Magical Fracas, Episode 4: School Rumble?

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

It was here that Iriumi leapt forward, her speed picking up just as the for crystals formed around Panko.
"ANCIENT'S WRATH!" She yelled, her voice muffled by her mask. Her arm rose and fell, smacking two crystals out of the air just as she leapt to one side of Panko and shattering them against the ground. Ivy's secondary leaf shield bloomed on the other side of Panko, and the other two crystals splashed and crystallized the hovering barrier instead. Her weapon pulsed as it shook off the crystalization. The auburn-haired mage turned to Panko, grabbed her arm and pulled her back behind Iriumi.

"Are you ok? Please, cover me. I'm going to change into something more useful in this combat. Ivy!"
"Yes?" Ivy's voice was whispered audibly around the mage. Even Panko heard it clearly.

"How long is the transition?"
"A few seconds max. I can bring down the time if I consume excess energy."
"Do it."

Iriumi stepped forward from Panko, and the other mage realised why.
"Ember Vine Suit, Evolve!"

Where the plant mage stood, it suddenly erupted into wild, green-gold fire, which rapidly turned gold and red. The self-immolation was a fierce event, and the dim silhouette of Iriumi's body could be seen behind the veil of roaring flame. For a full second, while Akari's bombardment rained down upon the enemy, Iriumi's barrier jacket changed to Version 2.

As the fire died down, the silhouette seemed to reel back before lashing out, cleaving through the sheet of dying flames with a whip that left a wake of shimmering heat behind it. Two spikes of fire tipped the whip, aimed to pierce through the bellringer's shields a split second after Ceres' attack finishes.

Behind the attack, the red-gold of Iriumi's new barrier jacket glittered and shimmered in an aura of heat.

[Astral Harmony]

"Hmmm...one of my Spider Strike shots got through," Shimizu observed to herself. "It can stop my star energy, but not very quickly. I know the next move."

Shimizu aimed Ponpon straight up. "Spreiga, I choose you!"
"Spreiga's not a Pokemon, paya." Ponpon said absently.
Still, Spreiga came rapidly at Shimizu's call, hovering some ten feet above Ponpon's barrel. Shimizu's Star Brand started to heat up for the next attack.
"Lookit what I can do," Shimizu said with a wolfish grin. "Spreiga, get ready for this! Spider Strike Swarm!"

Shimizu's Spider Strike was fired again, but this time Spreiga went to work on it. Zipping rapidly from shot to shot, Spreiga absorbed the energy into itself, amplified the power of the bolt and divided the powered up attack three times, turning each bolt of the original Spider Strike spell into a new Spider Strike spell. If the span of about five seconds, Shimizu's eight energy bolts had multiplied to a frightening sixty-four. "That oughta give ol' Bellboy something to sweat over."
She sure hoped so. The Star Brand had a violent tingling to it, like several bees were ruthlessly stinging her palm. Shimizu pulled back and hoped to avoid danger until the overheating of her branding came down to a tolerable level.

[Teal Mage]

((OoC: Longer then my usual posts. This'll teach me to try to compile stuff. Summary is Alex changes his scrying window, then asks Mern and Demi to check into the classroom at Mia's urgings.))

After his experiment with Mitsuko turned out well, Alex had expanded that scryed image so it covered three quarters of the window, refocusing it so that it gave him a more generalized view of the field beyond the blue rippling portal on the roof.

With a few slow graceful waves of his right hand, glowing red from the magic, Alex called more miniature images to the edges of the scrying window. Each new window focusing on a different mage, even Mia, himself and the...faceless thing surrounded by bells. He didn't want to miss anyone.

He watched the window as the scene unfolded silently before him, pictures he could get, but sound was another story, his expression carefully unreadable.

"Alex." There was a hint of anxiety in Mia's voice as she laid her hand on Alex's blazer clad shoulder. "Something's..." Her gray eyes flickered down the hallway, in the direction Alex, Demi and Mern had arrived from, "...not right."

The blond glanced away from the now thoroughly flashy scene, to follow her gaze. He didn't see anything, but he wasn't sure what he should be looking for, and holding the scrying spell took too much of his magical concentration for him to extend his senses far. Instead, he opted to seek an expert's opinion.

Miranda?

He got a sense of surprised distraction in response, Hm? Yes?

Alex ignored the sense for the moment, Mia said she senses something off that, he mentally indicated the direction, way.

Ah. There was silence for a moment as the aura around Alex dimmed for an instant, before resurging, There's something in the classroom you left. Miranda said, almost lamely, I didn't notice.

Alex turned his head back to Mia, "Let me look." Then, he waved his hand in front of the window and, yet another, mini scrying image appeared. This one was filled in with an orange mist covered, and empty, classroom.

"What's...that?" Mia asked clearly confused.

A phantom zone. Miranda hissed. Alex repeated it aloud.

"A phantom what?" Mia asked, still as confused as ever.

Would you look into it Miranda? Alex thought-asked.

If I do, the familiar replied grimly, neither of you will have enough magic to avoid the timeslip. I'm holding the time spell back from you so you can devote your magic to Mia.

Alex shook his head in response to Mia's question, "Later." Then, glancing toward Mernarker and Demi, "Would you two please go look into it?"

[phil_]

Synopsis: Panko considers the last round and tries to come up with a Cutie Beam variation.

Hana rescued Panko from the bind spell, pulled Panko behind herself, and then burst into flames. Panko was pretty sure she was a Verda, since she didn't look like a robot and didn't have an overcomplicated, mecha weapon, but the sides didn't really matter to her anymore. She'd been useless this whole fight. Picky wasn't there to save her, either. It was really humiliating.

No, if she couldn't do anything, she'd just have to think of something she could do. That made sense, right? The Autekkan girl with a bow, the boy who'd protected her, the girl who'd attacked her, and even the girl who'd just saved her all let out attacks. She didn't know what the green girl's suit meant, but she caught on to the Autekkan's dispersed attacks. The robot couldn't block every way at once. But, all Panko had was Cutie Beam. It was pretty all-or-nothing...

Picky said earlier that her frog suit was the best at regulating her magic. Maybe she could...

Panko spent a moment trying to visualize a new spell in her head.

[Relm Zephyrous]

"~I think its working, at least a little. Not sure what kind of a benefit it'll be though.~"
"Seriously, you actuall-"
"~Yep!
...
Sorta?
...
Maybe. Yeah, I'm going with maybe for a final answer.~"
"Great. So now we're no better than before."
"~Yeah we are! I've got this figured out, those metal mages seem to be taking care of the time bell thin-~"
"Ok yeah we're screwed. You're oversimplifying. Metal mages? Time Bell thingie? Least make it convincing when you pull crap like this."
Hey you two, shut it for a sec. Allie's asking us to do something.

Demi was actually the one that was paying attention to her surroundings this time, though remained quiet about the whole fight until now. After a delay that might have seemed odd, but to Alex was probably typical before getting a reaction from the girl, her eyes focused onto the area with the orange cyclonic swirls, and stepping a few paces towards it. "Can do." There was a bit of a laugh from her insides, her clothes actually. They shifted, grew, darkened. Soon, Demi was covered in a total blackness, preparing herself and becoming ready to make the leap inside. Only violet eyes, glowing now, and nodding to Alex one last time, before diving headfirst into the orange sparking portal.

...and promptly getting thrown backwards off of it. "Um... o-kay...." Demi thought for a little while of what to make of what she assumed would be a totally open revenue, of course Sentinel already forcing its strings through the cracks without her guidance.
Hey, what're you doing?
"~Saving us a minute of time.~"

[Arhra]

Mitsuko lifted up her spear like a staff. Three symbol rings appeared in the air about it, a Celestial Sphere materialising in each one. "Shoot!" she made her own contribution to the fusilade.

If the Bellringer was taken back by the obscene number of magical bullets fired in its direction, it did not show it.

Having no face helped.

"Hour of wandering journeys, simultaneous activation. Mana Stasis. Space Rotation."

A second bell lit up with green patterns. The freezing vice of the stasis rings collapsed about attacks in rapid sequence once again, clearly not fast enough to stop everything. But there was something new, spindly traps of emerald lines materialising about attacks and the bolts suddenly shooting off at right angles to their previous path.

Even this wasn't enough, hits clearly impacting on the construct and its attendant bells. At the tail end, Rei and Iriumi rushed in to strike with a shining sword and flaming whip.

The volley ceased, stasis circles inexplicably materialising about straggler shots that had been deflected but not yet hit the boundary of the dimensional space.

Smoke rose off the Bellringer and its bells. Iriumi's flame tipped whip burned furiously against it. The bell that Rei had stuck flickered dully and went dead, falling back to the ground with a thud. Three remained. The Bellringer's directional shield wavered and changed, adopting a triangular configuration.

"Diverting power from stasis encryption. Offensive systems, full activation. Hour of swift motion, activation." The third bell lit up with red runes. "Blessing of Swiftness." The bell tolled.

A crimson glow appeared the Bellringer and each bell.

"Spatial Rotation." The green shapes materialised around each stasised shot, spinning them back to face the main group.

"Mana Release." The frozen fields of trapped magical bullets flashed red and were released from stasis.

"No!" Mitsuko shouted. She dashed sideway, throwing herself in front of Akari. ["Wide Barrier."]

The Bellringer lifted a hand and something materialised there. It looked like a sword made of glass. It swung out at Iriumi with alarming speed.

"A judgement of destruction is decreed. Set up Apocalypse Bell."

The bells all tolled at once and lifted up into the air, spinning with increasing speed. A casting circle appeared around each one as they began slowly ringing.

* * *

Back in the hall, Alex's scrying on the mysterious new Phantom Zone suddenly flickered and then warped disturbingly, an unstable ring of orange symbols appearing around it, blackness inside the ring. A blast of crackling energy preceding it, something like the blackened skeleton of a constrictor snake, wreathed in orange flames flew through and hurled itself at Alex.

OOC: If you weren't in there trying to hit things, you are in danger from the reflected volley. Sword is actually a stasis field, hits will take you much closer to being frozen. Prolonged contact with it through a parry or a shield isn't a great idea, since it'll basically embrittle anything magically generated. Also the bells are charging up a bombardment attack. On the plus side, you're not getting drained anywhere near as fast. Enjoy!

[Astral Harmony]

"Aw, he-" Shimizu said bleakly before covering as much as her body as possible and vanishing in the light given when some of the energy volley struck where she stood. Shimizu's scream penetrated from the light, and then she was thrown from the spot by the explosion. Her limp body flew back, eventually struck the ground, and even flipped twice before coming to rest on its back.

The armor had some fractures, a trail of blood trickled down the side of her right cheek, her scanner was shattered, and her legs and arms were covered with scrapes. She struggled weakly and groaned with some coughing, but she wasn't getting up.
"Mother!" Ponpon called out desperately. "Get up, paya! You've got to get up, paya!"

Spreiga came down and nudged Shimizu's shoulder, but to no avail. Shimizu had taken massive damage, and the armor was the only reason she survived to complain about how much it hurt. Finally, she managed to roll onto her side. Her movements were painfully slow and awkward, as though simply moving her limbs opened her senses to more agony. "Most of the damage was absorbed by the armor, paya." Ponpon said with a worried tone as though trying to reassure itself that Shimizu would pull through. "Scanner and jetpack are most down, but weapons system is all good. No considerable injuries suffered to the user, but-"

Ponpon paused, trying to come up with some humor. "You won't like how you'll feel in the morning, heh heh heh. Right, paya?"
"Screw you," Shimizu coughed on her elbows and knees, though managed to let out a chuckle to suggest that she wasn't angry. Spreiga drew close, and Shimizu used its help to finally struggle to her feet. "Is...did everyone else at least come out of this without being hurt?"

[Krylo]

As the Bellringer 'drew' his sword, Rei's mask quickly scanned the magical workings within, various numbers and points that he couldn't really understand. Luckily Tenken could.

"The sword is a condensed version of the stasis field. Don't touch it. Not even to parry."

It was then that the construct moved to strike, the blade heading toward Iriumi with dangerous speed. Speed, however, was not the purview of the time-manipulating construct alone. The magical lines on Rei's suit glowed dully as he pushed himself to move fast enough to stop this, a burst of light shining from under his feet.

The boy seemed to momentarily vanish as he jetted first to the right, appearing only momentarily at the border of the Bellringer's triangular barrier. The construct's eyes flickered over, but it was too late as Rei vanished once more as he jetted around the Bellringer's guard. He held a hand to the back of his rapier's blade as it met the Bladeringer's arm with all the force he could muster, ceasing the movement of the blade toward Iriumi.

"...You could have struck a decisive blow just now? Why did you waste it saving our enemy?" Tenken asked within Rei's head.

"I'm not going to let this thing... the Auttekan's, OUR mistake, hurt anyone else," came the Kamen's answer, as clear as day over the din of combat.

It sounded quite heroic.

[Teal Mage]

"Huh?" Alex muttered, a frown crossing his face as his scry of the classroom warped, and an orange and black summoning circle appeared around it. He didn't miss the similarity between the color of the phantom zone in the classroom, and the circle's runes either.

Behind him, he heard Mia's, "Oh no." Just before a blast of energy made him flinch back a step.

And then a flying fire snake was leaping at his throat.

Activate Angel's Shield. Miranda coolly intoned, as a white disc shield with a pair of crossed white wings in its center appeared between the snake and Alex.

The snake struck the magical shield...

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

OHSHI- Iriumi's thoughts went as thus as time seemed to slow for her. In this bullet-time vision, the blade hurtled closely towards her, and her body was already responding in an effort to dodge. She definitely didn't want to be hit by something like that. The magic in it seemed to vibrate very similar to the stasis field around the school, only stronger and more scarier.

Then the kamen intervened faster than she could react, stopping the blade with all his might at the bellringer's arm. Her body already in the motions of escape, she decided she might as well complete them. There was a roar of fire, and a superimposed image of green-gold flames where the plant mage used to stand. The next words Rei uttered somehow infuriated Iriumi.

"What do you mean, this is your mistake? Don't you dare blame yourselves for something you have no control over!"

This time, there was a louder roar as the whip came down from up above. The twin fangs of fire were particularly menacing this time, forcing the bellringer to break contact from Rei and leap a small distance away. Iriumi landed next to the kamen, her hair flaring dramatically around her due to the heat her barrier jacket generated. Under her helmeted visor, her green eyes glared at the bellringer.

"Thank you, but it looks like our allies are having troubles, and going at this by yourself won't be as effective as going at it together, neh?" she added as her whip seemed to tremble and lash the ground with heavy anticipation.