2020-08-02: Amalgam
- Log: Amalgam
- Cast: Quicksilver Monstrosities, Leon Albus, Zed, Isolde, Lily Keil, Ethius Hesiod, Rebecca Streisand, Jacqueline Barber, Seraph Boudicca, Ida Everstead-Rey, Fei Fong Wong
- Where: Claiborne
- Date: August 02, 2020
- Summary: The creatures attacking Claiborne have been tracked down to their lair. The time has come to deal with them once and for all -- but is an ugly secret regarding their nature yet to be discovered?
DC: Quicksilver Monstrosities switches forms to The Flexile Amalgams!
<Pose Tracker> Quicksilver Monstrosities has posed.
They come, in the end, as they have for the last fortnight: crawling over the still-fertile-enough fields of Kasutho for Claiborne. Their numbers have lessened by now due to attrition; only five remain. Though attempts to rebuff them and chase them off have been for now mostly successful, one need only look to the damaged defenses of Claiborne to know that this cannot continue.
None of the creatures truly resemble one another. One has a form almost suggesting something cervine, except the body's not the right shape. Except the legs shouldn't turn that way. Except the antler-like protrusions refuse to stay in the same place or even the same arrangement. Another vaguely recalls something panther-like, except, again, the shape of the body isn't right, and there is no tail--
Oh, wait, yes there is, now.
They're all like that. All plausibly suggesting the confines of the animal form without actually adhering to any of its actual rules or constraints. All of them shifting, changing, even as they stream across the fields for Claiborne. It's hard to tell what they might have been once, except--
No. No, there it is. When the moment of realization comes, perhaps it may come with the force of a hammer. Whatever had happened to cause them has consumed most of their original forms but--
There for a few instants as the sun dips lower on the horizon, as light glitters off the liquid living metal that makes of their bodies, there visible is the unmistakeable form of a human skull on one reptilian-esque creature.
Now the oddness of the bodies makes sense. These were humans who...
But there is little time left for luxuries like shock. They come for the town of Claiborne to batter its gates and ravage its streets once more. Only you stand in their way.
Will you save the town?
BGM: https:'stuartchatwood.bandcamp.comtrackcombat-in-the-ruins
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"What in the bloody hell are these things?" Leon Albus asks, and despite the strong language, he does not shout. He looks concerned as he stands near the center of Claiborne. He looks about -- from strange quicksilver monster to strange quicksilver monster -- and then back at Lily. His brow furrows, for a moment.
Like Metal Demons? He wonders -- but no, he thinks this is something different. Argent Divider II is in his hand, as a shotgun. He holds it like that, one hand cradling it, and he turns the weapon towards one of the deer-like ones.
He squeezes the trigger, and a shotgun slug fires towards one of the quicksilver monstrosities with antlers. Leon spits on the ground, silver eyes regarding them.
"Lily," he says. "Any idea where these things are coming from?"
GS: Leon Albus has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Shotgun Blast! GS: Leon Albus has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
He knew. Deep at the back of his mind, he knew. It would never be as simple as corrupted animal life. The MO was too distinct, too cruel for such a thing.
But for it to emerge here-- for his living racial nightmare to come screaming back out of the blue like this--
The only question in his head is, who is responsible? Could it really be that Alhazred never truly died? They never found a corpse, after all. And this... This is all but certainly his work.
He can think on it later. The fact is...
"Get down!" Zed roars, moving like quicksilver lightning. He darts past Leon, past Lily, his blade drawn and shining like a sliver of solid starlight. Alien-colored flame swirls and billows around him as he strikes into the first of the Beast Infiltrators. "Demon Seed or not, Alhazred or not, there's no denying what this is! I won't let anyone use our heritage for such a horrible purpose! For our future, for Claiborne, I will cut you all down!"
GS: Zed has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Isolde has posed.
Why did Isolde stay here?
Well, they had a Memory Cube, and with a Memory Cube it's as good as anywhere else for Isolde. There are people with whom she wishes to keep in touch, though not many.
She played dice games with people, of course, but what kept her here is certainly not rich pickings of adventurers and their dice games.
Probably it was this moment.
Isolde runs straight past Leon Albus. She doesn't answer him, having not been addressed; some jewelry and her partial armoring clank and clatter as she builds up speed, holding her Spiran sword forwards in a two hand grip, twisting it round to lead with the blade. Yes: It is unorthodox perhaps, but she is using a charge tactic, bracing the heavy metal ahead of her, sharp end first.
"Put a wedge in them!" she calls, a moment before when impact should come.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"I don't know," Lily admits. "But they aren't Metal Demons after all. They're..."
Well, they're coming anyway, regardless. Lily is here today, dressed in dark clothing; she has been quiet. The sun dips down the horizon...
"But they aren't natural. They're coming from somewhere, somewhere more than just 'that way.'"
Lily pulls a grenade from her things, removes the pin, and throws it into the charge of the coming monstrosities. The explosives burst into fire and pressure, lighting up the sunset with roar and fury.
Lily stares down their opponents still--but she does shift to the side to let Zed through. "THey're still shifting..."
GS: Isolde has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Heavy Rain by Nightfall! GS: Isolde has completed her action. GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Leon Albus's Shotgun Blast for 151 hit points! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Pineapple Schnapps! GS: Lily Keil assumes the Stoic stance! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Zed's Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor for 205 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 30 FP! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Isolde's Heavy Rain by Nightfall for 174 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a glancing hit from Lily Keil's Pineapple Schnapps for 130 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius has been remarkably thorough since the Caravan Kinship stopped by to help - arguably to the detriment of the emotional well-being of the panicked, battered, starving citizens, but what's going on is something extraordinary and he feels especially compelled to figure out what's exactly going on in the process of... dealing with it, in a decisive fashion.
The next wave of attacks is here, and he is no closer to having a satisfactory answer to his queries. He has not been terribly forthcoming as to why.
Until now.
"A strong likeness to Metal Beasts," he comments, not all that far off from Leon Albus as he goes between the first two parts of a complex gesture with his left hand, back and forth, to continue with once he is done speaking communicative language so that he can do the associated chanting, "less coherent in form but possessed of a shared goal I have yet to discern."
He has gone from being 'not been terribly forthcoming' to... uh, 'not been acceptably forthcoming.' An improvement?! Kind of?
His words fade to sorcerous chanting as he continues the string of gestures - a lot of fluttering fingers, almost like a piano - ascending gradually as he calmly holds his ground before Zed's righteous fury and the explosions ahead of him by Lily's make.
"Overheat." Sorcerous lights follow as the ambient temperature in the air raises, to try and sap the strength of the oncoming monstrosities and give valuable extra seconds before he has to reposition.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Overheat! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca never left the town, after her defense of it before. Right now she's knelt down by the slats of a wooden fence, her revolver ARM gripped by both hands.
As they stream towards the town, she waits. Waits. She gets a bead on one of them. "Does it matter right now?" She comments off-handedly to Leon.
And that's the moment she sees that the skull she's aiming at is human, even if the rest of it isn't.
Rebecca hesitates half a heartbeat to pull that trigger, because she realizes perhaps that moment what Leon was so concerned about.
She realizes that indeed, the answer to the 'what' does matter. The thought of switching to less lethal ammunition occurs to her.
And then her finger spasms upon the trigger. Firing off a shot which she intends to hit it in a way that'll make this as quick and clean as possible. Then another in the double tap just to be certain.
Zed's call though, makes her wonder. If it's something to do with the Metal Demons then... "Maybe... if they're intelligent...
She starts, as if buying into the idea slowly that maybe they do need to work this out, "...then they're here with some kind of purpose?" Grimly she adds, "Hopefully it isn't just more bodies."
GS: Rebecca Streisand has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Round Beat! GS: Rebecca Streisand has gained 2 Combo! GS: Rebecca Streisand has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline Barber is not one to leave a job unfinished. The Caravan Kinship had helped put a stop to an attack by the abominations before, and so they remained to do what they could to help.
And then, there's a warning of yet another attack. This time, there's only five left... but Jacqueline knows from the previous encounter not to underestimate them. However many of them there were, they needed to be approached with full seriousness.
Jacqueline stands at the ready with the others who have moved to defend Claiborne, watching as the the creatures begin to advance. And what she sees steals the breath right from her throat. Her eyes open wide, as their current form makes her realise something.
"...By the Guardians..." She whispers, dismayed. That skull. It's undeniably human. She had thought, from her examinations of the ones she fought up to this point, that it had been altered wildlife, but...
...Had she been overlooking the obvious out of fear? It takes some effort to hold strong. She has a job to do right now.
"I'll try to fence them in!" Jacqueline calls out, taking a deep breath. She begins to gesture with her left hand and pillars of earth rise up. While some do smash into the creatures, her ultimate goal is to form a wall to prevent them from getting any closer to Claiborne.
It's only temporary. She's seen how they've been able to clamber over any defenses they tried to build. But it may be enough of a delay to allow the others to capitalize on their attempts to climb over it.
Shehe glances toward Rebecca, then.
"They've been... attacking people. Whatever their purpose is... it doesn't bode well for the people of Claiborne." She comments. "Something, or someone, has to have made them like this... if we want to know what they're after, we'll probably have to go to the source."
These creatures couldn't a natural occurrence. There had to be an outside source, like Lily said.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Pillar Crash! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber assumes the Stoic stance! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Claiborne is suffering.
Boudicca has been here, as much as she is able. Sometimes she left, to help Ida and Zed - but often she has stayed within the confines of the town walls, the town barricades. There aren't many villagers who can see her to know why it's easier to heft the wood, like the air's carrying the pylons along.
But there are a couple with the experience to know someone is with them. There's a grandma who hasn't moved out, yet. She makes excellent tea.
For her, and everyone else in the village...
The Seraph Boudicca is here, as the things which are like animals pour inwards. Pouring is the correct word in her mind; they pour over their forms, over the village's defences, over...
... their own skulls.
"Oh," Boudicca says. The bottom drops out of her words and falls right to the Seraphic glyph, alighting in pale green. Air whipping about her, braids in a flurry, the gust pours out, too -- right in the path of that cervine thing which might be no more a beast than anyone present.
"This is..."
Zed cries out and denies them, as Leon and Lily try to figure out the source. Even Ethius speaks up to help, she hears - hears Jacqueline's determination and Rebecca's questions, too.
But the words which come out of her mouth are coloured by dismay, the arc of her brow and the drawn worry-lines of her lips. She beholds what has come, and she mourns.
"... this is terrible."
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Buffeting Headwind! GS: Seraph Boudicca assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida has been combing the countryside for any sign of the creatures' origin. She and Zed have started to piece things together, but the clock is ticking--it's only a matter of time before the monsters regroup and launch another attack. As it so happens, she made it back to Claiborne with less than an hour to spare.
From high atop Claiborne's improvised battlements, the cry goes out. "MONSTERS!" shouts a sentry. She loads a flare into a gunsmoke ARM, raises it, pulls the trigger. A brilliant streamer of red smoke rises into the air, and erupts in a dazzling crimson flare. The call has gone out.
Ida is already slipping through the barricade, twisting sideways to sneak through a half-opened door. She shuts it behind her, and whips Devil's Due from its holster.
Ida looks out at the beasts' wild charge, and for a moment, time seems to slow for her. She sees a human skull protruding from beneath reptilian flesh. She sees antlers that look more like human arms when they twist the right way. She remembers what was left of the people of St. Centour.
'What in the bloody hell are these things?' asks Leon Albus.
Ida whirls on him, her face lined with equal parts fear, determination, and rage. "Humans, once. Now, experiments. Put them out of their misery." Zed bellows for the others to get down, but Ida does nothing of the sort. "Right behind you, Zed!" Ida roars. Her hand, heart, and ARM move as one. She isn't so much looking down Devil's Due's iron-sights as she is seeing with them. She takes aim at the reptilian monster and pulls the trigger.
CRACK
A single bullet flies downrange. Gunsmoke billows out behind it, flowing backwards to surround Ida in a protective cloud. "Show no quarter! It's them or the townsfolk!"
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Ebon Devil Cloud! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a glancing hit from Ethius Hesiod's Overheat for 53 hit points! GS: Weaken! applied to Quicksilver Monstrosities!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
???
Fei's been unconcious ever since his battle with ... Ever since his battle with ...
He walks through the darkness, quietly. He has no destination in mind, nor end. Periodically he thinks he sees a light and he shifts direction but he receives no visions, nor answers.
He doesn't understand. He kept his cool, didn't he? It was hard, but Id still took over. He's angry, of course he is, who wouldn't be angry--but he's sure there's a reason. There has to be a good reason for all of this.
Does it matter, Junior?
"Please don't call me that." Fei says. "We all know you're not as cruel as you say you are."
Think what you'd like. Your friends live only so long as they are useful to me. Even I can't kill the ones I want to kill on my own. But Josie isn't helping us anymore now is she?
"Please don't hurt her." Fei says quietly. He sees a light and he starts running towards it as quickly as he can. Maybe if he can make it through first--
Doesn't it make you mad?
Fei continues running, trying to ignore him.
Doesn't it make you so mad you could kill?
NOW
Lily feels a presence behind her. A blazing fire of rage, hate, and pain that threatens to engulf the planet, like a disaster of flame that consumes everything. Like the surface of an angry sun, each layer seething with fury right down to the pitch black core threatening to consume every ounce of light. The darkness, the emptiness that exists in the absence of emotion due to the emotions burning so hot for so long that the fuel has been spent leaving oblivion and emptiness behind. Turning to look directly at it feels like it might burn one's eyes out, but then...
...Then a single blazing hand that melts metal and bone like thick butter reaches forward and places itself on Lily's shoulder.
And the sensation blinks out in an instant. The hand is just a normal hand. To a normal arm. To a normal body.
Fei, his hair undone and covering his eyes says, "Experiments..." The hand tightens briefly--not to the point of pain, just enough to show a delicate amount of tension in that limb. "Someone's using people as experiments."
He raises his other hand up, aiming it towards the creatures--his knuckles cracking as he tenses his fingers. An hot white aura crackles in front of his palm and he unleashes a swath of energy out from his body and towards the metal creatures before him.
"Killing fellow patients..." Fei murmurs, walking forward in a stumble. He hasn't changed out of his bloody clothes from the fight with Josie. "How..nostalgic."
GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Rebecca Streisand's Round Beat for 129 hit points! GS: Disrupt! applied to Quicksilver Monstrosities! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Guided Shot! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities critically Guards a hit from Jacqueline Barber's Pillar Crash for 20 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cover! applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
An unpleasantly familiar sensation burns its way down Ida's spine. Her breath catches in her throat. The cloud of smoke thins behind her, but only enough so she can turn and look at the presence behind her. Not thirty seconds ago, she was the very picture of steely resolve, but as she sees Fei, her eyes widen. "Oh God," Ida breathes. "Fei! Fei, what are you--?!"
GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Ebon Devil Cloud for 110 hit points! GS: Riposte! applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Buffeting Headwind for 102 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a glancing hit from Fei Fong Wong's Guided Shot for 44 hit points! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
<Pose Tracker> Quicksilver Monstrosities has posed.
The first that comes at the gates, pushing ahead of the lot, is an ursine-ish one that manages to be distressingly un-bearlike in the same breath. But it never reaches the gates.
Zed intercedes first, driving into that monstrosity a gash that should have left it gravely wounded if not dead. Instead, he is the first witness to the nature of these things bodies -- a nature he already knows intimately well. Nearly bisected, it topples over... and its body begins to knit together. It comes at him with jaws bared wide -- too wide.
Leon's shot takes one of the deerlike ones right between the eyes; the slug shoots out the back of its head in fact, a spray of quicksilver trailing the shell's flight. And it simply blinks at him slowly as the hole fills itself back in. Perhaps it would have charged him next, from the way its body bundles and crouches, if Isolde had not roared past him like an avenging angel.
Normally this would have taken the head of the thing clean off -- in this case it only nearly does so, and for a moment, the head hangs limply.
And then this, too, heals and it rushes down Isolde instead, its twining grasping antlers lowered for her. Perhaps as the wind whips up at Bouddica's bidding that may slow it just enough to spare Isolde a wound -- see, it staggers under the assault for an instant. Or perhaps, as those 'antlers' enlongate into something more grasping, more handlike, it might not matter very much when it can so apparently ignore immediate distance.
Lily takes a more direct approach, hurling a grenade into the mix of the creatures; while the things reflexively scatter as it hits the group, they don't go unscathed by the explosive: they bleed silver as they flee. Silver and red.
If only Rebecca were fighting a normal creature. Otherwise, perhaps her shot would have dropped it. Instead, the bearlike one lets out a sound that sounds a little like a gasp, a little like a chuckle as it drops. After it lies there stunned and bleeding silver-red, picks itself up, shakes itself off, and bullrushes her.
How much of these are now metal, and how much is flesh? Perhaps in a way that is the question that Ethius would like to answer, as the air surrounding the lot of them begins to heat up. Though they slow not a step in their advance, there is something about them that seems... affected by the spell, as if they were lessened in some effective but barely perceptable way.
Ida focuses on the reptilian one, cracking off a single shot for it; her aim is true and for a moment, a part of the thing's head explodes in a spray of silver. But this wound is only temporary. As it knits together, the thing rushes onwards for the walls, sliding along the ground as if it were more serpentine than lizardlike.
Taking a defensive stance, Jaqueline constructs an earthen wall. The reptilian -- as with all of them the description is more accurate for the little resemblances than the overall cohesion of the body -- is the unlucky of the lot as it, skimming forward, is struck and knocked back by the rising barrier. Its destination for now denied, it seizes on Jay as its focus, raising a limb as if to claw at her even at distance--
And part of that limb breaks off outright, the body part launching itself across the room as a missile.
Neither is she the only one so targetted: the one with a body that vaguely reminds one of a big cat arches its back as it stands back in the field... as a bevy of missiles erupt from within itself to rain down across the ones preventing its passage to the town.
And then, as the missiles fall... there is Fei. Stumbling forward like a sleepwalker, he releases a blast of energy that serves to bowl the panther-like one over. It lies there for a moment before rising, shaking itself off. And then runs for him, its tail raised high.
Its bladed, lashing tail.
GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Zed with Mauling Bite! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has gained 2 Combo! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Isolde with Tearing Grasp! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Launching Claw! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Rebecca Streisand with Crushing Charge! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Leon Albus with Autogen Missiles! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Lily Keil with Autogen Missiles! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Autogen Missiles! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Autogen Missiles! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Autogen Missiles! GS: That attack doesn't exist. [] GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Tail Lash! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has gained 1 Combo! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has completed its action. GS: Rebecca Streisand takes a glancing hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Crushing Charge for 59 hit points! GS: Rebecca Streisand's Force Evade activates! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Tail Lash for 83 hit points! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: Leon Albus guards a hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Autogen Missiles for 71 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod takes a glancing hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Autogen Missiles for 55 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Zed takes a glancing hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Mauling Bite for 70 hit points! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Autogen Missiles for 105 hit points! GS: Lily Keil guards a hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Autogen Missiles for 64 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Gh--" Leon nods at Ida. "Whether they're still intelligent or not, I think they rather need to die. Doubt means hesitation and hesitation means more corpses," Leon says to Rebecca. He glances at Lily, then, and he bobs his head in understanding. "So, someone made these things. Miss Barber is quite right." He slides another pair of rounds into his shotgun, with a practiced and smooth motion. "We'll have to find them, and see what we can do about that."
He tenses, as he hears Fei land behind him. He looks -- stares for a second, and surprise registers on his face. "Fei..." He hesitates. "...I'm glad to see you're up."
He looks back at the monster he shot -- and makes a face, at both the wound and the fact that Isolde has to finish it. He nods his respect to her, then presses a button his belt. A trio of triangular drones drop off, fly up, and form a barrier. Missiles slam into that, instead, exploding across it. Leon lets out a sigh through gritted teeth, and then aims his shotgun for the large cat-like one.
He aims near the tail, then pulls the trigger. A shot fires from it, trying to sever the tail.
GS: Leon Albus has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with RR-2 Suggestion! GS: Leon Albus has gained 1 Combo! GS: Leon Albus has completed his action. GS: Isolde takes a solid hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Tearing Grasp for 77 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Former humans. Experiments. Lily hears this--but there is something else. There is a presence, and she freezes in place. She cannot move, briefly, until that blazing lands on her shoulder--
Lily lets out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, blinking once and turning back to Fei. "Fei...?" She doesn't try to move his hand. Not until he starts moving forward. "Fei--"
Is it, though?
She still feels burned by it, or perhaps it's just that recent wounds to the psyche haven't healed. She isn't the only one to notice. Looking not just at him but to where Fei stands in front of another--that bladed, lashing tail snaps out.
"Damn it," she says, and breathes in, forcing her anger down in order to focus. She gathers up power, and holds it until it feels too hot again--and then puts out her hand. A golden aura emanates in the next moment from Fei, hot and bright but not harming him--instead shielding him, empowering him even as Leon attacks the creature going for him.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Gold Aura! GS: Lily Keil has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Launching Claw for 79 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber's Force Guard activates! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Autogen Missiles for 63 hit points! GS: Lily Keil heals Fei Fong Wong! He gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Burst! applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities completely evades a hit from Leon Albus's RR-2 Suggestion!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Oh, they're intelligent alright!" Zed answers, vitriol dripping from every snarled syllable. "That's what makes them dangerous. Everything that used to be human stripped out. Everything that could love and create, repurposed into a killing impulse!" The beast's bifurcated facade gapes wide with far too many teeth. It chomps down eagerly, perhaps hoping to find a meal of living metal to feed its own vile growth. "Disgusting...!" Doom Bringer slices upward, parrying a massive set of incisors such that Zed is sent sprawling back instead of being cut in half. "These are the real Metal Demons! The spitting image of everything The Mother wanted us to be!"
On some level, Zed is aware of the terrifying aura radiating from Fei Fong Wong (and not, this time, the aura Lily's sorcery conjures). But right now, at this time and in this place, his mind is focused and clear. The enemy in front of him is a monster, a suffering thing that he needs to be put down, a hateful horror that is the dark mirror of everything that he believes his people should be.
Zed is too busy trying to erase something utterly antithetical to his self-image to consider Fei's behavior anything but acceptable and appropriate.
"Ida! Go low!" Zed calls as he digs his heels in. There's a burst of wasteland dust, a cloud of roiling soot erupts as Zed shoots forward like a living bullet. He strikes once as he reengages the metal monster... And then whirls into a spine-crushing mid-air roundhouse as he races past it, into its (likely temporary) blind spot. "I'll go high!"
GS: Zed has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Miracle Strike - Phantom Bite! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius scarce has the time or cause to respond to the revelation being shouted out clearly by Ida (and the resulting thoughts that follow), or turn around to give visual confirmation to why there is an incredible sense of burning, red-hot death (that his own brand of such cannot compare to) not that far from him (as he's not all that far off from Lily) when there are missiles starting to rain down.
Ethius can't hold his ground or fall back, that has too many missiles coming down. There is one being shot far ahead enough that it would be an excellent way to strike a direct hit if he took the one available way out of a fatal blast radius. (Most blast radii are fatal if you are flesh and blood!!)
Ethius takes off running anyway. He doesn't hesitate, he doesn't look back up to confirm, he just runs forward, running straight under where one of the missiles is going to fall.
He only just makes it past when it descends and impacts explosively on the ground behind him, and Ethius disappears under the rising cloud of disrupted soil. Somewhere, he finds raised ground for a moment where he can look back to the town, if only for a split second because now he's separated from the group and vulnerable to ambush.
Their movements now make more sense. Ethius thinks to himself, hand to his forehead. They may be drawn to the village, for that is where they may be from. I had not cause to think to ask if anyone had gone missing prior to the incidents.
He holds his breath as he brings a hand over his mask, to further hide his breath. He's not one of the villagers there, so he believes he has a moment to regroup - if only a moment - as he considers the next action. His body language goes utterly still. If he's not 'in the way,' and they're specifically targeting villagers because they are familiar... he may be able to ambush.
This cannot be allowed to spread. There is an agreement among them. Ethius eyes the backside of the reptilian that Jay had previously walled off. ...If they overheard what Miss Ida said... to bring them their closure will be difficult.
His approach is stealthy. Almost, in a way, predatory, trying to close in on the reptilian. As if there may be a misunderstanding of the true food chain here, as he contorts the fingers in his right hand in a series of gestures difficult and painful without serious training, mouthing the syllables even as he maintains a coherent track of thought separate from them.
Assault by stray Metal Beasts. Those missing were lost to them. The remains need to be secured before the villagers can discern the bone structures. The particulars need not linger.
As Ethius closes in within range, he extends the hand he'd been flexing with the final call of the spell's name: "Recurrent Current."
The words are spoken calmly, even theoretically surrounded on all sides, as electrical power forms, jumps away, and threatens to shock - and keep shocking - the reptilian over and over again, should it connect.
He maintains his composure impeccably for the mortal peril he is presently in.
GS: Ethius Hesiod spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Recurrent Current! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca finds herself considering the alternative to what Leon has to say. And there were no good answers. What would they do even if they captured them? Bring them to Riesenlied? Hold them in captivity eternally until they found a way to reverse it? What if they never did. "No argument here." The girl indicates back to him. "Let's make it quick and clean then."
And she just hopes to herself that Dean and Avril never need to be exposed to this. It's the last thing either of them needs right now.
And then comes Fei onto the battlefield. "Experiments?" Rebecca asks, abstracted, and Jay confirms they've been made like this. Like it's too horrible to believe someone would do that. "Someone has a lot to answer for."
The gasp/half-chuckle of the ursine creature when caught by her shot drives it home what Fei spells out to her that indeed it's true.
It shouldn't have surprised her that there are people out there who would do things like this. And yet... all the same, the sheer lack of humanity in the act makes her nauseous.
As the creature charges at her, she backpeddles away from the fence, then kicks off the wall of the Claiborne home, trying to hurl herself acrobatically over the thing. The creature's sheer bulk though slams through the fenceinto her as she's trying to dart overhead. And she finds herself hurled away far more than is comfortable.
She hits the ground in a hard roll, and comes immediately back up - ARM blazing as she beat retreat to new cover, snapping off several shots in an attempt to create a close shot grouping around it's flank.
And while she wanted things to be quick and clean here, it's becoming readily apparent as she catches sight of the others engaged with these horrors that they're going to be anything but quick and clean. "Anyone got any bright ideas? It's hard to know if I'm even shooting anything 'vital' with these things!"
GS: Rebecca Streisand has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Quick Repeater! GS: Rebecca Streisand has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rebecca Streisand has completed her action. GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities guards a hit from Zed's Miracle Strike - Phantom Bite for 69 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple! applied to Quicksilver Monstrosities! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Ethius Hesiod's Recurrent Current for 147 hit points! GS: Poison! applied to Quicksilver Monstrosities! GS: Charge!! You gain 30 FP! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Rebecca Streisand's Quick Repeater for 152 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Those aren't hands.
Do not think the offence Boudicca takes is over the perversion of the forms they have taken; it is not so foreign to her to think one thing may be another, this woman who is light and warmth. No: it is their core, their roots, their humanity which cries to her, cries lost with what should-cannot be.
Those are hands.
"I am sorry," Boudicca says -- whispers; "I am so sorry."
Ida is right. Of course she knows. A thing which cannot return to its shape: yes, she knows this truth. Not every transformation is fungible. Not every horror turns back.
They're not people any more. They were people. How many more?
Ah.
That's a pertinent question after all.
Because there is fury like sunlight on the surface which burns, and she turns in shock to find a face more familiar. "Fei," Boudicca says, and concern quiets her here, until she finds her volume. "Fei! Please take care!" She doesn't know the story, here, doesn't know why he's in those beraggled clothes; but she knows enough of Fei to know it must not be a pleasant tale.
He's not the only one imperilled. (Nor imperilment, she thinks. She thinks this way, yes, in words left behind years prior.)
Everyone - but right now, the one trying to raise that shield -- "Jacqueline, beware!" Boudicca cries warning, as she springs forward to meet that creature, tonfa in hand. The thing like reptiles which threatens her might be able to break off its limbs, but --
-- it is in the middle of this motion that the thing like a cat finds her with that missile, and she whirls in her motion and crosses her tonfa in front of her and she is her own projectile from the force, rolling to a stop. "I know not their composition," she reflects, to Rebecca, as she rises. "But for the sake of Claiborne, we must perservere!"
It was an interrupted motion, but now she lunges for the reptilian creature, and even if it has a low centre of gravity like those beasts tend to have she will go low to meet it with a swipe of her tonfa. If she can unseat it - they can shoot it.
And that's... all they can do for them, now.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Rabid Lunge! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
One of the abominations is rebuffed... but its attention soon turns upon her. That's fine for Jacqueline - especially with Boudicca's warning. Better their attention be on her, than Claiborne itself.
"Thanks!" She calls back to Boudicca. She retreats backward, drawing her steelcloath cloak around her protectively as the 'reptilian' launches part of its own body at her. Even with the added protection, it sends her recoiling back, nearly knocking the wind out of her. Still, she avoided the worst of that exchange. But it's a reminder to take these things seriously.
She backs up, using her earthen wall to keep herself from being flanked as she scans the battlefield. She spies Ethius - his manner of sorcery... it might be the best thing for them right now. They need his firepower and his detachment. She picks out two other targets, too.
"Ethius, Isolde, Rebecca! I'm lending you my support!" Jacqueline calls out. With a gesture of her left hand, empowering sorcery spreads out from her position to give the others' attacks just a little bit more 'oomph'.
They need to finish this quickly. She looks back toward Rebecca, then.
"These ones seem more durable than the ones before, but... their regenerative capabilities have to have an effective maximum limit. If we can exhaust them, or hit them with something far greater than they can endure, they should reach a point where they can no longer recover." Jacqueline explains.
She pauses for a moment.
"...I... I realise that essentially sums up to 'hit them a lot and really hard', but... it sounded smarter in my head..." She says with a sigh.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Mage Armory! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Isolde with Mage Armory! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Rebecca Streisand with Mage Armory! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Rebecca Streisand takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Mage Armory for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! applied to Rebecca Streisand! GS: Isolde takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Mage Armory for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! applied to Isolde!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei turns his head towards Leon. Seeing but kind of not seeing. He says, "Leon ... ... These people. They used to be..." He raises his hand, placing it on his forehead. "Someone did this to them. I want to... I don't want them to get away."
He isn't doing the best job of looking after himself but even as the panther charges forward, tail raised high--he brings up his arm. The bladed tail slices into his arm, getting caught for a moment--aiming to hold it in place for Leon to be able to get a shot off at its tail before pushing the creature back.
"Maybe with disassemblers... Where would we get disassemblers though?" Fei murmurs before looking back to Leon. He smiles, almost awkwardly. He laughs a bit. "You can tell, huh?"
He looks back forward to the former humans. "Thanks."
A golden aura ripples around him and Fei gives Lily a small look--he shouldn't be surprised by her kindness anymore yet somehow...
Of course, he thought Josie was kind too. Maybe a bit acerbic, but not cruel. He thought she was a good person. Elly still believes in her. How can Elly believe in people so much.
But are these Fei's thoughts here? He looks like he's on the edge, walking a thin tightrope of identity. Ida shouts out to him.
He looks at Ida, blinking a few times like he's still kind of in a dream. He turns his injured arm over it, looks at the blood peeking through that golden glow--
And then he darts forward in a sudden burst of mvement, striking in a series of quick kicks for t he pantherbeast closest to him. Boudicca shouts at him.
"Are you someone we can trust?" He asks of Boudicca, maybe the world. "You all have your hidden masters, your hidden allegiences, like chains across your souls."
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Hoten! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Mage Armory for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! applied to Ethius Hesiod!
<Pose Tracker> Isolde has posed.
After that smashing, bloody gash Isolde reels. She must, because even if she had the shock of momentum she sure the heck isn't going to win a wrestling match with one of the Things. The antlers come towards her as she swings the blade round; there is another clash of body part against cold-forged steel from another world.
The results are inconclusive but Isolde herself staggers for a moment. She exhales with great force, and she seems to consider the question of just where she is for a moment.
There are explosions, winds. There's a sense of something ominous on the other side of the lines she's moved past but she can't quantify it and would not have the baseline to go by if she could; perhaps if she knew Fei Fong Wong better...
The winds, though, are a mild pleasure. Isolde stabs her blade at the flank of the one that had been harrying her, and she calls back to Rebecca; "I have little idea." Then, perhaps subtly, to Zed: "Oh, is that so?"
She is at least (apparently) in good spirits, especially as Jay's sorcery guides her sword, like some sort of great predatory bird...
GS: Formation! Isolde has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Swarm of Harrier! GS: Isolde has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Leon's voice draws Ida back into the present. It's a far cry from that time in the warehouse, when he hauled her away from Riesenlied in the throes of rage. She looks at him, determination rising behind the fear. "Zed and I have a lead," she says. She has to stay focused. She has to see past the way the things move, and the way they knit themselves back together when damaged.
The ways they remind her of what she's become.
The monster Ida shot reels back. It gives Ida a moment to look at Fei, and see that dream-like haze in his eyes. She shouldn't let this distract her, but she has to. "Oh God, Fei, what happened, I'm--" Time begins to slow for her, as it always does when Ida's hybrid nervous system perceives a threat. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees another Metal Beast arching its back, little steel-tipped things inside. It launches them into the air.
"DOWN!"The heiress rushes forwards, taking shelter behind Jay's earthen wall. Hyadean exoskeleton erupts from her hands, sliding down her arms until both are encased. Petal-like projections unfold from the armor, sliding together into discus-sized bucklers. Ida raises her armored arms, crossing them over her head.
Missiles rain down. Explosions carve chunks out of Hyadean biometal, and rattle Ida's arms in their sockets. Hyadean tissue differentiates, forming additional muscle and bone to absorb the pummeling impacts and blistering heat. One missile goes off inches from Ida's head, and for a moment she sees stars. She whips her head forward, blinking to clear them.
'Ida! Go low!'
"Right behind you!" Ida shouts. She plants hands on Jay's barricade and vaults over it, her body tensing and elongating subtly as she moves. She lands on her feet on the other side. "Barber's right! Overwhelming force!" Go low, said Zed. Golden-white light ignites around her armored right fist, and she drives it for the creature's center of mass. Ida's arm twists and elongates and shifts, turning a straight punch into an uppercut mid-strike. The creature she's facing is dense and massive, but there's enough force behind the blow to lift it off its feet.
Crimson and quicksilver spot Ida's face, mingling with sweat and tears.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Relentless Combination ! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities guards a hit from Seraph Boudicca's Rabid Lunge for 34 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shieldbreak! applied to Quicksilver Monstrosities! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Hoten for 113 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a glancing hit from Isolde's Swarm of Harrier for 65 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Relentless Combination for 142 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 30 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Quicksilver Monstrosities has posed.
It should have it. It was perfectly aimed. Except the the creature folds its entire body to the left, curving itself in a way that anatomy should never allow, and the shell goes hurtling past. It turns its attention on Leon, then, breaking away from Fei.
Its mouth opens wide as it charges at Leon, disgorging a gout of living metal that then hardens into a pair of forward-thrusting blades. It is less 'cat' than 'bladed battering ram'.
Whatever happens to Leon from it, Fei will not let it stand -- whatever precarious tightrope he now treads. He rushes at the panther-like one, delivering a flurry of kicks for its side that send the thing reeling. It might almost be a surprise when its side erupts into tiny grasping tendrils, lunging out to snare one of Fei's legs.
Zed faces down the bear-like one, calling to Ida as he takes, briefly, to the air, bringing down his blade upon it.
Which is met by a meaty paw in a guard, his blade only half-sunken through it. No. Hand. Hand is the right word... isn't it?
Something foul bubbles up from within the creature, a hot hazy smoky breath that roils out like exhaust on a combustion engine transport. It bubbles across the field, catching Ida and Rebecca in the terrible coiling fog, but--
This is where Rebecca shoots it. Ida joins in, using her own hybrid body to deliver unto one far too similar to herself a vicious straight. She doesn't stop. Neither does Rebecca. What anatomy it has that might be able to be targetted is arguable, but there is something to be said for repeat, unyielding force -- just as Jaqueline had recommended. Eventually, it is forced to stop producing fumes and fall back.
Isolde lays into the deer-like one, driving her blade home--
Or would have, if the antlers hadn't moved as a swarm to intercept and divert her strike. A few of them are lost to her blade's edge; the creature does not seem to mind as its antlers weep silver. The few remaining twine together into something resembling a 'point'--
Before thrusting for her. It breaks off after, its intentions in this moment unclear.
Ethius, ruminating on an easier truth for those who had lost their loved ones on Kasutho, closes on the reptilian, so recently kept from its intrusion into the city and still focused on Jacqueline. It does not seem to see or sense him until it is far too late; the creature convulses, for the time unable to move against any of those on the field so long as Ethius continues to introduce the circuit of his spell into it. Its body conducts the current far too well, it seems.
Boudicca takes advantage of the moment. While even in this state its hide-like exterior of its body resists the sort of blows that the Seraph would introduce unto it, it cannot strike back.
But the cervine, trotting-sliding its way across the field after parting from Isolde, is perfectly capable of doing so. It lowers its head and charges for her, those piercing grasping stabbing 'antlers' slung right at her.
There were five in the advance. So where is the fifth?
One look at it and some part of the mind fills in 'rat', though it is hardly ratlike in form. Perhaps it is the way it moves. The way it pauses in the chaos, sniffing at the air still. It had scattered from the earlier grenade with the rest, falling back as if to watch. Zed's assessment of their intelligence may be correct.
For until now it had been the sole one to have refrained from any attack. And now it opens its mouth wide and screams.
It's the sort of scream that rattles the soul, unnerves the spirit. And it is so precisely pitched, that the ones that receive the brunt of its sonic assault...
...are the mages on the field.
Zed's assessment of their intelligence must be correct.
GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Snipe! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Leon Albus with Spiral Horn! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has gained 1 Combo! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Ensnaring Filaments! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Zed with Fume Breath! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Fume Breath! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Rebecca Streisand with Fume Breath! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Isolde with Lunging Stab! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Tearing Grasp! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Lily Keil with Silencing Scream! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Silencing Scream! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Silencing Scream! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has gained 1 Combo! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has completed its action. GS: Leon Albus guards a hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Spiral Horn for 85 hit points! GS: Leon Albus's Force Guard activates! GS: Isolde takes a solid hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Lunging Stab for 114 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Isolde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte! applied to Quicksilver Monstrosities! GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Silencing Scream for 23 hit points! GS: Mute! applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil takes a solid hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Silencing Scream for 54 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute! applied to Lily Keil! GS: CRITICAL! Rebecca Streisand takes a solid hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Fume Breath for 78 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rebecca Streisand gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disease! applied to Rebecca Streisand! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Fume Breath for 61 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disease! applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Tearing Grasp for 80 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Zed guards a hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Fume Breath for 48 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disease! applied to Zed! GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Silencing Scream for 46 hit points! GS: Mute! applied to Ethius Hesiod!
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"These... such brutality," Leon answes Zed. His eyes narrow, as he looks at the quicksilver monsters. Boudicca says that they must perservere, and he nods his agreement, even in the face of this grim situation.
His eyes turn to Fei. He only considers for a moment, before he nods. "Whoever did this, they have to die," he says. "There are things we must do, as much as we hate it, but this is beyond the pale."
He nods, once, to him. Then, he looks back at the monsters. Overwhelming force, is it? Far be it from him to argue.
The one that charges him has a horn -- such a term can only be applied loosely -- but that horn slams into the shield between the Raid Funnels. The barrier crackles, then cracks. The horn tears through, but the shield holds it back from hitting Leon directly, even as the barrier flickers out, and the drones float back. Leon sees the grasping tendrils from its side.
They reach for Fei -- and Leon suppresses a shudder. Then, he looks about at them, paying attention to the creatures. He stares for a moment, then snaps Argent Divider. The barrels part; the telescoping blade falls out. An angry red energy blade explodes around the thin blade, marking it as Argent Divider II.
Leon swings the weapon back over his shoulder, and the blade of energy extends out a good ten feet. His eyes flash silver, and then he slams the weapon down, trying to cleave through a number of them in one strike.
GS: Leon Albus spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Leon Albus has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Code.34 DURANDAL! GS: Leon Albus has gained 2 Combo! GS: Leon Albus has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Any bright ideas? "Shoot it until it stops moving!" Her eyes are mostly on Fei and the monsters now, though she hears Boudicca's apologies, hears a mourning there. But there's more than that, of course; these thing...
Where would thse humans have come from? Was it recent?
"Fei!"
Lily finally looks to Leon and then charges forward, ducking down below an attack and reaching the spot by Fei. "Fei--Come back."
She's interrupted by a sonic scream, stepping back and wincing as she feels it shake through her--it's worse than just noise, and Lily is staggered for a moment by it, looking up at the battlefield again. The sorceress moves to a crouch, then, as she feels her magic dampened--and pulls a knife, which she holds in a reverse grip. Then, she lifts her other hand. "Brutality is right. But we aren't finished."
Red energy begins to gather around her, with a pulse of Ether. Heat blossoms in the growing night around herself, Ethius, and Jay, power burning away the effects of that sonic assault and forcing things right.
"...Overwhelming force I can do. Just... give me a moment." She starts to get ready; Ether begins to gather around her, almost visibly.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Lily Keil with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Red Aura! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil's Stoic stance ends. She enters the Avenger stance! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Lily Keil takes a solid hit from Lily Keil's Red Aura for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Mute removed! GS: Jacqueline Barber takes a solid hit from Lily Keil's Red Aura for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Mute removed! GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Ensnaring Filaments for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Fei Fong Wong gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break and Entangle! applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Mighty! applied to Quicksilver Monstrosities! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities guards a hit from Leon Albus's Code.34 DURANDAL for 154 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"So survive?" Rebecca notes back to Boudicca, with a hint of wryness. "Good plan Boudicca!" A faint tease, perhaps to distract from the horror of the moment. Even before Jay offers her support. While running, Rebecca offers her a salute of sorts with her off-hand as Jay's sorcery flows through her. "Appreciated-! And don't sell yourself short! That information's important!"
Isolde though speaks of a plan, and Rebecca shouts back, asking, "Care to share?"
And that's when Rebecca starts coughing from the fog. Immediately feeling feverish, her lungs hurting and her body aching as she tries to stumble step away. Fortunately the assault prevents it from spreading more of it...
... but she suddenly wants to lay down for a while. Even if the situation means that she can't.
"Great." The girl says to herself about her own situation - and that's when the thing screams. Shaken by the sonic hell, and notably needing to raise her voice. "Looks like Jay was right though. Good going!"
And with that, Rebecca reaches her destination and draws out her Medium with a pivot on her foot. With a quick invocation, green ley energy ripples up around her.
Upon the one who was spewing the fumes, air currents suddenly shift, smashing down into the one that spewed fumes with a violent blast of wind. "Let's see if we can't clear the air before it releases any more of that..."
GS: Rebecca Streisand has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Ley Blast! GS: Rebecca Streisand has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It's impossible for one to miss the stress and despair boiling over the final line of defense this village even has. Ethius sees Fei is covered in blood and - even being someone who has shown a disturbing amount of detachment in being around death - has to blink once to bring his gaze away from the young man's intensity. Flecks of red and silver are illuminated under the lights of what power is being brought to bear against them as he sees her vault over the barricade.
He keeps his right hand outstretched as the reptilian one convulses and shudders under being electrocuted, the wash of Jay's boosting spell giving back a bit more strength to a hand on the verge of cramping. Though his gaze wavers only for keeping track of who may be where given the fog of war, he does not look away from what he is doing to a living creature. Something at the peripheral of his senses starts to scream. There has been a lot of yelling and screaming. This one has a depth to it that he can't place as it starts. He does not seem to pay it much heed, in favor of preparing the next spell--
Until he does.
There is an audible yell as Ethius falls to a crouch, both hands on his ears, as if he somehow caught a tinge of humanity that all his senses are weighed down. It's something difficult for those with a talent and inclination towards the sorcerous arts to describe to those without. It goes beyond sound. It bleeds into sight, feel, and thought like a paste trying to glue all of them together and then squeeze. Akin to a choking sensation, where breathing isn't constricted but it feels like nothing can come in or out.
Lily uses her Etheric power as heat blossoms grow around Ethius, and what results next feels even more disorienting even as the mental air clears.
The man looks like he lost his place on the goings on as his mind snaps to his location, what's in front of him, what's around or behind him - he has to look off to his left, because that shrill shrieking took away his mental map of the goings on.
He draws his quarterstaff and violently jabs at the writhing reptilian-like morass in front of him for lack of a better defense he can muster as he starts running further back (away from where most of the group is stationed), as if hurriedly trying to find higher, better ground and regroup.
A moment of mental vulnerability as the sorcerous equivalent of 'fresh air' still tries to circulate, courtesy of Lily's immediate fix of the screech's effects - as if somehow in that clearing, the tension of the situation has been allowed to seep into his psyche where he previously was able to block almost all of it out and break down his movements and others' as a simple clinical operation.
It's unlike him.
GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Lily Keil's Red Aura for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Mute removed! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Mashing The Regular Attack Button! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Just destroying their head isn't going to be enough," Zed snarls as the creature-- the monster-- absorbs the force of his blow. It's a meaty, doughy thing. Ripping the blade free is a difficult prospect; calling their regenerative capabilities formidable would be the understatement of a lifetime. "We don't even know where their brains are anymore! But even Living Metal can't recover infinitely. If the enemy is relying on the power of regeneration...!"
A terrible, reeking odor billows out from the monster-bear. Zed is in far too close proximity to avoid it. He chokes on the vile cloud, eyes welling up with fluid desperately trying to wash away the corrosive gas. If it weren't for Rebecca and Ida throwing the beast off balance, Zed could very well have lost much more than a few moments spent wiping his eyes clean. "Ghh... If they're relying on their regeneration, then all we have to do is to overcome it! Destroy them as many times as it takes!"
Doom Bringer is still trapped. The monster's flesh has fused around the wound, trapping its curved edge deep in its meaty hand... But that also means Zed is in perfect position.
"The more damage you can inflict, the more you can force them to regenerate at once, the faster we'll beat them! Don't just cut off limbs-- make them bleed! Maim, leave your wounds as messy as you can make them!" His grip tightens around the hilt of that ancient blade. Energy coruscates doown the length of his arms, pooling into the alien metal. It glows brighter with each passing moment, an electric tingle in the air suggesting something akin to an imminent lightning strike.
Zed roars as he wills the gathering energy to explode, a nova of starfire and high-energy plasma erupts from around his buried blade...!
If the beast is not quick enough to get away, its arm will pay a terrible price.
GS: Zed spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Zed has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with RayBlade - Zed Saber! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Those are --
Antlers, they're like antlers, and the cervine thing charges and Boudicca makes a decision. Just as Jay says: hit them a lot, and really hard.
It charges. Boudicca charges, too.
"Cerberus Strike!" She declares her intent even as they grasp-pierce-tear, and there's a tear in her cape and a tear in the metal and she's going low, one-two-three, striking up and higher. Her legs bend -- she leaps, "... Soaring Blast!", she comes back down. It's the law of gravity, expressed through polished wood.
Tonfa aren't really designed to kill. Certainly they can; with enough practice, anything is a deadly weapon. But they are blunt, they are short, they are defensive and reactive. They do not make things bleed, the way Zed cries out for blood.
That's the weapon she chose.
Does that answer Fei's question?
Here's another answer, as she rises from the cross-blow, the evidence of things like antlers at the place her shoulder should be. (Her arm still moves. It shouldn't, really. It does.) "I am someone who cares for these people," she replies, her tone more even now. "I do not want Claiborne to fall. There is an old woman here whose son cannot play the piano, and a young woman who wants badly to protect her home. Does this allegiance suffice?"
Turning to meet the new attacker, that thing like a rodent, she can't quite wait for an answer.
GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Cerberus Strike! GS: Seraph Boudicca has launched an attack Link! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Soaring Blast! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Well, I'm glad people appreciate it...!" Jacqueline says, as Ida and Rebecca both echo their appreciation for her advice.
Jacqueline keeps a close eye on the creature fixated on her while this is all going down... but, thankfully, Ethius is there, debilitating it with an electrical surge. She sends him a quiet nod of thanks.
But, at the same time, it's kept her distracted long enough that she loses sight of the fifth one. She doesn't realise what it intends until it's too late. Until she's assaulted with a wave of sonic force that brings her to her knees. It's overwhelming - striking not her body, but her spirit, and drowning out all other sounds. Tuned perfectly for those who use sorcery. Gritting her teeth, Jacqueline raises one hand to cast, the other still clapped firmly over one ear. But... she can't aim. She's too dizzy and dazed, still reeling from the sound. And not only that... every time she tries to invoke her Crests, the energy seems to slip away from her.
Just as she's starting to worry, though, the air around her begins to burn a bright red as heat surrounds. Lily's power burns... but more importantly, Jacqueline can feel it burning away at the imbalance imposed by the abomination. Her Sorcery gradually starts to return to her... just enough to draw upon that most basic - but, perhaps, one of the most important - aspects of Crest Sorcery, the power of Mystic.
Jacqueline draws out a bottle filled with lavender liquid, and with a touch, the liquid evaporates into similarly colored sparkles. Sparkles that fly off to each of the beasts, and then begin to rain down a pleasantly-scented torrent that draws strength from those affected by it, as well as exhausts and generally lulls to sleep.
She doubts it'll be that easy, but... it might be able to do something.
Her potion gone, Jacqueline rises shakily to her feet, using her earthen wall as a support.
"Th-thanks..." She says with a nod toward Lily, then looks toward Ethius. He looks... uncharacteristically shaken.
"A-are you alright?" She calls out to him. She's still a little shaken, herself - it's only thanks to Lily's Ether that she can stand properly right now.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Diminishing Draught! GS: Cover expired! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a glancing hit from Rebecca Streisand's Ley Blast for 71 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty! applied to Rebecca Streisand! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities guards a hit from Ethius Hesiod's Mashing The Regular Attack Button for 51 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Zed's RayBlade - Zed Saber for 163 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Isolde has posed.
It is a blessing, of course, that Isolde is not troubled by the color of this thing's blood. What is the image (so to speak) that she has of this thing? No doubt this is part of the source of her joy. It is likely, to her, just a mobile lump with legs and limbs and -
Antlers.
The piercing tip is parried in a sweeping way - it splatters slightly, reforming, deflecting - it carves a line over her hip, ripping apart a thin skirting of mail that had been concealed under the more-conventional skirting of the dress she is, somehow, still wearing over all of this. "Hngh," she says, before
Something screams.
Isolde winces visibly. The sound washes over her - she stabs her blade's tip into the ground to brace herself, her lips contorting - before the sound stops, and her scalp, in fact, shifts slightly as she works her jaw. She answers Rebecca, a little too loudly: "Oh, I meant I didn't have a plan. I do now, though."
The sound bounces off the distant landscape.
It washes forwards - and subtle faint echoes bounce off of them - and Isolde's lips pull back a moment before she vaults towards Mr. Screamer (was it Ms. Screamer?) with an abrupt bursting flexion of the legs, dripping a little blood as she does.
"Oh don't worry," she answers Zed while en route.
Isolde twists the blade round so that she lands, in fact, somewhat short of the screaming creature; but this is a mere accident, allowing her to use the momentum of the leap in a somewhat more gracious and controlled direction, an overhand chop with the heavy blade - one hand - to dig into the side. Isolde PRESSES downwards as her teeth clench together, and her other hand comes up to grip the blade's hilt anew.
She twists left. Then right. Then steps a bit to the left and aims to RIP it out, blunt side first, raising one foot to use the creature's own body for bracing!
GS: Isolde spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Isolde has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Landslide Vault! GS: Isolde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Isolde has launched an attack Link! GS: Isolde has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Eruption of The Interior! GS: Isolde has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's arm twist-snaps back into its default configuration--she flexes her fingers, counts them. One-two-three-four-five. None are merged, or missing, not that the way she changed would've altered that. "Alhazred!" Ida shouts, to Leon and the others. "This might be his work!" The only reason it's 'might' is that Riesenlied did her best to erase Alhazred from existence, conveniently removing the possibility of a body.
She doesn't take her eyes off the ursine creature, though--not for a moment. She and Zed ran into a very similar beast during the last attack, and Zed, brave madman that he is, fought it solo. This ome seems to have a few extra tricks.
The creature's sides ripple uneasily. Noxious gas boils out of things that aren't quite gills. Ida feels like she's been locked in a room with an industrial benzene engine, forced to breathe in its fumes. She coughs violently, reeling back a moment before pressing the advance. Mercifully, the beating she delivers makes the creature stop it, for now. Rebecca unleashes the Ley a moment later, and Ida turns back, flashing the young woman a look of gratitude. She coughs again, pulls up her scarf so it covers her nose and mouth.
Then a fifth monster--one Ida didn't notice immediately--opens up its mouth and screeches, and the sorcerers among them start to double over. Tactics, Ida realizes. Zed is right.
"Damn Alhazred," Ida growls. Her throat is still raspy. "Damn whomever unleashed these!"
Maim them, Zed says.
"I can do that," Ida whispers, her voice low and dangerous. She settles into a different stance, feet planted lightly, weight spread on the churned-up ground. Fafnir, who has been oddly silent since Astrid subsumed them both within her Dragon, seems to come alive as Ida replicates a Red Iron fighting stance.
Ida's fingers press together, elongating, sharpening into talons. She leaps off the ground, plunging one set of talons into the creature's shoulder-joint, and gripping its 'neck' with the other. Ida braces feet against the creature's hide and pulls.
She's trying to rip the monster's arm clean out of its socket.
In the back of her mind, he stirs to wakefulness again. He smells quicksilver blood. He feels the twist and pop of tendons and muscles that aren't his.
r
He remembers how easy it was to take Luisa Rey's arm, and how her master gave his life to exact retribution in kind.
Panic courses along their nerves. Both their nerves.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Muscle Memory! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's Avenger stance ends. GS: Riposte expired! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Lydia would probably be real glad she isn't here. But Fei might not be making others feel reassured right now.
Boudicca answers him. He probably doesn't notice the 'tonfas' as a kind of answer if only because Fei doesn't wield a weapon at all and that hasn't stopped him. Everything is deadly. Fei murmured about disassemblers but he doesn't explain what he means. Ida mentions that it might be Alhazred's work. It could be, he thinks, but isn't he dead?
Did you crush his skull with your bare hands, Fei? No you did not. And even then, since when did more death solve anything? If it isn't him, it'd be someone just like him.
The names change but the people remain the same.
Distantly he feels that second conciousness within Ida. Perhaps kindly, he doesn't comment on it. What he does do is answer her question because it occurs to him that Ida might, in fact, not know.
"Josie's with Odessa." Fei tells her. "She always was." There is a bit of hesitation before that second half, like he half doesn't trust his own eyes or ears, that maybe Josie is just doing some long con--but for now, at least, it is the truth and if the others don't know--they will also be caught off guard, just like himself.
Fei's foot is gobbled up bymetal tendrils. Fei's eyes widen slightly--the first suggestion in his expression that isn't exhaustion, hurt, or rage.
He nods once to Leon. He is usually the last to argue for death. But not this time.
"I'm here, Lily." He promises, though a glint in his eyes suggests--
--Well it's Fei. A fire aura rips out of Fei's leg as he attempts to force the creature off him--or at the very least, opening up some space so he can free his leg.
"Liquid metal's always rough." He murmurs before looking to Lily. "...I guess..."
He lowers his head. "I guess I'm just thinking... What if he has a point. What if Id's right? This pain...from Josie betraying us..."
He grabs at his chest with his hand. "It feels so...familiar."
He looks to Boudicca. "...Yeah. That works."
He actually manages a brief flicker of a smile.
GS: Fei Fong Wong spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Kakei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Quicksilver Monstrosities guards a hit from Isolde's Landslide Vault for 76 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Isolde's Eruption of The Interior for 217 hit points! GS: Break! applied to Quicksilver Monstrosities! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities enters Critical health and gains 25 FP! GS: CRITICAL! Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Muscle Memory for 148 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty! applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities completely evades a hit from Jacqueline Barber's Diminishing Draught! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities guards a hit from Seraph Boudicca's Cerberus Strike for 88 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt! applied to Quicksilver Monstrosities! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a glancing hit from Seraph Boudicca's Soaring Blast for 30 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Slow! applied to Quicksilver Monstrosities! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Kakei for 76 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Quicksilver Monstrosities has posed.
Leon, weathering the attack by the panther-like one, holds his ground for that long shaking moment until the assault ends. And then he goes on the attack, extending his blade and rushing at as many of them as he can reach. The answer is not all of them: some escape his grasp, most notably the rat, which glides out of his reach, using the bear as a barrier, and the panther, which Fei is currently somewhat entangled. The others... lose something in the process.
One of the cervine's 'antlers' is nicked off neatly, landing with a thump on the grass. It oozes silver and does not, noticably, regenerate. The reptile, still stuck by Ethius' spell, loses half its body. Of them, the massive bear-like one weathers the hit best, part of its 'hide' hanging in a loose flap down one side which does not rejoin the rest of its body.
Perhaps it's working. Perhaps they can be defeated -- just as Jacqueline and Zed had said.
But this does not mean that the creatures intend on succumbing easily. Even unable to regenerate, for instance, that bear is a fright--
--and can move more quickly than might be suggested by its size and bulk. Or perhaps it is not so much 'dodge' as 'flow to one side'. But even then it can't escape all of her attack. Some of it catches fire. Some of it melts away. Little by little, the bear is somewhat lesser. And it does not appreciate this fact. Particularly when Zed rushes in and takes its arm off nearly at the shoulder. It flops almost wetly on the groud, red and silver mixing in the fluid that oozes from the stump.
The bear then... unfolds. There is no better word for it. It looks less human. Less bearlike. More monstrous. More alien.
More like a weapon.
And it screams as it thus transformed launches itself for Rebecca and Zed, splitting itself right down the middle as it careens towards the two of them in tandem, an unstoppable force.
Into the chaos, Jacqueline draws upon one of the most basic aspects of Crest Sorcery, the power of Mystic, and pulls out the power lying dormant in her own draught--
But it seems to have no effect. Is it because of their hybrid nature? Has it given the lot of the creatures some resistance against the liquid that rains down upon them now?
The panther continues to try to engulf Fei's leg, the tendrils sliding upwards as if to gain a better hold on him. But whatever his mental state might be, he is not about to go quietly: he delivers a burning kick into the creature and it unfolds about his leg like a scalded flower. The tendrils do make a go for him once more, but he will still have the span of a heartbeat in which to get clear of it.
The reptile has been brutally mauled by Leon and still shudders under the effect of Ethius' spell. It can barely put up a defense against the jab he delivers to it, its thick hide its only real defense. But in spite of its condition, it would be a mistake to think that even half of the reptilian creature is not a threat. Its severed half erupts into needlelike tendrils, as does its remaining twitching front. And these, at once, harden to shoot upwards into the air, raining down as a storm of flechettes. Again. And again.
Isolde and Ida both hone in on the source of the debilitating scream, that ratlike creature that flees the violence of the fight to strike and debilitate from a distance. It spots them and attempts to outpace them, oozing across the field. But it cannot escape Ida, not when her own power is so close to theirs -- not when she grabs ahold of one limb and twists and pulls and twists it clean off the body with a spray of crimson silver.
And it cannot escape Isolde her when she lands so close to the injured creature. The thing's hide presents some resistance at first. However -- this does not last. It slips inwards, the twist of her blade nearly taking the thing in half as she leads with the blunt end; silver 'organs' spill out onto the grass. Slowly, feebly it -- and it alone -- begins to try to repair the rather extreme damage rent unto it, but just as it seems to be making some small headway it quite suddenly stops.
And screams again, in a terrible bone-rattling teeth-aching cry that rolls across the battlefield.
The cervine's lack-of-an-antler does not stop it from putting up a struggle against Boudicca. In fact, to the contrary -- perhaps these things have some sort of rudimentary adrenaline pump, left over from the days when they were still...
Its sole remaining tangle of antlers grasp for her first strike with the tonfa, and only the strength of her own grasp on them sees them free again. Then it twists, seemingly impossibly, about her follow-through, so that the edge of her strike sees its flesh ripple and it does not unripple.
Nearby, one woman glows red.
Remember: these things are intelligent. Careless with their bodies, but intelligent, in some inscrutable alien way. It had been somewhat deerlike. Now it isn't, now it's a stream of silver, all sharp needles and edges, as it skips away from Boudicca and erupts into Lily.
GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Snipe! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Rebecca Streisand with Desolation Hammer! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Zed with Desolation Hammer! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Uncontrollable Burst! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Uncontrollable Burst! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Uncontrollable Burst! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Abomination's Howl! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Isolde with Abomination's Howl! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Leon Albus with Abomination's Howl! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Abomination's Howl! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has attacked Lily Keil with Quicksilver Ruin! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has gained 1 Combo! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities's Avenger stance ends. GS: Leon Albus guards a hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Abomination's Howl for 0 hit points! GS: Reaper! applied to Leon Albus! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: Leon Albus takes an additional 18 damage from Reaper! GS: Leon Albus has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes 23 damage from Poison! GS: Weaken expired! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has completed its action. GS: CRITICAL! Rebecca Streisand takes a solid hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Desolation Hammer for 237 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rebecca Streisand gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt! applied to Rebecca Streisand! GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Uncontrollable Burst for 105 hit points! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Uncontrollable Burst for 182 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Fei Fong Wong gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil guards a hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Quicksilver Ruin for 137 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break! applied to Lily Keil! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: Ethius Hesiod guards a hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Uncontrollable Burst for 102 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ethius Hesiod gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Abomination's Howl for 0 hit points! GS: Reaper! applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes an additional 20 damage from Reaper! GS: Seraph Boudicca has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: CRITICAL! Zed takes a glancing hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Desolation Hammer for 100 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt! applied to Zed! GS: Reaction bonus! FP up! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Abomination's Howl for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Reaper! applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's Force Evade activates! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes an additional 21 damage from Reaper! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon's slash leaves a cut in the ground itself -- but it stops as the blade flickers into nothing. He sees the effects of his efforts; he nods once that is done, and seems satisfied with that work. He looks about, and then he looks up. He grimaces at the terrible, loud howl of the creature.
Leon steps backward, shaken. The creatures can be harmed, but they do not seem to be injured easily. There is an eerie way to how they move, and it belies an intelligence.
He frowns, and then steps back behind Lily and Fei alike. He seems to be pulling back -- but not out of the fight.
Instead, he focuses on the Raid Funnels. The trio of drones spin about, energy barrier between them, and that swings out to offer some defense -- ready to intercept -- any that come for the others here.
GS: Leon Albus has attacked Lily Keil with PMU-Z2 Raid Wall! GS: Leon Albus has attacked Rebecca Streisand with PMU-Z2 Raid Wall! GS: Leon Albus has attacked Ethius Hesiod with PMU-Z2 Raid Wall! GS: Leon Albus has attacked Zed with PMU-Z2 Raid Wall! GS: Leon Albus has attacked Seraph Boudicca with PMU-Z2 Raid Wall! GS: Leon Albus has attacked Jacqueline Barber with PMU-Z2 Raid Wall! GS: Leon Albus has attacked Isolde with PMU-Z2 Raid Wall! GS: Leon Albus has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with PMU-Z2 Raid Wall! GS: Leon Albus has attacked Fei Fong Wong with PMU-Z2 Raid Wall! GS: Leon Albus takes an additional 15 damage from Reaper! GS: Leon Albus has completed his action. GS: Rebecca Streisand takes a solid hit from Leon Albus's PMU-Z2 Raid Wall for hit points! GS: Shield! applied to Rebecca Streisand! GS: Leon Albus heals Jacqueline Barber! She gains 150 temporary hit points! GS: Shield! applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: Leon Albus heals Seraph Boudicca! She gains 150 temporary hit points! GS: Shield! applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes an additional 5 damage from Reaper! GS: Leon Albus heals Lily Keil! She gains 150 temporary hit points! GS: Shield! applied to Lily Keil! GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Leon Albus's PMU-Z2 Raid Wall for hit points! GS: Shield! applied to Zed! GS: Leon Albus heals Ethius Hesiod! He gains 150 temporary hit points! GS: Shield! applied to Ethius Hesiod! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Leon Albus's PMU-Z2 Raid Wall for hit points! GS: Shield! applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes an additional 5 damage from Reaper! GS: Leon Albus heals Fei Fong Wong! He gains 150 temporary hit points! GS: Shield! applied to Fei Fong Wong!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Alhazred; no, he's dead. Red and silver blood both. Jay, thanking her. Lily shakes her head, "You'd do the same given the chance."
Boudicca talks of the people there. Ida, of anger..
But Fei mentions what happened, and Lily's eyes cloud. Not with power, this time, just with a simple distance as she charges her spells, a faraway gaze that she can't maintain in the midst of a battle like this. But Fei says he's there--
"...All right," Lily says, and then... She looks to him. "Familiar," Lily repeats. "It's...."
"I don't hate her," Lily says, shaking her head. And then the formerly deerlike creature streams towards her, and Lily puts her arms in front of her, shielding her face and making herself a smaller target as it comes. It hits, sharp needles and edges, all around her, knocking her backwards and forcing her to one knee. She grits her teeth and focuses; she can't get the thing off, after all, as easily. So after a swipe of her knife--
The Ether she gathered begins to ignite. From all around Lily flames billow forth, slamming forward into the creature with harsh force and growing into a giant arc crashing through still more.
"Just because he might have a point--doesn't mean he's right!" Lily calls as she throws her spell forward, as Leon's shield bursts forth before her and protects her from any counterattack. She looks to him--and starts moving in his direction, face to the enemies.
Her flames linger a few seconds.
GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Flame Break! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities guards a hit from Lily Keil's Flame Break for 162 hit points! GS: Cripple! applied to Quicksilver Monstrosities!
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
In Rebecca's wink back to Ida, she tries not to show her stress. Before Isolde clarifies and she startles, "Sorry, must have misheard! Good thing you do though..."
Though then Rebecca bears witness to a bear unfolding before her eyes into something she can't even comprehend. Just seeing it almost makes her lose her nerve. Her hand loosening around her medium before it tightens again. And then the split creature launches towards her. Liquid metal battering into her with the force of a freight train.
The strangled gurgle that leaves her throat as her torso gets smashed into can't be called a scream. The impact she makes into an abandoned wagon causes it to rock sideways, before it's wheel comes back down.
Huffing rapidly as she seats herself back up, she closes her eyes, grinding her teeth against the pain.
I'm not going to cry.
I'm not going to cry.
Her eyes slide up to the thing that struck her, and she almost does despite her best efforts. It feels like she has no defense left to her. And then Leon's raid funnel descends, interposing it.
She decides to use that for all its worth, she only needs a little bit of time.
Keeping her hand on the Sky Medium, she concentrates, closing her eyes, and something shifts in the ground around her. The ley lines of the entire square just change in their elemental affinity, as she seizes ahold of them, and forces them to shift.
Yellow becomes red. Geo becomes Fray.
And the injured girl whispers a word.
"Burn."
The air around each of the eldritch wrong creatures heats up abruptly, and then a hemispherical eruption of incinerating fire attempts to overwhelm each and every one of them, simultaneously.
A pyre is the only mercy she has left to her, since she can't give them her tears.
GS: Isolde takes a solid hit from Quicksilver Monstrosities's Abomination's Howl for 0 hit points! GS: Reaper! applied to Isolde! GS: Isolde takes an additional 5 damage from Reaper! GS: Isolde has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: Rebecca Streisand spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Rebecca Streisand has attacked Rebecca Streisand with Ley Manipulation! GS: Rebecca Streisand has launched an attack Link! GS: Rebecca Streisand's stance ends. She enters the Avenger stance! GS: Rebecca Streisand takes a solid hit from Rebecca Streisand's Ley Manipulation for 0 hit points! GS: Surge! applied to Rebecca Streisand! GS: Rebecca Streisand has activated a Force Action! GS: Leon Albus heals Isolde! She gains 150 temporary hit points! GS: Shield! applied to Isolde! GS: Isolde takes an additional 5 damage from Reaper! GS: Rebecca Streisand spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Rebecca Streisand has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Ley Eruption! GS: Rebecca Streisand has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a glancing hit from Rebecca Streisand's Ley Eruption for 102 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Quicksilver Monstrosities gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline frowns. The abominations seem no weaker than before from her mixture... are they immune to it? Well... that's useful information, at least. She may need to fine-tune it for whenever they go to confront whoever is responsible for this.
As she considers this, she overhears something concerned.
"...Josie's with Odessa...?" Jacqueline repeats, shocked. ...Just like Matilda(not knowing that she has since handed in her resignation). It's distracting, but not enough to distract her from the enemy. One of them bursts outward in a storm of needles, and once again Jacqueline brings her cloak up around her protectively. She winces with each impact. A human struck directly, without any form of defenses, would undoubtedly be sliced to pieces...
The storm of needles subsides and Jacqueline straightens up again. She flexes her fingers. She can feel it... her sorcery is back fully. She can express it to its full potential, then.
"...I don't... know how you all are. I'm sorry. I really am. I wish there was something I could do to help you now... but, you're already gone, aren't you...?" She whispers. "...I'm sorry. Right now... there's only one thing I can do for you."
Jacqueline takes a deep breath and lowers herself. It may be familiar to some as an advanced stance for spellcasting, sacrificing defense and focusing all of ones energy into raw sorcerous potential. Fortunately, Leon's drones will compensate for that, allowing her to focus without concern.
"I wish you all... a peaceful rest!" With a gesture of one hand, energy tears into the ground beneath each of the abominations, hurling up earth and stone - and the abominations themselves, if their footing is loose enough. And even as her left moves, so does her right, bringing lightning crashing down from the heavens upon them while the earth itself rages against them.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated a Force Action! GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Spellweaver Stance! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has launched an attack Link! GS: Jacqueline Barber's Stoic stance ends. She enters the Avenger stance! GS: Formation! Jacqueline Barber has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Dualcast - Voltaic Quake! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber's Avenger stance ends. GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Spellweaver Stance for 85 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 25 FP! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Dualcast - Voltaic Quake for 344 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 45 FP! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
it hurts
Boudicca sees it in the way the flesh bends; hears it in the way something like a rat spills over the earth.
it hurts
Something like tears roll down her cheeks, too. The chemical composition is all wrong. Tears are communication; some are happy, some are sad, and a faithful cat could tell the difference. Something like a cat..?
it hurts
"I know," Boudicca says, the low wobble of her throat where emotion grips it, just the way it ought to. "I know it hurts."
Screaming, screaming. It is not a rat and it is screaming. She has seen Alhazred and it is not so difficult to imagine HELP ME; it is not a stretch to consider PLEASE.
"I cannot," she says to the shadow on the wall.
it hurts
"I will not let you hurt them."
The glyph lights up again, pale green light, the breeze --
It's the first day of Spring, a picnic basket under a citrus tree. It's warm, but not hot; it is alive. It breathes out and breathes through and Fei accepted that much and the magic meets him; Ida tears through and the magic curls around her-and. Zed clashes and finds the breeze. Rebecca burns and finds the breeze. The air reaches out. The air rustles through.
And maybe it doesn't hurt so much.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Zed with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Rebecca Streisand with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes an additional 25 damage from Reaper! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Soothing Breeze for hit points! GS: Restore! Disease and Reaper removed! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Rebecca Streisand takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Soothing Breeze for hit points! GS: Restore! Disease and Disrupt removed! GS: Seraph Boudicca heals Fei Fong Wong! He gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Entangle removed! GS: Seraph Boudicca heals Ethius Hesiod! He gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Jay asks if Ethius is all right. He is accustomed enough to her voice that he can pick it up from this distance, but there is no answer. (Thus, the answer may be 'no.') He keeps trying to gain further distance, towards the 'hostile' half of the battlefield. It is almost certain death.
The suffering reptilian's severed half turns to thin pointy bits that lance into the air in shining silver and red, a glint of light revealing their nature as Ethius starts to look back...
His left arm swings inwards to slurred syllables, casting that near-invisible shielding spell. Each impact erupts in electrical light and sound, blunting flechettes from being sharp, pointy bits that could have shredded him into a far less lethal impact but no less potentially injurious. It feels like at least three dozen shoes have been hurled at him at once, and at least a few of them have metal bits. His head dips, and his left shoulder shudders as these parts of him seem to take the brunt of the rain - but he remains upright.
He looks up to see how the monstrous victims of alteration have started to take ever more alien forms. Drawing his forearm away and raising his quarterstaff on high, he slams the butt of it down as he stands up straighter. Gradually, drawing back his focus. The return of that man whose body language sometimes reads as 'actual statue with impeccable paint job.' The stare returns.
Fei, who has suffered greatly over Josie's betrayal, may be grasping at a far greater truth in this day and age. Who is there left to trust? Who can really be seen as a solid ally through these rapidly changing circumstances, with every new crisis peeling back a layer and showing something uglier underneath - with the pleasant veneer these people put forth being stuck to this peeled layer. eon seems to extend that trust, as a wall of light shines around Ethius. A sign of at least a grudging acceptance that he is on 'the same side.'
Is Ethius really?
"Above!" Ethius calls. This is vague and a bad choice, but on the spot that's the two syllables he decides to dedicate as warning, as he swings a hand up on high. The starting gesture for a familiar spell that has caused... issues, in the past, of trust. Where he disfigured one of the few reliable weapons against Mother and nearly took Gwen's life by having it erupt near her by proxy.
The phrases he use to better memorize and intone the complex string of syllables involved are lost a bit in the noise - 'the call to the star that enables the patterns of life itself,' etc, etc.
In some ways it feels like the battlefield dims, a bit more, as if time were slowing. Symbological runes show as he continues to do the broad gesticulations, ending in swinging his hand down in a crouch, spreading his fingers as far apart as he humanly can as it slaps against the ground. Only the call of the spell's name clearly fills the air.
"Solar Storm...!!!"
From the sky above, a tongue of sunflame lashes out from thin air towards an epicenter that can be charitably estimated as 'some short ways away from the reptilian.' It explosively expands on contact with the very ground, scorching it and bathing the horrors in all sorts of nasty cosmic rays under cataclysmic heat - as if to envelop the horrors, wholesale, underneath the ire of the sun itself. Nearby ARM weapons in its wake, well... they may need some TLC.
In this desperate bid to put a stop to these marauding creatures, and the call to use overwhelming, uncompromising force... perhaps he is banking on Leon's defensive barrier walls to contain the worst of being too close.
It does not change that the battlefield briefly turns unbearably bright and hot, bound to leave incredible damage in its wake.
This may no longer be useable land for agriculture after the fact.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated a Force Action! GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated a Force Action! GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated a Force Action! GS: Ethius Hesiod spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Solar Storm! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Ethius Hesiod's Solar Storm for 169 hit points! GS: Disrupt and Jam! applied to Quicksilver Monstrosities! GS: Charge!! You gain 45 FP! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight! GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Soothing Breeze for hit points! GS: Restore! Disease and Disrupt removed! GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
The bear unfolds. Distends. It discards the last vestiges of its humanity, even bestial nature falls away and dissolves into grotesquery. The monster charges, sluicing forward like a compound harvester with teeth. It plows into Zed, its many whirling fangs bite deep...
No.
"Not today," Zed growls, his face contorted into a defiant, angry scowl. Doom Bringer is lodged into the confluence of blades. He bellows a rebellious scream as the the shock of blocking the churning teeth reverberates through his steel bones. It feels as though he's being shaken apart-- but he does not let go. He does not give way.
There's someone behind him. Someone whose body isn't steel. He may not know Rebecca well, but she is still someone that he feels he needs to protect.
Not necessarily because of who she is, or who she knows, but because she's Human, he's Hyadean, and this monster was twisted from the former by the science of the latter.
Allowing it to move another inch, letting it charge again-- is patently unacceptable.
A cataclysm of sorcery shakes the battlefield from all corners. Ida tears a limb free. The beast is knocked off balance, and Zed sees his opportunity.
"Doom Bringer... Let's end this." Zed whispers, a breeze gently wiping away so much of the pain. He tears his blade free--
And disappears.
The swordsman reappears behind the biomechanical horror. A dozen deep cuts materialize in his wake. He reappears, too, near the panther. The hart. The rat. The reptile. In an instant, it's as if he is in so many places at once.
In all cases, in all places, a storm of cuts rip into twisted, mutant flesh. Each impact guides the beasts all to a single point. Five illusory swordsmen, their forms flickering with blue-green starfire, rush in after their quarry, sword held high...
A sixth drops from the sky. A falling star descends and meets the divided images. They strike as one. At the moment of their convergence, an explosion erupts like a star going nova in miniature.
If these creatures are born of the most debased form of Hyadean science...
Then it's only fitting that Zed bring them their end with the highest zenith of Hyadean swordsmanship he has yet reached.
GS: Zed spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Zed has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Secret Sword - Lightning Flash! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has launched an attack Link! GS: Zed has activated a Force Action! GS: Zed has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Forbidden Move - Astral Dance! GS: Zed enters a Counter stance! GS: Zed has gained 2 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Zed's Secret Sword - Lightning Flash for 162 hit points! GS: Mighty! applied to Zed! GS: Charge!! You gain 45 FP! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Zed's Forbidden Move - Astral Dance for 168 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 45 FP! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The rat-monster's arm comes loose with a horrible, wrenching pop. There's no time for Ida to be shocked at her own brutality. She hurls the severed limb away, huffs out a breath, and glances back at Fei to make sure he's all right.
Fei is not all right, and has not been all right since well before the fight started. He tells Ida why. "Josie...?" Ida breathes. She glances at Fei, then Lily--she'd always been bothered by how flexible Josie's morals were, but this is--
Behind her, the wounded rat-creature lets out another scream--and this time, the sonic assault isn't so precisely-calibrated. Ida feels sparks shoot off behind her eyes. Capillaries rupture in her nose, ears, and eyelids. Crimson and quicksilver weep from the wounds as she reels forwards, clutching at her head.
alhazred--
Anxiety and anger ebb up in the corners of Ida's mind.
why is--
The warm breeze swirls around Ida, pouring into her lungs and healing the burns inflicted by the chemical smog. The flow of blood slows, and stops. Ida manages a grateful look at Boudicca, and even a little smile. Leon's barrier flickers into being a moment later, and it is a very good thing it does.
Sunfire leaps from the sky above. An eerie crackling sensation crawls across Ida's skin, but thankfully, Leon's shield keeps the worst of it well enough away. Mostly. A sense of numbness lingers, and Ida recognizes it--something's rendered her ARMS nonfunctional. Equal parts admiration and anger entwine Ida's heart as she thinks: Ethius Hesiod.
Zed's body begins to blur. Ida's fought with him long enough to realize he's about to make her an opening--and it's up to her to use it. The heiress sucks in a breath, and feels Boudicca's invigorating breeze settle into every nerve, bone, and muscle. It flows through her blood. The flame of her lifeforce blazes brighter for it; Ida's aura manifests around her, a brilliant white-gold encasing an inner sphere of flame.
"Whomever made you--" Ida says, as she clenches her right hand into a tight fist. Energy coils around it in coruscating arcs of fire and light. "--Will answer for their crimes. I promise."
you always were a disgrace
Ida takes a step forwards. The impact of her foot flattens a small crater into the earth. The grass whips about, as if caught in a fierce crosswind. Ida sees the bear, the rat, the cervine, the panther--and a step to the side produces a path, a straight line connecting all of them.
Ida lets out a breath. She focuses everything she has on that line, just as Jackie Sayo taught her.
Ida becomes a blur. She leads with her fist, driving forwards and through--like an onrushing freight train, she doesn't so much as slow down, even after coming into contact with her first target. The punch itself seems drawn-out, as if it were propelling Ida's body, and the rest were being drawn along as an afterthought. The shockwave rips into the turf, and batters the barricades.
When Ida is wholly visible again, she's on the other side of the bear, sagging slightly from exertion.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated a Force Action! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with Unbroken Lotus Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 168 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 45 FP! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei can't read Ethius's mind, of course.
Or can he?
Regardless, whether or not Ethius can be trusted or not (really probably in the not category), he is at least consistent and destroying spooky scary tech is pretty much peak Ethius.
But then--sometimes even when you're on the same side...
...what that means isn't always the same either.%rFei feels power returning to him. From Leon's magic, from Boudicca. He nods, as if to both, channeling that power into him. His wounds heal slowly. He hops back away from the creature--strange for the martial artist--but if he gets consumed, well, that's it.
At least for a long enough time. He might never see any of his friends again. Maybe not even Elly for a while.
A stream of silver, slams into his body, slamming HARD into Leon's shield--Fei slides back, grabbing onto his arm as he does so. He grits his teeth quietly.
Just because he might have a point--doesn't mean he's right!
"I see." Fei murmurs. He stands himself up, looking to Lily. "You've changed a lot."
He smiles. "You've felt betrayal before. And yet--you still don't hate her. Haha..."
He wipes a tear from his eye with his wrist. "Ahaha... You still don't hate the person who betrayed you. I don't get it. I don't get it at all. I want to hurt her so much, Lily. Because it hurts so much."
He hangs his head. "I'm so...pathetic. What's wrong with me? Being like this...it isn't right? It's normal to forgive people you like when they hurt you but I just keep feeling anger... Rage. I feel more like him than me."
He shakes his head again and adds, "I'm glad you're...not hating her in place of me."
And then he crouches once more. He channels his aura within him, crackling vibrantly red around him.
And then he darts forward towards the creatures--glowing red as he practically flies into the midst, burning liquid metal wherever he strikes, whatever strikes him.
"You have to die." He says apologetically. "But it's okay. I'm..."
"I'm used to it... cutting the strings of puppets. Haha... I'm sorry. But... I know you'll be grateful. It's better than living like this."
"I'm sorry."
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Quicksilver Monstrosities with This Is Fine! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Fei Fong Wong's attack becomes clear! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Ultra Idstinct for 190 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 55 FP! GS: Quicksilver Monstrosities has Fallen! It is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Quicksilver Monstrosities has posed.
Fei, too, glows red.
Launching himself into the midst of those of them that are still ambulatory, he introduces his hands, feet, elbows to whatever is unfortunate enough to be close to him. Their bodies ripple. Their bodies buckle. Even this they no longer have the power to repair--
Zed sees his opportunity and makes his move. Loosing his blade, he steps and--
Is it an illusion? Is there one or many? Perhaps it matters not. Each -- wounded, unwound -- receives a pinpointed strike, forcing them away from those with which they had been battling.
Forcing them into a line, for Ida to take advantage of. She herself is as a bullet, gold burning in flame, smashing into the lot of them with all the force of an artillery shell. Those that still have discrete forms are missing parts; those without are lesser, somehow. Zed's blade continues to flash--
--Forcing them to a singular point, and all for the last strike.
There is a chorus of screams.
From Lily, there is flame. An unrestrained arc of flame that catches that formerly deerlike thing alight. Its response is to shriek, horribly; its inchoate form spasms as it seeks freedom from the fires that seem fit on consuming it utterly. It seeks stability, it tries to shape itself. It cannot and it continues to twitch and writhe as it burns.
As earth becomes fire -- Geo, Fray.
And there is flame. There is flame further, and enough for all of them.
They all burn. Shrieks rise in a horrible chorus, their own dirge as they warp under the heat of the world's flame brought forth by Rebecca.
Joining and merging with the sudden rise of the land at Jacqueline's hand, by the lightning storm that at last brings about their silence, that renders them into little more than twitching puddles of the stuff that had consumed whoever they had once been.
But can they be said to be dead and gone? Even amidst all the destruction -- amidst a healing wind, amidst a flurry of helpful drones -- the metal still writhes.
Until the sun reaches down like the fist of an angry god and there puts an end to this. There is smoke. There is the choking scent of charring metal.
Then even that is gone.
There is nothing left.
Nothing, that is, except for something quite strange: small metal discs, about palm-sized, one for each of the beasts. A light blinks on and off from within. So too does the white Symbol -- a Symbological working -- on each of them, glowing first violet and then gold. Violet and gold, in turn. A ward, a powerful one. A ward and an alarm.
For this device is without question a tracker. Not only did someone create these... monsters, but they had taken steps to ensure that their movements were tracked and watched.
Will someone be coming for these creatures, soon? And... there is one more thing.
There are minor variations in Symbological schools -- the layperson likely would never notice, but another Symbologist certainly would. Or those who had experience with a particular person's school.
It's possible that there are others in this world who have learned this particular school. It's entirely possible.
But more than a few people here might best know this particular working as being in the style of Timotheus Lovelace.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Shrieks. Flame. Sorrow. These are the elements that best define what have all transpired here, to keep it succinct. Smoke and smog fill the air, and with it, the vague visage of a certain Symbologist strides forward through the sobering wake of dust, death, and disintegration.
Immediately, the tip of a quarterstaff strikes one of the small metal discs like one might a hockey puck, sending it airborne as it flips once, spins on its side, and rolls back... down to reveal its flashing symbol. Violet and gold, oscillating.
Ethius holds a hand out. "Active Symbology." His words are, sort of startlingly, nonchalant. "Stay clear."
He says this for good reason. They could be explosive, or... anything else, at all. It's also a bit hard to see in closer detail without putting one's face too close... but then there is a thin, tiny blue light from something small Ethius holds. It's his Spectral Lens, a handy tool for determining connected devices. Once satisfied...
"...They are not explosives." He remarks as he steps towards one of them and picks them up. This is often the part where Ethius just up and takes whatever shiny, metal, bleepy-bloopy thing and doesn't ever bother to explain what it is or why he has to have it and they can't. Normally, 'they are not explosives' might be the end of that.
...
He turns around to face them, holding it face up in his free hand. He presses a thumb and finger up against the very edge of it, as if this were the only sole claim to ownership he could make. (Just about anyone with enough force could rip it out of his hand.)
"This crest is used for tracking. A Symbologist has designed this with interest in tracking the movement and activities of these creatures." Ethius does not say it aloud, but it is a truth about the Hyadeans that most know. Sorcery is beyond the vast, vast majority of them to wield.
"There may be mobilization by the interested parties to retrieve these."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The smoke clears, and Jacqueline shuts her eyes. ...It's done. They're gone. She stands there, still like that for some time, quietly shaking.
...She knows it's the best, only thing that she could do for them. But it still hurts. Still feels like she's ripped out a part of herself.
She doesn't break out of it until she hears Ethius speak. 'Active Symbology'. Jacqueline opens her eyes. She waits until he gives the all-clear to approach and take a look at it.
"Can I take a quick look?" She asks. She doesn't even need to take it in her hand - with a good look, she's able to quickly record the symbological glyph into a notebook, then pages through it to see if there's a match.
"...I don't recognize, it, but this spellwork looks like pretty distinct, high-level stuff..." She comments. She can tell that much, at least, even if she doesn't have the knowledge to pick it apart and analyze it like an experienced Symbologist like Ethius can. "Can any of you think of anyone who might be able to pull this off...?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
'You've changed a lot.' Fei tells Lily, and she looks back to him. "...Yeah," she says. "Or maybe I'm more like myself than I was." He smiles. And he doesn't get it. "Fei..."
"...It's not..."
She looks down, at that. Glad. "Maybe it's normal to be angry," she murmurs, as Ida ends up close to her. Lily reaches out to steady the other woman as she sags from exertion, looking to her once and nodding. "Good work," she says, and begins to move forward--but as it turns out, that's not needed. Between them, they destroy the creatures. There is Ethius's strange, strange spell that Lily watches, for a while, before she puts her knife away. But the little discs...
"All right," Lily says, waiting a moment until Ethius declares they aren't explosives, and shows them. "This..." Lily actually does reach out to take one, suddenly, right from Ethius's hand as her eyes widen. "yes," she says then to Jay. "I do know who could pull this off."
"I'm no Symbologist, but I know this signature."
Lily looks down, and looks around to the group.
"...There may just be," she agrees with Ethius. "Because these Symbols are the work of Timotheus Lovelace."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei manages to hold on. He exhales out a breath. He looks at the carnage.
He glances to Lily and says. "Can we...talk about it?" He can tell she was about to say something that his own negativity sort of cut off there. He turns to look at her for a long moment. "But I'll head back into town. I probably should rst mor."
Even though he's been asleep for like a week. He walks away a bit when--
these Symbols are the work of Timotheus Lovelace
Fei stops, predictably.
He looks back to Lily. "..."
Then he turns and walks towards Ethius.
R
"Ethius." He says. "Can you track where these creatures were coming from? If someone was controlling them..."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Symbology, Ethius says. The work of Timotheus Lovelace, Lily says.
That woman - Fei said she was working with Odessa...
'Just, let's keep my little heroism moment between us, yeah?'
Boudicca shakes her head, and wipes away her tears. Maybe one more than the things which weren't beasts earned. There are some things a battle is too narrow to focus on; there's no battle, now.
Not for now.
Maybe soon.
"... Josephine..."
A sigh puffs out around Boudicca, and she turns on that breeze to go and see to the townsfolk. They will need help. They always... need help.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The exoskeleton coating Ida's shoulder is rough, bitted, and faintly warm to the touch. Nevertheless, she leans against Lily's hand, grateful for the contact as well as the steadying grasp. Her aura dies down, and winks back out of existence. When she finally feels like she can stand, Ida turns around and looks at what remains.
On one hand, she's quietly grateful that Ethius incinerated what was left of the monsters. On the other, what if he just obliterated crucial evidence? She wouldn't put it past him at all--in fact, it's the sort of thing he'd do deliberately, or so Ida thinks. But wait--
Ida watches as Ethius picks up that little disk. Ida is no sorceress, but she recognizes Symbological runes when she sees them. "...A sorcerer?" Ida says--her voice wavering a little, as disturbed as it is puzzled. She reaches down and plucks another of the little disks off the ground. Ethius said they're not going to explode, and if he's lying by omission, he's going to have a very big problem on his hands very shortly.
Ida's gaze falls upon the enigmatic sorcerer as he explains the disk's functions. "A beacon," she says. "Purely passive, or could it also command them?"
And then Lily drops the bombshell. Ida's jaw falls open. She thinks back to Krosse--she didn't encounter the wizard Lovelace himself, but she did run into his workings. She did find out that he was partly responsible for what happened. And even if he weren't...
Ida's hands clench into fists. She looks at Zed. "We have a lead," she says to Fei, her voice tight with anger.
It's a quiet, controlled sort of anger. That makes it much more dangerous.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Rip and tear. Rip and tear. Sword, cut. Fist, strike. The final cataclysm of magic unleashed blinds the eye--
Until finally, it's done.
Zed is silent as he sheathes his sword. He's about to go and crush the last of those strange medals into so much dust (for fear that they might, like, grow legs and try to infect some unsuspecting townsfolk or something) but...
Ethius gets to them first!
And better yet, Jacqueline Barber then reveals that they're the work of someone whose name ISN'T Alhazred. The transformation is almost instantaneous. So much of the tension melts away from Zed's face and he nearly collapses onto his backside, but he... does not.
"Oh my gosh," he says instead, "You have noooooo idea how much of a relief that iiiiis~"
Zed doesn't even know who this Timotheus guy is! It doesn't matter though! He's not Alhazred! The flying tablecloth is STILL dead until proven otherwise--
Beat.
"Oh, we have a lead about that," Zed says to Fei Fong Wong, living conduit of the divine and person on the verge of a serious mental and emotional breakdown. "Ida and I followed a few useless trails, but Goldie finally tracked down their scent. We're pretty sure we know where they're coming from!"
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Beat.
"Goldie's my dog," Zed explains, because that wasn't totally clear. "My good, gold-chrome-plated chum."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
So many answers coming together at once. Of the emotional highs, Ethius seems to have survived the momentary flare-up from suffering that screech. The weight of the sad question of 'what comes now' does not seem to show on the man's features. His stare remains unrelenting. Even now, every movement he makes has that deliberate sense of restraint and control to them - as if acting the situation were not one he could relax upon just yet. As Lily states the name, and Fei approaches to ask the question as to where they can be tracked from.
What he says next may be, in a sense, nostalgic, for what his legwork previously enabled in a crisis that seems so distant, yet so near to what they're dealing with now.
"Should any among you have a compass on hand."
That's a yes!! He turns a gaze past Zed, then back towards Zed, as if he somehow missed him the first time he tried to look in his direction. Somehow. "...It is a complex work, Miss Ida. If this is the work of Timotheus Lovelace," there's really no 'if,' he would internalize, this does resemble some of the crests he witnessed in Krosse, it is definitely from that 'school,' "it does speak to his mastery in the field. The wards in place are intricate. I would not risk unraveling it at this time."
Ethius is possibly the most skilled Symbologist in the Drifter community behind Arleph, and if he's calling it 'intricate,' that may be a tacit admission it may be beyond his abilities to unravel. But they don't need to 'unravel' it. After all...
Ethius gets out the Spectral Lens again. "I do not believe we will have much time before they suspect something is amiss. Provide me with the compass and I will record where each of them link to."
With luck, they'll be able to work out where with legwork from Zed and Ethius alike, before they have a chance to prepare for an invasion by a bunch of vengeful Drifters who have a track record of doing terrible things to ancient otherworldly horrors and their byproducts.