this is crazy

[from_scratch]

Cam is watching a new recording of Atriama, tail swishing in the gap in his couch, and doesn't stop to pause the show when he feels a summons go by.

Comments

[from_scratch]

"If I hand you a string that's a noose around her wing and you yank -"

[wormcan]

Flechette shakes her head. "Wouldn't work. Anything with curves or knots in it is going to take longer than the sword trick did, and she handled that fine."

[from_scratch]

"One of those retractable dog leashes with a sword on the end for me to go stab her with?"

[wormcan]

"Worth a try. You'd have maybe fifteen seconds at most before I have to infuse it again."

[from_scratch]

Cam hands her a leash end with nanotube coiled around it and takes off and accelerates in the Simurgh's direction, with rockets attached to his feet for an acceleration boost when he's clear of anyone who might object to the fire, and when he's there there's a featherlight rapier in his hand with the hilt trailing tube.

[whole_new_can]

The bizarre combination of sword and leash counts as a single object, and is close enough to a straight line that Flechette can keep the blade infused. Whenever it expires she'll just add more with almost no time in between.

So the Simurgh severs the line. It snaps with no visible cause, and once the resistance is gone Flechette's end retracts.

[from_scratch]

It doesn't retract very fast. As soon as the tension's gone Cam makes more line between the snapped bits, just enough to connect them again so they can retract taut. He's probably going to have to do that a lot but as long as the Simurgh's dealing with this she's... probably... not multitasking as aggressively anywhere else.

[whole_new_can]

Probably is a dangerous word around the Simurgh. She does seem to be focusing on him more than on anyone else. He can tell by the perfectly ordinary rock that cannonballs through Eidolon and into Cam. It may not deal any serious damage, but conservation of momentum is on her side. She's more than capable of bouncing him around for a while.

[from_scratch]

He can take some bouncing but it does make it hard to stab her. When he gets control of his motion again he approaches, intending to anchor himself to her with keratin.

[wormcan]

The next rock doesn't come. Instead, Eidolon yells "Back!" as he and the rest of the Triumvirate briefly switch from trying to deal damage directly to hemming the Simurgh in. This round of supporting combatants is headed by a second medieval-themed cape, and he's pointing a giant sword in their direction. Friendly fire is always a risk.

[from_scratch]

All right, fine, he won't get in their way. Would any of them like to hold this sword? No? Sigh.

[wormcan]

The silver and gold armored cape fires, this being what one does with a sword. The projectile doesn't strike any other defenders, but Cam's own unnaturally long sword twitches in his hand and the tip intersects the bullet. The projectile falls apart into several distinct speeding bullets, one of which is larger than any such bullet has a right to be and has the unmistakably dark black of deep Endbringer tissue.

They're all still moving, and the shot does in fact blast the Simurgh farther than anything since Legend last got in a good hit, but when she's back she has an indestructible weapon added to her cloud of surrounding debris.

[from_scratch]

...Cam doesn't like where this is going.

[whole_new_can]

Neither does anyone else. The armored hero is apparently refraining from firing again.

Where this is going is just defense at first. The cannonball blocks incoming attacks like anything else, and just happens to be indestructible while doing it. There's very little difference when used offensively. But then the Simurgh floats it toward her, toward a space where a chunk has been torn or blasted from her largest wing, and slides it in. It's bigger than the hole was; the injury gets larger to accommodate it and then resumes healing at her normal rate.

Once the cannonball is in, the Simurgh's song gets louder.

[from_scratch]

Jesus fucking Christ. Are they done yet? Can Cam go stab her?

[wormcan]

Yes! Definitely the stabbing!

The Simurgh has an objective now; she's meandering toward the cape with the indestructible Endbringer tissue cannonballs. He stands his ground until Alexandria shouts something and his armband starts buzzing. Pursuing him does also bring the Simurgh in Cam's direction, conveniently for stabbing.

[from_scratch]

Cam flies at her, sword and its leash tense for suitably destructive stabbing, and if he notices himself flinging away from the Simurgh he's going to be attached to her with keratin so she can't shake him.

[whole_new_can]

Possibly for exactly that reason, she doesn't try to shake him. Instead, the leash goes slack just at the fifteen-second interval since Flechette last imbued it and the Simurgh pushes the sword away in the split second while Cam repairs it. She pushes it with her hand, not her telekinesis, and her face is showing what might be contempt if it were attached to a human.

And suddenly her target is back—or at least his armor is; if he's inside it he probably didn't survive the sudden jerk from being pulled over—and he and his sword are blocking Cam's.

[from_scratch]

Well, that's inconvenient. Cam doesn't really mind stabbing the sword but he doesn't want to stab the dude. But he keeps trying to stab her - she's a bigger target than the human shield.

[whole_new_can]

Alexandria holds her in place, and he does manage to stab her. Cam will have to tear the sword outward instead of just slicing the Simurgh in two if he doesn't want to test Alexandria's invulnerability against this weapon, but it's a very deep slash through the Simurgh's side.

The armored cape is apparently still alive. He starts battering the Simurgh by shrinking his weapon and extending it explosively, each time punching a hole through her outer skin. Eventually the sword does intersect Cam's, and it falls apart the way the cannonball did. One small sword that looks like a scaled-down version of the original, one similarly small aluminum one, and one thirty-foot giant made of Endbringer flesh.

A sliver is cut off the largest blade where Cam's sword intersected the hero's, but the other two fall away unharmed. Short enough that they didn't reach the intersection point. The Simurgh releases the cape, having gotten what she wanted. The blade starts twisting around her unpredictably, twice her height, blocking ranged attacks and sometimes lashing out at close combatants.

[from_scratch]

Cam doesn't slice Alexandria. He just stabs the Simurgh again. Get her to go away, that's the idea, as fast as possible.

[wormcan]

His sword stops mid-slash and shatters.

[from_scratch]

New sword.

[whole_new_can]

While snapping that one, the Simurgh maneuvers the sliver that got cut off the giant sword and inserts it end-first into the deep gash Cam gave her. Stray feathers flutter upward and attach to it. Her new wing is shorter and less angelic than the others, but unmistakably a wing. The scream gets louder again, and adds a new strain of disharmony.

[from_scratch]

Stab stab stab stab FUCKING GO AWAY SIMURGH.