Enyalius scowled, and called out, "Ideas?"

"Maybe we should remove her from the area? Enough distance could break whatever the connection is?"  They really needed to know how they were connected.

Quote :

From within the shell of ice, the Clam twitches, trying to free herself; unable to break it at that time, she tightens her hold on the creatures she has trapped!
The dragon mothers cry out in pain once again! The rest of the dragons react with worry!
--2
 Sedna loses 2 HP!

She wasn't seeing anything! "Try moving it!" Ribbon agreed with Achelois, and waited for those stronger than her to give it a try, before the creature could break free.

Crying out once more, she grit her teeth. "Encasing her in ice isn't stopping her completely, she's still able to hurt us, although not as much as before."

Seeing that the Clam had been temporarily frozen, Callisto let go of her Major Shield, relaxing. She glanced back at the dragons to check on them again, and then back at the Clam. 

"I'll carry her if it might help..." she offered. It was better than standing around and watching people get injured. She jogged over to the ice block and dug her clawed fingers into it to get a better grip. Then she lifted then entire thing off the seafloor and used her shoulder to rest the weight on, using both hands to steady it. 

"Just tell me where to go," she said, sounding slightly strained.

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Callisto's claws digging into the ice further decreases the ice's structural integrity!

The moment the ice block is lifted off the ground, the dragons and Sedna visibly relax!

"It's the ground!" Ribbon cried out, catching how the dragons' necks drooped in relief the moment Callisto lifted the creature. "Keep her off the ground!"

The moment she realized that she was able to move, she backed up trying to put some distance between herself and the clam. Also deciding that healing herself would be a good idea, just in case, she used Oceans' Grace on herself. 

Enyalius shrugged sent her sword and shield away and was going to try Achelois's suggestion when Callisto approached and picked it up instead. Ribbon's announcement brought up a new issue - they needed her not to touch the ground and affect the others, but with her anywhere above the ground there was the obvious 'flight' risk; they needed her in one place to answer Enoch's questions. 

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A dragon approaches the group from behind, carrying Amatheia and Shadow's unconscious bodies!


"I found them!" he exclaimed, bringing them to Achelois's attention, choosing her above the others as she had helped him before.

Sedna uses Ocean's Grace (5MP)
--2
--1
--CTRL 6
--MP 3
Total of 12 HP restored

Achelois was relieved that they at least knew how to stop the connection.  However she didn't think the ice would last very long.  The dragon from before also returned with Shadow and Amatheia's bodies.  "For now lets just see if distance can stop the connection when she breaks out. Head north, the way we came from."  She turned to the dragon, "Thank you!"  There were three people to be revived now...

So it was the ground that connected the Clam to her victims... Callisto nodded at Achelois, and then started swimming upward in the direction that had been indicated.

"If we still need to keep her off the ground, I can try using my shield as a platform again," Callisto said. But that would require another person to move the frozen Clam for her.

Enyalius jumped off the ground an followed Callisto, keeping abreast of her in case --

Quote :

The ice surrounding the creature began to crack.

Sailor Leviathan wasn't sure what to do about the whole situation, but Ribbon's assistance proved for the better.

"I still don't have any magic to help," Leviathan said with a panicked tone. "I'm too weak to help. Come on, guys! You can do it... I know you can errr... keep her off the ground? Good job finding that weakness, Ribbon!"

Guardian Leviathan frowned deeply at Sailor Leviathan, seeming incredibly disappointed in the perception lacking senshi. She ruffled her adorable pigtails in disappointment over the matter.

Ribbon glowed beneath Leviathan's praise, but kept her eyes on the battle, looking for any other way she could help out.

Grabbing one of her daggers, Eshana looked into the service, trying to see if she could scry any useful information on how to deal with the Clam beyond attempting to keep her off the ground.

Nix swam up to follow as Callisto moved the frozen clam, in case she needed to refresh the ice. It was great that they had figured this out, but… the ice was breaking.

“Callisto, get your hands off of her!” she cried, knowing she probably didn’t give too much of a reaction time, but could spare no more. She shot another dose of Glacier Freeze toward the clam.

Sailor Nocturnus

They were here and the others were fighting, but it didn't seem to be going well. Thankfully Ribbon had figured out the trick involving the abilities of this clam...but so far it wasn't clear to Nocturnus, who faithfully guarded her friend, what would come next. Enyalius's method of "keep hitting the thing and Achelois heals whatever" didn't seem to be cutting it. She watched carefully, hoping to spot some way she could help. Lifting heavy things was out of the picture.

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Eshana's attempt at scrying didn't bring back much of anything useful... keeping her off the ground seemed to be the trick.

Callisto tosses the enemy upwards! The upward force does just enough to fully break the Clam free of the ice-shell!
The Clam escapes the shell and starts to swim!

Nix uses Glacier Freeze (4MP) and attempts to freeze the Clam

Did it hit?
--3
it misses!




The clam plucks a bead off of her necklace as she swims back towards the dragons; she throws it to the ground and immediately all who had been under her spell left the ground, floating up into the water at high speeds, covering her from easy view between the bulk of the adult dragons (and Sedna!) The last sight of her showed her holding a large, wicked blade of obsidian. 

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Dragons started to cry out, one by one, and blood started to color the water as the Clam cut a bloody path through the hoard. The rest of the dragons bellowed in agitation; once again they could not help in this or risk their families!

Ribbon had lost her for just a moment; from her vantage point, after running forward to keep up, she managed to watch as the woman stabbed dragons at random as she made her way farther from Callisto and the others, and then started rising higher and higher, towards the open "sky" above --

"She's trying to get away!" Ribbon yelled.

She wouldn’t let her get away! With the chaos surrounding her escape it would be nearly impossible to catch up with her - she had to find a way to slow her down, to stop her before she escaped – her planet was still alive, and while it might not lend her its power in its probable death-throws, she would ask regardless! Her Heavy Burden attack – the backlash would be greater than ever now, knowing what she had done, what she had allowed, but she didn’t have to be the one to land the final blow. There were many here that could do it; she just needed to slow it down. She threw her arm up into the air to prepare, and opened a channel to accept planetary energy, opening the floodgates to the true pain her planet was under. She could have screamed, but she turned the pain into her attack, screaming it out as she crashed her fist into the sand below, her eyes focused on the blue body that was swimming farther and farther away – she would pull her back!
 
“ENYALIUS CRUSHING BURDEN!”

Quote :

Enyalius used Crushing Burden (10 MP)
Everyone in the area, friend and foe, is thrown to the ground with impressive speed, as though gravity has increased just for them.
The Clam slams back to the ground from her high height, landing on her sword's edge!
How much damage?
--26 (rolled out of 30 pts for height)

 
Her eyes were wide and unfocused, seeing the devastation of her planet firsthand in what she knew to be a live-feed. Her attack was different – it had done more than it ever had, had affected more than she had ever intended, but the voice that was concerned with her companions was small and faint as the torrent of bloody images rampaged through her mind’s eye. Towns decimated, cities flattened, flames reached for the sky, heavy with smoke and ashes as the world burned. Bodies were everywhere, from the armored warriors to the frail elderly, to the sad, small bodies of children. None had been spared. All had paid the price of her abandonment – no one had been there to fight for them, to save them from this fate. She had been elsewhere, fighting others’ battles, leaving her own people to die.
 
“I’ve been so stupid,” she cried quietly, her voice breaking in a whisper, her tears unseen in the water surrounding her. “It’s all my fault they’re dead. All their pain and suffering – it’s all on me, on my shoulders.” She looked up haltingly, her eyes wide, pupils dilated as fresh images appeared within her vision; she tried to see through them, to find Achelois, but with each heartbreaking and grotesque image her sight seemed to grow weaker. Finally she saw her – so close, but she had been unable to sense her, to feel Achelois’s hands on her. Copper eyes shifted to Achelois face as she repeated, “I was stupid.”

Sensing Enya's pain, Sedna frowned. It wasn't so much physical as it was emotional, and not something she could easily help with unless she was allowed. With the clam on the ground once more, Sedna was bound, unable to move.

Sailor Nocturnus

Sailor Nocturnus gasped as her body was slammed to the ground, knocking the air from her lungs. The clam was getting away and hurting the dragons, this time with an awful sword, but Enyalius interfered.

"We have to stop her!" she forced out, still dazed.

She didn't want it to end like this!

Enoch

Enoch, like the others, suffered the effects of Sailor Enyalius's attack. He assumed that the warrior had gone under great duress and unleashed her power without caution, much like Sailor Leviathan had, many times in her and Enoch's training together. As the chaos of the situation went on, he suddenly had an idea.

"Freeze the Clam again! Freeze her up to her neck! We need to figure out what's going on here. If we don't, more planets could end up in this exact situation."

Hopefully they needed his words. He didn't want to keep the horrible thing alive, but this challenge could prove beneficial to the others' cause.

"Chaos Agent," he said, staring down the Clam with fierce eyes. "What was your goal here? What was the point of trying to destroy these dragons? Of damaging this planet? If you didn't want to eradicate it, what was the point of it all?"

Sailor Leviathan's heart felt like it was ripping to pieces when, of all things, the Clam cut through the dragons in her horrid attempt to escape. She went to dash forward to help the dragons but was suddenly slammed to the ground.

She strained to get back up and swam toward the dragons as fast she could. How could she just stand idly by as this all happened? She should have been the one injured, not the innocent dragons. They didn't deserve it. At least, in her heart, she did.

"Are you all alright?" she beckoned, ignorant of Sailor Enyalius's own cause. "Who is injured? I'm sure one or more of my friends could help! They have to be able to help!"

She didn’t hit Callisto, but she didn’t hit the clam either. Nix was momentarily disoriented as the water became crowded with dragons, though soon a trail of blood showed her the way.

Before she could do anything, though, a powerful force pulled her back down to the ground, knocking the breath out of her when she hit it. She thought she was going to die.

It took her a couple seconds to get back up and get her bearings, and the first thing she noticed was that something was very wrong with Enyalius. She seemed to be suffering from something that Nix couldn’t see, but whatever it was, her anguish was great.

Her attention was diverted when Enoch requested to freeze the clam up to her neck. She staggered up and activated Glacier Freeze for the third time, focusing so the magic left the neck and above of their enemy uncovered.

Quote :

The Clam is frozen up to her neck after Nix used Glacial Freeze again! 


 The Clam laughed, coughing up blood, which she then tried to blow into Enoch's face, obviously not yet inclined to answer his question, despite the gauge in her midsection bleeding enough to discolor the ice that now encased it.



The clam loses 4 HP.

Callisto was momentarily stunned when the Clam broke free of her ice prison, and then suddenly everything was in chaos as she tried to escape, using the dragons as meat shields. Before she could even try to chase after her, a massive force crushed her to the ground, along with everyone else. Everything stung as she recovered from being slammed, her armor and helmet not softening the impact much. She struggled to her feet as Enoch spoke, and then picked up the entire ice block again after she was refrozen.

"Answer the question," she growled. "I've had just about enough of your games, so hurry up before I finish the fight we were having earlier..." Most of the patience Callisto had was lost after what had happened in the last hour.

Enoch

"Because you don't have to die," he said, trying his best to keep a good face after being spit at with blood. "I know Sailor Leviathan will spare you if you cooperate."

He wanted to kill the Clam but knew that with her cooperation they could save many more lives.

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 She threw her head back and laughed, "You couldn't protect me. No one gets away from him," she turned her empty eyes towards Ribbon, "No one."

The familiar sight of blood as the calm woman tried to cut a path through the dragons angered Achelois.  But what could she do?  How could she stop -- She heard Enya call out a familiar move, except it was different, only seconds before she slammed down into the sand.  Achelois cringed from the pain, letting it subside only long enough for her to start moving again.  She had to move, she had to get there, she had to be by her side as fast as she could.  The closer she came, the more she could see how in trouble Enya was.  Her eyes, normally so filled with intent, were filled with the pain of seeing something Achelois could only guess at what.  Why? Why when even on a normal occurrence she needs me to filter it for her, why now when...  

Finally after what felt like an eternity, she was there.  Achelois wrapped one arm around the neck of her companion, the other around her waist, pulling as close to her as she possibly could.  Enya's voice floated like a broken whisper to her ears as she met the copper gaze that could now see her.  Guessing at what the other had seen, Achelois could do no more than reply with a simple, "I'm sorry."  Why was she here on Leviathan's planet?  Why had they not gone back to Enyalius years ago? Why was this happening to the one who never deserved this?  Questions bubbled to the forefront of her mind, but she shoved them all back down.  She needed do whatever she could, she needed to help Enya.  She rested her head on Enya's shoulder, her cheek against her neck as she released calm energy in the hope of calming her heart.

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