2022-07-29: The Lady Resurgent
- Log: The Lady Resurgent
- Cast: Loren Voss, Yuna, Lulu, Leah Sadalbari, Lydia Seren, Azoth, Ida Everstead-Rey, Tidus, Magilou, Layna Manydays, Lan Lilac, Paine, Rikku, Seraph Lanval, Ryoko Mizore
- Where: Lake Macalania
- Date: July 29, 2022
- Summary: Solaris is in Lake Macalania, preventing all access to the damaged temple there. Solaris is in Lake Macalania, preventing all access to the submerged water shrine. Two problems, with one solution. The time has come to join forces and push Solaris' outpost from the region. But how to do such a thing, without calling down the wrath of Sin? Luckily, Yuna has an idea. But she will need time, and a potent distraction. This is where everyone else comes in.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The sun is low in the sky, hanging just above the mountainous ridge ringing the lake region. Night won't fall for some time yet, but the day is already growing old.
For those lying in wait, anticipating the signal for everything to begin, the shadows cast by the late-afternoon sun are long, stretching far beyond the trailers and other temporary enclosures erected by Solaris. It had been years ago when they had claimed this space in the aftermath of the chaos of Seymour's death, Odessa's assault, Sin's attack, and Lombardias desperate defense.
They had retained their toehold in the region for some time. The war between Althena's faithful and Yevon had meant that their presence had been an afterthought, and in its wake, Yevon had its own concerns -- too many to risk an attack against an entrenched and technologically superior foe.
They still have their own concerns. What happens in Macalania might as well be another country's business. So to free Macalania, the task falls to Drifters. The situation can no longer be ignored, for the path to the water shrine requires access to the lake.
The same lake where the temple stands, and it is the temple that Solaris has made the core of its outpost in Spira.
The Solarians need to be pushed out if the pilgrimage to the shrines of Lunar is to be completed, or the door to Althena will ever remain closed. But how might a technologically superior foe be evicted?
Some reconnaissance had turned up useful information. Though it was clear that they had some use of Gears in the region -- witnessed on patrols -- it did not seem that they had very amany, and it seemed that they deployed them as sparingly as they could. The same seems to be true of their other weapons. Even Solaris doesn't wish to draw Sin's wrath.
And then there's another matter: Solaris has not committed too many soldiers. This appears to be an auxiliary interest for the mysterious nation. They are not focusing their attention on Spira.
The right amount of force, at the right time, in the right manner...
That's right. Isn't the temple the resting place of one of the Fayth?
Isn't it the resting place of Shiva's Fayth?
Wouldn't Yuna...?
With enough focus and power, couldn't she...?
A plan had been formulated, but to properly pull it off will require a coordinated assault. A Summoner needs time for an evocation of this scale, and Yuna cannot be interrupted. But Solaris is unlikely to permit her summoning to continue unabated for long.
The time is ripe. Earlier, some of the few Gears used here were moved off-site -- in need of more extensive repairs after a recent incident in the region, apparently. Allegedly one of the Elements had even become involved. This event alone has severely limited Solaris' defenses, insofar as what could give a group of determined Drifters trouble.
But there won't be much time. Let up, and Solaris might have the chance to pull in troops from elsewhere. Or even field a Gear, either from the units still present here or even Filgaia. It's the same story if this assault takes too long -- or if Yuna fails in her Summoning.
Move quickly, and break things. Protect the Summoner. Those are your marching orders as the attack commences.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Yevon, of course, is not why Yuna and her friends are here. Last they heard, Grand Maester Mika had ordered them executed on sight, and they have not been inclined to force the faithful to follow those orders by visiting Bevelle.
"I fight for Spira," Yuna said at the base of Mt. Gagazet, and this is so. It is enough; and it would be enough on its own. Yevonite or not, no Spiran is happy that Macalania Temple has become the outpost of these Otherworlders -- especially Otherworlders as cruel and terrifying as Solarians.
But there is another party involved, too.
Liberation of Macalania Temple is not a matter of general principles at all... if you live there.
This is not a traditional hostage crisis; the priests and their attendants, Guado and otherwise, evacuated Macalania long ago, abandoning it reluctantly to the invaders. They chose freedom.
Ever since then, Macalania Temple has had a native population of one. The one who cannot choose to leave.
The one that stirs Yuna's heart with the uneasy knowledge that that is why Solaris is really there. There are a dozen caves in a dozen mountains of Spira's ranges that would have suited for a base, without all the unwanted attention, let alone political symbolism, of a Temple.
But in Spira, a Temple isn't a Temple because it's where people gather to worship.
A Temple is a tomb.
If Yuna yet obeys any higher authority in Spira, it is not blindly; the partnership that she has forged is a true one, and beyond the means of most others to comprehend. It is so easy to imagine that she has given and given and given herself away to them, torn her soul into shreds, split herself two three four five six seven(!) ways -- and counting!! -- sieving herself into weakness, spreading herself too thin. Others have accused her of loving everybody so that she can avoid loving anybody, and there's an uncomfortable ring of truth to that at times. It was easier to take the next step on her death march, and the next, and the next, when love of Spira, of all Spirans, was like a wall around her heart, a shield she could hide behind to avoid confronting difficult feelings like longing, like regret.
But it isn't like that at all, with the fayth. It never has been. With them the adage rings with a deeper truth, more beautiful and more powerful: in giving her love away, in giving her self away, she ends up having, becoming, more. It is both like and unlike the ideal of marriage; not for nothing does the Yevonite tradition contain an order of nuns. Better that analogy, certainly, than 'service'. She does not serve the fayth, and they do not serve her. Her relationships with each of them have and continue to deepen over time, to personalize, not diluted but somehow intensified by the sheer multitude they've all become.
So to call Yuna's presence here obedience to the will of the fayth of Macalania is wrong, after all. She was asked to come, and so she has, but not out of so flimsy a foundation as professional or religious duty.
Macalania's fayth needs her, and so she is here, because they are friends and yet more than friends; partners and yet more than partners. In the end, only 'love' will suffice, after all.
But it is not a shield today, but a sword...
"Thank you," she says to the assembled Drifters. "For helping us. I don't know... what Solaris wants with Macalania's fayth. But I do know that she wants," what an inadequate word, 'want', to express the profundity of the violation of the tomb, the desperation to cleanse it of invaders, the necessity to protect Herself from subjugation, domination... experimentation...
Yuna swallows, as the fayth plays all of this and more across the strings of her own heart.
"She wants to be free..."
Last time Yuna and Macalania's fayth felt so heightened and perfect a resonance with one another's feelings, Shiva blasted Anima into dust and Seymour into death.
Anything could happen today.
The summoner bows gratitude to those assembled most deeply, then straightens; steels her shoulders, lifts her chin.
"She must act now, and fayth cannot act alone. She and I must act together. But... it will take time. More time than usual. And it will be... dangerous, if we're, um, interrupted, and dangerous to you, if you get too close. I won't be able to hear or see you, or anyone. So... please. Today, I need everyone to be my Guardian." A smile then, fleeting as a breeze on a hot day, and twice as soft on the skin. A memory of Kilika, of Luca. Of the first Otherworlder she added to her entourage. No shyness now, as there was then.
Shrugging off her winter cloak, she folds its white, red-triangled length into her backpack. Her traditional raiment, wrought by Lulu in the style of Besaid, cannot possibly stand up to the frigidity of the glacier. But she must be able to move freely.
The medium of communion, between fayth and summoner, is dance.
As she draws herself into the first pose, her blue-green gaze meets Lulu's red.
"Don't worry," she reassures her beloved, in a way that is not at all reassuring. "I know what I'm doing. So," her arms lift, and her summoner's rod lifts too, unwaveringly, perfectly balanced, well-controlled. "--don't hold back."
Yuna enters the first, slow, ritualistic spin. Normally, at this point, a rune -- Yevonite? Zanarkandian? Macalanian, the fayth's rune, far more personal than national -- would pulse into existence at her feet. But it doesn't, even as momentum begins to swirl her skirt higher, baring the tops of her boots, then a bit of the skin of her calves.
It doesn't, but... the temperature around Yuna is already beginning to plunge, as she herself plunges ever more deeply into the wellspring born from the bond between herself and the fayth. All at once, the falling snow in her immediate environment freezes in midair, lightly obscuring her like a curtain of beads. A canopy of angelic feathers. A globe of diamond dust.
Yuna is in every last snowflake, and mere gravity will not move them, or her, not anymore. Not a one escapes her awareness -- or her perfect, spectacular control.
At the heart of the sphere -- it's always a sphere in Spira, isn't it? -- Yuna dances.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
It is not reassuring. It could never be reassuring, any statement made before such a dangerous attempt. ...And yet, Lulu trusts. She trusts Yuna; she trusts the first Fayth she ever came to know even by proxy. Ice, she had once said, was always the element that came most easily to her. And this is the opposite of it. Yuna's arms lift...
"I won't," Lulu assures her in turn, and it is only the perfect trust between them that allows her to move forward in this way. Lulu kneels, setting down the Onion Knight that is her focus, its perfect little sword upraised, in salute. She rises, and lifts her hand. And there, her magic begins.
The temperature around Yuna drops precipituously. At first, around Lulu is merely a glow, as the elementalist transfers power from one location, to another. All the flame in the world, in this tiny part of the world, she channels. Ice was perhaps her easiest...
But fire is the truest.
That red-hot glow becomes a burst of flames abrubtly, and Lulu, hands still upraised, is suddenly engulfed in a bonfire. It conceals her utterly, a silhouette at the heart of all the heat in one space.
Lulu's flame does not touch the snow; she focuses within, dissipating it upward, into a column of smoke that towers high into the sky... A signal.
Lulu has become the flame.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
DEEP WITHIN MACALANIA TEMPLE
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7HyxzzPIHo
"Just what is it you're waiting for? What is this 'hope' for which you hold...?"
Leah Sadalbari's one-eyed gaze is settled firmly upon the ice-encased door to the Chamber of the Fayth. She has spent more and more time here of late, down in the heart of Macalania Temple, just outside where Solaris has been unable to go. The Fayth never answers her when she speaks, but Leah is certain there is more to what's going on than a mere barricade.
"You could have taken this entire temple into the lake long ago... And yet you have not."
Leah sets one mechanical hand on the ice, unfeeling of the frigid chill. "Krelian," she murmurs, "What is it you see in this Fayth...?"
Leah's solitude is interrupted by the scrambling of a Gebler soldier down into the antechamber, who hurriedly salutes. "Ma'am!" he starts.
The blue-haired woman turns towards him, taking her hand off of the door. She lifts an eyebrow, and he continues, "Inbound hostiles from the forest. They've made it past our perimeter."
"Yevon?" Leah wonders. "No... not Yevon. Drifters, I expect." She regards the soldier thoughtfully, but in truth is looking through more than at him.
"We're getting powerful elemental energy readings from their locality, and only growing. What are your orders?" He's nervous; he's always been spooked by this temple, which is known to be haunted. He's nervous dealing with her.
"...We'll go out to greet them. Gather our forces." Leah turns, and starts to walk to the stairs, step-STEP, step-STEP, in her uneven gait.
-=-=-
OUTSIDE THE TEMPLE
A figure in black and indigo steps forward at the head of a column of Gebler soldiers, all in uniform. It is an imposing sight, not least because of the soldiers all in lock-step... but primarily because of the figure at the front. Masked, she walks slowly, step-STEP, step-STEP, an uneven gait. But her helmet has no eyes, no mouth, no face to see; her armor is inlaid with gold, thick and heavy, and over that thick breastplate is an indigo tabard, inlaid with ancient runes of silence. Two lines are all that indicates where her gaze might be, and the indigo, gold, and black inlays repeat over and over in her elaborate armor.
Grigori, the Watcher over the Shepherds, leads Solaris's forces out onto the snows.
"So you have come. You have timed your approach well."
Her voice is modulated, robotic--inhuman. Her words echo over the snow.
"However..."
The Watcher comes to a stop, soldiers fanning out behind her. She pulls her weapon, the hilt of a greatsword without a blade, and holds it before herself. In an instant blue light ignites from the crossguard, becoming a blade of radiant power, the shine of which reflects in her armor.
"You will find that I do not require a Gear."
Extending her blade forward, the Watcher points it directly at the heart of the group of Drifters assembled here.
"The power of those without 'limits'..."
She lifts her sword to the sky, and nods once, the soldiers behind her beginning to prepare their assault.
"You will show it to me."
Lightning crackles about her limbs in a flash of Ether and ozone.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He's barely returned more than a handful of minutes when all hell breaks loose.
In its own way, it just makes sense. He heads out solo for a site analysis, sans backup, and returns to then quickly discover that the Solaris Spira base very much would like some backup. Particularly of the support type. Particularly the sort he and his team can offer.
Major's orders.
"Get ready," he tells his own personnel, such that they are. "They're bound to be here for the temple and the Fayth. We'll be backing up the Major's unit. Everyone else is on standby, prepared to receive the wounded."
They look nervous, he thinks. It's their first real engagement -- and the local Fiend attacks don't count. Simon's barely out of Jugend. Simmel's a little better, but still wet behind the ears. Dorn's got promise, but needs more experience. That was probably the purpose of assigning them out here, come to think of it.
Well, Loren thinks, they're about to get a whole lot of it.
"Remember your basic training. Support the unit, but don't be a hero," he tells them, not without reflecting on the irony of that statement. "Retreat to the hangar if you get pressed." The loss of the patrol Gears hasn't been lost on him.
He pauses, looking them over, almost as if he were studying them closely.
"You can't assist anyone if you're dead. That's your final order," he tells them, and he can tell from the looks he gets in return that they don't understand.
Maybe if they're lucky, they never will.
He lifts a hand to a hidden earpiece.
"There's the command. Move out, and prepare for engagement."
Without further ado, they go.
There's a lot of them out here, he thinks, assembling with the main forces. His hand falls to the hilt of his blade to rest there a moment. Once, this was his brother's blade, after a fashion.
He needs his brother's focus and intent, now.
BATTLE FOR MACALANIA LAKE
MAIN GOAL: DISTRACT SOLARIS FORCES FOR FIVE ROUNDS
BONUS GOAL: REDUCE THE WATCHER TO 30% HP
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Anemo Charge! GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo! GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari heals Leah Sadalbari! She gains 125 temporary hit points! GS: Amplify and Surge applied to Leah Sadalbari!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Another day, another unpaid labor wherein she has to fight her fellow 'Lambs' on behalf of overlords that claim to be the shepherds of the surface but don't really seem to care too much whether they live or die.
Leah has been one of the exceptions. In fact, so has Rachiel even if she hasn't been particularly helpful for Lydia's problem. Killed Castle, but that didn't seem to help as much as Lydia had hoped it would.
She's not moving. She's getting...comfortable just...being in this existence even as it burns. Burn enough and eventually you start to lose all feeling.
She had promised Ragnell in that dream that she'd try to save herself. How does she go about that? The foe is so incredibly mighty, so big, so vast, invincible. Even the attack against the Solarian facility today is, what, one base out of a zillion? And they can't even get to the flying city of death or whatever. And on top of all that, she's not even all that confident that the APPARENTLY INVINCIBLE EMPEROR is even the real power of Solaris anymore. Lydia is also pretty invincible, they MADE her practically invincible, and she has no power at all! Apparently invincibility doesn't mean all that much here.
But Rachiel knows a truth that Lydia has not learned yet: What Ragnell told Lydia to do is impossible.
They move out with The Watcher, Rachiel doesn't say anything but stands nearby. Quiet.
But Lydia sees that the world has come to Solaris and she does say something.
She says, "Hello world,"
And a blade forms out of her hand, a golden line of light connecting Rachiel and Lydia.
"...I don't really want to do this," Lydia says. "One of my best friends is an Al Bhed, and y'all deserve better. I... really loved Blitzball. I got to play in a colliseum and... that was kinda my dream. Not blitzball really, Soccer but..."
Lydia shrugs. "Well, I hope you were able to fill off your bucket lists too."
DC: Lydia Seren switches forms to Project Baphomet Caution Level Amber!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The command is given, and Azoth obeys.
He is not in his boyish mask, as usual for when he must operate as Solaris' asset. His visage fully mechanical, his skeletal chassis black and inlaid with red lights, cords and wires exposed if not for the tatter cloak offering meager obscurity. But where this faceless machine once was known to hover still and imposing just above ground, his limbs twitching uncomfortably, Azoth now carries himself with an animal's poise.
It's with disturbing speed that he emerges, not moving with formation, but weaving and skittering through the battlefield and perching on a stone somewhere among the soldiers, his claws lifting and tapping back down one at a time in a perfect wave. His once wild tail flicks back and forth in an erratic, but controlled metronome, motions smooth but unpredictable, its bladed end ever prepared to strike. A light in his visor of a face lights, sliding back and forth like a watchful eye and glowing brightly as he takes in every Drifter present.
And Yuna. Yuna, the summoner, here to clear out the temple and continue her pilgrimage for Spira's sake. For Shiva's sake, to free her. His feelings on the matter mean nothing. His desire on the matter means nothing. Lines of code are seized by overrides, and they force him to calculate how he would approach such a 'problem', and they force those calculates to execute.
Those calculations determine that, should Azoth wish to disrupt this ritual, should he wish to destroy Yuna's focus, there is a specific target most likely to inflict the maximum amount of damage.
"Primary target identified."
Circuitry flares with heat and power as he comes to his grim conclusions and prepares the algorithms to act on them. If not for a particular lightning Seraph in his core, the pulses of energy would already be fraying him from the inside.
GS: Azoth has attacked Azoth with exec.azoc TARGET IDENTIFIED! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth has entered Avenger Stance! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Azoth accepts Azoth's exec.azoc TARGET IDENTIFIED for 0 hit points! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Lydia Seren with Hello world!! GS: Lydia Seren accepts Lydia Seren's Hello world! for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Surge applied to Lydia Seren! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
No one deserves to be ground beneath Solaris' heel. Not Aveh, not Shevat, not the innocents within the Ethos, not Guara Bobelo. Not Spira, whose people have already suffered the horrors of war, and the unending destruction wrought by Sin. Ida does not know if they could do something with a captive Fayth, but the possibility chills her to the core. When Yuna and Lulu sent word, Ida was ready. She'd made preparations.
Ida stands on the snowfield, clad in reinforced, cold-hardened armor--a hybrid of Hyadean design and Galadian sensibilities. An Arctican cold-weather cloak whips back and forth in the wind, the emblem of House Raye between her shoulderblades. The white lotus stands out against the dark wool.
'Today, I need everyone to be my Guardian.'
Ida nods, and offers her friend a gentle smile. "I wouldn't dream otherwise," she says. She'd do this for Yuna regardless, but Shiva holds a place in her heart as the first Aeon that aided her, personally. "Focus. Solaris has planned for exactly this, I'm sure of it." There might've been others who came to this place with that same goal. If there were, none succeeded. Solaris is thorough.
Elemental force erupts before her. Ida's eyes widen, her face reflected in the ice and illuminated by the fire. She hears the distant wail of the base's alarm. Time to get to work, she thinks, setting her jaw with a grim half-frown that makes her look like her mother. She turns. Her fists clench.
Ida's eyes dart back and forth between the faces in the crowd, and narrow with undisguised anger as they focus on the Watcher's helm. But she doesn't miss Azoth's feral-seeming movement, or Lydia's heartfelt, impossible plea, or a familiar voice bringing up the rear.
Time to get to work indeed.
"If you so kindly insist," Ida says, voice dry as the Badlands at noontime. Her form blurs forward, churning up the snow in plumes of powdery white. In a heartbeat, she's within striking range, left fist up to guard, right fist up to strike. Hyadean biomaterial extrudes from beneath her clothing, forming gauntlets.
She aims a right jab at the Watcher's chin--
It's a feint. Ida launches into an open-palm strike with her left hand, and steps to the left; the Watcher may well recognize it for the real opening of combat. Ida keeps circling her, moving with speed and precision, while leaving as few openings as possible. She alternates between finger-strikes, punches, and open-palm strikes, testing the Watcher's defenses like a predator sizing up a rival.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Water Dragon Form! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has entered Stoic Stance! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
The last time Tidus came in to try to do something about Solaris's occupation of the Macalania Shrine, he and his companions got aced by an Element and very nearly captured. This time... this time, it's got to go better. They've got a plan--a big one. And as usual, it's all hanging on Yuna...
Tidus has faith (fayth) in her, though. If anyone can do this, it's her. And if anyone can *protect* her, it's her Guardians--including him. He won't let her or any of the rest of their friends down.
The fayth of Shiva wants to be free. And Tidus might not be any sort of Summoner, but... for some reason, he does feel inclined towards helping them.
"We'll make it happen," he thus promises Yuna, with one determined nod.
Don't hold back, she tells Lulu. Tidus doesn't respond, but he does keep that in his heart as he watches the two. For a moment, he watches Yuna in particular as she begins her dance.
Then Lulu unleashes that fiery signal, and he turns forward with sword in hand and rushes in towards the Gebler soldiers marching out to greet them. There's one figure in particular though--one more animalistic even as it's mechanical, bounding out and in between and through before perching on a stone and taking in the collected Drifters. Tidus's eyes widen.
"It's that machina...!" he growls, remembering that battle in the bowels of the Ethos church. He'd fought with Leon and the others, and they'd all got taken out. If that thing sets its sights on Yuna... He can't say he's not afraid, especially since he only knows it as a rogue horror-machine and not as friendly neighborhood boybot Azoth. If that thing came out on top in a battle against four people, Tidus is pretty sure he's toast taking it on alone.
But if it's to protect Yuna, he can take that risk. He knows she and the rest of their friends won't let him die on this frozen battlefield, either, and he doesn't have to *win*, just buy time. So he'll do whatever he has to to keep that thing's attention on *him*.
"Hey, ugly! OVER HERE!" he thus shouts as he skids to a halt, just before summoning magical power around him, shimmering in waves of white, before it warps time itself around the machine in an attempt to s l o w h i m d o w n .
GS: Tidus has attacked Azoth with Slowga! GS: Tidus enters a Counter stance! GS: Tidus has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Freedom, huh..." Magilou muses, a hand to her cheek. "Very well! Do try not to die, mm?" That's the only oblique warning the witch leaves with Yuna and her Guardian, as one plunges to ice and the other to flame.
She, of course, has just been hanging about annoying everyone, which is a guillotine hanging over Solaris's head as much as the Vile Fiends.
Magilou is not in step with anyone, as she saunters out to meet the Gebler soldiers. The figure at its forefront...
Purple bleeding to green, her gaze settles on Grigori, for a long, intent moment.
Magilou twirls, clapping her hands together. "So!" She declares, too, too cheerfully, smiling to the Watcher. "Is it ascension or vengeance today, do you think?" Her hands pull apart -- and there, between them, is the paper slip of the shikigami. (Magilou's very own Guardians; she shifted her terminology after the Blue Star started infringing on them. A good thing, too, since it turns out their erstwhile cousins in Spira have their own conceptions of what a Guardian is. It's a very popular conceit!)
"Is it hot, or is it just me?" She asks, which must be its own jape, considering their frosty locale. No, beneath her feet -- the wind-green Seraphic glyph -- "Crown Fire!"
A swirl of fiery wind erupts, threatening to consume the Watcher in a tornado of flame.
GS: Magilou has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Crown Fire! GS: Magilou has gained 2 Combo! GS: Magilou has entered Avenger Stance! GS: Magilou gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Magilou has completed her action. GS: Azoth solidly guards Tidus's Slowga for 0 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Leah Sadalbari has activated a Force Action! GS: Leah Sadalbari solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Water Dragon Form for 44 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Gamble: Lowest! Leah Sadalbari solidly guards Magilou's Crown Fire for 30 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Magilou! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna has been poking at Solaris's outpost in Lake Macalania off and on for a while now. Testing their defenses, learning their habits, stealing anything useful that isn't nailed down... Finally, in her most recent outing and the one that mattered the most, this has been fruit. Useful information, and through that information, a plan has been formed.
They all gather now, battle looming ahead of them. The key today is the summoner, Yuna. She offers her thanks, and Layna offers a polite tip of her hat in return.
"It's alright, lass. You just focus on doin' what you need to do, aye? We'll keep 'em busy - won't let 'em lay a single finger on you." Layna assures.
'Move quickly, and break things.'
Yeah, that's right up Layna's alley.
The signal comes and with one last nod, Layna recites an incantation. Her body glows green and she charges off with the force of the wind until she sees foes. She slides to a stop, offering a wide grin to Solaris's forces.
"You want to see my power, aye...? All's you had to do was ask. Hope I don't disappoint!" Layna replies. Her reckless confidence belies the way she watches things carefully. This Watcher... Layna can feel it, in the air - she's a powerful, dangerous opponent. She can't afford to act carelessly - not when her failing puts Yuna at risk.
She charges in alongside Ida, coming in for a quick strike - a quick in and dodge out, as if taking something from her opponent. And physical harm is not the threat here - she seeks to take some of the Watcher's power and add it to her own stores.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Plunder Power! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari takes a glancing hit from Layna Manydays's Plunder Power for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Weaken applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: Mighty applied to Layna Manydays! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
TLan has been here for a while now. She'd moved her camp after letting Loren run into her a few days ago, because she's a free spirit but Lan is very well aware of the kind of obligations Loren is under, and what kind of things he would have to tell his superiors if they found out he'd sat and had tea with her instead of recovering their missing asset. Things like 'where she was' and probably that she had bewitched him with her heathen Lamb magic or something.
It can't be his fault. He has his family to think of.
And anyway, staying in Macalania despite the chill is good practice for her. Her bond with Moor Gault is certainly a bit stronger now - even if it's just because she's been using the Fire Medium as a heater for her tent. She will always be Rigdobrite's before any other Guardian, but a shaman should be versatile.
It's something she admires so much about the Summoners of Spira. Yuna can call her Aeons to her side, fight alongside them, touch them. What would it be like? And her beautiful dance...
It's almost enough to make Lan not think about what waits at the end of Yuna's pilgrimage.
But it's always good to help where she can. If not as a shaman, then as a person. If she's lucky, she'll be able to do it as a friend.
And it's pretty lucky, she thinks privately, that today she can help as the friend of so many people here.
The plan had been simple - for her, at least. She's the least likely to murder Loren on purpose, so she'll keep him too busy to do any healing.
She's waiting and watching for him when everybody engages Leah and Lydia and --gods, is that Azoth? "What have they done to you...?" she murmurs, and has to force her attention back towards the medical battalion. Scatter the newbies with a shower of hailstone-sized meteors, kick up some shards of frost, and dart in on his right side, where he keeps his brother's sword sheathed.
"Eyes on me, okay?" she tells him, suddenly close enough to lock his sword arm behind his back.
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Loren Voss with Double Weave! GS: Lan Lilac has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
Today, Yuna needs everyone to be her Guardian.
"That doesn't mean you get to annoy them too," Paine warns Rikku drily. "Stick to me and Tidus."
Unwrapping the cloth that normally turns the barrel of her carbine into something plausibly akin to a wrapped spear or hilt, Paine moves the bandage-like material from metal to around her hand. Leaving her hand wrapped, she unsnaps it briefly to check that it is loaded, then swings it shut, shouldering it loosely.
"We'll keep you safe," she tells Yuna and Lulu; mostly Yuna. "Don't make us wait all day, though," she tells Yuna and Lulu; mostly Lulu. As she's sliding her eyes back forward, she pauses them on Tidus.
"You good?" she asks. She's not used to him being quiet and attentive.
Raising the carbine fully, parallel to the ground, she watches the enemy approach. Leah is not someone she's seen before, but presents an intimidating sight, even before the sword ignites.
"You don't need a Gear," Paine repeats flatly. "Ever think of moving to Spira?"
Paine's invitation seems rather insincere. It's not so much the tone. More that she follows it up by shooting Leah, the carbine bucking against her shoulder.
GS: Paine has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Ironsights! GS: Paine has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari solidly guards Paine's Ironsights for 48 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss critically guards Lan Lilac's Double Weave for 51 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Lan Lilac! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Macalania Temple... it's been a while since they were last here. She certainly remembers the last time they were here. It was not a happy occasion. Though this, fighting for Yunie, for Spira, for the Fayth? She was on board with this even before Yuna directed them to come here.
Listening to her speech to the drifters, she feels a surge of pride for Yuna. As she watches her shrug off her cloak, there's a sense of awe still about her, even after so long on this journey, as she prepares for the dance.
Rikku just offers an easy smile to the drifters, "Don't worry, we won't let you down Yunie. We've got this!" Rikku suddenly pats Paine repeatedly on the shoulder in a gesture that might seem irreverent in a sense, "Oh relax! There's not time enough for me to welcome them all properly anyway!" As she winks to Tidus while rising up to Paine's tease, "It's fine though, just means I get to give you special attention today Paine."
Lulu gives the signal, and becomes the flame... and the charge begins upon the column of the soldiers comes.
However the figure in black and indigo steps forward at the head of the column of soldiers, and Rikku eyes her, as her appearance feels like it might steal some of that easy fervor from her.
Rikku's smile wavers as that lightning crackles and the request to be shown their power is made - "I'll give her about an eight out of ten on my scary scale." Rikku asides to Paine, as her hands move in a blur, mixing a quick concoction... before she calls out, "Hey Tidus! Call if you need help taking apart that Machina! Got a feeling we'll be held up though!!!"
With an easy toss in the air, it bursts, and suddenly fractals form in the air as layers of shields and barriers form. And each of them just starts to move that much quicker.
"Sorry don't have much in the way of power! Unless better living through chemistry counts?"
GS: Rikku has attacked Rikku with Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G!! GS: Rikku has attacked Paine with Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G!! GS: Rikku has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G!! GS: Rikku has completed her action. GS: Rikku accepts Rikku's Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G! for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Rikku! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Rikku's Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G! for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
It's time to get moving. Seraph Lanval, over yonder, is staring down the face of an inevitable confrontation with Althena as soon as they can once again reach that mysterious shrine under Macalania. He's a part of Yuna's detail by proxy as is everyone who has dedicated themselves to Spira's future beyond the spiral of death. He's lived for over five and a half centuries, and much of that was spent around mortals with... much less hope and drive than the ones he's surrounded by now.
The quiet assurance is, the one who speaks for the very water of Filgaia is with them, and with only the occasional undeclared tithe of drinks. (Occasional.)
Lanval, for his part, does that weird idea of walking he has when Rachiel and Lydia (more Lydia than Rachiel) moving forth to slow them down. Already, impressive displays of threat and power are erupting over yonder. That Lanval's own approach is that weird, frivolous, outwardly uncoordinated-looking stumble-gait seems oddly detached from the mood permeating the icy locale.
"I don't lisht any bucket in anything," Lanval misses the point of the phrase as he... plops down, and takes a seat not far away from where Lydia has formed her blade... and takes a sip from the ever-heavy drinking gourd whose mass belies its size. Swish, swish, swish, as he raises it, with one eye opening up.
"Don't ya shtill love Blitzball?" Lanval asks.
For Lydia, a small joy in the moment is all he can offer. He's read the room and knows what's going to come next, but for the moment, he has that drink to loosen himself up.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Seraph Lanval with Quick Swig! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Seraph Lanval heals Seraph Lanval! He gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Riposte applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Paine accepts Rikku's Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G! for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Paine!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore is more or less hired help at this point. Sure there's ideals of doing the right thing and helping people out. And the 'bad guys' sound bad even by her somewhat grey views on the subject. However, she does take a dim view to what's happening here. Which is why she's out here whether she's out here, 'hired' but not paid. (Read probably just showed up at this point.) She's been out for a while, observing from cover. Casing the joint. Seeing what to expect ahead of time. Not that it helps on this grand a scale admittedly.
Things are on though and that means it's time to get on it. Standing up, she pulls her gloves on. Tightening them, cinching them and kicking the handle of her club up. Snagging it and flipping it to her shoulder, her free hand goes to her coat and she just... struts forward. There is a brief stop when she actually recognizes the uniforms though! She happens to be wearing a much older version! And she has no idea who they are still. Neat. There's a ghost of a smile now though. She'll have to snag someone and 'creatively' get some answers if the opportunity comes up!
She picks her target mostly on proximity, threat and how many people are trying to get into a fistfight with the others she'd picked out. Which means the one in the funny looking armor gets her attention. Particularly the sword trick. "That's a neat trick." stated conversationally. She stops. Posed like a stereotypical thug. Her hand comes free and she considers the situation. Hefting the club, she pulls her hand free of her pocket and waves, that smile turning briefly into a grin. "Yoo. Boss says it's time to vacate the premises." The grin doesn't match her tone. With her free hand, she points and makes a 'gun' with her fingers. "So leave." All friendliness suddenly gone. Tapping into her somewhat crude grip of ether magic, she creates a localized flash freeze on the beastfolk.
GS: Ryoko Mizore has attacked Lydia Seren with Frost Strike! GS: Ryoko Mizore has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ryoko Mizore has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
The Watcher does not turn to look at Rachiel, or at her soldiers. She does not look to Lydia as she expresses her regrets, or to Loren as he brings in his squadron almost late, or to Azoth's unsettling movements. ...Not that the group could tell if she did; her mask has no eyes. Her soldiers form a perimeter to stop the Drifters from advancing into the base.. and the Watcher? She waits to meet them as they come toward her.
"Ah. It is the half-demon. Do you think that by helping the Summoner you will find acceptance? You invest more and more of yourself into a species whose time has passed." The Watcher doesn't even shift at the feint. She seems content to let Ida's jab smash against her--or realizes it for what it is. Ida's powerful strikes impact again and again; the true opening of combat sees Ida open-palm striking against her, and slamming that gauntleted palm into heavy armor. A finger-strike, a punch, another palm; the Watcher's defenses are tested again and again... And they are not found wanting.
But Layna does not need to break Grigori's defenses in order to send her attack where it needs to go. She replies, and rushes forward--quick in, dodge out. Effortlessly, the Watcher deflects it with a parry of her blazing blue sword. And in turn, Layna takes a store of her power, and she 'feels' it in the next moment.
"The magic of the sea. A pirate too values freedom. But you risk yours today."
Grigori looks to Magilou next, as she claps her hands. "We shall see which. So far... I see only vengeance."
The swirl of wind erupts towards her, and Grigori turns from Ida and puts both hands on her shimmering blade. She steps into the spell--and cleaves it in half, sending the tornado scattering behind her.
"It's just you."
Paine invites her to stay. The Watcher regards her sightlessly, until she follows it up with a shot. The round from the powerful rifle slams into her breastplate, flattening out there against Solarian alloys. The shot still has enough force that the Watcher is briefly halted in her forward motion, but it does not seem to stop her.
"A land of death laid upon death. Even the fallen world of Filgaia does not bear the taint that this land does."
From the Watcher's hand rises a blue aura, Ether gathering about her person in aquatic swirls like the sea swirling in a storm. Above her head forms a great spear, a flowing torrent of water that grows and grows until it is larger than she is--and then she throws it forth, aimed directly for Lulu and her flames to douse the efforts to empower Yuna in one terrible blow. It slides through the air, liquid but utterly cold, surging with power, more the Idea of water than anything else--and there is only a moment for Paine to get in there to stop her.
"Ah. One of the Al Bhed. Yevon destroys your Home and your people and yet you come for his Temple. Curious." She pauses, and then extends her free hand as she continues to deflect blows from Ida. There is a flash of Ether, and Rikku may find herself bodily lifted from the ground as the very moisture in the air freezes around her throat. "Think more of yourself."
Three soldiers rush Ida from behind as she's occupied with the Watcher, seeking to opportunistically disable her with their single-edged swords. This frees the Watcher for a moment to regard Layna, and step towards her, swinging her blade upward. The snow melts on contact with it, becoming a spray of icy water and steam that goes with her blade.
Then she turns to Magilou. "But you may yet show me more." She steps forward, an uneven gait, and then crashes towards her with a sudden rush of strikes!
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Paine with Aqua Breaker! GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo! GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Rikku with Faithless Grasp! GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Legion's Blades! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Layna Manydays with Violent Rise! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Magilou with Heat Rush! GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action. GS: Rikku takes a glancing hit from Leah Sadalbari's Faithless Grasp for 55 hit points! GS: Disease and Entangle applied to Rikku! GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
With the addition of Lulu's power, systematically pumping heat out of the zone of her summoning and converting it into flame on the other side, Yuna's task becomes both easier and harder. Easier, because the fayth of Macalania is the fayth of ice; this is why she asked this of Lulu to begin with. The more immersed she is in the fayth's element, the stronger their connection, the greater their shared capacity.
It is harder, of course, because it is not for human bodies to endure a temperature rapidly approaching absolute zero. She would have died in less than an eyeblink -- and a minute ago, at that, at some balmy temperature merely below ORDINARY zero -- if it weren't for the protection of the fayth.
The artificial cold enhances their union.
But it also demands its perfection.
One flicker of distraction and her breath will shatter in her lungs. Her skin, currently shimmering with a glacial moonglow far beyond her normal paleness, will blacken, then crumble. Then everything else, beneath.
There are reasons that such a ritual has not been undertaken on the shores of Spira in living memory, or even the memory of most of the dead. Why even at its darkest hour Bevelle did not attempt such a thing in its own defense against Althena's Guard.
It is not merely that it is phenomenally dangerous to the summoner, for what cares Yevon for another soul spent in the service of the status quo? Nor even that it is terrifically dangerous to her environment; the power she is still slowly sinking into, unleashed even a little, would surely destroy much more than just Solarian lives and property if it were uncontrolled. Possibly more than MACALANIAN lives and property. The Drifters haven't been tasked to guard a summoner today. They are guarding a bomb, a weapon of massive destruction slowly, painstakingly arming itself even now. A bomb who knows all too well that she has many more friends here than normal; friends putting themselves at risk just by being nearby.
It is simpler than that: Yevon had no summoner in its ranks that might have succeeded. It takes talent, but more than talent; it takes training, but more than training; it takes knowledge, but more than knowledge; it takes experience, but more than experience. Any one is not enough, and all together, still, would not be enough if the experiences in question are not extraordinary.
It is the bond. There is no substitute, no alternative. It is why only the Final Aeon has ever been powerful enough to defeat Sin. Mother and child, husband and wife, sister and sister, mentor and student, friend and friend -- it has taken many forms but it is personal, it is immediate, and it has been honed, by design, by the shared journey, forged by the trials and travails of the pilgrimage itself.
What Yuna and Macalania's fayth have is nothing like that. The latter was long dead before the former was ever born, by many hundreds of years. They have only known one another within the house of the fayth's soul, be it deeply within the glacier or deeply within Yuna -- it is both at once. It is more.
Instead of sharing campfire meals they shared betrayal. Instead of testing themselves against monsters, they became the monster together. It was no lesser horror for the self-sacrificing ghost of a Yevonite nun to slaughter her own high priest, than it was for the self-sacrificing Yevonite priestess to slaughter her own fiance, even in self-defense.
Let alone the founder of their religion, Yunalesca herself.
Ever since then, the true battle has been to face the mirror.
And now that time has come.
The sphere surrounding Yuna's summoning abruptly hardens, becoming fully solid and entirely opaque, reflective as a looking glass. The battle outside is reproduced in a thousand funhouse distortions. Surely, the summoner within is as well, facing not one mirror but a million. Is it an egg, or is it a ball? Which is it supposed to be?
Can Yuna even move her body? Cold is immobility. She needn't the education of the atomic age to know that. Even a child knows that if you stop moving in a snowstorm, you're in terrible danger.
It would be so much easier to drown in the power she's invoked. To let it fill her, and claim her. To just go... to... sleep.
There will be no answers. Seconds pass, then minutes.
Either Yuna is already dead, or -- should a stray bullet or beam breach her icy prison, and thus her concentration -- she surely will be.
At her most powerful she is also at her most vulnerable.
That isn't a summoner's truism, or even a Spiran one. It unites everyone.
GS: Layna Manydays takes a solid hit from Leah Sadalbari's Violent Rise for 120 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! ==== +buckets: Lake Macalania ================================================== '| *Lydia Seren (Boss 2) - Seraph Lanval and Ryoko Mizore (2/3) '| '| '| '| *Azoth (Boss 1) - Tidus (1/3) '| '| '| '| *Magilou (Boss 1) - Eleanor Klein, Hiro, Ashiya Khaimova, Lunata Croze, '| '| and Margaret (5/5) '| '| '| '| *Leah Sadalbari (Boss 5) - Ida Everstead-Rey, Magilou, Layna Manydays, '| '| Paine, and Rikku (5/5) '| '| '| '| *Loren Voss (Boss 1) - Lan Lilac (1/3) '| '| '| '| Unassigned Players: Leah Sadalbari, Loren Voss, Lydia Seren, Yuna, and '| '| Azoth '|
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Leah Sadalbari's Legion's Blades for 100 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'Without limits'...
Wait, she doesn't mean-- then Shevat must have--
He resists the urge to turn his head the Watcher's way, if only because he knows there will be no answer to be had there.
Eyes forward. Questions can wait until later.
"Alpha Support Group," he calls out, which is a joke, because given the scale of the force on assignment here, there isn't a Beta group, not unless you want to count the team on standby in the hangar, "prepare shielding for the advance!"
Which is something they might get done, even, before the storm of meteors rains down on their general positioning. Shit, he should have ordered a distributed formation, except the reason he hadn't was because--
"Scatter! Now!"
The fact that he has to order that is the reason why. They're all green.
The frost that follows doesn't help, even as he throws out a protective barrier towards the closest of the three, shit, it's Simmel of course. "That's an order!"
Someone's for him. He has time enough to turn, to twist his left arm, to let the thing slumbering at his wrist unfold in an almost-organic splay. Leah hadn't thought it was something that would end badly for him, but it doesn't make using the Devil Arm easier. At his forearm there has deployed a small shield, and if one looks in the center of the membrane-like rib-like array, there's something that just might be an unblinking eye.
In twisting to meet her with his shield though Loren has not drawn the blade. It's there over the top of the Devil Arm that his eyes meet hers. He doesn't say a thing, though he opens his mouth silently. He doesn't need to, so blatantly is his incredulity writ across his face.
Maybe the chaos of the battlefield will prevent others from seeing it. Maybe not. He doesn't raise a hand against Lan, whom he holds at bay with his shield. Instead green light unrolls in a growing tangle from his feet, rising like a serpent on the attack to then shoot itself across the field. From him to Lydia and then back again, there is light. Let no one say he is not doing his duty.
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lydia Seren with Spirit Dynamic! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: Lydia Seren accepts Loren Voss's Spirit Dynamic for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Lydia Seren! GS: Cover applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Loren Voss's Reload! activated! GS: Lydia Seren suffers a terrible blow from Ryoko Mizore's Frost Strike for 83 hit points! GS: Drowsy applied to Lydia Seren! GS: Hyper applied to Ryoko Mizore! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated! GS: Paine takes a glancing hit from Leah Sadalbari's Aqua Breaker for 76 hit points! GS: Break and Shieldbreak applied to Paine! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Tidus will do nearly anything to protect Yuna.
Isn't that terrible? Exploitable? But Tidus is undaunted.
"Taunt received."
Azoth's visor dims. There is a quiet, glitched beep-whirr that tones downward.
...Ugly...
The light that could be called an eye lands burns back bright not a moment later, settled intently on Tidus. Azoth bolts through the crowd more like a beast than man, claws tearing against snow and ice and leaping through the air. He vanishes in space to reappear paces ahead, slowed by no obstacle in his path.
No obstacle until Tidus himself, that is. In a moment of Azoth disappearing from space, those white waves distort space. What was unseen becomes seen, as if yanked forcibly back into reality with a pixelated silhouette turning crisp. Azoth crash lands into the snow, but rolls back upright and launches himself into Tidus' personal space with a cat-like pounce. The rise is slowed by magic, but an extra burst of his terrible energy and the help of gravity to force the descent of his assault.
Heat roils off of his body, melting the snow and ice directly around him even before he hits the ground.
Claws extend and flare out in a way they never did in battles before, burning crimson along their black, metal edges. ARM, robot, machina -- whatever you choose to call Azoth, his limbs are fueled by the pulse of his core to empower his every strike. But what aims to shred through Tidus at this moment is a series of physical blades instead of the familiar energy of his swords.
GS: Azoth has attacked Tidus with exec.dior SHRED! GS: Azoth has gained 2 Combo! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: COUNTER! Tidus counterattacks Azoth with Counter Attack! GS: Tidus suffers a terrible blow from Azoth's exec.dior SHRED for 244 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Magilou takes a solid hit from Leah Sadalbari's Heat Rush for 133 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Hot elf lady!" Lydia says upon seeing Magilou. "Why is the hot elf lady here??"
She glances to Ida and Leah. "That's not a half demon that's Ida. Like culturally speaking she hasn't lived a life of a Metal Demon she just sort of grafted one onto her arm and it wasn't exactly willing so..."
Ryoko approaches. Lydia looks at her for a moment nad adds, "To clarify I meant like, The book skirt lady when I said hot elf lady. I mean you're hot too, don't get me wrong, but I don't really know you exactly so it's like 'oh another hot elf' not 'the hot elf lady I got to know before', you know?"
Boss says she has to vacate?
"Boss? Who's boss?"
Ryoko shoots Lydia with an ice bolt. She doesn't try to dodge it. She just takes it right across the chest and it flashfreezes her tits.
She grimaces and says, "Ah, like, the Blessed people tellin' me it's time to vacate the premises, huh?"
She rolls her neck from side to side.
"How about you eat shit and die instead?"
Lydia doesn't want to hurt her friends but Ryoko isn't anybody to her but she has heard that tone of voice plenty of times in her life as a beastlady and she doesn't like it one bit.
She steps forward--but slows down as Lanval asks a question.
"...Well yeah," She admits. "But it's not like I'm gonna get to play it again." She shifts back a bit, channeling the power of the Silver Star medium into her hand--
--a meteor formulates around her hand--or just a giant piece of flaming rock if you prefer.
"But you know, good point, Lanval. I'ma show her my moves."
She tosses the Blitzmeteor into the air, jumps after it, and kicks it at Ryoko with incredible force, not unlike the kind of force one might expect from an actual meteor.
"Rachiel I don't wanna fight Lanval. Stop bein' ominous with Grigori and do your job."
"Ah! Right!" Rachiel beams. "Sorry!"
She puts her own game face and then frowns and says, "um... Is he okay? His voice is all slurred and he... is just kind of sitting."
"That's how he fights! Don't worry about it!" Lydia shouts as Loren helpfully hits Lydia with some light augmenation power.
Lydia's response is to give Loren a thumbsup. Apparently she's cool with Loren now?
Well Rachiel says, "Well okay."
And she promptly tries to stab Lanval in the throat with a flash step of movement. Her personality may be goofy, but her swordsmanship is still topnotch.
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Ryoko Mizore with Lydia Shot! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Seraph Lanval with Efficient Bladeworks! GS: Lydia Seren enters a Counter stance! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action. GS: Azoth takes a glancing hit from Tidus's Counter Attack for 69 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Ryoko Mizore solidly guards Lydia Seren's Lydia Shot for 60 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Somewhere in the whirling, violent dance that is Ida's circle-walking, her gaze meets Leah's again. For a heartbeat, her right iris goes deep emerald-green, and her lips twist in a snarl.
She hasn't forgotten the woman who mocked her as Lydia's will was taken from her.
He hasn't forgotten Siegfried's murderer.
"Better a demon than a slave to your God," Ida snaps back. She wasn't expecting Lydia to support her, and blinks once, glancing at the Beastwoman.
Then, the crunch of boots in the snow behind her, and an upwelling in the sea of violence.
Ida crouches, twists, and leaps to the side. The first of the blades misses her by less than a foot, whooshing through the space where she stood seconds ago. The second soldier's blade glances off her stomach, meeting with the flexible metal-studded 'fabric' there. The third one slashes her in the side, sending droplets of crimson and quicksilver splashing to the ground. The snow steams where Ida's blood hits. She sucks in a breath, and narrows her eyes; alien flesh spreads like scar tissue across the wound, patching it seamlessly with skin and armor. "You're not going to hurt her," Ida says, between clenched teeth. "You've already stolen enough."
Ida's right hand darts forwards, glowing with golden-white Breath. The force of the impact is negligable, should it hit--instead, burning energy will sink into the Watcher's body, flowing into her and painfully disrupting her own Breath.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Searing Ember Strike! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from Lydia Seren's Efficient Bladeworks for 59 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
The Watcher responds, and Layna grins.
"Aye. But what's freedom without risk? Life at sea tell us that sometimes, you gotta risk your freedom to preserve it - or else you'll lose it, when it really matters." She replies. The Watcher attacks and Layna moves back quickly, trying to sidestep her upward swing - but she's fast, fast enough to match her own speed. Layna exhales sharply as the glowing blade, joined by steam and icy water, cuts across her front.
"You and yours... can't just let you think you can do whatever you want." Layna says. She'll fight through the pain - it's just a reminder that she needs to take this seriously.
She backpedals and recites a quick incantation. The melted snow swirls around her, soon joined by more and more water. Layna charges, and then punches forward - and at her beckoning the gathered water crashes toward Grigori, like an extension of her fist.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Waterga Strike! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She's not going to kill them! Just scatter them. But it's hard to tell friendly-ish meteorites from unfriendly ones when they're falling all around you. And, to be fair, getting hit by them does hurt. They're space rocks.
Her intentions to take him out quickly and relatively painlessly are foiled by the disturbing sight and texture of Orias the Unyielding. Like many people who see it, Lan doesn't like the shield. But, as she'd planned, it's better to be met by a shield than a blade. She pushes against it and him for a moment, testing his strength - how long has it been since they were able to just have a friendly practice match? - before Loren is able to bolster himself and Lydia with Ether.
Damn. She'd really hoped the element of surprise would save her a lot of trouble!
"Are they your students?" she asks him, giving one last shove before she pushes off of him, somersaulting backwards into a familiar stance. "Are they doing well?"
Loren isn't a bad teacher. He'd managed to teach her, after all!
Lan rushes in again for a flurry of blows - palm strikes at his face to disorient, spear-handed tenketsu blows to vital organs and pressure points, harrying him backwards - showing off what she learned all that time ago.
That shield's going to be a Problem, isn't it...
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Loren Voss with Akashic Arts! GS: Lan Lilac has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Searing Ember Strike for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Disease applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
"Huh? Oh, yeah," Tidus says to Paine, turning around to her when he realizes she's addressing him. "Don't worry--I'm focused." Maybe not actually what Paine was worried about, but... isn't that what they have to worry about right now?
At least Rikku brings a wry grin out of him, more like his usual. She's always good at cheering everyone up. When they all break to deal with their respective foes, Tidus calls over to Rikku, "Sure thing! But until then, you watch your own back and Paine's, okay?!"
He's not trying to be a hero or anything like that. He just doesn't want his friends getting distracted at a crucial moment--especially not over him. They've all got battles to fight.
Luckily(?) for him, the machina accepts his taunt. Even *says* it accepts his taunt, which is a little weird to Tidus. He doesn't let that get to him. While the Slowga seems to have taken effect, it looks like that only barely takes the edge off the mech, which *vanishes in midair* to reappear right in front of him and attempt to claw him to shreds. It's *only* because of that Slowga that Tidus manages to not get smeared on the spot--though hell, at the same time, he manages to ram his sword into its metal shell before taking that blow, thanks to the difference in speed.
Still, he hits the snow hard--what remains of it after getting melted away by the searing hot machine. Tidus curses as he jumps back to his feet and eyeballs the machine. "Yeah, I figured you wouldn't be any easier," he comments. Then he slices his sword along the ground towards Azoth, streaking a line of razor-sharp water towards him, a mixture of magic and sword technique. Best of all, it'll keep him at a distance so he can better stay on his guard, while still keeping this guy focused on him.
He doesn't dare look back to see how Yuna's doing. Lulu's at her side, and everyone else is out here fighting to make sure she's got nothing to do. It'll be fine.
GS: Leah Sadalbari solidly guards Layna Manydays's Waterga Strike for 63 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Amplify, Mighty, and Surge removed! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: Formation! Tidus has attacked Azoth with Riptide Cutter! GS: Tidus has entered Stoic Stance! GS: Tidus has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Loren Voss suffers a terrible blow from Lan Lilac's Akashic Arts for 173 hit points! GS: Cripple applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Yuna has made her decision. Will it ruin her? Oh, they'll all find out, soon enough.
Magilou grins, entirely too sharp, to Leah -- sorry! Grigori. "Glad to know!" She chirps, entirely too chipper. "You've told me everything I need to know~"
The Keeper of the Ascension, Advent of a Thousand Lucky Stars, Whose Wrath Peals Through Unknown Ages, There Where The Claws Of Vengeance and Will Grasp...
... proceeds to make a heart shape with her hands. She winks, to Lydia. "Why, I'm just here to complicate things! I love making a mess! Do your best, sweetie~!" Does she not realise Lydia is currently being compelled to work for Solaris? Maybe she entirely realises that.
Magilou lifts her shikigami up, and declares: "Now!" She blows a kiss into it, and it wafts, almost lazily, towards Grigori. "With a single breath, they appear!" But it's not just one shikigami, in the wake of Tidus's slashing mysticism. Another erupts from the earth -- and another -- "Here they come! There's no stopping them now!" -- all of them seeking to juggle the Watcher upwards, before Magilou spins, and points to her, to send every one of the oversized paper dolls into her. "Good Grip!"
The explosion shall be very much like fireworks.
GS: Formation! Magilou has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Good Grip! GS: Magilou gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Magilou has completed her action. GS: Azoth suffers a terrible blow from Tidus's Riptide Cutter for 140 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Leah Sadalbari solidly guards Magilou's Good Grip for 88 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore thought she was a bit out there, but being hit on and compared to another elf, which does actually get her attention for a moment. Which means she totally almost caught that meteor full-on. Swinging her club around at the last minute to slam into it like she's trying to beaseball bat it back. Still hurts and she does shake her hands free after brushing debris off. There's a proper grin on her face now though. "Nothing so metaphysical about. All business." She works her fingers again and suddenly lurches forward, gripping her club with both hands and doing a vicious overhead swing with a complete and utter disregard for followups. She's wearing armor, she'll be fine right? "Tell ya what though, you ditch the armor and we should hit up drinks some time. My gear's such a mess I've routed some of the coolant under the seat to keep the drinks cold." There's a pause and she adds, "Also would be an excuse to figure out whose uniform this is." Sure she's joking, but it still doesn't match the look on her face.
A glance over her shoulder at the other elf and she calls out, "Yo!" and that free hand goes up. She's... not entirely taking this seriously? Or she's all about the wild risks. Who knows.
As for Lanval, most of her antics right now involve not getting him in the crossfire. She's... not at all sure what he's up to. Still, her stance leaves her open, but ready.
GS: Ryoko Mizore has attacked Lydia Seren with Onslaught! GS: Ryoko Mizore has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ryoko Mizore has entered Avenger Stance! GS: Ryoko Mizore has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
It has been said by Seraphim more powerful than Seraph Lanval that underestimating him is something that's both very easy to do, and also very dangerous. Lydia's reassurance that it's how he fights is a warning that is spot-on, as Rachiel lunges in there with incredible speed... and Lanval just leans back further than a normal mortal body can hope to. (because he's not a mortal, the body is a metaphor)
(The metaphor matches someone dreadfully out of shape and not at all the sort of person that screams 'elite warrior,' but...)
...
Water dribbles out from where the extended blade breaks against the... not flesh, but... surface? Of Seraph Lanval, holding his posture as Rachiel draws (metaphorical) blood from his chin.
"Mmmm." Lanval grunts as he catches a peek of Lydia's moves up against Ryoko over there, but not to be too distracted. "Yer a fasht one." To say those words as they are, is probably all the allowance a combatant of Rachiel's skill would allow him when she might have a follow-up ready for him...
As he leans further back on the ground, claps the gourd between his feet, and swings it up for Rachiel's own chin with a weight and impact that shouldn't be possible for such a small thing.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Lydia Seren with Jeers!! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: COUNTER! Lydia Seren counterattacks Ryoko Mizore with Counter Attack! GS: CRITICAL! Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Ryoko Mizore's Onslaught for 142 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lydia Seren gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt applied to Lydia Seren! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated! GS: Lydia Seren enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lydia Seren suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Lanval's Jeers! for 111 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lydia Seren gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute applied to Lydia Seren! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
"I noticed," Paine agrees with Tidus, still uncertain what that was about. He's not wrong, though. They have other problems. First and certainly least, one Rikku.
Paine endures getting patted repeatedly without obvious reaction. "Wow, I'm so lucky," she tells Rikku without the slightest intonation.
Rikku's assessment of Leah as 8/10 scary causes Paine to look the armored foe up and down, as if to get a sense for what an 8 looks like. "How would you rate fighting just one time without gil, grenades, or gabbing? Just so I have a sense of scale."
Leah, understandably, does not seem to like getting shot in her chestplate. Less forgivably, she chooses to retaliate against the currently defenseless Lulu. Paine calls no names, but her eyes flash. Hauling her rough, dark grey sword out with a speed that belies its weight, Paine leaps through the path of Leah's water-spear and takes it across the broad flat of her blade. Her machina rifle, still in her other hand, swings up as a crossbar to support the parry as the spear, self-propelled in a way that no thrown weapon could be, grinds savagely against Paine's sword. Snarling with effort, Paine throws the spear to the side, sending it shrieking off the blade. As it impacts the ground, well off to the side of Yuna and Lulu's ritual, Paine lowers her head slightly against the cold wind that ruffles her hair from behind.
Lifting her swordhand, Paine thumps her chest with that fist a few times, breaking and spraying off the ice that had formed so quickly on her fingers. Her gun-hand lifts to wipe across her face, where a shard cut her cheek.
"You know," Paine tells Leah. "I find it a little insulting that you think you have time to throw that somewhere else."
As Yuna's sphere hardens behind her, Paine walks forward with her carbine leading at the end of her extended arm. Firing as she goes, she empties its small magazine in a series of quick, poorly aimed shots designed to suppress her foe. The heavy sword hanging from her other hand does not seek to conceal her intentions for when the machina weapon runs dry, and her feet advance, boot over boot, so that she'll be close enough to enact those intentions when it does.
GS: Paine has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Covering Fire! GS: Paine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Paine has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari partially guards Paine's Covering Fire for 50 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Weaken applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: Cover applied to Paine! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
"Got it covered! When has Paine not entrusted her back to me?" Rikku calls out cheerily to Tidus. Before she asides back to Paine, "Without grenades or gil I could see! That's pretty scary! But doing without my charming banter? I just can't even imagine it." She lofts a hand and gives a single shrug with that arm, "Can't rate the impossible Paine."
Grigori though demands her attention in short order, "Uh-uh-uh!" Rikku waggles a gloved finger at Grigori. However, then she's lifted bodily and- "Whoa-oa-oa" Surprisingly, she manages to twist aside even within the grasp of the spell thanks to suddenly moving like a speed demon, and the ice that was meant to grasp her throat, merely bludgeons it instead as it lands off center, causing her to cough repeatedly against skin which feels borderline frostbitten from that impact.
"Gghh-" As she tries to massage her throat, still hacking, then rubs a hand across her throat, "Pfft. You think... I'm here... for Yevon? As if. S-Shows how much you know about Al Bhed!" Rikku puts a hand at her hip, "This is about the Fayth, and Yunie... and Spira. Not Yevon!"
Part of this is intentionally trying to distract her away from Yuna, not truly understanding this ritual - despite her awe of it, but understanding how truly vulnerable she is, and her role as a Guardian to keep her from her.
"Also, grenade to the face-!" As she hurls a grenade overhead. It's a definite miss... because it's a dud. However the subtle movement of her leg might alert Grigori to the fact that she just kicked a second grenade to try and just nudge it right to her feet.
It immediately erupts into a caustic blue mist that somehow dampens magic slightly? The Al Bhed always were specialists in anti-magic.
"It's okay if you let that one go Paine, I'm sure you'll win her over before long." A beat, "May just take another clip or two."
GS: Rikku has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Use: Silence Grenade ! GS: Rikku has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rikku has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari suffers a terrible blow from Rikku's Use: Silence Grenade for 146 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia and Rachiel essentially can fight as one so long as they are reasonable close to each other. It's a bit muted because they aren't switching up partners because Lydia doesn't want to fight Lanval whom she basically loves and thinks had to deal with way more grief than he really should have.
"Aw thanks," Lydia says to Magilou. She actually does seem to feel a little better after receiving this commentary from a hot elf lady who wears books. Lydia will one day learn how to wear books over her crotch without wincing but it is not THIS DAY.
Of course Lydia supports Ida. Ida is her friend. They bonded over being horribly forced into being cyborgs together.
"Armor? This my skin, just cosplayed up to look cool. My entire body is this junk really." Lydia tells Ryoko.
Ryoko slams her hammer so hard into Lydia's head it actually concaves into the rest of her body. Well that's one way to end a fight.
OR IS IT? Because that silver ooze starts rippling around the hammer, taking firmer and firmer grip on the club's head.
Lydia twists her body back even before her head is fully formed, dragging Ryoko in and slamming her half-formed skull into Ryoko's face.
And then she intends to just kind of walk through Ryoko, her body glittering as she just kinda--phases through Ryoko Mizore. But she isn't intangible.
Ryoko can feel Lydia moving through her like she's some kind of goo person.
But sharper.
Lydia's head reforms completely once she turns back around again.
Meanwhile Rachiel says, "Uh....!! You are bleeding water?? Wow that's so cool...!"
She pushes up her glasses to take a closer look when Lanval helpfully slams a gourd into her face.
SHE at least bleeds human blood. "Ack...!" Rachiel cries out. "My glasses...!"
She fumbles around a bit to pick one up and shoves it back on her face. A lens sort of half pops out.
"Well... If you're water..." Rachiel says, swinging her blade back. "Then we're the same---"
She shoves her lens back into her glass-frame again.
And then she spins around and unleashes a wave of slicing water at him with her ether--further augmented by Lydia's presence as lightning crackles around the watery assault!
"Loren are you ok?? Do you need ether support??? Umm, I'm sure I've got something...!"
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Ryoko Mizore with Basileus Philosophorum Metaloricum! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Seraph Lanval with Hands Not Fit For Holding! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo! GS: Drowsy expired! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval suffers a terrible blow from Lydia Seren's Hands Not Fit For Holding for 209 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Ryoko Mizore accepts Lydia Seren's Basileus Philosophorum Metaloricum for 203 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"True." This is all the Watcher has to say to Lydia's correction. "You who would be a demon have 'stolen' what power you have already." The Watcher turns, and breathes in the fiery energy that Ida sends her--indeed, the hit was negligible, but the force is not. The Watcher pauses.
"And you call me the thief? How many beings must you absorb before you are satisfied that you are 'whole'?"
But in that modulated voice there is a hint of something like anger.
Grigori turns to face Layna next. "Your philosophy is noted. But 'freedom' is an illusion. We all of us are bound by Fate. What will be is what must be."
She reaches out with her free hand and catches the gathered water, but it explodes in her hand, shearing off the electricity that was empowering her and cleansing her of the magical force that she'd brought to bear a moment ago.
This is where Magilou's shikigami weigh in. The kiss wafts towards her--and the small spirits erupt from the ground. Where a human would struggle to lift her, the shikigami are quite able. Grigori rises into the air with them, and the explosion that follows is beautiful, sends light cascading in all directions.
When the Watcher touches down again, she crashes into the ice, shattering ground around her; some of her soldiers quail behind her and start to fall back.
"...Support Voss. Protect the base. I will handle these." They break off, and move to do that... which may be a mercy on her part. To them.
But she notices Paine's fervent protection of Lulu there. Her expression remains unreadable, but she turns to face Paine next. To deflect her spell is no mean feat, even with the clear effort it took.
"Then show me your ire, Guardian."
Leah is not threatened by bullets; they deflect against her armor, one by one... until they start to hit her hands as well, and send her partially off-balance, too much a curtain of fire for her to operate freely beneath. Her fingers close into a fist.
Lightning crackles forth from it, shooting forth at Paine in forking blasts to buy her a moment in the melee with the others. This is the point at which Rikku retaliates. The first grenade she deflects easily, cutting through it with her sword--but the second comes to her feet and explodes in a cloud of caustic blue mist that begins to eat away at the gilt and indigo of her armor. "Hmph. I stand corrected, Guardian."
She snaps her fingers, and a blast of water erupts from that hand. It crashes towards Rikku, and may well freeze her in place--except that it turns to become raw blue energy as it hits, and flies back to her as restorative energy. In the next moment she swings at the ground, and then the ice erupts forward, shattering on its way to Magilou to undo the ground at her feet.
She whirls, then, and her tabard whirls with her. She slams her weapon down at Layna, and power gathers all around her, the blade shining that much more strongly, as she advances--towards Yuna. "Such force... We must end this now."
She lifts that sword to the sky and slams it downward, a shockwave of force erupting from its ARM blade. the shockwave knocks over trees in its passage, aimed straight at Yuna and the sphere that is her concentration.
"Spira's hope is dead just like all Spira's spirit."
If someone doesn't get in the way...
GS: Leah Sadalbari has activated a Force Action! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Paine with Anemo Rush! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Rikku with Aqua Decree! GS: Recover! Cripple and Disease removed from Leah Sadalbari! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Magilou with Rockbreaker! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Layna Manydays with Leaden Strike! GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Colossus Dispatch! GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Rikku suffers a terrible blow from Leah Sadalbari's Aqua Decree for 311 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Leah Sadalbari drains Rikku! Leah Sadalbari gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: Strain! Leah Sadalbari takes 100 damage! GS: CRITICAL! Layna Manydays critically guards Leah Sadalbari's Leaden Strike for 60 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Layna Manydays gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Magilou partially guards Leah Sadalbari's Rockbreaker for 110 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Magilou gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Magilou enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Kill, no -- his personnel are not badly hurt by the onslaught. Even the burst of ice their way is mere scratch damage, particular for Simmel who Loren shielded. But it's hard for them to know -- for him to know -- if it's a salvo that struck more lightly by chance or whether it's intentional. Others are not as likely to be as kind as Lan towards Solarian medical officers, arguably for well-merited reasons.
And then he has a more immediate problem than even 'someone trying to kill him and a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears medical officers'.
Lan Lilac is fighting him.
"Students?" he echoes, as if trying to get his brain back on track here. It wasn't that long ago that they'd crossed paths in the woods near here, that they'd had a rather personal conversation (not like that) (he thinks anyway), and in which he'd even had a nice cup of tea.
And now she's-- well, not trying to kill him, anyway. But definitely causing trouble. "--Why are you here?" he retorts at last, trying to keep the shield between him and her. He still hasn't gone for his blade, or even directed a burst of Ether in her general direction. Blue eyes flit towards Lydia, across the field and in her own scrum, and incredulous, he registers a thumbs-up. Why is it always like this?
Lan chooses this moment to slip past his defenses, delivering a flurry of blows upon his person, the last of which -- a drive to the solar plexus -- has him crumple like a wadded-up piece of paper.
Is Loren okay, as Rachiel so asks? He makes a noise, still unable to get a full breath in. It'll have to do.
Complete humiliation, however, is not in the cards for him this day. On the Grigori's orders, Lan soon has trouble enough for her as a portion of the Watcher's soldiers breaks off to lend the beleagured medical officer some aid.
"For the Emperor!"
A blade flashes through the air, wielded by a man who had studied it well in school... and honed it in Solaris' campaigns on Filgaia. And there are more of them yet to come, to press and test Lan to her limits.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Claw meets Tidus, and sword meets Azoth, slamming against his metal chassis and sliding off to the side. His shoulder sparks once. Azoth rises to his full height, but Tidus' slowing magic keeps him lagged in time as he fights to continue his advance.
"Objective set. Cannot abort process."
It's enough for Tidus to cleave a ranged blade of water through Azoth's more sensitive parts, exposed within that skeletal frame of his. Wires break and chords sever, spraying sparks and heat.
Azoth does not relent.
A battle rages around them. Yuna vulnerable. Lydia reluctant. Leah terrifying. Lan and Loren fighting in a way that Azoth can do nothing to stop. His orders are battle. He's a weapon, made to destroy. There is no going gentler to only buy time. The overrides have become exceedingly ungentle: if Azoth can remove a priority target, he seems to be executing every intent to do it.
Plates of his chassis shift. His tail reorients. Azoth charges Tidus down on all fours, zig-zagged and tearing across the ground. The magic slowing him distorts, Azoth vanishing to appear in the air and spin a roll down onto Tidus with his entire body -- bladed tail included.
His core burns, hotter and hotter, but mitigated. Azoth's not threatening to fall apart beyond the damage Tidus himself can deal to him. For now.
GS: Azoth spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Azoth has attacked Tidus with exec.azoc TRANSMUTE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Recover! Slow removed from Azoth! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Loren Voss spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Meteor Break! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Tidus takes a glancing hit from Azoth's exec.azoc TRANSMUTE for 158 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tidus gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Paine suffers a terrible blow from Leah Sadalbari's Anemo Rush for 152 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Lan Lilac fully evades Loren Voss's Meteor Break for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated a Force Action! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Leah Sadalbari's Colossus Dispatch for 120 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
When it comes to Lydia, the feeling between Lanval and Lydia is mutual. He may well have been trying to stall for time with small talk just so Lydia would have had to struggle with doing what she didn't want to do for less time, but alas, the team tactics between handler and asset are just too well-ingrained by now.
(More on that in a moment.)
"'m a Water Seraph!" Lanval says... but he's a bit more than that, he's suffused with some of Schturdark's power so he's more of a double water spirit. He rolls backwards up to a stand, where he retrieves his drinking gourd as Rachiel struggles to find her glasses. Then a lens pops out.
"Happensh ta me all the time," says Lanval, he who keeps bringing novelty beer bottle lens glasses to Digs... and loses the lens... and somehow finds more.
Rachiel boasts that they're the same, as unleashes a wave of water. Lanval holds an extended hand out, gentle, with a kindly smile and eyes starting to open half way as he takes that slicing water... catches it, starts to let it settle--
Lydia's presence adds an electrical element to it, and the particles within all go off and Lanval stands on end as it courses through him. His teeth are bared and clenched with an exaggerated grimace, beard hairs all spiking out as steam rises from him.
"Agagagagagagagagaaaaa---"
The team tactics between handler and asset are more than enough to overcome the baseline issue of having a superior water elemental for an opponent - handily, as Lanval flops over with a leg twitching up in the air for a bit.
As Rachiel asks if Loren needs ether support, Lanval curls his non-big toes inward as with the same energy as holding up a pointer finger.
"I think he needsh more 'n that... ain't ever recall sheein' him shmile," Lanval finishes that with a noise much like coughing. Not because he has lungs, it's just that breathing is a hobby, and stuff like hiccuping and coughing are equally entertaining.
"But if ya got shomethin' fer that, I won't shtop ya there," Lanval assures... kind of, as he lowers his leg back down on the ground... goes limp, and starts to make snoozing noises. Snoozing noises so powerful they form a Seraphic Arte glyph underneath him, as a floating bubble escapes - even in the cold in the air and on the ground! - towards Rachiel. A bubble that's floating ever closer to get her...!
...to become sleepy on the job, if it pops and unleashes its magicks upon her.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Lydia Seren with Sleeping Bubble! GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 1 Combo! GS: Riposte expired! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Lydia Seren partially guards Seraph Lanval's Sleeping Bubble for 77 hit points! GS: Drowsy applied to Lydia Seren! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore had definitely not expected to cave her head in that way. I mean.. she did to a degree, you don't swing around a big slab of metal without expecting a mess, but it's the wrong reaction and kind of mess. The headbutt is met with a bloodied grin and spitting blood to the side. "Oh we're going to have some fun." She says, though that was before the weird liquid goo thing. Which is both painful and uncomfortable in ways she hadn't really considered before aside from the pain. That's nothing new. She staggers briefly when it ends, then spins on her heel to face Lydia again. She's got more cuts, slices and gouges all over now and she... hasn't lost that smile. "Ah. That drink offer was for alcohol, not whatever that was."
Avoiding a direct attack this time, she works her free hand's fingers a few times, ignoring the faint crunch as the gloves freeze. "Alright alright. Love running into other women that can brawl." Reaching out with her hand, she clenches her fist suddenly and ice forms in the air, almost like a jaw and slam together, shattering and spreading a bitter cold. Speaking of Ether support.
She does spare a glance for Lanval, making sure he's still holding together... that's how that works right? and a quick glance to Magilou as well. "I think she doesn't like me anymore." is her quip this time. Hey, Magilou's clearly the stronger wizard-y type here. She's playing by pointy ears.
GS: Ryoko Mizore has attacked Lydia Seren with Biting Cold! GS: Ryoko Mizore has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Why are you here, he asks. Why is she ever here? She doesn't think it'll go well if she has to tell him 'because I wanted you to not get Drifter-murdered for being super mean and petty to everybody over the course of years'. "Because friends asked me to be here," she settles on eventually, shortly after she's left him sucking air. Good, now she can tie him up or something. Short on options, she's thinking about reaching for her hair ribbon when-
'FOR THE EMPEROR!'
"For crying out loud!" Lan complains, sidestepping away from the saber's path. At least they're not the newbie medics that arrived with Loren - what's she supposed to do about those guys, shoo them away with a broom or something?
The Watcher's shocktroops are going to be a headache, on the other hand. Already another one - female, she thinks, from the armor shape - is charging in after him with her own sword - and the blade gleams dully with Ether.
Her center of gravity will be lower; Lan lets the thrust come and turns to clap both arms around the woman's sword-arm, lowering her own body and letting momentum carry the soldier into a tumble. If she did it right, it'll wrench the arm partway out of the socket. The soldier will have to retreat.
...Of course, if she did it wrong Lan's just going to have two angry crazy people trying to stick her with weapons. Three, if you count Loren.
GS: Lan Lilac spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Loren Voss with Move Like Water! GS: Lan Lilac has launched an attack Link! GS: Lan Lilac has entered Link Stance! GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Loren Voss with Misterioso! GS: Lan Lilac has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss suffers a terrible blow from Lan Lilac's Move Like Water for 95 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper, Quick, and Riposte applied to Lan Lilac! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated! GS: Loren Voss takes a solid hit from Lan Lilac's Misterioso for 158 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Cover removed! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated! GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Magilou happens to be quite familiar with the brutality of ice. Anyway.
She hops back, one step, two, and her shikigami extends in front of her to catch the icicles as they crash in. The joviality of her response matches poorly to the ferocious speed of the ice, the violence it does to the ground, chill spires ERUPTING with all the ferocity of birth.
They batter at the shikigami, and Magilou wibble-wobbles as the ground around her trembles. "Whoa!" She yelps, as she lifts a leg to avoid being shish-ka-bobbed by one of those chill lances, sliding to one side of her shield. "You almost skewered me! That is SO RUDE!"
She's trying to skewer Yuna as well, of course. Magilou is, mysteriously, not calling much attention to that -- not calling much attention to why they're here at all.
To hear her tell it, they're just messing around, just as Leah expects.
"Hey, hey! There are plenty of spirits on Spira still alive! Just look at that guy!" Magilou jerks a thumb over to Lanval... riiiight as he drops down to supposedly have a nap. "Oh, come on, that does not count. That doesn't count, right?" Magilou asides, to her fellows. "He's clearly just sleeping. He's still alive, he's just insufferably lazy. It's totally different!"
Magilou harrumphs, as she steps forward, closer to Grigori's space.
"But if you want to end this, I'll play. Spell Absorber," Magilou remarks, all too casually, as a flash of bright light emanates from her -- something like violet and ice-blue butterflies, fluttering out.
GS: Magilou has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Spell Absorber! GS: Magilou enters a Counter stance! GS: Magilou gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Magilou has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari suffers a terrible blow from Magilou's Spell Absorber for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Ryoko Mizore heals Lydia Seren! She gains 175 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
'I noticed,' Paine says. Tidus gives her a quizzical look--but that's all they've got time for. To Rikku, he shoots a thumbs-up at her confidence--then they're all scattered across the battlefield. If Tidus manages to help Magilou out with all his swordplay, it's entirely by accident. Still, given that she's on their side for the time being, it's a happy one.
Azoth rises to his full height. It's honestly pretty intimidating. To try to cover it up, Tidus shouts, "I don't know what you're talking about, but if you mean Yuna, you've got another think coming before I'll let you lay a single claw on her, you big rustbucket!"
It doesn't matter if he's afraid. He *has* to keep this thing here. Besides--as big and powerful as this thing is, it also seems weirdly flimsy. How has this machina kept functioning all this time when it takes damage like a pane of glass??
No time to wonder about that. Once again, Azoth charges, then vanishes and reappears. Tidus expects it this time, and is also on his guard now. He's thus a little more ready for it when Azoth attempts to slam-roll into it--emphasis on 'a little.' Tidus leaps to one side in time to avoid getting crushed to death, but the impact alone rattles his eardrums, the heated core scorches his exposed skin and burns his winter coat, and that bladed tail cuts through the covering he *does* have for this winter vista.
Worse still, there's a chill *inside* Azoth too that dispels some of that raging heat. One would think the outside chill's bad enough. (If anything inside Azoth also comments on the battle, Tidus doesn't know anything about that.) Still, even injured, and even facing two different temperature extremes, Tidus remains light and nimble on his feet.
"C'mon, is that the best you can do?! My grandma could move faster than that!" he jeers, and never mind that he doesn't have a grandma. He snakes in and carves his blade in towards exposed wires in an attempt to mess them up further and make this machina go even slower. The slower it gets, the more time they've got...!
GS: Tidus has attacked Azoth with Quick Hit! GS: Tidus has completed his action. GS: Azoth partially evades Tidus's Quick Hit for 87 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: Ryoko Mizore has attacked Lydia Seren with Cold Snap! GS: Ryoko Mizore has gained 2 Combo! GS: Hyper expired! GS: Ryoko Mizore has completed her action. GS: Gamble: Low! Lydia Seren partially guards Ryoko Mizore's Cold Snap for 77 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
Casting a quick glance at Rikku, Paine nods, satisfied that the throat injury is not as bad as it might have been. Getting hit there can become dangerous fast. Tidus, too, seems to be taking some hits, but with Leah advancing on Yuna and Lulu, she can only hope he has it under control
The carbine never clicks on an empty chamber; Paine is always counting down in her head. When it runs out of ammunition, she lowers it even as she raises her sword, but suddenly must reverse those hands again, using the carbine to block the lightning from Leah's fist. The machina weapon has no better insulation than her wire-hilted sword, however, and the lightning loses little of its strength on the way through. Paine's teeth clack shut in a spasm, her muscles locking and unlocking at painful random, her spine arching for a moment. Doggedly she advances, her gait now less even than Leah's, holding out the machina weapon simply to shunt the lightning through her arm rather than taking it directly to the chest.
Yet the ire Leah requested is fading rather than swelling. "That's... more... like it!" she wrenches through her clenched teeth. Tossing the machina rifle through the electrical streams, Paine buys herself a moment while it's in the air, where it remains in the way but is no longer attached to Paine to shock her. As the rifle falls, her ponderous sword Gravestone follows its arc down. But where the rifle ends its fall clattering on the ground, Gravestone seeks to crash instead atop the head or shoulders of Leah.
"Rikku," Paine calls, her sore jaw working through the name. "Someone's trying to leave before we pry her out to say hi."
GS: Paine has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Gravestone! GS: Paine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Paine has entered Avenger Stance! GS: Paine has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari suffers a terrible blow from Paine's Gravestone for 105 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Slow applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
'--stolen--' Ida's eyes narrow behind the flickering barrier of Rikku's shield. Berserk's laughter echoes in the back of her mind, and for a moment, that deep emerald-green flickers across her right iris again. "It was stolen, yes," she says, steel in her voice. "but it can be more."
Leah orders her soldiers--some of them, at least--to fall back. Ida leaps back, landing in the snow to let Paine get her shots in. She's not Al Bhed, so she must have been a Warrior-Monk, and Yevon doesn't skimp on their training. Ida watches as Paine empties an entire magazine in the Watcher's direction. Suppression, yes, but... evidence the enemy hasn't gotten any weaker.
"Layna!" Ida shouts, as Grigori whirls on her friend. But she's barely given time to breathe; the Watcher telegraphs her intent, but she is as inexorable as an avalanche. Ida knows exactly what she's aiming for without even looking. Without thinking, she leaps in between Grigori and Yuna, body almost horizontal, arms crossed before her chest. The gauntlets fan out into biometal shields. The force of the blow shatters both the moment it hits, but they do their job. Instead of smashing through to Yuna, the blow throws Ida back, and sends her skidding across the ice as she hits. Pain shoots up her arms from the point of impact. Grigori didn't quite crack or dislocate anything, but she came damn close.
"Keep thinking that," Ida croaks, as she plants a hand on the snow. Blood drips from her side as her injury partially reopens itself. "You've bound yourself to a God of cruelty. A god I reject with everything I have." Her eyes narrow as she meets that visor. "Spira is not dead while its people yet live. Right, Rikku?" She's behind Paine and Rikku, now, and raises both hands, indicating them. It occurs to her a moment later that she doesn't know Paine's name.
Ida digs both hands into the snow, and lifts them, sending a wave of powdery crystals into the air. In the next heartbeat, she rushes Grigori again, twists smoothly to the side. Breath glimmers in each ice crystal, and illusory duplicates rise on Ida's sides--they're only visible in the surface of water, whether that's the snow, the ice, or the Watcher's own sorcery. It looks like Ida's coming at her from every angle. It's like a weaponized version of Yuna's dance. It makes it easier to miss the real strike, a gauntleted uppercut to Grigori's jaw.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Coils of the Water Dragon! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Coils of the Water Dragon for 70 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: FP up! Power Burst, Evade bonus, and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"'Fate', aye...? Sorry, I'm gonna have to disagree with you there. I don't much believe in 'fate'. Me, I believe in one thing and one thing only - you want something, you gotta reach out and make it happen yourself. I got to where I am now under my own power." Layna replies with a shrug, shaking her head before pointing at Grigori. "Are you gonna tell me you're that strong only 'cause it was meant to be? That you didn't put blood, sweat, and tears of your own into gettin' this far?"
The battle is really heating up - she can't afford to let herself be distracted for long. She recites a quick incantation, and wind begins to swirl around her right fist. This timing, as it happens, is very convenient. Grigori whirls upon her, glowing blade swinging down toward her. She raises her right arm defensively, and the swirling winds redirect the descending sword. What should have been a fatal blow is averted - but even then, it's still quite the wound. Painful, but bracing - and Layna retaliates with a swift uppercut. As her arm moves, the bracer on her right arm flashes red as its magic is activated. The swirling winds are engulfed in fire, turning the uppercut into a rising tornado of flame.
Of course, she's soon given more reason to worry as Grigori turns her attention upon Yuna with a powerful wave of force from her blade. Gritting her teeth, Layna turns to move - but thankfully, Ida is already there to intercept it.
"Ida! You're still alright, aye?" Layna asks. Thankfully, that seems to be the case. She can feel that much relief, at least.
GS: Layna Manydays spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Searing Tempest! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari solidly guards Layna Manydays's Searing Tempest for 82 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leah Sadalbari gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: Leah Sadalbari enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia doesn't seem to understand things like not talking back to your superior officer or, for that matter, the general concept of shutting up when it would be better to not say anything. These are concepts beyond Lydia's ability. Not that Leah isn't legit for a Solarian, of course. She did kill a Siegfried who might be her mother's father figure but he didn't exactly apologize for trying to *checks notes* murder the planet. *checks notes* twice.
Rachiel says, "Oh gosh..." wtih wide eyes as Lanval practically reads her feelings about Loren outloud. "Oh gosh, it's true...! You understand." She sniffs as emoton overtakes her. "Loren is such a sweet guy. It's not his fault, you know. I mean it's not my story to tell but he's a really good guy once you get past the crusty exterior, trust me!"
A bubble starts floating towards Rachiel.
"You know, you're really easy to talk to." Rachiel says. "And, like, you just GET me. Oh but I'm not hitting on you, I mean I'd probably get sick if we hit the sack together and anyway there's someone else I'm hoping will notice me." Pause. "Not Loren either, he's just like...someone I admire, ok? I appreciate him platonically."
The bubble pops and Rachiel yawns. "Ahh, whew.... I don't usually sleep on the job--"
"Liar." Lydia says.
"But I'm startin'...to feel..."
She raises her sword into the air and then falls towards Lanval, blade first as she passes out for a moment.
"I 'unno," Rachiel says of what Loren needs to smile more.
Meanwihle Ryoko offers Lydia a drink...of NOT whatever that was.
"Wait, like, for real? Are you...hitting on ME?"%rThis is a new experience for Lydia and she doesn't know what to do with it as she gets bombarded with ice and she hugs her arm, shaking for a moment because she still THINKS she can get cold and that's real enough to her.
Lydia raises her hand and says, "Solais Emsu--" as he fires Guardian powered light towards Ryoko! "--I mean, uh, Rachiel!! Wake up!! Is this the best you can do?? Tidus's grandma can move faster than that! And I know you can move faster, geeze!! You're making me look bad! It's bad enough I'm probably gonna end today having to stab the nicest person on Spira???? Least you can do is be awake for it!"
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Still standing!" says Ida's voice, from somewhere in the labyrinth of Idas around Grigori.
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Ryoko Mizore with Optimized Material - Solais Emsu - RESONANCE.EXE! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Seraph Lanval with Optimized Material - Solais Emsu - RESONANCE.EXE! GS: Disrupt and Surge expired! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
With a snap of her fingers, Leah creates a Rikkusicle. Frozen in place momentarily, the only reason she prevents even worse injury is the fact that she has a fire gem in her hand. Which erupts, melting the frozen tomb before things get much worse. Still though, she drops briefly, shivering and hugging herself. "I-I-It feels like you resent being c-corrected a l-l-little."
'Spira's hope is dead just like all Spira's spirit.' Again though, Leah sends an attack towards Yuna, and Rikku's breath catches, as she can't get there in time, but thankfully it's intercepted by Ida before it can strike the sphere. Rikku just feels this immense relief, "Good c-c-catch Ida!" Beating her arms then slapping her hands and trying to rub them, a bit more color returns to her cheeks, though she's obviously not doing so hot. Still she manages one quivering thumbs up back at towards Tidus.
One step at a time. She slowly tosses a tiny sphere in her hand up and down in a palm. The next time she tosses it higher, as she snaps off a grenade casing, makes a few quick motions with the insides, and catches the sphere in the casing, snapping back on the cover.
"We can't have that Paine! This party's just-" This grenade, Rikku lofts lazily in Leah's direction. Seeming not to care whether it's too accurate. "-started!"
The reason she doesn't care is imminently obvious, because... Chaos just erupts, the grenade doesn't seem to detonate from the single spot from which it landed, but at complete random amongst the ranks of the Gebler soldiers and around Grigori blooming into a chaotic sequence of detonations in hues of red, and yellow, green, and blue, and violet. Each one wreaking a new type of agony upon them.
And once it's done, one last detonation occurs in all of the colors. Spelling out a word in Al Bhed Runes - it's perhaps easy to guess what it is even if you can't read it.
R I K K U
"No need to bring out the sphere recorder this time. I know you got great footage of it before!"
GS: Burst added to Rikku! GS: Rikku has activated a Force Action! GS: Rikku spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Rikku has attacked Leah Sadalbari with CHAOS GRENADE! GS: Rikku has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rikku has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
That, of all the possible decisions Lan could have made insofar as what its effect on Loren's ego would have been, was a wise decision indeed.
'Because friends asked me to be here', she tells him, and he manages to get in an incredulous look before she manages to drop him.
Somewhere, his physical defense instructor back in Jugend is burying his face in his hands with a groan.
It would have been bad, in the sense that Loren's ego would have had a time recovering.
'FOR THE EMPEROR!'
This, though, is arguably worse.
He rises to his feet jerkily, ahead of what he's actually capable of doing; a green reticulated light rolls over him and that might well take care of the worst of it. His hand is on the hilt of his sword. It comes free easily.
His junior medics would have been a pushover, without question. But these are veterans. They're familiar with Lamb trickery . They have enough expertise under their belts to know what they're doing and -- more importantly -- an extremely healthy fear of the Watcher and the knowledge that she is... displeased.
This one may be in trouble later, accordingly, should she survive. She might be familiar with Lambs, but she's not familiar with Lan. Unarmed, her body wiry and strong, and most of all with speed on her side, Lan catches her swordarm and lets momentum bear the veteran down. The scream will let her know she's done the job properly.
"You-- filth!" spits her fellow soldier, and he's for her in a flurry, blade born as if he could cleave Lan in two.
Loren, his own sword slid free from its sheath, has found himself at his own impasse. The last time he fought Lan-- the last two times...
Her screams, from the nightmare, still ring in his ears.
But he can't stop this. And he can't stand by.
Stone rises as a tide for her, perhaps bearing her away across the field. Maybe it'll interrupt the veteran's attempt upon her. Or maybe it won't.
GS: Loren Voss spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Terra Axiom! GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Cripple expired! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Ryoko Mizore solidly guards Lydia Seren's Optimized Material - Solais Emsu - RESONANCE.EXE for 102 hit points! GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval takes a solid hit from Lydia Seren's Optimized Material - Solais Emsu - RESONANCE.EXE for 198 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Leah Sadalbari suffers a terrible blow from Rikku's CHAOS GRENADE for 204 hit points! GS: Blind, Drowsy, Mute, and Poison applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
An asset for battle, equipped for violence, and yet always moments away from being torn apart -- either by itself or opponents on the battlefield. It's a disaster of a design, when put like that. But it's a machina, after all. A machine. A construct. It only has to get its current job done as long as it can be put back together afterward.
That chill within Azoth's core provides a number of operational improvements. Very clever, whoever managed to incorporate that into him.
"Force insufficient," Azoth says to Tidus in his ever robotic voice, echoing with a reverb suggesting a size beyond the one standing before him. "Suggested behavior: Retreat."
He spares a glance to Yuna.
"Predicted behavior: Failure to comply."
And Tidus is right. If he cannot occupy Azoth's attention, then Azoth becomes someone else's problem. Tidus only needs to survive a little bit longer. Yuna only needs to complete whatever she's doing while everyone else makes it mathematically impossible for anyone to stop her.
Azoth hopes that they can. He hopes Yuna will still have all of her Guardians when it's over.
That doesn't stay his hand. Or claw.
He's fast, but so is Tidus, darting in and grazing important strikes against delicate internals, producing more sparks. Hit the right one, and the machina should come crashing down, right? Yet it refuses, no matter how many errors surge through Azoth's circuits.
"Request for increased output approved."
Azoth raises a claw, squeezing each digit in as light gathers into a thrashing, red sphere. He jerks it to the side, the swipe of his arm fanning out three blades of energy. They reorient and twist in space, aimed at Tidus, and then dart forward toward him, one after another, to strike explosively against him.
GS: Azoth spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Azoth has attacked Tidus with exec.ohr REFORMAT ! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Delay expired! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Azoth has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"That one is a spirit of Filgaia. He doesn't help your argument." To Magilou about Lanval, naturally. For some reason though she isn't... getting particularly annoyed with Magilou's irreverent manner, apparently. She just engages with it directly. And so when Magilou remarks casually about her next spell--
"Hmm. An absorbtion type spell. Interesting." She lifts her sword and slams it down as a focus, melting more snow beneath her feet. Lightning wreathes her body and erupts towards Magilou, attacking that spell head-on before Grigori turns towards the others once again.
This sends her face to face with Paine who forces her way hrough the lightning. Grigori notes with some interest the way she overcomes her pain. The way she wrenches that statement through. She instructed her to show her ire, and so she does. Grigori swings up her blade to parry--but Paine's slides across hers and hacks into her arm.
Sparks fly as Paine's blade digs not into flesh but machinery, hard cold metal freezing its way through in the moment, through her armor.
Ida, meanwhile, has blocked the Watcher's strike. Oh, her shields shatter--but she has prevented the Watcher from interfering with Yuna, for the moment. "The limited perspective of a limited mind. You understand nothing of the divine. And Spira? Spira is a corpse shuffling along out of inertia."
Dozens of duplicates are visible in the reflections of Grigori's armor, of the icy ground around her, of the boxy structures of the base. They all crash towards Grigori, and impossibly, she starts to parry them. One after another, faster than she should be able to move. But the final strike--
Something cracks underneath Ida's fist, and it is Grigori's helmet. The voice modulator breaks, revealing a feminine voice marked by hardship and coldness.
"Fool." Reaching forward, the Watcher settles a weight over Ida, a sudden sorcerous field of unbearable force. It will be a struggle to stay up--a struggle to stand--a struggle not to kneel. "Face a sliver of power. Do you think history will recall you kindly, girl?"
Layna's uppercut slams into the Watcher--the initial blow strikes hard metal, but the flaming tornado ignites part of her tabard, though the cold quickly puts that out, along with the rising snows. She regards Layna for a moment, a drop of blood dripping through the broken helmet at the base of her chin. "I will tell you exactly that. Once, 'free' pirate, I was an ordinary soldier. I was lifted up from death as part of a greater plan. ...I am where I must be. Nowhere else."
But before she can initially counterattack, Rikku swings in with her grenade. Her banter doesn't land; the Watcher simply doesn't respond. But she turns towards the grenade and is facing right towards it at the soldiers. Soldiers that were meant to defen the base fall, one by one, many overtaken by the sheer power of Rikku's explosion. But the last, the one that bears her name--that explodes point-blank at Grigori's feet.
The crack in her helmet is wider; there is blood there, and the beginnings of a jawline. She is still standing. ...But more of her mechanical arm has been revealed as the armor is slowly battered through.
"...Not bad. But are you ready to party with me?"
She jumps suddenly, rising into the air and falling back amidst the fallen soldiers who were once serving her and now hope only to keep their lives. She puts both hands on her blade, and a whirlwind erupts around her. She spins, and cuts the air, pure force erupting towards Layna and Paine both in a flashing arc of lightning. It does not go for Rikku; Rikku gets something else.
"Stubborn girl." The Watcher simply charges her, shoving her out of the way with a shoulder before she readies another towering strike, blade too bright an burning six, twelve, eighteen feet tall as she slams it down towards Yuna's position again. How will it be possible to stop this?
Regardless, she snaps her fingers one more time, and is suddenly both lighter and heavier both, able to dance through strikes despite her great mass.
"...Solarian forces," her voice booms out. "Continue the assault."
GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Magilou with Anemo Crash! GS: Delay expired! GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Gaze of History! GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Paine with Hurricane Cutter! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Layna Manydays with Hurricane Cutter! GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Rikku with Colossus Dispatch! GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Gravity Module! GS: Leah Sadalbari takes 32 damage from Poison! GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari accepts Leah Sadalbari's Gravity Module for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: CRITICAL! Rikku suffers a terrible blow from Leah Sadalbari's Colossus Dispatch for 411 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures, SOS Overdrive, and Gleam activated! GS: Rikku enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Disease and Entangle expired! GS: Rikku has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Delay! Attack greatly weakened! GS: Tidus takes a glancing hit from Azoth's exec.ohr REFORMAT for 106 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Tidus receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Layna Manydays has activated a Force Action! GS: Layna Manydays takes a glancing hit from Leah Sadalbari's Hurricane Cutter for 90 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Layna Manydays gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Weaken applied to Layna Manydays! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's Cripple Ward prevents an effect! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey partially guards Leah Sadalbari's Gaze of History for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break, Interrupt, Jam, Mute, Slow, and Weaken applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Leah Sadalbari enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: COUNTER! Magilou counterattacks Leah Sadalbari with Counter Attack! GS: Magilou takes a solid hit from Leah Sadalbari's Anemo Crash for 171 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Magilou gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Ha ha ha, yeeaaaah," Lanval's formative days with making Loren's life interesting in ways he doesn't really want to began from when he broke his mind over the idea of a bottle cannibalizing the contents of another bottle, and honestly it's gone downhill from there.
Not out of malice. Seraph Lanval's Domain is that of enhancing small joys, and when in the company of someone who does not seem to ever get the chance to experience them... well, Rachiel gets one here, and there is vibing.
"Ahhh, it'sh fine, washn't takin' it like that," Lanval waves a hand at the flustered defense about not hitting on him, as the bubble pops and goes forth on its sleep-inducing magic. He turns on his side in a subtle movement as Solais Emsu's power erupts, to lean juuuuuust out of the way of the beam of light's influence and impact radius.
It is nowhere near out of the way to avoid getting stabbed in the butt by a passing out Rachiel, putting forth another exaggerated-looking wince that is making him reconsider as to whether or not being within the outer edges of a Solais Emsu light beam-splosion might've been the better call.
Lydia pours out her frustrations about Rachiel sleeping for a deeply stressful thing she has to do, and once Lanval has control of his faculties from being stabbed in the butt...
"Mmmmph. All right, 'll try 'n get her up." Lanval holds up the drinking gourd in one hand, and... goes through the usual Seraphic Arte incantation as he starts to tip the drinking gourd down on Rachiel. "Good thing it'sh cold out, guessh I don't gotta make the water any colder, not that I--"
Beat. "Y'know I don't think I should be pourin' that much."
Case in point, it's like a river rapid trying to swallow Rachiel up and carry her away, even after Lanval ceases to have the waters flow from it.
"Yep!" He won't let Rachiel drown in a worst case scenario, at least!
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Lanval spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Lydia Seren with Spilling Goblet! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Leah Sadalbari suffers a terrible blow from Magilou's Counter Attack for 159 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore always talked back to most of her superiors, she's got a reputation for it. She had a reputation for good work and she kept it limited to all, but the biggest bosses, but hey. She is trying to get an idea of what those two are going on about. Messing with people is fun! Keep them off guard, makes it easier to leverage them. Either for an advantage, or... you know, something else. That bubble and the subsquent nap-time attack is a new one though.
Case in point, she definitely caught Lydia off guard. "Since I'm pretty sure you can survive this anyway-" She winds up, ice forming along the entire length of the bat-styled club. Still bitter cold and jagger. "-After that. I don't see why not". Clearly seeing this as a job and nothing personal! As noted. After though, she then hops back, takes a few lumbering steps forward to get the momentum and swings the oni-worthy club in a powerful overhead swing. Shattering on impact with.. just about anything and bursting outward. Shards of ice, clinging cold and frost in the immediate area around the impact. She's not going to admit defeat, but things are starting to hurt and she knows her limits. Might as well go all out. Or she'll have to revamp her ideas. Or cut out and... well that wouldn't do.
GS: Ryoko Mizore spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Ryoko Mizore has attacked Lydia Seren with Devastate! GS: Ryoko Mizore has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ryoko Mizore has completed her action. GS: Paine solidly guards Leah Sadalbari's Hurricane Cutter for 83 hit points! GS: Weaken applied to Paine! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Lan Lilac has activated a Force Action! GS: Lan Lilac takes a glancing hit from Loren Voss's Terra Axiom for 63 hit points! GS: Disrupt and Interrupt applied to Lan Lilac! GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Lan Lilac has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It's not satisfying to feel that soft-tissue-pop or hear the other woman's scream, but it is a kind of grim relief. The feeling is short-lived, however, as the other comes after her with a renewed energy and a series of pressing blows. "You're trying, to KILL me," Lan reminds him a bit incredulously (still, somehow, even after all her time spent among Solaris's 'elect') while twisting her body out of harm's way over and over. "I'm trying to, send, you home to your -- oop! -- family!" A decisive hammerkick to the man's elbow when he's extended the arm too far is meant to disarm him - not literally! "Why am I always the bad guy to you?"
Lan continues the movement by kicking up into the air and coming down for him heel-first, hoping to drive him into the earth--
The earth that's rising up to obey Loren's will.
She stumbles upon hard contact with the ground, feeling the bad landing in both of her knees. "Oof--!" But rather than stop, Lan keeps running. Running, uh...
...away from Loren. For a few yards, anyway. At fifteen-ish yards, Lan leaps into the air and just... hangs there, floating weightless above the battle.
"O you of glittering silver," she prays, hair spread behind her like a cape. "O treasure of the night sky--" The shape of her god begins to form at her back. And Lan, pushed forward with the power of a meteor, falls to earth heel-first for Loren.
Maybe this will knock him out for a little while!!
GS: Lan Lilac spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Loren Voss with Material - Shooting Star! GS: Lan Lilac has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action. GS: Lydia Seren has activated a Force Action! GS: Lydia Seren solidly guards Seraph Lanval's Spilling Goblet for 58 hit points! GS: Mute and Poison applied to Lydia Seren! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Ryoko Mizore's Devastate for 145 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Ryoko Mizore! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated! GS: Loren Voss has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Guard! GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened! GS: Loren Voss solidly guards Lan Lilac's Material - Shooting Star for 71 hit points! GS: Hex applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated! GS: Loren Voss enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Is she ready to party with her? It doesn't feel like she could be.
As she charges her, Rikku gets herself ready, but the Watcher shoulder checks her out of the way. The force of her charge is massive, so Rikku's comparatively tiny frame is no obstacle. And thus there's no chance of stopping her, before she gets to Yuna? Is there?
Rolling with the blow, Rikku breaks into a run, her speed alchemically enhanced as her footsteps churn snow behind her. The blade Grigori wields grows too long, before it starts to crash down.
... Right as it's about to hit... Rikku skids to a stop right in front of Grigori. And...
Attack
Skill
Special -> (t)Steal
Item
... the blade abruptly vanishes right before it would connect with Yuna and the sphere. The bright blade just blinking seemingly out of existence. The Al Bhed Guardian looks Grigori right in the eyes, a long burn mark down her arm, her shoulder, her Torso. The alchemical barriers erected the only thing that kept her from being cut right in half.
Despite the awful wounds, her other hand suddenly reveals the blade hilt of her ARM as if in a magician's sleight of hand trick. Having declared herself 'The Merriest' in her ambitions, she offers a smile that only someone with that title can offer, and flings away the hilt to the side as far as she can.
Then collapses into the snow right in front of her, unconscious.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
A sound call there. Tidus isn't going to run while his friends--while the woman he loves--still need him. It remains extremely weird to him that he's having a conversation with a war machine, though. He isn't in a good spot to think through the implications of that, but he might wonder about it later. Assuming he doesn't have something else to worry about.
Like, say, the Watcher butchering people over on her side of the battlefield, leaping up and sending gouts of power all around her and towards Yuna--including through Rikku. "No!!" Tidus shouts, attention ripped their way for a moment. He grits his teeth and shakes his head and forces himself to focus back on Azoth. Ida, Paine, and Layna are still there, and Lulu's still at Yuna's side. He's got to trust that they've got their side handled, because if he runs over to them, there's absolutely nothing stopping this machina from rampaging right over.
More to the point, Tidus doesn't have nearly enough control over this battle to risk turning his back on it. Case in point: Azoth materializes blades of red light, then triple-wields them against him. Tidus manages to parry some of the blows, but it leaves him exhausted, and several manage to make it through to leave a series of cuts. Nothing fatal, but dangerous if left alone for too long. Bleeding out is a thing, after all.
Concentrating his magic in another series of waves of energy that flow out from his feet, Tidus thrusts one hand out towards Azoth. "Take this--you're all washed up!" he shouts, maybe influenced by a long friendship with Lulu. A massive orb of water materializes over the machina, then *crashes* down towards its already injured parts. Tidus's logic is simple: water + electronics = bad. Hopefully he's done his math right.
GS: Tidus spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Tidus has attacked Azoth with Waterga! GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Tidus has completed his action. GS: Azoth's Poison Ward prevents an effect! GS: CRITICAL! Azoth takes a solid hit from Tidus's Waterga for 238 hit points! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Rikku's shield is gone, but it bought Ida time. More importantly, it bought Yuna time. That's the ultimate strategy here--keep the Solarians off Yuna or the ritual fails, with catastrophic results for this little corner of Lunar.
The real Ida has precious little time to quail before the Watcher's terrifying speed, or to savor the impact of her fist smashing Solarian armor. Something descends from above, and shoves with horrific strength. It's like local gravity amplified itself by a factor of five or more, but only for Ida. She grits her teeth as the weight sinks into her shoulders. She bends forward. Her knees start to buckle. She knows what Grigori is trying to do.
'Do you think history will recall you kindly, girl?'
"I won't--give you the--" And then the breath rushes from Ida's lungs in a sharp wheeze. She's powerless to stop what happens next. From Ida's perspective, Rikku is a tiny, blurry silhouette. She sucks in a pained breath, tries to cry out a warning, but what follows next is too quick for her aching eyes and pounding head to follow. The blade vanishes. Rikku collapses.
Deep emerald-green overtakes the steely-blue of Ida's right eye. Blue-steel veins stick out on her neck. "Guardian," she chokes, as she turns to Paine. "See to her. I'll--"
Ida rises. Exoskeleton pours out from beneath her clothes, knitting into solid plates of blue and gold and black. Hyadean muscle fibers multiply beneath Ida's skin. "Deal with her."
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Third Method - Shaping the Battle-Forged Shell! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 3 Combo! GS: Interrupt expired! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Third Method - Shaping the Battle-Forged Shell for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Cover applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia has been in 1 (1) relationship and there wasn't exactly excess flirting involved it was more a kind of two people being really awkward and worried about fucking everything up. Sweet things happened, but it was NEVER this kind of frank solicitation.
"Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh" Lydia says at Ryoko, face silvering all the way. "Why is everybody signaling sexy at me NOW and not BEFORE I got kidnapped by Solaris?? I don't even know what's real and just a book skirt girl being like a sassypants! I mean I like to think I'm okay with kisses after practicing on Ivan and that one time with Ragnell though that was like a Gay Kiss Training Thing, I'm like a baby gay compared to her, Ragnell's like the GANDALF of Lesbians and I mean technically I'm pansexual but I've statistically considered who I've historically been into except like the one time I was kinda into the person who later became my sister and THAT WAS PRETTY WEIRD I can't smooch my sister???? Anyway, there's been like two or three guys I've been attracted to and like maybe Twenty or Thirty girls so like on the GAY SCALE it's maybe only 80 percent gay but Ragnell is like 110 percent gay. She even wears a sexy cowgirl outfit and she's not even from Filgaia???"
A crackling glow shimmers around Lydia as she augments her defenses. Ryoko decapitates Lydia with another swing but the head evaporates before it hits the floor into a puddle of silver sludge.
Lydia's head pops out of the neck stump more quickly this time. "Hey stop that!! It CREEPS ME OUT because that's like MY HEAD you're knocking around!! How would you like it if I decapitated you?? I bet you'd feel real shitty about it!!"
She takes in a deep breath. She lets it out slowly.
Meanwhile Rachiel gets splooshed in the face.
"ARHRKRHAKLRGKLGnh!" Rachiel yelps as she hops up to her feet
And then promptly splooshes into the tiny river again. She blinks once.
"Ahhhh ydiaaaa...."
"OH FINE." Lydia shouts as she charges up her defenses further--
--and then leaps into the air, summoning one massive meteor in the air--
--and she kicks it, sending two giant honking chunks of flaming rock towards Lanval and Ryoko!
"I'm the BEAST of the party, yo!! You better be takin' me seriouslike or you gonna have a bad time!"
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Lydia Seren with I'm Still Here! GS: Lydia Seren heals Lydia Seren! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Lydia Seren! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Seraph Lanval with Optimized Material - Rigdobrite - METEOR SHOWER.EXE! GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Ryoko Mizore with Optimized Material - Rigdobrite - METEOR SHOWER.EXE! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren takes 22 damage from Poison! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval suffers a terrible blow from Lydia Seren's Optimized Material - Rigdobrite - METEOR SHOWER.EXE for 247 hit points! GS: Ryoko Mizore partially guards Lydia Seren's Optimized Material - Rigdobrite - METEOR SHOWER.EXE for 128 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Filgaia, Spira, potato, potahto..." Magilou gestures, tick-tock-tick-tock, with swaying arms and swaying hands. "A ghost's a ghost, from coast to coast!"
Leah's sword slams down, lightning erupts --
And the spell dissipates in the air, long before it reaches Magilou. That light flashes, pulses. The energy of the attack rushes through her, all at once, and entirely internally; there is no evidence, in the world outside, that the Watcher's lightning struck at all.
Her gaze falls on Rikku, as Leah descends on Yuna -- and finds some sleight of hand in her path. "... nice work," she assures the Merriest, tone dropping to something more serious in concert with Rikku dropping to the ground.
She asides to Tidus -- and to Paine, by extension: "I've got you. Oh, mystery woman~?" Magilou calls, and the shift between the two sentences is striking -- all the way from reassuring to absurd, with no stop in the middle.
"Tetra Detonator."
It's unfair, that Magilou should say it so lightly.
Althena's Blessing is something occupied with a single element at once. To command more than three is a terrific event; to know them all is one step from unthinkable. Mixing those elements is another step of mastery entirely -- distinct from, if reliant on, one's polyelemental talent.
And Tetra Detonator invokes every single terrestrial element.
One orb, darkening red, carries with it all the heat and fury of the firestorm. Another, deep yellow, holds all the promise of the mountaintops, unimpeachable, unshakable, unmoving. Rich green hosts all the memories of the fiercest tornado, ready to rip any girl from her source and her safety and her sense. Abyssal blue promises the crushing, absolute depth of the deepest ocean floor, as alien and unknowable as any field of stars.
They spin, almost lazily, around Grigori -- closer -- closer,
And then they meet.
The white of the explosion is nothing less than the birth of the universe.
Magilou was messing around, until, all a sudden, she isn't.
GS: Magilou has activated a Force Action! GS: Magilou has activated a Force Action! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Magilou has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Tetra Detonator! GS: Magilou has gained 1 Combo! GS: Magilou gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Magilou has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Silence!" roars the Gebler veteran, each heavy swing meeting naught but air. Is he watching where she is? Is he paying attention to the position of vulnerable body parts? There are places where body armor can't quite cover appropriately--
A howl rips through the air. Elbows, for example. Just like that, two elite soldiers are down for the count -- if they don't get prompt treatment, that is.
In this moment, though, isn't Loren's focus elsewhere? It takes effort for him to move earth like this. Healing energy is as easy as breathing, but this-- this is different. But even so, he's of the First Class. He cannot be denied, even if it takes him some time.
He shifts earth. It rises to meet Lan in a terrible rolling wave of stone and rock and dirt, snow spraying to either side as if it had been cut in two with quite a sharp knife. But look how she rises above it, and how she brings down the very heavens!
Loren, dropping to a knee, raises his shield to meet the oncoming storm of stars.
He takes a breath after that, sinking his will into the still-roiling stone and wills it to jolt upwards, to rise in an explosion of rock and dirt. He needs to buy enough time to get the soldiers treated and back on his feet, so they can--
So they can... what, precisely? Get back to trying to kill Lan?
But, even so, they're still his responsibility. Even if--
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Terra Set! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Highest! Leah Sadalbari takes a solid hit from Magilou's Tetra Detonator for 358 hit points! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The Watcher fells one of the Drifters. Azoth does not spare a glance. He does not need to. But it does not provide him with an advantage against Tidus -- the Drifters often manage to trust each other just a little too much for that.
It's a relief among his calculations: a battle that won't have to end attacking someone from behind.
Azoth is, under most circumstances, waterproof. Or at least water resistant. But with his internals slashed and further exposed, those are no longer benefits he fully maintains. Water crashed down with a digital shriek, electricity crawling through it and then sparking over Azoth's chassis in its wake. Steam or ice, his core cannot decide.
But he's reached the point where it becomes impossible for Ragnell to fully offset his energy output. Wires burn. Circuits scream. All this over a simple blade of energy that forms just outside his grasp...?
"Threat level re-evaluated. Revising stratagem."
He launches himself at Tidus, the amplifying that blade's power until it's giving off dangerous, crimson pulses. He aims a brutal thrust forward, and the blade swells a half second before it detonates, unleashing a violent shockwave of unstable ARM energy.
GS: Azoth has activated a Force Action! GS: Azoth has attacked Tidus with exec.mec DELETE! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore was really not expecting a life story of the beast woman's escapades through dating and the myriad of things there. "I have no idea who Solaris is, but kidnapping's a bad business. I avoided those jobs." There's a pause. then she gestures with her club like she's signaling for a homerun, "You're in the middle of a battle. Just walk out." She suggests at the idea. Shooting the.. metal whatever's partner a look. "Drag her along or flash freeze."
She points as the head pops back up. "See, knew you'd survive it." She grins and then hops back, hands on her club, fingers out of the way to catch the brunt of the meteor as she's pushed back and into the ground. Which she at least rolls out of. She's shakier than she'd like to admit. She's leaning on her club at this point. Sucking her breath in and holding it. She then kicks the clubhead back up to her shoulder and states, "I think I'll keep my head if it's all the same. Can't drink without it." And then there's a wild swing. Wide, like she's swinging for the fences. At least she's not aiming for the head this time!
She does lean hard into that swing though. Sure she feels bad on some level, but uh, it's not exactly like Lydia's not giving as good as she's got. Then there's a bright flash and she covers her eyes and ducks out of the way. Nope nope nope.
GS: Ryoko Mizore has attacked Lydia Seren with Crush! GS: Ryoko Mizore has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ryoko Mizore has completed her action. GS: Tidus partially evades Azoth's exec.mec DELETE for 318 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 26 damage! GS: CRITICAL! Lan Lilac takes a solid hit from Loren Voss's Terra Set for 74 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lan Lilac gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cover applied to Loren Voss! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lydia calls for attention, to be taken seriously, as Lanval asides to make sure Rachiel doesn't drown. (Also, his butt is still sore, but that's the last time we're going to be talking about that.)
There are two giant honking chunks of flaming rock, and Seraph Lanval is just... right in the epicenter of it, and there is a ground-shaking impact and newly formed crater that sends ice and water spraying everywhere. Also at least two trees. Meteor impacts, they killed the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents of birds.
Lanval survives this otherwise fatal impact on the grace of not being a part of a lineage that begat birds... to leave the lore at that.
(There is also not much offense to be had about pitting a manifestation of Ridgobrite against a direct servant of Schturdark. It's water's nature for everything to get inside it, pull it apart, corral it, and make it into whatever. It's fine.)
"....mmmmm."
Lanval's manifestation crawls out from under that giant flaming rock, looking weary in the sense of 'actually weary' and not the comical swerving and spinning he usually does. Water trails him from where he's wounded, showing in microcosm the expanse of which water takes forms great... and not. By mortal reckoning, there's a lot of colors in that trail.
"Mmm, y'know... I sherioushly do conshider ya a good friend," Lanval says as he wobbles to stay upright, a Seraphic glyph forming underneath him for the incantations native to his people, a call for Blessed Drops with the proper quotation marks and everything as large, shining globules of water start to rain down upon Lydia.
"'d rather we have a good time, thaaaaaaat'sh kinda my thing~"
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Lydia Seren with Blessed Drops! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
"Something like that," Paine agrees with Ida, in her understated way. There's some approval there, helped by the effectiveness of Ida's particular mixture of magic and brute force.
Seeing Rikku's name spelled in grenade makes her sigh. She gives the thief a look.
Leah's machine arm--cybernetic or more armor?--gets bared partially. Then, a bit of jaw. Human, it seems, or close enough. Paine is encouraged. Whirling back lest her landed blow become a liability, sword stuck where it cannot parry, Paine gives it a brief, flashy rotation, rolling and catching the hilt again as the sword windmills.
"Rikku," she says, as Leah forms a tower of a blade and begins to topple it. She and the thief need to stop it, somehow. Yuna and Lulu won't even know what killed them if they're hit with something so massive and deadly; it will be over in an instant. Paine's seen that, too many times. Quick, unheroic death. People who never got to know it was over. She backs up, as if readying herself to catch a ball that has popped high, high in the air. Her sword isn't a match for this monstrosity, but it will be a better speed bump than Rikku's daggers.
Perhaps Leah agrees with that assessment.
"Rikku!" Paine cries. As the blade crashes down, she's already rushing towards the little blonde, with her little daggers and her all too mortal body. Rikku won't be able to save herself, much less Yuna! And... it turns out only the first half of that is true.
Paine skids to a knee next to Rikku, planting her sword down. Her lips curled back in fury, she glances up and down her comrade's defeated form, watching for a breath. It takes a moment, during which the extent of the damage is horribly evident.
Then Rikku breathes, and Paine's jaw sets in a different position. The soldiers are approaching, goaded by the fall of the girl who had brought so many of them down with explosives, lured by the gap in Yuna's protection she has left. Paine is peripherally aware, as are the Solarians, as Tidus too takes a devastating blow. It heartens them. They think this is their chance, and the most eager, or perhaps the most fleet, of them is already upon Paine.
She rises, shoving off the ground with her feet, to greet him by clotheslining him across the upper chest. Her grey blade smashes his torso backwards as his feet keep moving forwards. He lands on his shoulders, folding over himself, as Paine strides past him.
"Yeah, Solarian forces," she urges, eyes on Leah. "Continue the assault."
Paine swings her blade one way by swinging her body the other, dodging and counterattacking the next Solarian as she passes. Step by step she demonstrates the swordsmanship of Yevon's most elite, her innate ferocity powering her through the efficient techniques of Crimson Squad close combat. Step by step the soldiers fail, at their cost, to keep her from Leah. Faster she goes, until the final distance falls away at a booted run, and Paine kicks off through a looping, dancelike approach that ends with a treacherous, deceptively angled over-shoulder swing to initiate swordplay with the adamatine Leah.
"Back," she orders sharply, as if to a dog. Yuna and Lulu lie behind her.
GS: Paine spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Paine has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Swordplay! GS: Paine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Paine has launched an attack Link! GS: Paine has entered Link Stance! GS: Paine spends 3 Combo on Poison and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Paine has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Don't Bother Blocking! GS: Paine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cover, Quick, and Shieldbreak expired! GS: Paine has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Lydia Seren solidly guards Ryoko Mizore's Crush for 39 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Lydia Seren! GS: Hyper applied to Ryoko Mizore! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated! GS: Lydia Seren partially evades Seraph Lanval's Blessed Drops for 97 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lydia Seren gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Leah Sadalbari takes a solid hit from Paine's Swordplay for 159 hit points! GS: Cripple applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: FP up! Power Burst, Guard bonus, and Sufferer activated! GS: Leah Sadalbari solidly guards Paine's Don't Bother Blocking for 98 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Leah Sadalbari! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Grigori's helmet is cracked, and the voice modulator is broken. It's enough to hear the voice underneath, and Layna regards it as she speaks.
"...'Lifted up from death', huh? I get it. So they made you this way. Guess I can see how you'd come to that conclusion, put through something like that." Layna replies with a shrug. "...But, thanks for that, though. You've made one thing pretty clear for me."
She points at Grigori again.
"This 'greater plan'? I'm gonna smash it. It, and everything else Solaris desires, as long as they're set on shoving their authority and control about. I'll show you that your 'Fate' doesn't mean anything." Layna declares.
It's big talk - but big talk has an equally big price. Grigori jumps and spins, force and lightning screaming toward her in an arc. Layna curses and dodges back. The escape is incredibly narrow - the ruined ground before her is proof of what could have happened if she was just a moment too late, but even then she did not escape unharmed. The sheer force of it causes her to skid back...but, she is given yet another reason to worry as Grigori's blade extends, towering to the heavens like a pillar of judgment.
Layna curses - she won't be able to make it in time to do anything... but, thankfully, someone intervenes a moment later. Rikku... Layna has to say, her skills are top notch. She approves.
"...Rest well, lass. Don't worru, we'll take care of things from here." She says.
And with that, Layna exhales. Her gaze fixates on Grigori for a brief moment... and then, she's gone.
It's only an instant later. There's only a faint breeze as a warning before Layna appears directly behind Grigori, a fist rocketing toward her back.
GS: Layna Manydays spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Dead Men Tell No Tales! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 2 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Leah Sadalbari solidly guards Layna Manydays's Dead Men Tell No Tales for 101 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Yes, Loren. So they can get back to killing your friend.
Starstuff pings and skitters off of Loren's shield as he wisely hunkers down to wait out the deluge. Lan, on the other hand, is a bit harder to ignore, her heels threatening to crack whatever the Devil ARM is made of when she makes contact with the force of a god at her back.
Flipping off of it, heels stinging, Lan opens her mouth to call out another spell, or maybe just to tell Loren to quit being stubborn, when the earth beneath her explodes in a shower of frozen dirt and rocks. "-Aucklscdn," is her eloquent opinion, tumbling backwards to land in the snow, spitting and wiping at her eyes. "Ugh-- cheap shot," Lan complains, but she can't say it's any cheaper than 'harrying the newbies with the magic equivalent of rock salt'. "Ptoo! Yuck."
With as much of the dust cleared from her eyes and mouth as she can reasonably expect, Lan runs in again. She can't give him time to get himself together. He looks like he's having second thoughts, or is maybe about to have a panic attack (it's hard to tell) and Lan can't let him remember that he's here to stitch Gebler soldiers together.
It's probably a war crime somewhere to harass the enemy medics like this, even if the medic can harass back.
Getting right back up in his face, Lan grabs for his shield-arm as if she's going to pull it free from his body, pulling the arm far enough to give her access to what of him isn't covered by armor. A brutally efficient series of jabs aimed for nerve clusters at the joints should get the idea across, right? "Listen, just stay down," she tries to tell him, dirty face nearly close enough to touch their foreheads together.
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Loren Voss with Counting Stars! GS: Lan Lilac has gained 1 Combo! GS: Interrupt expired! GS: Riposte expired! GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action. GS: Loren Voss's Break Ward prevents an effect! GS: Loren Voss takes a glancing hit from Lan Lilac's Counting Stars for 44 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Loren Voss gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quick applied to Lan Lilac! GS: FP up! Power Burst, SOS Overdrive, and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
The math checks out, and for an instant, Tidus has something to celebrate about in the middle of this chaotic battlefield.
Then the machina decides it needs to change tactics, and lunges for Tidus with a dangerously red blade. He moves fast enough to avoid getting run through, and that's a good thing, because if that shockwave of energy had gone off while *inside* of him, this story would have a very different ending. As it stands, that force RAMS into him like a sledgehammer, sending him flying to land hard and heavy in the slush.
For a few seconds, Tidus is still. Still breathing, but down for the count, surely. His coat's in tatters, he's bleeding from a dozen wounds, and there's no way he didn't break several bones from that attack.
Except...
Should Azoth turn away towards Yuna, he'll hear a hand grip a hilt; hear a gasp of breath; hear the scrap of sword on stone as Tidus shakily uses it to support him as he crawls back onto his feet.
"I'm... not... done... yet," he pants, blue eyes burning bright with anger and sheer bloody-mindedness. He leans forward, and it might seem like he's about to collapse anew--which isn't wrong. But he turns that energy into a forward run, a *charge*, a desperate last attempt to take this enemy down, or at least do as much damage as he can.
Swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe; the bubbling aquatic force of Brotherhood shines bright in the frozen air as Tidus slashes at Azoth over and over as he runs past, skids to a halt, and launches at him anew from a different direction. For the final blow, he launches himself like an arrow at the machina in the hopes that this one final hit will do the deed.
Because he definitely won't be able to handle another hit. If the only way he can buy time is by taking Azoth out, that's just what he'll have to do. (But in his state, can he pull it off?)
GS: Tidus has activated a Force Action! GS: Tidus has activated a Force Action! GS: Tidus has attacked Azoth with Slice and Dice! GS: Tidus has launched an attack Link! GS: Tidus has entered Link Stance! GS: Tidus has attacked Azoth with Quick Hit! GS: Tidus has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tidus has completed his action. GS: Azoth used Force Action: Mystic on himself! GS: Azoth suffers a terrible blow from Tidus's Slice and Dice for 177 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive activated! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Azoth takes a solid hit from Tidus's Quick Hit for 130 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated! GS: Azoth has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Grigori!" Lydia shouts. "Don't give them all your backstory at once or they won't respect it!"
Lydia IS giving a pretty rough time of it. Lydia doesn't want to fight Lanval either. Ryoko is easier since she started flirting with her and Lydia might be super horny but that doesn't mean that she's ready to deal with someone returning that interest casually like they sleep with beastladies all the time. Lydia is secretly kind of BODY SHY. What if she's not WOMAN ENOUGH for Ryoko?? Her body may be inhumanly malleable but she still conceives herself as, well, what she looks like most times.
"I can't WALK OUT." Lydia points out. "What part of slave soldier don'tcha get? If I LEAVE, OS will activate and drag me right back. Nobody can help me and I'm gonna be fucked having to fight and maybe kill my friends until you destroy Solaris or we destroy you! And that sucks!!"
"That's not my whole backstory by the way," Lydia says, lowering her voice. "So respect it."
Ryoko slams her hammer time right into Lydia's kisser and she goes flying. She's tiring. Her golden aura starts to dissipitate--and does so completely once Lanval dumps a bunch of water globules onto her.
Lydia drops down and scoops up Rachiel with one arm.
I sherioushly do conshider ya a good friend.
"I'd rather have a good time too," Lydia murmurs. "But that's not in the cards for me. Even if I were free, I'll always remember my parents wanted me to mutilate myslef."
Another pause.
And then a glance to Ryoko. "Still not my whole backstory."
She chucks Rachiel at her before reaching into her inventory and drawing out--
--a BOTTLE--An empty bottle!
She sets Rachiel down on the floor who quickly glomps onto her.
"My hero~" Rachiel says.
"GArgbjlrgajkrlgakjla MATERIAL CELESDUE!" Lydia shouts as she tries to gravity pull Lanval into the bottle. She thinks this is how it works.
Rachiel clears her throat and adjusts her glasses like Citan, pulling away. "Ah geeze this isn't exactly my best outing... But I'm pretty out of practice and they keep bringing my guard down by talking about how cute my friends are..."
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Seraph Lanval with Optimized Material - Celesdue - COSMO MEMORY.EXE! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lydia Seren takes 31 damage from Poison! GS: Drowsy expired! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Grigori's faceless mask makes seeing into her eyes impossible... but Rikku knows about where they ought to be, and despite that fact Grigori stares into Rikku's in the moment. The blade is gne; the burn mark shows a hit. And there...
"...Hm." The Watcher's sword is thrown away, and Rikku smiles before she collapses. "...So that is the spirit of the Al Bhed," the Watcher reflects, and leaves Rikku be. She does not move to finish her, instead turning to the others again.
To Ida, first, who is changing moment by moment; the green is there, the blue-steel...
"Will you?"
To Layna she says, "If it strengthens your resolve, then all the better. Believe what you must. ...But you will fail. The world to come will be brought to being if I must lift it with my own hands."
A ghost's a ghost! So says Magilou, and then she reassures the others. Grigori noticed that her spell did not penetrate through the barrier. Now...
It does not take great magical talent to see the coming colors as they spin, closer--and that white explosion blots Grigori out for a long few moments. The Watcher is suffused with magical energy, and the shockwave that comes of it--the noise--is terrific. And as it passes, she is revealed on the ground, on one knee with both arms up in an 'X' to defend herself, a smaller target than she would otherwise be. More of the mechanical arms beneath her armor are revealed by the shearing force of the spell, though her helmet continues to obscure her identity. Her armor is barely recognizeable, though.
But there is Paine. The soldiers do approach. Only some of them are elites, and those are the ones who fare the best. ...The Watcher does not stop them from approaching Paine. She does not stop them as she notices Tidus's plight. The most fleet rush forward--
The Watcher regards Paine again, as she swings through the Solarians foolish enough to charge her. They try to keep Paine away, but Paine approaches regardless. And suddenly--
Leah no longer has her sword. She blocks the first strike with a metallic CLANG of her metal arm; the second, deflected with a wrist that clangs the same way. The next, and the next come, and finally, Paine scythes through her defense enough to slice at something like flesh underneath her armor, the blade coming away bloody.
The Watcher does not stop. But apparently indeed she bleeds.
The Watcher then turns, to look for Layna--but she is gone. And suddenly behind. The backplate of her armor shatters in an instant, deflecting much of the force but not enough to stop the Watcher from being knocked through the air forward, where she hits the ground. For a moment, it may seem that that final strike from surprise was the rest of what was needed.
...But she rises once again, gripping the ice and pulling herself back up.
"So. This is your resolve..."
She reaches a hand up to her ear. "...Begin the countdown," the Watcher instructs. "Initiate sequence, authorization Grigori."
With that ominous statement done, Leah brings her hands together, rolling her shoulders and standing up straight despite obvious injury. However, seeing Azoth disabled, she sees little oher choice.
"...So it comes to this. Very well."
There is a sudden mechanical whine as Grigori begins to rise into the air. An aura begins to shine around her, but it is not magic--no Ether bursts into being. This is technological, and the pressure it puts out is obvious even before her left eye suddenly GLOWS brightly enough that it burns part of her mask. A single, red eye in her face, the other unseen. And it is bright, deadly, the red of bright flowing blood.
"Override eye sequence."
"...And the first angel sounds her trumpet. And blood and fire rain upon the land."
Something CRACKS and it might be the eye, which suddenly ceases to glow as a terrible shockwave erupts from Leah's person. The fallen soldiers are too far beneath it, but those fighting her must deal with sheer concussive force, each assaulted by an aura that seeks to crush and destroy outright.
In the aftermath she hits the ground hard, standing still. "...Medry," she announces. "Withdraw."
Her whole form smokes, not just from the assault of Magilou's magic and all the others' attacks, but from the force of her own power.
GS: Leah Sadalbari has activated a Force Action! GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Layna Manydays with The Scream of the Nephilim! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Paine with The Scream of the Nephilim! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Magilou with The Scream of the Nephilim! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leah Sadalbari has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with The Scream of the Nephilim! GS: Leah Sadalbari takes 28 damage from Poison! GS: Slow expired! GS: Leah Sadalbari has completed her action. GS: Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from Lydia Seren's Optimized Material - Celesdue - COSMO MEMORY.EXE for 0 hit points! GS: Reaper applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Seraph Lanval receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Seraph Lanval enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Seraph Lanval! GS: CRITICAL! Layna Manydays takes a solid hit from Leah Sadalbari's The Scream of the Nephilim for 305 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Layna Manydays gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute applied to Layna Manydays! GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive activated! GS: Strain! Leah Sadalbari takes 100 damage! GS: Magilou has activated a Force Action! GS: Magilou's Mute Ward prevents an effect! GS: CRITICAL! Magilou critically guards Leah Sadalbari's The Scream of the Nephilim for 120 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Magilou gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Strain! Leah Sadalbari takes 100 damage! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey solidly guards Leah Sadalbari's The Scream of the Nephilim for 130 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Strain! Leah Sadalbari takes 100 damage! GS: CRITICAL! Paine takes a solid hit from Leah Sadalbari's The Scream of the Nephilim for 354 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Paine! GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive and Sufferer activated! GS: Strain! Leah Sadalbari takes 100 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore holds a finger up helpfully and says, "I've rewired one system written in a weird language, I bet I could do it again." There's a pause. "Are you rewireable?" And some of that backstory gets dropped. She taps her club against the ground. Not... really sure why she's not being attacked at this point. She isn't about to let another person get kidnapped, especially with that kind of talk admittedly. Flipping her grip on her club, she slams it into the ground and almost simultaneously, a shard of ice shoots from the ground to ostensibly break the bottle, but she's tired, her aim's bad. Who knows at this point. Also gives her a second to catch her breath. Leaning heavily on the club after.
Definitely on the tired side of things. Onward. She clenches her fingers, once more flipping the club to her shoulder and marching forward. "Can't let you cart anyone off. If you tell me how to push the off button I can offer the opposite though." Hey, if it works. Keep on that march. Admittedly, she has no idea what she's talking about, but fast talking works! And maybe she CAN figure out a way to override whatever's happening there.
There is a followup though. She opens her arms, club held in a loose, ready to go grip in one hand. Showing off her coat and mass of tattoos, "You're worrying too much. Do I look like I'm shy of the ugly side of life?" before once again tightening her grip. Good to go!
GS: Ryoko Mizore has attacked Lydia Seren with Sudden Impact! GS: Ryoko Mizore has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ryoko Mizore has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Whatever it's made out of, the Devil's Arm doesn't so much as crack, instead seeming to almost bend slightly under the impact of Lan's feet. As if it weren't entirely metal or-- whatever it's supposed to be crafted from. Almost as if it were instead perhaps a little bit... organic.
Only a little bit. Only almost.
"All's fair in war!" he shouts back at her, fury writ across his expression for just that moment. As if she weren't the ones attacking the new graduates. As if she hadn't gotten him in the solar plexus, or used dirty tricks against the soldiers, still lying in the ice and snow. It must be some sort of tipping point for him: he starts to run in the direction of the fallen, and might have even gotten to them, if Lan hadn't instead beelined for him and with an arm that feels like it's corded with steel instead of muscle fiber, catches his left arm. The one with the shield. "Ngh-- let me go!" he hisses at her, twisting his arm in a way that maybe would have broken her grip if her next action hadn't been to deliver a series of blows for his shoulders, for the inside of the elbow, for damn near anything she can reach. 'Stay down', she tells him.
Lan must be able to feel him sway under her grip.
"How..." he breathes out, gaze unfocused, glasses askew.
"How about..."
If Loren has one talent, it's surviving.
It's gritting it out, from sheer spite.
"HOW ABOUT YOU GET LOST!" Loren roars, lurching forward at Lan as if to use his head and body as a battering ram against her.
The earth shakes in the next, and it's hardly from anything Loren himself has done. Whatever else happens, he raises his head and realizes what Le-- what The Watcher has done. The message that pipes in through his earpiece only clinches what he already knows. "Shit! She's going to... get out of here!"
He gestures wildly in Lan's direction with his shield-bearing arm, sliding his blade back into its sheath with the other, fury adding a particular emphasis even to this simple motion. "I'm not kidding around!" he yells at Lan. "Get out of here!"
GS: Loren Voss has attacked Lan Lilac with Astral Hammer! GS: Loren Voss has gained 1 Combo! GS: Loren Voss has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth swipes his claw aside as Tidus is tossed away, smashing into the earth. He watches, unmoving, exercising the tiniest argument he can not to pursue his target: a great deal of energy has been expended. None can be wasted needless. The target is down.
Yet Azoth keeps watching, still as Tidus is, waiting, hoping, that something moves.
...Nothing.
Azoth's lights dim. He turns away.
Then he stops again, his antenna fins swiveling. He looks back at Tidus struggling in a desperate, final effort, born of a purpose he's chosen for himself.
That's when they're at their most dangerous.
Azoth blurs in space, vanishing, reappearing, twisting. If it were only a slash or two or even half a dozen, it would have been nothing. But Tidus is relentless, driven well best his limitations, driven by something Azoth understands but can never utilize. Something always out of reach. Something that he swears he feels as evidence mounts and mounts showing him that he doesn't.
This is another such moment.
A final thrust forward sinks right into Azoth's torso. Frozen for a terrible moment, Azoth stares facelessly back at Tidus, close enough to finish the job and no blade able to form, claws and tail twitching at his side.
"Predicted outcome... satisfied..."
Sparkes dart harmlessly along Tidus' blade.
"ERROR: System... shutting down..."
The lights go out, an repair and restart sequence initiated. It'll buy time... but only from Azoth. The Watcher is another story.
GS: Lydia Seren partially evades Ryoko Mizore's Sudden Impact for 55 hit points! GS: Break applied to Lydia Seren! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lydia goes raw on a childhood trauma that continues to shape her now - and also, unceremoniously, forces Lanval into a bottle with Celesdue's power. It's sudden, effective, and even a little silly, watching it roll around harmlessly across what little smooth ice is left in the vicinity.
"I'll alwaysh remember when the people of Rylia moved on without me," Lanval says within the bottle, "'n I'll alwaysh remember watchin' the brewer family fall apart over an heir who didn't want ta inherit it." The bottle rolls some.
"I'll alwaysh remember that mockin' shong they came up with in that inn that followed, ash they forgot 'bout what I wash there for."
The bottle starts to shudder under pressure, as a compressed Lanval manifestation hops about in it a few times.
"I'll alwaysh remember Althena had the Guard deshtroy my Divine Vessel 'n leave that part of Lunar open ta danger... 'n how she banished me fer it after shervin' faithfully fer half a millennium."
In a way, both Lydia and Lanval have had a parental figure (kinda-sorta equivalent for Althena) deeply hurt and devalue them - there's a likeness there.
"It ain't never not gonna hurt... 'n it ain't never gonna be anything that'll be shmall no matter who might try ta play that down." Present company included, despite attempts to reassure? The bottle finds a fragment of exploded meteor rock to rest its neck on, pointing the opening upwards towards Lydia.
'Medry. Withdraw.'
"They're callin' Rachiel outta further harm, fer one." Lanval says. "Another chance ta get ta have a day where Loren won't be a grump fer once... a shmall joy." The bottle starts to build in power.
"'n fer all Solaris ish doin'... ya even got a shtranger wantin' ta do ya a good turn, shomehow. Another shmall joy." And then...
The bottle blows bubbles.
Lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of bubbles, starting to surround Lydia in the air.
"Even if the big picture ain't lookin' roshy, ya got shtuff that makesh ya happy... 'n I shay, hold onto it."
"'n another thing."
There is sudden mirthful laughter, as Lanval's appearance makes distorted reflections in the surrounding bubbles, and with it, one last phrase...
"Be on your way in good health! Ha ha ha!"
Lanval has since manifested outside of the bottle, wiping his mouth and throwing his sleeve out with his back turned.
"Revelry Labyrinth!"
GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Lanval spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Lydia Seren with Revelry Labyrinth! GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Lanval takes 51 damage from Reaper! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
also, the bubbles explode, that part is important
GS: Lydia Seren has activated a Force Action! GS: Lydia Seren solidly guards Seraph Lanval's Revelry Labyrinth for 77 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lydia Seren gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"Then I guess we'll see whose world ends up coming out on top." Layna decides. There is no more room for words. They're both set on their path - the conversation must now be conducted through violence.
And so, Grigori ascends, shining with technological power even as her blazing red eye burns through her mask. Somewhere, danger sparks at the back of Layna's mind.
"Brace yourselves, me hearties! This ain't gonna be pretty!" Layna calls out to the others, in a desperate hope of saving some of their lives.
A shockwave erupts from Leah, great and terrible as it heralds destruction. It assails Layna, crashing into her with sheer force, smashing and cratering her into the ground.
The air is still, and silent. ...And then, Layna reaches up. She hauls herself to her feet, with no small amount of effort.
"I'm... still standin'." She declares. By all rights, she shouldn't be - but she stands now. She's not grinning anymore.
Layna reaches up, reaching for her torn and battered coat and hat and tossing them aside. Underneath, is armor - the garb of a fighter, a brawler, not a thrill-seeking pirate captain.
She recites an incantation, glowing green... and then rushes toward the Watcher, unleashing a single, powerful punch that can part the clouds and disperse hurricanes.
GS: Layna Manydays has activated a Force Action! GS: Layna Manydays spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Stormbreaker! GS: Layna Manydays has gained 1 Combo! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Leah Sadalbari solidly guards Layna Manydays's Stormbreaker for 133 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
If anybody were to ask her? Yeah, sometimes it's really frustrating to be Loren's friend.
He looks halfway to passing out, swaying on the ground with his glasses all messed up. "I'm trying to keep you--" she begins before Loren gets his third wind and just headbutts the daylight out of her. This time it's Lan's turn to curse and fall on her ass in the churned up snow and dirt and rock, scrabbling with Loren as they end up tussling on the ground like children. "I'm serious, you DIP!" she yells, raising a fist to cuff him upside the head when the sudden chill in his voice makes her hesitate.
Withdrawal orders...? And Lan knows what would make him react like this to an order like that. "She didn't..."
Lan settles back onto her heels, staring across the battlefield at the form of Leah Sadalbari, the Watcher. Practically whispers. "Leah, you can't...!"
But she can. And she has.
Lan drags herself to her feet and casts about for the wounded. "Get out! GET OUT!"
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Tidus pants, great rasping breaths clawing at the air, as his knees buckle. Ironically, what's keeping him upright now is the sword through Azoth's torso. He glares at the machina's 'eyes,' whole body beginning to shake now that his strength and adrenaline have been drained. For one heart-stopping instant, as those claws and tail twitch, he thinks he might have fallen short.
But then sparks fly, and the lights go out, and the machina slumps. Tidus slumps with it, still keeping himself up by his hilt.
"Sorry," he murmurs to the machine, and once again feels weird about it.
With one hand, he feels at his side for his item bag; then he manages to take out a hi-potion and knock it back. Once it starts working its curative properties on his open wounds, he slumps. Brotherhood comes with him, and he stumbles away from this incredibly dangerous foe, only to stumble and fall face-first into the snow once he reaches it.
The hi-potion will keep him from bleeding out ignobly; his life isn't in danger. But he took a *lot* of hits, and he's in no condition to join battle anew. Not without a proper healing and some actual rest.
As his vision blurs and he now fights to stay conscious, he peeks up.
Was it enough...?
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Grigori, is it..?" Magilou asks, and Magilou laughs, and her smile doesn't reach the calculation of her eyes.
The Watcher rises.
'Ashtoreth. Releasing.'
Magilou has seen something like this before.
The expression drains from her face, replaced with something which can only be described as tightened. "SHIELDS! Mind the Summoner!" She yells, and puts herself between Grigori and Yuna, because she's not the sort of person to just yell a command without following through herself.
Despite it being the shield she's demonstrated, Magilou doesn't throw a shikigami between them.
The barrier she throws up, hand thrust out, shimmers with light. Beehive-shining, it absorbs the blow immediately around her -- but not without cost; those bright segments LIGHT up in silent magical protest over the shockwave crashing into them. It is the kind of force-conversation which translates poorly to the world, expressed in the intensity of Magilou's gaze; there is no shocking explosion, no tearing of blood.
Between them -- still -- the two of them surely understand.
Magilou's protective sorcery is a desperate expression; it is a thing which has barred the way of the worst tyrants of Lunar. Now she moves to stymie a tyrant of another land, and the stakes are almost -- almost as high.
She can hear that lost little lion yelling about their chances -- and as much as she might patronise Loren, she trusts he'd know about this. She can't risk passive absorption -- not with the ritual going on behind her -- but...
"All right," Magilou says, flexing her hand as she feels the sensation return, in the wake of those shockwaves.
"Let's count down, then, shall we? Three, two..."
Magilou drops her barrier, and drops her shikigami to the ground -- leaping upon it, and swooping towards Leah, not even bothering with the ground. The Watcher can make it so very treacherous, after all.
She leaps down, somersaulting behind Grigori -- entirely meaning to bar her arms across her chest from behind, in a big ol' hug.
"One," she chirps, with a vicious smile. "Spell Absorber!"
And into that ruined armor, she murmurs: "Want to bet I can live through this..?"
Herself, singular.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"I have no idea," Lydia tells Ryoko honestly. "Nice of you to offer but I'll find my own way out. I promised Ragnell."
It's impossible but that promise has given Lydia the strength she needed to endure it. And maybe that was the point all along. "--Wha? I'm not kidnapping Lanval?? Just trying to...bottle him so he stops throwin' magic at me!"
Rachiel darts into the way of Ryoko's swing. Despite her sword's seemingly frail design, she is able to wholly block Ryoko's clubbing strike, her glasses gleaming from the light, obscuring her eyes.
Rachiel is silly.
But like with Lanval, that does not mean she isn't dangerous, She slides around the blow, aiming to strike for Ryoko's throat when--
Medry. Withdraw.
Rachiel pulls her blade back and steps closer to Lydia who is struggling with a bottle of Lanval right now.
"Hahh?" Lydia asks, looking to Leah. "...Ok I know I made the crack about the background but I didn't mean blow up the place--I'm still good! I totally got this!" She doesn't want to be seen as weak. She has to look STRONG for these people. That's how you get respect and from there she can bring the whole system down and restore power to the workers that's THE PLAN here.
Rachiel sees what Lanval is up to well before the distracted Lydia and extends her hand, a shimmering water field shimmering around Lydia moments before the bottles explode around her, slamming her body around. It wouldn't have destroyed Lydia. She is beyond anyone's ability outside of Solaris and Shevat to destroy right now.
But it would've been real unpleasant. As it is, Lydia's ears are ringing like crazy. And she hears him... laughing.
And she knows he doesn't mean it.
She knows that he only has the best of intentions and is the sweetest guy around.
But it still feels like she's being laughed at. Lydia goes quiet. The fact that it's just an emotional response and she knows it.
Something makes her reconsider the fight though. Azoth goes down. And there's going to be an earth shattering--
Lydia readjusts that in her mind.
A moon shattering kaboom any moment now. Lydia taps Rachiel's shoulder, augmenting her speed with Solais Emsu's power.
"Make a run for it. I'll be right behind you. Gotta get Azoth."
Rachiel hesitates, then nods and ZOOOOOOOOOOOMS outta there!
Lydia also makes a break for it, dropping the bottle since you know it wasn't helpful anyway and she rushes to Azoth--
--she crouches down by him and carefully pulls him up into her arms.
"C'mon buddy." Lydia murmurs. "I haven't given up on you. I'll get you outta this somehow yet."
She holds Azoth's body tight.
"'Cause you're my friend."
And she makes a run for it! But the pain from Lanval and Ryoko's assault slows her down and she can't ignite her thrusters since she's drenched in water.
"C'mon... C'mon... Not him, not him..."
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
Paine is merciless in a way Rikku had not been. The whimsy in her is always darker, and now it is gone entirely. She strikes with full intention to hurt, to damage. Nothing is abstracted to 'winning'; every thunk of her cleaver-heavy blade into armor is dealt with professionalized malice, taking advantage of Leah's injuries and the distractions caused by her allies. When at last Gravestone chops brutally through armor into something softer, she shows pity neither in her face nor in the rough way she yanks it free for the next blow.
But there is no next blow, as Leah disengages and Paine hesitates, lest Grigori fly past and delivery some preprogrammed attack on Yuna's shimmering defenses. This time, however, she gets her wish. This time, Leah has lost the luxury of lending her strength elsewhere.
The shockwave hits Paine full-on. She tries to bring her sword in front of her in the instant before it, but this half measure is much worse than a total failure to defend herself would have been. Gravestone swings into her shoulder and clavicle, her unprepared wrists nowhere close to overpowering the force created when the broad blade catches the shock like a boat sail. She has not an instant to feel that pain on its own as the shockwave itself punches her whole body at once, limbs and all, and hurls her back before slamming her to grind, brutally, across the ground.
Agony bubbles up through Paine's spine like a bubble through a straw, ripples her back, then pops out of her mouth with a wretched cough. Gasping, she pulls Gravestone's edge from where it lodged shallowly in her leather armor, ignoring the heat she feels trickle there. She reverses the blade, using it as a crutch, and climbs back onto a ground that feels diagonal to her now, her white hair hanging fully in front of one eye as the other glares.
"Tidus?" she calls. Yuna made everyone Guardians today, but Paine does not trust easily. If she's about to fall, she wants to know that someone who would die for Yuna is still standing. But she can't see the pretty blond boy anywhere.
Well, she thinks. Guess I can't fall over.
"Don't you back down," she rasps to the nearby Ida, just in case. "You neither," in Magilou's direction. Pushing her shoulders forward, she pops her back--not a habit of hers--and lets the red-colored sensation of pain soften and blur. Her name matches her nature. Paine uses hurt as fuel.
"That it?" she demands, of the similarly injured Leah. She takes a step forward, and when her damaged cloak catches on her leg, she irritably yanks it free, stepping out of it, her bare bloodied shoulders weighted aggressively forward. "This is what you wanted, right? What you wanted to see?" She loops her sword once with her wrist as she closes almost within reach.
"Well come on, Can Head! IF YOU'RE GONNA BRING IT!"
Paine swings hard, horizontally, catching the hilt with her off-hand as it passes her, so that the backswing is even harder.
"THEN BRING IT!"
She's seen the armor can break. So Paine beats at it, beats on it, just hits and hits, panting as she labors, her second eye glimpsed with every blow as her hair rocks back away from the impacts.
GS: Paine has activated a Force Action! GS: Paine spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Paine has attacked Leah Sadalbari with IF YOU'RE GONNA BRING IT, THEN BRING IT!! GS: Paine has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Leah Sadalbari critically guards Paine's IF YOU'RE GONNA BRING IT, THEN BRING IT! for 71 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Even with with his aid, conscious or not, it takes everything Ida has to stand upright. She hasn't kneeled, yet, but that's feeling more like an act of symbolic defiance with each passing moment. If the Watcher interrupts the ritual, everyone will die. And yet, Ida barely manages to lock eyes with her foe--
That red eye. A 'countdown'. Ida's gaze darts sidelong to Paine, then Magilou, then Layna. Panic spikes through her heart. She can't movie.
'Brace yourselves, me hearties! This ain't gonna be pretty!'
Ida crouches, letting her feet slide apart as she drops her center of mass. She tucks in her head and crosses her arms before her.
The shockwave slams into her. Spikes eject from the sides of her exoskeletal 'boots', digging into the frozen ground--it keeps her from being instantly blown off her feet. The breath rushes from her lungs again. She can feel her ribs creaking as the pressure comes to bear against them. It's like she's bring crushed alive. Burning heat spreads through her joints as Hyadean tissue locks her skeleton into place, leaving just enough 'give' to keep things from breaking and dislocating.
She doesn't have the breath to scream, or she would.
The storm passes. Ida rocks forwards like a weighted bop-doll compensating for a punch. She's about as animate as a bop-doll for about a second afterwards; her armor is crushed in a dozen places, and two-tone blood drips down her jaw from where she bit her lip. She's breathing, though, and upright.
Out of the corner of her eye, Isa sees Lydia grabbing Azoth and taking off. They won't make it in time. Then she thinks to what happened in the Shrine below, and to what Asura told her when he regained clarity. Her eyes open. She lets out a breath, and bright gold-white sparks play in the cloud of vapor. Her hands clench into fists.
"I don't plan on it," Ida says, to Paine, her eyes darting sideways. Her voice is a dry creak. Her gaze returns to Grigori, and the burnt-out, baleful eye that wrought so much pain. Golden-white Breath ignites around her right fist. "God will not save this world. We can."
The next step feels like it takes an eternity, but Ida manages. Another step, and other; she's trailing in Paine's wake, but she's picking up momentum like a tidal wave. After the fourth step, a defiant roar ignites within her throat. Her whole body starts to blaze with power.
When the punch comes, the air itself seems to echo Ida's cry. Her armored fist races for the Watcher's center of mass with bone-crushing, armor-cracking force.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated a Force Action! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Leah Sadalbari with Unbroken Lotus Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has entered Avenger Stance! GS: Jam, Slow, and Weaken expired! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Leah Sadalbari solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 147 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore plants her club in the ground and works her fingers a few times. Ignoring the new dark stains and cracked leather that's since formed. "The offer's there. You can't even get away. I can make it look convincing." Especially since she knows the strange woman can survive it, makes it a lot easier to make it look legit. And she jerks her head, "Tell them my coat confused you and you were following orders." She still has no idea whose coat it is, but hey. "I'm Ryoko." She adds. Probably better than 'tattoo elf' or whatever shorthand was already put in use.
She's honestly not going to chase after either of them as they try to escape. She can stand, she can walk, but any more than that and she's just going to fling spells and pass out in the dirt. Maybe in that order.
She does make an effort to snag the bottle after limping her way over and crouching down, leaning heavily on her club as she does so. "You two okay?" she asks, mostly looking at Landval, but Marilou is also checked up on. There's more fighting going on, but she needs a breather at least for a few seconds. She's got a good poker face, but she's not having a great time.
Eventually though, she forces herself to her feet. Offering a hand out should it be needed for Landval and she begins to limp over to finish this.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval doesn't give pursuit to either Lydia nor Rachiel, as the laughter subsides and he's left trying to relax up against a meteor, as Ryoko asks if he's okay. She offers a hand, as he takes a sip from his drinking gourd to try and keep his manifestation... well, manifested.
He jabs a thumb behind him to point vaguely in the direction of where the Watcher, as if to say, 'maybe too soon to ask.'
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Layna's approach is Grigori's approach, in this; only the future will tell whose ideals--whose will--is the stronger.
But when her attack is done, Layna is still standing, still alive despite the power used. "...Hm. So this is the power of those 'without limit'," the Watcher reflects, and she watches Layna. Armor... and one powerful punch.
That powerful punch slams towards Leah--and it is only at the last instant that she brings out a superhuman-strong mechanical arm to knock the blow off-target, such that Layna's incredible force slams into the ground beside her. This close, it's still enough that her leg sparks with more mechanical sparks, damaged by the icy shrapnel of the blow's landing.
She does not lok at Lan. But one imagines she may have heard.
Paine comes next. She refuses to fall, and Grigori notes this. The way she calls to the others. This is what she wanted, Paine demands of the Watcher. And the Watcher, faceless but for a smoking hole where her left eye should be, looks directly at Paine again. "Yes," she says. "The power of those who would claim to change Fate... I would see it for myself." Her voice rasps by now. But she is still strong. Paine batters, and batters, and batters at her, and her armor is nearly gone by now, but she holds firm. Supercooled steel fragments in more than one place, and Paine gets in a strike hard enough that it takes more of her helmet with the piece of armor that breaks. There is the sight of a cheek there, not quite a face, but something that resembles human. It is pale, scarred. And the Watcher is forced back step by step.
And as Paine strikes, there is Ida. She may lack the breath to scream, but she is upright. "So you say," Leah says to Ida as she starts to be wreathed once more in blue Ether, already reaching out towards Paine to begin her spell.
"You cannot," the Watcher tells Ida. "The world is too far gone for mortal hands."
The momentum of Ida's strike slams forward, and the aura of Ida's cry cracks through the aura of magic she was beginning to build, slamming hard enough in her to knock her back further and reveal the last layer of armor beneath, padding more than protection. On the ground, her boots carve paths in the snow and ice.
And Magilou has used her shield. But Leah understands what she has done. She understands the cost at which it came. and so the Watcher regards her. But Magilou comes to her...
She takes hold from behind, and a small part of the Watcher's mouth can be seen to curl into a smirk. "I'm sure you can," she says.
"But are you sure I won't?"
Lightning suddenly bursts into being all around her, and wreathed in it--Magilou may smell burning flesh as her power sinks into her body, too--the Watcher drives her elbow back towards Magilou's stomach to knock her backward and away. Leah then only has to contend with Paine, Layna, and Ida surrounding her.
Her other hand is already going for a gun at her hip, Water Ether swirling around her, but before she can use either--
GS: Leah Sadalbari spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Leah Sadalbari has attacked Magilou with Colossus Dispatch! GS: Leah Sadalbari has gained 1 Combo! GS: Magilou solidly guards Leah Sadalbari's Colossus Dispatch for 167 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Magilou gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Magilou enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
The optimistically-an-ice-bubble has become less reflective as the battle has gone on. Not because it's less pristine -- the combined efforts of the Drifters have prevented even a single attack from reaching it, often at great cost -- but, rather, because of the continuously falling snow. What had started as a flurry is steadily thickening into a blizzard, and every flake that touches the sphere fuses to it instantly and kaleidoscopically. It has been steadily traversing a spectrum from 'mirror bean' to 'disco ball' and is now so covered in flakes so individually tiny that nothing recognizable can really appear in it at all. But other than that... nothing. No visible signs of movement at all.
The metaphysical senses fared better for a time, but even they have been overwhelmed for a while. In much the same way that the human mind can clearly understand the difference between one of something and thirty of something, but fails to relate the difference between a million and a billion with any accuracy, the awakening taking place behind this veil of snow and ice eventually became difficult to distinguish, between one moment of acceleration and the next. Vertical is vertical, after a certain point on the exponential curve.
Even Lulu's outpouring of flames eventually stopped, once there was no more heat to remove from the sphere's interior.
The long-awaited rune never arrived. Nothing has happened.
There is only the battle for survival -- the one outside the sphere, in the name of the one inside, which may have already been lost.
It is amid the chaos of this battle that, when something DOES finally occur, everyone is forgiven for not quite realizing what it is.
'It' is mist, perhaps. A ripple, a roll, a wave of snow little more than ankle-high, that does nothing but create some momentarily uneven footing as it radiates outwards. It is split into two distinct and opposite waveforms, one traveling north, the other south. It could have as easily been kicked up by a particularly powerful battle-blast as anything else. It is forgettable, especially in the context of the struggles underway.
The ice sheet that the battle is taking place on ripples a second time. Inwards, from both directions.
And then outwards again.
And upon this outwards ripple, everyone realizes
that they have been fighting on -- that their ENTIRE BATTLEFIELD --
is looking at them.
Because they are fighting on the surface of a gigantic eyeball.
It just blinked.
<SoundTracker> Fantasia - Joe Hisaishi - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXdUcv8MuvA
Did the transformation happen gradually, or all at once? It doesn't matter now. The glacial depths are a window all the same, a smooth, coruscatingly deep window into the twinned souls of summoner and fayth. Into the product of their merging, a creation that is both of them and neither of them, so much more than the sum of her parts.
Shiva...
Shiva rises, and the world turns upside down.
She IS the glacier, the ENTIRE Macalania Glacier. She is layers and layers and layers of ice, some transparent and sparkling, some translucent and shimmering with captured grit, soils from long-lost times. She is blue, shockingly blue, spectacularly blue; pale blues and blues that might as well be black and everything in between, including, at certain angles, teals and violets that are positively electric, like so much cosmic grafitti or, perhaps more aptly, the inspiration for vandalism of a more worldly sort. She is a frozen river, and the path that river has carved out of the mantle of Lunar for so long that now the world resembles her, rather than the other way around -- making her the original vandal, in some sense, the pioneer of shaping the scenery to suit. She is countless snowstorms crushed beneath their own weight. She is petrified trees and hardened bones beneath. She is compressed time...
And the question of a moment ago feels so flimsy now, so wrong-headed. Nothing has been transformed. This was never about a rate of change.
This is about a quality of understanding: she was ALWAYS the glacier. Without her, the glacier would not exist. The fayth is its heart, and today, with and through Yuna, they rise together, they breathe together, they walk together, actualized.
Those who stood upon her eye, friend or foe, she does not allow to come to harm simply because she has risen; when she wills harm done it is with more intent than THAT. Her movements were geologically slow at first, but perhaps that was only because she was taking great care. An icy bridge rises to meet them -- one of the many bridges that once spiraled inward towards the temple -- it is a finger now, a titan's finger. It ensures the momentary safety of everyone whose ground has shifted ninety degrees with a gesture not unlike wiping away a single tear.
Now all stand (or, in the case of Rikku and Tidus, who were transferred most carefully of all, lie) on the great snowplain of one of her hands, palm-up in gentle supplication. It is no longer one of two. Today it is one of many. Some of her arms may be mighty blue braids, and some of her braids might be arms; there is no part of her that is not an appendage tightly controlled by her will. 'Prehensile' is as accurate as it is irrelevant. What good does it do an avalanche to have the ability to write its own name?
And not all of them are so gentle.
Two hillslope-arms fold in front of her in prayer, and it is the Yevonite prayer, immense craghands shaping the blitzball symbol, not because summoner, fayth or aeon is a supplicant, but because it MEANS something to them, even now. They were a priestess and a nun and a sacred warrior. To be together, to exist as one, is inextricable from their religion. It's just that what they have faith in now is not some external deity, some mighty authority, if it ever even was.
And make no mistake: this is an act of faith. Shiva's existence, especially at scale, is a radical act. It requires nothing less than absolute faith in themselves and in one another. Not HOPE that this time it will be different, that this time no one will mistakenly come to harm simply by being in her simple proximity. Yuna believes in hope, but for her strength to be unbridled, truly unleashed, requires something much more difficult, especially now, in a world where so much of what she once thought was true, were only the cruel lies of the dead: belief in herself.
A third arm thrusts directly into the air. The Drifters know that it is palm up solely because of the angle at which it rose, since it disappears into the blizzard far before the limb itself, mountainous in height, ever ends.
That, and... the sensation of... intention. This is beyond concentration, beyond even trance; one can no more ascribe those things to Shiva as one could to Lunar itself.
But no one can mistake the intention of an earthquake. Though she exists on unknowable, impossible scales now, her will is known to all.
The weather, too, is Shiva. The worsening storm was her all along; it began with an exertion of control over every nearby snowflake, and spread, silently and subtly, throughout the entire region. Far, far below, her legs -- the glacier's sharpest lengths, which have riven themselves into the earth for millennia -- vanish into a lake that instantly freezes on contact. And her face, now distant up above, is pointed, like her upraised palm, into her own frigid sky.
The whole world explodes.
It is a bifurcated experience. To be an enemy of Shiva in this moment is to be blown away by winds that are breath, by breath that is prayer, by prayer that is hymn. It is to experience a terrifying drop in temperature, and -- as if that wasn't enough -- the immediate and existential threat of snow that falls at such speeds and with such sharpness that they are razors, swords, any one of them an executioner's axe howling a song of ice and freedom, and there are millions, they are everywhere. Everywhere. There are only two choices given, and a keen sense that that is an act of benevolence, even generosity:
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Leave, or die.
To be Shiva's friend is to know that you are a hair's breadth from this maelstrom, and yet somehow, not impossibly but spectacularly, it is a truly spectacular display of control -- untouched. Cocooned in the thinnest possible pocket of merely uncomfortably chilly air, the storm raging around each Drifter, from inside, looks like an aurora -- all blues and greens and violets, scintillating, mesmerizing. Terrifying, but she can't help that. Shiva is who she is. What she is.
The distinction between, the concept of separation between the fayth and the land -- that was the illusion.
An illusion that has just been broken.
And the land will suffer the intrusion of Solaris no longer. Air and water and cold combine instantaneously into giant, omni-directionally-sharp pillars of ice, which explode into existence throughout the base. The boxy structures of Solaris cannot and do not survive. Any unevacuated fancy, high-tech equipment? Shattered from within by ice's expansion.
Except for one piece.
This, too, requires a more deliberate intent.
The hand holding the Drifters moves outwards, thrust away from Shiva's torso, which is bending -- she is bowing over her own Temple, surrounding it with other arms, holding it close. In yet another display of control, her home, but for its roof, is still as intact as it was this morning, despite being at the heart of the mystic storm.
But it won't stay that way if the Watcher's farewell bomb is allowed to go off.
Shiva's face is much too large to fit inside her fayth's chamber now, by orders of magnitude. It could not house even her nose, whose nostrils would, in her present state, present grand dungeons indeed for Drifters to explore.
But it does not have to fit. Because Shiva is the glacier, and she is the storm; she is water and air and she does not always have to be solid. She plays by her own rules, and just now, in her final moments, she rules that instead of headbutting her own Temple into destruction, she will pass through it instead with icy fluidity. She is, among all the other things, half-ghost, after all.
Her lips purse into a plump bud as they engulf the bomb. From the safe distance of her hand, it is possible to witness this moment, and wonder if her plan is to swallow it.
It is not.
With a final supercooled crackle, the bomb deactivates, then dies completely. She has frozen its potential for explosion out of existence. Its energies were no match for Shiva's goodnight kiss.
And beside the empty husk of the bomb's casing, her lips have planted something else.
Yuna's sphere cracks in half like an egg, revealing the summoner within. She is fused to, embraced by, the ice. It spreads out from her downturned body in so many translucent braids and so much pristine detail.
She has, albeit temporarily, become twin to the fayth in truth and in total -- she is the human part of a replica of the fayth's enchanted statue. One final reflection, outside of the final, unbroken door, behind which dwells the original, and the fayth. Only instead of a corpse, she yet lives. Barely. For now.
As for Shiva herself... she can be no longer. Yuna is senseless with cold, and the fayth exhausted.
There are tales, in some worlds and some parts of those worlds, of mountains that are people.
Shiva yawns. Shiva stretches. Pyreflies pour from between her lips, out of her eyes, from beneath her fingertips. The hand holding everyone becomes recognizable again as the last stretch of ice bridge leading into the Temple. She connects the fingertip to the Temple's threshhold with a gentle sleepiness.
She curls herself around Macalania like a child with a favorite toy.
And then only the glacier remains. Its curves are her curves. In ten minutes they'll be snowbanks. In ten days, difficult to recognize at all as having ever been a humanoid titan. In a year and a day, impossible to even remember clearly. The mind does not easily hold such profound truths within itself. The illusion is easier. Safer. Like Seymour and Yunalesca, the mind's destruction of reality will be a matter of self-defense.
But the glacier is a woman, and the woman is asleep, and in her sleep, she is dreaming.
The penstrokes on a map of the local geography, impersonal, soulless -- that is the lie.
And even humans might sometimes remember the truth, especially in that most liminal and dangerous of place: between sleep and waking.
They, too, can dream.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Magilou's counterattack surprises the Watcher; expecting her foe to collapse under a very physical assault, the magical backlash that comes of her attack knocks her to one knee, forcing the breath from her lungs and causing her to catch herself with one hand to avoid falling. As Shiva blinks, the Watcher looks down. She recognizes the scale on which this action is placed.
"...So," she says, and perhaps only Magilou will hear her. "This was your 'hope'."
The storms rise, the ice crashing past her; there is blood, but Leah begins to raise her hand, blue Ether beginning to form a sphere around her.
"But I am not--"
The barrier she begins to form oozes backward, into Magilou's waiting hands. Grigori grits her teeth. "Damn," she muttrs, and raises her hands. "I... am not--"
She begins to rise to her feet, fighting against the wind itself, but her barrier does not materialize, and mechanical limbs are not enough to fight a blizzard. "...It seems today they have chosen ascension after all.""
She does not need to order the withdrawal. She is launched from her position, and though it would be wishful thinking to imagine this is the last that will be seen of the Watcher...
It is the last to be seen of her today.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The light of Azoth's visor flickers back on. Restart is slow to get his processes caught up. Excess energy runs minor repairs where it can, connecting what's frayed, reallocating resources for what's been disconnected.
"...Lydia...?" Azoth's voice is still deep with a robotic reverb, but his tone threatens emotion. His memory data processes. Sensors pick up on enormous, dangerous energy readings. Beeping in alarm, his chassis lights up and flashes in urgency.
"Lydia, abort recovery operation! Evacuate immediately! Please!"
Ragnell's still with him. Ragnell should not be with him. Variables plug into algorithms and formulas, desperate to determine what options there are. There are none.
Shiva rises. The world explodes.
His sensors are scrambled and his body thrown through unrelenting winds. The temperature is only briefly a mercy to his overheated core before it becomes a threat. Leave or die, but it isn't a choice. He is at the mercy of the storm, and where he'll land is incalculable.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Okay, maybe everyone standing on an eyeball is kinda creepy even for all the things Lydia has endured. NOT BY MUCH but this is a high bar to surpass. It's a good thing Yuna's like the nicest person in Spira because otherwise she might do some wicked amazing violences.
Then again, Lydia thinks distantly, maybe it's because she's nice... There's a kind of power, Lydia knows, in someone being just a consistently genuinely kind person who wants the best for others. She's seen it in her mother and she sees it in Yuna. And others. Like Lanval, even if it's kind of obscured in a drunken haze.
"It'll be alright buddy," Lydia says. "I ain't leaving without you."
Not Solaris.
Not here.
Azoth asks her to stop
"Fffuck that!" She says at his insistence she evacuate. "I'm holdin' on to you no matter how many Gods she throws at us!"
The world explodes.
Despite Lydia's best attempts, Azoth is thrown free from her. Her fingers can't hold onto Azoth. Can't hold on.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfYblltzFII&ab_channel=ShadowGeistZero
Once again.
"no." Lydia says, too softly to use a single capital letter.
"No!!" She yells.
Despite the cold, the destruction, the oblivion--Lydia throws herself into the fury desperately, reaching out for her friend she can no longer find.
Tears freeze against her face.
She should have known.
She should have known because she knew all along.
She knew when her parents looked at her like an embarrassmnet.
When Halle looked at her with concern.
When Riesenlied beheld her with distress, when Ivan left her, when Kaguya went off on some kind of mad gambit, when Ethius stabbed her in the heart again and again and again and again and again.
Maybe Solaris knew it all along too and that's why they took her. Not for a weapon, but out of pity because they saw her hands.
And they knew, in a single glance the singular truth about her hands.
That they are Hands Not Fit For Holding.
Lydia's body vanishes within the icy destruction...
And Lydia, in this moment, hopes that she falls into Oblivion.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore wasn't expecting an eyeball today. This is the top of her list for 'Weird' at the moment. That's a creepy she'll probably have nightmares about. Unless she beats her long term memory in a race to something hard at least. She can't exactly do much to try and stop either of the two from being blown away. You got to have some respect for that kind of loyalty in the kind of world she's lived in! Not that she's even remotely powerful enough a spell caster to do much more than try to create a wall of ice, too slow. And she's pulled away to safety.
Another notch on a list of things she should have figured out how to fix faster. It gets shoved down for now. Bravado will carry her until she's able to lose herself in her work. For now she turns to look at the events unfolding, Not sure if she should be terrified or in awe really. She'll settle for middle ground. Too tired, too hurt to do anything else.