2017-07-29: Tournament Finals II - Side 1
- Log: Tournament Finals II - Side 1
- Cast: Grahf, Wedding Dress, Lunata Croze, Malfi, Talise Gianfair, Jacqueline Barber, Tethelle Cirdian, Kourin, Shalune Amira, Lemina Ausa, Zed, Avril Vent Fleur, Cecilia Adlehyde, Ida Everstead-Rey
- Where: Lacour - Market District
- Date: July 29, 2017
- Summary: As Grahf descends upon Lacour, our heroes must confront two empowered jobbers - who turn out to be harder to handle than you might think!
=========================<* Lacour - Market District *>========================== The Lacour Market District does not rival that of the major commercial powers of Filgaia in terms of volume or value of trade, but it the class of the world in traditional weapons and protective gear. More than a hundred individual shops line the streets of the district, each bearing its own name, specialties, and branding. Almost any kind of weapon or armour can be found in Lacour, and odds are good that anything innovative will be found here first...or make its way here in short order. The merchants of the Market District are proud and competitive, and walking down the streets is an exercise in patience, as they bombard passersby with litanies in praise of their work and curses for the rust-ridden works of their neighbours. At no time is this competition more fierce than during the Lacour Tournament of Arms; this annual exhibition to name the World's Greatest Fighter includes considerable prestige for the merchants sponsoring their entries, and talented fighters will find their services heavily sought-after. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bqMqHag86c
<Pose Tracker> Grahf has posed.
It starts as a single point in the sky. A speck of darkness, standing out amidst the vast blue dome of the heavens.
And with a roar, it descends. Growing larger by the moment, the Gear plummets downwards towards the Lacour stadium. And just when it seems that it is going to crash headlong into the tournament stage, sending destruction in all directions... it suddenly rights itself, coming to an absolute stop. Hovering with its arms crossed, the black and grey Gear looks down at the assembled masses with glowing yellow eyes, its arms crossed in front of its chest. For those who take the time to look at it, the machine is an impossibility - the armor plating has some segments to it, but the joints show no signs of mechanical connections - only the smooth flow of armor plates that seem to flex like a living creature, for all their metallic quality.
And on its shoulder stands a figure - one familiar to a certain amnesiac young man, for they had spoken once in the sandy plains outside of Lahan several months ago. Dressed in a reddish brown and dark grey cloak, with dark grey body armor and a helm that seems to have been cast in the likeness of a horned skull, the Gear's pilot looks down upon the assembled crowd with a pair of eyes that burn from within the dark recesses of his helm like a pair of molten embers. And when he speaks, his voice is a deep and powerful rumble, somehow amplified to be heard by all in the arena.
"I am Grahf, the Seeker of Power," the man declares. "I have observed your contention for title of the strongest, and remain unimpressed by the quality of the contenders you have produced. For a land unblemished by true conflict, your determination of strength may be sufficient - but the world is changing. Ancient powers rouse from their centuries of slumber, and they will inevitably come to force you to take a knee."
Those burning eyes turn to look at the champion and her contender, an unblinking gaze that seems to pierce Lunata for a moment. "Heir to Fell Power." His gaze turns, and he looks at Garan. "Scion of the a Distant Paradise. I have come to present you, and all who stand in this arena, with a true test of might."
Grahf turns his attention to Emil and Amon, who are standing looking up at him with the rest of the crowd. "Thou were promised a chance to show your true mettle before those whom had dismissed you as mere trash, those who had not the power to even succeed in the first round of this contest. I come now to grant that desire. The desire for strength untamed, potential unhindered. Power... unending."
It feels like all of the air in the arena is being pulled towards the dark Gear for a moment, and Grahf's eyes flare as he unleashes some energy into his machine. Bolts of red and yellow lightning travel across its surface, crawling along its armor as the Gear uncrosses its arms, right hand held upwards for a moment, fingers spread towards the heavens. And Grahf's voice booms out as he intones:
"I shall grant thee the power!
"My fist is the divine breath!"
The Gear lowers its hand, pointing towards the two men standing down below.
"Blossom o fallen seeds, and draw upon thy hidden powers!"
Energy surges - but for those who can sense such things, there is no sense of malevolence or darkness. The energy that erupts from the hand of the dark Gear is raw, untapped energy - so radiant that it feels for a moment that the sun has come to rest in the hand of the Gear.
"I grant unto thee a glimpse of the glory of the Shaper of Worlds!"
And with that, a shaft of yellow white light slams into the tournament stage, completely engulfing the two men who had muscled their way in only moments before. Emil and Amon are bathed in the power, their bodies drinking it in... and beginning to change into something different. Perhaps something greater.
Grahf takes a single step and drops from the shoulder of his gear. He lands on the tournament stage without even bending his knees, the ground breaking where his feet strike home, spider webs of cracks traveling out from his boots in all directions. And he holds up one hand... and gestures to the two men upon whom he has wrought his will.
"I give you my challenge - a glimpse of what may come. O lost souls, dwelling in your small pond - I grant you a glimpse of the vast ocean with which you must contend."
<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.
Emil Blegovich is a young man in a blue bodysuit and a breastplate, with blonde, spiky hair and wielding a massive two-handed greatsword. In another, more just world, he would be a heroic figure rescuing royalty or leading a resistance movement. Here, he has been a joke - losing in the second round to a man whose face is literally on T-Shirts proclaiming him to be the "King of the Jobbers."
This is not a just world.
Amon Rau was a squire for a dozen years to a lord of Slayheim, only to lose his chance at knighthood - along with his homeland - in a blaze of light and a pillar of salt. In another, more just world, he would be a knight-captain guarding the capital of his kingdom, or the lord of a holdfast and father to a knightly line.
This is not a just world.
Gripped by the energies flowing from the Seeker of Power, both men begin to swell, black-red lightning crawling across their bodies as they are transformed. Amon's mace lengthens into a poleaxe, a dark purple cape flaring out behind armour that shimmers with golden light. And Emil's clothing darkens, shifting into a long, black greatcoat, his blade crackling with arcane energies. "COME!" the swordsman screams, swinging his blade around effortlessly, carving arcs of night-black darkness out of the air as it passes.
"COME!" Amon roars, crashing poleaxe against his massive tower shield. "YOUR FRIENDS WILL NOT LONG MOURN YOUR PASSING!"
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata had barely gotten her chance to hug Shalune and Jacqueline in the moment of what seemed like victory -- when the raucous noise of Emil and Amon causing and stirring trouble at the gates took her attention. That would've been enough to cause her to frown and question, but the presence of the dark Gear and its owner, the Seeker of Power, was doubly so.
Lunata's eyes catch Grahf's as he looks to her for a moment. Heir to Fell Power, he said. A fell power... was he talking about Ge Ramda, or the Key...?
There's a spike at the back of her head as she witnesses that power and stretches her hand out-- "No, don't--!"
The Medium within the Key of Rephaim trembles, for a moment washing over her. Something was triggering some kind of fear and anxiety inside of her, causing her to hold onto her head with a painful gasp for a moment. "What is... what is this? It's as if-- the Medium is trembling in fear...?"
She tries to stumble upwards and hold onto the hilt of Orochi-Agito, but... in that moment, she falters.
Her strength's left her. Not even Ge Ramda has enough power to sustain her any longer, and she stumbles backwards, her eyes fluttering. The match she'd just had with Garan had taken the sails out of her, and while Jacqueline's potion had staved off the worst of her wounds, stamina and energy wasn't something that was going to come back to her immediately. "Not good..."
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi gazes down at the challengers with mixed emotions. On the one hand, their new enhancements would present quite a challenge. On the other, she was in her leisure form and could hardly assume her armored one in public. Fighting now would be like charging into battle in one's pajamas. Still, no matter the form, she was superhumanly durable, which should count for something. The BIGGER problem is she has no weapon to hand. Maybe she could scrounge one, fast! She glances around, looking for any weapons the panicking crowd may have dropped, and not finding any, carefully picks her way toward the competitors' greenroom. Surely there would be weapons and supplies there!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Wow, talk about shitty sports," Talise mutters as she eases to her feet and boosts herself over the next row of seats, then over the barricade. She drops into the arena with a thump, her grey seafarer's coat rustling around her. She seems like she's about to step forward.
Until someone calling himself Grahf drops in in a Gear. Talise scoots to a halt and frowns, drawing her sword quickly and scowling. "Who's this douchebag?" she asks nobody in particular - and then Grahf does something to the two men who got wiped out in the very first round.
Things change. The pair swell and shift in a way that seems similar to Malevolence to Talise's unknowing eyes - yet in some ways, incredibly different. The tall woman's cheeks grow a little more pale. What the hell kind of power does this man have? And is she going to have to kill these two men, or--
She clenches her teeth and rolls her shoulders. "Yeah, well. I was born on a vast ocean. That doesn't mean I'm going to lose to a couple of guys who're pumped so full of darkness you can't even see how much of a beating you're about to catch by crashing Lunie's big moment," Talise growls as she sweeps a fold of her coat back. "Bring your worst!"
The tall half-Beastwoman starts forward at a sprint. A part of her mind actually calculates odds - she knows there are others in the audience who'll likely help, and she also knows she has nothing she can particularly use against something as massive as a Gear. And she also knows that Lunata just had the fight knocked out of her by Garan Dantear.
She also spots the weird light arcing from Amon's sword. Maybe charging him is a bad idea.
"Get out of the damn ring already!" she shouts as she reaches into her jacket, trading her sword into her left hand and coming out instead with the shotgun she borrowed from Ida. Talise throws herself hard to the right, rolling across the battlefield and coming up on a knee as she fires off a blast of buckshot towards Amon, pumps the shotgun, then fires again, aiming to smash the black-clad super-jobber from the mid-range before he can get that sword into anyone.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Wedding Dress with Bounce Squeak Boomstick! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline had been too distrcted by her elation to notice the two figures causing a fuss. But the Gear - the Gear does not escape her notice. She backs away, drawing a Crest from her pouch. She couldn't possibly fight a Gear, or even survive the impact...but she needed to get Lunata and Shalune to safety.
...And Garan too, probably.
Fortunately, the Gear does not crash land. What it does may possibly be worse. Someone is there. Someone who radiates ominously. She felt terror traveling up and down her spine...and her attention soon turns toward Emil and Amon, whom she had to that point ignored.
They had bathed in power and come out different...stronger.
A bead of sweat runs down the side of her face.
This was dangerous...foolhardy, even.
But...she invokes a crest, sending a wave of stone and rubble at them.
"Shalune! I'll cover you! Get her out of here!" She orders. She doesn't spare a glance back at her friend. If she took her eyes off of these enemies for too long...she might not survive.
"As for you two...you'll regret ruining her moment!" She shouts. Her confidence is a bit shaken...but Talise echoes her sentiment, so it does buoy her a little bit.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Wedding Dress with Rubble-Rouser! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Talise Gianfair's Bounce Squeak Boomstick for 58 hit points! GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Jacqueline Barber's Rubble-Rouser for 58 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle has actually been in the crowds. She entered the tournament, after all; she lost, but she wanted to watch the finals anyway, to see the caliber of people who made it there.
And, well, Cecilia wanted a guard, and Tethelle certainly wasn't going to say no.
So she brought her sword - not actually hers, but the one she used in the tournament, a two-handed blade with a leather grip dyed red and blue as a sign of patronage - and sat in the crowd. She was perfectly happy to watch, pleased as the fight progressed and stonefaced when the defeated competitors ran out onto the field, claiming they'd been cheated out of victory... until disaster struck. Or, more accurately, disaster was taken into the hands of another.
Tethelle has never seen Grahf before, but she doesn't need to have to feel the power held by the man on the Gear. It's strong, a pulse she feels in her soul - not evil or distorted like some beings of Malevolence, but stronger than she thought possible. She rises, shading her eyes from the light with one arm.
"We cannot ignore that," she says to Cecilia - and she starts to half-run, half-leap down the arena seating toward the ring itself, where Emil and Amon stand, altered by that rush of power. Grahf is moving, but there is still something she can do, even if she cannot fight a gear. Something she must do. She can't let them run riot; they'll kill people.
Tethelle takes a breath. "EMIL BLEGOVICH! AMON RAU!"
Tethelle balances on the edge of the ring, one leg raised as her foot is planted on the actual boundary wall around the arena itself. "I too lost in the tournament! But there is no call for this. It is wrong, and you know it! But if you insist - "
She draws her sword from the plain wooden scabbard. Ordinary, non-magical, not even old; just a heavy blade Emil would probably have been reasonably happy with once upon a time. Discarding the scabbard, Tethelle grips the hilt in both hands, leaping into the arena with a flip. "I will fight you with nothing but my skill at arms!"
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin watches from the stands, staring as Grahf does...whatever it is he does. Her jaw sets, and she rises from her seat. "Catenna, Cyre--help these people evacuate," she says to the other members of CaraKin as she draws her rapier.
"Spirit. Come. Our friends are down there. We're going to help."
With that, she leaps down and rushes towards Emil and Amon, striking towards the nearer of the pair with her rapier in a practiced lunge.
GS: Kourin has attacked Wedding Dress with Lunge! GS: Kourin has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Kourin's Lunge for 55 hit points! GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"What's-- what's goin' on?" blurts Shalune uncertainly, vaguely feeling the thrum of power but not anywhere near spiritually attuned enough to be able to pick out what it actually means; all she knows is that she'll be damned if she's not there to catch Lunata in her arms, huffing slightly at the unexpected effort of having to take her weight and grimacing a little at the tense question the waitress asks herself.
"They shouldn't be in here, right? They've gone mad, right?" she rapid-fires the questions to Jacqueline as her local source of common sense, her eyes wide - and immediately she cowers under the instinctive pressure behind the pair's sudden forceful yells, squinting from under her hat as she watches Jacqueline race forward to meet them. "We'll get people out! B-be careful! Okay?!"
Manhandling Lunata into a better position takes some effort, but she does it anyway, turning to hurry her towards the arena wall and the stands above; waiting there, the twelve-foot golem slowly meets her gaze, nods once in whatever understanding she and it share, and holds its hands out to accept both girls onto its palms.
Mentally, Shalune's mind is working quickly, trusting Big Shal to lift them to the stands. It's not looking good, their strange attackers are at the entrance of the area, a large chunk of audience are trapped on the other end - and she just said she'd get them out without leading them right past the crazy people likely to attack them.
For a moment, she flicks through several possibles - Big Shal could lower people off the back of the arena stands, maybe, or if she could find a couple of ropes she could rig up a ladder, or she's still got the Little Dipper if it really comes to an emergency - but the number of people present is too great.
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
Fun fact: Lemina Ausa beat Emil Blegovich in the first round of the tournament. It was not the all-time freest match, but the sunlight between that statement and the actual truth of the matter is dim and thin at best.
Lemina gives a big shit-eating wave to Emil -- and then, well. Oh. Oh... oh. Lemina takes a half a second to regret that wave-and-grin when Grahf intervenes. The expression on her face might best be described as a slightly-baffled 'welp.'
Fortunately, while she isn't quite loaded for bear the way she has been during some of her tournament matches, Lemina's usual approach to -- well, life, really -- involves carrying quite a bit of her adventuring gear.
Though, really, all she needs is her staff. "HEY! Hey, doofus! Yeah, you!" Despite having drank deeply of the sourest grapes since her own loss, Lemina can't help but talk a staggering, unreasonable amount of shit. "If you wanted to run it back, you could've just asked!"
She follows up by making a big mouth-fart as she gestures with her staff, pointing it forward and conjuring a large chunk of ice, which she then launches straight into her opponent.
She then glances toward Tethelle, noting, "Yeah sorry that's mega-dumb!" Sword people. Seriously.
GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Wedding Dress with Ice Pick! GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a glancing hit from Lemina Ausa's Ice Pick for 47 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
There is no reason that he should be at all outside of the Photosphere. By all rights, he should still be resting, recovering, and slowly regenerating all that blood he lost not so long ago trying to powerbomb the most terrible tornado to have visited Lacour in the past hundred years.
But that would mean BEING A QUITTER.
AND ZED IS NOT A QUITTER.
Suddenly, like bolts out of the blue, hurricane-force, cutting winds scythe down into the arena from somewhere up above. "Ahahahahahahaha!" A familiar voice roars as something in a CLOAK AS BLACK AS NIGHT descends into the space immediately between the battle-waitress and these SORE LOSERS. It's... It's...!
Some guy in a mask*!?
"You who would infringe upon the sacred trust of these battlegrounds-- you shall advance not a single step further!" THE DARK HERO Z brandishes his blade, not the storied KNOCKOUT-BRAND, but a grand, curved cleaver that seems to roil with malevolent energies...! Energies that explode into yet more crescents of cutting wind! "I, the great DARK HERO Z, will stop you here...!"
"STAND, LULULU WAIT!" He calls over his shoulder. "Or is this the limit of your strength!?"
GS: Zed has attacked Wedding Dress with Air Slash! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Zed's Air Slash for 61 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata lets out a gasp as Shalune holds onto her, and together, the Lunies work towards the edge of the arena as people jump to their defense. "B-be careful... everyone. They definitely aren't normal..." it might be obvious just flat out from what that man, Grahf, had done to them, but it was worth pointing out regardless. That transformation was... extraordinary, yet it wasn't Malevolence. Just what kind of power on Filgaia did he possess? How could these people be transformed so readily?
She's struggling to hold onto Shalune's shoulder, calling out, "Jay, don't overdo it...!" as they climb onto Big Shal's soft mittens and cling up towards its hand.
As it turns out, this is about the limit of her strength, since she kind of just flops against Big Shal's hand with a haggard breath. The amount of power she'd burnt had taken more than just physical stamina out of her; she was starting to feel the burn in her soul as well.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
It had been a pleasant day.
Avril and her friends had managed to get seats for the final match of the tournament -- against the odds -- and this match had proved rather interesting to watch. Both competitors had proven more than worth the rankings they had earned, though admittedly the young woman in green had been surprised to see a name she recognized among them.
The skills that Lunata had displayed... Was it that deathly figure and the pact they had forged that allowed her to fight so?
A commotion had broken out after the end of the bout. Avril, straining to see what was happening, had risen to her feet.
A shadow blots the earth. Blue eyes lift, just in time to see--
The force of the Gear's impact unfolds into a shockwave. The trailing ends are just enough to send -- as she recoils in anticipation of the crash -- Avril's long silver hair aflutter. Lowering her arms, she stands there for a series of seconds, likely struck as dumb as most are in the audience, and--
Power. He will grant those people his 'Power'. Avril takes a slow and steady breath, pulse roaring in her ears.
Without a word to her friends, she begins her flight down the stairs to the base of the coliseum, the expression on her face as grim as any soldier's. Without any hesitation, she flings herself right over the barricade at the bottom, using one hand on the edge as a pivot point like a master gymnast, landing apparently unarmed in the arena below.
Her eyes widen, and she gestures, sharply, towards the intruding competitors. "Stop--"
It's pure force that rolls over her in the next heartbeat. She takes a step backwards, lifting her arms as if they could provide cover. The Medium at her side almost seems to tremble. "You're... terrified... Even the Guardians are..." Avril utters.
And in the next heartbeat, as Amon and Emil's forms warp and twist, she draws from beneath her gown an object that looks like it could halfway be part of a gun and halfway be the hilt of a sword. With a twist of a wrist, it is a sword, blade appearing from the object as if out of nowhere.
"What meaning is there to this...?" she asks of the former competitors, facing them dead-on and sword raised as if about to engage in a formal duel and not... whatever this has become. "...Is this truly what you desire?"
Glancing over her shoulder, she calls out to the young champion of the tournament. "Lunata, I shall help to hold them back. Please, get yourself to safety."
With that said, Avril steps foward and directs her blade towards Emil, the twisted swordsman. "I apologize for what must be done," she says, before springing forward to deliver her blade in a fencer's guarded thrust.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Wedding Dress with Innocent Saber! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Innocent Saber for 65 hit points! GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes Cover! She gains 50 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
As the presence of that masked man looms over them, Cecilia staggered, off in the crowd; like her thoughts being pierced by some distant presence, a feeling of anxiety leaking out to her from the Medium and something else bubbling up from her blood. Her hand rose to her head, clutching at the sudden, throbbing migraine. It only gets worse as the Seeker of Power declares himself - as that power descends on the two fighters. She looks off to where she knows Tethelle to be, breathing heavily. "Something's happening," she croaks. "My head's pounding...it's like the Medium is afraid!"
Perhaps predictably, Tethelle hares off as the two men challenge them. She spares one look for the Gear and the man aboard it, but as soon as her eyes land on him her head acts up, a piercing pain through her temples. "N....not yet," she mutters, and she's not sure if the words are her own before she takes off after Tethelle.
By the time she catches up, Tethelle has issued a challenge and Lemina has some...words about it.
"Tethelle," Cecilia mutters, as her own staff appears in her hand with a flash of magic. "She's right. Uh, sort of. We can't win this alone." Fortunately, they're not, as attacks already start raining down on the duo. Cecilia sucks in a breath of her own, her focus improving slowly. "So I'll help!" She whirls the staff in her hands, magic swirling around her in counterpoint. She barely shapes it - just gathers it together and releases an inchoate bolt rocketing across the distance toward Emil and Amon - she's not really picky about which, actually.
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Wedding Dress with Ley Blast! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Ley Blast for 90 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida Everstead-Rey watches the Gear's descent in undisguised terror, shielding her eyes with an arm as though that was enough. It stops. The man in its hand speaks, and his voice sends chills down Ida's spine. The people around her are already starting to flee, but she can only sit there, rooted to the spot. She remembers Old Petra, and the red gear, and its pilot. She remembers Fei telling her about the man who told him to kill God. Fear grips her, just as it did when the Black Ties hit Tumblus Town, all those months ago. How can she stand against something like this? How can she--
She opens her eyes. She's not sure when she closed them, and when she looks down, she sees Emil Blegovich accepting fell energies into his body and soul. Her fingers tighten on the handle of her cane, and she rises to her feet. Moving calmly and deliberately, she heads in the exact opposite direction the rest of the crowd is going. Nevertheless, it is very, very easy to lose track of her.
A door at the end of the arena opens. In walks Ida, still using that cane for support, and moving with a noticeable limp. "You wish a chance to prove yourself?" Ida says, barely-contained anger simmering in her voice. "I did not see you anywhere near the arena when Lady Harken endangered everyone in attendance. Nevertheless, I somehow feel compelled to honor it." Something throbs at the small of her back, something that would be phantom pain if Devil's Due was a limb and not a deeply-attuned ARM.
Ida's lips peel back from her teeth. In the blink of an eye, she is holding a revolver.
"DRAW."
She sights on instinct, and sends a single bullet screaming at Emil's center-mass.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Wedding Dress with Everstead-Rey Model 10 Mk. III! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Everstead-Rey Model 10 Mk. III for 79 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.
Amon Rau steps forward into the assault, interposing his massive shield between the oncoming attackers and his less-armoured counterpart. He slams his shield into the earth, breaking Jay's approaching wave upon a tower of metal and fury, then swinging the shield around to partly block Kourin's rapier thrust, a line of dark blood spurting from the gap she's found in his armour. Emil circles around behind Amon's plate as Talise opens up with a shotgun, pellets ringing off the heavy golden plate, which crackles with dark energy.
"Who gives a damn about that woman and her quote-end-quote MOMENT?" Amon roars. "You call yourselves warriors, and you back a quivering slip of a girl? She's not a warrior! She's a WAITRESS!" the golden titan screams, driving shield and poleaxe down in a terrific blow that sends crackling crimson lightning flickering along the earth. "A girl who's been fighting for a few weeks! I was a squire for nearly as long as she has been alive!" the man shouts, rumbling forward, his shield deflecting Lemina's ice shard away as he closes on the magical girl, swinging the poleaxe down in a punishing strike. "She knows NOTHING of the way of the warrior!"
Emil Blegovich, meanwhile, parries the Air Slash of Dark Hero Z with his massive blade and then returns one of his own, reddish energy sizzling as it cuts across the distance. "You guys are so ridiculous," he snaps, lifting a hand to grab the fencer's blade with his left hand - drawing a line of blood across his palm in the process - and then returns a powerful thrust of his own, wielding the massive two-handed blade like it was little more than a feather. "We've heard from the big guy! Little waitress stumbles into power and all of a sudden she wins the Tournament? SAME DAMN DIFFERENCE!" the blonde swordsman roars. "But you cheer for her and yell at us! Because we're not IMPORTANT ENOUGH for you?" Further chatter is cut off by Cecilia's bolt of energy sends, which hits him hard and sends him him sliding backward. He sends an Air Slash hurtling in her direction as well, because he has AIR SLASHES FOR DAYS. He brings his blade around again to---
(DRAW.)
The gunshot cuts a line across Emil's temple as he slides to his left, blood spurting from the near miss. He turns his eyes to Ida and grins, dark energy blazing around his body. "You!" he shouts to the heir of the Everstead-Reys. "You wanted to see the power of the Demon Fist, lady?" he asks, then---
---vanishes?
Emil reappears in front of Ida, then hurls a powerful left hand up into her belly, red-black energy exploding outward. "YOU GOT IT!" he screams, cackling.
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Thunder Clap! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Kourin with Thunder Clap! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Talise Gianfair with Thunder Clap! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Tethelle Cirdian with Thunder Clap! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Lemina Ausa with Heroic Strike! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Zed with Air Slash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with Air Slash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Piercing Thrust! GS: Wedding Dress has activated a Force Action! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Demon Fist! GS: Wedding Dress has completed its action. GS: Talise Gianfair guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Thunder Clap for 61 hit points! GS: Tethelle Cirdian guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Thunder Clap for 63 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber critically Guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Thunder Clap for 21 hit points! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Air Slash for 55 hit points! GS: Zed takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Air Slash for 51 hit points! GS: Talise Gianfair has activated a Force Action! GS: Talise Gianfair used the Force Action Protect! She takes Wedding Dress's attack on Ida Everstead-Rey on herself! GS: Talise Gianfair has activated a Force Action! GS: Talise Gianfair critically Guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Demon Fist for 21 hit points! GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Piercing Thrust for 210 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi emerges from the greenroom carrying a pike. It's not her usual weapon, but it's the closest thing she could find. She pauses a moment to assess the situation and prepare for battle.
GS: Malfi has attacked Malfi with Battle Meditation! GS: Malfi has completed her action. GS: Malfi takes a solid hit from Malfi's Battle Meditation for 0 hit points! GS: Lemina Ausa guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Heroic Strike for 82 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Lunie-- Lunie!" blurts Shalune in worry as the girl's consciousness wavers and she nearly threatens to pitch straight off of her golem's hand; only a rough scrabble from the mechanic and Big Shal being kind enough to stop for a second save Lunata from promptly sliding off to fall back to the sand. For once, her expression is grin as she peeks over the golem's shoulder, watching the array of attacks get shrugged off as if they weren't there; her lips thin and her brow furrows, watching in uncertainty as she shakes her head.
"What-- what happened to them?" she burbles, mostly to herself at this point.
When the golem makes it up to the stands, prompting a confused shriek from some of the people cowering there, Shalune draws in a breath and slips Lunata down into a seat, then does her best to pull herself up to her full height. Look reassuring, Shalune, look reassuring. "We're-- we're going to get you all out! Don't panic! Just get ready to leave when we get you a path! --has anyone seen Mr. Dantear?!" she adds as the thought suddenly strikes her, turning back to the arena to scan it as she calls out to anyone who'll listen--
--and then she shrieks as the air suddenly explodes in lightning, ducking instinctively behind the barrier to take cover. The yells and cries behind her are a stark reminder that now, perhaps, is not the time to hesitate. And if it's quick solutions, there's one that comes immediately to mind.
"--Big Shal!" she yells over the sudden crackling din. "Take the back wall out!"
GS: Kourin takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Thunder Clap for 54 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle Cirdian at least never said she'd fight alone. She's reckless, not stupid. She does glance backwards to make sure Cecilia is all right, and gives her a sudden fierce grin when she sees that she is. For now, anyway. "Then take its fear away."
Truth be told, Tethelle felt the power, too. You don't need to be all that sensitive to pick up on the sheer strength of Grahf, and Tethelle is more than marginally sensitive. She has no Medium, but that doesn't mean she's not cued in. And this pair...
What are they? They're people. But they're drawing on... something. She can't tell what; she doesn't know enough about Grahf to guess.
"And where is it written that a waitress cannot be a warrior?" Tethelle tries to maneuver closer now that she's in the arena proper, breaking into a forward run - but not fast enough to vault over the scarlet electrical blast. It catches her in the legs, almost clawing at her, but she skids through it without slowing down much. Her boots kick up sand as she lunges at Amon, as he's closer and holding a big shield.
Tethelle's method of assault is to swing diagonally downward with full force. She hits like a truck; she's trying to batter that shield out of the way so she can actually get a solid blow on him, or if not her, someone else can. And if neither of those work, at least she's right in his face and available to get punched. It's Tethelle's method of keeping other people safe: get hit instead. "I have been in training my whole life in the way of the warrior, and I have seen more of it in her than you today!"
GS: Tethelle Cirdian has attacked Wedding Dress with Swing Down! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Out of the corner of her eye, Talise catches sight of friends lunging onto the field. "Tethelle, Cecilia, be careful!" she shouts to her sword-friend and the Princess.
Then someone else comes strolling in. "Ida!" Talise shouts, beginning to move in her friend's direction.
Amon starts shouting, and Talise scowls as a thunderclap of energy comes roaring her way. Sucking her head, she shields herself with her ARM and her coat as best she can. The energy rips into her anyway, but she keeps running, growling in pain as she's singed stingingly. Right now, her will to confront Amon immediately has decresed, because she can see the way Ida Everstead-Rey is limping and hurting.
Emil Blegovich appears in front of Ida and swings that left hand. Negative light haloes around his fist.
And at the last second, a tall shape shoulders Ida aside.
Emil's thunderous fist slams into hard steel as Talise interjects herself between he and Ida. The punch slams into her chainmail-covered stomach, her wrists crossing against his to try and blunt the impact - but the power of the Demon Punch, empowered by Grahf, slams into her like a truck and takes the wind out of her. With a choking sound she buckles forward, nearly doubling over Emil's arm before slouching backwards and gasping for wind. Wincing, she drops down to her knee unsteadily. Her bleached hair hangs around her face limply.
Her eyes lift, then - and she looks back over her shoulder, towards Ida. "Hey," she wheezes with a faint smile. "You gonna make it?"
Talise keeps herself between Ida and Emil - and she braces herself. Both gauntleted hands grip the hilt of Rastaban. There's a brief window for Emil as Talise gathers energy - and with a roar, she explodes out of that kneeling posture. The punch of the demon is answered with a high, arching slash aimed to shear across the man's torso and up into his jaw.
"TIIIIIIDAL BLOW," she roars, angry but focused. Emil took a swing at her hurt friend and ruined her other friend's moment of victory. It's time she made him pay the piper.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Wedding Dress with Tidal Blow! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Tethelle Cirdian's Swing Down for 19 hit points! GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Talise Gianfair's Tidal Blow for 78 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata hears Amon and Emil's hateful words rain down on her, but it doesn't unsettle her like how it normally would. No, rather, she feels as if she could -- sense their feelings, their frustrations, just -- amplified, to a greater degree than ever before. This was no power that corrupted wholly; it stemmed from a negative seed that dwelled deep within the person. She looked at the Gear again, amidst bated breath and gritted teeth.
In a way, she was no different. Ge Ramda enticed her at her moment of greatest need, and this was the result.
She barely hears Avril's words from afar, nodding as she tries to pull herself up again -- then slumps back against Big Shal's hand. On hearing that command, she cowers just a bit, so as to hide herself from the blowback of what she's expecting to be a mighty fist slamming through the wall.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"I...I don't know, honestly! But that doesn't matter right now!" Jacqueline shouts back to Shalune. She notes with a hint of pride that Kourin had jumped into the fray as well.
"Kourin! I'm glad to see you!" Jacqueline greets...then turns her attention toward Emil and Amon.
With a wave of her hand she invokes a Crest, absorbing and redirecting most of the attack with a pillar of earth. Some of it gets through, landing a cut on her person, but at the moment she is irritated enough to not notice it.
"That 'waitress' is a better person than either of you could ever hope be." Jacqueline shoots back. "You have no idea what she's been through, so I don't want to hear a word! I can guarantee that if she lost, she wouldn't be here, storming the arena and throwing a tantrum! You disgust me!"
The Crest is invoked again, once more sending a barrage of stone at the two would-be warriors as Jacqueline backpedals to let the more experienced melee fighters in.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Wedding Dress with Rubble-Rouser! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin scowls, glaring at Amon. "And what of you, warrior, fighting with strength granted by another?! Perhaps I should disabuse you of another misconception--I do not call myself a warrior."
She raises her off hand, forming a chunk of ice above it.
"I am a mage, a wielder of Althena's blessing!" The ball of ice hurtles towards Amon at high speed.
"I would tell you my name and where I trained, but I have no name for one such as you, and the details of my training are shameful to me--but know that I will not allow you to harm my friends!"
GS: Kourin has attacked Wedding Dress with Icy Snowball! GS: Kourin has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Kourin's Icy Snowball for 27 hit points! GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Jacqueline Barber's Rubble-Rouser for 55 hit points! GS: Wedding Dress enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Hmn. This one was not this strong in his round with Claude, was he? How strange. The mysterious masked man's eyes narrow behind his facade at the arc of crackling energy rapidly closing the distance between he and his foe. The Dark Hero waits, anticipates, and at the last moment, brings his blade in a fierce, overhead arc. The terrible wind splits, the bifurcated winds smashing into the armored plating under his cloak.
"Isn't it obvious?" The Dark Hero remarks, steadying his blade and his stance. He smirks... obnoxiously. As if he knows something that someone else doesn't. This is a rare thing for the Dark Hero. He wants to savor it. "We're rejecting you for being sore losers. Whatever brought us to this arena doesn't matter. All that anyone cares about are results and the ability to accept those results. Anyone who doesn't..."
"IS MEGA LAME!!"
The Dark Hero yells. The Dark Hero vanishes. He disappears into a flurry of motion... And appears immediately behind Emil, who has just appeared in front of Ida, who was just pushed aside by Talise, who just swung her sword at Emil.
And now...
SO DOES ZED.
MULTIPLE TIMES.
He becomes a tornado of swordsmanship, swinging over and over and over into Emil's flank. "And now you're attacking a cripple!? WHAT KIND OF WARRIOR ARE YOU!? WHERE'S THAT PRIDE YOU'RE SO OBSESSED ABOUT!?"
GS: Zed has attacked Wedding Dress with Dark Horse - Supreme Tornado! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Zed's Dark Horse - Supreme Tornado for 119 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
Amon intercepts Lemina's spell meant for his apparent brother-in-arms-du-jour, and Lemina doesn't have the time to react to that before she gets smashed with a polearm. She meets its haft with her staff, but can't do much to actually stop it; she takes a nasty gash, and her whole body sags a bit.
"hhhfff," she breathes, taking a few steps back. Her knee is already starting to buckle a little -- she's not built for this kind of... thing. Continuing her backward movement, Lemina gives her staff a slow, lazy twirl, chanting softly, before --
"ICE STORM!"
She lets a much larger icicle fly this time, calling out, "You guys are just sore losers! There's more to the world than swinging your stupid weapons around all the time!"
GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Wedding Dress with Ice Lance! GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action.
DC: MISS! Wedding Dress completely evades Ice Lance from Lemina Ausa!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida slides a foot back, settling her weight above her hips and holding the cane a bit like a saber. She doesn't have much weapons training, but when she sees Emil coming at her, she can't really fall back on anything else.
That terrible fist rushes at her--she steps to the side, though she knows it won't be enough--
Emil hits something with the sound of metal on metal. Ida looks up, sees Talise in front of her, releases a breath she didn't even know she was holding. "Thank you," she says, her voice low. But... but she's not going to sit back and let others fight her battles for her. "Zed, I am not a cripple!" Ida's temper flares, and with it, the spark of light within her. She's been training as best as she can while her exercise is limited, focusing on her breath, on rebuilding what Lady Harken destroyed. Warmth flows down into her injured leg, and the pain becomes bearable.
"Somehow I doubt that," Ida says to Emil. "I doubt you had anything to do with her." She surges forwards, going from stillness to a lunging strike in the space of heartbeats. Ida strikes with her off-hand, trying to land a jab on Emil's solar plexus. She sees he's wearing armor. She doesn't care.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Wedding Dress with Meridian Strike! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Meridian Strike for 87 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"You're stumbling around with a cane!" The Dark Hero Who Is Probably Zed yells mid-tornado. "THAT IS PRETTY CRIPPLED, IDA. MAYBE YOU SHOULD CHECK A DICTIONARY. EVEN IF IT'S TEMPORARY. I DON'T KNOW IF IT IS OR NOT? HUMAN BODIES ARE PRETTY FRAGILE AND I AM BAD AT ANATOMY."
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Emil's response is to catch her guarded incoming thrust in his hand. "What are--" she utters, this tactic apparently taking her off-guard, then slowing her, then preventing her from falling back into the defensive posture she had been aiming for, the fulfillment of this form. Too late, she realizes what his retribution will take the form of.
The two-handed thrust comes in fast, far faster than should be possible -- she thinks -- with a blade of that size. For an instant, her review of the events that follow is purely analytical, reporting back as if in slow motion: the sound it makes as it cuts through air, the bright flash of pain as it cuts along her body, the sound that escapes her lips as she -- her body -- recoils in a display of pure action/reaction, the way she stumbles backwards -- feet planting one behind the other in an effort not to fall -- away from Emil, the sensation of burning warmth, screams and shouts other than her own.
Time seems to snap back into gear, and Avril staggers a moment where she stands before righting herself. Another breath follows, and her opponent simply vanishes to place -- ah, there, she sees where he's gone. Her free hand presses against the gash across her body as she takes another breath, blood staining her glove.
Somewhere behind her, the wall comes crumbling down in a crash. Where it any other time, Avril might have looked. But as it stands right here and right now, though...
Raising her sword before her in a defensive posture this time, the young woman stands her ground. "A warrior is not defined by their time or experiences," she says simply, straightening. "Now then. Lucadia, please, lend me your aid..." Removing her hand from her wound, she reaches for the Medium at her side. The Medium -- the Guardian? -- is still ill at ease. "Shh," Avril murmurs, before invoking a piece of the Sea Guardian's protection in a shimmer of light.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Tidal Wall! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action. GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Tidal Wall for 0 hit points! GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
'Take its fear away' actually leaves Cecilia stricken for a moment, mouth working. Not entirely what she was expecting, but it works for her. She finds herself smiling more. "That is the idea, isn't it?" she wonders to herself.
And then they're coming. Cecilia now knows enough swordsman that Air Slash is a move she knows how to mostly counter; she throws her arms up, a magic barrier flashing up between her and the attack. It slams into the barrier, forcing Cecilia back a few steps from dispersed force, but fails to crack it. Breathe. Breathe. Notes Talise running in, but focuses most of her energy on Tethelle. "...I'm afraid I don't much know how you feel," she admits to the bitter men. "But I don't need to understand you to know that this power you've taken must be stopped!"
Wwhen she lowers her arms, she's right back to it, magic whirling around her in varying hues as one of her crests slips out of her pocket. She grabs it in mid-air and thrusts it forward to the center of the forming circe. "MUSE!" she calls, and the iconographic drop of water appears. "FRAY!" and this time it's fire.
"BLAST!"
It's not some random bolt of magic, this time; the power gathers together in front of her magic circle and releases as a thin, coherent beam, blasting directly toward the duo!
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Wedding Dress with Crest Sorcery Freestyle! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Crest Sorcery Freestyle for 27 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.
Amon Rau's shieldwork is top-notch; he brings the wall of metal around to intercept Tethelle's assault with a minimum of motion, absorbing the impact while barely moving a muscle, thanks to the fell powers rushing through him. He slams the shield forward, trying to knock the servant of the Sword Guardian away, then whirls in a tight circle, shattering Kourin's ice ball with a whirling sweep of his polearm and then bracing the shield once more against the earth as Jacqueline summons the fury of the elements. The golden knight hurls the poleaxe toward the ice mage (missing by a few feet), then surges toward her on a sudden rush of preternatural speed - evading Lemina's ice blast, which shatters behind him - and then tries to grab Kourin by the throat, squeeze, and then slam her to the ground before recovering his weapon.
Emil Blegovich, meanwhile, absorbs the Tidal Blow on his heavy blade, knocking it away from his body, then unleashes a whirling three-cut cross-slash combination, swinging the massive sword far more swiftly than it seems he ever could. He is swinging his sword around for a fourth strike when Zed intercepts him, and the blonde-haired swordsman is carried away from both Tethelle - and the woman she guards - by the swirling tornado. Emil grounds his blade as he levers himself to his feet, shoulders rising and falling. "You criticize me, MONSTER!" the swordsman snaps at Zed, dashing forward, sweeping his sword in a vicious cut. "It takes more than a mask to hide your identity, DEMON! How many thousands of children did you and yours cut down? WELL? HOW MA---"
*crack*
Ida's hand connects not with Emil's chest, as she had intended, but rather his jaw, as he had been ducking low, preparing to sweep his sword up in a vertical slash. The strike stops him cold, and a line of blood weeps down from his lower lip. He licks it (and possibly also Ida's finger, ew) and then whirls in a rapid spin, sweeping a heel kick toward the gunwoman's temple. Emil brings his sword around, turns his head quickly at the sound of Cecilia's chanting, then flash-steps in a blur toward Amon's flank, sweeping his blade around in an arc of midnight energy that cleaves the beam in two and sends both ends hurtling toward opposite ends of the Coliseum. The blonde swordsman raises his sword, his body crackling with +pot
<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.
Amon Rau's shieldwork is top-notch; he brings the wall of metal around to intercept Tethelle's assault with a minimum of motion, absorbing the impact while barely moving a muscle, thanks to the fell powers rushing through him. He slams the shield forward, trying to knock the servant of the Sword Guardian away, then whirls in a tight circle, shattering Kourin's ice ball with a whirling sweep of his polearm and then bracing the shield once more against the earth as Jacqueline summons the fury of the elements. The golden knight hurls the poleaxe toward the ice mage (missing by a few feet), then surges toward her on a sudden rush of preternatural speed - evading Lemina's ice blast, which shatters behind him - and then tries to grab Kourin by the throat, squeeze, and then slam her to the ground before recovering his weapon.
Emil Blegovich, meanwhile, absorbs the Tidal Blow on his heavy blade, knocking it away from his body, then unleashes a whirling three-cut cross-slash combination, swinging the massive sword far more swiftly than it seems he ever could. He is swinging his sword around for a fourth strike when Zed intercepts him, and the blonde-haired swordsman is carried away from both Tethelle - and the woman she guards - by the swirling tornado. Emil grounds his blade as he levers himself to his feet, shoulders rising and falling. "You criticize me, MONSTER!" the swordsman snaps at Zed, dashing forward, sweeping his sword in a vicious cut. "It takes more than a mask to hide your identity, DEMON! How many thousands of children did you and yours cut down? WELL? HOW MA---"
- crack*
Ida's hand connects not with Emil's chest, as she had intended, but rather his jaw, as he had been ducking low, preparing to sweep his sword up in a vertical slash. The strike stops him cold, and a line of blood weeps down from his lower lip. He licks it (and possibly also Ida's finger, ew) and then whirls in a rapid spin, sweeping a heel kick toward the gunwoman's temple. Emil brings his sword around, turns his head quickly at the sound of Cecilia's chanting, then flash-steps in a blur toward Amon's flank, sweeping his blade around in an arc of midnight energy that cleaves the beam in two and sends both ends hurtling toward opposite ends of the Coliseum. The blonde swordsman raises his sword, his body crackling with more of the red-black energy that has been fueling both fighters. "AMON!" he roars.
"EMIL!"
Two-handed blade and poleaxe cross.
"TOGETHER!"
Both fighters suddenly vanish in flickering blurs, scything across the battlefield, carving lines of fire and darkness across their enemies.
GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Kourin with Choke Slam! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Tethelle Cirdian with Shield Bash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Talise Gianfair with Blade Storm! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Zed with Heroic Strike! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with X-Strike! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with X-Strike! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with X-Strike! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Lemina Ausa with X-Strike! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Jacqueline Barber with X-Strike! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Malfi with X-Strike! GS: Wedding Dress has completed its action. GS: Talise Gianfair critically Guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Blade Storm for 25 hit points! GS: Malfi critically Guards a hit from Wedding Dress's X-Strike for 100 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber critically Guards a hit from Wedding Dress's X-Strike for 95 hit points! GS: Avril Vent Fleur critically Guards a hit from Wedding Dress's X-Strike for 68 hit points! GS: Kourin takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Choke Slam for 115 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Kourin! GS: Lemina Ausa guards a hit from Wedding Dress's X-Strike for 125 hit points! GS: Tethelle Cirdian takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Shield Bash for 29 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Tethelle Cirdian! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's X-Strike for 178 hit points! GS: Zed takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Heroic Strike for 66 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's X-Strike for 175 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
As attacks rage from behind her, Shalune starts to feel like she's getting more on board with this plan of simply taking out a chunk of wall; she cradles Lunata to her for a moment, sliding down the railing and barrier separating the stands from the arena to take cover behind it, her eyes alight beneath her pink hair as Big Shal, standing tall against the various lights and pyrotechnics, turns towards her as if to query her plan.
"I-- I don't mean literally! Knock it down! Make it a ramp, or as close you can!" she amends, her mind whirling as she tries to adjust the rather haphazard plan on the fly. What's behind the arena, again? she wonders to helself in a scattered manner. It was a garden, right? Somethin' like that? "And-- and check no-one's there first, okay?! Everyone else, get your heads down and stay down!"
The golem slowly, creakingly nods, as if it were satisfied with that plan - as if it were acting as a limited on Shalune's lack of common sense - but then something at its back thrums with power, Shalune's synchronization to her unusual alchemy pot firing up and firing Big Shal up in turn. Faster with each step, the golem rears back and brings its fist against the back wall of the arena.
The sheer amount of strength the golem seems able to muster is surprising - far more than its twelve-foot frame would suggest, and indeed far more than the frame can take, the impact shattering Big Shal's hand and sending shocks of destruction up its arm as easily and quickly as it cracks the back wall, sending stone raining down on the alleyway behind the arena. It's rickety, it's probably not all that stable - but it's still a path, and Shalune immediately hops up to begin helping people down it.
"C'mon, c'mon-- this way, okay?" she blurts as she guides people into the breach that the golem has created, pausing only to lean down and pat a little girl on the head on the way. "It'll be okay, alright? Big Shal's okay, I promise. She's got you if you slip."
... true enough, the scattered and shattered components from the strike are already starting to coalesce again as Shalune concentrates, spinning up her arm to allow the golem's hand to reform.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi charges the pair, roaring, all the while fervently hoping her borrowed -- all right, stolen -- implement will hold up. Subtlety isn't her style. Still, she has some skill in melee. Maybe it will be enough.
GS: Malfi has attacked Wedding Dress with Beyond The Impale! GS: Malfi has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Zed?!" Talise exclaims. "Zed, Ida's not a freaking cripple!"
She has little time left to argue the point, because Emil's swatting the worst of her assault aside and unloading on her with a blade storm of his own - and he's a lot quicker about it than a man with a blade that side has any right to be. Widening her eyes, Talise draws on the move she borrowed from Althena's Guard --
--------
A FEW YEARS AGO
"You're dead! HIAAAAAH!!!" shouts a sixteen-year-old Talise Gianfair as she swings and swings and swings at a man in heavy platemail and an Althena's Guard tabard.
The tall man chuckles heartily. His blade dances about expertly. Steel and steel meet again and again. Everything she throws at him is simply batted away.
Talise shouts angrily and keeps chopping. The guardsman boredly knocks her weapon aside.
"You're not very skilled, are you?" he asks, before swinging and blowing her to kingdom come.
--------
Rastaban snaps outward. The first of Emil's cross-cuts is deflected aside with a whiplike stroke of Talise's blade; it still sneaks through to slice along her shoulder. The second swing of that massive sword is barely caught, but Rastaban clashes with it anyway and Talise flicks it away. The third comes in, like a speeding bullet. Talise twists her hips and pops her shoulders, momentarily catching Emil's massive blade on Rastaban's crosspiece. Her teeth clench as she forces strength magic from her gauntlets to parry the blow, and prepares for the fourth - but Zed makes his move, then.
"Ida, be careful," Talise calls out to her friend even as she bounds after Emil - only to stop, blinking with surprise, as Emil licks blood from his lip. "He's mad,:" she breathes.
The two link up and attack. Widening her eyes, Talise throws her arm up to shield herself from the stormy assault of fire and dark. Most of it avoids her; too much of it assails her friends. "Damn it," she growls as she cocks Rastaban into a ready position and holds her ground, waiting for the two to continue their dance through the arena. She watches, eyes darting from figure to figure -
As Amon blurs close to her, Talise reacts almost impossibly quickly. She has no real magic to help her; simply skill and reactions. Her leg sweeps out as she tries to slam the plating of her boot across Amon's calf, hoping to trip or halt him.
Only then does Talise begin to attack. In lieu of lightning or fire, she swings with a rapid series of short, brutally machine-like strokes, two towards the man's shoulders and another arcing down towards his hip, then coming back around to try and take an arm off him. As long as Rastaban is, the blade seems as light in Talise's hands as a dagger.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Wedding Dress with Infinitely Rippling Stream! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin tries to dodge the angry warrior, but he comes on too fast. She gasps as he grabs her by the throat and slams her, hard, onto the arena floor. Gagging, coughing, she rises back to her feet, vision blurring momentarily, before her eyes focus on her target again.
"So," she rasps, her voice hoarse and ragged, "you think that because I am a mage, I am defenseless without my voice?" It's true, she'd have a harder time with her magic at the moment...
"I don't need magic for the likes of you!" she declares, and rushes again at Amon, rapier flashing in twin arcs in the evening sun.
GS: Kourin has attacked Wedding Dress with Cross Slash! GS: Kourin has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Malfi's Beyond The Impale for 22 hit points! GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Talise Gianfair's Infinitely Rippling Stream for 80 hit points! GS: Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Kourin's Cross Slash for 27 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
'Monster...?
'Demon...!?'
"Wow," The Dark Hero answers his VERY ANGRY opponent. Two blades clash. Doom Bringer is levelled against Emil's enormous sword. Red and black and green flash and crackle against one another, one force pushing back against the other, until finally, Z is sent, like a bullet, straight into the sky. His lips draw into a thin line as he touches the fresh gash hewn into his armor. Could've been worse. Could've been better. point of order, though.
"You're not just a moron. You're a RACIST moron. That officially makes you a double moron! How many children has YOUR people killed in the past few thousand years, huh? I've never laid a hand on even one!" The Dark Hero grasps his dread blade in both hands. Energy crackles upwards across the blade, burning bright with the Light of the Soul! "Now! Take this! HEAVEEEEN SWO--"
--==X-STRIKE==--
"Wh--" The Dark Hero blinks, his mouth gabbles. "Hey. HEY! You can't just run away from a guy when he's mid-attack!!" He lands, sword still burning brightly, and frowns. No, it's more of a pout. "Well. Fine. I'll just attack you normally then."
"HERE I GO--!" He finds Emil, and races after him, blazing blade in hand. "DARK HERO STYLE - NORMAL ATTAAAAACK!"
GS: Zed has attacked Wedding Dress with RayBlade - Zed Saber! GS: Zed has completed his action.
DC: MISS! Wedding Dress completely evades RayBlade - Zed Saber from Zed!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
The battle continues to intensify around the arena, but it may as well be a distant din for Lunata at present. She feels like she can sense the faint resonance from other Mediums at hand, the Sea and the Water, but even those are starting to slip out from her vision as it becomes blurrier and blurrier.
Big Shal's fist connects with the back wall and gives purchase for their escape, as the waitress flinches and tucks her head down, rubbing at her face as she-- smiles weakly for the little girl that Shalune is consoling in turn. "Y-yes, please, everyone listen to her...!" She pauses, and holds onto her chest again with a deep and fervent gasp.
For a moment, her head thrashes back, and her eyes are lit with blue flame. It is as if she can see beyond the veil, for just a moment.
In exchange for the power that thou hast requested,
Thine due is the sum of 5 days and 26 minutes.
I hath received the defrayal of thine soul's sacrifice...
She struggles. And has a weak smile to Shalune, as she tries to avoid the visions of Ge Ramtos' door dawning upon her as the clock further ticks down.
No matter the Guardian's price, all she can do is smile, at present. That... is always free. That's just how her service is.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline hears the two would-be warriors calling out to each other. It's almost touching, really. In another lifetime, they might have been good allies. Right now, though, they're united in a hatred of one of her best friends, and that's something she can't tolerate.
She invokes another pillar of earth, stalling Emil and Amon's blades before they can reach her. The dark flames still wash over her, and she can feel them burning away at her vitality. She has to retreat and extinguish them...but she's not out of the fight just yet.
A glare crosses her face as she sees Kourin get choked and slammed to the arena floor. Her friend still manages to get to her feet, though, and Jacqueline once more feels proud for her.
It seemed she had been in the Guard for a reason after all. She couldn't disappoint, either.
She draws another Crest, and the air around her begins to crackle dangerously.
Suddenly, punctuating Kourin's attack, a bolt of lightning crashes down toward Amon.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Wedding Dress with Lightning Strike! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
As long as Tethelle is inspiring someone, things are working out okay.
Amon doesn't manage to knock Tethelle away, precisely, but he does manage to knock her off-balance, recoiling backwards and momentarily out of guard. It's fortunate that he doesn't take exactly that opportunity to follow up, because that would have gotten her off her feet.
As is, he has free rein to move around without Tethelle being able to body-block, which is a benefit in its own right. Tethelle recovers from her off-balanced step, looking around - and her eyes fix on Avril for a moment. They narrow. If she wasn't so busy, she'd have to follow up on that Medium...
But she is. Tethelle roars, chasing after Amon as he charges through the ranks. She slashes high, several times, using almost straight vertical strokes; she expects him to bring his shield high to defend against them. Which is actually the point; she doesn't expect to get through it, but she wants him to raise his shield defensively.
This is because, a moment later, Tethelle jumps. She tries to leap onto the shield, using it as an impromptu platform and sending herself even higher into the air; she does a somersaulting flip as she arcs across the battlefield, airborne for several seconds. When she comes out of the flip, her sword is raised, and she attempts to deliver a single massive vertical slash against Emil - she's tried to throw herself over there with Amon's shield.
She's carefully backed away from Zed, though - keeping Emil between him and her after her strike. She doesn't trust him, even at a time like this. Especially at a time like this.
GS: Tethelle Cirdian has attacked Wedding Dress with Skydrive! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Something hot drips across Ida's fist. She doesn't have to look to tell what it is--and she meets Emil's eyes, silently challenging him. She might be wounded, but her resolve is like steel.
Then Emil licks her finger in what he thought was going to be merely a dramatic licking-off-the-blood moment, and Ida cannot help but grimace. She yanks her hand back like she touched a hot stove, and crosses her arms to try and guard against Emil's strike--but it's no use. The man's foot slams into her temple, knocking her off her feet. The cane goes flying from her hand. Fireworks go off behind her eyes. Ida hits the ground shoulder-first, skids a few feet, and kicks out a leg, catching the dirt with the side of her foot. "And let me guess," Ida says, as she hauls herself to her feet again. "You will kill every last one of them, as she did."
The little flare of power in Ida's chest burns brighter, grows stronger. The pain is nothing more than a dull reminder of past injuries, and the ringing in her head is gone. She leaps into a combat roll, snatching the cane off the ground and rising to her feet again. "But let's see if you can kill this crippled, soft woman first, hm?"
Ida rushes in as Zed does, taking advantage of his flashiness to do something much simpler: an offhand combination. She launches a few jabs at his chest, trying to knock him off-guard, before going right for his chin with an uppercut.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Wedding Dress with Unladylike Fisticuffs! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Jacqueline Barber's Lightning Strike for 78 hit points! GS: Wedding Dress enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Wedding Dress takes a glancing hit from Tethelle Cirdian's Skydrive for 54 hit points! GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Unladylike Fisticuffs for 125 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
Lemina throws up a wall of ice to defend herself, but it's not quite enough -- it can stop the blades themselves, but the waves of fire and darkness are another story entirely. She tries to move back and gain some separation again, though she's pretty sure that she's in a dire way here.
"... Jeez, how did these guys -- well, no, I know how, but..." Lemina mumbles to herself. This is really something else -- how can one man just... bestow power to this extent?! She clenches one fist, and brings her staff around again with her other arm.
Despite her opponents' use of fire, Lemina elects to try her own fire magic in kind -- just because you use it doesn't mean you're not susceptible, right? ... Right? Putting her back to the wall, Lemina lets out a wordless cry and spikes her staff into the ground; a ring of fire pops up beneath Emil's feet, as the Junior Premier tries to find something she can do that they can't just outpace.
GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Wedding Dress with Fire Ring! GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Lemina Ausa's Fire Ring for 140 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia bites out a curse as her blast is deflected, yielding a step or two. "Saw me," she mutters, getting ready to defend herself or at least from whatever Tethelle doesn't deflect, but--
She can't really expect Tethelle to deflect THAT, and the twin strike sends her bowling backward. But that shield survived yet again, letting her hold against the torrent of blows. When it ends she sets her stance, taking stock of the field again. "This power they have is incredible..." she breathes. The Medium throbs against her, cautionary. Not calling to be used; rather the opposite, a silent, worried caution. She has somewhere she must go; a task she must yet do.
She pulls upon that, her Crests flying around her yet again. "Tethelle!" she calls. "MUSE! WING!"
A small whirlwind gathers at her feet and then -- "TURBULENCE!"
The wind at her feet erupts, whirling and coiling around Cecilia and Tethelle both, speeding their steps.
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with Turbulence! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Tethelle Cirdian with Turbulence! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has completed her action. GS: Cecilia Adlehyde takes a solid hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Turbulence for 0 hit points! GS: Quick! Statuses applied to Cecilia Adlehyde! GS: Tethelle Cirdian takes a solid hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Turbulence for 0 hit points! GS: Quick! Statuses applied to Tethelle Cirdian!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Holding that defensive stance, Avril's gaze lingers on Amon, considering how best to tackle his own iron wall. Perhaps if she were quick, or if she could recruit and coordinate with someone else without letting it slip what the game was...
But in an instant, the field changes once again: Emil appears back at his partner's side so quickly that she might have missed it completely had she not been looking that way. And then--
Her blue eyes widen. She realizes what they're about to attempt. "Look out--" she calls, shifting her feet to attempt to defray some of the force beyond the incoming strike. And she takes a breath.
Heat billows across her face. Darkness curls across exposed flesh. But Absolute Zero holds steady as she moves to deflect their blades; only what she cannot block with the sword breaks beyond her barrier. Not unscathed, no, but...
She ought to have said something to Dean and Rebecca, she considers, far far belatedly, her gaze locked on the pair of fighters in the aftermath of that scything attack. Hopefully, they're helping people evacuate.
She'll apologize later.
She dips the tip of the sword low in the wake of the attack, shedding the defensive form she had used previously as her gaze skims the melee unfolding. A bolt of lightning, cast down upon Amon, presents her with the chance to make her idea from before come true; as best as she can manage under these conditions, Avril moves to dart forward. Perhaps if she can-- there.
Tethelle's leap off of Amon's shield provides her with possibly further distraction, fulfilling a possibly ideal condition. She takes the advantage, and presses in without a word with Absolute Zero's point and, quickly thereafter, edge at the armored knight.
She'll break his stance, or attempt to.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Wedding Dress with Absolute Zero - Blade! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Absolute Zero - Blade for 54 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.
Talise's foot catches Amon Rau in the back of his leg, and it's a little like trying to kick a freight train given how heavy he is and how fast he's moving. But just as a penny can derail a train, the blow is enough to cause the armoured man to stumble, interrupting his movement and causing him to fall to one leg. The Lunarian's follow-up strike bites hard into the man's pauldron, carving through the armour and into his shoulder, her blade coming away red. Amon snarls and drives his shield at Talise, trying to drive her away, in time to parry Kourin's whip-quick rapier strikes, answering with a sweeping polearm blow that encompasses both the ice mage and Malfi. The big armoured man grunts as Tethelle leaps off his shield - he swipes his poleaxe after her, but she gets away before he can manage - and then exchanges slashes with Avril, before he is driven to one knee by Jay's lightning bolt from the heavens. Amon sucks in a breath, roars his defiance, and leaps---
---twenty feet in the air, in full plate mail---
---and then comes hurtling down toward Jay, bringing the poleaxe down point first, trying to spear her as he lands with all his weight.
Emil Blegovich, meanwhile, is having a bad day. He brings his blade up and around to guard Tethelle's strike, but the force of her blow drives him down to one knee, which also places his face square up into Ida's punching range. He staggers backward into Lemina's ring of fire - which brings a pained shout from his lips, even though THE POWER is still blazing through him.
THE POWER....
Emil draws in a breath, reaches into the depths of his heart, and unleashes a throat-shredding scream, black-red energy blazing out from his body, lightning crackling down his arms, crawling along the surface of the Coliseum as he gathers power. And for the magi on the battlefield, they can get a full sense of what lurks behind the energy that is empowering the two fighters, driving them forward, the gift og the Seeker of Power.
Hate.
A hate so pure and powerful it cannot be contained, can only be shared, spread out, until the entire world is set aflame. And then and only then will it finally be sated.
"ENOUGH TALK!" Emil roars, lashing out with red-tinged Air Slashes at the fighters around him. "KILLING YOU ALL!"
GS: Wedding Dress enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Wedding Dress with POWER OVERWHELMING! GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's POWER OVERWHELMING for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Lock, and State! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Talise Gianfair with Shield Bash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Kourin with Heroic Strike! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Malfi with Heroic Strike! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Shake The Heavens! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Lemina Ausa with Corrupting Aura! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Corrupting Aura! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with Corrupting Aura! GS: Wedding Dress enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Tethelle Cirdian with Air Slash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Air Slash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Zed with Air Slash! GS: Malfi guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Heroic Strike for 82 hit points! GS: Wedding Dress has completed its action. GS: Zed takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Air Slash for 55 hit points! GS: Talise Gianfair guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Shield Bash for 39 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Talise Gianfair! GS: Kourin takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Heroic Strike for 64 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Shake The Heavens for 110 hit points! GS: Tethelle Cirdian guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Air Slash for 63 hit points!
DC: MISS! Lemina Ausa completely evades Corrupting Aura from Wedding Dress!
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Corrupting Aura for 0 hit points! GS: Poison and Disease! Statuses applied to Cecilia Adlehyde! GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Corrupting Aura for 0 hit points! GS: Poison and Disease! Statuses applied to Avril Vent Fleur! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Air Slash for 55 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi grunts as Amon's sweeping attack causes her to stumble, and bruises her lower legs badly. Stupid, shoulda seen that coming! At least she'd been able to dodge enough to avoid being slashed. Staggering, she impulsively zaps him, hoping against all evidence that he doesn't resist electricity -- or worse, absorb it.
GS: Malfi has attacked Wedding Dress with Assault With Batteries! GS: Malfi has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Malfi's Assault With Batteries for 87 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise looks like she's about to press her advantage on Amon Rau, until she catches a shield to the chest.
Amon thumps her with it good and hard, interrupting her glorious combination and knocking her bodily backwards; she tumbles and lands on her back, her head bumping against the ground and leaving her wincing, but she quickly rolls back to her knees, wincing and giving herself a shake.
The blow wasn't enough to hurt her. It shakes her up, though. She gives her arms a quick shake and readies her sword again, but when she comes to her feet, her footing's not as steady as she'd like it.
She gets a close look at Ida just punching the crap out of a dude. Talise's eyes widen. Ida's certainly come a long way from the noodle-armed smart girl she met just a few months ago.
"I wish I knew!" she calls back to Lemina. "It must be like K.K. and the Malevolence - like some kind of possession or twisting or something!" It's the closest baseline Talise has, and she sticks with it, bunching her shoulders and planting her feet and wishing to Althena she had the power to purify Hellions or whatever it is Emil and Amon are right now. Instead she points her sword towards the pair, sweeping her right hand through the air in a broad gesture.
"Listen, you two!" she shouts at them. "Don't you see what this guy's doing?! He's just using your bitterness! Look what it's done to you! Just come to your senses and fight the power already!"
Then she springs forward, ignoring her defensive stance for now in favour of trying to close ranks with Amon. Rastaban sings in the air as she takes a swing at him, aiming to slam the flat of her blade against his shield - and then she charges her left gauntlet. The strength of an ogre flows through her muscles as she tries to just yank Amon's shield out of his hand.
"Althena's sacred thong, would you two stop!" she shouts in his face.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Wedding Dress with Ten Thousand Relentless Streams! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin staggers back from Amon's sweep, bleeding. This isn't working--time to adopt a new tactic. She needs some space for this, but she's not going to get it by continuing to trade blows in melee. So she starts to withdraw--her blade held ready to parry, she backs away quickly and painfully conjures another ice ball despite the injury to her throat. If she can get a bit of distance...
GS: Kourin has attacked Wedding Dress with Icy Snowball! GS: Kourin has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress critically Guards a hit from Talise Gianfair's Ten Thousand Relentless Streams for 18 hit points! GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Kourin's Icy Snowball for 88 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline recoils back as Amon roars. Her eyes follow him upward, and its with a note of panic that she realizes he's falling straight for her. She conjures a pillar of earth in an attempt to cause him to simply crash into it...but instead, he crashes straight through it.
His poleaxe is shifted aside, but having a large man in heavy armor slam into her was still an unpleasant experience. There is a choked gasp as she feels the wind - and probably some blood, plenty of that too - knocked out of her.
With a grunt she reaches for one of the bags at her waist, drawing out the knife. She forces herself to her feet and attempts to just shank him with it, aiming for any possible openings in the armor she can find.
Failing that, she hoped it would at least get him to retreat from her. He was too close for spellcasting, he would just impale her if she tried to cast or retreat.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Wedding Dress with Harvester! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
Hatred rolls off of Emil in waves -- and Lemina's having none of it, frankly. It's not to say that she doesn't feel it -- quite the opposite, in fact. She brings her staff forward again, plants it in the ground, and a bright white light begins to emit from it. It's not a laser -- not the sort of bright-light magic someone might expect of Althena's Blessing, given Lucia's propensity for shouting "Power" and spraying lasers.
No, this is different. It's a pure-white radiance with faint prismatic undertones that envelops the whole arena, pressing back against the wave of darkness and pushing it back. "... You won't be killing anyone today," Lemina says, with a gentleness that might seem -- uncharacteristic, given her history of constantly mouth-farting behind Althena's Guard members and throwing popcorn into the arena.
The light, most notably, extends to those threatened by Emil's darkness -- it swoops through where once there was darkness, and pushes it back, twists in on it, pair-annihilates. "I'm not going to let your hurt feelings hurt anyone else!" Lemina insists, turning away from Emil with a swoop of her staff. Her other hand raises into the air as the radiance continues to spread, reaching out even for Emil and Amon themselves -- though that might be a little much for even her to try.
Lemina's raised hand clenches into a fist as she declares, "Erase Magic!"
GS: Wedding Dress takes a glancing hit from Jacqueline Barber's Harvester for 44 hit points! GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with Erase Magic! GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Erase Magic! GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action. GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Lemina Ausa's Erase Magic for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Lemina Ausa clears debuffs from Avril Vent Fleur! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde takes a solid hit from Lemina Ausa's Erase Magic for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Lemina Ausa clears debuffs from Cecilia Adlehyde!
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
THE POWER.
Tethelle doesn't have it. There are things she hates, but nothing like the sheer force they have for anything and everything. But she has her own power, and she'll have to call upon it to stand up to them.
Tethelle's sword starts to shine a faint silver. It's not magic, really - it's her fighting spirit, her chi if you will. She holds the blade in front of her, perpendicular to the ground, and the Air Slash parts around it. Not so much as to save Tethelle - she gets sliced into on both shoulders, rather than getting a single direct hit to the torso - but to try to save herself from the lingering wave people like Cecilia encounter.
It keeps shining while she sweeps it in a wide arc, deflecting a couple more of the Air Slashes away from her, but begins to fade - Tethelle isn't using it to strike. She lowers her sword slightly, charging Emil while he looks distracted, shoulder-first - she's trying to literally slam into him.
If he's knocked off-balance, Tethelle spins, using the sheer mass of her giant sword to whirl her in a complete arc once, twice - the momentum makes her blows powerful and nearly unstoppable, though they lack for finesse. Finesse is not what's required this time; she needs to put them down and out before anyone else gets hurt. "You will not kill anyone if I have anything to say about it!"
"Cecilia!" she calls, after. She needs to check on her ward - just as soon as she plows through Emil...
GS: Tethelle Cirdian has attacked Wedding Dress with Wheel Swing! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a glancing hit from Tethelle Cirdian's Wheel Swing for 45 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
If Uncle Zeik were here, he'd probably say something about how strength is only as strong as the one wielding it. Or something. In other words, no matter how much power something has, it doesn't mean much if the one wielding it doesn't know how.
Of course, Uncle Zeik isn't here right now. If he were, this would be WAY more complicated and Zed would probably be obliged to shank at least one of these people in the face right now.
Instead, he just takes advantage of the brief lull in the action and the TREMENDOUS AURA OF ABSOLUTE HATRED (Zed is used to this, he lives in the same building as Berserk) to flash Ida a thumbs up and a big grin. "NICE PUNCH," Zed says, winking. "I guess Devil's Due isn't your ONLY gun, eh? Eh???"
...
Wait. What's that sound.
OH NO, MORE AIR SLASHES.
Zed's shining sword splits another blood-red crescent in two, carving yet another pair of scars into is armor. It still holds, for now-- Metal Demon armorworking is as impressive as their other warcrafts. "Hnngh, you... You're letting that power control you now, huh? That hatred is... pretty crazy...!"
"Man, second time in a week. Ahahahahaha, Lacour's going to need an exorcist!" He takes a step INTO the cataclysm of wrath and enmity and raises his shining sword again. "Let's give this another shot. DARK HERO STYLE...!"
He takes a step.
AND THEN FRONT-FLIPS INTO A SPIRALLING SLASH!?
"PARA-NORMAL ATTAAAAAACK!"
GS: Zed has attacked Wedding Dress with RayBlade - Zed Saber! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a glancing hit from Zed's RayBlade - Zed Saber for 68 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The Air Slash races at Ida, glowing red and hungry for her blood. She almost misses it as the wave of raw, unadulterated hatred washes over her, threatening to drown out her thoughts. Her heart hammers against her freshly-healed ribs. Anger rushes up inside her--it's like the thing empowering Emil and Amon is contagious, drawing out the anger and hatred of others.
FOCUS
Ida lets out a hiss of breath, short and controlled, from deep in her chest. It's like a silent shout, and as she does so, she feels the familiar battle-calm replace the raging anger. Ida hops to the side, twisting out of the way of the Air Slash--mostly. It clips her unwounded shoulder, drawing a line of blood, but it's nowhere near what Lady Harken did, so she can handle it.
EARLIER TODAY
Ida's cousin presses the cane into her hand, and smiles. The two of them exchange a look, and Ida's frown gives way to a knowing smile as she realizes what it really is.
"It wouldn't do to let you go out in your current state without it," the other woman says.
NOW
Ida grabs the end of the cane and twists, pulling off the last six inches opposite the handle. She tucks it into a pocket, turns to Zed, and smiles. "Of course." The end of the cane is open, now. Ida moves like lightning, her hand tightening up on the handle as she braces the cane's body with her other hand. She pulls part of the metal filigree aside, and pushes down on a button. Life-force flows from her into it--it's not Devil's Due, and it feels tougher because of it, but for a student of Five Precepts Chained Devil, it's a minor obstacle.
The rifle hidden inside the cane fires, once, the bullet glowing as it seeks out Emil Blegovich.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Wedding Dress with Devil's Draw! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
DC: MISS! Wedding Dress completely evades Devil's Draw from Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Amon's armor means that Avril's blade does not bite nearly as deep as she would prefer; much of the strike is deflected. Still, hopefully this provides an opening for someone else to attempt to disable and disarm the man before he can cause damage.
What would happen, should these two escape the arena, should the attendees not flee, is not an outcome that the young woman would like to discover.
Amon retaliates, metal ringing on metal as she completes a narrow parry, falling back from her temporary position as his wrath threatens to be more than she dares risk in her current condition. Absolute Zero trained on him still, she treads one further step backwards when
Purest hatred blossoms across the arena.
"What is this... feeling..." she utters, raising one hand to chest height as the impact of it all spills out within her. "Augh... It's... is this... Can someone hate... this much...?" Cringing, gritting her teeth as it resonates fiercly within her, Avril again assumes a defensive posture as she struggles, feeling as if she's drowning under the weight of the psychic pressure.
Relief from the hatred comes from an unanticipated corner of the field: Lemina's magic. Glittering light scythes away the darkness, purging its touch from Avril's heart in a brilliant array. "Thank you..." she breathes to her benefactor, her tensed posture easing. Her gaze lingers on the pair of men.
"So this is what is in your hearts..."
She lowers the blade she holds. With a twist, a readjustment of her grip, the blade itself vanishes, as if had never been. All that remains is the 'hilt'.
"Very well. Then, I shall not hold back. This will end here," she promises, as she pulls the trigger. She lunges at Amon in the same heartbeat.
Light streams out from the former hilt, brilliant white. It consolidates, hardens, forms a wild beam of light. Without hesitation, Avril lashes out at Amon, bringing the beam whip down upon him from an overhead swing.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Wedding Dress with Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
DC: MISS! Wedding Dress completely evades Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc from Avril Vent Fleur!
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
The POWER that pulses through Emil is released, via the medium of black metal screaming. Cecilia can't defend that. She tries, throwing her hands up in another defensive formation, but the wave of vile power just washes through it, across her, through her, and finds--
She remembers, dully, the smile on that copy's face, when she did the exhibition map. She'd known then what it wanted to say. She'd destroyed it, harshly, because she knew those eyes, knew what lay behind them. She finds her fist balling in her shirt, like she could claw out the poison she feels inside.
It is a mercy, then, when Lemina's light washes across her in turn. She feels the tension slowly fade from inside her. She's not sure when she fell to her knees, barely supported by her staff. She manages, after some breathing, to force her hand away; release the death grip on her staff. "I'm," she wheezes to Tethelle. "I'm fine. Sorry." She puts her weight on the staff to rise. "Thank you!" she calls ove rto Lemina.
Getting close to these guys is WAY out of the question, but she can still do something. She focuses on the power around her, the motes of power in the arena, the way the Leypoints align. One option comes to mind, and she whirls her staff around, motes of violet light cascading around her like will-o-wisps as the pentagram forms. "WING!" she calls, and the pentagram flashes with green light, ephemeral fluttering leaves pulsing off of it as a dull breeze. "MUSE!" and the light turns blue and thick, pulsing off in bubbles. The energies clash and combine as the Crest leaps to the center, gathering the two powers together, unifying, and: "SPARK!" Cecilia calls out, and a rake of lightning leaps away from her, racing across the distance - skirting impossibly around Tethelle and others as it seeks the two allies and seeks to blast them both with enough magic electricity to disrupt their ability to hold their energies together.
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Wedding Dress with Spark! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Spark for 109 hit points! GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Wedding Dress!
<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.
Amon Rau meets Talise Gianfair's strength with his own; ogre power flows through her gauntlets, and POWER flows through his body. He manages to hold tight to the shield, but the difference between the two is so slight that the metal of the shield actually begins to bend before either one lets go---until finally, Jay's knife slashes into a slight gap between lobstered gauntlet and vambrace, forcing Amon to release the shield into Talise's waiting grasp.
Snarling, the armoured titan shifts to a two-handed grip with his poleaxe, bringing the weapon down to smash Kourin's ice magic (which pretty much just sends a dozen smaller icicles crashing into him, so that could have gone better). He brings the mighty weapon around to parry Malfi's assault with the shaft, but he is clearly labouring to move the unwieldy weapon with sufficient speed.
Emil Blegovich, by contrast, is suffering not at all. The blonde swordsman trades cuts and parries with Tethelle, grinning wildly as her sword opens a line along his left thigh. "That's the thing!" he cackles. "You don't! None of you do!" His aura of power begins shrinking in size but glowing ever brighter, as he narrows its focus.
Zed leaps overhead and Emil moves to the right - not quickly enough, as the Metal Demon's blade carves a slice along his left shoulder. Emil laughs through the pain, the aura continuing to condense. "You're barely keeping up with me now!" he laughs, dancing away from Avril's lashing strikes, leaving faint trails of red light in his shape behind him, the after-image bisected by the light-whip's slash. He straightens, left hand flickering out as Ida raises her cane.
- BLAM*
Emil stands tall, smirking at Ida as he lifts the bullet he's holding between thumb and forefinger and tosses it over his shoulder. "You can barely keep up with me," he says, eyes gleaming. "What do you think you'll do.... when I have TWICE THE POWER?"
The blonde swordsman leaps upward, thirty feet into the air, leaving Amon Rau alone to feel Cecilia's electric blast, which drives the armoured knight to his knees. Up in the air, Emil swings his sword back, and the blade erupts with a cyclone of ebon and crimson power, pouring the force of his hatred and resentment into what is now a ten-foot-long blade. "SCHOOL OF THE DEMON FIST!" he screams. "FORBIDDEN ART!"
Amon looks up, eyes wide. "Emil, what---"
"Told you I'm killing you all!" Emil roars as he swings the blade down, firing a blast of energy that encompasses the Coliseum floor in its entirety.
"GIGAAAAAAAAAAAAAA STRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!"
GS: Wedding Dress has activated a Force Action! GS: Wedding Dress has activated a Force Action! GS: Wedding Dress has activated a Force Action! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with Giga Strash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Giga Strash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Giga Strash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Zed with Giga Strash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Tethelle Cirdian with Giga Strash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Lemina Ausa with Giga Strash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Giga Strash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Kourin with Giga Strash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Talise Gianfair with Giga Strash! GS: Wedding Dress has attacked Malfi with Giga Strash! GS: Malfi guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Giga Strash for 116 hit points! GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Giga Strash for 199 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Giga Strash for 111 hit points! GS: Tethelle Cirdian guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Giga Strash for 118 hit points! GS: Talise Gianfair critically Guards a hit from Wedding Dress's Giga Strash for 40 hit points! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action! GS: CRITICAL! Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Giga Strash for 150 hit points! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Giga Strash for 193 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Kourin takes a glancing hit from Wedding Dress's Giga Strash for 144 hit points! GS: Lemina Ausa has activated a Force Action! GS: Lemina Ausa takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Giga Strash for 183 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi snarls and hurls herself into the fray, going all out. The fact that she is among the most well-adjusted of her peers is, quite frankly, scary. Ignoring the pain, she charges right at Emil with her stolen pike.
GS: Malfi has attacked Wedding Dress with Power Surge! GS: Malfi has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Wedding Dress's Giga Strash for 186 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated a Force Action! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Kourin with Boosting Brew! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Talise Gianfair with Boosting Brew! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Lemina Ausa with Boosting Brew! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with Boosting Brew! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Talise Gianfair takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Boosting Brew for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Talise Gianfair! GS: Reload! Talise Gianfair gains 15 extra FP from Jacqueline Barber! GS: Lemina Ausa takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Boosting Brew for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Lemina Ausa! GS: Reload! Lemina Ausa gains 15 extra FP from Jacqueline Barber! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Boosting Brew for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Cecilia Adlehyde! GS: Reload! Cecilia Adlehyde gains 15 extra FP from Jacqueline Barber! GS: Kourin takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Boosting Brew for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Kourin! GS: Reload! Kourin gains 15 extra FP from Jacqueline Barber! GS: Wedding Dress has completed its action.
DC: MISS! Wedding Dress completely evades Power Surge from Malfi!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
What was going on...? Amon did not seem quite as consumed by the madness as Emil did.
...Twice the power? Was it possible this wasn't even the limits of his capabilities?
...Also, what's a 'Strash'? Whatever it was, it consumed the arena floors. Jacqueline raises a pillar of earth to defend herself against it, but the pillar is soon eroded away in the flood of energy. Jacqueline herself is overwhelmed, and the energy is soon upon her as well.
She lies on the ground for a moment, but with a grunt soon manages to force herself to her feet.
"Your power...I won't deny, it's impressive..." She murmurs, rummaging through her bags.
"But...I still can't forgive you for what you've done." She pulls out four potions - each one brimming with a bright red liquid.
"This is my power. Everyone...I give it to you now! Make it count!" She shouts, and the bottles are hurled out - to Kourin, to Talise, to Cecilia and Lemina. If she had more, the others would've gotten them as well, but she hadn't come to this arena planning for a fight. Just to watch one.
She then begins to backpedal a bit, drawing a Crest to prepare to defend.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin is knocked to the ground by the force of the strash, bowled over and sorely injured. But she's not out of the fight...not just yet.
In some ways, she's just getting started.
She rises to her knees, looking for Amon, trying to get her position worked out--but Amon is down.
Good. That means she has the space she needs for this.
She places her left hand on the ground, pouring energy into the magic she's working, despite the pain, despite the blood trickling down her brow.
The ground frosts over as a large form begins to take shape--soon forming into a tremendous golem of pure ice, with jagged fists bristling with spikes. It lumbers forward towards Emil, swinging one of those huge fists down at him with staggering force.
GS: Kourin has attacked Wedding Dress with Glacial Golem! GS: Kourin has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
"Watch me," Tethelle growls, through grit teeth. Her formality slipped. Again. Why she even tries to sound like the stereotypical wise Zoa Priestess anymore is a mystery; it's unnatural for her.
Tethelle can feel the battle shifting. It doesn't have the same feel as it did before; it's building to a conclusion, power to a point. There is going to be an ending one way or the other. She gathers her own power, building it inside her. Her grip on her sword tightens as she shifts the angle of the blade, tensing as she goes into a half-crouch.
And there it is.
It's Emil. Tethelle can feel what he's going to do an instant before he does, a ball of hate compressed into a blade of fighting force. Tethelle begins to mouth words under her breath as he leaps, her entire body straining, ready to act.
They are a prayer to Equites. Tethelle has no Medium, but the prayers serve to focus her anyway. Her mind clears of distractions; her spirit is pure. There is, for an instant, nothing but the battle and her desire to put an end to it. She is as pure and sharp as the blade she wields.
The energy blasts into Tethelle. It hurts, but she ignores the pain; she vanishes in the explosion of black and red, hidden from sight by the destruction of the arena's floor and the sheer intensity of the blast. She could be dead; it's hard to tell, and she wouldn't be the only one.
But Tethelle comes out of it. She rockets out of it, leaping as high as Emil, her blade trailing the pure silver of her chi. She delivers an aerial two-handed blow in a wide arc, whirling through with the momentum, slashing a second time - the force of her swings almost keep her up as she whirls through a series of attacks, speeding as she strikes and strikes and strikes again.
"You want to be a warrior?" she roars. "The spirit of a warrior is not the desire to kill! The heart of a warrior is not murder! It is standing for something, not standing for nothing!"
GS: Tethelle Cirdian has attacked Wedding Dress with Whirling Juggernaut! GS: Tethelle Cirdian has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Kourin's Glacial Golem for 175 hit points! GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Tethelle Cirdian's Whirling Juggernaut for 87 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's eyes widen. Panic rises up in the back of her mind once again--she'd counted on that shot at least hitting Emil, and at best, putting a hole in him so that Zed or Talise or someone could grab him. And then what, an exorcism? Rau seems out of the fight, but Emil--
He's sneering at her. He's not taking her anywhere near seriously, even though the Metal Demons are back, and anything she and her companions can learn about the war might save lives.
Was this lurking inside him the entire time, building up like lava waiting to erupt? Is this a lifetime's worth of anger and resentment he's pouring out on the battlefield? A pang of sympathy rises in Ida's heart, even as Emil makes clear his intent to murder every single one of them. Ida raises the cane, as if it would be any proof against his forbidden technique.
It's not.
The cane shatters, breaking apart into shards of wood and slivers of gunmetal. Power surges over Ida's body, the anger--the pure, raw killing intent--once again threatening to overwhelm her. She raises her arms, feels her sleeves catching fire--blinding pain hits next, like the shockwave of a bomb.
ONE THOUSAND YEARS AGO
Commander Fafnir draws in a breath, and lets it out, the superheated air feeling merely warm against his lips. The fire in his chest banks down to a dull roar, and from his perch atop the battlement, he looks down into the flaming wreckage of the human base. Bodies are strewn everywhere. Most of them are too badly-burned for anyone to recognize, and this bothers him in a way that he can't describe.
"Where is she?" Fafnir says. He hears something rustle, and that's all the warning he gets before she lunges at him like a pouncing tiger, burned, but still standing. Still fighting.
NOW
"I'm sorry," Ida says. She coughs, and blood comes up, a thick coppery taste in the back of her throat. "Sorry that you feel you must claim respect through this." She raises her head. "I don't know who this Demon Fist is--all I have is a fragment of a name, and a fragment of a legend. But what I do know is that she was respected enough to be honored in our people's memories. I know that she fought tooth and nail against the Demons. I don't know who the woman was behind the myth, but I do know this."
Ida looks at Tethelle. If Tethelle should look back, she will see little trails of gold leaking off of Ida's fists, and out of her wounds. It's chi of her own. "YOU WILL DISGRACE HER NAME NO FURTHER!"
Ida moves like someone who didn't get wrecked by a Quarter Knight a week ago. She crosses the distance between her and Emil in a blur, leading with a straight punch as Tethelle goes for that two-handed aerial strike. She follows through with a punch combination, her fists flying with surprising speed; he might be wearing armor, but Ida does not care. That armor is nowhere near thick as Berserk's, or Lady Harken's, and she fought both of them. She survived both of them.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated a Force Action! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Wedding Dress with Unladylike Fisticuffs! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Unladylike Fisticuffs for 123 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Oh," Zed says of the wall of utter devastation rapidly on approach. "That's a thing."
It sure is a thing.
Zed roars as the wave washes over him, his helm and mask crack under the strain as he struggles in vain to press back against the inexorable force. His armor tears away in chunks. Underneath, freshly healed skin screams as it's flayed anew. His feet dig into the arena floor, pain blasting through his limbs as he desperately tries to just. Hold. On.
And when the wave has passed...
The Dark Hero still stands.
Even as his mask crumbles away.
"Heh," he coughs, his skin raw, bruised silvery blue. "Nyeheheheheheh. Look at you. All that power..." His hands wrap tight around his blade's hilt. "And none of us... Are dead yet. But you know, I kind of expected that."
"What you have isn't really power. Strength, but not power."
"A warrior controls his strength and turns it into power. Anything else is just another weakness! That's what uncle would say!" The Dread Zauber - Doombringer glints in the lingering red light. "But I'll admit, you are strong. I'll just have to get stronger to make up for it... Everything in one move...!" He takes a step. Hops forward...!
His eyes flash, blade suddenly igniting. "Hissaaaaaaatsu---!" Zed's form blurs, then vanishes-- only to reappear just in front of and just under Emil's guard, "PILED SHOT!" One horizontal slash burns white. The second cut, diagonal, shines green. The third, completing the symbol, glows pink! "SAKURAAAAAA---"
One more cut.
Purple.
-==Z==-
"SUUUUPEEEERNOOOOOOVAAAAA!"
The symbol flashes...!
ZED TURNS AWAY!!!
THE SYMBOL EXPLOOOOODES!
GS: Zed has activated a Force Action! GS: Zed has attacked Wedding Dress with Split Ladle Sakura Supernova! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Zed's Split Ladle Sakura Supernova for 181 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise wrenches the shield out of Amon's grip.
It's a good thing she did, too. It buys her a breather; she shifts Rastaban to one hand. The weapon may be long but she's able to handle it, though it's going to change things. The moment of adjustment gives Emil his opening to fire off that massive blast of energy upon the arena in its entirety. Talise widens her eyes --
She blinks. "What's a strash," she asks, glancing towards Ida.
She finds out what a strash is. Emil unloads with his Forbidden Art, pounding down at the Coliseum floor with an insane wave of energy. Talise gasps -
And she raises Amon Rau's shield.
Maybe pulling on it wasn't her smartest idea - and yet, it got it into her hand, and it does its job here. The energy wave slams into the shield and pushes Talise backwards. Her shoulders clench up as she struggles to bear into the wave. "Althena... preserve us," she gasps as energy rips past the shield's edges and scorches across her arms, across one cheek, leaving burns and cuts where it passes - and yet, so much of it is soaked up by the damaged shield. Any enameling on its face is burned away. The face of it heats up but it doesn't quite permeate to the paneling on the back. It's still uncomfortably hot.
But the wave soon passes - and when Talise rises again, she's left holding a slightly damaged shield with the markings on its face scorched off.
Talise got Iron Shield x1!
With a huff, Talise slings the shield over her shoulder and takes Rastaban in a two-handed grip. She'll get the shield repaired later. For now, there's a man up there who needs a beating. And a potion being tossed her way. Blinking, Talise lifts her sword to salute Jay, then uncorks the potion and knocks it back with a long chug.
The power of it flows through her. It swells and gutters like a flame in her veins. Shoulders rising and settling, she smiles widely at Jay, then draws her sword up into a ready position, clenching her jaw.
"Ida," she calls out. "There should be a case with some heal berry cordial over near the stands." She knows her friend's hurting but there's not much she can do except try to protect her physically.
With a burst of speed, Talise dashes forward, swinging Rastaban from one side to the other - and then, with a high bound, she leaps.
Talise Gianfair has never shown any ability to use magic - any ability to channel chi. Yet the leap she takes here is beyond human. It's borne of sheer physical excellence. Hurtling upwards like an ascending star, Talise sweeps Rastaban up over her head. She sails high. She soars above Emil.
"DRAGON'S LIIIIIIIIIGHT," she screams. The moon glints in the sky behind her.
Then she descends, and Rastaban sings in the air as she delivers a violent stroke. Everything seems to hang in the air for a moment.
Then she slices again. Again, again, again. A series of lightning-fast, blisteringly fine strokes aimed to carve Emil Blegovich into chunks.
GS: Talise Gianfair has activated a Force Action! GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Wedding Dress with Savior's Storm! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress guards a hit from Talise Gianfair's Savior's Storm for 102 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
And so it goes that Emil... promptly teamkills. Lemina is so completely gobsmacked by his willingness to do so that she forgets to actually do anything about the massive blast of energy surrounding her -- by the time she gets her head back in the game, it's too late, and she's bowled vigorously over by the sheer force of the blast.
When she pulls herself back up to her feet with her staff, she's greeted with a potion -- one which she graciously accepts and drinks with a quick, "... Phew, thanks." She doesn't look like she's in great shape, admittedly... even after the help she looks like she's going to need that staff to stay up.
"... Emil," she says, lips pursing a little bit. "This -- this is wrong!" She twirls her staff around once, her vigor starting to return as she brings forth the magic of the Goddess.
This time, it's not the butt of her staff she sticks into the ground, but the head, which she thrusts into the ground with some force and a cry of, "FREEZE CLAW!" A claw of ice erupts from the point of impact and then carves through the dirt, snakelike, toward Emil.
"Just -- just stop fighting!" Lemina half-begs, her voice straining. She can see how this is going to go. She doesn't like it.
GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Wedding Dress with Freeze Claw! GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Lemina Ausa's Freeze Claw for 173 hit points! GS: Wedding Dress enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Avril lashes out with the photon-hot edge of Absolute Zero's beam whip--
All for naught, as she cuts through nothing but an afterimage of the man. "...You're fast," she states simply, her expression set in a muted mix of determination and consternation. Lips press thin. This is the power that was granted upon him? "But haven't you had enough? There's no need for this."
Charge expended, the laser-weapon burns away as it had never been, leaving behind only the hilt. Another heartbeat, and perhaps she would have brought forth the blade instead. But Emil...
'Is killing them all'.
Avril twists, leaps, curls in on herself as she does her utmost to fling herself out of the way of the incoming blast as the blade comes down and destruction unfolds across the arena. But there are precious little safe places left to place oneself into, only some places that are slightly less deadly than others. It isn't a direct it, this part of the destructive wave only catches her edge on, but even that is sufficient to send Avril sprawling, hard, against the packed earth of the arena floor. Absolute Zero skitters from her grasp a few feet. Dazed, blood roaring in her ears, she lifts her head and tries to lever herself up only to collapse again.
You can do anything, as long as you don't give up!
...That's right, she's not giving up here.
One more attempt sees Avril up on her knees. Though certainly dazed, she rises to her feet and treads those few steps forward to reclaim her fallen ARM.
And there as she turns to face her opponents, she realizes acutely what has just happened to Amon. Her lips part, her eyes widen.
"You... killed him," Avril utters, as if dumbfounded. "Your own ally."
Something within her almost, almost seems to resonate, furious.
The blade reappears in a flash, leveled at Emil. "This is wrong!"
It's Tethelle's roar that catches her ear, the words ringing out. "--I agree. This is not how a warrior should be acting. Prepare yourself!"
Avril breaks into a dash, blade held low at her side as she closes on Emil. Hair billowing out behind her in a wake as she nears, she lifts Absolute Zero, driving in at the twisted warrior with an overarm slash, to be quickly followed by a forward thrust.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Wedding Dress with Spirit Saber! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Spirit Saber for 136 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia's lightning curves around, but can't quite follow Emil along its Leyline path. And he takes full advantage of that, to be sure, as the power roars out of him. She looks over - to Amon, the other corrupted man, and then back up to Emil. "Wh--no! You mustn't!" she calls, as if this will have some impact.
It does not. The tremendous blast of power rips through the arena, and what shields Cecilia may have brought to bear fail entirely and instantly. Perhaps someone far away hears a dull *whump* of a body striking the stones of the far wall, Cecilia Adlehyde crashing into it after she is thrown bodily across the arena. She staggers herself upright; stumbles forward a few steps, forcing herself to stand as she takes stock of the battle. Emil stands unbowed. Amon....
Gone.
She breathes. The area around her thickens, as she slowly pulls in power. This has to end. This must stop. The Medium trembles in her grip, and she understands. No more talking.
"The tides wash away all that is impure," Cecilia breathes, and the magic around her tunes itself anew, glowing with sudden, new radiance. A presence unseen but terribly real. The Aqua Wisp leaps out of her inventory, whirls around her merrily as she draws the power of the Muse leypoints she's been creating together.
"Guardian Schturdark...see it done," she breathes. "I'm coming soon. So please....once more...!"
She holds her staff up and the Aqua Wisp slots itself neatly between its wings. "MATERIAL!" Cecilia cries out, high and piercing.
"ASSAULT TIDE!"
She flickers away - replaced moments later by a tremendous tortoise, its tail thrashing as it takes wet, soggy steps across the field. It watches with vast eyes, seeking. Surveying.
It locates Emil. Finding.
It screams and it sounds like a waterfall; it stomps and it sounds like a flood, and then the water surges out from nowhere; materializing literally from nothing, drawn into being from pure Muse as the water rushes across the field, washing across the corrupted man with all the power of the world.
Cecilia returns, a moment later; the Guardian of Water here only briefly. The Aqua Wisp drops out of the air, and neatly into Cecilia's hand.
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has activated a Force Action! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Wedding Dress with Material - Assault Tide! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has completed her action. GS: Wedding Dress takes a solid hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Material - Assault Tide for 173 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Wedding Dress has posed.
Amon Rau collapses to the Coliseum floor - battered and unmoving - as Emil Blegovich lands nearby, his eyes wild. "Give it to me!" he screams as he straddles the body of his former comrade. "GIVE ME YOUR POWER!" he roars, waiting for the moment when it rushes in.
The moment does not come.
"NO!" he screams, left hand leaving the hilt of his sword to tear at his hair, his eyes widening as he stares at Amon's fallen body. "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" he repeats himself, his voice frantic and broken. "That's... I didn't mean... it should have..." The blonde swordsman sways backward to evade Malfi's driving strike, but then everyone is on him and he is alone, so very alone. Tethelle's strike rips Emil's breastplate from his body, and the golem summoned by Kourin knocks him across the Colisum floor like a bowling ball. He rolls to a stop and rises in time to catch Ida's flurry of blows, and that sends him staggering backward, coughing up blood.
And all the while, THE POWER begins to flicker.
Sakura petals and lunar light shine as Zed and Talise carve twin slashes across his body; Avril's cut and thrust pierce him twice, sending him sliding back across the Coliseum, his sword spilling from his hands. Emil struggles to rise, only to have a draconic claw of ice grip him tightly, holding him immobile for the arrival of Schturdark, Friend To All Mediums. Water washes over him in a torrent, battering the swordsman, cracking his frozen prison, and leaving him spread across the Coliseum floor.
Sputtering, coughing, he begins to rise. "Too late," he sobs, "Too late for me... AND FOR ALL OF YOU!" Emil raises his hands, shaking with cold. "I killed my friend.... and I'LL KILL YOU T---"
"Sh--- shut up."
A coughing sound echoes out as an extremely bloody, extremely damp Amon Rau drags himself up to a seated position, an ugly slash opened across the front of his chest. "It's over," he gasps.
Emil stares. "Amon... but I...how..."
"Coliseum... Symbols," the armoured man chokes out. "Close. But not..." the man winces, sags a bit. "Emil.... it's over."
The blonde swordsman's mouth opens and closes, body shaking as he stares at his fallen friend. After several seconds, the red haze vanishes from his frame, and Emil Blegovich collapses like a puppet whose strings are cut.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise's eyes grow wide as Cecilia Adlehyde calls forth a thing with a presence that even Talise can feel. Her breath catches in her throat.
Then she touches down. Blood beads down Rastaban's blade and drips to the ground. Her teeth click together, a breath forced through them as she glances over towards Amon, then Emil again. Relief floods through her as she realizes the two are alive - and they seem lucid now, the red haze pouring out of Emil as he collapses before her and the others.
Amon's shield hangs over her shoulder as she darts forward, moving to kneel by the fallen Emil. She moves to check him before realizing she has no real sense of how to check for the things that happened to him that defy explanation. All she can do is check his wounds - that, though, she does. Her tongue moves across her lips. "No," she murmurs to the unconscious man. "Nobody's going to die in the arena. That's not an honourable fight."
Lifting her head, Talise looks off to the far end of the arena, as though to check if the others are still dealing with that maniac who calls himself Grahf. Then she turns her gaze to Ida, then Tethelle and Cecilia, then Jacqueline, then the others she's less familiar with.
"Everyone in one piece?" she calls out. She took a few solid hits but somehow she's still steady.
Part of her realizes something bittersweet: I guess all those ass-kickings the Guard handed me when I was younger paid off after all.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi staggers off the arena floor after missing Emil SPECTACULARLY and nearly being drowned by the Guardian. With the heat of battle fading, she can feel the various cuts and scrapes keenly, even as her natural shapeshifting attempts to mitigate the worst of them. Too late she realizes she should've scanned her opponents and the mysterious man with the Gear who gave them their power. She resolves to do better next time.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin lets the golem crumble into a pile of slushy snow. "I...I am intact. Injured, but intact." She frowns. "But...what devastation."
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Oh dear sweet mother it's the turtle again.
In some ways, it's good that Schturdark is utterly ignoring Zed's presence, because otherwise he might presently be dissolving in holy water right now. On the other hand, that means the godturtle isn't doing much to avoid straight up murdering him. "Wh--" Zed gawps as the waters start flooding in. "W-wait! Hold on! I'm still--"
SPLOOSH
"--B-blub!?"
GS: Zed has attacked Zed with B-lub!?! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Zed's B-lub!? for 77 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
THE FLOODWATERS WASH AWAY.
Zed is... face down on the arena floor. "Uuuuuugh," Zed groans, shoving himself back upright with tired, creaky limbs. "Whyyyyyyyy?"
Beat.
O-oh, Emil is down. And Amon isn't dead. And now everyone has the opportunity to turn their terrible wrath unto the most unfortunate Metal Demon...!
EXCEPT.
HE STILL HAS SMOKE BOMBS...!
Except they're all soaked and functionally useless.
"...Blurgh," Zed blurgles. Today wasn't supposed to be painful.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The raw, palpable grief is a welcome change from the raw, palpable hatred, perversely enough. Ida staggers back, slipping into a defensive stance as Emil emerges from the flood, battered, but alive. "Emil," Ida says, "Please--"
She looks over at Amon, who inadvertently confirms her suspicions. If these wards can handle the raw fury of a Quarter Knight, empowered by that dark, horrid anti-life, then they could probably handle what happened to Amon. Ida hobbles over to Emil, and oh-so-carefully begins dragging the fallen swordsman over to where Talise told her the heal berry cordials were. "That was quite unpleasant," Ida says, which is the understatement of the month. "But I will live."
'Blurgh'
"Please see to Zed."
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Schturdark.
Tethelle feels his presence as Cecilia calls on a fraction of his power, just enough to make himself known. She spotted someone using a Medium before, but this is different, and it's almost enough to disrupt her iron focus. The form of her mental prayers shift slightly, words to Schturdark finding their way in there.
She lands next to Emil, drawing her sword back. She expects to need it again, a moment later; she did not expect Amon to rise, even with the Symbols in use. They were broken after that, surely... but apparently not, and she won't turn down her good fortune.
As Emil falls, Tethelle's sword snaps out one more time - to harmlessly tap Emil. It does no damage; Tethelle barely touched him with it, but ritual calls for one last contact to be made (and, more importantly, she was verifying that he wasn't faking it). But he's down, and not dead; Amon is also injured, but not dead. As is she, for that matter, though she's in better shape than Amon.
"Well enough," she says, after a pause. Tethelle looks back at Cecilia - after she summoned Schturdark again so publically... but she seems all right, and it's not like Zed - the only Metal Demon here she recognizes - is attacking her. He seems to have been washed off some distance, anyhow.
And then Tethelle focuses on Amon. "I do not think you two should be here any longer." Because that's a good way to get attacked by Lacour forces, once they realize that this battle is over.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline braces herself for what's coming next...but the fight has been declared over. She breathes out a deep sigh. Amon had been downed and Emil was looking battered, but so were the rest of them, as well. She'd managed to prop herself up when the flood of Guardian-sourced water had come through, at least.
On the other end of the arena the battle was still raging...but right now, her focus was on these two.
"I'm doing alright...he might've cracked a rib, but I'll live." Jacqueline replies with a nod toward Talise. She then walks up to the two men, arms folded in front of her.
"Now then, as for you two..." She reaches into her bag and draws out a potion, her eyes fixed on Amon. "You've caused a lot of trouble here today. If I give you this, do you promise to drag him to the medics without causing any further problems?"
When she speaks, it is with a varely restrained anger.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin gets to her feet, breathing heavily, and limps towards the rest of the group. Getting hit by the strash appears to have injured her ankle, she notes clinically.
"Has anyone seen Spirit?" she asks, worried. It's somewhat unusual for the dog to be absent from his mistress' side for so long--but no, there he is, finally climbing over the rail to come dashing over.
He had a hard time following her against the crowd, it seems.
Kourin, relieved, sheathes her blade, and wincing, crouches to give Spirit a hug and receive worried licks.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise's eyes follow Tethelle as her friend taps Emil like that. She takes a mental note.
Then she moves to help Ida lug Emil towards the barricade. There, in the seat once reserved for Lady Chloe Alexandre - half-hidden beneath a chunk of debris from something Grahf blew up - is a six-pack of heal berry cordial. "It wasn't fun," she agrees once Emil's over there. Only then does she sink to a knee and produce a cloth from her pack, wiping the blood from Rastaban's blade diligently.
Jacqueline pitches in some potions that aren't alcoholic. "She's got the right idea," she murmurs to Ida, before giving the apothecary a weak smile. "Thanks for the help earlier, Jay."
Sheathing her blade, the tall woman drops into a crouch near Emil, folding her hands atop her thigh. "I guess the question now is who this Grahf is," she muses, voice subdued and tinged with worry. "That power didn't feel anything like Malevolence...."
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
Almost the instant the battle ends, Lemina... elects to look away. She hobbles back to her seat, slow and sure, using her staff as a walking-stick. Amon's not dead. Emil's not going to die. It's hard to say that everything's fine, but it's...
... well, it's not nearly as bad as it could have been.
Lemina elects to cry in her seat in utter, total relief.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
She can feel the summoning winding its way into the world before it even emerges in full.
Drawing back from Emil and assuming a defensive posture -- in the assumption that a counterattack is soon to follow -- her gaze traces the descent of the waters brought forth by the Water Guardian Schturdark. "A Medium..." she murmurs, her brow crinkling in spite of the circumstances at hand.
Something is also happening with the aura of sheer pressure hanging about Emil. It's almost as if their combined attacks were enough to cut away the fell blessing... or perhaps, it was never a gift meant for him to keep in the first place.
And after all that, Emil still rises. Avril tilts her sword at an angle, as if in preparation--
Emil screams in a mixture of madness and despair. Her lips press thin, her gaze intent upon him, as if she were about to say--
And Amon speaks.
"...That's right, the Symbols put into place for the tournament," she says, realization unfolding in time with Emil's own. "No one can be killed. Not even if they use that sort of power."
And as Emil collapses, she lowers her sword to her side. The blade vanishes.
"It's over," Avril says, before turning towards her own allies in this battle. Slowly, she breathes out, pain and exhaustion flooding in as the desperation to survive flees. "...I believe," she says, at Talise's question, a glance traded down at the wound that cuts across her torso as a dizzy spell rises up to drag at her, "That I have been better. However, it will be alright."
Drawing out the Sea Medium, she closes her eyes, pushing away how her body screams as she reaches for that connection with Lucadia. As the Medium shines forth, brilliant light radiates around her body, stauching and mending the most dangerous of her wounds.
She will still need to take it easy for a few days while her body recovers the rest of the way, but at least she won't be in danger of collapsing right here and worrying her friends.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Once the cordials come out, Ida shotguns one in a most unladylike fashion, mostly because she's been drinking them for a week straight at regular intervals, and they're also alcoholic. Where did she learn to do that?
Lemina starts crying in the background. Ida pauses in the middle of uncorking a second cordial, and inclines her head towards the young sorceress--but she realizes, a moment later, that those aren't tears of fear or sadness or frustration.
"I don't know," Ida says. It looks like she's feeling her injuries now that she's no longer running on all metaphorical cylinders. She sinks onto the ground, and looks down at the floor.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise watches Ida shotgun that drink and nods approvingly. The master is proud of you, student. The master is proud indeed.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline can let her anger dissipate for Talise. She offers the beastwoman a smile.
"Don't mention it. I knew you'd use it well." She replies with a nod, then glances toward Kourin. Everyone else seem to have those two covered, so she hands her friend a potion and gives Spirit a complementary headpat. She was glad that he hadn't been caught in all of this madness. She didn't know how well he'd have handled it...or if the wards would've taken him into consideration, as well.
She takes a seat herself, a hand going to her middle to feel that injury she had received from Amon crashing down on top of her.
Looks like she'll need to down a potion or two herself...
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
In the back of her mind, Jacqueline hopes Shalune and Lunata managed to escape safely. She can't help but wonder if this'll put a damper on her friend's championship victory...
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin nods thankfully to Jay, explicitly not commenting on the drinking going on. She wants to, kind of--but she's decided that she can't just enforce the parts of Althena's will she agrees with. She doesn't believe all of the recent decrees have been correctly interpreted, so she can't justify enforcing any of them.
Besides, Ida's not even from Lunar.
"Thank you, Miss Jacqueline," she says instead, as Spirit wags his tail. "I am glad no one died this day. I...I may have become a little carried away."
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia huffs quietly as she tucks the Aqua Wisp tablet away, slowly stepping back closer to the battle. Emil's not down, he's still--
Amon. He and Emil clash, one final time; and then collapse. Alive...probably? Cecilia's headache starts to fade. Something terrible is still here, but....over there. Someone else is handling it. It's cool. "....soon," she murmurs, and possibly not to anyone here in form.
She draws up nearer to Tethelle. "I'm alright," she declares. A little banged up, but well enough. She looks up to Tethelle's eyes, nodding. It's fine. It's all fine.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline chuckles, though it causes her to wince slightly, and offers Kourin a smile.
"It was...good. A good kind of carried away." She replies with a nod. "You should get carried away a little more often."
She thinks about this for a moment, and then adds,
"...But, uh...not too carried away, I mean."