Once more, Passchendaele didn't move. He stared directly at Ichigo, watching him form his little 'magic trick,' and waited for the hit. The blast was huge, engulfing the robot in golden light, and causing yet more dust and dirt to fly around him. But, once again, when it all settled, Passie only had a minor scratch on his chest plate from where the strike landed. He moved his hand over it, studying the small particles of metal that had now fallen off his body.
Actual damage.
"Good," he commented aloud,
"one of you Can kill me. My turn now." The plates along his back extended outwards, revealing over two dozen small launch tubes. In a matter of moments, smoke blew out from under them, and out launched twenty missiles two feet long. Half were aimed directly at the group, the other half flew up around the room to destroy the alien structure itself; blasting off the pillars that kept the room stable for all these centuries. He was trying to bury everyone alive.
At the same time, the machine raised both his arms up at Ichigo. Two large barrels protracted from each of his wrists, one arm aimed at Ichigo himself, another aiming for calculated movement when he attempted to dodge. What then followed was a barrage of gunfire so intense, it vibrated the floor and deafened the whole room. 24,000 plasma rounds per minute, and if none of that hit the Soul Reaper, it would sure as hell hit the others if they didn't get blown up.
There was a reason this twelve foot behemoth of a machine was nicknamed 'The Dreadnought.' They are finding out now why.
Three more of Moon Knight's teammates sprung into action. Katunich Parker, Guardian Warlock, threw his hand in a great arc, tossing bolts of purple Void energy into the air.
They were missiles of magic, hungerous little things which dissolved matter and funneled their material and energy back to the caster, fueling their next attack. The bolts burst when they hit or even before, acting like a mystical wall of flak.
Once more of the path was clear, Omni-Man rose into the air, waiting for a half-second before charging down Passchendaele like a bullet out of one of the robot's guns.
His teammates likely thought Nolan was moving to fight the robot on their behalf, but this fight was personal. They had removed the vast majority of his age and heritage-earned power, and he was going to beat it back out of this sub-commander.
He knew they were a threat to Viltrum because of that, and he wasn't going to let that stand. All of his strength, speed and skill would be behind every attack.
"I'm going to break you like the toy you are," he growled, narrowing in for a crushing blow.
From behind, under the cover of Katunich's psykana, Gregon Ponad, son of Rogal Dorn and apothecary of the Imperial Fists, leveled a weapon he hadn't used in many years.
It was a shoulder-mounted heavy weapon, one rated to destroy the armored, monstrous vehicles of his time and universe - an Astartes *lascannon.*
He lined up his target, waiting for the robot to prepare his counter to Omni-Man's telegraphed attack, aimed at the robot's knee, and then pulled the trigger. Like lightning from the heavens, the cannon fired out a lance of blinding energy, and while a laser has no recoil, the interworkings performing the discharge alone try to bump the weapon out of the space marine's hands.
At the same time, Sevestre had to quickly act on his role as one of the supporting members of the party. He reached his hand out and cast a quick, simple spell. From his hand was a magical string shot out to Ryan, and yanked the man out of the debris and back to the party, capitalizing on Katunich's quick defense.
The next step was to set up Earthly Star, one of the recently developed spells of Leveva, her students, and a Hingan Geomancer. Sevestre was not so prideful that he would reject advancements in Astrologian magicks from a foe that had bested him. Near the center of the area, close to Passchendale, aether began to accumulate and swirl. It was untouchable in that one could pass through it and not be affected. It could not be absorbed, and required no concentration from Sevestre as the caster. The Geomancy aspect would allow it to function without his control. For now, it is simply a decoration, lighting the ground beneath it.
The Sharlayan would quickly draw a card.The result: the Bole. Not quite what he wanted, but there was little time. He bestowed the power of the Bole onto Xeir, the first person he could think of. Her ranged attacks, should she have or use any would more devastating now, while any close combat would only be slightly stronger than usual. This would only last for a small amount of time, so he hoped she worked fast.
Finally, though clearly rushing to perform all these quick actions, his body levitated a bit, and he erected a barrier of sorts around the others as a precaution for any projectiles that may break through Katunich's wall.
The cannon strike hit, bouncing off the robots knee and causing him to kneel before Omni-Man as the Viltrumite went in for a destructive punch to the machine's head. Unfortunately, the electrical defense Passchendaele used against Ryan was still working. The moment the punch landed, Nolan would receive an incredible voltage through his body, causing him to freeze in place as his body seized. The pain would be excruciating, even for him.
The machine itself still didn't look damaged from the blow either. His head was twisted by the force of the punch, but Nolan would actually feel the pain in his knuckles when they collided with the steel. Even the cannon blast made the plating around his knee glow orange from the incredible heat it produced, but once it cooled left only small marks. This wasn't like any kind of metal any of them had seen before.
Quickly, Passchendaele grabbed Nolan's entire head in the palm of his hand; positioning the Viltrumite as a meat shield for another cannon blast, and delivering a hard hitting punch of his own to Nolan's ribcage. A few would feel broken already.
"You can't be this weak, surely," Passchendaele commented to Nolan, squeezing his head between his fingers.
"Between you and the ginger, I figured you'd put up the bigger fight," Passie then grabbed one of Nolan's legs, raised him above his shoulders, and slammed him down back first on his kneeling knee, before then throwing him back at Kat's little shield; the same time firing yet another artillery shell from his mounted arm cannon
WHILE THAT HAPPENED,
The explosion that nearly killed Moon Knight would throw The Doctor's briefcase across the room; sliding against the alien floor.
It stopped an inch away from someone's foot, while simply, and calmly, picked it up by its handle like nothing else was happening. The man in black was back again, smiling ever so deviously as the fight went on. "Evening~" The Pentaman greeted to anyone who caught wind of his appearing, even giving them a little salute.
He then turned the opposite direction and started walking off back into the shadows where he came from, suitcase in hand.
"Now you wait-wait just a second, you!" The Doctor runs ahead of him, puts her left hand up holding her sonic screwdriver aimed to his geometrically malevolent head.
"Your muscle over there will be reduced to scrap in time, save yourself a messy dismantling and give that case back"
Penta stopped in place as she threatened him at Sonic-point, but his smile didn't disappear. The red-eyes machine just stared her down. He didn't show it, but he was confused why he was still here.
"I wonder..." Penta began thinking aloud, raising up the briefcase. "Ahhhhh, I see," Penta noticed something around the lock of the case, "you made this thing us-proof. A time locked briefcase that can only be opened using the generic sequence of three different time lords from three different periods in time. And, it seems to be blocking my little teleporting trick. I was wondering why I'm still here." It seemed The Doctors didn't want a repeat of last time they got ambushed.
"I'm guessing there's also a trick for making sure we can't just force it open. How about this," Penta moved his head closer to the sonic, "If you open it, I won't have Passie dismember you limb from limb. Your sonic can't do a thing against us."
"You are absolutely correct this does not work on you lot." The Doctor nods then abruptly Penta is struck with a kick to the center of his chest, and a hard grab-twist of his own wrist to attempt to make him drop the case. The empty threat was only a chance for him to gloat and retort, distracting him.
The kick was strong, stronger than you would think actually from a woman of her size and stature. Enough that it made Penta's massive grin die into a surprised look, followed by her SUCCESSFULLY flipping the machine on his butt.
It was so baffling and sudden and shocking, Penta looked confused on what just happened... only to follow that reaction with laughter. "HA! HAHAHAHAHAAA!!~" In the blink of an eye, he teleported away from the Doctor.
BACK WITH THE FIGHT
Ichigo has been using Shunpo to avoid the projectiles being sprayed all around the place, and now he had used it to catch Nolan and pull him out of the blast radius. He sent another Getsuga Tensho from the small blade towards the robot, knowing it would do little damage.
Given what he had seen from the others' attempts at hitting it up close, the best approach for now would be to take potshots at the automaton until they can figure out a way past that defense.
As Nolan recovered from his impact with the shield, he was admittedly grateful towards Ichigo for saving him from Gregon's lascannon shot. "I could've been hurt there," the viltrumite growled, and the Astartes shrugged.
"I believed in the coordination of the rest of our team."
Nolan's face was ugly with frustration, but ultimately he was useless for now, as long as that shield was up. A fact which Katunich had an idea about...
Using some of the energy and matter he had repurposed from the rocket barrage, the wizened warlock summoned his Void familiar, a child of the old gods of relativity. The rest, he poured into his revolver, aiming it down towards Passchendaele's chest. Quickly, Better Devils began to glow a ghostly white, Light possessing the weapon and granting it staggering capabilities - in a more literal way than the robot might suspect.
The gun rang out, bullet and barrel both infused with the magics of the Traveler, of life itself, and following the bullet was the small Void orb. Then, it would sit next to Passie, vampiric energies gnawing away at his energetic shield and invulnerable armor, sending the energy-matter harvest back to the warlock for repurposing.
As the warlock did this, Gregon let out another lascannon shot, trying to hit, this time, his gun-toting forearms and wrists. If he couldn't hurt the robot, he could at least try to defang it.
If the cannon bolt went for Ryan, Katunich or Ichigo, Omni-Man would try to move them out of harm's way. If it came for himself, he'd merely evade. If it came for Gregon, well, bully for him. And luckily, the Astartes war-plate could take the blow anyhow.
The damage by Kat was all encompassing to the machine, once finding itself kneeling against the ground on both knees as void orb sucked away the energy to its main weapons, and his bullets bounced off Passchendaele's body. While still minor damage, it was damage none the less, and the orbs powerful aura was slowly eating away at his scratched like acid dissolving armor.
Then, Gregon's cannon fired again. The blast was yet again incredible, and this time shot Passie right in the head. The robot recoiled backwards, a whiplash to the impact, and it seemed like they now had a proper upper hand as next Sev's tornado of magical energy began to erupt into a thunderous explosion of energy to strike upon the Dreadnought.
However,
Something started changing in the tornado. The color went from white to red, and the dancing stars around it began to glitch like broken code. The orb illuminated over Passie, and grew in size; spinning faster with enough wind force to push everyone back. Then, when it exploded, it let out a ghastly shriek. The sound of loud, white glitching noise that echoed across the room like a violent scream of a dying woman. Red electricity bounced around the room, zig zagging without any care of what was in its way.
And at the center of the explosion, what should have been celestial stars forming instead turned into a pure red eye, with noticeable cybernetics around the irises and in the center of its pupils. It would feel like it was staring right into all of their souls, like it was trying to stab at them with the force of a thousand knives.
When the eye vanished, and the red glow of the blast glimmered away, smoke and dust covered the impact zone. And out walked Passchendaele, looking totally untouched. All his armor had been repaired by the spell. Someone reversed it.
He stopped once he was past the smoke, letting a huff of steam billow out from his body. It hissed like air escaping an enclosed pipe.
"Remarkable," he commented on his repairs,
"for lack of a better word, it 'feels'... like victory."
*"I would wait on saying that,"* a female voice spoke up behind him, *"you always over-extend yourself before being anywhere near it."* Ichigo could recognize the voice. The same voice that greeted him back in the station he woke up in. The one that was cutting up pieces of the Soul Reaper's body.
That witch
*"Ichigo-san,"* The robot witch called out to him, *"I'm glad to see you're well. I was worried we had syphoned too much of your power away to fully recover."*
**"Too much,"** Passie added, **"his strength is nowhere near the power he had before his battle with Yhwach."**
*"You would surely be dead by now if he was."*
**"It would be more fun than him playing a scared chicken right now,"** Passie mocked.
Ryan was quite irritated by the machine's electric shield. He was not quite made of flesh anymore, but it still hit hard. As he flew back and fought the induced paralysis, a stream of energy pulled him out of the collapsing pillar falling on him, an acknowledging nod towards Sevestre was his thanks as he quickly focused back on the towering pile of metal.
The urlcerse stabbed the ground with his incandescent blade, and as he did, an aura of red flames engulfed him. And with no more words to say until he righted his wrong of being put on the backfoot so easily, he would simply act. Like a projectile, Ryan blasted towards the larger robot, forming a long and wide blade of superheated magical plasma. Just before being in immediate melee range (past his teammates), he stopped, letting go of the blade, which burst with energy as it flew the remaining distance to the machine's main body. While he did this, a sudden pillar of molten rock and even more red plasma would erupt from beneath the enemies' feet. Coming from the accumulated energy in the blade Ryan left behind.
For a moment, Ichigo was confused as to what had just happened. There was a sudden explosion, and whatever scratches they managed to deal to Passchendale disappeared. For his part, the substitute shinigami was mostly unharmed, but this encounter was getting more difficult by the second. It didn't help that the situation got even worse, as a familiar robot revealed itself.
The Thaumatrix. The feminine machine that had abducted, experimented on, and weakened Ichigo in the first place was now here. The sight of it made Ichigo shake in a mix of intimidation and anger. He knew that he wouldn't have the luxury of holding back now that there were two of them. He took both blades and put them together, before shouting out,
"
Bankai!"
A flood of spiritual pressure made the air heavy. Ichigo's blades merged into one, forming a larger single-edged sword. His facial expression was calmed and focused once more.
With the increase in speed and power, he dashed forward and to Passchendale's side. This time, he was taking quite a bit of a risk. Not only was he about to attack at the same time as Ryan's technique, but he went in to attack with a more direct contact. And just to be sure, Ichigo was letting out a wordless Getsuga Tensho as he swung at the robot.
*"This fight is useless and you know it,"* the witch told Passchendaele, using their interconnected minds to speak before Ichigo and Ryan even had a chance to throw up their blades, as they could respond to each other in mere mili-seconds. *"You lack the necessary force for attrition, and even at their current strength, they still have the plausible force to wound you."*
**"Current estimates suggest otherwise,"** Passie replied back, **"I kill the deranged dragon first, balance out the attacks and defense with the soul reaper, and use distanced artillery to remove the space marine and guardian. The end result should take an hour at most."**
*"With a 74.59% chance of success."*
**"Those odds are still in my favor."**
*"And a waste of time,"* the witch added, *"both of you are like cats playing with mice. Boredom has overtaken your critical thinking, and you're thinking of short-term pleasures instead of long term gains. Enough of it. If you want fun, take it topside, and after we obtain the package."*
**"Fine,"** Passie relented, **"... spoilsport."**
*"Oh you love me and you know it,"* The two sounded more jovial upon their hyper-speed conversation ending, and a new plan was quickly formulated.
When Ryan's flood of volcanic lava thrusted upwards against Passchendaele's legs, the machine decided not to brace for another attack on two fronts. Instead, rockets were ejected out from under his legs and back panels, and using the momentum of the shifting rock and lava, burst off the ground with a blast of steam and smoke. Both Ichigo and Ryan would only be a few feet from where the robot stood, and would watch as the dreadnought flew into the air.
Up and up he went, full blast towards the ceiling of the alien structure, while he continued firing more missiles and artillery blasts and even plasma discharge rounds from his body. Some were aimed towards the heroes, but they were just distractions, as most of the firepower was aimed at the pillars holding up the whole room. Blast after blast caused the black rock of the pillars to crack and weaken, yet not enough damage to fully destroy them. Passchendaele then rotated a hundred and eighty degrees, shutting off his rockets and letting his continued momentum pull him the rest of the way up until his feet reached the ceiling. With a crash, the ceiling cracked against the force of his body, and for a brief moment laid motionless and still.
Then shot back down towards the ground with a thunderous blast-off, going even faster. His body began to glow a mixture of red and orange from his armor warming, while mixed in was a greenish aura that built around him like a shield for each foot he passed. It was surely obvious what he was doing by this point. He was going to bring down the whole room, and was using himself as a bomb to destroy the pillars in one fell swoop.
