2018-12-07: Thinner Than Blood - Disowned
- Log: 2018-12-07: Thinner Than Blood - Disowned
- Cast: Yarobeleedt, Celine Jules, Lunata Croze, Fei Fong Wong, Catenna, Zed, Ambrosius, Malfi, Shalune Amira, Carina Wynne, Leah Sadalbari (as Grigori), Xantia, Ida Everstead-Rey, Elvis, Tabitha deVriese (as Merciless Queen), Arleph Ardan, Lady Harken (as Tachi), Neriah Parringer
- Where: Photosphere - Domicile Level
- Date: December 7th, 2018
- Summary: The resolute Drifters traverse through the Photosphere. Some have descended into the depths of the Gutter in order to rescue the innocent from annihilation and reclaim a stolen heart. Others have moved to strike for the devourer of worlds herself. All of this occurs admist crises of identity and conscience by those Metal Demons who are now subject to a world-shattering truth that has eluded them for over a thousand years. Mother has not just deceived an entire people as she devoured their own world. There is no ambiguity in what she has said, nor any in what she wills, as regards "her children". She has disowned them, turning her sights to the humans they once referred to as mortal foes - culturally instilled to be seen as idiotic, weak, and desperate - to take their place. It is times like these where some individuals find themselves in the pilot seat to history - whether through their own machinations, or simply having circumstances thrust upon them - and steer its course wherever it may. One such individual will present themselves, driven by unwavering faith and purpose, willing to sacrifice everything in the archetypical fashion expected of such emerging heroes of history. It just so happens that this individual is the most self-centered, petty, weak, craven, myopic, and altogether otherwise meritless one among the entire surviving people of Hyades. After so many embarrassments, wounds, disappointments, indignities, reprimands, and ongoing linguistical errors, they now stand enabled at the point where both major objectives cross paths as a threat that can no longer be trivially overturned. Unless they are dealt with, neither the Ley Dragon Riesenlied nor the World Eater Mother can be resolved. (ICly, takes place during the Photosphere Sequence, and occurs on December 1st. It directly predates the events of Pain Of Loss - Daughter and World Eater - Mother.) CONTENT WARNING: Mild gore, creepy insect stuff.
=====================================<* Photosphere - Domicile Level *>=====================================
The Photosphere's interior is the size of a city. The majority of it is a massive cavern, honeycombed with different levels. Here, Metal Demons make their homes in hallways that have sometimes been repaired since the Photosphere crashed here in ages past. The quarters are small and cramped, stacked atop one another.
This place also holds the gathering areas that pass for centers of Metal Demon culture. Within these halls, one can find cafeterias and proving grounds. Their martial life is in abundance; armories and arenas are common, while theaters and libraries are unheard of.
The technology, suffice to say, is advanced. Tram systems lead into different parts of the Photosphere. Interior lighting and climate control makes this place comfortable, but it has an oppressive feeling for anyone from Filgaia.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygpjMbQeBas
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
The Gutter
Through the efforts and sacrifices of the Drifters, much of the Tainted that still live have been seen to safety. The environs have done the rescue efforts no favors, for how run down and filled with garbage the depths of the Photosphere is. The Drifters will only experience this for a short time, a glimpse into the life of the Metal Demon underclass of the injured and infirm. They will also experience a worrying sight: a not small amount of corpses whose fluids appear to have been drained completely by... something. Was it any of the marauding Metal Beasts?
There's no time for rumination. The various teams have located the Ley Point which will serve as Mother's access to Filgaia's own lifeblood... and where Riesenlied will return. Her friends will be there for her, to save her - and by proxy - Filgaia and so many countless worlds beyond. After the last group of survivors they can find are seen to the Fereshte beyond the caverns leading out, everyone regroups back on the side of the Gutter, to make the most use of shelter and supplies that still remains--
--and that is when it strikes. Laser fire streaks out from above, illuminating the form of a terrifying insect in the Gutter's gloom as they collapse the way to the Ley Point under an impentrenable amount of trash and ruin.
The insectoid horror cackles. The more knowledgeable among the Gutter expedition teams know there may yet be another way, but they'll have to do it from above... a desperate running battle ensues as they are chased down by something yellow and terrible, orbiting pieces of metal protecting them from return fire as they fire lasers gleefully from angles and distances difficult to defend. Occasionally they seem to disappear for precious minutes at a time through flickering optical camoflauge, and appear to leave entirely... but there is no time to rest.
They have to fall back, and touch base with the Drifters securing the levels above the Gutter.
Alien Catacombs
Mother has thrown everything she's had at the infiltrators who would dare strike against her. Metal Beasts and Her remaining loyal Metal Demons stop at nothing to annihilate those who were never meant to set foot in this alien landscape. Every room is hard fought, but the people of Filgaia have grown strong since the wake-up call at Adlehyde over a year ago. The tides seem to be turning, in so much that a route has been secured in which to help the injured fall back and toss in a few supplies here and there. At last, they all converge upon the reactivated Golem, Lolithia, and it takes dozens to even halt its offense on a temporary basis. An opportunity is presented to further secure the surrounding chambers in preparation for the final attack on Mother themselves.
...Yet, there are a few Metal Demon corpses, many of them misplaced Tainted, who appear to have had all their fluids removed. Who would do such a thing? No... what would? Just as the time comes to finish the fight--
--that is when it strikes, the very ground exploding as a burrowing insectoid Metal Demon of unusual size hurls themselves through the ranks, disrupting teams and scattering them. These instances are sudden and short-lived, as though it might be attacking indiscriminately. It never sticks around long, but when they appear, they appear with mocking cackles and often an accompanying set of laser fire.
There is one chamber near where Lolithia stood guard that has become the staging point for the assault on Mother, and it is not far from one of the safer ways to access the Gutter as they all occasionally fend off the attacks from below... but they cannot let their guard down.
They have to fall back, and touch base with any Drifters securing the levels within the Gutter.
A terrible boss monster is attacking! Both sides have no choice but to run back to a shared staging point deep within the Photosphere - this round represents everyone running to get there as they are occasionally struck at by this mysterious assailant! Suffering a CRITICAL HIT and receiving the resulting debuffs represents having a rougher time making it back. You are free to strike back, heal, or buff as needed as everyone regroups!
DC: You switch forms to Perpetuator Of The World Devouring Cycle Yarobeleedt! DC: Yarobeleedt switches forms to Perpetuator Of The World Devouring Cycle Yarobeleedt!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Xantia with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Shalune Amira with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Grigori with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Celine Jules with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Catenna with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Carina Wynne with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Malfi with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Lady Harken with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Elvis with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ambrosius with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Lunata Croze with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Flee!! GS: Lunata Croze takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Malfi takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Catenna takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Shalune Amira guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Elvis critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Ambrosius critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Ambrosius has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Grigori guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Lady Harken takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Tabitha deVriese takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Carina Wynne takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Zed with Flee!! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action. GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Zed with Flee!! GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Xantia takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points! GS: Celine Jules takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Celine Jules has posed.
It hadn't been for treasure, like the last few times. Infact, a majority of her acts have been on account of treasure - some of them simply good by nature. Otherwise some have been a bit selfish, but Celine generally falls on the nmore heroic side - if only because she has a village to keep a name for. Which lead her into the 'gutter'. What a silly name. Frightening as it is.
She was one of the last of the groups to go in, following with some no-name soldiers that have had a hard time piercing the defenses. "Ugh, each minute we spend in here makes me long for a bath~." She so cheerfully stakes. What is surprising is there seems to be a reverse stampede, others charging back towards the Photosphere.
"Looooks like we get to leave early, after all!" Already far behind, Celine makes a quick break backwards, able to mostly avoid the sheer wave of members by 'floating' her jumps away, wind whipping the sorceress and her shower curtain like cape backwards, after her. It whips as she 'flies', which is really just a slower fall, as she moves to retreat as fast as humanly possible. "So.. why.. are we... trying to ... run this way... in this muck?" SHe asks, almost completely unaware of the certain situation they may have been in.
If there was a picture for 'third string defender', Celine would be on the front with a big peace sign, winking, and of course in some sexy pose.
As long as she got some royalties, first, that is.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
At the end of the Black Wolves' run, a Gear can be found amongst those that assaulted Lolithia, the Ice Queen and one of the eight ancient Golems: the Rephaim.
It's... not exactly looking in great shape, with one of its legs separated at the joint, several layers of its black armour rent apart from both blasts of frigid ice and its crooked claws. It's powered down at present--
--and Lunata throws herself out with a cough as she calls, "Shalune, we should catch up with Jay and keep going--"
--and that's when it strikes.
Lunata whips her head around with a grimace as she hears it; more than that, the cackling, the mocking. Isn't that...?
There's a deep grimace from Lunata. "I was always wondering... how this was going to all end. Ever since..." She places a hand to her throat, where there's a faint scarring mark around her neck. Ever since that day...
She's feeling tears in her eyes. "Darn... ..."
She's not quite sure what sorts of tears these are. It's not exactly a sorrowful tear, the kind that dominates one when they lose a loved one. No, she can't quite say Yarobeleedt is any kind of loved one, certainly, but...
He certainly has been... influential.
She beckons for Shalune, and then hurries down towards the pathways as she murmurs, "This isn't something we can leave alone! If anyone asks, tell Mister Leon where we've went!"
It doesn't take long for her to come and find the insectoid Metal Demon of unusual size. The form is, genuinely, different. Enormous, possessing a size that's seldom borne by the kind of pathetic, almost slug-like appearance -- but his facial structure, the shoulders... the colour. Even with his enormous cannons that produce laser blasts, despite the hook-like claws...
"... look at us. You, into some kind of bloodsucking giant insect...
Me, into a terrible rotten husk of a corpse. Maybe the kind you'd leave behind."
She sucks in a deeper breath. It's all ceremonial. Corpses don't need to breathe. Corpses don't have blood. Corpses... shouldn't be able to cry. But sometimes, when it's come down to all this, maybe even a corpse can cry...
"... I have to hand it to you, Yaro. I don't think I'd be able to have made it this far if it weren't for you. You really showed me..."
Stamp--
"...where I really needed to be. How disgusting this world can be..."
Freiheit is thrust into the ground.
"So let's go. I'll do it your way for once. This is my tribute to everything I've learnt from you..."
vrm
The corpse twists the handlebar on her makeshift rev-sword. The thrum of the engine on its handle.
- fu fu fu
- "...fu fu fu..."
vrmmmm
The corpse yanks the cord starter, as the sword starts to rattle uncontrollably at the combustion within leaking out into hisses of flame.
Lunata lets her hand fall from her face.
- fu fu fu fu
- "Fu Fu Fu Fu!"
-vrmmmmrmm-
Her grin has crossed ear to ear with teeth that resembles less her own and more a certain now-rampaging bug monster's. Her eyes have a bug-like quality that, too, matches his. A thin layer of crazed lunacy, peeled away to reveal what he has inspired her to be.
Someone so singularly devoted to their ^Beloved^.
Someone who has been shown...
Sometimes, there's nothing left you can do but to destroy that which is in front of you. Here, an ex-waitress and now corpse will show this inspiration just what she's learnt ever since that day, in the Starfall Saloon, during the invasion of the Metal Demons...
She jacks Freiheit out from the ground and slings it to the shoulder, letting swirl the stench of gasoline as she lets the flames swirl around her and lick at her arms.
- hajimeru de itsudemo ii na, YAROBERI-DOchan yo...!
- "Start I Hope at any Time, Anytime...! ^Yellowbellied^ dear!*"
GS: Lunata Croze has changed her groove to YAROBELEEDT-ISM! *NOTE: Original transcript and English subs (??) provided by #AnymeDaisuki translations at metaldemonfire.irc.uguu:6667. T...thanks?
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Lunata Croze with Polish Ing! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: Lunata Croze takes a solid hit from Lunata Croze's Polish Ing for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei's goal has been Mother. He feels specifically called to battle her, but earlier a strike from Yarobeleedt indicated there was far more to worry about than just Siegfried and Mother. To say it's stressful to try and optimize this situation is an understatement. In fact, simply adding Yarobeleedt to the mix isn't enough. It feels like every moment there is something else that requires attention. How can the world seem so fragile? Well, it can seem that way when you see the things Fei sees in the back of his eyelids.
"Lunata..." He murmurs upon seeing the Golem. The way she assaulted Yarobeleedt in the past has stuck Fei to this day.
He sweats faintly at her words. It's never good to hear 'You really showed me where I needed to be' or 'You showed me who I really was'. Those are huge triggers for Fei Fong Wong.
Of course for him...
Hell yeah. Death Waitress gets more metal every year.
Fei sweats more. Luckily he has had some time to calm down since the initial 'talk' with Mother, but he's still tense, still on edge, and it's hard to tell whether he'll be able to walk that tightrope or whether he'll tumble off it entirely.
The only certainty is the fight.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Fei Fong Wong with screen fractures into a bunch of mirror shards! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's screen fractures into a bunch of mirror shards for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The battle with Lolithia was exhausting. Catenna's still sore and tired, and only a few Star Lights are keeping her MP full. Mother's ahead - this she knows, grimly. Even though she's weary, she moves forward, ready to--
Oh. Oh, that's a Tainted she just brought her heel down on.
A Tainted who has been sucked dry. Catenna's mouth opens a little with a sudden swell of horror.
Then the ground explodes.
"WHAT," Catenna shouts, lunging away as best she can. There's some kind of Metal Demon buzzsawing through the ranks of Drifters and allies here, but Catenna can't tell who it is amidst the scream and blaze of lasers. Staggering back, she clutches her bow and Medium tightly and tries to regroup, falling back towards that common area near what she's fairly sure is a junction with the passageways leading to the Gutter. Riese, she realizes. Please don't tell me they're doing to more of them what they did to Riese.
Catenna can't get a solid bead on the metal monstrosity attacking them; it's coming and going too rapidly. But she did bring her bow with her, and when next those cackles seem to come closer, she notches an arrow and fires it off, then slings another for good measure in the hopes of hitting something solid. Mostly she gets a wall. The creature is simply too quick.
That laughter, she realizes as she turns to rush towards safety, a sudden chill of realization racing through her. Is that....
Catenna's suddenly remembering lavender. But... how can that be? That Metal Demon was just a scout!
GS: Catenna has attacked Catenna with Odd groups got left even groups got right groups 7 and 8 are blob groups! GS: Catenna has gained 1 Combo! GS: Catenna has completed her action. GS: Catenna takes a solid hit from Catenna's Odd groups got left even groups got right groups 7 and 8 are blob groups for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
This week has been something of a nightmare for a number of different reasons. Who would have ever predicted that the goddess that had been the object of worship for hundreds of years among the marooned Hyadeans was in fact an engine of planetary apocalypse?
Admittedly, there are probably some people out there who figured it out ahead of time. Or at least, had some pretty firm theories that the thing actively killing the planet was ACTUALLY A HORRIFYING PLANET KILLER.
(Somewhere else in the Photosphere, Cyre H. Lorentz's adorable kitty cat ears twitch, a strange feeling shooting down his spine. It's as if a lifetime of prejudice and paranoia was in some small way verified...!)
But here, now, Zed has been faced with a terrible choice. Either go and slay the only goddess his people have ever truly known, or... Travel deep into the Photosphere's bowels to prevent the Mother from devouring the only world his people have ever known.
By the words of the Trial Knight, Zed has made his decision.
But...!
Something... gets in the way...!
Something familiar.
Beams of light shriek down sterile corridors, setting the air itself on fire. A blade intersects one of the gleaming lances, carving the beam in two as the one and only (self-proclaimed) Ultimate Metal Demon does... the exact opposite of most sane people in general.
When faced with a horrible, buggy monster from an entomologist's nightmare, Zed...
Goes to punch it, screaming, right in the face.
"YARO!" Zed screams. "What did they DO to you!?"
This greenhead...
Still remembers his name...!
GS: Zed has attacked Yarobeleedt with Grit Your Mandibles PUUUUNCH!! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius had initially intended to head directly to the altar where he had expected to find Riesenlied. But on the way there, he was waylaid - distracted by Tainted in need of help. Despite his misgivings, he couldn't abandon them - and with the help of others who had joined him within the Gutters, he had seen a group of Tainted to safety.
And yet, on his way back, he discovered certain oddities...drained corpses, and blockage barring his way back. Was his way intentionally obstructed? Or was it pure coincidence?
The situation becomes immediately clarified as laser fire rains down on him from all angles. With a gesture of his hand water begins to swirl around him, moving organically to soak the attacks.
"...You. Stand down and remove yourself - I will not tolerate further obstruction." Ambrosius commands. It was only barely recognizable as that Metal Demon. Their relationship could be charitably considered 'strained' on the best of days, but today, of all days?
He was not in the mood to put up with him.
But...this is a ferocity and a predatorial nature that bypassed his expectations. He cannot stay here and hope to remove the obstruction - he will have to find a different way. He begins to move, occasionally firing off opportunistic shots whenever he believes it possible.
Though he does not realize it, he will soon find himself among unexpected allies...but will they be willing to accept him?
GS: Ambrosius has attacked Yarobeleedt with VV-AESTUO! GS: Ambrosius has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi curses as she picks her way through the wreckage of what remains of this portion of the Photosphere, disturbingly littered with exsanguinated Hyadean corpses, some Tainted, some not. An insectoid monstrosity pursues her and others, wings buzzing. It can fly, and it's dangerous.
And recognizable, somehow. The way it carries itself, it's ochre metallic plating, a certain look in its compound eyes....
She hears Zed address it as "Yaro." That ...thing is Yaro?!?!! He shows up on her kinsight but looks so different...!
GS: Malfi has attacked Malfi with Electrocutie!! GS: Malfi has completed her action. GS: Malfi heals Malfi! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Lolithia lies silent in front of her, and for a moment Shalune hesitates. She'd like nothing more than to dig through the golem's innards - the structure of the golem can't be that different to Diablo, surely, and perhaps she can figure out how the Metal Demons are controlling it and pull the Elw relic back to their side. They might not get a better chance for her to try it, but at the same time - Mother waits above, and maybe it would be better to take that opportunity to press the attack right now.
That moment of hesitation is all that is necessary; something makes the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and she's barely able to sweep herself onto the back of the Little Dipper before the space she was standing abruptly razes with flame, stamping her boot down on the back of the scooter to kick it forwards into a dive. The speed of the scooter is unexpected - but she's used to it, able to rapidly sweep it around in a semi-circle and swing back around towards Lunata.
"Y-you're right, but I'm not gonna leave you to take him on alone!" she calls urgently back to her childhood friend-- but it's too late, and the ex-waitress' speed is such that she's forced to gun the engines on her scooter to keep up, yelping as she ducks under the next stream of laser fire and has to drop enough height to leave a shower of sparks firing from the base of the Little Dipper as it squeals against the metal of the walkway.
When she finally catches up, Lunata is already-- already--
--already drunk on battle? Something like that; it's the only explanation Shalune has when she feels her eyes abruptly cross as she tries to make sense of the paired raving, but she just about manages to shake it away after a few moments. Whatever's gotten into her, Lunata is at least using her own power rather than Ge Ramda's, and that at least means she's not shaving more of her life away from her.
Her teeth grit, instead, and she dives the Little Dipper low as she leaps off of it, letting the scooter clatter along the ground as she ducks under the Freiheit's flames; her knuckles are white on her staff as she pushes the button to extend it, one hand in a pocket of her coat to fish for a battery and her heart lodged in her throat.
"I said, you don't have to take him on alone!" she pouts as she rams the box home into a slot on her weapon and sets her shotstaff at her hip, energy crackling along its length. It would be more impressive if she didn't have a bar of pressed nuts stuck half out of her mouth, trying to recover a little energy.
GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Lunata Croze with Back to Back! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shalune Amira has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Lunata Croze takes a solid hit from Shalune Amira's Back to Back for 0 hit points! GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Lunata Croze!
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
If there's people in need of rescue, there's a safe bet that Metal Digger Locus can be found, and least if she happens to be touring the area at that particular moment. And it so happens that she and a few dozen of her friends have been paying the Photosphere a visit over the last couple days.
Her armor is displaying some minor battle damage, including a crack in one of her helmet's compound eyes and more than a few claw-shaped scratches. But more than that, it's hecka cruddy. That's a small price to pay for protecting the people living in the Gutters, she supposes. Hopefully they'll get to move to a better neighbourhood soon.
Hopefully Filgaia will still be around in one week!!
"Frick!! Talk about a real time of year!" Locus lets out, when the ordinary perils of garbage-trundling are joined by a collapsed passage and some sort of...
"There's an insect thing shooting at us!" she explains as she runs, being one to talk. She taps the side of her helmet. She attempts to leap for the mystery assailant a few times, to acquaint them with her LOCUS PUNCH, but she meets air every time. "Even the Matrix Eye is havin' trouble keeping up, what the seven hecks??"
Steps are backtracked. Paths are crossed. Locus waves at Xantia widely, seeing her in the distance. "Heeeey X-- I mean Mystery Hero X!" Wait, is she even wearing the mask right now? She isn't, is she. WHAT A FRICKIN' TIME OF YEAR. "Are you bein' shot at by some kinda really swole bug? Also, any idea why Lunie's speakin' in subtitles?"
No, she hasn't put two and two together yet. This may be in part because her Matrix Eye is still in night vision mode and she hasn't managed to turn it off just yet.
Then she hears Zed shout.
"Oh. Ooooooh! I get it, now."
GS: Carina Wynne has attacked Yarobeleedt with Scan Visor - Matrix Eye! GS: Carina Wynne has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Zed's Grit Your Mandibles PUUUUNCH! for 0 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Ambrosius's VV-AESTUO for 136 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Carina Wynne has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Scan Visor - Matrix Eye from Carina Wynne!
<Pose Tracker> Grigori has posed.
In the darkness, far away from the approaching horror at first, there are footsteps. They ring easily on the metal walkways, and they are not quiet. Each one sounds like the closing of a tomb, as someone else walks her way towards the room where the two groups will meet--where an abomination may be answered. One who would claim to speak for God.
Heresy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUhY_DFxWgw
Lit by the flash of laser fire, a humanoid form comes into view, through the door on the opposite side, towards the thing that is coming. She(?) is dressed in glossy black, armored clothing with heavy boots, a breastplate, and an indigo tabard inscribed with ancient runes of silence. Her head is entirely covered; there is a mask, seemingly eyeless, inlaid with a helmet, only two narrow lines of metal bounding what could otherwise be a face. Black, indigo, gold; these repeat over and over in elaborate inlays, but much more noticeable is what she carries: in one hand, a gigantic sword, more than half a foot across, heavier on one side where it narrows to a bladed edge, some five feet long. It is inlaid with strange lines, hollows in the center for some arcane geomantic purpose.
As she steps into the room, she rests the blunt end of the blade on her shoulder, and looks forward. As the others recall their relationships with the creature, the horror before them--
"You were never meant to exist."
The voice is mechanical, clearly obscured by some mechanism or another, a tone strangely slowed but vaguely recognizeable as feminine, if entirely without feeling.
"I am the Watcher of the Shepherds. I will assist in rectifying this error."
The Watcher lifts her gigantic blade in one hand, points it straight forward with seemingly no difficulty--and abrubtly there is a pulse of oppressively powerful Ether, the power of Wind rushing around her as green light before electricity crackles about her body, bolts coursing across her limbs before they settle into the sword itself, empowering some whirring mechanism with a whine of machinery.
"Your data will be recorded."
GS: Grigori has attacked Grigori with Blitz Method! GS: Grigori has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grigori has completed her action. GS: Grigori takes a solid hit from Grigori's Blitz Method for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Grigori! <DICE ROLLER> Fei Fong Wong rolled 1d100 <52> + 0 = 52
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
They say no plan survives contact with the enemy. Sometimes, the plan doesn't even survive to make contact with the enemy. This is usually what happens when plans come into contact with Xantia. Of course the Black Wolves are well aware, and would probably be more worried if she had been with them the entire time during the assault. It works well enough in situations like this, where no matter where you end up going, the situation can be improved through violence. Xantia can always be counted on to help with that.
She hasn't exactly been thinking about what she's been doing, neither particularly enjoying nor particularly disliking the situation she's found herself in. This fight... this is just what needs to be done right now. The ultimate goal is Mother, of course. But any threat she can put a stop to is something that won't be able to harm anybody she cares about anymore. Whatever she can manage to do, it's sure to help somebody.
Though meeting up with familiar faces here and there, invariably the red-haired fist fighter ended up seperated from them again during the chaos. And so it happens that she isn't actually in a location directly assaulted by Yarobeleedt. She's up on a higher walkway, rushing ahead to, well, whatever happened to be in that direction, when she feels tremors from below, causing her to pause and look downward. There's... something down there, something that looks big and dangerous. She should get down there and help to take care of it, she thinks, but how?
Then Metal Digger Locus happens to look up and spots her, shouting... something. She can't quite make it out, and reading lips is hard when there are no visible lips to read. "What? I can't hear you!" she shouts back, pointlessly, since she probably can't be heard either.
And then a stray energy blasts hits the walkway she was standing on. That's one way to get down really quickly. Xantia only looks worried for a moment before instinct takes over, and she lands safely in a roll, immediately springing up to move to Locus's side. "Locus! I'm not sure what that thing is, but...!"
With a flourish, Xantia enacts her incredible transformation sequence... consisting entirely of her whipping out a domino mask and placing it over her eyes. "...Mystery Hero X is here to back you up!" With that, she strikes a heroic pose, and actually manages to not look completely ridiculous in the process. Has she been practising?
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
A COUPLE MINUTES AGO
The universe allows Ida a few moments to get herself together. She uses them to lean against the wall, take a deep, steadying breath, and slide a fresh clip into Devil's Due. Once this vital act is accomplished, Ida rises, adjusts her ponytail, and fusses a little with the collar of her armored steelcloth duster. Between that and the Hyadean body armor she appropriated--which has some very nice gear webbing and, more importantly, is in one piece--she looks the part of the rookie Metal Demon, and that isn't even counting the mysterious gauntlet covering her entire right arm.
She's about to say something to Kalve when everything goes to shit.
NOW
Ida runs for her life. Her heart hammers against her ribs. The quicksilver blood pulsing through parts of her body is a dinner bell to the thing Yarobeleedt has become, and Ida knows it. The teammates she fought Lolithia with have scattered. She feels vulnerable, exposed. And then suddenly, she catches sight of conspicuous green hair. "ZED!" Ida roars. Laser fire lances over Ida's head, and she ducks, reflexively, covering her face with her arms. "Alhazred's work!
It takes all of Ida's focus to reach into herself, and take hold of her chi--to send it flowing outwards, reinforcing muscle, skin, and bone. It still feels strange, even with the ARM attuned to her; there's still an element of heat to it, and it rises up inside her as she executes the Iron Body Focus. "He's been devouring the Tainted!"
GS: Xantia has spent 1 Combo on Inspire, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Xantia has attacked Carina Wynne with Just Like You Taught Me! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Carina Wynne takes a solid hit from Xantia's Just Like You Taught Me for 0 hit points! GS: Carina Wynne gains a Combo from Inspire! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Just Need To Focus...!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Just Need To Focus...! for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Tachi has posed.
In the Alien Catacombs
A pair of gauntleted fingers dip into the desiccated form of a fallen Hyadean, finding little more than a deflated metallic shell with no quicksilver filling. Bone structure still intact. Huge puncture wounds, but not consistent with ballistics profiles or bladed weapons. More like... a giant needle impaled them. The gauntlet's wearer frowns. They haven't seen any Drifters wielding that kind of weapon, and it doesn't make sense of another Hyadean to shapeshift such a means of attack.
"Hmm."
Reflection on the matter is interrupted by an explosion of motion. Floor panels warp, heave, and crack before a horrendous and chitinous creature bursts through the ground and screeches a horrible laugh. The very obvious silhouette, what with the winged headdress and gigantic scythe, fades from view moments before a barrage of glowing red energy scythes through the spot where they were. Molten metal sloughs down the wall into a pool, but alas, there is no body.
Ida gets that fuzzy sensation of someone being nearby without being seen. A very specific someone. "Heads up." warns the voice, shortly before the insect barrage explodes from the ground at her anew.
At the Staging Ground
A very normal Drifter with a hooded cloak of scarlet and few other discernable features skips across the ground at an impressive clip off the wing of one Ida Everstead-Rey. "You realize, it's going to go for your arm. Every time." they warn. Even as they leap, shadow clings to their face in a way most mysterious would-be assailants can only dream of, or pay for expensive crest sorcery to achieve the same effect. "Avoid that."
The scarlet cloak billows once, and a single knife of alien steel comes flying out from beneath it towards the Yarobeleedt Reborn. Its owner hasn't yet realized exactly why this feels so familiar...!
GS: Tachi has attacked Yarobeleedt with Hyadean Form - Kunai Toss! GS: Tachi has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tachi has lost 1 Combo! DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Hyadean Form - Kunai Toss from Tachi!
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
It hasn't been long since Elvis parted ways with others he visited shortly after the highest leadership assembled. And in that time, it was decided. Elvis would help those that engage Mother. And while he wanted to help RIesenlied so badly due to her being one of his 'subjects' for curing her ailments, the msot pwoerful fighters were needed for the corrupted deity.
And Elvis had power in spades.
And while he was distinctly absent dealing with Lolithia, he was nearby. Assaulting any Metal Beasts that rempage the halls still in league with Mother.
None have remained to witness how this battle will end.
Though a particular battle pre-emptively ends when -it- strikes. When the dust clears, his opponents are dessicated husks, and a familiar laugh echoes in the chamber. "Well, this got interesting I guess???" he asks himself. What even was that? The laugh he knows, but the size and shape... no idea.
With that thing flying through this place, it was dangerous to keep going alone. A tactful move would be to tall back to the stagin point he saw earlier.
Metal heels click on the floor heavily as Evils runs toward that location. His blouse and vest are covered in flecks of silver. He has sustained remarkably few wounds, and the ones present are different from the initial Photosphere fight.
"That better not be who I think it is!" the Sentinel says running up toward the assault point. "If I have to deal with him too, I will be put so far behind! I am losing research elft and right!!!"
He pulls out a book and waves it around wildly. "I WAS WRITING A TRANSLATION GUIDE FOR HIM!"
The book is called 'HOW TO RAIN YOUR ^TRACT-ON^: A PRIME TIMER'.
...Sure.
"Just stop while you are ahead! Don't make me hit you with this book! Trust me, it is heavy!" The man works his other hand, as earthen magic ensorcels him. refreshing him from recent fights, and readying to beat up whatever that is, or rather, what they have become.
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Arleph Ardan with Flee!! GS: Elvis has attacked Elvis with Power Guard! GS: Elvis has completed his action. GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Elvis! GS: Elvis heals Elvis! He gains 0 temporary hit points! GS: Arleph Ardan guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Flee! for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"Mystery Hero X..." Locus says, with deep, considered gravity.
"I've taught you well!" And with this, Metal Digger Locus poses alongside her sidekick. Some sort of dynamic greenscreen background may be mentally added, at the viewer's discretion.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Another form enters alongside the person in the mask. This one makes fewer secrets of her form, dressed in what amounts to a leotard in the white, black and red of Gebler. Sleeves reach down the whole lengths of her arms to gloved fingers, though the smooth but powerful legs are bare except for a strap holding a container for...something. On her waist, a single handgun-style ARM, glimmering with Ether light. Gold hair spills out of an upraised hood, the shadows within too deep for the normal rules of light.
She draws the ARM, idly plucking at its receiver as though confirming it's all in working order.
"You'll feel a bit of a pinch, dear," she cooes, in a voice digitized and rescrambled.
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
It turns out that having to serach through the entire system of the Photosphere, including down to the gutters in search of electronics that works is something of a fool's errand. The SYmbologist has spent some time away from some other Drifter groups, searching at walls, looking at everything and taking notes on a notepad. That is, in the brief moments of calm that is afforded by the others fighting or, really, by sheer amount of lucky streaks tumbling into places he can look at things.
And wave some weird rectangle with an antenna around at things. The latest developments, the confirmation of his own fears and extrapolation brought him to wonder about other things about Mother... and the investigation, the scrutiny of several systems he can find in the Photosphere.
Unfortunately, he have the literal problem of not having the right plugs for the right things for the computer systems here. It's quite vexing, trust me.
What's even more vexing, however is the strike. The disrupting of THAT thing, sizzling and breakign everything in it's path, making Arleph dropping his electronics in shock.
"Oh." Arleph comments, simply, staring wide as things bulge from the burrowing monster making itself known. "Oh."
He fumbles down to grab his antenna, shoving it into his pockets and BOOKS it, fists glowing and firing off behind him. If he's going to make it out alive with the rest of the Drifters, he's going to need more energy. Motes condenses behind him in, created from position he points into the air, the wall. Lights dim, kinetic waves from shocks dies down, fueling the growth of the balls of light that streams through matter, flying into the Symbologist to refuel his reserves.
GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Yarobeleedt with Mote Reclamation! GS: Arleph Ardan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan has lost 1 Combo! DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Mote Reclamation from Arleph Ardan!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
The Gutter and Alien Catacombs
The trials of nearly two years have served well to harden the final hopes of Filgaia and beyond. They are no longer strangers to having to fight on the fly, whether catching a breaths, preparing themselves, or laying down protective cover fire. For many of them, Yarobeleedt found his way underfoot along the way there. Sometimes he tripped them up. Most of the time he got stepped on, and over. Now...
Their pursuer is tireless, even as any blows might strike against it. Some may already be aware of finer details, but for most, it's a terrible blur of yellow, silver, and wrong who seems to be able to regenerate from some of the most grievous wounds imaginable. It's going so fast that it's tough for even advanced technology to capture it. There is a knife toss that seems to come uncomfortably close for something so slow(?) against something so fast, somehow notable even among moments of dead-on aim from others fleeing...
Both sides of the two-pronged operation within the Photosphere meet within a circular metal chamber whose ambient lighting has already been damaged from the ferocity of conflicts engulfing Mother's lair. Steady illumination is provided below by a thrumming, aging generator flashing soft blue lights from below, visible through a grated metal floor. A ginormous blast door, thicker than any witnessed on Filgaia, gives the imposing image of there being something beyond that none are supposed to witness - and even less, to ever traverse.
"^Meat Remonsssss...^" A voice hisses. "And the exwelcome..." Those bear down on the non-humans, other than the... "and the exappointing Metal Demons who fail Mother." Zed and Malfi, outwardly. Are there... others?
That voice is familiar, in all of its screechiness and nasal character, to someone who has demonstrably lacked that. They also lacked much threat presence as time went on, culminating in being so casually overturned at a fortress in the snow. Those days are over.
A huge insectoid thing - moth-like from the head, cicada-like from the thorax-slash-torso, and mosquito-like from how quicksilver drips from a proboscis on their face - looks upon the gathered with compound eyes that all individually blink. The scent of blood is strong on them - the scent of Hyadean blood. They... must have been consuming their own.
The Hyadeans present know exactly who this is, and only the shock of surprise would delay the settling of the truth. Though enlarged, their form is a dead ringer for one of their kind who suffered irrepairable (...until now) harm by some means within Arctica's fortress. A place he should not have been in, by Alhazred's orders bak then.
"Mother onewaits her new children," he rasps, with a chilling acceptance of her heartless decrees. Their form pulses with silver veins throughout, flickering in and out of visibility, while steel segments orbit their body protectively. Of all the Metal Demons that could have decided to stay with Mother - of all the ones who would yet stand to be among the greatest roadblocks to Filgaia's salvation... it had to be...
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
__Perpetuator Of The World Devouring Cycle
________________YAROBELEEDT
_______________The__Disowned
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
BGM: Bravely Default - Wicked Thing
Threats are levied against it from so many angles. Just about everyone present has some sort of trump card, some sort of means, in which they might hold fast against this awful thing. There is only a 'fu fu fu.'
The battle begins in earnest. The steel segments - segments with the same coloration as the infamous Sheet Cocoon, which is probably no coincidence - orbit outward to batter back anyone that might be too close. All the while, the horrid thing seems to huck up something right out the proboscis. It widens painfully to one's eyes in which to produce a small, round, surging thing or another that emits a high-pitched whine a fraction of a second before a blinding flash. The shell that houses these components explodes, sending shrapnel everywhere.
It wasn't ever enough for Yarobeleedt to offend one's tastes - now, he grabs away at sight and sound alike, to try and remove anyone's ability to fight back against him effectively.
Even with all his power, he would try to tip the scales ever further his way.
GS: Yarobeleedt has activated a Boss Action! GS: You have activated the Boss Action Extend! GS: That attack doesn't exist. [Hide1] GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Arleph Ardan with Hide!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Hide!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Carina Wynne with Hide!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Elvis with Hide!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Tachi with Hide!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Hide!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Xantia with Hide!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Grigori with Hide!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 2 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Shalune Amira with Pale Faced!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Malfi with Pale Faced!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ambrosius with Pale Faced!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Zed with Pale Faced!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Catenna with Pale Faced!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Pale Faced!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Lunata Croze with Pale Faced!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Celine Jules with Pale Faced!! GS: Lunata Croze critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Pale Faced! for 32 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Ambrosius guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Pale Faced! for 99 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Catenna takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Pale Faced! for 80 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Pale Faced! for 169 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Pale Faced! for 100 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: CRITICAL! Grigori guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Hide! for 149 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam! Statuses applied to Grigori! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Elvis critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Hide! for 30 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Shalune Amira critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Pale Faced! for 56 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam! Statuses applied to Shalune Amira! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Malfi has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Malfi completely evades Pale Faced! from Yarobeleedt!
GS: Tachi critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Hide! for 28 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Tachi has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Xantia takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Hide! for 121 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam! Statuses applied to Xantia! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Arleph Ardan takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Hide! for 163 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Carina Wynne critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Hide! for 31 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Carina Wynne has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Hide! for 83 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Tabitha deVriese takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Hide! for 78 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei feels considerably more concerned when Xantia and Carina arrive. Sadly Xantia's hard work in not looking ridiculous does not help as much as you might think. "Yeah... I was actually about to warn Noeline." He tells Ida. "But I guess I'm not exactly getting the chance here." He barely seems to notice how metal demony Ida is and is certainly not horrified. If anything he is glad that Ida seems to be adapting well and going into metal demon fashion already. "Glad to see you're doing well."
Of course then there's Tachi. Fei blinks a few times at ... well, totally not Harken and says, "He has to be stopped or he'll just keep consuming until he can't be stopped."
He hates saying something like that, but its true.
"You...must be thinking yourself real brave to face us all down." Fei murmurs before shifting into a guarded position. He is clobbered by several sheets of metal, but his guard manages to prevent it from really crushing him. But still, they bash him around enough to think that Yarobeleedt was once menaced by children could do this...
But to make matters worse...Gebler.
"What..." Fei turns to them. "What are you two doing here??" He demands suddenly, though the edge is rubbed off a bit thanks to his shock and exhaustion. "What are you two...what is Gebler planning here?"
KILL THEM
Fei does not kill them. He doesn't even attack them. Instead he punches forward another surge of icy mist for Yarobeleedt. Suddenly Fei's show of confidence seems weaker. "Yaro...quickly, you have to give up now before it's too late! You're running out of time!!"
KILL THEM!!
Fei grits his teeth. "Those people are dangerous, Yaro...please! Surrender!!"
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Yarobeleedt with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Some instinct warns Malfi of the flash grenades just in time: she adjusts her vision moment-by-moment to account for them, even as she also ducks the ochresteel segments aimed at her, and others. She growls, manifesting her lance. Yarobeleedt was insane, still standing with Mother.
The same Mother that repaid a millennium of love and loyalty with xenocide.
She takes aim at Yarobeleedt's flank, hoping to hit a vital organ (or two). He deserved no mercy. He had, she gathered, drained quite of few of their kind of their blood -- and with any luck, she *wouldn't* be next. Not for the first time, she wishes she had more distance attacks...
GS: Malfi has attacked Yarobeleedt with Beyond the Impale! GS: Malfi has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Great, Catenna reflects grimly as the Watcher of the Shepherds makes her appearance. She must be one of those sky people. Just what we need.
'meat remonsssss'
"What." Catenna recoils a bit as the monstrosity comes into view. The ochre colur is a dead giveaway. The garbled wording is another one. But the shape and proportions --
Widening her eyes, the moon Shaman clicks her teeth together. The surprise passes, though, replaced by a flinty determination. Her hand tightens around her bow.
Steel segments orbit outwards, the horrid thing launching that whining, screeching shell a second later. Lunging to one side and nearly losing the Owlet in the crossfire, Catenna tries to get away from it altogether. The explosion goes off entirely too close; the concussive force knocks her back more than the actual flash does, sending her staggering, a steel segment of cocoon slashing across her hip. Through grated teeth, she hisses a low, pained sound, but forces herself to bury it, whirling away to gain a little distance in the hopes of escaping the mutated creature's attempt to deprive them of sight and sound. True, a corner of her mind has questions. How did Yarobeleedt get this way? Was it something one of the Quarter Knights did to him? Did he always have this power?
Catenna shoves all those questions aside. At a fundamental level, this is a foe she's prepared to fight in the most zealous way: A Metal Demon fanatically loyal to Mother, with no chance he can be saved like Riesenlied was or -- hell, is that Lady Harken? Or 'Tachi?' Like 'Tachi' apparently is. And Malfi for that matter. Catenna should be more surprised or nervous about that, but at this point, she couldn't blame any Metal Demon under the sun for switching sides.
Tachi and Malfi each gets a stiff nod from her. Nothing else needs be said.
<This one appears to be too far gone down the dark path,> the Owlet circling above opines quietly, more felt in the mind than heard, and more for Fei's benefit than Catenna's. Catenna simply nods as she begins to mass a spell. Inhaling, she gathers power not through her Moon Medium, but through the one she got in the depths of the Guardian Temple. Glittering sparkles, as blue as the sea, mass around her.
"We will not be deterred by you," she says shortly before letting the magic go. It bursts out around her as a growing tidal wave, crashing across the scarred and battered floor of the chamber to try and sweep towards Yarobeleedt and slam into him, or perhaps even wash him away.
GS: Catenna has attacked Yarobeleedt with Tidal Wave! GS: Catenna has gained 2 Combo! GS: Catenna has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Fei Fong Wong's Suikei for 75 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Malfi's Beyond the Impale for 36 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Catenna's Tidal Wave for 125 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
Man he got big. Was this Alhazred's doing? ...No, there is no way Alhazred would waste effort on Yarobeleedt. Then how did he get so massive? Was it some kind of power that he had due to his amorphous state? He looks... engorged. Like he has ingested a great quantity of something. The thought of those dessicated bodies does make him think it could have bee ntheir quicksilver, but that doesn't explain the rapid evolution.
"Just stop already!" Elvis calls out. He is met with blinding flashes of light and quicksilver shrapnel. Elvis jsut holds up that large tome to block the light and--
"Ow!" he says suddenly, getting caught on the shoulder by a large shard. But much worse...
There are about three large shards that have embedded themselves in the book. The could have hit his face. BUT THEY ARE IN THE BOOK. Elvis has the look on his face like he jsut dropped a puppy as he pulls them out of the tome.
"Oh. I am going to hit you now. Knock soem sense in to you!"
And with a stomp of a fot, a hexagonal shaped pillar erupts out of the ground to strike at Uberleedt!
"If you don't stop right this instant you can't come on any more explorations with us!!!" He shouts this whil waggling a finger at the goliath of a bloated Metal Demon. ...Wait, why does he even care?
GS: Elvis has attacked Yarobeleedt with Hi-Crush! GS: Elvis has completed his action. GS: Celine Jules takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Pale Faced! for 168 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
A large amount of Drifters have come to address the problem. Catenna, Carina... well, no, Metal Hero Locus and a strange Mysterious Heroine X -- Fei and Shalune have also come after her from where they've barely survived their encounter with Lolithia. And that's... Lady Tachi? From back in Lacour? What's she doing here? Yarobeleedt shrieks outwards, and metal flechettes fly straight out from that shell--
- wakkateruze, RU-NIchan yo! engo ni tanomuzo!
- "I have one Wow, ^Lunie^! Ask to Assistance!"
... Shalune's assessment that Lunata's drunk on battle may, indeed, be correct. She does look towards her, though, which may be unsettling right now. She charges.
- watashi no haha ga onaji dewanai
- "I am not the same as Mother..."
She's narrating even as she charges, that wicked grin still from ear to ear. Those bug-like eyes scanning for her target as she throws her lifeless arm out and lets it sink in.
- [wataridori] dewanai
- "I am not ^Migratory Bird^..."
The nonsense is spewing from her mouth as she leaps, straight through that flashbang which doesn't seem to affect her altogether too much.
- demo, sono hi ni... anta no te ni yotte...
- "But, on That Day... By Your Hand..."
She blasts forward towards the centre mass of the insectoid Metal Demon. As she does so, she cranks on the handlebar of the Freiheit; a solid whirl has her relying on centrifugal force as she slashes on through with spinning gouts of flame, with each strike she revs and irresponsibly bursts more gasoline to burn and fan the fires further.
- ketchakutsukeruzo, kyou! kokode!
- "I will Settle on Today, Today, Here!"
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Yarobeleedt with Sweet Sacrifice! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida knows who that unsettling presence is the moment it gets within range. She was travelling with her not quite ten minutes ago. "I know," she says. "I know." There's an edge to the words, and it's not just fear. It's anger--deep, powerful anger, breaking the surface. She can smell blood. She has no idea how many Hyadeans Yarobeleedt has eaten, but it is definitely not 'zero'. "I'm counting on it." As the squad of unlikely allies regroups, Ida glances at the others, making note of people she knows. Arleph, Catenna, Fei, who doesn't look so good. Celine, Elvis--
And then, those two, in disguise and doing absolutely nothing to hide themselves otherwise. Ida stares at Grigori and their 'assistant' for a full second or two, but discretion--and Yarobeleedt--draw her attention away. Ida shuts her eyes, but the loud whine pierces through her concentration like a nail in the foot. She throws herself to the side, feeling more than seeing the rush of something as it comes towards her. Ida tumbles across the ground, comes up to a knee. Part of Yarobeleedt's sheet-blanket-thing glances off her right shoulder hard enough to throw out sparks, and pit the metal armor. Ida twists away from it, opens her eyes, and glares at the monstrosity flying overhead. Devil's Due never really left her hand. She raises the ARM, breathes out, guides her lifeforce down through one ARM and into another. She feels it condense around the bullet in the chamber. "Arrogant creature!" Ida spits. She fires, sending a glowing, smoking bullet downrange at Yarobeleedt's thorax. "How many have you killed already?! Do you even know!"
Fei is pleading for him to stop. Gebler, Ida thinks. Oh, wonderful.
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.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
It takes a moment, but Locus finally finishes processing who it turns out they're up against, as well as reconciling that with her idea of what Yarobeleedt has traditionally... been. She relaxes from her heroic pose.
"So... you're some sort of [Super Yaro] now..." She shifts into something that at least resembles a fighting stance. "We're gonna need a lot of teamwork," she says in Xantia's direction, and also in the vague direction of Catenna and Shalune, two of the few people here she knows more than in passing. (Lunata is also a good friend, but currently seems to be committing to a bit that Carina respects but doesn't quite understand.)
And, after speaking these words, she immediately runs off alone towards Yarobeleedt.
"I don't know how you made these gains so fast," she says, running as she quickly switches the color-coded yellow marble in her belt to a blue one. The belt announces what this means, in a synthetic voice.
- ELEMENT: ICE_
Snow swirls around her fist as she twists her body to evade some of the metallic segments-- to mixed success. Still, she gets in close enough to at least take a swing at Super Yaro, quite literally, and with a sizeable helping of ice sorcery to give her punch that extra kick.
"Time to COOL your jets!" ...Insects hate cold, right? She's pretty sure they hate cold.
GS: Carina Wynne has attacked Yarobeleedt with Secret Technique - Hit the Weakness! GS: Carina Wynne has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius is forced to keep on the move. To stay in one location for too long would be to invite disaster. He avoids incoming attacks where possible while outputting his own where he can, until eventually he - along with many others. The Sentinel, Elvis... It seems as if he was waylaid from his mission, as well. And...ah, Catenna is here too.
This may make things awkward, but for now he focuses on the real enemy here.
And what an enemy it is - Yarobeleedt is no longer the goopy, slug-like creature that always got in his way. Now he was the huge, insectoid creature currently getting in his way. And, for once - a threat.
He would have to be careful.
Suddenly, steel segments erupt off of Yarobeleedt. Ambrosius moves back quickly to avoid them, but in retaliation a fired projectile detonations, emitting blinding light. Ambrosius shields his eyes quickly, but he finds himself momentarily disorientated. Quickly, he slips his helmet on, affixing it properly. It will not help him with his current disorientation, but it should deter further blinding assaults.
"...He will not surrender." Ambrosius states, with a brief glance in Fei's direction. "He must be dealt with. Quickly. There are important matters at stake."
Ambrosius rushes forward, drawing a blade and lunging quickly before retreating into a defensive stance. As he moves however, he sees...
...Is that Miss Croze? No...it couldn't be. It couldn't possibly be, could it??
GS: Ambrosius has attacked Yarobeleedt with Guarded Strike! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Elvis's Hi-Crush for 60 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Sweet Sacrifice from Lunata Croze!
GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Chi Bullet from Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Carina Wynne's Secret Technique - Hit the Weakness for 105 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ambrosius has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Guarded Strike from Ambrosius!
<Pose Tracker> Celine Jules has posed.
The giant metallic insectoid thing, clearly known to others, is a bit uncertain to Celine. "Eeek! That thing's so very gross!" She declares, without even a single ~. The Symbologist from Marze staggers backwards as the Steel segments orbit outwards - and the giant monster that was a yarobeleedt immediately erupts an object that erupts, screeching everywhere in a light explosion, complete with shrapnel! The assault is clearly catching Celine unaware, causing the Symbologist to be struck by the majority of it.
Blades of metal pierce into skin, digging deep into the fleshy, unprotected form of the woman as she howls slightly in pain. Toppling over, the metallic shrapnel embeds itself into the ground and wall through her as well, causing her to be unable to fully access her assaults!
Such is the strength of an evolved form such as Yarobeleedt, that is.
With blood beginning to streak down her form, and clothing, the Symbologist raises her staff with a hand to pull them out - wind shooting off her form to mostly reveal the cuts and lacerations that have been made above her as the metallic shrapnel is removed with a sudden Thuck, the sound of flesh unwilling to give back it's 'gift', as she staggers off the wall - the remnants of the assault, of course, blow towards Yaro - for whatever that may be worth!
"This was... perhaps a bad idea." She declares in one of her serious statements - but the others have it, don't they?
GS: Celine Jules has attacked Yarobeleedt with Wind!! GS: Celine Jules has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Gritting her teeth, Shalune feels her grip on her staff tighten for a moment. By now she's faced Veruni, Metal Demons, Elw war machines, non-Elw war machines, you name it and she's faced it down - but something leaves her deeply uncomfortable here, and it doesn't take long for her to pin down exactly what it is when the creature starts to rave anew.
She has also faced deeply unhinged opponents before, but only once - and the way it ended wasn't exactly fantastic leaving her recuperating for several days and Lunata recuperating for weeks. Sometimes when she closes her eyes she can still smell the blood of John Doe's charnel pit, and the idea of red meat on a barbecue's definitely gotten a lot less tempting since then.
"... Mother doesn't care about you. I'm sorry," she whispers more to herself than anything, already certain that saying the words aloud isn't going to matter in any way, shape or form; instead, she ducks her head down into her coat, hiding her mouth as she puts a grimace on her face. "Family really sucks sometimes, doesn't it?"
She catches Lunata's glance, and that only adds to the shiver down her spine; she sucks in a tiny breath, and shakes her head violently as she tries to get the image of Lunata's rictus grin out of her mind. "O-okay-- okay!" she tries instead; even if she's not sure what her friend is saying, the meaning is certainly something she can pick up. "But-- be careful! You have to calm down! Lunata!"
She cuts herself off with a yelp; she's much too far back for the steel plates to reach her but catches the brunt of the flashbang right in her range of vision, seeing black spots against white as she tries to shake the blinding blast away with a noise of frustration. Instinct makes her draw back, bringing her staff up in defence--
--but just as Lunata isn't alone, neither is she. One of the errant pieces of armor rushes towards her, but at the last moment it pings off of a metal fist that covers the mechanic; Big Shal strides forward and through the melee without offering it the slightest glance, the twelve-foot golem gaining ground on Yarobeleedt despite the fracas.
Slowly, it lifts a fist - and offers a thumbs down as it drives forwards in a rushing punch.
GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Yarobeleedt with Big Shal - It's Showtime!! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Grigori has posed.
"This is larger than Gebler," the strange mechanized woman answers Fei. "In this we share an objective, if not a motive. The Plague Locust must not be allowed to feed and grow further."
The Watcher shrugs lightly, "If you can convince it to surrender, we will accept this solution. But I find it unlikely. It is interesting that you would so much as try."
Steel segments rocket towards the group--and one impacts hard, scratching the floor ahead of the Watcher and rumbling its collapse as the roof caves in overtop her. Ruined metal and stone pile down upon her location, removing her entirely from view. Until the screeching is gone, that is that.
...But water abrubtly trickles from the gaps in the debris, and with a flood of Ether the pile erupts, exploding outward outright. Rising again from a position at one knee, the woman in dark armor moves back to standing position.
"Significantly enhanced combat capabilities. If not for your misguided loyalty, we could find a better purpose for you, Locust."
There is a low hum as she considers to step forward. Her pace is slow, her approach inexorable as she simply walks towards the creature, lifting her spare hand and showing her palm to Yarobeleedt.
"But we all play our roles on the stage."
A fierce blue aura of water Ether exudes around the Watcher; she hovers briefly into the air, and then a torrent of rushing water crashes down, the sort of terrible flow that wears down mountains, and it leaves a sickly essence in its wake, the opposite of healing.
To her support the Watcher directs, "We will press the assault."
GS: Grigori has spent 1 Combo on Poison, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Grigori has attacked Yarobeleedt with Aqua Breaker! GS: Grigori has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Being right in front of the horrible, bloated, way-too-swole monster that had once been (and yet may still be called) Yarobeleedt is perhaps not the best place to be. Not when there's a flashbang bursting right in front of his face. The Hyadean is close enough to be thrown back by the explosion, crashing straight into one of the Photosphere's walls. He coughs, staggering forward into the corridor. His ears ring, his head spins...
But...
Zed heard what Ida had to say. He heard it.
Alhazred.
Alhazred.
Alhazred turned a comrade... Into a cannibal.
Zed surges forward, his sword surging with the light of his soul rendered brilliant and tangible. He roars, swinging a terrible, scything blow at the metal monster's carapace...!
"You... You ate them?" Zed growls, unable to hear himself speak except for the dull resonance of his voice in the depths of his skull. "Yaro...!"
"Tell me that you didn't do this on your own. That you're being controlled somehow! I don't want any more of us to die because of that monster!" Mother, or... Alhazred...?
GS: Zed has attacked Yarobeleedt with RayBlade - Zed Saber! GS: Zed has gained 2 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Tachi has posed.
A shadowy, not-fooling-anyone face furrows their brow beneath their hood. The peices slowly fit together: the obsession, the voice (more whole as it might be, now), the mannerisms... and yet, it's hard to associate this horrendous form with the incomplete, melted mess. Similarly, these modes and methods of attack are much more...
... coherent.
"Hmm." muses the hooded figure, their big scarlet cloak having another dramatic billow as an arm comes up quickly to parry an oncoming blow from a wildly-careening shell of Hyadean alloy. Eyes widen noticeably beneath that hood as the force carries through into their arm and, before the shield can continue on into their body with a crushing blow, they skip backwards and away in a flurry of sparks. They lock gazes with Fei Fong Wong in that instant. "Don't mind me--keep your eye on that Metal Demon." they advise--you can almost hear the awkward capitalization.
Lady Tachi scowls--the disguise is barely holding on in the thick of combat. What might have worked decently for skulking around helping people into the Photosphere, but trying to keep the facade going for long enough to get people into Mother's chambers to kill her is--uh--challenging.
"Can he even comprehend you?" asks the figure as it pirouettes into a flip over Ida's head, going to the rafters for a better angle of attack. Catenna also gives them a very stern nod, and they breath a terse sigh. Acceptance will have to do.
The scarlet cloak seems to squash into a support beam on the ceiling as its wearer's centre of gravity does some very weird things, and they launch off of roof towards Yaro's terrifyingly agile and powerful new form. "Yarobeleedt, you recognize this voice, don't you?" the very-bad-at-staying-secret figure asks the insectoid monster that has taken to feeding on its fellow Hyadeans. "It's time to give it up. Mother will consume this whole world, and you with it."
A scarlet trail of light follows a metal-plated foot that scythes out from beneath that cloak. The diving kick somehow seems to accelerate the closer it gets.
GS: Tachi has attacked Yarobeleedt with Hyadean Form - Moonlight's Descent! GS: Tachi has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Celine Jules's Wind! for 49 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Shalune Amira's Big Shal - It's Showtime! for 65 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grigori has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Aqua Breaker from Grigori!
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Zed's RayBlade - Zed Saber for 73 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Tachi's Hyadean Form - Moonlight's Descent for 41 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
"Oh." Arleph, repeats for the third time, panting from having to dash like he did. A quick glance around from the corridor he came out from makes him take note of people. The fragmentation of the explosion of the sharpnels slams into his body. The Symbologist cries out in pain, slamming to the ground and rolling down on the ground.
It dawns on him as he rolls, holding out a hand to his bleeding wounds while casting a symbol on them.
"It's... it's you." Arleph mutters, staggering to his feets, glaring at the (still pretty disgusting) metal demon. Bubbles starts forming all over his body, clogging up his wounds and pushing out the shards to cover them with cleansing fluids. "What in the Void have they DONE to you?"
GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Arleph Ardan with Multilayered Foam! GS: Arleph Ardan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action. GS: Arleph Ardan heals Arleph Ardan! He gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
'Mystery Hero X' may seem to have the posing aspect of being a hero down a little better than she used to, but it's not so natural to her that she doesn't need to think about it. Focusing more on her pose's form than what the enemy in front of her is doing may not be the best idea. Her eyes go wide when steel segments start flying everywhere. Wide with surprise as well as recognition. It's been a long time since she's seen that cocoon, but there's no mistaking the limited amount of memories that she has access to. Combined with that way of speaking, her mind is already making an association... one that seems supremely unlikely, giving this thing's form.
For now though, she has the steel shards to worry about, forcing her into a dodge as she breaks away from Metal Digger Locus... and then a bright flash and awful noise go off, causing her to stumble, tightly closing her eyes and covering her ears. That was... unpleasant, to say the least. Thankfully she's not the only one fighting here, allowing her to take a moment to recover from the worst of it. Blurry vision and a ringing in her ears remain, but this is no time to sweat that sort of thing. Right now, she has to fight.
Aaaand Locus is already off well before she gets around to following up on that thought. This teamwork is off to a great start. Well, better late than never. The bracer on her right arm hums upon activation, a sizable energy blade of red coloration springing into existence. The actual attack is delayed yet longer, as she feels the need to question, "Is that... really you? The ugly slug thing? But you were... an ugly slug thing, what happened?"
Then she decides that maybe the answer to that question doesn't matter quite as much as stabbing it does, and she charges in to do just that, not particularly caring where her blade lands. She only strikes once though, before backing off again. Displaying some caution for once, which makes good enough sense when you don't know at all what you're up against.
In the process, she only puts more distance between her and Carina, so this teamwork effort continues to go extremely well. Instead, she ends up close by Fei, which of course was no accident. "Hi Fei! It's me, Xantia!" ...She didn't really think that the domino mask made that any less obvious, did she?
She missed what exactly went on between him and the Gebler forces, all she notices by the time she gets there is that there's people fighting alongside him that she doesn't know. So her following question is obvious: "Who're your friends?"
GS: Xantia has attacked Yarobeleedt with Crimson Flash! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Xantia's Crimson Flash for 105 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Xantia!
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
The one in the hood makes no clear reaction to the hideous transformation, the monstrosity of an insectoid thing before them.
Unless you're close enough to hear her murmur, "What an ugly beast. Yes...let's be sure to extract as much data as we can."
"As you wish," the woman in the leotard says to the Watcher, and then her hand reaches over to tap something on a gauntlet on her wrist, and then she suddenly blurs toward the horrible thing, seeming to move wrong. Like she were falling toward Yarobeleedt rather than running toward him. "Let us dance, you and I!" she laughs.
This doesn't go quite as well as she might like; she throws her arm up to block her eyes from the blinding flash, and catches a flying steel segment on her arm, which she doesn't quite get solidly hit by, but rather flows around, as though creatively redistributing the forces of her impact so that she can get in close enough to the horrible, vampiric bug beast and sweep up in a sharp upward kick - a vertical split that forces her to cartwheel backward from the force of her own heeled boot slipping upward toe-first into demonic hide. She circles about, one foot very precisely touching down so the heel CLICKS to the surface - and then bullets upward, shooting off with unreal force in a rising knee strike, before again sinuously skating away.
A flash of pretty teeth, a curved smile beneath the hood. "As for introductions...why don't you call me Queen."
GS: Merciless Queen has attacked Yarobeleedt with Icarus Flourish! GS: Merciless Queen has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Merciless Queen has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Icarus Flourish from Merciless Queen!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Fei speaks a hard truth - Yarobeleedt must be stopped, at all costs, lest he'll keep consuming. The smell of quicksilver blood is pervasive. The other worry is thus: is there much else to consume? What will come next? What may be more surprising - to the uninitiated - is how Fei wants so much to reach out to this monster now, tell them to stand down. 'Those people are dangerous...'
"They are ^Meat Remon^," Yarobeleedt speaks, unflinchingly, as he skitters aside from the grazing blast of ice, "they are coming well into Mother's love~" A forearm swats away at Fei. "Come, come~" He seems all too accommodating to the Gebler types.
Elvis brings up a pillar of earth from the ground, pushing the THING up into the air. "Come with? Nonono. You will not. You are not ^Meat Remon.^ We will go dualgether nogain!!" He, too, gets a bit of a shove. The Professor is not a man to be shoved around. Yarobeleedt does not follow this decorum. There is shoving.
"Why speak in so dumb!!" He screeches, as Lunata comes at him. "You are Mother's child!! Speaking with above groundnity!!! Not that. Not that. Not thaaat~" He seems a bit thrown off by this, as though maybe he hasn't spoken to a mirror as Lunata swings about the Freiheit... until he tries to stick a bladed claw into her. The claw from the very arm she injured, previously, which is now very much okay and also very much trying to impale her.
Catenna helps stop this from going to deep, if it does at all, as water throws him back. Only the grating on the ground stops the wave from carrying him for long, but the effect is visceral as it dampens him. Compound eyes look into Catenna... and he takes a step back. "Why so angry? Is happy time. You are Mother's child now. Be reterred...!" He stops, tilts his head... and sees the Owlet. He dares try to open fire on it with a laser. It's kind of wild. One might graze Catenna in the attempt. "You are not Mother's child!! You are ^Fat Rat Cannibal^!!" He screeches at the Owlet.
As Ida shoots, he in turn shoots that laser wildly back in the direction of her Chi Bullet. They meet. The Chi Bullet is victorious on the first impact, but is disintegrated on the second shot. "Fu fu fu. How much meat does ^Meat Remon^ eat? Do not count on~!!" There's a third shot that's actually coming to her now.
His shooting stops cold when Locus freezes the arm on the spot with a punch. Is it his weakness? It stops the shooting, so it might help. "Ohhh... it is the ^Winch Easter^ one... fu fu fu. Is granular, is granular. Mother will like. Mother will not be afraid, with ^Meat Remon^ ^Winch Easter^~" He swings that arm back, shattering the ice if it makes contact on her.
Just in time to fly up out of Ambrosius' reach, as if to taunt him... as he lets himself touch down on top of Ambrosius, weight and all. "^Long Voweler^ make sport of Yarobeleedt for so long. Fu fu fu. No more. Make chores of ^Long Voweler^!! Trash. Trash go out... it is making chore..." and he just up and tries to toss him away with one hooked arm.
Celine throws a gust of wind, and from Yarobeleedt's raised position, he is at risk of being pushed away. This might be a bad idea, unless she wants some snappy laser fire, then this was a great idea. "Is not bad you came. Nonono. Mother wants to meet children... so Yarobeleedt bring her all the children~" Maybe she might not want them lasered. But here we are anyway.
Big Shal arrives, and makes sure Yarobeleedt meets the fist first. Yarobeleedt twists and catches the bulk of the fist by landing on it. It still makes headway into his, er, self. It's gross. "Fufufu. Will not need ^Metal Layer Shell^. Will only need Mother. Will only have Mother--" He grips around Big Shal's fist, as if to crush it. Which is worrying, but a part of that bulk might bump into Shalune.
Grigori approaches with the most worrisome calm, of one being truly in control of the situation. "Locust?! Yarobeleedt, Yarobeleedt, but it is okay... only name you need to know is Mother... fu fu fu..." He takes off flying before the water can wash into him, and they are shot at. "Show self. Mother will want to see. Show, show, tell, tell, sure, sure~"
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
At last, Zed comes face to face with someone who he is directly responsible for helping keep alive after the second Adlehyde attack, the blade grazing him because he throws himself up in his face. This is what he became. "But I did!! Silly silly Alhazad. Waste such elixir on Tainted? Tainted! Tainted!! Tainted are waste." Says the one who is a Tainted. "I am more unserving. So I took! Only carnival, for what Alhazad try and stop in Arctica... to let me see Mother..." ...So someone willingly broke into their labs, ingested pretty much everything, and now... this. Then they throw themselves onto Zed, clutching him, in all of his legs, with a sneer. "^Silly Greenhead^ will not show up Yarobeleedt again... never ever, ever!! Metal Demon die because of Yarobeleedt, because they exappoint Mother!!"
It is Tachi's timely approach that will save Zed from worse, if the worst could happen, immediately letting him go and flitting away from the diving scarlet-cloaked figure. He is... silent, even as his abdomen bleeds from the heel that did more than just graze it. He doesn't so much as lift a weapon or anything at them. They edge away...
Towards the Symbologist. "^Wet Bandit.^" He sees all those bubbles form around him. He makes an exhaling noise, and a truly awful vapor fills the air, trying to permeate and pierce the bubbly shield. "I do not remember. I already member... they do nothing. They will do nothing! Yarobeleedt do something. All Yarobeleedt. All for Mother~" If Arleph breathes in too much of it, well, it's not going to be pretty - quickening heartbeat, etcetera, nastiness across the board.
An energy blade stabs deeply into him, and Xantia will see something she will never want to eat, even in jest. Quicksilver, and just this ickiest texture. "Oh. You are the ^Big Flower^ eater. So sad. You do not get to eat ^Biggest Flower^. But get to watch..." His wings flick to try and batter her back, and loosen him away.
His continued lack of response to Tachi is conspicuous, as 'Queen' comes to invite to dance. She has incredible control of momentum, but therein lies another problem - the flickering creature makes it hard for the eye to see and the mind to judge, and on top of that, he's just that fast.
"Queen? What?? Nonono. You ^Nonarch^. Under Mother~ but is good place~" What is not a good place is to be in front of the firing rounds of arm-ARM laser.
Then Malfi stabs him.
Malfi would know that Mother was all that held Yarobeleedt together, emotionally. It was all he talked about, in-between boasts he couldn't back. "^Creature Creature^," the thing rasps as Malfi dares draw so close. She does draw blood...
The horrid thing lowers its posture, the upper body giving way to the more insectoid 'lean.' Malfi may feel her blood run cold, watching those compound eyes seem to fixate on her, and--
"You have better feature."
He is fast. So, so fast, trying to strike his claws into Malfi's armor to hold her in place as he attempts to plunge the proboscis right in the jugular. Those who have seen the dehydrated bodies know what's about to happen. There is one stark difference: Malfi is not Tainted. She might have the strength to cast Yarobeleedt aside before he draws out too much - but she may need help, right now, before she joins their ranks.
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Cower!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Elvis with Cower!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Lunata Croze with Spineless!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Catenna with Pick On!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Pick On!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Carina Wynne with Cower!! GS: Lunata Croze guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Spineless! for 73 hit points! GS: Break! Statuses applied to Lunata Croze! GS: Lunata Croze enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ambrosius with Cower!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 2 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Celine Jules with Pick On!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Shalune Amira with Cower!! GS: Celine Jules takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Pick On! for 166 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Grigori with Pick On!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action. GS: Yarobeleedt has spent 2 Combo on Smite, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Zed with Weakling!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Arleph Ardan with Lily Livered!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Xantia with Cower!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Merciless Queen with Pick On!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Malfi with Prey!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Lily Livered! for 36 hit points! GS: Arleph Ardan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Catenna takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Pick On! for 140 hit points! GS: Zed takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Weakling! for 85 hit points! GS: Shalune Amira guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Cower! for 69 hit points! GS: Merciless Queen takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Pick On! for 146 hit points! GS: Grigori guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Pick On! for 87 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Ambrosius guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Cower! for 108 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam! Statuses applied to Ambrosius! GS: Elvis critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Cower! for 19 hit points! GS: Elvis enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Ida Everstead-Rey completely evades Pick On! from Yarobeleedt!
GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Xantia completely evades Cower! from Yarobeleedt!
GS: Malfi guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Prey! for 112 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt drains Malfi! Yarobeleedt gains 56 temporary hit points! GS: Carina Wynne takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Cower! for 54 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Yarobeleedt's mouthparts strike true, honing in on Malfi's jugular. He eagerly begins to drain her, but she has time to react. She forms her right hand and arm into a sturdy blade and tries to slice through his proboscis. She also wills her blood entering it to clot as quickly as it can. If she can gum up the works a bit, she can at least slow the draining down. He's like a giant tick, she thinks.
She doesn't want to die this way...
GS: Malfi has attacked Yarobeleedt with Rakurai! GS: Malfi has gained 2 Combo! GS: Malfi has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Yarobeleedt guards a hit from Malfi's Rakurai for 68 hit points! GS: Cripple and Disrupt! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Malfi! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action. GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Cower! for 67 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna never thought she would be fighting a planet-threatening horror scout alongside three Metal Demons and two Veruni. Though her gaze does divert briefly to Ambrosius, she doesn't hold it for long. His reckoning will have to wait.
"Locus," Catenna calls out to Carina. "You are right. This one must be stopped at all costs."
There's an intensity in Catenna's voice that isn't usually there, and a hardness in her eyes she doesn't usually show. Maybe it's combat exhaustion - or a zeal she's bottled up for awhile, since Riesenlied opened her eyes to the fact that not all Hyadeans are straw villains.
Speaking of straw villains, Tabitha gets a brief, dour look from the Moon Shaman. You know what you did, Tabbers.
But there are more important things to consider. Whirling to press the attack, she opens her mouth to say something as the slavering monstrosity that is Yarobeleedt declares her Mother's child right now.
Mostly what she gets is lasers. Leaping back, Catenna tries to gain ground - but the ray slashes just beside her. With a gasp, Catenna realizes what Yaro is shooting at, and she does the first thing she can think of.
She throws herself into the beam before it can hit the Owlet.
The tiny bird gasps mentally as Catenna's hurled backwards, smoking from a hideous burn across her back and shoulder. Hitting the ground, she bounces and slides a few meters. A smear of blood is left in her wake. With a worried hoot, Saarda-Shanta gives her wings a beat and coasts over to Catenna, landing on a piece of debris as Celesdue's silver designate pulls herself back to one knee with visible effort, then to her feet.
<Are you going to be all right?> the little bird questions with a cock of her head. <I am sorry....>
Catenna shakes her head, her hair hanging loose around her face. "...I will take care of you," she answers simply. "I cannot do otherwise." Pushing out a chuff of breath through her teeth, she swings back, a dagger glare finding Yarobeleedt and focusing intently, all too aware of how brutally he's about to kill Malfi.
"...There is only one mother for me," she says firmly as she draws herself out. Shouldering her bow, she takes her Silver Medium in hand and splays her hand over it.
Even here, in the depths of the Photosphere, with Mother so close that Catenna can smell her, the connection with Celesdue is strong. The magic flows out of Catenna as easily as it ever has, or perhaps even easier. Chanting in the Zortroan language, she begins to build up a well of gravity.
Debris strewn across the floor vibrates and rattles as gravity amplifies and builds around Yarobeleedt. Chunks of torn metal rattle jarringly as an immense force begins to pull down everything but Drifters in an area centred on the monstrous Scout. Catenna focuses narrowly, her expression stony as she attempts to anchor the Scout and impede him with heavy gravity.
GS: Catenna has attacked Yarobeleedt with Anchor! GS: Catenna has gained 1 Combo! GS: Catenna has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Catenna's Anchor for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Why speak in so dumb!
Freiheit's a wildly inaccurate weapon, composed of nothing more than a pile of trash cobbled together from errant parts, engines, gasoline and other kinds of miscellaneous components that largely only work due to Shalune's ingenuity.
That grin is still unsettlingly there, even as his bladed claw grasps into her. It punctures...
... and finds just... nothing. No blood, no life. A husked, dessicated corpse which has nothing in it.
- fu fu... oboete imasu ka?
- "Fu fu fu... Is there Remembering?"
She taunts him, even if she's recalling her own injury too -- she draws her own jacket back back to reveal the own scars on her body: the ones he inflicted on her neck on that day.
Here, at this moment... between the battle of so many, there's just two husks upon which there's no coming back from.
Not for him... not for her.
- FURUBOKKO shite yaru!
- "I'll do it ^Full Bodied!^"
Lunata lets go of Freiheit, the flaming sword puncturing the ground as she holds onto a much, much more familiar weapon. The one she normally wields -- the katana, Orochi-Agito.
What she unleashes next is not so much a slash as a sphere of slashes, drawn in one smooth motion as she kicks away from him to descend back towards her weapon; there's an ominous ring within the air as cherry blossom petals scatter with each branded strike.
- tokugi! -senbonzakura-!
- "Special Skill! -Cigarette Whole Note!-"
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Yarobeleedt with Cherry Ronde! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Celine Jules has posed.
"That response doesn't make it any at all better~." Celine remarks, trying to save face.
The wind impacts, puffing against the form of the Metal Demon, now more metallic and far more demonic.
He happily replies in something that has more affect than words in such a circumstance. Lasers. Burning energy lances out to try to catch Celine! Celine's movements are quick - the wind being redirected under her to send her skywards in a flip - in which the lasers catch up with her before she can adequately move out of the way once more. Flying into the air leaves little movement away from your path down once gravity catches up!
No surprise the lasers are quicker than she is!
Lighting her up, mostly directly, Celine is swallowed by those lasers - burning, searing against her skin before she crashes through them. Singed flesh and wounds cauterized by the heat, it's far less pleasant than it has any right to be - another cry of pain from her as she impacts the ground. Hands claw as the absolutely beautiful Celine manages to be surprisingly unbeautiful in her portrayal of a hero so far.
Heels dig into the ground next as she rises, smouldering somewhat, bright red skin elsewhere where the lasers passed over - and clasps the staff to her.
It spins, beginning to glow brightly. "Oh flames, leap, and catch new life upon this old kindling - Fire-bolt!"
It's a small flame, to be certain that shoots towards the Metal Demon, threatening to scorch him! But how many are there!?
GS: Celine Jules has attacked Yarobeleedt with Fire-bolt! GS: Celine Jules has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Behind his helmet, Ambrosius frowns. Even with his newly-gained bulk, Yarobeleedt was still rather agile. This was a problem. Ambrosius finds Yarobeleedt slamming said bulk into him, before catching him with a hooked arm and sending him flying across the room.
He braces himself as he crashes into the wall on the opposite side of the room.
"I am a chore, then? Very well. Let me make this that much more difficult for you." Ambrosius replies. From within his poncho he draws out his ARM, Veritas Varia. He notes Malfi's current situation, and frowns.
"Mind yourself, Miss Malfi." He lines up a shot and fires - sending a bolt of sickly green energy flying straight toward Yarobeleedt. A bolt designed to take his ill-gotten gains and turn them against him - violently, if possible.
At the very least, it will not be pleasant if it takes hold.
GS: Ambrosius has spent 2 Combo on Poison and Disease, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Ambrosius has attacked Yarobeleedt with VV-VENENO! GS: Ambrosius has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida isn't as fast as Yarobeleedt, but she tries. Against someone this fast, it's less about raw speed and more about anticipation.
'But you will be wonderful children, my killer. Just as my Metal Demons were. As I killed Hyades, I will kill Filgaia, and claim you as my own.'
Ida was anticipating that, too. She smiles, even as her mind settles into focus, and time starts to stretch out around her. She sees Yarobeleedt tense up a third time, and twists out of the way, spinning on a heel. The laser bolt races past, missing her face by inches and slamming into the floor behind her--it carves out a smoking, sizzling divot in the floor. Ida can still feel the heat on her face.
'As I killed Hyades, I will kill Filgaia...'
'As I killed Hyades, I will kill Filgaia...'
"You've heard," Ida says, as Mother's damning words play over the PA in the background. Yarobeleedt descends on Malfi. Ida blurs across the intervening distance, her bootheels pounding out a rhythm on the Photosphere decking. She whirls, grits her teeth in a snarl, and then drives her gauntleted fist right at Yarobeleedt's giant bug eyes. Her other, less-armored hand darts out in a knife-edge strike, aiming for the small of the Demon's back--for his wings.
"Orphans of Hyades, no victory awaits you at the end of Mother's path. All that awaits there is betrayal. All that awaits there is the endless appetite of the very beast that devoured your world--the thing you call 'Goddess'. Break from her, and you will live to rebuild that which she stole from you so long ago. Defend her, and she will lead you like lambs to the slaughter."
"Listen!" Ida shouts, her voice a command, her face less than a foot or so from Yarobeleedt's.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Yarobeleedt with Lotus Sets Its Roots! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 3 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt critically Guards a hit from Lunata Croze's Cherry Ronde for 30 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze has lost 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt critically Guards a hit from Celine Jules's Fire-bolt for 10 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Celine Jules has lost 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt guards a hit from Ambrosius's VV-VENENO for 56 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 damage, and burn off all temporary hit points! GS: Disease and Toxin! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei takes in a sharp breath. "You really are brave." He tells to Yarobeleedt which is, well, probably something strange for anyone to say about Yarobeleedt even as swole as here is. "But if you see us as fellow siblings, I beg of you... Stand down."
But that's obviously not going to be happening now is it?
Fei is told to focus on Yaro by Tachi and he gives her a small nod, but to be completely honest that doesn't seem to help his focus all that much because Grigori and Queen demand so much. He says, "Really?" with surprise at The Watcher's reasonability, even if he finds himself frustratingly agreeing with her. This doesn't mean that he trusts her. He doubts Yarobeleedt is the only reason they are here.
(It might be the only reason, but this wouldn't be the first time Solaris pulled a 'GOTCHA' and tried to abscond with some bullshit in front of Fei's eyes. It wouldn't be the second either.)
Queen says less to him, but the name is strange enough on its own. What's religious about Queen? Maybe it's their real name that has secret religious connotations. That must be it.
Fei is further greeted by Mystery Hero X. No, Xantia just spilling her not-so-secret identity in front of Gebler is not helping him be less concerned, but he does give her a shaky, if tired, wave. "Oh I didn't....recognize you there." Fei lies through his teeth.
Fei can't hold back anymore. It's just not a viable choice anymore. If he keeps doing that, someone he cares for might get hurt or, honestly, someone he doesn't care for could get hurt but Fei knows his luck and where the chips will lay if he does nothing.
Fei is bashed back by Yarobeleedt's arm and he flips in midair to land on his feet. He blinks briefly at Yaro seeming not to understand Lunata even though she seems, to him, to be speaking Yarobeleedt. Maybe it's like her accent is terrible so to Yarobeleedt it doesn't even sound right?
Nevertheless, Fei knows the last thing he can do right now is properly balance his chi so instead Fei exhales and tries to go in with several swiping palm strikes. Each one has great force behind it, but Yarobeleedt is almost as hard to hit as the weird masked man who bugs Fei from time to time so POWER may not be the issue here.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"What's a Remon?" Carina asks, probably quirking an eyebrow behind her mask. "That's right, though! Wynne Chester's protector kicked your butt once, and she's gonna do it again!" He's playing for keeps, though, and despite her defiant banter, that arm of his, even iced-up as it is, could have probably caved her helmet in if she didn't Locus Jump away just then. Her landing is a little rough, but it could have been much worse.
As she gets back onto her feet, she glances aside in Big Shal's direction, considering for a second. "Yaro is really serious this time... Shalune! I think I'm gonna use [that]."
That's right, that! And what could that be? Locus draws back her fist, as if to fire one of those elemental blasts she sometimes fires from it. But what comes out isn't quite that. No, instead, bright light envelops her hand like a gauntlet, and the light expands from there, until it reveals...
Once upon a time, Carina and her friends started making and selling Locus action figures, you see. Someone proposed that some of them be able to fire some sort of 'rocket punch'. Carina liked the idea, but eventually vetoed it on the grounds that she doesn't have a rocket punch to begin with, and that besides her hand can't detach. It would probably hurt.
Which brings us back to what the light reveals.
It is a giant metal fist, roughly the size of her own torso and obviously of Shalune make given the mismatched odds-and-ends aesthetic. It's entirely possible that it was cobbled together from materials found in the Gutter. Though at least a rough red paint job has been applied to match Locus' color scheme.
And its name is...
And its name is!
AND ITS NAME IS...!
"Rocket-O Punch!!"
Carina takes a swing, her arm somehow managing to retain its momentum despite the object's size. And so, it flies off, rocket-powered and, honestly, liable to explode on impact.
Carina's actual human hand remains attached, intact. She flexes her fingers, quietly relieved.
GS: Carina Wynne has attacked Yarobeleedt with Rocket-O Punch! GS: Carina Wynne has completed her action. GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Yarobeleedt with Hoten! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
"F-Fine then!" Elvis shouts, as Yaro and him collide and get in to what looks like... some kind of high-school shoving contest. "I didn't want you along anyway!" is his rebuttal, trying to push the giant Metal Demon away.
Actually, he kinda did. He was nothing but frustration, but he was also a target of it. Something to lose stress on. Enemies jsut seemed to graitate toward him. He found odd ways around. They made forays chaotic. And...
Interesting.
"You are going to end up dead helping her! I mean, I don't even know if you will survive whatever happened t oyou! You were already so damn unstable!"
And Elvis isn't going to help either, by coming in for another shove and faking out into a haymaker for his... side? Is that his side? Which side is it even?! Yaro at this point is 'a head' and 'everything else'. Guess he will aim for the latter.
GS: Elvis has attacked Yarobeleedt with Dire Haymaker! GS: Elvis has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Elvis has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Carina Wynne's Rocket-O Punch for 138 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt critically Guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Hoten for 24 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has lost 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Elvis's Dire Haymaker for 162 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Lotus Sets Its Roots for 52 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
Arleph remembers that name. It was in the wastelands, in the hills, where he fought this damn bug, one that tried to poison him and never stopped calling him with that ridiculous nickname. The Symbologist staggers to his feets fully, the bubbles sizzling on him with the disinfectant he conjured, cracking his gloved knuckles before him. "You really felt down pretty deep, didn't you? No, you were pretty that far down." He tosses out his right hand, the hexagon-covered invisible shield spreading out to cover himself from the gas exhaled in his direction, gritting his teeth. Gas are annoying to defend against. "I'm afraid that wont be the case, Yarobeleedt. We'll defeat Mother, we'll kill her in the name of the worlds she devoured and to save the ones that she would go after this one, if we failed."
He snaps a finger, his gaze fixating on the crowd of Drifters here. While he regenerate some energy, he'll have to play support for a little bit. A symbol spreads out from his feet, the same one as just a few moments ago and throwing off a flexing hand at Catenna's direction.
It'll feel strange. A bit weird to have bubbles spreading out over her body, slightly tickly and smelling strong of disinfectant, but at least that should cover some of the wounds and give her some ablative armor for her.
GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Catenna with Multilayered Foam! GS: Arleph Ardan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action. GS: Arleph Ardan heals Catenna! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Tachi has posed.
That diving blow misses Yarobeleedt's centre of mass. The big lug has picked up more speed than Tachi thought possible, given his degenerative state. They reflect briefly on this as the steel walkway beneath their foot crumples, and the most venomously bitter of Mother's disciples relinquishes its grip on Zed. "Zed, we're assembling everyone to destroy Mother." the completely un-maskable and ever-recognizable voice of a certain Quarter Knight informs him. "If there's no making him see reason, then..."
Then... what?
Tachi could never figure out why it is that the messy slug always ran from them--hid, even. Surely, it couldn't be reputation alone. That Yarobeleedt continues such behaviour here... is puzzling. The stakes are made abundantly clear. If there was ever a time to stop running and strike back, even in desperation, surely this was it.
So why...?
This reflection is cut short for good reason. Some of the Drifters are faltering. "Tch." mutters the scarlet cowl with a person somewhere presumably inside, before it backflips impressively across the chaotic battlefield to where Celine is being harrassed by sprays of laser fire. Tachi's oddly metallic cloak briefly falls between the symbologist and the chittering, insectoid menace. "If you've any sorceries of lightning," the figure cautions in a voice that sounds like someone trying entirely too hard to put a brusque, husky inflection to an otherwise feminine tone, "That might fry the bug a little better."
Tachi's gaze locks briefly on Ida's back from where they linger, fresh from trying to give some advice and buy the beleaguered symbologist a little breathing room. There's a rumble of contemplation before they assume, no, the girl will do just fine.
On the other hand...
Malfi is ensnared in Yarobeleedt's grasp rather quickly--and that horrendous probiscus is a hell of a stabbing weapon at that range. Given how horrifyingly empty those Tainted were earlier, Tachi concludes a similar fate awaits her if things don't change quickly.
"Yaro!" barks the figure who I am struggling to pretend still looks mysterious. Much like Fei knows he can't hold back without someone potentially getting hurt, Tachi's time for plausible deniability is beginning to run low. Crimson-plated gauntlets brush the cloak aside a little as they fall into a Hyadean hand-to-hand stance, and then--
- *disappear*
--Tachi reappears at Yarobeleedt's side with terrifying speed, hands and feet moving in perfect unison. A multiple-strike combination flies at the hefty insectoid with fists and feet wreathed in glowing force. "Let her go, Yaro. Face me! Face me, if you think you can keep me from your precious Mother!"
harken you are the worst covert anything ever
GS: Tachi has attacked Yarobeleedt with Hyadean Form - Technique 108 - Four-Headed Dragon! GS: Tachi has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tachi has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Tachi's Hyadean Form - Technique 108 - Four-Headed Dragon for 173 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
In some ways, Big Shal is the total antithesis to Yarobeleedt, especially as he is now. The golem stares impassively as the metal demon threatens to crush its fist and maybe even its arm; there is no judgement in the glow of the machine's eyes. No reasoned debate to rail against, no words of anger or pity to latch onto and reject, no fear to gloat over - just a silent and impassive stare even as the metal creaks and twists.
If nothing else, the Golem's sacrifice(?) gives Shalune time to shake the spots out of her eyes, grimacing to herself as she tries to catch up with what's happening around her. There's a spike of irritation inside of her, and the knowledge that she's still hopelessly green when it comes to some aspects of fighting. "--you're not even listening--" she hisses under her breath, and exactly who she's saying it to isn't clear, not with the way that Lunata and Yarobeleedt are so close together to both receive her glare.
The PA system blares in the background; she grimaces at that too, wincing as the mechanic is forced to wonder whether it will do any good. She's seen enough of Althena's Guard to know that's not how fanaticism works - and the constant cackling from above certainly bears out the feeling that whatever might be said, the goalposts are going to just keep moving and moving.
Focusing forward doesn't help either - she winces as Lunata takes the brunt of Yarobeleedt's attack head on, sacrificing herself in more ways than one as the Orochi-Agito is unleashed. ... once upon a time, she might have preferred that to the Freiheit, considering it more impressive, and Lunata more dashing with it in her hands. Right here and now, in this moment, she's kind of having to reevaluate things a little.
"--r-right!" she blurts as Metal Locus yells a warning to her; it's getting difficult to split her attention between so many things around her, so she tries not to pay Carina's comment too much mind, instead trusting in the work that she and others have put into the device. The fist's engines roar, and there's a spike of satisfaction as she watches it fly forwards before she remembers: "--Lunie! Rokuet Pachi chakusakin!" she calls urgently in warning. "Take care!"
There is an awkward pause as she wonders if it's contagious-- and then she shakes her head violently, trying to clear the fog away as she rushes forwards and slips underneath the bulk of Big Shal for cover in her approach. Above her she can hear conspiracies brewing right out in the open, and ever so quietly an observant little part of herself stores that away for later. For the time being, she instead focuses the gaze on her friend above.
"Lunie! If you're thinkin' something dumb like 'I'm just a zombie, bawww' again, I'm gonna get up there to you somehow and start kickin' your ass as well as his! We're together in this, you and me and Jay, and you mean a heck of a lot more than that!"
A bit blunt, as encouragement goes - but her expression shines with the strength of those feelings.
GS: Shalune Amira has spent 1 Combo on Reload, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Lunata Croze with Step by Step! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Lunata Croze has activated a Force Action! GS: Shalune Amira heals Lunata Croze! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Lunata Croze enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Reload! Lunata Croze gains 15 extra FP from Shalune Amira!
<Pose Tracker> Grigori has posed.
Grigori takes fire once again; Yarobeleedt corrects the use of his name--is that what happens?--and the lasers crash down once again for the strange operative. They blaze against her, and there is the scent of melting metal and plastics wafting into the air in their wake. ...Still, she does not stop, or slow. She resumes walking as soon as the assault is completed. And when Fei answers her--
"Yes, really. In this battle, that is my objective. If you would like to surrender yourself and SLIDE-1 afterwards, I would accept, but it is not my purpose at this time."
...Was that humor? It's hard to tell through the voice scrambling technology.
There is much that is interesting that is happening at the moment. The Watcher does not seem to place any of her attention on her ally, the Merciless Queen--but this may be because she does not need to. An ally is something she can predict, has the same goals.
But when Tachi mentions the magic that might work, the Watcher replies, "I can grant that request."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Watcher as she approaches does not wait for Malfi to be disentangled before she raises a hand again. The voices over the radio echo around them, and wind Ether once again whips around her before lightning crackles about piles of debris, intensifying to blinding levels and hurling piles of electrified metal straight for Yarobeleedt's great form.
"He will not listen," says the Watcher to Ida. "He holds the certainty of one willing to die in service to their master."
"Showing myself would be pointless." Finally the Watcher addresses Yarobeleedt directly. "As you serve Mother, I serve history. What is important is my role, not my person."
GS: Grigori has attacked Yarobeleedt with Anemo Rush! GS: Grigori has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt guards a hit from Grigori's Anemo Rush for 95 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia notes the effect of stabbing this creature is quite unlike the effect of punching him, way back when. Though she draws what is presumably blood, that didn't appear to hurt, slow him down, or even make him the slightest bit nervous at all. Makes it hard to believe that this thing and the slug monster from before are really the same. But she has no choice to accept it as the truth when he recognizes her, in an unmistakable way. She remembers well what he called the Saucery Globe, way back when. But if that was ^Big Flower^, what the heck is ^Biggest Flower^?
Her decision to quickly back off after her attack pays off, her blade already disengaged by her own accord before Yaro's attempt to force her off can strike her. Even if she has no idea what he's talking about, she yet calls back in defiance, "Oh yeah? We'll see about that! You can't tell me what I can and can't eat!" Keeping food from Xantia is the sixth most dangerous thing in the world.
Fei only gets a pleasant smile as her disguise proves effective, and she couldn't spot a lie even as obvious as that. As for his 'friends', there's only one name that she catches. "Queen..." Such a name, combined with such an appearance and fighting style... that can only call one thing to mind.
"Are you a hero, too?"
Maybe that one thing is different for Xantia than it would be for most people.
Regardless, she doesn't linger long. Mother's broadcast rings out again, prompting her to turn her attention back to the fight at hand. "You will NOT do ANYTHING to Filgaia!" She may not be directing it to Mother, but someone still supporting her in spite of that blatant admission is a convenient enough target for her anger at those words.
And her anger is delivered swiftly. In a sudden blur of red, Xantia leaves afterimages in her wake as she dashes back towards the big bug monster... and just seems to run right past without doing anything. But she did attempt to slam her palm into Yaro's side in passing, which, if successful, leaves a sizable red mark. On a person, this type of strike would disrupt their internal energies. In this case, it's more likely for the mark to grow redder and redder... until something explodes.
Whatever happens, Xantia doesn't even look back. Instead, she calmly walks back over to Locus's side, grinning as she asks, "Need a hand?"
That quip is way too good for her to have actually seen what Locus did just now. But an accidental quip still counts!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
So.
That's the truth then.
Zed's hand trembles. His teeth grit tight, painfully, awfully tight. Almost as tight as Yaro's chitinous limbs squeeze around his body. "You..." Zed hisses, snarling the words between his teeth. "After all we went through... After everything you've given up to that thing... You're still going this far...? Killing your own people...?"
And the worst thing.
Is that ultimately, in some small way, Zed is responsible for it.
Mercy is a hell of a thing.
Tachi's approach sets the green-haired swordsman free. The PA system blares, voices reverberate in his ears. Zed doesn't hear them.
His ears might have recovered, but he still doesn't hear them.
Instead, the moment he's free, he...
Disappears--
At that moment, a half-dozen slashes are delivered to a half-dozen joints in the span of a single heartbeat...!
--Only to slide to a halt just past the entomological terror. "...I'd say nothing personal, but--" Zed says, his voice shaking with fury, "...I'm not a liar anymore."
GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Xantia has attacked Yarobeleedt with Cardinal Impulse! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Zed has attacked Yarobeleedt with Miracle Strike - Phantom Bite! GS: Zed has completed his action. <DICE ROLLER> Fei Fong Wong rolled 1d100 <32> + 0 = 32
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Xantia's Cardinal Impulse for 136 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Zed's Miracle Strike - Phantom Bite for 128 hit points! GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Merciless Queen has posed.
Merciless Queen - a woman who has appropriated one of the names of a holy Guardian - finds her plan to just kick the shit out of a bug foiled by the bug being super fast. And then it shoots her and she falls the hell over.
"Well that's interesting," she pants. For all she would like to present an air of flawless excellence, well, sometimes you get bodied by some chimeric insect world-killer. She kips up and right back into defensive stance, low and glaring.
"A hero?" she asks Xantia, amused. The hood hides her eyes but the way she moves her head seems like she's looking at Fei. "Yes," she says, with a chuckle. "I think that's a nice summary."
She reaches down, hand finding the ARM on her wide hip, and then...
Then she's just gone.
Two can play Yaro's game of unbelievable speed, and in a heartbeat, she's just there, crouched on his carapace, a blur of Accelerated speed as she jams her ARM against as thing a part of his hide as she can find and blasts Ether blast after Ether blast directly into him.
As close to an execution as you can get, on such a thing as this.
She blurs away, reappearing right where she started, and says, with uncommon seriousness, "I kill monsters, you see."
GS: Merciless Queen has activated a Force Action! GS: Merciless Queen has attacked Yarobeleedt with Keep Safe the Flock! GS: Merciless Queen has gained 1 Combo! GS: Merciless Queen has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Merciless Queen's Keep Safe the Flock for 82 hit points! <DICE ROLLER> Fei Fong Wong rolled 1d100 <1> + 0 = 1
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Regardless of any previous transgressions, Malfi at minimum earns at least three hugs for the experience as she fights against Yarobeleedt with everything she has. It's gut-wrenching to watch, how she fights back. These two were comrades, in so much they frequently deployed with one another. "Give strength! Not deserving! So give serving of strength~!" He whines, somehow. It's not clear how he even talks, anatomically speaking. There's about to be another corpse on the ground when Malfi at last slices the proboscis open and sends some of the accumulated blood spilling everywhere! There is a horrid shrieking noise that Malfi has to suffer, but that does not compare to what she just went through.
He must not be used to trying to feed from anyone who can fight back. That would explain why the vast majority of corpses were Tainted.
Tachi moves to save Malfi - and she covers space faster than the eye can tell. Even the likes of Talia, who can cheat the need to actually go from point A to point B and just be there, may concede that this Tachi is faster than even that, and the horrid creature is punched and sent rolling along. He whimpers, in a moment of vulnerability.
"...Mother, Mother, Mother," he cowers.
He doesn't get much space to get his bearings before Catenna draws her Silver Medium and fights through the pain she just took for another she cherishes. The creature's legs find themselves painfully squeezed through the grates. He's not just stuck - his blood is rushing down to where he's stuck. There is more screaming. He thrashes his arms in the air at her--
He catches the strokes of Lunata's weapons almost by chance. That's when he notices there's... ichor missing, after all the flailing. She has the positional advantage, even if he is still fast of arm. He only has two. She does get the clean kick off of him, even if the seemingly pathetic swiping of arms slices apart the cherry blossom petals with every parry. "^White-Haired Majordono^ is talking like ^Silly Greenhead^!!" Zed doesn't talk like that. Come on. "Why dye?! You not recolor... but still live?? Nonono. Not ^Meat Remon^. You are not ^Meat Remon^!!" As if a desperate plea to try and make Lunata a victim, one last time, he starts to stab his arms into them, over and over and over, as if desperate to find blood. Desperate to find an answer as to why Lunata is what she is, how she became that way, as if he has now unmembered (...sorry) what she just said about him.
The small flame is somehow dispersed by one of these flailing arms in the process, and the insect's head turns sliiightly in Celine's better. Just as he's about to do something about it, Ambrosius shoots him with something horrible and venomous, which is to say, something that deserves to be inside of him. The creature convulses, and more fluids of indeterminate nature spill out from the split proboscis. "That is not trash taking!! You chore!!" He wheezes.
He still has some fight, trying to bat aside (pretty well, actually) the palming strikes from Fei, but it's clear he's at such disadvantage he's not returning a direct 'strike' of his own in that way (yet). "Nonono... ^Meat Remon^ superior... not brother...!"
It butters him up enough to allow the Rocket-O Punch, which smashes the foul creature in the face and uproots him - winching free three legs from the grates he was held to, and ripping a leg clean off. "A ^Meat Remon^," he deigns to answer while he writhes, "is Mother's children. Mother's kind. Mother's now. Not Metal Demon..." Nihilistic, as if resigned, but somehow also... pleased? This also does not quite answer the nonsense.
A leg that regenerates before them, biomass hardening to chitinous armor almost in the blink of an eye. His abdomen, however, is starting to look a bit... deflated. Hmm.
"Survive? Fu fu f--" Elvis haymakers him and hurls him across the chamber before he can elaborate. Elvis is right that he's already so damn unstable, because it sure sounds like he's still laughing.
"Silly ^Wet Bandit^!!" Yarobeleedt screeches as he fights upright. "Is one thousand years. Is one thousand one thousand years. Is one thousand one thousand thou onesand yours~" ...Um.
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
As Shalune shouts her encouragement, Yarobeleedt rises up to look down upon her. "Nonono. Do not kick. Sit. Sit before Mother," he tries to 'shoo' her with a shove of a forearm.
Just in time for Xantia to promise that he will not do anything to Filgaia, by her hand, as she slaps it onto his abdomen, and there is a disconcerting throbbing that suggests something surges under there... or explodes... the creature shudders, as Grigori applies electromagnetism in which to batter the big bad blood-sucking bug before the bunch. The creature hunkers down as their swirling metal plates start to step up their game, though the electrical charges seem to stun some of them - like this defense might not last for much longer.
Zed, confronted with the truth, who lived a cheery life of optimism for something better for everyone, is now facing the truth of a someone - a brother - who cannot exist in such a world. Yarobeleedt's antennae perk up too late as Zed slices with speed. Fast. Powerful. Blood escapes, wounds knit, but the reserves... could they be running dry?
"Is... is greater than personal...! Is for... Mother~" The depth of their reasoning is probably not any deeper than that, as the creature tries to take to the sky again.
He's slowed down significantly now, as Queen will have to take some doing to find that perfect point to blast Ether into him - and what a point it is, that she only just misses what seems an anatomically critical thing because his weight shifts him to a side. "Monster? Nono. Yarobeleedt is no monster. Yarobeleedt is--"
'But you will be wonderful children--'
The words play again. THAT VOICE, as Ida knife-hand strikes for the small of his back. The voices...
His wing muscles contract and snatch her hand between them. She can feel the sickly pulsing of stolen quicksilver and a dozen units of ick, maybe even a dozen of a dozen units of ick - it's that gross.
"Listen? Fu fu fu. You not listen... is fine." What is fine?! "Mother does not love Yarobeleedt."
"Yarobeleedt is Metal Demon. Is not ^Meat Remon^." The horrid thing straightens out, keeping clench around Ida's fist. "No after for Yarobeleedt... but after for ^Meat Remon.^ Yarobeleedt loves Mother... no matter what. No liquid what. No solid what. No gaseous what. No plasma what!!" It rises to a fever pitch, as he starts shooting wildly into the air. More debris fall, all around. Most will have to contend with limited mobility, as Ida's hand is released.
"Mother does not want Veruni!!" He screeches, firing far more wildly towards Elvis and Ambrosius alike with uncompromising amounts of firepower. "Is... is... Yarobeleedt is not afraid... no, no, is nofraid, is nofraid... not even of, not even of, not odd off--" He dares try to attach Tachi.
His words betray his unsteadiness in his footing, as his eyes light up to shining colors, trying to amble ever closer to Tachi. Staring her down... but he can't reach out to her. The blasts of color that leave his gaze are scattershot, like he doesn't even want to raise an arm. Like a mere twitch would be an opening. He can only stare her down.
"..."
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Elvis with Panic!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ambrosius with Panic!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Malfi with Scream Terror!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Lunata Croze with Faint Hearted!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Shalune Amira with Cower!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Tachi with Play Dead!! GS: Yarobeleedt has activated a Boss Action! GS: You have activated the Boss Action Extend! GS: Lunata Croze guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Faint Hearted! for 106 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Knock Knees!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Carina Wynne with Knock Knees!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Catenna with Knock Knees!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Celine Jules with Knock Knees!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Knock Knees!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Arleph Ardan with Knock Knees!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Grigori with Knock Knees!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Xantia with Knock Knees!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Merciless Queen with Knock Knees!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Zed with Knock Knees!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 31 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Catenna takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 136 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Catenna! GS: Elvis guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Panic! for 105 hit points! GS: Ambrosius guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Panic! for 114 hit points! GS: Malfi takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Scream Terror! for 89 hit points! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Malfi! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Ida Everstead-Rey completely evades Knock Knees! from Yarobeleedt!
GS: Tachi takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Play Dead! for 182 hit points! GS: Tachi enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Grigori guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 87 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Grigori! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Xantia completely evades Knock Knees! from Yarobeleedt!
GS: Shalune Amira guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Cower! for 64 hit points! GS: Shalune Amira enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Carina Wynne takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 72 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Carina Wynne!
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
"Let her go, Yaro. Face me! Face me, if you think you can keep me from your precious Mother!" Malfi hears these words, but they don't quite register. Ambrosius's warning came too late. Desperate to live, she wriggles free after slicing through his proboscis, distancing herself out of draining range. "Thanks," she mutters to Tachi, and "Ungrateful wretch" in Yarobeleedt's general direction. All the times she'd healed him -- even with a tranfusion, once -- and he repaid her by trying to kill her. That one was truly Mother's son -- Mother as she really was, not as the legendary loving Goddess Malfi had been raised to believe in. Yarobeleedt wouldn't've spared her, she knew. He was not only willing but eager to take life -- even his own kind. How he could remain on Mother's side she didn't know. Hadn't The Voice been proclaiming the truth from one end of the Photosphere to another? And now, it seemed, she'd be allying with the humans and their ilk against Mother.
They were favored by the Guardians.
And now by Mother.
It didn't make any sense.
Malfi aims one highly-motivated attack right at Yarobeleedt, but has the sense to keep her distance. She's not getting in reach of those mouthparts again!. She is weary, so weary...
GS: Malfi has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Malfi has attacked Yarobeleedt with Improv Tango! GS: Malfi has completed her action. GS: Arleph Ardan guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 87 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Arleph Ardan! GS: Celine Jules takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 159 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Celine Jules! GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 148 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Zed!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
You are not ^Meat Remon^!!
Zed, indeed, doesn't speak like that. Give him -some- credit; she's spewing words that which should not be words, in the manner which not even slang or crude construct of language should be utilised. But still...
That grin is still upon her. As the insect's arms continue to plunge into her, desperately trying to find blood. Finding nothing but some bizarre, Guardian-animated husk of a corpse instead, over and over--
- hya-ha, hyahahaha, hahahaha! shinukoto ni?! watashiii?!
- "Hya-ha, hyahahaha, hahahaha! Why to Dye?! Me?!"
Almost in equal means repulsive, she reaches for Freiheit as its flames continue to wick upon her once more when she skids against the ground. The repeated plunge of Yarobeleedt's attacks are taking a toll on her body, even lifeless as it is and she knows it--
--but she's dedicated to her art right now as she whips her hand back to Shalune. Who's gotten infected by some of her speech, yet all she can do as Shalune complains to her is--
- kowaaa, kowasugiru RU-NIchan...
- "Scare, Scaryyyyyy, ^Lunie^!"
She does get it, though. As she turns, as she dives back up with an air-launch that springs her back up on both her feet, she doesn't attack with Freiheit though she's shouldered it back to her hands.
She's got her shotgun instead. The one named after the Castle Guardian, Zeldukes, whose statue now rests in many, many pieces in Adlehyde's courtyard. And as she levels it to his face--
- SAPURAISU! shugo-juu (GA-DEIAN) no gyakushu!
"Surprise! That is a twisted ending by Zeldukes (Protective Beast
- (Guardian))!!"
It might just be a bit personal to her.
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Yarobeleedt with Bring Me to Life! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Thick, frothing foam suddenly comes rippling Catenna's way. The Moon Shaman starts a little, but as she realizes what it is, she exhales and raises her hand towards Arleph to recognize her CaraKin companion. The healing foam comes as an enormous relief, more than anything.
It helps. The pain's begun to abate down to a dull ache, letting her focus on trying to hold Yarobeleedt down. Her teeth click together, her focus narrowing as she tries to drain the blood out of him.
ut for all that she's reached a new plateau in her devotion, Yarobeleedt has achieved a new plateau in his nihilistic zeal. Lasers scream away, and debris falls from the ceiling, smouldering and jagged. A few chunks drop around Catenna. The Owlet hoots and flutters away from a larger piece; Catenna staggers as another chunk hits her in the back. As she lunges to one side to try and gain distance, a falling beam slams into her knee, and she staggers and rolls, wincing. Her hand drops down to her kneecap as she hits the ground on her side and rolls the rest of the way, pulling herself up to squeeze the source of that pain intently.
Catenna fights to her feet. She can do no less. But it's more than soreness; when she rises, she gasps as she tries to bear weight on that leg, only for it to begin to buckle. Wincing gingerly, she manages to hobble out of the worst of the debris and prop herself up against a spar of metal jutting from the floor at an angle, fighting to pull herself behind cover until she can get some feeling back in her leg.
<Are you alright?> Saarda-Shanta asks as she alights upon that chunk of metal, looking down at Catenna with about as much worry as a normally serene white Owlet can muster.
Wincing, Catenna unshoulders her bow. "I will manage. I don't think it's broken. Though that Metal Demon is."
The Owlet swivels her head, watching Yarobeleedt's rampage with simple gravity. <Even rejected by Mother, his faith never wavers. If only that faith had been placed with one deserving. A sad creature... but a dangerous one, and one beyond saving.>
Propping her knee against the steel, Catenna notches an arrow, sighting with care towards the fanatical Metal Abomination. She can hear Malfi challenging Yarobeleedt - it occurs to her that the two must have been friends, riven apart by Malfi's understanding of the truth about Mother and Yarobeleedt's utter, undying zeal.
Part of her wants to weep for the Hyadeans. The rest of her cannot spare the tear - only the arrow she looses, sailing innocuously into the fray to try and punch through Yaro's defenses.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Thick, frothing foam suddenly comes rippling Catenna's way. The Moon Shaman starts a little, but as she realizes what it is, she exhales and raises her hand towards Arleph to recognize her CaraKin companion. The healing foam comes as an enormous relief, more than anything.
It helps. The pain's begun to abate down to a dull ache, letting her focus on trying to hold Yarobeleedt down. Her teeth click together, her focus narrowing as she tries to drain the blood out of him.
But for all that she's reached a new plateau in her devotion, Yarobeleedt has achieved a new plateau in his nihilistic zeal. Lasers scream away, and debris falls from the ceiling, smouldering and jagged. A few chunks drop around Catenna. The Owlet hoots and flutters away from a larger piece; Catenna staggers as another chunk hits her in the back. As she lunges to one side to try and gain distance, a falling beam slams into her knee, and she staggers and rolls, wincing. Her hand drops down to her kneecap as she hits the ground on her side and rolls the rest of the way, pulling herself up to squeeze the source of that pain intently.
Catenna fights to her feet. She can do no less. But it's more than soreness; when she rises, she gasps as she tries to bear weight on that leg, only for it to begin to buckle. Wincing gingerly, she manages to hobble out of the worst of the debris and prop herself up against a spar of metal jutting from the floor at an angle, fighting to pull herself behind cover until she can get some feeling back in her leg.
<Are you alright?> Saarda-Shanta asks as she alights upon that chunk of metal, looking down at Catenna with about as much worry as a normally serene white Owlet can muster.
Wincing, Catenna unshoulders her bow. "I will manage. I don't think it's broken. Though that Metal Demon is."
The Owlet swivels her head, watching Yarobeleedt's rampage with simple gravity. <Even rejected by Mother, his faith never wavers. If only that faith had been placed with one deserving. A sad creature... but a dangerous one, and one beyond saving.>
Propping her knee against the steel, Catenna notches an arrow, sighting with care towards the fanatical Metal Abomination. She can hear Malfi challenging Yarobeleedt - it occurs to her that the two must have been friends, riven apart by Malfi's understanding of the truth about Mother and Yarobeleedt's utter, undying zeal.
Part of her wants to weep for the Hyadeans. The rest of her cannot spare the tear - only the arrow she looses, sailing innocuously into the fray to try and punch through Yaro's defenses.
GS: Catenna enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Catenna has attacked Yarobeleedt with Moonlight Archery! GS: Catenna has gained 2 Combo! GS: Catenna has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Malfi's Improv Tango for 27 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Lunata Croze's Bring Me to Life for 232 hit points! GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Lunata Croze! GS: CRITICAL! Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Catenna's Moonlight Archery for 130 hit points! GS: Cripple, Jam, Mute, and Poison! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Merciless Queen takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 69 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Merciless Queen!
<Pose Tracker> Celine Jules has posed.
Wounded as she is, Celine watches as the flame finds limited purchase on the Metal Demon, "Just give... me an opening dear~." She says mostly to herself. The staff rises once more - before the rocks above begin to topple downwards. Eyes open as she does, but the Symbologist from Marze raises that staff - an eruption of magic shooting upwards to crash into the chunks of rock!
It doesn't really work. Fire smashes agaisnt rock and debris, but does not incinerate - catching onto the rocks but failing to prevent any actual change to the trajectory. Celine leaps for it, but is caught by the falling debris - which pins her down, adding 'crushed' to the pierced and scorched ways that she has found herself in.
Arms and legs feel weak, fingers bending as she manages to only pull herself out of the debris through the last of her strength, the symbologist on her knees, using the staff to hold herself up - poorly - as the blood causes her grip to slide on the staff. It's to be expected - it's possible some of the rocks and debris broke a bone or two - but it's too numb, too soon to really feel the affects.
"I just need... to do something." It's not a thought that carries much weight, or direction, as the staff is pointed towards the air above Yaro - the ungodly horrendous looking Metal Demon. Clouds begin to surround the 'sky' - and unfortunately, have to dissipate soon after. "Not enough room.. maybe then just... Lightning bolt!"
A single jolt of lightning rips through the air, summoned to bear from the Symbologist - not even really standing so much as leaning ont he staff.
GS: Celine Jules has attacked Yarobeleedt with Thunder-Bolt! GS: Celine Jules has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Celine Jules's Thunder-Bolt for 56 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"History..." Fei says, in disbelief. "You serve history?"
Your people eat history and spit out lies
Fei places his hand on his forehead. He closes his eyes. Calm down. Calm down. It will be okay. Just be calm for a little while longer. Just a little bit more, like Elly said. Don't mention Elly either. Not in front of them. Don't let them know the truth about her. Even if maybe they deserve to know the truth as human beings, it's too difficult. Too dangerous.
Then Merciless Queen, clearly taunting Fei Fong Wong (at least in his perception), tells Xantia she is a hero. Who kills monsters. A hero who kills monsters. She kills monsters, you see.
Yarobeleedt seems to not be having a hard time beating back Fei Fong Wong but to be fair...Fei seems hesitant to just straight up murder the dude, something that seems to be increasingly a unique trait of his. He's certainly starting to feel like that's the case.
Fei doesn't comment to Xantia. All he hears right now is the thrumming of KILL THEM that he is resisting largely out of stubborn willpower at the moment. It is rare he hears that voice so panicked...but no.
No, he's certain Queen there wants him to strike her right there. He has seen her speed besides. No, she just wants to laugh at him for responding to the insult with aggression. That's what she wants. Yes, that's what she wants. To be proud of herself for taunting him into a mistake.
Not yet? .... Okay
Not yet.
Grigori will notice that her cool legally distinct from a scouter eye that's tracking, among other things, ether level is ticking upward. Slowly.
Fei says, "You think humans are superior to Metal Demons?" He laughs as if that's the best joke he's heard yet. "Give me a break. At least Metal Demons know of loyalty. At least Metal Demons care about the past. They care when their history is proven incorrect. Humans, demons, both follow lies like they're covered in honey. And if you try to tell them the truth, if you try to tell them what really happened? They'll kill you! Then they'll kill you again and again and again in the papers!"
Grigori will notice the tick rising more sharply now
Fei is beaten back from Yarobeleedt, over and over again. The metal bashes him about from side to side but it doesn't slow Fei down. Instead, it doesn't seem like it's hurting him at all so much as just ... moving him.
"Iron Body." Fei whispers. "I see it now. I'm the only one trying to treat you as a person still. The only one trying to offer you a way out. I'm the naive one here, trying to understand you. Trying to communicate. There's always an eternity to manage that until suddenly, there's no time at all. When suddenly, you start killing people for your personal gain. Or for us. It doesn't really matter. The powers that be have made their decision."
I won't be their tool anymore
"But I'm not doing this for them. I'm doing this because of the weight of the world upon my shoulders. All the times I have shown you mercy, all the times I gave you chances because I thought there was still time for you to discover peace."
"But it's too late for that isn't it?" Fei sighs. "Isn't it, Yarobeleedt? You have drawn their eye."
A red flare erupts around Fei Fong Wong and he slides a foot back. He closes his eyes, and when he opens them, there is a faint yellowish glow around them, the crackling red aura ripples around his body.
Grigori's cool cyborg eye tries to calculate Fei Fong Wong's ether potential and fails, crashing in the process
Fei's body bursts into flames all around him, crackling orange-red wings twisting behind him as the Guardian empowers him further. Fei leaps through the air and then comes crashing down towards Yarobeleedt.
Of course, Fei has to hit him first. Yarobeleedt might escape his power, but whatever is BEHIND Yarobeleedt won't be as lucky.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Yarobeleedt with Infinite Ether Potential! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Fei Fong Wong's attack becomes clear! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Fei Fong Wong's Ultra Idstinct for 99 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt takes 7 damage from Poison! GS: Yarobeleedt takes 8 damage from Toxin! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action.
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
Having an expendable degree of shielding around you makes casting spells a lot easier. Or, rather, gives you a degree of confidence that you can take a few hits and then focus entirely on your casting while it is up. The debris upheveals, dropping all around them. Most of the bubbles protects Arleph from the damage, bouncing off in all other direction away, popping them as they pierce them.
Arleph, meanwhile, struggles to stay upright, gritting his teeth and closing tightly one fist. Catenna should be fine for now. It's time to go on the offensive, he feels.
"Yarobeleedt!" He shouts out, a circle spreading out from his feet, geometrically creating smaller and smaller circles inside of itself as it goes, his tattoos glowing beneath his clothing. "Your 'mother' is nothing but a parasite! We will not bow to her tyranny and ancient clamor for devouring culture and entire civilizations! ENTIRE RACES, gone! Well, I've got some news for you." His tone remains cold, intense, but not growing to excess. The shouting begins later.
Arleph swings his coat back, arcane wind making it snap dramatically as he raise a hand, thumb against his index. "Mankind is far older and powerful than you imagine or give credit for. We may forget. But we'll remember."
The air snaps, crackles with ice. Moisture is easier to find, disgustingly enough, in this area to condense around the much more massive Bug, water condensing into a tight bacll. "WATER. SIMPLE IN IT'S POWER. PLENTIFUL AND GENEROUS!"
He swing his free hand, energy crackling from his symbol on the ground, winds billowing around him. "MAY YOU FEEL THE BITTER STING FROM THE LACK OF WARMTH, LOVE THAT YOU WISH TO CREATE! AQUA FRIGORE!"
Then, without much more movements, the ball of water flash freezes, expanding outward from the inner pressure from expanding, then violently explode, freezing shards concentrated on the large bug.
GS: Arleph Ardan has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Yarobeleedt with Aqua Frigore! GS: Arleph Ardan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Irritation sparks behind Shalune's eyes as the creature reaches for her - and perhaps she has learnt at least something from Lunata, because as Yarobeleedt shoves at her she darts in low, accepting the impact against her head with a painful wince as she lunges for the limb. Whatever might be expected of her, it's probably not wrapping both arms around it to pull with all of her might.
It's immediately obvious that she's not strong enough to really unseat the unhinged Metal Demon, but that's not what she's trying to do anyway - she's simply trying to steal some of the creature's attention for herself, pull its gaze in her direction. Her shotstaff clatters to the floor; she catches it with a foot and flicks it back up, grabbing for the battery compartment as the push of a button detaches it from the rest of the unorthodox weapon.
"--you haven't seen scary yet," she mutters to herself, forcing her eyes to remain trained on the sight of Lunata getting repeatedly stabbed by their enemy. It hurts to watch - but more than ever, the pink-haired girl is convinced that she can't allow either of them to forget that sense of pain, whether personal or shared. Without it, it feels like something might be irreperably lost.
And-- with that thought in mind, she hammers the battery pack home into the limb she's got both arms wrapped around, trying her best to ram it underneath two of the plates and into the hollow between them. It's rough, and there's not quite enough space there to hold the entire thing - but there is enough purchase there for it to remain in place. The instant it looks steady, Shalune's hand flicks to a pocket of her coat, and there's a flash of silver as she withdraws something - a simple pocketknife - and stabs it into the pack as hard as she can.
The rupture is immediate, as chemical mixes with chemical and causes the oblong to abruptly bulge in the dangerous way that metal does when subject to such things. Fortunately, Shalune has learnt to the at least a little careful - and while there's no way she can escape the explosion in time, she does at least let go of the flailing arm and immediately brings her hands up to shield her face. "--NOW!" she calls to Lunata, to the other drifters, to-- well, to anyone in particular, before her voice is drowned out by the tearing and shearing of metal.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
"Is that what you believe? Hm. I suppose it is irrelevant." Ambrosius replies dismissively. He notes that Yarobeleedt is starting to lose some of the sense of superiority that had had before. He is perhaps more dangerous for it, as he finds himself backed into a corner.
Ambrosious is forced to go on the defensive as Yarobeleedt fires wildly upon himself and Elvis, generating a barrier of water to soften the blow.
"The feeling is mutual - you will find that we do not want her, either. I would advise reconsidering your allegiance." Ambrosius replies. Eventually the volley subsides as Yarobeleedt moves on to different targets, giving Ambrosius an opportunity to regroup.
"How are you faring, Sentinel?" Ambrosius asks with a glance toward Elvis, before taking aim with Veritas Varia once again and launching another burst of white-hot energy at Yarobeleedt.
GS: Shalune Amira has activated a Force Action! GS: Ambrosius has attacked Yarobeleedt with VV-AESTUO! GS: Ambrosius has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action. GS: Shalune Amira has activated a Force Action! GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Shalune Amira with Glorious Sunset! GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Yarobeleedt with Glorious Sunset! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Shalune Amira takes a solid hit from Shalune Amira's Glorious Sunset for 67 hit points! GS: Break, Disrupt, and Slow! Statuses applied to Shalune Amira!
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"Yeah, well, we ain't gonna be Remons if we got something to say about it!" Locus shoots back, once Yarobeleedt offers an explanation that she... actually gets, at least moreso than his usual garbled speech. It prompts a complicated mix of emotions, that really just come out as shouting.
The Rocket-O Punch strikes true, and actually gets one of his legs. Locus' brief fistpump slows down as she sees it regrowing. Well. He can't do that forever, right? ...Right??
Xantia asks if she needs a hand. Either she's upped her heroic pun game (very important) since Carina last checked, or this was just a coincidence. That'll be a mystery to figure out later. She nods vigorously. "I'm good, we really gotta pull all the stops here. Maybe we oughta do [that thing we practiced]..."
That'll have to wait, however, as debris start plummeting from the ceiling, requiring some deft maneuvering. "Cripe! Gotta reposition! Catch you on the flipside, X!"
She hops as best as she can, avoiding taking falling debris to anywhere too vital. And as she does, she lands closer to Zed, who...
"Hey, rival!" She offers a hand, in case he needs help getting back up or somesuch, as dramatically appropriate. "He was your friend, right? It's gotta be a rough time. Can't even imagine. But we gotta stop him, or then the whole universe is goin' to die!" This... may be slightly hypberbolic. "I'm just sayin', if you wanna talk about it later, we hero weirdoes gotta stick together. But 'til then, well..."
She pumps a fist, to emphasize, before turning back towards their foe and assuming a fighting stance. It seems she's said her pep talky piece.
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Arleph Ardan's Aqua Frigore for 176 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Ambrosius's VV-AESTUO for 77 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Carina Wynne enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Carina Wynne has attacked Zed with Wake Up! Warrior of Love! GS: Carina Wynne has gained 1 Combo! GS: Carina Wynne has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Shalune Amira's Glorious Sunset for 33 hit points! GS: Break, Disrupt, and Slow! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
"She doesn't want what is best for you!" Elvis shouts after connecting that hit. Why does he keep supporting her? It is like he has been administered psychopathy as a stimulant. It is all he has known, after being shunned by everyone and everything. Like the singular constant in his life. To him, unshakable.
It is what gives him meaning. It is what grants him existence.
Yaro goes on the attack again. He attacks wildy and in all directions, sheaths of quicksilver are launched outward in wide arms. "Look out, Ambrosius!" he calls, suddenly noticing his presence. He must have gotten routed as well. "I thought we were all in this together Yarobeleedt! Wasn't our goal to survive?! What happened to that, huh?!"
It was like Mother found the alliance, even all life on this planet besides those of her choosing to be irrelevant. Turns out that wasn't true.
Turns out she is a parasite.
And parasites must be cut from the host.
"I am DONE playing games with you!" Elvis shouts. Blue and violet energy build and swirl around Elvis. Its emergence rips asunder the floor, causing spidering cracks in the ground around him. Motes of earth and water coalesce and join the aura. "Douing great now, Ambrosius!" he shouts, as the emergence of earth and water, the elements of impact, infuse him with great power.
"READY YOURSELF, WHELP!" Elvis shouts, pointing a finger at Yarobeleedt.
GS: Zed gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Carina Wynne heals Zed! He gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Elvis has attacked Elvis with Ready Yourselves!! GS: Elvis has completed his action. GS: Elvis takes a solid hit from Elvis's Ready Yourselves! for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield! Statuses applied to Elvis!
<Pose Tracker> Tachi has posed.
The clear mind sees the foe and sword alone. No room for pity remains. -Arctican Swordmaster Proverb
A moment's weakness - a human weakness. Tachi expects Yarobeleedt to obey them, based on past experience. Rushes to free Malfi. Too many distractions, too many moving parts. The pitiful way the insect can't look at them despite it all. In that moment's hesitation, the blood-crazed beast may not have the will to reach out and hurt them, but that does not mean harm does not come. An optical flare burns the cowled figure's eyes and they recoil as if physically struck. "Tch...!" is the closest thing to displeasure that can be heard.
But it is clear: the fighting stance is no longer so tightly held, a hand clasped across the eyes. The slumped shoulders as senses fizzle and spark in confusion. "Madness has always taken you, and now its hold is absolute..."
The cowled figure's other arm crooks around a long, silver staff which it leans on for support. Tachi sounds bitter about something. Their concentration broken, the stun status applied, the shadow's hold over their features isn't quite so absolute: crimson locks frame a pale face beneath that hood, oh-so-vulnerable for just a moment...
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida has no idea what Alhazred's project was actually derived from, but it appears similar in intent to certain types of Hyadean medicine--the ones that supercharge a patient's natural regenerative abilities. The downside--as Ida found out when she used an ampoule on herself--is that it also turbo-charges the subject's metabolism, inducing ravenous hunger. Ida devoured two entire ration bars, each one packed with a meal's worth of calories for a healthy adult Hyadean. Yarobeleedt seems to be in a similar cycle, and a vicious one. All she needs to do is just force his hand...
And then, Yarobeleedt forces hers. Ida's face twists in disgust, and then anger, as Yarobeleedt's flesh squeezes tight around her hand. She meets his eyes, grits her teeth, and pulls with all her strength as the Metal Demon launches into a nihilistic tirade. "Do you know," Ida says, "what I think of your Mother?" Her hand comes free with an ugly squelch. Yarobeleedt opens fire again, turning the ceiling into a shower of debris. Ida responds with an unorthodox tactical decision.
She dives forwards, tucking and rolling and coming to a crouch beneath the hovering Yarobeleedt. As the Demon moves, Ida rushes after him, relying on his speed to give her cues as to which areas are safe--or at least, which are less likely to get bombarded with falling debris. She can still hear Fei, though, as he tries to keep up as well. She can hear him struggling. She can hear him grappling with the same thing she's grappled with, over and over again. "Fei," Ida says, "breathe--!"
And then Fei lays into Yarobeleedt, burning so brightly Ida has to look away. He's suffering, she thinks. He's suffering, and those Geblerites are here, like vultures, and their very presence is doing things to him.
Ida shakes her head. Focus, she reminds herself. Focus.
"Orphans of Hyades, you have served loyally. I am Voice, and I say this:"
Ida surges forwards, closing to melee range once again. She sees Tachi slump out of the corner of her eye, dazzled by the optical flare. She hears her own words, recited by a synthesized voice, rising to a fever pitch. Ida doesn't know if it swayed anyone, but she had to try--and it may yet prove useful.
"The thing you serve," Ida says, "deserves neither your loyalty nor your lives."
"--the thing you serve deserves neither your loyalty nor your lives.
"Your Mother has used you!" Ida drives her gauntleted right fist for Yarobeleedt's face. Chi glows off her knuckles. "Your Mother has lied to you!"
"Your Mother has used you. Your Mother has lied to you." Ida rises up on her toes, twists into a roundhouse kick aimed to knock Yarobeleedt away from her--and away from Fei, before he gets any ideas. "Do you want to know who Voice is, creature?!"
"There is no shame in abandoning this wretched creature. The only shame lies in defending her!"
The world holds still a moment. Chi glows around Ida's fist, playing across the form-fitting armor of the gauntlet. It saturates every cell in her body. It drives her steps as she rushes Yarobeleedt, little more than a blur of gunmetal grey and blue and gold. She leaps into the air, hanging above Yarobeleedt, her face split by a satisfied little smile. "It was me."
Ida's fist comes down. The air screams and gives way before it. Chi bursts outward from Ida's knuckles, brilliant and firey and golden. The impact of her fist is like a pile-driver.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has spent 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Yarobeleedt with Unbroken Lotus Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 226 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia has definitely never done a pun on purpose before. No need to worry, the universe is still in balance.
She takes a moment to point out Queen to Locus. "Looks like we have another hero here today! Maybe we can do a team-up sometime, what do you think?" She's excited, of course she is. She doesn't see anything wrong here. The more heroes the better!
Her excitement only grows when Locus makes a suggestion. Xantia clasps her hands together, stars in her eyes. "Oooh. You want to do [the thing]?" Even though said practice wasn't very recent, she's totally on board if Locus is willing to take a shot at it. She's been looking forward to seeing what it's capable of ever since the idea was suggested to her!
Yaro puts a temporary halt on this plan by choosing that moment to go mental and start shooting everything around him. Yet against all odds... neither energy beams nor debris strikes Xantia at all. She seems to have gained an absolute focus at this time, dodging everything heading her way with perfect timing. It's kind of eerily reminiscent of Xantia's previous battle with Yaro. Then, too, she managed to hit him with everything she had, while managing to evade his every strike once she'd gotten mad at him. Are things going to end the same way, even with this new body?
"Alright, in that case, let me set this up...!" With that, Xantia unleashes her own brand of Ether, to 'set herself on lightning', as she tends to call it. Electricity bursts forth from her body, remaining there in an aura-like form, before she dashes back in. This time, she launches into a combo of charged punches and kicks, each causing a small explosion of sparks on impact. She for one doesn't struggle with conflicting emotions about this at all. All she sees, all she's ever seen where it comes to Yarobeleedt, is a dangerous monster, a threat to innocent lives. Ever since that one time in the Saloon, with Lunata. That event had a lasting effect on her as well, in her case it's just far more simple and straightforward.
When she backs away from her assault, she looks around for Locus, but instead, her eyes fall on Fei, as he addresses Yarobeleedt. Something about his words, and the way he delivers them puts her on edge. But more than that... she can feel a change, on a level she doesn't understand. All she can tell with certainty is that Something Is Wrong.
Then that display of power happens, and though she was nowhere near it, Xantia can feel it. She recoils from it, a hand reaching up to her chest, clutching at her heart, the electricity surrounding her growing in intensity as if trying to protect herself. She's managed to sense power before, but never in this way. She can't tell if something changed about Fei, or about herself, but... that feeling was more than a little unnerving.
GS: Xantia has attacked Yarobeleedt with Elemental Fury! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Xantia's Elemental Fury for 72 hit points! GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Xantia!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Rubble and debris blast up from the shattered floor. Ceramic plates and twisted wrecks of alien metal come crashing down. Zed stares up at the collapse with dark, furious eyes. He lets it come. The detritus of his ruined home smash him into the floor. Is this penance? Is it some kind of way of knocking the thoughts clouding his mind out of his head...?
Or is it just that Zed really, honestly thought that his skull was surely harder than any of the Photosphere's structural material.
Regardless, a helping hand drags him out of the rubble. The green-haired swordsman looks up at the one known as Metal Digger Locus and...
Breathes, for what feels like the first time in minutes.
"...Yeah. Sorry I made you worry. I needed something to... knock me around a bit, I think," Zed answers, pulling his sword out of the wreckage.
It's true, then.
One way or another, Yaro needs to be stopped.
One way or another.
But...
"You're running out, aren't you?" Zed asks, turning towards the thing that used to be a dear comrade. "All that blood you've eaten, you're just putting it towards being stronger. That strength is consuming you. You're running out. Just like you did outside Adlehyde."
"...I don't regret saving your life then," Zed murmurs, lifting his sword high. "I don't. I won't. I just thought, maybe, after all you'd been through, I just thought maybe someone could understand what it was like. But maybe... Maybe..."
"Maybe... There was someone out there who'd been broken even harder than they almost broke me."
Zed surges forward again, his wounds seemingly forgotten-- no, he takes that pain and uses it to push. "To throw your life away just because Mother said so-- to have become nothing but a slave to that monster... To want to be loved, to be useful so badly that you'd give up everything you are! I don't hate you. I can't. I can't hate something like you! Not when I could easily have been the same way!"
"I'll stop you here!" Zed yells as he swings. A gleaming white-fire wave sweeps out from his sword...!
GS: Zed has attacked Yarobeleedt with Saint Arts - Comet Blade! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Zed's attack becomes clear! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Zed's Ultimate Attack of the Week for 191 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Grigori has posed.
"Yes. The history that must be. The history written by the enlightened to achieve the destiny of this planet."
The whirring systems of Grigori's right eye, hidden underneath her eyepatch, hum along, continuing to gather secret data on the events before them. It does not take in mere ordinary light as does a living eye; it is constructed for loftier purpose. ...And so she notices the uptick in local Ether, in the sheer power that resides in this area. With some interest, she turns her head just slightly to look at Fei as he gives his statement, as he issues his proclamation about humans.
As the power grows.
She watches head-on, as Fei says that Yarobeleedt has drawn their eye, and she knows that this at least is the truth. It is why she is here. ...The red flare erupts around him, and still the Watcher's head points towards Fei. There is, though it is unlikely for anyone to hear it over the din of battle, a terrible noise of whining machinery, a crackle of power... And beneath Grigori's mask, a trickle of blood running down her face, an incredible, agonizing pain.
Still, she watches. If one could see her face, they would see a rapturous look.
"Impressive," she breathes. "Most... Impressive."
She breathes in, and it becomes clear for an instant how stiff she was in the moment, before she brings up her sword to keep it between herself and Yarobeleedt, and speaks more to Fei.
"Think of it. You've seen truth. Is 'truth' the thing that will lead humanity to something greater? Are they even ready to understand 'truth'? Look within yourself, and tell me that they are."
The Watcher watches Arleph, as well. His proclamations; his use of Symbols to conjure power. Humanity is older, greater...
"I will record at least that you achieved some measure of nobility, in your devotion to a ruler that cares nothing for you."
But finally, the Watcher closes into melee, and she lifts her great blade one-handed. She steps forward--and anyone familiar with the blade arts of Gebler will recognize the style as a perfect execution of the one Jugend teaches, except adapted to a huge blade. She makes one cut--then another, then another, each ringing out with enough force to crush lesser foes, no movement wasted.
But the terrible monstrosity before them is not a lesser foe.
GS: Grigori has attacked Yarobeleedt with Hammerblow! GS: Grigori has gained 1 Combo! GS: Grigori has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Grigori's Hammerblow for 81 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Merciless Queen has posed.
It was a bit of a taunt, yes. If not quite as pointed or carefully formed of one as Fei finds himself imagining. Isn't that the way of the eyes in the dark, though? The ones you can't see, even though you can feel them? Isn't it insidious how they always know more than they tell you?
Tabitha and Fei may have some things they could talk about, in better circumstances.
"I'm so sorry, dear," she says, fiddling with her gun; calibrating, recalibrating. Her bracer beeps at her but she doesn't have quite the same field kit as Grigori and other than the presence of anomalous amounts of Ether (no shit, sherlock, everything about today is aomalous) she does not notice that he's exceeding expectations she does not know to expect. Instead, she purses her lips under the hood, smiling coyly. Oblivious to the height of what she mocks. "Such exciting young men," she breathes, and then gets totaled by Yaro again. A blast send her scattering back but she lands on her hands, whirling and twirling skyward, pirouetting before she breaks out of it - cracks down on Yarobeleedt.
"This is the problem, you see. Monsters can't know themselves, dear."
She missed a vital shot before so now she's just going to bully him some more. She has to do a strange manipulation of her weight as she moves - light as a feather, then heavy, SO heavy, powerful enough that when her foot connects, spinning, with Yarobeleedt it's like being struck with a boulder, knocking him about like the fists of a titan; and then light as a feather again as she jams her weapon against him and fires over and over, blasting into him!
"Don't worry," she says. "You can trust me to judge. I'm a professional."
GS: Merciless Queen has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Merciless Queen has attacked Yarobeleedt with Interlude Squall! GS: Merciless Queen has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Merciless Queen's Interlude Squall for 60 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Malfi takes a fully motivated stab at Yarobeleedt, repaying heartlessness with nothing less, whole-heartedly. Lunata fills him full of buckshot, as the two share a moment about how almost everything about her life has come from what he had done to her. Catenna loosens an arrow through him to beautiful moonlight, in respect of the sincere tragedy of the situation but coming to the conclusion all must. Celine sends sorcerous lightning through him, finding her center and charm in which to dazzle and destroy. Fei sends incredible, almost immeasurable force through him - only seeming to withstand it just through incredible regenerative properties. Arleph explosively expands a ball of ice with a know-how of so many things that Yarobeleedt never wonders how he knows. Shalune shows how willing she is to endure pain of her own making to try and overcome those of Yarobeleedt's own. Ambrosius cooly tells him off with a minimum of vowels to put an end to this constant with a few extra consonants instead. Locus foregoes adressing one of the root causes of her rise to heroism to acknowledge another fledgling hero in need. Elvis just warms himself right up in preparation, establishing the actual seniority in age he has over the seventy-something vampiric bug horror. Ida reveals the truth of her machinations, echoing them as she comes roaring down with a world-shattering single punch by two distinct peoples. Xantia unleashes incredible elemental electrical fury, convulsing and twisting the poor thing about with simple-minded acceptance but also enthusiasm for what comes next. Zed clings to his empathy and experience, from one put-upon Metal Demon to another, who strikes true out of concern for one that was like a(n annoying) little brother with uncompromising force and will. Grigori gives them praise for their apparent full-hearted devotion as they move to slaughter and smash out any and all remaining fight in this horrible thing. Queen kicks him around a little while she blasts him full o' gun, mockingly reminding him about his lack of ability to really self-reflect.
Only Tachi seems to hesitate, or be incapable, of striking...
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
They all, either in part or in whole, for the creature's meandering and posturing, connect. The abdomen contracts more and more with every recovery of a wound. The breath grows heavier. Their movements, twitchier. Hunger. This is hunger. They've pushed a creature so hard as to be starving. "...Metal Demons... Metal Demons... Mother has no need... so give, give, give..."
He staggers closer to Malfi, for a moment, but she may not have enough left to restore him.
He stops shy of coming closer to Tachi. Why? She is vulnerable, by appearances, but he cannot. Mouthparts dangle out the reforming proboscis. Like a panting dog. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry...
...
The creature wraps themselves around Ida's arm, shuddering.
"Fu fu fu... I see such big problem... it is conblem!! You are ^Meat Remon^ and Metal Demon... will not do for Mother... take away Voice. ^Wrong Shoulder^ get right..." He phrases it as altruistic.
It might even be, in their twisted little mind, as they plunge their proboscis in there and start to suck away all the blood they can. It is as draining as one can imagine, but...
...He doesn't drink much, before he suddenly has his wings flare out and pull back. There's a heart-curdling gurgling as the creature convulses. There is angry screaming. Why? They got their blood, didn't they?...
Their abdomen, still deflated, shudders as a noise that far exceeds its size and motion screams out. Their eyes flare ever brighter, and the entire chamber fills with light.
Everyone will see nothing.
Everyone will hear nothing.
They will only feel pain, a horrible burning sensation. Is the creature shooting at them while their ability to see or hear is taken from them? Such a cowardly act... one that would surely consume them whole for trying...!
GS: Yarobeleedt has become ENRAGED! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Prey!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Extend! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Grigori with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Zed with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Xantia with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Tachi with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Elvis with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Carina Wynne with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ambrosius with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Shalune Amira with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Arleph Ardan with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Celine Jules with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Catenna with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Lunata Croze with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Malfi with Yellowbelly!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Merciless Queen with Yellowbelly!! GS: Catenna has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Catenna completely evades Yellowbelly! from Yarobeleedt!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Prey! for 114 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt drains Ida Everstead-Rey! Yarobeleedt gains 57 temporary hit points! GS: Lunata Croze guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 118 hit points! GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Zed completely evades Yellowbelly! from Yarobeleedt!
GS: Arleph Ardan critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 67 hit points! GS: Arleph Ardan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Ambrosius takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 71 hit points! GS: Ambrosius enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Celine Jules takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 2 hit points! GS: Celine Jules enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Merciless Queen takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 72 hit points! GS: Elvis takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 138 hit points! GS: Elvis enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 60 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam! Statuses applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Xantia critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 75 hit points! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Shalune Amira takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 97 hit points! GS: Grigori critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 35 hit points! GS: Grigori enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Grigori has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Carina Wynne guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 102 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam! Statuses applied to Carina Wynne! GS: Malfi takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 139 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Celine Jules has posed.
Already on her knees, grasping the staff, Celine's vision is fading in and out. The bolt of lightning manages to singe the beast - Yaro-beast - but her charm and center isn't quite found - the woman finding her way to her feet and staggering still. "Well, it's.. just a little more. I'm sure it'll be over soon." She remarks, adding a slight ~ afterwards.
Of course, the horrible looking monster that is Yaro is righteningly powerful, and with it, there is an assault that Celine is unable to really see - or prepare for. A magical sorcerous wall of symbology, like angel wings, is brought upwards to help Celine from taking the assault - but the wing crack with a sickening crunch, crashing through and allowing the assault to bring Celine against the wall - staff still in hand as she slams against the nearest wall, pain surrounding her and encompassing her.
THe staff clatters to the ground - as does the hat about her - as her eyes shut, the shower like cape clattering to the ground, much like her hat over her head, as the symbologic energy used to right everything fails - as her concentration does as well, draping her in a mis-matched jumble of fabric and metallic rods, like someone had fallen drunk into a shower, grasping the curtains along the way, before passing out in the tub.
It's much like that, but with far more blood stains on the clothing, pain on the person, and an equal amount of unconciousness.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Yarobeleedt's abdomen gives with a sound halfway between bending metal and crunching carapace. It's a bit like stepping on a cockroach, if that cockroach were gigantic, and also made of sheet metal. She stares into those compound eyes, sees herself reflected in them a hundredfold. Ida lands, her boots skidding across the broken ground; she plants a sole down hard to steady herself.
Yarobeleedt notices a problem. Ida raises both hands to guard herself, breathing heavily--obviously winded from the effort it took to land that blow. She thrusts out a hand, but the Demon's hunger has made him desperate, and with that desperation comes blazing speed. Yarobeleedt's body wraps around Ida's arm, distorting. She feels the Hyadean flesh twist, as if recoiling from the touch of this wretched creature. Her mind reels. She knows what's happening next.
Yarobeleedt's proboscis plunges into Ida's chest, into the junction between chest and shoulder. Blood the color of quicksilver oozes from around Yarobeleedt's proboscis, striated here and there with faint streaks of crimson. Ida's body trembles, shudders. Her mouth opens, and closes. The Demon is going to drain her dry, just like it did to those Tainted, and--
"Checkmate," Ida chokes out. Her gauntleted(?) right hand grabs one of Yarobeleedt's wings. She sucks in a shuddering breath, rerouting the flow of her lifeforce--Hyadean arteries constrict, cutting off the flow of blood. Bright, firey chi flows into Yarobeleedt's body--has been flowing into it, along with Ida's blood. It does not belong in his body. It's full of heat and flame and righteous fury and singular purpose.
"HARKEN!" Ida roars. She does not let go of Yarobeleedt, nor does she try and remove his proboscis from her flesh. "NOW!"
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has spent 1 Combo on Disease, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Yarobeleedt with Burning Infusion! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lady Harken has posed.
The blindfold cuts tightly around the young woman's face. Black silk robs the day of its light. The biting chill of the Arctican breeze feels magnified somehow; each remaining sense growing sharper with each passing minute.
The halls of the Photosphere are hidden to her. Her vision is naught but a field of blazing stars amidst a sea of black. The powerful optic flare robs her of her sight. But her remaining senses perceive the world as clear as day, free from the tyranny of the observed. The cowl rests heavy on her head and shoulders, metallic weave grating against her skin. Distant shouts, the crackle of spells, the echo of every last little detail.
The young woman's knees are stiff from sitting seiza for so long. Her muscles rigid from the cold. The pain and the discomfort are a focus, a cold river washing away all unnecessary thoughts. The sound of a sword's hilt sliding against skin rings as clear as day, and her own sword leaps to her hand.
Her muscles ache and protest from so many explosive bursts of action, and from the treatment regime's debilitating effect besides. From so many parried blows, and so many grievous wounds, she feels uniquely tired and worn. And yet, she remains focused. Awaiting a beacon, a signal, a sign.
- At Ida's call, a sign she is given.
A scarlet scythe blade unfurls from the base of that silver pole the cowled figure has been leaning against.
In the wintry peaks of Arctica, a young woman sought unity with the blade. Through perserverance, through hardship, and through heartbreak, she found it. In service to to the kingdom and its people, she swore to be a sword that would destroy its enemies and safeguard its lands.
The scarlet cloak flutters on the breeze. An autumn leaf, discarded. Empty. Its one-time wearer is no longer there. All those motions of seizure and agony, hunched over for stability, lies. A play. A biding of time, gathering strength and spirit and swiftness for one explosive strike. Building a unity with the blade, each step of the coming dance known to the mind.
In the wintry peaks of Arctica, a young woman stalked her prey. So too, this prey stalked her. The efforts of each unbeknownst to the other, the young woman and the beast of living metal circled one another at great distance. In subtle ways, inexorably drawn closer to one another, bonds of fate lashed them together.
Harken twists from the waist, the scythe held tightly in her hands. Her boots twist upon the metal floor as her burst of motion carries her forward. Her prey, the pitiful and crazed Yarobeleedt, finally exactly where she wants him. The trap, sprung.
In the wintry peaks of Arctica, a young woman turned her attention for just long enough to become the prey again. Conferred with her comrades. Chided them for their carelessness. Scorned them for using that mocking title. 'Princess', indeed. In that moment, a beast struck. The trap, sprung.
With perfect form, with perfect speed, the Quarter Knight summons power in a flowing line from her hips to her hands. Her spirit flares and in her mind's eye she can see that line extending through her hands and through the space where her foe lies. The scythe in that moment--flies. Drawn from the angle where one's sword might lie, a crackling arc of power follows the line--
In the wintry peaks of Arctica, a young woman summons power in a flowing line from her hips to her hands. Her spirit flares and in her mind's eye she can see that line extending through her hands and into the space where that presence lies. The sword in that moment--flies. Drawn from the sheath, a crackling arc of power follows the line--
- Through Yarobeledt.
"It may not be Mother's embrace... but I grant you this end, at last."
A sharp arm.
Like a blade.
A true blade.
It was agony.
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
And then, there was just pain. Burning, horrible pain.
The last of the foam melts away around Arleph, still muffled and slowed down by the previous attacks, the Symbologist is starting to feel the drags of mortality again with his defenses weakening. It's hard to defend against something you can't see, or can't predict like this. So he takes it. With screams and a long cry of pain.
Fortunately, there's things someone can do. He can still sense the Metal Demon, admist the mists of pain and burning of the searing lights. When everything clears, Arleph finds himself on the floor, his body hurting all over. Yet, his heart still burns, reignited with a rare fury.
"You... damn... single minded... FOOL!" Arleph's true potty mouth comes shining with such examples of insults, the mage struggling back to a knee while slamming a fist into the ruined, unstable ground. A symbole explodes out from the impact, his other hand adjusting his long hat back over his head. "So you broke! You heard the truth, you could not handle it and you decided to go down deep within the abyss to hide yourself from it!" Arleph shouts, his punching fist lifted up and aimed at the Metal Demon, fingers spread out. "The ONE TIME you could have stopped hiding. The ONE time you could have faced the reality, beyond what hides beyond. The ONE TIME you could've done something different other than failures of life that's been piled on your bulbous ass," Woah, Arleph, "YOU DID THIS!"
With another flourish of invisible wind billowing his jacket, he intones. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH! WEDGE BETWEEN ATOMS, FORM THE DEADLIEST OF BLADES, PIERCE THE SMALLEST GOAL AND DESPAIR!"
Hundreds of clear silvers forms at his finger tips, creating an eerie thread of ice and distorted light. "MONOMOLECULAR ICICLE!"
The needles flies. They pierce, they seek weakness. They do not care of the hardness of what lies beyond.
They just dig and dig, swarmed like rain.
GS: Arleph Ardan has activated a Force Action! GS: Lady Harken takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Yellowbelly! for 116 hit points! GS: Lady Harken has attacked Yarobeleedt with Fast Draw - Magnum Fang! GS: Lady Harken has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lady Harken has completed her action. GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Yarobeleedt with Monomolecular Icicle! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
A Critical Hit!!!
Sound and sight return for everyone, as if on cue. Yarobeleedt's entire body freezes as Lady Harken's attack passes through him.
Everything goes still - even any liquid matter that might be dripping, it is somehow suspended in mid-air. Lights noisily flash through cracks, pervasive and triumphant.
"...The attack... the attack..." Yarobeleedt whimpers. "The attack... the attack...!" Explosions ring out from where the lights peek through. His entire body brightens to a starkly white, as he flops over off of where he was once striking into Ida.
He undergoes a metamorphosis... to a more familiar look.
His antennae lose shape, melting about and around his head, back into the familiar chrome helmet-like shape with slits. His compound eyes gloss over before melting into one another, leaving only one tiny surviving eye on each surface that have trouble focusing on anything. The lower half of his face nearly falls off his face, the proboscis receding. The mouthparts within melt together into the approximation of a tongue. His forearms once more turn more... goopy, and attempts to reform laser cannons fail to come to fruition. His wings melt into his body, and from the waist down, it all collapses into itself - into the familiar slug-snake-whatever body type.
The accumulated blood of the Tainted sends various genetic instructions through him, and none of them are good. The blood of damaged people, many of them, giving conflicting information with no compromise as to how to handle it. It starts to render his regenerative torpor abilities... inert.
The body he was accursed to live with for the rest of his days, after Arctica. The body befitting of a Tainted - the moniker he fought against, by further airing his grievances upon those who would have shown him friendship, acceptance, and support, now starts taking the next step down from that.
The body whose biomass is now starting to drip right through the gaps in the floor, bit by bit, no longer able to recognize it's part of a single organism.
"You!! It was you!!!" Yarobeleedt screams. "It is you! Single youuuuu...!" He writhes, throwing his arms up into the air. Noodly, goopy, drippy arms. "Alhazad stop me from seeing Mother in Arctica... nonono, not only Quarter Knight...!" His eyes spin helplessly. He wants to hold them in place. He can't. He swings his head around wildly, which also doesn't help much. "Lady Harken stop me too... at Arctica y? y y y y y..."
His voice trails off as he continues to flail. "y stop y yield y no right turn???" His voice croaks and creaks, as his body shudders, bobs, and wiggles, as he forms a thin, bony blade out of his arm--
--no, that's not how to describe it.
"Why Quarter Knights stop Yarobeleedt from seeing Mother!!! Yarobeleedt give all... bleed all... all... the ^Fast Red Human^ was miiiine... was mine... was mine... why make not mine mine? misery not mine weakness not mine y y y y y"
It's like his very skeleton were trying to vacate his biomass.
With no supporting muscles or tendons attached, the bony blade flicks free without much strength or direction. The weapon is sharp... but as a projectile, it is feeble. It probably won't even reach anyone. An impact is only a few seconds' setback, at best.
This doesn't stop him from trying the same, forcing other parts of his structure, squeezing and contracting them into other weapon-shapes as he tries to swing them. They each meet the same fate, as more and more of his biomass seeps away. He is rapidly melting... just as he is leaving less and less of himself behind to be considered 'a person's remains' and more 'weapons and tools.' Some of the biomass calcifies into new bones that are quickly reforged and discarded the same way.
"YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" The only other defense Yarobeleedt has, is his screaming. That is nowhere near enough to stop everyone from delivering the final coup de grace, to put an end to this final roadblock to Mother and Riesenlied.
That much can be clearly understood. (For once.)
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Burning Infusion for 0 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt suffers Infect, extending negative statuses by 1 turn each! GS: Yarobeleedt has been weakened by Disease! They take 11 damage, and burn off all temporary hit points! GS: Disease! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Lady Harken's Fast Draw - Magnum Fang for 262 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Arleph Ardan's Monomolecular Icicle for 227 hit points!
DC: You switch forms to The Favorite Chum of Mother!! Metal Darkman Yarobeleedt! DC: Yarobeleedt switches forms to The Favorite Chum of Mother!! Metal Darkman Yarobeleedt!
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Grigori with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Zed with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Xantia with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Lady Harken with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Elvis with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Carina Wynne with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ambrosius with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Shalune Amira with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Arleph Ardan with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Celine Jules with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Catenna with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Lunata Croze with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Celine Jules takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Lady Harken takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Lady Harken enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Malfi with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Arleph Ardan critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Arleph Ardan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Malfi takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Malfi! GS: Malfi enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ambrosius guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Merciless Queen with Yarobeleedt...! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 2 Combo! GS: Xantia critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Catenna takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! <DICE ROLLER> Fei Fong Wong rolled 1d100 <83> + 0 = 83
GS: Your rage has died down! You can't act this round, and you've received the Shieldbreak and Entangle status effects! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action. GS: Elvis critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Grigori guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Merciless Queen takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points! GS: Carina Wynne takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Yarobeleedt... for 0 hit points!
DC: You must enter a number greater than or equal to 1 and less than your current HP value. [1200]
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
They fight and they fight, but Yarobeleedt keeps fighting. But he's weakning - Ambrosius can see that. He can see that the Metal Demon is draining, from being unable to consume. His new form took that much of a toll on him, then.
Perhaps that was why he had to consume so many of his brethren.
And then, once more, Yarobeleedt acts in a manner befitting his name - releasing a sound and a light so overwhelming that even the mechanisms of his advanced Veruni helmet can't compensate for it. Ambrosius readies himself and bears the oncoming storm of attacks from the darkness. He had noticed the creature's deteriation. He had only to wait it out.
But in the darkness, there are those who can still act - he hears Ida shouting, followed by words from Lady Harken herself.
And the result is enough damage inflicted on Yarobeleedt that he reverts to a much more familiar form...and yet, even so, he still struggles to fight them. Still struggles to kill them. Ambrosius feels a blade clatter feebly against his armor...
...and he looks upon Yarobeleedt with pity.
He despised the demon. Considered him a nuisance. He had caused so much trouble for him - brought danger and activated traps during his many expeditions.
And yet, despite how he felt, this was not a fate Ambrosius would wish even on Yarobeleedt. To deteriorate so quickly...he can't help but be reminded of his own people's struggle.
"Even now, you continue to insist...?" Ambrosius says with a weary sigh...and then levels Veritas Varia at him. "...Very well. So be it then. If this is your desire..."
Ambrosius fires. The weapon emits a beam of deep red, heat rippling through the air as it heads straight for Yarobeleedt.
"...Then farewell, Yarobeleedt."
GS: Ambrosius has activated a Force Action! GS: Ambrosius has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling! GS: Ambrosius has attacked Yarobeleedt with VV-EXCIDIUM! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Ambrosius's VV-EXCIDIUM for 234 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi watches impassively as her once-sometime-companion shudders and morphs into a more familiar form. Somehow she finds the energy for one last attack, stabbing at Yarobeleedt's midsection with Rakurai. She staggers back, away from Yarobeleedt, and fingers the wound at her throat, a quicksilver rivulet streaming out of it, gleaming like chrome against her black "armor." It will clot, and knit, in time -- far quicker than a human's would without magical healing of some kind. She's been drained, if not to the point of death, to the point of weakness. She needs a few moments to rest. "A moment," she murmurs, though she pointedly makes eye contact with the people who register to her kinsight, Harken and Zed, and keeps a wary eye on Yarobeleedt. Their home was in shambles, and their world soon to be devoured, if Mother had her way...
She glances around at her new friends while she recuperates. Some she recognizes as either former allies or opponents, and then she starts as she spots THAT woman. The one who'd beaten Yarobeleedt into a coma previously and caused Malfi some pretty serious injuries.
All would have to be forgiven (if not forgotten) to move forward. Humans and their ilk often showed unusual powers when pushed to the wall. Maybe that was why the Guardians favored them.
They would need all the power they could muster to confront Mother, and there was a very good chance they wouldn't be up to the task. If they failed, Filgaia was doomed. They would have to unite and fight together to try to save it. But first they'd have to defeat, and possibly kill, the pitiable but dangerous figure before them...
GS: Malfi has activated a Force Action! GS: Malfi has attacked Yarobeleedt with Rakurai! GS: Malfi has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Malfi's Rakurai for 109 hit points! GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong's eyes widen faintly when Ida, of all people, pushes Yarobeleedt out of the way. His attack grazes off Yarobeleedt and through the wall to the right of him and the fire dissipitates in short order. His ether levels go back down to normal. Grigori might not be able to tell that through technology but it's evident enough, it's just not there anymore.
Or maybe it's just in hibernation.
"Ida..." Fei says, stunned. He sees Yarobeleedt going after Ida but his exhaustion is as such that he can't move. Not nearly fast enough to reach Yarobeleedt.
Luckily Ida has a plan. And Harken can move fast enough. She has always been just a touch faster than me.
Fei listens to Yarobeleedt's screaming. He's not dead yet. He looks towards Xantia.
He sees something in that look.
He steps backwards, away from her, like he expects her to strike at him. No. More like that look is already pummeling him in the gut.
There's something familiar in Tabitha's tone, but Fei can't quite place it. He steps away from her, avoiding looking directly at her, as if from an intense burst of guilt. "I..." He begins.
Grigori asks him if truth will lead humanity to something greater. Admits that there is a history that must be compared to the history that is. His gaze also turns towards Arleph.
Mankind is far older and powerful than you imagine or give credit for.
The kind of person who says something like that is intensely familiar to Fei. It is the sort of thing he feels compelled to say sometimes. Maybe not in so much as those words, but a sort of ageless perspective that is not uncommon. In this moment, at that look of Grigori's, that phrase sticks in his mind.
And then he sets it aside. There is already Kenny.
Fei looks to Grigori, his shoulders slouching. "Filgaia is a speck of dust." He says. "It is that which is smaller that a speck that matters."
He can't do it. He can't kill Yarobeleedt. He can't contribute any more to the killing of Yarobeleedt. Instead he turns to look at Ida.
"You." He accuses her. "You kept me from killing him. You kept his blood off my hands as much as it can be off my hands and spread it on your own."
He lowers his head for a moment.
"...Thank you."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata spits her head to one side as she wipes what might once be blood away. She shakes her head. "... Why, you ask?"
Lucidity has suddenly entered into her mind once more. She glances to Fei for a moment, then glances towards her again. That self-same grin is still on her face, though, even as she steps closer.
Orochi-Agito is primed and ready at her side.
"Honestly... I don't know. But what I do know..."
That grin is still increasing to a horrific rictus one.
"You've given me the courage to do this."
A pause.
"No. Not courage. The utter foolishness to eliminate all obstacles that stand in my way."
Something pops, almost free, that grin ever increasing as she stoops on loose.
"I won't ever forget you, Yarobeleedt. It takes an incredible coward to do the most utterly foolish things imaginable. In your sake, in your honour...."
A pause.
"I'll become the coward in your stead."
'Iyoooo--' goes the taiko drummer.
The whistling noise of the shamisen.
A beauteous mountain emerges in the background, cascading with fluttering petals that blossom in the spring. Yet, the darkness of a netherworld casts in the foreground, the march of a thousand oni illuminating lights...
And as she speaks, it is in double--
"So though its scent still lingers on...
...So though the stench permeates us."
Lunata stoops herself to another battou-stance as she focuses, a crest of three erupting behind her.
'Setsu' alights, for the harsh and wintry chill of nature that takes all, akin to the palm of a Reaper that sees fit to take where it has once sown.
"For whom shall the glory of this world remain unspoiled...?
... Spoiled thus is the world from all our vainglory."
'Getsu' alights, for the forlorn beauty of Filgaia, looming high in the sky and imploring us to ever higher reaches.
"Arrive ye today at the yonder side...
... and succumb to a mountain evanescent in existence."
'Ka' alights, for the blossoming of spring that shall shine beautifully, the evident power of life once more repeating the cycle...
"Cast aside all earthly desires.
Embrace impermanence."
Her form yet disappears into a blurring motion, as she descends upon Yarobeleedt from above. A gleam the colour of moonlight can be seen, as she flashes an inch of her blade out--
- "...Midare--
- --Setsugekka..."
The voices adjoin as one. Lunata's... and...
- "-Yomotsu-..."
GS: Lunata Croze has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Lunata Croze enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Yarobeleedt with Midare Setsugekka -Yomotsu-! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Light fills the chamber. Catenna's swallowed up by it.
For a long moment, there's nothing. She's simply lost in the light.
"We have only one thing to give Mother," Catenna's voice comes in -- and the light begins to shift to a soft blue.
High above the field, a pair of shining blue butterfly wings open.
On previous occasions in which Catenna has drawn upon this power, the Moon Guardian's presence has been brief, on the order of a couple of seconds of hazy visibility and a fading sense of presence. This is something else. Perching atop a golden crescent, Celesdue looks down at the yellow scout below, mutated and mad with zeal and hunger and the addling effects of Alhazred's experiments. Simple, quiet reproof laces her expression as she draws a hand out, her mannerisms refined and calm, but not kind.
Before Celesdue can reach back and do anything, though, something else happens. Yarobeleedt is... back to his old self, but more... dying. And throwing his bones around.
As one, Celesdue, Catenna and the Owlet cock their heads to the left and looks on, expressions inscrutable.
"I think this may have been slightly unwarranted," Catenna concedes, folding her hands over her Medium and bowing her head.
Celesdue bows her head at the same moment. So does Saarda-Shanta. "A pitiful creature. But one that will bar the path no more."
With a last shimmer of butterfly wings, Celesdue closes them around herself, receding into a little blue spark and winking out of view. The Owlet flutters back to Catenna's shoulder as Celesdue's priestess simply looks on as others descend to finish off the helpless yellow blob.
She doesn't look for much longer. Coldly leaving others to finish the slaughter, she begins to walk onward, limping a little on her injured knee, but simply leaving Yarobeleedt behind to live his last. His fate is sealed and deserved; all Catenna cares about now is what's waiting.
Mother.
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Lunata Croze's Midare Setsugekka -Yomotsu- for 234 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
Elvis is gonna put the wallop on Yaro. Teach this thing a lesson. Before he can move in, the Metal Demon grabs Ida. "Look out!" he shouts toward her, but it is too late. The Sentinel grits his teeth. Though, it turns around after only a few seconds. "He is reacting...!"
Perhaps it is because Ida has both bloods running through her now, that Yaro is so far incompatible to ingesting Human blood, that it causes some kind of catalytic reaction with whatever made him massive. A critical oversight.
Wait, no. It isn't blood. It is something else. Some kind of energy?
There is light and there is pain. Elvis forms a crossguard to help brunt the effect.
The moment feels like it lasts forever. The desensitizing light fades, and when it comes back, Yaro sustains critical damage, his powered form no longer able to sustain itself. Even worse, his normal form seems even further degenerated.
"...Why couldn't you listen?" Elvis asks the pitiful creature. And yet, Yaro shows no signs from stopping his attacks, even as what is left of his body tries to take a stable form and is expended as soo as it becomes a choerent mass.
"Whemever I see a crippled creature. I want to fix it. I am no doctor, but science can help-- and I don't mean ALhazred science. A kind that could have made you whole if I were able. But now..."
There's no coming back from that. He doesn't have to be a doctor to see it.
And as everyone attacks this loathsome thing, Elvis... can't find it in him to do it. He isn't attached to Yaro in any way, but there is a distant part of him that feels like he has missed an opportunity to help someone. But perhaps there are just some people out there that can't be reached.
Not like it matters attacking him. His body will become primordial sludge soon now.
...
"No, you know what? Screw it! If you are gonna die, you should get a real sendoff!" Elvis suddenly states, fists blazing with detonating energy. "MOVE!" he calls out, coming in ready. A single punch to send of a... is there even an adjective that fits?
To send off a Yarobeleedt.
GS: Elvis has activated a Force Action! GS: Elvis has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Elvis has attacked Yarobeleedt with Locus Upper! GS: Elvis has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elvis has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
Arleph never imagined he would see, one day, someone melt like this. A full, genetic cascading failure. On full display. He didn't think something like that was possible! Then again, well, genetics is not really his forte. Not at that level, anyway.
The display do get to him. His rage, still raw, do get cooled somewhat at the sight of fury unleashed on the bug, melting down flesh, down to almost only a skeleton. The degree of visceral gore of seeing flesh, metal, squishy flesh, melting to nothing around a frame do get to him. His fists tightens, his scowl deepens as he closes his eyes for a moment.
He gives the Quarter Knight a look, before refocusing on the melting Metal Demon. "If reincarnation is a thing, I sure as hell hope your next life is going to be a better, more pleasant one, somewhere, sometimes." Arleph lifts two fingers, a smaller Symbological circle spreading from his palm, this time. "Rest in peace. Maybe for the first time in your life."
He respect others that just move on. That's a choice. He also makes a choice that probably living a full cascading genetic meltdown like that is one HELL of a thing he don't want to see happen to a living being.
Ice condenses, flowing cold into a single point, the air shuddering into a firm, thick mist to the point of raw energy.
GS: Arleph Ardan has activated a Force Action! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Elvis's Locus Upper for 271 hit points! GS: Arleph Ardan has spent 1 Combo on Poison, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Yarobeleedt with Cold Fusion! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Merciless Queen has posed.
It all comes apart. The woman who has adopted the title of Merciless Queen today shields her eyes, and perhaps in the heartbeat before all sight leaves, one might see the glimpse of fair skin beneawth the hood as the shadowing device fails to quite keep up with Yaro's light.
But then something else happens.
By the time Queen has cleared the fuzz from her eyes, she can only see the aftermath. Lady Harken, in a pose of completed attack.
And Yarobeleedt, dying.
Screaming. Shrieking pathetically.
The Merciless Queen stands up straighter. Watches this horrible thing occur. She's listening to those screams. Command will be fascinated. But more than that...she has just a bit of a show to put on, she thinks, as she fiddles with the gauntlet she wears for long seconds.
"Though you are without grace, I offer these words to you," she says.
If Rosaline were here, perhaps she might recognize the passage from an Etone's final rites for the monstrous. What comes next, though, would not be so familiar.
"You have been blessed, creature. Your final end will be witnessed. Your life will be recorded. No less a servant than the Watcher herself has seen fit to set down the second of your ending. Rejoice! Be glad!"
She lunges upward; HURTLING into the air, somersalting there, hanging impossibly as gravity shifts around her in a way that makes the eyes water.
"You will be remembered forever in the perfect memory of =God=!" the Merciless Queen declares.
Then she descends from the sky like a lightning bolt - bulleting down with enough accumulated weight that she probably punctures entirely through Yaro's spattering final mess and blasts herself clear through to the level below.
GS: Merciless Queen has activated a Force Action! GS: Merciless Queen has spent 2 Combo on Smite, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Merciless Queen has attacked Yarobeleedt with Inversion Reversal! GS: Merciless Queen has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Arleph Ardan's Cold Fusion for 186 hit points! GS: Toxin! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Yarobeleedt has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight! GS: Please react using the attack number in +queue. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Merciless Queen's Inversion Reversal for 203 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia's good fortune is that her lightning aura is active during this time, and she was actively trying to protect herself from... from what exactly? Was there anything she needed to protect herself against? Whatever the case may be with the alarm she felt earlier, when the actual threat of an explosion of heat happens, her Etheric barrier is there to protect her from the worst of it.
By the time she can see again, Yarobeleedt looks... miserable is the only word she considers fitting for that state. She reflexively bats away a 'blade' coming for her, even though she can tell at a glance that it was never going to be a threat. For the first time ever, she can only look at this creature with pity. Nobody deserves to suffer like that. And so, they should end this quickly.
She glances back to Fei. Catches that guilt. Wordlessly, she smiles, and shakes her head. There's no need to worry. She won't judge. She understands. And she's perfectly ready to take on the burdens that he doesn't want.
"Locus!"
With a yell to her superhero mentor to draw attention, she makes her intention clear with a nod and a 'come here' hand motion. This is it. They're doing [the thing].
It's up to Locus to make the next move in leaping towards Xantia, who will be ready to make the catch, and in one fluent motion, add a powerful throw to the existing momentum. Not only that, but through this brief contact, Xantia's aura is transferred to the Locus armor, enhancing the follow-up with the power of lightning.
"FALCON..."
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
Xantia suggests a certain Queen might be a Hero. Sadly, everything explodes before Locus has the time to provide her expert assessment! Now the world will never know.
Ida is caught, and her blood sucked. Locus spins on her heel in the hopes of making a mad dash and saving her, but this proves unnecessary. The ruse is revealed, the trap sprung and the disguise shed. While Harken moves in to turn the tables, this gives the superhero and sidekick duo the time to set things up for... well, you know.
A part of Carina is awash with conflicting feelings, ones she doesn't have any words for. But would a superhero hesitate, right here and now, when the world needs to be saved? No, no, they wouldn't.
Xantia calls to her, snapping her out of her reverie. Locus nods, offers a thumbs-up, then takes a running start, leaps towards her, and... curls into a ball mid-air. And so...
"...SPECIAL!!"
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_SxVtf6Nk0
A supercharged human cannonball, Locus extends her foot just before reaching what's left of Yarobeleedt. Yes, such is the secret of the FALCON SPECIAL, the perfect application of teamwork, combining Xantia's prodigious strength, the ancient power of the Locus armor, and courageous amounts of gigawatts!
And so, Locus' foot explodes into a localized anime half-sphere of crackling energy on impact. Just... don't worry about it.
GS: Xantia has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling! GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Xantia has attacked Yarobeleedt with Megavolt Hammer! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Xantia's Megavolt Hammer for 221 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight! GS: Carina Wynne has activated a Force Action! GS: Carina Wynne has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Carina Wynne has attacked Yarobeleedt with Always-Winning Final Locus KICK!! GS: Carina Wynne has completed her action. GS: Please react using the attack number in +queue. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Carina Wynne's Always-Winning Final Locus KICK! for 224 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Lady Harken has posed.
From a perfect line wrought of spirit, a line searing with orbiting fates, a line carved by the scythe Azrael through the final creature loyal to the dreadful terror called 'Mother', ichor and quicksilver and shards of bone spray. Beautiful, scarlet armor of Hyadean steel is splattered and Harken's crimson hair is matted with the unfortunate reality of bladed combat: it's a messy business.
She lowers her gaze with something not quite amounting to pity, but far from the fires of rage.
"You are wrong." Harken corrects the melting form of Yarobeleedt. She stalks forward amidst the gathered Drifters. Glances wearily at Fei Fong Wong, who professes his thanks to the operatives who stayed his hand from murder. Glances to the recuperating Malfi. The Quarter Knight isn't sure if she feels a great sense of victory from this, but she knows what must be done.
"Lady Harken didn't stop you at Arctica. One of the Fenrir Knights did." the crimson-haired knight reaffirms her grip on her weapon, turning the blade away from herself. Ambrosius rakes a high-energy beam through the fallen creature's form, clearly with no joy in what he must do. Another step. "But she's gone now, and there's only me."
The words taste bitter in Harken's mouth. Those memories belong to someone else. Someone more pure. Someone befitting the title of Sword Princess.
Harken closes her eyes. The voice of a young girl floats in her ears. Familiar, from so long ago at Lacour, a girl with tumult in her heart and great power in her blade. The voice of Lunata Croze, perhaps the only other to know death as she does. To take up the mantle of the Reaper, without the need for the imagery of the scythe. To commit oneself to the beauty of the cycle, cold as it may be. Perhaps now, more than she ever did back then, it elicits in her a complicated feeling.
When next Harken's eyes open, a lurid radiance pulsates from one of them. It leaves thick, heavy contrails in the air as she leans her head back and tightens her stance as Lunata falls upon Yarobeleedt with a swordstroke like a piercing shaft of moonlight. It isn't the stance of a swordfighter, no, it's the stance of an
executioner.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
A flash of light consumes the world. A second column cleaves through it. Raw, white-hot energy burns through the veil of destructive power. Zed defends himself from whatever the hell that was and sees...
He sees...
Something... Something horrible.
This...
This is...
"Yaro--" Zed starts, horror clear as day on his face. He stops, a hand pressing over his mouth, but it can do little to keep him from immediately evacuating the contents of his stomach. He can't. He can't just let this happen. He can't...
Zed...
Zed can't.
"He's dead," Zed chokes, wiping the vomit from the corners of his mouth. "He's dead already. This... This is just..."
This is just slaughter.
Zed's hand wraps tightly around Doom Bringer's hilt. He takes a step forward. Then another, then another. Through the explosions and the discharging ARMs and the fatal, final attacks, Zed trudges forward and lifts his sword high.
"Yaro," Zed says, nothing but sorrow in his voice. "...Sorry. This is the most I can give you."
Doom Bringer swings, amidst the cataclysm unfolding all around him. A single, heavy blow.
A decapitation strike.
A blow delivered for one purpose alone. To give this creature a proper, swift death.
GS: Zed has attacked Yarobeleedt with Yarokiri! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Zed's Yarokiri for 0 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight! GS: Lady Harken has activated a Force Action! GS: Lady Harken has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Lady Harken has attacked Yarobeleedt with Azrael - Laser Silhouette! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Lady Harken's Azrael - Laser Silhouette for 239 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
In truth, Ida is displaying more trust in Lady Harken than is advisable. The Quarter Knight could easily cut both her and Yarobeleedt in two with the same stroke. She even has a convenient excuse. Azrael slices through the Demon's body mass like a hot knife through cold pudding. It comes close enough that Ida feels the wind from its passage against her bare(?) right arm. Quicksilver blood splatters Ida's face, chest, arms--quicksilver blood that is not her own. She lets go of Yarobeleedt at long last, wrenching his softening mouthparts free from her chest. An increasingly-familiar sense of heat and pressure builds in her chest as her Hyadean circulatory system constricts key vessels. Living Metal bubbles up through the wound, sealing it--sparing both human and Hyadean tissue the indignity of exsanguination by Yarobeleedt.
He's not dead, Ida realizes, a moment later. Fei speaks to her, and Ida can't decide if she has to tune out Yarobeleedt's dying shrieks or listen to them. This is not a clean death, or even a quick one. She grits her teeth, and looks back at Fei. "I know," Ida says. It's like she said to Lydia--she's realized there's no clean line beyond which someone is unsalvagable. This isn't even the first time it's happened. Brother Mathias. The bandits in Lost July, and north of Zulan, and the soldiers her Mannikins cut down. This is probably the most clear-cut situation where she's helped kill someone, and yet, it's still got grey in it.
A chunk of Demonbone flies past Ida's face, grazing her brow--drawing blood with a thin, sharp edge. Ida touches gauntleted fingers to it, and pulls them away, shocked. He's--he's tearing himself apart just for the chance to take someone else with him. Ida reaches behind her, gripping Devil's Due with her Hyadean arm. She clears leather, steps back, and takes aim at Yarobeleedt. She tries to ignore the Merciless Queen's crowing, and settles into a wide-legged stance, both hands on Devil's Due to steady her aim. She doesn't think about what her mother would tell her to do in this situation. She's no Etone. She's not going to go on about how this monster is finally cleansed. Instead, she pulls the trigger, and the Dragon Filament in the ARM answers her. There's no fanciful draconic imagery--just a torrent of white-hot Dragonfire, edged with chi that is brilliant white-gold and orange-red chi that burns like flame.
A funeral pyre for a Hyadean warrior. A cowardly one, but a warrior who was more a victim of his own blind faith than anything else.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated a Force Action! 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 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Dragon's Breath for 202 hit points! GS: Toxin! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Yarobeleedt has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Grigori has posed.
Blood drips, filtered, from Grigori's mask; a tiny ventilation lets drops fall to her tabard, the only sign for certain thus far that there is something flesh within this armor at all. Some of it splatters on her sword, as she swings it, moves to crush the creature in its hunger. It is starving, yes.
Her eye cannot be seen as it notes Ida, too. And soon, nothing can be seen at all. Horrific burning, light so bright as to blot out all that exists--
The Watcher stands amidst that pain, and begins to prepare. Her hidden eye closes, and she breathes in, letting the agony swell over her as she begins to build Ether.
But it does not have to be used. The terrible power that it could be abates, let go as the Watcher observes a truth between Yarobeleedt, Lady Harken... and the one who allowed it to be seen. "A trap. ...Effective."
In the horror that comes, the Queen's words are marked by silence at first from the Watcher, who stands near the puddle that makes up the remaining form of the wretched, monstrous, yet extraordinary figure before them. Who made a mark regardless. She stares into it.
"I will remember. What nobility you achieved; where you were stopped. Though it was to a thing that must be destroyed... service is a high virtue, loyalty a touch itself of the divine."
The Watcher is silent during the poetic double speech of Lunata and her counterpart. She is silent, as the girl who would be the ncessary coward prepares. She does not move. ...Instead... When Fei speaks, the Watcher looks to him, and more of that blood wells up, falls from her chin.
"We are all dust, Fei Fong Wong. But we can be more. ...From the dust, from that which is smaller than dust--this is whence the hope we have awaited will come."
Her voice is iron; there is no doubt in her words, as she looks forward again. "What must come will."
A dull hum rises as Grigori raises her weapon. A blue aura begins to surround it, responding to Ether--and then she slams it down in a giant-killing stroke, adding hers to the hands that would end this. "Goodbye, one who sought to change history."
GS: Grigori has activated a Force Action! GS: Grigori has attacked Yarobeleedt with Colossus Dispatch! GS: Grigori has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune rolls away in the aftermath of her blast; she's vaguely aware that more things are going on above her, and there's a couple of yells and a dangerously thin and sharp sound she can't place. To her, that's secondary; most of all, she focuses in on a couple of dangerous, tiny little words and the sound of low, rhythmic drums, gritting her teeth at what they mean. Quietly, she stows them - and the feeling they evoke in her - at the back of her mind for later as she scrabbles behind Big Shal for cover, searching her coat for bandages and tape as she begins hurried field first aid on the burns she can already feel down her forearms.
GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Grigori's Colossus Dispatch for 260 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
What even keeps something like this going? Most of the collected don't wish to find out - and instead move in to deal with the problem once and for all, out of duty, or pity, to put a decisive end to one who would otherwise act to continue the sorrowful cycle of destroyed worlds. Somehow, for all the vacating biomass, for how much of it yet be cleaved, battered, electrocuted, burnt - they are talking. Screeching - but there is no meaningful defense they have to these final attacks, and last sentiments. It is a matter of time before it stops talking.
Is there value in listening? There are words being said, even as he's melting as an overly shiny pile of goop.
"^Long Voweler^!" ...Ambrosius. Their animosity was mutual. Not once did Yarobeleedt ever care a whit about the problems facing Ambrosius' own people. Not once did he ever truly appreciate his assistance towards what was ultimately an alliance of convenience for the Veruni. "Outsist in the quiet?! Keep draggiiiiiiiiing.... so annooyiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!! Unsire that talking the you one oyance--" A red beam cuts through him, and the melting accelerates.
"^Creature Creature^!!!" ...Malfi. One of the more frequent peers, of whom he showed no greater care for even as the two fought side by side through so much, even through the trying trials of Lunar. "The finenomony of the file 'em of the takeout government will never graduate the class--" Malfi strikes her weapon into the... heart? Of the Metal Demon who would spend his last strength continuing to try to be a weapon, rather than a person. She gets a moment to rest - and a moment in which he gurgles instead of continuing to carry on, before...
"^Cow Herd^!!!" ...Fei. Caught in a debate with a foe, he chooses that he won't be among the ones to pile upon the clear suffering. He is rewarded with babbling - unappreciative of the mercy and relentless, as if prepping to goad him some more. "The other herd hurt heard?? It is silly so what core is the birthday--" He is cut off by the attention-grabbing, artful words of...
"^White-Haired Majordono^!!!" ...Lunata. He was but a catalyst towards her current trajectory with destiny, at first trying to kill her out of the desire to have /some/ number on an invisible score card in the first Adlehyde attack, for she couldn't fight back then. "^Big Flower^ but the hollow hello low wool prosumption is decycle of former sistanc--" He has given her the courage to run him through without hesitation towards her current path, and a faint moonlight gleams as she further splatters aside biomass...
"^Fool Moon Full^..." ...Catenna, whose Guardian embodies the very moon, abstains. Celesdue's grace prompts Yarobeleedt to further lows of impotent aggression too pathetic to transcribe. Both are possessed of great faith - it may be this, that even there is much more to reflect on in which to refine one's devotion going forward, as to how to be faithful but not blind. "is cycle for one no it is a nocycle it is the empty and the full it is never change it is solid five gella--"
"^Tiny Warrior Caste Slave^..." ...Elvis interrupts. Though loud and oft petty, there is no doubting the earnest nature of the Sentinel. If anyone could have helped Yarobeleedt, it might have been him... but could Yarobeleedt ever been receptive? "Poisonosity and the norance of the gray tissue that is the ungeneration of another spehears--" A great punch interrupts the noise, churning the biomass and sending it flipping and sputtering across the chamber.
"^Wet Bandit^?" ...Arleph's the one noticed next. The strange one who compared him to some sort of lowly hive insect as though more initimate with the relationship the Hyadeans had with Mother, of whom Yarobeleedt gleaned no further enlightenment from. "So the saline is assailing to the overwater of all depth it is baggage claim--" The biomass freezes. This is the only point in time where Yarobeleedt could be held in stable condition - but it would make the next job easier.
"...^Nonarch!!^" ...'Queen.' Who reads off his last rites, even as he is now helpless and cannot move, who somehow finds some sort of unfounded amusement. "The monstless is the monstest in the median of mont?? Fu fu fu--" There is a screech as she runs right through him, shattering the freeze-over of his body and breaking off more pieces in which to hasten the process.
"^Abyss Mouth^?!" ...Xantia? Did he see through the Mystery Hero X guise? His body crackles unappetizingly, disgustingly, as he can only watch her gather electrical power into her fellow ally. "No miss error misery fourlosing of the idea...!" To think, once there was but a brief altercation over mere food, and now, the entire world - and more - hangs in the balance, when...
"^Gaming Lidel^!" ...Locus? "^Winch Easter^," that's Locus then, "lose west south north axis radial vectors the uncertainty of the quantum--" A resounding kick that resounds ever greater than a kick before, as Car-- Locus has grown stronger, her heroism finding new heights in the company of friends where Yarobeleedt is as lonely as he was when he first assaulted her armory. The electrical power disintegrates more biomass, sending him rolling before...
"^Silly Greenhead^!!" ...Zed. In several ways, probably the closest thing Yarobeleedt might have had to a peer, both of them having been put-upon soldiers wrestling with their own insecurities and eccentricities. A likeness Yarobeleedt fails to acknowledge in his dying moments. "The uncurring of the cur recurs currently is the record of an accord?? to cut cord--" The gibbering may be cut mercifully short, but the writhing makes the decapitation imperfect.
"...!! ^Wrong Shoulder^..." ...Ida, who has been transformed both literally and figuratively from even as early as when he pursued her across the streets of Adlehyde. On the other end, she came out tempered... stronger. "Both of the halves are less than half and then fourths it is fractional the relation to Mother's love--" He is not quite silenced by immolation. It is punctuated with more shrieking, more shedding.
"^Light Face^!!!" ...'Grigori,' he gurgles while he burns as the would-be historian reads a more respectful eulogy than a creature like him ever deserves, and somehow yet still goes on and on and on and on... "The history and the herstory is all the story that is the Mother hearsay?? seesay touchsay--" There is more splatter. There is less, less, and less every passing moment.
"^Garbage Girl^...." ...Shalune. He is almost out of time, and yet, all he has it in him to do is to continue to gibber and gawk as she moves behind the safety of a dear friend, as though it wouldn't save her from... screeching. "The silly of the fool of the what is the ^Small Shallow," that might be Big Shal, "and then of the o-shaped trees--"
"?! ^Sightless Curtain^!" ...Celine, who interrupts only by novel presence and nothing else while she addresses her grievous wounds. "The trees are the sure tray sore then the--"
The quality of discourse never improves. No. There was never a quality to any of the above discourse.
There is instead, however brief, a value that could be weighted against gold when Lady Harken speaks - to clarify for the confused, the frightened, the damned.
...
Barely a head, he refuses to look upon those words head on, lacking the character to truly see the full scope of it. Those googly eyes still try to look away from the truth, that even in the end, he doesn't want to face it, as they too dissolve. His final utterance.
"%@#%!@!^(#*&*##*&~~!%@#"
...Is just noise. Noise that is clearer in volume than has any right to be, as the last of his liquefied biomass seeps into the grating below.
...
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Words are a powerful thing, aren't they? Even if not the same meaning, due to differences in language, they're a thing everyone has. They're so complex, so varied, so nuanced. As a means to communicate, they have enabled rapid advancement of society... and further deepening of relationships with one another. It comes natural, then, with the use of words that there comes the desire, the need, to understand. Words have helped put so much into clarity, with new ones coming into being as necessary, and their meanings changing over the years to better fit their usage.
Such a grace is often even extended to people, who are the primary users of words. Thus, by extension, we wish to understand other people. Words are but one way to do so, but words are not always used in ways to establish a benefit. Oftentimes they are used with malice, or selfish reasons. That much is understood, and the basic idea remains satisfied.
Nonetheless, there yet comes those who refuse to engage these words in good faith. Many cannot help but attempt to grasp for understanding through what words they do share, sifting through countless contexts - to see if there's more, to find something within this concept of 'more,' in which to bridge the understanding. To bridge the ideas. To bridge the beliefs. To bridge the people.
All that remains, once all the flesh melts, is the top half of Yarobeleedt's skull, where it sits deathly still. Silent.
Sometimes, there is nothing more to understand...
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
( BGM: CONDITION GREEN! )
4200 EXP received.
5500 gella received.
Yellow Meadow __weapon__ acquired. - One final mistranslation. Yarobeleedt's very bones, stained yellow from constant exposure to ingested venoms, have already been turned into weapons as part of his desperate final attack. There's enough for everyone here, and coincidentally they're the exact same types everyone here uses! (Don't think too hard about that.) These can be made into TEC Deathblows, imparting the Riposte, Poison, and/or Disease effects... or recycled into components for ARMs. You're going to want to clean them first, thoroughly, maybe through lavendar soap. Or molten lava.
Clutch Harness acquired. - Subtle external equipment made for Yarobeleedt's body frame which allowed him to scale any surface. It'll take some work, but one can make this into a Digger tool, and there's enough material for a few human-sized individuals. (Yaro's usage: Agility/Rally)
Sheet Cocoon acquired. - Yarobeleedt's favorite place to hide. Whatever means turned them into flying metal segmented plate-blades is now forever lost, returning them to the form of a battle-damaged threadbare metallic fabric that is inexplicably comfortable and even less believably sturdy even for its present condition. There's enough material for a few human-sized individuals (with some effort to actually cut it) - either as a Digger tool, fashioned into a TEC Cover Deathblow, or just for recreational use. (Yaro's usage: Combat/Cleanse+Liability, Liability only because Yarobeleedt was a dirty coward who hid and did not contribute while using this.)
Toy Guardian acquired. - A Digger tool. A nigh-indestructible rubbery toy effigy of Stare Roe, Guardian of Light, gifted by some mysterious jolly soul from a past Christmas, after chucking one of Dinoginous through a free-floating continuity error. You can tell Yarobeleedt tried his damndest to destroy it, paradoxically cherishing it in the process. Its squeaking noises inspire the holder and their party to new heights of violence, because it is that annoying. Maybe someone's dog would enjoy it more. (Yaro's usage: Combat/Embolden)
Melting Key acquired. - A Digger tool. A strange key-like device that discharges intense heat into whatever surface it is keyed into, rapidly melting it. Very handy, but kind of creates its own problems for how useful it is... (Yaro's usage: Brute/Efficient+Rally)
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
(BGM: Holy Mother of Darkness)
The generator from below rapidly catches from fire as Yarobeleedt's liquefied biomass drenches it. The following explosion is catastrophic, shaking the very foundations of the room in which they all stand. Things collapse all around - but everyone holds on. They have to, because the world - many worlds - depend on it.
Their wills, together, exceed even that of the blast door ahead of them, whose support structures give out with the generator's destruction. Segments of the grated floor give out, inviting new pitfalls that lead into the flaming darkness.
Ethius Hesiod, taciturn Symbologist, sees an opportunity. With one simply-placed heat spell to melt off the last of the structures holding the great blast doors in place, they fall down through the newly-made gaps. The two of them clatter noisily as they descend into the growing inferno underneath.
"Mother is ahead." He remarks, back turned to everyone, as he places a hand back over the lower half of his face. He offers no rallying speeches, or memorable words in which future generations will share. It is matter-of-fact. If anyone is to fight Her, then they take destiny in their hands if they step through that door.
Seraph Lanval, a water spirit, manifests before the gathered. "Mmm... I can feel it... what yer all callin' a Ley Point... really gettin' feishty," he says, with no low amount of trepidation in his voice. "If we could go shtrait down, through all the fire... oh." He laughs at his own expense. Fire. Yeah, that won't be a problem. "Juuuusht a shec, I got ush~!"
With a Seraphic Arte of no small potency, a great wave of water washes down to the depths underneath, putting out the destructive fires that would obstruct their route. It turns out that the destruction has created a (comparatively) safe downward climb that will take everyone back to the Ley Point from above. If it's really 'gettin' feishty,' then they're going to need to start that downward climb yesterday.
...Is that a Memory Cube in the center of this chamber? When did the Festina Lente set up shop here? They're convenient appearances, for sure, but these both communicate instinctually to all that This Is It.
Once everyone's ready... it is time to put an end to this tragic story that spans over a thousand years.
TO BE CONTINUED...
...in PAIN OF LOSS - DAUGHTER on December 8th, 2018
-and, happening at the same time-
...in WORLD EATER - MOTHER on December 15th, 2018
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei sees the blood, now, and he says, "A..are you okay?" quietly. "Your...face?" He's not sure what exactly is injured since he can only see the drip coming out the bottom of the mask. "You might need to lie down..."
He doesn't answer any more about history or what people can be and all that stuff in favor of...fretting over Grigori's face. In fact, he's so busy fretting over Grigori's face that he completely misses Xantia's attempt to be reassuring. He just plain misses it. He can't bear to look in her direction right now anyway. He always keeps failing her, he knows this. Always failing Xantia. Never being kind enough, never protecting her enough, never teaching her enough, never having enough faith in her. He just can't help but worry as if he looks away she might vanish.
But he isn't looking now, because it's more frightening to think that if he looks back, she might not be there.
It seems that Harken knows who she is now. As glad he is for her, it's such a shame. Fei knows less of who he is now than ever. He sees a gap between them growing.
"So you have decided that..?" He murmurs. "But she's still within you...I hope you can be gentle to her."
He gives a blink at Merciless Queen as she comments of the perfect memory of =God=. "What God would want to remember this...?" He mutters.
Celesdue speaks. He looks towards Catenna, then to Celesdue as she gives her own eulogy. Such sad eulogies.
They're depressing to hear. In a way, it's like Yarobeleedt is being killed with every word.
Over and over again. Yarobeleedt spoke his truth as loudly as he could, he meant everything he said in the end, and that's what happens to people who say such things. And now truth will be something else. A different history will be made.
But truth is not so pliant as that either so Fei exhales again. And if he doesn't look to see what remains of Yarobeleedt, he will miss out on that truth. Perhaps there's a Watcher in him as well, he reflects, bitterly.
He turns to look. Cow herd, cow herd, cow herd.
And he sees it. A plush toy. He can't imagine why Yarobeleedt would have it. He sees the skull too, and he doesn't cry. He just feels colder, like the fire in him is just that much smaller for having been here today. Luckily, it is a big fire, but he feels colder than usual.
He picks up the plush Stare Roe. Such a silly thing. Why did he have this? Was it thanks to the Trader Card?
*squeak*
He accidentally squeezed it too hard.
Fei stands himself up. He looks at the skull once more.
"Everybody has someone who will mourn them. You do too."
And with that, plush doll that he holds like a lifeline in his hand, he looks ahead towards Mother.
Who will mourn her, he wonders.
Nobody, if he has his way.
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
As those gathered make their peace with Yarobeleedt, a sound rings out.
*squeak*
Elvis' eye twitches, and his head snaps toward Fei.
He doesn't say anything. He just stares.
He. Just. Stares.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong stares back at Elvis, incredibly confused.
*squeak*
"Sorry. My hand is--"
*squeak*
"--shaking."
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Yarobeleedt manages one final taunt, even within his babbling. Ambrosius manages to understand that much.
And then, it is done. There is nothing left but Yarobeleedt of remains. Ambrosius watches, keeping his ARM trained on them...and then, slowly, he lowers it. He stands there for a moment, silent.
With his face concealed by his helmet, it is impossible to read any emotion into him. And then, slowly, with some deliberation, he turns and begins to walk away.
It was a cold finality.
Would his people, too, end up the same way...?
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
How many?
How many is he going to have to kill by the end of today?
Zed stares as Yaro finally, fatally liquefies. Several times, his eyes and head twitch as if to try and look away-- but he stops himself. He has to watch. He has to see this, with his own eyes. If he's going to be able to tell this story properly, the story of the one little demon who loved his mother more than any other, then he can't look away.
And when it's all done... There's little left of Yarobeleedt but the bones and keepsakes he left behind.
Amidst the quiet aftermath, Zed is silent. He takes a moment, collecting a number of bones and sundry remains, including one particularly sword-shaped femur, and turns to walk away.
But not before throwing a tattered, keepsake cloak around his shoulders, just under his scarf.
He still has a job to do. Riese... They'll be there soon....
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida swallows. The lump in her throat won't go away. It feels farcical, almost, to be moved to the brink of tears by this creature--this entity--this person who showed no remorse. She watches as Yarobeleedt's body drips through the cracks, hopelessly liquefied. The scientist in her is amazed that he's able to keep talking, but the horror of it all never leaves her. The sudden explosion rips her back to reality, though--and she catches herself as the room pitches.
Notably, Ida Everstead-Rey--noted naturalist and one-time candidate for graduate study in War Antiquities--does not make off with any of Yarobeleedt's remains, of his personal effects.
"Fei," Ida says. "Allow yourself a moment if you need it." She steps forwards, then, towards another friend and comrade who is leaving. "Zed." Ida looks up at him. It's entirely possible that some of the blood Yarobeleedt consumed was his. "I'm sorry." Tears well up in her eyes. She reaches out with her right hand--the Hyadean one, now in the form of a gauntlet that looks right at home on her--and pats his shoulder, if he'll allow her. "Save your sister. We'll make sure Mother can't do this to anyone else."
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
Long after the battle has ended and the Drifters have left....
Through the quicksilver carnage, the click of heels against battered metal decking has an eerie silence to echo through. Steps descend between strewn debris, the blood of Drifters and demons and monstrosities, the bones of Mother's baby boy hurled willy-nilly across the field, weaving a determined pattern towards the heart of it all.
With a siss of fabric and a rush of breath, she sinks to her knees amidst the remnants of the carnage. Long, slender hands, more callused from years of digging than her delicate styling and manicured nails can truly hide, take ahold of something amidst what ruins have been laid waste across this chamber, so close to the beating heart of Mother's domain.
Most of the bones were strewn everywhere. But the skull is still there. She lifts it and looks into the empty eye sockets, running her thumbs slowly over ridges from which blobby liquid metal has long since sloughed.
The memories are uneven but pitiable. A blobby, semi-coherent creature in the tavern of Adlehyde, crying and hiding in his cocoon as the girl lost control of her powers. A poor, helpless yellow metal man, coiled up in a little cocoon while being mauled by a sandworm. A garbled-speaking Metal Demon hiding in a pot for some adorable reason. A chattering yellow Hyadean who really liked the song of the Alkonost in the Roost of the Titans.
"Mr. Garbles," Neriah says in a brokenhearted voice as the tears begin to ply a slow course down her cheeks. "No."
She bows her head, hugs Yaro's skull to her chest, and closes her eyes, shoulders shaking silently. If there were a body to hug, she would hug it, but all she can truly muster is this, in the moments of funeral silence in the aftermath of the fall.
- -fin-