2021-04-02: Echoes of Timney's Troubles
- Log: Echoes of Timney's Troubles
- Cast: Seraph Yvain, Violet Salazar, Layna Manydays, Ida Everstead-Rey, Dean Stark, Azoth, Cyre H. Lorentz, Ruth Pauling
- Where: Celesti Wastelands
- Date: April 02, 2021
- Summary: Roughly four years ago, Port Timney was nearly overtaken by wildlife (and a few more intelligent beings). It served as a rude awakening to the spiritual corruption that is Malevolence. Today, on another continent, Filgaia once again has to reckon with another horde driven to aggression against Port Rosalia - but this time, the Drifter community has come equipped. Between a Shaman, two Seers of Flame, and a handful of strong-willed warriors besides, can they overturn the tide? More importantly... can they discover where, exactly, these creatures fell under Malevolence's sway? (Someone's traumatic memories may hold the key...)
============================<* 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> Hellion Horde has posed.
Port Rosalia. Once the second-largest port of Zoara, its glory days having collapsed with Celesti during the Civil War. The Wei Trading Consortium of Guild Galad envisions it as a bustling port town to serve as a center of commerce and trade across the continent for many years to come. Its prosperity... is limited.
It shows sign of a city that's grasping at progress and development, but not peace or acceptance by the people who live there. A city that may yet to do more than just survive the war-torn ruin of the world just outside their borders.
But these things are never guaranteed.
Of late, alarm has been raised in the city of Port Rosalia; rumors and reports of increased accounts of aggressive attacks by wildlife that have only increased day to day. Stories of animals that looked mad with anger, that destroy entire caravans in their mindless wrath, disrupting trade flow and brutally attacking any who get in their way.
If any of this sounds familiar... one need not look much further than almost four years ago, when Port Timney of Ignas ran into similar problems.
No - the circumstances are nearly identical. All the way down to the very time of day, as evening encroaches upon Port Rosalia. As before - as it always has been - it can be felt, before it can be seen.
Even bitter Galadian rival corporations have found the situation bad enough to form an uneasy truce, hired mercenaries for the Wei and Anaheim corporations holding the line along the roads of the wastelands before they reach Port Rosalia. They try to fight them... but they do not know -what- they are fighting. They can't see the truth of them.
One older man's eyes widen in shock and fear. His build is intimidating, keeping most of his strength even as the years weigh on him. One of Anaheim's best men, it's said - and one of their worst. Not one day passes when he walks Seabreeze Avenue that unease follows his wake.
He is not that man before what he sees, quaking and cowering as a horde of animals strike at the caravan road barricades.
"Uncle Abe?" Asks a younger man in the same uniform. "What's wron--"
"They're... no. No!" This 'uncle' loses the ability to articulate his feelings, grabbing his 'nephew' by the arm and booking it, to the angry protests of his fellows. He does not listen. Galadian employers are... severe, about this behavior.
Whatever he fears, he fears this far more than reprisal from his superiors - could it be that he knows?
Most of the Drifters (or interested parties) gathered have both the gift and curse of Resonance. The black and violet energies of that spiritual poison made of contradictions bubble off of the encroaching hordes of animals that... no longer are.
They are Hellions.
And they have come to once again make their mark on Filgaia.
This time... you're ready for them. You will not be overwhelmed by their numbers - this time you will not even be allowing them to take a single step into Port Rosalia. You already see the strongest ones among them. Driven to base instincts as they all are, some yet exert influence over the others.
Two Lion Dogs flank either side of the horde, one with an open mouth while the other just grins. A large beard-bearing bull - a Shedu - leads the way with great bulk but a measured (by rampaging Hellion standards) read on where to best apply himself. A lion-bodied ram with wings - a Sphinx - quietly gathers fell sorcerous energies to back them up. Two birds criss-cross about the skies, a strikingly colored hawk - a Simurgh - renews the vigor and hatred of those beneath, while a white-bodied vulture - a Caladrius - rams into foes to spread pestilence.
Standing in the center of it all, a striking deer with great antlers and a vaguely draconic body - a Qilin - subtly directs all of them forward against you.
Also there's a Cockatrice, just doing its own horrible thing. Sometimes it turns its head as if to look and wonder what's going on. (Meeting its gaze is ill-advised.)
MISSION OBJECTIVES: Quell or repel the Hellion swarm. (They are hearing boss music.)
BONUS OBJECTIVES: See to the well-being of "Uncle Abe" and discover the reason for his fear!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
How much of the Malevolence at Celesti and Port Rosalia was worsened by the presence of a Fell Drake? There's little way to tell for certain, but a certain Seraph considers the area something of an at least temporary responsibility, while he's here getting his bearings, whether or not this excursion is strictly his 'fault'. Besides, it's the neighborly thing to do. So when the troubles started, Yvain paused what he was working on and started towards the edge of town.
"Port Timney," Yvain repeats as he advances, making it far enough to see the monsters at the barricades, and to see a huge man start to ru. Yvain narrows his eyes--perhaps Uncle Abe will see a man wreathed in flame all of a sudden where he's running to. Yvainnn sets his jaw and says to Ida, "There's not much time. I'm going in." He checks the Vessel he carries, at his side, and sure that it is secure, hefts a simple spear.
He starts to run, putting a hand on the barricade and vaulting over it towards the Horde, rushing straight for the front and thrusting his spear upward, straight for the Shedu's head. Trails of red-orange flame rush behind his movements.
DC: Seraph Yvain switches forms to The Inviting Hearth! GS: Seraph Yvain has attacked Hellion Horde with High Thrust! GS: Seraph Yvain has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Yvain has completed his action. GS: Hellion Horde takes a solid hit from Seraph Yvain's High Thrust for 104 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Hellion Horde! GS: Charge!! You gain 35 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Violet watches the Hellion swarm gallop and hop and fly its way towards the caravan barricades. Best to stop them before they get too close.
Her Resonance is still developing; she can't see them in the entirety of their true natures just yet, but she can tell there's something wrong about them. Exaggerated claws and fangs where there shouldn't be any. Aggression above and beyond their creature-types. The fact that all this wildlife is attacking TOGETHER even when they're not pack-type hunters. Worse, whatever's wrong with them just might be contagious!
An older man flees in terror, along with a younger one. She spares them a glance but doesn't have the chance to question them. She quickly loads a bullet into her ARM, takes aim at the serpenting beast, and fires, glancing around for silent support from her companions. She knows Ida and met Layna at least once. The other one, a red-and-white haired man sprinting TOWARDS the horde and trailing flame, she does not know. He's a tad hazy around the edges to her perception, so one of those moon spirits. She loads her ARM again without waiting to see whether her first round hit or not. She has to be ready to attack again before the pack closes in!
GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Hellion Horde with Wildcat Cartridge! GS: Violet Salazar has gained 1 Combo! GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action. GS: Hellion Horde fully evades Violet Salazar's Wildcat Cartridge for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hellion Horde activates Evade bonus! GS: Hellion Horde has adjusted their boss level for 5 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Stories of aggressive wildlife, rapidly increasing in number... A few of them could be dismissed as coincidence, but at these numbers, a certain possibility begins to arise - Hellions.
And, indeed, their numbers are amassing, and at this rate, it's only a matter of time before they spill over into Port Rosalia. So, naturally, Layna Manydays is on the case. She's a Seer, after all - that means she's able to do something about this, to purify the Malevolence before it can overtake anything else.
And if she can save the afflicted wildlife in the process, even better. She's not heartless.
She stands at the moment far off from the field of battle, telescope raised to spy on the horde of Hellions as they march.
"Yeah... that's a lot of 'em. Port Rosalia's going to be in real trouble if they're allowed to draw in..." Layna murmurs, then collapses the telescope and rolls her neck. "Guess it's time for me to drop in and help out."
And with that, Layna jumps high into the sky...
...and, indeed, literally drops in, crashing into the midst of the Hellion horde. She reaches for the nearest Hellion, her hand wreathed in a red glow. It's a technique that may be familiar to some who have seen Layna fight... but this time, it is accompanied by a blue glow, the red and blue remniscent of sunlight through water, and a trail of water streaming about it.
She grasps the nearest Hellion and draws vitality straight from it, the purifying power of water cleansing it before drawing the stolen vitality into herself.
With that done, she sends a grin toward the gathered.
"Hope you don't mind me droppin' in!" She says. ...Did she just repeat her own joke now that she has an audience?
---
Back at the barricades, more help arrives. Dahlia, a short, stern-faced woman with a two-handed boarding axe resting on one shoulder who acts as the Ruby Empress's Quartermaster, and Victoria, a tall, slender woman carrying a spear and the ship's Lead Artillerist, arrive along with a small group of five armed, tough-looking men and woman.
"Don't mind us - we're just here to ensure nothing slips past them. Rest easy - the Captain and the others should have this well in hand." Dahlia says, drawing her boarding axe.
Victoria shrugs, twirling her spear in one hand.
"You probably don't even know what you're actually dealing with here." Victoria says dismissively. "Normal people are a bit out-matched here, so try not to get yourselves in trouble."
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Hellion Horde with Plunder Life! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Hellion Horde takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Plunder Life for 157 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Layna Manydays drains Hellion Horde! Layna Manydays gains 78 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Compared to Wei and Anaheim, the House of Everstead-Rey barely has any local interests in Anaheim. There's a small office down by the docks that deals with shipping, and that's about it--so why, then, has the company's heir apparent been hanging out there so much?
It helps a great deal that the company's heir apparent fancies herself a gentlewoman adventurer--one of those eccentrics who call themselves 'Drifters--and she's made the disruptions in trade her business. Rumor has it she's been sighted walking alone, though, and even talking to empty air. Is this the sort of defender Port Rosalia needs?
As it turns out, yes. It is now Ida's turn to play the role of 'stranger who talks with invisible people'.
The young heiress follows Yvain, hot on the Fire Seraph's heels. Earlier, she was talking to him while she worked, telling him about the similarities between this situation and one she'd encountered much, much earlier--but she didn't have time to go into the details before this happened. "Be careful!" Ida shouts, as he vaults the barricade. Ida stops on the inner side, straightens up as she hears a familiar voice. "...Well," she murmurs. "Look who's met his match." Her sympathy for the elderly enforcer has a limit, it seems--but a moment later, the thought occurs to her that he can see something, and that limit grows slack. "Abe," Ida says. One hand whips Devil's Due from its holster. "Fall back if you have to! There's nothing natural about these things--and they'll spread their sickness to you!"
Ida fires off a single bullet at one of the Hellions near Yvain, trying to open up a little space around the Seraph. She's not shooting strictly to kill, but nor is she more concerned for the Hellions' safety than for his. The smoke from the weapon's barrel billows back, surrounding Ida in a thick, dark cloud.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Hellion Horde with Smoke Follows Fire Ignition! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Hellion Horde takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Smoke Follows Fire Ignition for 49 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Hellion Horde has adjusted their boss level for 6 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
It's hard to say if this is good timing or bad for one Dean Stark; he'd been in Port Rosalia looking through the marketplace for the finishing touches for a certain gift that he's finally assembled for a certain someone. He'd been admiring the wrapping paper at one stall and comparing it to the lovely print of a gift bag when the shouts of an older gentleman fleeing and dragging a younger man with him had disturbed a nearby crowd. He'd turned his head to look with a "Hmm?"
And then he'd seen--or rather, felt--the encroaching horde of Hellions. There's a lot of them. But while Dean hadn't been present for the attack on Port Timney, he's nonetheless plenty ready to repel this invasion. "Sorry, I'll be back!!" he tells the shop keeper, hurriedly putting back the items he'd been looking over before running to join the rest of the repelling force.
"Guys! I'm here!" he shouts to those already fighting--Yvain, Violet, Ida, Layna and her crew, and so on. Twin Fenrir flash into his hands from literally nowhere, and without breaking stride, he attempts to charge directly into one of the creatures combat rod-first as it menaces a normal townsfolk. "Hurry and get away! Like Ida said--you don't want to get anywhere near one of these things!" he shouts without looking back, trying to brute-force the Hellion back.
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Hellion Horde with Violence Vice! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Hellion Horde guards a hit from Dean Stark's Violence Vice for 55 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break applied to Hellion Horde! GS: Hellion Horde activates Guard bonus!
DC: Cyre H. Lorentz switches forms to Wind Shaman Cyre!
GS: Hellion Horde has adjusted their boss level for 7 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Black and violet and tingly in the worst of ways, like overheating at absolute zero. That's how Azoth's come to recognize Malevolence. But he's resistant to the worst of its effects, the depths of which he may never be able to understand the way Yvain and Ida do. But once he senses it here, a calculated debate takes place: does he act to assist in dispelling it, or does he prioritize Ragnell's safety? It's fractions of a second before he decides the risks of leaving it be are far greater and that his role protecting will not be compromised, but that the calculation hesitated at all will require its own evaluation.
Not right now. Now a brilliant light in blue and gold streaks across the battlefield as Azoth arrives, shining blade at his side and guided by a flick of his wrist to cleave his way into the Hellion horde, trying to position himself into the fray and ready to protect the others. The damage he's trying to do isn't fatal.
He announces himself with a string of digital chirp-beeps before looking to Ida and Dean. "Can these ones still be purified?"
GS: Azoth has attacked Hellion Horde with Flash Drive! GS: Azoth has gained 2 Combo! GS: Azoth has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
As a cockatrice rears its ugly, cucco-shaped head over a toppled cabbage cart, something... Does an ill-advised thing. A very ill-advised thing.
Does it count as meeting a cockatrice's gaze when you've got a sniper rifle and have launched a shot directly at one of its big ol' eyeballs from half a mile away?
Maybe. But between the great distance between himself and the vile poultry, Cyre is willing to take that risk.
"Well, this is way too familiar," Cyre mutters softly and slings his big ol' (pneumatically powered) rifle back over his shoulder before leaping from his perch and down onto the next rooftop. "Should have figured a fel drake would summon up a bunch of underlings, even without meaning to...!"
But at least... they've all grown quite a bit since that time at Port Timney, haven't they?
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Hellion Horde with Surprise Gunfire! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Hellion Horde critically guards Azoth's Flash Drive for 21 hit points! GS: Hellion Horde fully evades Cyre H. Lorentz's Surprise Gunfire for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Azoth's calculation will no doubt be assisted by the fact that Ragnell, chilling out within him and enjoying the benefit of his senses, so much different from an organic's, urges him to go join the battle.
There's something strange about this. Go get us a better look, is specifically what she says. Worry not: Ragnell's still a rapscallion.
She doesn't complain about Azoth's non-fatal strikes, at least; with several Seers present, it's a reasonable choice.
<Pose Tracker> Hellion Horde has posed.
The Inviting Hearth has lost so much time to the spiritual plague of contradictions turned sickness, and invites himself back into the fray - whether out of guilt for his actions or just being a swell fellow as 'Uncle Abe' flees past Seraph Yvain without so much as giving him a look. The man looks utterly haunted.
Ida has the right of it: this is not a man who, day-by-day, deserves much sympathy. The Galadian interests in Port Rosalia are pervasive and have been tightening their grip by the day in order to deal with 'lawlessness.' Few lay a heavier hand than he.
He does not look like that man, now.
"...I don't even know?" He looks to Victoria. "I know exactly what I'm looking at! I, I..." He stammers helplessly, uselessly as a handful of Drifters give sound advice that the gathered should fall back if they're about to be overrun.
The battle is joined.
---
The Shedu forms the front line of the horde, and the flaming spear strikes into his head. It bellows and rears back as if deflected by it.
Violet takes shot at the Qilin - its presence the strongest of all of them. It does not so much as blink as the shot threads the space between its antlers. It turns its head upon her with a baleful gaze, but does not launch itself at her. It is unnerving.
Layna moves forth and grabs the bull by the beard (their horns are just a bit out of reach), the cleansing power of water rushing through her grasp and washing away the Malevolence that grips it. When she lets go after stealing its strength, it looks like a confused bull (it is one). It becomes less confused as its hairs stand on end, fleeing the scene.
Yvain is almost tackled by the Lion Dog with the open mouth, struck mid-leap by Ida's shot and sending them tumbling. The other starts to flank the crowd as she does this - one Lion Dog's gaze never leaves the other.
Dean's late arrival helps cut off an ambush before it happens, as he strikes that other Lion Dog on the way in - that one's mouth is closed. Now that the Seers of Flame have a handle on two with a linked nature, the worst can be stopped - for now.
Azoth's appearance clips a low-flying Caladrius, the white-bodied vulture Hellion and the shining blade bounce off of one another. Azoth will pick up all sorts of residual nasty biological disease stuffs (separate from Malevolence unto itself, somehow this one produces it) that he doesn't have to fret over. He may be the one best suited for dealing with it.
Cyre takes a headshot attempt on the Cockatrice, who is looking directly at the bullet. Somehow, mid-flight, the bullet turns to much softer stone, even more brittle and hollow. It strikes into its head at a velocity still dangerous, but (comically) it just flinches as the petrified bullet scatters apart. It blinks irregularly. Still... is this the work of Yvain during his Fell Drake days? None of them are breathing fire. (yet)
The brightly-colored Simurgh screeches as it sweeps the field, releasing the calming, soothing energies of Malevolence (...um) that sweep across the field and are met with renewing screeches and bellows from the beasts below.
There are too many creatures individually attacking to name, but all of them are individually trivial to deal with... save for where the ram steps up, fell sorceries discharging from the tips. How did that go, again, back then? It used to just be feelings, for those receptive to them.
Hatred. Doubt. Fear. Regret. Despair. Envy. Lust. Rage. Violence. Conflict. Madness. Pride.
Now it's that, plus elemental fury tinged in colors that are wrong, releasing electrical power surging across the field ahead of them. Electrical power looking to discharge itself right into one's very souls.
Souls that are, for the most part, hardened to this sort of thing. The spiritual pain is manageable, for most. The physical pain... that much remains.
You've all come to far to be taken unawares by any of this.
GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Hellion Horde with Ravenous! GS: Hellion Horde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hellion Horde has activated a Boss Action! GS: You have activated the Boss Action Extend! GS: You cannot act while you still have attacks in queue. GS: Hellion Horde accepts Hellion Horde's Ravenous for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Break and Mute removed! GS: Hyper applied to Hellion Horde! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Dean Stark with Tormented! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Tormented! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Azoth with Tormented! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Tormented! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Layna Manydays with Tormented! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Violet Salazar with Tormented! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Seraph Yvain with Tormented! GS: Layna Manydays fully evades Hellion Horde's Tormented for 0 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Azoth takes a glancing hit from Hellion Horde's Tormented for 79 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Azoth! GS: Seraph Yvain takes a solid hit from Hellion Horde's Tormented for 143 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Seraph Yvain! GS: Seraph Yvain activates Arcane Font! GS: CRITICAL! Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Hellion Horde's Tormented for 90 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Cyre H. Lorentz! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Hellion Horde's Tormented for 130 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Violet Salazar critically guards Hellion Horde's Tormented for 28 hit points! GS: Dean Stark guards a hit from Hellion Horde's Tormented for 81 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Dean Stark!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
"Ha ha!" Drop in. "Great!" Yvain seems to be having a good time, anyway. There are a lot of details he's missing, but 'stop the Hellions' is a fairly simple directive, though not so easy as that. He hasn't done much combat as 'himself' in a long while, and this is definitely... an approach to warming back up. With the others on the way or already here, though, he doesn't seem worried.
"Right!" he calls back to Dean. And he doesn't hear Cyre's comment from this far probably, but he has had the same thought himself. His attacks are exact; with those capable of purification present, there is little need to do more than drive the Hellions back, though the amount of force necessary to do that would still kill ordinary animals.
He grins back at Ida as she takes out one who would've gone at him. "Heh," he says. "This has been a while."
The Malevolence is unpleasant--noxious--but fire thrives in difficult places. He swings the spear to drive back another few of the minor Hellions before she feels--ah. Lightning, but not-lightning. Yvain moves to dodge, but is a little slow. He can feel the power of it sink in and burn. "Tch," he vocalizes.
"You'll have to do better than that." Yvain reaches out his hand, spear twirling behind him until he puts both hands together to focus the Seraphic Arte. There is a moment of heat, and then molten flame erupts from the ground beneath the ram. "Eruption!"
GS: Seraph Yvain spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Seraph Yvain has attacked Hellion Horde with Eruption! GS: Seraph Yvain has gained 1 Combo! GS: Delay expired! GS: Seraph Yvain has completed his action. GS: Delay! Attack weakened! GS: Hellion Horde takes a solid hit from Seraph Yvain's Eruption for 111 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Hellion Horde! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Violet hears a shout, "Guys, I'm here!" and whirls to see that young man that reminds her so much of her oldest grandson Connor. He's protecting some townsfolk. She waves a greeting, as she's too far away to speak to him without shouting and doesn't want to distract him. Hang back and take potshots: that's her strategy. Keep the swarm from hurting people -- and don't let it invade the town!
She gasps at the ram's electrical -- AND spiritual -- attack, but manages to overcome the surge of emotions that washes over her. You don't get to her age successfully without knowing how to manage emotions -- most of the time, at least. She calmly takes a bead on the ram, figuring it's now the most dangerous of all the rampaging creatures. Drawing a deep breath, and taking careful aim, she fires again -- right between its horns.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Considering that most of the drifters gathered here have come face to face with the sort of malevolence that could induce a Clysmian's birth, spiritual foulness of this level should be... Not trivial to deal with, but it's not something that they've never encountered before. The emotions wash over Cyre's mind, and with a couple of breaths, he allows it to pass into-- and through him. The calm soul detaches itself from the moment, feels the surge of negative impulse, recognizes the passage, and returns once more to calm.
That doesn't stop him from being caught mid-jump and taking a bad tumble across a rooftop, though. Cyre may be good, but he's not 'wordlessly shake off a wave of foreign emotional turmoil without missing a step' good.
It just so happens, thankfully, that he's quite good at dealing with electricity, emotional or not.
"Ghh, bastards," the shaman mutters as he leaps up off his perch and unfurls a broad glider. The wind stirs, launching him into the sky... toward the soaring simurgh. "Come on, then," he demands, a gust sending him surging past, alighting overtop of the winged daemon. "Let's dance as only those of us with wings can dance!"
Wings... that Cyre furls.
...In order to deliver a kick directly into the beast's back, bolstered by a current of wind that might just blast the Hellion down into an empty plaza where the others can actually start to get at it properly.
GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Hellion Horde with Buckshot! GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action. GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Hellion Horde with Stepping Wind! GS: Delay expired! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean does catch Violet's wave and gives her a hearty smile and wave back with his free arm. When the Lion Dog attempts to push him back, jaws clamping momentarily on his weapon, that smile morphs into a snarl as he braces himself against it. The assembled Malevolence of the Hellions is deeply unpleasant, as much of a poison to the soul as ever, but Dean has always been the resilient sort--both emotionally and physically. Even when he gets devastated by something, he's quick to bounce back. The Mountain still stands, as it were.
That being said, the surge of lightning across the battlefield is still *painful*, and Dean yelps as it jolts his legs and forces him a step back. The Lion Dog moves to follow, but his *arms* still work--and Dean SHOVES that rod right up its nose (...figuratively speaking) and calls up a brief but intense heat that should hopefully burn away some of the Malevolence that *dogs* it.
"Good to see you up for the fight! Don't overdo it, though!" he calls to Yvain. To Azoth, he brightens, then nods once, firmly. "Yeah, this isn't tougher than anything we've faced before--there's just a lot of them. We just have to keep at it and it'll be over in no time!"
Optimistic as ever. It should be warranted though, with all these seasoned Drifters and several Seers present. With the townsfolk he'd defended running off for the time being, the more important thing to Dean right now is standing his ground so the Lion Dog and other Hellions can't chase after them.
GS: Dean Stark spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Dean Stark has attacked Hellion Horde with Burning Magazine! GS: Delay expired! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
All told, Port Rosalia could have far worse defenders than this crew. Everyone here is either battle-hardened or damn near immune to Malevolence by virtue of their nature. Everyone except Yvain, whom Ida keeps a close eye on as she clambers further up the barricades.
Everyone except Yvain, and the Galadian enforcers who are also here, at the barricades, facing the tide. Ida's chest tightens. She feels a sort of surging pressure, catches sight of the ram as lightning crawls across its horns. "Look out!" she shouts. Several of the defenders look at her like she's crazy. A tall man wearing the crest of Anaheim sneers at her openly as he raises his rifle for another shot.
They're right in the blast zone.
There's no time to wonder if their souls could withstand it. Ida acts on instinct, grabbing one of the metal plates on the edge of the barricade and shoving it hard to the side. The lightning slams into it head-on, smoke rising from it as it conducts the unholy power through Ida's body. Her body spasms, twitching and twisting before going rigid and still. Smoke rises from her burned gloves. She grits her teeth so hard her jaw hurts.
"Bloody hell, woman, what are you doing?!" the big man shouts. For a moment, Ida wonders how Sorey must have felt whenever someone as Malevolence-blind as she once was saw him do things like this.
"I'm right behind you, Yvain!" Ida vaults the barricade, holstering Devil's Due as she dives into the fray herself. The Flame that sustains the world burns around her hand, which glows like a tiny sun as she drives it at the other Lion Dog. Purifying energy lances into the creature's body--and may well serve to disrupt the nearby Hellions, too.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Hellion Horde with Searing Ember Strike! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 3 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's Avenger stance ends. GS: Delay expired! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Hellion Horde critically guards Violet Salazar's Buckshot for 23 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay! Attack weakened! GS: CRITICAL! Hellion Horde takes a glancing hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Stepping Wind for 78 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte applied to Cyre H. Lorentz! GS: Hellion Horde activates Evade bonus! GS: Delay! Attack weakened! GS: Hellion Horde takes a glancing hit from Dean Stark's Burning Magazine for 54 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Hellion Horde! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! GS: Hellion Horde guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Searing Ember Strike for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Disease applied to Hellion Horde!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
A grin crosses Victoria's face as Abe speaks. She stops twirling her spear, her attention fixated on him.
"Well now. You do, do you? Do you have the Resonance, or are you looking at something else?" She says, glancing back out to the battlefield. "...They look like monsters to you, right? Big, unnatural beasts? Then maybe you do know... though right now it probably won't help you much."
Dahlia nods.
"It's as Ida says - these beasts are dangerous. Their sickness will spread, and if it takes hold, you'll become a wild beast, as well." Dahlia says. "However, even if that happens, my Captain should be able to cure you well enough. But best not to let that happen in the first place, hm?"
---
Layna grins at Yvain's response, and looses her grip on the bull as the Malevolence leaves it. Of course she'd go after the biggest one first, she always was that sort.
"You get out of here safely now, alright? Go back home." She tells the bull as it flees before loooking back to Yvain.
"Just think of this as a nice bit of exercise. I bet it feels good to stretch your legs again, aye? ...Metaphorically speaking, that is." She comments. "...Hold that thought. Here they come!"
The Hellions charge, and the ram discharges a flurry of emotions. Layna grins, and wades right through it. Strong emotions, washing over her... she lets them pass through her without leaving a mark. She's used to strong emotions, and she's always been the sort to feel without holding anything back. As for the actual attack, that she can deal with using some quick, measured movements.
"I think it's time you lot... cooled off!" Layna quips. She hauls her left arm back and water begins to pool around her, and with a powerful foward punch it rises up and rushes forward like a geyser, flooding through anything that doesn't get out of the way and leaving a trail of purified water in its wake.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Hellion Horde with Waterga Strike! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Hellion Horde takes a glancing hit from Layna Manydays's Waterga Strike for 79 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Hyper removed! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Ragnell's urging ensures Azoth's participation, whatever else the conclusions might have been. And his own response is the actions committed to just that.
He throws a smile to Dean across the battlefield. "All right, I'm with you!" Focusing on nonlethal tactics for purification it is...! And maybe keeping reasonably close to Yvain -- the guy was a Drake not too long ago, and that seems like something that may have been fairly exhausting.
The Malevolence that comes itches and alarms him. This isn't fire, which he had calculated as a most probable force to content with, but electricity. Emotion, overwhelming and terrible, falls deaf on the construct, but the crackling discharge of power certainly does not. Azoth's eyes light up while he spins to pivot away. But all it takes it a lick across his chassis for it to jolt through the rest of him, eyes violet and flickering in and out.
It continues to rattle through Azoth even as he forces his next attack, machinery and mechanics twitching and shaken while he struggles to lift his arm. Only one eye's lit with function while he forms a finger gun, the bullet an energy blade at his side, and gives a playful twitch up as his wrist to fire it for the Caladrius' wing, trying to limit its movement to keep it from spreading its other infections to anyone else.
GS: Azoth spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Azoth has attacked Hellion Horde with Critical Process! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Delay expired! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Delay! Attack weakened! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Very High! Hellion Horde takes a glancing hit from Azoth's Critical Process for 65 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Azoth!
<Pose Tracker> Hellion Horde has posed.
"I HAVE BEEN LOOKING DIRECTLY AT THEM!" Abe says, who is currently cowering and not doing that. He clenches a fist, unsteadily, his breathing labored. "You don't... you don't know, you're not from here." No, Victoria would know, they're Hellions, she is describing them to him.
He must be seeing something else - but that 'something else' is just as frightening. ("What the hell is wrong with Uncle Abe," another guard tries to ask.) It does not appear that Abe here is sick with Malevolence...
But he's overcome with something, as he runs into the nearest temporary fortification and slams the door. Maybe if someone knocks a few times gently to let him know it's all right...
------
Buoyed by his Vessel against the worst of the touch of Malevolence, renewed with a sense of purpose and a few hundred years' worth of prospective wrongs to right, Yvain keeps his spirits and resolve as he sets the ground aflame underneath the ram-headed Sphinx, bleating no mysterious riddle of how much pain they're in.
Violet backs up Yvain as she takes careful aim on the Sphinx-ram, as buckshot explodes about its scalp. It's still up, it's deeply wounded - uncertain as to whether that might be a fatal wound or not, and Malevolence is not a force that gives mercy to those on their last legs. The will it imparts, however fell, is of something that wants to simply be.
Cyre decides dealing with the Simurgh is paramount lest it deliver a further fresh bounty of Bad Feels-Heals. It spirals about as it weaves with the kick, but it is brought down at a much lower altitude that might be friendlier for the others to deal with.
Azoth shoots a laser blade for the wing of the Caladrius, and the vulture screams a horrid, hateful noise as it collapses to the ground. One wing is wounded, and it will not take flight again... but it still hobbles, it still threatens.
Layna throws her punches back into the lot that try to swarm her, and the wave of purified water cleanses all it touches among the battered and the weakened. The ram-headed Sphinx, rendered temporarily dizzy from the buckshot, reveals itself to be a large, wild ram. He's concussed, but looks as though he'll hold up all right as he frithfully runs away.
Ida and Dean team up, the Seers of Flame, working in tandem to deal with the Lion Dogs. The one Dean gives a nasal cleaning to pulls back mid-jump as cleansing fire washes over it, revealing... hey, that's a coyote. That's not a dog or a lion.
Ida strikes just as true, the other Lion Dog's fervent, hateful growling simmering down into yelping as she reveals the original form of another coyote. One male, one female, both of whom exchange looks at one another and run off together. Between Ida and Dean, several other less noteworthy creatures find their corruption burned way.
Among the most noteworthy Hellions, currently the Simurgh (who has been doing the wrong kind of heals), the Caladrius (who has been spewing pestilence), and the Cockatrice (hello, Cockatrice) entice the well-trained eye and the itchy trigger fingers - the Qilin remains passive.
The Simurgh doesn't chirp or screech so much as give a bellowing wail as it charges towards Yvain and Cyre, flapping its wings and dispersing more of its calming-not-calming (which it is sorry-not-sorry) waves of restlessness.
The Caladrius has a much, much less palatable attack in mind (not that any Hellion attack is ever a thing that is fun to experience), opening its beak and loosening its collected ickiness on several levels. Azoth doesn't have to deal with the actual poisonous nature of it but it's still something that corrodes, compared to Layna and Violet there who do have to deal with all facets of it.
The Seers of Flame have to deal with the cockatrice. Its beady eyes blink at the both of them, twisting in weird ways as if they were willing to pull their own face apart so that they could direct either eye at them. The seeming obliviousness of its manner of movement is no less full of the same ill intent the rest have. (If they get caught, they are petrified... very, very briefly, and only on the surface level. It sucks, though.)
GS: Hellion Horde spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Brain Dead! GS: Hellion Horde has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hellion Horde spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Seraph Yvain with Brain Dead! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Azoth with Wild Zero! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Layna Manydays with Wild Zero! GS: Hellion Horde takes 23 damage from Poison! GS: Hellion Horde has completed her action. GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Violet Salazar with Wild Zero! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Dean Stark with Extinction! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Extinction! GS: Hellion Horde takes 22 damage from Poison! GS: Hellion Horde has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Layna Manydays critically guards Hellion Horde's Wild Zero for 23 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Layna Manydays gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Cyre H. Lorentz fully evades Hellion Horde's Brain Dead for 0 hit points! GS: Azoth critically guards Hellion Horde's Wild Zero for 23 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Azoth activates Guard bonus! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey critically guards Hellion Horde's Extinction for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Violet Salazar takes a glancing hit from Hellion Horde's Wild Zero for 65 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Violet Salazar gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disease and Disrupt applied to Violet Salazar! GS: Violet Salazar activates Sufferer! GS: Dean Stark takes a solid hit from Hellion Horde's Extinction for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Dean Stark gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break and Reaper applied to Dean Stark! GS: Dean Stark takes an additional 30 damage from Reaper! GS: Seraph Yvain guards a hit from Hellion Horde's Brain Dead for 78 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Yvain gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Poison applied to Seraph Yvain!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Unfortunately Violet is too far away to hear that the group's strategy is to subdue the Hellions. The Caladrius' attack disorients her momentarily, but she eventually regains her bearings and presses her attack, opting to use her ARM in both rifle and shotgun mode, ignoring her injuries for the moment. She chooses her targets carefully, aiming for some creatures near the edge of the herd so she won't risk hitting her friends. Maybe if she can kill enough of them the rest will turn tail and run.... That was the thing about herds: they tended to act as a unit.
GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Hellion Horde with Both Barrels! GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
"It does feel nice to exercise a bit," Yvain agres with Layna. "But don't worry--I'm not in this alonnen, right?" he says to Dean at the cautionn.
Yvain wasn't there for the Clysmian, but he's seen a lot of Malevolence. He has more vulernerability to it than the assembled Drifters, but also experience--and a censer, inscribed with Guardianist symbols of all things, strapped to his belt with its chain coiled. It is itself a holy relic, and very suitable--provided that Yvain protects it well enough.
He is not in a position to help Abe--not directly anyway, if he can even see him.
Waves of restlessnness approach, and Yvain knows this feeling very, very well. He feels it wash over him and through him, bt fire is never one to rest in the first place. The Simurgh wails, and Yvain closes his eyes for a moment, focusing himself. If he can just reach out...
Yvain lets a ring of fire fly out about him, and a wave of red energy begins to build with another Seraphic Arte. It spirals outward and radiates like heat, but it is the heat of a warm home, of a hot forge, fire channeled and used for good.
It burns away pain and invigorates, and while it cannnot cleanse Malevolence, it is at least a pure expressionn of flame sent for Dean and Violet and burning about Yvain himself.
Ida is right behind him. "Forward! Together we can drive them back!"
GS: Seraph Yvain has attacked Violet Salazar with Blessing! GS: Seraph Yvain has attacked Dean Stark with Blessing! GS: Seraph Yvain has attacked Seraph Yvain with Blessing! GS: Seraph Yvain has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Yvain takes 26 damage from Poison! GS: Seraph Yvain has completed his action. GS: Seraph Yvain accepts Seraph Yvain's Blessing for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Cripple and Poison removed! GS: Burst and Surge applied to Seraph Yvain! GS: Dean Stark accepts Seraph Yvain's Blessing for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Break and Reaper removed! GS: Burst and Surge applied to Dean Stark! GS: Violet Salazar accepts Seraph Yvain's Blessing for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Disease and Disrupt removed! GS: Burst and Surge applied to Violet Salazar! GS: CRITICAL! Hellion Horde takes a glancing hit from Violet Salazar's Both Barrels for 168 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple applied to Hellion Horde! GS: Charge!! You gain 55 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
The Simurgh is unfortunate indeed. Its opponent just got done fighting a winged Hellion-adjacent creature significantly more terrible by comparion-- one who is now standing right over there, in fact. But more than that, Cyre knows that awful, restless feeling that washes over him. He knows it too well. Desperation, obsession, restlessness, the feeling of needing to get out, of inevitable, existential dread-- how often had he harbored those emotions in the deepest hollows of his heart? The wind shaman stares down the Simurgh as it begins to charge, and thinks back to his battles against the Fell Drake Yvain, and Desperation itself before him.
...And conjures a swift wind to carry him up and over the raging beast. He sighs, closing his eyes and letting the emotion linger for a moment longer.
It's vaguely nostalgic.
"Forward, is it...?" Cyre asks at the Seraphim. "Well. Let's see if I can clear a path for you all, huh?" There's a sudden rush of wind. The atmosphere itself seems to turn against the winged beast as Cyre charges after it, fingertips wreathed in sheaths of emerald light. He strikes as he passes, only to turn about in a smooth, tight angle to rake his claws against its side a second time. Then, again, he turns and darts back in, strikes, and lunges back out. Again, a fourth time. A fifth. A sixth. The twelfth. The twentieth--
And with each pass, the wind whips stronger. The gale howls louder. A vortex begins to form, threatening to drag the beast and its malevolent haze high into the sky...
...Where Cyre meets it, dropping out of the sky foot first like a lance of supersonic force.
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Hellion Horde with Sow the Storm! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has launched an attack Link! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz enters the Avenger stance! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Hellion Horde with Reap the Whirlwind! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz enters a Counter stance! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Hellion Horde takes a glancing hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Sow the Storm for 87 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hellion Horde activates Evade bonus! GS: Hellion Horde enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Disease expired! GS: Hellion Horde fully evades Cyre H. Lorentz's Reap the Whirlwind for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"What is she doing," growls the rifleman that Ida saved from certain Hellionization. "GET BACK HERE!" At least he's showing concern? It would be so easy for some of these people to take a shot at Ida's back, and claim it was simply the chaos of battle.
Ida is well aware that Hellions aren't necessarily the only threats, but the sooner they're dealt with, the sooner the enforcers become unnecessary. And if any of them get infected, and spread it, things will get even worse.
Something tries to catch Ida's eye, in the horde. She sees feathers, serpentine scales, and that's all her human brain processes before its Hyadean augmentation senses danger, remembering something about a monster like this--something she read about as a budding young naturalist. Silver washes across Ida's eyes as opaque nictitating membranes form, and cover iris, pupil, and sclera before the act of perception can take place. Moments later, Ida's human eyelids close. The creature's gaze washes over her, harmlessly. Behind her, one of the soldiers stiffens in place, inexplicably.
But Ida doesn't need to see to fight. She can sense her foes' Malevolence just fine--she rushes up behind Yvain, and he can see that her eyes have literally sealed shut, silvery something holding the lids in place. She whirls, and delivers a roundhouse kick to a nearby Hellion, and then leaps deeper into the melee. She twists into an effortless blur of punches, kicks, and open-palm strikes, each one delivering a payload of divine fire. Slowly but surely, she makes her way through the horde to the cockatrice. She winds up a fist, and drives it right for the creature's body.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Hellion Horde with Flame-Flicker Swiftness! GS: Riposte expired! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Oh!" Dean utters as his and Ida's purifying flame burn away the Malevolence of the Lion-Dogs, revealing them to be a pair of coyotes. He brightens when the animals turn and run, along with several other creatures as the flame that supports the world burns away their pain. "We did it!" he cheers, one of his ARMS flashing away so he can raise a hand for a high-five with Ida. He knew they *would* do it, but that doesn't mean they can't celebrate!
He grins, too, at Yvain. "You sure as heck aren't!" he assures him, Twin Fenrir's other half flashing back into his grip. There's still Hellions left, and with Ida and him facing off against the particularly dangerous Cockatrice, he doesn't have attention to spare from the battle. Dean prepares to face it head on--but that's not the wisest decision when it comes to a creature that can turn one to stone at a glance. It's a truly horrible sensation, feeling living flesh turn to living stone--but thankfully Yvain's flames surge forth and wash away the corrosive effects before they can take hold. Dean shakes his whole body like a dog shaking off water.
"Brrr! That was a close one. Thanks, Yvain, I owe you!" he calls. He hears a yell at Ida's back; he calls to the rifleman, "Don't worry, she's fine! She's with us!"
And then he nods to Ida and closes in on the creature from a different angle, tracing purifying fire through the air on the tips of his rods before finally firing a burst of energy from the actual gun part of his ARM, launching it forward and exploding with flame upon contact with the embers in the air. It takes the form of a bird, and it sails towards the Cockatrice to land in time with Ida's punch. Boom!!
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Hellion Horde with Firebird Soul! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Hellion Horde takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Flame-Flicker Swiftness for 52 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! GS: Hellion Horde takes a solid hit from Dean Stark's Firebird Soul for 149 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida returns Dean's high-five. They're not out of the woods yet, but every Hellion purified is a small victory.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Sorry!" Azoth says to the Caladrius with a wince. But if it can endure a while longer, they can get it back to its old self... and hopefully help it deal with any injury and disease infecting it.
Not that an apology is discouraging of a counter attack. With a distressed alarm beep of warning to those around him, Azoth forms a veil of energy in front of himself just as the Caladrius spews its corrosion. The edges of his shield are eaten away but the infested energy as Azoth weathers the miasma behind it. He shakes off his crackling arm with a nervous smile, the Caladrius narrowly running out of breath before the light of the shield died entirely.
He catches sight of Yvain's restorative flames and smiles among the battle. It's good to see that Yvain's well enough to fight, and well enough to heal and push forward despite what he'd been through as the drake. Forward and together. "Coming~!" he calls, like he'd been asked to come downstairs for dinner.
Arcs of energy dance over him Azoth in a crackle. He weaves through the horde, single energy swords forming in rapid succession for each unhanded swing of his blade dance and exploding into his targets. They're attacks aimed to stun and rattle rather than deeply injure so that Ida, Layna, and Dean can continue to do their thing.
But he's reevaluating the battlefield rapidly as he maneuvers and watches the others make their assault. The horde is far too large with far too many avenues to spread infection and Malevolence to behave too defensively. Excessive power surges through him with each analysis following his strikes. Just a little more...!
GS: Azoth has attacked Hellion Horde with Overvoltage! GS: Azoth assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Azoth has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Victoria folds her arms in front of her, looking at Abe curious. She offers a glance toward Dahlia, then back at Abe.
"I 'don't know', huh? Then why don't you-" She starts... and then, Abe bolts. "Wha- hey, get back here!"
Victoria groans and follows after him. Dahlia frowns, and looks back at the crewmembers the two of them had brought with them.
"You five, stay here. I may need to rein Victoria in." She says. She arrives door of Abe's chosen fortification to see Victoria standing in front of it, spear currently held in the crook of her arm and both hands in front of her, a fireball ready to burst down the door. Dahlia puts a hand on her shoulder.
"Ah... allow me." She says. With that Dahlia approaches the door and knocks gently.
"You don't have to open the door. It's true, we're not from here - but if you know something specific about these creatures - these Hellions - then you need to tell us, Abe. It might help." Dahlia says. And if he doesn't talk, well...
...They can always wait here until he has no choice but to leave.
---
Back on the battlefield, Layna nods, pleased, as she sees the effects of her water. She hears some shots rings out, though, and she looks over to the source.
"Ahoy there! These Hellions aren't too far gone - try not to kill 'em, if you can help it! There's still a chance we can save 'em, aye?" She shouts over the din of battle in Violet's direction. She doesn't hold it against her, of course - not everyone knows about Purification.
She turns around, then, as the pestilental Caladrius turns its attention on her. The vulture-like Hellion opens its mouth to unleash a torrent of pestilence. With a gesture of her hands and a recited incantation, Layna conjures a torrent of wind about her, dispersing it away from her. She still feels some illness... but, it wouldn't be the first time she'd fought through it.
"You're going to have to work a little harder than that if you want to stop me..." Layna says with a grin, then looks toward Yvain with a nod.
"Aye! Forward!" She agrees. With a 'fwoosh' Layna leaps up to the Caladrius, carried on the winds, clasping both of her hands together and swinging downward as she falls, looking to slam it down into the earth so that it no longer has the advantage of being in the air.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Hellion Horde with Dread Momentum! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Hellion Horde guards a hit from Azoth's Overvoltage for 49 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Azoth! GS: Hellion Horde takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Dread Momentum for 154 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Hellion Horde has posed.
Dahlia knocks on the door, gently.
"...Are they here? Are they back, no. Don't shoot. Don't shoot!" Abe's lost it. "We're just a village! We're just a village... why are you... why are you..." He's... not holding back tears. Something is going on. Something haunting him. Something reminding him of...
"I said DON'T KNOCK ON THE DOOR, we went... we went over this, don't do that." He snaps back, throwing open the door in Dahlia's face. "...I don't need to be reminded of," he looks to the horde of animals, then back to her, "of... I'm sorry." Uncle Abe, a feared enforcer, apologizing, throwing his hands up in a plainitive gesture. "Old wounds. Those... those creatures. They're old wounds. They're..."
He exhales, hand up against his head. His eyes are wet with tears. "They're from... further north." He forces the word out, stammering. "Siddim. They're from Siddim. I... I survived Siddim, over ten years ago. Why are they here? What do they want from me? I did nothing! We... we did nothing... Siddim, Siddim did..."
He can say no more before breaking down into helpless blubbering.
It is not that they are monsters of Malevolence.
It is that they are a memory.
------
As powerful as the Seers of Flame and Water here are, a truth that is hard to swallow remains: they have the power to save, but they cannot save everyone. There are too many Hellions all at once, among people who do not fully grasp the nature of what they're up against. Violet's lack of hesitation in opening fire to kill saves several lives - even a simple ramming from one of these dangerous creatures could maim or kill a healthy mortal (or worse, inflict their curse). They can't be asked to be patient when their lives are on the line. Violet can't convince any of these creatures to leave, but through both barrels, she can stop some from ever harming another again.
Ida's reflexes and creative application of her unique physiology saves her from sporting a stony sheen. Yvain's desire to burn away pain and discomfort among his friends - the gift of the White aspect of Althena's Blessing of Fire that is his to command - flares out for those who are ailing, and Dean is saved from a temporarily embarrassing fate. Ida and Dean, in turn, team up to save the Cockatrice from its own fate of being a Hellionized beast. With fist and ARM in tandem, sacred fire flies to the heart of a tainted heart, splashing outward to catch some other critters in the explosive fiery crossfire as it cleanses away the taint to reveal...
...a non-Malevolent Cockatrice. Huh. It seems of all the fantastical forms Malevolence twists wildlife into, it didn't change much. That's still a Cockatrice, and those creatures are jerks.
Cyre drags the Simurgh back into the air, forcefully, ripping it into the sky while it flaps its wings with more screaming and flailing. The wind tears away at it, deafening, drowning out the howling of negative emotions with the fast descent of the champion of Fengalon...
...who misses and gets the Cockatrice, knocking it unconscious and preventing it from causing any more havoc. (It's alive. It may not be alive very long in the wild after a blow like that, but it's alive. It will suffer as itself, which is the important thing. It's a Cockatrice.)
The Caladrius is in no position to accept or understand apologies. It defiantly postures with one broken wing, horrid bone crunches as Malevolence compels it to aggrivate and shatter its shoulder further in its attempts to batter all before it, but Azoth keeps them at bay successfully with energy blades that further batter back other baleful bodies of badness.
Layna takes advantage of this opening, leaping over Azoth and swinging her hands down - this helps yank down the Simurgh that had previously evaded Cyre's dive kick, bringing down the two of them together to be stunned and cleansed (...or shot and killed) as circumstances allow. Should they ever.
The forces are starting to lose muster. Killed, injured, unconscious, turned back to normal, and/or still a jerk Cockatrice no matter how much Malevolence is involved... the Qilin steps forth with an almost regal grace and patience that Hellionized animals typically do not possess.
It doesn't possess that for long, standing on its hind legs and whinny-roar-screeching with the faint ring of dissonant wind chimes before it charges forth towards everyone.
It is, oddly, protective of those Hellions that falter though Malevolence does not really discriminate or care about the status of the bodies it inhabits so long as it is something there. The odd chimes stir several in their dying throes to rise anew, further swarming.
These additional reinforcements appear to be - troublesome enough - all but invincible, compared to the dire foe that now takes to the fight, bucking its legs and swinging its antlers in a last, dangerous round of thrashing.
It will need to be dealt with, as the apparent glue that holds this horde together - such as anything is ever 'glued' when the spiritual dissonance is involved.
GS: Hellion Horde has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Snipe! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Layna Manydays with Dead Moon Rising! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Azoth with Dead Moon Rising! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Dead Moon Rising! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Dean Stark with Dead Moon Rising! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Dead Moon Rising! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Seraph Yvain with Dead Moon Rising! GS: Hellion Horde has attacked Violet Salazar with Dead Moon Rising! GS: Hellion Horde takes 23 damage from Poison! GS: Hellion Horde has completed her action. GS: COUNTER! Cyre H. Lorentz counterattacks Hellion Horde with Counter Attack! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a solid hit from Hellion Horde's Dead Moon Rising for 220 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Cyre H. Lorentz gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Hellion Horde takes a glancing hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Counter Attack for 65 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! GS: Violet Salazar guards a hit from Hellion Horde's Dead Moon Rising for 133 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Violet Salazar gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey guards a hit from Hellion Horde's Dead Moon Rising for 151 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey activates Power Burst! GS: Layna Manydays takes a solid hit from Hellion Horde's Dead Moon Rising for 218 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Layna Manydays gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Layna Manydays receives 50 temporary hit points. GS: Layna Manydays enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Azoth critically guards Hellion Horde's Dead Moon Rising for 49 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Violet feels wonder as Yvain's Blessing suffuses her, eases her pain, and drives the sick-sensations away. He is one of the gods' Chosen, no doubt...though she has little experience with Seraphs. She murmurs her thanks, making sure she's loud enough to hear. She's startled to see some of the monsters revert to normal wildlife...so their ailment is reversible? It wasn't like an illness, then, more like a transformation. Still possibly contagious, though! Dean and Ida and Layna were doing most of the restoring -- surely she could ask them about it later.
Right now was still time to fight. Suddenly she hears Layna ask her not to shoot to kill. But then the Qilin rises, its posture a dire challenge. It threatens the villagers taking refuge behind the caravan barrier. It will have to be answered. Maybe Violet can spare the rest of the creatures, but this one is too much of a threat. "Sorry, Layna!" she calls as she fires. Maybe she'll kill the Qulin, maybe injure it, maybe only distract it.
Maybe she'll miss.
GS: Violet Salazar has attacked Hellion Horde with Hot Blooded! GS: Violet Salazar has gained 1 Combo! GS: Violet Salazar has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Yvain takes a glancing hit from Hellion Horde's Dead Moon Rising for 143 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Yvain gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hellion Horde takes a solid hit from Violet Salazar's Hot Blooded for 164 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Hellion Horde! GS: Charge!! You gain 55 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
The growling of heavies back at the gates is not Yvain's concern. Ida is Yvain's concern, her alien armoring and silver eye protection fascinnatingly strange. Dea is his concer, grininng at him and then briefly stuck in place. "That's why I'm here!" he calls back to Deann.
He then watches Ida go past, as Cyre works on clearing them a path. "Looks plenty clear to me!"
Azoth is on the way forward, and Yvain in turn beams his way for a brief momennt, just a little thing over the battle. It's ice. But... the battle is reaching its apex, and Yvain can see it--he sees the way the strange chimes ring out, hears the Qilin rear back. Grace, regality...
"So you're the head of this horde," he says, and sets his jaw thoughtfully. "...All right!" Yvain says, "I can try to hold it in place for you--but it won't last long!"
He focuses, bringing his spear up like a staff, blocking what he cann of the thrashing--but being knocked backwards andn to the ground closer to the barricades, not quite able to keep up yet with all of this, but undaunted despite the injury. In fact, he smiles. "Little wound just lets you know you're alive," he says, pushing himself back up and extending his hand. He closes his eyes--
His column of fire appears, then a second, and a third and fourth, boxing in the Qilin, ad startig to whirl together, cyclonesn of flame liked by spectral linensn athtat becomes a entire field of flame, a cage to trap their foe.
"Infernal Prison!"
"...Now!" Whether it works or not, it's the time.
GS: Seraph Yvain spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Yvain has attacked Hellion Horde with Infernal Prison! GS: Seraph Yvain has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Yvain has completed his action. GS: Hellion Horde accepts Seraph Yvain's Infernal Prison for 245 hit points! GS: Disease applied to Hellion Horde!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cyre's kick goes collides with...
Well. It still hits a bird, but not the bird he was aiming for. And, strangely enough, he hits... Not a mass of malevolence, but just-- feathers. A lot of feathers. And a very hollow head. "Uh," Cyre blinks as he skids to a stop, glancing back to the... very unconscious mega chicken.
"Huh," the shaman scratches his cheek, "It was a real cockatrice? Weird. Now I almost feel bad about trying to take out its eyes earlier."
Almost.
It's still a cockatrice. He doesn't feel that bad.
But as the malevolent tide begins to turn, something in the air shifts. The... What is that thing, anyway? Cyre doesn't know it. His culture's closest approximation lives in the highlands beyond the mountains, and only shows up when thunderstorms roll through. It's certainly no feathered serpent, either. What is that thing?
Whatever it is, its aura is... unusual. It charges. Cyre looks towards the others and frowns.
And cracks his knuckles. "Okay."
His stance widens. He drops low as the dragon-horse gallops at him. There is a prayer on his lips, a song in his voice. He promises himself to the wind. His words are the words of his ancestors, and in this place and time, they live again by his recitation. Emerald runes weave across his skin like a network of intricate tattoos. Over his chest and arms they form a rich tapestry extolling the gods of the Baskar. Over his face...
They become a mask of light that seems to glow barely a half-inch from his narrow, catlike glare.
The Qilin gallops forth--
And Cyre throws his arms open to receive it. With a roar, he takes the divine, profane beast's full charge. His muscles and spirit scream in the strain, but this is what he is made to do. This, too, is a sort of training and duty that the Nahual must subject themselves to.
With a final sound of exertion, he hurls the beast into the air, sending it flying with a gust of spiralling wind... Where Ywain's flames trap it, pinning it within a literal firestorm. The shaman casts him a glance and smirks as the markings over his skin suddenly flare. "Nice. Now..."
He looks to the sky, to the Qilin trapped there. Cyre takes in a breath and releases it. Again. Again.
He takes in a breath.
Suddenly, the air itself seems to tremble, as if the very atmosphere were being marshalled into a frenzy. Cyre exhales, his breath becomes a roar that becomes a hurricane. Over his heart, the silver medium blazes with emerald light as Cyre's voice becomes one with his god's. For the briefest moments, the image of the Nahual of Fengalon is overlayed over Cyre's mortal flesh, arms thrown back and maw wide open in a furious howl.
The air trembles as a vortex of emerald wind whirls up around the quartet of burning tornados, drawing in, tightening and narrowing, and within... The particles that make up the planet's atmosphere are Fengalon's domain and, called upon and compressed and agitated by the will of the Guardian's chosen, the ones that surround the Qilin now begin to vibrate with enough force that they could grind stone away to dust...!
Conveniently, Cyre's invocation is aimed to pin the beast in place-- and weaken its defenses-- for the others to exploit without mercy.
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has activated a Force Action! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Hellion Horde with Howling Gale! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Please react targeting the attack number in +queue. GS: Hellion Horde takes a solid hit from Cyre H. Lorentz's Howling Gale for 234 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hellion Horde has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth gives further little winces and apologies each time he smacks something around. It isn't their fault -- well, except maybe the cockatrice? Why is that -- who -- even if he had time to question it, he wouldn't be able to make an answer.
The Qilin makes its presence known with a screeching roar that makes Azoth's eyes flicker. Chimes in the distance. He responds with his own beeps, mimicking the chime in a much quieter, computerized manner, and lilting the last of it to make it a question. Then he sees the Hellion's rise at the haunting sound, and beeps in alarm.
Azoth flashes another shield into existence for antlers to crash against. The hexagonal surface cracks under the hellion's might, and with a powerful kick from the Qilin's thrashing hooves, Azoth is thrown from the force of it. He tumbles through the air, twisting to right himself before smashing into the ground in a crouch, sliding back with grooves dug through the earth.
The energy dancing on his body is still surging. He rises to his feet and holds out his arm. Several blades begin to appear, and snaps his fingers. They fly out, darting and dancing around, and Azoth smashes his arm into the ground. Each lance into place around the Qilin, trying to further ensnare it for the others, and calculating each into detonating to help herd the Qilin into the traps set by Yvain and Cyre.
GS: Azoth has activated a Force Action! GS: Azoth spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Formation! Azoth has attacked Hellion Horde with If Then! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth has launched an attack Link! GS: Formation! Azoth has attacked Hellion Horde with End If! GS: Azoth's Avenger stance ends. He enters the Stoic stance! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Hellion Horde takes a solid hit from Azoth's If Then for 188 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hellion Horde has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Hellion Horde takes a solid hit from Azoth's End If for 233 hit points! GS: Hellion Horde has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Dean Stark takes a solid hit from Hellion Horde's Dead Moon Rising for 217 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Dean Stark gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The silver flesh rips open, painlessly, as Ida opens her eyes and sees--
A cockatrice. A perfectly normal cockatrice, which is thankfully out cold and in no danger of turning anyone to stone. "Tch," she says, slipping into a defensive stance and rubbing scraps of tissue out of her eyes with one hand. As unpleasant as the sensation is, it beats being petrified. She glances back at Dean, flashes him the 'OK' sign...
And then the Hellions regroup, forming up around the Qilin. Ida grits her teeth and sets her feet as it rears. "Do it!" she shouts, to Yvain. "If we can just pin it down--!"
And then it rushes her, horns lowered and aimed directly at her vitals. Ida slips to the side, twisting, but the Qilin whips its head to the side, following through. Horns gouge into her flesh, raking trails of crimson and quicksilver down her abdomen. Ida bites back a scream of pain, and whips her body away in a fluid, leaping dodge. She turns her back to the barricade, takes a deep breath. The bleeding--half of it, anyway--slows to a halt as Hyadean blood vessels constrict and reroute.
Even injured as she is, she can't let them see.
Yvain's cage of flame saves her from being gored again. Ida shoots the Seraph a weak but thankful smile; his presence, his resolve, help bolster her focus. As Cyre lifts the beast into the air, Ida limbers up her legs, makes ready to leap. "Dean!" Ida shouts. "Layna, now!" And then she leaps after the lead Hellion, rocketing into the sky as though she'd been shot from a cannon. At the very apex of her jump, she flips in the air, her whole body twisting to add momentum to her descent. She whips out her right leg, and falls into the grinding maelstrom. Her heel is aimed right for the Qilin's back, and packing enough force to break through a very sturdy roof. Sacred fire ignites around her foot, then travels up her leg.
Ida falls out of the sky like a comet, with the Qilin hopefully hitting the ground before her.
GS: Formation! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Hellion Horde with Key to the Heart's Ignition! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Hellion Horde takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Key to the Heart's Ignition for 209 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hellion Horde has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Old wounds. Dahlia listens as Abe struggles to get it out. She'll lead him over to somewhere to sit down, if he'll let her, sitting next to him and listening as long as she can until he breaks down.
"Easy there. ...It's alright. They aren't after you." Dahlia murmurs, as an attempt at reassurance. She doesn't know if that'll work. But if it helps, all the better. She doesn't press him further now, though - she just sends Victoria a silent look, who frowns and nods in response before looking back out to where Layna and the others are still fighting.
...Siddim. Whatever Siddim is - was? - there's a chance that the Hellions are connected to it. Layna and the others may want to hear about this, once they're through fighting.
---
Layna lands with a grin, two birds felled with one metaphorical stone. She holds her hands out over them, letting cleansing water rush forth to purify them of their Malevolence before it can take hold once more.
And then she feels a gaze upon her. Layna turns to look, seeing the Qilin, somehow regal, step forth. It attacks and Layna grins, bracing herself as the Qilin and its horde renew their attack. There's too many attacks from all sides. Many of them get through Layna's guard... but, she grins all the while.
"Now this is more like it... it's no fun if you can't put up a fight. This bracing thrill!" She says, grinning. She takes a few steps back, looking toward Yvain as he calls out.
"Right!" She calls back. With Azoth herding the Qilin in, columns of flames appear to trap the Qilin... and so too does a powerful vortex of wind courtesy of Cyre, who receives a brief gesture of thanks from Layna.
"Aye, lass!" Layna calls back to Ida. "All together now, me hearties!"
She charges forward, moving to capitalize on the opportunity they've give her. As Ida comes in from above Layna moves in from below, unleashing a powerful uppercut - an uppercut accompanied by a geyser of sacred water.
GS: Layna Manydays has activated a Force Action! GS: Layna Manydays enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Formation! Layna Manydays has attacked Hellion Horde with Together me Hearties!! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 2 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Hellion Horde takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Together me Hearties! for 227 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hellion Horde has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Oh," Dean utters, this time with a different cadence, when the Cockatrice purifies into... still a cockatrice. He peers over its unconscious body, then looks over at Cyre. "Yeah, uh... I wasn't expecting that. Should we really just leave it alone...?" He looks over at Ida, but she has the right idea--there's still the Qilin at the head of the horde, protecting the other Hellions and former Hellions with thrashes of its hooves and bucking of its antlers. One hoof gets Dean *hard* on the chest, knocking him backwards through a convenient pile of crates, which crush under the impact of his fall.
"Ugh--that really hurt!" he complains even as he struggles upright, clutching his wound. Still, he's not going to just roll over and give up. That's just not how Dean Stark does things! So when Ida sounds the call, he calls back, "Right behind you!"
Violet shoots the Qilin, Yvain traps it in a cage of fire, Cyre and Azoth fix it in place with a vortex of wind and blades, Ida leaps into the air and kicks into the creature like a comet of holy flame, Layna uppercuts it with a geyser of holy water. Dean? Dean charges the paired barrels of his ARMS with the power of Moor Gault's flames, holding--holding--and then *firing* that instant that Ida and Layna crush the Qilin between them, aiming to blow it backwards and knock it out with a final bolide soaring through the sky.
GS: Formation! Dean Stark has attacked Hellion Horde with Key to the Heart's Ignition! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Hellion Horde takes a solid hit from Dean Stark's Key to the Heart's Ignition for 215 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hellion Horde gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hellion Horde has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Hellion Horde has posed.
Once the strongest Hellion among the berserking wildlife allows itself to enter the fray, all it takes is one final push - a push that asks for plenty enough from the gathered - in order to put a stop to this.
Violet shoots the Qilin again, like she tried from the very beginning - her heart might be bearing an apology, but an ARM makes no excuses once it is fired. This helps give Yvain space to construct the columns of fire, though the Qilin's violent staggering makes the prospect of guessing where to place the pillars in which to form the proper box - shall we say - the 'trick.'
Azoth does the herding with those energy blades in order to push the mighty, majestic Qilin in place, and Yvain can lock in that final fourth pillar for the cage of flame to trap it. Its call is, once more, violent - and its minions throw themselves at the burning mass to try and break free. That they burn and writhe does not stop them. They are implacable.
But they are not unstoppable, as Cyre calls upon his power as the Nahual of Fengalon to pin all of them in place. They can't tear down the Infernal Prison, the Qilin can't break free - and up the beast goes, as Ida and Layna both join from their chosen directions.
Ida, like a comet, surrounded by sacred fire.
Layna, like a geyser, surrounded by sacred water.
Steam clouds all from view - but it is refreshing, relaxing, renewing, rather than scalding... and Dean is the one who fires the holy blast of Moor Gault's flames, sweeping through the mist and clearing aside the obscuring fog of steam and Malevolence inside.
Their numbers of dwindled. They once seemed plentiful, but more than that - where they once showed no signs of stopping, no signs of even hestiating. No fear. No care. No concern. The will to fight to the very last drop of their blood, to keep fighting as the vestiges of life bleed form them and that Malevolence shall always - in classic hyphens - -continue to burn- so long as it has hold of their rotting, mangled corpses.
Sometimes, even death can be a mercy... it has been understood.
But that is not today. Not entirely. Less animals die. No mortals have been caught infected in the attack. It has been nearly four years since Port Timney.
The descent of a wounded and dizzy buck touching down on all four hooves from that final impact is proof of that. A small, but brightly-colored hawk screeches and takes flight. A humble vulture continues to hobble around with a broken wing in some distress.
A scant few number of Hellions remain, fleeing back up north together. In what direction? Someone there already knows - and has already told.
For now, peace, of a relative sense, settles into the road to Port Rosalia. The Drifters are spared that same imagery of people sobbing, people injured or worse, or buildings burning to the ground. The city, not quite peaceful, never so complacent, is scarred.
They are safe for now.
For now.
And for as much as this is a less ambiguous victory... as before, it doesn't make that notion any more disquieting.
Malevolence has not gone away on Filgaia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
"Huh. Cockatrices."
Yvain focuses more on the battle though--the battle that sees fewer deaths than it had to, that is fiished in this place before reaching the town. He watches each other combatant in turn, those who can purify and those who, like him, must rely on other means. Wind, fire, and water.
And... light.
"Such energy," he notes of Azoth. "You're very... graceful."
He does not comment on Ida's strangeness, able to pick up that she isn't interested in making a thign of it. But everyone is still inntact, by the endn, ad he thoughtfully watches the fleeingn Hellios.
"Hmm..."
"Good work!" he says to the others. "You're really impressive." A bow then, back to the others. "I'm glad I could help this time. ...It seems like everyone's fine."
He's pretty pleased with this... though the makeshift spear he'd gotten is singed and half-melted, unable to keep up with him.
"I'll do a circuit of the area, while you handle the townspeople. Just to be safe. Don't worry, I won't engage aythig big alone." Wink.
This power to purify... Different from what he's used to, sure. But does that mean that these mortals are...?
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Will Filgaia ever be cleansed of the Malevolence? It seems to take root in hidden places, even when it looks on the surface to have been eradicated. Cyre huffs with a groan of fatigue as the last of the Hellions are finally purified. The windstorm settles into a pleasant breeze, the glowing lines and runes fade away. "Well, that's that, then. Good work, everyone."
He looks to Yvain, then to the censer at the seraph's hip. "I'm glad it's serving you well. We'll take care of things here, you do your thing. Just watch out for strange knights in white armor."
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Violet, as always, tends the wounded, sentients first -- then the vulture, if she can catch it. She bandages wounds and splits bones -- and for the more serious injuries, uses her MediPak, if the patient will permit it. The Pak is risky; she doesn't know exactly how it works, only that it heals injuries and has other beneficial effects. She hasn't been able to decipher the foreign (possibly alien?) writing faintly evident on it's main tube. As she tends to Dean, she asks, "What - what was wrong with those creatures? And how did you fix them?" She is prepared to discuss it on the way back to town.
Possibly accompanied by her new temporary-pet vulture. The wing will take time to heal, unless she uses the Pak on it. She's not sure how it will affect an animal, though...
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
There's a faint smile on Azoth's face as the Qilin returns to being a buck. Eliminating a target does not always have to mean death. A rare luxury, he once thought. Less so around these Drifters.
Azoth beams with Yvain's praise. "Thank you!" They can practically feel him sparkling. Because he is, actually, sparkling. But sparkles make way for concern as Yvain declares he'll set off on his own. "Ah -- all right, but please be careful...!"
In the wake of the battle, Azoth turns to look for the vulture and take responsibility for what he's done, only to find Violet tending to it. He smiles warmly, pulling an elixir from his pocket -- a potion found on his many adventures, but one he, himself, could never have use for. "Sorry little guy," he says to the vulture. Then to Violet. "I don't know if this will help, but..."
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
And that's that indeed! "You too, Cyre!" Dean says. He looks on with satisfaction as the Qilin is reduced to a buck that runs off along with the other creatures--aside from the poor wounded vulture. Dean moves to try to capture it so they can heal its wing, but Violet's already on top of that--and she offers him a chance to get his own wounds tended, which he accepts with gratitude.
"Have you ever heard of something called Malevolence?" he asks her in return as she tends to him and the vulture both. "If you haven't, it's this sort of... icky spiritual fog that can turn all sorts of things, including people, into monsters called Hellions. You can purify away the Malevolence and bring them back to normal, but you need to make a pact with someone who's got that purifying power." He nods over to Layna and Ida. "Us, we've made pacts with Seraphim, who made pacts with Guardians who gave them the ability to purify. Layna's pacted with Lanval, and me and Ida're pacted with Boudicca. You might've met the two of them when we all went to Ida's place over in Guild Galad."
He smiles over Ida, on that note--and at Yvain, moving to take a look around the area to make sure everything's in the clear. "Sure thing! We'll see you later!" he calls. He smiles, too, at Azoth as he joins in to help with patching up the vulture. "We did great out there! Glad you were around to help, Azoth."
Ragnell, however, says nothing--maintains a broody, thoughtful silence. She doesn't offer a comment and certainly doesn't leave Azoth's body to greet the town's heroes. Instead, she ponders the direction in which the remaining Hellions had fled--and the similarity of the attack to what happened at Port Timney, almost four years ago.
She also doesn't comment on Cyre's warning to Azoth. She knows it's coming far too late.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
The deed is done. Layna straightens up, and exhales, taking a look around. Many of the Hellions are either dead or purified... but the rest, with their leader cured, flee into the north. She watches them go.
"...Guess that's that. Figure we haven't seen the last of them, though." Layna says. She looks toward Yvain, then, with a grin. "Aye, lad. Glad to have your help!"
She frowns, though, thinking.
"...Question is... where are they goin' now?" She asks no one in particular.
Dahlia and Victoria might have the answer to that, once they all reunite.
She glances to Violet as she asks what happened to the creatures, but Dean has that well in hand, so she just nods.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida lands in a three-point crouch, trembling slightly with exertion. Most of it is from holding her gut wounds together, but she can feel her body fixing itself as Hyadean tissue moves to seal and reinforce wounded human flesh. She barely has to think about it. When she can breathe without pain, she takes a deep breath, and surveys what's left of the Hellion horde.
There were casualties, of course--but none of them were sapient, at least. Ida remembers the end of Port Timney, and the handful of Hellions that were once people. Hellions who needed the Shepherd's aid.
Yvain compliments her. Ida looks up at him, and smiles. He, of course, can see the quicksilver blood on her clothes, mingling with normal human blood. "Be careful," she says, when Yvain announces he's heading out. "If you find any injured creatures, do what you can to tend for them. Zoara's wilds are in bad enough shape without Malevolence..." She lets Dean do the explanations. Right now, she has a handful of injured animals to tend to, and blood to wash off.
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
"Thank you," Violet replies. "It can't hurt to try!" She does her best to induce the vulture to drink the potion. It takes some doing. The bird is suspicious and wary and dashes away when she gets too close. She can't really blame it...after all, they'd just hurt it. Eventually she manages to wrangle the bird into a corner and pour the potion down its gizzard, not without getting pecked and bitten in the process. Ungrateful creature! Mission accomplished, she pays full attention to Dean's explanation of Malevolence. Making pacts with gods or spirits, it figures... She has little patience with those. She has reasons. Still, this Malevolence was a threat it paid to be aware of. Ignorant Drifters tended not to live long...
<Pose Tracker> Hellion Horde has posed.
The vulture is a wild creature, and acts accordingly with fear as it is handled. Sorcerous or advanced forms of healing might help, but it may need more tender care from those 'in the know.' The security forces amassed here are not exactly kind people. Least of all, 'Uncle Abe.'
There are few good things one can say about the security forces that the rival corporations have hired to try and get things together.
"You were from Siddim?" Asks another one - this one from the rival company, even.
"I'm not a good person," Uncle Abe tells him, "I know what I've done to survive... but that," Uncle Abe's eyes are too dry to cry any more, "I don't wish what happened there on anyone."
Several others come together. One offers some alcohol. They're not allowed to drink on the job - technically - but all of them have an unspoken agreement with one another. All of them are old enough to remember the Celesti Civil War. All of them have felt the fall-out.
No one lived through any of that unscathed. Not even one of the most feared enforcers of Port Rosalia, reduced to a quivering wreck at the thought of reliving any part of what happened to it.
Those who are less drawn to this empathic display of fellowship give their thanks to the collected Drifters (and occasionally ask strange questions). It seems the worst has been averted. There is no perfect, sing-song everyone lives ending... but this time, they were prepared. This time, they did better. This time, they saved more.
They've all come so far since Port Timney and its immediate fallout.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
ELSEWHERE
It's quieter, in this part of Northern Zoara.
Quieter on the outside... at least.
A woman walks through a valley soaked in mud, head bowed low as her right arm clutches her opposite shoulder underneath an overcast sky. Her dull copper hair obscures her eyes, as if the idea of needing to look anywhere were of no concern.
She feels her way through all of it. The clear, humid air smells of roaring flame. The empty valley, occupied by none other than herself, is filled with rapid footsteps and shrieks of others.
The feeling of...
A lot of things.
Coming up the side of a road towards an abandoned fortification, she sits down at its battlements. She scoops up a handful of collected rainwater contemplatively, letting it leak out between her gloved fingers.
"I scared them," she says to herself. "I hope they come back."
She could think of another she wishes she could have shared this place with, if... another lost interest in them.
She hopes they're all right. The last time she saw them, they were so angry.
...
A few drops of rain fall from the sky.
A reprieve, before she had to leave again, eyes open to the ruined buildings before her as her sight fills with so many things - but the only things there are tears.
Both her hands clutch her chest, gloves tightening as she just... feels.