The Abandoned Base

The Abandoned Base is the first round of Intense Struggle.

Description
This round is set in the aftermath of the MSPAFA Bob Must Die by AllIsLost. The location is a sprawling military base, littered with numerous corpses and countless traps.

Events
Sister Clara quickly takes control of the situation, and reanimates a corpse to assist her with cleaning up the base. Larus joins her in an alliance. Bae befriends B before getting trapped down a hole, and is helped out by D'Neya. The Twilight Sprite finds a book on her travels, which belongs to Drake Eon, Amethyst's Gentleman from The Grand Battle. Being a Schrodinger Notebook, it has never been read by anybody, anywhere, ever, and thus its contents are whatever Drake wants to make them - in this case, instructions to D'Neya about how to win the competition. Aegis and Trickster form an alliance, which is strained somewhat by Aph's infatuation with Trickster. To prove her love to him, she attacks Larus and Clara, but the nun's magic restrains her. Bae adds to the chaos by triggering defensive turrets and flamethrower traps. In the mess, Aph loses Trickster, and also her love for him and instead transfers it to Sister Clara. Larus figures the traps are being triggered remotely and looks for a control room, but his search is halted by a Trickster whose magic has consumed him and driven him into a blind rage. Larus barely escapes the pyromancer and regroups with Clara. D'Neya follows Drake's instructions, which say to ally with all contestants weaker than her to take out the stronger ones, before then eliminating the weaker ones in turn. She figures that Clara and Aph are weaker, and joins them (to Clara's relief, and Aph's resentment at the third wheel). This resentment spills over into jealous rage, and Aph attacks Clara before she can defuse the situation. Clara notices unexpected reactions from the combining of various magics in the fight, which has spilled into the corpses in the base, which rise up and start attacking everyone. Trickster and Aegis clear a bunch with a few molotov cocktails; Aph and Clara use magic to eliminate the ones pursuing them. The Monitor, while watching the battle unfold, contacts Bae to eliminate a high probability of the battle ending too soon. The agent assumes Larus' form, offers to assist Trickster and Aegis, then stabs the pyromancer in the heart.