2019-03-02: Doing Some Crime
- Log: Doing Some Crime
- Cast: Amaterasu, Elvis, Lily Keil, Fei Fong Wong, Elhaym van Houten
- Where: Northern Veruni Control Zone
- Date: March 03, 2019
- Summary: At Avril's behest, the Black Wolves retrieve an object for her. Unfortunately, what should have been an easy mission turns more dangerous...
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
In the heart of the dimly-lit shrine, the surface of the mirror shines light caught from the recent full moon steadily.
Days before, there had been a number of Veruni present at this small shrine, a simple demilune stone structure sunk halfway in the rock here and situated not at all far from the edifice now known as the Memorial Sanctuary. This land marks the very outskirts of the Veruni territory on Elru; further to the south, none may pass without incurring the interest -- or possibly worse -- of the Veruni.
There is a real and very potent reason why Avril had deferred this task to the Black Wolves, and that was the threat of the man -- and his followers -- that she had crossed paths with in the Photosphere alongside Lily. And yet, the mirror enshrined here may just give her the insight into the past she needs.
She had done her best to give what information she could, but it proves difficult when one is a continent away. Still, she had suggested they search for a shrine...
All is proceeding as planned. Get in, get the mirror, and remove oneself from the property as quickly as possible. The opening here in the shrine to the heavens only further suggests a plan of action, a means of exit from the site once the deed is done.
...Or one might just opt to walk out the front door. With no one here at the moment -- the caretaker pleasantly distracted -- perhaps the easy route might just be best.
But no sooner is the mirror is in hand than there are voices.
Just outside the chamber here, at that.
"...expect to see you here," the woman's voice resounds. She must have come to a stop just outside the chamber. "It is an honor, Elvis."
A pause. The man's voice is muffled: perhaps he's standing further away?
"I had thought to offer a thought for my sister. ...Yes, I did read your report, and I trust she is in as good health under the circumstances as you implied. But you will excuse an older sister for worrying? She is not well, Elvis. I can only hope that chance will reunite her with us again soon."
The door, worryingly, starts to open...
BGM: https://soundcloud.com/griffinmcelroy/doing-some-crime
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
"Yes, yes!"
A boisterous voice comes into hearing as the heist is underway. Those familiar may recognize it. It was rather hard to miss, after all!
"I feel as if my research on it was misguided, so as to not cause problems as before, I do my research on-site." A small chuckle can be heard behind the doors. "Why thank you, young lady! --Ah yes, Kaguya's kin!" He seems rather excited to meet whoever held the feminine voice.
"She is doing much better upon Lunar. It has drastically increased how much time she has; the proximity away from Filgaia has greatly lessened the malady's hold."
And as he mentioned, he is here to do just that-- it was time to look into the mirror again. He is confident it holds secrets of some kind. It has remained barely touched by the ravages of time. It could hail all the way back from before their departure.
The young lady moves to open the door, and Elvis moves to open it for you. "Let me get that for you!" he says in his bombastic-yet-gentlemanly way he has about him. Such an odd fellow.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It's a mission that will require care--and could be extremely dangerous. Lily Keil stressed in planning that if they came across the man named Volsung, they were to run rather than engage. ...But she wasn't exactly planning to be spotted regardless.
The return to Elru is simple enough for her; Lily packed dark clothes, good for sneaking, left behind bulky weapons and armor, and made herself look... reasonably inconspicuous.
Reasonably.
Point is, Lily doesn't seem at all a stranger to this kind of thing; it's practically nostalgic to be behind enemy lines, enacting a stealth mission. But it's going well, and a part of Lily is always suspicious of things going well. She keeps her eyes open and her ears sharp as she gently takes the mirror. She passes it towards Elly and Fei, who she's given the reinforced sleeve that's supposed to help keep it safe, and...
Naturally, this is when things go wrong. Voices outside the chamber--Lily pauses, still, looks to the door. "...As long as they don't," she begins to murmur, and then the door--
"Shit," Lily hisses. Hang on to each other. I'm going to blow us out of here--
Already one hand moves, palm open, facing the ground diagonally. There is a sudden feeling of chill as Fire Ether draws all the heat in the room straight towards Lily's hand.
She's not planning to give Elly and Fei that long to think about it.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It's a mission that will require care--and could be extremely dangerous. Lily Keil stressed in planning that if they came across the man named Volsung, they were to run rather than engage. ...But she wasn't exactly planning to be spotted regardless.
The return to Elru is simple enough for her; Lily packed dark clothes, good for sneaking, left behind bulky weapons and armor, and made herself look... reasonably inconspicuous.
Reasonably.
Point is, Lily doesn't seem at all a stranger to this kind of thing; it's practically nostalgic to be behind enemy lines, enacting a stealth mission. But it's going well, and a part of Lily is always suspicious of things going well. She keeps her eyes open and her ears sharp as she gently takes the mirror. She passes it towards Elly and Fei, who she's given the reinforced sleeve that's supposed to help keep it safe, and...
Naturally, this is when things go wrong. Voices outside the chamber--Lily pauses, still, looks to the door. "...As long as they don't," she begins to murmur, and then the door--
"Shit," Lily hisses. "Hang on to each other. I'm going to blow us out of here--"
Already one hand moves, palm open, facing the ground diagonally. There is a sudden feeling of chill as Fire Ether draws all the heat in the room straight towards Lily's hand.
She's not planning to give Elly and Fei that long to think about it.
DC: Amaterasu switches forms to Partisan Commando Amaterasu!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Well that could have gone worse! To think they already have the mirror! Now they just have to leave! Doh ho ho! Nothing to worry about! Or at least, Fei had just started to relax when he hears the door opening. He looks towards it and he's already moving. There is no time to spare...! A moment lost can be a life ended!
He rushes over to the door as it starts to open and grabs ahold of the handle.
"..."
And then he tries slamming it back shut.
Fei sweats faintly as he is still holding onto the knob with both hands.
"Oh no the door is stuck..." He says as if trying to jedi mind trick Elvis and his companion into believing it somehow.
He sweats more.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
They have to get a mirror. A very particular mirror.
Elly feels kind of uncomfortable wearing dark clothing. It just doesn't feel right to her. She's concerned she'll get killed and nobody will notice. (She doesn't say as much but sometimes you get strange cares that linger in your brain for days, weeks, months and never come to anything except making you feel tired and miserable. In this, Elly may be ahead of the Filgaia average.)
And yet it worked out.
Except... Someone's out there.
Elly has no training for this. She freezes up, both from the chill Lily is gathering and from the swift motion of Fei. He holds the door. Elly looks at him with wide eyes, feeling the sweat on the back of her neck tingle, as if to flash to frost.
She calls out, "Housekeeping! Come back later!"
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong's face opens up into a bright smile as if he thinks Elly's addition to his brilliant plan is also brilliant.
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
There is, at least, a moment's pause before the door opens.
On the other side, the unseen Veruni woman has, apparently, surrendered the task of opening the door to Elvis; a click of heels suggests she's taken a step back.
"Yes, so I understood from the report. Nevertheless, she is my sister, Elvis. Thinking of her alone on the moon, however beneficial it might be for her condition..." She pauses. "...And there is the chance she could relapse, without access to our medical services. I do not like it, Elvis." Her tone has gone flat at the edges, her displeasure with the current turn of events quite certain.
The door, slightly, begins to open.
Unseen to the Veruni beyond the door, Lily begins to channel power.
Unseen to the Veruni beyond the door, Fei steps in to slam it shut, claiming the door is jammed.
Unseen to the Veruni beyond the door, Elly claims housekeeping.
Silence reigns for the moment, at least from the female Veruni's edge of the hallway without.
"I see. How unfortunate."
One, then two seconds tick past.
Through the wooden door of the shrine jams the brilliantly illuminated blade of a Veruni energy weapon. Slowly, with ease, it begins to glide down through the portal like a knife through butter.
"Allow me to assist," the female Veruni declares, downing the remnants of the door with a kick from one booted heel.
She's enormous. That may be the first thing someone notices about her. At least six foot three, possibly taller, she strides in over the rubble, her green eyes lingering on each of those within as if she were impassively leveling judgement upon them. One hand grips the haft of an energy-bladed polearm; from behind the partial helmeting covering the sides of her head, long blond hair flows freely. Dressed in an armored modification of the body-suit favored by Veruni outside Laila Belle, there can be no doubt: she is a Veruni soldier, and one of some rank.
Other than her height, one might mistake the woman for a particularly tall human, until she speaks, revealing long pointed fangs rather than canines. "Cleaning a little too well, were you?" She takes one step forward, kicking a remnant of the door out of the way. "Well, no matter. There is but one punishment suitable for thieves:"
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0FlmIPajXM
From the partial helmeting at the sides of her head, a metal faceplate slams into place; a three-fold array of eyeslits glow a brilliant green.
"Death," the commando proclaims, and she swings that wicked polearm through the air but once.
Destruction follows.
GS: You cannot attack more than one target at a time with this attack. GS: Amaterasu has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Casus Belli! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Sine Qua Non! GS: Amaterasu has gained 2 Combo! GS: Amaterasu has completed its action. GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Amaterasu's Sine Qua Non for 104 hit points! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield! Statuses applied to Amaterasu! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a glancing hit from Amaterasu's Casus Belli for 84 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
"A fair statement-- I hope we can procure the methods to returning there as soon as possible," Elvis replies with.
Even as the door opens, Elvis hears voices inside. Sounds liek three individuals. But that doesn't make sense. He told the Veruni fuards he would be watching this scheduled time as to study the mirror... then who was it?!
A voice says the door is is stuck, even as it opens. "What, is something in front of it? he asks, buying all of two seconds of it not moving as the Sentinel checks the doorframe. That voice is familiar though... He begins to push on it much more fiercely.
A feminine voice calls out housekeeping is happening. "Not to worry! I shant disturb you with my studies-- wait a minute, housekeeping what?"
There is literally nothing in that room but a table, a chair, and the mirror upon its pedestal. What can get dirty?
Amaterasu makes the first call at assuming who might be in there, which is someone who shouldn't be. "Certainly!" he says, stepping away and watching her obliterate the portal.
There are indeed peole in here! Each Elvis recognizes to soem degree! "What are you lot doing here?!" he exclaims. He sees the mirror. "Put that down right this instant!" he says, pointing a massive finger toward the group. "I had hell to pay for borroing that mirror for my research! I am not letting anyone else take it!"
"We needs stop them," he says firmly. Not that Amaterasu was ever one to require repeating any kind of orders to. His eyes pass toward Lily. "You just seem to always get into trouble, young lady!" he chides, a tactical working of the fingers and hands turn this small room into more of a prison, as hexagonal columns erupt out of the ceiling and floor around her, attempting to pin her to one or the other surface.
He turns toward the door, and begins to work the same kind of magic to seal in these intruders--!
GS: Elvis has attacked Lily Keil with Hi-Crush! GS: Elvis has completed his action. GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elvis has lost 1 Combo! DC: MISS! Lily Keil completely evades Hi-Crush from Elvis!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily isn't close enough to try to bar the door. It would've been a much safer alternative to setting everything on fire and letting the blast shove them through the air, counting on the fact that they could figure something out for a landing. So she watches them move--
...The metaphorical sweatdrop that results as the veteran soldier looks back to the attempts at deception is practically visible. But maybe, maybe it will work. Lily delays her spell.
Lily spots the energy weapon first, and turns the rest of the way. "Move--"
About the only thing that could be considered a bright side here to Lily is that it isn't Lord Volsung. That is scant reassurance in the face of the very tall woman who walks through the door, and Lily sets her jaw, staring right back. She knows a soldier when she sees one, human or Veruni. ...Just as she knows--
"Stealing," Lily says helpfully, deadpan, and her eyes snap to Elvis. She has fought him before, is well aware of how powerful he is. "I do," she acknowledges--and then throws out her hands at the same time she feels Elvis's Ether-like magic pulses. Water Ether pulses around her and the flame she'd been conjuring turns instantly to ice, a shell of frigid matter erupting around her. The columns of Earth impact that rather than Lily, who lets herself fall back with the momentum it brings and hit a knee at the back of the room.
She doesn't offer a quip; she just looks to Fei, and a strange light begins to burn around him--heat as nuclear flame erupts and is forged into a shield.
"Retreat!"
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Lustre Drape! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Lily Keil's Lustre Drape for 0 hit points! GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Fei Fong Wong!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei jolts back from the door when someone decides 'FUCK DOORS' and slices it apart. Fei looks at it for a moment. "I don't think she bought it." REALLY FEI. Nevertheless, this does at least mean he's not comically murdered while bracing against the door nor does he get knocked over by the door remnants largely thanks to Amaterasu murdering the door first in cold blood.
"That door had a family," Fei says remorsefully. "So you're---"
Before he can finish, Amaterasu finishes swinging that spear towards him and frankly into his arms, digging deep and sending a spray of blood away from them as he hops back. If Fei hadn't gotten his arms up in time, that would have been a fatal blow through his chest.
"So you're Kaguya's sister, huh. I see the family resemblance." Namely their natural movement towards violence and hatred of doors (to be fair if hatred of doors made you family then Fei would also be related to Amaterasu).
Fei darts forward, throwing a series of palm strikes for Amaterasu's body before leaning into one side as he brings his hands back and thrusts them both forward, sending an ICEBERG quantity of ice exploding out of his hands and towards Amaterasu.
"Good idea!" Fei tells Lily. "Any ideas on how?"
Don't look at him. Leon usually carries the rope.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Amaterasu with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Amaterasu guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Suikei for 99 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
The Veruni woman comes.
Geez she's huge, Elly thinks. It's like she's meeting Dominia's mother -- but then she speaks with such an arrogant, confident tone that Elly feels herself shrinking backwards. Muted momentarily, she has no deep response, no snappy remark. Only the tensing as the polearm blade slices towards her -
And at that point she throws herself to the side! Much of the left side of her coat is sheared off in a spray of black fiber, revealing the undershirt beneath as she cries out from where it didn't hit the *coat*.
She looks at Elvis then, as she rolls; and she cannot think of what to say...
Fortunately, Elly has a way to convey her heart's truth even without the power of verbal analysis. She reaches out with one hand...
Draws upon the multifarious subtle cellular beings within her- no; that's Symbology; instead, she focuses on the pattern, making a disk of free electrical potential on the ground near where Amaterasu walks. As the Veruni lady no doubt prepares to follow up, a sudden cracking ARC! of thunder comes from the hole in the roof, filling the room with the bursting aftermath of thunder!
By the time it's faded, Elly (who was expecting it) has gotten up. She adjusts her black mesh hair net a little and finds words. She raises her voice a little.
"So," she says, "do you think that any 'thief' deserves nothing but 'death'?"
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Amaterasu with Please... I'm serious.! GS: Elhaym van Houten has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Amaterasu takes a solid hit from Elhaym van Houten's Please... I'm serious. for 132 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
Elvis' magic is interrupted on sealing shut the front door area with rock as Lily expertly counters it, keeping herself safe. "You certainly have quite the arsenal of magicks up that sleeve of yours, hm?" he says, quite curious. She was a strong one! In this enclosed space, possibly endangering the mirror as well.
"Would you all stop this! You could damage the mirror!" he shouts, seeing nuclear flame and ice slung around like playthings. "Imagine what will happened if it gets damaged-- oh I sound just like that Dean kid," he comments, holding his forehead.
"Amaterasu, I am going to get the strike squads! Hold the line until I return!" he states, leaving outside "be careful! Don't let the mirror fall into others' hands!"
With a crouch and a tremor-inducing jump, he is out of sight.
GS: Amaterasu has adjusted their boss level for 3 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
The pole arm cuts through the air but once. Blink, and it may be as if it had passed sight unseen. The remains of the damage it has wrought, however...
Amaterasu is -- mercifully! -- no Lord Volsung. But she is a honed warrior of her race, one who had been trained in the arts of combat before awakening upon the surface of Filgaia... and putting them to use in battles that had taken place long before any of the humans in this room were born. By human standards, she is ancient.
By Veruni standards she is not yet middle-aged.
She casts but one glance over her shoulder as the Sentinel departs, seeking the assistance of the guards from within the shrine.
"Understood, Elvis. They will not escape me."
Though that is the sort of impassive statment that does not remain so once Fei names Kaguya.
"You have met my sister? Where?" she demands from behind that faceplate, swinging her polearm about to grasp it now in both hands, bringing it up in a sort of guard as she charges for Fei. Ice catches and sprays past the shaft in streams. A thin trail of blood leaks into the air, the result of a single cut somewhere along her scalp where the armored plating does not quite cover. But there is no further sign of injury--
As she slams the shaft of the polearm into Fei, aiming for his gut. Her intent is not to wound, no--
But her strike is well calculated. Should he fail to evade or guard that blow, he may find that while there may not be a wound, there are other consequences from her hit. "Now, where did you--"
Elly unfolds a jolt of electricity into the tight chamber of the innermost sanctum. Amaterasu may pivot towards her, but the speed of the spell -- while too like the magics natural to the Veruni -- still catches her by surprise simply because it is a human conducting such an art.
Particularly in such a manner.
She staggers, her body convulsing momentarily with the charge. The butt of the spear slams against the stone floor.
"All thieves," she repeats. "Particularly those who steal a sacred relic--"
As she had for Fei, she delivers to Elly: bloodless blows that yet invite ruin upon a body that doesn't take steps towards their own defenses.
Amaterasu does not linger in Elly's corner of the room; she leaves her behind, turning her attention now on the apparent sorceror that is Lily Keil. "Yes," she says simply, before subjecting Lily to much the same. One, two-- she jabs low. Soldiers ever are pragmatic.
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Debellatio! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Debellatio! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Lily Keil with Debellatio! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Amaterasu's Debellatio for 0 hit points! GS: Break and Slow! Statuses applied to Elhaym van Houten! GS: Lily Keil takes a solid hit from Amaterasu's Debellatio for 0 hit points! GS: Break and Slow! Statuses applied to Lily Keil! GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Amaterasu's Debellatio for 0 hit points! GS: Break and Slow! Statuses applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield! Statuses applied to Amaterasu!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Any ideas on how? Well, Lily can answer that--but it's going to take her a moment. Her spell requires focus first, and then, well--things are assuredly getting worse. She just calls out, "Yes!" as she rises to her feet, starting to prepare to move. Elly's lightning blocks out sound for an instant longer... Before of course--
"Yeah, I do," she answers Elvis. "You let us take the mirror and I'll tell you all about it."
...But no, that's not going to happen. instead, Elvis jumps out of the way. "...Shit," she mutters. 'Not Volsung' remains not good enough. "First--we don't talk about her sister--"
Sacred relic, is it?
Amaterasu is fast, and she operates as a soldier. Lily recognizes that--respects it. And so, she has to react unlike what is expected in order to succeed. Lily pushes inward instead of trying to mvoe away, she shifts just slightly so that it hits her side, expecting a wound.
...That doesn't come--instead a shocking pain that forces her to clench her teeth together. But, perhaps surprisingly, she makes no noise, despite the way its crackling energy shifts partway up her body. She is in melee with the superhumanly-strong warrior, at this point.
Darkness surges around her, Ether ripping through the world, and a sword of nothing at all erupts into her hand. She thrusts it forward, parallel, not in attack but to meet an offense--
And The markings shift from violet to red as she throws out her hand, and Fei glows with brilliant ruby light.
"Jump, blow a hole in the wall--Elly, you have anything for this!?"
It's not going to be a pleasant few moments for Lily, of that she's sure.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Ruby Mending! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Fei Fong Wong gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Lily Keil heals Fei Fong Wong! He gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Despite receiving aid from Lily, Fei honestly has no reason to really fight Amaterasu. He doesn't have any grudge against Kaguya, REALLY, and despite having a philisophical distaste for the Veruni's methods it's not like they murdered his brother or anything.
But Dean is a close friend and Avril is someone he has deep empathy for. It can be such a drag when you find out your past is more ominous than you ever really wanted.
"Few times. Last I heard she was a warlord on the moon. You should be proud."
Fei gets clubbed in the gut for his trouble. Guh! He even answered her! Rude! But he steps backwards, bowled over for a moment but Lily sends a red glow filtering into him. He feels better. He snaps his finger and unleashes a wave of fire bursting for Amaterasu, hopping back to press his back up against the wall. He frowns faintly, thinking.
"...Ah." He looks towards those hexagonal columns summoned by Elvis. Right now it's not enough but--
"I have an idea." Fei says finally, kicking his foot into the floor and summoning a stone pillar of his own--perhaps intent on using it to protect himself from further aggression? Or, you know, maybe there's a more practical purpose and he's just placing it there to give his pals an idea of what he means without directly communicating it.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Amaterasu with Kakei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
They do know her sister! That's interesting, Elly thinks quickly as the electricity arcs down. After the thunder, she says to her, "Just STOP MOVING for like FIVE MINUTES and pretend you never saw us -"
all thieves, especially those who steal a precious relic -
A swirling smash hits her more spiritually than physically. "Ngh!" she says, crossing her arms - her eyes follow Fei's, seeing the column. Lily asks her if she has anything for this, this being blowing a hole in the wall.
Elly blinks once.
She straightens up. The answer seems to be yes. She paps her hands together despite the strain, spreads them, and a piece of ice enucleates in front of her. It erupts outwards in spikes but it does not grow much larger than a heavy-set man in armor - enough to veil Elly but not enough to really... hide her, or conceal her in detail. Cover, but it's limited. Fei produces a stone pillar of his own, and Elly feels a certain obscure pride.
The inside of the big lump of ice starts to glow with a lambent electrical light, cold blue.
Elly pushes it. She strains and pushes it harder.
It begins to slide, wobbling a little. The spikes are leading forwards and they're threatening but Amaterasu may be confused at this turn of events.
"I don't want to do this," she tells her. "I am sorry for your sister being a warlord on Lunar. We have to do this and I'm sorry that it's rough for you. If this mirror was essential to your civilization I'm sure I would have heard about it, but if you want to claim a sudden spiritual inspiration or that this is - huff - some kind of relic of the Guardians that protect you - I'm going to have to say that's pretty implausible -"
Elly hugs the back of the ice statue as it gets some momentum, aiming towards Amaterasu. It's big! Thick! Glowy! What could possibly go wrong here?
"So just... get out of the way and blame us later!!"
INSIDE OF THE BIG SPIKE-FACED BLOCK OF ICE, hydrogen and oxygen are being electrically split at astonishing rates, filling into two reservoirs that are gaining pressure - the one nearest to Amaterasu is full of hydrogen -- but can even a Veruni tell that? Do THEY know this experiment? Because ELLY remembered it... not just in 'another memory,' but from fifth grade scientific lectures!
GS: Elhaym van Houten enters a Counter stance! GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Amaterasu with Sacred Elemental Boundary! GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Amaterasu critically Guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Sacred Elemental Boundary for 39 hit points! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has lost 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Kakei for 191 hit points! GS: Amaterasu enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
To deliver pain, to weaken, incapacitate, and throw the enemy off-guard...
There are things that can tilt a battlefield in one's favor without ever drawing blood or breaking bone. While Amaterasu pales in comparison to Lord Volsung in her mastery of the arts -- pales too when stood alongside Fereydoon, her immediate superior, and another who barely should be dwelled upon lest the devil appear in the flesh -- she is capable, her skill gained by training and experience both.
"A warlord."
Her tone is flat, as if an unamused elder sibling wondering just what it is that the younger has gotten up to this time. "Really, Kaguya," she murmurs, shaking her head as if this is hardly a shocking turn of events and another in a long series of escapades.
Is it... possible she isn't quite taking this seriously...?
Red light flickers from Lily's corner, drawing for the moment Amaterasu's attention: the soldier jerks her head Lily's way, as if a serpent scenting the air. But there are two immediate factors that stay her hand -- for now -- from engaging the sorceror:
The first is the fact that Lily unleashes no spell upon Amaterasu.
The second is that any attempt to charge and engage the enemy so capable of lending aid to the others is thwarted first by Fei and then by Elly.
Fire unrolls towards her. Though she dives to one side in an attempt to skirt the curtain of flame, she's not quite fast enough. It catches her right leg, the armor plating perhaps what saves the body there from being consumed.
The armor itself is quite warped, deformed by the effect that had been. Amaterasu hisses a breath of annoyance, and perhaps might have there divested herself of the now-useless plating were it not for Elly's interjection.
"Save your excuses! A crime is still a crime!" the Veruni warrior snarls, eyes narrowing behind her faceplate. Her polearm snaps up, held vertical; she stomps her left foot against the stone flooring, shattering one carefully placed slab underfoot.
The ice statue glides forward, inexorably.
Amaterasu holds her ground, a wordless shout slipping from her as she becomes the unmovable object in this equation.
Whirling the polearm once, she drives the whole of her bladed spear through the statue.
It explodes, rather unfortunately. This, though, does not stay Amaterasu longer than it takes her to grunt in a mix of surprise and pain.
The bladed polearm is then swung, energy current cutting as a reaper's blade might across the room for Elly.
Purpling mist coils at her feet, swirling upwards like an exhalation from some netherworld. It layers itself over Amaterasu as she moves, bladed spear snapping out for Fei in an overhand cleave, becoming a sort of armor to replace what he has already ruined of her own.
Lily is, for now, somewhat lower on Amaterasu's radar. Somewhat.
It may not remain so.
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Ex Aequo Et Bono! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Amaterasu with Ghostdark Purge! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu has completed its action. GS: Amaterasu gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Amaterasu! GS: Amaterasu heals Amaterasu! It gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Res Judicata! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten guards a hit from Amaterasu's Ex Aequo Et Bono for 139 hit points! GS: Reaper! Statuses applied to Elhaym van Houten! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes an additional 15 damage from Reaper! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Amaterasu's Res Judicata for 145 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily Keil is doing what she can, anyway. It's pretty ugly. So, talk of a warlord on the moon mysteriously doesn't get much of Lily's attention. Instead, her attention stays on Amaterasu, except for the instant she moves and Lily can look to the new pillar. She doesn't dare look away until then. She makes the same calculations--apparently she has not yet registered as a greater threat than the others. This may give her a crucial advantage that she will needagainst such a powerful opponent.
"A woman of the law," Lily says as she sidesteps, circling quickly to get near another pillar. She uses the explosion Elly sets as cover for the moment, even as she feels the strange mist present--it's... different, somehow. "Elly I appreciate that you want to do this your way--"
Her weapon winks out of existence as both hands rise; an orange-red glow emanates from her person before the space between Lily and Amaterasu erupts into flame, small at first before it erupts into a blast as tall as Amaterasu and as wide.
"I get it!" Lily calls, "Come on, over here--you have another of those in you!?"
Lily sidesteps, moving onto a pillar at an angle, blue light flashing as she... freezes her feet to it to stay on.
GS: Lily Keil has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Amaterasu with Flame Cascade! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Amaterasu takes a solid hit from Lily Keil's Flame Cascade for 157 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Nobody's perfect." Fei says moments before the blade swipes slams into his upraised arms again, digging yet another thick chunk out of his arms though, thankfully, avoiding his skull being cleaved in half. "Gahhh--!!" Fei shouts in pain because that sure dug in a lot deeper than he expected even with her height and size and general Veruni nature.
He backs off, glancing towards the stone pillar. Normally he'd get into a discussion about the limitations of the law in ethics as it pertains to an invading species and culture that seeks to dominate Filgaia! But honestly, truthfully, he mostly just wants to get this thing to Avril so she can figure stuff out but even more than that he wants to leave so he stops getting stabbed by what feels like having a dinosaur come after him.
Fei hops between two stone pillars before crashing down upon the stone pillar, panting for breath.
"Okay... Okay, this will work. This is not creative suicide, this will work."
Naturally he's mostly engaged in evasive procedures at this point rather than trying to actually fight Amaterasu off right now.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Her explosion bursts outwards - the blast breaches much of the ice, though Elly is unharmed by that. The gas had not built up enough to be truly cataclysmic, and so for better or worse Elly is not hurt by that.
Until she is cleaved by that current of energy!
It smashes into her; it slams her into the ground hard enough to bounce. Layered glittering subtle Etheric counterbarriers flash into effect, mostly meaning that there's a thermal spike and a faintly singed after effect as she's momentarily laid out, looking back at the Veruni with a sort of anxious horror.
She's terrifying, Elly thinks. Am I going to have to kill her... or watch Lily and Fei die?
Thankfully Lily saves her from this. Lily asks a question - and Elly realizes Lily is addressing HER. "Oh!! Ah," she says, because she doesn't want to explain science crap aloud right now. Fei's clinging to the pillar too.
Well, it had better work, she thinks, before she looks at Amaterasu and kicks one of the pieces of ice towards the earth pillar Fei had wrought, or confiscated - she is not sure which.
The ice weighs like two hundred pounds and so this mostly strains ELly's muscles. She is too hyped up to hesitate and instead ends up SHOVING it most of the rest of the way, leaping upwards to clasp onto the pillar. She reaches up to put a hand on Fei's knee, clinging on.
"Hold tight," she says.
The ice beneath them flashes.
It shrinks visibly in the space of two seconds and then
krkrkrkrkrkrkTHOOM!
Elly's grip on Fei's knee becomes deathlike as the explosion cracks through the stone and sends it rising implacably upwards, accelerating on sheer momentum as Elly prays to whatever Imperial Gods might be listening that none of them will fall off before they make it through that beautiful circular space above and
this is the important part
OUT OF THE F***ING BUILDING
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
"Indeed," the soldier replies to Lily, hoisting her polearm before her, prepared to guard with the shaft or charge forth blade in hand as the case or opportunity makes itself known. "Whether you are Veruni or not, I will deliver your judgement."
Her attention shifts -- first this way towards Fei, then over at Elly, then back to Lily--
--the weapon raises in a guard--
Flame, in the end -- as in engulfs her -- is the ultimate means of obtaining all of Amaterasu's attention here on the battlefield. The polearm drops to her side, gripped in her right hand.
She walks through the fire, though it warps and scorches all the armor she wears, one steady step after another.
The ghostly armor encircling her body, after all, still endures where the real might fail.
"As you wish," she informs Lily, the updraft from the fire setting her long hair aflutter.
Before she lunges.
Before the ice locks Lily in place atop that pillar.
Before Fei similarly joins his partner atop it.
Before Elly similarly climbs aboard.
And if Amaterasu realized that something was amiss about this in the seconds she has before Elly works her sorcery... is a question that will never have an answer.
When the stone pillar launches, it launches at speed. The glowing edge of that polearm the Veruni soldier favors strikes little but the resultant explosion--
Before that bears Amaterasu back into the nearby wall, where she leaves quite the mark.
But she is a Veruni -- she is up and on her feet quickly enough, gathering her weapon from the cracked floor of the now bombed-out shrine sanctuary.
Staring up, as her faceplate unfolds, into the stone speeding up into the heavens.
"...So they have escaped," she utters, before shaking her head.
<Pose Tracker> Elvis has posed.
Once the din of muffled explosion settles, boots hitting the ground can be heard outside.
A squadron of full-suited Veruni opratives, an execution squad, shows up on the scene, all brandishing high quality Veruni ARMs. They quickly fan around the building and train on the sanctuary.
Elvis runs in shortly thereafter. "What happened?! What was that that shot up?" he asks quickly. "Oooooohhhh lovely. They wrecked the place." The man kicks the ground. "Amaterasu, are you okay?" he asks the defending operative.
"You did what you could. Luckily, I know that lot. I'll run into them eventually. Though I can't fathom why they would want the mirror." Since when did they have an interest in the Veruni?
A look back toward the squad. "Secure the perimeter. And please tell the other forces not to jump on accusing a random Human this time!"