2020-11-28: The Core Issue
- Log: The Core Issue
- Cast: Hilde, Talia, Lily Keil, Lunata Croze, Isolde, Azoth, Dean Stark, Marivel Armitage, Seraph Boudicca, Gon Guado, Cecilia Adlehyde, Avril Vent Fleur, Zed
- Where: The Calm Lands
- Date: November 28, 2020
- Summary: Rumors begin to arise of a gargantuan Fiend being spotted roaming the Calm Lands. It's size alone would be dangerous enough, but rumor has it that it has recently consumed an ancient machina energy core, capable of distributing great amounts of power. But as Drifters converge with the aim of putting a stop to its rampage, they arrive to find it felled, with the core in the hands of none other than Hilde, of Althena's Guard. Given its capabilities, is it safe to leave such a device in her hands?
=============================<* The Calm Lands *>============================= The Calm Lands are an expanse of wide plains, bordered on the north by a massive ravine - The Scar - which was formed when Lady Yunalesca fought and overcame Sin for the first time. The Calm Lands are truly massive, but almost entirely uninhabited - which is why most Summoners have followed Yunalesca's example, and taken to this area to fight their own final battle as well. The centre of the Calm Lands features a small shop that rents chocobos, which allow for a much easier traversal of the area. When asked why they don't station chocobos at the /border/ of the Calm Lands, the owner typically replies: 'Because by the time you make it here, we know you'll /really/ want one.' Fair point. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HowvEJNt5wg&ab_channel=Ultimatefighter343
DC: Avril Vent Fleur switches forms to The Amnesiac Girl! DC: Talia switches forms to The Charming Sellsword! DC: Seraph Boudicca switches forms to Oracle of Moor Gault! DC: Azoth switches forms to Fragmented Weapon! DC: Lily Keil switches forms to Black Wolf Lily!
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
A massive Fiend almost the size of a Gear had appeared in the Calm Lands. Fiends of this size are rare - usually, they attracted attention and were destroyed before they could accumulate too much size and power. But with the war between Yevon and Althena's Guard this one has grown much too large, much too fast - it can't be natural. And, indeed, about the same time, rumors of an abandoned machina salvage site that had been torn apart by something large and bestial being discovered have begun to circulate.
The astute can put the pieces together. The Fiend must have found something there, something to facilitate its increase in power at alarming rates. If the danger posed by the Fiend alone is not enough incentive, that may very well draw one's attention.
Being quite large - a Gigas in both name and stature - it isn't particularly difficult to spot. Local sightings place it on a valley on the western side of the Calm Lands. But when interested parties begin to close in, the Gigas Fiend's form slowly appearing over the horizon, they arrive just in time to see a blue shockwave tear across the Fiend's body, sending it reeling backward.
It's already engaged in battle with another - and judging by the craters scattered across the valley, it has been going for some time. Standing across from the Fiend is Hilde of Althena's Guard, her sword and shield drawn, her expression calm, and her body aglow with a blue aura. With her eye fixated on the foe before her, all else seems to have vanished from her notice - it has her attention, wholly and fully.
The Gigas stumbles forward before breaking into a charge, one fist hauled back. Hilde observes its charge carefully... and as it rockets toward her, she slides to the side, an arm extended to redirect the attack in one fluid motion of her shield. The Gigas's fist slams another crater into the ground next to her, churning up a cloud of obscuring dust - out from which Hilde's Rope Lance flies, burying itself in the Fiend's shoulder!
A murmured codeword sends Hilde flying, pulled through the air toward her Lance with her cape fluttering out behind her and her sword at the ready. The attack is timed just perfectly - using her momentum to put extra power behind it a swing of her sword carves another chunk out the Fiend, sending another blue shockwave tearing across its body and eliciting a pained roar. It scrambles to grab hold of her, but a strong kick off of its hand sends Hilde swinging out of range, landing right on top of its head before tugging on the Rope end of the Lance to return it to her hand.
The Gigas drives itself into a frenzy, lashing about and attempting to dislodge Hilde but she stands firm until, finally, a jerk backward of its head gives her enough leverage to leap upward. Her Rope Lance stowed away, Hilde takes up her sword in both hands. She descends upon the Gigas like a stroke of terrible lightning, a downward slash of her blade cleaving the Fiend in two as she falls. She lands with one final crash, cracking the ground beneath her, before standing up as the blue aura around her fades. Hilde turns away, shutting her eye respectfully as the halves of the Fiend erupt into a cloud of Pyreflies... but out of the cloud, there's something else. A solid object, visible only as a faint glint of red, begins to fall. Hilde raises her free hand to catch it without missing a beat, and takes a moment to observe it.
"...How curious. This must be the source of its unusual power... Our engineers would certainly be interested in examining it." Hilde murmurs to herself. The object is a glowing red sphere encased in a metal not dissimilar from brass, covered all over by conduits and piping where it presumably, in the past, would have connected to the machina it was installed in. Light and power both thrum from it, not unlike the beating of a heart. To those capable of sensing such things, the energy it emits is great - and to those familiar, it's a particularly old model of machina power core, used to supply power to the unit... and a remarkably potent one at that. A dangerous item to let fall into any hands, much less Althena's Guard.
The dust begins to settle... and soon, Hilde realises that she is no longer alone. Her gaze is drawn from the core, and to any who approach.
"Ah, were you also hunting that Fiend...? I did not realise so many had been arrayed against it." She comments.
DC: Marivel Armitage switches forms to Crimson Noble Marivel!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I--I think... perhaps... we will need to think of another idea!" Talia cries out to Lunata, as they gallop on chocoboback across the Calm Lands. The green rolling hills and trees spottig it race by, as she is bounced up and down and up again in the saddle. Lunata is right behind her, likely subject to the same treatment.
But the bird is not looking forward. No, its head is reaching back, and the beak is snapping with angry noises -- clacking very loudly -- as it screeches warnings at the two women. Or, from its view, the human woman and the creature of undeath that it senses. Talia's red eyes are wide.
"This may not make a good date!"
Talia is good friends with Jacqueline Barber -- and this means that she is doing her best to become friends with Lunata Croze, since the two are (shhh) dating. At the time, chocobo-riding seemed like a good way to bond (and maybe she could help them find date ideas that involve fewer trips into ruins to uncover the secrets of the past). That led them to this.
The chocobo is only sort of darting in a direction -- it's looking away, snapping -- and that means Talia and Lunata are looking forward. First, they see a Gear-sized, immense Fiend towering up over the hillside. Then, the hills dotted by craters. And... then...
The explosion of pyreflies, with a blast of light. The chocobo looks forward, and:
"KWEH!!"
And it jerks to a stop, sending Talia and Lunata both--
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily Keil is definitely interested in some sort of something that was enough to make a Fiend much bigger and stronger, not to mention of course the whole matter of the fiend itself. Of course, she's not being paid to eliminate the threat in the Calm Lands...
Is she?
Regardless she's here to investigate, dressed in rugged dark clothing.
So she's here, chocobo-back, and it's easy to seek out the great big Fiend over there. Lily maneuvers towards it in time to see a display of Hilde's capability. A knight whose crests mark her firmly of Althena's Guard as far as Lily can tell...
And that core.
"Personally," Lily says, dismounting the chocobo and walking, weaponless towards Hilde. "I'm hunting that."
She nods to the core behind Hilde. "I think I have some friends who could make good use of it."
Her golden eyes are set; her black hair flutters in an unseen wind as her chocobo, seeing tension in the air, bolts. That's fine.
...Lily is stoic enough not to immediately react to people falling off their chocobos.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"I--I--I told you animals don't react well to meeeee!!" Lunata whines as she grabs hold of Talia, while trying hard to not be thrown straight off a cliff by an angry chocobo. "Waaaaaah!!"
*KWEH!!*
She's so distracted by the Angry Bird that she doesn't notice the epic battle happening off in the distance until the bird jerks to a stop and--
Lunata Croze sails through the air.
Freeze frame!
"Yep, that's me sailing through the air," Lunata narrates. She can narrate, because this is Spira, a place where people tell their stories -- this may be their last chance. "You might be wondering how I got into this situation."
~*~
AN HOUR AGO
"Uh... Chocobo riding is... romantic?" Lunata muses confusedly as she and Talia discuss date ideas. She stares squint-eyed at a pamphlet of some chocobo jockeys and starts imagining.
"I know Jay has a chocobo, so maybe if I made friends with it, she'd be impressed? Ehehehe..."
~*~
Lunata Croze continues sailing through the air, straight at Hilde.
"EXCUSE MEEEEEEEEEEEEE--"
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Hilde with Lunata's Flying Off Again!!! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Hyper, Shield, and Surge expired! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: Lunata Croze has canceled their attack on Hilde. GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Hilde with Lunata's Flying Off Again!!! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: Hilde critically guards Lunata Croze's Lunata's Flying Off Again!! for 21 hit points! GS: Hilde activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Isolde has posed.
"It would seem that the time for subterfuge is past," says a low-set figure in a minor dip in the landscape, who then rises upwards, sweeping back a sere-gray cloak with a dramatic flip of one hand.
As she pulls back the hood, Isolde's features are revealed - and she pauses with a tilt of her head to call out, "Hullo, Talia!"
Back to Hilde, and Isolde says with a frankness and projection, that: "I had heard of this creature through rumor and I had thought that I would take its measure for myself. These Fiends are enigmatic creatures but there is little in this world or any other that cannot, eventually, be slain; don't you agree?"
"Yet it seems that you were able to handle it yourself," Isolde muses. "Impressive."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth stares at the last stages of battle with open awe. That the knight is able to fight off a Fiend so large on her own is admirable, though perhaps that word isn't quite the end of the conclusion Azoth's drawing at the sight.
With the Fiend down, an unfortunate, new familiar comes into play: a machina's power core. It seems to beat, and Azoth brings a hand to his own chest. The power coming from it is immense. What did it used to be? Who? Was it a who at all, or is that something only Azoth's desperate to see in every piece of machinery around him?
If Azoth were to get exclusive hold of it, it would end up in a debatably worse set of hands than it's in right now. But that, of course, doesn't matter. It isn't permitted to matter.
His fixation on the core is interrupted by the cry of a chocobo and flying bodies.
"Kweh?" he responses in absolute, perfect mimicry of the adorable birds because of course Azoth has been hanging out with chocobos even if he isn't riding one.
Wait, one of those bodies is Talia! Azoth hurries to where her body's fallen in hopes of prying her out of the ground. "Ah -- Talia -- are you okay?!" It isn't a gesture attempted without a wary glance cast in Hilde's direction.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean *is* in fact here for the fiend--if it's destroying cool machina stuff, then he can't just let it run rampant! What if it finds and destroys one of the only Golems in Spira?! (Dean does not actually know if there are any Golems in Spira.) That's totally awful! Unacceptable!! The absolute worst!!! Oh yeah and it might hurt people too, that's also a problem.
When he arrives in the Calm Lands, though--and on foot, so you *know* it took basically forever--Hilde has already dispatched the fiend by the time he arrives. He looks up at the dissassembling pyreflies, then over at Hilde as she catches some kind of sphere.
"Wow, you beat that all by yourself? You must be really strong," he comments, impressed. He catches sight of her tabard and the symbol upon, and his eyebrows furrow. "Wait, you're with Althena's Guard? What're you doing all the way out here?" He doesn't say 'don't you have a war to be fighting?', because honestly, Dean is pretty okay with wars *not* being fought. However....
Others rapidly arrive on chocoboback, including Talia and Lunata who are having some supreme trouble with their chocobo. "Lunie!!" he calls, running towards his friend--but she's sailing way too fast at Hilde for him to even try to catch her, and Azoth's already appeared to hurry over to Talia. Between him and Hilde, it seems like the two of them will be okay. Dean bites his lip in temporary indecision, then looks over at Lily. "You're here for that core thingie?" he asks. He assumes it's a core, anyway. It looks like one. "How'd you know it'd have it?"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Eye spy with my little eye, a servant of Althena eager to feed her more power."
Dark smoke twists up out of the ground, twisting around in spiral tendrils before solidifying into Marivel's form. And she seems to be fully recovered from her battle with Harmaus. She extends a clawed hand and taps her nails against her cheek as she takes form.
"Now what could Althena desire with something like that? Of the five of us, I was the machinist. And I distinctly recall what you used your golems for. Luca certainly remembers."
She swings her hand to the side and says, "I am curious as to what is powering the cycle of souls here keeping them fromm my fangs. Therefore, a power source like that will be very useful to me."
She licks her lips. "But you won't make it that easy won't you?"
She swings the hand that was on her face back and then with a twist of her hand sends a crimson wave of energy surging towards Hilde though it will definitely not be aimed towards Lunata wherever she ends up.
"I suppose your White Knight and I both have our roles to play." Her lips twist into a grin. "That is...presuming you are even really working for him."
She hasn't fought a cool knight lady in a while, really, so she's pretty excited.
"Too bad about the hair, though!"
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Hilde with Demon Fang! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I did not understand this, no!" Talia whines back at Lunata. "I thought you meant in a casual sort of way, like that my natural charm and charisma and stunning good looks would convince the chocobo to be your friend instead of a--" She glares at the chocobo, just before she gets thrown off. "--HATEFUL BIRD!"
EARLIER
"Yes! You can ride far out on a chocobo, no? And it's a beautiful, majestic animal." Talia winks and pats the chocobo on the side. "And then you can watch the sunset, and maybe..."
She winks. What does that mean?
NOW
Talia flies ass-over-teakettle through the air. Midway through, secret assassin training takes over. Her ass becomes parallel with the ground. Her feet come down, knees bent, and in a flourish, Mirage is drawn. Her feet strike the earth, knees loose, and her blade digs through the ground instead. Which is when she flips, bounces, and smashes face first into the ground.
She lifts a hand, then waves at Isolde. Then, Azoth runs over -- he pries her out of the ground, and she stands up. "Woogh... ah, hello, Azoth! I am here with my... friend?" Are they friends? "Lunata! I am teaching her to flirt, no? Perhaps later, I will teach you--"
She looks back at Hilde. Her eyes blink once. "Aaah, you took out that enormous Fiend! And you have... a thing?"
She glances at the orb, then at Hilde, and then at Lily.
GS: CRITICAL! Hilde critically guards Marivel Armitage's Demon Fang for 35 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca, of course, has Issues with gigantic fiends roaming the countryside. Monsters that large tend to do a lot of damage, and the denizens of Spira have had to rebuild their homes enough times.
... their homes aren't even the worst things for them to lose, but the loss still affects normal families.
She's not on chocobo-back, but has, in fact, seemed to elect to RUN ALL THE WAY INTO THE CALM LANDS, perhaps because she didn't have the gil handy to rent a chocobo. In any case, she's a fast runner, which means that when she sees someone already fighting the Gigas and pulls up there is a truly epic dustcloud kicked up around her feet.
SCREEEECH.
"Gracious, is she fighting that all on her own..?!" Boudicca exclaims, but as she starts forward to help she finds that Hilde needs no help at all. Instead, the trinket falling to her hands...
Boudicca gets closer, only to find -- "Ah... you are with Althena's Guard, no?" She gestures to Hilde's tabard, and the emblem there. "Though I am afraid I do not recognise you... are you, perchance, a new recruit?"
AND THERE'S LILY, being the hero of the story. And there's Lunata, being -- well, Lunata. "-- ah!!" Boudicca exclaims, as Lunie goes flying. "Are you two all right..?!"
Another glance to Lily, a look to Hilde, and a look to Marivel...
... maybe she can still salvage this!
"You must be tired," Boudicca says. "Please, allow me to assist."
Boudicca weaves a Seraphic glyph on the ground, and a warm breeze curls around Hilde, to ward away the wounds of the Gigas. (And, coincidentally, Lunata's impact.) "I am afraid I cannot agree with leaving a trinket like that to the Guard's engineers," Boudicca says, "so could we, perhaps, arrange an alternate recipient for this technology? I have heard it is from Spiran Machina... could I convince the both of you to allow it to go to the Al Bhed? They are the experts in this salvage, after all."
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Hilde with Calming Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Seraph Boudicca heals Hilde! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel exclaims overdramatically, "I'm sorry, no can do! My dear Lunata has clearly fallen for her, and I am thus driven into a jealous frenzy!"
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
Sometimes, even besieged on at least two different fronts and being part of a truly dire agenda on a scale no sane living person can let stand, there emerges problems on a scale that even the forces of Yevon find themselves with a need to simply deal with lest its mere existence brings forth complications - and this Gigas of the Calm Lands just happens to be one of them, of all things. (How one goes from being a willing participant in Seymour's aims but then finds another giant Fiend to be an issue, well, Yevon is not a stranger to mental gymnastics. If this were an Olympic event, they'd have to come up with a medal tier higher than gold.)
Veteran Guardian Gon on of the Guado is already there with two fellow able-bodied Guardians on the Calm Lands. The lanky warriors and unwavering executors of Maester Seymour's will find themselves in a bind. One of them kneels wounded from getting backhanded by said Gigas, quickly being attended to by Gon through his mastery of 'prayers' - the White aspects of Althena's Blessing. The other begins to work up another Thundara when the Gigas' attention is caught by something far more intriguing. Far more threatening.
"...What is this?" Gon snaps. "Who's there?"
Who's there is Hilde. Hilde, who through sheer mastery of martial mastery and nearly unmatched might... up and bisects the giant in far smaller a span of time than three of them were able to even land more than a small handful of middling blows.
Hilde may have saved the lives of those on the other side of the war by proxy, as she steps forth and claims the prize. Gon furrows his brow, and sneers.
"Are you so conceited to assume that you will be allowed to claim what is not yours?" The aging Guado speaks moments after warm, restorative sparkles befall the injured Guardian. This is a very humorous way for people like him to say 'thank you for doing our hard work for us, gimme gimme gimme.'
Others come into sight. Lunata's flying through the air. One particularly disconcerting woman makes it plain what she's hunting after. A strange young man sees to another flung from a chocobo. And... the list goes on and on, but there is a facepalm. (With a metal, clawed gauntlet.)
"...Did you bring the Otherworlders with you, then, all at once? The timing! The needless theatrics! The--"
Word carries around about what they're after, and Gon tries to bring back a semblance of dignity and authority, the former of which he has found constantly plucked from him with every unfortunate meeting with the Otherworlders. "Oh, if all of you would be so kind to deal with her and allow us to secure this machina, perhaps, just perhaps, I will overlook this encounte--"
Boudicca gives healing warmth to Hilde. An eye twitches.
The more able-bodied Guardian looks to Gon, as if wordlessly suggesting an open target they believe might be good to focus on first.
"...Deal with that Althenian heathen with the machina!"
The refreshed Guardian rises back up. All three drop to their traditional combat stances, arms at either side and in swaying movement with readiness to strike at any moment. There's a few too many things going on at once for any of the three to commit to an immediate offensive.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia Lynn Adlehyde, Princess of A Kingdom That's Pretty Indie, You Probably Haven't Heard Of It, has decided to take time off her ongoing Medium Hunt in order to shoot tigers at a Fiend. (Somewhere, Billy Lee Black is asleep on a roadside bench and having a lovely afternoon)
But it turns out, the Fiend has been handled, as the Princess brings her chocobo to a halt. She took horseback riding at her princess finishing school slash seminary, you see. She is probably sort of vaguely in the orbit of Lily Keil, because she is still convinced Lily is an OK person. Cecilia looks up at the Knight, frowning as the pyreflies scatter. "Defeated already," she murmurs. Her guard is almost down...when she notices the tense tone of people nearby. Her hand slowly drifts to her Crest Graph case, frown deepening. Oh. Right. She's with the Guard. That's....a concern, isn't it.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
It hadn't been long after she had reunited with Rebecca in fact -- Avril had heard rumors about a strange and powerful Fiend roaming the Calm Lands. This was a problem not just for those of them who had taken to the planes for safety in the wake of the rescue mission and the flight thereafter: it may be that there are are not many people who call the Calm Lands 'home', but there are still people who are in harm's way.
To say nothing of what would happen if it wandered further afield.
She comes on chocobo-back, as a few others have. Slipping from its back as she sights it, the fingers of her hand still hold its reins.
Pyreflies soon drift on the breeze. Is that... is it gone, already? And by one of Althena's Guard, this far north...
"You are the one who has slain it? Then I must thank you for..."
Her gaze shifts. "...for..." Avril repeats, looking for the moment as if she's seen a ghost.
She'd found Rebecca. But Dean hadn't been there. Rebecca had said that he was 'not far'. But--
She releases her grip in the reins and runs right for him. "Dean!!"
(The chocobo takes this moment to run away...)
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
There are only a handful of people who can claim to have axe-murdered a giant robot-shaped anything with nothing but a sword and a whole lot of inadvisable parkour. Apparently, that list now includes Hilde of Althena's guard, but it also includes... someone else...!
"Fufufufufu, well done...!"
There is nowhere good to perch here in the Calm Lands. It's basically a gigantic flat expanse of absolutely nothing that stretches from a series of mountains to one side and a sheer cliff face to the other, and honestly it could do with a few of those cool lightning rods that they've got in the Thunder Plains, but alas! It does not have anything good to stand on top of! You would need to do something silly like stack a small flock of chocobos on top of each other so that you could stand at the very zenith! Or, you could simply learn to fly.
There is a shadow that falls across the ground. A long, inexplicable shade that stretches from here to there, and at its root, there is...
...Someone... hovering directly in the path of the sun...
"I should have expected nothing less from one of the fangs of Althena...!" Zed, DARK HERO, stands in the full light of the heavens, atop... Atop... nothing?! No! He's standing in open air! But he's also... suspended by the neck, his trapezius and deltoids bulging against the strain of... keeping upright while his amazing scarf whirls above him like a helicopter rotor. It's actually kind of painful he's being honest, but sacrifices MUST BE MADE.
"It's too bad! I looked forward to fighting that creature. You see, today is a very special day, and I meant to celebrate it with a fight worthy of story! But it was not meant to be......"
"OR," Zed's eyes FLASH, "WAS IT!?"
Zed cackles, he laughs like mad, spinning like a top as he scythes down out of the sky with sword in hand like some kind of deadly buzzsaw man. And he's coming-- he's coming right for Hilde!! "TODAY, I WILL SAMPLE YOUR SWORDSWOMANSHIP FOR MYSELF! HAVE AT YOOUUUUU!"
GS: Zed has attacked Hilde with Let It Rip!!! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Hilde critically guards Zed's Let It Rip!! for 24 hit points! GS: Deleting freeattack Redirection.
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
Lily draws Hilde's attention first. She studies her carefully, noting her composure - the way she carries her herself. It speaks a lot about a person.
"Hmm. Is that so...?" Hilde responds, curiously. "And who are these friends, may I ask? I- ...Excuse me for one second."
Certainly, it would be quite rude to interrupt her, but there's a situation occuring at the moment. That situation is a toppling chocobo, sending its riders flying... and one of them, right at her!!
It's a quick, smooth motion that sees both core and sword put away, arms held out to carefully catch Lunata out of the air.
"Ah! Don't worry, I have you. Are you quite alright?" Hilde asks, before moving to set her gently on her feet.
Her gaze turns toward others, as they remark on her feat. At that, Hilde chuckles.
"'Tis truly no grand accomplishment. My talents happen to align perfectly for the situation." She admits.
She looks between Dean and Marivel, then... and Gon, as they all raise the question of why she's here.
"...To be truthful, my aim was always the Fiend. This object, this core... it is merely a benevolent coincidence that it should be involved." Hilde comments. ...It's at this point that Marivel makes a comment that, briefly, distracts her.
"...My hair? Pardon?" She asks. She just misses the release of the crimson wave of energy. In one swift motion she draws her sword once more, countering it with a wave of blue that disperses most of it before continuing on toward Marivel herself.
Hilde expects further attacks, after this. What she does not expect, however, is healing. She looks toward Boudicca.
"...My gratitude, Lady Seraph." She says, bowing her head politely. "The Al Bhed... that is a noble cause. But... I'm afraid I must decline."
She held them in high regard, holding much respect for them for their previous cooperation.
It is at this point, that Zed appears - a certain someone who is very hard to ignore.
"Ah, is that so...?" She remarks, curiously. Zed comes spinning at her, like a top but with knives attached to it! Hilde swings out her sword and... rather than going for a full slash, uses the flat to carefully redirect him into the nearest solid object.
"...Still... that is a good idea. To be truthful, I have always been curious to learn more about those they call 'Drifters' - to see for myself what you are capable of." She says consideringly. She brings out the core again. "This device - it is in much demand, is it not? Then there is only one thing for it - I wish to see your conviction to claim it for yourself. Let us conduct the conversation that can only be held on the battlefield!"
With that, Hilde gestures with her left hand. A pleasantly warm, blue-white light begins to shine from the ground beneath everyone. There's enough warning to step out of it, if so desired - but those who remain within will find themselves soon healed of any injuries or fatigue they had acquired on the way here. It will be especially effective for Boudicca, perhaps out of kindness for her prior healing.
>Everyone is fully healed - Boudicca especially!
"Now, come - all who wish to approach, you may take the first move!" Hilde offers.
GS: Hilde has attacked Marivel Armitage with Force Blade! GS: Hilde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hilde has attacked Zed with Redirection! GS: Hilde has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Champion's Litany! GS: Hilde has completed her action. GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Hilde's Redirection for 126 hit points! GS: Hilde heals Seraph Boudicca! She gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a glancing hit from Hilde's Force Blade for 67 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Dean calls out to Lunata as she sails by. "Hideannicetomeetyouhowsbeckyandavrillll!"
Talia has a way cooler landing than her and calls out to Azoth and Lunata pouts at her, putting her hands to her waist.
"I told you! Animals either try to eat me because they think I'm food, or a threat because I'm a moving corpse!"
Then, the inexplicable happens as Hilde puts core and sword away and catches Lunata out of the air!
LUNATA VISION ON
Ah! Don't worry, I have you.
Lunata is held in a cool lady knight's arms, as a blossoming bouquet of roses and lillies (amidst Lily Keil, no less) expands behind them. There's bubbles and glitter in the air, and everyone's eyelashes are at least an inch longer, their lips full and winsome!
She is set down, and a dramatic wind blows through her air, cheeks... cheeks...
Nope, still can't blush even in Lunata Vision. Stupid unsexy dead body.
LUNATA VISION OFF
Lunata's cheeks puff as she kicks and flails, complaining as she writhingly rolls to one side, "I'm too gay to deal with this!!! I failed you, Jay!!"
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Lunata Croze with Nice Meltdown! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: Lunata Croze accepts Lunata Croze's Nice Meltdown for 147 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"That's a good question," Lily answers Dean. She likes Dean. She doesn't actually answer his good question.
She is not among the first to initiate combat; she was going to talk a little first, maybe have some banter, the normal things when dealing with a knight of the Guard. But the world goes a little crazier sooner than later, and so Lily has to contend with not only Lunata flying off a chocobo, but things like Gon and.. Zed.
To Boudicca, Lily inclines her head. "They're the friends I was talking about," she answers. She was going to wait fairly poloitely to actually talk. But in the end... Hilde offers a challenge.
"I guess this was inevitable," she says to Marivel, "...But I can't say I mind."
"Healing your foes before you begin... it definitely suits your stated goals. With a move like that..."
"You seem an honorable knight." Lily brings her hands down to either side of herself and breathes in. "So sure. Let's 'talk.'"
She shifts into motion immediately. Strange orange-red light gleams in circuit patterns where skin is exposed--neck, hands--and flames burst from around her, intense orbs of fire crashing out from her hands as she starts advancing, one fireball at a time, stepping up with each. "An Althenan--" Pause. LOunata vision. Flailing. Lily... sweatdrops.
"Lunata! Stop swooning!"
She gets back to the burning advance thing.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Hilde with Burning Advance! GS: Lily Keil assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Hilde critically guards Lily Keil's Burning Advance for 31 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Wow, a lot of people have shown up uncoordinated and yet at the same time to fight this now-dead fiend. Peaceful friends, like Boudicca; fighty friends, like Marivel; and not-friends-at-all, like Gon. What a coincidence! If Dean were the type to read into this sort of thing, he might think it's fate. As it stands, when he hears Avril's voice--
'Dean!!'
--he immediately forgets everything else to whip around and, upon seeing her, *light up*. "Avril!!" he shouts back, breaking into a run to meet her partway. After helping beat Kinoc and his subordinate at Via Purifico, he knew the people who'd been captured had to have escaped safely, including Avril, so even though she wasn't at that particular spot at that particular time, he hasn't been too worried about her. She got out; she's safe; they'll meet up sooner or later. But that doesn't mean he can't be relieved and thrilled to see his best friend again, safe and sound.
"I'm so glad to see you!!" he enthuses once they're close enough. "I knew you had to be okay after we busted open the exits to that prison place, but still...!" He'll happily give her a hug, too overwhelmed for words.
This doesn't get to last, sadly. There's kind of a fight breaking out around them. Dean pulls away to look back at Hilde, who explains that the core is a happy coincidence and then heals everyone and invites them to fight her for it. "Oh, okay," he says of the coincidence. Of the fight, well--he summons Twin Fenrir in a flash, the paired guns appearing in his hands like they were made for them. (Speaking of coincidences...)
Gon attempts to lump everyone who isn't him and *his* posse together, and Dean gives him an incredulous look. "Who even are you? We're not all together, we just happened to show up at the same time!" he points out. "And we're not fighting so *you* can get the machina! If you wanna compete for it, you can fight her like everyone else!"
Dean then nods firmly to Avril. He had no idea about this core before now, but if it might be a Golem core (probably not but hope springs eternal), he just *has* to get a better look. "C'mon! If this lady wants to fight, how 'bout we get back into the swing of things together?"
Marivel declares that she's here for Lunata. Dean gives her a confused look. "Wait, I thought Lunie was dating Jay?" Lunie follows up by being too gay to function. "Wait, are you *not* still dating?? I'm confused!"
Dean is too ace to deal with this.
He gives up and shakes his head, then charges towards Hilde to strike her with the combat rods in the handles of his guns. Because why would you use a gun primarily to *shoot*?
<Pose Tracker> Isolde has posed.
<poem>
Isolde turns her head towards Marivel as she begins to speak.
"... but," Isolde begins to say, with a tone of some kind of subtle bafflement beginning to dawn when chaos reigns! Marivel makes her attack! There is the indisguisable sound of a frustrated Yevonite! Zed!
It's getting risky out here, Isolde thinks. After this there is a moment of interior reverie as she shifts her stance, something warier, more ready. People scream and shriek. Blades and steel crash. There are the Yevonites speaking and -
"Ah," Isolde says. "A challenge? Well, that's bold of you, isn't it. I think you may be exaggerating your humility, my dear lady."
At this point Isolde begins walking into the seething maelstrom of swords, sorcery, and burning spirit that has clustered around Hilde. She reaches underneath her boring gray cloak and calls out towards the side as she goes, "Hullo there to Talia's new friend! And your - chocobo?" ("It's alright," she comforts Lunata in passing.)
After she finishes her stroll, or at least when she gets within six or seven paces of Hilde's, she grasps the long handle of a heavy blade and draws it out with a single arm's flexion. It is held warily as if it were a great knife in one hand, then grasped with both, and at that point she aims a hewing strike at Hilde from up high!
Sometimes you have to rule out the easy conclusions.
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Hilde with Power Booster! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Isolde has attacked Hilde with Heavy Rain by Nightfall! GS: Isolde has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth smiles gently as he sees Talia is no worse for wear. But -- I am teaching her to flirt, no? Perhaps later, I will teach you--
He looks from Talia to Lunata, taking in what this date instruction scenario has become, which now includes Lunata's declaration of failure for the actual date target. Perhaps with Talia's attention focused on Hilde, Azoth is mostly responding to himself. "Uh. That could be... an enlightening experience." To phrase it carefully.
But now isn't the time to continue the conversation. Miss Sharon has her friends that want it. An armored Seraph mentions the Al Bhed. Both would be better places. There's too many here for Azoth to succeed in an objective of getting it for his own handlers, but that doesn't mean he can give up and let it go to just anyone.
Azoth watches Hilde tensely. After dealing with the danger of the Fiend, this is at best ungrateful and at worst a form of injustice, even if she is inviting a conversation of violence. Yet...
"Sorry, but I can't let you walk away with that...! So... let's talk!"
He raises an arm and materializes a blade of blue-white light above him, then folds his hands together like a gun, aimed for Hilde. With a little, "Bang!" he jerks up his wrists as if in recoil, and the blade launches at his target, its energy leaving a trail of color behind it.
GS: Azoth has attacked Hilde with Data Stream! GS: Azoth has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata additionally yells across at Marivel, "I did not fall for anyone!!"
GS: Hilde takes a solid hit from Dean Stark's Power Booster for 121 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Dean Stark! GS: Hilde critically guards Isolde's Heavy Rain by Nightfall for 25 hit points! GS: Hilde guards a hit from Azoth's Data Stream for 66 hit points! GS: Hilde activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Oh you know, it's fine, it's fine, but I'm more into blue hair. There's just something about it that gets a gal's heart pumping." She looks to Cecilia. "Isn't that right, Ceci?--Woah nelly!" Marivel twists away from the blue wave of counter energy, just scarcely avoiding the blast. "My my, is that it? You just want to communicate with our fists like some kind of children anime? This feels very Robo Tourney G but--"
She takes a moment to observe Lunata rollingg around on the floor as she's overcome by gay.
"Oh I was mostly joking about her falling for you, as in wordplay, but perhaps she did after all? How about it, Hilde? Would you like to take this fine young lich on a date? If you do I'll let you keep the machina core."
Maybe Marivel's conviction for this object isn't as big as she pretended it to be.
She looks to The Ace of Spades and says to Dean, "Oh you can date multiple people at once it's perfectly normal."
Is she still ignoring Gon? Sorry Gon. Lunata shouts at Marivel and Marivel says, "You're rolling on the floor with your cheeks puffed screaming about how gay you are!" as her counterargument. "How else am I supposed to explain it?"
She snaps out her fingers and sends a surge of black shadow rippling up out of the ground to seize hold of Hilde and burn into her body.
"Are you just... gaying about town, then?" Marivel continues. "Just for casual gayness?"
GS: Marivel Armitage spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Hilde with Boogiepop Phantoms! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Hilde guards a hit from Marivel Armitage's Boogiepop Phantoms for 28 hit points! GS: Disease and Poison applied to Hilde!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed is... caught!? "What!?" Zed demands of Hilde, of the world, of the universe itself!! Hilde twists, her blade turns, Zed... Zed goes sailing wayyyyy off into the distance. You can kind of see a dust trail wind about half the way up Mount Gagazet before coming to a stop.
For a few moments, that's... about it. Zed, being turned so far afield, is too distant to benefit from Hilde's generous healing. But he's not out of the fight just yet! If mere distance was enough to take Zed out of combat, well! He'd probably be a much less interesting rival to have, wouldn't he!?
There's a sound like a rumbling, distant avalanche. The ground trembles. A mound of soil bulges and cracks and finally...!
SCHWING!
Zed explodes out of the ground, and in the same motion strikes from Hilde's apparent blindspot at blistering speeds! "I HEARD SOMEONE SAY ROBO TOURNEY G!" Zed roars, apparently WAY MORE HYPE than anyone has any right to be. "OH MAN I COULD TALK FOR DAYS ABOUT--"
oh no someone stop him before he keeps going
GS: Zed has attacked Hilde with Miracle Strike - Phantom Bite! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Hilde guards a hit from Zed's Miracle Strike - Phantom Bite for 103 hit points! GS: Cripple applied to Hilde!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"Wow... she caught her!" Talia says, under her breath. "This is very impressive, no?" Then, she dusts herself off, and gives Lunata a look. Her eyes blink a couple of times. "I thought it was maybe a confidence issue, no? Well... it is fine, we will figure out another way--"
She realizes that she is talking to Lunata during the midst of her meltdown in Hilde's arms. She considers this for a moment, looking from lady knight under heavy attack to Lunata and then back again. Lunata is close to her as she flails.
She should, in all likelihood, extricate her from this situation. She gives Azoth a look. "Yes! I am a master, you see?"
She winks at him. A little star, made of ice-mist, flies away from her wink, then poofs. away. Then, she looks back at Hilde. She glances at Azoth again. "It is necessary to extract Lunata from this situation with nonviolent means, no? I will go in as you do!" she says. Then she calls out: "Lunata, listen to the terrifying death witch! You don't need to swoon!"
She starts charging forward. She looks at Hilde -- then turns her attention to Lunata -- and then leaps. Chi explodes off her foot, and she slams her foot right at Hilde's face. "SWALLOW KICK!"
She screams her attack name, as she flies at Hilde. Then, she lands, in a crouch, and glances sideways at Lunata, and gives her a thumbs-up. "See? Nonviolent means! I think I got that right?"
GS: Talia has attacked Hilde with Swallow Kick! GS: Talia has gained 2 Combo! GS: Talia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca tries to roll diplomacy even though Marivel is RIGHT THERE. She is, however, distracted from the Zedcopter for a moment, because --
"Ah! You found each other!" Boudicca enthuses, brightly, to Dean and Avril, clapping her hands together.
And THEN she sees Zed, improvising a high perch. "What on--"
Zed does Zed things, and Boudicca sighs. "Oh, Zed..."
To Gon, who is gathering all his forces to misunderstand the situation, she remarks: "Please, I am trying to navigate a delicate --"
But Hilde thinks fighting is a great idea. (And Hilde... might be a little sheltered, Boudicca notes, aside.) And then Hilde does something surprising..!!
"Remarkable!" Boudicca exclaims, after the healing glittery lights fade. "I am heartened to know you are this sort of person!" A KINDRED SPIRIT...
Who Boudicca now has to fight, because that's the rules.
"If we must fight..." She takes out her tonfa, and jumps in close on a gust of air, to swipe low at Hilde's centre of gravity. "Please tell us if it gets to be too much!"
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Hilde with Rabid Lunge! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Hilde guards a hit from Talia's Swallow Kick for 51 hit points! GS: Hilde activates Guard bonus! GS: Hilde takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Rabid Lunge for 63 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Hilde!
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
There is a grace and poise Hilde carries herself before countless challengers - many of them, at the barest minimum, being among the top-most percentile of the Drifter trade. No fear, no anger, no wavering - and why should she? She just felled a Gigas that three able-bodied Guado Guardians could not take down. Even before something like Zed coming down screaming (Gon's voice in his head: 'what even is this') can sully her pleasantries.
Then, a blue-white light shines on the ground around everyone. Everyone - and there's no small number of individuals here - feels that refreshment. Gon recognizes this as being the same sort of sorcery he wields. This isn't a new development, for all the time they've had to deal with Althena's Guard bearing down upon Spira. Her mastery...
He is considered among the very best wielders of that form of power on Spira today, owing to having two opposing parts of the Althena's Blessing elemental spectrum at his command. This level of renewal, refreshment. It far exceeds his grasp. He is being pushed ever further into irrelevance on the grand stage that this drama is now unfolding about between everyone--
Lunata's rolling on the floor, and at this point Gon has decided that he will be graciously accepting Hilde's invite to allow her guard to be tested against at least a dozen elite combatants like the good sport she is, even as she is capable of making sport of just about any of them in hand to hand.
Gon doesn't even need to say it before the two Guado Guardians accompanying him make a beeline for Hilde. She has fought plenty of them by now - the Guado have a long wingspan in which to strike at range, and boast the swiftest movements among all of Yevon's races due to their long leg strides. Two pairs of bladed gauntlets bear down upon Hilde in ways without novelty or surprise.
Gon awaits his own moment to strike, slowed only because of advancing age.
GS: Gon Guado has attacked Hilde with Did They Not See What She Did To The Boss Monster - Why Are They Using Normal Attacks! GS: Gon Guado has gained 2 Combo! GS: Gon Guado has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Hilde takes a solid hit from Gon Guado's Did They Not See What She Did To The Boss Monster - Why Are They Using Normal Attacks for 88 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hilde gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"W..wait! Do you like anime, Zed?!" Marivel's eyes suddenly sparkle. "How do you even know what anime is?? No wait, Who is your favorite robot pilot??? Mine is Noir Schwester, the cool lady ninja...! But everybody always talks about how they like Tempest but she's just this boring girl chasing after the protagonist forever in my book! You'd think with a name like Tempest she'd have more to do but they don't even really utilize her until the ending! But okay, even I have to admit the ending was pure perfect cheese."
"But I think it sort of dragged in the middle during the demon robot minion saga? Especially since honestly, kind of racist? Just calling things demons because they want to consume the world is just insensitive but I have to forgive it because it's just a lot of fun otherwise and there is really no perfect media for this sort of thing."
"AndwellifIwastojudgeverypieceofmediabyhowhumansenterprettermsandrealityIwouldneverbeabletoenjoyanymediaitisimportanttobeabletocritiquemediaevenwhileconsumingandappreciatingitbecausethereisnosuchthingasaperfectstorythatwhollyconformstobothpresentandfutureunderstandingsofsocialjusticeandthetimes.Exceptofcourseyurimangathey'reallprettymuchperfectandIcanintroduceyoutobucketloadsofthestuffifyou'reinterested.Theyarelikebattlemangabutit'sallabouttryingtofigureouthowtogetpasttheiropponent'sdefensessotheycanbegaytogether."
This is just going to go on and on until Hilde finally stabs her.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia, mind racing with thoughts political and magical, is as ever stymied when Zed does Some Kinda Zed Thing and apparently awakens Hilde's chivalrous spirit. "Ah," she says, scratching her cheek. "He strikes again."
Cecilia huffs a sigh, as Hilde's wave of healing light sets her to rights, and Cecilia hooks her legs off her saddle, shoving off to dismount her bird. She comes up to a stance, watching as people fall on Hilde with abandon. "Well, it's nice to have an outing that doesn't require the fires of heaven, I suppose," she says, and then Marivel starts....starts talking.
"Iiii was wrong," Cecilia concludes, and then pulls out her ever-trusty Spark crest to bombard Hilde with lightning.
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Hilde with Spark! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Everything had been absolute turned around after the escape. She had sought refuge with with first one group then another, before finally making that request of Eleanor who had helped set her on the right path again. The situation in Spira had been chaotic, and only amplified by the unavailability of means of communication. Scattered across camps, even finding a person or a pair of persons had become a difficult proposition.
So this is a long-awaited reunion. For just a moment, the situation around them now will have to remain on-hold.
(...there may be a brief moment first where Avril glances up at Lunata, as she goes flying past ovehead...)
Perhaps it might be that it's not so much that Dean give her a hug as much as it is that Avril gives him a hug. As if overcome, she wraps her arms about him, much as she did when she had finally met Rebecca atop that frozen pool, and takes him into a tight embrace. She had known -- trusted, really -- that he would be fine. That they'd all been fine. Even Eleanor had confirmed that she'd even seen him recently.
But to paraphrase Rebecca, it was one thing to believe in that and yet another thing to completely abstain from worry.
"I'm glad to see you again, too. Eleanor had said you were well, and yet..."
She loves him dearly, dearly enough to worry all the same.
It's just in a different way than the way she loves Rebecca.
The situation at hand however can only be deferred for so long. Relinquishing her grip on him, she pulls away, drawing Absolute Zero (here, the blade appears in a flash) as fighting begins. "...It appears we must now fight her," she says to her friend, taking up a position at Dean's back. Avril glances the once at Boudicca as she exclaims that they've found each other and inclines her head in a simple nod.
"Indeed, I am ready, Dean! If there is no other choice, then...!"
She follows up shortly after him, lashing out at Hilde with her blade as if to test her defenses.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Hilde with Innocent Saber! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Y-you know what anime is too!? Without me having to explain anything!!??" Zed's eyes go wide like wobbly, watery saucers. "Oh my gosh oh uh my favorite is probably Omniby Goateely because she's definitely a way better match for Seimon Chestnut and you can definitely tell the author's bias in the last arc because he and Tempest don't even have much in the way of chemistry, but more importantly she's got that whole RAAARGH ANGRY kind of vibe going and has to overcome her misguided commitment to a bunch of people who are only using her strength for their own benefit and that really resonates for some reason??"
"Anyway I think the middle bit was probably political commentary because we were kind of being seen as giant jerkfaces who did similar things at the time even though that part of metal demon history is sometimes a little fuzzy and biased but more importantly it really helps illustrate the power of the bonds between warriors and the meaning imparted in the exchange of two fighters communicating with their fists on the battlefield AND it has a really cool upgrade during the climax, but yeah I guess I can see how it can drag a bit--"
"Asfarasjudgingmediait'skindofhardbecauselikeyousaidsometimesitcangetabitpreachyespeciallydependingonwhenthestuffwasmadeandyoucanddefinitelytellthere'ssomehistoricalbiasgoingonbutusuallyicanlookpastthatwhenyoucanfeelthecreators'passioncomethroughinthework.AnduhIthinkIknowaboutyuristuffbecausethatsoundsvaguelylikewhatRieseandNoelinegetupto??ItseemslikeaworldthatIshouldn'tinsertmyselfinto????"
oh no, kindred spirits...
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
Gon asides, from a distance as Zed and Marivel talk shop about their hobbies.
"I have asked myself this far too many times to ask aloud, but is it common for... grown Overworlders," he is really not sure with how Zed carries himself and Marivel's stature, "to speak to one another like children fawning over their favorite Blitzball players in the middle of a fight for one's life?"
Otherworlders are weird.
GS: Hilde takes a glancing hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Spark for 51 hit points! GS: Hilde fully evades Avril Vent Fleur's Innocent Saber for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
Hilde blinks as Lunata flails! ...But, her comment does fill in the situation a little bit.
"...Ah. I believe I understand now." She says. She glances between Marivel and Dean, then.
"I am sure she is a rather nice young lady, but as the young man says, it sounds as if she is already in a relationship. I would rather not interfere with that." Hilde explains, in an attempt to be polite.
Besides - she has other things to consider right now. Namely, Lily's advance. As orbs of flame begin to crash down around her Hilde turns, shield drawn. Several are deflected, and one final one is split in two.
Dean closes in on her, then, as the last of Lily's fireballs lands around her. She's unable to regain her defensive posture in time. His combat rods send her reeling back... but she takes advantage of the momentum to bring her shield up against Isolde's knife to deflect it.
"Ah, what a curious form of attack..." Hilde observes, as Azoth forms a blade of light and sends it flying at her. She is not as used to dealing with energy weapons of that sort. As a result, she has to carefully parry it with her sword, but this doesn't quite manage to mitigate it entirely. "But, indeed - let us talk."
Marivel, meanwhile, conjures a surge of shadows around her. They hold on tight, and Hilde notes the burning with interest. Concerning, but so too is Zed's approach - an explosion from below that takes Hilde by surprise even as Marivel's shadows still cling to her.
"A clever maneuver, Sir Zed..." Hilde praises. But, Zed isn't the only one with a clever approach. Talia flies in with a leaping, exploding chi kick. Hilde raises her shield just in time to prevent a solid connection with her face.
This leaves her open for Boudicca to approach with a low swipe, pushing her back further and breaking her stance.
"Do not worry - I shall do just that." Hilde says. She is, admittedly, somewhat distracted by the pleasantries. This provides Gon and his fellow Guardians and opening to strike. The two Guardians lunge at her and Hilde is forced to retreat back, her blade coming up to parry the attacks in a somewhat forced motion that doesn't quite negate the entirety of the force.
She stumbles back... but the scent of the air, charged with lightning, alerts her to the building of Cecilia's spell. As someone commonly clad entirely in metal, lightning can be dangerous, even with the magical enchantments it assumedly carries. She steps aside to clear the area, though some of it is still drawn to her.
Still on the defensive, she is unable to meet Avril's testing strike with her shield - but even despite that, she seems agile enough to avoid a direct hit. Speed and durability both - a dangerous combination.
"Well done. Well done, indeed..." Hilde acknowledges, backpedaling back into a neutral position where she can ready herself for her own volley. "You are all quite talented. I am curious. If you permit me to ask... what drives you to travel? What pushes you onward?"
From her position, Hilde takes a deep breath. A centering gesture - one to hone her strikes. And then, in one quick movement Hilde spins in place. Her shield is hurled out to strike Zed and Marivel before being pulled back with a length of rope.
Once she has retrieved her shield, without missing a beat she charges, lunging to meet Talia with a strike of her shield. She turns to face Lily, then. The blue aura from before arises briefly around her blade, before being swung toward her in a burst of power.
She swings around, then, slicing at Gon, his Guardians, Isolde, and Avril with a silver arc of her blade before retreating back. As she does she points her sword at Dean and Cecilia both. With a thrust, blue bolts of energy - more concentrated than the one sent Lily's way - go flying toward them.
Another spin sees her blade lashing out Boudicca's way - a strike intended less to harm than to temporarily deprive her of her weapons. The next comes for Azoth. It's a quick yet powerful and calculated strike - looking to overpower his defenses rather than cause direct immediate harm.
Lunata, meanwhile... is left unharmed. At this point, Hilde would just feel bad turning her blade upon her.
GS: Hilde has attacked Hilde with Focus Spirits! GS: Hilde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hilde accepts Hilde's Focus Spirits for 0 hit points! GS: Burst and Hyper applied to Hilde! GS: Hilde has attacked Zed with Shield Toss! GS: Hilde has attacked Marivel Armitage with Shield Toss! GS: Hilde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hilde has attacked Lily Keil with Aura Burst! GS: Hilde has attacked Talia with Shield Bash! GS: Hilde has attacked Gon Guado with Silver Arc! GS: Hilde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hilde has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Silver Arc! GS: Hilde has attacked Isolde with Silver Arc! GS: Hilde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hilde has attacked Dean Stark with Force Blade! GS: Hilde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hilde has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with Force Blade! GS: Hilde spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Hilde has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Disarming Strike! GS: Hilde has attacked Azoth with Rend Armor! GS: Hilde takes 29 damage from Poison! GS: Hilde has completed her action. GS: Zed takes a solid hit from Hilde's Shield Toss for 107 hit points! GS: Isolde takes a solid hit from Hilde's Silver Arc for 124 hit points! GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Hilde's Silver Arc for 68 hit points! GS: Avril Vent Fleur activates Evade bonus! GS: Lily Keil takes a solid hit from Hilde's Aura Burst for 106 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Hilde! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Hilde's Shield Toss for 124 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Gon Guado guards a hit from Hilde's Silver Arc for 75 hit points! GS: Gon Guado activates Guard bonus! GS: Talia takes a glancing hit from Hilde's Shield Bash for 52 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Hilde! GS: Azoth critically guards Hilde's Rend Armor for 15 hit points! GS: Azoth activates Guard bonus! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde critically guards Hilde's Force Blade for 27 hit points! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde activates Guard bonus! GS: Dean Stark guards a hit from Hilde's Force Blade for 76 hit points! GS: Dean Stark activates Guard bonus! GS: Seraph Boudicca fully evades Hilde's Disarming Strike for 0 hit points! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Power Burst! GS: Seraph Boudicca has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Dean expresses confusion over who's dating who, and Lunata is repeatedly failing to steam up into a beetroot red because of the lack of blood flowing in her veins. "I'm-- I'm not... not dating Jay...??!" The swirls in her eyes certainly speak volumes to the picture.
Lunata! Stop swooning!
"Easy for you to say, Lily! You've got it all figured out!!" Lunata whines. She and Leon are kinda just a thing set in stone forever, after all...
Marivel calls her out for what she's doing, and she sags and mumbles, "Maybe I'm having a gay ol' time, yeah...." Don't think she didn't hear Marivel's suggestion of taking her out on a date, though.
Strength, Lunata, strength!
Isolde gives her a pat. Haaah.
Talia says she doesn't have to swoon, but--
"Trust me I'm not doing it on purpose!"
Non-violent means.
"Uhhh.... kicking is kind of... I guess, uh, some people enjoy that...?"
Marivel and Zed, then, go into some kind of alternate wavelength and talks about things that she doesn't understand and she tries to tune in because it's not like she's fighting or anything--
"I heard the words 'gay together' at one point," Lunata concludes, wisely.
Gon asks a very important question on whether it's common for grown-ups to act like children in the middle of a fight for their life.
"... yeah. Yeah, it kind of... is," Lunata admits, pot kettle black and all.
Ah, I believe I understand now. Hilde speaks and says that Lunata's ina relationship, and she would rather not interfere with that.
...
... ... ...
"She's being really nice, but why do I feel like I got turned down anyway??? This DOUBLE sucks!" Lunata stomps one foot, sulking. "Ugh, if you're going to fight, Talia, at least go in with a shield..."
She glumly looks at Talia as she flicks her fingers, and a faint whorl of magic from Ge Ramda channels a silhouette of the very clock that continues ticking inside of her, whorling gimbals creating a barrier around the combatant.
"Aaah, I want to go home... I wish I could just stress-eat already!!"
Then she walks over to sit and watch the fight happen, while their Chocobo sits next to her and gives her the stink-eye. She stares up at it in turn. "Yeah, I'm watchin' you too," she antagonises the bird.
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Talia with Luna Dial! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: Lunata Croze heals Talia! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"I just don't worry so much about these things," Lily replies to Lunata!! But at least she's out of the major danger, right...?
Lily is not having part of this anime conversation. She's just not touching it further. She does, however, notice being called a 'terrifying death witch', and she's pretty much fine with that.
"Interesting," Lily remarks. "But I'd expect a knight of the Guard to be familiar with defending against magic." As she clearly is.
Gon's question about whether this is normal gets a "No." from Lily. Just as simple as that.
But in the meantime, Lily watches Hilde move about the battlefield, watches her defend and counter many attacks, and gets a sense of her in the process. With the question...
A burst of power hits Lily from Hilde's blade, knocking her backward on her movement forward. It cuts through her thin armor fairly easily. Lily grins at that, as she rights herself. "...There's a lot of reasons I travel," Lily says. "Finding the truth--but I guess if I had to pick one..."
She puts her hands in front of her, in the manner of gripping a weapon; a blade of ice crystallizes into existence in her hands, a heavy broadsword of shining blue.
"I'd say I fight because it's my nature."
Lily dives in this time, and instead of wielding ranged fireballs she starts in with the strokes of a Kislevi sword style, down down and from the side, wielding her magical blade like it weighs nothing. Its chill mists the air all around her. "What about you?"
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Hilde with Polar Blade! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Hilde takes a solid hit from Lily Keil's Polar Blade for 115 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Marivel informs Dean that dating multiple people at once is totally normal. Dean, who has never heard this before and absolutely for lack of trying, utters, "Really??" He turns to Avril, as if she'd know more than him about the subject. "Really??" he asks her.
It's a bit of a shame Rebecca isn't here to weigh in on the normalcy of polyamory. She'd probably have some interesting things (colors) to say (turn) about it.
At least Boudicca is here to be simple and easy to understand. Dean beams at her when she beams at *them*, i.e. him and Avril, for having found each other. "Yeah!!" And Hilde herself confirms that she's not interested, on account of Lunie already having someone. "So you were just messing with me! Geez, Marivel!" he utters.
Unfortunately, Marivel and Zed are busy gushing over anime together. One day, Dean will be introduced to anime and gush with them. For now, he just gives them a blank, puzzled look before shaking his head and focusing back on the fight--and his friend.
"So you saw Eleanor, huh? Did you see Rebecca too? She's gonna be so glad to see you if not!" Dean enthuses warmly back to Avril. (At least Lunata can hear how Rebecca and Avril are doing secondhand? Sorry, Lunie, he didn't make out your question at all earlier.) "Let's wrap this up and go get her and have a great big reunion party dinner together!"
Hilde asks a question and counter-attacks against the group. Dean crosses his combat rods to defend against the blue blast she unleashes off her blade, but it still hits hard, sending his feet skidding through the grass. "Golems!!" he replies promptly as he moves back into a fighting position. "I wanna be a Golem Hunter and search for Golems all over both worlds!"
Of course, he's been getting sidelined a lot by saving the worlds over and over again, but still. Dean keeps his dream strong and bright in his heart.
With a fierce combat roar, Dean charges back in towards Hilde, this time with his rods forward. He attempts to ram one into Hilde's armor as a feint, then strike her in an exposed, unarmored spot with the other. "What about you?" he adds, echoing Lily unintentionally. "What d'you fight for?" He frowns and adds, "Are you really okay with this war your friends are doing?"
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Hilde with Assault Battery! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Hilde guards a hit from Dean Stark's Assault Battery for 79 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hilde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hilde activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"Marivel, Zed, far be it from me to criticise your method of communication, but how on Lunar do you understand any of that?!" It's like when mortals try and yell into nor'easters! It make no sense!
Unfortunately, she doesn't have much time to puzzle it out, because Hilde is coming in with a disarming strike. And Boudicca... doesn't want to use her magic in this particular battle, so with a puff of air she LEAPS ten feet into the air. It is an unfair amount of height for someone else in plate armour to achieve!
"Less-lethal approaches to battle are always welcome," she says, to Talia, who is trying VERY HARD with her kicks. Even Lily seems to be trying to be... a little... less lethal. Maybe? A little? It might just be in Boudicca's eternally-optimistic head.
She says this while ten feet in the air, because Boudicca is just kind of... drifting down. Like a leaf on the breeze, but with less impalement. This gives her a moment to consider Hilde's question, and answer: "I care for the people of these worlds. Everyone is the star of their own story, and I do not wish to see those stars go out. Protecting the normal moments of their everyday lives... that is why I fight monsters and seek treasures in the deep!"
Tap-tap her greaves come to ground.
"And all of those stories... are fascinating. I wonder what becomes of yours?"
This is a question punctuated by Boudicca charging past Hilde, all agust, with a lashing tonfa-swipe which threatens to send her spinning. "Soaring Vortex--!!"
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Hilde with Soaring Vortex! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Hilde takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Soaring Vortex for 145 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hilde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Entangle applied to Hilde!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Did someone say ROBOT PILOT?!
Azoth looks toward Zed and Marivel with a sparkle of strange hope welling up within his vibrating core...!
... that almost immediately calms as he gives them a blink blank of confusion because, actually, upon analyzing additional data provided from each of them, they are discussing a world he knows absolutely nothing about. At least they seem to love this world...? Thankfully, the rapid influx of ANIME doesn't disrupt Azoth's battle calculations, even if it leaves him with a number of questions.
Hilde's blade spins toward him, and Azoth hurriedly brings up a shield of light that may be as curious as the sword moments ago. Her sword smashes into it with the same feel as it would any solid object, cracking over the surface at the last possible moment as Azoth's eyes whir under the sound of combat in alarm.
"What -- what I fight for?" he repeats nervously. Not a full strike -- she's trying to find his weaknesses, and right now, the biggest advantage he has against that is that he isn't human. An experienced swordswoman who fights many nonhumans may find that out quickly if he stays in close range.
The nervousness fades in favor of a bright smile. "To find myself, I guess you could say!"
Literally, but for now he can pretend it's a metaphor.
He brings up his free hand, forming a few more blades of light above her, then snaps his fingers. The three converge onto Hilde, then promptly explode -- Azoth rides the momentum of his own explosion with a flip backward, trying to get some much needed distance, and hoping the force of his attack might rattle her own defenses.
GS: Azoth has attacked Hilde with Circuit Breaker! GS: Azoth has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Dude, Zed, I have a huge collection from the past few millenia back at home." Marivel begins but gets promptly clobbered upside the head by a shield. It rebounds off after and Marivel stumbles back--maybe Gon has a point.
But she does glance over to the Guado finally to admit, "Well this isn't a fight for my life, at least. Or theirs I suspect."
Boudicca criticizes their method of communication.
"We're just speaaking quickly! Because we're in the middle of a fight!" Marivel says. "You know about anime too I know I showed you the animes! And you liked them just fine when it was just th etwo of us, Boudi! You can hide from the world that you are one of us, but you can't hide from me...! Ga ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ga ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"
"Her techniques are pretty good." Marivel says. "I think I'll take one for myself...!"
She reaches out with her hand--wholly intend on drawing out some RED LIFE ESSENCE out of Hilde and then clamp down upon it with her fangs. Oh no!
OH NO! She is trying to STEAL A TECHNIQUE!? FROM A KNIGHT!
"I read a lot of stuff about being gay together," Marivel asides to Lunata.
"Really!" She adds to Dean. "For some people anyway!!" Though she is content to allow Avril to answer the question really.
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Hilde with Life Drain! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
For their misgivings, which are many and deepy-rooted in regards to one's nature (Lunata) and one's abhorrent actions that have seen many fall into harm and stand to be further harmed (Gon), for the first time in a very long while, Gon finds himself in agreement with an Otherworlder now that he has an expert opinion from one of the most inscrutable of their own--
Then Lily disagrees. As he is from an environment where the majority of people are conforming to well-set ideas, uh. His head doesn't explode! From that.
It could explode from Hilde's silvery slicing arcs! It doesn't.
What it does do is send the two attending Guado Guardians flying, as a well-honed blade shatters Spiran steel and outright exposes the right hand of one of them. The Guado are lighter and more fragile compared to most others. To cut off a gauntlet clean is to render said hand all but unusable for combat - let alone against one in such well-made armor such as Hilde's. The (as of yet) unnamed Guardian who loses his gauntlet puts his exposed hand behind his back. The other hits the ground and rolls like he were flung. An impact comparable to when they were struck by the Gigas, further demonstrating Hilde's power.
Only Gon himself stays within melee range - gauntlets spaced as such he thrusts out just as Hilde's swing comes to him to try and blunt the impact. He succeeds, mostly, in that he is not cut in twain - but his arm rattles and he stumbles down to a humbled crouch.
It's not far off from what a solid hit would look like, as Hilde conversationally asks the lot of them about their will.
"Am I to engage in these droll, probing, condescending inquiries to satiate your curiosity? Would that doing so be rid of the lot of you," Gon seems to be fogetting that he is solidly outnumbered, like, thireteen-to-three here.
Boudicca floats down and pontificates about caring for the people of these worlds, their everyday lives... and he rises, teeth gritting, crossing his arms inward.
"What know you of our 'everyday lives'?!" He snarls over to Boudicca as the air starts growing rapidly warmer. The White aspect of Althena's Fire, shoved laboriously through the stringent, singular discipline and expression the White Mages of Spira are trained to cast. "Before your untimely, uninvited, unwanted arrivals, our people were living their humble lives!" Living in fear of Sin. Shunning the idea of mastering what came before. Being kind of awful people to you-know-whos. "And here you stand now, speaking of righteousness and knowing what is best for them? You speak of this as stories?! This is not your story! This is not your land!"
Gon's cool - what little of it exists, better to say Gon's room temperature because that's honestly what it is - evaporates as anger washes over him. The Berserk spell at its most refined and perfected washes over him, suppressing those little safeguards a body has to say 'maybe stop and take a breath,' as he raises his voice as thus.
"TAKE YOUR THEATRICAL GRANDSTANDING WITH YOU!"
"...Leave the sphere," the Guardian with both gauntlets intact appends as he tends to his wounds with an Auto-Potion rather than cover with an offensive. Auto-Potioning is a Guado combat tradition, after all.
GS: Gon Guado has attacked Gon Guado with Berserkga! GS: Gon Guado assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Gon Guado has completed his action. GS: Gon Guado accepts Gon Guado's Berserkga for 0 hit points! GS: Burst and Hyper applied to Gon Guado! GS: Mighty applied to Gon Guado!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia bounces back from Hilde's face, feet kicking off the ground. "Friends kick each other, no?" Talia asks Lunata, head tilted. "Do they? Perhaps I am wrong on this thing..."
She trails off, tapping a finger against her cheek. She blinks with surprise as a whirl of light forms a clock around her -- then brightens, crimson eyes tracking sideways at Lunata. She flashes a grin at her. "It is okay, no? We all get turned down sometimes. I am going to go hit her again--it seems like stress relief--but... stress eating can come later!"
She starts running forward.
'If you permit me to ask... what drives you to travel? What pushes you onward?'
Talia cannot quite manage an answer. Hilde's shield slams into her, knocking her backward enough to send her sprawling for a second. Her feet kick off the ground, though, and she rushes in. Talia ducks just around the blast of blue light, which grazes one shoulder. She grits her teeth; then she grins, red eyes alight with eagerness.
Talia lunges inward. She rises up, then throws a hand down. "Well... it is good to travel and see things, no? New things. It makes you think." A magical circle flashes off her hand, exploding with light and rotating as lines trace themselves outward, forming triangles and runes within the circle.
Then, a block of ice shoots downward, expanding over Hilde -- and seeks to briefly entomb her in a solid block of ice for just a moment.
"Frigid Coffin!"
Talia glances sideways at Azoth, when he says his reason. It seems like a nice one. She gives him a quick, mid-fight thumbs-up.
GS: Talia has attacked Hilde with Frigid Coffin! GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Talia has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Hilde guards a hit from Azoth's Circuit Breaker for 107 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hilde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Hilde! GS: You do not have any attacks from that person in queue. GS: Hilde takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Life Drain for 189 hit points! GS: Marivel Armitage drains Hilde! Marivel Armitage gains 94 temporary hit points! GS: Hilde takes a solid hit from Talia's Frigid Coffin for 158 hit points! GS: Delay and Entangle applied to Hilde!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Oh man you do???? Devet shared her collection with me too and it's s o o o g o o d!" Gon asks a very pertinent question but the fact is that Zed is simply too engrossed in his and Marivel's conversation that he doesn't even notice. Finally, he has found another who shares his love for the animes! Finally, he (and Devet) isn't alone...!
And then a hurled shield goes *kabonk!* right into the side of his head. Really it's less of a *kabonk!* and more of a *GOOONNNNNNNG!* Zed's skull and Hilde's shield resonate on some mutually harmonic frequency, sending a trembling standing waves all down through the rest of Zed's body! "Uwa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a---" Zed stammers out, vibrating from the top of his head down to the tips of his toes and back!
"H-hey! Rude! We were talking!" Zed huffs, his hand going to his sword as a tide of pitch-black void begins billowing out around him as if someone had opened the sluice gates on the river of night itself. He swings, then, his sword engulfed in a nightmarish nimbus of jet-black anti-energy, the very kind of power that you would expect one called a 'demon' might wield. It glimmers with stardust as well, however-- like someone tipped a bottle of glitter into the river of night and now it's going to get all over *everything* because that's just what glitter does. And now it's threatening to get all over Hilde, because that's just what getting slapped by Zed's Void Aspect does.
"Boudicca!? You watch anime too!?!? WE SHOULD START A CLUB!!" Beat. He looks to Hilde, then. "I don't follow. Why do I fight? Like, why do I do it? 'Cause I enjoy fighting??? But there's another reason too, I suppose. A much more powerful, moving reason. The kind of reason that would pluck at your heartstrings and bring tears to your eyes! The sort of reason that would win awards for <<best drama>> at your local literature review board! DO YOU WANT TO HEAR IT!?"
GS: Zed has attacked Hilde with Saint Arts - Voidwalker's Resolve! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed assumes the Stoic stance! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Isolde has posed.
It is in fact no knife in Isolde's hand; and her overcommitted strike, in the end, does not dethrone Hilde from a seat of pride. There is a shang! of steel; Isolde staggers back for a moment, breathing out and shifting her grasp, but the weapon itself has inertia. It is not so dissimilar from a weapon held by a certain Guardian. No, not that one. No, not - no, Auron. It is like Auron's sword.
Hilde's strike comes there, while Isolde is maneuvering what must be a marginally unfamiliar weapon. "Ah!" she says, staggering back and then bringing the weapon up point-first, a more comfortable stance, as she smiles, just a little, and replies:
"That's a rather personal question, isn't it? I'll let you know once I have an answer, if we're both still alive."
"They say that if you fight someone," Isolde continues even as thoughts echo through her mind, "you come to know them, but I have always wondered. It has always seemed pat to me, to consider that; it contracts people, it puts them together. It makes sense, of course, if you are a professional, someone dedicated to war as a pursuit; a craft. Perhaps, as they say on Filgaia, an art."
Her fingers curl round the grip of her sword, then relax.
"Do you think people can understand each other at all?"
Isolde becomes completely still for a moment then, as she hears other words.
She answers Gon without, quite, changing the tone of her voice. Not quite.
"This feels good, doesn't it? To be angry. Or rather; it feels bad, when you stop."
Isolde seems to resume animation a moment later, and she steps to the side as she circles round Hilde. A moment later, a testing probe - a stab with the weapon, to leverage its great length to test reflexes. To strike flesh, or else a shield.
GS: Formation! Isolde has attacked Hilde with Swarm of Harrier! GS: Isolde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Isolde has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia thrusts her hand forward. She recalls her influences from the Earth Golem Asgard, the master of barriers, forging a shield that stands stronger than that slashing sword, scattering Hilde's attack to the sides without much impact on Cecilia herself.
Then, she draws in a breath. "Well, I came out here for some monster practice," she says, and sighs, and reaches to the other, larger portion of her Crest Graph Case. The part that is not for Crest Graphs. She produces her Ark Scepter staff, twirling it rapidly in her fingers, and the lights of its tips create a sparkling magic circle in the air, which she then presents with the Medium of Earth she has selected, and the Ley quakes with its confirmation.
Cecilia flickers away, and in her place, a tremendous beast; Grudiev, Guardian of Earth, the mighty creature of crystal and stone howling its appearance. It sets eyes on Hilde and the pylons on its shoulders crackle, then fire a sparking ball of light in her direction. It crashes down, and then explodes in a tremendous light, ripping up the earth at the impact point and sending it quaking away like liquid!
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Hilde with Material - Magnetron Bomb! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Asking Avril anything about romance is not a good option, Dean. She looks just as baffled as he does, going so far as to blink in her bemusement. "I had heard... that marriage is between two people," she says, adding unhelpfully, "Or two foxes, it seems? It appears that they can only marry when it rains on a sunny day..."
This is said somberly, for it is indeed quite a tragedy. Of all the times for Rebecca not to be here!
(or maybe it's for the best for Rebecca's own relative levels of sanity, that she isn't here...)
"Yes, I have. We were able to meet just the other day, as a matter of fact," she replies. "I had... underestimated how much I had missed her," she adds, glancing down for a moment. Was it just because she had already heard that Dean was fine--
No. It was not. But now is hardly the time to reflect on such things--
"Yes, we should. I have missed being able to eat with the both of you. However, first--"
She breaks off from Dean, following soon in his wake. A testing blade finds naught but air, however: even if Hilde fails to meet sword with shield, she proves herself capable enough on the field to not need it. Avril drops back, holding Absolute Zero hip to shoulder, a guard readied to evolve as needed.
And needed it is: a question on her lips, Hilde swings her blade in an arc for her and several others. She leans into it, bearing her own sword upwards as if it were a wall between herself and the lady knight.
With a lesser blade this may have broken it. But neither of them bear lesser blades. Instead there is merely metal-on-metal, the rebound of the impact forcing Avril back.
"I have a promise that I must keep," Avril answers, brandishing her blade before herself and taking the one step back towards her opponent. "There is someone I must meet. Thus I must continue, to the very end."
The promise may be to herself -- the person she must meet -- but it renders her journey no less important.
"What then are you seeking? Have you found that yet?" She may be echoing others still here, but perhaps that could be forgiven.
In this moment her movements are slow and measured. One step, then another--
Until she's moving quite quickly, indeed. Avril wields her blade like a fencer: seeking an opening in Hilde's form, she moves to take advantage of what she thinks she sights and thrusts Absolute Zero in to claim it.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Hilde with Spirit Saber! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Hilde guards a hit from Zed's Saint Arts - Voidwalker's Resolve for 116 hit points! GS: Hilde activates Guard bonus! GS: Hilde guards a hit from Isolde's Swarm of Harrier for 79 hit points! GS: Hilde takes a solid hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Material - Magnetron Bomb for 154 hit points! GS: Hilde takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Spirit Saber for 148 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
...Hilde does feel a little bad about that admittedly, listening to Lunata sulk. She could apologize, but a part of her feels like an apology at this point would just make her feel worse.
Hilde listens as they all - for the most part - give their reasons. There's a pensive expression on her face, even as she dodges to the side to avoid Lily's conjured blade of ice. She isn't quite successful in avoiding it completely.
"Your nature... I see. It is quite important not to suppress your nature." Hilde comments.
Dean, meanwhile, moves in with a quick pair of strikes. He'll find that there are very few unarmored spots on Hilde - and even the ones that are tend to still be quite durable.
"You say that with no hesitation..." She comments, on the matter of Golems. "They must be quite important to you."
She doesn't answer his question to her just yet.
Boudicca explains her reason - how everyone is the star of their own story, and she doesn't want to see them go out.
"...A fine answer, Lady Seraph. Every star needs support." Hilde comments. Boudicca charges Hilde with a lashing swipe. Hilde braces herself against it, but even so she finds herself sent flying back - toward Azoth.
Does she notice his non-human nature? If she does, she doesn't seem inclined to give it away.
"To find yourself, hm...? I hope you manage it, someday." Hilde says. The possibility that it isn't just metaphor... is completely lost on her.
Azoth raises a hand, and then sends three blades of light descending toward her. They're positioned in such a way that it's difficult to dodge all three of them. Hilde elects not to try - instead, she braces herself. She's rocked by explosions on all sides... and the temporary opening provided by this is more than enough for Marivel to draw out some of that power!
Today's special Knight Technique... is the ability to accurate throw one's shield to hit multiple targets! The key is in getting the right speed and angle of your spin.
Gon meets Hilde's question with disdain. To that, Hilde just shakes her head.
"You can simply say 'no', Sir Guado, if you prefer to fight in silence." She replies. "I have no intention of forcing anyone to divulge anything they would prefer to keep to themselves.
Talia lunges in, next.
"Indeed. It's important to broaden one's horizons." Hilde agrees, even as Talia encases her in a block of ice! Hilde grimaces and struggles against it. It's cold - chilling her to the bone. Eventually, she finds the strength to slice her way out of it, but it leaves her reactions slowed down.
"With all due respect, Sir Zed, this is a battlefield. You must always be aware and focused. ...But, I apologize." Hilde replies. She observes, then, as void begins to billow around Zed's sword. She readies herself to evade this... but, still chilled by Talia's spell, she's unable to fully evade it. It crashes against her, sapping her strength. It manages to draw a considerable amount, before that blue aura bursts into being around her for a brief moment to chase it away before dissipating once more.
And, Zed asks a question! Does she want to hear his answer?
"I do, if you would care to share it. Please, tell me." She replies.
To Isolde, Hilde chuckles good-naturedly.
"Fair enough. Then I hope that is the case." She replies. But Isolde continues, and that question takes Hilde longer to consider.
"...I would like to think they can, yes. Though sometimes the means of communication must differ." Hilde replies. Isolde circles Hilde and delivers a testing stab. Hilde raises her shield. It isn't a perfect deflection - Isolde's strike pushes her sword arm back somewhat and forced Hilde to adjust her footing to compensate.
"Monster practice... bettering yourself is an important goal, as well." Hilde comments, in regards to Cecilia's explanation.
It is then that Cecilia summons something with Hilde has only heard of, but has never seen direction.
"...This is... a Guardian?" Hilde reacts, surprised. Grudiev unleashes his light - a light that buries itself into the earth and detonates outward, sending Hilde backward and adding yet another crater to this landscape.
This leaves her wide open for Avril as she moves in. Her blade indeed strikes true - capitalizing on Hilde's imbalance to land a powerful strike on her side.
"...You are all indeed quite talented..." Hilde murmurs. She shakes her head, then, and straightens up.
"...To be truthful, I stand with Althena's Guard because there are people I have sworn to protect. Right now, working with them is the best avenue open to me for their protection." Hilde explains. She puts away her shield, then, taking up her sword in both hands.
Does she agree with everything they've done? ...No, though she doesn't voice that aloud. But her path is clear. She must remain resolute.
Like while fighting the Gigas, the blue aura blazes into being around Hilde once more.
"I would be satisfied enough already if we ended this now - but please indulge me in continuing this a little further." Hilde requests... but first, she glances in Gon's direction. She had noticed his Berserk spell.
"...To allow - no, to force rage to guide your actions... Is that truly wise, Sir Guado? Anger can be a powerful and reliable tool... but you must be careful to not let it destroy you." She comments. "I must request that you regain your senses."
At those words, the blue aura spreads out from her all around her, looking to encompass Gon and his Guardians. It feels like it's weighing down on one from all sides. There's no risk of a crushing force, but it's difficult - every action seems to be that much more difficult to perform.
With that done, Hilde takes her blade up in both hands. She moves about the field with surprising speed. Marivel, Zed, Isolde, Lily, and Dean will find themselves at the mercy of powerful, calculated two-handed strikes - though remniscent of the attack used to fell the Gigas, she uses only the flat of the blade.
...Though even this is certainly going to hurt.
For Boudicca, Avril, Cecilia, Talia, and Azoth, Hilde strikes the ground at the center of all of them. Blue shockwaves radiate out from where she strikes, tearing through the earth and rushing to overwhelm them.
GS: Hilde has attacked Gon Guado with Overpowering Resolve! GS: Hilde has attacked Marivel Armitage with Giantslayer! GS: Hilde has attacked Zed with Giantslayer! GS: Hilde has attacked Isolde with Giantslayer! GS: Hilde has attacked Lily Keil with Giantslayer! GS: Hilde has attacked Dean Stark with Giantslayer! GS: Hilde spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Hilde has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Stock Break! GS: Hilde has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Stock Break! GS: Hilde has attacked Cecilia Adlehyde with Stock Break! GS: Hilde has attacked Talia with Stock Break! GS: Hilde has attacked Azoth with Stock Break! GS: Hilde takes 21 damage from Poison! GS: Delay expired! GS: Hilde has completed her action. GS: Dean Stark critically guards Hilde's Giantslayer for 84 hit points! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde critically guards Hilde's Stock Break for 38 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Talia takes a glancing hit from Hilde's Stock Break for 116 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Talia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Talia activates Evade bonus! GS: Zed fully evades Hilde's Giantslayer for 0 hit points! GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Hilde's Giantslayer for 123 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Avril Vent Fleur guards a hit from Hilde's Stock Break for 112 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Hilde's Stock Break for 172 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Power Burst! GS: Azoth has activated a Force Action! GS: Azoth guards a hit from Hilde's Stock Break for 114 hit points! GS: Lily Keil takes a solid hit from Hilde's Giantslayer for 157 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Isolde guards a hit from Hilde's Giantslayer for 112 hit points! GS: Isolde activates Guard bonus! GS: Gon Guado guards a hit from Hilde's Overpowering Resolve for 0 hit points! GS: Break, Cripple, Jam, Mute, Slow, and Weaken applied to Gon Guado!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
It's kind of...
...
It's kind of nostalgic, almost? Just sitting in the sidelines watching this enormous battle between nearly ten Drifters and Gon and Hilde erupt and kind of tuning into everyone's particular reasons as to why they fight, whether they care about it passionately, why they're bringing the war to Spira, why they travel...
...
And just being outside of it.
The way she used to. As a waitress. When she first got caught up in Port Timney's Malevolence troubles. When she first got caught up in Adlehyde and had a badly translated serpentine Hyadean nearly choke the life out of her.
It's weird to think she's usually in the thick of this, usually.
She interrupts this almost meaningful reflection on the nature of one's spirit as it throws itself into war and adventure as something Talia says just goes ZZZZZZZT in her brain--
"Wait, you don't kick Ammy, do you??" Lunata asks Talia, wide-eyed. "Or do you both-- wait, is that something Drifter couples do??"
No, Lunata, it's not.
"I guess I started fighting because of a total accident...? I mean, that's just the total truth. But I kinda enjoy flying around in giant robots nowadays, so it's not like I hate Gears and fighting..."
She bobs her head, thinking more of Hilde's question.
"Don't think it was ever really in my nature, though." Not that she really knows what her 'nature' is anymore, when she's become so irrevocably warped...
... does that include what's inside of her?
She's a bit scared to ask sometimes.
The ex-waitress nearly falls into a lull before--
*KWEH*
"OW! Oh, that DOES it! You're fried chocobo tonight, buddy!! You like extra spicy?!?!"
Lunata and the Chocobo disappear in a Fight Cloud (tm), limbs and feathers and wing poking out here and there.
(It's okay, they're going to fight to exhaustion, pant as they collapse at each other and go, "Heh... you're pretty good," and form an awkward and unlikely friendship.)
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Heh heh heh...You can peruse my collection next time you are in Aquvy. The Grim Reaper has been telling me over and over again how excited they are to receive your letters so it's about due."
Marivel understands that in the JRPG world, using the flat of a blade is never fatal even when it's something called the Giant Slayer but all the same her attention is focused elsewhere. That skill. The ability to throw a shield...and hit multiple oppoonents?! It's an important skill mostly because--
Marivel extends a hand out and out of the darkness, she forms a shield around her hand--one that looks just like Hilde's. She doesn't throw it though--no, she instead braces and catches Hilde's blade with it.
"Heh heh...!!" Marivel laughs. "I've needed one of these...!"
But the followthrough of Hilde's blade sends the Crimson Noble flying up into the sky.
"Ah..." Marivel says.
She keeps on flying. "Well, I suppose I didn't think about... the power behind that stroke..."
Come shield away, come shield away, shield away with me o/~
Marivel cups her chin in deep thought, wind whistling through her hair. "Is she really going to be satisfied with this?"
Marivel frowns deeply, looking up at the sky. She exhales once. "But I suppose I best ensure that Leo's officers are as capable and noble as they present. After all... there is something rotten going on in the State of Pentagulia."
She places her hand on her eldricht shield and says, "Aport."
She, and the shield vanish--!
--and reappear, crashing down for Hilde's skull!
"Hey, you're not a secret spooky Zophar agent are you? Assume your evil super horror form if you are." Marivel says, conversationally.
GS: Marivel Armitage has activated a Force Action! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Hilde with Advanced Grade Aport! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I hath no quarrel with this 'anime,'" Boudicca protests Marivel, "only with your method of delivery!" And, to Zed, she flusters a little -- "Ah, it was quite fascinating how it moved upon the bright page..."
She... probably means the screen?
She probably means the screen.
In any case: there's a battle ongoing. See, there's a Guardian and everything. As much as Boudicca appreciates hearing everyone's reasoning, too... it's still a tense situation.
Especially with Gon.
"Ah..." Boudicca hesitates, in the face of his rage. "I am sorry," she settles on, after a moment. "I speak oft in metaphor - I mean no offence. I am sure we have caused quite some upheaval for you..."
And here the kindness in her voice grows colder and firmer with it, as she reminds him: "But you and those you act with have caused much strife amongst the people of Spira, yourself. If you would scream at me, I ask you also look to yourself."
... she remembers his part in what happened, after all.
She's not alone in reprimanding Gon for his choices, but soon enough Boudicca has her own to worry about: Hilde, frightfully competent on the battlefield, is attacking again. The shockwave blasts out --
-- and Boudicca dives into it, with a headwind, letting the blast vibrate through her body. She lands low from the destabilising forces, but she makes it work for her as she rises upwards, lashing out with her tonfa to strike Hilde from a low point -- only to leap upwards, and strike again from above.
"I pray your faith is not misplaced," she calls, as she crashes down. "Because, Althena's Guard is--!!"
Whether she makes impact or not, she springs away, a moment later.
"... an organisation I once trusted, too."
GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Hilde with Cerberus Strike! GS: Seraph Boudicca has launched an attack Link! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Hilde with Soaring Blast! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel assures Boudicca midfall, laying down on the shield like a cartoon character. "Don't worry we can watch the rest of 'Uh! My Guardian!' at the appropriate time."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"And in combat, I learn more about it," Lily--Miss Sharon--says. She swings her blade, and even passing close to it is enough to harm. But she moves past next over the course of the battle, and looks to Azoth for a moment and his light. She seems to think of something...
"So, you have people to protect. I respect that; I do, too. And there are a lot of things I'd do to see them safe." But Hilde, moving about the field, brings a powerful strike--the flat of the blade hits her hard, shattering through her weapon of ice as she moves to use it to block. "Gh--"
"That might include a war like this, if my background were more like yours. But I'm no knight. ...Quite the opposite. But today, at least, I can pretend to something like it, with a contest like this."
There is a certain honor in it. But not enough hate--Lily has no personal quarrel with this woman. She just seeks to deny resources to a foe, and grant them (well, for a price) to her allies.
So as Hilde strikes the ground and blue shockwaves radiate, Lily breathes in. Beginning to gather power, her markings flash gold and then begin to glow more intently. "Light," she says. "...I can do light."
A golden aura spreads at her feet, and power starts to gather in her hand. She raises it, palm-out, towards Hilde.
"All right. I'll show you what I can do."
There is at first a small, quick beam that shoots towards Hilde, but it is only light--then the whole of it starting at Lily's hand begins in a cascading explosion of golden nuclear fire that burns a wide line in the grass where it passes and blazes with a heat beyond flame.
"Your everyday lives? I followed the Al Bhed in theirs, before your people destroyed their Home. Were they to continue living their 'humble lives'?"
When she finishes casting, her eyes snap to Gon.
GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Hilde with Catastrophe! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I so wish to know whether they find happiness together!" Boudicca asides to Marivel, because oh no, she likes anime now.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Yeah, that's what I thought!" Dean utters to Avril when she cluelessly talks about marriage. "Wait, foxes can only get married when it rains... on a sunny day? That doesn't happen too often, does it? That's sad...!"
(Yeah, definitely good for Rebecca's sanity that she's not here right now.)
"We'll just have to ask Rebecca about it later," Dean adds firmly. "She loves this kinda stuff, I'm sure she'll know."
(...Never mind, Rebecca. May God save your soul.)
His smile warms when he hears Avril and Rebecca have already met up, that Avril was possibly even more emotional reuniting with her than she was with him. He doesn't read anything into it; of course best friends would be relieved to see each other after one had been jailed and nearly executed. He knows he sure is. Even if he *were* inclined to read into it, right now they're in the middle of a fight.
"They are!" he enthuses to Hilde, of Golems--but soon she's on the attack. She says she's in the Guard to protect someone, as she zips across the battlefield, two-handing her way through her opponents. That blade rises high and mighty over Dean, but he manages to time the crossing of his combat rods *just* right, *just* in time to intercept her blow. It still rings through his ARMs, and through them through his bones and teeth, but he stands his ground.
"...Is protecting someone you care about worth supporting a war?" he wonders. It's not facetious; he does genuinely want to know. But it's still a fight, so when she breaks away to sword the next opponent, he breaks away to join Avril. A lot of other people are asking some serious questions, like about Zophar, and the Al Bhed, and whether Hilde's faith is really correctly placed. Dean's interested in these things too, but right now...
"Avril! Let's do 'that' again!" Dean says, looking over at his best friend. "We'll finish this in one shot!" When Avril indicates her assent, Dean charges up a blast in his paired ARMs, then fires a pair of huge white energy orbs at Hilde. "Like this!" The orbs spiral almost lazily, drawn in by the power of--
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Marivel Armitage's attack becomes clear! GS: CRITICAL! Hilde guards a hit from Marivel Armitage's Red Power for 161 hit points! GS: Hilde guards a hit from Seraph Boudicca's Cerberus Strike for 86 hit points! GS: Disrupt applied to Hilde! GS: Hilde guards a hit from Seraph Boudicca's Soaring Blast for 34 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Hilde! GS: Hilde guards a hit from Lily Keil's Catastrophe for 189 hit points! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Infect! Burst removed!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"It is true, no?" Talia says, with a bob of her head.
The blue shockwave that Hilde sends out strikes into Talia. She only just manages to leap over it, the blast nearly catching her full-on. Instead, it hits her feet. She flips over, but assassin training kicks in this time. She flips forward, hand hits the earth, and she pushes off and comes to her feet in a crouch.
Then she bolts forward. "No! I do not kick Ammy!" Talia calls back at Lunata, cheeks heating up a little. "That would be weird!"
She lunges in closer to Hilde. Once she does, she slashes up with her sword -- and then Talia leaps. She goes into a full-on spiralling cut, blade slashing out in an arc. A trail of white light, tinted with a little frost, is left in her wake, before she stabs out at the apex of her jump.
"Light Spear Cannon!"
GS: Talia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Talia has attacked Hilde with Light Spear Cannon! GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Talia has completed her action. GS: Hilde guards a hit from Talia's Light Spear Cannon for 106 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
'I do, if you would care to share it. Please, tell me.'
From within the flood of umbral shadow, Zed's eyes stare and, slowly, drift shut. It gives the impression that he's breathing a long, tired sigh. The shadows swirl thicker, tenebrous tendrils winding heavy and dense as they gather and pool amidst the brief emotional nadir. Hilde's azure aura casts the darkness away then, dispersing it into a scattered nimbus of night and void. "Alright," Zed answers, uncharacteristically quiet. "Once, there was a planet called Hyades."
"There was a civilization there. A people like yours. But then the Demon Mother came down from the stars to devour the very life of the world. The people struggled mightily, sent their greatest warriors to fight her. But in spite of their valor and bravery, they failed one after another, until there was only one left." Hilde's sword falls, swung in a powerful two-handed arc. It... never reaches its target. A blade-- Zed's blade, Doom Bringer, clashes against it, bolstered by a bulwark of writhing, surging shadow. "Having lost everything he cared about, surrounded by the hollowed out husk of his world, he threw himself at the Demon Mother-- and died. She left, taking with her the children of that world. Over the years, she twisted those children into her own personal weapons. Tools to use to conquer the next world, for her to throw away when she was done with them."
"Those children would become us," he says with quiet, but building intensity. "We are the Metal Demons. Children of Hyades, stolen from our cradle by the Demon Mother and turned into her slaves. We worshipped her as a goddess-- as our one true savior, who brought us to the promised land of Filgaia. We fought for her. We died for her!" Doom Bringer presses back against the blow. Zed leans into the clash of steel, his eyes burning with fury and conviction and newly remembered hurt as again he tears open the old wounds, feels again the pain and fills his words with overflowing emotion. "And for that, for all the blood we shed for her..." Sparks fly between the blades, illuminating the dark like comets carving a brilliant arc through space. But they do not simply disappear, they are not just hot metal shavings. Motes of white-hot energy spin out like cartwheel galaxies as Zed grips his blade with his other hand. "In the end, we were nothing but tools! Our beloved 'mother' nothing but a monster hiding behind a porcelein mask!! We killed her. When the Drifters came, we joined them and murdered her for what she did to us, won a place on Filgaia in the eyes of the Guardians-- AND EVEN STILL!"
Suddenly, a flash of power. A tidal wave of starlight splits the shadow, driving away Hilde's blade as Zed draws his own sword high. A spiralling, warring cataclysm of starlight and lightless void writhes about the full length of his deathly cursed sword. "EVEN STILL! We were not home! We were set adrift, doomed to face the truth that everything we'd believed about ourselves was a lie! With the hunger for battle inherent to our people-- though whether natural or the doing of The Demon Mother I don't know-- still burning white-hot in our hearts! Suddenly needing to face the people of Filgaia, so many souls who grew up knowing nothing about us but stories of boogeymen and devouring devils, to confront the fact that everything we used to take pride in was nothing but a source of SHAME!!"
"My people's anger and anguish and shame cry out! And so I fight! I fight to show that pride can be rebuilt! That we can make ourselves a place on this world and the Blue Star both, that we can live together, and do not need to be ashamed of what we are! That what the Mother turned us into, and everything about us that is still 'Hyadean' can be turned into something that creates more good in the world than it destroys-- THAT!" Zed roars, stepping forward. The ground cracks underneath his feet, as if he were carrying an incredible load. He swings his twining dark-light blade, unleashing a deluge of antipodal energies that sweep forward like a flood of raw POWER. "IS WHY I 'FIGHT!'"
GS: Zed has activated a Force Action! GS: Zed has activated a Force Action! GS: Zed has attacked Hilde with Saint Arts - Cosmic Convergence! GS: Zed has gained 4 Combo! GS: Zed's Stoic stance ends. GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
'This feels good, doesn't it? To be angry. Or rather; it feels bad, when you stop.' Somehow, Isolde's words flit through there. Though the nature of Berserkga leads to that heightened state of aggression, he can scarce remember a time he was truly furious since the Otherworlders came in what numbers they did.
He's not sure he ever stopped being angry about all that has happened. That the strange young woman with the bandaged face speaks of the idea of having anger - even if he may be of roughly seventy-five percent of a mind to scoff at the idea that any she could bring to bear would ever reach his - there's that ominous nature to her words.
"CONDESCENDING!" Gon condescends as Hilde politely informs he need not answer. He starts rushing in with that famed Guado sprint. Fires of lost youth, of his Fiend hunting days come forth. He doesn't know in full what that Aeon-Like-But-Not manifestation that blonde-haired human woman is but he chooses not to care. He hops between compromised pieces of terrain as the earth explodes around him. He leaps dangerously close past an apologetic, reconciliatory Boudicca as if he could spear her through (he doesn't, through having a single-target mindset).
Just as he comes in, he sweeps his arms inward in a defensive gesture prior to what would be an outward swipe of both clawed gauntlets... but the blue aura catches him. His momentum arrests - and he falls, enervated.
Hilde takes her sword up in both hands and moves to address others. He swings at her. Every time, too slow. He draws upon movements related to the various Fiends that live near Guadosalam. The tackling movement of the Garm. The digging hands of the Bite Bug. The whirl of an Ochu's tentacles.
None of them come close to her, as she moves to bring some of the rest down to size. Where moments before he was possessed of a single-minded, focused drive to bring a White Magic-bolstered offense in its purest distillation (...for a spellcasting discipline that squeezes and molds any of the elemental affinities through only one specific pipeline of expression as it pertains to the White)...
It all evaporates. Even his own men, though similarly burdened by the expanding aura, seem to come out the other end better. From the lack of the emotional whiplash, perhaps? It could tie into what Isolde just said.
"We are outnumbered." The Guardian with two intact gauntlets says.
Gon rises, wordless. Eyes narrowed, but too impotent to be described as shooting daggers from said eyes. Crossing his arms again in meditative re-focus, the Guardian with the missing gauntlet casts that Thundara spell to strike the ground as the closest approximation to a smoke bomb they have.
They flee. Guardians are excellent at hit and run. This situation, among the three of them, calls for that run - no further jockeying for the last word.
GS: Hilde guards a hit from Zed's Saint Arts - Cosmic Convergence for 112 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"It is quite sad," Avril remarks, her expression sober. "I wonder if there is some way to ensure that the rain falls on a sunny day? --Yes, perhaps Rebecca might know," she agrees, cheer returning in sadness' place.
It'll be one more thing to ask Rebecca about, once all three of them meet up again.
"I see," replies Avril to Hilde, pulling back after her darting thrust finds an opening. "Yes, I can understand that. That need protect those near and dear to oneself..."
Even if sometimes the 'near and dear' is more like 'bone-deep sense of obligation towards your kin even after about five thousand years and a whole lot of mutation from the space travel'. It's complicated, a little.
"Nevertheless. Even should we come to an understanding here... I fear that we may remain opponents. I cannot yet forgive the Guard for its actions at Luca," Avril states, remembering that time.
Remembering that fight she couldn't win.
Remembering what came after.
Hilde comes crashing downwards towards the earth. Avril has but moments to react, and knows gut-deep that evasion is no longer an option, unless she suddenly were to sprout wings and take to the air. Since that isn't -- can't -- happen, she instead prepares herself, steadying her footing as best she can and slamming her sword into the earth for the additional leverage.
The shockwave that follows is bone-rattling in its force. Avril holds tight, as if to refuse to let even this shake her.
When she straightens, she frees Absolute Zero quite easily from its earthen prison.
Which is to say, it no longer has a blade attached to the hilt at all. The blade is simply... gone.
Did she know in some way that Dean was about to ask that?
"Indeed! I am right behind you!"
And she falls in behind him, bearing Absolute Zero's hilt as if it were not a blade but a
Her finger hooks around the trigger in the hilt and pulls. A great golden beam of energy fires from Absolute Zero, roaring through the air for Hilde and more importantly, those two spiraling orbs, which--
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The way Hilde contends with each of them, asking why they travel and live this life, and accepting all their answers with each exchange of blows... Is it her own feelings that are coming through in the sheer force of the shockwave she sends out? Tearing through the earth on its way to him, smashing into another quickly projected veil of light and sending him flying and toppling end over end after shattering his shield apart?
This must be the punchderstanding Zed was talking about. He's not sure how much of it he understands beyond the words being spoken. It's another language to learn along with body movements, faces, and music.
He recalculates his orientation as he rolls into a crouch, looking up at the battlefield.
Azoth responds to Talia's thumb's up with a cheerful smile and an invisible surge of guilt. Even Hilde expresses hope that Azoth may find himself... in great conflict with Azoth's desperate desire that he never does.
"Yeah, me too," he lies.
A lance of light forms at his side. Azoth snatches it form the air -- a possibly playful gesture they are energy and clearly don't need his help -- and hurls it toward Hilde like a javelin. Something twitches. The light glitches in space, and its path is erratic.
He pinches his eyes shut as the words repeat. Hopes he find it. He doesn't. He doesn't want it he doesn't want it he doesn't --
GS: Azoth has attacked Hilde with ex?c.?? ERROR ? DIV ?? 0 ?! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Formation! Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Hilde with Javelin Bullet! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo! GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Isolde has posed.
Hilde's blade strikes forth and Isolde turns herself round. When the blow hits the blade, there is an enormous noise, like a struck but muffled bell; a fat spark flies and Isolde is not knocked over...
... quite...
... but she does stagger back, and there is a divot, now, not a nick or a cut but a divot in the blade of her sword. This may stand out, not least because the weapon Isolde is using must weigh a good three times what Hilde's blade does: and it is not made of cheap metal, either.
Isolde slides her fingers quickly over the edge of that blade as she hears more about some kind of annie business i nthe backdrop, breathing out as focus returns. "I knew someone, once; I think he would have been rather... impressed by this," Isolde says, before regaining her grip.
Zed speaks.
Isolde learns a few things.
For what was going to be something to go look at a great beast and perhaps slay it, Isolde thinks to herself with an obscure and mediated annoyance, this is being one Hell of a day. Or night. Probably day; they all seem perky.
To Hilde, Isolde says, "To protect, hm?" She then breathes in deeply. She leans backwards...
And Hilde has moved on somewhat, but Isolde does not care, as such, for she leaps five yards forwards in a single dash hard enough to put a small crater where her heel landed, twisting the chipped blade round in a one-two-THREE-fourfivesix-SEVEN strike combination, her feet landing at THREE and her entire body throwing itself into the final overhand strike at SEVEN. A moment later there is a crinkling noise in the sword; Isolde kips back a pace, twisting it round to guard.
GS: Isolde spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Isolde enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Isolde has attacked Hilde with Landslide Vault! GS: Isolde has launched an attack Link! GS: Formation! Dean Stark has attacked Hilde with Javelin Bullet! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Isolde spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Isolde enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Isolde has attacked Hilde with Sinkhole of Blood! GS: Isolde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Isolde has completed her action. GS: Gamble: High! Hilde guards a hit from Azoth's ex?c.?? ERROR ? DIV ?? 0 ? for 71 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Azoth! GS: Hilde takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Javelin Bullet for 206 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Hilde! GS: Hilde takes a solid hit from Dean Stark's Javelin Bullet for 228 hit points! GS: Hilde guards a hit from Isolde's Landslide Vault for 67 hit points! GS: Hilde takes a solid hit from Isolde's Sinkhole of Blood for 178 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Hilde!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
--join together as one, those orbs and that beam, into a single massive streaming burst of power.
"GO!" Dean cheers as the Javelin Bullet bears down on Hilde with all the majestic force of a speeding train.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia can't suppress a bit of a grin at someone's shock. Gosh, it's been so long since someone was impressed by all her hard work... "It is!" she calls, as she reappears. She's already selecting her next Medium, but not before Hilde releases her assault!! Cecilia snaps her hand up, and again that interlocking barrier forms. It isn't the true barrier of the Earth Golem, of course; not even a shred of it. But she took a few pointers. Hilde's assault breaks against her shield.
Then she presents her own counter, drawing up the magic circle around her. Zed's monologuing reaches her ears. She's ignored the Demons for a while. It's easier not to think about them, the way they make her remember her people screaming, her father dying. The way her hands shake.
...still, it's not so bad to know there's still something like pride for them. Even if it is Zed.
She drives her Medium into the magic circle, the flaming talon of Moor Gault bursting into motes of leylight that swiftly gather back together into the titanic Vermillion Phoenix Guardian of Fire. The massive bird squawks thundrously, flaps its powerful wings, spreads them wide - and then the inside of those wings turn white hot, blasting Hilde with the unimaginable heat of the very meaning of fire!
Cecilia raises her voice: "Vapor Blast!"
GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has attacked Hilde with Material - Vapor Blast! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cecilia Adlehyde has completed her action. GS: Hilde guards a hit from Cecilia Adlehyde's Material - Vapor Blast for 115 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
Hilde listens as Lunata admits that she started fighting by total accident. She considers, that.
"...It is unfortunate, but... that happens." Hilde says, sympathetically. "A single, unfortunate day can set one down a path that they would not have otherwise considered, altering their future considerably."
It sounds like she's speaking from experience.
Marivel mentions something occuring in Pentagulia. Hilde frowns, slightly.
"...What do you mean?" She asks. And then, Marivel vanishes! Hilde scans the field carefully - but then, she appears from above. Hilde quickly moves to intercept, but she's just a bit too slow. Marivel crashes down on top of her head, sending Hilde reeling backward.
"...Pardon?" Hilde asks, confused, as Marivel mentions something about a Zophar. She seems... entirely unaware what a 'Zophar' even is. Of course, it's possible she's just very good at hiding what she knows... but, she sounds honest, at least.
She recovers in time to be amazed at how Boudicca, rather than defending herself, dives headlong into her attack. Hilde moves to try to defend herself, but finds herself struck by a rising upward attacking, followed by a descending one that sends her reeling backward.
"...I see." Hilde murmurs, as Boudicca says that she once trusted Althena's Guard. Once - did that mean she didn't any more? Something to think about.
"So that, at least, we have in common." Hilde comments, as Lily mentions that she also has people to protect. She might not be a knight, but Hilde can still respect her.
And then, Lily demonstrates her power - a beam of golden light that explains in a wide line of nuclear flame. Reflexively, that aura of blue light bursts into being around her. It offers her protection from the worst of the effects, but it's still far from pleasant. Hilde recoils backward... and then, Dean asks her a question.
'Is protecting someone you care about worth supporting a war...?' It might say something about her character that she doesn't say 'yes, absolutely', without thinking. She stops, and considers the question... and only then does she nod.
"...Yes. I believe so." She confirms. "Until the day they no longer need me, I shall do whatever I can for them."
She looks toward Avril, then. She nods quietly.
"I see. ...I can bear you no remorse for that. It is important to hold true to your convictions." She says.
Talia, meanwhile, moves in a combination of slash attacks finishing with a thrust. There are few weaknesses in her armor, but Talia manages to find one. The first set weakens it just enough that the thrust can break through, leaving a trail of frost in its wake.
Hilde recoils back... but she pauses, then, as Zed begins to speak. She says nothing - she listens politely and quietly as he gives his story. The story of himself and his people, and their tragedy. She had only heard of the Metal Demons and their Mother told of in stories. By the time she made her way first to Filgaia, the latter had already been slain. She did not know what she was, and what she had done to Zed's people.
Zed emphasises his story with a swing of his blade, wreathed in shadow and starlight warring against eachother. It is all Hilde can do to brace herself against the flood, her shield held outward. It is indeed power, pure and simple.
"...I would not have imagined it. You have my respect, Sir Zed - I did not realise such a weight lay on your shoulders." She replies. "Continue fighting, Sir Zed - yours is a goal worth striving for."
And then, Gon. Does Hilde notice his attempts, too slow each and every time? In the end, it doesn't matter - he orders a retreat. Hilde watches them go with a curious 'hm', but says nothing.
Azoth produces a llance of light, and hurls it like a javelin. Hilde readies herself to defend... but, it moves strangely and erratically through the air. It actually glitches through her shield, striking her in the arm and forcing her to drop it.
This leaves Hilde with only her sword to contend with Isolde's attacks.
"I am quite proud of it. We have fought well together for many years now." Hilde replies of her sword.
But defend herself now she must against the flurry of blows. She can feel Isolde's skill in it - it defends her full and total concentration, and even with that several of Isolde's strikes slip through.
And while Isolde keeps Hilde occupied, a team attack is forming. Hilde notices it just too late as Avril and Dean combine their powers into one, unleashing a stream of energy her way. She braces herself, gritting her teeth as the wave of energy pushes her back, and back, and back...
But just as it seems she might over power and endure it, Cecilia calls upon the aids of the Guardians once more. Heat - of a different kind than the one Lily brought down before - is sent blazing her way, forcing her back...
...and weakening her stance just slightly. Just enough for the Javelin Bullet to overpower her.
The land is engulfed in white for a brief moment. And when it clears, Hilde is seen laying on the ground. Still... but only for just a moment.
"...Ah, that was bracing..." She murmurs good-naturedly. With some effort she hauls herself back to her feet. She looks a little worse for wear... but still, in some ways, entirely too energetic for everything she's been through.
"Thank you all for indulging my selfish request. This has been very enlightening, I think." Hilde says. And then, from out beneath her cape, she produces the core. Somehow, it had been there all this time. "I'm satisfied - and as such, I will fulfill my promise."
She approaches Boudicca, then, holding it out to her.
"Please see it safely to the Al Bhed. I am certain they will put it to good use." She says.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel Armitage looks into Hilde's eyes. "I see... Well, I'll be happy to tell you about it--!"
She dispels the shield, flipping free and landing on her two feet. She looks to Boudicca as she's offered the machina core. "I see, I see. Hm... Perhaps t'will be worth the effort this time."
She straightens up and snaps a finger at Hilde, "I'll catch you soon. Right when you are nice and by your lonesome. Fweh heh heh..."
She just can't help but use it as an opportunity to be creepy. Nevertheless, she starts to fade from view, gesturing with her hand up her body as she gradually fades from view.
"And soon..." She looks to Zed and Boudicca in dire proclamation.
"Anime..."
And with that chilling warning, she is gone.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Void and starlight swirl away in the aftermath of Zed's invocation of the storied Y(in-Yang Bomb Attack. For a moment his expression remains grave and serious as he flicks his blade aside as if to remove the lingering motes of astral and umbral energies. "I would have kept fighting regardless of your approval. The path of the Dark Hero is a perilous one, but I will not be so easily discouraged from it."
And then he is promised ANIME and his eyes suddenly sparkle as if that enormous weight just suddenly dissolved into a haze of bubbly anticipation. "Oh man! All those letters finally paid off! Finally, I'll get to join my very own Anime Club!!"
He's so happy! It's such a nice day!
...day...
"Oh," Zed says, realizing... something, apparently. "That's right! I almost forgot! Hilde, make sure to give your blade a lot of love and attention later! Today is SWORD DAY after all!!!"
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata pauses mid-Cloud Fight to stare at Hilde for a moment, murmuring, "Huh... you sound like you kinda know a thing or two about it, maybe." She scratches her cheek, knowing that she doesn't know a thing about this knight of the Althenan Guard--
*KWEH*
"FINE," Lunata grumbles, "I'll make you some stir-fried Gysahl greens, how about that? I got a recipe I modded from bok choy last time I cooked for Macalania Temple."
The Chocobo pauses, and its eyes glimmer as Lunata cheats her way into its heart via food.
The ex-waitress flops to the ground, groaning. "Being more romantic feels like a long road ahead at this point, bleghghhh..."
She's going to show them her romantic dream someday, though.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Hilde thinks about it, then affirms that yes, war is worth protecting a loved one. Dean isn't--*really* surprised by this; if she didn't think that, she wouldn't be doing it, right? But it does strike him that she stops to think about it before ultimately saying yes.
Regardless, it looks like the fighting is over! "Whew! That was pretty fun, huh?" he says, both to Hilde, to people at large, and to Avril, to whom he turns a smile. "Looks like all's well that ends well. I kinda wish all the people we had to fight were like that, huh?" He stretches, Twin Fenrir flashing out of apparent existence, and settles on the balls of his feet. "All right! Let's head back to where Rebecca is and get some dinner. I'm starving!"
Especially since Lunie had to go and bring up stir-fried greens. UNFAIR, LUNIE.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
The final display of power--!!
It ends with Hilde on the ground; Boudicca, for one, is shocked it took all their efforts to make her fall. They may have won this bout... but she's clearly a strong foe.
But what if... she could be a strong friend..?!
"I am glad it was enlightening," Boudicca says; perhaps she thinks war is worthy, but perhaps she will consider otherwise, given reason. She accepts the trinket, holding it safe in her gauntlets; she'll consult Lily about it, soon enough. For now -- "I will. Thank you."
Before Hilde takes her leave, she'll take the opportunity to add --
"I am the Seraph Boudicca, and I hope I have occasion to speak with you again sometime."
Perhaps Lunata is not the only person who was impressed by a knight..?!
And yet, in the end, the most lingering impression is perhaps as Boudicca looks between Zed and Marivel, and asks, baffled, "... what is this... 'anime club'...?"