Snakes on a Plane - Level: Expert (Nekro)

On her flight back to the states, Vexus was digging through what information she had on her next target. This List had been incredibly lucrative for her lately, so she would continue hunting for objects one by one. The next item was known as The Blood Sword, she had success in acquiring the last sword she went after so another one would probably require the same, or at least similar, tactics.
So far she had come across that a young girl by the name of Diana Mendoza. She felt stumped, it was a new sensation not being able to figure something out like this. Once Elena made it back to her labs she would easily be able to locate this individual and plot her assault. Until then it would probably be best to just relax and enjoy the flight. She rested her head on her hand and gazed out the window in her first class seat. Slowly blinking she began to fall asleep, however something caught her eye. It looked like another plane. A missile? Elena had to shake herself back into consciousness to better assess the this strange object. Going through her carry on bag she pulled out her enhanced Prada sunglasses and scanned outside the window. Whatever was there it was alive, and it was very large. Looking around the cabin it didn't seem as if anyone else had taken notice. She then pulled out her cell phone and connected some headphones for increased privacy.
The phone rang in the pilot's cabin.
"Heyy HQ, what's going on?"
"Hello, this is one of your passengers. We are currently over the North Pacific Ocean, en route to Hawaii."
"Heh, funny Karen. You know yo--" the pilot was cut off.
"This is an emergency, there is an unknown object flying off port side."
The pilot remains silent for a moment as he checks to see if he's getting any radar readings.
"I will be blunt. What ever it is, it will be hostile with us. It is not something we can communicate with"
"Are you saying that everyone here is in danger? And if so, how are we supposed to stop this?"
"I'm just saying you should brace for impact."
"Huh.. Impact? What!? Whe--!?"
And just like that there was a huge jolt that shook the entire aircraft. Screams rang through the cabin as people were now seeing what was happening. Something had landed on the plane, the large claws could be seen from the windows. Elena cursed under hear breath, and there was another large shaking of the craft. Her eyes widened as she saw one of the wings leaving her side of the plane. And yet another jolt. The other wing. A third jolt. The tail. Everyone on the plane was sobbing hysterically. Some holding their loved ones, others trying to send messages on their phone, saying their last goodbyes. Some even taking videos, hoping to have some proof of their situation. This was about to be an international crisis. This creature or meta or whatever it was would disappear without a trace, countries would start blaming each other. A whole mess just waiting to happen, especially over international waters. Elena rolled her eyes at this and was just looking around frantically, pretending to send messages on her phone to blend in with the chaos. And that's when things got worse...

What looked like gigantic spikes pierced through the top of the plane, which put a very surprised look on Elena's face. Looking at them, she realized that they were a very large set of teeth. Her mouth opened in almost shock, following the hull of the plane was ripped off. The rapid depressurization of the cabin tore people from their seats and sent them flying out. A fall from this heights into water would easily kill any human. Towering over the opening in the plane was a massive red dragon.
"Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me..."
Elena immediately activated her Celestial Eye and allowed herself to be flung from the cabin and begin free falling. The plane was plummeting, everyone on board had been basically been given a near immediate death sentence, debris was scattered everywhere almost looking like an explosion had hit the plane. Vexus was incredibly excited to have stumbled upon a dragon like this. They were just teeming with research material she would love to get her hands on. However its work was done and was going to be on his merry way. All around here were screams of the people that had been in the plane with her. She looked at one woman who locked eyes with her, and then back at the escaping dragon, and then back at the woman again; a tear streaming down her face.
And again, Vexus rolled her eyes.
"UGH, FINE!" she said, not that it could be heard over the rushing wind.
Her sunglasses were still one her face, somehow, and with them she targeted every individual currently in the air. A very large amount of Technomatter was conjured very quickly and rushed out in  nearly every direction. Two large white spell circles appeared above and below what remained of the plane creating powerful gusts of wind that would dramatically slow its decent to the ground. The Technomatter worked quickly gathering up dozens of people. Due to their cruising altitude, the temperature was dangerously low, people had began to pass out. Some experienced heart attacks from fear, and others were simply in full on panic. Golden spell circles would shroud those who were injured, comforting those in panic, warming the frozen, and reversing the heart attacks. Everyone was accounted for.
She brought everyone back abroad the plane, using red spell circles to keep everyone at a comfortable temperature. The pilots came from the cockpit to thank her, but Elena simply put her hand up.
"I don't want to hear it. From you, or anyone..."
She then took off out of the plane on a platform of Technomatter. With her glasses she scanned a large area, looking to see if there was any sort of shit or land mass or anywhere she might be able to drop these people off. They had located one off in the distance, but it did not seem inhabited, but in the opposite there was a US Navy Ship. With another eye roll she brought everyone in that direction. Back on the broken airplane she made a phone call, informing those on the carrier that she would be incoming and to clear the landing area.
Once she touched down, there was a small army waiting for her.
"Commander." she said professionally.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Its never a friendly greeting with any branch of the military for me I see..."
Everyone was being carefully helped out of the damaged aircraft, all grouped together and offered blankets.
Vexus gave a wave of her hand towards the large group of survivors and a black spell circle appeared over all of her heads. Every armed personnel took aim at Elena, she casually raised her arms with a chuckle. The commander rolled his eyes and told every to stand down.
"What do you want this time..."
"Nothing, just the good karma points. But no one in this group is going to remember what happened. I'd like you guys to do your good 'ol US Government tricks to let everyone know what actually happened. And, ya know what, I'll make it easy for ya. I will have these passengers remember being picked up by the ever so amazing US Navy."
The commander remained silent, and Vexus stared harshly back at him.
"You're welcome."
Vexus' body dissipated into Technomatter and she floated away into the air. Yet again toying with the world's most powerful military as if it was her personal coverup agency.

Eventually Vexus reformed, flying slowly over the Pacific. She clicked over the setting on her glasses to relocate the strange island she had spotted earlier. It did not correlate with any current maps, and it also seemed to have increased in size since she last viewed it.
Did this thing move...? she thought landing on the heavily wooded area. Elena immediately deactivated her Celestial Eye, she had not used to for such an extended amount of time in a while. She was feeling slightly winded, but a quick exploration of this island would help her recover and she'd be able to make it back to land.
As she explored, she noticed some plants that had been marked extinct, and some species that were previous evolutions. Where in the world was she? She kept the ocean in view so that she did not get herself lost, despite her excellent sense of direction. A ear splitting roar rang out from above and Elena instinctively hid behind a tree. Looking around, and then finally above her she caught a quick glimpse of a large flying lizard. No doubt the dragon that had caused her so much trouble earlier.
"Heh, those good karma points paid off pretty quickly." she said as she threw caution to the wind and went deeper into the strange forest.

The wilderness Elaine was on would always be at a steep slope, and the ground beneath covered in algae and coral, sticking to some hard, dull material.

At some point along the path, the remains of previous visitors would be easy enough to find. Grown over with algae and looking like rock formations, a cursory inspection would reveal cutlasses, flintlocks, muskets and other things that pointed to pirates. as in, yo-ho-ho pirates. Other visitors included Roman legionaries, Napoleonic French soldiers, and yes, even Nazis and Imperial Japan. Their pulverized bones and smashed weapons pointed to horrific, horrific deaths.

There didn't seem to be anything stirring on the island at the moment though, save for the dragon roaring somewhere else on the island. There were vaguely fish-humanoid statues on intervals on the cobbled path, and they stood out by being in pristine condition rather than covered in coral.

Finally, after passing a threshold, one would find a piece of civilization after the wilderness- a small circular seating area, covered by fine marble dome like a luxurious park gazebo, the architecture strongly Greek but of an unknown epoch. The seating area was overgrown with flora, but a quick look beyond the overgrowth would reveal the vista the gazebo emphasized- a massive temple complex at the peak of the 'island', jutting out as a massive white spire reaching for the sky.

The rest of the island spreads out from the central temple, an overgrown wilderness... and panning just a bit more to the right, one could see a very, very large turtle's head, even bigger than an aircraft carrier, attached to this 'island'.

This would be the point of revelation that Vexus was, indeed, on the back of a colossal turtle, the size and scale of which simply defying conventional biology...

Once Elaine had ample time to take in the view, saved at the save point, the dragon roared again in the sky, trying to land at the summit of the temple. He would be rebuffed by bright blue beams of energy, that visibly caused him pain and forced him to ground. The massive red dragon would then be gone from sight.

A few more steps up the path, and Vexus would have an encounter. A pair of those strange fish-people statues from earlier came to life, their eyes glowing with similar blue energy. Two more up the path also came to life, hoping to trap Vexus at the gazebo. Slow and purposeful they advanced on her, those big stone fists easily crushing human forms... though they initiated their attacks with eye beams, which were really super-pressured sea water that would disorient and stun as much as harm. Such was their simple tactic- disable a target at range, then close in and smash their heads in.

= = = = =

Elsewhere on the turtle, Diana Mendoza, aka the Ronin, sheathed her Black Sword as she already reached one of the entrances to the temple. She left a trail of dead shark men behind her, guts spilling all over the island. "...This is definitely the place..." She said, though unable to appreciate the warnings of death and doom, as she didn't read at all, let alone ancient Greek.

It was her luck that during the fight a dragon had fallen from the sky and smashed the stone bridge and its supporting pillars. A deep crevice separated her from the entrance, and all the remained was the stone railing... Diana started the slow walk across, trying to keep her balance, and not look down.

As Elena made her way around, she caught sight of a massive object at what could be called the front of the island. Eventually she could make out that it was a head, and put it together that she was currently on a massive turtle. It was baffling that creatures like this even existed. Escaping all forms of civilization for what could have been centuries. This was no doubt a rare experience and she would make sure to take in all the data that she could. Putting on her sunglasses, she had them start recording everything she saw.
As she decided to wonder deeper into the forest, following the flight of the dragon, there was a clear path that she had begun to follow. She began to notice human remnants along the path, people from different eras of time had clearly stepped food on this beast before. But what had eliminated them all? These were clearly military uniforms, and they were armed. Vexus took note to stay on high alert.

By this point she had walked quite a distance. Further down the way she could see something similar to civilization, she zoomed in with her glasses and saw the area in a preteen condition. As she was examining the area in front of her, she passed a couple of statues that she paid no attention to. Unbeknownst to Elena, the figures came to life. While she had now almost made it to the gazebo, these creatures were readying their attack. Her sunglasses alerted her of movement behind her and she swung around to see the strange statues. The pair of them fired what looked like beams from their eyes, they collided with Vexus' chest and knocked her on the ground. She gritted her teeth as she gripped her chest, the attack stung like hell. They approached her faster, coming with their large stone hands open. Copper colored spell circles appeared on the attackers which caused large amounts of the surrounding elects to gather on their bodies. This dramatically slowed them, eventually bringing them to a halt. Vexus stood and dusted herself off, the two objects were then rocketed into the sky, their path of trajectory landing them in the ocean.. All performed without the slightest input from Vexus, as if the magic had acted on its own to protect her. Elena then continued he way into the gorgeously modeled structures. Little did she know that she was not alone on the island. Shooting the statues into the air acted almost like a signal flare. Whether more of the rock figures came to attack, or there was something or someone far more interesting lurking in the surrounding forest.

After dealing with the first guardians, Elena would encounter the entrance handily enough, the foot bridge across already showing the first hints of what was in this place. The railing was gilded in solid gold, and the floor pavers alternated between marble and polished gold. Beyond was the first layer of defense, a pitch black labyrinth laden with the customary deathtraps.

A sign in ancient Greek, with the face of Dionysus, spelled out a warning. "If greed brought you here, greed will bury you here."

Elsewhere still on the Island, the red dragon climbed back from the crevice, having shape shifted into the form of an African man in a coat. The tower was not without defenses it seemed, and greatly discouraged the direct approach. "Accursed Atlanteans."

It was then with sharpened senses he noted the guardian statues being flung out to see, on the another side of the Island. Far enough to be a major detour.
Flustered, he cast a summoning spell, that called forth his servants from a ship cruising in the area. In the clearing came a dozen modern day mercenaries, armed to the teeth with equipment and firepower. Three stood out, metahumans that served as his lieutenants. All of them were pawns anyway.

The teleportation was not unexpected, but the scenery was truly something to behold. The soldiers marveled at the sight of the turtle island.

"So this is the Vanishing Island you mentioned?" The Redhead woman in leather and combat armor looked around, marveling at the location.

His racer-dressed speedster minion noted some of the cobblestones were made of gold, and greedily took out a knife to start pocketing them. "...holy crap! there's gold in the street!"

A third brute, a literal minotaur with cybernetic arms, looked around as well, but kept his gaze on their master. "Tell us what you need, boss."

The Dragon spoke to his minions with little fanfare, focused on the task at hand. "Mecha Minotaur. Soldiers, you come with me and deal with the temple's labyrinth." The mercenaries hail their leader and immediately move to the temple entrance. Mecha Minotaur approved, labyrinths being their thing.

"Streak, I want you to check on the unwelcome guest in the north. Kill them."

"Gotcha boss! It'll be over quick. hehe." The racer dressed speedster thumbed up and headed for Vexus's position.

Finally he turned to his last minion. "...Tigress, I want explosives planted on the turtle's eye. If I cannot procure the treasure, then no one will."

"Ja, Comrade." She gives a mock salute and teleports away in a mist of red energy.

= = = = =

Vexus was about to have company. A streak of Red and White, the tell-tale sign of a speedster, was quickly gaining on her trail. Streak was an amoral man who worked only for money. Once he saw Vexus, a woman, he would overestimate his capabilities, and toy with her rather than just kill her outright.

= = = = =

Diana meanwhile, was already starting her labyrinth journey. Completely dark as it may be, she had the enhanced hearing to locate traps, and avoid them. She slowly progressed, neither Vexus nor the dragon knowing of her wherabouts.

Reaching the bridge that lead to the entrance of the temple gave very powerful hints as to what was hidden inside. Everything was marble and the rails to the bride were covered with gold. Someone had very expensive taste here, she did not particularly care for the marble and gold floor. Maybe a bathroom could be done with it, but not the main living area. As she was about to take her first step across the bridge, her glasses alerted her of something incoming from behind. She spun around, ready to attack, but there was nothing there. She surveyed the area, as something had to be here, her glasses were not malfunctioning. Turning back around slowly, she was startled to see someone standing right in front of her.
"Heya miss!" the brightly dressed individual gave her a powerful hit sending her flying backwards.
"Woah woah now! I didn't expect to get a hit in that quickly! You must be hella slow." he said as he started to zoom around Vexus at high speeds.
"You impudent little fly..." she said under her breath"[/color] Vexus kept her hands on the ground for a few moments as the kid mocked her. She then decided to stand back up, but he just knocked her back down, laughing at her inability to keep up. However the longer she was on the ground, the longer she had her hands on the marble floors.
"Hehe, alrighty lady. I'll let you get up. You're old 'n stuff, so I'd feel bad if i just made you stay on the ground this whole time."
Elena did indeed take the opportunity to stand, and immediately shot a bolt of lighting at him. Streak easily avoided it, moving behind her. Again, she fired another bolt, and he dodged.
"Well at least you can do something." he said with a chuckle.
The bursts of lighting continued with increasing speed and accuracy. He would doge, she would fire again. The intervals were shrinking, but Streak was speeding up, seeing that Vexus was starting to learn his patterns. He began thinking maybe not to toy with her, but if lightning is all she could do then he would still make it out on top. However that was where he was dead wrong.

Elena summoned a white spell circle above them creating a very powerful gust of wind, this slightly hindered Streak's speed. She used the small moment for him to adjust to fire more lighting, this time from a two layered spell circle. Dramatically increasing its firing speed and lethality, it caught the young assailant off guard only clipping his shoulder slightly. There was enough energy in the attack to knock him back and badly burn his shoulder despite it only slightly touching him.
"Ah... Shit, that stings..." he gave a glare towards Vexus, who just smirked in response. Streak got in a stance, appearing to get more serious. Elena retorted by folding her hands together, activating her physical boosts. The shockwave that it send out got Streak a little excited, seeing that now it might be a challenge.
The two of them rocketed off, Vexus now matching his speed. Streak gawked at her now being as fast as he was. They collided a multitude of times, landed, and then went back at it. Admittedly, Vexus was becoming very strained moving so fast so frequently. This ability was far more effective for just a couple of short bursts, but going up against with speed as their foremost ability something had her struggling to keep up.

They both skidded to a halt, the area Vexus had failed on was now in front of both of them. Vexus was taking deep breaths, and allowed her physical boosts to fade.
"Shit..."
"Ah ha! So was all that just for show!? Hahah, that's too bad lady I was starting to have a lot of fun."
Vexus gritted her teeth a bit and started in inch backwards.
"Nuh uh now, no running from me..." Over this short encounter, Elena had taken notes on his movement and attack patters. She could see when he was about to move just based on how she could se his muscle tense. And it was happening, he was about to take off. The ground Vexus had sat on for a moment shifted right as Streak stepped on it, dramatically messing with his stride.
He tripped.
Vexus quickly reactivated her physical boosts and caught the stumbling child by the throat and threw him backwards. She then burst forward and met his flying body. Her hand stopped his momentum while also placing a copper spell circle on him. Being the same on she had used on the statues earlier, the gold and marble ground crumbled up and encased the boy, leaving his head exposed.
"Wha-What, happened?!"
Vexus allowed her physical boosts to fade yet again. She pointed over to the section of road that had been altered. The entire area then dislodged itself and began hovering, Vexus moving it about as if she was conducting an orchestra. The boy was clearly worried and confused.
"Child, I possessed a world of abilities you would not even be able to begin to understand. You are dramatically out classed and woefully underprepared."
Vexus increased the pressure on the gold and marble prison, now beginning to break bones. The boy cried out in agony.
"I won't kill you. I would gain nothing from your death. Besides the satisfaction of watching the life leave your eyes, of course." She increased the pressure again, more things snapped.
"Please... Please, stop.... Please, I'm begging you." he said, sobbing and in monstrous amounts of pain. Vexus then released the spell, and Streak fell to the ground, tears streaming down his face. Unable to move due tot he pain he was experiencing.
"I don't like this younger generation of MetaHumans. You have an ability, and that's wonderful. Embrace it. Make it your own. Become as powerful as you can. Ah, but wait. You hit a point where you think you are powerful. You are not. You are still an ant amongst giants." the floating pieces of gold and marble formed a makeshift stool that Vexus took a seat on to look down at the broken body of Streak. She ran her fingers through his hair, and he tried to hold back his fearful tears.
"I'm going to take away your abilities. We'll then see how valuable you are to your employer. Surely you did not attack me on your own accord." she stood up from the her chair, and the pieces went back and formed perfectly into the space they had been in. Leaving no evidence that they were ever disturbed.
"No.. No! Please! Don't! My-My powers are everything, they're me! It's--It's why I'm here! Please! God, no no no noon.." he said, becoming hysterical now. Vexus rolled her eyes, and a copper spell circle appeared on each of his legs. He began to squirm, despite his broken bones. His body knew he was in trouble.
"He-HELP!!! HELP ME!!! HEE--" his last scores were cut off as a a third copper spell circle covered his mouth.
"Sssshhh... or I'll cut out your lungs too while I'm here." and with that, she obliterated the boy's legs. They were still attached to his body, but his bones had been absolutes destroyed. He left out a yelp before his body simply shut him down, passing out from the pain.
"My, my... Glad that's over." The copper spell circles then continued their job as his body was covered up once again in the surrounding materials, and then launched high up into the sky. The heavy cocoon of marble and gold would soon meet the same fate as the first too statues, joining them at the bottom of the ocean.

Elena decided to carry on and see what lay beyond the entrance. There was a written warning on the door, as do all hidden temples made of gold. She passed through anyways, entering a very dark room. Her glasses quickly adjusted allowing her to easily see that she had entered a massive labyrinth. Rolling her eyes she pressed forward, utilizing both the x-ray and night vision modes on her glasses to navigate through the trap laden maze. Maybe there would be a rare magical artifact at the end of all this and it would not be a complete waste of her time. For now she would play along with the maze, however it if became tiresome she would destroy the entire thing and walk over the rubble. It was not often that Elena did adventures like this, so she would at least humor the creators who went to such elaborate measure to protect whatever treasure they may have hidden here.

DIANA

The Labyrinth was quick enough to bypass, having actually multiple trap doors that led into pitch black rivers below, crushing hallways, blade traps and other unimaginative but cruel obstacles.

Diana emerged with her head mostly intact into the temple proper; she saw that once it was a multi-leveled complex, at least thirty stories in modern measurements, with a central atrium and something shiny and golden at the top. But alas, time had not been so kind, and the plant boxes were empty, and the remains of an ancient wooden lift system having rotted away. Some of the balconies and whole sections of floor had given way, leaving only massive exposed pillars of the classical, Ionic and doric orders, as well as statues ranging from one to five stories tall... Diana sighed, got her pick axe and started climbing.

PArt way into the climb, Diana began to realize she was not alone.

THE DRAGON'S PARTY

While following his minions, the Red Dragon kept an eye on Streak via a telepathy spell. He studied Vexus intently through the fool's eyes, noting her abilities one by one and readily theorizing the sorceress had many more. A truly dangerous and worthy rival.

"There is an exit, boss. Where's Streak?" Mecha Minotaur pointed to the plain staircase that led up.

"Beaten. A sorceress is on the Island." He said, getting looks from the standard troops. Streak was a hot-head, but he was not in the practice of losing. With a final leg they emerge into the massive ground level of the temple, taking in the view.

"Minos. Secure the ground area. The Sorceress is capable of dispensing lightning, and can haste herself to catch Streak. She may also have been able to fling the stone guardians into the sea."

"Gotcha. You heard the boss! Dig in!" Minos barked at the troopers, the cyborg Minotaur barking specific strategies to prepare against this powerful enemy. The Dragon's human soldiers divided into three groups, took up positions in the shadows and behind columns, preparing their portable fortifications, flashbangs and choking grenades. Minos stayed in plain sight, drawing attention to himself, pretending to be a brute.

Leaving his henchmen to the task, the Dragon, still in human form, began his ascent. He takes the scenic route and climbs pillars and stairs, not wishing to draw the attention of any more guardians...

ELENA

Minutes after Vexus had moved on from Streak, a cloud of red energy heralded the arrival of the Crimson Reaper. The Russian mercenary tsked at the crumpled, ruined body of their speedster. Despite it all he was still breathing, but barely. "A shameful defeat, Comrade."

Natalya picked up Streak, and teleported back onto their ship to leave him in their infirmary, then she returned to the island carrying an no-scope anti-tank rifle. She linked up with Minos and the ambush party, but decided to go into reserve, taking a higher position on a shadowed balcony.

Elena made her way through the maze. Someone without the proper equipment or abilities would probably find such a labyrinth quite challenging, even impossible. Once finished, she ended up in a large clearing with a ridiculously large spire in the center. It appeared that at one time one may be able to easily scale this monstrosity via a primitive lift system. Vexus then flipped through the different settings on her Prada sunglasses which reviled that she was most certainly not alone. There was one individual who was already quite some distance ahead of her on climbing the pillar, and another group who seemed to be preparing for something. She deduced that the group still on ground level were the ones who sent the speedster to attack her. Elena figured that things would more than likely get heated rather quickly, so she skipped right to the chase.

She placed her left hand on the pillar itself and held it there for quite some time. Leaving her hand placed, she activated her Celestial Eye and with her right hand began to create circular versions of her spell circles. There were five in total. They started off quite small, but as she started to layer them with different spells the began to grow in size. Elena kept them condensed with the spell that applied massive amounts of pressure, only allowing them to grow to be the size of about a beach ball. Each of the five spell orbs were tightly packed with a number of lightning, fire, and wind spell circles that all varied in intensity. These five orbs would innocently float upwards, glowing a florescent light sort of color, illuminating the entire cavern. One might assume that another individual is simply trying to see their way around the mysterious area.
Two of the orbs headed for the individual already rather high up and the other three whimsically approached the group. Once they were within range, she expected someone of them to try and get right of them out of curiosity, but due to their incredibly condensed nature most offensive techniques would be unable to disturb this composure. With her hand still on the massive pillar, she took one finger and put it in her ear as if bracing for an explosion.

Bang.

Vexus set off the five orbs in five separate, large, and very intense blasts. Letting out combined bursts of scorching fire, devastating lighting, and slicing wind all simultaneously. The five spell bombs decimated the ancient temple, leaving noting but ruins. Only the bottom levels of the  central atrium were left standing, Vexus included with her hand still casually leaned up against the tower. The rubbled had created a very neat circle around her, where dust refused to fall. Taking her hand off the pillar, completing her task there, she began to flip through the different setting on her glasses yet again. This time looking for life signs.
"Come on out now, boys and girls. I have a flight to catch in Hawaii, and I will be terribly upset if I miss that..."

The ambush by the regular human soldiers and the cyber minotaur was overturned when their prey was still too far off and set off an explosion that levelled maybe a quarter of the massive temple complex. The explosion shook the Island with such force that the giant turtle was startled, and began to dive. And as he started to dive, the ocean began rushing into the temple, the labyrinth echoing the sound of rushing seawater.

"...What the hell!" Minos exclaimed, the situation having turned sour very quickly. Tons of rubble were falling onto the ambush party, and his life insurance policy kicked in- Natalya teleported him to safety. The same could not be said of the regular mercenaries- they were just idiots with guns, after all, nothing the Dragon couldn't replace. They were unceremoniously crushed; the unlucky ones might be trapped, the coming flood drowning them where they are.

The Dragon watched as the fire rune drifted, the ripped into him with righteous anger. A creature of fire itself, the flames did nothing to him at all, save perhaps causing his anger to rise. The sorceress was powerful, and performed a variation of circle magic. With the island already sinking, he goes for broke and goes dragon form again, his massive form just slithering up to the floating gold disk at the apex of the chamber. He decided to use his own vancian magic and fortify himself against lightning and cold, as well as haste himself. He rapidly gained on Diana, though he was again, too occupied with the sorceress who decimated his minions to notice her... until now.

Diana's presence was finally revealed when Vexus sent a magic circle towards her. Having just reached a landing, within a short climb of the magical golden disk.

Diana did not have much in the way of sophisticated defense. So she gripped her sword's handle as it neared, and when the massive burst of electricity poured from it to obliterate her, her reflexes kick in and she let out a mighty KIAAAAAI! drawing her blade in an Iaijutsu draw, matching the speed of the lightning blast and deflecting the destructive spell into another statue below, shearing its carved greek head into ugliness and sheathing her sword smoking in one fluid motion.

Realizing that she was now out of time, she doubles up on the climbing, using her arm mounted grapple hook to gain some elevation on the final statue, then powering up to the disk with just her climbing axes. Witnessing the demonstration and seeing absolutely no magic whatsoever, but rather a defense borne of pure skill, The dragon then felt a twinge of fear.

When the three of them meet on the giant floaty-golden disk thing, he will not be the most dangerous.

She had knocked out the bulk of the competition in the group, only ones remaining was a man she assumed that was leading them, and a young girl. The young girl seemed to make a quick sprint for the strange gold platform that was still hovering above all of the wreckage. A small cloud of Technomatter surrounded Vexus' feet and began to carry her up to the platform.
Her explosion seemed to have startled the beast who's back they were riding upon. They were quickly becoming one with the sea again. Then to her surprise, she witnessed the man transform back into the Dragon she had dealt with earlier on the plane. Vexus stepped off her cloud of Technomatter and ominously walked forward, examining the girl and the dragon who was also on the platform. Elena then immediately noticed the sword she was wielding. The Blood Sword. Just her luck.
"Well, well, well... I've hit the jack pot. A rare red dragon for dissecting, the Blood Sword to return to The List, and a sinking island to hide all of the evidence. Oh happy day." she said with a twisted smile creeping across her face.

Vexus waisted no time in attempting to decimate the two. She extended her left had to the Dragon, and her right to Diana. Surrounding the dragon appeared dozens of blue spell circles. Most of them layered with two to four individual circles. The more circles that were stacked on each other, the more powerful the attack. These blue circles, only about the circumference of a basketball, all fired incredibly condensed beams of water. This water could cut through the thick steel like a hot knife through butter. The positioning of the beams would strategically slice him in areas that would make it easiest for later dissecting. As for Diana, her right hand conjured dozens of bright red spell circles around her. These all only singe or two layered circles, as she was putting out much more power in attempting to quickly subdue the hyper-evolved lizard. These red spell circled would blast Diana with temperatures reaching near 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which could make solid steal malleable. Both attacks would easily damage the platform they all were standing on.

Vexus was really exerting herself by launching all of these spells back to back and in such large quantities. A couple of beads of sweat were beginning to form on her brow, it would be ideal if they were taken out with these quick couple of attacks though she had a slight sensation that would not be the case. Her glasses still remained on her face concealing her Celestial Eye, monitoring their vitals, her own vitals, and the rate at which the turtle was diving. Things were most certainly getting up to a speed that Vexus could enjoy. It had been a while since she had been in a situation where she might actually try to acquire the items she was targeting.

While Vexus used fancy technomatter and the dragon flew up to the platform, Diana simply leaps from the outstretched hand of a statue, vaulting the gap and landing on the giant gold disk. "HAAA!" She barely makes the ledge and hangs on, her trusty pick digging into the solid gold platform. Solid gold!


It seemed there was no time to admire the gold-ified rose garden and the small temple in the middle. At the rate Vexus went, Diana and the red dragon were forced to fight her first. Diana was not keen on fighting a sorceress and a red dragon, but the one who attacked first would invariably get targeted.

The circles erupt with their deadly assault, and the dragon's magical barriers held against the brunt of the water attack, though eventually crumbling and bludgeoning him, rather than cut. His were dragon scales, after all. Still, he looked at Vexus angrily.

"INSOLENT GNAT!" The dragon cursed from the pain, and performed alchemic transmutation; three golden claws materialized from the solid gold platform they were on and attempted to seize Vexus in a vice grip. He then came over to deal with the sorceress, moving in a blur from the haste effect, his every step crushing golden rose boxes. He'd then let her have a taste of dragon fire, and if that didn't kill her it would likely block her vision while he closed the gap to claw her to shreds.

Diana meanwhile had enough of the spellcasting and attempted to disrupt Vexus as well, with several well-aimed shuriken aimed at her hands and face. She threw them in a parabolic curve, making their trajectory difficult to follow- except, Diana was still not ready to kill, and none of them were lethal, only very painful. She hoped Vexus didn't mind losing a few fingers or maybe an ear.

She opts to let her rivals fight it out, as she focused on surviving the barrage of flame melting whole sections of the disk; she ducked and weaved, even using her energy deflection but inevitably her coat would catch fire and she'd be forced off the disk to douse herself in the very quickly rising water below. SPLASH.

"GASP!" Diana would surface for air, and use her grapple to get back on the disk, seeing the water was that high enough. She crept towards the central temple through a hole in the disk, hoping the dragon and Vexus would take each other out. But, that was just wistful thinking.

Elena's eyes narrowed at her attacks being nullified against the Dragon's tough scales. She would most certainly need to research these, created some woven armor of some sort. As her fire spells were going off on Diana, she threw some shrunken in her direction. As soon as Elena saw that she was throwing an object, the glasses switched over in order to track their path of trajectory. Seeing where they would end up, her Technomatter automatically materialized from the gold surface and blocked the thrown weapons. They were then quickly converted into the essence. She then watched out of her peripherals as her coat caught a flame and she dove into the rising water below.
The Dragon roared at Elena for causing him pain, she merely chuckled and replied.
"Heh, that's my line..."
The Dragon came at her with golden talons and a firey breath of vengeance. It had appeared to strike Vexus and burn her to a crisp, which, would have occurred instantly had she been hit with such heat at such close range. Her Technomatter had multiplied and swirled around her and converted her entire being into the silvery sand like substance, narrowly avoiding damage and the beasts incoming claws. She reformed on top a cloud of Technomatter looking down at both the Dragon and Diana in the water. Her clothes were scorched, her face had clearly been exposed to high amounts of heat and her hands and arms were terribly burned. She had not entirely avoided the fire it seemed.

Vexus extended her hands out aimed at the dragon, one hand spread out over top of the other. As she moved them, she winced at the pain from the burns.
"HAA!!"
She let out a powerful grunt as five sparking spell circles appeared layered on top of each other. From their center an incredibly destructive bolt of black lighting rocketed forward on a crash course with the dragon. Glancing off center, a small bolt of lighting branched out from the main tree and struck the water in the event Diana had still been submerged. If the Dragon was still standing after this monstrous attack, she would need to go with a more cunning strategy rather than trying to take it down with brute magical force.

Vexus would start to decend back to the golden disk, but still keeping the high ground. She was breathing heavily, clearly tiring from the amount of magical power she was expending. Not to mention the burns that she was fighting back the pain on. This dragon would need to go down first, she could then take her time acquiring the sword. If worse came to worse she could pull out all the stops against the girl and simply have a rescue organized to retrieve her after the fact. However, there were a few cards that would not be played here, no matter how dire the situation would become.

The Dragon demonstrated his own quick thinking and prowess, using the gold disk's natural conductivity and transmuting a dome from it to shield himself. He saw that the ocean had finally risen to the disk.... or rather, the turtle was now nearly completely submerged, the spires of the temple now vanishing below the water. The fight with Vexus was wholly unnecessary and consuming time; the objective was now at risk.

"The treasure!" He groaned, deciding that the treasure had to come first. A quickened conjuration would see acidic fog rising up and persisting, and obscuring the disk; the damage the acid would do would be less significant than fire breath, but the dragon presumed it would corrode any technomatter that tried to pass it, while giving him significant concealment as he fled the scene with the precious treasure.

Diana held on for dear life as the structure she took shelter in was carried off. "Holy crap!" She sat in the corner, barely taking in the small shrine. Inside was a golden statue of a woman, as well as a throne facing it... and someone chained to the throne.

Vexus cursed herself at her own stupidity. How foolish of her it was to waste such a large amount of energy for it only to be so easily countered. The massive turtle continued to return back to the ocean, seeming to create quite a lot of distress for the dragon, his goal was clearly to obtain this treasure. Diana was no where to be found at the moment. Elena was not currently ahead of the game. Her prize dragon was preparing to leave, and the list target was not currently in sight.
A toad, which she could clearly see was excreting some sort of acid, had appeared. She assumed from this Dragon's interesting form of magic. At the moment her Technomatter would be unable to overcome the acid, she did not currently have the strength to produce that large of an amount of the essence. Instead she used what matter she had to create a large enough hole underneath the frog to cause it to drop down into the water. As that happened, the dragon was now taking off with the treasure. Elena's glasses now revealed that Diana was trapped inside, the sword still in her possession. Vexus hopped onto a platform of Technomatter that began to rise up and follow the Dragon. From below, massive chucks of rock began to emerge from the waters. These boulders were a product of Vexus infecting the previously standing pillar with trillions upon trillions of microbots.

He had already made some distance, and Vexus was not the fastest flying thing in the sky at the moment. She sent a couple of streams of her matter to at least slow him down while her and the armada of stones followed.
"I may fail in capturing you, Dragon, but I will not miss my mark in acquiring the sword I have been searching for."
A three layered copper spell circle appeared both above and below the dragon. The one below the dragon began to fade before eventually disappearing completely. Vexus was beginning to overextend herself as she was visibly becoming more and more exhausted. The spell circle then began to draw in the rocks she had brought with her, piling themselves onto the red beast's legs and wings. She was aiming to weigh him down enough to bring him into the water, or at minimum dramatically slow him down. She needed to get that sword one way or another, however continuing at this rate would prove incredibly dangerous for Elena's well being.

The Red dragon's defenses had been weakened from the previous onslaught, and when the rocks began striking home his flight path was disrupted. He could not concentrate on a spell.

Midas, chained to his throne was wailing in Greek at the madness going on about him.

Diana felt the dragon shudder from the stones, and decided finally it was time to strike. Seeing the stones strike home against his wings and legs, his magical protections failing. This encouraged her and finally, she struck. Exiting the temple, she sprints up the rocks in midair, using them as platforms until she gets onto the distracted red dragon and uses Iaijutsu to relieve him of a wing at the joint. Fabled dragon scale was nigh impregnable, but Diana found the weakness in it. She had an opportunity to study the beast once before.

"KAAAIIII!" The sword strikes home and the red dragon plummets into the water along with the shrine. "AAARGH MY WING!" The Red dragon was so fixated on Vexus he never realized there was another figure present. Diana holds on, as the Dragon smashes into a piece of island, along with the marble shrine. Diana rolls into the fall, safe and sound. Now she could get to the treasure.

Midas for the most part survived as well, his immortal curse seeing he would not know death. He stood up in disbelief at his freedom, but he looked at Diana and the dragon with equal fear.

"...Excuse me? I'm looking for the treasure?" Diana said, but cursed her luck. The treasure didn't speak english.

Midas, mad from the centuries, stumbled backward, afraid of Diana, the swordsman who fell a dragon. He shouted in Greek, and when he stumbled towards the dragon ends up touching him.

"This is officially the worst day of my life." The red dragon must've thought, as he transformed into solid gold. Diana watched in stupefied awe. So perhaps, this old man was the key to destroying the Blood Sword.

Vexus was still floating on her small cloud of Technomatter as she watched the viciousness of Diana's sword unfold. Even she was impressed as it sliced through the wing of the dragon. The great beast crashed through the ancient structure and landed on what remained of the island. The owner of Blood Sword managed to keep herself safe as well. From what Elena could see, the man inside the temple was scared nearly to death. She watched as she stumbled onto the dragon. The massive reptile's body then began to turn into gold. Vexus' eyes widened witnessing this kind of magic. She had only heard of this in legends and folklore, this is no doubt what Diana was after.

Elena rolled her eyes, knowing that she'll have to retrieve this dragon's wing from the bottom of the ocean since it's body will soon be a useless mass of solid gold. Be though as it may, she could now focus all her efforts on retrieving the sword. Her breathing was very controlled now, only manipulating a small amount of her Technomatter in order to hopefully recover some of her stamina. Floating now slowly down to Diana's level, she tapped on the side of her glasses to send a message back to her base.
"Yes, I'm going to need a large retrieval squad. I've acquired a rare specimen in need of transport... Yes, to my current location please. I'll provide more details upon arrival."
Vexus then casually sat on her platform of Technomatter just taking in the situation before her.
"I've had a really long day, and I know its cliché but we can do this the easy way or the hard way... You're after the treasure here and I'm after your sword. If you would like, I can communicate to this man in exchange for the Blood Sword. Or whatever else you might need. I'm open to negotiate here..."
Vexus stared for a moment at the both of them, waiting for a response. She sighed after some time and removed her sunglasses revealing her glowing Celestial Eye.
"And of course, there's the hard way. I'll take both the sword and this magic golden man by force and leave you to whatever fate may hold..."
Vexus was in no mood for the games. Her body was still badly burned from earlier and the magic required to heal herself could not be expended right now if more conflict was to occur.