Ranger
Chapter 244: Blind
By Wanderer D
Fugue materialized in the middle of the teleportation platform, flanked by Sonata. The Hunter was already scanning the area, but she was momentarily confused. To her magical eye, the place was completely devoid of life.
Had Tirek tricked them and escaped somehow? But… it didn't make sense, no one could teleport in or out from the location as long as her spell was active. What was going on?
"How uncouth." Tirek's voice resonated in the large chamber, making her look up sharply. "To simply barge in without invitation into my domain." His voice took a sharper turn. "A domain created by the willpower of the Elders, whose will flows through me."
"Oh, Warry, don't be upset!" Sonata giggled as she shot her grappling hook and flew high into a corner of the room.
Fugue knew where her partner was, and yet, her blood sight gave her no sign of her position either. Tirek was not just diverting her magic away from himself, he had somehow managed to hide all living creatures from her sight.
"You knew this was going to happen eventually," the other siren continued, unaware of her partner's unexpected situation. "You helped us trap Adagio. You know our loyalty is to the strongest… and surprise! You're not it!"
"Oh, don't discount me so quickly," Tirek responded. "You forget that I am not simply a creation of the Elders… but an accomplished occultist as well."
Sonata laughed, kneeling behind cover and scanning the area with her rifle. "The little witchcraft you pulled off before we arrived is not real magic, Tirek."
"But I will be happy to show you what that is really like," Fugue threw in. Her eyes had narrowed and she looked around, trying to peer into the shadows, hoping to see any sign of enemies.
"Oh, just noticing now that your blood sight is not working?" Tirek taunted from his hiding place. "How disappointing, Miss Shimmer. I had thought you were quicker on your feet. Perhaps you need a wake up call?"
"Don't call me—" Fugue barely managed to fly up in the air before the area where she had stood earlier burst into flames and explosions that rocked her body despite her dodging the initial blast. MECs emerged from behind a column to her left, shooting at her. She felt the bullets hit, staggering her even if they didn't do much damage.
"I've got them Fugue," Sonata called out, "just let me—oops!"
Fugue saw the corner building where Sonata had nested explode into pieces, the whole top platform torn into nothing more than scraps of metal. She snarled as her body shook once more, a nearby explosion of missiles catching her by surprise when she had wondered about Sonata.
With a roar, she turned and dove straight at them, her sharp claws stretching long and thin. She sliced through a robot as she shoulder-slammed into another one. The third MEC didn't even hesitate to blow up the area where all of them stood with more missiles, and the whirring sound and threatening red light coming from the scanner in a sectopod bathed the area for a fraction of a second before thick plasma shots burnt through the metallic floor, leaving it glowing orange-red and half-melted.
"You dare!" she shouted from within the flames, and a red spike emerged violently from under the sectopod, slamming into—and through—its body. It shook for a moment before exploding, clearing the area in a second and sending MEC pieces (and Fugue) flying against the wall.
She landed on her back, her left arm and leg sizzling and limp.
"I dare." Tirek's laugh echoed around her, mocking and mirthless. "Of course I dare."
Fugue barely had a moment to brace herself as a dome of psychic energy suddenly flared out nearby, searing through everything in its path before it slammed into her. She cried out, half in ecstasy at the pain as the energy shook and burned through her entire body before slamming it onto the wall, the pressure pushing into her until she was slightly embedded into it before it dissipated. From the shadows, more MECs arrived, along with a pair of spectres.
"Tell me, siren, did you really think your magic was infallible? Did you really think I couldn't peer into it and discern its weaknesses?" Tirek taunted.
The pair of specters immediately melted into their nano-cloud form, slipping outside of her line of sight, while the MECs themselves were merciless in their constant barrage of explosives. Despite the concussive force of the missiles blowing up around her, she forced her body to regenerate and immediately felt again control of her limbs. Grinning at the pain, she ripped herself from the wall and tackled the MEC in front of her as her wings spread and pierced the other two next to her. Just as she grasped and tore the chest piece off the MEC under her, a plasma shot got her on the shoulder, making her growl.
Behind—and to her right—she caught sight of the spectre that had shot her, and just as she was about to destroy it with a burst of magic, another being appeared. She recognized this one: a Codex, just like the one that had recognized her as coming from Equestria. But it somehow seemed diminished—as if the mind behind it had disappeared and now it simply reacted instinctively rather than logically. The codex extended its arms and a wide, shimmering purple dome of energy surrounded her. Fugue couldn't feel much of an effect, but she knew this was just the setup for a stronger attack. She rose, ready to fly out when she was shot again by the specter, and the MEC next to her bombarded the area with missiles once more, destroying itself in the process, but distracting her long enough for the dome of psychic energy to suddenly contract and explode.
Fugue cried out, feeling the energy conflicting with her Equestrian magic and violently reacting around her, which only served to anger her. Unfortunately, her claw-swipe was unfocused and rather than slice clean through the codex, it simply severed an arm… which caused the unfazed creature to wail and teleport while simultaneously splitting into two.
"My, my, and here I thought a legendary creature such as yourself would have the upper claw against mere minions. Perhaps my respect for you was misplaced?"
Fugue growled under her breath, trying to think of how Tirek was able to mess with her magical sight. She had underestimated him, but if he thought these distractions would be enough to stop her, he was severely mistaken!
She cried out as several shots of plasma rained on her, the codexes and spectres taking advantage of her distraction to burn holes into her skin with their weapons. Whatever Tirek had done to impede her sight had thrown her off, but it was not affecting her magic besides that. She had no idea how long that would remain the same, however, as Tirek had proved unexpectedly competent for someone that had been running away terrified through most of their previous encounters.
Fugue braced herself. She was not going to let Tirek escape again, much less win. "Taunt me all you like, Tirek, but it is time you found out why a blood witch is as feared as they are." She raised her voice, gathering her energy. "I hope you're paying attention, Sonata, because I'm done holding back!"
She curved back, allowing the blood and magic to permeate her, tingling, enticing, orgasmic and vengeful. Her body shuddered with pleasure as she let loose, and the world all around her exploded into blood.
o.0.o End Chapter 244 o.0.o
Huh. Tired was actually able to do something.
This is gonna be a big Battle.
Blood magic runs on, (Surprise!) blood, and is actually surprisingly inefficient on the rare occasion that there is no fresh supply at hand. Unlike most forms of elemental magic it is quite inflexible when it comes to its energy. It cannot conjure more of itself like fire, nor is it intrinsically ubiquitous like air. It's powerful, but limited.
So Tirek is actually using excellent tactics here. Employ swarms of inorganic war golems to force the blood witch to burn through her reserves. With only herself and the robots in play, her magic will cannibalize her own body as the only source of power. The downside of course is that she's killed a lot of people, and until it runs out of victims blood magic's potency grows exponentially. Tirek had better have a lot of robots, or he'll run out of tarpit before Fugue runs out of fuel.
Gave.
"blood sight have her no sign"
"blood sight gave her no sign"?
Hope he has a lot more 'bots, and maybe Faceless as they don't seem to have blood. This is a very good strategy, but Fugue is powered by a full City and more.
Still, the more he whittles away the better chance Sunset has to retake control. If he can last long enough, Sunset might take over just long enough for him to land a kill shot... Or so he is telling himself, I'm sure.
Well now ... the big battle has finally started ... and Tirek is hiding ... successfully to my surprise ... we'll see how long that lasts ...
feel
Firstly, nice to see this story.
Secondly, holy cow, Tirek is actually holding his ground.
Eh, I'm still on Sunset's side here, even if most are advising on the side of the Warlock.
Looks like Tirek is finally putting up a good fight. And wow can Fugue tank a lot of damage right now.
"I am the death of all that lives!"
"Got it. Send in the unliving."
"Wait, what?"
Everything has a counterplay. Of course, that includes Tirek's sorcery, but Fugue needs a few seconds of not getting exploded to figure out just what he did. Also, Sonata appears down for the count... and she may well be the only other source of blood in the room...
9792533 9792417 9792363 Fixed! Thank you!
9792770
You're welcome. :)
Now we'll see how much blood she's stored up. One way of finding an invisible person is to spray the area and look for displacement, and in this case blood will work just fine...
Keep going! ;)
9792768
Well, it's not like Sonata can't respawn...
Damn it! I was hoping Sunset could have been freed by the last update. Now I have to wait again!
9802898
I mean, she's the main character. We all knew she was coming back.
The surprise and interest comes from how it happens.
One thing I really like is just how many angles there are in dealing with Fugue. There’s the brute force method of overpowering her with machines and bloodless creatures, there’s the anti-magic bullets, there’s what Tirek did by rebuilding(?) Sunset’s soul, there’s Starlight’s attempt to replicate the Elements abilities, and there’s the Algae Photis. There’s also the potential from the other Siren gems and Adagio to have some kind effect. Heck, there even seems to have been the potential of Sunset not turning into Fugue if things had gone a bit differently. I’m guessing most of these elements will come together at some point (say Apple Bloom leading a force to install a device that replicates the Algae Photis, allowing the restored Sunset soul to take over while the anti-magic bullets are used to either finish off Fugue or as a counter to certain abilities, or each plan could be used as a backup if another fails), but I’m loving how no one is putting all their eggs in one basket and approaching the situation in every way they can.
I’m also getting a kind of gamey vibe from this, in a good way. Sunset’s fall seemed like it could be prevented, but potentially at the cost of something else, and the options for dealing with Fugue feel like choices a player would need to make. Do you try to overwhelm her with brute force and waste all those resources? It’d be the second fastest way and would prevent her from doing too much damage over time. Do you use the magic bullets, potentially wiping out a lot of the benefit she brought (and maybe harming relations with certain allies)? Do you invest in the technology to replicate the Elements? It might still take her out and it could even be not enough, plus it’d take time resources that could be used to develop other gear (especially with so few magic researchers available). Plus, it gives Fugue more time to do some damage. Same with the Algae Photis. How long will it take to find it? Will the portal open soon after it’s found? Will Twilight potentially miss a portal opening while looking for it? Is it even still around? Can it be effectively brought through the mirror or replicated? Would it even work (without Tirek’s shenanigans)? There’s also the earlier options to consider, maybe keeping Twilight around (preventing Fugue but losing Equestria as an ally and potential long term damage to it) or sending Sunset with Twilight (losing Sunset for awhile and risking her going Fugue in Equestria, but also having a chance to avoid it or contain the damage away from Earth).
... I really want a mod of this now. I mean, I did before, a Sunset mod did sound like fun, as did one for all the character conversions and extra stuff, but now I really want one.
Hoo boy, I missed this story!
Had to take a break from it way back in 2018 because I was feeling a little lost, having never played War of the Chosen.
And after finally finishing it, I jumped back in just in time to see Mox die... Aaargh, why?
Anyway, I'm all caught up on this story and Twilight's concurrent adventure, and I eagerly await what comes next!
Finally got around to reading this monster. And after about 3-4 days (I lost track) I finally caught up.... here... in the middle of all hell breaking loose. Crap, now I'm emotionally invested.
Wanderer D, you bastard.
And here I'm waiting for spinning pyramids to start appearing in the sky.
9859002 There's a reason for that. That's part of the point of telling a story. Coming in with a condescending "Aww look at my Legendary Saved Files from my XCOM2 play through, clearly this is set to "easy" mode" just tells me that you're already dismissing it.
9859291
Oh you noticed it too?
9859903
Xcom don't hire raw recruits. Post-Advent XCOM doubly so. Everyone of these people are possibly the best specimens sheer Darwinism can produce. (Talents which are then brought forth into a mirror shine by the blow-torch of XCOM operations and possibly some invasive surgery/genengineering)
Also she acknowledges her flaws in the very next chapter so I don't know what you're on about.
9859955 Except she's not. But whatever. I'll let the story speak for itself.
9860055
I'unno man. Have you seen those rookie accuracy ratings?
9860092
Honestly, at this point I'm suspecting it's the guns themselves that are cursed because those accuracy ratings are consistently poor regardless of rank.
... It's so bad in fact I tend to favor weapons that don't need a accuracy roll to function, like grenades or flamethrowers.
9859291 Sunset is the protagonist.. She's in the cover art. She is listed in the characters, and established from moment 0 to be the main character. Maybe you don't feel like your attitude is condescending, but it is. "The anime is heavy on this one!" is clearly meant to be disparaging, as if it was some sort of mild-critique that is not intended to be taken as an insult.
Completely dismissing several aspects of the story as if it was some sort of random accumulation of things for the purpose of "wow!". Because "lol I can already tell Sunset will save the future on her own! LOLz", as if character development, conflict, and story progression didn't happen at all.
Considering this story is at 424,998 words at the moment, with over 200 chapters, making these assertions because:
just shows a complete ignorance of what makes this story, a story.
[edit] Also, let me expand on that claim a bit. You said 50 chapters? Are you skipping some in some attempt to just make your way up to the latest update without reading the rest? Just from this alone:
The powers she has come with consequences; she's not infallible, she literally has NO "semi-seethrough invisibility" where the hell did that actually even come from anyway? Are you even reading the story? Or just glancing at it with a checklist of "lol this means she's OP!"
I am further convinced by all of this that you're not reading and just skipping. There are innumerable things in that story that cover every inch of who, why and how that you're diluting into "lol anime". [/end edit]
If that's the attitude you're coming in with, I'll save you the trouble. TL;DR - this requires reading and paying attention. If you're making up powers for her, clearly this is not happening, so this story isn't for you.
Thanks for reading.
9879855 The dude had said it several times before "use meld!" etc. I can't speak for everyone, but I imagine that the reason there's so many downvotes is probably because I had categorically stated that they were dead and he kept insisting I bring them back.
Seeing Tirek misspelled as 'Tired' in the comments here was pretty great, ngl. Also glad he's putting up an interesting fight. It was kinda hinted at... I mean story flow with Fugue just straight massacring everything with no effort, she was set up to run into some unexpected difficulty.
Nice thing about this fight: no matter who loses I won't mind seeing them get taken down.
Other nice thing about this fight: all the (evil) badassery.
Edit: So many deleted comments... it's like hearing half a phone argument. Though the gist seems to be the other half wasn't much worth hearing. Unfortunate. Oi, related note: sorry about the comment spam. Getting caught up while savoring the fact that I still have chapters to go.
9861122
I guess the only thing left would be calling Sunset Fucking Shimmer a Mary fucking Sue
I would LOSE MY FUCKING SHIT
Funny how one is rooting for a bad guys to kill another one. Great chapter!
When only villainous combatants remein, we learn our favorite kind of villainous to cherish