing with you, Yama. In a few moments, you'll be reduced... to a mist of atoms~" Yuuka says, before swinging her hand in a motion, and what looks like a massive load of intertwined sunflowers grows from the ground, and smashes down on the prison you created, shattring it and driving the tiles into the ground.

> These are not true sunflowers, Yuuka's power at this state is enough to effect the very atomic makeup, and hence, even the DNA of the flowers. She can make the flowers harder than diamonds, sharper than knives, yet lighter than they normally are... or as heavy as an elephant.

[Hanzo K.]

>Let out a whistle, and pull the kid away so boss can get to work.
>"You may want to break my will, but that won't happen. Working under boss has shown that I can't be a coward anymore. When I first made the deal, I was a scared little girl who couldn't handle dying. When I ran from being a reaper, I was a coward still, even then. But now...Now I've found my reason, I'm the Stone Wall of The Dream World, I keep the dreams and nightmares in, and people out. That, is my reason. Boss Yuuka helped me overcome my cowardice. I don't care if it's a sin, I'm not just doing this for myself anymore!"

[Raikaria]

>Let out a whistle, and pull the kid away so boss can get to work.
>"You may want to break my will, but that won't happen. Working under boss has shown that I can't be a coward anymore. When I first made the deal, I was a scared little girl who couldn't handle dying. When I ran from being a reaper, I was a coward still, even then. But now...Now I've found my reason, I'm the Stone Wall of The Dream World, I keep the dreams and nightmares in, and people out. That, is my reason. Boss Yuuka helped me overcome my cowardice. I don't care if it's a sin, I'm not just doing this for myself anymore!"

> "My my, so confident that I escaped. Aren't you?" the Yamaxandu says, appearing in front of her Judgement Stand. "Regardless, to break your will, I simply have to defeat Yuuka Kanzami. She is what is holding you up. She is who you are hiding behind."

> Yuuka appears behind Eiki, and slashes the afterimage Eiki leaves as she dodges, ripping it apart. Yuuka's hand touches the ground, and more sunflower groups, like the one that crushed your tiles, sprout within seconds, and fly towards Eiki's new location.

> "Harder than Daimonds... huh?" she says calmly, before her white and black danmaku rips through the plants. "Well... I can tell you were not lying, but I'm dissapointed by the hardness of diamonds."

> "Something is wrong." Yuuka says. "There's no way she could have escaped your prison without busting out, yet, she appears by that Stand. I'm sure I felt the flowers hit her too."

[Hanzo K.]

Well, how do we take her down guys?
Since boss can mess with plants, a possible option is for her to break the limits on Malus. Though I don't know what sort of repercussions that would have on the kid.
Alternately, have her return Malus to the kid, so we get an Improved Partner.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"You don't think she's just teleporting?"

[Raikaria]

>"You don't think she's just teleporting?"

> "No. I felt those flowers connect. Unless something tricked them, in which case something's up anyway. She may have teleported, but not before she got hit." Yuuka says.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"You're saying something's protecting her, then?"

[Raikaria]

>"You're saying something's protecting her, then?"

> "Yes. I also began to suspect it when I saw the way the energy spike formed after my Double Spark, yet Eiki's post afterwards. She did not block that with her hands, or else the energy going upwards would have met at a lower point." Yuuka says "Do you find it strange that your scythe failed to harm her at all on a direct hit when she was restrained?"

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"Yeah, but who knows what's normal with a Yama?"
>"Okay, we've gotta destroy her protection. Any clues as to what and where it is? Or do we just start breaking everything in sight?"

[Hanzo K.]

>Did it feel like she might have been using an adaptation of Komachi's Distance Control to protect herself?

[SirChaotick]

Too bad we're no Nazrin. But what could it be...

Maybe it's something with her Judgement Stand?

[Raikaria]

>"Yeah, but who knows what's normal with a Yama?"
>"Okay, we've gotta destroy her protection. Any clues as to what and where it is? Or do we just start breaking everything in sight?"

> "Yamas. I presume Shinigami would too, but evidently ex-Shinigami don't know." Yuuka says.

> "The latter option is ALWAYS viable Elly."

>Did it feel like she might have been using an adaptation of Komachi's Distance Control to protect herself?

> You would know if Komachi was involved.

Too bad we're no Nazrin. But what could it be...

Maybe it's something with her Judgement Stand?

> You figure it is reasonable that the Judgement Stand has something to do with it, seeing as she appeared there.

> The stand itself is surrounded by fourteen stones. Seven white with carvings on them, and seven black with carvings on them. The white stones and black stones face each other, on opposite sides of the stand.

[Hanzo K.]

>Grin. "I got it! Keep the heat off me while I try something!"
>Let's make for the white stones!

[Raikaria]

>Grin. "I got it! Keep the heat off me while I try something!"
>Let's make for the white stones!

> Eiki is pretty much ignoring you at this point.

> You head for the white stones. Unfortunately, you don't know what they say, as they are written in language of the Yama. However, getting close to them makes two of them glow light blue.

> Meanwhile, one of the black stones, not aligned with the glowing white stones, starts to glow red.

> Specifically, the white stones are the ones furthest and in the center, and the black stone is the one 3rd furthest away.

> However, a fifteenth stone rises from behind the Yama's Stand. This one is also black, but deeper. It is glowing too, but is icy blue.

[Advance Warning: I am taking part in the Grand Hakurei Balls of Fortune thread. There is a realistic chance of me being put on probation for a day as the penalty for running out of coins from Saturday Night [8:00pm GMT] onwards. Do not panic if I suddenly become a Chen-in-a-box, it's nothing serious, but likewise, no updates that day.]

[Hanzo K.]

Well, seems I had the right idea. Looks like she's a Puzzle Boss.
Anyone got any ideas as to how we should solve this?


As for the hakurei balls thing, that's why I didn't join in.
I like a gambling-type game every now and again, but the little penalty for going bankrupt put me off completely.

[Raikaria]

Well, seems I had the right idea. Looks like she's a Puzzle Boss.
Anyone got any ideas as to how we should solve this?


As for the hakurei balls thing, that's why I didn't join in.
I like a gambling-type game every now and again, but the little penalty for going bankrupt put me off completely.

In all honesty a day break from posting to give my brain a chance to plot is arguably good.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Throw Malus at one of the glowing black stones, then call it back and throw it at one of the non-glowing ones. Be on guard for any attacks, from them or from Shiki.