2020-12-11: Breakin' Through

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=========================<* Bevelle - Port District *>==========================

The port district of Bevelle is not as massive as Luca's. It is dominarted, first and foremost, by an ancient stone and metal dock that extends out far into the city, where even the largest ships may dock. It extends even beyond the red stone walls that protect the flower-shaped city. While Luca's port bustles with commerce, Bevelle's is more subdued. Many ships come here under the auspices of Yevon, and are staffed by Yevonite priests and Warrior Monks. Merchant and fishing ships are found here, but less common. Al Bhed ships are never to be seen.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShBAcibfk-s&ab_channel=Ultimatefighter343
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    To the west of Bevelle, the sun blazes down towards the horizon, painting the sky scarlet and lavender. To the south, the ground forces of the Althena's Guard stand, maintaining the siege on Bevelle's walls. To the east, darkness has already fallen over the seas and the Althenan ships thereupon. The siege has shown no signs of breaking on either end; however, it's surely just a matter of time before the Guard wears Yevon down. Althena's Guard can get reinforcements; Yevon is having trouble finding similar blessings.
    
    Until tonight.
    
    Bevelle's greatest strength in terms of the siege is that it's located on a chokehold of land, practically just a spit connecting the southern and northern halves of the continents. To the east and the west are the seas, so even with a navy in place to keep Bevelle pinned, they can at least still harvest the ocean's bounty to a certain extent to keep the people from starving. Right now, though, there's an even greater advantage inherent in Bevelle's connection to the waters--one that a certain Summoner intends to take full advantage of.
    
    "This will be a risky mission. Once I break through the enemy lines, their forces will only be in disarray for so long," Belize addresses the members of the ship they have stealthily boarded--one of three, in fact, hidden in Bevelle's port but ready to sail. "During that time, you all *must* get these ships through the embargo line. As long as we do that, I can guide us to where we must go." They turn and point to the blazing scarlet disc at the edge of the horizon. "We chase the sun! If all is successful, it will greet us alongside the fayth!" They turn again and dip into the Yevon bow. "May Yevon's blessing be upon us all."
    
    Outside of the Bevelle harbor, among the ships of Althena's Guard, the night deepens. Waves lap around the boats; seagulls cry as they wing towards home; bombardments explode further in on the shore. So when a shadow crosses under the waters, it might be nigh impossible see before the practical result of its presence makes itself known: a great upheavel of the seas, *away* from land and out towards open ocean, as if something had shot forward and dragged all the water with it.
    
    A tsunami crashes *outwards*, aimed for where the ships are thickest in an attempt to break through. In its wake, three ships zip forward where the waters parted, the momentum of whatever passed beneath dragging them forward at speeds greater than they'd normally be capable of in its wake. It's not enough for them to break through in one shot, but it's certainly not hopeless that they *will* break through.
    
    It's a bold maneuver, to be sure. Even bolder is how, as the ships surge forward, that underwater shadow circles around beneath and then surfaces behind the Yevon ships in a great spray of water, revealing the long, serpentine form of Leviathan. They bow their head and let loose a great, teeth-jangling SCREECH as they turn from one side of the embargo to the other.
    
    These ships are under *their* protection, they seem to say. Attack at your own risk.

DC: Belize switches forms to Lost Aeon Leviathan!


<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

Fun fact: Daillan Muirwall is not a naval commander.

Funner fact: Day drew evening watch. He's been posted with a unit of line soldiers from Rolance stationed not far from the harbour, but for the most part his group is being carried by the archers and siege engineers right now, both exchanging fire with the Yevon soldiers on the walls and manning a couple of massive counterweight trebuchets. With a heavy creak and an echoing thud of displaced mass, one of them lets its payload fly, sending a massive boulder hurtling towards the walls of Bevelle.

Late in the day or not, Day's having little trouble seeing; there are torches enough for that. The light glints from his armour as he watches the hurled rock slam into the city wall. Whatever he might be feeling, his expression gives no sign of it - it's the face of a man interested mostly in what the impact means for the performance of the duties with which Althena and his commander have charged him.

It's also an expression that breaks when something emerges in the harbour that should not emerge. Day whirls towards the sound of the screech, clicking his teeth together with surprise. "So that's the trick! Tch...."

There's protocol for this. "Don't let anything sally out from the walls," Day hands the mission off to another knight before beginning to move across the field. Getting out onto the water would be a challenge.

It isn't where he goes. He ducks under a massive tarp.

A moment later, there is a loud rumble, and a steadily-building screech of mechanical thrust.

The tarp is hurled off bodily. What emerges from beneath it is tall, mechanical and gleaming in white, chrome and black. It's a Gear, to be sure, armed with a huge thruster-equipped sword and mounted with a pair of broad, shield-like binders affixed to its shoulders and backpack.

                          SHIELD OF ALTHENA'S GUARD
                                E V A L A C H

Day's voice booms through a speaker as the large Gear boosts out towards the water. "That's far enough!" he shouts, his voice mechanically-filtered but full of fire. "None shall pass here without challenge by the champions of the Goddess!"

<Pose Tracker> Black Wizard Borgan has posed.

Neo-Vane has its own compliment of ships.

Not many, but Borgan brought the black magicians of the Church on their own vessels, some of which contain fewer people and more *things*. Being able to occasionally pull a magical miracle out of your hat requires supplies, research materials, machinery - quite a few things.

His own ship, the Tower, is much smaller than the Destiny but just as ornate in its own way. Where the Destiny is white, it is a deep purple approaching black, though for the sake of visibility it has white patterns on it instead of the Destiny's blue. Purely a ship for the water and without the Dragonship's all- or at least more-terrain magitech, its hull is painted with runes and mystic patterns and it has a compliment of wizards amongst the crew.

The Tower is part of the siege group, though it sees relatively little action. Borgan uses it as a floating study room most of the time. It has copies of some of his less valuable books on it (he refused to leave the best ones anywhere near a combat zone) and a small, cramped workroom below decks that he has been using.

So it isn't at the front of the line of ships, and doesn't take the worst of the tsunami, but it's still enough to send the ship rocking wildly. Some of the runes along the sides light up in various ways, something like foxfire crawling along the hull.

About ten seconds later, Borgan himself lurches up from below decks, unsteady on the shifting ship. He has a pair of dark goggles pushed up nearly to his pointed hat, he doesn't have his platform at all, and he is carrying his staff in one hand and a short metal wand tipped with a red crystal in the other.

It takes him only an instant to realize the threat the sea serpent poses and fire an enormous burst of flame upward, a sphere that ascends a good two hundred feet and throws off sparks like a flare, drifting extremely slowly with the wind and apparently completely ignoring gravity. Having thus signaled to basically everybody with a pair of eyes, Borgan proceeds to do so to anyone with a pair of ears: "TO ARMS! Get that snake away from my ship! From all the ships!"

Borgan stomps the rest of the way on deck. His platform, which was waiting at the top of the stairs, obligingly floats in front of him so he can get on it, and a moment later he's moving across the deck and toward the ocean itself. He has, at least, stayed high enough that a stray wave won't swamp him.

<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    The Destiny's nature as an amphibious vessel offers it a unique role in the siege: it can keep an eye on both Bevelle's walls and ports, though not at once. As it so happens, the ship is in the latter position at the moment, heading up a smaller group of ships flying Althenan banners. In its bridge, White Knight Leo stands behind the ship's captain, arms folded. So far, no one's seen anything out of the ordinary.

    Then the water begins to move, as if dragged along by an anomalous riptide.

    "This is Captain Porthos of the Destiny," says the man in the captain's chair. His fingers twist through a series of arcane gestures, threading his words into the breeze. "The water has begun to--sweet Goddess! Lift anchor and--!"

    The tsunami slams into the Guard's blockade, washing over it with a thunderous crash. The Destiny bucks and shudders as it's forced back; Leo grabs hold of Porthos' chair to steady himself, gritting his teeth. The ship keeps pitching violently as Leo rises. "Damnation!" the White Knight roars. "That Eidolon again! Captain, the deck is yours! See to the casualties, and get us in position!"

    Leo's eyes narrow, even as his stomach twists at the memory of his last encounter with the beast's master. "I have a serpent to fight."

    Hatches on the Destiny's deck pop open. Leo all but leaps out, his cape whipping about in the salt-sea air. He casts a glance as some of the crew take to the rowboats--he assumed there would be casualties after that, and he's correct. The Solykov lists to one side, its masts shattered. The Pious Challenger is doing little better, and he can see crew in the water around both of them.

    "Ah," Leo says, as he sees the trio of fleeing ships. "That's your gambit." The Destiny begins to turn, even as it deploys launches to assist its wounded fellows. Borgan shouts, and Leo's ears twitch a little. "BLACK WIZARD!" Leo shouts, cupping a hand to his mouth. "We're in pursuit! Batten your hatches--if it tries the same trick again, we might lose more!" If only they had some way to shield themselves, Leo thinks, his jaw tensing. Or to somehow weaken the Eidolon's attunement to the seas...

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

In other circumstances, it would be a beautiful sunset. With the sight of the siege on the skyline, though, Kaguya can't really appreciate it. She looks out to it anyway, thoughtful as she speaks to an officer on foot. "...No, you're using the bombs about as well as can be expected by now. I don't have anything to add. I--"

The tsunami begins to approach, and Kaguya looks up to it in some alarm--and then in grim appreciation as Leviathan comes. "...Belay that," she says. "I'm going to handle this."

Kaguya takes off running towards the colossus that is her Golem, parked here and long lain dormant while waiting for her to return. Its terrible eyes catch the fading light.

-=-=-

"All systems normal. You even cleaned the thing," Kaguya says over her radio back to shore, as the gigant Cuchulainn, huge even among Gears, trudges deeper into the sea towards the back of the great Leviathan. Each step through the waves sends water crashing against it. The bronze of its form gleams in the evening light.

"Muirwall," Kaguya says over the radio. "This is Kaguya. I'm coming."

She stares forward at the Levaithan again; it is simply huge, easily Gear sized. It is almost, for a moment, as if Lucadia herself has finally come to settle matters with the small Veruni, but Leviathan is an Aeon, not a Guardian. That's probably for the best.

But it had to be ocean snakes...

"Margaret, you ready?" Kaguya says over her Gear's loudspeakers. Cuchulainn's great hand is holding a certain sorceress--before it starts to rise. "Better be, because it's time!"

Cuchulainn hurls Margaret forward, and Kaguya can only settle in place, hands on her controls, as the time in which she moves to engage Leviathan feels slower than almost any she's found.

"...But finally," she says. "Something worth it."

<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.

    Day by day, the Church of Yevon keeps losing ground. The Warrior Monks have already lost many of their best from the protracted battles with Althena's Guard, and any number of clandestine Drifter actions against them. Three ships are to set sail from Bevelle to the west...
     On one of them, Gon of the Guado has been stationed. He stands at the side of the ship's helmsman, not out of any sort of navigational prowess that would be a boon to this pitched, desperate attempt to find some way to tip the scales...
     But because he is among the best user of 'prayers' on-hand. He is surrounded by the scarred and the only debatably firm. The helmsman is - was - among the most experienced of the Warrior Monk ranks, until a chance encounter on the battlefields outside Bevelle nearly took away use of his left arm.
     Nearly.
     Dutifully, the aging Guado puts his sorceries to work, green-hued sparkling curative power tinged heavily with fiery warmth for the third time already. The ear-splitting screech of Leviathan is but the only thing he would label at this time as 'reassuring,' eyes closed as if not wanting to stare down the embargo line - and not also let on the contempt in his eyes that he has been reduced to being a mere attendant. Others among the more injured ranks here have already acted as if to take his presence for granted even now.
     Vexing. But it does not distract him from the urgency of this mission, holding himself with the grace and stoicism that streotypically characterizes the Guado as--
     In the distance, Day's voice booms alongside Leviathan's roar. The Cuchulainn - a most dreaded fell thing that spearheaded the fall of Luca - comes into view.
     "...Have they already been prepared for such a maneuver?!" Gon exclaims, startling the helmsman and causing the ship he's on to start veering a hard left. Both men scramble to catch the wheel and keep it steady.
     As always, that tiny seed of doubt planted through the crack that has shattered what was once normal in their lives.

<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.

Hilde finds herself on the Destiny as the skies darken. It seems like it would be just another day of siege... until the waters themselves turn against them. Quickly Hilde rushes out, sword and shield in hand.

"Behind me!" Hilde roars. A blue aura bursts into being around her body as she brings her shield up for defense. The wave parts around her - those who stand behind her will be able to escape. The rest... well.

As the cloud of water dissipates, Hilde's eye scans the surrounding area... and soon, she locks on to the imposing form of Leviathan - a vertiable ruler of the seas, now arrayed against them. A frown crosses Hilde's face and she stands up straight, cape fluttering in the sea breeze. Above, she spots Leo leaping into action.

"I shall assist the White Knight!" She says. In one swift movement she draws out the Rope Lance, hurling it upward. The rope wraps around the railing and with a recited codeward she leaps up, landing by his side.

"I stand with you, Lord Leo!" Hilde states, before looking toward Leviathan itself. She spots the vessels, and frown.

"So, you seek to protect those ships. I respect your resolve... however! I must meet it with my own! Ready yourself!" Hilde calls out. The aura around her burns bright.

<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

"Sweet heavens!" exclaims Margaret, the Black Pearl of Neo-Vane, with uncharacteristic shock in her tone.

As a freshly-procured Fasticalon falls in its cage of lashed bamboo back into the water (thinking, no doubt, all the while that its plan has finally succeeded!), VEREN, Beastmaster at Arms of the Hounds of Hell, gawps at the titanic form of the entity. "It is - by the goddess! Look at its scale, its length! If it were not so grand and iridescent I would think it an EEL, but what fresh deviltry is THIS? Is this Sin? No, it cannot be Sin, I have seen Sin at a distance -- this must be... must be..."

Veren's hat flies off of his bald, pale head. His wrinkled features contort as he points his fiend-whacking stick towards it. "My dear lady Margaret I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT BLOODY THING IS! Could it be some BEAST of Lunar that has come here to FEED? Perhaps to lay its spawn in the RUINS of BEVELLE? Would that we should be so fortunate!"

"You can't spell heel," Margaret muses as she fastens the straps on her boots, "without eel."

"What?" says Veren, baffled.

"I mean I agree with you that this is in fact some horrid new deviltry," Margaret tells him, "But look. Do you see those ships?"

"I am not blessed with your elvish acui-- oh, those ships." Veren pauses for a moment. His brow knits, distorting a scrollwork tattoo.

"Well," Veren says, "Sh"

SOON

Margaret considers in a flash of a moment how she feels about what Kaguya is asking her. A strange ally and an unknown force. But at least, she thinks, she can control this terror. She is a sorceress of power and renown. She rubs her thumb over an old ring on her right middle finger and calls up to Kaguya, gaily, "Quite! Send me loose!"

If this all goes south, Margaret thinks as she is born aloft, I can do what Rex said I could always do. I can just jump in the water.

With the monster, Margaret thinks, but then she thinks 'WHEE!' and from a certain perspective she does not think at all...

A BIT AFTER THAT

There are a series of sea green sparkles around the projectile that the Impure has thrown. There is a brief suggestion of something else, and then that projectile abruptly and improbably veers left, sharp and dramatic, to land on the helmsman deck of the ship bearing a certain Guado with a DON! of taut-wrapped wood. Doing a half cartwheel, the violet-streaked object lashes out with a chain before coming to a halt, swinging it round with vicious intensity to entangle, mangle, and if necessary, concuss the helmsman and those who stand near them.

"Good morning!" Margaret shouts. "This ship is now mine, royal perogative. You're all welcome to leave. Any objections? You have til the count of three."

"Three," Margaret concludes, hauling herself upright.

GS: Margaret has attacked Gon Guado with Chain Wrap!
GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
GS: Gon Guado critically guards Margaret's Chain Wrap for 25 hit points!
GS: Gon Guado activates Guard bonus!


<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    Below decks on the Destiny, Guardswoman Pearl sleeps lightly, as she always does. The sudden impact of a tidal wave is more than enough to wake her from her slumber, grabbing the edge of her bunk to stop from falling out. Some of her fellow guards who were on the early watch are less lucky. She drops down, and quickly puts on boots and gloves, before slotting her silvered tooth into her mouth. This is all the cue she gives her fellow guardsmen. Pearl assumes they're generally smart enough to work out they're under attack, as she dashes for the deck.

    When she comes to the decks, she can see the Golems and Gears brought to bear against the giant sea serpent that is Leviathan. That's the clearest threat, even as she sees the other ships trying to leave. Pearl makes a decision: the ships are someone else's problem. Pearl wants to kill an aeon, which is ambitious even for her. She walks calmly from the from the stairs leading up from below. She moves to where Hilde and Leo are, watching Leviathan. "Commander. Guardswoman Hilde." She's way too calm, claws glinting in the remaining light. "Let us deal with this beast."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

The sea splits. Great monoliths of ocean water batter through manmade vessels of a far away faith as magic compels nature to show the depths of its wrath. Sailors and knights of Althena's chosen scramble in the Leviathan's literal and figurative wake as it breaches the surface of the seas of Bevelle, shrieking with such depth of fury that the ships of the Guard almost tremble against its reverberations.

It is at one of those most distant boats that a lone figure watches this from atop the vessel's most prominent mast. Her gold hair whipping in the violent, stormy churn of Leviathan's scream, she smells the strong stench of seasalt as she takes in a breath. An armored hand falls towards the hilt of a lone longsword sheathed at her hip.

"..."

Fingers tremble brief and then squeeze upon that weapon all the tighter as she frowns.

And then she leaps, straight off the mast, getting perhaps ten feet of clearance before she bursts into a thousand, multi-colored streams encompassing all of light's splendorous spectrum.

---

It might be a behemoth of a beast, but the Aeon known as Leviathan's message is clear:

Attack at your own risk.

It is a challenge.

And it is only a handful of seconds after it is issued that there is a glimmer of prismatic light on the horizon.

It's a second's warning before countless streams of color converge together to form a single woman punching through the salt-soaked skies, eyes of molten gold narrowed.

Swordtip leading her aerial charge to drive right into the hide of the beast in a mid-air collision, brilliant white energies swirling the length of the blade in sheer spectacle.

Because if nothing else...

"COME, SERPENT!"

... the Seraph known as Liath has never been one able to ignore a blatant challenge.

GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Belize with Light Spear!
GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.
GS: Belize guards a hit from Seraph Liath's Light Spear for 100 hit points!
GS: Belize activates Guard bonus!


<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    Upon the deck of the central Yevon ship, Belize raises a sharp chin and steely eyes to the burst of flame towards Borgan's ship; towards the Destiny as it unleashes Leo, and brings Hilde and Pearl forth at his side; towards Gears and Golems alike as Day declares that he'll not let them pass without challenge, as Kaguya sends Margaret flying towards the fleeing vessels. Their lip curls in particular at the sheer size of Kaguya's machina monstrosity. Even so, they don't flinch away. Their braid whips in the wind as the vessels advance at full speed.
    
    If it makes Gon feel any better, he's not so much an attendant as a stand-in Guardian to the Summoner Belize. He probably doesn't see that as a privilege, though. "Don't let them rattle you," they call over to him. "The Guard has had those foul machina in reserve all along. It's no surprise they'd bring them out here."
    
    They side-eye Margaret as she lands upon the deck and immediately demands surrender. Gon is there already, through; they trust in him and turn their gaze back towards the seas and their enemies. Whether Gon sees this as a mark of trust or of a blatant lack of caring is up to him.
    
    Light slices down through the deepening twilight as the sun finally dips below the horizon. Yet that brightness that flares on Leviathan's hide is nearly as bright as that freshly-departed sun. The great Aeon snarls, snapping to one side with their sinuous body and attempting to straight-up *bite* Liath out of the air. Whether their jaws find purchase or not, the great sea serpent leaps high into the air and dives back down into the waters with arching, shimmering grace. Indeed, there's a certain beauty in their iridescent scales that's lost in the darkness and ironically brought back to the fore by the High Lord's illumination.
    
    But that's not important. The important thing is that Leviathan does not remain idle underwater. The waters heave, choppy and violent, sending a ferocious wave roaring up to smash into Day's Gear as it boosts towards Leviathan. That water must come from somewhere, though, and so the Destiny dips just as violently as the water beneath it dips dangerously down, potentially knocking Leo, Hilde, and Pearl all down. A whorling waterspout snakes up from the ocean to snap towards Borgan, midair as he is--and then Leviathan emerges, sinuated up and around Kaguya's Golem in an attempt to straight-up *drag* it down underwater.
    
    The Aeon's challenging hisses can be heard in all directions for miles.

GS: Belize has attacked Seraph Liath with Bitter Bite!
GS: Belize has attacked Day Muirwall with High Tide!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize has attacked White Knight Leo with Low Tide!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize has attacked Hilde with Low Tide!
GS: Belize has attacked Pearl with Low Tide!
GS: Belize has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Riptide!
GS: Belize has attacked Kaguya with Briny Deep!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!

GS: Day Muirwall takes a solid hit from Belize's High Tide for 278 hit points!
GS: Hilde guards a hit from Belize's Low Tide for 69 hit points!
GS: Kaguya guards a hit from Belize's Briny Deep for 180 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Belize!
GS: Kaguya activates Guard bonus!
GS: CRITICAL! Pearl takes a glancing hit from Belize's Low Tide for 84 hit points!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Belize's Bitter Bite for 63 hit points!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan critically guards Belize's Riptide for 20 hit points!
GS: White Knight Leo takes a solid hit from Belize's Low Tide for 117 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

In fairness, Day's big on preparation. He may be honourable, but he's not an idiot.

Piloting a Gear isn't the most natural thing to him, but Evalach's controls are pretty simple. He moves the big machine into a combat posture easily enough, right hand sliding into a control grip to guide the huge thruster-equipped blade the mechanoid brandishes.

The downside is that Day's been in surprisingly few Gear fights. This is his first one on water.

Leviathan calls forth the waves, and Day widens his eyes as he tries to figure out in 0.5 seconds how to defend against something like that. It turns out he needs more than that.

Braking, Day brings Evalach's sword across defensively, both aegis binders angled forward to try and deflect a tidal wave away. But it's a tidal wave. Water tends to flow past things and treat flat surfaces like something to push on. The wave surges over the huge white Gear, throwing Day against the back of his seat as the machine is swept off its feet and topples back into the harbour ingloriously. It lands with a loud splash before vanishing below the surface, kicking up wavelets that lap at the ships still bobbing nearby.

"I'm beginning to think I should have stuck to fighting it on foot," Day murmurs to himself.

He follows it up by spitting out a mouthful of water. A goldfish lands in the puddle that's formed by his feet.

It takes a moment before Evalach reappears, rising out of the harbour with a rush of seawater. Streams pour from the big Gear's shoulders and thruster outlets and inlets as Day pivots back towards where his radar tells him Leviathan is. Blurriness across his cameras gives way as a windshield wiper drops down to sweep away droplets, giving him a clean field of view once more.

"Let's try that again," he huffs, and his tone's annoyed enough to make clear that he's not talking about himself.

He doesn't give Leviathan much opportunity to wait. Thrusters across Evalach's backpack and binders boom, a shockwave bursting across the harbour and kicking up more wavelets. The white Gear launches forward as Day fires towards close range. More banks of engines flare to life across Evalach's blade as the young knight opens up with a heavy swing, aiming to hack through the serpentine eidolon.

"HOOOAHT!"

GS: Day Muirwall has attacked Belize with Boosted Blade!
GS: Day Muirwall has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Day Muirwall has completed his action.
GS: Belize takes a glancing hit from Day Muirwall's Boosted Blade for 155 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!


<Pose Tracker> Black Wizard Borgan has posed.

Even readying for combat as he is, Borgan hears Leo.

Under many circumstances, Borgan wouldn't respond to Leo giving him directions. He doesn't personally like the White Knight; he believes Leo spends most of his time thinking with his sword, and not with his brain.

But Leo is a military expert, and Borgan - well-read as he is, and powerful as he is in combat - is not. That isn't his area of study. And for all that he isn't on especially chummy terms with Leo most of the time, he respects that.

Borgan makes a short, sharp cutting gesture with his staff as he begins to move away from the Tower. The flare he sent up changes colour, pulsing green and then an incandescent white-yellow before fading back to a natural colour, as he signals the Neo-Vane ships to prepare for stormy weather. The message is clear enough, even though it's a nice day; they begin to reposition, moving toward safer positions while the wizards on them prepare.

They do not fire while the Destiny and two Gears are engaged in close combat, though. Borgan has no desire to spend Day or Kaguya's life that way - even if they're likely to survive he's not going to risk it. Instead...

"Oh, you have made a *mistake*," Borgan rumbles, his eyes narrowing.

Water spirals up toward him in a waterspout. Borgan is not going to challenge Leviathan for command of the seas directly - sometimes being a powerful wizard means you know what *not* to do - but he has a counter nonetheless; the air around him begins to spin violently, shimmering green with the magical energy, in the opposite direction. Much of the waterspout's force is dispersed in the contrary vortex, though Borgan loses some height doing it - but he still has more power to draw when Leviathan turns elsewhere.

Borgan points, and the cyclone rips out across the water, picking up spray incidentally as it goes and becoming more visible as it does. The winds tear like blades as he drives the cyclone toward Leviathan, letting it loose before it bursts in a lash of razor-sharp wind.

Apparently, Borgan is going to challenge the Aeon, power to power, more directly than calling on one of the Golems.

GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Belize with Neo Cyclone!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Belize guards a hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Neo Cyclone for 136 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Jam applied to Belize!
GS: Belize activates Guard bonus!


<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.

    A tragicomic end to one-third of one of Yevon's last, great hopes is narrowly averted as helmsman and attendant/stand-in Guardian to Summoner Belize both manage to take hold of the wheel.
     "...My shoulder's got another kink," the helmsman murmurs, having had to twist it further than he ever has before. Empowering, in that fleeting moment - but fleeting, as Margaret makes her grand entrance not far off.
     Gon's head turns sharply with narrowed eyes. A reflexive twist of his wrist has the back of a bladed gauntlet deflect a chain upwards before it beans or binds anyone nearby.
     It comes back down, at which point he swats at it twice, converting what would have been a skillful martial retort of an entangling blow into the gradient of an act of panic ill-fitting of his years of experience.
     The Cuchulainn on its own bears a rattling, frightening presence - and it's not the only thing of its kind there!
     "Three? Three!" Gon sweeps the gauntlet downwards to let that chain slap the wood of the deck on the ground. "Of all the entreaties you would make, you would forego the numbers one and two?!" He steps forth, lowering his arms in that posture that does not seem sound for hand-to-hand combat. It's an open-looking stance that does not seem to offer much meaningful defense from other swift, unexpected blows.
     "My shoulder," helmsman whines in the background.
     "Of all the things you have spat on in your crusade, you are befouling basic arithmetic!" As if he were desperate for something novel to be irate about, lunging towards the sorceress and swinging those over-large Guado hands in an inward sweep, positioning them ever closer and looking much more like a proper defensive stance.
     "...That statement is not part not your loathsome pastime of banter!" Gon gets insistent. "This is exasperation!"
     "Shoulder," comes more whining.

GS: Gon Guado has attacked Margaret with Bunyip Stance!
GS: Gon Guado has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gon Guado assumes the Stoic stance!
GS: Gon Guado has completed his action.
GS: Margaret takes a glancing hit from Gon Guado's Bunyip Stance for 62 hit points!
GS: Margaret activates Evade bonus!


<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Can Kaguya see Belize, make them out on the deck with the cameras installed in her Golem? It's hard to say. She knows Leviathan has a Summoner somewhere, from how they appeared. But not to go after the Aeon would defeat the purpose.

So for now, she looks over the battlefield, spots the others--some on a ship, some in motion in the air itself--and judges where their targets are. The ships that Levaithan seeks to defend should, logically, be the first target. But...

Kaguya has an agenda, here.

Cuchulainn continues to lurch forward and forward, before the waves dip down--the water shifts--and Leviathan sinuates up its great form. It is a powerful grip, and a testament to Leviathan's sheer size that it can snake around even such an immense Gear as Cuchulainn. There's a creaking as the Aeon closes around the Golem; bolts fly and bits of armor buckle as the Golem is dragged under.

In the cockpit, Kaguya grins unpleasantly. "Did you think a machine designed to fight Sin would be afraid of the water?"

She flicks a few switches in the cockpit; Cuchulainn's controls are complicated, too complicated for most pilots. But these are not further combat instructions. This is to ensure her systems are recording. As she does, Cuchulainn starts to sink further, but its gigantic hands begin to reach out for the serpent around it, and it attempts to start crushing Levaithan in turn, if it can only catch them before it moves with jointed fingers and gleaming hands.

"More data..." Kaguya murmurs within the cockpit unheard, this time, as she grips the controls. Cuchulainn's manic grin, sculpted like some kind of demon, remains.

GS: Kaguya has attacked Belize with Ogre's Gluttony!
GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
GS: Belize critically guards Kaguya's Ogre's Gluttony for 55 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Kaguya!


<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    The sudden shifting of the waters pulls those on the Destiny down, and Pearl digs her claws in, but it only does enough to stop her completely landing on her face, stopping her skull from inmpacting unhelpfully with the deck. She does leave big gouges in the deck, though.

    Pearl is faced with a problem: Leviathan is seafaring, and she is a melee fighter. She needs to get close. That's not really feasible at the moment, "Damn..." She gets to her feeet and backs up. Pearl can't do much here, but she CAN do something.

    She plants her hand on Leo's shoulder, and lets out a loud, echoing wolf's howl, focusing her ki into him. A strengthening energy, to drive one to fight more aggressively and hit yet harder.

    But a support role suits her ill, and she looks across the battlefield, searching for more options.

GS: Pearl has attacked White Knight Leo with Spirited Howl!
GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Pearl has completed her action.


<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    "Launches clear!" Leo shouts, as his crew scramble to the aid of the ships swamped by Leviathan's tidal wave. "Go! Go! Go!" For now, he has to trust in Borgan to counter a second tidal wave, if it comes; he was able to turn aside Sin's assault, however barely, and while he doesn't have the luxury of preparation, Leviathan is no Sin.

    The deck leaps beneath Leo's feet. A sailor next to him loses her footing, and falls, screaming, towards the railing. Leo grabs the back of her shirt and pulls, hauling her away from the edge at the cost of his own stability. The White Knight falls forwards; his head bounces off the Destiny's deck, and for a moment, he sees stars. It's all he can do to hold on as the deck keeps rocking. Leo grits his teeth and hauls himself to his feet, wobbling unsteadily for a moment. He sees Leviathan as it entwines Cuchulainn--his next move, it seems, has been decided for him. He glances back at Pearl, and whispers a "thank you" to his soldier as fresh aggression washes into him.

    "UNHAND HER, FIEND!" Leo roars. He leaps off the Destiny's deck as though he'd been launched from a catapult, tracing an arc through the air. His blade leaves its sheath in a blinding flash. He brings it down at Leviathan's neck, fully intending to cleave through the Aeon's scales in a single stroke.

GS: White Knight Leo accepts Pearl's Spirited Howl for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to White Knight Leo!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Belize with Rising Falcon!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo assumes the Avenger stance!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
GS: Belize guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Rising Falcon for 96 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.

"Guardswoman Pearl." Hilde replies to the greeting with a polite nod of greeting of her own. It's short-lived, however, as the Aeon soon begins to move once more.

Leviathan whips up a terrible wave toward the Gear, causing the Destiny to dip. Hilde stands firm. She shifts backwards, but is not knocked down, allowing herself to push forward to the edge of the Destiny.

"Are you alright?" She calls back to the others, before turning her eyes toward Leviathan once more. She could hurl the Rope Lance at the Aeon and climb aboard, but that would put her at the mercy of wherever the Aeon chooses to move. Should they dive, she would be in quite a spot of trouble...

So, for now, until a better opportunity to climb aboard presents itself, she has no choice but to wait until the serpent is in striking distance. But, soon enough...

"There!" Hilde lunges forward, swinging her blade in a wide, silver arc at Leviathan. And where her blade strikes a blue shockwave ripples out, reverberating through and magnifying the strike.

GS: Hilde has attacked Belize with Silver Arc!
GS: Hilde has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hilde has completed her action.
GS: Belize takes a glancing hit from Hilde's Silver Arc for 89 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!


<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

Salient Seraph Facts #103: excluding the stray cheating Wind Seraph (who cheat), Seraphim do not really do the whole 'flying' thing naturally.

Salient Seraph Facts #103.A: Liath is not one of those Wind Seraphim (who cheat).

What this means is the Prime Lord has currently more or less teleport-charged herself right into the middle of the ocean in the face of a giant water serpent with no real ability to stay aloft.

It's, to be fair, far from the most reckless thing Liath has done in her long life. But it ranks up there, at least.

The knight doesn't seem particularly perturbed nor deterred by the unassailable reality of gravity, however; not much more than a smidge of a thing in the face of the great serpent and already feeling the beginnings of a free-fall towards the foamy churn of the waters below, the Seraph is still steel-faced, eyes narrowed, lips drawn taut and blade blazing as its tip clashes against the unbelievably tough hide of the Aeon.

Any victory that might well be reveled in this moment is short-lived, however, when the serpent -snaps- towards the side. Bright gold eyes widen for a moment as that many-toothed maw comes bearing down upon her. White-tipped hair whipping about her, she begins to fall towards the ocean as Leviathan shadow casts over her.

Her eyes shut. "I am sorry," she murmurs.

S N A P

And down into the abyss Leviathan dives, their guest forcefully in tow between their jaws.

When the Aeon reemerges, snaking around Kaguya's Golem, the Veruni may see something small between those jaws, keeping it partially open. Something glowing, faintly.

Liath's words are lost to the deepening hiss of the Leviathan as she chants, holding that jaw just barely open with the thrust-up pommel of her sword, the strain of it stabbing pain through her her from arm to core. But she holds.

She holds, just long enough.

                                   "Eternal light, ever true
                                   and undefiled, grant this
                                    wanton sinner before me
                                      the majesty of thy
                                         judgment...!"

Just long enough for phantasmal mirrors of light to manifest -inside- Leviathan's maw, all of them firing a churning beam of coruscating colors -deep- into its gullet.

                                        "Kaleidos Ray!"

With -- hopefully -- just enough force to LAUNCH her out from between the beast's jaws and into the open air once more.

GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Belize with Kaleidos Ray!
GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.
GS: Belize takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Kaleidos Ray for 215 hit points!
GS: Poison applied to Belize!


<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

Margaret takes a quick glance over and around the deck. Her eyes meet Belize's for a fleeting moment. She does not seem to associate this summoner with the great beast. She has greater problems. Louder problems. Problems that have not yet...

                Gon away.

The seas are in chaos. Margaret does not look towards them. Her hips stay level even as her legs shift in response to the deck's shifting; she whips and snaps back her weighted chain and then as Gon approaches in his stance, kisses the air at him and narrows her over-darkened eyes. "Oh, sweetie," she says, "don't be like that. This is what we like to call a gambit."

And in the face of the first lunge she leans backwards while raising up one long arm -- and it goes short.

Margaret falls, but she turns as she falls, and she slaps the ground with enough force to shiver a timber and propel herself back upwards, landing on a deck railing in a spread-out crouch, the heels of her shoes gripping down as light and booming noise echo in the background.

She keeps her eyes on Gon. "You could think of it as humane, really. If you all try to fight me I'm probably going to mutilate a great many people and I am sure that most of you have homes and so forth; and so, we avoid the conflict, and move to the point where -"

As Gon comes again Margaret leaps to the side, hair straying besides her as she lands on a bannister to deck and leaps back to the deck proper. "I have your things and you have your lives. Then you go about your lives and the process is repeated. It's all part of a process, darling, you don't have to be upset about it. These theatrics have a purp"

A third strike and Gon is too fast for Margaret to easily swerve away from. One final sweep jars her in her rib cage and brings her back, with a 'tch!' and leads to her raising of her weapon anew. Choking up on the chain, she spins a tight, humming orbit to her side, the other holding a long-bladed sickle almost casually before her. As if she offers it to Gon. In a sense, she does.

"It must be difficult for you," Margaret tells him. "If you'd like, call your troops. But I'll ask you a question, if just to see if I can make your eyes burst: What brought you to your church, exactly, anyway?"

GS: Margaret has attacked Gon Guado with Why Don't You Come And Get It?!
GS: Margaret enters a Counter stance!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
GS: Gon Guado guards a hit from Margaret's Why Don't You Come And Get It? for 21 hit points!
GS: Cover applied to Margaret!


<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    Borgan calls up his mighty magic to disperse some of the waterspout and send down lances of razor-sharp wind. They slash at Leviathan's scales, and while they don't pierce through fully, there is certainly significant damage there now. Day takes advantage when he charges forth within Evalach, engines flaring, to swing a great sword to hack into Leviathan's hide, chipping and knocking off a few more scales in turn. The Aeon screams, though in pain or anger is unclear. Kaguya takes this opportunity to counter-grapple the sea serpent, her Golem gripping their body with its massive metal hands. But...
    
    Belize's eyes widen at Kaguya's telegraphed proclamation. "A machine to fight Sin?" they murmur. "I see... So that White Knight's claims weren't *entirely* hot air." They toss their hair, green eyes flashing with pride. "Then let's see which will defeat Sin: my Aeon, or your machina!"
    
    ...Kaguya probably can't hear them from all the way back there. It's not like they've got a loudspeaker on.
    
    Meanwhile, a reasonable distance away, Gon yells at Margaret for not knowing how to count. Belize presses a pair of fingers to their forehead, then focuses on the battle anew.
    
    Leo, empowered by Pearl's maneuver, launches himself into the air to land *on* the Aeon, slashing into them with his great sword with force. Hilde follows up by launching an aerial arc attack; Leviathan attempts to move out of the way, but just then Liath unleashes a brilliant and MASSIVE bolt of light into their gullet, searing deep into their throat. Leviathan screams again, allowing Liath to launch herself conveniently to the relative safety of the Destiny and land among Hilde and Pearl, while Leo may rebound off their body onto Kaguya's Golem.
    
    As Kaguya's Golem attempts to wring their body, Leviathan opens their great maw and BITES the Golem right in the face, attempting to straight-up rip the armor plating off in whole or part. That machine won't be so mighty if it springs a leak, after all. Whether that attack succeeds or not, it should distract her long enough for the serpent to first spit whatever metal or water or combination thereof onto Leo with crushing force, slither out of her grasp and dive back into the ocean.
    
    When they rise again, it's to slam themself onto the deck of the Destiny, head on one side, tail on the other. Their hissing comes with frothy bubbles this time, jetting out at such speed that they explode on contact--not a good time for Liath, Hilde, and Pearl, even if this means that they're close enough to fight now. Borgan's spells are countered with a more specific spray of bubbles, even bigger and more deafeningly explosive than the first round as they whorl up towards him as he flies about on his platform. Then they turn their attention to Day, open their jaws, and unleash a wide beam of crackling energy at his Gear in attempt to knock that sword out of its metal grip.

GS: Belize has attacked Kaguya with Hadal Submerge!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize takes 19 damage from Poison!
GS: Belize gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Belize has completed their action.
GS: Belize spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Belize has attacked Seraph Liath with Tidal Froth!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Belize has attacked Hilde with Tidal Froth!
GS: Belize spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Belize has attacked Pearl with Tidal Froth!
GS: Belize has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Concussion Bubble!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize has attacked White Knight Leo with Concussion Bubble!
GS: Belize has attacked Day Muirwall with Wave Beam!

GS: Hilde takes a solid hit from Belize's Tidal Froth for 82 hit points!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan takes a glancing hit from Belize's Concussion Bubble for 50 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Black Wizard Borgan gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Weaken applied to Black Wizard Borgan!
GS: Day Muirwall guards a hit from Belize's Wave Beam for 154 hit points!
GS: White Knight Leo takes a glancing hit from Belize's Concussion Bubble for 48 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Weaken applied to White Knight Leo!
GS: Kaguya takes a glancing hit from Belize's Hadal Submerge for 106 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Break applied to Kaguya!
GS: Kaguya activates Evade bonus!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a solid hit from Belize's Tidal Froth for 53 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Liath gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Pearl takes a solid hit from Belize's Tidal Froth for 96 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

Thruster flames ripple along the flats of Evalach's weapon as Day steers the big mechanoid more with instinct than with real skill. The onboard computer is helping him more than he wants to admit, particularly in the water. Again the big Gear whirls past and comes to bear on Leviathan once more, stayiing clear long enough for Leo, Borgan and the others to strike. He's entirely cognizant of his machine's size - and the lack of size on the part of the two heroes, even Borgan, a man tall enough that Day himself might come up to his nipples.

The Church Knight knits his brows and steals a look down at his screen, then up again towards the walls of Bevelle. "This worries me," he mutters, covering up his loudspeaker pickup, but keeping his comline open. "I don't know if this is the actual attack, or if it's a feint for something else. How many of our field commanders are--"

Day doesn't get to finish the thought by the time Leviathan comes to bear on him. He widens his eyes and clicks his teeth together. "What th--"

Leviathan unleashes the power of energy, and Day reacts on instinct. Evalach drops back in the water, hip deep, bringing both aegis binders forward to shield the Gear's bulk. Energy smashes into the armoured machine's defensive facing. Reinforced paneling buckles and creaks beneath the blow, a few rivets flying off with sufficient force that two of them slam into the hull of the Destiny and melt in. Day's thrown back against his seat again, only staying in it because he is a very good boy and wore his seatbelt.

He grits his teeth as he shoulders through the blast, clutching his right hand in his sword control to keep a hand on the weapon - but it's been pushed out of position. "Tch...."

What Leviathan has to worry about is not the sword. It's the sudden opening of a series of hatches along the front edges of Evalach's shield binders.

Missiles pour out of the hidden launch tubes within. None of them are individually all that large, but they burst forth in a big swarm, like explosive locusts. Punishing concussions bloom through the air as Day unleashes a hail of explosives on the sea serpent - not magical, but punishing in its own right, and persistent. The barrage just keeps on coming, aimed to keep Leviathan at bay and away from the city.

GS: Day Muirwall has attacked Belize with Scatter Missile Barrage!
GS: Day Muirwall enters a Counter stance!
GS: Day Muirwall has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Day Muirwall has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Belize takes a glancing hit from Day Muirwall's Scatter Missile Barrage for 244 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Holy shit, is she in their mouth?" Kaguya notes of Liath's presence on her cameras. That's an interesting occurence.

Leviathan's bite crumples part of Cuchulainn's armoring on the face, the corner of its mouth bending inward under the force of something its own scale--but its armoring is thick even for its size, and the gouge Leviathan's teeth tears in the plating deflects off of the Golem. It knocks the Golem off-balance, though, and Kaguya has to focus on righting the Golem instead of catching the Aeon. "Nice," she says over the speakers. "Agile, too. Some 'Aeon.' I wonder..." She sounds impressed by Leviathan; this is because she is. Not that she'll say that directly, but if she weren't...

She wouldn't have wanted to deploy her Golem against them.

But as she talks, she lifts her Golem's arm with a working of her controls to provide Leo with a better platform. She angles it down, giving him space to leap towards Leviathan, as she starts to turn towards the Aeon once again. Eyeing the position of the ship... "I'm gonna have to improvise," she mutters, not wanting to hit the ship much like Borgan didn't want to hit her earlier. So instead, she engages the system's Magic Booster.

It hums to life with a strange, otherworldly pulse, a magic alien to this world even more than Filgaian magic. Something like Ether pulses in green, and with a thick scent of rot and decay, a torrent of mushrooms starts to erupt out of the sea to attempt to crowd around Leviathan's great form on either side.

She didn't hear Belize's comment, but she is absolutely in the spirit of that challenge--but first, through one another.

GS: Kaguya has attacked Belize with Saprophyte Suffusion!
GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Kaguya gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
GS: Belize takes a solid hit from Kaguya's Saprophyte Suffusion for 266 hit points!
GS: Jam applied to Belize!


<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    Leo provides the inspiration, and with Leviathan close to the Destiny she takes aim. She flicks out her hand, and the grapnel on her wrist flies out. The grapnel isn't supposed to do damage, that's not the point here. The point is to simply get up close, launching herself at the giant serpent.

    As she flies through the air, she orients herself to try and slice past Leviathan's neck. Her claws may not be enough to cut deeply, but she tries to rake across Leviathan all the same. It's not a complex attack, but she can put power and momentum on it.

    Landing is a problem for future Pearl, but she'll work it out in a few minutes if Leviathan doesn't take care of that further.

<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    That was a hit. Not as deep a wound as Leo would like, but a hit nevertheless. The White Knight digs a gauntleted hand into the Aeon's scaly hide, braces his legs, and rebounds off Leviathan's body. A few moments later, a solid impact echoes through Kaguya's cockpit--Leo lands feet-first on Cuchulainn's head, and clings to it with his free hand.

    Not for the first time, he wishes he had Hashmal here, but the Golem is off undergoing what was described to him as 'an extensive refit'.

    "LADY KAGUYA!" the White Knight shouts, stomping a foot on the Golem's hull in case shouting doesn't work. "Bring us closer! Open up its hide, and I can strike deeper!"

    Kaguya does just that, albeit in an unconventional manner. Leo leaps off the Golem, alights atop a sprouting mushroom-cap, and then jumps to the next one. "Double Demon Fang!" he roars. At the apex of his third leap, his blade blurs through the air, once, twice. Two shockwaves rip through the salt-spray, seeking to carve fresh gashes in Leviathan's hide.

GS: Pearl has attacked Belize with Running Takedown!
GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Pearl has completed her action.
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Belize with Double Demon Fang!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 2 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
GS: Belize critically guards Pearl's Running Takedown for 27 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Belize guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Double Demon Fang for 62 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

Sailing through the air, it's with a graceful twist and flapping, waterlogged green coattails that Prime Lord Liath lands upon the draconic masthead of the Destiny. Saltwater dripping thick off armor and spirit-hewn flesh alike, Liath comes to a full stand at the tip of the mighty dragonship, sword snapped to the side, gaze as steel, bearing commanding.

Because Liath remains functionally incapable of doing anything without a sense of gravitas.

The Seraph tracks the serpent as they submerge once more. Gold eyes narrow. Legs tense bracingly.

"Prepare yourself," she warns to her comrades. "This one is making a grand show of their assault. I believe there is cause to it, but whatever they plan to do--"

And thus Leviathan emerges with a surge of frothing water, shadow overcasting the Destiny as it makes its grand descent upon it.

"-- it shall try to demand our attention. MAKE HASTE--!"

SLAM

The lurch of the Destiny would be enough to unseat Liath's footing alone; but the Seraph goes -with- the momentum, -sliding- down the slick surface of the dragonship's masthead with singular purpose burning in her gilded gaze. Unfortunately, momentum also comes with inertia, and that is a tricky thing to thwart -- carried by Leviathan's kinetic force as she is, Liath doesn't have the time necessary to put up proper defense to the bubbly spray of Leviathan's assault; frothing, watery magic BURSTS around the Prime Lord, rippling across her armored shoulder and tearing at the wet, jade fabric of her clothes as it rips a "gnuh!" of a grunt from the knight's lips. She stumbles in her slick slide down across from the masthead to the deck of the Destiny, stalling her...

... but not stopping her, as she -swings- that sword in a single stroke, liquid blue light painting the air as it is hurled from the blade's tip in a searing shockwave across the ground, aiming to slice through any other bubbles remaining and collide with Leviathan -- to buy her enough time, hopefully, to cut through the rest of those defenses and get up close and personal once more.

GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Belize with Azure Edge!
GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.
GS: Belize takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Azure Edge for 177 hit points!
GS: Riposte applied to Seraph Liath!


<Pose Tracker> Black Wizard Borgan has posed.

As soon as Borgan launches the cyclonic razor, he's preparing something else. His staff held flat in front of him, parallel to the water's surface - well, more or less. The water's surface is moving around a lot right now. But the intention is there.

To do this he comes almost to a stop, rising the height of a man above the waves - not far at all for flight, but high enough that he doesn't have to worry about a sudden surge pulling his legs out from under him. It makes him a relatively easy target, or that's what it looks like. Perhaps, as Leo is hoping, he is preparing to disperse a tidal wave if one comes.

But what actually comes is bubbles. Borgan snaps his staff out and literally pops one with the pointed tip, getting the feel for the energy - he thinks he can burst them now from a distance, though he doesn't get much of a chance to try, the speed that they're coming at him. He swerves the platform dangerously to one side, moving surprisingly fast for a usually slow-moving craft.

His eyes narrow again as Cuchulainn releases magic of its own, and magic he's unfamiliar with. It's strange, it's foreign; he reflexively tries to feel his way through it but can't quite manage it. "Fascinating," he says, almost distracted from the Aeon.

Almost.

Borgan reaches out, physically as well as energetically, toward Leviathan and the Dragonship. Energy builds - earth magic, but extremely complex, with the feel of it 'folded' over itself many times. Not earth in the form of rock or stone, but the essence of the Earth beneath, somehow twisted -

A patch of water about ten feet across, well away from the battle, rises upwards as if a giant's finger pushed it upward. Water fountains upward from the point, reaching far higher than any ordinary fountain to fall in a rainbow-making spray back to sea.

But that's merely a side effect. All the gravity Borgan removed from that point - all the pressure of the deep seas released - slams straight *down* in a visible black-violet beam at one of Leviathan's coils that is not around the Dragonship, in an attempt to literally yank the great Aeon away and pull it into the deeps. Leviathan can survive down there, of course, but the force is like getting hit by a cannonball and then crushed viciously.

Borgan is sweating, though it's not visible - his face is already wet with seaspray. Working with forces on this scale is *hard*. His entire body is tense, as if he had to support part of the gravity or wrestle it into place physically.

"You had better have a plan," Borgan rumbles, his voice tight - not that Leo or anyone else can hear him, but he can't hold this up forever.

GS: Black Wizard Borgan spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Belize with Gravity Pillar!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has completed his action.
GS: Belize takes a glancing hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Gravity Pillar for 161 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute applied to Belize!
GS: Hyper applied to Black Wizard Borgan!


<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.

Hilde backs up to allow Liath to land on the deck safely.

"Lady Liath! I trust you are well?" She asks. While they haven't spoken personally, she likely knows her through reputation. She nods, though, as the Seraph speaks. "Understood!"

Further words will have to wait - Hilde quickly backpedals as she sees Leviathan beginning to move once more. The great Aeon slams themself onto the Destiny, causing the ship itself to shake. Hilde struggles to maintain her footing... which makes it difficult to defend herself against the flurry of froth the hurtles toward her. She winces as bubbles snap against her form, but manages to remain standing.

Though it came with pain, this does provide a golden opportunity. Leviathan's form is still on the deck of the Destiny - therefore, they're at the optimal range.

"Let us test the mettle of your scales." Hilde says. Her shield is put away in favor of taking up her sword in both hands. She stares Leviathan over, as if looking for weak spots... or, looking for the optimal place to strike to create one.

Eventually, she finds her targets. Hilde rushes forward, delivering a powerful, targeted strike - one aiming to crush Leviathan's defenses to open them up for further attack rather than inflicting direct, immediate harm.

GS: Hilde has attacked Belize with Rend Armor!
GS: Hilde has completed her action.
GS: Belize takes a solid hit from Hilde's Rend Armor for 114 hit points!
GS: Shieldbreak applied to Belize!


<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.

    If Gon had three hands, he would be joining Belize in putting hand-, hand-adjacent, and hand-equivalent items and parts available to his own forehead. The Gon of an hour from now, should there be another hour, would disapprove of the Gon of an hour ago, which is to say now.
     The end of the chain that Gon has to deal with is batted with however many times it draws near him, in a manner that is not unlike a cat responding to a toy being waved at them.
     'If you'd like, call your troops.' Margaret offers, even after she has pointed out the truth that she is more than a match for not just any rank-and-file Warrior Monk or Guado Guardian, but at least several, at once.
     The manpower the ships have to muster are not all running at ideal numbers. Those bearing machina rifles are already lining up and taking purely cinematic pot-shots at the various Gears under the local equivalent of a gunnery sergeant, given the urgency of the mission.
     Those who otherwise are meant to accost and deal with those who have tried to board have found themselves commandeered towards putting out a fire that has started and is being addressed. A carpenter, among the most able-bodied of the lot, finds himself having to move carefully lest he toss his tools overboard. Over there, clinging hold on the wheel with one hand firm and one far less--
      "Shoulder," helmsman prevents the need of finishing the rest of that sentence with that word alone.
     "Brought me to my church? You upend the ways of this land and now..." Gon's sigh is lost to the crashing waves. Once more, he is forced to adapt to their ways, their standards. One eye looks out to another ship, where he sees a small cluter of pyreflies flit loose. He resigns himself to...

     * * * SHARING A BACKSTORY * * *

     "Yevon has brought the people of Guadosalam prosperity, and with it, peace of mind for those who have born witness to loss by Sin." He... sounds like he's making a concentrated effort, through the baseline level of 'being irritated all the time as of what feels like forever ago,' to be conversational to someone who has a sickle waiting for him to run himself into. "It is only natural for us stewards of the Farplane to bring the faithful their closure."
     There's a handful more pyreflies from over there. He breaks away one hand from that defensive posture to gesture and concentrate, to bring those shiny, flitting, wailing souls all the way over in a flourish.
     A flourish that sees them swirl and take forth a spectral, barely-complete form of a Melusine - some four-legged fin-backed Fiend with a tail, each with claws. He has to step forward to have it manifest to the extent it can with the material that's there.
     That scythe could conceivably cut through the Melusine itself and still reach him as it tries to rake a claw against Margaret as if it were the only thing it knows what to do.
     The important takeaway if Margaret doesnt' know or hasn't seen it for herself: some Guado know how to make Fiends and this is totally cheating in terms of 'calling your troops.'

GS: Gon Guado has attacked Margaret with The Adds Phase!
GS: Gon Guado has completed his action.
GS: COUNTER! Margaret counterattacks Gon Guado with Counter Attack!
GS: Margaret takes a solid hit from Gon Guado's The Adds Phase for 72 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Margaret gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Gon Guado guards a hit from Margaret's Counter Attack for 77 hit points!
GS: Gon Guado activates Guard bonus!


<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    Belize thought that if they had Leviathan knock Day's Gear's sword away, he'd be less of a threat. They are taken *thoroughly* aback by the circus of missles that whistle forth and set upon the Aeon with a series of explosions no less destructive than from their cavitation. In the wake of the brilliant illumination of those explosions, Kaguya brings her Golem's magic systems online and sends forth rotten mushroom clouds to slam into Leviathan on either side. Distracted as they are with Day's missiles, they have no space to evade her Ether, and they're rocked back and forth in the waters.
    
    Leviathan's scales remain as powerful as ever when Pearl attempts to slash the Lord of All Waters' throat--while she does leave a deep gash, it's not enough to reach flesh. However, it does help open up the Aeon to *Leo's* incoming attack when he sends those twin Demon Fangs sailing out towards the creature, landing hard and ferocious and sending a spray of blood into the salty air. Liath and Hilde both take advantage of this opening, Liath to send an energy blast, Hilde to cleave their scales directly, with increasing force between them.
    
    Borgan meanwhile makes why he's known as one of the Four Heroes known as he calls up gravitational forces to pull up the waters, then slam them violently *down* upon the Aeon. Sure enough, Leviathan is ripped down into the waters, this time not of their own accord. A streak of red colors the dark waters... One might wonder momentarily if perhaps they've defeated the grand beast.
    
    Then Leviathan ERUPTS on the other side of the Destiny and SLAMS their head down onto its deck, aiming to drag it down on an angle. They won't be able to sink it like that--but they might well send some of its crew sliding overboard, including Liath, Hilde, and Pearl. Their tail whirls violently on the other side of the ship, and not one but a *dozen* waterspouts suddenly careen up from the ocean's surface to crash towards Borgan on his platform, Day and Kaguya in their mechs, and Leo as he perhaps foolishly tries to jump across the ocean mushrooms to get in closer to the Aeon.
    
    Liath and Day may both suspect that there's a hidden agenda behind this assault, but neither Belize nor Leviathan are in a mood to share their secrets. Meanwhile, the Yevon ships continue to hurry west...

GS: Belize has activated a Force Action!
GS: Belize spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Belize has attacked Seraph Liath with Ship Slam!
GS: Belize has attacked Hilde with Ship Slam!
GS: Belize has attacked Pearl with Ship Slam!
GS: Belize has attacked Day Muirwall with Infinite Maelstrom!
GS: Belize has attacked Kaguya with Infinite Maelstrom!
GS: Belize has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Infinite Maelstrom!
GS: Belize has attacked White Knight Leo with Infinite Maelstrom!
GS: Belize takes 21 damage from Poison!
GS: Mighty expired!
GS: Belize gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: CRITICAL! Belize takes a glancing hit from Day Muirwall's Counter Attack for 157 hit points!
GS: Belize has completed their action.

GS: Hilde critically guards Belize's Ship Slam for 11 hit points!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Belize's Ship Slam for 33 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Liath gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Seraph Liath enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: COUNTER! Day Muirwall counterattacks Belize with Counter Attack!
GS: Day Muirwall takes a solid hit from Belize's Infinite Maelstrom for 300 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Day Muirwall gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disrupt applied to Day Muirwall!
GS: Kaguya critically guards Belize's Infinite Maelstrom for 63 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo critically guards Belize's Infinite Maelstrom for 28 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo activates Guard bonus!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan guards a hit from Belize's Infinite Maelstrom for 92 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Black Wizard Borgan gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disrupt applied to Black Wizard Borgan!
GS: Pearl fully evades Belize's Ship Slam for 0 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

There's a sense in which Day's taken aback by the idea of fighting this way, too. The missile armament had been something he'd picked up on Filgaia and asked Naelle to add to Evalach, but fighting from range feels somehow wrong. Nevertheless, the missiles continue to pour out as he holds down a trigger on the left side of his console, filling Leviathan's world with explosions.

It buys him a moment to brace himself. With a frown, he jukes Evalach backwards a little further. Water surges around the Gear's hips as he fires off a few more missiles and maneuvers his machine into a defensive position, trying to keep himself between Bevelle itself and the ships Leviathan's escorting.

When leviathan does vanish beneath the waves again, Day sets his jaw and readies a hand on his controls. "Be careful, everyone," he cautions into his comm pickup. "There's something amiss here and I don't like it."

Something is, in fact, amiss - perhaps even more than one thing, but the most notable one is the massive waterspouts bursting out of the depths. Day reacts with hair-trigger timing, opening his guard to fire more missiles into the wavefront. They scatter out around the water columns and burst towards Leviathan, spreading out before converging.

The attack comes with its costs. Waterspouts batter the white Gear, punching through its open guard and hitting hard enough to leave visible dents and impact marks in its chest and hip armour. The blows strike hard enough that Evalach again loses its footing, dropping into the harbour with a heavy crash and a surge of wavelets. Water gushes in through gaps in the armour plating.

Something above Day's head smokes; the monitors in front of him flicker rapidly. He gasps, widening his eyes. "What-- what's going on? How do I--"

Not for the first time, Day wishes like hell that Naelle Sylkirk were riding along with him.

Slipping his hands out of his controls, Day frantically fumbles with various switches and buttons on the consoles to either side of him. A few of them flicker red at him. A few don't work at all. "Come on, come on, why do these infernal contraptions have to be so non-intuitive!" he curses. "Blast it--"

He takes a breath, forcing himself to focus. A thought bubbles to mind: What would Naelle do in a situation like this?

Pausing, the sober young knight of a monastery in Rolance stares at a spot on the ceiling he doesn't really see.

"Computer," he says aloud. "Override code FOUR THREE SIX ONE FIVE. Verification code...." Day tenses visibly.

And raises both hands to his head. "Code 'NYAAAAAA.'"

All of the screens around him flicker and go dark - and each one suddenly displays the image of a silhouetted cat face over a pair of crossed wrenches. A tiny sound effect plays, digitally filtered.

    *mew~*

Lights in the cockpit shift from red to green as Evalach's onboard systems abruptly reboot. "Thank you, Lady Naelle," Day murmurs with a blush as he takes his controls again.

Outwardly, the first sign that Evalach is alright comes when it rises from the water a distance further away, trying to fall back to a position between safe harbour and the westbound ships. The big Gear has taken hits, but it seems to be running again.

GS: Day Muirwall has attacked Day Muirwall with CODE 43615 OVERRIDE!
GS: Day Muirwall has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Day Muirwall has completed his action.
GS: Day Muirwall heals Day Muirwall! He gains 400 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Day Muirwall!
GS: Mighty applied to Day Muirwall!


<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

Margaret sweeps the chain round - a mobile shield, and one full of pain. Powered by Margaret's arm moving in a reciprocal motion, sweat sheening her brow. "Oh shut up," she shouts towards the Helmsman, and then she looks at Gon -

And he speaks his heart.

Margaret doesn't strike while that happens.

And then her ears flatten back against her head in astonishment as Gon gesticulates and calls forth one of those goddess-damned FIENDS! (Why is this surprising me? Margaret narrates internally. It follows, doesn't it? They have the big summoned beings, why not these little ones? Everything here is made of pyreflies, Margaret thinks as her vision narrows and she twists the chain round and down, wrapping the Melusine's legs as she twists the rest of herself around. The short cycle slices through the thing's face; the longer aims downwards, to carve a gash in Gon's great arm.

And then Margaret grimaces as she feels the line in her leg. The armored faulding on her dress protected the high thigh, but not down lower. Blood drips onto the deck as she pivots round, exhaling.

"Well!" she says. "Honesty is refreshing. I will tell you now why *I* do this, in return."

"I do this because I have seen the Goddess with my own eyes," Margaret says. "As you can no doubt guess from my garb and my insouciant tone, I am not the religious sort naturally. If I had not seen the Goddess I am sure I would have pursued magic and vice and would have lived a happy if potentially foreshortened life. But that's the thing, my dear laddo, once you've seen the creator of the world with your own eyes, you're a little stuck."

Margaret's head tilts back. "I mean to say here - and this is difficult to convey, but I had this conversation on Filgaia too - that I do not mean that I had a vision. I do not mean that I felt her presence or heard things or experienced a minor miracle, so called. I mean that I saw her in Pentagulia, one of our great cities."

Her eyes widen. "And you might think, aha, my loud and brassy new friend with whom I am trading brutal assaults, HOW DO YOU KNOW IT WASN'T A TRICK? And the answer to that is that *I know all of the tricks*. Not one was there. Not one! It was truly and authentically Althena."

Margaret sweeps round one end of her weapon - the weight again - for swishing emphasis. "It changes things, you know, knowing that kind of thing. But you can't un-know things. Even if you drink."

"So why don't you put all of this down," Margaret says, now going into a different pattern - yielding space from Gon, moving closer to the edge of the deck, sending the five-kilogram weight on the end of its mythril chain to smash into him and once in a while swing as if to imperil the helm (and the helmsman along the way). "You've got novel magic there, unless that's really where ALL of these fiends come from. Put it down. Come up to our city, you'll certainly pass the test. You'll have to kiss Borgan's backside," Margaret says, "but that won't be forever."

"Last chance," Margaret says, lips pulling back from her teeth.

GS: Margaret has attacked Gon Guado with Blunt Banter and Sharp Reply!
GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
GS: Gon Guado takes a solid hit from Margaret's Blunt Banter and Sharp Reply for 145 hit points!
GS: Gon Guado enters CONDITION GREEN!!


<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya's unusual magic lingers on the air, and an expert in mushrooms would note that the species here aren't very familiar, either. But how many of those are around?

"You got it!" Kaguya shouts back to Leo, as the gunfire of machina rifles bounces harmlessly off of Cuchulainn's bronzey plating. The pilot narrows her eyes at the displays, next. Liath warns them, and Kaguya thinks for a brief moment about why they'd make such a showy offense.

Then she decides that that's Leo's problem, and she's going to punch the sea serpent with her robot.

The Leviathan strikes before she can, of course--waterspouts careen upward, and slam into Cuchulainn's reinforced plating around its huge 'stomach' area. Bits of plating buckle and whine, but that's their job--the Golem is still coming.

"Damn," Kaguya mutters, "Can't get a shot with it up in there that way... Unless--"

Cuchulainn turns, and abrubtly sinks downward, hand stretching out into the water towards the space underneath the Destiny, towards Leviathan's main body. Its hand extends and then maneuvers up, wrist cannon displaying as Kaguya deploys a metal-eating, paralytic acid for the Aeon's body where it will sink rather than float up to the Destiny.

GS: Kaguya has attacked Belize with Vitriolic Splash!
GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Mighty expired!
GS: Kaguya gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
GS: Belize takes a glancing hit from Kaguya's Vitriolic Splash for 110 hit points!
GS: Entangle applied to Belize!


<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    Something twists in Leo's left shoulder, painfully. Did he wrench it while coming in for a landing on Cuchulainn? He glances aside, and sees a hand-sized chunk of Gear armor sticking out of his flesh. So that's what that was, the White Knight thinks, as the adrenaline rush of Pearl's encouragement starts to wear off. He can't afford to rip it loose now.

    Borgan drags Leviathan into the deep, and for a moment, Leo wonders if the monster is slain. He sees blood, yes, but not Pyreflies, and Aeons always release those when they fall. It's what they're made of. His stomach twists as he realizes what's about to happen.

    "HOLD FAST!" the White Knight roars, over the sound of surging waves. The Destiny is strong enough to endure repeated body-slams--or so Leo hopes--but his troops could be crushed, or flung into the water and left to drown.

    Leviathan gives Leo a more immediate problem to worry about. Leo feels the sea-spray on his face, and reacts instinctively. He reaches down, and pulls up, making a scooping motion with his hand. The coastal seabed surges upwards at his command, stopping the waterspouts with an improvised shield of rock. It holds just long enough for Leo to leap off the final mushroom, gathering up enough raw power for one final jump towards Leviathan's back. He thrusts his blade forward, not to slash, but to impale--to give himself a handhold on the sea-beast's hide.

    This is either incredibly brave or incredibly dumb.

GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Belize with LEOOOOOOO JEEEEEEEEENKINSSSSS!
GS: Weaken expired!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
GS: Belize guards a hit from White Knight Leo's LEOOOOOOO JEEEEEEEEENKINSSSSS for 88 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Belize activates Guard bonus!


<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.

The head of Leviathan SLAMS down onto the deck of the Destiny with great force. It's enough to cause the ship to tilt abruptly, and to cause those with improper footing to slide off into the watery abyss below.

But, Hilde has planned for this. She sees the head descend... and, as it collides with the Destiny Hilde jumps, using the force of the ships movement to provide additional force with which to fling herself up into the air. She aims to position herself just above Leviathan, taking her sword up in both hands and raising it above her head.

As she descends she swings her sword down, her momentum contributing to a powerful, cleaving strike. With any luck, she'll land on their head, as well.

From there... she'll figure out her next course of action.

GS: Hilde spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling!
GS: Hilde has attacked Belize with Titan Cleaver!
GS: Hilde has completed her action.
GS: Belize takes a solid hit from Hilde's Titan Cleaver for 271 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!


<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    The slamming of tail and head of Leviathan on the Destiny sends Pearl stumbling, and more importantly, hurts. She lets out a low growl, staring down the Aeon, as futile an activity as that is. It's almost certain that Leviathan cares not for the cold grey eyes upon it. Nonetheless, she readies her grapnel.

    ---------

    This time, Pearl lands on the ship, only for Leviathan to rock it badly. Items and crew fall from the from the decks. Pearl, however, remains on her feet, the claws on her boots digging into the deck and keeping her balance. She makes no move to help her fellow guard. Instead, she starts running straight for Leviathan, running up a ladder that's now diagonal, trying to close the distance before Leviathan can pull back, before launching herself at the top of the Aeon's head. She opens her mouth, and aims to land, digging in her claws if she can. But that's not the point. Instead, there's a bright yellow glint on that overside tooth of hers.

    And then Pearl attempts to bite Leviathan, funneling yellow ki through it to try and pierce Leviathan's skull. Well, mostly yellow. The particular close and astute would notice it slowly turn a dark purple.

GS: Pearl has attacked Belize with Jugular Fang!
GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Pearl has completed her action.
GS: Belize takes a solid hit from Pearl's Jugular Fang for 149 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disease applied to Belize!


<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

A voice calls out to her; Liath comes to a brief halt just as that cerulean slice of energy is shorn free from the edge of her blade, gold eyes tracking towards--

"Ah! Lady Hilde," she greets -- and despite the fact that they have not spoken before now, and despite the fact that they are currently fighting an extremely large and angry serpent god-thing, Liath still finds it within herself to greet the knight with the warmth and welcome one might experience with an old friend.

"I am, at the least, heartened to see you are here to help. But let us keep our wits about us, yes? I believe our adversary may have yet more cards to play."

A fact that Leviathan makes patently clear the very second it reemerges in all its sodden splendor. The head of the beastly demigod crashes into the deck, and even the mighty DEstiny is sent towards a violent angle at the impact. Liath is unseated, -thrown- off her feet with such violence that she strikes ground shoulder-first with a rough THUMP of impact. But just as it might seem that she'll be thrown clear off --

-- the Seraph -pushes- off the ground with a splattering spray of seawater, launching herself bodily through the air. In the dwindling twilight of the setting sun, the skies grow alight with a magnificent nebula of rainbow hues that ring like liquid light around Liath's body as she soars, painted by the edge of her spinning blade.

It's that ring of burning light and the sharpened edge of her blade that Liath strikes at the Leviathan with first in one artful flourish of a collision, hoping to finish off her shimmering spin by -driving- the tip of her blade into the snout of the beast just deep enough to stick herself to their maw.

"Even for one such as you, attempting to liberate this city with such a force would be foolhardy," she observes to Leviathan, calmly, her voice carrying through the sound of battle.

"No. All this is but a farce. You are here to secure something. Something precious. Are you not?"

GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Belize with Shimmer Spin!
GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.
GS: Belize takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Shimmer Spin for 212 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.

    The Melusine disintegrates back into its component Pyreflies. Some of them flit annoyingly close to Margaret, but do no further turning-into-Fiending. (There is some of that 'wOOooOooOooo' noise but that moves towards the metaphorical rear view mirror with the ship's current heading and speed.)
     A scratch forms across the back of the gauntlet on his right arm and travels down into cloth where his arm isn't as protected, staining his sleeve with blood that is not at all red. It's a shallower gash than it may appear.
     "If I ma-" Gon is cut off before he can make the meaningful request to not do this, but it is too late, for he has been roped into mutual motive rants, which is a novel situation and one he should be getting used to. He exhales out the nose.
     The other ship he drew some ambient pyreflies for seems to be doing better than moments ago, so the thought of trying to use it to draw some more for another Fiend meets that dead end as he becomes a captive audience.
     "Shoulder," Helmsman repeats like someone accidentally is pressing the 'talk' button next to him and cannot escape repeating the dialogue.
     Margaret tops off her offer with a few dangerous swings. Gon jumps the gun on that first sweep and is mockingly 'swished' for assuming that's about to come his way, bringing that large left hand up over his face, softening up his defense as Margaret goes for the edge and tags him upside the head. The Guado are not exactly made of stern stuff. A vein on his face bursts outright as he is hurled off his feet and into the helmsman's shoulder.
     This act saves the helmsman from being beaned upside the head, though the weight snaps off two teeth from the wheel. As the helmsman rises and rolls his shoulder, he realizes that the act of Gon barreling into him has somehow dislocated and re-located it, and it's better than ever.
     "My shoulder!" Helmsman is content.
     Gon slams a hand on one rail to rise up.
     "Should this Althena have been the... creator, is it? This 'Goddess.'" He has problems pronouncing this word correctly, weird vowel emphasis. "Then perhaps it would behoove of you and yours to leave this part of... creation of hers... alone." A probable concussion.
     Margaret offers him to go to some city, pass a test involving magic, and... kissing Borgan's backside.
     "Borgan." Gon mutters the words. "Borgan. Is that... is that the one who looks like a boar who has happily soiled themselves and acted as though he were worthy of a great reward for it?"
     Words that someone else has used, coincidentally.
     This is met with a sudden lunging shoulder tackle with a snarl, simplicity in action as an answer. "I have come out of this dialogue with ever higher offense than we began!" He vows to never engage in this sort of Otherworlder malarky ever again!
     (A vow in the same league as a typical New Year's Resolution, over in November City.)

GS: Gon Guado has attacked Margaret with Garm Tackle!
GS: Gon Guado has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gon Guado has completed his action.
GS: Margaret takes a solid hit from Gon Guado's Garm Tackle for 121 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Margaret gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disrupt applied to Margaret!
GS: Margaret enters CONDITION GREEN!!


<Pose Tracker> Black Wizard Borgan has posed.

Borgan releases the gravity shift with a grunt, the upraised waters falling back down to the sea with a tremendous noise.

Leviathan is not dead.

Borgan knows that even as he sees the blood in the depths; he can still feel the mass of Leviathan in the water, and - like Leo - he doesn't see the pyreflies. But just because the Aeon is still present doesn't mean that an immediate response is forthcoming, and Borgan takes the time to move toward the Destiny. His platform accelerates as he approaches.

He does not quite get there before Leviathan resurfaces. He's close now, but not on the deck - no danger of sliding off himself as his platform is still upright, but nearby and able to see what's going on.

But there are also waterspouts. Borgan practically vanishes behind - under - them for a moment, only to accelerate straight upwards with a bellow. He's drenched, off-balance - he has his staff planted against his platform base - and glowing with energy.

Borgan makes a complex movement with his fingers, and two things happen at once. The damaged side of the Destiny, where the ship is tilting, abruptly has a barrier appear; mud and sand and silt dragged up from the bottom of the sea here, coating the side with a crust to try to hold people on who want to stay on.

And the other thing that happens is that an equal amount of fast-moving detritus slaps into Leviathan's underside, narrowed to a thin line and sawing like a hydro cutter, an updrawn spike of particulate earth in all its forms.

Borgan has lost track of the other Yevonite ships, but some of the other Neo-Vane ships have not, and they are torn between following Borgan's flare command and following. One of them does begin to follow, the crew taking a risk.

GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Belize with Sand Spike!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has completed his action.
GS: Belize guards a hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Sand Spike for 152 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    Liath accuses Leviathan--and by proxy, their Summoner--of putting on a farce of an assault, of actually being out to retrieve something. Though Leviathan may be far away from Belize at this time, an Aeon and their Summoner are inorexibly linked, and through them, they are able to hear Liath's words. Belize narrows their eyes.
    
    "Perceptive," they murmur. "But that won't help you. After all, what I seek is not *here*..."
    
    And Leviathan may narrow their enormous eyes at Liath, but they certainly don't answer.
    
    Day pauses and momentarily disengages from battle to restore some of the functions of his mech; Borgan summons sand and earthy detritus from the bottom of the local waters to buzzsaw into Leviathan's underside, chewing through a long line of scales; Leo leaps onto Leviathan's neck to bury his blade therein; Hilde spins down onto their head with a ferocious cleaving strike; Pearl leaps onto the sea serpent to bite them with ki, straight through their jaw; Liath launches herself at them in a shimmer of rainbow light to drive her blade into their snout; and last but not least, Kaguya dives underwater to blast Leviathan with a paralytic agent to drag them further underwater.
    
    This last point may perhaps drive home the utter importance of battlefield coordination. The Destiny may be spared from further assault because of Kaguya, sure, but for everyone else? The time to jump onto a sea serpent is absolutely not when someone has just made it have to dive.
    
    And so, roaring with pain and fury from all these direct assaults, Leviathan potentially drags Liath, Hilde, Pearl, *and* Leo down into the brink with them. It's a fierce and abrupt dive, their body spasming with the strange paralytic that Kaguya thrust in one of the chinks in their scales the others blasted earlier, and if someone doesn't come to their aid quickly, some of them may well drown.
    
    While they're underwater anyway, that same magical force stretches forth and *yanks* at Day and Kaguya's Gears, attempting to crush that outer armor inwards as only the absolute gravitation of the ocean depths can. Even if the cockpits remain intact and in one piece, all it takes is one leak... Meanwhile, Borgan is spared all this due to still flying around on his platform--but the Neo-Vane ship that begins to follow the escaping Yevon boats merits Belize's and thus Leviathan's *immediate* attention. Their magic surging into the ocean, the seas beneath the ship lurch, whorl, and then *yank* down on the hull in an attempt to keep it in place... if not outright rip it out and sink the whole thing.

GS: Belize has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Briny Deep!
GS: Belize has attacked Kaguya with Submarine Force!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize has attacked Day Muirwall with Submarine Force!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize has attacked Seraph Liath with Overdrive - Ocean Trench!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize has attacked Hilde with Overdrive - Ocean Trench!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize has attacked Pearl with Overdrive - Ocean Trench!
GS: Belize has attacked White Knight Leo with Overdrive - Ocean Trench!
GS: Belize takes 20 damage from Poison!
GS: Poison expired!
GS: Belize gains 5 FP from Sufferer!
GS: Belize has completed their action.

GS: Hilde guards a hit from Belize's Overdrive - Ocean Trench for 118 hit points!
GS: Pearl takes a solid hit from Belize's Overdrive - Ocean Trench for 208 hit points!
GS: Day Muirwall critically guards Belize's Submarine Force for 52 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Day Muirwall gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Kaguya critically guards Belize's Submarine Force for 50 hit points!
GS: Kaguya enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Break expired!
GS: Seraph Liath has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraph Liath takes a glancing hit from Belize's Overdrive - Ocean Trench for 93 hit points!
GS: Seraph Liath activates Evade bonus!
GS: Seraph Liath enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan critically guards Belize's Briny Deep for 25 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Belize!
GS: White Knight Leo takes a solid hit from Belize's Overdrive - Ocean Trench for 188 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

There's more to Day's pause than just restoration. He's trying to keep tabs on those Yevonite ships trying to break the blockade. While a few of Borgan's ships are pursuing too, evalach's got more by way of weapons.

The downside is that Evalach is not a boat, and it's already having trouble staying buoyant.

Leviathan calls forth the power of gravity. The depths of the ocean beckon, and for a painful moment, it seems like the Gear will have no choice but to be called. Structural elements creak and battered armour plates begin to buckle as the Gear sags lower in the water, sinking up to where its navel would be if it had one. Day widens his eyes and whips his hands over his controls frantically, trying to figure out how the hell to get out of this one.

He pauses as something occurs to him - and with a deeper blush, he clears his throat.

"Activate, uh... emergency... buoyan... buoyan...sys... boy...." He tries to get the technical term out before throwing one hand in the air. "Look, you accursed contraption, turn on the cat-hates-bath thing!"

Again the Gear's computer responds with its engineer's calling card: *mew~*

There is a sudden hiss of rushing air. Blooming out from the insides of Evalach's aegis binders, a pair of gigantic orange air sacs begin to bloat up. The Gear bobs comically back up in the water as a pair of giant Gear-sized floaties deploy and keep it out of the briny depths... for now.

Day is blushing intently. Naelle, I both adore you and want to throw you in the sea.

All he can do is cover for the silliness of it all by grabbing ahold of a lever and pulling it back. Evalach rumbles in the water as some internal reactor revs, power pouring into the machine's thrusters. Steam gushes out from rapidly-heating nozzles as power builds, both in the machine itself and in the thrusters lining the flats of its huge sword. Day shifts his grip back into his blade control, taking the weapon in both of Evalach's hands and lining Leviathan up on his forward monitor.

"Bathtime is over," he growls. "Let's finish this now."

He jams both heels into his control harnesses. The boom of thrusters echoes across the water, kicking up stormtossed waves as Evalach bursts across the harbour's surface like a speeding hovercraft, held aloft by both flotation devices and sheer speed. Day braces against G as he cranks his control arm back, firing his sword thrusters as he barrels in at Leviathan.

"HOOOOOOOOAHT!!" he roars as he delivers a massive two-handed swing - a blow intended to tear clean through the serpent of legend!

GS: Day Muirwall spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Day Muirwall has attacked Day Muirwall with Boost Capacitor!
GS: Day Muirwall has launched an attack Link!
GS: Day Muirwall accepts Day Muirwall's Boost Capacitor for 0 hit points!
GS: Burst and Hyper applied to Day Muirwall!
GS: Day Muirwall spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Day Muirwall has attacked Belize with Roaring Lion!
GS: Day Muirwall has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Day Muirwall has completed his action.
GS: Belize takes a solid hit from Day Muirwall's Roaring Lion for 426 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!


<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.

"I feel much the same way!" Hilde replies with a nod. "Indubitably - but so too do we. Let us approach this cautiously."

This is not long before she leaps onto the head of said large and angry serpent god-thing - but she, at least, has the plan.

Leviathan dives, with Hilde still standing atop their head. She had considered this a possibility. She sheathes her sword, instead drawing out her Rope Lance and attempting to jam it between a few of their scales. The serpent begins to thrash, then, presenting the danger of being struck by both their writhing body and the churning of the waters. Both send Hilde upward through the water, allowing her a moment to catch her breath... and a moment to draw out her shield and recite a codeword.

The Rope Lance's magic sends her flying through the waters once more with her shield held forward, attempting to slam into them with the full force of a torpedo.

GS: Hilde has attacked Belize with Dauntless Charge!
GS: Hilde has completed her action.
GS: Belize takes a glancing hit from Hilde's Dauntless Charge for 124 hit points!
GS: Cover applied to Hilde!


<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.

"If it were up to me, sugarloaf, I'd leave you all to be miserable at each other indefinitely, and keep nothing but one of your beaches," Margaret retorts to Gon as she draws back after the completion of her blow. "But Sin is our problem now too, and what's more--" The helmsman is struck but -

Up Gon comes.

"But I don't make the rules, do I? I don't make these calls. I - hm - well," Margaret says, as if she has the psychic moment of running her tongue over a missing tooth and not wanting to dwell on it, "let's put it this way, then: she CREATED this entire planet, and creation is an act of power, and power, used intelligently, can be transmitted from one space to another. What takes ten months to create and a tenth of a second to destroy?"

Borgan. No, presumably, it is not Borgan, and Margaret exhales at Gon's mention of the man.

"Just the one," Margaret says with a sinuous motion of hips and shoulders and a rolling of her eyes. And that's when Gon makes his move!

He comes towards Margaret and his shoulder hits her RIGHT in the sternum hard enough to make her ribcage pop and the leather of her armor creak. She is briefly sprawled on his charging shoulder, her weapon trailing after her as her feet leave the ground. She raises one hand to her mouth as if to cover something up and says -

"The answer is a person's life."

Margaret sweeps her index finger over her lips and straightens her back with main force, enough to push herself upright even as the chain of her kusarigama rattles on the deck. Then she puckers her lips and kisses the air again. This time, however, with feeling. There is a violet wave - one with a cardioid shape - towards the side of Gon Guado's head.

Then the gem on that old ring flickers - and Margaret kicks away from Gon, up into the air, where she seems to float for a fraction of a second. Another sparkle of sea green and up she goes in a vault, eight feet into the air above him. Once more, and then down -

For the magic is a sophisticated invocation of Darkness itself, one that skates the edge of the ancient polarities. It provides the same blessing and personal improvement and alteration that one can achieve by eating certain funguses, heavily skewed by a certain grinding frenetic spangling. If Gon is strong of will perhaps this Althenan sorcery can be shaken off, or seen past; but it would be easy to simply watch the stars shine...

... and that is the end of the magic...

For Margaret's other contribution is to land behind him and double up the chain of her weapon. "Starrrrlllliggghhhttt," Margaret grinds out through tightened, pained teeth and a half-spasming solar plexus. There is a nebular swirl round her legs and then

Snap! The chain is thrown as if to engirdle Gon.

If he cannot escape this, the end is imminent. In this case 'the end' is best understood as a back to belly suplex aiming to put as much of Gon, starting from the head, into the ship's deck as possible, executed with the chilling momentum and efficiency of a piston engine. (It always comes back to the machina, doesn't it?)

GS: Margaret spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Margaret enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Margaret has attacked Gon Guado with Illusion Kiss!
GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Margaret has launched an attack Link!
GS: Margaret has attacked Gon Guado with A Frank Expression of My Sentiments and Feelings!
GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
GS: Gon Guado has activated a Force Action!
GS: Gon Guado guards a hit from Margaret's Illusion Kiss for 0 hit points!
GS: Jam and Slow applied to Gon Guado!
GS: Gon Guado enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Gon Guado accepts Margaret's A Frank Expression of My Sentiments and Feelings for 194 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    Leo's blade buries deep in Leviathan's scales. The White Knight braces with his feet, and grips his weapon with both hands; as the others join him, he makes ready to start dragging the sword through the Aeon's flesh. This might not be a terrible plan, if Kaguya hadn't just doused the Aeon with horrible toxin.

    Leviathan does the sensible thing, and dives, dragging Leo along for the ride.

    The pressure crushes the breath from the White Knight's lungs. It surges for the surface, a torrent of rising bubbles. Leo holds on, because it feels like if he doesn't, he'll be dragged away by the undertow, and drowned. If he keeps clinging to the Aeon, he'll be dragged along with it, and drowned. Distantly--through the haze of oxygen deprivation--Leo feels something. The earth rises and surges at another's command. Borgan...?

    Leo doesn't have Borgan's power, or his refined control, but he's got just enough sorcerous skill to save himself. A pillar of earth surges from the deep, scraping Leo off Leviathan's side. Blood spills into the water as he rips his blade free. A moment later, his head breaks the surface, and he gasps for breath. The pillar rises above the waterline, a narrow toothpick of earth that Leviathan could easily shatter, if they tried. It's why Leo didn't try the gambit earlier.

    Soaking-wet and bruised and bleeding, the White Knight turns his focus inwards. Breath returns to him. Power pulses through his limbs, keeping him upright even when he wants to collapse into unconsciousness. He sights Leviathan as they go after the Neo-Vane ship. He raises his blade, and drops it into a ready stance. Liath's kaleidoscopic light glimmers along its edge.

    "LION'S HOWL!" Leo cries, as he steps forward, and swings. Every muscle fiber is aligned behind that strike. Every last bit of his breath empowers it. A massive shockwave races towards the Aeon--a surge of energy that quickly takes the shape of its namesake. The sound of screaming air becomes a lion's roar as the phantasmal beast tries to clamp down on Leviathan's neck.

GS: White Knight Leo spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Belize with Lion's Howl!
GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo!
GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Belize takes a glancing hit from White Knight Leo's Lion's Howl for 330 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya is a little focused on Leviathan at the moment--and she misses the fact that the serpent might have to dive with people on it after all of this. Kaguya spots this fact with a frown in the cockpit. "...Well, that sucks."

Before she can react to this fact, though, she's forced to content with the mighty force of the ocean depth; outer armor strains against the great forces of the sea. Kaguya flicks a few more switches, turns a dial, and slams a button as she starts to send reinforcement to those sections of the Golem where she can, making use of the complicated systems to secure it against that power. This time, it works. This time. But this is definitely a locale that advantages Leviathan...

Which means te battle needs to end sooner than later. Kaguya makes a judgement--and spots Hilde flashing through the water. She first communicates over the radio, "Get ready to jump away from the Aeon." She uses the Spirans' terminology, instead of the Guard's 'Eidolon', which might be strange but might not register as mattering. "Hilde, Leo, accounted for..." She keeps an eye out for her favorite assassin as she starts another set of switches, this time rising out from the water again, the ocean surging away from the machine's bulk as separate emitters begin to shine. They reach a green glow, which reaches a pitch, and turns to beams, each converging on one single point. It burns there through the air, temperature rising.

Her internal display reports building power, and only once it reaches a high enough value does Kaguya let herself turn for the final adjustments, aiming for where Leviathan is likely to be, away from where the others are targetting as best she can.

"Deploying primary armament," Kaguya says, all business as she fires the weapon, and a green beam of power lances forth, water flashing to steam in some places where it hits.

"Ignition!"

GS: Kaguya has activated a Force Action!
GS: Kaguya has attacked Belize with Wrath of the Ancients!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Belize takes a glancing hit from Kaguya's Wrath of the Ancients for 297 hit points!
GS: Belize activates Evade bonus!


<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    Pearl is not one of the lucky ones not to evade getting dragged into the deep. Pearl doesn't have time to take a deep breath. Instead she gets pulled down, and catches a mouth full of water, but manages to stop it being a lungful instead. It takes her time to surface, and she is not looking well for her efforts. She hacks and splutters, trying to keep herself in the fightto catch herself at Borgan's Pillar. She simply swims.

    Anger occupies Pearl's eyes, and she starts swimming straight of Leviathan again, rather than retreating to the Destiny. She doesn't stop at the pillar Borgan has raised. She moves with one goal: to grab on to any part of Leviathan's body. Easier said than done, but if she can...

    She climbs, digging the claws on her gloves and boots into Leviathan's body. It's reckless, and driving those claws in with as much power as she can. "I will make you bleed for that." She growls. Threats do not really work on aeons, but it felt necessary. She continues to try and climb while taking as mush flesh as possible.

GS: Pearl has activated a Force Action!
GS: Pearl spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Pearl has attacked Belize with Overwhelming Assault!
GS: Pearl has completed her action.
GS: Belize takes a solid hit from Pearl's Overwhelming Assault for 196 hit points!
GS: Disrupt applied to Belize!


<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

Blade driven in deep enough to hold fast, Liath stares into that narrowed eye with a look unfaltering.

There is no answer from the Aeon, but she smiles a sharp smile all the same. She knows challenge when she sees it.

"Very well. A chase it shall be, then."

And she never fails to respond to a challenge.

"We shall see the depths of your drive."

But the serpent goes slack with the paralytic agent of Kaguya's weaponry. Bright eyes flutter in a blink as the beast sinks down deep towards the depths. There is, potentially, time enough to yank her blade free, to hurl herself back onto the deck of the Destiny.

She does not. She narrows her eyes.

And she holds fast to her blade as Leviathan plunges into the depths.

Into the brine Liath sinks. Breathing is simple artifice for a Seraph; consider it, perhaps, a learned behavior from when man could more easily see their kind and it was more necessary to be able to blend in. As it stands, there is little risk to a spiritual entity seized by the undercurrents of the sea in terms of lacking in biological necessities -- but that doesn't mean it isn't without distinct and potent risk to be attached to the side of a spasming, magically churning sea serpent many times your size immersed in an element it has nigh-absolute mastery over.

To wit: caught by the oceanic whorl, Liath is -ripped- off her place on the serpent's hide, crushing pressure of the ocean exerting itself upon her as she isthrust deeper and deeper down into the depths. She swings her blade as she goes. A glimmer of light can be seen.

But that light eventually disappears into the blackness of the ocean until it is little more than a glimmer... and then nothing.

Within the black echo of the abyss, bubbles spew unseen from Liath's lips as they part. She feels her asymmetric armor crunch inward along her arm with a grimace. She feels the pressure of the ocean surround and embrace her like an iron vice.

And her blade begins to glow.

It begins as it ended, in a glimmer. A little hint of swirling white. Whites split off into greens, and oranges, and violets and pinks and browns and cyans and split further still into reds and blues and yellows until the dark abyss beneath Leviathan is replaced by a churning chasm of color.

And within that maelstrom, Prime Lord Liath rises, her eyes aglow with molten gold and her sword at her side now a blade of light shaped like an angel's pinion that dwarfs her so significantly it may well compare to the serpent above it in size.

The serpent that immense blade is currently swinging at.

In a handful of seconds, water EXPLODES from the ocean surface in a geyser as Liath's upwards stroke sends her STRAIGHT into the air, a nebula of light in the evening skies and eyes wide with ferocity.

"bluh," is her first eloquent sputter. Next, over those communications:

"We must drive this beast hence with all haste and mobilize swiftly! This is not our target! Make like the greasiest of lightning, we must fly fast!"

Well. She almost got it mostly right.

GS: Seraph Liath has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraph Liath has attacked Belize with Heavenly Bladewing!
GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.
GS: Belize takes a solid hit from Seraph Liath's Heavenly Bladewing for 263 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> Black Wizard Borgan has posed.

For a moment, Borgan is spared.

This gives him only a few instants, but it's a few instants he needs, and it's a few instants he takes Now he *does* touch down on the Destiny; he doesn't get off his platform but he appears to appreciate the contact. There's only a few things he can do - the Gravity Bomb, though it would be terribly effective on something of this size, is not a great choice with so many Guards all over the Aeon.

It doesn't occur to Borgan to go through them to get to Leviathan. For all his faults - and he has a few - he's not that kind of a man.

Instead, there's something else that occurs to him. He hasn't finished the spell yet, technically; he's been reconstructing it from fragmentary records. He's sure Ghaleon, as old as he is, would have something to say about it. But Ghaleon's not here, and it's *exactly* what he needs.

--

While Borgan begins an unfamiliar chant, the Neo-Vane ship is dealing with A Problem. The seas beneath the ship churn, whirl, and pull down - but the ship, improbably, remains suspended on what definitely isn't enough water to hold it up.

The current helmsman, a wizard of Neo-Vane, has his arms spread. He's shaking from the effort to use so much magic, holding the ship up on a pillar of compressed air - and after about ten seconds he drops, unconscious, to the deck.

But by that point the Neo-Vane ship has mostly passed the vortex created by Leviathan. It cants alarmingly, dipping backwards at an angle that suggests it's going to fall back, but manages - just barely - not to.

The ship, however, is further back than, say, Day, or any of the others who have been chasing the blockade-runners for longer. It's all the mages on board can do to attack at all, and the element of choice is lightning; bolts fired at the retreating ships in the hope of catching one of them alight or blasting a hole in its side.

--

Meanwhile, Borgan finishes his chant, and with a great two-handed chopping motion of his staff, propels it at Leviathan.

To most people, it is nothing at all. A ripple in the air, a lash of darkness that passes by in a flash. To Liath, or another Seraph, it is a little more; an unpleasant yank, a pull at her power. But he's not aimed it at her, and it is at least fairly precise.

But to Leviathan, a being constructed of energy, bound entirely in a memory of the ancients and given power, the blow is devastating; the draining surge *pulling out* power from Leviathan in a wild fountain of riotous colours and forces. There is no way Borgan can absorb the magical energy, and he doesn't try; as far as he's concerned, the better place for it is 'anywhere but Leviathan'.

"Let's see - their so-called mages - handle that," Borgan gets out, once again catching his breath from the great release of power.

GS: Black Wizard Borgan has activated a Force Action!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Weaken expired!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Belize with Fragmentary Magic: Dispersal!
GS: Disrupt expired!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Belize takes a solid hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Fragmentary Magic: Dispersal for 348 hit points!


<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.

    Gon whirls on one foot and stomps the other down to arrest his momentum after tackling to halt himself from going overboard. Not that going overboard is, unto itself, fatal for him... but it would be more than a little inconvenient. More than moderately inconvenient. (Just two notches under greatly inconvenient, as an exact specification.)
     Just in time for him to swipe a begauntlet-ed hand right in the way of a blown kiss, as if this were the singular do-or-die attack from Margaret he must not falter to. (It 'lands' on the back of the gauntlet that got scratched.) He exhales almost peaceably, as if the displeasure of another were faintly averted - but there is a sensation where something touches at where his forearm was cut.

    ELSEWERE

     An aging Guado woman picks up a cutting knife for a spell, observes it, looks out the window, and puts it back down. She does not let go of the handle for another ten seconds.

     BACK THERE

     Visions fill the air. Faint, but the colors violate his sense of what colors should be in the air. The stars should not be shining at this hour, he reasons - he grunts in disapproval as he follows along to Margaret's position. He may have overcome (most) of the illusory magic, but there is a tactical decision he elects upon that is unwise...
     ...baked right into the cultural rigidity of a fighting style that has only been truly challenged by the arrival of those from beyond Spira's shores. The Guado people are lanky, lightweight, and quick - but not sturdy. The gauntlets on their hands, their traditional weapon, serves to protect those large hands that would otherwise be easy to injure. Shatter, break.
     The answer might be to better leverage their natural agility, but in the experienced Guardian's case - to his folly - as Margaret comes down...
     He misreads the diving motion as being the attack and throws his guard up as she slips behind him and wraps that chain around him, where the difference in muscular strength becomes more apparent.
     His eyes pop open wide, legs splaying out as a suplex is underway.
     Carpentry shatters everywhere.
     Legs stick up, one twitching.
     The Helmsman winces, above and beyond the mortal danger they are now in, as if he could feel it in his--
     Gon's voice is muffled but it's two syllables that sound like it starts with 's' and ends in 'r'.
     He does not free himself from being suplexed into - and through - the deck.

<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    Day saves himself from drowning by way of Gear-sized floaties. If Belize were less of a humorless hardass, they might crack up at the sight. They instead look around them, at the Yevon ships and the Althenan embargo. One ship out of three has made it past so far, and the other two close after, with Leviathan taking action to stymie initial attempts to follow. There's still a Guard on *this* ship, battling Gon, and there's still two more ships left to go. Leviathan still has power left, but the Guard is proving even harder to take out than they'd imagined. They hadn't thought that they'd be able to win this battle outright, not as outnumbered as they are, but... They take a deep breath and let it out. What's important as that their forces break through and get enough of a lead that they can remain ahead of the Guard. If they can bring enough force to bear to hold the Guards back just a little longer...
    
    A little longer is apparently all the have left, with the immense force that the Guards bring to bear. Day cleaves hard into Leviathan's scales and fins, scoring not just angry red but whirling iridescent white; Kaguya sends a green lance of energy into the Aeon, following up Day's more physical strike; Hilde lances onto Leviathan and slams into them with her shield; Pearl gauges out scales as she claws across the Aeon with as much force as she can muster; Leo makes a Beast of himself as he rams a shockwave into Leviathan's long neck; Liath's sword spins and arches in rainbow brilliance across pearlescent fins; Borgan sets his magics to attempt to rend Leviathan from reality itself, pulling apart the very magical matter of their being. Now pyreflies rise en masse from the aeon, a way for the Guard to know that they're doing real rather than cosmetic damage at this point.
    
    Yet...
    
    Yet Leviathan still survives. And Liath is trying to mobilize the Guard away from them, and towards that which they are here to protect.
    
    Slowly, with a great majesty that is not lessened for all the battering that they've suffered through this battle, Leviathan raises its great head out of the waters to glare down upon their array of enemies. In the darkness of early evening, their eyes seem to glow golden, a sub-eyelid blinking even as the over-eyelid remains open. Their maw opens wide, and they ROAR in defiance to all assembled, to all that would bring them down. Liath acknowledged the challenge inherent in their presence, and now more than ever that's true.
    
    Leviathan still survives. And with the last vestiges of their strength, they will rip that strength from their enemies as Borgan had done to them. He'll see very well indeed how Yevon's mages deal with *this*.
    
    Plunging back into the waters, Leviathan swims with all their immense force, whorling their sinuous body in intense, increasing circles. Naturally, a whirlpool begins to form--but this isn't a natural whirlpool, that pulls ships inwards. It's one infused with the magic of the Lord of All Waters--and so, while it may still drain the lifeforce of those many beings still assaulting it from all corners, the vortex physically shoves *outwards*, smashing into all ships it encounters with brutal force... save those ships that belong to Yevon, which those waters than pick up with gentle strength to force them that last bit away past the embargo. This same motion might well send Margaret off-balance, knocking her off of Gon and making her realize the current situation. Whatever she does about it, the Yevon boats will be sent speeding to the west on the surge of that ever-outward coil.
    
    The Miraculous Spiral.

GS: Belize has become ENRAGED!
GS: You have activated the Boss Action Enrage! You may attack players multiple times this round and have twice as many
actions! After this round, you will be too exhausted to fight for one round, and your defenses will be reduced!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Snipe!

GS: Belize spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Belize has attacked Kaguya with Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis!
GS: Belize spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Belize has attacked Seraph Liath with Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis!
GS: Belize spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Belize has attacked Day Muirwall with Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis!
GS: Belize spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Belize has attacked White Knight Leo with Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis!
GS: Belize spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Belize has attacked Pearl with Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Belize spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Belize has attacked Hilde with Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis!
GS: Belize spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Belize has attacked Black Wizard Borgan with Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis!
GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo!

GS: Day Muirwall has activated a Force Action!
GS: CRITICAL! Day Muirwall guards a hit from Belize's Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis for 336 hit points!
GS: Belize drains Day Muirwall! Belize gains 0 temporary hit points!
GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Belize's Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis for 106 hit points!
GS: Belize drains Pearl! Belize gains 0 temporary hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Kaguya critically guards Belize's Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis for 108 hit points!
GS: Belize drains Kaguya! Belize gains 0 temporary hit points!
GS: White Knight Leo guards a hit from Belize's Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis for 124 hit points!
GS: Belize drains White Knight Leo! Belize gains 0 temporary hit points!
GS: White Knight Leo has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Hilde has activated a Force Action!
GS: Seraph Liath guards a hit from Belize's Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis for 109 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Liath gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Seraph Liath enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Belize drains Seraph Liath! Belize gains 0 temporary hit points!
GS: Hilde guards a hit from Belize's Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis for 118 hit points!
GS: Belize drains Hilde! Belize gains 0 temporary hit points!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan guards a hit from Belize's Overdrive - Spira Mirabilis for 121 hit points!
GS: Belize drains Black Wizard Borgan! Belize gains 0 temporary hit points!


<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.

    Leo sinks to his knees, winded once again. Spots of color dart around before his eyes, mingling with the Pyreflies pouring from Leviathan's wounds. The White Knight can't tell which is which. "Where--" he chokes out, "do you think you're--" Blood drips down his shoulder from his shrapnel wound; the turbulent underwater passage ripped the metal free, opening the injury further. A dull sinking sensation settles in his gut as Leviathan dives once again.

    "BRACE!" Leo roars. It's all he gets out.

    The wave of water shatters his improvised platform. It picks the White Knight up and pulls him along, even as the sorcerous current pulls his lifeforce back to Leviathan. Leo's hand and head break the surface, and he claws for air--but then he sags forwards, into an involuntary dead man's float.

    Someone might want to grab him before it becomes a bit more literal.

<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.

Kaguya calls for everyone to scatter, so Hilde does so - she wrenches her Rope Lance away from Leviathan and kicks off to get a bit more distance as Kaguya's attack comes in. This means she's not quite directly attached to Leviathan as they begin to swim in a great spiral. She can feel it - they aren't trying to pull her physical form in, but her very lifeforce. Remaining in these waters is folly.

With a grimace Hilde turns. The Destiny is being rocked by waves, so it proves a difficult target... but still she hurls the Rope Lance true. It connects to the side, and a muttered codeword causing it to emit ice, sticking firm. A second draws her from the waters, landing her once more on the deck of the Destiny. She nearly collapses - Leviathan's spiral had drained much more than she thought. ...But, she still has the energy stand.

And now, she draws out something else - the standard of the Guard, which she plants on one of Borgan's platforms.

"Hold firm! We must make one last push!" Hilde calls out. "This battle is not yet finished - and there is another task ahead of us beyond it!"

Right now she doesn't have the strength to leap back in and wrestle with Leviathan... but, maybe she can at least provide a small bit of well-needed encouragement to those who do.

GS: Hilde has attacked Day Muirwall with Battle Standard!
GS: Hilde has completed her action.
GS: Day Muirwall accepts Hilde's Battle Standard for 0 hit points!
GS: Day Muirwall activates Reload!!


<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Liath's reminder is a timely one--Kaguya looks out to the blockade afar and sees those ships. She looks back to the displays showing her Leviathan, and allows herself an irritated look. Probably she should try to focus on that, make use of her Golem's bulk to tough out assaults on the way over. But...

But she wants to focus on Leviathan, and for a moment at least she has no choice but to do so. Levaithan, with what strength remains, challenges them all with a roar of defiance. Kaguya looks through her screens and finds herself admiring that defiance, even in an enemy. It's not something she can reasonably say, with her friends and allies (some both) risking themselves to stop the Aeon, but it's still true.

But because she's impressed, she devotes all the force she can to defense--rerouting power to defensive systems, the Golem struggles against the whirlpool, the miraculous spiral crashing into Cuchulainn and resulting in a forceful clash that lingers for long moments as Kaguya flips on the propulsion systems. ...but prevents the Golem from going any further forward despite the power flooding its jets. There is a crack in more bits of its armor, and while it still stands strong... it cannot reach the ships. It could counterattack Leviathan. And for a moment, that's kaguya's plan--until she sees on one tiny display, her cameras picking up Leo, floating unconscious. She looks. And hesitates. Another gleaming red button offers to give her direct control of another set of guns, but there's Leo, floating along, clearly unconscious.

Kaguya frowns. "...Son of a--"

Whatever she finishes that with doesn't go out over the radio as she reaches out with a gigantic brassy hand to scoop Leo out of the water, instead of pursing Leviathan to finish the assault. With the Golem's other hand, she directs it to reach out and steady another ship that threatened to capsize.

"White Knight is secured," Kaguya communicates tersely.

<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.

Day Muirwall would like to assure you that he is NOT funny. He is a very serious man who definitely does not have a Gear with floaties and a computer that meows because a catgirl made it.

He does make a pretty decent landing. Evalach's sword is swept out to the machine's side, steam gushing from the outlets of its thrusters.

Seraph Liath, ever eloquent, has an idea. Day snaps a look over his shoulder; Evalach does the same. The young knight's shoulders tense, and he begins to turn the big, armoured gear back towards where the Yevonite ships have begun to escape their reach. "So this was the main thrust," he growls. "I was expecting a feint--"

And yet I still fell for the temptation to just throw myself at the big target, he chastises himself inwardly as he begins to move - but Leviathan will have absolutely none of it.

The king of the eidolons calls forth a whirlpool, one backed by a power beyond anything that nature could form. Before Day can get into range of the fleeing ships, the violent vortex smashes into Evalach with the force of a thousand storms. The huge mechanoid's size and build works against it: Even as Day hunkers down behind Evalach's shield, he serves mainly to increase the machine's cross-section. Inexorably, Evalach is shoved backwards, hard enough that the Gear's heels dig trenches into the harbour bed. Waves crash into the Shield of Althena, battering it hard enough that leg servos buckle and begin to give way. The gear has no lifeforce to drain, but its reactor power begins to bleed off instantly, precipitously plummeting. Once-responsive controls sputter and die, leaving the machine little more than an inert lump in the water.

Day can feel Evalach creaking beneath him. Clenching his teeth, he grips the arms of his chair for a moment, then looks up to the ceiling. "I'm sorry," he says to the machine.

A hatch in Evalach's chest grinds open. As the big Gear falls backwards, Day braces inside the open cockpit, then throws himself out into the open air.

Even with his Shiro Tail at his belt, he's still wearing armour; it's not all that far a jump. He does manage to clear Evalach just before the big machine topples back and to the side, crashing into the sea and throwing up towering waves. Day arcs down after it, on an inevitable course for the water.

Until a breath of air coils around him. "Sir Day!!"

Day widens his eyes as the wind catches him - more than the wind, really. A concerned-looking Seraph Vesna is floating down towards him, hands held out as she manipulates the wind to guide the knight's fall. "Vess, be careful," Day calls up to her with alarm even as his trajectory flattens, guiding him away from the water and to a safer place to land.

The deck of the Destiny. That should tell you something about how safe Evalach was at that moment - particularly because Day arrives just in time to watch Althena's White Knight having a very bad time.

The wave's past by the time Day lands, but he's able to see what becomes of Leo. Horror shoots across his face at the sight of the White Night bobbing towards Leviathan, virtually unliving. He hears himself cry out after Althena's blade hero, but he doesn't hear his own voice in his ears.

Something's ringing. The persistent whine of a building horror. Something reminding him of another time.

Biting back the urge to scream or cry, Day does the only thing his instincts shriek at him to do. He snaps his head to the side and then back forward. Defiant energy flashes in his eyes as he draws the broadsword at his side and breaks across the deck in a charge.

He can hear Hilde of all people calling out to him. It should insult him more than anything, after all she did to destroy him. But she is not wrong, and her heart is in the same place as his - and right now, his is racing, the thump of it a persistent hammer against his chest as he rushes to the edge of the Destiny. The Shiro Tail clipped at his belt pulses with energy as he plants a heel there and bunches his shoulders.

"ABOMINATION," he roars as he swings with all his might. "THE KNIGHTS OF ALTHENA... WILL NEVER YIELD!! HOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHT!!!"

Day's blade explodes through the air with a screech of energy and flame. Power bursts from the weapon, resolving into an energetic blast in the shape of a great winged horse. The burst explodes across the intervening distance between the young knight and Leviathan - but as it roils forth, the wings and mane collapse in upon themselves.

At the very last moment, the blast takes shape once more - and for a brief and precious second, they take the shape of a roaring lion.

DC: Day Muirwall switches forms to Church Knight Day!
GS: Day Muirwall has activated a Force Action!
GS: Day Muirwall spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling!
GS: Day Muirwall has attacked Belize with Forcene Pegasus!
GS: Day Muirwall has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Disrupt and Mighty expired!
GS: Day Muirwall has completed his action.
GS: Belize takes a solid hit from Day Muirwall's Forcene Pegasus for 315 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Belize has Fallen! They are no longer able to fight!


<Pose Tracker> Black Wizard Borgan has posed.

The Neo-Vane ship accelerates, though in a slightly jerky, erratic manner, as a water wizard takes over from the fallen air-aligned caster. It's hard to push the ship through water controlled by Leviathan, but she manages it, using spells where sailing skill will not help. Other mages on deck continue to pepper the Yevonite ships with long-distance magic, their aim gradually improving. Given time, they will probably be able to sink one of the other ships; if they get very lucky, they might do so now, or - more likely - damage one.

But they only get a few seconds more to try to be lucky, as Leviathan dives once again.

The Neo-Vane ship stops, unable to push itself forward, as Leviathan takes control of the water the ship sails in from the wizard. It holds position for a split second, ironically getting one better-aimed barrage off despite Leviathan's interference because now the ship is absolutely still -

The impossible whirlpool slams into the ship. It doesn't - quite - shatter, but the wave catches the Neo-Vane pursuit ship slightly broadside, and the first impact causes severe damage. The ship lists dangerously, clearly sinking, but unable to be evacuated because of the still-spinning whirlpool.

And as for Borgan...

Borgan lifted slightly off the Destiny to avoid being swept overboard, but even so one of the great waves caught him in the side. He is drenched, ragged, bruised; the goggles got pulled from his head at one point, along with his hat, and his robe looks a lot less impressive now.

But he is still moving, and that's the important part.

Borgan tucks his staff under one arm to grab Hilde's banner, raising it high toward the sky. He saw Leo go down, and that means it's *his* job to rally troops, something he has never been good at - but he can gesture with a standard in both hands with the best of them.

With both hands full trying to rally the Destiny crew with the banner, he reaches for the very first spell he ever performed as the Black Wizard, something so simple he can do it even with no hands and at extreme range:

He whistles, sharply, and a goddamned rock just falls out of the sky, having been materialized quite a ways up to let physics do its reliable business to the stone.

Borgan didn't aim it at Leviathan. He aimed it at Belize's ship - he finally figured out where the control was coming from, something he'd been trying to figure out for the entire battle. There is no way a single rock, even falling like a comet, will sink it by itself.

But it sends a message. Borgan considers himself the master of magic on Lunar. He's no summoner - but one doesn't have to be a summoner to try to counter one, and the caller of Leviathan is clearly trying to kill them. It is just a reminder: That can go both ways.

GS: Black Wizard Borgan has attacked Belize with Comet Break!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Black Wizard Borgan has completed his action.
GS: Belize takes a glancing hit from Black Wizard Borgan's Comet Break for 105 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Break applied to Belize!
GS: Belize has Fallen! They are no longer able to fight!


<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    Her reckless climb pays off, but it also leaves Pearl prone to attack. She is sent flying backwards, slamming bodily into the hull of the Destiny. The feeling of lifeforce being drained away is not unbfamiliar to her, but there's little she can do about it.

    What she can do is find a ladder, and climb back on the Destiny's deck, and look forward at Leviathan. The sea serpent still stands(?). This is a problem. She lacks the force of Borgan or the might of Day's gear, but she still wants to see it downed. She readies her grapnel again, the only way to clear the gap fast enough, and fires.

    Her attack is one of purest simplicity. A high speed slashing attack across where she estimate's Leviathan's throat to be,. It's just speed and power and malicious intent. She is not one to stop a battle while she's still conscious.

GS: Pearl has attacked Belize with Eviscerator!
GS: Pearl has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Belize guards a hit from Pearl's Eviscerator for 126 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Belize has Fallen! They are no longer able to fight!


<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.

Hanging high in the sky in prismatic splendor, for a brief moment, the Seraph known as Liath defies gravity.

Proving that she sometimes cheats too. But it's short-lived, so that makes it okay.

From her skyborne perch, massive blade blazing, the Prime Lord looks downward. She takes in the sight of the Golems and the Guards, of Leviathan, yet living. Her eyes shut. Gravity takes hold once more, and she begins to fall.

And despite her rapid descent towards what is increasingly looking like a hellish maelstrom of primal fury, Liath falls towards it smiling a peaceful smile, eyes shut.

It's a wet, crunching sound when Liath hits the deck of the Destiny. Water splashing around her reflecting the dazzling if dwindling light of her dissipating sword, Liath bows her head as she feels the force of the whirlpool pull and push at her at the same time. The ship lurches and rocks violently, but Liath holds her ground. She grips fast upon her shield, SLAMS it forward in front of her crouched form...

... and it is with a radiant bloom that a multitude of colors paint the surface of that shield and radiate outward, creating a winged, rainbow bulwark between herself and the smashing, magically-infused waves of the Leviathan.

She feels them whip at her through the torrent. Waters crush, magical ekes out every ounce of life and energy that they can. But she does. Not. Move. Teeth grit, eyes narrowed, she holds fast.

... And, drenched and battered, armor askew and lips parted in a heavy pant, Liath is still there, couched in crouched defiance, as the last of the whorl bleeds away.

"... Well... met," she mutters, almost fondly, beneath her breath, before those bright gold eyes turn. Within her peripherals, she sees Leo fall to the waves. Sees him briefly break the surface.

For a moment, she lurches forward, as if compulsively about to lunge for the man. And then she pauses. Her fingers twitch and clench tightly around her sword's hilt in time with the taut grit of her teeth.

"Damnation," she utters to herself, and leaves Leo's fate in the hands of others by grim necessity.

"You will survive further yet, White Knight."

If not without some semblance of faith in that fate.

Light is still rippling around Liath's shield as she rises. She considers pressing an offensive, but... she watches, as the others descend upon the injured Aeon. Her lips pull into a frown of thought as she looks towards the ships. And something steels that expression sharply.

"... I am going on the pursuit," she declares across communications. "This creature will not cease as long as it lingers, and they know this well."

Her form shimmers, ribboning outward as light peels away from her in a multitude of hues.

"Do what you must to recover as swiftly as you are able: we make for the Fayth of Leviathan."

And then disperses, into a thousand thousand spiraling tendrils of color.

"And thereupon we will seal it away from all who would use it."

GS: Riposte expired!
GS: Seraph Liath has completed her action.


<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.

    Day, encouraged by Hilde, emerges from his mech to bring down the force of his own variant of the Lion's Howl onto the Lord of All Waters. Pearl, on her last legs, nonetheless spitefully slashes at their throat. Borgan sends a comet-sized rock hurtling towards the ship Belize is on, and while it doesn't sink the ship, it does crunch the prow near which Belize stands and nearly capsizes the boat.
    
    With or without that, though, Leviathan is beaten fairly. They disapparate in a storm of pyreflies, which spiral outwards and away as the great Aeon turns translucent and fades into nothing. as Kaguya goes to Leo's rescue, Liath watches their departure and declares that they will pursue--and seal away--the fayth of Leviathan for which the Yevon ships must be headed.
    
    Given that, while Margaret may have won this battle, she's still on a ship filled with Yevon warriors that is rapidly pulling away from her allies, it seems it's best for her to scarper. In the wake of the enormous rock that Borgan, of all people, sends hurtling towards the ship she's boarded, enough chaos will arise for her to make her escape. She'll find a life boat available for the stealing--and since she's fortunate enough to have taken Gon out right on the helm, she'll manage to spot, and snatch up, some important-looking papers on her way out. They don't tell *exactly* where they're going, but they describe the sunken temple of the fayth of Leviathan, and how this mission is to retrieve it under Belize's direction and bring it back to Bevelle...
    
    At least now Althena's Guard will know that Liath's deduction as to the objective of this mission is correct. Combined with knowing the general direction that Yevon is headed, even if they can't fully pursue right away, they can thus take measures to counter it.
    
    For if they *do* return with that fayth... a single Summoner of Leviathan already did this much damage, and only as a feint. It's chilling to think what multiple Summoners might do.