2021-02-06: Vandal Hearts
- Log: Vandal Hearts
- Cast: Seymour Guado, Pearl, Belize, Day Muirwall, Seraph Harmaus, Gon Guado, White Knight Leo, Kaguya, Lydia Seren, Hilde, Raven Blackwood, Margaret
- Where: Bevelle - The Walls
- Date: February 06, 2021
- Summary: Treachery from within opens the gates of Bevelle to the Guard, and a desperate battle unfolds.
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
The war continues.
In Bevelle, the war has a way of hitting some sides harder than others. Near the walls of the city, it is a warzone: homes abandoned and torn down, camps of tents and stalls to serve the troops, and resting Warrior Monks. Many of them show signs of injury. Away from the walls, closer to the Temple, the signs are less obvious; the occasional lack of food here, the occasional injured officer being hurried away there.
The exhaustion, though, is thorough. In the faces of Bevelle's citizenry, who have dealt with months of a siege. In the tired eyes of soldiers spending every day at the walls. In the worried frowns and furrowed brows of the leaders, who see a simple truth: Bevelle cannot hold forever.
Those looks find themselves on the face of even Seymour Guado. He looks up at the walls, blinking as a shuddering BOOM impacts the wall, sending a rolling shockwave through it. "I swear... you might think they would get through," he says to the two Guado at his side.
Biggs Guado, the larger of the two, looks at him -- then nods his head. "You would, Lord Seymour," the armored Guado says. "They've got a large enough force out there. Looks like they're ready to try the walls again."
Wedge Guado punches his fist into his palm. "And we'll turn them back."
"Indeed," Seymour says. "Come, then. Let us see what we can do for our people." He sounds sincere when he says it -- but Seymour could always sound sincere. He turns, walking towards the wall -- and the huge gates, banded in steel, that have held back every siege weapon thus far.
He pauses, as he sees a familiar figure there. "Ena?" he asks. "Perhaps you should--"
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Ena had waited for the perfect moment. She had learned the patterns of Yevon's defenders, learned who was on watch when, and had made herself part of the proceedings. Most of her time had dbeen spent praying to the fayth of Leviathan, but she had other duties as well. She tended to all of these duties like a good little Yevonite.
She had waited until nearly midnight before she 'woke up' in the room she shared with the other novice and apprentice summoners. Shee padded silently out of her bed, and walked to the door. She looked back at those still asleep, and shakes her head. Leaving them there might not be the safest option, but...
And then she moves. Through the blindspots, slipping past enemies, coating herself in shadow to hide herself. She was swift, practiced even, for a girl from Kilika who had been helping to fish all her life. Moments later she prepares, quickly donning some equipment, and grabbing a torch from the walls. She walks swiftly to the lever that controls the gates. She puts her hand on it, before she hears a voice. "Maester Seymour."
She pulls the lever swiftly, and the gates begin to open. She walks to the center, eyes on Seymour, and raising the torch so it can be seen from the outside. On her hands an feet, clawed gloves and boots. In her mouth, a large silvered fang. Her voice is deeper, colder than Ena's. "I think it is far too late now to keep up any charades." Behind her, things begin to move. "My advice is that you surrender. Though I know you will not accept it."
DC: Pearl switches forms to Wolf Style Martial Artist Pearl!
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
"You--"
In a moment, Seymour's voice also changes.
Not in a sense of hiding his true self, the way that Ena had for so long. It is anger that comes out; the rage that lay under so much of what Seymour Guado says, when pressed. His eyes meet hers -- and the silvered fang. "Assassin!" he shouts, as recognition comes to his eyes.
And the gates swing open. The first Imperial Knights rush through -- and cut down a few surprised Warrior Monks, before Guado soldiers rush to meet them. Seymour stares for a second. "THEY HAVE BREACHED THE WALLS!" he shouts. "To me! Yevonites, to me!"
Then his head turns. "Biggs, Wedge. Go, secure the Grand Maester. We will push them back here!"
"Lord Seymour!" both Guado shout, in unison, before they hurry away.
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
It is indeed a loud BOOM, and for an instant, Belize thinks it might have broken through the walls outright. They stagger a step, and when they right themself, they breath a stressed sigh and press a hand to their chest. "Indeed," they say to Seymour. He may sound sincere, but... yes. They nod curtly all the same. "A good idea. I'll go rally the other Summoners."
And there they turn to hurry away, but only a few steps off from the Maester, they pause, seeing Ena approach. Seeing Ena pull down the lever to the gates--seeing the gates open to admit the forces of Althena's Guard. Their sea green eyes widen in horror. "What are you doing?!" they utter.
She speaks, and Seymour identifies her. Belize shoots him a look, which swishes back to her, understanding coming in an instant. Seymour sends Biggs and Guado to secure the Grand Maester, and Belize returns to his side, their bow already in hand.
"I stand with you," they say firmly, for even knowing Seymour's true nature, he's still their friend. They can't simply abandon him, no matter how grim these odds are. Even so, their thoughts touch on the fayth of Leviathan--on the ship on which it is held, secured in the Bevelle shipyard and prepared to launch at any time--as they shout, "Let us fight together!"
DC: Belize switches forms to Summoner Belize!
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
Day had a much more straightforward idea for getting into Bevelle. It's involved overseeing a bunch of Guard engineers as they've been patiently assembling a gigantic counterweight trebuchet, which is currently being loaded up with a boulder the size of a mid-sized house. The so-called Warwolf is a sight to behold, sufficiently powerful to batter down the walls of the most secure city in the realm - and it's finally ready to deploy.
"Ready," Day calls to the Warwolf crew, holding up a lance with a banner on it. "Take aim--"
The gate swings open. Everyone gathered around the massive trebuchet stares.
"Master engineer, give me your hat," he says.
He takes the hat, puts it on, then whips it off, throws it to the ground and stomps it repeatedly. "Flip! Shoot! Poopoo! Crud! Darn it all! Blah!"
--- 0NOW00 ---
Day's a little out of sorts as he moves his warhorse to the head of one of the more organized bands riding into Bevelle - his group are mostly heavy cavalry from Rolance, himself at the head of the unit with the banner of the Guard draped over the saddle skirts of his armoured mount, a muscular Glaivendish stallion as surly about things as Day himself. The young knight glances back over his shoulder before cocking the large lance in his hand. "Men," he shouts, "we ride for the Goddess! Forward!"
As a cheer goes up from the assembled horsemen, Day gives the signal they've been waiting for: He pushes the visor of his (rarely worn) full-face helmet, draws a large spiral war horn, and blows into it.
The howl of the horn rings through the city. The ensuing moments are filled by the thunder of hooves, the squeal and screech of horses, and the clash of steel.
The charge of heavy cavalry is something to behold, and Day's more than skilled enough to make it work. Clapping his visor down and leveling his lance, he leads the charge of the cavalry into the thick of the first wave of Bevelle's defenders, slamming his lance through the first enemy in front of him and continuing on to smash through another before the polearm snaps off midway down its length. He switches to his broadsword with a flash of steel. The red and black horsehair crest of his helmet billows as he whips his stallion around to give him a clear swing at another Yevonite.
He makes for a prominent target - A gleamingly-armoured knight on horseback, at the head of a cavalry column currently carving a swath into the city.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
Harmaus has been wondering when Bevelle will fall. He has of course in his centuries seen this sort of warfare before -- and seen what happens when a city falls.
Sometimes, he's even been behind it.
The walls shake under a particular impact. Treading the halls elsewhere, the Seraph makes use of his new body to properly skulk about. His natural form is all well and good, but things like hands mean that you can... open doors.
He's in the process of investigating a room that was previously off-limits to him (physically speaking) when he hears the shout.
"Jaeja," the Seraph sighs, closing the door again. "So soon?"
With that, he directs the body below and towards the gates.
Which are open.
"Ah, it is having problems, yes?" he calls out to the Maester. "Matters us not. We stands by the Maester!"
For now.
At a glance the form the Seraph wears is humanoid. Definitely humanoid, and clad in loose clothing along with a hat, which serves to hide the body itself from sight. This is a good thing, perhaps, as its body does not seem to... bend or move quite right.
DC: Seymour Guado switches forms to Seymour Natus!
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
Gon is not far off from Ena. He has had the fortune of having handed off the current rotation of healing duties with other assistants. The night before was trying on him, as all things were. He scarce had a chance to speak with his family even then. His eldest daughter was a bundle of barely restrained energy, a descriptor one does not typically give to the stoic and aloof Guado. His youngest daughter was deep in prayer. His wife confided uncertainty and terror. For once, Gon Guado - known as being someone who keeps finding himself in a thickening knot of exasperation, humiliation, and growing powerlessness - had found himself in a moment where he would be their quiet pillar of strength and stability for the time they had. He - they - took so much of life on Spira for granted. All he did, to help secure the cultural weight the Guado held among the pious land of Spira. All the sacrifices he willingly made of the world outside of Guadosalam. All the ways he kept pushing and pushing young Summoners to do their duties to the people of Spira, enough that all of them buckled under the pressure and gave up. The sheer panic of the war situation in which he pushed - in a moment of passion - that they deal with the Al Bhed for even suspecting them of having thrown their lot in with Althena, taking so many of their lives and home (of Home)... to say nothing of the losses of his own people.
It was almost too much, but even someone like him - for all his faults - has people in his life he loves and wants the best for.
Wishes he allowed to be carried on the shoulders of others, such as the young devout who maneuvers past him with a certainty and purpose he long attributed to her, but could not see the underlying cause as to why. She nearly bowls him over in the process, as people tend to with is presence and posture ever shrinking every day.
"...Such curious items you're wearing," an eye wanders. She says something about a charade, but something catches his eye more about what she has on her. He does not recall her being trained in--
'My advice is that you surrender,' she says as she pulls the lever, and he recoils.
"...You...!" Gon is taken aback. He could feel his heart stop. He takes a moment to be certain he did not die on the spot from the shock. He can see the hordes come rushing in. 'Ena' could have one last look at the classic, special brand of panic that has been nurtured in this man for every time he has been stood up to. Every time he has been contradicted. Every time he has had to deal with Otherworlders simply not respecting the way things are. The way things should be.
...His brow hardens, as he stands straight up. He's... done with being at the other end of someone's joke. He is one of the last fully healthy, fully able-bodied Guado Guardians to still roam the ranks here in Bevelle. He cares not what in the sea of colors, shapes, and noise comes through. He has always prided himself in being exactly as his fighting discipline calls him.
No more humorous lapses at his expense. He knows not what drives these hordes to continue to conquer and destroy, but he knows full well what little left he has to lose.
That, he will fight to keep hold of.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
There was no appointed signal. Pearl made clear her desire for absolute secrecy--she didn't want anyone with her, nor did she want any special reinforcement from outside the gates. It's been a long, uneasy wait. Leo has lost track of all the ways that Pearl could've been found, even if she were disguised. The renewed pressure from the Guard, in other words, is not something Leo actively planned--just a lucky coincidence.
Or perhaps more evidence that the Goddess works in mysterious ways.
"THE ENEMY'S GATE IS DOWN!" Leo bellows, his voice carrying over the din of galloping hooves and clanging steel. "ATTACK! FOR THE GODDESS! ATTACK!"
Leo charges at the head of a formation of Hyland spear-bearers. The energy of the White Dragon Crest billows out from around him, a bright pearlescent aura that flutters like a banner. As spells and arrows fall on his troops, the barrier shields them--but Leo himself has no such protection.
Not only has Pearl opened the gates, she's delivered some of Yevon's leadership right to him. (Or again, Goddess, mysterious ways, &c.)
"Maester Seymour Guado!" Leo roars, leveling his sword at the man. Something approaching bitter satisfaction fills his heart. "Surrender!" Please surrender, Leo thinks, glancing back at Belize. The sooner that happens, the sooner they can focus on the true threat here.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
It's hardly the first time Kaguya has been involved with breaking a siege through trickery. Not in the least. ...But it's a little of a different kind of trickery, and she's on the outside, this time, rather than the one breaking it. Pearl has no bombs, just knowledge of where to be and when. Once, that would've been fun...
Now it's just part of the war. The Duchess Alathfar waits outside the gates, careful. Her ARM is in her hand, the advanced weapon gleaming in the light black and white. A new pair of butterfly swords rests at her hip, though she has not had replaced the green armored gloves that were ruined in a previous battle. Her ARM is pointed diagonally down as she narrows her eyes, pointed ears cutting through her hair as she watches the gate--
There.
She doesn't have a horse to ride in. She doesn't have assassins to send, this time, and she isn't in her Golem. Instead a small woman steps through the gates after the first crush of Imperial Knights, walking calmly with her blaster shotgun in both hands. She steps up closer, looking around.
"C'mon, sis. Here we go."
Cla-CLACK. Kaguya loads another gleaming cartridge into the chamber of her weapon and prepares it for combat.
Her eyes are on Belize, and she looks at them seriously. She glances to Seymour, too... and to Harmaus. "Huh," she says. "Guess I shouldn't be that surprised."
"I'd say it's nothing personal," Kaguya starts, raising her voice to Belize, "...But it is pretty personal for everybody by now, isn't it?" Pause. "Some friends of mine from Mi'ihen owe Yevon something."
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Seymour Guado with DC 20 CHA Check! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Seymour Guado takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's DC 20 CHA Check for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia Seren actually actively resisted the Guard's push into Spira before but, to be fair, that was with a lot of missing information and before attempted genocide on behalf of the Spiran Church. She has no illusions of the greatness of the Guard either, but she actually has a friend ostensibly working alongside them.
Lydia isn't a madwoman though and isn't particularly inclined to just hurt Spirans wherever they may be. She'd rather just take Bevelle out itself, remove it from its pillars of power. The Guard may hate singing but, in her experience, that's like a fine. They don't go to your town and murder everyone inside it. (That's what Malevolence is for).
"It may have been premature to just sell out all the Drifters and some off their own people and also the Al Bhed while facing down a motivated war perpetuated by religious zealots and backed by the Veruni. Maybe they actually want to be conquered." Lydia murmurs to herself. She has been flying around and keeping tabs on Bevelle to find an opportunity to strike and when the gate mysteriously just opened up, well, that's pretty suspicious honestly but eventually that war machine of the Guard is going to win out. They already control huge swaths of Spira as it is.
"Honestly," Lydia asides to Kaguya. "It's kind of a surprise that everybody doesn't ask you about strategy like that. You're like a botanist but I guess as a botanist you learn more about strategy than a lot of commmanders? I don't really get it."
She drops down to the floor next to Kaguya as she sets her eyes on Belize.
"Yeah," Lydia says. "It's personal. Your people massacred the Al Bhed, you destroyed their home."
She fans out her hand and blade spins out of her arm into her hand. "One of my best friends is an Al Bhed. I haven't seen her in a long time so..."
She shakes her head. "Maybe you Yevon types don't deserve a home."
She tilts her blade and turns it backwards as she stares at Belize with the sort of look in her eyes the Shadow Dragon Cult would praise.
"But there's no reason to overexert yourself here, Kaguya. If it gets bad, I'll pull us out. Could be a trap."
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
An attack in the middle of the night, aided by a saboteur on the inside. It's a plan that relies on duplicity and treachery... and as such, Hilde has certain misgivings about the plan. It goes against what she stands for. She's always preferred the straight-forward approach - to meet her opponent on an equal level.
But... she had been assured this would be the best way to preserve lives on either side, and that's the reason she now marches on Bevelle alongside the rest of the Guard. ...Though she's still not entirely comfortable with it.
Her demeanor, as she marches through the gates of demeanor... is markably different than what those familiar with her may have come to expect. Typically she has been polite and friendly, even to her foes... but her expression is serious and stern, and might be intimidating to those who are familiar with her usual.
...It feels to her like just a mask, though - just a way to hide her feelings on the situation. Still, she'll fight - she must.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Guardswoman Pearl, still green of hair and wearing her Kilikan clothes, drops the torch to the ground as the guard charge in. She looks to Belize, and behind her hard expression there is something else. "You've heard the Commander. For the sake of everyone within these walls, surrender." It seemsd odd, even to her. Why does she even care?
Nonetheless, Pearl shifts her stance slightly, readying herself for an attack. But she doesn't rush in. Not yet.
<Pose Tracker> Raven Blackwood has posed.
Of all the members and auxiliaries of Althena's Guard, Raven is not one to normally be found anywhere near the front lines of combat; while a relatively gifted healer, the black-haired priestess' pacifistic tendencies and apparent incapacity for violent pursuits have thus far kept her in reserve, providing care for the wounded where needed. Far from relaxing, her duties have kept her working long nights amidst the fallen, hinted at by the darkness around her purple eyes.
This push, however, demands all hands proverbially on deck, and despite her misgivings, Raven finds herself running along after a fellow member of the Guard - one more martially inclined, for which Raven is privately thankful. Even in the midst of the incursion into Bevelle, she has her black raven-feather-mantled cloak wrapped around herself, a wooden war hammer held in a gloved hand that protrudes out from the right-side gap in the cloak. Every now and then, she nearly stumbles over the all-covering garment for her haste, and at one point the white hood over her head is jostled loose as she loses her balance and falls.
"Ahhh!"
She hits the ground, flinching. Dropping the hammer, her right hand digs at the ground to try and find purchase and push her up. Something moves under the cloak where her left hand should be, but she forces herself back to her knees one-handed, scooping the hammer up by the handle and scrambling back to her feet.
"Lady Hilde! I'm sorry!" she calls, before rushing after her fellow Hylandian. "Don't worry, I'll keep up!"
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret, the so called Black Pearl of Neo-Vane, has been troubled in her thoughts for some time. And it is a bleak thing, for she has already lost many of those with whom she could confide, and the reason for that - is the war. And what she is worried about is in particular an aspect of what they have brought with them - for the war, and for other wars. Something with a dark and swirling secret within it.
It troubles Margaret because there is a sense in the back of her mind that she frankly loathes. It is a sense that she has worked to dispel and to channel, something which she has rhetorically used to justify going through dry quarts of eye makeup and skull-themed motifs in her outfits. It is a sense of responsibility and she *hates* it.
But, the way to get past this is to win the war, and then there will not be a war, and -- whatever has to be done, she can... do something.
But the war is in the way of this problem, and anyway, that is why Margaret, the Black Pearl of Neo-Vane, is rolling out here but is not making the usual spectacle of herself. (Her unit, not well suited for wall breaching, is in the rear guard.)
She has been with the infantry, and as the shock of the cavalry finally makes itself known, she grips a fist with one hand and a sea-green pearl on a ring gleams. A moment later she is translated up and forwards; another flash and back down again, hitting the ground running and skipping underneath the legs of a rearing charger!
Thus far it was mostly an adventure in getting to the front of the line in order to be on the cutting face of the gigantic industrial grinder that is an army. Soon enough, she separates, though, moving forth and showing no signs of slowing. Quite the contrary as she brings out a chain with a weight on the end, going fast enough that it trails behind her from the acceleration, tearing against the cloth of the cloak AS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csgtV0Cs4ao
She gets near enough to pick out her target. Margaret snaps the weighted chain forwards with a screeching noise, not from her but from accelerated metal. It aims to ensnare a figure she can see and to pull that figure into a brutal, spine-snapping and armor-rending crush followed by an exciting introduction to the cobblestones of the gateside path!
GS: Margaret has attacked Seraph Harmaus with Chain Wrap! GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo! GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
Seymour glances sideways to Belize. His eyes are wide for a moment, but then they narrow. "We must drive them back. We can show them no mercy! Bevelle cannot fall..."
Not, at least, until the Grand Maester is secure.
"Come, Belize!" Then, a glance to Harmaus. "Just so. Now... shall we show them what we can do?"
"Filthy, miniaturized shoopufs," Seymour Guado spits. He cranes his neck to the side as he sees the always impressive sight of a man in full armor, barreling down the avenue that once led into the great beyond. He hasn't grown used to horses; it is curious that he fixates on that, rather than the look of fear on the faces of the nearby Warrior Monks.
But ever since he died, he has found an empty pit where fear should be.
His pale eyes alight as he looks at Day, and then he throws a hand out. Warrior Monks die -- blood splatters as his blade cleaves through them -- and then Seymour thrusts a hand out. He cannot call upon his full might; he cannot show the faithful the monster that he has become. But he has might aplenty.
Lightning explodes off his fingers. The smell of ozone fills the air; a dozen arcs of lightning shoot out, slam into the cavalry regiment. Horses and men scream, as pops can be heard. And some of that lightning comes crashing down for Day.
He turns his head, then, at the Hyland spear-carrying soldiers. It is the crest with them that catches his eye -- and they narrow. One of the enemy commanders, he realizes. His head bobs, once, as he looks up at him. "Surrender? There will be no surrender! You come to our land, to face our faith... and you will find it an inferno! AN INFERNO THAT WILL CONSUME US ALL!"
He raises a hand. Sixteen balls of flame appear in the air, tendrils of fire swirling to form orbs -- and then they rain down. Four crash down for Leo -- and the rest slam down amidst the soldiers that he leads. Fire explodes outward, embers and streamers all raining down.
Then, finally, he turns his head towards Pearl. He sees her -- and in an instant, his demeanor has changed. Rage is replaced by a certain calm; a certain cool. "There will be no surrender," he says. "And nor shall there be... mercy. This will be your end!"
Then, he throws a hand out. Three streams of high pressure water form, and explode forward, sending out a powerful blast of watery force straight for the assassin.
GS: Seymour Guado has attacked White Knight Leo with Multi-Fira! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Day Muirwall with Multi-Thundara! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Pearl with Multi-Watera! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado assumes the Stoic stance! GS: Seymour Guado has completed his action. GS: Day Muirwall takes a solid hit from Seymour Guado's Multi-Thundara for 177 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Day Muirwall! GS: White Knight Leo critically guards Seymour Guado's Multi-Fira for 32 hit points! GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Seymour Guado's Multi-Watera for 85 hit points! GS: Pearl activates Evade bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
It is hard to miss Day. Somewhere in the fray he breaks off from the thick of the cavalry column, carving his way through towards the shout of a familiar voice. Leo's. He can see Seymour over there - a man he should, by rights, be going after.
The bad news is that it is also hard to miss Day with lightning, since he's basically a human lightning rod.
Lightning bursts through the cavalry ranks, hurling knights off their horses and blasting steeds themselves. A bolt attaches to the tip of Day's sword and throws him out of the saddle and to the ground with a steely crash and a violent twitching.
It takes him a couple of seconds to clear the spots from his eyes, managing to stop himself from rolling with a pained wince. His helmet goes rolling away, blonde hair billowing free as he pushes to his feet.
He twitches again, involuntarily. The muscle spasms are going to bother him for far longer than he'd like. A brief flicker of anger shoots across his face.
It passes to a look of focus as he takes to his feet, unshouldering his shield as he advances forward. "You overestimate the power of your idols," he barks back at Seymour. "The ghouls and fiends you call on are nothing in the face of the Goddess, and today we bring forth proof!"
Day bursts forward with a quickness belied by his heavy armour. His shield comes up, the rearing white pegasus on its face providing some semblance of guard as he attempts to bull through any counterspells and close the range to deliver a hard blow aimed at one of Seymour's shoulders.
However they got in here, he decides internally, he can at least control for the honour of his own conduct. He'll make this a fight face-to-face, not a knife in the back.
GS: Day Muirwall has attacked Seymour Guado with Statant Guard! GS: Day Muirwall has gained 2 Combo! GS: Day Muirwall assumes the Stoic stance! GS: Day Muirwall takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Day Muirwall has completed his action. GS: Seraph Harmaus guards a hit from Margaret's Chain Wrap for 70 hit points! GS: Cripple applied to Seraph Harmaus! GS: Seymour Guado takes a solid hit from Day Muirwall's Statant Guard for 157 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
And naturally, as soon as the gates are open, the forces of Althena's Guard pour in. Why would they not? This betrayal was clearly planned. Though Belize knows not why it's getting triggered *now*, that doesn't really matter in the end. And so, as Leo charges in and demands Seymour's surrender, Belize nocks an arrow and moves defensively one step closer to their friend.
"Surrender? To *you*?" Belize says flatly, narrowing their eyes at Leo. "You and I both know why that will never happen." The two of them had their understanding before, but right now, it's only anger. Some of it is admittedly displaced anger from Ena's betrayal, but it is anger all the same--and anger has always fueled and bolstered them where despair might have dragged them down to the depths.
That same anger thus lingers when Ena--no, Pearl, not that they know her true name--demands their surrender also. They give her a flat stare, but there, too, is something else: fear. She'd prayed to Leviathan's fayth with their blessing. She knows where it is. What if the fayth is in danger? Should they linger? Is this even a battle they can win?
It's Kaguya and Lydia who snap them out of it, though, as the two of them acknowledge that this fight actually is personal. "I don't give a damn, any more than I suspect you actually do," they tell Kaguya curtly. "Your religion is as false as--" 'ours,' they do not say, as they're literally standing next to Yevonite religious leader, "--the moon's reflection on the water, and Mi'ihen is nothing more than an excuse to roll in and conquer those in your path."
Then they glance at Lydia, something flickering in their eyes. "..." They glance again at Leo--yes, clearly this woman has not seen her Al Bhed friend in some time--but then they give her another cool glance. "It's true, we did drive the Al Bhed to the brink," they state. "But I'd ask you kindly keep your self-righteousness in check when you're thirsting for blood without asking your friend what *she* would see as justice."
They nod firmly to Seymour. Gon is here to help defend, as is... that... strange... black mage person, perhaps...? (They don't know Harmaus and *certainly* don't know what to make of him in his new, uh, vessel.) At the very least, they need to hold these soldiers back for as long as they can. "Indeed. There are still things I must do."
They pull back a pair of nocked arrows, and imbue them with a certain fiery power; when they let them fly, the arrows shoot for Kaguya and Lydia. If they land true, those flames on the arrowheads will burn hard and hot, potentially reducing their ability to aim their higher-tech weapons.
GS: Belize has attacked Kaguya with Flame Arrow! GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo! GS: Belize has attacked Lydia Seren with Flame Arrow! GS: Belize has gained 2 Combo! GS: Belize has completed their action.
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
The White Knight's voice carries above it all. Surrender, he says. Gon does not heed that word, for it is not an option. How dare they believe that such is an option, that such is possible...
Enough dwelling upon that. The closing of his eyes is ill-advised but a necessary gesture to relieve the anger and bring back something approacing a clearer mind, where he sees the approach of the Giant Slayer, Hilde - full aware of her capabilities. She exceeds his martial ability, and there is little organization of the Yevon forces caught off-guard. No War Monks to stand by his side. No fellow Guado to stand beside him. She easily swept him, and others, aside with masterful strokes of her blade.
No polite greetings, no sporting offers that he fight at his best. It is in this moment that Gon will give Hilde the respectful acknowledgement that she sees the gravity of this situation for what it is, and he will greet her thusly as he stares her down for a solid two seconds.
A fast, rushing lunge with his shoulder to try and knock her off-kilter. In that span of time he sees the robed priestess come close. He is fully aware of how the Guard's healers present themselves. Even Hilde has brought help this time, Gon acknowledges.
He will take that as her resolve weakening, and he will respond in kind as he transitions his stance to a backward sweep of his left arm, making the most of his wingspan to back-swipe the clumsy, recovering priestess to try and knock her right back down.
Bring as many across the gates as you dare, Gon's glare may communicate (if not with such detail). Now I stand as one of the bars of the gates beyond.
GS: Gon Guado has attacked Hilde with Buer Blink! GS: Gon Guado has attacked Raven Blackwood with Melusine Claw! GS: Gon Guado has completed his action. GS: Lydia Seren takes a glancing hit from Belize's Flame Arrow for 58 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Lydia Seren! GS: Kaguya takes a glancing hit from Belize's Flame Arrow for 62 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Kaguya! GS: Kaguya activates Evade bonus and Sufferer! GS: CRITICAL! Hilde guards a hit from Gon Guado's Buer Blink for 55 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
A familiar voice carries over the din, and Leo's left ear swivels to face it. Lydia, he thinks. What is she doing here? The last he heard of her, she was...
He doesn't remember. Guilt gnaws at his heart as he risks a look at her, taking his eyes off Seymour--and seeing that remorseless look in her eyes.
Lydia, he thinks. Goddess. What happened? Did he--
There's no time to dwell on it. He sees that look in Belize's eyes, and his guts twist for the moment of peace they both shared. Worse still, Seymour responds to his demand with both fiery words and literal flame. "White Dragon!" Leo cries, as flame rains down. "Shield us in our hour of need!" He presses a hand to the crest around his neck, and the aura flares, brilliantly; for a moment, it seems like the sun is dawning over the open gate. Seymour's flame rains down, and slams into the protective field with terrible force. Leo feels its heat on his face, and behind him, he hears a cry of pain, and then another. He holds firm, gritting his teeth.
"'Consume us all?'" Leo says, meeting Seymour's eyes again. Light from the crest gleams on his horn--a horn that would look right at home on a smallish Ronso. "A threat? When your back is against the wall?" Us all? Did he mishear that?
Leo's return strike is swift and decisive. He steps forwards, staying at the head of the column even as the soldiers behind him start to fan out. He flows into a two-handed strike, sweeping his blade through an arc from shoulder to hip. "DEMON FANG!" he roars. A wave of energy rips free from the weapon's edge, flies directly at Seymour with lethal intent.
5
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
A familiar voice carries over the din, and Leo's left ear swivels to face it. Lydia, he thinks. What is she doing here? The last he heard of her, she was...
He doesn't remember. Guilt gnaws at his heart as he risks a look at her, taking his eyes off Seymour--and seeing that remorseless look in her eyes.
Lydia, he thinks. Goddess. What happened? Did he--
There's no time to dwell on it. He sees that look in Belize's eyes, and his guts twist for the moment of peace they both shared. Worse still, Seymour responds to his demand with both fiery words and literal flame. "White Dragon!" Leo cries, as flame rains down. "Shield us in our hour of need!" He presses a hand to the crest around his neck, and the aura flares, brilliantly; for a moment, it seems like the sun is dawning over the open gate. Seymour's flame rains down, and slams into the protective field with terrible force. Leo feels its heat on his face, and behind him, he hears a cry of pain, and then another. He holds firm, gritting his teeth.
"'Consume us all?'" Leo says, meeting Seymour's eyes again. Light from the crest gleams on his horn--a horn that would look right at home on a smallish Ronso. "A threat? When your back is against the wall?" Us all? Did he mishear that?
Leo's return strike is swift and decisive. He steps forwards, staying at the head of the column even as the soldiers behind him start to fan out. He flows into a two-handed strike, sweeping his blade through an arc from shoulder to hip. "DEMON FANG!" he roars. A wave of energy rips free from the weapon's edge, flies directly at Seymour with lethal intent.
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Seymour Guado with Demon Fang! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 3 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Seymour Guado guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Demon Fang for 126 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya doesn't really notice Pearl's extra feelings. She's a hardened assassin who likes to kill people, to her mind; she doesn't really look harder than that. ...Except for one thing. She's actually offering surrender.
Weird. What does it mean...?
Kaguya can't sit around and think about it. She has enemies right before her, and she is close to taking some of Seymour's lightning herself. She isn't going to offer righteous anger here... But Lydia can. And what she offers--
"Hey," she says, "I think they should ask me about more, personally. But you got it. If it's a trap, I'll count on you."
Belize... explains that they don't care. Their religion--Ah, well. "Mi'ihen was the excuse everyone needed, wasn't it?" Kaguya prompts. She doesn't answer the falsity of 'their' religion because, well, Kaguya's not exactly the most devout in the first place, and it's better to let that slide. "Believe it or don't," Kaguya says. "But I do care about Mi'ihen. The thing I want most is to defeat Sin. But..."
Kaguya swirls to the left, the arrow catching her on the shoulder and flames spreading about her arm with a, "Tch--" But with that, Kaguya stows her weapon and tries a different tack. "I'm not gonna go all self-righteous on you. Unbecoming of the Scourge of Luca, right?"
Kaguya brings out a free hand and adopts a fighting stance, swinging back her fist to gather energy and then leaping forward, slamming out her hand to bring a column of white energy straight for Belize in an effort to get up close.
"So let's just do what we came here to do, huh?"
GS: Kaguya has attacked Belize with Reaper's Toll! GS: Kaguya has gained 2 Combo! GS: Kaguya has completed her action. GS: Hilde used Defend! She takes Gon Guado's Melusine Claw attack on Raven Blackwood on herself! GS: CRITICAL! Hilde critically guards Gon Guado's Melusine Claw for 18 hit points! GS: Hilde has gained 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
She knew there would be no other way this would end. It was always going to be violent. It was always going to be bloody, and it was always going to require the death of Seynmour Guado. She braces herself at Seymour's calm. She's felt something like it before. That calm and cool headedness when you are absolutely going to murder someone.
She rolls, but not quickly enough to get out out of the path of the torrent of water, smashing into her and sending hedr tumbling, before she manages to kip up to her feet. She looks a whole lot angrier now. "Let us see what happens once we rid the world of you, then." She suddenly rushes Seymour from the side, before dropping into a slide, the claws on her hands out, aiming to slice for Seymour's hamstrings.
That may not work on an undead person, but pyreflies remain difficult to truly grasp.
GS: Pearl has attacked Seymour Guado with Running Takedown! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Seymour Guado takes a solid hit from Pearl's Running Takedown for 121 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seymour Guado enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia says, "Wow yeah! I should ask my probably dead friend what she wants! That makes a load of sense. Trust me, there's plenty of others I talked to. You... don't get to... call me bloodthirsty. I'm here for your home, not yer lives, but ain't half of you already dead anyway?" She shakes her head but...
She finishes what Belize was going to say. "False as what? Yours? Heh," Lydia shakes her head. "My gods may not be nice. They might not even be all that helpful and even cruel sometimes. But they are, if nothin' else, real."
She slides a foot back. She sees Leo and waves to him. "Hey Leo! I get it now! We're good!" She smiles brightly, if briefly, at him before SERIOUS TIME SERIOUS SERIOUS LYDIA. "Fuck these assholes!"
She gives him a big goofy thumbsup that probably isn't improving his mood right now.
As she's waving to Leo, Belize shoots an arrow through it. And it's on fire. It melts, somewhat, but Lydia is used to it. She's been burned and burnede and hurt and hurt and that sort of thing is more of intellectual curiousity than pain and terror like it used to be.
Belize's near flub with their words has only given Lydia more motivation. She extends a hand and channels Rigdobrite's power. The 'gems' that are composed of her reconfigured mediums glow faintly.
"It's a beautiful mornin', you treacherous snakes! And it's gonna burn you!"
Crackling, physically painful radiation wiith a fainnt green tinge presses down upon Belize directly even as Lydia hops from foot to foot. She's proud of Kaguya. She's come so far, really. Maybe she can still save her. Maybe if she keeps at it in Solaris they have a method to save her. She can't lose her.
GS: Lydia Seren spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Belize with Beautiful Morning! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"Indeed! We goes--"
A weighted chain flies across the battlefield, snapping out to one figure in particular and quickly silencing that response to Seymour.
The figure lifts his head and raises an arm in those few seconds alloted to him, catching the chain there around that appendage. He is caught well and is tugged forward a step or two. But, there are things that are not quite right about this. His arm bends in a way that suggests that it's either horribly broken and absent the screaming that should come with that or has an extra few joints somewhere. And his whole body leans backwards in a way that just shouldn't be possible. ...From a living, breathing humanoid, that is.
"Ah. Is our problem now?" the figure remarks rather calmly on the matter, standing his ground even if he is apparently so bound.
Light -- an arte -- glows at his one free hand. Harmaus releases the power that there bundles in a simple luminous burst, the sticky gold-red plasma strings lashing their way across the field for the one who bears the other end of the chain.
But his gaze settles on another soon enough.
"Kaguya! We asks it again! It turns away from its Goddess? It answers now!"
He sounds a little mad, actually. But this was without question, inevitable.
GS: Seraph Harmaus has attacked Margaret with Luminous Chord! GS: Seraph Harmaus has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Harmaus has completed his action. GS: Margaret takes a glancing hit from Seraph Harmaus's Luminous Chord for 67 hit points! GS: Margaret activates Evade bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
Seymour seems unflinching -- unmoved -- at striking down groups of soldiers. He looks up at Day, then, and tilts his head. "Is that so? Where is your goddess, then? Why does she send you to die in her stead? Where is she to strike us down?"
He is, as it happens, surprised by the sudden speed from Day. He rushes in to get close, and the shield slams into Seymour. It smashes him backward with a crunch.
His feet stumble, and then he gets a hand up. A huge block of ice forms -- and then crashes down, trying to smash Day away from him.
"A man like me does not threaten creatures such as you," Seymour says to Leo. "He merely informs them of truths they may grapple with."
He throws a hand out. A blast of fire explodes off, catching the worst of the Demon Fang -- but the blade of light cuts through the flame, striking into the Maester. He shakes his hand once, and then he directs it back towards Leo.
Lightning explodes off his fingers, another blast of it. Arcs shoot off to the sides, some striking the ground; some strike soldiers. Most of it hurtles towards the White Knight himself.
Pearl rushes for him. Seymour manages to move at the last moment, but he is not -- even in death -- a fast man. Pearl's claws catch his side inside, slashing in enough to catch flesh. And, strangely, blood wells up. (An Unsent that cares to can appear to be living when injured.)
"I have far more to do, before you are rid of me!" he snaps. He hurtles a hand out -- and a blast of flame explodes off it, hurtling straight at her.
GS: Seymour Guado enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Day Muirwall with Multi-Blizzara! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Seymour Guado enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked White Knight Leo with Multi-Thundara! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Pearl with Multi-Fira! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Pearl takes a glancing hit from Seymour Guado's Multi-Fira for 104 hit points! GS: White Knight Leo takes a solid hit from Seymour Guado's Multi-Thundara for 163 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to White Knight Leo!
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
Hilde pauses in her approach as she hears a familiar voice. She turns to see Raven picking herself up off the ground, and for a moment she finds herself conflicted. Even she was being drawn into this fight...
"Priestess Blackwood?" Hilde replies. She takes a step toward her, but Raven picks herself up. "...It is quite alright. This... is this your first battle of this nature?"
The time for small-talk is soon over, however, as Gon appears, rushing right for her. Hilde goes for a standard defensive stance... but realises, then, what his next aim likely is. She raises her shield and Gon slams into her - the sheer force sending her skidding back a few inches. And then her position shifts, moving to intercept his strike for Raven.
His ferocity... it's to be expected, she supposes. They are invading Bevelle. In his shoes... she would be doing the exact same.
She takes a quick step forward, then, using the moment to push her shield forward in a rough bash - to knock him back while still allowing her to maintain a defensive stance.
"Stand firm, Priestess - I am unsure how many others may nearby." Hilde warns. Up to this point, Gon has always had others to assist him...
She soon returns her eyes to Gon, returning to that serious expression.
GS: Hilde has attacked Gon Guado with Shield Bash! GS: Hilde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hilde has completed her action. GS: Day Muirwall guards a hit from Seymour Guado's Multi-Blizzara for 103 hit points! GS: Disrupt applied to Day Muirwall! GS: CRITICAL! Belize guards a hit from Kaguya's Reaper's Toll for 87 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Belize! GS: Belize guards a hit from Lydia Seren's Beautiful Morning for 98 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Belize! GS: Belize activates Guard bonus! GS: Gon Guado takes a solid hit from Hilde's Shield Bash for 117 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Hilde!
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
Belize's stony gaze flickers when Kaguya claims that she does, genuinely, want to defeat Sin most of all. "Hmm. Is that so?" they say--and while their tone is neutral, there's an appraising quality to the look in their eyes that suggests their question is sincere. As for Mi'ihen being the excuse 'everyone' needed, well... hindsight is 20/20, and knowing what they do now, they're hard-pressed to disagree, so they let that one go in return.
Meanwhile Lydia counter-calls them out. Belize gives them a slight nod of the head. It's true that they don't know for sure if this woman's friend and the one they spoke with are one and the same. And, well, they are, in fact, already dead. They even give Lydia a faint smile when she completes their unspoken thought. "Hmmm. Your 'gods,' is it? I thought the Church of Althena believed in only one goddess," they note. "...Are you a faithful of the Guardians of Filgaia?"
In which case, knowing what they do, no wonder this woman is so angry. They'd almost expect her to want to attack Seymour rather than them--but then, they are here specifically to help him out. They suspect they're exactly the same in her eyes. That's fine; they don't intend on making excuses for that. They do, however, ask, "And what are *your* thoughts on Sin?"
Perhaps an odd question to ask when Kaguya rushes in to punch them outright and Lydia hurls greenish radiation into their body. They stagger back with a pained grunt, a couple of pyreflies wisping away from them from the radioactive effects before Kaguya lands a fist in their chest with a THUD. They cough violently at the force of it. They are not, on their own, a particularly effective fighter in direct combat; they're a black mage, better suited to supporting others.
But then, direct combat has never been their role in a fight.
Instead of words, they move into a dance, their bow swooping and arcing with them. As their arms move gracefully, light traces around them; as their feet spin, so too does the power they wield. It shoots up into the air; an instant later, a great winged creature, birdlike, sails down and lands next to Belize. They stroke her beak, and she croons. Then she gives her great wings a mighty flap and takes to the air, just above the ground, and twists them around to shoot off a pair of mighty wind blasts towards Kaguya and Lydia on Belize's behalf.
DC: Belize switches forms to Aeon Valefor -Ryuggu-!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret continues forwards as she keeps on pulling, as she runs, as she grips the sickle on the other end of the kusarigama in anticipation for a bloody reaping of some kind of adjutant or aide de camp, when she finds instead that there is weight at the far end of her chain.
Margaret looks over her shoulder.
Bursts of light come towards her and she kicks herself up into the air, a twisting backflip that spares her two of the bursts of light and makes the third a burst of fabric-bleaching force on her hip that sends her tumbling in the air for a full second, finally coming to a stop atop a bird-hitch as she gazes downwards, along the length of mythril chain, towards Harmaus.
Why isn't he dead, Margaret thinks, not recognizing the contorted figure, who is speaking quite vigorously towards...
... Kaguya.
Margaret's tense mind finds a familiar point to elaborate upon: Vanity. Her lips thin. Her eyes widen behind the hood of her somewhat damaged cloak. She sucks in a tight little breath through her nose, tilts her head back quite unnecessarily given her height advantage, and then shouts, "I'M SORRY, AM I INTERRUPTING A MOMENT?"
"Perhaps I could fetch you some TEA?" Margaret continues, grasping the chain now with both hands and leaning forwards to draw it taut with a little adjustment and then with a wordless shout of effort YANK upwards, as if she intends to draw the tangled-up Harmaus upwards and swing him backwards to whip him back and forth, like a pendulum.
"Look at me when I'm KILLING you you miserable Yevonic paper-pusher!!" Margaret concludes, putting her back into one last twist and then vaulting forwards to try and sink the sickle's blade into the central mass of her chosen foe!
GS: Belize has attacked Kaguya with Sonic Wings! GS: Belize has attacked Lydia Seren with Sonic Wings! GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo! GS: Belize takes 21 damage from Poison! GS: Belize has completed their action. GS: Lydia Seren takes a glancing hit from Belize's Sonic Wings for 50 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Lydia Seren! GS: Margaret has attacked Seraph Harmaus with Blunt Banter and Sharp Reply! GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
Day flicks his hair back from his face with a snap of his head, expression etched with focus. "That's not how Althena has ever worked," he grunts. "We don't treat Her like our servant to solve all our problems for us. We follow Her of our free will!"
Day doesn't pursue Seymour right away - he gives Leo and Pearl their space. It opens things up for Seymour to call forth the ice. Raising his shield defensively, the young knight takes a step back to protect himself. The ice block crashes into his defenses and drives him to a knee as its opposite buckles, his shoulders straining under the force of the spell.
Clenching his teeth, he holds fast. He takes another step to one side, exhaling - and then twitching involuntarily.
The shock of the earlier lightning spell is hurting him far more than he'd care to admit. Day grimaces and bows his head, driving his sword momentarily into the ground to bring a gauntleted hand up over his heart. As another painful twitch roils through him, he focuses on something else.
Belief. "Goddess Althena, please lend me the strength to atone for the sins of my youth," he murmurs his plea.
With that quiet litany comes a gentle surge of wind, carrying with it the scent of grass, of wild flowers. The cool breeze ripples around Day, carrying with it the kiss of healing magic. Verdant shimmers dance across his limbs, energy-stricken muscles relaxing and untensing beneath his heavy armour as strength flows back into him.
Day opens his eyes and reaches for his sword again as the power of the litany settles in.
"...I will thank you to show more respect to the White Knight of Althena."
GS: Day Muirwall has attacked Day Muirwall with Mistral Litany! GS: Day Muirwall has gained 1 Combo! GS: Day Muirwall takes 19 damage from Poison! GS: Day Muirwall has completed his action. GS: Day Muirwall heals Day Muirwall! He gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Disrupt and Poison removed! GS: Seraph Harmaus takes a solid hit from Margaret's Blunt Banter and Sharp Reply for 141 hit points! GS: Kaguya guards a hit from Belize's Sonic Wings for 46 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Slow applied to Kaguya! GS: Kaguya activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Raven Blackwood has posed.
There's a momentary flare in Raven's purple eyes as she suddenly realises that one of the local defenders is swiping back at her. How could this man want to harm her? If he only knew that she didn't mean any harm -
The gravitas is well and truly hitting home. She is an enemy, inviting attack by her choosing to follow the faithful into battle. All that she can muster by way of defense for herself or her affiliation is to throw her cloak up in front of her face protectively and shout, "No--!!"
It takes a moment for her to realise that the blow intended for her has been intercepted by Hilde and her shield. She lowers her cloaked arm, drawing in a deep breath through her nostrils.
"Please, don't sacrifice yourself for me!" Raven pleads with Hilde briefly, though the relief in her tone is evident.
Already, she's showing herself to be a liability. She shouldn't be here.
But she must be here. It's the Goddess' will; she must have faith.
Without it, she'd be useless.
The Priestess' eyes close, arms shifting beneath her cloak, something clasping near her heart as she begins to chant:
"Oh Goddess, protect your servant Hilde, as you protect all of your Saints..."
As she prays, a warm glow starts to emanate in the air around Hilde, providing a sense of sanctuary for the knight.
GS: Raven Blackwood has attacked Hilde with Saint Litany! GS: Raven Blackwood has gained 1 Combo! GS: Raven Blackwood has completed her action. GS: Raven Blackwood heals Hilde! She gains 110 temporary hit points! GS: Shield applied to Hilde!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo chances another glance at Lydia once he's struck Seymour, and what he sees once again chills him. What happened? Leo thinks, as she flashes him that thumbs-up. She must be furious over Home--a sentiment he shares--but there's something missing from her anger. The Lydia that Leo knew wouldn't be so...
He can't put his finger on it. And now's not the time.
"How magnanimous of you," Leo growls, at Seymour--who is a perfectly acceptable target. The big Beastman leaps to the side, his cloak trailing out behind him, but Seymour caught him in a moment of vulnerability, and takes ruthless advantage. Lightning catches the White Knight in the shoulder, scorching black marks across the pure white of his uniform. His body twists and jerks as current pours through him, and he bites back a scream of pain. That hurt. He doesn't need to look to know there are burns trailing across his skin.
But he does not drop his blade.
"Sir Muirwall, watch yourself!" Leo croaks, as Day moves in. A second jolt of current shoots down his spine, and he lets out a sharp hiss. He steps forwards, raising his guard as he advances on Seymour again. His blade sweeps through the motions of a characteristic Waning Crescent form--carefully-planned strikes and sweeps, all of which minimize the openings he leaves for his foe. It might be somewhat less effective against a sorcerer, but Leo's fought plenty of those before.
How different could this Maester Seymour be?
GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Seymour Guado with Flash Blade! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo assumes the Stoic stance! GS: White Knight Leo takes 24 damage from Poison! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Seymour Guado guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Flash Blade for 89 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seymour Guado activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
That flicker--it does seem sincere. So Kaguya answers, "Yep. That's my main goal in Spira. But where the Guard goes, there's my country."
Real. Kaguya can agree with that much. Lydia's gods sure do seem to be real. But then, she's seen Althena, too...
And she's seen this Lydia. She is acting differently. But then, doesn't she have a good reason to be angry? But as Lydia calls out to Leo, Kaguya offers a thumbs-up distractedly to the Commander. "Right!" Right then, though--
'Kaguya! We asks it again! It turns away from its Goddess? It answers now!'
He does sound mad. Kaguya finds herself mad, too. She scowls at him from across the battlefield, briefly distracted. "Son of a bitch," Kaguya mutters. "It's really RUDE of you to focus on me when the Black Pearl of Neo-Brain is right there, isn't it!?" This does not actually answer the question, of course. "Can't you just be happy with what's gone on so far? With what I've already given you!?"
But then there is an Aeon, and Kaguya is hit by the mighty blast sent forth from it that would better suit a Gear than someone as small as Kaguya. She's blown back, hitting the ground and stopped by a wall, though her armor absorbs most of the damage even if she's too light to have stayed in place. She has to pull her ARM again at this range, thoroughly out of melee for now. "I don't have time for all this," she mutters.
"Just what I always wanted. An Aeon to fight." She doesn't actually sound that happy, though. Kaguya aims her shotgun and it starts to charge, suddenly, a terrible whine raising through the air as it charges. A great ball of energy gathers at the barrel--and when Kaguya pulls the trigger, the ARM goes off, a great blast of green power surging towards Ryuggu.
"Come on, Lydia! Let's go!"
GS: Kaguya spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Kaguya has attacked Belize with Riot Break! GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl finds herself at near point blank, and launches herself into the air to try and evade. It doesn't pay off entirely, and spheres of flame blast into her and send her flying, before slamming her into a nearby pillar. She drops into a three point crouch and... watches. She watches as Day and Leo position themselves.
The knights of Althena may care about honour, but this is not one of Pearl's concerns- as evidenced by her actions tonight. Leo changes form, Day braces himself and Pearl? Pearl sees an opening.
She moves suddenly, te second Seymour's back is to her. A reckless attack, as she aims to drive her claws INTO where Seymour's kidneys should be, before moving to rip out widely and roughly, doing as much damage as she can. Thed only question is if Pearl can pull it off before Seymour can react.
GS: Pearl has attacked Seymour Guado with Predator's Opening! GS: Pearl assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Seymour Guado guards a hit from Pearl's Predator's Opening for 95 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
Hilde already reinforces a reality Gon has witnessed and accepted - in a straight contest of might between them, her sword holds more strength and holds ever sturdier. The deflection of the swipe throws him off-balance. He makes as good a show as any as he flows into another backswing to try and parry the oncoming shield, but it pushes him into a stagger.
A stagger in which he doesn't fall, holding firm against a clean blow as he can while Hilde speaks to the panicked priestess. The sneer that all Guado master by their adolescence is on full display. The condescending glare, enhanced by their greater height so that they may properly look down on the shorter and stouter that walk the land.
"You brought one so tender with you, then?" He rights his combat stance. Hilde's defensive might was nearly impossible for him to break even at his very best, and now, she has another to reinforce it. With a flourish, a Potion is taken from his possession and quickly quaffed. (No Guardian worth their salt among the Guado fails to master the Auto-Potion - they tend to keep to their own, and there are fewer White Mages among them.)
"If she is not committed to what her kind is about to take from all of us," Gon's impeccable sneer continues through having some Potion dribble off his chin, "then she may wallow in her folly at the farthest ends of the Farplane with the rest of your hordes."
He rushes in there with that chilling commentary, heedless of Hilde's masterful composure and sure defensive stance, running between the space and sweeping both of his arms inward so that they position themselves horizontally around his body and prepare for any counter-blows from either of them.
Raven being a healer, and a novice, will grant her no mercy nor reprieve. There is no further room to relent.
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
"Do you? Or do you do as you are told?" Seymour asks Day, with a glower. And, strangely enough, a smile. "Is this what you feel... or a thin excuse?"
His eyes turn back at Leo. He seems calm; at ease. This is something of a pretension -- he hides much of how he feels, as he holds up his clawed fingers. Lightning sitll dances over them.
Leo's blade strikes his side. Blood is drawn again; he hisses, stepping back to the side, away from him. But Pearl comes in at the side. Her claws drive deep into him -- and Seymour's neck arches, as he screams.
And when the claws tear free, pyreflies explode outward. This will draw a few stares -- a few rumors.
"Gh--" And no blood drips from Pearl's claws. What would have been a fatal blow simply is not.
He throws a hand upward.
And blasts of flame and water alike come raining down. Fireballs crash from above, while powerful geysers of water shoot from below. They strike at Pearl, Leo, and Day with such fury. And Seymour...
Seymour laughs. "I see you think to end me here... ha--" He spits. "--then let me return the favor! LET ME RELEASE YOU FROM YOUR PAIN! FROM YOUR DESPAIR!"
GS: Seymour Guado has attacked White Knight Leo with Multi-Fire and Multi-Water! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Day Muirwall with Multi-Fire and Multi-Water! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Pearl with Multi-Fire and Multi-Water! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has completed his action. GS: Gon Guado has attacked Gon Guado with Auto-Potion! GS: Gon Guado has activated a Force Action! GS: Day Muirwall takes a solid hit from Seymour Guado's Multi-Fire and Multi-Water for 70 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Pearl fully evades Seymour Guado's Multi-Fire and Multi-Water for 0 hit points! GS: Gon Guado heals Gon Guado! He gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Gon Guado has attacked Hilde with Bunyip Stance! GS: Gon Guado has attacked Raven Blackwood with Bunyip Stance! GS: Gon Guado has gained 2 Combo! GS: Gon Guado assumes the Stoic stance! GS: Gon Guado has completed his action. GS: Hilde guards a hit from Gon Guado's Bunyip Stance for 72 hit points! GS: Hilde activates Guard bonus! GS: White Knight Leo critically guards Seymour Guado's Multi-Fire and Multi-Water for 56 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Raven Blackwood guards a hit from Gon Guado's Bunyip Stance for 79 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"Ah? We are rude? Is battlefield -- is war! Rudeness not exists in war!" he continues to argue, even while well-bound by Margaret. Who... may have her own feelings about this, frankly.
'I'M SORRY, AM I INTERRUPTING A MOMENT?'
"Yes. Is very interrupting," Harmaus tells Margaret. To Kaguya, he calls back, "Before? Is no answer! Starborne child, it answers us now!"
Margaret however calls out to him, tugging his attention back her way.
"We cares not for tea," the figure starts to say, when Margaret hauls on the end of the chain and drags him. The sudden movement hauls him about in a rather free-wheeling fashion: he appears to have no control over what point in the local area his body is currently occupying.
Which comes to an end when Margaret comes for him with the blade. He twists his body (the shoulder undergoing what can be called A Contortion) out of the way of her attack at the cost of his upper arm
which takes the hit
which severs through it with about as much resistance as Margaret might have expected from a particularly recalicrant branch during gardening cleanup.
To continue this metaphor, the liquid that sprays as his arm comes away is a dull green. It's sticky. Like plant sap.
Because that's what it is.
"Jaeja," sighs the Seraph, pulling himself up off the cobblestones where the rest of him lies. "Will take two, three weeks growing back? Is problem now. Ah, it should, what is word, kind, soft -- gentle! Gentle, yes, with body!" he continues to complain.
His hat has gotten lost somewhere along the way here. He's...
Generally speaking most humanoid creatures can't shrug off an arm as a nuisance.
Generally speaking most humanoid creatures don't... have a giant tomato for a 'head'.
He, meanwhile, draws a weapon of his own from beneath his clothing, a long sharp knife. Blade glinting in the light of the battle, he lunges for Margaret, seeking to introduce his knife to her in a flurry of cuts across different parts of her body.
GS: Seraph Harmaus spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Seraph Harmaus has attacked Margaret with Poco a Poco! GS: Seraph Harmaus has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seraph Harmaus has completed his action. GS: Margaret takes a glancing hit from Seraph Harmaus's Poco a Poco for 42 hit points! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Poison applied to Margaret! GS: Margaret activates Evade bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
As the breeze around him stills, Day squares his jaw, a scowl etched into his features. "If only you knew why I chose to walk this path, Seymour Guado. If only you could know."
Once again, Day seems to be the one taking the worst of what Seymour's dishing out. Power pours forth in the form of water and flame - but for all that he seems to be bearing much of the fury, Day's far more prepared for it this time. Flame batters against the face of his shield, washing past it to scorch at his cheeks and shoulders. Bursts of water erupt around him, but he's able to lean aside from one that might otherwise have thrown him off his feet.
A blast of flame hits his shield and drives him back nevertheless, forcing him back to a knee with a painful slam. The ache in his shoulders and back is palpable - but eminently survivable.
Day narrows his eyes and lets out a low rumble in the back of his throat as something occurs to him. Pearl jumped in and did something that should've eliminated Seymour outright.
The man's not even bleeding. Day clicks his teeth together.
Pyreflies. How does one kill a dead man, anyway?
He merely squares himself again as the last of the flames wash around him. "...I've seen despair," he growls, voice low. "The path to release is not one you can give me. But it's one that I can follow through you and the blasphemy you stand for."
Day surges forward again, bounding up from his one-knee stance. The fading fire parts to either side of him as he sweeps his shield aside, raking through water and flame to clear his path to Seymour. Once again he's far quicker than a man in full plate has any right to be, his broadsword dancing from side to side in one hard slash, then another, then coming up with a glint.
"HOOOOAHT!!" Day swings, attempting to cleave through Seymour's upper body with a heavy stroke. A blow to the kidneys may not have slowed him.
Maybe cutting a limb off will.
GS: Day Muirwall has attacked Seymour Guado with Volant Strike! GS: Day Muirwall has gained 2 Combo! GS: Day Muirwall's Stoic stance ends. GS: Day Muirwall has completed his action. GS: Seymour Guado guards a hit from Day Muirwall's Volant Strike for 89 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seymour Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seymour Guado activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
What are... Lydia's thoughts on Sin? Lydia is surprised to be asked that. For a moment, she thinks Belize is actually asking Kaguya. "Yeah, I'm a Shaman from Filgaia." Lydia says. For all her hardcore introduction, she seems willing to engage in nearly casual chatter while fighting for her life. She doesn't say it but Belize is correct--she definitely remembers what Seymour did to that Baskar Village and yeah, it certainly factors into Lydia's rage there. It isn't what she brought up though because what she thinks of first? It's those bodies of Al Bhed, just littering the hallways...getting concerned looks as she fought to protect them.
CAT IS TALKING but Cat isn't in cat body so Lydia just asides to them, "Kinda busy. You wanna chat? Lend a hand."
Lydia misses Leo's own concerned looks because Belize summons one of HIS Gods. Lydia observes that it's beautiful. She thought for a time that she and the summoners were practically the same. But that's not really true now is it?
The blast of wind SLAAAAMS into Lydia and sends her crashing back into the wall, leaving a Lydia-shaped indent. She pushes herself out, slowly, grunting as shse does so.
"Sin's gotta go." Lydia says. "The Guardians call it a Clysmian and after you guys tried to summon one on Filgaia in a totally non-bloodthirsty way, I think maybe it's best if they go back to being myths. Only a crazy person would think anything else, yeah? Are you Pro Sin or somethin' now?"
Belize is kind of unnerving Lydia. She may be able to play the role of a hardcore soldier type but she's still Lydia. The way Belize SMILED at her--is her read of this person completely wrong? She's used to people lashing back out at her when she presses on the sass not...whatever this is.
"You're... on the same side aren'tcha?" She glances to Seymour with just her eyes but the question is to Belize.
Regardless, she does admit, "It's a real beauty. Shooting something like that doesn't feel--"
Come on, Lydia! Let's go!
"...Yeah, but that's life."
Starborne Child?
Lydia accidentally helps Kaguya's cover by assuming Harmaus is talking about her. "Hey I'm not on Team Goddess or nothin'! But the Guard hasn't done wrong by me!"
She gathers up her focus to nod to Kaguya. She crouches briefly, exhaling out slowly--
--and then leaps up high into the air, soaring above Ryuggu in a single bound, eye gleaming briefly as she swipes down with the blade that came out of her arm, swiping for the neck like she's been taught to, eyes gleaming silver.
"Shootin' like a champ like always, sis! And looking good while doin' it!"
She believes in saying affirming things to people you love.
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Belize with Rabbit Heart! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
Hilde can't afford to look back at Raven now, but the fact that she can still hear her moving and talking is proof enough that she's alright.
"It is quite alright. It is my duty to defend others - I have plenty of strength in me yet." Hilde replies with a brief shake of her head. And then, Raven recites a prayer - a litany of healing. The warm glow surrounds her, protecting her and easing her pain. "My gratitude, Priestess!"
She notes Gon's condescending look with a frown.
"It was her own decision. I would not have you disrespect that." Hilde replies. And as for his commentary... "I shall see to it that does not happen."
Gon rushes in with a defensive attack of his own - spaced perfectly to strike at the both of them. She can't defend Raven this time - it's difficult enough to defend herself without opening her up to further attacks.
She moves forward, sword at the ready, her eye on Gon and studying him carefully. She had seen that potion - and she knows a thing or two about dealing with foes with healing or regenerative properties. She moves in for a single, practiced strike designed to negate those effects.
GS: Hilde has attacked Gon Guado with Minus Strike! GS: Hilde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hilde has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
"Gh--enough of your blandishments!" Leo growls, even as the residual electricity arcs through him yet again. His left leg twitches and cramps up, and he has to shift his weight just to keep from opening a giant hole in his defenses. He sees Pearl seize hold of an opening, and tear into Seymour from behind--
Pyreflies flit through the air. Leo watches them, stunned into momentary silence as they dance before him.
"You're already dead," the Beastman says, cold anger seeping into his words. "What right have you to decide the fates of the living?"
A jet of water erupts from below with enough force to shatter flagstones and pulverize dirt. Leo steps to the side, twisting out of the way with mere inches to spare. Two fireballs race straight at him, like heat-seeking missiles. Leo raises his blade, and sweeps it through another diagonal cut. A wave of splintering force races outwards to intercept Seymour's magic, striking both fireballs head-on. Embers fall from the sky as Leo dances out of the way of a second geyser--this one a much closer call. A torrent like a pressure hose slams into his calf, almost knocking him over.
"Is that what you seek?" Leo growls. "Then we wil DRIVE YOU FORTH, MONSTER!"
Leo stomps a foot into the pavement, grinding in his heel. The earth itself answers him, erupting from beneath Seymour in a series of jagged spikes, hard and sharp as obsidian. More spikes rise around the Maester in a ring, to stab at him from all sides even as they hem him in.
Can they kill him? Leo thinks. The game has changed.
GS: White Knight Leo spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Seymour Guado with Grand Upheaval! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo takes 23 damage from Poison! GS: Poison expired! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The cry of pain gives Pearl some satisfaction, but the flowing pyreflies dull that. Seymour remains, if not alive, functional. That is not what she was hoping for. She was hoping for a corpse. Instead, Seymour lets out his rage, and descending strikes of fire and water.
Somehow, Pearl moves through them all. Swift dodges, careful timing, it's almost as if she dances through. She doesn't dance though, that would be a sin. It's exhausting, but she finds herself facing Seymour again, at a distance. "We've failed to end each other once each." Is Pearl... snarking? "Let's see if I can break the tie."
She launches herself forward, arms crossed in front of her. The second the distance closes, she slashes out in an 'X' pattern, before trying to roll PAST Seymour again, trying to arrange herself a small distance from Day and Leo. She is, after all, not like them. They are here to fight, she is here to kill. It's best she take advantage of them to do what she does best.
<Pose Tracker> Raven Blackwood has posed.
'You brought one so tender with you, then?'
Raven's head bows as she continues her prayer in silence. There is no honest rebuttal to be made, and to say anything would only prove the Guado right.
'If she is not committed to what her kind is about to take from all of us, then she may wallow in her folly at the farthest ends of the Farplane with the rest of your hordes.'
Gon's words strike more deeply than his physical attempt; though she braces for it, the blow causes her to flinch and stagger backward. The accusation, the vehemence, shake her more thoroughly, if invisibly. She needn't go to the far ends of the Farplane to wallow in her folly.
It hurts.
Raven's eyes flick open, flashing with anger. It's not an anger that's been truly earned by Gon Guado; it's anger that's simply looking for the nearest exit.
"I have no desire to harm you or yours!" she shouts with a sudden shift in tone that suggests that she rather does, in fact. "Surrender, so the bloodshed can cease!"
The hammer is hefted across her shoulder, though she still hesitates to employ it. Her eyes remain open, her mouth moving silently - whether in prayer or madness, beseeching the Goddess between deep, centering breaths.
GS: Raven Blackwood has attacked Raven Blackwood with Meditation! GS: Raven Blackwood has gained 1 Combo! GS: Raven Blackwood assumes the Stoic stance! GS: Raven Blackwood has completed her action. GS: Pearl has attacked Seymour Guado with Frenzied Claw! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Seymour Guado takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Grand Upheaval for 175 hit points! GS: Seymour Guado guards a hit from Pearl's Frenzied Claw for 67 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
As her blade rips through what SHOULD be flesh, Margaret finds that the air holds the smell of...
A garden?
She stares ahead as something sprays outwards, landing on her chin as she gazes upon the rising up Seraph, though as yet unspotted by her as that form. He is lecturing her that she should take greater care with--
with his body.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra2LLKa0Fsk
Margaret's eye twitches. Her teeth press together as she attempts to get out words as she gazes upon this tomato, this tomato-that-talks. Even for a mage of her experience this is a surreal, horrifying novelty. Why is this happening? What is this entity? She had thought perhaps some kind of Unsent, or perhaps some sort of novel ARM-person -- she has heard rumors of machine-folk from the Blue Star, for whom decapitation is a muinor annoyance and little more.
But that glossy red bulb of a head - no, she can see a face in it. Margaret finally gets out, "What manner of -"
And then a knife is thrown!
The spell of horror is breached by an agonizing blooming of nightshade-poison (presumably, anyway) along the weapon as Margaret flinches away from it, getting a red line across her upper shoulder and losing more cloth in the bargain, for that vegetative flick was enough to punch through a 'keep the wind off and keep snipers from spotting me out' grade of wool cloak.
"Whatever horrid thing you may be," Margaret says as the cloak she is wearing begins to glow from within, "you wish for gentle treatment? If you were a mere passerby, then I shall take your word for it, though I DOUBT YOU VERY MUCH."
The glow increases in intensity and complexity, a secondhand stellar reflection glowing in front of Margaret. "But you had better put your hands up and say 'thank you, Lady Margaret' as I hurl you bodily to the far end of the lines, and you had better put your little stalks up and ask to be taken prisoner toute buggering suite, or else I'll trim your leaves and leave your roots to rot in the ground!"
"Because we aren't here for some pleasure jaunt or an argument - we are here for victory, against the rites of eons!" (A subtle quirk of prounciation.) As she finishes this, Margaret sweeps her arm out - this slackens the bindings on the chains round Harmaus but there is also an upsurge of stellar, crackling magic round her, the nebular nimbus blasting the tattered cloak back and out into the air as she sinks into a crouch, gazing with wide and staring eyes at that horrid drupe of a face!
GS: Margaret has attacked Margaret with Starlight Express! GS: Margaret takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Margaret has completed her action. GS: Margaret accepts Margaret's Starlight Express for 0 hit points! GS: Burst, Hyper, and Quick applied to Margaret! GS: CRITICAL! Belize takes a glancing hit from Kaguya's Riot Break for 283 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Belize activates Evade bonus! GS: Belize takes a glancing hit from Lydia Seren's Rabbit Heart for 84 hit points! GS: Gon Guado has activated a Force Action! GS: Gon Guado guards a hit from Hilde's Minus Strike for 88 hit points! GS: Disease applied to Gon Guado!
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
Her main goal in Spira. Kaguya *had* been there on Bikanel, present for that discussion, so at the least Belize knows she knows the truth... And if she really does care about Mi'ihen as she claims... Of course, Kaguya gets momentarily distracted by Harmaus, and there seems to be some kind of history between the two of them, but Belize doesn't really care about that. Indeed, they take that moment to glance to one side at Seymour as he screams at his own opponents. "..."
(Honestly it's for the best that Belize doesn't pay attention to Harmaus, or they might get treated to a special, brand new kind of horror.)
Lydia confirms that she's a Shaman, then gives her own thoughts on Sin and how it needs to go. When she asks Belize if they're suddenly pro-Sin, they smile at her again, this time derisive, the kind of sneer that says, 'Absolutely not.' They don't actually verbally respond, though, until Lydia sneaks a look at Seymour and asks that second question.
"We are both children of Yevon, and Seymour is a dear friend of mine to whom I owe a great deal," Belize tells Lydia, which is absolutely not the same thing as 'we are on the same side.' Perhaps Lydia will pick up on that. Perhaps especially when they continue, "Whatever your grievances, I cannot and will not step aside."
But there is definitely a change in Belize's stance now. Before, they confronted Kaguya and Lydia and the Guard at large in anger; now, they emanate... not exactly a *serene* calm, but a calm nonetheless. It's the calm of, perhaps, someone giving another a test.
If these two would stand up against Sin, then surely they can stand up against a Summoner and their Aeon.
Kaguya's energy blast whines and then EXPLODES towards Valefor Ryuggu, a mighty force that smashes into her and sends her letting out an avian cry as she's knocked backwards, flapping her wings to keep steady. Her clawed feet briefly touch the ground, and in that moment, when Lydia leaps at her with her blade, she zooms back up into the air. The blade slashes her body, but doesn't manage to hit the neck. In return, Valefor Ryuggu sails up into the air, then does a loop-the-loop and whistles at top speed down at Lydia, aiming to smash through her like she's a brick wall and cannonball into Kaguya behind her in a display of sonic-speed force.
GS: Belize enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Belize has attacked Lydia Seren with Dashing Flight! GS: Belize has attacked Kaguya with Comet Collide! GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo! GS: Belize takes 27 damage from Poison! GS: Mute and Poison expired! GS: Belize has completed their action. GS: Lydia Seren guards a hit from Belize's Dashing Flight for 71 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lydia Seren gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Lydia Seren activates Guard bonus and Power Burst! GS: Lydia Seren enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Jam expired! GS: Kaguya takes a glancing hit from Belize's Comet Collide for 68 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Kaguya activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
Hilde defends Raven's honor as she moves to try and disrupt the natural flows of energy that a Spiran Potion works within. A metal gauntlet moves in defense of what would have triggered the gag reflex, in exchange for a bruising, disorienting impact as the Guado warrior coughs twice. Once more, he remains upright, taking in air through his nostrils meditatively. His stance is, currently, solid - and he's able to dedicate more of his defense to Hilde's movements.
Some of this is just plain tunnel vision, knowing full well what she is capable of - he seems ready to write off the resolve of the nearby Priestess and register her as not being a threat until catches that bit of edge in her voice. It's a touch of something unlike her presentation.
He pays any deeper meaning of this no mind. He is fighting what he knows to be a superior opponent, his only leverage being he can afford to lose no more.
"There are some things," Gon says without looking to Raven. His tone of voice, icy - but his words, more fiery, embodying both the elements within his grasp as a wielder of White Magic, "you can never surrender...!"
He pivots on one foot and whirls, claws out like a tornado to try and overwhelm Hilde's defenses, to push her back. To give space, as Raven starts to heft her hammer. She may yet strike, then, the corner of a trained eye reveals. Once satisfied, or pushed aside, he makes use of what space he is given to suddenly leap up.
A claw raised, as he looks down upon Raven's angry gaze. He does not reflect upon how it does not match her face, or her body language.
"Moonflow Blue Crescent...!" He brings that claw down in a swooping, sweeping strike like a crescent moon across Raven's form - an attempt to strike her down then and there with the expectation that he will be graced with the loosening of prismatic, wailing pyreflies.
GS: Gon Guado spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Gon Guado has attacked Hilde with Ochu Whirl! GS: Gon Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gon Guado has attacked Raven Blackwood with Moonflow Blue Crescent! GS: Gon Guado has gained 2 Combo! GS: Gon Guado's Stoic stance ends. GS: Gon Guado has completed his action. GS: Hilde critically guards Gon Guado's Ochu Whirl for 27 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
"I very much doubt that," Seymour answers Day. "There is but one release, for one such as yourself!"
Day rushes forth. His blade cleaves out, and this time, there is no illusion of blood from him. Pyreflies strike backward, and then he stumbles backward, with teeth bared.
"I have every right. I am a prophet--a visionary. One graced by the fates... with the obsession to bring deliverance unto us all!" Seymour cries out to Leo. Stones rise around him -- spikes run him through. Pyreflies explode upward at that.
When the stones fall, Seymour is ragged -- there's spots in his body that shimmer, before flesh and cloth reform. Pearl comes, slashing into him -- her claws double him over, and he falls to his knees.
He gasps. Wetly; hoarsely. When his eyes look up, it is baleful.
He is not ended.
He throws a hand out. A magical circle explodes out from underneath his feat, spinning wildly. Circles appear inside; lines form triangles. Ancient Althenan runes appear, and it flashes a deep, dark red.
"Inscript the dark god into a rotting body!" Seymour chants, hurling a hand out. A bead of light flies out between them.
When it detonates, it is blinding. A flash of white light, a shockwave that hurls back scores of troops and shatters building facades, and a terrific fireball that explodes high, high into the sky.
"FLARE!"
GS: Seymour Guado has activated a Boss Action! GS: Seymour Guado has activated a Force Action! GS: Seymour Guado has activated a Force Action! GS: Seymour Guado spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Day Muirwall with Flare! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked White Knight Leo with Flare! GS: Seymour Guado has attacked Pearl with Flare! GS: Seymour Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seymour Guado has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Rudeness TOTALLY exists in war because you're DOING it!" Kaguya grouses loudly at Harmaus as she weaves behind a fallen soldier. But Lydia mentions how beautiful the Aeon is and Kaguya says, "Yeah. That's life."
Starborne child. Harmaus is pressing for it, and Kaguya's sharp teeth show in something of a snarl, a very Veruni kind of expression. "Of all the people I expected to be a stickler for this kind of thing, you were the last. Fine! If that's how you want it!"
She wants to say thanks Lydia for trying to cover it, but that would kind of ruin the effect. And she didn't actually have to try. "Then no," Kaguya answers Harmaus. "I'm not turning back on the Goddess. I'm not throwing away everything we've worked for just because you don't like it!"
Kaguya then looks and sees Ryuggu moving. Belize cannot, will not step aside--and Ryuggu is charging straight for her. Kaguya dives out of the way, hitting the ground hard enough to scrape up her arm against battle debris, but manages to evade the worst of the blow. She gets back up to a crouch, and reaches back behind her back. "I can respect that," Kaguya says instead to Belize. "That's how the nobles say... fighting with honor, or something. I can do that." Pause. "Well, kind of."
She pulls a strange, blinking device from her bag, green lights flashing wildly. It looks... bizarre, to say the least, curved metal and strange plastics wrapped around a core of something explosive.
"Heheh," Kaguya says to Lydia, feeling a little better at the compliment. But she could swear she heard Pearl say she didn't want bloodshed. She must have hit her head harder than she thought. Regardless, she throws the blinking object straight for Ryuggu.
"Any OTHER questions, Harm!?"
GS: Kaguya has attacked Belize with Riot Blast! GS: Jam expired! GS: Kaguya has completed her action. GS: Raven Blackwood accepts Raven Blackwood's Meditation for 0 hit points! GS: Surge applied to Raven Blackwood! GS: Cover applied to Raven Blackwood! GS: Raven Blackwood takes a glancing hit from Gon Guado's Moonflow Blue Crescent for 82 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Raven Blackwood gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Raven Blackwood! GS: Day Muirwall takes a solid hit from Seymour Guado's Flare for 257 hit points! GS: Mute and Poison applied to Day Muirwall! GS: Day Muirwall enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Pearl takes a solid hit from Seymour Guado's Flare for 316 hit points! GS: Mute and Poison applied to Pearl! GS: Pearl enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Pearl has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: White Knight Leo guards a hit from Seymour Guado's Flare for 144 hit points! GS: Mute and Poison applied to White Knight Leo!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia listens as Belize says that Seymour is an old friend. She hears Seymour say the following words: LET ME RELEASE YOU FROM YOUR PAIN! FROM YOUR DESPAIR!
"Maybe he needs some mood stabilizers," Lydia says. "I used to take 'em myself but they don't really work on me anymore."
She does bob her head once at Belize's answer. As she just said, that's life. She doesn't need to personally hate Belize to appreciate the fact that Belize is kinda in the way here. Lydia has her own friends who do troubled shit that she looks past because she owes them too. She IS a little annoyed that Belize doesn't seem as stark raving mad as the rest of em seem to be but she just has to accept the reality of things.
Lydia brings her arms forward, crossing them across her face as she takes the hit. She's pretty tough. And she can keep on goin' and goin'. She is able to twist out of the way so Kaguya doesn't have to deal with a flying death bird. Should she keep at it like this, she wonders, or should she summon her own gods here?
Nah, she'll see about pushing harder if fortunes tilt back in the other direction.
She thinks back to what Rachiel would have her do in this situation. Probably go after Belize.
Lydia, presses down on Valefore's body and throws herself up on top of it, aiming to stab down from there!
"Don't worry 'bout me, Sis!" Lydia says before pausing.
"Kind of, huh." Her expression is briefly deadpan in a moment of light teasing.
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Belize with Rachiel Medry Has Some Helpful Advice! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo! GS: Slow expired! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Kaguya's attack becomes clear! GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Belize takes a glancing hit from Kaguya's Untested Prototype for 123 hit points! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Break applied to Belize! GS: Belize activates Evade bonus! GS: Day Muirwall has activated a Force Action! GS: Belize critically guards Lydia Seren's Rachiel Medry Has Some Helpful Advice for 42 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Belize gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
Pyreflies dance in the air and bleed past Day's sword as he presses the attack. Ashen smudgemarks trace across his cheeks from the earlier spell of water and flame, but he's in one piece. His voice is focused, though. "It's true that there's one release for me," he answers, voice low. "But not in the way you think."
Stones fall - but Seymour is not ended. Day circles to the side, giving Pearl the space she needs. She's different from he and Leo, to be sure - and he's more than happy to steer clear of her line of attack.
But he's not ended even when the assassin strikes. The vicious look in the eyes of the other man evokes a sudden churn in the pit of Day's stomach.
This isn't over. Not yet.
The runic power emerges, igniting into a blazing flame. The howling shockwave and flame surge out to consume the lot of them. Day lets out a surprised shout and raises his shield into the wavefront.
No defense could be enough to fully withstand it. Rolling power pounds across the young knight. His armour stains beneath the attack, enamel scorching off his shield. The flame lances across his cheeks, throwing him back and away from Seymour by several metres. Before long, the fire is so bright and complete that he's simply swallowed up by it.
The fire surges. Something moves within it.
"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAHT!!!"
Erupting from the flames like a phoenix, Day hurls himself forward once again. Scorchmarks track horrific paths across his armour and face, bloody burns visible on one of his cheeks. Smoke pours from the gaps in his platemail, evidence enough that not even that much steel could stop the sheer quantity of flame - and yet, he's still bearing down on Seymour like an oncoming steam train. The sword in his hands glints dangerously, energy crackling from it.
"THE ONLY GOD YOU WILL KNOW IS THE GODDESS!!" Day screams in defiance as he slams his blade through the air. Blasting through the flame of the man's spell, energy roars forth, twisting orange and red flames out of the way and replacing them with shimmering white force. The blast rages towards Seymour - and as it closes in, the energy twists.
It takes on the form of an immense charging pegasus, exploding at Seymour with the force of Day's skill and power.
GS: Day Muirwall spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Day Muirwall has attacked Seymour Guado with Forcene Pegasus! GS: Day Muirwall has gained 1 Combo! GS: Day Muirwall takes 19 damage from Poison! GS: Day Muirwall has completed his action. GS: Seymour Guado guards a hit from Day Muirwall's Forcene Pegasus for 192 hit points! GS: Seymour Guado activates Guard bonus! GS: Seymour Guado enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seymour Guado has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
That should have been it. It should have been enough to drop Seymour. And yet he still fights. It is time to deal the finishing blow, Pearl thinks. She lifts a clawed handf, and gets ready tioi charge.
That was a mistake. The light of the flare above them, the starting of a fireball so potent and powerful it could sear flesh. And Guardswoman Pearl, who's response to pain is usually 'nothing' screams in agony, before she is sent flying. She hits the ground, and slides and then doesn't move at all. There is smoke from the burns on her outfit and possibly her flesh. For the moment, she lay right between the gates of Yevon she had opened. Hopefully it is not where she lay eternal.
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
Hilde glances back at Raven as she shouts. She's... a little surprised by it. Did Gon's words cut that deep...? She can sympathise with her a bit on that... but there's not much she can do beyond offer reassurrance.
Especially not when Gon is coming at her, whirling like a tornado of steel. But Hilde is not one to let herself to be pushed back easily. She strikes out with her shield, trying to counteract the movement of his claws and break his moment to bring his whirling to a premature stop.
But, she doesn't stop there. In one swift motion she puts away her shield, taking her sword up in both hands as she rushes after Gon, even as he moves to strike Raven. She brings it down toward him in a single, powerful slash - a slash that has felled giants.
And yet... it's missing something - that signature blue aura has yet to appear. She has not once drawn upon it yet this night.
GS: Hilde spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Hilde has attacked Gon Guado with Titan Cleaver! GS: Cover expired! GS: Hilde has completed her action. GS: Gon Guado takes a glancing hit from Hilde's Titan Cleaver for 103 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gon Guado gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
Some things are best not paid attention to, especially if they're not your problem at the moment.
"It is how we wants it!" he snaps at Kaguya, apparently with his hackles well and truly up over this topic in particular.
"It can be gentle or not as pleases it!" calls back Harmaus, to Margaret. "But is problem if our body is damages, yes? Much time for regrowth! Must retreat and wait! Spira, ah... not kind to one like us!"
What, precisely, this all means is likely completely obtuse for Margaret... at least, presently.
"It wants us thanking it?" Harmaus wonders, watching her for a moment, going so far as to tilt his tomato head to one side. "Ah. We sees what wants it." A beat passes. "No," he says simply, stepping back as the chains on him slacken.
Kaguya says then that she will not turn against Althena. Tomatoes, as a rule, don't show expression very well. But this one looks apopleptic.
"No more questions! Here and now, we is the enemy of the starborne child!" declares Harmaus, fury -- well, as much fury as a tomato can hold -- in his eyes. "Any who stands by Althena is our enemy!"
And this fury he turns into his arte, a glimmering yellow-white glyph spinning out to shine bright at his feet: he begins to invoke a spell.
"-I call upon you, stars of the heavens! Bring forth all your terrible fury at my command!-" he intones, in Ancient Tongue. The aura that burns from him now--
This is no mere animate tomato, is it?
"Dynamic Flare!"
The heavens above rip open, pouring forth a blast of shimmering, multi-hued solar plasma to come down as a most-terrible rain.
GS: Seraph Harmaus spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Seraph Harmaus has attacked Margaret with Dynamic Flare! GS: Seraph Harmaus has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cripple expired! GS: Seraph Harmaus has completed his action. GS: Margaret takes a glancing hit from Seraph Harmaus's Dynamic Flare for 74 hit points! GS: Cripple and Poison applied to Margaret!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
"And there is but one release for vile monsters such as you," Leo says. The last of the lightning crackles down his left thigh, and arcs to the ground, sputtering out. He feels less like a puppet on jerky, ill-practiced strings. He meets Seymour's eyes, even as the stones tear into him--and what he sees there chills him to the bone.
There is absolutely no fear. Not even the slightest hint.
And 'obsession'--Leo feels that should be significant, but he can't put his finger on why, and--
(Somewhere, Cyre H. Lorentz facepalms.)
But despite the tremendous violence heaped upon him--violence that would surely kill a living man--Seymour rises. Leo doesn't even have time to shout out a warning to the others. He recognizes some of the sorcerous imagery, but can't place it--it's just one of those moments where time stretches out, and you pay attention to one particular aspect of the terrible thing unfolding before you.
"WHITE DRAGON!" Leo bellows. He draws upon his Crest for the third time, and its energy washes out across the battlefield--flowing back and around the mass of soldiers behind him. Only the barest hint clings to Leo himself. He sets his feet, and the earth rises before him, a rampart to stand against the all-consuming flame.
It's not enough. Leo's world goes white. He feels the dust and grit spattering him a second before his improvised barrier disintegrates; he throws up his arms to shield his face, focusing the White Dragon's Protection there. Every inch of his body burns.
When the light fades, Leo is still standing--barely. His uniform is scorched and tattered. Most of his cape has been burned off, and embers sizzle their way up towards his shoulders. The flesh beneath is likewise marred with burns, but it would've been far, far worse had Leo not risked a second defensive gambit. Living stone clings to his flesh, reinforcing his now-superheated chain shirt. He coughs, and smoke comes out.
"Sir Day," he chokes out. "Pearl--!"
One glance reveals their fates. His heart leaps against his rubs as he sees the fallen martial artist. "You...!" Leo growls, as he turns back to Seymour. Rage lights up his eyes. "YOU!" He steps forwards, mirroring Day's motions. "FACE THE GODDESS' JUDGMENT! LION'S HOWL!"
Leo's blade rips through the air, the terrible boom of displaced atmosphere heralding its arrival. The Ronso's lifeforce wells up behind it, erupting, expanding into a wall of onrushing power. It takes shape. A lion bears down on Seymour, on the heels of Day's pegasus.
The twin explosions will, if nothing else, rip terrible holes into the plaza.
GS: White Knight Leo spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Seymour Guado with Lion's Howl! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo's Stoic stance ends. He enters the Avenger stance! GS: White Knight Leo takes 22 damage from Poison! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Seymour Guado guards a hit from White Knight Leo's Lion's Howl for 132 hit points! GS: Seymour Guado has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Seymour Guado has posed.
Day breaks through the flames as they begin to fade. Shimmering white light explodes from the knight, slams into Seymour, and blasts him backward. He starts to stagger upward. The Maester's eyes turn, meeting Leo for a moment.
The Lion's Howl explodes outward. The sound of it is tremendous; the light flashes over him, and he is gone in its wake.
If it only it held.
But what the the Yevonites see is not an Unsent whose form is lost. They see a Maester that suddenly went under, a pile of rubble crashing down from an abandoned building where he was. They see Guard swarming into their streets.
And the first Warrior Monk calls out: "Maester Seymour has fallen!"
And a second, a third, a fiftieth.
In a few heartbeats, the tone of fighting changes. Guado start rushing backward, breaking from fights with knights; Warrior Monks turn and run, instead of forming firing lines. They begin rushing for the walls of the Temple District itself, as their ranks break.
And the rout begins.
<Pose Tracker> Raven Blackwood has posed.
'Moonflow Blue Crescent...!'
The breeze from the swooping claw rustles Raven's hair as the Guado defender descends toward her. The reaction to the first attack was a fear response; here, instead, the Hylandian priestess' narrowed eyes show resolve. With a surprising burst of speed from a woman who was tripping over her own clothing a minute previous, the purple-eyed priestess throws herself sidelong, instinctively using her dominant right to lead her evasive effort. This leaves the healer's left side to catch the sharp end of the attack - claw cleaving through cloak, finding flesh beneath and arcing bloody trails from the wound.
It's a glancing hit, yet critical.
As she skids to a stop, Raven's teeth grit. She can feel the blood pulsing through her veins, escaping through the gashes in her arm. Gashes that have been rent through the garment beneath which that arm has been kept hidden for so long - now, glimpses can be seen through the bloodstained tears in the fabric, of something that shouldn't be there - not the pale flesh of the priestess' face, nor the decrepit thing that she excuses it for. There's something purple, and pulsing, and... glowing?
"Hrrrrgghh!"
It's rapidly getting worse - at least, one can only assume that flesh glowing and throbbing in unnatural colours is 'worse.'
"Bastard...!"
Raven flinches and doubles over, all efforts to center and maintain her battle-communion with the Goddess seeming to fade to static as her eyes glint in the shadow falling over her face. There is nothing meek or apologetic in her tone; only pure malevolence.
"Heathen!!"
GS: Raven Blackwood has attacked Raven Blackwood with Hellion Rage! GS: Raven Blackwood has gained 1 Combo! GS: Raven Blackwood's Stoic stance ends. She enters the Avenger stance! GS: Raven Blackwood has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
It *is* life. All of them have had to confront this lately.
Belize raises an eyebrow at Kaguya's argument with Harmaus, and how it seems the two of them are breaking ways at this point. This seems appropriate enough, considering they're on opposite sides, but it certainly suggests that maybe Harmaus was not the most trustworthy of allies. (Is that body... bleeding green goo? Does it have a tomato for a head??)
"Fighting with honor, hm," Belize muses. They smile faintly. "You don't need to worry about that. Sin won't. But I do appreciate the sentiment, as one sapient being to another." Like how Ena--Pearl--said she didn't want bloodshed. Not that she'll get her wish, ultimately...
As for Lydia's quip about mood stabilizers, Belize isn't sure exactly what those are supposed to be, but their mouth slants sideways and down anyway. They can kind of guess, and they're pretty sure they wouldn't work on him either.
Kaguya hurls some kind of strange blinking object; it detonates with a mighty explosion, sending Valefor Ryuggu careening to one side. Lydia lands on her as she goes, but perhaps thanks to that initial impact and the sideways momentum, her downwards slash is not as effective as it might otherwise be; rather than stabbing at Belize from above, she slices Valefor Ryuggu as the Aeon shakes her off and smashes into the floor.
A lot of explosions happen then, honestly. Seymour unleashes his Flare, taking out the traitor; the traitor's allies give back as good as they were given, beating Seymour back in turn and sending down rubble on top of him, something they'd worry about much more if they didn't know he was already dead. Harmaus is making noises about retreating, too, and while Gon is holding his own so far against Hilde (an ironic rematch, now that Belize has the moment to appreciate it) and another Althenan they don't know (Raven), the rest of the warrior monks are breaking rank and running for the inner city.
"Ryuggu!! I'm counting on you!" they call sharply to the Aeon, then break into a run to where Seymour had fallen. Valefor rocks to one side, flaps her wings, and takes again to the skies. As Belize attempts to dig out their friend and help carry him back too, energy cascades up and around Valefor Ryuggu, empowering her and sending her twirling up.
Light coalesces in her beak as she tilts her head back; then, a moment later, a beam sears along the ground, tracing an erratic line across the battlefield, from Kaguya and Lydia to Leo and Day and every other less named opponent in between. It marks a line between the Guard and the Yevonites--and an instant later, it ERUPTS with explosive force.
It of course won't keep Althena's Guard from pressing their advantage. But it'll give Yevon some time and cover to fall back as needed.
And, uh. With that one Guard now flipping out and turning purple, Gon in particular might really need it...? At the very least, to give him and his pride a reason to fall back too along with the rest, Belize shouts, "Gon! Please help me with Maester Seymour! We must fall back now!"
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
Winged horse and roaring lion combine their force. In the midst of it all, Seymour Guado does not emerge. There's only a momentary feeling of triumph that surges in Day's heart.
It's instantly tempered by something more sober. Panting with pain and exertion, he finds the strength to raise his sword to his head in a simple combatant's salute. He didn't particularly know Seymour, nor even particularly respect his beliefs or his behaviours.
It doesn't matter. A warrior acknowledges the fallen regardless.
Day looks to the side, checking up on where Pearl had fallen, then back over to where Leo is still standing. In his peripheral vision, he can see Yevonites beginning to crumble, demoralized by the defeat of their leader. Many of the knights he'd led into the fight are turning to take advantage - those who survived Seymour's initial destructive volley, anyway.
Day doesn't rejoin them. "Is she still alive," he asks immediately as he pulls himself over to Pearl with no small amount of pain and effort.
The young knight kneels by the fallen assassin, sliding his gauntlets off and holding his hands over her as he moves to check on Pearl's condition. In truth it doesn't come without cynical thoughts. Day's different from her - he's had more than a few questions about the sort of person she is.
Those do not matter. Pearl's a comrade and it's his duty to try and keep her well.
Belize calls forth Ryuggu and cuts a demarcation line between Yevon and the Guard. Day looks up to notice their gambit, grimacing, but he doesn't pursue. His priority is saving Pearl right now.
GS: Belize has activated a Force Action! GS: Belize enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Belize has attacked White Knight Leo with Overdrive - Shooting Ray! GS: Belize has attacked Kaguya with Overdrive - Shooting Ray! GS: Belize has attacked Lydia Seren with Overdrive - Shooting Ray! GS: Belize has gained 1 Combo! GS: Belize has completed their action. GS: Kaguya has activated a Force Action! GS: Kaguya guards a hit from Belize's Overdrive - Shooting Ray for 88 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Kaguya activates Guard bonus and Sufferer! GS: Lydia Seren guards a hit from Belize's Overdrive - Shooting Ray for 87 hit points! GS: White Knight Leo guards a hit from Belize's Overdrive - Shooting Ray for 91 hit points! GS: White Knight Leo has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
"You're a very strange man," Margaret says, following up this hasty remark almost immediately with, "tomato," even as Harmaus begins to invoke his Arte.
The phrases sounded swift but to Margaret's perception they were enunciated clearly because the world is dragging through a thin layer of fine sugar syrup, or at least, so she percieves. The air is thicker when she bulls one shoulder forwards through it. She breathes in as she feels her heart slam on the inside of her chest. Despite the perilous magic shrouding her, she still does not move all the way to Harmaus before he calls upon light itself.
And yet, if he reviews the feeling later - was there not a sense of the chain being thrown round him, the ball on the end of the chain pitched like a blitzball and then swung round even as the searing light crashes downwards. As she draws the chain tight round the vegetative figure, Margaret's head snaps upwards. The ring on her hand pulsates like an ancient visualization sphere.
Up. A sudden yank as if she had vertical leapt up four yards.
Another, into the plasma.
Another leap, another handful of yards. At this point Margaret hoists Harmaus's vegetable carcass upwards as if to use him as a shield *against his own spell* as she continues up once more. Twice more. Thrice as sweat runs down her back. Four times and she knows she's pressing her luck, five times and she is definitely doing it, but it is #6 where she decides she had enough because blood is coming out of her nose.
Margaret's head turns partway to gaze at the adjacent tomato as she hangs on inertia nearly eighty feet straight up in the air above Bevelle, crackling with darkness and thunder. She brings up the sickle end of the kusarigama and --
Mimes beating Harmaus in the head with it.
Of course, from eighty feet away surrounded by a magical aura it looks pretty authentic.
While doing this, Margaret speaks with a dreadful earnestness. "Seraph," she states. "Sorry about the beating. If you are with them, you must know. It may be your problem, now or in future. There is Malevolence in the sealing rods. It may be in those damn statues. It is almost sure to be here. Win or lose, now you know. Ah, that's gravity right there. Alright, make this look good--"
Margaret concludes with a single strike at Harmaus's head aimed to ACTUALLY connect combined with a twist forwards to hurl him deeper into the outer rings of Bevelle!! The chain lacks tension - it will not occlude his departure. Margaret spreads her arms afterwards as she descends from the atrocious leap.
GS: Margaret spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Margaret has attacked Seraph Harmaus with Premonition of Air! GS: Margaret has launched an attack Link! GS: Margaret has attacked Seraph Harmaus with A Frank Expression of My Sentiments and Feelings! GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo! GS: Margaret takes 26 damage from Poison! GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo watches as Seymour collapses--followed a few moments later by a building unfortunate enough to be within range. Unlike Day, he does not salute; perhaps that says something about him that he wouldn't like to acknowledge. As the call to rout goes out, the White Knight allows his body to sag, a grim, humorless smile on his lips. The walls have fallen. The rest of Bevelle...
'Ryuggu!'
Belize, Leo thinks, a moment later. They're still up. The White Knight has a moment to regret letting his guard down prematurely, and then the line of energy sears into him.
The wave of force picks him up and throws him like a ragdoll. He hits the ground, leaving a bloody smear on the broken stonework as he skids the last few feet. Pearl is right there next to him. He sees Day and Raven and Margaret through a haze of pain.
"Don't--" Leo croaks, pushing himself up on one arm. It collapses beneath him, and he hits ground again.
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
The sword that cleaves titans descends for Gon. His choice of defensive maneuvers, to the trained eyes of the Otherworlders, may seem strange. The Guado are lithe, light. They do not benefit from fighting styles that center around holding one's ground and deflecting blows while giving little inch - they are physically weaker and should leverage their superior speed and reach more. (Younger ones already have been leaning in this direction. Gon is not one of the younger ones.)
A classic form of stubbornness, given martial folly, no matter how practiced and confident the older Guado is. It says, then, enough that he recognizes the descent of Hilde's sword for what it is - something you do not physically withstand.
He deftly leaps aside as its might descends. Whether Hilde lets it make impact with the ground beneath or not, the displaced air alone is enough to take him off his nimble feet into a free tumble. He lands in a kneel, left hand scraping against the battered stone of the besieged Bevelle brick and stone. A direct hit would have ended him, and he knows it.
He has, to an extent... learned, the limitations of his stubbornness and adherence to ways that have not worked out when challenged by outside ideas. He will not fall that easily. (He will tumble about that easily.)
He is not far from where Raven writhes, gaze turning upon her as a sickly violet pulsates from her. Something he has seen at a distance before, but never close. He has no idea what it is, other than knowing it is a thing. ...The Otherworlder form of an Unsent, perhaps? He does not go exasperated or panicky before the feeling of an ovrwhelming burden he already is aware he is carrying by standing and fighting against Hilde - alone, with odds against him.
He is done with being surprised, being taken aback, being put off-center by any of this, and so he stands unflinching in will before the Priestess spitting back at him with such fervor. Should she be some sort of foreign Fiend, he believes his years of experience dealing with them will hold just fine.
'Maester Seymour has fallen!' Gon hears the cry from a nearby Warrior Monk.
Belize - perhaps the only non-Guado he could truly consider a friend - pleads for his aid. There is no conflict in what he must do. Yevon's power and influence on Spira is hanging by a thread. So much rides on this - but he is, if (almost) nothing else, a devoted Guardian of his people and those Summoners on their pilgrimages alike.
Even if it so happens that Belize and Seymour are both deceased.
He need not call back to Belize to signal his understanding. Making use of his natural foot speed, he turns away from Hilde and Raven alike to render aid in one of the ways he uniquely can - his power of prayer-fueled healing is needed.
The routing will not be the end of this, he swears, offering no parting words to either warrior of the Guard.
GS: Seraph Harmaus guards a hit from Margaret's Premonition of Air for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Harmaus gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Burst applied to Seraph Harmaus! GS: Charge!! You gain 30 FP! GS: Seraph Harmaus activates Arcane Font! GS: Seraph Harmaus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Harmaus guards a hit from Margaret's A Frank Expression of My Sentiments and Feelings for 94 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Harmaus gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Tomatoes don't, as a rule, show a great deal of expression no. But Kaguya can figure this one out, knows well the shape she's working with. So no more questions, Harmaus says--here, and now--
"So be it!" Kaguya answers him. "We probably would've been enemies eventually anyway!" She could go for being thanked. But that's not happening. Any who stands by Althena...
That's what she picked, isn't it? Though the conversation happening at all might raise some questions. Will it be that easy?
Kaguya would rather focus on the mood stabilizers. "Yeah I don't think they'd work on him," Kaguya says. But Lydia says not to worry about her...
And teases her about 'kind of.' "Explosions aren't very honorable. The knights are pretty clear on this one." Belize though... they're right. Sin won't. "All right then," Kaguya says with a little grin. But explosions happen, and a lot of them, more than just her own. Kaguya watches Ryuggu fly upward, seeing what Belize is up to. She could focus--
No, that would open her up to the beam. Kaguya instead is forced rather than going after Seymour to step back, adopting a defensive stance and letting her alien constitution, weakened as it is, defend her against the beam--well, that and the fallen wagon she ducks behind as cover. "Tch," Kaguya says. "Well played."
She spots the knight going for Pearl--spots Belize heading backward. But Yevon here is routed. She can see them retreating already.
"...All right," she says to Lydia, "Looks like we've done what we need to. Thanks for the help."
Then she starts jogging towards the White Knight, and she's no healer but she can pick him up, armor and all. "You, you--" She directs a couple of soldiers nearby, "Cover us getting the wounded out and then go on ahead."
She looks back towards Harmaus... for a last time. Frowning still.
GS: Raven Blackwood accepts Raven Blackwood's Hellion Rage for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Lock State applied to Raven Blackwood! GS: Mighty applied to Raven Blackwood!
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
Hilde lands and straightens up, sword at the ready. This is about when several other things happen. The Warrior Monks cry out that Seymour has fallen. A beam tears through the Guard's forces, leaving explosions in their wake. And, worryingly, Raven is injured, and shouting in anger. Hilde wants to move and help... but right now, she assesses Gon, eying him carefully with her sword at the ready in case he attempts to capitalize on Raven's current predicament.
But he doesn't turning to flee, presumably to help Belize with Seymour. Hilde could give chase... but she doesn't, hurrying over to Raven.
"Priestess Blackwood! It is alright now... the enemy is routed - we should regroup with the others." Hilde says, trying to reassure her. She catches a faint glimpse of something - something purple and glowing.
...She won't question that now. Instead, she recites a quick litany of her own, a healing spell to try and help Raven with her wound.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"We is strange? It is strange plenty!" is what apparently passes for a rejoinder from the Seraph. Even centuries-old spirits can have their off days, and perhaps current battlefield -- and the breaking of ways he has just had with Kaguya, an otherwise long-time ally over a theological disagreement -- may have taken their toll on his wit. Regardless, though.
Regardless, as he brings down a plasmic rain, there is something strange indeed about the movement Margaret chooses to make with the weighted end of her weapon, which is then followed by her rise into the air--
It is a funny thing. Under other circumstances, Raven's situation over there might have gotten Harmaus' full attention.
However, he is currently otherwise occupied.
Particularly when he then joins Margaret in the air. And when she then uses his carcass against his own spell.
If anything the Seraph just looks annoyed by this. "Tcha, will be another week repairing this!" he utters, scowling as plasmic blasts slam into his form. His clothing really is just a suggestion of such by now; it's just a twisted mass of green vines underneath.
But other than the future costs, he doesn't seem to be too terribly put off by this--
Which works in Margaret's favor when she talks to him, and mentions, as it were, the magic words.
"Malevolence in Sealing Rods. In the Fayth now? Ah... we sees."
Tomatoes can't smile. This is normally the way of this. This one can, and does.
Even as she slams him and his vegetable body for somewhere deeper within Bevelle.
He looks almost pleased.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia is thrown clcear from Ryuggu. She flips and lands in a superheroine pose moments before a laser beam punches straight through her stomach. Lydia doesn't realize this happened immediately, still taking a few stepss forward before she notices she feels a little lighter and looks down.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHUVqV5CO6w&ab_channel=ProjectMoonOfficial
She laughs, pressing her hand into her forehead, just laughing for a while. "I look like a cartoon in the papers! Hahahaha!"
She smells blood.
Her gaze turns and settles on Leo. The laughter stops instantly. She curls her hands into fists. Leo could be seriously hurt and healing isn't one of her talents.
"It's my power." Lydia says quietly, rage crackling in her eyes. "I learned that recent-like. It's my power..."
She closes her eyes for a moment, exhaling out once and when she opens them again--they are green, like OS's.
But it isn't OS.
"You leaving so soon?! You don't have more tests for us?!" Lydia shouts as she maybe proves why she took mood stabilizers in the past as she extends out her hand, hovering in midair as a gravitic surge grips at Ryuggu, attempting to hold the Aeon in place. "I was being all gentle like but I guess you like suckerpunches huh?! Didn't know that MASS MURDERER WHO WANTS TO KILL EVERYBODY was so gosh darned special!"
Her eyes flash briefly as she extends her hand. "Haven't adapted to Stare Roe yet..."
She grips her hands as she intends to bombard Valefor with a barrage of rocks, and a hefty blast of explosive lasers before she finally drops down to the floor, exhaling once.
"I get it. I get it alright!!"
She pants for breath and she exhales out slowly before settling down ono the floor, settling down to make her way after Kaguya, that brief flash of hot rage subsiding inn an instant. That hesitation from before lost in a moment of fury.
She's back to normal by the time she makes it back to Kaguya, silver eyes and all. "Leo's a good guy and all but I think he needs some kind of babysitter. Maybe there needs to be A Leo Guard to watch after him or somesuch."
DC: Lydia Seren switches forms to Project Baphomet Caution Level Amber!
GS: Lydia Seren spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Belize with Trinity Force! GS: Lydia Seren has launched an attack Link! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Belize with Delta Attack! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action. GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
For all that Day's hurting, he's also not without a sense of responsibility. He's profoundly aware that he's one of the few members of the Guard still standing and coherent - at least, in the immediate vicinity. The sight of Leo being hurled aside sends a lance of horror racing through him, and he gasps, sitting up straighter. "SIR LEO!" he cries.
Both of them are down in front of him now.
Fortunately Kaguya's there to help, bringing soldiers along to assist. Day nods to her crisply before gesturing to a couple of infantrymen. "Take her as well," he orders with a gesture towards Pearl.
As he turns Pearl over to people better able to do a little healing than he is, Day picks the warhorn off his belt. He takes stock of the situation for a moment, taking a few steps over to where his horse ended up. Boosting himself back into the saddle, he looks things over with a wince, then raises the horn and blows.
The piercing, brassy note of the horn rings out over the Althenian forces, and Day follows it with shouted orders to the regular soldiery. "Regroup and keep the pressure on! Keep your formations and don't falter! The Goddess is with you this day!"
In the absence of Leo, Day's becoming more comfortable taking charge of things like this. It's something he could never have done even six months ago.
GS: Belize takes a solid hit from Lydia Seren's Trinity Force for 282 hit points! GS: Belize critically guards Lydia Seren's Delta Attack for 52 hit points! GS: Belize activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Raven Blackwood has posed.
There's a haze around Raven - of pyreflies, of purple, of red. It's the latter that is falling upon her mind, though. Something flexes underneath her cloak. The wind seems to pull at it, as if willing the garment to loose what's within.
Something demands freedom, and she can feel the exhilaration and catharsis of it rushing through her. She turns her head, locking her eyes on the Guado -
Only to realise that he is already Gon(e).
Her pulse pounds harder.
'Priestess Blackwood! It is alright now... the enemy is...'
Raven heaves beneath her mantle with each panting breath. Some part of her doesn't dare look at Hilde in this state. The words come as if she were underwater.
There's an urge, an alien and overwhelming urge, to fight - to pursue, to destroy. Her gloves creak as her fingers flex and tighten around the haft of her hammer. She raises it aloft.
"Raaaughh!"
And then she hurls it down at the ground in front of her feet. The wooden weapon bounds off the stone, flipping end-over-end high into the air, shedding splinters in a showcase of what ultimately likely comes across as a rather overblown tantrum.
Raven's expression slowly sinks as she comes down, and by the time that she turns her head to acknowledge Hilde, she looks both flushed and embarrassed. Her right arm wraps her cloak around her left, quickly hiding what's beneath under pretense of putting pressure on the wound.
"T-thank you, Lady Hilde. I'm sorry, I know that was a perfectly good hammer."
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
As Gon rushes over and helps Belize get Seymour to relative safety, as the Yevonites retreat, Valefor Ryuggu remains--for the time being--to remain warden over the line she seared into the ground. In one sense, this is good; it means when Lydia unleashes all her fury, it goes onto the Aeon, a being that can take it. In another sense, it's not so good, because Valefor Ryuggu has to take it.
Belize's lips thin as they hear Lydia's screaming at their back, but they accept her hatred. It isn't as though they don't deserve it, whether for this reason or another. But the sounds of battle fade at their back, and Valefor Ryuggu only looks at Lydia with soulful aquiline eyes as she locks her in midair, as she bombards her with rocks and lasers. She cries out, the exploded stones sending dust in the air... but when that dust falls, the Aeon is battered, but still in one piece.
The Aeon looks at Lydia like she might sympathize. Or she might just look at her; it's hard to decipher a bird's expressions.
Then she flaps her wings backwards and soars back to her Summoner, where she'll dissipate into pyreflies.