Ridgecrest City

Jennifer just smiled to herself. She couldn't make a break for the portal just yet to continue her quest. She had to make sure the Shadow Legion would not follow her, and only the defeat of their leader would prove sufficient motivation to do just that. IT made her proud to realize that she did in fact do a small part in saving her home city, spearheading the assault and acting as the primary diversion for more powerful things to get in and do the real damage. Just like she was a Stealth Rock user, like her pet Bastiodon...

Meanwhile, the berserkers had run out of legionnaires to kill and decided that the perfect target was each other, creating what's called a self-correcting problem. The last two even managed to finish each other off! How perfect was that? And the whole time, the jellyfish in the air seemed to be cheering on the liberators, offering help in their own mysterious way through song and healing goop.

But her role in this conflict had ended. It was time for the boss fight. Time to head for the League building to the north. If the liberators won, she would go right through the portal with none the wiser as to where she had gone, and if the forces of darkness prevailed, she could make her last stand in the bottleneck that was customs there.

Another step, another mouthful of blood coughed up. As Draco's power continued to flare, the Shadow Legion receded from the field entirely, freeing up his mind, and allowing him to focus solely on killing this mockery of Dragon Kind, and keeping himself from tearing himself apart. He snarled in response to her taunting, and he flicked out his hands, his Shadow Fire Swords appearing in his hands as the metal groaned with his rage-filled grip.

As Emily settled into a Fighting Stance, she would immediately find herself being assaulted by Numerous Tendrils of Shadow erupting from all sides. From the alley ways, from the gutters, from her own shadow, all of them aiming to grab her, and toss her around like an angry child would a broken toy. To tear her apart limb from limb, to incapacitate and destroy and corrupt. And that was only the start.

Draco's body began to burn in a Phoenix Cloak of Shadow Fire, boosting his already self-destructive power and making him hack up another mouthful of blood as he began to sprint towards her, swords trialing behind him before he flipped one into a reverse grip, and brought it in front of him to ward off any incoming strikes for now. Sirad's presence went un-cared for - Draco was much too rage-blind to notice or care for the presence of a Holy Magic User. Draco leaped into the air above Emily, a ball of Dark Draconian Energy gathering in his hideous mutated Dragon-maw while his humanoid body flew through the air. Similar to a Pokemon's hyper-beam, the charged the attack, and then released it towards Emily in a frightening beam of corrupting, terrifying Shadow Fire that would burn everything it touched until there was nothing left. Living beings if they survived were left horribly scarred and rendered infertile unless healed by Holy Magics.

Following this beam of unholy Magic, Draco would launch himself towards Emily's last known position, aiming to strike with a flurry of slashes and stabs as he spun his body wildly fast, seeming like a blur as his blades moved with surgical precision to try and dismantle and tear apart their intended target, the Black Duradaeden humming with Draconian Lightning, making them vibrate, and therefore increasing their ability to cut ten-fold at the least.

All of this, and it wasn't even a Tenth of Draco's power. Using a full tenth of his power would have killed him already. Yet he was pushing it even now. If he didn't kill these intruders now, he would have to pull back to his Fortress, lest he kill himself by exertion.

As the tendrils lashed at Emily herself, her body seemed to dodge their swipes and parry their strikes with inhuman speed. Despite her closing her eyes, she was not scratched by any of them. When the rush of Shadow Fire came upon her, she would raise her arms to take the attack before melting into a pile of quivering fleshy bits. The fleshy mass leapt back out of the attack's impact point and reformed into the Priestess. To Draco's sight, she would appear to not have been affected by the other effects of the Shadow Fire, though she did seem to have some marks indicative of the minimum of damage, likely from defending against the impressive attack.

Now back in her humanoid form, she kept her eyes closed as Draco approached her at great speed. Taking to hovering, with the tips of her flats just millimeters above the ground, she would play defense, gracefully floating backwards at a pace matching Draco's advancing onslaught. As he took each swing, Emily continued dodging and parrying the attacks with her hands and arms, with few of the swings ever connecting with her body, though those that did did leave some minor gashes and tore pieces off of her priestess' robes.

To any Human or similar being in the area, Draco and Emily were no doubt barely visible or comprehensible with the speed of their attacks; only certain individuals would be skilled enough to spectate the battle occurring. However, in Draco's sight, Emily seemed to be moving as fast as he was, though it appeared she too was placing minimal effort into the act, almost as if she wasn't using her own maximum either, much as he. Her smirk never left her face.

Your attacks lack finesse. You won't land a properly respectable strike against me if that's your best.

In the midst of her parries, Emily attempted to use one of the brief recovery moments present in each of Draco's swings to grab one of his wrists within that opening, intent on guiding his strike past her on her terms.

If she succeeded, she would move forward and use one of her legs to deliver a very precisely aimed kick to his gut, a kick specifically laced with enough strength to lightly damage his armor and halt his advance and unsteady him for a moment, though causing minimal other harm. Then, she would melt into a fleshy mass once more and slip behind him a short distance away, reforming in her fighting stance to await his next actions.

If she failed, Draco would find an opportunity to regain the edge in their skirmish, whether through backing off and preparing a new line of attack, through preparing to counter attacks of her own, or perhaps some other action he deems suitable.

Draco snarled at her words, none of his strikes landing, or even hitting with enough purpose to do anything of value to her. It was as she began to try and counter-attack that he saw his opening. While not letting her do what she wanted, the Dragon likewise allowed his wrist to be grabbed. She would find his armor harder than any common metal used by Mortals or different creatures. Draconian-Forged Duradaeden, or better in Draco's case, blessed Draconian Duradaeden, was yet one of those long list of metals much harder and lighter than steel. And while it didn't stop kinetic energy, it didn't just take it either.

Emily's leg would meet Draco's gut, and would feel as though every nerve was likely exploding on contact. Depending on the strength of her kick, she'd likely even break her own leg on impact alone. As the Dragon's wrist was grabbed, a sickening smirk spread across his face, and used his body to conceal his next strike: A direct stab directly into Emily's gut. The world would fall away for a second, and seem to stop as her kick landed at the precise moment his blade sank into her belly with scalpel-like ease. The vibrating, humming blade filled with normally corrupting Draconian Lightning would merely enhance the sharpness of the blade to the point of being able to cut through most things like a molten knife through butter.

Her arms, however, from the Shadowfire she decided to try and tank, were left burned, bleeding, and oozing. The corruption normally present not taking place, but instead the immediate damage of the fire itself: The end-product of the corruption. There was a sizable chunk of flesh simply oozing off of Emily's forearms, falling off as a chunk of dead flesh and bone, leaving everything exposed to the elements and the rigors of combat. No further damage would occur due to Emily's own properties, but the initial effect of Shadowfire was still something even she couldn't avoid.

As time slowed and the reality of the situation sank in, Draco lifted his head, pressing on the blade he'd gutted Emily with, aiming to press it painfully deeper into her body. He was shaking, his eyes were bloodshot, and blood poured down his chin and out of his ears. He was at his absolute limit. And the fool was going to keep pushing himself....

"You are a fool... thinking you can teach a Dragon as old I.... how to properly fight." he wheezed out, panting softly. Slowly he straightened his back, multiple joints popping sickeningly loud as he did so, his previously grabbed wrist shuddering before tearing itself from her grasp, and moving to allow Draco to grab her by the shoulder. This stab was intimate and Draco was going to keep it that way in order to kill Emily if he could. His eye twitched, and a tear of blood streaked down his cheek from the outward corner. The amount of pain he was in was palpable in the air.

He was fully committed to killing her right now, even if that meant killing himself. He paused though, as his blade continued to sink further, having already exited the other side of her body. His Coal Red eyes narrowed as he stared into her eyes. Emily wasn't all she turned out to be... no she was much more. And Draco could see that now. She was much more than a human... something he'd never be able to handle in his current state. With a twitch of his lip, he snarled.

"A fool you may be... but... you are not one to be trifled with....Farewell. Fool." he growled out before ripping his sword from her body unceremoniously and leaping backwards. The Shadows would follow him, pooling under where he was to land, and he would splash into them like a pool, and vanish from the area.

Draco was gone, and so was the Legion. For now.

Emily's damaged body never stopped smirking. As he left, she stood tall again, despite the visible injuries and torn clothing. Seemingly unfazed, she adopted her usual prayer posture. Shortly thereafter, she melted into a fleshy mass that quivered on the ground for a short time. The mass itself was at least 4' tall, vaguely roundish with the consistency of gelatin, and had tentacles and eyes scattered all over its surface.

Such arrogance. Perhaps it is best he keep the motivation it provides. He will not succeed at his goal as he is now, but perhaps events can be arranged such.

The fleshy mass reassembled itself to form a humanoid creature, feminine in form, that nonetheless looked eldritch and alien. Rolling waves of random organs and appendages folded to smooth out and refine the shapely figure that stood in the place of where Emily was. With the slanted and mismatched eyes, including extras in odd places, as well as the sharp teeth in a wide smile, and the vestigial mouths in places they did not belong, even the alluring female figure was grotesquely marred.

The damage he did to me. Pitiful as a whole, but promising in potential. I do hope I'll witness refinement in the future.

The female figure than grew skin, the process looking much like a zipper was zipping up, only with far more disgusting detail. At the end of it, Emily's nude figure stood, fully repaired of any damage she had taken. Assessing herself, she smirked again and generated the outfit she was wearing beforehand, the clerical robes and mitre. The human form was back to a brand new state. She then stood and began seemingly praying once more, observing what damage was done to the city.

Sara watched as Draco and this Emily...whatever she was started to clash. She didn't watch long though as she turned to Jennifer and the others. "Time to move." She stated. "Stay Low, Stay quiet, and stick close...if we are lucky and careful we should be able to slip past Draco and his legion while they are focused on this goddess or whatever the hell she is... Move out!"

Sara lowered a thin half visor over her left eye it showed her a HUD with a map of the course given to her by Jennifer. As she past by Jennifer she handed her what looked like a smart watch. "Listen.." she said in a low voice. "i don't know what is ahead of us here but it is most important that you get though..." Sara opened the device and showed Jennifer a small button within. "Should we run into anything we can't handle press this... it will cover you in a cloaking field. It can only be used once and will only last for about a minute or two... so only use it if you have to..."

That done Sara took the lead creeping though the back alleys as much as possible. A few times she had to signal for the group to stop and lay low as a Shadow Legion patrol would pass by. Luckily the bulk of the legion seemed to be distracted by the battle of the powerful beings and soon their goal was in sight.

All at once it seemed as if the shadows lifted as Draco roared and retreated... "This could be a trick..." Sara warned feeling a bit uneasy at the sudden departure of Draco and his legion. "Wait or risk it?" she asked Jennifer as she looked toward the center.

"Shit. I'm out of time. I gotta go." Jennifer said out loud to herself. With the final showdown coming, it was time for her to damn the consequences and bolt for the portal. It was getting to the point where there wasn't much of a city left to fight over. Starting to look like Wing City, actually.

Decked out in her improvised post-apocalyptic road warrior armor made from concrete, rebar, and scrap metal that made her look a bit like a miniature Aggron herself, she slammed in the boot up sequence for the portal to Ruula, specifically to Castelia City.

"Come on, come on...this thing is going to light up every sensor around, I don't think I can hold this bottleneck..."

Finally, she saw the iris open! The stargate was ready to go, thank Palkia!

Taking a deep breath for no real reason, she proceeded to dive in!

Dread Pirate Captain Blackheart has arrived, coming from Collenham Mountains.

Dread Pirate Captain Blackheart has left the area, heading ascend to Collenham Mountains.

Jennifer Harsdorff has left the area, heading in into Castelia City.

Jennifer Harsdorff materializes from the void.

Something jarrs your perception, as it feels like something here has changed. You can't quite figure it out, but something is certainly different...

Arlin Soarge has arrived, coming from Collenham Mountains.

Arlin Soarge has left the area, heading up towards Collenham Mountains.