The East PacificBoard

Aozora was surprised but relieved to see Sca alive. The man entered combat stance, trying to explain the situation. Something knocked us off of the tracks? What kind of abomination is big enough to do that? I didn’t realise such monstrosiies existed in this world.... A screech pierced the blizzard, and Aozora kept her weapon steady, venturing out onto the ice. If the thing could topple trains, she doubted cover was going to help her more than it limited her. Undead? There’s an undying abomination around here? Gah! I’ll have to incinerate it... Sca was able to behesd an undead being, but Aozora doubted it was the only one present. So decapitation works. Incinerate. Decapitate. Crush the severed head. I’ll need to be swift and accurate with the blade. These things rarely come alone...

“What kind of abomination is that...” asked Aozora. Then, she let out a laugh. “Well then...I guess he’s sent some friends to come play with us a little. May as well enjoy myself...” She Beyond Divinity gave a sadistic grin as she readied to fight whatever abomination would come next.

The screech pierces the air once more. Sca takes a couple steps back, narrowing his eyes more. "Just as I thought" he turns to Aozora "Ice demon." He smiles, as the icy undead start to swarm them, and he says "I haven't had the chance to do this in a long time." He charges at the icy undead, slaying them as they come in relentless waves from the snowy storm. Ice blood flies as he slays, and the monsters just keep on coming, wave after wave. He smiles the whole time, slaying the monsters.

The chilling touch of the blizzard faded from Aozora’s skin as adrenaline took over. For so long, she had fought two kinds of enemies- those who did not fight back, and those who she hadn’t fought back against. She rembered her bout of cowardice and terror, and was determined not to let it repeat herself. A swarm of ice demons approached, their bulk concealed by the snowstorm around the them, but Aozora didn’t care. For as soon as her eyes locked on to their target, it was swiftly met with a rapid and violent demise. She smiled a smile they came at her. I doubt they feel pain. But just bringing death to them is satisfying enough!

One of the monsters lunged at her. She swept her blade downwards, decpaitating the monster, and stepped upon its fallen head. The object began to crack and shatter under her boots, a hush of ice blood erupting and the monster shrivelling away as she laughed. Another came at her, one of its comrades behind it. She extended her palm, and focused on outrage. A torrent of purple flame spiralled from her hand, setting the monsters ablaze, the intense heat focused on their heads. Their forms melted away, their blood boiling. She didn’t care if their shrieks were mindless, or of agony. She had no pity, no remorse, no hesitation. Not this time. Each abomination that grew close to her met its end.

One ice demon was able to attack from the side, but she ducked under its pounce just in time. She grilled its face in her hands, and before it could react, urged it to warp. The monster’s face begin twisting, collapsing, melting, folding in upon itself and rupturing in an explosion of icy blood. The splatter coated Aozora’s cloak, but she only smiled. This was battle. She missed the thrill of it, the satisfaction of violence against those trying to kill her. It was dangerous, but it was exciting, and she refused to fall to these abominations. She crushed the head of another demon, laughing as she went. “My, not so undying now, are you?” A cackle followed. She knew it wasn’t helping then, but she taunted the creatures nonetheless. “And here I expected an ambush, not a slaughter of your kind. I’ve seen children with knives manage more damage than this.” And indeed, she had- specifically, the children of her own former heaven, charging over walls of their own corpses, smiling as they stabbed away at their enemies. Aozora felt another splatter as the next demon was downed. Though her breaths were growing heavier, stamina being a weakness of hers, she felt no exhaustion, just energetic excitement at the prospect of this massacre. Nonetheless, she was trying not to let her sadism compel her to do the impractical.

“So many monsters...so many corpses...so many shrivelled, dead wastes of unlife...”

Another wave of the monsters crashed against the duo, but the ice demons were unable to do significant damage to either of them. Aozora relished the experience, beginning more and more to indulge her sadistic desires. She twisted her blade in long, elaborate strokes, carving deep gashes before she severed their heads. At one point, she decided that the best way to shatter a head was to smash it repeatedly against the very body it had been separated from. She laughed and smiled all the while, happy to take part in such bloodshed. Even if they felt no pain, it was exhilarating.

There was a massive thump. An enormous abomination strode towards them. It’s glacial coating glistened in the light of the orb of blazing magical energy she launched at it. It’s screech was deafening, piercing the blizzard easily. I wonder how loud it’ll scream when we kill it... “Oh, my, the big one’s a bit of a show-off, isn’t she? Let’s show her who the real monster is here...” With that, Aozora leapt towards the creature, hoping to duck and wave between its attacks, striking with her scythe and attempting to grapple up its oversized limbs so she could reach for and shatter its head.

As Sca struck at the monstrosity, the creature writhed, trying to both attack the flame-wielder and shake the tyrant off. It moved with such force to try and hit Sca that it was a struggle to hold on. Aozora slammed her scythe into one of creature’s ‘shoulders’, twisting herself around it and clambering into its back. The monster, however, was not making this easy. She tore the scythe form it icy flesh and stabbed it in again, using the weapon once more as a grip as she swung around to meet the creatures face. Since she was behind it, the ponderous monstrosity struggled to impact her with ice breath, and so focused on attacking Sca instead. Aozora used one hand to grip her scythe and placed the other on the creature’s chilly face. Here...we...go...

She focused, concentrating that excitement and rage and hatred and sadistic joy into a burst of fire that engulfed the upper-frontal area of the creature, burning furiously. She was growing more exhausted, but was not impacted by the blaze, for her own arcane flames did her no harm. She then clenched the hand around its head again, and this, forced it to twist and warp until it ruptured, icy blood splattering in all directions. She let out a final laugh as she dragged her scythe from its shriveling flesh, the shattered fragments of the skull also withering away. The bloodsoaked tyrant descended, finally allowing the purple fire to become extinguish, and took a few deep gasps for air. “Well...this has been...an interesting visit...”