Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

"Of course I have to get them...."

Rio cursed under her breath as she scaled the tower. "I just have to get up there first..."

Fortunately, it didn't take too long to reach a place Rio could snipe from; as she laid down on her stomach, Rio drew her rifle. One of the accursed redworms had burst through the sand crust, as if it were scouting or sensing the air...

The sharp ballistic crack echoed through the desert. Sickly green gore erupted from a newly-formed exit wound in the redworm's body as Rio's bullet easily tore through it. A second worm was burrowing out near Rebecca, seemingly intent on stopping her whistling-- Rio sent a pair of bullets through that one just as easily as the previous worm.

Mira notes Rebecca handling the worms closest to her, and tears into the mass of worms with her claw to work into the middle of the group, mindful to dodge what she can. "This seems too easy to me...." She swings her claw downward to decapitate an unlucky worm and pivots to see how far she's getting from Rebecca; she notices that monsters are starting to surround herself from how far she's getting away from the others.

A worm emerged itself from the ground lunging dust in Rebecca's face. "Crap" she thought as she was blinded. The worm lunged at her, she placed her arm up in a defensive position. Her vision still blurred she heard the beast let out a squish kind of sound and then there was a loud plump on the ground.

"Huh? Oh thank God Rio." She thought as she saw the worm dead on the ground, bullet wounds piercing its torso. With her vision back she prepared herself for another attack before noticing Mira becoming surrounded. "I'm coming Mira!" she yelled out as she charged forward. With slash after slash a worm fell each time it emerged from the ground.

Rebecca closed in on Mira's position but became surrounded herself before long. "Crap what do we do? They just keep coming."

Castiel stopped to catch his breath, looking at the corpses he created. There was close to two dozen he managed to kill so far. One last straggler ran directly for him, going for an attack which Cass swiftly dodged, finishing off the the worm in one slash. He looked towards the other, cursing himself for allowing so many to head towards them. He put his scythe away, pulling out his pistols.

He looked towards his companions, observing them. He decided for now he'll wait, and intervene when he was needed. He needed to see their skills. Putting on a show, he did a half hearted jog to make himself seem tired, as he went towards his companions.

"Forget being trapped..." Mira unleashes a flashy display of lights that encircle the worms as a distraction, then charges at the closest worm blocking her way back to Rebecca, claw-first. "Strike..." She stabs the head of the closest worm and pulls it down. "Lift...." With her speed enhanced by the Saner technique, she steps atop the injured Red Worm, and springboards off the next one into the air. "Boom!" Leaping higher than a simple Palman could, Mira arcs her back, and unleashes a fiery but weak Foi blast at the worms beneath her before landing in a roll. "Whew..." The numan grabs her hat to make sure it's still on her head and retreats to Rebecca to escape the scorched and presumably angry worms.

"Can't believe this" Rebecca slashed one by one with her sword. The desert sand was coated in the blood of the dozens of worms she had slain. The more she killed three more would take its place. "God this heat is killing me." panting she wiped her brow with her forearm. More shots were fired and worms continued to fall around Rebecca giving her a wider opening.

Stepping back a few steps Rebecca made a slight retreat towards Mira to regroup. Turning she began to run and her gaze turned forward to Mira who was running towards her. "Good, with the two of us we can..." "Crap!!" Panicking she reached underneath her satchel revealing a slasher. Quickly she lunged it towards Mira's direction

"Get down Mira!!"

"Wha-whoa!" Seeing the weapon flying at her causes Mira to immediately drop to the ground, the slasher opening the top of her hat on its way to the pursuing worms.

"Oh, damn..."

The redworms were proving to be more tenacious than intel suggested; Rio frowned as she saw their sheer numbers, threatening to overwhelm her friends on the ground. She closed her eyes, tightening her grip on her rifle.

It's time. I need to use it again.

It was a strange power she had used on previous missions. The last time Rio used it, it was on a large redworm that had just eaten one of her companions alive. She thought about the scream of mortal terror, just seconds before he disappeared into the worm's maw.

Her eyes opened, a strange teal glow emanating from them. Rio could sense time itself slowing around her-- the worms, her companions, even her own heartbeat seemed much slower. Her hands still seemed to move at their normal speed.

She brought the rifle back to sight on a redworm, and fired. Cycling a new round into place, she fired again. And again. And again. Every few "seconds" (Was it seconds? she wondered. Or does it just feel like seconds to me?) she would reload her rifle or change targets. The result was always the same: Rio managed to fire about twenty rounds in the same time it took a normal Palman to fire two.

Castiel almost made his way to the other two when he noticed his companions getting surrounded. He cursed himself for taking so long, even if it was just to test out his companions abilities. He rose both pistols up in front of him, aiming towards the nearest red worm when he heard rapid shots go off.

One after another, multiple red worm fell in front of him and around his companions. He quickly glanced towards Rio, noting the distance as he started to unload his own bullets into the red worm. As he cleared a path, he put his now empty pistols away, pulling out his scythe again as he sliced one of the creatures clean in half that was right behind Rebecca.

Rebecca extended her hand to help Mira off the ground. "Sorry I scared you like that, are you ok?" helping Mira off the ground she felt a breeze behind her. Quickly turning she noticed Castiel standing behind her and a worm laid on the ground. (Holy crap I coulda died.. How come I didn't sense that.)

"So boss what do we do now?"