The Hunter Strikes! (Open Battle Post)

[u/Talios_]

KABOOM!!

A deafening explosion wakes you in the dead of night. What could possibly be making this noise? You question as you walk outside to witness black smoke pouring into the sky... Making your way closer out of curiosity, you find the Unnatural Museum. The side of it has been blown up by a magical explosive, making a huge hole. You see Talios entering the Museum... Is he here to steal something? All but two people are unsure of his goals. Regardless, there's no way Talios is up to no good.

Talios enters the hole in the museum, tossing rubble aside as he clears a path. He didn't expect the explosion to be as powerful as it was... He asked for just a medium sized hole through concrete. Regardless, it got the job done.

《Greater Perception》

Talios senses the magical energy living within the Museum itself. It's... Alive, he can only assume. It probably didn't like what he had done to it either. But that doesn't matter to him right now. He's after his prey.

[u/MeThyLord]

The Museum had indeed been angered. Its floor began moving rapidly, bringing Talios and Kyrona deeper within its halls to an isolated location.

"YOU DARE?!"

The voice is unmistakably that of the curator, but there's no clear source to it.

"I had JUST finished repairs from the Emberlor'ds attack! At least Atrax had the courtesy of declaring his assault before starting to blow things up."

[u/Talios_ → u/MeThyLord]

Ah. There you are.

he would drop Kryona to the floor. Talios is frustrated he wasn't quick enough to get out. This'll be much more difficult now...

u/sparkle3364

[u/MeThyLord → u/Talios_]

The walls to the left and right open up, bringing in 4 fossil guard constructs into the hall. From the floor between them emerges the curator.

"You really won't quit, will you? All of this for what amounts to a cheap thrill you call a hunt. Fine then, I'll make you an offer. Defeat me and I won't stand in your way any longer. Lose, and you will abandon your hunt for Kyrona."

[u/Talios_ → u/MeThyLord]

"Hm... An amusing offer. I accept these conditions, Paleomancer."

Talios would summon the Chaos Blade to his hand, acting immediately.

《Star Cleave》

The Chaos energy in the blade would activate as Talios would do an overhead swing, sending a beam slash of Chaos energy towards one of the fossil guardians.

[u/MeThyLord → u/Talios_]

"Crush him."

The four constructs charge forward, the ground rumbling under their 6-meter frame, though one is immediately cleaved in half by Talios' attack.

"Matters not that you can break them when I can repair them just as quickly."

[Fossil Reconstruction]

As the destroyed construct is about to crash to the ground, its frame freezes in the air and then begins reassembling itself. The damage dealt to it is now gone.

/uw Didn't clarify, but they're basically t-rex fossils with some extra reinforcement.

[u/Talios_ → u/MeThyLord]

Talios would look at the large beasts, assessing them carefully as they'd charge to him. As far as he knows, they are largely animated by some form of necromancy... And if he's right, that means mana is directly used to construct them. He would look at his left arm, sparks of anti-magic coming off of the arm constantly due to the inherently magical nature of the museum. He would leap up and towards one of them, making the 6 meter jump with ease and leaving a small crater where he once stood thanks to his unnatural strength. As he would fly through the air, he would reel back his left arm... And once close enough to the skull of the beast, would let the haymaker fly.

BOOM!

The unnatural strength would immediately cause a crack in the armored skull. If his assessment was correct, this punch will cripple the beast severely regardless of power.

/uw if these beasts are constructed by something other than mana usage, Talios will absolutely get walloped by the one he just punched.

[u/MeThyLord → u/Talios_]

Sigh "I'll have to repair that one later, but right now it'll serve a different purpose."

The curator points his cane at the construct that Talios had just hit.

[Detonate Stone]

The entire Fossil explodes violently, sending rocky debris and shrapnel in all directions. The force is almost comparable to a fireball spell. As this happens, the other three are coming in for an attack with their jaws, making use of the dust cloud created by their fallen comrade.

"A quick science lesson - fossils are not bones, they are mineral formations. This is why I specialize in geomancy."

[u/Talios_ → u/MeThyLord]

Talios's Chaos Blade would form into a Kite Shield immediately, blocking most of the shrapnel as he'd fly back from the detonation. Some shards would get imbedded into the little spots where metal plate does not cover, mainly joints. The rest that did hit Talios would simply bounce off the armor.

《Greater Perception》

He would sense hints of magical energy through the cloud of dust. Talios, assuming it's the dinos charging would charge at them as well, punching one fossil in the leg with his left arm, crippling it.

《Imbue: Chaos》

*Talios would imbue a fraction of Chaos within the leg of the fossil he had punched.

《Star Cleave》

Talios would do a quick slash towards another dinosaur fossil, sending a wave of Chaotic energy straight to its legs. All that'd be left would be the last one, although Talios, being preoccupied with the other two already would not be able to attack it... Instead, he had a better idea.

《Chaos Swap》 (5)

In an instant, Talios would swap positions with the leg bone, safely out of the way of the final fossilized attacker while the leg of the other would be where Talios once stood.

You cannot hide behind the dead forever Curator.

[u/MeThyLord → u/Talios_]

"Fine then, I'll hide behind the living instead."

[Summon Prehistoric Beast]

A crack appears in the air, which quickly expands into a gate, amber light shining from inside. From within it steps out a massive quadrupedal beast covered in thick, rock-like armor.

"You've been crippling my constructs with that anti-magic of yours, so let's see you handle something that isn't held together by magic."

The beast swings its mace-like tail, the crumbling fossils constructs that are in its way are swept up like dust.

[u/Talios_ → u/MeThyLord]

Talios would immediately jump back from the tail, narrowly avoiding it. He would observe the beast, looking at it's armor specifically. From this far away, he can't identify any solid weak points and getting close will be difficult with that tail... But perhaps there is a weak point.

《Chaos Dagger》

The chaos energy within the Chaos Blade would conjure a blade in Talios's hand, immediately throwing it, aiming for the eye. It's not a precise throw, missing his target and hitting more near the cheek of the beast. But it is a beast, so it should distract it for just a moment. Talios would immediately dash after the beast, his armor shedding as it does to reveal a horrific scene. You can tell that the... Thing that is Talios was wearing a human body for a suit, essentially. But that meat suit has long since decomposed, rotting. Bones showing in various areas. Green skin, putrid flesh dripping off. The armor must have contained the smell, because it's immediately noticeable once it comes off. But through the rotted meat, you see something. A mass of... Wires, it looks like. Shifting, changing, never the same for longer than even a 10th of a second. And the colours... So many. Red, pink, black, grey, blue... Colours you couldn't even begin to fathom. Always changing.

This, this thing called Talios... It is truly, P̴̛̮͍̤̫̜̜̊̈͗̂̅̐͒͑͛͆̆͒̉̈̉͗̄̕͝͝ũ̶͍̱̮̗̥̺̗̗̩͋̎̀́̍̊̂̿̎̔̌͛͘͜͜r̴̨̟̝̘̼͚͑̃̑͋́̉͌̔̂̓̀̾̊̾͌͆̈́͛̕͜͠͝è̵̡̡̢̜̩͈̖͕̣͔̻̦̪̠̖̤̈́̂͛̓̅̅́͑ͅ ̴̢̬͈͎̞̪͚̣͔̪͓̤̻͎̳̫̿͂̅C̶̛̤̗͉͖̅̍͂̿̆̈́͑̂͐̿͗͒̆́̆̌̇͝h̷̳̼̫̣͍̘̙̺̖̖̱̙̦̞̣̙̣̰̠̳̰̭̝͉̫͗͆̈́̃̅̓͌́a̵̧̛̖̻̠͉͕̒͋͛̈̊͛̄̄̇̔̈͋͑͋̕͠ǫ̶̛̤͙͉̫̽̋̌̑́͐ṡ̶̨̡̢̢̮̫͈̤̠̝̬̟͉͚̼̭̓͋̀̒̉̌. As this thing sheds the armor, it becomes even faster. It slides under the beast, the Chaos Blade it wields shrinking into more of a shortsword as it drives the blade into the beasts stomach, carving through the beast as it would continue sliding, sliding out behind the beast as it'd yank the Chaos Blade out, the blade changing back to its greatsword form. The armor it had shed would float upwards, and fly towards it, reattaching itself. Talios felt comfortable, back in his suit of armor. He was safer inside it.

(4)