In Her Element

Reeling from the ill-effects of the beast's counter-offence Terra righted herself and focused on clearing her senses once more. Marridite hadn't moved from its lowered, folded-up position, watching her, but as her vision cleared and her confusion faded, the now-familiar tremor through the ground spurred her to dodge to one side. Unfortunately, between her clearing senses and the unstable shaking of the ground, her body just didn't seem to respond quickly enough, and, almost like moving through thick treacle, her side-step drifted while the eruption of fresh stone pillars burst up and overtook her efforts, cracking into her with enough force to fling her form up into the air again.

The pressure of the beast's mind had receded once more; still large in Terra's awareness, but not rolling over her or drowning her any more. The sense of waiting, and watching was what pervaded the clearing as she landed roughly on the flat, hard spire of stone and felt her defences flicker out again. She had seen a couple of cases so far where the lances of rock seemed to have served as focal points for more natural terrain spreading across the clearing, but as the battle progressed, the beast seemed to be keeping most of the structures that attacked her deliberately smooth and unyielding; however slow and ponderous its thoughts seemed to be, there was an understanding of her abilities in its actions, or so it seemed.

The huge body in front of her snake lower into the ground, before the various boulders and branches that comprised it tumbled apart. The main head, where the eyes were had sank behind the thick bole of a tree trunk and out of sight, and now what Terra could see resembled little more than a collection of rubble and plant matter. Only a moment later, another rumble in the ground gave rise to the beast, fully formed from other similar materials, rising from the earth behind her, with two limbs sweeping across from either side in an effort to swat her. One she managed to avoid, but only well enough that the second slammed in against her shield and drove her down against the stone pillars she was on.

Still focused, Terra was no stranger to this kind of play, either, and even as the primal being beat on her shield, a stealthy attack of her own found a less-shielded angle on the beast and struck hard. It sheared through the outer shell of protective plant and rock, and into what she had to presume was the body of her foe. Marridite, in the process of brining a third limb down on her to strike again, flinched forward just enough that the hammering bludgeon grazed by just over and behind her head to slam into the earth behind her and throw a scattering of soil and moss about the impact point.

The sense was still that it was curious to see what she could do, but for all of that impression about the clearing, the creature didn't appear to be letting up its steady, methodical attacks either, and as long as it kept stranding her on these earth-bone spears of solid rock, Terra herself was having a hard time keeping her main defences on line... By now, the terraformer might be developing the uncomfortable impression that this beast was only using a portion of its capabilities against her; probing and pushing, goading and stressing her, when there was the unnerving possibility that it could do far more if it needed to. On the bright side, the creature's curiosity was beginning to be coloured with another thread or satisfaction, building gradually as she fought and it watched her.

-=Master of the Garden=-
Marridite: 2800Hp [Moss][4-hit shield][Regen(30): Per Action, 4/9 Actions]

-=Lady of the Land=-
Terra.Exe: 51Hp [Normal][Slow2][EarthShaker][1-Hit Shield]

-=Hidden Glade=-
80% Moss [Most of the area — just a little more uneven than when this started]
20% Normal [Pillars and spines of hard stone, stabbing up from the ground]

-=Risen Rocks=-
StoneSpires: 15hp x 8 Spires, Scattered

Each spire is about two body-heights long or tall, and emerges from the ground at various upward angles. About half of them are sharp spines of stone, the others are flat topped with enough space for a navi to stand on, possibly two at a squeeze, and count as normal terrain.

EarthShaker: The ground shakes and tremors as Marridite moves. Being in contact with the ground near this unsteadying effect decreases base evasion by one rank, independently of any other effects.

The looming threat of the enormous beast hovered over Terra, as she struggled to keep herself upright amidst the shaking earth beneath her feet and the mental 'attack' from Marridite's thought stream. Through half-lidded eyes, she wearily looked up at her adversary, and restored her earthly senses briefly. While Marridite's consciousness assaulted her, she took the time to wade through it to perceive her enemy's current condition, and it made her heart drop. She could feel the stone plates on Marridite's outermost body shifting about actively, almost unaffected by her earlier attacks, which would intercept any of her attempted attacks. Even if she got past those defenses, she could sense the overwhelming layers of pure data integrity that she would need to punch through to even remotely injure it slightly, with each of those layers rapidly restoring themselves.

However, she also noticed something odd--her earthly senses no longer extended themselves out from her feet. Instead, they now radiated outwards from her body, as if the air itself was infused with the ground's high-speed circuitry. Thus, the nature of how Marridite's consciousness attack worked--Marridite itself was merely substituting itself as the network's will and absorbing everything into the network itself as a single entity.

Scarlet saw its effects on her PET as well, noting a strange difficulty in locking onto Terra's data signature on her screen where it would very briefly go out of focus for a moment, before redisplaying Terra's vitals normally. "I'm seeing a lot of interference on my end, Terra, I'm pulling you out as soon as I see it go bad, alright?" she said. She didn't want to lose Terra to the Low-Level Area, but she figured it wasn't quite time yet to retreat. Something told her that Terra wasn't quite done yet.

"... Yes. Please send me the AirStorm and the Shake," came Terra's reply clearly through the PET's speakers.

"Right," responded Scarlet. The chips found their way into Terra's control once more, and she gritted her teeth before isolating her senses once again. Relying on her actual eyes and ears was strange, but she was getting somewhat used to it. Spreading out her arms, she activated the AirStorm, causing a few spirals of air to appear, howling violently as they picked up speed. She then threw her hands forward, launching the spirals towards Marridite's front side. Still, she knew that a frontal assault didn't work the first time around, and neither did a rear flank, or a grounded attack. The attack was merely to wear down Marridite's defenses slightly.

The only path left was up.

All at once, she released her isolation and allowed herself to meld with the network. This time, the path she traversed wasn't parallel to the ground, but instead straight up, high into the air. She barely managed to ride it all the way up before she rematerialized, nearly losing herself to Marridite's torrent of consciousness. High in the air, her arms were raised above her head with a gigantic black lump of earth, hardened into the form of a stake. Her hands were thrown down, and the black stake launched itself downwards, headed straight for Marridite's upper half. She allowed herself to then fall down towards the same spot, taking that moment to reinforce herself back to fighting condition.

// Summary
[Te.1] Chip: AirStorm1Damage: 50 x3 shots + Variable Targeting
Accuracy: B
Description: Pulls three enemies towards user, than fires three tornadoes at them, may be divided however user wants.
Duration: Once
Element: Null
Special: Variable Targeting: Allows the user to select a target for each individual hit of an attack. This means they may strike the same target multiple times, multiple different targets, or a mix of the two as they wish.
Special: Wind Type: This chip counts as Wind Type for the purposes of Wind triggered effects, such as traps and terrain.
Special: Pull: Brings a target one movement space closer to the source. Use of this effect on anchored objects may move the user instead of the target.
Trader Rank: D
: 50 x3 shots + Pull + Variable Targeting + Wind Type (Acc: B) @ Marridite
[Te.2] Sig: Terraskill: Spirit of Nature: Teleport @ Above Marridite, High Alt (Slow: BaseEva=55%)
[Te.3] Chip: Shake1Damage: 90 + Wide Attack + Break
Accuracy: C
Description: Throws a dumbbell that slides through enemy lines for two turns. Can hit up to three enemies twice, second time having a 50% chance of hitting.
Duration: Two turns
Element: Null
Trader Rank: D
: 90 + Wide Attack + Break (Acc: C) @ Marridite (Teleport: Acc+)
[Te.4] Act: Avoid incoming attacks: Dodge
[Te.5] Sig: Terraskill: Savior of Nature: Heal 60 @ Self
The realisation that her strongest assault had only made a small impression in the primordial entity's overall integrity, and that even that was being steadily regenerated, may have been a difficult conclusion to swallow for Terra as she scanned the beast as best she could. She could hurt it, certainly, but the amount of effort it took her just to wear the creature down even a little was almost the limit of her strength, and she couldn't really keep it up alone. The sense of its mind, across the clearing from her, felt like it was growing in a sense of satisfaction, but it also seemed to want ... no, want wasn't really the right word, she'd realise; expect more, was probably closer. A sapling of green potential, but yet slender and frail. It could grow to become more, in time. Or it could degrade and be a part of another seedling that drew sustenance from it, joining with the earth and the land, itself a part of the endless passage of change that itself was constant and unchanging in its — The rolling 'thoughts' continued to wash over her, but as Terra kept her mind and thoughts separate from it, a change of tack became her new plan.

A fierce series of whirlwinds obscured the lower seconds of the beast from her as she attacked again, chipping off sections of stone and wood that it didn't appear to notice; the sense of the thoughts carried the impression that the sapling needed to be stronger than this, if it was to survive and grow more strongly still by the strength of its own roots. The gales passed by, their work done, but they'd also served as the distraction Terra intended. Just as she felt the ground begin to rumble again, the massive beast bracing itself and braying into the clearing to drive more earthen spines up from the ground, Terra herself vanished, merging for a moment with the network to transport herself to a much more unexpected location. The transport itself was... taxing. This close to Marridite, it became a dangerous question of whether Terra would even emerge on the far side of her planned teleport at all, but her sense of self endured within the torrent of absolute being long enough to drag herself back to her own, tiny, isolated speck of a body once more. The effect was disorienting, and it was made more-so by her reappearance high above the battlefield.

This high up, however... her thoughts were suddenly clear. When she emerged from the teleport, the overwhelming presence and the strange slowness of existence and ancient timelessness of the battle fell away from her for the first time since the contest had started. Away from the ground completely, its instability didn't matter, and while she could still feel Marridite's presence in her senses, like a blinding mass of natural energy, its thoughts were no more pressing upon her than before the fight had begun.

Down below her, the field continued to fill with solid stone spires, but she was aware of the mass of the beast turning upwards now, the large emeralds of its eyes rising to find her, up above. Terra was acting quickly and as the beast drew back one of its limbs she formed her own attack and drove it downwards. The beast's arm arced upwards at the same time, and the majority of the limb came free, a massive bludgeon of stone and vines easily five times her own size sailing up to meet her. The two attacks passed each other in the air. Terra had just enough time to see her powerful spike ram down through and into the middle of the beast below her, before the rock, easily the size of a small truck, collided with her mid air. She did her best to twist away from it, but aerial manoeuvres weren't Terra's strong suit and the size of the thing she had to avoid brought her efforts to naught. Every sense became a blinding flash of pain and ringing, and the increasing rush of air warned of her now uncontrolled fall back towards the ground. In the back of her mind, she felt the warning signal of her undershirt absorbing the remaining damage from the assault; her shield had done nothing to protect her from the terrible blow either, it seemed.

Through the dancing spots of her vision, Terra could see the ground below rushing up; even more stone spines, all bearing sharp points now, had erupted from the ground, and the gaps back to safe moss seemed precious few, except around Marridite itself. Her stone spike was still lodged aggressively in its body, resisting the beast's efforts to absorb it for now, but Terra had more problems. She made efforts to heal herself, and restore her body, but even as she did, two of thick, intertwined viney portions of the beast whipped up towards her. Almost like swatting a fly, these two grabbed at her body from either side, ensnaring her limbs and accelerating her decent even faster. A second later, she felt the terrible internal cracks of her body being slammed into the ground with the same brutal force that came behind everything the massive beast did. Her undershirt whined at her again, but it was probably hard to pay attention to amidst everything else.

Her body was stunned, restrained and broken; there was a sense of the vines dragging her to her feet, and if she managed to open her eyes, the vision of another of the entity's huge limbs arcing in ponderously towards her spelled an unavoidable certainty this time.

The slowness had returned, but more than that, everything stopped. The clearing went still, silent, without even a creak or a whisper. Terra could feel stone pressing lightly against her forehead, but in that moment, time seemed like it had completely stopped. Something was interfering with her connection; Scarlet could see, in sketchy patches but nothing seemed to be responding, while Terra wavered on the brink. It looked, on her screen, like the image had frozen, just as the elemental had struck.

Terra felt the almost delicate pressure of stone against her forehead move away, and the vines holding her body released, allowing her to slump. Marridite drew back, settling its bludgeoning limbs more passively onto the ground once more. It felt... content. This was good; it was satisfied. the sapling would grow, and in time, it would return. There was a sense of dandelions in the wind, and of ancient trees, covered in flowers. It was of lines of mushrooms stretching for miles through light-less caves and of... the images didn't make a lot of sense, but one partial thought suggested in her mind that something had been passed forward, and in time the sapling would grow strong. Injured as she was, Terra felt something different within her as well, though it was likely she wasn't in a state to appreciate it much right now.

Marridite was still partially damaged as well, but as she watched it, the beast seemed to exhale, then inhale again. From all around the clearing, earth and rock broke away and drew in. All of the stone and rock spires and platforms crumbled as they were broken apart and flowed in to the creature, joining with it to become a part of the great beast. She watched as, within a moment, what damage she had managed to inflict was repaired by the newly absorbed materials. Terra felt like part of the effect tugged at her as well, but then something slipped in between; a sense of Marridite's own awareness shielding her from the vigorous consumption or the earth and stone around her.

When it was finished, the clearing was flat again, returned almost exactly to the untouched, verdant appearance it had borne before hey started, and Marridite settled back and down. The sense of its thoughts was beginning to space out further; they were becoming thoughts of waiting, and of watching, and or rest. The large emerald eyes continued to observe her as it settled, but there was an impression that it was content for her to depart when she had rested, or sooner if she wished. the sense of frozen time faded to a simple, more natural calm stillness, and Scarlet found the connection clearing up, just a little bit; it had never been too strong in this deep hidden clearing, but now it was about as solid as it had been when they arrived.

-=Master of the Garden=-
Marridite: 3100Hp [Moss][Content]

-=Lady of the Land=-
Terra.Exe: 1Hp [Moss]

-=Hidden Glade=-
100% Moss

-=Risen Rocks=-
StoneSpires: Consumed

-=Battle 20, Concluded!=-

Acquired:
Rogue Net Access
Marr~.PSF Memento


With her breath taken away from her in one fell swoop, Terra's vision blacked out when the vines took hold of her, and slammed her into the ground. Her body was flooded with numerous pain signals, and she felt a distinct sense of heat in the back of her throat. As much as she willed herself to move, this time around, there was no fighting it--she was well and truly incapacitated. While the vines pulled her up, she managed to pry her eyes open through gritted teeth. Through her blurred vision, she was only able to see the faint background growing darker by the moment, signifying the incoming final hit.

Scarlet watched the fight almost conclude with a sense of resignation, though with how the fight turned out, she was surprised that Terra had lasted as long as she did. Idly doing some housekeeping with her screens, she kept the screen in her periphery while Luke continued to watch it intently. Silence took over for a moment, before she realized that something was off. "... Is it just me or did the screen freeze?" said Luke.

... However, the impact never came, and all she felt was a light tap on her forehead, before being allowed to collapse onto the ground as the vines lowered her down. The suffocating mental attacks from before let up all at once, and she felt as if she was being welcomed into a garden of bliss. Something surged to life within Terra afterwards, giving her enough energy to pull herself up off the ground, sitting up to see Marridite repair itself in a flash, while excluding her from being drawn into it as well.

Terra looked up into the beast's glittering emeralds, and adjusted her pose into a kneeling position, lowering her head silently as she did so. Immediately afterwards, she lost consciousness, and a beam of light forcefully pulled her out of the network, leaving the secret garden to its owner once more.

[Final Jack Out.]
[>> Second Home - Yoka.]