Carmine Night (Open)

It was a full moon on a starlit night: a perfect heavenly arrangement for anyone looking to perform a complex magical ritual. Sure enough, the preparations for such a ritual were currently underway. From the top of the observatory, the silver-haired witch watched on as a cabal of cultists magically altered the landscape, erecting an altar and engraving runic symbols on the ground. They were unaware of her presence. On the altar was a mutilated animal carcass, possibly there as some sort of offering. The original creature was mostly indiscernible except for the severed head partially split open from the forehead down to the face. It appeared to be the remains of a cow.

"Is it okay to just leave them be Ms. Ingrid? A ritual of such scale performed by amateurs. It's almost certain it will go awry."

It was Ingrid's butler who spoke, suddenly appearing behind her without warning. She was neither surprised nor fazed and merely continued to watch.

"I'm certain there's at least one person down there who knows what they are doing. I think this will be quite educational, even if they are using rather dated methods."

She brought out her Faery Grimoire.

"So you are interested in old summoning rituals Ms. Ingrid?"

"A bit, yes. There are many things you can only learn by seeing it in person."

"I see. Do be careful then, and I hope you enjoy yourself. I shall be waiting back at the mansion with your evening tea."

The butler bowed and left, disappearing from sight as mysteriously as he arrived. Meanwhile, there was a new development with the cabal performing the ritual below. A girl in bloody tattered clothes was being dragged across the ground towards the altar by a pair of hooded cultists. She was covered from head to toe with cuts and scars both old and fresh. Her hands and legs were bound with rusty chains. She winced as her bare knees scraped along the rocks. Whenever she attempted to struggle a bit, a third cultist nearby would strike her practically exposed back with a thorny whip, adding a new bloody cut to her tender wounded flesh. And yet despite all this, she never let out a cry.

She was chained to the altar beside the mutilated cow carcass as the cultists began to chant loudly ominous words that would sound like gibberish to an outsider. The magic circle began to glow bright red, staining the very landscape in a crimson color. The space above the altar began to distort and crackle with red sparks. Something was coming.

Maxzine was running around the forest parkour style just for the fun of it even though she shouldn't have even been outthis late at night on a school night if her mom found out she would ground her for at least a month. She was shaken out of her thoughts of being grounded however when she got a whiff of human blood fresh human blood.  Jumping down to the ground to  get a better whiff of the scent so she could track it. After catching the sent she began to run at full speed while slipping on her mask. When she got near the observatory she saw a group of cultists preparing for a ritual.  Watching for signs to see if one was hurt just to know where the blood was coming from before leaving.

Maxzine's patientence was rewarded and it made her see red these monsters where beating a girl her body was covered in old and new wounds she even saw the cultists whip the girl as she was being dragged to the alter that held the remains of a cow. Growling softly enough not to be heard she made her way over to the now glowing circle thanks to the cultists to try and get a good viewto tteleport next to the girl. Finally getting a good view she did her chant for teleporting and vanished from her spot as a line of blue flame that then shot straight into the circle into full view of the cultists as she cut the chain quickly grabbing the girl bridal style. Maxzine did the only thing she could think of with that many people that would want to kill her while holding on to a hostage of theirs. She ran as fast as she could though she knew this to be pointless. While she began the chant to teleport to her to a large oak that had it's roots sticking up enough she could hide the girl as the tree couldn't be found without knowing where it was, then get back here to what ever chaos she has caused with intrupting a ritual.

Count to teleport:6

It was not the best plan in the world, but its sudden execution certainly surprised and caught the cultists off guard. Before any of them could make sense of what was happening, the rescuer had already broken into a run, sprinting away with their offering. Angry, they raised their hands and prepared to magically blast the interloper to oblivion but found that they were interrupted again by another unwanted figure, clad in blue. She straightened her cap and raised her hands to the side.

"Right, so none of you are getting past here. I strongly suggest surrendering peacefully but I doubt you'll heed my warnings."

True enough, magical bolts of energy were fired at her but as they did, the hero Maverique activated her signature aura. As soon as the bolts made contact, they rebounded upon their casters knocking a good number of them out.

Not all the cultists were down though. Some of them had continued with the ritual while the others dealt with the trouble, but their role wasn't exactly going as planned either. The red sparks from on top of the altar intensified and the ground began to tremble mildly. There was loud crack followed by the appearance of an otherworldly creature standing 10 feet tall. Its skin was  crimson red and its eyes were glowing yellow. It had four arms and a long whip-like tail. Its face was riddled with tentacles. The cultists were a bit puzzled. Evidently, this was not the thing they were expecting to come out. They were snapped out of their surprise by a resounding roar followed by the nearly immediate massacre of the ring of cultists closest to the creature.

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Meanwhile from atop her perch, the Silver Queen who had been quietly watching the events below smirked. She didn't expect the interferences though on hindsight she probably should have. In a city like Jump, actions of the unrighteous rarely go unnoticed especially considering the scale of the event. Normally she would have been disappointed that a magical ritual was interrupted but in this case, the "heroes" had come a little too late. And the fruit of the cultists' labor stood before all of them to see.

"That looks like something straight from the realm of the Old Ones. But it does not look like the kind that would have been appeased by a single sacrifice."

True enough, the creature was making short work of the amateur summoners. Their magic bolts could not seem to hurt it much at all.

Maxzine kept running as magic blast started to be prepared to be fired when suddenly another girl showed up and cast a blueish aura around herself as most the cultist fired at the girl the spells just bounced of the aura and struck the casters knocking them out. After dodging a few bolts of energy herself Maxzine noticed that sadly some kept up with the ritual and as the ground started to shake causing her to have to skid to a stop as a large 10ft monster came into the living realm a crimson like skin and yellow eyes with a tentacle cover face. Maxzine shivered in slight fear while wincing in pain due to the loud roar as the thing slaughtered with ease the very ones that brought it to this realm. sighing as she was close enough to the woods now that she could hide the girl with all the chaos that was starting to go on that she figured it would be safe to leave her till her teleport kicked in sat the girl behind the nearest tree.

Turning around and pulling out two of her spears Maxzine began to rush forward throwing two of her spears coursing with electricity  aimed at the right and left of the creature the electricity would then latch strike at the creature in the middle of the two spears hoping against hope as the cultist magic seemed to have little effect on the monster that her spears at least long enough to get to the girl that had knocked out most of the cultist with their own attacks. Maxzine ear twitched as she heard the silver queen despite the distance though it was hard to tell what was fully said thanks to the loud roar earlier.

count to teleport:5

Unfortunately, Mav could be considered very inexperienced when it came to dealing with otherworldly monsters. Years of training to take down people felt useless before a creature whose body structure she was still trying to get a grasp on. Multiple arms. A tail. 10-feet tall. Tentacles. Why did it have to be tentacles? Not that she was psychologically bothered by it. Tentacles didn't have joints she could aim for which was usually the basics of bringing down larger foes. In any case, she couldn't just carelessly get close and her ranged options were sadly quite limited.

While thinking about how to make her approach, she was rejoined by the other hero who saved the girl earlier. She hurled two spears next to the creature that began shocking it with electricity. The monster was stopped in its tracks with the electricity seemingly doing its job well. Meanwhile the few surviving cultists began to flee for their lives in all directions. Mav had to make a quick decision. As much as she wanted to round up the cultists, she didn't want to serve them up on a sacrificial platter either as evident from the monster's earlier rampage. She opened her communicator to contact the police for assistance in catching those responsible when they were already a "safe" distance away from the location.

It was around this time that the third major power on the scene decided to join the two. Ingrid appeared from a portal behind them, grimoire in hand.

"I think I've seen enough for tonight. Your electricity is only a temporary measure and the creature will attack again once it has run out. I'm feeling rather generous and so I shall do you a service and banish it back to where it came from."

There were no hostile intentions from the newcomer so even Mav was caught off guard by her surprise appearance. She did think though that her coming was a little convenient.

"That's great and all but it took a bunch of these guys to bring that thing to this world. Do you-"

Mav was suddenly cut off by a noticeable increase in the tension in the air followed by a cold glare from Ingrid who was clearly annoyed at the thought that she was being compared to people she considered amateurs. Mav smiled meekly, realizing she may have offended their new helper.

"I can easily just leave this all to you. I have no obligation to lend my assistance. Any more insults and you can consider yourselves abandoned."

"Right, sorry about that."

"This will take some time. I hope your spears last long or you have spares. Keeping the creature busy in any other way is fine as well but you cannot lead it too far away or it will be out of range of my magic."

Maxzine smirked under her mask as it seemed the monster was being held back at least for now by the electricity coming from her spears. It was then that the cowards that summoned the beast that was slaughtering them ran. Maxzine wanted to go after them but knew that would be pointless. She spun around as the person she had heard far away only moments ago now behind them. She had to fight a reaction of attacking first form surprise. She was glad she didn't as the new girl seemed to have decided to help send the monster back from where it came after stating she had seen enough and that her spears where only a temporary measure making her wonder how long she had been watching what was going on.

The energy girl as Maxzine saw fit to call her in her head as she didn't know her name saw fit to voice the same doubt she was about a single person banishing the monster as it took several people to summon it this was met with a harsh glare after the portal girl cut off what ever Mav was going to say. Saying that if she was insulted again they where on their own. Mav quickly apologized as the girl explained that this would take time and they would need to keep the monster busy and that she hoped that her spears lasted long or she had spares.

Maxzine finally chose to speak as she pulled out two cylinders and said, " First law of the hunt always carry extra weapons." The cylinders then extended into two staffs then out popped the spear heads. Looking towards the beast Maxzine took the imakandi hunting stance for spear wielding and said "Get ready the charge on my spears die out quickly without someone holding on to them when only two are thrown they are designed to stun so my pray can be caught and tied or if we can get this thing in between all four we can cage it in between them as when all four are releasing their charge they all jump in between each other and recharge each other".

As to prove her point of the spears charge dieing quickly the spears charge stopped and released the monster.

"I think it would be fair to warn you that the creature is far from a mindless beast. In fact I'm quite certain it was listening to every single word of our conversation." Ingrid added as the electricity keeping the monster at bay ran out. "Good luck."

The creature roared and immediately charged towards the silver-haired witch, clearly aware that she was the key to its potential defeat and should be taken out first. By this time, Mav had made up her mind to trust Ingrid's words and quickly moved in front of her to intercept the beast as it bore down on them. It raised two of its arms and slammed them hard on the comparably tiny Mav to pound her to the ground. The blue-clad girl however stopped the attack with just one arm, her aura glowing visibly.

It was a clean block but the monster refused to yield so easily. It continued to press down on her with all its strength, unaware that the girl would just cancel it all out regardless. Accompanying its crushing attack was an assault from its other two arms, pummeling her small body with fast and powerful punches. With her aura covering her entirelyy, it would all be a fruitless exercise. But if the beast was as intelligent as Ingrid said, it wouldn't be long before it realized and attempted different tactics.

Meanwhile, Ingrid had begun her preparations for the banishing. She had taken out her grimoire and was chanting barely inaudible words that probably sounded like gibberish to anyone else. She was actually reusing the magic circle that the cultists had already setup earlier for the ritual. But since it was crudely made, it would still take her some time before she could complete the spell.

Maxzine laughed and watched as the beast headed toward themsaid,  "Imakandi prefer hunting things that are smart or at least have a ability to make the hunt a challenge-" Maxzine was intrupted as she doged a swipe from the claws of the monster as it tried to squash mav only for the girl to use her energy to stop the blows completely. Maxzine quickly charged up her spears in staff mode electricity corsed up and down the staffs as she tried to sneak behind the creature striking at it's legs hoping to draw its attention away from the other two girls.

Though the creature seemed to focus its attention on taking down Mav to get to the spellcaster, it was hardly ignoring the rest of its surroundings. It knew that it had some vulnerability to the spears and thus was wary of them. Noticing that the Imakandi was attempting to strike from behind, it lashed out with its long powerful tail. A direct hit would do more than knock the wind out of her. She would be lucky to escape with a few fractured ribs.

Whether the Imakandi backed off or was hit, the creature would then attempt to get past Mav instead of continuing to crush her as it did not seem to be working. It was confident that it was at least physically superior to the heroes and could likely outrun her. What it didn't know was that Mav could read its intention like an open book and that made up for the difference in speed. As the monster began to attempt circling around, Mav had already dashed to the side with timely anticipation, ready to intercept.

The beast was confused and took another swipe at the girl in anxious retaliation. Mav once again blocked it with one arm. Frustrated, the creature took a deep breath and then let out a deafening roar, at least 10 times louder and more powerful than earlier. Mav still saw this coming and quickly covered her ears but at that close a distance, it wasn't much help. She felt her head ringing and was briefly dazed. The witch's ritual was interrupted as well, experiencing the effects of the roar. It was akin to a stun grenade in relatively close proximity.

Shaking her head, she looked up at the two, moderately frustrated. "I had hoped you could at least make this easy for me. Is this the best you can do, heroes?"

She was strongly considering leaving them then and there, but she had her own image to worry about. A creature like this was not going to best her. After taking only a moment to regain her bearings, she resumed the ritual and the magic circle began to glow again.

Maxzine saw the monsters tail coming at her and quickly enhanced her speed and jumped onto the over the monsters tail while thorwing her two spears where the creatures tail would be though the shock wouldn't last as long as the change from staff to spear cut the charge down greatly. Maxzine landed on her hands and back flipped several times to where her other two spears where and yanked them out of the ground. But was forced to drop the spears as she had missed her target apparently as it had tried to get around Mav and when that failed the creature let out a loud roar far greater than the one before. Luckly the added distance from the creature saved her sensitive ears from the full blast of the roar but it still hurt. She shook her head as she heard Ingrid say, "I had hoped you could at least make this easy for me. Is this the best you can do, heroes?"

Growling low in her throat Maxzine picked up her spears and rushed back into the battle while letting her spears charge up in staff mode. she then used her earlier miss to her advantge and used her spear as a way to launch herself above the monster and aimed for the head of the creature as she came down she threw one as a spear as a distraction it was aimed for where the shoulder of the first right arm and the creatures neck met while it wouldn't kill the monster it would make one of the creatures arm useless.

The Imakandi's nimbleness was key to her success. Her latest maneuver caught the beast of guard and the result was a spear being driven to its shoulder and damaging the nerves that controlled one of its arms. It wasn't completely paralyzed but it could no longer move the arm like it wished. A small victory on the otherwise unfinished battle.

Mav saw this opportunity to launch a counter attack of her own. While the monster was distracted by the pain, she aimed her line launcher at its left shoulder and then reeled herself upward off the ground, eventually landing at the back of the creature's neck. That may not have been the best of ideas, as there was now a wide open path between the beast and the witch casting her spell. But Mav gambled on the fact that she probably didn't trust them anyway and likely had a plan should things go awry. These types of people were just like that.

But the witch would not have the opportunity to use that plan today, as the blue-clad hero did have good reason for doing what she did. Mav quickly pulled out her stun gun from her jacket, and, putting it on the highest output, jammed it right at the back of the monster's head. The current wasn't as strong as the one from the Imakadi's spears, but perhaps direct contact application to its most vulnerable part would make it effective nonetheless. True enough, the beast was stunned for a few seconds, unable to find the strength to even shake Mav off.

Meanwhile, the silver haired witch was watching all this very closely. It would never cross her mind to praise their efforts. Though she was marginally satisfied at their usefulness. Her ritual was almost done as well but it seemed she needed one more ingredient to put on the finishing touches. Taking advantage of the opening created by the two, Ingrid called forth one of her familiars to fetch it for her. A silver knight materialized out of thin air and immediately rushed towards the monster at high speed. With a single swing of its spear, it severed the monster's damaged arm clean off, causing blood to spill.

The creature's own blood was the final catalyst. As it mixed in with the magic circle drawn on the ground, the entire area began to glow red once more.

"I'd stand back now if I were you."