2021-11-07: Those Condemned to Violence
- Log: Those Condemned to Violence
- Cast: Lily Keil, Riley Arwell, Xander Lovell
- Where: Ruins of Azado
- Date: November 07, 2021
- Summary: Riley sneaks off by himself to try and murder someone who turns out to be Lily Keil. This goes exactly as well as you'd assume it would.
=============================<* Ruins of Azado *>============================= Azado, once, was a city on the southern edge of the Goddess Plains. Its proximity to Pentagulia meant that it saw rich trade. However, a terrible night years ago saw two calamities come. First, its great lighthouse burnt, and fire engulfed much of the city. Second, Sin came to Meribus's shores for the first time. The city was shattered, leaving a ruin. Now, some parts are terrifying Malevolent domains, haunted by ghostly and undead Hellions. Others have lingering amounts of pyreflies, with Spiran fiends in evidence. BGM: Silence.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The Ruins of Azado are, put simply: very ruined. Once, it was a bustling city, and now... it is not. The still-burning wreckage of its lighthouse provides light in the dark, though the stars are still visible above. In the distance is the feeling of terrible Malevolence; closer by this section, which used to be a city street and is currently not completely flooded, there are scattered Pyreflies still lingering around, rising from the ground only to fall again later, hovering around. But it is not completely abandoned!
Not completely, because in addition to the odd Hellions and Fiends roaming around, there is a person coming from the depths of the ruins, having made her way here through the teleporter. Lily Keil is an unassuming woman in the dark, with long dark hair and golden eyes, and she looks... distracted. This is a good thing for certain purposes, because ordinarily she would be much more aware of her surroundings.
She is dressed in long sleeves and long pants, a dress shirt and vest over slacks, with black gloves and sturdy soft-soled boots. The only weapon showing on her is an old, battered knife at her hip.
Surely this is going to be a good night, and not a problem. Surely, all her blood is going to stay on the inside, on this cold night in Azado. The blind spots are many, though--there's a bunch of ruined buildings with windows and doors that function as... holes, at least. And Lily is very much alone. Dog is back on Filgaia, watching over someone.
Fire crackles in the background haze, from the ruins that are still burning.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley decided to sneak off on his own to find a sacrifice. Xander may have claimed he can fight in his current state, but Xander says a lot of things, and none of the ones under the general heading of 'I'm fine' when he is visibly not fine are to be trusted.
In his search for lone travelers at night, Riley thought he was beginning to approach the outskirts of a town, but... as he gets closer to it, he realizes that this isn't a town. At least it isn't anymore. And there's an eerie, foreboding atmosphere over what's left. But it doesn't seem entirely deserted. He can hear movement. Maybe it's become a hideout for bandits or something. Bandits would do fine for his purposes, if he's careful.
He wanders through -- slowly, but quietly, using the wreckage for cover as he keeps an eye out. Riley doesn't move so quickly these days, the most recent manifestation of his cursed thorns working their way through the muscles in his legs and bringing a bolt of pain with each step. If he finds anybody who can handle themselves, he's going to have to be very careful. Or maybe the opposite of that. Cut loose with evil and be as brutal as he can.
Ah.. gross. Sometimes he still can't believe his life turned into this.
Finally, he spots her. A woman walking alone. The perfect kind of target for an easy kill he can feel horrible about later -- or perhaps another Drifter hiding away unfathomable power. It's better if he strikes decisively enough he never has to find out which she was.
Crouching behind a crumbled wall, he lets an arrow fly for her chest--she may just be able to hear the tensing of the string.
GS: Riley Arwell has attacked Lily Keil with Homing Arrow! GS: Riley Arwell has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
The curse may have robbed Xander of his vision for the time being -- one eye covered by a patch, and the other with an eerie cluster of red flowers growing from it -- but he was nothing if not stubborn. Xander knew it was only a matter of time before Riley attempted a hunt on his own, and with Riley's leg in as much pain as it was, Xander could not shake the idea that Riley would get himself in a nasty situation or choose exactly the wrong moment to let his guilty conscious take over, unable to flee. Unable to come back safely.
Xander took what precautions he could in smearing extra perfume on Riley's clothing. It'd only barely help when the wind was right, but it was better than nothing. He faked sleeping, and once he heard Riley leave, he followed with only sound and a walking stick to help fumble his way along. There's still some sight in him with colors and light, and so once the ruins are there, he stashes himself away into foilage and hopes it's enough to hide him.
Has Riley found someone then? Xander hears the familiar sound of Riley's bowstring and holds his breath. All Riley needs is to take one person out...
Or draw blood.
GS: Xander Lovell has attacked Xander Lovell with Hungry for Blood! GS: Xander Lovell enters the Avenger stance! GS: Xander Lovell has completed his action. GS: Xander Lovell accepts Xander Lovell's Hungry for Blood for 0 hit points! GS: Lily Keil partially guards Riley Arwell's Homing Arrow for 84 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Almost, Lily misses it completely--almost. As it stands, when the string tenses, she has only a moment to start to turn, and she isn't nearly fast enough to dodge it. What could've gone for her heart impacts her left shoulder and sinks through, splashing red blood on the sudden wound on the ground. Without her armored jacket, there's nothing to absorb it... and that burned through the other day.
Lily makes a grunt of pain and looks around to try to find her opponent--pulling something from her bag and hurls it in the direction the arrow came from without spotting him at first. It turns out to be a grenade, the pin clattering to the ground at roughly the same time it gets near Riley, and Lily dives to the side, to look for cover against further arrows.
She doesn't say anything to start. She just moves to break off the arrow in her chest, but that won't do away with any of the blood.
For an instant, there was fear and surprise on her face. It got colder after that, and she moves like a soldier.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Riley Arwell with Pineapple Schnapps! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Lily Keil with Break The Arrow! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Lily Keil accepts Lily Keil's Break The Arrow for 0 hit points! GS: Riley Arwell partially guards Lily Keil's Pineapple Schnapps for 36 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam applied to Riley Arwell! GS: Riposte applied to Lily Keil! GS: Riley Arwell activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
A startled cry of pain comes from behind the wall along with the explosion as Riley encounters what may be the worst pineapple he will ever meet. It landed far enough away to spare him from being caught in the blast itself, but he was close enough for several pieces of shrapnel embed themselves into his arms and torso, and one catches him in the cheek. His heart hammers as he realizes how close he came to losing one of his own eyes.
... she was the second kind of target after all. He needs to get vicious before this turns bad for him.
But when he looks out again from his cover, she's already taken shelter in a different part of the ruins. He fires another arrow -- not at her exactly, just near where he last saw her. Where it strikes the ground, red-flowering vines begin to grow out at great speeds, winding round the nearby walls and cracking through them, growing and spreading through the area. If they find his target, they'll tangle her up too, or at least make it harder for her to escape the general area. In the meantime, he makes his way out from his own hiding spot -- still slow, but making an offering of the blood seeping from his wounds and calling for more of Valmar's power as he searches for her.
GS: Riley Arwell has attacked Lily Keil with Entangle Arrow! GS: Riley Arwell has gained 2 Combo! GS: Riley Arwell has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Blood. Xander senses it more immediately than he expected to -- not because he can smell it, or because he hears the droplets splatter against the ground, though he'd swear to both those things. But a draw to it. He should have put perfume on his own collar. (It'd have only gotten in the way.) Xander can't see, yet he sees it so clearly in his mind's eye. Sticky and red and dizzying, all of it meant to stay inside. He thought he'd gotten over his hemophobia training be a doctor under his Father, but the Fangs always demanded so. Much. Blood.
He wishes it were fear that were gripping him right now. That he's shaking because it disgusts him. It should disgust him even more that he finds himself praying for Riley to have blood on his hands -- because of him, always because of him -- one more time so the flowers will fade and this can be done with. Xander claws his fingers into his skull, silencing himself and trying to breathe. Just let it be over
But Riley cries out, and Xander launches himself from the darkness.
The Fangs demand blood, and Xander's drawn to it. When Xander leaps at Lily, it's from the darkness of night, but with none of his usual clandestine grace. It's an attack from the shadows, but one announced by an animalistic growl that may fill her with the distinct impression she's getting ambushed by a beast lingering near the ruins.
And not, instead, this spite fueled disaster. Xander can't trust himself with knives right now. The night air grows colder as Xander's eldritch scythe sweeps into being, thick with Valmar's unholy aura. It's only (only?) the sharpened, physical edge of it Lily has to contend with as he makes a brutal, wide cleave toward her, covering as wide an area as he can. Blood guides him, but only so far. For the rest...
He'll have to be thorough.
GS: Xander Lovell has attacked Lily Keil with Hellbent! GS: Xander Lovell enters a Counter stance! GS: Xander Lovell has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil suffers a terrible blow from Riley Arwell's Entangle Arrow for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Entangle, Shieldbreak, and Slow applied to Lily Keil! GS: Lily Keil solidly guards Xander Lovell's Hellbent for 46 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily confirms at least one opponent with that cry of pain, and the former soldier gets to cover as Riley deals with the terrible pineapple. She couldn't aim very well, but well--if she'd been able to aim, she'd have used a spell. Her heart hammers, too, because she's without even her usual ally when she's alone. She'll have to take care of this quickly, so she can tend to her wounds...
She isn't expecting the arrow to entangle her from yards away--the thorny vines tangle hard around her quickly, and Lily grunts again. That's when opponent number two comes in.
Assuming a beast is present, Lily turns to guard against the strike, and is surprised to find it from something human. An unholy aura surrounds the weapon, and her eyes widen in surprise--but that doesn't stop her from parrying with the knife that's suddenly in her hand, point down and blade out to drag against the scythe's terrible cutting edge. The blood from her wound continues to ooze out though, drawing the senses.
Lily doesn't chant or even seem to focus as she casts her next spell. She is just looking at Riley, and suddenly the temperature drops preciptiously, a blast of chill mist occupying the space between them and slamming towards him with icy shrapnel.
"Who are you!?" Lily demands, looking around for Riley. "Solaris? No--I don't sense Ether. Odessa?"
She throws out her hand, and a blast of pure dark force erupts from her palm. It slams towards Riley, and disintegrates whatever's in its path between them. But the vines are still holding her for the moment.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Xander Lovell with Polar Burst! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Riley Arwell with Eclipse! GS: Lily Keil enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: COUNTER! Xander Lovell counterattacks Lily Keil with Blood for Blood! GS: Xander Lovell solidly guards Lily Keil's Polar Burst for 67 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Xander Lovell! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! GS: Xander Lovell activates Sufferer! GS: Lily Keil solidly guards Xander Lovell's Blood for Blood for 67 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Lily Keil activates Arcane Font! GS: Riley Arwell suffers a terrible blow from Lily Keil's Eclipse for 142 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Riley Arwell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Lily Keil! GS: Riley Arwell activates Arcane Font and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
As Riley approaches Lily in the vines, something surges past him. For him, the feral growl brings fond recognition -- and a spike of confusion and worry.
"Xander?! How did you even get here?! Be careful, she's got things that explode!"
Lily demands to know who they are.
"Nobody you know. Just a couple of hungry monsters."
Riley makes a motion -- a slow tightening of his hand into a fist, finger by finger. In response, the vines around Lily cling tighter, thorns springing from them into her flesh like dozens of small blades.
Lily's surge of dark power flies out, throwing Riley to the ground and leaving a terrible wound where it impacted, smoke coming off what looks like a darkened hole beneath his ribs. But he keeps his eyes locked on her, still calling to Valmar, and to the Blood Garden.
Some of the small red flowers begin to sing, a mournful song in a harmony of small, slightly dissonant voices, as others ring like bells.
The earth beneath her feet softens, and the vines begin to drag her down beneath the earth.
GS: Riley Arwell has attacked Lily Keil with Your Funeral! GS: Riley Arwell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Riley Arwell has completed his action. GS: Lily Keil partially guards Riley Arwell's Your Funeral for 105 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Entangle applied to Lily Keil! GS: Lily Keil activates Arcane Font!
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
It's the sounds of battle Xander has to depend on. The clang of a parry (from what?) against his scythe, halting its strike and denying him another pulse of fresh blood. The old wound is still there, his one lifeline in this battle.
Dodging... that's going to be more of a problem, if it were not for Xander's disposition of charging headfirst into the fray on a good day. He charges into the cold, heedless and pushing through the pain of shrapnel biting into shoulder and his thigh. His own blood spills, and that pleases the Fangs, but it doesn't please Xander, and he forces his body toward Lily for another cleave.
(A flutter of something inside him might berelieved when the owner of the voice isn't Avril. Not that Xander would hesitate regardless.)
"Better question is what are you doing out here?" he snaps at Riley. He knows why, what he means is why didn't you say anything. "I told you I could still fight. Can you?!"
The bells of Riley's dark magic ring, and Xander knows the answer is yes, and he knows what it means. Even without seeing, Xander knows how to pursue this particularly attack. He's relentless in his advance toward Lily, and knowing he's close, he lowers the volume of his voice.
"Sorry. No conspiracy. Just bad luck."
Xander cleaves his scythe through the earth, upward, kicking up a storm of petals he hopes to obscure Lily's vision with.
GS: Xander Lovell has attacked Lily Keil with Petal Storm! GS: Xander Lovell has completed his action. GS: Sneak! The true nature of Xander Lovell's attack becomes clear! GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil solidly guards Xander Lovell's Nail in the Coffin for 83 hit points! GS: Lily Keil activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
... And through the floral smokescreen, he tries to exploit Riley drawing her into the earth with a dagger strike aimed for where he'd swear he can feel her heart beating.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"So his name is Xander. What's yours?"
The parry is metal-on-metal, so whatever Lily is wielding it's steel. But Riley doesn't answer her initial question--not really. Nobody she knows... "Is that so?" she wonders--and then the vines cling tighter, and Lily makes another noise of pain, blood seeping from more wounds as the thorns spring into her flesh and through layers of cloth. But this time, it is less fearful than angry. And that anger empowers her magic, letting her get golden eyes locked onto him too.
"This power," she says. "...It's not normal magic. What...?"
The song makes her waver on her feet, strange and dissonant. The vines begin to drag her down, and Lily looks up in alarm.
'Sorry. No conspiracy. Just bad luck.'
"...So that's how it is.
She gets her shins buried in the earth before Xander cleaves into those petals, and indeed--it blocks her vision, causing her to throw out her arms blade-first in defense. So when the strike goes for her heart, she blocks it--but with an arm, knife sinking deep into flesh and bringing a cry of surprise from the sorceress. "You--"
Ether pulses in the air, raw and dangerous. Magic sinks towards her in a sudden vortex that's nearly visible to Riley, as her eyes cloud over into pure black sclera without iris. The earth around her explodes backward with a shockwave of force as she rises partially into the air. "-Limiters released,-" she intones in an ancient tongue.
The air was air, a moment ago. Now, all around her is nothing but fire, as the stone she'd been using for cover blackens and everything perishable except the vines incinerates.
"Then DIE!"
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Lily Keil with Inevitability! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil accepts Lily Keil's Inevitability for 0 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Lily Keil! GS: Lily Keil spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Xander Lovell with The House of Devils! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Riley Arwell with The House of Devils! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil assumes the Hero stance! GS: Shieldbreak and Slow expired! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Riley Arwell takes a solid hit from Lily Keil's The House of Devils for 279 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Riley Arwell! GS: Riley Arwell activates Arcane Font and Sufferer! GS: CRITICAL! Xander Lovell suffers a terrible blow from Lily Keil's The House of Devils for 295 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Xander Lovell! GS: Charge!! You gain 55 FP! GS: Xander Lovell activates Sufferer! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Xander Lovell receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Xander Lovell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Riley Arwell has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
So his name is Xander. What's yours?
"...Riley," he answers with a guilty smile.
Better question is what are you doing out here?
"I'm getting us dinner!" Riley snaps with exasperation and a bit of hurt. He doesn't like the insinuation that he screwed this up so thoroughly that even Xander--who can't see--can see it.
And then, almost apologetically, he asides to Lily-- "We're not really going to eat you, it's just a metaphor. But we do need to kill you."
...It's not normal magic. What...?
"Valmar," Riley answers. And he tenses, hoping Xander's next strike will be the end of it. But instead, power flares out and then sinks inward. Riley's eyes widen. "Get back!!" he shouts to Xander. And he tries to spring forward, to protect him from the air that's turned to fire, but his legs protest and nearly collapse under him, and all he can manage is to reach him in the blaze, grasping for his hand and trying to draw back with him.
He stares up at Lily, his skin and the inside of his lungs still searing from the flames. This can't happen again. Xander needs his eye. They need peace again. They can't sink deeper into this.
He reaches forward, summoning the Shovel of Valmar up from the ground into his hand, and he swings it toward her, a shadow of power flying off of it like the breath of the grave. The greenery runs riot again, new vines blasting upward to Lily's new height as she hovers in the air, and solidifying into a cage of dark wooden branches that grows around her in the shape of a coffin. He slams the shovel into the earth, and the coffin's 'lid,' covered in inward-facing jagged spikes of varying lengths, slams shut in time with it.
"Get back in the ground," he rasps, as the vines start dragging down again.
GS: Riley Arwell spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Riley Arwell has attacked Lily Keil with To Hell with You! GS: Riley Arwell has gained 2 Combo! GS: Riley Arwell takes 28 damage from Poison! GS: Cripple and Jam expired! GS: Riley Arwell has completed his action. GS: Lily Keil partially evades Riley Arwell's To Hell with You for 137 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Lily Keil! GS: Lily Keil activates Evade bonus and Arcane Font!
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Sometimes Xander wonders how much it's worth it to explain themselves. Riley talks about letting people have closure, and Xander hates talking at all. It's hardly a secret, what they are. Sometimes they pretend like it can be. Sometimes they pretend it's normal. But there's no pretending when you're in the middle of trying to kill someone.
It is how it is. Their target understands that much, and maybe that's good enough for everyone involved. Xander feels the knife go in, driving it further without an ounce of remorse. This can end right now.
The atmosphere shifts, volatile and deadly. Xander's blasted back in that brutal shockwave, knife abandoned in Lily (it wasn't his favorite, it's fine) as he tumbles across the ruins, not stopping until he hits a piece of rock with a rough grunt.
He hears words he does not understand, but something familiar in the way he doesn't understand them -- these are ancient words, and nothing good ever came from ancient words. A chill crawls up his spine.
And then that chill dies as everything becomes very, very warm. If Xander wanted to scream, he doesn't have the air to do it with, but Riley's already shouting for him. Dry and hot and burning, suddenly bright in his infested eye with the colors dancing in smears. Fire. Could it have been anything else but fire? "Riley, don't you dare--"
It's too late, he can hear Riley killing himself again, trying to close the distance. Xander needs to be between her and Riley as of two second ago. Xander can't see Riley reaching for him and throws himself back toward this totally-a-normal-human filled with ancient horrible energy instead, summoning his scythe again. This time its deathly aura demands attention, and Valmar's dark power coalesces, shadowing the blade in something dark and foggy. Xander swings it out like a hook, trying to reap Lily (possibly coffin and all, depending) into summoned dark sorcery that aims to clamp around her like hungry jaws.
"You FIRST!"
GS: Xander Lovell has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: Xander Lovell has attacked Lily Keil with Reaper's Grudge! GS: Xander Lovell enters a Counter stance! GS: Xander Lovell takes 28 damage from Poison! GS: Slow expired! GS: Xander Lovell has completed his action. GS: Lily Keil suffers a terrible blow from Xander Lovell's Reaper's Grudge for 142 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Lily Keil activates Arcane Font! GS: Xander Lovell drains Lily Keil! Xander Lovell gains 71 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Riley, then."
She didn't expect an answer. It makes things only slightly more complicated to know his name--she doesn't give hers in return, not at first. Instead she notices that... statement. Dinner...
Ah. They need to kill her, because 'Valmar'. "Valmar," she repeats, darkly. "I'm not even Granasian."
Lily understands one thing: battle is battle. She was a soldier most of her life, and she's killed before. She is not a kind person.
She has time to grab the knife and hurl it away, her arm far too injured now to be much help beyond channeling more magic. If that. And suddenly... The 'coffin' closes tight around Lily, and the glow beginning to issue from her limbs is briefly snuffed out. There's no sound from her for a moment that can be heard over the sound of the roiling vines dragging her downward. Lily only briefly gets the chance to see a shovel of all things before the greenery settles that much, and the deathly aura of that scythe does not need to be seen. Just as he swings his scythe, the entire coffin bursts into golden flames, and the scythe slashes across the ruins of the coffin. It doesn't drag her into the magic, but the scythe does more than enough on its own, carving her open with a deep gash that quickly fills with dripping blood. It's hard to see exactly how bad the wound is through the tatters of her shirt, but the fact that her entire front is soaked with red suggests enough about it. That, and the punctures in her shoulder and leg from the spikes.
"...I'll have to add Valmar to the 'list'," she practically croaks back, and hurls herself at Xander, the vortex of Ether around her suddenly shattering as she hacks her knife across him, hoping to shove him straight to the ground with darkness-fueled strength--or cut him in half. Either is good.
Next she turns to Riley, and her eyes flash, dots of light becoming her pupils. Blue cascades through the holes in her shirt, at the collarbone, strange circuit-like markings blazing all over her body, coming up to her eyes over her cheeks. "...If I'm going to be a weapon..."
With a horrible crash, a flat plane gives way to a misty projectile some six feet long that rockets forward, lumpen and misshapen ice as a spear for Riley.
"Then SO BE IT!"
Still bleeding, Lily seethes with power... which includes the dark power of Valmar continuing to sap her energy. It is not inexhaustible.
GS: Mystic extends positive status by 2 rounds! GS: Lily Keil used Mystic on Lily Keil! Status effect durations increased by 2! Gained 100 Temporary HP! GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Xander Lovell with Jagged Edge! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Riley Arwell with The Grief of the Snake! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil takes 31 damage from Poison! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Riley Arwell suffers a terrible blow from Lily Keil's The Grief of the Snake for 290 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Riley Arwell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute applied to Riley Arwell! GS: Riley Arwell activates Arcane Font and Sufferer! Riley Arwell enters Critical health and gains 25 FP! GS: Riley Arwell has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: COUNTER! Xander Lovell counterattacks Lily Keil with Blood for Blood! GS: Gamble: High! Xander Lovell partially guards Lily Keil's Jagged Edge for 234 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 35 FP! GS: Xander Lovell activates Sufferer! GS: Xander Lovell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lily Keil suffers a terrible blow from Xander Lovell's Blood for Blood for 149 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Lily Keil activates Arcane Font!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
I'm not even Granasian.
"But you bleed," Riley answers quietly, as if this too is a piece of the bad luck that Xander mentioned.
The vines try to drag her down, but it isn't enough. Riley gives an anguished yell as Lily bursts free from the coffin and descends on Xander with her blade. Something more... poison, he should have weakened her with poison first.
He pierces the shovel down into the earth again with a pulse of its dark aura, lowering his head and murmuring a song to the vines to grow new flowers with toxic perfumes.
The power swells, but then falters, along with his voice, as Lily's spear of ice sails through the air and pierces through him.
The song cuts off in a pained gasp, and then he slumps to the ground, the Shovel of Valmar clattering down before vanishing back into the earth. There's only silence from Riley after that.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
More blood. Xander's head spins -- a strange mix of hazier and clearer at once. Something's slipping, and yet he's never felt sharper. He doesn't like it, he decides. Too bad doesn't matter whether or not he does. It never has.
"I hope it's a hit list," Xander bites back, automatic and bitter. "It'd save us a lot of trouble...!" But the anger in his voice is because this is too much blood and why isn't she dead already and Valmar deserves to be on every stupid list that exists. Ban him from every establishment (this is most certainly already true, Xander) and set him on fire!
But Xander can't see her coming. He can only feel that horrible Ether and the blood oozing out of her. A knife hits him, as deadly and dangerous as when he uses his own. His flesh rips open and his lightweight body is sent mercifully(? no) into the ground before it can cleave him into two.
Reflexively, he brings his hand to his wound, warm and wet. It... doesn't hurt, and Xander knows, instantly, that is a terrible sign. He hisses a curse, hands too slick with his own blood to push himself up without falling again, and she goes on about weapons (this was a bad idea, this was a terrible target, why is everyone secretly some sort of terrible target) (because murder is a bad idea and maybe the world is just to let him die miserably like this, but he doesn't care what just is, he only cares about--)
"Riley?" he asks, voice small, when that murmured song cuts away after the sound of something horrible hitting through meat.
The world is dark and silent. Riley's shovel hits the ground, and Xander's scythe fell somewhere. Manifestations of the Fangs and all their dark power. When the darkness with Riley's fades, so does Xander's.
Granas. Valmar. Ancient technology. Ancient magic. Riley was cursed by that too, wasn't he? Something he stumbled on in old ruins, starting this descent they can't crawl out of. Some people get energy swords. Some people apparently become weapons. Some become the Fangs.
He'd laugh, if it meant anything.
Teeth clenched, Xander pushes himself off the ground, body shaken and broken, but still moving. He drags himself up to his feet and lurches between this so called 'weapon' and where Riley fell. No scythe called back to his side. No flowers growing from his blood, not from the ground or even from his wounds. Xander rips a dagger from one of his many hiding places and looks toward Lily, defiance in every pained tremble. Can't see, besides that blood he senses. Can barely stand.
Doesn't matter. One thing matters.
"It's you or him," he says, one hand on his wound and the other tight around his dagger. "It's everyone, or it's him. And I don't care who -- or what -- you are. It's not going to be him!"
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Xander Lovell has attacked Xander Lovell with 'Til Death! GS: Xander Lovell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xander Lovell takes 22 damage from Poison! GS: Poison expired! GS: Xander Lovell assumes the Hero stance! GS: Xander Lovell has completed his action. GS: Xander Lovell heals Xander Lovell! He gains 300 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Xander Lovell! GS: Xander Lovell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
But she bleeds. That's true--Lily does bleed. And she's bleeding a lot now. There's the smell of it in the air, the feel of it slicking the ground. There is too much--these wounds should be fatal. But Lily still stands, red light gleaming from the circuit-patterns on her arms and body.
Xander bites back, and Lily answers simply of her list, "It is."
She feels more than sees her magic sink into Riley, even as she feels more of that strange music swelling upward. Poison, perhaps, could hve been the answer--but in her case she feels relief as he stops, as the silence reigns from him, and as he slumps to the ground. One down. She knows full well how injured she is--terribly. And if he'd been able to continue that strange flowery magic, she might not have been able to break free this time.
'Riley?'
Xander moves between Lily and Riley, and it is good that he does, because she begins to lift her free hand--hanging wrong, but good enough to channel power through. She has moved to point it at Riley before Xander moves--and there, he stands, with just a dagger, defiant. He cannot see her; she is fairly sure of this. And he says...
He says that. Lily pauses in motion where she is, narrowing her black eyes at Xander as she weighs his words. "...I understand," she says, as she sees that resolve within him. "I know that feeling."
It might seem, for a moment, that she is going to stop. That this moment of understanding will lead to forgiveness, despite all the blood. But it doesn't. Instead, Lily slides back down to the ground, her feet settling upon it, and then her entire form twists. Her skin fades; her clothes melt. Her face shimmers, and she is a living shadow, save for bright prismatic eyes. There is something differently unwholesome about the aura around her than the power of Valmar, as if the laws of reality were twisting and breaking.
"...Secondary reactors online." She says it in the modern tongue this time.
Lily lifts one inky-black hand to the sky; the blood is gone, though she must still be injured. There is nothing in her form but shadow and circuitry, inhuman and strange.
"...If it were 'him'... I would probably do the same. So that's why..."
The sky is already dark, but the ground begins to shake, and a red haze appears over the stars, which glint dangerously. Power swells oppressively, her circuits gleaming violet, her form like a hole in the world.
The ground continues to shake as she lifts her other hand. Something is coming.
Valmar's power blazes around her form, wreathing her arms suddenly, and she grits her teeth invisibly, making a sound of pain. But still, the ground shakes harder.
"...I'll end it here."
DC: Lily Keil switches forms to Omega - Synthesis!
GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil has attacked Xander Lovell with Countdown! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xander Lovell has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Guard! GS: CRITICAL! Xander Lovell critically guards Lily Keil's Countdown for 48 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xander Lovell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Lily Keil takes 32 damage from Poison! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Even though Lily says she understands, Xander doesn't believe for a moment that forgiveness is coming. He isn't here for forgiveness. He doesn't deserve it, and he doesn't want it. If she understands, if she truly understands, then he knows what she'll do.
He can't see her, but he's not entirely blind. Enough light comes in that her strange circuits and her prismatic eye -- without knowing what any of them are -- still enter his vision as odd and terrible and terrifying things.
"Only probably?" Xander says, huffed with an almost insulted sound. But that's why so many fight back. They're fighting for the same thing as he is. That's why no one can give up. Not them. Not him.
Tension hangs in the air. The earth is shaking, and what light Xander's eye can gather is going red, then violet, and then he feels Valmar around him but not from him, not from Riley, and memories of the first time he drowned in the curse bubble up fear, unwelcome and unbidden. This will be the end of Xander's next move is not precisely what it needs to be.
The killing blow? Too much blood. A little more won't do it.
Running? With him bleeding out, carrying Riley on his back? That would make Riley the primary target for whatever's about to swallow them up, and they'd never make it.
It's not the oppressive forces that make him falter. He holds his ground, jaw clenched, defiance never yielding. But Xander kneels down of his own accord next to Riley, feeling for him with his bloodied hand. He winces, feeling that spear of ice in him, breath shuddered and throat tight. If not for the rise of Riley's chest he can still feel, the best option might've been to do nothing at all.
But as long as they're both still breathing...
Xander lifts Riley up against him with one arm, the other still desperately clinging to his dagger. With a deep, shaken breath, Xander takes the blade and plunges it into himself, aggravating the wound Lily already gave him to let the blood ooze into the ground. Thorny, flowering vines rise up before him, weaving together to create a wall of unholy vegetation. Xander drops the knife with a clatter and clutches onto Riley, shielding as much of him as he can without any trust for the wall he's making.
An opening. He needs one opening where she thinks she's got him, and then, somewhere in the chaos of it, they get away and they both survive this.
GS: Xander Lovell has attacked Xander Lovell with One chance...! GS: Xander Lovell gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Xander Lovell has completed his action. GS: Xander Lovell accepts Xander Lovell's One chance... for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Xander Lovell! GS: Xander Lovell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Only probably. "...I might have the willpower not to," she admits. She does not sound entirely proud of that, despite saying so.
The ground continues to shake. Lily bleeds, but it can't be seen except where it drips off of her--and not at all, by Xander's ruined eyes. She can feel the defiance in the air, feel it like a tangible thing, and there is a part of her that respects that.
There is another part that does not, that knows nothing but the need to destroy her opponent, and that is the part of her that she draws on now, letting ruthlessness be her guide. If she lets them live, then they will continue to do this--even if they don't kill her, they will kill others, probably have. They are a danger. They must be destroyed.
Lily can see what Xander is doing, and she notices the way he seems to grow in power with that blood. The wall of unholy vegetation rises. It may be enough... or it may not.
Lily's hands continue to face the sky, and finally, it begins. The red sky glints... and the first meteor comes. Streaking with terrible flame, that first meteor crashes into the ground yards away, exploding into shrapnel. It is only the first of many. A second, a third, a fourth, and they get closer and closer, utterly destroying remnants of buildings where they hit and becoming blinding explosions that rock the earth with every hit, ruining Azado even more.
Lily can't even see it anymore; there is too much blast for her to see through.
GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Lily Keil has attacked Riley Arwell with Meteor Call! GS: Lily Keil has gained 3 Combo! GS: Lily Keil has canceled their attack on Riley Arwell. GS: Lily Keil spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Lily Keil has attacked Xander Lovell with Meteor Call! GS: Lily Keil has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lily Keil takes 26 damage from Poison! GS: Cover, Mighty, Poison, and Riposte expired! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Xander Lovell has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Guard! GS: Xander Lovell suffers a terrible blow from Lily Keil's Meteor Call for 210 hit points! GS: Jam and Mute applied to Xander Lovell! GS: Xander Lovell activates Sufferer! GS: Xander Lovell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
The willpower not to. Is that what it is?
Is strength letting his best friend die?
"I'd rather be weak."
Xander would rather fall here, Riley clutched against him, than have ever stabbed Riley through the heart that night Riley begged him to.
But here's not where it ends. He swears that to himself, like he does every time, and he will use every ounce of life he has left to make it true.
The first meteor comes, power so much that even with the wall Xander's made, he's thrown from the explosive force, debris cutting through and jabbing into him -- but not Riley, and that's all that matters. Their bodies tumble against the ground, Xander refusing to let go. They stop, somewhere with his ears ringing to go with eyes that only see blurs of red, and he lifts Riley up onto his back, finally, and then in the dust and the debris of what might as well be the apocalypse, Xander takes his chance while deadly quakes pummeled into the earth to let him know how close death is.
Another smashes far too near and Xander's thrown, Riley with him, and Xander has to scramble to find him. He pulls Riley back up and forcing his body to keep going into the night, away from the hell they invited on themselves tonight.
He has to keep going until there's no longer red in his vision, or until his body can't carry him on any longer.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The meteors fall, and fall... and eventually, Xander and Riley are gone.
Lily falls, too, hitting the ground from where she'd started to hover, holding her arm against herself and inhaling sharply for breath. The magic around her begins to dissipate, but does not fade; her form becomes human again, covered in blood still, circuits blazing red as she works to repair herself enough to survive.
...She doesn't sense them. Is it over...?
She hopes it's over.