Baa-Ram-Ewe!

-Equus, Saddle Arabia, Nagrabah/Neighgrabah Consulate Building, Amira the Saddle Arabian delegate-

“Ma’am, you might want to see this.” One of the guards stated with clear terror on his face.

I walked outside and immediately sighed audibly while dragging my left hoof down my face, because I saw what was about to happen.

“Drive closer so we can hit a building with our swords Luna!” It was Jaded ‘Freaking’ La Perm, waving about a saber in a jolly manner.

“Yay, this shall be the fun my friend!” Along with Luna, pony of the night.

Said Alicorn was currently in the driver’s seat of the small tank slowly trundling its way for us… weren’t those two supposed to be at each other’s throats in a really violent, volatile and over the top manner to such an extent that it means they would never be friends under any circumstance of normalcy?

That’s when the other thought of a horseshoe dropped...

Since when was Jaded La Perm normal? The local Saddle Arabian branch of Capture Bridle Defend had her labeled as a Class 12 Apollyon anomaly… specifically one for Saddle Arabia, to absolutely no one’s surprise. They are quite sure that even when Jaded dies a natural or a highly supernatural unnatural death, that they can't ever truly label her as safe, neutralized or decommissioned with absolute certainty.

-Moon Cell Realm, Midgar, Central Street from the main gate of Midgar, inside a nearby building, Pom-

We’re not actually here to take care of opening the gate personally, that was the only good thing about this situation as we scattered under fire from some very powerful weapons. The Zealots shields did not last very long against that thing and they could hardly get close to it to do some minimal damage before they were torn apart.

I could hear the tank roll forward as it fired on the support pillar was I taking cover behind inside a building after I smashed my way through the windows, the Zealots and Saber Knights were helpful for tanking the thousands upon thousands of bullets that came flying our way.

I might need to use Thousand Spears Huo, multiple times even, to deal some moderate damage to that heavily armored thing. I don’t think Merak was going to quite give me the time for it though, A portal opened up to my right and I could see the six machine cannons of the left arm spinning up.

I could feel my pupils’ contract as I inhaled, then exhale and shot for the nearby stairs as thousands of bullets sprayed into the position I was just in.

Taking the stairs several steps at a time, I made a mental calculation and stopped on a specific part of the stairs.

“Hey, that thing is kind of nuts huh?” Glad to have you were here Dolly, Dormarch was still working on hiding the PLANT so it isn’t immediately totaled while we try to figure out how to fight The Arsenal.

“It is overkill is what it is.” At least I wasn’t alone, I couldn’t see anyone else from my position.

Even Jeanne was not willing to stand in front of the powerful weapons on that thing, which was a smart move. I peeked around the corner of the stairwell and saw the right arm go off with explosive force leading to the sudden obliteration of a nearby buildings wall.

“Attacking from the side is the only possibility I can see, because attacking it from behind seems just as dumb as taking it head on.” I was pointing out the weapons on the back of the machine for Dolly’s sake.

“What’s the plan?” Dolly asked.

“Wing it, we don’t have a plan here.” Well that quickly took the wind out my supportive companion’s sails.

“Nothing?” Dolly asked.

“Against that thing? Oh my goodness no, we’re not doing anything stupid right now Dolly until we have more ideas of how to deal with it.” I don’t know what that thing was aiming at, but I soon saw a portal opening near me and climbed the stair to dive into a room that promptly got shredded by tons of ammunition. He had to be using at least four portals to keep me pinned… this building looked like an office, I was under a desk with a computer on top and this building had several stories. “There might actually be another way to deal with it…”

I’m thinking right now, from above maybe?

“Are you dead yet? Please gurgle if you are!” I wasn’t rising to Merak’s taunt, again I was still trying to come up with a viable solution to the dangerous machine. Sure he might not have Gilgamesh’s capabilities, but that didn’t mean Merak didn’t know how to ply his weapons very well. “Moon Cell really thinks highly of you and I have no clue why when you’re such a coward.”

Dolly growled slightly at the implication, but I kept her calm. Merak wasn’t wrong, I was being a coward at the moment and I was staying safe, but I was also trying to think of ways to deal with the tank as I heard it firing on the others and hoped they were okay in whatever building they put in the way of that things weapons.

The portals were at least vibrant and noticeable, peeking around the space, I quickly made my way for the stairs and went up.

“I have an idea or two, but I don’t know how well they will work.” I stated as I climbed the stairs with Dolly on my back.

“Bark Breaker?” Dolly asked as she knew I could deal with the armor of that vehicle with it, but it would take a little time to find a frequency that worked. Unless I wanted to do a Howl Breaker and ruin my throat inexorably.

“Yeah, the thing looks like it was built with being able to deal with a variety of problems, except for one.” Being attacked by infantry from above. I’m starting to think that’s one of the reasons why a number of heli-troopers are around, that and aerial advantage because we don’t have any APs that can deal with flyers. “Might want to try it at range first though before trying to get close.”

Speaking of allied programs, ours were being torn to shreds as I came to the third floor and looked out the window down into the street to see Zealots being run down despite their best efforts to damage the armor on that tank. Saber Knights were about as effective, but their physical shields actually made them last longer provided that it was just the machines guns from the head of The Arsenal firing on them.

“Should be close enough to try… stay on me Dolly.” While I didn’t hear Dolly say anything her constant weight and sometimes affectionate nuzzles was comforting as was knowing Dormarch was currently alright and not having this tank pointed at him. “RrrrrRRRRRRRrrrRRRRRRRRggggghhhrrrrrrrrrRrRrRrRr… yip!”

Once I had had a decent idea of the frequency to use on The Arsenal, My Bark Breaker went out and that was when The Arsenal surprised me when it quickly pulses out a short range powerful noise in the form of a shockwave that sent some Zealots flying and sprawling off of it. More importantly it stopped my Bark Breaker, somehow Merak had been aware of it.

Okay, so that thing had some defense against my armor shredding ability… making it functionally immune unless I do it point blank like how Krosserdog had dealt with that Brute EP and it just showed the capacity for stunning anyone that was even remotely near it. This ruined any plan I had of jumping on it from above and attacking it that way, unless I was quick about it as I wouldn’t be able to stay on it for prolonged periods of time before that sound pulse got me or anyone else.

I quickly dove to the side as the right arm fired on my location and tore a large chunk out of the building, I could faintly feel Dolly whimpering in our bond. My ears hurt from the noise of the destruction and the fact that a cannon round passed through the space we were previously in... no wonder Dolly was whimpering, that had to hurt her ears worse than it hurt mine and that was on top of the pulse to stop my Bark Breaker.

I peeked out of the hole and saw Elise throwing Search Snakes from cover of a building across from me, they were quickly electrified by the bottom of The Arsenal firing out blasts of lightning energy that slid along the ground. How many things could that thing counter?

Both arms flipped in half and I saw flames building up in them as they pointed toward a wide eyed Elise, she quickly stretched her arms out and pulled herself to a different building rooftop as an entire building was lit up in flames. Cruel was sticking with Elise, Crazy was on another rooftop and firing away with that gun and trying to do some damage as minimal as it was to use a gun against a tank.

Bark Blast, Howl Blast, Bark Breaker… Howl Breaker? Didn’t have an idea how to do something like a howl with spitting liquid magic explosive energy yet. Now was not a time to be experimenting anyway. I could do Howl Breaker, but I’d have to be right on top of the machine hope that my howl could cancel out the pulse, didn’t think that was…

I quickly sprung towards the ceiling and clung there as numerous lasers fired from the machines back and curved through the space I once occupied bending in at the location from various hard to dodge direction.

Clambered out and up the wall while inhaling and keeping my eye on its actions, I exhaled and quickly dodged a salvo of bullets that came tearing up after me and once I reached a window of the sixth floor, I grabbed the ledge above and bucked my way through the window landing inside the building as it took hundreds of bullets for me and Dolly.

“Don’t see why Moon Cell thinks you’re a top priority, you’ve got nothing on The Arsenal and I know it!” Well Merak wasn’t wrong and turned to fire those curving lasers at Krosserdog plinking away at The Arsenal’s armor like Crazy was. Krosserdog ducked back into the window as the building he was in received some damage. “Is there any among you that can actually deal damage any to The Arsenal? Sure that vibration attack was cute, but you’ll never be able to use it as my machine can detect such threats.”

Four portals appeared around The Arsenal and I noted when I glanced out the window that each was pointed in a different direction from in front, behind and the sides of it. He could literally see and react to anything in any direction.

Gilgamesh was still fresh in my mind, but at least Gilgamesh could launch a near infinite amount of weapons at us… Merak didn’t have any storage capacity like the Gate of Babylon, there’s also his ability to alter the size of energy and objects that go through his portals. That and Merak can actively deny anyone the use of his portals, Gilgamesh couldn’t do that, but at least Merak’s portals couldn’t effect living things as far as altering the size of them.

“Shanty, where are you…” I tried to glance around and it seemed even Shanty was wary of approaching or fighting that thing in close range combat.

Jeanne was a close combat specialist, I was a mid to short range, Shanty had short range and some vague long range with her water attacks, Krosserdog was primarily long range and still somewhat capable in short, Dormarch fought mostly at range and rarely liked getting in close and Dolly was primarily close range unless using magic… I might have an idea…

Dolly can you lend me the ability to use two magic spells? Our familiar bond allowed us to use each other’s abilities, I had a higher magic capacity, but Dolly had the capability to use specific magic spells.

“Sure thing… also ow… don’t talk so loud, even in my head.” Dolly whined.

I noted the marble in Dolly’s skateboarding helmet was glowing slightly, that wasn’t ominous at all and I could feel magic coming off of it. I felt Dolly transfer the two spells I wanted to use and some knowledge of how to concentrate and aim the effects I wanted. Let’s see how well I can use them.

I tried to use float, but a ring of energy formed around me and I felt like muttering the strange symbols I felt going through my mind… this wasn’t how Dolly used them, she just used them immediately!

I guess that’s a difference for me using her spells. After a moment I completed the… casting I want to say… of the first spell.

“Float!” Calling this out while point out the target through the window with my right hoof. I watched as The Arsenal that was my target suddenly launched into the air, since it had been firing its left machine cannon arm on Jeanne’s position it was currently spiraling in the air out of control. I had a sixth sense for how long the Float spell would last and I didn’t have much time to pull this off. Okay… next spell, another coalescing of energy and I was muttering while trying to focus my next spell on the target.

“What the heck? Darn it!” Merak underestimated us slightly, he moved his portals and started using them to get shots off at me, Elise, Jeanne and anyone else who was in visual range of the portals while the machine floated out of control.

Dolly thankfully covered me with her board as I was still casting as bullets came spraying at us through the window, I could see the problem with being unable to move until the spell was finished casting and if I was hit before then I felt it would drop the spell. Thankfully I had managed to finish the casting with my final bit of muttering.

“Gravity!” The result of this spell was impressive, The Arsenal showed itself to be weak to magic when it slammed into the ground with incredible force and weight on its back damaging that curving laser thing.

“Hah, not feeling so hot now are you Merak!” Elise heckled, until the machine was lifting itself off the ground with its gun arms.

That was when Merak revealed a new problem… the backside underneath the curving laser spewing device opened up and out of the two panels floating several small machines. Slowly The Arsenal started to be covered in a powerful energy barrier, a unicorn could not create a shield that looked quite that powerful… though it was notable that the floating machines couldn’t cover themselves while they covered The Arsenal with this shield.

After a short bit of muttering, I managed to cast the spell again.

“Float!” Only to find that when I did, nothing happened. “Oh… those drone thing can cancel out or dampen magic.”

Not only that, but I watched as Krosserdog’s deflect entirely off the energy field the small machines were making. Goodness knows where such technology came from, but it certainly ruined my mood. The machine itself had a clear weakness to magic, but unless we wanted to go down there and deal with those smaller machines we were going to have a hard time damaging The Arsenal anymore until those things were taken care of.

So I started muttering the next spell.

“Heh, is that all you got? Should have had the Barrier Drones going from the start!” Merak stated with clear confidence as I concentrated on one of the drones.

“Gravity!” One of said floating Barrier Drones slammed into the ground with such force that it blew apart in a shower of metallic parts, those thing were like the Sweeper… it was built and not generated.

“Wow… with your magic capacity you can do that far more than I can.” Yes Dolly, but without you I wouldn’t be able to even do this in the first place. It’s not my magic and I wouldn’t be capable of it normally.

“So it’s you that’s doing that… you might actually be a true threat after all!” Hearing Merak say that, I was already running deeper into the building as a huge blast from The Arsenal’s right arm tore a chunk out of it behind me.

He can’t have too many of those barrier drones if they were manufactured and not generated, he only had so many he can deploy to protect The Arsenal from damage. We deal with them and maybe I could use magic on the machine again.

I picked myself up and heading towards the nearest set of stairs to start climbing them, once I was up the next floor I went towards one of the windows in a corner of an office space.

Huh, we’re getting more APs to deal with the arriving EPs where were they coming… ah, Canard sent us help or more specifically Snake was. As the APs showing up were Assassin Caerbannogs and they were tearing apart the Heli-troopers with their rope darts or just plain ripping them out of the air. Very helpful to have an extra EP type spawning nearby at the moment, especially ones that can deal with the flyers we were having problems with.

The building The Arsenal lit on fire was still going up in flames, despite being made of stone… might want to avoid being hit directly by the flames the machine could spew in that case, as the nearby building was eroding from the heat. At least it was creating a lot of light, this part of the city was somewhat dark if not for the flaming wingless demon in the distance getting closer.

“Heli-troopers ferret them out of the buildings or at least get me a visual on them, Troopers and Guard Hounds deal with the arriving enemy support!” Merak ordered and I could see Heli-troopers diving through several windows on the buildings around here.

Three Heli-troopers smashed through the nearby window of the building I was in and after smashing through the glass they rolled into standing position looking in various direction. Unfortunately I couldn’t hide and they already spotted me.

“There you are!” A portal opened above us and I quickly darted to the side as hundreds of rounds rained from above and brought the Paralance out to block the hundreds of bullets coming from the three Heli-troopers propeller gauntlets.

I felt a shot pass across my left thigh as I continued to block shot after shot coming at me from in front of me. Just a graze, I’m fine.

“Pom behind us!” Dolly warned and I dived to the side. Hundreds of rounds of ammunition spewed forth and damaging various bits of office equipment as I continued to keep the paralance trained in the direction of the three flying troopers.

What… wait… could Merak actually see through the EPs eyes and… he could make portals based on those visuals of what they were seeing!? Well that just made him even more dangerous to deal with.

Dolly dropped from my back and slid along the floor off to the side and then down an aisle in the hopes of getting behind the heli-troopers, since Merak was currently focusing most of his attention my way. My cuddly Dalmatian partner could hopefully take them out while I kept dodging portals opening up to thousands of rounds of ammunition flying through or blocking the Heli-troopers firing on me.

Another round tore through my right hind leg causing me to falter and enter a squat, the left hind leg had been a grazing wound. This shot had gone straight through my thigh making it hard to stand. I quickly sealed off the injury with my wool and manipulated my leg with said wool to keep moving while my muscle spasms in agony from the pain.

I didn’t need a Sitrus Berry yet, but I was going to very soon if I kept getting these kinds of injuries.

I managed to duck back and avoid another salvo from a portal above me when Dolly finally got into position.

Dolly quickly slammed into the middle of the three heli-troopers jamming the nose of her board into its spine, before kicking up and off to sling out and wrap the strap around the neck of the one on the left.

With a quick jerk Dolly snapped that one’s neck and slung herself around the still standing dead EP’s body in a display of incredible momentum control to use the quickly dissolving body to absorb a bunch of bullets from the last Heli-trooper standing. The Dalmatian launched off the falling and dissolving body after finishing her swing and forward to launch a flying kick into its head with a full momentum boosted strike to knock it down.

I leapt forward with my hind legs springing wool to bring the paralance over my left shoulder and brought it down to take out the EP, then swiftly grabbed Dolly in my right hoof as I rolled into bursting through a nearby door and out of sight as another portal opened in the room.

The room we ended up in was fairly small… I bade Dolly stay quiet while I figured out how we were going to attack The Arsenal, because right now the incoming EPs still held more territory than we currently did.

“We need a way out of this…” A rope dart lowered and I looked up at the Caerbannog looking down at us, Dolly leapt onto my back when prompted as I grabbed it and we were swiftly pulled up into the ceiling panels with them.

A second later the room was decimated in a shower of shots from the guns on the disk shaped head of The Arsenal on top of the can shaped body. The outer wall of that room was now basically full of holes.

Also I think Merak has lost track of us and was distracted by something or someone else. I motioned for the Caerbannog to lead us out of here or upwards, afraid to make any noise that would attract a nosey portal to get an eye on us.

The Caerbannog nodded and started led us to a ladder that led up to the roof access, I just jumped onto the wall and signaled that the Caerbannog should get a move on. The rabbit nodded as I climbed my way up the shaft of the building towards the roof.

“Okay, so that tank is terrifying and invincible with those drone things and this is the most guns we’ve had aimed at us since those mercenaries wanted a piece of you.” Sounds about right Dolly. “Again, do we have a game plan considering the magic one was a bust?”

“It wasn’t entirely a bust Dolly, we know that that machine is definitely weak to magical attack.” My problem with using Dolly’s magic is that it takes me time to use it, compared to Dolly just instantly casting it as long as she had the magic for it. While I had to do some really strange chanting to make it work. “Those barrier drones are protecting it from being directly damaged until they themselves are taken care of, until then the tank might as well be invincible with the shield those drones are producing to stop magic from having any effect on it. My method of using your magic is a bit slow Dolly, so we really can’t rely on that. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them.”

We were near the top of the building when I heard the roar of something and looked down to see energy surging up the shaft. I quickly got to the door and gained access to the maintenance room as the shaft was filled with a powerful beam of energy.

“Did my Lazy Laser get her?” Merak asked idly as The Arsenal continued to project his voice, he probably doesn’t even care that we can still hear him talking out loud. I quickly exited the maintenance room onto the roof and immediately launched forward to jam the Paralance into a Heli-troopers spine. “I guess not.”

I dove to the side and a portion of the roof was hit by an explosive force from The Arsenal’s right cannon. Probably used the loss of the Heli-trooper to determine my location somewhat, I could see a portal opening up to get a visual line of sight on me and I dodge out of the way. Could he see out both sides of the portal or just one side? I need that to be answered eventually if we’re going to deal with him.

Looking down at The Arsenal I saw a bubble of water bound towards it and a scythe slash cut one of the drones in half. Shanty had earned his attention and while the Arsenal was turning to fire on the lovable goat with the Bounding Bubble, Jeanne and Elise dropped down and stabbed through the third drone with their two spears at once.

Crazy was firing upon The Arsenal on another rooftop immediately as the shield dropped, we were high up enough that The Arsenal would have to aim its arms up at us or Merak would have to use portals to fire on the elite version of a Search Snake with one of Elise’s personalities. Cruel was next to Crazy and was looking about, Cruel noticed my gaze and then pointed to me and then The Arsenal that was successfully fending of Shanty, Jeanne and Elise all at once.

“Dolly, can you use Aerora… I just need you to produce it how I’m imagining it!” I sent the image of what I wanted Dolly to do and she immediately called it out.

“Aerora!” The green winds immediately erupted around The Arsenal as it was in the middle of firing thousands of shots from its left arm at Shanty, said shots were soon being swept up in the green winds and was buffeted the machine with its own munitions and the magic was moderately damaging.

Jeanne and Elise were busy dodging the curving lasers launching from the things back and getting back into cover as being out in the open around that thing was a quick death sentence. I looked for Krosserdog and found him sniping a few Heli-troopers out of the air.

Dormarch was working on some Guard Hounds and was personally leading some APs on the ground to keep the area clear of EPs.

“Darn it, releasing more barrier drones. Also, I’m bringing in a Hundred Gunner to help!” That sounded ominous as Merak’s tank deployed three more Barrier Drones to make the magic of the Aerora start doing no damage as the tank once again became protected. “Can’t believe you lot are causing me so much trouble! Activating wind protection, while I’m at it.”

The tank glowed green underneath the barrier being produced by the three drones for a few seconds, I’m going to take it to mean that we probably shouldn’t rely on Aerora to deal damage to it if we bring its barrier down.

Nobody was willing to point out that Merak was talking out loud at the moment as we were mostly busy dealing with a variety of things at the moment. Shanty quickly went around the corner of a building into an alleyway and both Jeanne and Elise retreated as well once the drones were in place.

I started moving towards the side of the roof that was closest to the direction Krosserdog was in and I launched forward and shifted my wool for gliding as I launched upward into the air with Dolly clinging to me once more.

We needed to work together to bring down The Arsenal, so a little communication about what each of us should be doing would help. I already told Dormarch to keep the area as clear of EPs as he can manage with the help from the Assassin Caerbannogs that are in the area. Dormarch was a little upset that he wouldn’t be helping me directly, but agreed that it was important to keep the area clear and hunt for the location of nearby PLANTs sending those Troopers, Heli-troopers and Guard Hounds after us.

I launched across the rooftops and hopped between buildings while diving, gliding and changing direction as Merak started focusing on trying to hit me with those rotating machine guns.

I flipped in the air and used the paralance to take the impacts of the bullets that launched us higher into the air until Merak stopped shooting us with the left gun and started to fire the right. The Paralance shook in my hooves as we were launched by the impact of the right arm cannon’s shot impacting with it launching us far past where Krosserdog was.

I quickly closed up the Paralance and quickly glided towards where Krosserdog was and landed on the roof near him

“Krosserdog, I want you to focus as much as you can on those barrier drones and the Heli-troopers, don’t worry about Troopers or Guard Hounds.” I said as I came up to him, he nodded with a serious demeanor and turned to start firing accurate shots on one of the barrier drones, the drones notably couldn’t move too far away from The Arsenal without weakening the barrier protecting it. “I’m going to gather Jeanne, Elise and Shanty so we can start taking the fight directly to The Arsenal, we can’t keep running forever and that thing is not going to let us get away. I have an idea of how to deal with it now.”

“Roger!” Krosserdog stated before I leapt for the roof and started to glide and avoid portals opening in the air to send crisscrossing numerous shots through the air around me until I got to the street where I entered a roll and ended in a crouch to block with the paralance.

“Elise and Jeanne hit and run tactics when the barrier comes down, until then distract and deal with any EPs that are too close to the fight! Elise have Cruel and Crazy focus entirely on dealing with the nearby EPs and keeping them off of us! Shanty if you can hear me, I need you to ram your bounding bubble into that tank as hard as you can without endangering yourself when the shields go down, aim for the sides or back! We need to attack it from multiple directions, evade or defend while the gun arms and head are focused on you.” I wasn’t going to talk about what I was doing as I was already running towards the tank under fire with the Paralance shuddering under the impacts and I was using my wool to move instead of my muscles to actually hold the paralance steady, much less stay standing as I forced my way towards it. “I must be insane to think I can successfully charge and fight it Dolly… when it loses its barrier, give me ability to cast float again?”

As I approached, the barrier drones were being repeatedly struck by Krosserdog’s highly accurate shots and were taking a lot of damage.

“Eh, I kind of thought it was about time you figured something out, at least on the whole leadership thing.” Dolly commented blankly, but looked raring to go from my back even if she was a little light on magic after using Aerora. “Also, it’s you. While I totally trust trust you Pom, this seems a bit eh… suicidal?”

“It’s not that I want to be the leader or charging at a death dealing tank Dolly, it is just that I realized we’re currently supposed to be as distracting as possible.” Nothing was more distracting than having a lambkin running straight at the danger than away from it screaming and possibly lighting themselves on fire or doing something else that was highly ill advised.

I was going at it full tilt while avoiding portal loads of bullets and blasting cannon shots from above, behind, left and right as I approached the obviously dangerous tank in the most haphazard dumb manner possible, I hoped Krosserdog could deal with those barrier drones soon.

Probably looked braver than I currently felt as I rolled, leapt and blocked while continuing to encroach on it with Dolly clinging to me tightly like a limpet and even avoided the tank when it charged forward on its wheels at me in an attempt to crush me under its bulk.

Now that I was this close to it, I just had to survive being close to it for as long as possible... heh... no pressure whatsoever!