Blacker Than Night [DTL: Darkside / Tag: Sol Badguy]

Ragna stood battle ready, in the middle of the airfield. The field was shaking, and what little light came from the stars was slowly falling on not regular ground, but blacked out darkness that was sliding among the ground. The Heartless were persistent; when they found prey with strong hearts, they evidently were not likely to give up. They had appeared to, but here they were... and there was something more, too. "Guess they didn't just follow us, after all." If they were just following them, there would be the plethora of the little ones, but Ragna could tell that something more was there.

From the corner of his eye, Ragna could see Moogles freaking out inside the hangar. They'd likely figured out that it was these two that were followed here by the Heartless, if they never came here; regardless, he doubted those things could fend off the shadows for very long as they were. The ex-criminal readied his blade, his hand on its hilt and adjusting it as it hung off his back. He didn't need to be holding it as he fought, it rested well enough there and he didn't use it for all of his attacks. Still, he knew he was about to be using it, that was for sure... he'd brought the Heartless here, so he'd rather drive them off than leave them to kill those... Moogles, as that one had introduced. It would be like leaving seithr beasts in the Kaka Village otherwise...

"This ain't just smaller ones. I don't know what the hell they've got back there, but it's big!" Ragna called out to Sol, able to feel the dark energy from where he was. He wouldn't usually have much sense in terms of that, but his Azure Grimoire had a handy way of reacting to the darkness as it was. A bonus of having a world-destroying monster on your arm, if you will. Hopefully he wouldn't have to properly activate his BlazBlue, however. Still, if he needed to, he would. Either way, they would be saving their Gummi Ship sightseeing tour for later.

Ragna prepared himself, waiting for the bastards to inevitably pop up.

The sudden ground's tremor made Sol's eyes narrow. By now, the persistence of these strange shadowy creatures were only adding onto the bounty hunter's annoyed state of mind more than it already was. Despite their odd behavior and seemingly weak resistance against his strikes, these creatures were just as formidable as the tribes that Vizuel had summoned from her master ghost. However, unlike the others, this... this felt different and it made him briefly pause at the sheer scale of its potential power. He hadn't felt anything like this since the days of the Crusades carried out by the Herald of Destruction.

Like the white-haired man at his side, Sol could see odd creatures freaking out. At first, he thought they were no more than simple decorations part of the airfield, but he was proven wrong before. Still, even though he had previously thought about just leaving just for the sake of avoiding anything strenuous, the bounty hunter clicked his tongue when the little creatures in white fur gave him the sort of look of an abandoned puppy. He couldn't exactly deny the fact that it'd be rather cruel of him to leave them as prey to those dastardly relentless beasts. After much struggle, the Gear let out a loud, exasperated sigh - almost as if it took massive effort just to stand there and look at them.

"Damn it, I must be gettin' soft for my age...." He internally complained.

Sol pumped magic through his body. His muscles tensed, and little bits of flames burst out of the ground, almost as if to ward off the incoming dark that threatened to loom over the two fighters. About 15% of my power ought to do it in, he thought. With that, the Gear jumped up to the highest point of the area in a single leap. His studious crimson eyes took in and surveyed the potential battlefield. If they were going to keep these... weird-looking creatures safe, it was absolutely necessary that they took their battle somewhere more secluded.

"This ain't just smaller ones. I don't know what the hell they've got back there, but it's big!"

Well, no shit, Sherlock. 



"Tell me somethin' that I don't know!" Sol snapped, "Now shut yer trap so I can think, Christmas-eyes. Can't hear myself think over yer mouth shittin' out buncha' random bullcrap."

Tch, the one time he went out of his way to let someone know something big was coming, since he had no clue whether this was just some guy that could manipulate fire using something or not, and this is the response he got? Ragna remembered why he preferred travelling alone. "Great. Well, while you're sat up there thinkin', I'm gonna do something." He snapped back, not used to travelling with anyone, let alone people that were gonna smack talk him in the middle of something like this. It was obvious he wasn't one for strategic teamwork, but the same could be said about his aggressive friend here.

Regardless, Sol had leapt up to a high place. Ragna glanced around, aware of the Moogles hiding in the shelter. As suitable a place as this was, he wondered if this was coming for them, or those things... regardless, the strength he felt was something he hadn't ever felt before. Terumi was the closest thing he'd felt, due to his own BlazBlue - Ragna cursed under his breath and glanced around. They could run to the end of the airfield, but the thing about this place was that it was a town. No matter where they went, there were going to be some potential civilian casualties. "Crap... doesn't matter where we lead this, there's gonna be risk!" After calling that to the bounty hunter, Ragna set off to the Moogles he could see scurrying around.

"We have to protect our things, kupo!" He heard one of them cry, as it darted around.

"Hey! The hell matters more to you, your money or your life? Tell everyone to get out of this airfield, right now!" Aggressive, Ragna commanded the Moogle he saw to lead the rest of them out. A few other Moogles heard him, stopping and looking at him. At least a few of them listened and started shepherding their fellow Moogles towards the exit of the airfield that was further from the encroaching darkness. It wasn't necessarily imperative that they left the airfield - just that they evacuated the area before whatever this was showed. It felt big, anyway; if it was all that big, leaving the area was a pointless endeavour.

As the Moogles started to evacuate, Ragna looked around the area. Planes, stars... yeah, he couldn't really guarantee the safety of any of them, but this was a battlefield ripe with a ton of potential territorial advantages. Ragna then put his effort into running back to the farther end of the airfield. If this thing was going for the Moogles, it was going to get a few likely no matter what they did aside from stand beside the damn things. If not, it was better that they created distance. If the other guy decided to run, Ragna would just take this thing by himself; he had confidence.

Worst came to worst, he'd just use his Azure. No more time to goof off, however; here it came.



Ragna readied Blood-Scythe, having cleared the area of Moogles. It didn't look like it was going for the Moogles, but for them, because as he had his weapons ready, it finally appeared before the both of them.

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HP: 400

The boy was right. The bounty hunter clicked his tongue in frustration at the realization of inevitable casualties. While there wasn't a whole lot that he could do to prevent the deaths of people - or the strange looking creatures in this airfield, he could keep the damage minimal given that he would be able to herd whatever that was coming at them. The squeaking of the furry white critters, however, only made the Gear all the more frustrated with their vain worries over their 'merchandises'. Before he could say anything to them, it was the red-coated kid who stepped forward and yell at them to leave the area unless they wanted to die. That much was true, none of them would be able to survive with the two fighters in this area wrecking havoc on their enemies and he doubted any planes here would be in one piece by the time he was through.

"There goes th'idea of hijackin' one of those...." Sol muttered.

As he watched the 'Moogles' quickly evacuate the battlefield, a slow ascent of a shadowy creature took him by surprise. It was bigger than what he had encountered so far of their kind. He certainly had encountered much bigger hostile enemies, but he never imagined those things had one of 'those' given how so easily they seemed to fall from his blows. Thankfully, despite its seemingly ominous appearance, it didn't seem to take notice of him at first - only the white-haired man at its feet. Though the bounty hunter wasn't exactly sure why it was so drawn to him, he wasn't willing to let this sort of chance pass! With a mighty leap, the Gear ascended towards the dark abomination like a fiery hammer of god and smashed his fist against its head, sending it hurling for a good few street blocks. Though it destroyed a few buildings along its path, he made sure the damage was 'contained' just enough by pounding it in the direction where he saw the least amount of people.

If there were anyone there... well, then, that was their problem.

Once again, Sol pumped magic into his body and propelled himself through the air in the direction of the large, humanoid thing. The smoke soon seemed to clear, and it already seemed back on its feet by the time he landed himself on one of the buildings. That was only his 15% too.... This was going to be a more pain than he had initially imagined.

As the last of the Moogles were herded off, Ragna readied himself. This battlefield was likely to become hell on earth if this fight was going to be as difficult as was expected.

The creature rose, in all its dark, huge glory. Ragna was dumbfounded for a second - this thing looked insane. This was some Takemikazuchi level shit right here, and this Ragna hadn't ever even seen Takemikazuchi in person. The swirling darkness emitted from the creature was something he felt his azure resonating with, but it wouldn't act up unless he activated it. As it was, he was more than set, ready to fight. Still... if this was this big, he couldn't help but wonder whether it was leading the smaller shadows, whether defeating it would free them from being followed by the little bastards? He had a feeling that it didn't quite work like that, but there was only one way to find out...

BGM: Destiny's Force

Ragna noticed the Darkside focusing on him. He prepared himself, ready to intercept should it attack. It appeared to move very slowly, thankfully... avoiding its attacks shouldn't prove all that difficult. Still, he stood ready to guard should he need to. The Red Devil was a slower attacker, but hit like an absolute truck, throwing his weight around. Ragna had no doubts that the Darkside was the same - especially if it were going to use dark power beyond just this, as well. As it prepared to attack, Sol leapt towards it and pounded it with extreme force, knocking the Darkside through a few buildings. A lot of damage was done, but the Darkside was not quelled - it was definitely stronger than the mooks they had been facing back in the square.

Ragna gave chase. They had to stop this thing from continuing its assault, or else who knew who else could be hunted and die? He'd rather it were him than some defenceless person, as much as he didn't want to get involved with this shit. Leaping from one of the buildings, the Grim Reaper swung his sword up. He swung it regularly, then hit the Darkside with his drive, did the same two moves once more, and then launched his sword upwards, covered in darkness. "INFERNO DIVIDER!" He gave the monster an upward punch, and then swung his leg around, also coated in darkness, for a downward smash. "SHATTER!" His power didn't knock the Darkside around even nearly like Sol's did without using a Distortion Drive, and as a result Ragna made a mental note that he probably didn't want to fight against this guy if it could be helped. He seemed to have power on level with the masked freak...

His feet on the Darkside's chest, Ragna pushed himself away and slid across a nearby rooftop. He'd done damage, even if it hadn't smashed the Darkside around. Good enough for him.

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HP: 400

It was slow, big, and it definitely lived up to its massive size. Not only did it endure his 'Sidewinder', but it seemed also to be able to shrug off blows from the white-haired attacker. Slowly, as the abysmal colossus rose to its feet, the heart-shaped hole glowed initially in a white flash, and as its heaved, all the blackness in the world gathered at its core. In realization what it was about to do, Sol quickly did his best to move out of the way by jumping from one roof of the building to another, quickly closing the distance between him and his target. Then, in a grim surprise, black orbs flung themselves out of the creature, chasing Sol with all intents to kill. 

Sol's eyes widened at this and he quickly smashed away a few orbs before the next few caught him from the right flank. The darkness hissed and burned his flesh, and soon after, Gear found himself being flung to the side by the massive explosion that shook his body to the core. However, after all the years in combat, the bounty hunter learned to endure.

He learned to grit his teeth and bite the bullet against the waves of pain that threatened to overtake him many times before. Unlike the creature, the crimson-clad hunter quickly recovered in midair and ground his fingers against the concrete pavement to keep himself from being distanced any further from the monster. 

"Not bad," A snarl made its way across the man's usual stoic features, and he broke off into a sprint that left trails of flames and dust behind him. 

Sol was a small target in comparison to this creature, and he'd use that to its advantage by zigzagging to keep it from targeting him nearly accurately as it did before. Once he closed in, the shadowy giant raised its arm into the air and smashed it into the ground, aiming to crush the bounty hunter under its fist. However, Sol circled around the creature and pumped magic into the old war relic, Fuuenken. The chains around the weapon spun, roared and violently shook as it engulfed itself in a red hot inferno.

"VOLCANIC VIPER!"

Sol jumped high into the air, and slashed upwards as he did so, using all the momentum that he received from his jump to cut into the creature's hide. The belligerent flames blast itself out of the wound, lighting up the night as if it were day. The creature, was also knocked upwards from the immensely powerful blow. Sol then spun in mid-air, heaved, and brought down his leg in a quick axe kick that followed. Without a single moment to recover from his first initial blow, the creature had no other choice other than to be sent flung downwards like a ragdoll. 

Then suddenly, his leg was engulfed in flames, and in an act that seemed to defy all laws of physics, he sent himself crashing down towards the creature's skull. The kick drove the monstrosity further into the ground, and the super massive explosion that soon followed engulfed the creature in a great hellpyre that consumed the entirety of its being.

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HP: 333

It was a good job that Ragna had leapt away; it launched a good few missiles at Sol, knocking him back considerably but far from knocking him out. The Bounty Hunter flew into the air with a fiery weapon, cutting open the monstrosity before knocking it down with a pillar of smoking hot flames, in an impressive display of strength. The monster, however, recovered - it was incredibly tough, as it turned out... it was still kicking and trying to take them down. Sol wound back, and the monster stood up.

This thing was seriously tough, and Ragna of Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi. The only other thing that was this black, this comprised of... well, something like darkness... that he could think of, anyway. This thing wasn't nearly at Take-Mikazuchi's level, though. With enough seithr, Take-Mikazuchi could level a hierarchical city in an instant. Ragna wouldn't like to go up against that Nox Nyctores, that was for sure. This thing was big, but it stumbled around, was knocked about, punched and shot missiles at everyone - it didn't quite fire amazingly powerful lasers that could shred just about everything to dust.

Ragna glanced at their imminent surroundings. They were on a building right now - well, he was. The Darkside was on several buildings that used to be properly standing. Regardless, this wasn't exactly a safe place for civilians... thankfully, they seemed to understand and be evacuating. The Moogles must have done something... the rooftops were stable enough to support him. As the Darkside picked itself up, Ragna leapt from the building, at its head. "GAUNTLET HADES!" He swung his fist around, covered in darkness - he then followed up with an upwards kick, using the power of the Beast to light up, his attacks only a slightly lighter colour than the monster he was fighting. "Belial Edge!" Riding his sword downwards, he hit numerous points on the monster's body as he sunk towards the bottom. It was resilient, but his blade was all he needed.

When he got to the bottom, Ragna backstepped and stared up at the monster in all its glory. Man, it was tall... taller than he was. "Dark bastard..." He turned and leapt up, using numerous points to jump to the roof he had been on previously. It was a good vantage point for attacking the monster more close-up, so he was going to use it to his advantage.

Its move.

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HP: 400