2021-03-27: An Old Song
- Log: 21-03-27 An Old Song
- Cast: The Drake, Seraph Ragnell, Seraph Nimue, Seraph Amaranth, Marivel Armitage, Cyre H. Lorentz, Talia, Ida Everstead-Rey, Seraph Lanval, Hiro, Seraph Clarine, Seraph Boudicca, Dean Stark, Azoth, Ivan, Ines Colina, Seraph Liath
- Where: Celesti Wastelands
- Date: March 27, 2021
- Summary: The time has come for the decisive battle against the so-called Dragon of Celesti. Either the Oracles of Filgaia and their assembled Seers and allies will purify his Malevolence and return him to the Seraph he once was--or they'll fail, and a Fell Dragon will walk the cracked and trembling earth.
============================<* Celesti Wastelands *>============================ Decades ago, the nation of Celesti ripped itself apart in a vicious civil war. Outside of a handful of settlements, its former territories are lifeless. The remains of trenches, bunkers, and barbed wire lines serve as lingering reminders of the conflict--scars that have yet to heal. The earth is dry and barren, and much of the groundwater has been contaminated by biological or chemical weapons. Travel through the Wastelands is treacherous. The roads are pockmarked with shell craters, and Reapers have been known to haunt its blasted plains. A handful of functional rail lines cross the wastes, but these travel directly to their final destinations. The shattered remains of ghost towns dot the landscape. Some may yet hold things of value, but experienced travelers know better than to go treasure-hunting on a whim. The war-dead of Celesti do not rest. Ghosts aren't even the strangest things one can find here. As the war dragged on, both the Congressional Knights and Aquvy Union dug up ancient weapons to aid their efforts--including, it's rumored, ARMs from Zeboim. These rumors draw both the daring and desperate into the wastes, and more often than not, to their end. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92HwM11d2FQ
<Pose Tracker> The Drake has posed.
The sky is clear and bright, all the better to illuminate the blasted wasteland that is most of Celesti. Leftover battle trenches, barbed wire and craters; it is a desolate landscape made all the more desolate by the quiet above. There are no birds flying--but the sky is not empty. Here, in a little canyon, stretches great walls of rock and stone. Half of the rock face is blasted and worn over, as if the elements were slowly, slowly working to reclaim the things that once belonged to them. But it's sturdy enough, and here is where the group has made their stand and laid their plans, preparing to draw a Fell Drake here in hopes of purifying him into the Seraph he once was.
There's a hot wind running through the canyon, uncomfortable and acrid. One can imagine what the air was like here before, when it was part of a battlefield, but now it's going to be part of a battlefield again. The few plants that cling to life here are already fragile, little bits of brown in the ruin, mostly. The noonday sun will bake them, too--and it's stretching towards noon now, at the time the Drake's path is expected to lead in this direction... if with a little help.
What's happened so far? The rumors in Celesti told of a draconic creature--something of claws and fangs and fire, ruining small farmsteads and worsening what is already a pretty terrible place to break anything out of the land but dirt. ...And even the dirt isn't terribly valuable. There's a lot of it in Filgaia.
For a while it was only rumor, and then chance encounters clarified: it was indeed a draconic creature, but not a Metal Dragon as might be expected. The culprit was a roving Fell Drake, a being of Malevolence that was once one of the Seraphim, though the question of how and why is not yet answered. What is a Fell Drake doing on Filgaia? ...And can they afford to let it grow into a full Fell Dragon, here on a planet still unused to Malevolence?
Seraph Ragnell among others has been on the Drake's trail tirelessly. There has been interference on the part of other Hellions and Odessa, but the plan so far has come together based around the knowledge of who this Drake once was: the Seraph Yvain, an old friend of a number of the Seraphim here in the area, found out by a fragment of an object embedded in his scales. Briefly, a song lulled him into something like calm, but not for long enough--though it would seem that the purified former Vessel has some use yet to come, the song effective.
But time is short; Filgaia has little Malevolence compared to Lunar, but no one but the Drake knows how long he's been in this state--if he 'knows' much of anything in this state at all.
An attempt at purification brought a faint idea, a flash of something: a need to protect... something. But 'what' is hard to say. Here and now, though...
There is the open sky, and the canyon walls; it will be easy to spot the Drake against the clear sky, so long as the sun doesn't get in the way. But getting him here is the next step--sure, it's possible that the predictions of his route will simply be correct...
But it might take a little more work. And even if it doesn't, there's only a little more time to prepare for what will definitely be a battle.
Darkness does not go easily.
DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to Gentlewoman Adventurer Ida! DC: Seraph Boudicca switches forms to Oracle of Moor Gault!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
In the midst of the barren canyon, there is...
...a most *delicious* smell.
It's a crackle of fat sizzling and melting down luscious cuts of beef; it's the fragrant aroma of onions and peppers roasting; it's the bite of *heat*, both on the tongue and the back of the nose, of spices so hot they make your eyes water even from a distance.
And then there is the one who supervises it: the Seraph Ragnell, standing before an enormous bonfire ringed with six metal stakes almost as tall as she is, skewered through rich meat and colorful vegetables. She carefully turns them, one by one, at regular intervals, as she takes even more careful pinches of spices from a small pouch that Gwen once gave her and colors the skewers with them further. The kebabs are far too large for a human or Seraph to comfortably eat, though a group could probably make short work of them; a Drake, which is about the size of a velociraptor (as opposed to a full-blown Fell Dragon's T-Rex), could make even shorter work of them.
The metal stakes are both to better conduct heat to within the roasts and because the Drake has demonstrated several instances of preferring metal to meat. Who knows? Maybe his palate has changed over the years. Gotta cover your bases.
Either way, the winds are blowing nicely, spreading the absolutely mouth-watering scents in all directions, thanks to a certain other Seraph. Ragnell pauses to appraise her handiwork, and finding it good, she tucks away the pouch of spices for now.
"Now it's jus' a matter of waitin' for him to come runnin' with a fork an' knife in claw," she remarks. "I'm leavin' the lurin' up to you, Nim." She pauses, then glances at her. "When he shows, what d'you plan on doin'?"
Regardless of how Nimue answers, Ragnell knows her own role. She's just here to lure the Drake into place; she has no actual ability to purify Malevolence. Not as she is now. And there are a decent number of Oracles and Seers now who can do precisely that... She's already sent out a message to some members of that community that she'd be doing this and where, so they know where to come ambush the Drake. It's her role instead, thus, to watch over them--and see how well a job they can do, here at their greatest hurdle as purifiers thus far. Once the Drake arrives, Ragnell will be taking a back seat.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
Wind is a lot of work for Nimue. Like, a -lot- of work. It's enough to make her want to unhinge her jaw like a snake and actually eat one of those kebabs, despite them being clearly far too large for a tiny little Nimue. She looks to Ragnell as she's asked a difficult question, her expression showing more than a little strain.
"Depends on how long it takes," she answers, quite truthfully. "If it turns into a fight, I -might- be able to help if this doesn't take... -too- long to work, but, like..." She lets out a breath, admitting, "This stuff is hard for me. I get tired *real* fast. If I feel like I'm just gonna fall down and never get back up, I'm probably gonna ditch. Like, I don't *want* to but, no plans on dying!"
... It's hard to tell whether this is an improvement in Nimue's overall attitude toward life. The fact that there's even a -possibility- she stays seems like improvement, though!
DC: You switch forms to The Daring Boy! DC: Dean Stark switches forms to The Daring Boy!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Katherine has more of a role than her sister, despite not being an Oracle; she didn't quite catch what her sister's plan was, but she has to admit it has some merit. She doesn't remember being hungry as a Drake, but she also wasn't a Drake for that long -- way shorter a timeframe than Yvain has been.
She also told Ragnell that the flute and song worked -- and she has more songs in mind to try to pull his conscience to the fore. That's her plan anyway, given that she won't be lifting her blade today.
"I'm... hoping it goes well," she expresses to Nimue. "Don't push yourself too hard, though, okay? I'm telling myself that too."
As far as her contributions to the Trap... well, rather curiously, the area around Ragnell's delicious barbecue looks much more comfortable than Celesti's usual wasteland, courtesy of her usual illusions. She can't make the scent stronger, or make the winds blow harder...
But she can make the area look a lot more inviting than usual, devoid of broken battlements and skeletal remnants and other bits and pieces of Celesti's finest.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel Armitage says, "He really digs his protein, huh?" to Ragnell.
Marivel is helping(?) by sitting in front of the camp fire with a bag of marshmallows. She is presently melting the marhsmallows and sliding them between sticks of graham cracker and chocolate. Occassionally she'll hand one out to someone. This probably doesn't help make the trap effort but Marivel believes one good trap is better than one good trap and a thousand mediocre ones so instead she's going to keep everybody's energy levels up by giving them s'mores.
At the very least that's the excuse as to why she isn't doing anything more labor intensive. But hey, when the fighting happens...she'll probably be quite useful for that.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cyre was not present for the previous encounter with the Fell Drake, but...
Well. He can probably be excused, right? He was out shooting Wels with a giant robot! That's totally good reason to not have been present for the last attempt at purifying this wayward Seraph. He's here now, though. Filgaia, though largely a dried up ball of mud, is still his home to defend-- not only as someone born upon said dried up ball of mud, but also as shaman to one of the forces that struggle to preserve it.
And right now... He's...
Standing at an elevated vantage overtop of Ragnell's delicious roast and struggling not to salivate too badly. She owes him, and he'd hate to have her use 'oh but you ate my DELICIOUS STEAK so clearly I owe you jack squat' as an excuse. What is he doing there, right in the midst of all those tasty, tasty fumes, though...?
Why, he's summoning a mighty wind to help spread those fumes far and wide, attracting monsters from all across the blasted plains of Celesti. Maybe even including a particular fell drake...!?
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia isn't contributing to the trap effort as such -- at least, not with any delicious cuts of meat or other snacks. She does think a delicious cut of meat is much better as a snack than some manner of truck. But, she is a good bodyguard -- both for her employer-and-friend and, today, her girlfriend. The red-eyed former assassin glances sideways at Seraph Amaranth, as she stands next to her.
She heard that the flute and song worked. She hadn't been there, that day; she is grateful that she is today. She flashes a quick, reassuring smile at Amaranth. Her hand rests on Mirage's hip, then she looks ahead at the the trap that Ragnell and Nimue are laying.
"I hope this works, no? It smells very good..." She trails off, eyes scanning the sky.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida has helped to set up the equivalent of a hunters' blind atop one of the canyon walls--a few lengths of the canvas they used to use back during the war to camouflage large objects. They've been tied into place around the wreckage of an old observation tower--it fell on its side, and has been rotting there for years, but it still provides some shelter.
Ida lies flat on the ground, concealed from above by the camouflaged spotter's-nest. There's a blanket beneath her, and she holds a pair of binoculars to her eyes, scanning the skies. She can feel the sickly heat on the wind, but so far, she hasn't seen the Drake. Yvain, she reminds herself.
"Damnation, I'm hungry," Ida murmurs, to the woman in the blind next to her. Who would have known Ragnell was such a good cook? "But... all the better to lure in a hungry Drake, hm?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval isn't far off from Ragnell. The two of them are, by their creeds, more or less mortal enemies by cause, but there is a shared belief that a Fell Dragon is in neither of their best interests. With this shared ground between them, it is been long time to get to work to get that Fell Drake here and purified before the worst can (and very well may) happen.
"I got Layna 'n Talise makin' shure there ain't no Hellion problemsh," Lanval remarks as he looks over the tantalizing, mouth-watering kebabs and he would absolutely eat at least two of them right here and now if he didn't know better (it's not always clear he does! Seraph Lanval is one of the biggest gluttons for fine food and drink there is). "Sho we won't hafta deal with any... Rose Queen, or whomever elshe."
That wasn't a run-of-the-mill Hellion from some time back, there has to be more - but Celesti's wastes do not lend themselves well to casual comb-over hunts for them, and they got a Fell Almost-Dragon they need to take care of now.
Here comes Lanval's absolutely, positively well thought-out addition to the delicious trap roast.
He opens a bottle of merlot and places it down a ways away from the roast. It does not strike him that the Fell Drake would lack much sophistication to drink wine, or that he may lack the actual fine dexterity to hold the bottle.
He has a dopey smile on his face like he knows exactly what he's doing.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"Haaa-phew~Haaa~phew~"
Ruby's tiny body works like a black smith's bellows, creating small gouts of fire that causes brief rises to the bonfire's flames. Each time it recedes away like the tide just a bit, after the initial flare up, but it can't be said her efforts are in vain, by the gradual rise in temperature, and smoke.
Hiro meanwhile is concentrating. He's no Wind Seraph, but he can at least add in his own magic to try to amplify the efforts of Nimue a bit. "If it helps... I don't mind pushing myself to give you a bit of a break."
Hiro offers to Nimue. "Not sure how far out I can influence the wind currents on my own though."
"Okay... that's... that's... I'm... I'm switching..."
Ruby looks pretty tired, fire over and over is actually tough for her. So instead she picks up an object from the ground, and...
"Fanfan...~ fanfan...~"
Wields a small paper fan to try and help out with her pawsies instead of her lungs. It's pretty ineffective given what Nimue is doing... that doesn't mean it's not adorable to watch her wave it around though.
"He did come after our burgers last time..." Hiro asides to Talia, as if evidence that it has to.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Nimue explains what her plans are. Ragnell nods, something flickering in her scarlet eyes as her eyelashes droop. "Yeah, I get it. Well, it's not like you gotta solo the wind," she gestures up at the top of the canyon where Cyre is doing his own part to lure in the Drake, "so it's fine if you keep it simple for the wind an' save your strength for the fight."
As for the cookout itself... Amaranth, Nimue, and Clarine might remember, if they put some thought into it, that Yvain and Ragnell both loved to cook--and that the former taught the latter quite a few tricks he knew. That steak kebabs was one of his favorite foods, in fact...
It's a trick she wouldn't have tried if Amaranth hadn't told her about the flute. Or about herself. So here's to seeing if it works. Ragnell won't be sharing that reason aloud either way.
Lanval has his Seers up top making sure that no other Hellions or monsters interfere--indeed, the Seraph Liath is out there too at Ragnell's request, likewise ensuring that this battle remains uninterrupted. Several people are drooling at the scent of the kebabs, including Cyre and Ida. Marivel is handing out delicious s'mores. Ruby helps fan the flames of the bonfire while Hiro supports Nimue.
...And Dean is up at the mouth of the canyon, near where Cyre is, keeping a look-out for the fell drake itself. He promised he'd help bring Yvain back to normal, and promises must be kept. "That really does smell super good," he remarks to Cyre, stomach grumbling in agreement, as he looks over the skies. "Yvain's *gotta* show up with that smell on the wind!"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
There is no way Clarine would have missed this. She promised she would be there to help. She felt some trepidation, of course. She was no Shaman, no Oracle, no Prime Lord - she did not possess the power of Purification. But if she could provide aid to those who do, in the service of rescuing an old friend...
...Then, that's enough.
For her part, Clarine stands with her other friends, her eyes shut tight in concentration. An important part of luring in Yvain is ensuring that they can keep him here, after all. If this attempt fails, a second chance(well, technically third, if you're counting) might be difficult to find.
The moment he draws close, Clarine will cast the spell she's preparing - a barrier of solid light around the battlefield, to limit the potential for escape. Not unbreakable, but hopefully it will be enough.
-
Indeed, Layna is here too - she's concealed herself for now, just so the Drake doesn't try and go after her instead of the much larger and juicier meal they've prepared for him. Once the fight begins, though, she'll patrol the perimeter of the battlefield - keeping an eye out for any potential threats that might try to interfere, while remaining close enough that she'll be able to hop in once the purification proper begins.
The Rose Queen had given her word that she wouldn't interfere... but there was also whoever shot at the Drake initially, and any other number of potential problems to keep in mind.
She would like to fight a dragon... but, considering the situation, she figures she probably wouldn't get as much joy out of it. Might as well keep an eye on their flanks, in that case.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
WHERE THE ROAD SWEEPS DOWN TO MEET THE CANYON
A woman has set up a grand and ornate tea party in the middle of the road, some ways away from the canyon. A truck is currently honking merry hell in its attempts to long-haul past that canyon and through Celesti. No one wants to stick around in Celesti. It's Celesti.
Magilou sips a cup of tea and continues getting in the way so no tasty cars move into The Trap Zone.
She's helping, Ragnell.
Wait, did anyone even tell her to do that?
ANYWAY, BACK AT THE PLOT
"Nimue, your assistance will be of great value," Boudicca says, hands clasped together. Wind has never been such a trial to her, this woman who casually used her magic every moment of the day to keep herself ambulatory for two hundred years; but she knows it's different, for her oft-supine friend. "When the Drake arrives, I fear I will be... quite too much occupied for these magics."
She's helping with the breeze right now, though, obviously, because not doing that would be really mean. And she's trying not to make too big a thing of it. She looks delighted to see Ruby's assistance in particular. "Good thinking!" She smiles, to her, as the little dragon (she's a dragon and that's okay!) picks up a fan instead.
"I am glad you have made preparations, Lanval," she says, to her fellow Oracle, smiling. "I... am sorry I was searching elsewhere, when last you encountered that particular issue. But, this time we will be victorious!"
Her hands tighten around themselves, a tension at her smile,
"... we must be victorious."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth doesn't know what it feels like to be plagued by Malevolence, but he does understand being driven by a need to protect. If it's like a glitch, keeping Yvain from an important purpose... then it's all the more reason to fix it as swiftly as possible, before his purpose is lost to him entirely.
He's managed some repairs on himself in the last battle, proving, perhaps, strangely adept in managing his own body it seems he knows his own design quite well. Azoth rolls and tests his arm, just to be sure of it, letting a little bit of energy flicker through.
As the trap goes, Azoth could contribute via data -- but once the Drake comes, they won't need Azoth to tell them. But he does watch, wait, and calculate.
The others comment on Ragnell's cooking, and Azoth tilts his head to one side. "Is it really something that smells that good...?" It's not that he thinks it smells bad. But Azoth doesn't have the design foundation for forming opinions on food smells.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan is, for the most part, mostly here to try to help stall and subdue the Drake for the purification rather than to contribute anything clever to the trap.
But when he sees the tiny Ruby practically bursting her lungs to fuel the bonfire, he steps in to lend a hand, using his magic from Althena's gift to lend more height and heft to the flames.
"Er, here, I can take over..." he offers, as Ruby switches over to helping the wind mages with her fan.
He glances to Talia and Katherine.
"Are you ready? The smell does seem very delicious and powerful. If I were a Drake, I think I would fly over..."
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
Sometimes, a little extra muscle is a good thing. That's the primary reason Ines is here, and she's hardly one to turn down work. Especially dangerous work, at the moment. She'd started finding out about the rumours, then the letters hanging from trees looking for someone to exterminate monsters. Folks were desperate if they were turning to Geohounds.
Her further searching led her to Ida Everstead-Rey, and the giant shark woman had thrown in with her. This meant right now she was crouched in the blind, looking out upon the bait. "So, this guy runs on the same motivations as any other monster right now?" She asks, a little confused as to WHY they're going to so much effort for the meal. "Smells damn nice, though." On the upside, she's a professional, she can eat when they're done. Probably something much less well prepared.
The beastwoman reaches for a pair of weathered old binoculars, watching further distance now. "Any minute now, right?" She asks Ida. "The waiting never gets any better, huh."
At least this time she's ambushing something that deserves it.
<Pose Tracker> The Drake has posed.
The scent of meat and spices and more drifts up on the wind, smoke rising from the fires that cook it. Wind magic sends it farther on its way; wine is set beside it, to make for a more tempting banquet. And some settle down in hiding to wait for their quarry to come along. ...It is not that long a wait. But with the other bait kept far away, there's nothing else in these wastelands to see.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvV7IUNra3k
There, in the sky--a winged shape. Red scales glint in the light, and the shape starts to get bigger... and bigger... and bigger. The Drake has sighted the bait, and is coming down--but coming down very fast. The group saw the Drake slam into the ground hard enough to rumble the ground before--he may be about to do it again, given the speed at which he flies. He flies... right for the meat. Right for where the group is assembled.
His form is red-scaled, covered in bony plating and spikes. They jut out dangerously from his head, from his shoulders, at his tail. And that's about to be very relevant--
SLAM.
The ground rattles as the Drake stops just short of shattering the ground, right beside the skewers and the wine, right among the group. He pads forward, looking around at those he can see with bestial suspicion, and takes a step--another step.
He throws back his head and, revealing powerful jaws full of sharp teeth, ROARS his defiance at all who remain here, the air itself suffused with Malevolence that comes out in a wave powerful enough to knock the unprepared from their feet, nauseating and full of blistering heat. It resounds against the cavern walls, intensifying as it's redirected back towards the group again.
He takes up position in front of the food, as if protectively, and stares straight at the group, his head turning to look especially at each Seraph as if he's about to find a side dish.
The Malevolence surrounding him has grown more powerful--it may be now or never.
GS: The Drake has attacked Ivan with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has attacked Azoth with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Clarine with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has attacked Dean Stark with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Drake has attacked Hiro with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Lanval with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has attacked Talia with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has attacked Marivel Armitage with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Nimue with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has attacked Ines Colina with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Amaranth with Shockwave! GS: The Drake has completed his action. GS: Talia takes a solid hit from The Drake's Shockwave for 64 hit points! GS: Break applied to Talia! GS: Hiro takes a solid hit from The Drake's Shockwave for 61 hit points! GS: Break, Cripple, and Poison applied to Hiro! GS: Seraph Amaranth critically guards The Drake's Shockwave for 10 hit points! GS: Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from The Drake's Shockwave for 32 hit points! GS: Break applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Seraph Lanval activates Evade bonus! GS: Seraph Clarine takes a solid hit from The Drake's Shockwave for 53 hit points! GS: Break applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from The Drake's Shockwave for 30 hit points! GS: Break applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey activates Evade bonus and Power Burst! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a solid hit from The Drake's Shockwave for 66 hit points! GS: Break applied to Cyre H. Lorentz! GS: Ines Colina takes a solid hit from The Drake's Shockwave for 74 hit points! GS: Break applied to Ines Colina! GS: Dean Stark guards a hit from The Drake's Shockwave for 37 hit points! GS: Break applied to Dean Stark! GS: Dean Stark activates Guard bonus! GS: Ivan guards a hit from The Drake's Shockwave for 30 hit points! GS: Break applied to Ivan! GS: Ivan activates Sufferer! GS: CRITICAL! Azoth guards a hit from The Drake's Shockwave for 51 hit points! GS: Break, Cripple, and Poison applied to Azoth! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from The Drake's Shockwave for 56 hit points! GS: Break applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Power Burst and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
The instant the Drake starts bulleting down through the sky, the alarm comes--in the form of a very loud young man.
"GUYS! GUYS! HERE HE COMES!" Dean bellows down into the canyon. "EVERYBODY GET READY! INCOMING!!" He meets Cyre's eyes and gives him a firm nod, then leaps down into the downward path and races to join his companions.
Ragnell, for her part, looks up. "Looks like it's showtime." She tips the brim of her hat down. "...I'll leave the rest to y'all. Show us what you can do."
What she means by 'us,' she doesn't specify--though those who know her allegiances can no doubt guess. Either way, with the Drake imminent, Ragnell turns into a golden ball of light, then zips into Azoth, where she'll remain for the battle.
Incidentally those kebabs are *absolutely* for everybody once the job is done, so folks can look forward to that after purifying Yvain.
For now, though, the impact of the Drake's passage and landing sends a *jolt* through the earth. Dean, racing as he is to the bottom of the canyon, trips and falls, but he manages to turn it into a forward roll and come up bruised but still in motion.
With a fierce shout, he summons Twin Fenrir into hand, then lashes the combat rods of his ARMS towards the Drake's backside, attempting to batter a vulnerability right back into the Hellions.
DC: Cyre H. Lorentz switches forms to Wind Shaman Cyre!
GS: Dean Stark has attacked The Drake with Violence Vice! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from The Drake's Shockwave for 79 hit points! GS: Break applied to Marivel Armitage!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
There's a lot of people gathered here, people that Katherine -- Amaranth -- would trust Yvain with. There's a quiet nod to her sister, and then she turns to Talia as she reaches and squeezes her hand. She'll need Talia to defend her, she's certain they won't be able to avoid a fight until the Purification process can complete.
She looks to Ida for a moment, sympathising that she's hungry. The food does look good -- her sister's a great cook. She looks to Lanval with a nod, and chuckles quietly at Ruby as she reaches and helps her for a moment. "Hang in there, Ruby." She steps back when Ivan says that he'll help.
There's a moment of clarity and a nod to Clarine, as she expresses, "Let's do this. For our friend's sake."
A pause, and a quiet puff and a sigh as Magilou blocks traffic, smiling. ".... I'm glad that she hasn't changed one bit."
And the Seraph who is an Oracle, Boudicca... she nods to her as well. "I'm... counting on you, Boudicca. Thank you." There's a quiet nod at her expression. They must be victorious, yes... she will put her trust in the Oracle and the Seers. And the Shamans, too, if they'll join in... she'll leave the method to them.
She's about to answer Azoth's ponderance with her own comment, before--
The glint of red scales in the light, and the shape gets bigger, bigger... the Fell Drake land decisively, and there's a wince as she covers herself and hides behind the nearest solid-looking object.
Her gaze is locked in on his; she expresses, "Yvain... can you hear me? This time... this time, we will not fail. Do you remember this food? You enjoyed it quite a lot... you taught us how to make these kebabs, too... and the secret behind a good spice mix... and how to acheive a good char!"
She hasn't started with the song yet, because if Ragnell's plan is also to make him remember the foods he enjoyed -- she'll focus on that too.
GS: Seraph Nimue fully evades The Drake's Shockwave for 0 hit points! GS: Seraph Nimue activates Evade bonus! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Dean Stark's Violence Vice for 96 hit points! GS: Break applied to The Drake! GS: The Drake activates Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"That's true..." Talia trails off a little at Hiro's remark, and then she stares at Ruby for a second. "Is... that entirely safe for her to do?"
Thankfully, her brother takes over. Talia nods at him, with a smile. "I hope so, no?" she says. "It does smell delicious--ah." She looks at Azoth, tilting her head. "I guess... you don't eat, right, Azoth? It--hmm, it makes me think about eating just by smelling it."
When she hears the beating of wings, Talia gets quiet. Her eyes turn upward -- they stare, for a moment, peering up towards the heavens and the glint of red scales. She draws in a small, sharp breath -- and then the ground rumbles. Her blood runs cold, in that moment, especially as she realizes the Malevolence around it has grown only thicker. The shockwave knocks her backward -- but she stands her ground, feet skidding over the earth.
She glances sideways, back at Amaranth. Then, she takes a deep breath and nods. "Ammy! Be careful! I'll try to keep him off you!" she calls back, before she looks ahead. Then, she throws a hand forward. A magical circle spins up under her feet -- and a row of linked spikes of ice, forming a wall, rise up from the ground and slam at the Drake's underside.
GS: Talia has attacked The Drake with Ice Wall! GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Talia has completed her action. GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Talia's Ice Wall for 91 hit points! GS: Weaken applied to The Drake!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Yvain cometh, landeth, shaketh the earth... eth.
Lanval initially avoids the physical distress that would come from standing on the ground with the seismic disturbance of someone that powerful slamming said ground with a deft leap forward, grabbing the open bottle of Merlot in his hand, turning around, and re-corking it as the defiant ROAR distinctly adds to the already unpleasantly warm Celesti former warzone day air.
"Ha ha ha!" Lanval has himself a good bit of cheer. "Ya ain't sho far gone that ya can't enjoy a li'l food 'n drink with friendsh!" That's the only bit of levity that can truly be squeezed out in the moment, but that is Seraph Lanval in his natural element - the enhancement and magnification of small joys. If Yvain finds an inkling of peace and enjoyment of good food, that's as tiny a crack he can open by his own native nature.
The japes aside, he is the Oracle of Schturdark - and he has given an oath to help shoulder the burden of Filgaia's very water. Helping deal with something like this is as 'this is his job' as it gets, and Lanval pivots to face the roaring, raging Yvain as an aura of water of all its forms - beautiful, bountiful, baleful, and outright biohzardous - fills the air around him. The bottle of Merlot is stashed somewhere on his person as he takes the rope his ever-heavy drinking gourd is attached to.
The smile never leaves him, though.
"Are ya lishtenin' ta Amaranth, there?" He asks as he steps forward with equal parts loose, fluid movement but all the conviction he can muster, taking the drinking gourd by its rope like a flail and performing a far heavier, stronger back-swing than its modest size might let on and then move with the inertia of the seeming over-commitment to the motion.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked The Drake with Layabout's Lariat! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: The Drake takes a glancing hit from Seraph Lanval's Layabout's Lariat for 57 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: The Drake activates Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Tension through the fingers, tension through the lips. Why would Boudicca say she could not spare attention to her wind magic, when her magic of utility was a thing she never needed to pay attention to?
The answer is written there, in the sky.
'HERE HE COMES!'
Narrow in the fisheye lens, soaring down; the wind which is Boudicca is rigid-stiff but there in Amaranth's words is the reason she does not become light, as Ragnell does; they're counting on her.
He's counting on her.
He's coming down. CRASH to the ground and the rigidity of Boudicca braces through it, one leg sliding back, one arm thrown up; she looks past it and sees the hunger, and in her gauntlet her fingers curl.
Curl and flex, and she reaches out, a bridging route; her thumb and forefinger slide over each other, flint and steel to create flame.
"Ida!" Boudicca calls, reaching out to the blind, and the flame curls on the breeze as it goes to her, a lit sigil to empower her. She's lost track of Dean momentarily, with his rush down the canyon, but he must be fine. (He's got to be fine.)
Together, they said.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Smoke Sigil! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
SPLATTER.
That's the sound of Marivel getting flung by a powerful shockwave into a canyon wall, leaving a truly comical amount of blood red splatter against the wall. Considering that Marivel's wounds tend to actually be black and smoky, this might be part of her craft rather than an actual horrifying injury. Besides, you've seen Marivel take worse.
THe body collapses to the floor, merely a set of red stained clothing fluttering to the ground--
--and above The Drake, Marivel Armitage comes crashing down, a crimson spear in hand as she slams it down for the back of the Drake's shoulders.
"Seraph Yvain!" Marivel shouts. "Recall that which you have forgotten!"
Seems Marivel has class changed again.
rShe looks towards Boudicca for a moment and ives her a small nod.
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked The Drake with Bloody Mari! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 2 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: The Drake critically guards Marivel Armitage's Bloody Mari for 29 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"Safe? Well... it wears her out pretty fast, but I've never seen fire burn Ruby." That may not help her if the bonfire suddenly collapsed, but he does trust that Ruby is agile enough to get away.
Ruby beams at Boudicca and Amaranth. She knows that she doesn't know the guy, but she knows he's important to the Seraphim that are here. "Got-Gotta do my... part." Knowing that saving one is important, is enough to get her to add in what she can do, no matter how small.
Ivan, thankfully takes over for the fire. "Thank... Thank you... Ivan!" Ruby says breathlessly as she flaps the fan. Though does she look a bit smug? Maybe it's just she delights in anything Ivan does something that she can add to...
... the list! The list of reasons Ivan should feel good about himself about.
And then in the sky there's a winged shape. Hiro looks up at the shadow of it overhead. And then hardly has time to react before it slams into the ground. The force of it knocking him off his feet and showering him with rocks and debris from the wastelands floor.
Ruby shrieks but is thankfully mostly unharmed as she's on the other side of the bonfire.
In the process, Hiro's shield arm bent backwards uncomfortably so the boy gets up with a few scratches of blood across his forehead, he simply juts out his fingers... "Howl... away for twelve winters - Tempest!"
... and wills down a sudden... downburst. It's more violently forceful than harmful. Meant to slam into the Drake from above and try to pin it down from just the constant rush of wind making it hard for it to get lift and press the Drake down into Talia's wall of ice spikes.
"How long... do all of you need us to pin him down for?" Hiro asks Boudicca, because he doesn't want to distract Amaranth's emotional appeal to the Drake.
GS: Hiro has attacked The Drake with Tempest! GS: Hiro takes 27 damage from Poison! GS: Hiro has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida took the time to explain to Ines that this was no ordinary monster, at least--the ultimate goal was to subdue, rather than destroy outright. "For the moment," Ida says, as she scans the sky. "But there seems to be something of him left, beneath the madness. He was a Seraph, once..." She trails off. "It never does."
Red scales gleam in the light. "There," Ida says. The acrid sting of Malevolence filters downwards, almost--but not quite--spoiling the smell of Ragnell's barbecue. "He's scented the bait. Get ready, he's coming in fast--!"
Dean begins to shout, in alarm. Ragnell makes her exit, and there's no doubt in her mind who that 'us' is. Ida sets the binoculars down, and leaps to her feet, clambering out of the toppled-over observation post. The Drake's entrance is nothing short of metoric; the dilapidated wood shakes as if an earthquake just hit it, and a two-by-four comes loose with a crack. Ida hears it fall, and twists to the side, staying light on her feet--the plank glances off her shoulder, and she sucks in a sharp breath.
Most of her burn wounds have healed, but Yvain--and the Rosenwache--sure did a number on her. "Right behind you, Dean!" Ida cries. Behind and above, more accurately. But the height offers Ida an advantage--as she reaches for one of the metal cylinders at her belt, she gauges the arc and distance. "FLARE OUT!" Ida roars, as she hurls the unlit grenade at the Drake's head. As it leaves her hands, Boudicca calls out to her, and the sigil flares around her feet. "Together!" Ida cries. Phantasmal flame ignites around her; a snap of her fingers, and the cotton wick of the flare grenade bursts into flame. It sails towards Yvain's head, and...
BOOM
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"I'm almost hoping it doesn't? That way we have an excuse to eat it ourselves, guilt free." In fact, they'd almost be morally obliged to eat it. You don't get to be a Drifter without learning very quickly that everything tasty must be eaten, post haste.
It's called the Cecilia Rule, after its most infamous adherent.
(It isn't, this is totally made up)
Soon, though... Soon, there is a scent on the wind that isn't the deliiciousness of Ragnell's suteki steak. It's a familiar foulness, a fetid aroma that Cyre is unfortunately abundantly experienced with.
"It's coming," he agrees at Dean's outburst, and ... Stays exactly where he's at. This proves to be something of a mistake as, the moment the Drake touches down, it unleashes a terrible shockwave that sends Cyre sprawling across his sniper's perch. Rocks dig painfully into his ribcage as he stumbles and falls onto his belly, but...
That is, as it turns out, exactly the position that he wanted to be in.
There is a gun there, you see. And Cyre has it fully loaded, the prayer wheel mounted to its barrel spins as the wind howls down its length... And fires a bullet blessed by the wind themselves directly at the Drake's eyes.
It's a pneumatic sniper rifle. This could be a problem for drake-shaped things that have squishy eyes.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Boudicca's Smoke Sigil for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Hyper applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey activates Seraph Boudicca's Reload!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked The Drake with Flare Grenade! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked The Drake with Astral Impulse! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: The Drake guards a hit from Hiro's Tempest for 40 hit points! GS: Cripple and Mute applied to The Drake! GS: The Drake activates Guard bonus! GS: The Drake critically guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Flare Grenade for 0 hit points! GS: The Drake critically guards Cyre H. Lorentz's Astral Impulse for 24 hit points! GS: The Drake has adjusted their boss level for 13 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Discussion of gastronomy will have to wait. Dean calls the alarm, and Azoth redirects his attention to the Drake in the sky. Soon after, Ragnell enters his systems, and Azoth's eyes flash a brilliant, bright blue. There's an edge of fuchsia in his gaze and in the energy that crackles around his arm, ARM energy surging in his currents. She'll feel that swell -- but she'll also feel gratitude, and a promise: whatever happens in this battle, she won't be hurt.
And he has to start making good on that promise in the Drake's very presence. Malevolence surges. The energy is powerful enough to interfere with Azoth's operation, cracking against his mechanics with darkened arcs. But all of it, always, redirected from where Ragnell resides. Azoth pushes past it, forming small lances of light beside him with a snap of his fingers -- each painted in Malevolent energy that eats at their forms until, another snap later, bright blue fills back in the broken shapes.
He spins and thrusts his hand out, directing them to converge into the Drake to try and assist the others in keeping it pinned down.
"Sorry... I know it hurts," he says to Yvain. "But... if you can hold on a little longer...!"
GS: Azoth has attacked The Drake with Circuit Breaker! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth takes 27 damage from Poison! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Gamble: Low! The Drake takes a solid hit from Azoth's Circuit Breaker for 38 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shieldbreak applied to The Drake!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
"... Yeah, I should probably go a little easier," Nimue agrees with Ragnell; she does in fact do just that, suggesting that... she actually does genuinely want to be as much help as possible here? What a tweest...
Nimue is -very- sensitive to even the smallest changes in the vibration of the air and ground. (It's a wind seraph thing.) When the drake approaches, Nimue takes to the air -- and when her intuition tells her that there's something more coming, does her best to keep her jump nice and floaty. It pays off -- she's carried along with the wave without being -struck- by it as such, and while it carries her a fair distance, it's in no way -painful-... and Nimue does her best work from a distance anyway.
"...Okay, pressure's on, Nimue," she says to herself, though it does more to psych her -out- than psych her -up-. She closes her eyes for a moment as she finally comes to a nice, gentle landing; she moves a -little- forward before starting, at last, to do her thing. She needs a minute to recover magically, so 'her thing' for the moment consists of grenades; she picks one seemingly at random from her pack, tosses it into the air, and gives it a hurl with her sling-staff. When it reaches the space roughly above Yvain, it detonates, raining flechettes.
Nimue elects not to watch it do that.
GS: Seraph Nimue has attacked The Drake with Razor Monsoon! GS: Seraph Nimue has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Nimue has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
The Drake comes into view, and Ines swears. "No time for screwing around with this one." And they've got to take it alive, don't they? Otherwise what all the Seraphs are working for here is for nothing. As Ida starts moving, Ines follows. And then the Drake lands, and Ines is sent backwards, slamming roughly to the ground and having to pull herself up quickly. She swears again.
As soon a she's up, her whip is out, and ice is running long it's length. She cracks it a few times loudly, to get attention. Tanks gotta taunt. "I'll leave the talking to your friends." She mutters, and advances.
In one smooth movement, she whips out at the Drake's face, a jagged crystal of ice forming on both the tip and where it connects. Freeze it's jaw, piss it off, whatever it is Ines' plan is vague. "Just go down, big guy, save us all some time."
GS: Ines Colina has attacked The Drake with Freezing Whip! GS: Ines Colina has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ines Colina has completed her action. GS: The Drake guards a hit from Seraph Nimue's Razor Monsoon for 83 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo! GS: The Drake guards a hit from Ines Colina's Freezing Whip for 57 hit points! GS: Jam applied to The Drake! GS: The Drake activates Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"Yes... we shall." Clarine agrees with a nod toward Amaranth, opening her eyes to look at her. They've all come together for the purpose of saving him. They mustn't - can't fail.
She looks toward Nimue, then, offering her a smile. An encouraging smile, expressing her belief in her. But before she can say anything, Dean calls it out - Yvain is coming. Clarine sends Ragnell a nod.
"Do not worry, Ragnell. We shall do our best." Clarine says.
And then, Yvain descends. The shockwave is enough to hurl even her off-balance, despite not even being off the ground.
"The barrier is going up! Please ensure that you are still inside it!" Clarine shouts - well, does her best, anyway, even at her loudest she is not particularly loud. All around them a trail of white light covers the canyon, leaving behind it a shimmering, translucent barrier. They're all locked in, now. There's only one thing left to do.
"Yvain... Do you remember me...? I am sorry. I cannot imagine the extent of your pain and suffering. But... we are here for you." Clarine murmurs. She gestures toward him, and a Seraphic glyph appears beneath his feet. Lances of light shoot out, before rushing down toward Yvain himself.
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked The Drake with Holy Lance! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Seraph Clarine's Holy Lance for 127 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Katherine calls out to the Drake, trying to remind him of the memories the food is meant to evoke. It's strange to think that the monstrous being they've repeatedly encountered was and is a Seraph, and would have done ordinary things like cooking and playing the flute. Ivan wonders what sort of person he was.
With any luck, they'll soon find out.
Ruby thanks Ivan for helping out with the flames, and he gives an embarrassed nod, perhaps sensing on some level that this may one day be used against him.
Soon, the Drake descends, bringing an ominous shadow of Malevolence that blankets the land with unease in advance of its earth-shaking landing.
Ivan braces as the earth shudders, keeping his footing but getting caught and battered by the spray of rocks kicked up by the impact.
When the wave passes, Ivan moves his hands in a summoning pattern in the air, calling up a great bubble of energy, translucent and full of superheated air. It isn't a barrier and has no power to restrain the Drake, but is large enough to encircle him and hopefully sap his strength to make it more difficult to flee.
Ivan pushes his hands forward, and the bubble rolls toward the Drake, seeking to envelop his form.
GS: Ivan spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Ivan has attacked The Drake with Searing Sphere! GS: Ivan has completed his action. GS: The Drake takes a glancing hit from Ivan's Searing Sphere for 69 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to The Drake!
<Pose Tracker> The Drake has posed.
'Yvain, can you hear me?' The Drake snarls in Amaranth's direction, apparently uncomprehending if the look in his red eyes is any indication. ...On the other hand, he landed near the meat--near the offering presented to him, just like so long ago...
Dean's strike slams into the Drake's side as he turns towards the boy, not quite fast enough to get his hardest scales in front of it. There's a reverberation, there--a weak point opened up, just for now, though he snaps back at Dean in next moment, lunging. Next comes a blast of icy spikes from below courtesy of Talia, and he roars as the magic slams against him, chilling his underside painfully even if it doesn't seem to get through the scales. Malevolence pours out like blood, though. He roars at her, and a magical circle appears beneath him, an Arte used clearly on instinct--one that crashes up from beneath Talia to try to entangle her in sluggishness.
Lanval's talk of small joys is a nice moment--even if the Drake doesn't seem to appreciate it now. Maybe later, if the group can get through--for now the waters he calls up are something the Drake tries to avoid, with limited success--the backswing slams towards him and bounces off, but its watery power brings another gout of Malevolence in return. He is given no time to immediately retaliate though, because while Boudicca is focusing on support, Marivel has a different approach. She calls his name and slams a spear down--the spear hits bony plating, but this does mean Marivel is on his back for the moment, and he tries to shake her off quickly. When this inevitably fails, dark fire bursts around him in an aura, seeking to burn her outrihht for all her talk of remembering. Marivel has a chance to get away or stay when Hiro's downburst of wind comes in next, and the Drake beats his wings against it but is briefly groundbound for the moment. This is when a flare grenade flies straight for his face. This time he doesn't try to get away from it--he chomps onto it, and it explodes in his mouth, seemingly without harm. At the same time, Cyre's powerful sniper rifle impacts hard scales, chipping a scale with its force but not quite finding his briefly closed eyes. ...The truth is that the Drake's eyes are more a suggestion than a hard and fast rule.
In this moment he is able to retaliate, belching forth a fireball in purple and green for Ida and Cyre both. Azoth's apology meanwhile seems to elicit only a roar in defiance--and then the light crashes into him, too, though he starts to move out of the way. It doesn't blast his scales so hard as much as it sends light cascading across his form, impacting more than the initial assault by far. The Drake's scales are further weakened for the moment, and this is the situation when Nimue's grenade sails forward. He's not very good with ARMs, for reasons one can imagine; eating the one was easy enough, but this one moves above him instead, and those little blades sink into his back. The crystal of ice Ines conjures hits his jaw meanwhile and he roars more loudly at that--until he finds himself looking up at Clarine. No recognition immediately flares in those red eyes of his, but he seems to notice the barrier. As the light of her Seraphic Arte slices into his shoulder, he rushes forward, out from under the wind as it starts to fade. He still can't rise very high, which gives him trouble evading Ivan's bubble of power. All of Ivan's questions might see answers, if things go well--but for right now, the Drake seems as monstrous as anything, even as he growls his reaction to that energy-sapping bubble.
The Drake is still and quiet for an instant. He looks around to the others, seeming to weigh something--Then, the Drake is a blur of motion all of a sudden, rushing along the ground and proving that land speed is as much a problem as air speed. Another spell circle bursts beneath him, circling with runes glowing purple-black and becoming a shadow that sails for Nimue. Along the way he charges Lanval with a blow that shatters the ground beneath him and sends it flying up towards him, bottles and all. Ines, who used ice against him, is the recipient of a powerful swipe with his claws, charging in passing as he moves toward Hiro to chomp down towards him--though not at Ruby, yet. Finally he leaps--but can only get a few feet up with all the magic holding him down. It is enough to slam toward Ivan, where he may well sense Ragnell somehow.
Ivan gets a final wrong fireball, purple and green and black, rushing straight for him in return for his barrier of heat.
The Drake is trapped, with the barrier and the winds--but there's still the matter of surviving to purify him.
GS: The Drake spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: The Drake has attacked Dean Stark with Rending Fang! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Drake has attacked Talia with Indifference! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Drake has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Wyrm Shot! GS: The Drake assumes the Avenger stance! GS: The Drake has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Wyrm Shot! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Nimue with Apathy! GS: The Drake spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Clarine with Putrefying Flame! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Drake spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Putrefying Flame! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Lanval with Earthbreaker! GS: The Drake has attacked Marivel Armitage with Heat! GS: The Drake has attacked Ines Colina with Spinning Claw! GS: The Drake spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: The Drake has attacked Hiro with Rending Fang! GS: The Drake has attacked Ivan with Wyrm Shot! GS: The Drake has attacked Azoth with Descend! GS: The Drake takes 28 damage from Poison! GS: The Drake has completed his action. GS: Hiro guards a hit from The Drake's Rending Fang for 90 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Hiro! GS: Hiro activates Guard bonus! GS: Seraph Clarine guards a hit from The Drake's Putrefying Flame for 95 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Clarine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple, Disease, and Poison applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: Seraph Clarine activates Guard bonus! GS: Seraph Nimue takes a solid hit from The Drake's Apathy for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Nimue gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Entangle applied to Seraph Nimue! GS: Mighty applied to The Drake! GS: Talia takes a glancing hit from The Drake's Indifference for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Talia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Disrupt and Weaken applied to Talia! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from The Drake's Wyrm Shot for 93 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz fully evades The Drake's Wyrm Shot for 0 hit points! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz activates Evade bonus! GS: Ines Colina takes a solid hit from The Drake's Spinning Claw for 131 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ines Colina gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple applied to Ines Colina! GS: Azoth guards a hit from The Drake's Descend for 69 hit points! GS: Drowsy applied to Azoth! GS: Azoth activates Guard bonus! GS: Seraph Lanval takes a solid hit from The Drake's Earthbreaker for 64 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from The Drake's Putrefying Flame for 168 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple, Disease, and Poison applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Sufferer! GS: Dean Stark takes a glancing hit from The Drake's Rending Fang for 75 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Dean Stark gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Dean Stark!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth is counting on everyone; she ponders, for a moment, the path that Boudicca and Lanval have both taken, to become Oracles. To be able to repel the flow of Malevolence, and Purify it with the aid of Seers...
A part of her immediately remarks that that path is not for someone who's fallen before.
She shakes her head, knowing that doubt is what Malevolence preys on; she grimaces to Talia with a gasp and a nod. "Thank you, Talia!" She positions to hide behind the ice wall for a moment, the better to defend herself.
Clarine, too, makes her appeal to Yvain; she nods in turn, emboldened by her friend's presence. "Yes... we can scarce understand what happened, but we are here."
There's a grimace from the seamstress as the battle intensifies; Malevolent fire and slashes are thrown about, and she struggles to duck inbetween the battle for long enough to procure the flute and take a deep breath.
"I have more songs for you. But... I will start with the last one, Yvain. Let this be an encore..."
She presses her lips to the flute, and begins to play -- that melancholic song of loneliness, meant for those who isolate themselves from the world... and how through song, one does not have to be alone.
Katherine has practiced, in the last few days -- this isn't the only song. But a performance has to be built, from the first prologue, to the final outro.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Ragnell turns a wry half-smile at Clarine and Nimue, but... well, she'll leave it at that before she bows out.
Meanwhile, Dean laughs at Cyre's joke, but actually: "Yeah, totally!" ...he kind of agrees, too.
However, the Drake has in fact arrived, and it's time for everyone to pull their weight. It takes Dean only a moment to join the others down in the canyon bottom, racing to catch up with the speedy Drake. Don't worry, Boudicca; Dean is, in fact, fine. He's resilient, both physically and emotionally! He does shoot Ines--whom he doesn't know, but she seems to be with Ida, and any friend of Ida's is a friend of his--a concerned look when the shockwave knocks her down, but she's as tough as she looks and gets up right away. Clarine's barrier of light goes up, locking in the battlefield and ensuring Yvain can't run away. This is it: they've got to succeed now.
As he moves, the Drake snarls and snaps a bite back at Dean. He jerks to one side and so avoids looking like the victim of a shark attack, but those jaws and fangs still rip bloody lines in his body. Dean grunts in pain and falls back a step, but then leans his weight into it and launches himself back at the Hellion, refusing to be daunted.
"How beat up does he need to be before we can start purifying him?" he shouts over to Boudicca, rushing over to one side of the Drake to keep his attention on the front-row combatants.
He'll also keep up the attack with his combat rods, ramming and smashing them into the Drake's scaly, horned armor, his haunch, his chest, and his wing. It'd be best if Amaranth and Clarine manage to get through to the Yvain that's in there somewhere, but he also can't let up while the Drake is still acting violent. Dean's certain Yvain will feel awful about hurting his old friends once he's purified.
As for Azoth, Ragnell does feel that silent promise--and in return, he'll feel her silent trust. She knows he won't let her get hurt.
GS: Dean Stark has attacked The Drake with Assault Battery! GS: Dean Stark has gained 1 Combo! GS: Dean Stark takes 27 damage from Poison! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: The Drake guards a hit from Dean Stark's Assault Battery for 80 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo! GS: The Drake activates Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia gives Hiro a quick, grateful nod at the way he mixes his spell with hers. No other words; not when he's talking to Boudicca, and asking her an important question.
She looks back -- sees her brother's fiery blast strike at the Drake -- and then grits her teeth when Yvain snarls in Amaranth's direction. She tenses -- worried for a second, until Dean slams into the Drake. That distracts him.
But a magical circle explodes up under her feet -- binds her, for a moment -- and she draws in a sharp gasp, before she wrenches herself free.
"Ammy!" she calls out. "Keep playing! We'll keep him away from you!"
She looks back at the Drake, as the sad tune starts to play -- at odds with the fury of battle -- and then Talia bolts forward. "I think we have a way's to go, no?" she calls out to Dean.
She runs at the side of Yvain -- and then stabs Mirage forward, into a rapid series of thrusts, ending with a larger one that sends her flying at his flank.
GS: Talia has attacked The Drake with Sword Rain Alpha! GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Talia has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! The Drake takes a solid hit from Talia's Sword Rain Alpha for 107 hit points! GS: Break applied to The Drake! GS: The Drake activates Power Burst! GS: Ivan takes a glancing hit from The Drake's Wyrm Shot for 84 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ivan gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ivan activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"At this stage... it shall not be easy!" Boudicca's first answer to Hiro is both more and less encouraging than it first seems. "But if you can give us even ten minutes...!"
Unfortunately, ten minutes is a long time when every second is another window for Malevolence to press in.
The Drake comes to ground and the ground comes to a boil, and now Boudicca remembers her freedom of movement - too late, perhaps, to evade the flames. These flames are not at all like Moor Gault's; it is Moor Gault's flame Boudicca feeds as she lands again, reaching out, to Dean.
"We must embattle him until he is wearied!" Is her verbal response, alongside the flames.
GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 2 Combo on Inspire and Reload! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Dean Stark with Rekindling Breeze! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes 19 damage from Poison! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Dean Stark accepts Seraph Boudicca's Rekindling Breeze for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Break and Poison removed! GS: Dean Stark activates Seraph Boudicca's Reload!! GS: Dean Stark gains a Combo from Inspire!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
In fairness, this is not the first time Ida's seen someone eat a flare grenade. Last time, it was Berserk. "Damnation," she growls, and as she sees those jaws gape wide, she throws herself to the ground, raising her arms to shield her face. Reddish-silver stem tissue erupts from the ends of her sleeves, pouring up her arms, hardening layer by layer into exoskletal gauntlets. The Drake's flame slams into the armor, and pain shoots up Ida's shoulders. Mercifully, though, the alien exoskeleton doesn't catch fire. Above the sounds of battle, she hears a familiar tune. "Keep him off Amaranth!" Ida shouts, to Dean, Boudicca, and Ines, because while it would be very nice if the song calmed him again, Ida doubts it'll be that easy.
If nothing else, Yvain seems to be in much worse shape. As Clarine's barrier snaps into existence, Ida is silently grateful for the containment.
With that said, Ida pushes herself upright, plants her feet, and launches herself off the canyon's edge. She traces out an arc throug the air, the sunlight gleaming off her as more alien stem tissue flows across her body. It forms a heavy breastplate, tassets and greaves, headgear that leaves her face visible and her hair blowing in the wind. Like Zhang Xiumei's, it's a composite of two very different aesthetics: stylish and baroque, and sleek and streamlined. A biometal ripline fires from just behind Ida's hand, lashing out for one of the gaps carved in Yvain's scales. Ida reels herself in, careful not to slam into Marivel if she's still on the Drake's back.
And then, it is Ida's turn to join her in Drake-riding. "Yvain!" Ida cries out, very much an alien-looking knight in armor. "Remember! Remember what you wanted to protect!"
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Third Method - Shaping the Battle-Forged Shell! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Third Method - Shaping the Battle-Forged Shell for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Cover applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from The Drake's Heat for 67 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Poison applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Riposte applied to The Drake!
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
Dean shows concern, but Ines catches the look and shakes her head and gives a quick thumbs up. She'll be fine. Or at least, she'll pretend to be. With this many fighters, holding the Drake's attention is going to be near impossible.
And, as Ines finds out, most likely to be lethal. She catches the claw across her stomach, in what would be a sure disembowelment, where it not for the ferroflora vest now visible through the massive gouges in her shirt. She still reels from the impact, and spits red blood onto the ground. The bruising there is going to be enormous. No colourful swearing this time, as she pulls herself back up They can't even count on him being slower on the ground.
"Wearied? Is that all?" Ines laughs mirthlessly. Fine. She can do that. She channels the power of the symnbological tattoos on her. "Earth crack and crumble! Tectonic Breaker!" And with one sudden slam, she drives her fist into the ground, and the ground in front of her starts breaking and splintering as she creates a localized earthquake below the Drake. This is a spell made for destabilising gears. It might just work against a Drake.
Hope everyone else likes it rocky.
GS: Ines Colina has attacked The Drake with Tectonic Breaker! GS: Ines Colina has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
The shadow streaks for Nimue, who throws up her arms and tries to guard herself; she's... surprised, somewhat, when it doesn't -hurt- as such, but merely impedes her motion and makes it harder to defend herself. She'll have to remain more alert about whatever's coming next.
She glances back to Amaranth, with a slightly helpless expression, as she hears that song; there's something -about- music, for Nimue. She... does her best to push the thoughts aside for now. It's not her job to be moved, right now.
KNowing she's in a poor position to aggress, Nimue instead turns her attention to Boudicca, whose position is (in her estimation) slightly better. "Hey Bou! You think you got this?" she calls, before giving her sling-staff a twirl and pointing it at the Seraph; both of them are wreathed in a wind that enhances their movements, as she does so.
GS: Seraph Nimue has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Vigorous Shamal! GS: Seraph Nimue has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Nimue has completed her action. GS: The Drake takes a glancing hit from Ines Colina's Tectonic Breaker for 58 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
The warm air smolders around Lanval even as he makes that swing. It is deeply uncomfortable and trying for anyone to be within that range of Malevolence-based heat, and staying in the presence of that alone presents a serious exposure risk - Vessel or no.
Yvain starts to come nearer with that bestial fury, and as Lanval staggers along in the follow-through of his own swing... he does the same, coming upright with the dumbest smile he can muster. "Mmmm. Ya shtill need ta... looshen up, do y--"
A ground-shattering blow meant to send rocks flying towards Lanval, instead, has it that Lanval is on that piece of ground that Yvain's Hellionized power loosens, popping him up like a ragdoll with a cartoonish cringe on his face. A handful of bottles start flying in the air--
Lanval catches them all, deftly, like it were a sleight-of-hand trick, but he's still being thrown high into the air. His arc is mostly vertical, for better or for worse, a half-open eye looking down below to take gauge of all the powers converging together. A barrier and some winds erect to try and hold him there, and from the sky as he descends, Lanval opens up the gourd and gives it a little tip...
To spill some of that water down upon Yvain-Drake in great big splash of water direct from the planet itself, without much thought himself as to how soft his landing is going to be (it's not)
(but he's not made of bones so he'll be okay)
GS: Seraph Lanval spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked The Drake with Spilling Goblet! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: The Drake guards a hit from Seraph Lanval's Spilling Goblet for 78 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute and Poison applied to The Drake!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Hiro flicks a grin Talia's way as if to indicate he'll back her up, no matter how bad it gets. He knows Talia's... well, he knows she's invested, for reasons that are obvious by who she's defending, before looking at Boudicca, and looking like he's lost some color at the amount of time she asks for. He doesn't complain about it.
"Ten minutes!?" Ruby does though, as she's seen what this thing could do in one!? "Is there anything we can do to help speed that estimate up!?"
The drake flies towards Hiro, and chomps down suddenly. "No you-" His shield arm despite hurting is one he brings up suddenly. "-don't!"
The drake chomps down painfully on the edges, bending in the shield with a splintering of wood before he wrenches his arm free, a small spatter of blood being left in his wake as he back peddles quickly in a stumble.
It feels like every emotional outreach is falling on deaf ears. He's fought Hellions before, even seen a Feldragon before, but he's never seen a purification of this scale attempted.
How much is this one named Yvain suffering right now?
Lucia swirls in so much malevolence on a daily basis, and one of his greatest fears has always been that one day it might be too much. One day something like this might happen to her. He's seen her comatose, being eaten away at by the malevolence, being consumed by it... he has no idea what might have happened if she'd been in that state any longer.
And yet as Amaranth plays the flute, that melancholic song.
"Sounds like you have some people to go back to... if the number here... calling out to you is any indication."
Hiro says it a bit quietly. Seriously. It looks like he can't hear him... but then again, Lucia couldn't hear him back then either. He doesn't know anything about purification, but he knows that... it took all of them calling out to her.
"Come on... wouldn't you like to see the look on their faces..."
Hiro waits for Talia to go in, and then slipping in just behind her mirage of sword thrusts to strike at the opposite flank. Suddenly flourishing his sword, he slams it against the air just a few centimeters from the Drake's hide. A sudden burst of stunning force suddenly detonates in that spot, trying to stagger and stun the creature before it can get it's bearings.
"...that moment they smile at you... and welcome you back?"
GS: Hiro has attacked The Drake with Concussion Sword! GS: Hiro takes 27 damage from Poison! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Hiro's Concussion Sword for 43 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak applied to The Drake! GS: The Drake activates Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Yvain's gaze fixates on Clarine for a moment. There's a sharp intake of breath as she looks into those red eyes. It... saddens her, that he can't seem to recognize her, but he seems to realise what she's done.
A gout of flame rushes toward Clarine, and with a gesture she produces a mirror which rises to intercept. It's an awful flame - the sort that burns at her very spiritual being. The mirror blackens, eventually dissipating into motes of light as it is consumed wholly. The remaining flames wash over Clarine herself and she retreats backward.
She looks toward Amaranth, then, with a nod.
"Yes. Your anger, your sorrows... everything - please, share them with us, so that we may help ease some of your burden..." She entreats.
But right now, what may be most important is protecting those that are still fighting hard so that Yvain may be saved.
"Root of all creation, grant us the breath of life... Revitalize!" Clarine incants. A circle of light spreads out from beneath her feet, shining upon those who need it most - offering healing and protection.
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Hiro with Revitalize! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ines Colina with Revitalize! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Revitalize! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Dean Stark with Revitalize! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Azoth with Revitalize! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Marivel Armitage with Revitalize! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine takes 28 damage from Poison! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Seraph Clarine heals Hiro! He gains 210 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Break, Cripple, and Poison removed! GS: Seraph Clarine heals Azoth! He gains 210 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Break and Cripple removed! GS: Seraph Clarine heals Dean Stark! He gains 210 temporary hit points! GS: Seraph Boudicca accepts Seraph Nimue's Vigorous Shamal for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: Mighty applied to Seraph Nimue! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Sufferer! GS: Seraph Boudicca accepts Seraph Clarine's Revitalize for 0 hit points! Disease prevents the heal! GS: Restore! Break, Cripple, and Poison removed! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel gets blasted back by the dark flame and his hard enough that she feels the need to backflip away from the Drake at a great height--
Only to fall down a nearby pit and off the map.
"Ahhhh!!!" Marivel shouts as she plummets to her doom but luckily she remembers to also shout, "Aport!" and promptly vanishes before the hp bar vanishes...
...Only to reappear above The Drake once more carrying a bucket im both hands that she attempts to slam down on top of The Drake's head (opening first!).
As she rebounds back, Marivel looks to Clarine and gives her a big thumbsup for her aid! She looks better already!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
The Drake's eyelids are... Merely a suggestion. After all, what are Seraphim really? They're not truly fully physical entities, after all. What is the form of a dragon but simply a shape that the mind uses to make sense of what a corrupted Seraphim looks like.
...But more to the point, it's a frickin' dragon!! You can't get around the fact that a dragon is a dragon and no amount of wishful thinking will ever change that!
Cyre whispers a soft curse as his bullet dislodges a single scale from the Drake's eyelid. Guns: probably not the best solution for dragons, as it turns out. The Malevolent behemoth-- the thing called Yvain-- turns its dread fury upon the shaman. A wave of corrupt flame crashes into Cyre's sniper's nest. The sun-scorched stone is charred black, the stench of vile malevolence radiating wafting from the suffused earth. Cyre goes silent-- was he incinerated? Straight up set on fire and reduced to so much ash...?
...
The wind... is blowing...
It does not cast a shadow, as it is itself a shape that radiates light. Eardrums pop when it descends, never-the-less, the sudden change in pressure pressing uncomfortably against the middle ear. Amaranth plays that nostalgic song, and the air hums...!
As a tiger-shaped avatar of the God of Wind suddenly falls out of the clouds and launches a tremendous flying elbow drop right onto the back of the Fell Drake's neck. "I don't think we got to finsh our fight the last time, the Nahual of Wind growls. "Let's go... Round two!"
'Keep him distracted,' they said. 'Tire him out,' they said. 'Purify him,' they said! WHY NOT ALL THREE, CYRE LORENTZ ANSWERS!?
GS: Seraph Clarine heals Marivel Armitage! She gains 210 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Break, Cripple, and Poison removed!
DC: Cyre H. Lorentz switches forms to Nahual - Fengalon!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked The Drake with Tiger Breaker! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked The Drake with Enhanced Aport Riposte! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Seraph Clarine heals Ines Colina! She gains 210 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Break and Cripple removed! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Marivel Armitage's Enhanced Aport Riposte for 126 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The drake slams down into Azoth, smashing even his heavy, mechanical body back in a tumble. One arm hangs out of place, wrong and twisted, dangling on wires unseen in his clothing, before Azoth grabs it and snaps it back where it belongs while pulling himself back to his feet.
Clarine's light shines through him, absorbed into his currents and purging out that blackened arc of poisoned energy that occasionally disrupts his operation.
Azoth squeezes a bright ball of light in his hand, as if the action were what pops it into becoming a blade. He hurls the newly formed energy down between him and the drake in a brilliant explosion of light, trying to buy himself a moment's reprieve to recalculate and keep the Drake's attention further off Amaranth as her important melody drifts through the air.
"Whatever it is you're trying to protect... you can't right now. I don't know anything that hurts more than that." It's a lie. Azoth can think of one thing, and it's something Yvain himself is terribly at risk of should he succumb fully and lose all sense of self: the chance that he'll destroy the very thing he means to keep safe.
"But if you can listen, if you can remember...!"
GS: Azoth spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Azoth has attacked The Drake with Critical Process! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth takes 18 damage from Poison! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! The Drake takes a solid hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Tiger Breaker for 215 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Mighty and Riposte removed! GS: The Drake activates Power Burst! GS: Gamble: Moderate! The Drake takes a glancing hit from Azoth's Critical Process for 34 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Azoth!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Be careful, Talia!" Ivan calls, as he sees his sister get caught up in a magical snare. But he has things to worry about of his own, as the Drake meets fire with fire. As the Malevolence-infected fireball flies for him, he dives to one side -- not quite clearing it, and the blaze envelops his shoulder with a searing heat that penetrates his armor.
He hears the others speaking to Yvain, Hiro trying words of encouragent, while Azoth tries to help him see the truth.
"Katherine would very much like to have you back!" he calls. "And I... would like to meet you! In circumstances where we are not burning one another, I mean."
While saying this, he is very much in the midst of opening a molten lava portal with his sword, which spews forth a column of magma toward the Drake. Ivan seems both guilty and a little embarrassed, even amidst the frenzy of the battle. Apparently admitting he wants to meet someone seems scandalous to Ivan, on par perhaps with going around calling people friends.
GS: Ivan has attacked The Drake with Molten Roar! GS: Ivan has completed his action. GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Ivan's Molten Roar for 167 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt and Shieldbreak applied to The Drake!
<Pose Tracker> The Drake has posed.
The Fell Drake does not stop as Amaranth speaks to him. He continues whirling around for the next attack. Maybe those answers will come, too--but not yet. Instead, the Drake starts to advance again towards Amaranth until she begins to play, and then he pauses, stopping short with a lower growl. It doesn't immediately calm him like before--his condition is worse now than it was. But either because of the song or because of Dean's timely intervention, the Drake advances no more for now on Amaranth.
Dean has a good question, and a good approach; the Drake focuses on him for the moment as he keeps swinging, and while his armor is hard and tough, Dean's strikes are strong; he feels the impacts reverberate against him. At the same time, just about, Talia is up there and fighting, her flurry of strikes scything forward and then suddenly jabbing against his flank, causing a louder roar than before, sounding like something cracks. Into that opening Hiro swings his sword, and it's true that the Drake seems not to understand him--but the universal language of explosions staggers him for a moment. It's a small reprieve, but it is a reprieve.
In response after, the Drake bursts into greater flames and spreads his wings, rushing forward, this time able better to move--and his wings batter down at Talia and Dean both--and Hiro, too--with sharp claws and hard bone, one-two-three alternating sides to try to crush them outright. Boudicca's encouraging words rush over, and his red eyes fall on her as he turns, animal intelligence enough to make him understand what she's doing. He snarls, and magic rushes from him in purple-black lines towards her to sap her strength.
The Drake leaps to avoid Ines's powerful spell, but still takes spikes to the side, snarling again in pain, but he cannot focus for very long on the way the destabilizing spell hurts--it indeed knocks him off-balance enough for Ida to leap onto his back... and she'll have to work very hard to hang on, though there are plenty of spikes to hang onto. He briefly loses track of Nimue completely as she works to protect Boudicca, occupied with closer and more immediately pressing foes, which gives her a brief reprieve she may be able to use. Lanval's water, next, splashes down directly onto his form, steaming and hissing as it hits his hot scales, bubbling over as pure water battles Malevolence. A blast of that heat sprays back to Lanval as if in answer, a darkness that reacts to this purity with opposite force.
Clarine's entreaty forces the Fell Drake to look straight at her, somehow--and while surely there still isn't comprehension there, there is an instant where he just looks. He stares--and then Marivel comes down, and interrupts whatever he was about to do in her direction. "RRRRAAAAAAOAR!"
The sound of the bucket on the top of the Drake's head is a loud, loud clanging, and while the Drake's head is too big to completely be covered by the bucket, he sure does have a metal hat now that seems to be stuck in his horns. He's not happy about it either, wobbling for a moment because the Drake's head is a suggestion but it's a very important suggestion.
But indeed, Tiger Versus Dragon is not finished--and the wind blows, bringing Cyre crashing down. The Drake is hit hard by that elbow, pushed down into the ground hard enough that the earth beneath them cracks, the sheer force of the blow travelling through scales and bones into rock. It is... highly distracting. The blow does take him away from Azoth's explosion--but that explosion also blinds him for exactly long enough for Azoth to move back and recover.
There's something he can't protect right now--this idea, these words receive a snap back of jaws, a claw rending outward with a shockwave in Azoth's direction, though perhaps too late to fully capitalize on his previous position. Before the Drake can follow up the strike, however, Ivan's lava (it's totally lava now, it's aboveground) burns towards him. Fire is not going to kill the Drake, but it's still a huge quantity of molten rock and it knocks him backward, forcing grinding noise as his claws grab into the ground, and leaves smoother, raw scales beneath that will not defend nearly so well.
A horrible blast of cyan, green, and purple flame crashes towards Ivan in return, as indeed it seems until that time they'll be burning each other. The Drake keeps breathing out the Malevolent sludge and turns to include Ines in the blast, too.
But there's the song, yet... It may yet stop, if as the Drake turns its jaws further, the flame rushes towards Amaranth, too. Unless someone steps in, it's about to get a lot harder to play.
Then, with three people still on his back, he hunkers down against their defense, attempting to roll to grapple with them--
And power begins to charge all around him.
WARNING: Charging!
GS: The Drake has attacked Dean Stark with Flyby! GS: The Drake has attacked Talia with Flyby! GS: The Drake has attacked Hiro with Flyby! GS: The Drake spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: The Drake has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Dark Inferno ! GS: The Drake has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Dark Inferno ! GS: The Drake has attacked Marivel Armitage with Dark Inferno ! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Nimue with Spared... For Now! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Clarine with Spared... For Now! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Apathy! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Lanval with Heat! GS: The Drake spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: The Drake has attacked Ines Colina with Putrefying Flame! GS: The Drake spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: The Drake has attacked Ivan with Putrefying Flame! GS: The Drake spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Amaranth with Putrefying Flame! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Drake has attacked The Drake with Charging! GS: The Drake accepts The Drake's Charging for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to The Drake! GS: The Drake takes 22 damage from Poison! GS: The Drake has completed his action. GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from The Drake's Apathy for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: Mighty applied to The Drake! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Sufferer! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from The Drake's Dark Inferno for 86 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Cyre H. Lorentz! GS: Gamble: Very High! Talia takes a solid hit from The Drake's Flyby for 147 hit points! GS: Gamble: Very High! Hiro takes a solid hit from The Drake's Flyby for 143 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Lanval takes a solid hit from The Drake's Heat for 79 hit points! GS: Riposte applied to The Drake! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Seraph Lanval receives 50 temporary hit points. GS: Seraph Lanval enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from The Drake's Dark Inferno for 86 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Nimue takes a solid hit from The Drake's Spared... For Now for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Nimue gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Dean Stark takes a solid hit from The Drake's Flyby for 110 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Dean Stark gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ines Colina takes a solid hit from The Drake's Putrefying Flame for 176 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ines Colina gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple, Disease, and Poison applied to Ines Colina! GS: The Drake has attacked Azoth with Spinning Claw! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Ivan takes a glancing hit from The Drake's Putrefying Flame for 126 hit points! GS: Cripple, Disease, and Poison applied to Ivan! GS: Ivan activates Sufferer! GS: Dean Stark used Defend! He takes The Drake's Putrefying Flame attack on Seraph Amaranth on himself! GS: Dean Stark guards a hit from The Drake's Putrefying Flame for 103 hit points! GS: Cripple, Disease, and Poison applied to Dean Stark! GS: Dean Stark activates Guard bonus! GS: Dean Stark enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Dean Stark has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth takes a solid hit from The Drake's Spinning Claw for 132 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple applied to Azoth! GS: Seraph Clarine takes a solid hit from The Drake's Spared... For Now for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Clarine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from The Drake's Dark Inferno for 175 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Marivel Armitage gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Marivel Armitage!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Catching Ines's thumbs up, Dean smiles and gives her a nod back--his hands are a bit too occupied to return the gesture, after all. Talia points out that they have a while to go before they can start purifying. "Well yeah, that's why I'm asking!" Dean calls back to her. "How do we know when to start?" Boudicca calls back her own answer, and Dean gives her a nod of her own. "Until he's wearied... Got it! So when he starts looking tired, that's when we go for it!"
That purifying wind of Boudicca's whorls out and surrounds Dean, carrying with it some of the pain of that bite he'd sustained--and clearing the Malevolence that was festering upon it, something he hadn't even noticed in the heat of battle. In it wake, an even greater healing power rushes up in columns of soothing light and knit together those puncture wounds. He grins Boudicca and Clarine's way and calls, "Thanks!! That was a big help, gals!"
Ida then calls for him and Boudicca and Ines to protect Amaranth. He'd been letting Talia handle that up until now, since that was explicitly what she's here for, but he nods and moves so that he's fully physically in front of Amaranth. More barriers is better, right? At the very least, having fighters close up on Yvain's sides might keep him from just throwing off people like Marivel and Ida who keep jumping on his back, or Lucha Cyre who's elbow dropping his neck. This doesn't stop the Drake from roaring and beating his wings hard, and with Dean *right there*, it means that wing is in the perfect position to smash into him repeatedly. Dean's short, which gives him some defense, but otherwise it's like getting battered by a leather jacket powered by a sledgehammer. Dean staggers--but doesn't move out of position, either.
And Amaranth plays that melancholic, yet hopeful song... It's really lovely. Dean wonders, briefly tangentially, how the Goddess Althena could ban something so beautiful. The Drake doesn't seem to be responding to people's emotional pleas yet, but Boudicca said it herself: he's got to get worn down first. Even so, he calls, "C'mon, Yvain! You're not the kind of person who'd get dragged down forever, right?! I don't know you, but I know that's gotta be right because you've got so many friends who believe in you! You've got to feel it in there somewhere! And when you do, we'll help you come back to yourself!!"
But then the Drake turns and breathes out that Malevolent flame, aiming towards Amaranth. But Dean's still there, having refused to give up ground even as he was pounded. He screams as the putrefying flame washes over him, but he crosses the rods of his ARMS to help defend himself as he stays right where he is.
"KEEP PLAYING! DON'T GIVE UP!" he roars over his shoulder at Amaranth. When the flame finally abates, he staggers, clutching his chest, in pain from more than simply the fire. Malevolence and Dean simply don't mix, the young man's spirit too bright and water-clean for that oily darkness to find purchase... but that doesn't mean it doesn't *hurt*. As the Drake charges up his next attack, Dean takes a deep, ragged breath, and aims his ARMS--not as rods, but as guns, and opens fire with a burst of bullets. The hail beats down on the fell creature's scales, in the weaknesses his earlier strikes created, and hopefully finds critical purchase in one of the weak links therein.
GS: Dean Stark spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Dean Stark has attacked The Drake with Bullet Shower! GS: Dean Stark takes 27 damage from Poison! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! The Drake guards a hit from Dean Stark's Bullet Shower for 115 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Ida calls for the Seers to defend her, and there's a further grimace as she finds herself hopping back mid-song, worried as a magical circle binds her for a moment. "T-Talia!"
Some part of Katherine was expecting the song to not work as well -- such is the nature of Malevolence; once it finds itself exposed, it redoubles its efforts to shut itself off, to never be vulnerable again.
There's a yelp as the Drake gathers up, and a horrible blast of cyan, green and purple flame swarms forth and is aimed her way--
"Aahh no--" She can't avoid that in time!
But... when she opens her eyes again, she isn't wounded or infested with Malevolence; Dean has come to her rescue. He hasn't given up ground -- he encourages her to keep playing. To not give up. A pause, and she expresses firmly, "T-Thank you, Dean."
Talia encourages her to keep playing, though, and she nods, knowing she can't doubt herself right now.
Boudicca says that it's not going to be easy; ten minutes is quite a long time, as Ruby exasperatedly says so. "I'll try to buy you time through the song, Ruby... Hiro..."
In the interstice of the battle, she sees Nimue's look -- she understands that look.
She knows Nimue's been in that same position she's been; in a way, they all have been, one way or another. Clarine speaks of anger and sorrow... she remembers her, vaguely, saying those words to her too, on that day.
There's a pang of guilt that washes over her.
She pushes through it. Right now, she's thinking strongly of the Yvain she remembers. Even as he gathers energy, as the charge wells up around him and threatens to annihilate them all...
To that end... she plays another song.
This one isn't a song he taught her, but rather... his very own song. The song that she thinks was his favourite, and one he would play often around them, when they were still one and together all.
It's a slow song, at first, with melancholic notes... but as she moves from bar to bar, the tempo picks up--
It's a song about a Seraph who loved being around people; someone who showed her what it really meant to appreciate others' company, in the times when, after the fall of the Holy Midgand Empire, she'd like nothing more than to just stay away and hide from folk.
She plays.
It's a song about a Seraph who enjoyed his meals, appreciating the way in which each dish was cooked with precision and affection and love. A song that appreciates how food is a great attractor, bringing people together.
She plays!
It's a song about a Seraph who brought people together with music; someone with a passion for the way in which song, whether orated or sung or played through an instrument, can really move the heart in ways that can't even be expressed through mere words.
She trembles. She's noticing, as she plays, that she's shedding tears......
Come back to us, please...
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Heat rises. Lanval is descending, and there's not much he can do to stop himself from having to go through the Malevolence-powered heat that rises to taint the air in a faint haze of sickly purple, green, and black - colors 'true' fire generally does not take.
Seraph Lanval has spent hundreds of years getting to know, witness, and be around some of the worst mortals had to offer. One doesn't go through that without having some level of emotional distance to feelings of that intensity, but the steam that rises from his manifestation as he makes contact shows that it is difficult to go through that level of concentration intact. It does not 'burn' so much as 'flay, scrape, peel.'
But it does not get hooked inside of him - as Amaranth has witnessed, the burdens and strength of spirit involved in being an Oracle (or even a Seer) is a tall hurdle, and from the outside in, it may even seem to encompass having to be distant enough from someone you might care deeply about while still giving your all to help them.
That he does not know Yvain well - or much at all - may well be its own armor as much as his own spiritual strength. (It does not afford him so much protection from impacting against the ground beneath him, though.)
"beh"
It is such a sudden, pained grunt that it transcends the need for capitalization or punctuation. Lanval lies face flat for a short while, as Yvain's Malevolent aura starts to build. The Water Seraph rolls back and forth, and comes to his back... but then, in the air...
There is mirth, rising with the slow song that Amaranth plays - Lanval, himself, tries to project his presence - his Domain - remembering how much the song captivated Yvain from before.
"Show not thy terror nor thy sorrow!" Comes Lanval's booming voice, sitting up from what is a kind of comfortable crack in the ground and he's enjoying it for what it is. "Show thy dear friend what doth await them...! Ha ha ha!"
He hoists up his drinking gourd in one hand with a forceful thrust, as if sheer mirth were enough to bear the entire weight of a piece of Filgaia's water, as it splashes out in a seemingly haphazard, random way to reach out and give the slightest chilly shock of water to those who it touches.
It's not a bad shock - it stands to wash away some of their worries and ailments.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Wake Up Splash! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Talia with Wake Up Splash! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Clarine with Wake Up Splash! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Dean Stark with Wake Up Splash! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Ines Colina with Wake Up Splash! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Wake Up Splash! GS: Shieldbreak expired! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Ines Colina accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Cripple, Disease, and Poison removed! GS: Talia accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Disrupt and Weaken removed! GS: Dean Stark accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Cripple, Disease, and Poison removed! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Poison removed! GS: Seraph Clarine accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Break, Cripple, and Disease removed! GS: Seraph Boudicca accepts Seraph Lanval's Wake Up Splash for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Disease and Entangle removed!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I'm not sure!" Talia admits to Dean. She leaps back when Hiro's attack explodes with power, making sure she gets clear of the concussive blast -- though she doesn't get too far, feet skidding over the badlands dirt.
"I will do my best, brother!" Talia calls back to Ivan.
The Drake's movements don't seem to respond to Amaranth. She isn't sure whether the words and the music reach him. It gives her that spike of concern.
Can they do this? Talia certainly can't -- she isn't someone who can use Purification. That needs to be someone who hasn't done the things she has.
She is knocked backward, as the Drake's wings beat -- and then Yvain's sharp claws rake down her side, slashing into her skin there -- and catching her hip. Blood splashes on the ground, and she hisses sharply. She stumbles backward.
She sees the strange fire slam at her brother -- and then continue on, rushing in a violet tide of flame for Amaranth. She shouts back at her: "AMMY!"
She gets Mirage ready, wheeling it back to throw and get there -- but too late. But Dean isn't too late; she sucks in a sharp gasp, as he puts himself between the Malevolent fire and Amaranth. "D-Dean! Are you okay!?"
She sees Amaranth start to play -- grits her teeth -- and then whirls around to face Yvain. "Please!" she calls out. "You have to listen to them, no? We want to help you!"
She steps forward -- but stumbles. Lanval's voice booms out -- and water splashes over her, from his gourd. Talia's red eyes blink a couple of times; then she nods her head, fiercely, and she bolts forward. "Thank you!"
Talia runs in. She hurtles towards the Drake, charging over the ground. She zigs around a crater torn into the ground by an earlier fire blast. She ducks underneath Dean's burst of gunfire.
Then she kicks off the ground into a leap, Mirage carried in both hands, and she slashes up -- and then back, in a crescent arc. She somersaults, putting her own magic into it. Mirage, as it cuts, turns frigid -- and leaves a crescent of ice as it slashes.
Which pushes up into Yvain, as she finishes the slash.
"FRIGID MOON!"
GS: Talia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Talia has attacked The Drake with Frigid Moon! GS: Talia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
It's a fortunate thing for Clarine's Seraphic Arte, Hiro was already pretty beat up, and his shield arm was still dripping blood. It's light causes them to seal up, as he takes what looks like a stronger stance as the Drake bursts into greater flame. Hiro gives Clarine a grateful look... because he feels like he's going to need all the healing she just gave him to get through this.
Amaranth says she'll buy them time, through the song, and Hiro looks in her direction and says in this moment of sincerity of admiration, "You're doing way more than just buying time."
Sorey once explained purification to him as a process that wasn't just one sided. He can't just forcibly purify something, and he doubts that this purification between Oracles and Seers is any different. "He needs to hear your call... most of all I think."
The Drake interrupts this by rushing forward, his flaming wings battering, as one sweeps up Hiro under his guard and sends him flying. Landing with a crack against stone, the boy feels all the air breathlessly leave his lungs, leaving him wheezing in pain.
Just as he sees the Drake grappling with three people on it's back... the power swelling... and...
"...that's... problem..."
Hiro grossly understates the situation, as he gets up, still wheezing from the pain of his back injury. He sees whatever it's charging as potentially the end of their efforts... if it gets off. They may not have ten minutes. They may have a matter of seconds before it blasts them all.
And even though it hurts, he suddenly charges at the creature... his sword movements suddenly shifting the wind currents dramatically, as if they were all gathering on the central point of his blade. And then... he leaps, just after Talia's crescent of ice pushes up into Yvain, as if he were trying to maximize all this applied accumulation of damage by striking now.
"DODGE THIS!"
And brings it down atop the Drake's head, the slash if it strikes home against its scales releasing into a detonation of pressurized air, point blank at the Drake's cranium. He's hoping that the blast will daze it hard enough to delay that energy charge through applied head trauma.
Ruby is mostly repositioning herself away just in case of... the need for her to do something reckless again, but the song... perhaps... makes her realize... how much she wants to sing with someone again.
GS: Formation! Hiro has attacked The Drake with Sybillium Sword! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Talia's Frigid Moon for 168 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! The Drake guards a hit from Hiro's Sybillium Sword for 134 hit points! GS: Delay applied to The Drake!
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
First, the waves of light from Clarine provide much needed relief even as she reels from the hit. And then she watches Dean take a hit for Amaranth while she waqs out of position, and Ines grimaces. She charges upo front, into position. "Hell, are you okay!? Leave the next one to me, kid. That's what I'm supposed to be here for."
The horrid malevolent flames wash over Ines and she feels sick. It's a disgusting, foul horrific thing that washes over her, and a part of her wants to vomit. Later. She can do that later. There's pain in all her limbs, and movement is harder. Fine then. She can deal with that too.
She walks between the Drake and Amaranth, positioning herself just so. "This is going to be tricky. Bodyguard duty and knocking this bastard out." She knows the story, but she doesn't have the sympathy in her. It's safer to treat the Drake as a major threat until this plan of theirs works.
And then Lanval's mirthful voice sweeps across the battlefield. She looks both thankful and frustrated. "Wish you could pull this crap off faster." She looks behind her, at Amaranth. "Alright, do your thing little lady. We've got you."
And then Ines extends her arm out, and different tattoos glow. "Piercing blade of gleaming steel, drive through our foe! Hullbreaker Knuckle!" Her knuckles turn metallic and extend out into one one large thrusting blade, and all 7'2" of Ines charges to drive it into the Drake. Her positioning is careful, withdrawing as soon as the blow either strikes true or misses: But that might not be fast enough to escape the Drake.
GS: Ines Colina spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ines Colina has attacked The Drake with Hullbreaker Knuckle! GS: Ines Colina has completed her action. GS: The Drake guards a hit from Ines Colina's Hullbreaker Knuckle for 154 hit points! GS: Cripple removed!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
It's like jumping into a bonfire made of razor-sharp spikes. The heat washes up, blowing Ida's hair back as she comes in for her landing. The ripline tendril pulls free of the Drake's scaly hide, and armored hands and feet take its place--the heiress grips a pair of protruding spines in her hands, extrudes blunt gripping spikes from the toes of her 'boots'. It's all she can do just to hang on as the Drake roars and bucks beneath her. "Yvain," Ida says, between gritted teeth. "You're not making this easy--!"
"But I didn't, either."
The heat grows even more unbearable; if Ida hadn't armored herself, her skin would be burning just from touching the Drake's scales. But the Drake is trying to shake them off, and, well--
"Oh no you don't." Ida raises an arm, and the ripline shoots forth, embedding itself in one of the canyon walls. Biometal ligaments pull tight. She reels herself in, lifting off Yvain's side just as the heat becomes actual Malevolent fire. The others can see the state she's in--the Drake seared stress-cracks into her exoskeleton, and parts of it look blackened, distorted. "I wish we could, too!" Ida shouts, back to Ines--frustrated, but not at the Beastwoman. Ten minutes, Boudicca had said. As she hangs in mid-air, Ida sucks in (relatively) cool air, and resolves: if her Oracle needs ten minutes, she will damn well give her ten minutes.
From her perch, Ida sees Dean take a hit meant for Amaranth, as she'd done. Her heart leaps against her ribs. "DEAN!" she cries--
And then--
SPLASH
A wave of blessed water surges across the battlefield, soaking Ida from head to foot. Its touch makes her shiver at the cold, but it also takes the edge off the pain, and fuses some of the larger cracks.
Ida pulls the ripline free, and lets herself fall. A second passes as she reaches out with her left arm, launches another ripline from her left wrist. It lashes out towards Yvain's scaly crest; a difficult target while he's whipping his head about. Even if it misses the Drake proper, though, it'll hit something nearby. Ida reels herself in, redirecting momentum. Every last part of her aligns, preparing for a devastating strike of her own.
"REMEMBER!" Ida roars. "SHARE IT WITH US!"
And she strikes. White lotus petals billow out from her, forming a fuzzy border for the usual golden-white of her aura. Power ripples across her knuckles as she drives her right fist for the Drake's jaw. Again, this strike normally packs enough power to punch through Gear armor, but Ida's pulling it. It's mostly shockwave, less direct impact. With luck, it should help daze Yvain, especially...
Ida's eyes widen a little, mid-strike, as she sees what Ines unloads with. God damn that's a spell.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked The Drake with Unbroken Lotus Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: The Drake guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 104 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Does Boudicca think she's got this..? There is tension in her face, in the shell she calls herself; but the wind knows them and with another's direction can ease through her, too, and with it she is able to relax some of that tension. "Together," she calls back, to Nimue, "we have the strength to do this." This is a promise underwritten by the glyph of light Clarine summons, the bolstering of Revitalise.
To Ruby, she calls: "That all depends on how swift our strength is!" How can one speed up bringing a Drake low...?
Every second a spiral, down and further down. With all the alacrity of the wind Boudicca flees the tracing lines of the Drake's artes, spring back once, twice, a third time; but even with the wind bolstering those movements, bringing her up so much higher than her plate armour ought to allow, there is no flight which escapes oblivion.
What goes up must come down, and what is sickly purple comes around.
Oh, it tastes just the same, two hundred years later.
Boudicca bends; lifts her head, with effort, and somehow those ribbons are the brightest colours to her right now. She does not yell. The wind carries her voice because the wind is her voice. "It hurts... does it not? The rot at the heart of creation... what would spread through the veins of the earth... and we the model, what shall pass. Oh..."
Here she straightens, a splash of water at her back; it sizzles; she smiles. "... I know."
Boudicca breathes in air, exhales smoke, whirls to Amaranth.
"You must build the bridge that he may cross! Keep playing, no matter the force he exudes! He is counting on you, too!!"
Her hands clap together, the wind rushing out from between them; in her palms she holds the flame, and one she extends to Dean, in such distaff to Malevolent fire. The other she reaches out to Ida, attempting to close the distance, and this flame stands in argument of the Drake's, too.
She is a bridge, too, and her role in this play is to bring Moor Gault's purification to her Seers -- such that they might set the Malevolent to rights.
With each ignition she builds the flame within them, available to them, a bellows to fan and feed it to a roaring pyre.
Ruby had the right idea.
Fan-fan, fan-fan...
GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Dean Stark with Phoenix Thermal! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Phoenix Thermal! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Boudicca's Phoenix Thermal for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan and the Drake remain doomed to burn one another for the time being. The next Malevolent fireball catches Ivan's leg, causing him to hiss with pain, and making it more difficult to stand, as each shift in his weight shoots fresh sparks into his nerves. The cumulative effect of the Malevolence itself is beginning to take hold as well, making him feel ill.
Ivan procures three throwing knives and takes a moment to breathe and steady himself before flicking them toward the Drake. The tiny blades might not mean much to such a beast, but as they fly, flames flare to life around them, taking the form of stinging wasps and carrying an extra bite.
The notes of Katherine's playing carry over everything. He can hear the emotion in it. "You'll get through to him soon, Katherine!" he calls. "He has to be able to sense your feelings!"
GS: Ivan spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Ivan has attacked The Drake with Fire Wasps! GS: Ivan takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Break expired! GS: Ivan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel frowns faintly, briefly distracted as Amaranth starts shifting the song she's playing. And more relevantly, the inferno of flame comes slamming into her, the explosion sending her crashing along the ground, bouncing rapidly and considerably on fire as she slides across the floor, her body ending up near Amaranth.
She rolls onto her back and stares into the sky.
She puffs out a dark cloud of smoke from her mouth. "...If this is a Drake I'd hate to fight a Dragon." Marivel grimaces. "Would probably hate to fight a Dragon anyway. Just because my people recognize the importance of mercy kills sometimes doesn't mean I'd enjoy it."
She stands herself up and fans her arm to the side to stabilize herself and she nods once. "Right. Good."
She blows out some air and lets her arm drop. She looks back to Amaranth.
"...She always said music could heal," Marivel murmurs. "But that song... I don't know it."
She thinks for a moment. "I see. Well, it's worth a shot. Someone needs accompaniment."
She places a hand on Ammy's shoulder lightly, closing her eyes. Ammy will feel something small being absorbed by Marivel. It isn't lost by Ammy either. It's the same technique Marivel uses to copy the skills of any monster.
And then she nods once, "Arright..."
She flicks Guillotine into the air once more and CLASS CHANGES AGAIN WHAT to catch the spear once more as it falls, but as it fell it transformed into a six string guitar, the shapeshifting weapon taking the form of an instrument for the time being.
And she immediately joins in with the music. She plays it perfectly...
...Just like they remembered it. Of course the instrument might not be the same, but it's the one Marivel knows how to play.
"This, at least, I still have faith in," Marivel murmurs.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"You are most welcome!" Clarine replies to Dean's thanks. She owes him that much, for how much he is putting on the line today. Hiro's grateful look, too, receives a nod in reply.
And once again, Yvain looks at her, straight at her. Clarine forces herself to meet his eyes - to stare back. But just as it seems he's about to do something, who should arrive but Marivel, with a distraction! Now it's Clarine's turn for thanks.
"You have my gratitude, Marivel...!" Clarine says, quickly hurrying out of attack range.
Her attention turns to Amaranth, though, as an attack comes her way... fortunately, Dean is there for her. Clarine breathes a sigh of relief... and then, listens as she begins to play a song on Yvain's flute.
"Ammy..." Clarine murmurs. It's familiar, nostalgic song. It's been so long since she heard it last. She closes her eyes, and takes another sharp breath. ...She didn't think it'd hit her so hard, hearing it again. She stops in her tracks for a moment... but then, there is a familiar feeling of mirth - Lanval's support, as the waters of Filgaia splash forth.
A reminder of the small joys. The small joys that they will, hopefully, be able to experience again. It gets her moving again, reminding her to push forward.
"Much has happened since we last saw each other, Yvain... I have grown much since then. Let me show you some of what I have learned." Clarine says, and prepares another spell.
"One thousand divine lights, arise and light the path to tomorrow... Radiant Cannonade!" She incants. From her position, light arrows in multitudes fan out, firing in all directions. They reflect off the canyon walls, off of her barrier, and all of them fly back toward Yvain himself, coming from all angles.
"...Yes... 'the path to tomorrow'..." Clarine repeats, with a nod. "There is... so much we, all of us, must catch up on... so please - come back to us."
GS: Seraph Clarine spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked The Drake with Radiant Cannonade! GS: Seraph Clarine takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
... the harder Nimue tries not to let the song move her, the harder it is to not be moved. She remains cautious even as the Drake -- Yvain -- doesn't directly assault her for the moment, just maintains its annoyance with the shadow; she wants to reach out, to say something, in this moment she's been afforded.
... and unlike so many other times, where her voice has failed her -- she manages it. She doesn't scream, doesn't roar; she may not even be audible. But she at least has to say it.
"... I really hope you come back. I'm tired of just... assuming we lose people." She can't bring herself to shout. Really, the person she's talking to is more herself.
Nimue decides to go for the gusto; she's not going to feel -better- if she hangs back for too much longer, but could certainly feel -worse- if Yvain decided to take note of her more pointedly. She dumps a few grenades out of her pack, and says -- much louder than before -- "Jetstream Scatter!" and then begins... well, not golfing them -exactly-, since she's got a scoop. But the motion is distinctly golf-esque, albeit with a little extra twist and flick for better target control. The grenades pelt in physically...
... and then explode a few moments later.
GS: Seraph Nimue spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Seraph Nimue enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Nimue has attacked The Drake with Jetstream Scatter! GS: Seraph Nimue has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Nimue has launched an attack Link! GS: Seraph Nimue spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Nimue has attacked The Drake with Explosion! GS: Seraph Nimue has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Nimue has completed her action. GS: Dean Stark accepts Seraph Boudicca's Phoenix Thermal for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Dean Stark!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Is there anything much more distracting than a giant divine tiger-man pouncing upon you from the top rope?
Sure, there's some stuff that is, but this is PROBABLY close to the top of the list.
And even then, the monster keeps spewing that awful, unceasing tide of Malevolent flame. Where does it come from? Where is it getting all of that awful spiritual corruption?
Though, perhaps the same can be said about all things with a human-- or human-proximal-- heart?
Flame. The Nahual moves to avoid, hinging his elbow around the drake's neck and using it as a makeshift gymnastics bar. He remembers too keenly what that sort of taint can do to his like, if it can take hold. The flames still flicker, guttering and twisting in the swirling cross-winds. Even then, the corrupted flame licks the divine tiger, scorching its limbs with sickly, wrong-colored light. Cyre...
Hurls himself upward, off the beast's back. It's building up power-- that much is absolutely undeniable. For what, though? Given all the Seraphim in such close proximity, a massive release of Malevolent flame would be...
...Bad. Very bad. Extremely, truly awful.
"How much longer do we need to keep wearing you down...!?" Amaranth keeps playing on, in spite of the terrible force being brought to bear against her. Dean shields her, taking that indelible taint upon himself. How much longer can they keep this up...? It doesn't matter. They cannot afford to fail now; if they do... If they do, how long until this Drake becomes a Dragon...?
No. Not yet. If its flames are powered by Malevolence, then there is something that he can do. Cyre growls, reaching one massive hand into the sky. The clouds begin to gather, spiralling downward into his outstretched palm, swarming into his open grasp. The wind howls, whipping into a litany of screaming gales... But more than that, this is no mere storm-wind-- this is the breath of Fengalon himself. A tempest of divine wind that can scatter dust and Malevolence alike-- and...
Maybe, just maybe...
Fire feeds on wind, does it not? Therefore, if there is still a mote of the Seraph That Was within the Drake, then perhaps he will find the sacred storm a more appetizing meal than the Malevolent shell that he wears.
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked The Drake with Storm Warning! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes 27 damage from Poison! GS: Break expired! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: The Drake guards a hit from Ivan's Fire Wasps for 86 hit points! GS: Poison applied to The Drake! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Seraph Clarine's Radiant Cannonade for 174 hit points! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Seraph Nimue's Jetstream Scatter for 79 hit points! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Seraph Nimue's Explosion for 179 hit points! GS: The Drake guards a hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Storm Warning for 109 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak applied to The Drake! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked The Drake with Red Skill ?????'s Temptation Song! GS: Marivel Armitage takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The swipe of claws may pass shy of striking Azoth, but the shockwave meets metal with a shrill, ringing whistle. Sparks fly with the friction, and the little android skids back against the earth, tearing tracks through it. The gashes tear through his leg, shredding his boot away enough to expose the strange seams that trace out his knee, and leaving a cleave where frayed wires pop free. They crackle with that blackened Malevolence still, constantly redirecting the energy out of him, his body overheating.
He can't keep weight as well on that leg now, favoring the other as he tries to steady his stance. Warnings flare through his system with the rise in energy. Something big is coming.
Azoth's movement is compromised, forcing him to make an explosive leap toward the drake. He doesn't form a blade, redirecting all his currents defensively, and instead forms a shield to charge with. He sends himself like a rocket into Yvain, but stumbles his own landing, hit or miss, as he tries to reposition himself.
"We can help you protect it, whatever it is...!" But right now, Azoth needs to worry more about who he can protect.
GS: Azoth has attacked The Drake with Hardwired! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth assumes the Stoic stance! GS: Azoth takes 25 damage from Poison! GS: Poison expired! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: The Drake guards a hit from Marivel Armitage's Red Skill ?????'s Temptation Song for 0 hit points! GS: Break applied to The Drake! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Azoth's Hardwired for 94 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> The Drake has posed.
The song ebbs. Amaranth has to stop. ...At first.
Dean's gunfire slams into the Fell Drake's scales, peppering his hide with powerful bullets. Bony plate and red scale start to break down underneath the assault, finally, going raw and in some places starting to shear off. Lanval's chilly water spreads around--but the Drake does not feel its refreshing touch for the moment. Instead he feels a different manifestation of the elements, as Talia's leaping slash drives home. Up, back, in an arc--the ice crescent bores into dragonhide powerfully, knocking the Fell Drake backward further.
Hiro's sword is next, and the Drake is swirling towards him as his blade crashes down--it hits his head, and for an instant he's stunned, just enough to slow his attacks enough that there is a little more chance to get out of the way. Next comes another blade--Ines's incredible blade of magic, the steel slashing against him in a flash of chill iron. A fragment of a horn breaks off.
As he grapples with Ida and Cyre, the Drake takes a punch on the jaw next, the shockwave sending dust scattering in a great cloud that briefly obscures all vision--even as Boudicca, away, begins to prepare for what must come next. What has to come next--because there may not be another chance.
Amaranth is playing her song, now--its notes begin to rise powerfully over the din... and Marivel's accompaniment helps the song to resound through the canyon. It is at first quieter than the Drake's rage. At first.
Clarine has learned a great deal, it would seem. Her divine light rises high, bouncing off the barrier to hammer down at the Fell Drake, and it dispels darkness where it hits, exploding at his position in a glorious burst of magic.
Nimue's wish hangs on the air--long enough for the grenades to pile towards the Drake. They hit, and hitting they don't do much damage, but when they explode, a great and terrible horn cracks, scales sheared away by concussive force. Azoth's compromised movement forces him to leap--but his shield is powerful enough, slamming into the Fell Drake and knocking him further along the ruined earth, brilliant light arguing the point of his Malevolence. Still, he charges power--
Cyre's question may be answered soon, meanwhile. But the breath of Fengalon crashes against the Fell Drake, and little bits and pieces of scale erupt in green light, beginning to fade away on the ground--but still the Drake comes, though he approaches the storm. ...It finishes his defenses, though--as Cyre moves backward.
The Drake's energy reaches a fever pitch. That charging force... is complete.
Roaring defiance, the Drake swings up, able finally through sheer power to force himself up into the air--but not to escape. Not this time. Malevolent fire blazes into being around him, and he slams back down into the earth, the resultant explosion blotting out all sight and possibly obliterating everyone close to the Drake. It rushes outward, towards Nimue and Clarine and Cyre above like a solar flare out of something utterly unlike the sun.
And his jaws clamp down on Ida, a powerful stroke that might end her altogether, with deathly force--If she can force his jaws back, she can free herself. Otherwise, she may leave part of that armor with him getting back to another attack.
The sheer force of it all is enough to hit most of the battlefield, especially those close.
But...
...But there--in the aftermath of all those attacks, with all that power spent, the Drake stands, heaving for breath that it doesn't really need, a powerful force of Malevolence standing in an aura of darkness. But his red eyes are on Amaranth, now, and on a song given as it has been given before, returned to a friend. He stares at her... and slows. Marivel's accompaniment comes in, and it turns out that this is an ideal instrument for it--the music is richer, because this is a song that was meant to be shared. He turns, to look at this one he doesn't know, and back to those he does, slowing further.
He breathes back, as if to start charging power again. ...But it's sluggish, this time. This is the final chance. The Malevolence that claimed the Fell Drake will either claim this entire canyon, or be dispelled here and now.
The Fell Drake's defenses are down!
GS: The Drake has attacked Dean Stark with Descend! GS: Delay expired! GS: The Drake has attacked Talia with Burning Impact! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Drake spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: The Drake has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Jaws of Death! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Drake spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Clarine with Dark Inferno ! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Nimue with Dark Inferno ! GS: The Drake has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Dark Inferno ! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Descend! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Lanval with Descend! GS: The Drake has attacked Ines Colina with Burning Impact! GS: The Drake has attacked Azoth with Burning Impact! GS: The Drake has attacked Hiro with Burning Impact! GS: The Drake has attacked Ivan with Descend! GS: The Drake has attacked Marivel Armitage with Music! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Drake has attacked Seraph Amaranth with Music! GS: The Drake has gained 1 Combo! GS: The Drake takes 20 damage from Poison! GS: Jam expired! GS: The Drake has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Hiro critically guards The Drake's Burning Impact for 54 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hiro gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Azoth takes a solid hit from The Drake's Burning Impact for 210 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break and Delay applied to Azoth! GS: Seraph Clarine guards a hit from The Drake's Dark Inferno for 97 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Clarine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: The Drake heals Seraph Amaranth! She gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from The Drake's Jaws of Death for 142 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey activates Power Burst! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Dean Stark critically guards The Drake's Descend for 24 hit points! GS: Dean Stark activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> The Drake has posed.
GS: Ines Colina takes a solid hit from The Drake's Burning Impact for 215 hit points! GS: Break and Delay applied to Ines Colina! GS: Talia fully evades The Drake's Burning Impact for 0 hit points! GS: Seraph Boudicca critically guards The Drake's Descend for 22 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca activates Power Burst! GS: Seraph Nimue critically guards The Drake's Dark Inferno for 35 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Nimue gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Nimue enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ivan critically guards The Drake's Descend for 24 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ivan gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ivan activates Sufferer! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval takes a solid hit from The Drake's Descend for 182 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Drowsy applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz fully evades The Drake's Dark Inferno for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth feels and hears so much inspiration from her friends; Talia and Ivan are both doing their best, and she's emboldened by those she considers to be family here. Hiro and Ines encourage her, and Boudicca reaffirms the truth of what she's doing: building a bridge for him to cross.
That's right. She remembers. In the end... she had to take the first step herself, after enough of the Malevolence had been pushed back.
Ida's power comes, and Cyre keeps the pressure up with the very storms themselves; and Marivel...
She feels something small being absorbed, but it's not painful. And the Crimson Noble joins in the struggle, musically-- and she's glad to have that accompaniment, as their song becomes richer for it.
A look to Clarine is all she needs to know how much she understands this song too -- and how much she wants to show her what she's learnt too.
That's right. It's not just her; it's Clarine, it's Nimue... it's everyone Yvain ever knew, too, who's still around, and friends she has no doubt he'd like to make too, amongst those gathered here... and those further out still.
Which is why Nimue's whisper is all the more heartful to her -- and all the more emboldening.
The onslaught continues, as what feels like the worst she's come to dread comes to pass -- the charging force is complete. It doesn't seem like her song is enough. More flame and force strike upon those present, yet--
Yet, as she struggles, stumbling to hide and protect herself while keeping the song going... she meets the Drake's eyes again. It seems he has slowed down. This is their chance, she internally and instinctually knows.
She's breathless, exhausted. It feels like she can barely push breath into the flute. But...
She continues to play. She'll continue to play, until the end.
Because he once did for her too.
GS: The Drake heals Marivel Armitage! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
The explosion of the earth beneath, once again, makes light of the Water Seraph and tosses him into the air anew. (He kind of liked that crack he was lying in. Seraph Lanval is very particular about what patches of ground he might lie down in and that one was... about 75 percent as good as that one stretch of road in Luca.)
Earth, and all-consuming furious fire. The Oracle of Schturdark is about as quiet as they come as he seems to disappear in that blinding, weary cloud of dust and debris that have been loosened by Yvain's unrelenting rage - he may have been tossed clean of the environs, as far as anyone knows.
...
Quietly, Boudicca will feel it first. The presence of the world's water itself - she carries some of its flame. They are speakers of two of the world's primary forces... and not all that far behind her, she can feel Lanval (moreso than see or hear him - because he is close by but shhh, spirit things)
"I entrust thee with the extinguishing of the flames of their suffering." Comes Lanval's voice. Flame is quenched by water. The very idea that the elemental, primal force of water could enhance flame is... kind of silly.
But there do exist liquids that are flammable. Somewhere within the dust and the grime that permeates, blinds, and weakens... the Oracle of Schturdark's power flows like water itself, infusing further those Seers of Flame and the Oracle of Moor Gault herself.
"Now! Before their embers doth grow into an inferno that cannot be contained!"
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Lord Of The Lake! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Lord Of The Lake! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Dean Stark with Lord Of The Lake! GS: Riposte expired! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Dean Stark accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Dean Stark!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
The Drake finishes charging, and unleashes his greatest breath attack upon everyone present, belching out that Malevolent fire to devour all in its way. Dean stabs the combat rods into the ground in an X before him and crouches behind them, defending himself from the assault, weathering through the storm until it abates and the Drake slows.
Even so, it hurts.
Not just the heat of the Malevolent fire, but the anger and pain and sorrow that lies beneath the contradiction. It's a feeling Dean doesn't soon forget, even after Lanval calls down purifying water to give him a little smack on the cheek--but that water does at least snap him out of it. "Woo! That's cold!" he declares in wonder, popping up to his feet as that water perks him up. He shoots Lanval a brilliant smile. "Thanks, Lanval! You're right--we gotta show him we're waiting for him with a smile!"
And so it's with a smile that he nods back at Amaranth and Clarine, and with a smile that he waves off Talia and Ines's concerns. "I'm fine! But I'll definitely let you guys have a turn--that *really* wasn't any fun!" he calls back. He meets Ida's eyes too, to show him that he's all right--before they widen in turn, and *she's* at the Hellion's mercy. "IDA!!" he shouts as he snaps his jaws around her, already in motion. However, as he runs, Boudicca's buffeting wind surges around and upwards, as if being the wind beneath his metaphorical wings, and he breathes it in, calm and clear. Ida might be hurt, but she's still alive. Boudicca's got both their backs. He can feel the strength building within him thanks to her power. He can feel the pure waters of Lanval's Oracle might flow into all of them, as if the three of them are as one, connecting together with the fluid of life. Maybe it's just his imagination, but even so, it bolsters him. He smiles at Lanval's encouragement, letting it flow through him too.
"All right... We can do this." He lifts his chin, his gaze clear-eyed and defiant. "We can win this if we work together!" He doesn't know if this is the right time or not, but... it hurt, that Malevolence. And so it hurts him to leave Yvain like this any longer. "Boudicca! Ida!" he calls, joining his Oracle and fellow Seer. "Let's use *that* move!"
Concentrating the power of both his artes and will, Dean whirls the rods of his ARMS through the air, one horizontal line, one vertical line, both perpendicular to the ground, both flickering with the flame that sustains the world even in midair, in the absense of any kind of kindling. It's Dean's soul that serves as kindling, after all.
"Key!" he shouts, initializing the chain purifying attack and setting up Ida and Boudicca to complete it.
GS: Seraph Boudicca accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Seraph Boudicca!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"Glad you are okay!" Talia calls back at Dean. She cracks a smile when she hears Marivel join in with Amaranth, with a six-string guitar. She hears her keep playing. All she can do is keep trying. She lands, in a three point stance -- and then looks up. The Drake has taken wing.
But not to flee.
He slams down into the ground -- but Talia leaps. The shockwave rolls at her, but she throws Mirage. The shockwave of Yvain's impact rattles and disturbs the black, shadowy strands of smoke that fly through the air. Mirage slams into the ground near the Drake.
Talia's hand is on it. "Come on! You have to listen, no? There's so much you need to see! Amaranth's house--the things that Nimue and Clarine have to tell you!"
She turns, then -- and she does a spinning leap upward, blade cutting after her. She leaves a trail of light in the air.
Then punches out with a final stab into the Drake's armored head. There is a brilliant flash, as a ki blast explodes off her blade.
"Light Spear Cannon!"
GS: Talia spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Talia has attacked The Drake with Light Spear Cannon! GS: Talia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
The Drake rises up and returns to the earth in a violent explosion of fire. There's no time for Ivan to escape the path of the huge blast, and so he reaches for his umbrella, popping the canvas open like a shield and calling for its aid.
It glows golden, forming a barrier dome that keeps off the worst of the blazing fury.
Ivan breathes a sigh of relief as the blast passes. Talia would probably not forgive him if he had allowed himself to be vaporized.
He searches the battlefield for his sister to make sure she's all right, and then looks back to the Drake. It seems to be reeling from its own attack, creating an opening of sorts.
Ivan gathers a cloud of tiny stars in his hands, sending them toward the Drake on a warm breeze. They dance, crackle, and fizz in the air around him, before each one explodes into a fireburst.
GS: Ivan spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Ivan has attacked The Drake with Stars of Fury! GS: Ivan takes 32 damage from Poison! GS: Ivan has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
Ines finds herself too close, too slow to guard against the Drake's attack, that blaze of flames she can't guard against. Ines lets out a yell of pain as she stumbles back, looking around for the people she's supposed to protect. They're still up. Even Ida, after that vicious bite. Good. And the Drake?
"...I guess that might count as wearied." She mutters, clearly bloodied. She pulls herself from her knees to her feet, and moves her seaweed hair out of her face- her hat was lost much earlier in the fighting. She watches as Dean sets things into motion. If this doesn't work, they're in a whole world of hurt. If that thing gets out of the way...
"Why don't you just sit tight for this, big guy? I wanna see if this works." Another tattoo glows, and she outstretches her left arm, then closes her fist. "Grow heavy and wander no more," She's clearly tired, not being able to put as much into the chant. "Lead Jewellery."
And heavy leaden bangles, inscribed with ornate, careful patterns start to form around the Drake's legs and wings. They might slow it down, make it more vulnerable to attack. Maybe Ines just doesn't have the energy to chuck out anything more direct. "Let's see this Yvain guy everyone's talking about."
GS: Ines Colina has attacked The Drake with Lead Jewellery! GS: Ines Colina has gained 1 Combo! GS: Delay expired! GS: Ines Colina has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel does not have a personal connection to this Seraph. But that doesn't mean she can't play. She may not have sympathy but she has empathy. She may not have a personal connection to this song, but she can remember it all the same.
She may be wounded, but she can still play.
Her faith in her teacher may be damaged, but she still remembers her lessons. Her hands may have been broken and smashed but they can still strum. Her face may be torn open but she can still hum and sing. Her teeth may be fanged but she can still smile.
And it isn't just for the people who knew Yvain. Think of it. Just for a moment. Stop and listen.
Marivel's eyes narrow in thought as she sees the creature hesitate and listen. He is still in there, this man she doesn't know. This musician. This chef. This beloved one.
This beloved one she never got to meet.
"Tis true, you have many old friends! But do not forget..."
She points with her pick. "The friends you've yet to make!"
And with that she strums another chord, letting the music fill her.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The light of Azoth's shield is devoured in the Malevolent blaze that engulfs him. Blackness burns away blue, leaving synthetic flesh and metal to guard the core and Seraph inside.
Azoth's entire chassis becomes a light show of dancing, volatile arcs of Malevolent poisoned energy, not because infection threatens him, but because expelling it from his circuits is one of his highest priorities. Even in this vicious, point blank assault that threatens to rip him at the literal seams, he will keep his promise. For today, at least.
It fades, leaving Azoth collapsed from the still damaged knee joint. His own battery charge is being rapidly depleted, and the less he moves, the more he can preserve it. But they're reaching him, aren't they? Yvain? He's got to hear them.
Energy surges in Azoth's arm, crackling and wild, and he punches it down, erratic light swelling from him and weaving in ribbons over Dean, Boudicca, and Ida in his own small efforts to protect and assist them. Purification is beyond his ability, and he doesn't fully understand it even now. But maybe a part of him can help.
GS: Azoth has attacked Dean Stark with Body Electric! GS: Azoth has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Body Electric! GS: Azoth has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Body Electric! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Delay and Drowsy expired! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Gamble! Azoth heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 130 temporary hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Burst and Shield applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Gamble! Azoth heals Dean Stark! He gains 90 temporary hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Amplify and Surge applied to Dean Stark!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Hiro lands on the ground, just in time for it's charging to be complete, and the drake to rear up alit with malevolent power.
In this moment, Ruby beholding this says what Hiro SHOULD be thinking, she's developed more of a potty mouth thanks to her Ragnell inspired vocabulary. "...ffffuck."
Malevolent fire bursts out of the Drake as it crashes down to the ground. An infernal wave roiling towards Hiro, who suddenly tries to slash at it in a wave of Azure power leading, before hunching over behind his shield. The wave crashes into the malevolent fire, but the malevolent fire crashes into him and burns on a level that isn't quite physical.
He's around Lucia often, but that gives him no special resistance to malevolence. The blast wave physically knocks him off his feet, and that spiritual fire burns right into his being.
The aftermath leaves him agonally gasping like he wants to scream, soundlessly. Yet...
... the music keeps playing, and that gets through to him. And Hiro, finds it in himself to get up just as the Oracles and Seers make their move...
... and it's that moment that Ruby acts. "Hey. Stop." She'd snuck in, and is floating up just out of reach of his jaws. She'd managed to distract him before, so right now, when the purification ritual is starting, she tries to distract him anew
"Just stop and listen to what's behind that song. I bet... if you listen long enough... then it's going to hurt, but after that - you'll wake up. You'll wake up and it'll be like a long nightmare. One that's finally over."
Ruby doesn't know if it'll reach him, but still she tries. "I'm sorry it's gonna hurt... but no matter how much it does, don't stop listening to what she's trying to tell you..."
And as one small part of that hurt, perhaps the smallest part, the physical hurt, that's the moment when Hiro crashes into the Feldrake, sword alit with flame as he seeks to crash into the Drake with three slashes in a desperate attempt to harry it long enough...
... for the others to do what needs to be done.
GS: Hiro spends 3 Combo on Headshot and Link! GS: Formation! Hiro has attacked The Drake with Rubyvention! GS: Hiro has launched an attack Link! GS: Hiro enters the Avenger stance! GS: Hiro spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Hiro has attacked The Drake with Battalion Sword! GS: Hiro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hiro has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida steps back out of the dust, raising her hands to guard herself. She's not sure how much time has passed, but it seems like the others--Clarine and Nimue and Amaranth and Cyre and everyone--are buying the Oracle and her Seers valuable breathing room. Ida focuses on her breath. Fresh biometal flows from the cracks in her armor, patching them with pliable biochemical sealant. She has to regroup, because when the Drake does, he's going to come at them with everything he has.
"Come on, Yvain," Ida whispers. "Listen. They're waiting for you."
Then the Drake roars, and explodes into a maelstrom of violence. It all happens so fast.
Ida barely has time to turn and leap and roll out of the consuming inferno--she shoves herself upright, feels the massive Hellion's presence behind her. Behind him, she sees Azoth collapsed on the ground, reaching out to her--to Dean and Boudicca. Energy flows through the air, surging forward to shield her.
It's the last thing she sees before the Drake's jaws clamp shut around her. There's a horrible sound, a deep groaning like metal being stressed to the breaking point--and then a much lighter, equally metallic splintering. Crimson and quicksilver drip from between the Drake's enormous teeth.
There's complete stillness, for a moment.
SEVERAL YEARS AGO
Ida stands in the jaws of an active trash compactor, hands braced against the metal. Sweat drips down every inch of her body. Her muscles ache. This thing is only applying thirty percent of its typical force--or so her master told her--and it is taking every last drop of strength just to keep it from crushing her.
"Five more minutes," says her master, as he glances down and sees her.
NOW
Something is forcing the Drake's jaws open. Bloodied, armored fingers grip the edges of the Hellion's mouth, growing blades as they dig into the more-sensitive flesh there. "Almost," Ida grates out. "Good try, Yvain." As she shoves the Drake's jaws open further, the others can see her. Her left shoulder is a splintered mess of ruined armor and torn flesh, threaded through with silvery Hyadean muscle that she shifted into place literal seconds ago. Smaller puncture wounds line the right side of her body. She looks like hell. She's smiling nevertheless, and it's equal parts defiance and adrenaline and fierce determination. "HAAAH--!"
Ida shoves with all her strength, and breaks free. Freed from the Drake's deadly maw, she glances back, and feels the ignition of Dean's power. It's time.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"TO THE HEART'S--!" Ida roars, and she reaches out with both hands, letting those red lines wrap around her. Wherever they make contact, they spread across her body, forming a blazing, fiery filigree. Pure white smoke pours from her brilliant gold-white aura, and as she rushes forwards, fiery lotus blossoms ignite in her footprints.
Ines moves to lock the Drake in place. Ida grins at her, and then launches into a series of open-palm strikes, swaying back and forth in anticipation of counterattack. The form, again, is similar to Lanval's--and when he pours his power into her, a faint sea-green flickers to life at the edge of her aura.
The palm-strikes turn to punches, elbow-strikes, knees. Each one leaves behind swirling, burning glyphs that consume whatever Malevolence they touch, turning it to smoke that smells of burnt wood and incense. Without even thinking of it, she moves to wrap arms around the Drake's massive torso. There's no way she can reach, but somehow, she manages. Ida squats down, lowering her hips, shifting her center of gravity. A burst of wind from her boots buoys her up as she rises into the air.
Then she comes down, trying to SLAM the Drake into the ground with a burning suplex--setting him up for the final strike.
GS: Formation! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked The Drake with Key to the Heart's Ignition! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Formation! Dean Stark has attacked The Drake with Key to the Heart's Ignition! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine's light strikes true... but the Drake still has the energy to fight. With a defiant roar he descends, unleashing an explosion of Malevolent flames. It's all Clarine can do to shield herself with her mirrors as it rushes for her. Her mirrors are consumed by it utterly, and Clarine herself is cast to the ground.
The fires of Malevolence... they're horrifically painful - especially for a Seraph. But Clarine cannot fall here. She must hold onto the hope that he can still be saved - she must persevere.
She lifts herself to her feet, some of those dark flames still clinging to her form.
"Yvain... please, open your heart. It will not be easy... it can be painful. But, we will be here to help you through this, every step of the way." Clarine entreats. And then she rises into the air. "Please, accept the warm embrace of the sun... may it grant you the same peace and tranquility it does me..."
And from there, she begins to emit light - the light of the sun, shining down on Yvain. The encouraging, pleasant warmth of a nice summer day. This same light is afforded to Amaranth and Nimue, as well, in hopes of offering them the same encouragement.
- Layna -
Nearby, with a soft, windy 'fwoosh', someone lands next to Lanval. It's Layna, once more - standing tall and adjusting her hat before sending him a confident grin.
"No problems so far. Looks like I've come back at just the right time, aye?" She says. "You holdin' up okay, lad?"
And with that she flexes her fingers and rolls her neck before looking up at Yvain.
"Right then! You don't know me Yvain, lad, but I'm here to help." She says. "So don't move a muscle!"
With that, Layna holds her left hand in front of her. The bracer on that hand then begins to shine a bright blue as water begins to swirl about her.
"Let everything that's holding you down drift away with the waters!" Layna says, and pushes forward. From all around her, a great wave surges forth toward Yvain - a wave of the purest, clearest waters, to wash away the Malevolence clinging to him.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
Nimue's cautious approach makes it much easier for her to defend herself, even amid that swirling aura of darkness, that massive explosion. She squares up with it rather than try to dive away, wind whipping around her; it stings, but it's better than being unprepared. This seems to be the moment of truth, or very near it -- Nimue can't fail to meet the moment...
... which means she'll have to meet fire with ice. She takes a long, slow breath in, trying to steady herself; magic is hard and the setup for this whole project took a lot out of her. It's her best option by a mile, though. She thrusts out her hands, giving her sling-staff a slow-but-accelerating, fan-like twirl. "W... Winter Wind Blizzaga!" she calls out, letting loose a gust of ice-cold wind that picks up icicles out of water vapor as it travels, eventually pelting Yvain with a barrage of tiny shards. It's not so different from her first attack, in some ways -- well, other than the mechanism by which it's achieved.
Nimue's posture sags, thereafter.
GS: Seraph Nimue has attacked The Drake with Winter-Wind Blizzaga! GS: Seraph Nimue has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seraph Nimue has completed her action. GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked The Drake with Radiant Horizon! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Nimue with Radiant Horizon! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Amaranth with Radiant Horizon! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine takes 23 damage from Poison! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: The Drake accepts Seraph Clarine's Radiant Horizon for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to The Drake!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Malevolence-- is a terrible, contagious thing. A plague of emotional turmoil that uses the very stuff of the soul as tinder to spread ever further. That it can unleash such a catastrophic nova of tainted light-- akin to the ignition of an earthbound star-- is perhaps a literal interpretation of the metaphor, but not an unexpected one.
Cyre... still remembers the painful, scorching touch of Desperation setting the world ablaze. A Clysmian is certainly quite different from a Malevolent Seraphim, but in many ways, this heat is... comparable.
And yet, it does not reach him.
...Not because Cyre is immune to such things; he is not, of course. Not only is he ostensibly vulnerable to the very element to which the Drake is most closely aligned, but should that Malevolence pierce his defenses, take root in his heart, in this form...?
Well. That's besides the point. Cyre is not touched by the flames, because he is literally above the flames. The Divine Tiger rides the foul inferno higher into the sky, carried beyond the clouds by shockwave and thermals alike. Higher, higher, higher he soars, the golden mandala at his back extended like a pair of gilded wings. Finally, he reaches his zenith. Looking down, he can see the full breadth of the world beneath him. From these dizzying heights, the land stretches in its full glory-- a withered, dried up ball of mud barely clinging to life... But cling to life it does.
It is his home. A place that had once been untouched by Malevolence. A place that is... dying-- but beautiful. Undeniably beautiful. Full of so much space, enough to embrace everything, even the limitless darkness within all hearts and all minds. It is the world he loves.
Lunar's problems may be far from him, both physically and emotionally. The Seraphim-- may be entities that part of him can't help but think are intruding in some way into the domains of his gods. None of that matters now. Here, from the furthest border of Fengalon's domain, he knows there is room for all. Filgaia is such a big place. People hold onto their darkness and their light equally, for better and for worse, but if they can just let it go, then the world can receive them both and be richer for it.
And more importantly, from here, human and seraphim look pretty similar. There is no division, only friends trying to help friends save a friend.
"Now or never. It's time, from the pinnacle of the heavens... From El Tope Del Mundo-- o' breath of the world, scatter this darkness to the four corners of land and sea...!"
Cyre takes in a breath. The wind tiger throws open its arms as if to embrace the world beneath it...
And begins to fall.
Fall. Fall. Fall. Faster. Faster. Faster. Beneath, the air vibrates with energy. Cyre arches his back, straightening his arms and leads with the flat plane of his chest. The clouds scatter as he passes through them, blasted back by the pressure wave that only grows stronger with every foot Cyre falls. The atmosphere collapses beneath him, collecting into a singularly inexorable downburst centered around his midsection. He has become an emerald meteorite, an aura of brilliant, jade-colored light surrounding him and rippling across the sky. And below him, the Drake...
It would begin with with a feeling of heaviness. A sensation of weightiness... But not because of gravity. The wind is blasting right on top of him. It's the sensation of standing at the shore before a coming hurricane, of watching a tornado approaching at inescapable speeds...! Then, like a hammer, the first shockwave crashes down. Again and again, layer upon layer of sky piled high on top of it. A sensation of vastness-- an understanding of the world's incredible expanse, and the indescribable feeling of the very atmosphere seeming intent to crush you beneath it.
...Cyre falls out of the sky, arms spread wide.
...And, upon impact with the Drake, unleashes a tremendous shockwave of wind and ley alike-- a stormwind gale to sweep the Malevolence away, to return once more to the cycle of spirits...!
...As it turns out, Guardian Purification isn't... exactly the most subtle thing in the world. Especially not when said purifier is presently a divine wind-tiger that rode a draconic supernova to the top rope of the entire damn planet.
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked The Drake with Wrath of the Wind God! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 2 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes 28 damage from Poison! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"IDA!" Boudicca calls, a second time, and this time it is painted in worries. Do not think she names Charlotte in her mind; the child impaled on crow's talons, she is gone, far from here. Oh, but there were others! A whole village to be plunged to deepest night, unnamed, impersonal.
Not again, not again, not again.
Almost.
Water extinguishes fire but so too does water accept heat; though they may seem distaff, one must only venture into the hot springs of the world to know that fire and water may easily work together. And then, of course... that is not the only liquid held within the earth which associates with flame.
Here in this association comes the Oracle of Schturdark, a thing like veins, to know that mortal affliction -- 'Hot Blood'. Boudicca's head turns, by degrees; touched by his mirth, she smiles.
Let's use *that* move!
Dean's ARMS ignite the building flame; martial might sends Ida crashing, swirling in, playing favourites with gravity. The orange flecks to Boudicca's cape, it seems, were embers all along - aflame they light, and so does she, her silk trim smouldering to smoke as a green Seraphic glyph alights and finds itself limned by flame.
"... IGNITION!" Boudicca howls, as her sorceries fan the fire to a blaze, and a tornado of purifying flame rises up from below to catch the Drake who was Yvain as Ida comes crashing down.
The source of those flames is plain as day: the shot from Dean's ARMS.
GS: Gamble! Azoth heals Seraph Boudicca! She gains 130 temporary hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Burst and Hyper applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: Seraph Boudicca enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Formation! Seraph Boudicca has attacked The Drake with Key to the Heart's Ignition! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! The Drake takes a solid hit from Talia's Light Spear Cannon for 230 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! The Drake gains 1 additional Combo! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Ivan's Stars of Fury for 202 hit points! GS: Delay! Attack weakened! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Ines Colina's Lead Jewellery for 56 hit points! GS: Slow applied to The Drake! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Hiro's Rubyvention for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Hiro! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Hiro's Battalion Sword for 226 hit points! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Key to the Heart's Ignition for 207 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! The Drake takes a solid hit from Dean Stark's Key to the Heart's Ignition for 323 hit points! GS: The Drake has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Seraph Nimue's Winter-Wind Blizzaga for 110 hit points! GS: The Drake has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! The Drake takes a solid hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Wrath of the Wind God for 381 hit points! GS: The Drake has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: The Drake takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Key to the Heart's Ignition for 211 hit points! GS: The Drake has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> The Drake has posed.
A song for a Seraph who loved being around people; a gift, given again in return, played with a heart that understands this place the Drake is in even if not all of how it happened yet. A wish, for one to come back. ...Bolstered by the playing of someone who knows how to adapt to the song of another, who has known similar songs and can give the gift, too. One of his oldest friends... and one who would be a new one. Many who would be new ones, though they have different ways of playing in the moment.
When Ruby talks to the Fell Drake too, he doesn't snap out at her--he doesn't reach to claw her or bite her. Maybe he can understand her now, and maybe he can't, but for a moment he looks at her, similar in some ways to the being he supposedly once was.
And three powerful strikes crash against him as he charges up more power, along with Talia's flash of spearing light, and Ivan's tiny stars, and Ines's careul weights on his limbs and wings.
Punches, elbows, and knees; the burning glyphs that come of each burn away Malevolence, and the Drake is moved--physically this time, but perhaps also emotionally. Slam he goes back to the ground from where he was picked up. As cleansing fire sets in, cleansing water flows forward from Layna and Lanval, too. Seraph Nimue's barrage of tiny ice shards meets the growing aura of power that he was charging, and so does the warmth of the sun that Clarine brings down. And the power of wind, off of the atmosphere's top rope, slams down and suffuses, three elements working in harmony to purify something that should never have been on Filgaia. But wind does not only come from above; it comes from below, and the final piece of purifying power is Boudicca's, and while it will not bring back the fallen, it will show that something new is possible.
There is a brilliant light as the elements meld together, with the earth of the land below...
Ancient, overgrown ruins. Men and women in leather armor with swords and bows. A great, fearsome monster. All of these things flash into being, particularly for those involved in purification but not necessarily just them. The ruins are so old that they're practically just overgrown forest now; trees have grown where roads once stood, and even the foundations of ancient buildings are old, worn stone, barely visible. The forest is thick with heat, and with combat.
The armored men and women are clearly bandits--something in their bearing says it, some unseen knowledge that nevertheless is certain. They are fighting amongst each other until the great terrible monster, thick with Malevolence, charges in. The viewpoint of the vision changes, charging up towards the monster among the bandits...
But it swirls away before the battle is clear. There is the sound of something breaking. There is the sense of a place, an important place...
And then there is darkness.
The vision ends. The world as it is now reasserts the hold it barely released, and the brilliant lights of purifying flame do not blind, though they are bright.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
When the light clears, there is a man sprawled out on the ground, arms extended, legs slightly apart. He faces upward, blue eyes on the sky. He has pale red hair, ending in white, and is dressed in reds and golds with little accents of blue, blue like the hottest of flames. His clothes are in perhaps surprisingly good shape, considering the battle they've all just been through--he doesn't look like he's been in a fight at all.
"...I had the worst dream," a pleasant voice announces quietly, a sigh passing the Seraph's lips.
There will have to be some introductions. For now, he cranes up his neck to look around at everyone gathered...
He brings up a hand to the back of his head as he starts to push himself to a seated position. "Ah..."
There's too much to think about all at once; too much to process immediately. But one thing is clear in his mind: "...Thanks."
Then he flops back over, asleep.
DC: Seraph Yvain switches forms to The Inviting Hearth!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval, quietly, unobtrusively, reappears in this cleared space to set back down the bottle of Merlot where it originally was, without bothering to urge Yvain awake (because that's rude and Seraphim like their nap time)
(which is whenever they feel like)
(for as long as they like).
"...'m glad they didn't show up again," he asides to Layna as he gives Yvain and his dear friends some space, taking in all that they saw. "We ain't done in thish part of the woodsh yet."
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
There is another person there.
Not that it's... particularly surprising. There are many people there. But more importantly...
There is another person there.
...Because, when you plancha from the top rope of the damn planet, you don't often have a choice about how you end up landing. And in this case...
Cyre... is presently unconscious and sprawled out directly on top of a temporarily awake Seraph Yvain.
...
A-at least the effort of Super Plancha tired him out enough to revert to human form?!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Well. 'Human.' Beastman. Whatever, same thing.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia lands, breathing hard.
And she watches more than a little anxiously through the song that Amaranth and Marivel play. Her crimson eyes blink a couple of times -- watching the last of it. A blast of light that strikes into the Fell Drake...
And a vision. She doesn't see it as well. It's without color; with a fuzzed impression at the edges, as seen in a dream. She sees ruins and bandits -- a fight, against each other, and then a beast.
It's a hint of what happened, she realizes.
She opens her moiuth, then closes it at as the light fades -- and Yvain is there, sprawled out. She lets out a sigh of relief. She claps Ivan on the back once. "Ah, we did it!" she says, aloud. "It looks like... he is okay, no? He--"
She looks at Cyre on him. Then she blinks a couple of times, and glances at her brother. Then, at Hiro. Then, finally, back at Ammy.
"...we better... get them both some place to rest," she concludes.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
A vision washes over Dean as the flame that sustains the world--the flame that *he* helped build--helps cleanse the Malevolence from the Drake. Overgrown ruins. Bandits fighting a monster. Heat and combat choke the greenery, people fighting each other, then a Hellion, and then something that feels terribly important *breaks*, and then...
And then darkness.
But also there is light. A light through which Dean blinks, and then looks down to see a man with white-tipped red hair. He has a catboy on top of him. He doesn't seem to mind. He even falls asleep that way.
Dean smiles. "You're welcome," he tells Yvain, whether the Seraph is still awake to hear it or not.
Then he staggers back and falls into a slump. "Whew...! That really took a lot out of me..." He looks up towards the bonfire and the steak kebab skewers hopefully. "Don't suppose the food survived the fight?" It'd be a shame to let it go to waste after it was so carefully prepared! And they've all got to recharge after giving their all in that fight! They can get Yvain and Cyre someplace to rest after they eat, okay!!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan hasn't got the context to make sense of the vision that flashes before their eyes, but the result is plain enough... the Drake is restored to his true form!
"You're a person again!" Ivan announces with wonder, as though perhaps he might not know it himself, before Yvain promptly flops over, asleep. It's for the best for Ivan, probably, as the fury of battle was replaced by social anxiety with remarkable swiftness and he will need to think on what to say to this new aquaintance when he cannot use the language of fireballs.
Talia gives words of triumph, then surveys the state of their allies.
...we better... get them both some place to rest.
"Y-yes," Ivan agrees.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
It's said there's often that moment when adrenaline stops sustaining you and you just... crash, and that's exactly what happens to Amaranth, as the last of the strikes come, as everyone brings everything they have to bear...
She sees it, for a moment. Men and women in leather armor... a monster? She's not certain, what this signifies for now, yet....
But what she's concerned about right now is Yvain, when the light clears... they've succeeded. She clutches the flute, eyes stained in tears as she limps towards him and kneels down next to him.
She looks towards Talia with a quiet nod, wiping her eyes; she reaches for her hand and squeezes it, then... turns towards him.
"... Yvain."
A pause, as she holds her palms both out with the flute, to offer it back to him.
"Welcome back....."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
They all come together, with the sole purpose of saving Yvain. And then... there's a brilliant light...
Both Layna and Clarine see it, the former more strongly. They watch the vision unfold. There's a lot to be gleaned from it - some they must ask about later... and then, the vision ends.
And where the Drake was, there is a man. Clarine stares, her eyes open wide.
"It... it is him. It... is really, truly him... Yvain..." Clarine whispers, her hands clasped over her mouth. It's... a little overwhelming. Emotions well up from deep within as she glides over to his side. Had he not just drifted off into sleep, she undoubtedly would have hugedg him. Instead, she just collapses to her knees. "Ah... I-I am... so glad."
And... she cries. But it's okay - they're tears of joy, of gratitude for saving an old friend from a terrible fate.
- Layna -
Layna, meanwhile, heaves a sigh of relief. She glances over toward Lanval and, after a moment, offers him a nod.
"...Aye. There's still a lot left to do." She agrees, but then smiles. "...But that's one job done, at least? Looks like things turned out alright - at least for now."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"It is nice to meet you," Boudicca says. It is slightly muffled. This is because Boudicca is currently lying facedown on the ground, eating Nimue's entire lunch. Metaphorically. She might have also literally landed on a kebab. It's fine. She indicates this by giving a thumbs-up to make Dean proud, while being entirely flat on the ground.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Once everything settles, Azoth stares as what was once a Drake becomes a Seraph. His eyes widen, bluer and brighter, and then he thrusts his arm up in the air with a broad smile across his face.
"Ba da da baa~!"
The jingle rings out, 'spoken', but he follows it up with his own digital beep -- the true beeps of his heart.
Mission success!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's body stays bridged beneath the Drake's, pinning him in place for as long as she can. Ida's eyes are closed, but her face is the very image of gritty determination. She feels the freezing-cold of Nimue's sorcery, the watery cleansing of Layna's power. When Cyre makes his landing, the shockwave would blow out her eardrums if they weren't reinforced. Instead, she merely hears an earth-shaking roar, and feels the onrushing storm as it feeds the flame, rips the Malevolence away.
The light creeps in behind Ida's closed eyelids. She sees more. She sees how all this started--and that thing, perhaps, that Yvain wanted so desperately to protect. That place.
When the light clears, Ida is no longer pinning a dragon in place. Instead, she's lying next to a Seraph, her head at roughly the height of his chest. Her arms are still wrapped around his waist in what has now, honestly, turned into more of a stabilizing hug. Cyre, of course, is flopped atop the both of them.
Ida blinks. Tears come to her eyes. For a moment, she's utterly speechless, her jaw trembling. "Welcome back," she whispers. She's too happy to even care about the awkward fact that she's lying next to a complete stranger, and also Cyre H. Lorentz.
As Yvain drifts off, she lets go of him, gently lowering him to the ground. "You're right," she says, to Layna and Lanval. "But for now..." Ida beams, the glow of the moment shining on her face as she looks to her fellow Seers and their Oracles.
And then Azoth beeps. Ida feels like yet another weight has been lifted off her. "Stay there," Ida says, to him. "I'll--there's Refractors in the coach, I'll go get them." It wouldn't be fair to not offer Azoth something to eat.
Once everything stops aching. Ow.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
Nimue sees the Drake evaporate -- and hears those words, 'I had the worst dream.' Her reaction isn't to start crying, or rush over, or say anything. She blinks owlishly for several seconds, as if trying to figure something out.
Then she says, quietly, "Excuse me," and begins to make her way away from the site of the battle.
This optimizes Boudicca's literal and metaphorical eating of her lunch.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel says, "Nowhere to go but up," simply enough with a faint smile.
She looks to Amaranth and admits, "To heal with song. That's an interesting idea. It reminds me of when the hymn of the fayth was able to stall Sin in its tracks."
She looks up to the sky. "And how her music was able to bolster the spirits of her friends, giving them hope and succor where there was little to find. Magic that was not magic, power that was not power. No textbook for such a talent, no school to learn it quite like the way she managed it."
She exhales softly, closing her eyes for a long moment, thinking back to some long lost time. Longer than even these Seraphs can know.
But then she looks to Amaranth and says, "Today you were as if Althena herself. The one I knew... I know... She would have been proud of you."
She bows her head once and then when she straightens, Guillotine transmogrifies back into the form of a blade before dissipitating into red mist that is absorbed by Marivel's body.
"This was an interesting sight. Thank you for allowing me to see it."
And with that she makes her way back to her s'mores, and will just get to work chowing down--ready to share them with any who desire them.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
It is from a distance that she watches.
It is from a distance that she has always been watching.
The many bodies of beasts held at bay decorate the wasteland behind her. Ichorous blood drips thick off the edge of her ceremonial sword as she watches the Malevolence burn away. Drip, drip, drip.
With the fall of every thick droplet, she watches more of the thick carapace of the Fell Drake shorn by wind and flame. Drip, drip, drip.
With every fall of thick droplet, she watches determined acts of emboldening encouragement. Drip, drip, drip.
Acts of compassion. Of concern. Of courage.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
She watches it all, from that distance, as the last vestiges of a cage of scales and fury ripple away to reveal the truth beneath its depths. To save it. Drip --
She wipes the blade clean, golden eyes closing. She wants to close the distance. To congratulate them. To tell them how proud of them she is. To express how truly, profoundly relieved she feels seeing a man she's never met before saved from a fate worse than death, a feeling she knows is too deep to not be personal despite how alien it feels.
"..."
Her fingers clench a little more tightly around the hilt of her blade. The distance remains.
She settles for a simple smile that could never convey everything she feels in those moments before she bleeds away from the wasteland in a multitude of colors.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
As combatants release tensions and wind down--as Yvain passes out with Cyre and Ida on top of him--as Azoth raises a victory cheer of his most sincerest beeps--the golden orb of light that is Ragnell emerges in a flash from Azoth's frame, zips and loops around to the other side of the canyon, and materializes into the Lightning Seraph's familiar form. Her red gaze turns towards Nimue as the Wind Seraph excuses herself from the gathering, but she doesn't call out to her or otherwise try to stop her.
It's a time of joy. A time of relief. And Ragnell is truly glad with this result, of how Yvain was saved. But Yvain has everyone here, and there is someone else who has no one.
She smiles and says nothing, then turns and walks up and out of the canyon. She stops only when she reaches the side of a golden-eyed maiden with a sword dripping in blood. And it's together, in light both golden and iridescent, that they vanish, to leave the victors to enjoy their victory.