2017-05-26: Trial by Fire
- Log: 2017-05-26 Trial by Fire
- Cast: K.K., Sorey, Rose, Seraph Edna, Alisha Diphda
- Where: Adlehyde - Town Center
- Date: 2017-05-26
- Summary: The Trial Knight issues a challenge to the Shepherd and his companions within the flaming city of Adlehyde.
This scene happens during the invasion of Adlehyde.
===========================<* Adlehyde - Town Center *>=========================== The centre of Adlehyde marks the intersection between the east-west and north-south roads that carve the city into near-quarters. Large shops are packed along both roads, offering goods and services of a variety rivaled only by the merchant republics of Aquvy. The intersection between the two roads is actually a large circle nearly a quarter-mile across, allowing wagons and other traffic to move with a minimum of collisions and profanity both. The area in the centre of the circle plays host to an informal gathering of food and drink vendors and other barkers, who ply their wares to merchants and wagoneers too busy to stop and rest. As a result of the considerable merchant traffic, the Circle and the major avenues are absolutely lousy with wagons from mid-morning into the early evening. The buildings throughout the rest of Adlehyde are built of stone and tile roofs, and are generally well kept; as one moves away from the major routes toward the walls, however, poorer and seedier enclaves have developed over time. Still, even the poorest resident of Adlehyde has an easier time of it than all but the nobility of Nortune or Bledavik, though only Drifters and other travelers would be able to make the comparison. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MQRL7xws7w
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
Not even a day ago, this city was one blessed with peace and tranquility. An idyllic landscape in a dying world.
How quickly it can all come crashing down for those woefully unprepared for it.
Fire and ruin have replaced the bustling prosperity of Adlehyde within an instant. For a place once untouched by the growing desertification of Ignas, and even the troubles growing in the coastal regions of Timney, Adlehyde falls remarkably and decisively quickly to an attack it was ill-prepared for, against a foe they could not expect. Burning carts are toppled, goods spilled across the town center as buildings crumble into so much rubble wrought of stone and cobb. Citizens scatter, rushing for the nearest shelters they can find -- many uncertain of just where they can go. Where they can be safe. And perhaps, from this threat, there is no such thing.
Tile roofs splinter as Metal Beasts land upon the rooftops of Adlehyde's homes in quick succession, the talons of quadrupedal monstrosities gleaming against the frenetic flicker of flame as they bound from building to building, from alleyway to alleyway, paving a path of indiscriminate carnage. These make up the brunt of the invasion forces, the strange, alien creatures that so blindsided Adlehyde. Above, the occasional, distinctly draconic form blots out the smoke-encrusted moonlight. Creatures of myth, creatures of legend, long-thought gone. Reaping their bloody vengeance.
But they are not all that join the effort in this invasion. They are rarer still, but animals from the Adlehyde region can sometimes be seen joining the fray -- from wild life to domesticated creatures, even the stray cucco or two, attacking anything and everything they can find in a maddened frenzy. And amongst them -- the occasional human, looking mad and possessing power they rightly not ought to, lunging through the air and viciously cleaving through buildings, tearing apart homes and anyone unfortunate enough to be in their way.
To those without the proper sight to see them, they might simply look like they've gone mad. But to those blessed with that spiritual fortitude, it's clear just what they are:
Hellions.
Whether brought from somewhere else or a result of the Metal Demons' invasion in combination with the Lord of Calamity's presence -- it's hard to say. But they are here, even if in numbers modest at best; the rare wild card amidst the invasion's forces, tearing wildly through Adlehyde's Town Center and threatening to spill out further, pulsing the thick, nauseating presence of Malevolence from their bodies.
Feeding off chaos and calamity where once was peace and complacency.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
Sorey is tired. There's not a lot of good ways to describe it. He's been running around the city trying to find people to save for the better part of a day, non-stop. And despite the healing available and the extra power that his Seraph companions can give him, he's starting to feel the burn at this point. There's only so active that a person can be, for so long.
But he is the Shepherd, and he fully intends to keep at it.
However, after he finishes escorting a Certain Group That Alisha Would Probably Not Approve Of out of the city, Sorey has started to feel something else strange. The darkness swirling about the city has developed that strange, unsettling feeling - and he soon begins to feel Malevolence within the city. But that by itself is strange. As far as Sorey knows, the city should be blanketed in it, given what is going on right now.
But instead it just feels as if there are Hellions presence, but not the smothering miasma he expected. Which is unusual - and worth investigating. Hopefully he can save some additional civilians while he is out here.
And so Sorey runs through the streets - he's on his own right now, but the sight of his white cloak dashing through the fire and chaos is enough to catch attention from some ways off. It probably will attract some Metal Demons, but Sorey wears Alisha's gift proudly.
The Shepherd doesn't hide, especially when this cloak can help people to see him, and know that someone is here to help.
He approaches the town center, slowing for a moment at the sight of Hellions fighting amidst the chaos. Sorey draws his sword, concentrating enough to allow the lacquered wood to catch alight with the blue flame Lailah had gifted to him. And as he raises the blade, he calls out, "Hellions! The Shepherd has come to purify you!"
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
In the span of a day, Rose had sustained countless bruises and injuries, the pain of which lingered even after consuming her weight in restoratives. She had been violently beaten up and poisoned by Kalve, a state remedied thanks to Morgan's emergency supplied. She had run into a number of targets, exhausted herself chasing them, and generally was near the end of her rope.
This is not a marathon she's used to running. And yet, there are still lost souls in the debris of the city, there are still Demons on the prowl for victims, and there are still jerks holed up valuing their family treasures over the lives of their servants and family. To make things worse, Sorey had the moral high ground, and she never quite shook that off.
"Oi. Mind your left." says an unheard, internal voice.
The assassin's left arm springs up, without thinking, on a hunch alone. A large knife blocks a regal rapier, the demented noble it belongs to pressing against the leader of the Scattered Bones, his face almost against her mask.
"How are you so strong...?!" she huffs.
This man, by all rights, shouldn't be. A fat, overfed coward feeding on the people's money, a man who never so much as left his abode if he could help it, and certainly had never picked a weapon up since his youth. Yet here he was, amongst a chaos, a bulked up lizardman (not that she could tell) moving with the speed of a young gladiator.
"Right. Then left again. Mind the tail," the unheard voice advises. Rose's limbs move almost on their own; the rapier is parried right, then left, caught in an X-cross from the twin daggers. The noble swings the lower half of his body, and Rose jumps... over nothing? A tail swipe evaded, and she doesn't question it. The jump is used, instead, to press on the nobleman, slicing through the rapier with both knives, X-cutting his neck.
The body hits the floor-- perhaps dead, perhaps not-- as Rose glares to her back, the Shepherd crying out his arrival.
"Damnit, why now of all times..." she mutters, to herself alone. "Sorey, you idiot, rest up, you're going to get yourself killed." Look who's talking. To herself, but still.
Rose pants, catching her breath. She looks... pretty bad off, honestly. That brown and black leather armor of a uniform the Bones wear is tattered and sliced in places, with some blood showing through at least one of the cuts.
"Shepherd! Are you saying on top of the invaders we're dealing with your Hellions too?" That... would explain her current target's state.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
Edna has been cheating for the most part. While Sorey runs himself in, out, and about the city, looking for people who need help and escorting them to safety, she's only made the effort to manifest minimally. In those moments, she moves stone and rubble, or helps to fight off dangerous creatures, but for the most part she's dwelling inside Sorey when he's dashing this way and that. It's awful lazy. But oh so very her.
But something isn't quite right.
She can feel it. Lingering in all of this madness is something that, while not a surprise, she didn't expect to spring up so soon.
Malevolence.
And with Malevolence comes Hellions.
Sorey races through the streets, coming to confront these new problems head on. And when he does, there's a sigh that echoes within his mind. A golden plume of light flutters out of him, and manifests into a certain Earth Seraph. "Not that this is a huge surprise, but really?" She opens up her umbrella and sets it against a shoulder. "Best timing in the world, clearly." Eyes roll, but she takes a few steps aside for space. "Guess we'll just have to do it." Wouldn't be the Shepherd's entourage if they just up and walked away from Hellions now. At least Rose is here. Rose and her mysterious friend.
Woo.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha fought Berserk when he appeared -- and she has been alone ever since then. It has been an eventful time for her -- she isn't aware of certain realizations, such as her newfound ability to see Seraphim, ever since Lahan. She isn't aware of other things, too, such as where Sorey was. The princess is aware of something else, however.
As she approaches the town center, spear clutched tightly, she can feel a pressure. She can't say what it is -- and but it is all purple, all sickly, and disgusting. And, of course, she sees the way that strange monsters have joined the Metal Beasts.
"What... what is this," she murmurs, softly, as she steps around a corner. That leaves her looking into the town's center, and the white cloak cutting through all of the Malevolence hear.
"Sorey!" she cries. She comes to a stop, before she sees the lizardman that Rose struck into -- blades slashing into his neck -- and sees him shift, back into a human. "Who--what..." And then, her eyes widen, as she looks up at Rose. But, it isn't Rose that she sees.
She sees the masked assassin she fought before. Her eyes widen. "You--you're here, too? And--" Then she turns, and for the second time, she looks right at Edna. "Sorey," she says, "Who is this with you?"
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
Like that cloak were a beacon, Sorey's presence in the town square attracts attention -- from fleeing civilians or Metal Beasts, he does not hide, and they do not ignore. Beasts turn. People try to make their way behind him, as if he were some buffer between themselves and certain disaster. They do not know him, or his title -- but right now, he's the only one wading into that chaotic morass beyond.
And when he makes his declarations... the Hellions take note, to. Blue flame sprouts from his blade. A group of the creature, mostly beasts, wolves and bear-like creatures frothing with rage, turn their attention upon him.
Hellions!
They turn... and then, amongst the Metal Beasts bedecking them, start to charge, ravenous and angry, for the one who challenges their fervor.
The Shepherd has come to purify you!
"A bold claim."
And then the air behind that charging mass of beasts and impurity shines.
There is very little warning. Light manifests like a radiant halo in the skies above the Hellions and Metal Beasts, glimmering beautifully for all of a second... before white rays of magical energy pour from it like judgment from on high, smiting those creatures in its burning wrath -- incinerating them before Sorey's purifying flames have the chance to reach out to them. The cobblestone path explodes in a burst of furious white, and all around it, a familiar, cold voice rings out.
"Boy."
Flames lick and writhe across the fresh scar burned across what was once paved stoneways as the sound of heavy, metal footfalls ring through the ever-present din of battle. And through those flames wades a single figure -- imperious and dignified in bearing, covered in white armor -- face covered by a horned, featureless helm. They advance. And when they reach the wreckage where once had been Hellions just waiting for salvation, they stop, and stare at those gathered, with the full weight of their cold attention. Their features tilt, briefly, towards the masked assassin of the Scattered Bones, and her fallen foe... and then the Trial Knight's gaze turns upon Sorey.
"Why do you not pursue the Lord of Calamity?"
There are no overt signs of aggression yet. Not even any obvious weapons on their person. But they should know just as well as anyone -- that can change within a moment's notice.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
Sorey can tell that Edna is super excited about all of this - but he isn't complaining. The Earth Seraph has been an incredible help, and he's glad that she's resting so that she can use her power to great effect when needed. They might not have gotten away from that Metal Dragon yesterday otherwise.
"Yeah, Hellions aren't something we can ignore, especially here. I don't know why we're not seeing more malevolence here, but if they attack people they'll probably be able to pass some on to them, and we'll probably be dealing with more of them down the line." Sorey speaks out loud, and strangely this is as much an answer to Edna's comment as well as the shouted question from the strangely dressed assassin. He does give her a somewhat flat look - their last encounter had not been the most amicable. And then he looks at the Hellion that the assassin had attacked, and...
...then at Alisha, who comes running around the corner. "Alisha!" he calls out, before turning and keeping an eye on Rose. Who he doesn't know is Rose but he doesn't know that either. "I'm glad you can make it, you..." He pauses at her question, and then he grins. "Well, it looks like your resonance has improved quite a bit. I know you two have met already, but I'd like to introduce you once again to Edna!"
Pause.
"I'll warn you now, she considers being able to see her to be a sign that she can up her game... as far as being Edna goes, at least."
They don't have too long to discuss things, because then the Trial Knight makes his appearance. It certainly is a grand one - a bit too grand. This feels like something of a show, at least to Sorey. After what the Trial Knight had done to Alisha, the Shepherd at least has filed this one under the heading of 'opposition'. Not necessarily evil, but not someone Sorey thinks is willing to support their mission. The fact that he has incinerated a good number of Hellions isn't really helping that either.
Sorey lowers his sword, his eyes focused as he looks at the Trial Knight. And when he replies, his voice is level and focused. "My name is Sorey. And right now, the Lord of Calamity isn't a threat."
The sword rises, pointing at K.K. "You, on the other hand, just killed a number of animals and people whose could have been purified. Right now, you're more of a concern than an injured girl."
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
K.K. knows how to make his entrances.
The assassin whips about on her feet, turning to face the knight. Her knives twirl in her hands, shifting into a reverse grip. Knees bend, arms align. She's ready to pounce, but seems to know better.
Alisha's here too... great. And Seraphim. Or maybe just one Seraph. Unclear. As long as Rose keeps her mask on, it won't bother her, at least. Her fears are nowhere near as heavy on her mind as those ideals she carries.
"Tch. You're in no state to be fighting him." Dezel attempts, in Rose's head. The warning goes unheeded, perhaps because Rose feels that with Alisha and Sorey there, as well as unseen helpers, they might actually stand a chance?
"Princess, Shepherd, if you have anything to hold against me, now isn't the time. We'll have every chance to deal with tensions once we're not surrounded by the flames of war." The literal flames of war, even! And the Trial Knight. He is kind of a big deal and right there, too.
She's quite happy to see Sorey stand up to him. To state the Lord of Calamity isn't a threat and to see her as an injured person before what her title says she is. Now, if this were Rose without the mask, she'd sass Sorey about underestimating girls, but that's far too lighthearted for the leader of the Scattered Bones in this situation.
She's saving that for later though.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
Edna is so excited. So, so very excited. Just look at her face.
It's totally blank.
Oops.
But Sorey's logic on dealing with the Hellions is sound, and Edna agrees. Though she merely nods slightly, rather than verbally say so. But there's not much time to ruminate upon the matter either. They've got to handle this, and- Oh. There's Alisha. Took her long enough. Edna glances aside at the approaching princess and blinks slowly at the question of her presence. "......" Edna tilts her head slightly, realizing something. "Huh." Alisha is looking right at her. Not in that 'maybe she's standing right here?' way, but actually looking without insecurity. "Hm. She can finally see me."
At the introduction from Sorey, Edna slooooowly smiles just a bit. "Well, if it's like that, then I guess there's no point in pretending anymore." Huh? Pretending?
The Earth Seraph steps over to the Shepherd's side just a little bit too close, and looks right at Alisha. "Nice to meet you again, Princess. I'm Edna-- Sorey's girlfriend."
...... ......
......
...
LUNAR - OVER AT RAYFALKE SPIRITCREST:
Eizen roars in primal rage, his bellow piercing the sky and driving off all wildlife in a ten mile radius.
And yet, in the tiniest sliver of the mind he has left, he's not sure why he suddenly feels so ANGRY.
FILGAIA - ADLEHYDE:
At this point, the Trial Knight appears, and the time for games quickly passes. Tsk. Edna narrows her eyes and steps away from Sorey, properly standing ready as her gaze settles on the white clad figure. "Sorey's right, you know." She murmurs, slowly spinning her umbrella against her shoulder. "You just killed a whole bunch of people and animals." She shrugs a shoulder. "I bet you thought you were helping. Maybe trying to lift the burden? Or maybe you were just making a point? I wonder."
Edna does not move to attack though. She's calm and patient. Watching as this all plays out. Whatever action is taken depends on Sorey's decisions. She'll just help out. As she usually winds up doing anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"Edna!? Then--"
She stares at Edna, as she realizes. She starts to smile, before Edna says that. Her cheeks turn a bright red and she covers her mouth. "Oh--oh, my! I--I had no idea. I-I mean.... um..." Nevermind that Sorey just warned her about this. The princess is many things, and that includes gullible. "...I-I am so happy for you two! I--I am also relieved that I can finally see you, Edna. And, um, know..."
But, there isn't a lot of time for that. She turns to face the Trial Knight too. Her hand clutches the spear, which she turns, and levels straight towards the white-clad knight -- even as her eyes widen at Sorey's words. She turns, to stare at him, but then she nods.
She said she trusted Sorey. That means trusting him, even when she isn't sure about what he says. After the fight with K.K., though, she doesn't doubt that they pose a danger.
She swallows, before she looks sideways at the assassin. Her green eyes meet the blue ones behind the mask -- though they dip lower, to notice the cuts. "I won't fight you here," she says. "You intend to help us? You--you do look hurt."
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rdt5XNvPkc
Hands held at their side, the Trial Knight stares down upon Sorey as he makes his answer. Fingers twitch. Curl inward, like a brief spasm, scraping against palms with the sound of metal dragging across metal.
"The Lord of Calamity is threat," intones the Knight, their voice tinny and inscrutable in the authoritative neutrality of its tone, "by dint of their very existence. You would show mercy on the Destroyer than save those that may suffer in her wake, merely by being within her presence? Why? To save those flimsy handfuls your efforts here may reap?"
Their gaze turns towards the assassin once more, as if to quietly assess them. Their hands relax, gradually, gauntleted fingers uncurling as the right extends outward towards their side. "... Foolishness," they utter, ostensibly to Sorey. Their gaze turns upon Edna, quietly considering. Helping?
"I am not here to help," comes their flat response as light starts to crackle at their palm, coalescing in bright white shards that forge themselves into something large against the knight's grasp. "There is no help to be offered, no succor to receive. You wish to help these people, to abandon that which tradition demands of you for the sake of the complacent fools who have invited this disaster upon themselves with open smiles?"
And all that light condenses, shaped into a long staff of gold, white and blue metal, its white blade immense and design ornate -- within those few moments of calm before the storm, strikingly similar to the other tools the knight has wielded in the past.
"Then know this: as long as I stand here, you will go no further. You have all been chosen for the pyre."
And within that second, their stance goes from neutral to instantly aggressive, bolting within a wealth of speed to -charge- towards Sorey and his companions. First for the masked assassin, the tip of that blade spiraling outwards in a spinning slash that sends the Knight flying through the air in a graceful spin to -slam- the flat of the blade into Edna. It sweeps about, looking to cleave upwards into Alisha, the movements graceful and familiar--
--before they drive the tip of it straight for Sorey himself.
"And if you cannot overcome me, I shall kill -every- Hellion here before you can save them from themselves!"
O B J E C T I V E
Stay of Execution
Last 5 Rounds Against K.K.!
GS: K.K. has attacked Rose with Swallow Dance! GS: K.K. has attacked Seraph Edna with Swallow Dance! GS: K.K. has attacked Alisha Diphda with Swallow Dance! GS: K.K. has attacked Sorey with Swallow Dance! GS: K.K. has completed its action. GS: K.K. has attacked Alisha Diphda with Swallow Dance! GS: Alisha Diphda takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Swallow Dance for 105 hit points! GS: Sorey critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Swallow Dance for 19 hit points! GS: Rose critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Swallow Dance for 20 hit points! GS: K.K. has attacked Seraph Edna with Swallow Dance! GS: K.K. has completed its action. GS: Seraph Edna guards a hit from K.K.'s Swallow Dance for 63 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
"Indeed, Edna is a good friend," Sorey confirms. He DID just warn her, after all - once Edna knew you could see here, there was no being safe from her questionable sense of humor. "Just like Mikleo and Lailah!"
Shepherd Spirit Harem is Go? And Sorey's not very picky? Alisha and Rose should know better by this point, however.
MEANWHILE OUTSIDE OF THE SKIT
There had been something that Sorey had said to the assassin earlier - and it still holds true even at this somewhat later time. The Shepherd had been hearing this far too often of late, and he closes his eyes for a moment as he hears the Trial Knight speak to him. "You do not have the right to judge people!" Sorey's counter to K.K.'s statement is clear and direct. He isn't going to dance around his opinion about the manner in which the Trial Knight has been going about his business.
As the armored figure rushes towards him, Sorey brings his sword around and parries the blow with a precise stroke that sends K.K.'s weapon backwards, a trail of blue flames in its wake. "There is no 'tradition' that I am following. I took up the mantle of the Shepherd because it was the right thing to do, and walking this path also helps for me to achieve my goal! That I can help people by being the Shepherd is a bonus I gladly welcome!"
As he disengages with K.K., Sorey leaps backwards and lands next to Alisha, Edna, and the assassin. "I know we've had our disagreements in the past, but I think you can agree that this... thing is not someone we can allow to work his will on this world!" he states to Rose. And then Sorey turns to look at Alisha and Edna, and he asks, "This could get rough - are you with me?"
That said, the Shepherd takes a step, his sword coming around low as he unleashes a blast of blue fire across the ground, sending it right at the Trial Knight! "You seem blinded by your assumptions, Trial Knight! But I'm not going to back down - and you have no right to pass judgment on anyone, either here on Filgaia, or on Lunar!"
GS: Sorey has attacked K.K. with Striking Fang! GS: Sorey has completed his action. GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Sorey's Striking Fang for 87 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
On one hand, Rose can't say she really minds in the slightest if the Trial Knight goes on a rampage and kills every Hellion in a five miles radius. Those Hellions are threatening lives and if it's between them and the people, Rose won't hesitate. The other hand however holds the fact that Rose doesn't LIKE K.K., that he seems in league with the Hellions to begin with, and he seems to be doing it just to spite Sorey.
Can Sorey really save all those people? All those animals? In his state, injured from hours of being a hero to Adlehyde's people?
"I'm fine," the assassin insists, at Alisha's remark. A nod to Sorey, afterwards. "Agreed, Shepherd. This knight has been a calamity of his own for far too long now."
Inwardly, Dezel mutters something about this mess.
But... he was curious to see the Shepherd in action up close, too.
The Trial Knight, in a flash, is upon them.
His blade crashes into the twin knives of the assassin; her arms strain to keep it back, the knight's superior strength easily gaining on her. She pulls back, before he can break them, but not without deriving from it a stark feeling that horses were tied to her limbs and stretched them.
The dull glimmer of her edges flashes too, while the knight busies himself bringing his blade down onto his next target. The assassin swipes by him, attempting to find the tiniest flaw in that imposing armor of his', the smallest joint where a knife might actually penetrate at all.
GS: Rose has attacked K.K. with Asura Edge! GS: Rose has completed her action. GS: K.K. critically Guards a hit from Rose's Asura Edge for 19 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
Alisha...
Alisha, no.
Please stop.
Stop being such a cinnamon roll.
Even Edna has a limit to her resistance to cute.
But no. Now is not the time for this. Not even Sorey's totally easy to misconstrue addendum. Now is the time to deal with this white knight imperiously in their path.
"Here we go." She mumbles, watching as K.K. comes dashing right for the lot of them. A blade is speeding for her with a fierceness that she can't hope to match on such short notice. Instead, Edna responds with defense. Umbrella closed up, she enchants it with a high speed hardening spell and raises it just in time for impact. The blade connects, and the force of the blow sends Edna skidding back a ways, leaving trails in the pavement as she doesn't leave the ground.
"Hmph." The Earth Seraph huffs mildly, lowering her smoking umbrella and glaring dully at the Trial Knight. "So we're doing this." Sorey comes to land right by her, and he gets a nod. "May as well." She responds in her usual dour tone. But there's a second's consideration, then she speaks on. "-Meebo isn't here either. If you need to Armatize, then I guess you'll have to make do with me." A faintly amused smile forms. "It'll cost you a crablette per minute though."
After that, Edna stares right at K.K. and points her umbrella his way. "Air Pressure." The Arte is cast and a sudden groan as gravity rapidly grows heavier and heavier, aiming to pull the white knight to the ground with crushing force. Two glyphs form, one in the air, and one on the ground, pulsing rapidly.
GS: Seraph Edna has attacked K.K. with Gravity Well! GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action. GS: K.K. guards a hit from Seraph Edna's Gravity Well for 54 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha hops backward, but it isn't quick enough to completely evade the upward slash of K.K.'s blade. The sword cuts into her tabard and slams against plate mail with a flash of sparks and light. The princess knight stumbles backward, feet stumbling under her, and then she glances to Sorey. She nods, quickly, to him. "You needn't ask, Sorey!"
She watches the blue fire dance up his wooden ceremony blade. It is a stunning, beautiful sight. One she hasn't ever had the chance to appreciate.
She doesn't now.
She isn't pleased with the deaths of the Hellions. It doesn't bother her the same way -- it should, but she thinks of the people she lost. Of a squad sucked into a howling tornado, and knowing what that was. Once Alisha considers that, some of the anger slips in and steels her against those deaths.
She lunges, like Sorey does and like the assassin does. Alisha slips around to K.K.'s back -- and then her spears stabs forward, the bladed end biting hard for the Trial Knight's side. Unlike Rose, she doesn't hesitate to strike at armor. She can pierce through--or she won't.
And then she hops backward, as gravity intensifies around the knight at Edna's command.
GS: Alisha Diphda has attacked K.K. with Rending Strike! GS: Alisha Diphda has completed her action. GS: K.K. guards a hit from Alisha Diphda's Rending Strike for 58 hit points! GS: K.K. enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
Metal strikes violently against wood as the knight's spear goes wide from its final mark; K.K. recovers swiftly, their armor gleaming in the fiery light wreathing the town square. Hellions and Metal Beasts alike seem to skirt this violence -- for now, this is a conflict between them and no other.
You do not have the right to judge people!
"If you cannot stop me, what more right do I require?"
The question punctuates the Trial Knight's landing as they lunge away from the Shepherd. Bright flames sear along Sorey's blade, and the Knight answers them in swift motion, moving low to the ground to charge -in- towards the cerulean blaze. It collides with the armored warrior, flames washing over them, melting at their armor and slowing down their momentum -- but soon they are speeding once more at frightening velocities, spear drawn back and at the ready.
"One does not take up the mantle, and to so boldly claim thus with no knowledge of the weight of its burden proves naught to me but the extent of your naivete!" the Knight roars, voice warped yet booming as they stop inches from Sorey, blue flame still enshrouding their armor, and -lances- that spear forward. The edge of it will cut a shallow wound if it can bite, but it is far from what the Shepherd should concern himself with.
He should be infinitely more concerned about the dragon forged of golden light that roars to life at the tip of the spear's blade, to consume him within its searing wrath.
"You cannot purify the Lord of Calamity. You will not save these people. And while you linger upon this crumbling star, the soul of Lunar shall rot like an apple dying upon the vine."
If they have any more words to say, they are ended by the sudden fluctuation of gravity. It's a familiar sensation -- the growing pressure. And instantly, they are upon the source. Their spear snapping downward, blade hitting the scarred earth, K.K. starts to wade forward as if in start defiance of the crushing force leveled upon them. Their armor creaks and groans and still they advance through it, slowly but surely, until they break -through- the spell to -lunge- themself at Edna. Sparks generate from the friction of the spear's blade upon cobble and ruin, and by the time the Trial Knight has completed their upward stroke, that blade is wreathed with a churning mass of destabilizing flames that will sink right down to Edna's spiritual essence.
It's then that Alisha and the assassin come, and when they do, the white knight is whirling around to meet them both with all the predictive expertise of someone who has lived and breathed war and violence for far too long. The pole of their spear deflects Rose's knives, causing them to nick relatively harmlessly against armor, caught against the ornate metal of the knight's weapon. "You," they intone, voice like an accusation -- just as they whirl about to push the masked assassin straight into Alisha, to destabilize her seconds before her blade can find its mark. The blow goes wide, screaming against the armored knight's side... just as they wind backwards, light gathering at the tip of their own spear.
"You cannot reach me."
It's the last words they say before that spear looks to spin itself between Rose and Alisha -- to slice through them just as that light EXPLODES off the blade like a bombardment of pure, radiant energy -- vicious, and unforgiving.
GS: K.K. has attacked Rose with Light Spear Cannon! GS: K.K. has attacked Alisha Diphda with Light Spear Cannon! GS: K.K. has attacked Sorey with Dragon Ascendant! GS: K.K. has attacked Seraph Edna with Havoc Heaven! GS: K.K. has completed its action. GS: Sorey critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Dragon Ascendant for 21 hit points! GS: Rose takes a glancing hit from K.K.'s Light Spear Cannon for 75 hit points! GS: Alisha Diphda critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Light Spear Cannon for 27 hit points! GS: Seraph Edna takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Havoc Heaven for 64 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Seraph Edna!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
Even if you are tired, hurting, and want to stop... you still need to keep going. That's what Sorey has decided through this entire battle. It doesn't matter why the fighting is taken place - what is important is there are people who are in danger, people who are being hurt... and someone has to save them.
Sorey decided, on the day he became the Shepherd back in Ladylake, that he would be the person to step forward. Because it was the right thing to do.
As the Trial Knight lashes out at him with his spear, unleashing the golden light that looks like it will do quite a bit of damage, Sorey does... something. It's hard to say what exactly, but he spins his sword around and knocks K.K.'s weapon away in a single motion. It's a practiced strike, and as he lands it Sorey unleashes a measure of magic that simply blasts away the aura that the knight was using to enhance their attack.
"I'm still here, Trial Knight," Sorey replies. "You've not beaten me yet, and you clearly don't know anything about me!" He lowers his sword for a moment, and flickers his eyes to the side, looking at his companions as K.K. rockets towards them to go on the attack. Sorey leaps after him, and shouts, "The reason why we've lingered here is because we have a duty here! To protect people, the same as we would back home!" HE lands just as K.K. launches another attack, and the Shepherd jumps again, and shouts: "And to stop those who would judge people by their own petty standards!
"Hephsin Yulind!"
Rather than a sword that comes down on the Trial Knight, it is a massive fist of glowing stone that shatters the pavement where he is standing. Sorey calls upon his partner, asking Edna to provide her power to help defeat this... monster. Someone who would kill so freely, for motives that seem only based on spite and their own misguided standards... Sorey has trouble thinking of this Trial Knight as something other than just a monster. He lands on the ground, and this time Alisha can see it. The white and gold outfit, with a yellow ribbon tying back Sorey's long hair, and yellow feathers set below his ears. And a massive pair of rock fists, one held on either side of his body.
And Sorey follows up, throwing several punches at K.K. and working to drive him backwards and out of the center of the city. Away from where the Hellions are.
DC: Sorey switches forms to Armatus Hephsin Yulind!
GS: Sorey has attacked K.K. with Rampaging Giant! GS: Sorey has completed his action. GS: K.K. has activated a Force Action! GS: K.K. critically Guards a hit from Sorey's Rampaging Giant for 27 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
The knives nick against armor again. What a frustrating and familiar feeling. Then the knight just grabs her and shoves her back. Rose smacks into Alisha, the two suddenly the target of that dreadful spear and its explosive magic.
Rose fares far worse in the exchange, but as Alisha stands her ground she's able to avoid getting blasted back outright. That hood and mask hold on, but a few more scraps of clothing have been torn off, battering the outfit and its protection.
K.K. is fast. Far faster than any man in so much armor has any right to be. Yet, the armor is as sturdy as it looks. How? By all accounts all that steel should be slowing him down, it should make his blows easier to read. Under the mask, Rose frowns, cursing her lack of training against heavily armor targets. Brad, the Windriders, even the Scattered Bones, never had to deal with this often. Their targets don't tend to wear armor. They don't tend to give them time to put it on.
Rose stands, back against Alisha's, to avoid the knight sneaking up on them again. She whispers under her breath, just loud enough for the princess to hear. "I'm going to slow him down and open him to that spear of yours, princess. Don't let me down."
A deep breath. The Shepherd goes in, flaring power.
Dezel stares, wide-eyed. It's a figure of speech.
He wants that power. He needs to ask the Shepherd about it later.
In the blink of an eye, Rose vaults over Alisha, over Sorey, over the Trial Knight as Sorey attempts to punch him. Her knives twirl, and attempt to plant themselves firmly in the knight's back-- or at least, under his arms. She doesn't need to pierce flesh, she just needs the blades to touch K.K. for the technique she's employing.
Air rapidly cools itself around the blades, attempting to coat the calamitous knight in a layer of frost that'll give him frostbite, and impede his movements for a little while.
GS: Rose has attacked K.K. with Frozen Shade! GS: Rose has completed her action.
DC: Seraph Edna switches forms to Armatus Hephsin Yulind! DC: MISS! K.K. completely evades Frozen Shade from Rose!
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha's spear is slammed backward, knocked away from K.K. That leaves it up in the air -- and leaves her, for a moment, utterly unprotected against the light beading on the Trial Knight's spear. Alisha gasps, before she sees the spear spin up between them. She ducks down, gripping her spear in both hands. Rose gets slammed into her, but Alisha holds her ground and focuses, one hand outstretched--
"GUARDIAN!"
--and a white barrier of light explodes around her, and the spear's light slams into it instead of into Alisha. Her feet get slammed backward, before she glances back at Rose. She watches her move, sucking in a breath, and then she nods at what she says.
"I shall do my best," she answers quietly.
She sees Sorey and Edna explode with power -- but more than that. She really sees Armatization, this time. The way that human and Seraph fuse, bodies and souls merged, and the changes it brings. Her eyes widen -- and she rushes after Rose. The ice forms, leaping up for K.K. She runs after Rose. She doesn't go left or right.
She runs right at her, then jumps and clears her, coming down with her spear spinning backward. Light gathers into it as she lands in front of the assassin and swings her spear in a mighty arc for K.K.'s side. "Spinning Top!"
GS: Alisha Diphda has attacked K.K. with Spinning Top! GS: Alisha Diphda has completed her action.
DC: MISS! K.K. completely evades Spinning Top from Alisha Diphda!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
Another heavy strike. Edna is caught by the speed and takes that blow to the chest, sailing through the air briefly before she rights herself and lands in a skidding kneel. "Tsk." This one is certainly skilled enough to back up all of those platitudes. She frowns slightly and stands back up to her feet.
Sorey dashes for K.K., proclaiming that he's not done yet. THEY'RE not done yet. And he calls for her with her true name. Hephsin Yulind. Upon hearing that, Edna smirks and her entire form breaks down into golden particles that rush over to Sorey, infusing him with the earth's might.
His entire form becomes white, and his sword is traded for a massive pair of floating fists. Edna is nowhere to be seen. But she is with the Shepherd all the same. "You should let me have the reigns sometime." Her voice echoes out to Sorey in a mildly mischievous manner. No Edna. You will not ever get the reigns. Still, she turns her sights on K.K. and frowns. "Let's do this."
A flurry of punches are unleashed, aiming to drive the trial knight back and away from the vicinity of the remaining Hellions. And Edna's spirit, floating behind Sorey, looks left and right, assessing the battle situation as he makes use of her power. This isn't going to be easy, is it? No. No it's not.
Just to make sure that Sorey succeeds, the Earth Seraph directs one of those gauntlets into the ground before the Trial Knight. The impact causes stone debris to explode upwards at point blank, capping off the punching flurry.
GS: Seraph Edna has attacked K.K. with Surging Landscape! GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action. GS: K.K. critically Guards a hit from Seraph Edna's Surging Landscape for 18 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
"I see enough," utters K.K. as their spear snaps backwards, white cloth covering armor flowing like a banner of purity in the chaotic thrum of war. "I see a boy who plays his hand at hero, thinking he will save all, as if he is the cure to all ailments. I see a boy yet to know his limitations. I see a boy." That spear spins, pointed towards Sorey and at the ready.
"But I see no Shepherd."
And there they stand, ready and unbending, unmoving to even try to interrupt Sorey as he calls upon the power of his pact with Edna. Sigils of yellow burn in the sky above. And the Trial Knight... watches. And despite it all, despite how whatever might be under that armor is utterly concealed, K.K. seems almost... expectant.
Hephsin Yulind!
Just as Sorey lunges, the Trial Knight is there to greet him with the full weight of their authoritative bearing, -slamming- that spear into those fists -- not meeting them with brute force, but instead using the dance of their blade to -guide- Sorey's momentum with each punch, diverting it so that the blows merely glance off armor, diverting it so that his momentum carries him barely any further than they were before. Each stroke is almost predicative, just as when Sorey first came at the knight after his armatization in Lahan -- like someone familiar with the motions.
Just as much as the way they seem to see that gauntlet puncturing ground. A titanic fist, wrought of stone that glows as if veined with magma, comes slamming into the earth. The ground beneath the knight rumbles and -explodes- beneath them, and the knight?
Instantly -smashes- the blade of their spear into that pillar the -moment- the ground ruptures, cleaving solid earth in twain around them with one mighty stroke. As if they had seen it coming before the blow could even land.
BOOM
There's precious little time to dwell, however; rubble rains, bouncing off white armor as K.K. punches through the field of dust and debris, using the cover to -slam- the tip of their spear upward to impale the Shepherd through his midsection. The churning -burst- of light that roars through the air afterwards is merely the violent accent to finish it off.
It's a movement that should leave them open to the attack of opportunities that Rose and Alisha bring to the fore. Should, being the operative word. Rose's knives come in with certainty, looking to stab into armor. Yet before they can, the blade of K.K.'s spear whirls about in an upward sweep to -clash- against the edge of Rose's weapons, to send them swinging upward--
"Your blades betray you, girl."
Just before a golden dragon forged of light rips through the ground beneath her just as the air cools into frost, looking to consume her within its burning might if she does not move in time.
At the ready now, the Trial Knight is there when Alisha lands in front of the masked assassin, armor reflecting the fire that devastates Adlehyde. Alisha swings --
--and spear meets spear in a brutal clash of blade against blade, sparks screeching across pristine white and gold metal as the Trial Knight leans in to their blade lock.
"What makes a ruler, Alisha Diphda?"
The words come right as the knight looks to -knock- her away, and then -thrust- the spear forward to score a stabbing thrust for the girl's chest. If it lands, the wound will ultimately be a surprisingly shallow one... which might distract or emphasize the strange ringing in the air, like the rise of a hauntingly beautiful melody. One that gives rise to a bubble of churning violet and white that -bursts- from the blade, looking to engulf Alisha with its poisonous song.
GS: K.K. has activated a Force Action! GS: K.K. has attacked Sorey with Light Spear Cannon! GS: K.K. has attacked Alisha Diphda with Banishing Sorrow! GS: K.K. has attacked Rose with Dragon Ascendant! GS: K.K. has attacked Seraph Edna with Light Spear Cannon! GS: K.K. has completed its action. GS: Sorey takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Light Spear Cannon for 122 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Rose guards a hit from K.K.'s Dragon Ascendant for 129 hit points! GS: Alisha Diphda guards a hit from K.K.'s Banishing Sorrow for 65 hit points! GS: Poison and Disease! Statuses applied to Alisha Diphda!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
There isn't a lot that K.K. is going to be able to say, especially at this point, to make Sorey doubt himself. His opponent may be stronger than he is - that is a distinct possibility. But as long as you are alive, you can continue to grow - and fighting this monster to a standstill is something that Sorey will continue to do for as long as he must.
No one who has been corrupted by some otherworldly force should be threated with death just because they were lost to a moment of weakness. As the Trial Knight thrusts his spear at him, this time Sorey takes the hit head on, and staggers backwards from the force of the blow. But it's a bash, not a cut - the Armatus protects him, although he does cast his perception inwards and asks, "Are you alright, Edna?" They were taking that hit together, after all.
But Sorey is pushed backwards by the force of the blow, and he grits his teeth for a moment. A hit, but he wasn't out. "I do," he replies to K.K.. "Because I just have to look inwards, and to the faces of my friends. As I said before, Trial Knight - you don't have the right to judge anyone, on either world! You're a monster, and your word are as much weapons to wound people as the arms you carry!"
Sorey glances back at his companions, and nods at them encouragingly. Even the assassin, because it's clear that she's fighting just as hard as Alisha and he. "No one here has anything to prove to you, Trial Knight! I believe in my companions, because I know they'll keep fighting for what they believe in!" And Sorey spins, launching one of the massive Armatus fists straight towards K.K.. There's nothing subtle about his strike - it's just a giant mass of rock that hurls straight at the mysterious figure. Of course, it has enough power that even a glancing hit could hurt quite a lot.
GS: Sorey has attacked K.K. with Rock-et Fist! GS: Sorey has completed his action. GS: K.K. has activated a Force Action! GS: K.K. guards a hit from Sorey's Rock-et Fist for 61 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Edna critically Guards a hit from K.K.'s Light Spear Cannon for 45 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha's spear smashes into K.K.'s turned blade. Sparks explode and fly when the blades catch, but it is Alisha's spear thrown backward, and that leaves her poorly able to block against the incoming strike. She lifts one crystal steel gauntlet, the knight's spear scraping along it, only for it to slash along her side instead of impale her through again. The blow is shallow, though, and then a violet light erupts from it.
The princess knight hits the ground, feet staggering, as she hisses. She feels the burn of poison in her veins -- and her eyes widen, slightly, before she looks up sharply.
"A ruler--that--" She grits her teeth. "Someone who cares for their people! What else could it be!"
She glances to the side. To Sorey, first, to see that he and Edna are still on their feet. But... She looks sideways at the assassin, and gasps when the golden dragon erupts. "Are you all right!?"
She cries it out, before she turns -- and then leaps towards the Trial Knight. She tries to slam into their side, and swings her spear back with two hands, before slamming it forward, in an effort to brutally skewer K.K.
GS: Alisha Diphda has attacked K.K. with Skewering Spear! GS: Alisha Diphda takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Alisha Diphda has completed her action. GS: K.K. takes a glancing hit from Alisha Diphda's Skewering Spear for 62 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
If Rose could see the light and power Sorey is putting out, she would probably be in awe like her Seraph guardian is. Maybe she might believe in the legend of the Shepherd all the more. She might be envious, or curious, or probably she'd make some comment about how blonde is a weird color for Sorey but he gets a point for the hair extension.
She might also understand the Trial Knight's strength seeing him contend with that on even, if not superior, grounds.
Or she might, if the knight hadn't just disarmed her. With a resounding clash, the spear knocks both knives out of her hands. They aren't the same she uses for casual adventuring - but her style of combat, especially the frosty attack just then, is an open book for someone like K.K. and maybe even Alisha. They had seen it, after all.
The dragon bursts from his weapon, engulfing Rose. She's knocked back, singed where skin is exposed, luckily not on fire. The mask of the Scattered Bones is cracked in the middle, a streak that goes from the forehead to the chin. She considers, strongly, just backing out. Calling it a day, leaving the Shepherd and the princess to fend off this threat.
She doesn't just consider it.
"We have nothing to gain here," a voice insists, in her head.
She doesn't hear it. Doesn't want to.
Sorey speaks of doing what one believes in. She doesn't believe in leaving people to die unless there's no other choice. Her hands reach into the pouch hanging from her waist and she considers.
"Fine enough," she replies to Alisha, before looking towards K.K. again. "Good thing I've got more than blades then. Hyaaaa!" Toss, toss! What are those round, silvery orbs, clicking with every passing second?
Well let's just say it was worth getting punched by Kalve for a while. Two grenades fly towards the Trial Knight, trying to anticipate where he'll move next following the strikes against him by Sorey and Alisha.
GS: Rose has attacked K.K. with Morgan's Supplies! GS: Rose has completed her action. GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Rose's Morgan's Supplies for 89 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
Every blow that Sorey takes, Edna takes as well. But even so, like the unwavering earth, she doesn't falter. "I'm fine. Worry about yourself, Sorey." She replies, her voice emanating around his empowered form. "-And focus on this preachy irritant." Her spirit floats behind the Shepherd, eyes rolling. "And boy, do they love to hear themselves talk."
That said, Edna's been watching, and... "...Sorey, something's up." She murmurs to the young man in the midst of attacking. massive fists fly forward. Direct and without subtlety. Just like Edna likes it. She speaks while this happens. "That knight is reading our moves. ... I don't have any proof, but it's almost like he's seen them, or something like it, before." How else would he be able to anticipate such a sudden flurry into a blast of earthen debris? Pure skill!? ... Actually, yes, probably. But still.
"Either way, this one knows something. A lot of somethings." Beat. "But good luck getting em to talk. Sounds like a pain in the butt." And right then, Edna takes control of the flying fists the breaks the pair into two. The twin gauntlets revolve around K.K., then converge on their figure at high speed, aiming strike at differing points. The chest, the leg, the arm, the back. A variation of the flurry with more precise control to it.
"Let's see how they handle this..."
GS: Seraph Edna has attacked K.K. with Rampaging Giant! GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! K.K. guards a hit from Seraph Edna's Rampaging Giant for 96 hit points! GS: Jam! Statuses applied to K.K.!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
"You have everything to prove, boy. And you will know the costs for being unable to."
It's all the Trial Knight has left to say to the Shepherd, their voice impassive even in the midst of all this violence. And yet still, for as powerful as those blows are -- for as merciless as they seem -- there is still the subtle sense of someone holding back. As if testing. To provoke. To see strengths, and weaknesses.
And they get to see much, in the defiance that Sorey shows -- channeling the power of the Earth Armatus, it is blunt and direct but titanic in strength, and even as the Trial Knight swings their spear around to intercept the blow, the swing of that fist is -still- enough to send them screeching across the earth, churning paved stone walkways up into deep furrows as they are blown backwards. They come to a stop just in time to see the Armatized Shepherd lunging those fists around them with violent strength. A storm of gauntlets the space around K.K. becomes, the sound of rock striking metal resounding over and over within the whirling dervish of remote-controlled earthen gloves. And within it, glimpses of the Knight can be seen -- smashing aside those mighty fists for every blow even as armor bends inward from the force of their impacts, over and over, meeting force for force as if stubbornly choosing to meet Edna's assault on even terms.
Eventually, gauntlets strike gauntlets, and with a shout, the Trial Knight -punches- those earth-wrought fists aside, the heavy plating of forearms and torso bent and crumpled here and there from the blows; yet the Knight remains wholly undettered. Spear spinning into place, the White Knight -lunges- at Sorey, wielding violence like it was an art form as they become a spinning dance of armor and massive blade that looks to cut and skewer through the Armatized Sorey with blow after wicked blow.
Someone who cares for their people! What else could it be!
"You are wrong, princess."
The words come after the completion of that last, forceful arc of steel and fury as the knight turns to face Alisha again. She leaps forward, that spear stabbing forward -- only for K.K. to -sweep- to their left.
"There is but two qualifications to rule."
That blade screams across the metal of K.K.'s chest, gauging a scar across plating but not able to skewer as Alisha had hoped. In that moment, the knight could capitalize on the extension of that swing; their blade lifts.
"The will to acknowledge it is your right, and the strength to seize it."
It plunges--
--and is diverted from its path by the explosion of those twin grenades, heat and force rupturing across armor in a way that knocks the knight aside. Ripped from their feet, they fly backwards for a short distance before landing in a three-point stance and heavy -crunch- of stone and rubble beneath them, dirt and debris kicking up around them as their spear sweeps to the side. Half of their helmeted face is blackened and smoking, an ugly scorch running straight down to the scar upon their plated chest.
"I have told you before, girl."
They stand. Their blade begins to gleam with light as they stride forward, their gait calm. Controlled. Assured. That ancient artifact resonates with light as they walk... faster...
"And yet still you burrow your head into the sand, refusing to see what is -right- beneath your nose."
... and faster...
"Still you stubbornly cling to the known, hoping it will be enough."
... and -faster-.
"It. Will. NOT."
Until they are -sprinting- towards Rose at full speed, looking to -impale- that spear into her and -rip- it out in a swift, sudden jab...
... before diverting the majority of their force -backwards-.
"Yet another human too weak to do more but cling as everything precious is torn down around them."
Towards Alisha.
"A story oft-told..."
And whatever that blade hits, it will immediately spin outward a violent vortex of glowing red thread to knock its target skyward. Those threads will bind with clinging, sapping strength, around arms, legs, torso...
... before -reeling- in towards the point of the Trial Knight's spear, to impale them brutally with an explosive rupture of scarlet and white light.
"... and just as often -forgotten-."
GS: K.K. has activated a Force Action! GS: K.K. has activated a Force Action! GS: K.K. has attacked Sorey with Swallow Dance! GS: K.K. has attacked Rose with Serpent Snare! GS: K.K. has attacked Seraph Edna with Swallow Dance! GS: Sorey takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Swallow Dance for 88 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Rose guards a hit from K.K.'s Serpent Snare for 77 hit points! GS: K.K. has attacked Rose with Scarlet Skein! GS: K.K. has completed its action. GS: Rose guards a hit from K.K.'s Scarlet Skein for 104 hit points! GS: K.K. drains Rose! K.K. gains 104 temporary hit points! GS: Seraph Edna takes a solid hit from K.K.'s Swallow Dance for 98 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
The massive earthen fists swing back, returning to Sorey after Edna finishes her assault as well. And Sorey looks at the Trial Knight, and confers with his Seraphim partner for a moment.
"I agree with you, this one seems to know a lot. And everything they're saying sounds... personal. Like they have to deny what we're saying for some reason." The Shepherd isn't sure why, but this sort of questioning isn't something he's taking kindly to, especially by someone whose goal seems to be to try and kill them.
But as K.K. rushes in and strikes, throwing several blows at Sorey, the Shepherd meets them head on, using his own arms and the massive stone fists of the Armatus to block the blows. Some of them do get through, of course - with this barrage of blows it is impossible to dodge everything. But Sorey guards, and pushes through the attack, keeping his arms tight and focusing his strength.
He pushes through those words as well. "I don't know what failures you're enraged about, or trying to make up for, but don't think you can push them onto us!" Sorey counters to K.K., as they continue to shout about how Alisha should be forgotten. Insult Sorey, tell him that he has to prove himself - he'll agree, but success isn't proven until the very end, when you either succeed or fail in yoru mission. Until then you can keep moving forward.
Tell his friends that they are not going to succeed, that they have to become something they don't wish to be? Sorey will take *exception* to that. As K.K. leaps towards Alisha, Sorey jumps into the air, soaring up behind him for a moment... and then crashing down, his fist slamming into the ground and unleashing a line of jagged earth spikes that race straight at the Trial Knight. They cut across the ground, aiming to slam into the armor figure's back, feet, and arms before they have a chance to strike again.
"Our story isn't finished, and no matter how it progresses, we'll walk forward along its path together! And without your judgment!"
GS: Sorey has activated a Force Action! GS: Sorey has attacked K.K. with Monolithic Current! GS: Sorey has completed his action. GS: K.K. has activated a Force Action! GS: CRITICAL! K.K. guards a hit from Sorey's Monolithic Current for 139 hit points! GS: Jam! Statuses applied to K.K.! <Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
It's Alisha's answer that she prefers. A ruler should be one who looks after their people. Rose had hoped, until now, that under that armor hid a passionate and rightful being. That the Trial Knight was testing and raising a generation to be strong, able to protect what they want to. She may have been wrong. All that violence might really serve but one purpose, to demonstrate strength and put down those who lack it.
Or maybe that was the purpose of those words.
To rile Alisha into proper gear to rule.
K.K. lunges in. First, with words. He repeats his warning. Ignorance, blindness, everything being ripped apart before her very eyes. She doesn't want to hear it a second time. The Trial Knight's artifact plunges into her side, ripping through the black and brown leather. She avoids ending up like a corndog barely, but falls to her knees, covering the wound with a hand no less.
K.K. withdraws. He's going for Alisha. That scarlet energy, the same as last time. Rose, on instinct alone, taps into that bit of wind sorcery she has, the tiniest spark of it, enhanced by Dezel's presence.
"...! You idiot, don't -"
Rose is very much an idiot sometimes. She'd chide Sorey about being too selfless and reckless but here she is, suddenly launched ahead towards Alisha, the wind itself carrying her. Shoving Alisha out of the way, being caught by the tendrils of light. The threads grab arms and legs, squeeze her torso.
Then she's impaled, blasted by the bright red and white light. Rose's mask shatters under the pressure, her hood blown back behind her neck as she hits the ground, alive, but in as sorry a state as Alisha the last time.
In defiance she smiles at the Trial Knight. "Not... too weak. To help... who I want to help. This is strength... too. Even if you won't... see it that way."
The pain catches up. Rose falls backward, hitting the ground with her back. Not dead, barely conscious. Dezel is extremely unhappy.
The roles are reversed this time, Alisha!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
Edna isn't physically out there, but she can feel the force of the strikes that do land on Sorey. She grits her teeth immaterially, and holds back grunts of pain. She can still handle this much. Stay focused on the target. Here is not where they're going to die. In the middle of a burning city under attack by mysterious metallic demons of legend.
"That's right. Our story is far from finished." The Earth Seraph says plainly. "Lunata owes me mabo curry. Sorey and Meebo owe me ten crablettes each. Cyre's ears need petting. Alisha can finally see me, which means that I can have so much fun with her. And I still haven't had my fill of scaring the heck out of Rose."
..... ..... .....
..... .....
..... Edna.
Edna, no. Those aren't the things you're supposed to be living for. She forgot to say the most important thing!
...Actually, no, she didn't forget. She just chose not to say it. Her brother is her business. And the business of those who already know. She won't needlessly invoke his name.
Sorey slams a fist into the earth and the impact creates a line of earthen spikes that race toward the Trial Knight. Edna follows it up with an additional surge as the earth rumble beneath, then several earth pillars blast upward around K.K. ... and then groan as their foundations crack, collapsing inward upon the white knight.
Meanwhile...
"...Oh. For crying out loud, Rose." Edna grumbles, not sounding shocked at the revelation at all. More frustrated that this has happened AGAIN. But not to Alisha this time. Wow. Damn it. She's too occupied to heal her now!
GS: Seraph Edna has attacked K.K. with Surging Landscape! GS: Seraph Edna has completed her action. GS: K.K. guards a hit from Seraph Edna's Surging Landscape for 54 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"No!" Alisha cries out. "That--that is not what a ruler needs! No ruler can reign by right and power alone!"
If she could, she would put a hand over her heart while she cries that back to K.K. Instead, though, she is backing up even as K.K. attacks Rose so brutally -- and then comes down at her, a swirl of violent crimson rushing up at her. She starts to stumble backward, until Rose rushes in -- and she takes the very same sort of hit that struck her down before. She sees her caught by those red threads, lifted into the air.
Her breath catches in her throat when the spear rips through the assassin and then she slams down into the earth. A shattered half of a mask hits Alisha's sabaton, and her green eyes move from the broken mask to the locks of red air that look so familiar. The princess feels like her heart stops, as she looks down at her, and tries to make sense of it.
The assassin who tried to kill her. The friend, who reached out, and caught when Alisha's spirits were so slow. The same person.
"R-Rose," she says, quietly. Then, louder: "Rose!"
She runs, kneeling down next to her. She shakes her head, quickly, as she looks at her. "Rose--hold on," she says. "I promise, I will be back. I have to... I will make sure you're safe. Hold still." She puts a hand on her shoulder and squeezes, trying -- and only half-succeeding -- at quashing all of her nervousness.
She looks up, then, and her eyes narrow. They're angry, in that moment, and more than they have to be. "You... you have no right to strike down those you deem unworthy! Judge us if you want, because none of us are perfect--but this isn't justice!" She rushes, then, shooting towards K.K. Alisha leaps, swinging back her spear. The bladed spearpoint glows with a white light -- and she stabs it down, then thrusts repeatedly. "Take this!"
She stabs again and again, her blows becoming a fast white blur, before she pivots around and clutches the spear in two hands. It whirls, before she brings it round, and slashes hard for the Trial Knight's side. When she does, the light explodes in a terrific blast of white light.
"LIGHT BLAST!"
GS: Alisha Diphda has attacked K.K. with Light Blast! GS: Alisha Diphda has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 hit points of damage, and burn off their temporary hit points! GS: Alisha Diphda takes 7 damage from Poison! GS: Alisha Diphda has completed her action. GS: K.K. takes a solid hit from Alisha Diphda's Light Blast for 159 hit points! GS: Alisha Diphda takes Cover! She gains 50 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
Life seeps from Rose into the knight's blade, into the knight themself as she finds herself buried upon the point of their spear instead of Alisha. The knight says nothing. No surprise, no frustration. No. As inscrutable as that knight may be, what Rose will find on the end of that blade, experienced as she is...
... is something more like approval.
It lasts all of a fraction of a second before violence repels the assassin away; the traveling merchant, exposed to the world. The knight does not answer; not immediately. They merely flick their spear towards the right as if it weighed little more than a feather, blade burying into the ground with a heavy *shunk* of impact. Their head tilts. Their hand spasms along the hilt of their weapon.
"... Then know the limits of your strength, girl."
Words that, combined with their cold, metallic-rung tone, could easily be construed as an insult. Or...
... or there simply is not time to dwell on it, because before K.K. can act or speak further, Sorey and Edna are upon them in that furious dual assault. Seismic activity ripples across the stone-and-rubble encrusted earth with the weight of those slamming fists, over and over. Pillars rise up and spikes burst through cobblestone paths in an angry rush for the knight. Several of those spikes they manage to cleave away, but many more slam into that heavy white armor again and again, denting it inward in heavy rents and furrows with the sickening sound of screaming metal. The pillars overshadow them until the weight becomes too much -- and as they topple down, the Trial Knight looks up towards them without a single mote of hesitation. Pinned in rock, about to be caved in by it, they do not think twice. They do not second guess.
They -swing- that blade with all their might, shattering stone with their strength and sundering pillars before they all topple over them in a dizzying collapse of shattered earth, pelting and bombarding them with a lesser, but still heavy, rain of debris.
Rubble crashes all around them, crashes on top of them, striking that helmet, beating them backward. In the end, when it all settles, the knight stands above it all, armor cracked and burned and dented in a way that makes the striking image of a fallen knight -- proud and unbowed despite the endless abuse heaped upon them. White cloth wreathed about them in tatters, they look no less forceful nor dignified as they stand upon the rubble, spear in hand. And they utter one simple thing:
"... There is mabo curry in this land?"
A second passes.
"Fascinating."
Apparently, Edna's words reached right into the core of the knight.
But that curiosity is not to last. Not when they feel that palpable rage turned upon them. Feel the aggression searing in eyes usually gentle. Their helmeted head tilts, ever so slightly, in the direction of the princess knight.
"You are correct. This is not justice. This is not valor, nor righteousness. It is anything but." Light beads at Alisha's spear, and the knight turns to face her fully. Faces every ounce of her rage without shirking from it. Without cowing. As if daring it upon them. They clench their spear tighter. "And yet it exists. And yet it is real. And the only right that will matter when the blade falls is one simple thing:"
Alisha rushes, and so does K.K.. Unhesitating, to meet her head on, in a tremendous collision.
"The WILL and STRENGTH to overrule it!!"
K.K.'s spear lunges, crackling with scarlet and white light. It -stabs- forward...
... and -crashes- into Alisha's spear, as the sheer momentum of that first thrust -knocks- it from the knights hand. That intricately-designed artifact flies spinning through the air, leaving the knight utterly defenseless for what is to come. The spear stabs, over and over, cracking armor, blowing away chunks of heavy pauldrons, glancing off their helmeted head, until all around them becomes a white haze. And when that last blow comes -- K.K. twists--
--and it drives right into their midsection, cracking through armor and piercing what feels distinctly like flesh beneath before the light explodes from all around them.
In that blinding fury, the sound of a deafening cra-KOOM can be heard. And as it fades -- rubble in the distance collapses all around from the roof of a nearby building as the Trial Knight lurches forward.
The smallest hint of something dark and wet oozing from that crack in their armor.
"... You claim no ruler can reign by right and power alone. And yet no one can claim rule without it. Tell me -- can you claim to a certainty that those who rule your kingdom are wise? Just? That they have the best interests of your land at heart? Of your people?" They stride forward, and as they do, as the shadows of the building above creep away from them, the deep crack in their helm can be seen -- splintering spiderline paths along its surface.
"Ask yourself why they rule, failed princess. And ask yourself why you, valorous as you are, do not."
They pause, there. Their gaze turns towards Rose for a quiet, lingering second as those cracks grow and spread. For a long moment, there is silence. And then...
"You are right, boy. Your story is yet unfinished."
Their spear, pierced through the earth, disappears in a flash. A moment later, it reappears in their hand, crackling with pent up energy.
"But that does not guarantee a happy ending shall be penned at the finish. All it guarantees..."
And light encases them, enveloping them in a searing shell of radiance.
"... is uncertainty."
And just as those other times before, they disappear as suddenly and inexplicably as they came -- to leave Sorey and his companions to their devices in this war-torn city.
Perhaps simply driven back by their strength and will.
O B J E C T I V E
Complete!!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
As K.K. disappears from the battle, Sorey looks at the place where the armored figure had stood last, and lets out a long breath. His white outfit disappears as he lets the Armatus go, and he falls to one knee for a moment, clearly pushed quite far by this battle on top of everything else. "There's another word for uncertainty, Trial Knight. One I think that you've forgotten," the Shepherd states to the empty air.
"We call that 'hope'."
He takes a deep breath, and looks over to Edna. "I appreciate the help, Edna. Thank you. We'll try and see if there's any of that spicy food around once we've finished up with everything here, but for now..."
For now, they need to deal with the aftermath of the fight, and Sorey pushes himself to his feet and walks over towards Rose and Alisha. He looks bruised and battered, but compared to what that assassin had taken, Sorey doesn't seem too bad.
But both Rose and Alisha had been thrashed by someone whom they didn't even understand, yet again. There's a bit of guilt eating at the Shepherd because of that. And so Sorey walks over and knees down next to the red haired assassin, looking her over for a moment and then checking to see where she is wounded.
It's not great - and if he couldn't channel the Seraphs powers to heal, it would probably be a lot worse in the middle of this war zone. But Sorey puts his hand over Rose's wound, and concentrates.
He doesn't say anything about the fact that she's attacked Alisha and himself in the past.
He doesn't chastise her for getting hurt.
Instead...
"Want me to roll up your jacket so Alisha can work on bandaging you up this time?" he offers with a faint smile.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
The Armatus is releasted, and Edna separates from Sorey, manifesting next to him and breathing deeply from all the energy they wound up using. "... Don't mention it." She mumbles to the Shepherd as he thanks her, waving a hand. The knight is gone, leaving only questions in their wake. ...Sigh. Typical. They'll have to figure that one out later.
Edna takes her time following after Sorey and standing by Rose's side. She looks down at the bleeding girl and shakes her head. "What is with thiss trend of people winding up like this? As if the princess weren't enough, now we've got her." Those icy blue eyes roll, then she points her umbrella down at Rose's form.
"Healing Circle."
Immediately, a magic glyph forms on the ground beneath, creating a flow of healing energy that rises upwards to infuse the unmasked assasssin's battered body with curative energies. "I should start charging for this, I swear."
After a moment of silence however...
"...That knight is interested in mabo curry. We have to stay on their trail."
Because that's the one reason why they should. Not the death, despair, and malevolence. Plus all their friends getting hurt, no. It's the mabo curry.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
Rose can't go anywhere, so Alisha doesn't have to worry about her just kind of wandering off. She'd be hard pressed to make a decent escape, much less a subtle one. She appreciates the concern though.
A faint smile as the two return, following the Trial Knight's departure. His warning does register, this time. Know the limits of your own strength. Rose is processing that, but, maybe it's time she stopped hiding her head in the sand and acknowledge this just got way out of her control. If not for her sake, for the rest of the Sparrowfeathers and Scattered Bones. How would THEY fare against Hellions?
"If you wouldn't mind too much," she answers, trying to keep herself from laughing. It's as Sorey reaches ahead and concentrates that he'll feel Rose isn't alone in that head.
Someone helps him. Healing winds gather around Sorey's arm, channeling into Rose, mixing in with the Shepherd's own talents and Edna's not-so-modest healing circle. Sorey, if you value your ears, do NOT tell Rose there seems to be a Seraph inside her. At least not right now.
Healing and immediate care'll get her back on her feet, but probably not in any capacity to swing her knives. ... speaking of.
"... hey, get my knives back, won't you? They're important." They're also over there on the ground, thanks to the Trial Knight. "Sorry, by the way. About lying to you guys. And the whole... trying to kill you part," she says towards Alisha.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"They--"
Alisha doesn't have answer. She said why people should rule, but why someone should rule and why they do is wide. As wide as the great sea between Glenwood and Spira, and as filled with sin. Her mouth hangs open, her green eyes filled with an anguish that doesn't come from K.K. -- or perhaps it does, but it runs as deep as that sea, too.
She looks to the side, eyes looking down, and spear falling to the ground with a clink, as K.K. is engulfed in light -- and they vanish in the blink of an eye. She shakes her head, softly, and then she looks towards Sorey. She flashes him a very hesitant smile, before she walks back towards Rose. She looks down at her, and it catches up to her. This is the girl who tried to kill her, twice. The broken mask, the leathers, and the knives are confirmation of that. She suspected before...
...but she didn't want to believe it.
She kneels down, picking up both knives, and puts them next to Rose. Her eyes move to Edna, and she looks momentarily guilty. "I--I didn't mean to cause trouble," she says, quietly. Then, she looks down at Rose. The apology, somehow, prompts a smile as she kneels down. She shakes her head, before she starts to pull out a roll of bandages. "I--I will want to talk to you about that, later. But... you fought with us. We remain friends, do we not?"
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
Sorey raises an eyebrow as he senses another presence within Rose, and he considers asking her about it... but is she really in the position to answer rationally or calmly at this point? ...probably not the best idea, but Sorey nods silently as the healing winds join with Edna's healing circle to help in patching everyone up from the fighting.
He listens as Rose first apologizes, and then Alisha speaks, stating that they are friends. Sorey nods in concert, showing his agreement with Alisha's sentiment before he adds his own piece. "While you did hide things from us, Rose, I think both Alisha and I spent enough time with you to get the sense for what sort of person that you are. No matter what you are doing, I think you are following this path because you believe in it."
He concentrates, channeling the healing energy of the Seraphs in an effort to heal Rose enough that they have a chance of getting out of the city. "I may not agree with the path that you've chosen, but that doesn't mean I don't see you as a friend. It means we need to sit down and talk, and see if there is a way we can reconcile those differences."
He pauses for a long moment, and adds, "I feel like both of you keep getting into trouble because you are helping me. Alisha, you've been hurt several times now, and now you as well, Rose." The Shepherd is silent again, still focusing. "We're fighting things we struggle to see, let alone understand. I don't want to see you two continuing to plunge into this battle unprepared."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
Once Edna finishes making her contribution to Making Sure People Do Not Die, she lowers her umbrella and quietly glances between the three. "Whatever this is, it's all your problem to work out. I really don't care one way or other what it is you decide to do."
% Beat.
"As long as it doesn't end up with everyone dead. That would be mildly problematic." Just mildly.
And with that, Edna turns away and breaks down into a simple golden wisp, returning to dwelling inside Sorey. She's done plenty for now. Time to rest.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
Rose nods to Alisha. "The reason I didn't go ahead with the assassination is because I saw you were a good person. If you'll still have me as a friend I'd be glad to hang around royalty some more," she says, trying to downplay the situation a bit for comfort. "Besides we Sparrowfeathers are the Shepherd's sponsors, so you're not rid of me that easily."
Talk. Yeah, later is better. "We'll talk when we've had some time to rest. I think Sorey'll agree that -" She tries to get up, with or without help. It hurts, the bandaging might not hold, but she's insisting to rise. "- there are still plenty of people who need our help here. I have the others going around doing what they can," she even admits, without mentioning that they are also killing awful people while they can. "I can still stand, so... give me five to breathe before we... get back to work, yeah?" Maybe ten instead of five, if they can afford it.
Sorey then decides to play the blame game, and Rose frowns. "It was our decision to help you even though we knew how dangerous it is, don't you go blaming yourself now. But... that knight is right. Maybe I should... Sorey, do you think... when I'm feeling better, we can try the thing again?"
No guarantees she'll react any more calmly than last time, that's not a luxury you get.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha looks down for a moment. It should be more complicated than that -- it is more complicated than that. But, she wants a friend. She wants a friend more than she ever wants to admit. She nods. "Of course we are," she says, quietly, before she smiles. Then, she sits back -- to give her a little room -- and looks at Sorey.
She watches Edna dissolve into golden light, then move inside him. That... will take getting used to.
She shakes her head. "Sorey, we chose to come with you. You shouldn't feel guilt over that. It... that was our choice."
She nods, and then she blinks, before she looks down at Rose. She wonders, for a moment, about what she says. "We can rest," Alisha says. "After all... this city isn't safe. Not yet. We will need to be very careful."
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
"I know," Sorey replies to both women, and makes sure that the rest of Rose's bandages are in place and she is as healed as she is going to get. He welcomes Edna back, as always, with a closed eyes and a brief, "Thank you again for your support, Edna."
"There is something that Lailah mentioned to me - a way I can share some of my strength with the people who are helping me. Until now Alisha, you couldn't even see Seraphim, and you still are having trouble, Rose.
"It's not something I would insist on, but... we should talk to her, and make the decision together. If we're going to keep opposing malevolence and creatures like the Trial Knight, I think we all need to be at our best. And I think I'm going to need both of your help." After all, it seems they are all in this together, for better or worse. At least for now.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
Rose is doing a very good job not exploding with panic as both Sorey and Alisha keep talking to Edna. It's obvious she's uneasy but she's not cowering or flailing, which is a big great step up.
"T... talk? Is Lailah a... S-Seraph too?" Please say no please say no please say no. Calm, calm down Rose, you're going to reopen that gaping wound. Deep breath, in, out, control it.
Maybe they shouldn't stay out in the open. That much gives Rose something to focus on, besides the fact Alisha was so quick to forgive her. "Let's find a roof to hide under for a few minutes, if we stay here we'll... probably get spotted by a stray Demon or Hellion. We'd be in trouble right now if the knight hadn't cleared the area, so let's not waste the silver lining."
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"Oh--oh, it would be nice to be able to see Lailah..." Alisha murmurs, before she looks down. Then, she nods to what Sorey says. But, she looks at Rose, and smiles at her -- then squeezes her shoulder once. "It will be fine. It takes some getting used to," she says, "but you will in no time."
Then, she looks to Sorey, and nods her head. She stands up, then, and extends her hand down towards Rose to help her up. "Let's talk to Lady Lailah later, then," she says. "For now... I agree, let's move somewhere safe."
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
"I'm... afraid that she is, sorry Rose." Sorey chuckles, sounding a bit embarrassed. "Many of my friends are Seraphs, so... it's something you may have to get used to if you want to continue being my sponsor."
He looks at Alisha again, and states, "Let's get Rose inside a building, and then you'll need to try and get her out of the city if possible." The Shepherd turns, and looks out into the chaos and fighting nearby.
"I can't wait to see if the Trial Knight holds to their promise or not to kill the Hellions here. I need to go out and try to purify as many as I can before the fighting in the city becomes too fierce."
Because that, too, is part of being the Shepherd.