2020-05-25: A Minor Incident
- Log: A Minor Incident
- Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Kamui, Marivel Armitage, Venetia Vuong, Claude C. Kenny, Ashton Anchors, Seraph Clarine, Zed, Gwen Whitlock, Seraph Ragnell, Ben Lyon, Riesenlied, Polynya
- Where: Kattelox City - Downtown
- Date: May 25, 2020
- Summary: An affiliate of Guild Galad's School of Mineralogy has run into some problems, and turns to one of their colleagues in Aquvy for assistance. What sort of problems? Odessa problems.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
It's a pleasant summer evening in Kattelox City. The sounds of seabirds carry on the wind, forming a backdrop to the bustle of traffic. The breeze is cool, and lightly-tinged with the scent of salt.
Rene Cheng is not enjoying the scenery at all. He's not enjoying much of anything at the moment. The College of Mineralogy alumnus stands in front of Kattelox's library, a four story building made of grey stone and red adobe tile. To even the most casual observer, Rene is clearly nervous, and trying desperately to hide it. He stands beneath a streetlamp, fiddling with some small metal object--it has the distinct gleam of fossilized Hyadean tissue. He wears a crimson half-mask, a colorful red-and-gold shirt, and black slacks. He's talking to someone--to Venetia Vuong. They've already gotten the pleasantries out of the way.
"Now, I sincerely apologize for calling you out here on such short notice," Rene says, "but--things have taken a turn, and I don't know... that is, I feel the options it presents me with are somewhat limited. I'd hoped that you and your colleagues might provide me with the resources I need." Rene clears his throat. He has the general demeanor of someone who is about to launch into a lengthy explanation because they feel it necessary to soften a blow somehow, or perhaps make circumstances sound more favorable than they are.
"You know the 'Wayside' site, yes? Beneath a little frontier town, never made the journals, not spoken of as anything more than rumor? Well, I did a little digging, and it turns out that someone affiliated with Everstead-Rey filed for salvage rights. This was over two years ago, mind, but they haven't done anything with the site since. Now, you'd think this would be a shoo-in for Eastbridge, since their Chair of War antiquities is--or was--friends with Adam Everstead-Rey, but..."
Rene smiles, mirthlessly. Above him, the salvaged light fixture flickers to life, casting him in a bright white glow. "No one's seen or heard from Doctor Bridges in a year. No sabbatical, official or otherwise. No family business. Not even that pointless rivalry of his. So I got to thinking--what if I were to ask them, ingratiate myself with them, work with them on this dig site they've yet to develop."
There is a point in here somewhere. Rene is taking his sweet time reaching it.
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui is... 'present', but... well. She's, um, about as far from present as present can be, because she doesn't really know anyone in the area talking about important business or knows any of the business, honestly!
No, instead, she's here to measure something else equally important about Kattelox, which is to say--
"U-um, manager sir, there's someone perching ontop of the library weathervane," whines a hapless librarian girl to a manager in the background.
Ah. There's only a handful of people that could be...
Indeed, Kamui is perched up in Full Tracula (tm) outfit, because it seems like that kind of day. A cloak of darkness and crimson billowing in the ephemeral Kattelox winds, cravat and double-breasted jacket worn very crisply.
She looks towards a little notebook she's hiding in her palms.
"So, this is the time of 'Destiny' won't be denied..."
A pause, as she looks towards another line.
"Hmm. Maybe 'So, she vascillates in the blood of 'heroes'...?"
A longer pause.
"No, there must be cooler lines to say when standing atop of high places, mui!"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel...
...is hiding in a shadow taking proud pictures of Kamui with a camera while she is posing on the wethervane.
She's been very lovey dovey lately towards Kamui. As in, lovier and dovier than normal.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"Oh it's fine," says VENETIA VUONG, HERO OF COLLEGE. She waves her hand with a fond sort of airiness. "We can't really do anything until we get the answer back from the foundry and it's mid-year break."
Rene explains matters. Venetia listens with her arms folded. She nods along.
She nods along again.
She nods along a little more firmly.
She finally says, "Yes - yes, I understand, Eastbridge -"
Venetia's growing dudgeon is defused by the reference to Eastbridge, for as every child knows: Uck Feastbridge; even so, her lips are thinning, and she waggles her hand in front of her. "So you want access to this Wayside place, eh? Introductions and so forth? I think we can make that happen, but what are you aiming for here? Exploration, excavation?"
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny is on the rooftop watching Marivel watchi---
No, he's not, that would be dumb. He is instead walking out of a college library for the first time in his life,* having taken down a bunch of notes on Guardian stuff Cecilia was interested in. He is rubbing the muscles of his right hand, flexing them slightly as he moves down the steps toward what appears to be... a small press conference? Claude tilts his head, then frowns. No, they don't have those here. Too many people with guns.
So he instead walks up behind Rene, unbeknownst to the academic, sort of peering over his shoulder and trying to figure out what the fuss is about.
* - Considering Claude C. Kenny possesses a bachelor's degree from an honest-to-goodness space university, this is quite an accomplishment.
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
Let's be honest - sometimes, Ashton just shows up places for no obvious reason.
It's part of being a sellsword - frequently he simply IS somewhere, and when asked why he can only shrug and vaguely use the word 'mercenary' in a sentence. Occasionally he'll also use the term 'client privilege' to avoid naming names. Half the time nobody even asks him as he simply shows up in the oddest places because the answer is obvious and unhelpful.
Of course, on this occasion there's also the ARMS badge in his pocket that might explain things given the others nearby, but generally asking him why he's anywhere is non-helpful (and that's before going into all the reasons that involve dragons.)
In this case the more apt question would be why he was slowly moving down the street nearby, kicking a can in a slow, methodical path towards a recycling bin. (His answer in this case, if asked, would be 'It's a Kattelox thing', which helps no one.)
Never the less, this does place him nearby and - in his odd mind - gives him a perfectly legitimate reason to be in the area without looking like he's observing anything or anyone and certainly not is around as emergency back-up.
Of course, there's also a number of bystanders staring at him because it's an armed, Symbol-covered man in armor with a pair of dragons sticking out of his shoulders playing soccer with a soda can.
Look, you don't hire Ashton for subtle, and if you do it's your own fault.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine, is, at the moment...
...Not technically anywhere! At least, that anyone can see. It's getting late. Clarine gets most of her energy from the sun, after all, so with the sun setting and without any pressing matters to attend to, she has a tendency to get kind of sleepy! And so, she can currently be found napping safely within her vessel, presently safely in Kamui's possession.
But even so, she's still vaguely attentive and aware of her surroundings in the way all Seraphim tend to be within their vessel. It comes with the territory of being not quite a physical presence.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Bridges is missing!?" Says a particular shock of green hair that seems to have emerged from a nearby piece of museum-grade pottery. It has a big red eye on the front end for some reason. Could it be... a reaverpot?
Well, no matter. Zed seems to have been hiding in it. And now he's not! Ninjas, they'll do that-- hiding in things, that is. "That's weird-- I could have swore that I returned him to Ida ages ago...! Though I was... experimenting with human alcohol at the time. So maybe... I forgot...??"
FLASHBACK.
ZED, CHUGGING A BOTTLE OF VODKA, NEXT TO A CERTAIN PROFESSOR BRIDGES. He's narrating a powerpoint slideshow presentation, as presented via an actual slideshow projector. "And so in conclusion, DON'T USE OUR BONES AS GUNS! Also is it normal to feel existential despair crushing every thought after the third bottle, or does it normally set in only after the fifth?"
Professor Bridges, his eyelids wedged open like he was in some kind of movie about ticking fruits, can't reply on account of the mouth-gag.
RIGHT NOW.
"...Huh, that would be bad... But I'm pretty sure I gave him back to Ida. Weird..." The real question is...
What is Zed doing a pot!?
(Ninjas gonna ninja)
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia glances at Claude over Rene's shoulder and smiles at him in a small, professional way. Her arms stay folded.
"This is Zed," she states after Zed makes his statement. "He's an aspiring student."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Rene executes one last pocket-watch fidget, and tucks the device back into his waistcoat. "Yes," he says, to Venetia. "That's what I wished to do. Now, as I am not a corporate assayer, I cannot comment on the process of surveying a site for purely material gain. But I was certain that both the College and the Everstead-Rey Company could benefit from mutual aid. And this was--"
A can scrapes along the sidewalk. Rene gives Ashton a wide-eyed look that lasts far too long to be comfortable for either of them. "I'm sorry," he says, as much to Ashton as Venetia. "Circumstances have been... difficult. But it's nothing I can't deal wi--"
Zed emerges from his pottery and nearly takes several years off Rene's life in the process. The scholar's face goes sheet-white, and he clasps both hands to his chest, as if trying to keep his heart from leaping out. "God and Granas," he says, once he's found words again. "Venetia, are these--please tell me these are perfectly-trustworthy Drifters." Pause. Rene processes what Zed says, and looks like he's about to choke. "You--you--it's true, then! He was kidnapped by the demons!" The color still has not returned to his face. "Please, I beg of you, if you have any decency, I--I was only going to--there's a live Metal Dragon there. In Wayside. If Odessa gets their hands on it, then--"
Odessa? What does this have to do with Odessa? Could this be the point, at long last?!
"They found out I wanted to survey the site," Rene says, turning to Venetia. He sounds like a man confessing a grievous crime. "They came to me, told me it was in my best interests to 'work with them'. What--what else could I have done--?"
Darkness pools at the edge of the floodlight. An animate shadow stretches upwards, coalescing into a humanoid shape--the familiar outline of a tall, well-built woman in a mask and cloak and salvaged Hyadean armor. Rene feels the presence behind him, whirls around, and screams in terror.
"I see you've led us right to her," says Polynya. "Two birds with one stone, as the say...?" She plucks a Crest Graph off her right bracer; it gleams a brilliant blue-white as the power of Muse flows through it. Atmospheric water condenses on the ground, freezing Rene's boots in place. "We just need the two of them," Polynya says, to those behind her. "Do what you will with the rest."
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
A certain redhead (the other one) flinches back as a SUDDEN GREEN-HAIRED NINJA seems to appear from a pot, as ninjas do.
Why, it's Gwen!
Gwen.... is wearing glasses. Not because she needs them, or because she wants to explore a whole new world of attention by being 'the strawberry blonde with the glasses', but because-
She's laying low.
She's also wearing a nice high-necked blouse, fashionable pants, and a dark jacket with a matching hat, with riding gloves to complete the look.
It's not enough to keep people who know her from recongizing her, but someone looking for the picture drawn on her wanted poster? Not as easy.
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
There is a scream of terror!
"Ah, yes... there it is! The howl of twilight that curdles the moonlight, into so much whey and curd!"
A pause, as she tilts her head.
"But, does that mean the moon is made of cheese, mui?" A longer pause, as she exasperatedly smacks her open palm with her fist. "I should have tried taking a bite out of Spira!!"
Kamui is looking a bit disgruntled. She hasn't noticed mom taking a picture of her, and would probably be equal parts embarrassed and chuffed, to be quite honest.
"Clarine... do you hear it? I think there is trouble brewing," she calls to the Seraph.
She hops--!!
An afterimage trail flows smoothly behind her as is the wont of all Traculas, and she three-point lands in the direction of the door.
"Unhand them, villain!" she declares, before-- realising the door is closed.
She hurries over and shoves the door open with both hands.
"The Daughter of the Night hath arrived! Everyone freeze and hold your hands up! Anything you say will be used in a court of law!!"
A pause, as she rubs her chin again.
"Wait, no, that is a police procedural line, not a Crimson Noble line...?"
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Rene executes one last pocket-watch fidget, and tucks the device back into his waistcoat. "Yes," he says, to Venetia. "That's what I wished to do. Now, as I am not a corporate assayer, I cannot comment on the process of surveying a site for purely material gain. But I was certain that both the College and the Everstead-Rey Company could benefit from mutual aid. And this was--"
A can scrapes along the sidewalk. Rene gives Ashton a wide-eyed look that lasts far too long to be comfortable for either of them. "I'm sorry," he says, as much to Ashton as Venetia. "Circumstances have been... difficult. But it's nothing I can't deal wi--"
Zed emerges from his pottery and nearly takes several years off Rene's life in the process. The scholar's face goes sheet-white, and he clasps both hands to his chest, as if trying to keep his heart from leaping out. "God and Granas," he says, once he's found words again. "Venetia, are these--please tell me these are perfectly-trustworthy Drifters." Pause. Rene processes what Zed says, and looks like he's about to choke. "You--you--it's true, then! He was kidnapped by the demons!" The color still has not returned to his face. Venetia's words seem to take the edge off this revelation, but only somewhat. "A student? At--at the College? Please, I beg of you, I--I was only going to--there's a live Metal Dragon there. In Wayside. If Odessa gets their hands on it, then--"
Odessa? What does this have to do with Odessa? Could this be the point, at long last?!
"They found out I wanted to survey the site," Rene says, turning to Venetia. He sounds like a man confessing a grievous crime. "They came to me, told me it was in my best interests to 'work with them'. What--what else could I have done--?"
Darkness pools at the edge of the floodlight. An animate shadow stretches upwards, coalescing into a humanoid shape--the familiar outline of a tall, well-built woman in a mask and cloak and salvaged Hyadean armor. Rene feels the presence behind him, whirls around, and screams in terror.
"I see you've led us right to her," says Polynya. "Two birds with one stone, as the say...?" She plucks a Crest Graph off her right bracer; it gleams a brilliant blue-white as the power of Muse flows through it. Atmospheric water condenses on the ground, freezing Rene's boots in place. "We just need the two of them," Polynya says, to those behind her. "Do what you will with the rest."
DC: Heal Berry switches forms to Crest Sorceress Polynya!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"It's true," Zed says of his academic status, "I am working on my MS."
It stands for 'Master of Swording.'
But it seems that Zed's reputation preceeds him! "Hrmph!" the Hyadean turns his nose right up. "Still calling us demons, are you!? You should count yourself lucky that I do not turn my ~demonic powers~ unto you as I did to your colleague!" His demonic powers... of powerpoint, apparently. "But-- a metal dragon, you say? It could be one of Riese's... If it's under the village, then it's probably Dva's? I can't remember if she had lost it in the waterway or not-- but you don't want to go down there anyway! The thing that was hidden down there... It tainted the place. And now..."
A familiar chill runs down Zed's spine. A blue spark glimmers across his brow. "This pressure... No! A trap!"
Zed... springs out of the pot. His blade scythes out of its sheath, and Rene sees it arcing right for the top of his head!!
Except... Zed is aimed for the thing behind that head. Because there's a sorceress there. "It's the Cat-lady! You, tainted one! What do you want with one of our dragons!?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Zed? An aspiring student? Sounds fake.
Another shadow lurks in the vicinity, specifically on the roof of the library overlooking Rene and Venetia. That shadow listens to the conversation below, particularly when it turns to Wayside and a Metal Dragon that was found beneath the old site of the experimental town. The shadow taps its chin. A Metal Dragon... could it be...?
Either way, once Polynya makes her entrance, that shadow vanishes in a flash of lightning, then reappears behind the Odessa soldier to reveal Ragnell. "Just those two, huh?" She arches a look towards those Drifters surrounding Rene and Venetia. "Don't 'spose y'all'd just turn tail an' let those two come quietly with us, wouldja?"
A beat. Then she roars with laughter and draws her twin pistols. "Jus' kidding! We all know each other better than that."
<Pose Tracker> Ben Lyon has posed.
The aim had been to get in, get the feel for things, then, as soon as he had the opportunity to attempt it, force an encounter and end this.
The reality, naturally, had proven to be a little more difficult.
It's probably because he had (unintentionally) stood out at the meeting. That's why they'd tagged him to this assignment. And it wasn't as if he could complain about it. After all, 'Ben' is a true believer--
Even if Loren Voss would really rather not be helping them.
But sometimes in order to win the war, you need to lose the battle. ...Or, something like that, anyway. There's probably an appropriate proverb, but right now, standing just beyond Polynya atop the roof--
--The has other things to worry about.
Things are abruptly underway. Scanning the crowd, 'Ben' -- red-haired, freckled, sans glasses -- looks just about like any other member of Odessa's rank and rile. There are a few familiar faces down there. Maybe he'll get lucky, he considers. With some of them it might be better if they did fall here.
"Hurry up and die," he suggests then, hefting the heavy rifle.
There's... something familiar about Polynya, though. No, not even the use of the Crests, as familiar as he has become with those lately. But he can't put a finger</finger> on it.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"Yes, yes," Venetia assures Rene. "I know these people, mostly, at least by reputation. Please, be calm." She glances towards Zed then, brow knitting as she puts together three and six and gets nine at what he is saying. He saw Bridges? Her eyes turn downwards, lips pouting in thought.
And then things rise.
"-- You-- You told THOSE people about WHAT? Dinoginos's beard, man, every other time I hear of that damn place it's a refugee camp! You're going to send Odessa after them? They'll chop them up for roast like cuccos off their laying!" Venetia says to him, her head tilting back.
And then tension rises. Venetia turns her head to look at the arriving people. Behind her mask her face blanches. There is an authentic and genuine fear reaction -- sliding out of a shadow, it reminds her too much of -
Of the damnable THINGS and SHADES and WHISPERS lurking in that village, lurking in cask load lots in Armitage's manor --
No, Venetia tells herself. Enough of this. Her face tightens. She sucks in a deep breath through her teeth as Ragnell appears. She forces herself into this. It takes effort. It is not arduous effort, but there is a mental clean and jerk to convert fear, anxiety, and tension into anger.
"You challenge my precious alum with a battle of Crests?" Venetia says as she turns to face towards Polynya. "And you come wearing armor, like a coward without confidence or art?"
Venetia spits on the ground and reaches into her satchel for her bronze rod. "I accept your challenge, and I'll BEAT SOME MANNERS INTO YOU, WOMAN!" The rod is held akimbo as she flicks out a Graph from within the bag.
"CAEMENTUM!" Venetia all-but-bellows, the bronze Crest Graph twinkling violet as a streak of energy slides outwards, forming a loose cone that overlays the ground directly beneath Polynya's feet, and if she isn't fast, lets her discover the pleasure of having that ground time-lapse sped-up wet cement -- and then dry equally fast, as if the ground itself thirsts for feet with an almost Tarantinesque enthusiasm.
"Welcome to the Mineralogy Guard," Venetia states flatly, albeit addressing Zed, Claude and at least 66% of Ashton. "Break their bones!"
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"It's true," Zed says of his academic status, "I am working on my MS."
It stands for 'Master of Swording.'
But it seems that Zed's reputation preceeds him! "Hrmph!" the Hyadean turns his nose right up. "Still calling us demons, are you!? You should count yourself lucky that I do not turn my ~demonic powers~ unto you as I did to your colleague!" His demonic powers... of powerpoint, apparently. "But-- a metal dragon, you say? It could be one of Riese's... If it's under the village, then it's probably Dva's? I can't remember if she had lost it in the waterway or not-- but... maybe it's that one... The one that-- but you don't want to go down there anyway! The thing that was hidden down there... It tainted the place. And now..."
A familiar chill runs down Zed's spine. A blue spark glimmers across his brow. "This pressure... No! A trap!"
Zed... springs out of the pot. His blade scythes out of its sheath, and Rene sees it arcing right for the top of his head!!
Except... Zed is aimed for the thing behind that head. Because there's a sorceress there. "It's the Cat-lady! You, tainted one! What do you want with one of our dragons!? The one that you're after... You don't want it! It's not in its right mind anymore!!"
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny returns Venetia's tight professional smile with a broad grin. He even waves, even thought she's like twen feet from him and couldn't possibly miss him. He opens his mouth to say something ---
And then closes it when Polynya pops up, along with what is probably a sizable contingent of Odessan fighters. "Well, that's not good," he says conversationally; he gives Venetia a sideways look as she commands him to break her bones, because for a second there she sounded... He coughs, and edges toward the scholar Rene, whose feet are - quite literally - frozen in fear. "But hey, don't worry, there's some folks here who'll protect you. Just sort of relax and try not to look like something worth shooting."
Claude draws a sword from his belt - a rather simple, straight-bladed, two-edged arming sword that is far less well made than others his assorted comrades and acquaintances have seen him use. It's just sort of... decently made rather than particularly good. It is, however, the first sword Claude has made with his own two hands that is good enough for him to use in a fight. He takes up a defensive position near the scholar, then frowns as he hears another familiar voice.
"Wait, Rags, is that you?" Claude asks aloud; he scans the area, but he can't see a damned thing. "Look, I dunno what you want with this dude, but you probably want to let him go. I heard him talking earlier, and he was going ON and ON and ON. I'm sorry, but you were," he asides to Rene. Claude turns back to address Ragnell (actually about four feet to her left). "Seriously, he was trying to explain the Wayside stuff or whatever, but he used so many long and boring words that I think he could literally talk someone to death."
...
"I'm saying he could kill you even with a precis."
...
"I guess that would make it a... summary execution?"
...
Claude leans in toward Rene. "Is she nodding? Can you see invisible people?" he asks. "I can't see her. Like, I need to know if she's buying it."
GS: Zed has attacked Polynya with Miracle Strike - Phantom Bite! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Polynya with Opus Caemticium! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
Ah ha! Perfectly timed! The foul agents of Odessa reveal themselves, and Ashton's in the perfect place at the perfect time!
"What you need is of no concern, villain!" He strikes a pose, as if somehow he was revealing himself as a surprise out of his cunning disguise. Ashton tries to sell it anyway. "You are not welcome here and will leave the poor innocents here alone!"
There's the sound of multime ARMs chambering - and Ashton pulls his blades. And then he hears Claude speak. Ashton... groans. "Claude, she isn't-- I mean it doesn't-- there's-- Argh! Fine! I'll solve your problem for you!"
Ashton plants his left foot and draws his right leg back. "You may be at a disadvantage, but that is overcome by some friendly help and an attitude that says - CAN DO!"
His right leg swings like a pendulum, putting the arch of his foot squarely into the can that he's been dribbling along for the last several minutes. It wobbles through the air towards Ragnell - both the can and the bright red juice it contains.
Claude may not be able to see the Seraph - but Ashton can mark Ragnell.
GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Red Hot Can Shot! GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action. GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Seraph Ragnell with 104th Century Smack Talk! GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 2 Combo! GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
The door Kamui dramatically opened...!!!
...
Was not the library at all. She has flung open the doors to a terrified diner, of which the scream she heard was someone expressing unadulterated, joyous passion at a bowl of cream chowder.
"...!?"
MISSION COMPLETE...?
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied was not, exactly, privy to the conversations of others, but she had been attending Kattelox nearby; when she heard the scream of terror coming from the library, she came as fast as her leg-braced legs could carry her. Immediately, the scene is already set for her--
Polynya, once more, and Venetia; Zed, Claude, Ashton and at least a number of Odessan guards, and...
"R-Ragnell?" she gasps, in surprise. "Why..."
But the woman in Hyadean armor in front of her is of more pressing concern.
"Polynya, please, stop this! What more do you want from these people?" she questions, the feeling heavy in her heart.
GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a solid hit from Ashton Anchors's Red Hot Can Shot for 37 hit points! GS: Seraph Ragnell guards a hit from Claude C. Kenny's 104th Century Smack Talk for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Loud sounds bring Clarine out of her nap, and into full attentiveness. She studies the surroundings. If she currently had a face, she would be frowning right now.
"...So it would seem... I shall keep a look out." Clarine replies, as Kamui speaks to her. There's a feeling of movement as Kamui hops from her perch - Clarine emerges mid-flight, a ball of light floating out of the necklace she carries with her and coalescing into a human form.
She lands on the scene...
"Kamui, I shall-" Clarine starts, raising her hands and preparing a Seraphic arte. ...And then pauses, staring at the blinking outline of where she expected Kamui to land.
Clarine pauses, blinking.
"...Ah."
It would... appear they noticed entirely different sounds.
But even if Kamui isn't here right now, Odessa is, and among them...
"Ragnell!" Clarine says. "I will admit, I did not expect to encounter you here..."
She looks between the rest of Odessa, then. She recognizes Polynya from the train, but the other...
She doesn't seem to recognize Ben at all. His disguise seems to be working pretty well on her.
"Odessa... I am unsure why you are here, but please depart." Clarine requests. It probably won't work, largely due in part to the fact that fighting is already breaking out.
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Riesenlied with Let's See a New World Together! GS: Riesenlied has gained 1 Combo! GS: Riesenlied has completed her action. GS: Riesenlied heals Riesenlied! She gains 125 temporary hit points! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Riesenlied receives 50 temporary hit points. GS: Riesenlied enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Cripple and Mute expired! GS: Riesenlied has attacked Riesenlied with Let's See a New World Together! GS: Riesenlied has gained 2 Combo! GS: Riesenlied has completed her action. GS: Riesenlied heals Riesenlied! She gains 125 temporary hit points! GS: Ben Lyon has adjusted their boss level for 2 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
awww, Marivel thinks, Kamui is the best. But she best not reveal herself or--
--oh shoot. Polynya. And Ragnell?? Geeze. She looks over one shoulder and--
--wait where did Kamui go?
"Kamui?"
Pause. Blink.
"I'm...sure she's fine." Marivel says beofre hopping down and pointing a finger towards Ragnell, smiling. "It has been a while, Ragnell." She puts both hands in her pockets as she approaches. Ragnell gives out the sass and she adds, "Aw, you've gotten to know us a bit..."
She looks away for a moment and adds, "I had to decapitate a kinsman not so long ago so I'm a bit frustrated. You're the sort of kind soul who will help me satisfy that, aren't you?"
She then extends a hand and--
--summons a LIBRARY BOOK above Ragnell's head and it falls towards said head rather quickly.
"Huh. Usually it's a pail." Marivel adds.
GS: Polynya takes a solid hit from Zed's Miracle Strike - Phantom Bite for 128 hit points! GS: Cripple! applied to Polynya! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Augmented Aport! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Polynya takes a glancing hit from Venetia Vuong's Opus Caemticium for 25 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Polynya gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Disrupt! applied to Polynya! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Augmented Aport for 67 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper! applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell peers at Zed when he claims to be working on his MS. However, given that combat is imminent, she doesn't have time to question him on this. In the long run, it doesn't *really* matter, anyway.
A Gwen is also present! If Ragnell recognizes her through her disguise, she's kind (?) enough to pretend not to. She does glance her way briefly before Riesenlied shows up on the scene, gasping her name. Clarine speaks to her too. "Yep, I sure am here," she tells them both. "You didn't? You knew I was workin' with Odessa. Well, I guess if you weren't expectin' to get jumped by them, you weren't expectin' to get jumped by *me*." That might be news to Riesenlied...
"Sure is," Ragnell tells Claude, despite his failing to make eye contact with her. It's fine, really. Even Alisha managed to fight her pretty well back when she could only hear her, so Claude will probably do all right too. Probably. As for Claude's attempt to bullshit her, well, he's at least rewarded with raucous laughter at his 'summary execution' joke. "Oh yeah? How about that! Well, *you're* still alive, so I think I'll take my chances. *Letter* rip!"
Clearly, no matter who wins this fight, everyone loses.
Ashton rushes to Claude's rescue, sort of, by way of kicking a can full of juice Ragnell's way. Instincts take over, and she shoots the can out of the air--but since it has juice inside, the can kind of explodes and splatters her all over her poncho anyway.
"...shoulda thought that one through," she admits, wiping off some of the liquid. "Ah well, so it goes."
A wild Marivel approaches! Ragnell bares a grim, toothy grin. Great. Her favorite non-person. "Mmm, frustrated, huh? Sure, I could bring you to *satisfaction*--" she purrs... right before a book appears out of nowhere, right in her blind spot, and clonks her on the head. She hisses, then quickly inspects her hat for damage--then summons a line of crackling lightning before her, which she fires in pieces at Claude, Ashton, and Marivel in return with a few rapid shots. "--but I don't want to," she snaps.
GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Shock Lancer! GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Ashton Anchors with Shock Lancer! GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Marivel Armitage with Shock Lancer! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Claude C. Kenny takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Shock Lancer for 120 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Shock Lancer for 118 hit points! GS: Ashton Anchors guards a hit from Seraph Ragnell's Shock Lancer for 81 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
'there's a live Metal Dragon there. In Wayside.'
"...!" It was a distant memory, of cold water and tendrils. Of the way Gwen talked to it with soothing words, as she charged her ARM. The odd thread of sympathy, though Gwen now wonders if a part of it was a strange distorted thread of empathy. "... Zed's right," the bespeckled redhead says quietly. "I could've told you a thing or two 'bout why it needs to be left alone. N' that's just the Dragon, and doesn't say anythin' 'bout the place *over* it. Damn it..." She takes off her glasses, wiping some tears from her eyes. "How'd people deal with these things? But yeah, this is..."
And here they come. How does the saying go? 'Speak of the devil...'
One face is to be expected, one is unfamiliar, and the others is -
"Ragnell." Ragnell was *there* the second time Gwen went to Hadal Temple, along with K.K., of all people. But again, that may be why Ragnell is here in the first place: to intervene from the inside. She, of all people, would know why some things to be let to lie in the depths, whether in mountains or below cracked earth. "...." To say any more would give away that level of trust, whether misplaced or not.
So when people voice their disbelief or bemusement, the courier keeps her lips firm and.... completely changes her focus to- yeah, this guy! With the gun. That Gwen does not recognize at all.
"How 'bout you shove it?!" Gwen redirects her anger and frustration at the stoic newcomer, tugging off one riding glove to reveal the gleaming metal of her ARM hand beneath. "Ain't the only one with a gun here!!"
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ben Lyon with Crackshot! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Ben Lyon guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's Crackshot for 71 hit points! GS: Cripple! applied to Ben Lyon!
<Pose Tracker> Polynya has posed.
It's too late for Rene to protest--to tell Venetia that he didn't know the place was a refugee camp, just some backwater village, abandoned after an inexplicable catastrophe that glassed everything just like Lost July. Was it more work of Vash the Stampede? Rene doesn't know. It's the furthest thing from his mind right now.
The closest thing: he is literally stuck between an Odessan sorceress and his dear schoolmate, and both have their hearts set on violence. Rene scrunches down into as small a ball as he can manage with his feet frozen to the ground. He covers his head with his arms, and closes his eyes. "W--what?!" he stammers out, as Claude starts asking him things.
Someone may want to get him to safety, just in case.
Zed's blade passes over Rene's head. It slices through the thread holding his cuff buttons in place, sending them springing free. The strike carries through to Polynya, who reacts reflexively--she reaches out with an open palm to deflect the blow, but isn't quite fast enough. The blade traces a line down her left bracer, shearing through the metal and cutting it free in a single stroke. Metal Crest Graphs spill to the ground. Beadlets of red well up in the gap in her armor.
The cobblestones beneath Polynya's feet seen to take on a life of their own, turning to thick cement and drying in heartbeats. The Crest Sorceress finds herself in much the same situation Rene is--frozen to the spot, Crest Graphs half-embedded along with her feet. Polynya's lips pull tight in a snarl, but a familiar voice catches her ear. She looks over Zed's shoulder, at Riesenlied. "I have my orders," she says. "Your expertise is necessary. That Dragon, and whatever else lies in that forsaken pit--" Polynya strains, but cannot pull herself free.
She takes a different approach. She whips another Crest from her remaining bracer, which flits up into the air of its own accord. Atmospheric moisture flash-freezes under the weight of Muse, forming a half-sphere shell in front of her. The air in front of her likewise begins to crystallize--water, sweat, and other fluids on the skin of those nearby start to freeze solid, forming jagged and vaguely floral shapes.
Venetia Vuong, noted Crest Sorceress, would recognize that as an unorthodox application of Wing and Muse.
GS: Polynya has attacked Polynya with Frost Phalanx! GS: Polynya assumes the Stoic stance! GS: Polynya heals Polynya! She gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Polynya has activated a Boss Action! GS: Polynya has attacked Riesenlied with Frost Flower! GS: Polynya has attacked Venetia Vuong with Frost Flower! GS: Polynya has attacked Zed with Frost Flower! GS: Polynya has gained 2 Combo! GS: Polynya has completed her action. GS: Riesenlied guards a hit from Polynya's Frost Flower for 85 hit points! GS: Venetia Vuong critically Guards a hit from Polynya's Frost Flower for 31 hit points! GS: Zed takes a glancing hit from Polynya's Frost Flower for 73 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"That's too bad." Marivel says. "Because I'm very...famished."
The lightning slams directly into Marivel before she can move--that's the thing about Ragnell. She's lightning quick and fast on the trigger. Smoldering, and burning from where she was hit, the fully garbed and shrouded Marivel sinks into a crouch for a moment and says, "Well, that is a rough hit. Is your light shining brighter now? Impressive, impressive... But..."
Marivel stands up slowly and extends an arm.
"Let's say that one didn't happen." She snaps her finger--
--and in the span of a moment, the wounds vanish from Marivel's body--and Claude's and Ashton's wounds fade as well--as if Ragnell's attack was simply...erased.
"Since that particular hound has been taken of, a bit of Time sorcery can't hurt."
Her lips edge just above her scarf--
--and she runs her tongue along her fangs.
"Hehe...well I'm just kidding. I'm not going to bite without permission."
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Marivel Armitage with Canceller! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Ashton Anchors with Canceller! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Canceller! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Marivel Armitage heals Marivel Armitage! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage heals Claude C. Kenny! He gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Ragnell mentions to Riesenlied that she's working for Odessa, which gets a more shocked expression. "I--I see..." in a way, she should have seen it before, knowing that Ragnell's affiliation is rather free like the wind... and ontop of that, she's used to infiltrating groups by working for them.
"... I know you can take care of yourself. But, please..."
Ever soft for Ragnell even when she's about to fight them.
Gwen speaks of how it needs to be left alone -- the 'Dragon', the place over it... and what Zed was speaking of either--
"There was a Dragon in the Temple... but it was not one of ours, Zed," Riesenlied speaks to Zed. "No, that Dragon was likely left there within the earth for a long time along with the ship that became the Fereshte..."
And, from what she recalls, affected by the strange influence that had embedded itself upon the site, and the Temple.
Polynya speaks up. She has her orders, and her expertise... is necessary? "That place is extremely hazardous, Polynya. It must not be disturbed any longer!"
"Ngh--" Riesenlied is ready to throw up her own barrier too, but Polynya's power instead becomes a half-sphered shell of ice, threatening to freeze her. This is bad. She isn't very good against the cold...
"I must rely on the techniques Father taught me at a time like this. Please, gather..."
A soft flash heralds the arrival of her fragile-looking crystal sword in her hand. There is but a moment of focus, before the Ley erupts in a light-blue mandala underneath her feet.
She may not be a Crest Sorceress like Venetia nor Polynya, but Ley Channeling ultimately can be described as a raw, instinctual version of the learned, practiced Crest Magic.
"Guide me, Father!"
She thrusts-- and what emerges may be recognisable as a ghost-like, silhouette version of Glumzambor, flying towards Polynya's icy shell.
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Polynya with Ley Artes - Sieg Impulse! GS: Riesenlied has gained 1 Combo! GS: Riesenlied has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
"Look, I know the technical term is Surfer or whatever," Claude C. Kenny complains to Ashton, "But just calling her an invisible person is good en---" He blinks as Ashton commits a minor act of petty vandalism, and also technically mild assault. "Okay, now she's an invisible person with a laundry bill," he mutters. Then frowns. "Hey Rags!" Claude shouts. "How come your clothes are invisible too? Also, could you get back to being invisible by taking your clothes---
Mercifully, a whole bunch of lightning cuts short this line of inquiry; Claude C. Kenny is forced to just take it, stepping in front of Rene and gritting his teeth. The energy discharge slams into the big blonde swordsman, which hurts like the dickens and also, as a consequence, sends his fine locks sort of sticking up in multiple directions.
"Rkhhkhkhkh," Claude sputters through gritted, chattering teeth. "Right, I... forgot she could do that." He regards the giant slab of metal in his hands with a sort of weary resignation, then passes his sword back to Rene. "Here, just sort of... stick the pointy end in the bad guys if they get super close," he suggests while running off. "OH, AND DON'T TRY TO CUT THE LIGHTNING WITH IT, THAT DOESN'T WORK GOOD!" Claude offers over his shoulder.
He is helping.
A few strides away from Rene, however, and Claude is all business; his expression hardens as he breaks into a run toward Ashton, and some person he doesn't know, and a person he knows a bit who is kind-of-sort-of visible. Long legs and powerful strides eat up the distance quickly; Marivel will hear the sound of heavy stompy steps pounding on the cobblestones from behind her, even as she summons Time sorcery to close her allies' wounds. Her reward for this kindness is to hear a soft 'excuse me' from behind her, followed by the legs, then butt, then rest of Claude C. Kenny entering her field of view as he literally hurdles over her. Claude lands without breaking stride; blue and yellow sparks dance around his fingers as he steps in toward Ragnell and throws a punch. Then two more punches. Then four more. Then eight.
By the time Claude gets to thirty-two, there's not much point in counting any more, because it looks like punches are on clearance and the boy from Earth is looking to move a lot of stock.
GS: Claude C. Kenny spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Meteor Palm! GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ben Lyon has posed.
Just as expected, all hell breaks loose below. 'Ben' glances once over at Ragnell, then at Polynya.
He wasn't even supposed to be here today, he thinks, distantly, in that moment after.
Which of course is the moment when Gwen more or less rounds on him (so to speak) where he stands still atop the roof, and takes a shot at him. He lifts the massive rifle in an attempt to use it to parry, but this has a sort of mixed effect: the bullet doesn't hit him as such but it does impact the rifle solidly, a fact which he recognizes in the moments following. His initial instincts were in this case a huge mistake!!
"Great," 'Ben' mutters, scowling at the damaged ARM. Well, fine. He'll just roll with this.
(He... doesn't usually handle ARMs these days, and certainly not anything so sizeable. Outside the Gear, that is.)
Leveling the damaged rifle at first Gwen and then that other woman, the one who asks him (well, Odessa in general) to please depart.
Clarine may take this moment as her realization that she can indeed be seen.
And with that, he leaps down to the streets below, conjuring a fast burst Ether in a flash of white to absorb the impact as he lands. Done quickly, it's unlikely anyone here might 'see' it for what it really is.
Particularly with the air exploding into bursts of ice all about them.
But remaining on the roof, while it has its advantages, also makes him an easy target for snipers from below. Particularly with his practical non-Gear-class ARMs experience. And particularly with a damaged rifle.
But down here, he can make them hurt.
GS: Ben Lyon has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Standard Odessa Rifle! GS: Ben Lyon has attacked Seraph Clarine with Standard Odessa Rifle! GS: Ben Lyon has completed his action. GS: Seraph Clarine takes a glancing hit from Ben Lyon's Standard Odessa Rifle for 39 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
The lighting pierces through Ashton - he grits his teeth but otherwise seems to be barely put off by it. Marivel's actions a second later pre-empt anything but him quipping. "*Shocking*," is his only comment.
Then he glances to the side. "Ah! Lady Valeria, what an unexpected surprise! Though I should say that if you're looking for a hound..." The two dragon heads on his shoulders rise up. "I believe I can be a bit of a cerberus for your serv...erus."
Never use that joke again.
Alright, alright, I admit it wasn't my best.
Getting to the actual fight, he watches as Claude gives up his sword - AGAIN- and just leaps in punching. "Oh for the Sword Saint's sake." He shakes his head. "KENNY YOU BUFFON! CATCH!" Then Ashton hurls one of his two swords through the air towards Claude. Again.
This one, he doesn't expect to get back. Again.
WHY do you keep giving him your weapons?!
Not the time! Get to it!
For once Weepy stops arguing when asked and does indeed get to it - blasting a wave of chill ice breath at Ragnell. Aiming at foot-level for the extra irony.
GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Ben Lyon's Standard Odessa Rifle for 64 hit points! GS: Shield! applied to Ben Lyon! GS: Marivel Armitage heals Ashton Anchors! He gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Ururun's Ice! GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia is pleased in an obscure and psychological way that Claude is both willing to join them in battle and was waving goofily at her. She has an ego, and that kind of thing strokes it. Of course, she is somewhat less pleased at this talk about a -
- summary -
Venetia's lips crack in a smile even against her better judgment. Somewhere a tracking value increases by a total of 2.
A moment later she is subjected to a variation of WING and MUSE alike, the air seeming to chill swiftly as condensation forms into agonizing flowers on her skin. She grits her teeth, looking towards the newly arrived Riesenlied for a moment and saying through the tightness of the sudden chill, "Ah, tis the Wayside lady herself. Rene, congrat-t-tyulations -"
Venetia stomps the ground once. "GAH! Enough of this! You and your goon squad are outnumbered and outmatched - whatever trickery or obscure art you used to infiltrate here has failed! I'm going to shuck you out of that armor like a shrimp and by all the Guardians," Venetia steps forwards, "for once in this miserable planet's life we're going to get to the BOTTOM of -"
Another bloom of ice makes her flinch. "Hngh! This technique's clever of you, but you lack courage if you're hiding behind your fossil armor! Let me show you what true art looks like!"
Did she practice these lines? (yes)
Another Crest from her pouch. She taps her palm with the butterfly-like shape of the rod's head. The magic flows with its usual crystalline sparkles - Venetia raises the rod a bit, forming a shape... which solidifies into what looks a lot like pottery. No, not pottery: some kind of naturally accreted shape, much like a geode before you crack it.
"Whatever lies in that pit is going to stay there," Venetia tells Polynya, "if it isn't better suited to help the living. But it's not going to be your concern!"
Venetia lobs the object. It sparkles as it tumbles through the air. Venetia aims to land near Polynya's foot - and the sparkles turn into a glow a moment before
BANG! Glittering shrapnel, crystals tipped with magnetite blades!
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Polynya with Apple Grenade! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Hey! That's not very nice! If anyone has salvage rites on what's in Wayside, it sure as heck isn't you--" A wave of killing cold washes out from the hostile sorceress. Zed clicks his tongue and whirls, tearing the atmosphere around him to shreds with rapid strokes of his blade. Claude would recognize the technique as a modified sort of Air Slash, and everyone else would clearly see a twice-hackneyed version of Demon Fang.
Disrupting air currents can only get him so far, though. A creeping cold races across his arms, carving thin, silvery gashes into his limbs. "And who exactly is giving you these orders, huh? Is it that monster that lived down there? Maybe looking to retrieve some of its toys--"
Suddenly, there is a Riese. Zed double-takes and almost staggers into a desk, but instead manages to backflip onto it like it was totally intentional all along. "Riesenlied, you're in Kattelox too...!?"
Zed's eyes widen. That technique she used... "Heh! I'm glad to see you're feeling well enough to fight like that again! It's been way too long! But you're not the only one who picked up new tricks...!"
"Doom Bringer!" The swordsman leaps from his perch, his will focusing about the length of his blade. An iridescent aurora of silvery-blue-yellow light shines in its wake, somehow alien and nostalgic all at once. Zed's leap transitions into a somersault that unfolds into a devastating overhead chop, scattering a storm of starlight sparks. "Remember with me the light of those distant stars! If this sorceress wields eldritch ice, then let us fight her with foreign fire! Hah-hah!!"
GS: Zed has attacked Polynya with Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Seraph Ragnell guards a hit from Ashton Anchors's Ururun's Ice for 51 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a solid hit from Claude C. Kenny's Meteor Palm for 159 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Pierce!! Riesenlied's attack breaks through 72 temporary hit points! 28 remain! GS: Polynya guards a hit from Riesenlied's Ley Artes - Sieg Impulse for 72 hit points! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"I was here with a friend. It is simply a stroke of fortune that I arrived in time to intervene in this situation. ...Or misfortune, as it may be. No offense to you, of course..." Clarine explains to Ragnell with a shake of her head.
She's gathered the general situation, though, from what the others have been saying. It would seem as if that man frozen to the ground has made some terrible choices... But, for her, Odessa is the more pressing matter.
Particularly when she hears the sound of an ARM being fired. She drifts backward instinctively to try and avoid it, but the bullet still manages to graze her. It came far too close for her to pass it off as simply being aimed at someone near her. Her eyes fixate on the man as he lands, then track to his other target who is...
...someone she doesn't recognize at all! She doesn't know Gwen well enough to see past her disguise, apparently - she only knows that she's someone who knows Ragnell from the way she spoke.
"I would recommend you evacuate the area... but if you intend on remaining, then please, allow me to provide support..." Clarine says. A Seraphic glyph appears beneath her feet for a brief moment before...
"Sharpness!" At her incantation, empowering red light will surround Gwen for a brief moment, increasing her strength!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Sharpness! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Polynya takes a glancing hit from Venetia Vuong's Apple Grenade for 59 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Polynya gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Not-Gwen murmurs Ragnell's name. Ragnell still ignores her. How convenient for both of them.
Riesenlied is a bit more difficult to ignore, since she's not attempting to be incognito. All the same, the Lightning Seraph shakes her head and shrugs broadly. "If you get too worried about the enemy, Riese, your allies will start t' wonder about you!" she chides her. "Why don't you pay attention to your own fight in the meantime?" As caustically as it's delivered, it's sound advice. It's not like Polynya will show her any mercy because she's distracted by someone else. As for Clarine, Ragnell shakes her head. "None taken. I know you don't like fightin'."
For the time being, Marivel rewinds time and erases the last attack Ragnell just delivered. Ragnell narrows her eyes at the Crimson Noble. "Knew there was a reason I didn't like you," she says flatly. A hefty admission. It's not often Ragnell admits to being bothered by someone.
As for Claude, Ragnell *could* answer his questions, but 1) no, 2) she shoots him first. He promptly gives away his sword to an NPC and then gets up close and personal with Ragnell, something Ashton helps out with by freezing her feet and keeping her in place long enough for him to start in on a chain of punches. This works out great for him until eventually the ice shatters, allowing Ragnell to literally roll with the punches, flip around in a circle, and lash out several kicks up the central line of Claude's body. Even if she doesn't manage to get in anything solid, it lets her vault off him and land several feet away, panting. He can't see it, but between him and Ashton, they've delivered a pretty dose of damage to the Lightning Seraph.
So rather than attempting to do major damage back just yet, Ragnell moves off the speed of her initial counter to call up a lightning bolt down on Ashton's head with a shout of, "Blitzstrahl!"
Marivel, being a cute and charming young(?) lady, gets more special attention: Ragnell aims for her, charges up a searing white energy in the muzzle of her gun, and fires it in a powerful line of crackling electricity at her. Just to show much much more she means to her. Or something.
GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Pummel Kick! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Ashton Anchors with Blitzstrahl! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Marivel Armitage with Rage Laser! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Pierce!! Seraph Ragnell's attack breaks through 67 temporary hit points! 133 remain! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a glancing hit from Seraph Ragnell's Rage Laser for 67 hit points! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: Claude C. Kenny critically Guards a hit from Seraph Ragnell's Pummel Kick for 16 hit points! GS: Claude C. Kenny enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Claude C. Kenny has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: Ashton Anchors takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Blitzstrahl for 99 hit points! GS: Break! applied to Ashton Anchors! GS: Polynya takes a solid hit from Zed's Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor for 142 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Polynya gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Seraph Clarine's Sharpness for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Shield! applied to Seraph Clarine!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel Armitage gets a good luck at Claude's ass. This doesn't seem to have an effect on her beyond an uplifted eyebrow but--
Ashton's JOKE on the other hand gets him a long look. "Are you two friends?" She settles on asking instead. "I mostly like to screw with him--"
She admits it!
Glancing back to Ragnell (she can't afford to take her attention off the Seraph for long), Marivel grimaces and adds, "'Fraid it's a bit of a mutual feeling. I'm not sure much can be done for that, nice as it would be."
Of course, though Marivel is playing it cool, the Canceller spell takes a lot of her energy away--she's not going to be able to do that again so she best make the most of it. She manages to avoid a direct hit from Ragnell's electric burst, but it still shears off one of Marivel's arms, scorching it into oblivion and Marivel adds, "Ah, UV. The second greatest enemy of our people."
She snaps her fingers again with her remaining limb, sending gella crashing down upon Ragnell. "Since your loyalty is so easily bought!" She quips, mostly because she figures it will annoy Ragnell.
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Gella Crazy! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny doesn't understand the Cerberus joke, because he spent most of his school years getting jacked and playing in the school band. Also, most of the artifacts of ancient Greek culture that were not destroyed in World War 3 have sort of gotten old after an additional 10,000-odd years of space history.
He does, however, get that having a sword thrown at him is the sort of thing he should pay attention to. "BUT WHY THOUGH?" he yelps, then winces as Ragnell pops several kicks into his belly and chest; the Seraph will note the strikes feel a lot like kicking a side of beef. Still, the impacts force him to break off his pursuit. He grits his teeth against the pain and then spins to sort of block the spinning short blade out of the air with his left arm (the sharp sword, oddly, does not manage to penetrate his jacket, which may seem strange) and then catch it in his left hand.
"Ashton, dude, come on!" Claude complains, throwing his hands up in the air like he just don't care (he does, a lot). "We're fighting an invisible girl who controls lightning and you're throwing me a LITERAL LIGHTNING ROD to hold in my hand!" Claude shakes the aforementioned lightning rod angrily. "If you want it, you can have it back!" he adds, sending the sword spinning toward the double-dragon swordsman. "Instead, I'm gonna use... uh..."
...
"Yeah, okay, this works," Claude mutters, scooping up a small object from the ground. He tracks the Seraph's position by the lightning she fires at Marivel - handy, that - and then calls her attention. "Hey Rags, why don't people fight in libraries?" he asks, then throws the object in his left hand toward where he thinks her face would be. Said object is, in fact, the library book Marivel summoned earlier; it flaps through the air all loose-leafy and vision-blockily.
"'Cause they're really overbooked!" Claude yells as he punches the tome, and then maybe Ragnell's face through it.
GS: Formation! Claude C. Kenny has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Librarians Teach You How To Believe In Your Shelf! GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Maybe it was a good idea to get involved here, Gwen realizes, as she begins loading her ARM. Sure, she mostly came because she saw some familiar faces, and maybe she wanted to talk to Venetia about how she made those really neat gemstones, but in the end, it came circling back to Polynya, and Ida's family legacy.
Something like that.
Just whatever you do, don't take your eyes off of that sniper, even if it's to look back at Ragnell, just for a second, and DAMN IT where did that guy go -
Oh, that shot should help her know she's close. Very useful, and very painful.
Except, Gwen *still* can't see where he is on the roof.
Seeing Clarine actually be fooled by her disguise, Gwen wiggles the fingers of her bared right hand in all their metallic, shiny glory, her left hand taking off her glasses and tucking them into the breastpocket of her jacket. She then lifts her hat in greeting, revealing the unruly hair underneath. "It's me, Gwen," she says, nodding her thanks as she feels the Seraph's magic do its work. "Pleasure workin' with you again. Let's take care of this sniper, eh?"
Speaking of him, where did he go, did he just...
jump
down
He did. She's not sure how, but she sees something out of the corner of her eye. With practiced speed, she fires another shot, the recoil budging her hand back into her side. "I think I got his ARM. If he runs, he may not be as big a danger if he's got no other tricks up his sleeve."
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Claude C. Kenny's attack becomes clear! GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a solid hit from Claude C. Kenny's Freestyle Combat Arts for 189 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ben Lyon with Lucky Break! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Gella Crazy for 156 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Polynya has posed.
"Is there, now?" Polynya's mask does a good job of concealing her eyes in shadow most of the time, but her gaze darts back and forth as others begin to speak. Gwen, Zed, Riesenlied--all confirm the Dragon's presence. "Do tell. Tell me everything."
Of course, Riesenlied does more than simply talk. The phantom replica of Glumzamber flies true, slamming into Polynya's barrier. The ice shatters, cracking apart into fractal-like shapes--shapes a bit too organic to feel like conventional Crest Sorcery. Polynya shifts back, absorbing the hit as well as she can, but Venetia presses the attack further. The geode-like shape slams into the ground in front of her, erupting into crystalline shrapnel. The cement holding Polynya in place cracks under the assault. Shards of sorcerous crystal embed themselves in the woman's legs, puncturing her armor. She stumbles back, somehow managing to not land on her ass.
Polynya's lips peel back from her teeth. She's about to snap back at Venetia when Zed lands a decisive verbal hit. "Petulent boy," she snarls. She reaches behind her, whipping the Hyadean-built spear from her back. Doom Bringer finds its mark a moment later, chopping through Polynya's armor. Muse-infused blood sprays from the wound, and starts dribbling back in slow-motion. Looking at it feels wrong on so many levels. Perhaps she could have dodged, but at the moment she is focused entirely on Zed--she thrusts the spear at him with both hands, and the metal responds, elongating and sharpening as if seeking his blood.
Polynya flows from one attack to the next. The Crest Graph orbiting her head burns with an eerie light, like a wil-o-the-wisp made of Ley energy. She twists a hand into a fist, condensing a hail of icicles into the air above Riesenlied, but she saves her true wrath for someone else. "And you, child," Polynya snarls. "Playing at cards and knowing nothing of the true wellspring of your power!" The air chills further. Within a five-foot sphere around Venetia, carbon dioxide condenses like morning dew. More of those frost flowers coat every surface, before erupting into jagged, lacerating fractal spikes. Spikes that rupture cell membranes, and tear into flesh each time Venetia moves, should she not get clear in time. "Let me show you what I've suffered through!" Her eyes glow with the light of tainted Ley.
"VENETIA!" Rene wails, from where he's still frozen to the cobblestones.
GS: Polynya spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Polynya has attacked Zed with Heart Piercer! GS: Polynya has attacked Venetia Vuong with Hoarfrost Hold! GS: Polynya has gained 2 Combo! GS: Polynya has attacked Riesenlied with Hi-Freeze! GS: Polynya has gained 2 Combo! GS: Polynya has completed her action. GS: Ben Lyon takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Lucky Break for 114 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ben Lyon gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Zed guards a hit from Polynya's Heart Piercer for 87 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple! applied to Zed! GS: Hyper! applied to Polynya! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: Riesenlied guards a hit from Polynya's Hi-Freeze for 73 hit points! GS: Riesenlied's Force Guard activates! GS: Venetia Vuong takes a solid hit from Polynya's Hoarfrost Hold for 177 hit points! GS: Reaper! applied to Venetia Vuong! GS: Venetia Vuong takes an additional 15 damage from Reaper!
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
"Well," Ashton cheerfully notes as Ragnell is beaten up and driven back, "This is working out fairly weARGHPHBGLHPFHGL!"
That would, to note, be the sound of a man in heavy metal armor being struck by an unexpected lightning bolt.
It topples Ashton for a moment, dropping him to a knee.
Then he is wounded even more deeply by Claude's joke.
Rising only enough to catch the sword tossed back to him, Ashton replies to Marivel's question of friendship with a definitive "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh," and a back-and-forth hand waggle.
Look, their relationship is complicated, okay?
But now he has two swords again! "They're not lightning rods! All you have to do is use an insulating charm from your oooooh right, you don't have those." And so Ashton actually remembers a thing.
Then he remembers they're still fighting, and he surges forward. Using Marivel's coin barrage as cover, Ashton closes the distance between himself and Ragnell. Blades flash and twirl, Spiran-forged steel singing. "If this is to be a library fight, then we should have better organization. Perhaps we shall find this Seraph filed under F for Foolish!"
Ashton dash-slashes past Ragnell, momentarily blurring in an uncharacteristic burst of speed. Several false images of the Symbological Swordsman glow in his wake - and the air is filled with tiny 3x5 pieces of paper. Closer examination would find them to be out of a card catalogue, and indeed all from the F section.
GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Leaf Slash! GS: Ashton Anchors enters a Counter stance! GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action. GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Ashton Anchors's Leaf Slash for 49 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"I understand," Riesenlied answers Ragnell, and leaves it at that, even if her heart is weighing heavier still. But Ragnell was the person she promised she would take better care of herself to, and she wants to show that to her right here, right now. By focusing on her own fight.
And Polynya...
"... yes," Riesenlied answers, because she truly is not in the business of lying. Even if it might not be to their benefit. "But it is not the Metal Dragon you expect. If you mean to wrest and control it like the Jotunn cores..."
She grimaces. Just how much more of their heritage would Odessa seek to manipulate?
The way her blood spills -- infused with the Ley. The eerie light from her Crest, as the icicles erupt above her, prompting a gasp as she does a quick half-step, a twist and a raise of her hands--
"Ngh...!"
It's barely enough to create a Ley barrier in turn, her warbling and irregular barrier crashing against the icicle and drawing some red Tainted blood from her.
"Venetia!" she exclaims, as she focuses the ambient Ley already in the air, twisting her free fingers and manuevering them as a conductor would music; the twinkles concentrate and surround the Dragon's Tear, before she twirls a final time and thrusts it out to the direction of the Guild Galadian sorceress.
"Come, oh spirits... and protect her!"
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Venetia Vuong with Ley Channeling - Border of Life! GS: Riesenlied has gained 1 Combo! GS: Riesenlied has completed her action. GS: Riesenlied heals Venetia Vuong! She gains 250 temporary hit points! GS: Venetia Vuong takes an additional 5 damage from Reaper!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"I'm not interested in changin' that, so that's jus' fine by me," Ragnell tells Marivel, of their poor relationship. It's almost like they remind each other of each other or something. At least she gets the satisfaction of blowing one of Marivel's arms off, though it's somewhat mitigated by the shower of gella Marivel rains down upon her. Perhaps interestingly, it doesn't annoy Ragnell at all. "As long as you buy it," she snarks instead, grinning nastily as--
oh hey claude's back to throw the book at her
'...because they're really overbooked.'
Ragnell chokes with laughter, and also with the book that just hit her in the face. "Oh my goddess. Fuck you. Don't make me laugh during a fight. That's really against *type*," she utters, in between laughing, as she brushes it to one side. She does this in time to see Ashton advance and vanish in a burst of speed, then little 3x5 cards start to drift around her. She dances with the not-leaves, mitigating the slashing Ashton slices through the air around her so that they aren't as deep cuts as they could be.
For all that she's got plenty to deal with with these three, she does pay attention to Polynya's 'conversation' with her own enemies. Gwen knows well that Ragnell had gone to the Hadal Temple, and whether she judges her motivations correctly or not, Ragnell does want to know what's going on with her current allies. That aside:
Ragnell falls into a back roll as Ashton and Claude argue about swords and who should have them or not. "Squall Shot!" she barks, firing a shot into the air that comes down a moment later on Ashton, who is the most in her face right now, as a needle-like hail of rain and lightning. She breaks into a run to the side, circling around her enemies, and opens fire on Marivel with several shots that circle around to smash into her like homing lasers. "Storm Runner!"
Then she skids to a halt, golden light instantly rising up around her from a Seraphic glyph at her feet. "An' finally: O darkened stormclouds, that guy said rude things 'bout your poppa. Get 'im! Thunder Blade!!" A sword of lightning shunks into the ground near Claude's feet upon completion of the Seraphic arte. If the initial shockwave doesn't get him, the follow-up lightning explosion a heartbeat or two later just might.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Ashton Anchors with Squall Shot! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Marivel Armitage with Storm Runner! GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Thunder Blade! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Claude C. Kenny has activated a Force Action! GS: Claude C. Kenny takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Thunder Blade for 170 hit points! GS: Claude C. Kenny enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Marivel Armitage completely evades a hit from Seraph Ragnell's Storm Runner! GS: Marivel Armitage's Force Evade activates! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
<Pose Tracker> Ben Lyon has posed.
There's something about Polynya that is weirdly familiar. Like he's met her before. Like he knows her really well, somehow.
Even though tonight's the first time they've met. He's sure of it. ...Right? There's no way he would have forgotten her.
Particularly since
somehow
her energy reminds him of Anaitis.
This is, in itself a weird thing to think. Anaitis is completely different from. No, wait, that isn't true, he thinks, suddenly, the realization taking him as he attempts to dart out of the way of Gwen's shot. The bullet hits him solidly in the shoulder. He utters a curse.
No-- that time in Capel Coffa. It's the same -- or similar -- intensity.
It's a revelation he doesn't know what to do with.
"Just-- die!" he snarls, charging for Gwen, a similar flood seeming to upwell from within him, in the same moment that Polynya's eyes flash and he almost remembers the shape of something important along with it.
But instead he merely slams the bulk of the heavy ARM for the young courier, as if he had the aim of breaking her body.
Clarine is hardly exempt. If there were any doubt remaining that he can, in fact, see her, it's dashed now.
He can hear his own bloodflow. It sounds like the sea roaring in his ears.
"You think you can hide from me?!" he shouts, swinging the makeshift melee weapon of the ARM for her as well. Perhaps her body might not have anything that can be broken.
But it's not going to stop him any, either.
GS: Ashton Anchors has activated a Force Action! GS: COUNTER! Ashton Anchors counterattacks Seraph Ragnellwith Counter Attack! GS: CRITICAL! Ashton Anchors takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Squall Shot for 125 hit points! GS: Cover! applied to Seraph Ragnell! GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ben Lyon has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Astral Hammer! GS: Ben Lyon has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ben Lyon has attacked Seraph Clarine with Extinction Rush! GS: Ben Lyon assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Ben Lyon has completed his action. GS: Seraph Clarine guards a hit from Ben Lyon's Extinction Rush for 52 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Clarine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty! applied to Ben Lyon! GS: Seraph Clarine's Force Guard activates! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Ben Lyon's Astral Hammer for 135 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"F for Foolish?" Ragnell finally taunts Ashton. "You mean F for Fine as--" She makes a face. "*Ugh*. I can't. I can't talk like that to a dude. Come back when you're a cute lady," she complains.
GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Ashton Anchors's Counter Attack for 47 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"Ah! I apologize, I did not recognize you..." Clarine replies with a gasp of recognition as Gwen points out who she is. "Yes - I feel much more at ease handling this situation alongside a friendly face. This man - he can see Seraphim."
She nods as Gwen mentions that she thinks she got his ARM.
Apparently she did, as he rushes them now, wielding the ARM as if a club. First Gwen, and then her. She's surprised by the ferocity of the attack - she barely has time to bring out one of her mirrors as a shield before the ARM swings down at her. The ARM crashes into the hard back of the mirror with enough force to push Clarine back and get a gasp of surprise out of her.
"S-such strength...! Where does this frenzy stem from...?" Clarine questions aloud. It's a little worrying. In just a single blow, cracks are starting to spiderweb their way through the mirror she had used to defend herself. She returns it to her sleeve.
And then...Clarine's form disperses, splitting into two light bodies on either side of him, both unleashing a volley of light projectiles at his current location.
"Desist!" Both Clarines demand at once.
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ben Lyon with Dispersion Feint! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Ben Lyon guards a hit from Seraph Clarine's Dispersion Feint for 76 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ben Lyon gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte! applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
If this was the Zed of a few years ago, perhaps circumstances would have been different. A speartip seeks his heart, twisting through the air like a bolt of jagged lightning. Zed grits his teeth and braces his blade between it and his heart. Incredible momentum is focused into a single point, enough to tear through his thin armor and into the flesh underneath-- but instead it slams into Doom Bringer's flank and the force barrels through, sending Zed skidding back into the table he had lept from...! The wood cracks, the table collapses, and Zed is sent flying into the bookshelves the next row over.
The shelves wobble... tilt... and...
...Some brave librarian hurls themselves into the other end of the shelf, steadying it before the worst kind of dewey decimation can come to pass...!
"Heh, touched a nerve, didn't I?" Zed's lips split into a fierce grin as he wrests himself from the ruins of the broken table. "Come on Polynya, are you fighting that thing or working for it? Or maybe..."
Zed charges, the air around his alien blade igniting, shining like a noodle-shaped sun. "That glow in your eyes... How long has it been talking to you? Who's talking to us right now? Is it really you, or is your master whispering words into your ears!?"
He strikes. Hyadean essence roils from his blade in a vortex of shining starlight, like a spiral galaxy rolling out into the world. Its arms are wheeling blades, cutting like buzzsaw teeth into Polynya's defense! "Well, whatever! That thing tried to twist a friend of mine! If it's inside you, then I'll just cut it out! Now hold still, or I might just miss!"
GS: Zed spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Zed has attacked Polynya with RayBlade - Zed Saber! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"Don't monologue to her! She's the one who needs to answer us!" Venetia warns everyone, a moment before Riesenlied storms in with the replica of GLUMZABOR. Is it a replica? She cannot tell. Venetia is momentarily thunderstruck at this rebirth of a weapon of glory. She is thunderstruck enough to miss Claude's second library pun.
The reversal of her blood - Venetia doesn't have a sharp remark about that. It's astonishing, and worrying in its way too. She places her faith where any good Guild Galadish person would - in the strength of Metal Demon weapons, wait, no, that's awful - as she wheels around and looks towards Rene. "Get loose, you fool! Take off your boots! You - all of you, pull him loose, take the cobbles if you -"
The air itself begins to fall as snowflakes.
Venetia tries to breathe in. She feels razors tickle at her throat and she stops. Her heart begins to pound and it is perhaps thermal inertia that is keeping her from an immediate and grisly demise. Her hand is halfway to her Crest Graph pouch. She pushes it downwards and the sleeve of her dress fractures into flinders of cavern-silk. As frostbite begins to gently bloom on her skin, Venetia thinks she feels the rough texture of stamped and etched bronze under her fingertip.
I can't even pull it out, Venetia thinks.
I don't even know for certain which one it is, she thinks further. I'll have to hope --
The Ley rises around her. The temperature becomes, if not normal, not horrifically gelid, and Venetia is able to turn, to cough, to spit blood, to glare behind her mask at Polynya. "The wellspring of my power is wisdom," she husks, "and enlightenment. You've thrown in with a pack of anarchists. I don't have to listen to you."
She tries to whip a Crest Graph out. It takes two tries, and isn't slick, in the end. But Venetia is relieved when she sees the etching - when she can move her eyes, in fact, without the hint of agony or that feeling of something about to freeze them.
"All your cleverness, all your guile... the true wisdom, my dear asshole, is always in time to return to simplicity. Your cold tricks are very good," Venetia says, even as she begins to bleed from that bared arm, and from her hands, in tiny spiderweb cracks across her skin.
"Here's mine." A deep breath, a raising of the rod that has adhered in part to her fingers...
The light shimmers and forms that spikelike shape. That huge, Venetia-sized spike shape, floating above her for a moment. And then, even as Zed charges inwards to keep her busy, Venetia hurls it!
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Polynya with Stygian Amethyst! GS: Venetia Vuong takes an additional 20 damage from Reaper! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Polynya guards a hit from Zed's RayBlade - Zed Saber for 136 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Polynya takes a solid hit from Venetia Vuong's Stygian Amethyst for 181 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Though Claude C. Kenny can't see the smile on Ragnell's voice, he can hear it in her voice - and his own grin is a mix between gleeful and wolfish. It's like a lot like fighting Zed was, back in Adlehyde, when their rivalry had just a bare edge of hostility to it given their respective roles, as Dawn Chaser and Metal Demon. What they have now is fine - good friends, excellent training partners, each playing off the other. But always holding back, never cutting all the way loose. Because they can't risk it.
There are some things that only your enemies can teach you, his mother often said. In this time, in this place, Ragnell is pushing him to his absolute limit. And it's great.
But then it isn't, because he loses sight (sound?) of the Seraph again, chambering and launching a follow-up kick that catches nothing but air. "Damn," Claude grunts, already whirling to find the target - but SOMEONE WHO SHALL REMAIN NAMELESS, AS WILL HIS DRAGONS, sent a bunch of tiny little cards flapping through the air, which makes it nigh-impossible for Claude to track the movement of Ragnell's red-stained poncho. Even her attack calls are lost in the unabashed screaming and violence unloading all around him. As a result, Claude's first clue that something is wrong is when a giant sword of lightning appears out of nothing and slams into the ground at his feet. The big blonde's eyes widen as he moves at a healthy fraction of the speed of terror, lifting a foot and driving it downward. "TEAR INTO PI---"
Claude's shout is cut off by a titanic explosion, arcs of electricity licking out along the ground, cobblestones and assorted detritus blasting up and outward with the explosion. The dust cloud clears quickly, revealing a scene of absolute devastation - shattered stones crumbling down into a foot-deep crater, with a blast zone nearly three yards across. Irregular spatters of crimson are painted across the broken cobblestones, already turning a dull rusted reddish-brown as the acrid smell of ozone wafts across the courtyard. Of the young man who stood at the epicentre of the blast, nothing can be seen.
Until a drop of blood falls from the sky and lands on Marivel's left shoulder.
Claude C. Kenny - who had been sent flying upward by the lightning strike - lands hard but on his feet, cracking a few more stones as he absorbs the landing. His left arm dangles uselessly from what is very likely a separated shoulder, and blood streaks down that hand and from a pair of shrapnel wounds on his face, one of which has covered his left eye entirely with a half-mask of red. His right eye, however, blazes with a quite-literal blue light; Claude draws in a breath as he drops to one knee, slowly reaching down with his right hand to place it on the ground. A soft pulse of energy - barely a ripple - flows out from his fingertips and flows across the courtyard, expanding rapidly. Where it touches the feet of any person standing on the ground, it does little of consequence from their perspective; except a fraction of Claude's energy bounces back to him, reporting the position of everyone in the area relative to him.
Including the one fifteen degrees to his right, that belongs to no one he can see.
Claude's down hand gathers into a grasping claw that he pulls upward, almost like swinging a lazy uppercut. In response, the chi he sent outward suddenly pours up out from every part of the yard, flowing around everyone present in a storm of blue and golden fireflies. As they rise up, the motes of light gather and coalesce into dozens of shimmering blades. Each looks like a manifestation of Claude C. Kenny's favourite technique, but rather than shoot toward an adversary, they just sort of... hang there for a second. Two, as the remainder gather.
Then Claude - unleashing a wordless cry - slams his hand downward, sending dozens of will-forged blades of air scything down toward Ragnell, pummeling the area around her in an effort to frustrate any attempt to avoid them.
GS: Claude C. Kenny has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Maybe it's pretty telling that for these two, they get particularly nasty against foes that feel familiar to themselves. This might say something about how they see themselves in the mirror or maybe it's just a matter of being grouchy they aren't quite as completely unique as they pretend to be. Marivel as always is going to have some disadvantage against Ragnell--it's just how the power chart worked out! She is patient enough to not go after Ragnell while she's laughing.
Marivel lowers her hat so it covers the bulk of her face as Marivel unleashes a hefty swath of lightning blasts crashing down towards her position. It may be true that Ragnell's techniques are of particular effectiveness towards Marivel, as one can attest to her now vaporized arm--but she wouldn't have been around this long if she succumbed that easily to her people's natural weakness.
She vanishes a millisecond before the electrical blasts crash down into her--
--reappearing to Ragnell's side.
"Oh that would've been devastating."
She clears her throat briefly and snaps her fingers, eyes glowing crimson as she unleashes a wave of FIRE towards Ragnell's body--following shortly up with ice crashing down towards her position from above--using stored magical reserves to cast two spells in quick succession.
"So is it at all hard for you, your devotion?" She asks.
GS: Claude C. Kenny has activated a Force Action! GS: Claude C. Kenny spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Air Raid! GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Ragnell with What Use Is A Pulse That Does Not Quicken - Cremation! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has launched an attack Link! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Even The Hearts Of The Dead Shall Race - Absolute Zero! GS: Hyper expired! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Yeah," Gwen says, nodding to Clarine. "I noticed he was tryin' t'shoot you."
'Do tell. Tell me everything.'
Gwen hears Polynya's reply nearby, properly guessing what it's in reference to.
That undead dragon.
"Sorry, but that's all you're gonna know from me-e!" The next sound out of the courier's mouth is a painful wheeze as Ben's heavy ARM slams into her midsection. Her initial dismissal of Ben stacked with her distraction over Polynya left her utterly unguarded, and as Gwen backs away, she gains a proper amount of context for just how wrong she was.
"H-he's from Odessa, so I'm guessin', uh, it's from the same well most of them get it from." Gwen clutches her midsection with a wince. "Guardians... Clarine, you doin' okay?" Wanting to keep away as she recovers, Gwen fires a short beam of pyrite gold, trying to keep Ben back as she gets close to Clarine.
Still, something doesn't sit right with her, just depending on that potential answer.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ben Lyon with Coil Cannon EX! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel Armitage promptly scoops up Claude's blood with a finger after her spells are unleashed and puts it in her mouth. "Oh! This is some good quality!"
GS: Ben Lyon takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Coil Cannon EX for 142 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ben Lyon gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ben Lyon enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Cripple expired!
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
The swarm of catalouge cards twist in the air, turning on their sides. With a jerk that goes a different direction than the breeze, the cards turned blades slash back across Ragnell.
She quips back, and he turns his head. All three of them. And three sets of eyes wink. "Sorry, I suppose I'm *triple* too much man for you."
Please, someone hit him. Hard.
Thankfully, Ragnell hears the narrator and shoots Ashton right in one of his smug faces. "Ow."
He drops for a moment - then he rises. And looks straight up to see Claude diving down. "Oh hell." Ashton - who HAD been in close proximity to Ragnell - decides to dodge-roll like his life depended on it as Claude rains energy swords everywhere.
This puts Ashton at a good distance - ironically opposite to how Marivel's moved - and he gives his twin blades a quick twirl in-hand. "Troublesome." Both blades ignite into flickering flame. "I suppose I'll have to provide my own sort of let-there-be-light."
In the wake of the barrage from above, Ashton lunges in again. Two flaming swords slash - cutting diagonally downwards, to try and keep clear of where Marivel's teleported in to. "Doubledemon Sword!"
GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Doubledemon Sword! GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action. GS: Seraph Ragnell guards a hit from Claude C. Kenny's Air Raid for 115 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
<Pose Tracker> Polynya has posed.
"I will be the judge of that," Polynya says, to Riesenlied. With Zed out of the way, and Venetia seemingly flash-frozen, the Crest Sorceress has a few precious seconds to recover. She presses a hand to her temple, sucks in a breath, and reaches out across the Ley. The Crest Graphs embedded in the ground break free, one after another, and she grabs them out of the air. She can ill afford to lose them.
Unfortunately for her, this gives her foes the time they need to recover. Zed erupts from within the building, energy tearing free from his blade. Polynya sweeps up her spear to intercept, but she's a second too slow. The wave of energy slams into her, almost knocking her off her feet. Smoke rises from the brand-new burn wound on her chest. Droplets of red splatter to the ground, thick with tainted Ley. "You--!" Polynya howls. She says nothing else. She can say nothing else. Zed has torn open a wound that never had the chance to heal.
Venetia is not nearly as dead as Polynya would've liked. She sees the crystalline spike out of the corner of her eye as it races towards her--and she whirls towards it, slashing with her spear. Hyadean metal meets sorcerous stone. The crystal shatters, and chunks of it tear into Polynya's flesh. She staggers back, wobbles, sinks to a knee.
The Crest Sorceress has no more words, it seems. Instead, she lets loose with yet another spell--a second Crest Graph burns bright blue, like a tiny sun. Again, the full weight of winter comes to bear against Polynya's foes--the howl of wind, the lash of ice, the bone-numbing chill.
With the spell loosed, she reaches up and touches the Empathite radio at her jawline. She pauses. Does she dare order a retreat?
GS: Polynya has attacked Riesenlied with Fimbulvinter! GS: Polynya has attacked Zed with Fimbulvinter! GS: Polynya has attacked Venetia Vuong with Fimbulvinter! GS: Polynya has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Ashton Anchors's Doubledemon Sword for 53 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell guards a hit from Marivel Armitage's What Use Is A Pulse That Does Not Quicken - Cremation for 155 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte! applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Seraph Ragnell has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Seraph Ragnell critically Guards a hit from Marivel Armitage's Even The Hearts Of The Dead Shall Race - Absolute Zero for 38 hit points! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: Seraph Ragnell has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Zed takes a glancing hit from Polynya's Fimbulvinter for 119 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Riesenlied takes a solid hit from Polynya's Fimbulvinter for 186 hit points! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Riesenlied receives 50 temporary hit points. GS: Riesenlied enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Ben Lyon has posed.
'Where does this frenzy stem from?'
That is, in this moment, the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back. 'Ben' -- Loren, really, here and now -- stops for a moment to regard her.
Where. As if it's not really him. As if he's just tagging along, no, pulled along for the ride. As if he's borrowing what doesn't belong to him.
He can't stand that. He can't stand any of that.
"Where?" he echoes, almost incredulously. "I'll show you where!" And perhaps, if she hadn't dispersed just then, he would have slammed the ARM for her again.
As it is, she's suddenly in two places at once. He turns hard, the air briefly filled with the after-image of a crystalline form, the ARM borne again as if it were a shield.
The heavy rifle isn't of much use once the barrage ends. He drops it upon the pavement with a certain finality.
Even as as Gwen directs a shot right for him before he can so much as attempt to dodge it. He staggers under it but doesn't go down, bringing away a blood-coated hand.
He almost remembers something important. But it's gone again, soon after, drowning in blue. It's easiest to just go along with it.
So he lets go, for the second time.
Drawing himself up, he draws from a pocket in his jacket a simple stone tablet. Ether pulses within him, without him, then vanishes as if it had never been. "Guardians, is it? Let me show you just who your 'Guardians' really obey!"
"Material!"
The earth itself shudders, a mere warning for the invocation to come.
The earth beneath their feet -- or so it seems -- then tears open, permitting the firey blood of the mountains below to flow freely, surging for the heavens as the ghostly image of Dinoginos rises from the depths.
And, in a few heartbeats, the summoning ends.
GS: Ben Lyon has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Ben Lyon enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ben Lyon has attacked Ben Lyon with Sigma Factor! GS: Ben Lyon has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ben Lyon takes a solid hit from Ben Lyon's Sigma Factor for 0 hit points! GS: Burst and Surge! applied to Ben Lyon! GS: Ben Lyon spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ben Lyon has attacked Seraph Clarine with Material - Hypogaean Pyre! GS: Ben Lyon has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Material - Hypogaean Pyre! GS: Ben Lyon has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ben Lyon has completed his action. GS: Seraph Clarine takes a solid hit from Ben Lyon's Material - Hypogaean Pyre for 167 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Clarine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Ben Lyon's Material - Hypogaean Pyre for 187 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ahh. Ragnell's eyes narrow slightly as she listens to the exchanges between Polynya and her foes. She doesn't outwardly acknowledge it beyond that, though, because she has her own set of foes to deal with.
'Sorry, I suppose I'm *triple* too much man for you,' Ashton says, winking in time with his two shoulder dragons. Ragnell grimaces in open revulsion. "That is extremely true."
Marivel teleports in and asks if her devotion is at all hard for her. "Now why would I tell you that? It's not like you're askin' 'cuz you're *worried* about me," she drawls back. She prepares herself for the incoming attack--but...
There are some things only your enemies can teach you, and for all that Ragnell claims she doesn't care about humans--and for all that is mostly true--she's a very good teacher, in her way. She explodes Claude but good, sending him flying--and he lands a moment later, sending out a whorling vortex of blue and golden light. They coalesce into a dozen blades of chi. Ragnell looks up at them. She even looks impressed.
"You've improved, haven't you?" she observes of Claude. There's even a note of approval in her tone, for whatever that might mean to him.
Then the swords come crashing down, just before Ashton's double sword swipe, just before Marivel's gout of flame, just before Marivel's torrent of ice. Ragnell's silhouette darkens and vanishes within the triple (quadruple, technically) attack, overwhelmed by the show of force. When the waves of power ebb, all that's left is a scorch mark several yards wide, and several shattered remnants of stone and ice, scattered in every which direction. Ragnell herself is nowhere in sight.
Until she rematerializes a ways away in a burst of lightning, staggering to one side. "All right, all right, I know when I'm not wanted," she drawls, one eye winked shut. "I'm out." Then she transforms into a mote of light, zips away high into the sky, and is gone.
GS: Riesenlied has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
This is a crucial and critical battle across the Ley, and Riesenlied is not used to it -- with so many people channeling and using the flow of the very lifeblood of the world... it's not easy for her to draw and shape it for herself.
It's a crowded channel, as it were.
"That Dragon..." Riesenlied speaks. Gwen tells her that's all she's getting from her. She should follow her example.
"She was in a lot of pain. I cannot imagine what she has gone through, but... I will do everything in my power to ensure she does not fall foul of more trouble. Because she has suffered enough."
But she doesn't, because... Riesenlied is Riesenlied, and she needs to speak from the heart.
She wobbles for a moment longer, as the crystals start to manifest -- the Graph burns, and the force of winter--
--throws Riesenlied back, and she slams against a wall with more than a wince; struggling, she stoops over to one side, not moving for a moment. She's groggy and hazy, but...
It's that tinge that touches her mind.
As she reminds herself who she's fighting for now.
"Polynya. I still have not given up on you... but this must stop. We can help, I know it! You do not need to ally yourself with Odessa!"
And to that end, she chooses a more personal weapon--
The weapon that once reached Id's mind with hers. A 'weapon' she formed during the days when she was involved in so much more military operations to attempt to handle things in a more peaceful light...
Yes, light.
A light that shines as she raises her sword, grimacing as she gathers what she can of the Ley immediately around her.
"This sword that seeks a new world...
This light that shines everlasting!"
She draws her arm back, almost posing as if to propel it forwards as a javelin.
"With all that Father taught me...!"
It strains her entire arm to fire, the light erupting in the immediate direction. Perhaps, if she is lucky, that empathite radio will serve as an amplifier to her thoughts, as she seeks to drain the aggression out of the air.
"#-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: +xterm266 Its name is...!"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
This is a crucial and critical battle across the Ley, and Riesenlied is not used to it -- with so many people channeling and using the flow of the very lifeblood of the world... it's not easy for her to draw and shape it for herself.
It's a crowded channel, as it were.
"That Dragon..." Riesenlied speaks. Gwen tells her that's all she's getting from her. She should follow her example.
"She was in a lot of pain. I cannot imagine what she has gone through, but... I will do everything in my power to ensure she does not fall foul of more trouble. Because she has suffered enough."
But she doesn't, because... Riesenlied is Riesenlied, and she needs to speak from the heart.
She wobbles for a moment longer, as the crystals start to manifest -- the Graph burns, and the force of winter--
--throws Riesenlied back, and she slams against a wall with more than a wince; struggling, she stoops over to one side, not moving for a moment. She's groggy and hazy, but...
It's that tinge that touches her mind.
As she reminds herself who she's fighting for now.
"Polynya. I still have not given up on you... but this must stop. We can help, I know it! You do not need to ally yourself with Odessa!"
And to that end, she chooses a more personal weapon--
The weapon that once reached Id's mind with hers. A 'weapon' she formed during the days when she was involved in so much more military operations to attempt to handle things in a more peaceful light...
Yes, light.
A light that shines as she raises her sword, grimacing as she gathers what she can of the Ley immediately around her.
"This sword that seeks a new world...
This light that shines everlasting!"
She draws her arm back, almost posing as if to propel it forwards as a javelin.
"With all that Father taught me...!"
It strains her entire arm to fire, the light erupting in the immediate direction. Perhaps, if she is lucky, that empathite radio will serve as an amplifier to her thoughts, as she seeks to drain the aggression out of the air.
"Its name is...!"
GS: Riesenlied spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Riesenlied has attacked Polynya with this Laevateinn in our Hands... Together! GS: Riesenlied has launched an attack Link! GS: Venetia Vuong completely evades a hit from Polynya's Fimbulvinter! GS: Venetia Vuong takes an additional 30 damage from Reaper! GS: Riesenlied has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Should I be worried about you?" Marivel asks. "You seem like a capable woman."
And indeed, even before Marivel's sorcery--Ragnell manages to abscond, semingly winded, staggered--but...well...she has both of HER arms.
Marivell watches the empty spot where Ragnell was for a long moment before she sinks into crouch, grabbing at the stump where her wounded limb once was.
That's gonna be frustrating to reconstruct, Marivel thinks to herself.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"Perhaps so..." Clarine murmurs with a reply to Gwen. "It is alright, I am - a-ah!"
Clarine is interrupted as Ben takes a swing at her. It is a good thing she split when she did - that would've been serious. She rejoins as one shortly after the end of her barrage, and watches as Ben draws something from his jacket.
Something about it looks vaguely familiar to her - like she's seen something like it before. But she can't quite place it - and doesn't realise what it is until it's too late. Clarine tries to disperse to avoid it - but how is she supposed to avoid the very ground beneath her feet tearing open, spewing lava everywhere? She is sent flying back. The heat burns at her form. She doesn't burn like a physical person would - that is one mercy afforded to her by the nature of her being. But it certainly isn't pleasant for her, either.
"This man... he has a Medium, as well...?" She questions incredulously. She picks herself up off the ground, hovering back into place just above it. She looks over to Gwen.
"Are you alright? If we do not finish this quickly, he may very well overpower us..." She says. And she intends to finish this quickly - she's afraid to see what else he will be able to draw from his pools of strength.
"O seven brilliant blades, I call upon you to descend and loose your shining might!" Clarine incants. "Prism Sword!"
At her command, six crystalline blades, shimmering in every color of the rainbow descend toward Ben, looking to cage him in. And then a seventh descends at the center of the six blades, and all of them detonate in a burst of crystal and colorful light.
GS: Seraph Clarine spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ben Lyon with Prism Sword! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny doesn't answer Ragnell immediately - he doesn't do much of anything, really, other than suck in air and try not to pass out. His chest and shoulders rise and fall in deep, forceful breaths, and the fingers of his right hand, still splayed out, twitch faintly in the wake of the attack. He can't see Ragnell vanish, so he can't be sure if she's gone before he answers. Particularly when a tide of grey passes between him and the world; he fights it back for the moment, then licks his lips and speaks
"Maybe... I have..."
The tide comes in again, and this time breaks through Claude's defences; spent entirely, the bloodied young man drops down to his knees and then falls forward onto his face.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel Armitage looks at Claude like he's some kind of delicious entree that just happened to flop out onto the floor before her.
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
Their portion of the battle is done - Ashton spins his swords to put out the flame before sheathing them. "Well! That was certainly... en-lightning!" With a chuckle he turns to the others.
Marivel is missing an arm, and Claude is face-down on the ground in his own blood.
"...Well shit."
Thinking quickly, Ashton leaps to action. With one hand he rolls Claude over - with the other, he pulls out a jar of medicial syrup. "Lady Valeria? I, uh... is it off-putting for me to suggest a conga line? I pour this down his throat to heal him and you..." He waves vaguely at the bloody young man.
The look in Marivel's eyes suggests she was already thinking it.
GS: Ben Lyon takes a solid hit from Seraph Clarine's Prism Sword for 179 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield! applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: Ben Lyon enters Critical health and gains 25 FP! GS: Ben Lyon enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Yes," Marivel says, looking away a bit. "It might be a good idea to heal him." She bites at her lip a bit and tires to avoid looking directly at it.
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
A glance at her. A glance at him.
A shrug.
Ashton pours the bottle of healing syrup down Claude's throat.
Hey, he tried!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The way he throws down his ARM, it's with a level of finality that could signal so many venues of where this battle could go next. Will he run off? Will he signal backup? Will he round on them wiot?
She watches the man's hand, coated with blood.
Something seizes in her, a strange moment of recognition that Gwen quickly dismisses.
Probably for the best. If the man's this able and willing to hurt them, she has to be just as able to do the same. Because it's okay to k...
... to fight back, yes. That is why she was allowed to live.
Why she should aim right at him, and pull the trigger...
'Material!'
Never underestimate the power of a person caught in a proverbial corner, though Gwen can't discern what inspired such desperation.
The ground beneath Gwen's feet splits and spews heat and liquid stone, causing the redhead to stagger back with a pained scream. Her hat tumbles off her head and into the lava as it closes, Dinoginos's entry no less powerful despite its short length.
"D-damn!" Gwen clutches the now bare heated metal of her ARM instinctively, then yelps as her gloved hand comes away, the material flaking away.
She breathes, shuddering, listening to Clarine. "This man is... quite something else..."
Keep it together.
"But I don't got any Guardians to depend on. Not anymore. But I still got myself!" She darts ahead, attempting to use Clarine's blast to mask her approach. The bright electric blast that follows from her palm is harmless enough, if painful on the eyes, but this serves to make the bright ball of energy just as painful.
The next words may be further painful still, as Gwen feels the rush and resists, its source from another kind of blue.
".... _please don't die from this_."
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ben Lyon with Quasar Palm! GS: Gwen Whitlock has launched an attack Link! GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ben Lyon with Corona Discharge! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia isn't sure what happened to her but it hurts. For a fleeting moment she wonders what she can do to repay them - she knows Riesenlied barely at all and has felt irritation at Zed - but in this moment, she owes them. If not for them, of course...
"Judge?" Venetia makes herself breathe.
"JUDGE?" she continues, eyes going wide.
"You claim any kind of right to JUDGE? I will tell you something you miserable wanna-be knight, you have stormed in here, you have terrified Rene, you are planning some kind of horrid use - the Ley or something, a live Metal Dragon, for your damnable movement that wants to just crush down everything that makes us unique one from another."
"I make no claim to be a good person -- Polynya, is it? I do what I do without apology," Venetia continues. "I seek out ruins because they are beautiful and full of treasure and mystery. I seek glory and adoration... I seek to master things that others do not so I may stand above them. Yet even in this path of an evil woman," Venetia continues, sliding away Stygian Amethyst's tile into her bag, "I KNOW THAT THERE ARE LIMITATIONS."
The wind comes towards her --
And it is countered! A sudden burst - a crack - a rupturing sound, like the augur of an avalanche! Venetia holds a Crest Graph before her face, like a ward. It gleams violet and she draws it aside, telling Polynya, "I've got your measure now... it's clever... but you've limited yourself if you focus only on this intersection. Everyone has their favorites, but sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone."
"Look down," Venetia says.
There are, loosely, four deep-looking cracks in the Kattelox road where Polynya is standing. They're narrow things - you would at most be careful not to step at them lest your maternal relatives suffer spine injuries - but they were what appeared when she drew out that Crest Graph.
"I hate this Crest," Venetia says, "but if I had to, I could have left my 'comfort zone' and used it... to protect Filgaia. Filgaia as it is, not as you'd have it once it was burned over!"
The Crest Graph is raised upwards over her head. "Stone, show your revulsion. Stone, show your agony! Rupture the work of eternity - birth nothing but bloody gravel!"
"Tectonic"
That diamond-esque wedge of ground begins to shudder violently, smashing itself back and forth like a swiftly stirring blender, the edges fracturing in a shower of dust and asphalt and soil particles as it rapidly contracts *but shows no sign of losing energy*.
Blood runs down Venetia's arm, stains her mask. Some of it gets in her eye. She keeps the rod upheld -- Polynya may want to move. IF IT ISN'T ALREADY TOO LATE!
GS: Venetia Vuong has activated a Force Action! GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Polynya with Tectonic! GS: Venetia Vuong takes an additional 15 damage from Reaper! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Ben Lyon takes a glancing hit from Gwen Whitlock's Quasar Palm for 0 hit points! GS: Jam! applied to Ben Lyon! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: CRITICAL! Ben Lyon takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Corona Discharge for 223 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ben Lyon gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ben Lyon has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Polynya takes a solid hit from Riesenlied's this Laevateinn in our Hands... Together for 161 hit points! GS: Riesenlied drains Polynya! Riesenlied gains 62 temporary hit points! GS: Polynya takes a solid hit from Venetia Vuong's Tectonic for 179 hit points! GS: Entangle! applied to Polynya! GS: Polynya has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed and Claude have a very good sword-friendship these days. It involves killing each other, but not quite to the point that they each die. They have to hold back. Zed! Has to actually hold back with someone on the regular! He never thought he'd ever care about a non-Hyadean enough to fight them and not try to kill them! Sure, he always figured he wanted to have some kind of AWESOME HUMAN FRIENDS, but not like this! This... is something special.
What he has with all his friends... Is something he never thought he'd have.
The war taught him more than just the power of friendship and BROTHERHOOD THAT GOES BEYOND BLOOD AND SPECIES. It also taught him the meaning of power.
...Through a lot of pain, and a lot of regret. But even so.
"I don't hold it against you, you know?" Zed murmurs, the chaos of battle almost muting his words. "If you're under its influence, that's not a mark against you. Maybe you're not, or maybe you just don't think you are. But if you are still in control, then what you do with its power, and how far you go for the sake of serving it, or fighting it, or whatever-- that's on you."
Ah, but perhaps battle is not the best place to hold conversation. Zed should really know better by now, but he just can't stop himself! He's a noisy sort, after all...!!
But it leaves him open.
Zed may have come a long way since the days he fought to conquer the planet, but some things do not change. Maybe Riese has found a way to grow less (traditionally) vulnerable to magic, but Zed certainly has not. A curtain of elemental winter slams into him. Unbidden, his teeth begin to chatter, his body begins to shiver. Rime coats his skin and ice cuts into his flesh. Silvery blood congeals across a frosted floor. "D-d-dang, I think I get why Ratatoskr keeps wanting to fight the snow--" Zed stammers, "This sucks. This SUCKS!" He lifts his sword high.
Starfire ripples outward like the solar wind. The heliopause expands, pushing a bubble of warmth back into the crushing cold. "WINTER SUCKS! I'm gonna... I'm gonna cut it!" Zed grits his teeth to stop them from chattering-- and to focus himself, honing his will into his blade. It may not be the same kind of sword that Riesenlied wields-- what fills Doom Bringer is anything but light and warm nostalgia.
In fact, it is imbued with anything but.
But now, it's not something that turns inward. Its wielder has promised to help shoulder those memories. The curse boils over as Zed roars, plunging the sword into the floor. The solar wind billows outward, forcing the winter back and further still until it swallows Polynya up. It carries with it a power that Polynya might recognize from the very first time she encountered this strange Hyadean. A field of ill-portuned stars races in its wake, forging constellations that fortell disaster. With one last yell, he plunges his blade just an inch deeper--
As each of those stars bursts into waves of razor-sharp light-- light that cuts deeper than mere flesh and tears through the very stuff of fair luck and good fortune.
GS: Zed spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Zed has attacked Polynya with Unsealed Blade - Demon Breaker! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cripple expired! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Polynya takes a solid hit from Zed's Unsealed Blade - Demon Breaker for 168 hit points! GS: Poison! applied to Polynya! GS: Zed drains Polynya! Zed gains 50 temporary hit points! GS: Polynya has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Ben Lyon has posed.
"Do you want to see that again?" he asks, his bloodied hand holding the Medium shaking.
That's funny. Why is this familiar?
"Because I can do it again!"
'Ben' doesn't get the opportunity to try.
He's aware of the descent of the many shining blades -- 'Ben' backsteps a moment too late to attempt to evade them, instead bodily impacting the one that has already slammed into place behind him. Holding the Mountain Guardian's tablet against his chest, he raises his free hand, shimmering briefly with the impression of a crystalline matrix.
But it's lost in the light.
The impact after flings him bodily across the street where he solidly impacts a nearby pole with a grunt. But even here, after sliding to the ground, he slowly picks himself up.
There is light. Only, from a different source.
"What are you--" he utters.
Again, the light seems to explode about him.
And all he can hear is her asking him to not die from this.
Always... coming in second against...
...who?
Everything is reduced to static for a moment. He crumples bodily, and perhaps it might be easy to think him down and out.
Except he rises slowly after a moment, green light barely seen flickering across his body. Briefly, tendrils of it -- fractal green -- spill pass where he lies. But only briefly. He uses the same pole he'd hit as leverage on the way up.
"This is Lyon," he breathes into the radio at his jawline. "Hit hard. Pulling back."
Only now does he seem like someone pulled back from the edge, his expression perhaps shell-shocked.
He releases his grip on the pole, casts one last glance across the street, and withdraws.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
He can do it again. Gwen can't stomach another attack like that; her ARM, while baring properties that make it less likely to kill her just because it got too hot, does not make that sort of heat all that great to deal with. And that's just her ARM's reaction, since her body is... very human.
That's what made this necessary.
So what is she doing now, lurching towards him, face drawn in concern?
Did she kill him. Did she
oh
she didn't, he's alive
The flicker of green does not evade Gwen's gaze; it causes her to flinch back as Ben rises up, calling for help.
And she just stands there, with that damnable look of concern, pulled back from her own dive.
"... Let's go," she says, nodding to Clarine. "The others might need help."
She waits until he leaves, then adds, taking a moment to heavily lean on a wall, "Maybe Polynya's not the only one bein' fueled by something dark 'round here..."
<Pose Tracker> Polynya has posed.
'She was in a lot of pain.'
Polynya pushes herself upright. It feels as though it takes an eternity; Riesenlied's voice underscores every motion.
'I cannot imagine what she has gone through, but... I will do everything in my power to ensure she does not fall foul of more trouble.'
Polynya's mask--the less literal one--starts to crack again. She lets out a dark, bitter laugh.
'Because she has suffered enough.'
"I don't--" Polynya trails off into hacking coughs. Ley-infused blood splatters the ground. Red strings of flesh spread across her wounds, as though an invisible presence were sewing them shut. "I don't understand you. I almost wish I did."
Polynya turns to Venetia, who once again proves herself more alive than she would like. The shadows beneath her mask fade, revealing pale eyes grown wide with fear. Venetia has identified Polynya's weakness--a very strange, almost abnormal one among Crest Sorcerers. As Venetia herself surely knows, a Crest Sorcerer's repertoire is only limited by the Graphs they can carry, each with its own sorcerous nuance. Polynya uses them as though they were talismans, conduits for a few specific magics. She's been called out.
Look down, Venetia bids her. Polynya does so, and knows that she has been outmaneuvered. She leaps to the side, but she's a second too late--shards of stone erupt from beneath her, lacerating her already badly-injured legs. "Hghk," she chokes out. Her eyes burn with eldrtich energy. It seeps from the corners of her mouth.
Zed digs his blade deep into the earth, and unleashes its true might. The full weight of Doom Bringer's disdain falls upon his enemy. Polynya raises her arms to shield herself, but it's no use. When the starstorm is over, she's kneeling on the ground, covered in her own Ley-infused blood. Her mask lies on the ground in dozens of bloodied fragments. Beneath it, Polynya's face is... normal. Sharp-featured, but unscarred. Her eyes are pale blue, but that might not be natural.
A warm, comforting light seeps up around her. Polynya realizes where it's coming from, turns to Riesenlied. While her back is turned, Rene finally manages to break free, sacrificing his boots and pants legs in the process.
"We'll meet again," the Crest Sorceress whispers. A curtain of shadow closes around her, and she's gone.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
He says he can go it again, and that's what Clarine's concerned about. She's not sure she can take another one of those without having to retreat.
But, fortunately, it looks like she doesn't have to worry about that. Gwen's attack sends him flying, and he hits the ground hard. Clarine doesn't drop her guard just yet. She watches him carefully, ready to retaliate if he attacks again... but when he does stand, he doesn't attack. Clarine relaxes, just a little.
She still feels concerned. That fight felt different. There was another layer to it that she can't really comprehend. But...
"...Are you alright? If you are wounded, I can assist..." Clarine offers, looking toward Gwen. Gwen suggests they go, and Clarine nods in agreement. "Yes... you may be correct."
At her other statement, there's only a grim nod.
She has a feeling this is going to be quite the long night.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied's expression contorts to a somewhat conflicted one, when she sees -- she doesn't need to be an empath with the way Polynya answers her. Even in the midst of battle.
"... I know," she whispers softly, empathically to Polynya. Somehow, she can understand the struggle she goes through. "It is confusing, and scary. And I do not expect you to say yes or anything immediately, but..."
A pause, as she lowers her sword as Laevateinn fades away. She's exhausted a lot of power.
"Know that I will never stop offering my hand to you."
She disappears in shadow, and Riesenlied... lets out a tired breath and drops to her knees, winded.
...
But what of--
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
"T-this!!"
Kamui takes the first spoonful of chowder into her mouth, and suddenly she can see herself sitting on the diner stool.
Oh, she thinks, I'm having an out of body experience.
Kamui is ascending to Robo-Valhalla from how heavenly this chowder is!!
"Umai...... no," she rectifies.
"Umui."
A pause.
"Wasn't there some danger I had to be taking care of? Oh well..."