2019-09-07: The Land Breathes

From Dream Chasers
Jump to navigation Jump to search


<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

Besaid Island is a peaceful place.

It is far from the war between the Guard and Yevon's forces; too small to be a target to anything beyond Sin, despite sitting well behind the Althenan lines, Besaid has gone untouched. In a world with Sin, this little tropical jungle island is as close to peaceful as one can find on Spira.

Thus, when a trio of white-sailed ships belonging the Guard sailed into the island's harbor, it was a moment of shock -- then fear -- and then anger. Cooler heads prevailed, mercifully; the beaches were cleared before the ships landed, and the local youths playing Blitzball rushed into the village to give them warning.

Now, a small cluster of Althena's Guard and their Veruni allies make their way up the trail leading to the village. It is at the edge where a few locals, clutching what weapons they could find, and some Drifters have made a stand -- to hold them back.

"Here they come!" one Besaid man yells.
"They're coming for the Temple!"
"I-I heard what they tried, at Djose...!"

OOC: The fight doesn't take place in Besaid proper, but outside. The Guard and Veruni are advancing up the path; there are some locals and Drifters at the front, for people already in Besaid. Individuals arriving from beyond Besaid are likely coming up the trail after the Guard and Veruni, at their rear.

<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

EARLIER

The waters off the coast of Besaid are split as something quite unlike a ship rockets over them.

Guts-Dozer is not a boat, but it has jets on its bottom and back that let it move like a hovercraft. It can also move fast -- which is what Clarissa and Felius Arwin, inside, are controlling. Two huge gouts of water spray out behind it. Guts-Dozer is an enormous red Gear, but its lower half has tank treads. Its upper half is a blue and yellow torso, barrel chested and helmeted, and leaning over.

There is a cluster of ARMS personnel and Guardians on the front of it. Zhang Xiumei takes a deep breath; then, she looks over her shoulder. She looks at Yuna, for a moment, reflecting on -- and feeling terribly uncertain about -- the fact Marivel gave her a mission directly. She looks unassuming: an average height young lady, wearing a button-up white shirt, a vest, and a tie. The wind blows her hair back, and her fingers close about her glasses nervously.

"We'll try to help as much as we can. Marivel asked us," she says. Xiumei pauses, then.

Her voice is quieter, as she continues: "...so you're supposed to save the whole world from Sin, right?" She looks back out ahead. "It sounds like a lot of pressure..."

The wind makes her ponytail snap backward.

NOW

Guts-Dozer slams up through the woods, smashing into the side of the cliff. The cliffside trembles as it hits -- and makes a neat bridge, a little behind the Guard, and towards the group. Xiumei turns, looking at the other ARMS members and then Yuna and her Guardians. She nods her head, once, before she steps forward.

She pushes up her glasses, and calls out: "Armor, switch! MODEL V!"

Light flashes up around her. When it fades, forest green and dark violet armor is left covering Xiumei; rumpled but stylish Filgaian clothes are now gone. A helmet encases her head, with two fins along the top of the head, and her eyes -- now without glasses -- turn to look over those here.

She lets out a long, and slightly shaking, breath. "...Here we go. Um--Miss Yuna, be careful, okay?"

DC: Zhang Xiumei switches forms to Biometal Model V!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

"Damn it all, this isn't how I wanted to spend a day at the beach," Talise grumbles, ten minutes ago. Armour clatters as she fights to buckle on a couple of the more tightly-fitting plates.

Rushing to get her armour on, she'd burst out of the small house she was rooming in, sword in hand and equipment fully in place. The make of that defensive suit - one she found in the Elw ruins beneath Azado - ensures that she can still run swiftly to keep up with the encroaching army, the weight of the fine steel distributed evenly enough for her strong frame to carry it with ease.

The calls go out. The Guard are going for the temple. Talise wasn't in the front ranks for that one - but word of what happened has circulated. Something about a Sealing Rod and a goal of cutting off the Yevonites from their temples --

But then, isn't that where their magic comes from, in some way? Talise finds herself pondering as she tightens her gauntleted hand around her sword, then shoulders forward, moving into the front rank of the Besaid villagers who have gone out to meet the Guard. The former pirate draws herself up. The sun gleams off her blade and her pristine set of full plate. She looks for all the world like a legitimate knight.

Not far behind her, Benedict Greygust - crossbow in hand - takes up ranks with the villagers in his own right. "This isn't quite what I had in mind when the Benefactor suggested you mess with the Guard," he admits with a grimace behind his massive black beard.

Talise shakes her head. "This has nothing to do with that. I'd be here anyway." Expression grim, she stares out towards the approaching troops.

Then, smoothly, she takes two steps forward and puts herself out in front, hands resting atop the hilt of her sword. The thought of shouting something occurs to her - but she doesn't.

She holds her position, silently challenging an entire army to stop and send a champion.

DC: Seraph Liath switches forms to Prime Lord Liath!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

MEANWHILE, OVER THERE A WAYS....

With a crash, Guts Dozer comes trundling out through the woods, carrying friends on his gigantic arms.

Behind the controls, Clarissa focuses intently on maneuvering the giant colossus forward and controlling its speed. The backseat is occupied by Felius, who's controlling some of the finer motions - but Clarissa's the one putting most of the heart into things, despite her lack of experience.

"Xiumei, Miss Yuna, please be careful," her voice urges them, echoing through an external speaker. "We'll be rooting for you...!"

<Pose Tracker> Black Wizard Borgan has posed.

Borgan, Black Wizard of the Four Heroes, rarely comes to battle.

He considers it an unfortunate demand on his time, which is much more profitably spent elsewhere. He wasn't visible at the last attempted sealing, at Djose, instead preferring to study and learn some more about the mysteries of Spira - but after the last failure, he had thought he had better supervise himself, if only to ensure that Neo-Vane is not embarrassed by further... lapses.

And that's why he's in the middle of a jungle, wasting his time on this backwoods islands. He could be reading right now! He could be making studies and figuring out how Summoning worked! But no, he has to be here.

So needless to say he is slightly irritated even before the locals show up. It doesn't show too much, except perhaps in his voice when he speaks; physically, he floats his flying platform toward the front of the collection of Guards soldiers, letting Leo handle the actual military actions he has no patience for, and rather grandoisely raises his staff, spreading his arms wide and letting his voice boom out. (He has a good voice for that.)

"Go away," is what he says. "You cannot stand against us and we all know it. I have no interest in fighting fishermen and farmers; stand down and be safe!"

But what is that rumbling noise in the distance...? And why are there knights - or a knight, anyway - in the group?

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

    A FEW DAYS AGO

    A lifelong convict is slouched over the cot in her dark, world-displaced cell. A small shimmering crystal hovers over her. A disgusting piece of technology courtesy of the Veruni. A dirty hack, linking the two worlds when she thought she had just a little bit of a reprieve from...

    "Consider it a little extra pressure. And a gift to Commander Amaterasu and Kaguya," speaks the voice from the crystal. Wizened yet smooth as proven silk, and thoroughly dripping with venom. "After all, I don't know if you've taken to yet a little more betrayal."

    An unseen smirk from the convict.

    "I have never betrayed anyone in my entire life."

    The cell is silent. Then there is derisive laughter, made tinny from the transmission.

    "Whose side are you on right now?" speaks the crystal. A pause. "Ah. It doesn't matter. You know I'm fine with you being on whoever side you choose." A longer pause.

    "I can always destroy them and drive you back to me."

    Yue lilts her cucco feather up at that. "Do you believe you are up to it?"

    A disdainful and very clear snort.

    "I can always spot the mess you make. The disaster trails you leave behind. You have to know by now how aware I am of what you want. What you deserve."

    Yue is quiet for a moment. "You should go easy on her. She has been having fun here in Spira."

    A scoff.

    "I live to spoil her. Make no mistake that everything she deserves will be visited upon you, my adorable failure."

    A longer pause, and then Yue answers: "I love you too, mother."

    The crystal dims and cracks.

    NOW

    The very bizarre sight of a woman in shackles, with entirely too much brown hair, (thanks Loren for the description) in a beat-up black ulster coat and shirt and tie combi and heels stands out amidst the pearlescent, picturesque sands of Besaid.

    She'd rather be here to teach Minder to play more Blitzball with the Little Lightnings. But she has to be grateful to Dorca and Ranna for taking care of her right now. Hopefully she's distracted enough she hasn't noticed her slipping out.

    "I am here to be your fodder," remarks the woman with the cucco feather hanging on her lip. "So--"

    Her face nearly falls as she stares at Guts-Dozer swimming in from the distance, then crashing up through the woods and up the cliff. And if that wasn't enough of a surprise... there is an all too familiar light, amidst the coming members of ARMS and Yuna's entourage.

    Why is it here? Why now??

    "... Commander. Pray let me engage that Reploid."

    A what now--

    But Yue has darted up into the air in one frankly ridiculous super-jump and lands ontop of poor Guts-Dozer's head. She pauses.

    "Good afternoon," she looks to the assembled members, but in particular the armoured form of Zhang Xiumei. Ah. Awkward.

    She can't prevent all of them from rushing Besaid, but she can at least occupy some of them by virtue of needing to defend Guts-Dozer...

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

OVER BY GUTS-DOZER....

Clarissa squeaks in surprise as someone lands on Guts-Dozer's head. "Uwaa-- I-I'm not sure I can hit her up there!" she gasps as she flails a bit in her seat.

Wordlessly, Felius begins to fiddle with various controls. The huge Gear churns backwards a little before a launcher on its stomach spits a single Metool out - at which point the Dozer shifts forward slightly. It's enough that the Metool ends up landing on the Guts-Dozer's head, next to Yue.

The Metool takes one look at her and lazily ducks under its hard hat.

Felius lowers his eyelids in consternation.

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

    Yue stares down towards the Mettool and sucks in a sharp, intense breath--

    !! You have to play the role of the boring smug villain today Yue !!

    --and barely passes her Sanity roll to prevent gushing and cooing over the hard-hat Mettool. She shoots the pilots a dirty look. That was a dirty trick.

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

"I'm okay," Yuna told Xiumei softly, and those were pretty much the only words she spoke on the entire trip, other than, originally, "Thank you," for the emergency ride, gratitude accompanied by obescience that went practically to the floor. She repeated it, too, at the end, when Clarissa well-wished them.

But --

Yuna was very, very quiet throughout the journey to Besaid; arms wrapped around her knees, chin held between them, focusing... inward. Her friends and Guardians might guess that she's communing with Besaid's fayth, and they would be right.

In a corner of Yuna's soul, there wafts the smell of peaches...

---

FEAR
HOPE
HURRY
COMFORT

---

They are joined by brimstone and ozone.

---

RAGE
CONCERN
WORRY
LOVE
CLAUSTROPHOBIA
LOVE
LOVE
LOVE
HOME

---

The transport arrives with a shudder that knocks Yuna over. Kimahri's smell -- fur, and musk, and, not coincidentally, that of his whetstone -- starts to overpower her awareness of the others, within.

---

PROMISE

---

"I never thought," she says, very quietly, to Wakka and Lulu, while they're disembarking, "That I'd ever get to see this place again."

That was true of Kilika, too, and of Luca, and of Djose... things have turned out much less linear than expected, than intended, than planned. But this is -- Besaid is -- different. She lets the jungle sounds wash over her -- the soft hoots and sharp chirps of wildlife disturbed by all these strange arrivals. The smells; saltwater, of course, and a cloying perfume, the mixture of heat and moisture and spectacular flora. The heat, itself, is a palpable feeling, and it tingles on her skin like a welcome-back kiss.

Her eyes reopen, forest green and ocean blue, with a snap, and she looks across the distance at Borgan, addressing him from behind.

"Besaid Village," she announces sternly, but even, in this desperately fearful moment -- Besaid's fayth's terror still coursing inside of her, churning, and not unjoined by Yuna's own fears for her people in harm's way -- "Is not just fishermen and farmers. Today you must face its children... and their friends!"

She draws the implement of her profession, and points the graceful rod, a rod fashioned here, on this very island -- as she was, herself -- at the legendary Wizard.

<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

On one hand, Ashton is very happy to have gotten a ride over here. His family has a long association with the sea - one does not take the surname Anchors without one. On the other hand, the Guts-Dozer sort of weirds him out.
 
The two mostly balance out, but he's not too upset when they finally reach shore. Right up until he gets a barrage of palm-fronds in the face as the machine barrels through the trees.
 
"On the plus side," he notes as he tries to pull leaves out of his hair, "We have managed to engage them away from the town itself AND they didn't bring any giant death golems this time."
 
Ashton promptly eats a coconut to the jaw and falls off the Guts-Dozer.

<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    White Knight Leo walks at the head of the Guard's contingent, straight-backed and grim-faced. It's cold comfort to him that this place isn't full of refugees--there are still people living here, and bereft of the pilgrims the Temple brings in--

    Leo shakes his head. That isn't important now, he thinks.

    Borgan issues his declaration. Leo steps up to the Black Wizard's side, lending the authority of two Heroes to the task at hand. "Stand down," he says. His voice softens a hair. "Lay down your arms." They won't, hisses the treasonous voice of doubt. This is their home. Yuna's voice reaches him a moment later, underscoring the thought. This is what they know. They will defend it with their lives.

    Leo's ears flatten backwards. "Summoner," he says. His expression darkens, and his hands curl into fists at his sides. He needs to say something. He has to say something.

    And yet, Leo can't think of anything to say.

<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    It's a struggle for Belize. The teachings of Yevon state that abuse of machina is what caused Sin to appear, and so their use is generally forbidden with some exceptions. Yet Valefor has cried the alarm in their soul, theirs and Yuna's, and they have no desire to see Besaid trampled over as Kilika was. But to think the only ride they could procure to the island was on an otherworlder's machina... and through that group of Marivel's, of all groups...!
    
    There's nothing for it. They grit their teeth and bear it, for the good of Yevon and the future of Spira. But they sure don't have to like it.
    
    "Much appreciated," they thus tell Xiumei with a sharp nod and a clipped tone. It's not like they're unappreciative, anyway. They don't remark on Sin. That question was for Yuna, anyway.
    
    When the machina makes landfall, Belize wastes no time in descending. They wait only for Yuna and her Guardians before rushing up the path, following the Guard's tracks. They, too, sense the scent of peaches--but as this is Yuna's homeland, and Valefor her first Aeon, they can only imagine that she smells it all the more strongly. They don't hear Yuna's comment to Lulu and Wakka either, but... well, despite everything, they too are a Summoner. They understand how she must feel.
    
    And so they too line up next to Yuna as she faces off against Borgan. They draw their bow and nock an arrow. They catch sight of Leo, off to the side, and privilege him with a sneer before focusing back on Borgan. "You shall not have your way here."

<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.

A more reasonable soldier might have perhaps applied for a temporary leave of absence after going through the sort of revelations that one Ashley Winchester has been subject to. But they're on the moon, standing right next to a literal lunar sea, fighting moon-church-knights on crusade for their moon-prophet. Any pretense of reasonability has long gone out the moon-window.

And so Ashley Winchester is here.

He doesn't have anything personally against Althena or her myriad minions. Honestly, they all seemed like pretty good folks back when everyone was crowding around on a beach for Sin to eat them. But circumstances being what they are, conflict was inevitable.

Also, it's just plain impolite to be going around waving black magic moon rituals at rival religious institutions. Ashley himself is a proper Valmar-fearing Granasian of the Sword Magess-bothering variety, but even he knows that it's just improper to go kicking over Guardian temples just because they're there.

It's a good way to get cursed.

The Guts Dozer rumbles ominously towards battle. The not-so-distant hum of its tremendous engine is a reassuring basso note, a reminder of recent victories and of the people he fights alongside. The musketeer lowers a pair of binoculars from his eyes with a mild grimace. "That's a lot of Althenians. This is probably going to be rough, but..."

They'll give it a good fight, at least.

Ashton raises a good point. Ashley nods, unlimbering his massive rifle with practiced ease. "Yeah. Worst case, we have a few trump cards we can pull now that we're far enough away from civilization. Don't worry, everything'll be just fi-"

Ashton takes a coconut to the skull.

"Uh," Ashley winces, "Y-you guys okay down there?"

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

For the record, Wakka does not approve of this machina. He does not approve of its noble chin, of its eager expression, or if its... jet things, at the back. Definitely not the treads. Buuut...

Like Yuna's other Guardians, there are a lot of things he'll tolerate when it comes to protecting Besaid. Lulu, standing on the strange Gear, finds herself watching Xiumei for a long few moments, in the moments she mentions the pressure on Yuna. Her expression gentles very slightly.

But that was THEN, and NOW:

The taciturn black mage only inclines her head to the members of ARMS as she goes, says, "Thank you. We won't forget this." She has no time, no room for the moment, for something more sentimental. The storm has come once again to the small village of Besaid... But this time, it is not Sin. No--

---

"...I know," Lulu tells Yuna softly. She thought the same, and the feeling she has of being here with Yuna is... complex. It should be a relief. But it isn't; it is so many other things, instead. The heat among them....

Lulu steps up, ahead of Yuna, though not blocking sightline of her. The Guardian's place is before her Summoner, after all.

"It's you who should leave," Lulu declares to Borgan, her voice even, controlled--...with practically palpable fury behind her eyes.

"Or I promise you that you will regret every stone of Besaid's that you touch."

Her eyes slide to Leo, for an instant, and her expression is hard. "There's nothing more you need to say," she tells the White Knight, "So long as you stay on this course."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

Clarine had overheard the discussion - ships manned by Althena's Guard were on their way to the island of Besaid. That certainly got Clarine's attention.

Besaid...she had, not long ago, spoke of its beauty to some good friends of hers. And not only that...Talia and Ammy had moved there, just recently. Would the Guard force them to relocate yet again...? Would the people of Besaid, the kind people who had so eagerly welcomed her friends into their midst, suffer by Althena's will?

It was that thought that finally drove her to action - she had disapproved of and been uncomfortable with their actions before...but now, not she felt she had to do something.

Even if it meant standing against the chosen arbiters of Althena's will, she would fight.

And so, here she is - perched atop the Guts-Dozer as it moves at high speeds.

It comes to a stop and Clarine steps off, floating down to join her friends standing in defense of Besaid's people. As she moves, a set of several silver mirrors emerge from her sleeves, floating around her protectively as she recites a quick incantation.

"Field Barrier!"

At her words, blue light carrying the distinct feel of Seraphic artes erupts from her, settling on the townsfolk of Besaid standing in defense of their home.

"People of Besaid...be not alarmed - we are here to assist you. Please allow us to handle this." She assures them.

She seems confident...but in reality, she is truly, incredibly nervous.

One of the Seraphim opposing the will of Althena...the thought of committing such a traitorous action terrified her, but even so, she is here.

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
"Aha - it's like a water hover! I love it!" That's the surface level reason why Rikku seems like she's in such a good mood. She makes certain she doesn't gush about the craft too hard within earshot of Wakka. She does however ask the two piloting if she can check out the craft's systems enough that they begin to consider her a nuisance.
 
There's another reason though.
 
Rikku had never been to Besaid. Neither the village, nor the island. So her thoughts of the island besides it being the place where Lulu and Yuna grew up is...
 
I hope you go someday, Rikku.
 
It's a selfish thought, and she knows it. Even if they're here seeing it on such a dark occasion. She's going to get to go - with Yuna.
 
She willfully clings on to thoughts like these as if it were thwarting some destiny. Because so long as she does - that day where they can't go together becomes so distant as to be unknowable.
 
"I believe it!" Rikku says as she pokes her head out around a corner of the deck, "You're already delivering so well-!" Perhaps she sees the moment where she quiets to say something hushed to Yuna.
 
She can imagine what the subject is.
 
Yet it's so distant right now... that she doesn't even think about it.
 
-=-=-
 
"Oh my gosh." Rikku puts a hand up to her mouth as Xiumei dons that armor. Her eyes slip over to Wakka as she realizes that her comment might be read into and she tries to dim her enthusiasm as she says, "It's a forbidden machina! Oh no... How... how taboo..."
 
Rikku's lip twitches. She knows she shouldn't be in a good mood. This is Yuna's home, she knows how Yuna must feel, but right now... right now she's optimistic.
 
Not only are they going to see Yuna's home.
 
As she steps by her, there's a smile on her expression, knowing that Yuna must be having all sorts of mixed feelings about seeing it like this, "Well Yunie... it's like someone I know always says." There's something impossibly warm in what she says now, the idea of taking sad expectations and turning them on their head, "Never say never. Maybe I'm not from here - but I'm happy to be here to help you save this place."
 
It is not long before Yuna is issuing her challenge to Borgan. She remembers him from Operation Mi'ihen - as not someone to be underestimated given what his ritual pulled off. She takes a moment to finish strapping the gauntleted claw on her arm, and checking her belt's ordnance.
 
"Now I know what you're thinking. You didn't expect this kind of resistance here. I get it. So maybe you'd consider retreating-? We could parley and spend all this time talking terms rather than beating each other up. You reallyyyy don't want to mage duel Lulu though. She's scary when she's mad."
 

<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.

    Kaguya had failed at Djose.
    No animus is meant by this statement -- her sister is her sister, regardless of her accomplishments -- regardless of the fact that Amaterasu knows her sister is capable of better. No, it is simply a statement of fact. Her sister had failed, a matter she has already spoken to the girl on, and that is also why the life-long soldier has come to Besaid today, on this mission.

    She stands now on the sands of that shore, but one 'soldier' (if Yue can be called that) under her direct command. Wind catches her long blonde hair. She lends one evaluating glance at Yue before her attention redirects to the apparent force here to engage them.

    "...An interesting mode of travel," she remarks, arching an eyebrow. "I wonder what it might be like to face that construct in battle." She draws, then, as several of the opposing force disperse onto the sands, Valkyrja.

    With a single flick of the wrist the polearm telescopes outwards, its blade hissing into life with a single flash of burning brilliance. Both hands rest on the weapon's shaft. She stands there as if a statue, regarding the lot of them with a steely gaze.

    Amongst the Guard, they say that Amaterasu wields a mighty weapon of light.
    Amongst the Guard they whisper over her strange armor, far more odd than anything her sister wears.
    Elves, some of them say.
    Beastfolk say others.
    Neither is true. What Amaterasu and her sister are is something far stranger than anything the natives of Lunar imagine.

    "A Reploid?" It is not something the Veruni commander is familiar with, it seems. She follows Yue's gaze. Aha. "Permission--"

    Yue is already gone. Amaterasu's unnaturally green eyes narrow.

    "...granted," she finishes stonily, her gaze redirecting to those on the shore.

    "You there. Are you here to stop us?" Her gaze flits, once, to Leo. "...They will not lay down their arms. They have come here for a fight. It is only natural in war to defend one's home."

    She inclines her head once in a nod. "Then come!" she implores those on the shore. "Show me what you would do." The faceplate of that strange armor slams into place, the three-part series of 'eyes' glowing now with a sickly green light.

<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

From down below on the ground, Ashton thrusts up a hand at Ashley with a thumbs up.

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Sometimes Marivel is not really in the mood for fighting against the people serving who was, at one point, one of her best and closest friends. This isn't really anything against them in particular but battles against the Guard essentially serve as a thick reminder as to why she no longer believes in Althena to begin with, not to mention everything she's lost. So when Besaid Island is under attack, well, Marivel elected to delegate and asked Zhang Xiumei to look after Yuna and her Guardians for her. Even on mental health days (Self Care is important), Marivel wants to make sure her bff from another planetoid is okay. And besides! It's a good time to show Xiumei that whatever her feelings are, Marivel trusts her enough to leave her friend's life in her hands! Surely this won't result in any anxiety!

Anyway none of this matteres to Lydia. In fact, Lydia has by and large avoided the war so far. In fact, Lydia was hoping to avoid the war today too for you see, today... Today Lydia was on a date. She even used her nano-assemblers to construct a cute dress as seen here (but with WHM style triangles on the sleeves because MOM gave advice): https://i1.adis.ws/i/boohooamplience/dzz86087_black_xl?$product_image_main$

She was about to tell Ivan that she actually thinks red eyes are pretty cool having just put in her order to the waiter when--

'THE GUARD IS COMING! They're coming for the Temple! I heard what they tried, at Djose!'

Do you know what they do at Besaid's, like, ONE nice restaurant when the Guard attacks? They close it down and evacuate that's what!

Lydia gets a look in her eyes. Ivan has seen this look in her eyes before. She had it in her eyes when she was ranting to Lubov about raising assassin children. She had it in her eyes when Ivan tried to blow off Talia's sadness back when they first met. She had this look in her eyes shortly before Talia got stabbed by the Shadow Dragon Cult.

"They're ruining our date." Lydia says quietly.

Lydia thinks about how long she wanted an official real life date with Ivan. She thinks about the multiple times she nearly died because dating Ivan means dealing with assassin cults and gaslighting legendary white mage assholes. She was comfortable with this. She knew it was part of the package. But they had won. They had survived. And now THIS BULLSHIT is ruining everything.

Lydia dabs her mouth with a napkin despite only having had bread so far. "I have a solution: Complain to Leo."

SHORTLY AFTER.

Yuna faces the Guard. She tells them that they aren't just fighting monks and warriors but people, but villagers, but families, but friends, but children. It's a heartwarming moment really, beautiful and noble, just one more instance of the Summoner proving she is a heroine of the people.
Sheome 'summoners' have a more personal beef, however. There is a twinkle in the sky, and then that twinkle becomes an asteroid that is also a three eyed shrimp. And on top of that asteroid is Lydia Seren and her date.

"LEEEEEEEOOOOO!!!" Lydia screams. "You're supposed to be a good guy! And you're menacing a small town village that has like maybe two local guards, fucking up their temples despite being the only fucking way we know actually beats Sin! And I really didn't want to fight you, because I like you and I owe you and you're fucking amazing... but you also..."
    he asteroid crashes downn nearby, Lydia leaping off (hopefully with said date) shortly before.

"...You also fucked up my date! I was really looking forward to it too! Invade Besaid tommorow!"

Yeah not every grievance is particularly noble. Or maybe there is nothing more noble than this date because she really is rocking that cute dress there. It's a matter of perspective.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

                                                      Before

She has always loved the sea.

A long time ago, when she would look out over the coast, she liked to imagine just what untold wonders laid hidden beyond that sparkling horizon. The ocean was possibility. Anything could be there. Anything at all. She could spend her time just painting a picture of what might wait for her there, pass fancy that one day she'd cross that gulf and see what truly waited. Whether it met her expectations or not, no matter the circumstances, she knew she would not be disappointed.

A long time ago, when she would look out over the coast, she never expected she would cross it like this.

The waves lurch the Althenan warship as it touches upon the coastline of Besaid, as if subtly rebelling against the ship's presence in its crystalline depths. Upon the bow's sacred figurehead she stands stoically, gloved hand on the pommel of her sword, white-tinged bangs whipping behind her in the salt-choked winds as she watches the retreat of villagers upon that sandy shore.

It is the first time she has been here, to this little island cloistered from the world. The land is beautiful. The circumstances...

Gaze overshadowed by the rustle of her bangs, the Seraph Liath's smile is a bittersweet thing as she leaps from the figurehead towards the shore.

                Now

Whatever her thoughts on the matter, the Prime Lord Liath stands staunchly at the front lines of Althena's contingent treading upon Besaid's sandy shores. One hand resting upon the pommel of that ceremonial sword, the other resting comfortably at her side, the Seraph of Light says not a word as Borgan makes his declaration -- as Leo attempts to convince the villagers to stand down.

It's a futile gesture; he knows it well, considering how his words fail to find him to make a more compelling case. She could speak. She does not.

The villagers of Besaid made their choice, and she would not disrespect it with attempts to undermine the resolve behind it.

So for now, the knightly Seraph just watches, unreadably bright gold eyes affixed on first on those who rally to Besaid's defense, from the summoner herself, to freedom fighters from another world -- to a girl angry at a date interrupted, crashing in on the back of a stellar body'd Guardian. Brows lift, subtly; that piercing gaze turns towards Leo in silent thought. Her gaze drops, to watch as his fingers curl tightly against his palms.

"..."

And, eyes shutting... she simply waits for what cannot be avoided.

<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    Near if not at the front of the crowd before Besaid stands the red-haired samurai Bera. Her black haori is left hanging at her waist held in place by her sash keeping it out from tangling up her motions in a heated fight leaving her torso bare other than her chest binding wrap.

    As the Guard and their allies approach the village, Bera pulls her sheathed katana from her sash holding it lightly in one hand, the other ready to reach across and draw it but before she moves arrivals appear behind the enemy. Maybe the fight wouldn't be as hard.

    After a moment to observe the situtation, Bera begins to move forward as if to simply dare the Guard and their Ally open their attack as she scans them for ideally a commander or other leadership to attempt to take out and weaken the overall enemy forces. Blue eyes settle on a tall soldier with a polearm weapon as she locks onto Amaterasu. What was a slow calm walk begins to speed up, rapidly turning into a charging run with her blade at her left and right hand on the hilt ready to draw.

<Pose Tracker> Ena has posed.

    Ena had been at exactly the right place at the right time to even be here at all. Had it not been for Belize and Yuna, she might still have been in Guadosalam directing refugees. Instead, she is riding alongside them on a vehicle that, quite frankly, feels pretty close to the definition of Machina she is familiar with. But the summoners seem okay with it as a necessity, so Ena chooses to go along quietly. She tries to look disapproving, at least. Despite that, she still doesn't necessarily look as uncomfortable with it as your average Yevonite should. Fortunately, there are other things on people's minds. "We're going to make it in time, right?" She asks, a little nervously.

    The timing is close, it seems, as the Guard can be seen advancing at a pace. When her fellows start jumping off the Gear, Ena is quick to follow, vaulting off behind Belize. It would have been nice to be introduced to Besaid under nicer circumstances. If she wants to have that opportunity, she has to fight. She doesn't make any bold declarations, instead standing in the line that is slowly forming against the Guard, gripping her staff tightly.

    She does not look ready for this whatsoever.

<Pose Tracker> Isolde has posed.

 
It has been a while, hasn't it, Isolde?

Floating around on the edge of things, enjoying yourself and taking your ease, she thinks to herself as she hears shouts ring out from the outer fringes of the village. Isolde herself is seated near the pavilion space that hosts the few travelers to Besaid when they are in residence. She had been playing dice for gil, not many of them.

Here THEY come. THEY'RE coming for the temple. What THEY tried, at Djose. Isolde knows who THEY are.

Am I THEY, she thinks, to herself. I was, almost, once. I've almost been a lot of things, Isolde thinks.

She sits in silence for a few moments more. She hears people crying. Others are going down the road. Not many, Isolde thinks.

With a sigh she pushes herself forwards, rises to her feet, and tosses her hair. "If I don't come back," she asides to the manager, "keep the dice."

"Ah," she says to herself as she walks down the path, "I doubt he heard me. Heh, heh..."

-=-=-=-

It's a bit of a walk. But only a bit.

"Aye," Isolde answers the voice of the Black Wizard, "be safe, until you change your mind, I'm sure." She reaches over to toss out her hair, partly for complete and utter style, and partly to dislodge a small twig that got caught in the loose and at this point somewhat dishelved locks.

She seems about to say something else - no doubt some glorious statement - but as is so often the case, reality interferes. Something immense goes CRACK and SMASH nearby. Her head tilts as if to reason this out from first principles.

Her lips pull back slowly into a smile.

"Bon chance," she says. She slaps her hips then, draws out her sword and grasps it firmly with both hands, and takes a deep breath of the salt air -

Hesitation, she smells. Time to throw the dice.

That is when Isolde runs down from the tree line towards the beach, holding her sword above her head. "FONTAINE!" she shouts. "Fontaine!!" she shouts again as she smashes the blade down into the shoulder of some poor sap who was in the front of the lines, and she presses herself up into a full body flip over and PAST him, wrenching the weapon free as she goes, and she exhales with strength.

The sun's shining, isn't it? Isolde thinks.

"You smell familiar," she says, before lunging forwards three yards in a kick-off lunge of great force, aimed at the midsection. "Have we met? I'm having an attack of chivalry."

The midsection, as it turns out-- is that of Seraph Liath!!

GS: Isolde has attacked Seraph Liath with Bally-table Queen!
GS: Isolde has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Isolde has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

ANOTHER STORY
 
     A forty-something man who will never have a Blitzball career - the infamous Guba - has been passing time with their unlikely friend, a horned squirrel man made out of living metal from so very far away.
     Improbably, they have bonded over how awesome the Besaid Aurochs are, and also having very different ideas between them as to what a 'Besaid Auroch' actually is.
     They have also bonded over throwing Blitzballs at people like some sort of local warrior custom. Soon, an entire unit of Guard sail up to the harbor. Guba, a man who keeps trying to bean a huge Fiend out of sheer idiocy, stares out towards the very beaches where enemy forces assemble.
     "Is it Althena's Guard? Is it Althena's Guard!" Ratatoskr shouts excitedly, tail standing on end. "I know that formation... they're here to fight..."
     Guba's face blanches.
     "...I want to see how they compare to the Besaid Aurochs... this is great..." Ratatoskr's grin widens. One of his (many) dream match-ups can be happening right here, right now.
     Guba just straight-up runs away.
     "Bring them all here!!" Ratatoskr calls back. "I can't wait!!"
     Ratatoskr will, uncharacteristically for him, wait for basically the entire duration of the ensuing battle.
 
     THE PRESENT
 
     Ethius - that oddball sorcerous vandal - is already present, skulking about as he normally does (albeit in a ratty cloak that's too warm for this climate). Besaid is remote, easily cut off from contact from the outside world, and it all feels like the perfect place for... something... he can't put into words but feels an irrational(?) compulsion to make extra sure that it's not being subverted as a vector for... whatever makes sense to him.
     The weird thing about all this is that it'd be much easier to rationalize it as 'while backwater, does have a religious site, might be targeted,' but he doesn't, because Ethius is a strange and maybe even sad man who sometimes chases the thinnest thread of cause to destructive ends.
     A forty-something man with a blitzball in tow shoves him aside and forward, as if to save his own skin. Ethius doesn't shoot them a second look as he comes running down the trail with all due haste. He's far up enough it'll take a solid minute or two of running down there to catch up with the building excitement and chaos of deploying ships and the GUTS-DOZER which starts setting more than a few alarm bells off. Is this a new Veruni weap--
     No, ARMS members and Yuna's Guardians are stepping off from it. Ethius stares (more) blankly than usual for a few seconds before he draws his weapon - a quarterstaff - and sizes up the stand-out targets. One strange one in prisoner bonds atop the construction bot-vehicle.
     An armored foe issues her challenge, their make beyond much of anything fathomable by these people. Sickly green light casts their intimidating presence. Lydia screams about her date being ruined.
     A local warrior - Bera - bravely moves in towards the tall soldier without hesitation.
     Ethius pushes past the normal fleshbag fatigue that comes from running full tilt for the distance he has to hurl himself further down the beach from Bera's left and back, moving to reinforce her.

<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

It was those people again.

        The ones who'd been up to ...something...at Djose.

            Now here they were in Besaid.

Violet recognizes some few of them, particularly their Beastman leader, which for once was not an oxymoron. They were seeking out Spira's sacred places, but why?

Violet could appreciate the irony that she was fighting for Yevon, yet another band of religious fanatics, but Yevon was more reasonable, except for their forbidding machina. Which, naturally, she had with her in the form of her ARM Jeremiah. Which, just as naturally, she was readying becase a rematch was looking inevitable. Whevever they were up to, it had to be stopped.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    The mighty Guts-Dozer makes its entrance, with members of ARMs, various Guardians, and a few extra miscellaneous passengers: such as 1x Gwen Whitlock, Super Courier.

    Brave defenders land rush to the aid of the island, making their entrances.

    "... I need..."

    Luckily, Gwen did not get knocked over by a sudden coconut dinner.

    She was, however, on the Guts-Dozer.

    And so, a few moments after many make their entrance, a wobbly Gwen stumbles down from the front of the Guts-Dozer, taking a moment to bend down, her hands on her knees.

    ".. need... a second..."

    With a breath, she abruptly straightens and rubs her face. "... Gh... so what's this about ag... ain..."

    Her attempt at a grin is completely thrown off by the vision of Borgan and- "White Knight Leo." Concern creases Gwen's face, her gaze traveling to yet another familiar face: Liath. Oh, right. She's part of the Guard. That's why they had met when they did.

    She looks to the side, towards Amaterasu. The Veruni, sister to Kaguya.

    Her decision seemingly made, she starts walking towards Amaterasu. "... Didn't think we'd be meetin' for a second time like this, m'dam. Hope y'don't take a bit of this personally."

GS: Seraph Liath completely evades a hit from Isolde's Bally-table Queen!
<Pose Tracker> Black Wizard Borgan has posed.

*That's* the rumbling.

Even Borgan is taken aback by the mighty Guts-Dozer; he was not expecting to see the Yevonites use anything like it, but more than that, he is momentarily seized by an urge to take it apart and figure out how the thing works. Not because it's a war machine he wants for Pentagulia, either. He just... really wants to investigate it.

But he does *not* have the time for that now, especially when he's addressed by some people he recognizes and some people he doesn't. He doesn't know every summoner and their guardians, but Yuna's famous. It's hard to miss being addressed by her. He knows Lulu is her Guardian; he assumes Rikku and Belize are too, so he at least manages to be half right.

"Oh, this is rich," Borgan says. "Doesn't your religion forbid the use of machines?" Comparative religion is less interesting to him than technical matters, so he isn't well-suited to get into the details, but *that* one he is absolutely sure about. He doesn't actually care, of course; despite being a religious figure, he is probably amongst the least actively religious of the Heroes (along with Lunn). Nobody will ever see him try to convert someone.

"I have no taste for fighting those who can't fight back," Borgan says. "I am no monster. But for someone like you, who stands against me, with your power..."

He spreads his arms again. This time, a shining pattern appears before him; a barrier, faceted and angled rather than a single plane, both much more complex and much more durable than the simple wall. It is red at first, then fades to a deep purple, where it lingers.

"If you want me to retreat, to move... make me. Show me your summoning! Show me your magic!"

GS: Black Wizard Borgan has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Facet Barrier!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Besaid was the one town in the area that seemed peaceful enough for a quiet lunch date... ... at least, it did until pretty much the second Ivan and Lydia got there and started settling down to eat. As the town suddenly descended into a state of emergency and they were evacuated from the restaurant, Ivan did his very best to conceal the embarrassing flicker of relief that their date had to be postponed due to WAR (he is not sure he had built up the requisite courage yet, despite the best intentions and everything being his own plan).

But poor Lydia... this was clearly her very last straw...! And she sees only one way forward: Lodge a complaint with Leo.

For Ivan, he has already decided he doesn't want to live in hiding from the Guard, and the memory of being so thoroughly called out for his own part in the similar incident at Djose is still fresh in his memory, so he's definitely itching to do... something to make that a little bit more right. Maybe yelling at Leo is the first step to that, so he's willing to try it and see how it plays out.

So anyway... HERE THEY ARE... ON AN ASTEROID... a fact which Ivan is a little STARSTRUCK about. Lydia yells her heart out at Leo, while Ivan stands beside her, feeling a bit hypocritical, all told. (But they're on an asteroid! And the asteroid is like a god or something! It's so cool, regardless!)

"SHE'S RIGHT YOU KNOW, I MEAN -- hey, what do we do when it lands, oh, we just jump, okay--"

CRASH.

They land on the ground, and Ivan comes up beside Lydia, just as she is revealing their DATE was ruined, and looks slightly flustered about it. He happens to be wearing an uncharacteristically flashy red coat, but he but is otherwise unambiguously himself.

"You're really just upsetting a whole lot of people," Ivan adds, as if there's no other personal connection here that needs mentioning. "We can't have been the only ones in town on a date you ruined."

<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

When Yuna said she was okay, Xiumei smiled -- and nodded back.

There is still a little twing of tension at the words 'forbidden machina.' She tries to not let it show, but there is a brief rigidness in her posture that gives it away. She lets out a long breath. And, then, she turns as a shadow moves over her head. She stares up, and comes to look at a person that she recognizes; a person she didn't, really, think she would see on a battlefield. "Yue," she says, a little softer than before. Her eyes widen, and then they narrow, before she holds a hand out. She watches the Metool for just a second, before cubes of light shimmer and glow in front of her outstretched hand. They merge together, forming a long cylinder with segments, separated by panel lines.

There is a shudder in the air, a loud hiss, and then a beam of purple light explodes. It widens, flickers, and then straightens into a long line of light that tapers to a point. Xiumei raises the Pulse Saber, pointing the weapon up at Yue.

A voice echoes, in her mind: <<No hesitation. She's made her intentions clear by being here.>>

"I know, Varius," Xiumei answers him. "I won't let you down. Or any of them." She glances back at her other ARMS allies -- at Ashley and Clarine -- and then, briefly, towards Lady Yuna and the rest. She hesitates, then: "...Let's not, Mister Ashley. I don't want to risk it, if we move closer to the village."

She looks back up at Yue. Anxiety and uncertainty war, in her mind; the victor is the impulse to do anything to be decisive. "Miss Yue," she concludes. "I can't let you do this!"

Xiumei leaps. She rockets into the air, armor-assisted jump propelling her high. Then, impossibly, she leaps off the air itself, before she comes down at Yue. There is a flash of green and violet, before she slashes with the Pulse Saber at the Veruni convict's midsection.

GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Yue Rohay with Pulse Slash!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
GS: Yue Rohay critically Guards a hit from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Slash for 18 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

Of all the people at the head of this, Talise can't find herself surprised that Leo's here - or at least she shouldn't be. What does surprise him is the fact that he seems to approach this with such outward implacability.

Taking a step forward, Talise scowls up towards the Black Wizard - one of the few people taller than she is. As Borgan demands that they go away, Talise raises her voice. "You're asking these people to leave their homes behind and roll over just for you. But that's not going to happen. We've been rolling over for you and your diseased goddess for too long as it is - Spiran and non-Spiran alike. And that's not what a lucid Althena would want, and we both know it, Black Wizard!"

With a broad sweep of one hand, she gestures towards Leo. "White Knight. You know these people aren't going to lay them down. I won't either. Whatever your duty tells you to do here, you'll have to fight me first. And I won't make it easy for you."

Outwardly, Talise's carriage is steady and determined. Inwardly, there's anxiety digging into the back of her mind - an old worry. Memories of a tournament in which she defeated White Knight Leo twice... but barely, and seemingly only by luck. Both of them have changed since then.

This time, Leo has an army and she does not.

Another shout reaches her ears. Talise clicks her tongue, then buries her worry behind a flat smile. "...I mean, come on, Leo. You fucked up Lydie's date. Asshole move, man."

Something occurs to her, and she blinks twice, then grins as she realizes just who Lydia's date is. But she doesn't have much time to comment on it, because she's already moving forward, gripping her sword's hilt in both hands and starting into a brazen charge.

Villagers charge with her. A crossbow bolt arcs over her head as Benedict opens fire on a Guardsman offscreen. Various little battles break out around her as Talise bears down towards Leo, swatting an interfering soldier aside before swinging in to try and smash him with a quick snap of her blade, then pivots to one side and moves to sweep Rastaban across herself.

"I'll make you a deal, Leo," she invites. "I'll put down my weapon, after you and your men pack up and go home and let Lyds and her pal get their smooch on."

GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked White Knight Leo with Tidal Waning!
GS: Talise Gianfair has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
GS: Bera enters a Counter stance!
GS: Bera has attacked Amaterasu with Burning Blade!
GS: Bera has completed her action.
GS: White Knight Leo guards a hit from Talise Gianfair's Tidal Waning for 81 hit points!
GS: Talise Gianfair assumes the Stoic stance!
GS: Amaterasu critically Guards a hit from Bera's Burning Blade for 15 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

    SPEAKING OF

    The last straw, the Festina Lente has been seen bouncing around the other, actual-town part of Besaid as it loads up on passengers and other people worried about being in the way of the Guard.

    "Wait what is it doing--"

    The Festina Lente haplessly tries to zip on a square, house-sized diving suit, puts on an oversized pair of goggles over its second story windowpanes, and pops up its chimney which is revealed to be a snorkel.

    Then it jumps into the ocean and hides out for a while.

    (The villagers onboard will be OK. They even get a cool view of some of the sealife and coral reefs. "Look! It's a shark!" "Same.")

    HERE

    "Oh. That is... an incredibly dangerous piece of high-technology weaponry," Yue expresses with mild disbelief as Xiumei raises the Pulse Saber.

    Xiumei answers that she can't let her do this. There's a very quiet, tired chuckle from the prisoner as she leaps towards her, and-- double-jumps, even--

    And there's a loud CRUNCH for a moment as Yue barely blocks the incoming saber with her shackles; there's a loud whine as the metal starts glowing red, and she has to shove the Biometal User to one side before she cuts straight through the metal.

    She's also ushering the Metool to get out of the way at the same time in the exact way someone coaxes a dozy cat to scoot. Shoo! Shoo! You're in danger here!!

    "'Varius'. That was the 'V' we talked about, was it not, Miss Xiumei?" A pause.

    And then a sigh.

    "I am sorry. Ancient relics like us have a habit of never learning to let go. Okay. Let me see how far you've come, Miss Xiumei..." she accentuates as she leaps back and stoops to what might visibly be an iai-style combat stance...

    "... for a Filgaian, I will today be a Filgaian in turn."

    ... albeit one without arms involved, because she feint-flipkicks forward and whiffs her by a good few feet, save that when she strikes her heel on the ground a blinding bolt of light erupts outwards.

    "<Speed Fang!>"

GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Fast Draw - Speed Fang!
GS: Yue Rohay has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yue Rohay has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Lulu's right; there is nothing to say. Yuna meets Leo's eyes, and he gets to see what's in hers: betrayal, mostly, and a deep, abiding sadness. Words are unnecessary between them, now.

She glances over at Rikku, instead, and gives her a tiny, relieved smile. Her cousin's bravado gives her courage, and soothes her troubled tummy. So does the determined defense of so many others, eager to shield the villagers of Besaid with their blades, their magicks, their lives.

And then, Borgan.

Borgan demands that she summon, and she shakes her head.

"Not for you," she replies, a little too softly for a heated battlefield. "Not for your curiosity... or for your entertainment."

She spins her rod, and light pours from it -- white magic, not summoning -- distinctly Spiran but recognizable all the same. Warm and gentle radiance, which suffuses Lulu; Lulu, who once before had dueled magics with Borgan, at Luca. It traces a complex and interlocking shield of triangles, which sinks into the black mage, then vanishes.

"That isn't what the fayth are for," she explains to Borgan with the sort of earnest clarity that one might teach a small child.

GS: Yuna has attacked Lulu with Shell!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has completed her action.
GS: Zhang Xiumei takes a glancing hit from Yue Rohay's Fast Draw - Speed Fang for 52 hit points!
GS: Lulu takes a solid hit from Yuna's Shell for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield and Surge! applied to Lulu!
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

Popping back up to his feet, Ashton manages to not miss the point at which everything goes wrong. Which is to say 'exactly as predicted', but still wrong.
 
Striding forward, he doesn't hesitate to draw steel. One blade points at the White Knight in a challenge that is honestly becoming a bit old. And Ashton says the same thing he's said before - over and over. "No."
 
He's going with the straight-forward today, it seems.
 
"Miss Seren is correct - before at least you made war on cities and armies. Now you march armed troops on a village that can do little than defend itself with sharp sticks and prayers?" The sellsword waves his other blade at the not-so-distant collection of buildings. "You lower yourself to forcing children to flee before you so that you can put their unarmed parents to the sword? All so you can defile their temples?"
 
He holds where he is - there's a vain hope that Leo's going to have some sense. A touch of hope.
 
But it isn't likely.

GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Ashton Anchors with Crescendo Stance!
GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action.
GS: Ashton Anchors takes a solid hit from Ashton Anchors's Crescendo Stance for 0 hit points!
DC: Belize switches forms to Summoner Belize!
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
"... Some Machina are exceptions." Rikku answers Borgan, neutrally, in a way that neither confirms nor denies her religion.
 
She does not comment on whether this is a Machina is an exception though. She is not defending Yevon. She is defending her cousin - and her Guardians who are of Yevon. Who do care on such things.
 
Yuna may deny his request for a summoning, but Rikku smiles real big at it, deciding to distract Borgan away from Yuna's defiance. "Okay-!" Rikku chirps cheerfully, her eyes upon the space where his barrier was cast. "One Rikku approved 'spell' coming right up!"
 
The girl puts her hand forward and mumbles, with her opposite hand behind her back. That hand is bearing a grenade. Her finger abruptly jerks upwards through the pin. With a quick pivot and a turn like a deliberate flourish, she sends the ordnance on an underhanded toss high in the air. "Let's see how good your barrier is."
 
Upon impact with the upper part of the barrier, there's a concussive explosion, following by a blue release of a blue gas like substance. "It lets you breathe right? Wouldn't be much use if it didn't..."
 
As the blue gas drifts outwards across his barrier...
 
"Side effects of inhalation may include burning of the throat and difficulty concentrating. If symptoms last longer than four hours - call for your local White Mage immediately."
 

GS: Rikku has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Use: Silence Grenade!
GS: Rikku has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Rikku has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    Belize double-takes at the couple riding in on a meteorite to, apparently, fight against Leo. 50% of it is that one of the riders is the Guardsman whom they'd fought maybe two weeks ago at the Djose Temple; the other 50% is that THEY'RE RIDING IN ON A METEORITE. Some things you just can't take in stride. Still, though--is this some sort of trick? It feels too... petty, though, to be a trick. When they overhear someone else, Talise, tell Borgan and Leo that their goddess is diseased, though--hm. Interesting. Friction among the ranks? ...They'll let Ivan go for now, then. But they've got their eye on him.
    
    Likewise, they let Rikku's SUPER TRANSPARENT comment on 'oh nooo, machina, how verboteeeen' go. Instead, they give Lulu a little nod as she takes her place before her Summoner. And they might well Summon to teach Borgan a lesson--except Yuna teaches him a different lesson first. With a humorless smirk, they raise the bow-holding arm, magics coalescing first around them, then around Borgan in the form of greenish-purplish-black liquid.
    
    "You sicken me," they quip as its poisonous magic attempt to take root.

GS: Belize has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Bio!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize has completed their action.
GS: Black Wizard Borgan takes a solid hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Facet Barrier for 0 hit points!
GS: Shield! applied to Black Wizard Borgan!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan guards a hit from Rikku's Use: Silence Grenade for 68 hit points!
GS: Mute! applied to Black Wizard Borgan!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan critically Guards a hit from Belize's Bio for 18 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

Naturally, Lulu recognizes Borgan--how could she not? Rikku's assertion about her anger is one thing, but she knows that rage alone won't overcome the Black Wizard. One hand remains down, fingers spread and slightly curved, a recognizeable hand position for channeling magic, particularly on Lunar. The matter of the religious dispute...

"So report us to the Temple," Lulu answers Borgan smoothly, without breaking the glare she has turned away from Leo. He mentions his nature here, his preference--

But unlike Yuna, Lulu lifts her chin in a different reaction. "Since you ask so nicely," she begins on the matter of magic.

She considers the barrier, studying it even as she feels Yuna's power reinforcing and augmenting her own. The shield she can draw on, though--really, one might imagine her mere presence has a boosting effect, too. She lifts an eyebrow as Rikku talks 'spells', but can't really disapprove. Instead, as Belize works her magic--

Lulu, from the other side, lifts her hand, power streaming towards her as she gathers it, attunes herself to the elements.

...To Besaid's elements.

"Belize," she says to one of her allies, "Watch the barrier. Something about it seems strange."

She lifts her hand the rest of the way--and swings it down, a bolt of lightning crackling down towards Borgan's shield.

GS: Lulu has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Thunder!
GS: Lulu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lulu has completed her action.
GS: Black Wizard Borgan critically Guards a hit from Lulu's Thunder for 23 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

Xiumei gets kicked to the side, and slams into the Besaid's soil. Her booted feet slide through the dirt, as she raises her Pulse Saber -- surprised at how Yue's shackles turned it aside. More than a few things, Xiumei learned, she can slice right through. Many others, though, aren't.

She frowns across the shimmering blade of light raised up, defensively, and then sees Yue leap with that blinding speed. She flipkicks forward, and Xiumei ducks low. Yue slams into the ground behind her -- and she spins to face her.

Her attack sends a bolt of lightning screeching up for her. Xiumei leaps, just getting past the blast of electricity. Forks of it arc off, dancing across her armor, as she spins to face Yue. "That's him."

She holds her hand out -- and the Pulse Saber vanishes. Instead, the short-barreled hand cannon appears with the same flash of cubes of light. The barrel gleams, and then she fires, sending a steady stream of energy blasts hurtling towards Yue.

"Why are you here? Is this--is this really something you want?" she calls back to her, even as she runs to the side -- strafing the Veruni as she circles about her.

GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Yue Rohay with Pulse Cannon Strafe!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    "Agreed," Leo says, to Lulu. Then he hears a voice shouting at him over the rush of wind, and his look of stony resolve cracks. The White Knight looks up, shock in his eyes as he sees the meteor--and, more importantly, who's riding it. "Ivan..." Leo says, his voice raw with pain. He'd known that Lydia might turn against him, but Ivan, whom he'd trusted...

    "What is the meaning of this?!" Leo demands. And then, Talise lunges at him. The big Beastman's blade leaves its sheath with a ringing, bell-like tone, and flashes up to intercept Rastaban. Steel meets steel, and Leo pushes back against Talise, stopping her blade just as it nicks the skin of his shoulder. Blood trickles down Rastaban's edge, and stains Leo's uniform. "I'd hoped to hear what you had to say about Lord Lubov, but this?!" Leo steps back, sliding into a defensive stance Talise would surely recognize--a crucial component of Waning Crescent. Leo lashes out with a lightning-fast reprisal, slashing at Talise's elbow and shoulder with quick, powerful strokes. A lesser swordsman might leave openings, but not Leo. "But--if you persist in this, I--I will--"

    Leo bares teeth, and drives an open hand at Ashton. The ground beneath the three-headed swordsman cracks, trembles, and twists itself into jagged, impaling spines. Chunks of rock fly upwards at his head and torso. More shards of earth rip themselves free near Lydia and Ivan, throwing themselves at the pair. There's less force behind them, though.

    "I will have my answers!"

GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Ivan with Earth Edge!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Lydia Seren with Earth Edge!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Ashton Anchors with Rock Viper!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 2 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Talise Gianfair with Flash Blade!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
GS: Talise Gianfair guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Flash Blade for 100 hit points!
GS: White Knight Leo assumes the Stoic stance!
GS: Lydia Seren takes a glancing hit from White Knight Leo's Earth Edge for 61 hit points!
GS: Ashton Anchors guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Rock Viper for 90 hit points!
GS: Ivan takes a glancing hit from White Knight Leo's Earth Edge for 59 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.

Oh good, he's not dead. That would be hilariously awkward, for the guy they just recruited a couple of weeks ago to die to coconut to the noggin. Though it does stand to reason that he's mostly OK because he's got three heads. Not only are they better than one, three heads also means that a single concussion is one-third as bad!

That's... that's how that works, right?

"Well, I guess... I guess this works," Ashley sighs as battle breaks out in earnest astride the mighty Guts Dozer. They really can't talk it out, huh? All this blood and battle, just over a little thing like a rural backwater temple. Well, time to pick a target.

"Xiumei, Clarissa, Ashton, you guys all stay safe. Yell if you need fire support. I'm headed into the thick," Ashley leaps from atop the Guts Dozer and lands into a tight roll right through the blowback from a stray fireball, and lands... In close proximity to one particular Seraph of Light.

For a moment, it seems as though he's going to jump right into combat, but...!

But Ashley is way too nice of a guy to do that straight-away...!

Ashley smiles warmly to Seraph Liath and asks, "I don't suppose I could convince you to get your friends to put down their weapons, could I?"

And then Isolde straight up heel-checks the knightly lady right in the rock-hard abs, and Ashley's smile immediately inverts. "Aw, crackers. Guess that's gonna be a no, huh?"

<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    And, well, it's true that machina is largely forbidden. But apparently Borgan and Leo are following a corrupted goddess, if that swordswoman is to be believed! And Belize is more than willing to believe it. Thus, they're comfortable sneering at him and saying, "*Please*. Don't try to act as though you care about our precepts *now*."
    
    They totally snort at Lulu's clap-back, though.

<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

"An answer?" The ground heaves under Ashton - deep brown tattos along his body flare to life. Rather than being impaled and bludgeoned, he simply rides the jagged spines of stone upwards. It still leaves a few bruises, of course. But it looks cool.
 
His eyes go to Ivan questioningly, unsure just what's going on in this bit of wild drama. Maybe it's better to just let them... do their thing.
 
Yeah, no, this is not the time nor the place to respect personal boundaries. Particularly not when steel and sorcerous death is flying around.
 
Of course, this is Ashton we're talking about so he obviously has to involve himself in the worst possible way.
 
"If it will make you step away from this foolish crusade, Knight, perhaps you should find a similar stake in this." He motions with a sword towards Talise. "I'm sure that if you wished to accompany your friend and Miss Seren, the lady here would be an excellent choice for a double-date. That would certainly give you the chance to have your questions answered - and without needless bloodshed."
 
Speaking of bloodshed, it's about at this point that Ashton lunges in with a quick hilt-strike to the head. If love isn't the answer, perhaps blunt force trauma is!

GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked White Knight Leo with Edgeless Blade!
GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Black Wizard Borgan has posed.

"Bah. Not even to protect your temple. I thought that's why you had arranged yourself against us. I told you, I have no interest in striking down this town. Do I look like a zealot? But please - I have met Althena. She's quite lucid."

Borgan doesn't need to hear Yuna to know she's not summoning. (Nor is anyone else, though Borgan does not actually know that Belize is capable of it.) White magic is something he can recognize even if it isn't something he casts himself - his Blessing does not lean that way - and there is not much to learn from that.

The spells, though...

Borgan spins his staff, holding it parallel to the ground, pressing it against the inside of the barrier. The faceted field brightens as he pushes against it, firming visibly up into nearly glassine angles and planes, and the incoming spells strike it like it's something as solid as the earth itself - more so, in fact, since the lightning dances across it without leaving a burn or crater, and the poison floods against it with no way in. It seems to be an effort for Borgan to hold them off - but he manages it.

The barrier is *not* solid, however, to grenades. It is weirdly semisolid, with the effect that Rikku's high arcing toss hits it, loses all its momentum to hang in the air for about a quarter second, and falls straight down with about half the speed one would expect from gravity's pull. Borgan makes an attempt to kick the grenade away from him, but it bounces off the lip of his platform and ends up beneath it, out of his reach.

Unfortunately, gas goes up.

Borgan sputters as his platform flies about twenty feet from the impact zone. He is coughing enough that he does not make much of a verbal response to any of the four (thanks, Rikku) but some spells do not require words with as much power as he has to throw around; he makes a series of rapid gestures with the hand that is not currently holding the staff.

The ground around Rikku and Belize glows for a moment before erupting upward into a sudden surge of rock stalagmites, almost toothlike. If that wasn't bad enough, he's using the distraction to point the tip of his staff at Yuna, firing a stream of icicles that he walks to the side to catch Lulu in too. His barrier is still there, but without his intense focus it is at least less bright.

GS: Black Wizard Borgan has activated a Boss Action!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"What?" Lydia looks to Talise. "Woah okay hold up, I'm not saying anything about Althena here. I have no idea what is going on with her if, like, anything." She holds her hands in a T position for 'Timeout'. "I'm not doing any religious judgement here this is one hundred percent a secular problem for me right now." She isn't partiularly keen on saying a friggin' god is diseased even if it's entirely possible because she doesn't really know that God personally or anything. Maybe they're just a jerk. Maybe they're completely right and it's the Guard that's fucking things up. Lydia doesn't know!

Lydia throws herself back, getting grazed by those earth shards but Leo holding back gave Lydia enough of an opening to avoid serious injury despite one of these two beastmen being an adept fighter and the other being just a maniac who can summon an asteroid god.

More importantly she sees an opportunity to throw Lubov under the bus so she decides to do that as hard as she can.

"Oh uh. Lord Lubov is an asshole white mage who raised his kids to be assassins and gaslit them all the time about how bad they were when they were actually really good so they really wanted out but since Lord Lubov is apparently like super flourishing back home and is also super charging his soldiers with super creepy omega grade bullshit it was pretty hard for them to get out. Then the Guard decided to like make him a super commander in this invasion so like obviously he couldn't stick around?! I wanted to complain about Lubov too but I'm really mostly upset about the date right now--"

She lowers her head, clearly not super happy about this despite motormouthing it all. She curls her fingers inward, clenching her hands into fists. "Ughh...." She flexes out her hands and her arms twist into the forms of blade, glowing thick with silver but with very sharp edges. "I really didn't want to fight... but... But mom said..."

She lifts up her head, and now she's crying, tears flowing freely from her silver eyes. "She said love is a sword! I gotta fight or you and sis will keep hurting people and you'll never be happy! I don't wanna do this but Ivan's right...!"

Rigdobrite hangs out in the sand in the meanwhile, rolling from side to side. He's having fun. "Lots of people are having dates and having normal lives and it's all going bad...! It's too much! And I know--it's gotta--it's gotta be bugging you too! So why are you still doin' this? I don't wanna be fighting on behalf of fuckin' Yevon! They suck!! I couldn't even go through the market without someone going 'OHH HEY ITS YUNA AHHH' 'OH NO WAIT THAT'S A YUNA IMPERSONATOR THAT's THE REAL YUNA. OH NO THEY'RE BOTH YUNA IMPERSONATORS'."

She ran the Luca Markets dig a fair number of times here.

"And they're super racist against the Al Bhed! I don't like them, but this war isn't ever gonna end, it's just gonna go on forever until there's nobody left or until it's normal! I can't stand that!"

"Hi Ashton." She adds.

GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Rikku with Earth Fangs!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Belize with Earth Fangs!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Lulu with Ice Driver!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Yuna with Ice Driver!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has completed his action.
GS: Rikku takes a glancing hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Earth Fangs for 90 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! applied to Rikku!
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked White Knight Leo with Reshape Riot!
GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

As weapon crashes against weapon, Talise plants one heel and squares her shoulders, watching not only the way Leo reacts to Ivan's betrayal, but the way he reacts to the attack she just levelled at him. The way members of the Guard move is entirely, painfully familiar to her. A young Talise, barely 16, got spanked by it more than a few times.

The defensive tack Leo assumes bears a lot of resemblance to the one Talise has slipped into, in her own right. She's squared to the attack, sword ready to swing in and deflect a blow.

When the White Knight slashes back at her, she grunts and flicks her sword, and steel again rings against steel. She manages to deflect the worst of the hit away, but it still screeches against the steel of her armour, sneaking beneath an armour plate just enough to hurt and draw blood. With a grimace, she dips back, out of the way of the worst of it, and gives her blade a quick snap to bat away a few of the follow-up strikes. Each clash of blade rings like a struck bell, but she meets them expertly, with steps recognizable but at the same time not - she carries her upper body a little like someone fighting with Waning Crescent, but the way she positions her feet suggests something else, like she's ready to shift tacks at any moment.

"Having some personnel trouble?" Talise questions grimly, glancing briefly towards Ivan and Lydia. "I mean, I couldn't blame Ivan for finding other friends. Lydia's a total cutie."

Then Ashton flips out a smart remark. With an arch smile, Talise bats her lashes at Leo. "I'd definitely be up for a double date, White Knight. How 'bout it? I'm energetic, though." Stepping forward again, she sweeps to Leo's left and unleashes a few rapid strokes, aiming to try and land some hits on his left arm.

GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked White Knight Leo with Infinitely Rippling Waters!
GS: Talise Gianfair has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"H-hold on I'm not sure we're ready for a double date, we're barely ready for a single date." Lydia stammers.

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

"No time like the present," grunts Benedict Greygust, ace courier (but not as ace as Gwen), before pivoting away and firing a crossbow bolt into some dude's hitbox.

<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

Moving back from his swing, Ashton is having none of it. "Hi Lydia. And come on! Double date! For peace! For justice! For love!"

GS: Lulu takes a glancing hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Ice Driver for 69 hit points!
GS: Slow! applied to Lulu!
GS: CRITICAL! Yuna takes a solid hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Ice Driver for 180 hit points!
GS: Slow! applied to Yuna!
GS: Yue Rohay critically Guards a hit from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Cannon Strafe for 25 hit points!
GS: Zhang Xiumei assumes the Stoic stance!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

"... Clarine."

At the remove of boundaries both ideological and very much physical, Liath's gold stare cracks open to fall upon the other Seraph, marshaled to the aid of Besaid's temple and her people. Her head tilts; that gaze, in those wordless moments, is a piercing thing, as if it could break through the barrier the other Seraph of Light has mustered through the sheer steel of its stare.

And yet the smile that follows is a fond thing, if not one more than a touch sad.

It is only then that she takes in the sight of the Guts-Dozer, as if having simply decided to take its grand appearance in remarkable stride until this point. She blinks. Gold eyes narrow. Her lips tug in a thoughtful line.

"That caboose..."

    BEFORE

Seraph Liath, stubbornly spending a half hour hauling heavy chunk of rubble after heavy chunk of rubble out of the choked entrance of Lapisera Mines instead of doing a reasonable thing like 'trying to find an alternate route,' wonders to herself:

What monstrosity could have caused such a disastrous cave in--?

"The girth of it must have been tremendous indeed...!"

    NOW, AFTER OUR UNNECESSARY TANGENT

DA-NAAAA

"It must be the one responsible...!"

Liath Special Skill #119: Identifying criminal rear ends

even of enormous tanks she has no way of having any concept of

Expression steeling, she might be ready to either a) fling a righteous accusation at the Guts-Dozer, or b) prepare for the coming conflict, or c) both a and b. It never quite comes, though. She catches sight of something glinting within the light of that shining sun. A shadow starting to race towards her personal space.

You smell familiar.

CLASH

It takes only an instant. Dust is still settling behind Isolde as her abrupt lunge comes to a forceful stop; and where once was an unguarded midsection...

... now finds the stalwart, immaculate bastion of a ceremonial shield protecting it.

An instant later, the shining tip of a sword sings in an upward crescent of a sweep, the masterful motion taking Liath pirouetting straight into the air as her weapon paints a ring of burning, prismatic power in its wake.

And if the sense of brilliant radiance that flows from this woman is not yet familiar to Isolde --

"We have, Lady Isolde."

Perhaps that voice will, as the Seraph lands, shield held in front of her, weapon at her side.

"It is good to see you again... though it would not have been my choice for our next meeting to be in such circumstances." And as she speaks, Liath eases back. Her eyes close. But her attention can be felt, on Clarine, in the distance.

"Either of you."

When next her eyes open, she looks upon Ashley, having landed so close. Gold eyes flutter in a blink.

Aw, crackers.

Despite herself, despite the circumstances, she smiles in return.

"I am afraid not."

That sword comes up, in a simple salute -- a slightly dated form of respect on the battlefield. Her shield starts to shimmer, glowing with a liquid gleam of prismatic hues.

"For the sake of my duty, I cannot be turned astray. Not even for all the crackers in all the world."

Does she think--

"Arm yourselves!"

And with that, she -slams- her sword into the sandy earth. Light bursts forth from it, glassing grains of sand in her immediate vicinity as the Blessing of Althena swells palpably.

                 "Sacred powers, cast your purifying light
                         upon these corrupt souls!"

The heavens part.

And from the shining holes in the crisp, blue skies, pillars of light -hammer- upon the beaches of Besaid, blowing sand skyward in thick gouts, searing the landscape --

--avoiding civilians and non-combatants as they smite a burning path from Ashley... to Violet... to Ena...

... to Clarine.

                                "Judgment!"

Within the foggy haze of light, Liath's shield shines with that rainbow layer of bolstering power.

GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Seraph Liath with Immaculate Focus!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Immaculate Focus for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick! applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Seraph Liath assumes the Stoic stance!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Isolde with Shimmer Spin!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Ashley Winchester with Judgment!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Seraph Clarine with Judgment!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Ena with Judgment!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Violet Salazar with Judgment!
GS: Seraph Clarine guards a hit from Seraph Liath's Judgment for 72 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.

    There is just one moment where a blazing meteor streaks the sky, just one moment more where her attention is diverted from the fight that is doubtless about to ensue.
    Amaterasu raises both eyebrows at this display.

    And then the Veruni commando asks those before her to show her precisely how much they are willing to present to them to protect Besaid. A place which is, to some of them, home.

    Bera answers that call, coming in at a full clip, blade blazing with, perhaps, even her fury.

    Metal sings against metal; Valkyrja's shaft meets the blade, and there Amaterasu stands, holding back the samurai's strike.

    "You have," she tells her, from behind that faceplate, "good spirit."
    Her feet shift a fraction on the sand.

    "But.

    She lunges forward suddenly with surprising force, slamming for Bera with the weapon's shaft and all the weight and power she can bring to bear in that moment, then uses that disruption to herself leap backwards, heels over head, to then there land on the beach.
    There is a small crater there after, perhaps not unlike that which might be left by that meteor... maybe.
    Possibly.

    "You will need more than that! Come, swordswoman! Show me what you are capable of!"

    Her gaze shifts thereafter to the one who has joined the battle in more silent ways than most.
    Ethius may not declare his intent, but Amaterasu is a soldier. She understands what he means when he slips in like that, looking the part of a man moving into position to provide another aid.

    "I see. So you intend to assist her, do you?" She inclines her head in a nod, and moving one gauntleted hand from the polearm's shaft, gestures towards him.
    And snaps her fingers.

    Coiling spirits rise in a hissing violet mist, catching green where the light hits them at the right angles. Voiceless, mindless, the spell seeks Ethius out.
    It detonates into a thick haze of fog about him.

    And into this -- into all of this -- steps a familiar face.

    "You again. The girl with the ARM." Judging from the tone of her voice, her lips have curled into a mirthless smile. "I wonder what 'he' would think..."

    And Amaterasu shakes her head. "I do not. There is no 'personal' in war. But understand now what you have entered into --"

    She lunges. Valkyrja's blade is bright.

    "...I have no time for those who are unwilling to fight."

GS: Ashley Winchester takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Judgment for 124 hit points!
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Bera with Contra Legem!
GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Shroudblind Haze!
GS: Ena takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Judgment for 115 hit points!
GS: Isolde guards a hit from Seraph Liath's Shimmer Spin for 79 hit points!
GS: Violet Salazar guards a hit from Seraph Liath's Judgment for 81 hit points!
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Animus Nocendi!
GS: Amaterasu has completed her action.
GS: Belize critically Guards a hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Earth Fangs for 33 hit points!
GS: COUNTER! Bera counterattacks Amaterasuwith Counter Attack!
GS: Bera takes a solid hit from Amaterasu's Contra Legem for 130 hit points!
GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Amaterasu's Shroudblind Haze for 0 hit points!
GS: Disrupt and Entangle! applied to Ethius Hesiod!
GS: Amaterasu takes a solid hit from Bera's Counter Attack for 84 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

"You do look like a zealot," Yuna replies sternly, sadly, in the aftermath of Rikku's explosion. "Only a zealot would do such things. If you do them not in your Goddess' name... then your zealotry has another beneficiary."

Borgan's icicles come flying in, and she simply walks through them, one step after the next, heedless of the danger and the pain, which are both considerable. One opens a scratch across her cheek -- the same spot that was once nailed by Mauri's staff, she's going to wind up getting hits from all Four Heroes there eventually at this rate -- and others rip up her skirts, her sleeves, the damage beneath yet hidden by the remaining fabric.

Why didn't she dodge?

Sometimes it's more important to project fearlessness.

Especially here. Especially now. Especially for them.

She can feel their fear, like a symphony of terror on top of the fayth's; the people of Besaid, on the far side of the battle. She knows they're watching -- watching her.

'Stay away from the summoner!!' yells the village granny, in the distance.

The sand at her feet explodes with Liath's beams of light.

Yuna exhales, sharply, against the pain... and, not without defiance, smiles.

"It's all right," she calls, much more loudly. "Stay off the beaches!"

She swirls her rod again, and this time the light that emerges from it -- from her heart -- burns. Which is not inappropriate. It spins, less cheerfully and more radiantly, a passionate, brilliant red, around Rikku's head. NulBlaze.

Looking back at Borgan, she asks, still moving towards him:

"What is it that moves you, then, if not Althena? Why do you bring war to my home village?"

<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

The SKIES OPEN, and destructive bolts of light rain down on Violet, and on a few of her companions. That smarts! At least there's no doubt about the person responsible -- a young woman, evidently a sorceress of some sort -- though she seems, somehow, otherworldly. Violet loads a hand-made bullet into her ARM and returns fire, wondering if there's a way she can duck future light-attacks. She knows better than to get too close...

GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Seraph Liath with Wildcat Cartridge!
GS: Violet Salazar has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

    There's a low, soft groan as Yue vaguely hears a conversation about dates somewhere in the distance and quietly wishes she was on a date rather than here. But such wishes prove to be somewhat dangerous--

    Because Xiumei's Pulse Saber has vanished and a hand cannon has taken its place. There's a 'tskk' escaping from the convict's lips as she darts to one side, still recovering from the Fast Draw she pulled off.

    "You recall our conversation, did you not?"

    The first bolt of plasma strikes at her shackles again; she really has no defence here other than the large pieces of metal that're binding her arms, and she's shoved further and further back once she's pinned down.

    The shackles are smoking, but they manage to hold, somehow.

    "The most dangerous people in the world are the ones who do things not out of belief, or faith, or conviction or reason.... but merely because they have no choice."

    She collapses as she takes one last blast from the Pulse Cannon, but rolls to one side and tumbles off the side of Guts-Dozer's head.

    (This is a feint because she's picked up the fleeting Metool to deposit it back in Guts-Dozer's hatch. "Hey! I'm returning this cutie," Yue calls to Clarissa and Felius.)

    She turns back towards Xiumei and remarks, "And not to belabour the point... perhaps I do possess a desire to see how you turn out."

    And she's turned into a flash again, a tell-tale sign a Fast Draw is happening.

    She reappears somewhere in the proximity of above and to the left of Xiumei, heel raised again with a gleaming point of ki as she comes down on her.

    "<Burst Breaker!>"

GS: Yuna has attacked Rikku with NulHarm!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has completed her action.
GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Fast Draw - Burst Breaker!
GS: Yue Rohay has completed her action.
GS: Yuna heals Rikku! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Seraph Liath completely evades a hit from Violet Salazar's Wildcat Cartridge!
GS: Zhang Xiumei takes a solid hit from Yue Rohay's Fast Draw - Burst Breaker for 118 hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Amaterasu's Animus Nocendi for 85 hit points!
GS: Mighty! applied to Amaterasu!
GS: Amaterasu assumes the Avenger stance!
GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

OVER NEAR GUTS-DOZER....

Clarissa gasps as the hatch suddenly opens up. She picks up Strahl Gewehr--

And receives something else. She blushes slightly.

"...They are very cute, Felius...."

GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo critically Guards a hit from Ashton Anchors's Edgeless Blade for 26 hit points!
GS: White Knight Leo guards a hit from Lydia Seren's Reshape Riot for 75 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo guards a hit from Talise Gianfair's Infinitely Rippling Waters for 102 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

There is, perhaps, a flicker of annoyance and frustration when Xiumei hears talk of dates. She pushes that out of her mind. Dates sound terribly complicated.

Instead, she spins the Pulse Cannon -- and the hand cannon vanishes as she drops the weapon. It disappears into so many cubes of light, as Yue jumps over the massive frame of Guts-Dozer, and then drops again.

She appears in a blink, and then her heel slams down for her. Xiumei can't summon the Pulse Saber in time; Yue's heel slams into her chest, instead, and there is a loud yelp and a burst of light with the impact. She is picked up and thrown backward, then rolls over the ground.

Her hand comes out to her side, and the Pulse Saber appears with a flash of light. The purple blade of energy erupts, and then she launches forward. Xiumei lashes it out at Yue, shouting: "I--I remember, but... I still can't let you do this! And it doesn't matter what I can do!"

It matters what Varius can do, she thinks.

The Pulse Saber's slash is a feint -- and as soon as she finishes, Xiumei drops down, and slides forward -- trying to kick into Yue's feet and then slide past her.

GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Yue Rohay with Slide Kick!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
GS: Yue Rohay takes a solid hit from Zhang Xiumei's Slide Kick for 121 hit points!
GS: Riposte! applied to Zhang Xiumei!
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    Although Bio doesn't work off of the element cycle like most spells do, it nonetheless is less effective than normal. Belize frowns, eyebrows arching down over their sea-green eyes. What is that...? They glance over at Lulu when she gives her warning. "Yes, you're right. It seems his title isn't just for show." Something they can say because they haven't faced him before. They sneer at Borgan's claim that Althena is lucid. "I suppose she must be. It would be difficult to order the atrocity of war on this scale while incoherent."
    
    After Rikku's grenade flips him and his platform over, Borgan calls upon his magic, sending spikes of stone razing up from the earth towards Belize. Belize is somewhat more practical than Yuna, opting to bend the arm with their bracer on to defend themself; the spikes break on their armor, sending shards of stone every which way. They grunt in pain; their arm is *throbbing* under that strike, and it'll be difficult at best for them to actually pull back an arrow. But that's fine.
    
    "Lulu," they call, looking over at the other black mage as they raise an arm, calling up more magical power. With his barrier weakened, it might just be possible to smash through it. To that end: "What do you say? Shall we muddy his thinking?" They lash down their arm the next moment. Beneath Borgan, before he has a chance to get airborne again, a small localized earthquake rumbles before a blossom of earth rises beneath him, crashing into him with its blunted edges.

GS: Belize has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Quake!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize has completed their action.
<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    Bera's charge ends in a twirling dervish of blade, her katana blazing as the first element of the edge to answer this time is Fire. No soon is her first strike down than Amaterasu returns her own blow before she can finish striking effectively guarding all but the quickly fading heat of her blade.

    But the samurai doesn't back down even as the shaft of Valkyrja strikes again at her she takes the hit on full, letting it instead of knocking her back spin her as the raging flame along her blade is replaced with instead slicing water tracing the path as counter-attacks back through the attack even as a bruise immediately appears from the hit on her right shoulder from the force of the blow. Despite the distance Amaterasu had gained, Bera flows across the distance into another strike from below to above as she completes her counter.

    And no sooner does that the blade flowing like water slice up across Amaterasu than it suddenly reverses course as Bera stomps a foot forward and brings a blade encrusted in ice back the way the water had gone with a shout of "Glacier Drive!" aiming not at Amaterasu but her polearm. Blue eyes glint like the falling icy blade as she says nothing, watching her opponent as she flows through her attacks with an expression of severe concentration.

GS: Bera has attacked Amaterasu with Glacier Drive!
GS: Bera has completed her action.
GS: Black Wizard Borgan guards a hit from Belize's Quake for 67 hit points!
GS: Slow! applied to Black Wizard Borgan!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

"...Liath..." Clarine greets, devoid of her usual excitement at the sight of a friend. She flinches back at that piercing look...but she stands firm, and when Liath smiles, Clarine sends her back a smile of her own, equally fond yet sad.

She knew this day would come eventually. They had spoken of it. But...she did not expect it to come so soon. It felt like only yesterday that she was excitedly telling Liath and Nimue about wonderful vistas to look upon.

She notes, then, that Isolde is here, as well - Clarine sends her a brief smile before looking back toward Liath.

"...Yes." She agrees with a nod toward her friend. "And...I must stand firm, as well."

Liath directs them to arm themselves and begins reciting an incantation - one that gets a gasp of surprise out of Clarine.

"Th-that spell...! Everyone, be careful!" Clarine warns. She knows that spell. Knows what kind of power it holds. A mirror raises upward as a pillar of searing light crashes down toward her.

Clarine, normally kept floating, is forced down to the ground by the force of the spell as it collides with her mirror. She has to hold it with both hands to protect herself, and when the beam finally fades, there's a massive crack spiderwebbing through it. The mirror dissipates into motes of light as Clarine returns it to avoid its destruction.

"...Ashley, I shall support you." She says, quietly and perhaps more serious than the baker has heard from her before.

"Hasten the pulse's flow. Enhance Cast." She recites.

Suddenly, gold and violet light begins to surround Ashley. While it was normally intended to aid in spellcasting, it also proves effective at providing a defense against magic, too - while also providing a boost to offensive capabilities beyond the magical.

"Liath... I would still like to consider you a friend. However..." Clarine states. However, they still had to fight here today. To not do so would go against what both of them believed - and Clarine had far more respect for Liath than that.

GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ashley Winchester with Enhance Cast!
GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

"Then for what reason are you a part of an invading army?" Lulu asks Borgan. "Surely you've noticed the results of this crusade." The question is guarded, but genuine enough--if not zealotry, than what purpose? There are... other, alternatives.

Under other circumstances Lulu herself might be interested here in experimentation, in the learning of magic, but fury pulses harder through her ears than does curiousity at this moment. She examines the barrier, the way it deflects the lightning as if solid, the way Borgan shows effort in making it do so--...and the way Rikku's grenade doesn't.

"Lightning and poison, both impermeable," she murmurs, stepping to the side--and Borgan's staff delivers its magic. While Lulu is quick, she cannot entirely evade it without leaving Yuna more exposed, and both the blades of ice and their chill wind hit her side enough to shift her backward a step. She glances once to Yuna--

...She knows, in the moment, why she didn't dodge.

She thinks quickly, as the light flashes--and then decides. Her steps take her again, beside Yuna. "...The Temple is part of the village," she follows up on Yuna's question as she falls in, "They are not so easily separated as your allies might hope."

She looks to Belize in the next moment though, and inclines her had. "Yes," she agrees. "Let's apply a little more pressure."

Earth crashes upward--at the same time, from above, Lulu's magic focuses the water in the air, until much of it manifests, crashing together in a hard crashing force from above the barrier.

GS: Lulu has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Water!
GS: Lulu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lulu has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Ivan blinks with genuine surprise at Leo's reaction to his arrival. Ivan's estimation of Ivan is legitimately so low that he was kind of wondering it Leo would even recognize him out of context. He's not really ready to process the idea that Leo had any kind of personal reaction to his departure.

Ashton eyes him with a moment of confusion, and Ivan shrugs apologetically. He didn't know it would be a big deal!

Ivan doesn't know what to do, so he says something pretty stupid: "Uh, sorry! I'm not Ivan! I think you're mixed up!! I'm sure he appreciates that you wanted to hear his side, though!"

But wow!! All right!! They're fighting the White Knight Leo now! This was a forseeable outcome, and yet, who could be prepared for it...!

Ivan has just enough time to flash Lydia a look of ARE WE CRAZY? WE'RE CRAZY RIGHT?? before the rocks fly at them both.

Ivan is almost able to jump clear -- it knocks him off balance with enough force to leave bruising rather than to break half his bones, which he realizes after a moment probably means Leo is not using his full strength against them. Ivan is... kind of touched, actually, that the heroic, legendary knight with a very important job they are interfering with would bother to hold back for their sakes! Leo was also kind of a scary boss, in his way, so he never quite knew how easy it would be to switch him into righteous fury mode.

Then Lydia just kind of tells his life story to Leo and Ivan bluescreens in the background.

"Aah, Lydia, I'm not sure he needs to know all that!! Just that Lubov is an asshole! And Ivan never really technically signed up for the Guard willingly so if you think about it not being in the Guard is his default state...!"

There is also talk of Leo leaving the battle entirely to go on a double date with them and Talise, which Ivan definitely does not have time to mentally stumble over that idea.

They're not just here to chat!! He launches himself into a leap towards Leo and summons his short sword, stabbing forward and sending a pulse of energy flying ahead off of his blade.

"I know we're not really going to talk you out of this, but I'm going to think of it as giving you an excuse to fall back!"

Ivan is no stranger to the idea of needing a push from external circumstances to help you make choices you wouldn't otherwise allow yourself to make.

GS: Black Wizard Borgan guards a hit from Lulu's Water for 85 hit points!
GS: Ivan has attacked White Knight Leo with Super Sonic Thrust!
GS: Ivan has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ivan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

    It's strange, perhaps.

    In all the many years Yue has faced a multitude of swordsmen and martial artists, and even a marital artist. She has faced a myriad of techniques in her inauspicious career and yet it doesn't occur to her that someone would just--

    Soccer tackle her like Xiumei just did, which catches her entirely off guard because she's on one leg.

    She goes down like a sack of bricks and with an even more unceremonious noise of shock of: "NGGHOHHH--"

    Yue continues tumbling down Guts-Dozer's side and lands flat on the back part of it on its tank. (The one that says 'LP Gas', whatever that means to modern Filgaia. Then again, given Guild Galad and Kattelox, perhaps liquefied petroleum is very much a thing.)

    She pauses and call outs, "I'm so glad we agree on that," to somewhere in the vicinity of Clarissa and Felius' cockpit.

    Then she turns her attention back on Xiumei.

    "... why," she asks, dourly. "Why does it not matter."

    She gets up again, limping a bit on that kicked leg of hers.

    "Over these many years I have seen many a people come to the battlefield for many a reason. Some of them are great. Some of them are stupid."

    There's a glint of momentary anger as she zips forward again.

    "But no one should be out here fighting if they believe they do not matter."

    And instead of the single-strike Fast Draws, she's taken another tack as she reappears in Xiumei's vicinity, down low this time as her leg erupts outward into a scything flurry of kick-like slashes.

    "<Slash Rave!>"

    Sadly, no rave music actually plays. (That's a later upgrade.)

GS: Yue Rohay has spent 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Fast Draw - Slash Rave!
GS: Yue Rohay has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Isolde has posed.

 
A young man speaks near her. "Mind yourself," Isolde says to Ashley, "she is no mere knight--"

Isolde never sees it coming. The rise of Liath's blade sings upwards; the light burns outwards, Isolde flinching as she feels her skin - feels her skin what? It's a burn, she thinks, but not a bad one, isn't it? She shrinks back a pace, weapon held up at the ready. Unbeknownst to her, of course, she and her clothing have just gained the wonderful experience of an intensive sunburn.

"I thought so," Isolde says. "What a shame. I wonder - were you just out on tour, or were you scouting ahead, darling?"

She exhales with force through her teeth. And then Liath begins to chant, to draw on power. Isolde feels a tight tension in her gut, a familiar sort of surge. The people she heard, the distant voices. The nearer one of Ashley. She knows Clarine is out there too, the sad dear, and now this. 'upon these corrupt souls!'

Magic is flowing.

"It's funny," Isolde says tonelessly. She sweeps her blade to the side --

What happens next has a couple of components, though they are, understandably, less emphatic than the spell. Isolde thrusts with her long blade, now held in one hand. The rest of her moves in a curve, to try to slip behind the Seraph, to grasp at her head and to kick her legs out. To send her, in short, into a baptism of the sea.

"I always heard there was no reason not to wear armor on ship," Isolde continues, "because obviously you're going to be far from shore and past a league or so you might as well be on the Blue Star, so the weight doesn't matter; if you fall off, you're bloody well dead anyway, but - darling - this is a beach."

"Of course," Isolde adds, "I could be wrong about the armor." To punctuate her remark she thrusts again. These are not very friendly thrusts!! However, in Isolde's defense, aiming for the central mass makes a lot of sense, given everything.

"To whom is your duty, anyway? There's nothing worth taking in this place. It's pleasant, but all they have is fish and a fool with a ball!"

GS: Isolde has attacked Seraph Liath with A Truly Supple Wrist!
GS: Isolde has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Zhang Xiumei takes a glancing hit from Yue Rohay's Fast Draw - Slash Rave for 74 hit points!
GS: Seraph Liath completely evades a hit from Isolde's A Truly Supple Wrist!
GS: Riposte! applied to Isolde!
GS: Ashley Winchester takes a solid hit from Seraph Clarine's Enhance Cast for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Surge! applied to Ashley Winchester!
<Pose Tracker> Ena has posed.

    Hesitance at the start of combat is always a risky thing. In this case, the cost is a pillar of light striking down towards her, unable to move fast enough to escape it's blast. She lets out a cry of pain as the blast connects, and she is easily sent flying from the blast, landing roughly on her back. She's prone for a vital few moments as she uses her staff to pull herself back to her feet.

    When she manages to stand again, she looks straight at Liath. "So your duty is to run roughshod over people just trying to live their lives!?" The statement doesn't necessarily have the fire one might hope for, but nonetheless, she keeps speaking. "What kind of person doesn't see the cruelty in that duty!?" Again, something rings slightly hollow.

    She raises her staff and points it at Liath, before rising it upwards. "Let darkness consume you." She chants, and darkness swells near Liath's feet. The shadows leap up toward her, aiming to grasp onto her and start sapping her strength, should they manage to connect.

GS: Ena has attacked Seraph Liath with Shadow Sap!
GS: Ena has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ena has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    The three-eyed glowing green gaze centers upon the one under the hood (and this is a bad idea, looking directly into Amaterasu's headgear is bound to damage one's sight) as she acknowledges the approach of another hostile.
     "Get ba--" Ethius tries to call, somewhere around the time it might be too late to get back (as Amaterasu is already upon Bera). He is met with a burst of violet-sometimes-backlit-green mist he tries to sweep away with his right arm, parting from the grip of his weapon. It doesn't clear away.
     It envelops, blinds, distorts, and all but dares to deprive his sense of the world. Amaterasu will be able to keenly see him fall to a kneel from a sudden onset of dizziness followed by unsteady footfalls from the sand underneath. The words the Veruni soldier has to share to 'the girl with the ARM' do not come in that clearly for the enigmatic man through the fog. The shine of Amaterasu's blade broadly lights upon the disabling mist, but visual cues are useless beyond that shine going past what clarity he has.
     She's lunging for someone else. Someone else has her priorities, for the moment. A reprieve that will not last, as the odd hooded man tries to turn about-face to another close voice. A garbled 'Glacier Drive' of a voice differs from Amaterasu's. He can't tell if this is the 'girl with the ARM' or-- no, this one doesn't have that ARM. Even through the muddled senses, a memory that has slipped past context but rooted it instinct can tell, the 'Glacier Drive' caller isn't the one with the ARM. They are doubtless a hand-to-hand combatant. From that...
     Ethius starts waving the fingers of his current free hand (his right) and chants the usual Symbological incantations with it, finishing off with the call of the spell itself -
     "Combustion." A high-concentrated point of heat bursts outward in an explosion at the point he on-the-spot believes to be behind Amaterasu, at risk of overshooting and having it go off too far back.
     Not even the uncertainties this fog upon him brings will stop him from attempting what they may consider meager resistance.

<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.

"Ah, well," Ashley shrugs at yet another attempt at diplomacy woefully undercut by a heel to the belly and a critical misunderstandi-- "Wait, did you think I was offering you crackers?"

Ashley's brain is somewhat preoccupied by the apparent disconnect. Too preoccupied, it seems, to dodge a veritable deluge of holy light. He screams as Althena's power floods through him, searing body and soul alike...!

Searing... his soul.

His soul.

Ashley's pained cry gives way to a furious roar as baleful power surges through his veins like supernaturally-charged adrenaline. Clarine's blessing hits him at the very same moment, bolstering his body and spirit against forces both within and without. He darts out of the pillar of castigating light faster than an ordinary man aught to be capable of, ducking into a slide that brings the gunslinger swinging oversized bayonet right into the seraph-knightess' shins.

"I wasn't offering you crackers!" Ashley yells, body still smoldering from the lingering after-effects of Liath's heavenly might. "I mean-- I could! If crackers won't make you stop, then just tell me what you want me to bake up! I can do basically anything! Tell me the name of the pastry of peace that might sate your appetite for war!?"

GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Amaterasu with Combustion!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Seraph Liath with Shockslide!
GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
Rikku might have started laughing at Lulu's clapback except then she follows it up with a Thunder Spell. Fortunately the crack-boom of thunder drowns out her shriek.
 
Mostly. The girl is still squatting down with her hands over her ears after. And when she removes them.
 
Rikku's eyelashes flutter a little as Lydia calls out the Church for... the Al Bhed. She double takes a moment before realizing that Borgan's wordlessness doesn't mean he's...
 
"Oh... I guess he can still cast..."
 
Stalagmites erupt out of the ground at Borgan's command, and the Al Bhed Guardian tries to leap to the side. The jagged spike manages to rip the back of her top, sending down some droplets of blood to scatter the Earth.
 
Recovering quickly, she remarks, "Yunie- are you okay?" Before she threatens heatedly at Borgan, "Don't you dare throw more icicles at her!" However Yuna uses the moment to apply... "Yunie?" She gives her a surprised look at the crimson protective spell.
 
It's not how it ought to be. She was supposed to be protecting Yuna. And Yuna just took such an awful looking hit. Yet Yuna moves to protect her.
 
Casting a protective spell on her.
 
Ever since she met her, Yuna has been defying her expectations, and Rikku loves her for it.
 
"Alright. Can't waste it. Here I go."
 
The girl suddenly rushes his platform, beating feet to jog towards him in a quick zig-zag pattern so that her approach is shrouded by Lulu and Belize's attacks. It looks like she's getting ready for a frontal attack!
 
Instead of leaping up on the platform though. Borgan sees her vanish briefly below him. And then suddenly a hand reaches up to the platform. A bag suddenly is there full of rattling bottles. It's tie is loose. Showing it's full of all sorts of rare magical reagents that are all bottled up.
 
A Lunar Curtain. A Fire Gem. A Silver Hourglass. Could that even be- a Dragon Scale?!
 
"Psst. Hey big guy. If you take it a little easy - stop giving us all such a hard time these could all be yours..."
 
A beat. It's unclear where Rikku is right now in relation to his platform as she bribes him with all these magical reagents.
 
"Think about it~"
 

GS: Rikku has spent 1 Combo on Interrupt, including 1 on Gatling!
GS: Rikku has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Bribe!
GS: Rikku has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Rikku has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Ena's Shadow Sap for 41 hit points!
GS: Poison! applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Ashley Winchester's Shockslide for 47 hit points!
GS: Cripple! applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan completely evades a hit from Rikku's Bribe!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

Xiumei finishes her slide by coming across the smooth, red armor on the tread and standing up. She turns -- looking back at Yue, and watching her stand up. Her breath catches in her throat at the declaration, and she has no answer at first. She raises the Pulse Saber, the tip of it pointed at Yue, and the blade flickers.

The point shimmers, more rounded than otherwise, and then she shakes her head.

Before an answer can come, Yue is suddenly there with her -- and her rapid kicks fly. The first couple of slashing kicks catch the Pulse Saber, knocking it back. The next slams into the pauldron on her armor, denting it in about her shoulder.

The last catches her cheek, and there's a little splash of blood as the heel slashes in.

"Model V is what matters!" she calls back. "I'm just--I'm nothing without it, but with this Biometal, then I can use this and make a difference!"

She runs the short distance between them -- and then Xiumei slashes downward, striking across Yue's body. Then her foot slams into the steel of Guts-Dozer, and she pivots, doing a second slash horizontally.

GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Yue Rohay with Pulse Saber Cross Strike!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
GS: Yue Rohay takes a solid hit from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Saber Cross Strike for 151 hit points!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Yue Rohay receives 50 temporary hit points.
GS: Yue Rohay enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Zhang Xiumei assumes the Avenger stance!
GS: Amaterasu guards a hit from Bera's Glacier Drive for 57 hit points!
GS: Jam! applied to Amaterasu!
GS: Amaterasu critically Guards a hit from Ethius Hesiod's Combustion for 22 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    There is probably few people that could further destroy the grim emerald mood Amaterasu's finger snap spell casts.

    Gwen makes a good case for it, stepping towards Amaterasu with all the reluctant fervor that was embodied by the villagers that challenged them earlier. "W-well, my name is actually Gwen Whitlock. I mean, my ARM is only one part of me- eh?"

    That shield of good humor is dropped when Amaterasu speaks. For one nearly fatal moment, Gwen hesitates, those pale red brows on her forehead briefly rising. "'He'? Wait, who're you talking about?"

    The space that could hold an answer is instead occupied by a very bright and very insistent blade. The girl with the ARM meets Amaterasu, her Mockingbird held out as a risky shield. "Gh!"

    It's the perfect time for another blade to come out, a speedy glint of an ordinary knife in Gwen's left hand, aimed at any part of the Veruni woman's armor that a quick knife swipe would fit in. "Don't underestimate the unwilling," she says, attempting to disengage before Bera or Ethius attack again. "... I just realize it ain't a battle of good vs. bad, is all!"

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Amaterasu with Comet Clip!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Amaterasu takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Comet Clip for 50 hit points!
GS: Shieldbreak! applied to Amaterasu!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    Leo's ears swivel in Lydia's direction. It is very difficult to keep up with her while being pressed by two formidable students of the blade, who are simultaneously insisting he abandon his mission and do "a double date". "No," Leo says. "I will do nothing of the sort! Spare me your perverse 'shipping'!"

    How did Leo learn that word? Well, he does know Lydia.

    Of course, this strategy has the side-benefit of distracting Leo just enough. Talise and Ashton are both talented students of the blade, and quickly pick up on minute openings others might miss. Rastaban cuts into Leo's left forearm, chopping through the light mail he wears beneath his jacket. Blood streams down his arm, and for a moment, the White Knight seems stymied by the sudden stab of pain. Ashton's pommel-strike pays off handsomely--his weapon hits home, an audible 'clonk' splitting the air as he connects with Leo's forehead. The big Ronso(?) stumbles backwards, raising his blade as Lydia rushes in. The cyborg has chosen her moment well, though, and her right arm slips past, deforming a little as it goes. The tip stabs into Leo's side, and he grimaces.

    "Impossible!" Leo shouts. "Ivan has no brother! Ivan has a sister!" His lips twist in a smug little smirk, as though he'd just figured out the crippling flaw in someone's lies. "But--" Leo shakes his head, tries to get the world to stop spinning. "Ivan, or whomever you are, as soon as I stop seeing more than one of you, you'll--" Leo's body sags forwards, and he almost falls. His blade digs into the turf, and he grips the hilt with both hands, steadying himself. He breathes, lets his power flow down through his blade and into the ground beneath.

    The earth responds. The ground between Leo's foes rips itself apart, surging upwards and reshaping itself into jagged, knife-edged stalagmites. Clods of earth and chunks of stone fly everywhere, and in the space of a few heartbeats, a good hundred cubic yards of dirt has turned into some sort of horrible killing field. The ground Leo stands on, incidentally, is completely fine.

GS: White Knight Leo has activated a Boss Action!
GS: White Knight Leo guards a hit from Ivan's Super Sonic Thrust for 47 hit points!
GS: Riposte! applied to Ivan!
<Pose Tracker> Black Wizard Borgan has posed.

Borgan has not precisely recovered from his fit of coughing, but he's able to speak again, even if his voice is a little raw.

"Oh, it is a reason you would understand," Borgan says. "The simplest of all: obligation. I am a Hero of the Church and lord of Neo-Vane, city of learning. I *earned* this title for my actions. But I don't rule all of Lunar, and I accept Althena above me. When she calls, I respond."

His words pause, for a moment, as the spells come at him a second time. Floating as he is, Borgan does not expect an earthquake from beneath to have much effect on him, but Belize's quake ejects rock upward, smashing into the underside of his platform and causing it to cant alarmingly to one side. Lulu's gout of water continues to unbalance Borgan, threatening to topple him off his platform entirely -

Until he catches himself with the butt end of his staff, driving it into the now-muddy ground and levering himself straight again by main strength.

"But I am not a *zealot*. This isn't the kind of 'obligation' where I follow my heart - or a Church - and what I believe her desires to be. I have met Althena, personally It is more of a relationship between a lord and his king - but you don't have those here, do you?"

Borgan smiles. It's not a very pleasant smile, less because of his looks and more because of how self-satisfied he looks. "Also," he says, "Spira is fascinating. I have not been able to learn so much in years. Your mages are quite skilled." That with a slight nod toward Lulu and Belize - he respects their skills if not their use of them. "However..."

...however, there's a whole bunch of stuff being shoved in his face.

It's tempting. It's really tempting. Borgan will not admit how tempting it is. But looked at in another way, it's insulting. And 'insult' is what eventually wins out, judging by the expressions that cross his face.

"You think that a simple bribe will work on me - the Black Wizard Borgan, greatest wizard on all of Lunar? Do you think that I am simple? That I am some idiot, distracted by shiny things? If I want those trinkets, I will take them from your defeated body!!" Borgan makes a rising gesture with his staff, then a chopping one, before pointing straight at Yuna.

First, Rikku finds herself flung upwards about ten feet into the air - if she's not fast on her feet or good at grabbing something to stay stable. The actual lift is harmless; it feels just like 'down' decided to be a different direction for a few seconds. Her loot goes, too.

Second, rocks fall from the sky!! They are aimed at Lulu and Belize, and while they aren't *gigantic* they are moving pretty fast, shimmering with mystic energy as Borgan calls them into existence.

And finally, Yuna - unless she evades the fast-moving black sphere that flies from Borgan's finger at her - also ends up floating, but in place rather than rising. This is because every loose object in about a twenty foot sphere has decided to fly straight at her, from loose cobbles to branches to debris from the meteors he just dropped on Belize and Lulu.

Somewhere along the way, mid-Rikku-flip, Borgan surreptiously attempts to grab the bag. Waste not, want not.

GS: Black Wizard Borgan has spent 1 Combo on Interrupt, including 3 on Gatling!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Rikku with Gravity Reverse!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Lulu with Comet Break!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Belize with Comet Break!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Yuna with Collapsar!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has completed his action.
GS: Rikku takes a glancing hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Gravity Reverse for 40 hit points!
GS: Hyper! applied to Black Wizard Borgan!
GS: Rikku has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

    Xiumei tells Yue all that matters is Model V.

    There's an angry scowl, as she finds herself momentarily so incensed at those words that she doesn't even find it in herself to guard -- the brilliant emerald saber rends across her and draws red blood, and the second of the strikes cleaving up into an 'X' gets grazed on her shackles, which are continuing to collapse.

    "Xiumei."

    She's saying this calmly, even as she's reeling from the open cut and her shackles smoking hard and superheated. Her arms are burning.

    "Pray do not disappoint me any further."

    She scowls deeper as she remarks, "'Tis the dark and unconscionable thought of militaries 'round the world, then and now. The type of thought who only values the lives of young men and women and seduce them to service because they are rifle-carriers, sword-bearers."

    She narrows further.

    "Is power how one makes a difference in the world, Miss Xiumei? Or is Varius seducing you with that promise?"

    She goes back on her promise of being a Filgaian as she whistles... and...

    a cucco

    flutters down onto her shoulder. She under its chin for a moment to scratch it. She exhales, as if having to relieve herself of all the built-up tension from her conversation.

    "Coccoro, my everlasting friend. Guide me..."

    The glint on her eye is severe as she darts forward with a similar set-up to the Slash Rave before, and yet this time--

    She is ensconced in the fighting spirit of her companion, the cucco, as she strikes forth with a bright, blinding flash of thrust kicks delivered in rapid succession. She has seamlessly switched to an ancient variant of a Lunarian technique.

    "<Arcane Arte...>"

<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    Ivan's blade, meanwhile, digs into Leo's shoulder, and there's a moment--just a moment--where it looks like he might've gotten a clean hit in. Then, Leo's hand grips Ivan's shoulder, stopping him cold. His eyes meet his subordinate's, whereupon Ivan learns Leo can somehow look stern and menacing even when suffering from a mild concussion.

GS: Yue Rohay enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Senretsu Kokkousen - Thousand Cucco Flash!
GS: Yue Rohay has completed her action.
GS: White Knight Leo has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Ivan with Grand Upheaval!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Lydia Seren with Grand Upheaval!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Ashton Anchors with Grand Upheaval!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Talise Gianfair with Grand Upheaval!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Talise Gianfair critically Guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Grand Upheaval for 36 hit points!
GS: Zhang Xiumei takes a solid hit from Yue Rohay's Senretsu Kokkousen - Thousand Cucco Flash for 156 hit points!
GS: Entangle! applied to Zhang Xiumei!
GS: Zhang Xiumei enters Critical health and gains 25 FP!
GS: Zhang Xiumei enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Grand Upheaval for 178 hit points!
GS: Lulu critically Guards a hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Comet Break for 26 hit points!
GS: Ivan takes a glancing hit from White Knight Leo's Grand Upheaval for 92 hit points!
GS: Ashton Anchors guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Grand Upheaval for 115 hit points!
GS: Yuna guards a hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Collapsar for 98 hit points!
GS: Belize critically Guards a hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Comet Break for 25 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

So that's the story, Talise reflects with a glance towards Ivan. A part of her twists into a sick little knot at the mere thought of the kind of childhood he and Talia must've lived.

The smile she flashes Leo is a little wan. "C'mon, Leo. Break out the shipping wall and let's get going. I promise you'll have fun."

Less fun is the fact that the White Knight has something Talise does not: Mastery over the earth. Lunar itself rumbles, and the swordswoman widens her eyes as the ground begins to erupt into a veritable labyrinth of jagged spires and sedimentary talons. Thrown off her feet by the upwelling, Talise clenches her teeth as a massive spine of rock bores through the soil and hurtles upwards, inches from turning her into a shish kebab.

It passes within inches of her chest. The momentary stagger saved her. Eyes wide, she falls back as if in slow motion, hair rippling around her face.

Then, clenching her teeth, she swings her left hand out.

Talise's fist explodes through the rock like a bomb. The huge stalagmite shatters into a spray of debris. Pebbles and clods of earth shower against her armour, but most of it is blown in the other direction, leaving only a few painful chips to pelt her in the face and shoulders. She winces through the worst of it and just powers through the mess of earth with a grunt.

"I was hoping we could solve this with love, Leo," she says with a little smirk she doesn't feel, advancing forward and smashing through another stalagmite. "Shame, that. I bet you're the kind of guy who sweeps people off their feet, all chivalrous-like. Usually that's my job, but hey. I respect it."

Levity drops out of her face and leaves behind only determination. "Fine, then. If it's not kisses, we'll do this the old-fashioned way!" Winding up, she draws Rastaban across her body and then slashes through open air.

Bursting from the tip of her sword, an arc of greenish-white force suddenly explodes, bursting forward and tearing through a few of the stalagmites in her way with brutal intensity as it lashes towards Leo. Last time she fought the White Knight, Talise didn't have access to techniques like this.

...Perhaps we've both come a long way....

GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked White Knight Leo with Clear and Stormless Ocean!
GS: Talise Gianfair has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

"What do you want me to do?" Xiumei asks, her voice quiet, but shaking. "He isn't. He tells me I need to figure this out, for myself. But... but I know the only reason I'm here. The only reason Marivel or anyone can ask me to do anything."

Her jaw twitches -- and her eyes do, and she feels them sting, even if she keeps her composure from being lost entirely. "Because whatever they mean, they're not really asking me."

She sets her jaw, and raises the Pulse Saber to try to protect herself. "It's easy to talk about power... when you have it, and others don't!"

She does, however, step back -- and look startled at the cucco on Yue's shoulder. Then, she rushes -- and tries to deflect the kicks, but they come too fast. Xiumei's skill with a sword is rudimentary; there isn't the fluidity of a master, and she can't keep them all at bay. They strike into her, then slam her back into the main torso of the Guts-Dozer. A plate of blue armor pops, slightly, when she hits.

She reaches a hand up, wiping at the blood on her cheek -- and stumbling with bruises and cuts she will feel in the morning. She holds her other hand out; there is a flash of light, as a dozen little spectral cubes float together and form the outline of the Pulse Cannon.

It appears in a flash, and she rushes. She fires a triple burst of plasma blasts at Yue, then closes the distance, and slashes upward with the Pulse Saber. The blade lashes up, curving as she leaps with the slash. Xiumei rises into the air.

When she drops the Pulse Saber, it vanishes into a blast of light -- and then aims down at the top of Yue's head with the Pulse Cannon.

She opens fire, and a stream of energy blasts rains down all across Yue, exploding in brilliant flashes of purple fire and light.

GS: Zhang Xiumei has activated a Force Action!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has spent 1 Combo on Link, including 1 on Gatling!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Yue Rohay with Pulse Aerial Rush!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has launched an attack Link!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Yue Rohay with Pulse Cannon Max Burst!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

During Ivan's ARE WE CRAZY? look, Lydia looks back with a look of complete obliviousness. This sort of madness is just life to her these days.

"That's easy for you to say, every date you're on is a foursome!" Lydia shouts back to Ashton. "Don't think we haven't seen you making moon-eyes over Ruby!" She points her fingers at her eyes and then swings them back towards Ashton and his hitchikers.

Ivan also protests that they don't need to give Leo the Ivan Life Story either. "Well I guess not but I don't want him to be mad at you." Wait is sharing the life story of Ivan going to make Leo hate Ivan more or less? Also if she didn't want Leo to hate Ivan maybe she shouldn't have entered this scene on a heathen god? Regardless!

Lydia is able to stab Leo a little. She immediately backs off as if surprised by the fact she has enough combat skill to land a hit on Leo in these circumstances and stammers, "Ahh! I'm sorry!" because she doesn't really want to hurt Leo here despite trying to hurt Leo here. "Hold on I'm not doing any shipping! That isn't me! You can date whomever you want! I'm trying to say that it's not you, it's us, we're not ready for anything more serious than the dating we're already doing! I'm okay with taking our time maybe in like a year or two we can revisit it!"

She is briefly confused by the brother talk. "Huh? Brother? What?"

But then Leo unleashes some true power. Lydia is far slower this time and the grand bursts up from underneath her feet, jagged rocks stab into her body and send her crashing onto her back, the thick shards of rock still sticking out of her--not quite all the way through but it's still pretty unpleasant looking even if clearly Lydia has suffered worse wounds before.

She stands herself up and then says, "Nhhg..." She sways a bit beffore steadying herself by swinging an arm out. She looks right at Leo, blinking a few times.

"Wait... why am I the one being defensive?" She blinks a few more times. "I'm not the one invading a town!"

She starts walking forward, swinging her armblade out--gesturing at it with her other hand as she enchants the blade with LIGHT.

"Man, fuck your answers. How 'bout you give us one?"

She darts forward, swinging with that armblade!

"Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? Don't tell me it's cause of the Goddess, don't tell me it's because of Mika, why do YOU think this is the right thing to do?! Why is it good that you're hurting all these people! You yourself! Why do you think that!? Sometimes you gotta question your Gods!!"

It's what Kaguya taught her in the end.

GS: Lydia Seren has attacked White Knight Leo with Sunlight Shiv!
GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
GS: Yue Rohay has activated a Force Action!
GS: Yue Rohay completely evades a hit from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Aerial Rush!
GS: Mighty! applied to Zhang Xiumei!
GS: Yue Rohay takes a glancing hit from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Cannon Max Burst for 96 hit points!
GS: Yue Rohay enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Zhang Xiumei's Avenger stance ends. She enters the Stoic stance!
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

Again, the ground erupts. This time Ashton seems downright annoyed about it. (This may have to do with the wound in his side where one of the knife-edged stone spurs clipped him in a spot the breastplate didn't entirely cover.)
 
"The White Knight has no time for a maiden fair?" The sellsword laughs at that. He can see it's getting under Leo's skin - at least a little - and there's no way he's letting go already. "Pity! Though if you have not time for her, I will extend my hand instead for the sake of Besaid's peace."
 
Ashton twists, weaving between the stalagmites as he moves in closer to Leo. Green ink along his arms flares as he slashes - his blades swing and leave trails of fluttering green leaves behind them. "After all," he quips amidst a storm of maple and oak, "One cannot have a ship without an Anchors."
 
That was terrible.
I'm improvising!
I say pass. I hate the cravat.
Really? Really, Weepy? Fashion critique?
Agreed. He could just change the outfit if that's such a problem for you.
You two do not get to give commentary! This is why I haven't had a date in two years!
You sound like you could use one. I guess I can overlook the cravat.
 
The internal debate is interrupted by Lydia's commentary about a foursome - and about Ruby. Immediately the swordsman gives A Very Strong Look to his shoulder-bound companions.
 
Oh REALLY? A cat? You two are making eyes at a flying cat?
I was doing nothing of the sort! I was... simply appreciating the company of... a very nice... um....
Is that why you bit me for interrupting you with her?
I didn't bite you, you bit me!
I'm going to die. I'm going to die, and the entire time I'm dying I'm going to be listening to you two fight over a cat.

GS: Ashton Anchors enters a Counter stance!
GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked White Knight Leo with Leaf Slash!
GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Here is one of Yuna's truths: she listens.

She listens to everyone -- to the babbling of children (and elders!) excited to meet her. To the sermons of priests and merchants alike. To the worries of her friends.

To the duties of her enemies.

Borgan speaks and she pays him full attention and due respect, inclining her head -- ignoring the bead of blood leaking down her cheek. She clasps her hands in front of her, and resolutely hears him out. She even nods, and 'mms', in all the right places. When he smiles, she smiles back, and hers is an earnest friendliness. She takes the compliment in its letter, despite its spirit.

"Okay," she chirps, afterwards, for all the world a teenage girl across the dinner table, not a budding leader on the world's stage. "I hear you. You serve your own position."

She says it so simply, so plainly. And that manner of speech, too, is one of Yuna's truths.

Here is a third: once again she does not dodge the magic thrown at her. Once again, it is a decision, and a bold one at that. She walks straight into it, and Borgan gets the satisfaction of a soft, startled sound as she's ripped into the air. And as she's battered from all directions by bits of her own beloved island...

...eyes half-lidded, she endures. Bruises blossom; gashes tear. But she does not give in.

Held fast in the grip of the spell, she demonstrates her own magical acumen, using neither gesture nor word to summon healing power. It emanates from her chest -- then from beneath her fingernails, leaks from her eyes.

Her cheek stops bleeding, when the light reaches it.

Then other parts of her do too.

Another branch strikes her; another vine lashes; another rock crushes; and the summoner simply shines on.

Yuna is healing herself more quickly than she can be harmed.

Her eyes reopen, and she asserts control against the gravitic magic, control over throat and lips and tongue.

"Is it worth it?" she asks Borgan, worriedly -- worried for him, somehow, impossibly. "Your position, in exchange for following orders, no matter how wrong?"

GS: Yuna has attacked Yuna with Regen!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has completed her action.
GS: Yuna heals Yuna! She gains 188 temporary hit points!
GS: Yuna assumes the Avenger stance!
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
"Wait-what-what's going o-?"
 
Borgan might suddenly catch the sight of Rikku levitating in the air, gripping to his platform with a single hand for dear life. Her fingers slipping.
 
"Oh right- gravity. You use gravity magic. Uh."
 
Her opposite hand, she wiggles her fingers, "-Hi?"
 
Rikku's fingers slip off in that moment, as she goes up, and she's suddenly flailing wildly with her hand towards the bag, where her finger catches the drawstring. "Oh no - Oh no - Ohhhhh-" It looks like she's gotten a good hold on it, drawing it towards her.
 
Abruptly gravity while she's suspended in mid-air. And suddenly Rikku and the bag are falling back earthwards, like she'd lost her hold. The girl hits the ground in front of his platform heavily.
 
Perhaps delighting Borgan with a vision of her being forced to lay prostrated before him for a short span. Though thankfully the impact is not as hard as intended given that moment's reverie where she grabbed the platform.
 
But then Borgan grabs the bag.
 
"No I don't take you as simple." Rikku says quietly as she gets up. The bag in Borgan's hand abruptly heats up. It's glowing hotter, and hotter.
 
"That's why I put a Bomb Core at the bottom just in case."
 
Wait so was the bribe in bad faith then!? Did she just intend to blow him up from the start-? "I set it off in mid-air."
 
The bag explodes into a fireball at point blank unless Borgan hurls it away in time. Detonating in a way akin to a Bomb Fiend.
 
Rikku doesn't even make any great effort to move away.
 
She trusts in Yuna's protection that much.
 

GS: Rikku has spent 1 Combo on Gatling, including 1 on Gatling!
GS: Rikku has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Use: PeRiOdIc Table of Spiran Fiends!
GS: Rikku has completed her action.
GS: Black Wizard Borgan guards a hit from Rikku's Use: PeRiOdIc Table of Spiran Fiends for 102 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Leo tries to catch him out in his lie, and Ivan bristles.

"I might be Ivan's sister! You didn't ask, did you!" This is definitely getting more foolish than Ivan set out for, but sometimes you've got to finish what you start -- even the awkwardly escalating lies.

Ivan watches the others get some solid hits in before his own, and apparently feels vicarious guilt about it, because he says "Sorry, Leo!" after the insinuation that Leo was hit in the head hard enough to be seeing double. Dropping the title feels DARING AND FORBIDDEN and also kind of MEAN somehow, under the circumstances. But whatever, it's done! Ivan isn't... showing deference to people anymore, apparently.

Ivan's own attack connects-- a little -- or rather stops short, and Ivan's probably actually pretty comfortable with not doing more damage than that, but Leo gives him a withering gaze that earns him a guilty grimace of response. Ivan vanishes his sword, pushing back.

"Feel free to quit at any time! Lay down your weapons, and all that, right?" He's trying to echo the things the Guard has been telling the village defenders, although he might not be echoing them well enough to drum up the memory.

Rather than quitting, Leo bids the earth to erupt all around them, shooting up spears of rock. Ivan dances out of the way of one, only to have another one tear into his side. He doesn't think the bleeding is going to be severe, but the pain is pretty arresting. He takes some careful breaths as he tries to extricate himself from the rock formation without more scrapes.

Ivan is not sure he's entirely following the group's efforts to disuade Leo, but it seems like everybody is just offering to date him at this point. Except Lydia, who sounds more like she's trying to break up with him.

And -- aaah, she got shards of rock in her... oh, Lydia, ow...

"Are you okay??" he calls out.

Really, this whole scenario is pretty terrible with them hurting one another, but Ivan is pretty sure that the most realistic way to help Leo stop what he's doing without forcing him to reexamine his entire life right this second is to make him unable to fight anymore. Wow! Ivan is already doing the obnoxious ex-assassion projection thing! Amazing! Not that... Leo is an assassin... really the opposite. Guess when you've got a hammer everything looks like a nail.

At any rate, helping save Leo from menacing more towns and later maybe wishing he hadn't is how Ivan rationalizes cutting open a portal and unleashing a torrent of magma at his former leader who he owes his life to at least once.

""Beasts of fire, show your fury! Molten Roar!""

Leo, you're a legendary hero, you can handle this. Ivan believes in you.

GS: Ivan has attacked White Knight Leo with Molten Roar!
GS: Ivan has completed his action.
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    King? The term is unfamiliar to Belize. They aren't about to admit that to Borgan, though, in the same way that their response to his acknowledging their skill as a black mage is a huff and a flip of their braided hair. They're not happy getting praised by the enemy, and they're not in a hurry to admit that they're ignorant of the dynamic of which he speaks--even if the concepts of loyalty and duty are certainly familiar. Still, they don't see it as the same. Maester Mika might have been harsh to the Crusaders for cooperating with the Al Bhed, but it's not as though there was nothing they could do to return to the fold. He certainly never did anything like declare war on them, or even the Al Bhed, for disagreeing with the ways of Yevon.
    
    But even if they were inclined to say something, they have other issues, i.e. the rocks falling and set on making them die. Once again, they raise their armor and brace themself behind it. They snarl in pain as the rocks batter against it, over and over at speed; still, at the end, they manage to keep standing, clutching their beleagered arm as they pant. They shoot a look over at Yuna, who once again walks through the attacks, then casts Regen on herself. Is she not going to summon at all? They glance over at Rikku as Borgan sends her flying, and notices that the bag that he's snatched from her is starting to glow red--
    
    "Lulu!" they call sharply. "Do you know what happens if you super-heat something, then apply sharp cold to it?" They're going to trust that she does, because despite their injured arm, they pull back an arrow, then instill it with their magic. It bursts into magic flame--they aim at Borgan as Rikku's bag explodes--and then they *fire*. Literally.

GS: Belize has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Flame Arrow!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize has completed their action.
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.

    'Get back', Ethius perhaps attempts to shout out, far too late.
    She is for Bera then, and for him -- in a manner of speaking -- as well. The Ether-borne cloud of deep purple-green shadow does not fade out easily, given its magical nature. Eventually it may clear but--

    The strike from Bera before had been of flame. This counter-strike is of water, carving a deep gouge along the bracer shielding her left forearm. Kaguya will have a devil of a time fixing that one, later.
    And right now it's just a weakpoint and liability.
    "Hm," Amaterasu considers, glancing down at the damaged piece of her armor. "Impressive. Perhaps a study of this land's blade arts may be worthwhile." A sword is not to her preference, but at the end of the day the difference between a sword and her own choice of weapon is not that terribly great. It really is just a matter of 'reach'.

    Heat bursts from within the magical haze at Ethius' command.
    Valkyrja's blade snaps through the air. The explosion is... cut in two.
    The fiery halves roar out past Amaterasu next, leaving their trails of heat about her and setting her long hair aflutter in the haze. "A magical specialist, then," she comments, regarding the fading traces of that spell.

    "'Gwen Whitlock', is it. I will recall that name," Amaterasu states to Gwen, before making a noise that just might be a short amused laugh. "Oh? Hmm, hmm. Perhaps you might meet 'the man with a Golem's arm' someday." She pauses, as if to consider this. "If you are unlucky, that is."

    She may consider Kartikeya's methods distasteful and unnecessary.
    But he does get the job done, she must admit. When the objective calls for mass destruction rather than a surgical strike, that is.

    Bera's blade glints, this time coated with a rime of frost. Dropping into a guard, Amaterasu holds fast against the samurai's rush and--
    realizes
    as the woman closes
    that the target isn't her but her weapon.
    And at that point there isn't anything left but to follow through. It impacts the pole of the weapon and there then follows a spitting hiss of sparks, dancing down the shaft of the pole.

    "I see. So that was your aim," she informs the samurai. She does not drop her weapon, however the sparks may skim across her fingers, her hands and forearms. "To disable my weapon... But Valkyrja is not made as cheaply as that. Come, now--"

    And this is when Gwen interjects and does something unexpected. Anticipating an attack from her ARM instead, Amaterasu misses the knife, a blink at the wrong moment obscuring the speedily-thrown knife from her view. She only has -- fleetingly, too late -- the impression of a projectile approaching at speed.
    The impact on the armor protecting her chest.
    And the awareness that her armor, there, has cracked.
    The knife hit home at the worst possible point it could have, even with the reinforcements Kaguya had done.
    ...there are limits to what even her sister can do, on the moon...

    "Tch," she hisses, this action of Gwen's apparently stirring an ember of hostility in the once-and-current soldier. "Trickery," she remarks, as if to cast judgement upon Gwen's mode of attack.

    She draws herself up, regarding the three of them from behind her tripartate-eyed mask. "The lot of you. Is that all that you can do?"

    Her hands grip the arcing, electrified pole of Valkyrja.

    "Let me show you what it means to wage war."

    She is on them in a flurry. Swiping at legs to drop them to the surf, laying into bones and flesh alike with the end of the polearm. She'll break them without drawing a drop of blood.

GS: Amaterasu has attacked Bera with Debellatio!
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Debellatio!
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Debellatio!
GS: Amaterasu has completed her action.
GS: White Knight Leo critically Guards a hit from Talise Gianfair's Clear and Stormless Ocean for 28 hit points!
GS: Talise Gianfair's Stoic stance ends.
GS: White Knight Leo guards a hit from Lydia Seren's Sunlight Shiv for 90 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo critically Guards a hit from Ashton Anchors's Leaf Slash for 22 hit points!
GS: White Knight Leo guards a hit from Ivan's Molten Roar for 91 hit points!
GS: Disrupt and Shieldbreak! applied to White Knight Leo!
GS: Bera takes a solid hit from Amaterasu's Debellatio for 0 hit points!
GS: Break and Slow! applied to Bera!
GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Amaterasu's Debellatio for 0 hit points!
GS: Break and Slow! applied to Gwen Whitlock!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan takes a solid hit from Belize's Flame Arrow for 118 hit points!
GS: Jam! applied to Black Wizard Borgan!
GS: Ethius Hesiod guards a hit from Amaterasu's Debellatio for 0 hit points!
GS: Break and Slow! applied to Ethius Hesiod!
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

    "Has Marivel actually told you that?! Because if that truly is the case, then I truly am disappointed in my old friend!"

    Yue finds herself at a staggering position after her enormous, sweeping attack -- and it's something that Model V -- no, Xiumei, she thinks to herself -- can capitalise on; the outline of the Pulse Cannon flashes in her eye first before she can think about it--

    And the eruption of plasma bursts cause her disappearance.

    For a moment, it's possible to mistake her as being eradicated by the ancient weapon's burst of power.

    "--celerate," hoarsely whispers Yue as she reappears mere inches away from the site of the blast, having used a momentary burst of speed to get out of the way of mortal danger. She grimaces as Xiumei keeps on the offensive, however; her legs begin to strain as the only thing she can do is hold her arms up--

    And Xiumei can see it.

    The shackles cut clean in half.

DC: Yue Rohay switches forms to Shackles need not be Material--!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

I wonder - were you just out on tour, or were you scouting ahead, darling?

Through the haze, Liath steps forward. Her shield presented in front of her in a defensive stance, she keeps boldly to the front lines as the skirmish unfolds all around her, unflinching in the face of the growing chaos. She is ready. She faces her task directly. The very sense of her rings out as unbending as adamantite.

"What do you believe the answer is, Lady Isolde?"

The blind woman comes. And Liath does not bother with trickery -- she engages the swordswoman head on, body lowering before she -pushes- off those armored boots in a spray of sand. The first blow is met with the scream of steel on steel, as the old yet pristine and enduring edge of Liath's blade glances off Isolde's in a parrying thrust. Isolde flows like a dancer behind her. Secures her firmly by the temples. Delivers a well-aimed heel for the back of her legs.

And as Liath falls towards her seaward baptism --

-- she thrusts her shield -downward- towards the waves, gleaming with its every-intensifying, liquid brilliance.

    B W O O O O O O O O M

And a concussive blast of radiant rainbow light -shockwaves- off the surface, ricocheting improbably -- impossibly -- between shield and water until the waves literally part beneath her and the blowback sends her -rocketing- into the air. Her body twists.

And as Isolde seeks to punctuate her point --

-- the glowing edge of Liath's weapon strokes upward mid-ascent to attempt to catch the blind swordswoman in a direct and fluid blow underscored by the holy CRACK of multi-colored lightning racing along the blade's edge and wildly upward towards the skies.

"It is, and a beautiful one," answers Liath as she lands with a splash amidst the shallow, lapping waves, eyes shut. Her blade draws against the curved surface of her shield.

And as it does, the light flows from shield to sword, until that weapon is little more than a rainbow of liquid light, more a burning presence than anything of physical substance. When next she drops into her stance, it is at a much more aggressive bent.

"... But any place may become a battlefield, no matter how beautiful, Lady Isolde. ... And beauty may swiftly become horror to the unprepared."

A second of silence passes. Liath's eyes open, lips pursed.

"You are capable of reaching the Blue Star by boat? But it must be much more than a league away! Unless it was perhaps something more of a vertical ascent--"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

Answers about duty, however, will have to wait. An ARM fires, courtesy of Violet, and Liath's musings are cut off in favor of immediate, almost reflexive action. She leaps -forward- in a horizontal spin, blade painting a prism of liquid light through the air as she lunges not -away- from that projectile, but -towards- it. Gold eyes gleam with steely resolve --

-- and that sword comes -DOWN-, cleaving that bullet straight in two so cleanly that both molten, glowing halves part around her face harmlessly save for the rustle of bangs and the clipping of a few wild, stray strands of gold-white hair.

And that arc completes itself fully -- until, upon the apex of her blade's swing, all that forward momentum -hurls- a crescent blaze of cerulean energy towards Violet, screaming an angry, potent path as Liath slams into the ground feet first, water and sand beading at her heels.

Words, lacking fire, reach her ears. Those striking gold eyes fall squarely upon Ena, considering her with a quiet expression best described as 'impassive' as that staff swings up.

"... Your words lack bite," she notes, hand curling more tightly around her weapon. "My duty is to my Goddess, and the things I cherish in this world more than anything. I will stand by it no matter what may come. In times of wondrous beauty, and unspeakable ugliness, I will -stand by it-." That sword points at Ena, even as she begins to cast. That expression is questioning, and full of fiery conviction.

"What of you?"

Darkness rises. And as shadows leap, Liath -spins-, her sword screaming a prismatic path through the air to -sear- at shadows with light. It cleaves through some of the magicked mass -- but not all. The rest cling upon green cloth, seeping into spiritual flesh and tinging at her very being; and yet, she -leaps-, charging for Ena fearlessly --

Before something else catches her attention. A sound. A soul-cleaving roar.

A twinge of something wholly unnatural, shivering through the senses.

"What--"

Her words are sharply cut off as much as her charge is as the blue-haired figure of Ashley Winchester -screeches- into her defenses practically within the blink of an eye; it is enough to surprise the skilled Seraph, if briefly, as that massive blade comes thrusting in low to the ground. She drops, instantly, -burying- her shield halfway into the sands. It comes in time to glance that heavy blade across its surface -- but not in time enough to deflect the blade entirely. It flows to the side, biting a shallow wound across her side that carves through green cloth and spiritual flesh clean through.

Between them, in the midst of that clash, Liath's eyes narrow, her lips pulling tight.

"... What manner of creature are you?"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

A swing. A splatter of red paints the sands below as Liath -knocks- that still-smoking weapon and its equally smoking owner aside.

"I will not be so easily bribed, blackguard!" exclaims Liath, wholly perturbed, clearly, at Ashley's attempts at persuading her with baked goods. "Not even for the fabled Wonder Chef's Fresh-Squeezed Normin Fruit Parfait!"

Did she just out her weakness

also what is a normin

or a wonder chef

"I have not appetite for war, but I will fight it, if the situation calls. I would ask you do no less!"

And as she speaks, she -leaps- backward. She looks sidelong towards Clarine, smiling a faint, brief smile.

"... Have you found your answer?" she calls, even as her blade swings high in front of her. Sigils are painted into the air, one after the other, each a different hue from the next.

"If so, you having nothing you need explain yourself to me for, Clarine."

No matter what happens today --

"I was truly grateful, that you extended your hand in friendship to me."

Althena's Blessing surges through each sigil. And throughout the battlefield, more of them appear, sprouting in thin air like shimmering mirrors.

                 "Eternal light, ever true and undefiled,
                   grant these wanton sinners before me
                      the majesty of thy judgment..."

And from one, fires a brilliant ray of light, into the next, into the next, into the next --

Creating a brilliant cage of beams that lance through the air, constantly bouncing between those ephemeral mirrors --

--aimed for Clarine, Ena, and Ashley, with powerful fury that will scorch directly into the soul.

                              "Kaleidos Ray!"

GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Seraph Liath with Radiant Coil!
GS: Seraph Liath has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Radiant Coil for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Seraph Liath's Stoic stance ends. She enters the Avenger stance!
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

    She disappears once more in that final eruption, one that she is last seen instinctively throwing herself into the Besaid wildland if only so that the rain of energy doesn't detonate wholly on Guts-Dozer.

    There is silence for a moment.

    "... but I understand. Because I am one of the weak people you speak of, Miss Xiumei."

    The smoke is starting to dissipate.

    "I can never seem to be truthful or find confidence in my feelings. Always nervous about what comes around the corner... and never having an opinion of my own even when it truly can turn a situation caustic."

    Yue's silhouette can be seen inside of that smoke.

    Her arms are loose.

    "I cannot stand being such a person."

    There's a long shadow in her hand.

    It is a broken iron pipe, popped loose from Guts-Dozer in the aftermath of Xiumei's blast.

    "But I recall you have a different promise."

    She raises the iron pipe to the skies... and an enormous wellspring of ether erupts around the cylinder. The air clashes and breaks with each whorl of the energy she has summoned forth, as she creates a brilliant blade of light out of nothing more than a broken piece of Gear connection.

    "Were you not going to teach my minder board games, Xiumei? She is still searching for Black Mage Points even as we fight."

    She sucks in a breath.

    "One more round. Defend yourself against this... and you win. And as such--!!"

The brilliant blade e x a l t e d It is an effect
of light cascades g r e a t that others may
down with a have seen with many
tumultuous roar. ,.\ of her iron
Its force is such (\(\) cleaving manuevers.
that it causes a , ( o )> And yet this time,
deceptive trick of )`~~' ( a feeling of
the eyes such that \ ( .__) ) / positive energy
it feels as if \\,`-.____,',`' flows forward...
space itself has \\\ ," `". ///
been rent in twain.
And one can swear c u c c o
they can see a-- d i v i d e

    And defend against it or not-- Yue isn't exactly the best liar in the world--

GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Isolde with Lightning Tiger Blade!
GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Kokkokou Koukouhazan - The Great Cucco's Exalted Divide!
GS: Yue Rohay has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Violet Salazar with Azure Edge!
GS: Seraph Liath has activated a Boss Action!
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

It is an answer, and true to Borgan's word, Lulu understands it. She listens, as well, though not in the same way that Yuna does, that same open-hearted nature. She listens as one reads a text, as one watches results, and she combines this new knowledge with what she sees of her and Belize's magic. ...And his sheer size and strength.

Not a zealot...

No, it is not pleasant. Her eyes narrow. "Well, as long as you're getting something out of this," she answers, and it is in the same calm, smouldering tone as what she said before, banked embers rather than true placidity. She looks sharply at Rikku, to ensure she can react--but rocks fall, and--

Lulu doesn't try to dodge this time. They're too fast for that, shimmering with mystic energy that may well follow. So instead, she brings her hand up in an arc, and flame dances from her fingertips, erupting outward to parry the spell with an explosion of arcane force, the shattered remains of the rock still showering over her--but not moving her.

This time.

"I can understand that," she answers him then, red eyes focused. "I can even respect it. However..."

"I don't have any compunctions about defending Yuna or Besaid, either. From anyone."

She nods sharply to Belize's question, and breathes in, letting years of winters far to the north, all around her here, flow through her fingers, up her arms. "Black magic is not a dispassionate, removed art, apart from the world."

Her hands rise, coming together above her head--and as the flaming arrow hits, Lulu's palms shift forward--and frost gathers along the palms of her hand.

Frost gathers in the air before Borgan's barrier, too--and her magic erupts from both directions, a clash of icy destruction crashing towards a central point, jagged and sharp.

Then she steps up again, this time in front of Yuna. "A tourist's eyes can only see so far."

GS: Seraph Liath has spent 1 Combo on Poison, including 3 on Gatling!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Seraph Clarine with Kaleidos Ray!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Ashley Winchester with Kaleidos Ray!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Ena with Kaleidos Ray!
GS: Seraph Liath takes 25 damage from Poison!
GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.
GS: Lulu has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling!
GS: Lulu has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Blizzara!
GS: Surge expired!
GS: Lulu has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Clarine guards a hit from Seraph Liath's Kaleidos Ray for 102 hit points!
GS: Seraph Clarine suffers an additional 19 from Poison's Combo effect!
GS: Poison! applied to Seraph Clarine!
GS: Violet Salazar takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Azure Edge for 134 hit points!
GS: Riposte! applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Yue Rohay heals Zhang Xiumei! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan takes a solid hit from Lulu's Blizzara for 136 hit points!
GS: Ashley Winchester takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Kaleidos Ray for 152 hit points!
GS: Ashley Winchester suffers an additional 26 from Poison's Combo effect!
GS: Poison! applied to Ashley Winchester!
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

    --the positive force from the Exalted Divide... revolves around Xiumei and knits her wounds clean??

GS: ... ... HP and MP restored!
GS: Ena takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Kaleidos Ray for 138 hit points!
GS: Ena suffers an additional 26 from Poison's Combo effect!
GS: Poison! applied to Ena!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

Violet desperately ducks and rolls, trying to escape the cutting beams of light, to no avail. One strikes her, drawing blood and leaving her gasping. It shouldn't be fatal, but it sure does hurt. Still prone and reeling, she aims Jeremiah at her foe, trying NOT to hit the other people attacking. A young man with a bayonet. A swordswoman. A sorceress, among others. She swings her ARM right, left, further left, right again. This will be a disaster iffen she hits her friends. For those ARE her friends if the old saying is true: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. She doesn't bother praying that her aim is true, for the gods don't listen. She simply fires.

GS: Violet Salazar has spent 3 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, including 2 on Gatling!
GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Seraph Liath with Finishing Touch!
GS: Violet Salazar has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action.
GS: Isolde takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Lightning Tiger Blade for 137 hit points!
GS: Seraph Liath completely evades a hit from Violet Salazar's Finishing Touch!
<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    The explosion from Ethius doesn't back Bera off as she completes her strike on Amaterasu's polearm. And as the icy blade connects, she sweeps back away a few steps lightly kicking up the barest of dustclouds as she resheathes her blade and holds it at her left hip slightly crouched ready to draw again. Blue eyes remain cool, but there's anger hidden in the depths and a slight twitch of her lips downwards in distaste at the fact the weapon remains whole, if weakened.

    Even watching for the attack through, the blond samurai reacts not in time. She still jumps back, but even with the flowing roomy hakama to try and conceal her footing it's no good. There is a meaty sound several times as clean hits strike Bera's legs, sending her into a backwards tumble that she gracefully recovers from facing Amaterasu with only a little faltering as she gets steady footing.

    Bera grimaces, shaking her head slightly before refocusing on her opponent, her eyes drawn not to the weapon or her face but that cracked armor. There's no hiding where her next strike is going to be, the samurai to straight forward and aggressive for that. But she doesn't strike right away, she secures her footing. Her eyes close. Her right hand wraps around the hilt of her katana not to tightly, but not loosely as she draws it a half inch while her left hand holds the sheath next to her left hip.

    It's not fire, ice, water, or lightning that comes out of the sheath but a welling pinkish-white light that envelopes Bera for a moment till the loud click of her crossguard against sheath as the blade is pushed in sounds. Then blue eyes open again, focusing on Amaterasu. "Midare Setsugekka." she says, not shouting it but it's audible none the less as she launches herself forward into a single fast drawing slice with not a blade of metal, or the four common elements, but one of pinkish-white light that cuts across, then weaves back at a slight angle the way it came before being resheathed with Bera still in front of Amaterasu, planted firmly in the aftermath of her strike and ready to attempt to guard the return blow.

GS: Bera has spent 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Bera has attacked Bera with Trust in the Elements!
GS: Bera has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Bera has launched an attack Link!
GS: Bera takes a solid hit from Bera's Trust in the Elements for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Shield! applied to Bera!
GS: Bera has attacked Amaterasu with Midare Setsugekka!
GS: Bera has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Bera has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

"I have." Clarine confirms with a nod. "I searched long and hard for it. You, Ragnell, and all of my friends...those here today, and others presently elsewhere... They helped me reach it."

She bows her head politely, then, as Liath speaks of her gratitude.

"And...I am, as well, that you chose to accept it, despite everything." She replies.

Friends they might be, but they still had things they must be - opposing purposes that neither could abandon.

Liath calls upon the power of her light sorcery, and Clarine readies herself. Her mirrors shifts positions, moving to reflect the incoming light rays back at Liath's own sorcerous mirrors before they approach Clarine. It's a tactic she's familiar with - she uses it herself, after all.

This is her first time perhaps, however, having to defend herself against it. Her mirrors move quickly, attempting to deflect each one as it comes...but, eventually, Liath's own skill and power begin to win out.

Several of them begin to sneak past her guard, impacting Clarine solidly, and each one that strikes her opens her up for another, and another.

Eventually, the volley subsides, and Clarine's looking exhausted...however, she isn't done yet.

"I am...still standing." She says, perhaps to convince herself more than to assure Liath. She floats up a bit in the air and the mirrors begin to float about her and she begins to recite another incantation.

"Root of all creation, grant us the breath of life! Revitalize!"

At these words, a circle of brilliant blue and white light begins to spread out from underneath her feet, encompassing her and all of her allies. Warm, pleasant, rejuvenating light pours forth from the circle, mending wounds and warding off ailments.

"Everyone...please stand strong. I am here for you." She murmurs.

GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ashley Winchester with Revitalize!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ena with Revitalize!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Violet Salazar with Revitalize!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Clarine with Revitalize!
GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Clarine takes 17 damage from Poison!
GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Clarine heals Seraph Clarine! She gains 250 temporary hit points!
GS:  Restore reduces negative status durations by 3 rounds each!
GS: Seraph Clarine heals Violet Salazar! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    Leo pulls his blade out of the turf, and shakes his head. "I said, I am uninterested in being the subject of your elaborate 'slash'!" His face twists in a grimace as Lydia goes flying, but he's pretty sure she's not as badly-wounded as it looks. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees light gleaming on Rastaban's edge, and muscle memory takes over. Leo swings with all of his might, chi pouring off his body and surging down the edge of his blade. A wave of energy rushes headlong at Talise's attack, comparatively poorly-formed and hasty--Leo never saw her perform that kind of technique, and it caught him off-guard. The two waves of energy meet headlong, slamming into each other and erupting in a surge of light and power. It's impressive to look at!

    It also serves to keep Leo occupied while Lydia rushes in. The Shaman's blade strikes home, hitting with enough force to knock the White Knight back a full half-step. When Lydia pulls her blade back, a plume of smoke curls from the hole she just cut in his armor. "The Goddess must have her reasons," Leo says. "She must! And I have faith that once this war is over--" Ashton rushes in, and Leo twists to intercept him. The White Knight's blade meets with Ashton's smaller twin swords, deflecting his blows with a series of deft parries. "She will heal this broken land, and all in it!"

    A wave of magma wases over Leo as Ivan unleashes his fearsome sorcery. The White Knight stares at him a moment, as if taken aback by the sudden onslaught--but he's quick to go on the defensive. He springs to the side, leaping out of the patch of earth Ivan set ablaze. He beats at the flames with his free hand, only for his fingers to lock up as that arm reminds him that it's been wounded. Snarling, Leo digs his heels into the earth beneath him, and wills it to come to his aid. Stony, obsidian-like armor surges up his body, covering his beaten, bloody form. He grits his teeth, and drives his blade towards Talise in a single, powerful slash before spinning on a heel and rushing Ashton in what looks like it might be a shoulder-tackle. At the last second, though, Leo stabs for the swordsman's gut, and energy boils off him, taking on the telltale shape of the lion's head as it rushes Ashton. Leo turns again, and sweeps his weapon through an intricate form, each slash sending a surge of pressurized, chi-empowered air at Lydia and Ivan. Is he trying to keep them away?

GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Talise Gianfair with Rising Falcon!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Ashton Anchors with Tempest Howl!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Lydia Seren with Buzz Blade!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 2 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Ivan with Buzz Blade!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
GS: Talise Gianfair guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Rising Falcon for 99 hit points!
GS: White Knight Leo's Stoic stance ends. He enters the Avenger stance!
GS: Seraph Clarine heals Ena! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS:  Restore reduces negative status durations by 3 rounds each!
GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Buzz Blade for 180 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! applied to Lydia Seren!
GS: Seraph Clarine heals Ashley Winchester! He gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS:  Restore reduces negative status durations by 3 rounds each!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

Healing energy washes over Violet -- apparently out of nowhere, for she cannot see Seraphs or hear Clarine's words of encouragement. She only knows the healing came from *somewhere.* "Thank you!" she calls, hoping the caster can hear and understand...

GS: COUNTER! Ashton Anchors counterattacks White Knight Leowith Counter Attack!
GS: Ashton Anchors takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Tempest Howl for 184 hit points!
GS: Reaper! applied to Ashton Anchors!
GS: Ashton Anchors takes an additional 20 damage from Reaper!
GS: Ivan takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Buzz Blade for 167 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! applied to Ivan!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Focus does not sharpen through the mist, so much that the mist softens and more detail can be made of it - the sight of a burst of heat being cleaved into two. Implausible. Intimidating. A cut above anything this robed savage has ever seen - enough to make one grovel for one's believed omnipotent guardians.
     'A magical specialist, then,' Amaterasu comments as if learning and not expecting it by Ethius' measure. The shapes and colors of one Gwen and the local swordswoman reveal themselves, though the sorcerer remains off-center as Amaterasu verbally dresses down Bera's tactics as Gwen cuts with a thrown knife to some effect. That crack in the armor, the damage done to the sparking polearm...
     'Is that all you can do?' Amaterasu asks, and demonstrates.
     Ethis sweeps an arm inward with a harsh, slurred set of syllables just as the soldier comes in. Each and every impact is met with a loud, deafening, electrical burst on each contact - painless, but noisy.
     There are many contacts. Each one dampens - but doesn't completely mititgate - the flurry. What could have shattered bone and crushed organs... downgrades into a 'mere' savage beating with little meaningful defense on the technical side. The odd man doesn't move fast enough to avoid blows. Amaterasu's physical strength is magnitudes above his, and the one time he's in position to try and deflect with the staff, he gets shoved down.
     The robed man skids across the sand, tumbling down to a kneel. Their breath can be heard through whatever obscuring means they're wearing. That was counting coup. Even with that defense, it might not have stopped an actual blade.
     "This is... what you would call war, then," comes that man's voice. Gwen may recognize it. The man takes his left hand off his staff to rest it against his forehead, pushing the hoot down a bit more as if to obscure himself for as long as he's going to, as Bera just toughs it out and bowls right back in there with determination.
     He takes a bit longer to rise, holding the staff back up for support as the dust clouds rising from the sand veer away from the fog of darkness and more the natural beige-to-brown hues of the cloud.
     "You have made sport of the people of this world for long enough." Big words, without much to stand against. Amaterasu could tell from the clashes that the man is not wearing armor anywhere near to spec. There should be nothing dividing him from any of the other zealots lining up to protect their meager way of life in a land of ceaseless death and tragedy.
     His right hand's fingers clench and relax to some arcane sequence as he mouths out the syllables in rapid succession, without missing a beat - even going over common tongue twisters as part of a shortcut.
     "Grave Dust." The spell completes to a small light emanating from the caster, as fine particulate matter attempts to generate from a space beyond the crack of Amaterasu's armor - as if to try to generate from within.
     It is, if aim is true, a sickening, debilitating feeling - something even cruel. Beyond just mere shows of martial might where this man simply does not measure.
     The man raises the staff and pounds the butt of it against the sand. Somehow, there is still an impact. Dust stirs around him like it were natural, exchanging the fog of Amaterasu's darkness for the loosened, choking, obscuring natural dust and grime of the world.
     "Veruni," he definitively identifies who or what she is as the hood slides off, revealing the familiar white hair and unyielding gaze of that dark-skinned Symbologist - Ethius, who was shown able to withstand even a blast from Kaguya's frightening weapon she took to Luca, as he keeps his gaze level and his stature as though attempting to feign the continued weakness of that beating.
     "You do not belong here."

GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated a Force Action!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Amaterasu with Grave Dust!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Entangle expired!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Black Wizard Borgan has posed.

"Gravity magic is an aspect of earth," Borgan informs Rikku, "and to do anything but crush, the most complex expression of earth magic that I know. And I am a master wizard, whose first Blessing was that of Earth."

Even here and now, Borgan can't help but drop a pedantic explanation. No wonder he runs an academic city-state.

Borgan does indeed manage to grab the bag, though he doesn't immediately crack it open and take a look. That's probably a mistake, because at the angle he's looking at it from (above), he can't actually see the Core glowing at the bottom. At first, anyway. Pretty soon the glow gets brighter, and he starts to feel the heat on his side where the bag is...

He flings the bag away from him, but it doesn't get very far before it explodes in a blast of flame and force, showering him with the detritus from the *other* objects in the bag. A water gem bounces off his forehead, which only makes things worse; it goes off when Belize shoots him with a flaming arrow, and between the combination of fire, water, and Lulu's incoming ice, the whole thing is more than a little unpleasant.

Borgan smacks his arms against his side to knock off the remains of the ice from where it froze, and puts out a little smouldering wisp on his hat. It feels a little unfair to him to have to do both.

Lulu speaks to him. "I didn't expect you to," is his response, and he tries to put her words out of his head. He's got something else to focus on, a spell, and it would be best if he could concentrate rather than worrying about what people are saying to him. But, unfortunately, there are Yuna's words.

What Yuna says cannot be ignored.

Borgan's face slowly starts to darken - not with embarrassment, or at least not mostly embarrassment, but growing fury. "You - Do you even know what it means to have the position I do? The honour - the obligations - the *history*? You know nothing of me, *Summoner*, and do not dare to speak to me as if you do! I am the Black Wizard on merit! You are merely an heir! I would do anything to keep Neo-Vane in its rightful place - center of all knowledge on Lunar, where all can be studied and learned!"

As Borgan's anger builds, so does Borgan's power. It starts out as a tension around him that the other black mages in the area can most easily sense, but it becomes a palpable aura, shimmering black and violet on the edge of visibility, as the pressure continues to grow. Eventually it grows enough that Borgan is more holding it back than anything else.

And then he sweeps his staff through a wide arc. Because Borgan really does not want to damage the town even in his anger, nothing explodes. (Thankfully.) Nor does a great void form, as he demonstrated in Luca. Instead, what happens is more difficult to describe.

His opponents - and people nearby them - feel shifting pressures and almost random buffets of force. One instant they may be squashed downward, the next shoved roughly to one side, only to be pressed inward in a crushing grip. It doesn't last long - thankfully - but for the time that does, the barrage of strange gravitational and tidal forces churns around them in a pattern that seems wild and random but appears, based on Borgan's sorcery, to be fully under his control.

GS: Black Wizard Borgan has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Rikku with Mystic Distortion!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Belize with Mystic Distortion!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Lulu with Mystic Distortion!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Yuna with Mystic Distortion!
GS: Mute and Shield expired!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ena has posed.

    Ena does not seem to have words to counter Liath's. Words spoken with stronger conviction than the apprentice summoner can seemingly manage. Instead, she simply pulls her staff up in front of her and closes her eyes, trying to defend herself against a blow that never quite comes. Instead, someone else intercepts Liath, and Ena opens her eyes a few moments later, seemingly not dead. She glances to Ashley, shaking slightly."Y-you saved me." She manages.

    She doesn't have much time to speak after that, as the cage of beams dance through, and Ena is caught flat footed, the light blasting into her once again, and dropping her back to her knees with a another cry of pain. She glares at Liath, with something... angrier behind her grey eyes. "There's no point in talking, then." She says, and she starts mustering magical energy again, before she even stands up. Her staff doesn't point at Liath, this time.

    Clarine's light washes over Ena, and she diverts her attention from the spell for but a moment. She looks down at the magic circle suprised, and looks to the Seraph she isn't currently fighting. "Thank you!" She responds, as if politeness is more important than the battle at hand, before returning to the spell.

    "Shadows keep and protect me!" Darkness rises where light once stood, and surrounds Ena. She flickers, and becomes rather harder to see, shadowy afterimages blinking in and out of existence. With the spell cast, she stands, and points her staff again at Liath, in a silent challenge.

GS: That attack doesn't exist. []
GS: Lulu takes a solid hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Mystic Distortion for 194 hit points!
GS:  Ruin purges all positive status!
GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Lulu!
GS: Rikku completely evades a hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Mystic Distortion!
GS:  Ruin purges all positive status!
GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Rikku!
GS: Ena has attacked Ena with Darkness Shroud!
GS: Ena has completed her action.
GS: Ena takes a solid hit from Ena's Darkness Shroud for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick and Surge! applied to Ena!
GS: Lulu used Defend! She takes Black Wizard Borgan's attack on Yuna on herself!
GS: Lulu guards a hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Mystic Distortion for 118 hit points!
GS:  Ruin purges all positive status!
GS: Lulu enters Critical health and gains 25 FP!
GS: Lulu enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Slow expired!
GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Lulu!
GS: Amaterasu guards a hit from Bera's Midare Setsugekka for 94 hit points!
GS: Amaterasu takes a solid hit from Ethius Hesiod's Grave Dust for 155 hit points!
GS: Amaterasu has been weakened by Disease! Amaterasu can't gain THP until the Disease is cured!
GS: Cripple and Disease! applied to Amaterasu!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

"No, but--but it doesn't matter! Because... because if they just asked me, I would let them down!" Xiumei snaps, angrily, and looks up at Yue. She sees her reappaear, and her green eyes widen as she sees the shackles cut in half. The tinge of heated red, fading slowly, where she severed them.

She steps backward, and then swallows, shaking her head. "I'm... I'm not--it's not like that--" Her denial rings hollow, because it is like that. She feels it in her very core.

She was always scared to have an opinion, much less share one. She always wanted to smile, and tell others she was fine, and support them, rather than face the things that went through her mind. She never thought she had any right to be upset, or angry, or want to hide and cry.

The question she kept asking herself, and refusing to answer, sounds pathetic in her mind:

'Why do I have to keep doing this?'

The broken iron pipe seems glorious, even as light surrounds her. Her eyes widen at the reminder of the Minder -- and then she raises the Pulse Saber. The blade of energy slams down, dwarfing the smaller, thinner tapered cylinder of violet light.

The Pulse Blade holds for a brief moment, lightning dancing between the swords -- before it's broken through.

And white, brilliant light washes over her. The cut on her cheek mends, and Xiumei laughs, but there's not any mirth in it. "Don't... don't you see? If I won, then..." She looks down. "...then I won against someone who wouldn't hurt me. Someone who pities me. I..."

<Xiumei. Stop.> Varius speaks in her mind, his entreaties heard by her alone.

"...I can't keep my promises, if I'm just me. I can't teach Minder about games," she says. "I can't watch Marivel's friend for her. I can't keep Nora safe from something from the past."

<I said stop talking like that! You're pissing me off, kid!>

"...Everyone in ARMS, everyone else--" Xiumei looks down. "They'd be better off--"

<SHUT UP ALREADY!>

"--if it wasn't me they had to rely on." She drops her Pulse Saber. It winks away, vanishing into little cubes of light that waft away -- and then her armor does, too. Her ponytail falls free, her head looking down at the ground, as her glasses and rumpled Filgaian clothing appear.

"It's sad, isn't it, Miss Yue?"

DC: Zhang Xiumei switches forms to A Dedicated Clerk!
GS: Entangle expired!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "... The man with the golem arm, huh. I'll keep that in mind."

    Her left hand flicks the knife into its hidden sheath, leaving it free. She grins as Amaterasu casts her judgement, hopping back another step. "Y'think the 'girl with the ARMd get that far in life without a little bit of trickery? I'm a super courier, not a super soldier."

    'The lot of you. Is that all that you can do?'

    Valkyrja shines with ozone light, sweeping the lot of them with one single, expert swing. "Nh!" Gwen's back hits the sand with a meaty thud, the world above her momentairely sent spinning like a sparking pinwheel. Her eyes close the chaos out briefly. Her body rolls over, and painfully, she attempts to stand.

    Something in her ankle disagrees with that move, and gravity pulls her swiftly back to the ground on her side, sand clinging to her cheek and hair.

    "Well, that was painful." Gwen coughs a laugh, curling her right fist as she turns over onto her stomach. "Guess that means I gotta at least try t'be a threat." She says that, but the way her ARM sings and shines through the dark fabric of her sleeve show the decisions was made much, much earlier. Bera makes her stalwart stand, and the other- yes.

     She knows that tone, and the way it makes her feel cautious about the lengths he may go. What's new is that way he makes his own stance clear, making a stand that was more direct than the more subtle tactics she's seen him employ before. "... Ethius."

     Time for her to do the same. Gwen thins her lips into a quick grimace as she makes a second, far more successful attempt to stand up fully. The charge flows into her veins in a willful wave, far from the power she felt in earlier fights, but something she can, at least, control.

    "Now we'll show you what it means to resist!"

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Bounding Flight!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Bounding Flight for 0 hit points!
GS:  Restore reduces negative status durations by 3 rounds each!
GS: Hyper and Quick! applied to Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

'Sometimes you gotta question your gods!'

Talise sets her jaw and lifts her shoulders, then lowers them with a short, heavy breath. "Lydia, you're my kind of person after all," she calls out with a bit of forced humour.

But there's no joke there. She clicks her tongue with quiet satisfaction as she realizes that she surprised Leo - but the blast didn't make it through before he figured out how to stop it. At least she pulled out something he didn't expect. But the moment of emotion passes to something more grim.

"You're the White Knight! The hero of the White Dragon!" she shouts across the gap between herself and Leo. "Look, I'll go out on a date with you any time, but you've got to see that something is wrong with Althena! Instead of just obeying and trusting that she hasn't lost her mind, why don't you help us figure out--"

She doesn't have time to shout the rest of it before the White Knight comes powering back at her. Talise squares herself to that heavy slash and snaps her blade out to try and lock with Leo's. Steel and steel rake together, but it's fleeting, and she can't get all of it, the sheer force of the White Knight's attack sufficient to slip through her guard and dent the armour just below her ribs on the left side. Steel bites into the padding beneath, sharp enough that she can feel it digging into her flank. With a wince, she withdraws for a few seconds, giving Leo the critical moments he needs to unleash the power of the Lion's Howl on Ashton Anchors.

Talise has to take a moment. Ducking briefly away, she spares a few seconds to adjust a strap hidden somewhere beneath her armour. As the latch slips one notch looser, pressure releases, and the biting sensation in her side eases - a little. At least it doesn't feel like it's actively ripping her open anymore.

With a grunt, she pivots back to the fight, watching the way Leo moves - trying to keep Ivan and Lydia away. With a low rumble, she begins to run again, circling to one side and trying to give herself a clear angle of attack - but she doesn't charge either. It's an unusual play for her. "You know what's really sad? Althena's doing more to break this land right now than even Sin is," she chides. "I've seen the bodies. The refugees. How many people are gonna have to die or lose their homes before Spira's 'healed' in your mind, Leo? You feel good about that?"

Each word seems to vibrate through her. Green light flickers along the blade of Rastaban, as if her emotions are converting themselves into energy. The light swells into arcs of lightning, and she brings the blade across her body, eyes sparking.

"HOW MANY BODIES WILL IT TAKE?! LEO!!" Talise roars as she swings fiercely through the air and casts the energy forth. It explodes out of her sword, surging forward and resolving into the massive, roaring head of a huge greenish-blue dragon of energy and light - and its gaping maw threatens to swallow Althena's White Knight whole.

GS: Talise Gianfair has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling!
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked White Knight Leo with Dragon Courage!
GS: Talise Gianfair has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
GS: Belize guards a hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Mystic Distortion for 114 hit points!
GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Belize!
GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo guards a hit from Ashton Anchors's Counter Attack for 130 hit points!
GS: White Knight Leo guards a hit from Talise Gianfair's Dragon Courage for 85 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Isolde has posed.

  
To Isolde, Liath is --

Imagine that you walk around and you are surrounded by bolts of cloth, some looser than others, all holding different shapes, but all of them fundamentally similar. Imagine then that you encounter one day a sheet of fine cloth pinned around a concrete bollard. The feeling is analogous to what Isolde is experiencing.

And yet, she thinks as Liath poses that question. Yet I don't feel any doubt, even if I have not yet prevailed here. "Hard to say," she says--

SHWOOM! It moves with blurring fastness, the feeling of machinery smashing into itself. Isolde's arm is thrown back, the sword jerking in her grip as Liath departs the immediate area, leaving a shock of lightning running down and along Isolde's arms, her shoulders, almost it seems to her very core. She staggers, weapon upraised, and sinks to one knee in the surf. She wobbles as the sea (heedless of their actions here today) comes in -- sways when it rolls out --

A moment later, Isolde laughs. Then! A shot rings out -

It's almost a relief, Isolde thinks, struggling silently and inwardly for a moment. At least it didn't hit ME. Her body wrenches itself together; she grasps her blade with both hands.

She rises up. The blade stays down. She stands there in the surf as it washes up and it washes out. Distantly, she can hear Clarine. There is a tension in the air, that she can identify with that wizard with the deep voice.

"Duty," Isolde says, with a certain sort of spiritual clarity. It is the sort of thing that can be heard from a distance. "It's a tricky thing. Is the duty to a person? To an ideal? Or is it to a feeling? For when I heard the fear in the voices in those people - they were no kin to me, and they believe in a religion I can barely understand..."

The surf washes past her. "Perhaps the goddess bids them be suppressed, for Her sake," Isolde muses. "Perhaps. And yet..." The surf washes back out. She raises up her blade, as if unsure.

She breathes in. The tide washes behind her... and it piles up in a peculiar way, pressing against a hint of something rainbow-tinged. (Though the alert eye would see that the prismatic effect that comes from this momentary oddity is irregular, crazy-quilt, not the steady and beautiful solfeggio of light. And either way it doesn't matter because a moment later Isolde)

LEAPS!

There were at least twelve yards between Isolde and Liath and nonetheless she closed them with adroit ease, outracing the tide itself. She leads, as before, with a plunging thrust, but she seems ill content to rest there, hacking twice in a ragged X before her, striking once with the pommel, twisting fractionally and bringing her blade up to parry a counterstroke -

In a momentary lock of the blade, Isolde's weapon is suffering, seeming to erode visibly as Liath's cuts into the edge, forming a divot and seeming to leave a faded, half-rusted divot there. Maybe that's it for this sword, or at least a serious problem. But in that lock, in that connecting point, Isolde twirls round.

That's when Liath's sword bites through the tip and first three inches of Isolde's sword. That breaks the lock.

Isolde's next step is to lunge - the blade aimed, somehow, for the shoulder of the armor. And much as she did a moment ago, she throws herself up and forwards as if to gouge a chunk of metal, flesh, or celestial energy off of the Seraph!

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

    A FEW DAYS AGO

    The conversation.

    "... but I know you won't do that," speaks the crystal. "It is charming in a way -- how you believe that you can still change, how you think that people might still have an effect on you."

    A pause.

    "But I know you much better than you, daughter. I know exactly how gutless and spineless you truly are inside. Because who else has lived through decades upon decades of your utter fear of commitment?"

    She cackles for a moment.

    "Consider it a little extra pressure..."

    NOW

    Yue is incredibly silent, feeling as if the rain could come down on her any time. Her bangs have grown incredibly long because that's what fringes do at an incredibly dramatic time like this.

    ... then I won against someone who wouldn't hurt me. Someone who pities me.

    She steps a little closer.

    ...I can't keep my promises...

    She can't hear Varius' voice. But somehow, she can feel a little of that frustration wavering-- and she reaches out when she watches the Model V armour fade away in a wink of cubes around her.

    There is silence for a long moment. They're quite a ways away from the fighting.

    She lets that pipe clatter to the ground where it's positively disintegrated from the great prominence of her Ether. Then she holds the two halves of her shackles up... and with a brief gleam of Ether once more--

    --suffuses them back together.

    Back in the chains.

    Why would anyone do that to themselves?

    "... it is sad," Yue agrees, incredibly vaguely. A pause, as she glances towards Guts-Dozer, then to the battle ongoing. "I am playing the role of villain today, you know."

    "... want to get away from it all for a bit?"

DC: Yue Rohay switches forms to Lifelong Convict Yue!
GS: Isolde has spent 1 Combo on Link, including 1 on Gatling!
GS: Isolde has attacked Seraph Liath with Plunge Towards Peril!
GS: Isolde has launched an attack Link!
GS: Isolde has attacked Seraph Liath with I See The Millions!
GS: Isolde has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Isolde's Plunge Towards Peril for 42 hit points!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Isolde's I See The Millions for 83 hit points!
GS: Break! applied to Seraph Liath!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"That's true! You can't judge gender from appearances and Ivan makes a pretty good Talia!" Lydia agrees with Ivan who asks if she's okay.

"Huh?" She looks down. "Oh fuck." She pulls out a slab of silver slicked rock and tosses it to the side. "Uggh, never gonna get used to this. Yeah! I'm okay!" She winces again upon seeing the wound she inflicted upon Leo. Regardless of what her saying, she's still reticient to fight Leo at all.

He really is very impressive, but there's something in Leo's answer that makes Lydia's eyes widen--in terror, in horror even! Her mouth hangs open in shock at what is ultimately a pretty simple answer.

Leo unleashes a wave of chi. It's pressurized air but it's enough to rip Lydia's arms to shreads, shattering the limb that turned into a blade and sending her crashing into the sand, sliding across it and ultimately sliding to a stop against Rigdobrite.

"I get it." Lydia says. "I understand."

She stands herself up slowly once more. She can't use her arms at this point. They're essentially eradicated for the moment. She doesn't seem angry any more when she fixes Leo with a look once more. She just seems sad. Like she has just understood something and it changed everything and it's depressing.

"On Filgaia, our people...They're not held by physical chains. Not for the most part. The ones in Kislev are just holed up in a ghetto, treated like prisoners, work their asses off day after day and fight and fight and fight cause their only hope to escape is to win a fuckin' fighting tournament."

She shakes her head and gestures with a hand. A purple glow ripples around Rigdobrite, slowly lifting the Guardian up back into the air.

"We form communities, just with ourselves, seperate and hardly equal. Live in tribes. Some of us get thrown away, put up for adoption. Don't even got families that want us most of the time, 'specially if we didn't have beastman parents like I did. Shave the horns and you'll be perfect, cut off the ears, the wings, the tail."

rShe sniffs once, and rubs at her eyes.

"They treat us like the animals we represent. If we've got cat-ears, we better be cute and flirty, gotta chase the light on the ground. If we're a big tough ox guy? We're gonna be a bodyguard or a thug--it's the only path before us, you know? We gotta fit the...the stereotypes, the roles society says is okay for us to be."

She sniffs once more and exhales out a slow sigh.

"And we help 'em. We reinforce it ourselves cause we don't know any better. Even I think thoughts like that sometimes, like oh the big ox guy's probably a tough. How do I know? I'm just lookin' at em. Maybe they're as gentle as a fly. I don't know."

She shakes her head. "Yeah, it's like that isn't it? We're not just chained up by literal chains, but by so much more. I see it now."

She gestures forward with a hand and Rigdobrite flies forward. Lydia's silver eyes close for just a moment and when they open once more, the sorrow is gone: Simple determination remains.

"It's like that with you too isn't it? Here I thought you were the exception. You are the leader of the Althena Guard, a fucking amazing Swordsman, and you even got a sister right up there with ya. But even though it's not 'cause you're a beastie, it's the same isn't it?"

Her fists clench tightly. "Nobody made you a slave, but... you still are one. You made yourself into a slave. You let someone else do the thinkin' for you!"

She gestures towards the battle, towards Besaid. "You don't want to do this! Right now you're just as much a hired gun as Ivan was. Or I.."

She swallows. "Or I am. Just the same. Just a servant. A high rankin' servant but a servant all the same. Guardians I am so fuckin' dumb."

She grits her teeth and then screams wordlessly as she FLINGS Rigdobrite at White Knight Leo.

"We're not animals!" Lydia screams. "We're people too! Think for ourselves! We gotta think for ourselves and stop letting others decide who we're gonna be and what we're gonna do!!"

And then she's just out of energy. It's gone. She isn't in the mood for anything anymore.

She turns and starts walking away.

She was starstruck. She sees it now. The glamour of prestige had blinded her.

GS: Lydia Seren has attacked White Knight Leo with One Billion Trillion Stars!
GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
Rikku learns something of magic today!
 
...
 
...
 
Ow.
 
The combination of Lulu and Belize is a fearsome one though and she's scrambling backwards quickly to be out of the way. All the while her hands are working at a mixture though.
 
However, Borgan gets angry. At Yuna. And Rikku simply whispers, "Don't-"
 
It's the only word she manages before she feels the world around her start to distort with crushing pressure. It's at the same moment that she finishes what she's mixing up. The strange blackened gem with a swiftly disintegrating feather broiling against within a beaker suddenly has the glass shatter.
 
And Borgan feels the pressure expand relieved by a sudden expansion outwards of gravity.
 
In the same moment she dives out of the space she stood a moment before, leaving it behind, a nega burst of gravity energy swirling behind in it's wake from the clash of her mixture against Borgan's spell.
 
She intended to use that against Borgan himself.
 
She's not complaining though as she notes how the glass has been crushed into powder that she can now no longer see.
 
"Definitely would have died." She squeaks to herself in thought.
 
Taking off behind his platform, she tries to keep behind him, while she opens up what looks like the empty casing of one of her gas grenades, filling the inside of it with something that looks like so many marbles.
 
"You think Yunie's family is why she is what she is?" Rikku says, angrily on her own. "You think you're better than her just because you worked hard?"
 
Popping it closed, the girl suddenly cocks her arm back once, twice, thrice. "A guy like you who can only brag about how great he is - wouldn't have what it takes to even start the pilgrimage."
 
Release. Yet another grenade is sent hurtling Borgan's way, certain to release the same gas as earlier.
 

<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

The battlefield heats up - literally - as Leo pulls magma forth around him. "Funny," Ashton quips, "You say she'll heal the broken land but you appear to be the one breaking it." A pause. "Literally, you keep trying to stab us with rocks instead of your sword."
 
This is perhaps ironic as Leo finally rushes at Ashton. He braces himself to meet the shoulder charge - and clenches his fist. The leaves floating in the air from his last strike suddenly twist, as if they were playing cards being flipped. Green leaves become bright pink cherry blossoms - blossoms with razor-sharp edges as Leo rushes through them. Ashton grins with victory when his trap springs - only to take a blade to the stomach. The giant lion's head envelops him in the same moment, overwhelming the Symbological Swordsman with a roar.
 
For a moment, he isn't visible. The echo of the lion energy hangs in the air, burned into the retinas of anyone who looked too hard.
 
But it does eventually clear - and Ashton still stands. Not by a lot, given how he's wobbling, but he is.
 
Quietly, he coughs. "You didn't have to be quite so rude with the rejection, White Knight."
 
Ashton glances down at himself. Oh, that's more blood than he would like there to be.
 
I could use a hand here, you two.
 
Above his shoulders, Creepy and Weepy glow. Energy in red and blue flows from them, cascading down to Ashton's body itself. The two shades spiral around him in a double helix before pulling in with a flash of white.
 
When that brightness clears, the mercenary straightens his back again. The wounds aren't entirely gone, but they're certainly less severe than before. His eyes are - for just a moment - red and blue. Then he blinks and they return to their more normal green again.
 
"...Right. Round two."

GS: Rikku has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Use: Silence Grenade!
GS: Disrupt expired!
GS: Rikku has completed her action.
GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Ashton Anchors with Draconic Might!
GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ashton Anchors takes an additional 25 damage from Reaper!
GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action.
GS: Ashton Anchors heals Ashton Anchors! He gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS:  Restore reduces negative status durations by 3 rounds each!
GS: Mighty! applied to Ashton Anchors!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.

What is he?

That's been a question for weeks now. What is he? All the reassurances in the world can't change what he did. The scars scorched onto solid stone, the nightmares burnt into his mind's eye, the voice that even now pounds in his veins and cries retribution, every single waking moment they remind him of the dire reality. What is he?

"I-- I'm--!"

If Ashley provides an answer, his voice is drowned out in another terrible, bellowing scream. Prismatic energies pierce his heart, lancing straight through to shine a spotlight upon his stained soul. The light judges him, it peers down upon him, it lays bare everything that he is, and everything that he might someday be.

What is he?

What is he?

"I'm--"

Smoke rising from a blasted wasteland. The grotesque boquet of smoldering steel, burning blood, flesh and fat and bone charred to ash. The light falls across a landscape radiant with the afterglow of apocalypse. Silence. Silence. Absolute silence. Nothing that lives remains, all the world has been rendered sterile- not dead, not dying, but bereft of even the barest possibility of life. He is this and more. He is the conflagration of radiance, the heat-death, the Blaze of Destruction--

The prismatic light explodes from between Ashley's shoulders a twisted, tortured thing, not blackened but ashen, aglow with crimson and vermilion and all the colors of flame run rampant. They twist through the lush wilderness, causing all that it touches to blacken and boil. Vines and grasses explode into desperate, cancerous growth in a fatal effort to endure-- before abruptly, it all falls to ash.

Ashley falls to his knees, gasping for breath in the wake of the mote of devastation unintentionally loosed from within. "I- I'm... What am I...?"

He feels... so weak. Why does everything hurt? He just wants to sleep. To rest. But--

Another light falls across him. A gentler, more forgiving light, absent of the judgment that had castigated his soul. He gasps, convulsing with a sharp intake of breath. "I'm... I'm stille Ashley Winchester," he answers-- reminding himself, more than anybody else. "I'm a baker. A member of ARMS. And I'm..."

Ashley steels himself, rebuilds his resolve, forces himself to his feet and levels his weapon at the knightly seraph. "...I'm the man who's going to make the Wonder Chef's Fresh-Squeezed Normin Fruit Parfait...!"

He heard that, did he!?

(Of course, even in the midst of incredible torment, Ashley is still who he is.)

He pulls the trigger. A cylindrical canister erupts through an explosion of gunsmoke and rimfire. A hidden proximity fuse runs its lifetime down and the canister bursts, filling Liath's vision with cloud of flash-freezing, cryogenic gas!

GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Seraph Liath with Canister - Freezing Fog!
GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

A difference in approach, maybe--in the end, the scholarly details of magical practice are not the focal point of this confrontation, though in a better world perhaps they would be. But this is not that. No--Lulu indeed can easily sense the rising tension, sense the reaction he has to Yuna's words, his growing fury.

She knows fury intimately, knows the way it approaches magic, the effects it can have... its pitfalls. Pressure builds, and her eyes take in the aura, the distortions growing.

Is it worth it? Yuna had asked. Is it worth it? Worried. Even now, even in the face of an assault on the village, Yuna's kindness cannot be stopped, and... For a moment, though the black mage would not share it--she wishes to jealously claim that kindness back, to intercept it before Yuna spends any more pieces of her heart on the enemy. But it's not something that she can do. She never could.

But here, now, working in tandem with another black mage, her senses are taut. Borgan sweeps out his staff, and no, there are no explosions--there is no great void. ...But the pressure comes. The disrotion of earth, as he said, tidal forces...

She straightens her shoulders, and focuses. The distortion around her--she will have to adapt to. She knows Besaid's land, knows its aura, and she focuses, reaching out to grab hold of it, to attempt to wrestle some of that energy back. Accordingly--it hits her harder. She's slammed groundwards, before she starts to rise, compressed from all angles, pulled, struck--

But she hangs on, keeping herself in front of Yuna, dragging every aspect she can towards herself instead of the Summoner behind her, stepping over and over again into the path of the distortion until it ends and she breathes heavily, resting on one knee, not quite standing. "You..."

She breathes, and her eyes snap up. "Do you think... that a Summoner is something that runs in families, Black Wizard?" She starts to stand, but cannot move at first, already bruising as pressure lets up. "An heir, you say. ...You come to fight Sin, and you do not understand the Summoners. You don't understand how it is done... What it takes."

"You have history. You have buildings, institutions. We have Sin." A hand settles onto her knee--she pushes herself up. "You study, you think yourself central... and in our libraries, they are moved again--as we have Sin."

She makes her feet; power builds around her, faintly green, faintly violet. "Every ounce of your history is built upon the fact that we--that the Summoners--have held back Sin for a thousand years. And in your arrogance you think to speak of honor as you tamper with that which was never yours!"

Her hands rise, and the rage she feels is palpable--but it is not only ideology. ...No, it isn't that at all.

"You come to our home, and speak of daring. You would name all of the Summoners' lives meaningless. And I WILL NOT HAVE IT!"

Lulu's fingernails glint in the light as she raises one hand, sets the other in front of her.

It isn't just power, that exudes; the sand itself begins to swirl at her feet, heat bursting around her; the water at the naerby sea churns, frost touching the ground.

And all of it erupts. Borgan's barrier comes under assault once more, but this time it is not from two directions, but many--a burst of raging flame, a blast of water; a brace of lightning bolts, a raking blade of ice. The black mage calls upon the elements of Besaid.

And when the storm of magic that ensues abates, Lulu sags, and hits her knee again, holding herself up with difficulty. "...Ginnem," she murmurs, almost inaudible, for an instant unseeing, before louder--with more force--"Rikku! Protect her!"

GS: Lulu has activated a Force Action!
GS: Lulu has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Ashley Winchester's Canister - Freezing Fog for 46 hit points!
GS: Slow! applied to Seraph Liath!
GS: Lulu has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Get Down!
GS: Lulu has launched an attack Link!
GS: Lulu has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with F U R Y!
GS: Lulu has completed her action.
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Rikku's attack becomes clear!
GS: CRITICAL! Black Wizard Borgan guards a hit from Rikku's Mix: Cluster Bomb for 135 hit points!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan guards a hit from Lulu's Get Down for 52 hit points!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan takes a solid hit from Lulu's F U R Y for 228 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
Except while it's in mid-air, the grenade's casing suddenly bursts, releasing dozens upon dozens of smaller marble like shapes over a wide area.
 
They explode asynchronously. One detonating another in a great spreading curtain of fire across Borgan's position.
 
Rikku answers Lulu's command by suddenly hightailing it back to Yuna's side of the battlefield, "On it!" A beat, "I did warn you not to make her mad."
 

<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

Xiumei's aware of Yue stepping closer. Her eyes linger, for a second, on the way that the shackles fuse back together, and the scratchy sound of the pipe rolling on the ground. A shaky breath escapes her lips, before she meets Yue's eyes under that long hair.

"I--"

Varius is silent in her mind. She doesn't know if it's because she shocked him into quiet or if he is furious. She feels guilty, for wondering. She looks back at the Guts-Dozer, then she swallows, thinking of everyone in ARMS.

Of Eleanor, waiting to tend to her wounds.

Does she want to get away from it all? More than anything. She hesitates, before she smiles, even if there isn't any humor in the expression.

"I can't," she answers. "If I do, I'm not sure I'd come back, and I can't do that to them."

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Rikku makes miracles out of her faith, and it is rewarded; not a bit of the backblast of her bomb harms a hair on her head. All of it is sucked into Yuna's NulBlaze, instead, that happy little miniature sun fighting fire with fire. Then it winks out, as though it never was, with only a final flicker of warmth to remember it by.

"All I know of you, Black Wizard, is what you've told me with your words, and shown me with your actions," Yuna replies, softly, resolute in the face of his rising power.

Though she can't help but flinch when it is unleashed, against the oncoming, inexorable arcane disaster. She is brave because she is afraid. But, she is definitely afraid.

They both are.

Especially for the others. The summoner will always, gladly, too eagerly sacrifice herself. But --

"Lulu!" Yuna gasps, as her Guardian abruptly performs her primary function. She casts her gaze widely and wildly, ascertaining Rikku's incredible escape, Belize's survival.

And Lulu's endurance.

It is not in vain.

---

HOME

Lulu is Yuna's home. She's traveled far and wide across this world, first before Besaid, and then after. It was only when Lulu left her to journey without her, that Yuna was homeless, and that was here, on this very island.

LOVE

Yuna loves Lulu, and the fayth do too, through her eyes, her heart. Besaid's fayth, most of all. When she first merged with Yuna, when two became one, she saw everything, all of it: their shared childhood and blooming adulthood, in the same village she herself hailed from.

PROMISE

Yuna promised to protect the fayth.

But promises can be repaid...

---

Yuna steps out from behind Lulu at the very final point of the ritual -- after the dancing, the swirling, the twirling. And after Lulu has drawn terrible amounts of the Black Wizard's power into herself... then released her own.

"I wouldn't summon for you..." she states, sweet-voiced and earnest.

Baffling complex runes, wholly unrelated to the arts of Neo-Vane -- unrelated, for that matter, to the practice of white or black magic in Spira as well -- pulse upon the ground.

"...because I only summon for them."

Besaid's ground. Hallowed ground, to summoner, to fayth, and...

PROMISE!

To aeon. Besaid's aeon, the spirit of the sky.

Valefor.

BGM Start! Wings - Birdy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJTXDCh2YiA

"And this time," Yuna remarks, as the phoenixian marvel explodes out her heart and out of the heavens, "Maybe for me, too."

Spreading her wings wide, then wider, Valefor tosses her magnificent, massive braid (itself quite a bit larger than her summoner), and magic -- primal and raw, yet complex and elegant -- breathes itself into being behind its path.

Or perhaps it's her beak that's breathing magic, breathing power. It builds and builds--

-- then explodes outwards, downwards, in a ray that follows Valefor's turning head, churning up the beach in a massive explosion worthy of any orbital strike.

Yuna smiles again, this time for real, as she looks between Lulu and Rikku. "I do think family matters," she both agrees and disagrees.

She isn't referring to High Summoner Braska.

Glancing back over at Borgan, her smile gentles as she notices that the ray, though it carved itself fiercely through the island, failed to damage a single crab, a single blade of dunegrass. It didn't even shatter the seashells.

The scent of ripe peaches drifts over the beach...

"Please leave," she requests of Borgan, polite to the very, very last.

GS: Yuna has spent 1 Combo on Link, including 3 on Gatling!
GS: Yuna has attacked Yuna with Grand Summon!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has launched an attack Link!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Leo tries to answer Lydia's question of why he's fighting, and Ivan's jaw about hits the floor.

"Wait -- THAT'S your reason?! Althena will fix it all? How do you know? Did she say? What does it even mean to 'heal the land,' are the dead going to be coming back?"

Ivan looks aghast at first when Leo tries to ride out enough of the magma wave to be set alight. Please don't melt, Lord Leo! (...apparently he's still Lord Leo in Ivan's head? Anyway...) But the hero soon jumps clear, only slightly on fire. Ivan releases a sigh, his nerves a jumble. This business of fighting people until they give up seems a lot less messy in the abstract.

Leo sweeps a cascade of pressurized air blades toward Ivan and Lydia. At first, Ivan thinks to outmaneuver them, but Leo's sword is a blur, sending strike after strike. When the first one catches Ivan, the rest come so quickly that he finds himself caught in the whole flurry. He finally does stagger back, reeling from the cuts across his arms and chest, some of them deep. At least red hides blood about as well as black does...!

But even driven back, Ivan isn't out of the fight. He grits his teeth as he sweeps his arms forward, gashes stinging as they pull. A wind picks up full of crackling sparks, bringing a dazzling collection of tiny, star-like bombs to Leo that detonate on arrival.

Lydia gives Leo a speech -- full of her own history and pain -- and of what Leo's actions and choices mean to her juxtaposed against the history of her people. Ivan can't fully understand the weight of it, only how it seems to weigh on her -- but he sees the fight and the enthusiasm drain out of her as she turns to leave.

He sputters a bit, caught off guard.

"Lydia, are you -- are we leaving...? We aren't going to stop him...?"

GS: Ivan has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling!
GS: Ivan has attacked White Knight Leo with Stars of Fury!
GS: Riposte expired!
GS: Ivan has completed his action.
GS: Yuna takes a solid hit from Yuna's Grand Summon for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! applied to Yuna!
GS: Mighty! applied to Yuna!
DC: Yuna switches forms to Valefor!
GS: Yuna has activated a Force Action!
GS: Yuna has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Energy Ray!
GS: Slow expired!
GS: Yuna has completed her action.
GS: Black Wizard Borgan takes a solid hit from Yuna's Energy Ray for 176 hit points!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Slow expired!
GS: White Knight Leo takes a solid hit from Lydia Seren's One Billion Trillion Stars for 169 hit points!
GS: White Knight Leo takes a solid hit from Ivan's Stars of Fury for 172 hit points!
GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Shieldbreak expired!
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    This build of power... Belize tenses as they sense the tension in the air around Borgan as he lashes out at Yuna, both verbally and then, later, magically with the pressure and force of gravity. They snarl and scream as the forces crush and crush and crush, seemingly erratic, made all the more terrifying by the fact that it's clear it is indeed under the Black Wizard's control. Yet for all that his power is fearsome, his words are so irritating. If Belize were Yuna, they would have quite a few words for his arrogance, for his condescension. They stagger to their feet--
    
    And someone else gets angry.
    
    Belize stares, astonished, at Lulu as she tears Borgan a new one, so to speak. It doesn't tolerate even the slightest bit of disrespect against not just Yuna, but against Summoners in general, for the sacrifice they have made not just for Spira but for Lunar in general.
    
    It makes them smile to hear. Yuna's truly fortunate to have a Guardian like Lulu at her side. Lulu herself, so willing to place herself in danger in place of her Summoner, is a pinnacle of a Guardian in turn. Her rage is so incandescent, Belize doesn't have any time to get angry themself. Or perhaps they've matured some? Heh.
    
    Independent of Yuna's decision, they sway into a dance, light and graceful, their bow arcing along with their body. Power of their own builds rapidly around them like frost on a windowpane in fast forward. That power drops onto the earth at their feet, then freezes and crackles outwards, forming the pattern of a snowflake, before surging up in a great, transparent ice crystal. From the heavens, the form of a giant woman descends, entering the ice and gaining the colors of winter--until she opens her eyes, and the ice *shatters* as she tosses off a dainty shawl.
    
    "Cambria," Belize calls softly, looking up at her with bittersweet sadness and determination. "Let us show this fool what it means to be a Summoner of Spira."
    
    The Aeon inclines her head slightly, as if in response to the words of the one who called her, and lifts a long, slender blue arm. The atmosphere drops sharply in temperature--the Aeon's arm descends--and so do does a massive glacier, smashing down towards Borgan as if to crush him underneath as a cold wind blows outward from the lump of primeval ice.

DC: Belize switches forms to Aeon Valefor -Ryuggu-!
DC: Belize switches forms to Aeon Shiva -Cambria-!
GS: Belize has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Heavenly Strike!
GS: Belize has completed their action.
GS: Black Wizard Borgan critically Guards a hit from Belize's Heavenly Strike for 25 hit points!
GS: Mighty! applied to Belize!
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

    "... yeah," Yue answers, perhaps confident for a moment that she doesn't need to answer with any more words. Because she's fairly confident she often exists on the same wavelength Xiumei is experiencing right now.

    So instead she sits down.

    "Well. I have done my part," Yue speaks, reaching over towards the hatch and hopefully not giving poor Clarissa another heart attack as she yoinks the Metool out.

    "So. I will sit here with you. And I will cuddle and scratch this dear Metool and oh my god aren't you the cutest coochycoochygoo" she clears her throat "--until something someone goes and tells me to get out."

<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

IN THE GUTS-DOZER

Clarissa's face as the Metool gets yoinked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKkwqQ0QwQs&t=10s

<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    There is a part of Leo that wants to go to Althena and talk to her--really talk to her--about everything that's transpired here. He looks Talise Gianfair in the eye, tension lining his face. The conflict is visible in his eyes, but only for a moment. And then Talise is doing something else Leo never saw from her, never thought she'd manage. His eyes shoot open, and he steps into a defensive stance, digging in his heels because Ivan's magma flow still has him hemmed in and diverting it will take time he doesn't have. He raises his sword to parry, and vanishes into the dragon's maw. When the light fades, Leo is still standing--but his improvised armor is in terrible shape. Chunks of sorcerous rock fall from his body, winking out of existence before they hit the ground.

    Ashton tends to his own wounds. Leo steps back, but does not make the mistake of thinking he's out of the fight--he knows Ashton Anchors is a dangerous swordsman, and doing so would be foolhardy. What Lydia says, though--

    Leo remembers meeting Lydia. She was always eccentric, but even from the start, he could tell she had a good heart despite her vices--and to his eyes, despite the heathen gods she worshipped. She trusted him enough to take him with her when she tried to talk sense into the people who raised her. Leo never stopped wanting her to be happy. He never stopped wanting her to find a place for herself in a world that seemed stacked against her. He never stopped wanting her to find people who cared about her.

    Somehow, everything Lydia says to him hurts worse than every wound he's taken in this fight. It hurts worse than when the Trial Knight ran him through and left him to bleed out. "Lydia, I--" That's all he gets out. Rigdobrite races for him, followed by the hundreds of star-like specks Ivan conjured up--an artful display, to be honest, though Leo is in no position to appreciate it. The Guardian's manifestation slams into him with a horrible crack, and the sparks detonate in bright, blooming explosions a moment later.

    When the smoke fades, Leo is on his knees, coughing. He looks up, and sees Lydia walking away. Despite terrible, wrenching pain in both body and heart, Leo staggers to his feet, and glances across the battlefield. "Black Wizard!" Leo shouts, his voice raspy. "Is that working complete?!" He needs this temple, and the thing inside, sealed. Does he want it? Even he doesn't know.

<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.

    "It does not matter. Courier or soldier, only a poor artisan blames their tools," she tells Gwen. "There are tactics and then there are tricks, girl."

    It is strange. For someone who she quickly determines is not wearing armor (she does not modulate the force of her blows whatsoever) it would seem that something is 'dampening' her strikes. Is it magic? Is it something else?

    The battlefield is not the proper place for questions. And ultimately, the brutality only ends when Amaterasu is through with it. She withdraws from immediate melee range, moving back to give her the space to readjust her grip on Valkyrja, which is still spitting sparks down its shaft. It can't possibly be comfortable to hold, even with the armor covering Amaterasu's hands and forearms. And yet while the weapon can't become broken by the means the samurai rendered unto it, neither can she fix it now, in the heat of battle.

    So she makes the best of it.

    "Yes. This is war," she replies, to the strange man once he rises to his feet again. "This is war, which breaks those unready to commit to it. So. Will you fight?" she asks Ethius, tilting her head at him like a metallic, inquisitive bird. "Or will you flee?" She advances just one step towards him. Just one step, before he says something unexpected.

    "'Of this world'?" runs the echo. Amaterasu bears the sparking weapon higher, as if in preparation for a charge. "Tell me more--"

    He's not wearing armor. There is no flash of a spell like before. No light or pressure, or heat.

    Just a swirl of dust at those words.
    It takes moments for her, an experienced soldier, to realize what he's done. Her armor is--
    Her armor is...
    One hand lifts to the crack -- widening, now, widening -- and here she takes a step back from him. "You--" she hisses, and there is venom, this time.
    Venom when he names her for what she is.

    She runs at him and leaps into the air, driving down at him in an attempt to silence him, by whatever means necessary. To kill.

    It is perhaps Bera that stops her, however the cards ultimately fall. There is fleetingly a pinkish light. And here, Amaterasu is reminded of another woman with a blade who she had faced recently enough, back in the Battle of Luca.

    "Ah," she murmurs, as Bera passes her. As the blade cuts, fast enough that one might miss it if they blinked. Valkyrja's length sings the song of impact, as Amaterasu parries the strike; the force of it sends her skidding backwards, rending a gouge into the sand. She angles her head, her expression unreadable behind the faceplate, but from her posture alone, it appears she is evaluating Bera in a new light. "So you are a waitress, too."

    ...what?

    "Then, waitress--"
    Light snaps through the air, hissing as the laser-blade of the weapon as she swings the polearm over hand, overhead. Like the samurai before her, Amaterasu cuts once. If Bera is prepared for a returned attack, here it is.

    "--Let me show you what I, too, am capable of!"

    Before it is Gwen upon who her attention turns. One cannot allow a single foe to stand. This is one of the credos to which Amaterasu cleaves.

    "Allow me," she says to Gwen, "to give you a lesson in what it means to resist. Or, perhaps, what resistance earns you. Now--!"

    Once, twice.
    Valkyrja slashes out at blinding speed, its blade merely trails to the eye.

GS: Amaterasu has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Ex Aequo Et Bono!
GS: Amaterasu has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Amaterasu enters a Counter stance!
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Bera with Trial De Novo!
GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

Violet listens to Lydia's speech and nods agreement. Yes, she'd run into the stereotypes: some people expected her to be a thug in spite of her petite frame and advanced age, just because she had Horse traits. She'd been dealing with it her entire life, made slightly easier, perhaps, because her parents were horsefolk, too.

But she was dedicated to Life and its preservation.

And that included the people of Besaid. Even if they had strange customs and followed even more bizarre gods.

And these strangers were a threat.

GS: Amaterasu has attacked Gwen Whitlock with De Lege Lata!
GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Mighty and Shieldbreak expired!
GS: Amaterasu has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.

The light fades, and Talise exhales, some of the intensity of her emotions bleeding off of her - and some of what remains tempered by the look she saw when she locked eyes with Althena's White Knight, for that one moment in the heat of battle. She could see the truth in there that she'd have hoped for from a man like Leo.

He's tense. Maybe even questioning inside. Duty and morality are beginning to dance in dissonance, like two musicians falling slowly out of synch.

Before she can say anything more, Lydia Seren says her piece, effectively bludgeoning the White Knight with powerful emotions of her own. Talise lowers her sword a little, and her eyes grow wide.

The thought of Beastmen having it worse in her world had never occurred to her. On Lunar, she was never treated differently. On Filgaia, it was different for Talise, being only half-Beastman and lacking the pronounced animalistic features beyond slightly pointed teeth and little cheekstripes. Most people perceived her as an Elf of some sort and let her be.

Talise sinks to one knee and lets out a slow rush of breath through her nose, resting the point of her sword on the ground. "Althena's five-inch stiletto heels. Now I feel like I need to check my privilege," she mutters, suddenly incredibly self-conscious.

Leo's moving off. Talise doesn't pursue. She can hear him shouting; looking up again, she presses her lips together.

Has the Black Wizard been setting something in motion? Talise looks towards the battle of casters, anxiously.

GS: Bera critically Guards a hit from Amaterasu's Trial De Novo for 35 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod takes a glancing hit from Amaterasu's Ex Aequo Et Bono for 97 hit points!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has been weakened by Disease! Ethius Hesiod can't gain THP until the Disease is cured!
GS: Disease! applied to Ethius Hesiod!
GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Amaterasu's De Lege Lata for 122 hit points!
GS:  Ruin purges all positive status!
GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

"...yeah. I... I don't know."

Xiumei falls quiet as she speaks. Yue says she will sit with her -- but she doesn't sit. She leans back against the body of the Guts-Dozer, and looks down at her feet. She feels drained and exhausted; empty, now, and not even better for that number feeling.

She looks down at the scratched red armor under foot, not quite at the Metool, and her expression remains distant, even as her glasses slip down her nose.

Model V pulses at her wrist, but when she mentally checks if the Biometal can transform back, she finds the answer to be in the negative.

Another reminder, Xiumei thinks.

<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.

Ashton holds in a ready stance, tense. Waiting. Watching.
 
....And Leo does nothing. At least, he makes no aggressive moves. And in response? The Draconic Cerberus makes none of his own.
 
Lydia's words (and the reaction to them) still echoes in the loud battlefield. It touches a nerve in the.. man? Beast? Ashton doesn't even know what applies to him anymore.
 
But what he does have are a few more quiet words. "Sir Leo. You know the truth of your heart and your actions." A pause. "Let the stories I heard before this shine through."
 
Ashton's stance relaxes as Leo starts to back off. One blade is sheathed - and the now free hand lobs a missile at Leo.
 
A small yellowish pot. One of the sellsword's emergency reserve of curatives.

GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked White Knight Leo with Sweet Syrup!
GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    Bera actually blinks as she's called something strange, speaking normally for the first time all fight "Wha-?!" and then smoothly flowing into a guard as her still sheath blade comes up intercepting the strike at her. Her feet dig a gouge into the sand, and the grimace she wears suggests her legs are not in good shape from the earlier attacks for all she's wearing only silk and half that outfit just hangs from her sash.

    Bera lets out a small growl, as she slides her left foot back and resumes the same draw stance she'd just used. "I am a warrior monk for the faithful!" before she draws out her blade in a sharp upward swing even if there is a short distance between her and Amaterasu still. The blade alone doesn't come out, but what seems more like five blades sweeping upward from the ground to sky in a cone in front of her.

Even as she shouts "Tenka Goken!" lightning, fire, water, and ice rush through the cone fading away as quickly as they came with the accompanying slashes. When it ends, Bera's already resheathed her blade eyes tracking through the lingering elemental magic for her target.

GS: Bera has attacked Amaterasu with Tenka Goken!
GS: Bera has completed her action.
GS: Amaterasu guards a hit from Bera's Tenka Goken for 93 hit points!
GS: Ashton Anchors heals White Knight Leo! He gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia stalls. She doesn't want to leave these people to the guard's talents. It's hard, but she looks back towards Leo, towards Talise... She even sees Violet in this moment and she recognizes that the fellow beastwoman knows she spoke truth. It's a strange feeling to be acknowledged by her people even when she never had the community of her people like Cyre did with his brother. Lydia doesn't have any quippy slogans. She simply has the hurt and pain of being seen as less than others, and seeing the lack of true freedom even in a man she had exalted.

Her eyes set on Leo. He only ever wanted the best for her. Even though she was a heathen. Lydia knows that isn't easy with Leo's situation. She loved him in her own way, the way one loves anybody they look up to so much.

But love carries a sword.

"I can't..." Lydia murmurs. "I can't hurt him anymore..."

She closes her eyes, exhaled, and then manages a smile to Ivan.

"You really are a natural drifter." She tells him. "As for me... I guess we all gotta be our own heroes eventually. Maybe one day I can free him too."

In spite of her own chains.

<Pose Tracker> Black Wizard Borgan has posed.

"I have heard that she is the daughter of the last summoner, yes," Borgan snaps back at Lulu. "What an advantage that must be! To be trained - to be known! My father was a *farmer*! I taught myself to figure mathematics and read more than the postings at the inn! And here I stand, where it takes all of you to equal me!"

Explosions rain down around Borgan as Rikku's absolutely-not-a-silence-grenade splits open, showering him with bomblets. The remains of his shield are long since faded, and he has no way to force them away - but he tries, pushing against them with the same force he's using. It doesn't help *much*, but it helps a little.

"Yes, you have Sin. Sin, Sin, Sin, it always comes back to Sin in Spira. I have seen it - faced it! But you are not the only people with troubles. We had the Vile Tribe; we had the Magic Emperor; we had other things beyond that. And yet we have thrived. So perhaps I do not know what it takes... to keep losing."

Borgan cannot deflect Lulu's barrage of magic, but he sure tries. Planting his feet on his platform, he summons up the barrier again - but it gets eroded through as fast as he can put it up. Lightning tears gaps in it; fire burns holes; sharp shards of ice go through the holes and strike him, threatening to take him right off the platform again.

And then Borgan gets what he wants: Summoning.

Both ice and bird (bird is now an element) appear. Borgan only has moments to take them in before the beam tears through the ground near him, showering him with debris and sand, and ice falls on where he is. More accurately, it falls where he was - because with a furious roar, space does something unpleasant to look at around Borgan; it's like part of it became small, and part of it became big, and the two sections were somehow overlapping, passing through each other.

Borgan's teleportation is crude. But it is effective, because when the dust clears, he's not there anymore.

In the face of Summoning, and without Borgan, Neo-Vane's contingent of mages is also on the retreat. They, however, have to walk (well, run... fast), so they're not making a getaway nearly as swiftly. They do not appear to be doing anything to the Temple - they never got close enough to set up a full barrier, and the roadblock-like wall they *did* put up long since has faded.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    It is that moment where there is that dramatic shift in the power dynamic between Amaterasu and at least one of her opponents, but the closing speed she has as she takes to the air and descends upon him is quick to reassert one hard truth: for his knowledge of who (or what) she is and the mind to speak for 'the world' and not just 'Spira,' she is still faster. Stronger. Far better equipped.
     Ethius hurls himself back after taking a few steps backwards to account for Amaterasu's descending angle, but the spray of sand underneath the strike scarce hides what else it sheds.
     A splash of blood.
     Valkyrja tastes blood. Crimson, soon to be lost to the turning sands of everyone's footfalls and explosive impacts, spills from Ethius' side, staining his robe as the shock of pain stabs past his once remarkable composure. The staff is dropped, his side is clutched. Bera does, in fact, save Ethius' life by virtue of interrupting and holding Amaterasu's attention.
     The odd man's vision blurs, barely suppressed grunts as he staggers and bears witness to the struggles of the gathered.
     How the inquisitive Al Bhed girl uses all the means at her disposal in defense of her homeland, no matter what most of said homeland thinks of her.
     How a seasoned Guardian takes pride in her land's history and resilience before a ceaseless trial, a boiling fury empowering her to continue her vocation in defense against those who would take it from her.
     How a kindly Summoner chooses to stay true to herself against all attempts to bend or break her will, against things unknowable.
     How another Summoner who, unknown to Ethius, has sacrificed so much for what they have attained that they will continue to carry themselves and their cause forward in the face of change forced upon by outside means.
     How even the noble warrior with the elementally charged sword slashes fighting alongside him by chance, the waitress--
     Somehow, although Ethius is not being called that, his eyes narrow. As though the very idea of Amaterasu's challenges and labels offended him enough that he can start to win out against the blood loss.
     "You will show her nothing," an uncommon edge comes through Ethius' voice. A man who has always, unless rendered incapable of doing so, spoke with a carefully measured tone of voice that sounds like he were reading off a script.
     His bloodied hand is outstretched, fingers twisting and contorting into painful stretches as he chants the accompanying syllables for the next Symbology spell.
     "Recurrent Current!" Ethius calls, as he directs an electrical surge towards Amaterasu - intending to shock her again, and again, and again, before speaking anew.
     "Their names are their own," which seems like a petty thing to be hung up on, but he takes a defiant, upright step forward, "their lives are their own. They are not your toys for your game of war." He reclaims that usual speaking style, barely, taking in the sight of all the others who have stood and lectured against what the Guard are doing as a whole.
     He seems to have been more insistent, in retrospect, about dealing with their allies in comparison.

GS: Ethius Hesiod has spent 1 Combo on Poison, including 1 on Gatling!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Amaterasu with Recurrent Current!
GS: Disrupt expired!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Leo stops fighting back, looking... maybe kind of hurt by what transpired, if Ivan dares to interpret a legendary figure's expressions in such a way. It's hard to deny, though, that he's pretty hurt physically, which Ivan marvels at with faint horror. They actually did stop him? Maybe Lydia's dissillusioned dismissal was the most powerful blow of all...

Ivan isn't sure it's his place to give any powerful parting words, so he simply says, "...Just think about it all, all right?" before turning to go.

On the way out, Ivan tries to catch Belize's eye, pointing at them with sort of a fingergun type gesture as he walks backwards facing them for a few paces. "H-hey you! Condescending Yevonite! You're doing great. Keep it up."

Then he hurries after Lydia.

Maybe one day I can free him too.

Ivan looks troubled at first, to see her pain over this, but then manages a cautious smile. "Yeah, I think you will. It will probably just take longer, because he's famous."

Fame is like a kind of momentum. It takes longer to stop doing what you're doing when you've got too much of it.

GS: COUNTER! Amaterasu counterattacks Ethius Hesiodwith Counter Attack!
GS: Amaterasu takes a solid hit from Ethius Hesiod's Recurrent Current for 144 hit points!
GS: Amaterasu suffers an additional 23 from Poison's Combo effect!
GS: Poison! applied to Amaterasu!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    Leo gets his answer in short order. The Beastman looks out at his foes, as grim and resolute as he can manage while still struggling to stay upright.

    Ashton's bottle arcs through the air, strikes him, and breaks open. Healing salve soaks into his wounds, numbing the pain and slowing the bleeding.

    Leo turns and leaves without another word. He wants to thank them. He doesn't have the right to.

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

"You lost too, at Mi'ihen," Yuna says, a little sadly, into the space where Borgan was and is no longer. (That part she isn't sad about. She didn't really want anyone, no matter how nasty, to be on the receiving end of all that power.) "But I wish, so much, that you had won..."

She looks down at her hands.

Valefor lands beside her, which sends up a cloud of sand. It doesn't bother the summoner, whose hands drift up to gently tangle in her feathers, above the eye, and scritch.

Into her dander, Yuna murmurs:

"I don't understand... how it is that a war is being fought... by two peoples who want the same thing."

<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    "Oh, you have *troubles* back in your homeland? I would never have guessed, since you and your people insist on starting troubles here," Belize snaps back at Borgan. "Since you're apparently so much more successful there, why don't you all go back where you came from, then?"
    
    Their words may or way not reach the so-called hero; the appearances of Valefor and Shiva are apparently enough to send Borgan on the other side of a frankly grotesque teleportation. "Tch," they utter, lips curling in contempt. However, the Guard is on the retreat--not just Borgan, but his minions, and many other major members around. Even that hateful boy who has the nerve to call them a condescending Yevonite right before mocking them.
    
    Shiva shifts on her feet next to them, glancing down at her as if asking 'want me to freeze him solid for you?' Belize puffs out a breath, then shakes their head. "Let's not spoil this victory," they say.
    
    Shiva nods, then leaps backwards out of sight and out of existence. It leaves Belize space enough to look over to Yuna, lamenting that she wishes Borgan and everyone had seen victory at Mi'ihen before burying her face into Valefor's feathery mane. Belize sighs again, but this time their shoulders sink. "..."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

There is nothing left to talk about, asserts Ena, and those perceptive gold eyes stare into the angry glint of the summoner-in-training with quiet thought.

"Perhaps there is not," concedes the Prime Lord, the tip of her blade drawing a glassed line in the sand.

"Or nothing that words may rightly express."

Bright eyes turn, then, towards the battlefield. Towards Borgan, intellectual curiosity satisfied, retreating. Towards Leo, his core shaking, leaving without so much of a word. Her brows furrow. She tracks the White Knight in silent thought.

I am...still standing.

Runes dissolve in the air as the Joyeuse's liquid blade snaps to Liath's right; the movement causes the colors to shudder in an effusively rippling display as all that magic fades through the air and senses.

The right corner of her lips quirks upward.

"So you are," she notes, approval in her voice. She feels the revitalizing magic that thrums through the earth, centered around Clarine, and that smile grows.

"You are much stronger than you know."

It is an expression that only finds its end in the expulsion of chaotic flame and ashen -thing- from between Ashley's shoulder blades. Gold eyes widen to behold it -- and instantly narrow into thin, gilded slits as it boils its insidious path of destruction through the landscape. She sees it.

She feels it.

"..."

Shield arm lowers, gloved hand clenching bracingly at its armored right.

I'm... I'm still Ashley Winchester.

"Yes," exhales Liath, her stance steadfast. One arm eases from the other, blade tilting at a slow angle.

"And something else besides."

Her bootheel pivots --

BANG

Her focus is on Ashley -- on the brief manifestation of that aberration within him -- such that she does not seem to actually see Violet on the offensive until it is too late. She hears the sound of a shot firing. Her motion is aborted.

And it is a tribute to both Violet's accuracy and Liath's technique that a bullet that likely would have found whatever amounts for a heart in a Seraph instead finds the broad side of her shield.

The impact SINGS with the discordant scream of metal on metal; the kinetic force is enough to send Liath -driving- backwards in a knelt position, her arm ringing up towards the shoulder as deep furrow of sand and earth kicks violently up in a path leading out ahead of her where she stops. Smoke rises from the impact point upon that shield -- but it remains undented, like a point of obscure and ancient pride, as the blonde-haired woman slowly lifts back onto her feet.

Violet does not score her clean hit. But she -does- distract. Distract long enough for Ashley to find the perfect opportunity to strike. Another trigger pulled. Another shot fired. Liath's gaze snaps towards the right, towards that young man and his brilliant declaration. Her blade snaps true in her grasp.

And despite herself, she is smiling, a full blown, wonderful grin as she -swings- towards that ired canister.

"Is that so? You think you may rise to such lofty heights as the legendary Wonder Chef? Then I would see you do it!"

Somehow, she makes challenges about adorable mascot character-themed desserts and vague mythical culinary figures who may or may not exist seem excessively dramatic.

This, too, is a special skill.

"But I do not believe I will be able to enjoy it, with such self-deception clinging to you."

And it is just as Liath calls this out that her blade meets the canister, cleaving it clean in twain. This time, however, there cannot be such a clean cut as with Violet's earlier bullet. This time, the canister ruptures prematurely, the spray of cryonics not quite as devastating, yet still -- delivering the desired effect. Freezing fluids burst across Liath's field of vision, chilling all the way down towards spiritually-wrought joints and inspiring a staggering, backwards stumble across the ground.

Providing just enough of an opening for Isolde to

            lunge.

 

The bright, prismatic edge of Liath's blade meets Isolde's within a hair's breadth of clean impact. With every following score, as much as Liath ekes away at the integrity of Isolde's weapon, she scores wounds of her own. A cut across cheek here, a graze along the arm there. And through it all, during that brief lock of shining sword against metal blade, Liath presses in with uncanny strength.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

And yet...

"... And yet, you must fight for them all the same," she utters, in that brief span. There is something... familiar, in the way Isolde swings that weapon. Liath's brows furrow, but she does not halt. Not for one second.

"We all must fight, Lady Isolde, in our own ways. This is my way. It is sometimes ugly. It is sometimes unforgivable. But it is mine."

The lock is broken. Isolde lunges anew. And Liath...

... begins to shine, as if the refracting splendor overtaking her weapon slowly begins to spread to her very figure.

"Have you found yours?"

And that blade plunges straight through.

It is a strange feeling. Like impaling something viscous, barely solid, yet surprisingly, pleasantly warm. Liath's has become a multi-colored silhouette by the time Isolde's blade finds its mark; part of her shoulder literally blows -out- in a rainbow spray as she lurches backwards.

"Something worth committing your life to?"

And her words, an echo across the senses, come...

... just before that silhouette -explodes-.

It is blinding. In its aftermath, a sensation lingers, like a beautiful, melancholic song, one that strokes the strings of nostalgia without being able to place quite how. It lingers warmly --

--just as the way the multitude pieces that were once Liath fly with wondrous, untold speed towards the heavens.

"Youareallsoverystrong.Andyet...youhavesoverymuchtolearn."

They are ribbons -- countless, one of every shade, bending and rippling patterns of light that rise towards the skies before twisting and -descending- rapidly upon Liath's gathered opponents. A red stream seeks to shoot straight through Ashley; green through Isolde; orange through Clarine; yellow through Ena; purple through Violet; yellow, brown, blue, cyan, sea green -- too many to count, all swarm and puncture through spirit rather than flesh with a burning touch, bursting -through-

    and reforming

        until there is a small army of Liath

in every hue of color that can be gleaned, and more besides.

"Aboutyourselves.Abouteachother. Beforeitconsumesyou."

Each grips tight upon their weapon. And each charge in powerful, forward thrusts, all converging on those defending Besaid in a glimmering splendor of sharply pointed sword tips that will run those Drifters and ARMS straight through.

Straight through the soul.

Until they can all converge towards the heavens once, up, and up, and up...

... until there is nothing more, than the vague strains of that song, lingering like unseen mist in the air.

                  "IhopeImayonedayseeallyouarecapableof."

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

Lulu remains silent, for a long few moments, in the aftermath of the battle--as Borgan disappears, under the force of Aeons... as Yuna's first Aeon remains. It was never just the temple, after all. Never anything like that.

She knows, after all, that promise. She knows the spirit behind that peach scent.

"...To keep losing, hm...?" Lulu finally speaks, and it's to herself, largely, before she closes her eyes. "Maybe."

She knows that experience well, after all. But she shares Yuna's wish. Her nerves react with surprise to certain strange statements to belize in the moment.

"...Good work, Yuna." Lulu speaks up, before she rises, and looks out over the village, over Rikku and Belize, over the others... Before she settles her gaze on Yuna and Valefor.

"...This once," she says, recalling Yuna's words when they arrived, "I'm glad to have been wrong."

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
Rikku is on her way back to Yuna when she sees the glare from Yuna and Belize's fervent summonings. And in the wake of the attack of Valefor and Cambria...
 
... Borgan is gone.
 
She slows down into a jog back to Yuna, the adrenaline fading just a touch as she does so and bringing back the ache of the wound in her back and... well all over... from the impact in the ground.
 
She doesn't say anything at what Borgan says. She doesn't hear Yuna's comment into Valefor's feathers.
 
Instead she limps back to her Summoner - her Cousin. And after Lulu tells Yuna 'Good work'. She coughs into her fist and begins quietly, "I know we have to go back before long..."
 
Her eyes float over to Lulu, then back to Yuna with Valefor. It feels like a sacred moment. And yet... perhaps because it is sacred, she asks anyhow.
 
"But can we take a little time? Just a little..."
 
There's a small pause, before she finally says, "I'd like to see a little more of the place where all of you grew up before we go back."
 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

There is nothing left to talk about, asserts Ena, and those perceptive gold eyes stare into the angry glint of the summoner-in-training with quiet thought.

"Perhaps there is not," concedes the Prime Lord, the tip of her blade drawing a glassed line in the sand.

"Or nothing that words may rightly express."

Bright eyes turn, then, towards the battlefield. Towards Borgan, intellectual curiosity satisfied, retreating. Towards Leo, his core shaking, leaving without so much of a word. Her brows furrow. She tracks the White Knight in silent thought.

I am...still standing.

Runes dissolve in the air as the Joyeuse's liquid blade snaps to Liath's right; the movement causes the colors to shudder in an effusively rippling display as all that magic fades through the air and senses.

The right corner of her lips quirks upward.

"So you are," she notes, approval in her voice. She feels the revitalizing magic that thrums through the earth, centered around Clarine, and that smile grows.

"You are much stronger than you know."

It is an expression that only finds its end in the expulsion of chaotic flame and ashen -thing- from between Ashley's shoulder blades. Gold eyes widen to behold it -- and instantly narrow into thin, gilded slits as it boils its insidious path of destruction through the landscape. She sees it.

She feels it.

"..."

Shield arm lowers, gloved hand clenching bracingly at its armored right.

I'm... I'm still Ashley Winchester.

"Yes," exhales Liath, her stance steadfast. One arm eases from the other, blade tilting at a slow angle.

"And something else besides."

Her bootheel pivots --

BANG

Her focus is on Ashley -- on the brief manifestation of that aberration within him -- such that she does not seem to actually see Violet on the offensive until it is too late. She hears the sound of a shot firing. Her motion is aborted.

And it is a tribute to both Violet's accuracy and Liath's technique that a bullet that likely would have found whatever amounts for a heart in a Seraph instead finds the broad side of her shield.

The impact SINGS with the discordant scream of metal on metal; the kinetic force is enough to send Liath -driving- backwards in a knelt position, her arm ringing up towards the shoulder as deep furrow of sand and earth kicks violently up in a path leading out ahead of her where she stops. Smoke rises from the impact point upon that shield -- but it remains undented, like a point of obscure and ancient pride, as the blonde-haired woman slowly lifts back onto her feet.

Violet does not score her clean hit. But she -does- distract. Distract long enough for Ashley to find the perfect opportunity to strike. Another trigger pulled. Another shot fired. Liath's gaze snaps towards the right, towards that young man and his brilliant declaration. Her blade snaps true in her grasp.

And despite herself, she is smiling, a full blown, wonderful grin as she -swings- towards that ired canister.

"Is that so? You think you may rise to such lofty heights as the legendary Wonder Chef? Then I would see you do it!"

Somehow, she makes challenges about adorable mascot character-themed desserts and vague mythical culinary figures who may or may not exist seem excessively dramatic.

This, too, is a special skill.

"But I do not believe I will be able to enjoy it, with such self-deception clinging to you."

And it is just as Liath calls this out that her blade meets the canister, cleaving it clean in twain. This time, however, there cannot be such a clean cut as with Violet's earlier bullet. This time, the canister ruptures prematurely, the spray of cryonics not quite as devastating, yet still -- delivering the desired effect. Freezing fluids burst across Liath's field of vision, chilling all the way down towards spiritually-wrought joints and inspiring a staggering, backwards stumble across the ground.

Providing just enough of an opening for Isolde to

            lunge.

 

The bright, prismatic edge of Liath's blade meets Isolde's within a hair's breadth of clean impact. With every following score, as much as Liath ekes away at the integrity of Isolde's weapon, she scores wounds of her own. A cut across cheek here, a graze along the arm there. And through it all, during that brief lock of shining sword against metal blade, Liath presses in with uncanny strength.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

And yet...

"... And yet, you must fight for them all the same," she utters, in that brief span. There is something... familiar, in the way Isolde swings that weapon. Liath's brows furrow, but she does not halt. Not for one second.

"We all must fight, Lady Isolde, in our own ways. This is my way. It is sometimes ugly. It is sometimes unforgivable. But it is mine."

The lock is broken. Isolde lunges anew. And Liath...

... begins to shine, as if the refracting splendor overtaking her weapon slowly begins to spread to her very figure.

"Have you found yours?"

And that blade plunges straight through.

It is a strange feeling. Like impaling something viscous, barely solid, yet surprisingly, pleasantly warm. Liath's has become a multi-colored silhouette by the time Isolde's blade finds its mark; part of her shoulder literally blows -out- in a rainbow spray as she lurches backwards.

"Something worth committing your life to?"

And her words, an echo across the senses, come...

... just before that silhouette -explodes-.

It is blinding. In its aftermath, a sensation lingers, like a beautiful, melancholic song, one that strokes the strings of nostalgia without being able to place quite how. It lingers warmly --

--just as the way the multitude pieces that were once Liath fly with wondrous, untold speed towards the heavens.

"You are all so very strong. And yet... you have so very much to learn."

They are ribbons -- countless, one of every shade, bending and rippling patterns of light that rise towards the skies before twisting and -descending- rapidly upon Liath's gathered opponents. A red stream seeks to shoot straight through Ashley; green through Isolde; orange through Clarine; yellow through Ena; purple through Violet; yellow, brown, blue, cyan, sea green -- too many to count, all swarm and puncture through spirit rather than flesh with a burning touch, bursting -through-

    and reforming

        until there is a small army of Liath

in every hue of color that can be gleaned, and more besides.

"About yourselves. About each other. Before it consumes you."

Each grips tight upon their weapon. And each charge in powerful, forward thrusts, all converging on those defending Besaid in a glimmering splendor of sharply pointed sword tips that will run those Drifters and ARMS straight through.

Straight through the soul.

Until they can all converge towards the heavens once, up, and up, and up...

... until there is nothing more, than the vague strains of that song, lingering like unseen mist in the air.

            "I hope I may one day see all you are capable of."

GS: Seraph Liath has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Seraph Liath has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraph Liath has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Seraph Clarine with Infinitia Soul!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Ena with Infinitia Soul!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Ashley Winchester with Infinitia Soul!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Isolde with Infinitia Soul!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Violet Salazar with Infinitia Soul!
GS: Seraph Liath takes 27 damage from Poison!
GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Clarine takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Infinitia Soul for 281 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Ena takes a glancing hit from Seraph Liath's Infinitia Soul for 135 hit points!
GS: Ena enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Isolde critically Guards a hit from Seraph Liath's Infinitia Soul for 44 hit points!
GS: Ashley Winchester critically Guards a hit from Seraph Liath's Infinitia Soul for 45 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Violet Salazar takes a glancing hit from Seraph Liath's Infinitia Soul for 124 hit points!
GS: Violet Salazar enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.

Violet stands still, aiming Jeremiah carefully at her opponent. "Fire true," she whispers to the ARM, patting it affectionately.

And fire true it does, though it strikes the sorceress's shield. Her foe is scintillating, brilliant, dissolving into ribbons of light. Intent on her attack, Violet can't dodge: a purple strand of light pierces her very soul (and rends her body, besides): and suddenly Violet's perceptions shift, clarify: this isn't magic, this is a spiritual manifestation; the lady she's been fighting is a spirit of some kind! Violet reels, disoriented. She's going to need some time to process this. Fortunately, her band of foes appear to be retreating. Violet falls back. She needs a place to rest. Maybe she can seek refuge in the Guts-Dozer.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Waitress. Waitress. The comment wasn't directed at Gwen, but she tilts her head, all the same, looking back towards Bera to look for some obvious clues.

    Then, she realizes.
    
    "... Oh, so you met Lunata too?" She asks it as if Amaterasu just happened to meet Lunata in the street, or at the tavern. She turns back to Bera. "Don't worry, it's a compliment!"

    Surely Gwen is taking this all seriously, right?

    'Allow me to give you a lesson in what it means to resist. Or, perhaps, what resistance earns you.'

    That is ample warning for Gwen to react, but not nearly enough for Gwen to react _enough_. Already her feet are kicking up sand in her sprint forward, the courier seemingly encouraged by Bera's spirited advance.

    Two strikes, and like with Ethius, the blade tastes blood, red dots like garnets hitting the sand. Gwen lets out a high cry, clinging to the painful clean cuts to her tunic.

    That brief window of clarity dissipates in the wake of those two swift strikes, but thankfully, the weakness from before is long gone, just replaced with the pain shearing across her chest.

    She manages a foolhardy grin. "Alright then... one more parting shot to you-!"

    A ribbon of light pierces through Gwen in that moment, pale red, taking that last remainder of will with it. "... Gh..."

    The courier spares a moment to look towards Liath, seeing the unusual nature of her attack. It wasn't personal, no more than the sun's blinding rays against the sand are a slight against those unfortunate enough to be blinded by it.

    The world fades, and she falls to the ground, momentairely too stunned to move.

<Pose Tracker> Ena has posed.

    Ena watches, as others take the fight to Liath, while she merely tries to defend herself. It's a weakness. She should be fighting as much as any of them. She can barely look as Liath's silhouette explodes. She tries to shield her eyes, but is too slow against the beautiful blinding light. Once again, she hesitates. A fools action on the battlefield.

    Her instincts fight against her body. As the yellow ribbon of light descends upon her, the veil of shadow surrounding her is seared away by the light. Based on how Ena has been fighting, she should not be fast enough to evade.

    And she isn't, but not for lack of trying. Ena shifts her body aside in a far too practiced motion for the woman who was fighting earlier, but it is not enough against the skill and power of a Seraph. Light scores her side and her soul, and a pained sound comes from Ena. It sounds somehow realer, despite being quieter and more restrained. As the sword tips of the many Liath's spear through, there is another sound, and she shifts sideways again. When she finishes moving she tumbles to the ground, rolling slightly to one side, and laying face down on the ground.

    There was no need for such a landing. If someone had been paying attention, her footing after those movements had been completely solid.

<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.

    Amaterasu seeks blood.

    And she gets it.

    Intercession comes only from Bera's side, sparing the man from a continued assault upon a person not well-equipped to receive such attacks. Even a fierce warrior could be felled from such an attack. Is-- Ethius-- going to...?

    Amaterasu's attention, for now, is upon Bera. All of her attention.

    Just once, the masked soldier nods. "I see. Then it is the warrior monks who train the waitresses..." A glance here to Gwen. "Indeed. Then you know of her? She was a worthy opponent."

    One of these days, Amaterasu is going to find out that she has been had, by no less an entity than her sister. And that day may be a dark one indeed.
    ...For Kaguya.

    For here and now, though, the fiction still holds.

    And that fiction is only bolstered when Bera comes at her with the blade. Once more, Valkyrja serves as the fulcrum; the sword again is deflected by the weapon before it can touch her armor, though the force of the samurai's attack still serves to push the soldier back and away from that stronger position she had held on the sand before.

    And it's into this that a certain voice, impossibly, intrudes.

    'You will show her nothing' says Ethius.

    His bloodied fingers work a spell.

    Their names--
    --lives--

    Electricity rolls across the beach.
    Wildly, the blade of Valkyrja surges in sympathy to the current -- to the dust from before, still clinging to her armor, to her weapon -- and Amaterasu, who has gone to war for decades...
    Amaterasu, who was trained to fight well over a century before most people on this beach were even born...

    Amaterasu drops her weapon as a sharp, pained sound escapes her lips. She staggers back a step, electricity still dancing over her armor, her body, and finally drops to a knee at precisely the same moment Gwen takes aim.

    She lunges, then -- as red neatly takes Gwen through. Grabs up the still sparking, malfunctioning Valkyrja without heed or care for what is unfolding about her, holds it before her as she slowly rises, elecricity still dancing over her form. And she swings.
    First, for Ethius alone.
    And then for all of them -- all of them still standing.

    'Only a poor artisan blames their tools,' she had said to her sister, after her sister had blamed her loss at Djose on her allies.

    She should cast the weapon aside. Tear them apart herself, here, with her own hands--
    And she still does not.
    It would be improper, in defiance of the only thing that separates her from...

    "Your sister, too, has much to learn," Amaterasu says aloud and to herself, before lowering her sparking, malfunctioning weapon. She turns to regard light, light in all its many hues.

    Regards Liath.

    And with a single leap, sparks still playing across her body, launches herself upwards and away.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

Liath says she is much stronger than she knows. Clarine...would like to believe that. She knows she still has a lot of learning left to do.

The fight continues, however.

Liath becomes a multi-colored silhouette...which soon explodes in a multitude of colored ribbons, in every color that exists.

They fly through the air, and as they do, she hears that song - beautiful and melancholic.

Clarine shifts to bring a mirror up to defend from the orange stream that shoots straight through her, but it passes right through her and her mirror. She gasps and stumbles back, a crack appearing in the mirror where the ribbon flew through.

And then, images of Liath herself appears charge toward her - and through her.

The mirror she was using to protect herself is split in half and shatters. And for Clarine herself...there's a brief, flashing spark, and motes of light begin to leak from her form from both sides where Liath ran her straight through. She falls to her knees, clutching the wound. From a human perspective it would look pretty bad, almost fatal...but, she's a Seraph. She'll live, though she'll need some time to heal.

Liath's power and technique...Clarine could get the measure of it. Shakily she raises to her feet, staring up at the sky as the army of Liaths ascend, leaving nothing but the final strains in its wake.

"...I will...I will do my best..." She murmurs, and...topples backward.

If it weren't for her healing arte, it's hard to tell what state she would have been in after that attack...but she is still here - still corporeal.

It's a small victory, but one she accepts.

"...Is...everyone alright...?" She calls up, from her position on the ground.

GS: Amaterasu has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Res Judicata!
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Bera with Res Judicata!
GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Amaterasu takes 28 damage from Poison!
GS: Jam expired!
GS: Amaterasu has completed her action.
GS: Ethius Hesiod critically Guards a hit from Amaterasu's Counter Attack for 39 hit points!
GS: Bera critically Guards a hit from Amaterasu's Res Judicata for 44 hit points!
GS: Ethius Hesiod guards a hit from Amaterasu's Res Judicata for 126 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    Bera's sheathed blade comes up with a loud clack as it intercepts another powerful attack, the samurai dropping into pose to strike back right after only to freeze. Then blink. In the all to brief moment she lost sight of opponent on the guard, Amaterasu had jumped away well out reach, and out of sight as she failed to track the jump much less direction.

    A crossed look briefly covers Bera's face, and then it's gone as she slides her blade into her sash pulls her haori up over her body, wincing as she moves her right arm even as she covers the massive bruise still growing on that shoulder.

    When she's done, she simply stands there for the moment, surveying the field in silent thought.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Ethius, bloodied but defiant, for a hot minute, seems to take the momentary role of seeming the monster poised to toy with their prey as he takes steps forward. In his head, he is already working out the next spell - not to test, not to gauge, not to ask, not to play.
     The swirling dust and ash in the air gives the man a positively sinister air as he tries to step past the others--
     Amaterasu grips her malfunctioning weapon and swings. The sharper part seems poised to slice Ethius open right then and there for even thinking he would dare stand over her, and there is another discharge of sparks - a more violent one - dampening the otherwise clean impact that all it does is force him back.
     That spell he cast, before she came at them with that disabling set of blows - that spell he cast is his lifeline. That invisible-to-the-naked-eye electrical barrier, which seems to hold up much better against the true pointy end of Valkyrja.
     She swings again, having pushed Ethius in a range where one sweep can tag both himself and Bera. He's the one who has to take the brunt of the swing before it crests over to Bera, and while met with the same deflecting feedback, it crosses over the same part of himself that took the deep stab.
     Light ribbons tear through the battlefield. A yellow one lances by Ethius' face as he stands. He fights back the flinches of a body growing number from blood loss, as if to make a point that he remains standing tall against an otherwise superior opponent.
     The beautiful, deadly light... the way Amaterasu stares out to it.
     It's not hers either, Ethius resolves as he steps forth. He twists those fingers on that bloodied hand again, chanting the syllables to the spell that could seal Amaterasu's fate. One last electrical discharge, to punch through any last protections she has to offer, right through her back as she beholds that light--
     "Surge Bolt," Ethius finishes the spell and thrusts that bloodied hand forward at hte very moment she leaps away, the sorcerous lightning forking into thin air and dissipating into nothing.
     Ethius' bloodied hand falls limp, and he stares to take in the immediate aftermath. (He will need to remember he is technically bleeding out before long - and that Gwen could use help being taken to safety.)
     "..."

<Pose Tracker> Isolde has posed.

 
The words, the tension of Ashley Winchester are worrying Isolde - but it's an obscure bee-buzz of a worrying. She smiles, though, it's a tense sort of smile.

"I don't know," she answers Liath.

"Perhaps I have."

"Maybe I've just tricked myself."

(Why am I talking like this to her? I don't talk like this to most people I fight, Isolde thinks. Then again, most people I fight, I usually stab a few times, or stab once or twice and then they depart. Or they're monsters. The literal kind.)

"But you know," Isolde says, as she looks at the waves and Liath rises towards the heavens, "I don't know that it matters. For me, perhaps, but if you trick yourself long enough -- and the trick means someone else survives, like that fool with the ball -- then, really, was it a trick at -"

Isolde's head tilts upwards.

That piece of concrete is up there. No, it's unspooling.

"all," she says.

A ribbon of light comes towards her. It's a beautiful and luminous shade of green. Of course, that color is lost on Isolde.

She swings her foreshortened blade upwards. The blade JERKS in her hand, a painful shiver running up her arm, hard enough that her shoulder nearly pops out of its joint. Isolde steps back a pace, approximately towards shore, as the ribbon of light resolves itself into that figure. She hunches herself up, bringing up the blade in a guarded stance. An arrow is stabbed towards her -

                    ting!

The figure rises and away. Isolde exhales.

Her sword shatters with a loud SNAP, fragments of old and well loved steel bursting out and falling into the Besaid surf. She gradually unwinds, holding what is now in essence a glorified dagger.

Isolde touches her stomach, her shoulders, with her free hand, in a slow but efficient check for wounds she might not have noticed, probably. She remains facing along the coastline as she does so.

"Perhaps you will," she says, to the Seraph. Maybe she is still there to hear it. You can't ever quite tell, with Seraphs.

<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.

'Something else besides.'

He knows that. He knows that. The thing that is trapped inside him, even if they do somehow manage to find a way to purge it before the inevitable happens, may not leave him in the same state as he once was. He might never be the same again. How could a soul not contain such destruction without being irrevocably scarred by the experience? What balm could possibly salve that wound.

"I... I'll make sure you enjoy it. It'll be so good, it'll knock your socks right off...!" It's a promise. Not just to this strange, brilliant spirit, but to himself. He'll do it, someday. Definitely. Definitely! He has to hold onto these things, these anchors of his sense of self. If he were to relinquish those dreams, those things he loves so dearly, then he'd be swept away, lost to this thing he's becoming.

He won't.

He won't!

There are things in this world he still wants to do. Places he still longs to see. People who need to hear words that only he can speak. Ashley's expression hardens with resolve, courage and determination burn fiercely in his heart. He'll need every bit of it.

Because Liath is not quite done violating his soul today.

"What--" The Seraph splits into countless rays of light, dividing like a single beam through a prism. Ribbons of spiritual energy arc and twist, weaving a deadly, beautiful rainbow across the blasted Besaid landscape. Ashley doesn't realize what they are, or at least, not quickly enough. He raises his weapon to block their path, only to find out that a simple slab of steel isn't nearly enough to stop an attack on the spirit. He gasps as a full spectrum of beams pierce his chest, lancing him through in a dozen places at once. Ashley is carried upward as if suspended on too-many spearpoints. His eyes are wide, then terrified, then blank.

Perhaps, upon reflection, Seraph Liath might have determined this particular strategy to have been somewhat flawed in its execution. The ribbons of light are no mere projectiles, they are aspects of herself, fragments refracted through a multifaceted prism and cast into the world and the souls of those within it.

The fragments that enter Ashley Winchester's soul, that twine through the very stuff of his self, are able to cut through easily enough. He is, after all, but a man. A man with a soul like any other- a reservoir of memory and emotion that glows with the light of youth and ambition, hopes and dreams, a gaze turned toward a future yet to come, a gentle light abundant with affection for the world and the people he loves.

But then, there is something more.

She said it herself. There is something else besides.

All that is Ashley abruptly gives way, collapsing into a vast, unfathomable radiance. There, in the depths of that ordinary soul, there is a spark of catastrophe that even now gestates and grows, shedding a harsh, wrathful glow. This light leaves no shadows except for the scars of ash that it casts in the wake of those who would dare stand against it. This is the fire that consumes Ashley Winchester.

And for a brief, terrible moment, Liath would feel its awful, baleful gaze turn upon her.

She would feel it judge her.

And then, with the same cold disregard it feels for all else, she would feel it reach out as if to snuff her out--

But it never comes.

Before it can reach her, the soul-world again shifts. A hand reaches out to snatch her from the jaws of death. Someone is there, their face is occluded by the seemingly infinite light that fills this space, and yet somehow Liath might feel the warmth of a kindly smile, might hear the chiding click of a tongue and might see a finger waggling impossibly at her in the void.

And then, just like that, the experience passes.

Ashley falls, landing squarely on his feet. His hand gropes for the holes that he fears might have been punched through him-- but they're not there. He's still alive. And somehow, his insides don't feel like they're on fire this time. That's... A good thing. Right?

...Right.

"Are they--" Ashley asks, staring at the Althenite legion in full retreat, "Are they running? Good..." He sighs, falling backwards onto the soft, sandy (read: partially ashen) landscape. "I'm... tired. What even was that...?"