2018-12-04: Devil in Yellow

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<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.

    Nowhere is safe within the Photosphere. It is enemy territory. The Drifters take their lives - and the lives of the entire planet, and beyond - in their hands as they delve within. There are sights and sounds none could have ever dreamed of prior to setting food inside, and the sense of inhospitality is pervasive. It is a place absolutely none of the gathered could ever truly live. If not always in temperature, there is a sense of the whole of it being frigid. Sterile. Orderly and managed in ways that human and beastman lives aren't - not even among those caught in indentured servitude (or worse). The Photosphere may well be more of a hive, than a home.
     There is nowhere safe, but there are places that are quieter. Darker. Whether a consequence of deemed unnecessary systems being taken down to reroute energy to more important sections being trespassed, or the result of aggravated damages from the Destiny opening fire, there are further unknowns within the unknown that may draw curious eyes.
     A fleeting opportunity, for the strict window of time in which they may have to put a stop to Mother's ambitions.
     This opportunity leads a number of souls down a darkened path where the overhead lighting only flickers on the rare chance a spark of power goes down that path. Those familiar (or rather, familiar enough) with Metal Demon items and workings can identify the power lines that tend to lead towards a computer node. One such line should be blocked off by several layers of security to prevent unauthorized access.
     Those layers are intact.
     The surrounding architecture about these layers, not so much. Metal has turned to slag and rapidly cooled from where weapons fire of an indeterminate source has struck. Based on which side the slag has rested (inside), it seems that someone had tried to break in.
     ...Tried? Succeeded.
     Lights flicker ahead from disembodied, flat screens of luminesence, rapidly scrolling Hyadean text between distorted images of items of interest to whoever or whatever conducts their business here. Along the way, the intruders will pass open cages.
     Alhazred was overheard ordering various cages be open, out on the exterior of the Photosphere. It may be these cages... a sign that they may be getting close, (un)comfortably close, to Alhazred's laboratory. The circumstances may be fortuitous.
     The circumstances...
     ...also appear to bear an offensive metallic scent.
     Only the scent.

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

It has dawned on Talia, slowly but incrementally, that she is in far over her head.

She hadn't seen technology at all, on Lunar. The very sight of November City took her breath away; ARMs went from that strange new thing, drawn into her world, to an almost every day feature. None of that prepared her for a place of steel, of blinking lights, and darkness. It is alien in a way that she did not know things could be alien. It puts the former assassin on edge, and that shows in her every movement.

Her footsteps are light. Her limbs have a coiled, ready-to-pounce quality to them. Her crimson eyes dart around, looking about thoughtfully -- and she frowns, as she sees the power lines. She knows nothing of them. Her lips curl back, into a slight frown, and then she glances over her shoulder at the others.

"The smell here," she says. "There is... something wrong about it, no?"

She has Mirage drawn. The flickering lights here reflect off her blade; the whorls of blue and black in its steel are clear, but made all the more eerie, when the light hits them.

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Nowhere is safe, and it's a bad place to be alone. And Talise has the misfortune of having been separated from her nakama.

"I knew I should have taken that left turn at Meribia," the swordswoman mutters to herself, gripping her sword anxiously as she moves down that path. Something sparks, and she jumps a little, so tense is she that even that small sound and flicker of activity can set her teeth on edge. Beyond that...

...it's too quiet. And there are too many signs that something immensely destructive has been through here. Talise crouches a moment to inspect the slagged metal of that security system. "Ohhhhh, this is a bad idea, Tal," she murmurs to herself. "Definitely missing Tethelle right about now."

That's about when she realizes there's another Tal who could take that as talking to her. Blinking, she steps to one side and looks back towards Talia, recognition dancing in her eyes, but quickly hardening as she gives the other woman a grim nod and moves Rastaban into a ready position.

"It reeks," she agrees, lowering her voice in the hopes of not echoing. "And whatever it was must've packed a punch."

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia Seren has been within the Photosphere generally helping evacuate people from the Gutter. suddenly drops down from a ceiling vent and lands right behind Talia.

"HI TALIA!" Lydia shouts. "Wow this place is spooky! Don't think I've been here yet!" She takes a look around before pinching her nose. "Uggh, is that blood? Or something worse?" Lydia wonders as she waves a hand in front of her face.

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia Seren has been within the Photosphere generally helping evacuate people from the Gutter. As such, she has already been moving around through the Photosphere for a bit though obviously not too long because of everything happening over the course of like two days ha ha ha!

She suddenly drops down from a ceiling vent and lands right behind Talia.

"HI TALIA!" Lydia shouts. "Wow this place is spooky! Don't think I've been here yet!" She takes a look around before pinching her nose. "Uggh, is that blood? Or something worse?" Lydia wonders as she waves a hand in front of her face.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    There is a human in the Photosphere who knows just enough about Hyadean technology to be a threat. Adam Everstead-Rey is one of the foremost human authorities on the aliens' machines, and while that may not be terribly impressive to Alhazred and his flunkies, it means that Ida, his daughter and student, knows things she should not. She knows how to speak with the machines the Hyadeans use to transmit information, and to regulate the sophisticated mechanisms that keep the Photosphere liveable. She knows just enough to get into a computer-ARM that isn't already locked down. She knows enough to access important systems.

    In a way, Ida feels at home. She doesn't even mind the too-clean air; it certainly beats those days when Guild Galad's atmosphere scrubbers can't keep up with the miasma billowing from its smokestacks.

    "Blood," Ida says, wrinkling her nose. There's a length of strange, metalcloth sheeting fastened about her like an improvised cloak. Her hair is tied back in a loose, messy ponytail, her clothes are dirty, and her armored duster is still blackened and dented from where Siegfried shot her. "This must be part of their laboratory complex." She sees those cages, and the hair on the back of her neck stands on end. Beneath the improvised cloak, something that might be Ida's right arm twitches and flows. "But there--" Ida steps closer to the active terminal, stopping about halfway. "That machine is unlocked. I can do more than just give instructions this time, if--"

    'Orphans of Hyades, you have served loyally.' I am Voice, and I say this: the thing you serve deserves neither your loyalty nor your lives.'

    Ida smiles a small, genuine smile. It quickly fades, though--these are ominous circumstances. "Still proud of that one. I might be able to figure out where the others could've gone, but..."

    Ida pauses, reflects on the devastation all around. "I'm betting whatever did this isn't GRANAS' BLOOD!" Ida has a hand halfway to Devil's Due before she recognizes the lady she was ready to shoot. "Good God, Lydia." She presses a hand to her chest, as if trying to still her hammering heart. "I almost shot you."

<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.

    Granas' blood... there is nothing of Granas here.
     Someone's foot brushes up against a weight unseen in the flickering. The weight shifts limply if one lifts said foot forward or upwards, for it to settle back down with a lighter 'thump.' They might not be the only 'someone' to do it, given Lydia's enthusiastic entry into the expedition party. None of the ambient light reaches the source(s) of this tactile disturbance. It may invite weapons fire or other aggressive means to address the unknown, within the heat of the moment.
     Only when one of the gathered steps back into where illumination is serviceable enough to make out the grated texture of the metal laboratory floor will they see it, in their booted footprints.
     That is definitely not Granas' blood.
     That is Hyadean blood.
     Those disturbances - once anyone has the courage or means in which to better observe the tactile anomalies on the ground - are corpses.
     Shriveled, crumpled, cooled bodies from the ambient temperature of this part of the Photosphere. A streak of quicksilver blood shines from any light put upon it, streaking downward across a damaged console that has seen high-temperature exposure. Laser fire?
     A light - a vertical slit of light, full-spectrum rather than the yellowed luminescence seen in those parts of Filgaia that have made use of the concept of electricity - peeks out ahead of a sliding metal door that seems indecisive as to whatever mechanism triggers its opening.
     It cuts immediately to darkness, revealing flickers of silvery... light? Is that light? They look more like lines. It's a strange hue. The screen colors here tend to be more light blue or maybe some sort of a slate grey, and not... quicksilver. Like Hyadean blood.
     There are flashes of white of more geometrical patterns, rather than the... lines?
     The offensive metallic smell is stronger.
     Moments later, the door

<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.

    FLIES OPEN WITH A METALLIC SLAM AND A DISEMBODIED WEIGHT ATTACHED ONLY TO FLASHING GEOMETRICAL PATTERNS THAT FADE TO VISUAL NOTHINGNESS AND BACK TO A CHOPPY NOISE IN THE AIR RAMS INTO EVERYONE

GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Talia with Push Over!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Talise Gianfair with Push Over!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Lydia Seren with Push Over!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Push Over!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action.
GS: Talise Gianfair guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Push Over! for 91 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.

     ...
 
     ...
 
     ...
 
     ...
 
     A heavier weight touches down behind them within the dim lights. Two sets of insectoid legs, a pulsating abdomen with lines...
     ...Veins!...
     ...of quicksilver. It is too dim to make out further colors, but the silhouette peeks through the limits of everyone's ability to see. Bushy antennae shudder with anticipation.
     Drip.
          Drip.
               Drip.
     Flecks of quicksilver, like tiny dots, flash where eyes might be, relative to the antennae.
     The dripping noises...
     ...they seem to originate from the Hyadean blood now leaking from this thing's... form.
     Muscles contract and relax. Thin, translucent wing membranes flex outward to further flashes of veiny quicksilver. A long, breathy, scratchy, aggressive sigh seems to escape from... somewhere.
     "^Meat Remonssssssssss.^"

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Ida Everstead-Rey completely evades Push Over! from Yarobeleedt!
GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Lydia Seren completely evades Push Over! from Yarobeleedt!
GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action.
GS: Talia takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Push Over! for 149 hit points!
DC: 1 turn has elapsed in the battle against Yarobeleedt! 4 turns remain!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Aah--careful," Talia says, turning her head to look over her shoulder. She flashes a nervous smile at her. "It is, no? But... it is also, I think, dangerous. This place looks half-destroyed."

Her eyes shift. Talia meets Talise's gaze, and then she nods her head once to her. Even if she looks, at least momentarily, concerned by the cages. She bobs her head to what Ida says, but doesn't really process that. Talia doesn't really understand what she means. She lets out a long, low breath. She starts to feel a flash of relief that comes through her; then, she sees the gleam of quicksilver blood. She has fought enough Hyadeans to recognize it. She steps backward, nervousness in her movement. She almost walks right into Lydia.

That is when sparks scream and fly; when the door whips open, and then a geometrical pattern slams into Talia bodily. She rolls off Lydia, and then she slams into the back of the room, rattling one of the cages. She looks up, to see muscles; to see quicksilver veins; to see wings. "What in the name of Althena is that!?"

She raises a hand. There is no quippy, hurried incantation. A lance of frost appears, before it coalesces into solid ice -- and it hurtles up towards the mass of flesh and the source of those dripping noises.

GS: Talia has attacked Yarobeleedt with Freeze Lancer!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

"HOLY--" Talise starts as Lydia drops in and starts shouting. She widens her eyes and clenches her shoulders to stop herself from moving them more than an inch, but her eyes are wide. "Althena's thong, Lydia, please don't do that when I'm holding a sword."

Clicking her teeth sharply together, the big swordswoman turns to step back into the light. It gives her a better look at the blood. And the source of the blood.

"Oh," Talise says with a blink.

"...Ohhhhhh."

Then the door flies off. Talise, who is not actually that fast, yelps and throws an arm up to try and push it back. She mostly ends up being bowled over, knocked violently backwards and slammed onto her back before rolling away as fast as she can from the hellish oscillation of light.

When she does come back to her feet, wincing, she tries to take stock of what just plowed past them - and when she does, her mouth hangs open a little. It's not a Metal Demon she can remember seeing before. It's far more hideous, and it's leaking quicksilver, no less. Colour's hard for her to see, merely a shape - one that doesn't belong in this world. Her heart wants to recoil from it.

And then it rasps at them, and Talise's jaw drops slightly before she snaps it shut again. "So apparently the incoherent one caught a bad case of the horrorterrors," she grunts in the hopes of parrying trepidation with HERO SASS.

She doesn't have the benefit of magic to fight with. Talise fans out to one side and whirls her sword into a striking posture, then snaps forward with a grunt, bringing Rastaban up and slashing hard at the Metal Creature's limb in the hope of severing something before the mutated demon can do... whatever it did to those Hyadeans. Talise doesn't want to think about it.

GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Yarobeleedt with Gathering Tide Stance!
GS: Talise Gianfair has entered a Reflect stance!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Talia has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Freeze Lancer from Talia!
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Talise Gianfair's Gathering Tide Stance for 55 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    The one upshot to Lydia's sudden appearance is that it puts Ida on edge. She steps into the laboratory as though any floor tile could be connected to a hidden tripwire--something designed to capture intruders, perhaps, and deliver them to Alhazred's lab for experimentation. What she finds is... less immediately distressing than that, but no less horrific. Ida has seen more than her share of corpses in her day, and it's easier for her to shove down the visceral reaction that results. She kneels beside a corpse still clad in the uniform she's come to associate with the Photosphere's techncial staff. She inspects the body, something turning over beneath her cloak.

    "They've been drained of blood," Ida says. There's detachment in her voice, but not much. She looks up, observes the screen.

    The sound of metal giving way is the only warning Ida gets, but it saves her. It might've had nothing to do with Yarobeleedt at all, at least not in the present moment--but she throws herself to the side, tumbling and rolling behind the gutted remains of a terminal. The horrible, logic-defying amalgamation of light and sound and color speeds past her with inches to spare. If she were less than a second or so later, she would've suffered the same fate as Talia. Ida plants a foot beneath her and shoves herself to a knee, her torso snapping upright with a motion that's a bit too boneless for comfort. What she sees sends chills down her spine. What she hears hearkens back to Adlehyde, to the very first Demon she saw that openly identified itself as such.

    Ida has no words. Her left hand darts for Devil's Due, whipping the heavy pistol out of its holster and aiming at the thing in front of her. Its lifeforce is all wrong. It's wrong in ways she can't describe. Sensing it is as vertigo-inducing as looking at the Demon's physical shape. She pulls the trigger, loosing a chi-laced bullet with a tremendous bang.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Yarobeleedt with Chi Bullet!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Chi Bullet for 60 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"Well yeah. I mean. Everywhere is dangerous." Lydia says. "If you think about it like that, it's not so bad. right?" Pause. "Althena's thong? Is that a real thing or are you fucking with me?" This explains a lot about Margaret, Lydia thinks. Unfortunately Lydia doesn't seem to be too apologetic, more mildly apologetic. "My bad," Yeah that's pretty mild.

She is about to say more when a door flies open. Lydia slides to the side, mostly just hit by a Talia as she slides out of the way in a smooth motion, she looks towards 'the thing', which is how Lydia thinks of it at first, and then thinks of it as Yaro because he spoke.

"Holy smokes." Lydia says. "Yarobeleedt became Horobeleedt!"

Naturally she launches cartoon stars at the guy but she does say, "What happened!! How!!! WHY???"

These are all very good questions.

GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Yarobeleedt with Interstellar Vibe!
GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lydia Seren has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Interstellar Vibe from Lydia Seren!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.

    The lance of frost reflects the ambient light of the malfunctioning free-floating Hyadean screens, as though an arrow of light into whatever terrible thing just came out of the darkness. Once more, lights flash across the body and it seems to phase in and out of clear view. How it moves - if it is moving - seems lost in the moment. Only Talia's experience as a mercenary clues her in - she can feel the faint vibrations of footfalls (which would otherwise register as 'two people moving' were it not for the specific anatomical differences already observed), even if the sense of sound she might rely on beyond that is washed out by the rapid flittering of wing beats that seem tuned to muffle subtle sound.
     Talise gets a much better confirmation of where 'the incoherent one' is because SUDDENLY HE IS RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF HER. Compound eyes - many compound eyes, reflecting the visage of a resolute woman of greater physical strength than even many of the Hyadeans still alive. Her hard slash may be intended as her counter-offensive, but in this surprising moment it becomes something else -
     - a parrying blow that might just have saved her life as she just barely overturns a slashing hook-scythe from a raised fore... leg? Arm? Looking this close, beyond the voice, there are unmistakable similarities. The nostrils, and the spiky ochre shoulder pauldrons. It does raise curiosities as to whether it should be called an arm or a leg. Maybe it's both, in this instance.
     "Althena?" The thing rasps. "No Celesdue liars. Only Mother."
     Something - many somethings - fly off the insectoid abdomen. Squarish sheets of a steel color fan out, and bright shining stars are deflected and shattered. Standing this close to Talise - and not being far off from Talia - the two of them will have to contend with them slamming and slicing about their personal spaces as there is another vulgar flickering of light patterns.
     A chi-laced bullet rebounds off of thin air with colorful sparks, its primary success being in identifying Yarobeleedt's present position. Which is to say, he's cutting them off from where they first came on virtue of standing right in the way.
     "Should say surprise? No. Is no surprise. Is not twisted ending of yours." ...So if it's not 'twisted ending of theirs,' are they not going to die? That's not reassuring words. That's not reassuring posture, as the four less-ambiguously-arms-or-legs-but-definitely-legs skitter across the laboratory floor. The abdomen twitches. "Mother wants ^Meat Remons^ for children... Mother does not want Metal Demon..." Those words should be melancholy.
     He sounds... excited.
     Enthusiastic, with how the voice pitches upwards.
     One of the forearms reconfigures right in front of them. It doesn't turn into some twisted, gnarled, imbalanced mass of blades and teeth like it might have before. No, it reconfigures neatly into the barrel of an ARM.
     Flashes of light fly free in an aimless pattern in which Ida is only in danger of being grazed by virtue of being somewhere in the direction of where it's going. All the while, the creature's head tilts to the side. Tilting to the side where Lydia presently exists.
     "..." A hissing escapes them. More nastiness comes out of their proboscis - followed by something dangling from it that in turn seems fit to just drip more of the aforementioned nastiness that is mostly Hyadean blood by volume. Mostly.
     Nostrils flare.
     It flashes forward again with great speed as its entire bulk lunges for Lydia, to entrap them within their limbs with a grip that does not appear like it should be crushing, as the forelimbs form piercing hooks.
     Her situation stands to turn to life and death within half a heartbeat.

GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Talia with Hide!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Talise Gianfair with Hide!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Panic!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has spent 2 Combo on Smite, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Lydia Seren with Weakling!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action.
DC: 2 turns have elapsed in the battle against Yarobeleedt! 3 turns remain!
GS: Talise Gianfair takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Hide! for 170 hit points!
GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Talia completely evades Hide! from Yarobeleedt!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Panic! for 185 hit points!
GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Lydia Seren completely evades Weakling! from Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Oh boy oh boy does Talise wish she could fight this fight entirely from range, but her only ranged weapon is a shotgun. And she's starting to think that trying to melee something nine feet long and with insect limbs that eats blood not be the wisest idea.

Especially when it turs out that the creature is fast enough to cut her off before she can hit anything. Talise's eyes widen.

She can't find words, but they'd be useless anyway as steel and stars explode out of the hideous thing and punch into her armour. The finely-honed steel saves her from being killed instantly, but only just. Blasts slam into her and send her hurtling backwards, blood trailing from her mouth.

There's a console sitting at the far end of the room.

Now there's not. Instead there's a heap of equipment with a Talise-sized hole through it as she hits it hard enough to shatter it. It breaks just enough of her momentum that she can finally roll heels over head and flop back to her knees from an upside-down position.

Talise would love to say something suitably sassy right now. All she can manage is an eloquent "hrk."

Pushing herself back to a standing position, Talise takes a moment to collect herself and catch her breath. Beneath her armour, firm muscles bunch and tense. Her breathing levels off as she reminds herself that Lady Chloe wouldn't back down from a monster like this. It takes some doing, but the trepidation begins to quiet.

Lady Chloe also would probably run away and regroup sometimes, a little voice in her head reminds her. It sounds suspiciously like Ida's.

"Bother," Talise growls as she hangs back a moment, trying to at least brace herself for another try at this.

GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Talise Gianfair with Defiant Spirit!
GS: Talise Gianfair has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Talise Gianfair!
GS: Talise Gianfair heals Talise Gianfair! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Only Moth--you're still loyal to that thing!?" Talia snaps, and this time, her voice turns more incredulous. More than that, there is a note of anger running through her voice. It is a note of anger greater and deeper than one born of panic. It is something personal.

She doesn't, however, lose track of the vibrations. Talia's eyes narrow with thought, and she opens her mouth -- about to call out -- when Yarobeleedt erupts, fully-formed, in front of Talise. Not so far, the former assassin reflects, from her.

"Gh--"

Mirage is thrown as shards of sharp metal fly true. It slams into the cage opposite of Yaro, and just as the ripping, tearing pieces come, Talia's body splits apart into so many strands of shadowstuff. They reform, and Talia turns her head; she looks at him, eyes widening, as she gets her first good look at what Yarobeleedt has become.

"You... did this for her?" she asks. "You--you do not see, no!? She cares nothing for you! You shouldn't follow her... you should leave her dead!"

She sees Yaro go for Lydia. She feels a stab of panic and concern; she answers that by hurtling Mirage. The blade comes slamming down for Yarobeleedt -- and just as the sword strikes Hyadean flesh or metal floor, Talia's hand reforms around it. The other hand reforms, her parrying dagger drawn, and she slashes it across the Metal Demon's body.

GS: Talia has attacked Yarobeleedt with Point-Warp Slash!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Talia's Point-Warp Slash for 100 hit points!
GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Talia!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia is not particularly terrified of insects. Insects trying to eat her? Well, that, sure, that Lydia is scared of.

Lydia says, "Mother killed your planet, buddy! Keep up!"

But unfortunately, there's fleshes of light, light one might even call glitchy' spinning towards her. Lydia backs up. "Uhh." She says. "Is that your blood or... YAAAAHHH!"

Lydia backflips away from the crushing limbs, landing some distance away. Half a heartbeat seems to be too slow for Lydia!

But that's news to Lydia who says, "Ohmygodimalive." Lydia places a hand on her forehead. "That's good. Yes. Can do more science." And science definitely happened to Yaro.

She looks at him for a moment.

"I have no idea what happened to you." Lydia admits, still kind of wondering about Althena's thong.

She gives a look towards Talia, shrugs sympathetically, and then snaps out one of her armblades, enchanting it with Rigdobrite power. It glows vibrantly.

And then Lydia dives in with the Guardian enchanted blade, intending to slam it into the creature.

"Gotta admit, I don't get it, but I left my mom when she dumped me."

WHY ARE YOU TAUNTING HIM, LYDIA, Lydia thinks to herself.

GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Yarobeleedt with Sunlight Shiv!
GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lydia Seren has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Sunlight Shiv from Lydia Seren!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    The thing--Yarobeleedt--speaks. They state a purpose, one Ida heard from the lips of Mother herself. Something she knows she cannot allow. And yet, it's perfectly consistent with the few times she's been able to drag a coherent idea from Yarobeleedt's ramblings. Mother, Mother, Mother. Lydia's question lingers in Ida's mind, too, or at least the part that's not focused on staying alive. It isn't much, at the moment.

    "I'm afraid we'll have to disappoint her," Ida says. Then Talise goes flying. "Talise!" Ida cries, glancing aside for a moment to see if her friend is all right. A moment is all Yarobeleedt needs.

    Ida knows--knew--what those claws can do. She ended up taking one of them through her chest, surviving largely due to being a Hellion at the time, and not needing to care so much about trivialities like 'an envenomed blade through a lung'. Her eyes widen as Yarobeleedt reshapes himself, and spews beam fire at her. The console in front of her offers no resistance. Laser fire punches clean through the metal, striking the ground on either side of Ida. Steam and smoke rise from holes in the plating. A beam whizzes past Ida's head, missing her ear by inches thanks to a last-second twist. She can feel the heat. The cloak covering the right half of her body ripples as something beneath it moves, rising upwards as more cannonfire streaks at her chest. The flimsy dropcloth burns, and melts; part of it falls away from her entirely, leaving behind an oozing mess. Ida tears the remains free with her other hand, revealing...

    An arm. From the elbow down it's a mass of distorted metal plating, burned and blackened from Yarobeleedt's laser fire. It expanded outwards from the original limb, as if forming a makeshift shield to soak the fire. quicksilver blood oozes from the few bits that haven't been cauterized, mingling with streams of crimson.

    Talia reacts with outrage borne of empathy. Ida sucks in a breath, fighting back sudden agony and exposure at having her arm--her disfigurement--exposed. "She's right," Ida says. The mangled right arm starts stuffing itself back into shape. The less-mangled left arm darts around to the small of Ida's back, plucking a small metal canister free. Ida touches the cotton wick to a boiling-hot bit of wrecked console--it catches fire, instantly--and then throes the flashbang at Yarobeleedt.

    "Your Mother is using you!"

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Yarobeleedt with Flare Grenade!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Yarobeleedt guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Flare Grenade for 0 hit points!
GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.

    Talia raises a most salient point - how can anyone or anything in their right mind throw their lot behind Mother? She spoke as plain as day about her feelings and has felt no need to correct anything for the record. Why bother with a record, for a world about to be devoured? For a people about to be discarded, to be replaced anew by her new fancy for a people who have shown plenty ability in the art of killing.
     "Metal Demons do not unserve Mother!" ...That's a point, stand-alone, that should be agreeable independent of any other context. Any further discussion finds a temporary halt as Talia flings Mirage. It is something trivial for him to hurriedly shift his body weight away from where the sword strikes against metal floor. Her trickery is both a boon and a curse. It is a curse in so much that she will reform uncomfortably close to the altered Hyadean's abdomen, where she can her the rushing thrum of pumping blood and the very breathing of metallic flesh. It feels wrong, like it shouldn't exist within this ecosystem. Or any ecosystem.
     It does mean she has a soft target to slice into when he doesn't comprehend that she actually reappeared with it, and she gets a splash of quicksilver along with an ear-splitting shriek. It is something of an overreaction that sees him flitting all the way past the rushing armblade of Rigdobrite's chosen champion. It's not even just 'past' her - there's a second attempt on his part to grasp her with those legs that she cleanly pulls past a second time, as the great light-bending, blood-scented, nonsense-spewing insectoid Hyadean comes to some kind of rest upon the nearby wall.
     ...Very close to Talise. As she regathers her courage, she may be reminded of the time that she all but splattered the advance scout as he attempted - feebly - to destroy a humble boat on the ideal seaport for the Drifters of Ignas to depart from. He starts to draw closer.
     "Mother kill Hyades. Mother exlike Metal Demons," he wheezes and hisses. "Is fine. Is fine. Metal Demons... too weak." He raises both forearms up as he looks down to Talise in that wreckage. "Too weak to kill humans!!" He plunges one needle-like arm towards her. "Too weak to kill Guardian Statue!!" He tries to plunge the other one through that incredible armor, projecting his frustrations. "Best of opposite?! Tainted! Tainted. Tainted!! Mother unserve better!!!"
     Even in a worst case scenario where Talise may not overturn these blows, Ida hurls a flashbang. A curious thing happens, if one is of the presence of mind to look at those compound eyes. The silvery throbs aside, they all take on the same color at once, as though they somehow all had individual eyelids. The light is blocked. The sound may be filtered by some means unseen externally.
     At face value, the flashbang doesn't work - as though his very being were resitant to weaponized light.
     Nonetheless, the split second is all anyone needs to go reposition themselves. They could run back the way they came. They could go through the new opening. The nostrils flare, and Yarobeleedt looks back behind him. Through the flitting of orbiting steel plates, through the crimson and the...
     ...The...
     ...
     The eyes blink irregularly. He remembers, back on Lunar, when he had only two eyes out of two-some-incredible-number to see. When, on that very bridge, each eye saw something different about how the arm was held as he was being beaten within an inch of his life - less than an inch - unaware of what exactly he was looking at.
     "^Wrong Shoulder^..." He hisses. "Why always wrong?! Is ^Meat Remon^? No? Is Metal Demon? No?"
     They might all be moving to reposition, but then the arms reform once more into laser ARMs, and they fire wildly, everywhere. The other three might have it easier to avoid the worst of it if they stay low, as finely-honed combat instincts would tell them. He sure is aiming high.
     ...High into the ceiling, where pieces of piping and other debris start to fill the laboratory, threatening wholesale to void their footing.
     Talise might have herself a moment to strike a blow to stop him from readily pursuing them.

GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Talise Gianfair with Spineless!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Talia with Knock Knees!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Lydia Seren with Knock Knees!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Knock Knees!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action.
DC: 3 turns have elapsed in the battle against Yarobeleedt! 2 turns remain!
GS: Talise Gianfair critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Spineless! for 22 hit points!
GS: Talise Gianfair has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
GS: Talia takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 148 hit points!
GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Talia!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 66 hit points!
GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Lydia Seren takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 71 hit points!
GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Lydia Seren!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Do not be so blind!" Talia calls back to him. She has little other follow-up, at first, though. The sound of his stomach and innards churning gives her pause. Her eyes widen, slightly; the quicksilver that splashes on the floor is a surprise, and her dagger flips back up. She looks up at Yarobeleedt, and sees him advancing on Talise. Her teeth grit, and then she starts to rush, until the lasers fire.

Talia's instinct is to duck low, but the beam doesn't strike her. The beam slams into the ceiling, and chunks of it come raining down. One smashes into her. It doesn't pin her, but it smashes her to the side, and it draws blood. She grits her teeth, hissing through them.

She looks at Ida, and then she looks back to Yarobeleedt.

She runs forward. Talia leaps onto the chunk of ceiling that hit her; the bent, broken metal compresses under her feet, and then she leaps off. She comes towards Yarobeleedt, and Mirage slashes out with one hand. Then, she arches her body, mid-air.

Light gathers, crackling along her foot. "Demonic Swallow KICK!" she yells, slamming her foot towards him.

GS: Talia has attacked Yarobeleedt with Demonic Swallow Kick!
GS: Talia has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

"Talia," Talise calls out to the other swordswoman, her voice grim. "I don't think he's going to listen. He's too far gone."

Ida cries out to her; Talise finishes pulling herself up and raises her sword to her friend as if to assure her she's still kicking. With a grunt, she pushes forward to rejoin the fight.

Or maybe the fight rejoins her; the insectoid Yaro alights upon the wall near her, and she whirls instantly to defend herself, clicking her teeth together. This is starting to feel all too much like that time on the boat, with the situation reversed: This time she's the one in danger of being beaten lopsidedly.

"She's just going to discard you, you damned fool!" Talise growls, before the monstrosity jabs at her with one of those needle-arms. The speed of it is startling; Yarobeleedt was agile before, but now he's swift, strong and empowered by something unspeakable. It takes Talise effort to sweep her sword up in time to swat the arm aside, and it still cuts too close for comfort, screeching glancingly off of one of her shoulder plates before she can suck in a breath and flinch away from a follow-up blow. Her back's turned when the flashbang goes off, sparing her a blinding. Ida, she realizes. Even after traveling apart from her friend for a long time, she's still adapted to fit how she fights into how Ida fights, including not blinding herself with friendly fire.

The arm's different, though. Ask Ida about that later, Talise reminds herself amidst the havoc.

The thought submerges into the cutting awareness of the battle - the way she moves to keep ahead of the scream of lasers that rake both friends and scenery. The Photosphere seems to tremble, shards of superhot debris falling around the swordswoman as she advances forward. A few pieces of shrapnel glance off of her armoured shoulders.

In another moment, Talise would've shouted something heroic and sassy. She can't muster it. She just bulls in and swings. Air and light divide ahead of Rastaban, oxygen molecules themselves splitting along the blade's course with a quicksilver hiss that vibrates in the air with a steely echo. She swings once, twice, again, darting around Yarobeleedt to try and lash the monstrous Metal Demon with savage slashes aimed at crippling one or two of those limbs again. Her eyes dart intently to follow his movements.

Yarobeleedt is not the person she thought she would be fighting with every bit the intensity of her battles with Siegfried. And yet, here it is.

GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Yarobeleedt with Infinitely Rippling Waters!
GS: Talise Gianfair has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
GS: Yarobeleedt guards a hit from Talia's Demonic Swallow Kick for 46 hit points!
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Infinitely Rippling Waters for 183 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Too far gone, Lydia thinks, that's possible but honestly she doesn't care for the attitude, even if it's accurate. It's just not how Lydia wants to live! Even if it's Yarobeleedt. Even if simply understanding him is hard enough.

No, Lydia thinks, that's why it's more important for her to try. She too is difficult to understand. Maybe not as directly as Yaro over there, but even so.

"Do you really think it's okay...?" Lydia asks. "When all is said and done, are you ok if it's just you and Mother? Don't you have any friends? Any people you care about?"

Maybe he doesn't, Lydia thinks, in which case this is going to be a pretty awkward >Convince roll. She thinks he's trying to figure out Ida.

Lydia dodges several laser blasts. "C'mon! Can't hit me like that!" She adds before a rock crashes against her head. She dizzily flops forward.

"I miss...having a rock for a head...sometimes." Lydia says dizzily.

She rolls back up to her feet and activates SKATE MODE.

"You may be superpowered now, Yarobeleedt...But CAN? YOU?? SKATE???"

She starts skating right at him, intent on swiping with that blade of hers again. She's fighting more defensively this time, though, intent on not getting caught off guard again.

GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Yarobeleedt with Speed of Light!
GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    That gamble didn't pay off as well as Ida hoped. Yarobeleedt's distraction buys her a moment's reprieve, but all she manages to do with it is gasp for breath and draw Devil's Due again. The right arm is about halfway between the shieldlike mass it was two minutes ago and an actual appendage--uncomfortably metallic, like a monster's arm rendered in gleaming steel plate. The fingers curl and uncurl with no input from Ida's brain. The tips sharpen, harden.

    Yarobeleedt wonders aloud what she is. Ida flashes back to the sight of those dessicated bodies. Her blood runs cold.

    Yarobeleedt starts inflicting still more damage on the lab. On one hand, it couldn't happen to a more deserving Quarter Knight, but on the other, she and her companions are stuck in the middle of it. Ida throws up the right arm as debris rains down; a chunk of ductwork slams into the wounded forearm, and fresh pain shoots through Ida's nerves. She grits her teeth.

    "Defend her, creature," Ida says, "and you will die with her." A sickly metallic reverb forces its way from Ida's throat with those last few words. She steps closer to Yarobeleedt, moving defly in between Talise's sword strikes; she thrusts the right hand forwards, approximating a swift, violent punch with the mangled Hyadean limb.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Yarobeleedt with The Hand Of Fafnir!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lydia Seren has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Speed of Light from Lydia Seren!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Ida Everstead-Rey's attack becomes clear!
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Quicksilver Blade for 192 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    The hand changes. The fingers flow together, melting into a single, spear-like blade. Bones flow and lengthen, turning the already-long arm into something a bit more suited for distance fighting. Ida's lips peel back from her teeth.

<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.

    "Brind?!" Yarobeleedt screeches as the world falls apart around him (more physically, in this specific exchange) as Talia comes rushing in with a flying kick. He swings an arm outwardto deflect her diving kick, as the light upon her foot reflects and disperses from the impact. "From first light, Mother," the angry screeching starts to go lilting, daydream-like, "from first voice, Mother! All time then, Mother... and then no?! Eyes always unclosed~"
     Technically, his reverie distracts, blinding him to Talise's grit and determination to fight past the pressure and the pain inflicted to keep cutting into him. Quicksilver of the blade meets quicksilver of the body. Though he is a Metal Demon, Rastaban may have in its time cut evils far greater. A true advantage may yet be pressed.
     "Mother can throw Yarobeleedt... away, close~" His proboscis ejects more fluid. It's not venomous. It's just gross. His body flashes out of sight again. This seems to only work with his body directly, as trails of quicksilver drip and leak from where more solid wounds have been inflicted. They could track him, if they wanted to, but there is a problem with trying to play predator.
     He's fast.
     He leans harder to the left as his abdomen tries to knit the afflicted wounds between Talia and Talise, but he sure seems to be keeping up with the skating as the blade teasingly comes shy of him. "Only Yarobeleedt... worthy to be last Metal Demon isfore Mother~" He rasps out. Lydia's defensive play helps her avoid another sweep of an arm trying to catch her, but he tries, he sure does, as he staggers back Talise-ward. "Silly Alhazad!!" Alhazred. "Waste boon on Tainted?? Silly, silly, silly. Waste on wasssssteeeee... so Yarobeleedt remove first... so weak. Do not unserve their blood!! Do not--"
     Ida steps in between all of this and thrusts her fist in. Greedily, Yarobeleedt clasps his claw-arms around it as he dares to plunge the proboscis in-between the knuckles - one of the worst places to suffer a mosquito bite.
     The arm bites first, forming a blade that punches past the proboscis and into the... chin? Throat? There is an unpleasant gurgling, and there's enough momentum behind the punch that the entire bulk is thrust back. More of the surrounding architecture collapses, condemning more of the damaged laboratory to darkness.
     Total darkness, and plumes of smoke and dust. The domino effect is in play. More falls over. More shorts out. Sight, sound, scent (thankfully, for this last one) all become a blend of obfuscation. It... grows quiet.
     They might have maybe eight seconds, tops, to gather themselves, before Talia will feel the trembling first, if not by much. Underground--
     A scream, as from under Lydia's position first, the great insect emerges like a spinning drill through steel that was made and tempred to prevent creatures from doing just that. It disappears through the ceiling.
     It comes back down towards Ida, again, screechy laughter in the air.
     Then back from below again for Talise.
     Then, at last, through the ground, trying to lance through Talia before the horrible creature's wings unfurl to catch themselves and noisily re-stabilize themselves.
     "Then you!! You! ^Meat Remons^! Will love her... fu fu fu... I give her all she want... I watch her imbrace... better than Metal Demon... iscause Yarobeleedt only good child of Mother!!"

GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Lydia Seren with Cowardice!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Cowardice!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Talise Gianfair with Cowardice!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Talia with Cowardice!!
GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action.
DC: 4 turns have elapsed in the battle against Yarobeleedt! 1 turns remain!
GS: Talise Gianfair takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Cowardice! for 155 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Talise Gianfair!
GS: CRITICAL! Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Cowardice! for 278 hit points!
GS: Cripple, Disrupt, and Jam! Statuses applied to Lydia Seren!
GS: Lydia Seren enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Talia completely evades Cowardice! from Yarobeleedt!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Ida Everstead-Rey completely evades Cowardice! from Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Nn..."

Talia hesitates, at that. However, she doesn't deny it either -- the idea that everyone could be talked down is one she hasn't fully internalized. What makes it easier, though, is what Yarobeleedt says. He accepts it, she realizes. He almost seems to welcome it.

To make matters worse, he is fast. She flies to the side when her kick is parried, her foot skidding over the ground after it was parried by his arm. She twists, then, looking up at him with narrowed eyes. "You... did this to yourself?" she asks. "That is--"

Madness, she finishes. However, the darkness that falls over them as the laboratory begins to collapse. She stumbles backward, and then she lkooks down at the ground. Her head snaps up: "Lydia! Move! He's under ground! He's--" Yaro moves fast enough to strike at each, and then the creature comes up under her -- so Talia throws Mirage. It slams into the ceiling, and she lands upside down, feet pressed against it, hand grabbing the hilt. She wrenches it free, then drops down.

"I've no intention of serving her!" she cries out.

She drops down into a spin. Her blade carves out for Yarobeleedt in a spiral pattern, a line of light left after -- and ends by stabbing her sword straight outward. When she does, light gathers along the tip of it; then it explodes outward, punctuating that last stab with a brilliant flash of chi.

GS: Talia has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling!
GS: Talia has attacked Yarobeleedt with Light Spear Cannon!
GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Talia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"What?! Alhazred was working on something for the Tainted?" She is not certain at all that it was anything the Tainted would want to take but it's good information to know since Alhazred is certainly still out there. She would normally tell Riesenlied immediately but, well, you know.

Despite being full of hero sass, Yarobeleedt sure seems to have it out for her. Yarobeleedt busts out from underneath Lydia and punches a hole straight through her back and about half her side too come to think of it and sends Lydia crumpling to the ground as her eyes go wide.

Lydia stares up, watching shedding parts crumble to the ground around her in a silvery mess.

"Hurts..." Lydia grimaces. "Gahh..."

She bites into her lip. "You just wanna be favored with her right? You just want to be needed? You just want to be wanted?"

In a dark area like this, it can be hard to see. But suddenly, tiny pinpricks of light start appearing all throughout the room.

"You just wanna be top dog? Sorry, but in an oppressive hierarchy devoted to serving totaliarian leader, everybody is a victim! I read that..."

Lydia grimacres sharply as those pinpricks of light suddenly become blazing spears that aim to punch through Yarobeleedt from many directions, much like a moth on display.

"IN A BOOK!" Lydia screams.

GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Yarobeleedt with One Billion Trillion Stars!
GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

He's too far gone - just as Talise feared. Clenching her teeth, Talise pushes aside any thought that this lost soul can be salvaged. A creature so devoted to Mother as to become more a monster than a man.

She can feel Rastaban finding purchase, but she can't finish it off. The Metal Demon is too nimble, darting and staggering and moving away before Talise can fully press the blow at close range. As Yarobeleedt gurgles something about Alhazred, a Quarter Knight Talise has never fought but knows through a fearful reputation, she spits. "Some twisted experiment being done to the Tainted," she growls.

As the equipment shatters, Talise finds herself momentarily list in the darkness. And then the screaming starts. The creature lurches through tempered steel and slashes away - and in the dark, with the monstrosity moving with such predatory speed, Talise can't bring herself to bear in time. With a gasp, she's struck, armour crumpling as a solid blow slams just above the hip and another catching her in the thigh. She tumbles and hits the ground with a crash, wincing with a shot of pain. Spitting up a mouthful of blood - red, not silver - she rolls herself back to one knee and then the rest of the way, trying to move in, but those wings unfurl and push her back. She's not going to get close enough to strike Yarobeleedt - he's too quick, he has too many arms, and he's simply too mad to duel the way she would Siegfried.

Talise looks down at her weapon. Rastaban gleams in her hand.

Words she doesn't understand race through her mind. The booming voice of a knight from an age gone by. <##### # ####### ###########!>

Tightening her grasp around Rastaban's hilt, Talise plants her heels apart and inhales. "There's only one Goddess that I love," she rumbles, her voice flinty. Without even thinking, Talise raises Rastaban high above her head and across her opposite shoulder - and something happens that hasn't happened before. Even Ida, who traveled with Talise for years, hasn't seen this happen; Talise shouldn't be able to do what she's doing.

Green light wells along the blade of Rastaban. It swells into arcs of jade lightning, building rapidly to a peak.

With a roar, Talise swings Rastaban through the open air. The green lighting screams with courage and defiance. It bursts forth in a rolling wave, blurring together with a crackle as it blasts across the room.

As the light closes on Yarobeleedt, there is a shape to it. A roaring green dragon's head of pure magical energy.

GS: Talise Gianfair has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling!
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Yarobeleedt with Dragon Courage!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Talia's Light Spear Cannon for 211 hit points!
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Lydia Seren's One Billion Trillion Stars for 200 hit points!
GS: Yarobeleedt enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Dragon Courage for 196 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Yarobeleedt grabs hold, and a part of Ida's brain immediately recoils in horror and disgust. The rest of her knows she can't afford anything less than full commitment to the strike. It's bizarre, feeling something attached to her reshape itself, but the sensation of punching through flesh is familiar. Ida rips the arm back before Yarobeleedt can follow up on his threat to bite her, and it twists in ways an arm should not--like it's trying to get away from him on its own. The mutated Hyadean's blood drips from the hand-blade as it splits apart into fingers, which curl and twist bonelessly.

    An experiment. Alhazred. The Tainted. It must've been something intended to restore them somehow, though everything Ida knows about the Quarter Knight points towards it not being simple altruism. Disposable shock troops, maybe? Turning unusable assets into functional defenders, or even ravening berserkers? Ida doesn't have much time to think on it. She breathes deeply, riding the waves of pain as though she were floating atop the ocean in a raft. Slowly, the arm returns to humanoid shape--still too long, still a bleeding mess, but functional.

    'He's under ground!'

    Ida focuses. She feels that sickening lifeforce pulsing beneath her, hears Talia scream for Lydia to move. Lydia's not fast enough. Silvery blood splatters Ida's face. Something she can't put a name to shrinks back, going numb. The rest of her is already on the move. She throws herself to the side, skidding across the broken ground as Yarobeleedt erupts from the ceiling. Ida scrambles the last few feet at a considerable fraction of the speed of terror.

    Then, green light. Ida blinks, once, watches as Talise draws upon something she's never seen her tap into--sorcery. Whether it's coming from Rastaban or Talise herself is immaterial; it's aimed at Yarobeleedt, and that's what matters. Ida can afford to do no less. The instant Yarobeleedt comes into focus again, he's staring down the barrel of Devil's Due, its refurbished Living Metal barrel gleaming in the flickering light. Ida sucks in a ragged breath, pouring chi into her ARM--an ARM that's more an extension of her than the one that's literally grafted to her body. The Dragon Filament ignites with a thunderous roar. Something in the back of Ida's brain feels deeply satisfied at the thought of purging this thing with Dragonfire.

    Devil's Due spits flame. It's a few sparks at first, but it grows in a heartbeat to a roaring, all-consuming gout of fire, hot and corrosive and laced with chi. It's equal parts Ida's--brilliant, golden-white--and something hotter, like flame turned into something's lifeforce.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated a Force Action!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has spent 5 Combo on Poison and Gatling, including 3 on Gatling!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Yarobeleedt with Dragon's Breath!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Dragon's Breath for 195 hit points!
GS: Toxin! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.

    Yarobeleedt is not the only one of his kind who still blindly clings to what he knew, all he ever knew. Even through incidental observation of various Metal Demon operations, it was never rare to watch him being disrespected or battered by his own kind. Even so, he continued to scream and profess everything for Mother. Reality and reason conspire to take that from him.
     In that respect, that may be the first fight in a long time he has ever truly 'won' - to win the battle to keep his vice grip on fantasy and fanaticism, spinning forth nihilistic nonsense in which to justify sacrificing himself and his own kind so that Mother will be pleased with the presentation of his own replacements.
     Talia makes it clear she will not become Mother's child, as a blade spirals almost off to the side.
     "Mother everyready loves you~ ^Length Cheater^~" Yarobeleedt squeals, as if he were delighted by this idea. This grazing blow is to Talia's benefit, as it minimizes the amount of direct contact in which she goes through the horror but will do nothing to mitigate the amount of quicksilver that splatters across her for a hit that does largely land. His abdomen contorts, compresses, and tries to pump more biomass to cover the wounds.
     "Nonono," he doesn't say this the panicked way he does, but as if he were trying to correct someone as Lydia remarks top dog, "Mother unserves bettest...! The ^Meat Remons^..." He starts to leer towards her as he actually takes in her physical form. "...You are not ^Meat Remon^. You ^Silver Liar^!!!" His form flickers as he dashes forward towards her, but he is met with a countless number of lights, as pinpricks of light batter through him like tiny needles. There is fury in his - well, a lot of things, for he has a lot of - eyes, but the battering stars keep pushing him back, holding him back...
     "It is Mother. You love Mother... Mother loves you... Mother wants you... Mother has you... ^Seeing Braid^...!" Yarobeleedt's madness continues as he tries to fight past the lights that batter him, holding him back, as he reaches out with a forelegarmscientific-consensus-irrelevant-limb as Talise's weapon glows bright. The compound eyes blink arrhythmically as they always do, as if uncertain as to what it is witnessing. If he wants a closer look... Talise gives it to him - if he wanted to look at raw, courageous power - without him even asking, and the green lignting cleaves on through so cleanly that there is naught a spatter added to the room. The damage seems tremendous. Debilitating. The beast appears brought low...
     For Devil's Due to be pointed at him. Devil's Due, made of parts of Metal Demon flesh. Tools, for the humans. It is so fitting now. Mother loves them more. Mother deserves them. Mother can have everything. In turn, he can have purging, melting flame laced with shining gold, and there is another heart-stopping scream as the abomination flickers and staggers back.
     The spinning metal plates forcefully scrub the body about, to try and put out the fire by choking it. Mostly the plates themselves catch on fire in the attempt, but overall it reveals the same picture for all of them: an insectoid horror whose abdomen appears significantly deflated in form, as it pulsates violently like it were trying to pull in something that's not there.
     "...Fu fu fu..." Yarobeleedt has no grounds to laugh. He is in incredible pain. (...When isn't he? Existence tends to treat him like a kickball.) "...N-Not yet... not yet..."
     His voice croaks, chokes... and then at least one of them can see it. Another Hyadean, no, two of them, a ways further down the laboratory.
     "Tainted... Tainted... offend. No. Never end. Offstart. Offstarting Mother... Offcontinuing Motherrrrrrrr...."
     Would-be survivors of Alhazred's cruelty! Did they break free in the confusion...? One of them is missing an arm, no, they never had an arm there. That's a Tainted. The other has a form that can't quite be made out.
     The proboscis leaks more unpleasant fluids, as the head turns sliiiightly their way. They try to withdraw.
     Too late. With a feral screech, Yarobeleedt takes off towards them with a speed his wounds should have slowed. There's too much distance between them, as Yarobeleedt plunges a proboscis straight into their throat. His wings, starting to sag, flap rapidly as they start to regain definition they were starting to lose. His abdomen, regaining its size and shape.
     His protective sheets of steel ccontinue to orbit, as if to try and ward off further pursuit, but there is a more telling thing about the whole picture.
     Even with all this power, even with his apparent clarity of purpose - however born of madness it is - there is but one detail most of the collected know of Yarobeleedt that continues to ring true.
     He's a coward.
     A coward who will go only for the easy meal. He can cover far too much ground, too fast. There is no saving this latest set of victims of their feeding frenzy. This is a problem too big for just the four of them.
     This could become a problem too big for even the forty-to-fifty Drifters there are.
     But if they do not take this chance, there will be four less to stand up to him.

DC: 5 turns have elapsed in the battle against Yarobeleedt! No turns remain! Time has expired! The battle is over!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Look, green and blue are the same word in a lot of dialects! Talise isn't about to quibble with it.

The power brought to bear on Yarobeleedt forms a fusillade sufficient to fell most foes. It even surprises Talise, who blinks and looks down at herself for a moment, then up to watch Ida putting the dot on it with Devil's Due. "Mother ain't got shit," she grunts.

Except she does. And Yarobeleedt's still going. And now he's sucking the life out of one of those Tainted. Talise's face goes pale immediately at the sight of the Metal monstrosity feasting on his own kind. "The... the Tainted...." she breathes, riveted to the spot for a few seconds as she digests the horror of the abominable coward guzzling lives before her.

"TALISE," someone loud and gruff shouts. She jerks out of her shock and looks back.

Benedict Greygust, the Fox Company's ace courier, leans around a corner, hastily loading yet another bolt into his crossbow. "It's going to take a lot more than four of you to kill that thing! RUN!" he shouts at her, beckoning urgently. His thick black beard bristles with alarm.

Fighting back a sick, guilty feeling, Talise growls and turns to begin moving off. "C'mon," she urges the others, emotion compressing her voice into a frustrated growl. "We can't do anything for them right now."

Not for the first time, it occurs to Talise that she can't possibly save everyone that she wants to save. It doesn't make running away any easier - but all four of them dying here, to the world's least likely world destroyer, would make this so, so much worse.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida holds the trigger down until she hears a click, and feels the Dragon Filament cool. Devil's Due glows from a mixture of residual heat and chi, casting Ida's face in an eerie light. She watches Yarobeleedt as he burns, lips twisted in a snarl.

    And then she feels a faint, cool presence at the edge of the battlefield--two of them. She turns, sees the two Tainted, opens her mouth to shout a warning. Yarobeleedt never gives her the chance. The Demon is a blur, and in that instant, one of the two civilians is dead. A familiar sort of numbness settles into Ida's mind and heart.

    This time, though, it's tempered by both driven resolve and righteous fury. "RUN!" Ida screams. That metallic reverb clings to her voice, even as it echoes through the ruined remains of the lab. It's as much a warning to other bystanders as it is a command to the other Drifters.

    Ida runs. She doesn't look back. The sight of Yarobeleedt feeding is already burned into her mind's eye. She's sure it will be showing up in her nightmares.

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Mother knows nothing--"

The anger in Talia's voice is thick and clear. It cuts off, though. She stops talking, with a visible effort -- and her teeth grit, eyes glancing quickly in Lydia's direction. She looks back, and sees Yarobeleedt hurrying quickly after this new group of victims. She tenses for a moment. Then, her eyes glance to the side -- to Talise. She nods her head, once.

"Damn it!" she calls out. She turns, quickly -- and then grabs Lydia, by the hand. She starts to make after Ida. Her expression is severe, as she moves. "Don't listen to him, Lydia," she says. "You are not what he says, no?"

She frowns, though. "...We'll have to do something about him."

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia says, "Yeah sure," from her position on the floor. "I'll just run." She has been Battle Angel Alitaed right through half her midsection. She's going to need help to abscond.

Luckily Talia is there to take her hand. Talia very sweetly tries to reassure Lydia that she is not a Silver Liar. Lydia has no idea what a Silver Liar is. She has no idea what a Meat Remon is either, quite frankly. Some mental gymnastics give her an idea of what he is saying, ubt by the time she mentally translates it, she just isn't really feeling the trauma. It's like being called a slur you never heard of before so you have to look it up but by that point it's more academic than anything.

"R--right." Lydia says. One of these days a >Convince roll of hers will work, one of these days!

Maybe she should just aim for better targets, really.

"Alright." Lydia says. "I guess I won't listen! I'm gonna..." Her fingers dig into Talia's arm as she pushes herself up and then flops into her.

"I'm gonna need help movin'." Lydia says.