2019-03-15: Everybody Get Up

• Log: Everybody Get Up
• Cast: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus, Marivel Armitage, Jacqueline Barber, Ratatoskr, Brad Evans, Avril Vent Fleur, Erzebet Lefanu, Clarissa Arwin, Matilda Whitehead, Violet Salazar, Leon Albus, Ashton Anchors, Ida Everstead-Rey, Quin Rosenberg, Xantia, Dash Caskett
• Where: Northern Steppes
• Date: March 15, 2019
• Summary: A group of terrorists known only as "Odessa" make an appearance -- and a statement of intent -- in Elru.

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DC: Clarissa Arwin switches forms to Dandelion Shot Clarissa!
DC: You switch forms to The Amnesiac Girl!
DC: Avril Vent Fleur switches forms to The Amnesiac Girl!
DC: Brad Evans switches forms to Prisoner 666!
DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to Martial Artist Ida!
DC: Matilda Whitehead switches forms to Mercenary Matilda!
DC: Leon Albus switches forms to The Black Wolf!
DC: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus switches forms to In The Absence Of Justice What Is Sovereignty But The Organized Theft Of The
Natural Liberty Of All Humankind?!

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

For weeks now, the rumours have circulated. That strange mercenaries were seen in Aquvy, then Ignas, clad in black and olive. That multiple vessels were seen heading to Elru, when almost none had gone there in years. And most worrying of all, that New Arctican scouts had seen strange lights in the vicinity of the ruins of Elluria. The rumours have reached the ears of Drifters across three continents... and for their own reasons, those Drifters have come, descending upon Elru, in singles, pairs, and groups. And as they arrive in the fading days of winter, they discover the truth.

The rumours are true.

Elluria is gone - two years of incessant, unrelenting onslaught have worn down the once-vibrant city's defences, and driven its people to other lands, or to the grave. The shattered remains of powerful ARMs are scattered across the landscape in twisted heaps - some of them look as though they were chewed in two. The remnants of the keep and walls have likewise been demolished, to the point where it is hard to find a stone lying atop another. At the centre of this devastation is the source of this calamity - a towering sphere of alien metal, embedded into a large impact crater, glowing with a faint green energy that is visible in the fading twilight. It is from this object that the monsters that tore Elluria apart have surged forth, without cease or pause, reaving, ripping, and slaying.

Until now - for the Sorcery Globe has been conquered.

The approach to the city is littered in the smoking, twisted corpses of monsters beyond imagining - hundreds in number, but all of them dead. Here and there can be found the body of a woman or man in black and olive, some of them off to the side , obviously laid to rest by a comrade, others tangled among the monsters that claimed their lives. Counting the bodies tells an impossible tale - for every mercenary lying upon the field, there are more than a score of creatures.

And as you approach the Sorcery Globe, hundreds more of the mercenaries can be seen, bustling with activity. A space of a hundred yards has been cleared between the charnel ground and the edge of the crater; towers of steel have been erected, upon the lip, bearing large spotlights with no visible source of flame, though residents of Guild Galad may recognize electric light for what it is. Others are working devices of much more arcane construction, shifting dials and levers, studying readings too small to be seen from a distance. But the majority of the mercenaries are holding weapons - blades, firearms, and some things more exotic - watching the perimeter with the naked eye and strange binocular ARMs. From their posture and bearing, they have obviously spotted people approaching; their weapons are not quite pointed your way, but they aren't not pointed your way either.

And then a single figure walks out from the masses, striding confidently into the open area. The figure belongs to an older man - in his fifties at least. His hair is an iron grey, drawn back into a warrior's tail, and his body is clad in black and red plate mail with wide pauldrons, from which hangs a white cape that billows out behind him. A zweihander is strapped diagonally across his back, held in place by leather straps. Between the sword and the plate mail, the man must be wearing almost eighty pounds of metal, but despite the burden and his age, he moves with the grace and purpose of a man decades younger.

As he reaches the centre of the open area - equidistant from the oncoming Drifters and the mercenaries behind him - he stops moving forward, taking a moment to settle his stance. And then he bows deeply from the waist, cape and hair stirring with the motion and the arctic wind.

"Those Who Come And Go," the man says as he straightens; his deep baritone is pitched to carry, with the ease of more than thirty years shouting orders across the field of battle. "I am Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus - once the leader of the Slayheim Liberation Army, now privileged to command the force known as Odessa." Teeth slip out from behind wind-weathered lips as he offers a broad, warm smile. "Many of you I know by reputation - others, by report. For your efforts in defence of our world, against the scourge known as Mother, all of Filgaia owes you a debt of gratitude. In recognition of that debt, I promise you this," he says, solemnly lifting his left hand. "Walk from this place, or keep your current distance, and you shall bear solemn witness to events that shall mark the first steps in the true salvation of our world."

The old warrior lowers his hand. "However. Should you step forward, or seek to impede my work... then despite your power, despite your will, despite your service to a cause that truly is as mine... interfere with me and I shall strike you down where you stand," he says, eyes narrowing. "This, too, is the word of Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus."

The old man slides the blade off his shoulder and then grounds it in front of him, both hands resting lazily upon the pommel. "Choose," he commands.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

A woman shrouded in robes and a straw hat approaches Vinsfeld's crew, accompanied by what some have called 'an anchor' of a man. The woman, at least, moves with inhuman confidence through the frankly horrifying battlefield as if she's walked along sites like this many a time before. She listens to her companion communicate on the empathite radio.

"So... Elluria is gone. Another nation shattered against an unkind galaxy." The shrouded woman's voice whispers to herself. There is so much blood. She can count the ounces.

    >>You are concerned about the Sorcery Globe.

The shrouded woman lifts a hand up to her own radio.

    >>Of course, Kate. Brad, I'll need to take a look at it.

Vinsfeld says his part. He has a small army with him. The shrouded woman has Brad Evans who may very well act sooner rather than later. The shrouded woman places a hand on his arm to ask for just a moment. She won't be long.

The shrouded woman advances out into the open area as other representatives make their way forward as well. Drifters tend to coalesce in small teams and they usually have spokespeople. The shrouded woman recognizes some of them either personally or through reputation though she does not talk to them just yet.

"You are confident, so allow me a moment to speak for I too am confident."

"I am Marie of House Valeria. I am given permission to speak on behalf of the Great Houses of Guild Galad, Meria Boule, and Sylvaland. Those houses have deemed Vinsfeld and his men to be terrorists. Drifters may assist us in apprehending him, or may stand aside."

In contrast to Vinsfeld's passionate words and impressive voice, Marie Valeria seems uncaring at best to apathetic at worst. For a moment it seems like she's about to lower that microphone she's using and leave it at that.

But then she smiles a crooked, perhaps even arrogant smile. "Or you may fight alongside a man who refers to himself in the third person. Our actions will speak for themselves."

They need no more words than that to establish what they are and what they're going to do but the next three may prove catch the ears of those that turned a hero into a prisoner.

"Go ahead Brad."

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline had heard the rumors of the armed forces converging on the ruins of Elluria. It wasn't something she'd usually find herself looking into, but other rumors happened to intersect. And when she put the pieces together, well...

She had an idea what they were after. She didn't know much about the Sorcery Globe, but she had heard the rumors of its capabilities. This she warned her companions about, and decided it may be wise to investigate.

And so, that was why she was here. The closer she gets, the more bodies she sees - human and monster alike - the more she gets the feeling that this may have been a bad idea. But she takes a deep breath and exhales, pushing herself forward even so.

She stops with the other Drifters, in the area where the Sorcery Globe looms above them...and many more mercenaries, armed and ready, are arrayed. Jacqueline takes a moment to steel herself, and watches as a man emerges.

Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus...there was something familiar about that name, but right now, her focus were on his intentions.

"Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus." Jacqueline repeats. Loud enough to hear. "...Jacqueline Barber."

"Your claim your cause and mine to be the same, but I see the arms you've arrayed, the threats you've put forth, and I have to wonder what your intentions are." She says. Her tone is level - professional. Not aggressive, but enough to make her stance clear. "I prefer to avoid violence, Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus. I must ask you this - what do you intend to do with the Sorcery Globe?"

Though she had been uncertain before she stands up straight now, eying Vinsfeld carefully while occasionally glancing to the sides to take in the situation with his mercenaries.

"If your cause involves committing bloodshed, then I am afraid your cause and mine differ greatly." She states.

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    "It's really him?" A youthful, arrogant voice asks. There's that metallic character to the voice - the tell-tale sign of the speaker being none other than a Hyadean. It could be anyone.
     "It's really him!" The habit of asking something aloud and then reaffirming as an exclamation, though, that narrows it down significantly.
     As the scarlet silhouette of a horned squirrel-esque creature stands out among the gathered, the solid yellow of their eyes lights up ever brighter. Their grin is almost never anything but a grin. Now it is even more a grin, arms crossed as their segmented metallic tail flicks about as they continue to speak with an uncharacteristically measured tone of voice. The rest of their body speaks of barely restrained excitement.
     "Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus...! Leader of a resistance movement rormed in the year 490 Post Collapse due to unrest within Slayheim... the Slayheim Liberation Army!" Which is how Vinsfeld already introduced himself. "The militia fought for four years to capture the capital city... all for it to turn to a desert of salt." His voice lowers, as does the light in his eyes, his squirrel-like tail drooping. "Just like that, the fighting was over... or so it seemed...!"
     "Then I heard about how a bunch of soldiers moved in on the former city of Elluria...! I listened to the whispers... and you know what? You know what!" His voice reaches a fever pitch. "The maneuvers, altogether... a match for one of the tactics fielded by the Slayheim Liberation Army in 492 Post Collapse as they took a major port! Hyahaha--! That's when I knew...!"
     Until a few months ago, this individual was poised to be slaughtered as just another foot soldier in Mother's ruinous alien army - either by Drifter hands, or her own after she disposed of all opposition. The displaced survivor of a defeated people goes to a three-point stance as he peers out to the soldiers who no doubt have weapons trained. "Look at this? Look at this...! Not just Slayheim... no." One by one, he sizes up every soldier there. "That saber is from Meria Boule make... that one's resting stance is from a combat school of the fallen nation of Garlyle... that's a Guild Galad piece of scouting equipment... that looks like an Aveh rifle ARM grip... these warriors are from all over..."
     The Hyadean's posture is positively feral. Would he dare to be among the number that would resist this building movement? The movement that has already felled countless beasts where even the forces of Mother could only barely hope to contain the horrid, unknowable creatures of the Sorcery Globe?
     "I am seeing it...! A new chapter of history... I'm living it... I'm living it!!" Ratatoskr goes upright again, cackling with euphoric glee as sharp bared teeth part to allow the laughter to fill the air. "On all sides, from all walks, of all disciplines, of every means... this 'Odessa'! These 'Drifters'! I get to be part of this history..."
     Ratatoskr's voice quiets, not from conscious will but because he is forgetting to breathe properly. Such is the effect this all seems to have on the younger Hyadean, who appears to have found the ultimate candy store for Filgaian war hero enthusiasts such as himself. Every so often, he's tagged along the other Drifters on their forays. Perhaps he can be counted as a--
     "Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus...!" Ratatoskr calls. "You'd have me watch this from here? You'd have me watch this from here!!" It almost sounds mocking. "This view is too far away...! I want to be closer. I want to live this moment so close that I can feel it breathing on me...! Let me closer! Let me closer to one of the greatest warriors of the era!! Let me closer to the nexus of Filgaia's greatest warriors about you!"
     This sounds promising... as he turns his back to the gathered mercenary forces, raising his arms in a familiar combat stance...
     ...towards the Drifters, with that widening grin with the intoxication of his obsessive interests seeming to be realized beyond the wildest possible fantasies of this individual's twisted, violent desires.
     "I want to see what history 'Odessa' makes...!"
     ...Well, then, it looks like things just took another turn for the worse now, didn't it.

<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.

Brad Evans is here on a mission. Brad is a tall man, closer to seven feet than six, and tremendously wide with muscle. He tromps through the dust of the ruined city-state with heavy boots, and one arm gauntleted in a thick Mechanical Glove.

"I'm coming up on the mission site," Brad says to nobody, holding a small fist-sized black device built around a pulsing blue crystal. The reply did not come from the device. "Ashley, how's site B looking?"

    >>Still working our way through. This place is a mess.
    
"Didn't notice," Brad says, with no chuckle. "'Marie' and I can hold A down. You handle Irving's errand."

    >>Right.
    
Both knew it was not quite proper for Brad to be giving Ashley's orders - Irving had appointed Ashley leader months ago - but both also accepted it felt a little more natural to let Brad take point in cases like this. And also neither actually trusted Irving's judgment very much anyway.

Brad wheels up his leg and slams his foot into a weakened wall, which obligingly blows out, spraying dust and brick shards. "Lilka?"

    >>Coooomiiiing!
    
"Where are you now? What's the situation at the sanctuary?"

    >>Well we're alive apparently!
    
...crap. "And you're where?"

    >>Well everything's snowy and I think I just saw a bear so I'm gonna guesssss Arc...tica....? It's fine! I have like 20 teleport gems! I'll be with you soon!
    
Won't be seeing her for a while, then, Brad thinks, pulling his Empathite radio away from his mouth. A reply came across the band anyway.

    >>You're SO lucky a cute and clever person like me is around to filter stuff like that, Brad!
    
"Every fightin' man knows to respect the operators," Brad says out loud, assuming the sentiment would reach Amy back at the Chateau. Any further crosstalk stops as Brad steps into the main quad...and finds the man they're looking for. His heart leaps in his throat.

    A half-dozen men gather around a campfire, huddled away in a cave cut into Slayheim rock. They look up at their commander, a man of lean muscle and piercing eyes, as he speaks of--
    
Brad only realizes he's been walking purposefully directly toward Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus when 'Marie's' hand touches his arm. He glances down at her. He doesn't clench his fists, but he does suddenly reach for the massive Mechanical Glove mounted to his right arm, fiddling with difficult-to-see controls. His breathing is deliberately slow as she speaks. He doesn't look up.

Not until she says, 'Go ahead, Brad.' That's when his armored hand flexes, a flash of swirling particles dropping a grenade into it, its sides relieved like some tropical fruit, which he, completely without further demand for arrest or surrender, immediately attempts to pitch over Vinsfeld's head and into the soldiers beyond. Trying to stop the people actually arming the device. That arm is powerful. It'll get there, if it's unimpeded.

But he's looking straight at Vinsfeld even as he does, stance heavy. Resisting the urge to rush. That's not a fight he'd win.

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Had it been, perhaps, the Ley?

    Avril's own intuition of something amiss in Elru had come from a more esoteric source. Though she had learned something from the mirror that had been returned -- a strange term for something she had requested stolen for her -- she had turned back to it again.

    Not quite a vision -- she had seen nothing reflected within but her own face. Barely a premonition -- no forboding stirred with the realization.

    Just the plain and open sense that she must go to Elru, regardless of the potential threat that awaited her in the form of Volsung and a throne she must not yet claim.

    Not just Elru.
    Elluria, she had realized, even before she -- traveling east again -- caught wind of the rumors.

    Perhaps it had been the Ley and the mirror's -- as well as her own -- connection to it.

    But what awaits her as she sets foot in that land she had not anticipated.
    Elluria is gone.
    The Sorcery Globe, too, has been destroyed.

    And...

    Her eyes don't miss the uniform worn by the bodies. Unfamiliar/familiar, as so many things can be to her. She kneels gingerly beside one of the fallen, taking in their wounds... before reaching over to carefully close their eyes. "..."
    Many have given much. But, to what end?

    She soon receives her answer. Rising to her feet, she shades her eyes against the late-winter sunshine, taking in the face of that man.

    "..."

    She listens as he speaks, watching him, watching his face.

    'Choose', he says. Leave or watch what they attempt... or step forward to interfere.

    "What is it that you will now commit?" she asks Vinsfeld simply, making no move to step forward or away.

<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.

Amongst those who stand in the ranks of this group of mercenaries is a potentially familiar face. She might not stand out, until she saunters forwards - well behind Rhadamanthus but clearly forwards. Her gray coat is not heavily armored, and has been left partially unbuttoned, with her gun belt strapped to its outside. The baggy breeches and surgically-precise black leather boots are a change from an increasingly battered cheongsam.

But-- It's ya girl, Erzebet Mara Lefanu, the zany Drifter with the pulp fiction bylines! (She seems less chilly.)

She is clapping her hands, which are in leather gloves with little colored-thread backings for sheer decoration. The index fingers of both gloves are also gone, like reversed archer's guards. "You are all SO fortunate! I've been so glad to share my opinion of all of you and I have to say that with only one or two exceptions you have all been AMAZING!"

She opens her eyes wide. Her glasses sparkle in the searchlights (probably). "You've all worked so hard for the sake of Filgaia, and, I'm told, Lunar as well. Oh, certainly, you might say it's all in a day's work, and that you're just in it for the money, but really, you've hauled your freight here, back, and here again all within the course of less than three months! I still haven't moved out of my dormitory room - in fact, Tildy sweetums, I think I still have that box of yours -"

Erzebet looks out at everyone. Her eyes shine.

"Take it from me," she says. "Everything is going to be GREAT."

Her glasses suddenly become completely opaque with their interior light. This changes the cast of her smile a little.

<Pose Tracker> Clarissa Arwin has posed.

"The salvation of the world," a blonde girl whispers as she clutches her lucky charm close. "And the Sorcery Globe...."

Military affairs rarely intersect with Clarissa Arwin's world. In truth, she's something of an innocent compared to most Drifters, her world shaken mainly by a chain of events leading to her dogged pursuit of a man she was sure came here. But as she walks through the ruins of Elluria, past the bodies of untold monsters left to smoulder in their demise amidst the rubble and snow, throuch carnage the likes of which she's never seen before in her life, she can't help but understand that this is not a place of salvation. Salvation can't look like this.

Over it all, she can hear someone speaking impressive words, clear even from a distance. Someone named Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus.

"The Slayheim Liberation Army?" Clarissa murmurs. An icy breath of tension goes racing up her back as she lifts big blue-green eyes towards the figure at to her right, the pair of them stopped just behind a chunk of what used to be a wall.

Beside her, Felius Arwin's expression doesn't change from his usual taciturn air of focus. He simply looks straight ahead.

"Whatever you want to do, I'll be at your side," he says, then, looking to Clarissa.

Clarissa swallows a hard lump in her throat. "...Thank you, Felius," she murmurs, before her eyes fall towards the ground again, the weight of pity briefly sagging her shoulders. Thoughts tug at the edges of her memories. Things she recalls only in a more distant part of her life. More current ones from a part she remembers all too vividly.

    ...Even if Rupert isn't with these people, I can't just leave things as they are....

In the halls of her mind, something clicks. The girl steels herself and looks up, the sadness passing to a simple, quiet determination. Clarissa lifts her chin and nods up to Felius before starting forward. Like a shadow, her adoptive brother moves at her side, close to her as a shadow would be.

"How will an army bring salvation to our world, Commander Vinsfield?" Clarissa calls out, and though the question is honest, her tone is stubborn and hard with determination.

The blonde girl boosts herself over the ruin of the wall, dropping down into view of Vinsfeld and bringing her ARM up at her right side - but she doesn't level it in anger. She brings it up, barrel pointed towards the sky, her left arm coming up over head dramatically to touch the backs of her fingers beneath the unusual weapon's bore. To her right, Felius sets his shoulders and angles his long glaive across his body, as if ready to jump to Clarissa's defense at a moment's notice.

"My name is Clarissa Arwin and my dream is to transform Filgaia from a war-torn wasteland into a land of abundance," she says clearly, the wind catching her hair and tugging at her bangs and the quarters of her coat in dramatic fashion. "I've dedicated my life to making that possible. And maybe the Sorcery Globe can help us do that. But an army isn't going to heal Filgaia, no matter how much you might be hurting inside. But what happened in Slayheim doesn't have to breed more pain.

"Please, stop what you're doing and work with us!" Clarissa's voice rises with an earnest plea. "Help us make Filgaia a beautiful world again! Please, Mister Vinsfeld - help Filgaia the right way, not with more violence!"

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda, of course, came to Elluria -- the same as Jay. With Jay, in fact. It's not unusual for her to be there -- though there was that brief period wherein their paths diverged on Lunar, where Matilda tried to forestall tragedy by taking it by the horns and steering rather than struggling against it, the two have often moved alongside each other.

Today should of course be no different, then.

The truth is, though -- what the pair come into this experience carrying... is very different indeed. Matilda has been clued into the movements of Aquvy for some time. A family friend here, an old roommate there, a business partner yon. The rumors tell a different story, to her... or, if not different, certainly more comprehensive.

She's almost numb to the bodies as she moves -- she's seen so many, in the last decade. Bodies traded for bounty, bodies wasting, bodies buried, bodies lost to the battlefield -- bodies that remind her that even a verdant world holds little kindness and less safety. Worlds she'd come to with hope for green, hope for life, hope to help others -- and worlds where that hope became a tool for other people's greed, became something that hurt her.

    nine years ago

Freischütz offers virtually no report as Matilda fires a burst of sand into her captor's throat as he sleeps. The deed done -- and done so many times over, now, finally finished, finally free... Matilda staggers away. Sadness, fear, anger, hope, despair -- all of them well up as vomit.

Matilda wipes her face with her sleeve, soothes the twin horses that carry Blood-Eye's ill-gotten gains, and begins to stack the corpses. There's a bounty on them in November City, and another for Blood-Eye himself -- a deserter -- in Aveh. She'll collect with the bodies in November, and his tags and ARM in Aveh. Sell the rest of their personal effects. Then she can make it to Arlia, and then home. After throwing up all her feelings, this part feels dreamlike, almost. Unmoored from the real world. It's just a set of boxes she needs to check, one after another, to get home.

She hammers two teeth -- one gold, one silver -- out of Blood-Eye's mouth with the butt of her new ARM. She'll need to pay for food somehow.

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

    five years ago

Even dead, that bastard managed to take something from her again. It's hard for a four-legged dog to deal with a snake; what hope was there for one that lost a leg to a kidnapper's bullet? She finds out while she's at school; it's the first time she's come home from Linga outside of a school break.

Matilda doesn't cry. She screams. She practically howls. Her father tries to tell her how happy a life they'd given Baron, how good she'd been to that dog before she set out for Linga, how he'd done his best to match that. Matilda snaps at him -- demands to know why people who are dead and gone get to keep taking things from her, demands to know why the Guardians would leave them a world as senseless as this one.

Her father slumps. At a loss for how to answer, he eventually tells Matilda that he'd like to take her shopping for some new gloves while she's home.

It's so absurd -- so utterly insufficient for the moment -- that it wraps around to the other side and becomes comforting. Matilda holds her father tight, and the world seems a little less hostile. It doesn't last.

    just over a year ago

Matilda emerges from a Krosian Guard office, exhausted. It's the fourth sworn declaration she's had to make in the last month. Having to document, so painstakingly, the nature of the situation -- of the presence of an Energy Stone, the specific nature of the monsters so created, her opinions on the situation both as a pharmacist and as a family member -- is miserable.

She checks the Memory Cube. She has three messages. None of them are from someone with 'Esquire' attached to their name, so she braces herself for some new, exciting horrors she hasn't yet experienced.

The first is from Dr. North. 'It's over,' the message says. 'I'll be forwarding you her chart once I can get it together. Your research was invaluable, but what kind of Beastman were you even working with? Most of that isn't -- bioavailable to humans -- though once I figured out analogues, I was able to safely ease her pain for the end. You'll be credited in the publication.'

Matilda laughs, because she doesn't want to cry right outside the inn. Being credited in a case study on her own mother's corpse feels like a particularly cruel joke. She moves on to the next message.

This one is from Robert. He's agreed to take on management of the family property, so long as 'some friends' can stop by on their way out of Krosse. Matilda knows what this means. It's impossible for her to even pretend to care right now, so she offers him a 'do as you will' and moves along.

The third and final message comes from the Krosian Guard. Her father's ten years of service and her mother's five years of providing food for nearby Patrol bases entitle her, as next of kin, to survivorship benefits for both; as a possessor of an unrestricted trading charter, she's allowed to take them as a lump sum provided she reinvests in her business. As a provider of material support and military spouse, her mother's funeral will of course be covered by the Krosian Guard.

Matilda finds herself utterly unsure how to react. She settles for cold comfort.

    three months ago

I wish my parents could've left me a better world than this, Matilda thinks to herself, looking out across the sea, back toward Ignas. If not that, at least a little more guidance on how to deal with this one.

    now

Matilda looks to Erzebet as she's addressed. "... We'll sort that out later," she says, with a small wave of her hand. "For the moment, I think we have -- greater, concerns." Her hands slip to her side; one hand pulls forth the Freeshooter, in that awkward one-handed grip she favors when not seeing the need for precision work. The other draws the bright silver blade she's carried since finding it on Lunar.

She takes a step forward -- and for an instant, it seems like she plans to put Vinsfeld's challenge to the test.

It couldn't be further from the truth. She whirls, showing her back to the commander and her former roommate. "... Jay, I'm sorry, but that's hopelessly naive. There's no hope for Filgaia if we aren't willing to prune what's rotten -- where did Krosse's wait-and-investigate approach get us? Get *Krosse*, for that matter?"

She fires Freischütz at the ground before the Drifters once -- and marks herself as not of their number. "I love you, Jacqueline -- but this isn't the world you were meant for. Let them -- let us -- handle this."

DC: Matilda Whitehead switches forms to Odessa Adjutant Matilda!

<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

Violet watches calmly, pausing for a long draw on her pipe as the mysterious leader of the mercenaries takes up a position halfway between his comrades and hers. He's a fine figure of a man wearing a white cape, about her own age, and obviously a seasoned warrior, judging by his bearing and the huge two-handed sword he's carrying. The old horse-woman waits patiently. Might as well hear him out. He wastes no time introducing himself as one Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus, former leader of the Slayheim Liberation Army.

Violet had heard what had happened to Slayheim. Rumor said it was nothing but a lifeless salt flat now, where not even weeds would grow. And now this Vinsfeld was in charge of something called Odessa. She hadn't heard of them. As he continues his speech, she watches -- not him, but the mercenaries. They're looking at Vinsfeld with respect, some even adoringly. There's more going on than the mere exchange of coin here. Devotion couldn't be bought. Whatever Vinsfeld was telling them, they believed it. Or, rather, Believed it. Best to proceed carefully.

For what, exactly, is Odessa doing here? Their obvious target is the eerily-green-glowing alien sphere: no telling what extraFilgaian technology awaited inside. They were far, far too late to save the Ellurian people. If leadership had been Vinsfeld's goal, perhaps he could've shown up in time to rescue the Ellurians, and no doubt been hailed as a savior. No, something else was going on. At length Vinsfeld mentions "the true salvation of our world." Violet would've liked some explanation of that, but none is forthcoming. In her experience it generally meant "I take over the world."

"Choose," the man intones at last, his posture clearly indicating a challenge.

Violet flicks her tail in annoyance. It's not that difficult a choice to make: either he explains himself upfront or after she and her companions defeat him. Provided he survives. Of course, there's no guarantee she'll live through this, either. Better increase the odds as best she can. She takes one last, long lingering inhalation, then extinguishes her pipe. She's going to need both hands! ARM loaded and ready to shift between rifle and shotgun modes? Check. A couple of grenades in each pocket? Check. Healing supplies within easy reach? Check. She'd better outlast this fight: she's got grandchildren to dote on! She wants to leave them a kind world, a free world: something that seems further out of reach with each passing day. First Mother, now this. Sometimes she wonders if her grandchildren will have a chance to grow up at all. It's a sobering thought.

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

Elluria is a grim, broken ruin of a city.

Leon had never traveled her before. Until he became a Drifter, Port Hilton was the furthest he ever journeyed east. Seeing it is a frightful sight. It is a reminder of all they might have lost. The Captain of the Black Wolves, two weeks after being shot by his own bullet, still moves with a slight sluggishness.

It's something one might only notice if they knew what to look for. He slows to a stop a little too early, when he sees the mass of strange soldiers -- and the man that walks through the masses, clad in mail and carrying a blade.

Leon's jaw works, before it sets. He stays quiet as he listens.

'Choose.'

Leon has no words. The mercenary captain straightens his back, the bandages under his shirt straining. There is a slight wince. The choice was to leave or stay, and do battle. His silver eyes narrow, though, and his hand comes to his side. His fingers stay over the grip of Argent Divider, ready to draw the long shotgun-like weapon out.

Finally, he speaks: "Very polite of you. I've made my choice." Then, he looks sideways at Marie. Leon frowns, for a half-second. "Aquvy sends their regards, the--"

He catches something. No, someone.

"Doctor Whitehead?"

<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

The Sorcery Globe.

There's honestly been a lot of trouble lately surrounding spheres with ominous names. It's been sort of a theme. A suspicious man would be concerned that yet another round object has become a point of contention.

Fortunately, Ashton Anchors is not a suspicious man. (Granted, he is a significant number of other things but he's often a bit too UNsuspicious for his own good.)

What he is? Is wary of a couple of hundred armed mercenaries with weapons and ominous armor.

This was not the reception he'd expected. After everything that's happened lately? Ashton expected to arrive, see a bunch of familiar faces standing around the mess talking about a new dig or something. So suffice it to say, the Double Dragon Duelist is taken aback. It means he's last in the initiative order.

This is good, however. It lets him react a bit more wisely - and with his agility score he was going last anyway. Perhaps the most important thing? He takes a step towards Jay, as she asks what is likely the most important question - just what IS Vinsfeld's work that he warns them against impeding? That's kind of important.

Important because it looks like at least a few of those present are about to turn this into a major brawl. Anyone using the word 'terrorist' is not here to have tea. (Though the son of Meria Boule does raise quite an eyebrow at the mention of House Valeria.)

No matter what the answer is or the politics, Ashton's subtle repositioning of himself with the other Drifters announces his loyalties - and the hands on his hilts announces his willingness.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida hasn't had much time to process what happened at the Guardians' Sanctuary, but there are more pressing matters. Aunt Anna sent her an urgent missive about a troop movement, of all things, in northern Elru. There is only one thing remaining there that's worth sending an army after, and it's a loose end that settled comfortably into the back of Ida's mind, forgotten amid more calamitous threats. It's so easy for her to forget what must've set off the Elw teleportation grid the first time, and what caused so much other mayhem.

    Now, Ida steps through the snows of Elluria, her thick Arctican cloak blowing about her. The white lotus crest of House Raye adorns her back, printed between her shoulderblades. Colonel Raye, a distant relative of hers, had it sewn for her after Mother's defeat. Beneath that, the armored duster Kalve forged for her offers a second layer of protection--and beneath that, a modified suit of Photosphere-issue body armor offers a third. Devil's Due rests in its holster at the small of her back, and its much newer companion rests in a separate holster at Ida's thigh.

    The young heiress takes in the carnage around her with a pensive, perceptive gaze, and a lip curled ever-so-slightly in displeasure. "Well-organized," she remarks, to the companions surrounding her. "And they have a good enough grip on this place to take the dead aside for burial." Fear glimmers in her eyes, mingling with grief. She scarcely knows who these people are--she doesn't recognize any of their heraldry, or their uniforms--and they laid down their lives to take this place.

    Things only get more ominous as she reaches the Sorcery Globe itself. One of the spotlights falls on Ida, and she raises her arm to shield her eyes, squinting up into its glare. Thoughts race through her head, one after another. This is no mere group of mercenaries. The fall of the Photosphere might have shifted the balance of power here, but nevertheless, they took this place with minimal casualties, fortified it, set up a base of operations.

    This is a professional military force, and something tells her it isn't the private army that Aunt Anna told her about.

    The spotlight falls elsewhere. Ida keeps walking, her gaze flicking from soldier to soldier, and then to the other Drifters in her company. Someone emerges from behind the perimeter, and she stops in her tracks. The man says his name, and Ida's breath catches in her throat. Recognition creeps into her eyes, followed by surprise, shock, and growing horror. Thoughts race through her head, pieces of information about this man and the cause he once led. Aunt Anna told her that her father--Ida's grandfather--sold weapons to Slayheim's king. When she first learned of what had happened to the place, it was Aunt Anna who told her.

    Ida hauls herself out of her thoughts, sucks in a breath, meets Vinsfeld's gaze even though it feels like she's staring down a manifestation of her family's sins. "This device has caused untold misery to this world," Ida says. "What do you plan on doing with it? I won't leave without an answer."

    'Marie' speaks. Ida turns to her and stares a moment. Her right hand twitches beneath her cloak, and she grips its edge, hiding her arm with it. Metal-rich flesh flows into place, forming armor. In this case, the instinctive reaction feels warranted.

<Pose Tracker> Quin Rosenberg has posed.

Quin is just one of those people that are along for the ride. She has no freaking clue what's going on, and what these people are doing. She's kind of out of the loop that way. She might not have even garnered a mention at all in the scouts' report of the approaching Drifters. Or if she did, it was a footnote -- an unassuming girl in all brown, not just clothes, but skin, hair, and eyes too. She's been just vaguely following along with a group of Drifters, less that she's actually a part of their group and more that she's tagging along with them. She doesn't really seem to be part of any group on the way there.

Yeah, she's been trying hard not to look at the bodies on the way here. She's nervous enough, and well enough aware that she's getting into something that's WAY over her pay grade in the first place. She doesn't need to be reminded of the horrible things that have been happening here. She doesn't need to be reminded that MORE horrible things are likely to happen when everybody gets to where they're going.

Once she comes to stand near the Drifters and listens to the message of the older fellow, she pauses a moment. Salvation of Filgaia? That's interesting. But on the other hand, the only people that bar entrance to a place where 'salvation' is about to happen are people who are probably planning to only offer salvation to certain people, or on certain terms. And that's not cool at all. She tilts her head, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one leg, her countenance one of curiosity.

No heroic speech from Quin. She is unsure why she is here, to be honest. The amount of people here far overwhelms anything she'd bring to the table, no matter which side she was on. And truth be told? She's not really sure which side she SHOULD be on. This guy talks a big game, and a lot of what he says is good to listen to. But what kind of emancipator prevents possible allies from getting close? What kind of 'savior' isn't willing to let others see how he's gonna do it?

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

As is so commonly the case, Xantia finds herself in the middle of another complicated situation that she knows little of. She caught a few scattered rumors of mercenaries clad in black and olive, but paid little attention to them. Her attention was elsewhere, her reason for being in Elru had nothing to do with any of this. She came here to stop K.K. from following through on their threat to Filgaia. Until recently, she wasn't expecting there to be anything else requiring her attention on the battered, mostly lifeless continent.

It was her fellow Black Wolves who bought this particular matter to her attention. As in, it was discussed in her presence, Leon said he was going to investigate the matter, and she may have surprised him by saying she wanted to come along. Without really asking about the full details. Though considering the timing of when she spoke up, it was almost certainly the mention of the Sorcery Globe that drew her attention. Whatever her interest in this might be, she promised to not act on her own - which tends to be her default stance in Black Wolves operations anyway. As she might put it, 'just tell me what to punch'.

They however do not arrive alone, and are soon met by a man who... has pretty good taste in the way he dresses, is Xantia's first impression. By complete coincidence, her new armor somewhat resembles Vinsfeld's, in that it too is black and red with gold trimming, and sporting an attached white cape. Though hers is a lot lighter, and doesn't cover the limbs except for a pair of arm guards, emphasizing freedom of movement rather than full protection.

Xantia hasn't failed to notice this similarity, but considering the tension in the air, she restrains herself from excitingly exclaiming 'hey, we match' or anything like that. Instead, she waits for the man to speak, and upon hearing his words clearly looks confused. He's telling them to stay back, that much is clear, but what's all this about saving the world?

As promised, she defers to Leon - which is easy enough since in light of this she's completely unsure what the correct course of action would be. "Salvation of our world? What do you think he's talking about?"

Soon after, Marivel makes an appearance, standing against Vinsfeld, which helps to make up her mind. "Marie...? Hey, it's Marie, I know her! If she thinks these are bad guys, then they must be bad guys!" Because Having actually met someone once before automatically makes them more trustworthy than someone you've never seen before, of course.

Though naturally, she still has to ask Leon just to be sure: "I can go punch them now, right?"

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

Erzebet skips forward, oozing her unique brand of charm; Vinsfeld turns slightly toward her, then nods. "Very well," he assents. "You may join me... and you, young soldier," the old man adds, with a warm smile for Ratatoskr. Even in this arctic wasteland, new blood comes to the banner of Odessa. "But there will be no need for further assistance... save for those who have personal business they must attend to."

The old man turns his head to Jay, then shakes it. "You misunderstand me, Jacqueline Barber," Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus says evenly. "I have issued no threats. I have simply described to you the paths which you may take - peaceful observance or the fires of battle. The choice is yours. And as to my intentions for the Sorcery Globe - I suppose you mean besides putting an end to the threat it posed to every life Elru?" he asks, with a significant glance in the direction of all the monster corpses. "I intend to send a message, and a statement of intent, that all of Filgaia will hear. A message which some amongst you have heard already," he adds, a statement that is cryptic until Matilda steps forward, and declares her own intent.

It isn't betrayal if you were true to your ideals from the start.

The arrival of a shrouded woman and a giant man brings the first negative reaction to the face of Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus - he sneers, lips curling in distaste. "So the dogs of House Valeria have come to bark at their betters, have they? Then tell your master I -- Judecca!" the big man roars as Brad's arm snaps forward; a single gunshot rings out from the ranks behind, shattering the grenado hurtling overhead, scattering its shards down around Odessa's leader. A few shards ping off his armour, but Vinsfeld hardly notices - his eyes are on Marie's companion, staring into the face of a man he has hardly thought of in years... in a way.

"Hello, Bradley," Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus says evenly. "A pity your fashion sense was the only thing that did not manage to crawl out of the earth where we left you."

Turning away from his former subordinate, the old warrior lifts his sword in his right hand, sweeping it from left to right, encompassing the gathered warriors from Ashton to Violet to Leon, before resting pointed at Brad again. "Enough talk!" Vinsfeld booms, his voice commanding. "You question our motives, but we have crushed an enemy from beyond the stars, that destroyed a nation and slaughtered its citizens. You question our resolve - yet my followers have paid with their lives to slay the monsters you casually strode by on your way here. You question our right to act this way - yet I have asked nothing more than you demand yourselves, as Drifters... the right to fight in accordance with your own conscience, in service of your world. And I do the same."

Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus holds his sword in front of his body, at port arms. "I have told you to choose... now make your choice. Walk away, or fall before the might of Odessa."

GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Rage Against The Dying Of The Light!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus takes a solid hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Rage Against The Dying Of The Light for 0 hit
points!
GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.

Erzebet's attention turns around the group as her hands clasp together. The beam on her face slowly falls. She seems to be realizing, in pantomime form, that the persuasive appeal didn't work like it does in a play.

 To Clarissa she speaks first:

"Okay, Sophia," Erzebet says in tones of retort, "why don't you go sit behind a mountain and pray the problems away? That's worked out phenomenally for Nisan since they had someone to HIDE behind until just now, HASN'T IT?" She grins a little more toothsomely.

And then she looks towards the shrouded woman.

"Terrorists?" Erzebet says. Where there had been retort, now there is HAUGHT. Her hand comes down to her coat-wrapped hip with a flourish. "Oh, and from 'House Valeria'. Isn't that SPLENDID? I'm glad that you've managed to pry yourself away from your heaps of money to come out here, but perhaps you could consider attempting to save Filgaia rather than trying to oppose the enemies of your entrenched power?"

Erzebet taps her lips with one pale index finger. "Ohhh, I'm sorry, I forgot-- we're all just playthings for you, aren't we? You'll probably drive these idealists forwards to try and beat that Trial Knight, but we were your first priority! What good is Filgaia if you aren't the one drawing the lines across its ROTTING CARCASS to decide which cut is YOURS and which cut is THEIRS and which scrap you'll permit your lessers to feast upon!"

Her lips part again like a stab wound and she says, "Maybe you should get with the program, my lady! I'm sure we can see fit to let you keep a lot of your money and whatever ramshackle pile your parents left you, along with lucky seed, if you stop trying to send your dogs against the movement. But the offer's expiring shortly! Before long the only chance you'll have is to get on your knees and kiss our ass in front of all your paid flunkies!"

Erzebet's hands slap down - and she clears leather, the two long guns coming up even as her glasses gleam. In her view of the battlefield spirals and circles cluster as she feels targets verify and lock in. "Ueheheheehaaah," she breathes, her tongue lolling out. "With the power of the ancient world, we'll burn all your precious little fences down if you don't get smart!"

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marie Valeria glances towards Jacqueline Barber. "Is it any more moral if you hem and haw about it first?"

She takes note of Ratatoskr but a Metal Demon signing up with Vinsfeld is about as surprising as the sun rising. She gives Ida a crooked, arrogant smile of her own.

"Hello Ida. You didn't return home when the war was over. Is it because you're not quite wholly human anymore? Unfortunately, we'll have to talk later." She slides some goggles over her eyes.

She glances over to Leon who draws her attention to someone else.

Suddenly, Marie Valeria is in Matilda's personal space as if she performed a quick draw minus the draw. She listens to what Matilda has to say and says, "I'm proud of you for making a difficult choice. Tis a shame you made that choice before I got to know you."

Xantia calls out to her. Marie waves a hand in her direction but keeps moving.

"Honestly," She says. "What's wrong with dogs?"

She makes her way forward, clearly intent on reaching the Sorcery Globe but finds herself stopped by Erzebet.

Marie Valeria tilts her head. She clearly wasn't expecting Erzebet to front on her but she regards it coolly like examining a petri dish. She then smiles and says, "The battles we have fought in the past are meaningless. We could exchange war stories if you'd like, but there is no shame in having focus."

She places her gloved hand on her chest and tells Erzebet. "But you're not wrong on a fair number of those points. I am the inheritor of my parents' will. I do have money, though that is not why I am here."

She smiles that crooked smile. She seems unflappable, until she sees those guns. The smile fades into a frown and she says, "Ah. Those. I pity you for using them."

She then straightens again and adds, "But the truth you are right about that is most important is this..." Her eyes flash a bright red briefly as she channels her power...

...and large amounts of gella materialize from the air and start pelting her about bodily.

"You are our playthings."

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

Leon glances sideways at Xantia. He gives no pause before answering: "Yes, Xantia. I would highly recommend it, in fact."

His eyes narrow at Vinsfeld, though. He glances at Xantia, and feels the briefest pang of uncertainty; she is harder to predict in a fight, and that gives Leon pause. Especially, he thinks, when he doesn't know what this enemy is capable of. "Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus. You're offering us little choice at all. We've grown wary of people who claim they're on the side of justice easily--and warier of people using unknown sorceries and technologies... for whatever you mean to."

He pulls up Argent Divider, swinging the firearm up -- it's still in its shotgun formation -- and then fires off a single slug, sending it hurtling for his plate mail-armored form. "If you think we'll hand this to you, you're sorely mistaken!"

GS: Leon Albus has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Shotgun Blast!
GS: Leon Albus has completed his action.
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Gella Crazy!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Vinsfeld responds, and Jacqueline frowns.

"I've heard that far too often. You and I both know that is a threat, pure and simple." She replies. "If all you want to do is put a stop to the Sorcery Globe, then that's fine - it needs to be stopped. But you can do that without the threats."

Her eyes narrow a little as he explains further. A message of intent. So that's what this was about - a message. How much of this was really about protecting Elru, then?

Matilda steps forward, as if challenging Vinsfeld...and then turns, addressing her directly. Jacqueline stares at at her, a look of shock on her face.

"M-Matilda...? I don't...I don't understand..." She stammers. A bit of certainty goes out of her stance. But...no, she understand. She just...doesn't want to believe it. But the sound of Freischütz firing into the ground shakes her out of her trance.

Jacqueline takes a deep breath.

"Matilda...who gets to decide what's rotten? The ones with all the power? I don't want to believe that." Jacqueline replies, shaking her head. "The world, people...they're not plants to be pruned. That's not something you can determine so readily."

The matter of Krosse...that one takes her back a bit. Was that why this happened...? ...Of course it affected her that deeply. To face everything she had, and to have that happen...if the situation were different, she might be standing right alongside her.

"We're not just...waiting and investigating. You know better than that, Matilda. We're doing what we can, looking for a solution - and taking action where we can." Jacqueline shakes her head. "...I don't think these people are that solution, Matilda. Please. You don't have to work with them..."

GS: Erzebet Lefanu takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Gella Crazy for 150 hit points!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus guards a hit from Leon Albus's Shotgun Blast for 40 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Clarissa Arwin has posed.

Clarissa's eyes widen as 'Marie' comes forward and issues an arrest warrant.

As Vinsfeld begins to speak again, Clarissa presses her lips tightly together - but she doesn't make a move, simply listening to the man speak his piece.

It's a better piece than she expected - and he's got a way of putting things that seems to win over some of them. Mostly Drifters Clarissa has never met. Again her eyes scan the ranks of the armed men - and she can find no sign of the one she was after.

    Think of it like going to school. The tuition wasn't cheap, but you learned a lesson that'll save your ass going forward.

"I know Filgaia is in a sorry state," she says, her eyes lowering for a moment, before Erzebet calls her Sophia and tells her to go pray the problems away.

The blonde girl's brows knit. There's a tone she recognizes.

"And what's your answer?" she asks tartly. "Power and the ability to use it aren't going to make Filgaia a better place. All you're going to do is replace one bad thing with another bad thing. What's that going to do except make things even worse for everyone but yourselves?"

The question comes with a spark more fire than she's shown yet. Her heartbeat quickens, and she draws herself up a little. Compared to some of the Drifters here, Clarissa's singularly unimposing, even with Felius beside her. "Someone in this ruin has to not be cynical about everything," she begins--

Marie is pelting Erzebet with Gella. Clarissa pauses and blinks rapidly.

Then she shakes her head stiffly and begins to run forward. "Okay, I guess I'm the un-cynical one," she sighs.

It gives way to focus - she calls out to one side. "Felius, please keep some of them back!"

The man in the black coat nods, moving off to tangle with a few soldiers - and then it's up to Clarissa. She picks up her speed a little, moving to try and flank Erzebet as she sweeps an unusual-looking ARM forward. It's a wide-bore pistol with a talonious appearance and it scarcely seems to fit the otherwise soft aesthetic she presents.

With a shout, Clarissa opens fire. A light shimmers at the barrel of the ARM known as Strahl Gewehr before ripping towards Erzebet in a ray of shining blue and gold!

GS: Clarissa Arwin has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Running Shot!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has entered a Reflect stance!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    It seems unthinkable, to a point, in this rapidly escalating situation. That a Hyadean, just out of the blue, would be so won over by a human commander to all but pledge allegiance in their own way. If it were only a handful of months sooner, it would be Vinsfeld's sword that would have likely been both the young warrior's greeter at the door, and death warrant signer. It may say even more that the collected mercenaries may not even do more than blink at the audacity of it all - that a former(?) enemy of all life on Filgaia is to now simply be accepted as a member of their glorious, just movement.
     A moment of confusion is all it takes for an enemy's breath to be forever stolen, never to return.
     For a moment, Ratatoskr just takes in the defiance, the amazing trick shot that destroys a thrown explosive, the everything. He cackles, but the cackling is swallowed up by the fog and sirens of all-out war. A sensory overload of stimulus, as he takes several steps backwards so he can indeed stand closer to the Odessa half of the engagement. To better hear and see the movements of the olive-and-black mercenaries that have rallied to the leader of Slayheim's rebellion... and to better size up even the Drifters, too.
     "Come onnn...!" Ratatoskr shouts above that, a gleeful snarling as he raises his arms in that combat stance again. "It's happening now... bring it to me...!" That seems to be Annoying Young Hyadean Warrior speak for 'punch me in the gosh darn face.'

GS: Erzebet Lefanu critically Guards a hit from Clarissa Arwin's Running Shot for 23 hit points!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has lost 1 Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Dash Caskett has posed.

 - Earlier -

The strange rumor of an odd event playing out in Aquvy drew the attention of a certain set of individuals who are always seeking the treasure of a lifetime, and such a large object of reupute and the endangerment of the settlement it landed at couldn't keep them away,

The rumors say it was at Elluria. A great calamity took place there And that odd military group was going there, too!"

"Ah... we better investigate! I'll go find out what is happening. Drop me off nearby!"

A young man turns around a corner, to go to his room. It was time to suit up.

- Now -

In the distance, an oddly shaped airship touches down for a moment before taking to the skies to safety. From this distance, it was hard to see what it did. Though shortly thereafter, whom disembarked makes themselves known. "Is... this the place?" a light male voice asks pensively.

This person wore something unlike many seen before. They wore a two tone armor outfit. A turqoise v-shaped visor protruding from a helmet shielded most of their facial features.

"You guys...!" is added, seeing those armor patterns and colors of Vinsfield's crew. It seems like relations are already breaking down, and weapons are being drawn. "Hold up! Can we not do this?" the azure figure states, holding his hands out toward Vinsfield. "Let's just..." The figure looks frim behind his opaque visor toward Erzebet.

A hand goes up to the side of his helmet and holds a button.

<There's gonna be a fight.>

<What? Be careful then!>

A look to the Odessa crew. "Ah... well, don't say I didn't warn you!"

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imLbuW6WZSk

A hand goes up. It spins 180 degrees at the wrist and retracts into the forearm, leaving a cylindrical hole-- oh. That's a weapon. It glows on the interior with a tinge of golden light. The other hand grips the bottom as if an ARM. It was time to act, Odessa and these folks lookin' to check out whatever that Orb is in the back are getting into a fight! If Odessa's reputation preceeds them, these Drifter-types will need his help!

A rapid fire burst of xanthous light erupts from the end of his Buester, trained on that commanding figure in the lead!

DC: Dash Caskett switches forms to Volnutt Armor!

GS: Dash Caskett has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Buster Salvo!
GS: Dash Caskett has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Dash Caskett has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus guards a hit from Dash Caskett's Buster Salvo for 54 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

Weapons draw. Warning shots are fired. Also, not-very-warning shots are fired.

It's obvious that any chance of this being resolved in a sensible manner has gone out the window. So out comes the blades. And out come the dragons. Two and two - a pair in hand and a pair snaking out from under the furred collar.

Ashton sets his stance, taking up a defensive pose for the moment. "Now hold on a moment, this isn't--"

Wait. Okay so Vinsfeld is being vague about the whole 'purpose' thing. But Erzebet using the phrase 'we'll burn all your precious little fences down' is DISTINCTLY threatening and problematic. So the sellsword re-orients himself towards her. "I don't know you but I'm fairly opposed to burning anything down with ancient power." He makes a slight motion towards Clarissa. "She has the right of it. We could--"

And then Clarissa starts shooting.

Ashton sighs deeply. "Miss, cynicism is hardly a capitol offense!"

GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Crescendo Stance!
GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

"Walk away," Vinsfeld said, "or fall before the might of Odessa." Hmmph, that one was too arrogant to admit the possibility of his own (and his organization's) defeat. That might be his weakness. No doubt he intended to offer the same "choice" to every resident of Filgaia -- where the walkers-away might be hunted down, oppressed, or otherwise dominated. People like Vinsfeld were only interested in power and its implications. Violet had seen his like before. Two new people join him: a young woman and a red humanoid squirrel-unicorn...creature. She certainly hadn't seen anything like that! What was it?

Violet shakes her head. She can't afford to be distracted by that right now. She scowls, places a special cartridge in her ARM, and fires at Vinsfeld. Her choice, it seems, has been made!

GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Wildcat Cartridge!
GS: Violet Salazar has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus critically Guards a hit from Violet Salazar's Wildcat Cartridge for 19 hit points!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Violet Salazar has lost 1 Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Leon tells Xantia exactly what she wants to hear. She merely smiles in response. While truly that she's rather unpredictable once she starts fighting, at least she hasn't shown any alarming signs since the incident in Dazil. Presumably, her unpredictability will be mostly a concern to those on the opposing side.

Even so, as eager as she always is for a fight, Xantia's approach is nonetheless on the calm side, stepping forward rather than rushing in. Mostly because Leon is still speaking, and she doesn't want to interrupt. Only once the captain of the Black Wolves has given his response, she chimes in.

"Actually, I think everything you said made sense." The parts that she actually understood anyway, which is far from all of it. But that's not really important, as far as she's concerned. "So I'm not questioning anything. I just think that you're not telling us everything, because you're up to something bad." Or, more accurately, friends of hers seem to strongly think so, and she trusts their judgment.

That being the case, she drops into a fighting stance, instantly making it clear that she's a martial artist, in case Vinsfeld hadn't already gotten an report on that. "Besides, I've never walked away from a fight before, I'm not about to start now!"

With that, Xantia draws back her right hand and takes one step forward, simultaneously throwing a punch. Vinsfeld is still a considerable distance away, so he doesn't have to worry about that fist coming anywhere near him. The sudden violent air displacement generated by the force behind that motion is a different story, however.

GS: Xantia has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Massive Shockwave!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus guards a hit from Xantia's Massive Shockwave for 51 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida's face twists, like she'd bitten into something that was just a bit off, a little too sour. "Forgive me my cynicism," Ida says. "It's been a rather trying--"

    Matilda steps forwards, turns, speaks. For a moment, it feels like time slows down just so Ida can hear every word Matilda says. Every last time she's failed her. She remembers a homestead overgrown with unnatural foliage, and pictures of a family. She remembers Krosse. Anger flares, and then dies beneath a thick, sucking tide of regret. This is hardly the first time someone she knew and respected turned against her. Ida meets Matilda's eyes, for a moment, and the guilt in her own eyes is plain as day.

    Ida all but forces her gaze away from Matilda, takes a breath, tries to recenter herself. 'Marie Valeria' has a small collection of characters with her, and one of them looks--

    'Hello, Bradley.'

    Ida stares at the face she remembers from the wanted posters. She swallows around the lump in her throat, and--not for the first time--finds herself questioning Lord Irving's morals. Beneath the cloak, fingers sharpen into blades. Ida all but whips towards 'Marie' as she addresses her directly, her face settling into a look of cold anger. "Of course, Lady Marie," Ida says. "We will talk. For now, I have other, urgent matters to attend to."

    Ida twists on her heels, her Arctican cloak billowing out behind her. Two brisk steps bring her within striking range of Ratatoskr. The change in her demeanor is immediate, and potentially shocking--but only to those who've never seen the heiress fight. Ida's gauntleted right hand rushes out from beneath her cloak, driving straight for Ratatoskr's face. It's practically a blur as it moves. "You bloody idiot," she spits. "Is this what you want? FINE!"

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ratatoskr with Open Palm!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Erzebet Lefanu takes a solid hit from Ashton Anchors's Crescendo Stance for 0 hit points!
GS: Ratatoskr critically Guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Open Palm for 24 hit points!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has lost 1 Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Quin Rosenberg has posed.

He still talks a big game, this Vinsfield guy. But Quin can't help but feel something bothering her. Something unpleasant niggling at the back of her mind that makes this whole thing smell bad. The thing about 'left Brad in the ground' just pushes her more towards 'no'. She doesn't know what happened, and now's not the time to ask. Still, something about how self-important this guy is being about the whole 'salvation' thing just doesn't feel right.

Maybe they can just knock the guy out? Maybe make him talk later? A pause and a look around the field, at the people essentially turning turncoat, makes that a slim probability, she realizes. Emotions are just too high. But she just can't get behind this guy's agenda. The guy and his agents might die, but... lesser of two evils, it seems. If he's so all-fired sure he's got the answer, maybe someone can study his work once it's all over and glean something useful from it.

So with that, Quin pulls her daggers from their hiding places, flipping one around to point down while leaving the other one pointed up. "Sorry, man. Given more time I might actually 'a joined. But nothin' 'bout this smells right. 'Fraid I'm gonna have ta say no." This is no great proclamation of 'I WILL STOP YOU' or any such thing. No, this is a declaration of apology, first of all. And second of all? Well, fighting for what she believes in. Or rather, fighting AGAINST the thing she DOESN'T believe. And she doesn't really believe a word Vinsfield is saying.

On the other hand, Vinsfield has enough people looking for a piece of his hide, and little flies like her are probably the least of his concerns. It's also the best way to get herself dead, she knows, blindly rushing in and attacking someone with that kind of power. Just because she's willing to fight for what she believes in doesn't mean she ought to be rushing to DIE for it.

Disable the new agents first, Quin realizes. Without time to know their new allies' strengths, Odessa won't be able to work them into their plans. Her eyes fall to Ratatoskr. Who she's actually fought alongside, even if it was only once. She knows him well enough. He seems to like fighting. She's not going to be able to take him out, she figures, but if she can bind him up for a little while, that's one less thing the others will have to worry about.

Fortunately Ida seems to have the same idea as her, so she won't be trying to take this beast on alone. As Ida gets his attention from the front, Quin sweepsover to the side, trying to weave her way around Ratatoskr's guard. She's just trying to go for a simple stab, that's all. Though what her daggers are going to do against Ratatoskr's metallic hide is anybody's guess...

GS: Quin Rosenberg has attacked Ratatoskr with Slash or Stab!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has completed her action.
GS: Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Quin Rosenberg's Slash or Stab for 94 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Yes," Avril says, her tone and expression as even as ever. "Aside from that. Were its destruction your only aim, you would have little need to remain here." It is clear that there are no survivors to rescue. No land to restore.
    His aim is to send a message.

    "Your... intent?"

    As if to underscore his statement, one particular person steps forth.

    "Matilda?"

    It's that statement that wrenches her attention to the young woman, away from Vinsfeld. That statement, followed by the shot aimed for the dirt alone, kicking dust up into the air.
    Avril is a bright young lady.
    It still takes her several moments to fully understand what has just happened. But for the look in her eyes, Avril's expression doesn't so much as twitch.

    "Matilda, you..."

    'Enough talk!'

    The die, as they say, has now been cast.

    "...Matilda..."

    Her gaze slides over to Jacqueline, watching in silence as the young merchant utters her disbelief, a weightier version of Avril's own.

    '"Who gets to decide what's rotten?"'

    '"But like I said, the sun has set. You didn't bring it back by sunset, so the execution goes forward as planned!"'

    '"The world, people... they're not plants to be pruned."'

    '"C'mon, somebody say something! You know this is wrong!"'

    She hasn't forgotten that day.

    "...Matilda. I am sorry," Avril says.
    She has already drawn Absolute Zero. She directs it towards her friend, summoned blade glinting in the light. She may as well be stone, but for the look in her eyes.
    "But I cannot permit this. 'Those who have power make the rules' cannot be an adage to adide by."

    Yet, she still does not strike first, however her stance may hold.

<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.

Brad bites out a low curse as Vinsfeld calls for Judecca. "Knew I didn't see enough Cocytus!" No time to call Ashley on the empathite, either - it'd be bad if it got destroyed, and he can't risk it with Judecca around. Not to mention that might mean Antenora and her threads...damn, damn.

Still, Vinsfeld just...stands. Prepared. Stoic. Others stand forth in support of him. "Vinsfeld," Brad replies. He's not the type to quip...though his ungloved hand's fingertips are quivering, shaking with emotion Brad doesn't quite let hit his face. This man...he'd wondered. Was it treachery? Who had buried Brad Evans?

And now Vinsfeld stands before him. Acknowledging him as "Brad Evans." The Hero of Slayheim.

"I almost never left," Brad says, quietly. "But a hero doesn't always get to choose that, does he?"

Brad raises his gauntlet arm, and the side of the thing slips open, revealing what looks like a series of lenses on the thing. It blasts out a stream of particles into the air, and what drops out of that stream is an odd apparatus, some manner of long tube with a stock, trigger, the ends not quite symmetrical.

Brad holds the bazooka one-handed, aims with care, and fires its shell toward Vinsfeld, full knowing he's provoking the tiger.

GS: Brad Evans has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Bazooka!
GS: Brad Evans has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    'Is this what you want?' The question is poised. That Ratatoskr's grin doesn't fade, but widens as the cloaked wielder of the Demon Fist closes the gap faster than the human eye can typically catch--
     There is a metallic echo that rings across the battlefield, deafening, as a kicking leg strikes up against the lunging punch. Armored knuckles meet kicking digitigrade foot, and snow and rubble are displaced everywhere.
     The impact sounds torturous - and it sure is. Ratatoskr hops back on one leg for three steps before coming down to a crouch in an attempt to bleed off the momentum from that punch.
     "...And I get to fight against the Demon Fist, too..." Hyadean regeneration gets to work on an ankle that would otherwise be voided and lost to most any other life form as he rises slowly back up to his 'resting' fighting stance. "March 23, 501 Post Collapse... I'm never going to forget this day...!"
     Quin, struggling to operate on the side of neutrality, in the shadows of a life away from such excitement, finds it in them to take matters in her own hands... and a knife, as she comes in from Ratatoskr's right flank and manages to dig that knife into metallic flesh. Quicksilver oozes from his flank. His tail - 'fluffy' as it may appear by segmented metal standards - is a more than viable bludgeon as the startling stab sees him turn a solid yellow eye down upon the evasive shadow adept as it lashes back against her.
     "Even you? Even you...!" He doesn't sound upset about being side-stabbed at all. No, he sounds even happier. "This is everything I could want... no."
     He corrects himself. "This isn't everything... but it's a lot...! Every face, every name, every weapon, every technique..."
     He boosts forward away from Quin, throwing a flying knee strike into Ida - from the leg she struck, even! - with youthful arrogance and energy to spare.
     "I'll keep it all through this...! Hyahaha--!"

GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Quin Rosenberg with Root Cutter!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Fly Into Fray!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Brad Evans has lost 1 Combo!

DC: MISS! Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus completely evades Bazooka from Brad Evans!

<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.

"The only pity I need from you is the pity I'll diggy to throw your body-y in-y and then take a -" Erzebet begins to say, before she is momentarily consternated by Marie agreeing with her. This seems to throw her off her rhetorical game. A moment later Marie does, in fact, declare a money fight.

As rains upon rains of silver coins smash against Erzebet, she turns her head to look towards Clarissa and seems to be raising one hand as if to say 'I'll get to this in a moment.' The repeated swells of coinage pool at her feet in a sensual jingle as the Red Gunner sways in the aftermath, spitting a coin out of her mouth, blinking slowly, and then saying to Clarissa, "Now then -"

Clarissa has moved on to shooting at her. Erzebet brings her right hand gun down and fires a short barking barrage towards that ray - which is not stopped, but does distort and balloon slightly outwards, turning into a painful wash rather than a body-piercing pencil when it strikes her. Staggering, Erzebet hisses, and then grins at her.

"Well," she says, "if you wait for everyone to be persuaded of how right you are, you'll be waiting a very long time. Some of us aren't that patient! If you put off a dream forever then you might as well throw it aside - indeed it would be crueller to give hope -- for a false hope will lead to a thousand heartfalls, while abject failure is only one!"

Someone talks to her. Erzebet's head swivels back towards Ashton. "Why," she asks him. "Are you getting paid by it? Sometimes you have to burn down the old house and rake it for the nails, or you'll be sitting in the rain forever!"

"For instance," Erzebet continues - and it is to Ashton she shoots first!! The righthand cannon of Haborym fires, a greasy bloody wisp of gunsmoke rising as the red hot round smashes towards Ashton. Another round - actually, a short barrage - aims towards Clarissa, aiming low, for the legs. How merciful (?) of her to only want to render her enemy immobile!

Then she looks back towards Ms. Moneybags. "AS I WAS SAYING:"

Erzebet then fires both guns towards Marie Valeria, a total of ten rounds. This seems to be her idea of a counterargument although to be fair those are a lot of streaking, cherry-hot pieces of lead. (Some other metal? It's not clear. The rounds are fat, and injurious.)

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda glances over to Leon. She tenses up for a moment. "... Mr. Albus," is all she says. She knows there's no sense in trying to explain this -- it simply is what it is. In the moment, at least, she'll just have to accept that many of the people she knows won't understand this. ... but then again, as she looks to Ida, she realizes that simply being understood won't change things, either.

"I don't think that's so true," Matilda says to Jay, with a shake of her head. "We've refused to act, so many times, out of some sense of what's 'proper,' what's 'reasonable.' We've given so many undeserved second chances to so, so many evil people. I'm done with it, Jay -- I'm done acting like I'm the one in the wrong for wanting people to be safe!"

Avril, too... Matilda looks particularly stung by that look -- but she doesn't flinch from it, either. "... Avril," Matilda offers, voice quiet, tentative. "... I don't think I can explain to you, in a place like this, what I'm thinking. ... so, for the moment, I won't." There's a time and a place for such things. It's not now.

Now is, unfortunately, the time to fight. Matilda snaps up Freischütz, and fires twice -- once for Jay, and once for Avril. There's no joy in the blonde-and-black-haired compounder's expression, no giddy enthusiasm for the work -- just two quick shots of gravel, traveling like buckshot.

GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Ashton Anchors with Samiel's Slightly Inappropriate Jest!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has spent 2 Combo on Poison and Disease, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Clarissa Arwin with Get Hot! Get Hot!!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with The Wolf's Gorge!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has gained 1 Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Clarissa Arwin takes a glancing hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Get Hot! Get Hot! for 76 hit points!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 damage, and burn off all temporary hit points!
GS: Disease, Poison, and Toxin! Statuses applied to Clarissa Arwin!
GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield! Statuses applied to Erzebet Lefanu!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has attacked Jacqueline Barber with The Wolf's Gorge!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has completed her action.
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Marivel Armitage with A Friendly Time with the Newly Acquainted!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has completed her action.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Matilda Whitehead's The Wolf's Gorge for 137 hit points!
GS: Ashton Anchors takes a solid hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Samiel's Slightly Inappropriate Jest for 115 hit points!
GS: Quin Rosenberg takes a glancing hit from Ratatoskr's Root Cutter for 35 hit points!
GS: Entangle! Statuses applied to Quin Rosenberg!
GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Erzebet Lefanu's A Friendly Time with the Newly Acquainted for 164 hit
points!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Ratatoskr's Fly Into Fray for 51 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda glances over to Leon. She tenses up for a moment. "... Mr. Albus," is all she says. She knows there's no sense in trying to explain this -- it simply is what it is. In the moment, at least, she'll just have to accept that many of the people she knows won't understand this. ... but then again, as she looks to Ida, she realizes that simply being understood won't change things, either.

"I don't think that's so true," Matilda says to Jay, with a shake of her head. "We've refused to act, so many times, out of some sense of what's 'proper,' what's 'reasonable.' We've given so many undeserved second chances to so, so many evil people. I'm done with it, Jay -- I'm done acting like I'm the one in the wrong for wanting people to be safe!"

Avril, too... Matilda looks particularly stung by that look -- but she doesn't flinch from it, either. "... Avril," Matilda offers, voice quiet, tentative. "... I don't think I can explain to you, in a place like this, what I'm thinking. ... so, for the moment, I won't." There's a time and a place for such things. It's not now.

Matilda blinks once as Marie Valeria abruptly enters her personal space, right as she's trying to get her head in the game. It's an almost surreal experience. "Ah -- quite. ... Perhaps, we'll -- get to know each other, if both of us survive the moment," she offers, a little haltingly -- and like that, Marie is gone again.

... which leaves, unfortunately, the time to fight. Matilda snaps up Freischütz, and fires twice -- once for Jay, and once for Avril. There's no joy in the blonde-and-black-haired compounder's expression, no giddy enthusiasm for the work -- just two quick shots of gravel, traveling like buckshot.

GS: Jacqueline Barber takes a solid hit from Matilda Whitehead's The Wolf's Gorge for 127 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.

As she sees Marie move, near to Matilda, Erzebet shouts, "Stop standing near her while I'm shooting you!!"

<Pose Tracker> Quin Rosenberg has posed.

Well, at least it hit. Though to be honest the sight of the quicksilver blood doesn't really make her feel like she accomplished something. Ratatoskr always seemed a little weird in the times she met him, and a lot unstable, but she never really wished harm on him. And she really hates the situation that makes her have to visit it upon him.

And suddenly his tail lashes out at her. She's fortunate enough that it doesn't hit her in the chest, but it does sweep her foot out from under her. And it hurts like a bastard too. She winces as her ankle complains loudly about the abuse. She gets to her feet with a limp -- yeah, she's gonna feel that for a while.

She's not going to go into the fray again until she can stand properly. So while she tries to put some distance between herself and Ratatoskr, she extracts a rope from her pack. Once she's got distance, she uses it like a lasso to try to grab onto the Hyadean. Not so much to actually lasso him properly, but trying to bind up his legs and make it hard for him to move.

GS: Quin Rosenberg has attacked Ratatoskr with Rope Trick!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

The second rule of war is as straightforward as it is important: know your enemy.

Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus knows many of these Drifters, by name and reputation. Black Wolf is a trained combat leader, skilled with both gun and blade; the woman at his side is not the raven-haired sorceress, but could be as deadly. The twin-blade swordsman is skilled and quick, and the dragons on his shoulders give him raw, eldritch power that is hard to be reckoned with. The horse beastwoman is an unknown, as is the young man in the strange blue armor, but their armament speaks for themselves - ranged fighters both. All of them a terrible danger to a swordsman such as himself. All of them opening up, with gunfire and sorcery. All of it trained on him.

The third rule of war is equally simple and critical: know your terrain.

"PROTECTION!" Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus roars, and a brilliant yellow light flares up underneath his body, carving through the darkness, coalescing into a massive, arcane Symbol - one clearly carved into the stone some time before the fight began, upon which the leader of Odessa chose to make his stand. Layered hexagons of kaleidoscopic light surround the old warrior in a spherical shield, into which shotgun rounds, rifle bullets, and wind energy crashes. The shield doesn't stop all of the damage - but it blunts the impacts enough for Vinsfeld's heavy armor to absorb the rest.

A dull crack echoes out as the shield collapses away, the stone and the Symbol carved into it both split in twain. Vinsfeld inhales, his eyes sweeping the field, spotting the positions of his opponents with the ease of decades of experience. Close the gap, he thinks, and Vinsfeld pulls a small ivory tile - no larger than a mahjong piece - into which a second, red Symbol is carved twice into itself. The old warrior snaps the tile between his fingers, and crackling red lightning flashes out along the stone; the tile was a Symbol linked to other Symbols, which light up with a crimson light, in a wide circle around the stacks of monster corpses. And the first three yards of stone inside the cleared area. Hundreds, thousands of Symbols, underfoot and to every side around the Drifters' back line.

A second's warning presages the belching forth of blazing flame, forming a wall that will force the Drifters to move inward... or risk annihilation.

Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus turns to face Brad Evans, the Hero of Slayheim, the sudden rush of hot wind setting his hair and cape billowing. For a moment, the leader of Odessa does not look like a force of nature, or the head of a revolutionary army. He looks like a tired, old man, well past his prime... but still moving forward. Because there is no other choice. "No, Bradley," he says, sounding weary. "No, we do not."

The moment passes when Brad levels a weapon in his direction; Vinsfeld's expression hardens, and for the first time since he began speaking, the old warrior moves. He is not fast in the way a young man would describe it - there is no blistering, flickering movement, full of flashy sideslips and other wasted energy. Vinsfeld simply moves forward in two short strides, ducking his head slightly to allow the rocket to sail over his body, then takes three long steps in Brad's direction, with no wasted energy, every ounce of his body propelled forward. His right hand holds the zweihander, trailing behind him; his left hand starts to drift upward to join it.

it is a feint, for instead Vinsfeld reaches up to grab at Brad's long hair, twist, and pull the larger man's face down toward the earth. It takes Vinsfeld another half-second to drive his left knee up toward the bridge of the Hero of Slayheim's nose.

"Is this all you have, Bradley Evans?" the old warrior asks, flicking stray hairs out from between his fingers. "I thought you were better than this!"

GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Rage Against The Dying Of The Light!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus takes a solid hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Rage Against The Dying Of The Light for 0 hit
points!
GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Brad Evans with A Man's Duty Is To Find The Truth Or - If He Cannot - Take The
Best Possible Human Doctrine And Ride On This Like A Raft Over The Waters of Life!
GS: Ratatoskr critically Guards a hit from Quin Rosenberg's Rope Trick for 11 hit points!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has lost 1 Combo!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Leon Albus with Incur My Wrath!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Violet Salazar with Incur My Wrath!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Xantia with Incur My Wrath!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Dash Caskett with Incur My Wrath!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Incur My Wrath!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has completed his action.
GS: Violet Salazar guards a hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Incur My Wrath for 150 hit points!
GS: Brad Evans guards a hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's A Man's Duty Is To Find The Truth Or - If He Cannot - Take The
Best Possible Human Doctrine And Ride On This Like A Raft Over The Waters of Life for 99 hit points!
GS: Leon Albus guards a hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Incur My Wrath for 150 hit points!
GS: Xantia guards a hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Incur My Wrath for 150 hit points!
GS: Dash Caskett takes a solid hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Incur My Wrath for 200 hit points!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Incur My Wrath for 127 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Clarissa Arwin has posed.

"I know, sir, but it's the principle of the thing!" Clarissa calls back to Ashton insistently.

Erzebet does something Clarissa wasn't expecting; the two ARM beams collide and distort unusually. The girl widens her eyes, then puffs her cheeks out a little, continuing to sprint. "I'm not trying to persuade anyone!" she begins.

She doesn't get a chance to finish before Erzebet takes a shot at her. It's not a solid hit; that'd probably take her leg off. But the shots slam into the turf around her feet and kick up a shower of searing debris. Chunks of it slash across Clarissa's legs, and she gasps as she darts to one side. Smoking tears race down one side of her leggings, painful burns visible where the leather has been burned off.

She winces and rolls to one knee. The not-burned one. It still hurts and she's having a little trouble keeping a base - but with a breath, she powers through and squares her shoulders.

And her spirit. There's only so much cynicism Clarissa can take before something else kicks in. "I didn't ask anyone to play politics with my dreams," she fires back, her voice clear as she brings Strahl Gewehr to bear again. "And you know what? I've had a few heartfalls too--"

    little missy

"--but that doesn't mean it isn't worth trying to make Filgaia a better place for everyone, even if it's really hard! And maybe that makes me stupid and naive," she continues without breaking her verbal stride. "But I'd rather be that than cynical and only concerned about burning stuff down."

Right on cue, the wall of flame begins to pull inward. Clarissa puffs her cheeks a bit. "...You're all so eager to burn everything down that you can't even spare a thought for everyone you'll be setting on fire, can you?" she asks Erzebet tartly.

Strahl Gewehr's bore pulses again as Clarissa squeezes the trigger. Again golden light dances at the mouth of the unusual weapon before springing forth in a long ray of blue light, then another, as the blonde girl begins to fire blasts at Erzebet from about the mid-range.

She's not shooting to kill. She's trying to knock Haborym out of Erzebet's hands.

GS: Clarissa Arwin has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Strahl Gewehr!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Clarissa Arwin takes 7 damage from Poison!
GS: Clarissa Arwin takes 11 damage from Toxin!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"Perhaps," Marie tells Matilda before courteously moving away from Matilda to make it easier to shoot her without tagging Matilda.

Marie Valeria turns to the Sorcery Globe to tap at her goggles. That seems to be what she's most concerned about here. She can't risk communicating on the empathite radio to communicate with Brad, but the important thing is not to get into some moral argument. She'd rather agree with the things Erzebet says that she agrees with than get into a discussion about details while being shot at. She needs to think. She needs to get to that orb.

She recongizes Clarissa providing some assistance and...well, she doesn't recognize Ashton which means they've never met because he seems difficult to forget. She'll have to set aside the matter of Ida later too. She's punching Ratatoskr in the face. That means she is a woman of character.

"For the record," She asides to Clarissa. "I consider myself quite the optimist."

It's then her attempts to avoid the burning bullets come to a halt. They slam into her body and her robes and her body collapse to the floor, wisps of black smoke drifting away from her body.

A shadow from underneath Erzebet bursts up out of the ground, suddenly solidifying into spikes as they attempt to spear into her as Marivel slowly pulls herself up to her feet, that black smoke still drifting out of her.

"The recommended guideline for those guns is four or five uses a day. Do you have other weapons? I would encourage you to use them!"

Clarissa seems to be well matched with Erzebet so she looks to Ashton.

"I need to study that orb." Marie tells Ashton. "With time I may be able to deactivate it."

And then back to Erzebet. "I agree again, my friend! The time for patience is over, the time of promise is upon us! Filgaia lives on borrowed time!"

GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Boogiepop Phantoms!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

The walls of flame rise up crackling, and Violet scurries away as fast as she can -- but at her age she's not fast enough to avoid taking some damage. Blisters arise along her back, and her tail actually catches ON FIRE -- until she puts it out with the water from her canteen. Great, that was her only drinking water! Nor can she assess her injuries without being able to look at them -- but they don't feel life-threatening. She'll have to find someone to put some salve on them later. Right now she has more urgent business -- namely, taking Vinsfeld down. Or trying to... The magical shield he has up will prevent her from fighting effectively, but she has to try anyway. She switches her ARM to shotgun mode and fires. Maybe the shield will be less effective against a scattershot attack. No way to tell without making the attempt! She wishes, not for the first time, that she had magic of her own -- but her body rejected Symbological ink. It always had. She pauses, waiting to see her attack's results. If it didn't work, she'd convert her ARM to a rifle and try again...

GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Buckshot!
GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus critically Guards a hit from Violet Salazar's Buckshot for 22 hit points!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Violet Salazar has lost 1 Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"Gh.. clever," Leon mutters. He glances to Xantia. "Xantia, watch yourself! He's smart! He--damn it!" The mercenary commander spots the swirling, raging wall of fire that Vinsfeld summons. It pushes forward; it boxes them all in. That, Leon decides, is a rather tremendous problem.

The way to deal with it, unfortunately, is to defeat a living legend that everyone thought was dead. The roar of flame pushes him forward, which he rather dislikes, and yet he sees little way around it. "Keep ahead of it, unless one of you can find a way to break through it! But look out, he must be driving us at him for a reason!"

Unless it's to fight up close. Leon sees how brutally he lays into Brad. He is given pause, but not for long. Leon snaps Argent Divider with his hand; the weapon's barrels unfold, and a blade telescopes out -- then he rushes forward. He swings back Argent Divider over his shoulder, and comes down with a diagonal slash across his mail-armored side.

"I suggest you let him go," Leon says. "I won't ask so nicely, the second time around."

GS: Leon Albus has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Black Wolf's Fang!
GS: Leon Albus has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida sees Ratatoskr sweep his leg up, and feels the impact travel up her arm. Adrenaline surges through her, but the standoff is mercifully over, and she can act on it. The red haze begins to fade. She breathes deeply, backing away from what could've easily been an uncontrolled plunge into despair or rage. A year and a half ago, it definitely would've been. A year ago--when she was a Hellion--it would've been so, so much worse.

    But the woman who stands here today has faced both punishing adversity and her own myriad flaws. She hasn't conquered either, not for good, but in the process, she's learned a great many things. Later, when the adrenaline wears off, she will grieve, but now her fear and anger and grief are channeled towards something else.

    Ida has been tempered.

    Her stance changes again--she sweeps both arms up, holding her hands in front of her, open. One rests some distance in front of her face, while the other rests a little higher than her waist. She steps towards and around Ratatoskr, turning as she does to face him.

    Is--is this the legendary Method Mercury, the style taught by the ancient master who promises absolute fighting power??

    Ratatoskr lunges before Ida can circle around to the back, moving with breathtaking speed. It's all Ida can do to roll with the Hyadean's sudden motion, twisting away from him as his knee strikes her in the side and glances off. Ida grips his thigh a moment with her lower hand, pushing gently to redirect the motion more efficiently. Ratatoskr hit two layers of armor, but she still felt it. He's good, she thinks.

    Ida glances at Quin out of the corner of her eye, makes a note. Then the wall of fire erupts around the perimeter of the battlefield, and fresh tension races down Ida's nerves. "First Method," Ida says. Her right hand is a blur as it snatches Devil's Due from its holster. She aims more with instinct and sixth sense than with her eyes, stepping around Ratatoskr's back and lowering the sawed-off rifle at the small of his back. "Unity of Tool and Hand." She pulls the trigger twice, sending a pair of chi-laced bullets right for the Hyadean!

GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus takes a solid hit from Leon Albus's Black Wolf's Fang for 77 hit points!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ratatoskr with Chi Bullet!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

At least she's talking! Ashton seems to appreciate that. There's no need to hop straight to trying to murder one another, after all.

"There's nothing wrong with the rain and I for one--"

Nevermind, she's trying to murder him.

Ashton's opinion of Erzebet goes down a few points as he brings his arms up to shield his face from the gunsmoke round. It's a hit... but hardly a devastating one. And when he lowers his arms, the young swordsman is frowning deeply. "Your examples are as artless as your gunplay is clumsy. If you would care, I have a retort."

The two blades in his hands sing as they spin. "Those who would burn their house find themselves sleeping in the rain far more oft than those who seek shelter!" A burst of wind flies from the swords - there's a brief flash of sorcery before a soft swirl becomes a concentrated but raging tornado that flies.

"And leave the young lady alone!" Ashton presses forward, trying to close the distance with Erzebet behind the cover of the wind. "And the odd scholar, too! If you're seeking a fight, I can provide more than enough to occupy your attention!"

GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Hurricane Slash!
GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "No," says Avril, and her eyes alone betray the depth of her feeling. "I feel that now, in this place, it is impossible. ...Please, stand down."

    Matilda does not.

    Matilda opens fire.

    Avril twists her body, begins to attempt to sidestep out of the shot her way, but it's clear that the volley in her direction caught her by no small surprise; buckshot rips through her left shoulder, evoking a sharp gasp from her in the process. Bearing her blade as best she can, Avril angles her injured shoulder away from Matilda. She grits her teeth, for the moment bows her head.

    "Must it be..."

    If she bore any second throughts, they are soon extinguished by a glance behind her.
    At the encroaching wall of flame that erupts beyond and behind her.
    And too soon, below her.
    Ice flickers in the palm of one hand -- that of her injured arm. Using a spell, she propels herself forward with the burst that follows the application of Veruni magic.
    Such a maneuver -- without the safeguards of the Sea Medium whose power she is replicating of her own accord -- comes with a price.

    Her blade swings, once, as her position in space crosses Matilda's own.

    She lands after and falls to one knee, sublimating frost following after where her magic crosses the Symbols. But though her shoulder bleeds, here she still rises...

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Matilda Whitehead with Spirit Saber!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has lost 1 Combo!

DC: MISS! Ratatoskr completely evades Chi Bullet from Ida Everstead-Rey!

GS: Erzebet Lefanu takes a glancing hit from Clarissa Arwin's Strahl Gewehr for 56 hit points!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Boogiepop Phantoms for 64 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.

"Crest Cap!?" Brad guesses when he sees Vinsfeld's drawn tile. "Down!" Brad calls, to what it turns out is probably nobody, and hurls himself down, expecting Vinsfeld to fire some Crest spell out of the thing. He misjudged the item. Which means he misjudged--

Brad is halfawy back to his feet by the time Vinsfeld reaches him. The takedown is as efficient as it is quick as it is brutal, Brad hissing as his scalp screams and then gurgling as Vinsfeld yanks his face down and slams his knee into it, leaving Brad reeling backward. The big man was, for all he looks like a refrigerator grew arms and legs, never that much of a close-in fighter. Certainly not a technical one. But...

"Heh. Nobody in the yard ever moved quite like you can, Vins," Brad laughs back through blood dripping from his nose.

Then he twists his Mechanical Glove and punches it with his other hand, slamming on a button only he can easily see. Another spray of of light reveals another weapon, its barrely materializing nearly directly against Vinsfeld's sternum.

A double-barreled shotgun the size of about three normal double-barreled shotguns.

"But I got a few tricks," Brad says, and fires. The report is calamitous, and the recoil so powerful that even 300-plus-pound Brad Evans is torn off his feet and away from Vinsfeld, THROWN backwards by the force.

He slams to his feet, barely keeping them, and runs an arm across his smarting nose. "Thanks for the help," Brad asides to Leon, hand rising up to briefly check his scalp for what he may have just let Vinsfeld tear out. "Careful. Looks like he didn't get much slower in his old age." His face darkens. "And he's as smart as ever, too."

GS: Brad Evans has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Super Shotgun!
GS: Brad Evans has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus critically Guards a hit from Brad Evans's Super Shotgun for 21 hit points!
GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Brad Evans!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Brad Evans has lost 1 Combo!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has lost 1 Combo!

DC: MISS! Matilda Whitehead completely evades Spirit Saber from Avril Vent Fleur!

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

All around, a wall of flame rises - forcing them all to move inward, lest they be consumed by the flames. Jacqueline is forced to move, consider her position, but her eyes are on Matilda - and, briefly, on Avril, as the woman steps up to join her. Jacqueline sends her a brief nod before looking back toward Matilda.

Her words strike her like they were a physical implement in and of themselves. She can't quite come up with a response...but even so, she didn't quite expect what comes next. Matilda fires and the gravel buckshot impacts her solidly, causing her to recoil back a few steps. Her own armor protects her, but the full weight of it was still not lost on Jacqueline.

"...I'm sorry, Matilda. I didn't...I didn't mean to make you feel that way." She apologises, shaking her head.

"...How long?" She asks, quietly. But...even so, this isn't a time for quiet conversation. She takes a couple of steps back, reaching into her bags and drawing out a bottle of lavender liquid.

Avril tells Matilda to stand down, and Jacqueline nods.

"I don't want to hurt you, Matilda. I...never wanted to hurt you. Please." She says, then hurls the bottle at Matilda's feet. It's a solution Matilda would be familiar with, and perhaps one that Jacqueline has even showed her before - the fumes have a weakening effect, intended to sap one's strength.

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Matilda Whitehead with Sapping Solution!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Matilda Whitehead takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Sapping Solution for 42 hit points!
GS: Weaken! Statuses applied to Matilda Whitehead!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu takes a solid hit from Ashton Anchors's Hurricane Slash for 95 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Erzebet Lefanu!

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia frowns when Vinsfeld refuses to be struck head-on. She's pretty sure that's cheating. But that frown quickly melts away, since it's not like easy fights are much fun. It's not a bad thing if this guy turns out to be super strong. That just means there's no need for her to hold back.

She obviously doesn't know anything about who she's dealing with, but it's not like that's anything new.

She similarly has no idea what those symbols might do, and only Leon's warning causes her to instinctively dive forward as the wall of fire springs into existence. Even without getting caught in the flames, the force by which they appeared is enough to cause her to hit the ground rather painfully.

She doesn't stay down long. She can't afford to, the wall is getting closer. However, though she's aware. she's not very concerned about that aspect. From here on out, the plan was always going to be to fight in close quarters. Her confidence isn't so easily shaken, right now she still considers this a 'I'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with me' kind of situation.

Then a certain other stranger draws Xantia's attention, by speaking the magic word. ...The magic word other than 'food'. Her eyes light up when Brad uses the word 'hero' in, as far as she can tell, reference to himself. This is great! Another opportunity to learn by example!

Okay, so this particular example may be difficult to mimic, since not everybody can just sort of summon a big gun, but there's more to being a hero than the tools they use.

Undaunted by the assault Vinsfeld just brought down on Brad, she dives right in with lightning speed - literal lightning is involved, as her body is now covered with an electric aura. Following up Leon's strike with a single, but powerful electrically-charged punch, Xantia takes position next to Brad, making it clear she intends to support him.

And then she starts talking.

"Wow, so you're already a hero? I'm training to be one, too! Funny, at first I kind of thought this guy," with a nod to Vinsfeld, "was the hero, the way he's dressed and everything. But if he's a villain, let me help you out! I have some sidekick experience already!"

This... may get exhausting, if it isn't already.

GS: Xantia has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Elemental Fury!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Dash Caskett has posed.

THe Mega Buster shots fly true, but are mostly dampened by a shield erected as they collide with the target, dampening the effect of the bolts of plasma. "Tough..." the blue fellow mentions, a frown being the only thing visible under that visor. "What is with these guys?" he asks aloud. A deep breath, as they consider their next move.

He doesn't get to pick, as a wall of fire does it for him. Caught nearly in the middle of it as it explodes into being, the azure drifter has to jump and roll out of the way, alarms internally go off. "Ghh..." A look to his hand, which has a bit of trouble forming a fist. "Ow." That side was in it the longest. Still he msut press on. A reach to his back, and a small clamping device with a green gem-looking item is raised to himself as he applies suppressive buster fire toward the enemy. A quick work of the wrist, and it is attached to his weapon, and projects a triangular lattice style shield with a green hue in front of him.

"Be careful!" he shouts toward those in close melee with Vinsfield. Though that really tall and beefy guy looks like he could handle himself.

The blue fighter can feel that flame encroaching, and is forced to move intward to avoid it. "We're losing ground! Is there a way to stop the fire?!"

His mind goes back to the Flutter, where in his room sat the Aqua Buster, a glorified water gun. He never found a use for it. WELL maybe he would have if he decided to bring it! But today the equipment priority went to his close range abilities, and a large looking bazooka-looking device slung on his back, more visible as he gets closer to the fight proper from his ranged standpoint.

GS: Dash Caskett has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Phalanx Fusillade!
GS: Dash Caskett has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus guards a hit from Xantia's Elemental Fury for 66 hit points!
GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Xantia!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus guards a hit from Dash Caskett's Phalanx Fusillade for 42 hit points!
GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Dash Caskett!

<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.

"Politics is the art of human interrelations," Erzebet retorts to Clarissa. "You just mean the politics you don't LIKE!" Erzebet then twists to the side, throwing herself, in fact, into a dive and roll that makes her guns clatter. Her uniform coat smoulders. It has holes in it - it is not proof against these blows, though, of course, it's better than wearing underpants into battle.

And then she is set on spikes.

The blades cut into her with a hiss as she rises upwards, briefly spread-eagled outwards as she chokes in pain, her guns drooping before she wrenches herself to the side, landing on her back with a heavy splatter and exhaling with great force. The world is a little blurry.

Then she pushes herself upright. "If you agree with us, why are you doing this, then?" she asks Marie, muzzily. "Are you trying to do some kind of a dialectic thing? Because you're already calling us terrorists. And let me tell you that when it comes to killing people and calling them hurtful names -"

Erzebet pauses as she gets up.

"You know," she says, "let's think about this. Do not mistake this for advocacy, Missy," this to CLarissa, "because I am an ACADEMIC and cannot be held responsible for the consequences of my thought, BUT... If someone is DEAD... their feelings cannot be hurt any more, yes? So from a certain perspective, insulting language IS worse than death. But - do you see the flaw in this argument!?"

At this point Ashton answers by spinning into her. She turns her attention towards him and starts to skip-hop backwards to avoid being opened up by his blades. This seems to irritate her. She fires off the weapon several times but the shots aren't pointed at Ashton -

"I'm the odd scholar, you fool!! I never leave myself alone!! It's important -" And then she makes one more further leap back, landing atop the head of some vile reptile that was slain by the Odessa soldier firmly lodged within its closed teeth. She tosses her hair back with her gun, getting greasy gun-filth in her bangs along the way.

"To ALWAYS!"

She raises her weapons heavensward. Around her feet an occultic sigil forms. Spinning outwards, red, triangle-in-circle.

"PRACTICE!"

The circle turns into a hexapointed star, then nine points, then twelve. The rings expand outwards, scribed in glyphic shapes and inscribed with unclean writing.

"SELF-AFFECTION!"

Erzebet's voice lowers half an octave and becomes throatier, and not in a flirty way. "Factor Three High-Trajectory Release. Targets designate <<Silver-1>>, <<Swordian-11>>, <<Projector-9>>." Those words are not words in any language - well, one person here might know of that tongue, but it is one even deader than is typical for Filgaia. Erzebet lets out a thin and reedy cackle as the glyph beneath her balloons upwards into a cone of radiant, unsavory-looking light, spikes up into the ground, and seems to -

            BURST!

At which point a concentrated hair of gunfire descends from above, as if those fiery shot-pellets were dumped at a high altitude by wicked demons, directly over the heads of Clarissa, Ashton, and ESPECIALLY Marie Valera.

"Ahh!! Firing a <<Strategic Action>> feels so good!" Erzebet cries during the barrage.

GS: Erzebet Lefanu has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Clarissa Arwin with Let's Liberate a Sexy Inferno!!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Ashton Anchors with Let's Liberate a Sexy Inferno!!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Marivel Armitage with Let's Liberate a Sexy Inferno!!
GS: Clarissa Arwin takes a glancing hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Let's Liberate a Sexy Inferno! for 102 hit points!
GS: Ashton Anchors guards a hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Let's Liberate a Sexy Inferno! for 138 hit points!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has lost 1 Combo!

DC: MISS! Marivel Armitage completely evades Let's Liberate a Sexy Inferno! from Erzebet Lefanu!

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda's spent so long hiding herself -- being less than she is, out of fear her friends might hate her for it. ... well, there's hardly any worry *there* now. Matilda shifts past Avril, moving with newfound alacrity -- she's always been agile, but now her long white coat billows as she moves, darting below and past Avril's blade.

Unfortunately, weaving out of the way of *that* forces her to step insufficiently lightly, planting a foot right in Jay's steaming, sapping solution. She sags a little -- but she holds her footing, just the same.

"Erzebet began to tell me this was coming... months ago -- but how long I've felt this way..." Matilda shakes her head. "... I don't think I remember feeling any *other* way, anymore. I think I would've made this decision even if Erzebet hadn't told me anything." There's a little evasiveness in her voice -- it's unclear how much of the whole story she's telling. ... but it doesn't sound like she's lying about the basics, either.

Matilda puts away Freischütz. At this distance, she's better off relying on the basics she's learned in her time as a Drifter and later as a mercenary commander. "... Please," Matilda says, as the flames start to close in. "Don't get up from this." She steps straight in toward Avril with a quick shoulder check, subtly shifting her stance as she does so; she then moves to Jay, tossing a flask of her own at *Jay's* feet. Her formulation isn't particularly far off from Jay's -- save that it's much more virulent, and affects the mind just as much as the body. It's hard to even think, if she stays close.

GS: Matilda Whitehead has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Tilling!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has entered a Reflect stance!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Through Clouds Obscure!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus shows every intention of continuing to harass Brad Evans. Though the man he knows is a thug, not a true warrior... but even beasts have their dangers. The gauntleted ARM the former prisoner wields is particularly impressive - the work of a former acquaintance from House Valeria, he reasons. Enough reason beyond the personal to end before it blossoms.

The old warrior shifts his body, trying to bring his sword to bear, but Leon smashes Argent Divider down into his forearm, slipping between plates and tearing line of crimson as the silvery blade slips away. Vinsfeld hisses a breath in, fighting through the pain, trying to end it... but then a buckshot round peppers his rear arc. The distance is extreme, and there is a faint flickering Violet's eyes might spot... but the net result is that Vinsfeld remains upright and comparatively unharmed. He snarls in the beastwoman's direction, opening his mouth to shout something---

*click*

The sound of the shotgun pressing against a breastplate echoes across the battlefield, carving through the din. Brad's finger tightens on the trigger, as Vinsfeld starts to look down. There is a roar, and then a blast, and then the two combatants are hurled away, one by recoil, the other by sheer violence. Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus hurtles several yards through the air, then crashes into the ground, his body curled inward around where the super shotgun went off, point blank. For a second, the old warrior lies still.

But then Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus rises.

The old warrior lifts himself to his feet, his cape billowing away, revealing not the caved-in chestplate and gore-filled cavity that Brad might have expected from the assault, but a slight bit of carbon scoring and a pair of two-inch lines, where each of the barrels were centred. Behind the old warrior, the ranks of Odessa burst into cacaphonous cheers, as their leader brushes off the front of his chest, then starts walking calmly back toward the fray.

Behind him, for those with eyes sharp enough to spot it, a pair of broken tiles fall away from the old man's sword belt, the Symbols dying as they release the force of the shotgun blasts.

"A valiant effort!" Vinsfeld roars, and for the first time since the engagement began, he lifts his sword upward, shifting to a ready position. As his second hand joins the first on the hilt, the zweihander erupts in a crackling crimson energy, shot through with lines of shivering ebon, swirling down the length of the sword. The old warrior breaks into another rush, simply charging through Xantia's blasts of energy, relying on his armour and the Symbolic tiles to deal with the worst of the sorcerous attack. Dash's blast staggers him for a moment, but Vinsfeld keeps on coming, emitting a loud roar, the blade held trailing over his right shoulder.

A dozen feet away from Leon and the others, Vinsfeld plants his left foot, sparks spraying up from where his steel-shod boot grates against the stone, and then sweeps his body around in a 270-degree arc, carving a line of crimson darkness through the air in a sizzling line. The energy wave flashes out from Vinsfeld's sword toward the Drifters, hurtling in toward their bodies, with energy flame and fell alike.

And then, impossibly, it stops. Hovering in place, a giant lines of black and red, flickering and dancing.

Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus lifts his left hand, fingers spread. "LEOHT!" he roars, clenching the fist, at which point the crackling energy explodes outward into a hundred twisting filaments, slashing, and seeking... and then fading away.

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    A great wall of flame erupts from Vinsfeld's incredible amount of advance planning for this very battlefield. The logistics that have gone into setting up this trap to prevent distance attackers from maintaining a decisive tactical advantage are mind-boggling, and already Ratatoskr's mind distractedly races to some other obscure chapter of the Slayheim Liberation Army's time where similar tactics were used.
     ...But not so distracted as to be blindsided by Quin trying to lasso the Hyadean before her. A clawed hand dips down to grab at the incoming lasso which is otherwise so deftly timed to coincide with his landing from the knee strike on Ida. She gets it tight enough around his hand that it starts to constrict blood flow.
     Quin might have had her ability to stand taken from her. It's about to be forcefully given back as he yanks on it hard in an attempt to pull her back up, pull her closer--
     --all while Ida is skillfully maneuvering around him and going to another flank. The First Method is demonstrated thusly as she draws Devil's Due and navigates her limb - not her limb and her weapon, they are as one - past the tail that would be the roadblock.
     Compressed air escapes and vacates as a breeze through Ida's ankles harmlessly as he fires off a compressed air shotgun within his lower leg to aid in leaping up in a backflipping motion, flexing his squirrel-like tail as it too wraps just past the sawed-off that was only a scant moment of a moment of a moment ago at the small of his back, grazing and scalding segmented plate.
     All while the momentum is poised to pull Quin - if she still holds that rope - upright as he flips and brings the other leg down upon from high. She can see the opening at one of his feet moments before its contents discharge.
     Another burst of compressed air, threatening once more to try and rob her of autonomy of her positioning on the battlefield. Down, possibly up, and then possibly right back down again - like someone caught in a maelstrom that they cannot shield against, or move freely against - but would she be a simple victim to these machinations?
     "That is... that is Method Mercury..." Ratatoskr's words might be lost in the crackling of Symbological fire not too far off, but they are filled with awe as he comes back down in a crouch, his left hand touching at the ground near a fallen soldier, face-down. The grin lessens a touch with that brush of intimidation. It widens again as eagerness punches that intimidation in the shoulder metaphorically.
     There is, to an outside observer, a puzzling moment in which Ratatoskr doesn't launch cleanly and readily into a counter-offensive as he gives the fallen Odessa soldier a nudge so that they now instead lay face-up, as if it were important to see that face. There's nothing special to that face to an outside observer. A woman who lived to her late twenties, the bronze of her tone suggesting she lived somewhere in the Badlands.
     He seems to peer down at them in momentary contemplation. "You might see them all in the same colors..."
     His grin widens again as he throws himself forward again. With the way bodies are strewn, it seems inevitable in closing the distance that his feet would necessarily have to step upon a fallen body, but it's easy to lose in the moment the skill in which his feet navigate the scant openings between those corpses as to not damage or disturb them further as he runs at Ida anew, throwing a knee up around chest level as he raises his arm from the same side with a clenched fist, bending inward as he brings the elbow down upon her head.
     "...I see a prism I never thought possible...!"

GS: Jacqueline Barber critically Guards a hit from Matilda Whitehead's Through Clouds Obscure for 0 hit points!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has lost 1 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Quin Rosenberg with Overhead Shoot!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Cracker!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has activated a Force Action!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Accelerate!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Matilda Whitehead's Tilling for 71 hit points!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has spent 3 Combo on Link, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Violet Salazar with Those Who Hate Most Fervently Must Have Once Loved Deeply!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Leon Albus with Those Who Hate Most Fervently Must Have Once Loved Deeply!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Brad Evans with Those Who Hate Most Fervently Must Have Once Loved Deeply!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Dash Caskett with Those Who Hate Most Fervently Must Have Once Loved Deeply!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Xantia with Those Who Hate Most Fervently Must Have Once Loved Deeply!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has launched an attack Link!
GS: Quin Rosenberg guards a hit from Ratatoskr's Overhead Shoot for 71 hit points!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Violet Salazar with Those Who Want To Deny The World Must Have Once Embraced That
Which They Now Consign To The Flames!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Leon Albus with Those Who Want To Deny The World Must Have Once Embraced That
Which They Now Consign To The Flames!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Brad Evans with Those Who Want To Deny The World Must Have Once Embraced That
Which They Now Consign To The Flames!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Dash Caskett with Those Who Want To Deny The World Must Have Once Embraced That
Which They Now Consign To The Flames!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Xantia with Those Who Want To Deny The World Must Have Once Embraced That Which
They Now Consign To The Flames!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has completed his action.
GS: Leon Albus takes a solid hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Those Who Hate Most Fervently Must Have Once Loved Deeply
for 142 hit points!
GS: Leon Albus guards a hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Those Who Want To Deny The World Must Have Once Embraced That
Which They Now Consign To The Flames for 0 hit points!
GS: Leon Albus has been afflicted by a Curse!
GS: Break, Cripple, Jam, Mute, Slow, and Weaken! Statuses applied to Leon Albus!
GS: Leon Albus enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Brad Evans takes a solid hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Those Who Hate Most Fervently Must Have Once Loved Deeply
for 141 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Brad Evans guards a hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Those Who Want To Deny The World Must Have Once
Embraced That Which They Now Consign To The Flames for 0 hit points!
GS: Brad Evans has been afflicted by a Curse!
GS: Break, Cripple, Cripple, Jam, Jam, Mute, Slow, and Weaken! Statuses applied to Brad Evans!
GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus!
GS: Violet Salazar takes a glancing hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Those Who Hate Most Fervently Must Have Once Loved
Deeply for 71 hit points!
GS: Violet Salazar takes a glancing hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Those Who Want To Deny The World Must Have Once
Embraced That Which They Now Consign To The Flames for 0 hit points!
GS: Violet Salazar has been afflicted by a Curse!
GS: Break, Cripple, Jam, Mute, Slow, and Weaken! Statuses applied to Violet Salazar!
GS: Violet Salazar enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Dash Caskett has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has lost 1 Combo!

DC: MISS! Dash Caskett completely evades Those Who Hate Most Fervently Must Have Once Loved Deeply from Vinsfeld
Rhadamanthus!

GS: Dash Caskett guards a hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Those Who Want To Deny The World Must Have Once Embraced That
Which They Now Consign To The Flames for 0 hit points!
GS: Dash Caskett has been afflicted by a Curse!
GS: Break, Cripple, Jam, Mute, Slow, and Weaken! Statuses applied to Dash Caskett!
GS: Dash Caskett enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Xantia takes a glancing hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Those Who Hate Most Fervently Must Have Once Loved Deeply
for 71 hit points!
GS: Xantia takes a glancing hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Those Who Want To Deny The World Must Have Once Embraced
That Which They Now Consign To The Flames for 0 hit points!
GS: Xantia has been afflicted by a Curse!
GS: Break, Cripple, Jam, Mute, Slow, and Weaken! Statuses applied to Xantia!
GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Ratatoskr's Cracker for 73 hit points!
GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield! Statuses applied to Ratatoskr!

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"I'm afraid I noticed," Leon answers Brad. "How bloody irritating." Any attempt at having a lighter tone of voice, however, fails; there is the unmistakeable tension in Leon's voice, which comes when he faces down an opponent that, he quickly realizes, is his superior. This is proven when Vinsfeld, shot twice and cut once, is hurtled across the battlefield... and stands again.

"How bloody irritating indeed," he mutters, and without any of the dry humor from before.

The zweihander comes crashing down as Vinsfeld charges, impossibly, through all Xantia and Dash have to throw at him. Leon feels his heart in his throat, watching that; then all of his training comes back, and he presses down on a button on his belt. A trio of golden triangles drop off. The energy wave slams into Leon, pitching him backward.

He smashes through the dusty bones of one hound-like monster, and sees the filaments coming. They slam not into him, though, but a shield of aquamarine light -- caught between three floating triangles that hold them at bay. Leon turns his head, spitting blood on the ground.

"You keep telling us about the righteousness of your cause. Your soldiers keep saying they won't be used," Leon says. "I understand that. Kislev didn't do more than use me, for my entire life. And, when they didn't need me, they discarded me. What you say is tempting, but I know myself."

The raid funnels break. They form into an orbit around Leon, and he goes running forward. "I think you're using a moral justification for what you wanted to do anyways. It's something I've toyed with, before I go back to being honest with myself."

Then Leon leaps. He comes down for Vinsfeld the way he did with Gryndille. He stabs the blade down, slamming it for the hardest part of his black plate -- and then he squeezes the trigger. There is a loud, metallic hiss in the air, and a blade of silver light erupts around the sword -- and drives down for the old commander's chest.

"I'm not a very good person, and I don't expect someone who says things I've thought to be the same," Leon concludes, softly, as he tries to drive the energy blade home.

GS: Leon Albus has activated a Force Action!
GS: Leon Albus enters a Counter stance!
GS: Leon Albus has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Code.29 JOYEUSE!
GS: Leon Albus has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus guards a hit from Leon Albus's Code.29 JOYEUSE for 112 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Clarissa Arwin has posed.

Clarissa glances Marivel's way and puffs her cheeks again. "Good! Please stay that way!"

As Erzebet lunges clear and away, Clarissa tries to focus on tracking her. For a moment, she doesn't say anything, just breathing in, then letting it out. By all rights the woman with the fiery ARM should be getting under her skin.

But that's not what those emotions are meant for, she reminds herself.

Then the other woman's voice changes starkly. Clarissa widens her eyes a little. "What on earth--"

Haborym opens up and unleashes gunfire as if from the heavens. Pounding blasts slam into the earth around the girl in blue. "Oh no!" Clarissa exclaims, staggering back - but as she does, she cries out, her scorched leg giving out beneath her. She tumbles to earth and stares as the flames close in on her--

    Until there is a dark blur.

"Felius!" Clarissa gasps as the young man in black lunges in front of her. Firepower showers them both, and Clarissa's eyes go wide with shock as Felius lurches with pain and sags to a knee as a couple of blasts slam into his shoulders. Fire and spray rain down around the two, debris pelting Clarissa and flames licking at her - but the worst of it is soon past, and she swallows hard, reaching up with a gloved hand. It hurts to move.

"Felius, are you alright...?" Her fingers brush over his shoulder gingerly.

"Yes." Lifting his head, Felius manages to remain as taciturn as ever despite lines of pain around the corners of his eyes. "Don't worry about it."

A lump rises in Clarissa's throat, and she tries to swallow it down. "Please go take care of yourself," she urges him, before beginning to ease to her feet.

She steps around Felius; the glaive-wielding man lurches out of the field of combat, leaving a smouldering Clarissa to take her feet again, unbowed.

"I didn't go to a fancy college, miss -- I didn't get your name, but Miss Fire ARM," she says with a huff as she lowers her weapon. "But it seems like all you want is to be on the winning end of some kind of power dynamic, when you haven't even considered that maybe power isn't the only thing that matters. Not everything has to be a dominance hierarchy, you know!" She begins to move forward, and--

Calls out to Ashton. "Sir!! I like the rain, too! Please, stay strong and don't let them get to you."

To Marivel. "Miss--"

Clarissa pauses. Gropes for some inspiring words.

Settles for giving her a big stupid thumbs-up. "...Please keep being cool!"

GS: Clarissa Arwin has spent 1 Combo on Inspire, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has attacked Ashton Anchors with We Can Do It Together!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has attacked Marivel Armitage with We Can Do It Together!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Clarissa Arwin takes 8 damage from Poison!
GS: Clarissa Arwin takes 12 damage from Toxin!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida hisses out a breath as Ratatoskr springs up and around her, almost too fast for the untrained eye to follow, much less react to. Ida's shots dig into the permafrost, leaving steaming craters behind. She's already in motion, holstering the ARM with her right hand while her left rises up, open. She twists on a heel, even as she steps back into the constant circling motion that lies at the heart of Method Mercury's footwork. Circle the foe. Test their defenses. Unfortunately, Ratatoskr is refusing to stay in that circle, which is a bit of a problem, but Method Mercury is nothing if not adaptable.

    "Above!" Ida shouts, to Quin. "Move!"

    And then--

    Ida stops, facing Ratatoskr as the poignant moment transpires. It's over too quickly. Ida's gauntleted right hand grips Ratatoskr's arm as it comes down, but it only blunts the momentum. She steps to the side, out of its way, but then the Hyadean's knee slams into the side of her head. Stars ignite behind her eyes. Pain shoots through her skull. She stumbles backwards, her body wobbling atop shaky, unsteady legs.

    "Not bad at all," she chokes out. Ida sways upright, turns the motion into a wild haymaker backed up by the mass of the gauntlet encasing her whole right arm. She steps forwards with it, twists, recovers a little more. Her left hand curls into a fist, and rushes forwards in a jab at Ratatoskr's shoulder.

<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

"LEOHT!" And energy bursts out from Vinsfeld, fragmenting, soaring boldly outwards, seeking. Violet tries desperately to dodge, but two of the filaments twine around her left leg, burning deeply. She manages to throw herself out of the way of the rest of them, but is now at a disadvantage, prone on the ground. Of course, given a minute to gather her wits, she can fire her ARM from that position -- but the Curse makes it slow, awkward going. Not that she has much confidence she can wound the big man with the sword. Instead, she aims just over Vinsfeld's head, hoping to distract him. Surely he can't continue to use magic without concentration...at least she hopes not! She is, alas, not an expert in sorcery. Once her bullet has left her ARM she turns her attention to her injuries, binding and bandaging them. Those are going to be painful for awhile...!

GS: Violet Salazar has activated a Force Action!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ratatoskr with Lotus Sets Its Roots!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Hot Blooded!
GS: Violet Salazar has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus guards a hit from Violet Salazar's Hot Blooded for 102 hit points!
GS: Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus!

<Pose Tracker> Quin Rosenberg has posed.

Quin views the shrinking wall of flame with a frown of disdain... and more than a little worry. "...It jus' ruddy figgurs," she mutters. "Figgurs the heroic fight'd spill over onta those of us what're jus' tryin' ta get by. S' how it always is..." But either way, that adds a bit more urgency to the fight. A bit more need to get things over with quickly.

('Guess I better step it up a little...')

Unfortunately Quin's going to have to step to Ratatoskr's rhythm, at least for a little while, because he yanks HARD on the rope she's still holding. She gives a sharp, shocked yelp, Ida's warning not registering until it was too late, and finds herself facing down what is essentially an ARM barrel, on the bottom of the Hyadean's foot. Unable to do much else than cross her arms in front of her to protect her face, she gives another cry, this one of pain, as she's thrown away from him, almost into that fire. And the only reason it's NOT into the fire is because she stabs her downward-pointing dagger into the ground to bring herself to a stop.

Quickly she puts space between herself and the encroaching fire. That brings her closer to Ida and Ratatoskr, but well... Quin did say she needed to 'step it up', right? So, well... let's get to steppin'.

Wincing as she puts weight on her banged-up ankle, she sweeps in, again from Ratatoskr's side as Ida hopefully holds his frontal attention. This time she tries to sweep into a flashy (for her, anyway) jumping spin. Her proximity to Ratatoskr as she does this, though, coupled with the fact that she has her daggers pointed out to her sides, means that unless he's careful -- or if her ankle is hurting her enough to throw her aim off, which is very likely -- the points of those daggers are going to tag him on her way up.

GS: Quin Rosenberg has attacked Ratatoskr with Fang and Claw!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"I was speaking on behalf of the Great Houses of Aquvy. They consider you to be terrorists, yes." Marie says. "I felt it was important for everybody present to know what the reprecussions of their choices today would be. It is after all a little different to agree conceptually with Vinsfeld and to make yourself an enemy of the state in order to agree with him. Personally, the word 'terrorist' doesn't have much meaning for me. The only thing that matters to me is if you are going to add to the damage to Filgaia or repair it and when you have summoned a giant wall of fire in order to push us closer to that--" She gestures with a hand towards the Sorcery Globe. "--then I must see with my own eyes and claws whether you are the enemy of nations--which is hardly a concern of mine--or an enemy of the world. That is the inheritance my parents have left me and if I felt toppling some nations would be enough to save Filgaia then I would do so."

She does not mind explaining her reasoning and nature, though she isn't exactly commenting on her nature just yet.

Erzebet comments that the DEAD can't have their feelings hurt anymore. Marie frowns faintly.

"The dead certainly have feelings. All the trashy crimson noble romance novels say it's so. And then there's the ghosts... but I suppose if you remove the undead..."

"I'm not odd! I'm a run of the mill scholar!" Marie asides grumpily to Ashton, despite having been shot like ten times and ... didn't bleed, apparently, though those wisps of smoke haven't gone away. You just can't win Ashton.

"But, er..." Marivel says, allowing some nervous tones into her voice. "You might....really wish to reconsider shooting those as often as you are. You don't have infinite blood, you know."

She frowns. Why IS Vinsfeld pushing them in? Maybe she can find out.

"Pardon a moment." She tells Ashton as Erzebet unleashes the mighty power of symbology to unleash a pretty impressive barrage of gunfire from above.

However by the time Erzebet is done with that complex maneuver, Marie.... is simply no longer there.

She has teleported past her and up towards the Sorcery Globe, crouching down in an attempt to avoid getting her head shot off while she's trying to gather readings with her goggles.

Her eyes narrow severely.

"...Really hope this is not a bomb." She mutters to herself in a display of genuineness that is at odds with her general behavior so far today. At least Erzebet doesn't have to worry about having more doom spells launched at her.

GS: Quin Rosenberg has canceled their attack on Ratatoskr.
GS: Quin Rosenberg has activated a Force Action!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has attacked Ratatoskr with Fang and Claw!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has completed her action.
GS: Clarissa Arwin heals Ashton Anchors! He gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Ashton Anchors gains a Combo from Inspire!
GS: Clarissa Arwin heals Marivel Armitage! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Marivel Armitage gains a Combo from Inspire!
GS: Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Lotus Sets Its Roots for 89 hit points!
GS: Ratatoskr enters CONDITION GREEN!!

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Clarissa offers some inspiring words!

"Cool as a corpse, Miss Arwin!" Marivel grins, offering a thumbsup as she takes her readings.

GS: Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Quin Rosenberg's Fang and Claw for 94 hit points!
GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Quin Rosenberg!

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    She can already tell that her blade has not struck. Whether this is a blessing or a point of despair remains to be seen.

    She has by now risen to her feet, gaze locked on Matilda and Matilda alone.

    "So this was planned..."

    Something to her expression wavers, as if she were struck by the full weight of understanding here and now.

    'Please, don't get up from this."
    Avril has but seconds to react. She twists, holding her wounded shoulder away from Matilda as the other woman closes; her long silver hair flutters free. But though Matilda might not catch her there, Matilda is fast. Avril only trades one potential wound for a certain one, and as she passes Matilda -- not stopping as she pivots ahead -- she stumbles but a moment.

    "...So it must be," she murmurs, perhaps answering her earlier statement. "Jacqueline-- permit me this!"

    Frost swirls around her as she stabs her sword into the burning earth. Though the heat protests, the magic proves the stronger, radiating outwards and towards Jay to detonate upwards in a much-needed chilling spray of frost to mediate the local temperatures.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Triple Point!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Jacqueline Barber takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Triple Point for 0 hit points!
GS: Reload! Jacqueline Barber gains 15 extra FP from Avril Vent Fleur!

<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

Erzebet leaps away - Ashton pursues. Or tries to pursue. She's quicker than she looks, and he can't climb dead lizard monsters so well.

So she has some distance. And creates... oh, that glyph can't be good.

The sellsword braces himself again as the barrage of gunfire rains down. He's caught off-guard by it, however - he wasn't expecting it to fall from the sky like that. Ashton's knees buckle a little under the pounding. But he keeps his feet.

"For an academic," he quips, "You certainly are rather aggressive. And well armed."

There's some distance between them now, and not so much easy cover to advance under. Choices, choices....

Ashton's moment of thought is diverted as Clarissa calls out - and as he feels the refreshing assurance wash over him. A bright smile breaks out immediately. "Ashton Anchors, at your service miss!" Ah, wait. That's the way. "I would introduce you and your cool friend to my companions..." Ashton turns back towards Erzebet. "But I believe I should have someone else meet them first."

"CREEPY! WEEPY! NOW!" Shouting the names isn't really required. But it IS an easy way to introduce the nice ladies to his companions.

And on cue, the two dragons - one red, one blue - rise up from the spellsword's shoulders. And they grow, gaining size and bulk until they dwarf the mercenary himself. Two dragons that roar loudly amidst the chaos, even as the wall of flame starts to encroach towards them. Two dragons...

And the breath of dragons - of fire and frost - that spews towards the Odessan gunner.

GS: Ashton Anchors has activated a Force Action!
GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Dragon Breath!
GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.

Brad can already tell he didn't blow a hole in Vinsfeld's chest the size of the moon because he's not either screaming or making the...other, noise, that that causes. He's looking for it, this time, when the tiles fall away. "Symbological tiles," Brad mutters. "Force disp--" He grunts and cuts himself off. He doesn't know Symbology, and even the armchair version he picked up in the SLA won't let him get ahead of whatever Vinsfeld is trying. Guessing what he's got ready is useless, other than noting the effectiveness of what he's done to date. "He's penning us in," Brad mutters toward Leon. "Not out, in. I can't leap for beans, you got anything?"

Xantia manages to say a collection of words that give Brad visible pause. "He is one," Brad says, quietly. "Or so they say." As for himself: Unaddressed.

Brad's fist tightens, and he swings that ARM gauntlet up again, particles jetting out of it in fabrication of--

Nothing! Because Vinsfeld started an action first! Brad aborts the replication and swings his Mechanical Gloved arm up in a cross-arm block against the first slash, blocking....nothing, again. The attack halted, and then resumed, swinging and swirling, and all Brad can do is scream as he's riddled with that power. He falls to his knees, wheezing, sizzling.

He runs the length of his hand beneath his smarting nose to clear the blood away, huffing. "Things I'd give to have Lilka here right about now..." he mutters, but it's not to be. He even lost track of Marivel. Damn. Nothing for it, then.

He swings his arm up, and a plain, completely inadequate gunsmoke rifle drops into his arms. He swings it up one-handed and fires, the recoil barely jerking him.

Then a second one drops down, and he fires that, too.

And then again, and again, and again....

GS: Brad Evans has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Instant Flintlock!
GS: Brad Evans has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus takes a solid hit from Brad Evans's Instant Flintlock for 82 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"Erzebet did?" Jacqueline repeats, sending a glance in the woman's direction. It would be all too easy to place all the blame on her shoulders, but...Jacqueline thought more highly of Matilda than that.

"...I see." She replies, looking back at Matilda once more.

"You could've...you could've talked to me about it..." Jacqueline says, quietly. She sounds a little hurt.

But despite what she feels, the battle still continues. Matilda makes to close the distance. As a primarily long-distance fighter, this puts Jacqueline at a disadvantage. She has to backpedal, but right as she does, a flask is thrown into her movement path. Jacqueline readjusts her path as it shatters, spilling a virulent concoction out over the nearby area. Jacqueline covers her nose and mouth quickly, avoiding the brunt of it - but even so, some of it manages to soak in.

Her mind swims, and her vision blurs. She backpedals, feeling as if her legs are about to buckle under her...but just as its about to overtake her, she feels a chill wash over her. Fighting off the rising heat, and warding away the fog settling in over her mind. It helps her to recover, to distance herself from Matilda's flash.

"Th-thank you..." She breathes, offering Avril a thankful nod. Once she's manage to restabilize herself, she gestures with her left hand. Tendrils of stone rise up, seeking Matilda - seeking to immobilize her.

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Matilda Whitehead with Profit Through Preparation!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ashton Anchors has lost 1 Combo!

DC: MISS! Erzebet Lefanu completely evades Dragon Breath from Ashton Anchors!

GS: CRITICAL! Matilda Whitehead takes a glancing hit from Jacqueline Barber's Profit Through Preparation for 101 hit
points!

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda puts herself in an unenviable position, as Avril bolsters Jay's advance with her icy magic. The earth springs up around Matilda, and she goes into a leap to escape it -- and in so doing, rams only a foot into it, severely twisting her ankle. It's better than being entirely trapped, but it hurts a *lot*.

"... I don't want to discuss that," Matilda replies to Jay, tone chilling a little bit. She starts to find her footing again, rounding on Avril first. Matilda switches gear again -- this time using her shield, finally landing at the classic sword-and-board style she started to pick up on Lunar. She strikes out at the Ice Queen, trying to bowl her off her feet and keep her from playing support further.

Then it's back to Jay; there's clear sadness in her eyes as she moves toward her, shield-first, trying to give her much the same treatment. There's a little bit of desperation in her movements, as she weighs whether it's even possible to get out of this situation without doing something -- grievous.

GS: Matilda Whitehead has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Rogue Hold Fast!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Rogue Hold Fast!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

"Okay, now this is really cheating!" Xantia has to say it aloud this time, because people just aren't supposed to be able to deal with her Ether-fueled attacks this easily. How is she, or anyone else for that matter, not managing to scratch this guy? She'd probably still be wondering that if she'd figured out the source of the magic protecting Vinsfeld, which she most assuredly has not.

Retaliation is swift, in the shape of something she can't even grasp the true form of. Sword magic is one thing, but that usually just travels forward, it doesn't just stop in mid-air and explode. Xantia reacts instinctively to the energy coming her way, but when it explodes afterwards, that cutting force is coming from an entirely different angle than even made sense in her head. She rises again sporting a number of fresh cuts, the electricity surrounding her entirely dissipated under the magical assault. She finally feels safe in concluding, "Right, so... not about to fight fair at all, huh?"

She takes a moment to give Brad an incredulous look for his response to her. "You're joking, right?" Well, she did mistake him for one, so maybe... She shakes her head resolutely. "Maybe a former hero, but he's not one now! No hero would cheat that much! And he hasn't done a heroic pose even once!"
ntia's perception of what a hero is might be based a little overly much on a single one.

Regardless, there's only one way out of this now. This time, fire is her element of choosing, flames surrounding her body without causing her any harm, much like the lightning before. Once again, she dashes in. The flames shift as she does, all drawn towards her hands as she charges. One might expect her to do similarly as before, when she launched into a series of electrically charged punches, just with a different element.

Instead, a shape that resembles a long spear forms in her hands, made entirely out of fire. And yet, the impact feels as solid as the impact as any lance would - briefly, until the entire magical construct explodes when she leaps away from it afterwards.

GS: Xantia has activated a Force Action!
GS: Xantia has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling!
GS: Xantia has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Inferno Lance!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus guards a hit from Xantia's Inferno Lance for 96 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Dash Caskett has posed.

This guy is made of sterner stuff than most. Attacks are bouncing off his armor. The Mega Buster is slowly lowered from its shield-projecting state for the moment, a gaze, that if it could be seen from beneath that glossy V, would be a look of 'are you serious?' toward Vinsfield.

The man retaliates with the force of incredible power through dedicated technique with the sword. A dark energy forming and cascading around the battlefield that is already limited to them. "Look out!" he shouts, and leaps high, and forward-flips over it, just barely.

boit boit

Landing causes the strangest noise to come from the warrior's feet. Possibly some kind of shock obsorber, but... okay?

Little time is left to analyze the event as that crescent deonates into stranges of seeking dark energy, of which inflicts all sorts of problems on Dash. His vision goes awry, he falls to a knee, and feels a weakness in his chest. "Who.. fights like this, even?!" he exclaims. Even his voice sounds odd for a moment. "Okay, done messing around! I was trying to hold back, but..."

His spare hand reaches for the large object on his back and pulls it up and over as he stands. It resembles a.... bazooka? Some sort of heavy ARM with a long cannon, and a quick-loading cartirdge on the side. A drum clip is on the back section. The blue drifter injects his weaponized arm into the side mechanism, and points it forward towards Vinsfield. "Everybody up front may want to move!" he calls, as he points the weapon in the air.

<VISION LOCK ENGAGED>

<A. Buster- burst launch:2_>

The weapon fires, steam billowing out the side. Two volleys of five miniature missiles each leap skyward for a small time, before seeming to stall out. As they fall however, the re-orient and re-ignite, aiming themselves right toward Vinsfield. They all come in at different arcing angles at a staccato like pace, to spread out the incoming damage in case the target decides to move.

After firing, the weapon is disengaged and detached from his arm, at which point two small panels open o nthe side of the Mega Byaster, a 'kssssssssssss' sound coming from the insides for a few seconds before shutting.

GS: Dash Caskett has activated a Force Action!
GS: Dash Caskett has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling!
GS: Dash Caskett has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Cluster Missile!
GS: Dash Caskett has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus takes a glancing hit from Dash Caskett's Cluster Missile for 61 hit points!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Matilda Whitehead's attack becomes clear!
GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber takes a solid hit from Matilda Whitehead's Iron in the Garden for 196 hit points!
GS: Cripple, Jam, and Poison! Statuses applied to Jacqueline Barber!
GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield! Statuses applied to Matilda Whitehead!

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    The horned squirrel Hyadean bears down upon Ida in that moment of vulnerability. At 'rest,' he towers over her - over the vast majority of humans. In battle, the lean of his posture oft appears more bestial - as if to better look them eye-to-eye, the glow of his solid yellow eyes casting an ever more sinister hue about the burning Symbological wall of fire that coaxes fighters ever closer to Vinsfeld himself.
     Ida's haymaker strikes into his solar plexus. A clawed hand tries to wrap in vain around this forearm as if wanting this part of the combination to linger for longer than it gets to - as if admiration just for the act of being punched by it - a pained exhale that does not lessen the grin on the alien warrior's face. His head dips as such that he could come just shy of tapping Ida's own head with his horn. "So, that is--"
     Ida's left arm jabs at his shoulder and sees him being shoved right off of her. Quin's timing makes sure that he has no time to fully regain his footing as slicing, spinning blades splash the battlefield further in quicksilver. Hyadean flesh moves to knit these wounds at a rate that shows why the battle against Mother's Metal Demons was not just uphill - it was a steep cliff.
     They were, to the average Drifter, nigh-unkillable.
     "...Just trying to get on by?" He snaps, as if in jest as he loses more of his footing catching himself from all of that. "Just trying to get on by! I don't get it..." His voice trails into a short stint of noxious laughter. "Come onnnn! With speed and strength like that... 'just trying to get on by...' no. Someone like you... I know there's more... show me... don't hold any of it back...!"
     It seems counter-productive to seemingly turn his back upon Quin to hurl himself at Ida again... twisting and turning in mid-air until his back is facing her, liquid metal folding out into a patagium - a natural skin parachute, of sorts - creating a large surface area to make his entire back something of a shield as he sets his tail low against the ground, flexing it to hurl his back bodily into Ida as his sneer falls upon Quin.
     "March 23rd, 501 Post Collapse...! If you won't be a part of that history today... I'll never forgive you...!"
     ...Still, Quin now has a fair bit of distance between Ratatoskr and herself. She could turn tail and run, try to hide in the shadows somewhere. She might be able to wait out the engagement. There's enough monster bodies to hide behind, or under. There's so much chaos going on that she'd be easy to miss.
     Would she take him up on it?

GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Reverse Ambush!
GS: Ratatoskr used Mystic on Ratatoskr! Status effect durations increased by 2! Temporary HP duration increased by 2!
GS: Ratatoskr has activated a Force Action!
GS: Ratatoskr has spent 2 Combo on Inspire and Reload, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Quin Rosenberg with Shoot The Messenger!
GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Accelerate!
GS: Quin Rosenberg takes a solid hit from Ratatoskr's Shoot The Messenger for 0 hit points!
GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: Reload! Quin Rosenberg gains 15 extra FP from Ratatoskr!
GS: Quin Rosenberg gains a Combo from Inspire!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Matilda Whitehead's attack becomes clear!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Matilda Whitehead's Harvest for 55 hit points!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has lost 0 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Ratatoskr's Reverse Ambush for 60 hit points!
GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Ratatoskr!

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Surprise! It's not a shield bash at all -- at least not for Jay!

Matilda's blade lashes out quickly -- it's clear she's going for quick, forceful strikes in low-lethality areas, hoping to leave Jay wounded enough to stop fighting but not wounded enough that she can't tend to herself.

For Avril, on the other hand, it's just a shield bash -- though the extent to which it's positively clubbing is a little more obvious once it actually comes in. Like the other attack, it's not terribly lethal -- but it does threaten to put Avril substantially off balance.

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

Though Violet may not be terribly familiar with sorcery, her skill with firearms seems sufficient to the task; the leader of Odessa twists his body to try and avoid her sightline, but the slug cuts through the metal high on his right pauldron, taking meat and blood with it on the way out. It's the most solid hit she - or anyone else - has had on the man since the fight begun, despite his seemingly shrugging off blows that should incapacitate him. There is clearly a method to the madness that is Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus - the only question is whether it can be discovered before he makes good on his promise.

"Black Wolf," the old warrior answers, his voice heavy, "I do not deny you know a part of me. But do not presume to think the part you know gives you right to judge all that is left!" Vinsfeld slashes his zweihander down in a low guard, his cape - stained grey by the ash and earth he's been rolling around - flutters out behind him. "Any thought of 'moral justification' for the horrors of war... any dream I once had of the nobility of conflict... those thoughts died with Slayheim." The old man's face passes into a vicious snarl. "Isn't that right, BRADLEY EVANS!? You---"

Vinsfeld stops, blinking toward Erzebet. "Did... did someone just yell... Creepy and... Weepy?" he asks.

But then Leon Albus, the Black Wolf, comes leaping in, Argent Divider stabbing downward. Vinsfeld brings his two-handed blade up, palm pressed against the flat of his sword, and catches Leon's strike on the crossguard. Here again, preparation and foreknowledge pay off - reports of Leon's prowess have included mention of this little trick, which is enough to give the leader of Odessa some warning. He shifts his weight and stance, allowing Argent Divider's sizzling edge to pierce down along his side, the tip stabbing into the top of his right thigh. Vinsfeld starts to press agaisnt the attack - but then Brad's shots slam into him, staggering him, giving Leon another inch and a half of ground. The old warrior's body shifts downward, his left knee hitting the stone with a click.

And the noise - the thought of kneeling - lights a fire in the old man's heart. He closes his eyes, and speaks a short phrase.

Show the world a true vision and though the world may call you mad...
Mountains shall crumble and the heavens shake before your will...

The zweihander - Mad Mountains - is suddenly enveloped in a field of sharp-edged force, filling the wavy indentations in the sword's thickness, and forming a thick, tapered triangular blade of shifting black and red. Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus lets loose a wordless battlecry and then explodes upwards in a sudden surge of raw power, all but throwing Leon Albus off of him. The old warrior rises to his full height, gripping Mad Mountains in his right fist, his eyes alight with rage.

"You wish to speak to me of authority, whether moral or temporal?" he shouts to the skies, to the Drifters around him. "There is no such thing! If it ever existed, it died upon the salt fields of Slayheim! I ask you this, Black Wolf - who claims to judge me, on this broken land? The fat princes of Meria Boule, Sylvaland, or Guild Galad?"

Dash Caskett fires miniature missiles in his direction; Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus slashes off to his left, ripping through the projectiles - which sprinkle him in shrapnel - and carrying on toward Dash, Violet, and Brad. "What divine element claims to judge me, based on laws passed down from ancient mysticism? Any god who would torment his people so is no god I would acknowledge!"

Vinsfeld continues to stalk forward, even as Xantia fires a spear of flame toward him; the leader of Odessa twists his hand and slashes out with Mad Mountains, smashing the bolt and bathing himself in fire. He continues to move forward, his cape and armor smoldering. Vinsfeld slashes another flickering sword beam toward Xantia - only this one, she can see, is cutting through the lines of Ether themselves, shredding them apart, until it crashes down toward Xantia, with a sound unlike anything in this world.

--<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-UZpsL50oE>--

"So send me your gods!" the old warrior screams, raising his sword overhead. "Send me your Guardians!" he demands, stopping his advance in front of Leon. "AND WATCH THEM BREAK UPON THE ROCK THAT IS VINSFELD RHADAMANTHUS!"

Mad Mountains descends upon Argent Divider like an unstoppable force.

And the silvery blade gives way.

GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Dash Caskett with Old Soldiers Never Die - They Rise In Greatest Glory!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Violet Salazar with Old Soldiers Never Die - They Rise In Greatest Glory!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Brad Evans with Old Soldiers Never Die - They Rise In Greatest Glory!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Xantia with Are Men A Sad Mistake Made Of The Gods' Great Plan - Or Is It The
Gods That Are A Mistake Of Man!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Leon Albus with Evil Men Require Nothing More To Encompass Their Ends Than That
Good Men Should Look On And Do Nothing!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has completed his action.
GS: Violet Salazar takes a glancing hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Old Soldiers Never Die - They Rise In Greatest
Glory for 65 hit points!
GS: Xantia takes a solid hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Are Men A Sad Mistake Made Of The Gods' Great Plan - Or Is It
The Gods That Are A Mistake Of Man for 0 hit points!
GS: Silence! Statuses applied to Xantia!
GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Dash Caskett takes a solid hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Old Soldiers Never Die - They Rise In Greatest Glory for
130 hit points!
GS: COUNTER! Leon Albus strikes at Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with a counter attack!
GS: Leon Albus guards a hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Evil Men Require Nothing More To Encompass Their Ends Than That
Good Men Should Look On And Do Nothing for 176 hit points!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus guards a hit from Leon Albus's Counter Attack for 42 hit points!
GS: Brad Evans critically Guards a hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's Old Soldiers Never Die - They Rise In Greatest Glory
for 28 hit points!
GS: Brad Evans enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Brad Evans has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has lost 1 Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Are you alright?" she calls to Jay, before her attention returns to the immediate threat.

    What will... Dean think?

    "...Matilda, we shall speak later." Avril's voice remains even, controlled, in spite of the situation now set on the table before them.
    In spite of the shield that clangs against her sword, forcing her back from her positioning here in Elluria's ruins.

    Meanwhile, the situation around them is growing ever more dire. Even if they prevail against Matilda, what will--
    There is no time for such a thought in a war, speaks the voice from within.
    I am a blade, Avril reminds herself, and hardly for the first time.

    "Jacqueline. Please follow my lead," she says, after a heave of a breath. In a flash, the blade of Absolute Zero vanishes as if it had never been. The hilt of the weapon is returned from whence it came.

    And replaced by the Medium, which she now draws forth.

    She meets Jay's gaze but once, then pointedly glances upwards. It's all the forewarning Jacqueline will receive.

    "Lucadia... please," she intones, before with the Guardian's power--

    She is skyborne, Medium cradled against her chest with her broken arm.

    For the moment, she floats.
    For the moment, ice -- frost -- compresses to a singular point in her right hand. "Overhead--"

    She releases it. It unfolds, like a many petaled thing, the power wrapped into it already coming undone. "SORCERY!" The time to strike and add to it is limited.

    "Now!" shouts Avril, as gravity reasserts itself and she begins to plummet back to earth.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Matilda Whitehead with Overhead Sorcery!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

Violet jumps and ducks aside, but cries out as Vinsfeld's Mad Mountains conflagration grazes a burning, jagged line down her torso. She's fortunate that it's magical energy and not the blade itself! She hears him challenging the gods -- and the Guardians. On that at least, they can see eye to eye. She's seen too many unanswered prayers, too many innocent lives lost. She does not bother praying now, either that Vinsfeld fall, or that her life may be spared. It's a pointless endeavor. Still, given her druthers, she'd rather live. She places her ARM in overdrive mode and fires. Vinsfeld may be able to defend against it, but then again he may not. Her last shot did more than a token amount of damage, she thinks. It's hard to tell under all the armor...

GS: Violet Salazar has activated a Force Action!
GS: Violet Salazar has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling!
GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Finishing Touch!
GS: Violet Salazar has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has activated a Force Action!
GS: CRITICAL! Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus guards a hit from Violet Salazar's Finishing Touch for 120 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.

"Taking care of your investment, are you?" Erzebet jeers at Clarissa as she tends to her ally. It's subtle but there are, perhaps, causes to reason that Erzebet is some combination of 'not a nice person' and 'not a mentally stable person.' She does seem to need a moment after that barrage.

She tilts her head forwards then, and she grins.

"Perhaps it doesn't," Erzebet tells Clarissa, "but that is something that's awfully convenient to say when you aren't on the pointy end of one, isn't it? Consider, though, what it is that you're protecting...! You aren't guarding people's lives... or the energy flows of Filgaia... or even the Guardians. None of these things are our enemy! Except in so far as individual people may occasionally, well, I'm not going to dwell on it," she circles the air with one gun, and loses her train of thought, which transfers to Marie Station.

"If a man is dying of a poison arrow in his groin," Erzebet tells Marivel, "and it is put in very deep, deep enough that a surgeon must be called and must cut, yes, cut and release the blood and perhaps even risk injuring the groin itself for good - is that not... you know... a good plan? Even though it involves knives, yes, and cutting, yes; and certainly the spilling of blood? It is true that you aren't going to get results DIRECTLY by the spilling of blood," Erzebet continues, flourishing her arms apart, "but the spilling of blood is often CONNECTED. It's like your bacon and egg in the morning. The chicken is INVOLVED, the pig is COMMITTED--"

Ashton is talking.

"I'm aggressive in all kinds of ways," Erzebet tells Ashton, shaking her hips a little as she does. "And my name is Erzebet Mara Lefanu, if it pleases you. That's M A R A for the middle name, you know; not a single L to be found before the end - what?"

Her glasses slide down her nose. "What the fudge?" she says as she is faced with the sudden surging massive size of the twin dragons, going from looking down her nose at Ashton to looking up at 'Creepy' and 'Weepy'. The dragons inhale and that is when Erzebet snaps her head to the side and throws herself towards the icy-one even as they breathe. She travels slightly to the side of the bone-cracking frost, which coats the corpse on which she perched in rime. She aims her guns down and fires them both in unison once! twice! thrice! Which knocks her up

JUST enough

to hook her arm in the downswept horn of the blue dragon... swing forwards... and as she sails through the air, cry out, "This farce has gone far enough! Perish in obscurity!" She fires a single screeching round at the back of Ashton, which erupts into quasi-demoniac fire as it soars. Her other gun twirls round in her hand and, without looking, she points it towards Clarissa. Her head turns towards her but it can't have swivelled far enough for her to truly aim before she fires, except that the round is damnable - twisting out, more spike than shot-ball, aimed towards the leg again, but this time towards the inside of the thigh.

She lands.

And then she turns round to call up to Marie, "Don't fall in!" at the same time that she takes a single pot-shot at her. This one is more purple-pink than red. It screams forwards, and it takes a moment to get there. Good thing that this round is not carrying any profound surprises - though, perhaps it would be plausible for Marie to catch it, hopefully before it bursts into twisted, corkscrew-like shrapnel.

You know, in theory.

GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Ashton Anchors with Let's Break The Laws Restraining Our Hearts!!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Clarissa Arwin with Does This Look Loaded To You?!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has completed her action.
GS: Clarissa Arwin takes a glancing hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Does This Look Loaded To You? for 77 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Ashton Anchors guards a hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Let's Break The Laws Restraining Our Hearts! for 221 hit
points!
GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Ashton Anchors!
GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield! Statuses applied to Erzebet Lefanu!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has activated a Force Action!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Marivel Armitage with Pull My Erze-Trigger!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Quin Rosenberg has posed.

'Just trying to get by'.

Ratatoskr seems to take issue with that. "Yeah, what's wrong wi' just tryin' t' get by?" she queries. "Thousands a' people out there, they're all jus' tryin' ta get by. Ain't everybody's as strong as you. And that ain't their faults! Everybody ain't cut out for this fightin' garbage! An' if you just ignore 'em -- or worse, 'let 'em be killed 'cause they ain't strong enough in body ta' fight wi' their fists or a weapon -- you'll never know what their secrets really are! You'll never know what they might be hidin', what inner strengths they might truly possess!"

Oh his words seems to have inspired her, all right. But not to join him. It seems to have inspired her to fight even harder for those who can't fight for themselves. For the people that might get 'pruned', as it was put earlier in this mess, because they don't fit some megalomaniac's 'vision' for the world of Filgaia. She doesn't expect him to know, or really care, what she's talking about. But even as she gains her composure... good Lord she's STILL TALKING. "If I'm gonna be part 'a hist'ry, it's gonna be th' part where I stood up when some jackass wanted ta' kill people he thought was 'unimportant'! It's gonna be th' part where I didn't stand by an' let it happen. An' you know what? I prob'ly ain't gonna make it. But if I don't try, it's for sure others won't either... others he thinks ain't ruddy IMPORT'NT enough ta be part a' his 'grand vision' or whatever bullshit he's got goin'! Well, y'know what? SCREW THAT, an' screw you for supportin' it!"

...That miiiiight not have been the effect he was hoping to have. But, well... it does bring her out of her 'just try not to get killed' state, and into a 'if I'm going down, I'm taking you with me' one. So... partial win?

Either way, he might get a good view of Quin closing that distance between him and herself, then propelling herself into the air with a running leap. Why? Because both of her knives are held overhead, pointed downward as she falls. It's not exactly the best or most intelligent attacking strategy, but she's aiming them down on Ratatoskr. She's actually aiming for vulnerable areas... well, as much as she can while she's FALLING THROUGH THE AIR. She can't exactly control coming down from a jump.

GS: Quin Rosenberg has activated a Force Action!
GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has lost 1 Combo!

DC: MISS! Marivel Armitage completely evades Pull My Erze-Trigger from Erzebet Lefanu!

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

Leon finds the same trick doesn't work twice. The energy blade doesn't shoot clean through his chest, but slams into his thigh. Leon tries to adjust quickly -- tries to flip the weapon to slash the few precious inches before he can cut the femoral artery, and put an end to this. But Mad Mountains swings up, battering Leon backward.

Leon lands, in a three-point stance. Dirt and dust billow up after him. His eyes snap to the left -- Brad -- and then to the right -- Xantia. Then it's back to Vinsfeld in front of him. He walks through missile fire and flame alike, striding until he comes right over Leon. He looks up at Vinsfeld, and he swings Argent Divider around.

The thin, silver blade slams into Mad Mountains. The blades meet -- and then Mad Mountains rips through the blade. It flies away, and the top half of the crossguard is shorn off. The blade swings down into Leon's shoulder and through the collarbone with a sickening CRUNCH.

He crumples down, then, blood pooling out from the grievous wound and a hint of white from shattered collarbone visible. Leon's face hits the earth, blood pooling around it.

The pieces of his shattered weapon lay to each side.

GS: Quin Rosenberg has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has attacked Ratatoskr with Stab!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has completed her action.
GS: Leon Albus has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

There's not much Jacqueline can say when Matilda can refuses to talk. The chill in her voice, the way she shuts it down...and puts her off-balance, striking her as solidly as any bullet.

And so, when Matilda rushes toward Avril with her shield ready, Jacqueline takes note and shifts to prepare herself defensively as Matilda rounds with her.

...But, still a little off-kilter, she doesn't recognize Matilda's feint until it's too late to do anything about it.

They've lived in the same structure for a while. By now, Matilda is likely aware of all the gaps in Jacqueline's armor - physically and emotionally. Her blade finds them all easily, in a series of quick, forceful strikes.

She stumbles back, forced to one knee, breathing heavily, and bleeding from her wounds. Not fatally, but it's still fairly severe - ordinarily it'd be enough to force someone to stand down.

...But, Jacqueline is driven - with a grunt, she forces herself to stand.

She's the type of person to force herself to keep going.

Briefly, she glances toward Avril as she addresses her, noting the glance upward...and then nods, quietly.

"Matilda...I...I'm sorry. Please...endure this!" She repeats. She has to do this - it might be the only thing that could force Matilda to pause.

As Avril rises, Jacqueline gestures with her left hand, invoking a Crest of Earth. Energy tears through the ground beneath Matilda's feet, hurling up rubble and seeking to destabilize her footing to make avoiding it difficult - or even sending her flying upward as well, if she is unable to hold in to place.

And then, as Avril sends down a burst of ice, Jacqueline slashes downward with her right hand, invoking a Crest of Lightning. A bolt flashes down, striking Avril's ice - accelerating it down toward Matilda at higher speeds right alongside the ice.

GS: CRITICAL! Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Quin Rosenberg's Stab for 135 hit points!
GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated a Force Action!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Matilda Whitehead with Dualcast - Voltaic Quake!
GS: Jacqueline Barber takes 6 damage from Poison!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: COUNTER! Matilda Whitehead strikes at Jacqueline Barber with a counter attack!
GS: Matilda Whitehead takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Dualcast - Voltaic Quake for 208 hit points!
GS: Matilda Whitehead guards a hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Overhead Sorcery for 115 hit points!
GS: Matilda Whitehead enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Matilda Whitehead's attack becomes clear!
GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Matilda Whitehead's Counter Attack for 128 hit points!
GS: Matilda Whitehead has lost 0 Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marie's eyes widen sharply as she gathers her readings. "This is....!" She says dramatically without being clear at all for her audience. To be fair, what she intends to say might be 'some bullshit!' but she doesn't get a chance to say it because even though she has halted her assault, there is plenty of trouble still heading her way.

Marivel stands up, eyes flaring red again, "Demonangle." She says quietly, turning towards Erzebet.

A triangular space of darkness ripples in front of the bullet as it closes in on Marie before winking away with the bullet and vanishing in an instant.

???

A triangular darkness opens up ... somewhere. The bullet flies out of the darkness and explodes into fire and shrapnel, absolutely shredding a nearby horrific looking monster. It's over as quickly as it began.

HERE

Marivel ports back in front of Erzebet, looking at her through those goggles.

"I've had enough of dangerous toys in carefree hands. For all its faults, I believe in the Valeria household."

She taps Erzebet lightly on the shoulder with one hand and then those red eyes flare up again as a red gun materializes oozingly into her free hand.

And she fires a bullet out of it towards Erzebet, which detonates in a familiar corkskrew pattern.

GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Falling Into an Ambush with a Sexy Lure!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ratatoskr's attention turns away from Ida, buying the heiress a moment to catch her breath. Chi surges up through the meridians in her throat and brow, dulling the pain and steadying her vision. She risks a glance at the center of the arena as she steps towards it, away from the wall of flame. She sees Brad Evans, alleged murderer of every living thing in the Kingdom of Slayheim, as he unloads primitive ARMs into Rhadamanthus. She sees a young man in blue armor--an ARM?--as he fires a rocket launcher. She sees Xantia and Leon, two powerful fighters in their own right, bringing ARM and sorcery to bear.

    Ida remembers how undefeatable Siegfried and Lady Harken looked, back at Adlehyde. Second Method. Third Method. Fourth Method.

    Ratatoskr slams into her, bodily, knocking her off her feet. Ida tumbles backwards, skidding across the icy, blood-streaked ground. Chips of ice and rock spray up from her boots as she skids to a halt, and looks up at Ratatoskr.

    Quin starts talking. A flicker of warmth ignites in Ida's heart. A smile spreads across her face, and not even the rapidly-growing bruise on her cheek can dull it. "That's the spirit," Ida says. "That's the spirit! Ratatoskr! A question, if I may?" She springs to her feet, grimacing as pain touches off in her bruised side.

    "'A student is tested over and over.
    A warrior is struck again and again."

    Ida steps in close to Ratatoskr, the circling motion changing--rather than step around him in a relatively leisurely orbit, she moves as fast as she can, chi speeding her steps. Her hands dart about, striking at him with little flicks and slaps.

    "From this testing comes success.
    From this pain comes victory.
    These are one and the same:
        a challenge to be overcome,
        a pinnacle to stand atop,
        with defeat cast aside.'"

    The flicks and slaps change to jabs. Ida throws one at Ratatoskr's jaw, then his sternum, then his stomach, before seguing into a drumroll of punches. She keeps talking.

    "And so the master says.
    But a student will ever be tested.
    But a warrior will ever be struck.
    What truth does the master speak?"

    And with that final question, Ida steps forwards, driving her gauntleted right fist in what looks like a normal uppercut for all of a second. Then the air screams from the speed with which her hand passes through it. Chi erupts from her knuckles in a brilliant, gold-white shockwave.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ratatoskr with Unbroken Lotus Fist!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Clarissa Arwin has posed.

"I'll take it!" Clarissa snaps her fingers towards Marivel. But it fades to a quieter reflection as she listens to the woman throw her reasoning down on the table. The means are still cynical. But the sentiment at least comes from a place Clarissa recognizes, even if it's translated through a more Machiavellian prism she's not sure she could muster for herself.

She calls back to Ashton - "Call me Clarissa!" Then he gets a gasp from her as she watches him call forth the power of Creepy and Weepy. "Oh wow," she breathes, curling her free hand at her collar. "That's amazing...."

Erzebet cuts in and accuses her of protecting her investment.

Clarissa narrows her eyes, a flash of genuine anger showing through what until now has been more stubborn determination than anything. "Stop that," she snaps. "He's not an investment, he's my brother!"

It turns to philosophy from there. Clarissa opens her mouth to try and get a word in edgewise. Then she closes it, frowning as she reins her indignation in. Erzebet waggles her hips like that and gives her name. Again she tries to say something.

Ashton makes his move. Clarissa begins to edge to one side. "Please, just understand that I don't have the same political ambitions you think I do," she starts to say.

Until Erzebet opens fire on her, anyway. "Yeek!" Clarissa yelps, jumping backwards and away from the screaming fire of that blazing ARM. The round twirls on that funny arc--

Clarissa jerks her leg at the last second and dives forward. The stubborn round slashes across her hip - the one that didn't get burned. It tears away the reinforced leather fringes of her jacket and leaves a painful slash behind. With a hiss of breath, she hits the ground, but manages to convert her momentum into a forward roll.

When Clarissa comes up, she's bringing Strahl Gewehr to bear again. The barrel shines as she opens up with a shot aimed to try and rise up and catch Erzebet by surprise, hopefully quicker than the woman with the blazing ARM might expect.

"Listen to Commander Vinsfield screaming about breaking everyone's gods and how he's above any kind of law!" she shouts with a surge of determination. over the high-pitched screech of energy as Strahl Gewehr discharges. "That sure sounds like exactly the very stable guy I'd want to heal Filgaia!"

GS: Clarissa Arwin has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Rolling Fire!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Clarissa Arwin takes 5 damage from Poison!
GS: Clarissa Arwin takes 11 damage from Toxin!
GS: Clarissa Arwin has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 216 hit points!
GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Ratatoskr has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

On the one hand: There's *really* no preparing herself for what comes. On the other: that doesn't mean Matilda can't at least *try*.

Avril and Jacqueline sandwich Matilda between ice and earth -- and Jay adds lightning to the mix, as well, as Matilda finds her footing too unstable to get out of the way. She settles for hurling her shield at Jay at top speed at the last second.

... which means, of course, that when the dust clears, and a lightly-burned, lightly-frozen Matilda pries herself off the ground, looking ragged and obviously hurt. She knows that Avril's fragile, knows that Jay is probably at the least stable she'll be, after that shield toss...

... but she doesn't want to kill them. She's discouraged them from aggressing, she thinks -- even if she were to pull back, she doubts that in their current condition they'd turn to pursue Vindel. ... and she's been fairly well deterred from aggressing in the moment, too. Despite what the situation is now... she doesn't want to hurt Avril *or* Jay.

So, for now, she doesn't. Instead, she starts to pull back, giving one last look toward her friends. There's hurt, there -- but also resolution, as she starts to pull back, trying to disappear into the Odessa lines, back toward safety.

GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage has lost 1 Combo!

DC: MISS! Erzebet Lefanu completely evades Falling Into an Ambush with a Sexy Lure from Marivel Armitage!

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

In anything she does, Xantia generally assumes that you can't fail if you never give up. So naturally, previous experience in her attacks just not working as well as they should are just taken to mean that she should keep trying. Hit somebody with enough things enough times and they'll go down without fail. That's the rules. Everybody knows the rules.

She never quite understood to what degree the rules don't apply here, until the remnants of the flame weapon she created are erased before her eyes. "What--"

She doesn't get further than that before the energy unleashed by Mad Mountains strikes her, as well. Slashes directly through her. ...without effect? To the casual observer, perhaps it would look like that passed through her harmlessly.

The first sign that something's wrong is that Xantia has frozen up entirely, a look of pure dread in her eyes. Then she sinks to her knees, directing her incredulous gaze to her hands.

It's gone. The source of her power. She can feel it even without trying to will it to the surface. It won't happen. Her Ether-shaping abilities are completely blocked off somehow. She's been afraid of this ever since learning that Solaris has technology that's capable of doing this. She never would've dreamed it would be possible for this to happen in the way it did.

The sound that accompanied the event was indescribable. The sound that she hears close by is less so. Hearing that sound, and seeing the results in Leon's collapse... that causes something to snap.

With a primal roar, Xantia is instantly back to her feet. Moving at a speed fast enough to leave afterimages in her wake, she charges directly at Vinsfeld. The last stretch is, impossibly, bridged even faster, the red-haired pugulist appearing to disappear, then reappear in front of her target. The look in her eyes is entirely different from before, showing nothing but pure rage.

Then she strikes, driving her palm towards Vinsfeld's midsection with the full force of her superhuman strength. A strike meant for doing much the same as was done to her, disrupting the flow of internal energies within the body.

Perhaps the most alarming aspect of this is that her flow of Ether is still locked down. None of what she just did required it.

GS: Xantia has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Disrupting Palm Strike!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Clarissa Arwin's attack becomes clear!
GS: CRITICAL! Erzebet Lefanu takes a solid hit from Clarissa Arwin's Extra Critical for 301 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Clarissa Arwin has posed.

Clarissa fires - but a funny thing happens on the way to Erzebet.

Strahl Gewehr's barrel suddenly flares with a burst of gold - and it discharges as a wide, blue-white beam that tears through the sky with much more force than anything else Clarissa has fired today. The blasts widen and swell, surging with a sudden pulse of energy. The blast practically sings in the air.

It's unclear why it's happening. But the light of the blast casts long shadows around Clarissa and Erzebet as it shines, just for a moment, as bright as a second sun.

GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Xantia has lost 1 Combo!

DC: MISS! Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus completely evades Disrupting Palm Strike from Xantia!

<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.

Brad struggles to claim his footing. Vinsfeld's...has he lost a step at all? If he has, he's made up for it with more Symbology than Brad knew from him before. Then again, Brad was used to the back lines. It was another man who stood at Vinsfeld's side in those battles. Brad's build was more suited to the heavy weapons truck.

He's familiar with the cry Dash releases, and ducks himself behind a pile of rubble to let the explosions pass. On the way, Vinsfeld dashes up; this time, Brad is successful in slapping his sword aside with his hand, their eyes meeting so terribly briefly. "Yeah," he spits back. "We learned a lot about heros that day, Vinsfeld."

He throws himself the rest of the way to cover, and then he yanks out his Empathite radio. "Ashley! He's got us! Cocytus is here and half of Odessa too! Where are you!?"

    >>We've got our own problems! Ptolomea showed up! Kamui's trying to make a run on the generator but she's having trouble, I think Antenora must be here too!

Brad spits a curse. "Right. I'll do what I can then."

        >>Brad!

Brad shoves the radio back away before Judecca can Overwatch it into oblivion, and reaches down to his equipment pouch, yanking free an object that looks like nothing so much as a small dinner tray. He grabs his Mechanical Glove's larger portion and rips free a part which turns out to be a similar plate, then shoves the new one in until it clicks. "C'mon, c'mon," he hisses, waiting for some signal only he knows the look of.

Which is when Leon hits the ground. Brad looks over his makeshift cover, breathing slow and labored amid the stink of death.

Then his arm dings.

Brad whips around. He tucks two pieces of something into his ears with his free hand as the particle flare from his ARM produces a weapon not entirely unlike the flintlocks he was using earlier, but almost; the barrel is long, with a stabilizer stand at the end, and a gas vent out to either side of the muzzle. The stock looks like it could cushion a mule's kick as he sets it against his shoulder. He doesn't set it on the ground as he swings it up at Vinsfeld...past Vinsfeld.

At the Sorcery Globe.

"COVER YOUR EARS!" Brad screams, and fire--

        KA BOOOOOOOOOOM

The report of the rifle is like a bomb going off, a thunderclap firing an anti-armor shell that should rip through anything in the world down the range. The recoil sends Brad entirely off his feet, flat on his back, but he kicks up immediately, sets the stabilizer feet, and then continues firing, releasing shell after shell into either the leader of Odessa or the heart of his plan, bullets meant to drill entirely through the sort of armor plate pulled from dragon husks.

GS: Brad Evans has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Anti-Gear Rifle!
GS: Brad Evans has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Brad Evans has canceled their attack on Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus.
GS: Brad Evans has activated a Force Action!
GS: Brad Evans has spent 3 Combo on Link, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Brad Evans has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Anti-Gear Rifle!
GS: Brad Evans has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Brad Evans has launched an attack Link!
GS: Brad Evans has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus takes a glancing hit from Brad Evans's Anti-Gear Rifle for 65 hit points!
GS: Brad Evans has activated a Force Action!
GS: Brad Evans has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling!
GS: Brad Evans has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Cover Your Ears!
GS: Brad Evans has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus takes a glancing hit from Brad Evans's Cover Your Ears for 77 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Dash Caskett has posed.

Even missiles do little to this old fellow. "Look, you can't just parade around like you own the place!" Dash shouts. "Maybe it wasn't a god? I don't know what you want from me, okay? But you don't engage hostilities with folks! That's jsut wrong!" Admittedly he sortof jumped the Buster as well, but better to help these folks here survive against these highly trained soldiers, well armed and armored.

Dash attempts to dodge the incoming slash projectile but gets clipped and slung against a sgement of well still standing.

Well, at least until he collides with it, It promptly falls down atop him. His armor prevents any severe damage, though is dented in a spot or two. Will need to be fixed later.

Vinsfield closes in on Leon, and there is a devastating exchange, leaving one of them wounded and disarmed! "Hang on!"

Doing his best to avoid the attacks incoming at Vinsfield, the blue warrior runs as swiftly as he can toward his target, in the process taking out a small curved device with a clamp on the outside from its attached position to an orange attachment to his back. It is jammed into the Mega Buster with haste and clipped in.

A leap and a swing of the arm, and a lance of fuchsia color photon energy springs out, the length of a proper blade and tapered as such. The conjured weapon is leveled right for Vinsfield. "Get out of here!" he calls toward Leon.

GS: Dash Caskett has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Refractive Edge!
GS: Dash Caskett has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Dash Caskett has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus takes a glancing hit from Dash Caskett's Refractive Edge for 17 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    What must be done, as Avril has learned...

        ...is rarely pleasant.

    She lands, flipping herself the right way around and falling into a crouch even as Jay's spell collides with her own and further unfolds the power there coiled.
    She rises a moment later, Medium in one arm and -- yes, there with her blade again in the other. The latter is trained on Matilda.

    For a moment, the blade wavers in Avril's hand. Is it the wounds she's suffered, or...?

    She breathes out. "Matilda... let us cease this."

    Matilda instead gives them one last look.
    Was that...

    "Matilda!" Avril starts after her, but gets all of a step before her expression colors with a wince. "Ah--!"
    Pursuit isn't possible. And, as they are, neither is engagement of those remaining. So instead she turns to Jay once again.

    "Jacqueline... allow me to take a look at your injuries--"

    And perhaps her next step would have been to see to Jay with the Medium.
    Were it not for that sudden shout.

    Avril's eyes go wide. Her back to Brad, there is no way she could see what he has just done. Yet, is it just guessing that she then shouts at Jacqueline:
    "Do it!"
    Before falling to her knees and cupping her hands over her ears. Blade and Medium alike tumble to fall at her feet, into the dirt and dust of the battlefield.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

In the middle of casting, it's difficult for Jacqueline to defend herself. The shield flies at her, and the most she can manage is shifting her body so that it doesn't impact the bulk of the wounds Matilda had inflicted on her.

Even so, it hurts considerably - enough to knock her down to the ground.

If Matilda wanted, it would be easy to finish her off here - Jacqueline probably wouldn't be able to get up or defend herself in time.

...But Matilda doesn't. Jacqueline looks up at her, sees clearly the hurt and resolution plain on Matilda's face. And then, Jacqueline falls back. Tears well up in her eyes, falling freely. She covers her eyes with one hand, the other reaching for the shield that Matilda had thrown at her, grasping onto it as if it were a lifeline.

She won't stay down for long - she knows she can't, not in an active battlefield. But she has to permit herself this, right now. And indeed, she's starting to get up when Avril addresses her, looking to check on her injuries - but then a command is shouted, one Avril echoes. She follows suit, shutting her eyes tight and clasping her hands over her ears.

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

Argent Divider shatters, and the Black Wolf falls; Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus lets out a slow breath and draws it in, recovering from the effort. He assesses Leon's condition with the ease of long practice; he's seen a lot of bodies over three decades of war. The wound is grievous, but not immediately mortal - a situation that will change if he is not healed in the next few moments.

Perfect.

Vinsfeld lifts Mad Mountains into a guard position, the shards of Argent Divider crunching under his feet. Violet fires another blast from her rifle that connects hard; the old warrior staggers slightly but holds his ground. He'll have to deal with the Beastwoman soon, because she's chipping away at his remaining defences. For now, however, his eyes shift to where the Metal Demon warrior is battling a woman with a metal arm, speaking riddles and philosophy. The old warrior tilts his head, considering, then answers Ida's question for himself.

"Follow not what old men teach. Seek what they sought."

Xantia rushes in toward Odessa's leader - not to heal her fallen comrade, as the old man would have expected, but to strike him down in pain and rage. She moves faster and better than he would have thought possible... but Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has not lived to be an old warrior by planning only for what he thinks his opponents are capable of. He drops down to one knee, slipping under Xantia's strike, and then uses the palm of his left hand to press against the small of her back, pushing her hard and away from his body.

He starts to turn after her, to unleash fury... but then he spots Brad Evans holding an enormous rifle, sized to take down Gears. "Really," he says, then glances down at where Leon is still sort of... bleeding. "Really," he says, more urgently, then realizes what he is standing in front of. "REALLY," Vinsfeld snarls, then grounds Mad Mountains, ducks, and covers. The energy field surrounding the zweihander provides Odessa's leader - and the Black Wolf underneath him - with a measure of protection from the original shot, and then the backblast... which, again, Vinsfeld takes the most of. "YOU ARE DOING AN EXCELLENT JOB OF CONVINCING EVERYONE YOU ARE A HERO, BRADLEY!" he shouts, frustration evident. "THE BLACK WOLF'S DEATH RATTLE IS TELLING ME SO!"

The old warrior rises again... and this time, he sees Dash coming. The blue-armored warrior has been quick and unforgiving with his assaults... but this is the first time he has closed with Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus, and he pays the price for it. The scintillating blade is met with Vinsfeld's upraised arm, the flat of the blade smashed to one side with the old man's vambrace. He carries his momentum forward, whipping his arm toward Dash's throat in a powerful clothesline, then kicks at side of the young man's knee for good measure.

It is then that Ratatoskr falls, and though the spirghtly young warrior has only just joined the force known as Odessa, Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's soul still burns. "Enough!" he roars, lifting Mad Mountains overhead; a swirling storm of fire and shadow rises out from the sword's bounded field, quivering like a living thing. "Those Who Come And Go... it is long past time you live up to your name!" he shouts, turning a rapid circle, a full-moon circle ripping out toward the remaining Drifters, crashing into them with his full power.

GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with True Strength Comes Not From Physical Capability But
Rather From An Indomitable Will!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus takes a solid hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's True Strength Comes Not From Physical
Capability But Rather From An Indomitable Will for 0 hit points!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each!
GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has activated a Force Action!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has spent 1 Combo on Poison, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Quin Rosenberg with You Shall Lay Your Bones Down Here For The Dead Can Know No
Shame!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with You Shall Lay Your Bones Down Here For The Dead Can Know
No Shame!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Violet Salazar with You Shall Lay Your Bones Down Here For The Dead Can Know No
Shame!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Brad Evans with You Shall Lay Your Bones Down Here For The Dead Can Know No
Shame!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Xantia with You Shall Lay Your Bones Down Here For The Dead Can Know No Shame!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has attacked Dash Caskett with You Shall Lay Your Bones Down Here For The Dead Can Know No
Shame!

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Even with his attention squarely on what Quin is capable of doing, to truly and fully turn his back on Ida is folly - and a waste. Would he a million limbs, a billion eyes, a trillion ears, a quadrillion minds, he'd get to experience all of this, fight every last one of them, all at once. As Quin gives her retort, he cannot respond. Ida wouldn't spare that sort of luxury in a pitched battle.
     Either by fist, or by word - as it so happens, at this moment it's word, as the horned squirrel-like Hyadean rolls on his back once before stopping again in a crouch, as Ida calls for his attention. She can probably tell from the light of his eyes and that unceasing grin that yeah, she may, she can also june or april too. With no detail to his eyes beyond the solid yellow, there's no true way to physically tell where his eyes may lie on specifically, but between warriors, there may not be a need to discern.
     He rises as she closes with chi empowering her steps, and as she starts striking, he starts throwing up his arms to catch those blows. The defenses appear successful as she speaks. Only two or three of those are 'clean.' At one point a slap hits an open palm. His grin never fades.
     "Oh? Those are Ka--" Slap. That's one of the clean hits, to his mouth, showing him for trying to speak up over one of the good parts of that statement, moments before it goes to jabs.
     Quin's moving in.
     The sternum shot pushes him back, going past his guard. Catching the body blow opens him up to that drumroll, one of which dings him on the horn and jerks his neck to one side. The side that's not facing Quin, which he over-corrects to be able to see her approach.
     'And so the master says.'
     ...When Quin comes diving in, embracing the need to oppose, to pick a side of some kind. To stand, courageously and decisively, against whatever it is this Hyadean remnant-turned-radical-soldier (...if he wasn't one already?!) as she comes down upon him with both blades.
     'But a student will ever be tested.'
     He finds some space in the tangle he's already in to throw his forearms up to catch.
     ...No, she could see the same openings in his palms as she might have his foot.
     'But a warrior will ever be struck.'
     He's going to shoot her aga--
     *SHINK*
          *THAKOOM*
     'What truth does the master speak?'
     A dreadful series of pops see (mostly harmless) sparks and smoke shoot out his elbows as both daggers cut deep within his forearms. She can get the one in her left hand loose. The one in her right digs all the way through his left palm and wrist. Quin might even get wrist deep in Hyadean blood. It's a silvery color. (If she does, she should probably wash it off as soon as possible.)
     He doesn't even look into Ida's face as she says that final question, as eyes fixate upon Quin in her rage - in her successful leaping twin stab. His grin doesn't fade. It seems to even widen, though his forearms - all of him - quivers in pain and shock.
     "...Pff. Hyadean w--" Those words almost sound dismissive. Almost. It's only 'almost' because the incoming fist strike won't let him finish that. His jaw compresses, sharp teeth biting into his own mouth as the uppercut strike releases an incredible halo of energy that might even make the Symbological fire wall nearby flicker and dance. The crimson-armored Hyadean warrior's ascent is almost totally vertical. It should give him time to recover, catch himself, maybe unfurl the liquid metal patagium again and glide out.
     He doesn't.
     He hits the bloodstained, frost-rimmed Filgaian ground with a dust-spewing thud, his less-injured hand up against his jaw. A decisive strike that should take him out of the fight. No... it has.
     But he wants to keep going.
     "...Your name..." Ratatoskr rasps, pained, but fighting it. "You... your name... I want to keep it... I want to remember it..." He shows off the more grievous hand wound. Hyadean healing will likely ensure he can't keep even a scar outside of his imagination. He's very young. Not quite at the age, yet, where such lasting injuries could mount or keep with any reliability.
     ...But what truth does the master speak? He didn't get to answer in full.
     He doesn't seem to have one, so utterly fixated not upon the student and the master that is part of the teachings of the legendary Hyadean art, Method Mercury.
     He is entirely fixated upon everyone and everything else.
     He is knelt low just enough that the ripple of a full-moon circle will only pass over him by the mathematically thinnest of margins.

GS: Dash Caskett guards a hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's You Shall Lay Your Bones Down Here For The Dead Can Know No
Shame for 122 hit points!
GS: Toxin! Statuses applied to Dash Caskett!
GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's You Shall Lay Your Bones Down Here For
The Dead Can Know No Shame for 153 hit points!
GS: Cripple, Jam, and Toxin! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Hyper and Shield! Statuses applied to Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has completed his action.
GS: Xantia takes a glancing hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's You Shall Lay Your Bones Down Here For The Dead Can Know No
Shame for 100 hit points!
GS: Toxin! Statuses applied to Xantia!
GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!!

<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

Demonic fire envelops Ashton and his dragons. For a moment, he's gone from sight amidst the flames.

When he emerges, the dragons are... less dragony. Returned to their normal sizes. And the warrior they're attached to lets out a wet cough. He's had better days. Much, much better days. It's perhaps fortunate for what comes next that Marivel teleports between him and Erzabet. Maybe it will buy him a few more moments.

"Obscurity, perhaps. But it's going to take more than this to make me perish." He struggles, getting up again. But he does. "I'll remember your name, Erzebet Mara Lefanu. And you can remember that it takes more than a big ARM to gain victory."

One sword is reversed in the hand - one blade up, the other down. A wink and a little grin is flashed to the lady - Clarissa, of course. (Marivel seems a bit too.. weird for Ashton's tastes.) "Perhaps later, miss. For you and your companion."

Then? Blades. A charging, rushing storm of slashes as Ashton unleashes all he has left into a barrage of whirling, spinning strikes. He knows he's at the end of his tank. And if he's going down?

He's doing down dancing.

GS: Ashton Anchors has activated a Force Action!
GS: Violet Salazar takes a solid hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's You Shall Lay Your Bones Down Here For The Dead Can
Know No Shame for 209 hit points!
GS: Toxin! Statuses applied to Violet Salazar!
GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Sword Dance!
GS: Ashton Anchors takes 8 damage from Poison!
GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action.
GS: Brad Evans takes a solid hit from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's You Shall Lay Your Bones Down Here For The Dead Can Know
No Shame for 212 hit points!
GS: Toxin! Statuses applied to Brad Evans!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu guards a hit from Ashton Anchors's Sword Dance for 107 hit points!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has activated a Force Action!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has lost 1 Combo!

DC: MISS! Quin Rosenberg completely evades You Shall Lay Your Bones Down Here For The Dead Can Know No Shame from
Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus!

<Pose Tracker> Quin Rosenberg has posed.

One of the fighters falls.

('Don't think about it.')

She can't. Quin can't afford to take in the battle around her, to wonder how many others might fall before this is over... to wonder if she'll be among them. She just can't. Instead, she thinks about something else she heard, something that someone who works with explosives was supposed to have said...

Either I do it right or it's suddenly not my problem anymore.

That's kind of what this is. A lot is riding on this, yes. And she might or might not have what it takes to get through it. But all she can do is give it her all. And if, after all that, it's not enough?

Well, then... it's just not her problem anymore.

That's liberating, in a way. There's still plenty of things to worry about, most definitely -- the encroaching fire, the apparently durability and un-killability of the lunatic up there that the main force is fighting, the fact that she has just taken the kid gloves off with a metal squirrel monster who she figures is about to do the same to her very much not metal body. But her own performance here isn't going to be one of them. Which... well, that's one less thing to worry about, so she's got that going for her...

But she doesn't have much ELSE going for her. Except now she's got metal blood all over her because somehow that wild, frenzied, last-ditch sort of attack actually WORKED. And Ida's pummelling and Quin's stabbing... actually brings Ratatoskr down. A bit harder than she had hoped. She sighs, partly in relief, and partly in dismay, as Ratatoskr falls.

She really hadn't wanted to attack him in the first place, really. But well... she supposes that's how these things work... She takes a moment to breathe, just for a moment. But it's not over yet. Not until Vinsfield falls. Looking to the fallen Hyadean, she murmurs almost tenderly, as she starts trying to wipe the blood from her hands -- and to try and retrieve her other dagger -- "...Sorry about that, big guy. Nothin' against ya person'ly. We were jus' on opposin' ends a' the moral spectrum this time..."

Brad's cannon attack does force Quin to cover her ears, and she still winces at the loud noise. Ouch! But well, aside from the wince she doesn't complain. Hopefully the attack can nail that... that... whatever the hell all this is about, that Vinsfield thinks he owns the freaking world because he possesses.

And speaking of Vinsfield... apparently Ida's and Quin's actions over there with Ratatoskr haven't gone unnoticed. The full-moon circle explodes out, towards herself and Ida this time, and Quin gets herself moving. QUICKLY! She tries to dodge THROUGH the wave of energy, though, looking for hidden places that the energy doesn't have covered, and... somehow manages. Though her coat gets hella scorched in the process, and she loses one of the twin tails.

But Quin keeps going, as if perhaps sensing the gravity of the situation. She's trying to make for Vinsfield directly -- she has no hope of harming the Sorcery Orb -- and just tries a very simple tactic. That being, of course, to just freaking stab his kill-happy self in a vital area. He's been slippery as an eel so far, she's noticed. She doesn't expect to do much better, but here's TRYING, anyway!

It'll either work... or it suddenly won't be her problem anymore...

GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has activated a Force Action!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Stab!
GS: Quin Rosenberg has completed her action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus guards a hit from Quin Rosenberg's Stab for 55 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

Vinsfeld's attack wave washes over Violet, sapping her strength and causing her further injuries; she staggers but somehow remains on her feet, even with Brad's attack still ringing in her ears. Time to try something else in her arsenal. She haltingly -- for her wounds are serious -- throws half her remaining grenades at Vinsfeld, aiming for around his feet. She has a sneaking suspicion his magical shield is unidirectional. Maybe it won't activate against an explosion from the opposite direction. Then again, maybe Vinsfeld is prepared for her attack. He's certainly countered most of what the assembled Drifters have thrown at him today...

Her attack done, she collapses -- again, slowly, sinking to her knees, overwhelmed. At least she has the presence of mind to tend her own injuries as best she can. That finished, she looks around for some nearby wounded Drifters to treat, the worst-injured first. She has done the best she can.

GS: Violet Salazar has activated a Force Action!
GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Fire in the Hole!
GS: Violet Salazar has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Violet Salazar takes 11 damage from Toxin!
GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus takes a solid hit from Violet Salazar's Fire in the Hole for 51 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Dash Caskett has posed.

Energy breaks and flashes against something as Dash glares through his one-way visor at his target. "Why are you so inclined to inflict violence of this level?!" the fighter calls. The melee exchange is completely one-sided. Dash shows his close quarters capabilities to be rather lacking, especially considering who he is up against.

But it was a gambit to help buy the fellow on his knees a bit of time, nothing more. He wasn't expecting to do anything to someone with a weapon like Vinsfield's with his Blade Arm. The armor the commander wears deflects the energy blade deftly, In the next moment, Dash is on the ground at his side, his throat damaged as is his knee joint. Both still functional. His visor also has a singular crack running up it. "I'm not... done yet!" he says, breathing heavily. The sound of Brad's deafening boomstick causes some disorientation as he stands, but manages to pull through it.

The Blade Arm is brought up again.

<B. Arm-- Full Power_>

The photon sword glows even brighter, a bit of gold tinge to it this time down the center, a lsutrous lance of an ARM. Dash starts low as he sees Vinsfield raise the weapon to assault everyone from afar and spirals upward with a powerful swing!

Would he block it this time?

GS: Dash Caskett has activated a Force Action!
GS: Dash Caskett has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Blue Blitz!
GS: Dash Caskett takes 12 damage from Toxin!
GS: Dash Caskett has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus critically Guards a hit from Dash Caskett's Blue Blitz for 27 hit points!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Dash Caskett has lost 1 Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Metal-laced flesh crumples beneath Ida's fist. Ratatoskr goes flying. Ida takes a stumbling step forward, her heart thundering in her ears. Her breath rises from her lips in white plumes. She looks back at Quin, smiles, and flashes the 'OK' signal with her right hand. "Are you all right?" she asks. "Don't count him out, but--"

    '...Your name...'

    Ida glances at Ratatoskr, her lips curling into a frown. "I gave you a truth," she says. "You would do well to--"

    'THE BLACK WOLF'S DEATH RATTLE IS TELLING ME SO!'

    Ida looks away from Ratatoskr, distaste turning into horror. She sees someone lying at Vinsfeld's feet, and her stomach does a flip. She doesn't know who it is for sure--it's likely not Lily, and probably not Josephine, but didn't she see Leon on the way here--

    'ENOUGH!'

    There's nowhere to run from the assault Vinsfeld unleashes. Even if there were, Leon's just lying there, and she couldn't look Lily in the eye if she turned her back on him and ran. Ida takes a deep breath, and chi flows from her lips, clinging to her. The aura ignites a moment later, a field of brilliant gold-white surrounding a corona of red-gold flame. She leaps into the air, a visible pulse of chi emanating from the soles of her armored boots like a ripple on a pond. She flies over Rhadamanthus's expanding ring of death, barely clipping it. It's enough.

    It feels like she's on fire. It feels like she's on fire, and all her old scars are being torn open. Dimly, she's aware of the actual, physical pain where her right side touched the ring, and the long, bloody slash it made in her flesh. Crimson and silver spill from beneath the gauntlet(?) in equal amounts. Ida hits the dirt, clenches her teeth, and keeps running. Hyadean flesh extrudes chains of metal-dense cellular matrix to patch up the wound. The bleeding slows, but the pain does not stop. The world begins to blur.

    Ida all but throws herself to the ground beside Leon, shielding him with her body. "Leon," she says. Her left hand darts into her cloak pocket and comes up with a packet with Hyadean writing on it. "Hold on." The fingers of her right hand sharpen. Ida drags them through the wrapper, pulls out a piece of heavy metallic film, and presses it gently against the wound in Leon's chest. The Hyadean-engineered pressure bandage molds itself against his skin, shores up the break in his collar bone.

    "I'll get you to Lily. Just hold on." Just hold on.

<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.

Brad groans, his body aching from the kickback of the anti-materiel rifle. "What, you want me to run directly at you to help a fallen man?" Brad mutters. "Coulda sworn you told me that was stupid at some point."

He throws the weapon aside and it dissolves into motes of light. He forces himself up, wavering but refusing to submit. His eyes cut to the encroaching fire. "Not much left...and the AM rifle didn't do the job..." Thinking out loud. An old, bad habit. He can't break the Globe, he can't stop the techs. "Got us playing to your fiddle the whole time. Irving's gonna be mad..."

Then Vinsfeld releases all that power on him. Brad staggers back one, two, three steps, then finds himself forced into the air, and slammed into the wall behind him, toppling it inward, brick and stone collapsing onto him in chunks.

A few moments later that rubble moves, Brad's gauntleted arm shoving much of it aside, slamming his fist into the ground to force himself up.

Through bleery eyes he spots that someone has moved on Leon. Well, that's nice, at least. They can die pointlessly healing someone Vinsfeld's probably about to blo---

Hold on.

Odessa's HERE.

If they were expecting this to work like a bomb or weapon, they wouldn't have so many people here, and sure not so many ranking people here - people who would be killed in an explosion or potentially targeted if the weapon doesn't work right. His head is fuzzy, but the math isn't coming together.

He puts a foot in front of him. His mission is to prevent whatever Vinsfeld wants to do. Vinsfeld is preventing him from doing anything but aggressing. Ashley's tied down. Lilka's deployed. Marivel's doing....whatever Marivel's doing. His ARM is running low.

Another foot, bleery eyes finding Vinsfeld amid the smoke and flame. "I do know one thing a hero does," he says, quietly.

Then he charges, roaring toward Vinsfeld with Mechanical Glove reared back, and attempts to slam an ARM the size of a cooler chest and the weight of a human child square into the man's jaw.

GS: Brad Evans has activated a Force Action!
GS: Brad Evans has activated a Force Action!
GS: Brad Evans has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling!
GS: Brad Evans has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Big Fist!
GS: Brad Evans takes 14 damage from Toxin!
GS: Brad Evans has completed his action.
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus takes a solid hit from Brad Evans's Big Fist for 118 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.

Erzebet looks at Marivel. She takes some pains, apparently, to position her upper body to make it clear she is looking down at her. "Well," she says, before a bullet is shot at her and something completely new happens: the left side of her glasses -- the active visual interface part of the Haborym weapons system - turns *red* instead of a sort of shining yellow-tinged white.

This is new to Erzebet. Alarming, even. She throws herself forwards, almost directly at Clarissa. She is very close here. Her eyes aren't on Clarissa. She is an amateur if a gifted one, perhaps, and then she looks towards her and says, breathlessly, "Really?"

"You mean it?"

Erzebet's eyes widen. The shine goes out of the lenses of Haborym revealing eyes that look like round-cut emeralds in their shine and their sparkle and the fact that they are not looking at the world in a sensible way. "That's so wonderful," she says, reaching up to unfasten her hat's chin strap and shake it off. "Here -- this isn't much -- but you'll look like--"

Erzebet had to holster the right gun of Haborym to get the hat off. She looks down at Strahl Gewehr as it fires. "Ah, b"

The Sun rises.

The force of it slams into Erzebet. It is good for her that she went for the hat and not to try to offer the other woman the coat from her back, as some scriptures say you ought to do. The hat, of course, goes flying; Erzebet too, if less so. It's not polite to speculate on these things, but she is rather heavier than a hat, however fur lined. Afterwards, she lands on her ass in the mud, her slacks squelching as she rolls onto her side, glasses askew. She kips back up --

Just in time for Ashton to smash into her. She lets out a squealing, yelping howl and swings Haborym around, the gun older than every nation of humanity on Filgaia used as an improvised blunt object. The blade cuts and finally, through desperate thrashing and perhaps Ashton's own desire keeping him from a slaughterhouse blow, she breaks loose, a thin freshet of blood spraying from her right arm as she staggers away, with all the grace of a dying cow.

"Uu - uuuh - Nhhaa - aaaahh --"

Erzebet's glasses steam up some, not with light but with simple vapor from tears starting to drip out of her eyes. She presses her hands to her head, even if one is still holding a long gun.

"Aaah.... nnhhhh, it hurts... I... I don't wanna argue any more, I just - aaah, I wanna throw up, I feel like I'm going to burst... what's going on... I, all I wanna do is... I wanna do what I can f-for what matters but I feel like I'm gonna j-just die or, or something bad's going to happen... why are you all here... why are you so - s-so - why are there so many of you wanting to stop him?? Why... why... why why why why why why why why why why why why WHY"

Her hands come down, pulling on the flesh of her cheeks as she looks towards Ashton, then past him to Marie, then back to Clarissa, her pupils finally dilating a little. "Whyyyy do I feel this feeeeeeling, I don't know how to say what it is, I don't know what the word for it is, every battle's always super scary and when you talk to a soldier they all say that they're just fighting for their comrades or they just kind of blank out and it's all nastiness and the only ones who just act like they were eager to fight were the barrel humpers in the baaack but I'm feeling really good right now too, even if I want to cry I also just feel really thirsty, you know, like I want to have a big glass of the spiced hot punch and then maybe some roast beeeef!"

Erzebet has what looks like a petit mal seizure. Her tongue comes out of her mouth again. There is no discharge of Malevolence or distortion to go with it. Marivel may find this kind of thing weirdly familiar.

Erzebet does seem to come out of it with renewed focus. She looks at Clarissa then, her tongue running over the lower lip for a moment before she remembers it and pulls it back into her mouth. "That really hurt," she tells her. "I want you to know that, okay? It really hurt. It hurt super seriously much and for a moment I thought I was gonna die, or that, that I would like, like you know when they decapitate someone it's like their eyes can still FOCUS for like ten seconds and when they do it to one of the big kinds of Beastmen, the ones who have really low pulse rates, it take even longer? Do you know what I mean? Do you understand what I'm saying? Are we communicating? I want you to understand me! I want you to understand -"

Her left arm jerks like a puppet and fires seven times straight dead on at Ashton, though this time the 'lack of aim' seems authentic. Still, it's close and it's loud and its' really hot.

Her right arm moves with more fluid grace, drawing Haborym's other weapon and takes a pop shot at Marie, perhaps more to ward her off than anything. Except that this bullet is hot enough to be yellow verging on white, so maybe she's just trying to ignite her.

Erzebet sways and tells Clarissa, "Do you understand that? Politics... the ambition of remaking Filgaia... hahh... until I got involved with the movement all I was DOING was remembering dead things. It was like my brain was a COFFIN, and now I can feel my blood pumping!! SO just try to understand, and I'm sorry I shot your brother, but I hope you understand it's nothing personal!! Okay!? Because I barely know any of you -"

She turns her head to glare at Marie, for some reason, before looking back to Clarissa, "and I would welcome ALL of you as comrades if you just would, stop - I mean - come on!! You know!? Do you understand me!?"

GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Ashton Anchors with I'm feeling a little sick but I'll do my best!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has spent 2 Combo on Poison and Disease, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Marivel Armitage with Get Hot! Get Hot!!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu has completed her action.
GS: Marivel Armitage takes a glancing hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Get Hot! Get Hot! for 70 hit points!
GS: Marivel Armitage has been weakened by Disease! They take 6 damage, and burn off all temporary hit points!
GS: Disease and Toxin! Statuses applied to Marivel Armitage!
GS: CRITICAL! Ashton Anchors guards a hit from Erzebet Lefanu's I'm feeling a little sick but I'll do my best for 102
hit points!
GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Ashton Anchors!
GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield! Statuses applied to Erzebet Lefanu!
GS: Ashton Anchors has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia's strike in anger doesn't find purchase, which doesn't do anything to alleviate said anger. She snarls as she turns, about to deliver a follow-up strike, when Vinsfeld intercepts with a paln strike of his own, sending her tumbling back. Almost immediately, Xantia hops back to her feet...

And just as quickly goes down again, from the explosions caused by Brad. The time is long since passed to worry about either one of these men are actually heroes, or she might have had some thinking to do about that. Not much chance of any thinking happening at the moment, though.

At least going down not once, but twice was enough to cool her off a bit. Enough so to realize that she's never going to get a solid hit in while she's making herself easy to see coming. This time when she gets up, she seems more collected than before.

She glances over to where Leon fell once again, relieved to see Ida having moved in to assist him. She feels a pang of guilt over failing to do so herself, but even in hindsight, she has no idea what she could've done. She's not carrying any healing items, and that... probably needs more than basic first aid. The only thing that might have helped, if she would have dared to chance doing something she's never done before - isn't an option while she can't access her Ether abilities at all.

And so, in going forward, there's only one choice. The same single choice that there was before. She'll just have to keep fighting. Fighting is supposed to be what she's good at, the one thing she knows how to do to help keep others safe. If she can't beat this guy, then what good is she?

These thoughts drive her forward, and drive her to be smarter about her approach this time. This time, she attempts to find an unguarded moment, a moment where Vinsfeld is fending off an attack by another, before she darts in. There's nothing even remotely fancy about it. All she does is circle around, and when she sees that opening, dash forward and deliver a single strike. With her fist, this time. There was a time where she didn't even know she had Ether abilities. Even without it, she still has every bit of her absurd physical strength. To her, this is just going back to basics.

For the moment. Xantia hasn't yet noticed it herself, but the blocked energy flows within her are slowly returning to their previous state. Vinsfeld is probably well aware that it won't be long before she becomes a bigger threat again.

GS: Xantia has activated a Force Action!
GS: Xantia has activated a Force Action!
GS: Xantia has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling!
GS: Xantia has attacked Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus with Shatterstrike!
GS: Xantia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus critically Guards a hit from Xantia's Shatterstrike for 35 hit points!
GS: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Xantia has lost 1 Combo!
<DICE ROLLER> Marivel Armitage rolled 1d100 <39> + 0 = 39

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Ida (rightfully) scolds the young Hyadean warrior as he struggles for the all-important thing he is presently being denied. Both hands fall upon the battlefield as attentions rapidly turn away. (A good big BOOM tends to do that.)
     ...He can still make out Quin's stammering.
     "...Damn it!" That's always the hardest part, he can scarce get names. Just like when he tried to get that one from the Kislevi gunslinger back on the Photosphere. He makes a spirited effort to crawl after the two of them as Ida goes to help one of the fallen, as he loses sight of Quin as she moves through cover. The shine of the blade's power helps further obscure her.
     Odessa has brought together so many warriors from all over Filgaia. The Drifters, too, make up so many. Just another one to break against the stone of Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus, etcetera, etcetera. Just one more rock of the cobblestone to cover an unmarked grave, etcetera, etcetera.
     A clawed hand falls upon another dead Odessa soldier. They're all dressed in olive and black in solidarity. With what strength he can muster, the horned squirrel turns them upright so he can look at their face. He can glean a lot by the make of the ARM that's held in their death grip in their right hand.
     He wants to remember them all.
     He wants to keep the memory of them all.
     ...
     This is the best day ever.
     But it could be even better

<Pose Tracker> Clarissa Arwin has posed.

There is something profoundly unsettling about both those bright green eyes and the crystal-clear certainty and earnestness within them. For just a moment, Clarissa locks eyes with Erzebet, and her breath catches in her throat.

The sun shines.

Smoke whisps from the bore of Strahl Gewehr as Clarissa watches Erzebet go flying. Complex feelings claw at the back of her throat and the back part of her mind. Teeth dimpling her lower lip, she looks away after a moment and closes her eyes, swallowing hard to try and bury what she's feeling.

It's not even anger anymore. Not even frustration. She draws in a breath as she looks up, watching Erzebet stagger away wounded, slashed through by Ashton's powerful blow.

The smile she sends back to Ashton is small and encouraging... but ultimately, fairly sad.

When Erzebet starts rambling, Clarissa stops. She holds Strahl Gewehr out for a moment more... but slowly, pitifully, the barrel starts to come down. She lowers her arm and hangs her head a little.

"Please don't die," she asks genuinely. "I don't want to kill anyone el-"

Erzebet's arms jerk sickeningly. Clarissa just about jumps out of her skin. Colour drains from her cheeks as she snaps Strahl Gewehr back up. Her hand is shaking imperceptibly around the grip and she notices how much it is - her aim's still on Erzebet but she can see her knuckles whitening.

"I don't hate you either," she says after a long, uncertain silence. "But... I could never come with you, Miss Erzebet. Or with Commander Vinsfeld. And it's not because I hate you. I don't. And it's not because I don't want to remake Filgaia. I want to bring it back. I just can't do it, no matter how much you say you want to remake Filgaia."

Clarissa hangs her head, determination mingled with sadness.

"Because I hate lies," she says. "Erzebet."

<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

He has her! He has her right where he wants her!

The combination has Erzebet on the back foot and reeling. Ashton sees the blood. And while he doesn't relish it? He understands that this skirmish is not one to hold back in. She's quite happy to spill his blood, after all.

But right as he tags Erzebet's arm with a blade?

CLONK

Oh, hello floor. We'll be having a talk for about the next thirty seconds.

Ashton will be right back.

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus is fully engaged in the fight now, moving from one instant to the next, devoid of extraneous thought. His muscles move in accordance with well-honed reflex, leaving his mind free to think and plan. Once more, he dances upon the razor's edge. Once more, he feels alive.

Violet's shot rocks the big man backward again, and the separation of the plates leaves a gap big enough for Quin to slip a knife through. Vinsfeld backhands the young woman away from him, then has to deal with Dash Caskett's rush; the boy in blue armor's charge forces Vinsfeld on the move, carrying him away from Leon's body... and allowing ida to dart in, to help. Mad Mountains moves in sweeping arcs, smashing against Dash's Blade Arm again and again. And while the young man is skilled, even talented, Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has been fighting for twice as long as Dash Caskett has been alive. The subtle twists and turns that blunt strikes before they can land take decades to learn, and the old warrior has spent decades learning them. Eventually the clash of blades forces the two of them apart, and Vinsfeldskids backward, chest and shoulders rising and falling in heavy, steady bre---

Brad Evan's giant fist connects with the side of Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's face in a way that will live on in his dreams until the day he dies. Blood sprays out from the old warrior's mout hwhere his teeth cut into his lip, and he spins around in a drunken pirouette, barely managing to keep his footing. He steels himself, gathering his footing - and just barely spots Xantia coming in on the flank, fist raised. Vinsfeld tries to slip away from the blow, but ends up taking it on his left shoulder pauldron, which shears with the sound of tearing metal; a handful of small ivory tiles fall down on the stone as the plate bounces away. He raises Mad Mountains---

"+xterm22,Connection established!)"

The two words cut through the haze of fury consuming Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus and, as though a switch was flipped, he stops being a warrior and starts being a commander again. Rolling to one side, his left hand comes up with another Symbol-inscribed tile; the ivory snaps between his fingers, and all along the stone across which the battle has been waged - an area that has become much smaller, thanks to the advancing fires - another thousand motes of light flicker to life. Symbols of paralysis activate, their energies surging upward, inflicting their effects upon everyone still standing... save of course for Vinsfeld himself, and Erzebet, and Matilda. (Ratatoskr would have got a pass if he'd signed up earlier.)

Vinsfeld lets out a long breath, the fire and shade dying along the edge of Mad Mountains, and he slowly lowers ancient sword. "Impressive," he says, his voice sounding sincere. "Most impressive. I can see now... feel now... the will behind the fury that saved this world from Mother." He lets out a long breath. "It is a will that even I must acknowledge." He sighs. "I cannot afford to let you free, to interfere with my plans. Nor do I wish to slay you out of hand, in recognition for your service. So it is time for Those Who Come And Go to go," Vinsfeld says, then turns toward the Sorcery Globe. "But first, as I said... I have a message to deliver."

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus is fully engaged in the fight now, moving from one instant to the next, devoid of extraneous thought. His muscles move in accordance with well-honed reflex, leaving his mind free to think and plan. Once more, he dances upon the razor's edge. Once more, he feels alive.

Violet's shot rocks the big man backward again, and the separation of the plates leaves a gap big enough for Quin to slip a knife through. Vinsfeld backhands the young woman away from him, then has to deal with Dash Caskett's rush; the boy in blue armor's charge forces Vinsfeld on the move, carrying him away from Leon's body... and allowing ida to dart in, to help. Mad Mountains moves in sweeping arcs, smashing against Dash's Blade Arm again and again. And while the young man is skilled, even talented, Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has been fighting for twice as long as Dash Caskett has been alive. The subtle twists and turns that blunt strikes before they can land take decades to learn, and the old warrior has spent decades learning them. Eventually the clash of blades forces the two of them apart, and Vinsfeldskids backward, chest and shoulders rising and falling in heavy, steady bre---

Brad Evan's giant fist connects with the side of Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus's face in a way that will live on in his dreams until the day he dies. Blood sprays out from the old warrior's mout hwhere his teeth cut into his lip, and he spins around in a drunken pirouette, barely managing to keep his footing. He steels himself, gathering his footing - and just barely spots Xantia coming in on the flank, fist raised. Vinsfeld tries to slip away from the blow, but ends up taking it on his left shoulder pauldron, which shears with the sound of tearing metal; a handful of small ivory tiles fall down on the stone as the plate bounces away. He raises Mad Mountains---

"Connection established!"

The two words cut through the haze of fury consuming Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus and, as though a switch was flipped, he stops being a warrior and starts being a commander again. Rolling to one side, his left hand comes up with another Symbol-inscribed tile; the ivory snaps between his fingers, and all along the stone across which the battle has been waged - an area that has become much smaller, thanks to the advancing fires - another thousand motes of light flicker to life. Symbols of paralysis activate, their energies surging upward, inflicting their effects upon everyone still standing... save of course for Vinsfeld himself, and Erzebet, and Matilda. (Ratatoskr would have got a pass if he'd signed up earlier.)

Vinsfeld lets out a long breath, the fire and shade dying along the edge of Mad Mountains, and he slowly lowers ancient sword. "Impressive," he says, his voice sounding sincere. "Most impressive. I can see now... feel now... the will behind the fury that saved this world from Mother." He lets out a long breath. "It is a will that even I must acknowledge." He sighs. "I cannot afford to let you free, to interfere with my plans. Nor do I wish to slay you out of hand, in recognition for your service. So it is time for Those Who Come And Go to go," Vinsfeld says, then turns toward the Sorcery Globe. "But first, as I said... I have a message to deliver."

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

The old warrior grounds his sword, the palms of his hands on Mad Mountains' pommel. He closes his eyes and, for a moment, just breathes. This operation has been months in the making, weeks in the planning. Every detail was considered and discussed... except this. He did not write a speech. He did not weigh words like gemstones, balancing them, polishing them, shaping them into a manufactured thing. Even though this was the moment that he would speak the words that would either change the world or doom his cause to destruction, to prepare a script, as though he could not trust the words of his heart, would be a betrayal of everything he stood for. And besides which... he knew it was absolutely, totally unnecessary.

Because the words will come. She told him they would.

The thrill of battle has departed, and the aches and pains have settled in. Blood seeps onto the stone, joints and tendons burn, muscles twinge, and the weight of his years settles down on his body like a winter's snow weighing down the branches of a gnarled old oak. He will pay for the night's exertions later... but now, like the smell of spring after a rainstorm, an old, familiar feeling rises from the depths of his soul. He can feel it coming - the rising tide that lifts spirits bound together in common purpose. For the first time since Slayheim fell, he feels it - a force as undefinable, as intangible, but just as real as gravity. It swells his shoulders, straightens his spine, dawns a smile on his face. He knows it. He can feel it.

And in that moment, the tired old warrior rediscovers the Liberator within. As she told him he would.

His eyes open and he stares forward, the picture of martial valour and confidence, hot winds stirring his hair in its warrior's tail as the fires blaze behind him. "I'm ready," Vinsfeld says, knowing the words will come.

A second later, energy surges outward from the Sorcery Globe, pulsing outward in a lightspeed wave. And all across Filgaia, in every pool of water, mirror, sword blade, and pot's bottom from the slums of Aveh to the heavens over Etrenank, the face of the Liberator appears, limned in fire, speaking words of revolution.

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

"To all the living souls of Filgaia - I bid you greetings."

"My name is Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus... and I suppose it is a name you may remember. A dozen years ago, I rose up against the tyrant who ruled my country, the land known as Slayheim. My people rose with me - ordinary women and men, unified in purpose. We fought to free ourselves, and our nation. To seize our future in our own hands. For the sake of our lovers, our children, our friends, and our companions, we fought. We triumphed. We dealt savage blows to our oppressors. But in the end... we were betrayed. And now the nation we fought so long and hard for is a lifeless husk, the earth salted, never to live again."

"After that betrayal... I admit to you, I was lost. I wandered from place to place, stumbling into each moment. At times, I wept. At times, I drank. I lived from moment to moment, drenched in sorrow, marking time until death came to claim me, and liberate me from the agony that drained my soul."

"But as I wandered... I also saw."

"I saw a man standing in a field that his father had worked, and his father before him, back through the generations into time immemorial. I saw him watch as the slow tide of a desert crept ever closer, yard by inexorable yard. I saw the moment that man knew his son would have no crop, no acreage, no home at all... just a sprawling death of sand, creeping ever westward."

"I saw a nation, bristling with ancient glories, machines not seen since the days of Zeboim, snatch up a neighbouring country in the name of 'protection.' And I saw that nation bite down like the vampires of legend onto the bones of that which was called Celesti, saw it suckle deep, drinking down even into the marrow... and then I saw those merchant princes laugh as vultures began to swoop around the corpse of a once-proud country."

"I saw a people living in the heart of the desert, a testament to the transcendent power of the human spirit. I saw a people who had thrown off dynastic rule in the name of a government led by one of their own... only to realize, far too late, that they had simply traded one slavemaster for another. And as they watched their wells dry up, as they lifted their voices in the meekest protest, I saw overseers summoned from the heavens, clothed all in white, raining death from the skies."

"I saw it all, and my heart ached."

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

"But even in the depths of despair, of discordia, I thought to myself - I have no reason to fight. Not again. These people are not mine - for my land, my people, are no more. But then, my sisters, my brothers, a question came into my mind. It began as an ember, as though a spirit had whispered it into my ear, and that fragmental glow has sparked a flame in me, birthed a purpose that has brought me once more onto the stage of our world. Four words only... but they are words that will change the course of history. Words I will speak to you now."

"Why are they not?"

"Think of it - why are they not my people? What natural law says they are not so? The borders of nations claim it, to be sure, but those are nothing but lines on a yellowing piece of paper, put there by the rich, the powerful, those who say the world belongs to them! The sermons of the priests say so... but as they take your tithes and promise paradise in the next life, what thought do the bishops give to the dying world we live in now? And so I asked myself - what have they, the rich and powerful, done with this world of ours? Your own eyes bear witness to their failure."

"I ask of you now, the so-called masters of Filgaia - kings and queens, nobles and merchants, priests and bishops - what have you done? While the deserts claim lands, while bandits and worse roam the countryside, ravaging those you have swore to protect? When ancient Demons from the depths of hell rose from their Metal graves to haunt us again - where were you? What did you do? Did you fight? Did you bleed? NO! No. You clutched your hands to your chest like frightened children, and prayed for someone, anyone, to make the darkness go away! For all your power, your wealth, your supposed superiority? YOU! DID! NOTHING!"

"And why? Because you were afraid for your life? Pfah! All who live know fear, know that the price our life holds in abeyance will one day come due. But you, the wealthy and powerful, you have convinced yourselves that you can barter with this inescapable reality, like the usurers you are, or shout it down like an unruly subject. But you are wrong. The price will come due all the same. And even if it did not, I ask you this - how can a man put a cost on saving the world? What price is too great to preserve life for the coming generations? Are you so greedy that you care nothing for what happens to the lands you claim as yours, so long as your skeleton is the last to bleach white in the sun?"

"Only one of you rose to the challenge of our times - Cecilia of Adlehyde, a young woman raised apart from her people. She did not know them, nor they her. But nevertheless, she lived up to the unspoken promise of her birthright - that she would stand, with all her power, between her people and desolation. Cecilia fought - as did her noble father. They paid in blood and fire for their service of this world... and for that, they have earned my utmost respect. In recognition of those efforts, both she and the people of Adlehyde have my word. Whatever follows will trouble you not at all, for your nation has chosen its leader, and she has served you well."

"But to the rest of you noble wretches, you misers, you moneychangers of life - you had your chance. You could have fought for reasons selfish or benevolent, for valour or from fear. But you did nothing. So now you shall be as nothing."

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

"To the people of Filgaia - hear my words, and measure them against the truths you have seen for yourselves. You have hoped for the so-called rulers of the world to save you and, but for one, they have hidden in their shells. You have prayed to gods and guardians alike for salvation, and your words have been a whisper on the wind."

"And so I declare - the lines on a tattered map are as worthless as the sand; the promises of fat priests are as empty as their souls. They have power only so long as you believe that they do. Cast their shallow words and lines aside, and you will realize the great truth their lies have concealed for hundreds of years."

"There are no gods. There are no masters."

"But you, my brothers and sisters - you who have known toil and suffering, who have tended the last, gasping breaths of your dying lands, who have fought back against the wilds. You have power. And it is long past time that the fate of this world was determined by those who are willing to fight for it."

"Thus do I, Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus, hereby declare war against all the nations of this world - save one. In the name of this army called Odessa, we will be the flame that burns the rot out of the tree that is Filgaia, and we will leave the heartwood strong. To the priests who have sided with the rich and powerful over the poor and needy - you shall face justice in this life, not the next. This crusade called Odessa shall shatter your false idols, and cast our defiance into the teeth of any god whose name you care to whimper."

"To the people of Filgaia, I also offer a word of caution. For you see, while I know the righteousness of our cause will prevail, I have also known war. And though the fattened geese lounging in the halls of wealth may think us weak... they soon will know our strength, our purpose, is all too real. So shall they turn fire and steel against us, seek to drown the world in the blood of the innocent rather than give up what they believe to be rightfully theirs."

"But even now, as they stand to lose everything, will they fight for themselves? No. Of course they will not - they will send others to bleed and die for them. Once more, they will sacrifice Filgaia's daughters and sons for the sake of their power. And when you see them do this, see them send your children against me, you will know my words to be truth."

"And so to those soldiers, to those women and men of valour, I say this: cast aside your old loyalties to king, to god, to line on a map. You have shown you are willing to fight for your world - so come to me, and fight for Odessa. For our people are all people, and your fight is ours."

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

"And a fight it shall be. The months and years ahead will be long. They will be hard. And I know, even as I take this first step with you, that I may not be so fortunate as to live in the world we have begun to set right. But I believe, as I know you do, that there is no cost too high to pay in exchange for the salvation of our world. For your homes. And for your children, your children's children, and so on until the end of time."

"So to you, my people - no longer must you cast your eyes downward, in submission, wondering whether you will feel a comforting hand on your shoulder or the rough rasp of a noose placed about your neck. Lift your hearts in joy, for now is your chance."

"Together, we will bend the arc of history toward the glimmer of hope that lies beyond the horizon. Together, we will shatter the corrupt world order. Together, we will seize power and use it to lift up the powerless. Together, we will save our broken world. "

"So join me.

Join me, and I will unshackle the chains that have bound you. Join me, and we will unleash our rage against the rulers of earth and heaven alike. Join me... and the blood we spill together will purify this tainted earth, and form the bonds of tomorrow's Filgaia."

Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus stares forward for a few moments longer, his shoulders rising and falling steadily, the swell of emotion slowly leaching out of him. And then he lifts Mad Mountains up with one hand, settling the massive blade over his shoulder, his eyeline drifting off-centre from the image. "It's done? Good." He nods and turns on his heel, walking toward the motes of flame and away from the image's focus. "Then let us go - there is so much to be done."

A wave of light erupts as Vinsfeld walks away.

<Pose Tracker> Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has posed.

In the last two years, waves of light from alien artifacts have not been strangers to Filgaia's Drifters. The one that the Sorcery Globe expands outward now is different. It crests and dips; it bends and moves. It has a wicked intellect behind it, guided to catch and draw away certain Drifters -- while foregoing Vinsfeld and his compatriots.

As the flash expands outward, over the horizon, predetermined individuals simply flash -- and leave vague outlines, before they are swept from the field. The killing fields at the heart of Elluria's ruins are soon swept clear of all save Vinsfeld, his chosen, and the rotting corpses.

    DREAM CHASERS MUSH CHAPTER TWO:
    One Who Bares Fangs at God

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel listens to the empathite radio. She knows, for a fact, that Ashley Winchester will survive this day. She hears Kamui is making a run on the generator. Of course she is. She has never lacked bravery. If she got hurt, would Acacia forgive her? Her expression hardens. Even she has people she could never pay too big a price for.

Marivel may try to act like she's heartless sometimes, but she isn't. When Erzebet starts freaking out, Marivel doesn't get a thrill out of it. She doesn't enjoy it. She doesn't smirk cruelly. As the bodies have started to hit the floor, her stomach starts grumbling. There's so much food here. Unsanitary, but the stench is pleasing enough to the senses.

Something is wrong with Erzebet. She is using that weapon too much but she should be passing out and/or dying from blood loss. Not feeling weird but good.

Something is wrong

"Erzebet..." Marie says. "Just...okay. You win. Stop firing that gun, alright? It shouldn't be doing what it's doing to you." How does Marie know these things?

But then Ashton cuts Erzebet open and just like that Marie is splattered across her face and upper body with blood.

Marivel shudders visibly. She hasn't eaten all day. Her hand reaches up to the blood along her face and her finger spools a glob of Erzebet's blood across her finger and she pulls it forward away from her face to look at it.

Clarissa can see a strange look in Marie's eyes.

"All I was doing was remembering dead things."

Five Thousand Years Ago

Marivel sits alone in the castle. Every day she is told about how humans are foolish about this or about that. She remembers how the humans desired their secrets, their power, their immortality.

She listens attentitively. She is a good daughter and loyal to her household. But she sits in that castle.

She sits in that castle day after day reading ancient tomes for the second third and fourth time that week.

She looks towards the outside.

Her hand touches hers.

Her life is changed forever for the first, but not last, time.

It lasts such a short while and then...

...then she is back to remembering dead things...

...because of the foolish of man and elw...and that which lies beyond.

Now, BEFORE Vinsfeld's speech

Marivel's eyes regain their focus. She darts forward towards Erzebet, her blood on her lips, in her mouth.

"Keep using those weapons." She tells her. "And you will know eternity. Of one kind or another. This is my last warning to you for I am quite willing to embrace your infinite... I owe nothing to the humans of this world for I am the true ruler of Filgaia. And if you have issue with the harshness of this world, then take it up with your ancestors!"

NOW, DURING Vinsfeld's speech

Marivel is not immune to magic it seems. She is caught up by his ether wave, staring straight at Erzebet. Not even at Vinsfeld. He has words, but Erzebet has made this a personal stake to her rather than just a philisophical interest, rather than a curious procedure.

NOW, AFTER Vinsfeld's speech

And expectedly, the light expands. Marivel crouches, protecting her face with her hands. Is this it? Is she going to be sealed away before the time of promise? She hadn't considered that possible.

"Well played.... Vinsfeld... But there is still plenty of time yet before the promised time."

And then she's enveloped in it.

<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.

Erzebet breathes heavily. It's like she can't get the vital principle out of the air. It's steaming a little in the Arctica night. She focuses on Clarissa as she refrains from shooting her back, and the gun she just used to (probably) kill Ashton Anchors (totally) is lowered, though not holstered.

"Do you think," she pants, "that it was any better, in the past? If the past, was so great, then why would it Collapse? Eh? Are you going to, say that SOMETHING just, comes down? It's not just, one nation rises, and another one falls! They ALL fall down! A forest has dying trees, but also new ones, but something cuts down nations, but - hah -"

"There's no such thing as the truth," she says to Clarissa, "just lies that match things bet - better -"

Then Marivel speaks to her.

"Hanh?" Erzebet says, as she often does. Her mouth stays slightly open as she looks at her. "... Haborym? Pff," she says, her lips pursing as she breathes out the air. "Are you... scared you're going to lose? Despite your - I don't know - your Skill, or whatever? I... wh... huh?"

She blinks a few times. Then she giggles. It's high and girlish and sounds oddly anxious. "What are you even... talking about, with eternity and - and everything..."

And then comes the words.

And the light expands.

Afterwards, Erzebet is alone. The tension goes out of her body and she slumps into the bloody mud around her again, holstering Haborym with swift thoughtless reflex.

"Heh... eheh... ehehehe..."

She hugs herself.

"... I feel so gross... but what was she talking about, with..."

Erzebet pops her right index finger in her mouth, to sooth the pinprick injury from Haborym's trigger mechanism. "Eternity?"