2019-09-09: Independence for Violence
- Log: Independence for Violence
- Cast: Pearl, Lily Keil, Violet Salazar, Gon Guado, Loren Voss, Belize, Tabitha deVriese
- Where: Guadosalam
- Date: September 9, 2019
- Summary: In the hours following a botched attempt on Seymour Guado's life, an assassin attempts to escape a locked down Guadosalam. This escape will likely get bloody.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Guadosalam is in lockdown. It's people are in an uproar. The reason? Someone has tried to murder Maester Seymour Guado in his own home.
Refugees clamour at the gates, as the wounded and ill, children and elderly are turned away at the entrances into town. The guards stand stone faced, against peoples who are begging for help. It is not a pleasant scene.
Inside the city, the streets are quiet, if not emptied. Those who are not hunting for the assassin are forced inside. Children shooed in by their parents, shopkeepers close their doors. The refugees within the city are gathered together, where an eye can be kept on them. The keepers of the Farplane maintain their vigil.
A trio of guards round a blind corner in the winding city. It turns out to be the wrong turn to make. Something strikes from the shadows, one falling, then another. The third turns to face the attacker, and that is when the assassin makes a foolish error.
She allows the last guard time to cry out. "SHE'S HERE-" She manages, before she is cut down. But it was all time enough. The location is given away.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXOPmqhsiSw
Standing over the bodies is a woman clad all in black, the only part of her face visible are her eyes, cold and grey. The Shadow Dragon Assassin turns to face those who gather to stop her, and wordlessly drops in to a combat stance.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Strictly speaking, this is not Lily Keil's problem. She isn't being paid to care about security in Guadosalam, and certainly has no particular loyalty to either Yevon or to a city that seems at best to tolerate her presence. However...
It being 'suggested' that she step inside rubs her the wrong way. And anyone strong enough to make someone shout 'she's here'--
"It's fine," Lily says to a stressed-out guardsman trying to shove people back, "I'm a professional."
Dressed in black, in armored jacket with thick safety goggles around her neck, she steps around, evading confusion and looking straight up--towards the assassin. Towards cold, gray eyes.
Her own gold spark in interest as she tilts her head. ...Lily, for her part, is dressed not dissimilarly to the Al Bhed. She crouches down--just far enough to pull a thick-bladed, well-used knife from the holster at her boot. As she rises, she turns the weapon, a sturdy grip blade-down, edge out, as she lifts her hands.
Her shoulders drop, making her a smaller target--and she charges, weaving around bystanders and surprised guards to lunge in at Pearl's midsection in an exploratory strike.
"Seems like they're scared of you," she comments, voice even.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Pearl with Step Up! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Violet rounds the corner, panting and out of breath. Running was more difficult at her age than it had been when she was younger. At least she had her ARM prepared and loaded, something she'd first taken care of when joining the manhunt.
"She's here!" alerts one of the guards. There she is, the assassin, wearing black garb like a ninja. Blue eyes meet the assassin's gray ones.
Three guards lie nearby, dead or dying. Violet would check, and try to help, but the guards are too close to the assassin for her to try. Clearly, the killer wasn't giving up without a fight -- her body language indicated all-too-much readiness for combat. Violet braces herself. No martial artist herself, she was limited to her ARM. She readies it and fires, aming to wound. It would be best if she and her companions could take the black-garbed woman in for questioning...
GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Pearl with Look of Eagles! GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action. GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Lily Keil's Step Up for 49 hit points! GS: Pearl completely evades a hit from Violet Salazar's Look of Eagles!
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
One of the biggest conductors of the current lockdown - Gon Guado, whose orders extended the scope of the lockdown to try and chase out as many of the Otherworlders as possible. Even in an all-consuming panic as to the well-being of Maester Seymour, there remains a shameless opportunism in the older Guado's actions.
Anything to start clearing his home of their troublemaking presence and corrupting influence, regardless of how many Spiran natives swept out with them. That the man remains so hard-faced to the suffering and clamoring of those left outside who do need help and aid... is not really that large a jump from the usual seeming emotional distance the Guado oft tend to put between themselves and the rest.
"Have they found the Measter's assailant yet?" Gon, a veteran soldier among his people, has managed the personal feat of being even more agitated and high-strung than Tromell. The Guado Guardians present know better than to say no - they simply say nothing at all, which communicates the same with less.
Except for one who is not currently addressing him, for they are spending the last moments of their very life in the company of two others. One who would be too far off to hear that question being asked.
Their final cry answers that question. 'SHE'S HERE.'
It's not long before Gon has directed some of the foot soldiers of his people - in groups of two - to run to the entrances of where the call-out originiates. The tall, spindly Guado people have a running speed that exceeds that of the other races of Spira - and doubtless much the rest of Lunar or Filgaia - allowing their shadows to darken the paths available to one who clad in dark that a shadow cast upon them might instead be seen as brightening their presence.
--And there are still people wandering the streets even now, to Gon's chagrin. He shoots a sharp glance to someone who is dressed in Al Bhed wear with curious coloration leanings to darker hues--
'It's fine,' Lily explains as she steps in there, 'I'm a professional.'
"You will cea--" BANG, goes the elderly Violet's weapon as she steps into the metaphorical ring. Gon shoots a dirty glance along the way as if trying to figure out who among the Guado Guardians allowed that one in.
It does not cross nor strike him that Lily and Violet are two of the most skilled Drifters to walk the land, and that either one of them is as good as two or three of his own people's soldiers.
Already wearing a new set of metal gauntlets over his very large hands, Gon likely gets cut off by another advancing do-gooder en route to attempting to subdue the escaping would-be assassin before he can close into striking range.
"Will these indignities to our order - our way of life - never cease?!" Gon accidentally lets that out in a moment of heightened stress as he sweeps his right clawed hand in a diagonal arc from top-right to bottom-left when he finally closes into striking range and has an opening.
GS: Gon Guado has attacked Pearl with Melusine Claw! GS: Gon Guado has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren -- or rather, 'Thomas' -- is a scribe.
A junior scribe serving the Maester's scribe Krelian, to be specific.
And yet even a junior scribe needs to be able to defend themselves in these trying times. It's known, for instance, that he carries a sword, that he has access to magic. That he's fought on the Maester's behalf before.
These factors -- along with his position -- might be a reason why he's let by when he emerges into the hall. He'd heard the shouts about an assassin after the Maester--
And had contemplated letting it happen, if it was going to happen at all. After all, he'd learned from 'him' a thing or two about the Maester...
But there's still life in this charade yet. There's still not a way back. He still has his part to play. So he'd risen from his bed and taken up the sword.
...
It's perhaps telling that, when he emerges into the hall and sights the fallen, his gaze goes first for Lily. The reforged blade slides from its hilt and he first directs it towards her--
Before she lunges for a second figure, and one that he hadn't at first seen.
He blinks, then redirects his attention accordingly.
"...Just what we need, another would-be killer," he remarks blandly, his gaze heavy-lidded.
His gaze slides from Lily to the other woman -- the one with the guns -- and back again. His lips twist in a grimace, and he sighs.
And he exhales, a breath that bring with it a cooler blast of air -- like water driven by wind, a spray in the air -- which crystalizes into a sparkling spray around himself and Lily.
Of course it comes to this. But it's not as if anyone else here (right now) can get the proper boost from the Ether he controls.
His gaze slides Gon's way as the Guado engages the would-be assassin.
"The Maester's safe," he comments, shifting his grip on his blade. His gaze turns to the bracer on his left forearm and he's reminded again that he never got that replacement from requisitions before heading to Elru and that there's no way to get a replacement shield now.
GS: Loren Voss has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Extend! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lily Keil with Sigma Factor! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Loren Voss with Sigma Factor! GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: Loren Voss takes a solid hit from Loren Voss's Sigma Factor for 0 hit points! GS: Burst and Surge! applied to Loren Voss! GS: Lily Keil takes a solid hit from Loren Voss's Sigma Factor for 0 hit points! GS: Burst and Surge! applied to Lily Keil!
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
This wouldn't be the first time that assassins have targeted Maester Seymour. But it *is* the first time Belize wasn't caught up in fighting someone else and thus could do something about it.
'She's here!' cries a guard, and Belize stalks through the streets of Guadosalam, an arrow nocked on their bow, as they seek the source of the call. It isn't long before they find it, and they open fire--literally, flames magically lighting on the arrowhead just before they shoot--on the woman in all black. The others present, including Guardian Gon, are heartening, even if Gon himself doesn't appreciate them.
"Good to hear," they remark to 'Thomas,' drawing another arrow. "This fiend," they mean Pearl, "won't be."
GS: Belize has attacked Pearl with Flame Arrow! GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo! GS: Belize has completed their action.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Obviously, the Maester's most recent gaggle of assistants - Filgaians recommended and accepted into service from some uncertain deal within - would be deployed to contend with a thing like this! And among that number is the woman who has worn the mantle of warrior monk, not so much necessarily out of faith as ease of classification. It is, after all, more or less what an Etone is, after all.
The response time from the guard's call is surprisingly rapid, yet Tabitha deVriese' approach is far from obvious...
Because when she steps into the field, it's with her feet firmly planted to the wall on the eastern side of the alley, hips swaying with the same tick-tock rhythm she walks with on more normally-aligned ground. "Sorry, dear," she says, gently, strutting down, eyes deadly focused. "I'm afraid there's certain things I can't let you slide on, you see?"
Then she pushes herself lightly off the wall and is immediately in freefall. Her feet carve forth in a savage, wind-aspected slash of a kick that sends dust and bits of uncleaned litter scattering in its aftermath. She lands on the floor afterward, posture shifted to a combat stance of her own. She favors her right arm forward, the left bound up in the leather straps and satin wrap she uses to secure it in battle.
GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Pearl with Angel Whip! GS: Tabitha deVriese has completed her action. GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Gon Guado's Melusine Claw for 42 hit points! GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Belize's Flame Arrow for 59 hit points! GS: Jam! applied to Pearl! GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Tabitha deVriese's Angel Whip for 58 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
As Lily charges in with the knife, the assassin moves to grab her incoming hand, or failing that, the knife blade. Rather than let the blade pierce her stomach, she lets her hand get cut open instead. Blood drips from it on to the ground, but there is not the slightest sound of pain. Instead she stares Lily down, as she holds the blade to prevent her from escaping- at least with a weapon. Still, at the talk of the fearing her there is a... sense of satisfaction from the assassin. She doesn't let that linger, though, instead slashing out with her other hand in a claw shape, purple ki glowing around it, to slash straight at Lily's chest.
A shot fires her way, and Pearl finally releases her grip on Lily's knife, instead moving veritcally up and over her in a swift leap, as Violet's shot flies past her, slamming into the wall nearest where the Assassin was standing, sending fragments of it flying. The assassin responds by summoning a bolt of darkness to her hand, and flinging it straight at Violet.
Gon draws her attention next, slashing at Pearl. She turns her body to avoid the worst of the slash, even as the Guado's slash at her and draw blood. She retaliates at the same close range Gon has moved into, a rapid kick launched at his head. She doesn't stop there, her leg bending back at the knee, and launching a second for his throat.
Thomas' intervention does not go unnoticed, and he draws the assassin's ire. Tendrils of darkness fly from one hand to wrap around him, particularly his mouth. Should they connect, they move to slow the 'scribe' and blunt his magical interference.
Belize is much more straight forward, as they fire an arrow of flame straight at Pearl. She is not fast enough to evade it, but instead she swipes at the arrow as it comes in, deflecting it into her leg rather than bearing it in her chest. She pulls it from her leg and casts the arrow to the ground. She does not let Belize keep their range advantage, moving forward with a rapid, violent strike at their throat with an open hand covered in the ki of the Shadow Dragon cult.
As Tabitha launches at her sideways, Pearl is not able to get clear of the attack. However, she is not caught completely off guard. Instead, she tries to grip the the incoming arm, as Tabitha's arm drives into her shoulder, slowed as it is by Pearl's interference. There's a solid impact, but Pearl doesn't let go. Instead, she tries to use this to drive Tabitha towards the ground, before driving a knee repeatedly towards her face, provided the 'warrior monk' can't get away.
GS: Pearl has adjusted their boss level for 6 opponents! GS: Pearl has attacked Lily Keil with Inverse Claw! GS: Pearl has gained 2 Combo! GS: Pearl has attacked Violet Salazar with Darkness Bolt! GS: Violet Salazar takes a glancing hit from Pearl's Darkness Bolt for 56 hit points! GS: Pearl has attacked Gon Guado with Shadow Assault! GS: Pearl has attacked Belize with Murderous Shadow! GS: Gon Guado guards a hit from Pearl's Shadow Assault for 65 hit points! GS: Pearl has attacked Loren Voss with Assassin's Blessing! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Umbral Blitz! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Lily Keil takes a solid hit from Pearl's Inverse Claw for 168 hit points! GS: Loren Voss guards a hit from Pearl's Assassin's Blessing for 0 hit points! GS: Mute and Slow! applied to Loren Voss! GS: Tabitha deVriese takes a glancing hit from Pearl's Umbral Blitz for 73 hit points! GS: Riposte! applied to Pearl!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
"Will these indignities to our order - our way of life - never cease?!" Gon Guado exclaims. It never occurs to Violet that he means her and the other Otherworlders. She thinks he means the attempt on Maester Seymour's life -- and she'd be upset, too, if someone tried to kill a current human or Beastman leader. Unless they were evil. She lends the young Guado a sympathetic smile, only to whirl suddenly away from a beam of darkness the ninja directs at her. Trust ninjas to have mystic abilities! In spite of Violet's antics, the beam strikes her left side, leaving it bruised and bloody. She gasps and aims a counterattack, aiming exquisitely carefully to avoid hitting her close-fighting companions. Buckshot can be dangerous that way!
GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Pearl with Buckshot! GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action. GS: Belize critically Guards a hit from Pearl's Murderous Shadow for 23 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily does not cease. She doesn't spare more than a moment's look to the fallen Guard, either--only enough to determine whether to move to protect him or to engage the assailant. ...Her decision, it would appear, is to go on the attack. She is not so fast as a Guado...
...But she is not easy to stop, either.
She makes it up quickly, and swings. When Pearl's hand snakes out, she will see that Lily does not flinch, does not move to abandon her assault. Quite the opposite, the faster martial artist is able to grab Lily's knife blade outright, mostly by the handle, and in that moment of staring Lily spots the strange sense--and more to the point, recognizes the defense.
A spark of curiousity lights in strange golden eyes. "You're not a thief," Lily says, the beginning of a fact--but the clawed strike is too rapid to evade. The purple ki bursts through Lily's ordinary guard, carving through the sleeve of her jacket on the arm she uses to block and knocking her backwards, the fingers twitching slightly--she judges it won't do her much good in this fight anymore. But she's out of melee for an instant, and--
Yep, that's Loren. Lily lifts an eyebrow at him now that she has time to look. "You assumed it was me, didn't you?" She sure saw the way his sword was pointing. "I'm not sure whether I should be offended or not."
She notes Belize's intent, naturally--but for her part, the blood she's already lost seems not to slow her down much, despite the way she now lets that arm hang down, out of the way.
"Dark power, but not magic," she notes. "That's very interesting. It feels..." What's the word?
A humorless grin Loren's way. "Still, I'll use the gift regardless. Water, was it...?"
Lily steps back up, but this time keeps the knife up in guarding position--instead of directing it, she focuses--and strange blue light begins to shimmer from her skin where the jacket is torn, an impression of circuit patterns at her collarbone--
The space in melee with Pearl, near Tabitha, abrubtly chills. The spray of mist comes first--and then from beneath, a spear of jagged blue-white ice erupts from nothing, surging towards Pearl's center mass.
"Was she after the Maester?" Lily asks, as if she's part of the team.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Pearl with Kalt Spike! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Violet Salazar's Buckshot for 55 hit points! GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Lily Keil's Kalt Spike for 73 hit points! GS: Lily Keil assumes the Avenger stance!
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
This assassin is skilled. Belize takes a moment's grim pride in that--of course the Guard would need to send a skilled assassin against Maester Seymour. And even then, they failed! But they haven't the time to think on this much, as all of a sudden Pearl is RIGHT IN THEIR FACE trying to crush their throat with an open-palm ki strike. Despite her speed, even after taking an arrow to the leg, Belize manages to absorb the attack not on their throat but on their arm brace, under the sleeve of their robe, which they snap up in front of them in defense. They grit their teeth in pain all the same. They won't be able to fight effectively in these close quarters, and Ryuggu--Valefor--will be hampered by being underground, while Leviathan is simply too big to maneuver in Guadosalam. So--
As the others close in on the assassin, providing a much-needed distraction, Belize dances, their bow arching as they turn their arms. A snowflake falls and ices the ground, then forms a giant crystal from which an equally giant woman emerges, shattering the ice in her wake. ("Giant," in this case, means about seven to eight feet. Still workable for the underground.) She gazes with blue skin upon the assassin, standing between her and her summoner; then she charges on bare feet and flips up and around to attempt to slam an axe kick into Pearl.
DC: Belize switches forms to Aeon Shiva -Cambria-!
GS: Belize has attacked Pearl with Axe Kick! GS: Belize has completed their action.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Guess not," he says to Belize.
He doesn't have time to mess around with this. But he's still stuck -- as long as they're all playing this role, he has to see it through.
So be it, runs the thought, before he emerges into the space where they've apparently pinned the assassin. He has nothing left but his duty. If this is what 'he' wills...
Then he'll just have to kill an assassin.
"Tch. It would be in your character, witch," Loren remarks rather bluntly to her, his expression twisted in a scowl. "But no. I see we have another here making an attempt."
He shifts his stance, his attention on Pearl, watching her carefully--
Until Tabitha strolls in.
Sideways.
His expression grows a touch drawn. So much for subtlety, he thinks, unkindly. Though if anyone were to turn too close an eye to his own artes, well...
He does not, perhaps, have the room to talk.
Then the assassin thrusts a hand his way. There is darkness, a different darkness from the sort Lily has favored, and though he makes a game attempt to batter the tendrils aside, a more, well, direct approach may have been better. The tendrils weave through his attempted parry and snarl and snare his body. He staggers a moment, his awareness of Ether that much more dampened. He wipes at his mouth, unable to entirely shake the sense he's still being touched. "Ngh... are you sure you don't know her? Her approach," and he straightens, rolling his shoulders as if he could shake the effect so easily, "reminds me of yours."
And then, quite simply, he is at Pearl, shifting to a twohanded grip before he charges her and swings for her midsection with the blade.
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Pearl with Meteor Break! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
Pearl's angle and strength are sound and frightening, respectively, as she kicks upward. The first kick is met with those large gauntlet-clad hands. It is only a successful defense in the loosest terms, for that single kick forces the Guado warrior's hands up and apart, the plating on the left one partially caved in from the force of that first kick which was meant for his very face.
It opens the way for the one to the throat to come in clean before he can correct this opening, and there is a gurgling met with a spray of saliva and blood. His lighter frame should suggest his balance be voided, to be ejected into the air - what's most chilling is that he is not moved from where he's struck, and it is not from any conscious defensive tricks on his part.
That is just how well-placed that kick to the throat is, that Gon momentarily freezes up like he were a statue before slackening to a kneel. Buckshot flies past him by a risky but well-aimed shot from nearby Violet.
The one in the dark-hued Al Bhed clothing has herself a casual conversation with the Maester's scribe (whom breaks the news that they're safe), and was that someone standing on the walls? Lily, assuming herself part of the team, asks key questions where Gon wants to say 'yes, but this is not your concern, leave.'
It instead comes out as 'gurgle, retch, gurgle, gasp, cough, cough.' It's the sort of wounding that ought to count him out of further participation in any sort of engagement to do away with the source of the greatest emergency to befall Guadosalam of any time he can recall.
Words can't come to him right now. He can only take in breathable air, which is both all he can ask for and is sufficient for coming back into the fight.
Were it not for the Otherworlders (and those attendants to Seymour present), nothing would have stopped Pearl from dealing a final blow right then and there. This man should thank their nosy ways for distracting her long enough that he can strike again, let alone draw breath.
He does not, because words are hard with a kicked-in throat, and also because he is a jerk. (It is more the latter than the former.)
Gon lowers his physical height by coming to a crouching stance as he steps underneath Belize's summoned Aeon. He starts swinging his claws in more of a 'digging' motion, aggressively trying to pry into Pearl's martial defenses with each strike.
GS: Gon Guado has attacked Pearl with Bite Bug Stance! GS: Gon Guado has gained 2 Combo! GS: Gon Guado has completed his action. GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Belize's Axe Kick for 59 hit points! GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Loren Voss's Meteor Break for 48 hit points! GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Gon Guado's Bite Bug Stance for 65 hit points! GS: Gon Guado assumes the Avenger stance!
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha's getting used to =Lambs= with the capacity to actually hit her, because it turns out that's WAY more of them than she was told was a possibility worth worrying about.
Case in point, the assassin in black grabs her mid-sequence and slams her into the ground, then proceeds to drill her in the face once, twice, Tabitha jerks her fist forward and misses, three times--
Tabitha slams her metal arm into the assailant's chest, lip curling. "Going for the ugly tricks immediately, are we?" she breathes, dangerously. "Very well."
Her arm begins humming dangerously, some terrible warmth gathering against the assassin's chest--
And then a blur shoots down from the rooftop and impacts the back of the assassin's head like a high-speed brick, a powerful, heavy object.
Everyone else can see it's...well it's hand-like anyway, but a good two or three times too large for a person's frame and made of a stoney material. It is clenched up in a fist. How the hell it got in a position to fall on the assassin's skull is anyone's guess, but Tabitha capitalizes by grabbing for the assassin's robe and moving for a headbutt. "Now kindly DISMOUNT," she commands.
GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Pearl with Manus Dei Descension! GS: Tabitha deVriese has gained 2 Combo! GS: Tabitha deVriese has completed her action. GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Tabitha deVriese's Manus Dei Descension for 39 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The assassin is nothing but not nimble. As Violet fires buckshot into the fray, Pearl twists her body so that the shot slams flesh and padding rather than bone and muscle. It hurts, but once again there is no grunt of pain. She seems to have experience dealing with ARMs, however. She responds to the shots by seeming to step back. From each step, a shadowy figure comes into existence, and suddenly, briefly, there are four assassins. They launch into the air simultaneously, and move to attack Violet from four directions. There's no point trying to guess which is the real one, as their feet all feel real enough.
The air around Pearl starts to freeze. She crouches low and pulls her arms up to guard. The ice tears up her guard, and slices her shoulder, neck and cheek. Blood trickles down, and she glares at Lily. There is a wave of her hand, and a series of small spheres of shadow magic shoot towards the mage in retaliation. There is disdain in the air, that much is obvious.
Belize decides to bring an Aeon to a kung fu fight. That gets a reaction from the assassin, as her eyes widen. The flow of the battle has changed now. There is a clear and present threat. Cambria's axe kick arcs down, and it takes all Pearl has to block it in time. She can feel her hands freezing under the blow, and she pulls back quickly. Ice coats her arms, and she shakes it off her. She lets out a growl, and charges straight for the Aeon, aiming to drive an elbow with all her weight behind it into the manifestation of Spira's hope. It's simple, but there is a brutality behind it. And, perhaps, an overwhelming feeling of hatred.
Thomas blade comes at her side, and Pearl lets it come, turning to brace against the blade with the heel of her palm, and being driven back but diverting the worst of the wound. And just like with Lily earlier, the assassin moves to try and grab the back of the blade before Loren can pull it back. And then she aims to use the blade as an anchor point to flip herself up before turning it into a falling kick at the back of Loren's head.
Gon's probing, biting strikes find some purchase against Pearl. For every one she guards, another slips past. The speed of his attack is brutal and swift, and Pearl finds herself having to use her own speed to match it. She doesn't have the natural agility of a guado, but years and years of brutal training to match. She waits for an opportunity in Gon's assault, and suddenly fires out with a fast, vicious jab to Gon's solar plexus.
And then Tabitha suddens a giant stone hand to attack Pearl from behind, and it knocks her off balance, allowing Tabitha to get that purchase on her robe she was after. Head meets head, and Pearl is knocked back. "I see you brought your toys." The voice is deep and distorted, when she finally speaks. She looks at Tabitha and, just as quickly, moves to grab her and return with a vicious headbutt of her own, aiming for Tabitha's nose.
GS: Pearl has attacked Violet Salazar with Needle Kick! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl has attacked Lily Keil with Inverse Barrage! GS: Pearl has attacked Belize with Fury Charge! GS: Violet Salazar takes a glancing hit from Pearl's Needle Kick for 51 hit points! GS: Break! applied to Violet Salazar! GS: Pearl has attacked Loren Voss with Violence Heel! GS: Pearl has attacked Gon Guado with Fury Jab! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Returning The Favour! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Gon Guado takes a solid hit from Pearl's Fury Jab for 140 hit points! GS: Belize guards a hit from Pearl's Fury Charge for 85 hit points! GS: Pearl assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Lily Keil guards a hit from Pearl's Inverse Barrage for 75 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Violet verifies that Gon is still breathing -- even if it's with some effort -- as well as she can from such a distance. She can hear him gasping and gagging, which indicates he's getting some air. The assassin is vicious -- not unexpected, as she's cornered and (probably) desperate. She is not without skills, however -- and, unexpectedly, four duplicates appear and kick at Violet.
These are no illusions -- their kicks do quite a bit of damage. Violet frantically backs away; she's a distance fighter, not primarily but exclusively! Best to be cautious now, she thinks. There are old Drifters and bold Drifters but no old, bold Drifters. As Violet pulls away, she tugs several grenades out of her pack and tosses them at the four assassins' feet. With luck they'll do some damage; failing that, they might serve as a distraction. Violet is hoping that this spell, or whatever it is, has a time limit. Otherwise she's outnumbered!
GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Pearl with Fire in the Hole! GS: Violet Salazar has gained 4 Combo! GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss critically Guards a hit from Pearl's Violence Heel for 23 hit points! GS: Tabitha deVriese completely evades a hit from Pearl's Returning The Favour! GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Violet Salazar's Fire in the Hole for 27 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
An Aeon--Lily's eyes naturally dart for a moment towards Cambria's presence, towards the familiar but still rare sight of the summoning. ...There's so much to the Art that she can't place--but she can't help but keep watching, for a moment, struck by the beauty of Cambria's magic more even than her form. To wield the ice so naturally...
"True," Lily admits to Loren about it being within her character. "But I have no fight with the Maesters." ...Some with Tabitha, naturally. It's very interesting, indeed, the way she moves. But--
"Never met her," Lily answers at the question. "And the effect is clearly different. ...But she does have an interesting style. I'm curious about it myself. I wonder if she'll stick around long enough to give us a reasonable sample size?"
She glances at Gon, at the gurgling. It's an appraising glance--she's checking to see if he's going to be ablve to breathe in a moment. ...But it isn't kind.
"That's new," Lily admits of Tabitha's hand--but she turns to Pearl again, having finished crossing more of the distance--her spell finishes, and spheres of shadow crash back towards her. Lily brings up her good arm, and a shell of darkness manifests before her, briefly obscuring her from sight as it absorbs some of the power of the counterattack.
"...It isn't just bloodlust," she says after a moment, frowning thoughtfully. "This feeling..."
She sets her jaw, shakes her head. "No, you're right," she says to Loren. "It is similar. I know this sort of power, even though I've never seen her style."
She straightens, and lowers her knife--wiping it against her jacket before she jabs it through her belt to get access to her good hand again. "You can handle ice. You know darkness. ...Let's see about bringing you into the light."
Her fist clenches, and there's a sizzle of burning fabric as the power she begins to collect, running gold in a strange aura about her hand, starts to burn through the garment completely. Her eyes flash golden, brighter for an instant--and she stares Pearl's way. There is no chant, no complex motion--
Save for a pulling gesture with her hand suddenly, before the very air itself above the assasin crackles as golden flame manifests--stranger than true fire, it slams in from each directions, suddenly freed like an arrow loosed.
There is more or less nothing natural about it.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Pearl with Hitze Crush! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Pearl completely evades a hit from Lily Keil's Hitze Crush! GS: Dispel reduces positive status durations by 3 rounds each! GS: Lily Keil's Avenger stance ends. She enters the Stoic stance!
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
What Gon accomplishes in a dozen strikes, Pearl deftly overcomes in one. One fist to the solar plexus.
One body, sliding against bumpy and uneven road by their heels, caught by a wall and leaving the warrior kneeling and sputtering anew.
The Guardians of the Guado largely are well-trained in which to deal with the Fiends in neighboring areas. Mortal agitators against the Yevon faith and sites where such hold strong are so few and far in between, that there is scarce any cause to test martial technique against other living, breathing people. Fiends are oft overcome with brute force, compensating for various factors like armor or flight, guided only by envy and hatred of the living - limiting the range in which to familiarize oneself with how an enemy attacks and conducts themselves.
Compare to the environs that have raised such a potent assassin, and it is no wonder that she has been able to overcome almost any warrior native to Spira that would dare stand in her way.
Even counting himself among the most experienced of his people, with a few dozen years of experience in fighting off Fiends and seeing to the well-being of Summoners that he had been assigned to, is pound-for-pound no match.
Gon's right hand rests against the ground as he sputters some more. All the strange things going on are a blur - that young woman's overly large hand that he would not see as amiss were it not for what it's clad in and the fact she is not Guado, numerous explosives being thrown that stand to do damage to the path hewn from living trees, the casual analytical discussions of the not-Al Bhed...
"Enough!" Somehow, Gon gets enough oxygen back he can put an exclamation mark in there, rising as his left hand rests against a wall. He wheezes. The dispassionate, stoic look oft perceived to be the only facial expression Guado are capable of give way to more livid, vibrant emotion.
It straddles the line between anger and terror, but is also terribly undignified as he rises and sweeps his right hand outward. "This assassin has struck against Maester Seymour! This is no time for you to make your countless inquiries!"
The air grows warmer as Gon brings his arms inward, quietly chanting forth as the air around him grows much warmer. The tell-tale signs of Althena's Blessing, of the element of Fire.
"Cease making sport of this emergency!" Gon snarls, heightening tensions as his body fights past its aches and ills brought about by what amounts to only two clean hits on his person, his body temperature rising as he harnesses heightened emotion in preparation for a renewed offensive as the aging Guado's eyes narrow.
GS: Gon Guado has attacked Gon Guado with Berserkga! GS: Gon Guado has completed his action. GS: Gon Guado takes a solid hit from Gon Guado's Berserkga for 0 hit points! GS: Burst and Hyper! applied to Gon Guado! GS: Mighty! applied to Gon Guado!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Summoning is... strange. At first, he'd taken it for some echo of the Guardians -- having first seen it used in Filgaia of all places -- but it has become clear, over his time in Spira, that it is rather more than that.
He watches Cambria's summoning out of the corner of an eye, but the bulk of his attention is on the Assassin.
Pearl, though he doesn't know her in that form -- or her name.
Just like that time they sparred, he is still clearly an amateur. But an amateur is someone still in the process of learning, and he is learning, even if there are still the defined gaps in his form.
He's still not quite there for fire, as the theory behind the Solarian style he only knows the concept behind due to his focused schooling put it, that moment between moments when the element that is all reaction rests.
And that's where Pearl has him.
It's on the follow-through, when her hand snakes in and grabs the blade, pulls at it, uses it as a pivot, arc overhead--
--Loren's left hand leaves the hilt and reflexively he raises it, twisting as she descends overhead--
--the stone on the bracer shines--
--the bracer that he had found in the golden hell of Linaweyul.
It can't actually be organic. But 'organic' is the word that possibly comes to mind first as the little protrusions on the sides of the gem shoot out, when the dark membrane (is that the right word? is that even remotely the right word) unfolds into a shape almost akin to a heptagrammic taloned wing about the gemstone.
Or, in other words, an unworldly arm-mounted shield.
This is what Pearl impacts on her descent, what deflects her heeled strike.
Loren draws back from her and her immediate vicinity and, after trading a stare at the thing on his arm and deciding quickly that now is not the time to wonder what Emperor-damned thing he's wearing on his arm, quickly takes stock of the room, the assassin, and the fact that she's just tried to headbutt Tabitha.
(Granted, Tabitha started this one.)
He exhales and there is, fleetingly (he reigns the full force in, as he's become accustomed to doing) an impression of green light around Tabitha, the full fractal form muted. It writhes as if under heat and pressure, before vanishing.
"...No, it's not bloodlust."
Is it hatred? It doesn't feel like hatred--
But he only has a few direct and indirect points of reference there.
"...So you've done this before," he remarks, something about the practiced ease slotting into place. "Sneaking into somewhere and killing. You've been doing this for a long time."
Strange shield still unfurled about his arm (he looks at it again and suppresses a shudder) he can only ready himself, prepare for whatever tricks she might try next.
This, of course, is when Gon has his outburst. "And you're not even the slightest bit interested in finding out who she is before we kill her." He takes a breath, as if to take stock of the Guado and the situation. "Very well then."
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Healing Function! GS: Loren Voss has gained 2 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
Oh, this is hardly as cold as Cambria Shiva can get. While Pearl does well to defen against her kick and then counter with an elbow slam. Cambria jerks back under the force of the attack... but she stands again, strong, implacable, as inevitable as the glaciers she represents. Belize, for their part, smirks at the sight of the assassin's eyes widening--serves her right.
Pearl isn't the only one with a lot of hatred caught up in this moment.
But even so, Cambria responds with Belize's will with unbreakable pride. Belize glances at Lily and Loren as they talk about the assassin's powers, then focuses. Cambria's nails shimmer as she waves a hand through the air--and the temperature where her fingertips indicate, over and around Pearl, plummet like a ten-ton anvil in the wake of Lily's absolute excitement of those very same air molecules. Despite no actual ice materializing--the sudden absolute cold might feel like the stab of a massive knife through Pearl's body.
Pearl speaks, if to Tabitha rather than Belize. They narrow their eyes. Something's wrong with that assassin's voice. Have they used some concoction or spell to disguise it? Tch--a natural precaution.
Gon starts flipping out. This is not unexpected, but Belize blinks at him all the same. "They have to do their inquiries now," they tell him. "After all--" They turn razor-sharp eyes back to the assassin. "--one can't interrogate a *corpse*."
GS: Belize has attacked Pearl with Boreal Plunge! GS: Belize has gained 2 Combo! GS: Belize has completed their action. GS: Pearl takes a solid hit from Belize's Boreal Plunge for 130 hit points! GS: Belize assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Loren Voss heals Tabitha deVriese! She gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper! applied to Tabitha deVriese! GS: Loren Voss assumes the Stoic stance!
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
There is a moment - an instant's breath - where Tabitha's strike dazes Pearl enough that they come out of contact with each other.
And in that half a second Tabitha begins falling backward, toward the far mouth of the alley and away from Pearl's questing hand. Tabitha pushes her feet down, turning the maneuver into a peculiar kind of half-controlled slide. She skids to a stop, shifting her stance fluidly as she does so. "A woman should always be prepared," Tabitha declares, pulling...a makeup compac, from sssomewhere!? She flicks it open and examines her face, tsking. But then her eyes cut up, sharply, toward the assassin who'd been working her over. "...for any game she means to play," she says, and goes back to fussing. She attempts to use the stump of her free arm to adjust her hair, to little effect.
Then the object that fell from above unfurls, revealing that it is, indeed, a hand-shaped...thing? A bright red gem in the palm blazes with a strange light.
Right around then is when Loren's healing lands, probably much to his irritation, and it seems to make her perk up. "Ah, much better. Many thanks, Thomas," Tabitha says, right before the hand releases a blast of gravitational energy which Pearl will find makes her feel very, very heavy.
"Nimble, don't you think?" Tabitha offers up. "And cold. Strikes designed for efficacy and damage. A focus on bare-handed strikes." she muses, clicking her compact shut. "Yes, that sounds like someone who does an awful lot of killing, don't you think, Thomas?"
GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Pearl with Graviton Tag! GS: Tabitha deVriese has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tabitha deVriese has completed her action. GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Tabitha deVriese's Graviton Tag for 44 hit points! GS: Slow! applied to Pearl!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Almost as quickly as they appeared, the shadows vanish, and one Assassin remains. As violet throws out the grenades, Pearl leaps back from them, and fragments pelt against her legs even as she misses the worst of the explosion. She growls, that feeling of disdain back.
Lily gets her attention next, the assassin coming up into a defensive stance. She pays attention as Lily summons power, and looks up to see the golden flame above her. There is but a moment where shadows surround the assassin, and then the magic slams into the ground where she was standing. Instead, there is a crater, the unnatural magic destroying the ground where the Pearl stood, the destructive power unleashed enough to ruin the ground below. But Pearl is elsewhere, as the cloak of shadows fades, and she is just on the edge of the crater, safe from the initial burst of the impact. "An interesting technique." She says, almost intrigued. "A shame it dies with you."
Gon, however, warrants a cold, derisive laugh. "Are you angry, old man? I wonder what type of fiend would come from the death of someone like you." The thought seems to amuse her, but she does nothing to interfere with the flames strengthening his body.
Loren is faster to react than expected, and her heel meets this mystical shield. This... is new. It doesn't seem to bear the same technology that the Filgaian's ARMs used. How interesting. "I shall have to tear that from your corpse." She doesn't comment on the observation that she's been doing this for a while, it seems to go without saying.
Cambria, however, is the threat here. The absolute cold chills her to her bones, and she can feel it freezing her. The sudden temperature differential hurts, and her whole body shudders. She doesn't cry out, but it's obvious that hurt. Her eyes shoot back to Belize's murder within them. Perhaps she has found her next target.
She feels the gravity surround her, and her movements slow. Her limbs feel heavier, more sluggish. It's something she has to fight against. She shakes her head. "Enough playing."
She shifts, ever so slightly, and suddenly she rushes forward and takes to the air. She flies into a kick towards Violet, corrosive purple ki flying from the foot, aiuming to infest the body and sap one's health. She launches off a wall, in a triangle movement towards Thomas with the same kick, then from another wall towards Gon, before landing in front of Cambria.
Shadowy ki surrounds her hamd, and one of the most well known of the Shadow Dragons techniques is launched at the aeon- a single open palm strike, right at the center of mass. The Shadow Dragon Palm, a murderer's tool designed to kill, either from the strike or from the vile ki entering the body. How it affects an Aeon will be interesting to find out.
She doesn't stick around for long, moving with speed, but not to close with Tabitha. Instead she keeps her distance, and summons more ki to her hands, and then thrusts them out in front of her. A beam of dark purple energy flies from her hands towards Tabitha, full destructive power directed at her, and the area around her, without a shred of mercy.
As soon as the attack ends, she is moving again, once more wreathed in shadow, as she launches into a flip then a falling axe kick towards Lily, in a vicious arc.
GS: Pearl has spent 1 Combo on Poison, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Pearl has attacked Violet Salazar with Shadow Dragon Kick! GS: Pearl has attacked Gon Guado with Shadow Dragon Kick! GS: Pearl has attacked Loren Voss with Shadow Dragon Kick! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl has spent 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Pearl has attacked Belize with Shadow Dragon Palm! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Pearl has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Shadow Dragon Wave! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl has attacked Lily Keil with Inverse Destroyer! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Violet Salazar takes a solid hit from Pearl's Shadow Dragon Kick for 188 hit points! GS: Violet Salazar suffers an additional 27 from Poison's Combo effect! GS: Poison! applied to Violet Salazar! GS: Jam expired! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Pearl's attack becomes clear! GS: Lily Keil guards a hit from Pearl's Umbral Ambush for 108 hit points! GS: Lily Keil enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss guards a hit from Pearl's Shadow Dragon Kick for 189 hit points! GS: Loren Voss suffers an additional 26 from Poison's Combo effect! GS: Poison! applied to Loren Voss!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Intent on trying to evade the four shadow figures, Violet can barely spare a glance towards Shiva. That must be...an Eon. Wasn't that the word? She hasn't time to recall properly right now, so occupied is she with the fight. Her tail swishes in consternation. She is vaguely aware that Gon casts some kind of magic on himself, that Loren manifests a mystic shield, that the Eon strikes with a blast of cold, and that Tabitha pulls out a compact for some reason, then assaults the ninja with magic. She hears Belize say "They have to do their inquiries now -- after all, one can't interrogate a corpse!" Belize is absolutely right, she thinks. They have to find out where this assassin came from. "Who sent you?" Violet demands, not really expecting an answer. The answer comes in the form of a flying kick, live with power, as the four illusory assassins dissolve. The kick lands solidly in Violet's midsection, knocking her back and down. Violet rolls into prone shooting position in spite of the pain, wincing, and fires her ARM straight at the black-garbed woman. She's not pulling her punches any more!)
GS: Violet Salazar has activated a Force Action! GS: Violet Salazar has spent 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Pearl with Finishing Touch! GS: Violet Salazar takes 28 damage from Poison! GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action. GS: Belize guards a hit from Pearl's Shadow Dragon Palm for 121 hit points! GS: Tabitha deVriese has activated a Force Action! GS: Tabitha deVriese completely evades a hit from Pearl's Shadow Dragon Wave! GS: Gon Guado takes a solid hit from Pearl's Shadow Dragon Kick for 173 hit points! GS: Gon Guado suffers an additional 25 from Poison's Combo effect! GS: Poison! applied to Gon Guado!
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
Cambria backtwirls when Pearl closes in with her Shadow Dragon Palm, raising one graceful hand and *catching* hers as she is braced against the floor. The Palm still sears forth its deadly ki, and Cambria does not block the attack without suffering damage, but--the Shadow Dragon Palm is a murderer's tool designed to kill. But what is there to kill in an Aeon, an entity formed by the dreams of the fayth? It's possible, certainly, to do enough damage to an Aeon that it dissipates into pyreflies... but there's no instakilling something that doesn't truly live in the sense that humans do. A ki that is deadly to life may not be as effective against unlife. That ki thus pulses, sending forth a destructive wave of harmful energy--but while it may force Cambria back several steps, shredding at her blue skin, she seems no worse off than if it had been an ordinary attack.
Interesting indeed.
Cambria snaps her eyes open, staring at Pearl as if through her soul. She leaps back, landing at Belize's side, and stands, her uninjured hand rising. The air mists for an instant before the ground beneath Pearl's feet freezes, and ice hails down around her in a strange, long shape. A final chunk of ice will fall down on her, as if slamming the lid down on something...
GS: Belize has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Belize enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Belize has attacked Pearl with Frigid Coffin! GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo! GS: Belize has completed their action.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
His Ether's affect on her is, in fact, much to his immediate and obvious irritation. This fresh from his recent strife and despair, seeing her be as herself cuts all the more deeply.
Which itself brings with it a wellspring of abject guilt, one that he has to tread on hard to keep from being dragged down into that dark sea. How can you think like that about someone who even tolerates being around you--
Shut up, is the best rejoinder he can give himself, and then there is no time to dwell internally anymore.
The external world has enough threat in it.
"Yeah. She's been trained for this. I heard someone talking about a cult of assassins lately," he remarks to Tabitha, leaving out the part where the person involved had her neck broken by them (it's fine; she's fine).
He mentioned it in a report. Which was... hand-written and so might have just gone unread when circulated, admittedly...
The shield is, frankly, different from just about anything on Lunar or Filgaia -- it's certainly not even the thing he thought it was when he picked it up.
"Tch," he hisses, when Pearl says she'll take it from his corpse. "I'm not going to die that easily. Not to you," he snaps, his grip tightening about his sword. He's got a long way to go before...
He shifts his stance, watching her, reading her movements. Trying to see which angle she's going to come at him -- or any of them -- from.
Where are the Maester's guards? Shouldn't they--
The power rolls off her body in such force now. He braces, awaiting a forward attack--
She leaps, coming in from a different angle than he anticipated; he shifts the shield, as if to deflect her this late in the game.
It... partially works. He deflects her, the force of her strike not just rolling across the unearthly shield but down his arm and rattling his bones..
He does not however deflect her infectious ki. It seeps past the shield, through it, into him. Loren sinks to a knee there and bows his head. It's... inside him...
He takes a breath.
This magic is not so subtle. It tangles out from him in a swirl of flat green fractal lines, running out towards an impossible point. Maybe it's reflex. Maybe it's the degree to which he intends to retain his role.
But he reaches out with Ether for those of Yevon, too, to restore, remake, and reinforce.
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
The nerve of that assassin, Gon internalizes. For all his years, he had never suffered such sass or backtalk up until all the Otherworlders arrived. The way that strange one with the swords and the red and blue serpents talked down to him has him comically livid. This level of conversational discourse among them, almost casual and even a weird sort of friendliness that sometimes marks their pitched battles, is beyond bizarre.
Pearl has the right of it without him confirming or denying.
"You can have your ridiculous banter with them at the Farplane," Gon growls out - but that would be a one-sided conversation at best, not that he intends to clarify that important caveat to Violet. Indeed, if they're going to wring out answers from Pearl, it'd have to be while she's among the living.
Pearl's flying kick, wreathed in deadly shadow, launches for him.
In normal circumstances, Gon can segue between the fiery rage of Berserk and the icy tranquility of Protect, running hot and cold in terms of approach and effect. He is one of the few Guado who have the capability to use White Magic, and is among the more potent users besides. Here, taken further and further out of his comfort zone, having a beneficial 'normal' constantly eroding day by day by day... he gives himself into the depths of the Berserk discipline.
He whirls into a spinning claw maneuver, arms outstretched, a touch early. Pearl would have to navigate a deadly steel whirlwind -
No, to say it as though there was a chance she'd flub that would sell her skill short. Her kick's timing is flawless, striking into the small of his back as the fell deadly power washes around and about the older Guado. Maybe she might get to see what sort of Fiend his pyreflies would give rise to.
It's a gambit for sake of momentum. The kick will launch him away, but he is still whirling. He might clip her leg, or even the rest of her, a few times before he is carried out of striking range and once again thrust into a wall where is aging, comparatively more delicate Guado body will once more suffer an injurious impact.
That's at least two cracked ribs, minimum.
He gets a more vacant look on his face as his eyes start to bug out, like something else were trying to seize and squeeze his heart into paste.
GS: Gon Guado has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling! GS: Gon Guado has attacked Pearl with Ochu Whirl! GS: Gon Guado has gained 2 Combo! GS: Gon Guado takes 22 damage from Poison! GS: Gon Guado has completed his action. GS: Loren Voss has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Extend! GS: Pearl has activated a Force Action! GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Violet Salazar's Finishing Touch for 77 hit points! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Gon Guado with Restorative Arc! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Belize with Restorative Arc! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Loren Voss with Restorative Arc! GS: Loren Voss has gained 3 Combo! GS: Loren Voss takes 24 damage from Poison! GS: Burst, Mute, Slow, and Surge expired! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: Pearl completely evades a hit from Belize's Frigid Coffin! GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Gon Guado's Ochu Whirl for 64 hit points! GS: Loren Voss heals Loren Voss! He gains 250 temporary hit points! GS: Restore reduces negative status durations by 3 rounds each! GS: Lock State! applied to Loren Voss! GS: Loren Voss's Stoic stance ends.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha can be accused of being a woman who pays little attention to her surroundings. She certainly seems oblivious to a great many things, at times, rudely focusing too much on things one ought not, totally ignoring things that should call the eye.
These accusations are false. Tabitha, setting her contact aside, observes the shining titan Belize has called forth, lips pursing with some interest even as she tucks a lock of hair behind her ear with her freed-up hand. That unique chi, blasting into it--
Then she notices the assassin's eyes turning on her. "Ah? My turn?" she breathes, noticing the ki gathering together. "What was the purpose behind this, I wonder? Those people you killed here. They've been here a bit. You waited. Luring us out? Hoping to kill the lot of us? Or merely sussing us out? Do you have an accomplice, watching? No, I suppose they'd have intervened by now...."
Her eyes cut to a sliver, staring as that ki gathers to a shining, devouring apex. "Which means it's bodies your after, hm?"
The roaring wave of Shadow Dragon power gallops toward her, ripping up stone and wood as it crosses the gap, and Tabitha makes no move to defend at all.
Except for that when it reaches her, she simply disappears, her figure flickering. Was it speed? Or something else? It appears like speed, an incredible burst of it as the Shadow Dragon Wave slams into the wall beyond the alley and pulverizes it.
"I do find you terribly interesting, dear," Tabitha says, from...somewhere? Up? No, she's not above... "But if you are here to prey upon the people, then..."
A rush of air. Tabitha folds out of the air behind Pearl, the stump of her arm pointed at the back of the assassin's head.
It's humming, loudly.
"I must--"
The next words should be swallowed by the cacophany of Tabitha's Ether Buster releasing a massive torrent of hyperaccelerated ether energy directly into Pearl's skull, but somehow, they ring clear.
GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Pearl with Keep Safe the Flock! GS: Tabitha deVriese has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss heals Gon Guado! He gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Restore reduces negative status durations by 3 rounds each! GS: Lock State! applied to Gon Guado!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Lily's attacker fades away, an illusion created to distract her. Instead, the real attack comes from behind, a lunging closed fist strike going straight for Lily's spine, but not, crucially, before Lily can get her defenses up.
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Panting and prone, Violet rolls away from the fray temporarily, digging in her pack for medical supplies. She hastily binds her wounds, noting that none of them need a tourniquet, though some may require stitches later. She may have a fractured left wrist, and her torso is covered in cuts and bruises. "I," she announces, "am getting too old for this."
GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Violet Salazar with Here's the Medic! GS: Violet Salazar has gained 2 Combo! GS: Violet Salazar takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Break expired! GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action. GS: Violet Salazar heals Violet Salazar! She gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Restore reduces negative status durations by 3 rounds each!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The hatred, the rage, all that resentment in the air itself--it's hard not for Lily's strange senses to breathe it in. But perhaps not only from Pearl. Lily glances to Gon when he shouts, wheezes. Her expression is sharp, as analytical as her words.
"Hmm," Lily considers, listening to his instruction, his tense snarl that is accompanied with the unmistakable feeling of flame. She has dealt with few white mages, in the end--it is different, distinct from the sorcery of Vane she knows, for instance.
Also different: the strange shield Loren uses.
"Quick," Lily replies to Pearl, and gives a humorless laugh in return. "Not the first to tell me that. But I don't die as easily as that." A beat, as she glances to Gon, "If you'd rather, I can leave. After all, I'm not being paid to help catch your assassin. I just thought I'd help my gracious hosts."
Her eyes check over Pearl, noting the fact that she's speaking more. Was there a change? ...Either way, even facing this disparate set of powers, things clearly alien to this world... It doesn't slow her down.
The hatred of the Shadow Dragon in the air jabs at Lily's senses, causing her lip to twitch as she otherwise suppresses her reaction--but she doesn't get the chance simply to observe, after all. As she turns to make her next move--Pearl, this time, is much faster. Lily is not a small woman--her style is more endurance and power than nimbleness.
That vicious arc, wreathed in shadow, rushes close--and Lily can see in the last instant that there is no way to evade the attack; she feels the way the shadowy energy tears at the fabric of the air itself, seeks blood. Her eyes sharpen, suddenly--
Her attacker fades. Lily senses the real attack behind her, and she does the only thing she can, quickly--
"Haaah--!" The commando turns sharply, there being no time to evade, bringing up her left, injured side. Instead of her spine, her injured left arm takes full brunt of a hammerblow from a closed fist. With an awful crack--no, more than one--Lily herself is knocked to the side and half-spun, hitting the ground hard, and it's best not to look too hard at her new injury for most.
"..."
There's silence, from where she is, for a few moments; the crates and barrels into which she falls clatter about. "...It's not that I blame you for being mad," the witch's voice comes then, slightly strange. Lily's eyes are closed, as she props herself up on one knee. She's focusing--Ether pulses towards her, once. ...Twice. It's as if a vortex is starting to form. Loren, for one, has seen it before. But, it's different--
Because her teeth are clenched, her lips pressed together, as she works to control something. After another moment, the weight in the air around her starts to dissipate. "It's cruel, to enjoy something like this; not to understand the gravity of it. You're right, to be mad." She rises, and her other arm remains limp. "...But I admit..."
Her eyes open, featureless spheres of black without iris or sclera. "...I don't like you."
Breathing in, Lily takes a step forward--and a second--and at this point she has climbed stairs that aren't there, because her next steps are into the air, not on the ground. "I'm trying to keep this low-key, but..."
She raises her good hand; purple light is already shining about her form, strange patterns shining from beneath her armored clothes. There's a sense of watching, before the air darkens. There's a sense of pressure, and a point in the air near the assassin implodes, a sphere of dark pressure colored almost like a photonegative--but that's the first. The second is closer. They intensify quickly, one after the other, until the final bursts into being and grows into something too dark to look at directly--
GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil has spent 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Pearl with Hexenhammer! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Tabitha deVriese's Keep Safe the Flock for 87 hit points! GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Lily Keil's Hexenhammer for 88 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Violet opens fire again, and the bullets clip, even as Pearl contorts her body out of the way. Committed as she is to the attack on Lily, she can't break free entirely, and bullets embed into her shoulder. It twists her off from the attack, and she rolls back. Another burst of magic flies from her hand, and those spheres that burst into Lily earlier go flying for Violet with speed.
The graceful maneuvers of Cambria catch her hand, even if the Aeon does not go completely unharmed. She feels the chill on her arm, even as her hand is released. She notices, moments before it is too late, the mist freezing at her feet. This is not something she can move out of the way of unaided- so she turns to aid. She flings her hand out and a grapnel flies past, locking into the wall and pulling her clear from the icy coffin that could well have spelled her doom. Even she can't help but look at the trap of ice, before refocusing on Belize and Cambria. Pearl releases the grapnel, and uses her momentum to keep travelling toward Cambria, and drive her arms into the Aeon's neck, before aiming to deliver a powerful double knee to her chest, and ideally kick off. The Shadow Dragon's power may not kill an aeon, but enough damage may do the job.
Loren's diversion from attacking does not go unnoticed. Pearl is not able to do anything to stop it, however. The healing Ethers are something she doesn't have skill with. But she doesn't let him sit in safety, her hand arcing out in a claw shape, slashing at his chest with cutting ki, brutal, painful, and if anything designed to give someone a slow death, if the attacker has such an opportunity.
Gon's reckless spinning strike connects, and draws more blood from the assassin, raking across her stomach. That attack should make most people cry out in pain, but it gets little more of a grunt. Whatever she is, pain tolerance seems to be her forte. Even as Gon goes past her, though, she thrusts a hand out and aims straight for Gon- it doesn't matter where. Ki pulses through her body and towards his, not to do damage- but instead to wash away those magics that had been placed on him to strengthen himself and protect him.
Tabitha's questionable relationship with gravity serves her well, and Pearl loses track of her. That, it seems, makes her angry. She tries to scour the battlefield for her, and is only a half second fast enough that she notices Tabitha coming from behind her. She pulls her head to one side, and rolls, the ether buster blasting into her shoulder and sending her rolling. She rights herself slowly, dangerously slowly, and looks back at Tabitha. Pearl releases a bolt of shadow magic at her, a single blast of dark magic flying her way at speed.
And then she feels something all too familiar from Lily. Not the same, not something she has direct experience, but something familiar. The weaponising of hatred. The darkness moves to swallow her, and it steals all light that seems to enter it. Speed, and her own limited magic, are all that save her from it's full strength, and the scars of the magic are easily seen on Guadosalam. The assassin is looking battered, but not beaten yet, despite all the power unleashed on her. But the battlefield has started to shift. She runs straight at Lily, aiming to deliver a sudden, violent attack on her. This is not the strongest she could bring to bear, or the most accurate. Instead it seems more to try and push her away. This attack is more about positioning.
GS: Pearl has activated a Force Action! GS: Pearl has activated a Force Action! GS: Pearl has attacked Violet Salazar with Inverse Barrage! GS: Pearl has spent 1 Combo on Link, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Pearl has attacked Belize with Fury Rush! GS: Pearl has launched an attack Link! GS: Pearl has spent 1 Combo on Headshot, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Pearl has attacked Belize with Shadow Dragon Fangs! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl has attacked Loren Voss with Inverse Claw! GS: Pearl has gained 2 Combo! GS: Pearl has attacked Gon Guado with Shadow Purge! GS: CRITICAL! Violet Salazar takes a glancing hit from Pearl's Inverse Barrage for 99 hit points! GS: Pearl has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Darkness Bolt! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss heals Belize! They gains 400 temporary hit points! GS: Lock State! applied to Belize! GS: Belize guards a hit from Pearl's Fury Rush for 74 hit points! GS: Belize critically Guards a hit from Pearl's Shadow Dragon Fangs for 36 hit points! GS: Tabitha deVriese takes a glancing hit from Pearl's Darkness Bolt for 59 hit points! GS: Pearl has attacked Lily Keil with Shadow Assault! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil guards a hit from Pearl's Shadow Assault for 74 hit points! GS: Gon Guado takes a solid hit from Pearl's Shadow Purge for 0 hit points! GS: Ruin purges all positive status! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Gon Guado!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Destructive magical spheres fly right at Violet and strike true. They rip into her body, arms and legs, leaving her bleeding and starting to go into shock. Still on the ground, she desperately crawls away, clutching her ARM. She is done for this battle. Maybe her companions can take the assassin down, or at least find out her motives, who hired her (if anyone did). Violet didn't dare die here. The dead coagulated into monsters, consumed with rage and envy of the living. She'd seen it for herself, fighting her share of monsters -- they were called "fiends" here. Her greatest fear was being stranded in some afterlife away from her dear deceased husband. She wheezes, willing herself to live, to continue. If she can find a safe spot to rest awhile, she can examine and tend her wounds. Not for the first time, she wishes she could work magic. But there's no use in wishing, no more than in praying. At least Maester Seymour had survived the attempt on his life...
GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss guards a hit from Pearl's Inverse Claw for 96 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
Strange green lines of an energy and discipline unknown to Gon - or to anyone in Spira for that matter - reach him just as breathing starts to crest the cusp of being impossible, bringing a hand up to his chest. (He can't clutch or squeeze it because he'd carve those metal claws right in there, but he wants to... clutch and squeeze it, one should clarify.)
"Ngh...!" The healing Ether goes through him, cleansing out the residual shadowy ki and the pain running through his abdomen is now only recent memory. So recent a memory it feels like 'now' until he moves at all, turning a gaze towards the scribe, wordless. His mind is trying to catch up to his body no longer being as grievously wounded, looking all the buffoonish for once again needing to clutch a wall to stand and rise as Lily asides to him with her own sharp tongue.
"You would disguise imposition under the auspice of charity," he says to someone who is of the means and ability to unmake and mend at a level of proficiency nearly unprecedented, words of defiant strength undermined by once more falling to a knee. He doesn't get the last say on Lily, who tells him what right he has to be mad and speaks plainly about how much she just does not like him.
He has all of two seconds to say anything to that, any affirmation, any retort, as an angry glare comes from the older Guado. Two seconds are up, and Pearl ensures Lily has the last word on that as she slams a palm at about chest level again, sandwiching him between the wall and her hand.
The healing energies from a 'mere scribe' dissipate.
The latent warmth in the air gives way, the space surrounding him and Pearl seeming all the chillier by comparison as he once more starts to slump. In better physical shape on the whole, but enervated.
Tabitha gets her off of him. Lily further demonstrates her power as she seeks to envelop the assassin in a darkness that hurts for him to look at directly, enough that he feebly puts a forearm between his eyes and that darkness like he were shielding it from a bright source of light instead.
It's sort of pathetic.
Staggering up, Gon weaves as though he were out of his depth (he kind of is) between powers and means misunderstood and suspicious. He can see the further impositions being woven by the Otherworlders already. 'You couldn't do this, so we'd better, and you have to let us.'
"The nerve..." Gon whispers, as if already playing out this fearful fantasy as he comes upright, finds just enough strength to leap up into the air on high. A source of light catches on his right claw as he descends...
...and swipes downward in a wide angle, resembling a crescent moon, as he attempts to land just beyond Pearl as he stands upright further, right arm raised and crossed over his body.
"Moonflow Blue Crescent." He states the technique name plainly. As if this technique, this culmination of his martial skill, were a last ditch attempt to salvage some dignity and posturing over what has proven to be a superior technique by a far stronger foe, standing arrogantly with his back facing.
GS: Gon Guado has attacked Pearl with Moonflow Blue Crescent! GS: Gon Guado has gained 3 Combo! GS: Gon Guado has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He's aware, if distantly, that Lily is letting loose. If he looked her way, he would have that confirmed. But he has other things to which to attend.
If he looked at Tabitha, he would have another confirmation of what is about to come. But he doesn't look.
He glances up. At the assassin before him, instead. Blue eyes widen.
Up comes that strange shield, at the very last moment possible. His arm, again, shakes under the impact, the ki largely but not entirely deflected.
This is a bone-deep ache, one that lingers in spite of too-recent healing upon himself. He breathes out, then rises, moving away from where he'd been. He needs to get around her, somehow. Needs to strike at her from the right angle--
Because he's not dying here.
Loren's gaze tilts at the bracer on his arm.
Does this... thing retract again? It's going to get in the way if it's stuck like that. He stares down at it, as if to will it to do something. Come to think of it, it had been when he'd tried to guard with it that it had... come out. Taking up the sword, he grips the hilt again with both hands.
The 'membranous' shield slides back into itself with unsettling organic ease, until all it is is a bracer with a stone in an unusual setting.
He notices for the first time the pattern on the metal. Like... blood vessels...
Loren decides to stop noticing that, gritting his teeth as he stares the assassin down instead.
His eyes narrow.
"Just die," he says, before breaking into an all-out run for Pearl. At the last moment, he swings the blade overhead for her, putting all his weight and strength into the blow and underlining the moment with a wordless roar.
GS: Loren Voss has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Loren Voss has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Pearl with Extinction Edge! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: Pearl takes a solid hit from Gon Guado's Moonflow Blue Crescent for 171 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak! applied to Pearl! GS: Gon Guado's Avenger stance ends. GS: Pearl completely evades a hit from Loren Voss's Extinction Edge! GS: Pearl enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Slow expired! GS: Loren Voss assumes the Avenger stance!
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
The smoke clears. The 'stump' that Tabitha has been hiding with silken wraps and a mix of ribbons and leather bands is not an actual stump of an arm, nor a crude metal cap or simple prosthetic. The terminal is a barrel-shaped cannon, tapering down to a narrower muzzle at the end; the main body is a reflective and flawless black, marked by a single band across the wide meridian of a bright red. The silk wrap she had been using has completely vaporized at the end she'd covered the muzzle with; it's smoking faintly.
"Hm," Tabitha says, watching Pearl with sharp, cold eyes as the assassin cuts away. "Alive, I see."
Her eyes track up while Pearl deals with Thomas - she hardly glances at anyone else this time - and her lips flatten down to a displeased purse. She jukes to the side to attempt to escape the blast of shadow magic but finds it tags her shoulder anyway. She flinches, but her feet set, watching Pearl move as she weaves onward to deal with Lily. "Ah, our lioness has realized who is the hunter, I think," she murmurs, with her lips curling upward now. "Then..."
And then she leaps into the air; soars, in fact, a gust of wind left behind in her passage. She used a similar movement in the spar with Thomas and Ena, soaring high. But this time she's not holding back her powers; with gravity in absentia she flies high, too high, above the rooftops. She whirls, bolts of light blasting down toward Pearl from her cannon. But as she passes above something...shifts.
Being on the ground there is a sudden powerful sense of weight, as if some invisible force has linked the ground and sky, and is pulling the heavens themselves downward. Tabitha suddenly accelerates toward the ground at phenomenal speed, leg outstretched and eyes ablaze, lips peeled back. "I'm afraid I'm not a woman who gives up easily, dear!" she calls down in a taunt, just before her impact with the ground and hopefully also Pearl cracks the wooden floor.
GS: Tabitha deVriese has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Tabitha deVriese has attacked Pearl with Inversion Reversal! GS: Hyper expired! GS: Tabitha deVriese has completed her action. GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Tabitha deVriese's Inversion Reversal for 78 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The violence at hand is significant--and it serves for Lily to show the power of this strange style of fighting as well as the endurance of the Aeons that the Summoners call forth. The things meant to fight Sin itself.
Lily remains hovering in the air for a few moments, as she watches the darkness fade; at first she doesn't answer Gon's charge, busy as she is with all of this. The assassin is still moving, still strong... and her magic is already leaving scars on the city's wood. She can see it.
Pearl runs at her, and so the witch rolls with the blow; seeing its intent, she focuses on defending rather than opposing, lets herself be knocked out of the way where she comes to another half-crouch, at one knee, one good arm still up.
"...No," Lily answers. "If I thought I had the right to tell you all how to live, I'd be doing it, like the Guard are. I'd be striking from the shadows at your leaders, your power structures, trying to destabilize your rule so that someone more agreeable to my sensibilities could take over."
"I'm trained to, you know. Back where I come from, I was a soldier. A medic. But you're right. I'm not really doing it out of charity. ...I was just bored, and curious."
"...And I don't have the right to play with the lives of others as my pawns, either. It would make me no better than..." She turns, looks towards Loren, for a moment, shakes her head, and rises. She stands on the ground, again, eyes still blackened, as she lifts a hand. "...All I'm doing is destroying. I'm not building anything here. I'm just... passing time, and letting it be worse for my presence."
She looks into nothing, for a moment--and then to Pearl, battered, before she shakes her head. "A roving destroyer," she murmurs. "...I used to build things, didn't I...?"
Lily lifts her hand the rest of the way; the shimmer now is laser-red, piercing, with a strange purity to it that is unnatural but sharp. That redness blossoms red-pink-white as it exudes from her, as it exudes from her allies fighting, who may feel a will forcing flesh to mend, to adopt a proper state.
She lowers her hand, and stares black-eyed at the aftermath of the battle as it still happens--and turns, beginning to step away, towards the edge of the city where the Thunder Plains await. She doesn't move towards any of the combatants in play anymore, at all.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Tabitha deVriese with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Loren Voss with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Gon Guado with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Violet Salazar with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Belize with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Burst and Surge expired! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Lily Keil heals Belize! They gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Lily Keil's Stoic stance ends. GS: Lily Keil heals Loren Voss! He gains 125 temporary hit points! GS: Lily Keil heals Violet Salazar! She gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Lily Keil heals Tabitha deVriese! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
Enough power may defeat an Aeon, but Pearl will have to use more than what she's been using to do so singlehanded. Cambria staggers when she drives her arms in and leaps off of her, but an Aeon doesn't need to breathe, being not truly human, let alone alive. Others might have been crippled by such an attack; Cambria shakes her great head of dreads and straightens again.
"Enough of this," Belize utters, low and tight. Loren's power glitters down on the Aeon, and Belize gives him a tight nod of thanks before Lily then does the same thing. Any damage that Pearl had done on Cambria? Now gone. One can only imagine how frustrating that must be to the assassin.
Which is how Belize wants it. They turn a long, concerned frown at Gon, but say nothing--this behavior is... well, normal for him. And they certainly understand how he feels after Maester Seymour was nearly killed... When others insinuate they've gotten Pearl figured out, that's good enough for them. Light and power flash from Cambria.
Ice falls. Layers and layers and layers of ice, the building of a glacier over centuries, sped up to encompass a single moment. It builds and builds and builds around Pearl, 'til it seems it might bury her alive--
And Shiva Cambria reaches out. And *snaps* her fingers.
The glacier *shatters*--and if it doesn't shatter Pearl with it completely, its shards and fragments might well shred and crush her, as a glitter of ice dances in the air.
GS: Belize has spent 2 Combo on Gatling, including 2 on Gatling! GS: Belize enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Belize has attacked Pearl with Overdrive - Diamond Dust! GS: Belize has gained 2 Combo! GS: Belize has completed their action. GS: Pearl completely evades a hit from Belize's Overdrive - Diamond Dust! GS: Lily Keil heals Gon Guado! He gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Where no opposition is provided, at this point, there is no kicking while people are down. The assassin ignores Violet for the moment. Instead, she runs afoul of one Gon Guado, his scything slashes across Pearl's chest, and sending her stumbling backwards. Careless. Her reaction is rough, and she breathes heavily. She shall have to repay the the guado for this, and some time soon. But not tonight.
She does not stay still long enough for Loren to get a second strike against her. It's a far more evasive move than the last time. She does not intend to counter attack, instead leaping wide and building distance. Every movement so far has been about building distance. Every opportunity she takes to not counter attack pushes her further and further towards her exit.
Tabitha catches on, and opens fire. The bolts force her to move where Tabitha wants her to. Pearl can see that she's being herded, but is not in a position to do anything about it. The descent is swift and brutal, and Pearl can do all she can to avoid being in the locus of the damage. There is a powerful crunch as Tabitha impacts the ground, and by extension, Pearl's foot, that she is not able to get clear. In spite of this, she continues moving, swinging out with her grapnel to get her clear. She will have time to correct them about who the prey is in this scenario another time.
It is then that the threats that are Cambria and Belize reasserts themselves. The air freezes around her. Layer and layer of ice builds up around her. The grapnel is nearly fully pulled in now, but she won't have a chance to fire it again and get clear. She needs something else to get her clear. She looks toward her enemies. No. The wrong direction. Instead she turns her head and upper body, and looks toward the heart of Guadosalam. She extends her hands...
And fires off a blast of Ki into whatever and whoever might be there, using the energy to push herself out of the reach of Cambria's powerful magics. She sails past, near the center of town. She lands on a broken foot with little more than a wince, and then she turns grey and indistinct as the shadows surround her.
A moment later, five shadowy figures leap away in different directions. One towards the far plane, and one back towards the moonflow and the refugees. One back towards the Maester's home, and one towards the homes of civilians. And one towards the Thunder Plains. Once more, there are screams- from panicked refugees seeing an attacker come from them, from a guard whose spear goes through an attacker and they keep coming. From a shopkeep seeing someone coming for them. In a few moments, the shadows are gone, but which one was the real one remains to be seen.