trange forces of nature began stirring up, calling out to sources of power that had yet to be tapped into. Bearing no color to see, no smells to invade the nostrils of their targets, no flavor by which to coat her pallet, no sounds to hear, and no true sensations the power of the puppeteer stretched forth. Invisible strings pulling at the minds of a single female, activating the sixth sense in those who's power was truly strong. The one this... puppeteer would seek out was a single female who'd performed several noteworthy feats. All of them fair, but mundane when compared to her greatest achievement... having defeated an emissary of Achnologia. A blast of darkness would interrupt whatever Anastasia was doing at the time, and upon vanishing would reveal all her equipment to be missing. More specifically, her most beloved weapon. In the wake of this, a trail made not of visible substance, but rather, that of magic power would lead this marionette to the puppet master's theatre, a dungeon on the surface of the planet known as Shinku. There, she would find at the entrance her blade, and a strange force beckoning her to enter. The doors would be enormous, easily large enough to fit a dragon through, and had a statue on either side. Both statue were stone, and formed in the figure of a man wearing a cloak. Upon touching the door, several faces would appear.
The first face would speak, saying with a wise, deep voice "Tell me human, do you desire Knowledge?" The second would continue, it's voice was rather emotionless "Do you desire self awareness?" The third spoke with a booming voice, hateful in nature as it said "Do you desire power!?" and the fourth asked "Or do you desire nothing?"
Upon choosing, the doors would open up to reveal a single hallway with several torches dimly lighting the path as it continued for seemingly all eternity.
((OOC: once this bit is replied to we can begin the part of the exam that's much more fun.))
A new day dawned upon the SS Myrmidon with Anastasia opening up the curtains to her quarters within the airship. Beams of sunlight rushed into her quarters, forcing Anastasia to squint as photons hit her eyes. Recoiling away from the light, she turned her back from the sunny window and began to make her bed. It was small and quaint. Not a single member of the SS Myrmidon were treated any different than the next; everyone was treated equally. Everyone was given the proper job opportunities, everyone had similar living conditions, everyone ate the same amount of food, and everyone's words were taken into the same consideration. This was the opposite of a guild; the exact opposite of how she felt while in the Blue Pegasus.
The sense of freedom was beautiful.
Moments after making her bed, Anastasia went to the kitchen and began preparing a meal. A simple meal consisting of eggs and bacon with a side of fruit. This was yet another day in Anastasia's life. She saw her crewmates going about their daily lives before the large creature known as Sasha appeared before her. A large, fluffy creature bound by fate to protect her. Ever since she gave up on singing, the creature gained more respect for her; treated her like a respectable mage. While she missed making beautiful music and protecting others, it is her assumption that taking on the role of attacker within the group was much more beneficial in the end. The one thing Team Four Star lacked was an assault unit.
It was her combined lust for knowledge and power which gave her the determination to change her focus. Her lust for wanting to know more about electronics and machinery and her lust for power when it comes to accomplishing jobs and protecting her friends. All she knew now-a-days was herself and her friends and those two things meant the world to her. Without them, she would be nothing.
A low-toned growl could be heard from Sasha as he eyeballed Anastasia eating her bacon. A strip of bacon hung from her lips as she turned her eyes to look at her furry guardian before looking down her nose to see the strip of bacon hanging from her lips. The strip quickly moved into her mouth with her chewing it to completion. "Alright, I'll get you something to eat, give me a second, Sasha," she said with a chipper attitude. Clearing her throat, she finished her food quickly and placed her plate in the sink before moving towards the cargo hold where she normally kept Sasha's food. Sasha couldn't follow her due to the narrow doorway leading to the cargo hold.
After opening the door, she flipped on the lights only for everything to grow dark. There was no temperature, there was no smell, there was no sound, and there was no feeling. Anastasia turned her head to look around herself. As far as her eye could see was pure darkness. "What the hell?" she asked herself. The words she spoke out went completely silent. A strange trail laid out before her, piercing the darkness. She followed the path to find herself within a dungeon of some sorts in a place she didn't recognize. She knows for a fact that this couldn't have been in the SS Myrmidon's cargo hold. It certainly wasn't THIS spacious.
At the entrance of the dungeon, she found a blade. Her eyes darted down towards the weapon, quickly grabbing it, holding it by it's scabbard. The weight of the weapon felt off to her, not something she'd be able to wield properly. As soon as she grabbed the blade, she noticed a massive pair of double-doors before her. Something tugged at her, whispering into her ear to open the door. Anastasia resisted the temptation at first, but relented and approached the door. The statues didn't mean a whole lot to her, but it would probably interest Ashelia a great deal as they probably come from an ancient civilization.
But it kept tugging at her Open the door... Something awaits you behind the door... Only those that risk will gain anything... Open the door...
Holding the sword in her right hand, she cautiously pressed her hand flat upon the surface of the door. Several faces appeared to ask her a question. Knowledge? Self Awareness? Power? Nothing? What kind of cryptic questions were these? This caused Anastasia to pause for a moment. The obvious answers would be knowledge and power, but the suddenness of this question made Anastasia take a pause. She laughed a bit to herself while she mulled over what it was that she wanted. What she actually wanted. There was a long pause.
"I want the strength to protect my friends," she simply stated. While it sounded sweet and adorable, it wasn't something as simple as that. There were other reasons why she sought out power. She didn't want to feel weak again; she didn't want to be a burden to anyone else. The embarrassment she felt on the Phoenix Mountain was something she didn't wish to repeat ever again. "I want power!" she shouted out as the doorway opened up with a loud squeak. Torches began to light up, stretching out to what seemed like eternity. Anastasia lowered her hands and gazed out at what seemed like forever directly in front of her. All she needed to do now was to take the first step.
he never ending halls were a straight line at first, but soon altered into a plethora of twists and turns. The path to gain power was never easy, always throwing you for a loop, making you question your every action before throwing something horrible at you. This would be no different... the dungeon had endless turns, twists, hallways that branched off into more hallways, and even obstacles that blocked the paths. The walls would soon turn to pure black with bright glowing runes on them in a strange, ancient, dead language that had been forgotten by even the most ancient gods and demons. "He-He-He-He-He..." the low, slow laughter echoed through the tunnels. "This one wishes the redeem herself... to become strong enough to stop sucking." a higher pitched voice called through the system.
After traveling through the tunnels, Anastasia would come across a single large room that was empty. Books upon books adorned shelves on the walls that seemed to rise up for miles. The books moved on their own, finding their proper places on the shelves and making it so a librarian would be vain to have here. Suddenly, the area would change and depict a scene when all that Anastasia loved was put to and end before her. No matter what she did, or tried doing the vision would be unaffected as she watched all her friends dying.
Once the vision was over, a single suit of armour would be in place where nothing was before. "I am your first... 'tutor' woman, and all what you have seen will come to reality." it would say in a whispering, but grim voice as it stepped forward. A black sword would materialize in its hand with red, glowing runes lining the blade. "That is... if you do not stop the one who will make it so." he said to finish off the statement. The knight took a fighting stance, before immediately charging at Anastasia.
((This portion must be 1,500 words minimum, and you must KILL the knight. He uses dark-sword magic, and is equal to an opponent 2 ranks above you. He's very skilled at hand-to-hand, as well as pretty darn good with his sword. He has a ranged attack where he slashes with the blade and fires a dark, crescent shaped attack out of it. I won't be playing as the knight, so treat this as any other NPC from a job.))
Anastasia could hear her heart beating firmly within her chest. Thu-thump. Thu-thump. The sounds of her heart beating could be heard by Anastasia as she took her first step into the void. Chills ran up her spine and her hair stood on end. Anastasia took a second step in towards the void and thoughts began to rush into her brain. Where is she? How is she going to return? Why did she decide on 'Power' of all things? Certainly she wished for more power to protect her friends, but she has killed far more people than she had saved.
If there was someone Anastasia feared most..... It was herself.
She once cared about life while she was in the Blue Pegasus. But she was weak of mind and body back then. She was afraid of everything and people had to protect her as if she was a burden to everyone. However, she had made new friends during jobs; friends that had her back and appreciated her. That was something she didn't find while trapped within the Blue Pegasus. She had to find liberation and a reason to fight and leaving the Pegasus was her means of doing that. She had no friends there and nothing to fight for. With her current team, however, she had a reason to fight and a reason to grow strong; even if the price for her power was a piece of her own humanity.
Anastasia turned her stuttering steps into a slow-paced walk down the corridor of torches. Her body shook as she walked her way down the near-endless path before her. She had a trembling fear of the unknown. It was a beast breathing down her neck ever since she arrived on this strange planet. Swallowing hard, she continued her pace through the endless road. Glowing runes marked the walls as she went down the path in a strange language she didn't know, only compounding the terror she felt of this place before echoing laughter resonated throughout the hallways of this labyrinth.
She walked to the end of the hallway only to see a dead-end. She turned to look in both directions only to choose to go to the left. Once that path was taken, she was met with a dead end, only left to back track to where she came from until she was met with another fork. She continued to aimlessly move her way through this maze before she heard words speak up to insult her. Narrowing her eyes, she gripped the sword placed at the entrance of the dungeon even tighter to where her knuckles turned white. After pausing to hear the disembodied voice taunt her, she continued forward, winding through this labyrinth until she found the exit.
The exit was shown by a wooden door. She reached out with her left hand and grabbed the door's knob and turned it, opening the door slowly before revealing the massive room filled with books and literature. Her jaw dropped in pure amazement as she stepped in to see the books move on their own, configuring themselves into a neat and orderly fashion; returning to whence they came. An impressive display of magic, but what she was more impressed by was the sheer volume of knowledge held within these tomes. Closing the door gently before fully stepping in, Anastasia turned back around and walked to the center of the room in pure amazement. Hours, days, even years could be spent here just reading and absorbing the knowledge here.
A single palm went up to her forehead almost wishing she picked the route of knowledge. However, in her heart of hearts, she knew the answer she chose was the correct one. She walked over to one of the books and scanned through the titles upon each spine of each book. Everything was readable for a moment before turning into strange gibberish and then the books suddenly disappeared. This caused her to recoil a bit before hearing muffled sounds of screaming just behind her. She turned around to witness a horror she couldn't fathom.
She turned to see her friends: Nao, Almyra, Ashelia, and Tammy bound in chains with a rag in their mouths to muffle their screams. Dropping her sword, she rushed over to one Ashelia and took a knee beside her. She looked over her friend only to notice a strange collar around their throats with a blinking blue light. She reached down and tried to take the collar off of Ashelia only to see her shake her head. With that warning, she stopped and ungagged Ashe.
"Ana, stop, please. You must run! Don't let them catch you!"
"But I can't just let you all be like this! These locks are electronic, I can do something about them!"
"Don't bother. If you tinker with them, they'll---" she said before her collar went off, removing her head from her shoulders with the collar falling in the opposite direction. With a dreaded scream, Anastasia paused and looked at the rest of her friends to see their heads come off one-by-one before all of them fell dead. Sitting back in a state of shock, she just stared off into nothingness.
"I asked for power and this is what I got? Even though I sought out power, I was still helpless to do anything about it?" she asked herself. She felt helpless and vulnerable. Anastasia sat up and placed her arms over her knees and began to sob into her forearms. She didn't know what to do. Was she brought here only to suffer? Was she someone's plaything?
And then she heard a voice say something between her sobs, calling the crying to an end. She had no desire to become someone's plaything. Looking up, she noticed a Black Knight standing before her, summoning a weapon into his hand. She denied the reality she just saw as a play in her imagination; no, it felt far too realistic to be something just in her mind. "So it was you," she said quietly before standing up. The armored knight took up a fighting stance as Anastasia slowly limped towards the sword only to pick it up. "So you were the one that killed them, huh?" she asked in absolute denial that it was just a mind trick.
After picking up the blade, she tossed it down at the knight's feet. "I don't need that shitty weapon to kill you. Oh no. I have something else for you. I will make sure you suffer," she said before her body began to be enveloped in a red light, summoning forth armor and a weapon upon her left hand.
A red light appeared in her right hand in the form of a blade and without saying anything, she vanished and appeared directly behind the knight and slashed at him and shot him with the arm canon in his back. The black knight stumbled forward only to turn around and slash at Anastasia only for her to block the weapon with her blade, easily shattering the sword. This caused Anastasia to fling herself backwards, firing quick shots at the knight only for him to deflect the shots away with his sword.
Anastasia engaged the thrusters in the back of her armor to allow her to fly up the extremely long tunnel upwards, placing shots on the book shelf causing books to explode from where they sat to rain down upon the knight. With a couple skillful sidesteps and slashes, the knight easily dodged the attacks; making everything he did look far too easy. Staring up quietly, the knight grasped the blade in both hands and swung his sword having a crescent-shaped beam come out of it's sword. With a quick darting to the side, Anastasia avoided the moon-shaped beam. "Holy crap," she said as she watched the beam continue upwards.
Anastasia began hovering, finding her and the knight to be in a stalemate for the time being. The two shot at each other and easily dodged their attacks. Given the strength of the knight, she knew she couldn't engage it in close combat. With the sheer strength of the knight, she knew she would quickly lose; melee not being her strongest combat prowess. Anastasia cleared her throat and looked around, watching the books on the ground begin to return to their original places. Her eyes followed the books as they returned to their slots and an idea popped into her head.
Anastasia aimed her arm cannon at all of the books on the shelf and around her, above her, and below her to create an avalanche of tomes to come down upon the knight. Naturally, the knight would counter-attack with the crescent shaped beams, forcing Anastasia to quickly ignite her engines and shadow-stepping out of the way only for Anastasia to continue piling more and more books onto the knight, shooting the shelves to break the books free. She continued to do this while avoiding the knight's beam-like crescents. If Ana wasn't so high up, she wouldn't have a chance in hell to avoiding these attacks. The books below began to pile up to the knight's waist. Noticing the books flooding the knight, she began to shoot sporadically, piling even more books upon the knight. With her next shot, an entire shelf began crashing down. With a quick skip to the side, Anastasia avoided the large hulking tower of books as she watched it fall upon the knight.
A big grin came across her face as she slowly floated downward and held her arm cannon out towards where the knight was buried. She knew for a fact that the avalanche of books wouldn't kill the knight, but she hoped this next attack would. Her Arm Cannon started to gather energy, giving off a high pitched humming sound. The only thing she didn't have on this new ground of books was even footing. She knew she had a bit of time before the books began their return to their homes; also assuming the shelf would do the same. Now she waits. After a brief moment, the books exploded upwards with the knight bursting out of it. Right as the knight burst out of the books, her arm cannon finished charging. She loosed the strong blast from her cannon, summoning a 10x10 ball of pure energy directly into the knight, blasting him out from the hill of books.
While the knight was falling back, Anastasia began unloading more and more shots into the knight as it fell, not giving it a chance to rest. She continued to unload shot after shot until the knight laid upon the ground in a steaming heap. Sighing outwardly, Anastasia walked over to the knight and kicked away it's sword from him. She hoped that with this, the knight was helpless. Anastasia pointed her arm cannon at the knight and unloaded more shots into the knight's face before the barrel started to smoke. The electronics within the barrel needed to cool down, thus disappearing, leaving her with just her armor summoned. Anastasia breathed heavily as she looked on at the knight's armor; completely dented up and filled with holes. Moving her position away from the knight, she looked at the sword, picking it up to look at it.
Without warning, Anastasia received a firm strike to her mid back, causing her armor to shatter and vanish. The force of the blow pushed her forward, slamming into one of the bookshelves, dropping the blade in the process. The knight stood and walked passed the sword, awaiting Anastasia to stand up. She used the wall to help herself up onto her feet only to be met with a firm punch to the stomach and followed up with a combination to the face and stomach. The knight began to unleash absolute hell upon her body before delivering a devastating knee into her sternum, breaking it. A loud wail could be heard from Anastasia.
The books and shelf that she knocked over began to move back to their original location, floating upward. Anastasia cried out in pain, holding her chest, spitting blood out of her mouth. She started to crawl over to the knight with her left hand and right elbow, having her right hand upon her broken sternum. Blood covered her lips and chin and the look in her eyes was like a ravenous beast. "You killed them. I will never forgive you, you bastard," she said as she reached the knight's boot and started to slowly climb up the knight before the knight grabbed Anastasia by the throat, lifted her up and pulled her away from him. With Anastasia lifted into the air, the knight reached down, picked up his blade and plunged his sword directly into Anatasia's gut. The blood from her mouth shot out, covering the helmet of the knight.
Anastasia grinned as the sword embedded itself into her stomach. This caused the knight to tilt his head for a moment before Anastasia summoned up some strange pink armor. A strange red light appeared between the knight's legs, summoning her droid. It bleeped and blooped before Anastasia raised an electromagnetic barrier. The strange droid bleeped and blooped some more before silence. An intense ball of fire came from the droid, causing a terrifying explosion that immolated not only the knight, but the books within the library. Thankfully, Anastasia remained particularly safe due to the barrier created by her armor. Once the knight let Anastasia and his blade go, Ana fell onto her back. The pink armor vanished and blood went everywhere.
"It hurts," she said before slowly removing the blade from her gut, blood flowing everywhere. "I was brought to this strange place and tested; for what? I saw my friends die and I had to fight some strange knight?" she asked, pondering what it was she was doing in a place like this. Dragging herself up to a seated position, she scooted herself back to the wall of the library as it quickly extinguished itself. A pile of burnt and gnarled metal laid before her.
"I don't want to die in this strange place," she said as she placed her hand against the stab wound, seeing the blood continue to pour out. "Someone tell me that my friends aren't dead. Please tell me what I saw was only an illusion; a dream; an apparition."
t was then a marionette walked out of the walls, though it had no strings attached to its limbs as the female doll swung her arms to match her stride. Another one walked out, and another, twelve of them in total in different sizes, ages, and species all staring at the bleeding girl. "So this one gains power from determination..." the deep, grim voice said, seeming to come from all corners of the room. A black figure appeared ((OOC: picture ontop the template)) that slowly moved around Anastasia, not even bothering to looks at her dire state. "So child... this is how you end? This is the level of your resolve. I pity the humans who so foolishly placed their lives in your hands." the deep voice said, originating from the man. As he walked forwards, the corpses of her friends appeared one after another hanging in horrible positions, ones that humiliated them from beyond the grave. "And now look at them... you failed them." he added, turning the bodies into marionettes of his own by attaching chains to their hands. Each of the corpses moved their hands as if they were holding a ball, but the ball that manifested was their own still bleeding heads. "I wonder if they're still your friend?" he asked.
The heads all began speaking at once, cursing Anastasia, insulting her, reminding her that if she'd just walked away they'd all still be alive. After several seconds, only twenty to be exact, the deep voiced man shouted "Stop!" with an authoritative voice. Silence broke out among the voices as the man turned to face his new toy. "So, you wanted power... and you gained it. Upon striking me successfully, you'll leave this place with an increase in your magical capabilities... but at what cost?" He said as his moving began again, he disappeared and reappeared behind Anastasia. "Or are they even dead?" he said before disappearing again. The man reappeared next to one of his puppets, the one named 'Nao' and gently stroked her arm. "Are they alive... or are they dead..." he stated. "You'll have to hit me to find out... after all, I did take you from your home recently." he mentioned, his voice sounding somewhat menacing, and teasing at the same time.
((During this fight the puppeteer will not attack you, he'll only dodge. He has the ability to turn into air, and reappear anywhere he wishes, as well as use any of the spells/abilities members of Team Fourstar THAT ANASTASIA KNOWS OF can use. The fight will end after he's hit 1 time, and it must be a minimum of 1,500 words. Knowing you, that's a super low WC which I admit is impressive. Once he's hit you'll be sent back to your home and will be able to see all your comrades very much NOT decapitated and converted into macabre puppets...))
Anastasia continued to bleed out, trying to hold the blood inside of her body. She knew that doing this wouldn't do a whole lot to help her case, but at the very least it would make her feel a lot better. "Ugh, it just won't stop bleeding," she said weakly to herself before seeing strange apparitions appear out of the walls. This caused her to stop for a moment and just watch. The 12 puppets had assembled. "Machine dolls, huh?" she asked with a bit of a laugh. She knew that she had yet another trial to complete even in her extreme state. With a slow and deliberate movement, she began to move her back up the wall, dragging along a streak of blood upwards as she attempted to stand on her own two feet; assisted by the wall.
Her blood was redirected back towards the wall, creating a pool that collected within her abdominal cavity. The one in-charge of this operation finally made himself known. A black figure appeared to look over her, taunting her in a way she thought she'd never been humiliated. A little grin came over her lips. "You don't happen to be a mage of the Blue Pegasus, are you?" That was all she saw the Blue Pegasus being. Pompous, insufferable people who value their own power over the power of those they should have considered 'friend'. People who cared of only themselves and people who are willing to put the lives of others on the risk to save their own gold. This, however, wasn't representative of her memory of the Guildmaster at the time, Shuhei. She had fond memories of that man; perhaps having been the only lynch-pin that would have kept her in the guild. But a single lynch-pin wouldn't have been enough. It would have lead to one of two major outcomes. Either Anastasia left the guild as she did or she grew to resent the guild so much, she'd become a spy for an opposing guild, feeding them their secrets. Thankfully, she chose the former.
Anastasia spat upon the ground as the Puppet-Master asked if this is how she would end. A laugh came out of her mouth. "There's no way I'd let a weakling like the first trial be the way I exit the stage. And I wouldn't let a coward like you be the death of me either," she said as she started to see her friends gathered once more, holding their own heads and being controlled by the Puppet Master.
There were 2 members of Team Four Star that she knew their combat prowess while the other two were complete unknowns. She also knew one of Nao's magic's biggest weaknesses. His magic required quite a bit of direct eye-contact. Wearing her armor removes the direct eye-contact part, but his eye beams will be quite difficult to avoid. Ashelia, on the other hand has the ability to summon objects from her soul; however, due to these being soulless husks that cannot house either Ashe's soul nor Vendrick's soul, her magic cannot be used. However, Ashelia is a very skilled swordsman, so that will not be an easy obstacle to get through.
Clearing her throat as she looked over the four members of Team Four Star, they began to curse at her, insult her, belittle her. The pain and agony of hearing these words from their voices started to actually cause physical pain to her. It wasn't until the Puppet Master told the voices to stop, did they stop. Another grin came across her lips. "All I have to do is hit you, huh? That shouldn't be a problem," she stated as Anastasia turned to the side, coughing up even more blood. Everything began to distort; all of her senses warping in strange ways due to rampant blood loss. "I'll use your soul to bring them back to life if they are dead, and I'll even use the souls of the other 12 cowards you are surrounded with."
A blood red light covered Anastasia, equipping her with a skin-tight mechanized suit causing her feminine figure to appear like a man's. In her right hand appeared a strange looking revolver. Instantly, Anastasia spooled up the revolver's dynamo, causing a bright light to come from the weapon and a loud whining sound came from the spinning mechanism upon the weapon. The weapon came pre-loaded. It was then, that both her and the 5 squared off. She was against the Ashelia puppet, Nao Puppet, Almyra Puppet, Sora Puppet, and the Puppet Master.
Anastasia made the first move followed by the Nao and Ashelia puppet. On the sidelines, the Almyra puppet appeared to be cheering on everyone due to her memory of Almyra's nature. While cheering, the Almyra puppet seemed to disappear for a short while. The Sora puppet just stood there motionless. Considering Anastasia had only heard of her name and nothing else, any descriptors leading up to Sora remained vague at best. The big problem here were the Nao and Ashelia puppets. The Ashelia puppet charged in with her sword swinging, causing Ana to block the weapon with her armor's left arm. Directly after the sword strike, Anastasia used her signature spell to heal the damage dealt by the blade to her armor. While this was going on, the Nao puppet shot his heat vision towards Ana, forcing her to quickly move out of the way. Her objective was clear; the puppet master. If she could only land a single shot on him, this would all be over.
Lining up the barrel of her revolver at the puppet master, she took a shot only for the bullet to phase through the puppet master, with a loud and resounding laugh coming from the dark figure. This left Anastasia's attention away from Ashelia once again as the body of her armor was instantly struck by Ashelia's blade. Another quick heal to the armor was applied by a strange sparkling light from Anastasia's body. While this was going on, the Nao puppet began to move fluidly through the area, getting in potshots with his heat vision. What she originally thought was going to be a simple task wasn't very simple. Compounding on this, her reaction time is also stunted due to her current condition.
Stepping back, Anastasia tried to assess the situation, however her vision continued to get more and more blurry as the battle waged on. She could feel the warm blood dripping down her body, causing her vision and concentration to deteriorate. It felt as if her life was slowly dripping away from the wound on her abdomen. Anastasia took another pot shot at the man, allowing him to simply move to the side and let out another reverberated laugh at the pitiful attempt. It was then that the Almyra puppet returned, riding in on a green dumpster. Laughter came from Anastasia, but couldn't be heard due to the effects of the Silence Armor currently equipped. The dumpster rolled through the library only to slam into a book shelf, causing the Almyra puppet to slam into the book shelf, through the book shelf and land safely into a pile of books. At the very least, it didn't impact on her or else that would have been the end of her story. Ana still wasn't quite convinced that Almyra was a mage.
Anastasia took another quick shot at the dark figure only for it to dodge once again and the Ashelia puppet began it's assault. Anastasia tried her best to dodge the blows from Ashelia's weapon, instantly healing her armor on any strike available until Nao's heat vision struck her in the chest at the same time as one of Ashelia's weapon strikes, causing her armor to explode into pieces, making her vulnerable to all forms of attacks. Ashelia slashed at Anastasia's chest, forcing her backwards onto her back while Nao hovered nearby, blasting Anastasia with a constant stream of heat onto her body. Pain filled her body and doubts of living through this filled her head.
"You're weak, Anastasia. Weak people should remain weak. You will become the food for the strong. You will be devoured."
"Just give up, Anastasia. Nothing you can do or accomplish will amount to anything. People like you should live a life as a commoner. Farming the land, Serving us drinks, Just give up, Anastasia."
"Don't give up, Anastasia! We want you to help us! Throw away your pride and let go! You are wanted. You are needed. Don't give up!"
While she was being tormented by multiple sword slashes and a constant barrage of heat, she quickly shot both puppets in the head with a single bullet, giving Anastasia enough time to release her last bullet towards the hooded figure, having the bullet pass by the puppet master. He laughed for a moment before Anastasia moved her gun backwards, forcing the bullet she just shot to stop it's current trajectory, spinning around and quickly changing directions, hitting the cloaked figure in the back with a single bullet. She intentionally didn't show this weapon's capabilities for this very reason.
A loud grunt could be heard from the puppet master, confirming the hit. A little grin came across the blood covered face of Anastasia before the weapon faded away in a white light. With a confirmed hit, Anastasia fell over onto the ground and splashed down into a puddle of her own blood. Thanks to Nao's heat vision, the wounds she obtained from the black knight and the majority of the wounds obtained from Ashe's sword were instantly cauterized.
Her eyes grew heavy as she turned to look at the puppet master. She formed a gun with her finger tips, pointed it at the puppet master and made a gun-sound with her mouth, recoiling the hand upwards in a mocking manner before her body went limp and falling unconscious from both the excessive blood loss and exhaustion. WC: 1658
OOC: Sorry it took so long to post up. I had to think on what to write up and this is what I got. Thanks for the exam :D. You da best!
eeling the round impact his back, the puppet master let out a grunt of pain from not expecting it. The tactic was truly genius, altering the bullet's course suddenly while he thought she didn't have the power to do it. The puppet master held out a black clad hand, pressed his thumb and index finger together and snapped loudly. The damage done to the library, the twelve puppets, the wounds on Anastasia would all reverse as though nothing happened. "So the humans do have fun toys..." he said with an intrigued tone. "We had a deal, farewell, and do come back..." he said as the world would change back to where Anastasia was abducted from.
![Grand Master [2000]](https://i.imgur.com/SGD5XSW.png)
![Master [1000]](https://i.imgur.com/AQXM4xC.png)
![Senior [500]](https://i.imgur.com/Nmfn8cD.png)
![Novice [250]](https://i.imgur.com/lrYlde6.png)
A red light appeared in her right hand in the form of a blade and without saying anything, she vanished and appeared directly behind the knight and slashed at him and shot him with the arm canon in his back. The black knight stumbled forward only to turn around and slash at Anastasia only for her to block the weapon with her blade, easily shattering the sword. This caused Anastasia to fling herself backwards, firing quick shots at the knight only for him to deflect the shots away with his sword. 
A blood red light covered Anastasia, equipping her with a skin-tight mechanized suit causing her feminine figure to appear like a man's. In her right hand appeared a strange looking revolver. Instantly, Anastasia spooled up the revolver's dynamo, causing a bright light to come from the weapon and a loud whining sound came from the spinning mechanism upon the weapon. The weapon came pre-loaded. It was then, that both her and the 5 squared off. She was against the Ashelia puppet, Nao Puppet, Almyra Puppet, Sora Puppet, and the Puppet Master. 
