The Balance Core [B Rank]

Port at the Neutral Grounds
Anastasia had found a job on the job listing and spoke with a couple of the scientists, the clients for this job, and she had received the briefing on the job.  Apparently there is a path within the island that has some anti-air batteries and there are some anti-ground defenses as well.  Unfortunately, that is the limit to their knowledge.  What they actually want from Anastasia and her crew is to find out the source of the massive amount of magic from within Divide Island.  Before accepting the job, however, Anastasia was firmly warned by the scientists that a strong magical presence like the one that was detected had to be something extremely dangerous.  Anastasia simply gave the scientists a big grin and a nod to them.  She was more than sure that if scientists were so worried about a strong presence like that, that danger would be right around the corner.

A little curtsy was given to the scientists before she turned away and began her walk towards the S.S. Myrmidon.  Clearing her throat, she walked with a purpose towards the massive airship.  Merchants and locals knew Anastsia for doing business with them for electronic parts; care of the Isayev Heavy Industries.  The Heavy Industries did a lot of legitimate and shady business with the men and women who called the Neutral Grounds their home.  Orders ranging from standard circuitry and silicon to more complex and hard-to-find objects like Dendrion Crystals which power a lot of the Heavy Industry's weapons development, which is obtained in less-than-legal methods.  Pirating from other planets through the Wakusei Portal is one of the ways the materials needed are obtained, keeping the pockets of the privateers thick.  

Greetings from the local citizenry went unanswered as she walked towards the shipping deck of the S.S. Myrmidon.  She spoke to the deckmaster, ordering them to release anchor to the mooring points on the launch pad.  Walking up the ramp into the ship, Anastasia continued walking through the crew quarters, through the war room, and straight up to the bridge.  She whispered something to the command console before it lit on it's own and set a course for the Divided Islands.  The cargo hatch that Anastasia came through closed and all other ports were closed.  She certainly hoped that the crew of the Myrmidon were ready for their next mission.  While still up on the bridge, she used one of the communication pipes that lined the bridge and walked over to one marked "crew rest area" and flipped open the lid and spoke into it.

"Attention: Team Four Star.  We have a job, please arrive at the war room in 5 minutes for the briefing," she stated into the tube before pulling her head back from the tube and letting the flap close shut.  This is something she had to talk to her team about and to let them know.  The Myrmidon, or better known as George, will have to take a back-seat on this job due to the heavy anti-air defenses built into the island.  It was strange that a mystical cove had a form of anti-air defense.  Perhaps whatever it was hiding was something extremely valuable.  A little tickle went up her spine, thinking of taking whatever it was within and keeping it for the team.  A pirating itch ran over her.  Oh, it felt exhilarating!

Anastasia looked at a little amulet in her pocket for a moment and grumbled.  It seemed that the weapons and armor she made blue-prints for and had developing weren't yet finished.  A grunt of annoyance and impatience came from her throat with a stamp of her foot.  The research and development have already been handled; all that was left was assembly and fine-tuning.  Anastasia had already given them the specifications that she desired when it comes to the handling of the armor, the sensitivity of the armor's controls and how the weapons should work.  For a tough job like this one, she could use every bit of strength she could muster.  While she still had time remaining, Anastasia turned towards the AI console.  "Be swift about it, but make the ride safe," she simply stated before walking off of the bridge, closing the door behind her.

The aircraft began to lift off of the ground with the large balloons carrying the ship skyward.  The roar of the aircraft's engines propelled the vessel forward before ultimately turning around while making it's way towards the Divided Island.  Walking down the stairs from the Bridge, she made her way into the crew quarters hallway to which she stopped by her room and closed the door behind her.  She began to undress from her usual frilly dress to something more appropriate to combat.  It was quite similar to her frilly dress, but her outfit had a single piece that covered her torso and legs for free movement as well as another blue 'coat' that came down in tails behind her back.  Suiting up, Anastasia moved her hand up to her head and removed the Nyanplifiers and placed it in her night-stand.  Afterward, she left her room and made her way to the War Room.

Upon entering the War Room, she took her spot at the front podium in order to address the members of Team Four Star of the job ahead.  However, her job right now is to wait for the rest of the team to assemble in order to brief them.    

"You know, I don't understand any of the math she had on the papers in front of her," she said.  She has a very firm understanding of engineering and physics; with that a firm understanding of mathematics.  What she saw on the table wasn't something she had seen before.  It seemed way too complex and the formula (one of them anyway) seemed like the answer to all of life; only if it ended in 42.  It seemed completely foreign to her, even with her relatively high intellect.  Maybe Almyra was hiding something?  Perhaps for another time.

Her eyes noticed Ashelia enter after Nao only to leave and return with glasses, a towel, and a pitcher of water.  They were all given some water and Ashelia began to awaken Almyra.  "Well, while sleepy head is being awakened, I'll begin.  As you know, we came here because I was given leads by my father about a job lead.  I went and spoke with the clients and, indeed, we have a job to do.  We are currently going towards a place called 'The Divided Island'.  Apparently this place was created a long time ago and it looked like it was cut in half.  Nobody knows why.  While we are there, we are to go find the large magical reading that the scientists have found inside of the island," she began to explain before clearing her throat, making sure everyone had their attention on the briefing.

"This time, we'll have to leave George behind on the job.  On this path we are forced to take, there are anti-air defenses that have been known to shoot down airships.  I don't know about you, but I'd rather not get George blown to bits.  They also have anti-tunneling defenses too, so we can't dig underground.  Not that any of us are at all proficient at doing that in the first place.  What I want to stress is, since there is a very large magical presence, we need to be careful.  Very careful.  There might be something there that could potentially kill us all," she continued on with her explanation.  

"While we are there, our main objective is to seek out and detect the large menacing source of magic is.  But, ya know, we'll most likely try to destroy it because that's just how we are," she said with a slight chuckle.  If it comes to pass that the 4 needed to fight, she had full confidence that the four could handle themselves.  If only her father and the engineers would finish building her new weapons.  "We have about 2 hours before arriving at the Divided Island, so please make your preparations properly.  We'll most likely be going against something ancient, if the pattern of all jobs thus far are true," she said with a slight groan.  If only there was a job they could do that only involved using brains and wits instead of mindless battles.  These jobs are kind of a bore in that manner.  "For now, you're all dismissed," she said before taking a deep breath out.  She wasn't looking forward to doing this job in the slightest while underprepared.  

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a communications lacrima and pressed a button to dial Isayev Heavy Industries.  After dialing, she put the lacrima up to her ear and began to speak into it.  "Father, how far along are you guys on the equipment I designed?"

"Well, we've run into a little complication in the formulas you put down."

"Well, fix it.  I'm going to need it on this job I'm about to enter.  You guys have 2 hours to get it done.  Seriously, stop screwing around," she said over the lacrima.  Her anger began to rise as it became plainly evident on her face.  "You guys have had a couple weeks to build it.  You all have the proper equipment and materials and you got hung up on a stupid formula?  What is it?" she asked before the other end sent her an image of the paper.  

"Damnit, whoever did this screwed up on the third step.  Change it to.." she said before her voice vanished into mathematical jargon that the author of this post doesn't understand, but for simplicity-sake, just know that Anastasia knows what she's talking about.  

"Well, crap.  Alright, that changed everything," her father stated.  "Alright, give us 2 hours and we should have your stuff completed," her father said before hanging up.  When her father talks, he's so wimpy about anything he speaks of.  While he is the CEO of Isayev Heavy Industries, Anastasia seemed to act like the real leader of the corporation.  Anastasia placed the communications lacrima into her pocket and looked around.  If anyone watched her little conversation with her father, she simply shrugged her shoulders and laughed.  

"Gotta run a business right?  Well, if you guys need to rest, now's the time to do it," she simply stated.  Without saying another word, she walked out of the War Room and returned to her quarters only to sit upon her bed.  She reached into her nightstand to grab the nyanplifiers and placed it upon her head; music began to sound from the speakers.  Gentle and soothing music.  She felt like listening to this song:

Time began ticking as their approach towards the Divided Island grew closer and closer.  Nerves began to show upon Anastasia's skin, forcing her to find a way to alleviate herself of this feeling.  Certainly, she had been on jobs that were more treacherous and terrifying than this but something about this job didn't feel right with her.  All they had to do was examine the huge magic presence and leave.  Just a simple reconnaissance mission.  No, it's far too easy for that if this job is considered a B Rank job.  Flipping her hair, Anastsaia began to disrobe and jump into the shower; which was connected to her room like every other member of Team Four Star's room.  

Jumping in the shower, Anastasia let the water run over her face, drenching her hair and body in the process.  This is the place where her thoughts began to catch up with her.  The warm water rushed over her body, getting every centimeter soaked with the water.  As much as she would appreciate sitting here for hours, the water stocked aboard the ship was limited.  She used her lavender scented soap and shampoo to help calm her down.  She washed her entire body, letting the scent stick to her before turning off the tap.  The sound of water slowly dripping down to the shower's floor was the only thing she heard, standing there long enough to hear 2 or 3 drops, spread about 3 seconds apart, splash down.  

2 hours later...
A call came from the bridge over the intercomm system.  


This caused Anastsia to climb out of bed for some particular reason and begin getting dressed in her battle rattle.  Her hair was already prepared, with the Nyanplifiers off of her head since before the shower happened.  She placed the item back into the nightstand once again before her exit was stopped by her large canine friend.  "Not this time, Sasha.  This place is way too dangerous," she said with a small smile and a nod to her friend.  The creature grumbled and laid back down on the floor, turning it's head away.  "Sorry, friend," she said before walking out of her quarters and down towards the cargo door where she and the rest of her team will be disembarking from.  

As the airship descended vertically, Anastasia shouted out loud.  "George, the airspace might get hot after we land.  Take off once we've all touched down, alright?  We'll call for you when we need a pick up," she stated to the ship; the ship was controlled by an artificial intelligence that ran throughout the entire hull of the ship.  


The cargo door began to slowly creep open, blowing air upwards into the ship, tossing her hair and the blue tails of her outer garment.  By this point, the rest of her team should have assembled.  "We found the path we must take, so let's get on it alright?  Let's stick as a team and get through this one!" she shouted, trying to get herself heard through the loud rushing wind that was blowing in.  With a smile and a nod, Anastasia walked down the ramp, having landed at the beach just before the path stated by the clients.  After touching down, a loud roaring could be heard, shaking the air near them.  

"Well, that's probably the source of the magical power that the clients warned us about," she said as she started to move away from the sandy beach onto the dead stone environment just passed that.  The path forward lead to relatively narrow tunnel ahead.  Through the tunnel, Nao would be able to see a massive black tortoise letting out loud, ear-shattering roars.  It was at this point that Anastasia got a notification on the item she checked before.  It showed that the items she asked for earlier were ready.  With this, a large and menacing grin came over her lips.  

As Anastasia was briefing the rest of the team, Almyra charged gung-ho into the cavern and towards danger.  Air sucked in between Anastasia's teeth, cutting some of her briefing short as the rest of her teammates charged in behind Almyra.  "Crazy people," she stated to herself before hearing a monstrous roar and a deafening crack.  It was at this time that the tortoise shell got cracked by Almyra's magic; which Anastasia wasn't present for again.  Taking a deep breath, Anastasia ran into the cave only to see Almyra dancing around with the large tortoise, Nao frying the tortoise from the inside with his heat vision, and Ashelia handling the adds.  With a snap decision, Anastasia decided on the gear she would use for this engagement.  A little nod of her head was given before her body surrounded itself in a pure white light only to appear to be in her Chaser Armor and appearing to not have any weapon equipped.  

Her Chaser Armor, however, now had black fists instead of the matching purple color.  Another questioned popped up into her head.  No, she will not choose this one.  While it's defensive capabilities and summoning capabilities are impressive, if someone can easily get through the armor, then it's capabilities are useless.  A slow creature isn't something she could count on.  Anastasia flash stepped away from her currently location, appearing to pop in and out of existence for a moment before appearing just in front of the tortoise and cocked her arm back.  The alert system in her HUD began ringing alarms throughout her suit only to quickly move out of the way of a large, snake-like tail.  

Sliding away from the large turtle, Anastasia looked at the snake-like tail, seeing the head of a serpent at the tip while it's snake-like torso was attached to the tortoise.  She had never encountered a creature like this; maybe the snake-like tail was meant as a counter-measure to balance out the slowness of the creature.  

Her Heads Up Display started to flash red and send her multiple alerts, showing all of the enemies on her display, boxing each enemy in a thin red box.  This thin red box began to track their movement.  The box shifted as the tortoise raised one of it's legs and brought it down.  With a thunderous roar, the ground shook beneath all of their feet and a wave of stone sprouted from the creature's foot all the way out to each of the four of them.  This left them in a rather precarious situation.  They could move out of the way and risk running into another line, Anastasia could fly out of the way but would risk getting shot down by the anti-air defenses, or they could sit there and take the hit from the spell.  

Due to Anastasia not knowing the strength of the tortoise's spell, she had no other choice but to jump out of the way.  Turning her head, noticing that Ashe was pre-occupied with the golems, Anastasia shouted in her direction.  "Ashe, watch out!" she shouted loud enough to hopefully give her a little bit of time to get out of the way.  Almyra seemed to be doing fine before the creature stomped on the earth and Nao was burning everything within the turtle.  Perhaps the shell's destruction simply enraged the creature enough to bring forth it's serpentine tail.  "Nao!  What the hell is this thing's weak spot?" she asked.  She had troubles getting close to this creature, not capable of actually dealing any damage to it due to it's defense against close-combat.  

Another idea popped into Anastasia's head as a bright red light appeared over her shoulders.  Something that looked like a giant backpack was worn around the armor's shoulders.  Taking a firm stance, Anastasia allowed her Heads Up Display to get a firm lock-on onto the large snake protecting the tortoise and a missile flew from her, slowly approaching the head of the snake and flew right by it only for the missile to fly upwards for a moment to change directions only to get shot down by several beams of light.  It seemed that not too far above the Tortoise and it's serpent's height, the ceiling that activates the air defense system activates.  That was an interesting find, but since nobody here, herself included, is strong enough to lift this massive beast, bringing it up high enough to have the island destroy it was out of the question.  

Almyra was sent straight up into the sky, causing Anastasia's heart to sink for a moment as she only watched in horror, hoping Almyra didn't reach the ceiling where the scary air-defense system resided.  However, thankfully, Almyra just came shy of the boundary and fall down like a meteor.  This gave her an idea for another piece of equipment later in the future.  The little one came tumbling down, smacking into the tortoise and into the wall, finally standing up in a daze.  And then Nao took his time and lased the creature in the eyes only for Ashe to finish it off with a blade to the neck.  

As the creature yielded, she quickly ran over to Almyra to check up on her.  Her vitals seem to be normal and almost no damage was taken; at least that was what her Heads up Display showed.  How durable IS she?  Questions for later.  Anastasia placed a hand upon Almyra's head and patted it.  "Good job, Almyra," she simply stated before turning to look towards both Ashelia and Nao with a nod.  Knowing that Almyra's daze would make traveling difficult for her, Anastasia scooped her up princess-style and stood as she watched one of the walls in this arena-like place fall to the ground.  It was, as if, they unlocked the next dungeon.  The first of the 'Elite Four' had been taken down.

Her head turned towards the tortoise for a moment and nodded her head.  It was a shame, she wouldn't have minded using this thing as an Einherjar, but with how this fight was set up, this seemed to be a trial instead of an actual dungeon crawl where everything dies.  She nodded to the tortoise as the pain of Team Four Star's assault seemed to wear on it's face.  "Get going, ugh..." the creature stated while trying to lick it's wounds.  Clearing her throat, Anastasia simply whispered to 'The Almy', "Prepare yourself," she simply said before quickly appearing and disappearing, covering great distance within the span of a second.

Anastasia appeared through the newly created hole.  The hole was actually a tunnel to the west side of the island.  The tunnel was extremely dark, however, there didn't seem to be any pitfalls or obstacles in the way; not that either or those would slow down Anastasia while wearing this armor.  As Anastasia continued her travel, she began to see a point of white light.  Perhaps that was the exit to the tunnel to the west side.  Anastasia stopped for a moment to turn towards the other end of the cave to look back towards the rest of her team.  It was as if she was waiting for them.  While the two waited, Anastasia began small-talk with Almyra.

"You did a really risky thing there, Almyra.  That anti-air defense system could have cut you to shreds.  But it makes me wonder how tough you are, having suffered hardly a scratch from such a tumble," she simply stated.  With that said, Anastasia queued her microphone in her armor and shouted down the tunnel.  "Our element of surprise is already gone, so hurry up already!" she shouted before turning to look back towards Almyra.  

"Looks like we found our magic source huh?  I wonder why our clients didn't just walk in and said hi.  Pretty sure these creatures would have understood, wouldn't you say?  Well, at least we know our clients would be too terrified to verify the answer we give now right?" she said with a slight chuckle.  She knew normal people wouldn't come and check on a tremendous source of magic if they were told it was attached to powerful creatures of olde.  They would either hire more mages to beat them so they can observe, or they'd ignore the source of magic altogether.  
At that time, the rest of the team caught up and Anastasia re-adjusted her grip on Almyra before running through to the end of the tunnel.  At the end of the tunnel, Anastasia slid in to a complete stop.  At this point, Almyra was placed down and Ana was greeted with a low-toned growl from the next challenger.  The tiger chuckled and began to circle around the team once they all assembled within the bowl.  This bowl, however, was modeled like the jungle.  There were large trees, vines, roots, a creek, and more trees packed into this small area.  

Climbing in the trees and keeping itself relatively hidden from view, the tiger spoke up.  

"So, you are the ones who defeated the 'Guardian of the North'?  Pitiful weakling," the tiger stated before re-appearing behind the group.  "I don't like either of you," it said before taking in air through it's nostrils.  "None of you smell delicious enough to eat.  Especially you," she said as she turned and looked towards Almyra.  The creature gagged a little bit as whatever light got through the canopy of this forest shined through and reflected the metallic surface of it's claws and jaws.  "You have a sickening smell.  All of you have a sickening smell.  Three of you smell like the dead while the other smells like," he said as he poked his head towards Nao.  

"A gryphon," the tiger stated before letting out a low toned growl before disappearing once again into the thick brush of the forest.  "Defeat me, and I'll concede that you humans are weak and let you pass.  But I don't have very high hopes that you could," the creature said before completely vanishing into the overgrowth.    

Anastasia readied herself and looked around for the iron tiger only to come up with nothing.  There was just too much brush to fight against this thing.  Clearing her throat, Anastasia took a firm stance and shot off two of her Longinus missiles to where she though the tiger would be.  Her main objective is to clear out an area for the team to stand in, giving them an advantage away from this thick forest.  The missiles were launched only to explode about 40 meters away.  Each missile landed away from one another, giving the team a roughly 25x50 meter area to work with.  Once the missiles exploded, shards of wood were sent out in every direction.  Due to their distance away, they were saved by trees being in the way.  

After the explosions, a swift slash came from out of nowhere, piercing into Anastasia's armor.  
"Armor damage critical!  Armor damage critical!" shouted the armor in her Heads up Display.  "Shut up, I know," she said as a bright green light began to cover Anastasia's body.  However, before the healing spell could take effect, a slash from her back instantly shattered her armor.  As her armor vanished, so did her missile pod.  

"Shit!  Not good!  Not good at all!" she stated before letting another glowing white light take over her body, this time appearing in a black ninja-suit.  If this creature wanted to play stealth, Anastasia had every plan on doing the exact same.  After the armor was equipped, she vanished into the brush.

The downside of using this armor was that Anastasia couldn't hear any approaching dangers coming to her, relying on only the sense of touch (from tremors in the ground) and sight.  This became extremely dangerous in dark and hard to see situations such as these.  Her heads up display's radar function doesn't work very well when there are so many things giving returns.  Which it was very useful in a large and dark area, some place that was in-close with a lot of obstacles made tracking things a chore; having to remember the positioning of things in the radar return.  

Anastasia took a breath outward before turning to look back in towards the 'meadow' to witness her armor being torn to shreds for a moment, causing Anastasia's heart to nearly leap out of her throat.  It wasn't that she felt like she witnessed her own death, but the only person she knows of that could use that was Nao.  Thankfully, the attack was just a graze, leaving Nao quite alive.  

Stalking through the thick brush, Anastasia stepped deliberately, turning her head around and keeping it on a swivel in all directions (including up) so she didn't get ambushed by this terrifying creature of steel.  It's location was quickly determined upon seeing the trail of heat from Nao's eyes towards where the tiger was.  It was then that Anastasia would strike!

Flashback wrote:"Anastasia," her father said over the rim of his glasses, looking towards her from a group of diagrams and schematics.  Anastasia sat at the other side of a long table brooding over something.  There was no response from the bratty blonde as she curled her lip with her arms crossed over her chest.  

"What's wrong?" her father simply asked before setting the diagrams down and readjusted his glasses to look at her properly.  Again, the man had responded to what sounded like false concern for his offspring.  

"I need your help," she asked reluctantly before her father perked up a bit, a smile coming across his face.  

"Oh really?  This is unusual.  What do you need--" he said before being immediately interrupted as Ana stood up and slammed her palm onto the table, causing ripples to flow into the coffee mug that her father had sitting next to his documents.

"I'm fed up with being weak!  I want to be able to more useful in combat," she said before sitting down, her Blue Pegasus tattoo being clearly visible upon her arm.

"Oh?  Isn't your song magic good enough to protect your friends?" he simply asked as he organized the sheets of paper upon the table to a nice and neat pile.

"No, it's not.  I get left alone while everyone gets to fight.  I wasn't able to do anything during the Phoenix Mountain campaign and I wasn't able to do anything when the Priory attacked.  I'm weak!  I can't protect Ashelia, Nao, or Almyra that way!"

"Friends from the guild?"

"Seriously?  I already told you that they were people that helped me in the past.  They aren't those bastards from the guild.  All they did was treat me like a child and didn't give me a chance to do anything!" she went on and on about how she felt wronged by the Blue Pegasus.  It was at this time that Anastasia lost the love she had for the guild; even if the reason why was from such a short span of time.

"And you expect me to help?  Why would I help some brat like you?  You didn't want to help me and your mother run this company so you can go off and play hero.  Sasha was already assigned as your guardian, why don't you ask him?" her father simply stated with annoying growing more and more palpable as the conversation furthered.

"Sasha doesn't give a damn about me.  He thinks I'm weak and not worthy of protecting."

"If the gods don't give you any favor, then why should I?" questioned her father as he picked the documents back up and continued to examine them, dismissing Anastasia altogether.  He wasn't very happy at the fact that Anastasia ran off to join a guild without even saying goodbye.  Her moxie and enthusiasm got the better of her.

"Damn it, father!  Listen to me!  I came here because I need your help!  I don't want to be useless any more!"  Anastasia stood up once more and pushed the chair out from under her.  

"Well, that's too bad, now isn't it?  Useless to your friends and useless to your family.  Maybe you should go outside and take a little break; cool off for a while.  I don't need your snotty complaints right now.  Return when you can act like an adult," he simply said before muttering something under his breath.  Anastasia ground her teeth for a moment and simply walked out of the conference room, slamming the door behind her.  

"Insolent child.  Thinking the world is your play-thing.  Don't ask for help when you can't help in return."

Before Anastasia jumped in to strike, a strange 'wave of death' was detected by Anastasia.  It didn't effect her ability to maintain her requip magic, so what was it?  Did it come from the tiger or was it made directly towards the tiger.  After a brief moment, she saw Ashelia finished swinging her sword.  Something was strange about the tiger, though.  Rust began to gather upon it's metallic parts.  This caused Anastasia to ponder for a moment.  Nao's eye beams cause eat but can't rapidly decay things like that and Ashelia deals with spirits.  Could it be Almyra causing all of this?  There's no way.  

Anastasia was in denial of Almyra's potential magic abilities.  All Anastasia knew was that Almyra was the healer in the group.  Healers can't cause decay!  There's just no way that's possible.  Without taking a second glance, Anastasia ran through the brush and jumped out dramatically, dealing a heavy punch directly into the tiger's body.  She aimed for one of the rusted spots on it's armor as the fist swiftly penetrated and struct the tiger directly.

"Alright!  I yield!" the creature stated before slowly backing off.  When it regained it's composure, it began limping towards where the next tunnel would appear and with a loud, resounding roar, the brush moved out of the way and a new tunnel appeared through the mountain.  Intense heat could be felt by everyone present.  

"Even if you humans are weak, I'll let you pass," the creature stated before vanishing back into the brush to lick it's wounds.  Anastasia ran towards Nao for a moment to make sure he was alright.  After looking him over, she visibly sighed outward and gave them all a thumbs up.  Unfortunately, spoken words would do nothing to her so gestures were the only things she would be able to detect with this bothersome armor equipped.  

The giant tiger yielded and Almyra began to heal Nao.  A white light surrounded Anastasia, showing off her normal appearance for a brief moment, feeling the cool air rush over her body.  She really should invest in some form of climate control inside of these suits.  Anastasia turned to look towards Ashelia with a raised brow.  "You're actually pretty good with a sword, Ashe!" she said in a more-than-excited tone.  

Anastasia took a seat for a moment before heat came in from the next room.  A loud squakking could be heard from that cave.  "A phoenix, you say?  What's that?" she asked.  She had never heard of a Phoneix before, not when there are creatures like dragons and gryphons and shisas running around.  Perhaps she wasn't very familiar with all forms of mega fauna on Earthland.  Steam was clearly visible as it rose from her body and up into the air.  She felt like crap after spending so much energy.  But there ain't no rest for the wicked.

Standing up, Anastasia turned and looked towards Nao with an appalled look on her face.  "Seriously?  This thing can go through the anti-air system?  That's not fair," she grumbled.  A lot of her fighting ability relied on her ability of flight and for something that could bypass it while leaving her grounded made her feel even more vulnerable.  But, with the information she gathered from the black tortoise, she should be able to fly around on her new armor.  And then, Nao took off like a bolt of lightning towards the next cavern.  It was then that Anastasia, along with the rest of her brave group, made chase after Nao.

Arriving in the large cavern, the Phoenix made it's speech, spreading it's wings to send out a massive wave of heat towards the group.  And then it hit her.  Ashe stated that this would be the one that Ana would be responsible for.  She didn't do very well against fire, but at least it wasn't electricity.  "I guess," she said as she watched the creature began to fly around.  

"Initiating Defensive Protocol," she said as her body began to glow a white color before her figure grew to something that none of the other members of her team have seen before.   She felt courage well up within her and clarity within her mind.  The armor turned and looked towards her party for a moment before transforming into it's fighter jet mode and started to pursue after the Phoenix.  

"Do you dare to challenge me?  You are made of metal and I am the embodiment of fire!"  the Phoenix shouted out as it shot a beam of pure fire at Anastasia with the beam slowly cooking the armor.  However, the armor wasn't slowed down one bit as the nose of Anastasia's armor dug into the Phoenix's chest, knocking the wind out of it for a moment.  At a whim, Anastasia transformed into the Walker configuration and delivered a couple punches to the bird before using Shadow Step to whirl around the creature.  A light green aura surrounded Anastasia, healing off the initial beam of fire that the creature shot at her.  

Anastasia moved her right elbow back before a bright light appeared in her palm.  The Phoenix spread it's wings, causing a massive wave of fire surrounding Anastasia, causing the fire to begin melting Anastasia's armor.

<< DANGER DANGER >>
<< ARMOR DAMAGE CRITICAL >>

"Shut up, I know!" she shouted before the light within her hand enveloped her entire right hand.  Her glowing hand penetrated the wall of fire and grabbed the back of the Phoenix's neck and ignited her thrusters.  With a loud shout, she slammed herself and the Phoenix down into the ground.  After the intense slam into the ground, Anastasia's armor exploded, sending her flying back towards the tunnel where she came from.  Anastasia goes completely unconscious.